Social Media Marketing – Are You Kidding Me?

October 2nd, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

Social Media Marketing – are your kidding me?

Yes Sir, I am asking this question. Being the CEO of a fast emerging Social Media for Enterprise company, I am asking you this question, are you kidding me, when you say, Social Media Marketing?

Social Media – When Did it Become All About Marketing?

Well, its been a little over 3 years and Iv been hearing a buzzzzzzz word (yes the buzz has been longer than I expected it to be) called: Social Media Marketing. I know of so many small and large companies who are making hay while the sun shines by doing something called: Social Media Marketing.

But Marketing – That’s it?

Is it all about just marketing? Is it? I have seen this media grow and its effects and the various ways which companies have leveraged this media in. From plain simple blogging to Viral campaigns, all’s been said and done.

There have been some pretty major campaigns which found their place under the sun and in the hearts of people. There were funny videos of Ghazal Singers Selling Microsoft Software to Online gangs of the fair sex selling beauty products.

Time to Learn!

Social Network: a social network is nothing other than a network group of people who may have multiple objectives to join the same.

When did it Become All about Marketing?

Well, when did Social Networks become all about marketing? Where did the whole aspect of a knowledge economy go? When did real knowledge collaboration take a back seat?

The Dynamics of Marketing and How Online Media has Affected Them?

There are major theories being written and shared all across the world. I agree no less, there’s definitely a fundamental shift which has taken place overtime, since people have started connecting globally with each other. Its really about empowerment. People today feel empowered with the sudden freedom of speech, sudden freedom of connecting globally, sudden expansion of vision and opportunities.

And since these people play various roles in their normal course of life: parents, students, employees, bosses, employers, buyers, sellers etc. hence each one of them see these social networks as a way to connect with like minded people globally, they feel empowered.

Are You Mar-Kidding?

I ask the marketers now, are you Mar-Kidding? Yes!

There is a whole new set of aware, jazzy, savvy customers online, so obviously they have to be tapped into. Lets become a Social Media Marketing company and help our customers connect with their prospects online. Great thought! And no doubts, businesses are investing into this media.

But let me share in my experience of why many businesses do:

  • Part of an experimental marketing budget

Businesses are yet to really see the powerful nature of this media. And why do I say that? Because let me go and ask how many of them can really quantify the results and how many of them really had clarity on their business objectives before even stepping into this mode and exploring the New Media as a marketing option!

  • My competition is there and they are somehow successful, I want to be as well

Let me put it straight and I actually put it the same way for my customers as well. If DELL made couple of million dollars in revenue by executing a solid strategic thought on the Social Media, leveraging channels like twitter and the concept of community building, well, yes it did. But that ends right there. There is no point creating a parallel.

  • I have to be online

If I am not online, I am lagging behind as a business. If nothing else, at least I would get more interesting insights about my business online.

I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ALL THIS

My problem is: many businesses, and when I say businesses, I come from experience across the board from Small and Medium enterprises to Large Enterprises, which operate globally. Many of these businesses are really not fully decided upon what their business objectives are for leveraging the Social Media.

And before I go ahead, my disclaimer is, just like in every domain there are good and bad both, hence I am not generalizing every company, but many run of the mill Social Media Marketing companies (who have normal Bcom pass graduates who may have never read what a brand really is, taking about branding) as their resources to save cost and increase margins, go to these businesses and tell them its about Marketing boss.

Your customers are here! They are already talking, you are missing the bus!

And even before the customer can actually sit and deliberate, he says, what the heck, let me just start with a small amount and rope this company as my vendor and test waters.

THIS IS RUINING THE MARKET

Today, I personally know of business owners (who are good friends), who invested quite some money into the Social Media and after 6 months said: okay I am here there everywhere, but I dont really get how my business got affected?

When you have inexperienced lots working with enterprises, you are actually delivering a cake which is half baked and which will eventually burn out. Its as simple as a Chinese Specialist trying an Italian Cuisine while writing on his LinkedIn profile, I am an Expert in Global Cuisines.

