The Social Media audience

Organic reach online has become a bane to many Digital marketers. Staying up to date with Google’s algorythm changes is rapidly becoming a full-time job. Even more important is getting your brand’s message to our fans’ News Feeds (especially if it happens without paying for it)

This trend becomes even more visible in sectors like the retail sector, where a brand’s social media presence is not only about building a brand through its engagement, but more importantly about driving customers to purchase their products.

A lot of Social Media channels are changing today. Take Facebook for example. According to eMarketer, the age group that will show the biggest increase in the share of Facebook users in the coming year is 65+ year-olds.

However, the other age groups are set to remain more or less, as is. A key point to note here is that the biggest slice of the Facebook pie is with the 25 – 35 year-olds. These people really want to see retailer promotions in their social news feeds, particularly on Facebook.

This is good news for marketers as it is the 25+ age group who have the money and are willing to spend the most money online. It’s also good news for retailers as the same age group is the one most likely to make a purchase via a promotion on a Facebook page.

The Millennial generation

For a lot of people who have been using Facebook, it is losing its appeal as they move on to other channels which are not populated by their parents and elders. A vast majority of these young adults still have a Facebook account, but they are less likely to use it because of privacy issues.

So then, where are the Millennials?

Noticeably, this age group has an increasingly strong presence on Twitter. A survey conducted online, revealed that the 18 – 25 year-olds want to hear about retail promotions and offers but prefer reading about them in their Twitter feeds.

This is also backed up by research which found out that as many as 85% of this generation follow a brand or company on Twitter to get a coupon or discount.

However, interestingly, it also shows that the same segment doesn’t have big spenders on Facebook.

It is also found that 29% of consumers follow their favorite retailers on social channels mainly because their updates are interesting, whereas, 33% of them follow only brands only for offers.

This is a compelling evidence for a healthy approach to content marketing where consumers pick up interesting content but also are on the look for offers and promotions. Retail can hence, flourish online, especially with the younger demographics.

Discount’s drive Sales

One interesting finding is that there is a major chunk of consumers who purchase only when a discount or offer is available.

This is very important information for Marketing and Brand Managers to consider while working on their social media strategies.

Grab the opportunity!

Social media channels are undoubtedly crucial in creating engagements, but they also increasingly drive sales. India is moving ahead with the times and hence online activities like promotions, offers and discounts have an impact on the behavioral changes being bought about in consumer’s pattern of buying.

It is the smart retailers and digital marketers who will be able to reap the benefits of this growing digitally savvy economy.

Future to Podcasting

Podcasting? Do most people in India even know about it? Lets read more to find out and also try and conclude if there is a future to podcasting at all.

People are talking blogs etc these days. A small section in India is also talking about podcasts. Internationally it is a rage! But then is there a future to this tool at all? As to what I see, it doesn’t seem quite exciting to the consumer but yes, it sure seems so to the creator. You will find plenty of researches online which will support the bright future and all the bucks that it can gather for most, but a major point here is that it doesn’t encourage communication.

To move on, let me tell give you a brief about ‘Podcasting’. It is basically an audio / video file available on a website. It can (almost automatically!) be downloaded and heard at a later time on different player options.
A podcast can be created easily. You just need a microphone, a simple software and a place to store all of this. But if you’re a listener and it’s going to be a task locating the one you want. You only have the title to decide if it seems interesting to you. You might be lucky enough to see some text giving you the details of the podcast though.

You cannot fast forward it! You will have to go through the boring content until you find the part that interests you. And you sure have to be fast at grasping what is being said. Or Whoosh! Its gone already!

There is a lot of research (you can find online) which you will see to check if Podcasts really have a future or no. To cite a few examples, According to FeedBurner, podcasts outnumber radio stations (Ben Charny, eWEEK, April 17, 2006). "FeedBurner now distributes 47,000 different podcasts. This means there are more podcasters than radio stations in a country!
Internet research shows that the total US audience for podcasts has crossed 10million in 2006, 25million in 2008 and around 50million in 2010. WOW!

Podcast ad spends are also a thing that the Indian market now needs to turn to. The US spends in millions on these!

These were some facts. Now, are podcasts the thing that you are looking for? (I am not!) There are several reasons to this. One of the main one’s being, it is a one way medium. With the internet growing at a pace as fast as to what we see today, interaction is the key to growth. With something as static as this, growth looks difficult. All you can do is blog about it or post a comment about the same. You study in school about the various communication mediums and this follows a one – to – many model. Not a very friendly approach i’d say.
You cannot search for the content online. Just read the heading and assume what’s inside. That is like judging a book by its cover. Ahh, not quite advisable.
So, I guess this is the reason why a very small percentage of the world is following ‘podcasts’. India and Indian audience have always accepted newer means to communication, specially when it comes to the digital front.
Now I don’t wonder why, India did not welcome podcasting whole heartedly. You have a different view point? Please enlighten me on it. :)