Category: Digital Marketing

How to Turn Negative Online Reviews into Positive Customer Experiences

December 20, 2017

Businesses grapple with negative reviews every so often, that they are often left wondering how to effectively manage them. Those working in the digital marketing field will agree that negative reviews can actually help grow businesses, provide valuable insights into customer behavior, create new opportunities to build relationships, and improve brand reputation. Before you begin to clench your teeth at the very mention of “negative review”, try to put your worries to rest and learn how to turn negative online reviews into positive customer experiences. 1. Acknowledge the reviewer If there is anything that is more hurtful than feeling you’ve been wronged, it is not being acknowledged when you voice your concerns. When a customer leaves a negative review, it’s disrespectful and borderline-callous to simply ignore it. The first step one needs to take is to acknowledge the reviewer and their review. Merely knowing that you’ve been acknowledged feels like a balm to an aching muscle, and that can have deep implications to the positive customer experience you create. 2. Admit to the lapse, if any Once you acknowledge the reviewer respectfully, admit to the lapse, if there is any. Consider the customer’s perspective, and try to walk in the reviewer’s shoes. What may seem like a minor lapse to you may be a huge deal for them and not acknowledging to the lapse that has occurred could be a bigger mistake than the one that has already occurred. If you feel you have been unfairly targeted, deliberate on why the customer might have chosen to make an effort to go ahead and type a review, negative or not. Most likely, there probably was a lapse that missed your attention. 3. Offer your side of the story If there is a genuine reason for the lapse, explain your situation and narrate what actually went wrong. Owning up to one’s mistakes elevates one’s position in the eyes of the customer, rather than the contrary. However, make sure that your explanation does not come across as an excuse, as that diminishes your image. When you own up to the shortcoming, your customer will feel like they have been heard, and that has been given the importance they deserve to be. 4. Ask how you can make up for the oversight Ask the customer what you can do to make up for the lapse that took place, and provides the reviewer with a few options to make them feel better. Being given options to undo the damage that’s been done is a great way to create a positive customer experience. If you start doing this often, you will begin to see a pattern in the kind of fixes that customers want, and you can straight away offer these fixes to make your customers happy when they write negative reviews. For example, if you are an eCommerce business and have noticed that people repeatedly ask for shipping fee waivers when deliveries have been delayed, you can simply offer that as the default fix for shipping delays. 5. Explain the root cause, if any This is not always possible but if you think there is a root cause to the problem that occurred, thank the customer for providing an opportunity to recognize its existence. Explain the circumstances under which the root cause of the problem has festered, and what action you plan to take to address it. Doing this makes your customer feel more confident about your business in general, and future customers who read your response to the negative review will appreciate your genuine approach towards doing business. 6. State the action you plan to take Whether there was a root cause to the issue the customer stated, or it is a one-time lapse, make sure that you describe what action you will be taking to rectify the problem. Being as explicit as possible about your action plan imbibes a sense of honesty and dedication, and helps you gain respect from customers. Being vague or uttering cliches such as “we will do everything to fix the issue” can further infuriate an already irate customer. 7. Ask the reviewer how you can fix the issue If you are unable to decide how you are going to fix an issue, ask the customer themselves what you can do to fix the issue. Most of the times, customers may simply acknowledge that they have been heard, and that’s more than enough for them, as mistakes are committed by everyone. Sometimes, customers may ask for minor favors, and very rarely, they may try to take advantage of you. However, that will not look bad on you. 8. Display proactiveness and empathy Displaying empathy, or a genuine concern for the situation the customer finds themselves in, is more valuable than anything you will ever do to build positive customer experiences. Alongside empathy, you will also need to be proactive about fixing issues, making amends, and improve customer experiences. Most research studies point towards empathy and proactive behaviors enhancing customer experiences. Your priority should be to build positive customer experiences, regardless of reviews In short, regardless of the kind of online review you receive, your focus should be on building positive customer experiences. Begin to acknowledge the reviewer and their experiences, and work towards admitting to the lapses that might have occurred. Offer a genuine explanation, without it seeming like an excuse, and find out how you can fix the issue. Describe your situation, and explain how you will fix the problem, and ask the reviewer if there is anything else you can do to make up for their bad experiences. Underneath it all, ensure that you display empathy and proactiveness at all times.

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Haven’t Included Video In Your Digital Marketing Mix? Wait No Further, We Say

