Analyzing Brands’ Mentions on the Social Web
Posted on 24. May, 2010 by Gautam in Reports
Often people wonder – sure there are people discussing our firm and brand on various social networking platforms like Twitter, Blogs and discussion forums, but how can we quantify it? How are we perceived overall? What are the themes people talk about? And is it mostly positive or negative?
So we at 2020 Social decided to do a little experiment.
We took a look at all the India based conversations on the social web which mentioned 5 Indian IT companies – Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Cognizant and Patni Computers over a period of one month (March 2010) and then analysed them.
The findings were quite interesting.
We found that the themes that these conversations could be classified in the following areas: Relating to HR, Culture, Leadership and News items.
Most of these mentions (86%) were overwhelmingly in microblogs followed by discussion forums and then by blogs.
Most mentions were around news items, followed by Culture and HR
Take Aways from the report:
- There is a lot of discussion about IT firms related to work and HR related subjects .
- There is little or no engagement that the organizations are taking to connect with influencers and to drive the conversations
My NASSCOM Emerge Workshop on Social Media For B2B Marketers
Posted on 26. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events
Here is the mammoth 225+ slide deck from my NASSCOM Emerge full day Workshop on Social Media For B2B Marketers.
I started off by being provocative and arguing that “social media strategy” isn’t really about “social media”, but about answering three questions –
- Who are our evangelists and why will they talk about us? Or, how to identify passion?
- How can we organize and energize our evangelists? Or, how to ignite passion?
- How can we help our evangelists spread the word? Or, how to scale passion?
I have riffed on the same idea during my GoaFest 2010 talk on how marketing is changing. The NASSCOM Emerge workshop helped me sharpen it and resulted in the post: Everything You Need To Know About Social Media Marketing In Seven Short Steps.
The deck itself is a little rough around the edges, but I’ll tighten it up and replace the present version, so do feel free to embed and share it –
Cross-posted at Gauravonomics Blog For Marketers, Entrepreneurs and Activists.
Everything You Need To Know About Social Media Marketing In Seven Short Steps
Posted on 25. Apr, 2010 by admin in Ideas
Here’s everything you need to know about social media marketing in seven short steps:
1. The biggest risk with social media is in not engaging in public conversations about your brand. So, do engage yourself and encourage your employees to engage. Ask them not to do things that will embarrass themselves or you, but expect them to. All of us have embarrassed ourselves in public, more than once, so will they. It’s okay.
2. The only solution for negative conversations is more positive conversations. Responding to and resolving negative conversations is table stakes. The only way to win at social is by inspiring your evangelists to start and spread more positive conversations about you. So, put in place a process to track and resolve negative conversations, then focus on energizing your evangelists.
3. So, start by asking: Who are our present and potential evangelists? Who do they talk to? Who talks to them? What else do they talk about? What are their triggers to talk? Why do we want them to talk about us? In effect, you are creating a persona for your evangelists, except that instead of using it to design a website, you would use it to design a web of talkworthy touchpoints.
What Does the Ning Fiasco Mean For the Future of Niche Networks and the Freemium Business Model?
Posted on 16. Apr, 2010 by admin in Ideas
Earlier today, Jason Kincaid at Techcrunch leaked published an internal memo from new Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal in which he announced his decision to phase out Ning’s free “build your own social network” service to focus on premium networks and lay off more than a third of its staff.
The announcement has triggered a number of reactions, around three predominant themes –
1. Et Tu Ning!: By phasing out its free service Ning is betraying its Network Creators who have bought into its promise of “build your own social network for free” and invested time and effort to build their niche communities. Even though some Network Creators could pay for premium accounts, most would move out of Ning, to other free or premium options like Buddypress, Kickapps or even Posterous.
My take: Ning’s about turn does feel like a betrayal and even network creators like myself who are already paying for premium services will like Ning less for it. However, I expect Ning to offer an entry level premium option in the $10 to $20 a month range, and I expect most networks with more than a few hundred members to stay on with Ning, partly because there’s no easy option to transition the networks to another service.
Afaqs Story on Twitter’s New Advertising Model
Posted on 16. Apr, 2010 by admin in Media
I was quoted yesterday in a afaqs! story on Twitter’s new advertising model.
For Twitter ads, resonance is based on how many Twitter users engage with the ads (retweet it, reply to it, favorite it, click on it). Also, brands need to be careful about not being seen as spamming users with promoted tweets.
So, brands should promote the following types of tweets –
1. Contest tweets, where the brand encourages users to share or submit ideas or stories to win a prize.
2. Cause marketing tweets, where the brand encourages users to support a cause or a non-profit.
3. Tweets from customers where they review, recommend, or give kudos to the brand, product or service.
Here’s a post on how Virgin America is using promoted tweets.
Here is the full text of the story –
Now advertise on Twitter
Kapil Ohri | afaqs! | New Delhi, April 16, 2010Twitter, the micro blogging and social networking platform, finally seems to have cracked its monetisation code.
Recently, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, posted information on Twitter’s advertising service, called Promoted Tweets, on the official blog (blog.twitter.com).
Exchange4Media Story on Our Social Media Panel at GoaFest 2010
Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events, Media
I have written about my panel discussion on social media at GoaFest 2010.
Here is the Exchange4Media story on the panel —
It’s all about being ‘social’
Rishi Vora
Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and many other social media platforms have become a way of life for many consumers in India. Sharing information with friends and also strangers has become the new reality. How can brand managers and advertising agencies cash in on this growing segment? Can this very-evident opportunity in the media world be monetised? Can it become the centre of digital communications? How does one measure social media?
