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Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

How your Personal Branding on Social Media Affects your Recruitment Possibilities

Friday, September 11th, 2015

If you are still under impression that only your resume and technical & communication skills are considered while recruitments, you need to revise your assumptions, especially if you are a job seeker and active on various social media platforms. Your social media activities have a major impact on your recruitment possibilities.

Gone are the days when potential recruiters would just study your resume, talk to your recommenders, test your technical skills, interview you and hire you right away. Today, as soon as you are shortlisted for a job position, your social media profiles are scrutinized to peek in your lifestyle. The practice is a convenient way to understand the candidate, his/her association with people and basic lifestyle choices.

If a company has strict policies against internet and smartphone usage, it may want to avoid a social media addict who updates his whereabouts and activities every hour. Similarly, posts about hating Mondays and weekdays can put a negative impression about your professionalism and passion for work. The smart way to get through the social media scrutiny could be narrowing the industry you want to join, studying the basic criteria of judging a candidate’s personal branding by the firms and designing your personal branding strategy accordingly.

For a firm relying highly on LinkedIn profiles, you can keep posting your professional and academic achievements regularly and get recommendations from industry influencers. Similarly, for a marketing job or leadership position, you can voice your opinion about latest happenings regularly on Twitter, and let them know that you like getting engaged in social conversations.

There are certain don’ts and no-no’s too that you should always take care of while posting stuff on social media. Writing a post about how you felt after a hangover, a rendezvous with local police, caste-race based comments, supporting use of abusive language, etc. are the things that might land you in trouble. What can help you authenticate your profile can be your posts and pictures of doing the tasks for the social causes that you have signed up for in your profile introduction.

You put your best step forward when you are appearing for a job interview and try to appear perfect in every aspect that you are judged upon. This is exactly why your personal brand on social media should stand a testimony for everything that you claim to be.

Tags:communication, Facebook, Impression, Interviews, Jobs, Linked In, professional, profile, Recruiment, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Blog Content, Employee Relations, Social Media, Social Media Research, Windchimes Comm | No Comments »

Television Commercials or Ads on YouTube-What do you choose?

Tuesday, August 4th, 2015

Are brands relying more on YouTube for their advertisements than stereotyped television commercials for their branding?

When was the last time you watched a television commercial without cursing the show you are watching for making you go through it? Cannot recall? We guessed so. Now, let’s take YouTube. For short videos on YouTube, it is easier to anticipate when exactly an ad is getting over and whether or not it would pop up again. Things like this influence people’s choice of the platform they want to watch your ads at. The platform of broadcasting your video advertisements is important, but a perfect combination of timing and content is the key here.

Sometimes, the ads are better watched on YouTube first when multiple viewers have already watched it, liked it and shared it. You may even watch an advertisement intentionally, thinking it’s an interesting short video. Deepika Padukone’s Mother’s Day special video for Tanishq was a hit on YouTube before it was telecasted on television. Alia-Siddharth’s Coke advertisement gained enough loyal viewers through YouTube before the ad hit the television.

Can you recall Google’s ‘Help your mother get online’ advertisement that got viral on social media? Given that people have mastered in skipping channels to avoid the television commercials, sharing and circulation of advertisements across social media platforms by them is a revolution in itself.

It all comes down to the timing and content of the advertisements. Once you have uploaded your advertisement on YouTube, you can sit back and relax to see it getting circulated. It’s all about building a beautiful and strong story, and giving people sufficient time, not too much, not too less, to watch and appreciate it. When you force your advertisements on the viewers, you force them to repel it. Online shopping websites, which bank a lot on social media, are also focusing on online ads. The ad titled as ‘The Visit’, by Myntra gained more than 2 Lakh hits within 10 days.

The media industry is now shifting from the television commercials to online advertisements. The platform is interactive and viewers can have fun with various ad formats. It also gives them the liberty to share their thoughts about the videos. The cost is also quite less as compared to television commercials, as Google Adwords relies on Pay Per Click and Pay per View themes. Technology is taking over the traditional media and hence, video ads have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 1.84%, the highest click-through rate of all digital ad formats.

The ‘Skip Ad’ option could be a minor hiccup in this, but the overall demand for online video is too high, and it has increased the number of video advertisements that are being uploaded on YouTube.

Tags:Advertisement, Adwords, Commercials, Digital Ads, Latest TVC, New Ad, Online Ads, Online Advertisements, Skip Ad, Skip Advertisement, Social Media, Television Commercials, TVC Industry, TVS, YouTube, YouTube Ads
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Digital Media, Online Videos, Social Media Marketing, Traditional Media, Windchimes Comm | No Comments »

Mobile Marketing Strategies & Brands – The Big Connection!

Friday, May 2nd, 2014

People are nowadays spending a larger fraction of their time on mobile phones. The new world of marketing now stands on the terms like SEO, smartphones, geo-location, mobile sites, digital and social marketing. Also, as the attention span of people is decreasing and their need of getting everything with a click of button is escalating, marketers and brand managers are also testing new tactics to reach their customers. Technologies emerging in the mobile space are sure to help brands leverage their identity by reaching out to a much larger audience and that too across the globe.

