Social Media Marketing Insights: After a year’s experience!

Unlike most of my blogs, other blogs on befoxy.in or general blogs; this particular post is more of an insightful & explanatory one. To start of, FoxyMoron does offer Social Media Marketing & Social Media Optimization as a service. This encompasses various portals such as:

1. Social Networks,
2. Video Sites,
3. Microsites,
4. Microblogging & Microtexting,
5. Blogs,
6. Wikis,
7. Q&A Forums.

Over the past year we have gone through numerous clients for whom either FoxyMoron, or its team members have executed campaigns, consulted or pitched to. These include: ICICI Lombard, BJP, Congress, United Nations’ office in India, Indian Tourism Ministry, Virgin Mobile, Cadbury, HSBC, Grazia Magazine, Imperial Group of Hotels, Deskaway, Force India and Delhi Daredevils amongst many.

Amongst the many things that we have learned one thing is of utmost importance: Strategy & Pitching!

Now clients always ask, “Im on Facebook, Twitter & You Tube. Why cant I do all this on my own?” The difference is what you will get is an amaturish campaign if done by yourself & a more professional one if done by us. But what does this mean? The difference comes in when you’re deciding which platforms to use? How to integrate all platforms used? Which one to give more impetus to? How to market via Social Media without luring away the masses?

To be honest initially we had no professional clue of Social Media Marketing. We thought it was as simple as creating groups on Facebook; creating generic & branded groups with the clients’ name & ancillary ones on related topics. Then mass inviting your friends & using already created personal groups to drive numbers to these newly created groups. Once the numbers were enough as promised to the client send out 1 mass message with the message of the client. Period.

Effective? Proffesional? Ethical? Long term sustainable?

NO!

Overtime after trying & testing multiple methods & strategies, we finally have come to ascertain that:
Social Media Marketing isnt marketing actually, its communication. Its like suddently brands & companies can use another platform to communicate with the masses. Online is similar to any other platform, for instance TV gives brands a chance to have a 1 way interaction & show them a video clip [advertising] or get their brand ambassador to give an interview on a leading news channel [Public Relations]; same for Radio, Print & Outdoor.

Clients, agencies, companies & media houses should not look upon ‘Online’ as a quick boost to their already running offline campaign. The power of online shouldn’t be dismissed & harnessed this way. It requires a whole new & different approach, perspective & objectives. What you can achieve via online media cannot be achieved through any other.

By using all the above named portals correctly brands can generate enough traction, buzz & online traffic. They can build something that cannot be achieved via any other media. They can create loyalists, they can have interactive campaigns, they can have interactive communication & discussions, they can test marketing campaigns before launched into any other form of media, they can choose their method of communication & platform, they can be very specific to target audience demographics & they can chose a variety of methods: Videos, Photos, Blogs, MicroBlogs, Groups, Fanpages, Q&As, etc.

Clients & Brands shouldnt sign into Facebook, type a big brand’s name in the search bar, see of 3,000,000 people fans of it & then expect the same to be replicated here. Here is a message to them, listen Mr, “Its not the same! It cannot be done by waving a wand!”

Amidst this mass confusion, we at FoxyMoron have deplored & finalized on what exactly we are going to do, our Standard Operating Procedures, our research methods, our deliverables that we can promise & our method of functioning & with whom.

What services in SMM do we offer now:

1. Talk: Creating online methods of communication for brands.
2. Hear: Generating feedback & discussions between consumers & brands.
3. Think: Thinking & implementing online activation campaigns. [Such as Lipton's Stay-Sharp.in]

At the end of the day we must all realize that Social Networks are not for marketers to exploit & spam with their corporate-ish messages. Social Media was made for people to get away from traditional methods, use new media to share, collaborate, network & communicate. It wasnt made to be marketed upon! Remember that! So the next time you send out a mass message from your facebook group, ask yourself, am I on Facebook to receive tons of marketing messages in my inbox? Thats why I always ascertain that such campaigns built around using of the above mentioned methods of spam would never be successful in the long run.

