Social Media Marketing | Indian Social Media Landscape - Part 4 Indian Social Media Landscape

Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category

Brands Personalize With YouTube Customization

Friday, August 16th, 2013

The explosions in the video content strategies have occurred because of the ever growing YouTube channel which is now the second largest search engine. Adding to this YouTube receives billions of views every month which is indeed the great potential for brands to be active on this medium. Not just upload the video, but brands can actually connect with their target audience on a global level. One cannot miss thinking about a custom YouTube channel!

Before we move on, let us clearly understand that there are three types of YouTube channels.

Courtesy: Periscope

Lately have you noticed any brand or brands having cooler YouTube pages as compared to the others? If yes, then you might have also noticed they have super designs, amazing content, user friendly approach, shorter URLs, bold graphics etc. Well, these are none other than customized or branded YouTube channels.

Brand channels basically allow the marketers and brand managers to come out of the standard YouTube channel and customize their current channel by creating a true destination page. What you find in the end with this approach will truly be extravagant!

Customized channels are a sort of perk for the YouTube advertisers wherein later you have the benefits of using the channel for some advertising campaign as well. If, at some point you want to show Youtube icon on your advertising resources, you will need permission, which costs money of course. Furthermore, custom branded channels can also host contests once sanctioned by YouTube.

Viewer behaviours can be tracked through enhance metrics and tracking. You come to know the featres of your video which are good, bad, hot or cold, you can check the viewer increase or decrease. The best thing is that Google Analytics can be integrated for in-depth analysis and reports. Even third party tools for tracking can be integrated.

Get all the whistles and applauds for your brand with a customized YouTube channel and check the difference it makes to your overall brand performance.

Once you have thought of getting started with a custom branded YouTube channel, you can browse though this manual which has instructions on how to customize YouTube brand channels.

Here are examples of two beauty brands on YouTube doing well as customized channels. From thumbnails to tags, descriptions and design everything is up to the mark. Following this there are other brand categories like music, gaming, travel, fashion etc.

Be Beautiful gives an ultimate experience to its viewers and consumers.

Tresemme offering hair & salon products and styles from professional hair stylists has an amazing customized YouTube channel.

What is it all about YouTube custom brand channels?

Though content still remains the priority and something which cannot be avoided, with a YouTube custom brand channel every aspect of the brand’s page is customizable virtually. The complete brand look and feel can be integrated with coding and editing etc.

Now, you must be wondering ‘my brand already owns a YouTube brand channel’. Kudos to that! And of course the regular brand channel must be offering everything, from large header, to a background image, impression tags and last but not the least metrics and tracking. This is good! But, wouldn’t you want something best for your brand?

A customized YouTube brand channel can uplift your brand to new heights. You will not only engage users, but engage them in an interesting way.

YouTube Channels created for brands should be attractive enough to showcase the look & feel of the brand. A brand channel makes it easy for the clients to land to your brand’s page. Try combining these with other social media channels such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for getting higher leads.

Now there is something that is very essential for brands to put all their efforts into. Brands are:

Creating content that the audience wants, like: product reviews, how-to-videos etc.

Optimizing Videos, important keywords, description and adding tags, titles, description in a properly categorized way.

Amplifying their brand’s link building capability by linking Facebook, Twitter, blog to their YouTube video page as it will foster to & fro of traffic thus, optimizing your search results.

Sharing, yes, sharing the video with as many people as they can as simply posting a video will be of no help. Share the link with people in your circle, if they like the link they will click & share. A great word of mouth marketing this is.

Click here to check out how YouTube’s top 500 brands are pushing creativity, bite-sized videos.

A report from Outrigger Media has used OpenSlate‘s data to exhaustively research the top 500 brand channels on YouTube.

Brands that have a customized YouTube channel are a premium value-added source and can uplift the brand identity in a great way.

Customized YouTube brand channels still hold the uniqueness in terms of

Demographic Targeting wherein custom branded YouTube channels can restrict users according to the age, location or gender.

Design is always on the top when it comes to customized YouTube channel. All the elements can be customized according the marketing design of the brand.

Gadgets & HTML feature in branded & customized YouTube channels helps brands, for some extra functionality, add widgets to their channels and can also plan to embed their channel into their website as well.

Analytics can be viewed by both branded and personal YouTube channels. Still, branded & customized channels have an advantage to add third-party analytics if required.

Brands can also work towards personalizing their channel by handling the new changes and optimizing the new options available:

Create a Welcome Video

· In order to optimize the options available for YouTube’s brand channels, brands should take note of the below points:

· Create a welcome video that is geared towards viewers who do not subscribe to the page

· Keep the videos very short and compelling

Personalize your channel

· If brands are looking for ways to drive their traffic to their YouTube brand channel to other social media platforms they can personalize it.

· They can do so by adding a large header image called as ‘Channel Art’, a great way for brands to present their brand picture in a well sorted manner.

Organize your content

· In order to make your brand YouTube page looking neat, fresh and well structured & updated; it is very essential to categorize and organize the content that is available on your YouTube channel.

· YouTube enables its users to re-organize their content.

· Businesses can optimize their content on YouTube in such a way that users generate interest for browsing through your videos etc.

Check out an amazing Infographic on how one can optimize their brand/business YouTube channel. Click on the image to view.

Courtesy: http://www.brafton.com/infographics/top-10-ways-to-optimize-your-business-youtube-channel

In a nutshell, a customized YouTube channel

· Can make your branded video seen by billions
· Will show up on Google search instantly and attract a lot of potential customers
· Easily links to your websites or social media platforms etc.
· Provides a backlink to the website your brand has, thereby boosting your SEO

Honestly, YouTube’s new look and design is turning out to be an interesting step towards the right direction. YouTube has very nicely managed to add a well sorted layer of user experience & brand factor, which eventually gets better day by day. An evolution like this will soon prove extremely valuable to YouTube channel owners.

Brand marketers have already begun to embrace a constant, pervasive video content strategy for their brands. What their brands do on other social platforms like Twitter, Facebook etc. will always help them build engagement and identity. But the brands which make an active presence on YouTube have a great potential to branch out to success? Do you agree with the same? Share your thoughts.

