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

Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Use Facebook to promote your brand

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

There I said it. The reason I was having dilemma stating it openly was that till all this while I considered it as one more yuppie social networking site that will die a quick natural death. But I was wrong. And that only makes me happy. Having turned an entrepreneur, I have realized the kind of benefits I have reaped from its features.

So this post is to those features that each of you can use to promote your brand. Use them wisely and you will experience success whichever category your brand may be operating in. Here goes:

1. Start a Community:

As Facebook is all about networking, it is only right to start a community related to your brand. Keep the community generic in nature with the objective of adding value to people by providing them content – text or visual. Community allows people to join in and share their views. It becomes a good platform to interact and dialogue. Since all like minded people will join in, you know that all members would be your potential consumers. A word of caution here: Do not bombard them with only brand messages but try to be informative too. Community allows you to upload pictures, videos, write on walls, start discussions; basically enough opportunities to interact with people.

2. Profile Page:

Sections on profile page:

The profile page is the most critical and you must use it optimally. There are sections on the profile page that can carry your brand information which is easy for your friends to find. Given below are the pictures which highlight the places that can be used to guide your friends and fans to your brand website or blog.

Status Updates:

This is Facebook way of micro blogging. And they have got it right. It is one of the most used feature already. Its fun reading status updates of friends and then commenting on them. This feature should be used creatively to talk about your brand. Make it interesting, unique, creative, first ever whatever that captures eyes balls.

Status updates for announcements

Using Tabs:

You can add tabs next to the Wall and the Info area as is shown in the picture below. Add other tabs like Photos, Videos, Blog Cast which will further help your friends find out more about your brand. Update them by adding relevant pictures, videos (ads in some cases) and blog posts.

Make it easy for friends to know about your brand

3. Incorporating Applications:

I have personally found several applications of great value. These should be added to your profile as well as your brand’s.

One is Simplaris blogcast:

This application automatically updates your blog feeds and publishes it in your FB account. So whenever you have added a new blog post, this app will get that feed and publish it in your profile thereby generating visibility. So all your friends would know that you have uploaded a new post without you having to tell them.

Update your friends about your new blog post thru FB feeds

Second app that I like is Web Presence:

This app helps you in giving out all the places in the Internet where you have a presence. So this app consolidates all the presence in one box. So add on your blog address, your twitter account, Photo account on Flickr or Picassa, your videos on You Tube, your bookmarks on Delicious or Magnolia. Put it all in as this will help your fans connect with your brand on several other platforms too.

The third app is Twitter update. You can send out tweets from this app that is installed in your FB profile. This saves the trouble of login to Twitter separately. You can use twitter app and FB status updates as announcement platforms.

4. Creating Brand Page:

Facebook allows you to create a brand page where all the details about the brand can be added. This is more direct approach of brands connecting with people. Users can become fans of your brands thereby becoming loal ambassadors. The wonderful aspect is that fans can comment on the brand, its features and its advertisements. There are other features like Wall and Discussion Board where the conversations and discussions between the brand and users and even among users can be carried out. The fan page can be used by the brand to announce its on-ground events, invite users to participate in contests or update on new variant launches.

I recently become fan of Phantom sweet cigarettes that I enjoyed immensely as a kid. It was very nostalgic to find its brand page and I immediately signed on to become its fan. Now I get regular updates on what is the company planning as its new launch and I quite look forward to it!!

Fan page of Phantom Sweet Cigarettes

The golden rule that applies to all the above points is that the brand must be alive on FB. It must be updated regularly. There must be one person to accept and listen to user’s feedback on fan pages and communities. The action of each user should be acknowledged which makes the community active and ensure participation at all times.

Tags:brand, community, Facebook, fan page, groups, profile, Promote, Social Media, social media agency, social networking site, status update, Twitter, Windchimes Comm
Posted in Blog Visibility, Brand Promotion, Essential Series, Facebook, Social Media | 39 Comments »

Statistics on Indian Social Media Landscape – Part 2

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

This is the second section of the research that we have carried out on social media with respect to India. Do read the first section.

