Social Media Research | Indian Social Media Landscape - Part 2 Indian Social Media Landscape

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Social Reinforcements For Trade Fairs

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

When it comes to trade fairs and/or exhibitions, employing a sturdy social media strategy ensures that the on-ground face-to-face efforts by an organisation goes down smoothly and reflects a desirable quantifiable output. In spite of the proliferation of social media into almost all aspects of business, there are still places like trade shows (a place where the brand comes alive in the physical world for user/customer experience) which leaves an enormous scope for social media to jump right in and augment a favourable impression as a product/service of consumer choice.

Having said that, careful and meticulous planning often goes into effect before the actual booth is setup at the event. Social media strategies are hence, usually prepared well in advance and are devised in three stages; pre-event, at the event and post event. Here we look at some of the ways in which trade fairs/exhibitions are leveraging few of most popular platforms out there on the social network.

Facebook:

The big daddy of social networks is the first platform that comes up in discussions when a social media strategy is being discussed for an upcoming trade fair. Understandably so, Facebook is a platform where it is possible to tap on to a vast reserve of existing as well as potential customers owing singularly to the massive reach and expanse.

Pre-Event:

Setting up an exclusive event page is the first step in creating a presence on the social map. This should ideally happen a few months prior to the actual day of the event. A careful screening of potential attendees, individuals or groups, has to be done prior to event invites being sent out.

Once the page is set up and invites sent out, content pertaining to the event has to be posted from time to time to spark discussions among the attendees. Having compelling content on the page is the one of the key measures to ensure the audience does not lose interest in the event. It could be anything that concerns the trade fair. From fun trivia about the venue, legacy of the event, increasing number of attendees to serious numbers that speak volumes about how such events and exhibitions have benefited brands and companies over time. Besides this, there could be incentive based posts that could be redeemable at the booth on the day of the fair. This would definitely add traction to the event page.

@ The Event:

Continue the pace set during the pre-event by posting pictures, candid moments, interviews etc. on to the event page. At this stage, the focus should be at the happenings at the fair and the booth in particular. A product/service showcase to the customers at the booth and in the venue is the real time experience that is going to drive sales, eventually.

Post-Event:

This is one of the most crucial stages that cannot be overlooked as it is in this stage that one mines out data, information and cues that determines what/how the next trade fair should go down. On the event page, it is important to keep the dialogue and engagement going on. This serves as a goldmine of insights as the page conversations are evaluated for customer likes/dislikes, needs and wants. Not to mention the frequent follow up lets the audience know that they’re valued and their say is taken into consideration by the firm to come up with products/services that are more aligned to their interests.

Twitter:

The rapidly growing real-time social networking and micro-blogging platform is the key to win loyal and potential customers in the long run.

Pre-Event:

Generate ample amount of awareness and anxiety by running tradeshow #hashtag campaigns to feature in trends. While the awareness is in the process of building, follow partners, associates, sponsors, decision makers and key influencers and follow their movements about Twitter. Run contests and sponsored ads or promoted tweets, if the budget permits and engage with the potential audience while answering queries. Share links about the trade shows and practices from the past from time to time along with the brands that are to be present at the fair. This way, participating brands and companies will also gain enough traction besides returning the favour and highlighting their presence at the trade fair.

@ The Event:

Create topics according to the brands present at the fair and host contests while engaging in quick real time plays. Keeping the followers on the move by encouraging them to participate builds up the tempo and lets the tradeshow trend and gain recognition from other similar tradeshows. A plus side to this is that it falls under the non-participating brand scanner and highlights the potential of the tradeshow to provide a ready set of customers at the next installment of the same. Hence, an increased possibility of tie-ups with more brands and companies.

Post-Event:

Tweet links to the happenings at the event. Interviews, customer-engagement with staff, photos of participants of various contests etc. usually let the followers know that they are not forgotten. Engage with them and make new connections based on leads generated at the event. In fact the regularity and frequency of engagement is one of the key ingredients that go into building up the tempo for the next year. Gauge the results of engagement by getting to know exact numbers of followers gained. There are many online analytics available that throw out such data.

