One of the huge marketing channels which has given corporates great ways to protect and build their digital reputations, is social media. Nowadays, social media is becoming an integral part of life online with the proliferation of social websites and applications. Interestingly, social media platforms have emerged as a brand ambassador for the brands. The usage of social media has now become ubiquitous outside and inside companies. It has given brands a great way to protect and build their digital reputation. These platforms offer a newer channel to communicate and interact with the consumers. As a result, brands are clearly no longer being built unidirectional, through messages sent by companies to their customers. In this dawn of a new era, technology is making it easier for people to converse, and the power is getting transferred from companies to consumers. Consumers’ final decisions to buy are largely based on recommendations from others who have already bought or used the products or service in question, and who share their buying and consumption experiences on the Internet. Hence, to emerge as a credible brand and the right choice for consumers, it is important to invest in devising a strong social media strategy. Emphasizing more on the importance of social media, Lloyd Mathias, Head – Marketing, PPS, HP India, exerts, “We are now even amplifying our offline campaigns and messages by integrating them with social and digital. For example, our latest campaign, “Bend the Rules”, found resonance across various social media platforms. We also created various “webisodes” as a part of our campaign and leveraged it on the Facebook and Twitter to inspire and invite millennials of India to share their unconventional stories and showcase how they bent the rules in life.”
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“Irrespective of the channel, a strong communication strategy can help build brand relevance and credibility in the market.” - Sarthak Seth, Head – Brand & Marketing Communications, Panasonic India
Today, social media presence has become a necessity for entrepreneurs, business owners and organizations. Sandeep Menon, Director of Marketing, Google India, comments, “The percentage of people adopting social media is very high, especially amongst the people who are able to access internet from their mobile devices. The job of a media is to convey your message out, the same way social media is doing its work. Today, corporates are leveraging social media to increase their brand presence.” Social media is used to engage and educate existing and prospective clients in a cost-effective manner, and leverage success for your company or business. It has become an essential tool for business development, building brand awareness and customer retention.
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“The percentage of people adopting social media is very high, especially amongst the people who are able to access internet from their mobile devices.” - Sandeep Menon, Director of Marketing, Google India
Enterprise social networking provides organizations with an unprecedented level of knowledge within its talent pool. Vinay Pradhan, Country Head, Skillsoft India, adds, “With social media, managements can easily discern who the most valuable contributors are and where organizational knowledge lies. Some learning solutions incorporate Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social channels which enable learners to communicate effectively with their peers as well as allowing the learning content to be shared on various social media platforms.” Learning management systems (LMS) can incorporate Web 3.0 tools and further be customized in order to manage conversations through blog posts, discussion forums, podcasts, social media, offline messaging, and email as well as through chat rooms and live web conferencing which is highly cost-effective.
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“Social Media is a very interesting medium through which one can engage and intrigue their consumers, create conversations and connect with them based on their preference.” - Sandeep Aurora, Director – Marketing & Market Development, Intel
So, it is true to say that social media, today, is not just a tool but a way of life and therefore if any brand has to have a meaningful relationship with its consumers, it needs to have a strong presence on these media platforms. Any brand should be able to answer the consumer’s biggest question – “What is in it for me?” Promoting the brand and aiding business profitability is the result of having excellent customer engagement. Here, the need is to not just respond to queries or complaints that come from users, but to create value for the “fans”. Sandeep Aurora, Director – Marketing & Market Development, Intel, expresses, “As a corporate, you should never position your social media presence as a sales platform, because you take away the engagement through these personal platforms. This is a very interesting medium through which one can engage and intrigue their consumers, create conversations and connect with them based on their preference.” Agreeing to this, Sarthak Seth, Head – Brand & Marketing Communications, Panasonic India, opines, “Communication is the key to make an impact on the audiences. Irrespective of the channel, a strong communication strategy can help build brand relevance and credibility in the market. The same applies to the social media engagement. With a large section of consumers present online today, products from across categories have seen an upsurge in the consumer demand.” The information available to the consumers online creates a holistic and beneficial setting for the consumers. In India, which is one of the most diverse economies in the world, social media has made it possible for companies to reach out to consumers in every nook and corner of the country. This revolution has also helped brands amplify their reach in the regions where they don’t have physical presence in the form of retail outlets and stores. It has also made it possible to be proactive in maintaining, building and protecting you are the brand and help spread word-of-mouth. SAP has invested significantly in the social media space to build reach and connect with its customers, partners and the broader ecosystem. Rajesh Kumar, Head of Marketing, SAP India, says, “We are the largest visited SAP country site in the world across various social media platforms. We have over 1,00,000 followers in India alone across various social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.”
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“There are various parameters to measure the success of social media, largely driven by the engagement – measured through its reach and the engagement driven through it.” - Ryusuke Fukushima, Head – Marketing Communications, Sony India
Successful Social Media strategy Success is based on regular engagement with fans / followers. Every corporate generally looks daily comments on its Facebook posts, gain re-tweets, send questions in their way. Ryusuke Fukushima, Head – Marketing Communications, Sony India, comments, “There are various parameters to measure the success, largely driven by the engagement – measured through its reach and the engagement driven through it. Both these parameters go hand in hand and play a very important role.” Reach help in increasing exposure to our communication and engagements confirms its acceptance. Another important parameter which plays an important role is sentiments of fans which help not only maintaining the brand reputation but guide in setting the right approach to success.
