#WTF is Social Dynamics – Do We Even Have a Freaking Idea?

Everybody wants to do social. All are driving their brands to social. All rosy to begin with, full of enthusiasm, round the clock dedication, always on top. 6 months and start running after returns. 6 monhs of 50000 fans, whichever comes first – start pushing for monetization – Sell Sell Sell as if your fans are dying to buy your products/services out.

Patience, a virtue, much talked about in school, also in traditional – come social and woosh! Slow and steady wins the race, again studied in school, forgotten on social. We took a year to graduate each class, but on social recruitment to monetization need to be achieved within 1/2 that time. Logical, but never followed, simple and straight – recruit, consolidate and then consolidate and monetize. Social will always give you returns and the magic will happen. But, remember the very important ingredients – commitment, patience and consistency (considering there is domain expertise, objectives and strategy.

How long will we faf and not realize the potential of social. Social dynamics is key and as soon as you get what that is the better for you to tap into its potential. These dynamics will give you clear cut measurables, building to an ROI no one can refute.

In a following post, I will talk about the KPIs that we need to track and we need to build up to them and come good with ROI.

Leaving you with intrigue and hoping to hear your views on social dynamics.

Social Media Metrics – Amplification Rate

Amplification through (marketing) relationships – 1 thing you sure can’t buy!

Why Facebook? And Why not Only Likes, Comments and Shares! Is There More?

When Facebook started its first office in India in 2010 its user base was just 8M. Come 2012 and Facebook has grown 8 fold with over 65M users in India – thats 2 years for swelling 8X! Its penetration of population is almost 5.5% and penetration of online population is closing in on the 70% mark.

Big numbers eh! Without dwelling more into numbers and staying afloat with what we already have I am very curious to know how long are we going to talk about numbers ahead of these? We marketers are the first ones to get onto the band wagon and in our enthusiasm and partnering with other entrepreneurial talent get pulled into numbers again. We swear for being ‘social’, ‘creating engagement’ and within no time begin pushing in our messages, products and services. Automatically we are looking for likes, comments, shares, clicks… conversions for talking success.

ROI has always been the hot topic, always raising eyebrows with very few of us who are ready and can tackle questions on it. Numbers will help us right? Right! But how right is right here? Are we looking at conversions the moment the big boss says ‘I have spent so much, what have I gained? More often than not – only numbers showing engagement or some affinity. Lets try to talk about this, makes some sense… lets talk about Facebook with its high user-base in India.

There is always that emotional need that brings us onto a network like Facebook – we can reconnect with our old friends, family and colleagues, we can share our thoughts and beliefs, make new friends, professional connections and so on… one of the biggest – WE NOW HAVE A VOICE THAT CAN BE HEARD. We always wanted to talk, be heard, get applauded, interact and connect… now we have the platforms that let us and satisfy us on the emotional level. We share everything under the sun – well, almost everything. There are huge numbers drawn from small towns – the citizens who have aspirations but could never be heard. Are we seeing this, are we understanding that there is this thick emotional layer which if penetrated can do us wonders.

Another one – we just start off thinking we know it all. DO WE? We are in an age where everything is evolving and hence it is getting complicated by the day. Complexity is a bane and a boon for us marketers – we just need to listen and then crack it. Mere existence and big numbers ain’t enough no more. What we do with what we have defines us and our success. Try a easy 4 step process: LISTEN, CONSUME, REACT/INTERACT and then RETURN to step 1. Simple, well if only we knew that simple is simple if we let it be simple.

1. LISTEN: Cutting to the chase, we need to listen to what our TG is talking about, what moves them, what excites or saddens them, what are their pain points that trouble them… if we listen and not hear we can help them or add value to the satisfied ones. Cut inroads to create consumers and sustain to cross and up sell.

2. CONSUME: Just listening wouldn’t do it, would it? We should draw meaningful insights. Cull out the sentiments, the emotions, the pleasure and the pain – draw meaningful insights that would help us understand what we should do. Once done – we are ready to react/interact!

