Content Marketing Ideas Worth Putting to Use.

Time and time before i have mentioned, that social media is all about interacting and making connections, creating relationships and expanding your network. Traditional marketing loses out on this one aspect, as it falls dead on its face when it comes to creating a relationship, they “think ” they are establishing a relationship but the truth is that they really aren’t engaging enough with their customers, especially engaging with the customer in his own settings, (home,cafe,office,hotel room), Social Media does all that and much more.

You see its all about building a relationship with your customers and prospects that helps in building trust and turns prospects into buyers and customers into brand custodians,ambassadors and high value repeat buyers. How do you do that? by talking to them,engaging with them, and providing them with what they want to know, in the manner they want to know it…providing them with SUPER CONTENT.

Content Marketing is all about creating compelling,Liquid ( contagious,viral) content and just spreading it like wild fire over the internet.

you start this by first just asking the customer for his permission that you may send him content, this could be through asking them to like your page to deliver them with information and content which they would want to read and watch. Content marketing is not an easy job there are certain challenges which you need to face in order to construct good compelling content. these challenges start with actually finding the inspiration to generate ideas for content, then create it,make it relevant, how to resource it in the long term, and finally managing and moderating it.

The Multi-Media Reign

Traditional marketers do not put heavy faith in alternative media like videos and rich messages since they kind of consider it to be a temporary blip/ bubble in marketing which might fade after time. What they need to understand is that compelling content needs to be in more than one form, textual content just doesn’t cut it for audiences anymore,they need visuals,they need video,they need something to interact with something to “experience” the message with, hence the use of alternate media while making content is advisable, use photos,videos,animations and it WILL work.

in short here are a few ideas for creating compelling content.

Idea: Include images and Photos

Idea: Create a “liquid/contagious” Online video

Idea: Design visuals/grpahics which would explain the content in a better way

Idea: Use Infographics-the hottest trend in content nowadays 

Idea: Create Blog posts or e-Excerpts which are well structured, and relevant.

Hopefully if you guys delve into these elements in a little more detail you will understand what and how useful content marketing, more specifically compelling content marketing is.

 

The Future is Augmented Reality.

Marketing,promotions, communications and ultimately the technology used for these communications has come a long way since the inception of the internet and online brand management/marketing. It started with emails; sending out mass emails related to products and promotions in order to entice and capture customer minds and trickled down towards the phenomenon of SMS marketing, when companies started sending out mass cellphone texts to customer databases hence trying to get their attention through that. Then came the era of  “the Social Network”, marketing took a huge leap and brands set on the journey of social media and viral marketing, creating fans,tweeting,uploading viral videos. When all this became a norm marketers started towards the use of codes and QRs integrating QR images with products, using it in their BTLs and so on.

Enter Augmented Reality

According to its precise definition; Augmented Reality is a live,direct,or indirect view of a physical,real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer generated sensory input such as sound,video,graphics or GPS data. 

in simple words, Augmented Reality allowed marketers to bring the actual brand alive, available virtually right in the palm of your hand..literally. You can view the product from all dimensions, see the product in actual use,size and shape and experience just what it would feel like to own it.

Many companies have so far used AR for promotion, you could search what Appshaker did with National Geographic in London. They took AR and made people experience what it would be like being a part of National Geogrpahic :

similarly many people have started using AR quite creatively;

using it in furniture design and architecture:

Creating Business cards out of Augmented Reality;

Many other uses of Augmented Reality have surfaced, like using it for Medical lectures, Character creation,GPS systems, etc.

Are we ready for AR?

after seeing all this you would probably want to just get up an get your self a Phd in AR, but honestly its not just about the code, there’s design,content and video involved behind it but i am sure its nothing you creatives cant handle :).

We have yet to see a full blown use of AR integrated with brands, here locally, AR has hatched from its first phase in many western countries but its use is still limited, its any ones game right now to bring a solid AR based brand campaign. so saddle up.

 

Why Facebook is making us sad..

Facebook has integrated itself into our lives in a very systematic manner, it has linked itself with us in such a way that now we feel obliged to let it know about all and everything that is happening in our life before we let even our closest friends know about it,and we dont feel bad about it because oour closest friends are too busy doing the same :).