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“We are the largest visited SAP country site in the world across various social media platforms. We have over 1,00,000 followers in India alone across various social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.” - Rajesh Kumar, Head of Marketing – SAP India
In general, social media measurements can be defined at different levels. The first level would be the measurement of Reach. This is the basic level, denoted in terms of simple numbers including likes on the Facebook page, followers on the Twitter profile, connections of LinkedIn, Views on YouTube and so on. This measure provides an idea about how strong or impressive are the outbound marketing efforts. Then, we have measurement of Engagement with customers. Comments, shares, retweets or ratings act as mouth-to-mouth publicity for corporates and brands. The third level could be Returns to the corporate, which refers to the actual gains made by them. Generation of leads, identification of new markets and potential customers, increase in the number of registrations or downloads could be a few artifacts to measure returns. Â |
“We are one of the oldest security vendors who have been securing the port 80 where you access internet and port 443, which we monitor sitting there for almost all large organizations globally.” - Ambarish Deshpande, Managing Director, Blue Coat Systems – India
Some risks associated with social media Though social media marketing is a great tool for corporations to boost business and engage with the consumers, it is extremely unpredictable. The risk on social media is the same as talking to someone face to face. If you say something you are not supposed to, then there is a problem, doesn’t matter whether you tweet it or say it over the phone. Social media ceased to be just another tool; it has become another communication tool, just like touch or speak. As a brand, your fans follow you because you are respected and they feel that what you say is worth reading. You should never take that for granted because the same fans who “love” you, could turn against you and all the respect you have earned will be lost. It is better to play it safe on social media and keep doing what has been working so far. At Intel, they have a set of social media guidelines that they follow very strictly. The team also makes sure to not comment or speculate on anything that they are not supposed to, publically. Manish Godha, CEO & Founder, Advaiya, comments, “Breach of organizational privacy could be another major setback. Die-hard competitors could be using your socially available information to develop counter-strategies by doing counter-promotions, campaigns, or product placements. Besides, there could be even legal implications like unintentional offending or copyright issues, which might sprout out of social media campaigns and activities.”
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“HP recently created various ‘webisodes’ as a part of our campaign and leveraged it on Facebook and Twitter to inspire and invite millennials of India to share their unconventional stories and showcase how they bent the rules in life.” - Lloyd Mathias, Head – Marketing, PPS, HP India
So, there should be a restriction on the social media outlets and regular monitoring for appropriate usage of information within the organization. Apart from this, a company’s each social media activity must be clearly identified with defined objectives to guide its usage. As security vendors, Blue Coat has been in this space for quite some time. Based on his own experience, Ambarish Deshpande, Managing Director, Blue Coat Systems – India, says, “We are one of the oldest security vendors who have been securing the port 80 where you access internet and port 443. These are the two http and https ports which we monitor sitting there for almost all large organizations globally.” Recently, Blue Coat has added a hybrid cloud offering for its customers, whereby, when a user uses its mobile or laptop behind a firewall or a Blue Coat proxy, in the office, they have an ability to monitor and audit the content.
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“Social media for Enterprises is about packaging a company’s offerings in a fashion that appeals to your target audience on the web.” - Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO, Greyhound Research
Limits on social media Limitations are there in every field. As a brand, you are bound by more limitations than an individual, online. Being on social media for a brand is similar to working in an office environment. In the office, you are bound to not talk about something you have no understanding of or to pass comments where your presence is not needed. Companies have to ensure that their employees don’t use the company’s forum for personal reasons and venting out their personal grudges. Also, employees may waste their time on social networking sites, thus blogging and networking should not lead to interference with work schedule and commitments. Shedding more light to this, Rajiv Kumar, CEO & Founder at Manusis Technologies opines, “Social media attracts a lot of traffic to the websites. At times, too much of usage can lead to reducing the availability of the bandwidth. Users exchange files which may contai n viruses. If there are some limits to social media, it will help in reducing the risk of malicious software.”
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“Breach of organizational privacy is a major setback to social media. Diehard competitors could be using your socially available information to develop counter-strategies by doing counter-promotions, campaigns, or product placements.” - Manish Godha, CEO & Founder, Advaiya
Social media is an effective medium to build relationships and drive conversations between people and brands. While many use social media as a way to broadcast thoughts, the opportunity for a brand to revolutionize the way it is perceived, by way of social media, is immense. . It is also important for brands and customers to apply self-discretion while engaging on the social media and comply with certain do’s and don’ts:
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“Social media attracts a lot of traffic to the websites. At times, too much of usage can lead to reducing the availability of bandwidth.” - Rajiv Kumar, CEO & Founder, Manusis Technologies
•   Be clear and transparent in your communication •   Do not disclose any confidential information •   Use of accurate information •   Avoid any offensive or defamatory comments about competitors or any other individuals •   Respond to comments with sincerity and politely; don’t spark controversies Â |
“With social media, management can be able to discern who the most valuable contributors are and where organizational knowledge lies.” - Vinay Pradhan, Country Head, Skillsoft India
As far as a B2B company is concerned, it is important to identify the platform and the audience they would like to communicate with. If it is the C-Level executive, crisp communication with used cases on a product or service needs to be shared on platforms like LinkedIn; LinkedIn groups is a great way to engage with other professionals and showcase users work. Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO, Greyhound Research, shares, “Social media for enterprises is about packaging a company’s offerings in a fashion that appeals to your target audience on the web. It requires specific skill set to package the information in a manner that will appeal most to different categories of customers.” An organization that is active on the ground but inactive or dormant on social media is likely to lose about 30–40% of prospective customer base. Finally, it is true to say that social media gives an organization the required tools to promote itself, how an organization does it is what companies need to address.
satinder@varindia.com
