A hiker’s guide to Social Media
Online Marketing did not have a lot of options just a few years ago. The available technology allowed companies and organizations a platform to create forums where people will come and share knowledge, talk, socialize. The best forums did not have the look and feel to crave about. Although from a functional point of view, forums provide a much needed social meet-up place for people with similar interests, sometimes very specific in nature. A lot of times the forums members did not subscribe to the idea of revealing their real identities to other forum members. Mostly they hid behind avatars of Homer Simpson and a nickname straight out of a geek novel.
Blogging came and was seen as a way to put forth one’s ideas on a global platform. Although strictly personal, it was lapped up quickly by netizens. People found it very easy to create blogs and write about stuff they liked, they cared about, that bothered them, that they felt should be changed, just about everything. A few blogs succeeded, a larger chunk went into oblivion. But it changed the way people started connecting.
Soon though blogging picked up as a tool for top executives to connect directly with their audience. There was no press in between and you could (mostly) read thoughts, opinions coming from the horse’s mouth (One of my earlier blog memory is of reading the blog of Rahul Sood). The trend spread like a wild-fire, and for all good reasons. What could be a better way for a company to connect with its clients than a direct communication like this?
At the same time there was another change coming in the way people connected on the web. Social Media. There were websites on the horizon that wanted old classmates to reconnect on the web, new friends to share a space. And it is then that someone realized that under the layer of corporation-customer network of a Social networking sites and its users, another layer could be created – some users would be providers and other its users.
It started with music bands and pop culture as it would normally be. Indie musicians used this free platform to find new fan-base and keep in touch with the existing ones. Demo tapes started to disappear in favor of MySpace links. Soon films joined the chorus, and it helped them create the initial buzz around their upcoming film or album.
The suite of social networking sites was taken further by the likes of FaceBook (a personal networking tool) and LinkedIn (a professional networking tool). Along the same lines a new concept of Social Bookmarking emerged, and people started sharing their bookmarks with the entire works. This started chain reactions in popularity of content that was unbelievable before. Viral spread of information had started to take a new meaning.
By this time everyone had realized why they should be on social media wagon. It was just too good to neglect to network with their clients without practically investing into creating your own system. You could utilize the existing prominent pod, and ride on its popularity and traffic to spread your voice. Just too good to pass up. Today it is absolutely out of fashion to not be on FB or LinkedIn or both.
FaceBook, LinkedIn, Orkut, MySpace – all had a common feature; that of being able to update your friends and connections about your status, i.e. what you were doing, where you were going. Just abut any text or even a link. Some brains thought of creating a service purely based off the idea of status updates. Hence was born Twitter, a micro-blogging facility where you could post a single ‘tweet’ 140 characters long to tell your friends what was up.
Twitter has redefined how companies now connect with their customers. A real time search, link sharing, follow features, interesting buzz creation – all in measly 140 characters was an attractive challenge for corporates. The best part is that you could always silently follow your prospects and know about them, without actually ever intruding them.
It has become hard to ignore these developments for any business. You could only ignore them if you want to ignore your clients (or if you want to create your own platforms which may or may not draw traffic). On the other hand, you can utilize the social media to know a lot about your clients. There is a huge opportunity to have a one-on-one dialogue with the client, as well as mass announcements. And this seems to be just a beginning of what is about to come with Web 3.0.
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
Hey Polprav, please do so! Thanks!
-tejas
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