July 3, 2017

A picture is worth a thousand words. But today, we can also say a video is worth a thousand words. Videos are, undoubtedly, much more effective than text and presently, video marketing has taken the world by storm. The advent and popularity of YouTube have changed the way how we watched videos. Today, with almost all the social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) having video platforms, video consumption has increased astronomically and has become a large share of internet traffic. Snapchat generates nearly 10 billion daily video views. According to Cisco, IP video traffic will be 82 % of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021. It also predicted that Consumer Video-on-Demand (VoD) traffic will nearly double by 2021. Now, if you have already integrated video marketing in your business plan, then you and your business are on the right track. And if not, then it’s high time you do so. Did you know an average one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words? People have always been drawn towards moving images. Just imagine even a few years ago, we used to mostly receive text messages on WhatsApp. But today, we send and receive animated GIFs and short videos on WhatsApp. According to eMarketer, today an average American spends nearly nine hours a week watching videos online.  Do you know that 45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week? Now, videos with less than 30 seconds duration have 88.3% completion rate. Also, the in-app video advertising platforms and embedded videos within the website have managed to engage more users in today’s time. So, if you want your business to be smart, then you should be smart enough to include video marketing in your digital marketing mix. The tech giants and venture capitalists around the world have predicted that video marketing is the future of online content marketing and 2017 is the year of video marketing.  Also, HubSpot says, 96 % of B2B organizations use video in some capacity in their marketing campaigns of which 73% report positive results to their ROI. Now, if you are still in two minds whether to take the advantage of this video marketing boom, then this is the year to take the plunge. We will provide you with top 4 reasons why you should include video marketing in your marketing plan and how videos can be effective for your business. Videos build trust Videos encourage social sharing Videos boost search engine rankings  Videos help in getting better email marketing click-through rate   Videos build trust Scottish author George MacDonald had said, “To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.” If you are in the business, then your most important priority should be to “establish trust and win the confidence of your clients and customers.” And if you can retain the faith of your consumers, your job on the hand becomes easier. But gaining trust isn’t an easy job either. However, in this case, videos can come to the rescue and the level of engagement of the consumers and clients can increase manifold if your videos are beguiling and interactive. According to HubSpot, 64 % of users are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video. Also, 80% of users recall a video ad they have watched in the past one month. There are four types of videos you can make to increase the level of trust with the consumers. These videos create an emotional connection with the consumers and clients, which is paramount to keep the business running strong. Testimonial videos Explainer videos Product videos Company story videos According to Digital Information World, 33 % of tablet owners watch about an hour of video on their devices every day. YouTube has already become one of the most powerful and watched video platforms. Even a few years ago, video marketing was thought to be practiced only by established firms, but today, the scenario has undergone a sea change. From a startup to SME, everyone tries to include video marketing in their marketing plan. Santanu Mukherjee, head of Digital Marketing, Indus Net Technologies, informs that explaining a product or service in the form of lengthy content to a customer is actually putting a pressure on them. Also, as a marketer, he informs, he never tries to sell a product. Rather, he tries to establish a relationship with the consumer and videos enable marketers to build trust. “A customer or a client will prefer to watch an explainer video of one minute than reading a three-page brochure,” he says. He also mentions that if the video has the presence of a personality, which represents the brand, then it enhances trust and builds a connection with the virtual audience. Santanu also mentions that edutainment video, which means proving education through entertainment, is on the rise. “These videos have a greater chance of winning the trust of the consumers,” he says. However, he also cautions that the success of video marketing depends on effective and innovative planning, proper implementation and promotion. Credit: Replay Science Videos encourage social sharing The more your video is shared, the more audience you reach and higher are the chances of conversion. And as we all know, the more conversions, the more chances of getting sales. Just imagine how many of the auto-play videos on Facebook do you share on a daily basis?  Though we might not always like these “auto-play videos” but it can’t be denied that these videos have managed to up the engagement level. Also, with the increasing usage of smart devices, video sharing on social networks has taken a huge leap. 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others, says HubSpot. Facebook today is giving YouTube a run for its money through its various video features such as Live Video and Lifestage.  TechCrunch reported in 2016 that over 100 million hours of videos are watched on Facebook every day. As a brand, you should not miss out

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How are Food Bloggers Turning into Influencers and Changing the Foodscape?