Why Are Majorly All Social Media Marketing Companies Saying: The Indian Customer is Not Able to Appreciate our Services

Well, this one is a common sentence and though many people may shy away from saying this in public, but Iv heard it from the horses’ mouth, owners of Social Media Agencies saying: Indian Customers are not paying us as much, they don’t appreciate these services as much.

I agree to Disagree.

Show the customer value and he will pay

this has been my thought process since the very beginning and even today as I am running an emerging company, I know how far have we come and how fast have we actually evolved, all thanks to some fantastic mentors we have on board who come with a global perspective and insight.

A Practical Example

Since I like taking examples to effectively communicate with people, let me put across the story of Until ROI in few lines. We started as a run of the mill Social Media Marketing company but soon realized that being just another one would be NON-SENSICAL.

There is no point being a fish between sharks already there and more fishes mushrooming at every nook and corner.

That is when we decided to take help of mentors who come on board with over 100 + years of cumulative global experience. And well, we changed and changed for the good.

But what did we do?

  • Invested in people – we have a small but smart team of people who have relevant experience and sure we pay not just at par, in some cases, better than companies at least 20 times our size
  • INNOVATE – INNOVATE – INNOVATE – we came up with a whole new thought process for leveraging the New Media for businesses
  • Value Driven Solutions – our existing clients who needed more as they kept getting more insights into their businesses, we have been flexible enough to learn from their requirements and wallah, we have come up with some fantastic process based solutions

What’s been the result?

As a simple answer, we are a: Social Media for Enterprise company today :) with happy enterprise clients.

Final Word!

I would like all Social Media Marketers to actually help businesses help create strong processes, both Internal and External and help them bridge the gap with not only their customers externally (who pay) but also the customers internally (employees, management).

We must help businesses understand the dynamics of being Social and how and why must a business actually go towards going public and not let it become a small paying experiment.

SHOCKING: You and Your Online Brand Consultants – Positioned Towards a Perfect Brand Bust

November 1st, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink

In my endeavor of establishing transparency and clarity in the, Ohh so amazing and new world of Social Media and Online Marketing, I am sure the series of posts I am doing now, will surely be an eye opener for clients.

Just sometime back, my strategy team did a search on the keywords, Social Media and India, and what we got were people who have sometime or the other in their professional lifetime, related to the Social Media industry. And since Social Media is not an age old concept, thus we started looking at the profiles of people who are currently into the profession.

To my UTTER AMAZE, the profiles, I was given were an absolute NO, if they were to handle my brand strategy not just on the internet but everywhere else. Interestingly, these people are recruited by not just the small Social Media ‘shops’ but the biggies in the business as well. Positioned highly, these guys are given fancy terms and well, the customer is sold!

Let me bring more clarity by looking at certain aspects of what my strategy team gave me, post the data analysis:

  • Education
    • Majority of these people have not done management (which I am not suggesting is necessary)
    • 80% of them, do not have the words, Branding Consultant, Marketing, Positioning, Product life cycle, etc in their summary/ profiles
  • Current
    • The current profiles are all Social Media Strategist, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Executive
  • Past
    • There are people from BPO, from Technology, Adventure Tourism, Operations who are handling your So called Social Media Branding and Online Branding and Brand Creation and what not
  • Experience
    • Most of these people are fresh (1-3 years) of experience and are running the show

In my personal view, I completely agree that innovative thinking, creativity are needed, but is it that you will hand over your brand in the hands of someone who does NOT even understand what Brand stands for?!

This revelation by the team, surely opened my eyes towards how is the New Media industry being structured and shaping up. We are playing on chances and one of running successes.

Are You The Starbucks or The Less Thank Truck Load Company?

August 16th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Sometimes I ponder over life and who things are moving. Its a Sunday and I am in deep thought about my company, where are we moving and how are we placed.

The question(s) which I want to get answered is: as a services company, are you defining productivity the right way as your clients deliverable(s) require? Do your employees really understand your business?

Thanks for Calling Yellow, Have a Nice Day

Case Study: Yellow Corp, a Fortune 500 company in the trucking business was going in a deep nose dive, which was found by Bill Zollars, who became the CEO of Yellow Corp at that time.

