Social Media | Indian Social Media Landscape - Part 13 Indian Social Media Landscape

Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

The Social Star

Friday, May 25th, 2012

The unprecedented involvement of Social media in our daily lives has made it impossible for anyone to overlook the impact on an individual’s image. A celebrity in this regard is therefore at the crossroads of a vigorous image makeover and upkeep. The celebrity today has associations, most of which are beyond the realms of self.

There are a few factors and situations that are to be considered while dealing with a celebrity’s presence on the Social Media. Here’s chronicling a few of them:

Celebrity for Image upkeep and branding:

A celebrity’s popularity in current times is subject to the number of fans and the positive share of voice, online. Image building traditionally, used to be a painstakingly slow and elaborate process. Thanks to a slew of social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace et al, the process has picked up a bit of pace.

A celebrity’s presence on social media needs devoted time, energy and a bit of predetermined strategy with occasional spur of the moment thoughts. Each celebrity has a distinct nuance and tonality to his/her way of being and the fans know it well. This is why it becomes crucial to establish a voice that reflects the personality, opinion and brand of an individual.

Celebrities like Lady Gaga (just breaking the 25 million followers mark on twitter) and Ashton Kutcher have a humongous fan following on twitter and they engage pretty actively with them by posting events and activities from their daily lives, quotes and share links that interest them etc.; enough to provide fodder for their star-struck fans.

Lady Gaga’s Twitter page reflects the largest fan following for any any celebrity on Twitter

Closer home, celebrities from various walks of life have already started to connect to their fans via Social Media. Close on the heels of their international counterparts, our very own Bollywood actors, leaders, sportsmen, celebrated authors etc. have resorted to twitter, Facebook, blogging platforms etc. to strengthen their appeal among fans. The new breed of celebrities including the likes of Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Mahinder Singh Dhoni, Priyanka Chopra, Chetan Bhagat, etc. along with the old stalwarts like Amitabh Bacchan, Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan and others have connected with fans to provide a sneak peak of their future releases, share their daily routine, practice sessions, etc.

A platform to showcase talent:

This is not just with established actors. In fact even musicians who look forward to making a cut have been using MySpace besides twitter, Facebook and blogs to promote their initial releases. This mostly works as a precursor to generate enough buzz that could subsequently lead to album sales.

Actor Charlie Sheen, who had at that time just recently taken to twitter, on 7th March 2011, tweeted for an ad “I’m looking to hire a #winning INTERN with #TigerBlood. Apply here http://bit.ly/hykQQF #TigerBloodIntern #internship #ad”. Needless to say, the response was quite overwhelming. By March 11^th, there were already 475,375 clicks on the original link and about 82, 148 in surplus applications for the internship that had been received by Sheen’s social media firm from around 181 countries. If statistics are anything to go by, this kind of response is evident that a celebrity’s word to fans, draw in a lot of attention and could in turn inspire action.

Charlie Sheen’s tweet that caused quite a sensation

Celebrity as Cause Endorsers:

Promoting a social cause and committing to humane activities is what a modern day celebrity is leveraging the social media for. Owing to a large number of doting fans, a celebrity in a way becomes the torch-bearer for a more optimistic, tolerant and compassionate society. On occasions, they lend in their support for various fund-raising campaigns and help spread awareness and put up a show of solidarity through Social Media.

For instance, celebrities like Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Oprah Winfrey spend an incredible amount of time working and supporting charities and other fund-raising causes. Ian Somerhalder, who is a prominent user of Twitter and known-environmentalist, tweets about his charities to help draw in support from his fans.

Lady Gaga’s ‘Born this way foundation’ is one such initiative on the similar lines to build a society that is more acceptable of differences and celebrates individuality. This movement was to empower the youth and inspire bravery.

Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way Foundation’ Facebook tab

Two years after the devastating earthquake off the coast of Haiti, ‘Haiti: Aid Still Required’ online campaign took off. The ones who lent their support included about 40 celebrities (Maroon 5, Sting, Alicia Keys, Lady Antebellum etc.) with a combined social following of more than 125 million people on Twitter and Facebook. The money raised in collaboration with www.snobal.com (an online micro-donation portal) is to be used for funding infrastructure, trauma relief, rape victims, reforestation, schools and orphanages.

Haiti: Aid Still Required

The video made by Maroon 5 in support for Haiti: Aid Still Required

In India particularly, Social Media has another dimension to its functionality. In a country where the grapevine stirs up quite a lot of buzz, often harbouring on borderline slander, Social Media provide a platform to the celebrity to voice out their opinions and add credibility to their brand.

