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Use Facebook to promote your brand

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

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.

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

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

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

Second app that I like is Web Presence:

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

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.

Tags:brand, community, Facebook, fan page, groups, profile, Promote, Social Media, social media agency, social networking site, status update, Twitter, Windchimes Comm
Posted in Blog Visibility, Brand Promotion, Essential Series, Facebook, Social Media | 39 Comments »

Statistics on Indian Social Media Landscape – Part 2

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

This is the second section of the research that we have carried out on social media with respect to India. Do read the first section.

Part 2 – To map out the current usage pattern of social media of Indians

Q5) How much time do you spend everyday on blogs, social networking and uploading photos and videos?

It is really surprising to note that more than 1/3rd of the respondents spend more than 30 minutes everyday on social media sites.

Q6) What do you do when you are online?

Distinctly, people have started engaging in active forms of engagement. From reading and commenting on blogs, to creating profiles, to uploading photos and videos – all signs of people moving away from passive to active forms of engagement. There is a need to involve them if brands want to retain their attention.

Q7) What do you write about in the communities and groups?

: © Windchimes Communications Pvt Ltd

When it came to participating in conversation and discussions online, majority preferred associating with a cause or cause led approach by a brand. Next in line were the celebrities or movies that people preferred commenting and talking about.

Part 3 – To study the impact it has in our purchase behaviour

Q8 Do the comments left on blogs and in communities influence your purchase decision?

Q9) For which categories will you online reviews before doing actual purchase?

The replies for Q8 and Q9 clearly highlight that people are more prone to reading reviews online before carrying out actual purchase. They would carry out the first leve of research – fact finding and opinion seeking – on social media platforms to narrow down their choice.

The categories most influences by this behaviour are:

1. Travel

2. Consumer Durables (I am including Cell Phones in this category too)

3. Automobiles – Both cars and bikes

To Summarize the survey:

1. Surfing Internet scored as the 2^nd most medium to be used in spare time overtaking reading newspapers or listening to music.

2. Internet and social media sites are the first places to seek news, products and services related information and to find out about latest trends. In that sense, instead of being afraid of social media, marketers must embrace it.

3. Social media is becoming a part of daily lives. Even if it means just updating profile on social networking site or reading blogs. It is more involving and will eat into the time that was earlier being spent on other entertainment mediums. There are already youtube meet ups being organized where in group of people play their favourite online videos.

4. There is a distinct preference over getting associated with a cause when online. Possibly another reason why online activism is becoming so apparent in modern times. Besides that its entertainment and brands that take the next two slots. The important thing to notice is that if brands or companies adopt the role of thought leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach, then they are much more likely to succeed.

5. The most critical aspect of the survey is the impact of social media in our purchase behaviour. It is clearly evident that comments left on the blogs, review sites and discussion forums impact the manner of purchase. Lot of brands are make it in the consideration set of the consumers while others are dropped out on the basis of those reviews. It is important for brands to reach out to those users – be present where they are. They will have to build a dialogue with them in those forums and get them to review their product or service.

6. Another fallout for the companies is to track what people are talking about them. They will have to maintain their reputation online. It will be important to listen to what people have to say and act accordingly. That will start by first tracking the social media platforms and then analyzing the information to take strategic decisions.

The objective of this research was to give a peek inside the Indian users understanding and usage of social media. The role it plays in his life and how it will impact companies who want to reach out to them

You can download this research paper by clicking on to Scribd link given below

[scribd id=9690008 key=key-w7frnk7p3pzjlfjbxxv]

Tags:data, Essentials, Facebook, India, Indian social media, nimesh shah, research, Sandhya Sadananda, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, startistics, survey, Twitter, windchimes communications, windchimes research
Posted in Essential Series, Social Media, Social Media Research | 14 Comments »

Statistics on Indian Social Media Landscape – Part 1

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

Windchimes wishes its readers a very exciting and adventurous 2009

There is absolute dearth of statistics on social media with respect to India or Indians. It is important to understand the prevalence of social media in our lives. There are studies indicating that close to 40 mn Indians are online. But really nothing beyond that!!

