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

Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

Social Media Mascots Amplify Brand Voice

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Precisely, a mascot visually represents complete attributes of a brand. Consumers have seen, appreciated and related very actively with brand mascots. One reason also being that mascots are very capable in distinguishing between the competitors by striking an emotional connection with consumers. Mascot is therefore also considered as powerful as the logo. Now, with the social media sector booming, mascots are also on the verge of and are already portraying immense success for brands through this platform.

It goes without saying that with rising competition in the world of marketing and branding there’s a great need for the brand managers to instill in the big idea into their branding. Brands, recently are imbibing the trend of marketing with a sophisticated approach wherein mascots are trying to step in to add a personal touch to the corporate brands too.

These brand imageries or mascots which were known to communicate the most essential echelon of advertising and marketing seemed to have faded in the past few years. They were again brought oi light by a few brands. During those days animation was not active as today and ad men used to play with unrealistic characters trying to stand out in terms of the brand.

Introduction of social media to brands using mascots occurred during the phase when Pillsbury doughboy and Ronald Mc Donald were created.

Brand mascots are usually very creative, colourful, dynamic and appealing making them recognizable and easy to identify with. Once this association wherein consumers could easily relate with the brand is established brand awareness increases.

Gone are the days when products had a few seconds television commercial to generate the character of the brand and mascot. Today the advancement in technology lets the creativity to flow across brands allowing them to play with photorealistic stuff or mascots. Virtual brand mascots are now playing another great role to enhance the characteristics of a brand.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, brands have unlimited space, time and flexibility to create, integrate and evolve with mascots or brand characters. The direct approach attribute along with the sharing capacity that these digital platforms provide render a much wider, louder and fairer space to communicate to its audience.

Nowadays, the frequency with which brands are exploiting the social media platforms to communicate with or through mascots or animated characters is adding a new dimension to their branding strategies. Entrepreneurs and brand managers are now developing more integrated branding communication wherein they are taking efforts to couple the viral online campaigns with television and radio slots etc. this in turn encourages the viewers and audience to engage with the brand and learn online about their much liked mascots.

A question thus arises that what are the benefits of owning a brand mascot, and that also digitally or socially?

Well, this approach gives marketers a chance to endow the brands with an embodied face and voice for their brands. This not only humanizes the brands and its products but brings them closer to their consumers too. The consumer of today loves to interact online, like, comment, tweet or share with a cute mascot or character than with a faceless brand communication.

Industries like insurance have also taken a leap ahead to try their hands on the use of mascots. Use of animated characters is seen creating a significant impact within the social media buzz through their brand mascot. These mascots and animated characters have also started spreading the brand message either through YouTube videos, Twitter, games on Facebook etc.

The appearance and voice of the mascot is equivalent to the voice of the brand.

When its about Social media marketing techniques, the efforts by these brand mascots are a really great way to engage more consumers and grow the business.

Consumers on Facebook also want to dynamically bond with the mascot or animated character than just interacting through the traditional techniques of delivering product or industry news and features. Mascots on social media platforms soft sell the products which is greatly in sync with the psychology of online consumers. Consumers nowadays are less likely to interact with a logo or the PR person on social media.

Mascots are a delight to a brand as branding elements that help to connect allowing the digital marketing methods to emerge with a ‘timeline’ story, a completely new thing. Sustaining a character requires manpower that is dedicated to keep the mascot alive, active and going. Some old mascots and characters like the Amul Girl have already become active on Facebook and tweeting out the brand message across successfully. Vodafone Zoozoos have captured millions of hearts by not only communicating the core brand message but doing it with an element of fun and excitement to which consumers could relate to easily.

The animated characters or mascots are adorable, likeable and fun creating a long lasting impression on people’s minds. Be it naughty Amul Girl or Ronald Mc Donald these mascots or characters perk up the characteristics of a brand on social media if you ‘Like’ or ‘Tweet’.

Amul Girl

Seen in the Polka doted dress, the lovely Amul Girl has initiated the concept to showcase picture of (politics, entertainment, sports, culture) Indian or Global. Creatively showcased, this is a popular brand mascot.

You can also check how consumers are following Amul on Twitter fostering brand recall.

Vodafone Zoozoos

Encouraging more followers on Twitter brought Vodafone a great brand loyalty towards its offers etc.

There are a certain parameters that brand managers and social media strategists should think about like:

· Do these characters and mascots relate to the Target audiences?

· Does it display the brand attributes strongly & effectively on social media?

· Do these characters give a fresh and new angle to your marketing and branding?

· Does it foster brand recall?

Whereas, if we look at celebrity endorsements one cannot avoid the fact that they come with higher costs of brand endorsements. One celebrity endorses many brands causing a clutter factor and poor brand recall. Brands apparently are considered to be the same as the celebrity who endorses it. So, any negative happening on their end would affect the brand personality and the complete brand association might go for a toss.

On the other hand, mascots and animated characters are flexible. They are very unique and do not fade with times. No two animated characters and mascots are alike. Brands just need to add in life-like situations and a tinge of imagination to enjoy a completely different world of their brand/product altogether.

