The Shashi Tharoor and IPL saga: Social Media Lessons

by sanjay on Monday, April 19th, 2010

If voting was restricted to Twitter alone, Shashi Tharoor could have been elected Prime Minister of India! Sadly for Tharoor, it isn’t, and there is life beyond.

Without a doubt, Shashi Tharoor has done more for brand Twitter in India than anybody else! Common citizens, who are far away from using Twitter, also recognize the word Twitter, thanks to Tharoor, and the news he made, with his cattle-class and such tweets!

But the same medium that made him famous, could well have spelled Tharoor’s undoing. And which is where, there are Social Media lessons to learn, for the rest of us. But I am jumping to the conclusion. Let me cut back to the beginning first.

So the Tharoor – Sunanda Pushkar –  Lalit Modi – IPL saga has been enough in the news, for me to repeat the gory details. And this piece is not about who was right and who was wrong, but more about Shashi Tharoor, and the Social Media mistakes he made.

The genesis of his mistakes though, can be understood, if we understand his personality. And M J Akbar does a great job of describing this in his Sunday piece in the Times of India. Couples of key facts pointed out by Akbar are that Tharoor did not leave his high profile and high pay UN assignment to join Indian politics, rather he left it to try and get the top job at the UN. And that for Tharoor, half limelight is better than no limelight! Also that Bush considered him to be immature.

In all of these statements lie perhaps, the explanations for Tharoor shooting off his mouth every now and then, and for his landing into a mess now, which Akbar puts as “writhing between a mistake and misfortune”.

Tharoor through his wild and popular run as the favorite Indian Twitter celebrity account, made an art of creating 140 character copy. Tweets that would be cheered by Indian Twitterati, tweets that would get huge RTs, and which as a consequence, generated huge Twitter following, and a cheering squad, which was happy to get a ‘cool and handsome MP who was tongue-in-cheek, and had a great sense of humor too, and who was so different from the boring Indian politicians of the day’! Tharoor looking for that half limelight could have not asked for more. To repeat the first sentence of this post, he had reached a position where if an election was based solely on Twitter votes, he had reached a position where he would win hands-down!

But the fact was that, Tharoor was just a great copywriter and made tweets interesting. He was not really that cool as a person, and he was not that far from the other politicians he would ridicule so often, in terms of his integrity.

And Santosh Desai, in his column again in the Times of India, explains how Tharoor’s slick language and style got him into more trouble than good, and how in this particular case, it landed him into quick sand. When style comes without adequate substance, such slips happen. And Tharoor slipped, ultimately resulting in loss of face, and an ignominious resignation from the ministry.

As Santosh Desai points out, and I have seen in person, in the twitter stream, and in the Tharoor support forums that have sprung up, Tharoor will still remain a favorite on Twitter. But his political future is another issue.

So what is the key Social Media lesson here?

The one and most important fact that this episode brings to the fore, is that on Social Media, you cannot pretend to be someone you are not. Or in other words, it is not just about words you use, but that you really have to ‘be it’. Take into contrast, another celebrity, Anand Mahindra. In fact, there has been a decent compilation of Anand Mahindra’s Twitter efforts, and how effectively he has used the medium. Now Anand Mahindra asks questions, admits he does not know it all, converses genuinely, and helps where he can. In short, he comes out as a regular human being, even if he is not one another common man. On the other hand, Tharoor came out looking larger than life, which unfortunately he was not!

And this is the last thing you do on Social Media. Social Media in general and Twitter in particular, is very public space. It amplifies conversations, and you create a Social Media brand positioning / reputation for yourself. If this is very different from who you really are, the pretense cannot be kept up for too long. Because Social Media has its own way of circling back, and haunting you, for your inconsistencies.

Social Media is about being honest to yourself, it is about transparency, and it is about being fair to your fans and followers.

As someone pointed out, best practices on use of Social Media are yet to emerge. But in the early days as we are, these are some early lessons to pick.

In lighter vein, Shashi Tharoor could attempt another first on Twitter, if he wants. If he chooses to resign from Twitter as well, he could be the first one to auction off his 700-odd-thousand follower account?!

19.04.2010 General, Sanjay, india, learning, social media View Comments

Where did ONE YEAR go? 1st Anniversary letter to our clients!

by sanjay on Monday, April 5th, 2010

Dear Customer,
The new Financial Year has started. But for us at Social Wavelength, it also coincides with our birthday. We got started in early April, 2009. And wow.. the year has zipped by!

Social Media is exciting. And being in the thick of things, as a Social Media agency, we have had year long excitement! And it promises not to stop, and in fact, it only gets  zippier.