Of the World’s 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smartphones and around 3.05 billion are SMS enabled. It is believed that this year mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage. Mobile revolution is here!

As the use of mobiles is increasing, their adaptability is also growing. From search to research, everything is happening on this device.

What is the state of social and mobile media marketing?

In a report by Microsoft tag,

· 1/3^rd of Facebook’s 600 plus users use Facebook Mobile
· 50% of Twitters 165 million users use twitter mobile
· YouTube has over 200 million users and YouTube views occur on mobiles everyday
· 30% of smartphone owners accessed social networks through mobiles
· Women between the age group of 35-54 are the most active when it comes to socializing via mobile

Many brands and businesses have already entered the mobile development and many are still thinking. What they need to understand is that mobile is the new territory of business. Brands are already planning their strategies well keeping in mind the mobile marketing tactics.

What about you? Have you started doing it yet? If not, then maybe you are late as it is where your customers are these days. This is indeed the year of mobile!

· Most brands and businesses are new to mobile marketing and those using it have not been in for more than a year
· Many are not aware whether a mobile marketing strategy will benefit their brand and business
· A lot of them do not know if they can measure the ROI on mobile marketing
· In most cases, time, money and knowledge about mobile marketing is what they are lacking
· Step one to mobile marketing is a mobile website and many brands and businesses do have their websites optimized for mobile visitors though

The big fact is that if your customers are not confined to their homes, then why should your marketing be? The time to break the silence and refresh your marketing mix with mobile marketing is here.

Moving on, there are a few types of mobile marketing that you need to keep in mind while crafting a mobile marketing strategy. They are:

Mobile Website Design

Mobile devices, like smartphones & tablet computers have smaller screens. Hence, many regular websites are not readable on mobile devices. Mobile website specially designed to display on a mobile device is vital for reaching mobile customers.

App-Based Mobile Marketing

Mobile apps have mushroomed lately and are extensively used in marketing. the ads are hosted within the application design and consist of virtual machines, widgets and applications enhancing the user experiences.

Mobile Image/Banner Ads

These are just like the standard banner ads for web pages but are small enough to fit the mobile screen sizes.

Mobile Surveys

Just like online surveys help marketers improve their marketing efforts. Mobile surreys can also be done for those on the go. This helps in getting instant responses from customers at anytime from anywhere.

SMS (text messaging)

This involves sending a text messages for marketing to the customers using mobile phones. These marketing messages can include an offer, link to your website, promotional code, discounts etc. For SMS marketing it is very essential to have a mobile website which is responsive in design.

QR Codes (quick responsive barcodes)

These are those patterned squares that have been quite visible since quite some time now at various places and mediums. QR Codes can be easily scanned by any mobile device with a camera or a QR code reader application. The customer can get all the information on promotions, business information, and so on. This gives businesses a powerful way to drive traffic to stores and mobile websites. QR Codes can be incorporated in business cards, flyers, ads and in your email signature

Voice Marketing

This is the type of marketing in which the voice broadcasting calls numbers from a computerized list and plays a recorded message to the customer

Mobile Video

Mobile videos are the most powerful types of this form of marketing adding a personal touch to the marketing messages. The video created should be mobile optimized.

Pay-Per-Call or Click-to-Call

In this type of marketing, the user can directly click or tap the number on the mobile ad for which he will not be charged. After this, the customer will be lead to an automated pre-recorded message, a customer care representative or the location for which the number was given.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth marketing is the one in which the mobile device links into a hotspot with an access to a high transfer speed. It is normally, free of charge and can be used in shops/exhibitions in order to promote the products/services.

Moving on, brands can also:

Encourage Check-ins amongst their customers by persuading them to use Foursquare, Google+ location sharing and offer incentives to them for checking in, including discounts, special recognition and gifts.
Grow their e-mail list through a mobile device by texting people and asking people to join an app that directly integrates with your brand’s e-mail marketing program, business card scanning app, QR Code etc.
Join a few Mobile Directories and directory listings should include a simple description of your services, phone number, hours of operation, address and a link to your website.

Hence, the mobile landscape will continue to grow with the reforms in the content marketing in the coming days. There’s something interesting you need to know, we are sure you know that already but, the six elements of mass media print, cinema, radio, television, recordings and television are followed by the seventh element which is ‘Mobile’. All these are called mass media elements as they reach masses.

Then what is about the Mobile? Well, its capability of doing everything that the other elements could do make it stand out and accurate.

Not only mobile marketing is the fastest growing marketing method, but it also has a potential to help brands implement the same strategies as used in internet marketing techniques. Therefore, businesses and brands should consider this medium in times to come! So, what are your thoughts on this blooming marketing technique? Have you gone mobile yet? Do share your comments with us!

Tags:Mobile Marketing, Mobile Revolution, Mobile Technology, Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media & Storytelling: A Great Mix!

