Social Media Marketing refers to Marketing on the Internet using Social Media Channels such as blogs, discussion forums, micro blogs, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis and podcasts, forums that people use to share content, opinions and experiences in form of text, images, audio, and video.
A few prominent social media websites are WordPress and Blogger (blogging), Twitter (micro-blogging), YouTube(video sharing), Flickr (photo sharing), Orkut and Facebook(social networking), Digg and del.icio.us (bookmarking), and Wikipedia (reference).
The importance of social media is picking up day by day. If you notice every tv commercial will have facebook links and twitter links. Every billboard or banner will have the social links as well. Social media marketing is proving to be more effective and cheaper mode of marketing. The ROI of social media is another debated topic all together which I will write in details in another article but for now its mostly about BRANDING. Many ecommerce websites are also selling by way of Social media but each having its own benefits and flaws.
India is the worlds 7th largest growing Internet Market in the world with a 11.2% Comscore. Social Media websites grow by almost 120% every year and 90% of the users fall between the age group of 18-45. A typical social media visitor in India spends 110.4 minutes on the site and makes 10.4 visits per month to a social network.
Social media Aspects that People look in :
- Facebook Fan page and applications : Many companies in India have their own Fb Fan page. And not having 1 is considered to be a sin . Companies post their articles, and updates using this medium and many companies also promote their new products or give offers to their online users. The latest Article reading software is the latest example of applications. For example.
- Facebook Applications : Facebook applications are gaining importance and helps brands to stand aside from the crowd. It gives allows brands to be viral. Facebook applications can be installed from a list of providers like appbistro or can be designed by the brand themselves to give unique functions. The main aspect for a Facebook application is what you want it to achieve. Completezoozoostory is a Vodafone app which is a example of Facebook Applications. If you want to get a faster rate of growth in the number of users liking the page developing a good application could influence it.
- Orkut : Orkut is in the top 10 most popular sites in India. Even though Orkut is a diminishing social medium it you have to Make sure you monitor the discussions going on about your brand. If you really think your brand could leverage Orkut, you can even go for Orkut applications.
- Twitter : According to Rachel Bremer, Twitter’s European communications manager, the online social networking and microblogging service is now processing 230 million tweets a day, a number that has increased by over 100 per cent since the beginning of the year. Companies like Dell have used twitter to do some good business. Yahoo India seems to be running huge contests on Twitter to get the word of mouth going for them. Twitter expect to add 26 million active users between now and the end of the year.Twitter’s monthly unique visits has increased by 60% to more than 400 million from 250 million at the start of the year, says Google Analytics.Companies in India are still yet to make full use of this social media while many are yet to sign up for a account. Twitter can be focused to target local audience and maximize conversions.
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia may not seem a social medium but it is in fact one of the most important mediums to monitor. Make sure the information out there is correct and try to edit if you feel the information has been tampered with.
- Blog: Try to understand the focus of your blog. Some companies try to put up quality information about the industry they are in. This gives them an edge and leaves the audience thinking that your brand understands what it is doing. Other companies however, have used their blogs to show the human side of the company. With a number of their own employee’s blogging about the fun they are having working in your company helps the audience relate to your brand in a human way. Companies like Zappos have done this very well. Although, a tougher medium to use, the ROI is very high. I don’t see any Indian company showing off their consumer-sensitive side through a blog.
- LinkedIn:LinkedIn is more of a professional social networking platform. To embrace LinkedIn, create an account and try to see how everyone else is getting involved in it. LinkedIn already has 3.4 million users in India and now the Mumbai office.LinkedIn has opened its office at Bandra Kurla Complex, MumbaiLinkedIn, in the years to come can be a major replacement for the job finding and posting sites. You even have facilities to upload your resumes, create groups and polls. Most of the alumni meets these days happen through LinkedIn. For business networking, LinkedIn is the way to go. Now that your twitter account can also be integrated with your LinkedIn account, there is a little bit of conversation going on there too. Make sure your LinkedIn account is very neat, whether you are a company or an individual. Outlook 2010 will have LinkedIn integration.
