Making business'social'

When one thinks of leveraging the power of digital for delivering customer experience, there is this famous example of what McDonald's did in Singapore using near-field-technology (NFC). Generally, McDonald's outlets worldwide have a play area for children, but in Singapore, providing this has been a problem due to expensive real estate. In order to replicate the play-time experience for children, McDonald's attached NFC under each table, so that when a mobile phone is placed on the table, a game loads up and the table becomes a playground for the game, keeping children engaged.

Clearly, digital technology has to be an enabler, and not just one more communication channel. This is one of the ten insights released in the 'Social Media Mega Trends 2015' report instituted by digital agency Social Wavelength. The report also reveals that hyper-personalisation is the key to unlocking digital media's potential, where brands need to be able to identify the consumer at various digital touch points (point-of-purchase, email, social network, mobile etc) and should be able to dish out hyper-personalised communication based on a thin slicing of data.

Often, people question whether social media gives a fruitful return on investment, but marketers need to think beyond usual plans on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, according to the report. "If you are in the hotels business and don't have good reviews on TripAdvisor or Hotels.com, you may as well shut your business," says Hareesh Tibrewala, joint CEO, Social Wavelength. Therefore, the power of social media is the ability of consumers to be guided by other consumers in their purchasing decision, irrespective of brand messaging.

Needless to say, data analytics should be the eyes and ears of a social media campaign. The CMOs and CTOs now need to start working closely with one another, more than ever before, as more IT investments will now happen in the area of marketing communication. Interestingly, the report states that social currency is more important than a consumer's spending power on a brand. This means that even if a consumer is not a very big spender with the brand, but has a large following on Twitter or Facebook, the brand needs to provide the same level of service to this consumer as it would otherwise provide to a high spender. This is against the old grain where a brand focused only on the spending power of a consumer.

However, the report also spins this theory on its head with another nugget: brand advocates are better than social media influencers. "People who are in love with a brand will go all out to defend it. Who can defend or advocate a brand better than those who regularly use it?" says Tibrewala. This is akin to going by word-of-mouth versus a paid celebrity endorsement, if one is to draw an analogy with traditional marketing. In that sense, brands need to focus on finding social advocates among its consumers and build programmes (like loyalty programmes) where advocates are rewarded for using their social currency on a brand.

Employees need to be socially enabled too, and businesses have to learn to let go of control, if the full benefits of social media marketing are to be achieved. Companies need to frame social media communication guidelines, train employees on the dos and don'ts of social media, and encourage them to use social communication channels.

Mass communication thrived on categorising the consumer, based on demographics. But digital media allows greater scope for psychographic profiling. As far as social media is concerned, the traditional SEC A, SEC A+ type profiling is irrelevant. Understanding consumer behaviour not based on their materialistic possessions but based on their likes and interests, is the new cool on digital media. Lastly, businesses need to let go of social media as a part of marketing and refocus the entire business' foundation as one that is social. A sharp social media focus is crucial because power has shifted from head offices to the hands of consumers - a trend which has, in recent times, proven to have an instantaneous, substantial backlash on brands.