Also, Social causes have received a fair share of boost, riding high on a celebrity’s mileage. One of the foremost, Aamir Khan who is regarded as a part-time activist because of his several associations with social issues has garnered enormous support through his fan following.

Nurturing the Medium:

The most evident advantage that a social media platform provides to the stars and their fans is the proverbial breaking down of the 4th wall. Not till this medium came up, would a common person have imagined having a direct conversation with their demi-gods. What it also means is, that this platform is a very important listening tool for the celebrities. While they would want to deliver what their fans want, this would only happen if they listen to the audience and there is no better place to listen than social media.

The Scope Therefore:

With celebrities mushrooming from all sections of the society at a pace that can outpace the medium itself, it is increasingly getting important for celebrities to know their game well and play it in their favor. More often than not, time does not permit a lot of them to nurture their association with fans and at the most what happens is information is doled out just to keep that eager fan on the hook. To gain a following that is healthy and interactive, one must invest time.

Tags:Aamir Khan, Ashton Kutcher, Celebrities, Charlie Sheen, Facebook, Haiti, Lady Gaga, social cause, star, Twitter
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Social makes a Mobile Star

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

There are no second thoughts to the fact that Social Media is here to stay. Primarily, what has enabled social media to reach such stellar heights is the explosion of Smartphones empowered with Social Media widgets that let one stay social, practically all the time. It is only justified now to take a look at what these various handset manufacturers are themselves doing on Social media to woo prospective buyers.

Nokia:

During the launch one of their products, Nokia N95, which came in about at the same time as that of Apple’s iPhone launch; the team at Nokia anticipated how overwhelming the enthusiasm about iPhone would be and how it will overshadow their device. What followed was an aggressive social media campaign spanning multiple platforms, prior to the launch and post that too.

Nokia did an extensive research while meticulously listening to what customers think and feel. For sharing experiences, annoyances and ideas about cell phones in general, it set up a dedicated blog.

During the development stage, there were constant blog updates by employees, developers and enthusiasts alike to keep one and all in the loop. Post launch, a viral campaign for the Nokia N95 about ‘jealous computers’ generated a massive online response. This one most definitely qualifies as one of the most highlighting campaigns of all time that testifies to doing social media, right.

The jealous computers website as a part of the viral campaign

More recently, the launch of Nokia Lumia had the Social Media set abuzz along with support from on-ground activation. Nokia UK on its launch of Lumia in London, uploaded a video on YouTube of an actual activation that brought together Sound artist, Deadmau5 and world’s most advanced 4D projection technology to create a sensation. In no time the video went viral and created waves across the World Wide Web.

Nokia Lumia ties up with Deadmau5 for its London launch

Nokia’s Facebook page currently has over 8 million fans and hosts dedicated tabs for ‘Discovering Nokia Lumia’, ‘Lumia Family’, the next big product from under the Nokia banner, ‘Nokia 808 PureView’.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has already started experimenting with the latest platform to hit the Social Media world, Pinterest. Microsoft is holding a contest where one stands a chance to win a brand new Nokia Lumia 900. Users have to re-pin a massive image of the phone and create a board explaining what he/she would with the free time. Although a bold move, the results of its success is yet to be ascertained.

Samsung:

Samsung Galaxy S III social media presence campaigns have already shown us what is next. The live ‘Unpacked 2012’ in London for the launch of the same, a video uploaded by Samsung on to YouTube has already garnered close to 35,000 hits in a week’s time. With a robust 7.5 million strong Facebook fan base, Samsung has a dynamic showcase of their latest products to have hit the market. Dedicated product tabs for Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 10.etc. give out essential details regarding the device and viewers are encouraged to interact real-time on Twitter.

Samsung Galaxy S III Unpacking at London

YouTube videos of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 consisted of a mix of professionally produced promo films and homemade videos presented in a honeycomb reactionary flash navigation at the top of the Samsung YouTube channel.

Professionally produced videos include the Samsung sponsored Superbike Team (Samsung crescent racing team) shown using the Samsung Galaxy tab as a part of their race preparations on test day.

Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 being used in race preparation

BlackBerry:

The Canadian based former heavyweight in the mobile manufacturing business, Research in Motion’s (RIM) flagship Smartphone line, Blackberry has, despite having lost its unique position in the marketplace today, has a loyal and a strong fan following of more than 11 million on its Facebook page. Its YouTube channel boasts of a staggering 36 million views and counting. Despite not having an aggressive social media plan, it has still managed to hold the interest level of its customers through the 3 primary social media channels i.e. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The Twitter page for RIM has Blackberry community managers on their twitter background, lending more credibility to the overall real-time networking with customers and prospects. Dedicated Tab on Facebook celebrating their flagship property, ‘BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) Generation’ is a way of connecting to fans. This encourages fans to participate in various challenges, share experiences and grow as a community. Other tabs serve as a library for product catalogs and Apps.

