1

2

Preface Today the virus of social media is spreading faster than any other epidemic. Almost every internet savvy has come across the term “going viral”. Content going viral resonates so enormously that it catches fire and ends up being the topic of discussion across the internet. This book is an attempt to showcase to you the what, how and why of virality. Also find out how the latest trends and technology has changed the entire perspective of digital communication. You will also get to know about some of the most common social networking sites and how they have transformed our world of networking and socialising.

Cheers,

Padmaraj Nashi Creative Designer

Rajashree Das Social Media Analyst

Prashant Jain Social Media Manager

Deep Sherchan CMO

3

4

Stunning facts about social media marketing

30% of the B2B marketers spend millions of dollars every year for Social Media

Marketing

Over the past few years, 1 million websites are integrated with facebook

77% of consumers shopping online read consumer reviews before purchasing a

product

56% of consumers say that they are more likely to recommend a brand after

becoming a Facebook fan.

34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter

87% trust LinkedIn as a source of information affecting decision making.

81% of U.S online consumers trust information and advice from Pinterest

Dos and Don’ts for getting

Viral on Social Media

Word-of-mouth to Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing is not a fad. It has been in

the market for more than ages just that

we used to call it word-of-mouth. The

norm behind Word-of-mouth or Viral

marketing is simple – ‘Creating peer

recommendations for products.’

Marketing and advertising rely on millions

of media channels to in today’s world to

spread the message and reach niche

audiences. Out of these countless media

channels, Social Media is marketers’ cup

of tea for getting viral. The viral nature of

social media outlets like Facebook,

Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus,

etc. is the reason why marketers

relentlessly make use of social media for

going viral. Check the statistics to

understand why…

Getting viral through social media is all

about using the social media channels to

create or increase the awareness and

spread it in the cloud like virus in a

system. A virus that gets submissive by

end of the day is not worth a try. Virus,

be it in the form of a video, flash game,

eBook, image or even text, penetrating

through different channels and staying

alive until it gets noticed by millions is

what businesses need. Bringing such

marketing tactics into action, marketing

strategists creating social media

marketing strategies should chalk out

plans to make the product or service viral

involving less cost.

5

The Viral Marketing Loop: Getting viral on social media channels is an infinite loop …

When a user finds an attractive and

innovative marketing component, he/she

shares it in social media network with

friends. When the friends like the

marketing ad, they in turn share it in their

circles, creating an infinite loop and

making it go viral.

When Gangnam Style video, this

decade’s most viral thing in the market,

was created, neither Psy nor viewers

knew it would go to such heights. This is

a scenario with most marketers. Despite

planning for viral marketing, they end up

with meagre results. Creating a strategy

and praying for it to work is not a real

good way of doing it.

Image courtesy: themusicradar.com

Viral Marketing Loop

6

Brand name has done extensive

research to obtain in-depth details from

top brands that have succeeded in viral

marketing. Here we bring you dos and

don’ts for getting viral on social media…

Dos for getting viral on social

media:

1. Focus on trending events

Check on the hot and trending

topics on social media. Current

events more scope to reaching

more people on all media

channels. Utilize Twitter Trends

and Google Trends to have a

track of the happening things and

create buzz using these

resources. Remember that trends

today need not be the talk of the

town tomorrow. It is usually

Twitter people look up to for up-

to-date trends. If you want people

to share news and spread your

brand name, you need to be in

line with the hash tags trending

on Twitter. Businesses can side

step and post something

completely irrelevant to their

business, if it’s going to bag some

buzz.

2. Write Unique and Humorous

Content to Trigger Emotions

Content that is unique draws

more audience attention. It is very

important to talk the audience

language rather than the brand in

case of social media. Otherwise,

they are less likely to share

content and the sole purpose of

getting viral is lost. Tap the

emotional aspect of the fans and

followers. Ads that tickle their

senses are the ones which get

most attention and create a

stronger emotional engagement

with the marketing component

and the brand.

3. Use visual content to draw

more audience

Users are likely to engage with

brands that post images than any

other media. Use visuals

whenever possible; visuals like

picture, images, infographics,

videos, graphics and animations

work well on social media

channels. Hire designers to

create original visuals including

quotes, checklists, tutorials,

infographics, videos and

presentations on SlideShare.

4. Go decades back and start

storytelling

The cliché ‘survival of the fittest’

holds good even in social media.

Ages ago, when there was no

digital media, the only tool for

marketers to bag few deals, is

telling a compelling story, which

would be shared with others

through ‘word-of-mouth’. The

social media trend today is

nothing less than those old days.

People embrace brands that

share stories on social media.

Stories are easily shareable

which means storytelling can

increase your chances to go viral.

7

5. Sweepstakes, contests and

other promotions

Like any other marketing

campaign, running social media

campaigns pooled with

sweepstakes, contests is a great

way to reach broader audience

and capture the attention of

consumers in appealing and

interactive marketing formats.

Incentivizing offers in a way that

increase exposure to the

promoters’ brand are the ones

which win more attention and

spread like wildfire. Check on the

perfect timing to post the

promotion on various social

media channels. Identify top

networks that can aid you with

the promotional campaigns.

Don’ts for getting viral on

social media:

1. Posting boring which your

audience don’t give a dime:

Social media gives businesses to

go light hearted. Don’t overwhelm

them with technicalities and

jargons unless required. You can

talk to people on a personal note.

It can go to a level of asking what

your audience is doing for their

vacation. Keep the content fresh

make it sound as if it has a soul.

Don’t blabber about your

awesome products and services

every 5 minutes. Remember one

golden thumb rule – ‘One

promotional message out of 20

updates’. Use humor to market

your products and services.

2. Insulting people and hurting

their feelings just to create a

buzz:

Negative marketing might be a

good marketing strategy, but

remember that talking low can hit

on the brand really bad. Though

there are others on the social

media talking unethical about

others, well it is not a great way

of building a brand. Every

negative activity ends with

negative results.

3. Auto posting same message

on all channels:

Most brands jump into social

media accounts without a proper

time-bound strategy. With an

intention to spread updates on

the channels, they post the same

message across all the channels.

When you don’t speak the same

with every person, why post the

same on social media networks.

Craft a proper social media

strategy and create an editorial to

have a crystal clear social media

plan for your brand.

4. Blasting social space with

posts or tweets

Most business executives too

have a notion that posting

incessantly on social media

channels will grab attention of the

audience and makes the

campaign go viral. Had it been so

easy, everybody would be

creating chunks of content and

posting all over the social space.

That is not the strategy that

works. So stop blasting your fans

8

and followers with irrelevant and

unnecessary posts.

5. Lie to win credits

Social media is a transparent that

leaves no room for lies or bluffing

strategies. Social media is not for

businesses that win handful of

customers by cooking up stories

and fake business cases. While

winning trust has been one of the

main aspects of social media,

creating airy stories, adds no

credits to the brand. Talk factual

or do not talk at all.

Common sense is that best tool

businesses can rely to understand the

dos and don’ts for getting viral on social

media.

9

The Essence of

Mobility

“Work is not a

place; work is

something you do.”

9 out 10 senior executives

use mobile apps to be

informed, stay productive

and get entertained –

Based on a Apple study by

eMarketer

70% of executives under

the age of 40 uses

branded B2B apps – Ipsos

Mendelsohn Affluent

Survey

Almost 46% of C-Suite

executives in the U.S. and

75% in Europe have at least

one mobile / tablet device.

Mobile Usage

Landscape

Think about it, by 2015 there will be more number

of mobile internet users than desktop users.

Mobile bandwidth has already surpassed that of

home broadband connections.

With widespread availability and usage of

4G networks and with data moving on to the cloud,

less data storage is required on local devices, allowing

devices to deliver other computing tasks faster and better.

