A dialogue manager in a converged world

1. S o c i a l M e d i a c o m m u n i c a t i o n d i r e c t o r 1 / 2 0 1 636 A dialogue manager in a converged world How can you build up long-lasting relationships with dialogue partners and use social media to attract and engage quality customers? B y J ay d i p C h o w d h u r y IIt was not Omar Al Mukhtar who intro- duced the Arab Spring to Egypt but a Google executive, Wael Ghonim, whose campaign on Facebook and the famous #Jan25 tweet that undermined Hosni Mubarak’s political regime in Egypt. Sim- ilarly, it was not a management consult- ant who shaped customer service bench- marks at United Airlines but a YouTube video released by Dave Carol and his band, earning more than 150,000 views for his song about how United Airlines broke his guitar during a transit from Chicago to Omaha. SocialmovementsliketheFrenchrev- olutionorAmericanwarofIndependence were the result of intellectuals indulging inmeaningfuldialogue.Today,inthe20th century, we are seeing digital Darwinism – where opinion is shaped through social media discussion and results in revolu- tion. Whether those revolutions are riot for good or bad, the fact remains that social media has taken over as central axis of socio-geo-politico- economic and business diplomacy in the world. Dialogue model Dialogue and the way communications is driven across industry – or for that matter in society – is not the same as it used to be. Today, publicists, equity analysts, advertisers or even lobbyists or policy change advocates have all taken refuge to social or digital media. In their book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Rice and Jack Trout wrote that “in PR we pray, and in advertising we pay.” With the confluence of social and digital media, perhaps we have to write a new book, one that talks about a converged smart world, where customers in a crowd-shared model build communication dialogues for the brand, not the other way round. Today, news

2. S o c i a l M e d i a c o m m u n i c a t i o n d i r e c t o r 1 / 2 0 1 6 37 breaks over social media, followed by the conventional media. It is believed that 25 per cent of Twitter users are journalists. So, once you have built the right message in the right context you have won half the battle, as this story will surely travel across the multitude of social media word-of-mouth to land up as a big story in print press. To reach out to either a normative audience such as government and policy makers, or formative such as customers, or even diffusive stakeholders such as media or market analysts, you don’t need to pray but be prudent enough to devise effectivemessagingontherightsocialtool. Celebrities and top rated equity research analysts are paid heavily or used as influencers to tweet about a beauty product or a company’s stock valuation. Opinion building and social media activ- ism on important policy matters have started affecting an organisation and its services in the oil, gas, infrastructure, and telecom sectors. Gone is the supremacy of television: a YouTube video is preferred over television commercials. A Facebook post is more effective than an in-house news- letter as mode of employee communications. Press releases are optimised and the popularity of online press like Huff- ington Post over the 'pink' press is ever increasing. These facts point to the same conclusion: the age of social media has arrived, wherein conventional media will stay with us but won’t enjoy its tradi- tional monopoly. And as that monopoly ends, communications structures and models change from indirect to direct influence. Here, the network can follow its customers, wherever and whichev- er platform he or she visits. The good part of this story is that both dialogue managers and their customers are in a win-win situation, weeding out many un- wantedintruderswhooftendiluteanddi- gress, misinterpreting core messages during the dialogue process as its flows from organisation to customers and stakeholders through conventional print or electronic media. A change in dialogue With the influx of social media core to dialogue tools, the way communications is driven has evolved altogether to a new platform and model: • Word-of-mouth, which used to be the most influential mode of communications, is today seen as social media conversation. • Advertising (second most influential) has evolved as digital strategy. • In public relations, dialogue managers are no longer praying to media houses but opening up ave- nues of dialogue over a plethora of social media, and pushing custom- ized publication over these tools and channels reaching directly to the target audience. • With these evolutions, market research is shifting to online big data; real time data mining and instant feedback to change a campaign is the name of the game now. • Customers today can view, give feedback as well as buy content or products simultaneously- opening up new opportunities and higher levels of transparency, trust as information moves from dialogue managers to customers. The binary code of social media Instead of zeros and ones, the binary code of social media is ‘like’ and ‘share’: these two ‘codes’ are behind any complex online social media campaign or digital strategy. Built on these two codes, social media strategy revolves around either success or failure. What looks simple can be decisive, making or breaking a brand in the marketplace with things going aw- fully wrong and/or going viral. On the other hand, a positive wave can change the mindset of your customers, and result in overnight success of a brand or campaign. Up until yester- day, brand owners were not sure if their product was liked by customers while the campaign was running, unless it was reflected in the increase or stagnation of sales volume. Today, we live in a real time world, where instant feedback is factored to change the plot of a movie or features of a new product. The rule of thumb is simple: if they like, they will share, and if they share, it will go viral. So, it all de- pends upon ‘likeability’ and ‘shareability’ of a product or its campaign over social media. A strategy to increase reach Link your Pinterest pin to your Face- book post, which links to your blog, which in turn features a video from your You- Tube channel…. This could be one out of many tactics to increase your reach but, again, the bottom line is simple: content has to be liked and shared. According- ly, choose your medium or tools, which can be interconnected to create a chain reaction. “Today, we live in a real time world, where instant feedback is factored to change the plot of a movie or features of a new product.”

