0 1.1 INTRODUCTION Historically, online marketing was a fairly one-sided approach. Businesses pushed ideas out and consumers passively received them. But that landscape has shifted. The internet has become extremely interactive. Social media has created a new style of communication and there are now billions of conversations happening online. People are discussing popular news articles, sharing photos of their pets, and even engaging with brands. And it all feels relatively natural to the consumer. It's just part of how the web operates. All of these conversations present exciting opportunities for marketers. We can join in on a conversation to drive brand awareness, or create our own conversations and empower our customers to do the marketing for us. Social media marketing is all about creating interactive moments with our customers to achieve a goal we've defined. Most often that goal is to gain traffic to our website or attention on our brand. But unlike other forms of marketing, social media taps into the idea of using your customers as a marketing vessel. The content that you share will hopefully be liked, retweeted, shared again, blogged about, and so on. This viral effect is what makes social media marketing so effective. A simple like on a post could expose that content to hundreds of potential customers you normally wouldn't have access to. Because social media is so personal, when friends share content, it comes with another layer of credibility. Done right, social media has the potential to transform your business. However it'll require a good strategy, some creativity, and a little bit of luck. Done wrong and social media might bring unwanted attention which could potentially harm your business or your brand image. We’re going to focus mainly on the organic aspects of social media marketing. More specifically, the unpaid and natural approach to distributing content. For many brands, social media will be a must have component of your digital marketing strategy. Your social media might feature the major networks, or it could be as simple as a blog, a customer forum or a small niche bookmarking site. We will be focusing on marketing with the big two: Facebook and Twitter. Now, these two networks are not the same. Each is unique and has its own best practices, style and audience, and we'll explore their differences together in a later movie. Social media is a moving target. If you're able to adapt and scale alongside of it, your brand will benefit in the long term. 1 Different Methods of Social Media Marketing Social network marketing is popularly called as Internet marketing. Today you can find many ways for internet marketing. Many people who enter this online marketing are less worried because of its guaranteed success. If you see in Internet totally all types of products has been marketed online without much effort. Internet attracts many business people to promote their business online. Social network marketing is grown to such a height that today many people can’t earn without it. Some of the most recognized network marketing tools are Face book, MySpace and LinkedIn. Twitter became regular place for people who have newly entered the field of social network marketing. 1. BLOGGING: When you start Blogging or posting your data about any product, you can see less response from clients. Later it will become big business via blog. Websites and blogs are most powerful tools for social network marketing when matched with other networking tools. Blog is an amazing tool which provides many other facilities in addition to just marketing your business. It also helps you to communicate with other clients in case if you have any problems. 2. WEB DESIGN : It is important to have private website if you are a freelancer. Your website will help your clients to know about you and it will make them clear that you are a serious freelance marketer and help to make huge revenue via online marketing. 3.ARTICLE SELLING: It is also best and cheap internet marketing method. It is a mode of advertising our trade just by writing articles and attracting endless number of users across world. We usually sell our articles to different article database websites and article directories. Today it provided free business to many advertisers and publishers and they are really benefited through their articles. 4. EMAIL SENDING: Electronic mail sending is the best way to marketing. Collect list of email addresses through portfolio websites and email about your business to all internet users. Your Email should be attractive in such a way that your recipient will be impressed to get back to you. 5. USE SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES: Social networking websites like Twitter, face book can be used to promote your sales. These provide best platformfor all who are thinking of online marketing. 