Reasons Why B2B Organizations Are

Going Gaga Over Mobile Apps…

While organizations in the B2C space are excited

about engaging with customers via consumer

apps for smartphones, B2B companies are now

gearing up for mobile-based, interruption marketing.

B2B organizations feel that mobile apps are the way

to go because they realize helps in communicating

with customers it also increases brand value

and business productivity.

Improving Communication With

Customers –

Mobile usage has changed the communication process

between brands and customers. B2B companies have

realized that the current digital landscape requires

communication to reflect customer needs and content

used in mobile technology needs to be accessible, in

real-time, interactive and consumable. Mobile technology

provides B2B organizations with new ways of interacting

10

with their market whether it is through videos, location-based content or rich interactive

media.

Increasing Brand Value and Business Productivity –

B2B brands also know that using

mobile technologies is not only

powerful in creating connections with

customers and building brand value;

it is also a great tool that improves

business productivity. Mobile

technology helps B2B enterprises

maximize support and value of

products and services offered to their

customers and distribution partners.

It also enables their employees to

productively manage workloads. In

this way, mobile technologies play an

important part in optimizing business

processes as well as building brand

value.

How B2B Brands leverage the power of mobile apps?

In order to leverage the power of mobile

apps, B2B brands need to define

business objectives, assess their

competition in the market, research the

needs of your target market, build a

strategic framework and create a

roadmap.

Research Your Target

Market “WHO”

Assess Competitio

n in the Market “WHO ELSE”

Build a Strategic Framework “HOW”

Create a Roadmap

“WHAT”

Define Business

Objectives “WHY”

11

1. Define Business Objectives – “Why?”

It is important to identify the underlying growth drivers and market opportunities of your

business and gain a clear definition of business objectives. Some of the useful questions

that will help in knowing where your business is headed include - Is your brand launching

new product lines? Is your company trying to enter a new market? Are you looking to

reposition your brand perception in the market? Are you attempting to target a new

customer segment? By understanding your business objectives it is possible to develop a

mobile strategy round it.

2. Research Your Target Market– “Who?”

B2B brands need to understand their target market, what their needs are and how they

like to interact with your brand in order build mobile marketing solutions. Conduct

research and analysis through social media and indentify relevant keywords to your

brand.

3. Assess Competition in the Market –“Who Else?”

It is useful to know what your competitors are doing in the mobile segment. By knowing

your brand position and presence in the market, it will provide you with areas in which you

need to improve. It will also help in discovering areas unexplored by your competitors in

engaging your market through mobile technology.

4. Build a Strategic Framework - “How?”

Develop a strategic framework by combining the objectives of your business, your

customer and your market. In this way, it will be easy to define your investment in mobile

strategies and how it can contribute towards business growth.

5. Create a Roadmap –“What?”

With an action plan and strategic framework in place, you can begin building specific

plans to deploy mobile initiatives. Through scoring techniques, you can prioritize those

activities that need to start immediately and those that need future development.

12

6 elements to create Enterprise Apps

Mobile apps have already become an

integral part of personal lives of many

people. This approach to “there’s an app

for that” to get things done, is also

seeping into business lives. Enterprise

apps are now gaining momentum.

Customers today are more informed and

are specific about what they want. They

expect apps to be intuitive and support

collaboration; it should provide a user

experience that is real-time and enables

seamless flow of data. Salesforce.com

discussed six elements that are essential

while creating enterprise apps.

Elements Does Your App… Checklist on the Essentials

1. Social User

Experience

Urge and allow

users to engage

through social

networks in

different ways?

Is your app usable instantly usable

without detailed installation

process?

Is it fun and addictive? Think

gamification.

Does it create an identity within a

network or community, in order to

be able to influence behavior?

2. Collaboration

Help in enabling

people

collaborate and

interact in new

ways?

Does your app provide intrinsic

business value by enabling deep

interactions within the enterprise?

Does it allow users to interact in

various ways such as posting,

notifying, voting, pinning,

bookmarking, recommending,

liking, etc?

Is it seamlessly accessible to

employees, partners, customers,

vendors and prospects across the

enterprise?

3. Leveraging the

Network

Leverage and

become more

powerful as more

people use it in a

network?

Does your app become more

diversified as the network is

Is it self-organized, where users do

not need admins to create groups

or connections?

Does your app by default keep

things public but allows users to

make things private?

13

4. Mobility

Allow accessibility

anytime,

anywhere through

any device?

Does your app allow interaction

and accessibility anywhere,

anytime through any device?

Is it designed for all devices and

does it provide the same quality of

experience?

Is your connection reliable and

secure?

5. Interoperability

Allow for easy

connectivity to

other apps?

Does your app allow for easy

mobility of data and connectivity to

other apps and systems?

Does it have a standard based API

and built in customization

functionality?

Does it have levels of

accountability, traceability and

security, while providing

transparency to user as much as

possible?

6. Innovation

Transform

communication

and interaction in

your industry?

Is your app designed keeping in

mind future technological

developments?

Does it have the capability to be the

first of its kind to be introduced in

the market?

The Way Forward

As penetration of 4G network is going

globally and smart phones are getting

even smarter with better functionalities,

B2B organizations are proactively

adopting them to optimize processes and

boost business growth. The new smart

mobile devices are interactive and

innovative with more powerful

capabilities, robust operating systems,

greater flexibility and crisper display

features.

The definition of mobility is expanding to

wireless devices and with new concepts

such as the Google Glass, interaction

and communication has become

seamless. B2B brands are recognizing

the importance of such technologies in

improving their interaction with

customers, optimizing their internal

processes and workload, and in building

meaningful relationships with customers,

employees, partners, vendors and

prospects.

14

TABLET FIRST QUARTER SALES

(Year-on-Year Growth)

65.3%

282%

Apple Samsung

OPERATING SYSTEMS FIRST QUARTER SALES

(Year-on-Year Growth)

18.0%

5.5%

3.7%

1.8%

Samsung - Android

Asus - Nexus 7

Amazon - Kinde Fire

Windows

Why Tablets are replacing

Desktops and Laptops?

By 2015, tablet shipments are going to exceed that of both desktops and laptops.

In 2013, tablet shipments have grown by 59% amounting to 229.3 million units and global PC

shipments have dropped by almost 8%.

Source: - IDC Research

Think about it, since the introduction of

the Apple iPad in 2010, in just three years

the sales of consumer tablets has

reached figures similar to that of desktops

and is projected to surpass that of laptop

sales this year. The research firm IDC,

states that “with a 13.9 percent decrease

in shipments for the first quarter of this

year, it has been the worst quarter since

IDC began tracking the PC market

quarterly in 1994.”

Here’s a snapshot of the year-on-year

growth comparing first quarter sales of

tablets and operating systems:-

Source: - IDC Research

One of the primary reasons for increase in tablet sales is reduction in prices. Moreover

there is an increasing trend noticed in the tablet market that revolves around screen sizes.

15

According to IDC, sales of the smaller sized, 8 inched tablets like the iPad mini are

expected to surpass that of larger tablets within two quarters.

Reasons Why Tablets Are Preferred:

With new devices such as

smartphones and tablets becoming an

integral part of the board room and the

living room, the big questions today is:

“Will tablets replace laptops?” Here are

some of the reasons why tablets are the

preferred choice:

1. Portable – Tablets compared to laptops weigh less and are smaller in size, making it easier to carry and use for people on the go.

2. User Friendly – Tablets are easier to use and their simple features enable any kind of user to benefit from it.

3. Touchscreen Functionality– With an

easy swipe, touchscreens make it perfect for different kind of users to

interact and use new programs without the need for in-depth knowledge.

4. Connectivity – Tablets have 4G connectivity making it easier for users to connect to a network or the internet even if they are not in a Wi-Fi zone.

