How to use Hashtags like a Marketing Ninja

Everybody uses hashtags these days, some more than others, and for all sorts of reasons. But the humble looking pound (#) sign can be a powerful tool in the hands of a marketing ninja. It’s not so much about the symbol itself, but the way it’s used in marketing communication which decides how much impact it can and will wield with your target audience.

Wait, I thought “#LoL #my #cat’s #so #cute” is all that there is to Hashtags!

Well, not really. Like the symbol itself, the hashtag had humble beginnings in the year 2007, and has come a long way since.

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?
— Chris Messina™ (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007

The First Ever Hashtag Posted on Twitter

Its innate superpower to be so simple and yet to connect people in a way that was never possible before, led to its explosion on Twitterverse, and Twitter decided in Jul 2009 to allow its usage for categorizing Tweets and for searching them easily. Mass popularity followed (what with it being named the word of the year and babies being named Hashtag - because of its aforementioned superpower) and drove the hashtag to god-level on almost all popular social networks, with the most recent (and perhaps most debated) introduction on Facebook. Hashtags in essence, give context to content, and a great context+content combo is arguably the most effective tool in the hands of a seasoned marketer.

Er...so apart from “#LoL #my #cat’s #so #cute” what else can you use hashtags for?

Great marketers can think of almost any number of creative ways in which they wish to unleash the power of context+content. Here’s a small list of ways in which hashtags can be used in marketing:

• creating and maintaining a unified and consistent brand messaging across multiple social platforms
• driving engagement and participation across multiple networks by changing the way people discover content
• identifying in real-time what your audience is saying about your brand and engaging with them in live conversations
• increasing the reach for your brand outside of your established network, without even having to pay for sponsored content
• and very important, giving context to visual content, which needs it more as opposed to text which is easy to search, on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to enable users to find your content more easily

Owing to these great applications, hashtags, for most of the top brands, have already become an essential part of their social media repertoire and the trend is only going north from here.

Sooper! So how do I use these hashtags? Is this fine - “#LoL #my #cat’s #so #cute”?

NO. With great #power comes great #responsibility, so never overuse the hashtags. It looks like spam and desperate marketing, and is a sure-fire way to rapidly lose your fans & followers.

Aspiring marketing ninjas should consider the below things when using hashtags:

That guy just wrote funny in 20 different ways!! He can do it, but strict no-no for marketers.

• nothing works better than coming up with an original hashtag that’s relevant as well as unique to your brand 
• the choice of hashtag is also important because it’s not only meant for your network, but also for others outside of it who’ll discover your content using that hashtag - don’t be too generic, or too obscure
• before implementing one, validate your hashtag - does it already exist, what other kind of content shows up with it, does it confuse/ turn-off your audience and waste their time?
• less is more, try not to use more than two hashtags per post - rotate them, space ‘em out in subsequent ones, but don’t overuse...ever.
• keep your hashtag simple and consistent across platforms

Hashtags are powerful tools that can lead to exponential increase in reach and generate massive impact for a brand. The key is to understand how they work and creating a unified social media strategy to be implemented across all the various platforms that allow the use of that humble-yet-powerful symbol.

© Jayant Rana, 2013

Images courtesy: misspixels / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

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The Social Web & Graded Influence - Why You Should Care

The Web, as we knew it a few years back is no more. Broadcast is now an outcast. It’s social now, and the transformation from seeing the Web as a megaphone to as a telephone is all but complete. Also, as the conversation shifts online, we are witnessing another remarkable shift – that of influence. And the implications of that are nothing short of profound.

Is social a radical new concept?

Not really. I mean if you come to think of it, this transformation of the Web is quite intuitive and follows naturally from the fact that humans by nature are social. And from that perspective it becomes easy to understand the rapid evolution of multiple platform technologies that have enabled the present day Web to be more natural and easy-to-use than the machine-inspired, static code of the older times. As a result, people of all ages from all the various strata of society have been able to find a channel for making their presence felt online and are sharing their ideas freely, frequently, and globally. We exist today in what is being called as the 'knowledge economy'.

