Bharati Ahuja

Social Media Marketing And The Online Presence Of Your Business

All marketing plans, efforts and strategies revolve around people and understanding the potential customer or catering to the existing customer is the main focus of any marketing campaign.

The social element can never be ruled out from any business activity as a whole because every business caters to some or the other want or requirement of people.

As all people involved in any kind of marketing are aware of the four Ps - Product , Place, Promotion and Price. We can see that we cannot decide about the product without keeping the people in mind, we cannot decide about the place without keeping the people in mind, we cannot decide about any promotion campaign without keeping the people in mind and again the price also is a people centric decision.

Hence, it is this fifth ‘P' people which is the main aspect around which all marketing campaigns revolve around. Hence, every business needs to reach out to people with the best possible approach.

Internet marketing offers the best possible platform for reaching out to the potential customer for introducing the products and services or to the existing customer for customer support in the form of social media.

According to Wikipedia:

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value.

Hence social media sites offer a two way conversational platform which offers a fair opportunity to voice opinions and feedbacks to both the parties involved .

There are many social media sites but Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and Blogs are widely used by the netizens. These sites are a good tool for effective online marketing and networking.

If your business has an account on these social media sites it becomes very easy and convenient to keep yourself updated about the latest buzz related to your industry, the interaction on this platform helps you to create an online brand and reputation which in the long run will help in generating a WOM for your company as online reputation management is the off shoot of the success of these social media sites.

No doubt this media offers a global reach in the most cost effective way but there are certain things to bear in mind when we have a social media presence.

There should be a team or a single person responsible to manage the media. i.e there has to be a sense of responsibility and answerability to every post or tweet , one has to distinguish between relating online on a personal basis and a formal basis. When you are dealing with a client the language and approach have to be very thought off as every post and tweet gets recorded and the company has to stand by the spoken word especially when you are dealing with customer complaint online or a grievance.

Just like every drop in the ocean counts everything you write on social media keeps on adding to your brand value and online reputation hence every word counts.

SEO has got its own importance and Social media has got its own importance. Since Social media has been integrated by search and real time search is where people go if they want to know what people are saying about a certain topic as of now, SEO and social media have to be used in conjunction by all the companies for a long term qualitative online presence for their business. Both these sources bring in qualitative, targeted inbound traffic which is the main purpose of online marketing.

SEO – One Of The Online/Internet/Web Marketing Methods

Marketing is defined by various marketing experts as follows:

Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.

Kotler.

Marketing is the process whereby society, to supply its consumption needs, evolves distributive systems composed of participants, who, interacting under constraints - technical (economic) and ethical (social) - create the transactions or flows which resolve market separations and result in exchange and consumption.

Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer's point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise.

Drucker.

From all the above definitions made by experts in the field of marketing following terms stand out or can be considered as the main edifice for marketing:

• Social Process – Technical (economic) and ethical
• Exchange of products and values
• Distributive Systems composed of participants
• Encompasses the whole business and not just sales
• Care, concern , responsibility and answerability

I am going in details of the definitions of marketing as the field of online marketing is still at the evolving stage and currently the most common way of reaching out to the masses and classes online is through search engines.

Hence, we can see that SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION) is one of the most sort after services by website owners . The number of SEO companies offering SEO training and services are mushrooming online and offline giving commitments for high rankings and showing rosy pictures to the clients of million dollar online business to them.

No doubt the power of the web and reaching out to people has great potential of making your business and company have a global reach, but the concept of online marketing has to be taken into account as a whole for tapping this actual potential.

In order to understand and wisely work out the online marketing strategy for your company one has to go to the basics of this term.

Yahoo made a fortune with banner Ads. In early 2000 and many companies allocated huge budgets for this and got online presence but such a presence was short lived and had very less recall value.

But that was the need of the hour as netizens were not mature enough or cyber savvy enough at that time to find what they were searching for on the web and the search industry also was still growing .

But, now in 2010 the situation is very different

• The people have become more net savvy
• The search industry has grown and has a lot to offer as regards search options
• The number of websites offering content and information on various topics has grown exponentially
• Accessing the social media has become a part of everyone’s daily activity
• The integration of search and social media (Real Time Search) has given an impetus to public opinion like never before.
• The Online Competition has increased multifold

Just as banner Ads. got the most attention way back in 2000 , in 2010 SEO is the online marketing method which every company wants to allocate a budget to.