5. Battery Life – One of the main pain points of laptop users is their battery life which typically lasts 4 to 5 hours, in comparison to tablets which can last up to 10 hours on a single charge.

Tablets are evolving. The new models that come along with advanced quad-core processors and physical keyboard docks are bridging the gap between portability and power. Moreover, with the

TABLET MARKET SHARE WORLDWIDE BY SCREEN SIZE – 2011 to 2017

27%

73%

55%

43%

2%

57%

37%

6%

< 8" 8" - 11" 11" +

2017

2013

2011

16

widespread use of the cloud, storage space is no longer a concern. Technology that could not be used on tablets earlier are now uploaded onto the cloud and then delivered to tablets. For instance, cloud storage services such as Dropbox provide

virtual space to compensate for the limited space of hard drives on tablets. OnLive is another example which provides computing power via the cloud, required to enable desktop-quality media and productivity on tablets.

Usage of Tablets - Based on User Type

1. CASUAL USERS

Characteristics

They watch videos on Netflix, Hulu+

or YouTube.

They play games ranging from basic

to advanced versions.

They extensively use social media

channels to.....well socialize!

They like to have an extensive library

of eBooks to read on the go, and still

have enough of battery life to do other

things.

What Tablets Mean to Them

A portable, entertainment device. Casual

users did not find it absolutely necessary

to own a laptop. It may have been gifted

to them by their employers and it mainly

served as an entertainment source. For

them, portable devices like the tablet

which allows them to be entertained on

the go, will most definitely replace a

laptop or desktop.

2. STUDENTS

Characteristics

They typically like to take notes,

create reports, develop graphs and

run equations to complete

assignments.

They like to be connected via social

media most of the time.

They also like to occasionally watch

television episodes or movies.

Some of them do spend much of their

time gaming.

What Tablets Mean to Them

Today for students, new technology

devices have become a quintessential

piece of their wardrobe. While

smartphones have replaced laptops,

tablets on the other hand are gaining

momentum, especially with the drop in

prices. While new touchscreen

functionality on tablets have made it

easier to use, the storage space required

to store class notes, course material and

assignments sway students to still prefer

laptops over devices like tablets.

3. CORPORATE USERS

Characteristics

They are two types of corporate

users, business travelers and ‘desk-

Jockeys’.

17

Some of them strategize, some write

content, develop code, and create

graphics or crunch numbers.

They usually own a mobile device, a

laptop and a desktop computer.

They require rich-featured programs,

connectivity, power capacity and

storage space to support their

business activities.

What Tablets Mean to Them

Devices such as tablets are not yet there,

to replace desktops and laptops for

corporate users. They need devices that

can smoothly run rich-featured programs

such as spread sheets, word processors,

or video and photo editing software. While

tablets are getting there by providing

advanced photo and video editing tools,

there are many features that corporate

users need that they find lacking in

tablets, and therefore are not yet inclined

to replace their laptops of desktops

entirely.

4. FREELANCERS

Characteristics

They need to be equipped with

flexibility and mobility to work it out.

Based on their line of work, devices

like tablets could work for them. For

instance, it is convenient for freelance

writers to use tablets given that they

have alternate energy source and

internet connectivity.

What Tablets Mean to Them

Tablets especially for freelance writers,

web designers and developers have

become a preferred device. Paired with a

physical keyboard, connectivity and

power source, tablets seems to be the go

to device to enable them to work on the

go, without the need for a laptop or

desktop.

The Way Forward

While users are juggling with carrying

around a smart phone, tablet and

notebook, they are looking for one-stop

solutions. Tom Kilroy, Executive Vice

President of Intel stated that the 2-in-1

computers such as Lenovo Yoga will be

the future. 2-in-1 computers are laptops

and tablets combined.

While new mobile devices and tablets

seem to be taking over the consumer

market, business users on the other hand

have not migrated entirely and prefer to

keep their laptops or desktops as stand

by. There is a growing trend of

enterprise-wide tablet adoption.

Organizations are widely using tablets

along with a suitable suite of apps and

with data hosted on the cloud,

accessibility is seamless across devices.

Organizations are benefiting by handing

out tablets instead of laptops to

employees. Firstly, they have more

control over data as it is hosted on

remotely. Mangers are able to monitor

usage of resources and with control to

access to data, theft and misuse can be

prevented. One of the primary benefits of

using tablets enterprise-wide is cost

saving. It is easier to control costs when a

software program has to be installed only

once and various hardware systems are

allowed to use it. The evolution of tablet

versions and new app development,

organizations can easily connect them to

their servers with minimal customization.

18

Pinterest – Reasons for its

exponential growth

Pinterest is the third most popular social network – Experian

Pinterest hit 10 million unique US visitors, faster than any other site in the history of

web – TechCrunch

The exponential growth of Pinterest has been talk of the town for quite a long time, since it

was tagged as the next big thing in the social media space.

Pinterest is Unique!

When Ben Silbermann started Pinterest, the only aim was to encourage users to collect and

share images they find on the web. While there are many social media network channels

which allows users to share content they like and get connected to friends, family and

relatives on the web, Pinterest is unique allowing users to share visuals.

Source: Internet Marketing Inc

19

Basics about Pinterest

Pin:

When a Pinterest user uploads a photo or a video,

other users can Pin it using the button. Every photo or

video can be pinned and they are linked back to the

original source that has uploaded it.

Board:

A board is where users can

organize their pins based on

genres. Boards can be made

public or private based on their

priority.

Follow:

A feature similar to

Twitter, when a user

follows another, their

pins shows up on the

follower’s home feed.

User can follow any

number of users.

20

Why people love Pinterest? – Easy,

Visual & Creative

Why people stick to Pinterest? –

Curate, Share & Inspire

Why people pin? – Fun, Beauty &

Motivation

What is a good pin? – Personality,

Beauty & Inspiration

The Secret Recipe of Pinterest

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann says Marketing

is the secret behind Pinterest’s exponential growth

and not Engineering. Pinterest growth accounts to

the basic marketing tactics. It has nothing to do with

algorithms or engineering. When Pinterest was

launched, it could not get more than 3000 users in

three months. When

Ben Silbermann spoke to the investors, most

of them had concerns with the tool and

suggested him to make a few corrections

that might change the tool’s fate. But Ben knew it

was not about re-engineering the tool, it was about distributing and promoting the tool.

Pinterest created a strategy to get connected to people through meet-ups and clicked funny

pictures and posted them. They had various bloggers, active users on social media

channels to work with Pinterest. With a tag line “Pin it Forward” Pinterest has created a viral

buzz and created a mark.

Now Pinterest has reached 25 million members across the globe.

Pinterest – The marketers’

way!

Though Pinterest stands as the third

biggest social media network after

Facebook and Twitter, not many

marketers are utilizing it the way needs to

be. Pinterest has started of a portal to

share i.e. pin images focused around

businesses like fashion, hospitality,

photography, wedding and beauty. Over

the period of three years, it has grown to

one of the top referral platforms with great

potential to drive traffic to the websites.

Despite so many advantages, there are

many marketers who say “I don’t

understand Pinterest”. For marketers like

that, here are few reasons why you need

to follow Pinterest.

Reasons why marketers

should be on Pinterest:

1. Pinterest reduces the sales life-

cycle time:

Pinterest is the only social media

networking site that reduces the sales

cycle by cutting down on the steps

between discovery and conversion.

Especially when we are talking about

B2C i.e. Business to Consumer

marketing, it helps in converting deals

faster. The price of the product is

available on the picture; the consumer

likes it they buy it. It is just a one-step

go. No other social media network

offers such conversions.

21

2. Pinterest Drives traffic to websites:

Pinterest is the only site in the recent

history that managed to get 10 million

unique views. If you are a company

aiming fuel you’re marketing with

relevant traffic to your website,

Pinterest is your piece of cake.

