Indian Social Media Landscape

Over the past few months, the netizens have been irked about various developments surrounding the much talked about Anti piracy acts and censorship debate. Leading the pack are PIPA and SOPA. Various other issues have also cropped up on similar lines. Concerns pertaining to censorship of social media in India being one of them. For the ease of understanding let’s break them down and do a quick recap on what has been causing the stir in the cyber space.

2011 has been a remarkable year for many startups and stalwarts in the arena of Social Media. For most part, the socially active would remember this year as the year of major changes being rolled out by most social networking sites.

Even the most popular micro blogging site, Twitter, underwent a major UI changes. The ‘New Twitter’ was launched amidst much talked about anticipations and apprehensions. Here is a look at how the tweaks make Twitter grow.

Navigation Keys

At the top panel of the newly refurbished Twitter, users have 4 easy to navigate keys which are essentially the Home, Connect, Discover and Me keys. Besides, there is also a Tweet icon that is omnipresent so that one can tweet no matter where they are on the page.

Home

This is essentially where one views tweets from the people they are essentially following including their retweets. With the new twitter, photos, videos and conversations are embedded directly in tweets so that one can see the whole story at a glance.

                                              Image courtesy: www.fly.twitter.com

Connect

An easy conversation ready reckoner where one can initiate or continue conversations, see their RT’s, favourites, followers(these 3 clubbed under Interactions) and mentions.

                                              Image courtesy: www.fly.twitter.com

Discover

By far the most significant and distinct feature highlighted in the new twitter, discover aims to stream customized content and in most cases they are different for each user (Stories). Along with this, it has integrated the last rolled out Activity tab where one can keep a track on their followers, find friends from various mail portals, browse categories(according to the interest areas).

The Stories are visually presented with much revelry, aesthetically speaking. They highlight the name of the topic on the masthead where tweets regarding them can be viewed by a single click and are supplemented with a recent article on the same beneath.

All about Me

The last of the tabs is a personal dashboard to the lists one has subscribed to/is a member of and an all new window to the Direct Messages which now appears in a separate window. The layout of the DM window is a lot more user friendly and packed. Clicking upon each interaction opens up a chat like window within the existing window with the latest messages exchanged appearing last.

The most prominent feature in the Me being the display and layout of the page that offers one to showcase to the world their identity. With an enlarged masthead where the profile picture is big enough to create a statement with enough space to key in an individual’s story. Not to leave out space to provide a link to one’s website.

This however, is one of the key benefits that Twitter Brand Pages would have in customizing there page layout.

                                            Image courtesy: www.fly.twitter.com

Also, when one gets’ to Browse categories, this is where the major development comes into foray. This is where most Brands would be interested and looking forward to. This is one stop shop for any brand or person with a public profile that are clubbed together in broad categories in order of their relevance. For e.g.: Sports, Music, Technology, Books, television etc.

Branded Tweets

Interface facelift and the potent mobile platform

Now that twitter has revamped its web interface with additional features, brands and users can exploit it like never before. Earlier high-powered twitter users made use of 3^rd party tools like hootsuite, TweetDeck etc. which enabled them to manage their twitter presence because of elaborate and feature enriched interfaces. With the advent of the new twitter this trend is likely to get more users get hooked on to the web interface. The simultaneous launch of mobile apps also shows that Twitter is gearing up for the future.

Preemptive content curating

For brands, to build engagement it’s essential that they do a preemptive study on the nature of their followers. By knowing how their followers function could really work wonders. This way, the brands can think ahead of their followers and develop content that would have definitive response to.

The Activity tab has the Discover element under it. This lets the users and brand pages find out relevant content material that is in sync with their followers interests. This can subsequently be incorporated in their further dissemination of information/tweets.

The Brand Pages & Advertising

Twitter’s brand pages that were much anticipated has come with power packed features and is definitely a boost in the arm to woo major brands into the twitter ecosystem especially by integrating richer content and using paid advertising through its in-house developed advertising tool.

Last but not the least, as previously mentioned, brands could now use the page layout in doling out information about them in a much enhanced fashion. For e.g.: The mast head on top of the brand page has a huge space for bio and relevant/connected websites and makes for a promising stand out statement.

