Social Media Listening

During the last  lecture I heard some interesting word in Mr.Lalith session and it was "Social Media Listening".So I wished to write up an article on my blog about this new concept.This concept was arrived with the presence of social media marketing platform.

Sometimes the social media listening is known as social media monitoring.Basically it is about the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company,individual,product or brand on the Internet.Now a days controlling the customer behavior within the internet becomes more difficult for brands.Because if there's a negative feedback about the brand is going on the internet it can severely affect to the brand image in a viral manner.The reason for that is the internet is out of control of brands.Therefore social media listening is very important.

Conversations on the Internet produce massive amounts of unstructured data.Therefore we need to handle them carefully while monitoring those reviews of the posts of social media.These days social media listening is quickly becoming an important customer intelligence tool and it helps to build customer relationship management .There are several ways to use social media to gain insight,including monitoring online customer support forums,using software tools to gather comments from social outlets such as Facebook and Twitter and encouraging customers to suggest new product features and vote on their favorites.

There are 3 steps to get actionable insights through social media listening.They are collect,process and analyze.In collection process it collects information from social media platforms and channels.Then in the process the events assigned to social graph categorization. Finally analyze mention volume and importance of demographics and timing sentiment and emotion.

Social media listening provides market knowledge and intelligence.Because social media is the place where your customers,partners,competitors and staff meet online.Therefore you can use those insights to make strategic decisions and market campaign tracking.

There are lot of tools to use in social listening.Some of them are following;

Social Mention:A real time social media platform that aggregates user generated content from twitter,facebook,youtube,digg,gogle etc. into a single stream.

Hoot suite:A social media management system that enables teams to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one dash board.This includes audience identification tools,the ability to steamline work flow,and custom reports.

Marketing Cloud:An automated solution that enables you to monitor and analyze blogs,forums,wikis,and micro blogging sites to track the real time conversation about your brand.

Tweet feel:It computes sentiment for any given keywords using tweets.A good tool for a quick read on what people think about your brand or specific product.This includes negative and positive tweets.

I think now you have some understanding about social listening.It will help us to build our brand with good reputation with out any consequences.

Cheers,
Isuru

How FMCG Brands can reach to the right target markets using Google Display Network

This week my blog post is about How FMCG Brands can reach to the right target markets using Google Display Network?it is very important topic in now a days because most of the consumers and businesses are  more engaged in online.

Basically Google Display Network provides opportunity for paid search advertising and display media advertising.So these two mediums can be used by FMCG Brands to do the advertising.The main difference between these two mediums is cost structure.Display media is usually bought on a cost-per-thousand(CPM) basis,meaning the advertiser pays each time 1000 impressions are served.Thus,each advertiser's display media impression must be valuable placement.In Cost Per Click advertising the advertiser only pays when their ad is clicked on.

Now a days targeting is critical for FMCG Brands to reach the right audience at the right time in digital advertising,the implications of highly specific targeting are usually more essential for display media to ensure that impressions are not lost on an extraneous audience. However, all targeting options in the GDN are available for purchase on a CPM or CPC basis for  both text and display ads,depending on the advertiser's goals.

The FMCG Brands can do different types of targeting using Google Display Network and they are as follows;

Contextual Targeting-Selecting specific keywords and/or topics where the advertiser would like an ad to appear.Contextual targeting is done on the page level,not the site level for maximum relevancy.

Keyword Contextual Targeting-FMCG Brands can select certain keywords that are relevant to them,and bid to appear alongside this content.This ad may appear on any site across the GDN where there are those keywords on the page.The scale of this method of advertising could be very large,depending on the keywords that are being targeted.It is usually recommended to layer this type of targeting with another method to increase relevancy and minimize waste.

Topic Contextual Targeting-They can select certain topics that are relevant to them,and bid for their ad to appear on pages of these sites.This ad may appear on sites across the GDN that are categorized under that topic.This method is very broad-reaching as well,and is usually recommended in combination with another targeting method for an advertiser interested in reaching a specific audience.

Placement Targeting-Under this targeting they can select certain sites and/or sections of sites that are relevant to them,and bid for their ad to appear on pages of these sites.These sites can be selected by the advertiser using Google Tools such as Ad Planner,which uses Neilson data to index sites in the GDN based on:

• Demographics(Household Income,Age,Gender,Education)
• Online Activity(Other sites Your Audience Visits,Keywords Your Audience searches For)
• Interest Categories(Foods and beverages,women's interests. 

