Who And Do - Are Important Criteria To Understanding Your Target Audience In Social Media

As a Social Media Page Administrator / Community Manager how do you look at your Community? Do you take a look at your community? The humans who have joined you / your Page have a reason to do this. The reasons could be direct and obvious at the tertiary level.

For instance an offer and discount expectation could make people look forward to your Page, or some privileged preview and a sneak peek of a new launch could make people enthusiastic and so on. Reasons could be ample. They would be genuine however they would last for as long as your Page supports it. Over a period of time repeating yourself with various similar stories could drain the spirit and enthusiasm out of the Page. Unfortunately soon a blind eye turns towards your posts that throw up on your community members Feeds at their Home Page. It is not that you are to refrain from giving discounts and offer, or a sneak peak and so on. These are universal truths that make the consumer move. However if you want conversations to take place and healthy engagements to take place with regards to your Social Media Page then you need to look at triggers. What are the triggers that your community member normally reacts towards, what makes things go viral, what is it that makes the buzz take place.

Have you managed to go a little deeper. Have you checked on 'who' are your community people? What do they 'do' on your Social Media Site that you and they both co-exists? Don't be carried away only by analytic in quantitative terms. Quantitative terms are good no doubt. However qualitative understanding is also critical. To-gather quantitative and qualitative give us the whole picture.

Many a times you will notice that it is the qualitative understanding that could take the lead in determining as what is the emotional trigger and connect.

In order to know and understand your target audience in qualitative manner it does not mean that you violate privacy norms or start to stalk people in the online world. However a cursory look and a little bit of method can be used to understand who your persons are and what they do in the online Social Media world.

There are two broad and main criteria that you need to concentrate on with regards to deciphering the qualitative understanding of your community member. One is 'who' are your connections and the other is what do they 'do' online on the Social Site that you co-exists with them.

Your turn who are your connects what do they do within your Social Media Site have you figured?

What you may want to read:
How To Have Value Added Conversations In Social Media
How To Measure Your Social Media Efforts

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

How To Have Value Added Conversations In Social Media

We all hear about having conversations on Social Media platform. We hear about have 'engaging' conversations. Involving humans to converse, share, comment, post and so on. Thereby creating better value added networking environment.

Lets just step back and understand what is the meaning of conversation. The essence of conversation is broken down by the 'sending' and 'receiving' criteria. It is 'encoding' and 'decoding', when this takes place it is 'interaction', a two way process. On the minimum side it can be two persons and ofcourse you can have more than two persons involved as well.

It would be easier to define conversation by saying what it probably is not: It is not a monologue. Though a monologue can be a catalyst to initiate a conversation.

Conversations could be face to face  and / or over a medium. The medium could be phone like telecon, SMS and so on, it could be over net like GTalk, Yahoo chats, emails, Social Networking Sites and so on.

Conversations can be of various types. They could be serious, they could be humorous, a mix, and so on.

What are the kind of conversations that you should have on Social Media Sites while working for your brand and business is a question that we need to answer. Before we start to answer this lets take a quick understanding of the people that you would want to have conversation with. Lets dwell a little deeper into the business side of conversations on Social Media Sites.

People join Online Social Sites because they would like to see what is taking place there, this could be to know about their friends and relatives and so on. The reasons are plenty. It could be to socialize, to keep in touch, to stalk, to check out details and so on. Perhaps to pass time and therefore engage into games like Mafia Wars and so on. When you wish to have a conversation with your customer set it is imperative that you know and understand on why they have connected with your Page. Based on this knowledge will you be able to leverage your conversations that are relevant and meaningful to the audience. Conversation need to be relevant or else the person is sure to leave your Page sooner or later.

You need to know what does your target customer set think of the Social Media Site. Do they use it frequently. Do they use it to learn and consume news and information. Do they use it to share, post and so on. When you can define this you will know and understand how deep will your conversations become eventually.

Do they trust online discussions? Do they share information that enables their network to say for instance buy something at a discounted rate and so on. When you will be able to pin point on the type of talks that they do it is then that you will be able to cater to their requirement and involve them.

Emotions play a very important role. If you can trigger the emotional connect then your audience will be connected with you in a deeper manner. There are a couple of important parts to your conversations:

• How does your target audience feel and behave while on Social Media Sites: This is imperative. As shared above you need to understand the usage and attitude towards the particular Social Media Site that you are considering.
  
• Why do they join your Page: As marketeers you may indulge in giving out certain offers if people join your Page. However keep in mind the bigger picture. People do not only want to see a complete Page full of discounts and so on. The excitement will go out. Have a Page philosophy.
  
• Page philosophy: While you have your Brand Philosophy in tact you also need to decide on what is your Page Differentiation and Philosophy. It is essential that you pre-decide on the reason as to 'why should people join your Page'. Is it that they will receive exclusive offers, or a launch preview etc.
• What you mention: It is critical you have a list of things that you would like to mention. This ofcourse needs to be in tandem with what your brand stands for and what your customer set is looking for.
  
• How you say it: This is all about tone of voice. What you say needs to be accompanied by the manner and tone of voice. This forms the essence of the brand behavior.
  