May 30, 2017

Take 1: In 2015, lifestyle, food and travel vblogger Doug Armstrong went to McDonald’s beef farm, meat-processing factory and kitchen in the UK. He took the viewers on an invigorating journey on how McDonald produces its burgers. It was a paid marketing campaign. Today, the reach of the video is more than 3.9 million. Take 2: Atreya Paul, Public Relations Consultant of The Irish House, a popular restro-pub in Kolkata, relied on social media platforms to promote the outlet’s special offerings on St Patrick’s Day (March 17). He looped in Kolkata-based influencers, who shared food-related content on their social media channels. “The outreach was huge and we were very happy with the response,” says Paul. Blogging has emerged as a robust online content marketing and branding tool. Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information. Study demonstrates that 77% of Internet users read blogs and 346 million people read blogs across the world. Today, blogs are one of the foremost online media platforms, impact individuals in their buying and eating choices. Among all other industries, it’s the lifestyle, travel and food sectors which have taken the bloggers’ opinion seriously. According to a study, 92 % of consumers trust recommendations from others, even individuals they don’t know, over branded content. As food bloggers are becoming the new influencers of the industry, numerous eatery administrations are taking advantage of their online presence and are welcoming bloggers to review their restaurant. Army of influencers is rapidly changing the way F&B industry functions. Hence, food blogging, which many started off as a mere hobby, have now become a full-time profession. Kolkata-based food bloggers and influencers — Rukshana Kapadia (The Culinary Commentator) and Poorna Banerjee (Presented By P) — have a strong following and their opinions matter. Hence top restaurant management invites them and other influencers such as Astha Modi and Payel Rakshit to review their properties and write on culinary activities. So, when a food blogger become an influencer  Not all bloggers are or can be influencers. In the era of fake news and information-saturation, it’s important to identify bloggers who have depth insight on the subject because blogs are meant to be trusted source of information for the consumers. According to a study, 70% inform that online reviews are their second-most-trusted source. Also, 47 % of US readers consult blogs to keep tabs on trends and ideas. Supreeta Singh, who runs her own PR, events and communication agency in Kolkata, and regularly holds “bloggers meet” at various restaurants such as The Astor, The Grid and The Palms, informs that not all influencers are required to write blogs. She/he should be a socially active person. “A blogger can be a “very good writer” but an influencer moulds opinions. In Kolkata, there are a few important bloggers and influencers and their attendance is very crucial in every food event that I do,” she says. Food critic and influencer Rukshana Kapadia of The Culinary Commentator loves anything remotely related to food. A renowned influencer in Kolkata’s F&B industry, Rukshana clearly mentions that everyone who owns a blog “is not an influencer.” “Once you have a certain number of followers across various social media formats then your opinion does carry weight. Your reputation is built on the quality of your content,” says Rukshana, whose food blog is ranked 18 by Zomato. Rana Basu Thakur, who’s the PR consultants for reputed food properties such as Yauatcha, Club Boudoir, Keventers, and Gokuls, echoes similar sentiments and informs that an influencers’ qualitative depth resonate with a wider audience. “Influencer marketing is the fastest growing channel of marketing spends today. The more people talk about your brand or product experience, the more the virtual chatter will aid in your SEO ranking ramp ups,” he says. S Ramani, managing partner, 6 Ballygunge Place, one of the most-sought after food destinations in Kolkata, also admits that food bloggers are gaining momentum and helping in attracting business. However, he is quick to mention that not every blogger is to be trusted. “I agree blogging is changing the food industry, but one needs to look out for bloggers with integrity,” he says. How an influencer help a food brand  Planning to take out your close ones for dinner? Well, we don’t search for the newest restaurant on Google but instantly check out the reviews and the rating of the restaurant on Zomato. Reviews on other social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook also influence the decisions of the hardcore foodies. F&B businesses across the world are turning to influential bloggers to reach out to the target audience and for better customer engagement. Also, the food influencers with their creativity and thought leadership bring in the new audience too. Dineout, a popular table reservation platform, organised India’s first ever nationwide restaurant festival, The Great Indian Restaurant Festival 2017 in February. And interestingly, food influencers and bloggers played a key role in the widespread awareness of the culinary event. Sweety Dutta, Assistant Marketing Manager – Dineout, Chennai, who is an influencer herself, admits that a brand cannot always reach everyone but an influencer plays a vital part in digital marketing space to spread the word. “Our GIRF was the biggest restaurant festival in India that ran for 10 days. Influential bloggers played a very important role in making GIRF a big hit. They spread the word on a large scale with their posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and of course their blogs,” she says. Rana, who handles Yauatcha, a Michelin star Chinese eatery providing city’s best dim sums, has pioneered the concept of ‘Evening of Eminence’, where Kolkata’s eminent people and top influencers (read food bloggers such as Rukshana, Poorna, Payel Rakshit who blogs for Dine Dazzle Dive and Astha Modi of blabbercat.com) meet and discuss various topics including food. “In most cases, food influencers are genuinely helpful and resourceful in finding any lacunae in service quality. Their degree of virtual proliferation is good and the

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8 Influencer Marketing Strategies that Work

January 30, 2017

If you are hearing the term ‘influencer marketing’ a number of times these days, there is a reason behind it. It is one of the most popular strategies for companies across the world, according to few surveys conducted. The process of aligning with those who can influence your target audience is what is called influencer marketing. By aligning with people who can initiate action among your target audience, you will stand to gain more prospects, leads and finally customers. However, there is a method to influencer marketing. In this article, let us take a look at 8 useful tips that will help you to kick-start your influencer marketing campaign. Study your audience Before you begin to choose your influencers, start with your own intended audience. Most companies choose to ignore the specificities of their target audience. Use advanced metrics and Big Data to analyze what your audience likes, who might influence them, what their sub-cultures are, which psychographics they belong to, etc. Use this data to create a map which helps you better understand the kind of influencers that will initiate action. After all, the most important goal of influencer marketing is to get those influencers to initiate action in your favor. And for this, you need to start with analyzing your own audience. Choose your influencers wisely Choosing influencers needs to be done very carefully. Begin to identify the kind of content that your influencer publishes on social media and elsewhere. Identify the media through which they communicate and confirm if this aligns with your own audience. Ensure that their location is relevant to your audience. Finally, do not forget to check the quality of their content. Content needs to be professional. If they are tweeting in poor English language, then they are probably not the right influencer for you. Also, ensure that their opinions align with your business strategy. Analyze influencer content Influencer content could be in the form of text, images or videos. Depending on which media they choose to communicate, one of the other forms of content will be more popular. If your prospective influencer is a blogger, then ensure that they consistently blog about industries, products or topics that align with your products or services. It also helps if your influencer is a thought leader in the area of your expertise. Let us say you sell clothes on a small ecommerce website. An example of your perfect influencer would be someone who shops online, and shares selfies on Instagram or Twitter about their recent purchases. If they are blogging about fashion tips, they could be an even better choice. Analyze influencer audience Once you analyze influencer content, ensure that they have enough audience of their own. This way, you will not only gain access to their content but also to their audience, who will most likely be your intended target audience. Look at variables such as gender, the home situation of the audience (do they have children, are they married, etc), geographical data, etc. There are dozens of variables such as these which will help you to identify audience attributes. If your influencer has a very diverse set of audience, it may actually work against you. Your message may spread itself too thin. Manage influencer relationship Once you identify your influencers, begin to build a relationship with them. Start being responsive to their posts and communicate your expectations with them. If they agree, ensure that you compensate them for their efforts adequately. A disgruntled influencer will cause you more harm than the benefits a happy one might provide. Encourage your influencers to tell authentic stories, guide them with your strategy and help them understand the kind of content you expect from them in return for compensation. Ensure that your influencers’ activity is monitored and tracked, not in a creepy way, but to ensure that their stories align with your marketing strategy. Manage content Now that you have influencers and have identified their audience, it is time to start managing the content they produce for you or the way they distribute the content you create. Learn to repurpose the content that your influencers create. If they write a blog that is helpful to sell your product or service, a part of that blog could be published on your website as a testimonial. Of course, you will need to seek your influencers’ permission to repurpose content if they have created it. It is also important that you manage content distribution properly. Make sure you don’t mislead anyone While all this sounds good on paper, when you begin to engage in influencer marketing, things can go quite awry. This is mostly because companies often do not communicate in a transparent manner with their influencers. When this happens, the content strategy may go haywire, the trust may be lost, influencers may feel disgruntled, or worse, influencers may alienate their audience. For this reason alone, you need to be as clear and transparent as possible. Ensure that you do not mislead anyone, neither your audience nor your influencer’s audience. Most importantly, do not mislead your influencers. Measure performance The most important part of influencer marketing is measurement. You need to quantify the results and check if you are getting what you are investing for. Start tracking posts, shares, tweets and the comments that your influencers elicit. Measure the impressions and engagements and make sure that you continuously evolve your strategy. While you are at it, try to also monitor the emotions and sentiments that these posts generate among the audience. Measuring the performance of influencer content will help you to calculate Total Media Value. Even more important, you will be able to track your ROI. As you can see, influencer marketing is a complex and continuous activity that requires your sustained efforts. Without a proper plan, influencer marketing may not work to your advantage. However, when it is done properly, it will help you achieve your business targets quite easily.