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

The ultimate reason that defines how a marketer knows what to do in the right way is his understanding of the consumer psychology, where he actually stood a decade or two ago and where he would be few years later. Marketers, yes they do get stuck sometimes with their ideas. They spend millions on direct mail, billboards, print, radio, TV etc. But why? Many of these mediums are already breaking up in terms of getting a genuine attention of the users. Well, if you can tell us the last time you were really excited to open an email, or stopped by to look at a billboard or outdoor media or you didn’t forward that commercial then you can surely email it to us.

The value proposition is not the same as it used to be. There used to be a day when consumes were excited to buy a particular item on online stores or ecommerce sites at half the original price, but now you do not show any interest to such offers and actually mark it as spam before it even hits your inbox because you have been already bombarded with lots of them since years now. The solution? What would one do when the ROI of billboards, Television and emails deteriorates in comparison to what it was in the early 90s?

It comes down to a fact that every single marketer is a storyteller, it becomes their job to tell their value proposition, give value and ask for business, what their story is to the customers along the lines of purchase. Period.

And therefore, to be a good storyteller one needs to get the attention of the customer to get that chance. And to be very precise, their attention is shifting, shifting at a very fast pace. Time and attention have now become like commodities which are the most valuable in the game. Now, when you talk about social media, many marketers just treat it like a distribution channel and another medium or way to shower the consumers with the same messages.They are missing the fact that social media networks are the platforms or mediums with actually a two way conversation.

For instance, if one looks at twitter, it is nothing less than a cocktail party of the internet. And what makes one a great cocktail party guest is not talking about oneself all the time. Infact, to be clear more percentage of tweets should engage with other users which in turn brings value to your brand. The truth, rather the ultimate truth is in order to succeed and provide a great value, learn to storytell in each platform (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram to name a few). The most important thing is to respect and understand the psychology of what makes the Facebook user different from a Pinterest user and more from an Instagram user.

Storytelling is something more than just telling the story about your brand. When it is about social media storytelling, it is way more than just promoting the brands on social media platforms. Authentic brand stories not only symbolize the brand, but are unique and in turn motivate the people to engage with your brand, talk about it, share and ultimately purchase it or entice profits. Storytelling is- knowing in reality what your audiences want. It is very importantly about relationship building. Determining the core story of the brand first will help you know who the audience is, how their interaction with the brand is, what & how many people are talking about the brand, how your brand differs from that of competitors, your social response parameter & time etc.

People find value in platforms and those who cannot tell their stories on today’s social media platforms are the ones that will go out of business sooner or later. Storytelling on social media and marketing have now blended together and play on the fans’ emotions. With these stories, brands connect with atheir readers on a more human level. Future not just holds churning out content but also crafting compelling stories. So are you ready to strike a chord by making your brand voice resonate with the consumers on social media? We all love stories, right? Whether it is around a campfire, or in a room with friends or on a phone call with an old friend, we love it all the time.

If so, then what about leveraging this most basic aspect (of storytelling) of human nature to your advantage on social media?

In order to go ahead with digital storytelling on your social media platforms you need to keep in mind a few things.

Your brand needs to tell a story

In order to stay connected with your audience or customers you need to show your brand’s human or personal side, your brand needs to tell a story. The brand personality should ideally resonate with your fans on social media. While doing so, make sure you don’t make the brand voice too personal and also ensure that whatever you are sharing, you are comfortable with the whole world knowing what you are sharing.

Your brand’s story – Share it!

It’s a normal consumer behaviour that they they usually don’t just buy brands they largely consider the story behind brands too. Highlight your brand’s message, the story & the attributes like you do on your website and blog on social media also. When you post content keeping this in mind, then your communication builds a strong credibility for your brand and makes your content relevant and relatable with the audience.

The best way of storytelling is to actually do that!

Yes, you can do this on Facebook by converting your updates into small blog posts or narrations. And on Twitter also with a limitation of 140 characters too you can be amazing in telling your story encouraging more creativity. Using Instagram is another great way to tell a story. Wonder how? Just post an image with interesting captions.

Consecutive post can be another way

Sharing the posts or tweets in parts makes sharing the story a way more captivating. Consecutive post after post or a tweet-after-tweet fashion works great on social media as it builds positive anticipation for what’s going to happen next.

The next generation audience and even the audience of this generation is acquiring a great level of control over the information they see, talk about and share. Brands, therefore should know the art of creating compelling stories to reach them.

Shifting from messaging to storytelling ensures successful brand stories, just as in the case of Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches which invited around 150m YouTube views in just a few months, in turn leveraging the brand’s awareness and loyalty across the platforms and within the audience.

What Dove did was, it used myth components that matched with the women that have the same thinking.

Here’s a brief description of their storytelling:

· The explanation was that the society makes women believe that they are less beautiful than they are.
· The meaning was: ‘You are more beautiful than you think”.
· The story: Dove showed this through people with whom their audience could relate to.
· The result was that Dove’s story was shared across the globe compared to the competitors or other shampoo advertisements.