6. VIDEO PROMOTION: Use several video distribution websites for your marketing. These websites uploads your service to the whole world. All that you need to do is film a video about marketing and send it to video uploading sites like You Tube. It seems it is the 2 easiest way of marketing than any other modes since many people will be interested in view videos rather than word form of advertisement. Digital Marketing and Internet Marketing The fields of marketing and advertising have changed over the years and it is clear that they have always taken advantage of the existing technologies. In the past, when the concept of the internet was still unimaginable to many, most businesses capitalized on traditional channels of marketing such as television, radio, print, and billboard ads. Yes, they are still used by many companies today and if used effectively, they can give big income returns to your business. When the internet was born, it transformed the world into a global village. People in different time zones can now communicate in a click or press of a button. The internet has become so diverse that even things from your imagination can be found in some corners of World Wide Web. Today, there are two billion internet users; thus, it gave way to the conception of new breeds of marketers and advertisers. What is Digital Marketing? Digital marketing refers to the use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and digital billboards, among others, to interact with consumers. It can also be defined as the promotion of brands, products or services using different forms of digital media to reach and engage customers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective way. Compared to traditional forms of marketing, digital marketing is less expensive and you can have instant access to tangible feedbacks and reports about who saw or heard the ad, and took action. With digital marketing, you can see how a campaign performs in real-time – what is being viewed, how often, duration, and even statistics such as sales conversions. How is it different with Internet Marketing? The internet plays a significant role in digital marketing which is why people tend to assume that it is synonymous with Internet Marketing. Nevertheless, they are somewhat different in the sense that internet marketing is just one of the categories of digital marketing. Internet marketing involves marketing approaches such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and pay-per-click, to mention a few, while the use of podcasts, fax broadcasts, text blasts, instant messaging, mobile apps, and digital telephony and video, among others, as marketing channels narrow down the definition of internet marketing. 3 India Digital Marketing Statistics – 2016 As per a recent report by Boston consulting group, India has one of the largest and fastest growing populations of Internet users in the world—190 million as of June 2014 and growing rapidly. India already has the third largest Internet population in the world today, after China with 620 million and the US with 275 million. In addition, India already has 100 million active Facebook users today, the second largest number after the US and Canada with 152 million. As one fast forwards, it is estimated that there will be over 500 million Internet users in India by 2018—making India the second largest population of Internet users in the world. The growth in the Internet base in India has been exponential. It took 20 years from the introduction of the Internet to reach 100 million users. The second 100 million will likely be reached within three years, and the third in less than a year. In fact, the next four years will see nearly 350 million additional Internet users. The primary drivers of this exponential growth have been expansion to small town / rural India, increased affordability due to lower cost data-enabled handsets, and the ever increasing awareness of, and need for, the Internet. Graph No. 1.1 Fig Graph for reach of population towards Internet usage 4 NEED Social Media is the current big buzzword in the world of Internet Marketing, and with good reason. It is already such a big part of the Internet culture. It is here to stay and should be ignored by marketers, or indeed anybody, at their peril. It is important to understand WHY people use these websites, as there is a broad demographic on these sites. Some people use them for business purposes, to network and find new deals. Then there are others who use social networking sites for purely personal reasons and are totally oblivious to the fact that there is a business presence in the social networking environment at all.It is fascinating to see that there are so many different things going on in one place, and even more incredible that they seem to all work in harmony. IT IS NEEDED: 1. To know the opinion of people for social networking sites, how do they use it, what are the sites they use and how these sites help them in socializing 2. Formulate and implement marketing strategies for branding, promoting and communicating the information to the customers. 3. What are the attractive form of advertisements and improve the quality of advertisement 4. Are we reaching the right audience, and if so, are we reaching them effectively? SCOPE 1 Sample size: The sample had to be restricted to 50 respondents only from the total people visited 4fins. 2 Time: Time duration given for this project was 60 days. 3 Personal biases: Personal biases of the respondents while answering the questionnaire as survey could not go into personal details 5 1.2 OBJECTIVES To find five most effective strategy of social media marketing. To find out the awareness of social media marketing. To find effective brand communication for social media promotion. To study key business divers at Finacus solution Private limited. To study key trends in social media marketing 6 1.