Are you Social Media Marketing..or Stalking Audiences?

Whenever we see a new commercial on television, or listen to a product ad on the radio for the first time and like it, we usually want to watch it again soon to enjoy it once more, this happens a couple of times until we grow used to it and then want to distance ourselves from it because we have seen it or heard it way too many times, however if that particular ad still keeps up with increasing appearances on our television, pretty soon it becomes really annoying and at times irritating to your senses, so much so that you just cant stand it and you change any and every channel it is being aired from.

My point here is that the Social Media follows a similar if not the same cycle as orthodox marketing does.

YES social media is all about interaction and connecting with people BUT, in a SANE MANNER. Brand communications need to revolve around creating a positive impression in the mind of all potential and current customers/audiences and not to drive them insane with unnecessary tagging, self promotion and projecting a “Saint” image every 2 minutes. The line between promotion of your brand and cyber stalking your potential market is very very thin and should be understood before your brand/you end up getting on the last nerves of people and face social media boycott for your brand.

With the growing trends in Social Media businesses or “Digiprenuers” as i like to call them especially in growing countries like Pakistan it is imperative for these Digiprenuers to understand how to cater to their online audience, Yes they only have one way of communicating with all potential customers, BUT that does not mean they should be force feeding every bit of their brand to any and every user that stumbles across the Social Network. You need to understand the difference between promotion and stalking, feeding and smothering.

According to Insight Strategy Group in a research which they conducted on how people react to Brands on the Social Media, 58% thought it to be “invasive” when brands use social networking to promote because the Social Network is for people coming in to socialize and not to hear brand pitches, and self promotion of products which 80% of the time turn out to be mediocre. Then there is the problem which they highlighted is face by all new Digiprenuers, if not at,most of them (the anxious ones especially) , They are all trigger happy status/update bombardiers… a big no no like NO. Always remember that if a potential customer finds something of value or something that he likes on your Brands Social Media page he will find you himself, he will become a regular part of the feed HIMSELF, if he doesnt then you try to improve your content and your offering and NOT bombard him with Self promotional updates.

Jeremy Gutsche the best known Trend Hunter in the world mentions that no matter how average your product is YOUR STORY in promoting it should be awesome… but that by no way means that you unload a truck load of updates and picture tags on your online customers every 1 min. Promote NOT bombard and so NOT Stalk.

in summary:

• Maintain a steady stream of updates ( once or Twice a day) or if its something important to promote 4-5 times a day extended over planned regular intervals. NOT after every 1 minute,and not A MILLION UPDATES in 1 min.
• Do not DO NOT SELF PROMOTE yourself. Promotion of the Brand is Necessary but a brand SELF PROMOTING ITSELF obsessively is not cool. if it is that good people will notice it LET THEM be the JUDGE.
• Maintain a distinction between what you update/status through your brand and what you update as an individual, remember THE BRAND cannot have a be-grudging tone on its page, your brand will face criticism,hate comments,and biased remarks, DO NOT take them personally and start fighting with customers on the page, turn it into a positive and resolve it, DONT THREATEN them with claims and brute arrogance.
• I cannot stress on it enough DO NOT BLOW YOUR OWN HORN continuously, people WILL get irritated and they will start hating the brand and you and they will start posting trash around.

This is for all the new Digiprenuers on the Social Media. Sell your cupcakes, take your t-shirts, promote your photographs, but do not tick off the customer you are promoting to,  do not make them hit that invisible “hate” button instead of the “Like” one.

 

How is Social Media Transforming Us and The World

The future has never seemed better.In fact to me it looks like the future will be marked with smooth sailing. I say this with regards to the evolution that internet has gone through over the past 20 years or less, and just how many times it has helped us in making our lives easier and more convenient to spend, with the advent of tools which help us in creating flawless designs,documents etc, to mediums which have facilitated the way we share and use knowledge or entertain our selves, mediums like YouTube and Facebook. The internet has in fact drastically changed our culture patterns, our communication patterns and pretty much everything in between.

So how has the internet, particularly the Social Media changed us and the global culture around.

• It has challenged the “Normal” way of life/ communication; it has actually brought people closer than we think. Everyone now is one click (or screen tap) away.
• Bought in more Diversity; though connection you can now view what other people are doing, how they are living, you can view their pictures, relate to them on the pages they like, share your joys and sorrow with them in a more larger scope, look at things from a lot of different perspectives through the diversity in demographics offered by the Social Media.
• Supporting one another; in recent years individuals have brought around complete revolutions around the world and even locally (Google Maya Khan 😛 ) just by running campaigns on the Social Media, gathering support from like minded people, the Revolution in the Middle East was one of the largest and longest ever Tweeted campaign by individuals and freedom fighters all around the world. Social Media played a very important role in bringing these historic events to be realized.
• Learning; by far the most positive change Social Media has brought to culture an society has been changing the habits of people to focus more on learning,reading and interacting on the things they are learning.
• Crowd sourcing; whoever said “too many cooks spoil the broth” is living in the last century, Crowd sourcing content and learning is the new way to be, what people dont see is that through crowd sourcing you are able to generate more perspectives,angles and more thoughts to topics and discussions.
• Unleashed Creativity; the Digisphere has helped people with skills, and crazy imagination to take their skills and talents to the very next level, share it with people all across and get recognized.
• Unique and Authenticity; as there are people with unique capabilities being highlighted around the world through the use of Social networks, there has also been a tremendous increase in authentic and unique content being generated all over the globe to be shared with millions across the world.
• Limitless Contribution; The Digisphere or even Social Media does not restrict anyone from contributing their thoughts,their notions or pretty much anything they want to share, anyone can contribute…how awesome is that.

Social Media and other digital tools have been given to us as a tool to bring about change and transform the world for the better. It has given us the power to reach anyone and everyone anywhere in the world….. so what are YOU waiting for start reaching out.