Mr. Arun Nair shattered commonly believed myths about Social Media. The biggest myth is that Social Media and financial gains are like chalk and cheese. However, we must realise that today purchases are influenced by what people say to each other in real time. Social Media is a catalyst for change. It enhances the Return on Investment (ROI) by increasing influence and engagement with the customer. It compliments and magnifies the impact of conventional advertisement campaigns. Social Media leads to more sales, increased brand recall at reduced costs.
The second prevalent myth is, ‘Social Media is just about conversations, word of mouth and advocacy. How do you measure that?’ The impact of Social Media is measurable, but with the right metrics. Moreover, it benefits the organization more than just boosting sales. To take maximum advantage of the Media, one must be clear about one’s objectives. Expectations must be set accordingly and the right metrics should be used to quantify impact and ROI. The right metrics include the number of people that join a discussion group, the reduction in support costs, the number of new customers and importantly – the number of influential people who mention something about one’s organization via tweets, blogs etc.
It is important to use the right tools to analyse the impact of Social Media. Tools like Google Analytics, Twitter Grader, Twitter Search, Technorati and Klout are widely available. Bit.ly quantifies the number of clicks a particular web page receives. Alexa ranks the website, indicating how successful a website is.
Mr. Nair gave examples of various organizations that have used Social Media successfully. While Intel wanted to turn customers into fans, Dell wanted to improve its image and Stanford University wanted to increase alumni and student affinity. The tactics used varied from recruiting prominent bloggers, directly responding to all mentions of the organizations on Blogs, Twitter etc. The benefits achieved were immense in terms of good suggestions received, increase in sales and reduction in advertising expenditure.
He also showed a video on Social Media ROI – SOCIALNOMICS which described the unbelievable financial impact of Social Media. It is a media which enables us to reach the maximum audience with absolutely zero expenditure! It has immense possibilities and exciting opportunities for growth. The future belongs to organizations that can exploit this potential of Social Media.
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