Archive for the ‘Target Audience’ Category

Newer Entries »

A New Mobile Revolution

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Look whose calling

With mobile coverage penetrating the length and breadth of the country and new technology helping deliver better and faster connectivity, mobile internet access is gaining acceptance with Indians. Also, with the tariff plans now looking much better than what they were a decade back, the cost of logging on to the internet is as lower than sending a standard message. This has helped the growth of a new networking platform, the Mobile Communities or the Mobile Social Networking.

                                                             clip_image001

Mobile Communities

The new number

Mobile social networking is social networking where one or more individuals of similar interests or commonalities, conversing and connecting with one another using the mobile phone. Much like web based social networking, mobile social networking occurs in virtual communities.

Native mobile social networks focus on mobile use like mobile communication, location-based services, augmented reality requiring mobile devices and technology. Advances in hardware and software technology have facilitated the existence of these mobile virtual communities.

                                                       clip_image002

With the current software that is available, interactions within mobile social networks are not limited to exchanging simple text messages on a 1-to-1 basis (SMS) but are constantly evolving towards the sophisticated interactions of Internet virtual communities.

Mobile Communities are scoring over SMS based communities also since they eliminate the annoyance of constantly receiving SMSs. This also means that for an individual to send a message to the group they themselves don’t have to use SMS facility but either use the WAP or Internet connection which is now cheaper than SMSs in many places.

                                                   clip_image003

Different connection

Lets face it. Facebook and Orkut are more or less an urban trend. It is a tool for youth of Tier I and to some extent Tier II cities. With an established tone on these platforms, it takes a lot of adjusting for people from smaller cities to get used to what is being said. With smaller numbers as of now, mobile communities are still shaping up. People are finding it easier to get an acceptance in such places rather than on Facebook where snob value is now at an all time high.

Also, the key difference between a web social networks like Facebook and Orkut and mobile social networks is that while Facebook and Orkut are a global platform, a lot of mobile social networks are region specific and catering to the non Facebook/Orkut markets where mobile internet is growing faster than pc based internet usage.

clip_image004

(Source: http://www.pluggd.in/mobile-only-internet-generation-in-india-297/)

Say Hello

Amongst the various providers of Mobile Social Networking or Community gateway, mig33 is a leading player. Present internationally and in India as well, mig33 has users from over 100 cities in the country. Essentially mig33 is a free online mobile application that lets users send cheap texts, make cheap calls, chat in one of the many chat rooms and you can even add your MSN or Yahoo buddies and talk to them.

clip_image005

Mig33 user profile

When users open mig33 on their mobile it will connect to the Internet or WAP as it is known. The application has seen a huge growth and an uptick in download from Tier II and Tier III towns in India. Its members engage in vibrant chat communities, share photos, send gifts, play games, post on each other’s profiles, join groups, create avatars and much more. It is optimized to work on practically any internet enabled mobile phone in India, even low-end handsets.

clip_image007

Chat Room

mig33 has several million users in India, providing entertainment services beyond instant messaging, including social games and virtual gifts. Its player-to-player games like ‘mig wars’ and ‘heads and tails’ are especially popular in India, while leader boards and virtual currency has led to the stickiness of the application and user loyalty.

clip_image009

Mig33 Cricket Game

The virtual gifts are something which is most popular amongst the users. According to a survey done by mig33, Indian users feel that virtual gifting helps them save costs on real gifts and 69 per cent of the users spend on virtual gifts that cost less than Rs 15. Such gifts usually include a hug, a kiss, virtual roses etc. The survey further said that in tier II cities, 40 per cent of the users spend on gifts that cost between Rs 5 and Rs 15.

clip_image011

Mig33 Gifts

Another great feature to this is that user can add groups, so for example if a user has lots of family contacts on different sites but they also use Mig33, then he/she can keep them separate from the rest in a group called “Family”.

mig 33 and other social networking is more about entertainment and making new friends in tier II and III towns as opposed to tier I cities where it is about being in touch with majority of friends. For the mobile-first community, social network is a friend itself rather than a place to meet friends.

