Social Media Marketing | Indian Social Media Landscape - Part 6 Indian Social Media Landscape

Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category

The Golden Touch

Monday, October 1st, 2012

Nothing spurs us towards doing better work than being appreciated for our work. And when a global recognition comes our way, we just take it as a sign of raising the bar even further.

One of our clients, ITC Hotels, Gurgaon, won quite a few awards at the 2012 Social Hotel Award in the brand category.

The hotel was declared runner up in Online Reputation Management and Best Twitter account in the brand category.

The brand was also awarded the Best usage of digital video award wherein the videos were hosted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Over 1,300 views on YouTube and numerous comments were received.

Says Aditi Upadhyay, Associate Maven at Windchimes who handles the ITC Hotels account, “we engage every single user who writes to us, and make sure they get personalized attention. Thus elevating their experience & delighting them.”

Well, like we said, we are gearing up to think bigger and do better!

Tags:Awards, Digital, Facebook, ITC Hotels, Starwood, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Awards and Recognition, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter | No Comments »

When Luxury Got A Social Facelift

Saturday, September 15th, 2012

Hospitality was not among the sectors which were early adopters of social media but now it’s become an integral part of their marketing and other activities, and more importantly for the online reputation management and customer relationships. Previously, the online activities of hotels, apart from their own website, were limited to all they can do on TripAdvisor; but the scenario is fast changing. The most important thing in hospitality industry is to provide a personal touch while servicing customers and social media has been spearheading the efforts. Here’s a look at how the hospitality players could leverage (and are leveraging) the social medium.

Building the brand with effective Online Reputation Management

In today’s scenario, travelers are voicing and seeking opinions on review sites, social networks and blogs, propelling the relevance of online reputation to a level of importance that rivals price, location and brand in influencing purchase decisions. And thus, it is necessary to create an end to end process to effectively manage the online reputation of and to enhance the overall online health of the brand which in turn influences the traveler’s choice in selecting a hotel.

ITC Hotels built a three-fold strategy for the same and cracked it:

1. A real time reporting mechanism to track and monitor all relevant mentions across platforms.

2. Identify & engage with bloggers, travelers, & other influencers to generate credible online positive impressions.

3. Engaging with guests in real time by tacking foursquare check-ins and tweets, and effective conflict resolution over Twitter.

Building credibility with Foursquare concierge:

Ritz Carlton took and interesting and indirect approach to use Foursquare by creating a concierge on the platform. They simply put exclusive tips at the places around their properties are situated. With having presence in multiple locations and countries it is mammoth task, but sure worth the effort as it gives their visitors (and other Foursquare users too) a perfect ‘local experience’. For this purpose they created a Ritz Carlton page on Foursquare and started posting interesting tips about nearby landmarks, restaurants, and hidden gems for each of their 75 locations. It was to serve a dual purpose of guiding their guests through the real world, and also to extend their brand to the larger foursquare community. Within a week of launching this campaign, their Foursquare page gained 1000+ followers.

Building online properties to increase brand recall:

ITC Hotels again have recently started two weekly activities #WineWednesday and #InspiringTastes on twitter. The objective of both the activities is to create valuable content and information for the audience on twitter around the subjects ‘wine’ and ‘food’ respectively. Both properties have three levels of activities:

1. Tweeting exclusive tips, information on the subject.

2. Organizing interactive Tweet-Chats with experts on topics and answer audience queries.

3. Organizing physical Tweet-Ups on the subjects.

Currently, both the activities are in the inception stage but they are gradually picking up pace with a 200% retweet rate and a reach of 25000+ for an hour long interactive TweetChat with 10+ audience questions.

Social Loyalty Programs:

It is a known fact that acquiring a new customer costs 5-10 times more than selling to an existing customer. An effective social loyalty program establishes this as a proven fact and while a lot of hotel properties are creating shockwaves in the space there remains still a huge segment who are still exploring their options.

The only difference in simple loyalty program and social loyalty program is in the former points are earned on every purchase, and in the later points are earned for every social action i.e. share, like, comment etc. While helping repeat sales the social loyalty program is also an important tool to increase the social mentions of the brand, and thus the reach and voice.

Following are the two key things to be kept in mind while creating a social loyalty program:

1. Simple point system: never-ever confuse the audience with complex systems.

2. Keep a tier-system in place: the rewards should increase exponentially for loyal customers.

What do you think about some of these campaigns? Do you think they are potent enough to grab eyeballs? Share your views on the same in the comments section below. It’s always great to hear from you all.