So here are some highlights of the year that went by:

  1. The first two months were, well, the first two months! The first two young men I decided to employ left me in 1 day and 2 days respectively.. lol. Then I managed to get a person whom I had worked with earlier, to get started with us. At least she would not run away. Its another thing that she was just not cut out for Social Media, and we had to part few months later!
  2. There was still the issue of getting a first client. The only way to do it, was to catch a friend. And get his business. Which is what I did with Kartik Shah. And Skyscape Inc., USA remains a client. In the interim, they got bought over! Maybe we brought them good luck!!
  3. How I got my first partner, in this business, is another story. But suffice it to say, that few coffees, few chats, and meeting of the minds, made this happen. An unlikely combination of a 23 year old Engineer, into his first job after engineering, quitting that job, to become an entrepreneur, by joining a 40-something (yes, 40-something is good enough; don’t ask for precise numbers here!) gray haired veteran of sorts, to help the world figure their way around Social Media! Welcome aboard, Mihir Karkare!
  4. I did not realize this first. But it sank in soon enough that we were getting into the larger framework of the advertising world! And while I was comfortable about my business understanding, my knowledge on the Internet and Social Media space, but advertising industry was a different world! There was just so much to unlearn and many new things to learn. That khakhis and shirt can often be considered as being overdressed, and that a minimum of one f*** in a sentence was mandatory, were amongst the easier things to learn. Long pre-sales cycles, longer approval cycles, and longest payment cycles were harder to figure out!!
  5. I learned that what we were preaching actually works! Yes, Social Media works for Social Media business. Doing no specific business development effort, but by being active on offline and online social media (offline social media = your personal network) generated leads, and then by providing reasonable thought leadership, this converted to business. Does this sound like what I talked to you, when I asked for your business? Well, it worked for me anyway!!
  6. October 1 is the birthday of my friend. This happened to be the momentous day when that friend – also my partner at Homeindia.com – came on board at Social Wavelength as a partner. Bringing all of his bald pate, a symbol of his wisdom and capabilities, with him, and we were now more than ready to take on the world! Welcome, Hareesh Tibrewala. Now we kick ass.. !
  7. They called us Mr. Keynote. Seeing a virtual deja vu of 1997-98 when we were called to speak all over the place, about the Internet, we now start receiving invitations to talk about Social Media. Hareesh and I need to ration the time we can give for such outings, as “we have to take care of your business too”!
  8. We have managed simply. We have limited resources which we deployed well. We have spartan premises. We do not have a pool table. We do not have guitars or any other musical instruments. We serve chai or coffee, but there too, many prefer to go down, smoke and grab a cutting from the guy downstairs. But we have a lot of enthusiasm. We have a great team, who always have fun, who have a smile on their faces, no matter what the clock reads. That’s all we need to go to the next leap now.

But all this has happened, thanks to you, dear customer. You reposed your faith in us. You are a leader to embrace this new medium so early. And most importantly – you signed our cheques :)

The one year is a milestone for sure. But we know we have many more to come. And we look to have you with us on this journey.

Meanwhile let’s do a beer together. Whenever you are free. Tell us. It will be on us (well ultimately, you pay for it!!).

Very warm regards – Sanjay Mehta

05.04.2010 General, Sanjay, social media View Comments

Social Media Strategies for Brands with High Consumer Touch Points

by sanjay on Sunday, February 28th, 2010

A lot of brands have high consumer touch points. Footfalls, if you please. Literal footfalls, like in stores. Or airlines. Or cinema houses. Coffee shops. Etc, etc.
Or virtual footfalls, like in a popular web site.
Or remote footfalls like in television channels, with high viewer base.

When such brands go on to Social Media, as they embrace the new platforms like Facebook or Twitter, they do start from zero. Usually, the approach remains restricted to the Social Media space, and fan base is attempted to be built organically, or through other means, but by staying in the Social Media space, and creating interesting strategies, or spending money there itself.

Why not integrate the physical touch points, and convert them to be your fans?? Would that not accelerate the growth of fans on Facebook? How about converting those Footfalls to become your Fans?!

Here is a presentation that I made to the Social Media Club in Mumbai, India, about this proposition:

Turning Footfalls into Fans,and Fans to Footfalls: Social Media Lessons for brands with large consumer touch points

In case you are unable to view the Slideshare presentation embedded above, in your browser, then you can view the same here.

The interesting element to note is the second part of the story, viz. getting those Facebook fans, back into the stores. That is often forgotten or left to chance. However very little business is actually done on those Facebook pages. The money to be earned is in the stores, and not on Facebook.

The key element is to get the fan from Facebook, back into the stores, spending money. And which is all about converting the Fans back to being Footfalls!

What do you think about this? Do you see a closer integration of messaging in the offline space, and the Social Media space, for a brand? I’d love to read your views. Please share them as comments here!

28.02.2010 Monetization, Sanjay, advertising, campaign, facebook, marketing, retail, social media, twitter View Comments

Social Media in India: Seven Findings from 2009, Seven Wishes for 2010

by sanjay on Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Over the last 7 months of 2009, we have been actively participating in the Social Media industry in India, interacting with large number of clients, and that experience of 7 months has translated into this summary of 7 findings from 2009, and 7 wishes that we have for the industry, for 2010.

