Social Media Optimization – The Tedious Part

Social media tools for socialites that is becoming increasingly popular is the internet. Reasons could be many, but main one is the content generated by the users which is directly from the public. Social networking sites and very popular with the users, and plenty of them can be found online. They are free to use and are advanced in technology. The concept of social media optimization utilizes such forms of media for increasing your website popularity and value. As a form of online marketing strategy, it is also a part of functions carried out by the search engine optimizers. Optimization of your content by keyword is crucial here. Make sure you update your content on regular basis. Do not forget to use apt keywords and phrases, but stay within limits and do not over stuff your content. When starting SMO, you should submit your main site to as many social networking sites as possible. Social Media Optimization requires lots of effort and hard work, similar to Search Engine Optimization. One will not be able to craft web space and presence without being patient and hard working. It is the unlimited web presence offered to the website optimizers, that is the main advantage of social networking sites. To increase business popularity, Social Media optimizers can use its name and reputation. Some use a fictional name for this purpose, which is also OK. We can therefore craft a profile of our virtual and non-existing person, but it should be avoided if possible. No matter what name you use, it is crucial that your profile shows strong background and experience in the required field of business. The most common cause of the marketing tools and techniques failure is inadequate exposure to the business that is being promoted which later leads to brand anonymity. It is very important these days that marketing is done in proper and continuous manner. Promoting is very difficult with a new business, but if you do it in a planned manner you can have really good results. Online business, in order to be successful, needs you to put a lot of work and effort. Many optimizers have agreed that social media optimization is a good option for effective website optimization.

Social Media Optimization also involves a clear strategy of the specific tool adoption. Sometimes, the selection of tools are very important more than the Social Media approach. The selections of tools directs us towards a clear goal of reaching our target audience and this has to be planned to what is the overall reach one is looking at. In some cases this is tedious in nature ensuring every tool is connected to each other to ensure a seamless content distribution. But there are some tools such as Friendfeed, Facebook, Tubemogul which helps content dissemination easier.

There has been a significant evolution with the current tools which have come up with more integration options. Thus, hoping to similar evolutions in future which will make things more organized and smoother for any Social Media Programs

Social Feedback Cycle

So far we have been seeing how to build conversations, engage people with our brands to build awareness around the brand, product & service.  Most important work starts after the purchase considerations or after a consumer starts using the product, service; this is an area where major damages cause to any brand, service, product, identity etc. Most of the reviews we see is the result of unhealthy experiences of the services, product. Most of the marketers fail to analyze this aspect and hence try to build awareness without knowing what is been written and what is been talked about a brand. The most important thing for any marketer before getting into Social Media Marketi­­­­­ng, is to build internal process to handle queries and marketing promises effectively after the purchase cycle as it reflect in the discussions of the online users. Most important thing is the efforts made behind Social Media Marketing are endless, hence to manage these activities effectively in the long run; one has to be very clear in understanding the willingness of being transparent in their communications.

Coming back to the feedback cycle, most of them in India have also realized the importance of the Social Feedback cycle and they are working backwards the set few things right in order to gain consumer’s trust. And some are still getting carried away with review portals where their product reviews can be posted with an additional cost.

This is still fine in few cases as manier times, it is really difficult to rate a particular product as it might have too many features for a consumer to rate it, this also involves a strong market survey to understand what a best deal would be for a consumer, base on it a balanced review can be generated. The best example I would give in India is mouthshut.com. This is the only portal in India which had been purely into user generated content and currently a leading portal for UGC across India and also influences lot of people in their purchase decisions. I would rate this portal to completely dependant on Social Feedback Cycle.

But yes there are other portals too which handles fake reviews, so beware of it.

I would identify the most important area in Social Media Marketing is the Social Feedback cycle, the feedback cycle shows a clear path to your future Social Media Marketing efforts. Hence I would also say that Social Media Marketing is not for everyone and everybody, but most of them 🙂

Building our Basics

This has been a part of me, from a long time.

suddenly,  I  have  started following its concepts more seriously. One of my friend asked me, why i have been inclined to this concept again, when it is considered as outdated. Well.. i don’t think so.. In fact,  SEO has emerged again with the new digital media strategies. We see tagging, we see content here and there,, all that is meant to get visible on search engines. Yes, we no more have to rely on On page optimization factors, as the user interfaces of all social platforms offer these provisions. The only thing we need to look for is the Off page optimization such as where all our blogs, websites are referred in the form of referral links. We should also seriously look at directory submissions, Link Building strategies, Article directory submissions, Search Engine submissions, Ezine directories.. and many more..