Linkedin:

Linkedin is undoubtedly one of the best social networking platforms where the business networkers and professionals of the world get together to chart a dynamic convergence of ideas pertaining to business growth and opportunities. Let’s see how this forum helps in popularising the trade fairs.

Pre-Event:

Trade shows are all about giving a physical facelift to business and professional connections and in the process, expanding the pool of potential customers and brand evangelists. Since it is relatively easier to profile individuals on Linkedin than other forums, the first order connections of the trade fair group should ideally be the first ones to receive invites. Needless to say, invites could be sent out to other similar groups of interest too. Besides this, adequate buzz created well in advance through posts and engagement with brand or other trade show groups would enable a top-of-the-mind recall.

@ The Event:

Update the group profile with grabs from interviews of the brand representatives at the booth; build up on the engagement by tagging brand pages of brands that are hosting a booth at the tradeshow. This increases synergy and the potential customer base that is part of these discussions on groups could even migrate to the tradeshow group for exchange of ideas, contacts and know-how.

Post-Event:

Convert the leads generated during the fair and build up on the newly formed first order connections. Share and welcome ideas and feedback from them. It is also possible to keep the activity on the page abuzz by talking on various topics on brand marketing, product features, customer service etc.

YouTube |Blogs | Pinterest | Foursquare:

Apart from the big three platforms in the social media space, trade fairs could use a combination of few of these prominent channels to maximize their impression in one, two, or across all the three stages. Say for instance, if the fair is showcasing brands that are high on design factor, it makes sense to create boards on Pinterest during the Pre-Event stage. Visual presentation of the booths or products creates a slight spur in the minds of attendees or potential customers and aids in better reception at the event.

Foursquare, the location based geo-targeting social networking platform allows to place the trade fair (venue) on the map. Creating a check-in venue prior to the event and following it up with quick contests keeps the audience on the hook. Give away goodies for check-ins and put out customised badges till the actual day of the event to build buzz, all the while keeping the audience on the hook.

Also, having a dedicated blog and YouTube channel only adds up to the appeal of an event. Blogging early prior to the live fair, sets a voice. This establishes what the trade fair is going to be about, what people could hope to be greeted with, the purpose and all that goes into making it a grand success story. To aid the blog, a micro-site is often set up alongside in order to hold contests, share information, audio-visual links, photo gallery etc. and let people keep a tab on the pulse of the fair. A YouTube channel meanwhile could be used to showcase video clippings of previous years. For the current running of the trade fair, live feed could be telecasted to those who are not physically present at the venue. Interviews with brand managers, representatives at the booth and customer interaction and contests could be uploaded post the event to have a go-to archive at any point in time for reference.

Do you think trade fairs stand to benefit from these strategies? What are some of the ways in which you think trade fairs can use social media better? Although integration and having the right social mix is what must have crossed every social media strategist’s mind, how do you think these platforms stock up in the long run?

Tags:@ The Event, Blogs, brand visibility, customer interation, exhibitions, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, micro-site, Pinterest, Post-Event, Pre-Event, trade fairs, trade shows, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research | No Comments »

Thinking Beyond Marketing

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Enough has been raved about social media in the highest chambers of corporations in the past few years. While some of them are still in their nascent stage and undergoing an induction in terms of understanding of how this platform has to be utilised, others have steered ahead to employ meticulous strategies to augment their organisational objective.

The use of social media by the corporate world has proliferated to great extent in terms of marketing efforts. Having said that, it will indeed be really myopic to limit the scope of social media to just that. With the ultimate objective of growing business and sustaining growth at the back of any organisation’s mind, let’s look at some of the ways in which firms could make the most of social media:

Think beyond core marketing:

Social media is seen by most corporations as a marketing initiative and less of a brand execution strategy. While its role in marketing is critical and undeniable, corporations need to focus more on the delivery of service. Customer service, in this regard, is increasingly gaining more prominence as today’s fans (customers) on the brand page of a platform are expecting prompt assistance. This can only be realised when those in the head of the organisations consider employing social media more as an extension of brand identity rather than a mere marketing platform.