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How to Use LinkedIn Groups to Boost Your Business

November 16, 2016

After LinkedIn went public, its importance as a social networking platform for professionals has crystallized to the point of it becoming mandatory for whoever wants to grow in life. LinkedIn provides a great platform for professionals and businesses to interact with each other, network, and engage in useful conversations that might lead to hiring or a business contract signed. Back in 2014, there were more than 300 million members. Now, the figure has rose to 467 million. With LinkedIn serving as the only platform for professionals to interact, it is certainly the right place to look for opportunities to boost your business. For this, LinkedIn makes things even simpler. It offers LinkedIn Groups, a great way to share your knowledge and prove that you are a thought leader in your area. A LinkedIn Group can be categorized under any industry you want, and it fetches people who are looking for communities where they can learn, share and discuss. A LinkedIn Group can be described as an active platform where knowledge is shared, and relationships are built. In this article, let us take a look at how LinkedIn Groups boost your business. Spruce up your profile One of the first things you must do in order to get business is to spruce up your profile. Most of the profiles on LinkedIn are still carrying information from years ago, and they have not been updated. Profiles are also not written in a way that they can optimize your information. Hire a professional writer and get your profile rewritten and spruced up. This is worth paying money for because this is the most important section on LinkedIn. Once you spruce up your profile, get people to write testimonials for you which are focused on your business. This will help you to land some new contracts. Communicate with your network Do not make the mistake of keeping quiet on LinkedIn. If you are like a regular LinkedIn user, you will certainly have at least 500 people in your network. Contact every single one of them and make a list of people who might be useful. Ensure that you invite all of these people to your own LinkedIn Group, about which we shall discuss below. Asking people in your connections to visit your group will help you to boost credibility and visibility. It takes a while for you to meet that sweet spot between getting people on your network and getting unknown people to join your group. Though it takes time, it is better to start with your own connections first. Create a group You can create your own LinkedIn Group. All you need to do is choose the category where your group should be listed, choose a topic, fill out some profile details and then begin sharing useful information and engaging people in discussions. Use the group to provide useful information and ask people to join if you think the discussions will help them. By creating a group, you also tend to increase your visibility. Not only for yourself, but also for your company. This helps to boost sales and leads begin to come through. Become a thought leader Once you create a group, the next step is to start sharing information that is related to your niche. Help others to solve their problems, direct them to resources and tell them what to do if they ask you for solutions. All this will crystallize your position as a thought leader or expert. Do not beat around the bush or talk about things that are irrelevant to your experience. Be honest and share from your personal and professional experience, so that it helps people to make the right choices. Involve your employees Once you establish yourself as a thought leader, and once your group is popular enough, ask your own employees to start sharing information and engaging in discussions. This brings a more human and public face to your company, which is always important if you want business. Involving employees is a great idea, because they tend to have their own connections too, who will probably join the group your employees are commenting in. This way, you can enhance traffic not only to the group, but to your own website, which certainly will lead to more conversions. Join other groups Once your own group is doing well, begin to join other similar groups too. This will help you to interact with even more people and get them to join your group. Most importantly, do not go to other groups and spam them continuously with comments in order to gain visibility. Instead, respond to queries that match with your experience, and when there is conversation happening, you can invite the other person to join your own group./ This way, you will not annoy people and you will still be able to get quality leads from others groups. Last but not the least, you will learn a lot from conversations in other groups. Take home thoughts As we can see, LinkedIn is a great place to network with other professionals. Networking on LinkedIn may lead to possible job or business opportunities. Make sure that your personal profile is up to date and communicate with your network regularly and create a group based on your expertise. Ensure that you post regularly in the group and help others. LinkedIn is a wonderful platform that can be used by professionals and businesses alike. LinkedIn Groups help to boost your identity as a thought leader and that indirectly boosts your business.

