Mr.Aditya Kabir is the Planning Director in Asiatic JWT, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Being into account planning he's well aware about the social media and it's marketing aspects. Over telephonic conversation on 7 January,2011, with Elina Sen, he provided more comprehensive ideas on Social Media and how it affects our social proximity and its power to provide a 360 degree product showcase in digital domain.
Elina : What do you feel about Social Media and its aspects regarding human interaction and providing a digital marketing platform ?
Aditya : In Social Media the contents are not only generated by the manufacturers, the active participation of end users makes it a dynamic platform. With Web2.0 it’s truly providing a two way traffic between the providers and the users. Unlike Web1.0, where the contents provided by the manufacturers were paramount, now in social media the end users are taking active participation. In social media dialogue the company is a small provider only, they can start up the conversation in the domain, but not necessarily they would have to be the initiators always. Social Media is empowering users beyond any previous limits seen before.
Elina : With more power, do the users feel more cared for ?
Aditya : For the audience and the audience attention - this presents an wonderful opportunity. when engaged right - they can feel so empowered and cared-for, that the right use of social media can create loyal out of casuals and fans out of loyals. Here audience-feedback is instantaneous, direct and... well... often surprising. We did surveys and the most striking fact emerged as 85% of Facebook contents are the users’ comments. Not the notes written or the photos and videos uploaded.
Elina : What is the main criteria to sustain in this digital marketing domain ?
Aditya : Social media seems difficult. So many groups and like-pages and network-pages and individual profiles exist. so many options. and... really... haven't we seen most of these pages and groups failing? For instance, take a look at those dozens of groups Nokia created all are floating in limbo from the very outset. Even the Airtel launch page in Facebook are flooded on queries over tariff plans. The product has to be very engaging with its content. It must have that attitude to propagate in this era of Attention Economy. The old frame of product endorsements will soon be out of fashion, the product has to evolve with time. A popular soap like Kyunki Saas Bhi.... might enjoy many folds viewership on TV over Prannoy Roy’s NDTV talk show, but on social media later would gain momentum through nationwide active participation of audience. The soap won’t have the same attitude in social media, it will be weeded out with no shelf life.
And so the brand must have that much of engaging power into its booty, no matter how bigger be the name is. Tell me, what Nirma has to offer with its current image in this forum. Even Coke’s rigid promotional model won’t incur much in these, rather take Mountain Dew - it’s creating the much needed vibes. Separate Facebook page of Nescafe for its new ad-campaign with Deepika Padukon is creating buzz over Facebook. The campaign strategies must be tailored - keeping in mind the forum of Social Media.
Elina : Talking about shelf life, the whole social media seems so dynamic...
Aditya : Yes, it’s like getting zeitgeist with the real time. Now what is real time ? See, when SRK came to Dhaka last month, a guy named Gaji Illias was called upon stage just like other SRK shows, he was total drunk and made a total fool out of himself. But with his 8 minutes of infamy, within an hour dozens of Social Media spaces were covered on his name, even Facebook fan pages came up in no time. This is it. This instantaneousness is the real time. Things come up in social media platform before they make way to the main stream media. In fact the line dividing them is getting blurred nowadays,
Elina : So, what should be the objectives for the endorsers ?
Aditya : The product has to be interesting and most important people behind it must have enough engaging capacity. For manufacturers with active audience participation there will be no scope to lie about their products, they have to be honest if they want to survive and they must be interesting. With no hinge no bar people’s feedback, today they have to adopt themselves into a more flexible cast.
Elina : and there is YouTube adding to this dynamics...
Aditya : It’s a mind boggling domain within social media. If you decide to see all the user generated video in YouTube, uploaded in a single day, you will need 476 years. This is the most dynamic aspect in social media platform. It has made the TV an interactive medium. Many commercials are now gains people’s attention through YouTube viewership. With facebook open graph the traffic of viewers can be mapped, this gives a better leg up in planning. A short film “Bhoutik” is directed by a friend, when promoted in YouTube, it was seen that 50% viewership came with Facebook sharing. The like, share, recommend plugins of Facebook is bringing everything in a single platform.
Elina : these whole thing giving me the feeling of George Orwell-ish vision of future when we will start living in our profiles instead of our lives.
Aditya : [ Laughing along ] not that of course. Hope not. But it’s true, sooner or later the whole system will come under the umbrella of social media, we have to make it better, if not flawless.
Elina : Already, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs are connecting with people world wide through their Facebook Page, Hugo Chavez has his direct twitter account to address Venezuelans grievances. So it will become more constructive in future and more omnipresent.
Aditya : For South Asia , social media is primarily, secondarily and tertiarily just the facebook. LinkedIn, Twitter - other social networks are almost non-existent here.So social media will develop here and world wide, and they will develop more and more rapidly.
Epilogue - Conclusion On Social Media Bubble - Making Social Media A More Pertinent Platform :
We are in the middle of a zeitgeist, human behavior is constantly changed by technology,whether the behavior is intended or an offshoot. Many will argue about the frivolous approach that social networking sites adopts apparently, but it must be remembered that users of social media constitute a broad spectrum of age group of 15-35 and in today’s urban societies the consumer buying capacity falls into the age group of 26-35 and onwards. So statistically Social Media caters to a very important dissection of society’s crossroad. Social Media connects us , reconnects us, provides news feeds, makes us aware of the current surroundings. Like air it can’t be seen in shape , yet it’s there and we are standing under its umbrella. World is becoming more open through it, walled gardens are no more locked up. With the user centric web in rise, we all are living our lives along with its cyber extensions because our cyborg nature is breathing life in the domain of social media. If English author George Orwell were present today, he might have come up with a new novel sequel of “1984”, where human populations are profiled in the Zion of the social networking sites, each of their activities are monitored and stored in the world wide web servers. George Orwell only had his thoughts but today the fact is more stark than it was imagined before. In the science fiction written by Philip K Dick, the author has raised the rhetoric - “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” We are not there yet. Yet, it’s true that - We feel comfortable to see ourselves on Profiles to avoid being an Unsub ; "There's something reassuring about seeing an irregularly-shaped organic body confined in a rigidly rectangular framework. That's why we built zoos. That's why we built prisons. That's why we built cities." And now we thrive in the Zion of Social Media.
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