When brands cast their fans or audience as the hero, their story works best. For example, Apple’s “Think Different” or Nike’s “Just Do It” or for that matter Obama’s “Yes We Can” didn’t have brands talking about themselves but their people and how great they can be. Isn’t it? And this is what excites and attracts the masses these days and inspires them to share your brand content. And will keep doing in the times to come too.

Storytelling therefore, is not a matter of a day; it requires great thinking and committed time & effort to be crafted. How strongly do you know your brand’ story? Do you plan to understand your brand’s core story and audience and then create a content strategy keeping in mind the brand’s core? Storytelling on social media holds a great future only if you understand the heart of your brand and tell it in a way that people appreciate it and further share. Do share your thoughts on the same and how have you made efforts to discover it!

Tags:Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media & Storytelling, Storytellinmg by Brands on Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Brand Promotion, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience, Twitter | No Comments »

Crediting Social Media in Banking Industry

Monday, April 1st, 2013

There was a fun campaign by a reputed Indian Bank some time back where somebody gave a comment “Why Banks?” Well, this threw light upon two very common misconceptions: one that banks should not engage on Facebook and other that B2B businesses and brands should stay away from social media platforms. These misconceptions arise from a perception that Facebook and other social media platforms might weaken or tamper the brand image. On the other hand, connecting with banks on Facebook is proving really beneficial for fans, especially the younger customers of today. There is increased engagement when the bank proactively listens, fans respond and share their experiences.

Facebook is a platform that helps brands, be it banks; emerge as a friendly, trustworthy and approachable one. Twitter on the other hand is another wonderful social media tool that helps the brands to connect and interact in 140 characters.

Banks have actively taken a step to scratch the surface of the potential in social media. Study indicates that private banks are leading the race followed by a few large public sector banks.

HDFC Bank tops the social media leverage index followed by public sector IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Citi Bank. With social media leveraging brands and sectors across the globe, Indian banks are also realizing steadily that social media, when implemented with a strong strategy will not only prove to be important & profitable but build a long term identity and growth with large follower base and engagement. (Image Courtesy: Raddon Financial Group)

Globally, all the banks whether government or private have taken a wonderful step to stay connected with their customers through social media.

Sadly, there are a few banks that see social media as a platform to market their products instead of engaging with their customers and fans.

Although, HDFC is one such bank that has understood the importance and impact of social media and is doing pretty good in the banking sector.

HDFC, one of India’s first private sector banks commenced in the year 1994. To be a World class Indian bank, HDFC commenced with an objective to be the top provider of exclusive banking services. Catering to the business community primarily, HDFC has a very strong presence both offline and online.

If we talk about HDFC, their presence on social media has helped them garner a lot of customers followed by an amazing share of the market. HDFC took this social step with a simple strategy of Engage, Evolve and Excel.

In this social run HDFC is one such bank that stands out in terms of leveraging social media in terms of their presence in social media channels, the strategy they have implemented and their approach in engaging with their customers.

HDFC Bank is present on all the major social media channels namely Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google+.

HDFC on Facebook:

With more than 1.5 million likes, HDFC Bank’s Facebook page is mainly used as a space to push its marketing messages. Very actively they also started with Facebook advertising. With an amazing presence on Facebook, HDFC generates excellent feedback from its fans and followers. This not only helps the bank build a strong relation & trust with its customers but also serves as a basis for them to understand their needs and requirements. It helps them promote their banking products and features too. They have recently come up with Taxpert, a tab where tax experts give their views and solve queries put across by customers. All sorts of financial news are provided to the fans through these sections on official Facebook page of HDFC Bank. They also engage their fans through contests, puzzles and finance related facts etc.

The way they use their custom tabs is worth appreciating as they not only add value to their Facebook community but also direct the traffic to their Website.

They also give regular updates on latest deals & credit card tips on shopping. With this they also sustain regular conversations with customers and encourage repeat purchases on credit cards, in particular.

HDFC on Twitter:

HDFC Bank’s has two dedicated Twitter handles; one for customer query resolution and other to provide helpful tips to customers. For all sorts of queries & complaints customers tweet @ HDFCBank_Cares and the Twitter handle @HDFC_Bank provides useful finance tips, information related to tax and offers etc.

Their approach on twitter is based on sharing interesting facts and information with their followers, engaging them through contests, puzzles followed by sharing products and deals they have to offer. They are very active on twitter, no wonder they are generating followers at a pace equivalent to their growth on social media which is commendable. The way they handle their customer queries deserves a hug applaud as their communication is not only considerate & explanatory but personalized. They now have a healthy follower count of more than 6.4k.

YouTube:

HDFC has conceptualized and created some of the amazing commercials which have paved their way through the YouTube channels. Also, they provide useful ‘How To’ videos for mobile banking, net banking etc. These commercials acquired a huge amount of viewership on their YouTube channel. Video content is very engaging & benefits the viewers. They are consistently trying to post and promote as many videos as they could to leverage their brand through YouTube.

