Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

Social & Digital Media: Key Trends in 2014

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

imageBrands are now getting serious with the way they can build human connections with their customers through the wealth of data that social media can provide. Consumers nowadays spend more time in front of their digital screens, thus the agencies, advertisers and brand managers should look towards crafting digital strategies for brands. For this, they should not only look into the current trends in the social and digital media landscape, but also understand how these trends will shape up in the times to come. This article will tell you how you can increase your customer loyalty amidst the changing trends this year.

Few things you need to know are:

Social Listening

imageNot only thoughts, but grievances are also being reported on social media by consumers nowadays. When something like this happens, there is no scope of ignorance of customer service by brands. They have to listen to them through what one can call as ‘Social Listening’, or in other words, paying attention to what people are talking about them on Facebook, Twitter etc. 22% marketers were already using social listening strategies in 2013 & thus, 24% plan to do so in 2014 as well. This clearly indicates that brands are still finding out how social listening is working in their favor as out of these, only 31% feel that their social listening is effective.

Effect of Social Listening

On marketers: Brands will be able to interact directly with consumers
On users: Brands will now listen, understand & respond quickly & strategically to consumer queries & thoughts

Social Advertising

imageAdvertising spends by brands is already segmented on the Internet. Though television used to share the larger share of advertising dollars, brands have now realized the power of leveraging social media ads in a cost effective way to build business. 57% of marketers used social ads in 2013 and another 23% are expected to start using the ads in 2014.

Effect of Social Advertising

On Marketers: Brands will get a cost effective & clutter free way of engaging customers
On Users: Users will now be able to see not just posts but Facebook sponsored stories

Data-based Marketing

imageBrands are gathering lots of data from different places and trying to use it to market in a smarter way. This is because, unlike the traditional methods of advertising, social advertising offers real time analytics on the effectiveness of your campaigns. This is why brands & businesses would be able to spend money on Facebook-sponsored post for example, and then measure its effect before changing the campaign a week later. This leads to a marketing fueled by data.

Effect of Data-based Marketing

On Marketers: Brands will be able to take advantages of opportunities
On Users: Users will have more access to unique content & not just commercial messages

Pictures will be a better marketing tool

imageNowadays, people hardly have enough time to spare. Hence, they are being attracted towards content that they can comprehend within a short time. Social media platforms are taking it all higher with an enormous emphasis on visual content. Compared to the original internet ads, today users come across more visually driven, eye-catching content. Instagram is indeed growing and giving a scope to people to filter & beautify their images online. Thus, visual social media is surely going to be a boon for brands!

Effect on Marketers: Marketers will have to find newer ways to catch attention like graphic advertisements, catchy banners, images and Infographics

Effect on Users: Users will get more information in a short time span


Social Media integration with business

imageDespite the fact that 78% companies have a committed social media team, yet just 26% of companies out of them integrate social media into their business strategies completely. Therefore, the time when brands learn to do this, it is then when they will unlock the potential of social media to grow and transform social media fans into loyal brand enthusiasts.

Effect on Marketers: Marketers must connect the social data to other enterprise data sources to deliver actionable insights

Effect on Users: Social platforms will become more rewarding in terms of social engagement


Social data will guide the future of relationship intelligence

imageInformation from social sites, campaigns or other customer interactions will be used to effectively monitor and engage audiences. Brands will be able to leverage the data from the way people interact with their brands on social media. As marketers start paying more attention to what their online communities care about, their real-life products will become increasingly relevant to their customers.

Effect on Marketers: Brands will focus on unique campaigns that focus on bringing online content to the real world
Effect on Users: Brands will need to listen what the community cares about

Engaging customers both online and offline

imageBrands in future, will take advantage of both online and offline means to reach out to the audience. Social media is a space where one does not only spend his/her time online, but also shares thoughts and extends interactions with others. Therefore, brands are taking a leap ahead to develop ways to move online campaigns into the real world and use these human connections to augment customer’s experiences with their products. Brands in this manner extend their online personalities into the real world through live events, livestreams, reality shows, giveaways etc. to name a few.

Effect on Marketers: Brands will focus on unique campaigns that focus on bringing online content to the real world

Effect on Users: Brands will need to listen what the community cares about

Source: www.media-mosaic.com

Well, how the world of social networking will shape up is a thing to watch out for in times to come. These trends are likely to come true because they are the true state of social networking progression these days. One can definitely look forward to things becoming more interactive and personal. What are your thoughts on this? What else do you think could come of the future? Do you have any predictions of your own? Do feel free to share them with us in the comments below! #KeepChiming

Brands on Instagram: Its All About Getting Started!