ICICIDirect also went the animated way on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They introduced Mobo & Gyano to educate users about financial planning via Social Media. In this campaign, Mobo & Gyano talk about why people need to do financial planning. Click this to know more on how a brand campaign, ICICIDirect in this case through animated characters and mascots can be fruitful.

Garnier Pure Active had also initiated a ‘Bust blackheads’ campaign with Facebook. It was a great campaign starring blackheads as characters with names and personalities and who live on your face.

This is a great example of how a brand can relate with the consumers psyche for better engagement and identity.

An International brand GEICO- an auto/car insurance brand which has this Gecko, a popular spokeslizard sharing views and advices related to the brand attributes of car insurance.

The Facebook page is popularly called as The GEICO Gecko.

Twitter

On Social Media:

During a launch phase of a product, giving your mascot or character a Facebook page and a twitter is a brilliant idea. Besides posting and tweeting about new product developments, the page could be filled with humour and latest news too.

Encouraging and interesting tone of language will foster interactions. The character or mascot has to be a part of your marketing strategy which has to be simple and precise.

Regular interactions, answering queries along with tracking the suggestions by fans are also very important.

Mascots and animated characters keep the interest levels very high. Social media helps for personal interaction. Platform like Facebook give a face to the brands if they are willing to use mascots. People easily connect and communicate with these elements online.

Mascots on social media promote soft sell.

Presence of mascots consistently across all social media platforms for spreading the brand message throughout render uniformity to the brand attributes.

In case of an economic downfall or financial crisis the goodwill that a mascot had created goes a long way in sustaining the brand.

A huge potential lies in unleashing the mascot or a character as the consumers today also respond more frequently to these non-human characters positively. They have now become receptive to the mascot concept on social media.

When voiced through an element of affection like a mascot, campaigns garner more interaction, passion and brand loyalty; successfully tapping into the consumer psychology. Storylines, personalized updates and profiles that are rendered to these mascots pull in more audiences to the brand page augmenting more interaction between the consumer and the brand. Mascots and characters have a personality of their own that has successfully resonated with the consumers in a positive way. And this goes without saying that the growth that these mascots are adding is more likely to stay in times to come gifting the brands with larger loyalty and recognition levels.

A lot of brands have started setting standards with mascots on social media, going viral, amazing content etc. to make their products interesting. This is helping them generate a great amount of traffic to their social media presence. It’s a great opportunity for other brands to exploit this idea for their brands too.

In a nutshell, mascot can reap amazing benefits for a company on social media because:

They will personify your product online. Users tend to enjoy operating within a particular network. Hence, an ad campaign attracts more conversations when everything is available on Facebook page of the brand.
Customer service gets a facelift with an imagery or character interacting with consumers to solve their queries and problems. Mascots with an added element of fun and entertainment make consumers happy in a big way.
Content being the king on social media, a great content engages, entertains and encourages consumers more to understand the brand/product. Therefore, a good content helps companies to deliver their message through mascots.
Concluding on a core thought about mascots, brand managers should use the mascots skillfully to communicate the brand message effectively. On the other hand, if it is allowed to drift even a little, it can surpass the core message fostering inappropriate brand associations.
With emerging competition, brand managers should now start to shift the paradigm of their minds to Mascots for the brands. This in turn should be implied strongly through social media platforms. More social the mascot takes the brand, higher the benefits, and greater the brand recall. Do you think bring mascots on social media is a brilliant idea? Will mascots on social media propel greater brand associations and loyalty? Do you think the current trend of conveying the message and brand attributes through these characters on social media will render a strong branding? Will the consumers online be able to get the complete brand message through mascots voicing the brands?

Tags:Brand Mascots go Social, Mascots, Mascots on Social Media, Social Media, Social Media Mascots
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs | No Comments »

Stationery Brands Go Social

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Social Media has reached a phase where a person’s tweet is a great matter of concern for all brands, Facebook posts are clearly analyzed by organizations, followed by Linkedin updates which foster insightful studies. Pinterest, YouTube & Google+ also queue up as some of the most effective social media tools triggering the finest marketing strategy for brands across the globe. In the past few years technology has changed the way Stationery brands approach their target audience.

Now, its not just the next door neighbor who hears about it, but the entire World. The basis of this fact is a clear indication of Social Media influence. Stationery Industry is moving ahead with a great pace to stand out from the competition and acquire attention from its consumers.

Kids being the primary target followed by corporate and other segment it turns out to be great challenge for the stationery sector to structure its loom towards them. Innovations, designs, variety and quality in the stationery products are some of the top attributes that instigate the buying behavior.

With social media, marketing has become more like a conversation. People view, review and communicate your brand out to the World across platforms. Blogs, social media platforms, review sites, videos and a lot more are branches to the root of your communication.

Marketing your stationery products online has a potential to offer you a variety of benefits. Spreading the word about your stationery business can lead to increased sales, fans and identity across. Social Media also allows you to stay in touch with existing customers, which can help you develop long-term relationships with loyal customers. Many stationery brands like ITC Classmate, Faber Castell, Staedtler, Staples, Post It, Scotch, Pentel, Crane & Co. etc. implementing social media strategies into branding & marketing effectively. Marketing is measurable; therefore, one can track and re-use the marketing strategies that produce the maximum return on investment for your stationery products business.

