Brand Positioning:

A communication created which draws a frame of reference is called as brand positioning. e.g. Vodofone: As loyal as a dog, follows you everywhere. Hence they are positioning themselves as a network that never leaves you.

Creating Brand Positioning:

There are key elements which are sacrosanct, while creating this and it can be best explained with this diagram:

Mindscape:

The product or service should be aimed at a certain Target Audience (TA), it is extremely important to understand the TA.
The Demographics, Societal norms, backgrounds to name a few. What they think, what are their wants and needs and behavior that gives rise to them.

Brandscape:

Understanding where the brand stands currently, do people know about it, what they perceive about it. If it creates a recall or a brand association.
Where does the company what the brand to be? Take it to another level etc. Understanding the brand cycle might help you understand this better.
Brand Awareness -> Brand recall -> Brand Trial -> Brand Association -> Brand Loyalty -> Brand Evangelism

Signscape:

Current events and news, Macro Economic impacts like inflation, Government norms etc. Associating the brand with Lalit Modi will not do any good for the brand in the current scenario. A security angle in wake of the terrorist attacks is a good way to position the brand.

Semiotics:

Platforms that communicaton will be used, nuances of each of them. Words used in the communiqué, symbols, language. Characters, visuals, colors, typography and context in which they have used. Any such factors which have a profound effect on presentation etc.

• Questions Generate Comments. As questions are an “easy call to action”.
• With questions you engage peoples ego’s.
• Everyone loves to share opinions.
• People who are passionate about certain companies/ brands/ celebs will definitely feel great about sharing their opinions.
• You invoke viral distribution of your content.

How to do this?

• Use Polls, quizzes and discussions.
• Use Rhetoric Questions:  Which? Where? What? How?  When?
• Keep the topics of discussion simple, yet debatable.

2. Test Their Knowledge:

• Stuff like “How well do you know—————-?” The name could be your marketing merchandise, product, brand and even celeb.
• Fun Relevant questions make your fanpage more engaging and interactive.
• Fans are not only pleased and entertained, but this also lengthens the time a user spends engaged on the brand.
• More time spent = High Engagement + Builds Brand Loyalty over time

How to do this?

• Use Polls, quizzes and discussions.
• “Did you Know?” Updates.

3. Pair promotions with Content:

• Promotional activities can go viral if fans can share links/quizzes/posts with friends.
• This increases Sign-ups and of course Virality.

How to do this?

Use apps and quizzes that allow sharing scores/results of quizzes with friends.

4. Thank Your Fans:

• Some sort of Gratification is essential to make fans feel important.
• Give fans something of value.
• Give fans something they can cherish and treasure for long.

How to do this?

• Recognize and appreciate their engagement via updates and posts.
• Gift them something as simple as a Fan Badge.

The above ways can aid only if these ideas are put into action and used with a sensible discretion. While these ways definitely assure engagement, they have to combined with other strategies and ideas for a more effective result. So tread with care!

The comparison between modern Social media platforms and Usenet is based on the premise that both of them united people and contained the foremost essence or the crux of any social media platform: interaction emerging from common interests.

Over the years, marketing has adapted to social media and the fact that there is an increase in the presence of more and more people coming online and interacting. It is human tendency to trust people in a new medium of interaction. Cases in point being social media platforms like face book and twitter when they first emerged. Although niche, social media platforms are greater influencers as compared to television today because people get the missing dimension of interactivity which a TVC or a print commercial cannot give. Secondly, the user can choose who to interact with.

The clue train manifesto is a set of 95 theses regarding new market places. These theses are a call to action for businesses in the new market place. An instance of one such new market place is the internet. The manifesto goes on to say, that ‘a powerful global conversation has begun. Owing to a marketplace, which is more informed, and share relevant knowledge at a blinding speed, the stress is on having a conversation with people. So the more informed you are, the better the relevance and hence, better will be the quality of your conversations.

In social media, there is one paradigm of engagement only:

Attention ——> Relevance
As a newcomer to social media, I have realized that the online audience is smart. More so, they seek relevance. “What’s in it for me?” is generally their first and foremost question before they join your community or interact with you. Taking a patronizing tone with an audience this sharp, is the equivalent of social media suicide.

Although not all of them have what Daniel Goleman calls EQ, they can find out if the information is accurate, just in case you are taking the high ground by Pfaffing.

Why is it ‘Social’ Media?
The word ‘Social’ in its most basic sense refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary. Social Media is media meant to be disseminated through the use of the internet. Now this broad definition of Social Media can include Microblogging, Social networking (which is distinct from Social media), Social bookmarking, Blogging, Social network aggregation, Photo/video sharing and so much more.