Behavior Targeting-They can select certain topics that are relevant to them,and bid for their ad to appear across the GDN to users who match those interests.This method can be used to reach a large audience as well as a more targeted,niche audience.A user's interests are either declared interests(through the Ad Preferences Manager),or are inferred based on their browsing behavior,specifically their recent and frequent site visits.This method of targeting is usually used for broad-reaching awareness campaigns or advertisers that seek site visitors that abandoned part of an intent funnel.

Inferred Demographic Targeting- This can be done using the registration information of you tube and other undisclosed sites in the internet.This helps to target the specific audience that advertisers want to target.

Below is an example of an how  FMCG Brands can use a Google tool,Ad Preferences Manager,to target select audiences.

Hope you got some idea about how FMCG brands can use Google Display Network to reach their target audience.

Cheers,

Isuru.

Why We need Google Plus ?

This week we are allowed to write a blog post about whatever the topic we would like to express our idea.Therefore I decided to choose some topic that we learnt in last week lecture.So it's" Google Plus".
Google plus is one of the social media platforms which becomes famous in day by day.

According to Mr.Rohan explanation it is bit like Face Book.But it's not exactly same as the face book.Google plus is a social network where we can share our similarities such as updating status on our profile and our friends can view them on their home page.Google Plus calls our friends and followers as circles.

Google Plus gives you a great opportunity to write about your interests and wants on your profile.If you have any other social media profiles,from Facebook,to Instagram and Pinterest,you must add them to the links section of your Google+ profile as well.

You can find people to add to your circles pretty easily based on your interest with Google's search feature.Like Twitter,the odds are in your favor that if you add them to your Google+ circle,they will follow your account back.Doing so can increase your odds of exposure when you start sharing your content with the world!

Similar to Facebook's "like",Google has"+1" votes.The more +1's your pages and posts the better.Those social signal votes,let Google know that what you're sharing is being read and shared.Google+ profiles and pages can have a significant impact on search rankings.

Based on your google plus account the google will give you a personalized search results and it will be a added advantage on you  to build  your personality among your friends also.Google+ provides you the accessibility for all the products of google such as Reviews,Maps,Chrome,Ads,Hangouts Reviews,Youtube,Drive,Calender and Wallet.

According to my perspective by having Google+ profile will leads you to be a unique person within the social media platform.

Cheers,
Isuru

Twitter as a customer service tool

This week I'm going to talk about Twitter as a customer service tool.I'm totally new to twitter network and I didn't much aware about the twitter up to last week lecture.Therefore I would like to give you a brief idea about what is Twitter?

According to WIKIPEDIA,Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters,known as "tweets".But most of the people are not using the Twitter effectively because of the lack of knowledge.In other hand there are lot of advantages in Twitter as a customer service tool.According to scholars Customer service tool can be defined as a tool to build customer loyalty and passionate customer loyalty.Therefore businesses can use Twitter to give their customers a better service.As a business body it is mainly  focus on building brand awareness.So a dedicated customer service twitter handle diverts customer service issues away from a primary Twitter feed,while also providing a very public way to interact with their customer base.

Through friendly tweets about the company we can enhance our brand image.Other than that we can use it as a effective way to response for the customer complaints.Cost reduction also another important advantage of the twitter because it can reduce customer service time,which can save money.On the phone,a chatty or angry customer will relate his life story before getting the point.Twitter interactions are so limited that they must get right to the point.Not only that but also it helps to build followers who are interested in our brand.


Now I'm going explain you how does Twitter acts as a customer service tool.Because of the following characteristics we can identified  Twitter as a customer service tool.

• It's able to give speedy reply.

In twitter we can get a speedy reply every issue which placed in the twitter.The people are engaged with the twitter within the 24 hrs.Because tweets can be appeared as a text message also.So compared other social media twitter has the speed.

• It's personal than other media platforms

The other important benefit is the ability to interact with customers on a personal level.This improves trust in the brand and shows the customer that the company is going beyond the call of duty to solve their problem.It makes every effort to replicate face to face interaction.

• Engagement

Twitter works as a platform for meeting customer expectations and dealing with queries and problems.It is growing in demand and popularity as the relationships between brands and customers becomes more conversational.Trough the use of interesting content,the brand is able to interact with new sectors of its audience,creating new customers through this engagement.

Now I think you have better understanding about the twitter as a customer service tool.

cheers,

Isuru

Analysis of current social media presence of Zesta

This week my blog post is about the analysis of  current social media presence of Zesta.In today's context "Social Media Marketing" performs a great role to increase our brand awareness within the target audiance.
The most of the companies have successive stories by using the social media marketing properly and effectively.Therefore it is more important to have a better understanding about social media marketing before we carried out our marketing campaign using the social media. If we don't use it carefuly it is going to damage our brand severely.Social media marketing is not about pushing your advertisements on Facebook and Youtube.It is a broader concept than that.