Along with this ofcourse you need to have your brand personality drawn out and well developed so you know how to behave on the Sites. Social Media Networking is part of the overall marketing scenario. It is not a separate silo that one works within. Our Social Media efforts are an extension of the brand's overall marketing efforts. Just like any other aspect of marketing like advertising [print, tv, radio, outdoors etc], Social Media is also one of these. Ofcourse the modus operandi would be different. However our target audience would be part of the overall target audience itself.

More to read: Parameters To Plan Your Social Media Strategy

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Emails Are Part Of The Social Media Environment

Social Networking and Sites / Media is not confined to just the Social Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. Ofcourse it is this and much more. For instance it is email as well. What would your take be for emails? Would you say that email is part of the Social Media environment?

Well lets for a moment step back and take a bird's eye view of what perhaps is Social Media.
Social Media comprises of us humans interacting on a common usually open platform / sites like for instance Facebook. Via this we share, post, comment and have interactions on an ongoing basis. So, we share text, visual and audio information. Some of these generate responses and others terminate into silent silos. Some create a slight interaction while others get us into deep engaging conversations. Add to this we use it for personal reasons and for business as well.

On the other hand what are we doing with emails?
Well very much similar. The trail mail enables us to understand the conversations at various time intervals due to its time stamp. We share via forwards. And yes we do personal and business communication as well. While email will still be considered for confidential document transfer, it also enables us to have a quick chat. It involves us and definitely in-depth conversations are taken care of.

Just the way Social Media Sites form the daily online activity for many, emails too are seen on daily basis by plenty of people. A safe bet is that people on Social Media would definitely have an email id while people with email ids may not have a Social Media Profile. Email Marketing could be on principles of Social Media

What is your take. Would you look at emails being part of the Social Media environment? Emails Are A Part Of Our Lives - Social Media

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Social Media Sparks Egyptian Revolution - ‘In The Space Below - Guest Writers And Interesting Topics’.

‘In The Space Below - Guest Writers And Interesting Topics’. 

Below is from Thomas Morrison

Thomas Morrison

@twmorrison75

I am a freelance writer who writes on topics that are current and progressive. I am also a co-editor of Everything Left along with my friend Jack Lundee.

http://everythingleft.wordpress.com/

Everything left relays the latest Liberal-based current events and political news to its readers.

Social Media Sparks Egyptian Revolution

Social media is no longer limited to status updates and posting photos from a friend’s birthday party. Social media has quickly become one of the most influential factors in grassroots socio-political mobilization across the globe. The January 25, 2011 revolution in Egypt gained a major foothold with the application of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Since the existence of media, individuals have used it to demand more governmental transparency and mobilize allies.

On February 9^th former President Bill Clinton spoke at New York University. The former president was lecturing on the Dayton Peace Agreement. This agreement ended the1995 Bosnia Herzegovina genocide. During the lecture President Clinton compared constant news media coverage in the case of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Genocide with the role of social media in assisting communications during the revolution in Egypt. While the former president said the constant news coverage during the Bosnia-Herzegovina Genocide was different than the role social media played during the Revolution in Egypt, both captured global attention at different points in time, springing out of the human desire for information. Clinton reflected back on the quality of technology available when he was president 16 years ago, “There were just 50 Internet sites and the average cell phone weighed 5 pounds”. Clinton heads up the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) alongside personal counselor Doug Band who provides much needed help to the organization, which was founded in 2002 as the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative. Mr. Douglas Band also oversees plenty of foreign operations at the Clinton Global Initiative.

On 25 January 2011 after a successful revolution had taken in Tunisia, inspired by the events, many Egyptians began protesting against the unemployment and poverty that had settled in Egypt as a result of the country’s 30-year autocratic rule by former President Hosini Mubarak. Protesters used social network services like Facebook and Twitter to show the world what was happening in the country, arrange protests and governmental and military responses to the unrest. On the second day of mass protest in Egypt, the Internet, PDA access to the Internet and text messages shut off by Egyptian government. The government’s effort to disable ‘insurgent’ communication in Egypt was unsuccessful. A handful of transnational human rights activists, translators and bloggers used Facebook, Twitter, chatrooms and other social media platforms to relay messages from protestors, journalists and human rights activists to further the grassroots social mobilization while allowing the world to witness step in step exactly what was going on inside of Egypt. Social media makes social organization easier and effective. Social media used by Egyptian protestors brought together individuals who shared common goals and ideas, but also offered a medium for planning. In the case of Egypt, social media forced the government to take accountability. Transnational social networks made it very difficult for governments to lie and hide from their citizens. As January’s events have shown the world, social media interconnects individuals creating a transnational network armed with information.

While the Bosnia Herzegovina genocide and the recent revolution in Egypt are to completely separate events under girded by different politics and history, a human’s desire for information has always been insatiable. At many points in history individuals have combined ingenuity, passion and technology to link themselves with people and societies across the globe.

25/2/11

What Makes Your Facebook Page Post Feature On Feeds? - Social Media

While Google's search algorithms are well kept secrets Facebook is transparent about the algorithms that it uses for Posts of Pages to appear on the Feeds of the Fans / Community Members.

The Facebook algorithm is called EdgeRank. EdgeRank consists of three main variables. They are:

• Affinity
• Weight
• Recency

Affinity: This is the number of times the person and the Page interact.

Weight: Is the number of times comments, likes and such interactions take place.

Recency: This is the time since content was posted.

So basically what does this tell us in short: The more immediate, the more times people interact with Page, and the more they comment is better for the Page posts to come up and be seen on the Feeds of Fans and Community Members. 

Did you know: Almost more than 90% of filtration takes place - which means you have 10% chance to show up on your Fan's Community Member's Feed!

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Should You Spread Thinly Or Densely On Social Media Sites?

While working on Social Media, what I have noticed is that as a Brand / Business head you would like to spread out on many Social Media Sites. Yes, this no doubt is a tempting option. The reason is simple and obvious - that you would not like to miss out on any opportunity of connecting with your target audience like your Customers and Clients. You naturally are trying to be on search engines as well and so spreading in this regard could be an option.

Spreading out on too many sites makes it a little difficult to manage. One way to look at it is that you start to post similar messages all across, this method is not a good solution. The reason being is that the 'privileged' and 'exclusive' content that you should be offering on your Social Media Site to your Community Members starts to get lost and diluted. Add to this if you have a very big community then catering to individual person's comments / posts / queries could be problematic and could be complicated.

Instead if you are on a couple of sites only then you can concentrate well. You can cater to your Community Members well and be more focused and precise. Add to this you can attend to your Community while you are on the move via your cell phone for instance.

What is your take? Share your views here. Should You Spread Thinly Or Densely On Social Media?

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Parameters To Plan Your Social Media Strategy

What are the parameters that one is to consider while working on Social Media? What is it that can make it tick and the lack of it can make it a resounding failure. We all commence the Social Media project with a bang. All concerned persons are very enthusiastic and very keen as well. Many would start to enroll and read up on any help Page found online. No one doubts the enthusiasm and the passion with which it all is started.

However somewhere you will notice that the steam is going out. Suddenly not many who showed interest initially are no more interested. Add to this the intensity of the passion and enthusiasm diminishes. This is inevitable given that other priorities take over and somehow interest and involvement levels decreases.  

What perhaps requires to be done is that you may need to have a check list that enables you to keep your understanding and your team's processes in place.

A quick check on parameters would be as follows. I have given hyperlink to various aspects that need a little more explanation so that you can read each criteria in its complete perspective.

• On-Page SEO: It may not be essential to know technology in order to do SEO. Yes, there are specialists who can do off - page SEO which is done via programming and in the edit HTML formats. However with limited knowledge of programming you need to be aware of where all you can work to ensure that the various search engines throw up your page when your target audience do their search.
  
• Key-Word:This is critical. Before you post your first comment / information you need to decide and be sure of what are your Key-Words. This would emit from doing Key-Word research of your category, competitors and what your Brand is to personify and identify with. Add to this be realistic and think in terms of your target audience. What would they type in search engines is essential that you know.
  
• Brand Personality: It is important that your written words and any behavior stays inline with the Brand Personality. Same goes for any audio and video that you may upload.
  
• Page Philosophy: While you have your Brand Philosophy in tact you also need to decide on what is your Page Differentiation and Philosophy. It is essential that you pre-decide on the reason as to 'why should people join your Page'. Is it that they will receive exclusive offers, or a launch preview etc.
  
• Escalation Matrix: When you receive a query from your customer who is connected on your Page / Blog / Site what will you do if that query was not thought of previously. You need to have a person in the Company at your Client's side who can answer you almost 24/7.
  
• Consumer Mind-Set: This is crucial. You need to understand what your customer thinks about your category, brand, competitors, online as a medium and the particular Social Media Site that you plan to establish your brand / business in. For instance there are customers in certain part of the world who will not use Social Media to talk with certain categories where they feel it is best to meet the relationship officer. So you need to understand your customer's usage and attitude towards the Social Media Sites.
  
• Tackling Negative Comments: This is inevitable. At sometime or the other someone will post a very critical remark and so on. Your tackling of negative comments should be in line with your brand personality.
  
• Competitor Study: Both, Direct Competitor and Notional as well. Who is your competitor, what is their offline and online activity is all important to be well understood. And yes what are they doing on Social Media Sites is crucial for you to keep updated with constantly.
  
• Understand The Social Media Site's Functionality and Its Perception As well: It is best to really know the functions of the Social Media Sites that you take up. To use them optimally is the best way to get results.
  
• Have A Diary Of Content Posts - Keep To Consistency And Freshness: Post information that is relevant to your customers. Post information that is topical. Inform and befriend your customer. Befriending does not mean that you cross the limits though.
  
• Monitoring / Listening and Measuring Tools: There are lots of free and paid tools that you will get online. Use these regularly. Listening and then taking part in conversations is the key. Ofcourse this does not mean that you step into a conversation and become an irritant.
  
• Adaptability To Change As Per Feed-Back From The Measuring And Monitoring Tools: Rules and plans should be pre-decided, however they are not to be rigid. You need to change your plan of action if required.
  
• Pre-decide On Key Performance Indicators: This is important. It is sometimes the main cause of Social Media endeavors being left half way, people loosing interest, the steam goes out and the top management puts these efforts in the side line. Have your performance indicators well laid out. Let them be realistic and let them be such that they contribute towards the marketing and business goals. For instance having lots of followers and fans should not be a blind criteria, how much are they engaging and involving is important.
  
• Add To This It Is Crucial That The Person Working On The Social Media Sites Has Relevant Knowledge Of Direct Marketing Along With Social Media Knowledge
• A Delegated Leader Who Will Be Responsible And Accountable And Has Authority
• Acquisition: It is necessary that you plan how and from where your target audience should flow into your Page.
  
• Retention: How will you nurture and limit the attrition is also vital.
  

Social Media is like an investment. What you do today leaves footprints on the internet that enables you to draw positive fruits later on. Ofcourse if you do not use it wisely then you could suffer as well. Social Media requires focus, planning, adherence to plan, continuity, consistency and freshness.

When we do all of the above we can then be ready to start our venture into Social Media. Any other parameters that come to your mind share them here.

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia

QR Code In Social Media

Hello, by now you will have heard the new terminology doing its rounds - called QR Code. To put it simply QR Code enables your customers and clients to 'read' / 'link' to your online Page / Site.

Allow me to explain: For instance if you have a blog / site you can have a QR Code. This code which is an image as a matter of speaking can be printed, can be embedded onto another site and so on. When your customer / client scans this from their smartphone they can be provided information and are swiftly linked to your Page / Site / blog and any other online address that has its own url. Basically your url is the clue here. This is 'read' and automatically the site gets connected. So in other words a long url need not be typed out, instead the QR Code gets scanned and the online site gets linked and can be surfed.

You may ask why should we go through the whole process - the answer is simple. For instance one of the reasons being: in the online world you would use url shortener like the Google url shortener called goo.gl you would not go about placing a very long url everywhere. Similarly when you need to share your url in the real world and when you want people to [almost] automatically connect with your site and blog / page and other online destinations the easy way is to give them the QR Code and lo! people are connected.

What do you think of this? Interesting?

So what is the full form of QR Code:

• It stands for Quick Response Code.

Where can the QR Codes be used:

• Since it is similar to bar code you can use it to give off discounts, tickets, etc. Just the way we have MCoupons this can substitute the same
• Customer service is another way in which this can be used
• and so on
  

What is required to implement the QR Code:

• You need to determine which Page / Blog /Site you want people to get directed towards
• Next is you need to create the QR Code - this is done online there are free sites that enable this
• Share the link / code to your print medium / online medium from where you want people to come
• Your target audience requires smartphone with the application - this can be freely downloaded, one time download is only required
• and you can roll!
  

Your turn - is this easy? Will you go in for this marketing channel.

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
Share this Page with people who require Social Media help for their brand and business.

Identifying Different Social Media Audiences

Close your eyes and think back on the various presentations that you will have made or have witnessed. Try to remember the various audiences. What do you see:

• There are some that are nodding
• There are some that stare without an expression
• There are those that may choose to close their eyes and sit through
  
• There are some who interact
• There are some that put forth extra ordinary questions that could take discussion on a different tangent
• There are some who do ask relevant questions
• There are those who disagree and disapprove
• And yes there are fierce devil's advocates as well

Like them or hate them, you may feel they should exist or disappear but they are real and very much present.

Similarly when you are working in the Social Media realm you will come across various sets of people who re-act in similar way as shared above in the bullet point - except perhaps closing their eyes and yet being present.

Just as in the presentation scenario you will have to deal with the various individual personalities, in the Social Media world also you need to deal with various personalities. In the presentation you can see body language, eye contact and decipher from the vocal tone of voice in the Social Media sites you end up deciphering from the text matter and any icons [smiley etc] typed uploaded etc.

Just because it is the online world you cannot each time escape and ignore without closing the conversation. Exceptions will remain.

For this you do need have your brand personality drawn out before you key in your first post / comment. The brand personality will enable you in understanding how best you should reply / re-act / behave when you face a certain type of comments.

Your turn - share your views.

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia

Social Media As Customer Service

Do you think that your Social Media Page could work well in attending to customer complains and requests? Perhaps now is the time to start to look at Social Media in many ways.

Your customer could have connected with your Page for many reasons. For instance they could have connected so that they get privileges in terms of discounts, or to be the first to know on new arrivals or new launches. They could join your Page to perhaps know and connect with similar minded people in case of professional interest or causes and social issues. And so on.

What about this situation: They may also join because they could be fed-up with the current customer care that they have called a numerous times and have not received any answer. 

When your customer connects with your Social Media site it is all part of customer care. You need to gear up and empower your Social Media team with the relevant knowledge. Be careful your Social Media Page should not be a page full of apologies and asking people to send an email with complete scenario of problem or asking them to call on the customer care number. There are times when you may go on Twitter for instance and view certain business houses - you could come across an entire stream of 'we are sorry to hear this, please send your email to ....'. This kind of approach only in dire situation is justified. However if your entire Page is seen in this manner then the customer or target audience will loose interest. Your Social Media personnel should have the power to address issues.

For this it is important that you have an action plan sorted and well laid out. Naturally if there is a product defect then your Social Media personnel cannot rectify this over the internet. Hence you need to have an escalation matrix back at your drawing board. Thus all departments should be informed and infact trained on the Social Media plan. They need to be explicitly informed that they are to act when the Social Media person forwards to them a request / advice / concern / complain. This is serious information and they need to take steps towards it. Secondly they need to revert back with proper details post the steps taken. The reason being the Social Media personnel needs to inform openly [ofcourse dependent on situation] on the same platform as the complain was received the steps that are taken.

Is your organization ready to take up this challenge? Share your views here.
We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
Share this Page with people who require Social Media help for their brand and business.

Innovative Testimonials Format By Facebook - Social Media

Recently, infact a couple of days back, Facebook has launched a new advertising option. It is actually bringing Social Networking into ads. This option indeed has its merit. It is innovative in its own way. What Facebook has done is that now brands and business can push ads into their target profiles by showing who from your own network has commented / posted about their brand and business.

This is amazing way of bringing word of mouth [in the online scenario], a kind of testimonial format, into ads. It is called 'Sponsored Stories'.

The only negative part that I see is that incase a person does not want to feature onto this ad then there is no opt-out facility. The counter side of this could be that when you comment on Social Media it is anyway available via search engines and so there is no reason why you would require the opt-out facility. Having said this am sure Facebook would have thought of this and there must be some coverage in its policy.

On the whole it is an amazing and innovative method of bring testimonials really alive and what's more you will trust it since you will see your own friend / network person saying / mentioning about the brand / business.

What is your take on this format?

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
Share this Page with people who require Social Media help for their brand and business.

You Will Receive 3000+ Followers Guaranteed, Just Buy The Package - Social Media

Social Media can be measured in numbers which is the quantitative method. It can be measured in qualitative terms as well. What we need to keep in mind is both qualitative and quantitative methods can be measured - over a period of time. To see results you will need to wait for an average of six months in many cases. There are a couple of parameters to measure your Social Media endeavor that I have shared previously. 

It is not an over-night magic. It is not what we read that 'you will receive 3000+ followers guaranteed, just buy the package'.

If there are ready made people to connect with your business Page we need to re-look at such claims. From these how many will really lead to sensible and positive brand growth? It is not the number of followers that matter it is quality that matters. What is the sense of having over thousand followers when none really buy into your conversation? When no one really shares what you post? or no one really is interested in reading your comments? or no one engages onto your Page regularly and actively.

For instance: On Facebook it is good to know how many people have 'Liked' your Facebook Fan / Business Page. But it is far too crucial to know how many engaged onto the various conversations, how many 'liked' the individual posts. You need to check on who is regular on your Page.

How many times while working as a Social Media personnel have you received a call asking you why have the number of followers / community members fallen [even if it means one person leaving]. Or to that matter how many times as an individual would you have looked at your follower list and wondered whatever you did or rather did not do created the follower to leave you. Probably this thinking itself caused our fellow member to go away. The thinking as in: Where are my followers. What I am trying to put across is that thinking of our community member as 'one of the members' or as 'a follower' would be the reason why we may have not really connected with them on a one to one humane basis. You need to look and respond to our Community Members on a one to one level - on a human level.

Yes Social Media is time consuming not tedious though.

Social Media is like an investment. What you do today leaves footprints on the internet that enables you to draw positive fruits later on. Ofcourse if you do not use it wisely then you could suffer as well. Social Media requires focus, planning, adherence to plan, continuity, consistency and freshness.

If any of these criteria are missing then you may lose out with your target audience. Many a times you may get the feeling that no one is responding to you, but do not give up here. You need to understand that as time passes the search engines will start to index your page and then you can hope for traffic towards your page. To enable this you need to be consistent with fresh matter.

Search engines take time - around 3 mths to start to show your pages on search sites. Thus the earlier you start the better. Social Media enables you to achieve personal and professional objectives. The on-page SEO will enables you to reap benefits.

So are you all set and ready to manage your Social Media? Share your views here.

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia

Social Media Fallacies

These days business have either got into Social Media or are thinking of doing so, gone are the days of neglecting this marketing channel. While many do get into Social Media, most do not use the media in an appropriate way. There are common myths and wrong doing on the sites that I have come across. Am sharing a couple of them below:

Build it and they will come: Plenty of business houses seem to have registered on Social Media sites. When you go through their Page you will find that they have not posted in a long time - over couple of months. Similarly there are lots of NGOs non-profit organizations and lots of causes that have their Page but do not do anything beyond the initial posts. What happens here? Well at first persons who may have connected / subscribed to the pages  forget that they are members of the community. Hence they do not participate actively. Add to the misery spammers seem to have a free field day on the Pages. They seem to post all kinds of links. What happens here is as and when the right target audience do visit the Page they are lost in trying to understand as to what your Page is all about. The fact of Social Media is that you need to be consistently posting. This consistency is coupled with fresh and interesting content. The interest is to be judged from your customer's point of view.

Response: It is amazing that after a question is put forth by the Page Admin, when people do start to answer on the same, there is no response from the Page Admin. There is a huge responsibility when you want and do mange to generate response from your community people. Please respect the people, their comments and reply / converse back. Incase if there is any negativity taking place try to gently move that particular conversation back on the right track.

Personality: Before you write and post your first comment remember to have the brand print and brand personality drawn out clearly. If your brand image is to go in a particular direction remember to live by it and behave in that way throughout your interaction.

Human: Social Media is all about human interaction. It is got to do with sharing, opinions, conversations, engagement, networking and so on. Please do not reply as a robot. The reason behind being a robot is justified as being professional. But tell me how many of your customers are logging onto Social Sites to receive professional tone. Yes they log-on to get expert advice but this can be done at an human level not as if a person is reading out of text book!.

There are many fallacies that we do as Social Media persons. Remember there are more than the above pointers as well.

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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How The Steam Goes Out Of Social Media Efforts!

Social Media is soon becoming an extension of marketing for many business houses, and some have already adopted it as one of the main channels to connect with the customers. Many a times we commence the Social Media planning and strategy with a bang! We start with enthusiasm and a lot of hope that we will achieve our objectives within the marketing preview. Ofcouse, some start with a lot of apprehension as well. So, there is a person appointed to carry out the various tasks. And, the execution starts. The person could be from within the organization, or could be the head of business or maybe an external agency.

With a good take off, everyone has started to join into Twitter and Facebook [dependent on what is wanted, this is just example]. And soon the excitement builds up as we start to count on how many people have joined us. In elevators and corridors a quick response is shared on questions like 'how many today?'. This excitement continues till suddenly someone wants to know the ROI. And then suddenly everyone is  figuring out on parameters - the matrix to measure Social Media. This could be the first part of loosing out on steam of enthusiasm.

Next part when the steam starts to get out is during engagement period. While initially we may engage but the problem starts when someone complains and we do not respond as a company / brand properly. While apologizing is one part if there is no real concrete step taken then things could go out of hand. It is essential to have developed a matrix / escalation levels while creating the plan and strategy itself. It is essential that all departments know and understand that if the Social Media person flags an issue the concerned department should take the responsibility and solve the issue. This is critical. This the Social Media person should establish at the very beginning itself.

Many a times there are pre-conceived notions about how should a business unit attract customers on the net.

Social Media is a consistent and constant efforts. Let us 'never' think that once the basics are set up it will all generate talks on its own. People always need a little push and a little nudging. Social Media no doubt catches momentum, but one has to keep the momentum going. We cannot say that without an 'active driver' the Social Media will continue to create and achieve our objectives.

Social Media could start to loose the steam. How do you keep it going? What do you think? Join in ...

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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What Are The Social Media Uses For Your Brand And Marketing Objectives?

What are the Social Media uses. Social Media needs time and dedication. It is not feasible to have the results within a short period of time. But, yes you can start to achieve results over a period of time.

Your brand / business may have several reason to be on the Social Media Sites. It depends how you nurture it and enable it to grow. Based on your efforts you could start to achieve various results.

The various purposes that Social Media could serve are:

• Customer Service
• Public Relation
  
• Page Ranking
• Acquisition
• Retention
• Customer Value Enhancement
• Referral [Friend Get Friend] Programme, Member Get Member Programme, Viral Marketing
  
• Encourage Non Active Members To Participate
  
• Brand Awareness
• Brand Personality Re-Enforcement, Build Brand Identity And Thereby Brand Recognition
  
• Bring In Positive Brand Perceptions
• Progress Towards Brand Associations, Familiarity, Attitudes, Identity, Personality, Image And Brand Preference
• Increase The Brand - Consumer Bond, Loyalty Towards Your Brand, Service, Product, Company Etc
  
• Over A Period Of Time Customer Intelligence Can Be Built - Who They Are, What Interests Them, And So On Based On What Is Feasible From The Connection Online
• Create Brand Difference
  
• Consumer Insights
• What Does Your Customer Like And Not Like About Your Brand, Product, Service Etc.
• Enhance Brand Proposition And Positioning 
• Try Preventing Attrition
  
• Nurturing Brand - Customer Relationship Over Time Thereby Deepening Relationships
  
• Identify Active Participants To Give Them More Benefits And Thereby Get Them To Feel More Belonging Towards Your Brand, Product, Service Etc
• Facilitating Cross Sell And Up Sell

Your turn. What are the various purposes that you would get your brand / business onto the Social Media Site?

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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Social Media Calls For Pro-Active And Re-Active Actions

When on Social Media you need to have a plan of action. A plan that has directional steps for two paths: one which guides you on the road ahead and the other which helps out when you meet with hurdles on that road. What this goes to say is that you need a plan that is pro-active along with a plan that is re-active.

Allow me to explain this: Just creating a Facebook Business / Fan Pages is not enough. You need a plan - which indicates on what is to be done. Developing a community is time consuming job. The community is to be nurtured and fed with information. As Facebook rightly calls posts as feeds! Truly so, you do need to keep at it and be consistent and fresh as well. It is best to have a diary wherein you will have written about the topics that you want to converse about.

While you plan on this you also need to think in terms of crises. For instance suppose you are administrating the Facebook Fan / Business Page of consumer goods. Who will you approach if one day your community member on Facebook mentions that the goods bought are defective. What would be your steps; at one level how will you address this complain on the Facebook and at another level what will you do at company level. Hence, the plan should also comprise of steps for meeting sudden crises based situations.

When facing crises you need to adhere to the brand philosophy as well.

Conclusion: You need to have a plan that sets you towards your direction clearly. You also need the plan that enables you to tackle crises situations.

