Times of India's new magazine Top of Mind featured our successful social media campaign the Great Driving Challenge in their second issue (December '09). Available at bookstores and at magazine shacks all over the city - and right here on the web too. Check it out below - we're really proud of the EC team's efforts on the campaign, and we feel we've helped make a strong case for effectiveness of social media in India. Social Media Case Study for Mitsubishi Cedia *Social Media Marketing Case Study for Mitsubishi Cedia as printed in Times of India's Top of Mind magazine View it on Scribd | Download the .pdf

I have been fascinated with some stats on Facebook Fan Pages that I stumbled upon yesterday (referenced at the end of this post).

I quote verbatim:

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"Overall, the average number of fans for any given page is approximately 2,104. This number is thrown off by those pages with millions of fans even though there are only 816 pages with more than half a million fans. Since the number 2,104 completely throws off the average I decided to go ahead and calculate the mode. The most frequent number of fans for Facebook Pages is 7. While our system has tracked over 61,400 pages which now have 0 fans, many of those pages have actually been removed by Facebook and as such we are not including pages with 0 fans.



Based on our numbers you have approximately a 40 percent chance of obtaining more than 100 fans but only a 9.5 percent chance of attracting more than 1,000. Additionally, only 5 percent of users have more than 3,000 fans and half that number have attracted over 10,000. 237 pages have surpassed the 1 million mark, in contrast to Twitter where only 14 users have accomplished such a feat.

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So it seems that we are not doing too bad with our Royal Challengers Fanatic Fans community page on Facebook that we have been steadily working on for last 3 months. Here are some insights that may be of interest.





Coming back to the data source which measured the number of Fans - I wonder why many clients (and consultants?) are so obsessed with just the # of Fans. So here is our 2 cents on the topic:

a) It is very important to keep a watchful eye on the rate of growth. You need to build slowly.

b) It is far more important to keep an eye on the engagement metrics; a key component which does not get measured by Facebook, is the volume of original content contributed by fans (i.e. user generated original content within your brand page). Encourage Fan contributed content.

c) If nobody engages around content you produce, and assume you have fan base of 5000, it is like sending email to your database of 5000 and getting a 0% click through. You can always console yourself that you got some exposure, but you will be kidding yourself.

d) Fans can easily "tune out" (hide) your outbound communication. It is like delivering daily emails updates to a spam folder. Keep updates to a general level of tolerance

Finally, don't fall for cheap tricks from your vendors, like these. Unfortunately, short-cuts just do n0t work, and hurt your brand in the long run.






If you want to read the entire article, referenced above - The long tail of Facebook Pages, click here.



India Counts

Indian Bloggers Directory

Over the last one month several prospects have shown an interest to 'do something' on social media. There is so much peer pressure out there, that life seems incomplete without a facebook app and a twitter page; and lately 1 in 3 people ask me if we can also do something on Linkedin, now that it is open for all.

We hate to disappoint, but clients always look at us disapprovingly when we encourage them to explain to us what they want to achieve by building the next Facebook app. "We need to engage our users. We are looking for a really cool application, something that can go like crazily viral! By the way we have like very low budgets... maybe a Lakh or two! Can we build something like farmville? "

It is hard to negotiate such enthusiasm and start asking hard questions like "Sir - but why exactly do you need a Facebook App?" Prospects are dejected when we tell them that the risks of failure (of a Facebook App) far outweigh success - and it is important to mitigate those risks using a mix of many other social marketing options, which are equally interesting.

But first, what would you really like to do with your TG, we ask? Benefit from exposure, entertain, educate or have a conversation?





With the learnings gleaned from 30 odd facebook and orkut social apps (we developed in last 2 years), peppered with a few flops and some mega-hits, our prospects would stand to gain if they listened to our advice on what works and what does not. Social Media marketing needs a certain level of maturity, and it is best to get started only after you have covered your basics in digital marketing.

Experience Commerce team moved into their cool new office recently. Lot more space to accommodate a fast growing team, more meeting rooms and a lounge to relax and play. Come visit us sometime!

