There are a great deal of social media sites on the internet, sometimes too many. Most of them are dormant and are no longer active, largely because they were poorly marketed and hence, never had an active community of users in the first place. They are riddled with spam or are so ill-promoted that they’ll never attract a critical mass of viewers or social media users.

The first and foremost problem that business faces is taking the first step, it means, where to start from. You want something that sends prospects and traffic while branding your website or business. Here’s a list of some of them. However, it may depend upon the location as well but are mostly used to promote the idea globally.

“What the heck is this Social Media Marketing”?

Since, I am into the Online Marketing Industry; I heard this statement hell lot of times from friends, relatives, colleagues and professionals working in different domains.

Well, I am not considered to be a Social Media Guru nor an Online Marketing expert. I am just a common man who takes lot of interest in stuffs going around Social Media or in online world. There are so many blogs and articles written on Social Media that a common and simple man can get confused and would feel that it is not that easy to get into it.

Social Media has become a trend and every human being from school going student to 60 yrs old Businessman wants to get a taste of it. It itself created a lot of business opportunities to everyone. Social Media marketing brought people closer and business activities became more transparent than in any other form of marketing. Along with the prosperity it also brought lot of threats to the business as now you should expect your customers to be smarter than ever. They are closely monitoring you are your activities that a small mistake could turn into a blunder; take the case of Dominos Pizza, where two fools with a stupid idea destroyed the 50 years old reputation of the company in just 2 days with the help of just a 3 minute video clip posted on YouTube. This is the power of Social Media Marketing.

Social Media is a medium of communication in a more informal way and to make most out of it is really a challenge. Things are changing so fast in Social Media that you hardly get notice of it and so you lose advantage over your competitors. Social Media has brought the customers and producers closer with an always invite to competition. So, think and think again before entering into Social Media.

Feel free to know more about us and our services, contact us at:

info@omlogic.com or visit us at www.omlogic.com

YouTube has been a revolutionary invention in promoting your message through videos. It has been a one of its kind of digital communication tool to facilitate your message reach to your audience in a more absolute manner. You can find almost every video you are looking for on YouTube from science and history to astronomy. YouTube is therefore consider as a major Social Media marketing tool to reach customers scattered in almost every corner of this world and hence it has become equally important to follow the right guidelines to make most out of this video hub.

Tips and Instructions;

1. Don’t start promoting a video directly through ads

2. The best way to start promoting a video is to respond your videos to other video, it drives traffic to your site.

3. Creating a playlist of videos are always the best option for getting promoted on YouTube. It shows that you are genuine YouTube users and is always active on making people interested.

4. Your Video title must be catchy like “How to”, “Do you”, “Are you” etc.

5. Description should be short and catchy, just not explaining the content carried in the video.

6. Getting Video Response is the key to success on YouTube. It will impact users, as this video is popular so is getting responses.

7. Do not take part in comments.

8. Reply to the mails on YouTube will get the subscribers in touch with you.

9. Make sure your Video is embedded on your website before uploading it on YouTube. The reason is simple after your video is viewed by the user, he automatically visits your website to find more info about you, your business and it will bring more visibility to the viewer.

10. Social Bookmarking has always been a great way to promote your video on YouTube.

11. Upload on as many video sites as you can but not more than a video or two in a particular day.

12. The best way to get featured on “YouTube Featured Video” is uploading the video at time when you think most of the targeted users are online. For e.g. I want to upload video for specially Indian targeted customers, then the best way to upload the video on YouTube is in between 6-9 PM. It’s the Indian prime time and most of the people want to relax and get entertained at this time. However, your video takes 48 hours to get featured on YouTube. It is not sure, that you will get featured but if got featured than, you should not like to missed the opportunity.

13. Don’t change the Title and Description of the video once posted, It will have a negative impact on Subscribers as when they will see the same video with different Title and description, they will get the impression that you are promoting the same video with different titles and making fool of your subscribers.

14. Like for your Business, your customers are GOD, same with YouTube, here your viewers and subscribers are good.

15. Joining the relevant groups on YouTube. It will help you get more visibility on YouTube.

16. Annotations are good for your business, but there should not be more than one annotation on a single video. I have got to learn this trick, earlier I committed mistake by embedding too many annotations.

17. Your video should end with an appealing call to end; asking your viewers to rate, to comment in the video is very appealing. The reason is simple you have to ask for anything to come to you.