One particular campaign exclusively promoted through the Facebook brand page tab, BlackBerry Trade Up has been a unique initiative by Blackberry to let users upgrade to a higher model by going through a systematic procedure as explained on the tab. By the end of the procedure, the user gets a final shipping label with a final quote that he/she can use at the store to procure the handset.

BlackBerry’s Trade Up tab on Facebook

Micromax:

This Indian, wireless telephone manufacturer has been gradually notching up its social media presence as a way to combat competition from global giants in handset manufacturing business.

Micromax Mobile’s YouTube channel has been seeing a steady rise in the number of views and currently stands at about 410k which is pretty decent a count for an underdog in this business. Through Facebook, it targeted its gradually climbing user base by holding a unique youth oriented ‘Re-design the logo’ Contest is in association with Talenthouse India, an online platform for artists. The response was overwhelming and this idea of social crowdsourcing was an ace in the books for all who are trying to create an impression on the Social front.

Micromax’s Re-design the Logo Contest on Facebook

The road to El Dorado!

From what is evident, mobile is the key element of future. Chances are, more handset manufacturers would foray into the market and in due course of time enter the big league. A look at Micromax and we can pretty much anticipate similar ventures. With the competition to outsmart rivals growing intense and the traditional mediums not showing a definite promise in making a sure cut, Social Media is going to be the differentiator.

Whoever gains the majority share of voice in the social space has an edge over the rest. The ones in the big league are doing it already. The ones who are coming up, are getting there, the others are bound to follow suit. With the advancement in technology aiding seamless integration of social and real-time media, this industry can expect a lot of action in times to come.

Tags:BlackBerry, Micromax, mobile phones, nokia, samsung, Social Campaigns, Social Media
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

The Rise of the New Social Government

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Social Media is pervasive of all industries and sectors in today’s information age. It is only imperative that the government and its agencies too, must make use of this medium to disseminate information and build a positive image about itself. In fact a lot of them on an international and domestic scale have already created a presence on the social platforms and beginning to get it right.

This article aims at looking at how various governments and agencies are setting the pace for others to follow in the new world. While some of them are already at it at various stages of governance, we reckon there’s a lot more to be done. Let’s take a look how:

Government (Political Parties) pre and post election:

The use of Social Media during the election stage has exploded since the early adapters started using the medium to connect with the larger audience and in the process attempt to convert them into voters. Politicians across the world have been running their electoral campaigns, fundraising programs, disseminating information about party ideologies etc. on social media with hopes of striking gold.

The presence on platforms like Facebook and Twitter primarily along with a shot in the arm, YouTube, is often used to predict the outcome of the election. More often than not, they turn out to be true. Even though fans do not engage all the time, timely doling out of information on the page helps cement an individual/party’s commitment towards serving their goals.

While Facebook is being used to share information, engage prospective voters and voice concerns and opinions, Twitter is mostly used as a real-time progress report that lets followers know about the individual’s agenda through the process.

The US and the UK are at the forefront of using Social Media extensively for their run-up to elections and showcasing campaign objectives. A recent example closer home is that of the recent elections held for the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Akhilesh Yadav, the candidate for Samajwadi party was heavily promoted through the party’s Facebook page and a number of blog posts were made to highlight Akhilesh’s 800 odd rallies and his efforts to reach out to the people of the state. Sure enough, it generated a humongous buzz and Samajwasi Party won the election leaving the opposition to bite the dust.

Akhilesh Yadav’s victory in election is celebrated with a cover photo on SP’s page

Government Agencies going social to alter public perceptions:

The immediacy of the response is one of the biggest tools to measure public awareness and investigate matters important to public eye. Social Media has particularly been a boon to various government agencies such as law enforcement, disaster management, weather et al to take a preventive measure against any mishap and in case of an untoward incident, provide justice, comfort and instill hope to the public.

In 2009, during the PRIDE parade in Toronto, the Toronto Police encouraged the use of #PrideTO hastag on twitter to keep tabs on crime control during the LGBT event. This also spawned a dedicated page for PRIDE Toronto to communicate various event related news and info that the Police can keep tabs on.

