Archive for the ‘Brand Promotion’ Category

Deconstructing the New Facebook Page

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Facebook has changed (upgraded, as they call it) the layout of its Pages  once again and these changes will be rolled out all across Facebook by March end. With current set of changes, page owners now have more reach and better utility across the platform.

The Looks

The new Facebook page layout has changed to how the individual profile looks. This gives the page a sense of familiarity and helps in easier navigation.

Tabs

The tabs seem to have got lost in the new design evolution process, moved to the sidebar with smaller fonts from their earlier top of the page location. This might cause a significant drop in their visibility.

Benefits

Although the Tabs have been moved to the sidebar, the increased number of visible tabs along with longer tab names will help in communicating the exact nature and content of the same. This means that

  1. In the previous version, only four tabs could be visible, while the others feel in a drop down box. But with the new setup, all the tabs can now be seen one below the other, therefore no tab gets lost.
  2. Also, with name restriction of 15 characters no longer applied, tabs can now communicate exact message to the page viewer. Earlier, with this restrictions, a campaign tab had to have altered name to fit into the tab size and also to follow the guideline. But with no restriction on character limit, the tab name can now be as per the requirement.

        New Page Profile 1

The New Page layout

 

Photos and Post & Information Visibility

The recent photos get featured on the top of the page and the order of the visible photos can be edited. The most recent wall photos or photos that have the page tagged in them will appear here. This area will not include any photos posted by fans.

The other cosmetic changes that the page has been incorporated with are the ability to have the info section right on the top of the page, post selection criteria made to “Page” and “everyone” and a right hand sidebar that shows administrators and fans.

Benefits

Like all Facebook platforms, photos will become more vital and important in brand communication. Already, creative usage of this tool is being talked about. Also with the default setting of the posts being set as “everyone”, a lot more exposure to their posts.

The Works

More than anything else, the functionality changes that has happened with the new format has some real business implication. Brands are now in a position exploit their presence on the platform and reach out to as many of its 600 million users. Also, collaborating becomes easier along with the much touted “giving face to the brand” promise.

Exposure

One of the key features with the new Facebook Pages is that administrators of a page can switch back and forth between their personal profiles and essentially the profile of the Page. They can also leave comments on various Facebook platforms as the brand itself.

Benefits

This gives the page that much more opportunity to engage with audience, not just on their page, but also anywhere on Facebook, thereby increasing the exposure the page, and hence the brand, gets drastically. It can also mean, that the brand can engage in meaningful discussion on other pages, and direct the traffic from that page to their own, there by leading to in-organic growth.

                   Page Commenting Feature

Page Commenting Feature

 

Page Collaboration

With page commenting feature, opportunity for the pages to interact amongst each other come calling. Since the page can now like another page as it is, there is more possibility for mutual page promotion. Instead of “featured pages” these now comes us “likes.” Also, since a page has liked the other page, the news feed will be populated with the updates of the liked page when logged in as page on Facebook.

Benefits

This will help in crowd sourcing for relevant information. Page collaboration can help in establishing brand reputation by association. Also cross platform exposure for multi brand umbrella can also be contrived through page collaboration.

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Page Collaboration

Notification

Being logged in as a page will help people to receive instant notification when people leave a comment on the page. With the new notification system in place, the page administrators will be alerted the second someone comments.

Benefits

This will eliminate the need to regularly check the page for updates and help in giving a quick response, making Customer Relation Management process much more efficient.

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Instant Notification

Face behind the Page

The promise to make the brand more human is finally seeing the light of day with the changes that have been incorporated. With the feature to show who the administrators for the page are, the faceless page has now transformed to a more human personality. Finally the friend next door promise will become a real deal.

Benefits

The advantage of such a move will have to be weighed out over a period of time with a lot of brands treading a careful path since the administrators would want to safe guard their privacy, but as of now, the idea seems quite an inviting one, since a human personality associated with the page can make it appear much more approachable and also give the administrators the sense of recognition, there by promoting higher commitment towards the page.

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Displaying the Page Administrator

The Overall Impact

The new Facebook changes have almost completely made every area of Facebook uniform. Also it has given the businesses a chance to be more vocal across the platform and hence in better control of the brand communication on Facebook.

Facebook Advertising Guidelines.

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

With the rise of Facebook, advertising on the platform is bound to become a major marketing tool. The sheer number of users on the site has so far made the ad model a very lucrative option for marketers. The ROIs are comparatively higher than any other advertising platform and, thus, a good bet.

