Demystifying Social Marketing in the online world
There is so much buzz about Social Media Network in today’s world. From Facebook to Myspace to Orkut, and our very own desi version of Ibibo, Yaari, Minglebox, etc… suddenly it all seems like one big family.
If you dig deeper – you would realize that the germ of this idea lies in our ancient texts. The Vedas talk about – Vasudeva Kutumbham – This whole world is one big family.
On marketing front, today’s networked market offers a wonderful opportunity to build communities around your brand. The online world of social networking is a wonderful place to create and communicate your brand. But, where in this place lies the El Dorado is the big question.
Uniqueness of Social Marketing:
The best thing about social marketing is YOU don’t talk about your brand, YOUR CUSTOMERS do. And any marketer would vouch that there is no better marketing than word of mouth.
The Never Ending Friending Project, a recent study commissioned by Isobar and MySpace, shows that incorporating social marketing into your overall program can increase your advertising exposure more than 70 percent. It also improved purchase intent and a positive brand image.
Why then is that the agencies and brands shy away from being a part of the social network. Someone said – the customers are talking about your brand – whether you like it or not.
Popularity of Social Marketing in India:
I read somewhere that there are close to 40 Million users from India on Orkut, around 500,000 on Facebook… these are huge numbers considering the size of Internet population in India. But, I do not find any much activity that brands undertake to be present on these sites. And by presence, I mean REAL presence, not an Orkut profile of the brand, with a poll listed.
In my current job, I get to attend many ‘digital’ marketing conferences being held… What I get to see is the same speakers, different topic, and the same talk. The conferences are populated by online media publishers, and some Internet companies… Few months back there was conference about web 2.0… everyone talked about the userbase increasing, the need for more broadband connections, the internet accessing cost to be made cheaper, etc, etc, etc… but, heck, no one spoke in plain simple terms what are these social networking sites, and what are the advertising opportunities that is available for the marketer.
I have my own take on what we can do in the Social Network Sites… and hope it will help you in creating unique experience and develop a strategy for social marketing.
1) Have an objective to get into the social marketing
2) It should drive value to your brand
3) It should also give a reason for the community members to be associated – content, communicate, share, etc
Define the Objective:
Like all marketing activities, your brand presence on social networking sites should also have an objective. Do not get into social marketing network just for the sake of being there. Define a clear and measureable objective against which the performance of your campaign can be done.
Driving Value:
What does this activity do for your brand? It can vary from - creating awareness, building brand preference, driving purchases, increasing loyalty and deepening engagement – against which success across a range of social media can be measured.
A Reason for the community members:
Remember, the people who come onto the social networking sites are there for a purpose. They want to connect and communicate. Your brand presence in the social networking sites need to help them in this regard.
- Create unique messaging to help you connect with specific communities
- Provide tools, widgets, promotions to foster the community
- Content – about the brand, encourage discussions, content that is cool, can be shared or better still content that can be created by the community itself
There are 3 main ways in the social media space to help you achieve the above objective/ social marketing strategy.
1) Advertising on social networks
2) Create your brand page on the social networks
3) Create your own brand social network
Advertising on Social Networking site:
Usually when the media planning is done for an online campaign, a part of the budget is allocated for Search Engine Marketing, a part for display ads, part for text, EDMs, etc. Ideally, it would better to allocate a part of the budget for Social Networking sites. The ads should drive traffic to your branded networking page or site. You could also explore – online PR, syndication, and seeding in relevant blogs, or existing communities to drive traffic
Brand page on social networking site:
Create your brand pages in the social networking sites. The more the interactivity on these pages, the better it is. The best thing (though most brand managers and brand custodians would disagree) is to let the consumer control the site. Ideally this is the best platform for you to LISTEN to your consumers. Some of the things that can be plugged into your brand page could be
- Widgets (API’s)
- Videos
- Photos
- Downloads (themes, wallpapers, RTs, etc)
- Podcast
- Reviews/Ratings
- Blog (your brand’s personal diary)
Check these links for some great examples on Myspace
Adidas Soccer: The site had 25,000 friends signed up on the first day itself
www.myspace.com/adidassoccer
Honda: Has over 45,000 friends, and allows the users to create their own wallpaper for Myspace profiles. I personally like the ‘I pinch’ crab
www.myspace.com/hondaelement
Create your own brand social networking site
In a long term marketing perspective, and probably the most important step(though overlooked by most marketers) is building your own branded social networking site. Having your own site gives you a little more control than you get when you embed your brand in traditional social networks. Building your own site is more involved, of course, but here's where you can really cash in: You gain all the advantages of social networking along with the ability to weave in your product merchandising to drive real sales. You can also capture invaluable data about your core consumers -- data that you can't obtain through media buys or social networks. Remember, consumers will evaluate your own branded site more than your embedded site before joining, so you'll definitely need to have a good user interface tailored to your consumer and brand persona.