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY To analyze and find the effectiveness of communication strategy in developing brand, communication through social networking sites was done with the survey method and content analysis in the research. This research concentrates on collecting and thereby analyzing the collected data systems to re solve problems that are selected by the researcher. In a way, this research has got wider meanings. For some people reading books or surfing the internet for information is research. As a matter of fact these activities are just some part of the entire job. Basic research structures are related to the sense of collecting authentic and original data and in the same way analyzing these data thoroughly as well methodically to derive the result that lay underneath. Here, data does not necessary mean any numerical. Words too are data. The function of marketing research is to connect the target consumer to the seller or the marketers. The modes of this connectivity are through information that is specifically used for the purpose of to identifying and relevantly defining the aspects of marketing. Elements of generating refined modes of marketing action; dealings with opportunities and problems, monitoring the recent and past marketing performance; and above all improving marketing as a process are integral to it. Marketing research uses the sources of information to address selective issues; like those of designs that helps in collection information and thereby implements and manages entire data collection process. It further analyses the results along with the communication for deriving the findings and their ways of implication. 7 Methods of data collection: Methods were used for data collection are, Contact Methods : It typically consist of mail, phone, personal interaction, and various online methods. We had conducted this method by contacting the audience through phones, mail, personal interaction and online information portals We had prepared a questionnaire which we asked our customers to answer them, The Survey Method: It helped to identify the reach of the brand among its target audience, ways of impact, usage of these social networking sites and access to these form of communication. Surveys are the most common method of collecting Primary Data. Surveys are the best way to get the descriptive information that you need for your marketing intelligence. Simply put, surveys collect data by asking other people a series of questions about their personal knowledge, emotions, attitudes, preferences, and buying behaviors. Surveys can provide you a wealth of data. There is always a golden nugget, a piece of data that can give you the insight you need to figure out the direction of your next campaign. However, there are drawbacks to the data you collect via surveys. Often people just don't recall some of the information that you are asking for, and as a result, they are unable to answer the questions. Therefore the response that they give will not be the complete truth, it may be something that they feel you want to hear. Sometimes people are unwilling to provide information that they might deem "private". This prevents completely truthful responses, and it skews the data that you are analyzing. If the responses seem too good to be true...they just may be. The content analysis: Another method used to analyze the communication strategy of different social networking sites with certain parameters among top three Indian social networking sites which are tabulated with results. 8 1.4 LITERATURE REVIEW Kaplan and Heinlein (2010) define social media as “a group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.” According to Kaplan and Heinlein (2010) web 2.0 is a platform where content is continuously altered by all operators in a sharing and collaborative way. Web 2.0 is a web based technology which helps to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss and modify user –generated content. Social media are the websites which are build upon the technological foundations of web 2.0 that help a user to create user generated contents that can be shared. This technology allows a user to create and publish the content on the social media networks. This information can be shared with other members of the social media website, who are connected with the user. This process is interactive where other members can also respond in different ways. Mangold and Faulds (2009) describe ―social media as the set of online word of mouth forums which includes blogs, discussion boards, forums or social networks to name a few. Using all mobile and web-based technologies, social media creates highly interactive platforms by bringing together individuals and creating communities. Internet has a lot of websites; each of them has different functional attributes and caters to different sections of society. Websites like facebook are for general masses but LinkedIn is focused on professional networking. Media sharing sites (i.e. YouTube, Picassa and Flickr) or blogging platforms (i.e. blogspot, wordpress) are also members of this ecosystem called social media (Kietzmann et al., 2011).Social media has equipped the organization to establish an direct relationship with the consumers. Both of the organizations and consumers are free to generate content on the web pages, which further leads to conversations and discussion. Organization on one end are provided with an opportunity to share their information with a large base of customers and on the other end consumers are also free to publish any content whether positive or negative regarding the information. Social media marketing is a new marketing strategy which almost every business is adopting to reach their consumers on the virtual networks. If you have an idea and you want it to reach millions, at a very little cost, then social media is the only way-out. Entertainment companies were the first to adopt the social media as a promotional tool. Weinberg (2009) has defined social media marketing as the process that empowers individuals to promote their websites, 9 products, or services through online social channels and tap into a much larger community that may not have been available via traditional channels. So if we keep it simple, social media marketing is the process where organizations use social media websites