Social Media Marketing Blunders

Hello friends! This week I would like to talk about an interesting area “Social media marketing”. According to Wikipedia Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. Such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and etc.Social media marketing allows people to share things about brands, views and many more. In Social media viewers are having more control over the brands or companies. They are allowed to give any opinion or idea. So unlike in mass media advertising, Social media marketing should be given more attention. Otherwise there would be a huge reputational damage to the company.

There are several common mistakes when it comes to Social media marketing. Now let us see what those are. The major mistake they do is “Not Monitoring” Company should always listen and monitor what social media viewers are telling about them. Companies should have a real time conversation system to engage with viewers. An example for real time conversation system would be Nestlé’s Digital Acceleration team which is based in Switzerland.

Assign handling social media marketing to junior or inexperienced employees is another mistake. If they reply defensively or aggressively to a customer comment then that would be the end of it. So there should be an experienced senior to monitor the activities.

Content is spreading like wildfires in social media. So the company should make sure that content they are publishing is not offensive. And if something goes wrong they should response as soon as possible. Immediate responding can save your brand reputation.

The most important thing is “Do not fake it” Because what some companies do is make employees comment as customers to protect the company, if any issue arise.Viewers will definitely find out the truth. So it is better not to do these type of things in social media. I hope you got a brief understanding of how not to become a social media blunder. See you all soon with a new topic :) 

How FMCG Brands can reach to the right Target Markets using Google Display Network

Hey all! Today I am going to explain about Google Display Network or (GDN). Google display network helps you in being up in hundreds of websites very easily. Basically you can create any type of ad with Google display network. Such as text ads, image ads, video ads and also ads on mobile web sites.Most importantly it will display the ad to most relevant people and precisely to people who are mostly interested to your product or service. Which in turn reduce the advertising cost while maximizing return to investment. So this is a very effective way to reach the target audience of any FMCG brand. Basically targeting can be done in two ways. First one is topic targeting and the other method is reaching people who are interested.

Let us first talk about Topic targeting. For example let’s take Elephant House Cream Soda as the FMCG.Here mainly our target group would be youth. So we are going to advertise on the websites which they are interested. Such as sports, fashions and IT. It can be a totally different area from our brand. So the Google Display Network would relate our Cream Soda ad to the websites which contains content about sports, fashions and IT. We do not approach the youth directly. But reaches them through the topics they are interested in.

Other method of targeting is reaching people who are interested in the product. This is basically done through adding interest categories. Information related to interests are gathered by cookies.For example if a person is more frequently visiting web sites related to food and beverages or soft drinks we cn identify that person as an interested party.Then what google display network does is make Cream Soda ad visible to him as much as possible.Not only when he is browsing soft drink web sites, but also in other sites aswell.FMCG marketers can be highly benefited from Google Display Network, If used wisely.

Use of YouTube for marketing

Hi all! Today I am going to talk about how to use YouTube in marketing. As all of you are well aware YouTube is a video sharing website and also the second largest search engine. It is only second to Google. In marketing, videos play a major role by building a powerful idea in target audience. Let us first see why we should engage YouTube in marketing.

First reason is YouTube is free.It might take time to make a video.but it should not be essentially a video clip by a camcorder.With simple feature phones and smart phones now anyone can make a simple video.Once you upload the video it there in the website so everyone can view.And you can upload unlimited number of videos.Another reason is videos help in search engine optimization.So you can upload videos in youtube and embed them to the company website.So it will help in increase ranking.YouTube videos can be sought in Google aswell. In YouTube you can reach a global audience.So the audience is not limited.This is because people from any country can view you channel without any disturbance.If you only want to target local customers that can be done accordingly.One of the main reason is building trust of customers.By providing pratcial tips and insights of the organization.For example Lamborghini shows the production process in YouTube videos.So when target audience view the videos they get a feeling of trust worthiness.And most importantly we can customize or branded our YouTube Channel.

In Sri Lankan context there are some popular channels such as Music.lk and TNL radio network.TNL radio (http://www.youtube.com/user/1017TNLRocks?feature=watch) mainly promotes TNL Onstage musical competition using the YouTube channel.And a recent success story in YouTube in Sri Lanka is “Lux Sedha Kathandare” A music video to promote Lux Liquid Body Wash.It had nearly ninety thousand views.