Tags:Brands and YouTube, Brands leveraging Custom YouTube, You Tube, YouTube Custom Channels for Brands
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Online Videos, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research, Target Audience | 1 Comment »

How Brands Use Facebook Apps

Friday, August 2nd, 2013

Facebook apps lend enormous opportunities to brands to be more creative, strategic and most importantly precise and relevant with their efforts on social platforms. Well, there are a few brands that stand unaware and unsure about the potential of Facebook apps. No wonder there are only one out of ten such apps created that actually go viral. Brands need to gear up with unique and one-of a kind apps showcasing competitive intelligence that help them cut through the clutter.

Considering the recent facts; Smartphone penetration, internet subscriptions, accessing any content on internet through phones, apps usage and the average time that people spend on social media everyday is aggressively on a rise. So is it not a really good race that the brands can run on to bring out the best through apps?

Its not the number of users where the actual value lies, but it’s the users involved in the engagement itself. For instance, if 5 minutes are spent on a Facebook app by 20,000 people, that brings it to 1,00,000 minutes. It is not a minor thing to consider as users are not watching a 15 second ad but are actually spending credible five minutes here.

Brands ‘should make a sincere effort’ to capitalize on this trend of apps.

So, when are you planning to come up with an app? We are sure you will give it your best shot and creates something really spectacular. While delivering valuable user data, facebook apps can increase the fan base of your brands’ on social media. It basically turns out to be a healthy Facebook presence adding value to the brand identity online. Online sales, incentives, offers, contests & competitions etc. can all be actively promoted through these apps.

The Facebook apps give brands a chance to create interactive digital campaigns that are more creative & relevant than simple updates on the Facebook Timeline.

When executed extremely well, an app potentially meets up with the brand’s engagement expectations, reach and a strong brand loyalty.

These Facebook Apps have been classified into top categories as mentioned:

– Product Apps which allow Facebook fans to use and explore the app for a deeper insight into their new or existing brand.
– Deal and Offer Apps are geared towards the output of deals and offers for their fans, also faired well for these top brands, based on the App’s MAUs.
– Interactive Apps are aimed at input from fans. This basically includes sending in videos, pictures or voting on the specifics of a product.
– Contest Apps give fans a chance to enter a specific contest and win prizes given out by the brand.
– Online Game Apps engage fans largely on the product based social games.

Your app strategy should do these things:
· Define the custom app strategy
· Promote and drive traffic to your app

Don’t miss to check out an Infographic on the analysis of Facebook apps of leading brands here by neolane, a conversational marketing technology provider.

What do brand app users generally like or want?

– Users appreciate discounts, freebies and sales.
– Brands that share tips & tricks related to their products etc.
– And of course users love to participate in contests and most of them also engage in useful brand conversations.
– People also like the brand apps and pages to resolve their queries and complaints regarding some service or product.

A brand app strengthens & establishes its social media traction. Therefore, any facebook application should be simple, accessible and user friendly to achieve great results.

Facebook apps if do not excel in the mechanism or if the user journey turns out to be bad, there are chances of these apps to be hugely exaggerated due to slow navigation and data capture. Therefore, designers and developers need to excessively create a mobile friendly app that fits all.

The overall user experience should be based on speed, simplicity, aptness, call to action; lots of content and simple actions, in short, the app should never be complicated and cluttered.

Paul Adams, global head of brand design at Facebook has quoted sometime back, “Almost every app built for a brand on Facebook has practically no usage…heavy, ‘immersive ‘experiences are not how people engage and interact with brands. Heavyweight experiences will fail because they don’t map to real life.” He strongly supports the “less is more” concept.

So, whether you are already done with your idea and plans for a Facebook app, or you are thinking of coming up with one, just take a small step backwards and rethink the strategy of the app execution, reevaluate the user journey and experience and then strategically reconsider the complete app journey.

Glance through this Overview of Apps on Facebook to get clear, very clear with this amazing feature.

Check out a few useful apps for Facebook business pages here and start exploring the same for your brand too. Also check 101 of the Best Facebook Apps & Tools for Businesses in 2013 by Socialable that might just help you leverage your brand in this arena. And we just can’t miss checking out the India’s Top 10 Facebook Games and Apps this year. Now you must be wondering on the generating revenue aspect of these Facebook apps. To know more about it click here ‘How to Generate Revenue from Facebook Apps’.

Let’s have a look at a few great examples amongst thousands of other examples, where brands have successfully engaged with their audience, interacted in a way that not only added value to their brand but garnered likes, shares and credibility to their Facebook presence.

Yes, apps are amazingly simple, quick, accessible and shareable!

Many brands have gradually realized the fact that Facebook users do not want to, or do not have much time to participate in what a particular brand does. These particular apps have a great potential to go viral, very nicely supporting the online and offline brand campaign. They are not only simple in functionality but evolve with an ease of sharing. All these apps give their users an experience beyond imagination as they are quick to engage too. Amazing Facebook apps like these benefit both brand visibility and the user’s online identity.

Amul has launched the ‘Eat milk with every meal’ campaign, with the aim to reposition milk as a part of every Indian’s daily diet and to give a trendy appeal to the entire range of Amul dairy products.

They took an initiative to use Facebook and ask users to create memes of their friends, and sharing that they eat milk with every meal. Amul’s idea is to spread the message in a light & funny manner supported by creating a friend’s meme to do that. A Facebook app ‘Meme You’ hosted on the Amul Facebook page will ask you to create memes of your friends, after you like the page. Click ‘Get meme-ing’ to get started with the app.

This meme app certainly helps position milk as a part of our diet in an offbeat manner. It provides fans a fun reason to use it.

Launch of Youth Card by Axis bank: To target the Indian youth, Axis bank, India’s third largest private sector bank launched a Facebook campaign for the launch of its Youth Card. The bank designed a micro site and also an interesting Facebook app – Youth Card.
As awesomely as the bank came up with a microsite for the same, within its main site, its focus for the
campaign was on Facebook. A Facebook application called ‘YOUth Card‘was created on the Axis Bank Facebook Page. The bank gave the freedom to design their own card. Best designs also stood a chance to win exciting gadgets such as tablets. Encapsulating an easy to use edge to a superbly designed campaign to grabbing the aspect of sharing it, Axis caught all they eyes here. Click to read the entire campaign here.

Vodafone Zoozoos 10 million celebration: The much loved Vodafone Zoozoos marked the day when their Facebook page crossed 10 million ‘likes’.

An animated Facebook app was specially created for this occasion that featured short Zoozoo videos in the very own Zoozoo style. The videos depicted how and what positivity a ‘like’ brings into situations of sorrow, anger, anxiety and hopelessness.