Social media integration into the stationery sector sounds as a challenging factor but when blended together with appropriate strategy and planning, it exhibited flavourful outcomes. As a stationery sector one must talk about the strength of social media and using internet as a marketing tool with an emphasis on synergizing the paper with the online.

Have a look at how some of the Stationery brands are shining on Social Media:

ITC Classmate

Classmate has gradually evolved with its successful presence across social media platforms. Its presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has added a silver lining to its cloud of products, services and offerings. Its loved by students and appreciated for its approach.

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Staples

Staples is the world’s largest office products company and a trusted source for office solutions. It provides products, services and expertise in the categories of office supplies, technology, furniture, Copy & Print, and cleaning and breakroom. It has achieved a great recognition on Social Media.

Facebook – India

Facebook – US

Staedtler

Post-it

Faber Castell

Faber Castell is a leading stationery company which offers range of colouring and writing instruments for schools and offices. It exports to over forty countries and has seven manufacturing units across India producing high quality products, safe for children and environment.

Twitter

Moving on there’s Crane & co., a stationery brand that has implemented immensely beautiful innovation and design into its products. It is very active on Social Media and a very inspiring brand of the industry.

Crane & Co. is a well known brand in stationery and innovations.

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

User experience should be the top priority in order to acquire the best fans to your brand and in turn retain them with the best social approach. The digital connection that is efficiently blending into the world of stationery brands is evident across multiple platforms. This is further creating an amazing digital impact on stationery design and messaging that the manufacturers & retailers do to market and promote the products.

A social shift like this is a major driving force for this era, whether its Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, every platform is playing a great role in connecting the consumers to one another trying to fit their brands into their digitized and communication grid.

Now the question evolves what if consumers talk negative about your brand or business? The hidden fact here is that if your marketing has been strong to reach them, they will at some point talk about your business, be it positive or negative. They might have had a poor experience at your store, disliked your product, or maybe their queries would have been unanswered for long. Here, you just need to address the issue, work on it and resolve it! This approach will, in times to come prevent a retailer or manufacturer from losing a customer on account of an off experience.

It is extremely essential for a Stationery Brand to connect with its consumers on all the social or digital outlets. From having a faint idea about a product to a clear understanding of the same makes a lot of difference not only for the consumers but for brands too. Allow your consumers to discover your product offerings, generate interest and in turn experience it. As a Stationery brand work towards building an emotional connection, appealing your consumer’s minds and implementing innovation in your product.

Moving on, Design is the most important key for stationery companies if they want to tap into and sustain in this tech savvy, art-loving and fast moving consumer block. A great attention is being paid to the ‘Likes’, ‘Shares’, ‘Tweets’, 140 characters, ‘Pins’ etc. by stationery brands. Perhaps, their marketing strategies are gradually blending with social media at a remarkably consistent pace.

Whatever the fusion, but stationery is turning out to be a great sector in this social space and digital culture creating wonders. Traditional techniques of approaching the stationery buyers have changed on a large scale and this fresh revolution is very much appreciated by the masses.

In the Stationery sector; design, innovation and creativity will always be the major attractions. Depicting the brand offerings in 140 characters have been and will always be a challenge for this sector. With new media changing constantly, what are the challenges that have you encountered in your social media marketing as an Entrepreneur or a Brand manager? Will your ‘stationery’ brand no more be ‘stationary’ and successfully be on a constant move to shape future communications? With so many brands on Social Media will it be able to penetrate through the brand clutter? Is your social media strategy strong enough to facilitate a real time return on investment?

Tags:Social Media, Stationery Brands on Social Media, Stationery Sector, Stationery sector on Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Blogs, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Social Media Leverages the Beauty Industry

Monday, December 31st, 2012

Social Media is emerging like wildfire, with sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube growing by leaps and bounds. The beauty Industry has realized the advantages of social media and is using this platform to market and engage new customers. Many reputed beauty brands have already taken a leap into the bandwagon and have successfully leveraged social media to connect, engage and interact with consumers, current and prospective thereby building strong relationships.

Beauty is a worldwide phenomenon with a multitude of brands making name and building reputation from the consumers wanting to look pretty. Beauty is slowly turning into a breeze in Social Media and people are happily buying into it.

Have you ever wondered that social platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs do keep us connected, help us gain knowledge etc. but can they make us beautiful too?

Its very much apparent that whenever somebody talks about the possibilities of social media for the beauty industry all faces light up. This lighting up indeed is followed by a series of questions with raised eyebrows as to how to handle it? What about the monetary aspect behind it? How to do it properly?

Well, one perfect start and a premium marketing strategy will speak for itself in the long run.

Women are very much passionate about their beauty, looks, beauty products and overall skincare. This is a strong point for the entrepreneurs who want to get into the league of leveraging their brand through social media. One thing that has to be kept in mind for sure is giving great experiences to your consumers, yes, and this is the key!

