Effective Online Community Managers And Their Habits.

Ever since Social Media has started to make its ground in the middle of all brand/marketing campaigns, organizations and senior managements have warmed up to the idea of actually looking towards social media and other online platforms as an important part of their brands marketing entourage. This has in return given rise to the concept of hiring “Online Community Managers”, Social Media Specialists, Online content specialists, and the list goes on.

Certain important traits which I have found to be innate in all Online Community Managers or Social Media Specialists, or should be naturally present in Community Managers are:

• They love to have conversations,time and again I have mentioned that Social Media is all about having conversations,developing conversations, starting and carrying them on. A Social Media Specialist should be able to  talk to people,start conversations not only this he should be have the quality of loving talking to people. If he is all this then your Social Media/Network page will flourish, if not…its time to think on alternatives.
• is good with analysing emotions, trust me when i say empathy can be one of your most important weapons on the social media,it allows you to understand the emotional state one is in, and create a favourable path for you to communicate your opinion and take control of the conversation accordingly. A good online Community Manager knows how to handle frustrated customers because he is able to assess their frame of minds and thinking at that very instant, therefore he knows how to handle them/criticism appropriately.
• Staying informed, a good social media manager makes it a point to stay informed about trends,major events, trends in conversations to judge where to pick up a good angle from. In other words, he/she should be hooked to the social network.
• Reflecting on the culture of your customers.Understanding the customer and what are his inclinations is a very important trait of any Online Community and Social Media Managers. Analyse conversations which go on around your page. What are your page fans talking about? what topics do they normally bring up when interacting with other fans on the page? you might want to have someone in your social media team who,if not an expert,possesses knowledge on the topics being talked about so that he can add in to the conversation, and ultimately steer it in whichever way he wants to.
• Needs to have a sense of humour,lots of it, No one likes dry messaging on Fan pages, the whole concept of a Facebook Fanpage is interacting with the fans, you need to interact with the fans using techniques which develop conversations and a flow of comments,opinions and preferably,ideas. Having a sense of humour helps in breaking the ice,getting information which the brand might be able to use for future, and pretty much an honest opinion from the users.
• Word-play: perhaps one of the most important traits in an effective Community Manager is that he knows how to craft conversations, content and statements. Always remember, in order to get “inside” information out of the customer/user, one needs to know how to angle a conversation in such a way that the information which he/she requires falls right in his/her lap. in other words an effective community manager will always be a good Wordsmith.

The Meme Phenomenon..

On a lighter note, i want to talk about “Memes” the recent internet phenomenon which i categorize as “Content” none the less has spread throughout the world like wildfire, What are internet Memes? how did they came into being? and how have they grown?

Starting with What Memes are, what does the word “Meme” actually means, i looked up the meaning from the all wise Wikipedia and i found this; A meme is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures. If we look at it this way then,the internet memes we see nowadays are so not what goes with the above mentioned meaning..BUT…if you look at the meaning more closely and then translate it into a more “Modern day” meaning, today’s world/people/norms have considerable changed and are now vastly driven by practices and cultures witnessed in different parts of the world,adopted to a more local level, the internet has truly made the whole world into one big global village, and the kind of Memes we see on the internet everyday,(Funny,Retarded,Sarcastic, situation,Rage comics) are pretty much true yet humorous depictions of whats happening around us and just how people have started to act with the ultimate explosion of the Social Media,internet, and crowd/user generated free sharing content.

The Meme phenomenon came to light not much time ago, maybe 2 years or so but over the past one year has gained immense popularity and recognition worldwide.

an internet meme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

U.S. customs officials have the authority to scrutinize the contents of travelers' laptops and even confiscate laptops for a period of time, without giving a reason. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things like “girls with DUCKFACE” pictures, the ridiculously photogenic guy (a recent hit Meme),Troll Faces, Bad luck brian, the college graduate, words like “Me Gusta”, ” Like a Boss“, are some of the renowned and most associated with Memes on the internet, all of them being used to highlight a specific statement, or sarcasm, or an action WHICH IS ACTUALLY carried out by people/us in our daily lives and we don’t really think about much.

Memes have very conveniently and humorously brought a change in the way which people communicate now on the internet,considering that the internet itself is inhibited majorly by young adults more than any other demographics, Meme based conversations and references have gathered quite the recognition, in fact in many social circles now it has turned out to be a “In” fad, to know about memes and to use their references while talking to each other.

