Handle the Negative Buzz!

Most of the companies be it a small scale industry or a massively huge industry, all the companies are realizing the importance of increasing the visibility on the social networking sites. While many large retailers have developed significant marketing presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites as a way to increase the brand awareness, dissatisfied consumers are increasingly using them as forums to complain about these companies and their mishaps.

While many practices have been talked about for managing this type of buzz on social media sites, we can enlist six basic recommendations for dealing with such incidences gleaned from the social media and PR professionals, as well as the retailers who have experienced such active attacks frequently. They include:

Take Negative as a Positive:-

Yes. It may sound vague, but this is true. Look at the negative buzz as an opportunity to strengthen the bonds with the customers, improve customer services and also reaffirm the corporate principles. It is not that difficult to please the customers online. They believe what they see, so make sure what you show them is what they get.

Foster relationships with Customer Advocates:-

It is very important to build proper relationships with the customer advocates who can and shall support brand when they are under attack.

Be a Good Listener:-

Always keep in mind that the consumer is the prime important person for the company. Listen to what the customers are saying, not just on social networks and Twitter, but also on ratings, reviews sites and on blogs. These reviews are really important and tell you where the company stands in reality.

Look for Alternative Solutions:-

For resolving consumer complaints, consider alternative solutions such as taking them private via e- mail or phone, which helps in giving your full attention to the consumers. Also, consider creating a new website or portal to deal with any particular issue.

Respond Quickly:-

Consumers are very sensitive when it comes to the response. They want acknowledgement that their concerns and problems have been heard and are being taken seriously. Taking care of thet will give them assurance and will make them understanding that it takes time to come up with an amicable solution.

Plan Responses:-

For different types of negative buzz scenarios, it is important to plan what response is to be given in what situations. Conduct proper ‘Fire Drills’ on how to manage and handle the negative buzz to avoid panic should mass customer criticism tends to occur.

Reality bytes!

As the world moves on with the general audiences taking the lead in almost everything, the World Wide Web has also made the best use of the same by churning out campaigns which invoke the presence of the Generation Y. In a nation where huge campaigns like Jaago re and Sunsilk Gang of Girls has appealed to the masses through the medium of television and radio, the social media websites have also taken a huge leap in the development of mass campaigns.

A very unusually creative yet interesting marketing campaign by Make My Trip, has taken the entire population by force. Launching the campaign in the form of a protest, the visualizers of “Offisial Atyachar” made sure that the scope of the target audience was huge. Appealing to all who were victims of official tensions, which disturbed their work and personal life balance, the campaign took shape in the form of a Facebook profile page which gave out funny anecdotes and tips about daily life official madness. The increasing amount of people who joined the profile page gave rise to huge event where around 500 employees vented out their anger by smashing down an office, specially created to be brought down to pieces. Also later turning it into an official website, the campaign is still alive, with thousands of employees taking out their office frustration on a stage created by the social media. The campaign not only created a rage amongst the masses, but also created leads for Make My trip as an organization, as it continued its surrogate branding throughout the campaign. Expecting to create awareness for a better work life, the campaign now plans to release the idea at many different levels.

Joining the reality games, the consumer of today is attracted to campaigns which involves them, and connects with them on a much larger level than just emotion. According to various statistics, social media ads beat the efficacy of ads on television and the radio by a huge number. Making your voices heard is one right that the audience today strongly believes in, and the social media is offering them many solutions to do so.

Offering yet another platform, taking the help of the internet as a medium is the “Ibibo Great India Blogger Hunt”. The campaign compels the audience to write whatever they want to talk about in the form of a blog. The prerequisites do not require you to be a great journalist or a writer, but a person who speaks their heart out. Keeping the prize money as a whooping sum of Rs 1.5 crore, the online media challenge has attracted many to express views and opinions on the huge platform.

The social media has not only played an extremely vital role in the creating awareness and enthusiasm amongst the masses, but has also helped various organizations to use it as a platform to define their businesses. In a world where more users rely on social media websites than the television for efficient marketing communication strategies, moving to the internet is surely the smartest thing to do for most businesses.