Beauty Industry is very competitive as every brand aims to stand distinct from the crowd, creating a social brand identity. Social Media plays a vital role in uplifting and highlighting your brand’s strengths and forte to the World.

Integration of Social Media strategy into the marketing mix when focused in the right direction generates brand awareness, attracts more fans to your product and thereby increases customer loyalty.

Word of mouth endorsement, when it comes to selling beauty products is incomparable. Target audience for this sector being women, they always admire the first hand personalized experience of any product. Beauty Brands like Lakme, Ponds, Be Beautiful, Avon etc. to name a few have embraced the power of social media in a way that increased their graph of brand awareness and customer loyalty. Regular interactions, enticing product updates, contests, freebies etc. are a few activities through social media that create engagement.

Studying the growth happening online, there lies a great potential for the Beauty Industry to craft online communities of fans and attract the authentic customers for your brand. They can basically help you promote your brand. ‘User generated content’ here holds high power as when it is about beauty products and cosmetics, an advice or commendation from a user or consumer does a great job.

Beauty Industry is also realizing the importance of communication with their customers through social media. Besides, social media is also generating revenue for this industry like never before. Analyzing the current scenario, Blogs are more likely to drive product purchases than magazine ads.

When we talk about fans and followers we can clearly see how the reputed names in the beauty industry are racking up the fans on these social media platforms.

Many international brands are doing a great job via this platform. Mac Cosmetics, Sephora, Maybelline, L’Oriel Paris, Estee Lauder, Revlon to name a few have a great fan base that not only follow these brands but represent the complete brand.

The top searches on YouTube and Google tend to be from women searching for beauty information.

Integrating the Beauty & Social Media aspect

People do share about beauty online. Social networks today, enrich a complete brand experience for consumers. Product recommendations, opinion building, sharing interests etc is a common happening that is spreading online on social networks. The strength of word of mouth is clearly illustrated through the way people share views about beauty products online. It influences the consumer behavior towards the purchase of any product.

Facebook:

Top barnds like MAC, Lancome and Unilever surfaced as leaders on Facebook with powerful campaigns. Dove & P&G being the next, who also used Facebook as the CRM tool.

Focusing on Community & Engagement and not sales is sure to give you fruitful results. Reward fans on a regular basis. Create a communication plan. Interact with your customers and provide them support on a regular basis. Below are the snapshots of what Lakme Salon, Be Beautiful, Pond’s India, Dove Avon etc.

Twitter:

For an engaging Twitter experience for your customers in just 140 characters you need to take into consideration a few techniques.

You can release special codes and discounts via Twitter. Crowd sourcing is a new untapped resource which can be thought of too. Customer service, interactions and regular tweets on your products through your brand profile on Twitter builds your brand identity to a great level.

Pond’s India

Dove

Lakme Salon

Avon

Google+:

We believe a Beauty Brand’s presence on Google+ keeps the consumers updated with the content or discussion from the though leaders in social media & marketing. Google+ is expected to gradually roll out more features for brands in times to come.

So, if you are on Google+, you standout in the Google search. Retaining customer loyalty is another advantage wherein, you as a beauty sector on Google+ reflect both social and search influence through your actions and activities on this platform. You can therefore appear in the search results by sharing keyword related posts about your brand or product.

Be Beautiful

YouTube:

Video sharing websites are flooded with Beauty or Hair & Make-up related videos like: How to get a perfect eye makeup? How to straighten or curl your hair? Or maybe How to get that star or celebrity look?

After you upload them, these beauty videos have the potential to receive millions of views. Beauty video holds great possibility of going viral in a very short time as people will be sharing it via other social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. interested users can watch, comment and post their responses on the videos. This is very helpful for the brand to reach out to the World.

Dove

Be Beautiful

Avon

Pinterest:

Pinterest is a great social media tool that creates a lot of Beauty noise visually. Its a complete visual treat to the eye as consumers get to see what they love and pin it. They can create boards for a variety of styles they like, for makeup and other such beauty related material. For brands it is a very essential tool as Pineterst encourages the sharing & re-pinning of photos enhancing the possibility of them spreading worldwide audience over a very short period. Photos can also be linked to the websites and blogs.

Lakme Salon

Avon

Blogs:

As compared to the magazine ads, Blogs hold great power in terms of the beauty information they provide. Purchase graph also is more likely to rise. Beauty bloggers post about the brand, its products, trends in the market, tutorials, beauty tips & techniques and a lot more on topics to which users are more likely to relate themselves with.

Beauty Industry or companies can take another beautiful route of enlisting the reputed beauty bloggers and giving them a product or service to blog about. This will help your company receive a huge amount of publicity not only from the blogger’s audience but beyond that too. There rests a immense chance of them to visit your website and maybe make a purchase.

Let’s talk about some of the best practices for any beauty brand online. In a Nutshell,

A beauty Industry needs to:

Get Visual: Be it Facebook or Twitter, pictures speak a lot and get a lot more response than the textual posts only. You can try updating a trendy haircut, or a smoky eye makeup, your latest salon equipments, or some nail art etc. People love the visual treat a lot.

Engage Fans: Communication, when done in a two-way process goes a long way. People generally start talking about your brand. You can start asking questions and engage with your fans or consumers. Start asking questions, conduct surveys or start etting feedback on your products and services.