The Meme culture has also given rise to great,unique and interesting visual content based websites such as www.9gag.com , 1loop.com,buzzfeed , among the more recognized ones,creating yet another vast field for digital content, which can also be commercialized and integrated with orthodox marketing in the form of merchandise creation etc.

The creation and shot to fame of Memes and Meme based content websites, gives proof that, digital content has no bounds, and can create serious ripples when integrated with the right form and amount of mediums.

*ME GUSTA* 😀

Related articles

• Are Memes Art? [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• A fun MEME! (socialactions.net)

Make A Successful Social Media Campaign…You Shall!

Social Media plays a very important role of influencing and engaging audiences like no other medium, hence the probability of deriving a successful campaign through this medium is relatively solid then old age marketing in today’s world.

so how can you derive more traffic, sales conversions and more audience through a successful social media campaign:

• Each person should have a specific role on the social media; you need to divide the responsibilities and tasks of every member in your team, who will look after online business development?who will derive content? who will maintain regular updates? etc. it beats 6 people talking to the same person on the fan page,overlapping each others jobs, everyone in your team needs to be effective and consistent what they are looking after.
• You need to know where your target market spends most of their online time; we see new social networks popping up by the dozen everyday, what you need to realize is that it is impossible..rather stupid if you try to be on all these networks, it will only end up in causing more chaos then any sort of systematic process in your life. The more “intelligent” solution to this is by doing an applied research on all popular networks, going through blog directories and using online measuring tools to see which networks are your audience mostly interacting on, and them jump in, then its your ball game on which tactics to use for enticing the audience.
• and the most important aspect as always, engagement, sensible engagement that is, you need to know what to write,how to interact and just what will the audience respond to, your updates,statuses and any message broadcast should be unique and interesting enough to create a conversation,retain it and ultimately convert it 🙂

More on this later :)….

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 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 🙂

Using Social media professionally..Job seekers guide

More and more organizations,both local and international are now turning towards Digital and more prominently towards social media for shortlisting and choosing candidates for jobs, it is  quite prominent now when a candidate goes in for an interview he is asked about his “Digital literacy and his Social Media competencies”.

More and more companies and recruiters are now focusing towards the social media when it comes to highlighting potential candidates for jobs,by going through “their” networks and social media influences. for all those new job seekers out there here are a few tips which you guys can probably use :

• Make your Social Media profile as strong as your Resume; companies and recruiters nowadays look for up to date information on job seekers so if you are sending in a resume be sure to include your updated and complete Linkedin,Twitter and Facebook profile addresses in it.
• Like i have mentioned countless times before Social Media is all about being “social” or socially active, be part of groups,industry discussions,topics and pages related to your field, create a connection with your field influencers, have online discussions and interactions with them, people/companies/recruiters should KNOW that you exist in the market, and are an active online participant of whatever industry you are in,this makes it easier for recruiters to spot you out.
• Social media has created a culture of openness there was a time when Job seekers had to call recruiters and try to get in touch with them, and they often failed at this. Social media has allowed job seekers to break this barrier,job seekers now can not only call recruiters or hiring managers but can also often visit their social media profiles before contacting them.Job seekers need to connect with recruiters or hiring managers on the social media, if you cant reach them directly, subscribe to their facebook profile,follow them on Twitter, stay updated on what they are putting up online regarding job openings or other news. try building a good online relationship with them.
• Your Networks will help you in landing yourself a job, companies in today’s economically shaken surroundings have cut down on advertising for jobs,Companies look towards their employee’s social networks to share jobs and attract the most qualified candidates. The more extensive your personal network is, the greater your odds of encountering these unadvertised job opportunities. Grow your network simply by being more social,interact with people within or even outside your professional industry,get to know friends or friends, if you cant maintain direct contact try subscribing to them or following them on Twitter,LinkedIn, where ever.