Put your eggs in select baskets:

Although keeping tabs on the customer pulse is important, having a presence on multiple social networking platforms to lap up all-one-can-get is not quite the smartest of moves. Rather, investing more time, money and energy in select channels could prove to be more worthy and effective.

What this means for the company is that it enables them to use their resources in a more focused manner besides letting them exercise more control over the messaging and addressing customer concerns in the process of building on engagement. For instance, most companies would have a Facebook brand page as a primary social network, followed by twitter for real time connection. YouTube provides for a video back-up. Add to this a corporate web log and get the ball rolling. This works just fine for some of the established corporations. For start-ups and small-medium scale enterprises it might not always be a feasible model to pursue. It becomes more so important for such firms to have a limited presence as it offers scope to amplify the roots and processes within a select set of channels.

Specific and not generic:

In order to grow business it is important to identify the areas within the existing social network of platforms that have something collective yet new to offer. Relying on users to share and spread the word about a firm’s product is a norm for most established firms. Due to their popularity in the industry and a known history of customer relationship, it is possible to reach out to a wider base. But, how about the not so established corporations? For them it is advisable to redirect their messaging to parts of conversations that hold that are more specific. Say, have a website or a link to direct customers/fans/networked users to a specific post, update, tab, tweet etc. would yield a much higher impact. This when substantiated with offers and incentives will lead to a higher response rate.

Partnerships beyond the community:

While we all understand that engagement is crucial to most organisation’s well-being and an essential part of the marketing process, it only does constitute an organic growth. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that for many small or small-medium scale enterprises, even in social media, a lot of focus is on inorganic growth and why shouldn’t it be?

Corporations of diverse sizes have to set aside their resources and allot them to new business development rather than only focusing on community management on certain specific social networking sites. It is wise to encourage and build upon partnerships with other entities. With an array of tools and social media platforms available today, to forge a relationship with people and organisations of credible reputation is not that hard either. For starters, small firms could tie up and contribute to bigger firms and gain visibility among the larger audience/customer base. For instance, Linkedin, one of the foremost social networking platform for professionals can give access to other organisations and grants scope to associate and keep an eye on what others, both competition an market leaders are doing in the social space. With time, this will only add to an increased visibility and chances of acquiring a possibly larger customer base.

Mix mechanism for hiring:

That a whole lot of companies are using social media for hiring and recruitment to a certain extent is perhaps not an alien fact. But, due to the delicate nature of the processes involved (screening) it becomes highly volatile for the human resources to tread this path carefully.

Firms, who use social media to hire, need to have a mixed mechanism in place. The initial process of scanning public profiles of prospective candidates needs to be followed up with manual reference checks. Relying solely on social in this area could save a firm from facing legal charges based on discrimination. With sites such as Linkedin and Twitter, the ideal way to create a prospective talent pool is to first get them to follow the company. Once, they show interest it’s easy to target them with messaging that are job centric. In fact this is an ideal opportunity to showcase an organisation as an employer of choice by sharing specific internal news and events.

In your knowledge, how do you think corporations are using social media in their various aspects? Are you aware of any new facet that could have gone unnoticed? Let us know. It is only through mutual sharing that we collectively grow.

Tags:Brand strategy, business development, community, Corporate, corporation, customers, Facebook, Fans, LinkedIn, Marketing, organisation, partnership, social media platform, Twitter
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research | No Comments »

Social Media Hierarchy

Monday, October 1st, 2012

When the social media landscape was formed, the classification of the audience who took part in it was done on the basis of their characteristics and levels of participation. They were classified as Crowd, Connectors, Customisers, Commentators and Creators. With time though, a new breed began to take shape, one that could not be ignored. And thus emerged what are categorized as ‘Social Collectors’.