3. REACT/INTERACT: We should now be ready to talk and engage with our TG. The touch points and the the time to activate them from our listening exercise will help us connect and make the most out of it. This is the opportunity for us to make meaningful interactions and be one with them on their emotional levels. Provide them with what they are looking for – give them only will they would want to take from you the next time… there are high chances that they will be readily accepting and welcoming your communications and with stronger relationships becoming your evangelists to help you in your marketing initiatives.

4. RETURN to step 1: Our efforts should be going in a loop, that corrects, evolves or grows to meet our objectives. Every 3 step process will give us immense learnings that we need to bring back in and start afresh at times and at others capitalize!

We got to be at it! Always in perpetuity. Remember, once on the bandwagon we cant get off… else it is going to be very sore post the exit. So always strategize and plan before you do – well this is another over arching topic that needs several posts.. but yes, the importance is enormous.

Let me know what you think… comment here or reach out @ajaxjoshi

Facebook Update – To Release a New Audience Targeting Feature

Expect a new audience targeting feature from Facebook next week. Looking at the update from the social networking giant, it looks it will allow advertisers to target users based on their contact information (currently email ids, phone number and UIDs) and will be made available through Power editor in the form of a list. 

Very much similar to how other targeting on Facebook works, with this new feature the advertiser gets the audience size of that matched audience group, like he does when he uses the ‘ads create tool’ currently.  Although the advertiser gets no new information about who sees their campaign and he does not get information from Facebook about which specific contact may have acted on one of his ads. Facebook will not collect any new information from the advertiser about his contacts. 

As per Facebook, this new audience targeting feature will be an effective new tool for advertisers to reach their customers on Facebook and will lead to more relevant ads for people who already have relationships with advertisers.

How are you going to use this new feature? Stay tuned for more from Facebook. Get in touch @ajaxjoshi

Social Media KPI [Series] [#2]– Quantitative

Here comes the 2nd one in the series. Going on to the next step after you have decided and started measuring for Awareness and Engagement both on the Home Base and the Out Posts – The Digital Touch Points.

It’s not about what you do on your outposts (social community/accelerator networks) but also the touch points that lead your users/followers/consumers to it. The Digital Touch Points!

 

List down KPIs for all the touch points and get them into your measurement and analysis grid. These with the earlier ones, together will provide tremendous insights. You might have offline also in your outreach program, if so, add them too. How people are interacting with you is what you had covered, now this one lets you know on where they are interacting and if they are hoping on from one to another – and in the process taking the conversations across touch points.

Thoughts? Looking forward to your comments… reach me @ajaxjoshi

Customer Service in 140 Characters

Twitter is good… but how can you make it Great for yourself is up to you. In this post I would list out why we should use Twitter and its mechanics to provide customer service. All in real time, in the moment – we can receive responses and resolutions without holding on listening to music or keying in numbers in response to the IVR. Here why we should adopt it:

1. Reduce the size of the support team and control costs. For long we have been trying to put our customers to use the IVR, dissuading them from talking to our phone executives. A Twitter listening station would not only help us respond to customers but also identify and reach out to issues, problems or delight that are not directed at us while on phone.
2. Learn from customers’ repetitive questions to improve our product and service offerings. Repetitive questions on the phone versus the same coming on Twitter, you take your pick – a source of tremendous insights across for teams to make our offerings better.
3. Replace FAQs with interactive software. All integrated to Twitter, helping us get back faster and with objective resolutions. Take away the dullness for our people and have our customers know that they can help themselves which as humans we all do first before we reach out for help.
4. Provide support throughout the sales process. Very important that we are able to handhold, guide or just be their to help make out prospects make that buying decision in our favor, particularly for the ones who navigate away before they might complete a transaction.
5. Focus on high-value customers and questions. With the right system in place the team can concentrate on the most valuable and influential customers who are asking questions and are most like to lead to add-ons, up-sells, cross-sells, accessories sales, service contracts and training offers.

Thoughts? Feedback? Looking to hear from you in comments or @ajaxjoshi

Social Media KPI [Series] [#1] – Quantitative

Following up on my earlier post in March this year, HOW TO Measure Success – Social Media KPIs here is another one which drills down further. There is so much that you can measure – endless, all you need is the right direction and contextual application. On Social Media, ROI is the most talked about term and for good reason:

1. It is a new media that is talk of the town
2. It is shouting for budgets and has already expanding or eating into other media budgets

It is bound to raise eyebrows and there would be tonnes of questions on the ‘Why do we need social media’. This post is surely not going to address that but as the 1st in a series of 3 posts will list out the quantitative KPIs for a Social media campaign/engagement.

Let’s jump right into it, drawing out the KPIs. Mind you, these are still top line and can be drilled out at least 3 levels down and a potent mix with the qualitative (touch points and consumer/audience outlook – coming up in 2 separate posts) will deliver the desired results.

Facebook’s Hidden Features #1 – The Facebook Archieve

It’s right there… but there is a very good chance that you have not see it – Download a copy of your Facebook data. Look it up – it’s under your account settings tab, right below language.

Click to get a copy of your Facebook history downloaded which features the posts you’ve made on your wall, the photos hared, the names and email addresses of your friends, and more…

Along with it comes an expanded archive download that includes as Facebook calls it, “historic info like IP addresses we store about your logins to Facebook.”

Is Social Media = Facebook + Twitter?

More often than not you would end up asking yourself this, especially is social media is what you do. I ask this almost daily. Whenever I meet some and tell them what I do, what I hear back is, “Oh! Wow! Facebook and Twitter!”

It used to irritate me earlier; now, I understand that I need to take it in stride for the ignorant few. You can’t help it! While dabbling with the thought, it struck me that each one of us defines a term, a profession, or an action, a process in a way that makes it easy to identify with. With the monumental growth of Facebook and Indian whose who on Twitter, it is very obvious that social media in common man’s language becomes Facebook + Twitter.

Talk about videos – YouTube is on your minds. Want to wish someone birthday on phone, more often than not you would also end up facebooking your friend with the same wish as per the new social protocol that has taken over our lives. An App is nothing but the good old web application that we have been clicking through for some time now, but an App is something that directly relates to our mobiles or to Facebook. Meanwhile while we might be stuck to some of these definitions, we are quick to evolve too! Now instead of Flickr(ing) it you Pin(nterst) it!

Also, notice how we also add to the English dictionary certain other brands as language words. When hurt we do not ask for a bandage but a ‘band-aid’. When thirsty we reach out for a Bisleri and not a bottle of water from the roadside vendor. The latest – iPad! What does one ask for if he wants to buy a tablet – iPad!

Considering these and many more such examples, I derive peace that its okay if people think and perceive me doing Facebook + Twitter for a living. Yes, when I do meet a few interested few, we dvelve on it more and it all becomes enlightening for the other!

Cheers to us and how we try to make things easy and the easy slowly evolves with our lifestyles and becomes an integral part of it!

What are your thoughts on this? Sure, would love to hear from you guys. Want to know more from me, follow my blog or follow me on Twitter @ajaxjoshi

Why does every brand page needs a Facebook App?

What is a Facebook App?

A Facebook app is nothing but a micro site, Period! How a techie might put it – It is something that can do almost anything we want to. Coming into Facebook from a hosted source, you could have the database to be what you had like it to be – which unlike through the App is impossible to extract information from Facebook

Not all people put their contact number and address in online forms – with a Facebook App using Facebook connect you get your information and properties when you can reach your fans.

Keeping Facebook’s promotion guidelines in view, an App is what a brand needs to fuel the much needed engagement and impetus for the brand though sweepstakes, contests, loyalty programs…

… and more…

1. They have an inherent Marketing Potential

2. They act as engagement drivers

3. Enable outbound linking (a big one to have an app!)

Putting 2 and 2 together, it is no doubt an imperative, a must have for every brand Facebook page. If you don’t have one, get one today or miss the opportunity to access the 800MM worldwide!

Send me your app links… follow me @ajaxjoshi