Social media marketing gurus might be out there telling you all the tips and tricks that you can use, but how will you know that you’re marketing campaign is really working? In the world of social media and the Internet, you can monitor information by monitoring conversations on Twitter and Google Alerts. But how does that translate into the offline world? One thing that will always be true about social media is that humans are social animals. If they do stuff online, like play with friends and share tips and tricks and tell other people about what they’ve learned, they’ll also do that offline. I always talk to my friends about Twitter and Facebook and the coolest latest game online. That’s not because I’m an Internet marketer, I actually like the platforms and things that I do online.
This weekend, I went to Startup Saturday in Delhi with my friend Jeanne, who is the AVP of Marketing for VNL. (Disclosure: Our CEO, Pankaj Jain is one of the co-founders of Startup Saturday.) If you haven’t heard about VNL, they’re the newest, coolest kid on the renewable energy block. They make solar powered GSM towers and have been bagging tech innovation awards left and right from Wall St. Journal to the World Economic Forum. Jeanne and I are both passionate marketers and we talk about ads, social media marketing, and the coolest things online almost 80% of our waking moments. I was particularly interested in going to Startup Saturday because I read that Gaurav Mishra (@gauravonomics) was speaking about social media. It’s really rare in India to listen to someone of authority talk on social media. It’s a brand new marketing field here. He spoke about what entrepreneurs can learn from activists who use social media. I enjoyed the discussion that followed because it gave me a whole new perspective on what entrepreneurs really think of social media in India. It also gave me insights on how views are so different from that of western thought. Gaurav was trying to drive across the point that if entrepreneurs position themselves like activists do of an idea, there would be more brand recall and brand recognition. Most of the audience members — who were made up of mostly small business owners, students, of roughly 30 to 40 men and 4 women (including us two) — disagreed saying that you need a solid business model first and start making profits before you try out all those things.
The main question became can entrepreneurs really use a positive image and message without having the message overtake the brand image that they’re trying to project. It was interesting to see that they didn’t connect “brand message or image” and “the business” together. The general feeling I got was that social causes just weren’t worth doing because there is no profit in them unless you’re a big company like Tata, or a US based startup like Twitter. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen in India. Then VNL came up when Jeanne provided an example of a company who is doing building a business and pushing for social causes. It was a great example because it’s actually an Indian startup focusing on a huge challenge: getting cell phones to the next billion users without harming the environment. VNL, as a green company, provides all of their information online and utilizes Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn Groups, and Twitter to discuss not only their products, but what they call the triple bottom line – increased opportunities for people, better quality environment, and viable profit margins for mobile operators targeting rural networks. Because their content focuses across these topics, influencers that are only interested in green technologies read about them, people interested in the telecom industry follow and connect, and so do social activists interested in economic development in developing nations. To our
surprise, Gaurav picked up on the topic immediately and told the audience what VNL was all about without Jeanne having to explain. We looked at each other and were both very happy and impressed. The
feedback loop is complete!
As marketers in the conversation age, you can only send the message out and hope to engage with the right people, influencers, and monitor that as best you can. But when it comes back to you in flesh and
blood, and when you hear a thought leader telling your message to other people, that’s when you really know that whatever you did worked.