Social Media Week- Day 5

On 16^th September 2016, I set out to attend Day 5 of Social Media Week. I reached the venue very early.

@HyattRegencyMum Kudos for being a warm #host and wonderfully handled attendee arrangements @SMWMumbai #SMWMumbai pic.twitter.com/OeVGZvJ51N

— HDS Digital (@HDSdigital) September 16, 2016

So, I waited in the Hyatt Lounge. Then after registration, I went to check out what was there for breakfast.

Smoothies, cakes, pastries, tea, coffee and cookies. The breakfast was simply awesome.

Looking forward to true wanderers!@krishnadorai @Wranglerdenims #wrangleratSMW #smwmumbai pic.twitter.com/e1NOSfGoHw

— nashik 3lectronica (@electronic0253) September 16, 2016

Then I entered Hyatt Regency Ballroom where the session was to begin.

1. The first session was ‘Monetisation of digital content’ by Satya Raghavan

His question made us ponder on –

• If content is king, why doesn’t anybody pay for it?
• 7 out of 10 watch videos online every month in India.
• Creating content that will get money. He gave us the example of Ambuja Cement ad.
• He also mentioned how ads were charged differently in different media – YouTube vs Television.
• Models of monetization– Buy content, advertising and content acquisition.
• He said that Thumbnails in YouTube are effective for better merchandising your content.
• He mentioned that ‘Title and description’ are important for content to be found on YouTube. The suggested video link is created alongside as per title and description.

2. Marginalising of creativity– This next session was taken by Prahlad Kakkar. Prahlad Kakkar is a leading Indian ad film director, best known for his work on the famous Pepsi TV commercial with Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar. He is Advertising Film Director, for Genesis Film Production, one of India’s oldest and foremost Ad film production houses since its inception in 1977. He recently launched Prahlad Kakkar School of Branding and Entrepreneurship in Mumbai in association with Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods International.
   

    

   Wasn’t it worth attending #SMWMumbai after @PrahladKakar session #SMW16 pic.twitter.com/oaa4Q1jFPl

   — Rosh (@TekiRosh) September 16, 2016

   Below is a gist to what he spoke about in the session–

• The content that is lacklustre will be marginalised.
• Social media is voracious. Social media is a penetration of the mind.
• Penetrating the mind is forever as compared to penetrating the body.
• You need, to be honest about your content. Ask yourself, how honest can you be to yourself?
• You need to bring value to the table and not bluff yourself.
• You need to handle rejection. If you can handle rejection, then you can handle the world.
• If you are not trying because of rejection then you cannot get on in life.
• Social media is about opening doors.
• Cope with fear
• Overcome fears to become an entrepreneur.
• You need to look fear in the eye.
• Are you capable of lateral thinking?
• Truth, originality, and engagement are factors of good content.
• Unique content is with passion.
• If the content has been picked up from somewhere then it is mediocre.
• He gave an example of the Cadbury’s ad which was made 20 years ago but it still has an impact and a repeat value. The spirit of a woman, celebration of Dairy Milk, can be seen in it.
• An example of Erikson ad. It opens up a dialogue. Advertising used to be a one-way street in the past, now it is a dialog of meaningful interactions.
• Social media has changed lives faster than before.
• The older you get, the more marginalised you are.
• At workplace or a company, the system needs to change from a manager to a mentor. You need to have more mentors than managers.
• Social media is a mirror of society metamorphosing.
• Your content should challenge the status quo.
• Add value to content where it can be questioned.
• If you want repeat value, then be original and truthful.
• If your content is predictable and boring, then there will no repeat views.

3. Crisis Co-operation Insights with Heidi from the USA, Priya from @SamhitaDotOrg and Sonal #SMWMumbai

• Understanding crisis management in the age of social media
• There are 2 types of people in a disaster- one’s who are affected and one’s offering help.
• Technology can make co-ordination easy in every crisis.
• Speed and accuracy are vital keys for communication during a crisis.
• Community mobilisation is important as local leaders help the message to reach out to the last mile.
• Communication and early preparation are necessary during crisis situations.
• Every disaster teaches us new things says Priya Naik from Samhita.org.
• A great way to form communities is not just engaging but educating. Learn how to learn, how to educate.

