Social Media MKTNG 654 v1

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Sub Code - 654
Developed by
Prof. Chinmay Kamat
On behalf of
Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research
Advisory Board
Chairman
Prof. Dr. V.S. Prasad
Former Director (NAAC)
Former Vice-Chancellor
(Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University)
Board Members
1. Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe 2. Dr. B.P. Sabale 3. Prof. Dr. Vijay Khole 4. Prof. Anuradha Deshmukh
Group Director Chancellor, D.Y. Patil University, Former Vice-Chancellor Former Director
Welingkar Institute of Navi Mumbai (Mumbai University) (YCMOU)
Management Ex Vice-Chancellor (YCMOU)
Program Design and Advisory Team
Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Mr. Manish Pitke

Dean – Marketing Faculty – Travel and Tourism
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Management Consultant
Prof. Kanu Doshi Mr. Smitesh Bhosale

Dean – Finance Faculty – Media and Advertising
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Founder of EVALUENZ
Prof. Dr. V.H. Iyer Prof. Vineel Bhurke

Dean – Management Development Programs Faculty – Rural Management
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Prof. Venkat lyer Dr. Pravin Kumar Agrawal

Director – Intraspect Development Faculty – Healthcare Management
Manager Medical – Air India Ltd.
Prof. Dr. Pradeep Pendse Mrs. Margaret Vas

Dean – IT/Business Design Faculty – Hospitality
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Former Manager-Catering Services – Air India Ltd.
Prof. Sandeep Kelkar Course Editor

Faculty – IT Mr. Anuj Pandey
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Publisher
Management Books Publishing, Mumbai
Prof. Dr. Swapna Pradhan Course Coordinators

Faculty – Retail Prof. Dr. Rajesh Aparnath
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Head – PGDM (HB)
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Prof. Bijoy B. Bhattacharyya Ms. Kirti Sampat

Dean – Banking Manager – PGDM (HB)
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Mr. P.M. Bendre Mr. Kishor Tamhankar

Faculty – Operations Manager (Diploma Division)
Former Quality Chief – Bosch Ltd. Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Mr. Ajay Prabhu

Faculty – International Business
Corporate Consultant
Mr. A.S. Pillai

Faculty – Services Excellence
Ex Senior V.P. (Sify)
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1st Edition, June 2019 2nd Edition, May 2023

CONTENTS
Contents
Chapter No. Chapter Name Page No.
1 Introduction To Social Media Marketing 4-37

2 Choosing The Right Social Media Networks For 38-61
Your Business
3 Utilizing Popular Platforms For Business 62-124
Generation On Social Media
4 Global Platforms For Social Media Marketing 125-148
5 Techniques For Providing ‘Human Touch’ To 149-179
Brands On Social Media
6 Analytics To Measure Social Media Impact 180-213
7 Social Media Success Stories: The ‘Indian 50 Feet 214-261
View’
8 The Future Of Social Media Marketing 262-316
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INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Chapter 1
Introduction To Social Media Marketing
Objectives
After discussing this chapter, you will be able to:
• Introduce the concept of Social Media and Marketing on Channels of
Social Media.
• Develop an understanding of the need for Social Media Marketing.
• Understand the correct way of Social Media Marketing done by Successful
Brands.
• Describe in detail the benefits derived through Social Media Marketing.
Structure
1.1 Introduction.
1.2 Understanding the Need for Social Media Marketing.
1.3 Developing the Right Mindset to Link Audiences to Social Media
Marketing.
1.4 Social Media Marketing done the Correct Way by Successful Brands.
1.5 Leveraging the Advantages and Benefits of the Social Media.
1.6 Popular Social Media Marketing Platforms at a Glance.
1.7 Short Case Study.
1.8 Activities.
1.9 Summary.
1.10 Self Assessment Questions.
1.11 Multiple Choice Questions.
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1.1 INTRODUCTION
Social Media is an online platform where people from diverse backgrounds
come together and interact. In the context of Marketing on this medium,
organizations come across prospects that are not from the same industry
or have never seen their products or services, especially if it’s a new
invention. If organizations can find a way to provide solutions on Social
Media, they will get much higher brand awareness, because people are
more likely to share information that they understand. When organizations
or individuals promote on Social Media channels, their brand will appear
not just in search engines but also in search results across the Internet. If
a prospect finds content useful or interesting, they can share it with their
contacts quickly and easily, creating organic exposure for brands. Social
media channels facilitate the process of instantly sharing information with a
large number of contacts.
Today’s businesses are keen to get involved with Social Media Marketing.
This is a trend that has fascinated the corporate world since the huge
Global success of Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. It is critical to
understand the basics of Social Media in order to leverage the advantages
and huge benefits of Social Media Marketing. Social Media Marketing in a
nutshell is the process of building brand awareness and value through its
diverse channels spread online.
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Saying that most people spend a good part of their days on social media
would not be an exaggeration, at least not in today’s world. Social media
has become an integral part of people’s lives and daily routines. Some are
addicted to it so much that the first thing they do after waking up is to
check their social media feeds. Various studies conducted across the globe
demonstrate a huge potential for social media marketing to raise revenues,
but a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results. People want
to deal with people, not with companies, and communicating through social
media builds that level of personal trust. The transparent nature of Social
Media is instrumental in building trust with potential consumers. Thus, to
summarize in this introductory session - Social media is online content
created by people using highly accessible publishing technologies. It's a
combination of sociology and technology, converting one-too-many
conversations into many-to-many conversations and is the democratization
of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.
At its most basic level, social media is a shift in how people discover, read
and share news, information and content. Social media has become
extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world
to form relationships for personal and professional use.
Video Link 1
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Given the importance of social media in consumers' lives, marketers and
businesses flock to social platforms in the hope of connecting with their
target customers. However, there is a content overload on social media,
and the competition is very high. It can be challenging for them to stand
out unless they have a clear social media marketing strategy. Staying
updated on the latest social media trends can help fuel the strategy and
make marketers stand out in the crowd. Consumers nowadays demand
authenticity from brands, with 86% of consumers saying that transparency
has now become more important than ever. Aside from transparency,
today’s consumers expect businesses to nurture authentic human
connections and build an emotional connection to a brand. One example of
how brands can nurture authenticity is by empowering their leaders to play
a more proactive role on social media. Apart from fostering long-term
trust, transparency can help consumers continue to do business with a
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brand even during a crisis. Millennial consumers in the same survey, for
instance, want brands to be more transparent on social media, with 69% of
them wanting a company’s CEO to have a “personal presence” on social
media channels and that CEOs have the power to make a positive impact
when they are transparent, according to 71% of millennial consumers.
Moreover, when brands work toward building more authentic relationships
and deeper connections with their audience, they are more likely to enjoy a
slew of benefits, such as improved brand reputation and better sales
figures.
1.2 UNDERSTANDING THE NEED FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING
A recommendation from a friend is the strongest marketing message to
purchase a product or service online. Social Media enables word-of-mouth
marketing by making it quick and easy to tell friends about the positive
experience with a brand or service. Social Media being a one-to-many
medium doesn’t just make it easy to tell a single friend; it’s just as easy to
inform all friends what’s on one’s mind. Studies have shown that Marketing
through Social Media has a full hundred percent higher lead-to-close rate
than conventional marketing. A strategic and open social media plan could
prove influential in changing consumers into being brand loyal. A higher
number of Social Media followers tend to improve trust and credibility for
the brand, thus creating the required social proof. As such, simply building
your audience in social media can improve conversion rates on your
existing traffic. Brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher
loyalty from their customers. Companies should take advantage of the
tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their
audience. Today’s consumers are increasingly gravitating toward more
authentic experiences and are open to engaging with brands and
influencers that offer not only value, but also authenticity. Thus, in the
coming years, you can expect to see more brands working with nano- and
micro-influencers. Despite their relatively smaller following, nano- and
micro-influencers often have higher engagement. Nano-influencers, for
instance, have an average engagement rate of 3.69%, which is higher than
that of macro-influencers. In the coming years, we can expect to see nano-
and micro-influencers take center stage as more brands are likely to opt
for a more “community-led approach.”
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With the volume of competition that businesses face in the world of

Marketing, it’s never been more important to stand out and develop a
unique identity and value proposition through strategic branding by
leveraging Social Media as a vehicle for Marketing. While it’s obviously
important to offer a quality product or service, effective branding on Social
Media is often at the core of the businesses that succeed. Thus brand is the
perception someone holds in their head about a product, a service, an
organization, a cause, or an idea. Brand building is the deliberate and
skilled use of effort to create a desired perception in someone else’s mind.
The presence on Social Media defines the brand image and separates it
from a detached object to a popular and trendy brand. Participating in
social media channels brings brands closer to their customers and potential
customers. Thus it is safe to say that presence on Social Media leads to
increased brand recognition. Every opportunity that brands have to
associate their content and increase visibility on Social Media is extremely
valuable. An online customer might become better acquainted with a brand
after seeing its presence on multiple networks. The social media platforms
are viewed as new and constantly evolving channels for presence of
today’s brands. This is important because it simultaneously makes them
easier and more accessible for new customers, and makes brands and
services more familiar and recognizable for existing customers.
We can surely say that Social Media has become a way to build
relationships by sharing information and ideas. This though is extended by
Marketing on this platform.
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Social media is People connecting with others
Content Browsers are transformed into Content Producers on Social media
A Platform for creating relationships for Personal and Professional use
Brands involved in creating Personal accounts
User based control of the Message
Building Organic Relationships within the Organization using Social Media
Reaching out to End-Consumers using Social Media
Humans are interesting in the fact that they can build relationships through
sharing. It may be sharing something that happened in their personal lives,
or it may be sharing something funny on TV. Sharing is an essential
component of social media, so let’s break it down into critical components:
• Social media is People connecting with others: It’s critical for
Brands to learn to network with its customers in order to promote their
essence. Social media helps each person to connect with several other
people across the globe, which means most of the messaging a person
receives is from his or her network. Thus Brands need to be aware of the
techniques of being in the minds of people in an active manner. This is
done with the help of Marketing constantly on the various channels of
Social Media
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• Content Browsers are transformed into Content Producers on

Social media: Social Media allows the Content Browsers (Readers) to
share the content within their own network of followers by publishing or
republishing the message in their own words. Content Browsers thus are
not only consumers on the Media but also spread vital information for
Brands that Market their respective information about products and
services.
• A Platform for creating relationships for Personal and
Professional use: Social media is not just about content or messaging
in a unique way but it is also about creating bonds and relationships. For
Brands, Social Media is about creating a more personal relationship with
end-consumers to build a network around a service or product. For most
of us who are now on most of the popular Social Media Channels we can
experience the above fact firsthand. Many of the products and services
that are purchased online are the result of some recommendation by
another member from our known network. Thus our choices for online
purchase are influenced by the presence of posts and Testimonials on the
Social Media Channels. We also opt to stay away from Brands that are
termed fishy or fraudulent by other people on Social Media. Hence
choices depend strongly other people’s opinions and the relations shared
online.
• Brands involved in creating Personal accounts: People don’t follow
Brands on Social Media; they follow engaging people who work with
creating those Brands. Thus, excluding B2B marketing, every account
today is of an actual person who has a name and a title that clearly
signifies him or her as a face of the company. Many people that are
marketing on Social Media have a trend of using a conversational tone
and responding in real time to other participants in the conversation. It is
observed that automated accounts or accounts that are updated with a
stream of links do not produce results.
10
• User based control of the Message: Sharing becomes an essential

component of Social media because most information is not controlled.
In fact, the very nature of social media is such that no one person or
organization can control the information. Since Social Media is a medium
to share information through a network, Brands must realize that once
they put the message out there, they have no control anymore. Users
can choose to edit the message, share the message, ignore the message
or infuse their own opinions into the message. Due to the nature of
Social Media, Brands that try to control the message will have difficulty
obtaining any of the benefits of the medium. To conclude, Brands can’t
even control where the message starts and user can also create a
message about a company without having any relationship to them.
• Building Organic Relationships within the Organization using
Social Media: Social Media can be used internally to help employees
build a sense of teamwork at the workplace and enhance communication
across business functions. It’s also a useful method for collaborating
quickly and independent of location. Another application of Social Media
is documenting conversations, discussions and decisions to be used later
in performance reviews or decision case studies. As with any decision to
use with social media, the decision to use social media as an internal
solution depends on the Brand’s goals and resource constraints. The
benefits of using social media beyond its usage mainly revolve around
costs. For a start-up or a small to mid-sized business, social media may
be a very cost-effective solution to other software packages on the
market. Many of the typical social media tools have closed-network
business solution counterparts. For example, the business version of
Twitter is an application called Yammer, and like Twitter, it’s free to use.
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• Reaching out to End-Consumers using Social Media: As Social

Media has become conventional, Brands are finding new techniques
every day and have thus created many ways to use social media to
connect with the End Customers. All of these functions fall under three
main functions: public relations and marketing, sales, and customer
services. These broad functions will be discussed in detail at various
junctures in the subsequent chapters in this book.
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1.3 DEVELOPING THE RIGHT MINDSET TO LINK

AUDIENCES TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Before discussing further about Marketing on Social Media, it is critical to
decide what the is specific objective for a Brand to have its presence on
Social Media. A Brand Marketing on various channels may want to use
Social Media for one, two, or all three of the functions mentioned in the last
section and it is vital to understand that the strategies and tactics for each
function are different.
In the recent year post the pandemic, we have witnessed the steady rise of
social commerce, which allowed social media users to purchase products
directly on social media. By 2025, social media platforms are expected to
continue to become popular shopping outlets for consumers. Furthermore,
it is projected that by 2030, global social commerce sales will reach a
whopping $6 trillion, with the US having approximately 108 million social
buyers. When brands work toward building more authentic relationships
and deeper connections with their audience, they are more likely to enjoy a
slew of benefits, such as improved brand reputation and better sales
figures.
12
Every Brand going on board into the world of social media should have
some form of a Social Media Marketing Strategy, just like every new
Company should have some form of a Business Plan. While the current
Techniques used to achieve results on Social Media are important, they are
merely objects in a toolkit. Hence tricks and hacks for various social media
tools are merely tactics to achieve a strategy. This is the basic reason
behind starting with first developing the right mindset for Social Media
Marketing and then start discussing the practical tools.
In the case of a Brand that is upcoming and new, brand awareness is one
of the most important and difficult things that needs to be done first. The
only way to create brand awareness on social media is to find the right
audience and get the word out. Very few social media tools will work well
for every Brand. Thus Brands that are new on social media can find a good
amount of prospects by following the biggest social media sites. Generally,
the strategy for finding an audience is looking for groups of people with
similar interests to keywords that make sense for your Brand. Many times,
Brands believe that everyone understands what their product or service
does, when really that is not the case. Social media is a medium where you
may encounter people who are not in your industry or have never seen
your product, especially if it is a new invention. If your company can find a
way to answer these questions on social media, the company will get much
higher brand awareness because people are more likely to share
information that they understand.
Online audience is actually one of the most important assets that a brand
possess. Many brands tend to think of their website as something they
need to do, since their competition has a website, is active on social media
or participates in other online marketing practices. Thus brands think of a
website and their overall online presence as a sunk cost. Thus the right
mindset can be developed by slowly growing the identity of the Brand by
following current trends on known platforms. When it’s time to get the
word out, the Brand must inform clearly what it’s all about. In this context,
the strategists can ask themselves a few critical questions:
• What are the advantages the prospects will get after using the products
or services?
• How will the product or service benefit the prospect?
• What are the features of the product or service?
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• What can the prospect gain by connecting with the Brand via social
media?
• How is the product an improvement over other solutions or ways of doing
things?
• How is the product or service different from direct competitors?
There are two broad techniques to send information on the Social Media:
Brands either need to invest a lot of money, or invest a substantial amount
of time. There are some simple principles to building an online presence on
several different networks, and with just a small investment of time each
day, Brands can leverage social media for business. If the Brand is
interested in developing a sound long-term presence on social media, it is
probably because they want to reach a large user base without having to
invest a lot of money in other conventional forms of Advertising and
Marketing. An important thing to remember about social media is that it is
not completely free. Most of the tools are free, and there is a lot of free
content explaining how to use social media for your company.
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Unfortunately, the reality of social media is that it takes time; much more
time than, say, creating a banner advertisement. For companies with
several employees, time costs money as well. The good news is that there
is no better time to start than today. Social media platforms are quick to
catch on to this trend. Facebook, for example, has rolled out its “Facebook
Shops” feature, which allows businesses to create a “Shop” complete with
product listings, the ability to let users add these products to their
shopping cart, and purchase such products directly from a dedicated
checkout page. Plus, once businesses have set up their Facebook Shop,
they can integrate it with their Messenger account, giving their audience a
more seamless shopping experience. However, it is probably not going to
be a smooth ride for social commerce. Despite presenting a significant
opportunity for growth, social commerce may not yet be a viable solution
for some brands. Before joining the social commerce bandwagon, you may
want to do extensive research on your target market and preferred
platform to see if they are capable of supporting social commerce
initiatives and to determine whether or not that platform is capable of
scaling with your growth.
Social Media channels simplify the process of instantly sharing information
with a large number of people online. If a browser finds your content useful
or interesting, they can share it with their contacts quickly and easily,
creating organic exposure for the brand. When a brand chooses to enter
social media channels, it will appear in search results across the web, not
just in search engines. Many social media channels, such as LinkedIn,
Twitter or Facebook and, feature the functionality called as ‘Groups’. These
channels have become the default customer service media for many
brands, and many more are joining on the trend each day. By using these
channels to communicate with prospects, brands project a trustworthy and
transparent image which also shows that not only do they listen but they
also care. The online option allows users to search for topics in which they
are interested and opt-in to updates for those topics. Thus being active on
the various social media channels brings the brand closer to prospective
customers. This social media presence creates a brand that is now known
by various prospects across diverse channels on social media.
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1.4 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DONE THE CORRECT WAY

BY SUCCESSFUL BRANDS
In today’s contemporary times, it is critically important to offer constant
quality products or services and hence effective branding is often at the
core of the Brands that are successful. In simple terms ‘Brand’ is the
perception someone holds in their head about a product, service, brand,
person, or an idea. The deliberate and skillful application of effort to create
a desired perception in someone else’s mind is known as Brand building.
Thus with the intensity of competition that businesses face in the world of
Social Media, it’s never been more important to stand out and develop a
unique identity and value proposition through strategic branding. It is
expected that in the coming years, a majority of online content marketed
by prominent brands will be video content. This prediction is relevant,
given that 86% of businesses are already using video as a marketing tool.
However, the spotlight will be on short-form and bite-sized content. Aside
from being able to potentially generate more engagement from your
audience, they can be invaluable tools for marketing and education, given
that 73% of people prefer to watch a short video to learn more about a
product or service, according to the same report. Bite-sized content, like
short-form videos, also allows brands to still drive engagement even if
today’s audience has a shorter attention span, with the average human
attention span now clocking in at 8.25 seconds. For example, Twitter
introduced Fleets, a feature that is similar to Snapchat Stories, where posts
or videos disappear after 24 hours. Now, this does not mean that brands
should compromise quality when creating bite-sized content. Despite
shorter attention spans, high-quality content still has the power to cut
through the noise and hold your audience’s attention.
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Let us now discuss some of the core qualities of successful brands, to

understand the appropriate way of Social Media Marketing:
1. Awareness of the Audience: Brand need to be aware of the target
market first in order to find the correct social media strategy. The best
brands have a thorough understanding of the demographics of their
target market, what their interests are, and how they interact. Most
brands have a specific target audience they’re targeting. So appealing
to all people online and ignoring the concept of a target market can be
risky. It can easily be the reason for a company’s brand to become
diluted. Thus being aware of the target audience is critical because it
provides direction for the strategy and reach of a social media
marketing campaign. This also influences and shapes the overall identity
of a brand. Awareness in essence is instrumental in creating human
connection between a business and its audience that is an organic
(natural and gradual) in nature.
2. Brands providing Reliability: Online buyers today want to deal with a
social brand that is known for being reliable and provides consistent
results. People only follow products and services of the brand that
provide the best quality results and benefits. With so many industries
being saturated with competitors, inconsistency is often enough of a
reason for consumers to take their business elsewhere. When
consumers come back to a business for repeat sales, they usually
expect to receive the same level of quality as they did the first time.
This is the prime reason that it is so critical to adhere to a certain
quality standard with a product or service. Hotels with their
accommodation, service quality and food and are a good example of
this. In this context - well known examples of brands who offer amazing
consistency are World Class Hotel chains like the ‘Marriot’ or ‘Hilton’.
These renowned brands of the luxury world provide patrons with
experiences that are consistent across the world.
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3. Brand Identity providing a sense of ‘Uniqueness’: Establishing a

Brand Identity requires something unique and innovative. Interestingly,
a radical idea is not always required while creating a distinct identity on
Social Media. It simply needs to have one exceptional thing that
separates it from the competition. Once a company figures out what
that is, it can concentrate on it and should get prospect’s recognition on
social platforms. A key question that Brands need to ask themselves is -
Do we know what our unique product, service, or selling point is within
our niche? If not, then there is a critical need to start building the
branding strategy. A good current example is Domino’s Pizza with their
guarantee that their pizza would arrive in 30 minutes or it is free for
customers. Another example is of ‘Apple’ which has become globally
successful for their innovative products and aesthetic appeal. A key to
projecting the uniqueness of a brand is the fact that everyone does not
use the same social websites, so it’s useful to be present on as many
different venues as possible. Most of the major platforms allow brands
to create a business page for free, so it is critical for brands to take
advantage of being on varied platforms. Thus a huge part of being
recognized as a distinctive, successful brand is the ability to reach
consumers through multiple social channels simultaneously.
18
4. ‘Motivation and Leadership’: Behind every successful brand there are

people who motivate and lead by inspiring others. A team of people
needs to take the onus of providing the right direction in order to
coordinate the efforts of employees and guide a strategic vision for a
brand. These leaders act as a link between different units to keep
everyone together and resolve conflicts. They are also expert motivators
and know how to maximize the strengths of different employees.
5. Gaining an edge by becoming competitive online: In an online
space, where the market has a lot to offer, brands have to make a
mark. In order to succeed, brands should constantly strive to improve
and enjoy the existing online competition. Gaining an edge in today’s
social media world is not as simple as it looks. When it comes to the
successful brands in any industry, no one can relax and think that their
customers will do the work for them. Instead, they tend to be the ones
who work tirelessly toward building and optimizing their brand, going
above and beyond consumer expectations. The end result tends to be a
brand that is continually on the cutting edge of its industry.
6. Passion: Passion is the driving force behind the survival and success of
any brand. It also helps businesses persevere through inevitable
failures. Consumers often become enthusiastic about a product or
service, leading to word of mouth advertising and referrals. While it’s
certainly possible to build a social following in the short-term without
passion, it’s almost impossible to sustain it in the long run. When we
observe massively successful people like Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma or Indra
Nooyi, they all have a serious passion that keeps propelling them to
work hard and continually deliver greatness. That passion leads to
enthusiasm and genuine joy, which is infectious.
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1.5 LEVERAGING THE ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF

THE SOCIAL MEDIA
With a very high percentage of brands from diverse sectors of the industry,
we can safely say that Social Media Marketing is the fastest growing
marketing trend today. It is observed that the brands online use some or
the other flavor of Marketing campaigns on Social Media. There is also a
reason why brands are using these Social media advertising campaigns, as
they bring numerous advantages and benefits to making online prospects
aware of their products and services. This demonstrates a huge potential
for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding
on how to achieve those results.
Below is a list of benefits by which Social Media Marketing can enhance the
appeal of online brands to prospects.
1. Reduced Marketing expenses.
2. Improved Rankings on Search Engines
3. Brand Authenticity creates Market reach
4. Capitalizing on Conversion Opportunities
5. Enhanced Customer Awareness.
6. Better Customer interaction: greater Customer

Experiences
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1. Reduced Marketing expenses: According to a recent online study, the

expenditure for Marketing on the Social Media is extremely low as
compared to conventional mediums. Even paid advertising through
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter is relatively inexpensive as compared to
advertising on Newspapers or Television. The key for Marketing on the
Social Media is to begin with small steps and monitoring the expenses
constantly to prevent going over budget. Brands can increase the
budget once they get a better feel for what to expect and once they
experience an increase in online prospects converting to customers.
2. Improved Rankings on Search Engines: Search Engine Optimization
also commonly known as ‘SEO’ is the best way to capture important
traffic from search engines. With today’s rapidly changing times, the
factors for success are also changing. With these prevalent changes, it
is no longer enough for Brands to regularly distribute links pointing back
to the landing page of your site, keep blogs updated and ensure
optimized title tags and meta-descriptions. Due to the fact that strong
brands almost always use social media, hence Google and other search
engines may be calculating their rankings using social media presence
as a significant factor. Thus being active on social media could act as a
“brand signal” to Search Engines that the brand is legitimate, credible,
and trustworthy. If a brand wants to get ranked for a given set of
keywords, having a strong social media presence could be almost
mandatory
3. Brand Authenticity creates Market reach: A Brand will appear really
genuine and authentic to new users when they observe that there is a
huge number of people talking about that brand on social media. The
visibility and reach will rise steeply if the brand can interact with major
influencers on Facebook or other social networks. Interacting regularly
with customers is a show of good faith for other customers. Brands who
engage on Social Media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their
customers. A prominent recent report on Social Media engagement and
reach concludes that “A strategic and open social media plan could
prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand loyal.
Companies should take advantage of the tools social media gives them
when it comes to connecting with their audience.” In fact these days it
has become a trend for people to compliment or spread a good word
about a product or service, by turning to social media. New prospects
21
will want to follow for updates when customers post about brands,
positive experiences.
4. Capitalizing on Conversion Opportunities: It is important to
understand that not every interaction online results in a conversion.
Although it is essential to be aware that every positive interaction
increases the likelihood of an eventual conversion. Every post that
brands, make on a social media platform is an opportunity for
customers to convert. When a following is built by brands, they will also
have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers,
and will be able to interact with all of them. A recent study brings out
the fact that brands develop a deep human touch by interacting on
Social Media channels. This notion makes Social media a place where
brands can act like people do, and this is important because people like
doing business with other people and not with Corporations. Every blog
post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for someone to
react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually a
conversion. For brands it is critical to note that even though click-
through rates are low, the sheer number of opportunities they have on
social media is significant. Social media marketing results in higher
conversion rates in a few distinct ways and the most significant is the
element of human touch. It is interesting to note that studies have
shown that social media has a much higher social proof than
conventional marketing. It is in fact 100% higher lead-to-close rate than
outbound marketing. Improve trust and credibility in brands results
because of a higher number of social media followers. To conclude,
brands that build interaction with online audience on social media can
improve conversion rates on your existing traffic.
5. Enhanced Customer Awareness: A key advantage of presence on
Social Media is that Brands can measure conversions based on different
campaigns posted on various social media channels. This engagement
and set of online promotions eventually lead to a perfect combination to
generate sales and earn revenue online. Through the process of ‘Online
Listening’ - Social media also provides brands an opportunity to gain
valuable information about the behaviour and likes/dislikes of the
prospects on various Social Media Channels. Brands can divide the
content syndication lists based on topic and see which types of content
generate the most interest and then produce more of that type of
content. In this context the user comments can be monitored to observe
what people think of the business directly.
22
6. Better Customer interaction leads to greater Customer

Experiences: Social Media interactions of the Brand with prospects
present a wide range of opportunities to explicitly enhance relationship.
Every online engagement that brands have with customers is an
opportunity to display great customer service levels. Although Social
Media, in a simplified manner, is just an alternate communication
channel, like email or phone calls, unlike these mediums it a one-to-
many medium. That means if a customer complains about a product on
any channel of Social Media, it can spread like wildfire and can damage
the reputation of the brand in very less amount of time. Alternately
brands can immediately address the comment, apologize publicly, and
take action to make it right. A different scenario can be if a customer
compliments a product or service. This also provides an opportunity to
thank them and recommend additional products or services. It’s a
personal experience that lets customers know that brands on Social
Media care about them.
Video Link 1
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1.6 POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLATFORMS

AT A GLANCE
One of the reasons every brand should be on Social Media is because it
adds exposure to the company website that attracts search engine traffic.
Also, this online presence can build a followership of people who follow the
various promotions regularly. Companies use popular Social Media
marketing platforms to have conversations with potential clients or
customers and build credibility within the industry. In a recent study it was
found that more than 80% of micro brands (local businesses) are now
using sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to enhance their presence
online. In this section, we are going to discuss three Popular Social Media
Marketing Platforms in brief manner.
1. Facebook – Facebook has a wide array of options for brands, including,
groups, fan pages, applications, Facebook Messenger and Facebook
Connect. In order to find prospective customers on groups, it is
important to start a group that is related to your concept. The nice thing
about groups is that the administrator can send messages to the entire
group, similar to an email list.
Facebook fan pages are similar to groups, except they are usually named
after the company. With fan pages, brands can import blog posts,
videos, and fans are able to leave messages on the wall. One special
feature of fan pages is that people who are fans can recommend the fan
page to their entire friend list at once. This is unlike almost every other
Facebook feature, which only lets a user invite 20 of his or her friends
per day. Another good tip for brands to use is that the types of
applications that most Facebook users like are games or quizzes when
considering to market on the Facebook app. The best app would be if
you can turn your product or service into a game with lots of levels,
where there was incentive for players to recruit their friends to the
game. We shall discuss more about Marketing on Facebook in
subsequent chapters.
24
2. Twitter – Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows brands to

send short messages to their followers, customers and prospects. A
following of prospects is one of the best ways to find them on Twitter.
Once a following is created, brands can publish links to their website by
feeding the brand’s blog page into Twitter using a service like
TwitterFeed or do it manually. Most seasoned Marketers on Twitter
believe that for every link to the brand’s website, it is vital to post 4
links to other interesting resources – so twenty percent of self-
promotion is the right amount required on this Social Media Platform.
Professional digital agencies help brands to take help of Twitter in the
best possible way to promote their products and services. At its core,
this social networking site is used to publicize promotions and launch
new products and events.
With constant evolution and technological changes - the tools available to

marketers and advertisers using Twitter are becoming extremely
sophisticated. Twitter, like other popular platforms, needs more holistic
and thinking in terms of leveraging and is no longer about a series of
25
specific tactics. So the challenge is to thinking about how to use Twitter as

part of broader social media efforts and online marketing. Thus, to
conclude, ‘Twitter’ is the framework that content marketers are using to
relate as a complete marketing platform. We shall discuss more about
Marketing on Facebook in subsequent chapters.
3. LinkedIn - LinkedIn is used by businesses to share business

information with others in the same target industry. It allows them to
join groups related to their industry and get relevant valuable
suggestions from other professionals in the same field. LinkedIn is the
most wide reaching business networking site of today and it offers both
free and paid accounts. The paid account comes with features that are
targeted at more advanced users. Brands that are new on LinkedIn for
the purposes of getting started can use the free account available. With
the help of LinkedIn, connecting to people globally has never been so
easy for brands before. Today, brands can hire the services of Social
media marketing services in India and the Globe to promote their
products and services to large number of people who are interested in
their services. These professionals are experts in their field and have
the appropriate knowledge to implement the right marketing strategies.
Social media marketing services in India are, no doubt, the most
innovative way to make one's business or presence visible in the
market.
LinkedIn is a prime example of a Social Network that contains lots of

information about prospective new hires, customers and competitors. It
has now evolved into a valuable source of prospecting and lead-
generation information for sales and marketing. We shall discuss more
about Marketing on LinkedIn in subsequent chapters.
4. Instagram: Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking
service owned by Facebook, Inc. It was created by Kevin Systrom and
26
Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 exclusively on iOS. Since its
launch this visual social networking channel is experiencing significant
growth and studies indicate that visual content sites like Instagram will
continue to surge in popularity on social media in the future as well.
Brands need to understand the changing manner in which the audiences
are using the Instagram platform.
Studies reveal that the usage of this platform has evolved from just
viewing images and selfies to using this channel to create virtual product
wish lists and a complete range of promotional methods. This creates a
critical opportunity for brands wanting to leverage the marketing on the
social media. Brands need to be aware of the fact that audiences on
Instagram are more engaged than the social media audiences on other
channels.
27
This channel is creating engagement percentages for brands that are

higher than both Facebook and Twitter. For brands having a presence on
other social media channels it also pays to build a presence on Instagram.
To be successful on Instagram brands need to be fully aware of the various
features of this channel and the users of this channel.
28
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
1.7 SHORT CASE STUDY

Instagram is one of the most successful and popular social media platforms
currently. Many small-scale fashion and apparel business are using this
trending platform to reach out to millions of prospects online. In this
context Instagram features like ‘Stories’ lets them create a vibrant
montage that can grab viewers’ attention and present more information
than a traditional post. Popularly used are recorded videos, still photos, live
videos, boomerangs (videos that loop back and forth), text, music and
focused photos. Many content developers tend to add stickers to show their
location, the temperature, user tags and hashtags.
Content creators have learned to increase interaction with their viewers by
creating polls and inviting questions, making it easy to collect valuable
feedback. For example, some accounts use the questions feature to hold a
weekly Ask Me Anything session, a fun way to answer common questions.
Many developers use Instagram’s Stories Highlights feature to create
categorized stores that stay on your profile so viewers can go back and
watch them.
In addition to Instagram Stories, creators can take and stream live video
that disappears – sort of like a cross between Facebook Live and Snapchat.
Give customers a live look behind the scenes of exciting aspects of your
business, show products or answer live questions via the comments. Once
the video ends, it lives in your Instagram story for 24 hours. If you want a
video to remain on your Instagram feed, upload a video you’ve taken or
shoot one directly through the app to post. If you choose to shoot or
upload a video, you can still add filters and change the cover.
29
As with any social media platform, it’s crucial to engage and interact with
the followers on Instagram.
• Liking: Liking is an easy way to connect with the prospects. To like a
photo, double-tap the image or tap the heart button under the post.
• Commenting: To comment on a post, tap the comment icon (speech
bubble), and the app will take you to that post’s comments page. Type
your comment into the text box, add emojis if you like and tap post.
• Mentioning: As on Twitter, use the @ symbol to tag other users in your
Instagram comments or post captions. They’ll be alerted to the mention
and may circle back and interact more.
• Tagging: Instagram allows promoters to add tags before and after
posting content. To do so, tap tag people before sharing the photo, and
tap where you want to add the tag in the photo. The app prompts you to
type in the person’s name to search for their account. Once you’ve
tagged people in your photo and shared the image, other users can tap
on the photo to see the tagged people.
• Direct messaging: To access Instagram direct, go to your home page
and tap the Messenger icon on the top right. (Facebook’s Messenger is
integrated into Instagram.) Send private instant messages, including
photos and videos, to other users. To send a new direct message, tap the
notepad button in the top right corner and search for the person or
business you want to contact. Once you’ve sent the message, you and
the recipients can message back and forth. Users who are not already
following you will be asked whether they want to allow you to send them
photos and videos before they can view your DM.
30
1.8 ACTIVITIES
1. Finding the correct Social Media Marketing approach strategy needs
brands to being aware of the target market first. Browse online and
research two current brands that are marketing on Social Media from
the context of the specific target market.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. Browse the internet and obtain more insight on the process of ‘Online
Listening’ and gather your observations and feedback.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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1.9 SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have discussed about basics of Social Media, which is
an online platform where people from diverse backgrounds come together
and interact. In the context of Marketing on this medium, Brands come
across prospects that are not from the same industry or have never seen
their products or services, especially if it’s a new invention. The
transparent nature of Social Media is instrumental in building trust with
potential consumers. Social media has become extremely popular because
it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for
personal and professional use. Social media has become an integral part of
people’s lives and daily routines. Some are addicted to it so much that the
first thing they do after waking up is to check their social media feeds.
Given the importance of social media in consumers’ lives, marketers and
businesses flock to social platforms in the hope of connecting with their
target customers.
With the volume of competition that businesses face in the world of
Marketing, it’s never been more important to stand out and develop a
unique identity and value proposition through strategic branding by
leveraging Social Media as a vehicle for Marketing. The presence on Social
Media defines the brand image and separates it from a detached object to
a popular and trendy brand. Participating in social media channels brings
brands closer to their customers and potential customers. Thus it is safe to
say that presence on Social Media leads to increased brand recognition.
Some of the critical components of the social media discussed here are:
• Social media is People connecting with others.
• A Platform for creating relationships for Personal and Professional use.
• User based control of the Message.
• Reaching out to the End-Consumers using Social Media.
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In the section developing the right mindset to link audiences to Social