There is a methodology to do the social media planning and it is called as social media planning framework.It consists with the steps such as listen,analyze,set goals,engage and amplify.This framework can be used to find the insights about our brand.The most important step of this process is the analysis,because the analysis part helps us to plan our social media campaigns by creating a edge among the competitors.So there's a tool called "Social Media Brand Health Check" to analyze current social media presence.

I have done an analysis using this tool for Zesta and it's a leading brand in food and beverages sector in Sri Lanka.Lipton Ceylonta is a direct competitor for Zesta and it seems  they are tiger competitors because they are operating in the same market with similar price ranges.Fadna is an another competitor but it's not stronger as Lipton Ceylonta.I choosed Dilmah as the benchmark brand which is performed very well in the tea market.

According to my analysis I have got 61% as social health media score and it is a comparatively a successful brand in social media.But it needs to improve in few areas and I have evaluated those areas as follows,

Reach

1.Facebook fan count
Zesta has powerful fan base on Facebook compared to Lipton Ceylonta and Fadna.But it is lagged behind compared to Dilmah.So I'm not fully satisfied with it.

2.Twitter follower count
 Currently Zesta teas,Ceylonta,Fadna and Dilmah are not currently engaged with twitter.Therefore it's needed to improve area condering tea market.Any way I'm neutral about this critiria because Zesta needs to improve and in the same time their competitors also not engaged with it up to now.So it's not a big issue.

3.Youtube channel views
Zesta is having huge gap with ceylonta and Fadna  when it comes to youtube views.Up to now Zesta deserves it in their competitive market.So it's a competitive advantage for them.But Dilmah is always performing better as our benchmark company and it has 4776 views.

4.Number of other social networks the brand is active on.
Zesta and it's competitors don't associate with other social networks other than those networks.Even Dilmah doesn't.So that also a another area to improve.

Quality of audiance

1.% of Local Fans in Facebook
Zesta and other companies are not in the social bakers network.As a leading companies it's a weakness of this industry.So Zesta needs to register in social bakers to get a competitive advantage.

2.% of good followers in Twitter
Zesta and its competitors are not in the twitter.so those companies don't have edge of it.But through twitter we can increase our online branding because most of the customers are now in to twitter.So it's better to focus on this area too.

Engagement goals

1.Facebook PTA as a % of Total Fans
Ceylonta is over take the Zesta when it comes to PTA.Therefore Zesta needs to give their attention to improve it by sharing interesting things in their social media networks specialy in Fb.

2.KLOUT Score for the Brand
Dilmah is the only brand which is engaged in KLOUT.So Zesta needs to be a influencer in KLOUT.

Share voice

1.No of relevant results for a brand search on Google Blog Search (within top 20 links)
Zesta is successful when it comes to google blog research.It's an advantage.But Ceylonta is a brand which is used in globe than Zesta.

2.No of @Mentions during last 48 Hours
Zesta doesn't have any updates because it doesn't have twitter account.so it needs to improve.

Sentiment

1.% of 'Negative Sentiments' in brand mentions
There's no any bad sentiments in brand mentions.According to my research the other brands also not have any negative comments.So the company can fully satisfied with it.But they should need to maintain their standards in social media properly by avoiding posting any negative comments in future.

Keyword Research and PPC Advertising

This time my blog post about "Keyword research and PPC advertising".First of all I would like to give you an introduction about "Keyword research".Keyword research is one of the most important,valuable,and high return activities in the search marketing field.Ranking for the "right"keywords can make or break your website.It's not always about getting visitors to your site,but about getting the right kind of visitors.These days the business environment is very competitive.Therfore to gain competitive advantage within the competitors key word research performs important role in today's context.

Google's AdWords Keyword tool is a common starting point for SEO keyword research.It not only suggests keywords and provides estimated search volume,but also predicts the cost of running paid campaigns for these terms.I have done key word research for Fast Food Restaurants in Sri Lanka using Google Adwords tool and I followed following steps to get the results.

As seen in previous picture I gave above instructions and got following results.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

             

These results are very helpful when we  are creating PPC advertising in Google.According to the results the competition for fast food restaurants in Sri Lanka is low.So the fast food restaurant businesses can take those information when they make google ads.

After key word research I'm going to breifly describe about the advantages of pay per click advertising.This advertising helps to increase the number of qualified visitors to your website.This advertising campaign can set up with ease and it can generate results almost immediately.The other benefit is PPC advertising costs relate to the number of visitors your site receives,not the number of times that your ad is shown.Therefore it is a cost effective method compared to other methods of advertising.Not only that but also it will help to build your brand awareness within your target audiance too.