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Facebook Ads

Numerical Advantage

With near 600 million users to target from, Facebook provides for a very large collection of interested audience. Along with a very precise targeting tool, this interested audience could be easily and effectively engaged by a brand. All one needs to do is feed the desired set of combinations and Facebook does the rest. With past experience, it can be said that a budget as low as Rs. 20,000 can get an audience of about 3000 and total impression going as high as 60, 00,000 (In normal CPM language, it is Rs. 3.84). That is a lot of viewing for an advertisement.

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Facebook Advertising Targeting

Hence, keeping in mind the benefits that can be derived from Facebook Advertising, it is very important that we are aware of what are the basic guidelines of the same. The following guidelines apply to all adverts appearing on Facebook, including adverts within canvas pages of Facebook Platform applications.

The Basic Guidelines for Facebook Advertising

Facebook reserves the right to reject or remove advertising that they deem contrary to their advertising philosophy. These guidelines are subject to change at any time and Facebook may waive any of these guidelines at its discretion.

Following these basic do’s and don’ts would help us put up better advertisements quickly and easily.

Do’s:

1. Link the Adverts that contain a URL or domain in the body to that same URL or domain.

2. Clearly represent the company, product or brand that is being advertised

3. Products or services promoted in the advert must be directly available on the landing page

4. Target adverts with adult themes, including contraception, sex education and health conditions to individuals at least 18 years old. Platform adverts should do this via demographic restrictions, not by obtaining user data.

5. All ads must comply to the legal standards of the region it has to be displayed in

6. All intellectual property right should be with the advertiser.

Don’ts:

1. Do not use multiple Facebook accounts for advertising purposes unless given permission by Facebook to do so.

2. Do not automate the creation of accounts or adverts unless given permission by Facebook to do so.

3. Do not put unsubstantiated claims, including but not limited to prices, discounts or product availability.

4. Do not insult, harass or threaten a user or put audio that plays automatically, without a user’s interaction. Any automated animation must cease after 15 seconds and must not replay.

5. Do not use "fake" close behaviour (ie. when a user clicks the ‘close’ icon on the page, the page should close down and no other behaviour should result) on the landing page

6. Do not utilize "mouse trapping" whereby the advertiser does not allow users to use their browser "back button" and traps them on their site and/or present any other unexpected behaviour (for example, navigation to another advert or page).

7. Do not ask to submit Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone numbers, social security number, physical addresses or email addresses) on the landing page or in the advert, except to enable an ecommerce transaction and where the advert and landing page clearly indicate that a product is being sold.

8. Do not imply any endorsement of the product, service or advert destination by Facebook or should mention that Facebook endorses the ad or the product.

9. Adverts on controversial topics, products or prohibited content shall not be allowed

10. All targeting should be in line with the laws of the country the advert is being targeted and not violate any copyrights.

We hope these simple guidelines gives you an insight to how Facebook Advertising works and what are the promotions you can do and which one you have to avoid.

You can also read more about Facebook Advertising in one of our earlier post, Advertising Goes Social

Getting the best out of your online video

Monday, April 6th, 2009

I love YouTube. I think it is a brilliant concept and has given an avenue for self expression like no other. A random search on YouTube will reveal videos ranging from the truly useful to the sincerely bizarre. Some of my all time fave videos on YouTube include Where is Matt, everything from Common Craft and Bridal Skincare (what can I say… I am partial!). Infact Where is Matt with hits to the tune of 20,057,638, has got so big that Visa used it for their traditional TV campaign! Three cheers to the power of online video…

In India too one can see companies making the shift, with brands like Fevicryl owning a vault of over 50 DIY videos, each serving the purpose of helping a consumer understand how to use the product.

Now that marketers are increasingly planning to invest on online videos to reach out to their consumers, they also need to understand how to get more people to watch these videos.

There is many a fantastic video out there, with the creators asking themselves…why the hell aren’t people watching it? The answer my friend… your video needs a crucial ingredient called ‘virality’. It is like any movie or book. It might be brilliant but it needs to be seen, shared and talked about to become truly fantastic.

One needs to remember that just because you have made it and put it up, people will not automatically come to view it. A good amount of hard marketing work needs to be put in to make a video a viral hit. Here are a few tips on how to make your video deliver for you online:

Really really really good creative: There is no escaping that. A great idea is a good starting point to make your video go viral. Ask yourself… if you were the target consumer would you watch it?

