Characteristics, Functions and Services of a Retailer
In the fast changing globalized and a technology-driven business world, Retail industry over last few decades has witnessed a sea change. World’s largest retail giant of the present times Walmart is operating worldwide by establishing hypermarkets in various countries by taking the help of sophisticated means of communication as well as information systems technology. A […]
Theories of Consumption & Consumer Behaviour: Social, Economic, and Cultural Perspectives
We live in a consumer society where the ownership of goods and consumption of services pervades every aspect of our existence. Ever since the global economy began to be integrated and tightly interconnected, consumption of goods and services has been taken to new heights with an accent on owning goods from economic, symbolic and consumer […]
Observation Method
The observation method involves human or mechanical observation of what people actually do or what events take place during a buying or consumption situation. “Information is collected by observing process at work”. The following are a few situations:- Service Stations – Pose as a customer, go to a service station and observe. To evaluate the […]
International Retailing and Technology
International Retail and Fashion has come of age. We can trace the evolution of the industry from early 1990s where in industrialisation and other concepts like JIT, ECR and new Supply chain models helped the growth as well as restructuring of procurement methods. Further development and availability of space and building materials enabled the large […]
E Commerce Challenges for International Retailers
Prior to 1990s, International Retail Industry was plagued by inefficient Supply chain as well as under Supplier control of products. Post ECR initiatives the industry went through streamlining and adapting new processes as well as supply chain solutions that have brought the industry to its present stature. Currently the situation faced by the International grocery […]
You must have heard it from one and all that no Company has a choice when it comes to being present and marketing through Social Media Channels. Understanding of the various media channels, their capabilities, the kind of audience and community that participates in a particular platform helps in designing or choosing the right mix of media platforms and channels for one’s marketing strategy using Social Media Channels.
Social Networks, Social Interaction and Social Content are some of the broad categories of Social Media Channels. In the Social Content category are covered the various types of blogs, audio and video sharing, micro blogs as well as podcasts etc.
Blogs are an effective medium for marketers to use as a platform or a sounding board to talk about themselves, their Company, their philosophy and values in addition to their ideas, their product and services etc. By listening to and sharing interaction with the audience, they can gather informative ideas and suggestions that help future product development as well as build an online reputation and brand loyalty.
Micro blogging refers to a type of blogging that uses very quick, small and short messages either in audio, text or video forms. As the name implies, the messages are very short and crisp and usually refer to an present event, a comment about an event and broadcasting of a news clip etc. Though instant text messaging is the most popular form of micro blogging, video clips are also fast becoming popular too.
Micro blogging has tremendous capacity and capability to relay news instantaneously. Unleashing this power can be of great value to marketers. The power of micro blogging is evident in the cases where news of any international political event or a catastrophe is relayed to the entire world in an instant, even before the same is picked up by the news or TV media or is officially announced.
Twitter, is perhaps the most famous micro blogging medium that has caught the fancy of people all across the world. Besides this there are several services such as Jaiku, Seesmic as well as Status updates in Facebook, My Space, Google+, Google Buzz etc. are the best examples of Micro blogging services.
Subscribing to micro blogging is very fast and easy. All you need to do is to register with a site like Twitter which shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes. Then it takes a few minutes for you to search for your favorite micro blog sites and click follow.
Check out your contact list and navigate through to build your contacts through sending invites to friends and interested audience. By posting your own tweets on any interesting topic, event, thought or information that is likely to be of interest to your audience, you can post tweets and those interested will begin to follow you and the link keeps building.
As the technology is evolving, the social media channels to have adapted to multi-media technology. The latest in the Micro blogging platform are the pod casts and video messages. It is no doubt that audio and video contents especially a video can deliver a message more effectively than a simple text message.
Podcasts are nothing but the channel of delivering audio message to the interested community/audience. What makes podcasts different is that the delivery mode of the podcasts. Podcasts consist of recorded audio files that are delivered to the subscribers device. The subscriber then has the freedom to choose the time and place when he would wish to listen to the broadcast.
The point to be noted here is that the choice of engagement lies with the audience and not the originator of the message or the marketer.
Providing information to the audience, customers or subscribers using a video clipping or short film is also possible through micro blogging.
A picture can say a thousand things more effectively than a text message and it is able to capture the attention of the audience instantly. This medium when used effectively can be most powerful in spreading awareness, brand building and building loyalty of the customers as well as in helping the prospective customers make up their mind to go for your product.
The power of the visual medium can be seen when instant videos of customers talking about their live experiences about an airline, hotel or any product is circulated amongst the members of the community. Such video clips show the actual reality and can effect the community a lot more than text messages and thus engage them instantly.
Going through YouTube as well as other videos of commercial business organizations like Home Depot or Charity etc provide valuable clue and understanding of how to use micro blogs effectively.
Micro blogs, especially the podcasts and videos are being used by Social sector, NGOs as well as health and education sector etc very effectively for, the medium lends itself to a global delivery at negligible costs.
At the end, it is helpful for the marketers to remember that these Social Media channels hold great influencing power as well as contributory power of millions, not to forget their global impact and reach.
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Understanding Social Media Holds Key to Building Online Reputation
February 12, 2025