Check these two amazing apps by Lakme Salon.

Flaunt your Powerful Hair influenced its fans to confidently flaunt their powerful hair. This app garnered a lot of fans. Hair-O-Meter is yet another app by Lakme Salon that inspires fans to upload snaps of their hair-do and analyze the credibility of their style.

Infosys launched an innovative app to encourage audiences to capture and upload with inspiring pictures of themselves with their innovation. Good to try app!

Campaign focused Facebook apps are categorized into:

The focus of brands in terms of Facebook apps should focused on content consumption, content curation, content creation, user connection, user recommendation.
Courtesy: kuliza.com

When are you planning to try the magic of apps, definitely an ‘App’ le that would keep lower engagement away!

Now there are a lot of reasons why you would consider Facebook Apps. The first most essential thing being communication, they build and sustain a great level of communication or interaction between your consumers and brand. Brand loyalty increases as you easily build deeper relationship with your audiences. Engagement is always on the rise and credible as it fosters user’s interaction with the brand app, liking and further sharing it. The challenge lies in how the Brands in India would utilize the immense power of apps and leverage it to its full potential. When are you planning to jump into the bandwagon of apps which is escalating at a great rate in India?

Tags:Applications, Apps, Brand Leveraging Facebook Apps, Brands using Apps, Facebook Apps, How Brands Use Facebook Apps
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

INFOGRAPHICS: The Next Big Thing

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

It is strongly believed that a .jpg is worth a thousand .txt’s as it only takes a split second to see a picture and a lot more to read a text. The time has come for brands to visualize their data and convert their brand ideas into Infographics. Let’s see how they can rise with the benefits of Infographics on social media. An infographic, which ideally means “information graphic”, is basically a clear visual representation of information or data. Due to their design and structure, infographics are believed to foster enhanced content recognition & information retention. Marketers and brand managers can add this to their brand content strategy for a stimulating benefit & outcome.

Accelerating decision making to a great extent, according to topmarketingschools.net Infographics that are relevant, timely and executed properly have a potential to reach upto 15 million people.

With the influx of social media and the shift of information or news sharing in a digital format, infographics make place for brands that have a story to tell which can be encapsulated in colourful graphics and colourful pie charts. Infographics can be used in annual reports, presentations, research content, newsletters and blogs. Consumers want the information that we share to be visually appealing & not text based. Majority of people are visual learners only. More than 80% of learning is visual. People can only remember 20% of content they read.

Well, why don’t you have a look at what Infographics are all about before proceeding?
Just check the Infographic below to witness how data visualization is a great visual treat.

Click the image to view it in a new window.

Embed Code:

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

Infographics:

· Communicate a message
· Present huge data or information in a compact way
· Analyze the data in order to discover cause-and-effect relationships

Infographics are composed of:

– Visual Elements
Colour coding
Graphics
Reference icons/symbols
– Content Elements
Time frames
References
Statistics
– Knowledge Elements
Facts

How do they matter for brands?

Digital marketers have already started creating infographics. It can be a great resource for firms that want to widen their marketing horizons. Pinterest had already taken place on social media with a visual treat that it offers. The pace with which this platform is moving is even quicker than Facebook, Linkedin & Google+. Understanding the potential and reach Facebook had also introduced the Timeline Update in February 2012 showing an increased level of photo engagement.

Using visuals is yet another way to survive the game of social media marketing. With Infographics you can describe your brand. You can simply transform the information you want to share into blocks of pictures that are bold & attractive. It is indeed a fun & unique way to reach millions of people.

· They are visually appealing
· Foster brand exposure through Social Media
· They are cost effective
· They compress the information & communicate easily

Brand managers should definitely integrate Infographics to their online marketing strategy. Going by the online space where people have too little time to sit back and read , a visual treat will be welcomed and appreciated to a very large extent.

· Brand will first have to find a story to tell using the statistical data they have.
· Drive traffic by posting it on the brand page or website
· Post & share it on Social Media. You can tweet, post, pin & share.
- · Include a little bit about your company with your web site URL at the bottom, use it as Link Bait. In case someone shares it you still retain the credit as the creator.

Readers absorb the important information from infographics & feel motivated to share it across platforms. Yes, it has to be that effective! Ideally, Infographics can fit any topic provided it represents data that is necessary and relevant to the readers.

ROI of Infographics

It is essential to measure the business performance of Infographics. The business objectives, organizational culture you operate in & your definition of return on investment (ROI) contribute to this analysis. The ROI is calculated with a formula which is: (Gain from an investment – Cost of the investment) / Cost of the investment

Your content marketing plan would be considered beneficial if its able to show ROI and is able to be measured. The basic costs are associated with design, development, publishing & promotion of your brand’s infographic. It might not be important to measure the direct association between the infographic marketing efforts & revenue but, it is very important to analyse & measure the association between resource allocation & marketing performance.

Measuring the Value of Infographics is another method that evaluates both, the tangible & intangible benefits of this communication & marketing tool over a period of time.

Tangible metrics signify the exposure that your infographics are getting across different digital & social media platforms:

Inbound links

– Use Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools can be used to calculate the number of sites that link back to your infographic content.
– Incorporate an embed code to track people who copy & paste the code to embed your infographic on their sites.
– Back links, apart from measuring the awareness, also provide insight into the types of people & websites that are publishing your infographics.

Page views

– Use Google Analytics to measure how many page views & unique views each infographic on your website, page or blog is generating.

SEO ranking

– Use RankChecker to clearly measure the page rank of your infographics on major search engine, Google.

Searches

– Use Google Analytics to check the number of finding your infographics by using specific keywords.
– Understanding top industry search words will help you refine your keyword optimization in future infographic titles.

Engagement

– Engagement level with your infographic content is measured.

Subscribers

– Use analytics functionality to each application you are using to calculate the subscribers to your content across digital channels.
– These metrics only reflect your potential audience reach and also not all your subscribers would be able see every infographic that you publish.

Comments & Social Sharing

– You can track the comments & their tone for each infographic you publish.
– A social media dashboard tool like the Hootsuite can be used to calculate the tweets, mentions & shares on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ respectively.

Intangible benefits are coupled with using infographics as an external & internal communication tool.

External includes Building relationships with media, organizations & influential individuals, experience with your brand and the credibility of your infographic offering insight on your organization as a thought leader across the industry.

Internal is based on communication, learning and decision making.