As Facebook gains an immensely powerful role in our digital existence, researchers have started looking into how the social network changes our perception of the lives lived by our friends and other family members, and how it effects us as a change.

According to some recent studies conducted by Sociologists at the Utah Valley University, they discovered that a person mental deposition about the life he lives in comparison to the life his friends, and even other family members live is correlated with the amount of time spent on the social network.

during the research around 425 students were asked to answer little questions such as “lifes not fair” , “do you think your friends have a better life than yours”, apart from this they were also analyzed on the basis of how much time they spent on Facebook,how many friends they had on Facebook and how many of those friends had they actually met in person.

After studying some patterns the sociologists discovered that as social networking time increases for people ,their perceptions about their lives and the lives of people around them start to change, they start believing that others have a better life than they do,they see other people happier than themselves living better lives than their own.

These Studies/ analysis were also posted in the cyber-psychology,Behavior and Social Networking journal. The research also reached a conclusion that people who had more “out-of-Facebook” socializing and interactions were less likely to be unhappy than people who spent more time on it.

They also analyzed that Facebook users most likely depict happy parts of their lives by carefully placed photos and news rather then ranting about depressing things,hence creating the illusion in other peoples ( friends) head that happiness is a constant “thing” in their lives . Researchers from other colleges have also mentioned before that teens and children who use Facebook too much can develop what they call “Facebook depression”, when they see too much happiness and smiles around them which they do not have in their lives.

Using Social Media for Instant Feedback

In this day and age the only other thing that moves as fast as the speed of light is social media. It has proven to be a superb tool for communicating and connecting with customers/fans,provide Real-time responses to them and maintain a very active relationship with them, another use which marketers should now consider for social media is, collecting feedback.

• Pre-product launch feedback: its has been witnessed time and time again that whenever a product brings in news features or extensions to its existing line consumers show hesitation towards taking up the change, they react by leaving comments on how they don’t want the brand to be doing this and how their life would be made harder than it already is if this change was to take effect,but slowly steadily they do come around to adapting it. What marketers need to look at at this point is that many a times these comments,complaints or discussions bring out elements and points regarding the product which might have been over looked by the brand team or the marketers on a whole. COLLECT this feedback,compile it and store if for further improvements.
• Create Focus Groups:  this is an excellent way of gathering information regarding your product or any plans you have for it. Start Polls, Discussion forums on Facebook or Google+, Tweetboards,Twitter Chats because for gathering good feedback you need to delve deeper into customer interactions, holding discussion forums actually helps in targeting the audience you are trying to capture hence ensuring you receive very focused comments and suggestions. Conducting engaging surveys and polls is always a good idea for generating feedback.
•  Industry Expertise in Useful: One of the basic roles of social media is to expand and strengthen your network, and at the same time it has made it easier for your brand to get in touch with opinion leaders and influencers who drive buying behaviors,get in touch with them hear what they have to say, record and apply those things.
• Use Blogs: try writing once in a while, if you face writers block, visit your social network and ask people around on what challenges they feel when writing or ask them anything,this will help in developing ideas in your head once that is done simply share those ideas in the form of a blog. You can also use a professional approach and start a company blog,share posts on it all around the Social sphere, it will help in generating comments and feedback.
• Develop an Identity: Develop an identity for your brand, a persona of sorts something people can relate with and then use that persona on your Social Network while communicating with your audience, its been seen people respond to personas and similar identities more easily and in a more comfortable manner. Good for extracting suggestions.
• Keep a lookout for your Brand: its not necessary that audience might only be talking about your brand on your Brand fan page,they might be mentioning the brand, or commenting on the brand in other social spheres as well, its your job to keep a look out on related pages, competitors or complementary brand pages to see if your brand is being mentioned somewhere, and more importantly which tone is it being mentioned in.

So if you think there are other ways of gathering genuine and important feedback through the social media let me know 🙂

 

Principals for Social Media Content Marketing.