Also, the backgrounds could include more elements from the brand portfolio that defines it’s core fabric.

The final tweet

Although it is still dicey as to how twitter would go about this, the content diggers on twitter will definitely discover twitter as a great reserve. As time rolls by and the brand pages gain prominence in the brandscape, the new twitter will definitely prove its mettle as far as effectively reaching out to consumers is concerned.

The question about digital technology and its place in academia is one that is yet to be clearly answered. Understanding the benefits and costs of using digital technology is crucial when deciding if a particular tool, site or package may be used in universities.

Harvard University Twitter Handle

Universities are constantly exploring new ways to use social media to fulfill their missions of engaging and sharing knowledge with their constituents. Here we look at few ways in which universities can use social media without distracting the students.

Reaching out to the world

Social media tools like Facebook Pages have given universities an opportunity to speak to audiences on their own, reaching thousands of people interested in keeping up with news at the school and connecting with others on the social network.

Insight to the campus life

Perhaps the most common way, and the way in which most of us use social media, is sharing information about ourselves or things we find interesting. Because universities are educational institutions, they use social media to highlight their experts, as well as the resources they make available to the public/student. The point is to try to educate and provide a glimpse into what the institution is like.

Showcase work

Aside from sharing news and information, social media is often used in showcasing student and faculty work. That can be as simple as featuring photos taken by students through a photo album on the university’s Facebook page. Or it can take the form of an elaborate YouTube video by students as a class assignment. The idea is to let the general audience know what kind of work is being carried out in the university.

Getting Innovative

Rather than just use social media to promote specific events, some universities employ the tools to provide a place for the university community to engage and participate in the event as it is happening. This can be done through live streaming videos or collecting tweets during commencement through a common hashtag. This allows students and others to report on the event happenings as if they were being attended.

Hashtag Communications

Emergency Service

Emergencies and tragedies do happen. With the growing popularity of social media tools like Twitter, some universities are finding it easier and quicker to spread news during an emergency by complementing their e-mail and text alerts with a Tweet and a Facebook message or post. The University of Minnesota has an Emergency Notification group on Facebook that it uses to blast messages to its 2,300 members during a case of an emergency. It provides another way to reach students who spend a lot of their time there during critical situations.

Alumni Relations

Another key element of using social media is to keep the alumni body connected. With ever growing number of students passing out each year, keeping up with everyone becomes a task. Universities have utilized the services of groups and pages to get the alumni members stay connected. This not only helps connect various batches, it also gives opportunity to draw on resources that may be readily available to the university through its ex students database.

Providing Jobs

The key element of Universities is to provide jobs to the students. Some universities have used the social media platform to source out placements for students through the alumni members. Alma Mater is the best starting point for placements and a connected alumni cell with placement cell has made job search that much easier. The secret groups of Facebook seems to be a very popular tool not just to get fresh offers but also to source out the best job change for the members.

Job Forums

The benefits of social media to help students search for information, learn to communicate effectively and work collaboratively are well documented. There are resources to help academics consider the advantages of using social media in universities. They provide advice on using blogs, social networking sites, social bookmarking, collaboration, presentation and information management tools, and more for academic purpose. All it needs is for the universities to cease the opportunity and use the tool in the best possible manner.

Our last post, The Business of Tweeting, was an attempt at understanding what goes in creating a Twitter handle that is optimized for business communication. In this two-part post we will discuss what business requirements can be addressed through the use of Twitter account.

Twitter Network

The rise and rise of Twitter

Since its launch in 2006, the micro-blogging website has grown to become one of the most important online marketing and communications tools – which many people would say is second only to Facebook. It now hosts more than 1 billion tweets a week and is estimated to be worth around $10bn.

(Source: http://newtechpost.com/2010/08/03/twitter-grows-up-the-start-of-a-new-more-mature-era)

The growth has not been in just personal usage. From November 2008, when Barack Obama thanked supporters via Twitter after winning the US presidential election, to March 2011, when news of Tsunami striking Japan was being relayed via the micro blogging network, the growth has simply been phenomenal and diverse.

The untapped business tool

It’s true that Twitter is what a user makes of it. Some people publicize their daily activities, some make it about link love, some share quotes all day long. Smart people using Twitter for business mix it up. It must be noted, that while any business tool always aims at instigating a consumer to buy a product, social media tools such as Twitter are meant to build relationships with consumer. Hence harnessing the power of 140 characters becomes essential for Twitter Marketing.