to build rush on their company official websites. It does not stop here but organizations also inform the potential customers of happenings in the organization, launch of the new model or product and latest news about the organization through social media applications. Gordhamer (2009) has related social media marketing to the relationship marketing where firms need to shift from “trying to sell” to “making connections” with the consumers. This explanations of social media marketing takes us to the other side of marketing, where building relations with the potential consumers is the key to repeated purchases and enhanced brand loyalty. Social Media is an innovative tool that organizations use for creating a very strong public relation with the customers on the virtual networks (Jan & Khan, 2014). Maintaining public relations through social media has become easy because a large number of potential consumers are available on the virtual networks. And making connection with consumers using social media is only some clicks away. Today‟s customers are more powerful and busy; therefore, companies should be reachable and available in every social media communication channel such as Face book, Twitter, Blogs, Forums at any time (Gordhamer, 2009). Exploiting the opportunities provided by the social media communication channels is important for every organization. Dimension of the Social media marketing (Asa’ad, &Anas, 2014) There are five dimension of the social media marketing, which means these five things are required to create connections with consumers or to building traffic to company websites. Online Communities: A company or business can use the social media to build a community around its products/business. Vibrant communities create loyalty and encourage discussions, which can contribute towards business development and improvement. (Taprial, &Kanwar, 2012). Interaction: A Facebook page or Twitter account can notify all its followers of specific subject quickly and simultaneously (Berselli, Burger, & Close, 2012). Social networking sites enable greater interaction with the online community through broadcasting up-to-date, consumer relevant information. (Fischer, &Reuber, 2011) 10 Sharing of Content: The sharing dimension is about the extent to which an individual ex- changes, distributes and receives content in a social media setting. (Babac, 2011) Accessibility: The social media is easily accessible and takes minimal or no costs to use. Social media is easy to use and does not require any special skills, knowledge to use. (Taprial, &Kanwar, 2012) Credibility: It is all about delivering your message clearly to the people, establishing credibility for what you say or do, connecting emotionally with your target audience, motivating the buyer and generating loyal customers. The social media provides a very good platform for all businesses (big or small) to network and reach out to their target audience, connect with them directly and generate trust by listening to what they have to say. (Taprial, &Kanwar, 2012) This finally leads us to redefine the Social media marketing on the basis of functional block of the social media websites. “Social media marketing is a process where seven functional blocks (identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationship, reputation and groups) of a social media website are utilized for promotion of a brand, organization, political party, a personality, an idea or an event.” So when we use social media for promotion of an idea or a product that is social media marketing. 11 1.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY Sample size- The sample size was small which comprises only 50 respondents from total visited customers. Personal bias- The survey did not want to go into personal details and stick only to job and organizational related issues and there was a personal bias of the respondents while answering the questionnaires. Time Duration: Time duration in the organization was only 60 days and hence there was a time constraint. 12 PART 2 13 2.1 COMPANY PROFILE Over the past several years, Finacus has grown as a trusted and competent banking solutions and payment systems partner for over 100 financial institutions. Our customers range from Public Sector Banks, State Cooperative Banks (SCBs), District Central Co-operative Banks (DCCBs), Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) spread across India as well as overseas. Our international clients based in Africa are initial steps towards the global presence. Finacus is empaneled as a vendor for customized software development by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) which is an umbrella organization for all retail payments systems in India. Our switching products like FinCONNECT & FinMOBICONNECT have been concurrent with the infrastructure developed by NPCI like National Financial Switch (NFS), RuPay & Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). Finacus has enabled TJSB Bank to be among the first set of banks to go live on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for simplifying digital payments at a national level. Finacus has been a part of Bharat Bill Payment System pilot project launched by NPCI with first 26 Operating units. Our clients PMC bank and TJSB bank got the first mover's advantage by participating in this project. Our recent switching projects include enabling ATM, POS, ECommerce & IMPS for State Cooperative Bank (SCB) & 17 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB) for the entire state of Odisha in India. 