Sweet and simple,here are some principals all you SoMe marketers and users can follow or include in your online Content management plans ;

• Be Focused– know who you are speaking to, your content should be able to communicate with your customers in easy user friendly language.
• Know what to achieve– you need to know what you want your content to do for you, do you want it to entertain the audience so that it leaves a memorable impact?, do you want it to provide leads for future sales?, or do you want it to go viral. You need to set a specific task/goal for it before sending it out.
• In-house publishing– open source social media has made it amazingly easy for users to generate and share content anywhere,anytime and everywhere,so now all you need to do is possess some hint of what is called “writing skills” and you can easily ,post blogs,send emails to your blog subscribers,tweet to your followers and promote it on Facebook.
• Problem solving– it is one of the biggest aspects of content generation and management, all customers,users and people have problems, if they point it out on your brand page be ready to help out these customers by offering them solutions or if there isn’t a solution just try to be nice to them.
• There is no use in generating online content if there is not Call to action for it, always include a call to action in all your content messages,it could be to subscribe,share,or register, creating call to actions help a brand in achieving its ultimate goal, which is to get customers and earn money.
• The Human Connection-  your content should speak to the customer…LIKE THE CUSTOMER, like a human would interact with another, be authentic and be real, that is what the “New Marketing” phenomenon is all about.
• Working examples- case studies have always been a strong marketing tools used by marketers over the years, when you translate it to social media or more specifically “Digital” you need to “SHOW” customers these case studies rather than “TELLING” them, use a visual source, place it on your pages, let customers see how others are using your products/ brands and how they are relating to it.
• Sense of Humor-  it would really really help you and your brand if you were able to take that baseball bat stuck up your tushy and loosened down a bit. Develop a sense of humor in your content and in the way you communicate with your audience its will help giving your brand a more “human” look as well.
• Publish everywhere-  share,share, and share your content some more,on the infinite array of apps and content sharing tools at your disposal on the digital front. blogs, websites,Facebook,Twitter etc.
• Use aids and visual tools-  not everyone is fond of reading, people like me for instance need information to be more visual, that makes me remember it more,reading obviously is always good but aiding it with visuals,photos,videos,audio (podcasts) can really make it shine.

Toodles…dont forget to share and subscribe 🙂

Social Media Buzz….

Social media is basically like play-doh,where consumers can create,re-create and change a general perception regarding a brand,a public figure, or even themselves.

by listening and observing the social media buzz or buzz words,brands can actually create a very focused perception in the minds of their consumers, something which can help in the creation or new tag lines or statements which the brand might be able to associate with itself. But this is not the only thing you have to look at, you should be able to make sense out of the discussions being held as many online conversations/buzz do sometimes seem chaotic and random,so basically each comment,each update and each and every thread of content/buzz being poured on your page needs to be carefully analyzed in order to create an appropriate response, or else everyone will just be running around in circles without really getting a solution to anything.

Lets look at some common buzz we usually encounter on the social media:

• Compliments– its been seen that many So-Me ( Social Media) users usually end up complaining a lot on their bad brand experiences and how they didn’t like a particular service…but these same So-Me users like to compliment their favorite brands on the brand pages as well, tweeting about how good their experience has been on it, and what are the best things regarding it etc.
• Usage Experiences– like i always say the whole crux of  social media is dependent on sharing information,conversation,and experiences, consumers do it through tweets,micro blogs, and through fan pages.
• Complaints- So-Me users love to rant out their frustrations,complains and just randomly dish out on brand pages, is could be specifically regarding a a bad experience, it could be regarding bad service or it could be as simple as just someone whos bored and don’t have much to do,so he/she might start “boredom anger” rants on your page.
• Testimonials and Suggestions– another great form for So-Me users to express their loyalty towards a brand, they give out their testimonials on their experiences and use or maybe even an event they went to for the brand,this might initiate into discussion forums, and your brand or you might actually end up getting a few good ideas regarding future activities through these forums.
• Buying Behavior– consumers/ audiences are always in the habit of asking friends and old users before they set out to buy  a new product or even an extension/ update of the product or brand which they are already using,this could give brand owners good insight on what the customer wants and how they(owners) can change or add value to the brand.
• Brand Switching– not all consumers are always satisfied with what they have and many a time they are a little confused with the brand choice they have made, they might come on a page and ask around if there are better alternatives then what they have,this might guide brand owners in realizing and possibly picking up a hint in the changing consumer attitude, and smart marketers would be able to do something about it.