Tags:food, Foursquare, Hotels, ITC, Loyalty, Online Reputation Management, Ritz-Carlton, strategy, wine
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 3 Comments »

Reality Shows Pack a Social Punch

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

Let’s admit it. Social media has radically changed the way content is consumed and enjoyed. Entertainment too, has fallen prey to its charms. Television being the biggest and the most prominent source of entertainment has undergone a sea-change when it comes to doling out programmable content. Leading the pack are the reality shows that have almost single handedly outweighed other scripted programs. And these reality shows provide an excellent opportunity for integrating social media to enhance viewers’ experience.

Viewer engagement gets a boost in the arm:

The ulterior purpose of getting onto the social media band wagon for any reality TV show is to get more viewers and creating better viewing experiences. For the most part this would mean how a show could engage fans and hold their interest in stead. Through various social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube etc. the reality shows could harvest some fame beyond the accepted limited shelf life of such series.

Setting up the command center:

Facebook, the biggest and the most ubiquitously popular social networking site of all could lay the foundation for any reality show and serve as their command centre. A dedicated page on the website could be the base during the pre-launch days to create buzz. The pre-launch buzz could be created by an announcement on the brand’s (channel’s reality show) page, followed by Facebook ads that appear across profiles. The initial profile of contestants and judges during this stage would let the audience choose their favourite and build up anxiety and anticipation.

While it airs on the TV, this same page could be used to get the audience talking in real time and post the airing of an episode, the build up to the next episode could kick off here besides being aided by promotions on other parallel social platforms. Once the show has commenced, episode specific updates in real time could keep the audience connected to the show. In case the show is a competition of sorts, then at this stage the brand page could be used for polls and voting. Activities such as debates around contestant behavior could be initiated. One could even bring in innovative gaming and engaging content in sync with the theme to propel interactivity and increased stay on the page. In fact, by employing other real-time platforms further more engagement can be built upon (We’ll talk about it in a moment).

Post each episode or season, the highlights could be shared here and the fans could be encouraged to comment by sharing their opinions on the episode and their expectations from the next in the row.

Establishing visual reinforcement:

YouTube by its nature is engaging and has its features aligned to that of a reality television show which makes it more so a medium to be engaging the show’s audience. A dedicated channel with a customized background and video clips of various contestants, hosts and judges could keep the audience on the hook when they’re not actually watching the episode.

From previews and highlights to inside peaks and behind the scenes of episodes to post episode/season reviews and guest speaks the show could have a lingering effect in the minds of its target audience. Integrating it with channels and sharing such videos will potentially lure in others and help expanding the viewer base.

Readers would agree that gripping viral videos are stellar performers when it comes to creating awareness and increase viewership, as recent history bears testament to it. Similar viral video content based on the show’s theme, or even candid moments and bloopers, could prove to do wonders for the brand and what better place to start than the brand’s YouTube channel, a warehouse of all video content related to the show?

Lock, load and explode:

Twitter and Foursquare, again, in the geo-location and real time domain are the leading social networking sites. Considering the fact that the shelf life of a reality show is rather limited vis-à-vis a scripted TV program, with the show’s presence on a dedicated page on twitter or through integration with Foursquare, the brand could tap on the real time engagement during the show and get an estimated geo-targeted reach.

While twitter will keep the audience engaged in real time by making them a part and parcel of the show by gauging their response and cues, foursquare would enable the brand to know where there select audience check in from time to time. This could prove to be quite a handy research tool to determine the content the audience prefers by tapping on their psychographics and in the long run, to be treated as primary research for future projects.

An interesting concept, for use of such real time platform could be, audience round, where people on Twitter are asked to suggest next action or performance and then the participants of the reality show having to execute the same. This would probably be the highest form of engagement that the audience can have with their favourite shows.

The day after tomorrow:

The success of reality shows like the American Idol, So you think you can dance and closer home shows like MTV Roadies, Satyamev Jayate, Indian Idol, Big Boss etc. gives us a fair understanding how these shows are doing social media right.

For instance, Aamir Khan who made his debut on Indian Television with Satyamev Jayate, received a phenomenal response from both fans and critics and the social media literally exploded. Right after the first episode, the show’s website received 42, 000 likes on Facebook. To capitalize on the buzz, the debut episode was made available on the website for viewing right after the telecast. The episodes were in due course uploaded on the channel’s YouTube page for those who might have missed out on the live telecast.

In fact, the synergy of reality TV shows and social media is turning out to be such a crowd puller that it has been recently announced that the producers of American Idol, will release their latest reality TV series on Facebook in a move that would truly be historic. A Chance to Dance is slated to be the first TV show to air on the social network and cable channel at the same time. According to Dean Alms, VP of marketing at Milyoni, that is building the social entertainment software on Facebook, “Reality TV can take advantage of the concentrated activity on social networks to build buzz around the show week to week.”

Are these signs of changing times in an age where reality TV shows are trying to grab a bigger portion of the (audience) pie? You decide. Let us know what you think of the integration of social media with reality shows as a measure to create that difference.

Tags:American Idol, Facebook, Foursquare, MTV Roadies, Reality Shows, Satyamev Jayate, TV Channels, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

The Impending Surge Of Social Realtors

Thursday, August 16th, 2012

Today, when any industry that one could possibly come across has chewed on a slice of social media, what are the odds that housing and real estate would lag behind in grabbing a piece of the same? In fact, it often poses as one of the most lucrative of all industries to monetize and mobilize buying and selling of properties through social media.

A new generation of tech-savvy home buyers, sellers and real estate agents are increasingly taking to social media to expand their scope of visibility and amplify their reach to potential customers. In fact, our understanding of the space is such that social media has reached a stage where merely having a presence on a social networking site does not assure success for a brand. For real estate and housing too, it becomes imperative to have the right mix of platforms and strategy to drive in engagement and eventually returns.

A Stellar Click:

In order to understand how deep this industry has spread its roots into the social media and how tactfully this space can be used to a firm’s advantage, let’s take into account a recently conducted campaign by Qatar Coral for Real Estate Development L.L.C. The campaign was driven through Instagram for Ramadan (a holy month) titled ‘#Ramadangram’. Leveraging on this popular photo-sharing social networking forum, the weeklong contest invited users to capture and showcase their special Ramadan moments through their eyes. The winners stood to win fabulous prizes including iPads and a Nikon D-90 DSLR camera. Participants entering for the contest were required to have an account on both Instagram and Twitter. The winners were contacted through a direct message on Twitter and announced on the company’s Facebook page, which had by then become an interactive forum for Qatar Coral to engage with its fans. All this happening in the wake of their recently launched twin plush towers for contemporary living at the heart of the state of Qatar just worked wonders for the firm.

The result was most commendable. It served as a boost to the company’s image and helped it in forging a lasting bond of trust and mutual admiration with its existing patrons and prospective buyers and this campaign bags an ace in our books.

Zero Down:

An emerging trend for a handful of real estate firms on social media is the use of the geo-location function. By employing tools like Hootsuite, keyword searches could be made and a targeted pool of potential buyers, sellers, and investors etc. who are looking for properties in a particular area could be tapped into. From here on, people who tweet with search queries could be directly engaged with by the firm.

The Audio-Visual Boost:

Talking about the right mix of platforms, here’s how a certain real estate firm made an impression on the social media. YouTube channels, that have become quite a rage lately due to the audio-visual nature of the platform fetches Coldwell Banker quite a few brownie points. The real estate firm has enabled the geo location function on their channel that upon having granted permission, uses the user’s computer’s IP address to pinpoint his/her location on the globe and then displays the most relevant videos. In our opinion, it’s quite an ingenious move on the firm’s part. What’s more? Through channels such as this realtors could provide a sneak peek into a property by adding walk around or slideshows of the interior and various features of the property. This not only improves the visibility but also the increases its chances of appearing higher up on SEO.

Base Camp:

Facebook, the largest social networking platform too, has a lot in store for housing and real estate industry. Say for instance, way back in 2008, Jonathan Rivera created one of the first Real Estate Referral group as a way to find agents to refer and exchange property cues for ‘out of area’ leads. The page has tabs such as ‘get referrals now’ and ‘how to’s’ which have videos that provide a know-how of generating referrals. If numbers are anything to go by, the page currently boasts of 59,343 fans and reflects on how successful the venture has turned out to be. Ever since then, many such property referral groups have come into foray.

Acquire and Expand:

Last but not the least, when it comes to housing and real estate, how can one possibly not consider the biggest social media platform for professionals. Linkedin presents a unique platform to property dealers and investors to hold discussions and establish connect with potential customers. Landlords, property developers and builders could get a great start with the ‘groups’ feature. A quick search in the ‘Groups’ search bar for properties, real estate or housing and the results it throws up is not even funny. Basis these, potential connections could be formed and further information about properties could be discussed through various other forums for more details.

Closer home, developers have already started championing the benefits of social media. Take for instance, Lodha Developers Senior Marketing VP, Samujjwal Ghosh. According to him, his company’s involvement in the social media platform is fueled by its intention to leverage the large pool of active social media users, inform, engage and interact with them and their peer groups, causing for a positive perspective of their brand and subsequently influencing purchasing decisions over a period of time.