Part 2 – To map out the current usage pattern of social media of Indians

Q5) How much time do you spend everyday on blogs, social networking and uploading photos and videos?

It is really surprising to note that more than 1/3rd of the respondents spend more than 30 minutes everyday on social media sites.

Q6) What do you do when you are online?

Distinctly, people have started engaging in active forms of engagement. From reading and commenting on blogs, to creating profiles, to uploading photos and videos – all signs of people moving away from passive to active forms of engagement. There is a need to involve them if brands want to retain their attention.

Q7) What do you write about in the communities and groups?

: © Windchimes Communications Pvt Ltd

When it came to participating in conversation and discussions online, majority preferred associating with a cause or cause led approach by a brand. Next in line were the celebrities or movies that people preferred commenting and talking about.

Part 3 – To study the impact it has in our purchase behaviour

Q8 Do the comments left on blogs and in communities influence your purchase decision?

Q9) For which categories will you online reviews before doing actual purchase?

The replies for Q8 and Q9 clearly highlight that people are more prone to reading reviews online before carrying out actual purchase. They would carry out the first leve of research – fact finding and opinion seeking – on social media platforms to narrow down their choice.

The categories most influences by this behaviour are:

1. Travel

2. Consumer Durables (I am including Cell Phones in this category too)

3. Automobiles – Both cars and bikes

To Summarize the survey:

1. Surfing Internet scored as the 2^nd most medium to be used in spare time overtaking reading newspapers or listening to music.

2. Internet and social media sites are the first places to seek news, products and services related information and to find out about latest trends. In that sense, instead of being afraid of social media, marketers must embrace it.

3. Social media is becoming a part of daily lives. Even if it means just updating profile on social networking site or reading blogs. It is more involving and will eat into the time that was earlier being spent on other entertainment mediums. There are already youtube meet ups being organized where in group of people play their favourite online videos.

4. There is a distinct preference over getting associated with a cause when online. Possibly another reason why online activism is becoming so apparent in modern times. Besides that its entertainment and brands that take the next two slots. The important thing to notice is that if brands or companies adopt the role of thought leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach, then they are much more likely to succeed.

5. The most critical aspect of the survey is the impact of social media in our purchase behaviour. It is clearly evident that comments left on the blogs, review sites and discussion forums impact the manner of purchase. Lot of brands are make it in the consideration set of the consumers while others are dropped out on the basis of those reviews. It is important for brands to reach out to those users – be present where they are. They will have to build a dialogue with them in those forums and get them to review their product or service.

6. Another fallout for the companies is to track what people are talking about them. They will have to maintain their reputation online. It will be important to listen to what people have to say and act accordingly. That will start by first tracking the social media platforms and then analyzing the information to take strategic decisions.

The objective of this research was to give a peek inside the Indian users understanding and usage of social media. The role it plays in his life and how it will impact companies who want to reach out to them

You can download this research paper by clicking on to Scribd link given below

[scribd id=9690008 key=key-w7frnk7p3pzjlfjbxxv]

Tags:data, Essentials, Facebook, India, Indian social media, nimesh shah, research, Sandhya Sadananda, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, startistics, survey, Twitter, windchimes communications, windchimes research
Posted in Essential Series, Social Media, Social Media Research | 14 Comments »

Social Media Reinventing itself in 2009

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

I am sure you must have read my first five predictions on the socio-economic changes that the world will see with use of social media. The next set of five predictions that I have written are relevant in the realm of social media medium per se.

First time use of social media through Mobile:

Majority of people world over will surf the Internet and social media for the first time in their lives using mobile phones. Mobile phone penetration is increasing rapidly in most countries and along with the its value added features like streaming. In India, close to 10 million subscribers are being added every month. These small towns will skip landlines and opt for cell phones directly. These towns will take technology leap in a manner of speaking. Simultaneously, several companies are in the process of launching social networking sites for mobile. Put these two together and you could see this prediction come true.

