Digital Media – is destination the over-riding decision?

Your brand needs a digital media presence. That is the new medium. That is what people read, watch, where the new gen consumers hangout these days. If you don’t have a Facebook page and don’t send tweets to your 340 friends or consumers, then you must surely be from another planet. Everyone including my grandfather is on facebook…aren’t you?

Some such spiel by a digital media ‘expert’ typically leads to a flight (I don’t how to get on to this social media space and so I’ll just stand back and watch) or fight (let me find out the most popular social media tool and create a page there) response.

Lately, the utterly butterly delicious Amul decided to get itself a digital media presence and how? Through Second Life!

There was buzz around Second Life a few years ago and predictions how half the world is going to have a second life id by 2019 but then one day the buzz waned. Second Life expected me to download an application once I created an account and buy linden dollars. I wanted to do neither. Besides I didn’t see much sense in creating and avatar and hanging around second life.

It is surprising then that Amul’s foray into digital media ‘to be seen where it mattered’ happened via Second Life. Amul for sure has a digital presence thanks to that, though how it would enhance the brand’s visibility is a question I grapple with.

Its topical witty campaigns are so popular that I have often come across those campaigns do several rounds of my mailbox. And like a good sitcom each time I see them, I enjoy them. Converting these hoardings to virals or creating virals afresh would have been a natural extension of making the brand visible in the digital world. Refreshing their site, bringing it to date, making it more interactive with users would have made a more meaningful connect with people than a presence on Second Life. There is a lot more that can be done with their orkut page and blog which currently only has information on the Amul Vidyashree Awards – nothing more!

Rather than asking yourself WHERE I need to be in the digital media space, what makes sense to me is to ask yourself WHAT I wish to do while I’m there and then work the digital media strategy backwards from that point.

social media brands, Amul, Amul and second life

Lets Face it - is facebook the new buzzword in research circles?

In the past couple of months I have encountered facebook –quite literally - wherever I have turned my face! I have seen it land up in my inbox as invites from friends, pop up in conversations with colleagues, featured on blog posts and finally yesterday I was sent an article on - what sites like face book and myspace mean for research?

In the midst of all this I caught on to the facebook bandwagon just to see what it was all about!

From the little time that I have spent on facebook here is what I’ve observed…

What are people there for?

Small conversations that may not be of any consequence. Things like Wassup with you? Saw ur pics…really liked them or Am off to SL…see you guys in a week.

Grant McCracken has a good post on this – How social networks work . He refers to these as ‘phatic conversations’

This is communication with little hard, informational content, but lots of emotional and social content. Phatic communications doesn't get much said, but it has social effects so powerful, it gets lots done

It seems like a place for dipping in and out rather than immersing oneself deeply. Immersing would involve investment of a lot more energy and time. Perhaps email / IM would be a relatively more immersive style of communication.

My conjecture is – that’s what keeps the regularity of such conversations going and these networks thriving. Dropping in a one-liner on someone’s facebook wall is far less taxing than sitting down to write an email which would warrant some thought, structure and purpose.

So what does it mean for research?

Research has traditionally warranted an immersive approach to conversations. Lengthy & purposeful.

Online research and the use of discussion boards brought some change to this format. That was all about recruiting a panel and having short, non immersive, regular conversations with a set of people. Those were still purposeful conversations

What then is the difference between using a social networking site for research as opposed to using a discussion forum? The way I see it is that participants who are part of a discussion board have been brought there / have come on their own volition - for a specific purpose vis-à-vis people on social networking sites who are already hanging around there.

The difference is also that people at social networking sites are hanging around there and primarily engaging in Phatic conversations – the everyday emotional fillers. The kind of conversations marketers / researchers are likely to have on such platforms would not be quite like that. Even if they are limited to the small non immersive format – they are still going to be purposeful and rational – and therefore not likely to fulfill the need that people are there for.

The closest example I could think of was lunch time conversations that I would have with my female colleagues about inane things, interjected by our boss who’d spoil the party by constantly talking something work related. Even if it was something as small as just throwing up a question – it would be met out with disgusting looks – since that was not the right time and place to talk about such affairs.

What could be the way of tapping into social networking sites?