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

Blog ImageJust like other social networks, brand managers and marketers have shown interest in Instagram too. The simple fact being that, Instagram can also help humanize your business and increase engagement for your brand. Businesses and brands are already capitalizing on this powerful medium. Instagram is highly interactive with a very high engagement rate as users are also active on the go. It allows you to showcase creative content to your customers who can in turn be powerful tools to build brand advocates as images shared on Instagram connect more creatively depicting the brand style and personality.

 

Nowadays, brands are gradually looking up to Instagram for increased engagement with their customers. They are invigorating a sense of excitement and visual treat for them. In fact, Instagram is slowly becoming one of the larger elements of a brand’s marketing mix. This can also be considered as the result of the rise of visual content progressively becoming popular amongst the masses.

What you as a brand or business can do on Instagram?

  • Firstly, have a plan!
    – You can hold an employee Instagram photo contest
  • – Create your company’s Instagram account & share unique photos
  • – You can share these photos on Facebook and Twitter
  • – You can also spread awareness by encouraging customers to take photos of your product or service

Instagram is really good for your Business! You can:

  • clip_image004Promote your products through images and put your message across effectively
    Engage with your followers as customer engagement is very important
  • Competitions and giveaways for those who follow you can be a means of showing some appreciation to your loyal followers
    Behind the scenes pictures of your organization can be shared as people are curious about them
  • Hashtags can be very useful in showing that who is using your products and also promote your brand

 

Not all industries have joined the Instagram bandwagon. But, according to Socialbakers’ latest Instagram performance report, FMCGs and Home goods are leading, followed by alcohol brands which produced the most engagement on Instagram in January, but a drop was witnessed in February. Have a look below:

instagram-jan-feb-2014

Socialbakers, in its report, also mentioned two other brands active on Instagram and climbing the engagement ladder, General Electric and National Geographic.

General Electric (GE) invited six fans and influencers to come up with a marketing campaign and National Geographic plunges into the high-quality photography from the magazine, giving Instagram followers a magnificent look through the lenses of the magazine’s photographers.

For brands to be on Instagram, its not just about being there, but a lot depends on how close you are to your following and what is the interaction rate of your brand with your audience followed by how much you make them a part of whatever you are doing. Here’s something you can follow:

examples

There are a few reasons and tips on why your brand should be on Instagram as mentioned below:

It is easy to find targeted users using keywords. You can search the targeted hashtags and engage with the users who posted it.

It is easy to communicate with your followers as you can mention any user that you follow and they will see it. For example you want to thank your most engaging users on Instagram and give them a 50% discount code of any product in your online store. You can just post it as a picture and mention targeted users using @ (at) sign in the comment section: @username

You can make beautiful marketing messages as pictures. You can share your products, promotions or blog posts through pictures. Few things you should keep in mind are:

  • – Don’t post pictures ONLY about your company
  • – Be creative
  • – Engage users with every picture by asking questions
  • – Reply to all comments with @username sign
  • – Use as many hashtags with targeted #keywords as possible in the caption to a picture

   Source: newmediaforce.com

How much engagement are top brands getting on Instagram?

– Instagram says it has 90 million active users
– Top 3 brands on Instagram are NIKE, MTV and Starbuck
– 23% of active Interbrand 100 companies post more than 50 times a month
– Brands are seeing more than 5600 engagements per photo
– 98% of Instagram photos posted by brands are shared to Facebook
– More than 2 million likes, comments and shares of Instagram photos have occurred on Facebook since the network   bought Instagram
  Source: wishpond

Brands need to set one goal in mind when on Instagram, that is, creating loyal customers who are genuinely interested in your brand. By using Instagram, brands and organizations are able to shift perceptions by showing different aspects of the brand, it tells your brand story in a different way!

Instagram for Business - Copy
Source: sidequik

You might be wondering how images and short videos can work wonders for brands, but think about the lasting impression it creates on the minds of is audiences. With Instagram, brands can showcase their culture, special, offices, new products, events and the faces of the wonderful employees who make it all happen.