Keeping all of these in mind we have formulated the Windchimes 6C Social Evolution Principle.

6C’s of social media in order of decreasing numbers and increasing influence:

· Crowd

· Connectors

· Customisers

· Collectors

· Commentators

· Creators

In the initial stages, an individual is wary of the media and engages in it more as an observer or crowd. This stage allows him to understand the space and the manner in which it functions. Once comfortable with it, he moves on to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter where he first starts interacting with others, or connecting, by making his/her profile. The use is restricted to sharing pictures, videos and links.

The comfort level with this media shoots up phenomenally after this stage, leading to the next level of becoming a customiser. Here he creates a presence on several social media platforms beyond the basics. Also, he starts using advanced features and applications on his profile. Giving a new look to their profiles, adding features that show their personality becomes a part of the profile.

Every user becomes a collector at some point of time. Collectors are those who use social media platforms for aggregating things that they like on social media and the World Wide Web. They essentially gather things for themselves and also, at some level, invite connectors to appreciate their work. We love collecting things. As kids, we collected coins and stamps. As adults, we collect things that vary in size and cost. Right from pens, sunglasses and watches to cars, antiques and even alcohol. Users collect things with the hope that their collection will grow. In social media space, a collecting site is a place where people would like to gather together all the articles, images and things they discover in the course of time. Just like in real life, the desire to return to the trove, in order to see it grow is a huge part of online world. This is the idea that powers sites like Pinterest.

The fifth layer, commentators, is the intermittent one – a layer which most users cross quickly. The user has moved on to a more active one now and considers himself worthy of critiquing and commenting on what he reads online. The participation levels increase with the comments and votes that he leaves behind on platforms. A sense of belonging that comes with the participation compels him to spend more time on these platforms.

The last stage in this hierarchy is that of a creator where the user really starts contributing to the social media space. He now blogs his views and develops content that will add value online. From here on, the user, if he is consistent with this work, can become an expert in his chosen field. His writing will have followers and very soon, he will move on to becoming an influencer. Becoming an influencer is not included as a stage because we believe it is more about a part of life – it is more attitudinal. It is no more a part of functional learning but it has more to do with discipline. Discipline to write consistently, always creating value, reading the feedback – all attributes that make a successful influencer. Get to know more about top 10 social media writers who are key influencers in our new edition of Social Media e-book.

Tell us which category of social ecosystem do you classify yourself in?
Are you a collector or a creator? Share your work with us. We would love to see it and feature some of the best stuff on our blog.

Tags:Facebook, Pinterest, social ecosystem, Social hierarchy, Twitter, Windchimes 6C's
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research, Windchimes Comm | No Comments »

Very Pinteresting

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

This is 21^st century. Here, we pin our interests and how? Pinterest, one of the fastest growing social networking platforms in the recent times, boasts of acquiring close to 12 million unique users in a little over a month and is already creating shockwaves across the web.

Touted to be one of the hottest start ups, Pinterest that came into being in March 2010 has lots in its arsenal to be claiming so. As Wikipedia puts it across, ‘Pinterest is vision board -styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections.’

Let’s take a look at how this new social media sensation is stacked up.

Visual Treat

A visually dominant interface that it has, Pinterest provides a user with an experience that few can complain about. With features embedded into the interface that allows one to comment,like and/or repin on the photo itself, it is a one stop console that displays interactions as well as shares, right on the user’s homepage.

Pinterest Homepage

The moment one logs in with their username and password (currently by invitation only), one is greeted with the posts that have been recently submitted, which like mentioned earlier, are in an image board format. To the top left hand corner of the screen appears the recent activity, feeds/notifications that let the user know who has followed them, who has repined, commented on their pins and/or liked their pins.