18. Make friends on YouTube, It is a social Networking site and people want to interact with you.

19. Getting on top of search engine is the most perfect idea to get tonnes of subscribers and viewers, use appropriate keyword with the help of keyword tracking tool.

20. Don’t judge your video by Subscribers, as there are lot many people like me who often visits YouTube but don’t like to subscribe or comment. It’s good to get views and rates on people.

Take the First Step;

1. After uploading the videos you should not let people come to you and see, rate, fav, comment on your video. Initially, you should send your videos to your friends, colleagues, mates and other known people on Social Networking sites. It will be a lot better option to make them comment on your videos, the reason is simple, if you want to win the race you should have to get a strong start.

2. The most difficult part of getting popular on YouTube is getting initial views, comments, subscribers etc. The objective should be let other people know you are on YouTube and is a creative video producer. Therefore, use your channel link as email signatures and on other social networking sites.

3. Twitter is the best way to get promoted, by just tweeting………..NO. You should be direct messaging to all your followers a message and link to your YouTube video.

4. Make your profile on other games and make friends there; it can bring lot of traffic to your channel.

These are some simple steps to get promoted on YouTube. Make your subscribers happy to make, yourself happy!!

]]> http://www.omlogic.com/blog/social-media-marketing/taking-an-advantage-of-youtube-for-your-business/feed/ http://www.omlogic.com/blog/omlogic-news/twitter-and-branding/ http://www.omlogic.com/blog/omlogic-news/twitter-and-branding/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:10:59 +0000 Robin Goel http://www.omlogic.com/blog/?p=173 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……!!

I have not seen many people discussing the idea of branding through discussion forums. I am not an expert in Social Media Marketing, than who I am to discuss promotion through discussion forums. I may not be the right person for your business to assure you in bringing customers to your business but after working extensively on forums, while doing Social Media campaigns, prompted me to write something on taking business to discussion forums.

I must say that discussion forums could be the right solution for your business if you are looking for long term goals rather than craving for quick lead generation. If you have a motto of earning money through quick social media than I must say dude, you are at the wrong place.

Discussion forums are the platforms, where your customers are taking about your product and service may be in favour or against. It is a place where people are looking for the exact and genuine information about a specific product and service from the people who have already used it.

Now, I think many of you have got an idea how useful these forums are from business as well as customer point of view. If we talk about business, this is a platform for tracking all the conversation happening around the world related to your product or your customers.

You can get most out of these forums by participation from your end without directly promoting your business. You should follow all the rules and regulations of the particular forums and should stay away from spamming. Spamming cannot bring any prosperity to your business rather than destroying your online reputation.

The right strategy for participation should be, providing help and suggestions to other members in the forum, ask people to rate your services and products and requesting them for their kind suggestion in enhancing your offerings.

You should maintain Google Alerts or Google Reader to track all the conversation happening around your area of interest, product or service. A list of relevant forums should be maintained, where participation could be done on regular basis. It is not a difficult task to find relevant forums on specific item, as there are large numbers of forums on a specific category. Sometimes you may get confused by big forums involving different categories. These forums certainly have lot of members and participation also happens at higher level. Your job is to create a space for yourself and your brand in these forums under a specific category.

Participating on forums become much easier and fun, when you start sharing links related to different contests, case studies, events and seminars etc. These are the content which brings traffic and leads to your business rather than leaving a link to your website homepage. It may bring traffic to your site but the bounce rate will be the challenge which you have to face with.

I have tried to keep this post as short and simple as possible and would have also raised few more ideas in your mind. So, please come up with your suggestions which I’d love to hear.

The social media strategy for your business should be a function of the business objectives as well as the targeted audience. For e.g. If your audience is more business professionals, choose LinkedIn as the platform. If the audience is teenage audience, choose Orkut as the platform. Let us first define some attributes of various businesses and then explore what they mean:

What are you looking to promote or market?
What do you have that will generate interest of people in Social Media (Product, Concept around a Product, a Service or a Brand)

What are the primary objectives of your social media marketing campaign?
What and how do you want the social media users to engage with what you have for them? (View your offering, providing positive feedback…etc)

What is the rate and pace of content creation in your company?
Do you have sufficient content or relevant concept that social media users will value on an ongoing basis?

Lets explore these attributes in more detail
What are you looking to promote or market?

• Is your product or offering catering to a broad audience or are you targeting a specific customer segment?
• Do you have a new concept or offering you are looking to explore? Are you looking to create a new marketplace?
• Is their some unique community aspect to your product or service? Something beyond your business. This is extremely important since most people don’t want to interact with a business unless they have an instant requirement.

What are the primary objectives of your social media marketing campaign?
Most businesses say ‘yes’ to all the objectives mentioned below, and they are all valid for most businesses. However, a deeper evaluation is required to set up the short term and long term objectives into distinct buckets of primary and secondary goals.

• Awareness and visibility of your product, services or company?
• Brand Promotion
• Interactivity / Engagement with the target group
• Community Creation around your products and services
• Lead and Sales Generation
• Customer Relationship Management
• Reputation Management
• Recruitment
• Survey

What is the rate and pace of content creation in your company?
In social media marketing, content is the king. From short Twitter messages to world-class videos, your content needs to replicate your value proposition and offering. My experience in SMM says this is the single biggest stumbling block for most companies.  Never bite more than you can chew. Be very careful in selecting what social media campaigns you want to run based on what you are willing to commit from a content perspective. Key questions to address are:

• Does the senior management team want to commit their time in helping refine social media marketing content? Authentic participation from the senior management team best helps in building trust and credibility with the customer.
• Do you have a dedicated team for writing content? What you can attain in social media is a function of the quality content you can generate.
• Do you have access to resource that can create good graphics? An image speaks more than a 1000 words; this has never been truer than in the social media world. Attention spans are very limited for you to ensure people notice your messages.
• Do you have access to resources that can create good audio-visuals?
• Do you have people who love researching the internet for finding information and resources on your industry?

Once you have successfully answered all of these questions, you need to look for the right online marketing partner for your business.

Choosing the right expert to implement this on your behalf can be half the battle won. I would always recommend getting online marketing experts for implementation. The only catch is to ensure you choose someone who can understand your business, not only online marketing.

If you like this blog post, or have any questions on implementing SMM for your business, please feel free to communicate here and one of our experts will contact you.

‘Timing’ in my view is the real opportunity behind SMM. Sooner or later, most of the mysteries (including measurability) around Social Media Marketing are going to be solved - many through tools and others through knowledge sharing. Don’t you want to turn this ‘timing’ (unfair - the way many who’ll be left behind will describe it later) advantage on your side? ‘Yes’ is the obvious answer but do you have the wherewithal to create Social Media success for your business? More importantly, do you have the patience and willingness to learn & experiment with this amazing medium?

Over the last couple of months, after working (and still a long way to go) with various customers (thanks to them for trusting us) across different verticals, we’ve gained (and still learning) some meaningful insights, which today gives us the confidence to evaluate, strategize, plan and execute Social Media Marketing success for us and our esteemed customers. I’ve captured our learnings and insights in the form of presentation shared below.

This presentation essentially encapsulates the framework, which is the context inside of which we think, plan and execute Social Media Campaigns today. Two of the examples of successful implementations of the discussed Social Media Marketing framework - Commonwealth Games 2010 community and Cricket World Cup 2011 Community on Facebook. Also, for those of you who are serious about building community on Social Media, you should check out “Demystifying Community Building on Social Media (Facebook)” presentation and join us for continuous learning at Social Media Community Building Page at Facebook.

I am sure that in due course as we learn and adapt to the fast changing Social World on the Internet, we’ll need to come up with another face to this framework. Your contribution in the form of sharing your experiences, asking questions and agreeing/ disagreeing to our thinking will be highly appreciated. That’s the only way you and we can expect to run faster than rest of the Social world.

Facebook Profile

I really liked the photographs and I went on to see all the photographs in the album. The point is I haven’t met this guy in last 10 years and even during my college days, we had never really palled around. And here I am spending 10 mins of my daytime watching his vacation trip photographs. Be the way, my interaction did not end there. I clicked “like” on some the photographs I liked and while watching the photographs, I saw a comment from one of our common friend I vaguely remember. I decided to have a look at his profile and I invited him to be my friend. What I did not realize was whatever I was doing I was unconsciously transferring the information further to all my friends’ community. Now all my friends got to know that I liked something on his profile and also the fact that I am now a friend of another guy named “X”.

What really makes Facebook such a convenient place for engagement?

1. Ease of Use: Facebook has done a remarkable job in designing the user interface. In literally no steps I can accomplish my objective. For example:
1. I can communicate that I like something shared by my friend in a single click.
2. I can play the video my friend has shared on the same page and in a single click.
3. I can add friends in a single click.
4. I can submit my comments in a single click.
5. I am automatically subscribed to the comment stream. I never had to click on “subscribe to comments” anywhere.
6. I can create a new Facebook ad or page or group in less than a minute.


