Social Media Marketing | Indian Social Media Landscape - Part 2 Indian Social Media Landscape

Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Marketing’

Getting the best out of your online video

Monday, April 6th, 2009

I love YouTube. I think it is a brilliant concept and has given an avenue for self expression like no other. A random search on YouTube will reveal videos ranging from the truly useful to the sincerely bizarre. Some of my all time fave videos on YouTube include Where is Matt, everything from Common Craft and Bridal Skincare (what can I say… I am partial!). Infact Where is Matt with hits to the tune of 20,057,638, has got so big that Visa used it for their traditional TV campaign! Three cheers to the power of online video…

In India too one can see companies making the shift, with brands like Fevicryl owning a vault of over 50 DIY videos, each serving the purpose of helping a consumer understand how to use the product.

Now that marketers are increasingly planning to invest on online videos to reach out to their consumers, they also need to understand how to get more people to watch these videos.

There is many a fantastic video out there, with the creators asking themselves…why the hell aren’t people watching it? The answer my friend… your video needs a crucial ingredient called ‘virality’. It is like any movie or book. It might be brilliant but it needs to be seen, shared and talked about to become truly fantastic.

One needs to remember that just because you have made it and put it up, people will not automatically come to view it. A good amount of hard marketing work needs to be put in to make a video a viral hit. Here are a few tips on how to make your video deliver for you online:

Really really really good creative: There is no escaping that. A great idea is a good starting point to make your video go viral. Ask yourself… if you were the target consumer would you watch it?

Plan well: Figure out where your target consumer for the video is online and chalk out a detailed plan to reach out to him or her

Seed wisely: Make sure your videos are seen in places where your target consumers are. So if it is a skincare video make sure it is in the video library of skin care communities on Orkut or Facebook, where it is more likely to be viewed and shared by skincare enthusiasts.

Engage with Influencers: Identify the influencers for the category your brand is present it. Get in touch with those bloggers and community owners to view the video and share it if they wish to. Their circle of influence is big enough to help the video spread wider.

Choose smartly: Choose a video site that appeals to the targetted consumers of your video. So if it is an entertainment video meant for young men a Bigadda with a largely male audience skew might be the way to go.

Use Your Social Presence: Lastly share it with your online social network. Status updates are a great way to put your video out there.

How do you measure success of your online video?

Well honestly there is no set measure. If it is a generic youth category like jeans and if there was an interesting online video built around it, chances are it would have gathered a million plus videos if not more. However if it is something of a specialist nature like CAD software, it would garner views only from a limited audience with a maximum number of hits of say 10,000.

So would you term the CAD video an online disaster? I don’t think so. It has done the job it was meant to. Reached out to the limited audience that exists online for it and communicated the key messages. So mere numbers might not be an indication of success after all. Would love to hear your views on how would you measure the success of an online video…

The true mark of success can sometimes be, when an online video that you have created makes it back to you! Till that happens keep at it my friend.

Tags:Online Videos, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media tools, video promotion, Windchimes Comm, Windchimes communication
Posted in Brand Promotion, Online Videos, Social Media | 10 Comments »

Our article in DMI

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

An announcement.

Sally Hooton, editor of the DMI magazine, approached us recently to write an article on social media. It was our privilege to be associated with DMI, the world’s only global business title for direct and interactive marketers based out of United Kingdom. The article talks about social media in relevance to India in conjunction with our research on social media.

The article can be viewed in the online format on Page 36.

If you would like to download the article then do click on the Scribd Link given below.
[scribd id=11894180 key=key-e4kjpl0y1o4xf73e0vj]

Do visit our Windchimes website to know more about us

Tags:Citizen Journalism, DMI magazine, mumbai terror attacks, nimesh shah, Sally Hooton, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, UK, Windchimes Comm
Posted in Awards and Recognition, Social Media | No 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 »

Statistics on Indian Social Media Landscape – Part 1

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

Windchimes wishes its readers a very exciting and adventurous 2009

There is absolute dearth of statistics on social media with respect to India or Indians. It is important to understand the prevalence of social media in our lives. There are studies indicating that close to 40 mn Indians are online. But really nothing beyond that!!

So what are these people doing online? How important is social media to them? How do they consumer social media? How is social media impacting the purchase behavior? How can marketers leverage social media platforms to reach out to their potential consumers. We carried out research to find out answers to these questions to help us understand and give an insight from an Indian context.