Pens are a physical commodity, you would never think that people would engage with them online on a daily basis. That's exactly what 1,000+ Facebook users are doing with Linc pens via the Facebook application ˜Linc My Diary"





Linc wanted users to engage with the Linc pens in a fun innovative manner leveraging social media. We came up with the Linc My Diary application allowing users to virtually touch and try out Linc's range of pens on their favorite online social destination Facebook.

The application allows users to write in their virtual diary using a variety of Linc pens. Each pen has its own personality - choosing Glitter gives you a feminine curvy font whereas Carbon Dark leads to a more professional font. Users can also invite their friends to see their diaries and comment on them, thus giving the application viral wings.




Linc My Diary went live on 3^rd September, 2009 and amassed 1,000+ active monthly users in first two weeks of launch, without any promotion or media push.

LINC is the latest addition to our suite of Facebook Applications, which includes brands such as BAILEYS, AIRTEL, AIRCEL, MAYBELLINE, KODAK, AMITY amongst others.

Our latest campaign that launched a week back, is titled the 'Fanatic Fans Challenge' for Club Royal Challengers Bangalore. EC team won the pitch with United Spirits Ltd, espousing our commitment to social media. We demonstrated our passion to take a "club website" completely social, far beyond a point anyone had ever dared to dream, till date.

We shared a common vision with the management to socialize the website and just give it up to the Fans. Moving forward as the site continues to evolve there will be shared spaces, between the club's editorial team, the cricketers, and the fanatic fans. There will be healthy interaction, exchange of ideas, stories and opinions, all leading to making royalchallengers.com the one and only destination for Royal Challengers Fans worldwide.

Continue to follow the progress as we move through uncharted waters. A current campaign is on to hunt out the TOP 27 bloggers, photographers and fanatic fans. These talented folks will form the core of the creative community and power the Fan Media Channel. A select team of 3 elite members will get to travel with the team, and provide the rest of us with a ringside view, up close and personal with players, coaches and support staff. The site will also feature live matches in a manner not seen before and we hope fans will turn on their TV and also tune in online to royalchallengers.com simultaneously. The experience will be exhilarating.

Read on the TGDC blog comments (http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/blog)

Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game. These words of Donald Trump now have a meaning that I understand.

This challenge organized by TGDC is not just a life changing event for us participants but also a game changing event for the Marketing Industry. It shows that putting hoardings with hot models is not the only way of getting attention and getting people excited. It has proved that money alone cannot get brands noticed, but creativity alone can.

Being a publisher I am pretty sure that this challenge will become a case study in the 14th South Asian Edition of Marketing Management by Philip Kotler.

Read on Team-BHP Forum (India's hottest destination for Auto Fanatics)

I've been watching the GDC unfold from day one and gotta say : This was BRILLIANT marketing by HM-Mitsubishi. Not once in the past 5 years had so many people visited an HM-Mitsubishi website, or had their brands created such a buzz in the market. I know for a fact that other brands are watching closely and will be coming out with their own in-house versions of the GDC soon. Coming from a manufacturer which has effectively over-slept (while the competition walked all over) was most unexpected. I hope some of this new found vigour rubs off on HM's product planning division (new Lancer, EVO X anyone?).

GTO

Buzzed by a fellow enterpreneur

I must say that Experience Commerce did an immaculate job with TGDC and TGDC is by far one of *the most* exciting online contests that I have ever come across. I think you guys are wonderful and can give your competition (name suppressed) a run for their money.

Another fact that I really admire and appreciate was the way you guys handled all the tantrums that were thrown at TGDC. Shows some real character. I'm certain and positive that Team Experience Commerce will pioneer the Indian online space.

The first phase of our latest campaign " great driving challenge" for Brand Mitsubishi-Cedia, is now over. In just 3 weeks the destination served close to 6M page-views and attracted over 20,000 applicants. The traffic curve shows how EC team leveraged social media, to build a core base of supporters, towards the very beginning of the campaign.

Unlike media led campaigns, where the traffic peaks with bursts of advertisements (online/print/TV), the traffic on greatdrivingchallenge.com shows consistent organic growth. Only social media led campaigns, if successful, show this kind of healthy growth.