Comfortable Navigation

The main controls of this page are on the bar at the top just underneath the logo. Aided by an uncluttered and easy to navigate drop down menu this is an all encompassing bucket of one’s interest fields. Everything (Image posts that are classified into various sub categories), videos, popular and gifts are the main tabs.

Navigation Bar

For the ease of navigation and maximizing the available space, the main bar on the top provides 3 tabs for instant post upload, knowing more about Pinterest and user profile access. They are as namely: Add+, About & <The User name>

Adding Mechanism

Add+ is one stop image or link uploader and a new board creator. About, hosts a gamut of information regarding the use of Pinterest. The policies, etiquettes, help, careers, team, privacy, copyright and terms are included in this section and acts as a ready reckoner. <The User name> allows one to invite or search for friends who are already present or there through linked facebook or twitter accounts.

Gift Store

Gifts, is one of Pinterest’s most promising offering that opens a world of delight to its users. Regardless of any occasion, one gets to scan a repertoire of items displayed in a similar manner depending on their interests. Each item is marked with a price tag at the top left hand corner and clicking upon them reveals the details of how they can be procured. Also, there is an option to repin/like it for future reference. One can comment and engage with the one who posted the item to know details about it in the comment section available right under the magnified view. The same feature is not visible in the thumbnail format.

A Gift on Display

By Popular Demand

On the lines of the gift section, the Popular tab provides the best of Pinterest in one place. This is the most amazing section of the platform. You get to see the images which have created the maximum buzz at one place. And these images can keep you glued for hours on.

Video Library

The Video section is a work in progress right now. Although it has the similar layout to the entire platform, the mere dumping of all videos, one after the other, is something that Pinterest will have to look into at some point of time. A category wise segmentation or a mechanism to add pages rather than an ever expanding scroll is much needed.

Video Pins

Mobile Madness

Any platform worth its salt today launches with a mobile application and Pinterest, too, has an iPhone version available as of now. Keeping with the web platform, the mobile version is also as easy and simple to use. The sections on mobile platform are:

Following Explore

Activity Profile

While the function of these tabs on mobile phone are same as the web version, it is the process of adding a pin via mobile that is a winner. With a tap and drag photo editing option, the image can be pinned with amazing corrections done with a touch.

Pinning for business glory

The platform looks an absolute winner. There are few glitches that need to be ironed out but this platform can be an absolute delight as a classified platform. The Gift section is already drawing in small business enterprise. It wouldn’t be surprising if big players jump in too and soon!

Tags:Board, Gifts, Photo Sharing, Pin, Pinterest, Social Media, Videos
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research | 1 Comment »

Social Media Trends to look out for in 2012

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

The year 2011 has borne witness too many ups and downs and dynamism in the world of Social Media. Radical changes in the interface for two of the most ubiquitously popular Social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, Klout’s remarkable drop in the ranks, Google+ and Facebook in close encounters, viral videos being recognised as a potent medium to catch eyeballs, augmented reality entering the Social Media Space et al.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which brands could maximize user engagement in the year to come.

Social Media as a 360° Brand Promotion Enabler:

Social Media platforms would be expected to aggravate and play a greater role in enabling a 360° communication. When efficiently integrated with outdoor activation and ATL communication it could lead brands to have a much enhanced user engagement with their potential consumers.

This could have a twofold approach. One, a campaign solely triggered on the social media platform supported by an ATL medium could be a building block to establish a much larger audience base. Two, campaigns initially launched on the mass media vehicles and later on reinforced by the social media. There are enough and more examples of brands that have been practicing these two strategies internationally. In India, the scope is huge considering that not many players are either not aware of the potency of combining SM with ATL or they are plain wary.

A look at Aviva’s ‘the big picture’ campaign where Aviva highlighted stories of their customers, partners and employees and brought alive the brand promise of individual recognition, gives us the idea of integrated campaigns that can be done. Entries were invited through Facebook where interested people could submit their photos and get a chance to feature on building facades of 6 big cities of the world. A classic campaign that that got triggered through the social media and supported by outdoor activation.