PrideTo’s official page on Twitter

In 2010, the chief detective of the West Midlands Police in the UK used TweetDeck to keep an eye on the demonstrations involving two controversial and politically opposed groups. He also checked out Facebook rumours of stabbings and vandalism and posted on Twitter when the information was found out to be false. A real groundbreaking policing that most would agree with.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) along with a group of researchers from the City University London and Britain’s National Health Service are gearing up ahead of the 2012 London Olympics to develop strategy to tackle epidemics via Twitter.

On the home ground, Ministry of External Affairs, India, has an official presence of Facebook which has its fair share of gradually increasing fan base. Although less on interaction and exploiting the timeline feature, the page documents various happenings through the years in form of pictures, videos and links. It also provides timely information on developments from the inside. With a little deeper focus and interaction the page can really go places.

Ministry of External Affairs, India’s Facebook Page

In the recent past, the Prime Minister’s Office, India had also launched the official twitter handle. With close to 95,000 followers, this is a prime information decimation point for the Government of India. It is now also a tool for PMO to directly engage with the public, a task which was till now not so easy to do.

Prime Minister’s Office, India’s official Twitter page

Indian Air force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces under the government of India. Its Facebook page has a current fan base of a staggering 313k. The page is exemplary in engaging the audience and keeping them looking for more. The IAF page on Facebook gives out news regarding developments in the defense sector and provides photos and videos of fleet acquired along with various feathers in its cap that inspire bravery in a way one would expect from a defense organization.

At a much local level, the Mumbai traffic Police has about close to 12,000 odd fans on their Facebook page which is fairly simple in its core approach. The page gives out traffic updates from time to time and those following them appreciate that gesture. Also, the updates that go into that page talk about various sightings of rule violation on the streets that call for much engagement with city dwellers. Way to go Mumbai Traffic Police.

The Heritage foundation, a Washington D.C. based American think tank inspiring leadership with an already overwhelming Facebook presence of over 421k fans and over coupled with over 8000 subscriptions for its YouTube channel has an enviable audience engagement. The heritage foundation has now taken to Pinterest, the newest social media platform to furthermore extend its virtual footprint and get people to check out their boards and pins on various policies pertaining to education, family, healthcare etc. To reinforce credibility, there are boards that showcase charts and graphs. A move par excellence.

The YouTube Channel of The Heritage Foundation

The scope to expand and engage on Social Media:

It is evident from various international, predominantly, and domestic organizations that Social Media offers a much larger benefit in establishing trust and reinforcing core values of government that often has a shady and dodgy public perception. A strong presence on social platforms helps to shape up perceptions and bust myth while establishing a strong emotional and rational bonding with the people.

In India, as far as government agencies’ optimum use of Social Media is concerned, it is still latent. While a few of them have already created pages and handles, there is barely any interaction or measures taken to engage people positively. In this context, Indian Air force is something one could draw an inspiration from.

Tags:Election, Government, Government Agencies, Organisations, Politics, Reforms, Social Media
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Why this Kolaveri for Facebook?

Friday, April 20th, 2012

If we were to go only by comments on posts about Facebook on various publications, we would think that Facebook was probably thinking of taking over the world while all we can do is watch and wait.

Indeed, after the Instagram deal, majority of the comments were about either:
1. How this is the end of Instagram
2. How this is the end of Facebook
3. How Facebook will kill Instagram
4. How Facebook overpaid
5. How Facebook could have just downloaded Instagram for free from the app store (this joke needs to die, seriously)

While a small proportion talked about how this could actually be a good thing.

In addition to the aforementioned rage, there is generally quite a bit of ”Kolaveri” for Facebook. In particular, over three points: how it doesn”t innovate, how it sells our information to big bad corporates and how it”s gotten boring.

I”m sorry, but I beg to differ. I do have a healthy sense of skepticism, but I would like to give Facebook and Instagram a shot here. Why the presumption that such big-ticket purchases are going to only spell doom? Zuckerberg may have his faults, but one cannot accuse him of not being a master strategist. He wouldn”t pay double the week-old valuation of Instagram if he wanted to kill it. He could have just bought the talent (12 strong) from the company, bought out patents and developed his own photo-sharing platform on mobile. Sure, it might have ended up being buggy, but with sheer numbers (800 million vs Instagram”s 40 million), it would have acquired the most important thing – users. This was ironically clear when Instagram itself when it came to Android, knocking off alternative apps like Photofunia.

Oh, no. Zuck sees something more than 40 million users and some fancy filters here. I don”t know what he has up his sleeve (if I did, I”d be running my own social network, not sitting here writing blogs). But I am willing to bet he has plans, and big ones. And his investment of $1billion (which is pittance, by the way, given what the Facebook IPO will bring in) will pay off, big big time.