Brands dialing in

Brands are starting to see this is as precise and targeted ways to build an emotional connect with the users. Early on, when ‘Luck by Chance’ was released, BIG Pictures hosted a contest with Mig33, with people getting to talk to the stars of the movie over their network. People were asked to share their lucky charms, and in less than three weeks, over 15,000 entries were received.

With target audience number reaching close to 50 million on some of these networks in India, it is now sounding as a very attractive marketing tool. Though it is still in nascent stage of development, the first mover advantage cannot be neglected.

clip_image013

Mumbai Indians Group on mig33

With the belief that the rise of IP and wireless technologies would redefine the way people connect and build their relationships and communities, the brands are looking to at every opportunity to reach out to an awaiting audience.

Sponsored community channels that add value to users while building a brand are another effective tool. Another tool that these networks can offer is the sale of branded virtual goods and social games. All these work very well with smaller cities as not everyone in these cities get to log on to internet using their laptops or computers. Their mobile phones are their only constant source of internet connection and hence, it is very important to be present on these devices since they spend more time on mobile, thus, leading to higher brand recall.

Verdict

It seems clear that mobile networks are going to continue to grow, and represent a viable channel for advertising and marketing efforts. What’s key though, is that like any of the new digital mediums, advertisers have to be willing to learn how to effectively use the medium, before they worry about RoI.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience | 1 Comment »

Facebook Advertising Guidelines.

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

With the rise of Facebook, advertising on the platform is bound to become a major marketing tool. The sheer number of users on the site has so far made the ad model a very lucrative option for marketers. The ROIs are comparatively higher than any other advertising platform and, thus, a good bet.

                          clip_image001

Facebook Ads

Numerical Advantage

With near 600 million users to target from, Facebook provides for a very large collection of interested audience. Along with a very precise targeting tool, this interested audience could be easily and effectively engaged by a brand. All one needs to do is feed the desired set of combinations and Facebook does the rest. With past experience, it can be said that a budget as low as Rs. 20,000 can get an audience of about 3000 and total impression going as high as 60, 00,000 (In normal CPM language, it is Rs. 3.84). That is a lot of viewing for an advertisement.

clip_image002

Facebook Advertising Targeting

Hence, keeping in mind the benefits that can be derived from Facebook Advertising, it is very important that we are aware of what are the basic guidelines of the same. The following guidelines apply to all adverts appearing on Facebook, including adverts within canvas pages of Facebook Platform applications.

The Basic Guidelines for Facebook Advertising

Facebook reserves the right to reject or remove advertising that they deem contrary to their advertising philosophy. These guidelines are subject to change at any time and Facebook may waive any of these guidelines at its discretion.

Following these basic do’s and don’ts would help us put up better advertisements quickly and easily.

Do’s:

1. Link the Adverts that contain a URL or domain in the body to that same URL or domain.

2. Clearly represent the company, product or brand that is being advertised

3. Products or services promoted in the advert must be directly available on the landing page

4. Target adverts with adult themes, including contraception, sex education and health conditions to individuals at least 18 years old. Platform adverts should do this via demographic restrictions, not by obtaining user data.

5. All ads must comply to the legal standards of the region it has to be displayed in

6. All intellectual property right should be with the advertiser.

Don’ts:

1. Do not use multiple Facebook accounts for advertising purposes unless given permission by Facebook to do so.

2. Do not automate the creation of accounts or adverts unless given permission by Facebook to do so.

3. Do not put unsubstantiated claims, including but not limited to prices, discounts or product availability.

4. Do not insult, harass or threaten a user or put audio that plays automatically, without a user’s interaction. Any automated animation must cease after 15 seconds and must not replay.

5. Do not use "fake" close behaviour (ie. when a user clicks the ‘close’ icon on the page, the page should close down and no other behaviour should result) on the landing page

6. Do not utilize "mouse trapping" whereby the advertiser does not allow users to use their browser "back button" and traps them on their site and/or present any other unexpected behaviour (for example, navigation to another advert or page).

7. Do not ask to submit Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone numbers, social security number, physical addresses or email addresses) on the landing page or in the advert, except to enable an ecommerce transaction and where the advert and landing page clearly indicate that a product is being sold.

