SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

The Next Generation of Business Engagement

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The contribution of my Faculty at Ramniranjan jhunjhunwala college (Affiliated to Mumbai University) has made this project possible. I owe a debt of gratitude to Prof. Chitnis the Faculty Coordinator of my project, for providing encouragement and for the valuable interactions I have had with her. Her valuable and appropriate inputs helped me to complete my project successfully. Finally, I would like to thank our whole B.M.S department for their support and coordination in providing study material has helped tremendously to make the project informative and comprehensive.

ABSTRACT
Technology is booming like anything, so as the effect of social media. The Social Web represents the awesome power of the collective. Social Media marketing can create vast word-of-mouth advertising its biggest benefit for marketers. If you spend enough time on the popular social media sites, youll find plenty of advice telling you to use social media marketing to increase business. Its the specific how-to advice thats lacking. Oh, theres plenty of advice, but mostly in abstract form, such as listen, engage, and dont forget to share. In this episode of Power to the Small Business podcast were going to ignore the abstract in favor of concrete, exact advice. You get specific A-B-C steps that you can implement to help drive sales from this social media marketing formula. Maybe the best thing about the information in this podcast is that it is result of research and real-life application. Stephen Woessner of the University of Wisconsin La Crosse Small Business Development Center, and author of the soon to be released book: Increase Online Sales Through Viral Social Networking, gives us this social media marketing formula based on his research and his first-hand experience selling products on the web using social media. He found that using the tactics he shares in this podcast episode increased sales conversion rate from 2% - 4% for normal website traffic to a 22% conversion rate for social media traffic to the website.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Number Acknowledgements Abstract Objective of study What is social media marketing? Definition Social media marketing in India Types of social media marketing How Social network marketing works How to measure ROI..? Common mistakes done by companies in using SMM..? Why Socia media marketing..? Successful implication of SMM..? Case study

Annexure

Bibliography

What is Social Media....?

Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one too many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use.

Social Media: A Publishing Technology for Everyone

Social media is unlike any other technology in history. It has created a modern-day renaissance for several reasons, which are broken down here:

Social media is online

Social media is something that takes place online. It is a type of communication that

takes place outside of in-person meetings, phone calls, or foot traffic. That means social media is location-independent, which makes it a valuable part of any companys business strategy.

Social media is user-generated

Content used to be something that very few people created. Reporters, TV anchors, movie directors, authors, radio DJs, and magazine editors created content, and everyone else consumed it. Now, everyone is a publisher, and the people who use the content are also the ones who create it.

Social media is highly accessible and scalable

Social media is highly accessible and scalable to the public, which means that social media has lots of users and offers plenty of opportunity for companies. Because social media is easy to access, the tools for social media are easy and intuitive enough for the common person to use. Even if you dont use social media now, theres no reason not to jump in!

Social Media: A Way to Diffuse Information

No other existing media is capable of diffusing information faster than social media.

Heres why:

Social media is a shift in how people discover, read, and share news, media, and content
Television and newspapers areno longer king when it comes to filtering and sharing news. People are more likely to get their news by reading Trending Topics on Twitter, and they are more likely to share a link to a friends blog post than MSNs homepage

Social media is a fusion of sociology and technology

Social media is user-controlled, which means that sociologic components play a large role in any companys social media business strategy. The limits of social media are only set by the limits of the technology of social media tools

Social media is a dialogue

At one time, companies had a monologue with its customers. Companies put out television commercials or print ads about its products and waited to see whether thesales rolled in to determine success rates. Now, social media allows companies to have a dialogue with its customers and gain valuable feedback and input as it creates the message.

Social media is the democratization of information

Information and messaging for a company was once controlled by its marketing and sales departments. Now, with the democratization of information, no one owns the message about a product or company. Every company must become part of the conversation or risk letting users become the voice of the company.

Social Media: A Way to Build Relationships by Sharing

Humans are interesting in that the way they build relationships is through sharing. It may be sharing something that happened in their personal lives,

or it may be sharing something funny on TV. Sharing is an essential component of social media, so lets break it down into parts:

Social media is people connecting with others

Social media allows each person to connect with others, which means most of the messaging a person receives is from his or her network. Its essential for companies to learn to network with its customers in order to promote the company message.

Social media is content readers become content publishers

Content readers are not only consumers. Social media allows content readers to become content publishers. In this way, social media allows content readers to share the content with their own network of followers by publishing or republishing the message in their own words.

Social media is forming relationships for personal, political, and business use
Social media is not just about content or messaging in a different format. Social media is about relationships. For companies, social media is about creating a more personal relationship with end-consumers to build a network around a service or product.It is clear that there are many components to social media, but the best way to understand social media is to just try it. I hope by now youre excited to see what social media can do for your business!

DEFINITION
Social media marketing is an addition to personal, small business, corporate, and non-profit organizations integrated marketing communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a multifaceted, orchestrated marketing and advertising practice organizations follow to connect with their target markets. Integrated marketing communications coordinates promotional elements: advertising, personal

selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing and sales promotion. [1] Increasingly, viral marketing campaigns are also grouped into integrated marketing communications. In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research firms and public relations firms.[2] However, the growth of social media has impacted the way organizations communicate. With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.[3] Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. With emergence of channels like Twitter, the barrier to entry in social media is greatly reduced.

Social media marketing in India.

