Monthly Archives: January 2016

Social Media Management Tools for Multiple Accounts

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Social media is an integral part of our life. It makes us social virtually and of course, there is no single right way to get social. Digital technology gives us the chance to be present, online, active in multiple places at the same time. It is believed that there are about 2.216 billion active social media users across the globe.

Social media also gives us the opportunity to choose, which social platform we want to be social and when. So, comes in the concept of multiple accounts in social media and a reason for managing the same. Different social media accounts can be on the basis of preference, need or application. Multiple social media accounts can be accessed from different devices as well.

Facebook has always been one of the most popular social media accounts. Facebook tops the list in terms of active user in millions in 2015, followed by Whatsapp and others.

People have multiple social media accounts to be able to cater to different requirements. For examples, being ‘social’ among friends and family needs a Facebook account; messaging needs a Whatsapp account, professional network needs a LinkedIn account, daily updates need a Twitter account, image repository and shares need Pinterest or Instagram accounts, bloggers have their own domain accounts and so on.

Not everyone will need all the accounts. The number and type varies from user to user. But, if you happen to keep multiple social media accounts, you need a management tool to maintain and keep track of them.

A social media dashboard is like a website or a program, which helps you to manage all profiles in one place. You don’t have to login separately to individual accounts, rather post updates, shares, messages etc. from one place.

There are different social media management tools and dashboards. However, according to a report by G2Crowd, the best 4 tools of 2015 has been listed as:

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HootSuite:

It was founded in 2008 and first integrated with Twitter. Gradually, it incorporated others like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and others. There are two plans – Free and Pro. They differ in the features they offer like reports and team members. Currently, it is rated as the No. 1 social media management tool in terms of market share and social presence. They have an app directory, which lets you extend the number of apps and also the most affordable basic plan.

AgoraPulse:

This started in 2011 and slowly gaining popularity. It also integrates the major social media accounts with full access to reports and allows unlimited team members. The backend operation handles engagements effectively, and allows you to build Facebook apps. It scores high on customer satisfaction, customer support, and product direction.

SproutSocial:

This has the second largest market share after HootSuite. Though it’s a bit expensive, but it has a popular and growing user base since it was founded in 2010. It gives full access to reports and analytics. Users have marked it high on ease to learn and usability. It integrates Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+.

Sendible:

This was started in 2009 and integrates a large number of networks. Here, the plans are based on ‘number of services’ rather than number of networks. It has been rated 2nd in product direction and meeting requirements. It comes 3rd in terms of ease to learn and usability. It has one of the most expensive base plans.

Some of the other alternatives listed by them are MavSocial, Oktopost, Jollor Meshfire and Rignite among others.

Some of the other tools according to the utility can be:

  • SumAll- for social media reports
  • Feedient- for centralized social media streaming
  • Buffer- for social media scheduling
  • SocialCount- for tracking shares and reach of your content
  • SocialHunt- for tracking follower’s activities on Twitter
  • BuzzSumo Alerts- for notification of your content when it goes viral

Social media management tools are used by both social media managers and regular users. There are many tools in the market, so choosing the right one(s) might be tedious, but keep in mind your requirement before selecting. Social media analysis is a complicated mechanism, so choose a tool, which is easy to use and interpret, according to your need. Though, these are automated tool, they still need a bit of human touch to manage and use the results effectively.

Your social media management strategy makes handling multiple accounts easy and time-saving for you. It should also take care of security and identity theft issues. These tools also help to manage your audience and followers. Some of the strategies to manage multiple accounts are:

  • Add your social media profiles into a single dashboard
  • Plan and schedule posts before time of release so that you can avoid last minute confusion; you can set a reminder as well
  • Manage your audience well; defragment them with separate lists so that you can track better
  • Track the reach of your content with shares, re-tweets and others in one place
  • Automate most of the tasks
  • Compare and contrast your states against a benchmark

So, if you have multiple social media accounts and finding it difficult to manage them, then it is time to adopt one or more social media management tool(s) to make the best of your social media presence.

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Power of a smile – Humour in Marketing

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If you make someone smile, they will remember you, but you have someone laugh, they will surely remember you. I am sure that you will remember an advert, which made you smile or laugh rather than a regular one. Humor can be implicit, explicit, and satirical or presented in different forms, but it leaves a mark on our minds. This subtle relation between humor, happiness and customer recollection has been effectively used by marketers to come up with some of the best marketing and branding strategies and campaigns.

Like any other attribute, humor also triggers human senses and can impact their purchasing behaviour. Humor in marketing is not necessarily only in audio or video mode, but it can be in print and digital media as well.  How can one forget the evergreen ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’ Amul ads, which brings a smile to your faces? How well we can relate to each one of them?

Humor had entered the social media space as well with witty hashtags or the funniest videos going viral or funny posts circulated on Facebook. humor is employed at near unanimous levels for all viral advertisements. Consequently, humor has the universal appeal for making content viral.

A few important reasons why to use humor to create effective marketing and branding campaigns are as follows:

Humor triggers emotional response

Laughter is an emotion, which is associated with happiness and positivity. It is a stress buster and creates a healthy effect on our mental state. Laughter helps to release endorphines, which relaxes our body and boosts immune system. Audience, who gets pleasant vibes from a brand, can associate and respond in a positive way.

Humor makes the brand memorable

As mentioned earlier, you will definitely remember something pleasant, which triggered an emotional connect. A recent study shows that we tend to forget only 42% of positive experiences as opposed to 60% of negative experiences. Hence, you will surely remember an ad, which made you laugh or a tagline, which invokes instant humor. You tend to discuss and talk about it more, hence it keeps coming back to the top of your mind. This way the brand recognitions and retention keeps happening in your mind.

Humor brings people together

Experts say that we tend to laught 30 times more when we are with people around than when we are alone. We tend to share a joke or a laugh with friends over a Facebook post or a tweet. We tend to discuss ads with a humorous touch when we are with friends or family and try to come up with our own version rather than talking about a mundane or serious ad. This way the audience reach of the brand grows and this is more like a word of mouth promotion.

Humor gives audience insight

Have you ever thought what makes us laugh? Do we laugh at everything or what makes something funny? Well, Peter McGraw from Humor Research Lab came up with an interesting concept – the ‘benign-violation’ theory. He explained that ‘funny’ is an intersection of benign (things which are very mundane) and violation (things we are very extreme).

To make things ‘funny’ to evoke humor and laughter, marketers need to find that overlapping region for their brand to create an impact on the audience’s mind. What is hilarious might not always work in a marketing campaign, it has to be what the audience interprets to be funny. Humor needs to be carefully chosen and presented tactfully for a successful campaign.

People are so busy in their stressful lives today that they forget to laugh and enjoy the lighter moments of life. So, they wouldn’t mind a dash of humor, when they switch their TV sets or read the newspaper. Marketers need to trigger their emotions effectively with classy humor, which needs to be simple, sustble yet eye-catching.

The power of humor gives marketers the opportunity to give their customers cherishable moments of LOL!

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The Case Study Mantra for Marketing

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We all know that ‘everybody loves a story’ and this has become an underlying guideline for marketers and brand managers. Brands today, not sell a product or a service, rather they share experiences and emotions, which makes you buy their product or service.

Marketing is no longer about selling your proposition and getting new customers. It has overlapped with Branding, which believes in creating a niche, a connect and retaining valuable customers. So, in order to do so, they need to move afar from traditional marketing and do more of experiential marketing and emotional branding. These tools are meant to involve a customer and rather than to pursue them.

One tool for achieving this can be using case studies and making them more customer-centric. Case Studies are nothing but a way to share past experiences or to explain with an example. They are also used to exemplify a case, an issue or a lesson from the past to be used in the future.

Case studies are like an asset, which helps you to justify your brand – why is your product/service better, how it has added value for others and how it can benefit you.

Today, customers are smart. They know where to look for online reviews, personal recommendations, user ratings and others before they make any purchase. They can compare and contrast between different options. They are conscious enough to do their own research online before investing on any option. It is believed that 9 out of 10 customers are looking for online reviews and feedback before buying a product and 88% of consumers rely on online reviews as they do on personal recommendations.

Let’s take a look at a few of the interesting ways to use case studies for your marketing.

Feature them on your Home Page

People would like to know how others felt before they buy the product. So, let them read testimonials or reviews immediately, when they land on your home page. You can either feature as scrolling text or call to action for reading in details.

Keep a separate tab for them

It is important to highlight case studies along with other information in the website. So, you can keep a separate section for them like ‘Case Studies’, ‘Stories for Success’ or ‘Lead by Examples’. Urge visitors to browse through case studies with attractive taglines, or other ways to draw them to that section.

Make interactive tools

Earlier, case studies used to be simple text, which gets boring to read and might not work now-a-days. So, make case studies interesting and interactive by converting them into videos, slideshows, or using catchy images, graphs, etc., which makes it easy to interpret yet informational.

Publicize them on social media

In today’s age of social media, it is not enough to just keep the case studies in your website. You need to publicize and make them visible as well. So, write about it in blogs, share in social media like Facebook, Twitter and others. Make them popular through different groups like LinkedIn groups and others.

Combine them with other tools

Case studies, if combined with other marketing tools can do wonders. Make them a part of email marketing, use them in your signature as links, feature them in brochures and incorporate them in newsletters.

Train sales team with them

The sales team is responsible for lead generation. So, train them with case studies, which they can use in sales and promotions. They can use these examples more than describing the features and utilities, which the customer might already be aware of. The more they are able to gain the trust of the customer by providing them evidence, the better chances are there to turn them into prospects. Case studies never grow old, just that they need to be presented in the right way at the right point of time.

There can be many other ways to use case studies effectively like Using relevant case studies on landing pages, Creating effective Slide-Shares, Using them for Training and Sales presentations, and others.

According to another study by Content Marketing Institute, where they listed 12 effective marketing tactics, case studies fared at fifth position. It shows that around 63% of UK marketers believe that case studies can be effective in marketing.

Case Studies

might be a traditional tool, but with modern ways to revamp and re-design the message can definitely help you in sales and promotion, marketing, branding and customer engagement.

Make a case of your offering and use it effectively to showcase your product or service!

Do you need help? We are here for you

Just write to us at info@medialabs.in. To know more about us, visit our website www.medialabs.in.

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