I predict that in 2009 itself, several small towns and rural areas will experience Internet & social media for the first time through cell phones and not through computers.

2. Online reputation management:

As our conversations move online, it will be imperative for brands and corporate to participate in them. Not only that, they will have to track those conversations to understand how their brands stand with the consumers. Are their brands in the consideration set or if they are they being spoken about in positive tone? These are very important questions for companies to get answers to as their marketing spends will be determined accordingly. There will be specialized agencies that will provide these services to the companies.

I predict that in 2009 online reputation management will be big business and most corporates will turn to it in a big way.

3. Facebook will become a paid site:

So will any social networking site that wishes to survive the next year. There have been enough and more articles written on SNS not being able to monetize on the huge subscribers that they have got for themselves. Venture capital funds can’t sustain them forever. Also purely by advertisements alone, they will not be able to break even or advance on their business plans.

I predict that in 2009, Facebook will turn a paid site. Facebook can charge $10 (Rs. 500) from every user for a year-long membership. Even if out of the 150 million users that Facebook boasts of, 2/3rd drop out, we talking of $500 mn (50m users X $10 per user) of revenue that it can generate in one year.

4. Twitter will become a verb i.e ‘To Tweet’:

Unofficially it already has. But in 2009, the importance of Twitter will grow so dramatically, that Oxford will be forced to accept it as part of our normal parlance. The role that micro blogging has played was fairly evident from the recent Mumbai terror attacks.

I predict that in 2009 twitter will become so important that at least one Indian company will use it to tweet important announcements being made in their Annual General Meeting (AGM)

5. Online videos will be most important marketing tool:

In the social media sphere, online videos will gain prominence over other marketing ploys. I had written in my earlier post that online videos will gain popularity even more in times of economic slowdown. In fact some brands like Kaya have already started using it. Other companies will soon follow and attempt to reach out to their potential consumers and collaborate with them to produce user generated content.

I predict that in 2009, social media agencies and production houses like Common Craft will have to specialize in providing online video solutions for corporates.

My friend, Gaurav Mishra who genteelly pushed me into writing these predictions has his written his seven predictions on social media. Peter Kim has compiled his predictions along with 13 other social media gurus that really makes a good reading.

I hope my predictions have given you some food for thought to start off your own set of predictions for the next year. Do mention them and comment on this post.

Tags:2009, cell phone, Facebook, Kaya, mobile phones, Online Reputation Management, Online Videos, Predictions, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Posted in Facebook, Online Videos, Predictions, Social Media, Twitter | 28 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:2009, Citizen Journalism, December, education, entrepreneurship, Facebook, journalists, Linked In, Predictions, Social Media, Windchimes Comm
Posted in Facebook, Predictions, Social Media, Target Audience | 26 Comments »

How to use your status updates profitably?

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

Status updates are here for good. Love them or Hate them but if you are on social networking site, then you can’t ignore them. Status updates work by asking user the question – “what are you doing?” The user’s reply is the update that will appear in his or her profile.

There has been an ongoing debate on whether status updates should be qualified as form of micro blogging. Twitter, one the first micro blogging facility providing company, realized early on that people would want to write micro blog posts. Hence micro blogging allowed the user to answer that question in 140 characters. The appeal of status updates as important aspect of social media spread so quickly, that major social media companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google in Gtalk are offering it as a feature. In fact Facebook even offered to buy out Twitter for that feature.

It’s surely a very non intrusive way of knowing what your friends and family have been upto over the past few days. While some of the status updates are funny others can be down right annoying – like ‘Am at work’. Nobody wants to know that you are at work.

I found our several creative, positive and financially rewarding ways to use status updates. A lot of it will also depend on how many friends you have.

User participation – This feature is important to better engage with your consumer. For e.g. “Who will be the winner of the reality show called ‘Big Boss’” Don’t be surprised with the amount of answers you can get for this one.

