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Social & Digital Media: Key Trends in 2014

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

Brands 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

Not 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

Advertising 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

Brands 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

Nowadays, 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

Despite 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

Information 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

Brands 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

Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 3 Comments »

Brands on Instagram: Its All About Getting Started!

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

Just 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:

Promote 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:

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:

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!

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!

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.

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

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.

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!

Tags:How Businesses are Using Instagram, Instagram, Instagram for Brands, Tips for Brands on Instagram
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter | 1 Comment »

Impact & Use of Vine by Various Industries

Saturday, March 15th, 2014

In our last blog that you came across, we had shared an Infographic on how brands are using Vine. As mentioned earlier, Vine, since its origin has exploded to millions of users followed by brands which have started to take notice too. Well, so we are here again with the next set of cool implications of this much popular app. When it comes to branded Vines, a Viner has to come up with something what we call unique, original, different, playful and passionate. So a little guidance, few tips, methods and secrets is what this article holds. Read to know how Vine can be used by an array of brands and segments in the best way!

Have a look at a few interesting ways that brands & various industry segments can use the new video sharing app, Vine.

Beauty Industry

It serves a great purpose for beauty brands to be on Vine as it provides a visual medium for them to share products, experiences and how-to videos. This helps them create a desire for their brands.

What can beauty brands do on Vine?

· Show makeup applications processes, a specific technique by a beauty or make-up professional or a speed-up version of a nail polish or a lipstick application
· Interviews with professionals who can give a hands-on lesson or a quick tip when applying the makeup
· Beauty tip, clarification or a recommendation from an expert
· An interview of a famous model or celebrity sharing why they use a particular brand can create a desire for the brand. For consumers who are new to brand, something like this will likely create brand advocacy
· Product Overviews can be shown that can include new products or shades
· A particular makeup or product that a celebrity or top models wear on an event, show or the runway

Brands can also show faces of models in makeup before a fashion event which can help consumers get acquainted with the beauty products used. This can also serve as an exclusive sneak peek of the backstage making them feel like a part of the brand family, a feeling not many consumers get. This creates a desire for the brand in consumer’s minds!

See how Revlon India made use of these 6 seconds to run a campaign on Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Suede Lipstick- a Food-proof lipstick.

Click here to check out the video:

Click on the image to view the video

Hospitality (Hotels) Industry

Moving on, lets not miss out on one of the most loved industry i.e., hospitality. Without filling up too much into the 6 seconds, lets see what hotels can do to spice up through Vine videos:

· They can show a hotel tour that includes view of hotel, rooms, grounds, spa etc.
· Hotel staff can be shown showcasing their skills. For example: how to plate up an afternoon tea & snack, how to make coffee or a drink
· Clips of an even, orchestra or live event in the hotel
· Short interview with guests
· Small but interesting features of hotels can be shown such as: flower arrangements, modular infrastructure, remote controlled curtains etc.

With a clear focus on creativity, hotel brands can certainly attract a lot of visitors and guests. Sharing these Vine videos on social media platforms will also encourage interest in the brand. Fans and users can be encouraged by replying to their mentions of the hotel. These fans or guests can also be asked to post their own videos of the hotel. Vine videos will indeed give a more human and personal touch to your customers.

Healthcare Industry

Healthcare brands can come up with the most compelling and beneficial videos. Check out what they can do.

· Satisfied patients or supporters can share their praise through a vine video attaching it with the brand’s hashtag. It’s a great way for people to know your brand better
· Highlight a new medical equipment or technology via video. How it works can also be briefly highlighted
· Healthcare organization’s support for special days, weeks or months dedicated to health issues can be shown
· Inspiring messages to encourage support for a cause, personal stories of survival, interesting facts etc. can be shared
· A new building, section or a renovation can be unveiled through a teaser
· Potential patients can be shown a virtual video tour that include high-tech features, beautiful surroundings & staff
· Spread the word about health classes, fundraising, blood donation drives etc. accompanied by benefits of the event, to encourage attendance
· A quick patient testimonial

Vine offers a great potential for healthcare brands to connect and communicate with their consumers in the most convenient and modern way.

Banking Industry

Yet another sector that can bank on interesting concept of Vine videos is the banking sector. Banks can do a lot on Vine to connect and communicate with their customers.

· Banks can show how to manage accounts alert preferences or deal with phishing e-mails through Vine videos
· Answer frequently asked questions
· Show an online banking journey to consumers giving a clear idea to them on what to do
· Create a thanking video for fans

Click on the image to view the video

Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of the India’s leading banks had created a Vine video to celebrate the milestone of 50K followers on Twitter. This is what they tweeted:

Woohoo! We just crossed 50K followers. A #Celebrating50K #Vine dedicated for you. Thanks for your support!https://t.co/eP5L88xRVK [VIDEO]

Following this, the bank took another step to do something cool by sending a token of appreciation to the fans who engaged with these Vine videos. They sent a personalized card to each of them, further adding to the overall celebrations!

