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Companies spend crores of rupees every year to market their products and services online. Getting the user on the site and then persuade them to use their services or buy their products is a tough job. Use of banner advertising is also not giving us as many clicks as it used to give before. It may be due to the user being accustomed to seeing the ads at those particular spots. So the ad position becomes a blind spot… Then there are other ad blocking tools for internet explorer and Firefox that removes all the advertising when surfing the web. So what is going to work online? What should advertisers do? what are the new tools that can be used to make online marketing and user engagement effective ?….

The WEB 2.0 revolution as people call it has the answer.. The new revolution of blogs, wikis, social networking, folksonomies (collaborative sites) and content aggregators has to be leveraged for brand awareness. Right now, Offerings of all products are almost similar with other products. In order to create brand loyalty, a company looks at the online space to develop value that is different from other brands. A trend that is picking up from the international scene is that of building communities online through social networks.

We have heard about Sunsilk gang of girls, Beinggirl.in, Spillurdil.com etc. Brand Communities give consumers an online platform to express opinions, views, and exchange information based on the brand, its features or any other related experiences. International brands had realized the power of online communities’ long time ago. This is how the LEGO, Harley Davidson and Coca-Cola communities gained traction. The trend starter in India was Sunsilk with their gangofgirls… then one more popped up beinggirl.in…… You know that a brand community helps the brand to connect and engage with its target audience but what next. I still haven’t seen any community use the platform to get more customers effectively.

When I was doing a campaign for a major international bank… I used to plan media spends of crores of rupees just to get the user come to the landing page and fill up their information and go away… I ask why..? Why aren’t companies engaging the audience that it has spent so much money on to get in the first place…? Why just after filling up the lead capture form, the user is shown a page with a big thank you or is sent to the company’s homepage where finding information about a particular product or finding help is a hell of a task. I feel financial companies especially banks can use this thank you page to take the user to the next level of engagement.

For example take products like Money remittances or any financial product… In Indian context getting an NRI lead for the Remittances product is very costly….. Comes to around Rs. 500-1000 per lead and the final conversion ratio is around 50 – 1 i.e. Out of 50 leads 1 gets converted so that’s a final conversion cost of Rs. 50k…. If you give 50k directly to the user he will readily open an account at the bank…. No questions asked. There are lots of products in the market that are trying to get customers by spending millions of Rupees.

The only way a product can differentiate itself is by engaging with the audience….

Instead of showing them a Thank you page and waiting for the call center guys to follow up why not involve the user with the brand and company because any potential customer has lots of questions before buying a product or service. Creating a community that has a discussion forum and a Support ticket system is all it takes to involve the user.

The forum can be used by the user to ask questions about the product and clear his doubts till the time a representative contacts him. The forum is also a great place for existing customers to discuss about the products with other members along with interests like movies, music etc. All grievance settlement can be done through the support system. Moderators should be assigned to each and every section so that no customer can discuss about any problem they are facing and the moderators can direct such customers to the support system.

This will lead to greater customer satisfaction and brand engagement which is the ultimate goal for any company. Customers will voluntarily refer their friends and family to the forum to clear any doubts about the products and services. This activity will eventually help the bank to get more customers…. and don’t forget good link backs and SEO.

This strategy is not applicable just to banks but can be used by any company to get the best ROI on their Internet marketing campaigns.

But not every company or agency can do such activities. A specialist agency is required to handle such an activity as it has to be properly executed to be successful or it can take a wrong turn. Quasar is one of the agencies that I know of that has started a special service called Quasar talk to execute such activities related to social media which can effectively execute a Internet campaign with a community driven approach.

I would like to have a critical analysis of this marketing strategy. Please do leave a comment.

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When we give examples of user influenced “social media,” Digg.com, Stumbleupon is right up there with del.icio.us and Wikipedia is the torch-bearer for “user-generated content,”

The popularity of digg has skyrocketed within 2 years and is revered as the best place to get the best stories and also to get traffic for your site. That is why probably there were rumors of digg getting acquired by News corp, Yahoo and many others.

