Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing

Hi everyone,

In today’s my blog, I would like to talk about Social Media Marketing and its effect towards the success of your brand or company.

According to the Wikipedia, Social Media Marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.

Simply social media marketing is the way of people having conversation online. Here companies make effort of securing place of their brand and increasing the likability of the particular product through the online conversations taking place on social media web.

Social networking websites help firms and individuals to have interaction with one another and build long term relationships. Social Media Marketing in the sense, most people may think that it is just a way of pushing your advertisement on the Facebook or YouTube. Simply it is not. You have to involve with social media websites and get the different views of customers.

The other key factor is most of the time people share their personal experience through these sites as this is one of the easiest ways individuals can make their views to their loved ones. Therefore you should not control the different views and comments customers made even if they are negatively affected to your brand. You have to get both positive and negative thoughts of customers made to your brand as social media marketing is not a one-way broadcasting tool. Simply you should let more traffic bring to your product and company.

And further you cannot always put your hopes towards the advertisement success as it just appears on the social media sites. You need to have a meaningful conversation online with your customers about your brands.

Moreover, Social networking sites allow individual followers to express their “like” or “dislike” or “retweet” or “repost” or “leave comments” related to the product being promoted. With the result of making one’s views towards particular brand, all of the users’ connections are able to see what each individual’s views are. Therefore reaching more people will be more benefited upon the firm and individuals to make their purchasing decisions as they have more information under their belt. Since the information about a particular product and no of views and comments related to that product are being put in substantial amount, we can say that social networking sites act as word of mouth.

Now it’s high time I analyzed the success of social media sites of a particular company with respect to its major competitors. Here I use the tool called “Social Media Brand Health Check” to carry out the analysis.  In this analysis, we focus on 11 criteria under the major categories of Reach, Quality of Audience, Engagement, Share of Voice and Sentiment.

·        Reach- How many people you reach through your social media profiles?

·        Quality of Audience- How relevant is your reach to your target market?

·        Engagement- How deeply people engage with your brand?

·        Share of Voice- How often people talk about your brand?

·        Sentiment- How positive or negative the conversations about your brand?

Here is the table I use to carry out the analysis to identify where your brand or company stands in social media with respect to your competitors.

Your brand’s level of satisfaction to each criterion would be given as follows;

0-Totally Dissatisfied

1-    Somewhat Dissatisfied

2-    Neutral

3-    Somewhat Satisfied

4-    Very Satisfied

Social Media Brand Health Check Score of the particular company will be interpreted as follows;

If your Score is Below 25

You are seriously in 'Social Media Trouble'. You need to speed up your adaptation to the new media landscapes. You need to prioritize your social media goals, and start strengthening at least a few areas from the criterion used in above health check.

If your Score is from 26 to 50

There can be a few areas where you are really strong on Social Media. Find out those few areas and make them stronger and maintain. Find out the areas where you are weak, and address the issues.

If your Score is from 51 to 80

You are comparatively a successful brand on Social Media. However, there can be few areas where you can strengthen your presence.

If your Score is Above 81

Your brand rocks on Social Media! Keep it up, and continue monitoring new developments.

Here we go! My selected company for the analysis is KFC Sri Lanka. Here I have identified Keells Super as one of the major competitors of KFC Sri Lanka.

 According to the results earned, we can say that there is almost equal number of Facebook fans for both brands. But over 90% of fans of KFC are local fans. That’s one of the great achievements KFC Sri Lanka has made in the social media marketing. But when we concentrate on the number of people who are talking about KFC on Face book, that’s just 1316 fans. That is over 50% lesser than Keells super as Keells Super has achieved 3373 fan talkers.

When we move to the Twitter follower analysis, there is very poor number of twitter followers for both brands compared to their Facebook fans and relatively popular brand or company in the world. KFC Sri Lanka is much needed to highly focus on further about twitter and strive to attract more twitter followers as well. But Since KFC has good twitter followers than that of Keells Super twitter followers; KFC leads Keells Super numerically. 