But moving away from the Instagram issue itself, why IS there such raging anger against the world”s largest social networking site? Is it just a case of trying to bring down the big bad company? It”s fashionable to trash companies once they”re out of the lovable zone of being an underdog, after all.

Let”s look at the typical cribbing points.

1. Selling info to corporates: Let me put it this way. Facebook is free. Who”s going to pay for server space for hosting thousands of photos and status updates? Has to be someone. And who”s going to pay for the benefit of being socially connected? Someone does. Noone will want to ”upgrade” to a paid, ad-free version of Facebook. So there”s only one way out, and it”s a brilliant business model – sell your personal information to people who can target their ads to you. Now before you outrage, read that sentence again. What exactly is so bad about it? The ”personal information” being sold is not embarrassing diary entries or pictures in compromising positions, but basic things like age and interests. Heck, I would WANT Facebook to know that so it could target me ads for guitars and comics rather than make-up and automobiles. What would Facebook want your embarrassing deep dark secrets for anyway? Zuck definitely doesn”t have time, and I”m willing to bet that people don”t sit and read your direct messages and chuckle about them in Facebook server rooms (or for that matter, in GMail server rooms). Have a little faith, limit what you”re sharing on social media and remember, unless you pay for it, you have no right to crib about it.

2. Boring: Facebook is not boring. Facebook isn”t even exciting. What IS boring / exciting is the users that make it. So if your feed puts your to sleep (“YAWN! So many people getting married!” or “YECH! Fed up, everyone is taking pics of cats with their new DSLRs”) then it”s not Facebook”s produce team that is at fault. Some people need to make new friends or get newer interests. Blaming Facebook for ”boring” content is like blaming paper for having boring stuff written on it.

Bottom line – Facebook has innovated superbly over the last few years to be part of our lives, so well integrated. It”s not going anywhere, and I”d definitely like to see it give its acquisitions a shot before passing a judgement about whether it is evil / doomed.

I don”t think anything sums this up better than the fact that most of the conversations predicting Facebook”s death happen on… yes, Facebook itself.

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Sporty and the Social

Monday, April 9th, 2012

Sports and sporting events have always been at the nerve centre of media attention. In current times we have seen the gradual transition of the media providing spotlight to various sports for mass entertainment to a whole gamut of revenue generating sports franchises cropping up that have relied on social media to reach out to their fan base. We will be taking a closer look at how the various league franchises are placed in the Social Media. Be it the English Premier League (EPL), National Basketball Association (NBA) or the one closer home, Indian Premier League (IPL), they have all been heavily present on various social networking platforms and engaging with their fans and prospects.

It is not only the immense reach and personalized communication that lures various teams and franchises to jump onto the Social Media bandwagon but also how it enables them to give back to their passionate and often rabid fans, for their unwavering support and contribution, what they deserve. From dissemination of information regarding athletes, game dates, merchandise sale and other salient bits of information to fan generated comments and content, Social Media provides it all. In fact it is an inherent nature of Social Media to influence behavior and decisions of users subjected to time and condition. Having said all this, when it comes to sports, a game is all it takes eventually that wins a franchise its coveted patronage.

Here’s a glimpse at how some of the top sports franchises around the world are scoring on Social Media:

International Franchises

Manchester United:

Manchester United Football Club – Logo

Considered to be the world’s largest franchise with over 23 million red devils (a MUFC aficionado) on Facebook and way over 200,000 twitter followers, MU football club has one of the most dominating presences on the social media. In November 2011, the club made a startling announcement of launching its very own social networking platform acknowledging its fan base of over 500 million globally. As of now, the Facebook and twitter pages are pretty much feeding the fodder for the red devils with contests, game schedules, exclusive photos and videos etc.

Highlight:

Sign for United – Facebook Tab

The club has created a unique ‘Sign for United’ app for its Facebook page where fans can sign in receive player’s bonus and an exclusive message from the coach, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Football Club Barcelona:

FC Barcelona – Logo

One of the most popular and revered franchises across the globe, Football Club Barcelona has a fan base that is enviable within most sporting communities. With a fan count of over 29 million on Facebook and about 4.3 million plus twitter fan following, FCB is arguably the heaviest player present on the Social Media. FCB has a strong connect with its fans and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they have a dedicated tab showcasing pictures of their fans on Facebook. Besides this, there are regular polls, contests, photo and video grabs and timely alerts so that one doesn’t miss out on a game that matters.