Keep it casual & Have fun: Social Media is not designed to keep it all corporate, so ensure you design your posts, tweets, pins & updates in a way that reflect your brand identity & your business on the whole. Whether your brand deals in cosmetics, spa or hairstyling; you should keep it in mind to display your brand standards.

Cross Promotion: This is where you need to take into use all your Social Media handles. You can include the links into your social media accounts, website etc. Placing a signage on your salon windows, style stations help a lot too. You can also state the link on your business cards shifting your business cards encouraging the people to follow you on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest.

Track the Results: Keep a regular track of the responses your brand is getting on the Social Platforms its present on. Types of posts, time and day, social media promotions, everything can be measured. A consistent analysis of the same will help you plan out your online strategy accordingly and drive more and more traffic to your spa, salon or store.

Beauty Industry embraces a huge scope in terms of growing through social media. Brands need to be honest when they speak out their brand or products to consumers; the sole reason being people. Yes, people nowadays are too much into online research before they head to purchase something. So you as an organization need to listen; talk and then share valuable brand information. Fan following reaches to its peak when you showcase your passion and expertise in the beauty product you are talking about. To create that special beauty buzz, contests and giveaways are very effective. What we mean to say is, the strategy with which you move ahead should make your fans talk about you and love your brand.

Social Media marketing is the talk of the industry nowadays. Amidst the innovations and developments, Beauty and personal care companies must work towards growing their channels of communication with their consumers. Creating applications that sync with the technology today will go a long way in leveraging the Beauty Sector.

In this Industry, where every new day witnesses a brand evolving with a strategic Social Media plan and gaining successful outcomes, what is your take on the Beauty Sector going Social? Will this sector touch the graphs of success leveraging it through social media? Will it stand out as the one stop shop for all Beauty needs post identifying their business niche’ in this crowded market segment?

Tags:Beauty, Beauty and Social Media, Beauty Industry, Cosmetic Sector, Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Social Media | No Comments »

Tourism Industry Enticed to Social Media

Saturday, December 15th, 2012

Tourism Industry has witnessed a great transformation compared to the bygone days. Today, with technology taking a superior stand in people’s lives, an era of connectivity and engagement is born. A large part of traditional way of communication is swapped with the Social Media way of communication. This change and adaptation was expected as there rests a great potential for this sector to implement social media in the way they market or brand themselves as tourists and travelers. Not forgetting what some of the brands like Make my trip, Yatra, Travelguru, Expedia India, Kerala Tourism, Cleartrip are already doing.

Harnessing the power of social media for Tourism Industry will go a long way. The cut-throat travel communications online are also functionally leveraging tourism industry worldwide.

We have made an attempt to throw light upon this globally booming sector of Travel and Tourism and discuss the most effective tools and applications that will help you promote and leverage your business and attract more people to your website, in turn increasing the profits. Let us discuss the ‘Why’s’ and ‘what’s’ of the social media integration into this sector.

To start with,

Why would a Tourism Industry need a Social Media?

The reforms in the usage of Internet and the facilities one gets through it are tremendous. Nowadays, along with the industry experts, we find internet users publishing and exchanging information about their favourite destinations, photographs, videos, and reviews on the places they have or want to travel etc. what is more to this is Social Media spreading this information across places and with minimal or no cost. Word of mouth has always been proved to be essential part of promoting businesses. Thus, you can build your marketing techniques to reach this rising engagement of people that will render great prospect of profit to this sector.

You can basically create a buzz about your brand and services around the world with social media tools, showcasing and discussing about best travel destinations all over.

You can basically look into:

Monitoring: Travel and Tourism companies can analyze or monitor the preferences, reviews and interactions online and use it to generate more traffic to their brand increasing loyalty and driving sales.

Reviews by customers: During a travel plan, a positive review or feedback online is very influential. Customers make informed decision based on fellow travelers feedback and ratings by reputed travel sites like TripAdvisor for instance.

Social Media Platforms: From Facebook and Twitter to Bloggers the Tourism industry is penetrating the market aggressively. For example an attractive Facebook page to display ads etc. also works well with this industry. Location based search can also be done through Facebook or Foursquare making it more significant.

Here’s an insight into how you can shine across platforms as a Tourism Industry. Create/Improve your Social Media Presence with:

Facebook

You can create a page and share informative content, photos, videos, news etc. You can, as a Tourism Company promote a lot of events, integrate applications or custom tabs, come up with offers for your fans, get reviews from your customers. You should make a great effort so that people ‘Like’ you. Have a look at the Kerala Tourism & Expedia India Facebook page.

Twitter

Here you can update travel related news, facts etc. Explore or search for travel experts and bloggers as the inputs given by them on travel influences a lot of people. You can follow them on Twitter and share your views and your content. You can engage guests on your Twitter page in interactions. You can try being an active part of travel forums which will drive them ‘follow’ you.

Kerala Tourism on Twitter.