Media Marketing, we have seen that, every Brand going on board into the
world of social media should have some form of a Social Media Marketing
Strategy, just as every new Company should have some form of a Business
Plan. In the case of a Brand that is upcoming and new, brand awareness is
one of the most important and difficult things that needs to be done first.
Today’s consumers are increasingly gravitating toward more authentic
experiences and are open to engaging with brands and influencers that
offer not only value, but also authenticity. Thus, in the coming years, you
can expect to see more brands working with nano- and micro-influencers.
The only way to create brand awareness on social media is to find the right
audience and get the word out. Very few social media tools will work well
for every Brand. Thus Brands that are new on social media can find a good
amount of prospects by following the biggest social media sites. Social
Media channels simplify the process of instantly sharing information with a
large number of people online. If a browser finds your content useful or
interesting, they can share it with their contacts quickly and easily,
creating organic exposure for the brand.
We have also discussed that the ‘Brand’ is the perception someone holds in
their mind about a product, a service, a brand, a person, or an idea. The
deliberate and skillful application of effort to create a desired perception in
someone else’s mind is known as Brand building. Some of the core
qualities of successful brands, to understand the appropriate way of Social
Media Marketing are:
1. Awareness of the Audience.
2. Brands providing Reliability.
3. Brand Identity providing a sense of ‘Uniqueness’.
4. ‘Motivation and Leadership’.
5. Gaining an edge by becoming competitive online.
6. Passion.
33
It is expected that in the coming years, a majority of online content

marketed by prominent brands will be video content. This prediction is
relevant, given that 86% of businesses are already using video as a
marketing tool. However, the spotlight will be on short-form and bite-sized
content. With a very high percentage of brands from diverse sectors of the
industry we can safely say that Social Media Marketing is the fastest
growing marketing trend of today. It is observed that the brands online use
some or the other flavor of Marketing campaigns on Social Media. Below is
a list of benefits by which Social Media Marketing can enhance the appeal
of online brands to prospects:
1. Reduced Marketing expenses.
2. Improved Rankings on Search Engines.
3. Brand Authenticity creates Market reach.
4. Capitalizing on Conversion Opportunities.
5. Enhanced Customer Awareness.
Better Customer interaction leads to greater Customer Experiences.
We have also discussed about the three popular Social Media marketing
platforms in a brief manner which are: Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn. Facebook has a wide array of options for brands, including,
groups, fan pages, applications, Facebook Messenger and Facebook
Connect. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows brands to send
short messages to their followers, customers and prospects. A following of
prospects is one of the best ways to find them on Twitter. LinkedIn is the
most wide reaching business networking site of today and it offers both
free and paid accounts. The paid account comes with features that are
targeted at more advanced users.
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1.10 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1. Discuss in detail why the today’s businesses are keen to get involved
with Social Media Marketing?
2. Describe why a recommendation from a friend is the strongest
marketing message to purchase a product or service online?
3. Cite the reasons behind the fact that Social media is not just about
content or messaging in a unique way?
4. In the case of a Brand that is upcoming and new, what measure is one
of the most important and difficult things that needs to be done first?
5. Explain in brief how the Social Media channels simplify the process of
instantly sharing information with a large number of people online?
6. Describe in brief - behind every successful brand there are people who
motivate and lead by inspiring others?
7. Why is passion considered as the driving force behind the survival and
success of any brand?
8. Cite the reasons behind a brand appearing really genuine and authentic
to new users?
9. Describe in brief the role played by groups in helping market products
on Facebook?
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1.11 MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Social Media Marketing in a nutshell is the process of building –
a. Brand skills.
b. Brand awareness.
c. Brand importance.
d. Brand analysis.
2. What kind of nature of the Social Media is instrumental in building trust
with potential consumers?
a. The elementary nature.
b. The glamorous nature.
c. The transparent nature.
d. The basic nature.
3. The strongest marketing message to purchase a product or service
online is represented by which of the following -
a. A recommendation from a friend.
b. A solicitation from a brand.
c. A recommendation from the admin head of the channel.
d. A recommendation from a advertisement.
4. Many people that are marketing on Social Media have a trend of using a
conversational tone. In this context identify the type of response
provided by these users on Social Media?
a. Responding in future time.
b. Responding in specific time.
c. Responding in real time.
d. Responding in phased time.
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5. Every Brand going on board into the world of social media should have
some form of a Social Media __________ just as every new Company
should have some form of a Business Plan.
a. Expansion Plan.
b. Marketing Strategy.
c. Sponsored Objective.
d. Contingency Plan.
6. The deliberate and skillful application of effort to create a desired
perception in someone else’s mind is known as -
a. Brand Power.
b. Brand Engagement.
c. Brand building.
d. Brand Analytics.
Ans: 1. (b), 2. (c), 3. (a), 4. (c), 5. (b), 6. (b)
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
Video Lecture - Part 1
38
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Chapter 2
Choosing The Right Social Media Networks
For Your Business
Objectives
• Identify the need to enhance Customer-Centricity on Channels of Social
Media.
• Develop an understanding to link various types of Content with related
Platforms.
• Understand the right Strategies to Enhance Social Media Marketing for
Businesses.
• Developing Resonating Content for Social Media Marketing.
Structure
2.1 Introduction.
2.2 Development of Customer-Centric Perspective.
2.3 Importance of Relationship Between Content Type and Platform.
2.4 Identify Social Media Sites that Appeal to your Target Audience.
2.5 Strategies to Enhance Social Media Marketing for Businesses.
2.6 Developing Resonating Content for Social Media.
2.7 Short Case Study.
2.8 Activities.
2.9 Summary.
2.10 Self Assessment Questions.
2.11 Multiple Choice Questions.
39
2.1 INTRODUCTION
One of the most appreciated attribute that a Marketer on Social Media can
achieve is making sure a brand is maximizing the value of its existing
Customers. Brands have to take care of them while building new audience
members. Thus nurturing existing Customers and attracting new ones is
essential to long-term growth and success. This consists of not only
sharing relevant current products or services with clients who have
transacted with the brand in the past, but also providing helpful support
and answering questions via social media, email, and other platforms.
Marketers have to do all this in an extremely tactful manner. What do
customers want on social media? They want to be inspired, entertained,
engaged and informed. The last thing they want is a sales pitch. Keeping
this in mind as posts are created helps in efficient social media marketing.
It is thus vital to share content that reinforces expertise. Another strategy
that will work well is to contribute regularly to popular blogs and websites
in the same industry or vertical. This initiative allows Marketers to reach a
brand new audience, to continue to create awareness and trust with the
existing audience and to establish themselves as an expert in their field.
Future social media interactions, posts, and follows beyond these first
interactions are the most essential part of nurturing that initial trust.
Hence, the methods that are employed both through Online Social Media
and Traditional Marketing to build Customers and nurture them should be
considered as a long-term investment going towards building the brand
and doing successful business. Thus engaging with several blogs and
websites on social platforms is also a great way to build a wider audience
quickly.
40
Brands on-board Social Media Sites and blogs need to identify the benefits
of sustaining a long-term social media campaign. They need to consider a
few critical points to develop further clarity about spending time and
money online. One of the key factors is that most of the competition is
already on the various online channels. This means that most of the
potential traffic online and conversions are being routed to the competition.
A smart brand would not let competitors reap all the benefits while they
stand and watch this happening. Another scenario to consider is that the
competition is not yet established on Social Media. In this case, the arena
is completely open and there is plenty of incentive to get on-board. Thus, a
key learning that is derived from the above discussion is relationship
building is core to that Social Media Marketing. The development of
customer-centric perspective is of paramount importance for every brand
having its presence on the Social Media. A plan to maintain and nurture
existing customers is often the surest way to another sale, and regular
communication is a key component. Most marketers already keep in touch
with customers via phone calls, meetings, and email newsletters, and
social media should also be a part of that nurturing strategy. By engaging
customers where they are most active and comfortable — on social media
channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn — marketers can stay top of
mind and showcase the professional expertise.
2.2 DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER-CENTRIC PERSPECTIVE

As stated in the Introductory section, development of Customer-Centric
perspective is of paramount importance for every Brand having its
presence on the Social Media. The existing customers are the most
valuable assets for online brands, hence it is critical to keep nurturing and
building the engagement for them. At the same time, the brands need to
invest in marketing strategies designed to increase the size of the new
audience. So it is important to be aware of the fact that building up a
dedicated, engaged audience on social media is all about thinking long-
term, and thinking strategically. In time, online brands will realize that the
most valuable marketing investment is building the online audience on
Social Media.
41
In today’s digital world, nothing replaces the human touch. As

smartphones and laptops take over our daily interactions, the desire to
speak to a human being in real life or over the phone is becoming a
novelty. Although customer retention is cheaper than acquisition, it is
easier said than done. It takes a lot of commitment and dedication to get
customers to stay loyal to your business. Customers have multiple options
at their disposal. Besides, the competition for customers is fierce these
days than ever. The good thing about social media is that it allows you to
build strong connections with your customers. Note that your best
customers will buy products and come back again to buy some more. This
means more revenue to your business and stronger relationships with
customers. In this context there are many techniques to generate better
levels of engagement with existing customers and prospects of the Brand.
Provided below are a few powerful techniques and strategies to develop
centricity and engagement:
42
1. Create and Nurture Blogs: A key to being Customer-Centric is to offer

a lot of information that is perceived as valuable to the existing
customers and prospects. Brands need to ensure rich flow of content
that is tailored to specific audience needs and is yet novel. It really
matter, that Brands provide updated and relevant content. The most
important thing to note is that the content should meet the
requirements of existing customers or prospects. Thus by creating and
nurturing information on blogs, the brands can become a trusted source
of information. A great technique is to blogon other websites regularity.
Regularly contributing to well-known sites from the same field helps in
interacting with a variety of prospects. This activity helps to establish
the brand as an expert in the respective area. Thus engaging with other
web sites on social channels is also a great way to build a wider
audience quickly.
2. Increase the Trust and Connect by Building an Online
Community: Brands online have to be perceived by audiences as
known ones. For this to happen, people online need to trust and connect
with the brand before they purchase any product or service. For brands
this will mean not only promoting content and products, but also
establishing relationships and being truly engaged and responsive with
online audience that is a part of the community. The most ideal method
to be seen as trustworthy is to create a community on Social Media.
3. Form a Customer Loyalty Program: Providing some form of incentive
to the existing audience goes a long way in retaining them. In this
context a discount, reward or bonus to current customers can go a long
way toward keeping the brand in the customer’s mind and inspiring
repeat purchases. Customers that have purchased the services or
products already usually have the most potential to refer others or even
repeat purchases.
4. Brand Advocates: Every brand that has a presence on the Social
Media has a set of existing customers that are passionate about the
brand. An awareness of utilizing these brand advocates by appreciating
their efforts by making a point of connecting with them individually and
recognizing them on social media. Brand Advocates can also be
encouraged when brands provide them priority access to new products,
service or information.
43
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
2.3 IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONTENT

TYPE AND PLATFORM
There are numerous variables that go into running a successful social
media campaign – one of the most important one is the link between the
Social Media Platform and the type of Content. In this context, aspects like
proper engagement of online audience along with frequency of posts and
quality should be taken into consideration. These are obviously important,
but choosing the Platform that matches the needs of the target audience is
extremely important. Hence Brands need to understand which network
best fits the needs before launching a full blown campaign. Since there can
be a difference in terms of user demographic on different Social Media
Platforms. Due to the ongoing popularity of social media across the world,
firms’ social networks are growing at an increasingly rapid pace, intending
to build online engagement among their customers.
44
The emergence of social media platforms has dramatically altered the role
of customers from passive observers of content, to active participants, who
are now the co-producers and co-creators of content through their online
interactions and behaviours. Behaviour that reflects engagement with
social media includes customers’ creation of, contribution to, or
consumption of brand-related content within a social network. Diverse
sources of information can be leveraged to observe the level of
engagement and activeness of the online audience. This will depend on
where the brand is in the Social Media lifecycle in a particular network.
Many brands feel no need for engaging in online conversation with existing
customers or even leveraging information from them. They believe that
selecting platforms on social networks simply needs common sense. There
are certain platforms that are clearly a good fit for the business - it’s an
easy intuitive step to take, most Marketers believe. Several critical factors
can be used to create the link between Content Type and Platform. A thing
to be noted here is that these factors can be clearly observed and
measured. Some of the most important factors to consider include:
Prospect Value
1 and ability for
creating
Conversions
Traffic 2
Generation
Capitalizing on
3 nature of
Business
45
1. Prospect Value and Ability for Creating Conversions: To create the

right link between the content and platform to a detailed analysis can
help, understand not only which networks are sending traffic, but which
ones are sending valuable traffic. Brands need to realize that it is
possible for a social network to send online traffic, but that traffic may
be of low value. Brands need to be observant if visitors bounce
immediately off the website’s homepage, or are they reading the
content, spreading the message and converting from browsers to
customers.
2. Traffic Generation: Brands need to constantly assess the tools of
website analytics to understand whether social activity is a major driver
of visits to the website. Hence it is really worth investigating the
relationship between that platform and conversions.
3. Capitalizing on Nature of Business: Brands need to understand the
fact that it really pays to be aware of the specific Social Media habits of
their audience. For example some platforms such as LinkedIn have an
inherent inclination towards the Business Networking arena. In this case
vital methods to connect with business customers through functional
networks need to be explored. The specific ways to focus main–stream
networks on industry issues, like industry groups or specialized chats is
critical. Other businesses have a strong affinity for certain types of
trades, such as the connection between celebrities and Twitter.
46
2.4 IDENTIFY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES THAT APPEAL TO THE

TARGET AUDIENCE
Many Brands find that a specific content format appeals to their audience
and explains their products or services in a more meaningful manner. If
there’s a clear connection between the products and service of a brand and
a specific content format, then it is a good practice to focus on developing
better connect. In this context, if the products or services need more visual
explanation, then brands need to be good at creating video that are
extremely engaging. The growing prevalence of social media marketing has
seen a focus emerge from both academics and practitioners on the concept
of engagement in social media platforms. Customers’ engagement has
been studied in many fields, including psychology, education,
management, marketing, and information systems. Within the context of
digital marketing, scholars conceptualized the concept of engagement and
attempted to empirically validate its measurement scales. Social Media
Marketing experts define it as a customer’s behavioural manifestations that
have a brand or firm focus, beyond purchase. There are various focal
objects of customer engagement including product or service offerings.
Thus Social Media platforms like YouTube or DailyMotion are natural
choices for the brand to invest in. Brands have constant interactions going
with their online audiences and these discussions reveal vital information.
This is illustrated through the studies that many prospects and existing
customers use business networking sites like LinkedIn to get industry-
relevant recommendations or even spend a lot of time on Facebook to get
likes. These useful insights can fill in the critical cracks that analytics and
market research might not cover from the context of connecting the
content with the needs of the online audience.
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With radical changes in the landscape of media on social networks,– new

mediums are coming up on a seemingly daily basis. Not just this, but even
the existing platforms are expanding their services and functionality
through new acquisitions and rapid development. Thus an interesting
evolution has taken place in the last few years, when it comes to social
media and content marketing. The discussion around content types and
social promotion has evolved from how to use different platforms to
distribute your content to how to match the platform to the content for
optimal reach. A good example to simplify this discussion is a prominent
feature of Twitter, the ‘hashtag’, once a core function of Twitter, is now
also a part of the vast majority of major networks. In the below provided
section, let us develop an understanding of how to create a link between
the content and Social Media sites that appeal to target audiences online.
1. Facebook: Facebook is the biggest and most prominent globally
trending Social Media Site and is currently at the top of most
Marketers to-do list. It can thus be used by marketers to reach
prospects in every existing sector of the industry and it has long
surpassed one billion total users across the globe. The premise to
success on Facebook is if a brand has a broad demographic, they should
be able to effectively reach the desired prospects. Thus brands present
on Facebook are capable of creating exposure to their business and
establish a community around it. All this is done regardless of the
industry that they operate out of.
Facebook can be even more beneficial when local brands are trying to
connect with customers in geographically closer areas (We shall have a
more detailed discussion in a subsequent Chapter on how this works). A
relief as well as advantage for brands is also that Facebook has a
relatively balanced gender ratio. Brands looking to establish a presence
on Facebook should create a strong following. The key metrics should
be: followers on the Facebook group and people who like interaction and
the Fan Page created.
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2. LinkedIn: It is a known fact that LinkedIn is the most popular global

platform for Business Networking. Few brands are aware that it can also
be a great way to gather insight about their industry. LinkedIn is used
by several brands to share vital information online with others in the
same target industry. The ‘groups’ feature of this platform allow people
who represent those brands to join groups related to their industry.
Brands online have extended their reach in a profound manner with
LinkedIn. Brands can hire the services of Social Media Marketing services
globally to promote their products and services to large number of
people. LinkedIn has millions of professionals who are experts in their
field and have the appropriate knowledge to implement the right
marketing strategies. Social media marketing services in India are, no
doubt, the most innovative way to make one's business or presence
visible in the market. LinkedIn group discussions can provide insight into
problems that are not available elsewhere. By staying up-to-date with
these groups, you can make a list of frequently asked questions and
generate some new content marketing ideas along the way. Content on
LinkedIn is in the form of testimonials, Case studies and Stories get
relevant valuable suggestions from other professionals in the same field.
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3. Twitter: Twitter is another great platform which is very popular globally

with a young audience. From the Indian context, it is still unexplored
and is the domain of Celebrities who tweet to their Fans. Twitter too has
a massive user base with over 500 million users. Thus for Brands,
Twitter is a great place to launch your campaign and use this micro-
blogging platform.
Similar to Facebook, Twitter also has a relatively balanced gender ratio

hence it is advantageous for brands to market their products and
services as well as tweet brief testimonials of satisfied customers. A
recent survey tells us that Twitter users reported buying tech tools or
electronic devices after seeing recommendations or testimonials on
Twitter. Today, with people trusting other people more than any brand or
Company for any purchase online, it has almost become critical to learn
about the brand, product or service, and compare it with the equivalent
of competing brands before considering purchasing it. While potential
consumer do so, they interact with friends and, apart from the other
channels prospects, search on Twitter and read experiences of those who
have used the brand, product or service earlier.
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
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2.5 STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

FOR BUSINESSES
A recent study outlines how brands online can most effectively use each
network to connect with their prospects and existing clients. A deep
understanding of the types of content is necessary in order to make the
most out of the Social Media presence. This is going to result in maximum
engagement on the selected platforms. It’s also vital to pay attention to
the culture of the network and the audience. For example Global brands
have to customize their offerings to cater to the Indian tastes. There are
six types of social media engagement behaviour on fan pages: creating,
contributing, destructing (known as active engagement behaviours),
consuming, dormancy, and detaching (known as passive and/or more
individualized forms of engagement). The interactive characteristics of
engagement behaviour may lead to different levels of intensity. In a most
recent study on engagement intensity levels, it is found that two typologies
encompass the six behavioural groups. It can be passive (low) or active
(high) and also positive or negative. Passive engagement is defined
through the behaviour of a member browsing an online group and making
the most of the benefits accessible, while not participating in any
community activities. In contrast, active engagement is determined
through the behaviour of members highly interested to be engaged in an
online community by participating in activities, creating messages,
disseminating information, and providing emotional support to others.
There are different metrics to measure the intensity of passiveness or
activeness of social media engagement. Brands need to actively research
into businesses that have experienced significant success with their social
media efforts in order to understand what works for each channel.
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1. Strategy of Simplicity and Effectiveness: The most effective way to

reach online audiences is not as conventionally thought through
complex or elaborate websites or advertisements. Seasoned Marketers
on Social Media know the importance of simplifying the designing
process. This includes knowing and providing exactly what online
audiences need to know, while reducing the undesired complexity. In
essence, studies have found that companies who have a simple
interface are more prone to convert prospects to customers. Thus the
key to modern content marketing is simplicity and robustness. With the
Social Media maturing over the years, online brands are discovering that
offering more information and complexity is not working as it did once.
Brands thus need to think strategically and develop a long-term
perspective about reducing the clutter and keeping the content simple.
2. Brands need to use the Power of Questions: Brands need to employ
the strategy of probing existing customers in order to get a clear
perspective of what products or services they are purchasing on the
social media. By adopting this strategy, brands can discover some really
precious information about customer’s online behaviour and their buying
habits. This will lead to future strategic efforts to enhance online
conversions via social media.
3. Categories Determine Purchases on Social Media Channels:
Online audiences prefer purchasing from specific Social Media Channels
than others. This is a significant finding from a recent online study on
Social Media. The information from this study tells that 37 percent of
Twitter users and 28 percent of Facebook users reported purchasing
online electronics after seeing recommendations on these specific social
networks. The same study shares the information that purchases of
items of art and craft did not do so well on these online platforms.
In this context not more than 15% of Twitter and Facebook users
reported making recent purchases in those categories.
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4. Difference in Conversion Rates on Different Channels: A strategy

which all online brands need to be aware of is that some social
networking channels produce higher conversion rates than others. For
example a video which goes ‘Viral’ on YouTube can produce a lot more
conversions for the product or services compared to an article written
on a blog. Thus when it comes to social commerce, not all platforms are
created equal. This holds true even if brands follow the best practices
suggestions about tailored content and culture.
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
2.6 DEVELOPING RESONATING CONTENT FOR SOCIAL

MEDIA
Brands need to be alert and should always prepare online content that
resonates with the needs of their audiences. Brands today need to find the
right medium to both identify and position themselves with their prospects
and existing customers. They need to utilize a wide array of formats, right
from the conventional written form on their website, to expanding into
blogging on other websites and channels, to writing white papers or even
eBooks. Social media content which influences engagement has been
conceptualized into three main categories of rational (also referred to as
informational, functional, educational, or current event), interactional (e.g.,
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experiential, personal, employee, brand community, customer relationship,

or cause-related), and transactional (also referred to as remunerative,
brand resonance, or sales promotion). Within these three overarching
themes of social media content, the marketers have attempted to
investigate the impact of various content types on engagement behaviour.
It is observed that online audiences using Social Media platforms are
shifting preferences - the mindset is shifting to users actually creating lists
of things they want to buy rather than simple photo sharing. Studies
suggests that audiences are using visual content based sites to create
virtual product wish lists, which creates a unique opportunity for marketers
hoping to make the most of social commerce. Studies suggest that
Facebook users are more likely to know and interact with their virtual
friends in real life than Twitter users. Thus the content has to be
customized with a tactical combination. Thus audiences on Facebook are
more likely to take product or service recommendations seriously. The
trust factor helps boost traffic and drive sales. Thus with a knowledge of
such critical information the smart brands also are experimenting with
visual formats like info-graphics and videos. Let us study the three major
content types that most brands use a lot today:
1. Content in Written form: The foundation of most social media efforts
is the content in the written format. This format is still the most popular
one in terms of the quantity of information read by the online media
audiences. Apart from being popular, this content type is also the most
flexible. It’s possible to optimize for either an audience using traditional
computer-based or even for the contemporary mobile-based online
users. Brands can benefit from using this type of content as they can
split it for status updates, post it in different formats according to a
channel’s guidelines and also add links to it.
2. Content in Visual form: Visual content includes everything from the
success of images on channels like Instagram, to Facebook and
Pinterest. Brands can infuse a breath of fresh air and reduce monotony
in existing content. This is done by adding a visual component that
helps explain their message in an absorbing manner.
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3. Content in Video form: This type of format appeals to an audience

that does not prefer the written content. It provides an avenue for
brands to create powerful and visual form of information. The increase
of video content in Social Media Channels has come from the field of
show business directly into the online world. Brands have discovered a
wide range of uses for video content, especially those that deal in
products and services related to B2C and B2B. Content in the Video
form is becoming extremely powerful also because of the expert
interviews and ‘how-to videos’. So we can conclude by saying that
brands need to constantly find the right networks to showcase and
promote content on various Social Media Channels.
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
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Good content not only drives inbound lead generation, but it’s also critical
to properly nurturing leads. Consumers today want to maintain control
throughout the sales process. They want the opportunity to take in
information on their own terms and draw their own conclusions, rather
than having everything told to them. That doesn’t mean, however, that
they don’t like to have those opportunities handed to them. Sales agents
need to be able to send resources to their leads; white papers, case
studies, and client testimonials are all great resources that agents can send
to potential customers and allow them to form their own conclusions. It’s
also content that comes from the marketing team. Having the right content
at the right time helps the brands move through sales cycles more quickly.
For marketing agents, though, it can be difficult to know what sort of
information managers want and clients need to see in content such as
white papers. In a way, it comes back to branding. Knowing what solutions
and features need promoted allow content creators to develop a focus in
their content and the data they are seeking. At the same time, consistent
interaction and strategy with sales helps marketing to understand what
sort of information prospects are interested in, and what content is
resonating with them. Proper nurturing leads to shorter sales cycles and
stronger clients, and proper strategy and alignment between sales and
marketing leads to focused resources for stronger nurturing strategy.
An effective and involved marketing team is vital to success in the modern
sales industry. Developing a strategy that involves marketing and building
a strong alignment between the sales and marketing teams will increase
quality leads and strong opportunities. Strategy, of course, comes from the
top. But there are tools to help sales and marketing agents stay on the
same page throughout the sales process. Sales acceleration software such
as DialSource makes it easy to keep all data up to speed and in the right
place. Whether during qualification or a sales cycle, every piece of
information stays with the right records - leads, accounts, and
opportunities. If a lead magnet pulls in data on a lead, that data follows
the lead once it’s handed off to a sales agent.
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Additionally, powerful analytics offer insight on the content that is being

sent during sales cycles and when. Are prospects following up after
receiving certain white papers? Are they more likely to respond to a case
study when it’s sent after an early interaction or late? Does a particular
client testimonial typically result in a demo request? Determining the best
time during the process to send certain content will give your sales agents
a better chance to close deals. DialSource logs and analyses every
interaction, making every piece of data accessible so that you can easily
determine what’s working. Develop your marketing strategy form the top
and keep your sales and marketing teams aligned with DialSource to build
a bigger presence, find better leads and close more deals.
2.8 ACTIVITIES
1. With radical changes in the landscape of media on social networks, new
mediums are coming up on a seemingly daily basis. Browse online and
research one new or latest Social Media Medium from the context of
Social Media Marketing.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. Browse the Internet and obtain more insight on the categories that
determine purchases on Social Media Channels.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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2.9 SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have discussed that Brands have to keep their existing
customers engaged while building new audience members. Thus nurturing
existing Customers and attracting new ones is essential to long-term
growth and success. This consists of not only sharing relevant current
products or services with clients who have transacted with the brand in the
past but also providing helpful support and answering questions via social
media, email, and other platforms. Customers want to be inspired,
entertained, engaged and informed. The last thing they want is a sales
pitch. Keeping this in mind as posts are created helps in efficient social
media marketing. It is thus vital to share content that reinforces expertise.
A smart brand would not let competitors reap all the benefits while they
stand and watch this happening. Another scenario to consider is that the
competition is not yet established on Social Media. In this case the arena is
completely open and there’s plenty of incentive to get on-board. Thus a
key learning that is derived from the above discussion is that relationship
building is core to Social Media Marketing.
We have also discussed about the powerful techniques and strategies to
develop centricity and engagement:
1. Create and nurture Blogs.
2. Increase the trust and connect by building an online community.
3. Form a Customer Loyalty Program.
4. Brand Advocates.
Facebook is the biggest and most prominent globally trending Social Media
Site and is currently at the top of most Marketers to-do list. LinkedIn is
used by several brands to share vital information online with others in the
same target industry. Content on LinkedIn is in the form of testimonials,
Case studies and Stories get relevant valuable suggestions from other
professionals in the same field. Twitter is another great platform which is
very popular globally with a young audience. From the Indian context it is
still unexplored and is the domain of Celebrities who tweet to their fans.
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We have also discussed about the strategies to enhance Social Media

Marketing for Businesses, which are enlisted below:
1. Strategy of Simplicity and Effectiveness.
2. Brands need to use the power of Questions.
3. Categories determine purchases on Social Media Channels.
4. Difference in Conversion Rates on different Channels
The three major content types of content that most brands use a lot today
are, written form, Visual form, and Video form. Social media content which
influences engagement has been conceptualized into three main categories
of rational (also referred to as informational, functional, educational, or
current event), interactional (e.g., experiential, personal, employee, brand
community, customer relationship, or cause-related), and transactional
(also referred to as remunerative, brand resonance, or sales promotion).

1. Explain in brief why Brands on board Social Media Sites and blogs need
to identify the benefits of sustaining a long-term social media
campaign?
2. Cite the reasons behind the statement – It is critical to ‘create and
nurture Blogs’.
3. Explain who are Brand Advocates and what is their role in increasing
reach?
4. In the case of a Brand, why is it critical to keep capitalizing on nature of
Business?
5. Explain in brief how the Brands can use a specific content format that
appeals to their audience?
6. Describe in brief how Brands online have extended their reach in a
profound manner with LinkedIn?
7. Why is a deep understanding of the types of content necessary in order
to make the most out of the Social Media presence?
8. Cite the reasons behind Brands to employ the strategy of probing
existing customers?
9. Describe in brief the strategy which all online brands need to be aware?
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1. The Development of what kind of perspective is of paramount

importance for every Brand having its presence on the Social Media?
a. Brand-Centric perspective.
b. Analysis-Centric perspective.
c. Customer-Centric perspective.
d. Awareness-Centric perspective.
2. Regularly contributing to well-known sites from the same field helps in

interacting with a variety of prospects. This is done most effectively by
which of the following technique?
a. Logging into other websites regularity.
b. Blogging on other websites regularity.
c. Purchasing on other websites regularity.
d. Criticizing other websites regularity.
3. The most ideal method to be seen as trustworthy is to create a

___________ on Social Media.
a. Recommendation.
b. Solicitation.
c. Channel.
d. Community.
4. Every brand that has a presence on the Social Media has a set of
existing customers that are passionate about the brand. What are these
people known as?
a. Brand Advocates.
b. Branded Customers.
c. Brand Educators.
d. Influencers.
5. Brands need to constantly assess what kind of the tools to understand

whether social activity is a major driver of visits to the website.
a. The tools of website analytics.
b. Strategy management tools.
c. Brand building tools.
d. Planning & Organizing tools.
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6. Which social media platform has millions of professionals who are

experts in their field and have the appropriate knowledge to implement
the right marketing strategies?
a. Facebook.
b. Instagram.
c. LinkedIn.
d. Twitter.
Ans: 1. (c), 2. (b), 3. (d), 4. (a), 5. (a), 6. (c)
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
62
UTILIZING POPULAR PLATFORMS FOR BUSINESS GENERATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Chapter 3
Utilizing Popular Platforms For Business
Generation On Social Media
Objectives:
• Develop a working knowledge the use of Popular Channels of Social
Media.
• Develop an Understanding on Marketing Practices Employed on these
Platforms.
• Become aware of do’s and don’ts for these Platforms.
• Create an Understanding on Leveraging Popular Social Media Platforms.
Structure:
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Key Features of Social Networking Sites
3.3 Social Media as a Powerful Customer Relations Management Tool
3.4 Marketing on Facebook
3.5 Marketing on LinkedIn
3.6 Marketing on YouTube
3.7 Marketing on Twitter
3.8 Marketing on Instagram
3.9 Marketing on Whatsapp
3.10 Short Case study
3.11 Activities
3.12 Summary
3.13 Self Assessment Questions
3.14 Multiple Choice Questions
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3.1 INTRODUCTION
The right choice of Channels can be a big differentiating factor between
Brands that become successful and Brands that struggle on Social Media. A
good strategy is that the Brands need to identify the most popular Social
Media Channel and should publish some content on the social media
platform. Thus it is a good idea to cross-promote each account or profile.
For example, it is a good practice to place a link to the brand’s Twitter
account and Facebook fan page on their website. They can also import the
company blog to the Facebook fan page and place a link to the blog on the
brand’s Twitter page. That way, when someone finds your company on one
medium they can also find it easily on the other mediums. A critical
awareness for brands on Social Media is that it always has more assets
than it realizes. If the brand does not have time to create new content, it
could use the same content in different ways. For example, if the brand
has quality content on their blog, they could take one of the posts and turn
it into 140 character tip that can be posted on Twitter. If they do not have
a blog, they could post pictures of their product on Instagram or Facebook.
Brands can strategically use the skills of their employee whose job is to
follow trends in the industry and leverage the popular Social Media
Channel. Marketers consistently reading the latest links or news and could
publish those in the forms of videos on Youtube or create a blog post
quickly.
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Before launching a social media marketing strategy for an ecommerce

business, one needs to first get an overview of the distribution of social
media usage – given the growing penetration and usage of social media
these days. Marketers should start their marketing efforts by focusing on
the platforms where they can find most of the target audience. To do that,
they need to find out which social media platform has the largest user
base.
Many brands are benefiting from the real-time nature of Popular Social
Media Channels to create a sense of urgency amongst its existing
customers and prospects. Apparel brands have begun using Facebook and
Twitter to promote their products in the real-time environment. Even small
brands can benefit from viral marketing campaigns that capitalize on user
willingness to pass on relevant or entertaining content. Audiences today
need Brands to begin using a variety of popular social media channels,
such as social networks, blogs, video based channels to collaborate better
across different time zones and locations. Brands routinely need to
leverage popular social media platforms and share knowledge through
company specific blogs, for example, and provides tools that enable
employees to search all of the intranet’s content from one place. To utilize
social media to its fullest, brands need to become more agile and
innovative. Thus Successful Social Media Sites creates the opportunity for
much greater integration and engagement between audiences and brands,
creating faster decision making, more precisely tuned responses and more
innovation.
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Social media creates opportunities for companies to supplement traditional

sources of customer insight with a wealth of information gathered by
listening in to community sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, as
well as customer forums and product review services. Social media
monitoring gives brands unique access to unfiltered feedback from
customers—and at a scale unavailable via other means such as focus
groups and surveys. New and upcoming technologies such as web
crawling, web scraping (or extracting data from websites), text mining and
sentiment analysis have sprung up to support brands to take advantage of
their presence on Popular Social Media Channels. Given that 500 hours of
video are uploaded to YouTube every minute worldwide, it may seem like
an uphill task to get a video noticed. But also consider these YouTube
statistics: 1 billion hours of video on YouTube are watched daily and 90%
of consumers say they discover new brands and products through
YouTube. The third- and fourth-most popular social media platforms are
WhatsApp and Instagram, with 2 billion and 1.39 billion active users,
respectively. Incidentally, both are owned by the same parent company as
Facebook: Meta (previously Facebook).
3.2 KEY FEATURES OF POPULAR SOCIAL NETWORKING

SITES
The Current scenario is that online audiences spend more time on social
networking sites, such as Youtube, Instagram and Facebook, than they
spend on e-mail. Thus these Social and Business Networking Sites (apps),
Photo sharing Sites (apps) and Video-sharing Sites (apps), have now
become popular with the online audience. It is really hard to believe that
less than fifteen years ago these technologies barely existed – such has
been the deep influence on the lives of the users. The advent of Social and
Media Networking on the World Wide Web and the Internet has radically
changed the environment for brands doing business online. Marketers’ new
ability to convert all types of communications into digital media has
created efficient, inexpensive ways of connecting brands and their
customers and has improved the flow and the usefulness of information.
Brands have the information they need to make more informed decisions,
and consumers have access to a greater variety of products and more
information about choices and quality. Social networking continues to
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advance as the channel most observers believe will dominate digital

communication in the near future.
Thus Social media has transformed into a powerful tool that brands are
using to share and connect with global audiences. With the presence of
popular channels on Social Media brands have a wide range of
opportunities to connect and engage with their existing customers and
prospects through their own social media accounts. Following are features
of the most popular social media sites on the web and how each of them
can benefit the brands that are marketing on them:
Facebook
• Facebook is a low-cost marketing strategy.
• Share basic information about your business.
• Share photos and videos of your business.
• Talk to existing and potential customers.
• Raise brand awareness and promote word of mouth.
• Target advertising/Insights.
• Offer Deals.
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LinkedIn
• Find business partners, clients and service providers.
• Get advice from industry experts.
• Add your website or blog for increased exposure.
• “Recommendations” increase your credibility.
• “Profile” makes for better SEO opportunities.
• Join groups with like-minded people.
Twitter
• Monitor real-time conversations.
• Extend customer service.
• Offer helpful links and headlines.
• Break through communication barriers with tweets.
• Run special deals and promotions.
• Build your personal brand.
• Keep up on news and trends.
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Video Link 1
Video Link 2
3.3 SOCIAL MEDIA AS A POWERFUL CUSTOMER

RELATION MANAGEMENT TOOL
The latest statistics show that Facebook continues to reign strong as the
king of social media, with 2.93 billion active users at the end of the year
2022. That means nearly two out of every three of the 4.59 billion social
media users across the world are active users of Facebook. Facebook’s
statistics and its social media ranking say it all. Not only is it the social
media platform with the most active users, but it also ranks among apps
that consumers spend the most amount of time on. Global Android users
spend 19.7 hours per month on the Facebook app. Yet, despite the
popularity of this platform many brands are not satisfied by the results
produced on Facebook. This emphasizes the need for brands to understand
which strategies and practices are worth the effort for greater audience
engagement. In order to understand Marketing on Facebook, the most
important components of this platform are broken down and presented.
These components are:
A. Facebook Groups: A Powerful Tool to Enhance Audience
Engagement
A Group on Facebook is quite similar to groups on other prominent Social
Media Sites like LinkedIn. In fact many of us who are on Facebook know
that a Group is a community of people with a common interest and is
distinct from a Page which represents a brand or entity of which there are
“fans.” Hence the biggest advantage of Facebook Groups is to create and
participate in specific interest-related groups. Groups give brands the
opportunity to engage with targeted audiences in a much more personal
and relevant manner and allow them to become a part of the target
market’s real-time conversations. Thus it is highly recommended for people
thinking of marketing on Facebook to create a group that welcomes
conversations about anything related to their industry. While pages are the
primary tool that brands should be using to market their business on
Facebook, groups can be an extremely effective add-on strategy in many
industries and niches. When used correctly, groups can be an incredible
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source of traffic, and can lead to increased engagement and authority for
any brand. By participating in a wide range of industry-related groups,
brands can help establish themselves as an authority. People representing
brands can join or create groups and provide useful advice and tips. This
can help them become a valued member of the group; and as members
grow to trust them, they will want to find out more about those people and
their brand.
Joining a Group
To join a group, one needs find to a group and click + Join Group below the
cover photo.
There are certain things that the employees representing a brand need to
consider when joining a group:
• The audience of a brand may see them join a public or closed group in
searches or News Feeds.
• Once employees representing a brand visit a group they are invited to,
they become members and other people may view them as joined.
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Video Link 1
Video Link 2
3.4 MARKETING ON FACEBOOK

A. Creating Engagement on Facebook Groups
1. Customer Service Enhancement: Brands needs to provide a method
to engage and support existing and prospective customers. A successful
technique is through the use of the Facebook page of the brand. The
website of the brand could also be used by creating a ‘form’ that
captures user information. A third technique can also be used – here
brands can create a secret Facebook group and capture information or
feedback from the audience. The need to start a secret group rather
than a public or closed group is because these types of groups can’t be
opened via URL or found in Google search. Thus to gain access to secret
groups the audience members have to be invited by the brands or
people creating them. This technique provides the brands with improved
control with the fans and engages them in a more specific manner. Thus
this type of group provides a way to build stronger relationships with
customers.
2. Real-time Feedback Collection for New Ideas: The creation of a
secret Facebook group is also required to validate new ideas with the
existing customers and understand from them their preferences on the
same. A great technique which brands can employ is the use of a Secret
Facebook group to use as a strategy creation board. To make this
process powerful they can invite existing fans and generate discussions
on the new ideas critical for their business and subsequently collect
feedback.
3. Evaluate innovative concepts with other Brands: Brands can
leverage the use of a Facebook ‘Secret Group’ to communicate ideas
and concept with other brands. By creating this type of group they can
avoid wasting too much time or money on an idea that just won’t work.
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B. Creating and Promoting a Business Page on Facebook

1. Creating a Business Page on Facebook: Creating a Business Page on
Facebook is one of the first things that a Brand should complete to
leverage the full power of marketing on this platform. The best part is
that it is totally free and will require the time of the employees to build
and maintain. Facebook has an easy setup option for creating Business
pages and a simple wizard to create the Page. As the administrator, by
default, the name and profile will not show up anywhere on the Page.
The employees of the brand are the behind-the-scenes managers. When
any new information is posted or there is a response to a discussion
thread, it will appear to be posted by the brand rather than a person.
This happens despite the employee being logged in as themselves (this
can be changed in the Pages settings). Multiple administrators can be
designated as well to help with the maintenance of the Page.
The prime benefit of creating the page apart from audience engagement
is also that brands get to become administrators of their Page. By liking
the page the brand becomes a fan. Once a brand becomes a fan, they
will be listed among all the other fans on the Page. Another important
thing is that it will provide the brand more visibility in their network. To
actively engage people on this platform the brand needs to promote its
page. In this context the simplest and most cost-effective thing that can
be done is to utilize the existing customers. For this a number of actions
can be completed like: Writing a blog about the newly created Facebook
page or creating an email campaign to the existing customer email
database. To provide more effectiveness, always ensure that a link is
included in the Fan page in your email signature. Brands also need to
optimize their page images. In this case the profile photos and the cover
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are what browsers will watch first after landing on the page. The images
should accurately portray the meaning of the brand and should be of a
good quality. They should meet the optimal size requirements so they
don’t appear skewed.
2. Promoting a Business Page on Facebook: Focusing on attracting
fans on Facebook is the next step after creating the Page. In this
context the below provided technique prove effective.
• Utilizing the Customers from the existing channels: Converting
the existing blog readers and email subscribers is critical. These have a
greater probability to become fans of the business, hence it is
important to ensure that they are made aware of the brand’s presence
on Facebook. For spreading this awareness, it is vital to ponder on
options like blogging about the Facebook page, including a link to the
page in email signature and sending information on the opt-in mailing
list.
• Leverage the News Feed Feature of Facebook: Facebook users see
a feed of their friend’s recent activity the moment they log into
Facebook. This means that the activity of the fans on the brand’s Page
gets shared with a larger audience thus providing the brand better
visibility. The added benefit of creating an engaging page is that a fan
engages better with the page every time. Every activity is published to
the user’s “News Feed” which can be seen by their friends on Facebook.
• Make your Page publicly searchable: Brands need to ensure that
the Page should be public, so it can get indexed by search engines. By
completing this activity, the brand is ensured of the opportunity to
drive organic search traffic to the Page. It is vital for the people from
the brand to observe whether the Page created is showing up in
searches. They need to make sure to have it set to be publicly
searchable and indexed.
• Use Facebook Advertisements for an extra push: Facebook
Advertisements help to market Pages, Groups, Events and Websites on
Facebook. The process of building and running ads on Facebook is very
simple one. Facebook Advertisements help to promote the business get
more fans for the brand Page, and drive more leads for the marketing
department. To initiate this process one can visit http://
www.facebook.com/advertising, and click “Create an Ad”.
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C. Optimizing the Facebook Page for Search Engine Optimization

and likes
Creating a Facebook page is considered as the starting point for all
Facebook marketing efforts. It is critical for brands to understand that to
really create a reach, they would need the page to be ranking both in
Google and in Facebook search so as to be found by the customers and
prospects. The effort does not end here as once audiences have landed on
the page they should be delighted. The Facebook Page should be
appealing, so people will actually choose to give a like to it. To ensure that
Optimization happens brands have to select a memorable and simple
username. This Facebook page username is simply the web address for the
page (e.g., www.facebook.com/brandname). A username should accurately
convey the complete brand name and/or the theme of to ensure that the
search engines and customers can find the brand in Google and Facebook
search. Brands need to be accurate in defining the products and services.
Inclusion of the website URL in the description is a technique employed to
encourage clicks through to the brand’s website. Brands need to be aware
of the process of using keywords for customers that they might use in
search queries.
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D. Boosting the Online Sharing Process through the use of Plugins

and Buttons
To create a successful online business the brand’s Website and Facebook
page should work together seamlessly. It should be ensured that each
element of the content on the website site has a ‘like’ and ‘share’ button
next to it. These can be added through the use of third party service or a
WordPress plugin or manually to customize the buttons and make the
process of adding buttons easier. Brands need to ensure that they provide
their website visitors a way to interact with the Facebook Page as well as
share and like the content on Facebook. The page plugin needs to be
installed in the sidebar of the site to give the website visitors the chance to
like and interact with the page. Thus when setting up the plugin, Facebook
will offer options regarding the look and feel. It is recommended to choose
‘Show Page Posts’ so, that the website visitors get a preview of what type
of content they typically want to see on the page.
E. Methods to generate Engagement through Facebook posts
Brands need to ensure that they provide engaging content to give the
Facebook promotional posts the best chance of being seen. It should not
come across as an appeal to purchase the products or visit your website.
Thus brands need to ponder if their audiences find the post interesting
enough to read it and interact with it. When sharing promotional content,
brands need to ensure the addition of a relevant and engaging back dated
story for better reach.
Many brands feel that their fans don’t actually see their Facebook posts.
Facebook has addressed this concern, stating that falling reach is the result
of two main factors: First, because of the sheer amount of content being
shared each day, there is simply not enough room in users’ newsfeeds to
show every single post. This makes the competition for placement in users’
feeds fierce, and results in decreased exposure for organic posts. To get
better engagement it is vital to get the best out of pinned posts. Experts at
Facebook research have observed that most people will visit the page wall
only once. Audiences will continue to interact and visit the page depending
upon the fact that they need to like the page. The more popular the posts
become, the more often they’ll be shown in users’ feeds. The post’s reach
can be increased by brands by being aware of the fact that the
programming of Facebook is designed to show the most significant content
to the audience. This relevancy is majorly chosen by how a person has
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engaged with the type of post being shared (image, video, link, etc.), the
popularity of a page’s past posts among all users and a page’s posts in the
past (likes, comments, shares). To give the best opportunity of making it
to the feeds of the fans, it is vital to use the use videos as part of the
posting strategy. According to research, it is not the text but videos that
now lead in terms of organic reach. It is also important to regularly consult
the Facebook feature of ‘Page insights’ to see the specific content types
that are currently popular with the audience. This feature contains a wealth
of information on the types of engagement content that are getting
browsed by online audiences. Thus it is crucial to observe which posting
formats (text-only posts, links, photos or videos) are getting the most
audience pull. Another factor to consider is the time of the day as well as
posting frequency which seem to work best with your fans along with the
specific topics the audience seems to be passionate about.
Brands can make a choice to select from getting a decent reach for their
posts using approaches that are free of cost or want to add paid – options
to their organic approaches. From the context of the second option,
Facebook currently offers two major methods to spread the reach of the
page posts.
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1. Promoted Posts: The ‘Facebook Ads Manager’ feature provides access

to the Promoted posts. To create a Promoted post, one needs to click on
‘Boost your posts’ on Facebook’s Ad Creator. People creating the
promoted post need to be aware that this is more powerful than the
process of Page ‘Boosting’ which is the next method. Through ‘Promoted
posts’ the brands will have more targeting and budgeting options than
by simply clicking ‘Boost’ from their page.
2. Post Boosts: A post’s reach in newsfeeds of the users is said to be
radically increased by the process of ‘Boosting’. Boosting posts is an
effective and simple method to extend the reach of the posts, along
with the method of promoting the posts. To boost a post, simply click on
‘Boost’ when creating a new post. This setting is also found on earlier
posts in order to boost a post that has already been published. Brands
can choose to have their posts shown to the page fans, friends of the
fans, or to other online audiences who you select through targeting. The
targeting options for the posts include interests, age, gender, and
location.
F. Best Practices for Facebook Engagements

