Tag Archives: Instagram

Is your organization social enough?

As I interact more and more with my clientele, I do get a feeling that entrepreneurs and brands are still skeptical about choosing Social Media as one of the marketing channel. Even if they do, they lack consistency and give up easily without exploring the power and reach of social media.

When a brand decides to go for social media, it faces multiple challenges. Right from the basic establishment on the social networking platform to lead generation, with an ever-evolving field like social media, keeping one abreast and churning out maximum ROI(Return of Investment) is a herculean task!

To begin with, at the inception point, the brands should create a unified approach. This strategy should include inputs from customer services, PR, marketing and other relevant departments of their business.

While devising the social media strategy, companies always face questions which seem easy but are rather difficult from the business point of view.

Few of them are listed below –

  1. What different sites should a company target for their social media efforts?

It depends on the following factors –

  • The business segment of the company, whether it is B2B, B2C oriented or both?
  • Goals, visions and objectives a company stands for
  • Culture, location also plays a vital role

If B2B – the company ought to rely extensively on LinkedIn, Google Plus and Twitter. They should also pay attention to lesser known sites like Quora and Toolbox as they have few but targeted audiences.

If B2C – the company should place Facebook as its primary priority, followed by Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube etc. B2C business segment has a lot of options to choose as it is not limited to any major group of people and can avail lot of opportunities, various generic social media channels can offer.

If both – the company has to thoughtfully choose the social media channels and divide the work in proper steps with a time frame for each.

The steps can be –

  • Initial Buzz and Awareness
  • Branding Campaigns
  • Reach and Penetration
  • Nurturing the reach
  • Sales Based Campaigns etc.

The efforts should be well directed and focused towards building a robust brand presence online.

  1. What are the biggest mistakes that companies make when it comes to social media?

With increased Internet usage, more and more companies are indulging in online marketing and promotional activities. But very few follow the correct path

  • Little Understanding of Social Media

Social media being dynamic and ever-evolving, very few companies actually take efforts to make the best possible use of the medium. Social media is often regarded as a place of leisure. Brands are very casual in their attitude towards social media and overlook it, thus ignoring the golden opportunity where the crowd is already buzzing! It is more about building your presence where your target audience is!

  • Vague Objectives

Often start-ups and small companies are unclear about the objectives which lead to inappropriate selection of social channels, unplanned efforts, investment and content.

  • Lack of knowledge about ROI

Investing time, efforts, man-power and money without proper knowledge about the actual ways of measurement and ROI (Return of Investment) is another big blunder companies do.

  • Being social and ignorant don’t go hand-in-hand

To maintain the loyalty of the customers, the brand should be prompt and polite in their response to the queries and concerns. One negative remark may cause havoc if gone viral and thus tarnish the brand’s image. Keeping in mind the “open to all” communication aspect of social media, the brand should ensure that they have swift customer care service.

  1. What is the best social media software?

Judging the software can be entirely done based on one’s needs and requirements. A lot many options are available in the market from basic free tools to advance enterprise solutions.

With advancements in technology, every social networking site upgrades itself to a new level every day! Moreover new SNS with innovative concepts are jumping into the market. To gel up with the existing and incorporate the new ones, the social media tools need to improvise regularly. It needs to meet different requirements such as Social media postings scheduling, feeds aggregation based on keywords, CRM features, Customer Support, Conversation tracking, Sentiments analysis etc.

According to me, Hootsuite is one of the best social media software. It is a dashboard which helps you manage multiple Social Media Accounts of Multiple clients in a single interface. The ease in usage, user friendly interface, advance scheduling system, analytics, insights, reports, streaming is a lot a software offers.

Hootsuite is the only software which is being improved day by day. New social media channels are added and management work of all the networks is simplified in very few steps.

  1. What questions should an entrepreneur ask before hiring someone to manage their social media for them?

Before asking the questions, it is the sole responsibility of the entrepreneur to explain his business segment, target demography, future plans, objective of the Social Media Marketing campaign, and expectations, to the Social Media Team.