Aviva’s ‘Donate a Picture’ Outdoor Campaign

Another interesting campaign took place post the inflammatory tweet made by English cricketer Michael Vaughan about Vaseline. Vaseline spawned a campaign in defense of its brand identity and reinforced the message through facebook, where supporters were asked to tag themselves on the page. Needless to say, the campaign did steer in favour of Vaseline’s brand identity and generated a lot of positive reviews.

Print Facebook Ad

Google+ Hangout:

Although relatively new in the arena of Social Media, Google+ Hangout, in all probabilities is a great platform that Google+ could provide brands to create a niche user engagement. Brands, businesses, movies, musicians etc. are always on a lookout to grow their fan base. Internationally Dell and Macy’s have already used Google + hangout successfully to provide customer service and engage with their target audience base face to face. The Muppets (movie) had collaborated with Google+ hangout to create a pre-release.

Characters from ‘The Muppets’ on Google+ Hangout with the makers

In the Indian context, Google+ hangout is still at a very nascent stage. Barring a few popular incidences like Shah Rukh Khan doing a Google+ hangout for his Ra.one, cricketer Virender Sehwag catching up with fans etc., for many brands Google + hangout is still a gold mine waiting to be explored.

Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor on Google+ Hangout with fans

Google+ hangout provides 2 options for hangout: private and public. Although it has limitations on the number of people in a group who could participate in a hangout (10), if carefully planned out, a brand could really build a relationship with its customer/potential customer/stakeholder.

Viral Videos as an Attraction Enabler:

Viral videos have been a talk of the town for many years now, including the year gone by. 2012 will only see it emerging further up the ranks of a marketer’s favourite way to garner attention.

Again, looking closely into the aspect of how many brands are actually doing it and creating enough buzz in the local scenario is important. Internationally brands have been using viral videos to develop pre-launch, launch time, post launch videos at regular intervals and provide exciting content for their consumers that can further grow with the word of mouth.

For example, T-mobile did a pre-planned flash-mob invade Liverpool St train station in London and made a crowd groove to some funky beats. The sheer number of views on their official channel itself were in the tune of 15 million+. Let alone other social networking sites. Closer home, HUL’s Dove evolution’s stop motion video that talks about having self-esteem and keeping it real went viral and in the first year itself it got around 12 million+ hits.

Click on the image below to check out the video:

The point is, there are many brands in India that have still not recognised the potential of a

video in either directly or subtly present the brand to its audience. The recent success of an

Insanely popular video, ‘why this kolaveri di’ is a proof how the film makers of the south Indian film, ‘3’ utilized social network as a pre buzz marketing tool and are soon to set the cash registers ringing.

Location Based sites as a Market Research tool:

Much has been talked about the efficacy of location based Social networking sites like Foursquare, Gowalla, BOOYA, Google Latitude etc. The year 2011 has seen a steady rise in the number of ‘check ins’ happening across platforms. In fact, despite not being able to take off as expected by all, Facebook places has also had a decent number of people checking in through this feature, introduced not so long ago. The point being, geosocial networking is growing fast and is expected to go full throttle in 2012 in all likelihood.

Considering that there is an ever increasing footfall on these LBSN sites, the possibility of using such platforms as a market research tool is quite huge. Tracking the usage and the check in patterns of users and the titles that they win when they check in is just the start. Recognise people’s check in patterns at various locations and earmark them to do related brand promotions.

For e.g.: Considering the demographic profile of a group of users who checks in at a TGIF at regular intervals could be potential customers for say an energy brand like a Red Bull or Cloud 9. Triggering a promo campaign at the POS could be one of the things that could be done. Organising contests, quizzes with a definite brand agenda in mind is just some of the other things what associated brands could look into.