So how does this impact me?

Well, it all comes down to differentiation. Think of it this way, why do you need to get into a great school? Why do you need awesome CV points? To differentiate yourself from your competition...to stand out. This goes as much for individuals as for consumer products. When everyone you know is online, the game is not anymore about visibility – the real thing is credibility. And credibility is what builds influence, and influence drives action. Therefore, whether you’re looking for a new career, or connecting with other like-minded people, or growing in your current profession, or even promoting and selling your product, building influence for your personal or business brand is key. 

Got it, but how do I know how influential I am...by the number of my connections?

As you might have guessed, your online influence is only partially determined by the number of your connections. What’s key really is how your connections engage with you, which translates into the strength of your network. Measuring influence is still an evolving area, but there are multiple metrics out there that are attempting to build standards for online influence. Needless to say, it’s not an exact science and depending on who you ask, there are strong opinions on both why they are inaccurate and only activity-based, as well as why they are doing quite a great job at analysing influence. 

Let me briefly introduce you to some of the most popular measures of online influence these days:

• KLOUT

The Klout Score is a number between 1-100, which essentially represents your influence. Klout claims to arrive at this composite score by measuring data/signals from multiple social networks as well as “real world data” from say LinkedIn, Bing, Wikipedia, etc. Broadly determined by a ratio of the engagement you generate with your social network compared to the amount of content that you share, the Klout score remains arguably the most popular of all influence metrics out there right now.

• KRED

The Kred Score, in addition to influence, measures something known as “Outreach”, which reflects on how you interact with others and help them spread their message online. Influence is measured on a 1000 point scale, whereas Outreach is measured on an infinite scale, as generosity is assumed to be infinite! Kred also claims to be more transparent than others, as it tells you exactly how your score has been calculated and what actions have impacted it, though critics argue that its transparency in turn makes it quite vulnerable to manipulation.

• PeerIndex

Although having an approach similar to Klout and Kred for measuring influence, PeerIndex relates more to the type of content you generate and the people who consume and interact with it. Aiming to identify your authority on a particular topic, the PeerIndex helps you understand the kind of people you influence online and to what extent.

And your point is?

The world has gone online and the social web is a reality, which has redefined the entire scope and scale of conversations among people. To drive action in this super-connected and super-social world, one needs to grow in influence, which too is gradually shifting online. Influence is impacted by various factors and the most important amongst them are credibility, expertise and the ability to convince others. Many new start-ups are intently focused on grading this influence and have developed multiple tools for the purpose. Even though there remain many limitations of these novel methods, depending on the context these new metrics provide quite useful information about one’s ability to drive action or one's social capital, and that has profound implications from a business perspective. The accuracy of these tools is only going to improve further, and true influencers would play a very important role in the new knowledge economy.

What do you think of these new approaches to quantify influence? Share with us in the comments.

© Jayant Rana, 2013

Images courtesy: photoraidz / KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net; Salty Waffle; Thomas Hawk / Foter / CC BY-NC

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Discussions on Digital Marketing

Just the other day I was having this discussion on digital marketing with a dear friend, who I consider almost an authority on all things D, and engrossing as it was, there were some really key insights that came out of it, which I’m sharing below.

The Problem called Digital

Digital is hot…digital is hype…digital is now…digital is right! There’s just too much noise out there, and while some of it is really sensible, quite often a lot of it is misleading and hyped-up. And that's because while most folks were starting to come to terms with the Web, out of nowhere came Web 2.0, and now while they are still figuring out the definitions of 2.0 this and 2.0 that, there are people talking already about a Web 3.0!

This confusion leads to reckless, impulsive, and short-sighted decisions on part of marketers who’re already under pressure to meet the ever-increasing expectations of various stakeholders. And then questions are raised about the good ol’ RoI, fingers are pointed, and all of this happens because the ‘digital efforts’ weren’t tied to appropriate measurable goals, and were more tactical than strategic, etc.