So what are these people doing online? How important is social media to them? How do they consumer social media? How is social media impacting the purchase behavior? How can marketers leverage social media platforms to reach out to their potential consumers. We carried out research to find out answers to these questions to help us understand and give an insight from an Indian context.

The research data that we are presenting is representative of 3 Indian cities; Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. While we have received responses from people from other cities but they weren’t statistically significant. The responses have been collated as whole and not individually of 3 cities.

Details of the respondents:

Total respondents – 105

Cities:

Mumbai – 40

Delhi – 40

Bangalore – 25

Gender:

Males – 60

Females – 45

Age groups

18-24 yrs group – 40

25-35 yrs group – 65

Objective of the research:

1.To understand the significance and role of Social Media in current scenario

2.To map out the current usage pattern of social media of Indians

3.To study the impact it has in our purchase behavior

Part 1: Significance of social media in current scenario:

Q1) If you had 30 minutes of time, which activity would you be most likely to do?

Surfing Internet scored as the 2^nd most medium to be used in spare time overtaking reading newspapers or listening to music. Even when the users have only 30 minutes, they would rather go online than put on their MP3 players or read a newspaper, clearly indicating that Internet / Social media is highly involvement and captures the imagination.

Q2) Which medium do you use when you want to get ””””news””””?

Q3) Which medium do you use when you want information on new products or services?

Q4) Which medium would you use to find out about latest trends?

The replies to Q2, Q3 and Q4 clearly indicate the significance online medium has in our lives. Websites, Blogs, Social Networking Sites, Wikis etc clearly are becoming the places to look first – whether it is about new products or about new trends.

Companies and brands will need to have significant online presence to ensure that users find them when they are searching or researching online. Mere website presence won””””t be enough – but it will require presence in communities, discussion forums, blogs, networking sites etc.

The presence will have to be genuine, value adding and continuous. There is no end date to it. Also it has to be value adding for user to referring and recommend it to his friends. Companies will have to indulge in the social media marketing

Click here to go the second part of the study.

Tags:Indian social media landscape, nimesh shah, number, research, research tools, results, Sandhya Sadananda, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, statistics, surveys, Windchimes communication
Posted in Essential Series, Social Media, Social Media Research | 18 Comments »

Essentials of a website – Part 4

Friday, October 24th, 2008

This is the concluding post of the series on essentials of a website. Do read the first, second and third segments of it.

We continue with our learnings:

1. Analytics for your website

Analytics is HTML code that you enter in your website scripts that records the number of visitors on your site. Along with that it gives out other data points like amount of time they spent on the site, which pages did they visit, the bounce rate, how many of them were unique visitors etc.

There are expensive tracking tools available that you could use or do with free ones like google analytics. This is completely dependent on your need. We felt that google analytics did the job pretty well.

2. Website Maintenance

You can sign off an annual maintenance contract with your website designer or learn to manage it yourself especially if you have regular updates. Either ways, ensure that your website is bug free and regularly updated. There should be new news during regular intervals.

3. Know when to stop

I guess this is as important as some of the other points we had mentioned. You must know when to stop adding more tools or information and get your website up. Keep a tab of features or information that you would like to add and do that after a period of 6 months. As otherwise there can be no end to updating website as there are new features and tools being churned out every day.

Lastly learn to keep an open mind, listen to suggestions, develop some patience and keep your sense of humour intact. Trust me.. you will need it

This marks the end to our third and final post of essentials of a website. Do make it a point to read the first, second and third part of the series. Also read out essentials of a blog series.

Tags:Essential Series, Google Analytics, website maintenance, websites
Posted in Essential Series, Website 1.0 & 2.0 | 5 Comments »

Essentials of a website – Part 3

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

This third blog post on the essentials of a website continues to share with you our learnings of developing our website. Do read the first and second post

1. Website Designers

We are assuming here that while you will provide the content, you will ultimately hire a designer to put all that up for you. Do a profile check before getting any designer on board. Luckily in this case the work of the designer would be up already as part of somebody else’s website. Understand who will be working on your site. You could also share the sitemap with them and tell them that you are looking at them to pitch for your website. This works best if you are corporate client.