Is Social Media actually working in India? Is Social Media Marketing the only facet of social media? Can you help your business through social media in India ? What should you be doing if you want to market yourself , or your brand for that matter, on social media? These are my views on what you need to be doing to undertake a successful social media campaign in India . Please add on to the list by way of comments. Please add on to the list by way of comments. Facebook fan page: A Facebook fan page is something we all have seen. Once a person becomes a fan on your fan page, your updates

appear on his profile. Obviously, until he decides to remove himself from the fan page. A number of custom applications can be built on the fan page. Companies have even started using the fan page for ecommerce and competitions for promoting their brands. This can be done very easily using the static-FBML application and writing some very simple mark up. By the way, Facebook now is the 4th most popular site in India, overtaking Orkut. Check out the facebook fan page of Coca Cola to see how the brand has used it beautifully. Facebook applications: A facebook application can be viral. Some companies in India have already started using the facebook applications to brand themselves. The Complete the zoo-zoo story application by Vodafone is a case in point. Orkut : Although, Orkut(5th most popular site in India) is a dying social medium, it still remains a major social network as far as India is concerned. It still has the highest number of user accounts for a social network in India. Make sure you monitor the discussions going on about your brand. If you really think your brand could leverage Orkut, you can even go for Orkut applications. Twitter: Everybody seems to have a twitter account these days. Companies like Dell have used twitter to do some good business. Yahoo India seems to be running huge contests on Twitter to get the word of mouth going for them.

India is number 2 as far as twitter usage goes However, there are still a lot of small companies which are trying to figure out how this thing works. My advice to them would be just try it out first. The only way to learn what is happening on twitter is to get busy using it. The small businesses using twitter have to understand that twitters reach is truly global. Find out twitter audience in your vicinity using services like Nearby Tweets and target them. Also make sure you have information going

out continuously on twitter, or else your tweet will be nowhere to be seen on your followers wall. As a matter of fact, i read somewhere that Indian companies have still not deciphered Twitter. I must say that its high time they start understanding the concept of two-way communication on Twitter. Twitter is now the 12th most popular site in India. India, now is at number 2 as far as number of twitter users is concerned. US has 37% presence on twitter,India has 8% and I bet Indians will out number Americans very soon. No wonder every time the Indian cricket team is playing, one of the Indian cricket players is a trending topic.

Blog: Try to understand the focus of your blog. Some companies try to put up quality information about the industry they are in. This gives them an edge and leaves the audience thinking that your brand understands what it is doing Other companies however, have used their blogs to show the human side of the company. With a number of their own employees blogging about the fun they are having working in your company helps the audience relate to your brand in a human way. Companies like Zappos have done this very well. Although, a tougher medium to use, the ROI is very high. I dont see any Indian company showing off their consumer-sensitive side through a blog. The microsite of pampers which is covered in one of our previous posts can be good example to look at.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is more of a professional social networking platform. To embrace LinkedIn, create an account and try to see how everyone else is getting involved in it. LinkedIn already has 3.4 million users in India and now the Mumbai office.

LinkedIn has opened its office at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai LinkedIn, in the years to come can be a major replacement for the job finding and posting sites. You even have facilities to upload your resumes, create groups and polls. Most of the alumni meets these days happen through LinkedIn. For business networking, LinkedIn is the way to go. Now that your twitter account can also be integrated with your LinkedIn account, there is a little bit of conversation going on there too. Make sure your LinkedIn account is very neat, whether you are a company or an individual. Outlook 2010 will have LinkedIn integration.

Wikipedia: Wikipedia may not seem a social medium but it is in fact one of the most important mediums to monitor. Make sure the information out there is correct and try to edit if you feel the information has been tampered with. Leave comments on other peoples blogs: This is one part of social media which most people, even the so called *social media evangelists* miss out. This however is the most important thing, if you are trying to establish yourself as an expert in a field. It doesnt happen overnight but after certain amount of time, people in your field start knowing you and can even go on to refer business to you. People dont even mind a small back link to your blog.

The Q & A sites and forums: There are a lot of Q and A sites on the internet. Yahoo Answers and Wiki Answers being the major ones.

Make sure you answer all the queries people have about your brand in the various Q & A sites. There are also some Q & A sites which are specific to your sector. Make sure you take a look at them. The forums are also a major source of Buzz about a brands positivity or negetivity. Forums likeIndia broadband forum, consumer complaints etc. must be monitored very closely to monitor your brand. Answer people if they have any queries about your brand at such places.

Mobile Social Networks: Mobile social networks havent yet taken off in India but they will soon. Networks like Foursquare have been doing very well in the United States. I personally believe mobile Internet will do better in India than normal broadband has. Mobile users in India outnumber broadband users by a huge margin. Mobile Social Network, Mozat, formerly Morange has reported over 10 million registered users (mostly in Asia). The number of mobile internet users in China is more than the population of United States. Indian brands need to understand that Mobile Phone is the future and at least register their names out there. Whether mobile social networks work for you completely depend on the nature of your business. A real estate agent would benefit immensely from this media.

Monitor: Start listening. It would do you a good deal of help to understand what is being said about you or your brand. For a small brand, there a set of basic things which they can do are: A) Set up Google alerts ; so that whenever your name gets mentioned in any of the searches or on blogs, you get to know about them. B) Use twitter search once a day and see what people have to say about you. C) Even Facebook has the search facility these days and should be monitored periodically. If you are a big brand, however, and really want to invest a good amount of money, you can go for professional services which monitor your brand. You can even use freebies like Social Mention, Trendrr etc. For a comprehensive list of some of the free services click here . Services like Radian6, Trackuretc. are okay and

there are some very good upcoming services which we will let you know shortly. For a good list, check here.