Pinterest is one great site that

increases gives back links to the

website which gets in more traffic and

corresponding SEO ranking. Though

Facebook, Twitter and other social

media networks preceded it, Pinterest

was the best social media tool that

drove traffic is a great way.

3. Engagement is insanely crazy:

Engagement happening through

Pinterest is insanely too high.

Facebook and Twitter have the

metrics to show engagement; but

when compared with the Pinterest

numbers, the social media networks

are nowhere near its engagement

levels. The reason for this might be

due to the wide array of users who are

not usually bothered about the

numbers. All they want is to share

information and they do it just to meet

the purpose. Anything that does not

involve too much of salesy content will

be liked by people.

4. Know what your customers like:

Pinterest is all about interests. Based

on the pins or the boards that

customers or prospects like and

follow, the interests could be easily

gauged. There are many consumers

that have found companies they

would buy from and businesses that

they could partner with on Pinterest.

What Marketers can do on Pinterest?

Pinterest gives marketers a new set of

marketing opportunities. As now you

know what the reasons are for you are on

Pinterest, here are few reasons for you

that explain what you can do on Pinterest.

1. Share visual content on

Pinterest:

As we all know, Pinterest is a

visual social media network site

where you can share visual

content. Businesses are bagging

customers with the help if elicit

emotional images. When it is

business to business companies,

they can share images of

products, visuals relating to blog

articles, resources like white

paper, cheat sheets etc.,

Infographics and Instructographics

are two great content types that

are widely used on Pinterest. Data

charts, ebook cover photos,

photos of your customers, your

events happening, sometimes

even personal photos that

customers can relate to are a

great content media.

2. Incorporate Pinterest button on

Website:

22

Ensure to include a Pinterest

button on your website. This helps

people reaching out to your pin

boards. When they reach the

boards, they need to see

information relevant to your

website. So ensure that content on

your social media network and the

website is in line.

3. Stand out as an Industry

Leader:

Through your pins, share thought

leadership information that makes

you stand out in the crowd and

makes you stand as a leader in

your market. Have themed pin

boards that speak your language.

4. Start a video Gallery:

After images, videos are the next

big thing in the content marketing

funnel. Utilize Pinterest to

showcase videos you have

created. Create a special gallery

for the videos and share them on

Pinterest. You can feature videos

of events, speakers, conferences,

etc. that build credibility.

5. Use #Hashtag to be found:

Like Twitter, Google+ and

Facebook now, Pinterest also

allows hashtags. Make use of

hashtags to tag pins and make the

pins search friendly.

Pinterest is not about showing off

products or services. It is about

showcasing them in such a way that your

target audience like it and go for it. Dig

out ways to understand how to attract

your target audience based on their

lifestyle, preferences and buying

behaviours.

23

Rise of the visual content

machines– Instagram

“Pictures speak a thousand words.” Instagram, a photo sharing

iPhone application was build with

a similar idea. Known as “Burbn”

in its beta phase, the check-in app

could also add photos. What was

interesting was the fact that apart

from photo sharing the app saw

very little engagement.

Hence they tried building “Just Photos”

another prototype where only photos could be shared with friends and family. But at the end

it was not launched because applications like Hipstamatic, a photography company which

also provided IncrediBooth and SwankoLab for iPhone and Snap magazine already existed.

But what still did not exist was a photo sharing app with a social functionality.

This led to the ideation of “Instagram’’. Instagram allowed the user to click images using

their mobile phone and share them instantly with the world. There were three fundamental

things that were kept in mind while developing this application. They focused on:

1. Creating beautiful photos

2. Allowing users to share them on multiple social networks

3. Making the entire process quick

“We focused on three – we weren’t trying to reinvent the world of photography. We focused on these

three humble problems. And that’s what turned Instagram from yet another network tackling photos,

into a network people used.”

- Foundation 16: Kevin Systrom

The journey after the big launch

Instagram was launched on 6th Oct,

2010. The application was launched

exclusively as an iPhone application with

the release of iphone4 which gave them

24

the perfect platform providing a high

quality camera displaying high resolution

images which can be edited and shared

with friends and family instantly.

Within its first 24 hours of launch over

25,000 users logged in and by week 3 the

numbers grew to 300,000 and then into

the tens of millions. The launch was a

success and the main reason for its

heighten demand was the founder Mr.

Kevin, who had in his interview with

Internet Television Network Revision 3 in

January explained about his product and

created a hype in media. Kevin also let

highly influential people like bloggers and

contacts like Mr. Dorsey of Twitter use the

test version of the application before the

official launch. Mr. Dorsey used the

application to upload all his images on

twitter and in just a matter of time, the

word spread through his followers.

Battles fought on their way

Instagram also fought its own battles.

First, due to the increasing demand they

had to shift to Amazon’s rent a server

service over night to avoid any technical

glitches and slow down or capacity

constraint. Next, it was seen that Mr.

Kevin and Mr. Krieger had to carry their

Mac Books Airs and wireless cards

everywhere they went to get online

anytime for trouble shooting technical

glitches which happened a lot with

shooting influx of traffic.

Recently it came under the line of fire for

introducing a revised version of private

policy and terms of service. According to

the modified policy any image uploaded

can be used by Instagram or Facebook

for advertisement based on its likeness.

All images on Instagram are considered

as commodities. This saw an outrage of

protest from users and thousands of

complaints poured in on twitter. Following

which Instagram reacted by a tweet:

Then Instagram posted a blog entry

clarifying various aspects of their privacy

policy and promised that they would

modify their language making their

message clearer. However they did not

promise to make any substantial changes

in the policy.

Read the complete blog here:

http://blog.instagram.com/post/38252135408/thank

-you-and-were-listening

25

Gaining Popularity

So what about Instagram actually caught

users’ curiosity and liking? Is the fact that

the application allowed users to tweak the

images with its strikingly unconventional

borders and filters which made the

images more striking adding a nostalgic

glow? Or was it the speed and ease with

which one could upload and share their

photos? While it is yet to be discovered,

it’s known that one of the few things that

worked strongly in favour of Instagram

was that soon celebrities joined the

league.

Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were

the only two celebrities who had 1 million

followers before the android version of

Instagram was released. The app gained

popularity only after the release of android

version and its acquisition by Facebook.

The android version of the application

was released by April 2012. This move

got them a whooping one million people

signing up for them in just 24 hours. The

success did not go unnoticed, investors

lined up but Mr. Kevin was not interested

in selling it. They maintained a small

highly qualified team of 11 which included

many Stanford graduates.

The decision of not selling Instagram

changed when Mr. Kevin met Mark

Zuckerberg. The deal was closed in just

48 hours which also speculated that Mark

Zuckerberg was threatened by the

Instagram’s growth. Also, Instagram

acquisition was a perfect solution to

strengthen Facebooks’s foothold in

mobile application space. Mack

Zuckerberg considered this as an

important milestone for Facebook’s

growth in future. The deal was finalized

for a $1 billion cash-and-stock deal.

Following these two events, the big guns

on Instagram saw a spike in number of

followers. Until now it had seen only 27

million downloads but now it saw 50

million downloads and excluding

Instagram’s accounts many more celebs

received over 1 billion followers. Today

the top 5 spots are occupied by Justin

Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez,

Taylor Swift and Kendalln Jenner.

Looking at brands, MTV, Starbucks,

Eonline, Victoria’s Secret and Burberry

take the top 5 spots.

In recent times, it has been gaining

special popularity amongst sports

enthusiasts as a number of them kick

start their campaign and share their

story/experiences post event through

images. It has also been seen that smart

phone users login and spending more

time on Instagram than Twitter. The trend

has been consistent since August.