Linkedin:

HDFC’s company page on Linkedin has around 43k followers. They display their products and services on this page and get recommendations from the users which serve as a live testimonial. Being actively present on Linkedin helps users to browse the company details and employee information.

HDFC bank’s official Pinterest page gives useful information about their exciting offers, products and latest trends in the Banking and finance industry. They innovatively motivate their fans and customers to keep pinning to their boards of interest in this space.

Foursquare

HDFC Bank on foursquare provides exciting offers & privileges tips for consumers to avail discounts with their HDFC Bank credit/debit cards.

Google+

In an initiative to amplify its services, HDFC leveraged this medium to spread their services, offers & discounts to its customers. They provide useful information to their fans through various properties they have on social media. The page has also crossed a milestone of 1.5 Million of fans.

HDFC deals with its customer issues very efficiently in a personalized manner and short time. Banking is a sector where a lot of care and precision has to be taken as it brings along with a great deal of negativity too. But when it comes to HDFC, it goes without saying that this bank has tried its best to keep the level of negativity as low as possible with its interactions, engagements and most of all its effective customer service team. They are doing a really great job with their social media efforts.

HDFC Bank is not only reaching out to their customers and fans through social media but also engaging them consistently with informative and interesting contests and tabs. They hold tax trivia and secure banking twitter contests wherein people are offered secure banking and tax related tips and learning about tax in a fun way. This not only helps them build effective thought leadership across the industry but makes them stand out for their social efforts.

How Banks should leverage Social Media?

Social Media is emerging as the new destination for bankers to reach out to a great range of their customers overwhelmingly. Before taking a step into the social media world, banks should pause to check out the security and regulatory issues related to banking. They want to embrace this newest way of connecting with consumers, but with care.

People are also keen to access banking services on social media therefore banks can effectively maintain a social media presence to garner more engagement with their services.

There’s a lot that a bank can explore on social media platform and further strike a trend in this sector. The trend of being on social media and show off the social credentials has already begun amongst the banks and is very actively moving ahead with rising competition in this space too.

Moving further, it is fairly evident that internet penetration on a global level is in an upswing and so is the use of smartphones. Social media is therefore shaping the future of almost all the future brands.

The need of the hour for banks is to leverage their brand interests, increase visibility of their offerings, increase interactions and place their customers in high regard. Banks are coming up with various mobile friendly apps that connect the consumers with the brand further helping them attract prospective customers. These apps act as a marketing device to promote offers and discounts.

Social Media, once strategically implemented marketing communication plans can help banks in some of the great things like: Community Building, Product Research, Customer Service, Marketing & Promotion and Transparency.

Once the banks implement social media into their marketing strategies, it would not only lead to improved branding, but they could also understand consumer perceptions about them, leveraged product research and a strong relationship building with customers. This also brings a great level of transparency to banking services. Banking and finance sectors, unlike the FMCG sector have one-to-one relationships with their customers. Social Media enables this engagement and motivates the brands to be accountable.

Making social media as one of the most important arms of customer support, educating and informing fans about the security issues & safe banking practices, encouraging the workforce, offer customized solutions gained from social media insights will surely go a long way in crafting social media banks of the future. One thing is evident that to be a successful brand on social media, brand managers and strategists need to evolve with variety of strategies keeping in mind the strong execution and sincere intention. In your opinion what can be further strategies by reputed banks on social media?

Tags:Banking & Finance in Social Media, Banking and Social Media, Banking Industry and Social Media, Banks on Facebook, Banks on Social Media, Social Media
Posted in Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 3 Comments »

Content Marketing: Brands Need to Gear Up!

Friday, March 15th, 2013

If marketing is a pie, then content marketing is definitely the bigger slice of it. Most of the brand managers, marketers, companies and/or sectors would agree with this statement. Content marketing is indeed the most appealing trend of this year. If done right, it can create wonders to leading to traffic and driving sales. The key to this is to have a plan, a plan to target effectively & grab your target audience’s attention. There is no doubt about the fact that social media & mobile marketing have also showcased content to be supreme. Brands therefore, are now creating original content to engage customers. If B2B sector is taken into consideration, here the brands foster content usage by positioning company as a thought leader to the customers, producing demand.

Consumers also want a lot of information now and at the same time they want to make their own decisions. In that case brands need to provide valuable content to build trust.

Following all the changes and strategic developments happening all year around, this year marks some of the fantastic content marketing trends, when implemented correctly are sure to drive the business and brands to a great level.

Last minute web plugs, ad hoc promo driven microsites and integrating a social media strategy as an addition won’t work anymore! For a healthy and successful way forward, strategically planned content and distribution supported by well done research & inputs is the key.

Traditional publicity and content marketing differences are many. Just have a glimpse:

Source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/guide-to-content-marketing/

Moving on lets talk about the Social media & content marketing trends

Case studies, evolving as the most important part of content marketing are very essential when it comes to products & services. From “how it works” to “this is what I need”, case studies provide all the information related to a particular products.

