The three Cs of social media

For the past one year I’m learning social media and still it is going on. From what I have seen and learned and did I figured out the three key words that decides the quality and potential of a social media plan. In social media marketing it’s all about positioning the brand in the perfect way amidst the target people. But since we have a larger audience in the web we have to make sure that whatever stuff we prepare it does not gain a bad image from anyone. So here are the three things you should watch out for when starting off with your marketing strategies.

1)        Content: this is the basic. Without content you will never be able to move on. Now you may think where to get the content. It’s very simple and it takes only a little contemplation on the company or the product or the place it belongs to or even on its name. If it’s a consumer product all you have to do is to constantly update the changes and trends with the products and the company and general trends in the category of the product. If you are dealing with a resort something like that then you can for the place and the heritage and tradition of the place. In some cases you can even utilize the name in a very effective way to position the brand before the online netizens.

2)        Conversation: this is the most important C in all the three. Without proper and planned conversation no page can retain people and bring the desired effect to your business from social media. In fact conversation is the best part of social media marketing since all the other marketing channels are one way. With conversations we can engage people pamper them and even sell your products. The customer will surely feel proud about and attached to your brand on receiving replies to their dialogues. The best pert of social media conversation is that it is casual and no need of any kind of formalities.

3)       Creativity: at last we have to pour a drop of creativity into everything we do or all our efforts will be down in a much unexpected moment. Creativity should be visible in such a way that it attracts the category of people who are actually not your target group. So that’s an extra pie. And creativity will surely help you to brand in a way that doesn’t take much effort from your part. If your pages are really awesome that it attracts the social media observers who are waiting for something to talk about then they will talk about your pages and that’ll be a serious achievement for your brand and this will bring much more traffic than you expect.

A bad (not so good) caption

Few days back there was an ad on the front page of The Hindu news paper of the new Nissan Sunny. A half page ad. I looked at the car and then all I saw is the caption which says ‘It’s not just a car... It’s a caaar’. That’s it. I put the paper down and thought about it for a moment. How could a company like Nissan come up with such a bad caption for such a beautiful car?

We have seen thousands of captions of different products of different companies. Some are good some are bad. Some really strike. Many I forget. This one actually made me feel like ‘what a pity one’. All I thought is about the creative agency which brought this idea of caaar. I don know for how many people this caaar concept will be digestible. Not for me for sure. May be because I work in a creative marketing agency or may be because I watch ads very closely. But above all I’m also a reader or even a prospect for the company and I’m sorry to say they have failed to impress this prospect and attract to their Sunny.

I’m sure anyone could have come up with a better caption and attracted more eye balls. I hope next time when Nissan launches their new car they will have a beautiful caption for their car and not just some caaar…

Some basic social media thoughts

This article is only aimed to provide some very basic thought on how to become an expert in social media marketing. This is purely meant for those who are at the planning stage to pursue a career in social media. Since we don’t have any specific theories or rules or laws in social media, it’s always our choice to become a maven in the new media world where everything is created and destructed by the mass.

I used to think how the experts become in a level where they could control the current social media thoughts and make people follow their words to pursue the new business puzzles. As in every science or art, it’s the constant observation that reveals the secrets. There is no other easy way to catch the magic. But to attain the heights, we need to follow some very simple steps.

I figured out 4 things that you need to observe to create your own rules of the game. By constantly observing these 4 factors you will reach a level where you’ll be able to stand and speak to the world what to do and how to do.

1) Observing the Sites: this is the very basic step as it sounds. You need to thoroughly look at the social networking sites to understand its marketing opportunities. The major factors that you should carefully observe are the features, members, spending options and spending patterns and updation of the site.

Let’s consider Facebook and you know the features facebook provide. But how many of you actually know to look at the insights and understand what the graphs say? Or have you ever thought of using facebook as customer care tool to answer the customers’ doubts and complaints. While learning about facebook, learn about the apps that can be utilized very effectively to attract and entertain fans on your page. Sometimes I wonder there are avid social media users who still don’t have a clue about creating a page and promoting it.

You need to consider the member type of each social networking site. Facebook have every kind of people in it while LinkedIn is for professionals and twitter is for people who want their voice to be heard. Spending options differ based on country and demographics and interests. Normally one will wonder why he should spend on Facebook credits while a poker crazy will do anything to buy credits (as well as earn). Its important to be updated about the changes happens to the site.

2) Observing the Statistics: I always look for the figures because they tell the truth and give credibility. Be aware of the basic statistics around the major social media statistics like number of members, countries, demographics, already proven businesses in each sites etc. These data help you to understand better and create clearer plans.

3) Observing the Trends: this is important because in social media nothing will stand for ever, including the sites. Nobody knows when the world is going to dumb facebook and go after a new site. So it’s important to keep track of the new sites on way and be aware of their features. There are chances that a SNS that we consider bad today may come up with innovative features tomorrow and will grab the attention. It is very simple if you think about Orkut. There is no point in learning and talking about orkut. Most of the people have started deleting their orkut account. May be after some years facebook will also face the same intensive situation.

It is also important to understand which major site has higher rates of increase in membership and higher frequency of usage. We all consider Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube as the 4 major players. But at one point of time one site will be more influential than other site. It differs based on geography, demography, lifestyle, security options etc.  

4) Observing user Behavior: ultimately like in every business a small amount of psychological understanding id pretty inevitable. Users’ general perception on a site, attitude towards a particular option or features in a site, general online behavior of a particular demographic, responding styles etc should be well observed and understood before you leap to start speaking about social media.

If you go through these 4 things you’ll start to understand how the social networking sites actually became a paradise of marketers. Now try this and I’m sure you’ll be writing better blogs tomorrow on how to create social media strategies. While doing these things never forget check out the latest social media news and happenings. A little general knowledge will not harm you anyway.