So while visual social media is still in its

infancy stage, the unbeatable factor of

Instagram success is its mobile aspect.

Like pinterest, Instagram is one of the

platforms benefiting from it. Instagram

being one of Facebook’s biggest

investments makes it even more

interesting to watch what their next move

would be and how will Facebook use

Instagram and make it into a money plant.

So stay tuned, as the battle for Facebook

and Instagram to continue to remain as a

market leader has just begun!

26

Rise of Visual Content

Machines- YouTube

In today’s competitive digital space

brands are required to create creative

content that generates conversations.

This explains why we see a meteoric rise

in info-graphics and brands designing

social specific content.

The increase in number of images,

videos, photographs, live streaming, user

generated content and info-graphic is the

proof to the fact that social media

marketing is moving to a different

direction all together.

Whether you are an accountancy firm or a

manufacturing firm it is very important

these days that you figure out a way to

integrate visual content in your marketing

mix as some of the stats prove that online

imagery is powerful in capturing

customer’s imagination.

5 reasons to believe that

visual content is the future:

1) Facebook’s Timeline also means

brand pages ought to be more

visually appealing than before.

(Source: Simplify360 Report)

2) 85% of the US internet audience

watches videos online. The 25-34

age group watches the most

online videos, and adult males

spend 40% more time watching

videos on the internet than

females. (Sources: Nielsen)

3) Traffic grows by 12% faster by

using infographics

(Source:AnsonAlex)

4) Over 72 hours of videos are

uploaded each minute on

YouTube.com and 700 YouTube

videos are shared on Twitter every

minute. (Source: YouTube)

5) 85% of viewers are more likely to

purchase a product after watching

a product video. (Source: Internet

Retailer)

27

Powerful visuals are known to hold audiences’ attention for longer period of time. It is also

known that visual content encourages engagement between brands with customers.

Implying that in future brands will prefer visual content as more visual content equals more

engagement which means more conversations and sales.

YouTube

From left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim (Image Courtesy: Wikinews)

Founded in 2005 by three PayPal

employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen,

and Jawed Karim YouTube has changed

the media landscape. Globally

Youtube.com is the largest video

destination and the most visited website

overall.

Over the years, YouTube has seen some

phenomenal success. Today it has

become a repository of videos on all

topics imaginable. Whether it’s breaking

news, a case study or a how-to video, the

first spot to stop by is Youtube. The

website is a one-stop-resource of videos

and footages which are shared by on-the-

ground citizen journalists; hence they are

generally the non-edited version.

The diversity of video’s available is one of

the main reasons for YouTube’s success;

there is always something available for

everyone. It is increasingly becoming a

platform where people search for news

and how-to’s on any topic. According to a

Pew Research Centre Report the most

searched for terms on YouTube were

related to news.

On this platform both citizen’s and

professionals contribute alike. It has been

a collaborative effort from citizen’s,

organizations and professionals for

content generation and distribution.

However, promising this may look but

content distribution still has its own

issues. Though they follow a stringent

sharing and privacy guideline, not

everyone adhere to them. We see content

posted without clear attribution, without

copyright permissions and without

declaration of the source altogether

creating opportunities for information

falsification and distribution of pirated

content.

In 2006, YouTube presented a set of

28

agreements to media companies in a

humble attempt to escape the threat of

copyright infringement lawsuits. On Oct

9th, YouTube was acquired by Google for

US$1.65 billion in stock. It was

announced that YouTube will continue to

operate independently with its co-

founders and 67 employees within the

company.

Since then YouTube has grown leaps and

bounds. They have successfully been

able to attract many online marketers and

social media enthusiasts to think out the

box and run their video campaigns. They

have been able to provide innovative

means and ideas of utilizing the platform

and connecting with audiences by mass.

Today user experience is been splashed

by video content as it offers to provide

information and entertain at the same

time. This trend is only growing as many

brands invest heavily in video content.

Consumer product brands such as Nike,

Red Bull, Old Spice, and Puma etc. have

been some of the most creative and

innovative brands to have published one

campaign after another and attracted

millions of followers and take video

marketing to the next level.

Post its acquisition, Google has tried and

kept YouTube an independent function.

However, we did see some integration in

Google News and YouTube. In 2009

Google added a local news video channel

to its stories aggregation allowing readers

to watch related YouTube channels and

clips alongside its news.

During this time competition has been

high. There are many high-quality video

platforms today available with competitive

features or specialized markets. Some of

them such as Vimeo, Flickr have been

there since the start but have failed to

gain popularity as Youtube. Some of the

platforms such as Blip.tv, Veoh, Viddler,

Dailymotion and Yrog are specialized

platform that offer features such as

unlimited upload capacity, a smart UI

make it easy and relatively quick to load

huge files; some of the features that

YouTube fails to provide.

In March 2013, YouTube hits one billion users per month stat, making it the best video

sharing platform. They announce their success by a few comparative measures:

Our monthly viewership is equivalent to roughly ten super bowl audiences and if YouTube

was a country, they would be the largest in the world after China and India.

- YouTube’s official blog

This is what makes YouTube one of those

“not to be missed marketing tool” today.

With the increase in number of visual

content haring networks what would really

be exciting to see is youtube’s way

forward.

With its efforts such as revenue sharing

29

scheme with the newswire Reuters, giving

it a rich source of raw video footage and

now introducing a pilot project of paid

channels, it stands tall as the only

platform that provides multiple ways on

growing your audience, brand awareness

and ad revenue through content

collaboration.

In its latest attempt, it tries and lures

viewers, advertisers and content

producers by diverting their marketing

investments from traditional TV

promotional to YouTube channels. They

believe that viewers will be willing to pay

to access certain content and so they

approached a small group of channel

producers and asked them to submit

applications to create a channel that

users would have to pay to access. They

are considering charging anywhere

between US $1-$5 per month even for

content libraries, live events, self-help and

financial shows.

What will be exciting to see is whether

YouTube and its partners are able to

create such content that a user would be

willing to pay for?

Reference:

http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/youtube_news http://youtube-global.blogspot.ca/2013/03/onebillionstrong.html

30

Why People Love

SlideShare?

‘SlideShare: The Quiet Giant of Content Marketing’ – Forbes Content was always considered the King of marketing. When Content Marketing has been

the next big thing in the market, SlideShare quite evidently bagged it too early. Before

anybody else could step into the market, SlideShare had taken the leap and made a mark.

SlideShare is now the world’s largest community for sharing content in the form of

presentations, PDFs, videos and even webinars. The community brings in about 60 million

visitors and 130 million page views every month. It is rated as the number one content

portal spreading information, feeding blogs, and social media channels like Facebook,

Twitter and LinkedIn.

Though there have been many other tools which came later into the market, SlideShare

stood out in the crowd as the only portal that gives business solutions that marketers need

from such content sharing portals. SlideShare is the friendliest tool to businesses that helps

marketers create brand awareness, track visitors and generate leads. These happen to be

the three main reasons why people love SlideShare. However, there are other benefits too.

Business benefits that make people love SlideShare

Create brand awareness with the help of unique content

Know if the content is working or not with the help of reports

Generate niche and qualified business leads

Get better ranking on search engines especially Google, Yahoo and Bing

Drive traffic to the website, blog or social media channels through presentations

Increase the number of followers on social media

Grow email subscriber base

*SlideShare gets the highest and most qualified B2B traffic when compared

to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

31

Here are the stats from ComScore that proves the point.

507

594

518

199

162

147

99

139

144

156

95

93

96

94

108

164

146

166

85

130

90

91

89

82

99

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Business owner

Micro Business owner

Small Business owner

C-Level

Work in Small Business

Audience Chart

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

SlideShare

32

SlideShare had made efforts to become a

B2B portal helping businesses and

especially with the business benefits it

offers. Forbes said it right when they

called SlideShare a Content Marketing

giant. Now, let’s sneak into the key

features of SlideShare. With SlideShare

you can…

Share unique presentations with

millions of viewers in the

community

Upload professional and

educational documents and share

publicly or personally

Conduct research with the help of

resources already available in the

portal

Get insights for your presentation

from millions of presentations

existing in the portal.