Highlight:

YouTube Channel of Football Club Barcelona

Football Club Barcelona’s YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/fcbarcelona has the most number of channel views till date with a surplus of 85 million views. The viewership alone stands to testify how FCB is placed on the Social media.

LA Lakers:

LA Lakers – Logo

The distinctive purple and gold team has a healthy count of over 12.7 million unique fans on its Facebook page while the twitter page has about 2.4 million followers. The Facebook timeline documents the illustrious history of the franchise right from their foundation with pictures, videos of the erstwhile players, coaches and achievements that connect with their fans who swear by them. At times it’s the simplest of things that holds the key to attraction and when it comes to Lakers’ fans, their twitter page does it like none other. Featuring Andrew Bynum’s 30 rebounds on their cover photo lets fans know how Lakers reward achievements.

Lakers Twitter Page – Cover Section

Highlight:

Lakers Memorabilia Collection – Online

Lakers currently hold the distinction of presenting world’s biggest memorabilia collection online at http://www.lakers.fanatics.com/

Indian Franchises

Mumbai Indians:

Mumbai Indians – Logo

Closer home, in India, Mumbai Indians lead the pack with a whooping fan count of over 2.5 million on Facebook and a steadily climbing twitter fan following of about 38,000. Mumbai Indians is one of the heavyweights the Indian Social Media space, when it comes to sports franchises and the lengths to which they go to engage their fans is pretty impressive. While their twitter page engages fans with real time game updates, discussions and information, their Facebook page has dedicated application tabs like the graffiti that is a collection of doodles made by fans and showcased on the page. This and all exclusive associated events and bite on their favourite players along with photos, videos and game highlights is what makes this franchise a top grosser.

Kingfisher East Bengal Football Club:

Kingfisher East Bengal Football Club

The Kingfisher East Bengal FC is a franchise under the wing of I-League. East Bengal FC has the most prominent presence amongst the 14 other franchises of the recently resurrected I-league on the Social Media front. It has a Facebook page fan following of about 330, 000 and a twitter follower base of about a little over 1000.

Highlight:

Kingfisher East Bengal Football Club – Facebook Page

It is the only club to have a noteworthy presence on Social Media and one of the pioneers from the Indian football arena.

The Road ahead:

Social Media has definitely played a pivotal role in launching franchises into stellar heights. So far it is not only Facebook and twitter that have essentially been targeted by major franchises. In fact, Pinterest, the latest platform that has been hogging a major chunk of limelight is also gradually becoming a subject of fancy for quite a few franchises. One such franchise is the NBA’s (National Basketball League), Boston Celtics.

There is no dispute to the fact that Social Media enables sports franchises around the world to gain and maintain a steady climb in terms of fan count and in turn push their top line. What appears is, although there are a lot many franchises that have got the mix of Social Media right and are delving more into it, there are still many others who need to recognise this exploding platform. In India, IPL franchises have already started cashing in on this goldmine of an opportunity. The advantage of having a highly engaged fan base is that the franchises can get more willing sponsors and in turn shoot up their business prospects. It’s just a matter of time that other burgeoning sports like football, hockey etc. would start exploring and engaging their prospective fans and further their chances of glory.

Tags:Basketball, Cricket, EPL, fan page, Football, I-League, IPL, NBA, Sports, Sports franchises
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

In the pink of health on social media

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

While medical marketing is something which needs to follow a lot of guidelines and regulations, health awareness and patient engagement are possible areas where social media can be employed. With exploding usage of social media, a time where your doctor’s twitter handle is part of your emergency kit is not far away.

A real case in point being that of a simple tweet from a user suffering a heart attack that led to hundreds of tweeter responding to it and guiding him on how to stabilize himself before paramedics could reach him. With unlimited resource available on the internet, help can be only a tweet away.

While internationally lot of pharmaceutical companies along with prominent hospital chains have taken to social media, in India the scene is little different. Not many pharmaceutical companies have really taken the plunge. Although it must be said that the legal aspect of pharmaceutical marketing could be a barrier yet there is still a lot of scope for them to explore social media like their multinational counterparts.

On the other hand, for super specialty hospital chains armed with a marketing plan like any other FMCG company coming up in India, the scope of using social media platform is good. In fact, Apollo Hospitals already has a Facebook page with more than 58000 people while Max Healthcare Hospitals group has some 57000 people on its page.