Though it  is  a very tedious procedure, Yet it is very very effective. Thanks to the Blended search visibility.

Suddenly I have started concentrating on these areas, as i realized, this is where the roots are. Now I have started realizing the demand of developing a completely optimized websites. I am sure more and more companies will start concentrating on their websites, because even if you build a digital program, one  needs to drive them to the website, and if the site is not up to the mark, then it will a big turn off to the users. Don’t you think it makes sense……

Lets get back to the square one…and build our basics…..first.. That is what it matters now…

Actually it is the same old wine packed in a new bottle. So my dear SEO professionals,,, start getting back to Basics…

Proprietary Presence Vs Social Presence

Recently, I did a close comparison between proprietary tools  and Social Tools available. Now this might sound little confusing. Let me clear this fact. Proprietary tools means having your own site and having your own social features available on your site such as Hindustan Lever having Blogging, Video sharing and community features on their site. In this way they think they can grab the same amount of users to their website, just like all other popular tools available such as Facebook, Orkut, You tube, WordPress, Blogger etc.  The logic behind this is great, but it does not work at all. Many clients featuring all these possibilities on their site anticipate tremendous traffic to their site. But this is not the fact at all. It never works like that.   The clear difference is Proprietor y presence does not have the general identity which other social tools have. Its like knowing a company’s website and knowing yahoo.com. Yahoo is considered to be a landmark, anything published on it has a global reach. So the presence can be considered as a landmark. It also depends what kind of approach Yahoo had towards users and what they offered. Most of the people are glued to this presence.

Recently, I had a chat with one of my client who thinks that they had provided all necessary social platforms on their site and does not feel the need of using other popular social media presence to add more traffic to their site.  Well I don’t see any clear reason to why one should not use other Social Media platforms. In fact, my recommendation would be not spending any money building Social features on an individual company site and use other popular social platforms to drive the traffic to the site. Users want to meet up at a common place. There are 1000’s of places where people discuss and meet online. Yes.. But a website is compulsory….. there cannot be any replacement to it.

A simple example :

Knowing a destination like Gateway of India and knowing an address of a Corporate office, are two different things.  Even if a corporate office has everything as Gateway of India has, people will still go for Gateway of India, because everybody knows about it from ages. It is a Landmark !

Similarly, it is just not advisable to maintain proprietary tools and expect tons of traffic to their site. One must have a clear and a strong presence on general online presence, because they are already established and people have accepted it, because the motive behind is to just connect people and not promote an individual business. Whereas, a proprietary online presence is focused to only promote and talk about specific business. Though a proprietary presence may have tons of traffic, but there is no credibility of the traffic. Most of the traffic is driven through Google Ads, Search Engine techniques and it is been rated on the statistics. Nowadays, statistics is not just everything. One cannot decide the credibility of the information through number of page visits. What about credibility of information, how can statistics define a particular visitor of the site is willing to know about a company’s business or their communications. But all this is possible at the available Social Tools. They are designed and developed only to know about this particular intention of a user.

Online statistics can been a good beginning to rate a website ROI, but in the long run, it fades out and the traffic depends on the quality of information and not just quantity of information

One more example:

A contestant dancing in his room and a contestant dancing on a stage has a clear and logical answer to the above disucssion. No one would go to his room and watch him, until he or she comes on a global platform.

We are far ahead than Google..

Did we ever realize that we are far far,  far superior than Google.  I realized this, in one of our discussions with my friends & colleagues.  As usual, we were discussing about a brand and how can we leverage multiple platforms in promotion.  Let me start with Google and  its search logic. Whenever we key in any query in the search bar. It gives you many specific results and it also gives you related results. If you click these related results, we can see more related results on it, and this route map continues.

I found this logic very much similar to our brain and the way we think. I also realized that this is the exact logic we should use it for any brand when it comes in implementing any digital program for them as the platforms are endless. So far, i have observed many people fail to think this way when it comes in implementing online marketing tactics, related to social media and the new evolved online technologies.