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Is Facebook Live For You?

November 10, 2016

There is a lot of content out there, that simply is not relevant to people. One of the reasons for this is that content is time dependent. Some kinds of content fare better when they are as close to the real thing as possible. For example, we would not want to watch re-runs of football matches. Instead, we would like to watch them live. Similarly, we would not want to watch an interview much late. If our favorite celebrity is online, we would like to watch it as it is happening. If you have a company or a brand, and you would like to reach your Facebook followers in a more intimate and immediate manner, Facebook Live may be the best answer. Facebook Live brings video live streaming to your followers, with the help of which you can stream videos live. Each time you stream a video, your audience will be sent notifications. This helps you to connect with them on a real time basis. Certainly, you would not want to keep posting same text messages and miss out on live streaming advantages. Facebook Live may be great for you if you already have a large audience. In this article, let us take a look at the features of Facebook Live and then discuss for whom it is a good option. What is Facebook Live? What Are Its Features? Facebook Live helps you to broadcast live to a large audience, across the world. All you need is a cellphone with a camera, and a cellular or Wi-Fi network. Facebook Live helps you to have engaging conversations with your followers. You can answer their questions, interact with them face to face, and then you can monitor live reactions. Live reactions help you to know what they are thinking and what you should be doing. It is a well known fact that people love watching videos. Facebook Live is a great place for people to watch videos they like. All your current followers will receive the videos in their news feed. Newer followers can be discovered too, when you livestream an event or a video. The best feature of Facebook Live is that you will be able to connect immediately. You can instantly talk to people who care about your brand and you can soak in their feedback, without wasting any time. Facebook Live is one of the best options to narrate your story. And you can do this the way you want. Facebook Live offers great filters that can be used to create special effects in your video live streaming. With all these great features, Facebook Live is certainly a force to reckon with. However, is it really for you? In this section, let us take a look at whether Facebook Live is for you or not. Do you have a social presence? The first question you need to ask yourself is, if you have a social presence. If you do not have a Facebook page set up, or any social followers, it may not be the right time to go ahead and spend time on Facebook Live. The first thing you should be doing is to set up your brand’s Facebook page with the help of which you can build an audience. First, concentrate on setting up your Facebook Page. Once you are done with that, you can start looking at building a good follower base. Do you already have a lot of followers? If you do not have a lot of followers, Facebook Live may not help you a lot. Facebook Live is an intimate video live streaming service that helps you to connect with your audience better. Of course, it can help you find new followers, but you first need a good Facebook presence in order to find newer followers. So, it is a good idea to focus on building your page, interacting with your audience, blogging regularly, and basically, engaging in social media campaigns that will help you gain followers traditionally. What do you plan to achieve through Facebook Live? You need to know what you plan to achieve with Facebook Live. It is a live streaming service that works the best when you have something to show, say or tell. For example, you can live stream an event such as a product launch, or you can talk to your audience directly. This means, you can engage with them at a personal level and this helps you to connect with them personally. You may also set up Q & A sessions to help answer questions and get to know what is in people’s minds. Take home message Facebook Live is a great video live streaming service that works well when one already has enough followers. It comes with a number of useful features that helps you to retain and gain new followers. You can use Facebook Live to answer people’s questions, use live reactions to understand their thought process, and also ensure that your videos reach new followers. You can easily connect with your audience and narrate your story the way you want to say it. However, you need to make sure that Facebook Live is really for you. It works well for those who already have a social media strategy in place. It also works well when one has a lot of followers or when they know what they want to achieve through Facebook Live. If this is not the case, then you might want to start with a social media strategy instead, working through social profiles and then getting into niche services such as Facebook Live. At the end of the day, all social platforms come with their own features that make it easy for you to reach your target audience. However, you need to know what you are looking for and how you plan to do it. With a proper plan in place, you can make use of Facebook Live and other many interesting features that Facebook and other social platforms provide.

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Was Changing Instagram’s Logo a Bad Idea?

