Tag Archives: Twitter

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. 🙂

Social Media, mightier than a pen!

Do you have a query which you would like the concerned brand to answer?  Are you thinking about writing them (with a pen and paper) on their postal address?

Somebody like me or for that matter anyone who understands the power of social media will be judgemental about you and will term you as “a stranger in a Strange Land” 😛

With the world being abuzz about the digital media, the term “Write to us” is so passé. Gone are the days where your letter was ignored by the brand.

Thanks to social media, the reins are in the hands of the common people like you and me…..your voice won’t get unheard! Let’s see how –

Just a few days back my cell phone service provider Vodafone India barred my outgoing service without any notice. After calling their customer service departments from my husband’s cell incessantly, I could finally connect to one executive who unfortunately kept transferring my call to multiple departments. With no output in hand, I decided to take the plunge.

I tweeted my issue mentioning the service provider and within no time, I got a call from customer care executive that restored my services within 2 days!

That’s the power of social media……..!!!!

screen1   screen2

With the emerging concept of Social Care – introduction of SOCIAL media as another medium for customer CARE, brands using the emergent platforms like Facebook and Twitter are making an effort to connect with each and every consumer.

With more and more brands building their presence on the HOT social media channels, they are bound to address the questions, reported satisfactions or complain from their consumers. Social media being open and vocal, they cannot afford to miss a single beat.

By widening the mediums for correspondence, brands – whether big or small, B2B or B2C are facing the real challenge to stay at par the consumer expectations which keep increasing with time.

Due to the fierce market competition, every brand tries to provide a seamless experience to its consumers leading to the overall rise of consumer expectations.

Strategies are implemented that communicate brand values and ideals. Brands are trying to listen to the consumer expectations, needs and requirements.

By creating a clear, comprehensive identity, brands try to ally the consumers with their values and ideals, thus trying to achieve the epitome of marketing!

Many of the leading companies such as Mahindra are launching campaigns (Mahindra Rise) seeking for new and innovative ideas from consumers to invent new products, services and possibilities. Others are coming up with solutions for problem areas. Besides these, brands always come up with free coupons, gift vouchers, discounts and offers to keep their consumers glued.

And if one fails, consumers are bound to bring it down with the help of vested power of social media.

Conclusion – more power to the consumers!

With the reins in the hand, I keep wondering are the consumers putting enough efforts to explore the power and make good for themselves as well as the society??

Are you speaking up for yourself? Are you loud enough to be heard among all the noise?

If not, add this into your To-do list for this New Years. Use your powers for good through social media and let your brand know what you feel.

And yes do share the experience with me….

10 ways LinkedIn can help you gauge your Career Options in High-School

High school is all about teenage rebellion, prom nights, and first love, friendship and rival cliques.

It is also the time when students decide about their college or pursuing post secondary education.

Being a teenage mind with a maze of intense emotions, this young lot is constantly tuned with Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and all other casual social media channels.

But looking at the average time spent by a teenager on these channels makes me wonder what if they spend the same amount of time on LinkedIn building their professional profile???? (The idea seemed absurd at first but actually worth a thought!)

The high school goers have ample amount of leisure time at hand. By investing the same time on LinkedIn, they can think further ahead about their careers. Yes college actually prepares them to face the real world but high school too can be leveraged to have the biggest impact on their career success.

In the era of economic recession and increasing population, it’s all about the survival of the fittest at the end. Easy availability of social platforms like LinkedIn is the best way to prove you are fit, fully equipped and raring to go.

Here are the 10 ways to leverage LinkedIn that will help the high school folks carve a path towards career success by starting well ahead of time:

1. A LinkedIn profile is an Active Document rather than an online CV. Have a professional looking head and shoulders shot photo, ideally smiling with smart attire so that others will see you as an approachable individual.

2. Optimize your profile with your key information such as passions, interests, skills, hobbies, significant achievements. Use keywords that will highlight your skills and achievements. LinkedIn will be of great help if you are planning to convert your passion into your profession.

eg: Wildlife photography

3. The site also allows videos, blogs, images, presentations, links to your other social media profiles. You can easily upload your school level project information, presentations given and videos about various extracurricular activities you participated in.

4. Search for different Groups related to your field of choice and engage within them on a regular basis to get yourself noticed. Ask questions, participate in discussions, share your knowledge and project your expertise if possible.

5. Connect with professionals of similar interests and initiate talks, discuss about the passion you share and engage with them on regular basis. Learn about their experience and develop your skills accordingly.

6. Follow different Universities, Companies of your field of choice and connect with the employees working there. The employees can be Professors, Scientists, and Engineers etc. Share your subject knowledge and request them to guide you.

7. You can also look for Part time jobs at the universities or companies you follow. Investing in work experience will help you to develop basic work skills and occupational proficiencies such as soft skills, punctuality, effective communication techniques, respect towards fellow colleagues and supervisors etc.

8. Once you have the job, the experience and skills gained can be later highlighted in your profile.

After gaining a considerable amount of experience, the job will also enable you to gain recommendations and endorsement from your seniors and supervisors in the subject field you have worked in.

Another important benefit of having a part time job at high school or college level is it will help you in deciding to pursue the higher education and developing and investing in occupational skills such as certifications, degrees and relevant working knowledge etc.

9. Expand your network by inviting everyone you know to connect – send a tailor made connect message specifically highlighting the reason to connect with them by appreciating their skills and in-depth knowledge they have about the subject you love, to make yourself stand out among the rest.

10. Always keep a check on who has checked your profile. Connect with them if they are relevant.

Due to fierce competition, companies are increasingly seeking workers efficiently skilled in newly emerging fields. LinkedIn will not only streamline high school student’s career goals but will also help them keep a check about the demanding career field they can opt for. The choice of the subject major they make as an undergraduate will have wide impact on the career they can pursue after graduation.

What do you think? Do these tips make sense? Have you got any others to add? Please share your views and stories…