Video and Photo Sharing sites:

Remember the video Where the hell is Matt?. YouTubeand Flickr are surely a part of the social media revolution which has taken place over the years. A simple video says what a long blog cannot and it says it all in a much more effective way. A look at the youtube channel of dell shows how effectively youtube is being used by Dell. Also, make it a point to check the beautiful photo sharing profile of Dell called Digital Nomads. Before you go for a channel like youtube(it is costly to make videos) make a check if your target audience is there on youtube. Picasa photo sharing may return more to you if you are targeting the Indian audience.

Combining your social media campaign with some social cause:

Some of the companies in India who have taken up social media campaigns have been pretty much throwing their brands information on the users. Tata Docomo almost reached levels of hash tagging where people started feeling spammed by their social media campaign. Indian brands can learn from the way Jimmy choos has taken up their social media campaign with the name jimmychoo72 . The money they make from this campaign goes to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In this way, Jimmy choos is able to combine its Social media campaign with CSR activities and hence create beautiful branding around itself. I would dearly love to see an Indian brand doing some similar work.

One of the most important thing, however, is that your social media campaigns in different mediums must go on in a synchronised manner. If you want to know what I mean by a synchronised manner, check out a previous post on microreviews here. All your social medium should connect to each other. The facebook profile must be able to update your twitter feed. The twitter feed in turn can update your LinkedIn profile if it has a #in attached. Your website must have a place where all your social

media activities are listed the way dell has at http://www.dell.com/twitter and http://www.dell.com/facebook

done

Try using Social Media as your first level of feedback. Listen to people and answer them. Show the human face of your brand through social media. Donot over do it, the way Tata Docomo did for a while and pissed of many people completely. If you are extremely clueless about Social Media take professional help.

Most of the stuff you see above(except for the youtube videos or facebook applications) comes for free and can be taken up by small brands themselves. Also, a decent facebook application costs you in the range Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 200,000 ( unless you are looking for a Farmville or Mafia Wars). I have come across a decent set of guys who do some cool facebook application development. Get in touch with them here. These were some of the basic things which can be undertaken by small/big brands to leverage social media in India.Make sure your brands name is not already taken on the social mediums at http://knowem.com/ or http://namechk.com/ and register them as soon as possible. I can assure you social media in India will be bigger than it has been in the United States. India, after all is the biggest democracy in the world. Find me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Find Microreviews on Facebook and Twitter.

Types of Social Media Social networking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Social networking sites allow users to add friends, send messages and share content. People on social networking sites group in communities of likeminded interest. IMPORTANT: 1) The other types of social media outlined here also allow for networking, though theyre typically more focused on content sharing. 2) Dont assume your audience isnt participating in social networking. The growth of Facebook for example is phenomenal. The rate at which it is growing with men and women in their 60s even is staggering.

Social bookmarking Digg , Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon

Social bookmarking applications allow users to share their favorite online content with one another while also creating online bookmarks that the user can refer to in the same way he would a bookmark created offline in his web browser. Bookmarks may also count as a vote, hence content with lots of votes can rise to the top of the page results in that community.

Blogs WordPress, TypePad, Posterous, Tumblr, Blogger as well as non-branded blogging platforms
Blogs are online journals where the author can write (blog) about any interest he wants. The blogger can also use the blog to share content picked up from other social media sites (YouTube, Issue) by taking advantage of the simple embed codes offered by those content hosts.

How Social Network Marketing Works...

Most marketers would ask the wrong question here: how can social networks make me more money? The problem with that approach is that you tend to focus on immediate means of monetizing the value of social networks such as MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, LinkedIn,Mixx, Stumbleupon, Reddit,Twiter and Flikr, while ignoring the real reason these networks were setup and how you can use those ideas to help your business.

Top Social Networking Websites MySpace, Orkut and Friendster grew as means to stay in touch with friends, meet new people online and to share ideas. LinkedIn has a similar

slant it is great forentrepreneurs and professionals who want to mine their contacts for hiring / outsourcing. And Flickr is just a blindingly simple tool for sharing photos. The success of social networks marks a dynamic shift in how people are using the Internet. Weve evolved from just searching for information to creating and participating in social spaces with other individuals through the Internet. This model is based upon the hive mentality where people identify themselves as part of a group with similar likes and interests that draw them together. This is easy to do online because the traditional communication barriers of physical locations no longer exist.

SEO and Social Networks

Social networks make viral marketing and word-of-mouth marketing much easier than before. The best use out of social networks is not to make money directly off them, but to harness their marketing potential and to use them to market your own business. The difference between traditional search engine marketing and social marketing The main goal of any search engine marketer is to drive more traffic to their site. The best way to do that is to optimize your website (including the process of link building) for your target keywords. Online social networks present an efficient platform for you to use in the spread of your marketing message. In addition, it is also a great tool for getting tons of visitors and thousands of page views to your site. Standard search marketing and website design tactics will tell you that the best way to do this is by creating lots of content targeted at your niche keywords. Then, youd do doing everything in your power to get links back to your website pages with your niche keywords as text anchor links. Instead, what it does mean is that you need to devote more of your attention towards how you can leverage the traffic you do receive from these sources. To do that, you should allow your visitors to create their own social network centered around your niche topic.

The power of this cannot be missed since social networks allow for multiple points of connections between almost anyone on Earth, giving them the ability to find, share, enjoy, and track anything and everything that tickles their fancy. Using social network applications like MySpace these preferences and choices can be saved, stored, shared and used to build a network of glowing endorsements for your business and products. As these endorsements are established and cross-referenced, the profile of yourself, your company, and your products can grow exponentially as more and more people become exposed to and share your marketing message. One of the primary focuses of traditional search engine marketing tactics is the establishment of links from other websites that point visitors back towards your site, preferably with your niche keyword anchor text.

Social network marketing works in the exact same fashion, except

people choose to provide your link without being asked to do so, and places like del.ici.ous, Digg, Blogpulse, and Technorati give them the ability to do that. In offline terms, that means turning towards your friends and family to ask for their opinions. Online, it means turning towards a group of trusted people whose opinions and recommendations you value. In fact, in lots of cases, youve probably done some research on your own, using the traditional search engine marketing model and then turned to a social network that youre a part of to validate your findings and complete your research by getting their experiences and opinions about the topic. This is social network marketing at work in its purest form. One person actively soliciting comments from other people within their community to assist them in making a decision and its only one example of the many ways that the power of online social networks can be leveraged. Online social networks provide the platform needed to speak out (if they are so inclined) or to simply watch the conversations as they happen. In fact, online social network marketing is expanding into something much more than that as the Internet becomes a living, breathing organism the Living Web that allows people to engage themselves in the things that

matter to them and participate in a discussion about what they find important. To understand why the future of social network marketing is important, how it is so powerful, and what youll need to do to integrate it into your online business, an understanding of the mechanics behind it is necessary. Once you understand the mechanisms at work, youll gain a greater appreciation for how to profit from the existing social networks like the ones mentioned earlier, as well as how to use them to create your own social networks built around your niche topics.

Connectors,

Mavens

and

Salespeople

Aside from the knowledge shared, one of the key drivers behind social networks is a well-known idea Six Degrees of Separation, which proposes that anyone can be connected with someone else through no more than five intermediary relationships. Made popular through an Internet game based around the actor Kevin Bacon, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, that links his appearances in films with that of other actors, directors, actresses, writers, etc. The degrees of separation are referenced through the number of films that separate that person from Kevin Bacon, producing a Bacon Score for that person. If you played around with Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon long enough, youll notice some trends that mimic real social networks. There are some people in Hollywood who are more easily connected to Kevin Bacon than others or are better equipped to connect others to him because of the types or number of films theyve been involved with. In terms of the real world and the social networks that exist within it, these people are called Connectors. Connectors are people with a special gift for bringing others together. They are people specialists who have an extraordinary knack for making friendships with lots of people across many sub-niches and cultures. These people are the social glue that bring others together. If you think of it in terms of a common cold, its relatively simple. In this case, Connectors are those people best positioned to spread the germ

throughout the population bus drivers, bank tellers, waiters, and anyone else who comes into contact with a large number of people everyday. Connectors are very rare people. Luckily for us, Connectors arent the only type of social activists available to spread your marketing message for you. Another type of messenger that you can relieve upon are Mavens. Mavens are information specialists who have the knowledge and social skills to start word-of-mouth epidemics. These are the people who do all of the research necessary to solve their own problems and once they figure out that they have a good thing, they want to tell you about it too. Mavens provide the initial spark and message that Connectors filter through their large network of contacts. A third type of messenger, Salespeople, is vitally important to the transmission of your marketing message due to their ability to persuade others who are unconvinced of what they are hearing. They have an uncanny ability to turn fence sitters into marketing mavens wholl champion your cause through their own interaction with your message. Although they are a large part of it, epidemics are not simply a function of the people who transmit them. The transmission of your marketing message is also dependent upon the infectious agent itself and the environment in which it is operating

Social Network Marketing changed so much in last year or so that some

time hard to believe the importance it has created in marketing world. TO me WOM is taken over by this new way of marketing techniques, still you can not say that it is as effective as WOM but it is getting there and once mature, i want surprise if it take over as most effective Marketing Media.

How to Measure Return on....? Investment

Its difficult to say how each company should quantitatively measure their social media efforts without knowing more about the company, but in general, anytime a company can convert metrics and analytics into dollars is usually the best approach. This is easier to do with sales and customer services usages, while more difficult to do with public relations, marketing, and research and development usages. Here are some metrics to keep in mind when trying to calculate the ROI of various services:

Email
Landing page conversion percentage # of opens for each email # of clicks of links in each email # of email subscribers who purchase something

Blogs
Total # of posts or average page views per post Traffic overall or per post via a service like Google Analytics Subscriber counts via an RSS service like Feedburner Comment counts per post (measures engagement) Demographics information via a service like QuantcastPage 46 Social Media Marketing 46

Facebook
# of Fans of members in your group Percentage of items shared on Facebook Percentage of traffic driven to website Facebook fan page analytics

Twitter
# of followers # of retweets of all links # of people who respond (@) to questions, polls, etc. Percentage of traffic driven to website Became a trending topic or not

StumbleUpon
# of reviews for submitted item Traffic driven to site Made it to the front page or not # of people who subscribed or signed up after landing on the page

Digg
# of Diggs # of comments on the Digg site Traffic driven to site Made it to the front page or not # of people who subscribed or signed up after landing on the page

Common Mistakes Companies Make With Social Media...