4. Influencer Marketing was a panel discussion. The panel consisted of Adarsh Munjal, Gopa, Pankaj Parihar and Rohit Raj

Panel discussion on Influencer marketing w/ @mad_toothbrush @TheBigBhookad @VasudevaSanjay @gopa @9ankaj #SMWMumbai pic.twitter.com/yI9iU4otcE

— #SMWMumbai (@SMWMumbai) September 16, 2016

• Big change in influencer marketing. It’s an old technique, social media influencer is a big change now
• #Influencer is a very confusing term according to Adarsh Munjal.
• Anybody who influences a consumer’s decision for a product is an influencer.
• What makes one a social media influencer? It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s  time-consuming.
• Being an influencer is all about identifying your interests and then getting into the arena.
• Influencers need to know about interest, knowledge and research and then adaptation.
• Influencing has to be sustainable over a period of time.
• Advocacy is very important from a brand’s point of view.
• Customers trust friends & family instead of advertising, & there the influencer marketing comes in the picture.
• The long-term approach is required for content and influencer marketing instead of campaign level approach.
• Passion is what will make you an influencer.
• Influencer Marketing is not only for bigger brands but for every single and local brand too.

5. Can Social Media replace conventional marketing strategies?– A Panel discussion

• Brands need to test out what social media has to say
• We are a data-driven organisation says Varun Joshua from Flipkart
• Brands need to test out what social media has to say.
• Restructuring the organisation and being nimble towards social media marketing is the challenge most brands suffer with.
• Data insights and social listening when stitched together create market research a real cohesive story. Data wins.

6. ‘It is good to be good’ by K.V. Sridhar. He is the chief creative officer at SapientNitro.

• Nobody believes in advertising these days! Says KV Sridhar.
• Marketing is all about understanding people.
• We talk to people when we discover there is something in common says, K.V. Sridhar.
• It is good to be good- a creative topic; the line that borrows from life. Brands connect with people.
• People with a point of view are influencers.
• Brands need to have a point of view, a voice and values like human beings.
• At a time when we are caught between legal v/s moral creative, that is where brand builds character and its values.
• A brand means a product that commands a price premium and connects with emotions.
• By creating more experiences and communities, one can build affinity with the customers to build a brand.
• Tell stories, engage and take live feedback – the way to increase brand affinity, brand equity via social media!
• The way you can articulate an idea today, compared to 20 years back, there’s a sea change. – KV Sridhar
• Brands need to behave like human beings. All the softer aspects that make us good humans such as values, compassion, and goodness should be there in a brand- K.V. Sridhar.
• Brands need to have integrity, authenticity, credibility and honesty together to tell their story.
• At the end of the day, ideas, technology, and data all need to be together.
• Choosing the technology and putting emotions together is important.

This session was very informative.

7. User-generated content: New data, best practices, and concerns, this was a panel discussion.

• User generated content brings in personal gratification on social feed.
• Inspirational ads of YesFoundation. The backbone of the YesFoundation campaign is user-generated content.
• User generated content increases customer loyalty and organic word of mouth marketing.
• User generated content is pretty important for a brand.
• If you want to facilitate user-generated content then it has to be a long-term strategy, a short-term tactic won’t fetch tangible returns.

8. Social Media for artists– A panel discussion had Hema Sardesai, Faridoon Shahryar, Soumini Sridhara Paul and Amit Yadav.

• The first thing an artist needs is to be recognised as an entertainer and take it high in philosophy.
• Hema Sardesai says that she always wanted to give something back to the society, which rewarded her with all the love during her career.
• Social media has been a revelation for Faridoon.
• Streaming is a good forward approach to music consumption.

The session ended with Hema Sardesai singing.

@HemaSardesaai singing at #SMWMumbai pic.twitter.com/D6jDpg7d4O

— Nitesh Amesar (@nitedili) September 16, 2016

You may also like to read Social Media Week -Day 3