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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 and B2B Marketing

iridiumInteractive — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:15:17 +0000

So far all I have shared with you is the use of social media to address your audience, in particular consumers. But on a wider perspective our audience- our stakeholders- consist of our clients, employees, suppliers, or even consultants and vendors we deal with in our day to day business. Social media marketing and networking is clearly a means but not an end to nurture every business relationship.

B2B is a complex sales practice which involves a lot of people and companies. It is not easy to start conversations between your prospect and the company. There has to be a way in which your ideas get the conversations rolling. Here lies the need to strategise your marketing content in order to broaden your reach.

It is a fact that consumers rule the buying decisions and companies can no longer dictate or push a product on the consumers. Sales guys have been worst hit thanks to the advent of social media since consumers look for networking sites which will help them make their purchase decisions.

This is the cue B2B marketers can take to enter the social media sphere and make the most of it. Facebook and Twitter are amazing stops for B2B marketing. But the approach for B2B marketing is similar to any non B2B marketing.

Here is what you have to do to start your social media marketing efforts.

1. First, listen to what is happening around your brand and the industry. Set up Google Alerts with your company’s name and also competitor’s name.

2. Second, monitor, analyse and make conclusions on where you stand and what should your goals and strategy be.

3. Third, after framing your business policies and strategies, design content that will inspire prospects and existing parties to start conversations with you.

4. Fourth, step into your buyers shoes and develop content relevant to them.

5. Fifth, do not start hard selling from the beginning.

6. Sixth, research on audience profile, what are they typically researching, what are the problems they are facing, etc…

7. Seventh, address the issues they may be facing and also the solution to their issues.

This way, you have set the stage for your pre-sales conversations even before you interact with them personally.

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.

REACH OUT TO YOUR PROFESSIONAL NETWORK..THEY ARE WAITING

iridiumInteractive — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:34:37 +0000

In my last wisdom series, I demystified the power of Twitter and how it is transforming the global conversations for business. This has sparked some good interests in the online communities and I am glad people are absorbing the key practical insights for their businesses. It is now time, I demystify the world’s biggest professional network. I am not here to tell you what is LinkedIn. The global online talkers and linkers have underestimated the power of this tool to influence their businesses. Having 60 millions members, LinkedIn has a new member joining its trusted network every second…isn’t that alarming…yet how many of us truly use this to capture our business interest, understand our market space and leverage our opportunities by engaging in meaningful, actionable discussions. At iridium, our digital marketing team has been doing its share of R&D to analyze the human laser beam effect of a trusted professional network and how many influencers are actually driving business results using this medium.

Why LinkedIn? A Case in Point..

If you have your personal profile on LinkedIn, by now, you know the dynamics of a trusted professional network and the 6 degrees of connection between you and the world.

Ask yourself, how is your company engaging your stakeholders through LinkedIn. Start building your company profile
Just having random topic for discussion board will not do the work, you need a network engagement strategy to talk about what the market is bending towards. Once you have your share of like-minded people who start listening, you then begin talking about what matters to you.
There is never a better way to get new potential employees that you really seek
Having more conversations, will directly improve your Google search results

You might find this short video helpful, with due credits to Common Craft. They do come up with the coolest presentations that are very easy to comprehend. Watch this video to get a better idea of Linkedin.

Twitter Success Stories

iridiumInteractive — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:20:26 +0000

Having shared my Tweetsense with you on What can Twitter do for your business? in my last wisdom series, the easy and super fast method to get conversations rolling, let me get you thinking with some real Twitter success stories. Smart businesses are taking the first mover advantage in social media and have now started conversing with their consumers to get their real time feedback and to start engaging with them to first listen and witness consumer behaviors and then influence them. Not only is this convenient, it requires transparency in the people who are a taking part in this worldwide discussion. Twitter is an all encompassing medium to:

build communities,
provide consumer service,
selling and providing promotional offers,
building brand awareness and
to raise funds.

Many companies have applied it into their company social policies and have been bearing the fruits of tweeting. Here are some interesting success stories of companies who have successfully applied twitter in their businesses. Take a good read!

Success Stories – Cases for tangible ROI via Twitter

1. Computer manufacturer, Dell is the first company that defined Twitter Monetization to the world. Dell launched the innovative idea of selling refurbished systems through twitter (@DellOutlet), they started posting messages and links to products online by alerting bargain hunters to the latest computer deals. In November 2008, Dell announced that it had made $500,000 through its Dell Outlet Twitter feed. Joining since 2007 Dell has announced it had made $2 million in sales directly through twitter and additional $1 million from people who see the bargains on twitter then redirect themselves to the Dell Website.

2. Where Dell applied Twitter to increase sales, Comcast Cable provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services applied Twitter to provide costumer services in cost effective and efficient means. Twitter account @Comcastcares engage with customers directly and get their questions answered on varied topics, from billing issues to cable services. Today, Comcast firmly stands as the most successful customer service operations on the Web. Over the past year, Comcast has handled more than 21,000 customer service requests through social media, (a little more than half through Twitter).