Brand Promotion – A very important tool for word of mouth promotion. It’s very common to read updates where movies, books, music being recommended by users. Also to promote websites and blogs which one can’t advertise in a classical sense. Updates are used effectively by event managers to promote their shows “ XYZ singer or magician is performing in city ABC – come and book your ticket @ def@mno.com”

Announcement – Several of my friends in the media use it to announce their new shows and events launched by their news channels. All companies use it to announce their new product launch or new feature upgrades available.

News updates – Micro blogging was use aggressively during the Mumbai terror attacks to give out minute by minute update. Election updates or economic ups and downs – all find their ways as updates

Recruitment – I read this in one of the linkedin discussion where in all the employees of one organization wrote “Wanted a qualified website designer to work out of Mumbai”. Apparently they got 12 people submitting their resume over one day and they recruited one amongst them. This helped the firm save commission that they would have paid to the recruitment agent.

Or like Jeff mentioned on his status update “If anyone knows Latin, please contact me” and within 20 minutes 3 people contacted him and he got his work done.

Surveying – A random check of status updates will give out the most current and debated topics prevalent on people’s mind. It’s very apparent to map out what is holding people’s attention at that point in time.

Donation – You can donate your status as evident in the campaign that Facebook carried out to urge Americans to come out and vote. This created a huge movement and record number of voting ever in US history.

Saving your life – This one is the most bizarre tale but I had to include it here. Buck, a journalism grad student who was travelling in Egypt was apprehended by the local police authorities. But before he was arrested, he was able to tweet (i.e. update to his twitter profile) one word “Arrested”. His friend read that tweet and contacted the US Embassy and his school University of California at Berkeley, which sent a lawyer to get him out of jail. Phew!!

If Facebook came out with Fan page for status updates, I would be one of them. Write in the funniest, weirdest or the best use of status update that you have seen.

Read the post on how Facebook can be used to promote brands

Tags:Facebook, Gtalk, Micro Blogging, status update, Twitter
Posted in Facebook, Twitter | 16 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:audience, Facebook, listening, monologue, Social Media, Traditional Media, Windchimes Comm
Posted in Social Media, Target Audience, Traditional Media | 6 Comments »

Beware before becoming a Fan on Facebook

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Mark Zuckerberg, opened up advertising on Facebook last year taking the approach of ‘social actions’ of its users. He explains it in his press release that “The core of every user’s experience on Facebook is their page and that’s where (all) businesses are going to start as well. Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people. Social Ads can appear either within a user’s News Feed as sponsored content or in the ad space along the left side of the site.” (Read: Are Facebook ads conversational marketing?)

If you become the ‘Fan’ of a product that has Facebook profile, then that product can insert your name and profile directly into their pitches. According to Facebook, a user has to take a “social action” in order to trigger the appearance of their name and picture in an advertisement. This is not restricted to only becoming a fan of any product. According to Facebook spokesperson Brandee Barker, that could be almost any activity that the user does on Facebook, “such as the download of an application and the acceptance of a friend request.” It could also include becoming a “fan” of a business by clicking a link on that company’s Facebook page.

How many of us are aware of the results of Facebook’s so called social actions? Currently, nothing tells the user that this is the underlying criteria while you perform any action on Facebook. So if you decide to become a fan of a particular drink, don’t be surprised to see your face and name appearing next time on someone’s else profile page. There is no choice given to the user whether he or she would like their details to appear for any ad.

There should be a change made in this system whether it clearly spells out what you are getting into or have an ‘opt out’ option. As of now the only way to avoid this is by avoiding associating yourself with any corporate brands on Facebook.

William McGeveran, University of Minnesota law professor, who wrote extensively about Social Ads’ possible legal ramifications when the platform was announced, the problem is that users may be unwittingly lending their likenesses to advertising campaigns. “I would expect it to make many users uncomfortable to see their images appropriated this way for commercial purposes if they didn’t have warning and didn’t give true consent in advance.”

I personally adore Facebook and the fact that it has helped me in connecting with friends I never thought I would ever meet. But beware before becoming a complete fan!!!

Tags:Facebook, Fan, Social Ads
Posted in Facebook | 9 Comments »

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How to use your status updates profitably?

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