Iridium Interactive Blog » Viision-Thought Leadership

How Social Media has changed humanity?

iridiumInteractive — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:16:15 +0000

“It is our nature to be social”, true, and I could not help but wonder how social media has given a whole new meaning to the word “social”. It has opened doors to meet new people, make bigger communities, and most importantly provided a platform to talk your mind out. With the advent of Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and countless other social networks, least have we realized how this has metamorphosed us into digital beings.

Last week as I spoke at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 and while sharing my experience on the Causeaneffect.org NGO initiative, it dawned onto me that social media has always been around, only its importance has accentuated in the last few years. Attending conferences all over the world and presenting the case of social media and the experiences of iridium Interactive, it was pretty apparent that social media has no barriers across countries, it is a unified digital revolution that has been transforming our lives, only under different names since more than a decade. How has it changed our lives has not been introspected yet.

Here are the some of the reasons how social media has changed our lives and why we should make the most of it.

1. It has made us more social, we know a lot more people than we would a few years back.

2. Larger networks- college friends, school friends, people we meet at social occasions, relatives, and friends met though friends, this used to be our typical networks, social media has exponentially increased our networks.

3. More vocal about your thoughts- Forums, blogs, tweets, status updates are allowing us to speak our mind, wondered why? Because we know we will be heard by some or many.

4. Enhances PR skills- you do not have to take PR lessons to talk to people on social media.

5. Converse with like minded people on these social networks.

6. Get in touch with thought leaders, influencers and even people who inspire you.

7. Reconnects with old connections- People you have lost in touch with since a decade can be traced from any corner of the world (provided they are on these networks themselves) on the wide world of social media.

8. Your virtual network is always ready to help. All it takes is to put forward a question and there you will have experts recommending the best to you.

9. Ease of companies to get in touch with their consumers and vis a vis.

10. Looking for a job or looking to hire someone, your professional network helps you find the best fit.

Social media brings out the extrovert you. All that matters in social media is your network, communities, connections and finally your discussions with them. Social media has reduced distances both for individuals and companies.

Have you seen a change in your social profile by social media, do post what you have gained from social media.

Image Source-Rosaura Ochoa from Flickr

Small Businesses get savvy with Social Media

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:44:54 +0000

Not long before when large brands started reaping profits, small companies raised their heads to this phenomenon called Social Media. Social Media Marketing that was once seen as off-bounds for small businesses has finally caught the fancy of small business owners. Its about time that they have realized social media is “one size fits all”. So, simply put it, any SME can experiment and create their formula to leverage their business potentials. In the competitive economy that is India, social media could be the biggest differentiator between competitors. Its becoming more evident by the day that every company is finding its unique recipe. ..and breaking the social beat!

Marketing has completed a full circle with social media. It started with making products customized to the needs of the consumers, then with the modernization of industries consumers were happy with what they were being provided for by the companies. With the advent of Social media, customers want a say in the products being offered to them, whether they are small businesses or large. Thus bringing in the importance of small businesses to reach out to their customers to understand their needs and build a rapport with them.

I have provided examples of some small businesses who have had a complete turn around with the use of social media. Lets take a look and re-use the success formula:

@coffeegrounds a simple coffee shop in Houston has doubled its visitors by simply engaging with their consumers online on twitter. Cordial interactions with consumers has led this coffee shop dealer to increase their customers twofold. Twitter provides a whole new platform to any business that are willing to take out time to get in touch with their consumers that will eventually lead them into a lifelong relationship of loyalty and trust with them.

Key Take Away: Small things make big impact …..start your twitterate..tiny but big steps!

Another example that best describes what I am explaining here is that of @zappos is an online retailer who led corporates to use twitter. This explains their stupendous success with social media. Their gregarious interactions with customers online and readiness to help is the reason why they have been a phenomenal success in social media.

As rightly quoted by Tony Hseih- “Zappos.com is a service company that just happens to sell shoes”.

These are just two examples in small business social networking success as more and more small companies enter this arena there will be more social media success waiting to be accoladed on blogs and other social media forums.

I am curious to know your social media success formulas are..Do write in and I would love to add yours to this Small Business list with full credits to your success story…!