These are some of the basic / most common buzz you can find on the social media, because honestly online conversations can simply not be categorized,there might be as many conversations as there are the total number of people on the Social Web, but all these conversations and online interactions in one way or another point towards the fact on how consumers can create and re-create a particular brand and its essence on their own.

The important part is actually listening to this content carefully, finding out what is important from it,devising a suitable response to it an using suggestions and testimonials from it for your own advantage.  In the end it is always better for a brand to know what its consumer is saying about it BEFORE the competitor finds out.

Handle your Negative Online Customer Comments Positively.

Some call it a blessing,some are irritated by it,others just downright don’t want it in their lives, this is how social media has impacted people ever since it grew in popularity and use.

However, brands and products have reaped more than a few benefits in terms of promotion and marketing on the online/digital frontier,taking their brand names to new heights. Along with this it has also given customers/target audiences a greater sense of attachment with the brand, through social media the customer now can simply say if he likes or doesn’t like a product right on the brands Facebook/Twitter/Google+ page . He can vent out his complaints,he can praise the brand, and he can provide opinions on what he like and what he doesn’t with regards to the brand.

With this comes the bad part,if interactions,complaints and opinions are left unattended on the social media, it starts planting a seed of doubt in the mind of the audience that the brand doesn’t pay much head to whatever the target market is saying. So how do  you deal with maintaining a positive relationship with your audiences online, and manage your interactions with them while mitigating their complains. Try this:

• Listen to what your audiences are saying to you and about you- if a customer is dissatisfied, try and talk to him,answer his query. Handle with care 🙂
• THINK before you SPEAK- never be in your “angry” mode when replying to customers/ or your online fans, because in that intense moment you could end up saying things which might not have good repercussions later on.Take your time in thinking just what to say to your online customer,how to craft an answer so that you/your brand remain in the “good books” while the customer is also left satisfied.
• Know the details- if you are running a brand, with a team of staff under you, you need to know what they are up to or how they are dealing with their side of customer interaction, once you know whats going on behind then you will be able to devise your answers in a better way.
• See how others are doing it – its always a good idea to look around other brand pages and learn to see how they are handling their customer interactions, this helps you in realizing the tone of interaction they are using, how customers are responding on their page to their updates and answers.
• Policies do work – social media interaction never follows a set pattern it could peak up negatives responses as well as positive ones, so having a set “rules of engagement” in terms of online responses helps if not completely erasing the negativity. If you do not define rules and policies for online engagement then you really don’t know where your online interaction is headed, and then it runs all over the place hence in the end deeming to be ineffective.

As social media progresses at such an exponential pace, online business managers or social media support teams are advised to be best prepared and skilled with handling such queries, complains, and concerns as soon as possible.

Always remember if a customer experience with your brand goes to the dung can, the online world with its tremendous capability to spread news and experiences in a viral shape can completely ruin your brand.

 

How to Make an Awesome Social Media impact

The Social Media age has seen many brands skyrocket to fame in short spans of time, creating an exposure so strong that audience worldwide automatically synchronized themselves with the brand values they experienced on the social mediums. Interactive videos, augmented reality based branded apps, Android and IOS compatible apps on smart phones, content ( both visual and verbal) have really augmented the reach and growth of products,brands and services at an exponential rate.

if you have taken the “social media” road to success you must have started spending a lot of time on your favorite social medium,gathering information regarding it and trying to grow your Social connections to the strongest, are there even any lines which can be drawn to where all this ends.

the question is can you create a social media impact without spending a gazillion minutes/hours,commenting,interacting and tweeting? (since i have always mentioned social media is all about creating a two way method of interaction and communication with the target audience).

the answer here is,YES YOU CAN,But (oh yes theres always a but isn’t there),all you need to be is efficient. How? simply by the use of some easy methods,online tools and a little patience, you can create an amazing social media impact. How do you do it? heres how ;

• Create an audience research pool, you should be able to answer the 5 W’s 1 H

1. Who is your audience?
2. Where can you find them?
3. When are they most likely to engage in a conversation online?
4. When should they connect with you online?
5. What do they want to know about?
6. How do they want the information sent to them?