Then the questions can be:

  • Which are the Social Media Channels that can be leveraged for my business segment?
  • How much amount of the efforts required meeting the goal?
  • Does the Social Media Team follow White Hat Techniques and support genuine and honest work efforts?
  • What is the cost estimation and the budget required? Can I also have the cost breakups?
  • How is the work process followed?
  • Who will be my point of communication for regular updates about the work? Will that person be available as per my time zones?
  • How frequently can I review the performance? Weekly? Monthly?

  1. How does an entrepreneur know if he is getting a good service from his social media providers?

An Entrepreneur should have major focus on the ROI – Return of the Investment. ROI should not be misunderstood as ‘Profit’. ROI is actually the money and the efforts you put in the Social Media activities and the return you get in terms of Likes, Shares, Buzz, Branding, Traffic, Passive Sales etc based on the net profit of the business. He must ask for the ‘measurement matrix’ to the service providers, to understand on what grounds he can measure the success.

Also, an Entrepreneur should also give priority to the quality of work and service. The Social Media Providers should be independent enough to perform their work with perfection. Frequent performance reviews should be done after giving ample time to the provider to start and stabilize the work.

Basic measurement is done on two broad parameters as

  • Qualitative Measurement: in terms of Likes, Shares, Buzz, Branding (artwork, tone of content) and user engagement.
  • Quantitative: Number of fans/followers, increase in traffic/visitors etc.

  1. What tips / advice can you give relating to social media campaigns?

Tips –

  • Be humans and remember there are humans at other end too.

A social media campaign needs to be User-oriented. The users must find the content valuable, only then they will perform some action on the page.

  • Know your desired actions

Prompting the users to take some action by using different Call to Action elements. It can be asking them to ‘tag friends’, share, fill the form and register for events etc.

  • Try to initiate conversation

The variety in content with a great visual appeal helps in getting the attention. Write stories, fun, humor, informative posts etc to initial conversation. Knowledge sharing is the great way to attract more users.

Asking questions, initiating debates and discussions is also a trendy way to increase user engagement.

  • Be Consistent

Consistent efforts are required to keep the page or accounts active and the engagement rate constant. Inconsistency may lead to low performance of the page.

  • Learn to Map the trends and keep talking about them

People will agree/disagree and will comment about their opinions. Its an easy way to build engagement.

  • Re-share the customer feedback, testimonials or brand related content shared by the customers. Customers love being treated as friends and they will respond in a very positive way.

Making the users take actions on the page or the accounts the way you want them to take is a knack. Triggering the right emotion in the minds of the audience should be done to sync the thinking process of the audience with the brand. If this happens, the customers will not limit themselves in showing their love for the brand.

So people, are you still apprehensive about social media?? I hope not…. 🙂

Please feel free to drop your questions and opinions in the comments below.

Image Courtesy: Google

How to choose the right mix of social channels for your business?

With multiple social media platforms available, its obvious for one to get overwhelmed before choosing the right ones for his business.

Selecting the right mix of social media platforms is like building the foundation on which you plan to construct your brand image.

Once the platforms are chosen, devising the strategy becomes easy.

And for that, one must have a deep understanding about the features and offerings of major social media channels available in the online market.

To make it easy, the social media platforms can be categorized in following ways –

1. Must-haves for any business 

Facebook, Twitter and Google+ fall in this category. As the name suggests, these three channels are essential for all and every type of business.

Facebook vanity URL has gained the equal status to that of the Website. Twitter is the new name for Customer Service Center. And after conquering the SEO kingdom, Google + has emerged as the new biggie.

You cannot afford to avoid any one of these.

2. Visual Marketing

visualize-content

Restaurants, Fashion, Beauty, Health and Fitness, Education, Clothing, Real Estate…phew!!!!!!

Visual appeal is the most important thread for all these segments to flourish on social media.

A single image speak thousand words and a video can provide the feel of a new world more stunning than simple plain text. Customers crave more for visual content and hence social media channels such as Pinterest, Instagram and Youtube are more popular.