Surely, getting your site optimized for search engines is the wisest decision any company can take keeping the current scenario in mind and SEO is something that no company can do away with because if your business is not on the search engines then it is on the invisible web and if you are not visible on the web then you cannot expect any business from the web.

In order to be visible on the web, SEO is one of the options but as a wise marketing strategy to ensure long term online presence all the options for online marketing and keeping the current scenario in mind, we always suggest to clients to have a inhouse online marketing team or if the company under consideration is an SME and has humble marketing budgets then one person at least should take a regular active interest in the online presence development of the business as the social media presence also is of utmost important for every company keeping the future trend in mind.

As your company needs to have voice of your own on the web and the social media sites and blogging gives you the power to speak for your company, gracefully thank your well wishers or defend your company in case of any bad word spread regarding your product or service so that your online reputation is always taken care of.

The SEO company will monitor the rankings for your website on the search engines but in order to monitor the social media one needs to hire a social media company services or the best way is to have a inhouse team or person handling this function.

Online business is global business and it is only through this tool that you can reach out to a potential customer, thank a satisfied customer, attend to complaints of dissatisfied customers and thus develop a rapport ensuring repeated business.

Hence, SEO is just the first step to reach out to the potential online market but there is a lot more which has to be done to establish the online WOM and ensure long term business.

In conclusion, we go back to the important aspects of marketing derived from the definitions by the Gurus of marketing mentioned above i.e:

Hence all these aspects have to be incorporated even in the online marketing plans and strategies of the company and this is possible only if each and every person of the organization starts thinking in these terms and identifies with it.

As budgets allocated today by companies for internet marketing should ensure long term presence on the web and not just fade away like the presence gained by banner ads. in the past, and the online marketing strategies and methods today available have the potential for acheiving this purpose.

SEO - 08/15/2010

Conversion Ratio Analysis And Approach Towards ROI For PPC Or SEO

In a SEO campaign after the rankings are achieved, the first and foremost question on the mind is how are the conversions? The website owner starts calculating the ROI (Return On Investment) , his main concern is - has the amount spent on SEO proving to be an investment or was it a huge expense made by the company.

This situation is the most critical juncture of the whole SEO campaign. A s the conversion ratio depends on many factors. SEO is about making the website rank high and get the targeted organic traffic to the website. Once this is done the SEO mission is accomplished. But the client is not only happy with the traffic, what he needs is business, the conversions from these visits.

If the visits are not getting converted in inquiries then the situation is like customers walk into the store check the display of the products and leave.

Let us take, a real time example : A person sees an attractive Signboard outside a store listing the products he wants to buy . He walks in. He checks the products which are displayed . Looks here and there to get answers for certain queries but there is no sales person in sight . He does not get the answers so he cannot decide, so he leaves.

The same situation arises online when a searcher comes across your website on the search engines , he clicks on your website link , browses the website but since he does not get enough information on the site maybe about prices, specification about the product or the details about the company, etc. which may be due to the fact that the information on the site is not enough or maybe due to the fact that the information is there but the navigation structure is not friendly enough or the design is to loud, cluttered or confusing to smoothly go through the whole process of buying online.

Its like your marketing staff has done a great job but your sales staff and staff on the counter in your store are not serious about business.

Hence, before coming to the conclusion that all this online business is just a hype created by the online marketing industry, analyse the situation and find answers for what can be the possibilities for low conversions.

Analyse the on-page Conversion Rate factors ( As the aspects of your landing page act as your sales staff) , as an on going process from the time your website goes live , every contact form data that you get from the website should be traced like a real time inquiry. Many times the loop-hole lies there. The email received from the website goes unanswered and the inquiry loses its value with time or the process gets initiated but the sale does not reach the closing stage due to some communication gap. As effective and timely communication is crucial to any sales process, whether it is real or virtual.

Hence, as real time sales team conversions are monitored, similarly the monitoring is required for every inquiry generated from the website.

Clicks as a result of PPC or SEO bring in the online customer on your online store but for conversions your landing page factors which is your virtual sales staff and payment counter is responsible for the successful completion of the sale.

