Social Media | Indian Social Media Landscape - Part 16 Indian Social Media Landscape

Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Social media and social responsibility

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Over the past few years, social media has become an important tool of marketing. Big brands have invested in the new media hoping to hook the audience to their products. And, with the success of the platform, the brands are now looking to leverage the tool for enhancing their brand equity via social causes’ route.

Social responsibility goes social

With growth of Facebook and twitter and the rise of social media marketing, it is no surprise that then this medium would now be used to promote corporate social responsibilities (CSR). While the brands are slowly starting to embrace this route, many social causes have already been promoted to good result via Facebook and other social platforms.

Social Causes Promoted via Social Media

Not just local public cause, social media has played key role in national causes. The public led campaigns against issues in countries like Libya, Egypt and India has shown what this medium is capable of. And if harnessed properly, the medium can deliver like none other.

Reaching the masses

In India, there are 31 million Facebook users, while the total number of active users on social media is expected to be 45 million by year 2012. This platform is growing and how. There is no denying that social media provides the easiest, and most cost effective route of reaching such an audience.

Engaging the influencers

A key tool for any cause based program is to have the experts opinion put forth. A doctor talking about a health related issue makes the cause look that much more credible. Social media provides this opportunity to all the brands.

With over 40000 active bloggers who have built a major clout with their writing, brands can engage with these writers while talking about the cause and make them understand their fight. They in turn would then promote the cause and bring credibility to program.

Philips LinkedIn Innovation in Health

Not just blogs, lot of professionals are on social media, who can be engaged through their inputs and dialogues with general public in order to make the cause support that much more real and beneficial for normal people.

Key Benefits:

It also provides key benefits that any brand looks from a CSR or cause promotion. It helps brands in:

Improving Social Welfare
Establish differentiated brand positioning
Create strong consumer bond
Enhance brand equity
Boost internal morale
Drive Sales
Drive market value of firm

Acceptance of the campaign

A lot of skeptics have questioned the acceptance of a social media campaign. The fact that it is perceived as a youth platform makes them feel the whole seriousness of the issue would be lost. What they are not realizing that in a country like India, 66% percent of the population falls in the youth category. Thus, addressing them on their choice of platform is key to making them talk and think about the cause. And that’s not about it.

End Cause

The result of a social media campaign can be gauged through response generated either through number of people who have registered for the cause or amount of money donated through the program. Also, the success of the program can be gauged through how well the program has been able to improve the lives of people who supported the campaign. There are no shortages of examples of the same in India. Brands like Fair and Lovely have contributed majorly towards growth of the society via this platform. The Fair and Lovely Foundation has reached out to over 300 girls in just 7 years and changed their lives.

Brand led campaigns

Similarly Aircel has managed to build a support of over 300,000 people for save the tiger campaign. The major highlight of this campaign was making people believe that they can contribute to a cause which previously they though they can’t do much about.

And that is the victory that social media can lend to a corporate social responsibility or a cause promotion by a brand. It can make people feel important; it can make them feel like a responsible citizen. That they can make a contribution to any cause that they feel for through this channel makes it that much more powerful.

Tags:Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Facebook, socail cause, social, word of mouth, youth
Posted in Corporate Communications, Facebook, Social Media | No Comments »

Socializing with your employees: Part 1

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Organizations are wrestling with questions about how to fend off, fit in with or foster the use of social media by employees. Still, many firms haven’t considered some of the potential benefits of using internal social networks as well as external tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

These days you can find lots of advice about how to use public social media—such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—for marketing your company to prospective customers, partners, and employees. However, companies can gain solid benefits from using social and collaboration tools for internal purposes.

Setting up Facebook Groups, Internal YouTube channels, Internal blogs and micro blogging through yammer are just few tools that can be used from main stream social environment for internal communication. The richness of these platforms in terms of visual and audio capabilities make them much more engaging and entertaining alternatives to plain memos and group mails.