There are many advantages of YouTube.It is marketers task to use YouTube wisely to gain the maximum benefits.

How to target a niche audience with Facebook Advertising

Hi guys!! Today my blog post is on “How to target a niche audience with Facebook Advertising”. All of you might aware that Facebook is a social network which helps people to being interactive with friends, relatives & etc. But there are so many advantages other than that in corporate context.

We can use Facebook advertising to promote our businesses. Basically there are two types of Facebook ads. There are sponsored stories which appear on the time line with a somewhat big LIKE button and right side bar ads. You can get a clear understanding from below images.

So now I will take you through how to create a Facebook advertisement. First enter this URL http://www.facebook.com/ads and press “Create an Ad” button. Then you will get a screen like below.

From here you have to select the page which you are going to create the Ad for. I chose “Oshi's Journal of Digital Marketing” the fb page for my blog. Then we have to select an option according to our objective. My objective is to build a bigger audience. So I selected Get more page likes.

Next step is to enter the headline, text and image to be published in the ad. Text should be limited to 90 characters. You can see a preview of the ad while you are entering the details.

Next comes the most important aspect of facebook advertising. That is choose your audience. Here we can choose the target audience of our product. For example I want to share my posts with people who are precisely interested in Digital marketing and online marketing. With this niche targeting facility our ad expense will not be wasted. Because only the people who are relevant to us will be seen the ad. So my ad will be visible to 28,000 people who are above the age 18 and most importantly are interested in digital marketing and online marketing.

Final step is to make the payment or select the budget. Campaign budget can be either per day or life time. Per day cost will be only USD 10.We can schedule the campaign duration as well. When compared to mass media advertising cost, Facebook advertising cost is very less and more effective since only the target audience is addressed.

Social Media Marketing

Hi guys !!!

I’m back with my fifth blog post. Today my topic is Social Media Marketing. Simply social media is people having conversations online. So Social media marketing is increasing the likability of a brand being mentioned in online conversations.

Social media marketing is all about being interactive with online audience. So to become successful in SMM , Planning is an essential part. There are five steps to SMM planning. Listen, Analyze, Set goals, Engage and Amplify. Among these to analyze we use a tool which is known as Social Media Brand Health Check .

To explain you about the Social Media Brand Health Check, The brand I am going to use is “Perera & Sons” and the competitor will be “Sen-Saal” . Both are leading pastry shops in Sri Lanka.Basically five criterias are used in SMBHC. Namely Reach, Quality of audience, Engagement, Share of voice and finally Sentiment .Now I’ll explain one by one using the example.

Reach

Reach is the number of people we approach through social media channels. Facebook fan count for the P & S is 121,709 whereas Sen-Saal fan count is 1,779. Twitter count for P & S is 3029.Sen-Saal does not have a twitter profile. Both the brands do not engage in Youtube. And apparently both the brands do not active in any other social media.Compared to Sen-Saal , P & S is in a satisfactory level in Reach.

Quality of audience

Quality of audience is the relevancy of our reach to the target market.According to Social Bakers local fan base of P & S is nearly 90 %.Since there were no statistics on Sen-Saal, I assumed all the fans are Local.For P & S there is a 28%  good follower base in Twitter as well.

Engagement

How deeply people are engaged with our brand is measured here. Only 3% of fans are talking about the P & S brand and only 2% of Sen-Saal fans are talking about the brand. KLOUT scores for both the brands were not available. We can’t expect a large number of fans to talk about us. So I think 3% is somewhat satisfied.

Share of voice

Share of voice is how often people talk about our brand. There were 3 mentions about P & S in twitter, within last 48 hours. In google blog search there were only 6 results for P & S, Whereby for Sen-Saal there were 15.So the result is somewhat satisfied for P & S.

Sentiment

Here we check whether conversations about our brand are positive or negative.There were no negative comments on either of brands.So I’m very satisfied on that.

Finally my recommendation to Perera & Sons , Considering the score of 65 is, to expand the fan count in Twitter whereby taking the advantage of You tube as well.They should continuously try to improve the fan base of Facebook as well.by the means of special promotions and contests.They must make fans talk about the brand.And specially should carry out some Search engine optimization activities as well.

Cheers,

Oshi.