The most important point to be kept in mind is that the virtual customer is usually impatient and info hungry and expects quick answers for every question. Hence he should get the information readily on the site or should get an immediate reply to his mail.

Secondly, a person who buys online checks out many other sites before taking a final decision so your site should be competitive enough as compared to other websites ranking high on the search engines.

The online competition many times may not be the same as real time competition. Hence studying the online competition and having the knowledge of the online market of the products that you deal in is again equally important.

SEO - 08/13/2010

Does Your Company Has The Vision, Mission And Value Statements Spelt Loud And Clear ?

All companies usually have a Vision Statement and a Mission Statement . Many companies also make it a point to display the Value Statement.

But, how many companies focus on these statements when the teams are being trained for setting targets and achieving them? short term targets affect the long term goals of the company.
Your organization's vision is all about what is possible, all about that potential. The mission is what it takes to make that vision come true.

The long term goals are set keeping the vision statement in mind but mostly the short term targets are influenced by the mission statement. And of course the values are the whole aura engulfing each and every thought, word, deed and action taking place in your organization.

All these inter woven together create an identity for your company which gives a unique image to the company and develops the company culture. Each and every team member contributes to the realization of these goals, targets and the image carving of the company.

Hence, it is very important that each and every team member is aware of the essence of these three statements which are not merely words but the source of the wholesome energy needed by the company to tread the growth path which has been set.

Once this is accepted by each and every employee only then it is possible for them to work as a family as the thought behind the action is usually the binding or bonding factor between people working together.

Whether a solo entrepreneur enterprise, an SME, a humble startup or a well rooted giant company , all have to keep on focusing with what their company identifies with as only then the full team can move in one direction.

The top management has to keep on reviving this knowledge periodically or on a daily basis in a subtle way as the main responsibility of the top management is to monitor growth and keep up the culture of the company and eventually achieve the long term goals i.e visions set by the visionaries of the company and harness the creative energies of the missionaries (the employees) of the company in sync with the mission.

There is a great insight on what happened to Yahoo when their focus shifted from their identity as a technology company to a media company on the following link:

http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html (A MUST READ)

The following extract from the above mentioned link explains the confusions in the mind of the people working at Yahoo. When such confusions arise and the top management does not pay heed to it them the future cannot be bright.

“One of the weirdest things about Yahoo when I went to work there was the way they insisted on calling themselves a "media company." If you walked around their offices, it seemed like a software company. The cubicles were full of programmers writing code, product managers thinking about feature lists and ship dates, support people (yes, there were actually support people) telling users to restart their browsers, and so on, just like a software company. So why did they call themselves a media company? “

It is never too late to ask yourself - What does my company identify with?

Others - 08/12/2010

Do You Need A Blog And How Often You Need To Update The Blog?

This question has got a dual perspective –

1. A Personal Perspective:

Do you need to blog because you like to write and a blog is the best canvas where the thoughts and ideas can be poured on and made to reach out globally?

2. From the Business perspective of your website :

Do you want to reach out to your visitors and clients with more and more information about the company services, products and other developments? Does your website need additional content?

If you have a ‘YES’ for an answer for atleast one of the above questions then yes, you surely need a blog.

If you want a blog from a personal point of view or the business point of view, you surely need to decide the frequency with which you need to update the blog. There is no point on starting a blog and not updating it.

If you have a website then a blog surely is a source of adding valuable content for the site which in turn surely helps in improving the rankings in the search engines. But, the blog has to be focused, well maintained and also updated daily.

Many times I always argue with myself and come to the conclusion that quality is better than quantity and it is ok if you do not update it daily, but then from the hard core SEO perspective truly speaking both the quantity and quality both are important and necessary.

Yes, if you have a blog do not compromise on the quantity or the quality and eventually you not only benefit from the search engines but also carve a niche of your own and establish a unique identity on the web by your own very individual style of writing and presenting your thoughts and opinions on the related topics.

Daily updation ensures regular visitors, on the other hand if you reduce the frequency it may be an out of sight out of mind case from the visitor point of view and affected rankings from the search engine side. Blog articles today have the tendency to get indexed as soon as they are published. So if your blog offers fresh content daily your site definitely gets preference from the netizens and the search engine bots.

