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Politicians Targeting Wrong Audience Facepalm

The news of some IT firms using unethical means to gain likes for the Facebook Page of politicians and defaming opposition politicians has been in the news for quite some time. This just came to show that it’s all a game of numbers. None of these people give a rat’s eye about actually interacting with the public or utilizing Social Media for the actual reason it is to be used. You give them anything and they’ll destroy it. First the country and now Social Media Channels.

While these news were doing the rounds couple of days back, I found something quite interesting on Facebook. Now, let me remind you, being a Social Media Marketer, I pay lot of attention to the Ads I see on Facebook and Google and anywhere on the internet real estate. So obviously, it came as pretty amusing when I saw an Ad about Congress Party written in Mizo, showing up beside my timeline.

 

Facebook Screenshot Congress Ad

 

I never give the slightest attention to political ads. To me, they’re as full of crap as the politicians or political parties they’re sponsored by. But seeing a political ad in a language I can’t decipher was way outta my league. As I clicked on the Ad, I was taken to the following website of “Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee”.

 

Mizoram Congress Website

 

Now, I have no idea what was written and neither do I have a good sixth sense. But all my other senses tell me it has to do something with me voting for them. Sure Congress. I’ll do. Once you explain to me how a guy from Kerala can vote in Mizoram. Burn!

Now that I see some of the BJP lovers laughing out loud on me making fun of Congress, wait buddies. The show’s not over.

The next day, as I was just about to shut down my laptop at night, the following ad jumped up on my timeline.

 

BJP Facebook Ad Screenshot

 

I don’t have the slightest idea who this guy is or what is he doing on my timeline. The ad tells me he’s a MLA from Gujarat. Again, they aren’t trying to increase my general knowledge am sure. Nor do they love so much that they badly want me to see what some local MLA does in Gujarat.

I find it pretty insulting when these people ridicule Social Media in such a manner and consider the public to be fools. Having run Facebook Ads myself a good number of times, I know that it’s not very hard to target your audience based on their location. But when a party from Mizoram and a politician from Gujarat come up on my timeline, I get really really skeptical about how these politicians and political parties plan to use Social Media.

 

Politicians Targeting Wrong Audience Facepalm

 

All said, am pretty sure about one thing. As long as such people and such parties are in existence, I’ll always get one or the other point like this to write a blog post on.

God bless social media. And my patience.

 

Image Courtesy: ramp.ie

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how to start a social media agency

I have been running a Social Media Marketing/Content Marketing Agency for about 2 years now. Wouldn’t boast that all’s been good; have had my heavenly highs and my deepest lows. Stepping into a completely new field just because I fell in love with it might sound preposterous to some. But well, that’s how certain things are supposed to align up.

In retrospect, I can point out at least a million things about starting up a Social Media Agency, which, if I had known 2 years back, would definitely have helped me and my firm be in a much more enjoyable position than it is now. But, just as a good stuffed crust Pepperoni Pizza with double dose of cheese takes its time to be made up, all good things come in time. And with experience.

Hence, when I was invited to an Engineering College to handle a session on “How To Start A Social Media Agency”, I had already made up my mind on what would be the first things I would like to share. Also, I was told most of the students had plans of starting a Social Media Agency while -in/after college. This made it all the more clear to me on what I had to share.

My presentation from the talk is as –

For the loads of veteran digital marketers out there, and for the doyens of Social Media, I whole-heartedly welcome you to put in your suggestions on whether I have missed out on any part in the above presentation.

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Man and girl cartoon despicable me

Passengers of Train Number 12684, Bangalore-Ernakulam Superfast Express, Coach S3 would hardly ever forget their journey on 24th October 2013. And though for different reasons, neither would I.

Nothing special had happened actually. It was just another train journey; except the fact that the guy from seat 32 was seen typing away furiously on his laptop, even long after everyone else had fallen asleep. The same guy who had previously slapped a drunkard for making a nuisance in the coach.

Needless to say, the guy from seat 32 was me. The typing away furiously is the same reason you’re now reading this post, which I actually wrote in train. The second reason, was all thanks to the Karnataka Beverage Corporation’s donation to some retard who came all drunk in the coach and was disturbing a pregnant lady in my nearby seat, along with her kid.

The very same 5 year old kid, who is the central character of this blog post.

5 year old girl

After the hue and cry with the drunkard had died down and I had become some sort of a “Coach Hero”, we all were sitting and chatting away, getting to know each other. The uncle who runs a Chartered Flight Booking Agency, the pregnant lady who’s a school teacher (along with her 5 year old daughter) and the college kid who’s going back home were my fellow passengers.

As we were talking, I noticed the 5 year old little girl was pestering her mom regularly to buy a packet of Lays. At first the aunty ignored her but when the frequency of the pestering grew, she said a rigid no as the final judgment. But we know kids – they never have no for an answer. And that’s exactly when what the kid did, thoroughly impressed me.

As the next guy selling Lays came, the girl went and hugged the man’s legs tightly, chanting out to her mom her craving for the packet of air. No matter how much the guy or her mom tried, she just didn’t let go of him. End result – 5 minutes later she was sitting at the window, happily munching at her packet of air….uh… Lays.

I bloody hell work in the marketing field and even I have never been able to convince any client why he needs my services, as simple and as fast as that little girl convinced her mom to get her a pack of Lays!

Bollocks I tell ya. If it wasn’t against the law and common sense, I would have definitely hired that little girl as my Marketing Manager. And she wouldn’t even need a salary. Candies and Lays would suffice am sure 😀

In retrospect, the little girl actually did teach me an important lesson. Not just in marketing, but on basic human nature. One, she never gave up on her goal, even after being told a rigid no. So unlike us, who mostly give up something so very easily without giving it all that we got. Secondly, she knew the right method to get the deal sealed. She understood her client (mom), what would actually get her attention (holding on to the Chips-waala), what would question her ego (the people looking on) and then seal the deal on a mutually loss-less transaction which would result in both agency-client satisfaction (she got her Lays and mom her peace of mind).

And to think we people go for an MBA and still don’t get the basics right. Sheesh!

Man and girl cartoon despicable me

Maybe it’s the innocence, maybe it’s the purity of thought. But if we just look around, we can actually learn a lot by just observing the toddlers. It’s almost like they have full knowledge about their “Client”, know how well to do “Market Study”, understand what exactly gets into the heads (or nerves) of their “Target Audience” and develop a “Strategy” to almost always get their desired result. And with their attitude of I-will-get-what-I-want, there’s a thing or two to be learnt by Entrepreneurs too.

Ah well, am neither an MBA, nor a parent, nor a marketing guy by default. Just some observations by the guy from seat 32.

Image Courtesy - Despicable Me

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Linkedin ad in facebook

Imagine this. You are a 5 Star Hotel chain. You have your own share of regular customers who consider you totally awesome. But then someone in your top management says – “We need more customers. I don’t care if they are quality people or not, we just need more numbers!”

So, you have a brainstorming session on strategies to invite more customers. Some new intern suggests a new idea, which even though sounds stupid and unprofessional, gets approved by the top management. With guns blazing and fanfare the idea is set into implementation stage – You send some of your middle management staff to the doorsteps of another 5 Star hotel with a placard saying – “Down the road there’s another 5 star hotel. Its awesome. Join Us”.

I wish no one does this in real life. And no one has done it yet to my knowledge. But when I saw LinkedIn Ads in Facebook, inviting people to join LinkedIn, this was the comparison that came to my mind.

Yes. LinkedIn Ads in Facebook.

Linkedin ad in facebook

It doesn’t seem that the Ads have been placed by LinkedIn’s HQ; its definitely the work of its India Office. I am no one to comment on whether its right or wrong, but it just seemed creepy to me. Not creepy creepy, but feels-odd-to-see kind of creepy. Almost gives one an impression that LinkedIn is desperate to increase its numbers and the Country Head of India is in risk of losing his job (No offense to the concerned person).

As the latest data conveys, total LinkedIn users in India are close to 24 million, with a online population penetration of 25.36%. Yes, it doesn’t come anywhere close to the number Facebook boasts of, but again, am sure LinkedIn is smart enough to understand they cater to a different category altogether. And in such a case when we see this “desperate” measure, seems like a lost cause or a decision gone wrong at LinkedIn.

The above said Ad wasn’t the only one I saw. There were different versions of it, one as shown below-

LinkedIn FB Ad

The way the copy-writing for the Ad, as you can see is done, looks pretty disappointing. One would even think it was a misguiding ad done by some other brand to get hits to their pages. But when I clicked on the Ad, LinkedIn login/signup page is exactly what came up, as shown below-

LinkedIn Screenshot

I am pretty sure no one has as much love for LinkedIn that they would spend their own money to promote them. Unless they are some crazy Venture Capitalist who badly wants to fund LinkedIn but has been turned down by them and now is out to show his love and affection for the social network. But well, that sort of things work only in the wildest dreams and Indian politics.

LinkedIn could have gone for Google Ads if it was serious enough. Not that Facebook Ads are upright wrong, still, for a brand name like LinkedIn coming up with Ads on Facebook, is childish. It can be argued that the same has been done since new users can sign-up using their Facebook account. That would definitely make life easier for the users. But companies like LinkedIn have to maintain a balance between doing the right thing to uphold their brand image and getting more people to log into their service. In that scenario, am not sure what exactly LinkedIn was thinking here.

As a personal request, if anyone working in LinkedIn India office is reading this, or if you know someone who does, I’ll be glad to know how this campaign turned out for them. No no, that wasn’t sarcasm. That was actual inquisitiveness for this bizarre thing I had the opportunity of seeing.

I haven’t stopped laughing since. But psychologists tell me that might be attributed to me having a irrational sense of humour.

Disclaimer: I saw these Ads last month. Thanks to procrastination, I kept delaying writing this post until I realized I have to go ahead with this before Facebook changes its UI again.

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Mike Stelzner Social Media Examiner

Content Marketing has been my field of focus for quite some time now. Hence, when I chanced upon a tweet by Mike Stelzner of Social Media Examiner mentioning about a hangout with himself and Marcus Sheridan on Blogging and Content Marketing, I felt compelled to take a look.

Hangout on Content Marketing and Blogging

The hangout, embedded in Social Media Examiner’s Facebook Page, started off at 0130Hrs IST September 6/1500Hrs Eastern September 5. The audience had to put in their questions as comments. I happened to be the first one to drop in with my questions and lashed away with three of them. Due to time constrains only one was answered.

Below, I have listed out the gist of the session and a few takeaways I received. In brackets have mentioned who the quotes came from – Mike or Marcus.

  • Blogging is harder now. Quality blogging that is. Hence, to stand out and make our voice be heard we have to not just be a regular blogger but also a smart one – (Marcus)
  • One main reason why we see many bloggers get depressed after blogging for quite sometime is that they rely on the number of views, shares, re-tweets etc to measure the value of their blog. Rather than that, focus should be on lead conversion – (Marcus)

 Mike Stelzner Social Media Examiner

Q) How “exactly” do you define content marketing and differentiate it from the larger perspective of Digital Marketing. Or is it like CM just forms a subsidiary in Digital Marketing?

  • Answer varies from person to person. Digital Marketing is closer to Inbound Marketing, where Inbound Marketing consists of Content Marketing (content production) and Social Media Marketing (Content distribution and spreading the message) – (Marcus)
  • Content Marketing is using information to promote. Not comparable to using direct promotion of service/product – (Mike)
  • Digital Marketing also includes SEO, PPC Ads, advertising etc. Can be used to deliver content. If focus is on direct sale its DM and if focus is on getting the word about your content out, its CM – (Mike)
  • CM should start as teaching and informing. Direct selling is too subtle – (Marcus)

Q) How to track conversions via blog?

  • Simple Google Analytics not enough. Its not just the numbers. Find how many pages a person visited, how much time they spent, on which page they spent most time, what ratio of people visiting fill your forms and convert to direct leads etc. you need names to analyse. Not just numbers to track conversions – (Marcus)
  • Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics is pretty helpful for this – (Mike)

 Marcus The Sale Lion

Q) How to integrate storytelling? Is it important?

  • Integrate a real life experience as a story into each and every blog post. Use that story to answer the problem. This way, on comparing with a real situation, it’ll stay in the mind of the reader for a longer time – (Marcus)
  • If you don’t have a story to tell, well, you’re wrong. If you’re alive and breathing you always will have a story to tell. Identify that story – (Marcus)
  • A big part of storytelling actually includes selling yourself. Especially because you’re telling your story. But don’t be a hack. It doesn’t hurt to tell other people’s stories too. Integrate that with what you have to convey – (Marcus)
  • Define what works in your industry, integrate with your story and present the content – (Marcus)

Q) Should one be a passionate blogger or a useful one?

  • Useful. Many useful blogs don’t have passionate bloggers behind it. Usefulness brings the audience. Not passion – (Marcus)
  • Be passionate. Eventually you’ll reach there – (Mike)
  • Being passionate doesn’t pay bills! Just passion isn’t enough to be successful blogger. You need a mix of usefulness, strategy, common sense and wisdom. And remember, no matter whatever you say, 5% will find it offensive/boring. Forget about them. Focus on the rest 95% – (Marcus)

I for one, enjoyed the session thoroughly. Have already been following the Social Media Examiner Blog for a long time and they always give me a reason to go back.