Internal Group Page on Facebook

One of the best examples of social media employment for internal clients is the IBM model for social media. The tech giant has had an open policy for social media and has seen employee engagement sky rocketing, providing a much improved work environment and culture in the organization. According to IBM they represent their brand online the way it always has been, which is employees first. The brand is largely shaped by the interactions that employees have with customers. This decentralized social media approach is another milestone in the company’s history—driving unprecedented collaboration and innovation.

Same rule, different tool

While Social Media makes a good case as a business tool with option such as:

· Listen to customers

· Promote new products, news, events, etc

· Position your organization as thought leaders

· Build relationship with new and existing customers

· Increase brand awareness

· Competition analysis

· Resolve Customer service issues

These very tools can be used to build a very good case for using social media for internal customers i.e. employees of an organization. All it needs is listening to the other side. The social media tools can be used to:

· Listen to employees

· Promote new products, news, events which the employees can then benefit from and spread news about

· Seek participation of employees in thought leadership program and thus building pride in them

· Build lasting relationship with the employees

· Increase internal brand awareness

· Resolve HR issues

· Share classified information and competition analysis

· Communicate with employees quickly during crisis

These suggestions are not without base. It has been observed the companies that use social media, achieved year on year improvement in employee engagement of 18% compared to just 1% in case of those who didn’t. (http://goo.gl/H4PP4)

While the above mentioned points are the broader areas of usage, social media can be used as a collaborative tool within an organization as well. We shall discuss how social media can be used for specific purposes in part II of this blog.

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Socializing with your employees: Part II

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Continuing from where we left of, we shall now see how social media platform can be used to improve the structure and efficiency of an organization.

Collaborating for Success

With help of any given platform, an organization can help teams work

● More effectively and efficiently

● Ensure teams have access to most accurate and up to date information

● Enable remote working

Collaborative blog from IBM

This not only leads to better work output but also builds connection. When employees feel connected to their organization, a unified purpose and each other they will be more engagement and more efficiency. Also, this reduces the scope of internal crisis as most matters are resolved via two way communication over an informal discussion.

Social Brainstorming

Social Media is also budding ground for good ideas to be sowed and germinated. Once someone proposes an idea, others can contribute to it and over a healthy discussion, the idea can take shape. Since it’s available over a platform at any given time, the constrain of a brain storming session in a closed environment and in fixed time span is eliminated, thus, giving it a feel of an open session.

A spontaneous idea that leads to a thread of comments on a Facebook group may prove to be far more productive than spending hours inside a meeting room trying to solve a problem.

Peer Recognition

Another important aspect of using social media is recognizing and highlighting achievers and the ease with which they can be rewarded. Any individual when recognized in front of his/her peers feels special. Social Media is just the right place for an individual to be recognized by his organization in front of his friends and colleagues. This builds a sense of pride and also inculcates a healthy rivalry amongst the workers.

Sharing profile of employees in internal communities can boost
confidence amongst employees

Getting Personal

Social media also gives big organizations the opportunity to show their human face. Wishing people on special occasion via a personal message can go a long way in building a lasting relationship which would prove very productive. This will hold well during a crisis. When you want that extra mile from employees, then as an organization, you also need to walk that extra mile.

Giving Voice

A social media strategy to handle employee grievances is an effective tool for online reputation management. While it may be difficult how an employee conveying their grievances in front of other employees can help, but it is better than them going public in front of external clients. Being heard is the first and almost entirely the most critical step in complaint resolution. A heard employee may equal to a satisfied employee.

Chain of communication

Social media tools such as blogs can be a great way of educating people about new products and giving detailed reviews. Bring in YouTube with video demonstrations of new products and you have an attentive employee set readily willing to understand and discuss new products. Make it innovative and your employees themselves will make it go viral thus not only giving the brand an internal viewership but also the possibility of garnering millions of eyeballs from external audience.

