By Krishna Kumar
Obsession with the ‘Like’ count:
This is for Facebook – many brands measure their popularity based on the number of Likes/Fans they acquire, without focusing on the engagement. Brands on social media are akin to your friends. There is a reason you follow brands and hence, they should engage with you as your friends would, thereby adding value to your life as well.
Differentiation between social engagement plan v/s a social media plan:
Facebook for e.g. has a 50 million user base in India. Even if you don’t have a Facebook brand page, you can use it as a good advertising channel. Having a brand page clearly means you have to create regular and engaging content for an audience who are, incidentally, always vocal. This requires a lot of thinking and dedication. So, it all begins with what you want to do.
Focus on developing engaging content strategy v/s repurposing mainline communication:
Many advertisers use social media to broadcast their mainline ads. One has to develop a content strategy and also customize it. If it means fresh creation, so be it. Horses for courses approach!
Wanting to be present across every platform of social media just because it exists:
Social media has many platforms and it’s not necessary that every brand has to have a presence across all. Every platform has its uniqueness, hence it begins with your objective and how you can deliver it using the various platforms.
Looking at using Social as a business channel rather than a free marketing channel:
This is another myth about social – free publicity. One has to clearly measure the benefits the new media has to offer. Businesses have been built across product categories. So, it becomes serious business channel and not a fad.
Krishna Kumar is CEO at Media2win