Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

I came across this very interesting question on Quora asking " Why introverted people don't use social media? " I am sharing my thoughts based on research I've come across that can help us understand the relationship between a very important personality trait and social media usage. Introverts do use social media. The author was correct in pointing out that extroverts use social media more than introverts (Recent studies do indicate a positive impact of extraversion and social media use). However it depends on the context and the results have been mixed. In fact early studies pointed to the fact that introverts used social media (chat forums, messaging boards etc.) more than extroverts. I am sharing a few reasons below based on research on personality and social media usage.

Instagram is increasingly becoming a favorite platforms for Brands globally to engage with their customers. It's importance can be gauged by the fact that it is the world's largest mobile ad network. Instagram now has a community of over 500 million users liking over 4.2 billion photos and sharing over 95 million pictures daily. The format of Instagram makes it a great medium for visual story telling.

A lot of people will encourage you to get a Google certification to build a career in Digital Marketing. In my experience as a digital marketing professional, I've rarely seen a certification by Google as a criteria for hiring managers. I was reading through a few answers on a Quora thread about the importance of getting a Google certification (Adwords, Analytics etc.) for building a career in digital marketing. Almost 90% of people said that it was important.

Content creation and dissemination on social media can be a tricky thing. Creating good original content takes a lot of time and money. It is important to make the most of the content through social media assets for a brand. There are pros and cons of adapting and sharing the same content on all social media channels at the same time.

Instagram started as a iOS only application and quickly became a huge social networking website with a presence on Android and the web. An active and rapidly growing user base has made marketing on Instagram important for brands, small businesses and startups. Instagram has more than 75 million daily active users, with a total user base of over 400 million. Instagram users in 2015 were sharing over 70 million photos per day.  Given its growing importance we'll explore some easy tips that can help you with Instagram marketing.

On 12th April, a popular Indian newspaper published a story, " Who really runs AirAsia India? " It raised some interesting questions about the operations of Air Asia. It stated that " Documents, emails show that Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd has final say in decision-making, in violation of the  Indian law." Today suddenly after approximately a week I saw #AirAsiaScam trending #1 on Twitter. This came barely hours after Air Asia announced Air fares starting at Rs 999 for flights across India.

"If the photo is legitimate, it seems to have worked like a charm."  Source: instagram.com/kimkardashian This was the final comment of a post on the daily beast on the subject of a naked selfie by Kim Kardashian on Instagram. For those living under a rock, on 7th March, Kim Kardashian barely a few weeks after giving birth to her second child posted an innocuous comment " When you're like I have nothing to wear LOL " with a picture that got the internet drooling.

Follow @Sushant_KM Choosing an appropriate hashtag for your social media campaign can prove to be a tricky exercise. At times it can also determine success or failure of your campaign. A bad choice can result in negative conversations about your. How can you differentiate and make your campaign stand out? How can you make sure that the message reaches your audience?

"Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" by Peter Thiel has been one of the better books that I've read recently. It not just gives a perspective about startups and businesses, but there are some interesting things about life in general. Following are a few excerpts from the book. “The smartphones that distract us from our surroundings also distract us from the fact that our surroundings are strangely old:” “Creating value is not enough—you also need to capture some of the value you create.”

Rajnigandha Pan Masala, one of the sponsors at Jaipur Literature festival every year organizes a contest i.e #RajnigandhaSixWordStory. It's a interesting brand engagement consistent with the theme of the festival.  Users have to share a six word story and they can stand a chance to win. The event being one of the largest of its kind in the world attracts a lot of participation and so does the contest. This year however it did not go as planned and the contest backfired. The narrative on social media was not about the contest, literature or the Jaipur Literature festival. It became a narrative about Rajnigandha, chewing tobacco and oral cancer.

One of the most valued asset of an organization is the brand. Recent literature in branding points to the brand playing the role of a social actor capable of forming intimate relationships with its customers. One of the biggest challenges for a brand is in building loyalty (or reducing infidelity). Organizations globally spend billions of dollars annually in building a stronger brand. However most brands  do not take a stance, do not polarize.

Email marketing can be the trickiest thing in the online marketing jigsaw. Most promotional emails end up as being marked as read or spam. No one cares! Well because most of the time, the ones sending it through a database also don't care.

Twitter has launched its TV ad campaign promoting moments, which was launched earlier this month. Since Jack Dorsey has been handed over the reins at Twitter, a lot new has happened. Twitter finally seems to have a sound  product roadmap . One of the biggest challenges being faced by Twitter right now is its sluggish user growth as compared to Facebook (apart from the lack of a steady revenue stream). This campaign should hopefully help set things up and speed up the growth of Twitter.

In 1985, Tommy Hilfiger was launched through an ad campaign that practically made Tommy Hilfiger an overnight sensation in America. The ad showed a fill in the blank style list, which featured Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis and suggested that Tommy Hilfiger should be added to the list. The ad, which mortified Tommy finally went live including being shown at a Times Square Billboard.

Volkswagen, Europe's largest car-maker is facing its biggest crisis in its 78-year history. On 22nd Sept, 2015 it said that as around 11 million diesel cars across the world were equipped with an engine type that could skew emissions data. While this highlights a dangerous unethical management culture, it's perhaps the biggest threat to the iconic brand.

I've heard a few marketeers say, "These ads are meant for TV and thus won't work for digital" . Fact - An ad that won't work well on digital will also not work well on TV. People have rejected it. TV Advertising is a very challenging space. You have an extremely limited amount of very costly time to engage with your consumer and communicate your message. If the consumer does not like your ad on TV, she's going to skip the same ad/content on social media as well. The vice-versa is also true. If she likes your ad on social media, she's definitely going to give your ad on TV a second look.

It's a lonely time for the brand. In a world where clutter is increasing by the day a lot of marketers are focusing on call to action driven marketing. With the knowledge that a consumer's attention span is decreasing more marketers are trying to bombard consumers with messages that have a clear call to action i.e. "Come try my brand (as soon as possible)". Even more visible are conversations where practitioners try to distinguish between marketing activities as branding activities and sales activities. Why? Do strong brands don't sell? Why would a strong brand not sell? If the objective of your business is sale and revenue, why invest at all in a branding activity?

Content Marketing is the buzz word right now. Content Marketing institute defines Content marketing as a  "strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. "

Being active on Social Media is no longer a competitive advantage for your brand. Everyone is doing it. Everyone is also focusing on content marketing, native ads and to add to your woes as a marketer is the ever increasing clutter on social media. So how can you differentiate and make your campaign stand out? How can you make sure that the message reaches your audience?

Facebook reached 1 billion unique users using its service in a day for the first time on 24th August. To put things in perspective, one in seven persons on Earth used Facebook (or only 85.7% of planet earth did not use Facebook). While 14.3% used Facebook on 24th August, it is important to note that over 65% of world's population brush their teeth from Colgate every day.