In a nutshell, brands can do a lot with Vines. Brands can come up with:

· Promotional Vines – compared to long commercials you can promote a specific product or service
· How- to Vines – you can show Vines of how a product can be used in more than one way etc.
· Before and after Vines- Vines of a revamped product/brand
· Storytelling – convert anything that is in a written form into a video & share
· Contests
· Ask a question through Vine, conveying a social message

A normal tweet may go unnoticed, but a twitpic or an embedded video will always be looked at. Vine will be crowd-sourced & shared significantly. It can improve your search-engine ranking of your social media platforms. By using tags, social buttons and share buttons SEO can be boosted & traffic can be driven largely.

Have you as a brand or a consumer used Vine yet? If yes, then do share with us more ways of using Vine for businesses & brands or just show us your interesting Vines. So, what are you waiting for? Add Vine to your content marketing strategy and do not forget to pair the power of these Vine videos with social media.

Tags:Brands & Vine, Brands using Vine Videos, Video Marketing Strategy, Videos, Vine, Vine Videos
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research | 1 Comment »

How Brands Are Using Vine

Friday, February 28th, 2014

Not 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!

Embed Code:

Copy the above code to embed this Infographic on your website & share.

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?

Tags:Brands using Vine Videos, Video Marketing Strategy, Vine, Vine Videos
Posted in Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter | 1 Comment »

Effective Social Media Use in Healthcare Marketing

Wednesday, February 5th, 2014

Spoken about the same, first stumble happens when they take an attempt to engage with their fans or audience without identifying their content needs. This further leads to the foundation of an inappropriate conversation. Therefore, there is no substitute for valuable content! When it comes to the consumer base, they want in-depth information. What needs to be understood by this segment is that there is an ocean of information out there, and when people get sick nowadays, they want information right away. Interaction with patients and consumers is important, but great and right content is the key!

The Healthcare Segment

Apart from all the challenges and limitations, Healthcare segment can be amplified in a great way as it includes a lot of processes from patient relations to content shared to managing health records etc. Many doctors can already be seen wearing Google Glass, patients equipped with latest technology support systems and nurses with iPads.

Social Media and Healthcare

This still remains unexplored, Social media for healthcare can garner increased communication, treatment efficacy and provider efficacy; which in turn will portray the organizational transparency. Already a good amount of doctors, family members, patients and healthcare specialists are using social media to result in more impactful treatment. Consumers are also found to use social media platforms to find and later share information about health plans, medical treatments and doctors.

What does Social Media have in store for Healthcare Industry?

Social Media is strongly transforming how doctors & patients operate and interact with each other. Although the matters related to the security concerns, confidentiality, misinformation and data review come along with anything related to healthcare, Social Media can modify the complete experience for everyone linked with it. With patients, consumers and everyone stepping in to the online space to discuss their health, medical experiences, seek opinions, research and share their symptoms or ailments; it becomes all the more important for healthcare professionals to tap into this wonderful resource and connect with them on social platforms in order to add their expert voice to these conversations.

Social Media will change the way health related communications happen.

An effective social media strategy for a healthcare brand should aim towards accomplishing goals in few categories, namely:

– Communications
– Information Sharing
– Clinical Outcomes and,
– Speed of Innovation

A few things you need to regularly keep a tab of:

Patients that share their views or opinions freely online followed by people who comment on everything, or update a status even about their cold to health related articles. There are cases when patients end up getting basic advice from medical professionals that happen to be in their network. This can help a brand get qualitative feedback or report about their services too.

Doctors are also engaging proactively and believe that social media presence improves the quality of care through constant line of communication.

Blogs written by healthcare professionals can be integrated with social media accounts too. A systematic content management system can further influence people to post content to blogs or websites.

Hosting Google Hangouts with previous patients or those undergoing treatments is a very innovative way where technology helps healthcare segments. Doctors contribute to a patient-centric model of healthcare with such technological innovations. Loyalty and satisfaction is built in the process too.

A successful social media strategy would help a healthcare brand in revamping their communication, service and feedback.

Prescription of a Strong Social Media Strategy for Healthcare Industry

Healthcare organizations should develop a social media strategy that leverages social media in healthcare marketing to help influence the customers & at the same time accomplish strategic healthcare goals.