October 17, 2016

A few months ago, Instagram changed its logo. The familiar icon was replaced by something less defined and more minimalist. There was a lot of hue and cry initially but all that seems to have settled down. Instagram is still being used, and people are still sharing pictures. Most people have also forgotten what Instagram’s older logo looked like. Well, not really, but nobody seems to be paying attention to Instagram’s new design anymore. This is a luxury that very popular brands enjoy. If Nike redesigned its logo today, it will still be the same popular that it is today. Of course, people are going to get mad and investors may start selling their shares en masse. Yet, Nike will continue to make the great shoes it already makes, and will continue to appeal to a newer generation. Similarly, Instagram is now releasing Snapchat-like features, with 24-hour validity for some pictures. It is also enabling its users to disable hateful comments. And life goes on. Nothing really has changed for Instagram in the last few months, after it changed its logo. [php snippet=1] There are a few things that we can learn from Instagram’s logo change and what it teaches us about rebranding. Changing logo is not a catastrophe A lot of companies believe that a logo must never be changed and that if it is, the unthinkable might happen. This is not true. Changing logo does not lead to a catastrophe. It does not alienate your users or customers, though they may not receive it well initially. Changing a logo is also not a threat to your company that should always be avoided unless necessary. On the other hand, a logo change could be an opportunity in the right direction. If your current logo is kind of boring you already, there is no reason why you should not get a new one designed, or at least make changes in the existing one. Changing a logo may bring a lot of benefits, such as new followers, new customers and the ability to appeal to a different demographic. For example, Instagram’s new logo is very youthful, and is likely targeted at Generation Z, the upcoming generation. People’s memory is often short-lived People may complain and dislike the logo change initially. Yet, after a while, they tend to forget how the first logo looked. A survey that was recently conducted revealed that most people were unable to describe what a logo looked like, after it was changed 2-3 months previously. This indicates that people’s memory is short lived. They do not remember design very well, and they get used to the changes. It is similar to people complaining when furniture is moved in the drawing room. Yet, after a while, they forget where the chair was initially kept or the couch was previously placed. They begin to accept and even start liking the new position. Similarly, people may dislike changes made to an existing logo. However, after a while, they will embrace it and forget the previous one. Adding new features will compensate for unpleasant changes If your new logo is not accepted by a large section of your target audience, there is no need to worry about it. This very large section will soon forget what they were angry about. However, you should ensure that while they are displeased about the logo change, they do not jump ship and go toward your competitor. For that, you will need to compensate the changes made to your brand with some new features that are appealing. This is easy to do, as evidenced by Instagram. Soon after making changes to its logo, Instagram added several new features, with the most memorable one being a Snapchat-like feature, where photos can be set to vanish after 24 hours. Rebranding may sometimes be necessary The very reason we change logo is because the current one may not be representative of your brands. The current logo may also not be fetching you the results you need. This means, you will need to rebrand your products and services and use a new logo. Studies show that a logo change usually brings in new customers. If you are truly looking for new customers to approach you, a rebranding strategy may work very well in your favor. All you need to do is to make changes to the existing logo or get a completely different one. As stated before, it is not going to matter whether your new logo is liked initially or not. Sooner or later, people will embrace the new version and forget the older one. This is just how the human mind works. Just to be sure, get your logo designed by professionals and do not make attempts to change them yourself. Take home message As you can see, changing one’s logo is not a big deal. If you do not like your existing logo, you can always change it. It does not matter how long it has been used, and how popular the logo is with your fans. In other words, changing one’s logo is not such a big deal. Moreover, with time, people forget what the previous logo looked like. They will begin to relate to the newer logo the same way they embraced the previous one. This has got something to do with people’s memory patterns. If your new logo is not well received, you still have a right to go ahead with it. After all, you probably have a wonderful mission behind the logo change. Nevertheless, adding new features may help to compensate negative feelings about logo change. People are more likely to ignore what they don’t like, and embrace what they like. Finally, rebranding in the way of changing a logo or design is important. Sometimes it is eve necessary. This means, your company may not do well if the current logo isn’t doing what it should. Get expert opinions and decide if you want to change the logo or stick with

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How to Reach New Customers amidst Online Noise

September 19, 2016

There is a lot of noise out there, with blogs becoming the norm for every company to reach their target audience, and also to boost traffic to the website. There is also a lot of noise originating on social media, with every company making claims and with people talking about these companies too, without much basis or evidence. Some rate certain products and services highly and some, poorly. Yet, one can never tell if these reviews, blogs, or social conversations are unbiased or if they come with certain shady intentions. Nevertheless, if you are selling genuine products and services, there is a way to reach new customers amidst all this online noise. The main modus operandi is to persist. Persistence pays off very well, especially when it comes to remaining online, and remaining relevant. Companies that are looking at making a quick buck will usually lose interest in blogging or in social media campaigns, which need to be ongoing and relevant throughout. These companies often tend to be erratic and sometimes even dramatic, when it comes to posting online. Much of online noise is from companies like this. On the other hand, genuine companies that really want to inform their target audience and still reach new customers tend to be persistent with their content marketing efforts. This is because; they truly have something lasting to contribute. To reach new customers online despite the noise, here is what you should be doing: [php snippet=1] Slow and steady wins the race When it comes to content marketing, you need to be slow and steady. What does this mean? Should you post 4 blogs a month or 8? Or should you post 20 blogs a week? The answer really depends on your ability and also, what you can provide to the community. If you run out of topics or information related to your product or service, you will not have much useful content to write after a while. So, probably, it is a good idea to remain slow and steady, and publish as much content is required. This could be anywhere between 4 and whatever number you would like to publish. Just ensure that you can blog for years, and not weeks or months. Be patient and persistent Rome wasn’t built in a day. Likewise, your content marketing strategy cannot be solidified within a month or two. It takes time to get the strategy going, and it takes even longer to see the results. However, when you start seeing organic traffic coming your way, you will realize that your efforts are well worth it. However, you need to be patient and persistent in your approach. With patience, you will research better, publish more often without feeling pressurized and you will be able to publish regularly, instead of going on an overdrive and then not publishing at all. Do your research Before publishing any blog or post, you need to research your topic well. Most blogs published today are not well researched, and they are simply published to generate traffic. You should not publish anything with traffic in mind. You should consider every content piece of yours to be a sales document, which will last for a long time. This requires a lot of research. Put together resources, studies, numbers etc before you publish a post. Develop a content niche You cannot possibly publish blogs on all topics related to your field. You should not be doing that anyway, as that will likely seem like noise to your readers. The more general your topics are, the more chances of your message getting diluted. You need to find that sweet spot where you do not come across as a person with an obsession for topic specificity, and at the same time, you do not become so vague that your message is lost. Be genuine in your communication There is nothing worse than inauthentic messages and blogs. You need to develop your own voice and provide content that is engaging. Engage with your readers in a manner that is authentic and honest. Do not communicate in a manner that does not come across as genuine. Being genuine helps you to connect with readers, and they will be more amenable to receiving your sales message. After all, you need to be making those sales happen at the end of a content marketing campaign. And, content marketing campaigns do not end. They go on. The take home message As you can see, online noise can be a very annoying problem to handle. There are a number of companies out there, all trying to create a buzz about their own products and services. With so much of noise online, it becomes difficult for you to stand out, yet, all is not lost. Most of the companies tend to be either creating noise for the sake of attention or for the sake of grabbing as many customers as possible. The good news is, content marketing is not something that will pay off dividends overnight. It needs a slow and steady approach. If you have a genuine product or service, you can be persistent with your content marketing strategy and remain relevant for a long time. The take home message is that you should be slow and steady with content marketing efforts and that you should not look for quick results. You must be patient and persistent, and always look towards creating content assets that will last for years and that which will remain relevant even after a long time. Before publishing anything online, do your research. Ensure that all your content is backed or supported by research. Do not create content that is only remotely connected with your actual product or service. Find your niche and develop content that is relevant. In other words, develop a niche. Most importantly, be as honest and genuine as you can be, when you communicate with readers and followers. This will help you to stand out from the rest of the noise online.

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Connect Social Media Buttons to Boost SEO and ORM

September 5, 2016

In 2016 and beyond, search engine optimization will rely heavily on social signals, a metric that is derived from social activities of web users. Earlier, web administrators and search engines depended heavily on keywords and other such metadata. In recent years, the popularity of social media has resulted in more traffic generating from these tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. With this in mind, search engine optimization strategies now heavily depend on social media strategies. Moreover, managing a company’s or individual’s reputation online also depends on social media as people are more likely to go to social channels to vent their ire. With this being the case, it only makes sense to understand social media more thoroughly, as optimizing social strategies help to improve both SEO and ORM in the short and long terms. One of the most important ways to do this is to connect social media buttons to every page or post on a website, so that social signals are generated with the help of social engagement, leading to better ranking and search results. By adding social buttons, companies can ensure that users land on the correct page of the company and engage with the content on the web page or company’s social media accounts. Before we discuss why you must connect your social media buttons to your website, let us take a look at the two important kinds of social media buttons. [php snippet=1]  Social share buttons Social share buttons help users and visitors to share content they like (or sometimes dislike) on your website. They may use the buttons to actively promote your content on social media websites, which helps you to generate traffic and increase social conversations about your company, which ultimately lead to better search rankings. These social share buttons are usually made available as sticky social menus, that move along the screen as a reader reads through the website. In other situations, social share buttons may be displayed at the beginning or end of a post, or both. Along with social share buttons, it is common to add email and print options as well, though they help much less in SEO. Social media buttons Social media buttons, on the other hand, are completely different. In this case, these buttons link to your social profiles so that visitors can reach your company pages on various social networking websites. It is common for most companies to have active Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Social media buttons should link to these profiles of yours so that visitors can reach your social profiles to contact you, be informed by you and also engage with you at a deeper level. Social media buttons are often confused with social share buttons, though both help in SEO and ORM. In this article, let us take a look at how social media buttons that connect your website to your social profiles help in SEO and ORM. Social media buttons increase traffic to your social profiles It is a well-known fact that social profiles lead to better engagement. If people first arrive at your website and you still have not connected social profiles to your website, you may lose out on a lot of traffic. With social buttons, people can easily find you in social media and arrive at your social profiles. This leads to increased online footfalls and a better traffic growth. Increased social signals lead to better SEO Search engine optimization now depends on social signals. If more people are talking about a topic, search engines assume that those topics must be important, and thus rank them higher. When you use social buttons on your website, people will begin to talk about you on social profiles and thus help you to increase your search rankings. This is not a clear cut pathway to social media success, though. You will need to have a great social strategy in place, which is, of course, a different story altogether. Visitors can raise issues and seek help on social profiles One of the best ways to boost your online image is to solve people’s problems. Tools like Twitter and Facebook are increasingly being used to offer customer support. When people come to your social profiles to seek help, they most probably leave all the comments out there in open for people to see. If you have been consistently providing great customer care on social profiles, you will gain a lot more followers, which in turn will help you to improve your online reputation. If negative comments are left, the way you deal with them will help you to boost your ORM. Your social engagement helps to boost your image It is a well-known fact that people often peer through a company’s social profiles before they make decisions related to purchasing. If you link your social buttons and people are able to find their way to your social pages, it becomes easier for them to understand the way you conduct your business. Of course, this goes with assuming that you provide great customer service which you would like to flaunt. Social buttons are expected These days, people expect to see links to your social profiles. If they do not find them, they may think you are outdated or worse, that you are not reliable. In this sense, your social buttons add to your reputation and also reliability. It is crucial to ensure that people do not start to wonder if your business is suspicious because it has no links to social profiles. Yield to customers’ expectation and you will be seen as someone who is in sync with the changes that are happening. A unique combination of SEO and ORM Social buttons help you to bring your social profiles to your audience, which is a great way to not only boost your search engine ranking, but also your online reputation. Thus, adding social buttons can be a great way to boost your online reputation and search engine rankings.