The areas where social media can be majorly playing a part are:

Awareness
Fund raising
Helpline and assistance

Building Awareness

With more and more people logging on to the internet in search of authentic information, social networking platforms are fast becoming the research center for any subject. Keeping this in mind, hospitals across the world have realized the need of educating people about primary healthcare methods hoping that this would build a loyalty towards the institution if and when the need arises.

An example of this can be seen on Max Healthcare fan page that utilizes videos to provide information about healthcare to be taken during pregnancy during late 30s. Such critical information might not be available directly, hence, the it becomes critical for an authentic source like Max Healthcare to provide it.

Max Healthcare Video Series

Internationally Johnson & Johnson has a YouTube network channel JNJHealth with a video library of over 500 videos and over 6 million views. The channel is sub categorized in to various aspects that dwell on better understanding of health issues. With user based stories forming a major part of the library, the emotional connect that the channel brings in is incredible.

Johnson and Johnson Healthcare YouTube network

Another route explored internationally for building awareness is the live tweeting of surgeries from prominent hospitals. While this may sound very frivolous to general audience, it is amazingly high value information sharing that the medical students can look towards in order to understand complex procedures.

TwitPic shared during an open hearth surgery at Houston Hospital

Organizing Fund Raisers

Medical fund raisers are always an issue. While many would spend thousands on a trip, few would come out to provide to the local hospitals. This is a problem not just in our country, but across the globe. UCSF Benioff children’s hospital in San Francisco came up with an innovative plan to get the community support in fund raising.

In association with University of California, it ran an eight week fund raising campaign in association with www.causes.com and Facebook. Several Silicon Valley stalwarts along with celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and MC Hammer, who used their twitter network to spread the word, lent their support.

Teams were made of followers and supporters, put together by selected leaders who formed the groups through their personal networks and then competed against each other for the grand prize of getting to name a prominent section of the hospital.

The UCSF Benioff Children’s hospital had already amassed $375 million towards the estimated $600 million when last reported. It not only shows that people are willing to help when approached in correct manner but also that find raising need not always be a pleading process. All one needs is a creative plan that is well executed through proper channels.

UCSF Facebook driving the fund raiser

Helping Handle

Like any other brand that has used twitter, hospitals and medical service providers are looking at using Twitter as a real time helpline that can address the patients’ emergency call. The idea can be extended in case of accidents where reaching doctors or hospitals would be difficult. In such case tweeting out for help and having a hospital respond to your call would act as a major assistance.

Although such a major helpline has yet not been setup, a rough estimate shows that already about 500 hospitals are on Twitter in United States of America alone. In India, major hospitals have setup their twitter accounts. With a little more planning and careful monitoring, a helpline setup can be easily put in place.

Getting healthy, socially

While another aspect that can be touched upon is the creation of online communities where people can come and share their experience, this is one area that many practitioners are not very keen on. The simple reason being that, while sharing your experience can give a lot of courage to someone going through the same illness, the conditions may be very different and hence the treatment plan. If not supervised properly this could well cause a complication. Although, if a monitoring and supervision module is put in place, this alone is one field that medical fraternity can look towards in order to raise awareness.

Social media is a way of life for most people in today’s date. It is not something that will fade away. If only, it will get more integrated in our lives and thus, leading to more and closer association to our everyday living. Thus, hospitals and medical institution should look at integrating this channel in their overall 360 degree marketing campaigns.

Tags:Awareness, Doctor, Fund Raising, Healthcare, Helpline, Hospitals, Social Media
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

Time to get in the line

Friday, March 9th, 2012

So the timeline for brands is finally here. After months of speculation about what all will it bring with it, we now know that the platform is all set to undergo another major shift in communication pattern. Emphasis will now be on visual creative and storytelling. We analyze the changes that the platform will see in this article.

Getting Covered

The most noticeable change that anyone would see is the huge space that is going to be available right on top of the page to put up a cover photo. The size of the cover photo is 810×350 pixels. In a way, this is the largest available space that Facebook has ever given a brand to reach out to their audience.

Cover Photo (click on the image to enlarge it)

While this is a big real estate for advertising, Facebook has not allowed brands to have any calls to action in your cover photo. You can’t tell people to like or share your page or have any contact information at all, including your web address, phone number or mailing address.

The highlight of the change

The timeline has also brought about a major alteration in content distribution. The content is now spread in to two columns rather than one single stack up. This means a side by side post will let you prolong your post life a little bit longer than before. Also, all post by people on the page gets segregated into one block which comes on the top most part of the right column.

Highlighted Post (click on the image to enlarge it)

Not only that, like with cover photos, Facebook has now given you the ability to emphasize your story telling with bigger picture. So now, if you want a particular post to garner more views and appear more striking on the page, simply highlight it and the image and the post will spread across the two columns of the page, giving you one big eye catching post.