Create a professional network with

other businesses or marketers on

board

Utilize SlideShare widgets on

blogs and websites

Make your content go viral and

gain high search rankings

Create SlideCasts to spruce up

your webinars, lecturers,

slideshows, etc.

Collect leads for business through

lead generation service

Marketing professionals are

relying on SlideShare as a visual

marketing channel to reach

prospects and customers easy

and fast. SlideShare has become

a mandate for every visual

marketing campaign to generate

niche leads. Here are tips that can

turn your presentations into a lead

generation machine.

Tips for Best Utilization of SlideShare:

Prove that you are an expert:

When you are talking something to

your audience, make sure you

choose topics in which you excel

factually. Remember that most

audience absorb visual elements

faster than text. Cut down on the

lengthy paragraphs, talk to the

point and show visuals

everywhere possible. Most

importantly, you need to talk the

language of the audience. If you

are not giving them what they are

looking for, it is as bad as not

doing it at all. Use your expertise

to pull new prospects by giving

solutions to their problems.

Title is the face of your

presentation: Like any other

marketing component, title or

headline is the element, based on

which your audience decide

whether to go ahead and read or

to leave it there. Audience spare

not more than three seconds to

take a decision. Grab the

opportunity by making it easy to

read along with simple, neat and

alluring design. Get them with the

headline and make them click

through the presentation.

Make the presentation SEO

friendly: Optimizing your content

for the search engines is as

important as making it reader-

friendly. Make it a practice to

include most popular keywords in

the title and also in each slide. Win

33

Titbits for Creating SlideShare

Presentations

1. Make it easy to run through

2. Chop information into consumable

bites

3. Incorporate unique and aesthetic

images

4. Use minimal text

5. Include clickable calls-to-action

6. Avoid too many animations

7. Upload presentation as a PDF

the search engine ranking by

focusing on meta description and

meta tags for the presentation.

Ask viewers to share the

presentation. The number of

shares increases the inbound

links.

Spread presentations through

other marketing channels

Presentations on SlideShare can

be embedded on different social

media and marketing channels. It

is easy to engage audience

through presentations on blog,

facebook, twitter, etc. Sharing

becomes easier and content sees

more light.

Do not start right away – Have a

Plan

Creating a presentation right away

picking some random topic is very

easy and anybody can do it. If you

want qualified leads and results

from SlideShare efforts, you need

to create a strategy involving

social media, blogs and other

marketing channels you rely on.

Before you get started, have an

editorial calendar and work out

based on it for enhanced results.

Once you have the plan, publish it

on SlideShare and drive shares

through social media.

Repurpose your content

Most businesses have marketing

collaterals or resources on

websites. Not many people utilize

it to the fullest. If you already have

a white paper with lots of content,

why not convert it into a visual

presentation for SlideShare. Do

not have same content; try to

represent the content in a visually

appealing way to attract more

attention.

Track reports to understand

where you stand

Getting reports on number of

views and downloads is one of the

best features on SlideShare.

Businesses can utilize this option

to understand what’s working and

what’s not for the brand. Track

down to the referring sites,

keywords and audience to get in-

depth details. Based on these

metrics, you can decide on ‘what’s

next’.

.

Trigger them to ‘Fill the Form’

Businesses are utilizing

SlideShare as a lead generation

tool. You can get the information

of the person who is interested in

your products or services.

Chances are that people landing

on SlideShare are audience

searching for niche content. Once

you get the details, you can follow

34

up immediately and drive through sales.

Top brands using SlideShare:

Have you been thinking that you are an

industry that cannot take advantage of

SlideShare? Well, you might want to think

about it again. Because, here are five

companies from the Fortune 100 list

belonging to different industry verticals

using SlideShare for various business

purposes.

Cisco Systems

Cisco has joined hands with

SlideShare to share research

presentations, documents,

insightful information and

discussions. Cisco has been using

the community to get a greater

reach and also share valuable

information which they cannot

otherwise.

SalesForce

SalesForce uses SlideShare as a

tool to share new updates about

their software of share latest

presentations, infographics and

eBooks.

SAS

SAS, the business leader in

business analytics shares

presentations on SlideShare which

educate their prospects of

customers about products and

services.

NetApp

NetApp, one of the data

management solutions

companies, uses SlideShare to

talk about their new products and

give insights helpful to customers.

Zappos

Zappos with the help of

SlideShare, creates a personal

connect with their customers.

SlideShare has been and will continue to

be an advantage for both social and

search purposes. It gives businesses an

intellectual edge over search engines and

tactically build networks on social media

channels. It is the easiest channel to

upload and share content on different

marketing channels. Nevertheless, it is a

great lead generation tool that shortens

the sales cycle of businesses with its

qualified leads. With its intelligent ability to

integrate with marketing automation tools,

the sales and marketing alignment get

easier giving scope for more return on

marketing investment.

What else would a business want, qualified leads pushed directly into the marketing

automation tool and pour in astounding results? That’s what SlideShare gives that make it

so loveable.

35

Twitter handles

which a social

media enthusiast

should follow!

Are you new to social media? Do you

want to make a living out of crafting and

reading tweets? Are you a marketer who

wants to explore the social media world?

If your answer to any of the above

questions is “Yes”, then you should start

following the 8 twitter handles mentioned

below to get your daily dose of what’s hot

in social media.

These twitter accounts will give you a

hang of best practices in the social media

industry and if you read what they tweet

thoroughly then in some while you’d be

ready to try your luck in this ever

changing industry.

@NeilSchaffer

43108 Following, 69233 Followers

Focuses on Social Media Strategies, emerging trends

and tech. journalism!

USP: Very interactive!

@kimgarst

141818 Following, 159762 Followers

Shares captivating stories and tips and tricks to build an

engaged community!

USP: Featured in Forbes list of Top 10 Social Media

Influencers.

36

@socialmedia2day (Social Media Blog)

464 Following, 187,972 Followers

Covers every single movement in social media world, and

shares best and worst socmed practices from experts

USP: Conducts super engaging chats #smtlive and

#socialshakeup

@memeburn

2 26 Following, 11405 Followers

From startups to social media, they cover it all and that too

with much finesse

USP: Very insightful posts and bookmark worthy stuff.

@TheSocialCMO

34764 Following, 32503 Followers

A tweetsourcing platform where all the marketing heads of

social organizations sit together and discuss

USP: Conducts a very engaging #MMchat, must attend for

every social media junkie.

37

@AskAaronLee

127685 Following, 462,836 Followers

His tweets focus on community management, branding and

content marketing

USP: Very spontaneous and interactive, maintains a very

interesting blog, AskAaronLee

@Steveology

71617 Following, 102,918 Followers

Focuses on lead generation, customer retention and content

marketing

USP: Featured in Forbes list of Top 50 Social Media influencers

@SocialMediaKara

19,951 Following, 21,548 Followers

Offers a good information feed on social media news, useful

for those who are new to social media.

USP: Thoughtfully constructed Content Stream, focusing on

trending topics in social media.

38

Common Patterns Amongst them!

They are most likely to use text

blogs for making their opinions

count to their audience.

They love to engage with others

rather than RT other’s tweets.

They use relevant hash tags only

when it is required.

They craft tweets so perfectly that it

becomes almost impossible to go

away without clicking the link.

Always remain updated in terms of

their content.