 

The Solution called Digital

It’s critical to understand that digital is not some alien concept; it’s just the way the world has become, and hence the entire business. The moment marketers come to embrace that fact, the going gets easy.

It’s also easy to forget that ancient (and original) approach to marketing, which says that the entire objective of marketing is to provide solutions for customer’s needs, and that’s really where all of it should begin. To understand those needs, you have to first understand your customer very thoroughly. Digital is just another way to engage with your customer in that process of understanding his/her needs and serving those better.

 

Taking the First Steps towards Digital

The only way to succeed in digital is to tie it to strategic goals, and not being simply tactical. Thus, to begin with there must be a commitment from the senior management to drive digital in the entire organization and to get appropriate engagement from everyone internally. Now let’s cut to the chase and assume that you have the right product that meets the unmet needs of the customers and that you’ve framed your entire marketing strategy by integrating the insights from consumer behavior (life-cycle stage/ buyer readiness stage/ etc.), and the general business environment. Then from that overall marketing strategy you distill out appropriate strategic imperatives for a specific planning period, which then guide your digital marketing strategy.

The finer aspects of it involve the selection (over time) of the most suitable digital channels for achieving your marketing objectives, identifying precisely what to measure and putting a robust analytics framework in place (you’d be surprised by the level of detail digital can measure at), and then the actual execution. Understand that it’s an iterative process, and if the strategy is effective you follow a cycle of ‘rinse and repeat’ optimizing your efforts with each iteration, or discontinuing if it doesn’t work out and taking lessons from why it didn’t and moving on to the next plan of action.

Finally, understand that change from traditional ways of working isn’t easy, and hence it would take some time and coaching for people to get that agility, which the digital way of doing business requires.

What has your experience been with digital and how did you integrate it in your strategy, do share with us in comments.

© Jayant Rana, 2013

Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / dream designs / Kittisak / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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International Marketing: A Nebulous Continuum

There are opportunities in the life of a firm that have the potential to make it a truly world-renowned company. That’s when the momentous decision of going international has to be taken by that firm. But taking the decision to go international, howsoever obvious it may seem, can be quite dicey.

Image courtesy of twobee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Consumers today are spoilt for choice in this age of world-class products. Opportunities are ripe for firms as markets around the world are opening up and demand for their products is increasing exponentially. Conversely, it means that a purely domestic firm faces a significant competitive threat from abroad, and so it must take the international route sooner than later. The million dollar question is, how?

Export is usually considered the safest mode, where the effort to market the product abroad is minimal. When some particular country market begins to appear especially attractive, then the firm might want to enter them on an ad-hoc basis, but still there is little marketing effort involved in this case as the firm tries to adapt its product to the local requirements each time it enters a new market, which involves high cost and inefficiencies in the value chain. Hence, there’s a strong incentive for a multinational firm to standardize its product offering in that scenario, but it’s easier said than done. It involves optimization according to needs of various regions and countries, and is a time-taking process that entails continual learning. Firms that succeed in this optimization process achieve the enviable dream of being truly global.

These stages actually symbolize a continuum, and all international firms lie somewhere in between these two extremes of being either purely domestic or being truly global. But this continuum is nebulous as taking firm-wide decisions to move in that continuum to reach that global stage are complicated by several factors, which are the subject matter of International Marketing. These factors include macroeconomic factors like exchange rates, GDP, Balance of Payments, population, as well as geo-political factors like political stability, cross-border laws, trade agreements, etc. Another vital factor is culture, which involves variation in knowledge, beliefs, language, art, morals, customs, and other social dimensions. Overgeneralising these factors can be a potentially disastrous decision as many international failed-entry stories have proved time and again.

Image courtesy of tungphoto/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

These complexities have to be dealt with utmost care and would involve stepwise measures beginning from a detailed cross-cultural market research. Making the right entry decision is the most important aspect in this scenario. The basic marketing tools of segmenting, targeting and positioning retain their importance, only their context and scale becomes more global. Choosing the right entry mode from exporting to licensing and franchising to turnkey projects to contract manufacturing to direct entry, requires great deal of deliberation and far greater research. Important decisions regarding the marketing mix are what the firm has to decide upon at a later stage.