Pinterest offers the facility of open online catalog where all the brand products can be categorically listed with their price tags. Instagram helps the customer understand WHATS TRENDING and pushes the customer to be a part of the trend through its glamour.

Youtube is on the other hand an Online TV where customers can be given the virtual feel of the brand through its ads and other informative videos.

3. Content Marketing

DougKessler-Quote2

Every business has multiple facets. These facets need to be well projected and explained to the target audience. Here content marketing comes into the picture.

Sites like Tumblr, WordPress, Newsletters form the part of content marketing.

Content is always the king and the basic driving force in attracting the audience. Relevant content will help you gain trust and loyalty from your customers.

Sharing the information about the brand, its story, formative features, elements, the vision and achievements, current offerings, sales and discounts can be done through blogs.

Along with that, publishing blogs about How To’s, Brand’s take on the new relevant updates in the market, Educating the customers about things in which the brand is expert in also help to make your readers the regular visitors.

Newsletters are more about “Customer Relationship Nurturing”. They keep your customers connected with your brand and pursue them to participate in brand activities and developments.

Here the key is to offer maximum value to the users and keeping the promotional aspect moderate.

4. Location-based Marketing

Location-Based-Mobile-Services

Location based promotions is the new powerful method of attracting your audience. Business segments who have their retail outlets at different locations can make the best use of this method.

Sites like Foursquare, Yelp and Google Places are strong players in this category. Restaurants, Salons and Spas can explore these social media channels.

Features like Location-based recommendations, Reviews and Ratings, Check-ins, location based listings, Short-tips and messages are something to look out for.

5. Professional Marketing

marketing-expert1

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram are all Casual form of marketing. Here the tone, language and projection of the brand is friendly and casual.

But few businesses also need a professional tone, look and feel.

LinkedIn being the pro, followed by Google+ are the two major platforms in this category.

As the business builds up via professional networking, LinkedIn makes it easy for the companies and organizations to collaborate, build strong ties with each other and do business.

Various features such as Groups, Discussions, Showcase Page and Inmails help companies to project a professional image and network with like-minded individuals and businesses.

Recruitment and Staffing Agencies, Software and Mobile App Developments, Real Estate are few major business segment that fall in this category.

The five categories listed above do not cover the entire social media world but they do help the newcomer to categorically place his business and choose the channels.

With constant and continual upgrades and advancements, new social media platforms with different concepts and ideas will emerge, unique features, facilities will be integrated in the existing ones….Its easy for a new entrepreneur to get engulfed by the waves but the key is to ride the tide….

If one is accustomed to the basic definitions of the above five categories, I am sure selection of the right mix of social channels will be just a cake walk. 🙂

The Ace Motivator

Being a new mother and a working professional is tough! And when one of your friend posts selfies of her recently acquired LEAN figure, thats the end of the world for you! You start resenting yourself for being overweight.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are a blessing in disguise for such people who may not be lazy but over-occupied in work that they do not even consider prioritising their health first.

Man is the only animal on Earth who is genetically designed to be conscious about his looks, status and other personality traits.

As the stone-age man transformed into the cement-age, he also became open and social.

Sharing and appreciating are the other new traits inculcated by the social networking sites. Only the difference is these traits are bound to be displayed among the mass audience.

If we go more deep and think positively, influence and inspiration are one of the many threads that connect the people through these social networks.

And for this, one need not be a celebrity, even common people like you and me, with a great insight can be the influencer.

More people you connect with, more content you come across.

If anyone decides to be fit and healthy this New Year’s and announces his resolution online, it becomes a wave motivating  every individual that reads it. And going forward, when that same person posts the selfies looking slim and lean, the same wave becomes stronger. Pictures speak more than the words!!

Talking more about the positive influence factor, when the subject of influence is closer to reality, the effect is immense.

During the process of selfies or for that matter any photograph, every individual tries to project an ideal image of himself or herself! For some it might be the new exotic location, for some a usual day at work, for others a pout might make all the difference. All these factors are mostly about external projections but a huge internal unending game of mind.