These mistakes fall into three categories: mistakes with strategy, mistakes with tools, and mistakes with messaging. Most of these mistakes are easily avoidable if a company is willing to take time to understand the users wants and needs on each medium.

Common Mistakes Companies Make With Strategy

Some of the most common mistakes companies make with social media revolve around making decisions that arent consistent with having good business sense. Because social media tools are free, some companies tend to take the pasta approach: throwing noodles at a wall to see what sticks. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid with social media strategy:

Not developing a social media strategy

Because social media is the hottest trend in marketing, companies assume that all they have to do is set up a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page. This is the equivalent of pulling random magazines out of off the rack and purchasing full page color ad in each one, then throwing together a quick and dirty PowerPoint flyer to run. Just like any other communication medium, social media requires a well-thought out marketing strategy plan.

Perfecting a social media strategy

Even though a social media strategy is important, dont wait for the strategy to set up your companys accounts. Reserving your companys name on various social mediasites is of the utmost importance. Furthermore, because it takes time to build social media accounts, every minute you waste by not being there is followers you could be losing.

Gathering followers rather than building a network

There are no shortcuts in social media, and the bottom line is companies have to build relationships with their customers before they can sell anything. Social media may seem free, but the hidden time costs to build relationships Social media is not a quick way to make more sales; in fact, social media actually adds cycle time to the sales process. Just like any other process, a company must consider how much of its resources to invest.

Putting all eggs in one basket

Its exciting to see extraordinary results on one form of social media, and tempting to invest all your resources into whats working. Try to resist. With the speed at which technology changes, social media is starting to look similar to the fashion cycle: one day youre in, the next day youre out. Tools fall in and out of fashion all the time remember Friendster, and more recently, MySpace? Companies that build a large equity on one tool will find themselves with nothing if the tool loses popularity.Putting the horse before the carriage Another clich is the company that doesnt follow a logical process with social media and then wonders why it isnt seeing results. Common sense comes in handy here. For example, consider a company that doesnt currently have many customers, but creates a Facebook fan page and starts promoting it with Facebook ads. The keyword is fan; people who havent experienced the product are not likely to join a fan club for it. Make sure your company is following a logical customer acquisition process by thinking about social media from the userperspective.

Common Mistakes Companies Make With Social Media Tools

Social media is not a set of tools, but rather a way to communicate information. Here are some of the most common mistakes companies make in regards to social media tools:

Thinking the tools are everything

Most social media talk revolves around tools i.e.: 10 Ways to Get More Followers on Twitter. While its useful to get into the details and tactics of social media, a solid marketing strategy should work no matter the medium. The smartest companies will focus on strategy because in the world of Web 2.0, the tools are constantly changing.

Not using the tools correctly

It takes a long time to build credibility, especially as a company because individuals are taught to be wary of anything that looks like marketing or spamming. Unfortunately, it only takes one discrepancy to do damage to a companys reputation. Err on the side of caution with each tool, and take time to listen to the conversations and learn the etiquette for each medium,

Not using the tools at all

Every tool holds opportunity for companies, so companies must be willing to experiment. Rest assured your competitors will be experimenting, so dont let them set the tone or build equity without having your own presence.

Common Mistakes Companies Make With Messaging

Every social media user has a very clear idea of what social media means to them, and how they want to be approached by companies on social media. Most companies dont realize that the way they approach social media sends its own message to consumers. Here are some of the most common mistakes companies make with messaging:

Creating impersonal accounts

Users dont follow companies; they follow engaging people who work at companies.Unless the tool is meant specifically for companies to use (i.e.: Facebook fan pages), every account should be an actual person who has a name and a title that clearly Signifies him or her as a face of the company. This person should write with a conversational tone and respond to other participants in the conversation. Automated accounts or accounts that are updated with a stream of links do not produce results.Controlling the message.Social media is not about controlling a message. In fact, the very nature of social media is such that no one person or organization can control the message. Because social media is a medium to share information through a network, companies must realize that once they put the message out there, they have no control anymore. Users can choose to edit the message, inject their own opinions into the message, share the message, or ignore the message. Furthermore, companies cant even control where the message starts: a user can also create a message about a

company without having any affiliation to them. Because of the nature of social media, companies that try to control the message will have difficulty reaping any of the benefits of the medium.

Not controlling the message

While companies should be careful about trying to exercise too much control over the message, there is also the opposite end of the spectrum to avoid. Companies often cite control over message as a reason not to participate in social media, but the truth is that companies have lost control of the message whether they participate or not. This is because, as mentioned earlier, users can create a message and drive the conversation surrounding that message. So how can companies exercise some control over a message and still reap the benefits of social media (rapid diffusion of information through people sharing messages with their networks)? The answer is that companies need to participate in the conversation. Responding to complaints and stressing the benefits and what the company does well; these are all ways for companies to control the end-consumers perception of its products.

Abusing permission
Abusing permission is by far one of the worst mistakes a company can make with messaging. An example would be if a company collected emails from various blogs in a certain niche and started sending weekly newsletters. While this seems harmless on the surface, none of these bloggers signed up for the companys weekly emails, and thus have not requested the information. Abusing permission is a fast way for companies to lose credibility, damage relationships, and generally make a bad name for themselves in social media. So where do you draw the line with abusing permission? Unfortunately, this question is similar to asking where comedians draw the line with potentially offensive jokes. The truth is that different users have different levels of tolerance. Just like a comedian might experiment with messaging based on the feedback he or she is receiving from the audience, your company must experiment with the right level of communication, erring on the side of unobtrusive.