39

Excellent Non-Brand Facebook Pages

when it comes to engagement

Facebook has become the one-stop-shop for all community managers looking at creating a global online community of followers and potential customers in today’s virtual world. As more and more businesses are adapting to the changing consumer behaviour and customer engagement habits, social networking website has become key to developing a successful marketing strategy. So it does not matter how big or small your business is; going online is the next way forward. While you can find many branded

pages that have successfully build a huge fan following on most of the available social networks, let’s look as some of the less known pages on Facebook. Focusing on how they have successfully built a community and also engage with them without spending a penny on Facebook ads or marketing it through other channels. We choose the following pages for discussion because of their high rate of reader-engagement ratio. We believe that they are excellent examples for niche social media marketing.

1. I Fucking Love Science (Category: Science Website)

This page tops our list with over 5 million likes and 3 million people talking about it. The page has attracted large number of conversations by sharing interesting facts in science from all around the world. Launched in March 10, 2012 the page has seen a whooping number of likes and comments in just one year. Elise Andrew, the page moderator is an employee at LabX Media Group, which owns LabWrench and publishes Lab Manager Magazine and The Scientist. Elise started the page with the objective of sharing information which is less known and presented in an interesting and a fun way to people in her words ‘the lighter side of science’. The description about the page states as follows:

We're here for the science - the funny side of science. Quotes, jokes, memes and anything your

admin finds awesome and strange. If you take yourself seriously, you're on the wrong page. We're dedicated to bringing the amazing world of science straight to your newsfeed in an amusing

and accessible way.

Tell us what makes you say "wow!"

40

As the brief says it all, the page posts are light-hearted, entertaining and enjoyable by all science lovers. The theme of the page has consistently been followed and the stories are shared through images combined with a question, poll or a story that people would love to read, share and also comment. Some the best practices followed such as posting regularly, keeping it interesting and encouraging reader views and comments has made this page one of the favourite’s amongst both the youth and older generation alike.

Elise has been able to attract over 5 million fans in just one year by sharing interesting facts and non-factual information through images and each post has received at least 500 comments. An incredibly high rate of audience conversation and engagement for a non branded page even when compared to branded pages. Elise also started a sister page called Science Is Awesome which has also seen a huge fan following with 326,458 likes and 232,388 people talking about it.

Link to the pages I Fucking Love Science: https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience Science is Awesome: https://www.facebook.com/ScienceIsSeriouslyAwesome

41

2. Garbage Bin (Category: Artist)

Kaam na Dhanda....Bekaar Bandaa...!! ^_^

The page owner Faisal Mohd. depicts a witty yet silly, amusing yet a relatable character. The page posts are funny, entertaining and most importantly engaging. Launched in August 2011, the page has seen 358,941 likes and 65,528 people talking about it in two years. Faisal Mohd. is the creative hand behind the scenes whose comic strips have become an instant hit. The comic strips are written in colloquial language (Hindi) and that adds to its own charm and uniqueness. Anybody who understands the language and is born in India can relate to the depicted incidences that are humoured about in the comic strip.

The character is created with great care and detail to portray a happy-go-lucky character and the comic strip illustrates incidents occurring in his day to day life to which any middle class Indian can relate to. It is this creative content that attracts the huge number of likes and comments. Faisal keeps his interactions with fans up close and personal and responds to each one of them promptly. One of the best practices that have played a vital role in helping Faisal gain popularity.

It is seen that his fans have been demanding an increase in frequency of posts regularly, which goes to show how well perceived the page is. This also opens up an excellent opportunity for Faisal to take his passion and creativity to the next level. Responding promptly as always, Faisal takes advantage of the situation and announces his own website which would carry more content, more gags and will also have an online store for their official merchandise.

42

An excellent example of how one can build a business after making it big on social media.

Links to the page: https://www.facebook.com/garbagebin?fref=ts

43

3. Delhi Metro confessions (Category: Community)

Public forums have given people a voice. With more and more customers coming forward to comment and share their experiences online, social media forums have provided an excellent feedback channel to all brands. Delhi metro confessions page is yet another excellent example for the same. Started in March 9, 2013, the page allows confessions and complaints from anyone who wants to share and the sender is kept anonymous. This page has over 105,526 likes and 75,928 people talking about it. Daily commuters share their experiences and encounters during their journey through Delhi Metro here.

The page directs you to a Google form where you can write and submit your confession/complaint and the admin reposts the same on his/her discursion.

44

Maintaining complete anonymity of submission, the page follows strict sharing policy to ensure no unrelated and obscene comments are posted on the page. The admin himself stays behind the curtains allowing the page to be completely driven by the community. Making it simple for him to create and review content and also maintain some basic social media hygiene.

Links to the page: https://www.facebook.com/delhimetroconfessions?fref=ts

45

4. Rajnikant Vs CID Jokes (Category: Just for Fun)

Ankit Mor and Shahid Javed created this page on 10 Oct 2010, to share best SMS jokes. Starting with Rajnikant and CID jokes the page soon saw many a fans like and comment on it. Who does not like to read and share some light humour. The content shared was the key in building a strong community on Facebook. With over 1.3 million likes and 910,631 talking about it, the page shows a high rate of engagement ratio.

While Ankit and Shahid started by sharing only Rajnikanth and CID jokes that were a hit in the year 2010. By 2011 they moved on to sharing other jokes and funny posts (images and text posts alike) to increase the frequency of the posts and reader engagement. A simple page yet a popular one among readers. So what is that catches reader’s attention here? Well like the page and find it out yourself ;)

46

Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/RajnikantVsCIDJokes

47

5. Bohot bhukh lagi hai yaar subah se kuch nahi khaya (Category:

Community)

Yet another excellent example of user generated content. With over 1 million likes and over 766,127 people talking about it, this page has been able to achieve a high reader-engagement ratio through its witty, funny and amusing shared gags. The page moderator Pritesh Rajput encourages users to share jokes and content. The page is solely aimed at building a community of likeminded people. With images, video’s, gags and links being shared by admin and readers about anything and everything from Bollywood, food, cricket and general news.

What is worth noting on this page is that how Pritesh (the moderator) slips in a couple of posts with a pure sales motive, communicating it in a very creative and an innovative style.

48

Pritesh tries and push the sales of t-shirts from Wear Your Opinion (www.WYO.in), Say it Loud

(www.sayitloud.in) and Bewakoof.com (of-course these Tee’s have some good, witty captions!)

Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/bhukha.prit?fref=ts

49

6. 9gag.com (Category: App Page)

So here is a non brand page which describes itself as a global community of people aimed at sharing happiness. Created on July 2008, this page attempts to bring people together and let’s them share anything they find interesting. The page encourages user generated content and gives get real responses from people all over the world. By 2012 they reached a mark of 4 million likes by fans and also launched themselves on Instagram. The content has gone viral since then and within just one more year that is by 2013 they have seen an increase of over one million fan likes on Facebook and 500,000 followers on Instagram. This page has an extremely high rate of engagement ratio with an average of over 25,000 likes on each post and 2,077,581 people talking about it.

One of the first things that come to notice is that the content shared by the admin is original and all the gags pictorially represented are 9gag.com branded. Yet another marketing tactic adapted to build brand awareness through your community building and engagement efforts.

Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/9gag

50

Summarizing some key takeaways:

1. Keep it fun, amusing and entertaining.

2. Integrate your online presence. Take advantage of your strong social network to improve your website traffic.

3. Do not try and sell directly. Be creative, funny while you try and promote your sponsor/self products on the page. Refer to how Pritesh Rajput, moderator of ‘Bohot bhukh lagi hai yaar subah se kuch nahi khaya’ Facebook page use’s this very tactfully.

4. Be original in the content you share. Ensure you tag every image or owned content with your brand (like how 9gag.com does it!) so as to multiply your brand reach when fans share your content on other social networks.

