Suhel Seth, Managing partner, Counselage said that the days are gone when social media is looked at awareness creation medium. People are aware about the product and hence they are searching for your product and getting participated in a particular group. The days are now for more engaging & influencing the consumer rather than awareness. Just think “why I will marry a girl or boy with whom I cant engage myself?’ It applies to product or service. He also pointed out the following points for SMM- Reinvent the customer
- Engage, inspire and not just inform
- Use Social networking sites from more responsible and marketing prospective
- Don’t try to sell in social media – The consumer is ready to get engaged and interact with you.
- The moment he feels that we are trying to sell something then immediately he will leave the space
- Make SMM part of your process and best practices, develop a strategy and use the tactics wisely.
- Buzz and word of mouth which works in social media
· Awareness was about getting maximum number of people but engagement is all about reaching right people so there will be more engagement.
· The days of CTR are gone and there is a new matrix CPEV (cost per engagement & Virality) and CPA (cost per association)
· Social sites have to be utilized to gain & validate the message. The marketer can conduct survey to get feedback, which will not have any bias opinion.
· Consumers are looking for a simple solution to the complex problem. So if marketers are present their with simple solution, half of the battle is won at the beginning only
· In Social media, a consumer becomes the brand owner and he has the power.
· Faisal Farooqui, CEO Mouthshut said “ we like to be communicated by our beloved once, how we will feel if they don’t communicate with us? Brand has to continuously interact with the consumer because consumers are searching for a brand. They have belongings for a particular brand and when there is a communication from the brand to consumer, they feel better.
· Parminder Singh, Business head, Google India said “If you are in a club and will show you something and asked you to come out of the club to get more information, will you come out of the club to check the information? Obliviously not.” Then consider social sites as a club and try to engage customer there and there itself. He also mentioned the following formula for SMM
· The days of CTR are gone and there is a new matrix CPEV (cost per engagement & Virality) and CPA (cost per association)
· Social sites have to be utilized to gain & validate the message. The marketer can conduct survey to get feedback, which will not have any bias opinion.
· Consumers are looking for a simple solution to the complex problem. So if marketers are present their with simple solution, half of the battle is won at the beginning only
· In Social media, a consumer becomes the brand owner and he has the power.
· Faisal Farooqui, CEO Mouthshut said “ we like to be communicated by our beloved once, how we will feel if they don’t communicate with us? Brand has to continuously interact with the consumer because consumers are searching for a brand. They have belongings for a particular brand and when there is a communication from the brand to consumer, they feel better.
· Parminder Singh, Business head, Google India said “If you are in a club and will show you something and asked you to come out of the club to get more information, will you come out of the club to check the information? Obliviously not.” Then consider social sites as a club and try to engage customer there and there itself. He also mentioned the following formula for SMM
- F – Fun and Interest (There has to be a fun for the participation)
- P – Pride (People are taking pride to do the activity in social media. We will find weird photos of people in orkut and Facebook, which we have never imaging and that’s because of the pride)
- F – Feedback
- B - Bonding
· Mahesh Murthy, Pinstorm said in terms of ROI which was most debated topic now days, the marketing team has to define the ROI. As in offline media reach, eyeballs are considered to be ROI. In online also ROI can be conversion, engagement. Don’t consider final sell as a ROI from SMM.