• Plan your Online Time schedule, you need to plan your time for your social interactions and online promotions everyday, you cannot go around spending all day on it,your time for interacting with your audience needs to be focused and effective, once you are done with step 1 you need to analyze your learnings from it and find out where your audience spends most of its time, and then you use that social medium and that “form” of content to interact with your customers/audiences.
• Establish Goals, do you want more people on your fan page? do you want traffic on your website? you need to set goals for your online presence, you need to define certain KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for acheiving these goals, KPIs help you in measuring the milestones you have reached in accomplishing your goal.
• Content is King, like the famous “customer is king” philosophy in marketing,Social media and digital marketing follow the philosophy of “great content”,online audiences spends way too much time sifting through tons on unnecessary content on websites,Facebook pages,Blogs etc, you need to create content which is concise and has a great message which captures their attention,like WHAM. Focus on the quality of content NOT the quantity, a well crafted status update can help audience growth exponentially rather then a cliched,and heavily repeated one.
• Interact with you audiences whenever you find the chance, you necessarily don’t have to be near a computer or your laptop to update your brand pages status or answer a query, use you Mobile phone,connect while in the train, riding the cab,just do it whenever you can.
• Adapt to the change,the Digisphere is a fast moving fast changing world,you need to keep on tweaking your methods and changing your online strategy in accordance with the fast changing trends and needs of your audiences.

Cheers 🙂

Recognizing employees

The advent of Social Media has opened up a vast array for marketing,promotion and creating excellent P.O.M for anyone and everyone associated with it,whatever you want to promote or send out or market all you gotta do now is spread it like fire on Twitter,Facebook,Blogs etc. its as if you now have a huge trumpet to gather all the armies of Gondor ( yes i love Lord of the Rings), and thus you can promote your things almost anywhere and everywhere in the world,to whomever you want to… you are in complete control.

many a times within organizations,even in your own organization you might have felt the abundant you,and misuse of social media, and i am sure a few of your colleagues or even management might have heard from the IT administrators on the extensive use of it.

However wouldn’t it be great if you could use this for creating an atmosphere of appreciation and recognition for your employees. You can use social media as a acknowledgement tool for your employees along with it being a low-cost medium to show your support towards them.

here’s how :

• Publicly recognize your employees accomplishments; posting a story on your brands/products Facebook page or on the company blog can help you in promoting your employees within the organization, and making others motivated towards productivity,plus its good advertising for the brand itself.
• Boost up the company morale Real-time; almost everyone is on Facebook or some other form of social medium nowadays, so showing employee recognition on the social media sends out a signal that the employers are connected with the employees and care about their well-being it also encourages peer-to-peer acknowledgement; friends leave comments,congratulate,retweet and share news further etc. helps employees keep motivated.
• The best way of recognizing employees on social media is through:

Facebook: the most widely used social medium,the more you recognize people on it the better.

Twitter: Tweeting and re-tweeting employee news,congratulations and other things help in spreading the news further and faster.

Company blog: if your brand or product runs a blog its always a good idea to let all the other employees know about any good news, acknowledgments and even employee promotions on it, this way the employees know that their good news is being circulated throughout the organization, people will not only praise them but will also be motivated to make an effort in having their accomplishments recognized.

Gifts: show appreciation towards your employees by sending them virtual gifts,it could be as simple as sending them something on Farmville :P,a simple congratulatory e-card or a online movie ticket, just something to make them realize that you are connected with them and that you care.

BE WARNED Though, there might be repercussions, not everyone likes to have themselves publicized on social media, there are people who like to keep the “lime light” off them as much as they can,so when you send out that “status” or Tweet that congratulatory note be very sure that the person you a referring to in those updates/notes is OK with what you are doing, because  social media also means exposure..but the difference is, its public exposure strapped onto 2 rockets :D.

Relationships under the “FACEBOOK” effect.