Tags: Facebook, Ibibo, Offisial Atyachar, Social Media

The Twitter driven world

Twitter has been in and around for quite some time now. People belonging to all age brackets are live and active through Twitter, updating the world about their likes, dislikes, whereabouts, opinions, news – practically everything. Twitter has also become the latest hub even for the inmates of Tinsel town, who persistently keep their curious followers updated with their ‘oh so interesting’ tweets. The rise of celebrity twitter mania has also given rise to newer job prospects for writers, who the celebrities hire to update on twitter when they are too caught up with work.

Though apart from being a medium which entertains the masses, Twitter has also been put to use for social campaigns which have not only got justice for some, but also saved people’s life – and literally so. In many a recent instances, Twitter has been used as an active media to make people aware and hence create user-engagement for any campaign that takes place.

In a recent example, during the Haiti earthquake, aid organizations were heard quoting that social media websites, including twitter, helped raising the funds required for the relief process, with a much higher pace than through any other medium. Well-wishers from all over the world gathered up together to help the wounded, deceased and the ones in need through Twitter by donating through various social media campaigns, that started as soon as the magnitude 7 disaster took place. Nearly eight million dollars were collected through Twitter, which helped the aid organizations to get the best for the victims. Social media was globally applauded as the relief was provided in the nick of time.

Another such an incident, where Twitter came out as the helping medium, was for a celebrity which saved the life of a man who was mentally stressed. As reported and reviewed, Demi Moore got constant tweets by a follower who had become suicidal, hence posting threats on the social media platform. While keeping in touch with him by exchanging tweets, she instantly informed the police, who helped the man, hence saving him from taking his own life.

Instances like such have given a social media a whole new scope of innovation. Twitter is also now being used by the presidential race of various countries to make the masses aware, and the government transparent. Barrack Obama’s online campaign is being heavily put to use through the social media platforms to raise money and organize various activities at a grass-root level. This encouraged people to come forth and stand for the country.

What the social media as an online medium has done to the world at various levels is something magnanimous. It has not only created a literally made the world a smaller place, but has also developed a common bond amongst the entire human race as a whole. This medium has given the innovators of today to put their minds to creative use and develop something which was unimaginable in the past, turning the technologically driven world to a completely new and unexplored direction.

Tags: Demi Moore, Haiti, Obama, Social Media, twitter

Understanding Link Building

Link building… another technical term which is difficult to understand? Well, not anymore! Let’s talk about this in a layman’s language. Link building simply means connecting one website with another with the help of hyperlinks. And we do this in order to gain higher rankings in a search engine result page. If you have followed whatever is written so far, then you shall be able to understand whatever follows. Link building works in close relation with SEO or Search Engine Optimization which is done for the same reason- better visibility and higher rankings.

Categories

Link building can be broadly categorized into three.

Back linking, also known as incoming links or inbound links. A back link is any link received by a web page by/from another web page. With regard to SEO, back links are a sign of a web page’s popularity. The more the number of back links in your web pages, the better is your search engine ranking.

Deep linking on the other hand means connecting a webpage of a website to the webpage of another website (webpage being other than the homepage) or to a specific image of another website. This basically helps in advertising your webpage on another’s website and thus helps in increasing the popularity of your webpage in turn helping you to achieve better rankings.

Inline linking, which is commonly called direct linking, means to link an object (mostly images) of one website to another website. This also helps in driving more traffic towards your website and ultimately solves our purpose of higher rankings.

Types of linking

One way linking

It refers to a hyperlink in your website pointing towards some other related website, without anything in return. This is considered to be ‘natural’ and it is believed that search engines notice these before anything else. This can be done by distributing your articles on content websites and article directories.

Multi way linking

It refers to link exchange between three or more related or partner websites. However, each link is connected with only one other link leading to only one other website i.e. a one way link.