Blog

Blog can help you build a much closer connect with your customers and potential visitors. An inside view of destinations, offers and experiences create an interest amongst the visitors. Pictures shared in the blog will help build a curiosity in them to be at that place. People who have already visited places and planned a package through you and have liked your service will comment happily. This will help you build the trust and loyalty and more visitors will visit you. For example: – Cleartrip went social with a belief that travelling is a naturally social activity. Once on their website, one can sync it to their Facebook page and explore and extract the information needed.

Youtube

People get attracted to the audiovisual substance majorly. Therefore, you can set up your own YouTube channel and place a call to action for your viewers to ‘watch’ your videos & subscribe. Videos throw a light upon the admired destinations worldwide, which makes people yearn for exploring the same. A great amount of information can be given out through these videos. Just like Epediaindia’s presence on Youtube is liked by everyone.

Flickr

Sharing photos of beautiful destinations that embark a curiosity amongst travelers is a great concept. Uploading them on regular basis will attract a lot of people. With many other Tourism Companies present in the market, Yatra is also on Flickr.

Foursquare

Get listed on Foursquare and let people find you and ‘Check in’. It is also an interesting way to gain information on social networks. Makemytrip, for example is present on Fourswuare.

Trip Advisor

You need to list your company with Tripadvisor which is an online travel community reached by lakhs of monthly users. Comments and reviews made by you visitors will help you promote your brand in a great way. It will be easy for you to manage your brand well when you get the feedback directly from your visitors. You can motivate them to ‘recommend’ you.

Twitter presence of TripAdvisor:

Website

All your Social Media handles can be promoted through your website. This is an effective way to drive the traffic or potential customers to your online presence. It will enhance the interaction and engagement. Content creation should be interesting in a way that more and more readers get attracted to the word given out by you and leverage your brand identity across the Tourism sector.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism’s website is creatively designed. It persuades a major audience to explore their website.

Pinterest

People view, admire and follow and pin to the boards they like. It is also a great platform for a Tourism Industry to add images of awe-inspiring travel locations with the reviews. People get attracted to the visual presentations majorly. Tamilnadu Tourism has beautifully created boards on Pinterest on various travel locations.

Google+

Expedia US has their presence on Google+ which helps them connect to a wider audience globally. This helps them spread their word for travel locations, experiences and everything about tourism. Businesses can very well leverage their organizations through this platform.

Social Media Bookmarking

It goes a long way to leverage your business online. You can convey your brand message clearly and promptly just like Delicious, Digg etc. are doing. Blog promotion can also be done successfully with this effort.

In a Nutshell,

Engage with wider groups and build a community to interact.
Keep a consumer centric approach.
Share experiences and ideas to maximize impact.
Encourage visitors to upload and share photos of real experiences.
Engage through rewards and offers.
Offer free WIFI to visitors/guests making it easy for them to share their views on the place.
TripAdvisor can be utilized to a great extent with its listings and forums.
Emphasize on value generation for your brand.
Integrate location based services or have QR codes to let people through links with offers etc.
Aim to integrate your Tourism Company with web presence to convert them to bookings.
Testimonials or foreword from the work force of your organization goes a long way in engaging people by invoking fruitful communication.

You can leverage online bookings and travel plans as major of the World’s travel is now researched looked for, advertised, booked and procured online. The decisions of travelers, tourists and other people are influenced by the technology, mobile apps and social media when they are planning their travel. Even the bulk travel plans by travelers are done via internet.

Though changing trends, booming technology and numerous options depict a great shift in the consumer buying behavior patterns; they still trust word of mouth. Digitally speaking, word of mouth is everywhere! For example – a status update by your friend on a vacation on Facebook, a hotel or an accommodation review on Foursquare, a trend followed on Twitter, a Youtube video, a travel blog and so on so forth. All these activities online create a spark of inspiration within the users of Social Media platforms. They view, like and get inspired!

With millions of users present in social media world they are sure to Like, Follow or Share the things they admire before planning a vacation!

Effective communication, commitment and authenticity in the response you make to your guests through social media are essential. Social media strategy will help you persuade your Tourism business to new heights. Therefore, use your social media presence to give value to your customers, treat them like royals, reward them; then see how they recommend your brand when spoken about travel.

To conclude on the points stated above, what is evident in the social media driven psychology of today’s travelers is that they rely almost completely on the resources online, wherein Tourism Industry needs to keep a check to strategize their targeting. Tourism Industry specialists need to upgrade to latest technology and concrete social media strategy to connect with their customers better. They also need to track the development of mobile apps which also prove beneficial at most places.

Integration of Social Media aids in establishing a brand with a strong foundation and promising the best travel experience. Therefore, a well planned central marketing strategy will help the Tourism companies go a long way in building their brands and making them known.

While a few major players of the Tourism and Travel Industry explain a remarkable presence on social media platforms, what do you think should be the next step towards leveraging their brand? What effort should be taken to create a long lasting impact on the population? Do you think Social Media tools, if implemented in a competitive way will help promoting and building their brand in the industry. Will Social Media escalate the interactions, engagements and excitement for the brand?