Another great thing we can’t ignore is networking. Brands can connect to people and other brands on Instagram through images and engagement. Following back your followers and interaction with them associated with hashtags can help brands reach out to their specific target audiences. Keeping the interests of audiences intact through interesting promotions and not direct selling is very important. Ignoring this fact may lead to an unfollow chain.

Here’s an Instagram secret recipe that might help!

fun facts - Copy
Source: Techcrunch, Followgram

Few examples on how brands leveraged Instagram

1) See how FOREVER 21 got to 1.4 million followers on Instagram in this Infographic

2) Starbucks leverages filters and hashtag functionality to connect followers with the products. Artsy product shots, promotions and discounts are all shared exclusively via Instagram.

Starbucks

3) MTV is a content machine. It utilizes Instagram to drive viewership by showcasing elusive celebrity photos and important announcements

MTV

4) No engagement tactic is left unused on the Red Bull photo stream. The brand initiated promoting athletes, events and sparking relevant brand conversations with hashtags.

Red Bull

What brands need to do is, take advantage of the fact that there are a lot of brilliant people out there who create powerful visual content and learn a lot from them. Are you an Instagram fan? What do you think about this powerful visual marketing element? How do you think will brands explore its complete potential? Well that remains an interesting thing to watch out for in the times to come!

How Brands Are Using Vine

Friday, February 28th, 2014

imageNot much of a time since Vine has been introduced and it has already exploded to millions of users followed by brands which have started to take notice too. Researchers also say that a branded Vine is four times more likely to be seen than a branded video. With every five tweets a second containing a Vine video link it is undoubtedly becoming popular day by day, but then how can marketers and brand managers explore the platform? Have you employed Vine in your brand’s video strategy yet? If not, then here’s an Infographic that depicts how there is a lot more to Vine than you think!

 Vine INFOgraph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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You can also have a look at:

The 33 Best Vine Videos of 2013
Brands that are using Vine to enhance their social media output
Brands creating skillful, creative Vine videos that make a statement

Vine is constantly revolutionizing the way brands connect with their audiences, allowing them to talk directly to their fans and consumers. It will be interesting to watch the creativity with which brands come up with in this space in the near future. So, are you set to spice up your Brand’s next marketing push with VINE? What are your thoughts on this?

Social Media & Politics: The New Age Political Revolution!

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

imageSocial media is changing the way communications happen and has undoubtedly become a major aspect of political campaigns too.Taking you a little into the past, way back in 2008 presidential elections, U.S. President Barack Obama was the first candidate to use it effectively. Since then, the use of this extremely useful platform has grown with the increasing number of people using it to publicize their political views. Leading from Facebook updates to Tweets to YouTube videos and appeals, social media has become a yet another significant tool for political campaigns and also for supporters. Millions of people, especially youth are actively present on social platforms. Thus, social media opens the doors of opportunity to reach out to and stay connected with voters persistently at a very low cost. This is the reason political campaigns include social media in their marketing strategy.

Politicians, as a part of their social media strategy, create posts to engage followers just like brands do. The main idea is to create content that people share, helps for fundraising purposes, creates awareness of what is happening during elections etc., and to determine where do the candidates stand.

These days Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party founder Arvind Kejriwal, who is followed by more than 1.1 million people on Twitter, deals with it and finds time to tweet and retweet to those with whom he shares his views of a corruption-free society.

Social media is indeed the latest advertising tool for the politicians and political parties of today. An form of advertising, maybe that just influences the right set of people, mostly young people who are always ready to share their feelings on social media to make that difference.

Followed by Kejriwal there’s Narendra Modi, Gujarat chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate with 3.1 million followers on Twitter. For Modi to shape opinion, this has become an effective tool.

On Tuesday, 14th January, Modi tweeted his picture with Bollywood actor Salman Khan. The two met in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and flew kites on the occasion of Uttarayan. The same day Modi also wasted no time in greeting all on the occasion of Id-e-Milad. He also wished those celebrating Pongal, Bhogali Bihu and Lohri, all harvest festivals in different states.

The emergence of Aam Aadmi Party, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and many other political developments happening back-and-forth, the political parties and politicians are ready to watch out for these trends and go to a place where people looking for a change would assemble, and that is Social Media.

If ad sector sources are to be believed, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi will mark his presence on Twitter and Facebook soon. Currently, the 43-year-old leader has no personal Facebook or Twitter accounts, unlike many of his rivals.