Reasons why the Infographics and Data Visualization work are:

– An attractive & compelling visualization of data or information you want to share saves people from Information Overload.
– People usually have a very short attention span, so to convince them in this little time, an infographic works & catches people’s eye.
– Complex information, data, statistics of becomes easy to understand when represented visually.
– People remember only 20% of what they read, so data visualization helps in stabilizing the lowering reading retention rates.
– People are too busy to check the data you publish everyday; by designing something visually enticing, higher engagement level can be noticed.
– People love sharing visual imageries or infographics on social media that are easy to grasp rather than the textual posts.

INFOGRAPHICS on SOCIAL MEDIA

Infographics are here to stay in the social media world. Firstly, the visualization of data is the ultimate key to great social media content. On social media consumers have the ability to share your infographics on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Google+ leading to greater engagement levels. Therefore, high definition infographics will be marketed through your readers who would love it & share it.

Readability Less is more. Create infographics to speak your brand message, data or statistics. Do not add too many images. Simply, maintain a balance.

Shareability Include your Infographic on all the social media channels of your brand. They can entice a lot of viewers to your brand. When a user likes your infographic, the possibility is either he will bookmark it or share it with his online friends. Therefore, with so many sites linked together, there lies a great potential for your infographic to go viral. Make sure it is unique!

Search Engine Optimization Even the SEO experts are exploring the possibilities of a good branded infographic. Infographics are designed for social sharing & are a highly effective form of link bait which can be used to increase inbound link numbers improving a website’s ranking & provide search engine optimization significance.coming to your mind is what type of infographics are loved the most pr work best? Well, it varies from industry or sector to sector. For some sites it might be charts & graphs for their statistical data but for some it might be pyramid or a map.

Whatever it is, it has to be interesting enough to keep the viewer on your site.

In a nutshell,

– Infographics can be read quickly. Great for those pressed with time
– Explain complex issues in a simplified visualization version
– As infographics are mostly vertically-shaped, the module would show a fragment while enabling the users to click to enlarge
– Research all the facts and statistics
– Develop and present a logical story.
– Reference facts & convey the message quickly
– Draw conclusions
– Include your URL on your infographic
When it comes to designing an Infographic just keep it simple as ‘Simplicity is the best policy’.

Be clear by limiting the information overload
Think in colour as it influences the users in a great way
Be verifiable to display your data a trustworthy source of information
Appealing to the eye is what your infographic should be. Period.

Check out Visual.ly, which launched in 2011 & currently hosts more than 16,000 info graphics. It is the world’s largest community platform for data visualisation. Here, the company’s success has been a direct result of the response to the infographics & their ability to tell a story effectively but more importantly, to serve as a useful tool. For few content marketing infographics that work. Click here

If you are thinking of how to go about making an Infographic, watch out this space for more!

With the growing popularity of Infographics, it is surely going to be the key online success for brands if conceptualized, designed and implemented correctly. As a brand manager how do you value an infographic as a part of your brand content strategy? Would you try incorporating them in your next content plan and measure its effectiveness? We are sure you will be surprised by the amazing outcome of this visual representation. Do share your thoughts.

Tags:Content strategy, Growing importance of Infograohics, Infographics, Infographics and brands, Infographics Boost SEO, Visual Content Marketing
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience | No Comments »

Celebrity Endorsements On Social Media

Monday, June 3rd, 2013

The presence of brand ambassadors is an important element to the success of a brand, especially when you are promoting it through social media. Brand ambassadors play an important role in leveraging a brand’s value. Therefore, targeting them as a part of the social media strategy is definitely worth spending time on. They are basically well known celebrities who have an amazing fan following and can effectively influence the decision making of people by endorsing a product.

They render instant marketing opportunities and act as the best critics for your business. Discovering & creating the right brand ambassador is indeed one of the most important things brands need to think of in order to get the best results in the marketing and social media world.

Moving on, lets find out effectiveness of the brand-celebrity connect where the brand image formulation process is actually accelerated with a celebrity endorsement. Also, how important are the celebrity endorsements for brands on social media.

How does it matter as to which clothing brand does Nargis Fakhri wear? Or, which mobile handset does Amir Khan endorse? Have you ever paused for a minute and wondered that the soft drink you are having has come to your table because somebody in the house is a Salman Khan fan! This may actually surprise those people for a minute and make them think, who are always curious to explore a co-relation between things.

Well, the entire concept of celebrity endorsement has evolved from what we call as a “Testimonial”, which is a spoken or a written statement by a person figure or from a citizen admiring the virtue of a particular product or brand.

As by each passing day social media is growing and becoming more influential in everyday life of people across the nation; companies and brand managers are tapping into the increased exposure this can provide to their products. With this, the rise in celebrity endorsements has led to a phenomenon where social media is now seen as an effective means to promote their brands through the personalities of the celebrities they sponsor.

Even, many full moons ago, marketing professionals focused on sticking a celebrity face behind a brand or a product to foster increased sales. This approach garnered success from all corners and has led to a point when it is almost impossible to name a big brand without some kind of celebrity brand ambassador behind it.

The ‘likes’, the ‘tweets’, and the ‘pins’ for a brand which is endorsed by a celebrity are reaching to a great level these days.

But the question is, do we really need celebrities?

Yes we do! There are facts that suggest the same. For example: In 2005, Motorola with its first ever ‘India Centric’ phone launch was all set with a brand name, objective etc. but later couldn’t garner market share. The marketers & brand managers of Motorola roped in Abhishek Bachchan, who had that techno-savvy-young-achiever image, as a brand ambassador. This certainly was a great step which certainly increased the market share of the product.

It has become more like a trend now, where we find celebrities tweeting about the brands they are endorsing & posting pictures of the photo shoots of these products. It seems like stars here want their fans to know about the products they endorse.

In the recent past, Salman Khan used his Facebook page to post videos of his ad for ‘Thums Up’. He was also seen changing his cover photo incorporated with the brand tagline of the Cola giant, eventually providing an advertising space for the brand. The page was flooded with tremendous comments and likes from his fans.

Coca-Cola India launched a summer campaign for its top brand Thums Up on the Facebook and Twitter pages of its new brand ambassador Salman Khan, taking the cola war to the online space. Salman Khan, the most popular Indian actor on the internet, has lent his Facebook page to a brand for this crucial campaign on social media. The actor’s Facebook page has a fan base of over 7.7 million, and he has 3.45 million Twitter followers. This is his first campaign for the beverage maker after a gap of a decade.