Strategy most commonly used world-wide

From the above designed strategy its clear that which particular tool is perfect for a particular activity. Like For participation-Myspace, Facebook, ibino For publish-Flickr, youtube, slideshare. For bookmark-YBuzz, dig, reddit

For collaborate -Wikipedia, yahoo, sawaal

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING...??

1. They extend you, your brand, and your relationship with your Customers.
The two goals of marketing are to find new customers and to stay top of mind with your existing customers. You use email marketing to reach your existing customers inboxes, and you can use the reach of social media sites to extend your presence into other interactive areas of the web where your customers and members gather with their friends, family, co-workers, and peers. When one of your customers or members shares a piece of your content (e.g., an issue of your newsletter, a blog post, or an event check-in), or talks about you on a social media site, hes offering his endorsement of what you do and sharing you with his network without you having to lift a finger or spend any additional money. This introduces you to many more people than youre currently connected to, and could bring new business, members, or donations your way. Theres data to support the value of word of mouth: According to Nielsen, 90% of consumers say they trust recommendations from people they know, and 70% trust consumer opinions posted online.

2. Social media marketing sites are popular.

Facebook alone has more than 500 million users. (To put that in perspective: Thats about 190 million people more than the population of the United States.) In addition, Twitter claims 145 million registered users, LinkedIn has 70 million users, 33 million people use Yelp, and Foursquare claims it has 3 million users (and growing). Point is, chances are good that

many of your customers and members, or the people you want to reach, are using at least one social media site.

3. Social media isnt just for college kids.

One major stereotype associated with social media is that its only for young folks. This is not true at all. In fact, according to Pingdom, a web monitoring provider, 25% of users of social networking sites are between 35 and 44, and 57% of the users are older than 35. That same study revealed that the average age of Facebook users is 44

4.Social media users are active.

In June 2010, Facebook revealed that half of its users log in on any given day, and that users spend more than 500 billion minutes on the site each month. In addition, more than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, blog posts, photos, videos, etc.) are shared each month on Facebook. Similarly, Twitter claims that its users post 65 million tweets every day. Yes, some people join social media sites just to listen and observe, but most do it to engage, converse, and participate.

5.Social media provides instant feedback.

Active users means youre going to get your customers and members opinions (positive and negative) about everything your products, your services, your employees, your events, and more. This will give you important real-time information to make changes or adjustments, or to put a bigger spotlight on things that are working. And, you can use social media to detect trends and then take a deeper dive with an online survey.

6.Social media encourages two-way communication.

As hard as we try to make it more interactive, email on its own is a oneway communication channel. On the other hand, sites like Twitter and Facebook allow you to more easily have a conversation (albeit a public one) with your customers and members. You can see what theyre saying about you and you can respond, and vice versa. Using tools like Google

Real Time Search (http://www.google.com/realtime) or Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com), you can quickly see any mentions of your business, organization, product, or service, or you can look up key terms related to your business or organization and find out what people are saying about them. Even better: Tools like NutshellMail (http://www.nutshellmail.com) allow you to have all thats being said about you sent right to your inbox, and you can respond right there.

7.The sites can share a lot about you.

Profiles on these sites can help boost awareness about your business or organization as they can contain pertinent information about your products and services. Think of them as dynamic yellow pages for the digital age. Much of your activity and profiles on social media sites can be made public, meaning they can be indexed by search engines one more way to make sure your business or organization comes up as the answer when someone is searching for a solution to a problem.

8. Social media marketing sites are free.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Yelp, and other sites all offer free accounts for businesses and organizations. You can even blog for free with services like Wordpress.com, Googles Blogger.com, or Posterous.com. Some sites like LinkedIn do offer paid accounts with features that are targeted at more advanced users, but for the purposes of getting started, theres no upfront cost for most of the social networking sites.

9. Social media sites allow you to be personal and professional.

On Facebook, you can have two identities: one for you and one for your business or organization. Facebook offers an option known as Pages, which

are different from the standard Friend connections, and allow you to post messages just to people who Like your business or organization, keeping any personal information about you separate and contained to your profile.

10.Social media is everywhere.

You dont have to be at your computer to post to any of the major social media networks in fact, quite often you dont even have to be on a social media network at the time to post to one of them. For instance, you can post to your Twitter feed via a simple text message, or to Facebook by sending an email. If your site has a Like or Tweet button on it, all a reader has to do is click that and a link will show up in his newsfeed or Twitter stream. If you have a smartphone like an iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile device, there are applications that let you update your social networking sites on the go. You can go beyond

text too: Your mobile phones camera can be used to capture images and video, which can be uploaded to your blog and social media accounts right then and there, giving customers a richer (and real-time) media experience. Many of the popular blog platforms also allow posting from a mobile device

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES FOR MARKETING

I. Improve Customer Understanding

Creates discussion forums Advertising on social networking Web to directly interact with target sites and interacting with customers on customer these sites aids companies to generate greater customer insight and understand the purchasing habits and Integrates products into behavior of potential customers virtual worlds to determine customer expectations

Creates niche social networking sites to comprehend the purchasing habits of women

II. Promote Issues of Social Concern Partners with social Marketing on social networks allow companies to communicate about networking sites to spread awareness environmental and social issues and on CSR issues among the sites engage in debate with key visitors and Virgin Mobile user stakeholders. Establishes a online interactive community for environmentally friendly automobile customer

III. Promote Products and Service Promotes Companies may utilize social networking Web sites to promote services through social networking usage and loyalty for a new service or sites to foster loyalty with target audience product category.

businesses dispersed customers

Establishes virtual to engage globally business -to-business

IBM Uses social networking sites to communicate with B2B customers

V. Increase Brand Awareness Provides visitors with Marketing on social networks provides companies with an outlet to reach a entertainment content on social broad range of consumers and position networking sites to promote brand product offering to increase brand resonance. awareness and improve consumer perceptions Empowers consumers to design the companys marketing message on social networking sites

Social Media Marketing Statistics

I.