Even Agencies such as Taproot-Dentsu and Burson Marstellar are said to have been given the mandate to manage advertising and public relations for Gandhi and the Congress party.

Source: www.afaqs.com

The Current Scenario

Political Campaigns help build a connection with Voters: Mostly, whatever happens on social media related to political campaigns are not interactions or back-and- forth dialogues with voters, but a hope that these posts or messages will get voters to vote in some way. Though candidates may or not be directly replying or communicating on these social media platforms, but they could very well view the responses or opinions on the subjects or issues they post.

imageSocial Media Strategy for the Political Campaign: When one sits back and analyses, one will find that a person’s vote also gets affected a lot depending on the views shared by that person’s friends, family, groups etc., basically that’s the way social media works here.

Today, the time has arrived when people with interests in politics and political campaigns and related stuff are actively subscribing to candidates on social media platforms like Facebook & Twitter and those who aren’t just get to see the posts ‘liked’ by their friends who are politically active. Politically savvy people are a source of information for those without much interest.

A candidate might have millions of subscribers or followers, but because of the viral effect due to social media presence, it may reach to 100 million. Therefore, the use of social media in the political campaigns is not only important but very much critical too.

What Next?

One needs to be on social media, but one cannot be just on it as it’s not just a means to reach out to the desired target group but it should be a part of the major campaign strategy.

The use of social media in the political sphere attracts quick feedback, interaction or policy ideas. it gives an instant read on how something would shape up.

If used to make a good conversation, Twitter is a fantastic medium.

Lastly, if a candidate is on social media, one will have to maintain a certain level of decency & decorum on the same. It’s a great medium and the political parties should use it to clearly put across their propagandas or agendas in order to inform the people or voters about what the party is doing.

Social Media is a very powerful medium & therefore political parties should use it to promote their party and their work. That’s because, with huge number of people and the rising speed of communication, the impact of these campaigns is also high. Your thoughts?

Social Media & Storytelling: A Great Mix!

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

brand-storytelling-social-mediaThe ultimate reason that defines how a marketer knows what to do in the right way is his understanding of the consumer psychology, where he actually stood a decade or two ago and where he would be few years later. Marketers, yes they do get stuck sometimes with their ideas. They spend millions on direct mail, billboards, print, radio, TV etc. But why? Many of these mediums are already breaking up in terms of getting a genuine attention of the users. Well, if you can tell us the last time you were really excited to open an email, or stopped by to look at a billboard or outdoor media or you didn’t forward that commercial then you can surely email it to us.

The value proposition is not the same as it used to be. There used to be a day when consumes were excited to buy a particular item on online stores or ecommerce sites at half the original price, but now you do not show any interest to such offers and actually mark it as spam before it even hits your inbox because you have been already bombarded with lots of them since years now. The solution? What would one do when the ROI of billboards, Television and emails deteriorates in comparison to what it was in the early 90s?

It comes down to a fact that every single marketer is a storyteller, it becomes their job to tell their value proposition, give value and ask for business, what their story is to the customers along the lines of purchase. Period.

And therefore, to be a good storyteller one needs to get the attention of the customer to get that chance. And to be very precise, their attention is shifting, shifting at a very fast pace. Time and attention have now become like commodities which are the most valuable in the game. Now, when you talk about social media, many marketers just treat it like a distribution channel and another medium or way to shower the consumers with the same messages.They are missing the fact that social media networks are the platforms or mediums with actually a two way conversation.

For instance, if one looks at twitter, it is nothing less than a cocktail party of the internet. And what makes one a great cocktail party guest is not talking about oneself all the time. Infact, to be clear more percentage of tweets should engage with other users which in turn brings value to your brand. The truth, rather the ultimate truth is in order to succeed and provide a great value, learn to storytell in each platform (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram to name a few). The most important thing is to respect and understand the psychology of what makes the Facebook user different from a Pinterest user and more from an Instagram user.

Storytelling is something more than just telling the story about your brand. When it is about social media storytelling, it is way more than just promoting the brands on social media platforms. Authentic brand stories not only symbolize the brand, but are unique and in turn motivate the people to engage with your brand, talk about it, share and ultimately purchase it or entice profits. Storytelling is- knowing in reality what your audiences want. It is very importantly about relationship building. Determining the core story of the brand first will help you know who the audience is, how their interaction with the brand is, what & how many people are talking about the brand, how your brand differs from that of competitors, your social response parameter & time etc.