Salman Khan, 47, is hitting the great success wave with fantastic super hits and currently charging the highest endorsement fees in Bollywood.

Thums Up’s new campaign will take ahead the dare-devilry message synonymous with the brand.

Coca-Cola has also signed an agreement with Khan’s charity, Being Human – The Salman Khan Foundation, to jointly promote, conceive & execute charitable & social activities.

Two years ago, Coca-Cola had also signed cricketer Sachin Tendulkar as Coca-Cola brand’s ‘happiness ambassador’ for a three-year deal.

Fashionandyou.com, India’s leading online fashion and lifestyle store also launched Nargis Fakhri as their Brand Ambassador through social media. They showcased her on the portal’s website & Facebook page through a quirky teaser campaign named “Who Is She”, which received innumerable entries.

Click on the image to go to the website and blog

She epitomizes fashion and style which complements the brand positioning very well.

FashionandYou possess one of the biggest social media footprints for e-retailers in India with a million plus fan base on Facebook. It is the first private online shopping club to achieve this milestone in the fashion and lifestyle segment worldwide

Check out how this online lifestyle and fashion brand launched their brand ambassador through this TVC on YouTube here:

Godrej launched its ‘Zindagi Muskuraye’ campaign with the Bollywood actor and perfectionist Amir Khan as Soniya. Amir, dressed up as a woman was seen in Godrej’s new commercial during IPL. Godrej commercials used this story with Amir to tell about their new range of products that enable a brighter living or ‘Zindagi Muskuraye’ thought. To bring about an interaction with its consumers this campaign was promoted through social media too. Quite amusing though, but everyone was waiting for this story to unfold.

Click on the image to go to the website

Videos were uploaded & shared on both mediums and fans were encouraged to guess what would happen next!

Aamir was also revealed as Sonia few days prior to the TVC going on air. A trailer was also shared with the social media community following this. Special Facebook and Twitter pages for ‘Zindagi Muskuraye’ were created that were occupied in engaging the online community with the ongoing story of Sonia, Sam & Meera.

On Facebook, fans were invited to watch the various episodes & guess how Sonia would react next, with prizes to be won. A Facebook app ‘Bloopers friends make‘enabled fans to tag their friends on the page and share their embarrassing bloopers. There was indeed a great response from fans for the app.

Even the Twitter page followed the engagement activities happening on Facebook. The ‘Bloopers Friends make’ on Facebook was run as #BloopersFriendsMake contest where followers were to tag their friends & share their bloopers. The product embed in the videos, coupled with amazing updates on Brand Ambassador Amir & the content on bright ideas surely took the brand to an all new level.

Celebrity endorsements are nevertheless an amazing marketing tool. The fact is that integrating celebrity’s star power will not only create awareness and interest of the brand but also leverage it on social media effectively.

Choosing the celebrity for a brand:

Choose a celebrity who induces positive emotions in your consumer’s minds, is likeable and creates buzz. In order to render credibility to the brand, make sure the celebrity is a good fit & has expertise with your product.

The value of celebrity endorsements have heightened with the rise of internet to a great extent. As an ever shortening attention span of consumers is becoming a concern for social media managers, a big celebrity name can help the brand get noticed. Celebrities do get our attention.

Celebrities have a great prestige and influence on social media. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise as to why advertisers and brand managers are increasingly leveraging social media platforms and celebrities to attract more and more consumers.

Celebrities are no doubt an invaluable asset for advertisers on social media. Celebrity endorsements trigger brands on social media and in turn signal consumers that a particular product is a good one. If you, as a brand rope in the most popular celebrity, come up with strong brand strategy etc. then it could have an extensive reach with social media. At the same time, if its outdated, the chances are it will attract negative emotions to the brand.

A few basic facts that you as a brand should take note to ensure a successful selection of the celebrity as a brand ambassador.

Selecting the right Celebrity

Anyone who is famous may be the right celebrity. However, the aptness of the celebrity largely depends on the product or service. Most advertisers insist that their celebrity ambassador should have charisma & popularity. This is the reason we see more of movie and television stars, athletes, real-life heroes, etc. acting as brand ambassadors in the market.

How a Marketer or Brand Manager should choose a Celebrity

Selection of the right celebrity is very crucial. The needs of the brand rather than the fame of the celebrity should be the primary criteria when selecting a celebrity spokesperson. The celebrity’s physical attractiveness, values, and credibility also matter tremendously. However, it would be suicidal to forget about the target audience.

Types of Celebrity Endorsements

Celebrity branding also has many aspects. A slight amend in the type of branding used can result in either a great success or a miserable failure. Celebrity branding falls into five general categories:

· Testimonial: Celebrity acts as a spokesperson for the brand.

· Imported: Celebrity performs a role known to the audience.

· Invented: Celebrity plays a new, original role.

· Observer: Celebrity assumes the role of an observer commenting on the brand.

· Harnessed: Celebrity’s image is integrated with the ad’s storyline.

A few challenges that can rope in:

A negative or a bad behaviour by the brand ambassador can create problems. For example: Tiger Woods lost his deals with Tag Heuer, Gillette, Accenture, Gatorade and a few other firms after it was discovered that he had extramarital affairs with at least a dozen women.

Nowadays, there are a few things that the marketers have to keep in mind for a smooth journey of celebrity endorsements they do. It is that, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has asked the celebrities on Twitter to be clear about their nature of advertising.

The OFT termed these advertised tweets as ‘deceptive advertising’ and said that the celebrities should clearly tell through their product promotion tweets whether they have been paid in cash or kind that too by using the word “#ad” or “#spon” (i.e., sponsored) to accompany the tweet.

One needs to have a social-media presence in order to have a successful, scalable business.

Celebrities have since a long time been an essential element for a new product launch and will remain to do so in the near future as well. It is because of their mass appeal and their loyal fans. But, when it comes to a brand, the impact is very high than just an advertisement that shows a celebrity.

The use of a celebrity magnifies the effect allowing the consumers to equate their (celebrity’s) personality and the brand together.

Don’t you think celebrity endorsements on social media are here to stay as their ability to deliver amazing results for brands is fantastic and cannot be sidelined at any cost? Therefore, in a world full of brand clutter & product muddle; celebrities seem to hit the nail on the head. Have you as brand managers identified your brand ambassadors? What have they done for your business, specifically on social media?