In addition to that pay pe click advertising helps to target your market in a specific way.It matches ads with what user want.If someone searches for"fast food restaurants in Sri lanka"on Google,the pay per click company displays ads related to the query.This means that those who will see your ads,are people already interested in fast food outlets in Sri Lanka.Hope now you have some idea about Keyword research and PPC advertising.

Cheers,

Isuru

              

         

       

Great experience of a remarkable lecture

Hi Every One,
Last Wednesday lecture was my first experience on web based lectures.Therefore it was an interesting session for me.Wed based lecture is a new trend in lecturing across the world and I think as a batch we all are very lucky to experience this upcoming trend.

Through web based lectures we have opportunity to communicate with the expertise who are specialized in different areas around the globe.In last week it was proved by Mr.Suranga who was a product of our department who lives in Australia.He shared his personal experience in Search Engine Optimization and his vast knowledge in this area in a very interactive manner using internet as a medium.It was helped us a lot to gain new knowledge about digital marketing under the topic of Search Engine Optimization.

Within this session we were able to follow the presentation slides while we were  listening to his lecture which is very useful to us as students.At that time I was wondering about the digital education. Finally we were able to ask questions through the face book.As a result of that it became an interactive session for us. This lecture provided us the same level of effectiveness as the traditional lecture.As the young community we all are engaged with internet in day today activities.So we all have the basic idea about what is happening in the world.Therefore these type of lectures are provided us the opportunity to experience it practically.

In addition to that this provides us to improve our practical and technical skills regarding our information technology literacy.The education system which is connected with web 2.0 helps students to become self directed and independent individuals.As a student I was fully satisfied with the last week web based lecture and I got lot of new learning's through his expertise knowledge. Hope we'll have opportunity to experience E-learning in future too.Last lecture was remarked as successful lecture and it was a memorable day for all of us as a Department Of Marketing Management Of University Of Sri Jayewardenepua, According to my perspective I think these lecture series will be enjoyable,meaningful and effective for us as students.

At the end of my post I would like to convey my special gratitude to our department,Mr.Amitha and Mr.suranga for giving us this valuable opportunity.

  

Analysis of BOC website usability

Bank Of Ceylon is one of the leading commercial banks in Sri Lanka.It is a reputed government bank and it was awarded as the no 1 brand in Sri Lanka-Brand finance.Now a days banking industry is becoming more competitive.Therefore to have a competitive edge I think  the website usability is more important because most of the people are interested in online banking.
Now I'm going to apply 25 point website usability checklist to the BOC website.

http://web.boc.lk/

Accessability

1. site load- time is reasonable. 

        BOC site load time is reasonable.It takes less than 10 seconds.

    2.Adequate text-to-background contrast

      We can clearly see the black text in the white background.Website is consisting with contrasting colors such as  black,yellow and white.

    3. Fontsize/spacing is easy to read
  It has enough space between headings and subheadings.But I think it will be better if it has little big font size than existing one.

    4.Flash&add‐ons are used sparingly
    It has used flash and add-ons in its header.

 
   5.Images have appropriate ALT tags
     The web site is consisting with images which have appropriate tag lines.When we click on the images it provide us description of that image.

   6. Site has customnot‐found/404 page
    Site doesn't have customized page.Therefore it's a drawback of the site.

Identity

7. Company logo is prominently placed
  Company logo is properly placed in a identifiable manner.It is an eye catching logo.

8. Tagline makes company’s purpose clear
Its tagline gives the clear idea about the company activities.It includes current promotions and advertising.

9.Home‐page is digestible in 5 seconds
It takes less than 5 seconds.

10. Clear path to company information
company has clear path to information with a tag line of about in the top ribbon right corner.

11. Clear path to contact information
It has clear path to contact information with a tag line of contact in the top ribbon in the right corner.


Navigation

12. Main navigation is easily identifiable
There are two main tabs.One tab is included About,Network,Download,Community and Contact.It is placed in the right corner of the top of the page.In the middle of the page there is a another tab which has different labels such as personal,development assistant, global research,investment and corporate.

13.Navigation labels are clear&concise
Those tabs are clear but they are not placing in a attractive manner.

14.Number of buttons/link is reasonable
It has reasonable number of buttons and links.

15. Company logo is linked to home‐page
when we click on the BOC logo,It is directly linked to the home-page.

16. Links are consistent&easy to identify
There are so many links to each category.As a example under personal category there are links such as current accounts,savings accounts,loans and etc.