Keep in mind that just as your patients have their own individual wants, characters and a voice; similarly your social media strategy should be unique to your organization. Healthcare professionals are empathetic and caring individuals. It’s time to demonstrate that strength to a larger, online community.

What should Healthcare Brands do to leverage Social Media?

– Follow your customers and engage with potential patients
– Provide value to consumer’s perspective. Providing value here means providing useful information
– Be active on Social media and leverage its potential
– Be a resource to those looking out for information related to healthcare
– Enable doctor searches, online scheduling, and relevant information
– Connect with loved ones of patients as its not only the patients always, but there are those who care for them too, active online
– Connect with patients or consumers through online communities
– Build discussion forums
– The content you create, make it share worthy. Ensure that it can be forwarded, printed or posted to patients
– Network with those potential healthcare employees with your social media presence. Basically, you can bring your brand to life for potential employees.
– Follow relevant hashtags & handles
– Twitter chats help you listen to perspectives on key topics & also offer a chance to raise awareness about what you as a healthcare brand offer
– Listen: know what your patients are doing by diving into some of the user generated content
– Regulations: yes, you need to take care of the content that goes up there. Don’t forget to review it by your legal, regulatory & medical teams
– Be open-minded and creative, plan & test your ideas

In the long arc of people’s journey to better health, healthcare segments strive to become more supportive and relevant through social media. In this case, what healthcare segments will win is their respect and loyalty followed by their behaviors that will change to improve their overall health with the strengthening of healthcare brands.

There is no pre-defined rule as to how we should engage with patients on social media, but we cannot deny the fact that there still lie barriers in the pharmaceutical industry as to what one can talk about online.

The elements of engagement that Healthcare brands need to know in order to understand the content needs of their audiences are:

Value can be provided by creating content that solves consumer problems. Listening to their complaints or suggestions and adding a personal touch to conversations generates value for your brand.

Efficiency of a healthcare brand depends on their ability to respond to customer inquiries, comments & questions both off and online without any delay followed by designing mobile friendly content that can be accessed by patients on the go.

Trust is built through the expectation of complete honesty from a healthcare brand by consumers. Delivering accurate advice, displaying successful customer recovery stories, testimonials, nutrition advice, health-tips, fitness routines etc. is a part of it.

Consistency includes the fact that whatever you communicate through offline and online platforms should at no point collide with the real customer/patient experiences.

Relevance is injecting a highly targeted content to patients or consumers which goes a long way in building an emotional connection and consequent click to action.
3 things you need to know!

A tweet or a post is not a diagnosis!
Always remember that any information that you post on Social Media should not be considered as a medical advice by your followers or consumers. It is not a replacement for a consultation with a doctor as one on one consultation with health care professionals is still primary & legible.

Schedule the communication!
For a better level of patient privacy, a healthcare brand should ensure that comments made on any of their social platform should not appear online before it is reviewed or approved by internal team of professionals.

Set the limits; be clear with your stand!
As a healthcare brand, clearly establish where your organization stands in regards to social media engagement by patients or consumers. Designing a strategy to improve your capability to leverage the enormous reach of social media platforms to connect and learn from the online community is vital.

With patients going online for their healthcare solutions etc., it becomes very essential for your healthcare organization to create a social media strategy where you prepare your staff to listen, engage & measure social media. Are you ready to join your patients in the social media world?

You can also have a look at another blog ‘In the pink of Health on Social Media’.

It is very important for the healthcare brands to identify and understand the consumer behaviour before they make any attempts for social media engagement. Does your healthcare brand have a clear social media policy established? Do you think we have missed out on something in this post? Do tell us about it in the comments!

Tags:Doctor, Healthcare, Healthcare Industry, Healthcare Marketing, Helpline, Hospitals, Social Media Marketing
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

Social Media & Politics: The New Age Political Revolution!

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

Social 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.

Social 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?

Tags:Political Campaigns on Social Media, Politicians on Social Media, Social Media affects Political Campaigns, Social Media and Politics
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience, Twitter | No Comments »

Future Predictions For Social Media in 2014! (Part 2)

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

2013 came to a close! As we step into the New Year, that time has arrived when we can expect the evolution of digital and social media in a lot of ways. It will indeed be exciting as many surprises are expected to unfold in 2014 and businesses, brands and marketing landscapes are all set to change. Keeping a few potential trends of the forthcoming year in mind will not only make you aware but will also help you prepare for them. Here we are with another set of social media predictions for the New Year and how will this year turn out to be for your favourite social media platforms.

Here you go!
Google+

Although there are not many who have been into Google+ much in the past year, there are millions of people worldwide with a Google account. This clearly proves that 2014 might be the year when Google would start pushing those that use Google products into using the Google+ network. People would be talking about their circles far more frequently than they are now. Google+ is expected to be used by B2B marketers to encourage, distribute and promote content.