Also I dont understand why clients treat online media as any other form & dont think of it differently in terms of deliverables & expectations. Its not like you can choose a hoarding which gives you 50,000 eyeballs in a day, a TV spot with the highest TRP rating, a Radio show with the highest listenership & then dictate online marketing companies to give 500,000 members on their Facebook group at the end of the 3 months campaign. IT DOESNT WORK THAT WAY!
An online campaign is to be quality driven & not quantity! The next time an agency signs papers for an online campaign with a client, be it O&M, Lowe, Leo Burnett or any other big or small agency, numbers shouldnt be on that paper! Clients shouldnt aim at a number centric online campaign. Numbers can be achieved through other mediums. The online medium & its spends should be used only to create loyalists, an interactive & buzzed about campaign & discussions with consumers; which must I remind you is unattainable via other forms of media.

Now no doubt numbers are important to a brand, but if they want those numbers, instead of dictating numbers to the agency & having that as the only deliverable, they should rather give full creative freedom to the agency (the way Blue Bus Tees did with us, who received unimaginable results), use other forms of media as well as their corporate communication & packaging & demand a quality based ‘buzz worthy’ campaign. This itself will show the numbers. Case study: O&M India’s Vodafone ZooZoo offline + online campaign.

Our advice-

To Brands & their managers:

1. Online Media isnt the same as other forms of media so dont expect the same numbers,
2. Build your brand, get loyalists, get buzz & have interactions,
3. Synergize your offline & online campaign,
4. Your offline ad agency may not be necessarily be equipped with online & new media marketing. 

To Large Ad Agencies (who handle offline campaign):

1. Believe in new media, its growth & power,
2. Include online media while suggesting strategies & pitches to brands,
3. Sync & integrate your campaign through all medias,
4. Start giving online presence with your current offline campaigns.

To prospective start ups (in this field):

1. Keep yourself updated at all time on changes in Social Media & its constituents,
2. Dont let large agencies ’screw’ you & your resources by outsourcing tons of manual & unnecessary work for cheap rates,
3. Be smart for business development! See no one doesnt want to market & create buzz. You give anyone, big or small, a concrete strategy & breakthrough or ‘killer’ idea for high value for money & high ROI; voila! You’ve got the ball rolling.
4. Be confident of Social Media Marketing & what you are offering/pitching/selling. You will come across numerous brands & their managers who highly doubt web & Internet marketing. Be sure you have your research, numbers & case studies to prove your point.

Lastly, Be Sharp.Be Innovative.Be Foxy.

Why Indians search for ’sex’ 9 times more in April than in any other month?

Using the power of Google Trends & Google Insights, Ive come across an interesting find: www.sex.com is searched 9 times more by Indians than any other month.

So whats happened is that ‘www.sex.com’ is the 3rd fast rising search in the past 30 days in India

Google Insights for past 30 days

Now, as the topic of this blog shows the peculiararity of the month of April. The last day of March recorded 11 units, the 1st day of April recorded 60 while most of April recorded 90+ & fell back down to 26 on the 1st day of May. Just have a look at the graph:

Graph of web search volume of 'www.sex.com' searched over 12 months

Whats even more weird is the demographics of the people searching for ‘www.sex.com’. Why does Madhya Pradesh record 100 with Orissa & Delhi closely behind? Werent Madhya Pradesh & Orissa non metro states (states that do not have any of India’s 8 metros) and considered more on the conservative side?

State wise representation of people searching for 'www.sex.com'

Shifting our focus to more city based searches as opposed to state based as above, once again we notice Bhopal based in Madhya Pradesh tops the list with Delhi following after a good gap in the units. What shocks me more is Mahape, which is a small town in Maharashtra! I did not even know of its existence, forget internet coverage & activity; but in this case not only does it seem to have a good grip on technology but can drive itself all the way upto #3 with a good lead over metros such as Hyderabad & Mumbai. Any logical explanation for that? Also why does Google account for ‘Delhi’ separately than ‘New Delhi’?

City based searches for 'www.sex.com'

Now it makes one wonder why would such a weird phenomenon take place?

I mean you could come up with very theorotical, pratical, creative & factual answers to this, but there has to be 1 logical explanation for this.

Any suggestions

Why only in April people search for ‘www.sex.com’ 9 times more?

Why Madhya Pradhesh has the highest number of searches?

Why Mahape, a tiny town in Maharashtra is 3rd in searches for ‘www.sex.com’?

DLF IPL helps UK based Business Solutions Company. Classic case of Web Traffic Gone Wrong.