14 2.2 VISION To build robust customer-centric solutions for global banking and emerge as a leading payments system service provider being highly valued by our customers, partners and employees. MISSION Implementing customized and service-oriented approach in our products and services through disruptive innovation. Collaborating and Co-existing with partners for strategic alliances gearing mutual growth. Mentoring our people to build powerful leaderships that ensure market leadership in the long run. VALUES Commitment We take ownership of contributing to our customers' success and keep our vision and values at the forefront of decision making Innovation We set high standards of professional excellence by encouraging innovative ideas into our products and services. Integrity Our fair and ethical approach forms the foundation of our stakeholders' trust Passion It's our passion towards path-breaking technology that makes us our customers' competitive edge. 15 TRUST Finacus has a product basket that deals with financially critical data and demonstrates the reliability and sustainability of its clients. Hence, we do understand the importance of regulatory compliances, certifications and recognitions. We take utmost care to build concrete foundation of our offerings by being affiliated to and/or connected with most of the ace organizations which command regulation or breed reliance. 16 PART 3 17 RESEARCH METHODLOGY “Research methodology is a method of studying problems whose solutions are to be desired partly or wholly from the facts. These facts may be statements of opinions, historical facts, those contents in records and reports, the results of tests, answers to questionnaire, experimental data of any sort and so forth” - W. S. Monroe. TYPE OF RESEARCH: EXPLORATORY The RESEARCH METHODOLOGY for the project is done with the help of survey through questionnaire. In this project, the questionnaire was a key tool of research to gain knowledge about the employee engaging activities and to know responses of the employees towards these activities. Primary Data: The primary data has been collected with the help of personal survey by using questionnaire AND analytics Secondary Data: The secondary data has been collected through following sources: Monthly Reports of Digital Marketing Past Survey Data Data through Internet source 18 Data Collection Tool: Online Forum Data Depth Online Interview collection Communities tools Web survey- Chats Research design: In Research design a Descriptive research has been used. This research study adopted survey and content analysis in order to find the effectiveness and the impact of communication in branding any product or the service among the target market through social networking sites like Face book, Twitter and Instagram. Survey: Survey was conducted randomly among Face book, Twitter and Instagram user community, by sending questionnaire through online to collect the individual opinion from the respondents. 19 Sampling: Non probability sampling technique is used to collect the opinion from the online respondents. The total population is social networking user community, but to collect the effective data the sampling is constrained to 50 respondents of total number of customers visited 4fins of various age groups like young adults, graduates, businessmen’s etc. Sample size: 50 customers visited 4fins. Content analysis In content analysis, the following three popular social networking sites were selected to find the effective brand communication among its users (Face book, Twitter and Instagram). Parameters and units of analysis: 1. Target group: category of audience visiting these sites. 2. Types of advertisements: what are the types of brand communication followed by them? 3. Ads placement: how do these sites place their ad in their pages? 4. Communication strategy: kinds of brand promotion used by them. 5. Visual appealing factors: regarding the appearance of these sites. 6. User Interaction: kinds of participation with the brand. 7. Accessibility: how legibly they present themselves. 8. User interest: the forms of expectations from users in these sites. 9. Customization: the factors that the users could create by themselves. 20 3.1 DATA ANALYSIS Primary Data: The primary data has been collected with the help of personal survey by using questionnaire AND analytics Secondary Data: The secondary data has been collected through following sources: Monthly Reports of Digital Marketing Past Survey Data Data through Internet source 21 3.2 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS The survey is done demographically on the basis of Age category QUESTION 1: What Is your Age? What Is Your Age ? 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 55 And Above 45-55 35-45 25-35 15-25 ANALYSIS: The bar chart show that maximum people are 15-25 age limit 22 QUESTION 2: How often do you use internet? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The pie chart shows that there are maximum number (46%) of people who use internet quiet often that is more than 3Hrs a day which states that social marketing could be effective as people spend most of the time over internet. 23 QUESTION 3: Are you aware of social networking sites? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The pie chart shows that there are maximum number (73%) of people are aware of social networking sites this states that these sites are useful for marketing on other hand 27% of people are unaware of it for which survey and campaign should be carried out for making people aware of it. 24 QUESTION 4: On which of these online communities do you hold a personal account? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that there are maximum number (82%) of people are on facebook which states facebook is a most effective tool for social marketing. The analysis shows there are people on linkedIn as well which can be also used as a tool. 25 QUESTION 5: On which of these online communities do you prefer promoting your business (if any) for your business? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that there are maximum number people who prefer using facebook for their business (if any) this shows that social media marketing is trending now a days for promoting businesses and facebook is most preferred site. 26 QUESTION 6: Which of this social marketing application have you used for your business in the past (if any)? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that there are maximum number(50%) people did not use any of the application for marketing that states they are unaware of the marketing applications. People can be told about the marketing applications by various campaigns. This is the opportunity for 4fins to increase their business. 27 QUESTION 7: Which is most used social networking application used by you? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that Facebook and Whatsapp are the most used social networking applications which states they are effective tool for marketing. 28 QUESTION 8: Are you a member of any of the online communities for promoting your business? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The pie chart shows that maximum people (56%) are not member of any communities on social networking sites which states people only use it to connect with friends and only 44% use it for communicate with staff members which states now a days people use it business use also. 29 QUESTION 9: Do view advertisement over any of social media applications given below? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that many advertisement are showed on Facebook this states that many marketing companies use it as a tool for marketing. Facebook is the most popular social networking site. 30 QUESTION 10: What kinds of ads have you come across in these sites? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that maximum of people came across various types of advertisements at some point of time which include web banner, video ads, popups, flash ads etc. 31 QUESTION 11: What kinds of Brand communication attract you? ANALYSIS: INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that maximum people are attracted by web banner thus it can be used for brand communication. 32 QUESTION 12: Which drivers do you think makes 4fins different from other competitors? ANALYSIS: Which drivers do you think makes 4fins different from other competitors? 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Inbound marketing Inbound marketing Content Optimization Google Authorship Buisness Blogginng Prevasive Mobility& Responsive Design INTERPRETATION: The bar chart shows that maximum people think key driver of 4fins is mobility & Responsive Design which makes it different from other competitors. 33 3.3 LEARNING THROUGH PROJECT I was appointed as a content strategist and digital marketing trainee for two months. Initially for a week itself I was under training to understand the work culture of the company “Finacus Solutoins Pvt. Ltd.”. First week, I was asked to look through pages on Facebook made by “Finacus Solutoins Pvt. Ltd.” These were Company was doing its digital marketing. I was asked to look through the pattern of posts and status uploaded and shared on facebook and instagram and twitter. I was explained the role I need to play in the company and what all things I need to do as a digital marketing itern. Before that I was explained two things on Facebook which I had to know before posting. That was image of post is called `creative copy` and content with that image was its `creative status`. Every brand is associated with its unique code and it is identified in the company by its code. A briefing about every company was done to me by my senior MR. Suraj Salunkhe.He gave me a brief introduction as to how to create posts or creative’s for these Brands. I studied about each company for creating the creative copy. I made 6 creative copies and creative status and one Video of mobile banking app introduction video (in Spanish), out of which 3 were selected and 1 video selected for . It was a big achievement for me that at a very early time my creative copies were sanctioned. These copies were going to be live on Facebook and Instagram. 34 3.4 CREATIVE DESIGNES BY ME CREATIVE`S STATUS Introducing the new application of Mobile banking. Easy way to transacton your money. Now your bank is in your pocket 35 The new CENCOPAN Mobile Banking Application. Activate in your phone now. Finacus Introducing mobile banking application. Login in your app now 36 Pay your all payments using your phone Gas bill Light bill Mobile recharge Instagram, Facebook and Twitter Analytics These analytics shows the brand promoted by 4fins and its performance on different social media applications. It will also help to show the key trends in recent days and its performance. 1) Instagram Analytics This analysis is conducted, To know the Performance of our client’s Brand's Instagram Account. Benchmark the Brand's Performance Against it’s Competitors Fig.- Snapshot of Instagram Analytics 37 2) facebook Analytics Measure your Fan Page's amplification, reach, content, and engagement trends, even determine how users are liking, commenting on, and sharing content from your site. Large brands can analyze aggregate performance of up to 150 Fan Pages in a single report and report on all your Global Pages in one place. Understand the Impact of Your Social Ad Spend Benchmark Your Brand's Performance Against Competitors Measure Your Customer Service Efforts on Facebook Compare Your Facebook Efforts Against Other Social Networks Fig.