II.

III. IV. V.

78% of 26,486 say consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising according to a global Nielsen survey Online social network users were three times more likely to trust their peers opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions. JupiterResearch, March 2007 84% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. Marketing Sherpa, July 2007 78% of consumers trust the advice of other consumers. Neilsen Trust in Advertising Study, 2007 Social networks are the most popular sites for 18-24 year old age group besting search engines, email, and even *cringe*. Time, 2008

Case study

Mahindra Homestays is a unique Indian accommodation network. Launched in 2008, and initially targeting the UK and Indian tourist markets, it brings together a large number of premium family homes that have quality guest rooms. The unique selling point of a Mahindra Homestay is that travellers receive an original experience in each one, and a more authentic, rewarding and real experience of India than they might otherwise get in a hotel. Executive Summary Mahindra Homestays has quickly established itself as a digitally-literate, self-assured and colourful brand that relishes dialogue and collaboration with its audience. Through innovative blog content and social media initiatives we have built the necessary foundations for any travel brand looking for success in the modern online marketing environment. Background Once it was an exception to find a brand involved in social media. Now it is an expectation. People want to find products and services using the familiar tools of their online travels: YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to name a few. They want to talk with brands, discover information and explore a relationship. For brands, this is a powerful opportunity. The obvious benefit of being involved in social media is exposure: directly, its a chance to market and create sales, sometimes immediate, sometimes years later a way of capturing and developing an audience; indirectly, its a way of improving and building on search engine rankings. For a new brand launching in India and in the UK we wanted to explore the exciting opportunities available to us through social media marketing.

Approach/ Strategy

Although the time and resources across different social media has varied throughout the initiative we have chosen to work under six guiding principles and we feel these values have aided our success.

Be honest we act responsibly and truthfully when representing our brand in social media Be interesting we ensure we communicate worthwhile, engaging messages that people enjoy Be open we communicate in an open, collaborative and sharing way with the people who engage with us Be dynamic we strive to demonstrate innovation, originality, enthusiasm and a clear sense of purpose in communications Be committed we are dedicated to keeping our activity regular, timely and relevant Be strategic we plan and execute communications intelligently for maximum results Weve applied these principles across all the Mahindra Homestays social networks.

a) The India Travel Blog We created a branded blog on the website, designed to draw traffic and ultimately send it to the main site. We developed content strategically to appeal to different target audiences and niches, from yoga lovers to dog owners interested in pet-friendly accommodation. We used keyword techniques to capture search traffic on certain useful terms particularly longtail keywords where we saw an opportunity to get plenty of success. And we used lively editorial to communicate the brand in an interesting way and encourage dialogue. Our output over six months has included: 30 highly popular things-to-do articles covering key locations; features on Indian culture, history and traditions; stunning Indian photography collections; video tours of properties; original competitions and offers; and we have recently started podcasting. The blog receives 6,000 visitors a month. b) Facebook Strong social media assets create confidence among customers, especially in an unfamiliar brand and new product. We created an attractive Facebook page with intelligent use of apps and features and we set about finding our audience. With conversation and user-centric initiatives such as our Photo of the Month contest we have grown to 4,500 active fans. We use the Facebook page to seed our blog content, answer customer enquiries and push fans to the main site at any relevant opportunity.

c) Twitter For us, being on Twitter was not simply a matter of following the trend. Early on we saw an opportunity to use Twitter in a powerful way to find our audience as they are making accommodation decisions. We developed a Twitter page which we use in much the same way as Facebook, to seed links to the Mahindra Homestays website and respond to discussion. But we also use it to build relationships with travel journalists, bloggers and travellers across the world. Our approach is proactive; time is spent, for example, searching for current conversations about hotels in India or flights to India. When appropriate we step into discussions with useful and timely contributions.

d) YouTube
Our 26 videos including host-led tours of accommodation as well as a short Kerala travelogue from some well-regarded UK travel writers have brought over 21,586 views on YouTube. Mahindra Homestays videos dominate the search results on the leading keyword term India homestays.

Stakeholders
The stakeholders we engaged through the initiative were our homestay owners who are delighted that we have provided this platform to engage with their visitors and prospective customers. Video has provided a great opportunity for the homestay owners to engage with the initiative, through a profile their property, giving viewers the opportunity to get a real insight into the homestay experience and get a taste of the hosts personality and the sort of hospitality they might receive. About the initiative Having created publically accessible channels for communication they are able to participate directly via Twitter and FaceBook.

We are in regular contact with homestay owners via email and telephone to provide regular updates about the initiative and how they can get involved.