Unlike traditional news sites where editors decide what news is, Digg emerged two years ago as an alternative where readers post links to stories from other Web sites that they think are newsworthy. The users hit a “digg” button if they like it or a “bury it” button if they don’t like it. The most popular stories appear on the front page. Users are encouraged to comment on stories, and they can give comments a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”

But the recent news of digg rigging its articles and companies that offer services of making your stories popular by buying diggs has really not gone down well with the internet industry and the anticipating userbase which thinks that one day their stories will also get dugged and be popular.

So whats with all the rigging news …..

There was an article where it said that the service is somehow rigging stories which get “dugg” or promoted to the front page of the website – and also Digg was censoring anyone who tries to post an article about the same. It was first covered in an article at ForeverGeek.com, which mentioned that two stories posted to the front page of Digg were “dugg” by the same people – and not just a few of the same people. The first 16 diggs were all by the exact same people, and in the exact same order, and Kevin Rose was one of them. When several readers tried to digg the article from ForeverGeek.com, they were banned and the article link was removed. According to Digg, the article had violated the terms of the user agreement, which bans articles that allege misbehaviour by other Digg users.

According to Digg.com, its URL has been banned because it has been “spamming” Digg with its own stories and trying to get them on to the front page. Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg posted a response to the Digg blog, in which he said ForeverGeek.com violated the terms of service.

There are two issues here it seems one is the that Digg (like other social media or folksonomies) is susceptible to being influenced by a small group of insiders. That one is difficult to prove. The other issue is whether Digg.com should be banning people who post stories that are critical of other Digg users.

Another explanation of how a random useless story comes to the front page of Digg is by rigging and inducing the users with rewards or reciprocally helping them with their own stories.

Now, Internet marketers are planting stories and paying people to promote articles and are manipulating rankings on Digg and other social-media sites like Reddit and Delicious to get more visitors to their websites.

“People basically trying to use the user influenced system of Digg to their advantage by promoting a story with fake diggers or other methodology of link swapping.”

Companies charge as much as $15,000 to get content up on Digg. And if a story becomes popular on Digg It generates good enough traffic and links back to the marketer’s Web site and that site rises in search engine results and would not be required to use search engine marketing.

There are other ways to buy votes. A site called “User/Submitter,” is paying people 50 cents for digging three stories and charges $20 each for stories submitted, plus $1 for every vote it gets. Another site Spike the Vote Web site boasts that it is a “bulletproof way to cheat Digg” and offers a point system for Digg users to submit and dig stories. And Friendly Vote bills itself as an “online resource for Web masters” to improve their marketing on sites like Digg and Delicious.

Then there are a few that I found are more of a link swapping and community driven dig rigging sites something like ” I dig yours and you dig mine” which require invites from existing users to take part in.. Every user has some points to start with and gets points on digging other stories which can be exchanged for diggs on your stories. I had one to check how it is.. there is one called piqq.us which was previously called diggboss.com.. there is also one called diggfreak.com .. the list goes on ……

Digg has become a big enough phenomenons that it does move ideas and in some cases generates enough traction that people are influenced and can get them to buy a product or can generate an interest. That is why it is becoming more of a concern for brands and companies alike to monitor such sites. And also use these sites to their advantage.

Digg – and others – need to realize this that the fuel that drives their services forward with users is trust, and once that trust is lost it is very difficult to regain.

Lets see how Digg changes and responds to threats like these. And lets see if this post goes up in digg or not or just gets banned.

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Just updating the presentation on social media. So was on a prowl for content on social media… Firstly I thought well there will be loads of content everywhere.. and yes I found loads of content but the thing I wanted to share was that you find presentations, ebooks etc on social media and web 2.0… but all of the literature was bookish in a way, all text…. No examples, case studies…..

I also got my hands on a presentation done by a startup that calls itself a consulting firm on social media and I was disappointed, the presentation was a lot of gyaan on social media but no examples… The firm that I am talking about has a good research team and is very well known in the internet industry. I cant take its name though..

But by just being a blogger makes you competent enough to handle social media ?… I dont think so….

Just being a blogger doesnt make you competent enough to handle social media … Social media consist of a number of elements like blogs, wikis, forums, folksonomies (content communities), Social networks etc… You need a internet savvy (‘Vela’) person who knows these elements in and out, to sit on it and track it…

There are a number of agencies that has started social media as a service in India.