When we consider the number of youtube viewers, that’s also not a significant amount. That number is too far more behind in comparison with Facebook fans. Therefore KFC needs to put much effort to fascinate more viewers in their youtube channel activities as well. Here KFC can make promotional efforts like doing competitions and posting attractive advertisements in Facebook and which can be used to enhance the number of twitter followers and youtube viewers. And KFC Sri Lanka is active on other 3 social media networks while Keells Super is active on only one.

KLOUT score defines how well a company or brand involves and influences their target customers in the social media sites. KFC has a sound KLOUT Score comparing to Keells Super.

When we consider the criterion of ‘share of voice’, each company gains 20 out of the top 20 post results in Google blog search. But KFC is a multinational brand; the results are not all about KFC Sri Lanka.

And as both of them are not significantly involving with twitter, we cannot see a high value of twitter mentions during the last 48 hours. Simply as far as Twitter is concerned, they are much essential to get involved with actions of Twitter for the success of social media marketing.

Then negative sentiments for the brands are concerned; KFC has less negative thoughts of its customers compared to its competitors. That value is understandable as companies naturally expect them in those domains since customers are free to write their thoughts in social media websites.

KFC Sri Lanka’s SOCIAL MEDIA HEALTH SCORE is 72.72%. We can conclude that KFC Sri Lanka is comparatively successful in the social media. But there are a lot of areas where they have to strengthen. Therefore it is prominent to investigate their lacking areas in accordance with this analysis and make necessary things to rock in social media marketing.  

Hope you all get a great understanding the value of social media marketing of going through the above analysis. So simply, after doing this analysis you can realize where your brand stands with in social media marketing and what the areas you have to cover to be more popular among your valued customers.  

Cheers!!! 

Advertising with Google Adwords

Hi everyone!

In today’s blog I am going to discuss on how you can promote your website or brand with the help of using Google AdWord tool. First of all I would like to explain the Search Engine Marketing and its elements.

According to the Wikipedia, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization and advertising.

There are two main categories we can identify under Search Engine Marketing;

1.      SEO - Search Engine Optimization

2.      Paid Advertising  

                                I.            PPC/ CPC - Pay Per Click/ Cost Per Click

                             II.            CPM - Cost Per Thousand Impressions

                          III.            CPA - Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition

In this blog post, I will be explaining about how we can make a PPC, which is under paid advertising, using Google adword tool. This is very much helpful to modern businesses as every and each firm is eagerly concerning to first reach to customers and get the attraction towards them.

Here is the screen shot to get a basic understanding what SEO & PPC are.

PPC advertisements help companies to promote their websites by putting their website link on the top of the search results. And companies will be able to make sure that their right set of target customers has access to the website within the expected time period. Further as companies should only pay if there are customer clicks on the particular website, this tool is therefore very much useful to companies to reduce resource wastages.

Once we use Google adword tool to create our campaign, we can continue it with providing different keywords and making regular payments to Google.

Here is a sample keyword search for newspapers in Sri Lanka.

Without surprisingly, you can see straight advertisements related to my keyword in the above image.

Now let’s move on to identify the best keywords which can be used for the advertisements of newspapers in Sri Lanka. Here we identify general words which people use to type on the search engine box to find related to which they are needed.  We can log in to Google adwords using gmail account and do the keyword research free of charge. Then it will appear the following screen.

Here the key word has been mentioned as “Newspapers in Sri Lanka”. Under the category-Newspapers. And then my target location is Sri Lanka and target language is English. After searching you will receive a list of results as follows;

Google provides most relevant key words under the results list. Then you can select most preferred key words to use optimizing your advertisement by ticking the cage related to the item. After that you can just select key words you wish and download them to an excel sheet.  

The next task is to create the advertising campaign with using the above results. Here first click Campaigns tab and then click on new campaign. And select the type as “Search and Display Network”. You should give a name for the campaign name and fill bid and budget amounts. Then you can see the following screen.

After that there’s a box at the bottom of the page to select keywords which you have downloaded to an excel sheet. Finally, Save and continue.

The particular advertisement will be activated after you confirm the payment and the advertisement can be seen in the search results until your daily budget exceeded.