8. Do not imply any endorsement of the product, service or advert destination by Facebook or should mention that Facebook endorses the ad or the product.

9. Adverts on controversial topics, products or prohibited content shall not be allowed

10. All targeting should be in line with the laws of the country the advert is being targeted and not violate any copyrights.

We hope these simple guidelines gives you an insight to how Facebook Advertising works and what are the promotions you can do and which one you have to avoid.

You can also read more about Facebook Advertising in one of our earlier post, Advertising Goes Social. 

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Brand Promotion, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience | 4 Comments »

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:, , ,
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Research, Target Audience | No Comments »

Answers to a successful Online Brand Relation

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

In today’s fast paced world, virtual social networking has always strengthened existing relationships, and continues to provide a foundation for border-less communities based on common areas of interest.

Some people like to share with others what they know. Some people like to learn by reading questions and answers. Q&A sites offer that kind of information from experts or from everyday people. Q&A sites have grown immensely in the last few years. People are, more than ever, turning to the internet to get quick information about any topic through these Q&A sites.

It’s kind of asking your neighbour, coworker or friend a question and getting a written answer. There are some questions that cannot be answered by even the best reference books or encyclopedias. They need a human expert that can understand a complex relationship.

Opportunity for Brands to be Human.

This provides a great opportunity for Brands to participate in conversation with people who are looking for information about products they manufacture or services they provide. Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions.

Brands are driving leads using Question and Answer forums like LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com. LinkedIn Answers dominates the category usage, claiming 59.2 percent of use for companies participating in at least one Q&A forum. Yahoo! Answers is a distant second at 37.1 percent.

(Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com)

Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help Brands in the following ways:

  • Direct customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.
  • Connect with people in the market, build reputation, and generate leads.
  • Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

Also, the Internet has a reputation for being shady. You need to let readers know why your answer is reputable and why you’re the right person to answer it. This gives Brands a greater credence and integrity to the response, and a higher likelihood for a recommendation or a vote up. It is this process of informing and educating the general audience that can help the brand establish “Thought Leadership.”

Who is listening to the Brand?

In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. Among those who use Q&A forums, 92 percent say they are at least somewhat useful with 25 percent claiming them to be “very useful.”

(Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com)

How do Brands use these sites?

The general rules of social media apply here too:

  1. Help others
  2. Build relationships
  3. Push your products and services while answering somebody’s question or request.

In Q&A sites, the starting point is that somebody asked the question that you’re answering.

Specifically you shoul:

  • Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.
  • Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site.
  • Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.

Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.

In essence, the best practices is to be helpful first, don’t go in trumpeting your sales pitch and focus on long-term relationship building and benefits rather than seeing a sudden influx of leads. An answer should simply touch on all prominent points that deliver a comprehensive, well structured response to a question.

The best part of the Q&A sites is that, they are Search Engine Optimized. This helps in increasing the visibility of the brand. More importantly, it is a credible way of highlighting your product range without sounding like advertising. And finally, Q&A sites are helping Brands become more human. It has allowed a Brand to be the friend you turn to when you have a query. Objective Achieved!

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience, Windchimes Comm | 5 Comments »

Social Media Predictions for 2009

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

Let’s play the word association game here. Tell me what comes to your mind when I say the word December. Of course, Christmas, shopping, holidays….Predictions!! Yup, predictions that’s the one this blog post will be all about. What will the year 2009 hold for us?

I have put down my 10 predictions. Five of these are on a more socio-economic level at large. Most of these changes that I am predicting will be huge leap jumps in their own way and will be possible only because of extensive use and acceptability of social media.

1. Thought Leadership as a Strategy:

These days, it is not uncommon to see people seek value out of everything. And by value, I am not restricting it to price equation alone. Value could be delivered in the form of information, education, better quality or even better service. One of the key principles of social media is to provide value to its consumer. For companies and in turn their brands to survive, they will have to provide value at all levels to their consumers. Social Media will prompt companies to adopt thought leadership as a value in their manifesto in their area of core competence.

I predict that in 2009 most companies will use thought leadership as a strategy in their respective categories by educating consumers to win potential consumers and retain existing ones.