E-books fill the space of B2C content marketing wherein all the questions on how to get the most out of a service or product will be a part of the content. A content that creates a comfort zone for buyers is another essential part.

Storytelling is become the most liked trend today. With everyday happenings on the social media platforms and content overflowing from all ends, some of the amazing stories are sure to get an edge. Here businesses can add that personal touch & experience with real examples and share it with people, the content they actually want to read.

Blogging by businesses will take the lead in times to came, infact it is already considered as the foundation of all sorts of content marketing actions. Blog encapsulates all types of content, posts, e-books etc. followed by links to the content in the blog.

Creating enough and original content might turn out to be the biggest challenge for content marketing. Marketers would be pressurized to come up with content based on superior quality & originality.

Social media will stand out as the most popular channel with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. distributing content that is liked and shared by people. The content can also be stored in the blog and shared with the social media platforms when required.

Content marketing goals would be sales & retention wherein B2B content would spawn leads & sales and B2C brands would move ahead with a goal of retention & generating word of mouth.

Content would be used all over. A single piece of content would be distributed & stretched to almost all the platforms where marketers will try to maximize their value. Revamping the existing content will also lighten the creation of content.

Mobile optimized content is creating buzz. Creating a mobile friendly content with a click to call option is sure to give you an edge over your competitors. From blogs, websites, case studies, e-books, videos and all other content should be made mobile friendly.

Content curation might be used as an alternative as marketers who fall short on time to create their own piece of engaging & original content shift to curation. Curation would include churning out the best content and sharing it across the social media platforms. It will lead to the brand losing its value & visitors to the page, at the same time being known as staying updated. A proper balance of original and curated content would be a good strategy.

Video would be the greatest trend with amazing video content. If you are planning to go viral with your content, then video is the answer. Short videos with easy steps to follow are good enough for engaging people who further share the content. Compelling content is the need of the hour for longer videos to make people sit back and watch. It should be shareable and eye catching. That’s it!

Infographics are a rapidly growing content format which have the visual appeal & information that is easy to understand and share.

Targeted content will get more results. Understanding the interests of potential customers and creating content based on that would foster engagement. Exploring on the buying behaviour of people will help generate targeted content.

E-mail, the most used and effective marketing channel can be leveraged by understanding the marketing goals and designing the communication to influence the buyers or consumers.

Budgets. There won’t be any slash down when it comes to content marketing. There would be increased spending on the same.

Gamified content strategy is on the rise. As the customers are getting influenced by online activities etc., they are expecting gratification to interact & engage with brands online, content that renders entertainment, learning & rewards is appreciated in a big way.

Expanding Social Media and its users generate a challenge for marketers when it comes to designing the content marketing strategies. Social media will continue to stand out as the greatest resource of real-time content distribution which is rising amongst the audiences.

Understanding the content & digital link is important. Content strategies need to be designed keeping in mind the digital strategies. Anybody could get the likes on Facebook, but what makes brands stand out is what they do with those likes. Its about the target audience and engaging them with content that brings them back everytime to the brand page. Facebook likes are not the content. Content is now also linked to SEO.

A breakthrough content backed by a strategically thought idea that the businesses or brands can deliver across platforms is the strongest step towards success.

Have a look at this, the anatomy of Content Marketing.

Image courtesy: contentplus.co.uk

Brand managers and marketers are on a constant run to look out for ways to build consumer engagement, acquire and retain them. In order to win the race of attracting the target audience marketers will have firstly capture their minds with the product, offers etc. and secondly create connecting content.

Lets see what Zomato.com, that offers restaurants listings of restaurants, food reviews etc. did. It also has Android & iOS apps that are easy enough to use. It is also active on Facebook & Twitter garnering amazing likes and fan following.

Zomato engages with its customers regularly on these social media platforms. They constantly urge their customers to praise the food etc. and also stay clear of being praised and promoting itself everytime. Recently, they came up with Food Porn Site to get more visible, where people could look at pictures of scrumptious & luscious food. Zomato also regularly maintains its presence on blogs & sites to escalate their reach and visibility.

COKE

Coca-Cola strongly believes in content marketing and therefore it is their core strategy of Content 2020 advertising strategy mission: "All advertisers need a lot more content so that they can keep the engagement with consumers fresh and relevant, because of the 24/7 connectivity. If you’re going to be successful around the world, you have to have fat and fertile ideas at the core."

Click here to watch.

COLGATE

Colgate provides an online Oral and Dental Health Resource center with videos, interactive guides, and over 400 articles. It’s a great example of a brand seeing itself as a publisher and using its depth of knowledge to provide valuable information to people, which is the key to content marketing success. Even a two person company can pull from their experience and expertise to create blogs, e-newsletters and e-books in an organized and effective way that reaches prospects.