Approaching Twitter Marketing

Twitter is a tool that can be utilized for sharing information about a brand, a person and at some level the offers that may be available through these brands. The three broad and distinctive areas where twitter marketing can be used are

1. Sharing information
2. Gather market intelligence and insights; and
3. Build relationships with people who care about the brand

As one would agree, a free tool which reaches out to 150 million users worldwide and roughly 5 million twitter users in India, that’s a lot of consumers waiting to be engaged without much expenditure.

Click here to read the details of conducting Twitter Marketing.

Continuing on Marketing through 140 Characters, in this post, we will discuss about the three broad and distinctive areas where twitter marketing can be used. These are:

1. Sharing information

2. Gather market intelligence and insights; and

3. Build relationships with people who care about the brand

Sharing Information

Twitters simplistic approach to sharing thoughts and news with other people on the Internet has caught on to the point where every respectable company has an official account and government agencies are using it to connect with constituents.

Tremendous growth has taken place in the creative ways businesses and organizations are leveraging Twitter in order to share company information. Brand patrons want information, and they want it now. Twitter is about the “now” and has earned its name as a leader in breaking news and bringing users closer to the newsmakers, which is what every brand attempts to be on Twitter.

If your brand has important information to share, Twitter should be the first place for you to share it on. This not only helps spread the news but also builds the brands image. And you can delight your consumers by sharing information about projects still being planned.

This is a typical buzz marketing technique that can make waves when the project is finally launched. But most importantly, sharing information is the best way of building Customer Relationship. An aggrieved consumer can easily be pacified if s/he can talk to the brand directly and have her/his problem addressed, thus, preventing a major PR disaster.

Market Research

Twitter has some useful features which make it especially helpful for conducting market research on almost any topic under the sun. This is because Twitter pages are viewable to anyone, even those without accounts, and the site has a search function which pulls in all recent posts dealing with a given topic or phrase. There have been instances, where events have been rescheduled, have undergone format changes and even cancelled based on feedbacks received via twitter. And to good effect as well. Similarly, researching for new products and response to new product launches has led to significant changes to improve the product or provide better services.

Here is a simple flow chart on how to do a market research on Twitter:

1 Log into your account.

2 Look over the "trending topics". Trending topics are those which have recently seen a big increase in posts. This can be a useful list to get an idea of what is currently getting a lot of buzz.

3 Use the "search" field to enter words or phrases to discover who is talking about them, and what they are saying. For instance, you might want to find out what people think of a newly released film. Just search for the name of the film and there will likely be several new posts of reactions of people that just got back from the movie.

4 Take note of how far apart the Twitter posts are for any topic. A good indicator of the relative popularity of a certain word, phrase, or topic is how often people post about them. If the first page of search results comes up with posts made over the past day or two, chances are the topic is not that popular. If the first page is filled up with posts from the past minute, it is a red hot topic.

You don’t even have to join Twitter to use the search function. If you just want to view trending topics and conduct searches, you can use the twitter search page. (http://search.twitter.com/)

Building Relationship

Relationship Marketing is a very important aspect of brand marketing and twitter can help a brand to successfully engage in it. According to Evert Gummesson, Relationship marketing is marketing based on interaction within networks of relationships.

According to individual researches, Twitter seems to be the ideal medium to build trust, win new customers as well as retain existing ones, thus helping in Relationship Marketing. It also showed that people who have been interacted with on Twitter are more likely to be a first time purchaser, a loyal consumer and a brand champion.

(source: http://www.socialglitz.com/twitter-as-a-tool-for-relationship-marketing/)

Most of the participants of the research agree on the fact that Twitter is an excellent tool to build trust which not only helps in building new relationships but also to strengthen existing ones.

(source: http://www.socialglitz.com/twitter-as-a-tool-for-relationship-marketing/)

The Conclusion

Word on Twitter spreads fast. Conversations happen in real time on Twitter, therefore giving it the sense of immediacy and intimacy. It is this one on one conversation and intimacy of Twitter which is of great value to any brand and a very convenient yet powerful marketing tool.