Problem Statement:

  1. What he found was that the company had no account-abilities and statistics for customer satisfaction.
  2. Employees did not understand the value and were just acting on the given orders

Current State of YRC:

This is the link to the amazing turn of events that have turned the fortunes of YRC

How did it happen?

Bill, understood one thing clearly, that the company is nosediving and competition was building up. People used to ask him, if the company will be around another couple of years? Bill had a strong look at the business and finally came out with the solution which had him telling the employees that they are no more competing with the competition in the trucking business, they are not a LTL/ trucking company.

We are a services company and need to strive to create systems to reach to what Starbucks does for its customers

Confused?

Well, Yes, Bill changed the entire positioning of the company for the employees, for them they had become a services company and hence the entire conversation with the customer changed. The entire focus shifted to the customer. People started listening to the customer and hence the products evolved there from.

Eg: On one of the occasions Bill went to a customer care centre of the company to hear the calls and he heard one of the agents answer a customer who wanted to truck his shipment from place A to B in 2 days. And the agent answered “We can do it in three days”. The customer again said but I want it to be done in two days. The agent had the same answer again. The customer finally remarked, I’ll call up someone else to which the agent said: Okay, thanks for calling yellow and letting us serve you. Have a nice day”

Well, if this is what you call serving, sure you are nose diving!

Being part of the Internet industry (read: social media) in India today and connecting with the leading players, I think, the flood of small companies which are creating ruckus in the market by introducing cheap services and setting wrong expectations with the client, will consume such companies itself.

The leading companies which have already set the Social Media ball rolling with the creme de la creme of the clientle would create an entry barrier for the smaller companies, strong enough which would take a good time to surpass and in such a time if these smaller companies dont scale up, with the right HR mix, I see them failing.

Thus the Social Media companies need to position themselves right in the market and itnernally with their employees aligned towards achieving the same goal seeing the same BIG picture!

Scale Up or Shut Shop – My Insight for Social Media Marketing Companies

August 9th, 2009 § 4 comments § permalink

I am a Social Media Marketing evangelist and started my Internet career as a blogger almost 2 years back.

Since this time, I have connected with many people, from some of the best in the Internet domain to some real sharp entrepreneurs, who have given their comments on the various business models which startups and the established Internet/ Online companies are following.

Scale up or Shut Shop

Out of my interaction a couple of days back with a highly placed and successful Internet entrepreneur, a revelation jumped out, which in a way took me by surprise, as I was always present to it, but not really in the real sense of the action.

Over a cup of coffee, we discussed the following:

  1. Is working with SME’s in India really that easy into Social Media?
    • Are they good paying customers?
    • Are they easy to grab?
    • Do they really have the time and resources?
  2. How, many huge clients (some of the top companies in India and Abroad) are looking for all kinds of services into Social Media and are ready to pay for innovative and rewarding work

Now, I had this idea about how social media campaigns are made for these big fat clients, but never had someone who is doing it in real time, telling me, how much of it is true!

Thus came the BIG realization!

There are these big companies who are asking for partners in the online world, who could do some really innovative stuff. When I talk of innovation and results, I am in a way referring to the likes of Sunsilk Gang of Girls and TATA TEA Jaago Re.

But what I was not aware of was, trivial and almost commoditized offerings in Social Media as creation and seeding of content on the various Social Media channels, these BIG companies are asking for such services as well as an integral part of the offering and are paying good sums for the same.

Many small online marketing companies are offering the same set of services to their clients which represent the SME/ Startup space.

But would the business model sustain?

I am not saying NO, but surely I think its going to be very very difficult. Even if as an online marketing company your differentiation is the market that you are serving, you still have to consider that your market should be sustainable enough and you should have enough resources to crack the market. Some questions that you should answer:

  1. How long is your sales cycle?
  2. Do you have enough resources to hang onto your tables?
  3. Is a low paying and yet more demanding market, the best way for you as a startup?

Moral of the story?