Before signing, understand and record the terms and conditions. Ensure that you have written down all that is part of the package as you will surprised how your costs have escalated from where you had started. It would be a good idea to surf several your work related sites. That will give you idea on what different features are available as part of HTML language. You could also give out reference screen shots for specific features that you have liked.

2. Incorporating a Blog

It is common for corporate to have blogs for themselves. Blogs help in sharing recent news and quicker updates. There are two options available in linking the blog with the site. The company can create a blog and provide a link to it – which means that the user will go away from the site once he or she clicks on that link

The other option is to host the blog as part of your website. So technically when the user clicks on the blog link from the website, he or she can still access the links of the website. We have gone ahead with the second option as we would like the user to spend maximum time on our site.

3. Cost of the website

The costs of the site depend on the number of pages you create. Typically, there is a standard rate for a limited number of pages and then on per page basis after that. Your sitemap will help you in figuring out the number of pages you will have. Remember to account for pages like sitemap, copyrights, disclaimer etc among your other business pages.

If you would like to use online images, you would have to pay for it. Normally companies like Getty Images have sections of free images provided you give them credit for it. Otherwise you would have to buy from them or get them shot yourself. This is where a good designer can come handy. Most of them have good collection of stock images that they could use for you thereby helping you reduce costs.

4. Testing your site

After your site is ready, do a test run on it to ensure it works beautifully across platforms. First such test you must conduct is on the various browsers. The most used ones are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome among others. There are times when certain special characters don’t appear in the same manner on certain browsers. While IE stills retains highest market share in Indian market, the other browsers are catching up

Check your site also for different resolutions and different screen sizes. That will show the amount of scrolling the guy with smallest size screen will have to do. It is also important to test your site on different platforms like Windows, Macintoch, Linux etc. You can do all the tests at this site CrossBrowserTesting or leave it for your designer to do it.

Share your website with few close friends and take their point of view. We gained immensely by doing this. This is classic case of power of many. Just when you think you have got it all under control, someone gives in a valuable input that missed your mind.

With this, we end the third part of the series. Do continue reading our last and concluding part of the essentials of a website

Tags:blog, browsers, designers, Essentials, testing, Website 1.0 & 2.0
Posted in Essential Series, Website 1.0 & 2.0 | 6 Comments »

Essentials of a website – Part 2

Monday, October 20th, 2008

This is the second in series post on essential of a website. We have learnt several lessons while creating ours and are sharing it here. Do read our first post.

1. Content of your website

Having got your sitemap in place, the next step is to pen down content for all your pages. In terms of time, we would place this as the most time consuming activity. It is essential that one person or a particular set of people only write the content as the tone and manner has to be consistent.

The language of the content has to be in line with the subject matter. After you have finished writing everything, keep it aside for 2 days before re-reading it again. Get it read by a third person neutral to your business to check if he or she is able to understand it completely.

It is a good idea to keep the text in simple language in small paragraphs. Not many people like to read long scrolls on what you do for a living.

2. Add visuals or videos

Content is not restricted by text alone. It is good idea to include pictures, photos, caricatures, videos etc to make the site more appealing and compelling. People prefer reading photo essays to long texts. With broadband, it is possible to insert videos – however, do not make them heavy or too long.

3. Landing Page

The reason why we are keeping this as a separate bullet point is because it is first page that the visitor sees. Chances are that most of them will leave from here itself if the page is not optimally designed. Ensure that you have not loaded a heavy file, mostly a flash, to load. Besides your close friends and family, nobody waits for it to load. They will leave thereby increasing your bounce rate

A lot of people prefer having their entire front page as a flash. While this may look good as flash allows basic animation, your site will lose out from being SEO-ed. Search Engine crawlers don’t consider flash while crawling thereby completely missing your front page unless you do deep linking to the site. As a result, the chance of your webpage appearing in the search engine reduces dramatically.

It is not a bad idea to come straight to the point. If yours is a business site, then people have reached there with a specific objective. Make sure that your services section is easy to locate on the landing page. We personally believe that simplicity is in. Trying to put down everything your company does on the main page only puts off people.

4. Legal clearances & Copyrights:

Needless to say but all the text that you put up on your website should be clearly legally especially if you have put up claims for your product or service. Any text put up on the website is treated as official information coming from the company. Hence it is important that all data has been verified.

At the same time, if you are putting up anything of yours that is trademarked or patented, ensure that you mention it. Also all content can be copyrighted so that no one can lift anything from your site without permission. You can view a sample of a copyright

Continue to third post with this series of blog posts on essential of our website. Do read our previous post here

Tags:content, copyrights, Essential, landing page
Posted in Essential Series, Website 1.0 & 2.0 | 2 Comments »

Essentials of a Website – Part 1

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

We are starting a series of write ups on what has become one of the most important manifestation’s of a company’s identity – its website. In today’s virtual world, your website has become your visiting card that is up for view 24X7.

Many prospective clients and investors are forming their first impressions about you and your company by that. Just as you would like to look good before meeting anyone, the same applies for your website. We decided to put down our learnings from creating our website and we hope this will help you when you get down to making yours.

1. Hosting your site

Hosting basically means parking your site on a server. So whenever someone types your site address, that person is taken to that place. So, as the term suggests, your first step would be to buy hosting space for your website.

There are several Indian (Ours was Webwerks) and International vendors available from where you can buy out space. But we have noticed that buying from American vendors directly turns out to be far cheaper. The disadvantage being that you may not get the prompt service levels that your neighbourhood vendor would be able to provide.

There are also several packages available depending upon the amount and duration for which the space is required. It would be safe option to initially go for one year option and if satisfied with the vendor services, you could then extend it for whatever period of like. Know what you would want to put on site first as that will allow you to estimate the amount of space you will require for it. Accordingly, you can select a package from the vendor.

The most critical aspect is to understand the terms and conditions of all the packages of the vendors. Do not rush into this.

2. Domain registration of website

If you are a startup, then don’t be surprised if the name of your firm is dictated by what domain names are available for registration. Your hosting vendor will tell you whether the name you require is available or not. Thankfully there are alternate domain name extensions available besides ‘.com’ – you also have ‘.net’ or you are from India then ‘.co.in’ or ‘.in’

Registration costs of ‘.com’ are marginally higher than ‘.co.in’ or ‘.in’ Buy your domain name for longer period irrespective of whether you continue to use the same hosting vendor.

3. Email Ids

Once you have registered your domain name, you can start creating your email IDs. Your email ids will read like ‘yourname@yourcompanyname.com’ There can be restrictions on the number of IDs that a vendor might provide depending on the package you select. Again, estimate your requirement before signing the deal.

4. Website SiteMap

Sitemap is the most critical document of a website. It’s the blue print which highlights to the search engine about the pages that are available for crawling on your site. It is more like a tree – you start off with root which is the landing page and then move on to the branches which would be other pages that you direct your users to. Prepare a sitemap yourself as you would best have an idea of what you would like to host on your site.

Don’t be surprised if you have make several revisions. We made 6 drafts before we eventually zeroed on the current structure. After you have listed out everything, go through it with your website designer – as that person will definitely be able to value add from a technical perspective.

Hope you are with us till this stage. Move on the next part of Essentials of a Website. Remember website development is very different from that of a blog!!

Tags:domain registration, essentials of a startup, Hosting, sitemap, startup, Website 1.0 & 2.0
Posted in Essential Series, Website 1.0 & 2.0 | 14 Comments »

Archive for the ‘Essential Series’ Category

Essentials of a website – Part 4

Essentials of a website – Part 3

Essentials of a website – Part 2

Essentials of a Website – Part 1

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