3. S o c i a l M e d i a c o m m u n i c a t i o n d i r e c t o r 1 / 2 0 1 638 J ay d i p C h o w d h u r y Head of Corporate Communication and Advocacy, Bilcare Research Jaydip Chowdhury is head of corporate communication and advocacy at Bilcare Research, the pharma packaging company with operations across Asia, Europe and the US. In addition to public affairs, Jaydip also oversees investor relations for the company. Social commerce The rules of social commerce are clear: if you are not buying any product, you are the target product yourself. As you like and pass on product-related content to your network, it finally lands up in sales. But in the process, it creates a circle of social commerce. Interestingly, in this circle strangers become promoters of the product. Unlike the old advertising model, here you attract>convert>close>delight (see right), transforming strangers to promoters. What starts as simple blog may end up in brand sale with call-to- action button. Such is the beauty of social commerce. Social media dialogue is changing customer relationship management (CRM) as well. Social CRM is the use of social media services, techniques and tech- nology to enable organisations to engage with their customers (see table below). What we see today is a tectonic shift in which customers are reached with specific tailor-made, bespoke communications. The key takeaways for social CRM are: • Engagement replaces advertising • Community recommendations outpaces company assertions • Instant feedback leaves no room for carelessness • Open business ecosystem intensi- fies competition This results in transparent, timely and truthful communications by dialogue managers Spices for social media success: Most successful social media campaigns will have certain spices added up to make its recipe delectable, palatable and electric to its eclectic audience. It is often said in this context that social media is a cocktail party and not a sit down, fine dining event. The key features are: • Like and share is central to going viral • Real time engagement of contest and other activities • Crowd sharing is the new normal of engagement and content creation • Conversation boast over social influencers • Content-driven strategy: short content with info-graphics or AV is preferred • YouTube, short video replacing television commercial How CRM Evolved into social CRM WHO  CRM Specific departments  SOCIAL CRM Everyone WHat  CRM Company-centric process  SOCIAL CRM Customer-centric process Where  CRM Defined channels  SOCIAL CRM Customer-driven dynamic channels WheN  CRM Set business hours  SOCIAL CRM Customer-set hours WhY  CRM Transaction  SOCIAL CRM Interaction HOW  CRM Message flow outside  SOCIAL CRM Message come inside Blog Social Media Keywords Pages Calls to Action Landing pages Forms Contacts Email Workflows Lead Scoring CRM Integrations Social Media Smart Calls to Action Email Workflows   VisitorsStrangers Leads PromotersCustomers Attract Convert cLOSE dELIGHT Transforming strangers to promoters in advertising

4. S o c i a l M e d i a Ford Figo Aspire #WhatDrivesYou Ford started their What Drives You? campaign during the launch of Figo Aspire, a compact sedan. With this campaign, Ford roped in actor Farhan Akhtar as anchor for conducting drive- by interviews in Ford Figo Aspire with real life achievers, such as the founder of RedBus.in, co-founders of Happily- unmarried.com and so on. Through the passionate stories shared by the young achievers, the campaign aimed to reflect on the needs of the young consumer in modern India. Let me conclude by giving few case studies to substantiate my point-of-view; incidentally, these are amongst some of last year’s best social campaigns: #RiceBucketChallenge #RiceBucketChallenge is the Indian desi twist to #IceBucketChallenge on So- cial Media. Manju Latha Kalanidihi, a journalist from the city of Hyderabad, came up with the idea. Rather than wash- ing down the water in a country with scarce water supply, her train of thought was to feed the hungry for the inception of this challenge.. The reach of all com- bined social networks gave impetus to this cause. The initiative witnessed a rise of 192 per cent in social media popularity in a span of just two days. Pepsi #CrashThePepsiIPL CrashthePepsiIPLwasacrowd-sourc- ing campaign that Pepsi launched in IPL8. In this disruptive campaign, fans were invited to make commercials that showcased their love for Pepsi. Pepsi promised that the best ads of 30-second duration would be aired during the IPL matches. In addition to the fame, the win- ners would also receive cash prize of one lakh rupees. With this campaign, Pepsi was able to leverage the creativity of content creation communities, such as You- Tube users and bloggers on the internet and promote the Pepsi brand. #TheAwesomeJob Premium whisky maker, William Grant & Sons has launched a digital campaign titled The Awesome Job to find Grant’s India Brand Ambassador. Instead of using a celebrity to endorse the brand, this people-backed campaign helped to promote the brand’s ideology of Stand Together. The campaign reinforced the ideology of the brand as only friends could nominate one for this contest. All information and updates re- garding the contest are communicated through a microsite launched for this purpose. With this campaign, the brand has set its eyes on India as a lucrative market and is gearing up to introduce more brands in the country. A microsite served to contain the progress and updates on the contest. Reliance General Insurance #DarkTravelTale In order to generate interest in its travel insurance plans among the Indian youth, Reliance General Insurance devised this campaign where they gave fans a starting point of a story and invited fans to come up with a suspense story. Fans need- ed to imagine the worst scenarios that one could face while traveling abroad. With a suspense storytelling effect, the brand attempted to co-create a graphic novel with its fan community. This novel was called Dark Travel Tale and it be- came the world’s first Twitter-curated graphic novel. • c o m m u n i c a t i o n d i r e c t o r 1 / 2 0 1 6 39

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