Key Word Research & Burgers King!!!

Hi all!!! 

This is my 4^th blog post. Today I am going to explain what a key word research is and how to conduct a Google Adwords campaign using the research findings. Google Adwords basically falls under paid advertising, which is a part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM).The organization I am considering is Burgers King , a fast food restaurant in Colombo.

The first step is to log on to Google Adwords.Then go to Keyword tool option in “Tools & Analysis” tab. Then you will get following window.

Since I am going to do the Adword campaign to Burgers King, I entered “Fast food restaurants in Colombo” as the word or phrase. As the category I selected fast food restaurants.

Then under Advanced options and filters, as the country Sri Lanka & as the language English was selected.

When we give search command we get following keyword findings according to our request.

Then we need to select highest locally used words and download them to a spread sheet.

Next step is to create the ad campaign. For this we need to go to campaign tab on the top. When you proceed there’s space to enter headline, description and URL.Here you can see the ad which I created to Burgers King.

After creating the ad what we have to do is enter the keywords which we selected from the research. It is done as below.

Finally when everything is done we just have to press “save and continue to billing”. Once you make the payment the Ad goes live. Burgers king could be highly benefited from this Adword campaign.

Hope you got something new from this blog post…

Cheers :) 

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is a main form of Search Engine Marketing. As Wikipedia defines Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. Successful SEO leads the website to perform well in the organic search results.SEO falls under permission marketing which attracts the target audience.

There are some key success factors to SEO. Website crawlability is one of them.Crawlability means ability of a search engine to crawl through the entire text content of the website and easily navigating to every web page. So we should make sure that all navigational links are visible to search engines.

Other success factor is key word research. This helps in identifying what are the words that your existing and potential customers are using to search about the services or products that you offer. With this understanding SEO can be carried out effectively.

Other important thing is we should decide is how viewers will be going to more specific pages navigating from the home page. Site mapping should be done with care. It should allow the viewer to return to home page without a burden.

Content building and formatting should be a priority regardless of the type of the web site. Basically content should be easy to read, should be organized around the main topic of the site and unique and fresh. And the content should be mainly aiming at viewers of the site. Otherwise the    unnecessary content can be annoying to the viewers.

On the other hand images play a major role in SEO. ”alt” feature allows tagging (alt tag) information to the image. This content should provide details about the image.

Apart from above mentioned there are much more success factors to SEO.such as Internal linking, Domain properties and URL , Authority building and website maintenance. finally i would like to share something i found in the internet "The periodic table of SEO ranking factors" this shows on the page and off the page activities and the weight ages that should be given.

Analysis of Ada Derana website usability

Ada Derana website is a major news provider website in Sri Lanka. I am going to apply 25 point website usability check list in order to evaluate www.adaderana.lk.

Accessibility

1. Site load-time is reasonable

    Site loading is very quick. It takes only 2 to 3 seconds.

2. Adequate text-to-background contrast

    Text-to-background is well designed. They have used Black and Red on White background which is highly contrasting. Which allows reader go through the text without any burden.

3. Font size/Spacing is easy to read

    Headlines are in slightly big font and are readable. But it would be great if content font and line space increased.

4. Flash & add-ons are used sparingly

    Ada Derana web site is so much cluttered with Flash & add-ons.Basically it is distracting the viewer.

5. Images have appropriate ALT tags.

    ALT tags have been used very well. When the viewer moves the cursor on to an image it provides a brief description of the news.

6. Site has custom "not found/404" page

    Site does not have a customized 404 page; neither has it directed the viewer to the home page. This is a minus point.

Identity

7. Company logo is prominently placed

    They have placed the logo in a banner which is on top. Since Red is highly used for news headlines, Logo is not highlighted.

8. Tagline makes company’s purpose clear

    Sri Lanka’s premium 24 x 7 News portal is the tag line of the site which gives a clear understanding of the purpose of the company.

9. Home page is digestible in 5 seconds

    Site is understandable to the visitor in less than 5 seconds.

10. Clear path to company information

      Company information is not available in the web site. This is essential to build up the confidence of the viewer.

11. Clear path to contact information

      Contact us tab can be easily seen on the top menu bar. This also provides advertising information to the companies.

Navigation

12. Main navigation is easily identifiable

      Navigation is easy with all the tabs provided in the top of the site.

