I am a Social Media Buff!
This statement is more of a confession than anything else. My attachment to the medium began with Hi5, progressed to rediff, orkut, blogspot, and now to the level of Linkedin, Google +, Pinterest, Facebook, Slideshare, Scribd, YouTube, twitter and the list just goes on.
Now before anybody labels me as a techie geek or one of those early adapters on the TLC, let me clarify that I don’t think of it as technology but rather as an enabler. For me it is a way of communication whereby reaching your TG with preciseness that is not likely with most mass media avenues.
We have graduated into a world of peer competitiveness where our goals get aligned to others and our intrinsic motivation comes from what others do. So if the guy in your cubicle gets an iphone next day you are checking the prices, if he talks about getting a car, you start evaluating and yeah if there is a marriage in your neighborhood, your mother expects you to hop on the alter next (okay that may not be the case with everyone!) . In the immediate environment there is strong competition and thus the need to associate externally becomes far larger.
Given the crazy life patterns most of us have, the physical interactions are limited and thus the digital fits the bill perfectly.
We all vie for the company of like minded people which gives us a ground for conversation, they can be the most natural association of city one belongs to, movies one likes, books read, to precise associations like school, collage, organization, etc.
Each social platform right now is trying to create niche for itself by the way of the association they create and thus creating segmentation. So where Linkedin may look at professional association, Twitter allows you to peep into the lives of the celebrities you “Follow”, Pinterest lets you create an image gallery of all things passionate about, etc. But these segments allow the user to be multi dimensional in their communication and what one wishes to convey differs from platform to platform and a clash is the segments is best avoided, for ex: Linkedin is a professional networking site but if a user decides to spam and starts talking about hobbies and status messages identical to facebook its not taken appreciatively.
This is the people’s story but I feel in the social media, the brands have a huge scope to create an engagement. Lots of brands are doing some real interesting things in the space.
Recently read a lot of articles which talked extensively on the debate that if or not does the social media presence influence the market for the brand. Though there may be several empirical ways to demonstrate the linkage, as a consumer, as well as a marketer I feel that whenever an engagement is created somehow the brand is pushed on the top of head recall or even conditioned to prefer a brand over the others. I may not even be a remote prospect for a car at the moment but a constant engagement with a brand ensured that it is in my consideration set when the time actually comes.
This statement is more of a confession than anything else. My attachment to the medium began with Hi5, progressed to rediff, orkut, blogspot, and now to the level of Linkedin, Google +, Pinterest, Facebook, Slideshare, Scribd, YouTube, twitter and the list just goes on.
Now before anybody labels me as a techie geek or one of those early adapters on the TLC, let me clarify that I don’t think of it as technology but rather as an enabler. For me it is a way of communication whereby reaching your TG with preciseness that is not likely with most mass media avenues.
We have graduated into a world of peer competitiveness where our goals get aligned to others and our intrinsic motivation comes from what others do. So if the guy in your cubicle gets an iphone next day you are checking the prices, if he talks about getting a car, you start evaluating and yeah if there is a marriage in your neighborhood, your mother expects you to hop on the alter next (okay that may not be the case with everyone!) . In the immediate environment there is strong competition and thus the need to associate externally becomes far larger.
Given the crazy life patterns most of us have, the physical interactions are limited and thus the digital fits the bill perfectly.
We all vie for the company of like minded people which gives us a ground for conversation, they can be the most natural association of city one belongs to, movies one likes, books read, to precise associations like school, collage, organization, etc.
Each social platform right now is trying to create niche for itself by the way of the association they create and thus creating segmentation. So where Linkedin may look at professional association, Twitter allows you to peep into the lives of the celebrities you “Follow”, Pinterest lets you create an image gallery of all things passionate about, etc. But these segments allow the user to be multi dimensional in their communication and what one wishes to convey differs from platform to platform and a clash is the segments is best avoided, for ex: Linkedin is a professional networking site but if a user decides to spam and starts talking about hobbies and status messages identical to facebook its not taken appreciatively.
This is the people’s story but I feel in the social media, the brands have a huge scope to create an engagement. Lots of brands are doing some real interesting things in the space.
Recently read a lot of articles which talked extensively on the debate that if or not does the social media presence influence the market for the brand. Though there may be several empirical ways to demonstrate the linkage, as a consumer, as well as a marketer I feel that whenever an engagement is created somehow the brand is pushed on the top of head recall or even conditioned to prefer a brand over the others. I may not even be a remote prospect for a car at the moment but a constant engagement with a brand ensured that it is in my consideration set when the time actually comes.
This is somewhat a crux of what I perceive the Social media to be about but in actual the discussion it is way beyond that and would definitely take more than this article to talk elaborately on the further aspects of the Social Media. I hope to write back again shortly with certain illustrations on the usage of the media
No comments:
Post a Comment