Our early client (or even agency) interactions were about a concept sale, for Social Media. And there was an incredulous feel as to what were we doing in their conference room, talking about Facebook and such kids’ stuff!

We’ve traversed a long distance since those days.

Of course, it is still early days for Social Media in India, but in a lot of ways, things have moved ahead:

  1. Increasingly now, people know that Social Media needs to be a part of their marketing mix, if not yet, a part of their business processes itself. For those who understand the space, they will appreciate this difference. Perhaps by the time we review the space in end 2010, we may see that Social Media has also become a part of the company’s business processes!
  2. We do not need to struggle to explain our business. A simple term like “Social Media Agency” is understood by most now. Though we are not strictly a Social Media Agency, we are close to that, and if a simple phrase can generate a close enough recognition, we are okay to let things be there.
  3. In case of a few of our clients, we had picked up their abandoned early efforts of a Facebook page, for others we had started fresh ones. Suffice to say that ALL of those clients realize now that the Facebook page, the Twitter account, the blog, the YouTube channel etc. are their digital assets and  that they will not abandon these creations any more. Whether we manage these for them or they choose to do it themselves, their Social Media activities are here to stay. Note that the word “ROI” did not even come up in this! So there!!
  4. In the early days, it was easy to get an acceptance to create a Facebook page or a blog or a Twitter account. From a hygiene factor, these were good to have. Things have changed here as well. While we still get many prospects who want to do Facebook and Twitter for the hygiene factor, there are others who have started seeing beyond. We have clients who have integrated Social Media very well with their offline marketing and others who are now asking for stand-alone Social Media strategies, with specific focus. There are few who have realized, that Facebook could be their new Email, in terms of having a regular and direct reach to their customers.
  5. It took a while to get clients to accept our retainer fees. A few commented that our monthly fees were more than their annual PR budgets. Valid point, but  an apples vs oranges comparison really. What did that annual PR budget get them? A few print releases / mentions in the papers? With large reach, potentially, but with a blink-and-miss probability and also the life of just that one day for the effort? Whereas, the Social Media activities were an ongoing effort, an all-day activity done for them every day, and which resulted in strong digital assets being established for them, which were here to stay! It needed a different kind of dedicated effort, and produced a different kind of result as well. Thankfully, from clients who are in the know, our fees seem more acceptable and understood now.
  6. We are very pleased to see a big shift from our agency friends. I mean, the advertising, PR and media buying agency partners. We have seen hesitation, threat, doubt and fear in the early days, but we are now seeing an increasing confidence in the Social Media space, from many. They have become open to new ideas, and to some extent, they are putting these up to clients, and many are getting through as well. This is going to be the most exciting part of 2010, I believe.
  7. We are also happy to see companies looking at Social Media Monitoring as a part of the Social Media activities. Although still a pariah amongst all of the Social Media methods (in India), a few companies have started seeing the potential of “listening” and we are seeing this number go up. Businesses which are more sensitive to customer feedback, are especially concerned about managing their online reputations, and monitoring becomes an integral component here.

Having said all this, what we would really like to see change some more, are things like:

  1. More clients seeing the relevance and importance of Social Media and at least beginning with the reference of the Social Media contact points on their collaterals, their website, their email signature files etc.
  2. That clients realize that the challenge for the 0-1000 journey (the first 1000 Facebook fans or Twitter followers, say) is not trivial, and requires their participation. If that means that the client needs to put the Social Media icons and links on their website, on their TV commercial and press advertisements, send out emails to intimate their stakeholders, or whatever else that is required. Same needs to be done! Once a certain threshold level is reached, then the viral aspect kicks in, thanks to content and engagement activities.
  3. While we are seeing a few, we hope to see many more of our clients open up to fresh new ideas for Social Media activation, which are in addition to the simple Facebook page, Twitter account, blog and YouTube channel. An activity conceived for and within Social Media itself, and which can bring together a large base of their Target Group. Something of this nature needs a conviction and a larger commitment in terms of time and resources, but the payback is larger, as it breaks the clutter and stands out. It needs bold first mover types to grab such opportunities, and we look forward to seeing more of those, amongst our clients!
  4. We are also hoping for more buy-in from our advertising agency partners, to in turn have the conviction to present and sell to their clients, some of these new ideas. They will stand to win awards and we will be happy to stand next to them and get some reflected shine on us too, in the process. We know we have materials that can win awards for them, but we need their conviction to move it ahead!
  5. We hope this year, Mouthshut.com and others in the league are able to put better technology in place, to separate the genuine reviews and feedback, from the fraud postings. While the fraud posts impact brands in the near future, in the long run, it hurts the credibility of sites like mouthshut.com, and make them less trustworthy!
  6. We don’t really want this to happen to anyone. But it may still happen. A brand-damaging story that starts from Social Media and hits the mainstream media all over, and causes damage to the brand. Much like the Domino’s case in the US, or even akin to the Shashi Tharoor twitter escapades. Because such damage to one brand will open the eyes of all the other brands, that Social Media cannot be taken lightly. Even if a brand does not participate in outreach activities, they need to maintain a watch, and monitor the space, to identify potential PR crisis and plug them, before they go out of control.
  7. Finally, we wish for clients to have realistic expectations. No, we do not oversell. At times, the client himself feels a huge surge of enthusiasm about Social Media. Which is perfectly fine, and good, in fact. However if this enthusiasm translates to an over expectation of results, that is tough to manage. The process of growth in Social Media is slow. Especially if done organically. Which is how most Social Media strategies are happening. Done right, the process can be made as efficient as possible. However, benchmarking with the television reach or looking for tens of thousands of fans and followers in double quick time, are all expectations that are bound to fail. A quick look at what other brands have managed, especially in their own segments, and then seeing how good or bad their own Social Media performance is, will be a good starting point to understand the positioning.