GENERAL ELECTRIC

General Electric used content marketing to tell the story of the 132-year-old brand through different content channels. They used the content tactic Ecomagination, which is a forum for fresh thinking and conversation about clean technology and sustainable infrastructure. According to Katrina Craigwell, Digital Marketing Manager at GE’s belief, “At the end of the day, if the content isn’t good enough for the end user to want to share it with a friend or colleague, we haven’t quite succeeded.”

So, it is evident how brands are constantly updating & innovating their content, offerings and approach to connect with their customers. Also the way social media platforms are used, it beautifies the brands’ marketing. Content is surely the king as it is encouragingly served & shared to a large audience in multiple ways.

Recently, there was a brand owner’s summit where it was showcased how "Brand marketing has given way to content marketing". Check this link to read through!

A proper plan, relationship building, long term thinking and consistency helps a brand go long way with its content marketing.

What clicks through is the relationship that a brand builds with its influencers and consumers etc. They help drive in traffic by posting and sharing the content from website to various other networks.

Content is the heart of social media. It is the life savior of branding campaigns. Don’t you agree? Yes, it is. It is a lot more than an SEO, a tweet, blog or Facebook post etc. Need to create an original content is very essential. A content that moves away from brand messages to the one that’s relevant & approachable for consumers.

For a content that is not only significant but exceptional, one should aim to create, curate, plan & collect the same.

In 2012, there was a great rise in the use of images in content marketing with social media platforms like Pinterest & Instagram followed by Facebook, Linkedin & Twitter which focused on imagery. With the beginning of 2013, content marketing has evolved yet in another great way.

Brands and organizations need to plan a framework for their content marketing. They have already started looking out for media platforms to purchase & bloggers to manage the same. In almost every industry there is a great prospect for a appropriately planned content strategy.

Times ahead are now going mobile.

Mobile web browsing is also expected to outdo the web browsing through desktops and laptops. Content marketers will therefore have to create content suited to the mobile lifestyle.

The website should be designed in a way that is compatible with the smartphone. And with smartphone users and consumers increasing every fraction of a second they always expect the content to be readable on their mobile devices which they carry almost everywhere they go.

These trends are a witness to a movement that was prevalent for years and now trying to reach a larger mass. Brand managers and marketers have also come to a conclusion that social media channels are not that effective without an appealing content to engage. How would you analyse the role of content in the World where the complete consumer behaviour has changed? Don’t you think content is the most eminent marketing strategy? Do you think 2013 will be the year of content marketing with innovations & intelligence? It is expected that the applications would be developed to improve the efficiency of content creation. Would it help publishers to polish the performance of their content on web or social media? How would it improve the ROI?

Tags:B2B sector, Content Marketing, Content Marketing in 2013, Content marketing Trends, Content strategy, Infographics, Mobile, Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience, Traditional Media | 1 Comment »

QR Codes: Potential Social Media Trend

Friday, March 1st, 2013

QR Codes, also popularly known as quick response codes have come up as an essential marketing trend in these few years. These square designs have been found popping almost everywhere, be it magazines, in stores, direct mail pieces etc. to name a few. QR Codes are computer generated images that help customers to directly connect with websites or online platforms without typing a URL. These codes can be easily scanned with Smartphones directing the users to the online content. The QR Code trend is catching up fast and almost all the industrial sectors, professions and brands are using it.

Today, majority of searches happen online through Smartphones which is another important factor for businesses to provide their brand’s information etc. in a mobile optimized format.

We all have at some point or the other seen QR Codes on posters, business cards, magazines, newspapers and all such places where advertisement is done. These quick response codes are also termed as one of the effective marketing tools. These QR Codes provide the users or viewers with a link to that particular company or brand’s website, services or contact information.

QR Codes facilitate the sharing of targeted information with the audience or people keen to know about your brand or business, instantly.

Businesses can use QR Codes to:

· Provide discounts and offers
· Share the brand video or content
· Make it hassle free for people to join them online
· Get a quick feedback via a short survey or poll

Brand managers and advertisers are not only in search of creative places to put them but also extremely unique methods to put them. In this case, Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are turning out to be the most popular places to put them with amazing content too.

It goes without saying that marketing trends come & go, but QR Codes are positioned in such a way that their use is growing every year. Firstly, the Smartphone users are increasing everyday and secondly, the QR codes direct the users to a content which is not static but one which is relevant and updated. And finally, the most important factor that makes QR Codes stand out is their compatibility with social media tools.

There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

QR Codes can be used at:

· Stores: One can post a signage with QR Code that links to a website that gives full details about the product, offers etc.

· Events: The printed materials can have a QR Code through which customers can access detailed content related to the event.

· On Business Cards: Apart from telling about you, your business cards can direct people to a link that speaks about your business too.

· Print Ads: Along with a call to action, QR Codes on print ads speak more about the brand story beyond what can be placed on small ads. Consumers can be offered rewards on scanning these codes too.

What to do for a perfect incorporation of QR Codes into a Social Media strategy?

Well, when doing so, its better to keep it simple.