Impact Outcome A)Blog: Traffic to our blog has been increasing steadily since launch and currently with over 6,000 visits per month. Almost half of this traffic has come via natural search engine rankings. With a new brand and targeting a new market (UK) we have been able to build brand awareness early on in the travel research process. For example, those searching for things to do amongst Indian destinations have a strong change of being exposed to the Mahindra Homestays brand. By offering useful destination content within a friendly community such as the blog enables us to reach our audience. We use Analytics on the blog which is fully customised to help us to measure the effectiveness of the blog. Although all blog visitors are being exposed to the brand (we avoid selling on the blog) a key aim is for visitors to then explore the main Mahindra Homestays website. Currently 10-20% of all blog visitors navigate to the main site and are more engaged that other types of referrals. For example, a blog visitor spends 50% more time on the site and visits 35% more pages. Were also delighted that blog visits lead directly to online bookings. B) Twitter: It is harder to measure direct results with Twitter. We limit our time on Twitter to a four to six hours each month.

Our links to new blog content have been retweeted by a number of high profile followers (such as Times Travel in the UK) that provides peaks in traffic. PR coverage We do use Twitter to communicate with the travel trade. One follower had a request for accommodation coverage in Delhi and we were able to act upon this. Facebook: Each month we review the Insights stats that Facebook provides along with information provided through Google Analytics. One year on weve had 30,000 visits to our fan page. A year after the launch we asked our fans whether they would be more likely to choose a Mahindra Homestay when travelling in India compared to 12 months ago and all responses were positive.

Learnings Social media (along with search) marketing has become a key part of our online marketing strategy. We are relaunching the main Mahindra Homestays website later in and 2010 and we plan to better integrate our social media activity. For example, onhttp://www.mahindrahomestays.com/ we simply have buttons linking out to our blog, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. The new website will include: Facebook fan box to show site visitors our presence Latest tweets from our Twitter stream Embedded YouTube videos RSS feeds from our blog this tighter integration will go some way to show our website visitors the different platforms and communities outside the main website that will build stronger positive engagements with the brand. Time spent on social media must be weighed up with results achieved and we strive to balance our resources across the different networks depending on which generates the best results.

Why luxury fashion brand marketers need to embrace Social Media faster?

Maintaining the aura of exclusivity has always been a goal for luxury marketing. High end brands have been fashionably late to the social media party. However, it appears that at least a few players in the industry are finally making an entrance on the social media catwalk.

The trend started in early 2009, when new bloggers started appearing in the first row of fashion shows along high-stake buyers and fashion magazine editors. Bloggers like Bryan Grey-Yambao, the founder of BryanBoy.com ( @bryanboy) and Scott Schuman creator of the Sartorialist Blog, ( @sartorialista) were quickly able to demonstrate the power of social media with impressive reach and engagement. BryanBoy.com alone gets 215,000 unique visitors a day. Compare that to

alternatives like, say, the British Vogue magazine, which sells just over 200,000 copies a month. While it appears that the luxury fashion industry is continuing to embrace social media slowly but steadily, here are three reasons why smart high end marketers should fast track their social media efforts: Fashion is innately social: Luxury fashion audience tends to be passionate about the products they buy. And they are more loyal to and more engaged with brand. And being passionate, loyal and engaged is what social media is all about. Diane von Fustenberg, ( @insidedvf), who seems to have been focusing its effort on Twitter has now over 68,000 followers. In 2009 both Dolce & Gabanna and Louis Vuitton live-streamed their fashion shows on their website, giving the public instant access to their new collections. The elite crowd you seek may already be on social media: According to Nielsens Q1 2010 Consumer Confidence Survey, 75% of the active U.S. Internet households now visit a social networking site. More importantly, 96% of Generation Y, the next generation of luxury consumers, is using social media according to Facebook statistics. Twenty-seven percent of these people also claim that their purchase decisions are influenced by information gleaned from these sites, according to a study by Hill & Knowlton. The Oscar De La Renta Resort 2011 collection that was live streamed on Facebook, ( @oscarprgirl) in June 2010, reached over 35,000 fans.

Social Media offers a low cost way to grow the customer base: Social media happens to be a low-cost way of launching ephemeral new products in a tough economy. It shortens the cycle between launch and reach to their

audience which normally averages 3 to 6 months.Diane Von Fustenberg has seen its web-traffic increase by 13% and a noticeable upward jump in sales. Oscar De La Renta, is more focused on diversifying their audience when using social media. In their own words Were a family-owned, relatively small business competing against big players () We have to constantly be looking for ways to get an edge, to punch above our weight. While major players like Chanel, Gucci and Kenneth Cole are noticeably absent on the social media scene, we expect them to come up with their own spin in this new and emerging channel. Mainstream brands are already embracing social media as a viable and measurable channel and it is only a question of time before luxury brands figure out how to make it work for them. Will these high end brands lose their luster of exclusivity by going social? Will increased revenue offset the loss of luster? Let us know what you think by leaving your comments.

Bibliography

Web-links www.emarketinguide.com www.socialmedia.co.in www.timesofindia.com/socialmedia/india www.linkedin.com/advertisements/socialmarketing/india www.nutshell.co.insocialmediamarketingimpact www.factsflicker.co.in www.emarketing.comsociailmarketingindia www.del.iciso.us www.facebook.com/fanpage

Surveys

I. II. III.

Neilsen Trust in Advertising Study, 2007 JupiterResearch, March 2007 Social network research report India 2011