The research data that we are presenting is representative of 3 Indian cities; Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. While we have received responses from people from other cities but they weren’t statistically significant. The responses have been collated as whole and not individually of 3 cities.

Details of the respondents:

Total respondents – 105

Cities:

Mumbai – 40

Delhi – 40

Bangalore – 25

Gender:

Males – 60

Females – 45

Age groups

18-24 yrs group – 40

25-35 yrs group – 65

Objective of the research:

1.To understand the significance and role of Social Media in current scenario

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

3.To study the impact it has in our purchase behavior

Part 1: Significance of social media in current scenario:

Q1) If you had 30 minutes of time, which activity would you be most likely to do?

Surfing Internet scored as the 2^nd most medium to be used in spare time overtaking reading newspapers or listening to music. Even when the users have only 30 minutes, they would rather go online than put on their MP3 players or read a newspaper, clearly indicating that Internet / Social media is highly involvement and captures the imagination.

Q2) Which medium do you use when you want to get ””””news””””?

Q3) Which medium do you use when you want information on new products or services?

Q4) Which medium would you use to find out about latest trends?

The replies to Q2, Q3 and Q4 clearly indicate the significance online medium has in our lives. Websites, Blogs, Social Networking Sites, Wikis etc clearly are becoming the places to look first – whether it is about new products or about new trends.

Companies and brands will need to have significant online presence to ensure that users find them when they are searching or researching online. Mere website presence won””””t be enough – but it will require presence in communities, discussion forums, blogs, networking sites etc.

The presence will have to be genuine, value adding and continuous. There is no end date to it. Also it has to be value adding for user to referring and recommend it to his friends. Companies will have to indulge in the social media marketing

Click here to go the second part of the study.

Tags:Indian social media landscape, nimesh shah, number, research, research tools, results, Sandhya Sadananda, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, statistics, surveys, Windchimes communication
Posted in Essential Series, Social Media, Social Media Research | 18 Comments »

Who is afraid of Social Media? – Part 2

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

In the second part of the series on – ‘Who is afraid of social media?’ – we continue to focus on the concerns that stop social media from playing a key role in internal communication.

‘Our culture is very different’

Yes it’s true that social media works better if the organisation has a young, tech-savvy workforce with a flat structure and a democratic and open culture. But there are enough examples across the world where conservative companies with an older workforce have met with social media success. All it needs is time, patience and consistent efforts.

It is important to recognise the company culture and customise your social media plans accordingly. You might have to tweak your plans and phase out in a manner that makes it more acceptable and easier to adopt. One needs to pay heed to the fact that even if the organisation has been traditionally conservative about communication, in the future the Digitally Advanced will form the ranks and their communication needs will be better met using social media.

‘What if the employees misbehave or worse leak information’

Read behind the words. Is it just another way of saying, ‘we are not ready to lose control’? The idea that employees can say what they want is often scary to most organisations. This is the biggest obstacle in the way of social media entering an organisation. Management is often scared that employees will not have the maturity to handle social media. It is often feared that employees will say the ‘wrong’ things, use bad language, insult top bosses, complain… the list is endless. There is a bigger, and maybe real, fear of information leaks taking place.

Wake up Mr Boss! Grapevine, gossip, rumour mills… call it what you like… have been around much before Web 2.0 came on the scene. Social media, at least, allows for the so called ‘unpleasant’ things to come to management’s notice than remain something that is discussed and allowed to fester around water coolers.

You have a chance to identify issues and soothe disgruntled employees, which is better than living in a Fool’s Paradise. Just because you don’t hear negative feedback from the employees, does not mean it does not exist. If not given a platform to be aired, in the long run it will be detrimental for the company.

Instead define communication guidelines that will help employees use social media better and offset the worries regarding information leaks. IBM came up with an innovative solution in this regard and created a wiki to get its employees to create social media policies themselves.

Organisations also need to keep in mind that they have employed professionals and just because communication has moved online, professionalism and basic respect will be forgotten. Most of us are already aware that inappropriate use of email in the workplace is not acceptable and the same behavioural standards will transfer to use of other Web 2.0 tools.

