SOCIAL MEDIA – MfgTechUpdate

Rohit Bidappa, Independent Management & Social Media Consultant

Admin — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 17:17:50 +0000

What are the benefits of social media marketing?
Due to the massive growth of social media and number of people using it, in India itself there are about 150 million social media accounts. The global tally goes above a billion, so why not try spreading awareness about your offerings through this medium.

The biggest advantage of social media is that you are diving into a database of consumers. So in order to reach your target customers, you must have a good social media strategy build around good content. Without the right content it is not possible to connect with such a large number of people. There are companies who have realised that the old out-bound marketing that they did was not working, so they are now moving towards in-bound marketing where one builds a community based on good content and where they can commercialise their products. Social media is the best platform today, as it can be viral and scalable in terms of creating that community. So fundamentally, from the marketing point of view, what is happening in social media is companies, especially SMEs are moving from communicating with customers to converting them into customers.

With social media the world actually is in your pocket. In the last one year, I would say about 60% of my clients have come from social media.

What is the best social media strategy?
I would summarise it in what we call the 4M concept:-

Understanding who is your market (demography and target audience)
What is your message, what does your content typically would like to speak and whether this content is useful for your target audience?
Which is the best medium; in social media you have lots of platform and you have to choose the right platform for giving out the right message.
Methodology is very important. If in a given calendar period, one should run promotional campaign and link it to offline marketing among others.

So basically, in order to use this 4M method, you need to make content calendar, positioning and action plan. You have to understand what is your message, who is your target audience and what is your method (banner, blog, social media port, website for ecommerce).

Which are the areas where social media can be effective?
Product and brand propagation, identity protection and image management, crisis management and customer engagement & support are some of the areas where social media is effective. There are few companies in India who do social media campaign for companies. But one should go for the one that will not only build a platform and provide strategy, but will also guide during the implementation, analytics and consumer insights. In the higher end of value chain, there is a term called social media command. The term stands for a technology enabled system that will provide analytics and consumer insights into social media.

Which is the best platform for the machine tool companies?
For this industry, I would say Youtube and LinkedIn. By using Youtube, they will have the ability to showcase their solution, while Linkedin would be appropriate to interact and keep themselves updated by gaining knowledge from other industry professionals and experts.

What are the fundamental changes that you have observed in B2B marketing?
B2B sectors were lagging behind when it came to social media, but now they are getting enough visitors and information through this medium. In fact, what I have noticed today is that many companies are looking up to social media to get the first information.

How would you rate the awareness level of Indian SMEs when it comes to digital marketing?
The awareness in among the Indian SMEs is certainly low. The old school businessmen are not very tech savvy, whatever ever awareness can be seen among the Indian SMES, the credit goes to the younger generation who are now taking over the business. They know the importance and that is driving social media marketing among the Indian SMEs. The trend is catching up and will grow in the years to come.

There are various good products that have the capacity to take on the competition at the global arena. In such cases, social media will not only help the business create awareness but also connect with the global customers.

Can e-commerce be implemented in machine tool industry too?
Things have changed in today’s world, people are buying furniture online, Nissan is planning to sell car online, so of course there are some benefits that’s why people are spending money on e-commerce. So why not machine tool. For instance, you order a CNC machine and pay Rs 1-1.5 crore, of course the seller is giving you 30 days money back guarantee, so there is no risk. If you are getting a cheaper deal with money back guarantee, so why not, unless it’s some customised machine.

nishant@mfgtechupdate.com

Do Not Just Use Social Media, Make Your Business Social

Admin — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 12:12:22 +0000

Branding & marketing has always been two of the most essential components for the growth of any business. Since ages business houses have been spending a moolah on branding & marketing, but at the same time there were some who preferred to ignore it looking at the high cost. However, keeping in line with the change in consumer behavior, there has been some shift of focus at the other end as well. Here’s how and where.

Gone are the days when Small and Medium businesses were restricted to their respective region. The inability to spend more branding & marketing is now a passé, courtesy, the rise of social media.

According to reports, more than 10 lakh businesses advertise on Facebook to grow sales. Social media today has become a platform that has the capability to help businesses target the right clients irrespective of their location. This is not all; it is also where companies keep their customers updated about anything related to the company, starting from new product launches to any change in the management. Social media applications like social networking, media sharing, blogging and pod casting among others are some of the popular applications used by companies to facilitate user interaction.

Social Media and Indian SMEs
According to a whitepaper released by Verisign, a US-based internet network infrastructure firm, only 57 per cent of Indian SMEs use a company website as their primary online presence while globally this number is as high as 72 per cent (SMEs without a web presence were not covered).

The whitepaper titled ‘Benefits and barriers of bringing a small business online: Perspectives from global small businesses’ covered topics including global usage of internet in business and brand communication and the focus segment was small and medium enterprises. According to the whitepaper, Indian SMEs looked at websites as medium to showcase their credibility.
“Social media has much more to offer than just socialising or connecting with friends and family. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Youtube among others are looked up to as serious marketing tools today. It is also one of the best way to spread awareness about your offerings globally and what you invest is just time,” says Rohit Bidappa, Social Media Consultant.

He adds, “All the big companies have already made their presence felt in the social media circle. But, now from what I have observed, even SMEs are gearing up to adopt the platform, though it will take some more time to completely catch up.”

The machine tool industry
India ranks 6th among the world’s biggest markets for machine tools and is on its way to become one of the fastest developing global hub. Looking at the highly competitive market, the best approach for the machine tool industry should be maximum interaction with the customers. Also, taking into consideration the high branding & marketing costs and the fact that a major part of the machine tool industry are SMEs and MSMEs, social media comes across as a highly effective branding & marketing tool.
The industry should cash in on smart and cost-effective marketing, market analysis and customer connect at one go. Unfortunately, the awareness level about social media among the SMEs and MSMEs is still very low.

“Social media is the best platform for startups and small ventures as you save a large sum but still get good returns. But all said and done, just having a social media presence is not enough; one needs to think carefully about what message or information you want to want to deliver to the customers. It is very essential to target the right audience with right messages,” says Bidappa.

A huge scope
In March last year, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Facebook announced a partnership to enable Indian SMEs to combine the power of the internet and social media. This partnership is targeted to expand Facebook’s global Small and Medium Business (SMB) Boost programme in India and provide Indian SMEs with educational resources and free advertising to help them get started and grow their businesses online. Apart from this, the programme will also help member SMEs of FICCI to explore and utilise social media for business promotion and consumer outreach activities.

Social media gives small businesses the option to choose their target audience, it can be said to be a cheap but powerful way of branding & marketing.

“Few months ago, I was not confident to go for social media marketing or promotion. I was not sure if it can really help my business. I am a small businessman and do not have the capacity to invest that kind of huge money in advertising and branding,” says a local machine tool distributor on conditions of anonymity.

nishi@mfgtechupdate.com