• The recent mash-up Nike + iPod talks a lot of digital integration that can go onto disparate products. And their website for the same (www.nikeplus.com) is a great example for branded social networking site. It has got desktop widgets, community forums, challenges between members, etc…
Let your brand hang out in the right places
If you dig deeper – you would realize that the germ of this idea lies in our ancient texts. The Vedas talk about – Vasudeva Kutumbham – This whole world is one big family.
On marketing front, today’s networked market offers a wonderful opportunity to build communities around your brand. The online world of social networking is a wonderful place to create and communicate your brand. But, where in this place lies the El Dorado is the big question.
Uniqueness of Social Marketing:
The best thing about social marketing is YOU don’t talk about your brand, YOUR CUSTOMERS do. And any marketer would vouch that there is no better marketing than word of mouth.
The Never Ending Friending Project, a recent study commissioned by Isobar and MySpace, shows that incorporating social marketing into your overall program can increase your advertising exposure more than 70 percent. It also improved purchase intent and a positive brand image.
Why then is that the agencies and brands shy away from being a part of the social network. Someone said – the customers are talking about your brand – whether you like it or not.
Popularity of Social Marketing in India:
I read somewhere that there are close to 40 Million users from India on Orkut, around 500,000 on Facebook… these are huge numbers considering the size of Internet population in India. But, I do not find any much activity that brands undertake to be present on these sites. And by presence, I mean REAL presence, not an Orkut profile of the brand, with a poll listed.
In my current job, I get to attend many ‘digital’ marketing conferences being held… What I get to see is the same speakers, different topic, and the same talk. The conferences are populated by online media publishers, and some Internet companies… Few months back there was conference about web 2.0… everyone talked about the userbase increasing, the need for more broadband connections, the internet accessing cost to be made cheaper, etc, etc, etc… but, heck, no one spoke in plain simple terms what are these social networking sites, and what are the advertising opportunities that is available for the marketer.
I have my own take on what we can do in the Social Network Sites… and hope it will help you in creating unique experience and develop a strategy for social marketing.
1) Have an objective to get into the social marketing
2) It should drive value to your brand
3) It should also give a reason for the community members to be associated – content, communicate, share, etc
Define the Objective:
Like all marketing activities, your brand presence on social networking sites should also have an objective. Do not get into social marketing network just for the sake of being there. Define a clear and measureable objective against which the performance of your campaign can be done.
Driving Value:
What does this activity do for your brand? It can vary from - creating awareness, building brand preference, driving purchases, increasing loyalty and deepening engagement – against which success across a range of social media can be measured.
A Reason for the community members:
Remember, the people who come onto the social networking sites are there for a purpose. They want to connect and communicate. Your brand presence in the social networking sites need to help them in this regard.
- Create unique messaging to help you connect with specific communities
- Provide tools, widgets, promotions to foster the community
- Content – about the brand, encourage discussions, content that is cool, can be shared or better still content that can be created by the community itself
There are 3 main ways in the social media space to help you achieve the above objective/ social marketing strategy.
1) Advertising on social networks
2) Create your brand page on the social networks
3) Create your own brand social network
Advertising on Social Networking site:
Usually when the media planning is done for an online campaign, a part of the budget is allocated for Search Engine Marketing, a part for display ads, part for text, EDMs, etc. Ideally, it would better to allocate a part of the budget for Social Networking sites. The ads should drive traffic to your branded networking page or site. You could also explore – online PR, syndication, and seeding in relevant blogs, or existing communities to drive traffic
Brand page on social networking site:
Create your brand pages in the social networking sites. The more the interactivity on these pages, the better it is. The best thing (though most brand managers and brand custodians would disagree) is to let the consumer control the site. Ideally this is the best platform for you to LISTEN to your consumers. Some of the things that can be plugged into your brand page could be
- Widgets (API’s)
- Videos
- Photos
- Downloads (themes, wallpapers, RTs, etc)
- Podcast
- Reviews/Ratings
- Blog (your brand’s personal diary)
Check these links for some great examples on Myspace
Adidas Soccer: The site had 25,000 friends signed up on the first day itself
www.myspace.com/adidassoccer
Honda: Has over 45,000 friends, and allows the users to create their own wallpaper for Myspace profiles. I personally like the ‘I pinch’ crab
www.myspace.com/hondaelement
Create your own brand social networking site
In a long term marketing perspective, and probably the most important step(though overlooked by most marketers) is building your own branded social networking site. Having your own site gives you a little more control than you get when you embed your brand in traditional social networks. Building your own site is more involved, of course, but here's where you can really cash in: You gain all the advantages of social networking along with the ability to weave in your product merchandising to drive real sales. You can also capture invaluable data about your core consumers -- data that you can't obtain through media buys or social networks. Remember, consumers will evaluate your own branded site more than your embedded site before joining, so you'll definitely need to have a good user interface tailored to your consumer and brand persona.
• The recent mash-up Nike + iPod talks a lot of digital integration that can go onto disparate products. And their website for the same (www.nikeplus.com) is a great example for branded social networking site. It has got desktop widgets, community forums, challenges between members, etc…
Let your brand hang out in the right places
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