Social Media takes Charge when Volcanic Ashes disrupts Air Travel

iridiumInteractive — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:55:32 +0000

In times of emergencies social media has evidently become the mainstream media. When Eyjafjallajökull, a big volcano in Iceland causes mayhem in Europe last week, stranded people look to social media for solutions, suggestions or simply just news. Tweets appear as fast as a second if you search for “Volcano” on twitter. Seemingly the airline industry is the worst affected by nature’s fury, as flights are delayed with no assurance of when their services can be restored. As this volcano sends out ashes in the sky, flights get indefinitely delayed sending travelers to looks for other alternatives, rescheduling flights, hotel rooms, and book train tickets or even rent cars. Few airlines have been clever enough to stay in touch with the estranged passengers through their social networks while some do not bother adding to their customer’s anger.

This is a snap shot of Virgin Atlantic’s facebook page that updates their customers on the current status of their flights. With no clue themselves this is the best they can do to inform their customers. This is a live example of terrific use of the power of social media through customer engagement. Virgin Atlantic may not have the solutions to #volcano, but they are staying connected to the people who matter the most to them through facebook. A recent global social media study proves that over 70% of companies are using Facebook to engage with their customers, capture their perceptions and behaviors.It is now one of the key business destinations in the virtual space.

KLM also took a proactive approach to caution their passengers not to go to the airport instead check flight status on their website using their facebook fanpage.

Coming from the same company on the other hand Air France chose to remain reluctant to keep their customers informed about this unforeseen phenomenon and basic formalities on refunds and rebooks.

As #volcano continues to erupt and blinden the air space, companies (airlines specially) should make use of this and appease these aggrieved customers thus demonstrating real-time crisis management and creating a long term goodwill. KLM and Virgin Atlantic have been swift in being approachable to their customers.

The big lesson here – Companies, enterprises that hold themselves back from responding, engaging with their clients through social media are loosing a vital thread of communication and goodwill. “No social media” can be compared with “no website”, if we turn back our clocks”

SWOT Analysis of Social Media Monitoring

iridiumInteractive — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:06:41 +0000

Social Media Monitoring may have started to allure your decision to monitor your social media space but just to give your a reality check, everything comes with a cheque if you do not know their limitations. So now I am presenting to you the Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities and Threats (T) of Social Media Monitoring.

Strengths

Analyzes what is being said about your company. This produces value for the company.

Decoding the noise and chatter of user generated content which is of great relevance to a company and its brand.
Encourages direct consumer interactions.
Allows companies a real time view on consumer perceptions about their brands.
Helps develop a marketing plan from consumer interactions and conversations.

Weaknesses

Limitations of technology, ultimately requires a human touch to it.
Huge volumes of data to process from numerous sources and innumerous languages. Difficult to make a one stop technological solution.
Its such a huge media space which is rather intimidating to a beginner.
Ongoing disagreement between the data compilation over being comprehensive and insightful, which is rather difficult to achieve both successfully as yet.

Opportunities

Potential to become a hygiene factor for every company with more technology improvements making monitoring more effective.
Monetization of social media. Many companies have profited from social media and many more to yet to venture. This medium offers immense opportunities.
SME’s who felt left behind due to their lack of resources to spend on advertisements can now capitalise social media without any penny spent to advertise their brand.

Threats

There are no defined industry standards, will make it difficult to benchmark success and outcomes.
Many new entrants/ board room level executives do not really understand the how to take advantage of user generated content.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanlouis_zimmermann/3055864480/

What Free Social Media Monitoring Tools cannot do for you

iridiumInteractive — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 08:02:21 +0000

There are many options available for companies to measure their social branding and reputation, a few of which I have discussed in my last blog. Some more analytical tools that are worth mentioning are Google Blog search, Summarize or Twitter Search, Google Alerts, Trendpedia and Blogpulse. The web list seems to be getting infinite and this can create confusion for a company.

As I would put it, these free tools are good as long as you can wade your way around it and get the output you are looking for from these tools. But if you are lost with these tools, which I know many do in the beginning, then you might have to look into other alternatives.

There are some more shortcomings of these free tools:

Firstly, these tools can be used to assess a campaign or strategic prerequisite, but not for a large amount of data in an all-inclusive Web 2.0 coverage.

Secondly, free tools are just the tip of the iceberg; they do not have the ability to go into the details. They can only introduce you to the listening tools.

Thirdly, machines are great data retrievers but it’s the human touch that makes it into valuable information. This is one big shortcoming of automated, free monitoring tools.

The need of an analyst arises at this point when you have the What, Where, and When answered, but the most critical, Why? and How? are still left to be answered.

Why do consumers think this way about my product? How can I change their perception? An analyst like Iridium can help you draw insights from the data and develop a strategy.