Sharing on internal community gives a chance for employees to interact freely irrespective to their position in the ladder

Payoffs

While it may look that bringing internal communication and HR issues on social media is a risk, with organizations having to give up on lot of control, but no policing is in fact a very good method of inculcating self control and restrain.

When people know there is someone out there to listen to them, they are less disgruntle and more constructive. They may even take the effort of using their bad experience to come up with innovative solutions to tricky problems.

This is where true employee empowerment can be achieved. This will not only help you strengthen your organization but also give you the best word of mouth publicity of them all. Employee Advocacy.

Tags:blog, Collaboration, communities, Corporate Communications, Employee Relations, engagement, Human Resource, internal communication, internal communication and social media, listening
Posted in Corporate Communications, Employee Relations, Social Media | 5 Comments »

Feeding the Page Likes

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

If you have seen the film, The Social Network, you would know that Facebook was not looking at putting any advertising on its clean image. Unfortunately, with time and growth, advertisements have crept into the website.

However, Facebook is now making the ads part of the page. Early this year, they launched a new advertising mechanism that promises to make ad units more social and in fact become a true word of mouth promotion rather than pure advertising.

A story to tell

Sponsored Stories, a new advertising technique launched by Facebook, takes news feeds and converts it in to a display unit. This display unit pops up on the right side of your page as you navigate through Facebook. Interestingly, Facebook has placed these stories above ad units. Just goes to show what Facebook hopes to do in the future.

Facebook starts to branch out

Monday, August 1st, 2011

For long, Facebook has been the place where you hung out with your friends. It was your insight to what your buddies were up to, what they thought and who they were dating. Many thought, it was a place which helped you keep up with their lives. Now though, with 750 million people on the platform and millions of brands, Facebook has morphed into a one stop solution for almost all your needs. Including your search for your next job.

Off Shoot

One of the key reasons for the growth of the platform has been its adaptability of various applications designed for it. API developers have made almost everything from games, shopping malls to now jobs search application. BranchOut is the largest professional networking service on Facebook. On BranchOut, users leverage their Facebook friend network to find jobs, source sales leads, recruit talent, and foster relationships with professional contacts. BranchOut also operates the largest job board on Facebook with over 3 million jobs and over 20,000 internships.

The Roots

BranchOut is a free application for anyone interested in professional success. All BranchOut users create a professional profile that includes their work history and education. Personal information, like photo albums and status updates, are not included in BranchOut profiles. BranchOut also offers endorsements and career badges, which friends and colleagues give to one another as a way to acknowledge skills and accomplishments.

At the core of the BranchOut user experience is the ability to find connections through one’s extended friend network. For example, when you search for a company on BranchOut, you gain visibility to a list of friends and friends-of-friends who work at that company. These inside connections can be used to increase access to new jobs, sales leads, and recruiting talent. On BranchOut job seekers search for employment opportunities and are found by recruiters.

BranchOut’s enterprise products help recruiters and hiring managers to source talent more effectively. BranchOut offers premium job posts that are easily shared on Facebook and Twitter. BranchOut job post also display inside connections at the target company. BranchOut also offers a product called Jobs Tab that facilitates the transfer of job postings from a company’s website to its company Facebook Page.

A Different Leaf

BranchOut works much like LinkedIn — users can post work histories, they can connect to other users on a professional basis, and they can search for friends and friends-of-friends working at specific companies. But there’s one major difference. BranchOut is built on top of Facebook, and CEO Rick Marini believes that is what will give it both the scale and virality needed to become tops in the online career networking business based on the 750 million people on Facebook.

Add to that the number of hours people spend on Facebook, and it seems like a natural place to capture their attention. And then there’s the fact that Facebook is increasingly becoming the connection medium of choice for younger people, so much so than some aren’t even bothering to create LinkedIn profiles. For such users, an app like BranchOut will seem like a natural next step, once they get ready to enter the working world.