Since the inception of Facebook,it has drastically changed the the way in which we communicate with each other, it has generated a completely new form of relationship interaction WHICH proves to be volatile and/or potent at many times.

having Facebook in you personal life has its ups and downs though, at one end it helps with a meaningful social interaction and helps in boosting self-esteem but on the other hand it also opens a Pandora’s box of options for spying, stalking and other insecurity- and jealousy-driven actions between lovers. ( True story 😛 )

and all those little scraps of data, the new relationships,the break up/ hate statuses and the digital PDA,can definitely affect you,your partner and the people around you, on how they view you as a person :P.

So how does Facebook affect your personal life: The way people present themselves on Facebook is mirrors the ways people think about themselves in reality.

• your use of social media (Facebook) either helps you with boosting your esteem or doesn’t. If it does help, it helps you through allowing you to add friends and people you would want to know,therefore it may increase your self esteem when you have a larger support group of friends who talk to you and help you out with things, but there is also the possibility that these interactions might be superficial
• The type of posts/status updates you make on Facebook can be of two types, they are either HONEST or SELF-EDITED. Honest status/posts show that you yourself are confident of who you are as a person therefore can interact with people in a better way. However if you use the self-edited path to posts and updates,it shows that you are presenting yourself in an improved light,hence showing a certain angle of insecurity you have within you.
• occasional exposure to Facebook has been seen as a good sign in enhancing a persons self-esteem,over exposure to Facebook has been seen as resulting in over-awareness about oneself and can cause stress and anxiety within.

Depending on how often you use Facebook, there are certain negative effects which you can experience due to it in your personal life:

• you are under stress of missing our on RSS feeds and information updates
• There is the stress from deleting unwanted contacts 😛
• you have to know how to BEHAVE (etiquette’s) on Facebook.
• you are under the impression (or mostly peer pressure) of keeping your posts and updates interesting and entertaining/humorous.
•  There is stress build up from status comments.
• you worry about adding / accepting or not accepting unwanted contacts.
• Stress or friends/buddies finding out important pieces of news on your wall on Facebook first, instead of hearing it from you in person.
• there is tremendous stress when your “better” half or significant other does or does not want to post/update/confirm their relationship status. 😛

how Facebook affects your relationship (jealousy);

• Spending too much time on Facebook can turn you into one hell of a stalking-psycho boyfriend/girlfriend (just joking), BUT it has been seen that people who spend too much time on Facebook become acutely aware of what their significant half’s are posting an updating on their profiles, these people then tend to start over-analyzing each update and post, and try finding out underlying meanings to each of the posts, this can result in a level of insecurity between the relationship.
• its natural to archive every bit of new news or significant news on you FB profile,but that could mean like maintaining a public record of all the relationships you have so far been through with, this might be ok for you but NOT for your current partner.
• By changing your relationship status on Facebook you kinda make it “Official” to all the people on your network and the others who might join later, it could however look bad if you change your status but your partner does not respond to this with changing her relationship status and keeps it “single”,that would be kinda “ouch” for you :p, and in the case of the relationship breaking up it could lead to a public heartbreak.
• you need to watch what sorta comments and posts you receive on your profile,for sometimes a comment or post with too much information, or personalized , or even simple “cute” remarks can make your partner jealous.
•  Breakups can be painful,and Facebook results in giving you this constant reminder of how great their lives have become (True story),its human nature an curiosity can get you checking on their Facebook updates,status pictures, post-breakup.

Nothing hits you quite as hard as public breakup issues if they are because of Facebook, you need not worry there are certain solutions:

• Talk to him/her,chat with them to find out if the problem is because of something on Facebook or is it something else.
• If there is something on your profile that you think might be making your partner jealous,try making a few adjustments to it to make them feel more comfortable.
• Facebook is bound to cause insecurities in your relation, so try and work out a daily basis plan of communication and growth in your relationship without the “Facebook” tool.
• If an ex’s post are way too much for you to handle, try blocking that contact and make it a point to never go on their profile again, delete yourself from the Facebook search for yourself and for them so that neither exists for the other.
• Edit your privacy setting, so that ex’s or past crushes or whoever cant see all  your posts,status and cannot comment on them.
• Be careful/mindful of whatever is posted on Facebook and delete or take appropriate actions regarding it so that they dont come to haunt you later. 😛

Happy Facebooking peeps 🙂