Tags:Brand Ambassadors on Social Media, Celeb Endorsements leverage Brands on Social Media, Celebrities as Brand Ambassadors, Celebrity Endorsements on Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 2 Comments »

Crediting Social Media in Banking Industry

Monday, April 1st, 2013

There was a fun campaign by a reputed Indian Bank some time back where somebody gave a comment “Why Banks?” Well, this threw light upon two very common misconceptions: one that banks should not engage on Facebook and other that B2B businesses and brands should stay away from social media platforms. These misconceptions arise from a perception that Facebook and other social media platforms might weaken or tamper the brand image. On the other hand, connecting with banks on Facebook is proving really beneficial for fans, especially the younger customers of today. There is increased engagement when the bank proactively listens, fans respond and share their experiences.

Facebook is a platform that helps brands, be it banks; emerge as a friendly, trustworthy and approachable one. Twitter on the other hand is another wonderful social media tool that helps the brands to connect and interact in 140 characters.

Banks have actively taken a step to scratch the surface of the potential in social media. Study indicates that private banks are leading the race followed by a few large public sector banks.

HDFC Bank tops the social media leverage index followed by public sector IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Citi Bank. With social media leveraging brands and sectors across the globe, Indian banks are also realizing steadily that social media, when implemented with a strong strategy will not only prove to be important & profitable but build a long term identity and growth with large follower base and engagement. (Image Courtesy: Raddon Financial Group)

Globally, all the banks whether government or private have taken a wonderful step to stay connected with their customers through social media.

Sadly, there are a few banks that see social media as a platform to market their products instead of engaging with their customers and fans.

Although, HDFC is one such bank that has understood the importance and impact of social media and is doing pretty good in the banking sector.

HDFC, one of India’s first private sector banks commenced in the year 1994. To be a World class Indian bank, HDFC commenced with an objective to be the top provider of exclusive banking services. Catering to the business community primarily, HDFC has a very strong presence both offline and online.

If we talk about HDFC, their presence on social media has helped them garner a lot of customers followed by an amazing share of the market. HDFC took this social step with a simple strategy of Engage, Evolve and Excel.

In this social run HDFC is one such bank that stands out in terms of leveraging social media in terms of their presence in social media channels, the strategy they have implemented and their approach in engaging with their customers.

HDFC Bank is present on all the major social media channels namely Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google+.

HDFC on Facebook:

With more than 1.5 million likes, HDFC Bank’s Facebook page is mainly used as a space to push its marketing messages. Very actively they also started with Facebook advertising. With an amazing presence on Facebook, HDFC generates excellent feedback from its fans and followers. This not only helps the bank build a strong relation & trust with its customers but also serves as a basis for them to understand their needs and requirements. It helps them promote their banking products and features too. They have recently come up with Taxpert, a tab where tax experts give their views and solve queries put across by customers. All sorts of financial news are provided to the fans through these sections on official Facebook page of HDFC Bank. They also engage their fans through contests, puzzles and finance related facts etc.

The way they use their custom tabs is worth appreciating as they not only add value to their Facebook community but also direct the traffic to their Website.

They also give regular updates on latest deals & credit card tips on shopping. With this they also sustain regular conversations with customers and encourage repeat purchases on credit cards, in particular.

HDFC on Twitter:

HDFC Bank’s has two dedicated Twitter handles; one for customer query resolution and other to provide helpful tips to customers. For all sorts of queries & complaints customers tweet @ HDFCBank_Cares and the Twitter handle @HDFC_Bank provides useful finance tips, information related to tax and offers etc.

Their approach on twitter is based on sharing interesting facts and information with their followers, engaging them through contests, puzzles followed by sharing products and deals they have to offer. They are very active on twitter, no wonder they are generating followers at a pace equivalent to their growth on social media which is commendable. The way they handle their customer queries deserves a hug applaud as their communication is not only considerate & explanatory but personalized. They now have a healthy follower count of more than 6.4k.

YouTube:

HDFC has conceptualized and created some of the amazing commercials which have paved their way through the YouTube channels. Also, they provide useful ‘How To’ videos for mobile banking, net banking etc. These commercials acquired a huge amount of viewership on their YouTube channel. Video content is very engaging & benefits the viewers. They are consistently trying to post and promote as many videos as they could to leverage their brand through YouTube.

Linkedin:

HDFC’s company page on Linkedin has around 43k followers. They display their products and services on this page and get recommendations from the users which serve as a live testimonial. Being actively present on Linkedin helps users to browse the company details and employee information.

HDFC bank’s official Pinterest page gives useful information about their exciting offers, products and latest trends in the Banking and finance industry. They innovatively motivate their fans and customers to keep pinning to their boards of interest in this space.

Foursquare

HDFC Bank on foursquare provides exciting offers & privileges tips for consumers to avail discounts with their HDFC Bank credit/debit cards.

Google+

In an initiative to amplify its services, HDFC leveraged this medium to spread their services, offers & discounts to its customers. They provide useful information to their fans through various properties they have on social media. The page has also crossed a milestone of 1.5 Million of fans.

HDFC deals with its customer issues very efficiently in a personalized manner and short time. Banking is a sector where a lot of care and precision has to be taken as it brings along with a great deal of negativity too. But when it comes to HDFC, it goes without saying that this bank has tried its best to keep the level of negativity as low as possible with its interactions, engagements and most of all its effective customer service team. They are doing a really great job with their social media efforts.

HDFC Bank is not only reaching out to their customers and fans through social media but also engaging them consistently with informative and interesting contests and tabs. They hold tax trivia and secure banking twitter contests wherein people are offered secure banking and tax related tips and learning about tax in a fun way. This not only helps them build effective thought leadership across the industry but makes them stand out for their social efforts.

How Banks should leverage Social Media?

Social Media is emerging as the new destination for bankers to reach out to a great range of their customers overwhelmingly. Before taking a step into the social media world, banks should pause to check out the security and regulatory issues related to banking. They want to embrace this newest way of connecting with consumers, but with care.

People are also keen to access banking services on social media therefore banks can effectively maintain a social media presence to garner more engagement with their services.

There’s a lot that a bank can explore on social media platform and further strike a trend in this sector. The trend of being on social media and show off the social credentials has already begun amongst the banks and is very actively moving ahead with rising competition in this space too.

Moving further, it is fairly evident that internet penetration on a global level is in an upswing and so is the use of smartphones. Social media is therefore shaping the future of almost all the future brands.