Now who would have thought the Indian Premier League would have helped traffic build on a UK based Business Solutions company? Naturally the IPL would have helped traffic grow on its sponsors, advertisers & content providers but spurring growth in a Business Solutions company based half the world away is absurd. Well its all the power of owning the correct domain.

Screenshot of search of 'IPL' on Google

So while ‘ipl’ is a rising search on Google Insights, especially ‘ipl live score’ being a rising search with +3150% growth.

www.ipl.com enjoys the benefit of this international sporting event. Its almost comical to see how there is a sudden rise in the pageviews of this website during the months of the Indian Premier League.

Note how there is sudden growth during the months of the Indian Premier League.

Whats even more absurd is the demographics of the people who visit or ‘accidently visit’ www.ipl.com:
61.9% are from India!

10.1% are from South Africa!

8.3% are from Pakistan!

4.4% are from Bangaldesh!

3.8% are from UK!

PS: Its a UK based company, serivicing clients in UK.

Now whether this has resulted in more clients for the above mentioned company or not is yet to be acertained. But definately integration of Google Ad Words onto the website would have helped them earn some revenue. I mean why not make use of this extra misguided traffic coming to your website?

Or why not auction the domain name to a high priced bidder? Because the Indian Premier League is here to say.

Does it help an Educational Institution to advertise at IPL 2?

Amongst the biggies like Vodafone, Airtel and Hero Honda emerges a TVC of a relatively new advertiser & the 1st in its field: Amity University. Its one thing to advertise on news channels & local television, but prime spots on an internationally telecast sporting event is another. The only commercial they have had so far is:

Now does it make sense for an educational institution to advertise or would they rather spend money on more productive & effective methods to roll students in?

A survey conducted by FoxyMoron, after the TVCs of Amity University had been aired, points out that 94% of the students interviewed in Mumbai & Pune have heard of Amity University.

While Amity has made itself known to the target audiences, its conversion rates are dissapointing.

As Alexa points out, Amity’s pageviews do rise during its sponsoring of the IPL, but these numbers were recorded during the same time as last year.

Whats interesting is the demographics of the people visiting Amity.

So we notice that more 18-24 year olds are viewing the website, thats good.
But why are more people with already a college graduate degree visiting the website?
In a country with a major imbalance of male:female ratio, its not shocking to see more males visiting the website.
I cannot give a logical explanation for why more people at work at viewing the website, isnt that something Amity should not be aiming for? Should they not be aiming at getting more people from home & school to view their website?
Lastly people without children are looking at Amity, so hopefully these should be students who want to study at Amity.

So was it fruitful for a local educational institution to advertise at the IPL 2, an international sporting event?

Facebook cant do a Google!

FaceBook started off because of its simplicity, its user friendly design and platforms, no applications, etc. Today the paradigm has shifted and now is much more complex, sometimes even for the brightest of college students who require assistance in uploading holiday pictures! FaceBook has changed its USP & its most attractive feature: Its Simplicity! This is something Google retains and realizes the value and worth of. This is why one of the pictures in the gallery below illustates that although the number of FaceBook users are increasing (due to the multiplier effect and Word of Mouth Marketing), the average user time spent on the website is decreasing!

A Facebook application is polling users on the the new site layout . So far, just over 5% of the nearly 800,000 respondents give it a thumbs up. The rest go the other way.

Users can also leave comments with their thoughts. Recent user comments include “Missing so many features I used to adore. I am saddened,” “Please change it back to the way it was,” and “I hate it and if it doesn’t change I will only check it once in awhile.” Ah, the fickle user.

Until January users and advertisers could create polls directly within Facebook, and the company used them extensively at the Davos World Economic Forum. It would be great it they brought that feature back directly.

Is this leading to the end of FaceBook popularity?

The last that I remember, FaceBook has completely overhauled their design 4 times! There is something Google hasnt dared to do in all these years. Is that the secret behind Google?

It’s a classic story: Search engine meets social networking site, social networking site snubs search engine, search engine claims that social networking site is a passing fad. The ridiculousness of our high school relationships is now hitting the business world as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tells the Times Online that Facebook’s days are probably numbered.

Ballmer is definitely blowing hot air by projecting the possible wane in interest for the site, but he also raises a good point. Despite multi-billion valuations, the relatively young company could befall a number of unfortunate fates if it fails to play its hand correctly in the near future. We don’t have quite the axe to grind as Ballmer, but from our assessment these are the top three potential causes of Facebook’s death:

1) User Base Exodus
As ridiculous as Ballmer can be at times, he’s also probably right. Facebook’s platform may be the greatest thing since sliced bread in terms of potential, but much like social news site Digg, it’s really the user base that makes the site popular. Without the 40+ million users that serve as Facebook’s lifeblood, it’s but a shell of a service.