Plan well: Figure out where your target consumer for the video is online and chalk out a detailed plan to reach out to him or her

Seed wisely: Make sure your videos are seen in places where your target consumers are. So if it is a skincare video make sure it is in the video library of skin care communities on Orkut or Facebook, where it is more likely to be viewed and shared by skincare enthusiasts.

Engage with Influencers: Identify the influencers for the category your brand is present it. Get in touch with those bloggers and community owners to view the video and share it if they wish to. Their circle of influence is big enough to help the video spread wider.

Choose smartly: Choose a video site that appeals to the targetted consumers of your video. So if it is an entertainment video meant for young men a Bigadda with a largely male audience skew might be the way to go.

Use Your Social Presence: Lastly share it with your online social network. Status updates are a great way to put your video out there.

How do you measure success of your online video?

Well honestly there is no set measure. If it is a generic youth category like jeans and if there was an interesting online video built around it, chances are it would have gathered a million plus videos if not more. However if it is something of a specialist nature like CAD software, it would garner views only from a limited audience with a maximum number of hits of say 10,000.

So would you term the CAD video an online disaster? I don’t think so. It has done the job it was meant to. Reached out to the limited audience that exists online for it and communicated the key messages. So mere numbers might not be an indication of success after all. Would love to hear your views on how would you measure the success of an online video…

The true mark of success can sometimes be, when an online video that you have created makes it back to you! Till that happens keep at it my friend.

Use Facebook to promote your brand

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

 

I love Facebook.

There I said it. The reason I was having dilemma stating it openly was that till all this while I considered it as one more yuppie social networking site that will die a quick natural death. But I was wrong. And that only makes me happy. Having turned an entrepreneur, I have realized the kind of benefits I have reaped from its features.

So this post is to those features that each of you can use to promote your brand. Use them wisely and you will experience success whichever category your brand may be operating in. Here goes:


1. Start a Community:

As Facebook is all about networking, it is only right to start a community related to your brand. Keep the community generic in nature with the objective of adding value to people by providing them content – text or visual. Community allows people to join in and share their views. It becomes a good platform to interact and dialogue. Since all like minded people will join in, you know that all members would be your potential consumers. A word of caution here: Do not bombard them with only brand messages but try to be informative too. Community allows you to upload pictures, videos, write on walls, start discussions; basically enough opportunities to interact with people.

 

Windchimes community on FB

2. Profile Page:

Sections on profile page:

The profile page is the most critical and you must use it optimally. There are sections on the profile page that can carry your brand information which is easy for your friends to find. Given below are the pictures which highlight the places that can be used to guide your friends and fans to your brand website or blog.

Status Updates:

This is Facebook way of micro blogging. And they have got it right. It is one of the most used feature already. Its fun reading status updates of friends and then commenting on them. This feature should be used creatively to talk about your brand. Make it interesting, unique, creative, first ever whatever that captures eyes balls.

Status updates for announcements

Status updates for announcements

Using Tabs:

You can add tabs next to the Wall and the Info area as is shown in the picture below. Add other tabs like Photos, Videos, Blog Cast which will further help your friends find out more about your brand. Update them by adding relevant pictures, videos (ads in some cases) and blog posts. 

 

Make it easy for friends to know about your brand

Make it easy for friends to know about your brand

3. Incorporating Applications:

I have personally found several applications of great value. These should be added to your profile as well as your brand’s.

One is Simplaris blogcast:

This application automatically updates your blog feeds and publishes it in your FB account. So whenever you have added a new blog post, this app will get that feed and publish it in your profile thereby generating visibility. So all your friends would know that you have uploaded a new post without you having to tell them.

Update your friends about your new blog post thru FB feeds

Update your friends about your new blog post thru FB feeds

Second app that I like is Web Presence: Consolidates brand presence across platforms in one box

This app helps you in giving out all the places in the Internet where you have a presence. So this app consolidates all the presence in one box. So add on your blog address, your twitter account, Photo account on Flickr or Picassa, your videos on You Tube, your bookmarks on Delicious or Magnolia. Put it all in as this will help your fans connect with your brand on several other platforms too.

The third app is Twitter update. You can send out tweets from this app that is installed in your FB profile. This saves the trouble of login to Twitter separately. You can use twitter app and FB status updates as announcement platforms.

4. Creating Brand Page:

Facebook allows you to create a brand page where all the details about the brand can be added. This is more direct approach of brands connecting with people. Users can become fans of your brands thereby becoming loal ambassadors. The wonderful aspect is that fans can comment on the brand, its features and its advertisements. There are other features like Wall and Discussion Board where the conversations and discussions between the brand and users and even among users can be carried out. The fan page can be used by the brand to announce its on-ground events, invite users to participate in contests or update on new variant launches.

I recently become fan of Phantom sweet cigarettes that I enjoyed immensely as a kid. It was very nostalgic to find its brand page and I immediately signed on to become its fan. Now I get regular updates on what is the company planning as its new launch and I quite look forward to it!!

Fan page of Phantom Sweet Cigarettes

Fan page of Phantom Sweet Cigarettes

The golden rule that applies to all the above points is that the brand must be alive on FB. It must be updated regularly. There must be one person to accept and listen to user’s feedback on fan pages and communities. The action of each user should be acknowledged which makes the community active and ensure participation at all times.


Online videos in times of Economic Slowdown

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Videos are an integral part of our communication. The impact of Audio Visual content is far more effective than Print or Radio or Outdoor as a medium. The problem lied in the cost of making videos and importantly airing them on TV channels.

All that underwent a change thanks to YouTube that first introduced a platform for user generated videos to get uploaded online. Users found a channel for themselves to express their thoughts, opinions or just their most memorable moments. Working on the basic human premise of ‘15 minutes of fame’, the concept caught fancy and soon there were millions uploading their videos for people to watch. As on Mar 2008, there were close to 200,000 videos being uploaded every day!!!

Like every concept, the users and the medium matured with time. The videos moved away from purely being ‘fun stuff’ to ‘educational’ in nature. People explained concepts, technologies and processes with the help of videos. YouTube provided people the medium to express themselves, teach others and use individual expertise for benefit of all. Google spotted the opportunity and bought youtube for a price that every entrepreneur turns an entrepreneur for.

As users increased (as on Mar 2008, there were 78.3 million users on youtube alone and by then there were several video sharing sites up), brands started realizing the opportunity the medium provided. Many cult brands like Nike, Dove, Coke nature of videos that got high consumer engagement and leveraged the medium to their advantage. Unfortunately in India, most marketers have restricted the use of this medium to uploading their TVCs on it (a rather traditional approach). No problem with that too as whatever hits that came that way can be treated as bonus!! But there are so many more benefits this medium can provide:

  • Duration: There is no more 30 sec bondage that the Brand Manager or creative guy needs to live with. The average youtube videos are 2.46 minutes long.
  • Odd video secondage: With the way media channels operate, most TVCs have to be made in jumps of 5 seconds. So the TVCs are either 15 sec or 20 sec or 30 sec or 45 sec or 60 secs film and never 28 sec or 37 sec. There have been innumerable times when the marketer is struggling to cut those extra secondage to put his TVC in the required time slot. In online videos, your brand video could be 1.07 sec and it wouldn’t matter.
  • Educational in nature: Online videos can be good medium to educate the consumer about ‘New to the World’ kind of product or any new product or service introduced by the company where there is a ‘process to be explained’.
  • Free to air: There is absolutely no airing costs online. The ads can be uploaded on all the active video sharing sites which screen that ad when the user clicks the play button any number of times. Obama’s videos got close to 20 million hits on his Youtube channel.
  • Costs: The production costs are far lower for shooting online videos. Small brands can optimize on this and produce several ads in a year to communicate fresh message to its viewers
  • Real views: The no of views captured by all the video uploading sites are calculated only if the viewer watches the video. Unlike television, where you can never be sure whether the viewer has changed the channel during the break or walked away to get chips from the kitchen.
  • The presence is forever: Unlike a TVC, the brand video once uploaded on Internet stays forever. It operates on the 24 X 7 X 365 X ‘Until that site shuts down’ formula.
  • Customization: As the production costs are low and airing costs practically zilch, brand managers can make several ads catering to wide section of audience. In the traditional media, the marketer has the play the same ad on a niche channel like Discovery as well as mass general entertainment channel like Star Plus

Indian Case Study:

An Indian Skin Care Clinic called Kaya experimented with creating online videos and met with success for their Bridal Glow package. Read the case study here.

Read more about Social Media and Social Media Marketing for marketing function