Have you been to conferences where agencies come and showcase their portfolios in the name of talking about an agenda?

Have you felt duped at the end of such a conference realizing that all you had gained from it is a handful of brochures and nothing else?

Well, you would probably then better understand what it means to have a conference where individuals come, talk, discuss and debate and not SELL!

OMCAR 2012 is one such conclave aimed at raising questions and finding answers. People who know the Online Marketing world would know that Social Media is a rage that just can’t be ignored. But, the problem is that those who boast of knowing Social Media have a stereotypical spectrum of vision that could just take one up a blind alley.

So, how do you know what social media can do for various domains? Simple, hear it ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’. When some of the biggest brands and entrepreneurs come together to talk about and display what social media has done for their businesses and marketing, you are sure to look at it wide eyed. And, there is no reason for you to not believe them! Yes, of course you can raise questions!

OMCAR 2012 is not about Powerpoint case studies but real life case studies that have actually come up roses.

Social Media in Indian context is what we are looking at. When we talk about Social for India, we must know and understand that we need to look at ‘Social Media with a Difference’. Because, only then are the results possible. Hear some of the biggest brands speak and show how social media has helped them gain visibility, business, reputation and evangelism because they have not done it via a flowchart method but a little ‘differently’.

Also, OMCAR 2012 is not a ‘Sit n Listen’ format; it is ‘Listen, Think n Share’. Chats, discussions and debates are most welcome. Let’s sit and take a look at where Social Media is headed and how can it really enhance the way we have hitherto been looking at Online Marketing.

Agency Professionals & Brand Managers, Entrepreneurs and CXO’s of Small & Medium Enterprises, Online Marketing Professionals, students aspiring for a career in Online Marketing, Marketing Professionals and Social Media Enthusiasts- OMCAR 2012 is for all those who are looking for an insight into the Social Media world and how it can help or it has helped them achieve their marketing goals!

Content, as they say, is still king. Copy plays a stellar role in any social media marketing campaign. You may have the best social media strategy and incorporate them in your blogs, tweets, scraps and pretty much anything that is social; however, without the proper social copywriting or content writing strategy and technique, all will be lost. Your entire effort will go into vain.

You need to woo your targeted customer with a well crafted user-centric approach that would lead to an effective two-way communication.

Well, there are few questions that need answers before any SMM campaign. And you need to get them right, if you want your campaign to be a roaring success

It is decision time now.

So, what do you want?

The first question you need to answer.

Is it just traffic? Creating a buzz? Aiming for a higher rank in the search engines? Selling a product? Promoting something? Looking for long-term brand loyalty? Enhancing your reputation? And the list goes…

You need to be crystal clear about what you really want with your social media campaign. Once you have a definitive answer to what you want, you can pass on to the next question.

Who do you want (to target)?

This is as crucial as the first question.   You need to know the specific and precise segment of demography, the right people to target your campaign.  So, what are the different sets of customers that you want to address? Do you want to confine your social media marketing campaign to just your old customer segment? Are you looking to expand your reach from the target you already have?

Think over it and get the answers right. Don’t rue over things at hindsight; it is no use crying over spilt milk. Go ahead only when you are bang on target. You can’t afford hits that miss. Period.

And then it finally comes to the “How to” question.

Once you get the ‘What’ and the “Who” right, you enter the most critical phase that can make or mar your campaign.  You have a plethora of choices and you have to get it right.

Tweets? Blogs? Articles? Whitepapers? Newsletters? Case Studies? Research& Reports? Press Releases? Content Placement? Link Bait? Buzz Content?

So, how will it be???

The answers can make all the difference (to your Social Media Campaign). Please tweet me @Robin_Goel, if you find anything more useful to make this post more interesting.

OMLogic Consulting has recently launched an interactive & dynamic website, designed and developed with cutting edge technologies. It is a CMS (content management system) based website with rich interactive features that would enhance the company to reach out to its users, clients and community easily.

The newly refurbished website is easy to use and more informative, with significant value additions to the old site. It provides information on our online marketing services and solutions – what we do (SMM, SEO, and PPC) and how we do (our unique approach to every project), in a clear and lucid manner.  We also allow you to have a detailed view about the background and history of the company – who we are (the founders and the leadership team) too.   The website addresses the company’s market segments and its reputation as one of the most promising and dynamic online marketing companies in the block.