In this tryst of looking good and cool, people undoubtedly start picturing the comments and likes they will be receiving once they upload this picture on any social network.

And when one of them with same AGENDA of external projection exceeds, it inspires others to try more.

Social media has become the most influential platform in today’s era motivating hundreds and thousands. People are constantly tweeting, updating statuses, instagraming selfies, whatsapping! Sharing every minute detail of your life is the most happening trend among the regular users.

Many brands such as Myntra are catching this wave and are promoting their products by emphasising the importance of LIKES and COMMENTS through their tagline “LIVE FOR LIKES”.  Thus influencing the young guns to buy and share their purchase on the social channels.

The Facebook vanity URL has now gained an equal status to that of a website.

Book clubs, group discussions, knowledge exchange…all and everything can be done through the social media.

Virtual motivation and inspiration can be sought at a click of a button.

I do agree that excess of anything is bad but every individual has the liberty to define the optimum.

So folks what is that one thing you are planning to do but lack the motivation? I will suggest you to either Facebook or Twitter it. You will find thousands of motivators along with their experiences to get you going!

Thats all for now as I am off to my walk! Ofcourse my friend motivated me. 🙂

Selfies:  An exercise to enhance your personal brand

Selfie – A new phenomena, a trend sweeping the world. Popular across all ages.

The Wikipedia defines it as a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held camera. It is often linked with the social networking website such as Instagram.

This six letter word is a rage now. Zillions of selfies are uploaded, shared and circulated on social media channels every passing day. Being a social media professional, I come across this so much that it makes me wonder the reason for its popularity. What’s making it so infectious?

The answer was – love for self expression!!

Social media has provided people yet another way of expressing their moods, behaviors, small joys and sorrows in a visually appealing way. Instead of uploading a textual status update, millennial can simply upload a photograph depicting their current mood, add #selfie tag and share it on their social networking sites. A simple and more outgoing way to communicate!

The global appeal of selfies has come from its ease of creation and sharing. Also the kind of control they provide an individual over how he/she can self-photograph and present themselves. It is a means of communicating and connecting with others.

As I was researching for this blog, I also came across few self-explanatory tweets about selfies. Few of them are as follows –

Secret Formula: more #selfies, more #followers. PS: for girls only! 🙂

#Selfies are well and truly in

Low self esteem and #selfies is a dangerous combo.

So apparently #selfies are also a trend with the royal families

Speaking about the royals, Oscars this year was more known for Ellen’s selfie rather than the Red Carpet entries and awards buzz. This image spoke a lot about how one can easily enhance one’s personal brand and I feel Ellen made the best possible use of selfies for her brand.

Ellen's Selfie

Ellen’s Selfie

Personal branding is all about expressing your brand while maintaining the ‘person’ behind it.

Expressing your work, routine, moods, talent and personality through selfies will personify your brand and help the audience to relate to you in a more friendly and humane way. Instead of a formal photo with a professional photographer and sophisticated lenses, Selfies are raw! They give the audience a reality check making them trust you and be loyal to your brand. Without the professional angle, selfies portray authenticity and humbleness with a “within reach” feel about the brand thus adding more credibility and respect in the minds of audience towards the brand.

Another reason for the immense popularity of Ellen’s selfie is she portrayed to the whole world that her fame and the celebrity status doesn’t make her any less human. Just like any other individual even she is carried away by the selfie storm and loves taking selfies with her friends.

Exploring and analyzing oneself is what people love to do both on Social Media and in real life. Experiments add variety and newness to the life. The thought that you can create an online profile and project the real you is exciting. Selfies provide you the ability to do that.

Having a personal image, a brand online is the need of the hour. Leveraging or diminishing its potential lies in our hands.

Making the best use of selfies, by expressing your real self (lies, faking and frauds are so passé) one can definitely manage as well as enhance his or her own brand according to one’s reputation.

So tell me, are your Selfie crazy? How do you use those selfies to enhance your personal image? Do let me know your views in the comments below.