These nebulous complexities are what International Marketing attempts to simplify, and hence its importance in today’s increasingly globalizing marketplace cannot be underrated. What do you think about it? Do share your thoughts with us here in comments.

© Jayant Rana, 2012-Present

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Is Your Social Network Worth It?

The rise of social media has been nothing short of phenomenal. It has brought about a paradigm-shift in the way people consume online media. Corporations worldwide are bemused by the present scope of social media, and the predictions about its future don’t help much in easing their anxieties. With social networks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. growing stronger by the millions, marketers see social media as a lucrative channel to market their products and services and covet longingly for those Fans & Followers present “out there”.

Image courtesy of Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But when the social marketer’s fantasy confronts reality, questions arise about the good ol’ ROI. Marketers these days are invariably held answerable for the financial ramifications of their decisions. The rationale behind it is quite elementary – it’s impossible today for companies to survive without having enough metrics, objectives, analytics data, and actionable intelligence about business performance. Hence, there’s a vital need for the marketers to understand the nuances of social media marketing (SMM) metrics.

In the old world of communicating, marketers could communicate with their prospects only in a broadcast-style, one way, using traditional mass media channels. But, in the new world of communicating, spawned by social media, the communication strategy has a built-in participatory component that permits the prospects to not only receive information but also to participate in the actual creation and distribution of content. Hence, fundamental to the success of a SMM campaign is building a targeted following on a social network, because even if you rarely make sales on social media, you yield great financial value in the long run by building trust, reputation, human value, influence and loyal customers.

It’s important for the marketer, right at the outset, to fully comprehend that SMM isn’t alien from marketing; identifying measurable goals and formulating well-planned strategies is highly relevant to both. And since it is just another form of ‘media’, you use the same yardstick to determine its profitability as for other media.

So, the first thing to do is to determine your goal or the business outcome that you desire out of social media marketing, because the metrics you choose to gauge your performance would depend entirely on that cherished goal of yours. One may be interested in tracking how many people are sharing one’s website, or a particular social media campaign, or maybe just trends related to a specific online phenomenon. The requisite tools and focus for each are quite different from the other.

The main broad types of social media are – social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn), Blogging (WordPress, Tumblr), Microblogging (Twitter), Bookmarking (Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg) and Media Sharing (YouTube, Flickr). To track performance on any of these platforms, the main goals marketers must commit to memory are – raising revenue, lowering costs and increasing customer satisfaction. Some key SMM metrics that are generally used to track SMM campaigns are, 

• Unique Visitors (individuals or browsers that have been served unique content)

• Page Views (actual viewing of the web-page by the user)
• Membership and Active Network Size (no. of fans, followers, etc. who regularly interact with your content)
• Engagement Duration (how much time members spend on interacting with your content)
• Bounce (number of visitors coming to your landing page from SM sites, but quickly leaving after that)
• Return Visits (no. of times a user returns to your site)
• Activity Ratio (ratio of active members to total membership)
• Virality (your content being re-shared by the members and their networks)
• Conversions (members converting into sales, subscriptions, etc.)

These metrics must also be supplemented by noting down the milestones achieved in your SMM plan, to keep track of your efforts. Using complex metrics like ‘multiple moving averages’ can further show the periodic trends, thereby providing you with a holistic view of the health of your social network.

Image courtesy of tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Even though marketers understand that the best campaigns are the ones that can be measured, perfectly measuring SMM campaigns is still an elusive dream. SMM is totally about relations between people, and what the marketers sometimes tend to forget is that customers are but people only. Hence, in this new world of social media the focus has to be on drawing the attention of your customers, making sure they like you and interact with you, which ultimately motivates them to buy rather than you channelizing all your energies on selling.

Social media marketing is here to shatter the conventional wisdom about the relationship between the marketer and the prospect, but the final decision on whether a social network is worth having or not would depend on meticulous planning and careful use of suitable social media marketing metrics.

© Jayant Rana, 2012-Present

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