So for all the companies waiting to explore social media, your customers are waiting to hear from you! Begin now to at-least play with the new set of social media monitoring tools. Next, begin taking expertise from social media experts who can take your brand, your voice to the next level. Its not too late…take the first mover advantage!!!

Watch out for more from me as I will take you through a deeper understanding of the Social Listening space…its time to evolve!

A Primer On Social Media Monitoring

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:59:47 +0000

After taking a deep dive into social media and marketing, we will now turn the tide towards introducing an integral part of social media, namely social media monitoring. This is imperative to every company who wants to measure their activities on social media.

Also known as social reputation management, or online reputation management, social media monitoring serves more than gathering metrics on your social media initiatives.

There will be a lot of metrics that can be gathered but making some sense out of these numbers is what is required. In fact, I would say social media monitoring should not be done after you enter social media; this can be done even before you enter the social media marketing. By this not only will you have awareness about your brand, you will have the right intent to begin your social media initiatives.

Here are some basic reasons to monitor social media in case you are new to this terrific listening tool and its scalable capabilities:

To hear complaints or praises being said about your brand services and products.
To tap needs of consumers, when they want advice or ideas on a purchase decision.
To keep an eye on your competitor activities.
To keep a track of the current trends in your market space
Tracking a famous topic’s nature, how important is it and how long does it survive.
Tracking the companies and brands who are experts in social media, basically tracking your potential influencers.
Measure customer engagement on your social media initiatives.

Watch this space as I will discuss free social media monitoring tools which iridium Interactive has used to a large extent and the big “WHY” your company absolutely needs Social Media Monitoring. Coming up in my next blog series.

Essential Cs of Social Media Marketing

iridiumInteractive — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:09:37 +0000

After giving you some clicks on social media marketing, lets take those thoughts further to the vital C’s of social media marketing. Just like the 4Ps in Marketing, Social Media Marketing has their set of Cs that form the ground rules for every social media marketing strategy.

1. Commit

While incorporating social media in your marketing strategies you have to commit time and resources. It is not a one time engagement. There is a continuous chatter around your company and brand, so proactively keeping a real time tab on this chatter is what is needed in social media.

2. Communicate

There has to be a purpose for your communications with the customer. Marketing is one thing and establishing relationship with your stakeholders what can differentiate your uniqueness. To be frank the only reason companies are jumping into the social bandwagon is because their customers want to be heard. Talk, listen and establish relationships is what social is all about.

3. Connect

While conversing it is important to build a rapport with all your listeners. Let them connect with your brand and company.

4. Collaborate

There is a lot of chatter around your brand both positive, negative and neutral. If you proactively respond and connect well with your customers it will not be too late when your stakeholders will become your brand ambassadors. Let your stakeholders collaborate with you to market your brand to form a bigger consumer base.

5. Create Content

Think like publisher and not like a marketer on Social Media. Write compelling, interesting, and engaging articles, blogs, tweets etc. on various social networking sites. Also write content relevant to your company strategy. First determine your audience then write what they want to hear, what is relevant to them.

6. Calculate

Tracking and measuring the impact of social media on your audience is also one important aspect companies should look into. But do not obsess with numbers right from the beginning. Numbers will come if you are patient and consistent, which brings me to the next C.

7. Consistently Consistent

Consistency in conversing with your stakeholders is a very important activity of social media, because when customers start talking to you they expect instant replies too. Inconsistent conversations will only take the interest away and hence your customers.

Marketers Must-Have Social Media Marketing "Clicks"…You Need Them Now

iridiumInteractive — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:10:20 +0000

Social Media Marketing is a powerful marketing medium…not in the traditional marketing sense. It does not mean that all other marketing strategies have been abandoned, yet the shift is happening without the hype. If you are wearing the hat of a CMO, a marketing-communications executive today, I know exactly what is creating the dilemma..what is keeping you thinking. What is the right marketing mix to invest in? What do I do with all this hype of social media marketing? How are these companies, actually generating solid ROI through just Twittering or simply having a community of listeners and followers? Where do I begin? I understand this because, @iridiuminter, my company is passionate about getting marketers the answers to these dilemmas.

As the world is shrinking thanks to the web and now the social networking sites, social media marketing has arrived as a critical need. I have made some key words that marketers should keep in mind while venturing in to social media marketing that will be a great deal of help for you. No longer will the blow horn, over the top marketing strategies work anymore as consumers just do not want products, they want much more than that, a consistent commitment and a degree of transparency from their companies. Best brands use social media as a medium to freely exchange opinions and thoughts.

Here are some of the important “Social Media Marketing clicks” that give you the main essence.

· Shed all your social media fears

· Listen and never stop listening

· Be a silent observer of the chatter first. Answers to engage will simply come

· Determine your audience you want to reach out too

· Speak-out before you think, just let go and communicate transparently

· Have an earnest and honest appeal to your conversations with your consumers

· Subtly market your product through consumer experience driven approach. Aggressive selling repels customers.

· Be consistent while using social media- it not a one time apply tool

· Create relationship with your stakeholders. Things will sell automatically once you connect.

· Listen and answer to their queries. It is not a one sided communication tool.

· Unanswered customer queries can lead to negative reputation. Be proactive.

· There is no age limit to social media

Keep these clicks with you and explore your digital marketing efforts with a fresh perspective. Change is happening dynamically, you create the shift for you…

I will write more on this in my next blog….The Essential C’s for Social Media. Keep listening…

Social Media Fundamentals with a flavor of "Marketing"

iridiumInteractive — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:15:44 +0000

Knowing that Social Media is a need not a choice…I am now sharing with you the flavor of “Social Media Marketing“. Social Media is driven by the people, solely for the people and is here to stay, tools may change or may get sophisticated. I was reading this somewhere and it immediately caught my attention- 78% people believe in peer recommendations and only 14% believe in advertisements. It was then I thought I should talk about Social Media Marketing.

Social Media Marketing is nothing but using Social Media as a platform for your marketing endeavours. It is the new way of marketing that has this unique ability to let consumers market for you, beautifully aligning your offline and online marketing. The industry gurus call it WOM (Word of Mouth) marketing. Social media in its real essence is interactive in nature, so when a company starts interacting directly with their customers, customers / stakeholders fundamentally tend to relate more with the brand and indirectly become brand ambassadors for such companies.

These customers then spread their marketing messages organically. Most successful social media compaigns include consumer engagement, corporate transparency and community building.

So many companies now have blogs, newsletters, accounts in various social networking sites like facebook, twitter, myspace, linkedin etc. this is solely for the purpose of giving their consumers a real time view of what is actually happening within the company. Building trust by engaging in conversations and creating transparent avatar is what these companies are successfully doing in their social media marketing activities.

Companies who restrain from using social media marketing are missing out on the huge coverage social media has to offer which no other traditional marketing tools have to offer. And guess what….it is extremely cost-effective low cost marketing platform with a reach you cannot comprehend, if you have something fresh to voice …it gets heard ! that will help you derive huge consumer following and build your brand credibility that traditional media alone can no-more promise.

Social Media for your Business is Not a Choice..Its a Need

iridiumInteractive — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:39:35 +0000

What took the radio 38 years to accomplish, Facebook achieved double of it within 9 months? Well, I am talking about the 1 billion users Facebook recently achieved. Social media has transformed the way consumers respond to you. Traditional marketing was all about creating a need for consumers but now it is catering to the needs of consumers- its the network effect. Shouting and hard selling will not reach people. Social media is no less than a evolution that has taken people astorm.

People by their very nature are social. Companies, businesses thrive on people and their opinions. No surprises then, that Social media has it own reasons to evolve with more and more social networking sites mushrooming every single day. Whether you like it or not, accept it or not, there is so much being said about you- with or without you. If you choose not engage, you are simply giving up the ability to manage and influence what’s being said…

It has become an imperative need to listen to what your stakeholders are saying about you in this social space before planning any marketing strategy. In a recent global CMO survey, over 90% of companies confirm that they are allocating over 25% of their marketing mix budgets to social media / digital marketing initiatives. They are understanding this critical need to participate in continuous consumer interactions that engages users with opportunities to share their opinions.

There are so many online social networking sites from facebook, twitter, orkut, flickr, digg, technorati, myspace, linkedin, picasa and so many more. When you search for Social Media on Google you get 210,000,000 results. Whaoo!! This can be rather intimidating for someone who is just looking at implementing this very popular phenomena people just cant stop talking about in the business context.

@iridiuminter, having the depth and breath of social media for over a decade, @iridiuminter digital strategy team enjoys placing the social footprints for our clients everyday with a robust relevancy and reach that delivers tangible online growth engines for them.So, it is time to question your marketing plans and explore the new dimensions of online growth opportunities right now.

In my bid to share the knowledge and experience on Social Media Marketing and Monitoring, I will take you through these stories in my upcoming series and help you set your fortress of Social media.