While Facebook and Twitter continue to dominate social media strategies of brands, the days of obligatory twice a day posts and tweets are long gone. With clutter not only in the way of competing brands but also several social media platforms, innovation is the key to survive. We take a look at what brands are doing beyond Facebook and Twitter
BY HENNA ACHHPAL
The idea began with the lofty aim of exploring brands that have made innovative use of social media platforms beyond Facebook and Twitter. However it was a search that didn’t last too long. Despite the availability of several social media platforms, and new ones catching the fancy of the digitally savvy Indian almost every month, brands don’t seem to be catching up with their audiences at the same pace. Count the number of social media apps on your phone currently. I’m sure the number goes beyond five to say the least. Yet, not too many brands are willing to let go of the golden geese that are Facebook and Twitter. Considering the user base that both provide in India, Facebook with approximately 112 million users and Twitter with about 33 million, brands can’t be blamed entirely. Even the case studies I received weren’t devoid of Facebook and Twitter completely. “The idea behind using SoundCloud for 5 Star was to give Twitter a voice and we used Twitter to promote and move the content. The reach that we got was because of Twitter so there’s no getting away from it,” says Vikram Menon, President & Country Head, OgilvyOne India referring to the social media activity of Cadbury 5 Star during the recent ICC Cricket World Cup, which inspired the idea for this story to begin with. Menon wished me luck with my hunt for case studies saying he’d been looking for them himself.
In the continually changing digital world, Facebook itself doesn’t look anything like it did when it first started back in 2004. Even Twitter has undergone several changes since its launch. With newer platforms threatening the existing ones to extinction (remember hi5?), keeping up with times and evolving has been the only way to survive. Yet there are brands who continue to use social media for obligatory twice a day posts and tweets replicated from Facebook that generate little to no engagement. Maybe those brands can take a note or two from these brands that have utilized the potential of social media to their benefit and are scaling newer heights.
THE TV OF SOCIAL MEDIA
With the highest user numbers in the country, Facebook and Twitter have certainly become the TV of Social Media so much so that brands hesitate to move beyond these platforms, that promise maximum reach, in their social media strategies. Experts talk about the lack of innovation on social media and point out what’s keeping brands from exploring other social media platforms
OTHER PLATFORMS POSE LIMITATIONS
There are limitations to the other platforms. For example, WhatsApp is big but brands can’t integrate with it, WhatsApp doesn’t allow you to plug-in with their APIs to get any data off it. The biggest group you can create is 100 users. A lot of these platforms also demand content creation on a regular basis and a lot of it is video content so you need to keep creating. There are indeed clients that are asking us to move beyond Facebook and Twitter but it’s more in terms of an experiment.
Vikram Menon
President & Country Head, OgilvyOne India
BRAND COMMUNITIES HAVE LOST THEIR WAY
With change in the Facebook algorithm, where concept of community building has been replaced by mass broadcast communication, brands are being forced to look at digital and social media engagement opportunities which are beyond Facebook and Twitter. In the coming months we will see a huge amount of content marketing and a surge in mobile app based engagements.
Hareesh Tibrewala
Joint CEO, Social Wavelength
ONE CONTENT FITS ALL CONCEPT PREVAILS
It was easier when the algorithms on Facebook gave you organic reach but that has changed now and brands have to innovate a lot more on social, using advocacy and smart media buying to harness its power. While other platforms are growing and have good engagement, not much effort has been put into educating clients about their use, and content creation exclusively for them. Currently, a one content fits all platform concept continues to prevail. The new platforms also lack clear KPIs to measure them in order to define a brand’s ROI.
Shamsuddin Jasani
MD, Isobar
LOWER NUMBERS, LESSER IMPACT
All other social networks have much lower user numbers to have the same impact. Twitter’s real time nature is allowing brands to use it in interesting ways to amplify their campaigns. Facebook is where the largest audience is and for any successful campaign using a good mix of strong creative and paid media will definitely give better responses. Especially after the launch of Facebook’s video platform, it’s become even more central to the brand mix.
Varun Duggirala
Co-founder, The Glitch
NICHE PLATFORMS OFFER RELEVANT AUDIENCES
As niche mediums become more relevant to audiences, the innovations need to go beyond mainstream social media. While Facebook and Twitter will continue to be the most popular platforms among brands, the more exciting challenge will be innovating on other platforms. They may have a smaller user base but they cater to niche interests of more relevant audiences. Our brand Maybelline New York India recently got on to Snapchat because of its young user base.
Suveer Bajaj
Co-founder, Director - Media Operations, FoxyMoron
BRAND IS WHERE THE AUDIENCE IS
The amount of investment put into growing their base on Facebook and Twitter over the years makes brands shy away from adopting new platforms. Provided their audiences are on it, it is important for a brand to adopt new platforms and engage. It is equally important for a brand to be aware of and adopt third party applications which support more engagement via their base on Facebook and Twitter.
Zafar Rais
CEO, MindShift Interactive