Tags:Social Media, Tourism Industry, travel, Travel and Social Media
Posted in Blog Content, Blog Visibility, Social Media | 1 Comment »

The Impending Surge Of Social Realtors

Thursday, August 16th, 2012

Today, when any industry that one could possibly come across has chewed on a slice of social media, what are the odds that housing and real estate would lag behind in grabbing a piece of the same? In fact, it often poses as one of the most lucrative of all industries to monetize and mobilize buying and selling of properties through social media.

A new generation of tech-savvy home buyers, sellers and real estate agents are increasingly taking to social media to expand their scope of visibility and amplify their reach to potential customers. In fact, our understanding of the space is such that social media has reached a stage where merely having a presence on a social networking site does not assure success for a brand. For real estate and housing too, it becomes imperative to have the right mix of platforms and strategy to drive in engagement and eventually returns.

A Stellar Click:

In order to understand how deep this industry has spread its roots into the social media and how tactfully this space can be used to a firm’s advantage, let’s take into account a recently conducted campaign by Qatar Coral for Real Estate Development L.L.C. The campaign was driven through Instagram for Ramadan (a holy month) titled ‘#Ramadangram’. Leveraging on this popular photo-sharing social networking forum, the weeklong contest invited users to capture and showcase their special Ramadan moments through their eyes. The winners stood to win fabulous prizes including iPads and a Nikon D-90 DSLR camera. Participants entering for the contest were required to have an account on both Instagram and Twitter. The winners were contacted through a direct message on Twitter and announced on the company’s Facebook page, which had by then become an interactive forum for Qatar Coral to engage with its fans. All this happening in the wake of their recently launched twin plush towers for contemporary living at the heart of the state of Qatar just worked wonders for the firm.

The result was most commendable. It served as a boost to the company’s image and helped it in forging a lasting bond of trust and mutual admiration with its existing patrons and prospective buyers and this campaign bags an ace in our books.

Zero Down:

An emerging trend for a handful of real estate firms on social media is the use of the geo-location function. By employing tools like Hootsuite, keyword searches could be made and a targeted pool of potential buyers, sellers, and investors etc. who are looking for properties in a particular area could be tapped into. From here on, people who tweet with search queries could be directly engaged with by the firm.

The Audio-Visual Boost:

Talking about the right mix of platforms, here’s how a certain real estate firm made an impression on the social media. YouTube channels, that have become quite a rage lately due to the audio-visual nature of the platform fetches Coldwell Banker quite a few brownie points. The real estate firm has enabled the geo location function on their channel that upon having granted permission, uses the user’s computer’s IP address to pinpoint his/her location on the globe and then displays the most relevant videos. In our opinion, it’s quite an ingenious move on the firm’s part. What’s more? Through channels such as this realtors could provide a sneak peek into a property by adding walk around or slideshows of the interior and various features of the property. This not only improves the visibility but also the increases its chances of appearing higher up on SEO.

Base Camp:

Facebook, the largest social networking platform too, has a lot in store for housing and real estate industry. Say for instance, way back in 2008, Jonathan Rivera created one of the first Real Estate Referral group as a way to find agents to refer and exchange property cues for ‘out of area’ leads. The page has tabs such as ‘get referrals now’ and ‘how to’s’ which have videos that provide a know-how of generating referrals. If numbers are anything to go by, the page currently boasts of 59,343 fans and reflects on how successful the venture has turned out to be. Ever since then, many such property referral groups have come into foray.

Acquire and Expand:

Last but not the least, when it comes to housing and real estate, how can one possibly not consider the biggest social media platform for professionals. Linkedin presents a unique platform to property dealers and investors to hold discussions and establish connect with potential customers. Landlords, property developers and builders could get a great start with the ‘groups’ feature. A quick search in the ‘Groups’ search bar for properties, real estate or housing and the results it throws up is not even funny. Basis these, potential connections could be formed and further information about properties could be discussed through various other forums for more details.

Closer home, developers have already started championing the benefits of social media. Take for instance, Lodha Developers Senior Marketing VP, Samujjwal Ghosh. According to him, his company’s involvement in the social media platform is fueled by its intention to leverage the large pool of active social media users, inform, engage and interact with them and their peer groups, causing for a positive perspective of their brand and subsequently influencing purchasing decisions over a period of time.

Social media has most definitely arrived but it appears that although some housing and realtors have already started utilizing this goldmine of a platform, there are some who are still wary about it.

Do you think in this age of burgeoning infrastructural development, social media could prove to be the key to unprecedented growth for realtors? Share some of your opinions in the comments section below. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you all.

Tags:Coldwell Banker, Facebook, geo-location, Hootsuite, Housing, Instagram, LinkedIn, Lodha Developers, Quatar Coral, Real Estate, Referral, Social Media, YouTube
Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

The Mighty Olympian Social Network

Saturday, August 4th, 2012

In social media, all kinds of community events have found their second wind, and it’s a powerful one at that. The pics-or-it-didn’t-happen phenomenon coerces the most reluctant/ clueless of users to document major developments around them online. There’s no reason for me to wax poetic about the sheer strength of social media, except to remind you that if you’ve ever done something remotely stupid in public in the past few years, chances are you’re an internet celebrity and you don’t even know it.