More on SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Though it comes across as a technical term to all of us (and pretty difficult to understand for the laymen!) but in reality it is a strategy which works on the simple principle of- out of sight, out of mind! Yes, it’s that simple. SEO is the key through which your website can gain better visibility and higher rankings on the internet and specifically on the search engines. Both these things then lead to attracting more traffic and eventually towards more sales, more exposure and obviously an increase in your brand value.

How it works?

SEO is related with natural search results or organic search results and it has got no relation whatsoever with PPC i.e. pay per click advertisements (commonly known as sponsored links). With the help of SEO, the keywords in the text of your web pages are strategically placed in such a way that it becomes easy for the search engine to locate it when a user searches using the same or similar keywords. These keywords are placed in the title, headings, sub-headings and even in the descriptions. SEO is capable of giving you results in about 3-5 months of time. However, using something what we call as Black Hat SEO will reap results even faster. But the strategies used in this method are illegal and can even get your website banned. Thus, today SEO is synonymous is White Hat SEO. Though it’s a challenge, but its fun at the same time.

SEO Strategies

There are various strategies for a successful SEO. But there are some common steps followed by every strategy. Research is the first and the foremost step needed to be undertaken for a successful SEO. You need to find out that choosing which keywords will help you turn things in your favour. You need to keep on experimenting. Research will help you target the right keywords. You can even find out and work upon the areas in which your competitor is scoring over you. This will eventually give you an upper edge.

The next step is to make your webpage visible on the net. You need to promote it in order to make it reach where you want it to- the first page of the search results. SEO copywriting is the most popularly used method for this. Apart from this options like blogging, link building, social media marketing etc. may also be helpful.

But your job doesn’t end here. You need to also constantly monitor its progress. Keeping the track of your progress will show you how much success you have achieved so far and how much more work needs to be done.

Conclusion

Though SEO might just be a bit heavy on your pockets but it is needed to stand out in the crowd of many who offer the same content or services as yours. No doubt it gives you the desired results, but patience, determination and dedication are all required till then and that too in huge amounts. But as they say, everything comes for a price!

How to avoid low rankings in Google!

If you are blaming Google for deliberately not ranking you well, then you are wrong and if you are wondering why your website does not rank well in Google, then think again. The answer is very simple. Google, like any other search engine, wants to earn profits. Today, Google provides more than 75% of all searches and has become one of the most successful search engine, it’s only because it gives its users what they are looking for. It directs its users straight to what they want and this makes them use Google again and again, in turn increasing its profits.

The Key Is Keywords

The key to attain higher rankings in Google is by strategically placing the keywords on your webpage. It’s obvious that no user types a single word to retrieve a certain kind of information. He will definitely be more specific in order to get the desired results and thus shall type in more related words. Thus, you need to build in-bound links to your websites. And these links shall contain the keywords of your webpage. The longer the key words phrase the better it is for you.

The Process

The entire process of being finally able to see your webpage on the first page of the search engine result pages might be a cumbersome task. Like the way you will want your website or webpages to do well, in the similar manner, your competitors will be trying to achieve the same thing. Competition diminishes your chances of going up in the rankings in Google because it’s difficult for Google as well to locate your webpage if the path leading to it not clearly defined. Thus the experts prefer longer key word phrases (may be four or five words) rather than short key word phrases (may be three or four words).

Basically, in order to gain rankings, you will have to try out different keyword phrases and see where Google ranks your webpage. Sometimes Google shall place it at a surprisingly high position and sometimes at a disheartening low rank. This hit and trial method will give you the combination of best keywords that you can use to create the links.

Creating the right links

This task is a challenge in itself. One of the many methods that can be used to create links is article marketing. Though Google does give you that initial push, by placing you on the first result page till one news cycle is completed and during that time new materials are added. But after that you are on your own. Thus, what you need in order to attain higher rankings in Google is sheer investment of dedication, commitment and patience.

Instant Results

Search engines like Google and Yahoo! do offer Pay-per-click advertising models (e.g. Google Adwords and Yahoo search marketing). So if you are really in a hurry to reach right at the top in search results rankings, then choosing one such advertising model might just turn out to be a very good idea!