SEO - 08/11/2010

Do SEO Certifications Matter?

SEO – Search Engine Optimization is the art and science of making a website rank high on the search engines for the keywords targeted for that website.

A decade back when people started optimizing sites for search engines there was no formal training available and the main source for understanding the search engine algorithms and knowing what the search engine bots are looking for on your site was the search engine blogs and forums itself.

Though these resources are still available, in fact, now there are millions of SEO blogs also available sharing this knowledge, but people want the knowledge to be made available in a capsule form to them so that they can grasp as many concepts as possible in a short span of time.

Okay, good enough - attending a SEO training programme or enrolling oneself for an SEO Course is a quick way to familiarize yourself with the concepts and the stages involved in optimizing the sites but it is just not enough, as this knowledge is such that unless you optimize sites yourself and monitor and analyze the developments yourself you can never gain expertise.

You have to keep on constantly learning in this field as every website you work on will be unique in itself and the SEO solutions required will also be unique in a way.

Hence, even if you attend a SEO programme or attend SEO classes the theoretical sessions offer you a stepping stone to go ahead but until you actually work on the sites you never actually gain SEO knowledge.

Hence, an SEO training company which helps you to get an SEO trainee’s job after the course done or involves you in a live project of a website is giving you a right orientation and start in this field.

After that also it is not the certification which will give you a growth path but only your experience and passion for this work shall help you go places.

People will give their websites to you for optimization on the basis of the past work done and results achieved not on the basis of a certificate you have achieved by passing a SEO exam.

No doubt , certificates and testimonials add credibility to the name attached with it but they never substitute the display of actual work done. The SERPs achieved by you will be the only true certification that you can put forward to gain the confidence of the client or employer as the case may be.

We conduct SEO Training at WebPro Technologies but we always emphasize on the point that :

WE DO NOT TEACH - WE HELP YOU LEARN . One does not become an SEO expert by just attending a course or by reading a book.

SEO - 08/10/2010

The Type Of Images You Use On Your Website

A picture speaks louder than words. Images on a website have got their own importance from the search engine’s bot perspective as well as from a visitor’s perspective. Hence the images that we add on each every page should be well thought of and of related to the content.

The images add the color coefficient to the web page and also offer text content to the search engine robots in the form of ALT TEXT which is one of the on-page optimization factors for SEO.

Usually, we see most of the sites buy ready images from the numerous websites available for the same. We see board room images, people shaking hands denoting partnerships and finalizing deals. These images have perfect models modeling for the pictures and having perfect smiles which may bea dentist’s delight.

But, the questions asked in this context are:

• Do these images project the right impression of your company?
• Is your team so well-groomed (look-wise)?
• Don’t you think that such images are an insult to the hard working team that you have?

I am sure you have the answer for the above questions.

No company has a perfect looking team and the atmosphere at work is constantly not all grins and smiles and achievements. To reflect the true image of your company the images put for the product page,’ the team ‘or ‘about us’ page should be the actual pictures of your team members and the actual shop floor pictures of the product being manufactured or the of the office in which your staff is working to make the targets set by you a reality.

Having no images on the site is better than having the artificial smiling images. If you just adopt this change I am sure it will add to the credibility of your online business.

Focus on the content and value your product and people by putting them forward on the real estate of your web page.
Putting the right content and reflecting the true image of your company is like adding the soul to your website.

Others - 08/09/2010

The Approach For Online Marketing – Focus On Content And Information

Marketing is all about bringing the people to the product whereas Sales is taking the product to the people.

Basically, the sales force of your company and the marketing team of your company both have to focus on these two important Ps i.e product and people. Of course there are the other Ps like price, promotions, professionalism , place and profit which are also inter-linked to this whole process.

Whether a company is following the off line traditional methods of marketing or is focusing on online internet marketing the main aim is to pull the attention of the buyer to the product. In the traditional methods this task was not easy as the reach that the advertising in newspapers, magazines or on billboards , on TV, etc. gave was limited and at a very high cost.

Online marketing on the other hand has a phenomenonal global as well as local reach. But, pulling the attention of the buyer to the product on your online store is an equally challenging job which needs a slightly different approach and a well planned and a well thought of website .