In this section we will study how products and services can be marketed
better by brands by adopting some tried and tested Engagement
techniques on Facebook.
a. Use Reciprocation Law by giving 'Like' to other brand’s pages:
Brands need to leverage the Law of Reciprocation by liking other brand’s
pages. By liking the pages of other brands and customers, they create
an engagement, as Facebook will notify the administrators of these
‘Likes’. In return, some of them may also decide to return the favour.
This action in turn will create a display and generate a visibility to the
individual fans of the other Brands.
b. Use the fame of Facebook on traditional advertising: It is a well-
known fact that the Facebook logo is very popular. Brands can leverage
this fact by adding it to their traditional marketing channels to promote
the presence on Facebook. In the same context, traditional ads can be
used to promote contests that inspire people to sign up on the fan page.
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c. Create a connection between Facebook and the outside world:

Brands can create campaigns where they can send their Marketing
people to educate local store owners to advertise their events through
Facebook photos and updates. In this context, they can also help
owners with creation of such campaigns online.
d. Use Facebook to grow your email list, and vice versa: Brands and
their Marketers need to be creative and innovative in their approach to
using Facebook. They can create value to the existing customers and
prospects by making and circulating, easy to read newsletters. Thus
they can utilize the email newsletters to raise responsiveness of the
Facebook page. The end result will be growth not just in the Facebook
fan base but also in the email list which can be used for the future
campaigns.
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e. Add content from other Social Media Channels: It is a known fact

that Facebook is the most popular online medium for millions across the
globe. Thus it is critical to merge or add content from other social
channels like Twitter or Instagram to the Facebook pages. People will
extend the content of the brand’s fan page if they find such valuable
information in one place. A popular practice has been to embed videos
on the Facebook page. These can be of the brand’s own product or
service or other similar brands as well. This strategy ensures that
audiences at kept right on the brand’s page with embedded videos.
f. Create Sweepstakes and Polls on Facebook: To increase audience
engagement on popular channels such as Facebook, the brands can add
Sweepstakes (Lotteries), Polls or Contests. These elements are a fun
and engaging way to induce participation from fans and even generate
new fans. To relate an actual incident that worked – recently a brand
asked people to comment on a post and declared a prize for the best
response to the post. This created a lot of replies to the post and
generated new customers by the thousands and was able to retain
existing customers as well. From the Indian context, a wide range of
brands from Automobile manufacturers to Hotels are using this strategy.
g. Be Creative and Engaging: Brands need to realize that when people
reach their Facebook page, they are looking for some kind of
interaction. They might get disappointed if they are not engaged in the
right way. An actual real-life and recent example is that of a famous
Indian Jewelers Brand that offered their Facebook fans information that
was engaging, a visual contest and links. This generated an immense
response from the online audience and within a short span of time they
were able to add 50,000 new fans.
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
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3.5 MARKETING ON LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a Business and employment oriented service that operates
through websites and mobile apps. It is mainly used for professional
networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their
CVs. As of early 2023, LinkedIn now has more than 875 million members
with over 58 million registered companies. From the Indian context, there
are currently 20 million members and growing. It is safe to say that we
have come of age in India. It is the most popular among people in their
late 20s and early 30s. The largest age group using LinkedIn worldwide, as
of the current date, is adults aged between 25 and 34. Nearly 60% of its
users fall within this age bracket. LinkedIn allows members (both workers
and employers) to create profiles and "connections" to each other in an
online social network which may represent real-world professional
relationships. Members can invite anyone (whether an existing member or
not) to become a connection. The "gated-access approach" (where contact
with any professional requires either an existing relationship or an
introduction through a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among
the service's members. Brands can benefit through using this channel of
Social Media as LinkedIn permits users to research other brands with which
they may be interested in working. Information about a brand having its
presence on this channel is provided whenever the name of a given
organization is typed in the search box. These may include the location of
the company's headquarters and offices, a list of present and former
employees, the ratio of female to male employees and the percentage of
the most common titles/positions held within the company.
For Brands that are looking at options of leveraging this Social Media
Channel - LinkedIn offers perfect social proof on the profile page in the
form of endorsements and recommendations. For smart Marketing
professionals wanting to spreading their brand name, this is a platform that
offers a superb ability to showcase their ability to add business pages with
featured products. It is also appealing due to its capability to create huge
targeted groups and is extremely friendly on Search Engines. Brands can
generate better engagement by creating a well-designed profile. People
representing brands can start groups to leverage the large community of
people who are interacting on these, groups and in turn use LinkedIn as a
powerful tool to generate prospects. The advantage with this channel is
that with very less investment of time and money, brands marketers to
grow a huge number of connections and grow the brand.
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In order to understand Marketing on LinkedIn, the most important features

of this channel are segregated and given below:
A. LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups is the most powerful method of engaging with online
audience on this business networking platform. Thus this is the best way to
create an involved community on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Groups provide a
place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to
share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts,
and establish themselves as industry experts. Marketers can find groups in
their respective industries to join by using the search feature at the top of
the homepage or viewing suggestions of relevant groups. New groups can
be created which are specifically focused on a particular topic or industry.
Groups are accessible from the LinkedIn website or the mobile app. Group
members can send a free message to other members in order to reach out
to them. They can also initiate or participate in conversations and explore
the latest conversations on the Conversations page.
Starting a Conversation in Groups
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Featuring a Group Conversation
If you’re a group owner, manager, or moderator, you can feature a

conversation by selecting Feature from the available options found within
the conversation. The featured conversation will appear at the top of the
feed until a new item is selected.
To feature a conversation:
1. Navigate to your Linkedin Group homepage.
2. Click on the ... More icon located on the top right corner of the
conversation.
3. Click Feature.
To unfeature a conversation:
1. Navigate to your Linkedin Group homepage.
2. Click on the ... More icon located on the top right corner of the
conversation.
3. Click Unfeature.
If you’re a group member, you can always contact your group owner or
manager and request that they feature your conversation.
To generate more engagement through ‘Groups’, it is essential to prioritize

active discussions and provide value to the group members. The solution
for brands is to position themselves as helpful and credible peers rather
than as sales people focused on acquiring the next lead. Brands can also
build personal connections with are increased visibility that, engaging in
Groups. Important factors to be considered when engaging through
‘Groups’ are – size of the group, amount of new connections, amount of
discussions and quality of online conversations.’
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B. LinkedIn Direct Sponsored Content

This is a feature that is currently popular on the LinkedIn platform and is
used widely by Brands that are marketing on this channel. Online Content
is shared directly in the form of a feed through the use of ‘Direct
Sponsored Content’ which is a type of sponsored update. This feature
provides brands the power to test content and personalize it on the
LinkedIn Page. Thus tailored messages are sent to specific audiences
making the content more relevant. This feature can be used innovatively to
test and retest a variety of content in real-time to optimize performance.
Through the appropriate use of this feature, it becomes easy to generate
quality leads by sharing insights that professionals seek. For brands it is
possible to observe their content spread through the users on LinkedIn. To
make this process more effective, brands need to ensure sharing links to
gated (specific community) content or the brand’s landing page with a lead
form.
This feature can be used to build thought leadership for brands by creating
a process of building relationships with a wide variety of professionals by
establishing trust and creating value that triggers deeper customer
relationships and growing online engagement. Apart from building thought
leadership Direct Sponsored Content also generates critical brand
awareness. Hence this feature helps in creating a positive perception
amongst the target audience and increasing awareness of the brand and its
products and services.
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C. LinkedIn Company & Showcase Pages

‘Company Pages’ is a relatively new feature created by LinkedIn to help
brands create engagement. This feature enables brands to build
relationships with existing customers and interact with prospects by
featuring relevant content. Through the Company Page, brands can share
Company Updates and Sponsored Content with LinkedIn members. This
feature helps create long-term relationships and allows members to follow
the aspects of the brand that are relevant to them.
‘Showcase Pages’ serve a similar purpose as ‘Company Pages’, but the
difference between the two is that the former serves specific business
lines, products or initiatives within the brand and display these specifics.
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Brands globally are discovering a surge in audience engagement with the

use of dedicated Showcase Pages. Thus this feature acts as an extension to
the brand’s Company Page. The Showcase Pages are designed for
spotlighting a brand, a specific product, or initiative. This feature allows
brands to create a page for important features of their business with
customized messages to share with critical audience segments. Thus, to
conclude, Showcase Pages are aimed at building relationships with
LinkedIn members and sharing specific content with a targeted audience.
Here's how to get started:

1 Identity business areas that need a Showcase Page
2. Click the "Edit" menu on your Company Page Select
"Create a Showcase Page."
3. Now you're ready to start sharing your content.
View our FAQs for more info.
Top Companies are using showcase pages to build relationships
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Brands can use dedicated Showcase Pages Links to display a wide range of
useful information which may include the:
• Industry Specific Articles.
• Content presented in the form of Visuals.
• Case Studies.
• Most relevant Whitepapers.
• eBooks.
D. Sponsored InMail
This format for Marketing is an advanced version of InMail sent to people
on this channel. This feature enables brands to send personalized
messages within LinkedIn’s channel to a specific audience. The
conventional email campaigns have now become obsolete and are reaching
a level of saturation hence it can be substituted or complimented with the
InMail feature. Let us study some of the important techniques of how the
Sponsored InMail messages will actually increase engagement with the
online audiences.
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1. Cater Your Message to Your Target Audience: Like segmenting and

targeting your message for email, you should do the same for InMail,
and there are several steps involved in crafting the perfect message for
your target audience. With InMail ads, you automatically increase your
chance of user engagement because the message is only delivered to
those actively using the platform at that moment, whether on desktop
or through the mobile app. This means your InMail message is delivered
in real-time and won’t get lost in a flooded inbox or blocked by spam --
two things we’re constantly battling with traditional email marketing.
Having an active audience, though, is only half the battle. Once the
email is sent, you still need to entice them to view and take action on it.
2. Techniques to Market through LinkedIn Sponsored InMail Ads:
Brands need to be aware that Sponsored InMail is great for sharing
content offers to your target audience. InMail really proves helpful to
brands in generating leads. This feature increases reach by making
marketing material available to the target audience through one of the
following options:
a. Running promotions using Sponsored In Mail: Sponsored InMail
campaign can be specially created to engage online audience by
sharing the latest information with then. Brands can offer audiences
an exclusive invitation to learn by selecting only a specific target
audience to get the message. This distinctiveness will make the offer
look more exciting and generate immediate conversions and also
encourage more enquiries. They can also use promotion in the form
of discounts or limited-time offers.
b. Brands can meet their target prospects and existing
customers by inviting them to Webinars and Events: Brands
can leverage the opportunity of engaging audiences through in-
person events or a webinar organized online. Thus campaigns run
through the Sponsored InMail feature are a great way to reach new
audiences and get people to know the brand. This feature also helps
to relay specific marketing message and create excitement and
educate the recipient on what he or she will get out of the event.
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In addition to the above techniques, here are some other strategies that
brands can also consider:
• Virtual networking to increase engagement.
• Offers to provide incentive for customer loyalty.
• Education of audience for brand awareness.
• Announcements for enrollment for Certifications.
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
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3.6 MARKETING ON YOUTUBE

Introduction
It is the second most visited site in the world after Google. Ever since its
inception, it accounts for nearly 2 billion monthly globally active users as of
the current date. So, if you want to diversify your traffic sources or even
just get your business in front of your target audience, YouTube marketing
is the answer. Today we are in the era of the high-speed Internet and have
seen the maturing of digital online content. With every passing moment we
are witnessing a growth and evolution in digital marketing. Thus there is a
constant trend that is in the favor of videos. Brands today can take
advantage of some interesting statistics related to marketing of video
content on premier channels like YouTube. YouTube is a video-sharing
website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and
owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and
share videos.
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YouTube is a critical platform of Social Media and is used to display a wide

variety of user-generated video content, including video clips, films, music
videos, television clips and documentaries. It is also used as an opportunity
by upcoming professionals and freelancers to display amateur content such
as educational videos, short stories, films and blogs. A majority of this
content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, but even large
brands have posted useful information on this channel. Users can watch
videos and upload videos to this channel. Videos considered to contain
potentially offensive content are available only to registered users affirming
themselves to be at least 18 years old.
Brands get a lot of benefit by creating a dominant presence on YouTube.
Some of them are as follows:
• Increase the brand visibility: Brands can create visibility by simply
sharing videos that are powerful on their channel. This is a cost-effective
method of making the brand more visible and engaging with the online
audiences. Thus brands can leverage the power of YouTube in innovative
ways. For small businesses also this channel has proved beneficial, as it
replaces the need to create videos. Those businesses or individuals who
are unable to make a video regarding their business due to lack of good
content or time constraints can simply rate and comment on other’s
videos and still be seen on Youtube.
• Simplified method of sharing information online: YouTube is known
to be channel that is critical in sharing information online to people
across the globe. Brands can share product or service related information
or even business presentations with clients spread all around the world.
YouTube can be an extremely helpful for brands that often get customer
calls regarding problems with the product or service offering. Most small
and medium sized brands might not have the staff to cater to all these
problems. Brands can innovatively solve this problem by making and
posting a video with complete operational details and troubleshooting.
This action also results in generating more engagement with customers
and also shows how the brand cares about their customer.
• Brands can make their product famous: YouTube is helping brands
enter new markets with their offering. The process of creating a video of
the product or service in action and showcasing the benefits of the
product has a great impact on potential online buyers. Likes and
comment for the video follow if it has been done in a creative manner.
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• Utilize the Ads on YouTube: YouTube is one of the most widely used
social media site where brands would definitely want to run a marketing
campaign, as this channel has a huge number of views every day. There,
multiple opportunities available when it comes to the kind of promotion
to be run. The feature of video target can be used to place ads or brands
can also use one of the several marketing programs available on this
channel.
• YouTube Insight: this is a channel where feedback and insights are
provided by audiences on a real-time basis. Comments and ratings are
really great methods to analyze the strengths and flaws of the videos
that are posted. The ‘Insight’ feature is another powerful feature which is
also available on YouTube which performs the role of a reporting
function. This feature provides the statistical data regarding the viewers
who have watched the video. This is helpful for brands to analyze the
success of their campaign and make if the promotions need any
modifications.
• Get feedback: Brands can utilize this channel to get clues about how
their actual product should be. In this context, YouTube can be used if
the product is not completely finished. Thus it can be a great forum to
understand the response that the product prototype might get. Brands
simply have to put up the video of this initial stage. With over 500 million
active users, there is no better place to get reviews about the prototype.
• Increase the traffic on the website: Brands can direct traffic from
their YouTube video to their website by inserting links into their videos.
More traffic can be directed to the brand’s website due to the search
engines present online. They can also index the brand’s videos on
YouTube and benefit from the fact that video results are comparatively
lesser than text results. This increases the chances of finding the
business video.
• Reduce expenses: Brands need to be aware of the fact that the entire
process – right from setting up the channel, uploading of videos, creating
communities to performing traffic analysis of the video, is completely
free on the YouTube channel. Thus this helps in saving a lot of money, as
it is one of the most important factors in any marketing campaign.
YouTube permits brands to upload videos for free, unlike the traditional
methods like marketing on newspaper, magazines or television need a lot
of money.
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Creating a Channel to Market on YouTube

The most critical step that a brand needs to take to start the marketing
process on this platform would be to utilize the feature of the ‘Channel’. A
YouTube channel is available to everyone who joins YouTube as a member.
The channel serves as the home page for the user's account. The channel
shows the users details such as account name, a personal description, the
public videos the member uploads, and any user information the member
enters. Brands can create their own channels on YouTube. These channels
are different from personal channels because they can have more than one
owner or manager. A YouTube member can open a new business channel
using a Brand Account.
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Procedure for creating a Business Channel: brands can build a

business channel by providing their marketing team control over a Brand
Account on Youtube. The difference between this and a personal account is
that the employee should have a different name from their personal Google
account. Brands can give other members of YouTube permission to access
and manage their channel. Below are provided the steps to open a new
business channel:
• Log in to the YouTube account.
• Open the YouTube channel switcher page.
• Click Create a new channel to open a new business channel.
• Enter a Brand Account name in the space provided and then click Create.
Procedure for viewing a Business Channel: A member's personal

presence on YouTube is represented by the feature of the channel. To view
a business channel, users need to select the name of the brand to view
that brand’s channel. By performing this users and other brands online will
be able to see all the member's videos and anything the user picked as a
favourite. YouTube gives the facility to view YouTube channels where
audiences can browse and enjoy watching popular channels and subscribe
to them as well.
Building the Brand’s presence on a Business Channel:
Brands can quickly and effectively build their presence on YouTube with the
right amount of strategizing. Like all other channel of Social Media, brands
present on YouTube also need to put the right efforts to ensure that their
promotional efforts succeed. The best part about presenting videos on
channels is that YouTube provides the choice of customizing the look and
feel of the channel. A positive impact on the viewer can be created by
being innovative and thus brands need to take full advantage of this
feature. It has been observed that many brands stop leveraging the power
of Channels and start ignoring them. From a user’s perspective, they find
that there is no active promotion on the channel after the initial bursts of
enthusiasm. This may be an obstacle to growing engagement among the
users and may lead to viewer dissatisfaction.
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Some simple strategies that brands can use to improve the use of channels
are as follows:
• They should ensure that the content is well-organized.
• Channels provide an option of making playlists. Thus brands can group
all the relevant videos together into a single playlist to increase the
element of user-friendliness
• Brands can ensure updating of the comments, even if they have nothing
new to upload
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Creating and Engaging Communities on YouTube

Various brands across the globe have realized the potential to use this
channel for commercial purposes and to reach to their online audiences.
Brands have been able to master the art of using video content to drive
engagement by using the strategy of building communities on YouTube. In
this section we are going to learn powerful techniques that can be used for
leveraging YouTube to grow and engage communities.
1. Brands need to invest in creating Powerful Communities: A
powerful yet easy method to build a community is to utilize the existing
customers to spread the brand name by creating videos on this channel.
By enabling creation of community based videos, brands increase the
engagement of their target audience. They also get a feedback on
developing the most relevant type of content that will retain audience
interest. When it comes to engagement on YouTube, a lot of brands
believe it is simple to market to people from other communities than to
create their own. This strategy is proving to be ineffective in the long
run and is creating poor results. Hence, brands need to create strategies
that provide higher quality engagement. A prominent example of
leveraging the power of marketing on YouTube is of the famous toy
maker Lego. This brand has built an extremely strong community on
YouTube. A recent study indicates that more than five million people
worldwide have subscribed to its channel. Lego is very active in creating
engagements for a variety of content to keep its fans involved on
YouTube. Thus for a brand like Lego, this type of innovative interaction
is possible because they have created an active communities on
YouTube.
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2. Brands need to request participation from the community: Brands

need to be aware of the power of word-of-mouth marketing. This can be
done and encouraged by acknowledging videos created by fans on their
official channel. Lego is able to encourage fans to keep creating new
theme-based video content. It also actively shows gratitude to its
community by rewarding fans. Brands also need to be aware that every
video created has to be effective enough to churn monetary returns and
enhance online engagement. This is becoming difficult with the rapid
changes and transitions in customer choices and views on using media
as content. A simple way to invite participation is to create a playlist of
fan videos from around YouTube. Participation can be also invited by
calling the fans to create content with the brand’s designers. Many
brands have discovered that a specific content format helps in
explaining about their products and/or services in a meaningful way.
Thus YouTube is a natural candidate for brands to select if they intend
to create engaging video-based content. Lego realized the clear relation
between creating specific video-based content formats and focused on
branding that content successfully. Thus Lego invited fans to join them
to create innovative ads to be put on Youtube and Facebook and other
channels of the Social Media. Hence Lego has truly recognized the
power of partnering with fans and empowering their creativity.
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3. Brands need to deliver consistently: In order for brands to have a

long-term presence on the Social Media, it is critical to invest in creating
content that organically (naturally) grows its own fan base. Hence it is
important to create a schedule for uploading content in a consistent
manner. Any inconsistency would result in the fans losing interest and
going elsewhere. In this context, the brands should be aware of buying
the audience through paid media by investing time and resources in
making content for that audience. Thus proper investment of time and
resources results in organic growth and is instrumental in engaging
online audiences. This also provides specific qualified engagement, as
audiences have chosen to look up the brands instead of having had their
attention purchased. YouTube recommends 3-5 posts per week to
effectively build and sustain engagement.
Thus to conclude, YouTube is a powerful Social Media Channel for the
brands to display their offerings. When it comes to social media
marketing, there are very few platforms that provide the benefits that
YouTube does. Thus brands can make full use of the features provided
by the site and be patient. Hence YouTube with its features can do
wonders for the brand if used appropriately.
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3.7 MARKETING ON TWITTER

Introduction
The next Social Media Marketing Channel that is immensely successful is
Twitter. Twitter is the most well-known micro-blogging platform. It is a
communication medium that permits brands/people to send out
‘Tweets’ (short messages) up to 140 characters long to people who
subscribe to them (followers). The tweets that can have vital marketing
material and can include an image or video. Tweets can also have a link to
websites, online document or blogs. Once a Twitter account is created,
Brands and Marketers create engagement, as this allows their audience to
follow (subscribe) them. Subsequently they can also let you follow other
brands or their target audience. This allows brands to easily share their
tweets with your followers, which is known as re-tweeting.
Twitter also possesses the perfect framework that would enable brands to
benefit from their presence on it. Let’s explore strategies for how to do
that. Thus brands need to create a diverse range of strategies for
connecting to the broader eco-system of Twitter. Twitter marketing is how
businesses use Twitter to create and disperse content to targeted
audiences and build community interest for their brand—and hopefully
generate sales. Twitter helps companies get in touch with a wide pool of
potential customers from around the world. In fact, more than 300 million
monthly active users are on Twitter.
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Building a targeted and effective Twitter marketing strategy is a multi-step

process. The first step involves creating buyer personas for your ideal
customers. After that, it is a good idea to do Twitter research to get to
know how your target audience acts on the platform and what they are
interested in.
When you have some idea of what your intended audience wants, it is time
to start making content for them. However, keep track of how users
respond to your tweets. Monitoring your tweets’ performance can help you
adjust and improve your strategy and find your brand voice. The below
provided are some of the most powerful strategies to enhance marketing
on this platform:
1. Selecting the correct Username: Creating of a Twitter account and
profile is taking the first step to starting engaging customers and
marketing on Twitter. It is important that brands select an account
name that is resonating with other online Social Media platforms. The
tools available to marketers and advertisers using Twitter are becoming
more advanced and are ideal for proper audience engagement.
2. Engaging Audience on Twitter: Brands need to be aware of the fact
that re-tweets and comments are one of the best ways to understand
how effectively the message is reaching the audience. In this case
audience reach and interaction is a much greater sign of engagement on
Twitter than only creating followers. Thus the increase in engagement
should organically be created and this becomes a good indicator to
understand the effectiveness of the strategy used on this platform. To
measure effectiveness, brands can observe the frequency of clicked
Twitter links and the amount of traffic that Twitter is passing to the
website. Brands need to increase these percentages to enhance the
Twitter strategy and ensure better alignment with the broad Social
Media Strategy. Twitter should be used as a medium to create
extremely powerful messages that persuade audiences and to engage
and share tweets. Brands need to use Twitter to create more
opportunities for more interaction.
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3. Incorporate Twitter Posts into overall Content Marketing: To

really generate engagement in a strategic manner, it is critical to
integrate the activity on Twitter with the broader content marketing
efforts. While audiences from varying industries have different needs,
brands need to identify the critical aspects that are common in terms of
optimizing the promotion into the Twitter format. They need to
introspect the connection between the broad content marketing
strategies and Twitter success rather than just seeing Twitter simply as
a platform to promote content. Brands need to be aware of the content
created and that it has to be customized for the Twitter format. Brands
need to ask themselves what kind of content will prove popular for the
followers on Twitter. The solution can be a basis for creation of the
content and its sharing. Brands need to consistently strive to build and
maintain a good reputation in attempting to establish themselves as an
industry leader. To facilitate this, they should tweet to their audience on
a consistent basis. This practice will help to increase the brand’s
following on Twitter. Brands can increase audience reach by using the
platform to enhance critical exposure in their specific area, be a part of
broad online conversations and connect with influencers.
4. Use Twitter to build and grow the Business: Brands need to be
aware of the most important strategy, that is not and just to create
engagement on Twitter, but also to focus on building the brand. Twitter
plays a critical role in providing an important opportunity to join the
broader social conversation on specific industry related topics. Twitter
strategies need to focus on building the brand, which requires
marketers to look at each aspect of the interactions on Twitter as a
brand-building activity. These include strategies such as creating a
brand guide to ensure the consistency of the information, infusing
insight, personality, and depth into the tweets. Brands need to analyze
if their basic profile page is aligned with the brand’s visual image. They
also need to check if the content in the tweets helps to reinforce the
brand’s expertise and its positioning.
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5. Integrate Visual Content: Twitter is the perfect channel to conduct

cross-platform of important content. Thus this is useful for brands
whose strategy for promoting content is developing to include visual and
video content. So brands need to include visual content on Twitter if it
has not already done so, and hence make it one of the vital channels for
content distribution. The major reason behind creating and tweeting
visual content on Twitter is the feature of ‘Twitter Cards’. This feature
has helped audiences to post images, info-graphics and other visual
content in a much better manner. Thus brands can now use this feature
to improve engagement by using Twitter to display specific video
content and select captivating images to go with the links. It is now
possible to use powerful images to communicate the core message of
the brand.
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Thus, enhancing promotion by using visual information through Twitter

has numerous benefits. This results in using Twitter’s ability to make the
profile stand out in content feed of the readers as well as connect the
brands with a larger audience.
6. Use of ‘Hashtags’ to participate in the right conversations: In
order to generate engagement on Twitter begins, with a sound
understanding of one of the most popular features of Twitter known as
– Hashtags. The ability to participate in the right conversations is thus
dependent on and knowing how to use Hashtags to the advantage of
the brand. Thus brands need to have created a branded hashtag and
also use it in all the promotional campaigns on Twitter. For the readers
of this book who are new to Hashtags – these are placed in front of
words or phrases to categorize tweets and make them searchable to
other users. Twitter permits users to search for specific information
through tweets of a public nature by using the Hashtag feature. This
functionality proves highly useful for individual users or brands trying to
find others who are discussing industry-specific topics.
Hashtags are also useful for user to find brands and interact with them.
This is where the promotional potential of Twitter can be completely
leverages. Expert Twitter users proclaim that it’s appropriate to use not
more than two words or phrases per tweet that have a hashtag. To
conclude, the brands need to initiate conversations using Hashtags to talk
to other people and brands on Twitter. They need to focus on building
outside their network by following users who could eventually turn into
leads. Generally, tweets with hashtags can receive over 12% more
engagement (follows, replies, and retweets) than those without them. You
can find some of the most popular hashtags for your industry with Twitter
Analytics.
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You can also use unique ones that represent your business or certain
promotions you are running. For example, if you own an online record
store, you might include the hashtags #VinylLife and #vintagevinyl on a
tweet about a store promotion. Hashtags begin with a “#” symbol and
cannot have punctuation marks, symbols, or spaces. Don’t clutter your
tweets with too many hashtags, though. One or two can do the trick.
Using too many hashtags can distract users from your message. It can
also make your tweets look less sincere.
7. Building credibility: Brands should be aware of the core objective of
marketing on social media. Building credibility and establishing brand
awareness should always be a top priority and promoting this through
tweets is critical to business growth. Brands leveraging Twitter as a
prominent part of their social media marketing efforts need to assign
Twitter responsibilities to one team member who can make it his or her
primary focus.
8. Increasing reach through Re-tweet: A simple yet powerful strategy
to attract more followers who are specifically interested in products or
services of a brand is Retweeting and spreading of content. It is
observed that in many cases, the brand will start getting followers as
the audience to whom the retweet reaches may start following the
brand. Thus this presents an important opportunity to develop as an
influencer and to build a sound network. Retweeting is quintessential to
creating a positive engagement with other users. To conclude, retweets
serve the purpose of informing audiences that brands are active on their
websites and also helps brands to connect to other noticeable Twitter
users.
9. Increase brand recognition by using Links appropriately: Brands
wanting to increase brand recognition and become, influencers on Social
Media through Twitter need to make optimal and appropriate use of
links. They need to focus on enhancing tweets by infusing informative
links. Thus tweeting industry-specific information through the use of
powerful links can make the brand popular. They need also be aware of
the fact that there are a lot of redundant links already present on
Twitter and many of them are not really meaningful. Hence to increase
brand recognition, the objective as a Twitter user should be to share
powerful links that can help in the efforts to increase engagement. This
implies that brands should only link to content that the target audience
would find specific for their needs.
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3.8 MARKETING ON INSTAGRAM

Introduction
Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by
Facebook, Inc. It was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and
launched in October 2010 exclusively on iOS. Since its launch, this visual
social networking channel is experiencing significant growth and studies
indicate that visual content sites like Instagram will continue to surge in
popularity on social media in the future as well. Brands need to understand
the changing manner in which the audiences are using the Instagram
platform. Studies reveal that the usage of this platform has evolved from
just viewing images and selfies to using this channel to create virtual
product wish lists and a complete range of promotional methods. This
creates a critical opportunity for brands wanting to leverage the marketing
on the social media. Brands need to be aware of the fact that audiences on
Instagram are more engaged than the social media audiences on other
channels. This channel is creating engagement percentages for brands that
are higher than both Facebook and Twitter. For brands having a presence
on other social media channels, it also pays to build a presence on
Instagram. To be successful on Instagram brands need to be fully aware of
the various features of this channel and the users of this channel.
According to a recent study, a majority of audience on this channel base
their buying after seeing something on Instagram. The culture has shifted
to audiences creating lists of things they want to purchase from simple
photo sharing of the past. Thus Instagram has evolved from a simple photo
sharing app to a complete social media marketing platform. To be concise,
Instagram has released lots of new features for brands to promote their
products and services. These features are: Instagram Stories, Instagram
posts that generate more promotions and Advanced Analytics. These
marketing features provide new methods to drive traffic from various
channels.
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The relevant content you post on Instagram is likely to change over time.
Be sure to check your Analytics periodically to see how well your posts are
engaging your audience. Get creative with your posts to see what people
react to. Try posting funny GIFs, interesting statistics, your company’s
views on current events, emojis, or even Twitter polls. Eventually, you will
get a clear picture of what works and what doesn’t. Learning what types of
content resonate with your target audience can help you build relationships
with them. Another benefit of experimenting with different types of content
is that, over time, your business will develop a brand personality that
makes your company recognizable to consumers.
Instagram thus has quickly become a popular way for brands and
individual users to share snaps with other users. Brands need to capitalize
on the fact that although Instagram has fewer users, it is still growing
faster than both Twitter and Facebook originally did. Thus brands need to
be smarter than their competitors and should start their promotions on this
platform. Instagram is now accessible through the web now as it was
originally accessible only on Androids and iPhones. This channel is
perceived as relaxing and novel by various global brands and due to its
visual content creates an extremely high level of engagement for online
audiences. Instagram makes it easy to engage audiences in a promotional
campaign and makes it simple for brands to build influencers and establish
loyalty. This makes it an ideal tool for branding even on a small budget. By
providing audiences with glimpses into a brand and its employees,
Instagram is proving to be a great platform for building rapport online.
Many brands are leveraging this channel to take snaps of people at the
workplace or at official occasions. Thus prospects and customers perceive
such brands as not just some faceless corporate entity. Another strategy
that can be used is to promote customers to take their own snaps using a
product or a service.
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Instagram Algorithm: Brands need to be aware of the fact that currently

Instagram operates on the basis of the ‘Instagram Algorithm.’ As this
platform began expanding, it was really difficult to keep up with all the
photos and videos that its audiences posted online. In fact, according to
Instagram, people missed an average of 70% of their feeds when it was
chronological (a process used before Instagram transformed to the
Algorithm process).
Thus Instagram re-organized posts using the algorithm in order to see
more content that was relevant to them. It is a known fact that feeds with
higher number of likes, views, shares or comments will perform better in
this algorithm feature of Instagram. The algorithm senses high-quality
content when a feed gets a huge number of likes and comments. At times
the Instagram algorithm ranks a feed on how fast it receives its interaction
from audiences. The Instagram algorithm also uses the amount of time
people spend viewing a post as a factor in determining whether or not to
shows it to more users – this process is pretty similar to how Facebook
functions. Brands and users thus need to device great Instagram captions
to stay on top. Engaging caption ensure that users are more likely to get
engaged by clicking the “more” button or reading it. This results in the
amount of time getting increased for the post. Thus promotional messages
need to be customized in the form of captivating photos, videos, and GIFs,
since it takes more time to watch them and are thus ranked higher by the
Algorithm.
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Brands can deliver specific messages if they are aware of the fact that if
they engage with a particular account regularly. This tells the Instagram
algorithm that they really like that account’s content. As a result, they are
likely to see more of that profile’s content in the future feeds. Brands can
create innovative posts and visual content and compel user to like their
content. By getting regularly likes and comments the posts will likely
appear in their feed more often. Photos of products also create a huge
amount of engagement on Instagram. Brands should innovate on adding
unique perspectives to the shots like end-users actually using the product.
‘Instagram Stories’ is a feature that permits users to share photos and/or
videos that disappear after 24 hours. Thus the visual data shared using this
feature also does not appear in any other place on this platform. A key
advantage for brands to utilize the Instagram Stories feature is that the
algorithm keeps a track of all the interactions on this feature although the
posts are temporary in nature. Thus higher interactions with the Instagram
Stories result in the higher frequency of posts showing up in the users
feeds.
Instagram Bio and Profile: A well-defined Instagram Bio and Profile
provides a detailed account of what the brand does to the other users on
this channel. Brands should plan their details well in the Instagram Bio if
they desire to make a mark for their products and/or services. Brands need
to consider their major offerings and also the core values of their
prospective users when selecting the content to be added to their
Instagram Bio. The keywords in the Bio which are specific for the targeted
users will help them better understand the brand and its offerings. Brands
also need to consider the types of keywords that will be useful for the
online audiences. In case of the Instagram Profile, each component of the
profile should be relevant to the needs of the audience. This should have
the Bio, Profile Photo, Feed, Hashtags and captions.
Instagram Audit: Brands need to keep in mind specific marketing related
objectives while they are auditing their own account. Performing an
Instagram audit is essential to ensure that every element in the Bio and
Profile will generate more engagement with the audiences. By conducting
this audit, brands can analyze critically the efforts taken on the channel.
They can then decide to retain or change the strategy according to
changing needs of the business.
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Thus running an audit for brands is a great opportunity to make sure they
are leveraging Instagram marketing to the fullest. Brands need to generate
the following results after completing the Instagram audit:
• Clear Picture about the objectives and goals pertaining to marketing on
Instagram.
• Concise evaluation of the strategy employed for audience interaction.
• Better articulation of the Instagram content (voice and how the brands is
represented).
• Strategy refinement of the various hashtags used
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Building an Instagram Content Strategy

Brands need to understand that it’s critical to plan the individual posts well
along with a great-looking Instagram feed to keep the audiences engaged.
Currently, Instagram allows three types of posts: Photos, Videos, and
Carousel posts. Below provided is a short description of each:
Photo posts
Video posts
Carousel posts
Photo posts: These types of posts are the most widespread type of
content on Instagram. The factors that make them so popular is that they
are simple to build and change and are flexible in nature. Users on
Instagram are permitted to post photos in square, portrait and landscape
formats.
Video posts: Brands need to include video posts in their promotions as
they generate a lot of engagement on Instagram. Studies state that due to
ability of video posts to communicate complex stories, they tend to be one
of the best formats for generating interactions. Hence there are a lot of
brands that are investing in creating these types of posts. Videos can also
be shared in square, portrait and landscape formats.
Carousel posts: A post in the carousel format is one that permits users
and brands to display two or more images and/or videos, links, calls to
action or headlines in a single promotion on Instagram. Since the
introduction of this format the brands have used it to creatively display
their product or service offerings, share event photos and videos and
promotional events on this channel. These posts were introduced in
mid-2017, and as of now have become very popular with a wide range of
brands worldwide. The reason is that, like Instagram videos, carousel posts
are more versatile than single photos posts. Plus, you can incorporate both
photos and videos into your carousel posts, so they’re a great place to get
creative. Carousel posts can be shared in landscape, portrait, or square
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formats -- but you have to stick to just one photo format. They can include
between two and 10 photos or videos.
Thus to conclude, brands have an infinite number of possibilities to
leverage Instagram for promotions. Brands need to be mindful to
strategically apply Instagram by focusing on critical engagement metrics
available on this channel. Thus to create engaged and spread audiences it
is critical to generate likes, shares and comments. They also have the tools
mentioned in the previous sections to become more interactive and
engaging on this channel.
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3.9 MARKETING ON WHATSAPP

