BW Communities

Decoding Social Media

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[In the presence of a most erudite panel, the Businessworld Marketing Whitebook 2012-13 launch saw an exciting discussion on: "Is Social Media Still A Mystery For Marketers?" Addressing a distinguished audience ABP managing director D.D. Purkayastha lauded the Marketing Whitebook for consistently providing consumer data and insights to the marketing fraternity. Addressing the audience, he remarked, "The Businessworld Marketing Whitebook was one of the first titles to come out of our foray into book publishing. It was born when we realised that markets and consumer behaviour were changing very rapidly, and it was important to capture the new market dynamics in different segments in a single volume." Commissioning editor for BW Books, Anjana Saproo, introduced the panel. The panel included Kirthiga Reddy, director online operations and head of Facebook India; Hari V. Krishnan, country manager, LinkedIn India; Bharat Bambawale, global brand director, Airtel; Farshad Family, MD, Nielsen Media India; and Rajat Gandhi, India head at Zenith Optimedia. The panel engaged in a refreshing discussion with CEO of GroupM, Vikram Sakhuja, who was the moderator. The audience was packed with marketers, representatives of creative agencies and clients. The discussion started with Sakhuja asking the panelists if marketers were actually clear in their brief when they asked for a social media strategy? Zenith Optimedia's Gandhi said that "90 per cent of client briefs we get are like ‘give me a Facebook page and fans'… so we need to teach them that there is a world beyond Facebook fans and pages". <table style="width: 200px;" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="9" cellspacing="9"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img src="/businessworld/system/files/images/April/DD-Purkayastha_TS_200x205.jpg" style="float: right;" width="200" height="205"></td> </tr> <tr> <td>D.D. Purkayastha addressing the audience</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Voicing client opinion, Bharat Bambawale of Airtel noted that companies should have an objective before they set out to chart a social media journey. "Most clients oscillate between ‘I don't know what I want' to ‘I know it so well that I can do it on my own'. I would encourage clients to try things, see what you do not know… For instance, in some of our campaigns we discovered there is a certain kind of content people respond to… if you make your content heavily branded it just doesn't work." Throwing a question at Facebook's Reddy, Sakhuja asked, "You are the default option for social media for all brands, tell us about brands who've really got it right?" Reddy cited PepsiCo's "change the game" campaign that took off last year during the World Cup. "Some of the things I'd highlight is that they understand different ad formats, know the difference between premium advertisements that could get the home page slots, and can get the message across to a large target group, and they have got the part right where they truly engage with their connections, bridge the online-offline gap." She emphasised that an integrated campaign across mediums produces good results. Quoting a study she said, "They (PepsiCo) had 60 per cent share in voice in the digital platform and highest brand association across categories. We see this kind of use across big brands." Reddy also cited how start-ups were using information from their connections to devise their stock and distribution strategy. Nielsen India's Farshad Family stressed on the importance of brands' presence in social media. "Social media is starting to permeate daily life, and if that is where consumers are spending time, that is where you need to be. It is your duty to figure out how to be there. You need to integrate social media with the rest of your brand strategy." LinkedIn's Hari V. Krishnan recommended a targeted approach to social media. "Lots of brands look at social media as a broad bucket you are putting a lot into, and they expect to paint it with a single brushstroke, but the context changes everything." Citing LinkedIn's own strategy he said, "We are the largest network of professionals, so when we think of our business model, what groups and constituencies we would like to talk about, they could be recruiters, they could be marketers — we have a third tangent focused on sales people because they want to talk to us about new professions as well. You can't control what they say, you have to think about ways in which you can participate and be respectful of that… they are on a professional network. They have a different frame in mind." Sakhuja then gave Zenith's Gandhi four options across different social media platforms that agencies should ideally recommend to clients. It included consumer understanding and brand strategy, a listening piece, online reputation management and community-building exercise. Gandhi picked the last option. "I would say start from the last one since the rest of them are double-edged swords and then grow by taking baby steps". Finally, Sakhuja sought the opinion of the panel on one of the more baffling aspects of social media: monetisation. Airtel's Bharat Bambawale suggested that brands should not rush towards monetisation, "I would encourage that clients try things and see how they turn up. Don't be in a hurry. Brands are always looking at conversion to sale. The reason being most marketers come from conventional media models which work around the fact that people view your advertisement and go buy your products. Social media is not like that." Clarifying the concept of social media, he said, "It's a loop where consumers/users will do the things they want to do, like talk to other people or share aspects of their lives, unlike the conventional television audience/consumer". Reddy pointed out how brands were actually leveraging consumer-driven data to capitalise their business, "E-commerce portal Babyoye carried out a Mother's Day poll where they asked users what would they like to buy (to gift others)… and the top 4 desired products were stocked by the company, and 80 per cent of their sales were actually driven by those products. So it directly impacted their bottom line." The session concluded with the audience's interaction with the panel. This was followed by the launch of the Businessworld Marketing Whitebook 2012-13. Seagram's Blender Pride was the event's presenting sponsor, NDTV Profit was the television partner and Luxottica eyewear was the gift partner. <a href="http://www.businessworld.in/businessworld/slideshows/Decoding-Social-Media.html" target="_blank">Click here to view Event's Slide Show</a> (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 09-04-2012)