The above mentioned experiences are based across a variety of businesses, as from the outset itself, we saw clients from diverse verticals. From chemical engineering companies targeting B2B clients to television channels with millions of viewers, to electrical equipment manufacturers, software companies, hospitals, doctors, electronic device manufacturing companies, educational institutions, etc. We have seen, since then, that the prediction that within 2 to 3 years, everybody will be using Social Media is well on its way to coming true. It’s ahead of schedule actually!

All in all, it is exciting space. We are looking forward to working with many clients through 2010, and we will certainly hope to make a mark with few of our Social Media winning strategies, in course of the year. Watch this space J

10.01.2010 General, Sanjay, india, learning, social media View Comments

Social Media Monitoring: From Discovery to Mastery

by sanjay on Friday, January 1st, 2010

There are still many out there who do not understand or appreciate the concept of Social Media Monitoring. For their benefit, just a quick introduction to the idea first.

Conversations are happening on Social Media.

A blog that talks about say, telecom issues.


Comments on that blog, from various people, about the blog, but more pertinently, about their preferences or prejudices, amongst brands, for example.

Or a discussion on a message board, about hosting service providers.

And several posts to the thread, indicating active participation, besides the much larger number, who just look and go away.

Or consider a Twitter stream about Digital Cameras:

Any such discussion can significantly impact your brand, your sales. Say, by driving away customers, on account of some negative conversations, or pushing business to your competitors on account of some flattering postings in their favor, etc.

In order that these events do not catch you by surprise, you are better off to do what is referred to as “Social Media Monitoring”. That process where you keep track of the social media conversations, related to your business. Typically done with a mix of software tools and some manual data clean up, this activity is emerging as an acknowledged and regular business process for many companies now.

And now that many companies are getting into such Social Media Monitoring efforts, we see behavior and response from people, based on their stage of evolution with Social Media monitoring. And what are some of these stages, then?

    1. The discovery stage: typically from a company (or person) that has just started doing Social Media Monitoring. There is huge fascination usually, in discovering a host of mentions of their brand in Social Media. It’s almost incredible to them. Most of them did not imagine that people could be so animatedly talking about their brand. Here, the brands do not particularly go about investigating the details of what context the conversations are happening in. The discovery itself is the reward, at this point. That they are in the conversation horizon of people is a reason to feel satisfied.
    2. The first stage of investigation: this is when the company goes beyond the fascination of discovery and probes a little deeper into the nature of conversation. And this is usually followed by a few rude shocks. When it is found that many of the conversations are critical about the brand. Yes, people share good experiences with fewer people, but bad customer experiences are broadcast to many. Also that, most people who “write” into the social media space have a kind of ‘activist’ profile. And they pick up the smallest of your mistakes and amplify the same via Social Media channels. This is when companies often get upset, ask for opinions about how to “shut these guys up”, or “is there a legal recourse to stop such postings”, etc.
    3. The stage of understanding: here is where now, the company really gets serious about looking at the data that is coming out, and converting it into actionable pieces. Conversations can be about a variety of things related to a company’s brand. From quality issues, to customer service, to price, to product details, to wish-list for new services, to competitor comparison etc. Each of these needs a different handling, perhaps from different people in an organization. So now is the stage when a company starts tagging the conversations and distributing these to the right teams and people, and also starts figuring out a response mechanism, which is consistent across the organization, because finally, to the outside world, it is that “one company” only.
    4. The final stage (as of now – this space is changing!): this is when the company has now got a real good picture of the social media conversations and their impact. That many a times, the mention of their brand is inconsequential and needs to be ignored. Sometimes there is a negative mention, but it is on account of some personal reasons and can be settled offline. Or that there is conversation that they are quite familiar with, and in fact, stems out of their own press releases, for example. But then to pick those few, which are from the real ‘influencers in the space’ and which give them new and very relevant information, and which they need to act upon, is the ultimate objective. This is the “smart” way of monitoring social media, and putting it to use. It takes a lot of effort to separate the wheat from the chaff, but this is indeed, the real thing.