Am I saying that small online marketing companies would not sustain? Well, not really! But surely such companies would find it really hard to sustain. The model over a longer run is surely not sustainable. Moving up the chain and crossing over to the clientle, which is sustainable for your business, is an absolute essential.

Price war?

Not really, in my personal opinion, price is surely not a differentiating factor which smaller companies can establish and fight over. Otherwise the shark will surely eat away the smaller fish.

Finally

There is enough business around, all you need to do is create the right set of expectations with the client and deliver innovations which would help the client get a high over, through short term wins, and will also help you establish long term relationships with your high net worth client!

ParitoshSharma.com Announces Exclusive Brand Showcase Opportunities With the Launch of The Freshest Dope from The Digital Adversiting and Marketing Industry – HORN-OK-PLEASE (The Digital Foreplay)

August 5th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

hornokplease

There already is so much of Brand Clutter out there, that reaching out to the relevant market and getting the right eyeballs for the sufficient time is becoming increasingly difficult.

In the race to make easy money, advertising platforms are becoming more and more cash unfriendly and provide not much of an option to the advertiser to really showcase the BRAND DIFFERENTIATION and ENGAGE his target audience.

ParitoshSharma.com cuts through the clutter

paritoshsharma.com announces exclusive Brand Showcase opportunities for Brands to showcase their entirety and engage and start a meaningful dialogue with their audience.

  • How?
    • Limited Advertising Space – Only TWO (2) brands at any given time

      • ParitoshSharma.com limits the advertising space to only two advertisers at any given time on the Home Page of the blog
    • No Google Ads – Only targeted and specific advertising
      • We dont do Google Ad’s just to earn a few bucks. We believe in creating value for the customer and help our advertisers engage their customers
  • How can you advertise?

pscom-ads

Ohh, so what’s the big deal? Ad’s are given by everyone?

That’s right and that’s why ParitoshSharma.com provides you access to eyeballs as there is no Ad clutter. Only limited space with unlimited access and focused eyeballs.

Do you provide something else other than this?

Yes! We have 3 advertising packages, which can be further customized:

  1. HORN (package 1)
    • Advertising Space (Banner Advertising) + 2 Blog posts about your brand/ PR/ Announcements a month + Brand pormotion on facebook and twitter by Paritosh Sharma
      • INR 24,999
  2. OK (package 2)
    • Advertising Space (Left Sidebar Advertising) + 2 Blog posts about your brand/ PR/ Announcements a month + Brand pormotion on facebook and twitter by Paritosh Sharma
      • INR 16,999
  3. PLEASE (package 3)
    • Advertising Space on (HORN – OK – PLEASE – The Digital Foreplay (The Freshest Dope from the Digital Advertising and Marketing Industry)) + 2 Blog posts about your brand/ PR/ Announcements a month + Brand promotion on facebook and twitter by Paritosh Sharma
      • INR 7,999

Since this is exclusive access and focused advertising, the brands advertising, shall be entertained only post strong brand check on social media.

Do your Clients Really Understand You? A Reality Check by Google

July 29th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink

I am Social Media Marketing Evangelist and over time a crucial aspect of the entire Social Media Marketing process has come into the picture which if inferred in simple terms makes you ponder over the most basic question:

Do Your Clients Really Understand Your Service/ What You Are Trying to Do?

As with the new buzz word and with a huge outreach new brands are coming onto the social media scene and products and services are trying to connect to the relevant audience, but somewhere I personally feel, many Online Marketing companies, are just trying to experiment with the customer, in the process, not really being one with the customer’s business objectives.

And there goes the entire effort down the drain, with the client dissatisfied and disillusioned at the end.

Listen to your customer!

I strongly suggest all marketers, expecially those in the online domain to listen to their customers. its highly crucial that you understand the customer’s business objectives and are on the same page as the client. Its necessary that you have a solid graps of business understanding of your customer, to be able to create solid and successful campaigns and create success stories in the online world.

What is a browser – A Google View

Paritosh Sharma speaks on Social Media and Mobile 2.0 for Businesses at OMCAR 2009

June 8th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink

Paritosh Sharma speaks on Social Media and Mobile 2.0 at OMCAR 2009

I take pride in presenting my talk at OMCAR 2009, a hugely successful event which was held by OM Careers in association with TiE, Delhi at Amity University, Noida.