Heraclitus wrote once, that you cannot enter the same river twice. For a beginner in Social Media all I can say is that there are many aspects of it that I have not completely discovered as yet and by the time I discover them, the river is not quite the same anymore!

Ladies, he is also the Head, Social Media Strategy at Superchooha. Go follow him!

A Google search reveals this
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=DCM&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=mayur+makheri&start=10&sa=N

His Linkedin tells me

• His educational background. Good enough to tell the parents. [MBA kiya hai bhai]
• His work ex. Has a marketing background, will give a good sales pitch to the relatives ;)
• Is currently at a leading position at Superchooha. That means access to credit cards with high credit limit.

His Twitter tells me

• Passionate about social media. Good!
• Is a happy go lucky person http://twitter.com/admads/status/10209106475
• Can get naughty :P http://twitter.com/admads/status/9972195493

His Facebook tells me

• http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3115098&id=502864919 Can be absolute nuts
• We have x friends in common, is not a fake id
• Is a Cancerian, perfect! [source- FB birthday]
• The photos tell me his friends love and adore him. Awww how cute
• And he loves traveling

He seems like a great guy to be with and take home. Woohoo! Who needs Shaadi.com? On these lines do check http://www.youpid.in/ an Indian initiative  on a matrimonial social network. [We have no association with them whatsoever, just that it's a pretty cool concept]

Mr. Mayur Makheri you are socially [media] naked now. Go figure!

When it comes to Human behavior enough is never enough.  One of the most interesting traits of  human behaviour is situations we tend to find comfort and solace in. More then the situation its the conversation that happens that has a pacifying effect -but then conversation do not necessarily have to be relevant. History has it that nothing is as pleasurable then watching your best friends fail at things – while I tend to disagree with that there have been cases where if not friends, but yes people have derived utmost pleasure from incidents absolutely irrelevant to them.

Welcome to whole a new world of human behavior – “Schadenfreude”

Here is a classic explanation of the german word – (More details here)

Schadenfreude — by Si Frumkin

Germans have a way with words. They created words that other languages simply do not have.

Schadenfreude takes 7 English words to define it: “malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others”. The dictionary explains it with a quote from historian Peter Gay — who felt Schadenfreude as a Jewish child in Nazi-era Berlin, watching the Germans lose coveted gold medals in the 1936 Olympics; he said that it “can be one of the great joys of life.”

Now picture this – 50 Million tweets per day. 60 Million Status Updates on Facebook  PER DAY.  Clearly we live in a world where reviews are written before a movie release, debates are held on naming of a product, and kids are named before a couple even has sex.

On a serious note, we are surrounded by opinions –  Good, bad, neutral and extreme, soft, hard. Opinions of every kind.  Thanks to the ease that platforms like twitter and facebook have provided to voice one’s opinion. While these tools have enabled companies to interact with their end customers by tracking their views about their brand, there have been cases where these opinions have created lead to PR nightmares. The human tendency of replicating negative emotion more vehemently over the positive one is not unknown any more.

For instance the Cleartrip Kiruba Incident (Cleartrip’s  Stand and Kiruba’s Stand ) was a issue between a company and a normal customer but the fact that Kiruba’s single tweet reached 1000′s of timelines and was further retweeted n number of times required the CEO of the company Hrush to step in and explain every action over a blogpost. Amidst all this close to 40 twitter updates were made that literally crucified Cleartrip for no good reason.  For some reason people RTed Kiruba’s tweet, while some enjoyed the drama – Amidst all this Cleartrip was defamed. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing but what the heck- people RTed whatever little they knew about the acutal story. Damage beyond repair was done to Cleartrip.

Chetanblock -Another classic example where people drew pleasure from a conversation between Chetan Bhagat and Fly youfools. Consequences – #chetanblocks trended for almost a day on twitter. Some body went on the extent of buying a domain chetanblocks.com. What next – they now intend to make tshirts saying #chetanblocks. All this while hundred’s of people used the hashtag #chetanblocks and thousands of tweets were  exchanged with very few people actually understanding what happened.

While there a dozen other stories where brands have been crucified, people have started deriving sadistic pleasure out of this trend of defaming. I still believe that most of the people don’t actually read facts before they actually share a negative opinion, without actually understanding the consequences their actions might have. They just do it. And yes as a friend of mine puts it – Sadistic pleasure is better then the real version of pleasure. Welcome to the world, the world you live in surrounded by Schadenfreude.

I am no expert at understanding the human psychology but then yes Humans are Humans and social media platforms are no exceptional places for them to behave differently.

The next time you retweet a negative thought or share one on FB, for a moment put yourself in the shoes of the brand manager of the brand and ask yourself – Is this what I actually signed up for – To give justifications to people who believe that their brand is bad.  Food for thought.

From my personal experiences on twitter and facebook