You can judge the competency of an agency just by going through its presentation.. If you see only gyaan in the presentation that means tht agency has never tried social media and has just copied stuff from the net,got no experience and wants to make you a guinea pig.. And Social media is like clay.. If you are competent than you can give it shape and everything comes out beautifully and if you are not capable of handling it, It will go out of control and will become an ugly experience for the client as well as the agency. A case study not to follow.

The presentation should be about the agency and how well it understands the medium and how much it knows about it…… It should be full of case studies, learnings, examples, achievements so that the client also understands what it is all about by giving proper examples which he can relate to…. Understanding of the medium takes dedication and commitment that has to be proved inhouse before going outside and pitching for business. The agency should be strong in all the fields like Creative, Technology and Media. You can also judge the agency on the type of clients it serves.. Most of the agencies put the name of big guys on their list even if they have just made a banner or viral for them…. The agency should only put the name of the client only if its the agency on record or has worked extensively for them and not just by making a viral or two…..

Off for the day.. Later !

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A really great microsite cum viral which i had to share.. Ull be in awe or wtf or simple cool…. Where do they get these creative guys….. Awesome work… Check out the site Let me know your reaction by commenting.

Now I need to go

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1. Get the headline right

It doesn’t need to start with a number, but the reason so many viral posts do start with a number is that it’s a really easy way to communicate that “this content has value”. As much as some people grumble about numbered headlines, the list of Daily Blog Tips’ most popular posts on your right shows that they work, plain and simple. A comparison:

Some Tips to Grow Your Blog Traffic
with
89 Tips to Grow Your Blog Traffic

The second headline is more clickable because you know you’ll be getting a lot of value from the content. The first headline, however, might contain only two or three tips. Also, the higher the number, the greater the chances that you’ve not seen each point before.

That being said, you can communicate real value without using numbers. The best headlines rouse a reader’s curiosity, or promise value, and there are a lot of creative (text only) ways this can be done.

2. Try tapping into buzz-worthy topics

Content that talks about what is currently being talked about tends to get talked about. Huh? Not pretty to say, but it’s true. Linking your niche to the current big thing, whether it be Britney Spears’ downfall or Google’s online monopoly, is a tried and tested recipe for viral success.
3. Try cramming lots of value into a small package

If I give you a 40 Rupees a week for ten years, you’re not going to care so much. If I give the same amount of money to you in one lump sum of 20800 Rupees, you’re going to be impressed, and you’re probably going to tell your friends. The same principle applies to viral content. More value in one place means more impact.
4. Learn from what works

Head to your favorite A-list or B-list blog and take a look at their list of Most Popular Posts.

Head to the front page of Digg, or del.icio.us, and note down the types of content you see there.

Through both these exercises, it’s more than likely you’ll be met with an idea that can be readily applied to your niche.

For example, let’s take a viral post from the sidebar on the right: 101 Blog Tips I Learned in 2006. What tips did you learn about your niche in 2007? Let’s say you blog about Italian food. 101 Italian Cooking Tips I Learned in 2007. Easy. Or SEO. 101 SEO Tips I Learned in 2007.

You’re using a proven formula to produce a radically different article, and I bet both of those would have a good chance of going viral within their respective niche (and possibly outside it).
5. Cut out the fat, and then some more

Viral content never starts with a winding anecdote, or a long explanation. It ruthlessly cuts out the fluff and starts with what’s important: the value. If you do have a fluffy intro, you can bet visitors will scroll right past it.

Any information that does not make your post easier to understand, or support your core message, needs to be cut, and cut without remorse. If you can make the same point in less words, do so.

Social media is best characterized as a war for attention. You can’t waste a drop of it on the unimportant.
6. Sew links into what you write

Carefully chosen outbound links add depth and value to your text. The trackbacks and impressions they leave on other blogs will help get the viral snowball effect rolling.
7. Spread the word

Word of mouth always needs to start somewhere, so it might as well be with you.

Self-submission to social media will always be a controversial area, and it’s a debate I don’t want to step into here. Needless to say, if you like that route, you can start with that. If you don’t, you can pass the post along to social media friends, run it past a few blogging chums, and otherwise get it under the noses of people who’re likely to appreciate what you’ve done.

source:Dailyblogtips

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