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HootSuite and Other Tools to Manage Multiple Social Media Handles

August 30, 2016

Social media marketing has a pivotal place among marketers. Consumers love to engage with marketers on social media because they are free to express their concerns and learn more about products amid entertaining and relaxed environment. However, managing all social media tools at once becomes a little difficult. There are many tools that empower a marketer to manage multiple social media handles. One among them and the most popular is Hootsuite. The following article will focus on features and usability of Hootsuite in detail and a few other tools, in short, to manage social media handles. Hootsuite Hootsuite is a comprehensive tool for managing all your social media accounts through a single dashboard.  With its ability to manage more than 80 social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and many more applications, it becomes one of the most powerful tools to address all your social media management needs. Integration Hootsuite integrates social media platforms of your choice and manages them through a single dashboard.  You can even group social media platforms of your choice and manage them through multiple dashboards. Hootsuite can integrate with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This integration allows businesses to incorporate all social interactions of customers and track them through Hootsuite dashboard.  This facilitates user identification and lead generation. The social data collected can be added to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and get a refined view of each customer. [php snippet=1] Collaboration It swiftly operates shared social media accounts for collaboration of teams and organizations. It is proficient to assign conversation to team members. Collaboration can be enhanced through the integration of SharePoint in Hootsuite. This enables businesses to utilize social media content across teams and quickly resolve customer issues. Moreover, users can bring data from Sharepoint sites to Hootsuite dashboard & use it along social media data from Facebook, Twitter etc. Another handy tool for collaboration is Yammer.  Integration of Hootsuite with Yammer facilitates real-time collaboration among employees while engaging with customers on social media.  This enables employees from different departments to work collectively in real-time and quickly respond or act upon social interaction with their customers. Automate publishing Hootsuite dashboard has a powerful Compose Message tool that allows you to create a message and shares it with selected social media platforms. Autoschedule feature in Hootsuite allows you to publish content at a predefined time and platform.  This feature gives you more time to find and share relevant content rather than worry about time of posting. Bulk Scheduling allows you to keep your social media platforms active. It is useful when you have a lot of content to share on a regular basis.  However, this feature is more suitable for Twitter because this method only supports text and link posts. Campaigns Hootsuite is highly effective to create and launch social media campaigns like contests, user-generated galleries, sweepstakes etc across multiple platforms.  It enables you to create interactive promotions for the target audience, generate leads and engage them more with your business goings-on. This feature simplifies social media marketing and is suitable for businesses of all size. It can integrate with Facebook’s latest page features like shopping, service and call-to-action buttons.  Apart from that, users can select campaign type according to their need from its intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Analytics This feature gives you a fair idea about your social media actions and results of your social media campaigns.  Analytics act as an eye-opener and make it easier for you to do the follow-up on your efforts. It gives you deep insight about user engagement and social media activities so that you can realize and create what works best in the interest of consumers and your organization. Hootsuite Analytics enable extensive monitoring of data to generate printable reports for your business. Analytics reports compile and visualizes data from different social media platforms.  Depending upon the module selected, reports contain a specific set of data. Mobile application Hootsuite’s powerful mobile application has made it convenient for users to manage and control social media anytime and anywhere. Hootsuite app is available for both Apple and Android platforms.  It allows you to manage multiple networks, schedule posts, and track content performance. It further enables you to geo-locate your posts to share favorite places and engage with nearby followers. Social media listening  It is very important for a marketer to know what’s being said about his brand. This ability helps you to understand what customers and competitors are talking about your brand. It forms an integral part of online reputation management because you can only reform your reputation once you know where you are lacking. Furthermore, Hootsuite allows you to track key phrases and terms across teammates’ posts so that you can interfere when necessary and take stock of the situation.  This helps users to precisely respond to customers’ needs and bring in new customers. Hootlet plug-in There are multiple plug-ins for Hootsuite and one among them is Hootlet. This is a brilliant plug-in for Hootsuite that simplifies the process of sharing content with your followers.  Hootlet is easily accessible through a quick-launch button atop web browsers. The moment you come across interesting content on the web, clicking Hootlet shortens URL and inserts a small snippet of relevant text from that website into your social media message. Hootsuite securely manages your content syndication needs Hootsuite is an excellent tool to take care of your content syndication needs by publishing on multiple platforms apart from hoards of other benefits.  It is used by businesses of all sizes, agencies, and enterprises.  Security is of prime importance for Hootsuite users because reputation and assets are all at stake. Secured logins, profile protections and permission levels enable a strong security layer across the organization. Hootsuite minimizes the time you spend to manage multiple social media accounts. Post scheduling, conversation monitoring and rapid response to customer queries and comments make Hootsuite one of the most sought-after tools for social media management today. Few other noteworthy apps Buffer Buffer is another very useful tool for social

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