The need of the hour for banks is to leverage their brand interests, increase visibility of their offerings, increase interactions and place their customers in high regard. Banks are coming up with various mobile friendly apps that connect the consumers with the brand further helping them attract prospective customers. These apps act as a marketing device to promote offers and discounts.

Social Media, once strategically implemented marketing communication plans can help banks in some of the great things like: Community Building, Product Research, Customer Service, Marketing & Promotion and Transparency.

Once the banks implement social media into their marketing strategies, it would not only lead to improved branding, but they could also understand consumer perceptions about them, leveraged product research and a strong relationship building with customers. This also brings a great level of transparency to banking services. Banking and finance sectors, unlike the FMCG sector have one-to-one relationships with their customers. Social Media enables this engagement and motivates the brands to be accountable.

Making social media as one of the most important arms of customer support, educating and informing fans about the security issues & safe banking practices, encouraging the workforce, offer customized solutions gained from social media insights will surely go a long way in crafting social media banks of the future. One thing is evident that to be a successful brand on social media, brand managers and strategists need to evolve with variety of strategies keeping in mind the strong execution and sincere intention. In your opinion what can be further strategies by reputed banks on social media?

Tags:Banking & Finance in Social Media, Banking and Social Media, Banking Industry and Social Media, Banks on Facebook, Banks on Social Media, Social Media
Posted in Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 3 Comments »

Content Marketing: Brands Need to Gear Up!

Friday, March 15th, 2013

If marketing is a pie, then content marketing is definitely the bigger slice of it. Most of the brand managers, marketers, companies and/or sectors would agree with this statement. Content marketing is indeed the most appealing trend of this year. If done right, it can create wonders to leading to traffic and driving sales. The key to this is to have a plan, a plan to target effectively & grab your target audience’s attention. There is no doubt about the fact that social media & mobile marketing have also showcased content to be supreme. Brands therefore, are now creating original content to engage customers. If B2B sector is taken into consideration, here the brands foster content usage by positioning company as a thought leader to the customers, producing demand.

Consumers also want a lot of information now and at the same time they want to make their own decisions. In that case brands need to provide valuable content to build trust.

Following all the changes and strategic developments happening all year around, this year marks some of the fantastic content marketing trends, when implemented correctly are sure to drive the business and brands to a great level.

Last minute web plugs, ad hoc promo driven microsites and integrating a social media strategy as an addition won’t work anymore! For a healthy and successful way forward, strategically planned content and distribution supported by well done research & inputs is the key.

Traditional publicity and content marketing differences are many. Just have a glimpse:

Source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/guide-to-content-marketing/

Moving on lets talk about the Social media & content marketing trends

Case studies, evolving as the most important part of content marketing are very essential when it comes to products & services. From “how it works” to “this is what I need”, case studies provide all the information related to a particular products.

E-books fill the space of B2C content marketing wherein all the questions on how to get the most out of a service or product will be a part of the content. A content that creates a comfort zone for buyers is another essential part.

Storytelling is become the most liked trend today. With everyday happenings on the social media platforms and content overflowing from all ends, some of the amazing stories are sure to get an edge. Here businesses can add that personal touch & experience with real examples and share it with people, the content they actually want to read.

Blogging by businesses will take the lead in times to came, infact it is already considered as the foundation of all sorts of content marketing actions. Blog encapsulates all types of content, posts, e-books etc. followed by links to the content in the blog.

Creating enough and original content might turn out to be the biggest challenge for content marketing. Marketers would be pressurized to come up with content based on superior quality & originality.

Social media will stand out as the most popular channel with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. distributing content that is liked and shared by people. The content can also be stored in the blog and shared with the social media platforms when required.

Content marketing goals would be sales & retention wherein B2B content would spawn leads & sales and B2C brands would move ahead with a goal of retention & generating word of mouth.

Content would be used all over. A single piece of content would be distributed & stretched to almost all the platforms where marketers will try to maximize their value. Revamping the existing content will also lighten the creation of content.

Mobile optimized content is creating buzz. Creating a mobile friendly content with a click to call option is sure to give you an edge over your competitors. From blogs, websites, case studies, e-books, videos and all other content should be made mobile friendly.

Content curation might be used as an alternative as marketers who fall short on time to create their own piece of engaging & original content shift to curation. Curation would include churning out the best content and sharing it across the social media platforms. It will lead to the brand losing its value & visitors to the page, at the same time being known as staying updated. A proper balance of original and curated content would be a good strategy.

Video would be the greatest trend with amazing video content. If you are planning to go viral with your content, then video is the answer. Short videos with easy steps to follow are good enough for engaging people who further share the content. Compelling content is the need of the hour for longer videos to make people sit back and watch. It should be shareable and eye catching. That’s it!

Infographics are a rapidly growing content format which have the visual appeal & information that is easy to understand and share.

Targeted content will get more results. Understanding the interests of potential customers and creating content based on that would foster engagement. Exploring on the buying behaviour of people will help generate targeted content.

E-mail, the most used and effective marketing channel can be leveraged by understanding the marketing goals and designing the communication to influence the buyers or consumers.

Budgets. There won’t be any slash down when it comes to content marketing. There would be increased spending on the same.

Gamified content strategy is on the rise. As the customers are getting influenced by online activities etc., they are expecting gratification to interact & engage with brands online, content that renders entertainment, learning & rewards is appreciated in a big way.

Expanding Social Media and its users generate a challenge for marketers when it comes to designing the content marketing strategies. Social media will continue to stand out as the greatest resource of real-time content distribution which is rising amongst the audiences.

Understanding the content & digital link is important. Content strategies need to be designed keeping in mind the digital strategies. Anybody could get the likes on Facebook, but what makes brands stand out is what they do with those likes. Its about the target audience and engaging them with content that brings them back everytime to the brand page. Facebook likes are not the content. Content is now also linked to SEO.

A breakthrough content backed by a strategically thought idea that the businesses or brands can deliver across platforms is the strongest step towards success.

Have a look at this, the anatomy of Content Marketing.

Image courtesy: contentplus.co.uk

Brand managers and marketers are on a constant run to look out for ways to build consumer engagement, acquire and retain them. In order to win the race of attracting the target audience marketers will have firstly capture their minds with the product, offers etc. and secondly create connecting content.

