“Do I need Social Media?” is an outdated question

The question “do I need social media for my brand?” is outdated. “How well I do social media” is the big question challenging brand custodians today.

Since the internet has entered our life, “how we gather information” has changed completely, despite the fact that people in remote areas are still depending on older modes of communication. However two components today, namely, internet and mobile, are just like water and air in our life. Life without them is unimaginable.

And now social media has transformed the scene completely. It’s no more just information gathering, but information sharing anytime, anywhere. Our day starts with social media and ends with social media. So it’s an era of consumer 3.0. Converse as much as you love to. Speak out whatever you want to. This is a world of open dialogue.

Today if you are not on a social networking site, you are not on the internet. It’s  just because social media has made a fundamental shift in the way we communicate with each other.

Brand owners no more have the choice of asking “do I need social media presence?” because this question is as good as buried. If your brand is not on social media networks, it means you’re ignoring your next generation customers. The new generation consumer opens his/her internet account on social media sites before opening a bank account!

Brand custodians should ask themselves “how well are we doing social media?” and why? The reasons are many such as “we are not just talking to a few million customers; we are talking to billions of users.”

So if you are not on social media, you can imagine what your brand is missing.

Let’s look at some more reasons;

1.   If Facebook were a country, it would have been the world’s third largest country with more than 600 million people.

2.      Flickr has 13 times bigger photo library than national library.

3.      95% companies are using LinkedIn to find and attract employees.

4.      Studies show Wikipedia is as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.

5.      More than 54 million update per month on Twitter

…and the list goes on…

The focus should be more on managing social presence;

-          Conversational content, not advertising message

-          Provide clarity. Avoid vague, product driven and corporate chant

-          Bring humor to get word of mouth

-          Be authentic and concise. Get to the human side of language

-          Don’t forget to have a clear call to action

-          Leave a room for them to want more   

We may thus sum up that social media is becoming a persuasive platform and a critical factor in the success or failure of a business. So let’s adopt a UCEL strategy; Understand -> Converse -> Engage -> Learn

From the desk

Vinod Nagar

Digital Strategist and Business Manager

Tweet @vinodnaagar

Kreata Global

(A digital division of Al Khaleej Business Communications)

Facebook Marketing: Do your fans really ‘Like’ you?

Almost every name in business, big or small, wants to make its presence felt on Facebook. With the number of persons using social networking sites increasing by the second, it is only natural that corporates want to hop on to the bandwagon. The big question however is, how many companies really benefit from it or rather, how many make an effort to benefit from it. Do your fans really ‘Like’ you?

The first big mistake is made right after the creation of the fan page- thinking that that’s the end of it! One may argue that such errors are made only by people who are ignorant of the power of facebook as a marketing tool. Nevertheless, many a company pages are updated only once in a while; making followers of the page just what the page is – passive.

The key is to constantly update content without sounding pushy. The communication has to be engaging and interesting enough to make users ‘Like’ it or better, comment on it. Everyone enjoys a funny question, video, and image, and it might be a good way to get started. But mind you, once you set the ball rolling, don’t do a rewind on why you have the page, what people can do on it etc. Refrain from posting random funny videos and quotes. Get straight to the point or engage users with games and contests.

The strategy of updating for the sake of it may fall straight on its face. What you communicate on your Facebook page should reflect what the company is all about. Humour is good, but it has to be delivered in the right doses. Or else, you might end up looking frivolous. The most important thing is to use content that matches your brand image.

And most importantly, keep your promises. If you had announced a reward prior to the contest, make sure the winners receive it. It is to be remembered that people talk five times more about a bad experience than a good one. Your present members are all that you have and it is on them that you can bank a portion of your hopes to win more members. So keep them happy.

Watch your competitors but do not fall into the ‘copy-paste’ trap. Let the think-tanks in your organization and Social Media Agency pool in ideas that work for you and your fans. Strive not to do what your competitors are doing but to make them follow the trend you have set.

Keep the language simple, use keywords and never compromise on quality. These basic things can go a long way in helping you retain and earn fans. So make every hit on your page count. When someone ‘Likes’ you, let it mean so.

5 Rules for Pay per Click Campaign

1: Keywords:

First choose your keywords that are relevant to your products or services segment. For example if you offer search engine optimization service to webmasters, 'search engine' will be a wide-ranging keyword for you. 'Search engine optimization’, 'good search engine ranking' etc., will be your good target keywords.

A further thing you have to keep in mind is targeting your keywords. Like any geographical location exact to your product or any specific language. Some search engines like Google offer this feature to target the keywords based on the countries and language.

2: Write an undeniable ad:

The majority of pay per click search engine services limits your ad characters and length. So try to retain the keyword in the ad headline and the body. This will be helpful for Google, which determine your position not only by your bidding quantity but also click thru rate. Google editors won't let you to use the keyword more than once in your ads. So build your ad more efficiently.

3: Don't go into Bidding conflict:

Keep an eye on your Return on Investment. (ROI) It is not that simple to resist the attraction of being number one on pay per click engine listings especially for the beginners. Constantly make your mind up on an amount you are going to spend on advertising campaigns. Depending on that, split certain percentage to PPCs. With realistic bidding amount you can acquire good amount of traffic from PPCs.

4: Keep an eye on your bidding amount:

The majority of the people bid once and doesn’t remember about it for weeks. Monitor your bid amount subsequent to logging in to your accounts. Execute once in every 4 to7 days.

For example, if you go to overture.com and search for keywords, you will be able to find the first positions paying $0.97, $0.75, 0.45 respectively for the first three rankings. Don't you spot who will be benefited by this? You will be able to get the first and second position for $0.27 and $0.26 correspondingly. So always maintain on your bidding amount.

5: Landing page:

After clicking on your link and coming to your website, don't allow them to search for the product for which they came to your site. Directly landing on the product page is always a good idea and saves your visitor's time.