All these questions and more were addressed at a panel discussion on Social Media, which was part of Knowledge and Learning Seminar on Day 3 at GoaFest 2010. The session, which was moderated by Eric Ashok Ledergerber, Founder, hub.in|dia, had among its panelists Patrick Liotard-Vogt, chairman, ASW.com; Kiruba Shankar, well-known blogger and CEO of Business Blogging Pvt Ltd; Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 2020 Social; and Vishal Gondal, CEO & Founder, Indiagames Ltd.
Vishal Gondal started off the session by explaining how the whole media space was reinvented with the evolution of social media. “We are moving towards participative media, where the ballgame of engagement has change dramatically,” he noted.
Campaign India Story on Our Social Media Panel at GoaFest 2010
Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events, Media
I have written about my panel discussion on social media at GoaFest 2010.
Here is the Campaign India story on the panel —
Social, location, context, mobile: Buzzwords for the future
Gunjan Prasad, 11 April, 2010The 2nd day of Goafest 2010 was set in motion by a ‘Knowledge & Learning” seminar focussing on the burning issue of ‘Social Media’. A varied panel comprising Eric Ashok Ledergerber, founder, hub.in-dia; Kiruba Shankar, CEO, Business Blogging; Vishal Gondal, founder, India Games; Gaurav Mishra, founder 20-20 Social and Patrick Liotard Vogt, chairman, ASW.com held the audience’s attention through plenty of examples and an interactive element.
At the outset they urged the audience to send their thoughts and views through SMS or twitter while the session was on.
Gondal gave three parameters that are defining the social media in current times. He said that reinvention of media is inevitable as it is moving from being a one-way conversation to a participatory medium. “Also, free is the new premium.” Most importantly, he added that social, location, context and mobile are four buzz words that will change the future of communication.
afaqs Story on Our Social Media Panel at GoaFest 2010
Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events, Media
I have written about my panel discussion on social media at GoaFest 2010.
Here is the afaqs story on the panel —
Goafest 2010: The dynamics of social media
Presented by Mail Today
Devina Joshi | afaqs! | Goa, April 13, 2010On the concluding day of Goafest 2010, a session moderated by Eric Ashok Ledergerber, founder, hub.in|dia, saw experts in the field of digital media discussing the growing importance of social media and its relevance in today’s context. The panellists comprised Patrick Liotard-Vogt, chairman of the social community, ASW.com; Vishal Gondal, CEO and founder, Indiagames; Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 2020 Social; and famous blogger, Kiruba Shankar, CEO of Business Blogging.
Shankar shared a story of his annoyance with Cleartrip.com. When the travel site messed up his flight booking details, he blogged and tweeted about it, which in turn led to another 300 people retweeting the story and putting it up on their blogs and Facebook profiles.
As a result of this online explosion against Cleartrip, the brand didn’t do the obvious by staying mum or defending itself — it surprised everyone by admitting its mistake publicly. What’s more, Shankar was given a redeemable free business class ticket, as compensation for the inconvenience caused to him.
Writing on the Wall: Every Single Talk at GoaFest 2010 Was About Social Media
Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events
Last week, I gave my first GoaFest talk as part of a panel discussion on social media with some really cool co-panelists –
- Eric Ashok Ledergerber (@ledergerber), Founder, hub.in|dia
- Kiruba Shankar (@kiruba), CEO, Business Blogging
- Vishal Gondal (@vishalgondal), CEO, India Games
- Gaurav Mishra (@gauravonomics), CEO, 2020 Social
- Patrick Liotard-Vogt, Chairman, ASW.com
Eric moderated the panel discussion. Kiruba talked about the importance of brands engaging in one-to-one conversations with customers, and mentioned his Cleartrip experience as a case study. Vishal talked about social gaming, and showcased India Games’ IPL T20 Fever cricket game. Patrick talked about the importance of niche social networks like A Small World.
I talked about the difficulties in scaling one-to-one conversations and suggested that agencies and brands might find it easier to build community platforms to host conversations between customers and brand evangelists.
I also argued that the big question in marketing in the 21st century isn’t “how do we get the attention of the biggest audience?” but “how do we scale passion?”.
My working hypothesis is that you scale passion, as a business, non-profit, or government organization, by following three simple steps —
Social Media News Stories 22nd March-2nd April
Posted on 06. Apr, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reviews, Trends
News stories from 22nd March-2nd April:
1) The Times of India featured a story ‘India’s first You-Tube star’ by Javed Anwar on 22nd March that chronicled the rise of Wilbur Sargunaraj after his video ‘Love Marriage’ garnered indisputable fame. The 32 year old from Madurai has joined the ‘fame club’, with even the Digg community featuring him amongst its top stories and the article quoting celebrated movie critic Roger Ebert daring his followers on Twitter ‘not to like this Indian music video with its smiling bride’. However it seems this is not Wilbur’s first attempt with his first song ‘Blog Song’ uploading on You-Tube in July 2007 and numerous others after that.
Comment- YouTube is a rage in India and the above article is an instance supporting it. Whilst, it would be difficult to ascertain the exact geography of its audience, the fact that You-Tube is now a must medium for individuals and brands to communicate and explore is reason enough to watch it keenly.
2) An article ‘Facebookers more loyal to media than Google’ appeared in DNA on 22nd March that elaborated on the growing prowess of Facebook to pull in visitors to news and media websites than those brought in by Google News.
2020 Social builds and nurtures online communities for Indian and international clients, connects their customers, partners and employees, and helps them achieve their business objectives.
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