Lets see what Zomato.com, that offers restaurants listings of restaurants, food reviews etc. did. It also has Android & iOS apps that are easy enough to use. It is also active on Facebook & Twitter garnering amazing likes and fan following.

Zomato engages with its customers regularly on these social media platforms. They constantly urge their customers to praise the food etc. and also stay clear of being praised and promoting itself everytime. Recently, they came up with Food Porn Site to get more visible, where people could look at pictures of scrumptious & luscious food. Zomato also regularly maintains its presence on blogs & sites to escalate their reach and visibility.

COKE

Coca-Cola strongly believes in content marketing and therefore it is their core strategy of Content 2020 advertising strategy mission: "All advertisers need a lot more content so that they can keep the engagement with consumers fresh and relevant, because of the 24/7 connectivity. If you’re going to be successful around the world, you have to have fat and fertile ideas at the core."

Click here to watch.

COLGATE

Colgate provides an online Oral and Dental Health Resource center with videos, interactive guides, and over 400 articles. It’s a great example of a brand seeing itself as a publisher and using its depth of knowledge to provide valuable information to people, which is the key to content marketing success. Even a two person company can pull from their experience and expertise to create blogs, e-newsletters and e-books in an organized and effective way that reaches prospects.

GENERAL ELECTRIC

General Electric used content marketing to tell the story of the 132-year-old brand through different content channels. They used the content tactic Ecomagination, which is a forum for fresh thinking and conversation about clean technology and sustainable infrastructure. According to Katrina Craigwell, Digital Marketing Manager at GE’s belief, “At the end of the day, if the content isn’t good enough for the end user to want to share it with a friend or colleague, we haven’t quite succeeded.”

So, it is evident how brands are constantly updating & innovating their content, offerings and approach to connect with their customers. Also the way social media platforms are used, it beautifies the brands’ marketing. Content is surely the king as it is encouragingly served & shared to a large audience in multiple ways.

Recently, there was a brand owner’s summit where it was showcased how "Brand marketing has given way to content marketing". Check this link to read through!

A proper plan, relationship building, long term thinking and consistency helps a brand go long way with its content marketing.

What clicks through is the relationship that a brand builds with its influencers and consumers etc. They help drive in traffic by posting and sharing the content from website to various other networks.

Content is the heart of social media. It is the life savior of branding campaigns. Don’t you agree? Yes, it is. It is a lot more than an SEO, a tweet, blog or Facebook post etc. Need to create an original content is very essential. A content that moves away from brand messages to the one that’s relevant & approachable for consumers.

For a content that is not only significant but exceptional, one should aim to create, curate, plan & collect the same.

In 2012, there was a great rise in the use of images in content marketing with social media platforms like Pinterest & Instagram followed by Facebook, Linkedin & Twitter which focused on imagery. With the beginning of 2013, content marketing has evolved yet in another great way.

Brands and organizations need to plan a framework for their content marketing. They have already started looking out for media platforms to purchase & bloggers to manage the same. In almost every industry there is a great prospect for a appropriately planned content strategy.

Times ahead are now going mobile.

Mobile web browsing is also expected to outdo the web browsing through desktops and laptops. Content marketers will therefore have to create content suited to the mobile lifestyle.

The website should be designed in a way that is compatible with the smartphone. And with smartphone users and consumers increasing every fraction of a second they always expect the content to be readable on their mobile devices which they carry almost everywhere they go.

These trends are a witness to a movement that was prevalent for years and now trying to reach a larger mass. Brand managers and marketers have also come to a conclusion that social media channels are not that effective without an appealing content to engage. How would you analyse the role of content in the World where the complete consumer behaviour has changed? Don’t you think content is the most eminent marketing strategy? Do you think 2013 will be the year of content marketing with innovations & intelligence? It is expected that the applications would be developed to improve the efficiency of content creation. Would it help publishers to polish the performance of their content on web or social media? How would it improve the ROI?

Tags:B2B sector, Content Marketing, Content Marketing in 2013, Content marketing Trends, Content strategy, Infographics, Mobile, Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience, Traditional Media | 1 Comment »

Blogger of the Fortnight: S. Pradeep Kumar

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Blogger of the Fortnight

Current Position and Organization:
CEO and Founder at Slashsquare, HellBound Bloggers (HBB)
Educational Background:
Gill Adarsh Matriculation Higher Secondary School
Blog Name:
HellboundBloggers.com

S. Pradeep Kumar is the founder of HellBoundBloggers where he talks about technology related stuff and his blog attracts many guest bloggers every time. This is also one of the best Indian blogs to know about tech buzz.

Pradeep Kumar’s HellBound Bloggers, HBB as they call it popularly is a Technology Blog and Web Community, where they focus on topics like Blogging, Social Media, Technology, WordPress and Internet Tips. He started his blogging journey with Google’s Blogger platform which was the basement for his blogs earlier. For a more potential platform he turned to WordPress. He wanted to have a blog to express his views and did blogging as a hobby. Later he started blogging much more professionally and intentionally.

Time management tops the chart of importance for Pradeep. He is very particular about his passion for blogging and regularly keeps track of a few things helpful for his blog’s quality. Some of them being content & comment moderation, guest posts moderation, affiliate marketing, sponsored review preparation, monitoring social media presence & effects, drafting his own blog post, monitoring SEO and other such factors.

Apart from Hellboundbloggers, Pradeep also has a blog network called Slashsquare and a new hosting blog – HostLater which he manages too. HBB is a part of Slashsquare Network which is an Indian Blog Network and Web Consulting Media.

Pradeep believes that bloggers should enhance their blog with consistent efforts & creating it of a particular standard. This in turn generates a great amount of traffic and interested readers.

With no readers at all initially to amazing authors was a turning point and a blessing for Pradeep who now considers himself to be incomplete without blogging. Experiencing and rising from mistakes of the bygone days was a learning experience too.

Pradeep loves playing games especially racing games. He never forgets to include de-stressing in his schedule where he prefers gaming & reading books. Apart from this he is a great lover of photography too.

Pradeep believes in knowing his audience completely, analyzing their comments, understand their views and then accordingly compile his blog to rise above their expectations. He simply believes that if one is creative then surviving this era of tough competition becomes easy as you can perform accordingly.

The amazing blogging journey that Pradeep has travelled, the passion that he depicts in his Blog HellBoundBloggers and the way it resonates effectively with readers across entitles him to be our Blogger of the Fortnight.

Click here to read more about our Blogger of the Fortnight series.

Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »