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1. INTRODUCTION
- Social Media Marketing
In the past quarter century, the traditional forms of media- print and analog television and radio have been replaced or have evolved into their digital counterparts and offshoots. Inevitably, all these are based upon the usage of digital computers and the advent of the Internet. These new media tools are very powerful and they have shifted the balance of information control. No longer is the printing press or radio station the high and mighty patriarch of information production. The current evolution and creation of new digital technologies enables individual users and small groups to greatly affect the production, experience and distribution of information.
With the reform of new media, it is important to note that with its arrival, certain old methods are no longer in place. Geographical distance will no longer be as relevant as they were and communication channels are now universal. The amount and speed of communication have reached unprecedented levels and continue to grow.
1.2 Social Media The health communications field has been rapidly changing over the past two decades. It has evolved from a one-dimensional reliance on public service announcements to a more sophisticated approach which draws from successful techniques used by commercial marketers, termed "social marketing". Rather than dictating the way that information is to be conveyed from the top-down, public health professionals are learning to listen to the needs and desires of the target audience themselves, and building the program from there. This focus on the "consumer" involves in-depth research and constant re-evaluation of every aspect of the program. Social marketing was "born" as a discipline in the 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to "sell" ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler and Andreasen define social marketing as "differing from
other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization”.
Social marketing works to help people change their behaviors to become healthier or to improve society or the world in some way. On the continuum of methods to bring about health and social change are the two used most often: education, which uses rational facts to persuade people to change their behaviors, and coercion, which forces people to adopt a behavior under threat of penalty for not doing so. Somewhere in between those two points lies social marketing -- the use of commercial marketing methods to persuade people to change their behaviors for reasons that go beyond the rational facts to appeal to their core values. So often, people know exactly what they should be doing and why, and they still disregard what their head tells them. Social marketing adds heart back into the mix and utilizes emotional appeals to resonate with the part of the brain that determines what people actually do, as opposed to what they know they should do. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society.
1.2.1 Social Media Marketing is not:
- Viral marketing
- Word of mouth marketing
- Dating or matchmaking services
- Public service announcements
- (^) Focus groups
- Cause marketing (companies adopting a cause to improve their image and get more sales).
Thus, Social media is an extremely useful tool using which companies can get their information, product descriptions, promotions all ingrained in the chain of networking world. Considering the newness of this marketing method, organizations are coming up with innovative ways to develop their marketing plans. New platforms are being created to approach potential clients. A large number of business organizations are allocating budget for online business development using social media marketing. It is a booming sector which is going to redefine the way marketing strategies are being formed and promoted.
1.2.2 Feed the Social Media “Beast” and you’ll see it pay dividends
Not long ago, social media seemed so new and different that it was treated as an appendage of sorts—a kind of marketing that should be tried only by “experts.” While that view still exists to some degree today, it’s become clear to many that social media is no longer marketing’s new thing. It’s now simply part of the way we do marketing today. I believe that the proper way to view social media from a small-business owner’s point of view is as more of an evolution than a revolution. Traditional marketing tactics such as advertising, referrals, and public relations are still very important, but social media tactics have now become a part of everyday marketing’s fabric and need to be considered at the strategic level of your marketing decision-making process. So, rather than asking our self if you should or should not use Facebook or
Twitter, the question is: “How can Facebook and Twitter help you achieve your marketing objectives?” It’s the same as asking how direct mail or having two more salespeople might fit into the plans. From this integrated viewpoint, social media participation can start to make more sense for each individual marketer’s needs and goals.
1.2.3 Social media’s importance
- The top three social networks—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—collectively received. More than 2.5 billion visits in the month of September 2009 alone. Twitter grew by more than 600% in 2009, while Facebook grew by 210% and LinkedIn by 85%.
- As of this writing, Google and Yahoo are the only websites that receive more daily traffic than Facebook. Current trends suggest that may not last much longer.
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s fourth largest.
- The most recent count of blogs being indexed by Technocratic currently stands at 133 million. The same report also revealed that, on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a Single 24-hour period.
- It’s been reported that YouTube is likely to serve more than 75 billion video streams to Around 375 million unique visitors during 2009.
- The online photo sharing site Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.
- The online bookmarking service Delicious has more than 5 million users and more than 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.
1.2.4 Define social media
Social media is the useof technology to co-create, know, like, and trust. Social media, and lumping together blogs, social search, social networking, andBookmarking, presents the marketer with a rich set of new tools to help in the effort to generate new business.
1.2.5 The hierarchy of social marketing
- (^) Micro: Platforms such as Twitter, Thwirl, Plurk, and FriendFeed have become a very important part of the social media mix as they allow for quick tracking, joining, and engagement. However, they still reside at the top of the pyramid because without content, such as that created on a blog, the engagement on Twitter may not go very deep.
1.2.6 Some of the more commonly used New Media tools are:
- (^) Cell Phone: A mobile telephone with services like SMS, Internet, gaming, email, camera, GPS, Radio and other modern technologies
- Collaboration tools: Tools allowing collaboration, usually online
- Content Sharing sites: Websites allowing sharing and exchange of Digital content
- (^) E Magazines: A website similar to a blog, but with more emphasis on Editing and quality control
- E Retail: The service of selling online
- Email: A method of exchanging digital messages by humans
- (^) Flickr: A photo sharing website
- Gaming: Games played on the computer and/or on the Internet
- Google Earth & Maps: An application to view the Earth and perform cartographic functions
- IM (Instant Messaging): A method of near real time communication by text
- Internet Telephony: A technology to make voice calls over the Internet
- Mashable Content/Mash ups: A hybrid web application consolidating information from various sources
- (^) Podcasts: Episodic digital media files available for download. Can be video and/or audio
- Twitter: A blog which allows 140 characters per post
- Virtual Worlds: Alternate realities which allow vicarious experiences and interaction
- (^) Web Radio: A service of broadcasting audio via the Internet
- (^) Web TV: Refers to continuously streamed video where the user receives content as soon as it is emitted by the content provider
- Wikis: Pages allowing any allowed user to create or edit the content
- Youtube: A video sharing website for uploading, viewing and sharing video clips Considering the large number of applications available and the extensive extensible user-generated content available, new media has been adopted by a large user base spanning several industries and sectors and a significant portion of the general public.
1.2.7 Strategic social media marketing
Integrate: Don’t treat your social media activity as something separate from your other marketing initiatives. Feature links to your social media profiles in your email signature, on your business cards, in your ads, and as a standard block of copy in your weekly HTML email newsletter. In addition, make sure that links to your educational content are featured prominently in your social media profiles and that Facebook fan page visitors and blog subscribers are offered the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter and attend your online and offline events. Make your social media profiles a part of your address copy block and you will soon see adding them to all that you do as an automatic action.
Amplify: Use your social media activity to create awareness for and amplify your content housed in other places. This can go for teasing some aspect of your latest blog post on Twitter or in your Facebook status, creating full-blown events on Eventfulor Meetup, or pointing to mentions of your firm in the media. It would also add that filtering other people’s great content and pointing this out to your followers, fans, and subscriber’s fits into this category, as it builds your overall reputation for good content sharing and helps to buffer the notion that you are simply broadcasting your announcements. Quality over quantity always wins in social media marketing.
are just getting started, this is what you should do before you ever open your 140-character mouth. Set up an RSS reader and subscribe to blogs, visit social bookmarking sites such as BizSugar, and Deliciousand read what’s popular. Create custom Twitter searches for your brand, your competitors, and your industry, and closely follow people on Twitter who have a reputation for putting out great content. And then just listen and learn.
- Online Hub: There is one element that pulls this strategy together and that’s your primary Web hub. You can’t depend on the contacts you make in most social media activity to serve as the primary trust-building connection that ultimately leads to a sale. Your primary website or blog is the tool that ties all of your social media activity together. Your activity on social media sites or spokes functions primarily as a way to lead prospects back to the much more fully developed content that resides on your website. Your hub is the place where you can engage your prospect in a total education-based campaign that helps them understand that you have the solutions they are seeking. In fact, you can think of a great deal of your social media activity as a way to create awareness and an initial level of trust substantial enough for someone to want to know more. Social media and social networking may be the ultimate permission-based marketing tool when viewed in this light.
1.2.8 How social media works?
When a user of a social media website discovers your story and likes it, they have the option to share it with their friends. This can cause the story to 'go viral' and be shared with even more people. This can deliver hundreds of thousands of visitors, launch a website or new product and bring significant [inbound links]. Those inbound links will directly bring your site visits and indirectly help your SEO. When using social media marketing the quality of your content is crucial, the better it is the more likely it will be passed around. We’ll be talking about how to create such ‘sticky’ content in a future article.
Stunning content will still need a push to get going, the bigger your network on these social media sites the better. Your network can help you give it that initial push, increasing the chance of the story going viral. Direct marketing will reduce the chances of a piece of web content going viral. People do not want to be sold to, the initial social media marketing push should be more about the conversation than the sale. A more aggressive sales angle can be added later, once the social media push has ended.
Social media marketing is a recent addition to organizations’ integrated marketing communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a principle organizations follow to connect with their targeted markets.
Integrated marketing communications coordinates the elements of the promotional mix; advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion.
Increasingly also viral marketing campaigns are grouped to integrated marketing communications. In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations firms. tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.
Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably because it is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations
fosters brand awareness and better customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to
1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN MARKET
Philip Kotler has rightly said, “Market may be defined as the relationship between the consumer and the producer occurring at time and place and a value mutually agreeable and acceptable to the concerned parties”.
It is the responsibility of the marketing system to discover and serve the market demands. It provides the vital link in connecting production (supply) and consumption (demand). Optimum production and optimum consumption will ensure a desired standard of living in an economy.
The standard of living of people in India is low. An increase in the efficiency of the market operation can bring down the prices and thus, contribute to an improved standard of living by bringing more goods within reach of the poorer section of the population.
Improved marketing productivity in India will not only add to the profits of the company which makes as effort to achieve better marketing efficiency but will also give inputs to the development of the country.
2. COMPANY & INDUSTRY PROFILE
Total Media, Digital and Mobile Internet Ad Spending in India (2013-2019)
Today, digital marketing industry in India is growing at its peak, and is still continuous. Many factors are responsible for this growth. The use of communication tools has greatly changed in the year past. No one ever thought to have a credible deal online. The below figure indicates the digital marketing statistics.
The belief was that online information is virtual information full of lies. No one could listen to any online advertisement not to talk of purchasing groceries, furniture or clothes. The story has really changed. Everything from marketing to sales can be done online. This is due to the trust that has been restored back to online communication in India. This has really helped the marketing initiatives. The revolution is from the communication industries. Low cost of handset is now available making it possible for India to have about 600 million internet users which ultimately creates a fascinating business opportunity to sell to a growing population.
Moreover, the development in the digital marketing industry in India evident in the marketing shift from anonymity to identity. Interaction on the Internet now looks more physical as opposed to the anonymity of identity in the past. Also, marketing information’s is moving along in the same line with entertainment. People of India needed an exciting spirit always. This targets their interest into the marketing information.
Several factors have been found to contribute to the growth of digital marketing in India. Before now, internet usage was only meant for the wealthy. There is now a great change in the lifestyle of the middle class. The Very majority now have access to the internet in India. Internet and 3G penetration revolutionized the marketing scenario for both consumers and the marketers. It was discovered that changes in lifestyle and standard of living had increased the level of consumption, quality and also the pattern of consumption. The quality of use in the urban centers of India is on a high side. This is because majority doesn’t have time for shopping. Apart from struggles to earn money, people want some other things to be done at their own convenience.
The following survey from people indicates the size of Digital Marketing industry in India:
- 34% of the companies already had an integrated digital marketing strategy in 2016
- 72% marketers believe that traditional model of marketing is no longer sufficient and this will make the company revenue to be increased by 30% by the end of 2017
In 2017, 80% businesses will increase their digital marketing budget which may surpass the IT budget. Only the illiterates could not access the potentials of the digital marketing because of the accessibility to computing devices and computer education. Many of the people in this category still don’t trust the method of an online payment and they lack training in English Language and other foreign languages to market online in global markets.
The following are the channels that are playing an active role in the development of digital marketing industry in India.
2.1.1 Mobile Marketing
Digital marketing overview reveals that Social media has been playing a supporting role to marketing. Over the years, it has been noticed that 92% of social media users are from the mobile devices. This enables the size of digital marketing industries.
As much as changes is existing in the search engines, marketers are also trying shift their ways of targeting audience so as to meet up with the current evolution in Digital Marketing industry in India.
Apart from the above channels through which digital marketing takes place, activities under Digital Marketing industry in India are not limited to social media, email, content, search engine, etc. Digital marketing is either done in- house where companies might hire people for their own or clients’ digital marketing needs. A company may outsource to specialist digital marketing agencies or given to consultants.
Some of the Digital Marketing Agencies are:
Webchutney
India’s leading digital marketing agency. Webchutney has announced key movements within executive leadership across New Delhi and Mumbai. The move signifies a clear mandate to accelerate growth by forging stronger ties with partners and clients, while streamlining vertical units and fortifying operational efficiency. The agency has grown to over 200 people across New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore with a diverse client portfolio ranging from startups to Fortune 50 companies within 13 years of establishment. Webchtney was Ranked India’s number one digital agency in 2008, 2009 &
- Their services include online advertising, Website Designing, Mobile Marketing, SEO, Analytics, Application Development and Social Media. Some of their clients are Airtel, Flipkart, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Bacardi, Red Bull, PepsiCo, Mastercard and Microsoft, to name a few.. The growth signifies the rate of growth of digital marketing industries in India.
Pinstorm
Pinstorm is a digital advertising firm headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Zurich and Santa Clara within 13 years of establishment. It’s a world where not just desktops and mobile phones but TV programs, billboards and newspapers are going
digital. the world where industrial era practices of command-and-control or even Kotler-type 4P approaches simply don’t cut it anymore, the world that demands a different kind of business and brand thinking. At Pinstorm, what they offer is a completely new approach to building your brand in this digital age. An approach driven by a different philosophy – where they believe innovating on the product offering can be far more impactful than innovating in TV commercials, and where they think outsmarting the competition is a better thing to do than outspending them.
An approach that sees strategy, research, user experience, web design, mobile-friendliness, advertising, search optimization, viral videos, Facebook campaigns, Twitter updates, real-time listening and responses as a seamless set of tactics that stem from one overarching brand strategy. An approach that has helped their clients wins comprehensively in their markets. This digital marketing industry is having a good numbers of major clients. They are: Walt Disney, Yahoo, Canon, HSBC, Café Coffee Day, ICICI, ET Now, GQ among many others.
Obbserv
Obbserv is a five-year old start-up, operating from Udaipur, Rajasthan. Driven by passion and never ending love for the Digital space, the personnel at Obbserv take pride in what they do. They are dynamic in their approach and do everything from Digital Marketing to App Designing and Development. The are the best because they have learnt it by committing mistakes and learning from them. Their office atmosphere is warm and the resources believe in connectivity such that of a family. Similarly, they treat their client’s project as their own and give their best to achieve better results than expected. This is the reason their clients come back for more work. Some of the prominent names they have worked with include Boutiques of India exhibition, Pyrotech, diabetaCare, Novergy, Joal, Carotopla, etc.
Obbserv’s experience has helped them learn how they can bring together the various dimensions of digital marketing and the related tools, which can be worked out together to deliver notable results. The result oriented approach is both, their strength and their motivation. With a strong belief in engaging the users in online interactions that guarantee the conversion of a lead, they turn all odds in their favour. In a practice of breaking their own records in terms of conversion of the real audience, they are moving towards growth and achieving heights. An innovative sense of carrying out the projects and teamwork to its core is what they advocate and give credit to for all their accomplishments.
Gozoop
Gozoop was established in 2010. Gozoop is not a run-of-the-mill digital agency. Besides the obvious services like social media consultancy, lead generation, viral campaigns and SEO/SEM services, Gozoop puts in a lot of effort in R&D and creating innovative services and solutions. One of Gozoop’s first in-house products, Zozolo.com, deals with social commerce and social