One effective approach can be to give a vCard or links to your brand or company’s social media networks such as Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. If you have a blog or some other content linked to your business, you can also provide links to that as well.

Unlike printed collateral and platforms, the data at the URL which is linked to the QR Code can be regularly updated which can help you to update the content as and when required. Whenever you plan to add the QR Codes to your marketing strategies, ensure teaming up with a QR Code specialist who can render a smooth execution & administration, offering you an ease on managing your QR Code campaign.

Planning to use QR Codes in your Social Media Campaign?

If the answer is yes, then here’s what you need to know. There have been numerous debates on the use of QR Codes. Are people aware of the use of QR Codes? Do they know the how & why of QR Codes? Are people interested to use them? People feel that they are not appealing and have an unattractive feature.

On a positive note, if brands and businesses are planning to integrate the offline with the online marketing campaigns, QR Codes stand out useful. QR Codes have a great power to direct anyone to any corner of a website. For example, if one has a huge URL that further links to some product of some design etc. they can use QR Codes in their ATL marketing to direct them to the same.

Making QR Codes look great on an advert is one thing that should be taken care of with creative and engaging solutions.

In order to enhance the overall exposure of your brand you can direct them to social media websites. As a core part of their marketing strategy, brands are directing or shifting their users to social media platforms. Here, QR Codes can help users get their quickly. Of course with smarter phones!

For a Successful QR Code Marketing Campaign:

· There are a few steps you should keep in your mind before planning a QR Code campaign strategy.

· Plan your QR Code campaign strategy by understanding your target audience, exploring the objectives & providing suitable incentives.

· Produce Quality QR codes and do test them in order to avoid any brand flaws.

· Test the QR Codes with several readers & devices

– For clean codes, use link shorteners

– Use mobile optimized sites to link your QR Codes

· You can track your scans and gather important data with popular code management systems

· Give your codes a value; they can act as a lead generation tool too.

QR Codes are invading the market space and QR Code scanning is growing at a fast pace for Twitter and Facebook interactions. The idea is to access vast information just by scanning them.

QR Codes for social media can be used by implementing a few techniques like:

· Generate QR Code from QR code generators and link them to social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

· Subscribe to an RSS feed or join a mailing list.

· Share content to praise some consumer experience or special deals & offers along with updated brand information.

· Engagement through polls, surveys and call to action can give useful data on ideas and feedback of users, their behavioural information and link to landing pages & promotions respectively.

· Targeting by finding out from where are people accessing your brand information via QR Codes on certain platforms.

· Offline and online actions by users can be linked to craft communities and raise influence.

QR Code can help a business increase their Facebook ‘Likes’ building large connections with the customers consistently. It can be placed anywhere and it allows people to ‘Share’ any content throughout the platform. One can create a link to a Twitter profile & increase the number of followers. With a QR Code, customers can ‘Tweet’ the content to ‘Followers’. Customers can be linked to the page, boards or maybe directly to the product pictures pinned on the boards. Adding a little dynamism to the print advertisement with a QR Code can direct users directly to a commercial on YouTube. One can also market a coupon which can later be redeemed in person after scanning the QR Code. These coupons can also be shared on social media platforms. Directing users to some app with a QR Code is also a great effort.

One can create Social QR Code for different social media platforms in just a few clicks.

Don’t miss out watch the Blackberry Messenger QR Code Ad.

Instagram also took a step ahead towards QR Codes:

QR codes can direct users to websites, contact information, send SMS texts, and even help businesses and people get Facebook “likes.” To generate a QR code that can be used on a social media profile, it needs to be in a user friendly format (jpeg is a user friendly format) that will be useful when trying to integrate other applications for the QR code.

After uploading the QR code to Facebook, customize your Facebook post.

You need to customize a few components:

· Title: it is the headline which is helpful in grabbing the attention of Facebook Users.

· Description: provide all the important information about your campaign here.

· Image: place the QR Code here.

· Source: to provide the context for the campaign, the brand linked with the social QR Code campaign should host the code.

Followed by this, the campaign can be taken live on the Facebook page.

· Users will be able to view the ad of your business or website with the QR Code.

· They will scan the code and would be provided with a URL to website and an URL to share on Facebook.

· QR Code is then posted to the user’s wall & news feed and they can share it with their friends.

· There are a lot of benefits attached with a social media QR Code campaign. Your content can be shared across the platform amongst tons of users. Therefore, a huge amount of customers get enticed to your brand and business.

QR code traffic is growing in a fast pace. Brand managers can enhance their marketing strategies with these special QR Codes by bringing the online content to the mobile audience.Times ahead with QR Codes & the potential with them is limitless. It would be a really great thing to see how they imbibe the factor of connecting people with technology and rendering them enhanced experience. It is pretty exciting to wonder where these codes will stand in future when the complete content will be embedded in the code. How would you take advantage of the phenomena of QR Codes? How would you like to link it to your social Media strategies?

Tags:Mobile Technology, QR Code Campaigns, QR Codes, QR Codes in Social Media, Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Research, Twitter | No Comments »