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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Know About Social Bookmarking Sites - Social Media

In the online world of Social Media we have the well known sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. In this same world we have sites that enable you to share the various pages and blogs that may be of interest to you. These sites enable you to share links of pages / sites / blogs that you would like to recommend.
Social Bookmarking sites are handy at two levels. One is, they are handy to share and spread the message / articles etc. At another level they enable better SEO [Search Engine Optimization]. There are various sites that enable Social Bookmarking. The popular ones are Delicious, Digg, Stumbleupon and so on.

What happens at Social Bookmarking sites:
At initial level you start off by registering like you would at any other Social site. Post your registering you can then onwards start to post links of pages, blogs etc that you would like to share. This works effectively for the SEO purpose as well. As more traffic gets driven towards your link. These sites also work on more or less same basic sharing and posting descriptions of what you suggest etc.

How do you do Social Bookmarking:
There are a couple of ways in which you can do bookmarking. One is go on the site and copy paste the link of the page you want to share. The other is your browser would have the facility to do Social Bookmarking. And, thirdly usually the sites, blogs would have the same facility as well. As technology advances you have the fourth past which is - applications for your iPhone, Android phone, or iPad as well.

You too can search for sites and pages, blogs that others would have bookmarked. Usually these sites have categories so you can search with ease.

This is another way to start getting traffic towards your site. So which Social Bookmarking sites are your favorite?

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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Basic SEO Tactics - Social Media

Many a times am asked what are the basic SEO tactics to know and keep in mind. Well if one starts to explain this then the list can be a little overwhelming. However to keep matters a little simple I would suggest the below so as to be a little more effective:

• Key Word Research And Optimization:
  Before going into any detail you would first require to do a proper keyword research. Key words are the search words that your target audience would be keying into search sites say for instance Google. The key word research would be done in two parts. At first level you need to check on what does your target audience search. The second part you need to check out on is what keywords do your competitors optimist. Usually the two would be more or less similar however it is good to check out. Post your findings you then need to decide on which key words you will emphasis on and optimize. These would be in tandem with the brand personality and image that you may already have or you may want to create. You will need to be clear on what is the brand philosophy because without this you will not be able to be in-sync with the rest of the brand - customer perception.
• On-Page Content Keyword Optimization:
  Once you have frozen on your key words you need to then make it a conscious effort to utilize the same words. This is known as key word density. However it does not mean that you use the words so often that the reader has no other words to look at. Too much of density makes search spiders also suspicious and they may choose to not follow your page. The algorithms in the search engines are very much tuned to such spams. They can detect such things and can almost ban your page as a matter of speaking. Hence you do use the words but in a creative manner. 
• File Name:
  While working at server level you will have many files to upload and save. This could be either for dynamic data or static information. The search engine scans through these as well. Do not name files as file1, file2 and so on. Instead use this space as your key holder. Have the correct File name that the pages within suggest. 
• META Keyword And META Description Tag:
  When you edit HTML you will notice that you have spaces for Meta words. Use these appropriately. These are important for search engines. They understand the programme language and you can use these to the fullest.
• Page Title And H1 Headline:
  I would encourage you to be creative. However do not be so creative that the keywords are missing from your titles, headlines and sub heads.
• Image Alt Tag:
  Many a times I have noticed that while saving the images we do not mention the proper names instead we call them image1, image2 and so on. A very important fact is that you are missing out on great amount of search spider attraction material. 
• Link Building:
  This is another important aspect of SEO [Search Engine Optimization]. While working it is imperative to have a Link Strategy in mind as well. Links direct and guide the search engine crawlers towards your main page / blog / site. Links work as arrow indicators on highway for the speeding spiders and crawlers. This does not mean that you start to have link packages and get into some aggressive link farming trap. The moment we get into this zone the algorithms at search engine start to flag this as they recognize spamming actions. Additionally you need to be careful on the part from where the links come to your page / site / blog. It is good if they come from a high traffic page. At the same time that page should not have too many links or else again the danger of neutralizing the effect comes in.  Allow me to explain: Let's consider two options. Let's call two pages as 'Page A' and 'Page B' respectively. Page A has high value traffic and too many links. While Page has good traffic not as high as Page A but is healthy traffic and has less than 20 links. When you will submit you link to both Page A and Page B you will notice that the search engine considers the trust value as equal. The reason being that too many links cause the search engine to start looking at spam information. Hence Link farms etc get into negative count. Add to this your link should be supported by proper copy matter and keywords that point towards your link. There are many more factors to consider before jumping into the back-link strategy.

While I have shared this there is lots more to search engine optimization from back end or tech part as well. When you practice the above pointers remember that they work for your website, blogs and Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. Yes, these days when search engines are getting inroads into Social Media sites as well then why should you miss out on a great opportunity?

Interesting? Share your part.

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia

The Changing Customer Service - Social Media

Due to Social Media the way customers are now serviced has taken a change. This change is for the good.

Previously like all other things, we have experienced the good and the bad customer service and care that was implemented. There were some corporates who managed well, while the others managed to frustrate the customers even more. And it goes without saying, that though we have good possibility via the Social Media there will be some who will perform well and others who may not.

It is not that the previous formats of touchpoints have been removed. They still exists. There are call centers, on-desk person to person counters, relationship managers and so on. All these had processes and all would say very much similar things - either they will get back, and / or they are very sorry and / or they will have to ask and then replace goods. Somehow they never knew what was taking place at the company level. They were to form positive contact yet there was no via medium to do so. There were intensive training provided but still there was a gap / still is a gap for some. If atall a customer did get a good and privileged deal this would be notified via some other channel and touch point like maybe an emailer. If there is birthday greeting to be sent out then perhaps an SMS would go out. So the continuity in forming relationship never could take place. And hence they would be relegated to listening to complains, saying sorry profusely and generally trying to pack off the customer. While if we look at the customer side: They would be given a complaint number and would be addressed later. In some cases the customer had to do lots of follow - up before any action is taken.

Many corporates would put up their customer care number, email id as a necessary evil. Atleast on websites it was slightly easier to detect. In print it would be finding it somewhere amongst much text. 

Coming to the Social Media scenario it is changing the way people interact. Lets take for example a Facebook Fan / Business Page. The same Page is used to address customer grievances, answer questions, give more information, to the extent that the Page can start a movement as well. Unfortunately I do come across copy paste statements still 'we are sorry please send us your email id and we will contact you soon' - the whole page is flooded with this message specially on Twitter. However this is thankfully not the tone across the board. What the corporates do now is that the same Page enables customers to engage and know more about how to handle their product, maintain it, a free download is shared and so on. And what's more customer's give feedback. They share it amongst their network and so the good word spreads. 

What is the change? Previously it was re-active now it is pro-active?

Infact what was previously called customer care is now truly to a large extent 'care'. Care is nurturing just not attending to crises. And, shall we say this is shaping up now with Social Media?

What is your take?
We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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Facebook Has Just Launched New Fan / Business Page Design - Social Media

Facebook has just launched new Fan / Business Page design. If you are the Page Admin on Facebook then refresh your Page to see the new layout. Ofcourse it is rolling out so no saying if this is going to remain. These are the early glimpses of the changes so lets see what they finalize.

• One of the best things they have done is giving out notification of comments, likes and so on. This was much needed. If this is the case then Three Cheers to Facebook.
• The tabs that were on top have now shifted to the right side of the Page which means to your left side.
• There is an amazing question and answer section introduced by Facebook.
• The landing tab seems to be set by Facebook and for the moment we admins cannot make the change; this means we cannot select which landing tab we want. It is a default setting.

Things are a little slow since they are rolling out across the various Pages.

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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Best Way To Experience Facebook Group Is Now! - Social Media

With the festive season on and the celebration of New Year is about to begin there are lots of things you need to plan out. It could be an office party, it could be a company throwing a party inviting clients, or it could be family and friends based outing.

Planning time is on. Why not use the Facebook Group here. It is the best way to see the usage and experience this if you have not as yet attempted doing so.

What do you think?

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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Social Media At Alltop

While working on Social Media many a times you may need information to know what is taking place on the Social Media world map. At other instances you may want ideas to boost your thinking when you are about to write a blog post. There are couple of spaces on the net which can enable you to have good matter for your content. One such space is alltop.com .

Here you can search for a range of topics and get to know the answers to your questions. What's more alltop has information on other fields as well. So go on check out alltop and share you views on what you think of this space.

I work as Freelance Social Media Network Online Professional. We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia

The Difference Between A Casual Usage And The Professional Usage On Social Media

Community Management on Social Media sites like Facebook is not just about having a Fan / Business Page set up. A Social Media professional cannot use their Facebook Page the way a casual user consumes Facebook.

There is a definite difference in the way [reason] a casual user consumes Facebook as against the Social Media professional. The obvious difference is that a casual user logs into Facebook to know what his / her network is doing 'what's up!?'. The casual user is more into 'checking out' on latest happenings with their connections. Will be passing on /sharing of photos, videos. They will be commenting on posts and liking other people's comments and posts, photos and videos and so on.

What is the different thing that the Social Media professional would be doing? On the face of it we would say the same things. Well both seem to be doing similar things, reason being that the site provides certain functionality and both use it to the optimal benefit.

The difference is in the motive, the difference is in the objective the difference is in the reason to be there.

The professional utilizes the site's functions a little more optimally than the casual user. The casual user is not too much into RnD on the site. While the professional will check for developments and try to find out new things so that they can connect better with their community members. For instance take a look at the tabs - our casual friend will not be so concerned while our professional will be checking on ways to enhance their Page.

The conversations are flowed towards the Page's thoughts and philosophy by our Professional while the casual user will start and intersect on any conversation. Even sharing of photos and videos are planned by the Professional.

Social Media professional has a marketing objective. Understands customer relationships and manages them. Listens into the talks and makes them into engaging conversations. They portray the brand personality and try to live up-to the brand print / philosophy. They understand the principles of direct marketing and at the same time they know that they do not need to do hard sales and shout their sales messages as a one way communication.

Just because there is an active user on Social Media sites does not make him / her a Professional. 

We have an active Social Media community at my Facebook Business Page. You can experience / see demonstration of Social Media and Community Management at http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia . To discover, share, interact, network, have question answer sessions and converse on Social Media do join me at facebook.com/pervarakapadia  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia
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