Social Media Strategies and Technologies

You know this post title is too long [ is i't?:) - I suck in KISS principle ] - but I want to clearly convey, what you can expect before reading the complete post.

Recently , I spoke to couple of friends in digital marketing/advertisement space in India and most of them  already tasted the waters of Social Media Marketing but one thing that I could quickly got to know from the above conversations was - ‘You know these guys (marketing heads at most companies in India) don’t get it?’ and also the below tweet from Atul Chitnis

and a reply from Mahesh Murthy got my attention.

I don’t need to give any intro’s about these two guys because one was always at the forefront of the new technology and other has proved that India too has Whiz kids to create what Madison Avenue offices boast off.

I sent the below question to Mahesh Murthy - who runs seedfund and pinstorm - a leading pay for performance advertising firm to get his perspective.

And his reply was short and sweet.

1.  Start with a Strategy - What is the current perception of the brand in socialsphere(postive,negative or neutral)? and online positioning ?

2. Analyze the needs-  What his rivals are doing in socialsphere and what is their positioning?

3. Find and Engage with community -  Who are  his brand customers/prospects? - What they are doing and Where? - Start  conversations with the brand customers/prospects.

4. Start with low cost and expectations with measurable metrics - Social media marketing is a low cost if not free but it requires a good human capital to drive this initiative in right direction so use metrics to measure success wherever possible for your efforts and engage with social-sphere to share , discuss and create quality content & conversations related to the brand , help consumers in need and connect online prospects with a proper channel to generate leads.

Also one thing remember is social media marketing is not a short life traditional style marketing campaign - it is a commitment to engage with consumers and build a loyal community to share/discuss/create useful content/conversations around your brand -  so you need to be very clear and careful to identify what are the goals(brand awareness,reputation management,customer engagement , loyalty building etc) & targets (leads,sales,customer support) a brand is expecting by using social media marketing platforms, engage all stake holders of your brand including decision makers to track the progress and refine it for better results.

What is your take? - do you think Indian brands are ready to embrace social media?.