Unless you have been living under a (digital) rock, you would have heard about the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook incident. As individuals, we woke up to the new era of cyber crime. People aren’t calling it a ‘crime’ yet as they don’t know how it is affecting them as individuals. As a digital marketer, our first question was if this was going to snowball into something much bigger affecting our professional lives. After all, Facebook has one of the most effective marketing tools in the industry and also has Instagram and Whatsapp under its belt. If it changes its rules, it affects us all. Let’s not have any misinterpretation here. There has been no breach of data. It wasn’t ‘stolen’ either. Facebook, at that point, legally allowed people to mine this data for their profits. To companies like Google and Facebook, we, the people, are their biggest commodity and currency. At some point, they ‘sold’ us like cattle to the people who had the programming skills to seek us out. As they say, “If you are not buying the product, YOU are the product.” The problem is there are many missing links that don’t allow us to fully decode the problem. Why did Facebook knowingly allow something like this to happen? To what extent does Facebook really know about us? What data do they reveal and what do they hide? Here’s a quick video on finding out what Facebook knows about you and how you can change settings But that only reveals what Facebook is willing to disclose to us. There is a lot more going on behind the screens that we don’t know about. Did you know that the algorithm can make an educated guess about things like your ethnicity, religious and political views, personality traits, intelligence, happiness, use of addictive substances, parental separation, age and gender – all just from your Facebook likes! The facial recognition algorithm may detect everything from sexual orientation to protesters even if their faces are partially concealed. It’s just scary to know that Facebook knows more about you than probably anyone else in the world. All those years of likes and shares and friendships and photos are all there – accessible to the highest bidder! Have a look at this TED video According to the latest reports, Analytica has received a notice to disclose its activity in India. The notice not only demands this information but also threatens grand scale action, if any illegal activity is found. On the other hand, brands from India like Nestle and ITC who heavily rely on Facebook advertising are writing to Facebook if their position as a brand has been compromised by this breach. The whole activity comes as a wake-up call to all of us. We’ve been pegging machine learning and artificial intelligence as the next best thing happening to us. But will it come at the cost of our freedom? Will it come with the caveat of third-party companies knowing the most intimate details of our lives so that they can market to us? There are people in the seats of power, using data to know us, judge us and nudge us to make decisions about not just products but about life in general. Ajit Ranade writes in his Mumbai Mirror column about the research from Stanford and Cambridge Universities who have created a forecasting model based on our Facebook likes. Just 150 likes data is enough for them to know more about you than your family. 300 likes they probably know more about you than your spouse. As digital marketers, we’ve often resorted to collecting this data for accurate ad targeting. For example, in a recent campaign, we could target students of a particular college doing a particular course and having specific interests. To some extent, people have been surprised by how accurate the targeting has been. But the surprise is slowly turning to shock knowing how much of your digital personality hangs out there for someone to manipulate you. If your Facebook data is merged with your shopping and financial data, credit history, political preferences and personal biases, will there be anything stopping a clever manipulator to directly manipulate you from your very own phone screen without you even knowing it? The topic is far from over. In fact, what we’ve uncovered is just the tip of the Zuckerberg. If there are implications, these will affect our professional lives for sure. Here’s hoping that it is another step in creating a positive digital economy.
