Social Media has been in action since sometime now. Everyone is talking of the same. There is so much of action around that somewhere is the message is being lost.
What is being expressed takes a different meaning altogether.
So in this age of “words and words are all I have…to take your heart away” what do I do to put the right message across? Well, here is what I tell people… beep beep..
Social Media…Social media…and more of social media…
There are almost 1.5 billion people Oneline and half of them will visit one of these sites today:
So if you are not here, probably you are not THERE!
Almost everyone is vying for attention in some way or the other. All are thronging the same fair to get the eyeballs. All are speaking the same language (or at least trying to). Interesting aint it!! Coz still we say there is so much of disparity amongst the human being??! Thoughts?
So much so for the introduction, what if I told you YES YOU can STAND APART in this crowd!! AND get the RELEVANT eyeballs? Would you STOP and have a LOOK?
CONTENT IS THE KEY!
Being in the Social Media scene for quite sometime now, I feel there has been nothing as strong and as fast changing as Social Media. Hmmm… so all those people who are a bit off the track, what am I talking about?
Well, if you havent’ heard of a blog, wiki, community hmmm….I think you need to brush up fast, otherwise I’ m pretty sure you definitely would be having your account on Orkut, Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn, Youtube etc. etc..
Great!
SO WHY DID YOU CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT on these networks in the first place?
Just because your friends were there? Or because one fine day you suddenly found an email in your Id telling you that yes I found a great network and I think you should join it too, and in the race you did!
Ever thought of doing soemthing more from the same community of friends that you have been with on this network? Probably collaborate and share to get up with something constructive? Probably looking at starting your own company, being an entrepreneur, or finding the right mentor?!
Well, what if I told you YOU can earn money too! And you would say here goes another of those online marketing gimmicks!! Well NO!
DO YOU HAVE A BRAND?
What would you tell someone if you had to in 15 seconds why he/she should join your network? What’s your USP? How would you both be able to leverage each other increating something worthwhile?
If you dont have many answers well its time that you DO! Social Media networks provide you that platform to establish an engaged brand value with the people connected to you. Its not just about being connected. Its much more.
Today big corporates use services like Twitter to do market research, to engage with their employees, to engage with their customers as well. Social Media is a boon to young entrepreneurs and enterprising people. A saddening incidednt like the Mumbai terrosist attacks generated more tha 80,000 views on various sldes on slideshare, in about 3 days time!
SO what? Big deal!!
Well YES, it is a big deal! If I spell it right for you your words, pictures, videos, your profile has ben viewed multiple times by people who were interested into that event and you provided them the relevant information.
Thus simply put, IF YOU PROVIDE RELEVANT INFORMATION, AT THE RIGHT PLACE AND tag IT ALONG so that INTERESTED poeple can FIND YOU, wallah! YOU HAVE IT!
Go take your product online and explore new market opportunities
Gosh I really feel if it would have been this easy, every company would have already had thought about it and surpassing sales targets with not much of an etra effort and people like me would not have even a single moment FREE in their lives!
But thats where the catch lies
So why is it not happening the right way for everyone? Well, MESSAGING and COMMUNICATION is the KEY!! You already are present there with everyone else and there probably are people who are either interested in you or your product. So the BALL is in your court!
Finally its you who has to put the message across right!! Its your message which does the trick, which holds the magic key to a goldmine of customers who are already present and searching for you. But in this crowd is difficult for them to find you.
So what do I do now?
Well, pretty simple, give more and more stress on your messaging and communication. Understand your target market and your segment of consumers that you are trying to PULL! YES PULL!
Days of PUSH marketing are getting numbered soon. Today the consumer o nthese Social Media platforms are intelligent enough to understand what they are being projected and how much of relevance does it holds for them. It does not take more than a split second to CLICK ON THE CROSS and CLOSE the Browser Window.
A very pwoerful example is how AT&T launched their new phone. With a campaign Lost in America. The overall campaign had no script and the 11 episodes shot were of not of much relavnce to people. Still a market research firm said 31000 people across the US viewed the commercials and the entire series. Hmmm…thoughts ayone?