I am humbled by the response received by the delegates and some amazing insights from the fellow speakers.

The rest of the video parts would be updated soon on the OFFICIAL OMShare YouTube channel!

Thanks,

Paritosh

Social Media Marketing and Mobile 2.0 for Your Business (Paritosh Sharma) at OMCAR 2009

May 28th, 2009 § 7 comments § permalink

Sharing my talk which I delivered at OMCAR 2009 – The Online Marketing Summit, New Delhi. I am glad to get the feedback that the talk was well received and thanks to all the people who shared their feedback!

This session was blogged LIVE by: Deepanwita Chatterjee, from team OMShare.

Post tea, peppered with some avid networking, we gather for the next session, ‘Making SEO, PPC, SMM & Mobile Work Together’, presented by Mahesh Murthy, CEO Pinstorm and Paritosh Sharma, (SMM Evangelist, OMLogic). I am LIVE Blogging the session and I can’t help notice the excitement that has been generated in the room at the announcement of the session

Paritosh starts the session by explaining that he will be discussing his views about SMM and how   business can benefit from SMM.

He starts by displaying a slide with a picture of a colorful grocery store with blue and red boxes.
I specially like the story telling method by which he makes his point. He says that once he went to buy a product of his favorite brand and that brand was not available so he had to settle down for his second favorite brand. So inspite of being a brand loyalist he had to settle with his second choice.

SMM can be explained in two words – message and media.

Paritosh makes the session very lively by citing an example of advertising for a bicycle manufacturer. He quotes 3 example campaigns

  1. A description of the specifics of the bicycle
  2. A picture of the bicycle
  3. A video of a woman riding a cycle showing how easy to ride

No need to mention the third method clicked. What really worked is the content, the message, and the media.

He cites another example of the inventor of sliced bread. The person patented it, advertised it still it didn’t catch up for 15 years. Another bread manufacturer came along and packaged the sliced bread in the right manner and it appealed to the user.

He rightly makes a point that there is no single rule for marketing. Advertising on SlideShare may work for a business and YouTube for another. It is important to understand the needs of the client and the client’s client.

He is explaining that the way to go about it is to create a message and target it to the right set of consumers.

He goes on to cite another example which triggers a lot of laughter – TataSky did an adult site, the moment anybody clicks on the site the questions like age and gender comes up which create the impression of the contents within. But the moment you click it it says ‘dude a paap hai’. The campaign sure has been done in a very witty manner which creates a huge recall value.

He also cites the example of jaagore.com and the ‘pappu pass ho gaya’ campaigns about which we all are well aware of. Both the campaigns and the were huge successes and the radio campaign ‘dot is hot’ was a runaway success as well. Jagore.com was a purely online site, and the message ‘chai peke jaago’ was very intelligently done. Kudos to the tata guys!

Television is a passe. There was a time people bought advertising space. But now people are spending more time on the internet on Orkuts and FaceBooks.

The audience silently agrees to that.

Paritosh says that SMM is more about customizing, customizing according to the needs of the customers.
He goes on to elaborate the four steps of creating a campaign.

The first step is to listen and learn. Even the customer is not clear about what he wants from SMM.

The second step is to audit and analyze the customer’s business model, whether SMM will be good or PPC.

The third step is to develop and test.

The fourth step is to execute and monitor. Metrics are difficult in SMM. But it is not that difficult if you understand the business perspective of the client. And till the time there is no metrics, one can always customize metrics for the clients.

He adds

Position your brand right. Do it with the right medium and to the relevant section of the audience online. And that’s where the PPC and SEO’s come into action.

He is now telling us about Skittles where every page is a social media, on one page there is twitter, on another YouTube and FaceBook on yet another. There is nothing good or bad it is about.

He then shares about Webchutney.com. On the home page, there are two tabs saying ‘I have 5 mins’ , and ‘I have plenty of time’, clicking on either takes the user to separate pages. He cites an example that if one sees a YouTube video of a bicycle gear that she likes and on clicking on it she is taken to the home page of the bicycle website, then one wouldn’t be too happy about it. The concept of separate landing works. I can’t help thinking that yes, that has happened to me many times!