- Snapshot of Facebook Analytics 38 3) Twitter Analytics Get report-ready Twitter analytics to help you improve your content, engagement, reach and impact. For this analytics system constantly monitors your Twitter data for new trends and outliers and automatically adds key insights into your dashboard’s insight stream. Immediately identify insights that can shape your strategy Learn when to post to drive more engagement Pinpoint important spikes in impressions Quickly decide what’s working and what isn’t Fig. Snapshot of Twitter Analytics 39 The info graphic below shows why most of the brands inclining towards paid social media ads as a key part of their digital marketing strategy in 2016 We have already jumped into a new financial year and most of the businesses are looking for the latest digital marketing trends that ensure to increase ROI and Profits for the businesses. It’s always a wise choice to invest your valuable time and money into free and paid advertising to generate revenue but still lots of things need to be done to make your business a Brand. Fig- Graph comparing between different digital marketing strategies 1) Marketing Automation Tools 2) Content Marketing Trend 3) Big data 4) Mobile Marketing Trend 5) Conversion rate optimization(CRO) TOP 5 EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES : 1) Marketing Automation Tools 2016: As per the research by The Aberdeen Group -Marketing automation tools can increase conversion rates by 50%. To avoid the human errors and repetitive task, Automation 40 tool will help you a lot. Here is an Info graphic that shows most popular digital marketing automation tool in 2016 Internet Marketing Tools: Site Analytics Content Creation Social Media Management Paid Advertising Report and Analysis 2) Content Marketing Trend 2016: A unique and valuable content is a key factor of any digital marketing strategy. Businesses will depend on custom content marketing to generate revenue and to increase ROI in the year 2016. We have already seen that Modern SEO focus on custom content marketing, same in year 2016Custom Content Marketing campaigns will play a vital role for every business as 75% of CEOs believe that custom content marketing is the future of Online Marketing. Companies will follow many channels to boost organic results and enhance customer engagement with the help of custom content marketing campaign. Professional marketers are likely to follow unique and custom content marketing techniques to target right audience at the right time. In addition with the above thought entrepreneurs will need to understand that content marketing is not a single day or one time process but it’s an ongoing process that need a close watch and result driven planning 3) Big data: “Big Data To Become Small”. This is a twofold prediction. Firstly the use of masses of data as an indicator of success will turn to the quality of the data being collected. This will mean that the variety for each company is likely to decrease, but the specific data that will be collected will become far more efficient, useful and plentiful. As companies realize that most of what they collect isn’t being used and just taking up storage space, this will become more apparent and the use of this data will come under increased scrutiny. Secondly, the term big data is likely to become used more infrequently as a business function, instead this is likely to be broken down into the sum of its parts. Database management and data science technically fall under the same category at the moment, when the reality is that they are different. Companies are likely to realize this and use the term as a catch all rather than a function in itself. 4) Mobile Marketing Trend 2016: “Mobile friendly” will be the mantra of year 2016. Mobile content marketing will help to get the momentum in your effort towards a digital marketing campaign. As per 41 the recent survey by the end of year 2016, 95% of population will have smart phones so having a good plan for mobile marketing will be necessary for any organization. In 2016, most of the marketing experts will show their interest into mobile apps market that will surely help to convert leads into sales. Most of the professional Internet marketing and web development companies will provide custom mobile applications to their clients at a reasonable price. Hence adopting mobile technology will be a trend in year 2016. 5) Conversion rate optimization(CRO):Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the system by which you increase the percentage of your website visitors who take a desired action on your website. It means optimizing your website so that a greater proportion of your traffic finds it useful and informative and does what you want them to do. Conversion rate is the single most important metric to determine digital marketing success in today’s world. Some of the reasons why CRO is such a buzzword on the internet today are as follows: It gives great ROI – While acquiring paid traffic can be quite expensive, the expenditure of increasing conversions is miniscule. To compare, a Small Business Plan with VWO is equivalent to the cost of around 5 Google Adwords clicks. The returns generated from CRO can be massive, as even small tweaks on the website can result in significant increase in sales and leads generated. It helps you in getting more of the “right” kind of customers – CRO gets you customers/leads who have evaluated your products/services and want to engage with you. They are much more likely to turn into loyal customers/promoters for your business. It helps to make your website more focused – As you keep doing CRO and tweaking your website, you discover that you gradually start eliminating all unnecessary elements from your webpages. Your website becomes more focused on the primary value proposition your customers are looking for. Thus, CRO helps your business become better. 