Crisis – aah… How do you react to an unwanted dangerous situation, do you stay calm and composed or you push your panic button and behave arbitrarily? Reactions may vary from person to person depending on their basic natures.

But in case of Social Media Crisis you can’t afford to follow your basic instinct, instead you have to abide by certain rules of Social Media land. Let’s talk how we can deal with social media crises.

Social Media Crisis

Jeremiah Owyang has defined Social Media Crisis as-“a crisis issue that arises in or is amplified by social media, and results in negative
mainstream media coverage, a change in business process or financial loss.”

Reasons for crisis may be many like-untrained team, lack of clear social media policy, customer’s ugly experience etc. “A report by the Altimer Group has found that 76% of 50 social media crises between July and August this year could have been diminished or avoided had the brand been prepared and had proper training, staff, and processes to respond”

Social media is a channel for web based social communication, unlike any conference or meeting anything that happens on this platform catches  everyone’s eye; therefore brands need to be overcautious in handling social media.

Preparation for handling a social media crisis:

1) Having a consolidated Social Media policy: A well planned and analyzed social media policy should be framed and enforced on
social media team. Organized guidelines are better than on spot random decisions. A social media policy cannot be rigid as law, as what works for one, might fail for other. Therefore Social Media policy should be framed on basis of experiences of SM- team with loyalists and should be open for change as per requisites.

2) Dedicated and trained team: Key to Social Media Success is right presence at right time in right place. Real heroes of Social Media success are your team- mates, so please ensure that you have a dedicated and trained personnel for Social media, rather than
freshers; after all your social image is at stake, be careful!!

3) Ongoing education and refresher sessions: Social media world is evolving each day; you can’t master it just by getting one training session. It needs continuous practice and regular refresher sessions. A great example of such system is followed by Intel they have dedicated a special budget for digital marketing and follow a Digital IQ training program for educating their employees on Social Media.

4) Consistency in Action: A golden rule for “Social Media Presence” is consistency in action. Despite being bugged by Crisis, you can’t afford to remain silent; you are liable to answer your users. A similar serious mistake done by Johnson & Johnson and Toyota who instead of paying heed to their customers voice, they just recalled their products and results- a “tarnished image of brand and lost faith of loyalists”. Instead of abruptly recalling products they could  have conversed with their loyalists and answered their concerns and then made product recall. So please beware your silence can make you guilty!

Social media has given us democracy to share and grasp but it comes with responsibility of listening too. So please listen carefully whether it is praise or an abusive statement.

Criticism and appraisal are two sides of coin, they stay together. It’s not necessary things will go well always, so need is to pull up our socks and tighten our jackets and get prepared with our Crises management policy.

“Better be safe, rather than sorry”!!

Before writing this blog I have watched around seven videos of Kolaveri Di- original version, Punjabi version, Exam version, Kids version, chipmunk version, Gujarati version, Malyalam version……list continues. What is magic behind this song with strange Tanglish( Tamil-English) lyrics? How this song anthem of nation overnight?

In words of famous lyricist Javed Akhtar- “Kolaveri is an ordinary tone with substandard singing of insensible lyrics” but yet it has been most searched video on Youtube in India and You tube has honored the song with a ‘Gold Award’ for receiving large number of hits in a short time period.

This song had to be released officially on 16 November, 2011 by Sony Music, it was released solely as a recording version of song had already reached internet much before(around 31 October). But this fluke became a blessing in disguise for its Music composers as this song became an overnight hit and is most viewed song on You tube, with around 3.79 million views in less than a week and remained trending topic on twitter for three days. [UPDATE: Now this song has more than 50 million views on Youtube!]

See the impact of Social Media, despite linguistic constraints it became chartbuster song in Bollywood too. No other song from Kollywood has received so much adulation from whole nation. Social media experts have rated Kolaveri as one of best examples of Viral Marketing.

Viral marketing in simple words would be “word of mouth marketing”-something that compels person to transmit it to other, the compelling factor can be- interesting, provocative, motivating, luring with gifts etc. In case of this peppy song it was strangeness of language-Tanglish (Tamil and English) that rose curiosity among people even when I clicked on to view this song url (which was widely circulated on internet), I googled word ‘ Kolaveri Di’ to figure out what was this song about. No TV or print media promotions or promotional tours could have won so much popularity to song what viral marketing has done.

But since tendency of this phenomenon is viral, its outbreak can turn you upside down also i.e. it can turn negative too. I would share an old example of Starbuck- Starbuck’s started a campaign free iced coffee for friends and family efforts. The coffee chain sought to entice friends and family of employees to come into the store for free iced coffee, but when word got out about the offer and the response was bigger than expected, corporate headquarters had to nix the promotion.

However all turned well in case of Kolaveri, and it has become a youth anthem. In order to analyze its success it is being studied as case study by students of top business schools of country including IIMs. From my side Thumbs up for Kolaveri, and all the best to movie 3!

Thanks to our Constitution for giving us fundamental right- FREEDOM OF SPEECH & EXPRESSION, and enjoying this liberty most of us have tried our hands in blogging. But most of us have not been able to even hang near Veterans like Shobhaa De & Amitabh Bachan. Lets peep into what makes them worshiped GODS in blogging.

Onset or Opening: “Well begun is half done”.  A ‘catchy title’ and and ‘impressive opening’ can work wonders for a blog. The first thing
encountered by reader is ‘beginning’ so get ready to work for catching attention of users.

Content inception: ‘Content is king’, it is essential fuel for running social media wagon. Not only blog requires a captivating content but also from which source it is coming is important. Content becomes more relevant when it is user generated. There are various ways for creating user-generated content- interviews, contests, polls, comment- feedback loop, etc.

Prominent and captivating headers: Most of us would sulk reading lengthy paragraphs, articles, so why you want to torture your reader with long scripts, try to break down your post into postulates. Add suitable headers for each sect.

Relevance: “Don’t run around the bush” instead stay glued to topic. Keep yourself in reader shoes and create value to your post by being precise and concise. Remember reader time is precious; create content that is useful for reader. Add gravity to your post by sharing practical tips and experiences.

Call to action: “urging your reader to take action”- stays the ultimate goal. The real challenge lies in getting your reader to take action without being domineering in nature.

Writing style: Now last but not least writing style, which is most crucial for success of post. ‘XX might be an expert in his forte but is sloppy in expression’ then his knowledge becomes waste, as he can’t be beneficial for others. Remember, be clear and concise, and don’t sound preachy instead try to become conversational. So take care and try not to become “Clever Silly”.

I have shared these tips based on our experiences, but remember, “Rome was not built in a day” so don’t expect miracles overnight. It will take time and practice to execute all these tips. So keep your lamp glowing and might be after few days you will be sharing tips for “writing a good blog”.  So guys are you ready??

Dear Netizens,

Trust all of you are doing good and enjoying life, this letter might be my last point of contact with you, who knows Mr Kapil Sibal (our respected Minister of Communication & Information technology) may come up with a law of banning blogging who feels Screening of content should be done before posting on social media channels.

Censorship of Social Media in india? what the hell ?
This is a tremendous blow to World’s biggest democracy, it is like making mockery of our fundamental rights (Freedom of speech and expression). Social Media is a platform which has given power and voice to the common man and made him king, government has realised this power and is scared of it. Everyone remembers “ANNA- Anticorruption Campaign ” which got viral on Social media channels and consequently thousands thronged on streets to support the cause.

Social media which has become voice of people can’t be curbed or stopped abruptly. And another big question is how can you screen content on social media channels? I don’t think we have any fool proof technology which can screen all the web content and if at all such a  technology comes up, who is going to decide what is correct or what is wrong? Thanks to all of you netizens and anti Sibal rage on internet which has forced government to step back on this absurd censorship idea.