2) Falling Prey to a Weak Business Model
Facebook totally hit the scene at the right time, and in that providence lies the possibility of a bright and prosperous future. But after those rainbows and puppy dogs fade, we still have to view the company’s business model for what it is — murky, at best. It’s one thing to have a clear game plan to rule the market, a solid revenue stream and an inflated sense of self-worth. Its entirely different to have a questionably sustainable revenue stream, a pricey rate card, and valuation aspirations that border on hubris. For Facebook, longevity lies in a sound foundation, not hype.

3) Stunting Growth While Waiting for Valuation
Timing is of the essence, but the current investment bubble is bound to burst. By no means would we ever imply that Zuckerberg and company should sell themselves short, but it seems realistic to assume that Facebook could be seeing some big-time growth in terms of infrastructure if it had the deep pockets of Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft (ad deal withstanding). In a market where the big guns are buying start-ups left and right, it might not be a bad time to sell for the sake of the site’s growth — especially with such a high profile list of buyers already chomping at the bit. Tweaks to the platform are great and all, but expansion on a large scale has got to be in the cards if the site wants to go the distance.

Comscore has reported some interesting stats on Facebook, shedding light on the site’s growth after opening up last September and their demographics. Over the past year (May ‘06 – May ‘07), Facebook saw an 89% increase in unique visitors to the site at 26,649,000 uniques, with a 143% increase in page views at 15.8 billion. The site’s stickiness has increased and then tapered off at about 190 minutes per average user.

The site has also seen a demographic shift toward teens and post grads as it moves out of the college crowd.

Bravo…I’m in total agreement here. I have a facebook account I can tell you that it does absolutely nothing for me, except Social Media Marketing. Ask yourself a question: Do you yet like FaceBook and Do are you yet as addicted to it as before? Maybe 8 months ago?

On another note…

Remember that once you put something on Facebook, whether you delete it or not, or make your profile “private,” it is always SOMEWHERE out there in the internet world. You never know who is scouting you out…potential employers, parents, the government, and even your schools and universities. Don’t believe me? As a professor…or USATODAY…or MSNBC.

Google is reading your emails!

Have you ever looked over to your right while reading an email and seen a few advertising links and ever wondered, ‘Hey, they are pretty similar to the matter of the email I just received!’

An illustration of Google AdWords going through the contecnt of our emails.

Deep inside Googleplex, Mountain View, California are located the Supercomputers which perform brilliant functions, host gigantic websites as Google.com and Youtube.com, oh they also scan each email sent and received in Gmail! Does this offend you? Do you feel your privacy infirnged upon? Are you thinking of any particluar emails that you wish no one read, whether they know you or not? Well too bad, you are the one who signed away this right to Google!

Remember signing up for Gmail? And after a dozen of basic questions and a graphic from which you have to interpret alphabets & numbers, you stumble upon a thing called ‘Terms and Conditions’ and ‘Privacy Policy’ which I highly doubt if anyone of us have ever read, for any website! But then again when this situation shows up, where you are almost cursing Google and questioning its ethics of business process and functioning!

Well to help you out I made ‘the effort’ to go through the rather long extensive Priyacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

T&C during signup for gmail.

They have provided a link to another section of Google’s website which solely deals with Privacy Policy which illustrates two important things:

1. Google Ads are based on an array of factors such as: IP Address, content of messages and other factors.

2. Google goes through the content of messages for several purposes such as formating, advertisements, scanning span mail and creating a backup of our messages.

Google Privacy Page

But then again there’s a flaw in Google’s integration and the image they potray to us. On the Google AdWords website, the centre from where organizations can Advertise through Google with the help of relevant words; it is written that the ads will appear next to each email where in the Subject or Topic of the mail contains keywords which pertain to the company, whereas the Privacy Policy shows that Google scans through the entire message. Which makes one ponder why would Google make such an error? Or they really read the entire message?

Google AdWords website: Help Section

Thus I leave you all with a question:

Do you think it is ethical for Google to go through each email just for the sake of their optimum and customised advertisements?