Yes, ordinary consumers have also become the media now, they are constantly being published in the social media domain!! But now consumers are getting more and more privacy concerned, as they are feeling jittery about their identity, opinion coming into the public forum which is subsequently being tracked and used for reasons not necessarily intended. Recent studies show significant number of internet users is resorting to the privacy tools, ad blocking plug ins. Trends show a significant increase in popularity of anonymous social media sites like Whisper and Secret, Post Secret, Yik Yak. These sites allow the users to anonymously share messages publicly.

Thus with the internet users privacy concerns increasing, you need to now try and formulate strategies to reach out and advertise to these publicity weary consumers.These anonymous social consumers are posing new challenge in the social media marketing scenario. The users use a wide range of networks and produce data that are difficult to track. Added to this they can operate from specific new media platforms which can exclude most of the advertisement.

You will now need to wisely think of campaigns where you need not track your consumer’s data and reach out anonymously to your social customers. To combat this new challenge you will need to rethink and relearn the advertising approach of new media and may have to rely on the traditional way of reaching out to both identified and anonymous customers.

Come on, let’s talk ‘ROI’!!!! The most sought after phrase in business and hence a catchphrase even in the extended new market media.

The new medium of connecting and communicating has given an immense possibility to get creative, quirky and even risky with your campaigns. Undeniably, the increasing number of thumbs up and the head counts following you are extremely promising. But unfortunately, the success in this new media marketing is not limited to mere thumbs up and followers. You need to calculate your conversions. But again, conversion may give you a number but will not define your brand. Your brand is an innate self of your organization, a reflection of your thought processes.

Along with innovative ways to build a brand, social media has developed sophisticated ways to measure your returns scrupulously and successfully. Now, the crucial question is can you really gauge the effectiveness of marketing just by your ROI. Surprisingly the answer is No!

Let us delve a bit into this, what does ROI tell you? It tells you, whether your investments are achieving satisfactory returns. It gives a number but the return that you are looking at cannot be limited to a mere number. The emotional connect you build with your customers (both existing and prospective), the awareness of your brand, the perception of your brand in the market matrix are all part of your return. You need to educate your customer about your brand and it’s unique property. You need to tell them your story with passion and originality.

Hence, ROI cannot be a substitution for understanding how your marketing brain works to reach your business objectives. And neither can it replace of your creative thinking nor knack for continuous innovation.

And remember social media is complex, has too many screens and varying variables. Your success starts with a meticulous plan. You need a well-thought strategy which very importantly ropes in the intangible emotions to make an impact. Yes, it needs to be based on your ROI metrics. It is a technique, which you need to arrive at a solution.

And now when you have made your brands smart, sharp, stylish and savvy and adapted the new media with ingenuity and creativity. Walk a step ahead; empathize with your target customers. Dwell on critical decisions like whom to connect, where to connect and how to connect. An intelligent and thoughtful business plan is much above and beyond your beloved business buzz word “ROI”.

Identity, a relatively contemporary concept, has emerged essential and precedes brand image and positioning now. In today’s saturated and cluttered communication era, we need to define (Identity) the brand much before it gets perceived (image) by the target audience. Today’s scenario is much more complex than what it was a decade back.

To understand this, let’s try and decode. Your identity card succinctly tells who you are. This is extremely subjective and non transferable. Thus brand identity is the distinguishable features that help audience to instantly recognize the brand. In the perspective of communication, it is the unique essence of the brand that is sent out to the audience, and it remains the same across all its products\services\communication. With the tangible and intangible characteristics of the brand, it gets its heritage.  This heritage then should be thoughtfully curated to create value in the matrix of the cluttered market.

Position of your brand in this cluttered market, plagued with several me too s, is an uphill task.  You need to position your brand based on the 4 pertinent questions:

• For what
• For whom
• For when
• Against whom

All customer decisions are based on comparisons. With reviews and opinions all over different media (old and new), the present scenario poses a much greater challenge, hence a well strategized positioning (with right media mix) with prudence and precision is need of the hour!

Gone are the days, when you had only Face book and Twitter to create a social connection with your clients and prospective customers. The fleet-footed evolution of the social media provides you with a myriad of platforms aka screens to make ‘out of the box’ campaigns! Indeed an exciting time for the marketers.

Now, this calls into question, does this ‘many screen’ scenario make your life any easier? Dwell on this: you have a compelling story, your research analytics prompt you the perfect prospective platforms, you have carefully crafted creative content yet you don’t make any impact!!

Why???

There is an interesting biological angle in the whole story! The prominence of social media with too many screens and options has rewired our brain. Studies say that average human attention span is decreasing; however, our multi-tasking ability has increased. Hence, while waiting for an elevator in a mall, airport or a super store you no more get engrossed in the innovative, engaging interactive display of the digital OOH, you are either answering to mails you intend to or inattentively scrolling down your inbox, ignoring various painstakenly drafted shout out mails by various companies or you are simply in a chat in the constantly live Whatsapp. So what happens to those thoughtfully created content and well-sketched business plan.

The omnipresent social media never goes on a vacation!!!! And the social media marketing evangelist tells you “always be present in the social media space”, this puts you under a perpetual pressure. However, in this high-tech era, we have our marketing automation tools. Viola!! The repetitive, energy-consuming tasks are taken care of .You have powerful programs customized for your target population all round the clock. You save money and time. What more do you want?

But, social Media, as the name suggest, is social, humane, it is unique in the way it connects and engages. The beauty lies in its two-way communication. You interact with your target audience. A continuous flow of emotion less robotic content can alienate you from your target community. And hence sadly, your carefully crafted contents are finally sent to the spam folders. A spam bot is what you position yourself as, in this highly competitive and cluttered market space.

Social media marketing is a skill which you acquire through experience. The cut and try, hit and miss cases give you the seasoning, the maturity and the sophistication in creating content, strategizing your marketing activity. Automation tools have to be effectively and judiciously used through creative thought process to build a brand which connects!