Foursquare Check In

Augmented Reality integration into Social Media:

Augmented Reality has been quite a buzz word in the advertising circles lately. A lot many premium brands have already jumped on to the band wagon recognizing it as a key driver to brand communication and customer engagement. And coming from the understanding that most of them would mostly be live on mobile space in delivering relevant targeted content in a contextual environment, it makes more sense for us in India to tap into that.

Augmented reality has already been here in India and brands like Nike and Ford Figo have already demonstrated the use of quick response codes in their various print campaigns. AR essentially brings alive the dormant senses that usually are not quite active for traditional mass media dissemination channels.

AR for social media is to soon see a rise in 2012 based on the ever increasing presence of the target audience on various social networking sites. A simple .jpeg could contain coded information which when integrated with mobile applications could provide a much engaging experience for users.

For example, Volkswagen’s all new Beetles’ ‘Juiced up’ campaign where Augmented Reality was used to bring alive the spirit of car that was all over the hoardings. All one had to do was point their mobile devices enabled with a decoding app and see the all new Beetle do what it does best. Thrill.

Click on the image below to check out the video:

Although it cannot be said with surety how successful the aforementioned trends are going to be, riding high on the waves of last year’s success stories, they seemingly hold promise. A meticulous and timely dissemination of the message at the right time could spell wonder for brands.

Tags:360 Communication, ATL, Augmented Reality, BTL, Digital, Foursquare, Google, Hangout, Shah Rukh Khan, Social Media, Viral
Posted in Brand Promotion, Predictions, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research | 3 Comments »

Insight in to new Facebook Insights: Part II

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Insight in to new Facebook Insights Part I

Continuing our discovery of the new Facebook Insights, we would now look at growth measurement tools that have been incorporated.

Section 3: Growth Measurement

3.1 Like Sources

Facebook included Like sources in the previous iteration of analytics, but this is now more advanced. This number used to be fairly arbitrary as organic Like sources within Facebook were simply expressed as ‘unknown’:

This has now been expanded upon to give a much more accurate view of how people are not only finding the Page, but also how they Like it. Importantly, this is split down for the different functionalities within Facebook. So, for example, one can now see how many Likes the page is getting as a result of another Page posting a link to the brand Page :

3.2 Demographic Reach

While Facebook offered access to the demographic breakdown of fans, now it gives the admins the ability to see the demographic breakdown of active fans. This shows information on age, gender and location for anyone that was exposed to the content, whether they are a fan of the Page or not. As this gives a more accurate indication of who is actually engaging with the content, one might find that if the demographic breakdown here is different to the demographic breakdown of the fans, then you need to adjust the content to better suit these engaged fans.

3.3 How you reached people?

This graph will allow admins to plot different visits to the Page based on how people were exposed to it. That is to say that if most people are finding the Page through ads, then there is a need to improve the organic content.

3.3.1

Another insight is ‘unique users by frequency’ that gives the average number of times someone engaged with a piece of content. So, for example, one can now see how many people were engaged with your content once, versus the number of people who were engaged with the content 3 times. This counts people that viewed the content, as opposed to commenting or Liking for example.

Verdict:

Overall it seems that Facebook has really jazzed up their insights with tools that give more or less a complete picture of the expanse to which the page admin can monitor developments without having to rely on external softwares. The various new tabs, sub tabs and sections introduced give a real time happening about the brand’s engagement with not only its primary audience (users) but the secondary audience too.

This development also means that as an owner one can gather various data and analytics and determine the course of the page. What kind of content is a hit with the users, what’s not, what will perhaps be received with much enthusiasm, by whom, how etc.

With features such as the Timeline and Subscribers already gaining popularity, carefully integrating the insights with these could only spell wonders for brands. Of course, it does not take away the fact that it becomes a little too complicated from a strategic viewpoint and the results are yet to be seen.

Tags:Facebook, Facebook Pages, Frequency, Growth, Insights, Likes, Posts, Reach, Virality, Visits
Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research, Target Audience | 1 Comment »

Quora Quora!