Ideas on Social media and other digital marketing tactics are endless.  It depends on how far you can connect each idea and come out with a new sub-idea. But, it also depends how far you can implement those ideas. Lot of people call it as Brain mapping. But, yes it is actually brain mapping, which helps you to realize the endless ideas and implementations towards any Digital Marketing Program. A simple illustration is been illustrated on this perception, the image actually depicts a process on a patient, but the logic remains same to our context.

I think nowadays, I am breathing  Search Engine Marketing & Social Media Marketing, as it is connecting me or rather i am getting connected at every step and every moment of my life.  As i was mentioning about a discussion with my colleagues on a brand, we went on connecting every parameter of the brand and further went on connecting platforms to be used to promote the desired brand.

Initially when it came to me, of course, i had lot of things in my mind, but further i went on realizing many more connecting ideas to it, which very much worked as Brain Mapping. Many people say that it might be a brain storming process, but most of the brain storming session involve only debates and arguments.  Good, I attended one of the Brain Mapping workshops in the past. But frankly I literally got bored of it and even thought why would i think that way. But yes now it gave me a great platform to think that way. Thanks to that Brain mapping workshop which I attended.  Google exactly follows this logic. I think the owner of the Google was a Brain Mapping Guru 🙂 sounds funny right! No not at all. This is a very important aspect to any successful foundation, technology and identity.

Did any one realize how brain mapping works, its exactly resembles our popular concepts of Social Networks and the great influential marketing. Where each of your thought is influenced by another thought. I have even added a picture so that it can be related easily.

Every thought is connected to another. Similarly there is no reason why the logic behind Social Media is not exactly like a thought of a  human.

Network, Network Network – is the only way of Marketing your Product

I sometimes do realize that we are seeing something we have already seen before, but at that time we never liked it as we always felt that it was not made for us.  I am talking about Simple Network marketing. I still remember when my friends use to call me for some interesting seminars and that use to turn out to be Amway or Quantum. I always use to runaway from these schemes of Network marketing such you become a member and then you bring 10 friends in the circle and it goes on like that. Of course,  it was one of the first concepts of Network Marketing.

We are still in the similar circle. We see so many Social Networking Sites evolving day by day getting more and more flexibility and user convenient features to add more value for interactions and conversations.

I have a very bad habit of relating every knowledge related thing to real life examples. I think that’s the way i perceive and understand it best.  As a Digital Marketing Professional i think its very important that one should always start relate these technical platforms with real life examples, because that’s how they are evolved.  All the technologies what we see in our day to day life are evolved from a human’s perspective. We want it to work that way to help in our daily needs.

Everything we see now is all evolved from our thoughts. J Just like Shivsena Shakha (Shivsena branches) having their individual networks across the state, to spread the message easily. Sorry, for Shivsena, as it is one always on our Mumbaikars mind. Just like a company having their chain of Distributors, Retailers and stockists. They do help selling the product at their individual networks.

Similarly every single human will have his own network, like me having my friends and my friends having their own friends and the chain goes on. Such a long influential network.  We have never thought like this before.

All that matters is every individual in the web network. Thanks for all these Networking Platforms which helps an individual to raise his voice, opinion across the web and also out of the web. Many times I end up debating with my friends, clients and my colleagues. We always update new figures of users who are active online. Every year we keep updating it. But we are just not talking about people who are online.

For Eg:

Say out of 100 people only 35 people are online, but one forgets that these 35 people who get influenced on web influence other remaining 75 people who are not present online, so one cannot say that Digital Marketing or online network marketing cannot drive the marketing campaigning completely. Though it might not affect the rest 75 completely but it surely affects at least 40 people out of 75.

Well its difficult sometimes to trace the people outside the internet world to find out the effect of  our marketing campaign but its so simple to understand and there is a clear logic to it.

Its just a paperless platform we are using nothing else.

Website – Your Online Sight

Okay I have a website. www.killerdrama.com.

That’s it. Hey you know I have a website. Oh wow. Its on my cards also. Oh that’s cool.

 

So what does your website speak about? Well it speaks about my company, my company, my company, my services, and my services my services. Oh that’s amazing… Cool.”

 

This is the current scenario of each and every website in India. Especially, mid segment industries and some large scale industries. They have never considered their company’s website to be a communication medium. So we see so many websites which are just not updated. Certainly they will only update their website if they are participating in any exhibitions or if they are getting into IPO.