To start with it would require being sensitive to why people are on that channel. Use it to create that initial contact – open up a channel of communication….perhaps even understanding the way a target group thinks. I would be weary of using the platform literally to conduct research

Your thoughts?

'2.0' phenomenon in the real world

glumbert.com - Supermarket 2.0

I'm sure this video is going to be doing the rounds of blogs for a few more days before we forget it. It was interesting to see the adaptation of the Web 2.0 concept in the real world. Going beyond the humor...many of those situations are workable

User comments on products...we see this happening in book stores where people who have read certain books, leave behind their comments for others to see.

Refreshing names for product variants...specially for low involvement products - 'quality time', 'tickling', 'better audio' - definitely catches more attention for ear buds than labelling those by size / softness

'Most popular' lists for a category ...reminds me of conversations i have overheard at the supermarket - people standing in the same aisle...looking at the same product category consult each other with suggestions on which brand to buy. Putting up a list of the fastest moving product variants / brands - could aid undecided shoppers zero-in on their purchase.

Predictive shopping...if you are buying Olive oil and pasta sauce - then you surely may be in need of dried pasta or oregano. Reminder tags placed where these products are stocked or pop up messages at the self service check outs is not too distant a possibility

RSS feeds from producers :)...this is already underway in a small way. I get a newsletter from 'Innocent' that tells me (amongst other things) - the new product variants that are on offer or are being planned.

Consumers who spend a great deal of time online and are already familiar with these concepts - would welcome seeing them in a 'real world' environment. For others - many of these ideas if implemented would mean an important step taken by a retailer to cut down the time and energy wasted on decision making in a cluttered environment.

I am going to mull on this for while...meanwhile if you have any thoughts on more adaptations of the 2.0 concept in the real world ...drop in a line.

supermarket 2.0, Web 2.0

Why we blog?

That's the latest meme doing the rounds. Even before Laurence tagged me - I was surreptitiously following this thread since it offers insights on what movtivates people about blogs in particular and social media in general. I have not been able to spend as much time on it as I would have liked to but will share what i read and felt. But first - to do justice to the meme - let me put down my reasons.

There was just one prime reason I started blogging and that was

• Driven by the craving for intellectual stimulation - since in the real world I seldom encountered people wanting to exchanges thoughts and ideas - especially on subjects that interests me. Blogs fill this gap since people who are interested in 'what' i write about naturally gravitate towards my blog like I do towards theirs.

What keeps me going are ofcourse different things

• The desire to learn about - the evolving social medium and the more time I spend on blogs and other social media sites, the more I understand the way they function. Much more than what I would have ever accomplished as an outsider.

If there was one thing I had to say to any corporate entity wanting to make a presence on this medium - I'd say - get your hands dirty - do the thing that we individuals do. Approach social media sites as an individual first and a corporate entity only later - and you'll begin to appreciate the medium and its workings far more quicky

• My other reason is - I use this blog first as a motivation to keep analysing what i think and read & then as a place to dump all those thoughts - so that I can clear the space in my mind for some more thoughts
  

Now for what I gathered from reading other posts in this thread.
Motivations were clustered around the following themes

Create - differentiate, stand out, self expression, learn new ideas, realise unfulfilled dreams
Connect - build relationships, create a space where people can find me, know what is happening in people's life
Recognition -expert in own area, instant reactions, assertion of self-worth, get noticed & at the highest level the feeling of having one's thoughts immortalised
Reward - through relationships, through barter of services, create weath out of virtually nothing but knowledge, neutrality of the net - if my nextdoor kid can make money so can I

Clearly it is an individual's 'personal space' - where he is the centre of the little universe he has created. Personal also in another sense - since people use it to connect as much with themselves as with the outside world.

Corporates wanting to enter this space created by inviduals, need to respect that. Here the consumer / individual is and feels like a hero - and brands that do not recognise that have been faced with and will continue to face backlash - and a highly viral and visible one at that !

Tagging - a few blogsI have been reading off late : Comfortable Disorientation, Indian Ad Rant,
Tissue Issues & The Viral Garden - take it up if you are upto it

And before I go, posting will be highly infrequent in the next 2 - 3 weeks !




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