He makes a point by reiterating that markets have evolved overtime and its time that one starts marketing to the innovators and early adopters. They are the ones which will take to your product and will do a much better viral campaign on the internet rather than the late adopters.

You have a great product…. You have identified the target market…
and people are talking about u….. and before the fizz goes out, market it…

Paritosh wraps up the session saying

The riskiest thing that you can do for your brand is to be safe.

Even if anybody writes anything bad about your brand, one can be alerted by a google alert and can pacify them.

Thanks for the useful insights Paritosh, it was great listening to you.

One of the most interesting sessions I have blogged. Thanks Paritosh

Thanks Deepanwita for blogging the session for me :)

OMCAR 2009 – The Online Marketing Summit by OM Careers and TiE New Delhi

May 16th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Today a large number of people across the world are using internet as a means of communication, entertainment, shopping, gaming and searching information. When used in an effective manner the internet has a huge potential for marketing services, products and brand building.

In the current scenario indulging in online marketing is no longer a choice but a necessity.

Do you want to learn how the power of the web can be used for marketing your brand? Do you want to be a part of the booming Online Marketing industry? Do you want to interact and share experiences with the experts of the online domain? All this and more at India’s only conference dedicated completely to Online Marketing, which is brought to you by OMCareers in association with TiE, New Delhi.

After the astounding success of OMCAR 2008, which revolved around empowering Online Marketing professionals in their careers, the online marketing brains have come together for yet another conference on Online Marketing this year. OMCAR 2009, Online Marketing Summit focuses upon empowering businesses to grow by leveraging the power of Online Marketing.

OMCAR 2009 promises to provide endless opportunities of interacting with the professionals from the Online Marketing space. The one day event will have sessions on the various aspects of Online Marketing

  • Online Marketing – Reaching Your Customers Cost Effectively
  • The intersection of SEO, PPC and SMM
  • Case Studies – Best Practices in Online Marketing
  • Web Usability & Analytics
  • Unconference/Site Clinic

There will be endless possibilities of networking, sharing of views and learning from the experts from the online space. The event will be an exiting and enriching experience for anybody who is interested or associated with the online media. It is undoubtedly going to be a great place for CMOs, Online Marketing Professionals, Web developers, Entrepreneurs and CXOs Small and Medium Enterprises to learn about, discuss and imbibe the latest Online Marketing Techniques and Strategies.

The one day event will be held on 23rd May at Amity Business School Noida.

Previous successes

OMCAR 2008 was designed to create a confluence for the Online Marketing Industry and the professional talent who dream to be a part of it. OMCAR 2008 was a huge success with over 300 attendees.

See you there at OMCAR 2009 REGISTER for the Event

Ask your clients why Barack Obama is the President and Mccain is NOT!

February 18th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

I’m bleeding, hold me tight! Wait for a few moments the shore is near, Together we’ll make it through!

No, I’m not narrating a hollywood scene. Listen closely to your heart and what does that so elusive client of yours who says I don’t have enough money to continue on paying you mean? The economic conditions have taken a toll!

Why are you still sitting on that seat? Go, this is the time to re-assure your client that you are always there in times good and bad! Its always easier working as a team and innovating together, sailing through the rough tide, rather than trying to make it through, on your own. This is the time for strengthening your relationships. Your clients business wants a makeover. The business processes need innovation. Go hold his hand, he needs you now! Why should I do it?

Well, the answer may not come to you right away, but let the conditions stabilize and this client would always stick around.

But how do I do it? Times are equally bad for me as well! What do I suggest him when I am innovating myself? When I fear of losing him and I have to acquire new clients myself!

Well, first things first, acquiring a new client would take you much time as compared to what it takes in retaining an existing client. Secondly yes times are equally bad, thus what you need are innovative ideas which would help you-:

  1. Explore new market opportunities
  2. Monitor your ROI, by focusing on meaningful investments
  3. Innovate your business processes (Ex: looking at innovative methods of reaching relevant traffic to increase sales in a cost effective manner)
  4. Position your offering and Brand to the relevant traffic, being cost effective at the same time

So how do I do it?