But the fact lies many people don’t realize the importance of having a website and how can it be a powerful tool in the current Digital age. Most of the sites I have come across do not have updated content and nothing to interact with users. This is the biggest problem in Indian sites. Nothing to blame anybody but I am sure now people will start realizing the importance of updating and maintaining a website. As mentioned in my prior articles, I have clearly mentioned that even to manage a social media strategy or a campaign one needs to have clearly defined website to route all the necessary communication through the additional platforms in Social Media.

Many websites in India are still not Search Engine Optimized and many sites are completely flash based and no proper web standards followed. Such as correct use of CSS for defining the content formatting and navigation, no proper naming for the images used, no proper linking, no Meta tags, descriptions and titles defined for individual pages, we still find broken links in many websites. No proper Key word rich content and especially there are no further developments in the website even if it more than a year old. Being a web professional and a digital Professional, I always suggest in redeveloping the website every year and content updations at least every month. Lot of my clients do ask me that I want my site to appear in the first page of Google. Yeah, certainly it is like opening a box of sweets and having it. Not at all sir!

 

One needs to do lot of planning on developing your website, just as a clearly defined strategy is developed for marketing or promoting a product or a brand. The same kind of seriousness and strategies need to be thought in developing a website. Many people do think that a creative agency that is well versed with Photoshop, CorelDraw and other designing tools can develop the website on fingertips. Well I certainly never try to participate in that conversation. This is not about other countries, but certainly this has been a practice of Indian Marketers. Of course, there are examples like TATA, Reliance, Airtel, sunsilk gang of girls, eclerx, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and many more. I am certainly talking about companies who might not be as big as these, but one needs to realize that how important a website is in current scenario. The entire digital Marketing revolves on a website. Whether it may be SEM (Search Engine Marketing), PPC (Pay per click) and the powerful social media.. Driving good amount of traffic is very much possible through these tactics.

Certainly as the technologies of Web 2.0 are getting evolved, there can be so many things added to a website, such as discussion forums, polls, rating, online chat etc. and many more interactive elements can be added. Does anybody know that the most important section one could see is the Media centre, where we upload press releases, financial data etc. This is the most important section of any standard website. Your website can turn out to be an online press release which directly reaches your consumers. But these press releases should be written keeping all possible keyword in the mind and incorporate it accordingly. For any website the content is very important and one needs to make sure the content is been optimized as per to the search engine standards. Lot of people also prefer paid search marketing such as buying few keywords and promoting the site. But I would consider it as non-credible marketing, where you are forcefully driving people by promoting ads on Google and other possible place. What I always suggest my client is to always rely on natural search as it gives a more accurate and credible traffic to the website. Regular updations and regular changes in the content gets better visibility on search engines. To see it happen, one need to take necessary steps to do it.

 

If it is online then you need to have a well optimized website compulsorily and no one can have any possible excuses for it.

 

My next post will be on monitoring your website and other social Media presence.

Social Media Evolution

Social Media evolved because of Google’s new search model. I don’t know how many people in India are aware of this. I guess very few people know about it.

Even if people know about it, I would still request everybody to read it patiently as it has other connections to it.

Let me start with Search Engines. Google is the most popular & the best possible search engine available currently on internet space. There are other search engines such as yahoo, msn, ask.com but not as popular as Google.

Earlier Google used to search only WebPages & Documents. Ever since Google improved their search model, it can now start searching WebPages, PDF, Video, Audio, Images documents such as word documents, PPT, RSS feeds etc.

Now this might help you to link to my older posts. Why Social Networking, blogging, video sharing, photo sharing, social news are popular because all these are searchable in the new Google search model. And we all know that how many people rely on Google for information. Right from the product to the personality we are totally depended on Search engines.

Naturally, your profiles, videos, audio, documents can be searchable through easily. Hence Search Engine marketing such as bidding of keywords, sponsored links need not have to be taken seriously. The only important one must follow is to be present and active on these platforms in terms of Participation, conversations, updations etc. So why not take advantage of it and adopt best possible online marketing tactics

Lot of people in India does not know about how these platforms appear in Google search engine in your regular searches. Hence may not be able to connect themselves with the new media. The fact is all these Medias are so popular now that if you have a profile or a blog on any of these social media platforms, they start appearing in Google.

Now doesn’t it sound interesting?

Digital Marketing has tremendous potential in India. Provided one should be a smart marketer to understand and start using it. Especially during this recession, one needs to think smart and use this media as an advantage as it cuts down you advertising budgets drastically.

