4 Social Basics for Business

Here are four basics in social media that businesses both large and small should always revisit.

Twitter conversations ‘behind your back’

The ‘backchannel’ generates stupendous interest from Twitterati. Even as CEOs and marketing VPs delivered presentations in lofty air-conditioned halls, and on-road advertising campaigns ran in full swing, simultaneous Twitter conversations on these events/presentations/launches (‘backchannels’) took this social media platform by storm. In essence, the backchannel conversations were aiding publicity and marketing. And of course, marketing teams jumped on the bandwagon, using Hashtags and forming dedicated Twitter teams to initiate and encourage discussions. Lesson to learn? Leverage the Twitter backchannel to create excitement and awareness about your brand.

Viral ads and the trend towards greater visualization

Instagram and Pinterest made a huge impact in 2012, pointing to the growing trend of greater visualization in social media platforms. Content, of course, continued playing an important role in social media campaigns and the demand for writing services did not abate. But the emphasis was also on a ‘lot of watching’. Attention-grabbing and even bordering on controversial, quite a few ads posted by businesses on YouTube went viral. Oreo’s ad was just one of the handful, and was extensively shared on Facebook and other sites.

Memes added creativity and fun

Memes add to the entertainment factor of social media marketing. They make businesses appear less stiff and more personable. Once again, in line with the trend towards greater visualization, memes manifested themselves into pictures and videos. Virgin Media’s ‘Success Kid’ and Hyundai’s ‘Pomplamoose’ were just two of the many much-talked about memes that the young, Twitter-friendly crowd whole-heartedly enjoyed and embraced.

Marketers leverage the added customization options offered by social media sites

LinkedIn’s gift to member businesses in 2012 was more flexibility to add images and greater control over the how corporate images could be presented. If you don’t already have a LinkedIn page or you overlooked this new custom option, think about how best you can reach out to customers or businesses in your niche with more compelling images. Facebook also added newsfeed updates that enabled marketers to leverage ‘targeted updates’ to engage users based on location and the industries they follow.