3. Zappos, an online retailer featuring shoes, bags, clothing and other accessories wanted to differentiate itself from competitors by focusing on customer service and engaging with them directly. Through @Zappos, employees were encouraged to interact with customers,they answered product questions, helped in customer service. Anyone within Zappos was authorized to help customers on twitter. One thing led to another and this company with almost no sales in 1999 (the year it was established) garnered whopping $1 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2008. The primary driver of their growth has been repeat customers and word of mouth through their proactive help in services given to customers. At present, nearly one third of the employees are on Twitter, helping and engaging and conversing with customers through @Zappos.

Is your twitter account hacked?

iridiumInteractive — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:37:23 +0000

According to the Quantcast Audience Profile, Twitter ranks among the top 50 site that reaches over 27 million people on a monthly basis in US itself.

But what is twitter? For all those who are not following @sbharatam‘s iiwisdomseries on Twitter, it is a micro-blogging tool which acts like your personal radio station where you can broadcast live by sending short messages or (tweets) whenever you like on whatever you want. It is like instant messaging with more widespread visibility.

I have seen many a times twittizens do not realise when they give their account details for better services to potential hackers. Can you ever imagine that your favorite twitter account being hacked? You will not have access to your profile, nor will you be able to find out whats your friends are currently tweeting. Isnt that frustrating!!

Do you offer a helping hand to the hackers trying to get an easy access to your twitter account?

It may sound a bit strange, but the answer is “Yes”. Lets take an instance. I want a software for twitter that can provide me the best way of using Twitter. I searched for the same at a popular search engine and found out Tweetdeck which is a free twitter application which can be installed in various OS Platforms Windows, Linux and Mac. At any point during downloading the application it can ask you for your twitter credentials, without thinking much I give my password and username details. This is where we are at a potential risk of having our accounts hacked.

There are countless third party applications available on the web promising you better user experiences on your twitter account. These applications are free to use and tends to have an access of your account through Twitter connections, whenever you accept and give them the permission to post on your behalf of your twitter account, you are allowing a potential hacker to hack your account.

How do you protect your Twitter Account?

In order to protect your twitter account from getting hacked, its always advisable to use the least number of third party applications while using your Twitter. Incase, you happen to use some third party application, do ensure that you verify the nature of the third party twitter application and ensure that its not a plot to hack your account. At the same time, do keep a note of the applications, which you granted the access to your account. You may find them in details at http://twitter.com/settings/connections

PS: The instances used in the above post have been used to explain you how serious this issue is. By no means, we did want to explain that Twitterdeck or its related tools are hacking instruments.

What can Twitter do for your business?

iridiumInteractive — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:29:45 +0000

I continue sharing my learning’s from Twitter and what it can do for your business. Sitting at the iridium office after a long day of Social Media workshop, it alarms me to visualize the potential that this medium holds to transform the way people talk and respond. In my talks with people across different business lines be it HR, Executive level or Mid-layer management, I see a shift happening (even the hype) in their receptivity to converse online.140 characters may seem very small to convey your messages on twitter but the implications of this social medium are unimaginable. A business can share short crisp updates on its everyday activities . Let me share with you some of key benefits of twitter and what it can do for any company.

1. Influence: The more useful and relevant information you post on Twitter the more followers you will gather and larger will be your circle of influence.

2. Instant Exposure: There is no tool more powerful than Twitter for this purpose.Used in the right way, this is one of its biggest benefits- The right way being: don’t say anything you don’t want to say, consider your audience and always think twice about what you communicate.

3. Building contacts and influence: If you are tweeting right, you will allow access to billions of people as twitter has mass appeal. Yet you have to target the correct audience to derive instant results.

4. Build up a Buzz: If your company is a part of an event, conducting a conference, annual general meeting, launching a product or making an announcement; twitter is the right place to create a buzz and a sense of anticipation and excitement for your audience if it really matters to them. But keep in mind that this is done within your deadlines. If you makes promises and do not deliver on twitter, most likely you will instantly lose followers.

5. Live Tweets: Just like any commentary to a match, twitter can be used during live events to create an additional buzz around that event. Tweet what is happening, talk about the speakers, rate them, exchange thoughts and comments with people in the same room, and publish live feeds and links.

6. Excellent Brand Builder: If you want to know whether your company is being spoken about or not Tweekdeck is one such application where you, your customers and employees can use buzzwords and search any word is being spoken about you. This strengthens the importance of transparency and immediacy.

7. Substitute for coffee machine/ water cooler: This is an excellent place where employess can stay in touch about the happenings in the office thereby substituting the coffee machines and water coolers which used to be a commonplace for discussions.

8. Brevity: With the current 6 second attention span of modern online browsers, twitter is an excellent platform to send out a clear message within 140 characters. Twitter does not believe in writing a lot much to the advantage to our browsers. Sending short quick messages is the main essence of twitter.

9. Follow Competitiors or Sales Leads: Great way to keep in touch with what your rivals are upto. But again don put up false identities be honest to who you represent.

10. Crisis Communications: Twitter helps companies mitigate the effects of a crisis or even reduce the damage if your followers are well targeted.

11. Customer Service: Comcast had brilliantly used twitter to its favour by completely turning around its bad image by active twittering to all its customers. Just ensure that while answering customer queries the right thought leader is answering them.

12. Thought Leadership: If there is someone in your company who is an expert in their area of work, empower them to tweet. Let them represent your company.

13. Corporate communication: Very short company announcements can be easily tweeted, but again double check what you want to tweet that can engage your community of followers.

Stay Tuned and watch out for the next wisdom series as I will discuss the Do’s and Donts of Twitter.

Stay tuned and watch out!!

On-Boarding Twitter into your Business – 7 Steps before take-off

iridiumInteractive — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:51:50 +0000

After unleashing “the power of twitter” to you, I am sure you have warmed up to the idea that Twitter is here to stay in the business context and has tremendous potential to connect with internal and external audiences. Before you decide to introduce Twitter in a business context, consider these points to ensure a successful experience.

1. Plan your corporate twitter strategy before taking the plunge. Be clear on your business objectives.

2. Assess your organization’s willingness to twitter. Is your corporate culture open to honest conversations? Are your employees ready to use various social media tools such as blogs and wikis? Is the organizational culture open and honest enough?

3. Focus on the people and not the technology. It’s the people who connect and bring communities alive. So, don’t overlook their preferences. Have a business purpose and brainstorm it with your group. At iridium Interactive, my core marketing and creative team is on a high everyday about exploring new dynamic social media tools for different client needs. We had our share of run-around of getting buried under so many apps. But, we made early mistakes and learned not to get carried away before rolling out any tools. We questioned asked ourselves, “Who will use it?” How can it support or generate useful conversations in the business? How can it give employees better access to leadership and make them more engaged? How can we measure the ROI?”

4. Surrender control and allow access to the employees as equal partners in the communication process. It’s no longer about the push but the pull. This cannot be a standalone tool restricted to only a few people in the organization.

5. Create an Internal Sandbox for your company to allow your employees work around and play with this social media tool. This encourages their acceptance.

6. Create a Twitter Policy before giving access make to clarify and moderate what the employees can say and can’t say. Setting up ground rules while planning the strategy.

7. Do not obsess with numbers from the beginning. Work on the purpose first, have a case and then determine the results. Measurement is key to success, but enter the sandbox first and feel the sand…..play with your Twitter followers!

So, time to get on-board into Twitter along with your company and get ready to take-off into the social space….or shall I say galaxy. Start with a crisp brainstorming to establish the purpose…fill the white-board, begin engaging your people.

Look out for the next wisdom series tomorrow about the business benefits of using Twitter….keep your 140 on!

The Power of Twitter – Build your Social Currency

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:15:46 +0000

After my first 2 wisdom series on ‘what is twitter‘ and ‘why twitter‘, now let us understand the power of Twitter for your business.You may be twittering with your personal profile for specific interests, but now its time to get curious and venture into creating the social currency for your company itself.Strange as it may sound, Twitter is a one of the most powerful yet underplayed social medium leveraging online businesses like never before. Companies are leveraging the power of 140 characters to create a strong community around them. The main essence of twitter is to build communities and then nurture them by allowing them to respond to your conversations. This is the fastest way any company can be in constant touch with their consumers and stakeholders. Time to join and influence the conversation now.

Twitter is all about building the community you want to build
While building the community you want, it is essential to know the people who are following you and who you are following. For example, If you are a CEO of a global company, this may mean that following and being followed by people who represent similar companies, business areas and industry interests.

Twitter can be used as a medium by say, a Senior Director or a Business Executive (basically someone with influence in the company) to speak directly to his staff internally whenever he has an important message to convey. In other words, it’s an immediate, rapid response and a very transparent form of communication to nurture relationships and connect with your employees.

So if you are an individual in a company or a freelancer, or self employed, you can reap huge tangible and intangible benefits by building a community that influences you and that you can influence that is built on trust and reliability. Creating a larger network of like minded people that could broaden your knowledge or even improve your existing business that consists of sector specific contacts or current and potential consumers or simply people you can trust and rely on to give you the right advice and information you need- twitter is the place where you can realize all of this.

Its never too late to get in touch with your stakeholders both direct and indirect. So come out of your corporate suits and start conversations with your community because at the end of the day, they are the ones who matter to you the most. Lets start the 140 now !

Watch out for my next wisdom series where I will share with you the essential points every company should consider before using Twitter. Keep Listening and practicing the 140.
Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter account @sbharatam