17. Site search is easy to access 
 Yes of course.Its site search is easy to access.

Content

18. Major headings are clear & descriptive
The main tabs are in grey color block letters in white background.It can identify clearly but it will be better if it has a dark color letters than grey.It doesn't take the attention immediately.

19. Critical content is above the “fold”

It has 3 critical contents in the header and they are changing advertisements.It gives the information about their current promotions such as MEGA WASI,discounts on their debit cards and their achievement as a no.1 brand.

20. Styles&colors are consistent  
Overall it has good color combination and proper design.This color combination looks professional.

21. Emphasis(bold, etc.) is used sparingly
Main tabs are bold to get the attention of their clients.Under those headings there are bold sub headings too.

22. Ads&pop‐ups are unobtrusive
BOC is advertising their critical contents in the header as pop-ups

23. Main copy is concise & explanatory
The main copy is all about what their clients wants such as online banking,rates and ATM locator.Therefore it is convenient to their clients.

24.URLs are meaningful & user‐friendly 
The URL is also name of the company web.boc.lk

25.HTML page titles are explanatory

It doesn't explain the job title in html page.html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<head>

According to my perspective I think BOC web site is an user-friendly web site.Through this analysis I have recognized some  drawbacks and those drawbacks don't create major issues to their clients.But any how if they are trying to improve those areas it will become a more attractive and more user friendly web site.

cheers,
Isuru

The Digital Marketing Revolution.Is Srilanka ready???

Hi Every one,

       Hope you got some an idea about Digital Marketing from my previous blog post.This is going

to be my second post and it's all about digital marketing revolution in srilankan context.

First I'm going to write some thing about Digital Marketing Revolution.Under this concept the new 

technology integrates with old technolgy. Currently more consumers are online because of the

interaction of technology and social media.Every one can access to internet whenever wants.Digital

Marketing becomes more powerful in marketing context because  the no of people  interact with digital media are  increasing day by day.

Digital marketing campaigns are becoming more effective because they are more in to 

conversations with their clients such as online chatting,forums,emails,blogs,social net working and video

conferencing.  Now a days digital marketing is giving valuable insights for companies by tracking their customers mind.Normally customers are more engaged with social media and they are willing to share about their experiences about their brands,products and services through social media.Sometimes those things are become popular within  all over the world and gain huge success. I think Digital Marketing can achieve great success in  Srilanka too.  

According to my observation srilankan consumers are became a quiet modernized consumers after 1977.

In general most of srilankan consumers are looking for "value for Money".In addition to that they are 

very much concern about  social factors such as family and friends.Specially What others think and do are

 powerful factors in Srilankan context. Age,income and occupation are also identified as other influencing factors.Sri lankans are becoming more and more western oriented in their lifestyle specially in urban areas.

Hence,lifestyle is also influencing factor accross product categories,such as food,beverage,clothing,footwear and entertainment.They are not laid back as past decades and they are more in to social media.The internet 

users in Srilanka is 3 million .Most of the time they are gathering information  and knowledge.Therefore   it's a good sign for digital marketing and marketers as well. Sri lankans are interesting about conversations and what others do.So those things are happening within the Digital marketing.In addition to that they like to update with the globe.Therfore I can conclude that Sri Lanka is Ready for digital marketing revolution.

Think Digital-Go Digital

Hi,
This is going to be my first blog post in my new blog.So I think to share with you about digital marketing.
Digital Marketing is the new era of marketing.Now a days all the people are interested in join-up with digital.
Therefore it can be identified as a up coming new trend in marketing phenomena.

According to wikipedia definition digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices computers,tablets,smart phones,cell phones,digital billboards and game consoles to engage with customers and other business partners.Internet marketing is the major component in digital marketing.In addition to that
it is a marketing process which leads to development of any organization or brand by using different digital channels such as e-mails and social media.

Mainly there are two different forms of digital marketing.They are pull digital marketing and push digital marketing.Pull digital marketing means the consumer actively seeks the marketing content often via web searchers or opening emails,texts or web feed.Push digital marketing means the marketer sends the message
through emails,texts and other social media.This is called as Spam.

The main advantage of digital marketing is when we are running a digital marketing campaign we can see
real time how that campaign is performing,such as what is being viewed,how often,how long,as well as other actions such as responses rates and purchases made.Digital marketing is constantly evolving and  new technologies are being created all of the time.

According to my perspective in future we can expect that businesses will experience growing complexity in managing and measuring an emergence of multiple channels and technologies.To adapt,marketing will become more integrated in bound and real time.In the end marketing will grow in to profit center rather than a cost center.

Hope you get something new from my blog article and don't forget to leave a comment.

cheers,
Isuru