2. Online activism:

World over, we are witnessing increase in online activism from citizens. People are reaching out to each other across the country or world either for peace rallies or prayers or candle light vigils or to form groups to decide on action steps. Social media is providing a platform to like-minded people to connect with each other and come forward to participate in events. It is being used to educate citizens to become more alert and aware about their surroundings.

I predict that in 2009 there will be a lot more of government and citizen collaboration to fight not just terrorism but also for better governance. And the mode of collaboration and reaching out will be through social media.


3. Traditional media will rediscover itself:

There is a lot of talk on how traditional media will lose its sheen in the coming years. I believe it will continue to do so if it keeps following social media principles without reinventing itself. Take the case of citizen journalism. A couple of TV channels have started running segments where the citizens report in news to the people at large. As a subscriber I am not paying TV channels money to hear news from the common man. I am expecting a thorough analysis done by the reporters and journalists on the events before it being presented to me. I want an unbiased, complete perspective which an untrained citizen cannot provide. For citizen based reports, I always have social media platforms to go to.

I predict that in 2009 channels adopting practices like these will die. Traditional media is still very important in our lives and it has to discover and operate from its own strengths rather than borrow principles of social media.

4. Rise in Entrepreneurship:

The coming year will see a surge in employees turning entrepreneurs. Two of the key barriers for any entrepreneur are sourcing and marketing. They do not know how to reach out to their potential customers or their relevant suppliers and secondly do not have big marketing budgets to do so. With social media coming into play, both the barriers will be tackled for good. Armed with a profile in social networking sites like Facebook and Linked in, an entrepreneur can reach out to his potential customers and vendors at practically no cost. I have several of my friends who have leveraged SNS to their advantage. One is running a store called Attic and the other is promoting himself as a photographer. Several others have networked themselves on Linked In and reached out to their potential clients. This is no to say that they do not need a great idea and passion to implement the same.

I predict that in 2009, several people will turn to entrepreneurship as social media will facilitate them in their process.


5. We will turn into listeners:

Let’s admit it, most of us if giving a choice would rather speak than listen. It’s a sort of conditioning that as happened to us over the years as the media we used facilitated only one way communication. With social media increasing its presence, we will have to get used to receiving feedback. Our consumers, investors, employees will have the opportunity to talk to us directly and we will have to listen. If we want to continuously seek and retain their attention, we will have to start listening and accepting feedback.

I predict that in 2009, we as individuals and corporate will definitely change and start listening to each other more often.

Click here to read the remaining five predictions for the year 2009.

Tags:, , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Facebook, Predictions, Social Media, Target Audience | 26 Comments »

There is no Audience in Social Media Marketing

Monday, November 17th, 2008

This blog post has stemmed from the interesting discussion that my earlier post generated ‘Is advertising on Facebook called Social Media Marketing?” Mostly all agreed that while advertising on Facebook helped the marketer focus to the right target audience, it was still advertising.

Social Media Marketing on the other hand implicitly calls for user participation and building dialogue. Both of which remain absent with Facebook advertising form of communication. To me if there is one thing that segregates social media from others is the use of word ‘Audience’.

There is no audience in Social Media Marketing. Period.

Audience is to whom you announce any activity

Audience is to whom you talk to

Audience is to whom you have a monologue with

Audience is to whom you deliver your message to

Audience is to whom you drive your point across

It is not about semantics. It is about psychology of a marketer. Most traditional media have allowed marketer to control the message that is going out on his brand. The brand manager decides on the communication creative, the medium it will be transmitted it and in a lot of many ways anticipate how it’s audience will react to it.

In social media, he or she will only be able to manage their communication. They will have to evolve it with the consumers of that group. There will be two way communication right from the beginning allowing a sense of co-creation which will ultimately lead to higher sales and profits. There will be no messages to deliver or announce but points to discuss with users.

Social Media Marketing in a lot of ways will redefine some of the conventional marketing wisdom. The consumer insighting process will play a far more critical role in developing brand communication. Just as you need content in your blog, to generate hits to it, there will be lot of substance required to hold conversation with people and attract them towards the brand.

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Social Media, Target Audience, Traditional Media | 6 Comments »

Newer Entries »