I am sure, there will be even more sophistication that is evolving, but the above stages largely capture the experiences of most companies, currently dabbling into the space of Social Media Monitoring.

Questions, other thoughts, experiences? Please feel free to share below.

01.01.2010 Sanjay, learning, social media, social media monitoring View Comments

Facebook’s the New Email: It’s all about Reach

by sanjay on Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Time was when companies would accumulate large email lists so they could write to these people, updating them about their offerings and promotions. In fact, we still come across a lot of companies who think in terms of creating an “email database”.

So for long since the Internet was recognized as a means to reach your prospects, email has lived and thrived. That one great way to have your brand message delivered directly to your prospect, in her email box, which she was certainly going to see. At such a low cost. And which is how, companies and brands started using email a lot.

Till the point of time that email was also discovered by few others: those that wanted to sell you Viagra, those who promised to get you rich quickly, and others that offered to deliver free porn to your desktop! With junk and spam coming into the email system, users got wary, stopped accepting many emails and suddenly, email became a dirty word, for sending out brand messages.

As we meet and talk to clients and prospects, there are many who want to drive traffic to their website and the website alone, even while using our services to generate Social Media engagement. They feel that the website is “theirs” with their brand name etc., and which is where the traffic should be ultimately driven. And where they can then pick up the email addresses of these visitors!

Well, I think they need to understand a few new realities:

  1. People get just way too much email, and most users filter email and block spam. And there is every chance that your email may not really reach the customer.
  2. People are very concerned about leaving behind their email ids at sites now. So the genuine customers and prospects may not even be in your email list.
  3. This also means that when you drive traffic only to your website, it may be that one-off visit, but you lose the customer thereafter, as she did not leave behind any of her contact details.
  4. It is the new world of convergence, and of using multiple devices to access the Internet. In scenarios like these, what is really important? To have your brand message reach your prospect and get read. Does it matter how that happens?
  5. The other comfort that a mailing list used to give earlier was the possible reuse of that list, to reach the customer again, after a while. Well, on email in fact, people are less tolerant now. I will get into my email box, only that information which I really want to see. Anyone else sending email to me, and that too repeatedly, is taking up my time and attention, and is therefore not welcome!

So what options do brands have now, to deliver their message to their prospects and customers? If not email, then what?

Consider the option of a Facebook Fan page.

You create one for your brand. You populate it with good content. You also put out images and videos there. You are subtle in your marketing messages. You genuinely show the human face of your brand. You actually converse with your customers. And in doing all these, you pick up “fans”. Those folks on Facebook who tell you that ‘they like what you are putting up out there, and will not mind your occasional updates coming on to their Facebook walls’.

Permission marketing, anyone?

Why is this working at this time?

Clearly, the nature of the medium teaches brands, and they comply as well, to keep their messages small, simple, friendly and subtle. As against that weapon of the HTML email that marketers had got in their hands, with Flash and what not, and which was blatantly pushy. And which consumers wanted nothing of.

So the simplicity of the Facebook update works well.

Then again, the brand is not expected to push too many updates, too often. As soon as a brand tries to overdo this, for the user who has her Facebook wall full of one brand’s updates, it takes only a click to withdraw her fan-dom for the brand. Email also offered the “unsubscribe” option in such cases, but too often it did not work, and it was also in the hands of the sender of the email, to stop sending those emails to you. In case of Facebook, the control is in the hands of the user herself. And if any brand still finds a way to abuse the system (say, by pushing “messages”), then big brother Facebook is quick to the rescue of the user.

So getting occasional updates and not too many, is also a good thing.

Facebook fans may become fans of many things. At this time, not many are un-fanning themselves that often. In other words, for a brand, if they acquire say, 10,000 fans, that is nearly as good, or perhaps better than acquiring 10,000 email addresses. With those 10,000 fans, even if you do not know much about them, you are able to reach them with your updates when you have something useful to tell them. They are usually around and don’t leave you. Unlike the email addresses which change every once in a while, a user’s Facebook account is normally not changing that frequently. And the other advantage is the viral aspect. Today, we have gone past the early stage of email usage, where we would forward good emails to long mailing lists of our friends. So an email is perhaps going to reach only that one individual to whom it is sent. On the other hand, a good Facebook update like a video is easily “shared”, and suddenly you get a possible viral surge on your fans list.

I have told many of our clients that they should not be obsessed with driving traffic to their website. Their Facebook page is as much “theirs” as their website. If they drive traffic to the website, but the user does not leave behind an email address, there will still be an effort to reach him the next time. On the other hand, if you drive traffic to a good Facebook page and manage to get the user to click a simple button and become your fan, you have reach to him for a long time.

So as long as Facebook rules ensure that companies remain disciplined on this front, till then, Facebook’s your new email! That one way to get to your prospects and customers, in a permission marketing mode.