Establish your online professional brand and presence now. Your dream job is gonna follow you 🙂

Social Media Apocalypse

The advent of social media not only bought a drastic change in the way people communicated around the world,but even in the tiny spec of a nation called Pakistan, social media took the country by storm, there was a time when people used to get their kicks out of chatting with complete strangers on chat platforms like Msn,Yahoo chat, and the all time shady MIRC. That was “interacting with random people” for us, it was our pinnacle of joy it suzy167 would reply to us on Yahoo chat saying “hi ASL, how are you cutie” and we would reply “im doing great whats your ASL” and one thing would lead to another and there would be Picture trading on Private messages, the more unlucky ones would get similar messages which would start turning into slightly sleazy replies only to find out later that the  person you were having an “intensely sleazy” conversation with was in reality a bot; a computer generated program which would run a loop of replies to all your questions*sigh*.

anywho, after countless encounters with suzie’s167s and beautygirl975s (both humans and bots), i finally stumbled upon Orkut one day, after a few friends at college told me about this “amazing Website” where you can put up your picture and add people and visit other peoples “profiles” and talk to them,write testimonials, make new friends “FROM OTHER COUNTRIES” O_O…. Life would never be the same for me “The Count” was going INTERNATIONAL.

Enter Facebook Stage Left, The world goes insane,people jump with joy, teens,young adults and anyone who spent considerable time on the internet got possessed by it…EVERYONE wanted to be on Facebook,everyone wanted to write testimonials for their friends,people start visiting each other on their profiles, the concept of “wall comments” emerged, people “Poked” each other and got poked back,communication took a totally different turn for the better with Facebook.

Life moved ahead and so did Facebook,soon came a time when people from all over the world were connecting with each other, old lost friends,important colleagues, “bosses” :s every one was getting acquainted virtually, and then it happened…..PEOPLE WERE NOW CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER 24/7 365, Facebook had taken over the world, along with its sly little sidekick Twitter, Facebook had finally converted normal people into Social Media Frenzied zombies, their food was not flesh but the “hours” they would stay connected on Facebook and their aim in life was to “Like” and “share” every possible bit of information no matter how useful it might be with every one and everywhere.

Facebook had taken control of our lives,we had to put in every detail of every minute in our lives as our status so that the masters (Facebook) could keep track of our whereabouts, ” im taking a crap” , “i am leaving my wife” , ” i just had Chicken tikka masala for lunch”, Twitter followed every step of the way. the Fombies ( term i created for Facebook zombies) needed constant “food” they would not sleep they would not go out,they would not watch Tv, all they wanted was FACEBOOOOOOOKKKKKK..

The Fombies have since multiplied exponentially over the past years, growing in thousands and infecting millions at a constant rate, the Facebook organization has spread its virus worldwide mercilessly sparing not even a single soul,news has it the it is developing a new program where unborn babies and men sperm will be injected with drug  of sorts whereby these unborn babies still in the moms womb would be able to create their Facebook profiles telepathically, and would be able to chat,upload pictures from inside the womb   and tell their folks what they are feeling.

The social media apocalypse which was imminent struck us and we never even said “ouch” . Long Live the Apocalypse Long live my fellow Fombies. :[

I like Digital..but… Doesn’t mean i am TECHNICAL…JEEZ

considering the is my first post on my new blog, i will try to keep it simple and fun instead of forcing the usual bullox about Social Media and Digital down you throat.

There has been an amazingly increasing trend of “Digital” in Pakistan lately, everyone wants to be a part of the “Digital Age”, its the latest high for all tech geeks,tech savvy hormonal teens (and even adults) ,while a small part of the “Adult” generation are showing receptiveness towards this phenomenon as well.

BUT…

What all these above mentioned people (and some other people) fail to realize is that, being Digital does not mean being “technical”, “dude you are so into digital you must understand all the languages and c!@# going on behind a website”. “bro making this website must be child’s play for you since you are all digital.”

Dudes,bros, just because a guy is “digital” does not mean he is ace at developing apps,websites programming…jeez that is what software engineers and developers do 🙂 (and of course super geeks) ;P.

let me just shed some light on the topic,a person who is associated with the “digital” field or is part of the “Digitalsphere”, mostly contributes to a campaign or project by sharing ideas and dropping strategies on how to execute a particular thing on the online front, how to spread it,promote it, engage audience/target market towards it through the internet,and how to take it beyond the boundaries/barriers of conventional promotion and marketing, this could be done using social networking tools,websites and applications, this could be done through Social Bookmarking tools, through online videos,unconventional mediums such as SMS and email marketing, and a slightly new phenomenon called “Blog Marketing”. These are a couple of things to start with,the rest will come with time my peeps :).

So, the next time you see a person with “digital” in his profile do not start picturing him with website templates and binary codes frolicking over his head. He is just a normal guy with a hint of imagination in him :). cheers