Introduction
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform messaging and Voice Over IP
service owned by Facebook. This freeware allows the sending of text
messages and voice calls, as well as video calls, images and other media,
documents, and user location. This application was created by WhatsApp
Inc., based in Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook
in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion. The application runs
from a mobile device though it is also accessible from desktop computers.
This service requires consumer users to provide a standard cellular mobile
number. Originally users could only communicate with other users
individually or in groups of individual users, but in September 2017
WhatsApp announced a forthcoming business platform which will enable
companies to provide customer service to users at scale. Today, WhatsApp
is reported to have more than 2 billion monthly active users globally. And
is ranked among the most popular mobile messenger apps in the world.
WhatsApp has grown in phenomenally over the past few years and is
extremely popular in India.
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For many who perceive doing business on the social media, the first
preference goes to channels like Facebook and Twitter but today the
fastest movers in this segment are messenger apps. Thus WhatsApp has
become the most popular messenger apps used for marketing at a global
level. Its popularity is soaring with 1.5 billion monthly active users around
the world. For various brands conducting business on the diverse social
media channel this fact needs capitalization. Brands need to device
strategies on effectively generating marketing revenue through WhatsApp.
As a company, it is important to discover your brand voice and be
consistent with it. Your company’s brand voice is how you interact with
people and express your personality. Depending on the nature of your
business, your brand voice might be lighthearted, sincere, or even
sarcastic. To develop your own brand voice, start by checking out how
competitors in your industry express theirs. You might decide to make your
voice similar or create something totally different. Your brand voice will
change over time as you see what people respond to. Use of WhatsApp in
creative ways can be instrumental in getting your voice out to the
customers.
There are three methods to post messages, images and videos on
WhatsApp:
Personal Window
Messages
Groups
Broadcast lists
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1. Personal Window Messages: Using this method, users can directly

message, call (voice) or make a video call to other users who are in
their contact list.
2. Groups: Group messaging permits users and brands to message 256
people at one time. Similar to the Personal Window Message method,
the groups support sharing of messages, photos and videos. A key
advantage of this method is that members in the group chat can
participate and share their thoughts and ideas and view others posts on
the group.
3. Broadcast lists: With this feature a message can be created and
broadcasted up to 256 contacts at one go. The key advantage of this
method is that users will see the message as a personal message and
not a public one. The response to this will also be personal message.
Essentials of Marketing on WhatsApp

Studies conducted across the globe suggest that WhatsApp users look
forward to engaging with brands that use this platform to conduct
business. The sheer volume of messages (approximately close to 60
billion) that are sent through WhatsApp every day prompts brands to
leverage this channel. Studies also suggest a growing number of users
wanting to engage with a brand they can message directly. Brands need to
target specific demographics of users on this channel to succeed. It is
recommended to target young users as they are avid users of this
platform.
Brands should be aware of the fact that WhatsApp has much better
engagement rates than other platforms as it is majorly based on the
mobile. Thus the posts are opened and read, with 90 percent of them
getting opened within first ten seconds of being received. The advent of
WhatsApp has proven useful for users and brands to send and share
targeted content through a private channel.
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Brands need to be really innovative in their approach on this channel as it

does not support advertisements. Hence brands need to develop a
WhatsApp strategy that will leverage the framework of this channel. A key
thing to remember is the personal touch possessed by this channel due to
its use of the mobile technology, which is perceived as more personal to
users than computers. To succeed on WhatsApp the brands need to build
their marketing campaigns on customer’s trust and creativity.
Brands need to build an engaging persona to chat with users and convert
them into customers. Like Facebook, many brands are doing this and
generating additional business for themselves. Hotels, Car Showrooms,
Retailers, Builders, Educational Institutes, Recruitment Companies, IT
Sector Companies all across India and the Globe are using this technique
to engage with prospects and existing customers. Brands have now started
using WhatsApp to offer their top clients updates on new arrivals and
events on their websites or at their stores for a while now. Brands on
WhatsApp have started inviting users into a group conversation to discuss
suggestions for better decision-making.
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The Business Application for effective marketing on WhatsApp

WhatsApp has launched a Business App that has been conceptualized for
developing engagement for small businesses. The app is free to download,
and currently only available for Android devices. It allows brands to engage
with prospects and existing customers by using tools to quickly respond to
messages as well as sort and automate them. With the help of this feature
customers can be greeted by the means of a customized message specially
designed for them. Brands can effectively use this feature reusing
messages sent frequently and can also save them. WhatsApp currently
provides a method to add a click-to-chat link to social media pages, email
signature or the business website. This inbuilt feature thus makes it easy
for people to start a conversation with the customer’s preferred brand.
Procedure for Branding on Business WhatsApp

1. The first essential thing to begin branding on WhatsApp is to download
from the Google Play Store the WhatsApp Business App and install it.
2. The Business number needs to be verified first. Marketers need to be
careful that this needs to be the same number that has to be used for
engagement purposes with the online audiences.
3. Post the number being verified, one can select to restore a previous
chat associated with the Business number.
4. Once the Business name is set up the marketer, can tap on the menu
button and head to Settings> Business settings> Profile. With this
functionality brands can utilize a variety of fields similar to a contact
card. This feature also permits brands to engage their customers by
completing all the details.
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Video Link 1

Building Brand Powering by Crowdsourcing on Twitter
By now brands are fully aware that this social media channel is a powerful
tool for businesses and possesses a huge potential for online marketing.
Right from creating engagements to generate leads and nurturing the
branding value this platform plays a critical part in every aspect of online
interactions with the prospects. This sentiment is echoed by a chunk of
marketers who feel that they have huge amount of conversions from
prospects to customers by using Twitter.
An online clothing brand leveraged this channel by utilizing existing
resources to create a compelling reason to share one of its new launches
on the social media. This online clothing brand used a strategy on twitter
by first investing its time and resources by building a twitter community. At
the time of the new launch, it used this community to tweet its opinion and
rank it submitted designs. It also leveraged the concept of crowdsourcing
(requested the community members to pool their designs as well). The
winning member’s art was selected for the new clothing brand that was
subsequently sold online.
This not only helped generate massive popularity but also had people tweet
about this line to their friends and family. Thus this case study shows how
to promote a Twitter account and get success online. This brands attracted
audiences by mentioning interesting discussions they liked on Twitter.
Research indicates that brands get more than twenty five percent more
engagement on the weekends than during the week. Promoting of the
Twitter account on all the marketing materials also helped a lot in this
context. This included the use of the twitter account details on the website,
brochures and business cards. The brand also ensured that they were
listening in to tweets and related conversations. This was done to find out
what other Twitter users were saying about the brand, products or
industry. They were also actively answering queries or responding where
required.
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Thus this brand utilized its existing crowdsourcing technique with the
current customer base and presence on online channels. Hence it used the
resources it already had and made an absorbing partnership with
audiences on Twitter which is a highly successful social media channel. So
it attracted audiences to retweet the brand’s message. Thus brands need
to realize that followers do not just equal numbers but they also hold real
value for the brands.
3.11 ACTIVITIES
1. A well-defined Instagram Bio and Profile provides a detailed account of
what the brand does to the other users on Instagram. Browse on the
Instagram and research how some of the top brands have created their
Bio and Profile and make a brief note on their success factors.
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2. In this chapter we discussed about some of the Business Applications
for effective marketing on WhatsApp. Browse online and research more
features related to this App.
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3.12 SUMMARY
In this chapter we have discussed about how to utilize Popular Platforms
for Business Generation on Social Media. The right choice of Channels can
be a big differentiating factor between Brands that become successful and
Brands that struggle on Social Media. Before launching a social media
marketing strategy for an ecommerce business, one needs to first get an
overview of the distribution of social media usage – given the growing
penetration and usage of social media these days. Many brands are
benefiting from the real-time nature of Popular Social Media Channels to
create a sense of urgency amongst its existing customers and prospects.
Social media monitoring gives brands unique access to unfiltered feedback
from customers — and at a scale unavailable via other means such as
focus groups and surveys. New and upcoming technologies such as web
crawling, web scraping, text mining and sentiment analysis have sprung up
to support brands to take advantage of their presence on Popular Social
Media Channels.
Some of the Key features of Popular Social Networking Sites are as below:
• Facebook: is a low-cost marketing strategy, share photos and videos of
your business, raise brand awareness and promote word of mouth, offer
Deals
• LinkedIn: get advice from industry experts, “recommendations”
increase your credibility, join groups with like-minded people
• Twitter: monitor real-time conversations, offer helpful links and
headlines, run special deals and promotions, keep up on news and trends
We had also discussed about the most important components of the
Facebook to understand how to do marketing using Facebook, like
Facebook Groups: A Powerful tool to enhance audience engagement,
creating and promoting a business page on Facebook, optimizing the
Facebook page for Search Engine Optimization and likes, boosting the
online sharing process through the use of plugins and buttons, methods to
generate Engagement through Facebook posts, some of the best practices
for Facebook Engagements are use Reciprocation Law by giving 'Like' to
other brand’s Pages; create a connection between Facebook and the
outside world; Add content from other Social Media Channels; Be creative
and engaging
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While discussing about the methods for marketing on LinkedIn, we have

seen that, LinkedIn is a Business and employment – oriented service that
operates through websites and mobile apps. It is mainly used for
professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers
posting their CVs. LinkedIn allows members to create profiles and
"connections" to each other in an online social network which may
represent real-world professional relationships. The most important
components of the LinkedIn are LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Direct
Sponsored Content, LinkedIn ‘Company Pages’ Sponsored InMail is an
advanced version of InMail sent to people on this channel. This feature
enables brands to send personalized messages within LinkedIn’s channel to
a specific audience. The conventional email campaigns have now become
obsolete and are reaching a level of saturation hence it can be substituted
or complimented with the InMail feature.
Some other strategies that brands can also consider are: Virtual
networking to increase engagement; offers to provide incentive for
customer loyalty; education of audience for brand awareness;
announcements for enrollment for Certifications.
While discussing about marketing in YouTube, we have seen that YouTube
is a critical platform of Social Media and is used to display a wide variety of
user-generated video content, including video clips, films, music videos,
television clips and documentaries. It is also used as an opportunity by
upcoming professionals and freelancers to display amateur content such as
educational videos, short stories, films and blogs. Benefits that the brands
get using You Tube for marketing discussed in this section are: increase
the brand visibility, simplified method of sharing information online, brands
can make their product famous, utilize the Ads on YouTube, YouTube
Insight, get feedback, increase the traffic on the website, reduce expenses.
The most critical step that a brand needs to take to start the marketing
process on this platform would be to utilize the feature of the ‘Channel’. A
YouTube channel is available to everyone who joins YouTube as a member.
Brands can quickly and effectively build their presence on YouTube with the
right amount of strategizing. Some simple strategies that brands can use
to improve the use of channels are; they should ensure that the content is
well-organized; Channels provide an option of making playlists; Brands can
ensure updating of the comments, even if they have nothing new to
upload.
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Brands need to invest in creating Powerful Communities, Brands need to

request participation from the community, and Brands need to deliver
consistently,
The next Social Media Marketing Channel that is immensely successful is
Twitter. Twitter is the most well-known micro-blogging platform. It is a
communication medium that permits brands/people to send out
‘Tweets’ (short messages) up to 140 characters long to people who
subscribe to them (followers). The tweets that can have vital marketing
material and can include an image or video. Tweets can also have a link to
websites, online document or blogs.
The next marketing channel discussed in this chapter is Instagram, which
is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook,
Inc. The relevant content you post on Instagram is likely to change over
time. Be sure to check your Analytics periodically to see how well your
posts are engaging your audience. Get creative with your posts to see what
people react to. Brands need to be aware of the fact that currently
Instagram operates on the basis of the ‘Instagram Algorithm.’ As this
platform began expanding, it was really difficult to keep up with all the
photos and videos that its audiences posted online. Brands can deliver
specific messages if they are aware of the fact that if they engage with a
particular account regularly, this tells the Instagram algorithm that they
really like that account’s content. As a result, they are likely to see more of
that profile’s content in the future feeds. Brands can create innovative
posts and visual content and compel user to like their content. Brands need
to generate the results after completing the Instagram audit such as: clear
Picture about the objectives and goals pertaining to marketing on
Instagram; concise evaluation of the strategy employed for audience
interaction; better articulation of the Instagram content; strategy
refinement of the various hashtags used.
For many who perceive doing business on the social media, the first
preference goes to channels like Facebook and Twitter, but today the
fastest movers in this segment are messenger apps. Thus WhatsApp has
become the most popular messenger apps used for marketing at a global
level. There are three methods to post messages, images and videos on
WhatsApp: Personal Window Messages, Groups and Broadcast lists.
WhatsApp has launched a Business App that has been conceptualized for
developing engagement for small businesses. The app is free to download,
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and currently only available for Android devices. It allows brands to engage
with prospects and existing customers by using tools to quickly respond to
messages as well as sort and automate them.

1. Identify the reason behind the fact that the apparel brands have begun
using Facebook and Twitter to promote their products?
2. Cite the reasons behind the fact that Facebook Groups are a powerful
tool to enhance audience engagement
3. Explain why creating a Facebook page is considered as the starting
point for all Facebook marketing efforts?
4. What are the essentials required to generate more engagement through
‘Groups’ on LinkedIn?
5. Explain in brief how the LinkedIn ‘Company Pages’ features works?
6. Describe in brief how Youtube has proved beneficial for small
businesses?
7. Why is Twitter known as a micro-blogging platform?
8. Explain the statement - Brands need to be aware of the fact that
currently Instagram operates on the basis of the ‘Instagram Algorithm.’
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1. The process of extracting information and data from websites is known

as __________.
a. Web crawling.
b. Text mining.
c. Web scraping.
d. Sentiment analysis.
2. According to research conducted in early 2018 it has been established

that __________ is the number one ranked Social Media platform
a. Facebook.
b. Twitter.
c. LinkedIn.
d. WhatsApp.
3. The creation of which type of Facebook group is also required to validate

new ideas with the existing customers?
a. Public Facebook group.
b. Private Facebook group.
c. Secret Facebook group.
d. Closed Facebook group.
4. From the context of LinkedIn, identify the type of approach that is

intended to build trust among the service's members?
a. First-access approach
b. Gated-access approach
c. Computed-access approach
d. Certified-access approach
5. Identify from below the LinkedIn feature that provides brands the power
to test content and personalize it on the LinkedIn Page?
a. Non-Sponsored Content.
b. Brand Sponsored Content.
c. Direct Sponsored Content.
d. Company Sponsored Content.
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6. __________ is a channel where feedback and insights are provided by

audiences on a real-time basis.
a. YouTube Insight.
b. YouTube Engagements.
c. YouTube Interactions.
d. YouTube Analytics.
7. Which of the below provided is a communication medium that permits

brands/people to send short messages up to 140 characters long to
people who subscribe to them
a. Facebook.
b. Twitter.
c. LinkedIn.
d. WhatsApp.
8. Which of the following is a photo and video-sharing social networking

service owned by Facebook?
a. Facebook.
b. Instagram.
c. LinkedIn.
d. WhatsApp.
Ans: 1. (c), 2. (a), 3. (c), 4. (b), 5. (c), 6. (a), 7. (b), 8. (b)
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
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GLOBAL PLATFORMS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Chapter 4
Global Platforms For Social Media
Marketing
Objectives:
• Become aware of channels of Social Media that are used globally.
• Develop an understanding of the concept of Social News Sites.
• Develop an understanding of the concept of Social Bookmarking Sites.
• Understand the features of Social News and Bookmarking Sites.
Structure:
4.1. Introduction
4.2 Social News Sites
4.2.1 Reddit
4.2.2 Digg
4.3 Social Bookmarking Sites
4.3.1 Delicious
4.3.2 Scoop it
4.4 Short Case Study
4.5 Activities
4.6 Summary
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4.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we are going to develop a global perspective on the use of
the Social Media Platform. Here the discussion will be focused on Social
Media News Sites and Social Media Bookmarking Sites. A channel based on
the Social Media that displays stories created and shared by its users is
known as a Social News site. Today’s popular Social news sites have
evolved to include various kinds of discussions and current information.
These platforms help the users to provide information and it is then ranked
based on popularity. This is determined by the votes of website
administrators or the other users of the site. Many social news websites
also feature an online comment system, where users discuss the issues
raised in an article. Thus the most popular comments are displayed at the
top, due to the presence of a voting system applied to the comments.
These channels also provide users the facility of creating their profile and
interact with other users. Users typically comment online on the news
posts and these comments may also be ranked in popularity.
One of the major advantages of these globally eminent channels of social
media is that it can help brands become more visible to the public you are
trying to reach. Social news channels such as Reddit and Digg provide
ways to engage existing and new customers and help promote marketing
content. On these channels, audiences and brands share content to other
users, who can choose to share the content. Brands thus can share photos,
videos and articles on these mediums.
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The next important concept that we are going to discuss is of shared

Online Bookmarking Sites. This has also become popular with online users
across the globe and gaining prominence with users in India as well. Sites
likes Delicious and Scoop.it have become popular as social bookmarking
channels. Social Bookmarking is believed to have started in around April
1996 with the launch of ‘ItList’, the features of which included public and
private bookmarks. The functionality is quite similar to the bookmarking
done by readers of books, the browsers save links to sites that they want
to visit again or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be
saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only
inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private
domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks
chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine. If you have
ever come across a valuable article or website that can help improve your
skills as a marketer, you probably want to save it and come back when you
can dedicate more time to it. With social bookmarking, you can save those
articles or resources you want to revisit in one central location. Social
bookmarking is the process of saving a specific web page to a social
bookmarking platform so that you can revisit it later. Social bookmarking
sites allow users to access their bookmarks online, at any time, from any
device. These sites are useful to marketers because users can add,
annotate, and share bookmarked web pages with their team. Bookmarks
can be public, private, or shared with specific groups. Social bookmarking
sites can also be used like social search engines. You can search and
browse to see popular and recently added web pages. Users can comment
and vote for web pages they like, making it easy to see what articles are
most valuable.
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Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their

bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based
system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a
combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks
associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of
users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also
draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or
bookmarks.
4.2 SOCIAL NEWS SITES

Social news is the occurrence of online news mixed with a form of social
interaction, and is entirely reliant on social media websites. It can include
sharing, voting, or user input, and what is presented depends on recorded
trends relating to how users interacted with similar content in the past. A
social news website is a website that features user-posted stories. Such
stories are ranked based on popularity, as voted on by other users of the
site or by website administrators. Users typically comment online on the
news posts and these comments may also be ranked in popularity. The
Social news channels encourage a participatory culture, thus permitting its
users to vote what counts as news and hence removing the biases of the
mainstream news sources and. The social news websites provide numerous
benefits to brands marketing on social media. They provide distributed
intelligence that will help brands with ability creation and enhanced
customer engagement. The utmost importance of social media is that it
helps in staying in touch with our loved ones. You get to know what are
your friends or family doing. Even without meeting up too often, social
media helps in creating and sustaining that emotional bond.
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4.2.1 Digg
Digg has been a very successful news website on social media that permits
users to vote web content up or down, called digging and burying. Digg is
a news aggregator that was launched in 2012 with an objective to select
stories specifically for the online users. These include current affairs,
popular online stories and latest technical issues. Technology, World News,
Entertainment, Business, Lifestyle, Gaming, Politics, Sports and Science
are the main categories that users of the Digg community can submit and
share articles on.
These broad categories allow for almost any area of content to be

submitted. Brands creating content get the chance to be discovered, not
only by their own followers but also the community at large by reaching
the Digg homepage. This happens when other members of the Digg
community vote the content. Digg had grown large enough that it was
thought to affect the traffic of submitted webpages. Some pages
experienced a sudden increase of traffic shortly after being submitted.
Brands need to be aware of the fact that to succeed on Digg, they have to
start having a strong Digg following. A sound user base this leads to
getting the desired diggs and views for the sent submissions. The below
provided techniques help in generating a better interaction on Digg and
drive traffic to the brand’s website or blog:
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1. Using emails to increase reach to the user base: Brands can use
conventional mediums like email campaigns to reach people to like their
content on Digg. Thus by leveraging the power of reach content can be
marketed to the users within the Digg channel. Brands marketing
successfully need to be aware of their user base on Digg and send them
a friendly request. They can then request to give a Digg article
submission a vote if they like it.
2. Showing interest in other user’s content: To be popular on this
forum and for users to vote on content the brands need to vote for
others users content and visit the ‘Find People page’. The more active
one is on this channel the more the profile will be seen by users and
followed by them.
3. Connect Digg with other channels of Social Media: Brands and

marketers can increase the reach of the submitted content by
connecting it with the help of inbuilt tools to other popular channels
like Twitter, Facebook or Youtube. User’s content can be found based on
the current connected with on Twitter, Google, and Facebook too. This
content could also be mentioned on the brand’s website and blog if
required.
4. Provide a proper title and description for the content on Digg:
Users can be attracted by brands if they posted, content, a good title
and description. These elements are the factors that can convince other
users to read the article, click on the submission, and if liked Digg it.
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Using Digg to Enhance Marketing through Blog Submissions

In order to increase reach on Digg and create more visibility it is essential
to add value to users by constantly posting blogs. This can be done easily
through the below provided steps -
1. Copy the URL of the link and click "Submit a Link" near the top right
side of the page on the Digg homepage.
2. Paste the URL in the provided space and then and enter the Facebook
login information.
3. Click "Log in With Facebook" and either "Allow" or "Skip" when the Digg
app asks to post on your behalf. Choosing "Allow" lets the Digg app
automatically update your status, while "Skip" denies the app this
ability.
4. After completing this one needs to go back to the ‘submit a Link page’.
Click "submit to Digg" to finish submitting the blog post.
4.2.2 Reddit
Reddit (/'rɛdɪt/; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social
news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users
(commonly referred to as “Redditors”) submit content to the site such as
links, text posts, images, and videos, which are then voted up or down by
other members. Reddit is quite similar to Digg and is a Social News and
Entertainment channel having a global audience. The term "Reddit" is a
combination of "read/edit" and of "read it". The channel is divided into
numerous categories, known as "subreddits". This is a social news website
and forum where content is socially curated and promoted by site
members through voting. The site name is a play on the words “I read it”.
Here the users share and submit information in the form of text posts or
links. Similar to Digg, the audience on this channel determines the position
on the channels pages by voting each submission "up" or "down" to rank
the post. Reddit is useful for a lot of things, most notably for staying up-to-
date on the latest news, trends, memes, and more. In addition to this, it
allows you to find and join niche communities that you might have trouble
finding elsewhere online. Unlike many of its ad-driven competitors, Reddit
is a platform that prioritizes the feedback of its users when it comes to
what it shows first. With Reddit’s unique upvote and downvote system, it is
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able to identify not just what people like, but also what they don’t like, in a
timely and accurate manner.
Being popular across the globe, there are a lot of “prominent” people who
use Reddit as they use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or other Social Media
Channels. Brands and individuals use this channel to find useful articles to
inspire content for their own websites. Brands need to be aware of the fact
that when they actively market on Reddit they can market entries and are
termed as organized by areas of interest called "subreddits". Reddit has
default subreddits which are a combination of entertainment subreddits
(television, videos, movies, music and gaming), educational subreddits
(news, science, technology and world news), discussion subreddits
(askreddit, askscience, books, todayilearned) and humour and image
sharing subreddits (funny, gifs, pics). Thus Reddit is a collection of entries
submitted by its registered users, essentially a bulletin board system.
For Brands to be better visible on this platform have to customize their

Reddit page (subreddits). Reddit provides its users the facility to choose
the subreddits that they see. Thus brands and users can create a page that
tailors content directly to their interests. To leverage true power of this
channel a brand might think of gaining users that have a browsing
experience that focuses on a specific area rather than all the general
things.
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Techniques for Marketing on Reddit

To start marketing on this channel, brands need to create an account. To
have intense engagement with other users and prospects on Reddit, more
than one account can prove useful. Another important thing to remember
is that once an account is created it should also be used otherwise it will
become redundant and meaningless. It is also essential to research
subreddits that are relevant to own interests as well as specific to the
prospects interests. It is also critical to discover the list of topics that the
prospects and customers are discussing on this forum people are saying
about your clients.
Before any content is posted, the brands should analyze if it fits a specific
subreddit. This will ensure more users attention to the posted article. To be
strategically ahead in Reddit, it is important to keep in mind that it is
competing against everyone else for position on the subreddit that it has
been posted on. More users will only see a share if it passes a certain
number of votes in a given timeline on an active subreddit. This is because
articles and stories are submitted regularly and have a very high volume.
Thus the posts that are not popular will vanish and will not be visible to
anybody. Thus brands and marketers have to make sure they keep posting
good content. The secret here is to provide good value to the posts and
they are not completely promotional in nature. The key to Reddit
marketing is not for the posts to be only aesthetic or promotional in nature
but to post quality content for the users.
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A powerful technique for finding subreddits is Metareddit. This tool displays

the subreddits related to any other subreddit. Also another critical
suggestion is browsing through a list of the top 5,000 subreddits, instead
of conducting a Reddit search to find subreddits. This proves to be a faster
and more efficient manner of searching for the relevant information on
Reddit. A simple rule of application while marketing here is that not every
promotion is going to turn around posting content. Brands need to be
innovative and should constantly search Reddit for people talking about
their offerings. To simplify, if a brand is marketing Gifting options for
corporates, they should be observing posts appearing on subreddits that
cater to this category. If a conversation about the brand’s offering is
noticed they should respond immediately to add value to the post with
something relevant to mention. Brands can demonstrate how active they
are by thanking customers or even soliciting feedback or apologizing for
any inconvenience caused.
Brands without an account on Reddit can also benefit of some post that has
to do with their product, so they can visit this channel to know more about
what their users are talking. It is a diverse channel which is of an
advantage to brands as it often gives a good idea of what’s popular with
the target audience they are trying to market to. A point to consider before
posting on a subject on Reddit is to observe the latest topics on this
channel. Thus a lot of research needs to be done to create a successful
marketing campaign on Reddit marketing.
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Video Link 1
4.3 SOCIAL BOOKMARKING SITE

The function of Social Bookmarking channels is to help the online audience
to manage, store and search for their preferred and most used web pages.
These channels also enable users to share the created bookmarks with
other users as well. Thus online audiences can view all the bookmarks that
have been categorized according topics or keywords. Social bookmarking
sites allow users to access their bookmarks online, at any time, from any
device. These sites are useful to marketers because users can add,
annotate, and share bookmarked web pages with their team. Bookmarks
can be public, private, or shared with specific groups.
A Social Bookmarking channel serves as an Internet-based platform which

enables users to create, mark, change, and share bookmarks of web
documents. The terms "social bookmarking" and "tagging" were
popularized by Delicious – which is one of the most popular Bookmarking
channels across the Globe. As already mentioned in the introductory
section, the Bookmarking functionality is quite similar to the bookmarking
done by readers of books, the browsers save links to sites that they want
to visit again or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be
saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups. Marketers and
brands need to be aware that the social bookmarking channels only
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bookmark the pages to provide reference to them. They do not save the
web pages themselves. Social bookmarking systems also have Tagging,
which is a significant feature that helps audiences to consolidate their
bookmarks in flexible ways and develop shared vocabularies known as
‘Folksonomies’. Folksonomies are also known as Social Tagging, which is
the process by which many users add metadata (description about the
data) in the form of keywords to shared content. These descriptions are
added to the bookmarks so that users may understand the content of the
resource without first needing to download it for themselves. Metadata can
come in various forms such as tags that collaboratively or collectively
become a folksonomy, votes in favor of or against its quality, or even
comments in the plain text format.
The powerful and popular feature of ‘Web feeds’ is also provided by many
social bookmarking channels for their bookmarks lists. This functionality is
also included in the lists organized by tags. The Web feeds feature helps
subscribers to understand new bookmarks as they are tagged, shared, and
saved by other users. It also helps brands to promote their respective
websites by connecting and engaging with other social book markers.
Several value added features such as comments and use of ratings on
bookmarks are being developed to support existing bookmarking services
due to the growth in popularity and maturing of the channels. Additionally
the ability of web annotation (explanation), emailing of bookmarks,
importing and exporting of bookmarks have also been added to the list of
features. Hence brands can market their offerings, web-based services,
articles and much more with zero investment and maximum profit through
Social Bookmarking. Thus due to the presence of advanced features and
ease of use the concept of Social Bookmarking has gained in popularity and
India and across the Globe.
4.3.1 Delicious
Delicious (formerly del.icio.us) is a social bookmarking web service for
storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. On the Delicious
channel, brands can easily enlist their webpage, article and content to get
the maximum traffic as appearing on the bookmarking site. The site is an
open platform for brands to get their website bookmarked and engage the
online users. Although the bookmarking feature is a read-only feature since
2017 on Delicious, it is still very popular among the audience online.
Delicious provides a feature to import bookmarks from the web browsers to
its site so that new users can quickly get started with the site. The
distinguishing features of Delicious are that it has a "hotlist" on its home
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page and "recent" pages. These enable the users to benefit from this
channel and use it as a platform to upcoming online trends and
developments. The delicious home page provided value to the uses by
displaying classifications like Education, Technology and Arts & Design.
Delicious uses a non-hierarchical classification system in which users can
tag each of their bookmarks with freely chosen index terms (generating a
kind of folksonomy). A combined view of all users’ bookmarks with a given
tag is available on this platform. Its collective nature makes it possible to
view bookmarks added by other users. An essential thing that brands have
to realize when marketing on Delicious is that the content needs to be kept
updated and of a good quality. In this context, the crux of Delicious or any
bookmarking site needs to be understood. Marketing on Delicious needs an
attractive title, the fact that users visit and use such channels is to
bookmark sites and to find quality content. Thus there is a need to keep
creative and good quality content that is focused on specific area of
application. A large portion of Delicious users post their new bookmarks to
their personal walls on a daily basis. Thus to leverage this information a lot
of attention needs to be provided to the title of the content. Hence brands
may want to also consider using their name in the title, so that when they
appear on the front page again and again then people will associate it with
the brand.
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Benefits of Marketing on Delicious

Social bookmarking can be used effectively on this channel and proves to
be an amazing method to do business marketing. Some of the benefits of
using social bookmarking on this channel are:
1. Create better opportunities for brand promotion: Brands can
increase engagement by being present on this channel. The Social
bookmarking feature offers chanc for the brand getting tagged on other
users’ blogs or websites. Another powerful aspect is that brands can be
marked in various bookmarking websites. This is a great way of
promotion of the blog or website and it also helps in building links.
2. Prospect of attracting more traffic: Brands today are using the
technique of adding the Delicious social bookmarking button along with
popular buttons of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to their website. By
completing this action, it gets easy for readers or viewers to save and
share the brands’ content leading to increase in traffic.
3. Attracting Prospects: Brands have experienced a surge in visitors in
the form of viral traffic. This can be simply done by listing the business
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in Delicious which is one of the prominent social bookmarking sites.

Thus visitors notice content that is interesting on Delicious related to the
brand and thus visit the website or blog.
4. Better visibility: It really pays to be on a prominent bookmarking site
like Delicious as the probability increases that search engines gather
information from Delicious. Thus brands are presented with an
opportunity to show up in the search results on the search engines.
5. Source of Innovative ideas: Brands and their marketers can find
Delicious as a source of Innovative ideas and inspiration to come up
with new ideas and topics. Marketers can consider this channel as a tool
to find innovative ideas for creating new posts. Brands having great
ideas and then wishing to have a better organization to track inspiration
from various sources can truly benefit from this channel. Delicious lets
brands and marketers organize and save web content that’s interesting
to the users. It is very easy to join this channel through any other social
media platform. For example, if the brand is already present on Twitter,
Delicious permits to link the Twitter account to create a customized
discovery based on current interests.
6. Benefit of Influence: A great marketing strategy on Delicious that also
proves to be of benefit is that it segregates the online content into
categories of interest. Thus brands can truly benefit if they can
categorize their contacts on a popular area of interest. The real charm
of marketing with Delicious is that its users can make friends and see
what they bookmark as well. Thus a key benefit of being on Delicious is
that brands can use influence to create better reach with audiences and
attract them to the website and blogs to display the product or service
offering.
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Thus, Delicious lets brands and marketers organize and save web content
in the form of bookmarks that is interesting to the users and can be
leveraged as simple yet powerful tools of marketing on social media.
4.3.2 Scoop.it
Scoop.it currently is one of the world’s leading bookmarking and content
marketing platform on Social Media. Apart from social bookmarking
Scoop.it is one of the leaders in content curation services. Content curation
is not a new concept. Many of us are aware of this term as Museums and
galleries have curators to select items for collection and display. Sharing
content created by other users that brings interest, entertainment or value
to the targeted users is known as content curation. This process can be
carried out either manually or automatically or by combination of them.
Scoop.it allows the creation of an online journal on a specific topic. The
user can discover content, curate it and classify it according to the chosen
topic. The user then looks for keywords that allow them to access
information flows present on the web: blog, social networks, etc. via the
platform.
Marketing Content on Scoop.it
Choosing a specific Scoop.it Topic: For successful engagement on this
channel the initial step is choosing a topic on Scoop.it. To make the right
use of this forum the topics have to be updated and novel. These help the
brand to display their offerings or create a strategy for longevity. Thus
using the techniques of bookmarking and curating brands can become
popular on this channel and receive a lot of traffic to their respective
websites and blogs. A few of the below provided techniques can be used to
further refine their strategic approach:
1. Brands need to properly articulate the topic well: Brands need to
understand that topics need to be novel and unique in order to attract
the online audiences to it. The content along with the topic has to be
written with an innovative approach. This will help in the bookmarking
and curating process. Another critical element to be considered is that it
should be connected to the offering of the brand as well as be of an
interest to the visitors.
2. Choosing the correct images: To be successful on this channel,
brands and marketers have to infuse their posts with attractive image.
This will ensure a lot of traffic leading to the website or blog from which
the post originates.
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3. Creating a Promotional teaser: Brands and marketers have to create

a lot of material that is promotional in nature yet is specific. In this
context short promotional teasers help to provide a summarized
description of the link that the visitors can see.
4. Bookmarking and selecting of content: Rather than spending hours
searching around the web for the perfect content to share with users on
social media, this channel helps marketers to choose a subject that’s
relevant for the audience. It also facilitates the bookmarking of useful
links and the browsing through related of articles. Brands can then
decide to share certain bookmarked links and content to the prospects
or existing users.
5. Bookmarklet for Casual Curation: Brands can leverage the use of
this feature on Scoop.it by selecting the article they think would do well
for marketing on Scoop.it. They could then click the Bookmarklet
feature, enter the information they require and get it published. This is
a handy feature for brands and marketers who want to conduct research
for better promotions on this channel.
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This study examined the feasibility of the combination of student
educational portfolios and social bookmarking and through a case study on
an introduction to an instructional media course at a prominent university
in South-East Asia. The basic objective of this case study is to emphasize
the use of Information Technology in learning; the collection, selection,
evaluation, and sharing of information; discussions with peers; learning
from peer feedback; construction of learning communities; and knowledge
construction. In this case study, a questionnaire was used to evaluate
students’ perceptions towards the learning activities. Statistical analyses
confirmed that students were satisfied with this course and had high self-
efficacy while using the social bookmarking application.
Thus the findings of the case study in a crux were that Social bookmarking
thorough a web-based system helps students to manage their bookmarks
of web pages, share their bookmarks with other students on the Internet
(inside or outside the institute), share their viewpoints about particular
web pages with others, and cooperatively recommend interesting web
pages to others. Most social bookmarking systems allow students to
organize their bookmarks with tags instead of traditional file folders.
Students can easily search for the required web pages via the tags.
Similarly, the management of social bookmarking as portfolios is a means
of accumulating the knowledge of students on the Internet with the
purpose of understanding the learning process of a particular student or
group. The assessment of social bookmarking as portfolios through peers
on the Internet and self-reflection enhances a student’s critical thinking,
motivation to learn, and communication skills, thus making it a good
alternative assessment method of evaluating students.
Therefore, social bookmarking can be successfully integrated with
portfolios in order to encourage students’ learning and assessment. The
advantages of integrating social bookmarking and portfolios are as follows:
using the Internet, students can obtain information they have a personal
interest in; moreover, they can comment on the information on the
Internet, share their comments with others on the Internet, share their
personal information with others, and communicate with others through
comments on a particular bookmark. Thus, we would like to conclude that
social bookmarking can be used to create portfolios in a course and the
results of students’ usage of social bookmarking as portfolios.
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4.5 ACTIVITIES
1. As seen earlier in this chapter - a powerful technique for finding
subreddits on Reddit is Metareddit. This tool displays the subreddits
related to any other subreddit. Browse online and find more information
on the advantages of using this tool.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. Browse the Internet and obtain more insight on the ‘Bookmarklet’
feature available on Scoop.it channel.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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4.6 SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have discussed about Social Media News Sites and
Social Media Bookmarking Sites. A channel based on the Social Media that
displays stories created and shared by its users is known as a Social News
site. One of the major advantages of these globally eminent channels of
social media is that it can help brands become more visible to the public
you’re trying to reach. Social news channels such as Reddit and Digg
provide ways to engage existing and new customers and help promote
marketing content. The next important concept that we discussrd is of
shared Online Bookmarking Sites. This is also becoming popular with online
users across the globe and gaining prominence with users in India as well.
Bookmarks can be public, private, or shared with specific groups. Social
bookmarking sites can also be used like social search engines. You can
search and browse to see popular and recently added web pages.
The Social news channels encourage a participatory culture, thus
permitting its users to vote what counts as news and hence removing the
biases of the mainstream news sources. The social news websites provide
numerous benefits to brands marketing on social media. They provide
distributed intelligence that will help brands with ability creation and
enhanced customer engagement.
Digg has been a very successful news website on social media that permits
users to vote web content up or down, called digging and burying. Digg
had grown large enough that it was thought to affect the traffic of
submitted webpages. Some pages experienced a sudden increase of traffic
shortly after being submitted. Brands need to be aware of the fact that to
succeed on Digg they have to start having a strong Digg following. A sound
user base leads to getting the desired diggs and views for the sent
submissions.
Reddit is quite similar to Digg and is a Social News and Entertainment
channel having a global audience. The term "Reddit" is a combination of
"read/edit" and of "read it". The channel is divided into numerous
categories, known as "subreddits". Here the users share and submit
information in the form of text posts or links.
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The function of Social Bookmarking channels is to help the online audience

to manage, store and search for their preferred and most used web pages.
A Social Bookmarking channel serves as an Internet-based platform which
enables users to create, mark, change, and share bookmarks of web
documents. The powerful and popular feature of ‘Web feeds’ is also
provided by many social bookmarking channels for their bookmarks lists.
This functionality is also included in the lists organized by tags. Social
bookmarking sites allow users to access their bookmarks online, at any
time, from any device. These sites are useful to marketers because users
can add, annotate, and share bookmarked web pages with their team.
Bookmarks can be public, private, or shared with specific groups.
Delicious (formerly del.icio.us) is a social bookmarking web service for
storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Marketing on Delicious
needs an attractive title, the fact that users visit and use such channels is
to bookmark sites and to find quality content. Thus there is a need to keep
creative and good quality content that is focused on specific area of
application. Scoop.it currently is one of the world’s leading bookmarking
and content marketing platform on Social Media. Apart from social
bookmarking Scoop.it is one of the leaders in content curation services. For
successful engagement on this channel the initial step is choosing a topic
on Scoop.it. To make the right use of this forum the topics have to be
updated and novel. These help the brand to display their offerings or
create a strategy for longevity. Thus using the techniques of bookmarking
and curating brands can become popular on this channel and receive a lot
of traffic to their respective websites and blogs. Scoop.it allows the
creation of an online journal on a specific topic. The user can discover
content, curate it and classify it according to the chosen topic. The user
then looks for keywords that allow them to access information flows
present on the web: blog, social networks, etc. via the platform
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1. Explain in brief how the Social Media News Sites help the users to
provide better information?
2. Describe your understanding of the concept of Social Bookmarking?
3. Explain why brands need to connect Digg with other channels of Social
Media?
4. Explain why Social Bookmarking channel serves as an Internet-based
platform which enables users to create, mark, change, and share
bookmarks of web documents?
5. Explain in brief how the brands can create better opportunities for
promotion on Delicious?
6. Describe in brief why brands need to properly articulate topics on
Scoop.it?
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1. Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their

bookmarks with -
a. Web links.
b. System of folders.
c. Informal Tags.
d. Links and marks.
2. The Social news channels encourage a __________ culture thus

permitting its users to vote what counts as news
a. Participatory.
b. Secret.
c. Linked.
d. Private.
3. The Reddit channel is divided into numerous categories, known as