Sowing the Seeds

BranchOut has done a great job making registration easy. You connect with Facebook. They ask for a little bit of additional information and that’s it, you are up and going. They’ve also done a nice job of importing LinkedIn background information. It brings in Work History and Education. It allows you to easily edit items. You are up and going in just a few clicks. Of course, there’s a lot more on any kind of application like this to really get things setup, but BranchOut has done a good job making that happen incrementally.

Watering your network

It is interesting that when you look at the home page interface, most of the interface is really about social interaction. Everything on the left side below your picture is an opportunity to build your network. The right column also contains opportunities to expand your network. It contains jobs and companies as well as chance to increase social interaction.

Bearing fruits

Endorsements do what referrals did in real world. It helps in building the credibility of your profile. BranchOut uses the profile completion to get you to do your first endorsement, so it’s more natural to do them in the future. They have the following information on your home page about what’s happening with endorsements to get you into it more often.

Badges are another innovation meant purely for college kids who wish to use the application for job search. It is a fun way of appreciating someone at their work.

Growing Fast

Although, Google Plus is the fastest growing platform as of today, Branch Out has seen a rapid growth in the first half of 2011. It has seen explosive growth in January growing from 10K to 250K monthly users, with a total usership now in the hundreds of thousands.

One major reason for such rapid growth is hat BranchOut takes advantage of the inherent social structure of Facebook to make career networking on the platform both a utility and fun, incorporating elements like gamification, career quizzes and contests like The Ultimate Internship Contest in order to appeal to a younger “more tech savvy” crowd. After all those college kids posting photos of one party after the other now will be looking for a job someday.

Posted in Social Media | 3 Comments »

Blogger of the Fortnight: Dr. Rahul Choudaha

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Education is a sector where a great deal of knowledge is required in order to comment on the prospects since it not only affects the nation at a macro level but also an individual’s career at micro level. One has to be a specialized authority in order to guide others.

Dr. Rahul Choudaha is one such individual. Dr Choudaha is Associate Director of Innovation and Development at the World Education Services, New York. In this cross-functional role he is responsible for developing new services from ideation to implementation and improving existing services. Dr. Choudaha specializes in strategic management of higher education, international market development, and technology based recruitment.

His blog, DrEducation is a key source of information for students searching for news about higher education and trends across the world and in India. His posts reflect what standards of education are available and what can be achieved. The blog also talks about key issues faced by the students in our country about higher education. A good example of the same is his blog on the recent controversy about 100% cut off for admission in under graduation colleges in New Delhi.

(From his post: Indian University Admissions: The Crisis of Confidence in Quality)

Dr. Choudaha also highlights the need on having a clear focus for institutions to work on the basics rather targeting impossible goals. His article on targeting better admission standards than focusing on placements numbers clearly shows his concern for improvement in learning process rather than delivering the final result. He states that if the process is good the result is bound to be good as well.

DrEducation comes across as an information highway for Indian students looking for authentic information on global trends about education. It also helps them shape their minds so as to pursue a correct career option for themselves.

Dr. Choudaha earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Denver and holds an MBA in Marketing and B. E. in Electronics. He has been quoted in global media including BBC, TIME, NPR, WSJ and The Chronicle of Higher Education, InsideHigherEd.com and Times Higher Education. And it is our pleasure to honor Dr. Rahul Choudaha as our Blogger of the Fortnight.

Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments »

All the Google Plus Points

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Over the last couple of weeks, you may have heard the buzz about Google +, the search giants third attempt at social networking. After disaster becoming the size of Google itself with Buzz and Wave, Google is determined to take on Facebook afresh. And this time, it seems, they have made a good start. As of now at least!

Adding to Google’s might

According to Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, creators of the new platform, Google+ is more than a social product, or even a social strategy, it’s an extension of Google itself. Hence, ‘Plus’! It is ‘Plus’ because it takes products from Google and makes them better. And that is the key element of Google +. Google already had some of the best platforms online, right from video sharing site (YouTube), photo sharing site (Picasa), and blogging network (Blogger) to video chat facility and unique signing facility of Gmail, which ironically even Facebook has been using for ever.