42 3.5 FINDINGS Through objectives: 1. To find five most effective strategy of social media marketing- FINDING: According to the survey the five most effective strategy of social media marketing are: 1. Marketing Automation Tools 2. Content Marketing Trend 3. Big data 4. Mobile Marketing Trend 5. Conversion rate optimization(CRO) 2. To find out the awareness of social media marketing. FINDING: maximum people agree to the fact that they spend most of their time over internet and 74% people of total sample population are aware of the social media marketing 3. To find effective brand communication for social media promotion. FINDING: Maximum people agree to the fact Facebook and Whatsapp are observed as the most used social networking applications and effective for the brand communication. 4. To study key business divers at 4fins FINDING: Majority people think key driver of 4fins is mobility & Responsive Design which makes it different from other competitors. 5. To study key trends in social media marketing FINDING: The trends of social media marketing are: o Facebook o Whatsapp o Twitter o Instagram o Linkedin According to people communicated during the survey Facebook and Whatsapp are the most popular trends in social media marketing 43 OTHER FINDINGS: Facebook and Whatsapp are observed as the most used social networking applications. People use social networking sites for promoting business and have communities for their business. There are minimum people who have used marketing applications in the past. Majority of people agree to fact they view advertisements on social networking sites. Maximum people are attracted and came across to Web Banner and Video ads. Most of the people sees advertisement of Facebook, whatsapp and LinkedIn 44 3.6 SUGGESTIONS 1. Communication should be more preferred than advertising. So, if the brand is communicated well and remembered by the audience, then it is a greatest success to the company for their promotion through social media. 2. Promotional way of advertising is best: the usual banner ads and video ads attract them. So advertising must be interactive, promotional and in innovative form to hold the audience. 3. Advertisement should target the individuals than the mass. If an ad is hosted for a group then that would be no advantage in delivering specified information. 4. Adding more multimedia elements to have more interactive factors in fan pages and group would benefit the brand user. 5. Facebook and Whatsapp is the most popular social networking applications and must be used for social media promotions. 45 3.7 CONCLUSION Communication about the product or service provides a major contribution to brand competition in the market. It not only provides information about a product or service but also promotes creative innovation. Besides advertising, it also facilitates consumer satisfaction. The hidden fact is that no brand can progress without effective communication strategy to attract their customers or users. Big and small variety of brands nowadays laid their base on social network communication to get recognized in the target market. Social networking sites users of Face book, Twitter and Orkut have become a personal, product and corporate branding hub in India nowadays in digital era. Every brand that exists on social networking sites has the same core features and benefits, such as the ability to create a page, share resources, add multimedia and much more. Social networking sites are filled with potential users who are mainly young adults. They spend more time in these networking sites due to heavy commercial contents, entertainment and social gathering. So, product or service communicators throng their ads in these areas with more and more interactive and with fascinating factors so that their brand identity is developed among the right choice of focused audience. Advertisers and brands uses social networking sites as the major resource for their promotion and developing brand identity among the focused market. 46 3.8 BIBLIOGRAPHY WEBSITES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/social-media-marketing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_marketing 3.9 ANNEXURES 47 How often do you use internet? * o Once a week o 2-3 days a week o 1-2 hrs a day o more than 3 hrs a day o Other: Are you aware of social networking sites? * o YES o NO On which of these online communities do you hold a personal account? * o Facebook o Twitter o LinkedIn o Instagram o YouTube o None o Other: 2. On which of these online communities do you prefer promoting your business (if any) for your business? o Facebook o Twitter o LinkedIn o Instagram o YouTube o Zomato o None o Other: 3. Which of this social marketing application have you used for your business in the past (if any)? o Facebook Business Pages o zomato o Twitter pages o Google AdWords 48 o None o Other: 4. Which is most used social networking application used by you? * o Facebook o Twitter o Instagram o Whatsapp o LinkedIn o None 5. Are you a member of any of the online communities for promoting your business? o YES o NO 6. Do view advertisement over any of social media applications given below * o Facebook o Twitter o Whatsapp o Instagram o LinkedIn o None 7 What kinds of ads have you come across in these sites? * a. Web banner b. Pop ups c. Flash ads d. Video ads e. Others 8 What kinds of Brand communication attract you? * f. Web banner g. Pop ups h. Flash ads i. Video ads j. Quiz k. Other: 49