13. Navigation labels are clear and concise

      They are OK.but it would be better if put in much bigger font and in upper case. Labels are in one word. That can be seen as a good thing.

14. Number of buttons/links is reasonable

      The number of buttons they have used is high compared with other sites. But since this is a news provider that is fine.

15. Company logo is linked to home page

      When the visitor clicks on the logo it takes him to the home page. This is a feature most of the viewers are expecting.

16. Links are consistent and easy to identify

      There are links to sports, business and also to Facebook, Twitter and you tube. They are in smaller font so not easy to identify.

17. Site search is easy to access

      Yes. Site search is provided in the top right corner which is very easy to access.

Content

18. Major heading are clear and descriptive

      Major headings of the site are Lead story, hot news and top picture story. But they are not that much clear. Only difference is that font is in Blue. Font size is same as normal news headlines.

19. Critical content is above the “Fold”

      Yes. Lead Story and Hot news are above the fold.

20. Styles and colors are consistent

      Yes. Site consistency was there from the beginning. With the Red and Blue headings, Black content, Same Font and etc.

21. Emphasis is used sparingly

      Lead Story heading is in Blue and other headings are in bold font in Red background to get the attention.

22. Ads and Pop-ups are unobtrusive

      So much of Ads and Pop-ups have been used which interrupt and distract the viewer.

23. Main copy is concise and explanatory

      Yes. At a glance viewer can understand this is all about News.

24. URL’s are meaningful and user friendly

      http://www.adaderana.lk/ This URL is easy to remember, meaningful as it is the same name as the television news.

25. HTML page titles are explanatory

      <title>Sri Lanka News-Adaderana-Truth First</title>

Explanatory enough.


In my opinion Ada derana website would be much more user friendly if it goes for some changes with font size, line spacing and reduce the Ad clutter.

The Digital Marketing Revolution. Is Sri Lanka Ready?

Hi all !!!

 I will be blogging about digital marketing implications and this is going to be the first blog post.

First we will see what digital marketing is. Digital marketing is simply, promoting of brands using all forms of digital advertising. Or else where marketing meets all forms of new media such as internet, emails, social networks, tablets, smart phones, cellular phones, digital hoardings and etc.We can see that digital marketing plays a major role in marketing in Sri Lanka.A few years ago, main marketing or promotional tools for the brands were television, radio and newspaper advertisng, hoardings and public relations. But now a day it is basically digital marketing tools.

We can take several examples from Sri Lankan context itself, to discuss on digital marketing revolution. Those days when a person wanted to channel a specialist doctor he or she had to wait in queue for hours to get an appointment. But with e-channeling coming into play getting appointments was very convenient for people and it became very popular.

Online retailing stores can be taken as another sector of the digital marketing revolution. Such as Anything.lk, My deal and Ikman.lk. before the emergence of Anything.lk, people were aware about e-bay and Amazon.com.but only a very few used to deal with those sites. With the aggressive promotions Anything.lk was able to capture the Sri Lankan market.Now there is a customer base for them who checks in daily for their amazing deals and offers.and people buy things from their online stores.When talking about Ikman.lk, people sell even houses, lands and vehicles through this site.On the other hand we don’t have to wait in a queue at the cinema because of Tickets.lk.We can reserve the seat we need and pay online.

As a social network , Facebook plays the major role in Sri Lankan digital marketing revolution.all most all the brands in the country have a facebook fan page and most of these are interacting with the fans.For example if we take Kelly Felder ( A fashion retailer) fan page it upload photos of all the new styles in stores with available sizes and prices.So that fans can take the purchase decision then and there when they see the picture.Recently Lux Liquid Body wash had a successful promotional campaign through Facebook and Youtube.They promoted a music video which is known as “Sedha Kathandare” and this video had almost one lakh of views in You tube.

With the increase of internet penetration in Sri Lanka, traditional tools of marketing are gradually decreasing. From Digital marketing a brand can reach the target customer in a more customized manner. And can get more insights from the customer using a facebook fan page or an email campaign, which ultimately helps the company.

Sri Lanka is ready for the revolution.But finding the most appropriate digital marketing channel lies with the business organization.Whether to use Social networking, email, mobiles or a combination.

Cheers,

Oshi...