__________.
a. Pubreddits.
b. Subreddits.
c. Eadbreddits.
d. Closed Reddits.
4. Folksonomies are also known as Social Tagging, which is the process by

which many users add -
a. Metadata.
b. Links.
c. Bookmarks.
d. Sign-offs.
5. Delicious uses a __________ classification system in which users can

tag each of their bookmarks
a. Hierarchical.
b. Non-hierarchical.
c. Homogeneous.
d. Highlighted.
Ans: 1. (c), 2. (a), 3. (b), 4. (a), 5. (b).
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
Video Lecture
149
TECHNIQUES FOR PROVIDING ‘HUMAN TOUCH’ TO BRANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Chapter 5
Techniques For Providing
‘Human Touch’ To Brands On Social Media
Objectives:
• Become aware of the solutions channels of Social Media can provide to
their users
• Create customized blogs to engage better audience engagement
• Develop an understanding the current best practices in Social media
marketing
• To define Social Media as a powerful Customer Relations Management
Tool
Structure:
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Essentials of a Successful Content Marketing Campaign
5.3 Connecting the Dots: Aspects of providing human touches to the
Brand
5.4 Writing a Business Blog Post to enhance the ‘Human Touch’
5.5 Techniques to create Great Content Ideas
5.6 Social Media as a powerful Customer Relations Management Tool
5.7 Short Case study
5.8 Activities
5.9 Summary
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5.1 INTRODUCTION
A key technique of making online audiences feel more connected is making
the content and the promotions seem more human. Thus brand awareness
can increase phenomenally if a brand’s social media presence reflects
liveliness, sensitiveness to the audience preferences and a distinct human
touch. Many large and small brands started having their presence as social
media networking channels began to grow in fame. Thus, with the growing
evolution of social media channels, the stage is set for brands and
marketers to develop matching strategies and raise the bar on sensitizing
the approach, content, promotions and ideas to the human needs. Thus,
such an engagement would create and increase user loyalty, which should
be a key objective for any brand. This approach involves creating a
personalized touch on all content and posts shared on the various channels
of social media. Since many users use some form of social media every day
- the brands need to be responsible and discrete and should create a
personal connection with their audiences. Hence to thrive on social media,
the brands need to obtain constant feedback of the audiences and
understand their needs and requirements. This has become an essential
part of conducting marketing on the social media channels.
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A critical thing to consider is that it is not just vital to market the right
product and service offerings, but also to establish a loyal customer-base
and generate repeat sales with the correct engagement. In addition to
using Social Media regularly to post new content to your followers, it’s
important to engage in social media listening. In today’s times, it has
become very easy for brands to connect with their prospects or existing
customers and gain valuable information about them. Thus, a lot of
enhancement has happened in the context of constant engagement with
the users which has resulted in the rise of social media listening. Social
Media listening can be defined as the process of assessing and analyzing
what is being discussed about an individual, product, service or brand on
Social Media channels. Thus, brands that are aware of this concept can
leverage it for enhancing engagement, trust and brand loyalty.
Social listening is when brands track their social media profiles for
conversations related to their business, whether directly mentioned or not.
This monitoring is done by searching for business-related keywords,
hashtags, or direct mentions and tags. Social listening helps companies
understand the conversation surrounding their brand and the products and
services they offer. It provides valuable consumer data that companies can
use to gauge brand awareness and improve their products and services.
Brands thus need to learn what users are conversing online. Before the
advent of Social Media, it was quite difficult and limited for brands to
understand how the users felt about their product or service offerings.
Real-time Feedback was available in a very limited manner much unlike
what is available today. Thus with the presence of various channels of
social media, it has made it possible for just brands to listen to the
conversations and opinions of the online audiences. Whether it’s a tweet on
Twitter or a post on LinkedIn, users can express their views in an instant.
Hence, this can be incredibly valuable for businesses when it comes to
gaining a more thorough perspective. In the case of a brand creating and
launching a new offering, then Social media listening is a very powerful
method to understand what users are saying about it and what their
overall experience has been. The process of listening in to conversations
and feedback on social media is a great way to make an initial evaluation
of how the offering is doing. This information can prove invaluable in
generating an awareness of whether things are going in the right direction
or not. For long-term success on social media, it is critical to understand
the strengths and weaknesses for building brand engagement.
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Brand engagement is the way your brand communicates its unique value
proposition and personality through its verbal and non-verbal messaging.
Your messaging can inspire and motivate them, making them want to buy
your product. It is how your consumers can have a relationship with your
brand. Findings of exploratory and confirmatory analyses behind social
listening revealed five distinct motivation factors: “Brand Affiliation”,
“Investigation”, “Opportunity Seeking”, “Conversation”, and
“Entertainment”. Thus, to conclude, listening to the online audience helps
to provide the right solution to that what they really require.
5.2 ESSENTIALS OF A SUCCESSFUL CONTENT

MARKETING CAMPAIGN
A successful Social Media promotion needs constant nurturing and
patience. With the far reach of social media and the diversity of channels
most brands providing any sort of value can get a substantial return from
social media marketing. A clear understanding of the Target audience is
the key to growing a follower-base and increasing reach on social media
channels. Brands in this context need to analyze the number of
conversions from prospects to customers in a certain period of time. Pick a
number and then work backwards to figure out how much effort you need
to put in to achieve that goal.
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When it comes to social media marketing, researching your competition

not only keeps you apprised of their activity, it gives you an idea of what's
working so you can integrate those successful tactics into your own efforts.
Start by compiling a list of at least 3-5 main competitors. Search which
social networks they're using and analyze their content strategy. Look at
their number of fans or followers, posting frequency and time of day. Also
pay attention to the type of content they're posting and its context
(humorous, promotional, etc.) and how they're responding to their fans.
The most important activity to look at is engagement. Even though page
admins are the only ones who can calculate engagement rate on a
particular update, you can get a good idea of what they're seeing.
For example, let's say you're looking at a competitor's last 20-30 Facebook
updates. Take the total number of engagement activities for those posts
and divide it by the page's total number of fans. (Engagement activity
includes likes, comments, shares, etc.) You can use that formula on all of
your competitors' social profiles (e.g., on Twitter you can calculate
retweets and favourites). Keep in mind that the calculation is meant to give
you a general picture of how the competition is doing so you can compare
how you stack up against each other.
Another powerful technique to generate an audience is to identify Social
media Influencers.
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The Social Media Influencers are a category of people who are viewed to be
the trendsetters and thought-leaders. They are called Influencers due to
the fact that the products or services that they recommend on Social Media
are adopted by a huge number of users on various channels. The vital
element of social proof creates a strong authority to the Influencers, online
presence and creates the essential credibility and trust. Brands have to
create a strategy of getting influencers to endorse their offering before
launching any Social Media marketing campaign. To achieve this objective
they need to connect and engage with other influencers. An essential
strategy for getting Social Media Influencers to follow the brands is
engaging with them directly. Brands also need to concentrate on
constructing their own social media presence so they can offer value to the
Influencers. One of the simplest ways to achieve this objective is through
building this own high-quality content. This can comprise of providing new
insights by creating high-quality information in formof info-graphics.
Brands can also create a blog and start posting quality information on it to
provide value to Influencers and other users on various social media
channels.
The next step is to find the required Influencers online. A Google search
can also prove helpful in this context as there is a presence of list of
prominent (Influencers) people in their fields indexed by Google and other
search engines. Thus, brands interested in engaging the Influencers should
focus on creating a substantial list of Influencers that they want to engage
with. Although there is an investment of resources and time in this step, it
is definitely worth the initiative. Influencers can also be sought out by
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browsing through the current follower list. Brands can also sieve through
popular mediums like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Instagram and
others to find posts that are most popular which have been created and
shared by Influencers. Some more techniques to grab the attention of
Influencers, is to curate and share content that they have posted. In case
the content has been curated and shared in form of tweets, ensure that the
author’s (Influencer’s) name is mentioned. This action ensures they know
that who has shared their content. A repeated effort will create a positive
effect on each Influencer whose content is being shared. Starting a
conversation with the Influencers can become possible as some of them
might express gratitude for sharing their content. This step will be
instrumental in building a relationship with the Influencers and the brands.
Engagement with Influencers can also happen through the powerful
medium of emails. Brands can engage with Influencers directly by sending
e-mails to them. A Powerful strategy can be to find and add them on
LinkedIn. The environment of LinkedIn is very helpful for networking, and
as discussed in a previous chapter, brands can send ‘InMail’ to users they
think are Influencers. A subtle method that can be used through the
LinkedIn ‘InMail’ feature is to give feedback to to the Influencers on a
recent article they have published. Brands can also create engagement by
congratulating the Influencers on a recent accomplishment. Thus the aim
of the brand should not be to directly approach the Influencers or coax
them to follow, but to simply build a subtle yet engaging relationship with
them. Connecting constantly on popular Social Media channels helps
immensely in maintaining strong relationships with Influencers.
Whatever mediums are chosen, brands should be creating valuable content
specific to their online marketing objectives. The broad aim of engagement
should therefore be to not only get Social Media Influencers to follow the
offering, but also to motivate them to share the content with their
audience. This proves to be a long-term initiative as it can lead to an
extremely supportive background where the posts are shared with a vast
number of users through the Influencer’s networks. This proves beneficial
and more effective as it can help the posts reach a much higher number of
users than they would have been able to reach on their own. Another key
advantage is that along with the sharing of posts and content, the
interaction created with these Influencers along the way will produce many
more benefits than simply the expanded brand reach on Social Media
channels. Brands will benefit from creating and nurturing a growing
network of specialists ready to help the brand with its promotional needs.
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Thus when it comes to collating the essentials of a successful content

marketing campaign a major portion hinges on acquiring and engaging
social media Influencers. Along with this essential approach brands also
need to focus on building up their own Social Media presence so they can
offer value to the Influencers and other channel visitors.
Another useful strategy for building a successful content marketing
campaign is to understand the fact that there is a rise in the number of
brands conducting business with other brands on the various Social Media
channels. By understanding this fact it becomes simpler to observe where
brands can invest their time to get the best results in social campaigns
focused towards marketing to other brands. Brands need to be mindful and
even cautious of the fact that the B2B online process is a demanding one.
Content marketing helps the brands to connect to the target market and
provide content that’s relevant to their stage in the buying cycle. Social
Media channels are a critical element of content marketing. For brands that
are new to marketing to other brands - the purchasing cycle is tedious and
extremely slow. It entails the involvement of diverse entities. Thus during
the formulation of each marketing campaign, it is critical to have a clear
objective. It is essential to remember that most successful campaigns take
a much specific view that looks at each interaction as a strategic touch
point in the purchasing cycle.
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Below provided are a few specific techniques used on popular Social Media
channels:
1. Building and nurturing of specific LinkedIn groups: Brands can
enhance their online campaigns by building and nurturing specific
LinkedIn groups. Such groups prove invaluable in sharing exciting
discussions and powerful information. These groups can become a
forum for establishing the brand as a hub of information that benefits
the specific industry.
2. Provide power to website and blog with the embedding feature
through YouTube videos: Brands can leverage the power of Youtube
videos to promote content to their social media audience. This strategy
will serve a dual purpose of increasing the brands’ website visits as well
as increase the offerings in the video views, thus generating
engagement and interest for the brand.
3. Invite a guest to post on the brands’ Instagram account: Brands
can promote content on this platform if they have connections with an
Influencer on this channel. This is an approach which has proved to
produce a very high amount of engagement. So it is really good to
consider asking an Influencer to post on the account.
4. Promote the Twitter account on other social media accounts:
Brands can promote content on this platform by creating tweets and
attracting users. Brands can also mention interesting discussions that
generate engagement with users on Twitter.
5. Use images in Facebook constantly to enhance content strategy:
Brands need to be aware of the fact that the specific and attractive
images are a phenomenal approach to enhance engagement and reach
using the Facebook fan page.
Thus, a successful Content Marketing Campaign can be created by using
the appropriate elements from the above provided discussion.
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Video Link 1
Video Link 2
Video Link 3
Video Link 4
5.3 CONNECTING THE DOTS: ASPECTS OF PROVIDING

HUMAN TOUCHES TO THE BRAND
As we know by now, creating and nurturing trust on Social Media is
extremely important to the growth of any brand or individual. This
environment is quite different from our traditional physical stores where
users can touch and feel things. Aspects related to trust include other
users buying products, the presence of a human being and a product
counter having actual products. Compared to this an online purchasing
experience either on a website, app or a social media channel is a
completely different experience. Thus, brands have to be proactive in
earning the trust of their users.
Social brand engagement is meaningful connection, creation and
communication between one consumer and one or more other consumers,
using brand or brand-related language, images and meanings. You cannot
have social brand engagement in isolation. Social media promotions done
in a proper manner allows brands to reach a wider audience than those
who are following you. Social media advertising platforms are so powerful
nowadays that you can specify exactly who to display your ads to. You can
create target audiences based on their demographics, interests,
behaviours, and more. Simply posting products, promotions and news is
not going to increase engagement. While it is a good idea to post about
promotions, the majority of your social media posts should be useful
content. Tutorials, videos, life tips and more that relate back to your brand
in some way are all great ways to boost engagement.
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For brands that are striving to build trust online, it’s critical that to provide
a human touch both through their Social Media endeavors as well as the
look and feel of their website, blog and all related promotional content. The
proponents that support the human touch are high-quality content and
constant interactions which act as proof that the brand is reputable. Let us
study some of the powerful methods that are employed by successful
brands and individuals to help build trust -
1. Design and layout: Brands need to be mindful of the fact that if design
of their social media posts, website or blog looks unprofessional or
cluttered, they are likely to lose a large percentage of users. Apart from
this fact there will also be a rise in the number of users who will doubt
the legitimacy of the brand and it will be difficult to gain the trust of
such customers. On the contrary if the social media posts, website or
blogs looks professional, the prospects will stick around to explore the
site further. Thus it doesn’t matter how compelling the content is, what
really matters is the use of high-definition graphics and user-friendly
navigation to catch the attention of the visitors and build trust in their
minds. The concept of first impression is really critical to brands offering
their products and services online. Thus, it is really vital to create a
design that is both persuasive and visually pleasing. Brands can hire the
help of a professional designer in this context. Brands need to think of
the fact that would visitors trust them enough to make a financial
transaction.
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2. Presence of a ‘Contact Page’: Due to the presence of fraudsters

online, brands need to prove that they conduct legitimate transactions
online. This can be done easily by including a “Contact” page with a
telephone number, e-mail and mailing addresses, and other
information. Many brands offer only a generic email address, which can
seem fraudulent. Brands can build trust by adding the LinkedIn profile
or Twitter account user names. It also streamlines the networking
process and assists in acquiring new customer and business
relationships.
3. Trust building through the ‘About us’ page: It is a known fact that a
majority of users are curious to know about the brand that they will
transact with. In this context during the phase of prospects getting
converted to customers, the users will become inquisitive about the
offerings of the brand (products or services). Brands can build an
“About Us” page which is an extremely simple yet powerful method to
address the curiosity or concerns of prospects. The essential elements
of this page include: the types of products or services offered, the
mission, vision and objectives of the brands, the company culture and a
brief history of the brand. Brands today innovatively also add the
values, photos and briefs of key employees, major achievements,
awards and B2B client lists that they have provided their offering. These
elements added to the ‘About us’ page helps in providing a human touch
to the brand. Thus, it is a good approach to let the users see the actual
people that create the offering in any brand. Brands need to be aware of
the fact that most of the visitors are driven through their marketing
done on Social Media. On these channels audiences conduct
transactions with brands and individual that they can place their
complete trust.
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4. The presence of ‘Money-back guarantee’: A key strategy to build

trust with the users is sending them a message that there is no risk
attached to a transaction. Taking efforts to demonstrate the quality of
being genuine goes a long way in motivating users to conduct
transactions online. Today’s major online players offer users a 30-days
money-back policy.
5. Privacy Policy: Brands need to be aware of being clear and explicit
about their ‘Privacy Policies’. These are statements asserting users that
the brands will not share any of their private information. A privacy
policy can thus be created and inserted alongside the ‘About us page’.
The presence of a firm policy helps in the reduction of confidential
information leak. Thus, trust, building can happen phenomenally if
brands are able to prove to users that their information is completely
secure. Thus, this should be a critical aspect to be taken care off Hence,
by brands doing business online. Ensuring this basic concern will help
with the conversion of prospects into customers.
6. Fix broken links: A key aspect behind marketing and getting traffic
from Social Media channels to the website and blogs is to have links
that work properly. Broken links (Links that do not lead a function
webpage) are the most dangerous elements that lead to a loss of
prospects. They imply a lack of attention to detail and sense of
unprofessionalism. The most disastrous thing about broken links is that
users might think that the brand no longer exists online. Thus, most
prospects start searching for transactions with other online brands. To
ensure the retention of the human touch and continuation of business,
brands need to constantly check whether the back links are working
properly and ensure fixing any broken links.
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7. Transaction Security: Another important stage in increasing the trust

is to ensuring that the vendor for third-party payment is extremely
reliable. The security of an online payment will be one of the most
critical things on the mind of a user. Thus, use of known vendor that
most users trust, will help during this stage along with the application of
the Technology of SSL encryption. This type of encryption helps in the
prevention of unauthorized agencies from gaining access to confidential
information. Thus, in the process of providing a human touch the brands
should be able to help and encourage the users in making the right
choices. This process can be facilitated in three ways:
1. Help users understand the offering
2. Help users consider various options
3. Help user trust the information provided
5.4 WRITING A BUSINESS BLOG-POST TO ENHANCE THE

HUMAN TOUCH
For brands to be seen as entities that add value on the internet and Social
Media channels they need to provide more than just service offering and
related information. They need to create and share valuable information
related to their own field through blogs. Currently blogs are one of the
most shared types of content online and are especially popular with
audiences on the Social Media channels. Brands need to understand that
through blogs they have to offer real value. Brands that post valuable
content through blogs that meets a need for the users or fills a gap will get
liked and shared. This results in increased engagement and increased visits
to the website or blog page. In order for brands to successfully create and
post blogs online, they need to focus on online industry specific
conversations. Adding value to online conversations and offering unique
insights should be the prime objective of brands while creating a blog post.
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Thus, blogs need to be posted in a specific manner and with a clear

articulation of the value - to be provided. Another aspect of the blog is the
innovation and uniqueness elements.
Brands need to demonstrate uniqueness in the content that will add value
to the online conversations. Apart from adding value the blog content
should also offer suggestions to the users. Seasoned writers focus on the
preferences and interests of their target audiences. Thus to summarize,
innovation, uniqueness and good suggestions are the keys to drive traffic
and generate a huge amount of engagement online.
Developing Engaging Blogs: Key Essentials

Brands need to be aware of the correct arrangement of the engagement
elements provided below in order to create posts that are really engaging
and enjoyable.
1. Simple Format: Thinking in terms of the readers and use of simple
language is a critical factor for the success of a blog post. Brands should
realize that users browsing their article should be able to read it with
ease. Writers can employ the use of simple words, correct use of
headings and sub-headings and short paragraphs. A thumb-rule in
retaining of a simple format is that brands and their writer need to
create content that appear less daunting to read.
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2. Clear Articulation: Brands need to create articles and blog posts that
have a clear and focused theme. Posts need to be written in a form and
language that is free from any ambiguity. The browsers of such posts
should be able to clearly understand the objective of the blog post by
the time they get to the end of your post.
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3. An attractive Title and Opening: Brands need to realize that an

attractive title and opening is what will keep the users to browse and
read the blog post. In this context an attractive opening (Title and
Opening Sentence) will make the users read the article. According to
research done in the field of writing, it is a known fact that the ‘Title’ is
one of the most important features of the post. A well-known survey
done on online blogs states that about 80% of readers will show interest
if the Title is attractive, while only 20% will read the rest of the post.
Another strategy that works from the context of creating engagement is
to keep both the Title and Opening simple. It is observed that Titles that
are the most simple and self-explanatory are read the most. An
effective strategy that can be followed to create a strong title and
opening sentence is to understand the mentality of the users reading
the blog posts.
4. Using Images with discretion: Images have the power to captivate
users and keep them attracted to the blog post. Including a description
under the image is a great way to increase the readers’ attention for a
longer time. Hence, the selection of images for the blog post should be
a part of the main strategy. A set of high-definition images have the
potential to completely change the entire look and feel of the content. It
is found through research that images of people are the easiest for the
users to relate to. Pictures convey and evoke emotions from readers.
Thus, brands need to think of what emotions the blog posts show
through the images shared in them.
5. Addition of credibility: Brands need to add credibility to their blog
posts by adding important outside information. To create trust amongst
the online audience it is important to provide them with certain
information which is from external sources, as the readers will approach
the blog posts with a certain degree of skepticism. This is more in the
case of brands that run a blog with a promotional background. Hence,
external references are so significant to increase the post’s credibility.
Provided below are certain ways of adding references from external
sources:
The views of Influencers
External Sources Industry research or data

Expert quotes & Customer testimonials
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Thus the above given essentials have been observed to work well to
enhance the social sharing of the blog posts and interest of the users.
5.5 TECHNIQUES TO CREATE GREAT CONTENT IDEAS

After having an extensive discussion about how brands can create a
powerful blog post, let us now start exploring great ideas to enhance the
content marketing strategy.
1. Leveraging ideas from the various Social Media Channels: Brands
can use great ideas which are already available on the various channels
on Social Media. The various sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Instagram and Youtube help the brands to observe and listen
to online conversations. We have seen in various sections previously
how social media conversations can be initiated and nurtured with
prospects and customers. These conversations can also be skillfully used
to obtain novel ideas about the domain that brands operate in. Brands
can leverage the chances to understand what online audiences think
about the offerings provided. A lot can be learned along with obtaining
some invaluable feedback on the promotions happening on various
channels. These could yield a lot of ideas and solve problems or
shortcomings.
2. Ideas obtained through Youtube: This channel can provide some
great ideas related to content in the form of videos. Brands can be
inspired by the viewing of an infinite number of videos. Depending on
the specific offering, watching contextual videos can be a source of
inspiration. Marketers can also create similar inspirational videos and
promote it to their online audience. Thus the Youtube channel presents
great opportunities and ideas to brands that are utilizing it to promote
content through videos.
3. Listening from Forums: The true power of the Social Media Channels
can be leveraged in the form of the brands’ presence on the various
forums online. A notable aspect about forums is that users seek
answers related to solving their questions. Thus, forums can be a
wonderful place to get solution and thereby innovative ideas in a
particular domain. This can be an awesome approach to generate ideas
related to promoting the offerings online. Content marketers and brands
can be an active part of any ongoing conversation on forums. To initiate
the process, brands need to search for the specific forums from their
function. To generate engagement and gather ideas, it is recommended
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to spend some time on that forum. Forums are a place where a lot of
different ideas are generated from investing only a little time. To add
more value than just gathering ideas, the brands can also create a blog-
post explaining how to solve the problems. They can subsequently post
a link on the forum to the blog-post.
4. LinkedIn Groups: While LinkedIn has gained popularity as a Business
networking site, it can also be creatively used to gather ideas related to
specific aspects about the respective industry. This channel is one of the
most professional site and app and the group discussions that happen
have the potential to provide innovative ideas, thoughts and insights
that are not available elsewhere. Thus brands need to be active on the
groups that relate to their nature of business in order to generate plenty
of new content marketing ideas.
5. Surveys: Like forums, Surveys are also powerful channels to collect
ideas from the online audiences. Surveys help to understand the
mindset of the target audience and gather content related ideas and
insights from the users. They also are a great medium to understand
the customers’ needs and wants.
Thus, participating in online surveys can help brands learn more about
their audiences to create compelling content. Brands can also create
surveys to help generate new insights and ideas.
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6. Gain insights and ideas by visiting Blogs: A creative way of

generating lots of ideas is by visiting blogs from topics related to the
specific industry that the brand is present. The latest trends can be
found out by just browsing through the various different blogs on the
diverse websites and Social Media Channels. Through browsing and
visiting different blogs, brands can gather a huge repository of
incredible ideas. This approach can also be very helpful to combine
ideas from multiple posts into new promotional content. The Social
Marketing Channels are filled with articles that are worthy of reviewing
ideas and generating discussions. A key aspect to remember is to focus
on, quality of ideas and not just the quantity. Better results come out of
focusing on visiting a large number of blogs. Thus, to get the best ideas
it is essential to accumulate a comprehensive list of business specific
blog-posts.
Video Link 1
5.6 SOCIAL MEDIA AS A POWERFUL CUSTOMER

RELATIONS MANAGEMENT TOOL
Many customers prefer using social media to contact a company when they
require support — it's more convenient, and they don't have to search for
your contact details. Using a CRM with social media integration enables
your teams to reach customers wherever they're hanging out online.
Customers also spend 20 to 40 percent more with companies that respond
to customer service requests on social media. And companies that don't
respond to customers on social channels are losing customers year after
year, with a 15 percent higher churn rate versus businesses that do
respond.
Brands can develop a user-centric understanding and also determine the
Influential users among their online audience. This is an essential part of
creating powerful ways of Managing Customer Relations. By becoming
aware of developing relationships with the users that are constantly
influencing online conversations, brands can create the opportunities of
developing rapport to more deeply understand users. Thus, the data
gathered through customer interactions can be gathered and analyzed to
create innovative solutions and build better online promotions.
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A social CRM is the integration between your customer relationship

management (CRM) software and social media channels. This empowers
your teams to understand and engage customers, gain market insights,
and provide better customer service.
Influencers and prospects can be mapped for promotions through
interactions and conversations on the Social media. The knowledge of the
target audience is crucial to the success of any online social Media
campaign and can be infused in the designing process of the product or
service offering. Thus, Social Customer Relations Management helps
brands understand and apply the significant points in the conversations
happening around them. Connecting this data into the business practices,
can help build relationships with influential users, bloggers, critics and
others who follow the brand offering.
Let us develop a broad perspective about the concept of CRM by looking at
the Traditional CRM (not on social media) as well. A key lack in the
traditional model from the perspective of the user is that it manages a
customer relationship in a passive sense. The data points defining the
Traditional model of relationship are all based on past transactional data
and situations. Brands lose out in case of this model because the events
have finished and thus the interaction with the users is no longer present.
Now when we shift our focus to Customer Relations Management
performed on Social Media we can observe a completely different picture.
The very nature of the various channels of Social media invites the users to
get involved in a real-time process of collaboration. It remarkable thing
about CRM on social media is that it recollects events and transactions,
which is quite similar to traditional CRM but is much more advance in
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nature as it solicits the users’ opinion in making the product or service

enhancements. This is done majorly through the real-time feedback
gathered on the various channels of social media where users generate
conversations about brands. These conversations can be either positive or
negative about the product or service offering and the online experience
with the brand. They can be related to a wide range of aspects concerning
any part of an online purchase on the website, a visit to the blog-posts of
the brand, a friend’s experience about the brand, what people are saying
about the brand on any given community, any complaints of the brand
offering on the numerous forums or any feedback for the video tutorial
posted on sites like Youtube or Facebook.
Thus, collaboration of this nature and magnitude involves not just the
complete management team of the brand but also all the people related to
it in any way. Hence, brands have to place the users and their interactions
at the core and design powerful techniques to fully leverage the power of
the Social Customer Relations Management effort. Provided below are
some of these techniques:
171
Develop
Repository
Monitoring
creation
Processes
Connect the
Innovative
users’
approach
experiences
• Repository creation: It is critical to build a repository of the users’

insights, feedback and experience. Brands can then introspect and make
the necessary modifications in their online strategies if required.
• Develop Monitoring Processes: Brands need to constantly monitor the
Social Media Channels for feedback from the prospects or existing
customers.
• Connect the users’ experiences: Brands need to be alert and
observant of each action that users complete on the various channels as
well as their website and blogs. The insights and observations can be
captured in a repository as stated in the earlier point and can also be
discussed and to form the basis of modifications in the overall online
Social Media Marketing Strategy.
• Innovative approach: This involves identifying the breaks in the
system, the places where users can be engaged to create more sales and
create more power in the promotional content.
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Thus, by combining the above provided techniques, brands can create the
correct image and unique selling proposition for the Social Customer
Relations Management. This concept and the underlying techniques can
also be used to involve the internal team members supporting the brand
and make them share the vision of the brand. This will help them bond
better with their online Social Media audiences. The continuous bonding
will lead to a partnership between the brand employees and their
audiences. Thus a good amount of engagement is generated with the users
due to creation of a powerful customer centric offering. The function of the
Social Customer Relations Management is to track and monitor online
contacts and profiles. After this process is completed, this data is
correlated with information that already exists about the users. With this
critical data, brands can begin to track target segments of users.
Thus to summarize, Social Media Customer Relations Management is a
powerful method for brands to create a human touch with their online
audience and enhance the engagements on the social media in a holistic
manner.
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One brand that succeeded in leveraging the power of micro-influencers
early on was clothing retailer ASOS. The brand relies heavily on micro-
influencers (500-10,000 followers) for their highly successful ASOS
Insiders program, which recruits stylish millennials eager to share their
latest fashion finds on platforms like Instagram. Such ‘ordinary’ people can
lend a far greater feel of authenticity than aloof celebrities to your
marketing message – making micro-influencers just as valuable as
celebrities and far more accessible by ordinary brands. Here we shall
discuss the key elements needed to convince an Influencer that they
should spend time promoting brand on Social Media.
Identify the Influencers
The first step is to identify the Influencers suited for the brand, otherwise
no amount of engagement will work. In this example, the brand and
Influencers are a perfect fit. In the context of this case study, the Social
Media Channel need, a good consideration. The Influencer, the brand and
audience should all be active on the same channel. A key thing to
remember is that the industry’s top Influencers may be more at home on
blogs and forums than trendier platforms. ‘In fact this is something that
has also been mentioned prominently and at several places in this
chapter’.
In order to track down potential influencers, freemium search tools such as
Buzzsumo were used. Alternately to identify the Influencers that would
really serve the brand well, a better idea was to use social listening to
monitor who the audience trusts and shares. This requires the use of a
Social Media software platform. One way ASOS was able to engage with its
Influencer pool was by sending them vouchers and inviting them to post a
review of their purchase. But there are less industry-specific and budget-
taxing tactics available to everyone. E-mail was an obvious choice –
indeed, direct e-mail continues to thrive despite the inroads of Social
Media. The most natural and least labour-intensive channel to connect on,
are the Social Media Channels. This approach also provides the opportunity
to please the Influencer with likes and reposts. A key point to be
remembered when attracting Social Media Influencers is to show them the
value that can be offered to them. If the brand or content lacks a
discernable spark, the outreach will likely go unanswered. Thus, ASOS with
this convincing strategic action plan in place was able to attract the large
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number of Social Media Influencers. To conclude, the Influencers started

posting favourable things about the brand on the various Social Media
Channels, which in turn helped with the promotional efforts of the brand.
5.8 ACTIVITIES
1. A powerful technique to generate an audience is to identify Social Media
Influencers. Browse the Social Media Channels and explore the probable
Influencers in your network.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. In this chapter we have discussed four powerful techniques related to

enhancing Customer Relations Management effort. Browse the Internet
and find a few more techniques.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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5.9 SUMMARY
In this chapter we have discussed about the techniques that provide
human touch to brands on Social Media. Here we have seen that, a key
technique of making online audiences feel more connected is making the
content and the promotions seem more human. Thus, brand awareness
can increase phenomenally if a brand’s Social Media presence reflects
liveliness, sensitiveness to the audience preferences and a distinct human
touch. A critical thing to consider is that it is not just vital to market the
right product and service offerings, but also to establish a loyal customer,
base and generate repeat sales with the correct engagement. Brands thus
need to learn what users are conversing online. Before the advent of Social
Media it was quite difficult and limited for brands to understand how the
users felt about their product or service offerings. Real-Time Feedback was
available in a very limited manner much unlike what is available today.
Social listening is when brands track their social media profiles for
conversations related to their business, whether directly mentioned or not.
This monitoring is done by searching for business-related keywords,
hashtags, or direct mentions and tags. Social listening helps companies
understand the conversation surrounding their brand and the products and
services they offer.
A successful Social Media promotion needs constant nurturing and
patience. A clear understanding of the Target audience is the key to
growing a follower-base and increasing reach on Social Media Channels.
The Social Media Influencers are a category of people who are viewed to be
the trendsetters and thought-leaders. They are called Influencers due to
the fact that the products or services that they recommend on Social Media
are adopted by a huge number of users on various channels. Engagement
with Influencers can also happen through the powerful medium of e-mails.
Brands can engage with Influencers directly by sending e-mails to them.
When it comes to social media marketing, researching your competition
not only keeps you apprised of their activity, it also gives you an idea of
what is working so that you can integrate those successful tactics into your
own efforts. A Powerful strategy can be to find and add them on LinkedIn.
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Another useful strategy for building a successful Content Marketing

Campaign is to understand the fact that there is a rise in the number of
brands conducting business with other brands on the various Social Media
Channels. For brands that are striving to build trust online, it’s critical that
to provide a human touch both through their Social Media endeavors as
well as the look and feel of their website, blog and all related promotional
content. A successful Content Marketing Campaign can be created by using
the appropriate elements from the above provided discussion. Social brand
engagement is meaningful connection, creation and communication
between one consumer and one or more other consumers, using brand or
brand-related language, images and meanings. You cannot have social
brand engagement in isolation.
For brands to be seen as entities that add value on the internet and Social
Media Channels, they need to provide more than just service offering and
related information. They need to create and share valuable information
related to their own field through blogs. Currently, blogs are one of the
most shared types of content online and are especially popular with
audiences on the Social Media Channels. Brands need to demonstrate
uniqueness in the content that will add value to the online conversations.
Apart from adding value the blog content should also offer suggestions to
the users. Seasoned writers focus on the preferences and interests of their
target audiences. Many customers prefer using social media to contact a
company when they require support — it is more convenient, and they do
not have to search for your contact details. Using a CRM with social media
integration enables your teams to reach customers wherever they are
hanging out online.
Brands can develop a user-centric understanding and also determine the
Influential users among their online audience. This is an essential part of
creating powerful ways of Managing Customer Relations. By becoming
aware of developing relationships with the users that are constantly
influencing online conversations, brands can create the opportunities of
developing rapport to more deeply understand users. Influencers and
prospects can be mapped for promotions through interactions and
conversations on the Social Media. The knowledge of the target audience is
crucial to the success of any online Social Media Campaign and can be
infused in the designing process of the product or service offering. Social
Media Customer Relations Management is a powerful method for brands to
177
create a human touch with their online audience and enhance the
engagements on the Social Media in a holistic manner.

1. Explain in brief how the aspect of social engagement would create and
increase user loyalty?
2. Describe the statement - Brands thus need to learn what users are
conversing online.
3. Explain why a successful Social Media promotion needs constant
nurturing and patience?
4. Explain why it is essential to invite a guest to post on the brands’
Instagram account?
5. Explain in brief how the presence of a ‘Contact Page’ helps in building
credibility for the brands?
6. Describe in brief why brands need to create articles and blog-posts that
have a clear and focused theme?
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1. To thrive on Social Media, the brands need to obtain constant

__________ of the audiences.
a. Criticism
b. Feedback
c. Appreciation
d. Encouragement
2. Which of the below provided concept can be defined as the process of

assessing and analyzing what is being discussed about an individual,
product, service or brand on Social Media Channels?
a. Social Media participation
b. Social Media mining
c. Social Media listening
d. Social Media hearing
3. Brands can enhance their online campaigns by building and nurturing of

specific
a. LinkedIn groups
b. Yahoo groups
c. Closed groups
d. Facebook groups
4. The presence of ‘Money-back guarantee’ is critical to conduct online

business. Today’s major online players offer users -
a. A 30-days money back policy
b. A 60-days money back policy
c. A 90-days money back policy
d. No money back policy
5. Which type of links are the most dangerous elements that lead to a loss
of prospects?
a. Landing links
b. Critical links
c. Accurate links
d. Broken links
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6. __________ have the power to captivate users and keep them attracted
to the blog-post.
a. Links
b. Images
c. Tweets
d. Words
Ans: 1. (b), 2. (c), 3. (a), 4. (a), 5. (d), 6. (b).
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
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ANALYTICS TO MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT
Chapter 6
Analytics To Measure Social Media Impact
Objectives:
• To understand the need for analyzing the impact of Social Media.
• Develop clear understanding of the Social Media metrics.
• Connect the dimensions of the social media promotions to the Business
processes.
• Become aware of the popular tools to analyze information from social
media channels.
Structure:
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Techniques to understand ‘What’ Needs to be Measured
6.3 Creating Effective Analytics to track Metrics on Social Media Channels
6.4 Measuring Return on Investment in Social Media Marketing
Campaigns
6.6 Activities
6.7 Summary
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6.1 INTRODUCTION
A strong strategy for the growth of any brand today is how it performs and
sells its promotions on the Social Media Channels. Thus, this platform has
become extremely critical to brands from all industries and of all sizes. So,
right from startup brands to global giants, this platform has been leveraged
and will continuously be used tactically for a variety of purposes. Brands
have to constantly create and monitor their promotional strategies on this
vast platform. Along with active marketing efforts, brands also need to
measure the Social Media impact. Although the general notion is that
Social Media is about a qualitative approach, brands also need to invest
time in measuring the return on investments in a meticulous manner. To
get the full leverage of this platform and to build a solid reputation, brands
need to employ tracking mechanisms. Fortunately, there is a wide range of
tools available which make this endeavor extremely simple and fruitful. The
diverse Social Media platform directly links to Influencers, engagement,
following and traffic. So monitoring and measuring these critical aspects
can assist brands in a wide variety of ways. Social Media helps to reach out
to a bigger audience. Almost 90% of marketers say their social marketing
efforts have increased exposure for their business, and 75% say they have
increased traffic. It is an ideal way to create brand awareness and stay in
contact with your customers. Social media can help business to: attract
customers, get customer feedback and build customer loyalty, increase the
market reach, including international markets, do market research and
reduce marketing costs.
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With Social Media being used for aiding promotional content of brands like
conventional marketing channels, brands have started to focus more on
the measurement of return on investment. On the Social Media Channels,
the brands need to use the power of audiences and Influencers to market
the products and service offerings and they can also be indirectly a part of
the measurement process. Thus, the objective is to create brand advocates
that completely trust in the brand to help promote the products and
services. Brands can achieve instant scale across the social media and
create relevant content for individuals and niche audiences. Thus, unlike
other promotional channels, Social Media provides brands an opportunity
to create real and long-term relationships with users. This also makes a
strong point for more human investment on Social Media-based
promotional initiatives. These initiatives can be put into multiple areas of
promotions from traditional marketing to CRM to sales. Brands need to
realize that it is important to use an objective-oriented strategy for
assessing the return on investment for the Social Media marketing efforts.
What makes Social Media so impactful in today’s world is that it is one of
the most important impacts of social media in today’s world lies within its
ability to distribute information to the whole world. With most people on
some other social media platforms today, no news of importance cools
down without proper discussion. Thus, the Social Media promotional
offering must be connected to the various aspects related to acquiring
Influencers, managing online reputation of the brand, and measuring hits
generated from the presence on Social Media.
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6.2 TECHNIQUES TO UNDERSTAND ‘WHAT’ NEEDS TO BE

MEASURED
Brands need to understand a simple mantra in order to get the full
leverage of any promotional campaign that runs on Social Media. It is the
knowledge of ‘what’ needs to measured, from the vast array of information
on the diverse channels of Social Media. To regulate this process, the
brands need to realize the purpose of running the Social Media marketing
campaign. Thus, measurement is vital to creating Social Media acceptance
within a brand that goes beyond the marketing team. Social media has
transformed the way brands do business. “Audience engagement” is the
new buzzword among marketers and the core of social media programs. As
social media platforms evolve, brands are trying to extract new values
from social media, creating unique brand experiences to meet their
marketing objectives. They push the boundaries in audience engagement
but with uncertainties about its success.
The success or failure of audience engagement can be measured using
metrics derived from the social media platform. However, there are no
measurement standards or calculations available. Each platform has a
varied set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that need to be analyzed
and interpreted to provide deep insights into the brand’s performance and
effectiveness on social media. Measuring effectiveness is very crucial to
brands. It helps in understanding customers and strengthening
relationships to build stronger brands and ensure tangible returns on social
investments.
An exact measurement of the Social Media marketing efforts is quite
difficult because it is quite different from conventional ‘brick or mortar’ or
online campaigns. In the case of conventional online campaigns, brands
have a very simple mechanism for measuring the Return of Investment.
Also in case of conventional online campaigns, brands can employ analysts
who can monitor the clicks on the website and calculate the total of the
conversions. With this measurement completed, it is a simple process to
calculate the ROI. The difficulty associated with measuring the Return On
Investment is that a prospect might visit a particular Social Media Channel
but not visit the website where the opportunity of an actual sale may exist.
Another scenario might be that the prospect may visit the promotional
Social Media campaign and not click at all — but make a purchase directly
some weeks later. Also the offering might get shared virally but it may not
185
convert it into a purchase for the brand. Furthermore, there was no way to
measure these metrics to figure out whether your Social Media marketing
was doing any good. Many brands found this as a compelling reason to
withdraw the several promotions that were happening on the diverse
channels of Social Media. The sheer variety of the Social Media marketing
attributes that are eligible for being measured is sometimes utterly
confusing for brands and their marketing teams. In the case of measuring
Return On Investment on Social Media the measurable variables differ
widely: Tweets, Likes, shares, favorites, re-tweets, comments, replies,
mentions, subscriptions, diggs and the list goes on. On the contrary, with
the conventional online media, it is much more precise. For example,
brands that create and maintain an online blog can measure the comments
and traffic. If the brand has created a promotional video and hosted it on
Youtube, the views can be measured. In case of a link existing online that
represents the brand, the clicks can be measured. If it’s an online
advertisement for promoting the offering, brands measure the impressions.
Social media KPIs and measurement matters because it tells you where
you are in terms of starting metrics, where you want to go (objectives) and
it informs what action you need to take if you want your social media
marketing campaign to meet those objectives. Social media ROI is one of
the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) in marketing. It is
often expressed as a percentage. KPIs allow you to compare and contrast
different marketing channels to determine the effectiveness and efficiency
of each channel. The Return On Investment factor thus is extremely
important, and determining the ‘why’ as the appropriate measure can
make even more difference to any campaign’s success. It is thus important
to establish certain key parameters or indicators to determine the resulting
Return On Investment from each online Social Media promotion. There are
many critical parameters like demography, gender, age group, time of day
that can form a basis of analysis. It is found through a recent study that
the most relevant and measurable parameters for online Social Media
promotion are:
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Measurable parameters
Increase in
Quality of Quantity of
Traffic &
Engagement Engagement
Influencers
Brands need to use elements like Tweets and retweets, Facebook

comments and likes and Instagram comments to generate interaction for
the parameters that measure the quality and quantity of the Social Media
promotion. The monitoring of unique visitors from the diverse Social Media
Channels is a key measurable parameter where the Social Media
campaigns are run. Brands looking to generate traffic, the metric should be
the links present in the blogs and diverse Social Media Channels. If they
are looking to create a following, the metric should be: subscribers,
followers on your social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Some brands
need to measure more metrics more tightly in a quantative manner.
Brands also need to broaden their social media horizon to realize that it is
not just only Facebook and Twitter. A lot can be achieved by Social Media
marketers who are aware of the fact that an enormous source of traffic lies
beyond these popular Social Media Channels.
Brands should be mindful that significant and precise measurement of the
Return On Investment is required to succeed on the Social Media platform.
Thus, parameters for Social Media metrics have to be defined and
monitored carefully. Brands need to create a properly co-ordinated and
dedicated effort from all employees of the brand to reap results from Social
Media promotions. The measurable parameter for most brands should be
the precise value in terms of money for every lead that a social
promotional content (share/post) generates. This is critical in case of the
brands that desire to leverage Social Media Channels to generate income.
For example, laptop brands like Dell, HP or Lenovo would desire to
measure the peak time of Social Media shares and the traffic they generate
in context of ongoing online promotional campaigns. Another example
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would be of cosmetic brands like Lakme, Loreal and Ponds, who would
want to measure the number of women that have clicked through a socially
shared link to measure the effectiveness of their online promotional
campaigns. Thus, different brands have distinct intentions with the
ultimate goal of wanting to achieve the metric to be measured. It should
be evident that shares, likes, tweets and refsdftweets don’t occupy an
important metric goal because they are not of direct consequence here. For
a small brand, measuring the number of likes, shares, or retweets is
pointless if none of it generates traffic/ following/interaction/revenue or
any other goal you have set for your social campaigns.
In order to get the most out of the Social Media Channels, brands must
utilize the Social Media engagement analytics. The Social Media Channels
are transformed from a source of largely unstructured qualitative
information to a highly engaging and structured context that can be viewed
and monitored on a quantitative manner - when time is taken to utilize and
become aware of the benchmarking parameters and quantitative tools.
Thus, this highly engaging and structured context, benefits in enabling
critical measurement related aspects when it comes to applying Social
Media to the business. This leads to an improvement in prioritized insights
in the context of competing capital efforts through engagement on the
various Social Media Channels. It also includes joining the online
interactions and the results of the promotions designed to convert these
interactions for the better by reducing hostile interactions and increasing
the positive ones.
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To become seasoned with interactions on the Social Media Channels,

brands can learn from their conventional counterparts. In conventional
promotional activities, the interactions via Social Media analytics include
marketplace surveys that are conducted pre and post the promotional
campaign. They also include the processes of consumer research and focus
groups. At times elements like press clipping and reporting are also used to
generate and build upon interactions. In all of the above methods there is
a distinct process of collection, identification and measurement that creates
a supporting learning procedure. This procedure is created to connect the
brand or it offerings in terms of product or service. Such a procedure is
critical in terms of the interactions of Influencers and users and their
resulting needs and desires. Their opinions are also taken into account with
regard to what is talked about on the diverse Social Media Channels. A
distinct set of parameters or an accepted manner of stating an observed
result is to be considered in each of the measurement methodologies.
Thus, a lot of the best used methods in conventional marketing seamlessly

apply to Social Media analytics. Thus, using the above techniques to
measure the reach and impact of Social Media is extremely critical. To
conclude, these Social Media-based interactions and engagement form a
basis for ‘what’ needs to measured in the form of useful information that is
very helpful in managing promotions on the Social Media Channels.
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6.3 CREATING EFFECTIVE ANALYTICS TO TRACK METRICS

ON SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
It is critical for brands to connect the dimensions of the Social Media
promotions to the business processes. Thus, by becoming aware of how
the process results drive the measurements themselves, brands can use
the trends observed to create a structured strategy for the business in
ways that ensure success with regard to the broad objectives of the brand.
Understanding what is driving the dimensions for measurement that need
to be collected is essential to running the promotions on Social Media. This
is also vital in recording what wisdom and knowledge, brands have gained
from running such online promotions on the diverse Social Media Channels.
Powerful insights can be gained on how the online instruments — the
website, blog or community site can drive traffic through the application of
web analytics. Thus, analytics are instrumental in measuring the factors
that are driving the promotions and contributing to the fulfillment of the
marketing objectives.
For brands to succeed on Social Media, these business drivers should relate
or connect to the core intelligence processes. The measurements that are
observed are indicators of the outcomes but are not themselves the
results. Brands can ensure that they are correlating what has been learned
or observed through online engagement, conversations and subsequent
listening. Thus in this manner, all the promotional initiatives taken on the
diverse Social Media Channels become measurably connected to the
ongoing operational activities run by the brand on a daily basis. A visible
benefit here to the brand is that the various teams that span functional
areas of the brand are unified under the ever-growing span of social
promotional initiatives. Brands need to emphasis on enhancing their ‘reach’
towards audiences. Reach, therefore, is a great indicator of your potential
audience size. It measures how far your content and message spreads
across social media. For example, on Facebook, “total reach” is an indicator
of the number of people who have seen your post. Reach is calculated
when your content appears on somebody’s news feed. This metric comes in
three different flavours:
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1. Organic Reach: The number of people who saw your post/tweet in

their feed. A metric that is becoming harder to maintain, as various
social algorithms give more value to posts shared by friends, family,
and followers.
2. Viral Reach: As touched upon above, this indicates how many people
have seen your content as a result of social sharing.
3. Paid Reach: The number of people who saw your content through a
promoted social post.
Brands can start their tracking process of on-site metrics by using simple
yet powerful processes. Thus, to be get effectively does not necessarily
mean moving to complicated methods of measurements. Brands can thus
apply the core metrics in ways that provide deeper insights about
promotions on the Social Media Channels. The main objective is to
understand the process of relating actions and outcomes to the desired
goals of the business. Hence, investing to understand how relatively simple
measurements can be studied, supplemented and aligned to provide useful
information is the key insight in the measurement process. Brands need to
be very consistent in the measuring process in the initial stages of the
Social Media campaign. Seasoned professionals and brands on Social Media
suggest that initially everything should come under the radar of
measurement. They suggest that all direct and indirect indicators that
provide the relevant user-related information should be monitored and
recorded to excel on this Social Media platform.
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Metrics can vary based on the channel of Social Media used by the brand.
For example, brands can measure the Return On Investment by counting
the number of Twitter followers or retweets on the Twitter platform. The
number of Facebook fans and the number of likes can be used as critical
measure on the Facebook platform. Although these are critical Social Media
aspects to monitor, a structured objective-based approach to enhancing
the Return of Investment is the need of the hour. A systematic approach
will help in better understanding the ‘Why’ behind the ‘How’ of the
marketing initiatives. Like most marketing done online, there is no
universal rule for how to measure the return of investment of the Social
Media efforts. Thus, the core learning in this context for brands is that the
Return On Investment in Social Media marketing should directly be linked
in to the objective of the Social Media engagement and conversations. Most
brands can devise strategies based on straight-forward observations, for
example consider a common Social Media measuring parameter like
bounce rate, which is the relative measure of visitors who land on the site
and then leave immediately, without looking at anything else. To derive
meaning from this metric, the brand can run various types of analysis,
trace it by date or source or trend it over time, and against it. Brands can
perform analysis on what factors are encouraging or reducing it. Thus, the
conducting of this analysis is vital because the objective is to understand
the underlying factors behind what is driving the bounce rate rather than
knowing only the number itself. If the reasons are known, then, it is easy
to develop a strategy to reduce this problem.
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Another critical metric on the Social Media Business Channels like LinkedIN
is the number of connections. In this context, it is engagements and
online engagements more than promotional efforts that drive the
conversations. Therefore, it is the way in which the business is managed
that becomes the focus, as opposed to how well the business is marketed
that matters on such a platform. For such social business applications, the
social processes and the software or technology that supports them, are
more likely to be paid for by the operations or Information Systems
budgets than they are by the marketing department. The marketing
department, by comparison, may pay for the programs associated with
talking about the ways in which customers are benefiting from the
implementation of a social business program, or in building the outreach or
listening platforms that drive them. Experts have made some critical
observations on such platforms – the audiences are more involved in using
the channel to converse and discuss than to purchase or get involved in
promotions. Thus, creating a focus on engaging with social audiences is a
winning strategy. On such channels, the online promotion process is a very
gradual process and begins with becoming aware of the brand. This is
preceded by then showing enough interest to become a connection, and
finally, visiting the landing page and making a decision to make purchases.
Brands need to possess clarity in their approach towards analytics by
perceiving the technological development in Social Media not as a
promotional expense but as an infrastructure expense. Critical monitoring
techniques such as Social Media analytics and web analytics should be
observed in the context of their connection with the brands’ core analytical
structure. Brands need to invest time and resources for identifying the
specific relationships between various measurements and the economic
performance of the brand. This effort will yield a fundamental set of
metrics that can be used to guide the brand with the help and support of
Social Media analytics.
Thus, every initiative taken in this context should be strategized and
planned properly. Consider an example of blogging as a strategy to drive
traffic to the website – in this case brands need to identify the Influencers
who will spread the word of mouth that will result in a high volume of
traffic to the landing page of the website. The strategy for Social Media
analytics and the thought process are common even for brands promoting
non-commercial campaigns on the Social Media Channels. For example,
brands and individuals who are promoting women emancipation or other
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social causes. The financial and marketing approach here is substituted

with the social conversational approach.
Conversion analysis support is offered by Google Analytics Tool, which is
utilized to refine the non-commercial promotions. This tool is used to
analyze the various sources of information that supports assessment
against metrics along with the business process metrics. This can be tied
back to what is observed on the various channels of Social Media. This
basic metrics-driven methodology is what closes the feedback loop that the
Social Web sets in place. It is this basic feedback loop that will drive a
social business. The close connection between the online user
conversations and the purchase funnel is known as the feedback loop. This
element is critical in creating and influencing the relationship between the
working processes of the brand and its promotional preciseness. For brands
it is vital to identify the key business analytics that can be shared across all
the teams and used to guide the overall processes driving continuous
improvement in your products or services. Business analytics can be pulled
from a variety of places within the organization.
Brands can use the concept of correlation to develop specific awareness of
gathered observations that are correlated and to subsequently analyze
useful quantitative measurements. With the help of this technique, brands
can discover novel ideas and innovative metrics on diverse channels of the
Social Media. This will eventually benefit in achieve the brands’ promotional
objectives. Brands need to possess a complete knowledge of their
campaigns and the objectives. They should create a robust approach for
measurement that connects Social Media analytics to the business.
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Thus to conclude, brands need to utilize tools like Google Analytics in order
to measure the channels that result in increased volume of user traffic and
modify the promotional initiatives to focus on those specific channels on
Social Media.
6.4 MEASURING RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN SOCIAL

MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Social media ROI is a metric showing the amount of value generated by
your investments in social media. ROI is typically measured in terms of
monetary value. However, in cases where the direct impact on revenue is
difficult to attribute, ROI can first be quantified by non-monetary metrics.
Social Media has become the choice of brands globally and thus Social
Media marketing has become critical vital and necessary. With this said, it
is extremely important to measure the performance of the Social Media
Campaign created and promoted on the various channels of Social Media.
Thus, measuring the Return On Investment of Social Media Campaigns is
the most sought after functionality for all brands. A useful practice that can
be adopted by brands marketing on the Social Media is to develop their
insights and add specific conversion results to the measurement strategy.
One prominent way is to use the Google Analytics tool. This can be
effectively used to set up conversion goals and then analyze the outcomes
of the Social Media promotions with the conversions. The result will be a
quantitative understanding of the efforts taken in the form of promotions.
The easiest way to calculate the ROI of a marketing campaign is to take a
look at the overall sales growth from that campaign, subtract the costs of
the marketing effort(s), and then divide by the cost of the marketing:
Sales – Cost of Marketing/Cost of Marketing = Return on Investment.
Brands will also develop insights in the context of how the Social Media
promotions support the overall goals of the brand. By conducting detailed
assessments and comparisons, it is possible to differentiate the cause from
correlation. Thus, it is viable to identify the key activities and practices that
will drive the brands’ business through the initiatives taken on the channels
of Social Media. Brands need to invest resources and time to evaluate the
most important metrics from the framework of the social analytics. Some
of these include: the volume of unique users, the time spent on the landing
page, the bounce rate and page views. Once these metrics are procured, it
is vital to correlate them to the promotional initiatives conducted on the
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Social Media Channels. This is performed by selectively modifying

parameters of the Social Media promotions and recording the outcomes.
Now we shall examine some very powerful and relevant cases of how
Social Media best practices are being utilized to develop great offerings to
the users:
Interchange of information and Knowledge
User-proposed design
Online Listening
Crowdsourcing
Game-based challenge
• Interchange of Information and Knowledge: One of the biggest

objectives of the brands on the Social Media Channels is to provide
solutions to the issues related to online purchases and the service
provided post the sale has happened. Brands have to ask themselves
critical questions like - how efficiently and effectively can resolutions be
provided to users, when everyone is involved. In the context of the
Social Media Channels, brands should include their customers and
complete the problem-solving process in an engaging manner.
• User-Proposed Design: Brands can increase their reach manifolds by
engaging and inviting users to provide specific inputs and focus on the
online listening efforts. The online conversations can be used to evolve
the product or service offering and to develop a long-term rapport and
connect with the users.
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• Online Listening: Another critical approach that needs to employed is

to initiate an online listening engagement on the Social Media Channels
and incorporate this into each element of the marketing campaign. This
provides the brands a platform to maintain the core objectives of the
promotion and make suitable modifications if required, based on the
users’ feedback.
• Crowd Sourcing: It is a simpler strategy to involve the opinions of the
audiences on the Social Media for product or service decisions. Brands
can let their users sort out the decisions which is easier than doing
everything alone.
• Game-Based Challenge: Such challenges prove to be an incentive for
sharing for the users. A lot actually can be learned from a game-based
challenge. Adding a game-based challenge to basic activities like content
posting can turn spectators into participants.
The process of tracking metrics on the Social Media Channels was quite
difficult in the past but with the evolution of advanced tools, it has become
easy to monitor the metrics and Return On Investment while retaining
sophistication. Provided below is a list of powerful tools to enhance the
monitoring procedure.
Video Link 1
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RowFeeder
RowFeeder is a very simple application and can be assimilated with
Facebook and Twitter. For brands it is an extremely helpful tool for
observing how the brand is performing against the competition and
monitoring the promotional campaign in detail. This is simple yet platform-
designed to measure the performance on the Social Media Channels and
presents information in the form of spreadsheets to the users. Large and
popular brands like BBC and Mashable have been observed to utilize this
tool frequently to monitor their promotions on Social Media. The core
thought behind this tool is “Social Media monitoring and analysis made
easy.” Their basic concept gyrates around searching for hashtags or search
terms. The information can then be exported to a spreadsheet, charts or
graphs for convenient viewing.
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RowFeeder is mainly used by Brands for the following purposes:

• Research of the Market: monitoring the conversation for a specific
topic, market or multiple topics.
• Evaluation of Brands: tracking what your audience is saying about
your brand, products and competitors and monitoring Social Share
Buttons.
• Monitoring Campaign: analyzing factors like reach, participation and
engagement.
• Promotions & Contests: tracking Twitter contests that use hashtags.
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Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks
and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google
Marketing Platform brand. Google launched the service in November 2005
after acquiring Urchin. Google Analytics is a platform that collects data
from your websites and apps to create reports that provide insights into
your business. Google Analytics is a web analytics service that provides
statistics and basic analytical tools for search engine optimization (SEO)
and marketing purposes. The service is part of the Google Marketing
Platform and is available for free to anyone with a Google account. Google
Analytics is a very powerful tool and is free to use and is the first choice of
many marketers because of its extensive features. This tool with its various
features provides a clear idea of how well or poorly each Social Media
Channel is performing. One of the main features of this tool is to get an
overview of the traffic sources on the Social Media Channels. There are
three types of analytics that businesses use to drive their decision-making:
descriptive analytics, which tell us what has already happened; predictive
analytics, which show us what could happen, and finally, prescriptive
analytics, which inform us what should happen in the future. These analytic
types can be articulated in the Google Analytics tool.
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The “Visitors Flow” is another feature that shows which Social Media
Channels are sending traffic and to which pages on the website visitors are
landing on. Thus, for brands to become aware of this information is vital,
since it is a strong pointer to which channels are performing the best in
terms of sending traffic to the website. It also informs the brand about the
channels that require enhancements in their promotional efforts. This
results in a very fine level of customization, which is essential for the
dynamically changing world of Social Media. This includes the number of
visits via social referral in comparison to total visits, the number of visits
from each channel and the percentage of traffic from each channel.
Analyzing this information will provide brands with a clear picture of how
well each Social Media Channel is performing in relation to other channels
on which their promotional initiatives are running. Another vital feature is
“Network Referrals” which provides important information to brands in
the form of average visit duration of pages per visit and total page views.
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Video Link 1
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SproutSocial
SproutSocial is another powerful tool that provides a wide variety of
features that include every aspect of the Social Media process along with
high-powered analytics. Sprout customers are industry leaders who
embrace social media as a vital part of their overall business strategies—
and the key to making deeper connections with their audience.
SproutSocial allows its customers to analyze and track trends on social
media to make sure their content is resonating, and the time spent has a
much greater impact. This tool has a simple yet robust dashboard that can
help the brands keep track of:
• The number of unique users.
• The number of brand mentions received.
• The number of incoming messages and sent messages.
• The number of new followers across the different Social Media Channels.
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With SproutSocial it is possible for brands to identify how well they are
doing against the competitors’ promotional initiatives. This is done by
creating social scores based on influence and engagement. These in turn
can be used to measure against the competitors social score. The
advantage with this tool is that brands can in a simple manner identify the
number of clicks and responses received from promotions on the different
Social Media Channels. It also informs about the number of people each
promotion was reached. This feature is very helpful to brands as it’s
possible to identify the most popular pieces of promotional content. Thus,
brands can enhance this content and reuse it on the channels. SproutSocial
has made it simple to track the long-term progress of a campaign across
various social channels by creating and developing robust presentation-
ready reports. Thus, this tool has become an extremely popular Social
Media management platform for many brands.
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Simplify 360
Simplify 360 is a powerful tool that helps brands perform analytics for
Social Media promotional campaigns. It tends to manage all customer
interactions from one platform and deliver the experience they deserve
across channels. It delivers Holistic Customer Service with an Omnichannel
Customer Experience Platform, helping global brands engage with
customers digitally. It is the leading Digital Customer Experience Platform
with a goal #beyondORM #beyondListening #takecontrol. We have been
helping brands and enterprises to enhance their digital customer
experience and gain insights through data and analytics. This tool proves
beneficial in identifying the current patterns and trends by sieving through
comprehensive information. It also facilitates the brand reputation process
and provides brands powerful and useful information on where they stand
against competitors. Simplify 360, works as a robust tool to capture online
Social Media conversations and mentions of the brand on Social Media. This
information can then be processed in a wide variety of ways and can be
used to derive patterns and deductions. Online conversations from a wide
variety of channels can be recorded and processed using this tool.
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Simplify 360 possesses the feature of creating scores related to influence

and engagement in order to indicate how the brand performs against
competitors. This tool has a variety of reporting options facilitated through
a robust analytics system. Simplify 360 facilitates the installing of the
social share buttons to determine the volume of online social content that
is getting shared on various Social Media sites. Furthermore, this tool
provides sieving of information regarding the competitor tracking,
monitoring the volume of user-traffic from various Social Media sites and
user demographics. There are also numerous other complex features such
as:
• User aptitude.
• Tracking of trends in Industry.
• Real-time performance monitoring of Social Media promotions.
• The rank of blogs that are sharing the offering as per the Alexa tool.
• Differentiating capability to identify the performance of different Social
Media Channels
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This tool has many plugins, which only take a few seconds to install.
Brands can improve ROI by being able to view the number of times the
promotional content has been shared across different social media
channels.
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Hoot Suite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes
in 2008. The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and
supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok. It is an ideal tool to create,
schedule, publish, and manage your content and ad campaigns across
social networks from a single dashboard. It tends to help maximize the
impact of the social marketing by providing real-time insights, so that you
can focus on other areas of your business. Hoot suite is also one of the
effective tools to monitor the mentions the brand gets across the diverse
Social Media Channels. Experts in the domain of Social Media have
discovered that one of the main signs of how big the brands’ presence is
throughout the Social Media realm is how many mentions the brand gets
across Social Media Channels. This information is extremely useful for
streamlining and customizing the Social Media promotions across the
channels. This feature has made Hootsuite one of the most popular
platforms with over 600 million users. With the help of this tool, there are
several other metrics that can be monitored. A prime example is the
number of people that have been added to the brand to their following on
Twitter.
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Brands can define their fan base by analyzing their demographics

according to posting source, language and region in the context of posting
promotions on the Facebook platform. A wide variety of graphs and charts
offered through thirty distinct modules makes it easy for brands to analyze
information streaming from the diverse channels of the Social Media. It
also has the feature of displaying the recent user activity, the number of
followers that brands have across the popular social channels and the daily
growth in users across Social Media Channels. Brands also benefit through
the availability of Hootsuite on mobile devices. Thus, this is very portable
channel and is great for analyzing information on the go.
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Thus, to conclude the promotional content on the Social Media Campaigns

are much more robust and powerful than the conventional marketing
efforts conducted on websites and blogs. Furthermore, the Social Media-
based Campaigns are often more personal, because they are placed on
channels that are trusted by its users. Hence with powerful metrics to
measure the Return On Investment through social campaigns can be
hugely productive.
Video Link 1
Video Link 2

Online Apparels Provider benefits through studying ROI from Social
Media Channels
Overview – A small-scale Online Apparels Provider in India hired a start-
up company specializing in monitoring and measuring the ROI from Social
Media Channels where the Apparels brand had promoted its product
offering. The research firm employed a variety of tools such as Hootsuite
and RowFeeder to find a multitude of information that was critical to
understand the metrics and Return On Investment produced by the online
Social Media in a highly competitive market. They used a strategic
approach to look at which channel and engagement were providing the
best Return On Investment. The analysis led to a whopping 28% increase
in Return On Investment.
Problem Scenario – The Apparel business is a seasonal business with
spikes in the festivals or national holiday sales. The promotions that were
placed needed to be dynamically changed and monitored on the channels
to check for metrics like total traffic directed to the website, the bounce
rate, the number of unique visitors etc. All this needed to be monitored
during the short season while still being able to strategically enhance
marketing outcomes.
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Resolution provided - The research firm concentrated on a robust mix of

measuring tools available to develop the groundwork by understanding the
Social Media drivers through the use of customized reports generated by
Hootsuite tool. A few other critical aspects assessed were the factors on
which the Return On Investment depended and prospects of generating
more traffic. Subsequent analysis demonstrated the enhancements in
Return On Investment across the most popular Social Media Channels.
Apart from this they also employed the RowFeeder spreadsheet report to
gain knowledge. The brand had recently carried out certain Twitter-base
contests that used hashtags. The critical information on which was also
tracked through the use of the Rowfeeder tool. After analyzing the results,
it was noticed that in the peak of the sales seasons, two channels namely
Twitter and Facebook were driving a lot of traffic and thus those
promotional campaigns were enhanced and repeated to produce more
Return On Investment in the future. Thus to conclude - the analysis led to
a 30% increase in Return On Investment and optimized the promotional
campaigns to focus on the best traffic generating channels on the Social
Media.
6.6 ACTIVITIES
1. Brands can use the concept of correlation to develop specific awareness
of gathered observations. Browse online and find more information on
this concept of correlation.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. Browse the Internet and obtain more insight on the concept of
crowdsourcing that has been briefly mentioned in this chapter.
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____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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6.7 SUMMARY
In this chapter we have discussed about the need for analyzing the impact
of Social Media. A strong strategy for the growth of any brand today is how
it performs and sells its promotions on the Social Media Channels. Thus,
this platform has become extremely critical to brands from all industries
and of all sizes. The diverse Social media platform directly links to
influencers, engagement, following and traffic. So, monitoring and
measuring these critical aspects can assist brands in a wide variety of
ways. Brands can achieve instant scale across the Social Media and create
relevant content for individuals and niche audiences. Thus, unlike other
promotional channels, Social Media provides brands an opportunity to
create real and long-term relationships with users. Social Media helps to
reach out to a bigger audience. Almost 90% of marketers say their social
marketing efforts have increased exposure for their business, and 75% say
they have increased traffic. It is an ideal way to create brand awareness
and stay in contact with your customers. Social media can help business
to: attract customers, get customer feedback and build customer loyalty,
increase the market reach, including international markets, do market
research and reduce marketing costs.
Brands need to understand a simple mantra in order to get the full
leverage of any promotional campaign that runs on Social Media. It is the
knowledge of ‘what’ needs to measured, from the vast array of information
on the diverse channels of Social Media. To regulate this process the
brands need to realize the purpose of running the Social Media marketing
campaign. The Return On Investment factor thus is extremely important,
and determining the ‘why’ as the appropriate measure, can make even
more difference to any campaign’s success. It is thus important to
establish certain key parameters or indicators to determine the resulting
Return On Investment from each online Social Media promotion. Social
media has transformed the way brands do business. “Audience
engagement” is the new buzzword among marketers and the core of social
media programs. As social media platforms evolve, brands are trying to
extract new values from social media, creating unique brand experiences
to meet their marketing objectives. They push the boundaries in audience
engagement but with uncertainties about its success.
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Brands should be mindful that significant and precise measurement of the

Return On Investment is required to succeed on the Social Media platform.
Thus, parameters for Social Media metrics have to be defined and
monitored carefully. Brands need to create a properly co-ordinated and
dedicated effort from all employees of the brand to reap results from Social
Media promotions. For a small brand, measuring the number of likes,
shares, or retweets is pointless if none of it generates traffic/following/
interaction/revenue or any other goal you have set for your social
campaigns. To become seasoned with interactions on the Social Media
Channels, brands can learn from their conventional counterparts. In
conventional promotional activities, the interactions via Social Media
analytics include marketplace surveys that are conducted pre and post the
promotional campaign.
It is critical for brands to connect the dimensions of the Social Media
promotions to the business processes. Thus, by becoming aware of how
the process results drive the measurements themselves, brands can use
the trends observed to create a structured strategy for the business in
ways that ensure success with regard to the broad objectives of the brand.
Brands can start their tracking process of on-site metrics by using simple
yet powerful processes. Thus to be effective does not necessarily mean
moving to complicated methods of measurements.
Metrics can vary based on the channel of Social Media used by the brand.
For example, brands can measure the Return On Investment by counting
the number of Twitter followers or retweets on the Twitter platform. The
number of Facebook fans and the number of likes can be used as critical
measure on the Facebook platform. Although these are critical Social Media
aspects to monitor, a structured objective-based approach to enhancing
the Return Of Investment is the need of the hour. Another critical metric
on the Social Media business channels like Linkedin is the number of
connections. In this context, it is engagements and online engagements
more than promotional efforts that drive the conversations. Conversion
Analysis Support is offered by Google Analytics Tool, which is utilized to
refine the non-commercial promotions. This tool is used to analyze the
various sources of information that supports assessment against metrics
along with the business process metrics. This can be tied back to what is
observed on the various channels of Social Media. This basic metrics-driven
methodology is what closes the feedback loop that the Social Web sets in
place. Brands can use the concept of correlation to develop specific
awareness of gathered observations that are correlated and to
210
subsequently analyze useful quantitative measurements. With the help of

this technique, brands can discover novel ideas and innovative metrics on
diverse channels of the Social Media.
Social Media has become the choice of brands globally and thus Social
Media marketing has become critical, vital and necessary. With this said, it
is extremely important to measure the performance of the Social Media
Campaign created and promoted on the various channels of Social Media.
Thus, measuring the Return On Investment of Social Media Campaigns is
the most sought after functionality for all brands. Some very powerful and
relevant cases of how Social Media best practices are being utilized to
develop great offerings to the users: interchange of information and
Knowledge, User-proposed design, Online Listening, Crowdsourcing, Game-
based challenges.
RowFeeder is a very simple application and can be assimilated with
Facebook and Twitter. For brands it is an extremely helpful tool for
observing how the brand is performing against the competition and
monitoring the promotional campaign in detail. This is simple yet
platform-designed to measure the performance on the Social Media
Channels and presents information in the form of spreadsheets to the
users.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that provides statistics and
basic analytical tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing
purposes. The service is part of the Google Marketing Platform and is
available for free to anyone with a Google account. Google Analytics is a
very powerful tool and is free to use and is the first choice of many
marketers because of its extensive features. This tool with its various
features provides a clear idea of how well or poorly each Social Media
Channel is performing.
The “Visitors Flow” is another feature that shows which Social Media
Channels are sending traffic and to which pages on the website visitors are
landing on. Thus, for brands to become aware of this information is vital,
since it is a strong pointer to which channels are performing the best in
terms of sending traffic to the website.
SproutSocial is another powerful tool that provides a wide variety of
features that include every aspect of the social media process along with
high-powered analytics. Sprout customers are industry leaders who
embrace social media as a vital part of their overall business strategies—
and the key to making deeper connections with their audience.
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SproutSocial allows its customers to analyze and track trends on social

media to make sure their content is resonating, and the time spent has a
much greater impact.
Simplify 360 is a powerful tool that helps brands perform analytics for
Social Media promotional campaigns. This tool proves beneficial in
identifying the current patterns and trends by sieving through
comprehensive information. It tends to manage all customer interactions
from one platform and deliver the experience they deserve across
channels. Simplify360 delivers Holistic Customer Service with an
Omnichannel Customer Experience Platform, helping global brands engage
with customers digitally.
Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes
in 2008. The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and
supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok. Hootsuite is also one of the
effective tools to monitor the mentions the brand gets across the diverse
Social Media Channels. Experts in the domain of Social Media have
discovered that one of the main signs of how big the brands’ presence is
throughout the Social Media realm is how many mentions the brand gets
across Social Media Channels.

1. Explain in brief why brands need to realize that it is important to use an
objective-oriented strategy?
2. Describe the reasons why an exact measurement of the Social Media
marketing effort is quite difficult?
3. To become seasoned with interactions on the Social Media Channels
what efforts need to be taken?
4. Explain why brands that need to succeed on Social Media, the business
drivers should relate or connect to the core intelligence processes?
5. Explain in brief how the brands can use the concept of correlation to
develop specific awareness of gathered observations?
6. Describe in brief how RowFeeder is an extremely helpful tool for brands?
7. Explain how with SproutSocial it is possible for brands to identify how
well they are doing against the competitors’ promotional initiatives?
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8. Enlist four of the complex features possessed by the Simplify 360 tool?
1. What is vital to creating Social Media acceptance within a brand that

goes beyond the marketing team?
a. Evaluation
b. Measurement
c. Information
d. Assessment
2. It is critical for brands to connect the __________ of the Social Media

promotions to the business processes.
a. Dimensions
b. Obstacles
c. Linkages
d. Developments
3. A critical metric on the Social Media business channels like LinkedIn is

the number of __________.
a. Followers
b. Subreddits
c. Tweets
d. Connections
4. The strategy involving the opinions of the audiences on the Social Media
for product or service decisions is known as __________
a. Influencing
b. Listening
c. Crowdsourcing
d. Closed-loop feedback gathering
5. Which tool is a very simple application and can be assimilated with

Facebook and Twitter?
a. RowFeeder
b. Hootsuite
c. Google Analytics
d. Sprout Social
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6. The rank of blogs that are sharing the offering as per the Alexa tool is a
feature that is available with __________.
a. RowFeeder
b. Sprout Social
c. Simplify 360
d. Google Analytics
7. Brands also benefit through the availability of __________ on mobile

devices.
a. RowFeeder
b. Hootsuite
c. Google Analytics
d. Sprout Social
Ans: 1. (b), 2. (a), 3. (d), 4. (c), 5. (a), 6. (c), 7. 2. (b).
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
215
SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS STORIES: THE ‘INDIAN 50 FEET VIEW’
Chapter 7
Social Media Success Stories:
The ‘Indian 50 Feet View’
Objectives:
• Understand the methods used by local brands to promote their products
and services.
• Develop clear understanding of subtle messages used on Social Media
channels.
• Associate the scope of the Social Media promotions to the Business
processes.
• Realize how these individual and/or brands have gained popularity
through the use of Social Media Channels.
Structure:
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Promoting Learning & Development through Word of Mouth: Mind Spa
7.3 Story of Blades of Glory: Online Promotion of the Largest Cricket
Museum in India
7.4 Mind Life Consultants: Promoting Mind Health Counseling Related
Business through Social Media
7.5 boAt Marketing Strategy
7.6 Use of Social Media as a Natural Channel for Promoting Knowledge
and spreading NLP Practices
7.7 Activities
7.8 Summary
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7.1 INTRODUCTION
The Social Media developments have radically changed the way marketers
reach across to their audiences. People use social media as a part of their
daily lives, and businesses are flocking to it to reach customers. To prevent
information overload, businesses are getting creative with social media to
reach customers. Organizations can use social media marketing to boost
their business and reach different generations on the right platforms.
Approximately 58.4% of the world’s population uses social media for an
average of two hours and 27 minutes a day. There are plenty of new
opportunities to use social media in different ways, including videos,
customer service and social listening. Staying on top of the latest social
media and marketing trends can help businesses reach customers by
standing out in a world of digital overload. In this chapter, you will observe
how people and small brands keep innovating their Social Media campaigns
to achieve relevance and attain visibility in response to their evolving
audiences’ wants, needs and values. Here, we shall look at four successful
brands that are conducting business by leveraging the diverse channels of
Social Media. These brands are based out of India and exploit the domestic
conditions and customize their online campaigns. Thus, they are successful
at capturing the audiences and making most out of the Social Media space.
The examples discussed in this chapter shed light on how brands are
customizing offerings to get involved with Social Media marketing. It’s a
trending practice that’s captivated the marketing done in the Social Media
world since the exponential success of Facebook and Twitter. Through
these examples we realize the fact that Social Media marketing, at its core,
217
is the process of building your brand equity and awareness via Social Media
Channels.
The below provided image provides us the number of active users on the
top 10 social media platforms as of the most current date.
The most important strength demonstrated by the brands and personalities

discussed in this chapter is the ability to ‘Facilitate word-of-mouth
marketing.’ There’s no stronger marketing message than an endorsement
from a friend. Social Media facilitates word-of-mouth marketing by making
it quick and easy to tell your friends about your positive experience with a
brand. But Social Media doesn’t just make it easy to tell a single friend; it’s
just as easy to tell all your friends what’s on your mind.
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7.2 PROMOTING LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

THROUGH WORD- OF MOUTH: MIND SPA
Mind Spa is a Pune-based Brand specializing in training and counseling
services. It is the result of many years of dedicated research and planning
done by Pune-based – Dipti Panhalkar. Conceived from the desire to reach
out to people and to make positive differences in their life, Dipti has been
passionately providing solutions to clients through training and counseling
across as pan India and also the Globe.
She believes that ‘life is a celebration and a beautiful journey and it

happens through seamless efforts in a constant manner’. Negativity comes
in when we resist the natural flow and want something different from what
is happening naturally. Thus Mind Spa is an endeavor to reduce negativity
in people and is the result of many years of dedicated research and
planning. This brand is gaining popularity through the Social Media
Marketing done on Facebook, Whatsapp and Youtube. We shall now see
how it is marketed on these channels through visual excerpts.
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7.3 STORY OF BLADES OF GLORY: ONLINE PROMOTION

OF THE LARGEST CRICKET MUSEUM IN INDIA
In this section we shall discuss about the largest cricket museum in India
as well as one of the largest ones in the Globe located right in the heart of
the Indian City of Pune and find out about the methods used by them to
market themselves on various channels of the Social Media. This museum
is the result of many years of dedicated research and planning done by
Pune-based entrepreneur – Rohan Pate.
It has been successfully conceived from the desire to fulfill his

grandfather’s desire of wanting Rohan to do something in cricket. I
excelled in age group cricket. According to Rohan the making of a story is
a story in itself. The Blades of Glory is no exception. Rohan Pate, a
cricketer, worshipper of the game, and most importantly a humble man,
has slogged out for over 18 months to make this dream museum a reality.
230
Here is the story of making of the Blades of Glory, in Rohan’s own

words:
“To be honest with you, I had never imagined that I would start a cricket
museum one day. Even the thought of doing something like this had never
crossed my mind till two years ago. It all probably changed after one
particular instance though. I met Sachin Tendulkar during the 2010 Indian
Premier League, and got a signed bat from him. Till then, I was collecting
autographs, most of them in a diary. At that time, we were in the process
of signing Sachin as our brand Ambassador for Amit Enterprises Housing
Limited. During those days, I went to Sachin’s Manager’s office, where he
had bats signed by many top-notch cricketers. That’s where the idea of
museum clicked me for the first time. I felt, “What am I doing collecting
autographs in a diary? I should aim for something much bigger and
exclusive.” And so, the journey began. I took autographs of a lot of players
on bats during the 2011 IPL. Then, the theme of the World Cup winning
teams came to my mind, so I went to Sri Lanka when they were playing a
series against Australia, and got autographs of almost all the members of
their World Cup winning team of 1996 on a bat. Pakistan’s World Champion
Team of 1992 was also on my radar. I went to Dubai when they were
hosting England for that. (Former Pakistan batsman) Ijaz Ahmed helped
me a lot to find and get the autographs of the Pakistani players.
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Australia was the biggest target, of course, with that country having won
the World Cup four times. During India’s recent tour to Australia, I went
over there for a fortnight, and managed to collect 47 autographs. It was
quite an experience. There were a lot of logistical hassles, since Australia is
a vast nation and tracing former cricketers is not so easy. One day, I found
out that Simon O’Donnell, Australia’s most economical bowler in the 1987
World Cup, was at his farm house, which was about 300 km away from
Sydney. I took a cab, went to that place, got the autograph, and came
back the same day. Similarly, Peter Taylor, Australia’s two-times World
Cupper, including their victorious campaign in 1987, was farming in his
hometown when he asked me to come over. It was the smallest airport I
have seen in my all life. It was great for Taylor to come over at the airport
and give me his autograph.
My day in Australia used to start at 4 am, and very often used to end at 1
am the next morning. That included getting up early for flights, travelling
from airport to totally unknown and unheard of places to find a player.
Being a vegetarian, roaming around Australia was quite a challenge, to put
it mildly. There have been times when I have had just a burger and a fruit
for an entire day. But then, no complaints, as I was getting what I wanted
– autographs and memorabilia from some of the greatest cricketers ever. I
went to England during India’s tour in 2011, and got a wonderful response
from the English players. Players like Matt Prior, for example, were so nice
that they used to call me, saying, ‘We are staying at this hotel. Give me a
bat in the morning, and take back the autographed bat in the evening.’ I
could never imagine that it would be so smooth. West Indies is perhaps the
only place that I didn’t need to go, and I just can’t thank Desmond Haynes
for that. Everybody knows what a great opening batsman he was and he is
an even better person. He has helped me in getting the autographs of a
number of West Indian legends, just out of friendship. When Sachin
Tendulkar realized how serious I am about this Museum, he gave me a lot
of his exclusive stuff, from pads to gloves to arm-guards, on his own,
without me even asking for it.
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I have collected plenty of stuff this year and a half, and I have had good,
and at times, bad experiences. I have been asked why I am collecting all
this stuff, and how many more times am I going to ask for that kind of
stuff, I have been made to wait for days, just to get one autograph, but I
feel, all that has been more than its worth, when I look at this beautiful
museum. I would also like to stress that having been a cricketer myself,
this museum is an attempt on my part to pay tribute to the game of
cricket, especially Indian cricket. Not only has the sport given all of us a lot
of moments to cherish, it has been instrumental in uniting a nation that is
so diverse. I couldn’t think of a fitting tribute than to create one-of-its kind,
perhaps the first privately-owned Museum of Cricket Memorabilia in India.
This dream would have remained unfulfilled without the helping hand of a
lot of personnel. Though it would be impossible to jot down the name of all
the individuals, I cannot help but mention some of them. Prominent
cricketers Kapil Dev, Desmond Haynes, Dilhara Fernando, and Ijaz Ahmed
were so helpful not just in giving me their own memorabilia but also
putting me on to other sportspersons. Similarly, I would be obliged to
Sunandan Lele and Tushar Joshi for their constant support. I would also
like to thank Ahmed and Pooja for giving the perfect look to the interiors of
the museum. Last but not the least’ I would like to thank each and every
member of my family, all of whom have always encouraged my passion for
cricket.
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This Museum is going to be at least 10 times bigger and better than what it
is right now. That’s a promise. We will provide budding players with
equipment, top-class training facility or anything else that would help them
become legends of tomorrow. We will strive to preserve and impart the
inspiring stories of legendary cricketers to the current and next
generations. Cricket, as we all know, is an extremely powerful unifying
force cutting across social, economic, cultural and religious divides. We
would play the role of a catalyst bridging the gap between countries and
cultures which will honour and strengthen the game.”
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Promotions on Social Media

Currently Rohan has a Team of people who are instrumental in spreading
the word about the Museum. Nupur Pandya is the Business Development
Manager for the Blades of Glory and she specializes in Marketing through
Traditional and Social Media. The Museum has a dedicated Facebook page,
a You tube Channel and is represented by Rohan on other channels like
Twitter and Instagram. Provided below are some of the pictures taken in
the Blades of Glory Museum and shared on various channels of Social
Media.
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7.4 MIND LIFE CONSULTANTS: PROMOTING MIND

HEALTH COUNSELING RELATED BUSINESS THROUGH
SOCIAL MEDIA
Mind Life Consultants is an Ahmedabad-based Brand specializing in Mental
Health related Counseling, Training and Psychotherapeutic services. It is
the brain Child of Dr. Nimisha Rastogi who is based out of Ahmedabad. I
was able to realize that Nimisha is really passionate about helping people
bring more happiness and abundance in their lives – this happened through
the telephonic conversation that I (as the author) took up with Nimisha.
Thus, as an experienced professional, she has been passionately providing
solutions to Corporate clients via Counseling, Psychotherapeutic, Life
Coaching and Customized Training services as part India as well out of
India where she has a lot many clients. Nimisha through her brand MLC,
frequently writes powerful articles addressing from Simple to Complex
issues in the process of keeping the Mind and Body healthy using Facebook
to distribute and reach out this content to the online audience. This brand
is gaining popularity through the Social Media Marketing done on
Facebook, Whatsapp and You tube. This Online channel provides a WIN-
WIN solution to Nimisha as well as the various lives she touches through
spreading Psycho-Education, Awareness, Sharing referrals as well as
Busting Myths on Mental Health. We shall now see how it is marketed on
the Facebook
Channel through visual excerpts as well as finely articulated Articles.
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Mindful Social Media Marketing: Promoting Business acumen
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Mindful Social Media Marketing: Promoting Business acumen
Mindful Social Media Marketing: Raining Awareness
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Mindful Social Media Marketing: Value Addition
Mindful Social Media Marketing: Promoting Co-brands and growing

together
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Mindful Social Media Marketing: Feeding Passion for the Cause
Mindful Social Media Marketing: Promoting Co-existance
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7.5 BOAT MARKETING STRATEGY

boAt is a leading consumer electronics brand founded by Sameer Mehta
and Aman Gupta. With keeping in mind these three goals, the brand to
bring: affordable, durable and fashionable audio products and accessories
to the millennials. These two understood the need and the gap in the
Indian market and decided to find a solution to the problem in an effective
way. They found that consumers in the Indian market needed long-lasting
and tangle-free earphones which were of good quality as well as
affordable. boAt is one of the leading brands in the earwear category in
India. Let's look at marketing strategies employed by boAt.
boAt left no stone left unturned regarding influencing people with

influencer and social media marketing. boAt has not struck the deal only
with influencers but also with celebrity endorsements, cricketers, content
creators, and even, stylists. Celebs like Jacqueline Fernandes, Kartik Aryan,
Kiara Advani, as well as content creators like Prajakta Koli, Harsh Beniwal,
and Bhuvan Bam are on board to promote the products of boAt. Apart from
that cricketers like Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and Shreyas
Iyer have long been endorsing their products.
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boAt is sailing swiftly, navigating the digital realm and is an expert at social
media marketing. Using this multichannel online marketing technique, boAt
reaches out to its consumers through its mobile application, emails, and
SMS marketing. The company has a presence on Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. It is employing Hashtag Marketing with
unique hashtags such as: #whatfloatsyourboat, #boatheads,
#trebelwithboat, #levelupwithboat, #raisethebar, etc. These are just some
of the hashtags that have made the rounds on social media platforms,
making the audience chime in on the conversation. boAt also sends
personalized messages to its existing and potential customers who agree to
share their email to receive updates from them. They send quirky, catchy,
and crisp emails. It is updating the audience about a new product, offers
and discounts, or communicating their message across.
It also engages in storytelling through social media campaigns.
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Illustrations have been made and shared on Instagram stories under the
name boAt adventures to attract and get the attention of comic lovers and
the audience. In a video from the most recent campaign, you always do
what floats your boat run by the name and hashtag do what makes your
boat float. The most recent one that is derived from the idiom, do what
floats your boat caters to the Gen-Z the most and is getting a niche
audience of its own to integrate the product with the culture and lives of
skaters, street artists, and more. Another campaign features Kiara Advani,
Bani J, Raja Kumari and other strong women with an upbeat music video
with the title “I am a rebel”. The range of TRebel has a direct link to the
campaign.
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7.6 USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A NATURAL CHANNEL FOR

PROMOTING KNOWLEDGE AND SPREADING NLP
PRACTICES
Shantanu Das Sharma is the renowned Author of the Amazon best-selling
Book – ‘Awaken the Incredible Within – Incredible is the New Giant’. He is
the Founder, CEO and Owner of Neuromind Leadership Academy - An NLP
Training & Human Potential Development Company and is currently based
in Kolkata. Shantanu has a unique style of NLP which in practical terms is
NLP+ as in it is designed to bring about adopting an NLP Lifestyle into the
coaching practices. It is the best of all worlds in terms of personal
excellence in communication and human behavior. Thus, he is an
unconventional Coach and NLP Trainer and has recorded many
transformations in People's Life and Organizational Growth. His passion
towards driving change in the Organizations has brought a paradigm shift
in their inner working. His learning has inspired Management and
Executives to firmly believe that change within can create many
possibilities for an organization to excel and grow in every tough situation.
He has successfully partnered with many leaders and potential leaders for
Leadership development, managing change and interpersonal relationships
and team bonding in a dynamic environment. He has a direct, inspirational,
incisive and empathetic approach.
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Gifted with the sensitivity to listen to the emotional depth of words and
connect with people, Shantanu builds trust to act as a catalyst for change.
He is extremely passionate about enriching people to be extraordinary,
innovative, creative, and successful in every domain of life through
coaching and training. He has done admirable work in transforming the
behavior of many Senior Executives in many of his work and has created
greater passion, excellence, commitment and alignment to goals in
different capacities.
He is gifted with the vision, determination, and skills required for human
potential development in the organization to create a differenceation by
enabling a transformational educational journey, both personally and
professionally, based on the exploration of the dynamics of individual and
organizational learning and change. A possibility thinker and a productivity
multiplier, he has outstanding track records for achieving accelerated
growth and profitability in the shortest span of time.
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Shantanu has worked with clients all around the world, helping them
uncover what’s holding them back and working with them closely to drive
their reputation, influence and presence in the business world - facilitate
Thought Leaders, Change Makers and Business Owners Translate Concepts
into Actions to achieve personal excellence. He successfully conducts NLP
Lifestyle Coaching Certification programs for groups, individuals and
celebrity clients. Shantanu is a theory-into-practice kind of guy and looks
to translate concepts into everyday actions to make a difference in people's
lives. Focusing on "transformations" is one of those concepts. NLP is the
core of his practice with neuroscience, sub-conscious programming,
subjective communication, conversational intelligence, energy psychology
among other allied sub-core practices. Neuromind constantly updates its
programs. He is primarily engaged with people who are 1) ‘Seeker of
Change in their Life’ & 2) ‘Seeker of Change in the World’ mainly using the
powerful tools available through Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Pure NLP).
'NEUROMIND', specializes in innovation in education by introducing
heightened self-consciousness and individual awareness into perpetual
learning. The core values, which he is endowed with today through
miscellaneous experiences in life in India and abroad, in over 2 decades of
his earlier corporate life and most recent, as learning & development
252
professional have paramount influence in creating the trajectory he is

travelling today.
Shantanu Das Sharma along with his brand Neuromind and his Book has
gained popularity through the Social Media Marketing done on Facebook,
Whatsapp and Youtube. We shall now see how it is marketed on the
Facebook Channel through visual excerpts.
Shantanu believes that the further he travels, the more he is beating his
own untraveled path. He considers that the most important attribute for
any job is passion with purpose. Everything else can be adopted and thus
what he does makes him come alive through his work.
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Shantanu also has a strong presence on LinkedIn. Here are a few excerpts
from this popular Business Networking Site.
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Shantanu also has a strong presence on LinkedIn. Here are a few excerpts
from this popular Business Networking Site.
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7.7 ACTIVITIES
1. As we have observed in this chapter, Local Brands can be used to create
awareness for specific products and services. Browse online and find
more information on how this is done in the International Markets.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. Browse the Internet and obtain more insight on how brands are using
non-conventional Social Media Channels to market and promote their
ideas.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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7.8 SUMMARY
The examples discussed in this chapter shed light on how Brands are
customizing offerings to get involved with Social Media Marketing. People
use social media as a part of their daily lives, and businesses are flocking
to it to reach the customers. To prevent information overload, businesses
are getting creative with social media to reach the customers.
Organizations can use social media marketing to boost their business and
reach different generations on the right platforms. It’s a trending practice
that’s captivated the marketing done in the Social Media world since the
exponential success of Facebook and Twitter. Through these examples, we
realize the fact that Social Media Marketing, at its core, is the process of
building your brand equity and awareness via Social Media Channels.
Mind Spa is a Pune-based Brand specializing in training and counseling
services. It is the result of many years of dedicated research and planning
done by Pune-based – Dipti Panhalkar. Conceived from the desire to reach
out to people and to make positive differences in their life, Dipti has been
passionately providing solutions to clients through training and counseling
an pass across, India and also the Globe.
Story of Blades of Glory: The largest Cricket Museum in India as well as
one of the largest ones in the Globe located right in the heart of the Indian
City of Pune and need to change find out about the methods used by them
to market themselves on various channels of the Social Media. This
museum is the result of many years of dedicated research and planning
done by Pune-based entrepreneur – Rohan Pate.
Currently, Rohan has a Team of people who are instrumental in spreading
the word about the Museum. Nupur Pandya is the Business Development
Manager for the Blades of Glory and she specializes in Marketing through
Traditional and Social Media. The Museum has a dedicated Facebook page,
a Youtube Channel and is represented by Rohan on other channels like
Twitter and Instagram.
Mind Life Consultants is an Ahmedabad-based Brand specializing in Mental
Health related counseling services. It is the brain-child of Nimisha Rastogi
who is based out of Ahmedabad. Nimisha is really passionate about helping
people bring more happiness and abundance in their lives this happened
through the telephonic conversation that I as the author with Nimisha.
Thus, as an experienced professional, she has been passionately providing
solutions to clients through counseling services across India. Nimisha,
260
through her brand, frequently writes powerful articles related to keeping

the mind healthy and uses Facebook to distribute this content to the online
audience. This Brand is gaining popularity through the Social Media
Marketing done on Facebook, Whatsapp and Youtube. We shall now see
how it is marketed on the Facebook Channel through visual excerpts.
boAt is a leading consumer electronics brand founded by Sameer Mehta
and Aman Gupta. With keeping in mind these three goals, the brand to
bring: affordable, durable and fashionable audio products and accessories
to the millennials. These two understood the need and the gap in the
Indian market and decided to find a solution to the problem in an effective
way. They found that consumers in the Indian market needed long-lasting
and tangle-free earphones which were of good quality as well as
affordable. boAt is one of the leading brands in the earwear category in
India.
Shantanu Das Sharma is based in Kolkata and is the renowned Author of
the Amazon best-selling Book – ‘Awaken the Incredible Within – Incredible
is the New Giant’. He is the Founder, CEO and Owner of Neuromind
Leadership Academy - An NLP Training & Human Potential Development
Company. Shantanu is an unconventional Coach and NLP Trainer and has
recorded many transformations in People's Life and Organizational Growth.

1. Explain in brief what are the most important strength demonstrated by
the brands and personalities discussed in this chapter.
2. Cite the reasons how ‘Mind Spa’ is an endeavor to reduce negativity in
people.
3. Explain how the Blades of Glory Museum would play the role of a
catalyst bridging the gap between countries and cultures.
4. Write a short note describing the work that Mind Life Consultants Brand
specializes in.
5. Write a short note describing the work that Shantanu Das Sharma does
through his brand Neuromind.
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1. The most popular social networks in India are YouTube and Facebook,
followed by social app.
a. Instagram
b. WhatsApp
c. Snapchat
d. Wechat
2. One of the most powerful insights from this chapter is that there’s no
stronger marketing message than
a. An agreement from a friend
b. An endorsement from a friend
c. A criticism from a friend
d. A strong opposition from a friend
3. What is the name of the largest Cricket Museum in India as well as one
of the largest ones in the Globe located?
a. Blades of Glory
b. Blades of Cricket
c. Bats of Glory
d. Power of Glory
4. What is the name provided to the Mind Health Counseling Related

Business that is based out of Ahmedabad through Social Media?
a. Mind Full Consultants
b. Mind Life Consultants
c. Mind Health Consultants
d. Mind Power Consultants
5. Shantanu has a unique style of NLP which, in practical terms, is NLP+ as

it is designed to bring about adopting an NLP Lifestyle into.
a. The coaching practices
b. The mentoring practices
c. The Consulting practices
d. The creative practices
Ans: 1. (b), 2. (b), 3. (a), 4. (b), 5. (a).
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
Video Lecture
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THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Chapter 8
The Future Of Social Media Marketing
Objectives:
• Understand the future of Social Media.
• Become aware of new technologies shaping the Social Media landscape.
• Comprehend the emergence of virtual ecosystem in Social Media
• Understand how the mindset of audience dictates the advances in
technology.
• Develop focus on specific techniques and tools to manage reputation on
Social Media.
• Know about Social Media automation practices of the future
Structure:
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Understanding the Operations of ‘Chatbots’
8.3 The role of ‘Interactive Media’
8.4 ‘Augmented Reality’ Shaping the Future of Social Media Marketing
8.5 Focusing on Generation Z: The Key to Successful Social Media
Marketing in Future
8.6 Development of Ephemeral Content to get the Best Engagement Rate
8.7 Growth in Influencer Marketing
8.8 Becoming Future Ready with Mobile-Ready Content
8.9 Emergence of the Metaverse
8.10 Automating of Social Media Marketing Campaigns
8.12 Activities
8.13 Summary
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8.1 INTRODUCTION
As brands start to market or continue promotions on Social Media, they
realize the tremendous potential of this highly popular network. Social
Media currently is the most commonly sought-after thing that people
pursue online. Social Media is changing rapidly and is becoming more
prominent than ever. It continues to evolve as a practice, and new
platforms continue to appear and develop. The job of Brands and their
marketing teams are becoming more challenging and demanding. One of
the most critical aspects that Brands need to be mindful about, is the
anticipation of the changes that are set to occur in the coming future.
We understand, the Social networking phenomenon has emerged and
evolved rapidly over the past few years. Over the last few years, there has
been a transition in the Social Media Channels from a niche to a mass
online movement. The Social Media global presence is huge and includes
millions of internet users on the diverse channels of Social Media. The
future of social media will evolve as new tools emerge, consumers make
new demands, and the quality and accessibility of the technologies
improve. The rise of mobile video, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality
(AR), and the more refined use of data analytics will all influence the future
of digital media. The future seems to be full of exciting developments as
we will be experiencing social media through virtual reality, such as
augmented reality glasses. The lines between real life and social media will
blur. Thus, within that experience, we will be more inundated than ever
with advertising-related intrusions.
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The development in the online Social Media Channels is affecting how

modern societies manage Social Networking. Thus, as we all know that a
major part of Social Networking has moved on to the internet to a large
extent. There are a wide range of aspects that have provoked brands to
consider the changing dimensions of the Social Media platform. Today, we
can observe a phenomenal increment on the dependence on technology for
all sorts of marketing efforts. Influencing the manner, the online audiences
create, sustain and grow a range of social relationships, is the task of the
popular channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Newer technologies
are being tested almost every day and are being introduced to users on the
Social Media Channels to create more business opportunities. Not just
technologies but also the very content presented is undergoing rapid
transformation. Customization and user-friendliness are mandating new
technologies to arise such as – Augmented Reality, Interactive Media and
Ephemeral Content. These technologies enable Brands to create a huge
amount of flexibility and power in the content that is being promoted on
Social Media. Thus, the intention of this chapter is, to be updated as
conscious users of Social Media, as to what are the latest trends and what
exciting technologies are parts of the future of Social Media. These
emerging changes also make it vital that we look into the future and see
how these Social Media Channels are going to change the way Brands and
their users perceive the promotions online. Brands also need to introspect
how these changes can be incorporated into the very product or service
offering.
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Thus, promotions that are centered on emerging trends, will prove to be

the most effective forms to market then end Social Media audiences. The
current growth trends clearly tell that the following years belong to Social
Media. The remarkable rise in the audiences accessing Social Media apps
from the smartphones provides indications to the Brands. In this
dynamically changing world, Brands should focus on developing user
awareness, grow information collection, concentrate on transforming Social
Media prospects into customers and increase Influencers. Brands need to
be aware of the growing and robust Social Networking Structure that is
available and this should increase the conversions of audiences. They
should be tracked and appropriately associated to the Social Media metrics.
8.2 UNDERSTANDING THE OPERATIONS OF ‘CHATBOTS’

The future of technology and Social Media is changing and automation is a
key factor contributing to this change. For Brands to be consistently
successful, they need to adapt to the emerging technology. One of the
upcoming technologies is – ‘Chatbot Technology’. In its basic form - a Bot
is any software that performs an automated task and is capable of having
a dialogue with an online user.
A Chatbot which is also known as a Talkbot, Chatterbox, Bot, IM Bot,
Interactive Agent, or Artificial Conversational Entity is an artificial
intelligence-based application or a computer program which conducts a
conversation through text and/or auditory methods. Like a majority of
other futuristic technologies, Chatbots are designed with the idea of
simulating and modeling the human behaviour, especially the manner in
which a human would behave as a conversational partner. In the realm of
Social Media, the Chatbots are specifically used in conversation interfaces
for various practical purposes including, information acquisition and
customer service. We regularly come across virtual assistants such as
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant which are a good example of chatbots.
From the context of Social Media Channels, messaging apps such as
Facebook Messenger and WeChat are also prominent examples of
Chatbots. This technology can be segmented into a diverse range of
classes, such as e-commerce through a chat medium, customer support
analytics, design, developer tools, education, entertainment, finance, food,
games, health, HR, marketing, news, personal, productivity, shopping,
social, sports, travel and utilities.
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Chatbots use a process known as deep learning whereby a neutral network

recognizes speech, data and specific patterns, then transmit the data
through layers of the network such that they provide accurate results each
time the AI faces the same problem or query from users.
Applications of Chatbots in Social Media Marketing
Chatbots technology is an emerging tool which brands can leverage for
promotions from the specific perspective of marketing on the Social Media.
This category of Bots is the ones that are seen online on chat platforms.
One extremely popular application of this new technology is the ability it
provides to an user to give the Bot an instruction or ask it a question and
the Bot could perform an action or respond as appropriate. As users
become aware of the benefits of this technology, the Chatbots are
increasingly becoming prominent as the best form of online engagement
between users and Brands. Brands need to analyze the effectiveness of the
Bot technology in their Social Media Marketing campaign. In this context,
they need to be mindful of the fact that across the globe, average adults
are spending roughly between 4-6 hours per day using the cell phones.
Interestingly from our chapter’s context, over 60 percent of the cell phone
users are utilizing their time on social media. Chatbots are having an
exponential transformative effect on Blogs, Social Media Channels and
websites across the globe – according to expert opinions from the Social
Media industry. The methods provided below demonstrate the application
of Chatbots in Social Media Marketing.
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Seamless Integration and Automation

The powerful technology of Chatbots is proving to be helpful in integrating
the users’ complete profile at one platform that can be seamlessly
accessed. A high amount of automation of diverse tasks is also possible
with Chatbots. Some of these aspects include provision of updates to
users, friends and members of the family, checking of emails, information
retrieval and scheduling of appointments. get things done seamlessly when
you are out and about.
Brands have to visualize the benefit of having an automated Chatbot that
allows them to conduct business even when they are not online. For users,
it is highly beneficial as well as they just need to send a message and
order. Bots also solve the problems of customers by being there for them –
they are usually faced with many challenges reaching out to a company
especially outside working hours. Chatbots have been designed in a
manner that they will automatically decide the reason for the call from a
customer and automatically respond to it. With this technology, Brands and
users can be rest assured of the enhancements in reaching each other.
Attracting traffic from Social Media

Chatbots are instrumental in generating an exponential amount of traffic
flow to the Brand’s website. The benefit with Chatbots is that users get an
opportunity to get solutions to their problems and specific solutions to
various queries. This happens in real time as users are able to directly
interact with the Bots. A critical advantage is that users no longer have to
enter texts into separate fields when conducting any activity on the web or
when they are shopping online.
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This increasing potential of Chatbots means the end for the need to have a
separate app or site. Instead, business will be able to offer products and
services directly using established messenger services on Social Media
platforms such as Facebook. This will thus offer an intimate and engaging
experience for users that is quite simple to run.
Adaptability and Robustness

Adaptability and Robustness help Chatbots to spread across the diverse
Social Media Marketing Channels. Bots allow users to engage with them in
terms of transactional engagements, customer service and content
utilization. A lot has been said concerning Chatbots and how they are going
to revolutionize the future of Social Media Marketing. The good thing with
Chatbots is that AI learns, and the more, both consumers and Brands
experiment, the better these tools will become. Currently, humans still
have a place in Social Media before Chatbots eventually take over as the
mainstream. Thus, with Bots, it is now possible for users to receive
information, ask queries and even transact with the help of the Chatbots
instead of using Social Media as a portal.
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Social Media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, which have the data of
users, will be able to provide solutions, based on what is shared and
uploaded with the help of Bots. Users will be able to share the experience
on Facebook or other Social Media. Chatbots on Facebook may decide to
take the information shared and offer to help users with recommendations
and to give resolutions to the problem. Thus this Bot-driven Social Media
technology is the future for many business requirements. Studies
conducted recently Specify that a huge percentage of users expect real-
time responses from Brands and prefer customer support from Social
Media as compared to telephone use. This requirement comes out as a real
challenge for Brands across the Social Media. Thus, Bots with the enhanced
Artificial Intelligence through Chatbots, this is highly feasible.
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Scalable access to Information

Brands are rapidly adopting futuristic practices, where all members and
teams will be leveraging the power of Chatbots to enhance customer
support and streamline activities within the Brand. Chatbots possess the
capability to provide scalable access to information in real time. This is
exactly what every marketer needs to stay ahead of competition in the
ever changing Social Media Marketing landscape. Brands can utilize Bots in
several ways by automating transactional messages, list content, selling
offerings, surveying of the users, informing customers and prospects about
upcoming promotions. Brands are also equipped with the capability of
sending customized messages, like feedback request after the transaction
has been conducted or sales confirmations, if it is an e-commerce Brand.
Bots can also help set up customer service related messages and support
the internal team and better serve the needs of the users.
The best example of Chatbots presently operating in the Social Media is the
Facebook Messenger. A sign of the changing times is the fact that the click-
through rates of the Facebook Messenger has far exceeded that of the
convention email technology. Thus, for the above reasons, Brands and
marketers need to incorporate Chatbots in promoting to Influencers and
secure the benefits they offer. With the huge number of enhancements
taking place in this technology, we can surely say that it is a robust
technology.
Video Link 1
Video Link 2
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8.3 THE ROLE OF ‘INTERACTIVE MEDIA’

Interactive media, also called interactive multimedia, any computer-
delivered electronic system that allows the user to control, combine, and
manipulate different types of media, such as text, sound, video, computer
graphics, and animation. It normally refers to products and services on
digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by
presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and
audio. The next biggest trend which has emerged and will become
extremely popular in the future is Interactive Media. It is one of the most
cutting-edge types of communication existing on the social media channels
of today. Interactive media is a solution that has come from conventional
forms of media that have evolved with layers of interaction to give the
users an active role in the deciding the content. So before we go ahead, let
us first understand what the concept of 'Interactive Media' is. This concept
is the structured amalgamation of digital media, including, the integration
of images, graphics, electronic text and sound into an electronic virtual
environment. This media permits audiences to engage with the information
for a diverse range of applications. Brands need to understand that if they
do not create interactive content for promotions on social media channels
they will fail against competition; thus the biggest social media trend
overall is interactive media. So the stage is set for Interactive Media to
impact the users on the diverse channels of social media and this is going
to have an ‘immersive’ effect on every marketing endeavor.
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Brands need to understand the mechanics behind user engagement on

social media channels. Many seasoned brands and marketers realize that
online contests have a very highest rate of conversion. Thus when it comes
to promoting online events on social media all types of promotional content
result in creating highly interactive experiences. Interactive multimedia
allows the user to control, combine, and manipulate a variety of media
types, such as text, computer graphics, audio and video materials, as well
as animation. It integrates computer, storage, data, phone, TV, and other
information technologies. Brands can infuse creativity and a human touch
in the interactive media that they design. This can be done by making the
contest feel more personal and special by including snaps along with the
details of contestants. Studies prove that displays with images of the faces
of the contestants are far are more effective than no images. A key lesson
that can be learned here is that for many brands much of their time is
devoted to content development. Brands focus on the diverse online
experiences to provide users what they’re looking for online. They
concentrate on making interactive videos, creating blogs and quizzes, but
most of the time when it comes to the promotion phase, they fall short of
the efforts. The follow-through is lacking, and as a result, only a small
portion of the potential audience for this stellar content is reached. With
the help of content that is interactive in nature this problem can be
robustly handled. Brands need to create a promotion strategy for it social
media offerings and include the critical element of interactive content.
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Hence interactive content can reach the specific users and intrigue them to
visit the website or blog posts that are already created to cater to their
needs. Additionally there’s endless opportunity for reaching new people
with the organic sharing possibilities on most social platforms. This is the
prime reason behind creating interactive quizzes and assessments that
have become an integral part of the publication’s content strategy. There is
a critical need to regularly share this on different social channels like
Facebook and Twitter. Most of us have seen interactive content in one form
or the other on popular social media channels like Facebook and
Instagram. In this context, something very powerful is happening from the
perspective of driving traffic to the website from those channels. The
content is strategically used to make the most of a gap in the interest and
the commitment of greater awareness. Thus there is a higher chance for
lead conversion and increase in the volume of traffic from social media
channels to the brands website. Once the users are on the website, they
can finish the competition and are presented additional content that retains
them on the website. Interactive media drives the users’ comments,
reactions and shares on the post infused with interactive content showcase
the effectiveness of this tactic which drives engagement with the audience.
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Apart from competitions and quizzes, another significant piece of the

interactive content social media is videos. According to social media
marketing studies, a massive increase of video marketing is observed in
the recent years. Thus interactive content through videos has become
almost a criticality in marketing, as the studies prove which is showing
better outcomes than just online images. A lot of experts in the social
media industry believe that users expect more video-based promotions
from brands in the coming years.
Video Link 1
8.4 ‘AUGMENTED REALITY’ SHAPING THE FUTURE OF

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
To understand the role of Augmented Reality (AR) in the social media
environment we first need to become aware of what this technology really
is. This is a technology in which the entities that appear in our real-world
are "augmented" (improved). This is created by digitally generated
information in an interactive experience of a real-world environment. The
Augmented Reality environment can encompass multiple senses - visual,
auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory. The AR (Augmented
Reality) is seamlessly inter-woven with the actual world in a manner that it
is seen as an immersive aspect of the real environment. Thus virtual reality
completely replaces the user's real world environment with a simulated one
as to alter the users’ perception of a real world environment. Augmented
Reality, thus is a powerful and effective technology and can be used to
promote offering online as well as handle day-to-day interactions with
users. This technology is beneficial in supporting brands by improving the
volume of conversions across social media channels. Augmented Reality
does this with a means of developing a user experience that is highly
interactive. Thus AR provides a berth to a completely new target market
and blurs the lines between the digital and real world. Brands can use AR
ads to bring the actual products to social media users. This way, potential
customers can try out different products before making a purchase—an act
that will result in more informed decisions, loyal customers and increased
sales.
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Having understood the basics behind this AR Technology, let us now

transition into how this brings value as a futuristic technology. The major
benefit of augmented reality is that it amalgamates the elements of the
digital environment into a user's view of the actual world. The remarkable
difference between this technology and others is that it is not just a display
of information, but through the integration of immersive sensations that
are perceived as natural parts of an environment. With the help of
advanced AR technologies the information about the environment of the
user becomes interactive and digitally modified. It is thus leveraged to
improve natural environments or situations and offer perceptually enriched
experiences. Information about the environment and its objects is overlaid
on the real world.
Let us now focus on the use of augmented reality in social media and in
digital marketing strategies. One of the most powerful possibilities comes
in the form of inclusion of augmented reality in social media marketing. AR
holds great potential in terms of reaching and engaging a target audience.
The coming together of social media and augmented reality creates a wide
range of opportunities for brands. The expected market for this technology
is expected to continue rise exponentially. Some recent studies indicate
that the market for AR Technology will exceed $117.4 billion by 2022. The
technology has significantly grown in popularity over the last few years,
and Brands can strategize to retain engagement and and stay present in
users’ mind. For now the popularity of this technology is limited but the
future demand is going to increase exponentially. Currently the major
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application of augmented reality is mostly connected to cell phones that

already account for the largest share of the market.
The time is right for social channels to implement ways of delivering this
kind of interactive functionality as well. From the context of channels of
Social Media - Snapchat seems to be leading the way with a new AR
feature. With the help of inbuilt phone cameras, the users are enabled to
display themselves or images into the real world. The other popular
channels are also intent on creating support for this technology. Facebook
and other successful channels have no plans of falling behind and are also
creating strategies to leverage this new trend. In this content, Facebook
has been instrumental in taking quick strides to join the AR technology.
Facebook AR Studio is an application that allows developers to create
responsive 3D effects that can be accessed through Facebook’s camera.
This is a set of tools that help developers with a collection of self-service
suite. Facebook is currently analyzing the metrics that would create a
better connection with the AR technology. Metrics and techniques are being
developed, whereby the online audiences would be capable of engaging
with or learning about an online offering by using the AR Technology. They
can subsequently subscribe directly or make purchase using this
technology. This marks a major shift in AR for social media which was
previously limited to expensive Snapchat ad units with few useful metrics
behind them. With the current developments it is now possible to
incorporate more complex, third-party created experiences into social
platforms. A global cosmetics company has built a Facebook chatbot based
on AR Technology that would help users through the process of selecting
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different cosmetic options. Another prominent example is that of the Global

furniture giant IKEA. This brand has currently launched an app that helps
its online audience to see how furniture would fit into their living spaces.
Brands need to be mindful that an inclusion of the augmented reality
should fit the broad branding and promotional strategy. A lot of brands are
currently finding it difficult to capitalize on this trend, so they outsource
related tasks or hire professionals. To achieve consistency, you can opt for
branding agencies and don’t fret because you would be spending your
marketing dollars well.
In the context of the channels of social media, the users are ready to
embrace the augmented reality technology as they realize the worth of
trying out products before actually making a purchase. A study reveals that
the first few users to adopt this technology would be millennials and users’
of a younger age range initially. Thus brands should initiate the linking of
their promotional offering to AR technology and enhance their audience
engagement. There is no better place to carry out this amalgamation than
on social media. Brands need to ensure that AR content is relevant to
user’s intent and can be easily shared. They need to familiarize themselves
with how the AR functions and create a strong strategy to leverage it on
social media. The infusion of the AR technology by brands is still in its
infancy with only the big names like Facebook, Snapchat and Apple
possessing it currently.
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To make this strategy work the brands need to effectively leverage AR on

social media. They need to think of using social media posts and ads to
infuse augmented reality into the diverse channels of social media. The
brands need to visualize the users’ experience where they are able to try
your products and make a purchase without ever walking into a physical
store. With the support of augmented reality there would be a rise in the
number of users making purchases online thereby leading to a growth in
loyalty and sales. This marvel of modern technology takes the marketing
and branding efforts to the next level. AR transforms your current
environment by adding digital information to your line of sight.
Augmented reality is quickly becoming one of the hottest trends in the

marketing and advertising industries, recognized as an innovative and
creative way of connecting with customers and increasing engagement.
Giving advertisers and marketers an opportunity to create innovative
campaigns that integrate the digital world into the real world, AR is popular
with a wide range of consumers, from children and tech-savvy millennials
to baby boomers – basically, anyone owning a smartphone.
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The AR Technology facilitates users to start thinking in three dimensions

rather than the conventional two dimensions when they are online.
Currently the majority of brands are running promotions and ads in a two-
dimensional format. It is needless to state that a wide new range of
possibilities in the third dimension are created by the augmented reality
Technology. Thus we will see a surge in the use of this technology as more
brands start using AR in future solutions like Snapchat and Facebook we
can expect a huge market for brands to leverage. AR proves to be a game
changer because now the users will be able to see promotions using a
complete widened vision, whereas today they are limited to only viewing
the promotions directly in front in two dimensions. Along with a three
dimensional perspective users are also enabled with more details.
This technology performs effectively for users because it blurs the line
between the reality and an imagined world. Also augmented reality
enhances the surrounding unlike virtual reality where the users engage in a
completely new environment. Thus with this kind of advancement and
improved quality of engagement, the volume of promotions and
subsequent sales would increase phenomenally on the various social
channels.
Video Link 1
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8.5 FOCUSING ON GENERATION Z: THE KEY TO

SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN FUTURE
Let us first understand the concept of Generation Z, which is also known as
the Post-Millennial or Centennial generation. This basically refers to people
who are born in the year 2000. Gen Z represents a huge opportunity for
businesses looking to expand, with a combined purchasing power of more
than USD 143 billion and an estimated 2.56 billion population worldwide.
The reason brands need to recognize the audiences belonging to the
generation ‘Z’ is because they are extremely tech savvy and have never
known a non-digital world, thus this generation of users is born with the
social media that has already been established. It is a known fact that a
majority of users from Generation Z have been on the World Wide Web and
social media since a young age. This makes them extremely comfortable
with technology and with engaging on social media.
As we have realized by now, brands promoting their offerings on social
media consider Generation Z as the next consumer powerhouse. While
Millennials are still regarded as the most powerful age group by many,
Generation Z has started moving into the consumer spotlight and mind
you, they have their own set of preferences which significantly influence
consumption patterns. We have prepared these powerful Generation Z
statistics to help you craft your marketing strategy for this distinctive
demographic bunch whose importance is currently on the rise. Read on to
learn more about the interests, shopping habits, and behaviour of the
generation that has grown up with digital technology. Thus, it won’t be
long before understanding the Gen-Z perspective will be a key to
marketing success. To take advantage of this chunk of future ready users’
brands need to discover some critical distinctions between Generation Z
and the earlier generations. The brands on Social media must understand
the use of specific offering and appropriate platforms that are used for
conveying the message to users from Generation Z. It is critical for brands
to understand that they might have very less time to retain this kind of
audience. The Generation Z users are extremely sharp and tech savvy and
want to get straight to the point and move along to the next post. A key
piece of knowledge that might lead to the success of social media
marketing to this audience is their multidimensional methodology to social
media – in simple words Gen Z uses different platforms for different
activities.
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To elaborate, they tend to share certain types of content on particular

social channels, thus creating a focus of their social media time. Studies
have shown that they collect information on Facebook and check
informational videos, whereas they get the news and latest announcements
on Twitter and tend to share real-life moments and experiences on
Whatsapp.
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Creating Powerful engagement with Generation Z

The promotional content created and shared by brands in order to appeal
to this future generation need to be extremely specific in their intent. This
is vital because the human touch is important and promotions should not
be perceived as detached from the social causes important to the
Generation Z. The promotional content must be customized to each social
media platform while keeping the overall intent uniform. When it comes to
spreading offerings with this audience, the specificity matters a lot.
Brands needs to understand that although engagement for the Generation