On pins and needles without landing tab

Yes. You read that right. The landing tab has been eliminated from the new design. The face of the campaign pages, the launch page for competitions and application does not get a look in the new design. What you do get instead is a pinned post.

Pinned post is nothing but a normal post, ideally with a campaign launch creative, which can be pinned to the top of the page. Through this option, this creative will get the top post slot for a period of seven days. The idea is that while you may not be able to get people to land on a particular tab, you can make them notice the main campaign first up. The pinned post comes with a small orange tag on the right top corner.

Pinned Post

This could have been put up on the cover page but then with cover page restriction of no call to action and no communication, that idea gets tossed out. Thus, this makes the pinned post the only alternative for a landing tab.

Every milestone counts

Facebook has always wanted people to document their life by sharing posts, videos and photos. Even relationships and friendships are highlighted in the personal profile. That is what Facebook has brought to the brand timeline.

Documenting the progress of the brand through milestones. The day the brand came in to existence, that new office, the 100^th employee or the letter of appreciation from a famous customer. Facebook wants the brands to narrate those things to its audience. Make it more human than ever before. Audience of the page can directly navigate to a particular year via the timeline.

This is quite literally, Facebook’s way of telling the brand managers to stop worrying about the numbers on the page but building a strong brand. Bring out the history and the emotions associated with the brand before you go looking for the ROI.

Tab dancing

With the new two column layout, the new tab has lost out majorly. The list of tabs and application that was there below the profile picture now gets lost. And almost become invisible. Though they have been moved right under the cover photo, there is a restriction of only 4 tabs to be visible while the rest get demoted into a drop down.

Tabs

Amongst those 4 visible ones, the first one is always going to be that for photos. That leaves only 3 visible tabs for your competitions, applications, likes, notes and all that you want to do. So what will be needed is a more planned approach to launch of applications and campaigns. Making sure that there is no overlap so that each campaign can get a proper display in the tabs.

New Tab Size (click on the image to enlarge it)

Once on the tab, the creative space that the tab gets is now 810 pixels as compare to 510 before. This means there is a lot more space for you to put images and copy. A good brand would use this intelligently.

The Backend

Another change with the Timeline is the location of the Insights. You can now access them by clicking on the Admin Panel in the upper right corner. The Admin Panel has much different navigation than before, but everything appears to be there. From the Admin Page, you can also invite your email contacts, invite friends, share your page and create an ad from the Build Audience drop-down menu.

Insight (click on the image to enlarge it)

One of the capabilities will be to easily request a name change for your page. This name change is the title of your page, not the custom URL you may have set for your page. Great news for people who have changed their company branding, have had a misspelling in the name or have other tweaks they have wanted to make.

Messages

Pages will also have the ability to receive messages from fans. The Message feature can be turned on or off from the Manage Permissions area of the Admin Dashboard. Messages can only be initiated by a fan—they cannot be initiated by the page to a fan. The page can reply to the message sent.

Reaching Out

The ads have got a makeover. They will be larger and come in form of Reach Generator and Premium on Facebook. The Reach Generator is designed to reach more of your existing fans than you currently are reaching through the news feed. Premium on Facebook is designed to distribute your stories to new connections and will be shown on the right side of the home page, in the news feed, in mobile streams and when someone logs out of Facebook. Beta testing has shown that the reach for these products through in line feed push can go up to as high as 80 to 90% of total estimated reach.

With Reach generator, the posts on the wall will be used to reach the audience. That means a higher engagement can be expected through this paid mechanism. This makes the job of page admin that much more important as s/he would need to decide which post should be best used for such a campaign.

In the pipeline

While these are the major changes that have happened as of now, few more features would surely be added in the new system soon. This includes Facebook offers. Facebook Offers are like Facebook Deals on steroids. The post is sent through the news feeds of your fans, which is much more visible. There are easy ways to share the Offer, both through the post itself and then when the Offer is claimed. Fans get the Offer by clicking the Get Offer link

Fan Gating, another standard feature in pre timeline era used to get people to like the page, is currently missing. This is something most experts believe will soon be brought back since it forms a part of loyalty program.

Changes to Facebook have always made brands nervous along with their agencies. But this time around, the nervousness is more about the things that have been dropped out rather than the ones that have been added. But it is clear from all these changes that Facebook wants the brands to build brands on its real estate rather than sell.

Tags:Cover Photo, Facebook, Social Media, Timeline
Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »