5 Myths About Online Social Marketing

1. Social Marketing does not work :
> It Works, and there is no reason why it will not continue to even in future
The only care that one has to take is to segment the communication with relevance to the type of social platform. For e.g. a communication for a blog will have to be different than a communication on a forum than a communication on a networking site than a communication on an answers site ...
which is were advertisers mostly fail। They need not create a traditional ad for social sites, even if they have to the flavour, format and content should be different for different types of social platforms.

2. You cannot get enough CTRs on Social Sites:

> See the indirect results: Communication on social sites will give you volumnous referral traffic from different sites and sources.It has an elastic effect, the responses stretch over a long period, and your communication reaches indirectly to people who you could not have targeted otherwise.
At Bahrti Airtel, I started perhaps one of Asia's first Online Reputation Management and Social Media Marketing, and while I cannot quote numbers, the experience was quite motivating.
Also we need to prune our objectives: the objectives cannot be just CTRs, if that's the game you want to play then hire a lead generating agency, do mass mailings thorugh list agencies and don't bother about where you get clicks from।

3. Social Sites are not good enough for branding.

> No one single vehicle or platform is enough for branding today (even TV)so let's not put this arguement forward against Social Media Marketing.
Internet has the capability for multimedia depiction of communication, and through innovative ways a brand can be built on internet and on a social site।The only thing against this is volumes. However With mobile internet and wimax, internet usage could beat beat TV usage in less than 5 years.

4. Advertising is the only way you can earn money on Social Sites

> May not be an entirely correct statement.
Tomorrow you will have premium networking sites...with membership fee and advantages. In UK there are sites which offer you online security services in case as a female you want to on a blind date with a person you met on that social networking site. So what happens here is that if you went for a blind date and did not come back and deactivate an alarm online within a stipulated time...the site will immediately send alarms to your relatives and friends alongwith address and profile of person whom the female went to blind date with.
These are paid services.
What happens if we have a 'c' class' social network...do you think it will be free?
What about collaborative sites: sites which aggregate music lovers from across the world and let them together create music. The site has potential to charge you for marketing your music, can charge you for providing base audio to supplement your vocals, can sell accessories, memntos etc.For eg. check out http://www.estockmusic.com/.
So social sites will earn from advertisements as also from subscriptions and ecommerce sales।

5. People who come to social sites are not serious snough hence advertising will not work

> There is a reason why people come on social networking sites: And that reason is networking and collaborating।
How can as marketers we extend or enhance "networking" and "collaboration" experience through our communication? This is what we should think instead of CTRs।
If you start thinking about CTRs, then you will be driven by how to increase impressions and eventually become desparate and abandon.
But if you think about contextualisation, collaboration and experience, then CTRs and eye balls will automatically happen.

Social Media Marketing/Online Reputation Management

I have recently initiated, among other internet marketing initiaives in my organisation, something called Social Media Marketing. One of the facets of Social Media Marketing is ORM (Online Reputation Management). Infact it will not be wrong to say that ORM is just another face of Social Media Marketing.

In India there's a fairly low level of awareness about ORM/SMM, and I thought it will be great to start a discussion around similar topics which are cutting edge and in vogue in mature economies, but gradually gaining ground in India.

So here it goes, please do contribute, it will be great to assimilate different ideas:

What is Online Reputation Management?

Online Reputation management is the process of tracking our image and perception in the market among stakeholders, recording the relevant perception pointers and opinions in the market; and creating a response strategy and action plan to either strengthen the positive pointers or weaken the negative perception.

Since a large base of customers/prospects/stakeholders access and share information via websites/blogs and search engines, Search Engine Reputation Management (or SERM) tactics are one of the most integral part of an overall ORM strategy.

3 Prime Focus Areas:

Monitor
Optimize and
Engage

Monitor

We need to monitor what: Brand, Products, Company and Key Executives.

Where: News, Blogs, Forums, Social Media and Search

Optimize

Most of the reputation management companies (and Corporates) often indulge in reactive measures. What they end up doing is chasing the dissenters and do not their brand in a position of control.

In-fact, in India a very common (and uneducated) response would be to ask one’s online agency to remove all bad content about oneself from all blogs in the world!

A few others of similar variety would attribute negative imagery on blogs to competition, and would want the agency or online marketing division to retort back with greater vengeance!

While the competition may be involved in spreading a negative word about you, it will be wise to stay stoic and not indulge in a similar reactive strategy.

What many people forget is that the consumer or the reader is much smarter than what they think of him!

What one needs to have, instead is a well thought –out long term strategy to have their digital communication optimized, so that they are present in the form of blogs, articles, or video content across identified set of sites.

Once one starts participating in selected number of strategic sites, their content will grow, communities around these content areas grow, and subsequently this content starts featuring in search results. Since more sites with positive content will feature in search engine, the old negative content sites will automatically be pushed down.

Engage

Let’s say that we encounter a negative article on a blog, here are steps in dealing with it:

Research the situation – is there merit?
If not, provide the facts and ask for corrections
If yes, then offer to discuss
Be ready to respond with your own blog
Be honest, be transparent and LISTEN
Results can be any anything from a positive turn around to a loyal brand evangelist.

A few tips to interact with negative blogs:

Investigate facts internally before taking action - could this be a competitor spreading rumor? Is there really something bad about a particular service which is being complained about?
Always take the high ground

Be honest!

Explain what you have done to rectify any issue

Offer to resolve any complaints personally - have a senior-level staff member make the offer - try to continue discussion offline and utilize your allies.

Don’t create new “personas” to support your position in blogs, forums and message boards as you’ll likely be caught! As I said the reader/consumer is very smart!

Look froward to the 2nd and concluding part next week!