Well, what about Internet? Its another thing being 500+ on LinkedIn and famous on Facebook, but how do leverage your brand to attract potential customers through these Social Media?

Yes, you have got it right, SOCIAL MEDIA!

A simple yet powerful example are the recent presidential elections held in the US, which had Barack Obama rising up from nowhere, shattering 26 years of political force (Mccain) with just 4 years of relevant and effective branding online.

So how do you explain the benefits of an accurate social media model for your clients’ business?

Ask your client does he know why Barack Obama is the President-elect and Mccain is not!

If your client does know it, well, half your work is done and if he does not hmmm…you have a perfect playground to set your rules!

Strange it may sound, but if we trail the campaigns of both Obama and Mccain, one of the biggest differences that takes you where you least expect it is the effect of properly defined, structured and followed up Social Media. Obama’s campaign team leveraged the Social Media aspect of the internet so effeciently that Obama had a clear cut lead over Mccain online.

One of the best blogs on the internet which provides elaborat figures as to how Social media made all the difference, I found is: http://adultaddstrengths.com/2008/11/05/obama-vs-mccain-social-media/

NEARLY 6000% MORE PAGES ON Barack Obama’s website than Mccain’s.

Okay so lets dwell deeper…into figures…

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS/WEBSITES

Social Media Website
Barack Obama
John McCain
% Lead
Leader
Facebook
567,000
18,700
2932
Obama
Facebook Supporters*
2,444,384
627,459
290
Obama
Facebook Wall Posts*
495,320
132,802
273
Obama
Facebook Notes*
1,669
125
1235
Obama
MySpace
859,000
319,000
169
Obama
MySpace Friends*
844,781
219,463
285
Obama
MySpace Comments*
147,630
none listed
147,630
Obama
Twitter
506,000
44,800
1029
Obama
Twitter Followers*
115,623
4911
2254
Obama
Twitter Updates*
262
25
948
Obama
Friend Feed
34,300
27,400
25
Obama
Youtube
358,000
191,000
87
Obama
Youtube Videos Posted*
1,819
330
451
Obama
Youtube Subscribers*
117,873
none 29,202
117,873 304
Obama
Youtube Friends*
25,226
none listed
25,226
Obama
WordPress.com
19,692
14,468
36
Obama
Flickr
73,076
15,168
382
Obama
Flickr Photostream*
50,218
No Profile
50,218
Obama
Flickr Contacts*
7,148
No Profile
7,148
Obama

Search Engine Results For “Barack Obama” and “John McCain”

Search Engine
Barack Obama
John McCain
% Lead
Leading
Google
56,200,000
42,800,000
31
Obama
Google News
136,000
371,620
173
McCain
Google Image
24,200,000
8,620,000
181
Obama
Google Video
136,000
89,800
51
Obama
Google Blog
4,633,997
3,094,453
50
Obama
Technorati
412,219
313,497
31
Obama

Internet Presence For Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s Offical Websites

Internet Presence
Barack Obama
John McCain
% Lead
Leading
Google Pagerank
8
8
0
Pages in Google
1,820,000
30,700
5828
Obama
Yahoo Links-Pages
643,416
513,665
25
Obama
Yahoo Links-Inlinks
255,334
165,296
54
Obama

So what do all these figures say? My client is getting confused!! What should I do?

Now you actually do not have to say much. Your client says he has multiple options in the internet domain who provide services at a lesser cost then why should he still go with you?

So its simple, either your client’s campaign could be Obama’s or Mccains.

What does this signify?

Well, in the Online Marketing space its not just the quality that matters, its also how well does your online marketing solutions provider (partner) unedrstands your business domain. How well does he/she understands your objectives and goals and then charts out a workable architecture, that’s how you should choose your online marketing partner.

Link to the post at the NASSCOM EMERGE Blog: http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2008/11/13/the-shore-is-near-together-well-make-it-through/