- Google+ -- Google plus pages was just launched weeks back . Many brands have already made their presence on google+ pages . A more detailed article on Why to get your brand on google+ can be found here . The question to be asked is why not? Its better to join the race early than late. There are many advantages of using google+ which you will see in the article.
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia may not seem a social medium but it is in fact one of the most important mediums to monitor. Make sure the information out there is correct and try to edit if you feel the information has been tampered with.
- Leave comments on other people’s blogs: This is one part of social media which most people, even the so called *social media evangelists* miss out. This however is the most important thing, if you are trying to establish yourself as an expert in a field. It doesn’t happen overnight but after certain amount of time, people in your field start knowing you and can even go on to refer business to you. People don’t even mind a small back link to your blog.
- Forums: There are a lot of Q and A sites on the internet. Yahoo Answers and Wiki Answers being the major ones. Make sure you answer all the queries people have about your brand in the various Q & A sites. There are also some Q & A sites which are specific to your sector. Make sure you take a look at them. The forums are also a major source of Buzz about a brands positivity or negetivity. Forums like Indiabroadbandforum, consumercomplaints etc. ,must be monitored very closely to monitor your brand. Answer people if they have any queries about your brand at such places.
- Mobile Social Networks: Mobile social networks haven’t yet taken off in India but they will soon. Networks like Foursquare have been doing very well in the United States. I personally believe mobile Internet will do better in India than normal broadband has. Mobile users in India outnumber broadband users by a huge margin. Mobile Social Network, Mozat, formerly Morange has reported over 10 million registered users (mostly in Asia). The number of mobile internet users in China is more than the population of United States. Indian brands need to understand that Mobile Phone is the future and at least register their names out there. Whether mobile social networks work for you completely depend on the nature of your business. A real estate agent would benefit immensely from this media.
- Monitor and Analysis: Start listening. It would do you a good deal of help to understand what is being said about you or your brand. For a small brand, there a set of basic things which they can do are: A) Set up Google alerts ; so that whenever your name gets mentioned in any of the searches or on blogs, you get to know about them. B) Use twitter search once a day and see what people have to say about you. C) Even Facebook has the search facility these days and should be monitored periodically. If you are a big brand, however, and really want to invest a good amount of money, you can go for professional services which monitor your brand. You can even use freebies like Social Mention, Trendrr etc. . Services like Radian6, Trackur etc. are okay and there are some very good upcoming services which we will let you know shortly.
- Photo sharing and Video sites: Remember the video “Where the hell is Matt”?. YouTube and Flickr are surely a part of the social media revolution which has taken place over the years. A simple video says what a long blog cannot and it says it all in a much more effective way. A look at the youtube channel of dell shows how effectively youtube is being used by Dell. Also, make it a point to check the beautiful photo sharing profile of Dell called Digital Nomads. Before you go for a channel like youtube(it is costly to make videos) make a check if your target audience is there on youtube. Picasa photo sharing may return more to you if you are targeting the Indian audience.
- Combining your social media campaign with some social cause: Some of the companies in India who have taken up social media campaigns have been pretty much throwing their brands information on the users. Tata Docomoalmost reached levels of hash tagging where people started feeling spammed by their social media campaign. Indian brands can learn from the way Jimmy choos has taken up their social media campaign with the name jimmychoo72 . The money they make from this campaign goes to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In this way, Jimmy choos is able to combine its Social media campaign with CSR activities and hence create beautiful branding around itself. I would dearly love to see an Indian brand doing some similar work.
- Try using Social Media as your first level of feedback.
- Listen to people and answer them.
- Show the human face of your brand through social media.
- Donot over do it, the way Tata Docomo did for a while and pissed of many people completely.
- If you are extremely clueless about Social Media take professional help , You can contact us here
- Try using Social Media as your first level of feedback.