I really pity Chinese people, who have been denied freedom of using internet and social media, in a era where social media marketing is most potent tool for brands, all thanks to Great Firewall of China project. Sad news is that these brands can’t operate freely in countries like China where social media is censored and equal loss is beared by the Chinese people who are restricted to the hell. But they do use social media and can you believe they have made their own versions of social Media channels like- FACEBOOK- RENREN, TWITTER-WEIBO, YOUTUBE- YOKU and so on… I sincerely hope no such project begins in India.

I do agree on the fact that Social Media is a great power and if uncontrolled this bliss can turn into a bane but banning it all together is not a solution, i guess its high time we all netizens should become responsible in its usage

Byeee guys!

If I ask some one “How influential are you”, the most common reply would be “not very” and if asked, “who do you think are influential”, replies would be names of celebs, great political leaders, scientists

But contrary to this fact, if you see some hotshot in social media, he/she need not necessarily be a greater philosopher, researcher or award winner, instead he/she might be a school going teenager who is an social media enthusiast. What is it that can make a school going teenager a social media influencer?
Answer: Influence Score.

“Influence Score” is your social media report card. To put in simple words “Influence Score” is measure of your social media
activity. There are various influence scores like Twittergrader, Twinfluence, Klout, PeerIndex and so on. But I will narrow down my discussion to “KLOUT”
and “PEERINDEX”. Lets see how these tools measure your influence or popularity on social media.

Process for scoring remains same in both the ratings; you have to give access to your twitter and facebook accounts.

1) Tracking of Influence:
Klout determines your score using your participation in multiple channels- Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, Foursquare, Instagram,
Tumblr, Blogger, Last.fm and Flickr whereas Peerindex peeps not only at your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin accounts but also considers Quora and
three different blogs.

2) Search Tool
Peerindex gives you an opportunity to search by topic, by region, by blogs whereas on Klout you can search only influencer and that too by his twitter
handle. For example, if you type ‘Bollywood Movies’ on PeerIndex; the results will be as shown below.

3) Ranking Approach
Ranking in each grader is based on certain postulates which are mentioned below:

KLOUT
• True Reach – people who are influenced by you and pay heed to what you say
• Network Influence- influence of your network
• Amplification Probability- to see the extent to which your content spreads through likes, comments and retweets.

PEER INDEX
• Authority- Quality of the links you share and content you recommend
• Activity- your activity on topic
• Audience: Number of people you reach

4) Profile Display
In this arena Klout rules as it creates an elaborate social influence graph for each profile with proper elaborate representation of each postulate like true reach,
network influence of influencer on which ranking is based, while PeerIndex creates a comparison graph with friends and no such graphs that depict basis of
score are represented.

5) Content dispersion
Type of content floated by influencer can be checked in ‘topics’ section of Klout whereas Peer Index has a framework of content, which has been divided in
eight categories (under name of “Topic Fingerprint”). The catagories are: Arts/Media/Entertainment, Technology/Internet, Science/Environment, Health/
Medical, Leisure/Lifestyle, Sports, News/Politics/Society and Finance/Business/Economics, thus a single representation gives a complete picture of a person
varied interests.

6) Influencer’s top sources of information
This is an advantage of “PeerIndex” that it peeps at your shared links and lists the top five websites from where influencer is sharing information.

7) Profile badge
Klout classifies people with different labels like “Networker”, “Thought Leader” etc depending on their social media activity whereas Peerindex ranks based on
your score like if influencer has rank above 90 he/she will be ranked top 10% and so on.

Influencer’s forte
Klout gives you list of topics a person is influential about; whereas PeerIndex not only lists topics of influence but also gives you a list of top rankers in that
category.

These graders have different approaches for measurement of influence; you might be a high scorer in Klout but not good in Peer Index. Don’t fret but try to
understand the insights provided by them, ultimately they aim for one goal only i.e.- making your social media presence more effective.
Each rating has its own advantage; it would be unfair to say which one is better. Based on my requisites I have chosen mine, now it’s your turn to figure out
yours!