‘Will the organisation’s productivity come down’

Another common concern is that social media will eat into the employees’ productive time. Time needs to be invested by an employee in participating in blogs, discussion forums and wikis. Is it going to keep him away from his regular job?

No it is not. Social media tools allow information and knowledge to be shared more freely in the organisation, allows for virtual meetings to take place and saves time and costs, boosts overall productivity and is a useful way to cut down on time consuming internal mail traffic. Employees are only going to read or take part in what is their area of interest.

Click here to read about the rest of the concerns that plague internal communicators.

Tags:Corporate Communications, Employee Relations, internal communication, internal communication and social media, PR, Social Media, social media and employees, Social Media Marketing, Social Media tools
Posted in Corporate Communications, Employee Relations | 3 Comments »

Who is afraid of Social Media? – Part 1

Monday, December 29th, 2008

I find most corporate communicators are wary of social media when it comes to Internal Communications. While they are more than happy to embrace social media otherwise; when it comes to marketing to the internal consumer, a very important constituency in any good communicator’s plan, they will not touch social media with a ten-foot barge pole.

Today, I will try to help you understand what stops most internal communicators from using social media to increase and strengthen relationships with their consumers – the employees.

In the old way of doing things, companies make use of intranets or websites as static tools. Employees can search and find, but have limited ability to participate and contribute. In the new way of doing things, things are interactive and collaborative and use social media tools such as social networking sites, blogs, collaborative research, discussion forums and wikis.

It is a pity that companies have failed to realise the potential of social media in internal communications given that it can significantly increase employee engagement, help start a dialogue with employees and build relations, increase collaboration and democratise the organisation in the true sense of the word.

It also helps to collect qualitative feedback and let you know what exactly is on the employee’s mind.

What are some of the common concerns existing in the mind of internal communicators regarding social media? How can they be addressed? You must wonder, what makes me an expert to answer these questions. Well not too long ago I used to have similar concerns. By virtue of having been there and done that, I think I might be able to provide some solutions.

So here goes…

To begin with one needs to understand that in any organisation two sets of people co-exist and I like to call them the Digitally Challenged (who think the scope of the Web is limited to emails and the occasional search) and the Digitally Advanced (who have grown up with the Internet and understand and harness the power of Web 2.0 tools in their daily lives).

The Digitally Challenged don’t perceive social media tools the way the Digitally Advanced do – as extensions of themselves. The latter understand well and harness fully the power of Web 2.0 in their daily lives. They like to be engaged and like to be involved, a fact that was strategically deduced and used to his advantage by Barack Obama. Most people joining the workforce today are Digitally Advanced and one needs to make an organisation ‘social media ready’ for them.

Is the reason behind the unpopularity of Social Media when it comes to Internal Communications, the fact that most decision makers are Digitally Challenged? Is it because they have got so used to a hierarchical and controlled form of communication that they are simply afraid of losing control?

Most decision makers fail to understand that today people prefer a environment where they can be heard, where they can participate, where they can act. Today’s workforce are great communicators and networkers themselves and want internal communications to mirror the same.

There are multiple concerns behind internal communicator’s apprehension towards social media, but a few common ones are:

‘We simply don’t have the resources’

Most companies have concerns about overloading overworked communicators and also about the cost of implementing and running a full-fledged social media programme for their employees.

The only way to lay rest to this concern would be show management how social media tools are not only inexpensive but take very little time to set up. For an organisation, rather than worrying on the ROI in monetary terms, the focus should be on how much it can gain by harnessing the power of social media.

‘We have other communication tools to focus and don’t have the time for social media’

An excuse if I have ever heard on. How can we ignore social media when we can see that Web 2.0 tools are already an integral part of the lives of the employees? Will it not make more sense to communicate to them in a manner that they understand and enjoy rather than a seldom-used-and-often-ignored Intranet?

There are many smart companies who have seen the sense, economic and otherwise, of incorporating social media tools in their communication plans. Your chances of convincing your management will significantly go up if you can show them how social media will support the business goals. Arm yourself with case studies of companies like IBM, Sun Microsystems and other Fortune 500 companies that are using social media successfully.

Look out for more such concerns and their solutions in the second part of Who is afraid of social media?.

Tags:Barack Obama, Blogs, Corporate Communications, Employee Relations, internal communication, Social Media, Social Media Marketing
Posted in Corporate Communications, Employee Relations | 3 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 »