And what about Twitter then? Is having Twitter followers also the same thing? I guess not. To penetrate a user’s mindshare on Twitter, amidst tons of tweets flowing past him continuously, takes more than getting the person to just follow you. With filtering concepts like groups and lists emerging, the user will have to pick your account and put it in a list that he “wants to see” for sure, and then only, does it become the equivalent of the Facebook case.

What do you think? Do you agree that Facebook’s your new email? Any other experiences that you have had? Please share in comments below.

31.12.2009 Sanjay, campaign, facebook, social media View Comments

350 million+ Facebook makes changes : I think these are good!

by sanjay on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Facebook users today were greeted with a message that a letter from founder Mark Zuckerberg was waiting for them. As this is not your every day occurrence, most of us ended up checking it out.

And while we found out that the galloping giant had moved beyond the 350 million user base number, it was also bringing about some significant changes in the coming days, to the way it has been functioning. While details about the exact implementation will be known over the next few weeks, there is enough information to generate many early reactions, to these changes.

I have a slightly different view to the opinions in that story in Business Standard.

1. On the subject of the regional networks which will not remain anymore, I have not seen any serious value to this so-called regional network, including the one of India. Networks, groups, communities are worth if they truly unify, generate exchanges and interactions, and are active. The specific Facebook Fan pages or groups that actually engage its members are the kind that are actively managed, have reasons for engagement, and have a common passion. Not the kind where you just ‘belong for the sake of belonging’. Regional networks were largely of the latter type.

2. The privacy factor, on the other hand is very crucial. As a father of two daughters who are active on Facebook, and as a consultant  and speaker on Social Media, this is one fact that I have highlighted many a times.

Let me explain with an example.

You go to a vacation at a beach resort, and have a rollicking time. Fun photos of the trip, including several in your two piece bikini find their way to your Facebook page. You are comfortable sharing these with your friends. After all, you have been selective about choosing your friends on Facebook. And as always, you get a lot of comments from your friends, on your photos.

Now few of your friends have large friend groups of their own, on Facebook. As they comment on your photo, a status update goes out to their friends, that <your_friend> has commented on <your> photo album. And in that status update, the ‘photo album’ is a link, that your friend’s friend can click on, and view!

Oops..that is not something that you expected / wanted / anticipated. And yet, you did not even realize that this could happen, because there were no apparent warnings (current version of Facebook also has selective privacy settings for many of its features, but often the default sharing is ‘everyone’ and most users do not realize the need to change it!).

And while that friend’s friend cannot comment on your photos, he can definitely view them, and should he have mal-intentions, he can do worse.

Not your best case scenario and something that is very real and happening, right now. I must admit for example, to not have any major celebrities as friends, but some of my friends have such friends. And once in a while when I see my friend commenting on their celebrity friends’ pics, I have been curious to check the pics out. I am sure the celebrity did not mean to share those with me, or many others like me!

So considering these risks, it is indeed a move in the right direction, to enable and basically prompt users to choose the level of sharing, for any piece of content that they update on Facebook. In a growing and large space, where abuse is so easy, even if it means a little change that we have to deal with, I think the privacy changes being proposed are a step in the right direction.

3. But does that mean that I will need to go and look over my hundreds of friends, one at a time, and set privacy settings for each of them? Surely that would be very tedious?

No, I don’t think that will be necessary at all.

Consider again:

a. At this time, the higher level of privacy was not present. It is being introduced. So whatever content you uploaded on to Facebook, you were comfortable to share that with whoever (largely, your friends) had access to it via your Facebook page. Just because you now have a choice to be selective, you do not HAVE to go and change privacy settings for your existing content. It was visible to your existing friends, and if you don’t do anything special, it will continue to be visible to them.

b. What is a choice for you is the NEW content that you will start uploading hereafter. At that point, while uploading, you may have a choice to decide if you want to share with friends, of friends of friends, or everyone. Again, as I read the open letter, it does not state anywhere that you will get to make selective permission settings within your friends. As long as someone is a friend, he is equal to all other friends. So you do not go and set levels of permissions to your various friends.

After all, Facebook wants to continue to remain a common user’s utility, and does not want to become a techie application. Multiple level of permission settings on users, is a techie activity, which I am sure, Facebook will not indulge in.

So what kind of consequences do I see as a result of these changes?

1. As an individual user, your privacy settings are certainly better protected. I would then recommend users to set their settings correctly, e.g. have private photo and video albums to be only shared with your friends and no one else. But if you post a link to your blog, which you actually want more people to reach, then that content can be allowed to be accessed by ‘everyone’. And of course, if it is just someone else’s content (like a neat video that you see), fell free to share it with ‘everyone’ again, as you have no need to protect that further!

2. But what if you are a brand? The one thing that brands found favorable about Facebook was its viral nature. Where good content could potentially fly on account of features like ‘share’ and ‘like’. Will Facebook become less viral now with these changes? Will your content not move that fast?

I would think not. Unless users make mistakes in their personal settings.