Well, the reality is 20,000 of these views were from the blog of one of the leading ladies in the campaign who posted the commercials on her blog. So what was the magic? Well she had the content on her blog right. Which attracted people towards the commercials.
AND WE STILL TALK ABOUT THE POWER OF CONTENT?!
I personally vouch for the fact that if your content is accurate and you have pre-planned it before pitching your product/offering to your target customers/market, which you can do by effectively understanding your target market, whether in a b2b or a B2C space. Though Its a proven fact that Social Media has been effective in the b2c space much more than its effect in the b2b space. But studies are underway and Social Media is soon going to bring in a new revolution in the perceptive imagniation and inferential power of the consumers.
Best,
Paritosh Sharma
Post Contributed by: Charu Bajaj
As world is shrinking boundaries more and more people are getting connected. There are two way bridges of communication and Obama’s success has rightly proven it. His election campaign was driven by social networking tools. The impact which he lid on people was unbelievable as he also attracted people who supported his contender. This domain is exploding and yet another era is shaping up or rather we can say has shaped up where people believe in collaborative growth. The power of Social Media can be utilized to create a close knit environment at the workplace.
Influence on Workplace- A democratic approach
There is lot of flow of energy if people are given an opportunity to express themselves. A close knit web at the workplace allows people to contribute towrds the growth of an organization. If all the employees are placed at par and have a free say they will definately feel more committed and responsible to their own ideas which they can express by writing a blog discussing and expressing themselves on a specific topic.
Customers- Our Focal point
Micro blogging sites can be leverged to extract immediate feedback from the customers. The customers then no longer remin people belonging to an alien land, as there behavior can be very well understood and judged. A good example for this is Zappos, which is growing by engaging its customer and forming social web. Such transparent communities builds a feeling of trust among the customers.
Branding- Reach masses
Brand can be created by making your present for the world. Once that brand is created people start knowing you for what you are. It was never so esy before as with web 2.0 live videos can be streamed which can include interviews, conferences and events to spek volume about your work.
Thus these web tools can be used to enable organizations to extend their roots and gain foothold to emerge as winners.
While going through an interesting article on a website, I was amazed at the thought process which I was thinking about in the morning.
Media is something which could be sold or bought. In the WEb 2.0 arena, all that we are doing is interacting and discussing, or may be due to interest we are commenting on other’s thoughts. Hence essentially we are socially communicating. Youtube, Twitter, are not in their core forms media channels, if we look from a layman(s) perspective these are interactive platforms where people come and meet and interact.
All right I agree, the modes of communication “Video”, “Presentations”, “Photos” etc. are media, which could in a way be further bought or sold. Also content (on blogs) etc. could actually be leveraged, linnking it with a financial model.
“We love it, and we want it” and Social media is here to stay for a long time! Especially in these market conditions, it becomes all the more important for businesses to realise why do they need to innovate on this front.
Any thoughts?
FREE! FREE! FREE! How attracting the word is!
Let’s crack the corporate whip on this word, which says “there are no free lunches in this world”.
True to its nature let’s talk about how the concept of FREE affects your business and how you can leverage in these market conditions!
For any business, customers who pay nothing or very less, are subsidized by another set of customers which are essential to a vast array of the business. The trend is common across various business platforms including shopping, real estate, IT service providers, print and online media and employment services. Some of the most talked about businesses in the current market.
According to one estimate, this business model accounts for a majority of the revenues of 60 of the world’s 100 largest companies. With the prevalence of FREE services on the internet , the prevalence of so-called two-sided markets is likely to grow. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
The rationale for this approach, of course, is that by charging one set of customers little or nothing, the business will attract the critical mass of them required to draw in large number of another set of customers, and the income generated by the latter will handsomely exceed the cost of acquiring and serving the former.
The real challenge is in figuring out the true value of each FREE customer.
Most of the managers focus on serving the high value customers. Knowing the life time value of FREE customers is crucial to determining the following:
1. The growth path for your brand/offering
2. The flexibility in the vision of the organization
Well, if you answer these questions right, you may just brush shoulders with luck.
In these extremely volatile market conditions, so to speak of the local market, the buying power of the middle class is taking a hit, hence even the most intelligently placed retail chains are looking at revamping business strategies and predicting a slowdown in revenues.