A landmark addition to the website is Logic Junction, a dynamic and comprehensive knowledge hub that features blogs, white papers, news, PPTs, how-to articles, seminars, videos, and lots others, covering specific topics on online marketing. Our newly revamped Best Practice Case Studies section has examples of successfully implemented projects that could guide you in getting the most out of a dedicated online marketing campaign with OMLogic.

We have incorporated features that provide you updated and expanded tidbits and information, which would be of immense help to entrepreneurs, businesses, academics, students and other online marketing aficionados. It is a user-friendly website, both in the presentation as well as in the content. Even a layman or an internet marketing novice can easily browse through it and get the required information.

We are committed to add new features to the website, on a regular basis. The brand new website will update you on interesting and important online marketing specific knowledge & information.

The site is still held on the same old domain, www.omlogic.com.

This is not my first write up on LinkedIn and its capabilities and utilities in a highly connected and networked world that we live in. However, in all my previous discourses, I emphasized and stressed on taking a holistic approach to effective marketing with LinkedIn.Unlike other social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc, LinkedIn not only allows you to share images, videos, links and status updates, it provides you an added opportunity to market yourself. LinkedIn is a tool for “Personal Branding” (as is often understood in the industry circles); but I’d rather call it “Self Networking”. LinkedIn is one of the few professional networking sites that have stood the test of time, reputation intact, giving users a strong networking experience with its usability and capability. The rate at which people are signing up for the LinkedIn on a daily basis cannot be overlooked. The heavy rush to join the LinkedIn bandwagon is reason enough for you to join the networking site. In fact, you can find everyone, from Industry leaders, CEOs and CXOs to colleagues, and past employees on LinkedIn. Well, if you aren’t on LinkedIn now, you don’t have to wait for long; I guarantee you a request coming your way in a very short time.

LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that gives you options to add new connections, share information, recruit people, gain knowledge, seek opinions etc. You can recommend your colleagues and past employees for jobs and seek their support in your professional life too. As a matter of fact, LinkedIn is an apt platform that provides you opportunities to showcase your professional background, skills and knowledge, with solid references and accreditations of your work (by employers, peers and colleagues). LinkedIn not only brings you closer to the industry and market, it enhances and adds value to your profile, and plays a big role in carving a niche for yourself in the domain.
In today’s competitive business scenario, companies are always on the lookout for highly skilled and talented professionals. You never know the number of people who are interested in you, keeping a close eye on the latest developments in your professional front. There is no better platform than LinkedIn to checkout and search people for hire/contract. Activities on LinkedIn like networking, offering tips & suggestions, feedbacks, answering queries and knowledge sharing are highly regarded and given due importance. In fact, people join LinkedIn with the idea of connecting, and striking up professional relationships, with people from diverse groups, backgrounds and networks.

Of course, networking is not the sole purpose and reason to join LinkedIn; it has many other beneficial features too. LinkedIn provides you with multiple utilities from marketing your brand, customer handling and corporate communication to lead generation and most importantly ‘Online Reputation Management’. However, the unique feature of LinkedIn lies in discovering the hidden connections between the network and the real world.

Social Media Marketing aids in Relationship selling

Your company’s success depends on a good sales cycle format. The pattern of sales cycle differs from business to business. So then, what’s the key to expand a business? Nowadays the online platform has a large number of people connected with each other. With the arrival of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn; the distance factor has almost vanished and people can stay connected quite easily. A traditional sales cycle looks something like this:

Social Media

Lead Generation is a crucial part of a business. There are many ways to generate leads. Social media marketing can provide a lot of support in generating these leads. Every networking platform has its own uniqueness; it depends on how you use that platform to engage with your audiences.

To retain a client is always a challenge and there are number of ways that you acquire to maintain a good relationship. When you use social networking platform, it becomes quite easy to keep in touch every now & then without any hassle.

Things not to forget

1. Say no to SPAM!

Sending links of your company can result in you being labeled a SPAMMER. It does a lot of damage to your reputation; your account may even get banned.

1. Selling forcefully – not the right way.
2. Engage a dialogue with the audience to the maximum extend.
3. Be careful while sending out your marketing messages; revise it twice/thrice to avoid any negative feedbacks.

How can SMM agencies act as an agent?

In order to execute & regulate Social Media Marketing campaigns, one needs an expert in the segment. Experts who can analyze the current state of the company’s branding / reputation in the online world, assess their online reputation and, choose the right techniques to build the company’s branding and reputation.

Key aspects of SMM:

» Customer’s Business Model and Business Objectives
» Competitive Landscape
» Customer Segmentation
» Marketing Communication and Messaging
» Current Online Presence and SEO Compliance
» PPC Audit (if running)
» Conversion Analysis
» Measurability
» Website User Experience

In today’s time, every business house, irrespective of size, is definitely looking at social networking channels to market itself. Initially, when social media sites came into being, the idea was to network, gossip, connect and share. They were nothing less than a revolution in communication and brought people closer.

Marketers have discovered great potential in these social media sites and online tools in terms of generating leads, creating a strong brand presence and reaching a large segment of the market. Recently, I got a call from a friend who lives in small village in India. He asked me to create a Facebook Page and a Twitter account for his shop where he sells mobile phones. Well, I am not promoting his shop on this blog, but his request took me by surprise, considering there is hardly any internet connectivity in the village. Heck, this guy didn’t even have a mail id, so why would he ask me for such a favour? His plan was that whenever his village is blessed with broadband connectivity, people will find his shop if they google the village name or if they join relevant friends on social networks.

Earlier, when marketers promoted their website, seeing themselves on the first page of search was their only goal. Then, in addition to that, came content ads and search ads for lead generation. I am sure by now, you are clear about what Social Media can offer to marketers, it’s potential in generating huge relevant traffic, branding, customer feedback, larger market share and, of course, leads and business opportunities. I have seen many marketers focused on creating brand presence even before launching their website. Although very channel and idea has its own useful period, in the current scenario, the usefulness of social media marketing cannot be decoupled from the overall marketing objective.

Twitter’s recent Ad crackdown alienating the developer community comes as no surprise. In fact, many industry watchers have seen it coming for some time now; it was just a matter of ‘when’. And well, as expected brickbats have started flying in thick and fast, especially from the developer community and third-party advertising networks like Ad.ly and 140 Proof who will be cut deep by this move of Twitter.

Twitter on its part is doing all it can to make the “updated terms of service for developers” where no third-party advertising networks and developers can insert ads into a user’s stream, very reasonable. In the words of Dick Costolo, Twitter’s COO, the decision is to “preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created” and ensure the “long-term health and value of the platform.” Well, how far are these sincere remains to be seen, if one goes by the recent developments in Twitter.

Twitter had launched its own official Twitter clients a few weeks back, and now the prohibition barring ads developers from using the most obvious way of monetizing unofficial clients is not merely a co-incidence. Developers have no choice other than showing ads outside of the stream as they can no longer insert ads into the user’s streams. So, the stream, a ‘cash cow’ for most developers who have hitched their wagon on Twitter, is out of bound now for advertisers other than Twitter itself.

It is great news for Twitter; however it doesn’t definitely bode well for the 3rd party network developers. Twitter has in fact pulled on a fast one (on the developers), this time round.

This decision of Twitter would undercut and destroy many businesses that have been created and developed on Twitter. Well, the coming days would be interesting. Let’s watch!

Social Bookmarking is still doubted by many marketers for its ability in supporting their Online Marketing campaigns. Marketers always tried escaping from the use and important of Social Bookmarking and often considered it as a time taking unnecessary activity. They would rather find investing their time on Facebook and Twitter neglecting usefulness of Social Bookmarking sites. Guys, I am very serious about Social Bookmarking as an essential online marketing and link building tool

There are always some questions in the mind regarding Social Bookmarking, like…

• How a Social Bookmarking can promote my site?
• What are the correct ways of Bookmarking posts?
• What are the best Social Bookmarking sites?
• Is it possible to Bookmark all of my posts?

These questions are not new, I often hit by these questions numerous times speaking to my clients, colleagues and friends. Whenever I talk about Online Marketing and Social Media Marketing contributing major portion of it, I don’t forget to explain them the importance of Social Bookmarking. Well, this article may help you find answers to these questions.

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources and contents. In social bookmarking websites, users create and store bookmarks of their choice. These bookmarks can be viewed by others and that let them know about new services and latest concepts which are making news in the online world. For example del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit and Stumble Upon are some of the most popular social bookmarking websites.

Descriptions may be added to these bookmarks in the form of metadata helping other readers understand the content of the resource without first needing to download it for themselves.

Social bookmarking is a great way to direct visitors to your blog or site. First, you have to build a site that is worth reading. Build on your blog content, and make sure that these are up to date as well. Of course, everything in print must be interesting if you aimed at making online readers your regular visitors. Millions of people use these Social Bookmarking websites daily to search for information on various topics. Naturally, when it comes to promoting your site or the content, the idea of bookmarking is to post links back to your own website pages on these traffic heavy websites.

Social bookmarking is a not only a powerful tool but you must be careful and not to become a social bookmarking spammer. Social bookmarking spammer will find himself in trouble getting his account banned and in result negative reputation over the web.

A one way link is created to your site, everytime a website is bookmarked. Most social bookmarking websites have high page rank scores and are considered to be authority websites in the eyes of the search engines. Resulting in your bookmarks being indexed very quickly and the relevant back link will be added to your overall link count.

The best thing about Social Bookmarking is that you can always re-bookmark your website or an article with different titles and description. By doing so, you will figure out the best title that can gain the most attention and visitor to your website, which may ultimately convert all the traffic to sales.

Social bookmarking sites are becoming increasingly popular to use as an alternative to search engines. By submitting your content to these sites, internet users are able to find your information without having to visit to search engines. The concept of searching in a social bookmarking site is very similar searching in search engines. Tags are used as keywords for search engines, so that when a user is searching for information related to your content, your information will appear in the search results.

Since there hundreds of social bookmarking web sites, you probably want to be a little selective regarding your content to be submitted to. There are many sites offering news and resources in specific categories for e.g Health Ranker is best considered in resources related to health, fitness, and medicines. However, there are many sites offering content from large category to choose from.

Click here for the list of Social Bookmarking websites.

Imagine, you start your day sitting down with a cup of coffee… you search your company name online and the top result is someone slamming your company, your brand or you.

I am not kidding, it’s very possible that conversations about you and your company are taking place across the web on various social networks 24X7. A single negative feedback can cost you millions. Hard to believe? Look for Dominos or America online. That’s a pretty big reason to worry, when your customer determines your success.

They say, with power comes responsibility. In the case of social media, prosperity brings threats to businesses. You have to be on your toes while running an inbound marketing campaign, as you don’t want to miss any of the conversations online about your products or even about yourself.

Now, let’s get to the source of the problem and some precautionary steps:

Why you should care about ORM?

1. Your customers are online taking keen interest in your deliverables.

2. Several positive reviews bring more sales prospects while a single negative review will bring down your actual sales.

3. Your competitors are more interested in you than you yourself.

4. People miffed with you (for no reason, maybe) are online.

5. Future of your company in online.

What actually happens Online?

1. A dissatisfied customer posts a review about your products or service on social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the result shows in the first page of Google overnight.

2. A single review is enough to start a conversation and that will be enough to give you a headache.

3. Your competitors will see this little conversation as a Golden Opportunity to take the discussion to the next level, making matters worse.

4. Non-response to a query seeking necessary information about your products makes you a picture of poor marketing and customer service.

5. Your past employee, frustrated at your policies / remuneration is enough to cause turbulence in your business and brand image.

6. False information and misrepresentation about your products and service.

Key to Manage Online Reputation:

The above are some of the major causes of a sullied online reputation. But hey, for every problem, there is a solution out there. Online reputation can be protected by just being cautious, alert and following some necessary steps:

1. Create a sound social media plan for your business to be present on major social networks where your customers are online.

2. Maintain consistency throughout all social networks where you are present; with same level of information and services you provide.

3. Don’t overlook the importance of SEO as it helps improve your page ranking and makes your site rank well on various keywords.

4. Don’t run away from discussions. Instead, enter the discussion and try to get the issue resolved by offering active customer services.

5. Maintain a corporate blog and share useful insights about your company, services, and achievements, even social and corporate events. This allows people to get to know you better, builds loyalty and diminishes animosity and scepticism. Sun Microsystem’s CEO blog

6. Don’t just advertise about your products and services. Offer the opportunity of reviewing and rating your products to your fans, friends and internet users. Starbucks did it right with “My Starbucks Idea.”

7. Twitter and Facebook are great platforms for building a community around your product or brand. It makes it a lot easier for people to discuss and find information about you by just visiting your profile or page, best example being, Zappos

8. Listen to customer feedback and act accordingly. Thank the customer for his positive feedback and get the problem resolved if he has a negative feedback.

9. Don’t hesitate to promote your content through Videos, Images, Blogs, PPT and PDFs on various social media sites like YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare, Scribd etc.

10. Don’t enter a war of words, if someone presents false information about you or your brand to promote negativity. Instead, calmly ask him to remove his comment or, get into the legal action if you are sure about his intent.

11. Come up with better customer support service and offer rewards through contests and gift coupons. Contests and promotions are an equally important aspect of inbound marketing as they are of outbound. Eg Dell offering discount coupons on Twitter.

12. Ask your employees to blog about their learning and achievements while working with the company as customers are always keen to know the company from inside.

13. Treat your customers as a part of your company; you cannot survive without them. Enter into some social cause and invite other members to lend a helping hand…Like Aircel with their initiative “Save our Tiger”.

Tools to monitor online reputation

1. Google alerts and Yahoo alerts can be used to track conversations happening around your brand online.This tracked information is supplied to you based on your targeted company keywords through email.

2. Sometimes the most important conversations don’t happen on blogs. Forums and message boards can also host conversations about your brand and you’d never know about it. Boardtracker makes your work easier with providing conversations happening on forums around your product or brand.

3. Technorati is the leading blog search engine indexing millions of blog posts in real time. It also tracks the authority, influence and popularity of blogs.

4. Monittor and Twitter Search can track conversations happening on twitter about your company.

5. Social Mention – A social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services and even more, with user sentiment and tonality of discussions.

6. You can use paid tools such as Reputation Defender, Trackur etc to monitor your presence online.

Maintaining Online Reputation is not a tough task, it is a bit challenging though. Being active, with smart marketing skills will do the business for you. However, don’t expect to move mountains in a day. Instead, give yourself some time, and expect better results in a longer period.

“Because a negative message is more viral than the positive one”

We understand what it takes to manage online reputation while everyone is on a mission to move you out of the playground. If you are worried about managing your online reputation, whether as a company, campaign or as a celebrity, get in touch with us and make yourself ‘authentic’ in the eyes of people.

Mail us at info@omlogic.com or join us on Facebook

Twitter is a micro blogging tool, and if you have not heard about it yet, you are either living under a rock or never went online (Now’s a good time to subscribe-twit twit.)

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that has millions of people writing what look like encrypted messages that combine #hashtags, @replies, text-speak and shortened URLs to broadcast messages to their followers, and to create searchable mini-websites with every tweet they send.

As a service to our readers, and so they get the most benefit of “Branding Your Business via Twitter”, we have the below handy tips:

OMLogic’s 10 tips for using Twitter;

There is a culture on Twitter just as there is on any social media site. It is important that businesses follow the “unwritten” cultural rules in order to maintain the best image online.

1. Make your profile look active, add link to your website not only in your posts, but also in your profile. Using a nice professional template brings more visibility to your twitter profile; make sure it doesn’t look too funky. It should complement your business.
2. Be genuine with tweets. Don’t try to be something you are not.
3. Don’t send a direct link to your product. Send a link to your blog or a general informational website. Don’t be so blatant about trying to get a sale.
4. Be Active: Not only should you post your own comments, but reply to other people’s comments. Follow people in your industry. Make friends and grow your network
5. Do include plenty of contexts in @replies to give readers an idea of what’s going on even if they are coming in at the end of a conversation. Respond directly to tweets that mention your brand with @replies.
6. Promote Twitter on your site and invite others to follow you: You can’t get followers if no one knows you exist. Display your Twitter URL on your site and ask to be followed.
7. Don’t try to use Twitter to generate leads, or sell anything directly. Instead, count on the company website to do that.
8. Offer live “Twittering” of a special event or breaking news related to your company. But only if you think it adds value to your customers.
9. Do use relevant hash-tags; tweets with # tags appear in twitter trends and search results.
10. Offer advice or tips on using your product or service or directing people to one. Consider it an extension of your customer service department.

Watch Twitter tutorial on YouTube

Wait….!!
“Do not spam. Spam is a big violation on Twitter. You may find your account banned. If that wasn’t bad enough, think about the consequences. Your name, website, and products may be attached to your messages, resulting in a bad reputation”.

Listen…!!
Do use clever forms of advertising. Spamming is prohibited on Twitter, but advertisements are allowed in moderation. If you do not abuse the privilege, you will not find trouble. Even still, use clever forms of advertising. Instead of highlighting your services as a professional web designer, ask readers to review your samples or give you input on your rates. Be sure to include a link.

Best of Luck with Twitter……!!