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Do you use Quora? Should you use Quora? In the last couple of weeks, Quora has become the trendy pick as a breakout site for 2011. Traffic increased tremendously in December but then more than doubled again in early January, as per information released on Quora couple of weeks ago.

What’s the noise all about?

Quora is an online knowledge market, founded in June 2009, launched in private beta in January 2010, and made available to the public on June 21, 2010. Quora aggregates questions and answers on many topics and allows users to collaborate on them.

Quora’s service allows users to ask questions and give answers. Additionally, users can comment on the questions and answers and “upvote” or “downvote” the answers. An “Answer Summary” can be created to reflect the consensus of the community. This summary is a wiki that can be edited by any registered user. Recently a blogging feature called Quora Posts has also been added.

Upvote and Downvote Option

Who is behind the noise?

Co-founded by Adam D’Angelo (Facebook’s former CTO) and Charlie Cheever, it received funding from Benchmark Capital in March 2010, valuing the start-up at a rumored $86 million. Matt Cohler, a former Facebook executive, has taken a board seat at the company.

Co-founder Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever

Why so much of noise?

On December 26, 2010, Robert Scoble, a technology evangelist who earlier was at Microsoft and is known for his prominent blog Scobleizer, blogged ‘Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years?’ This effectively endorsed the site as the next big thing. PC Magazine, Techcrunch, TNW and FastCompany were amongst the many media outlets that quickly followed. This, coupled with social graph on-boarding with Twitter, Facebook and email integration, lead to truly viral growth.

Pegged as a reverse blogging site rather than a simple Q&A site, Quora is trying hard to establish itself as an alternate to Yahoo Answers. According to the co-founders of the site, Quora is canvas waiting to be painted upon. “When you come to a question page on Quora and it’s blank there are a bunch of people waiting for the answer. An expert will look at it and say there’s an audience here and I know exactly what they want to hear. And I actually know about this stuff, or know enough to research and produce a really interesting piece of content, and it’s going to go to the perfectly targeted audience who opted in to hearing about this.”

What seems to be giving Quora the edge over other sites is the fact that each response has to be supplemented with the user’s real identity. This makes the answers that more authentic and believable. People say they feel smarter after they use Quora.

The magic of revealing the identity lies in something about the quality of the people and the content. Real discussions break out on Quora all the time. The signal to noise ratio is extremely high. Quora is a great place to find answers about products from prominent people involved with them. It’s also a great place for those prominent people to disagree, publicly. And this gives it a clear advantage of being live and buzzing.

How is the noise being created?

Quora is solving the problem that Google’s been trying to solve forever – creating the database of intentions. The most important thing about searching is to have a properly framed search string that will lead the searcher to the desired result.

In most of the cases, this perfect question has already been framed and been answered. All one needs to do is find it. And that is exactly what Quora is doing. This cuts out the link web that google provides for a query, or avoid the mindless answers people post on Yahoo answer. And unlike Linkedin, where you may get a great answer, you are not restricted to how many questions you can ask or look for.

Has Quora found a voice in India?

Not yet. Though according to Google AdPlanner, Quora has 30,000 unique monthly users in India — around 8% of total Quora users. Most people who use Quora in India are just beginning to get a feel of how this unique platform works. But make no mistake, going by the rate at which Scribd became the place to research for information in India, Quora will soon be amongst the most popular research site. Just for reference, while researching for this article we came across this question on Quora: “What are the key differences in economic policy of China and India?” which had two responses. Suffice to say, this is a great starting point for any researcher.

Finding its footing in India

Quora could do to Google and Yahoo Answers what Facebook did to Orkut and MySpace, make Q&A sites more social and fun. Whether the noise and excitement survives post the initial euphoria will have to be seen. It’s early days but the concept could do well if the quality of the answers remains high and spam remains low.

To read more on Question and Answer site, check our previous post.

Tags:audience, SMM, Social Media, Social Media tools
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