5. Develop and maintain social media hygiene. Create some ground rules or a social media sharing policy so that fans and followers are aware of what NOT to share. ‘Bohot bhukh lagi hai yaar subah se kuch nahi

khaya’ Facebook page gives a good example for the same: ABOUT THIS COMMUNITY: This is your Fan Page and we would love it if you contributed to it, be it through a wall post, video, link or photo. That being said, we want this to be a safe and fun environment for all users to get together. With that in mind, we thought a mini "house rules" would be appropriate. Feel free to disagree with us and other fans, but please do so in a respectful manner. We will not tolerate abuse or harassment (no personal attacks or statements about sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc.), no spamming, and no uploading of inappropriate content (including the promotion or distribution of content that is illegal, harmful, abusive, hateful, racially, religiously or ethnically offensive, obscene, threatening, bullying, vulgar, sexually explicit, defamatory, infringing, invasive of personal privacy or publicity rights) on this Page. To Sum it up: Just Be Cool.

51

List of metrics to track

on Facebook, Twitter

and Social Buzz

Digital Media is full of metrics and

insights, sometimes a bit more to digest for

a digital marketer. Hence it is important to

identify the one that matters and implement

them in your daily or weekly reporting

structure.

But before you create the reporting

structure, you need to have a social media

plan and its goal listed. If a metric do not tie

to a goal, then it is useless. For example

it’s not necessary to measure the size of

your community or re-shares, if your goal is

to increase web traffic. Rather it is

important to find out how many people your

content is reaching and how many of them

clicked on it.

There are basically 2 types of metrics:

1. Vanity Metrics

2. Actionable Metrics

Vanity metric is a kind of metric,

which boosts your brand’s ego, for example

the number of Fans, Followers, ReTweets

and Likes. Most businesses have a

tendency to circle around vanity metrics

and feel good about it, even when they do

not directly tie with the goals of a business.

On the other hand, Actionable Metric is

a business centric metric that demands

some immediate actions to be taken. For

example, if the CTR of your banner Ads are

low, it demands immediate action by the

advertisers to recreate the ad.

Every social network has its own sets of

actionable and vanity metrics. As a brand it

is important to priorities between them and

set out to create the best reporting

structure. Below are the lists of metrics,

which you are measure and calculate for

each of the social network.

Facebook Page

Public:

Likes: Number of people who have liked

the page.

People talking about: Number of people

who are generating stories about the page

by liking the page, commenting on posts,

sharing the posts or sharing the page itself.

Likes on Post: Number of likes on the post

made by the Facebook Page.

Comments on Post: Number of comments

made on the post made by the Facebook

Page.

Shares of Post: Number of shares made

52

on the post made by the Facebook Page.

Post on Wall of the page: Number of post

people have made on the Facebook Page

wall.

Number of Post made: Number of post

made by Facebook Page in given time

period.

Sentiment of comments: Sentiment

breakdown of comments made on a post.

Private

Number of views of the Post: Number of

people who saw the post.

Number of clicks on the link of the Post:

Number of clicks received by the link on the

Post.

Page Impressions: Number of

impressions received by the Facebook

Page.

Page Consumption: Number of people

who clicked on the content posted by the

Facebook Page without generating any

new stories. This means people clicking on

photos, links, videos and others.

Number of negative feedback: Number of

people hiding the post made by the

Facebook Page or marking it spam.

Derived

Engagement Metrics

The measurement can be daily, weekly or

monthly. This measures the activity

strength of your community members.

Number of Comments per Post:

Divide the total number of

comments on the posts by the

number of Posts for a given time

period.

Number of likes per Post: Divide

the total number of likes on the

posts by the number of Posts for a

given time period.

Number of Shares per Post:

Divide the total number of shares

on the posts by the number of Posts

for a given time period.

Time to respond: Average time to

respond to any query on Facebook.

The metric can be further divided with

respect to Post types: Photos, Links,

Updates, Videos and Q&A.

Community Metrics

The measurement can be daily, weekly or

monthly. This measures the quality of your

community members.

% Fan Engagement: Number of

Unique People talking about divided

by Total number of Fans.

Post Metrics

The measurement can be daily, weekly or

monthly. This measures the quality of the

post made by the Facebook Page.

% Post Engagement Rate:

Number of unique people liking,

commenting and sharing the posts

divided by the Number of unique

people who saw the post.

% Post Click Through Rate:

Number of unique people clicking

on the links in the Post by the

53

Number of unique people who saw

the post.

Twitter

Public Followers: Number of people following your Twitter profile. Following: Number of people your Twitter

profile is following.

Tweets: Number of Tweets made by your

Twitter profile.

ReTweets made: Number of ReTweets

done by your Twitter profile.

ReTweets received: Number of ReTweets

received by your Twitter profile.

Mentions received: Number of replies

received by your Twitter profile

Mentions sent: Number of replies or

responses sent by your Twitter profile.

Favorites: Number of Tweets people have

favorited from your Twitter profile.

Lists: Number of List counts. List is a

curated groups of Twitter profile created by

people on Twitter.

Derived

Engagement Metrics

The measurement can be daily, weekly or

monthly. This measures the activity

strength of your community members.

Number of RT per Post: Divide the

total number of RT on the posts by

the number of Posts for a given

time period.

Number of Mentions per Post:

Divide the total number of Mentions

on the posts by the number of Posts

for a given time period.

Number of Favorite per Post:

Divide the total number of Favorite

on the posts by the number of Posts

for a given time period.

Time to respond: Average time to

respond to any query on Twitter.

The metric can be further divided with

respect to Post types: Photos, Links,

Updates, Videos and Q&A.

Community Metrics

The measurement can be daily, weekly or

monthly. This measures the quality of your

community members.

% Follower Engagement: Number of

Unique People Engaging with your Twitter

profile divided by Total number of

Followers.

Post Metrics

The measurement can be daily, weekly or

monthly. This measures the quality of the

post made by the Facebook Page.

% Post Engagement Rate:

Number of unique people engaging

with the posts divided by the

Number of Followers times Number

of Posts times

% Post Click Through Rate:

Number of unique people clicking

on the links in the Post by the

Number of Followers times Number

of Posts times

54

Social Media Buzz

Social Media Buzz is the conversation

around particular keywords which can be a

branded keywords or general industry

keywords.

Public Total Buzz: Total number of mentions across the social web. (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Blogs, Discussion Form and so on) Positive Mentions: Total number of

positive mentions.

Negative Mentions: Total number of

negative mentions.

Neutral Mentions: Total number of neutral

mentions.

Active Time: Peak day and time when the

buzz was at peak.

Unique Audience: Number of Unique

people mentioning involved in the

conversations.

Channel Affinity: Distribution of buzz

across different platforms.

Regional Distribution: Region wise

distribution of buzz.

Demographic Distribution: Age and

Gender wise distribution of audience.

Derived

Average Mentions per Day: Total

mentions divided by the time periods in

day.

Rate of change of Mentions: Change in

the volume of conversation with respect to

time.

Influence Score: Weighted value of buzz

across each channel. (Buzz is the volume

of conversations)

Opinion Score: Ranked score based on

positive sentiment buzz for the Brand.

Prominence Score: Ranked buzz score

based in comparison with the industry

standard.

Buzz Score: Aggregate of Influence,

Opinion and Prominence Score.

List

Influencers: List of profiles who are

influencing the overall buzz.

Trending Topics: List of key topics that

was talked most during the time period.

Key Negative Keywords: List of key

topics, which are generating negative buzz.

Key Positive Keywords: List of key topics,

which are generating positive buzz.

All the above metrics listed are some of the

fundamental metric, which a business must

be focusing on. Beside these, there can be

many derivatives out of above topics.

Furthermore these are dynamic variables

and in coming times as the social network

change the variables and their relevance

also changes.