Google Plus

With Google +, Google wants to replicate our true social structure online. Many may say that Facebook is exactly this but there is a big difference, or so Google would want us to believe. While on Facebook, sharing can be limited, in essence, when you post a comment it goes out to the world. According to Google, that is not true replication of our communication system, where we are communicating with certain groups meaning our topics are restricted from group to group. This is the base difference between Google + and Facebook.

The Circle Advantage

Google+ is built from the ground up around the concept of sharing material with groups of people, called “Circles.” It’s through Circles that users select and organize contacts into groups for optimal sharing. Unlike Facebook, You simply select people from a list of recommended contacts (populated from your Gmail and/or Google Contacts) and drag them into Circles you designate. Once done, you can share anything across all of Google’s service by clicking on the new Google menu bar that will sit atop all the platforms of Google.

Grouping friends in to Circles

Sparking up some fun

One thing that no one can beat Google at is searching for content that you would want or are interested in. The search giant has taken the effort to categorize things on web in to sub heads. When you click on one of the sub heads, you will find a host of links to the related topic. You can read the same and/or share it with your groups. Google believes that, things which are a common interest can "Spark" conversation and this exactly what Sparks does. Google has rightly said that it’s not a search engine or an extension of the same but a sharing engine. Also “Featured interests” area could well become the revenue source for Google +.

Spark up a conversation

Adding some stream

Information appears in your “Stream,” which is akin to Facebook’s news feed. At the top of your stream is a sharing box. Actually two sharing boxes. First, in the navigation bar there’s a “Share” area to the right side. Second, in the Stream itself, there’s a longer box, where you can enter a status update or use icons to upload and share photo and videos. You can also share links or your location, if you’ve allowed Google to track that for you. On mobile devices, you can select from a drop-down of nearby places to check-in.

Adding Stream Through Stream Box

Adding Stream through Share Box

Another Hangout

Google Hangout, amongst all the features given to Google +, is the stand out feature and one that can really push people to switch from Facebook to Google +. The key is to get several people all involved casually, rather than to barge in with a solitary invite. It is like finding people who are already there for talking rather than dropping in uninvited. Hence the name Hangout! It is like the real world hangout where people gather to talk. If you’re chatting with a Circle, everyone else in that Circle will get an alert to come hang out. This works for up to 10 people. And seeing it in action is a bit magical. The Google+ system is smart enough to focus on who is controlling the conversation at any point of time. This makes the conversation like a real world chat. It is as if the producer of the show knows which camera to switch to at the right time.

Google Hangout Screen

Another feature of Google+ is called “Huddle”. It’s essentially a group messaging app that works across Android, iPhone, and SMS to allow you to communicate with the people in certain Circles. In fact the Android world gets added benefit of one touch sharing on plus, with applications that let you share everything from photos to your game screens.

Google Huddle Feature

More Pluses

Apart from these highlighted features, there are many other utilities that Google + has, which are similar to any other social networking site. Like sharing photos through albums, adding links to your posts, videos, putting your location and giving thumbs up to a post you fancy by +1 button and the standard Google chat. But all these are done with small Google add on. Like in your albums, when you roll you mouse over an album, the photos fan out to show more. Also, an important feature being tested is tagging approvals.

Google Touch to Plus

There are many such little features that the early adopters of Google + are discovering every day. For some time that would be a fun task. This would give Google enough time to get the brand pages up and about, which as of now, is not allowed on Google +. A non individual profiles are not allowed by Google. Only MTV and Ford have profiles on Google + because they are their development partners, which shows, there is some loops that Google is thinking about for Brands as well.

Tags:Facebook, Features, Google, Plus, Social Media
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 4 Comments »