As a brand, the content that you produce, you will anyway want maximum people to see it. So you will not put any significant privacy protection levels on the same. You will set your content to be accessible to ‘everyone’ (as against only fans, or friends of fans or something like that). With that setting as your content moves out from your fans to others, there are no stops really. The viral aspect remains.

Unless.

Unless some users have made their settings such that “all that they share is only accessible to friends” and no one else. Ideally they want to protect their personal privacy, and would protect personal content, photos and all. But a mistake in user settings could well make ALL content that they share, only reachable to friends. In SUCH cases, the content that passes through such friends may perhaps stop flying as much, as it will not go to the level 2, beyond their friends.

This should not happen, but if it happens to a small degree, to that extent, the viral flight of good content may be diminished to an extent.

Other than these factors, I do not see major consequences of these new features of Facebook.

What are your thoughts? Have I missed something? Do you agree? Love to hear your thoughts on this.

02.12.2009 General, Sanjay, Services, WebsitePlus, facebook, social media View Comments

The Early Adopters in Social Media: Some Client Experiences

by sanjay on Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Over the last approximately six months that we have been in business as a Social Media Agency, we have notched around 20 client engagements. Very interestingly and without intention, the clients are very diverse, from business vertical, size, geography as well as business focus (B2B vs B2C). In the process, we have had the singular good fortune to work on a variety of assignments, and have that rich experience being built.

But today I wanted to share with you, the diversity of attitudes of these clients.

What is the common factor amongst all of these clients, is that they are all early adopters. For almost none of them, was Social Media “necessary”. In the sense that today, their business would have had little impact whether they were engaging on Social Media or not. The reason then, that they ventured out and decided to get into Social Media, was because they thought bolder, they thought for the future, they are truly visionary as individuals. And we are glad to be associated with many such clients.

But other than being early adopters, in most other respects, the clients are quite different from each other.

There are few who have total trust in us. They are happy to hand over the reins (which means, the complete Social Media presence for their companies) to us, they are happy to let us run it. It does put a HUGE responsibility on us, to handle their brands with a lot of care. And perhaps, in that responsibility, we are obliged to handle these brands most diligently.

Then there are clients, who are large brands, and who know that a single wrong step could cause a lot of brand damage. Working with these brands involves vetting every single word that goes out into the Social Media space. The process is slowed down to an extent. Even after the material goes online, there are occasional corrections or changes. Sometimes we wonder if it is a bit too much. But then we realize that there have been such large investments that have led to these brands reaching the positions that they enjoy. And they can only err on the side of caution, and hence we do not mind the scrutiny!

Then we have this absolutely wonderful brand. A very prestigious brand with extremely high stakes. They have given us an elaborate set of dos and don’ts. From the language to the tone, everything has been specified. But at the end, we have been given a very categorical message. That they are convinced that we know more about Social Media than they do, and that they will like us to challenge them whenever we find them not getting it right, from the Social Media point of view. Extremely gracious and heartening.

A recent example with another client convinced me about how it is really early days in Social Media, still. And this is nothing personal, and I hasten to add this, since she may also read this blog! But I believe that a lot of folks in many organizations are grappling with the very same transition challenges that we experienced with her.

We have been working with this client for a while now. And doing the routine Social Media deliveries like Social Media Monitoring and their Twitter and Facebook accounts, but under their guidance, most of this has been restricted to a minimum level of engagement. When we recently suggested to her that Social Media is about mingling with customers, and where a brand needs to come out looking very human, and in that respect, we need to be a bit more open and more candid, perhaps even sharing the company picnic photos, or those birthday celebrations once in a while, she was hesitant. She was frank enough to let us know that while all of this may be true, she is yet to reach a point, where she can be comfortable about opening up in this manner. Or about mixing the official face with an internal more personal view of the company.

These may just be the transition challenges. Of going from the traditional world, to a ‘new’ world, or going from traditional communication channels to the new media challenges. And this may well be the hump to cross.

Different clients, different attitudes, different concerns..

Businesses are learning – nay, grappling – to cope with the realities of Social Media.

What about your company? Where do you see yourself fit? Or if you are an agency like ours, where do your clients fit? Would love to know your thoughts.

25.10.2009 General, Sanjay, social media View Comments

Advertising Agencies and Social Media: The Challenges

by sanjay on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

I have many good friends in the traditional advertising world. A few clients as well. And many prospects. And I have a lot of respect for their work. They are among the most creative folks I know in life.

So I want to assure that this post is not meant to be critical of them.

There is a perspective based on observation and experience, about how traditional advertising agencies are finding some aspects of Social Media to be challenging, and which is shared here.

As an opinion. And looking for other opinions, in fact!

Over the few months that we have been in business as a Social Media agency, we have pitched directly to clients as well as via advertising agencies. In doing so, we have had good experience interacting and working with both types of prospects.

Having seen this at close quarters, I observe few fundamental challenges, for advertising agencies to adapt to Social Media that easily:

1. There is a ‘campaign’ focus: Agencies have traditionally been involved in campaigns. Those that may demand a lot of hard work, high creativity, long hours, but which are finally one-off shots (whatever be the length of that one-off shot).

Social Media is not quite like that. Social Media is an ongoing process, something that needs to happen all day long, day-in-and-day-out. This is unfamiliar territory, in principal, for the agencies.

2. Intuitive and smart writing is required, need not be masterpieces: Agencies have the best creative talents, no doubt. Especially copywriters, who create that magic, with the use of few words that get on to billboards or on print ads or the script on the TV ad. They may work on several iterations before they get those 4 words right, but those 4 words then, are very right and work wonders in an advertisement.

Such excellent copywriting would work very well on social media. Except that it is unaffordable. And perhaps not required. Each tweet does not have to be the masterpiece copy that comes on ads. Each Facebook update does not have to be discussed and debated in a creative brainstorming session.

Social Media is about being ‘just right enough’ on the creative front, being more intuitive and natural, and being almost casual in your content. Whether it is on Facebook or on Twitter or other formats.

The extremely creative copywriter of the agency can do this, but her presence for each tweet or each FB update, will not be affordable then. And anything less might not do, or may not be available in the agency team!

3. There is huge effort in getting it right, and then getting it ‘out’. As mentioned earlier, agencies work hard to get the ad right, and for which long hours and very hard work is the norm. But it all culminates at the point, when the campaign is pushed out, after all the final approvals. And that’s it. After that the team can relax, as it is then, for the campaign to deliver. Or not.

In social media however, there is no one ‘out’. Social Media is about conversations. About dialogs. Once you put your message out, you will get responses. And you have to respond back. And it goes on. And each time, you need to put your best foot forward. And the ‘campaign’ does not really ‘end’ at all! This again is something to get used to, for agencies.

We have seen many a social media initiative of agencies falling into the ‘campaign’ slot. Most times, it also continues to be a ‘broadcast’ as against a conversation.

While we do not agree to it being called a ‘social media strategy’ then, we have ourselves worked with agencies on such initiatives. Considering at our end, that we are participating not in a true social media effort, but rather, in an advertising campaign, where a blog or a Facebook page or Twitter is serving as a media, and we are delivering the content for that advertisement.

This is really the type of Social Media involvement that we are seeing a lot of, from advertising agencies.

We hope that agencies get convinced about the “real” social media. The type which involves long term and ongoing engagement with your customers. The type that creates relationships and not just one-off branding or sale opportunities. Where the brand truly mingles with its customers, and becomes their very approachable friend.

Once agencies are convinced about this opportunity, and then they can convince their clients too, perhaps we can see a shift in the approach.

However it does appear to be a steep mountain to climb, from where we are at this time. There are a lot of old learnings to be given up, and new ones to be learned. And in that, amongst other things, the agency revenue models may also get challenged. And which is the biggest status quo that no one wants to disturb.

As long as the current situation prevails, agencies may keep doing advertising and using social media platforms as advertising media. While others, including agencies like ours, will strive to convince clients about an alternate approach. One which is the true social media.

Yes, I might have ruffled a few feathers here. And so I am open to be corrected.

Do you think agencies are changing faster than I give them credit for? Or is their current approach the right one anyway? Your opinions are welcome, in the comments below.

30.09.2009 Sanjay, Services, advertising agencies, social media View Comments

Billboards on Social Media?? Well, yes..

by sanjay on Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Dear Still-Not-Convinced-About-Social-Media Marketer,

You are happier to keep putting your ad budgets on street billboards like this one, right?

And you even think that it’s fine if few passers by would see your ads on the street such as the following ones, right?

Well, just because you love such large splashes of your brand name, where a lot of people can see it, how about if we offer you the same on Social Media??

“Excuse me?” is what I hear from you now!

Read on, then..

This is how a recent Social Media campaign was constructed for Channel V, as they were relaunching the channel on August 22nd.

Twitter members were given an offer, to allow their Display Pictures (DPs) to be swapped with the Channel V logo.

They were told that if they register and allow this to happen:

- Channel V will ‘possess’ their avatar, for 50% of the time, on a random basis; that way, for the other 50%, they could still retain their own avatar

- if they stay registered for at least 5 days, they would get a neat Channel V T-shirt AND

- they would also be eligible to win an iPod

This was great incentive for many. And it turned out to be fun too. And that is when the “billboards” started to get created on Social Media, like this:

And if you were using Twitter directly from the web, then too, the screen was like a large advertising space for Channel V, as you can see here:

No wonder then, that there were user comments that said that “Channel V seems to have taken over the Internet”!

So dear Marketer, if “billboards” are what appeal to you, fret not. You can get them on Social Media too :)

And if you want “in” on this new advertising option for your brand, you know whom you have to call?!

Yours truly,

- The Social Wavelength team!!

06.09.2009 Sanjay, advertising, twitter View Comments

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