The advertisement will be shown to anyone who searches with your selected keywords or phrases. Therefore this is one of the more productive ways of advertising to people who are highly involving with the internet and searching information to buy their products.

Google Adwords tool is really helpful for firms to get high attraction of potential customers at very low cost and to be more popular within their target audience.

Cheers!!!

An Amazing Experience from An Awesome Lecture

Hi everyone!

It is very nice to stop here again to write another blog post about one of the amazing experiences I've ever had in my life on 8^th of May, 2013. Incredibly, I was lucky enough to take part my first ever live webinar experience. Even though you people may have had such experience, it was totally new experience to me as I have been experiencing traditional and conventional face to face lectures and seminars so far.

I am proudly say that I am glad to have taken part such a wonderful web based lecturing experience as it has become one of the major trends across the world.

In my perspective, a live webinar is the way of doing lectures, seminar or conferences over the internet with the interaction of people living in different locations together at a given time.

My very first web based lecture was about Search Engine Optimization, conducted by Mr. Suranga from Sydney, Australia. Mr. Suranga’s vast knowledge and personal experience helped me for being in the season from the start to the end in an enthusiastic way.

In his presentation, I felt more comfortable as I could see the slides and the presenter at the same time at the same screen. It was very much helpful to keep the attention of the audience as well. This simply proved that time difference or location distance does not matter to conduct meaningful lectures or seminars.

The most prominent factor here is no physical appearance of the participants or materials should be needed. The only factor here concerns is, the particular person has the ability to access the internet with the appropriate software. Therefore it is not only cost effective knowledge sharing experience but also it is more time saving domain as well.  

Further I do believe that this is one of the great ways of conducting lectures under the subject of digital marketing as this elaborates the digital practices in modern technology rather than just giving traditional slide notes in the classroom. As students, it would be very much helpful to us to get the practical exposure of the subject as well.

I think one of the great things of live webinar is participants can share their thoughts and ideas and raise questions related to the topic. As long as people are not physically appeared with each other, they feel more comfortable to make their views and which helps to have an interesting and meaningful season at last.

So as in this lecture, we were given the opportunity to raise questions on the topic through the Facebook fan page and then answers were given at the same time verbally in descriptive manner. I was really amazed what I've earned from this lecture. Moreover I personally believe that this type of lectures and seminars are very effective and fruitful since most of young crowd nowadays significantly involve in the internet.

Last but not the least; I would like to deeply appreciate the countless support given by the Department of Marketing Management as a driving force. It has been a pleasure and an honour to be a member of this department. I would also be very much obliged to Mr. Amitha for giving this golden opportunity to us. Finally my special thanks should go to Mr. Suranga for sharing his vast knowledge and experience by sacrificing his precious time.

Cheers!

Application of 25-point website usability checklist on www.printnow.lk

Hi everyone,

From my second blog post, I am quite ready to evaluate a Sri Lankan website based on the 25-point website usability checklist. The website I have chosen for the analysis is www.printnow.lk

 Start with proceedings; I would like to give you a brief introduction about www.printnow.lk.  www.printnow.lk  is presented by Lakfoil (Pvt) Ltd which is the premier Online Printing Platform for the digital age. Further www.printnow.lk is arguably the best online printing service provider in Sri Lanka.  They are offering their users the ability to upload, create and design their own unique personal, promotional, to commercial and informational prints or create them from the vast array of templates available on their site at the lowest prices. Under these circumstances I thought of making my second blog post on www.printnow.lk

The 25 point checklist has been categorized into 4 sections, namely Accessibility, Identity, Navigation and Content.   

        

Accessibility

1. Site load‐time is reasonable   

The load time is extremely fast when compared to the other printing websites in Sri Lanka such as www.print2digital.com/. When we type www.printnow.lk on the URL tab, it doesn’t take at least 5 seconds to load the site. If we type in Google search engine as printnow, it shows as the 3^rd result file on the screen.

2. Adequate text‐to‐background contrast

If you visit the site, you may see that they have used the content in black colour under the white background. The texts appeared on the colourful images are white.  The used colours are very contrasting and noticeable.

3. Fontsize/spacing is easy to read

Headings and other relevant topics are relatively larger font compared to the sub details of the page. Font size of the promotional activities is larger and in white under the different colour images. Spacing is great too.

4. Flash & add‐ons are used sparingly

As printnow.lk is not a very busy website, either flash or add-ons are not used in the site.

5. Images have appropriate ALT tags

As all the relevant products in each and every category can be seen on the same page and sufficient description has been mentioned below each product, we cannot see a small description of that particular product when we move the cursor on top of each product without clicking.  

6. Site has custom not‐found/404 page

The site doesn’t have this page. That can be shown as one of the drawbacks of the site.

Identity

7. Company logo is prominently placed

Company logo has been placed on the top left corner of the page with attractive font style and colour combination. It’s easily identifiable and very eye catching.

8. Tag line makes company’s purpose clear

They has given their tag line as “print your memorable moments for life…” which gives a clear idea about the purpose of the company.

9. Home‐page is digestible in 5 seconds

As they have not overloaded more information on the home page, it does take lesser than five seconds.

10. Clear path to company information

It has a clear path to company information, they have placed called “about us” on the top ribbon. When you click on it, you can have their all information.

11. Clear path to contact information

It’s also same as mentioned above, they have placed called “contact us” on the top ribbon. Apart from that, the same feature is on the top right hand corner separately.      In this feature, customer can fill the established form and become as a registered customer. Moreover the firms has given a map how their customers are possible to reach them.

Navigation

12. Main navigation is easily identifiable

Main navigation tabs are clearly and precisely placed in the site. And they are easy to handle as well.

13. Navigation labels are clear & concise

Here they have given the most required customer products as labels and the other related labels are easy to customers to identify.

14.Number of buttons/links is reasonable

We can say that this site has adequate number of buttons where customers are most needed.

15. Company logo is linked to home‐page

When we click the company’s logo, it does not help to link to the home page. That can be also described as one of the drawbacks of the site.

16. Links are consistent & easy to identify

There are no links to access another related sites. But there are so many links which are consistent within the site. As an example, under each product category all possible alternatives have been placed.

17. Site search is easy to access

Yes, there is a site search option in the site. But if you type the fact which is not available in the site, will not give any message to the user. That’s another significant drawback of the site.

Content

18. Major headings are clear & descriptive

Major headings are placed in white colour font under different colour of backgrounds. Apart from that, promotions are also in larger font to read easily.

19. Critical content is above the “fold”

Important and critical information has been clear and visible.

20. Styles & colors are consistent

Different styles, font sizes and colour combinations are easy for customers to read without much effort.

21. Emphasis (bold, etc.) is used sparingly

Various products they provide has been shown a bit larger font and bold. Small description of each product and the way how customers can buy them have been mentioned under the each product, keeping a small grey background label called “details”.

22. Ads & pop‐ups are unobtrusive

Nothing much ads & pop-us can be seen. If the customer buy products through easy cash, they are given 10% refund of each product.

23. Main copy is concise & explanatory

The main copy is concise and it’s all about what customer actually needs in printing service and not about what the company is or any other facts. Simply you would see that the page is all about best printing deals available in Sri Lanka.

24. URLs are meaningful & user‐friendly

The URL is very attractive and meaningful. Further easy to remember. They have not mentioned even a part of their name of the company. And “printnow” itself says that they’re ready to printing any stuff of you.

25. HTML page titles are explanatory

Page titles have not appropriate number of keywords. If you ask business cards to print, it appears as http://www.printnow.lk/Business_Cards/ but when you make different types of business cards, It doesn't explain well in HTML.

According to my perspective http://www.printnow.lk/ is very user-friendly web site. Any customer who has average knowledge of dealing web sites are nothing much worry to make purchases through this. Moreover,  recognized drawbacks in this analysis would not create major issues to their clients. But if they are in position to make necessary arrangements to overcome those drawbacks, the web site would be more attractive and fascinating through their retaining and prospective clients.

Cheers!