The kind of publicity that social media affords brands is mind blowing in itself, and for an affair such as the Olympics, the possibilities were endless. Thankfully, the Olympics committee acknowledged this and, much in advance to the events, put the following plans together, apart from updating the usual Twitter and Facebook feeds:

1) Athletes Hub – An aggregator app allowing users to follow athletes and gain badges combined with a live feed of users’ interaction dubbed ‘Live From The Village’.

2) Instagram – With over 400 Olympians already on Instagram, and scores of users feverishly sharing anything remotely Olympics-related, setting up an Instagram profile was an obvious step. The profile has gained extreme momentum, rising from the 25,000 followers before the Games began to the current 95,000 (and counting).

3) Tumblr – One of the most exciting and rewarding steps taken by the committee are its 4 official Tumblr pages – Faces of Olympians, Olympic Fashion, Olympic Moments (highly recommended!) and the feed aggregator.

4) Foursquare: Specials introduced enabling 4sq users to win free tickets to the Games, upon checking in to a venue.

Google+ was duly ignored despite the 1.6+ million users the IOC boasts. Just as well.

That isn’t so hard to believe since the opening ceremony that threw every single British thing against the wall in hopes of something sticking, and it did. Apart from a bazillion farm animals, this Danny Boyle-designed psychosis incorporated a model of Glastonbury Tor, two mosh pits, and the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world. But the fun didn”t stop there, because it”s not an Opening Ceremony unless a 40-foot-tall Voldemort does battle with 30 Mary Poppinses.

Also, when Mr. Bean helps you open the ceremony with the theme from Chariots of Fire? That, dear sir, is a thing to behold.

Did it outdo China”s terrifying show of synchronicity from 2008?

Well, the opening ceremony alone resulted in more than 9.66 million related tweets, which is more than the entire Beijing Olympics in 2008. To be fair, the social networking giant was in its infancy back then, but the massive numbers means it”s safe to say this Twitter phenomenon might have some staying power.

Olympics have been brought back to life via a slew of YouTube videos, too, although most of them focus largely on the more important facets of the Games, such as an over-enthusiastic Games’ worker who you’d heart, the rollercoaster-esque (and HILARIOUS )expressions of a US gymnast’s parents watching her compete, or an Olympic-themed water-gun fight. However, live feeds of various news broadcasters have proven more than sufficient to stay updated constantly, while Indian media takes a fast-and-loose approach towards TV broadcasting.

The fervor with which the interwebz have dived into everything that’s Games’-related, from the severely unfortunate uniforms of Spanish Olympians to the mega-wave of joy that went through all of Facebook and Twitter in India over winning the only medal we have yet, this year, (Gagan Suneja – shooting) is far from astonishing.

Although, if it gets tiresome after a while you can always take pointers off of this gorilla.

Tags:Athletes hub, Beijing, campaigns, Foursquare, Instagram, London, Olympics, Social Media, Tumblr
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Growing Facebook Interactions

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Brands on Facebook have always tried to increase their engagement levels so as to keep the audience of the page glued. Sports has, for ages, kept people glued to the television screen. From a late night football match to an early morning cricket contest, sports keeps people coming back for more.

Considering that the months of June, July and August are heavy on sports, Future Generali Life Insurance brought about a change in its communication plan on social media to leverage this opportunity.

With predominantly male audience on page that was hooked to French Open, Euro 2012, Wimbledon and now waiting for Olympics, Future Generali went sporty. Updates on FG’s Facebook page were crafted around major sports events and matches that were being played.

The brand also launched a contest around sports called the ‘Friday Famous Faces’ that required the fans to identify a popular sporting personality. 3 winners each week stood a chance to win backpacks and other goodies. The brand garnered 90 fans in a span of just 3 days via the contest. Not bad, wouldn’t you say?

The communication plan also incorporated:

· Live tweeting during matches (@Future_Generali)

· Events stats on Facebook page

· Trivia about the events

To drive home the message, the ‘Worry Not Wednesday’ updates served as a unique property where quick trivia and links were shared with the fans.

Avinash Janjire, Deputy General Manager – Brand & Corporate Communication at Future Generali India Life Insurance Company, adds “We wanted to break the clutter by creating share-worthy engagement around sports like Tennis, Football and Formula 1 which are gaining wide acceptance in a cricket crazy nation. The response we got was amazing. It only shows that if you give people interesting content it will have the viral affect, which is the biggest advantage of social media from a brand’s point of view.”

The result so far has been gratifying to say the least. Interaction on the page has jumped by 49% during the campaign. This is shear indication that people have liked the communication put out by the brand.

Also organic fan growth through these campaigns has been observed. 102 fans were added on the Facebook page. We believe that a brand has to be smart and willing to engage with its audience on topics that the audience wants to engage in. Future Generali showed a willingness to give people what it wanted. And thus, they are reaping the benefit of the same.

Having said that, we would love to hear what you think about the above mentioned campaigns. How important do you think is engaging on current and relevant topics in order to increase interactions? Do share your views about the same.

Tags:Euro 2012, Facebook, Football, French Open, Future Generali, Insurance, Social Media, Sports, Tennis
Posted in Brand Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »