Thoughts on Social Media Marketing

There’s a lot of buzz around  Social Media Marketing and the opportunities Social Networking Sites such as Facebook and Linkedin provide to market brands, as there should be, as today’s youth seem to spend more  time online and are keen on 'staying connected' and 'express' more than ever, be it from their PCs or mobile phones.  In today’s fast paced world wonder how many of them even have time to watch ads on TV like I did?

What has intrigued me is the ineffective manner these sites are used to build brands.  I am sure most of the stuff written here is nothing new, yet brand marketers and brand mangers seem to forget to apply thought, and don't approach it as an INTERACTIVE medium.

Let’s look at Facebook – Almost everyone is on Facebook and its mostly free!

It’s a great place to reach out to the consumer.It offers one the invaluable opportunity to interact with consumers. The fact that customers ‘likes’ your (marketeer) brand is a good starting point. It reflects their willingness to associate with the brand and to express this fact amongst their social group. The dialogue process has begun.

It’s a great place to disseminate information and seek feedback.  Brands that can initiate a dialogue will fare better at leveraging the benefits of SN sites such as Facebook or Twitter.  

It’s not just enough to talk about special offers or discounts.  Used as a platform to disseminate information that is line with the brand’s personality/brand creates a lot of traction and recall and becomes a great place for those seeking to spend a few minutes of their free time. For eg: if the brand is a lifestyle brand, focus on posting links about lifestyle choices, activities or trends that are line with your brand’s personality and attitude. Don’t restrict yourself just to promotional offers or pushing your products.  Be informative. Be a guide, a friend, a guru.

I have observed that smaller brands seem to do much better at leveraging the benefits that FB offers than large national brands.  A restaurant brand even accepts table reservations via wall posts on its FB page.

Even while advertising, remember you are not restricted by the 30 sec spot. Leverage upon YouTube to post longer videos. Add presentations, photos, conduct quizzes, contests and in general connect and communicate with your fan base.

Do respond to queries, comments and seek suggestions and ideas. It’s another destination to gauge your brand’s health and how it’s doing in the mind of the consumer. Use it for insight mining. 

If your brand has connected with the consumer at a deeper level, more often than not the consumer himself would initiate the dialogue. Be open to feedback, be willing to communicate and interact at a different level. Remember in the information age the brand is owned by the consumer, as much as we like to believe the opposite. They are in control and they have the power to make or break a brand with what they have to say. 

Thus it’s important for brands to get involved and to go where the discussions tend to happen, and keep their eyes and ears open and think hard about how they can leverage the power of SNS in starting a dialogue and involving the consumer in building their brands.    

Services Brading - It's all about the experience and moments

A decade or  more ago while still in college, debit cards had just appeared on the scene and were making inroads into the urban  banking space in India. I wanted to be an early adaptor (B'lore and New York were the first cities that the Debit card was being trialled out in) and try out the whole Any time money aspect of Banking.

The promise of not having to wait long lines at banks, deal with unfriendly clerks,specific timings, was good enough for me.I got myself a citibank card  and put it the princely savings of Rs.500 into it.  If I recall correctly a few years later apart from citi the only other bank that was aggressively expanding its ATM network across B'lore was Corporation Bank. It had its ATMs at  key locations across the city and I decided getting a debit card from Corpn Bank would be a good idea.

However the thought of transacting with a 'PSU' bank and aspects such as indifferent officers, unfriendly attitudes,never ending procedures,etc  did give me second thoughts. In any case I decided to to give it a shot. As I walked in, the place it didn't actually feel like a PSU bank! There was a positive buzz, the staff were courteous, attentive, and for the most part they all had smiles on their faces as they interacted with colleagues or customers alike. Was I in the right place? Was this a PSU bank. The procedure was hassle free, the service experience was unexpectedly great and I was happy. Here was a brand that actually functioning like a Pvt. Sector Bank.

A few days back, I walked into the same Branch after five years (my second or third visit ever) and was eager to see if the environment was still the same as it was in those days. The staff had changed, so had the interiors and the equipment, but what had not changed was the friendly attitude and efficient  service.

A lady customer was being attended to like she was a relative or close friend, there was friendly banter and smiles, another clerk happily asked me if I needed any assistance and willingly obliged with a smile when I told her my pass book needs to be updated. It was all done in a matter of two minutes and a very pleasant two minutes I must say.I headed back with a positive impression and told myself that I need to bank more often with this Bank and Branch!!

It was such a sea change from UCO bank that I regularly bank with where the staff are indifferent and seem to be functioning in a different era. 

The management and staff at Corporation Bank definitely deserve appreciation for doing the simple things so well, for ensuring a positive and customer focussed service environment is established and is consistently delivered upon, which sets the Band apart from the rest who only tend to refer to friendly service in their ads.

When a website's down, can you still be positively memorable?

How often do you come across a site that has something so memorable, quirky and endearing to say, about it being down? Not to often I guess...most times all one gets is a the "requested URL cannot be retrieved"or "our site is down or being upgraded and we will be back soon". How annoying and boring...


Came across one that made me smile and created a positive association and got me to blog about it. Here it is...