ABC’s of Digital Marketing

Algorithm – is a set of rules that organizes the data in a particular manner. With regards to Social Media algorithms – they basically rank the quality of posts based on engagement, shares, reactions. The need for algorithms is to keep the posts organised, make genuine content more visible to people. For the same, most of the social media platforms keep upgrading the algorithm based on user behavior, surfing practices, upgrades in mobiles. Most notable is the policy update by Facebook wherein – when a certain post receives high organic engagement then that post will appear on a number of user feeds.

Blog – is one of the more essential vehicles for a B2B / B2C / Entrepreneur. More and more people are finding their own voice through this medium. The entry fee is minimum – ideas, basic research, internet & writing skills. That’s it. The upside is infinite – seo, content for sharing across social channels, connecting with influencers in your field, monetization.

Captions – are bite sized text pieces that introduce your content across social media, With the use of fresh language, a conversational tone, a quirky sense of humor and you got yourself the ideal caption. With the added use of #hashtags, captions become more useful for users to connect with your brand. Use them in a smart way.

Digital – is everywhere. With Amazon testing out their easy walk-in purchase stores that completely have removed the pain of standing in a supermarket for the billing. Yes it is already being tested! We are truly living in a transitory world that is everyday becoming digital bit by bit.

Emoji’s – are not just about sharing emotions through bite-sized icons. It has be seen that using them in your captions on facebook and twitter, can actually result in plain text-based captions. They are also easy ways to add a personalised feel and can help you add a slice of humanness to your social media communication.

Facebook – is here to stay. Facebook has surely become one of the internet giants that have built a need in the market that one can’t stay without. With the company’s constant upgrades, partnerships, new features like facebook creator tools, canva, and publishing tools – they are truly working hard on giving a bouquet of experiences right on their platform. Along with all this – they boast a mature ad service that offers a wide range of CTA’s that one really needs.

Google – is making the world smaller day by day. Google is not just a company but has become a part of our lives. We use it everywhere – the most interesting of the use of google is it replacing the term search for most of us. IDK how many of you notice, but we don’t usually say – Search for this. We have started saying – Google this / Google that.

Hashtags – started as a way to categorize your posts in the realm of social media. Today, it’s grown to be so much more. With instagram adding the features to follow hashtags – one can really understand why you need to utilize them to get the most out of the process.

India – The indian market scenario is truly attractive for many internet giants. With companies paying heed to the user behavior in terms of using apps, devices – there is regular surge of apps that are focussed on the indian market. This is especially true for Whatsapp Business – a chat app that transitioned from the casual friendly scene to running of businesses using the same.

Just – because everyone is using a platform doesn’t deem it necessary for your business or brand. With the number of platforms and the capabilities of each of them growing day by day – it’s highly possible that you feel left out and want to join the bandwagon. But first verify the need and strategize how exactly any particular platform or feature can help you find your tribe out there.

KPI – Digital marketing can easily get overwhelming across the multitude of platforms, ads, content and more. What makes one get back on track is to figure out in the start – what is the KPI of the particular campaign/ad. It basically refers to A measurable value across multiple platforms to evaluate success. Good examples would be – Cost per Lead, Cost per customer acquistion.

Long Form – content showcases mastery over a particular topic. With the advances in SEO, it is becoming one of the keystones that can help one establish authority. Mix it up with video, images, gifs & memes and you got yourself an article that can become a guide of sorts in your particular domain.

Monetization – is the last thing that should be on your mind, incase you want to establish authority. Think of this like the more you can wait – the greater will be the yield. At the same time, there are now more than a few ways to monetize. Each and every social media platform can be monetized in a certain way. Even companies are realizing the potential of social media and are trying to pull in the audience as much as they can.

Native Content – is the key to winning at the social platforms. In simple words, Facebook likes the posts that are posted natively on the platform. Each and every platform has a different post dimension, display pic, formats that they can handle and more. Therefore, each and every content piece needs to be created keeping the native format in mind.

Organic – Reach is what one must aim for. The way to get there , is know your customer – what do they like, what do they share, what are their interests, what kind of content do they consume day-to-day. Based on the research – create a content calendar that has a mix of different content. Post, Analyse, Re-strategize and Repeat.

Posts – need to satisfy the varied needs of the customer. A post needs to be informative, entertaining, inspiring, educative to get the right kind of traction on social media.

Quality – over quantity is the way to win true engagement and audiences. Think of it in a way, most of the posts on social media are plagued by sameness. The best way to stand out is to create content that is based on research, exploration and design principles around your brand.

Repurpose – content across the various social media networks. Imagine a blog that is written on the company’s website, gets shared on to Facebook. But the story just doesn’t stop there – on instagram – we create a multiple image posts using the main subheadings of the blog. The same blog can also be converted in a 60 seconds video clip that can be shared across on instagram, facebook. Subsequently a 10 min video can be created for youtube – followed by the same getting converted in to a audio podcast. It’s not about creating new content for each platform but to repurpose content based on the platform.

Social Media – is all about starting mini-movements and rallying your tribe around them. Campaigning needs to be rethought less from an ad-centric point of view to a way of grabbing attention over a particular topic that deserves it. Social media ideally is not about sales as much as it can be about customer support. A way to reach out to one’s favorite brands and connect over a particular issue / information.

Thought Leadership – shows one’s expertise, authority over a specific domain / niche. True thought leadership can be achieved only by generating content that genuinely helps in achieving the goals of a particular tribe. Blogs are the perfect start point to building true authentic thought leadership.

User Generated Content – helps you to gain the trust by the other members of your brand’s community. Instagram stories alongwith instagram adding the feature to follow hashtags – is bridging the gap between user and the brand.

Video – content is amongst the hottest types of content you can start creating and posting online. With the social media giant encouraging more people to post videos – one can really understand that the future of content is video. Again various kinds of apps, tech, smartphones are increasingly making it possible to not only record a decent video quality, but also edit, and publish across various social media channels.

Whatsapp – is one of the biggest messaging apps out there. With over 1.5 bn people using the service – it certainly counts as facebook’s most prized acquisitions. Whatsapp is being used by people not just for sharing memes, messages or jokes but also serious business deals. Taking note of this – whatsapp recently came out with the business version of the app that has automated replies, payment gateway and more.

XML Sitemaps – is a blueprint structure connecting all the pages of a website. This plan guides Google to the main content on a website. Having an XML sitemap is a good practice for optimising the SEO, as Google can retrieve the important pages of a website very fast, even if the internal linking of a site isn’t flawless.

Yoast – is the #1 wordpress plugin for SEO. Yoast makes it easy for you to do things like control titles and meta descriptions, set your targeted keywords and track how often you’re using them, manage sitemaps, and so much more.

Zeitgeist –  is the dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the content that we create, consume and share. Authenticity and relevance are the keywords that one needs to work towards, if one wants to create a successful digital identity.