Social media has most definitely arrived but it appears that although some housing and realtors have already started utilizing this goldmine of a platform, there are some who are still wary about it.

Do you think in this age of burgeoning infrastructural development, social media could prove to be the key to unprecedented growth for realtors? Share some of your opinions in the comments section below. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you all.

Tags:Coldwell Banker, Facebook, geo-location, Hootsuite, Housing, Instagram, LinkedIn, Lodha Developers, Quatar Coral, Real Estate, Referral, Social Media, YouTube
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

The Mighty Olympian Social Network

Saturday, August 4th, 2012

In social media, all kinds of community events have found their second wind, and it’s a powerful one at that. The pics-or-it-didn’t-happen phenomenon coerces the most reluctant/ clueless of users to document major developments around them online. There’s no reason for me to wax poetic about the sheer strength of social media, except to remind you that if you’ve ever done something remotely stupid in public in the past few years, chances are you’re an internet celebrity and you don’t even know it.

The kind of publicity that social media affords brands is mind blowing in itself, and for an affair such as the Olympics, the possibilities were endless. Thankfully, the Olympics committee acknowledged this and, much in advance to the events, put the following plans together, apart from updating the usual Twitter and Facebook feeds:

1) Athletes Hub – An aggregator app allowing users to follow athletes and gain badges combined with a live feed of users’ interaction dubbed ‘Live From The Village’.

2) Instagram – With over 400 Olympians already on Instagram, and scores of users feverishly sharing anything remotely Olympics-related, setting up an Instagram profile was an obvious step. The profile has gained extreme momentum, rising from the 25,000 followers before the Games began to the current 95,000 (and counting).

3) Tumblr – One of the most exciting and rewarding steps taken by the committee are its 4 official Tumblr pages – Faces of Olympians, Olympic Fashion, Olympic Moments (highly recommended!) and the feed aggregator.

4) Foursquare: Specials introduced enabling 4sq users to win free tickets to the Games, upon checking in to a venue.

Google+ was duly ignored despite the 1.6+ million users the IOC boasts. Just as well.

That isn’t so hard to believe since the opening ceremony that threw every single British thing against the wall in hopes of something sticking, and it did. Apart from a bazillion farm animals, this Danny Boyle-designed psychosis incorporated a model of Glastonbury Tor, two mosh pits, and the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world. But the fun didn”t stop there, because it”s not an Opening Ceremony unless a 40-foot-tall Voldemort does battle with 30 Mary Poppinses.

Also, when Mr. Bean helps you open the ceremony with the theme from Chariots of Fire? That, dear sir, is a thing to behold.

Did it outdo China”s terrifying show of synchronicity from 2008?

Well, the opening ceremony alone resulted in more than 9.66 million related tweets, which is more than the entire Beijing Olympics in 2008. To be fair, the social networking giant was in its infancy back then, but the massive numbers means it”s safe to say this Twitter phenomenon might have some staying power.

Olympics have been brought back to life via a slew of YouTube videos, too, although most of them focus largely on the more important facets of the Games, such as an over-enthusiastic Games’ worker who you’d heart, the rollercoaster-esque (and HILARIOUS )expressions of a US gymnast’s parents watching her compete, or an Olympic-themed water-gun fight. However, live feeds of various news broadcasters have proven more than sufficient to stay updated constantly, while Indian media takes a fast-and-loose approach towards TV broadcasting.

The fervor with which the interwebz have dived into everything that’s Games’-related, from the severely unfortunate uniforms of Spanish Olympians to the mega-wave of joy that went through all of Facebook and Twitter in India over winning the only medal we have yet, this year, (Gagan Suneja – shooting) is far from astonishing.

Although, if it gets tiresome after a while you can always take pointers off of this gorilla.

Tags:Athletes hub, Beijing, campaigns, Foursquare, Instagram, London, Olympics, Social Media, Tumblr
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

LinkedIn’s Friday Dressing

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

With the big giants like Facebook and Twitter having already received a facelift in the last one year or so, could LinkedIn be left far behind? The world’s leading social networking forum for professionals has recently undergone a cosmetic facelift and it looks quite promising. Let’s take a look at how impressive these changes are.

Lasting Impression:

The first impression is that LinkedIn has definitely geared up to become more engaging. The user interface has seen some dramatic changes while retaining many features almost as it is. The most visible change is doing away with the additional white space that the previous layout had.

Additionally, LinkedIn has introduced a clear demarcation of the various elements of the page into sections for comfortable viewing and ease of access. A dash of blue, black and grey has been added to the menu bar at the top to give the home page a more dynamic look. This menu bar though floats around at the top of the page regardless of wherever one navigates to within the page. This makes navigation simpler and holds the attention of the people on the page longer.

Also, in order to keep the platform dynamism quotient high, the new layout gives the user more updated information through his/her networks with the introduction of a small blue box at the top that keeps a score of updates in the real time; and they don’t stop at that.

Few of the sections to the right wing of the page give out clear numbers and statistics to an individual’s networking circle. The ‘who’s viewed your profile’ is the cue to discovering potential connections based on interest and an option to connect or message them is present, based on the degree of connection one has with that user.

Getting Personal:

The most radical feature that now greets us as we land on to our page is the introduction of LinkedIn Today panel that acts as a storyboard for all the information or news feed that one would require. What this means is, there is more customized flow of information on the news feed that is virtually impossible to miss out. Add to that, the improved graphics and bigger images that utilizes the space with a photograph to supplement each story. What’s more? Just like Twitter, this feature enables user to be in tandem with the hottest trending topics in their professional network with suggestions to follow industries and customize news. We say, it’s a winning move indeed. Although we must add that the photographs of users in the feed could have used some better placement as the left edge has no margin space, which makes it appear to end abruptly on one side.

Linkedin’s Caroline Gaffney had to say this about the move behind these changes – “We’ve revamped the entire homepage experience with a new look and feel to make it easier to scan and find the information that matters most to you”.

So long, Twitter:

In extension of the same, another key feature that many experts feel will be instrumental in determining the course of LinkedIn is the much talked about fallout with Twitter. Previously, a lot of content that used to surface on LinkedIn was directed through Twitter and not all of them were relevant to the professional network. Twitter now has limited its API to prevent tweets from automatically posting to LinkedIn’s social network, which means the amount of effort and time that goes into sharing information across platform will go up. Such a move can be viewed with a double lens. It can either mean that people will get to LinkedIn and post content which would mean more relevant and platform centric posts. Or it could see a drop in engagement as not many would like to take this much of effort. The jury is still out on that.

What is your initial reaction to the changed layout of LinkedIn? Is it a better shift than what Facebook and Twitter underwent? Share with us your feedback in the comments section below. We are always happy to hear from you.

Tags:connection, Facelift, LinkedIn, makeover, network, platform, professional, social networking, Twitter
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 3 Comments »

When money matters, grow social

Friday, July 27th, 2012

Puzzled by the all invasive barrage of social media around you? If you’re working in the finance sector, chances are high that you have more reasons to feel the urge to decipher this behemoth of a tool that marketers all around are raving about. If you are still wondering as to what an organization could do to strengthen their brand’s appeal in the minds of its audience and how, look no further. A comprehensive workshop devised specifically for officials in the finance sector is set to iron out the creases and get the ball rolling.

Belief of the past:

Banking, insurance and other financial services have been traditionally known to be relying on mainline advertising to reach out to their target audiences. Primarily, perhaps, because of the general perception that diverting marketing expenses to social media (which was until recently considered to be at a nascent stage) would not reflect highly on the ROI. Although there is a constant fear lurking in the minds of most, if cautious and well measured steps are taken, this perception could be used to turnaround the perception of an industry that is previously known to be non-marketing savvy.

Happenings of the present:

Today, a large segment of these institutions are waking up to the proven potential of social media in engaging audience on a one-on-one basis. Internationally, companies operating in the finance sector have already identified social media as a crucial element in the marketing mix. Campaigns are either exclusively being run on social media or in confluence with the traditional media. Needless to say, the very nature of a financial service institution is such that it requires a personal touch in addressing the wants, requirements and scopes of an individual”s monetary needs. Social media enables such brands to bridge the gap in remarkable ways. To gain a deeper insight into how social media can benefit financial institutions, click here.

Scope of the future:

We at Windchimes Communications have explored various facets of how an organisation in this sector can utilise social media to its optimum mark and establish a chord of connect between self and the target audience.

Keeping the same in mind, a workshop service has been introduced to help financial institutions stay abreast with an in-depth knowledge and application of social media. It essentially will, initially, help the brands to generate leads and enquiries both organically and inorganically through social media. In the long run, it will help build the financial brand stability of the firm and get the products endorsed by the influencers of purchase decision. So, if you think you are ready to take the leap and set marketing benchmarks for your organization, you know where to head this August.

Digital and Social Media Workshops:

Click here to know more about Digital and Social Media workshops.

Tags:Banking, BFSI, Finance, Insurance, marketing mix, ROI, securities, Workshop
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Windchimes Comm | No Comments »