Tell-Them-Your-StoryPeople find value in platforms and those who cannot tell their stories on today’s social media platforms are the ones that will go out of business sooner or later. Storytelling on social media and marketing have now blended together and play on the fans’ emotions. With these stories, brands connect with atheir readers on a more human level. Future not just holds churning out content but also crafting compelling stories. So are you ready to strike a chord by making your brand voice resonate with the consumers on social media? We all love stories, right? Whether it is around a campfire, or in a room with friends or on a phone call with an old friend, we love it all the time.

If so, then what about leveraging this most basic aspect (of storytelling) of human nature to your advantage on social media?

In order to go ahead with digital storytelling on your social media platforms you need to keep in mind a few things.

Your brand needs to tell a story

In order to stay connected with your audience or customers you need to show your brand’s human or personal side, your brand needs to tell a story. The brand personality should ideally resonate with your fans on social media. While doing so, make sure you don’t make the brand voice too personal and also ensure that whatever you are sharing, you are comfortable with the whole world knowing what you are sharing.

Your brand’s story – Share it!

It’s a normal consumer behaviour that they they usually don’t just buy brands they largely consider the story behind brands too. Highlight your brand’s message, the story & the attributes like you do on your website and blog on social media also. When you post content keeping this in mind, then your communication builds a strong credibility for your brand and makes your content relevant and relatable with the audience.

The best way of storytelling is to actually do that!

Yes, you can do this on Facebook by converting your updates into small blog posts or narrations. And on Twitter also with a limitation of 140 characters too you can be amazing in telling your story encouraging more creativity. Using Instagram is another great way to tell a story. Wonder how? Just post an image with interesting captions.

Consecutive post can be another way

Sharing the posts or tweets in parts makes sharing the story a way more captivating. Consecutive post after post or a tweet-after-tweet fashion works great on social media as it builds positive anticipation for what’s going to happen next.

The next generation audience and even the audience of this generation is acquiring a great level of control over the information they see, talk about and share. Brands, therefore should know the art of creating compelling stories to reach them.

Shifting from messaging to storytelling ensures successful brand stories, just as in the case of Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches which invited around 150m YouTube views in just a few months, in turn leveraging the brand’s awareness and loyalty across the platforms and within the audience.

What Dove did was, it used myth components that matched with the women that have the same thinking.

Here’s a brief description of their storytelling:

  • · The explanation was that the society makes women believe that they are less beautiful than they are.
  • · The meaning was: ‘You are more beautiful than you think”.
  • · The story: Dove showed this through people with whom their audience could relate to.
  • · The result was that Dove’s story was shared across the globe compared to the competitors or other shampoo advertisements.

When brands cast their fans or audience as the hero, their story works best. For example, Apple’s “Think Different” or Nike’s “Just Do It” or for that matter Obama’s “Yes We Can” didn’t have brands talking about themselves but their people and how great they can be. Isn’t it? And this is what excites and attracts the masses these days and inspires them to share your brand content. And will keep doing in the times to come too.

grow_your_social_media_relationships_with_storytelling

Storytelling therefore, is not a matter of a day; it requires great thinking and committed time & effort to be crafted. How strongly do you know your brand’ story? Do you plan to understand your brand’s core story and audience and then create a content strategy keeping in mind the brand’s core? Storytelling on social media holds a great future only if you understand the heart of your brand and tell it in a way that people appreciate it and further share. Do share your thoughts on the same and how have you made efforts to discover it!

Social Media for Crisis Management

Friday, November 1st, 2013

imageWhen told about social media, most brands only think about using it for business and as a part of their marketing strategy. Though in the recent past, some brands have started using it as an essential tool to reach out to their fans and offer customer service. What’s most important is that in any case of crisis or an emergency, social media can turn out to be a great tool for managing the crisis. When we talk about crisis, it can be anything from a negative comment, outrage or publicity.

Well, it’s for sure that you are reading this before you need it, but life is much better and easier if you are prepared for it, right? A crisis we all know can hit anyone anytime but at the same time it’s a smart step to know how to manage as well as prevent any crisis. Apart from all the tools, using Social Media as a crisis management tool can save and maintain a brand’s reputation in a big way.

Using social media as a crisis management tool will help brands across to reach a wider audience in less time. Today, apart from known brands, even non-profit organizations, corporate industries, government bodies and varied sectors are picking up social media and integrating it as a crisis management tool.

Social media in a crisis helps in evaluating the conversations about the brand, analyzing the threat level, set the priority of taking an action and determine how to respond to a crisis.

Let’s have a look at few examples:

After Hurricane Sandy, Justin Auciello created a Facebook page called Jersey Shore Hurricane News to report updates in real time with 191,000 “likes.”

American Red Cross case: In 2011, a Red Cross employee accidently tweeted something personal about drinking Dogfish Beer to its network of 260,000 followers. The Red Cross deleted the post and turned an incident into a fund raiser with Dogfish Beer asking fans to donate to Red Cross.

Café Coffee Day (CCD) was hit with #CCDSUCKS crisis. CCD’s interaction with its fans began like this,

“We apologize for the goof up. This will not be taken lightly.”
“Thanks for letting us know and we are sorry.”
“Give us a number to call. When resolved, we’ll tell everyone about it on Twitter. Publicly.”

Wherein consumers responded: “Why do you need a number to talk? Use Twitter!”

Brand managers took notice of the complete scenario and began saving the brand with supportive tweets like:

“I think we need to give CCD another chance.”
“Opposite to what others think about @CafeCoffeeDay I love them.”

Such a response from CCD saved them.

Burger King: The Burger King Twitter account was recently hacked and the person who gained access to the account changed the name to McDonald’s and began promoting McDonald’s in their tweets. By the time Burger King had regained control of their account and issued an apology, they had gained 30,000 new followers. This led some to suggest it wasn’t a crisis at all, but actually wielded positive results. Either way, it taught us all a lesson in the importance of password security.

Consumer opinions and views spread far easily and very quickly through social media. This is one reason why brands should use social media for building their brand’s reputation.

A lesson that other brands could learn from this crisis situation and the way it was handled is that even an isolated incident should not be ignored by a brand on social media. If a brand comes to know before that such a one-off crisis has arisen, the brand could point out first too rather than being pointed out by the fans.

In a nutshell, a crisis management has three major stages namely:
– The monitoring before an incident or crisis which helps keep things in place all the time
– The responses garnered during the crisis management and the responses after
– The lessons evolved from the complete crisis management using social media

clip_image004

Image Courtesy: oBizMedia.com

On the other hand, for brands which are already there on Social Media, it would be great if brand managers stay prepared and up to date for handling any crisis situation. Have a look at a few things that they need to keep in mind and consistently consider.

  • Monitor: Start with the monitoring first, set up the monitoring tools for reputation management.
  • Plan: Always have a plan in advance: In the middle of a crisis, its not a great idea to decide what needs to be done and who is going to do it.
  • Responsibility Chain: Have a clear, in fact a very clear chain of responsibility across the teams. Establish a perfectly set chain of command within the teams.
  • Crisis Scenario (s): What can be the reason of crisis and what cannot be? Make sure a list of all the factors is made to avoid even a minutest of reasons.
  • Fix Issue, Take Action: Now, this completely depends on what the crisis is and who’s wrong. Depending on the same, plan the action of resolving the crisis.
  • Don’t suppress the issue: Trying to choke or repress the crisis on Social Media is like extreme gas on fire. So it’s better if it’s left to breathe.
  • Track the Source: It’s better to find the actual source and deal with it technically, directly, positively and with subtlety.
  • Review in the end: Later, when it’s all done, go back and review. It helps one to analyze the factors responsible for crisis, how the steps or techniques used during the crisis helped and how a future crisis management plan can be planned out.

Source: tatudigital.com

Using social media as a crisis management tool can help you convert the negative influence faced by your brand or business into a positive one. A sincere and consistent customer service would go a long way in building your brand’s reputation and at the same time creating a good impression on fans or customers. These customers then talk positive about your brand which helps you garner potential customers too.

Therefore, brands hit with crisis should never wait for that moment when the crisis goes completely out of hand. A quick response is very important followed by turning the crisis into an opportunity with powerful techniques one can implement through social media. What do you think? Do share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Facebook Timeline versus App Contests

Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

imageWith timeline contests brands could ask users to enter with a like, comment or posting a message on the page. A ‘Like’ here can be termed as a sort of voting mechanism. Though it appears small, but here the barrier to entry is very small as fans can enter with a single click. And if brand managers wish to engage with their existing brand fans then this is a great way to do that. Where contests through apps encourage collection of email addresses, new likes and all such details, wall or timeline contests don’t do that. But if there is a well planned social media strategy, app contests turn out be great!

Well, if you are thinking as to what should you opt for; a Timeline contest or contest hosted on a tab on your Facebook Page? And when, then here’s a summation of the facts that will help you get through your brand contests on Facebook, whether you want to do a timeline or an app contest.

Both of these types have the pros and cons linked to each. The essence is in understanding the overall brand strategy and goals that have to be achieved through the same. And therefore, which one should be used or both should be used in collaboration. In other words, Timeline contests are more of an appetizer while contests on tabs turn out to be full course meals.

Timeline contest is great when:

  • · One wants to launch a contest right away
  • · High engagement is the requirement
  • · Low budget

It sure gives an engagement boost for the Facebook page of brands.
If at any point you want a promoted post on your timeline contest, it cannot be illustrated by an image containing more than 20% text.

On the other hand,

Contest hosted on the Facebook page tab work best when:

  • · One wants to grow the Facebook page likes (includes a Like Gate page that prompts the users to first like the page to enter the contest)
  • · You want to foster Lead generation, email adresses for future marketing of your brand
  • · Design control and advanced features is a part of your overall contest strategy

Therefore, a Facebook contest on tab gives you great control, customization and long term value of your lead generation.

This is how a Timeline contest works:

Future Generali came up with a Timeline contest during Navaratri. Check it out:

FG1 

HDFC Bank’s Timeline contest Auto to Automobile is another good example.

hdfc2

HDFC1

And here is an example for an app contest:

Check out how Lotus Herbals, India’s leading natural cosmetics company with formulations inspired by Ayurveda is running an app contest Pure Colors of Joy!

Lotus Herbals1

Will these changes affect the Facebook marketing strategy of your brand?

Timeline contests are simple, i.e., fans are just required to like, comment, post their response or message on the Facebook page of the brand, out of which the winner is manually chosen. Timeline contests are free to run if you do not advertise and are mobile friendly too.

So, then, what are the limitations to running a contest on the timeline?

  • Reduced virality as fans cannot share the page posts. Where sharing is one of the greatest & most viral features of Facebook, not being used to its potential means limiting it just to the existing fans (unless of course you run ads).
  • Managing entries becomes a problem at one point as more the number of fans, more the engagement, more the likes, comments and entries etc; it becomes a great challenge to manage the entries as the numbers become high.
  • Terms & Conditions cannot be displayed when running a contest on the Facebook timeline. Every contest comes with certain rules linked to it. But, there may be cases when fans directly take part in your contest by just liking the post etc. which can later result into dissatisfaction from fans.
  • There is no lead generation when a timeline contest is run as there is no registration for the same neither are details like name, email addresses accumulated.

The reach is very limited as the contest run on a timeline can only be promoted using posts that talk about the contest unlike the app contests wherein multiple updates with a link to the app can be done.

So, does that mean Facebook Contest apps are anytime better?

Well, app contests do come with certain benefits like:

Allowing Social Sharing by fans on all social media platforms

Social Stories: when a fan interacts with an app, a newsfeed story is generated that is visible to friends of fans gaining more traffic to the contest

Offering customized fan experience by using custom brand videos, graphics, design etc. that in the end creates more brand recall.

Therefore, in this social battle of contests hosted on timeline and those on an app, apps stand as the winner!

However, you can also think of combining them both for a double advantage where you can:

  • · Manage your contest entries
  • · Analyze them under parameters of most likes, comments & responses.
  • · You can display contest rules & let your fans submit all details etc.
  • · Use it as a mobile-friendly app as it helps incorporate all the features mentioned

Pros final

Source: antavo.com, https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php, https://www.facebook.com/faceboofforbusiness/news/page-promotions-terms

In a nutshell, if you wish to engage with your Facebook brand fans then run a timeline contest but if you wish to garner more likes and data to reach fans out of Facebook then apps are best. Brands can also try using both these methods in collaboration. The ‘TAT’ (talking about this) number of the pages can be raised with a timeline contest so that more posts are visible to the fans and then you can run an app contest to get more likes etc.

So are you all set to let your fans experience the best of both worlds? What would you, as brand managers try? Timeline contests or contests through apps? Do share in your thoughts with us.