Month: March 2018
How Fitness and Wellness Brands Are Using Social Media Content to Build Communities
When was the last time you tried to lose weight? Well… I started this great new program yesterday, fully enthusiastic that this was going to be ‘the’ life-altering thing I was looking for – you know, the kinds where you lose 10 kgs in 10 days and everybody is going gaga about it with the before-after photos? That program lasted until yesterday afternoon when I succumbed to the temptation of a sizzling chocolate brownie (with an extra scoop of ice cream). Fret not, there is another Facebook group, another fitness app or a new diet program waiting for me. Behind each of these programs are the people who form their community – the true force that manages to catch my attention with their stories and influence my decision on the next trial. A community is the ‘in thing’ in digital. People who can influence and wield power over a virtual group of individuals now have the power to rule the (sizeable part of their) world. Keeping this in mind, a lot of fitness brands are turning to build their community to help their own brand grow. There are many advantages to having a community following if you are a fitness brand. One the most important factors is that it gives people the validation to join your community. If there are many people there and a sizeable number of them seem to be vouching for your solution, the likelihood of someone considering your product, services of methods are quite high. Next, you have a ready audience for running experiments. New launches, new services will all be lapped up by an internal community before you look outside for validation. Last but not the least, you have a group of people vested in your product. Some people may start out in the free category but may move to paid services if you are persuasive. New prospects, leads, sales, engagement – all the things you need online exists in communities. If it sounds harder than it looks, well, it is. Want to know how the experts are doing it? We bring to you some of the latest brands from the fitness industry that are doing he heavy lifting on community building and reaping the rewards. Fitternity Heard about the Zomato for fitness? Well, here it is. With over 65,000 active users, Fitternity provides curated information about all the fitness options near you. They have well over 8000 listings from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru of trusted fitness options close to you. Fitternity exists to solve multiple problems for its community. First, it curates and provides information on the fitness solutions close to you. Second, it creates an offline connect option for you. For example, you can search specifically for Marathon training and the site will show you a list that you wouldn’t discover otherwise if you are a newbie. Lastly, it provides some interesting reads to help your body, mind and soul stay fit. From diet recipes to fat shaming to inspirational stories, this is one power packed website that is well worth your attention. So why should you look it up? Fitternity extends some great benefits like memberships with the lowest price guarantee, bookings for single activities, unlimited trials and an app that’ll help you stay fit on the go. Best of it all is that information offered is credible, unlike the magical weight loss pill you’ll find online. Fitternity also makes interesting use of its social channels to build its community. It uses channels to give informed answers to generic questions like ‘Can yoga help me get toned?’ or ‘How to become a morning person’. It doesn’t take long for their Insta followers to join their core community as there is a steady dose of motivation and discounts at the end of the rainbow. One of the interesting things they do to grab new users is to ask existing users to nominate their friends to take the #PledgeForFitness on Insta. They also tied the whole thing up with a social cause and themselves pledged 25% of the proceeds to a charity. GetActive If you want to truly see the power of a community movement, GetActive is a great example from the emerging India of today where people have begun to accept fitness as a way of life. Extending a gamified platform to employees within a company, GetActive has more than 50 companies extending its services including the likes of Cisco, IBM and Microsoft. GetActive gamifies the whole fitness calendar for an employee, collecting their fitness data, getting timely intervention from nutritionists and doctors and engaging the whole organisation where the employees compete with each other to get higher on the fitness chart. The result? Numbers seem to speak for themselves. 67% employees formed a permanent changed towards a healthier lifestyle which reduced stress levels by 80% and sick leaves by 4 days. Other things like high energy, good sleep, weight loss will make happier employees. You know where that leads, right? So, you see, GetActive didn’t take the traditional route with tried and tested social platforms. Instead, it created its own social platform where the interaction and engagement rates are increasing at an enviable rate. Zumba If you are into the process of getting fit or losing weight, you should have definitely heard about Zumba. With a little J Lo party beats here and some rap music on the side, Zumba believes in partying your way into fitness. How cool does that sound! Zumba’s overall strategy is to build its community both online and offline and social media is used as a key tool to spread the word. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that you’ll find a Zumba class near you. After all 12 million people take Zumba classes every week at more than 110,000 locations in 125 countries. The interesting fact is that 62% of Zumba’s page views are driven by women. So 70% of its audience on Facebook are female. The community interaction looks encouraging. Of the
Should you use ChatBots for your small business?