Facebook

Well, don’t you think it will become a completely paid thing in 2014? No, no that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to have free accounts, but if you need your posts on Facebook Pages to get seen by the new people, you will have to pay for it. Mostly everything to do with Pages will be in a paid format. Though they have the branding, traffic and exposure to work it out, will the fans and audiences or users be happy with these changes. And will Facebook have to be careful with Google+ rising quickly? We need to wait and watch.

Twitter

It is not a surprise to see Twitter shaping up into a hub with all the information with interesting hashtags for almost everything. Twitter will continue to grow in the coming days. Well, maybe we might not witness a lot of changes on the site, but a few paid opportunities might just rise. So if you are not on Twitter still, chime in with an attractive hashtag based on a subject that interests you and get amazed with the conversations that form. It was also found that a great percentage of masses shifted from Facebook to Twitter considering it to be a space with great interactions and information sharing. They also named the site as their “most important” social networking site.

Twitter has been considered as a platform that provides with organic lead generation and research & development by the masses. Also, Twitter has always helped brands and organizations for important studies or examination as required by their particular brand. Therefore, in 2014, Twitter’s use by advertising platforms and businesses might just enhance proving to be a profitable one.

Linkedin

Linkedin is also expected to step in with something new this year which would essentially prove to be a major boost in 2014. Recently, Linkedin has launched ‘influencer’ programmes that helps one follow and connect with the thought leaders of their industry. This is expected to grow and eventually turn out to be great for B2B marketers. Well, one may or not can expect personalised ad content to come to the Linkedin profiles.

After the other popular social media platforms, LinkedIn started letting people tag other users or companies on the site. So when Facebook introduced Hashtags, it wouldn’t be surprising if Linkedin also introduces hashtags as it will surely make sense enabling content discovery allowing people to connect with other professionals and share great articles etc. So, in 2014 businesses and brands should be ready to welcome enhanced options that Linkedin would usher in with a staggering growth overall.

Instagram

Will it get private messaging? It is one of the most important things missing on Instagram as every photo and conversation on it becomes public, forcing the users to use other social media platforms to carry out private messaging. This at some point becomes challenging for brands. The key feature missing from Instagram is private messaging. Every photo and conversation is public, which forces users to utilize other platforms to hold private conversations. This also makes it challenging for brands to implement customer service for securing information. People would be looking up for this feature.

Pinterest

Pinterest has greatly evolved in the past year and has become very important for brands and businesses. The fact that visuals on social media are a boon is strongly seen with Pinterest’s impact on consumers who are embracing it to a great extent. Pinterest is sure to become an enterprise tool for innovation in the New Year. Brands will unleash the power of this platform to build deeper connections with their audiences. They will pin down their competition and grow in value largely.

Vine

Vine videos are on the rise to stardom. This micro video content element has come with a lot of opportunities with brands who are exploring, innovating and implementing the vine videos to promote their business and brands. Indeed a picture speaks a thousand words, but one cannot avoid the fact that videos will now speak a million.

Videos and Mobile

Videos and mobile will be a major element in the future brand strategies.

Videos already started stepping in the past year with greater advantages that they could offer. What we are going to witness in 2014 is a huge surge in micro-videos. With the inception of Vine, people would be using short burst videos to share product information etc. attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter day by day thus, there comes in more short and quick videos. So, this New Year if you have a video plan fro your brand in place, then consider doing it to amaze yourself.

The way technology has advanced, it seems there are more mobile devices than the people. Staggering right? Brands will be creating mobile versions of their site and Google analytics would help them analyse from where people have accessed their site, web or mobile. This will help brands create engagement and build strategies accordingly. Also WordPress has mobile plug-ins that will indeed help brands.

There won’t be any one preferred place as we will be seeing social media as the game changer this year with all the social media platforms rising to glory. Apart from Facebook, audiences are also shifting to Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, Vine, WhatsApp and all places that allow them to share photos and videos with their networks.

In 2014, expect brands to get more visual and more videos coming in. The more the market is getting diverse; more the brands will have to initiate efforts to target their messages effectively. With the continuous development and always evolving nature of the social media industry one should be ready for surprises stepping in the New Year. Well, that’s about it people, regarding the predictions for 2014. This year is certainly going to be exciting for social media with all the creativity and developments happening. So, take a deep breath and get set for all that 2014 brings in for us. Do share your thoughts with us!

Tags:Predictions For Social Media in 2014, Social Media & 2014, Social Media Marketing in 2014, Social Media Predictions
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