By writing these posts on Social Media in Indian Scenario, I am trying to build a connection between the traditional media and online media. So, our Indian marketers understand it quickly and are the first one to use it and create their long lasting existence.

Abroad most of the brands spend only on social media marketing and other digital Marketing methods.

My next post will talk about the current PR and advertising media and how it has been helpful to us for so long & what are their loop holes and how social media acts as a superior media to it.

Friends I am not using any technical words in all my articles just to avoid creating confusions. My articles are purely for any layman to understand how can digital media be a one stop solution for marketing and communication about their products, services, individuals, entertainment, Non government organizations, schools, Exhibitions, Logistics, Churches, Trusts, small entrepreneurs, Niche verticals, such as commodities, engineering etc.

Bloggers making a Mark

Ever since people started discovering about Social Media platforms in India, things have changed drastically in Indian Web world.

We had discussed about the use of Social Media in India, which would take lot of time to use it as a practice around six months ago. Within no time things have changed and it looks that people in India are getting acquainted to this media very soon.

Nowadays, ever since the Terror Attacks have taken place in Mumbai. All the Blogs are flooded with excellent posts and News. There have been continuous news postings on the Blogs which were also covered in the News Publications.

Now this sounds very very Interesting. haaann……………………… WHATT.. THE BLOGS WERE ALSO COVERED IN THE NEWS PUBLICATIONS……such as Mumbai Mirror, Mid Day ……. OH MY GOD. Don’t you think this sounds exciting…

Well Social Media is really booming in INDIA. I have found there are so many videos uploaded on YOU TUBE on Mumbai Terror attacks, News Media clippings from Pakistan Media. Social Networking sites are flooded with News groups voicing against Mumbai Terror attacks. I could see majority of people glued to these kind of sites expressing their opinions, views, comments, solutions etc.. It means this is happening now in India.

There has been so many articles on Individual Blogs discussing about Terror attacks. So many people had visited those blogs turning out those blogs to be the most popularly viewed blogs. Even the individual Blogger’s picture appeared in the Newspapers. What else one can expect now…

We were always skeptical about Social Media, whether the Brands would really take up this media seriously. After, all this.. i could only say that its time to take none other media than social Media Seriously.

So now we all know that majority of people do discuss about a brand, service, person etc. There has been so many things happening in the online world. I am sure in the coming month or two. Corporates will be very much inclined towards the idea of using online space to promote their businesses. Considering the fact of recession in India, this is the only inexpensive media available which can drive your marketing communications to millions of people.

JAGO INDIA JAGO………. 🙂

Indian Social Media

We all know that Social Media is the next media available to reach our business targets,  service related communication etc etc. But still, there has been lot of disagreement in using this media as the sole media.

Lot of corporates still say that it is a wage playground and anybody does anything. Well we all are in the same democratic society. Everyone has a right to speak about anything. Its in our hands and minds whether we should pay attention or be ignorant. Research agrees, that most of the people write negative about brands, criticize them , but did anybody try to passify it or tried to justify it. Well it just takes few minutes to explain or justify. But with subconscious minds nobody tries to do it. As it is known as READ, WRITE WEB, who ever wants to justify they can do it immediately. Thats where participation comes into picture and its just a initiative which is very much needed.

As we all know that if we need answers to anything we need to be participative in order to understand effectively.

In India, its time to switch on to these kind of marketing programme, as people are no more interested in looking at TV commercials, not at all interested in receiving calls from service related companies, such as Life Insurance, Credit Cards, Tours & Travels, Study Abroad, Club Membership. OH MY GOD.. there is so much to sell.

Right from the Retail segment to Distributor – Dealer network segment everyone is relying on the traditional marketing such as Print Ads, TV commercials, Call centres. But did anyone realize that how many people are looking at TV commercials nowadays. As an example, how many people switch channels during commercial breaks, and how many people get irritated with the sales calls?

So keeping all this mind, its high time that all companies start making provision for an alternative marketing programme.

Yes Social Media. This article is not to promote social media but to actually make people realize the importance and unknowingly how it is growing within our circles.

yes there are advantages and disadvantages of it. But every media has it. The best way of marketing is to cover every single source of marketing.

Social Media is a best way of permission based marketing system. So hence everyone knows it that until and unless you accept it, nothing is coming behind you.

There is lots to talk about it. But i guess this length of the article would be interesting to read and not boring to ignore.