Are you a small business trying to get your leg up on the competition? Do you belong to that pool of businesses that have limited resources but an unlimited fire to provide superlative customer experience? Are you one of those enterprises doing well with regards to generating awareness & interest for their products or services online, but facing an overwhelming situation with insufficient bandwidth to service the leads? If the answer to any of the above is yes, chatbots are your calling. What exactly are chatbots? via GIPHY The Chatbots Magazine defines chatbot as “a service, powered by rules and sometimes artificial intelligence that enables one to interact with and via a chat interface. The service could be any number of things, ranging from functional to fun, and it could live in any major chat product (Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, Text Messages, etc.).” If I have to explain very simply, a chatbot is a computer program that can emulate a human conversation with some pre-assigned instructions. These programs aren’t particularly a new invention, but the last couple of years with rising trends of artificial intelligence have ushered a wave that has made them far simpler, more efficient and cost-effective than you could have imagined earlier. Here Are 3 Sure Shot Ways How Chatbot Can Help Your Small Business – 1. Ensure Prompt Communication A prompt response never goes unappreciated. There was a research study published in The Chatbot Report that concluded about 43 percent consumers viewed a business having chatbots as innovative, whereas 22 percent felt that the company was more efficient. Chatbot as an instrument helps to give out instantaneous replies and also communicate new developments with customers. This is a good way to build a positive image and also share latest developments at a negligible cost. 2. Attend Customer Queries Customers are already acquainted with interacting with automated voice systems and emails. In that sense, chatbots are an intuitive alternative. Assigning the task of answering queries to an individual puts a limitation on the number of possible questions answered and people attended to. Automating the procedure with a bot multiplies the serviceable quantum possible. It’s a way more efficient mechanism to respond to frequently asked questions. The comfort it offers is immense even to the customer since the bot is available 24×7 and the Enquirer doesn’t have to talk to a real person if he or she doesn’t want to. 3. Gather Customer Insight The best way to improvise on any kind of offering is to step into the customer’s shoes and assess from their viewpoint. In the present age of technology, data is a very powerful and reliable way to capture customer insight. As a company with limited amount of resources for research, chatbots can serve as an excellent way to collect information. They can be designed to get answers to multiple-choice questions in a quick & non-intrusive way as compared to individual representatives chasing feedback from customers. Words Of Caution ChatBots are beyond doubt, a great element to add to your marketing arsenal. However, it’s essential you exercise some caution & use them mindfully. Here are some don’ts to keep in mind with regards to using chatbots. 1. Never work without a strategy It is essential to acknowledge that no technology works without a strategy. A bot should not be the sole navigator of your customer communication. It can almost never happen that a single channel can simply cater to the interests of the entire target group. 2. Technical glitches are not impossible No technology is glitch-proof. There’s always a chance of a breakdown or technical issue arising. It’s important to be alert and responsive to the same. It’s also a good idea to have a stringent testing mechanism, in the beginning, to observe how the bot is responding to different kinds of questions. Being cautious beforehand can keep problems from arising at bay. 3. Don’t consider human resources as fully replaceable Lastly, it’s also imperative to realize chatbots are a great way to supplement your human communication but not replace it. Bots are efficient, cheap and very useful. However, they can’t completely take over your talented marketing and sales team. They can’t come up with innovative ideas or adapt their responses and behavior based on customer sentiments. The human touch in many cases is irreplaceable. It’s fair if you have initial hiccups with regards to the technical implementation of a bot for your business. However, you’ll be happy to learn they’re really simple to create and streamline your marketing endeavors. There are many online platforms available that can help you create one without any knowledge of programming. Each come with a series of simple steps you need to follow depending on the tool you choose. Following the same your bot gets ready within a few minutes only. It’s a good idea, to begin with a basic bot and take it forward from there. If implemented properly, they can really turn out to be a savior. Some popular tools to build your own bot include – Chatfuel It is particularly helpful to create a bot for Facebook Messenger without any coding development knowledge. It allows you to customize the bot’s response by adding content by means of simple hyperlinking. Flow Xo This tool can be used to create bots starting from a very basic one to a fully hybrid human bot. It offers extreme flexibility in terms of process and options. ChattyPeople It is one of the simplest platforms available to create a bot. In addition to its speciality in creating bots for Facebook Messenger, it also allows you to integrate the bot with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify. MEOKAY The USP of this platform lies in creating conversational bots. It supports in mimicking a remarkable human to human touch in the conversation.