Z can be created on social media platforms, this audience’s behavior on
social media creates a lot of challenges for marketers. Brands that are not
open to the way this generation send and receive information or messages
will lose a chunk of their profits in the coming future. Promotional emails
campaigns designed to target this generation that are not concise with
relevant value might be ignored by consumers who are eager to check out
the next message. Brands also might be misunderstood if their offers don’t
speak with this audience in the appropriate manner. Brands can use the
following engagement techniques to enhance their approach to social
media marketing for this audience:
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1. Ensure superior design: Brands should ensure their design is superior

and exceeds the generation Z audiences’ expectations. This generation
being too specific won't consider the offering as a purchasing option,
thus diminishing goodwill toward your brand as well as your product or
service. Thus to placate this generation, brands need to have superior
self-service and automation. These are trends which cater to the
technology-driven audiences.
2. Develop active engagement opportunities: It is a known fact that
generation Z has lived their entire lives online, which influences their
interactions on the social media channels. To successfully promote
offerings to this audience, brands have to enhance their approach from
simply providing service to delighting. A study conducted in this context
indicates that generation Z expect authenticity from promotions and are
not as hostile to advertising as older generations. It is noted that they
get engaged in experiences and interactions that provide what they
specifically require. They prominently are present on Whatsapp,
Instagram and YouTube and prefer to be engaged watching quick short
video clips on their phones. Another fact is that generation Z prefers
text to email and never use voicemail. Brands should create promotional
videos catered to the medium of choice to engage them during the
online promotions. Thus brands have to include video-creating
capabilities to their toolkits to improve engagement to the Generation
audience.
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3. Including this generation in the message catches their

promotional offering: Brands can create a strategy to include this
generation in the creation of the promotional message - this results in
them becoming more engaged in the offering. Many brands on the
different channels of social media are in the process of providing a real-
life engagement that relies and focuses on the generation Z audience,
rather than just marketing to the Generation Z audience. This
generation is also searching for authenticity and people who reflect their
own lives. A fine example of this is the current cosmetic campaigns,
which through videos, activities, tool kits and products, are portraying
the shift from perfect female beauty standards and are showcasing the
true women’s beauty.
4. Define a sense of purpose: promotions to this generation will need to
be concise, customized, and relevant from a social media context. These
sort of meaningful promotions help in successfully engaging an audience
that’s already starting to dominate the market. Today’s social media
trends are changing rapidly and brands will benefit immensely by
shifting the purpose to Generation Z’s social media behaviors. Studies
have shown that Generation Z is interested in equality in terms of
economic strata and equity in terms of gender and race. It has been
observed that Generation Z considers providing good value for a fair
price and cherishes socially responsible behavior that delivers a greater
good. Thus upholding the behavioural values of the target audience is
becoming a key differentiator for brands. Hence as the generation Z
grows in size the brands will have to adapt and learn to connect in novel
ways and strategies on social media.
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Let us now understand some of these strategies for alluring and retaining
the growing Generation Z audience on social media forums:
1. Use more of the content that has been created by the audiences:
Brands need to realize that there is an entire class of customers that are
born in the post-internet era and cannot imagine a world without the
social media. Thus user-generated photos and reviews are a powerful
strategy which results in attracting more loyal customers from the same
Generation Z.
2. Leverage the tech-savvy nature of Generation Z: It is a known fact
that the Gen Z is the most tech-savvy generation. Most of their time is
spent on social media and hence the conventional promotional tactics
won't work for this generation. Brands should market strategies by
concentrating on social media channels by using various formats like
blogs, video, pic posts and stories. Brands should effectively combine
multiple touch points with specific promotional offerings. Individualized
offerings and promotions with a strong focus on what's in it for them.
3. Creating persuasive user experiences: Generation Z users want to
understand who they are doing business with and prefer to be informed
customers. Thus it is good to clearly share the brands’ offering and be
transparent in products and services. The Generation Z’s purchasing
power is not radically different than any other generation, but they are
more specific in their requirements and they just do their homework.
Thus brands need to ensure that their online message is as superior as
the other selling offerings and that the offering is seen properly on a
mobile device. Thus today it's all about creating offerings with
persuasions and referrals. Brands need to promote to Generation Z by
providing quality customer success efforts and beautifully elegant
customer experiences.
4. Get To The Point: A specific quality of Generation Z is that it is used to
making decisions quickly. It is critical to create and inform the
promotion and value proposition clearly and quickly, or run the risk of
losing your audience and the sale. The reason behind the decisiveness
displayed by Generation Z is because of the shortened attention span
that comes with the increased ability to instantaneously access virtually
anything.
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5. Create a focused objective: Brands need to approach the social

media promotional process by explaining the success they will achieve.
Thus this is clearly a results-driven generation and hence brands need
to engage them rather than selling the product to them. This puts the
brand in the position to be perceived by the Generation Z customer as
an expert who truly understands their requirements. This new and
different approach lets brands connect the dots for this generation with
procedures and processes on how to leverage the use of their offering.
6. Don't brand or stereotype: Brands need to be wary of the fact that
the society in general stamps or labels the Generation Z audience. The
fact with this audience is that they do not want to be branded or pointed
out as a group. This is a group of users who will be the most populous
and powerful users on social media channels that just do things
differently. The Generation Z audience seeks to be considered as an
individual by the brands they interact with and purchase from,
especially on the social media channels especially with the availability
and impact of their favorite personalities to influence them. This means,
key to promoting to this group is to acquire the right information so that
the promotions can be customized to their experiences. The background
might be that Generation Z was born into a tech savvy ever changing
social world. With the Generation Z users, the brands need to clearly
express their products and services through a mobile-first strategy.
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7. Values of the brand need be showcased on preferred channels:

Customizing the promotions on each social media channel is vital to this
generation in order to capture their attention. To create powerful
marketing messages that resonate well with them, it is vital to
showcase the brand’s values and the value addition provides. Thus to
add value to the Generation Z brands need to realize that it has grown
up with an instant source of information that they can use to respond to
the offering provided.
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8.6 DEVELOPMENT OF EPHEMERAL CONTENT TO GET THE

BEST ENGAGEMENT RATE
Let us first understand the meaning of the term Ephemeral first, before we
discuss the benefits of this promotional strategy in the future. Ephemeral
basically means momentary or temporary and is one of the latest buzz
phrases on social media. Ephemeral content is any video content, such as
videos, images, or GIFs, that lasts online for 24 hours before disappearing.
Unlike evergreen content (which lasts forever or until the user wishes to
take it down and does not depend on seasonality), ephemeral content
cannot be found again on social media platforms. The constantly changing
and evolving nature of the social media brings about a constant stream of
trends and buzzwords. In this section, we are going to discuss the value
and benefits of the ephemeral content that brands can utilize successfully
in their promotions. Snapchat which is a prominent social media channel
was responsible for making this term popular. The concept of disappearing
content was first seen in 2011. The famous printing company Picaboo,
headquartered in Hanover, United States, used the idea for the first time,
along with Snapchat. Another channel, Instagram, has also started using
this strategy. Thus using the ephemeral content on Snapchat and
Instagram Stories can be a valuable source of lead generation and
conversion. Ephemeral content makes your brand feel more humanized
and relatable because it is more informal and spontaneous. This helps your
followers gain a greater sense of excitement, trust, and loyalty for your
brand.
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As a marketing strategy, Ephemeral is temporary content that takes

advantage of the concept of ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) and is
designed to elicit an immediate response from the user. The aspect of
momentary media and the idea that the content self-destructs after a
specific duration means that audiences are much more liable to check the
social media on a regular basis. Hence Ephemeral content consist of
momentary media which has rich content that is majorly images and
videos, that are only accessible for a brief period.
Currently, this type of content is seen on Instagram as well as Snapchat,
where the online audiences can share images that can be viewed once or
twice but then disappear. The content can be sent to individual users,
groups or posted on publicly available “stories”. Stories can vary from
jokes or videos, product demonstrations, narrative tales, or just a series of
unlinked observations. It has been called the hottest topic and trend in
social media marketing currently. Part of the attraction is that ephemeral
content taps into one of the key attractions of all social media – content
creation. As much as users can passively enjoy others’ content – they can
actively create their own. Ephemeral content is encouraged by Snapchat
when the user presses the Snapchat logo on their phone, they are not met
with a feed of information or updates from friends; they are met with a
camera. From the onset they are encouraged to create content, to join a
community and add to the network’s worth and value to users.
As with any aspect of a marketing strategy, when it comes to this type of
content; brands should have a robust plan in place. Brands should actively
analyze their customer’s needs and as with any channel of the social
media, consider the opportunities of leveraging this content through
Snapchat and Instagram. Stay true to the audience you have and want to
build. Pay attention to your data and respond to your users’ likes. Brands
need to become accustomed to the content and the hosting platform’s
features, pros and cons and other aspects related to using the content to
market the offering. Once all the things are considered and planned it is
time to leverage the preference of the audiences. At this period of time it is
necessary to promote the ephemeral content across other platforms.
Brands can be active in spreading the ephemeral content through the
application of ‘Snapcode’ (a QR-like code that allows users scan and follow
you) by momentarily tweeting it. The content can also be displayed as a
Facebook avatar or added as a link on the brand’s blog post. Thus there
are several methods of leveraging this content and there is no one way
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which ephemeral content works. There is a growing trend of influencers

who apply this type of content to find success with a wide array of stories.
This can range from highlighting products, partnerships with brands or
even just simply talking to the camera. Given the nature of the platforms it
is important for the brands to keep trying and not be afraid of failing. This
is due to the fact that the content does not have a major lasting
impression, in 24 hours, whatever is posted will be gone.
There are a number of reasons that this content is popular as they are
human, authentic and simple. The platforms are friendly to vertical video,
meaning that setups for their use can be informal, inexpensive and they
are worth remembering when the brand decides to use the platforms. This
means that people are expecting to be met with very real content. It is
also worth remembering that the platforms are fun – both Snapchat and
Instagram have built-in filters, voice modifiers and pop culture tie-ins
which make using them enjoyable.
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The Benefits of Ephemeral Content

1. The ability to influence a larger volume of users: Brands need to
analyze the powerful potential for a larger group of users that would be
engaged through this sort of content. It is a known fact that on a
regular basis audiences are engaging with each other through stories
from Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram. ‘Instagram stories’ is a
feature that is just over a year old and is already attracting a huge
amount of users. There are more than 250 million people engaging in its
stories platform each month, just with the Instagram channel. Stories
are treated as a distinct channel or platform from the profile and feed.
Thus brands are able to share a continuous stream of visual media
without interfering with the user’s newsfeed. Actively posting single
story items on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat has the potential to
enhance the overall reach of the brand from the context of user-
generated stories. Facebook stories help brands to interact with their
audience as part of an unbroken description. This style of Ephemeral
content is incredibly popular with the Generation Z and the millennial
users.
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2. Increase User Engagement: Ephemeral content permits the

audiences to interact with the brand on a more individual basis and also
creates support for the brands to demonstrate its promotional offerings
to the users. Ephemeral content promotions invite the audiences to act
on the behalf of the brand. This includes aspects like the ability to send
an invitation to create a brand-related image or story or even
manipulate and edit images. Thus as discussed earlier, this type of
content as a content marketing strategy also encourages the use of
user-generated content across the diverse channels of the social media.
3. Increase Content Volume: Once a visual concept is created for the
Ephemeral content strategy, preparing and creating the material as well
as the time of distribution become streamlined for the brands - this
enables the brands to create a lot more content. A well-crafted
Ephemeral content strategy will help the brand to create a higher
volume of content with lower overheads and less effort. Using images
and rich media such as video, you can get your story in front of your
audience quickly.
4. Boost Loyalty: Brands need to realize that in order to remain in the
social media universe, they need to take in cognizance of the fact that
the target audience of the future is extremely tech savvy and value
driven. They need transparency and expect to see it through social
media channels. A key strategy from the Ephemeral content perspective
is to permit the audience to observe the culture of the brand. This is a
great technique to enhance the users’ commitment and loyalty towards
the brand. As stated earlier Facebook and Instagram stories are the
perfect way to reveal the people who work behind the brands.
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This suffices the user’s requirement of the brand’s transparency. In order

for the brand to retain its visibility and likeability, it needs to build a solid
reputation through transparency. One of the best methods brand loyalty
can be enhanced is with the use of the Ephemeral content. This can be
done by inviting the users to the inner mechanics of the brans by the
means of showing them audio and video. Through these mediums, brands
can enhance audience’s loyalty by allowing them to view the everyday
commercial and social interactions and operations that are going on the
brand. An Ephemeral content campaign can be created in such a manner
as to permit the audience a deeper insight into the brand’s culture through
social media stories.
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8.7 GROWTH IN INFLUENCER MARKETING

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing on the social media channels
in which focus is placed on key influential users, rather than the entire
social media market. It orients marketing activities around the users
known as influencers, who are identified as the individuals that have
influence over social media consumers. Let us also discuss the need of this
type of marketing, as we know brands are evolving in terms of marketing
on social media. Aiming at influencers is seen as a process of magnifying
promotions. In order to enhance online promotions and limit the increasing
trend of prospects to disregard marketing brands need to leverage the
power of Influencer marketing.
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To create a strategy around Influencer marketing, we need to understand

the basics of this concept. In the world of marketing and social media there
are major distinctions in the understanding of an influencer. Influencers
can be understood as a party who considerably shapes the online user's
buying decision, but are not held responsible for the decision. These online
influencers comprise an array of third parties who leverage influence over
the diverse channels and its prospects. Influencers can also be seen as
well-connected trendsetters that possess a lot of weight and impact.
Brands need to determine what is included in Influencer Marketing. A
specific context and the medium of influence transmission matter a lot
towards relevance of this type of promotional strategy. It is a known and
accepted fact that brands are always interested in engaging and identifying
influencers.
While conventional forms of marketing are really expensive, partnering
with influencers prove to be extremely inexpensive. A large number of
people across the globe are using the social media and connected in
preferences and promotional offering. Thus in terms of social media
marketing, more and more users are using online platforms to make
purchases. This increase in the number of online purchases forces some
companies to invest more resources in their general advertising on the
Internet and in particular on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or
those already named Instagram and YouTube among others. In addition,
marketing through social networks allows for an instantaneous purchase
process, as a person can see the item and typically be connected to an
online retailer.
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The influencer marketing industry has increased extremely fast over the
past years and its global value. This creates less lag time between seeing
the advertisement and being redirected to the product, which is more
effective for spontaneous purchases. Influencer marketing is used in a
diverse number of ways by brands to establish trust and rapport in the
market. Some brands tactically use this form of marketing to enhance
online promotions of their products or service offerings whereas some
brands generate and maintain social interactions around their promotions.
The influencer marketer can also take to marketing diversified products
and services leveraging, leveraging upon the credibility earned over time.
Therefore, the value that influencer marketing creates can be measured in
multiple ways.
This type of marketing is divided into two broad aspects: organically
created influencer marketing and paid influencer marketing. Organically
created influencer marketing originated from non-paid or pre-existing
relationships with influencers. It can also be generated from the use of
content from third parties that is promoted by the influencer to leverage it
for their own personal social growth. The other type of marketing is - paid
influencer marketing.
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This type of campaign can take the form of paid testimonial offering or
sponsored content and can appear at any point in the promotional offering.
Influencer content may be looked upon as testimonial marketing, where
they play the role of a potential buyer themselves, or they may be third
parties. These third parties exist either in the supply chain (retailers,
manufacturers, etc.) or may be so-called value-added influencers (such as
journalists, academics, industry analysts, professional advisers, and so on).
The propensity of Influencers to maintain strong relationships with their
audience is made use of in this context. Thus users are influenced and
persuaded as they have a certain level of trust in the influencer’s opinions.
Another key aspect that is taken into consideration is the Influencers,
ability to reach widely across the social media through their social channels
and blogs. Another source for this type of marketing is the content
produced by Influencers which is deemed powerful and original
promotional content for the brand. The influencing attributes may keep
dynamically changing. For brands to succeed, it is vital to target easy to
identify influential people on the social media channels like high profile
personalities, celebrities, sport stars and industry analysts. Influencers
come in the form of purchasers and retail staff when the context is of
online transactions of the business-to-business (B2B) nature. In such
engagements, the influencers can be varied and can comprise of financiers,
high net-worth individual or even private investors. Thus it is critical for
brands to understand and categorize the influencers in their target
channels.
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To be successful in the long-term, brands require a global influence

identification strategy and the creation of a clear approach for the
generation of an influential impact on the decision process. Thus the factor
of influence can play a variety of roles at different times in this process of
selection - in conjunction to an assortment of other influential aspects. The
power of influencer marketing lies in the fact as to how and when certain
types of influence factors affect the decision process. A deep analysis of
these factors help in targeting influencers based on mindset and choice of
social media channels. The influence of bloggers on social media is also a
strategy worth exploring in detail. Influencer marketing on the social media
consists of leveraging influencers to enhance promotional offerings on
diverse channels, along with detecting influencers and classifying them in
order of priority. Influencer marketing is thus improved by a constant
monitoring process and is not just a simple process of marketing by word
of mouth. Thus engaging influencers has to begin with increasing
awareness of the brand within the influencer community and converting
influencers into brand advocates.
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A powerful tool to exert influence in respective communities is the use of

Web services which can be used to search for social media sites where the
influencers reside. The brand can then create a strategy that revolves
around the influencers to try products or service offerings and share their
purchases and experiences on their respective social channels. Post this
process, the brands can analyze the distribution of brand mentions by the
influencers across the diverse social media channels. Supporters of the
online, only approach claim that online activity reflects the trends in offline
transactions as well. A recent study discloses many strategies around
social marketing enhancements, including the prominence of the online
audience empowerment, authenticity and importance of influencer
marketing. Thus Influencer marketing basically develops its value from the
credibility developed with the online audience.
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8.8 BECOMING FUTURE - READY WITH MOBILE-READY

CONTENT
For brands to survive in the future and excel at promotions on the channels
of Social media; one of the most powerful components is marketing the
promotions on the mobile phones. Continued growth in mobile use is
helping to fuel these increases in digital adoption and activity. The latest
data reveal that more than two-thirds of the world’s total population now
uses a mobile phone, with the number of “unique” mobile users reaching
more than 6 billion as of the current date. Thus with the numbers of
smartphones, the users on social media channels also grow phenomenally.
Thus for brands, it is critical to realize that there’s hardly a digital
marketing medium that’s not directly or indirectly linked to either of these
platforms. It’s a natural outcome of all of these forces that demand for
mobile friendly content on social media platforms is breaking new records
every month.
The need to concentrate on mobile-based videos for social media
marketing is critical as it saves time and effort of needing to scroll through
the social media News Feed. This fact helps to understand how dominant
videos have become on mobile-based platforms. This fact is consistently
true for all social media platforms as some statistics prove:
Facebook records 500 million video views per day.
More than 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.
As much as 82 percent of Twitter users watch video content on the platform.
Brands today understand and perceive YouTube as the gold standard for
mobile video content. In this context, the Android application of YouTube
accounted for 80 percent of the streaming hours spent by users on social
media. Recently, YouTube enhanced some of the features of its mobile app
by adding stylish playback features, as well as making the logo and
interface more attractive for mobile users.
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Thus from a point of view of promotions through video content marketing

perspective, YouTube has to be on the top priority of every brand. Below
provided are some of the best practices to make YouTube video content
powerful for mobile devices:
• Brands should focus on the capability to quickly switch from different
types of content.
• Brands need to dish out content in a diverse set of video formats and
ensure that they load quickly.
• They should stick to the regular and proven-effective aspect ratio of
16:9.
• To ensure better conversions, brands should ensure a call to action
around the 30-second mark for best results and realize that they do not
create videos that are longer than five minutes unless the video’s content
is extremely engaging.
• They need to concentrate on creating differentiated and engaging
content. In order to do this, brands can use the engagement insights
feature from the YouTube Analytics’ to optimize their content. Video
search-engine optimization via social media is one of the best ways to
generate effective inbound leads.
Thus as we can observe from the above practices, mobile ready data would
be instrumental in defining the growth in terms of demand for social media
promotions. Thus from the context of promotions on mobile devices brands
need to realize what the consumers’ desire. This can come in several forms
such as presenting promotional content in the form of live videos which are
more engaging. This format allows users to interact with brands in real-
time, through an extremely powerful and engaging manner. Proximity is
the most critical element of live videos, which is why the mobile phones
are the preferred devices where users access these video feeds. Thus to be
truly successful in the long-term, brands need to be move beyond
traditional video – and live video content keeps on strengthening its
position on social media. The ability of audiences to create and share
notifications via live broadcast creates a lot of viewers on board and is
good for the brand if it is mentioned through the user. Another fact is the
effect of fear of missing out, which drives a lot of viewership for live
content.
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The four major platforms for live video content through mobile phones
currently are YouTube live channels, Facebook Live videos, live Instagram
Stories, and Twitter’s Periscope live streaming app. Among these,
Facebook Live enjoys significant traction, particularly due to the mobile-
focused and advanced controls it offers. Thus for several reasons,
conducting live content is much easier from mobile phones than from
desktops and is going to be a game-changer in the coming years.
8.9 EMERGENCE OF THE METAVERSE

The term “metaverse” originated in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow
Crash as a portmanteau of “meta” and “universe”. Metaverse development
is often linked to advancing virtual reality technology due to the increasing
demands for immersion. Recent interest in metaverse development is
influenced by Web3, a concept for a decentralized iteration of the internet.
Web3 and metaverse have been used as buzzwords to exaggerate the
development progress of various related technologies and projects for
public relations purposes. Information privacy, user addiction, and user
safety are concerns within the metaverse, stemming from challenges
facing the social media and video game industries as a whole.
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Brands and businesses need to explore the metaverse, push innovations in

new directions and enhance capabilities for their domestic and global
clients. To start off, metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds that
focuses on social connection. The metaverse takes Virtual Reality (VR) and
Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, and combines them to create the
ultimate user experience. Digital versions of users known as ‘avatars’ move
through virtual environments, interacting with digital versions of people
and objects powered by fully-functioning virtual economies built on
cryptocurrency and digital goods, which include non-fungible tokens
(NFTs). What users experience can range from playing games, attending a
concert, witnessing a live flagship event and watching product demos
whilst shopping – all of this from the comfort of their home or while sitting
in any part of the world! Simply put, the metaverse has placed us all in a
virtual physical space where digital products are not just digital but
extraordinary immersive experiences and can be accessed on various
devices 24/7. This is in fact what sets it apart from the rest of the internet.
Metaverse is on course to redefining the marketing game. The metaverse
concept can create any universe ever imagined. It has opened up an array
of possibilities and business opportunities for digital marketers, not just for
B2C but also for B2B companies.
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With metaverse opening the doors for creative methods of advertising and
endless experimentation, brands must keep up with the evolving times and
create exciting digital marketing strategies that work in real time,
especially while speaking to the millennials, who are believed to be their
most enthusiastic adopter with strong decision-making and growing
purchasing power. Brands must understand that “story living” as opposed
to “storytelling” will be a key aspect of marketing in the metaverse.
Interactive content, gamification, visual search, voice search and customer
loyalty programs are a few of the things that will matter the most in the
world of the metaverse. For the field of digital marketing, it signals a
paradigm shift from data insights that have heavily depended on cookies
and algorithms. With virtual and augmented reality in the metaverse,
brands can measure the engagement and gain real-time information about
customer preferences, allowing them to assess exactly how long they
interact with products and services.
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Additionally, a significant share of engaging experiences will quite likely

come from content creators. With AI at their fingertips, they can build
exciting content that resonates with the target audience. Speaking of
content creators, India has even welcomed its first meta influencer named
Kyra backed by AI, which has blurred the lines between the real and reel.
Not only is metaverse changing the way digital marketers promote a brand
but it is also changing the way digital agencies interact with their clients.
Some new technologies allow collaborators to come together in one room
as digital avatars to discuss business in an immersive 3-D workroom. What
is fascinating is that these avatars can take down notes, look directly at
each other and communicate, just as they would in real life. While
metaverse has only begun its journey in India, the potential for growth is
phenomenal. In conclusion, brands and businesses need to explore the
metaverse, push innovations in new directions and enhance capabilities for
their domestic and global clients. While there are lots of speculations about
the extent to which metaverse can disrupt the industry, brands need to
learn how to navigate this new frontier, have a curious approach and think
outside the bounds of traditional digital campaigns if they want to stay
ahead of their competitors and remain relevant.
8.10 AUTOMATING OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

CAMPAIGNS
Social media marketing automation is the process of optimizing social
interactions using automated tools. This can include scheduling social posts
ahead of time or republishing popular articles. Automating social media
publication, engagement and management reduces the hours spent on
maintaining and growing brand accounts. Automation comes with many
advantages for businesses who choose to implement it into their
organization’s day-to-day operations.
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Social Media Marketing automation is technology that manages marketing

processes and multifunctional campaigns, across multiple channels,
automatically. With marketing automation, businesses can target
customers with automated messages across e-mail, web, social, and text.
Marketing professionals can automate social media using tools like
SocialPilot, Buffer, Hootsuite, Agorapulse, Meetedgar, Zoho Social, etc.
They need to sign up and link the respective accounts to one of these
tools. One can choose the channels of choice and schedule them at the
best times.
Many of these benefits positively affect costs, time, and production, but
many go deeper and impact every part of a business from the ground up.
Automation of campaigns related to the social media tends to save money
in different ways within your business. First, it takes away repetitive,
‘boring’ tasks from the marketing professionals so that they can focus their
time on more important tasks and ones which require creative and critical
thinking. This saves money by removing a lot of wasted time for marketing
professionals who can now tackle harder issues within the organization.
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It’ll help in reducing the parts of the paid wages that go toward these types
of tasks and, in some cases, completely replace them. This means one can
also re-invest those wages into different jobs that will make a larger
impact on business.
How to automate social media marketing related posts

• Create and publish posts,
• Schedule content for publication ahead of time,
• Set up targeting rules and restrictions,
• Assign posts to designated team members and exchange internal notes
about upcoming publications.
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Generation Z, as the today’s young generation are also known, can be very
difficult to deal with. This generation is extremely digitallysavvy, well-
informed and particularly specific when it comes to marketing on the social
media. 16 to 24-year olds are an entirely new breed of consumers. Part
and parcel of this is of course digital technology, with 96% of Gen Z
owning a smartphone, and spending an average of three hours and 38
minutes online each day.
It might be easy to assume, then, that growing up a digital native might
result in a passive, perhaps even lazier generation, but in contrast,
Generation Z is said to be more go-getting, money-savvy and socially-
aware than ever before. A recent study found that creating a good future is
a top priority for teenagers across the globe, alongside getting a degree
and a valuable job. Meanwhile, 80% of Gen Z is said to have a greater
tendency to buy products that have a positive social or environmental
impact. So, with all this complexity, how can brands truly connect and
engage with the youth of today? Provided below is a prime example of
Brand Adidas that has succeeded well with Generation Z, and the reasons
why.
Engaging the Generation Z the Adidas way!!!
Brands often draw on popular culture to attract the Generation Z audience,
with the worlds of music and sport most typically being used to target
youngsters. Adidas’s partnership with UK music artist ‘Stormzy’ is a prime
example of this. With this UK artist being specifically used to market the
brand’s sportswear range as more youth-focused and cutting edge.
Adidas’s affiliation with sport and music means that it has a unique
opportunity to tap into both worlds simultaneously. In 2016, it took the
opportunity to generate hype around the transfer window – specifically
Paul Pogba’s move to Manchester United (which also happened to be the
most expensive football transfer in history). In response, Adidas created a
music video featuring both Pogba and Stormzy, with its supposedly
‘accidental’ release on social media leading to viral success. Prominent
social media channels like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were
used to spread the promotions to the Generation Z audience across Europe
and specifically UK.
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It was an incredibly smart move by Adidas, and one that ensured its name
being involved in any conversation surrounding Pogba’s potentially
imminent move. What’s more, by creating a splash online before the news
broke in traditional media, the digital-first audience felt much more
involved – almost as if they were in on the secret.
8.12 ACTIVITIES
1. The AR Technology facilitates users to start thinking in three dimensions
rather than the conventional two dimensions when they are online.
Browse online and research one new or latest Social Media channels
who have implemented this technology from the context of Social Media
Marketing.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________
2. Browse the Internet and obtain more insight on ephemeral content on
Snapchat and Instagram Stories can be a valuable source of lead
generation and conversion.
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8.13 SUMMARY
In this chapter we have discussed about the future of the social media
marketing. Here we have seen that, Social media currently is the most
commonly sought after thing that people pursue online. Social media is
changing rapidly and is becoming more prominent than ever. It continues
to evolve as a practice, and new platforms continue to appear and develop.
The job of brands and their marketing teams are becoming more
challenging and demanding. One of the most critical aspects that brands
need to be mindful about is the anticipation of the changes that are set to
occur in the coming future. The development in the online social media
channels is affecting how modern societies manage social networking. Thus
as we all know that a major part of Social networking has moved on to the
internet to a large extent. The future of social media will evolve as new
tools emerge, consumers make new demands, and the quality and
accessibility of the technologies improve. The rise of mobile video, virtual
reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and the more refined use of data
analytics will all influence the future of digital media.
The future of technology and social media is changing and automation is a
key factor contributing to this change. For brands to be consistently
successful, they need to adapt to the emerging technology. One of the
upcoming technologies is ‘Chatbot Technology’. In its basic form - a bot is
any software that performs an automated task and is capable of having a
dialogue with an online user. Chatbots use a process known as deep
learning whereby a neutral network recognizes speech, data, and specific
patterns, then transmit the data through layers of the network such that
they provide accurate results each time the AI faces the same problem or
query from users.
The powerful technology of chatbots is proving to be helpful to integrate
the users’ complete profile at one platform that can be seamlessly
accessed. A high amount of automation of diverse tasks is also possible
with chatbots. Some of these aspects include provision of updates to users,
friends and members of the family, checking of emails, information
retrieval and scheduling of appointments. Adaptability and Robustness help
chatbots to spread across the diverse social media marketing channels.
Bots allow users to engage with them in terms of transactional
engagements, customer service and content utilization.
311
Brands are rapidly adopting futuristic practices, where all members and
teams will be leveraging the power of chatbots to enhance customer
support and streamline activities within the brand. Chatbots possess the
capability to provide scalable access to information in real time.
The next biggest trend which has emerged and will become extremely
popular in the future is Interactive Media. It is one of the most cutting-
edge types of communication existing on the social media channels of
today. Interactive media is a solution that has come from conventional
forms of media that have evolved with layers of interaction to give the
users an active role in the deciding the content.
Interactive content can reach the specific users and intrigue them to visit
the website or blog posts that are already created to cater to their needs.
Additionally there’s endless opportunity for reaching new people with the
organic sharing possibilities on most social platforms. This is the prime
reason behind creating interactive quizzes and assessments that have
become an integral part of the publication’s content strategy.
Apart from competitions and quizzes, another significant piece of the
interactive content social media is videos. According to social media
marketing studies, a massive increase of video marketing is observed in
the recent years. Thus interactive content through videos has become
almost a criticality in marketing as the studies prove which is showing
better outcomes than just online images.
The AR (Augmented Reality) is seamlessly interwoven with the actual world
in a manner that it is seen as an immersive aspect of the real environment.
Thus virtual reality completely replaces the user's real world environment
with a simulated one as to alter the users’ perception of a real world
environment. Augmented Reality thus is a powerful and effective
technology and can be used to promote offering online as well as handle
day-to-day interactions with users. This technology is beneficial in
supporting brands by improving the volume of conversions across social
media channels.
Augmented Reality is quickly becoming one of the hottest trends in the
marketing and advertising industries, recognized as an innovative and
creative way of connecting with customers and increasing engagement.
312
Generation Z is also known as the Post-Millennial or Centennial generation.

This basically refers to people who are born in the year 2000. According to
studies, Generation Z will make up more than about 30% of worldwide
population by 2020. The reason brands need to recognize the audiences
belonging to the generation ‘Z’ is because they are extremely tech savvy
and have never known a non-digital world; thus this generation of users is
born with the social media that has already been established. It is a known
fact that a majority of users from Generation Z have been on the World
Wide Web and social media since a young age. This makes them extremely
comfortable with technology and with engaging on social media. Brands
can use the following engagement techniques to enhance their approach to
social media marketing for this audience, Ensure superior design,
Develop active engagement opportunities, Including this
generation in the message catches their promotional offering.
Ephemeral basically means – momentary or temporary and is one of the
latest buzz phrases on social media. The constantly changing and evolving
nature of the social media brings about a constant stream of trends and
buzzwords. Ephemeral content is any video content, such as video, images,
or GIFs, that lasts online for 24 hours before disappearing. Unlike
evergreen content (which lasts forever or until the user wishes to take it
down and does not depend on seasonality), ephemeral content cannot be
found again on social media platforms. As a marketing strategy, ephemeral
is temporary content that takes advantage of the concept of ‘Fear of
Missing Out’ (FOMO) and is designed to elicit an immediate response from
the user. The aspect of momentary media and the idea that the content
self-destructs after a specific duration means that audiences are much
more liable to check the social media on a regular basis. Hence Ephemeral
content consist of momentary media which has rich content that is majorly
images and videos, that are only accessible for a brief period. The Benefits
of Ephemeral Content are: The ability to influence a larger volume of users,
Increase User Engagement, Increase Content Volume and Boost Loyalty
313
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing on the social media channels

in which focus is placed on key influential users rather than the entire
social media market. It orients marketing activities around the users
known as influencers, who are identified as the individuals that have
influence over social media consumers. The influencer marketing industry
has increased extremely fast over the past years and its global value. This
creates less lag time between seeing the advertisement and being
redirected to the product, which is more effective for spontaneous
purchases. Influencer marketing is used in a diverse number of ways by
brands to establish trust and rapport in the market. The propensity of
Influencers to maintain strong relationships with their audience is made
use of in this context. Thus users are influenced and persuaded as they
have a certain level of trust in the influencer’s opinions.
To be successful in the long-term, brands require a global influence
identification strategy and the creation of a clear approach for the
generation of an influential impact on the decision process. Thus the factor
of influence can play a variety of roles at different times in this process of
selection, in conjunction to an assortment of other influential aspects.
Brands today understand and perceive YouTube as the gold standard for
mobile video content. In this context, the Android application of YouTube
accounted for 80 percent of the streaming hours spent by users on social
media. Recently, YouTube enhanced some of the features of its mobile app
by adding stylish playback features, as well as making the logo and
interface more attractive for mobile users.
The four major platforms for live video content through mobile phones
currently are YouTube live channels, Facebook Live videos, live Instagram
Stories, and Twitter’s Periscope live streaming app. Among these,
Facebook Live enjoys significant traction, particularly due to the mobile-
focused and advanced controls it offers.
The term “metaverse” originated in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow
Crash as a portmanteau of “meta” and “universe”. Metaverse development
is often linked to advancing virtual reality technology due to the increasing
demands for immersion. Recent interest in metaverse development is
influenced by Web3, a concept for a decentralized iteration of the internet.
Web3 and metaverse have been used as buzzwords to exaggerate the
development progress of various related technologies and projects for
public relations purposes.
314
Brands and businesses need to explore the metaverse, push innovations in

new directions and enhance capabilities for their domestic and global
clients. While there are lots of speculations about the extent to which
metaverse can disrupt the industry, brands need to learn how to navigate
this new frontier, have a curious approach and think outside the bounds of
traditional digital campaigns if they want to stay ahead of their competitors
and remain relevant.
Social media marketing automation is the process of optimizing social
interactions using automated tools. This can include scheduling social posts
ahead of time or republishing popular articles. Automating social media
publication, engagement and management reduces the hours spent on
maintaining and growing brand accounts.

1. Explain in brief why promotions that are centered on emerging trends
will prove to be the most effective forms to market to end social media
audiences?
2. Cite the reasons behind the statement – ‘In the realm of social media
the Chatbots are specifically used in conversations interfaces’
3. Explain how the interactive media permits audiences to engage with the
information for a diverse range of applications?
4. Cite the reasons why Interactive content can reach the specific users
and intrigue them to visit the website or blog posts that are already
created to cater to their needs?
5. Explain in brief how the AR (Augmented Reality) is seamlessly
interwoven with the actual world in a manner that it is seen as an
immersive aspect of the real environment?
6. Describe why AR holds great potential in terms of reaching and
engaging a target audience?
7. Explain in brief why the promotional content created and shared by
brands in order to appeal to the generation Z needs to be extremely
specific in their intent?
315
8. Cite the reason behind as a marketing strategy, Ephemeral is temporary

content that takes advantage of the concept of ‘Fear of Missing
Out’ (FOMO)?
9. Describe in brief the why aiming at influencers is seen as a process of
magnifying promotions?
10.Explain in brief how the term “metaverse” has originated?
11.Cite the reason why automating social media publication, engagement
and management tends to reduce the hours spent on maintaining and
growing brand accounts.
1. The virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant which
are a good example of -
a. Robots.
b. Chatbots.
c. AR Technologies.
d. VR Technologies.
2. Chatbots use a process known as __________ whereby a neutral

network recognizes speech, data, and specific patterns.
a. Deep learning.
b. Great learning.
c. Perceived learning.
d. Critical learning.
3. Interactive Media has the power to impact the users on the diverse
channels of social media and this is going to have which kind of effect
on every marketing endeavor?
a. Recommendation.
b. Immersive.
c. Creative.
d. Powerful.
316
4. Augmented Reality is beneficial in supporting brands with a means of

developing a user experience that is highly -
a. Reactive.
b. Restricting.
c. Interactive.
d. Influencing.
5. Generation Z is also known as the Post-Millennial or the __________

generation.
a. Spontaneous.
b. Strategic.
c. Centennial.
d. Bicentennial.
6. Which of the below provided terms basically means – momentary or

temporary and is one of the latest buzz phrases on social media.
a. Augmented.
b. Instant.
c. Ephemeral.
d. Realistic.
7. Ephemeral content is any video content, such as videos, images, or

GIFs, that lasts online for __________ before disappearing.
a. 24 hours
b. 12 hours
c. 6 hours
d. Few hours
Ans: 1. (b), 2. (a), 3. (b), 4. (c), 5. (c), 6. (c), 7. (a)
317
REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
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SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Sub Code - 654

Program Design and Advisory Team

Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Mr. Manish Pitke

Prof. Kanu Doshi Mr. Smitesh Bhosale

Prof. Dr. V.H. Iyer Prof. Vineel Bhurke

Prof. Venkat lyer Dr. Pravin Kumar Agrawal

Prof. Dr. Pradeep Pendse Mrs. Margaret Vas

Prof. Sandeep Kelkar Course Editor

Prof. Dr. Swapna Pradhan Course Coordinators

Prof. Bijoy B. Bhattacharyya Ms. Kirti Sampat

Mr. P.M. Bendre Mr. Kishor Tamhankar

Mr. Ajay Prabhu

Mr. A.S. Pillai

COPYRIGHT © by Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research.

NOT FOR SALE. FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.

1st Edition, June 2019 2nd Edition, May 2023

Chapter No. Chapter Name Page No.

1 Introduction To Social Media Marketing 4-37

1.2 UNDERSTANDING THE NEED FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

With the volume of competition that businesses face in the world of

Social media is People connecting with others

Content Browsers are transformed into Content Producers on Social media

A Platform for creating relationships for Personal and Professional use

Brands involved in creating Personal accounts

User based control of the Message

Building Organic Relationships within the Organization using Social Media

Reaching out to End-Consumers using Social Media

• Content Browsers are transformed into Content Producers on

• User based control of the Message: Sharing becomes an essential

• Reaching out to End-Consumers using Social Media: As Social

1.3 DEVELOPING THE RIGHT MINDSET TO LINK

1.4 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DONE THE CORRECT WAY

Let us now discuss some of the core qualities of successful brands, to

3. Brand Identity providing a sense of ‘Uniqueness’: Establishing a

4. ‘Motivation and Leadership’: Behind every successful brand there are

1.5 LEVERAGING THE ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF

1. Reduced Marketing expenses.

2. Improved Rankings on Search Engines

3. Brand Authenticity creates Market reach

4. Capitalizing on Conversion Opportunities

5. Enhanced Customer Awareness.

6. Better Customer interaction: greater Customer

1. Reduced Marketing expenses: According to a recent online study, the

6. Better Customer interaction leads to greater Customer

1.6 POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLATFORMS

2. Twitter – Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows brands to

With constant evolution and technological changes - the tools available to

specific tactics. So the challenge is to thinking about how to use Twitter as

3. LinkedIn - LinkedIn is used by businesses to share business

LinkedIn is a prime example of a Social Network that contains lots of

This channel is creating engagement percentages for brands that are

1.7 SHORT CASE STUDY

In the section developing the right mindset to link audiences to Social

It is expected that in the coming years, a majority of online content

1.10 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1.11 MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Ans: 1. (b), 2. (c), 3. (a), 4. (c), 5. (b), 6. (b)

Video Lecture - Part 1

Video Lecture - Part 2

2.2 DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER-CENTRIC PERSPECTIVE

In today’s digital world, nothing replaces the human touch. As

1. Create and Nurture Blogs: A key to being Customer-Centric is to offer