If we look at the FREE business concept, well its simple. We all agree how ever we advance in our communication, word of mouth is probably one of the best way to market and make a sale. And the sale occurs in a lesser time consuming lesser of your sales energies. So if you have a sound volume of FREE customers who probably may not help you achieve numbers and revenue targets, they may always be the landing strip for someone else’s plane (your high flying jet customer) to land.
Though a point to argue may always be valid that more often than not, a person always feels comfortable moving within his community. Thus the financial grounding of the consumer may always be questioned. Thus its not always true that your FREE customer would always get you the one you were looking for.
Times are a changing, in this world of Social Media, you just connect and not due to the financial status but due to a plethora of many other reasons.
Hence the word of mouth in the offline world happens online! Thus its kind of viral marketing which works for your brand. A research shows how blogs affect to a great extent the buying behavior of informed consumers.
Its all about knowing the lifetime value of your FREE customer
If you do this step right, probably you would be saved from the above discussed doubt as well.
Somewhere I read if you don’t move, you grow roots, thus I feel for businesses its time to move, to take action, and innovate in their day to day operations. Things could be done differently, a back to basics strategy may be a good option, so you don’t go back to the drawing board, but you definitely can fine tune the engine if you know that its getting cold outside and the engine needs a clean!
In today’s scenario where recession is taking its toll on the market and businesses are loosing ground, apprehensions are becoming an inevitable part of our thought process. So the need of the hour is to come together on a platform and interact to take the mantle of innovation further. It’s only good relations between the company and the client which can make a difference!
Who ever said being cost effective means laying off?
How many would believe giving access to professional networks such as LinkedIn to your employees, could essentially have a positive impact on your business:
Today when everybody is adopting cost effective methods, it’s all the more advisable for any business to innovate in processes! The simplest of highly effective changes could result in a highly positive impact to your business.
Starting from recruiting prospects to effectively positioning your brand to the relevant people, social media is the name of the game.
Man is a social animal – back to basics!
I have seen so many businesses hiring people to innovate, rattling their brains over complex business solutions, third party research companies coming out with reports, well my suggestion – why don’t we get back to basics?
“Does the smile of an innocent child makes you laugh, even when you are stressed out”?
Well, that’s what business requires now. It demands innovation leading back to basics. Standing alone makes the race a one man show for you, though you feel that there are so many racing in the same environment. What is required is, now that we all know times are bad, we all collaborate to create a stable ecosystem.
Social networking sites such as Linked in, Twitter, Facebook, Del.icio.us which assist people to interact in a focused ecosystem are doing just that.
Your online Business Card? NO!
But absolute potential of social media space still remains unexplored. It should not be just used as an extended business card as it is more about building a brand, a belief for you. If the social media space is leveraged with planning you can build long term relationships, which can easily be shaped up in stable conditions.
SMM assures quality traffic and avoids the futile exercise of finding leads for prospective businesses. But we cannot loose the essence of it by jumping into the latest technology without the ground work. Thus the key to success lies in planning, planning and planning…….with the business objective in mind and a high quality focus!
Okay so we all love the cake – its time we know the recipe!
However strong your personal space be, in the online space, its how you put yourself as (in words) that matters. Thus every bit of the business related messaging and communication matters.
How your employees project you matters!
Create your space: Make your presence on social networking sites. Create your blog or your web profile. Here, to attract the relevant traffic make the content crisp and precise. We can say ‘If SMM is the cake to magnetize the business, right content is the basic ingredient of the recipe’; the interactions will help to understand the client requirements.
Have a defined process: A well defined and systematic process will position you well among the clients and your business automatically gains recognition. A well thought process includes attracting relevant traffic and creating brand awareness.
Connect: Connect to people and other micro- communities related to business to have the inputs and views of the people from the industry. Create relevant content and get to know the action around and strategize and execute your business accordingly. Your brand will speak for you and you will be amazed at the hub which you can create in the industry.
Create localized content: So you have clients and you want to offer customized solutions? Well, give them customized messaging and communication, and doing that using Social Media tools is not just cost effective, its easy and effective and has a potentially higher reach and value.
Thus we should focus our energy to build relationships as appropriate messaging and communication can create wonders.
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