Businesses walk in‘To The New’ era of social media marketing
Social media marketing is evolving, as marketers are slowly unraveling the power of social media and its impact on marketing. At its current stage social media marketing is not about using Facebook and Twitter as advertising medium, it has grown much beyond that. Marketers nowadays rely on a much powerful tool; ‘content’. Valuable and engaging content derived by peeling through social listenings and understanding the consumer needs. Leveraging this social noise driven content effectively has helped many organisations reach out to their specific target audience, engage them and meet their needs.
In order to understand more about how social media marketing had been redefined and evolved, exchange4media, in association with To The New group conducted ‘TO THE NEW Digital Roundtable’ in Gurgaon, with the agenda being ‘Social for Business’. The panelists included top marketers across various industries; Shreya Shivangi from LG India, Shikher Gupta from Videocon, Navninder Singh of Akzo Nobel, Ankush Manchanda from Bacardi, and Kanika Mittal from Reebok. The session was moderated by Atul Hegde, CEO, Ignitee Digital (a TO THE NEW group company).
Mr Hegde highlighted that the budget allocation for digital has grown over the years and continues growing. He stated that the whole marketing scenario has changed there are hardly any conflicts between ATL (above the line) and digital spends.
“It’s essential for digital marketing team to answer the sales calling and use social to generate leads. Effective social listening in order to reach out to consumers can help companies to generate potential grid on lead,” he added.
Content is the king
In the past few years, the social landscape has evolved drastically. Marketers as well as consumers are slowly unraveling the power of social media and are leveraging it. While consumers get to raise their voice and express themselves on social media, marketers try to decipher this social chatter to garner consumer insights and meet their needs.
Ankush Manchanda, senior manager – Digital Marketing at Bacardi*, stated that the definition of social has changed over the past two years. It has moved out of just Facebook and Twitter. Consumers need to be engaged using useful content. Its imperative for companies to understand what kind of content consumer requires. Offering customised solutions around content can really help in engaging consumers.
Navninder Singh, Head – Digital Marketing at AkzoNobel, pointed out that it’s imperative for organisations to understand if they have relevant content. “Indian consumers look for inspiration and there are hardly any influential content in the home décor domain. It’s imperative for companies to engage audience on their Facebook page, as Facebook is more consumer friendly. We receive queries from all across the world on our Facebook page.”
Shikher Gupta, Head – Digital Marketing at Videocon Industries, stated that they reached out to their target audience for their recent digital led campaign for a very specific product, purely by content engagement. They identified their target demographics, understood their requirements, engaged them using social conversation in order to create a buzz around the concerned product and lastly advertised their product in their vicinity. This strategy has worked really well for them. He believes that its crucial for organisations to look at the ‘why’ of the product.
Rise of the digital team
Now-a-days, organisations have understood the power of digital and are offering digital marketing teams the position they deserve. Shreya Shivangi, Head – Digital Marketing at LG India, stated that their organisation believes in the philosophy of participation economy and the digital team enjoys the status of an independent team and is involved in all major organisational decisions making processes. The team works closely with all the teams, especially the research team, in order to analyse the social data to gain consumer insights and drive sales. She highlighted that digital teams have targets that are basically objectives to be met and deliver them. They work on return on objectives.
Word of caution
With great power comes great responsibility! Kanika Mittal, Head – Digital Marketing and Brand Communications at Reebok India, believes although social media is a great marketing tool, it should be used with care. “It’s imperative to drive engagement without getting intrusive. Social media time is generally a personal time for users and during that time a brand message popping up might put off a potential consume,” she stated.
She also believes that the content used to engage the consumers should connect with them at an emotional level. “Hashtags needs to be carefully used. They should also have an emotional connect and generic hashtags should be avoided,” she added.
*The views and opinions expressed by him are purely his own and do not reflect the views of the organisation.