I am sure with the recent acquisition of FriendsFeed, Facebook interface will very soon become even more user friendly.

2. Every action adds to ripple effects: When Facebook started the News Feed feature; there was major uproar across all communities that it violates the privacy of the users. Well it does. No matter what you do on Facebook, your friends will get to know about it, which you may not like. At the same time in return you also get to know what your friends are doing and that is something most of us are interested in. Any information shared over the Facebook comes as news about one of your friend, which will definitely keep us engaged. Moreover, any action taken on that peace of information furthers the ripple effects.
3. Its Addictive: This addictive quality keeps Facebook’s typical user on the site for an average of 169 minutes a month, according to ComScore. Compare that with Google News, where the average reader spends 13 minutes a month checking up on the world, or the New York Times website, which holds on to readers for a mere ten minutes a month.

In case you have further thoughts about Facebook as a platform, feel free to communicate here.

Twitter, undoubtedly is one of the easiest and the most under utilized social media tool. With Social Media being touted as the next wave of innovative and a poised tool for marketers to reach out to the relevant section of audience for a business online.

Being an Online Marketing company, we are always asked by clients, as to what are the best ways of leveraging a social network. How to best utilize a network to its best extent, to derive the maximum value out of it? To answer the same, at OMLogic we have taken the initiative to share our knowledge with the community.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social media tool which simply asks you to answer in 140 characters “what are you doing?”. It has overtime evolved into what we now know as a Micro Blogging platform. Twitter is one of the most popular micro blogging platforms and is surely one of the powerful tools in social media.

Out of the various common features of twitter, which include retweet’ing (RT), Direct Messaging (DM) etc. one of the most interesting and helpful features is “HashTags” which is conveyed by the symbol: #

What is a Hashtag?

According to the official source: Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and meta-data to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

Where can I find a Hashtag?

• http://hashtags.org is the official resource to know and track the hashtags being used in conversations globally by tweeples
• http://wthashtag.com/Main_Page is one of the most interesting ways of knowing hashtags, and what each of them means, this is one resource I really find useful, when it comes to understanding trends in twitter and establishing inferences to business objectives of branding for your business. Wthashtag, simply put is a user generated wiki of twitter hashtags being used globally

How to use a hashtag?

First, lets understand that hashtags are being followed by people, all across, so only add a hashtag if you think your tweet is adding value to the topic otherwise do not!

Hash tags are widely used while Live Blogging an event

This is something I have been doing for quite sometime now, while blogging some of the most major events in the Indian Industry.

Simply put, if you are adding value to a particular discussion/topic and want to talk about it, creating a trend which people can contribute in and follow, you can use a hashtag. Example if you are an online marketing company and want to talk about or share something on social media, you can use the hashtag: #socialmedia or #SMM

Advantages of using a hashtag?

There are several advantages of using a hashtag, let me list some of them down here:

1. Creation of relevant community of followers on twitter
   • if you are talking about a topic and using a hashtag chances are that there are other people globally on twitter talking about the same, thus they become relevant into your domain of discussion, hence you can connect with them and create meaningful conversations
2. Knowledge Dissemination
   • There is such plethora of knowledge flowing in on twitter, that not everything around is relevant to you/your business. Thus hashtags help you stay connected and updated with the right information which you can leverage to take your business forward
3. Customer/ User feedback
   • Customer/ User feedback is an important aspect of hashtags, I have created rewarding partnerships with some of my followers on twitter and though we may be sitting across the globe, we talk through a common medium, and understand each other in 140 characters. The basis of all of this being our relevancy of the work domain, which we track through hashtags
4. Brand equity tracking
   • As a business, your brand equity is surely one of the most important aspects which determines your credibility and a lot many aspects of your business for you. You can track the conversations happening about your brand on twitter using hashtags and following trends such as #followfriday seeing that how many clients/ users recommend your brand on twitter

These are some of the major ways which are affected by hashtags and can help you better connect with your clients and understand your brand equity, while tracking conversations in real time on twitter.

The event is a must attend for all online marketing professionals as well as companies who are looking to use online marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy and plans.

OMLogic is a proud sponsor of OMCAR 2009 and I will personally be welcoming you all on Saturday. So, be there. For any questions, please write to me.