Netizens are info hungry and are always searching for more and more information on the search engines or within your site for additional information either about the product displayed on your site or about your company.

People are more aware as of today about the options available for what they want to buy because of the plethora of information available on the net on each and every topic. They have become more net savvy and as a result it can be observed that the search patterns of the searcher have also become more specific , which has made the SEO industry to focus more on the long tail keywords.

Hence, first and foremost make sure there is enough content available on your site about each product that you display on the online store front .

Secondly, make sure your company has a web presence on the mostly visited social media sites so that your potential customers can voice their queries or discuss related issues.

And of course, to ensure that your website ranks well on the search engines is something that goes without saying as the search engines are the main source from where the targeted traffic finds your website.

Once the visitor is on the website he is a potential customer . The design, architecture, user-friendliness and of course, the compelling content on the landing page of your site will determine if the potential customer will be converted into a regular customer or not.

So, Once again we see that “Content Is King” when it comes to winning over the search engine bots or the visitors coming to your site.

The search engines do not discriminate between a website of a start up and a website of a company running ancestral business, neither do they discriminate the rankings of a company on the basis of their balance sheets.

So all the websites have an equal chance or potential of getting ranked on the first page of the search engine which opens the doors to a whole new world of business and opportunities for that company. Provided, the site has been ethically optimized and offers genuine , focused and detailed content.

Again, it is this very same content which will make other websites link to your site. As we all know inbound links are another factor which work like a vote to your site or like WOM for your site. If only webmasters focus on making the site qualitative rather than have link building strategies and think of ways and means of buying and selling links half the spam related issues would be taken care of.

SEO / Social Media - 08/07/2010

Online Reputation Management And Monitoring

Reputation is the opinion or a social evaluation of the group of entities toward a person, a group of people, or an organization . It is an important factor in many fields, such as education, business, online communities or social status.

Reputation can be considered as a component of the identity as defined by others
Reputation is 'the result of what you do, what you say, and what other people say about you'.
Online Reputation is a factor in any online community where trust is important.
An online identity, internet identity, or internet persona is a social identity that an Internet user establishes in online communities and websites.

From all the above definitions and statements, the terms:

Opinion
Identity
Result of your actions and words spoken
Trust factor

are all important and related to each other when we define or discuss about the reputation of any person, company, community, group etc.

Whether it is the real world or the virtual world when it come to business the word of mouth (WOM) is the most reliable and trustworthy source your potential customers will give a ear to.

It takes time for any business to create a goodwill for itself in the market and that has to be earned over a period of continous quality services offered by your company.

People find the online reference to your business on the web through the search engines or some referring sites. Moreover now with the real time search as one of the search options on the search engines, what people are writing about your brand or product on social media sites like twitter , facebook, linkedin, etc. Is also one of the sources from where people form an impression about your company.

Hence, first and foremost it is important to create an identity for your business on the web. That is usually initiated by registering an apt domain name, developing a good informative, content rich website and then by optimizing the site for search engines so the netizens can find your website in the top rankings when they search for something related to the product or service offered by your company.

The buzz about your business can also be spread via the social media sites by conversing and sharing information.

Once your online presence or identity is created on the web it is but obvious that people (usually competitors, ex-employees, customers, etc) start forming and voicing opinions about a certain brand and product .

Hence, it is very important to track and monitor what people are saying about your company or product and then offer a humble thanks if the opinion is positive but if it is negative then it is time for your PR team to stand by for the reputation of your company and defend your brand or make improvements accordingly.

It is also very important for every company to have strong social media presence where you can put forward your word.

You can keep yourself informed about what the web world is talking about your company by creating Google Alerts for the company name.

Usually the micro blogging conversational platform like twitter or facebook serves the purpose. But, if you have a blog then you can write in detail and rectify the harm done or enhance the positive aura around the buzz.

When the continuous online presence of your company is found on the search engines and Social media sites and when it is seen that the company has a voice and image of its own then surely the trust factor is taken care of.

Again, prevention is always better than cure so start tracking the website and social media as soon as your website goes live.

Hence, The three steps involved in Online Reputation Management are:

• Monitor
• Analyze
• Influence

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