It wasn’t that long ago when video capture and editing was the purview of a select group. The camera equipment was expensive and bulky; it was in the league of designing a spacecraft! It also needed a lot of training and special editing software. Back in our parents’ day, they had to carry 20lb VHS recorders just to shoot a few minutes of film!

And we have it so easy! A video recorder that fits in our pocket and snippets of video in a super-digestible format. It is truly an evolution of social media apps. Voila!

In January 2013, Twitter released Vine video, its free video-sharing application that enables brands, businesses and consumers to shoot and upload six-second snippets to blogs, presentations, e-mails and social media sites. Vine is Twitter’s six-second video. The idea is to create quick, easy and interesting short films to share with friends and network on Facebook and Twitter. It is an app, currently only for iOS, that records six seconds of video and posts it on an endless loop to your Twitter account.

We have put together a bunch of reasons why Vine should be a part of your marketing mix?

We have already noticed how more marketers are using images and videos in their marketing mix; visual content is a marketer’s survival guide today. Capture quick video snippets and post them to YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.

It’s testimony to the fact that media soothsayers have been crowing for years about how video is the future.

It is also a great App to drive Social Media ROI. One can drive more traffic by using tags, social buttons and share buttons.

1) It is a perfect app for brand-new user generated content

In my previous blog, we discussed how companies would make the most of User Generated Content. And Vine is the best way to create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way. Sometimes, clients have problems gathering up-to-date seasonal content for their websites, however user generated content is a great source of recent information and Vine is a perfect platform to leverage that.

Vinepeek is a website that enables one to drive more traffic to all social media platforms. It aggregates videos in real time showcasing an endless stream of six-second snippets of everyday lives.

2) It is a brand new and exciting way to reach out

Vine has managed to garner mass followings despite of it being a micro-video site. It is a great way to reach out to followers, and customers by broadcasting a 6 second video. One can also shoot a short loop; post a video with a minimum of 3 seconds. A brand or a company can share the best moments with the new hero of video sharing app. Its brevity is the (potential) source of its creativity. Small Tip– Pick a shot that’s mostly still but has just one or two elements that move.

3) It is the combination of the best!

Vine is a video sharing app, a combination of photo and video sharing with sounds. You can think of Vine as Instagram meets YouTube with a dash of Twitter!

Social networks, Facebook and Twitter are aware of this and have already started to get their hands on it.  We saw a couple months ago how Facebook is betting on improving the way content is consumed on its platform. Two of the latest improvements are the Social Graph and the Newsfeed update. The latest development in the social video area is Twitter’s Vine Social Video App.

4) Vine is great for Social SEO

Vine is a true representation of the times as far as how and where communication between brands and the individual is going. Social video apps are how people want to engage and communicate with each other. Twitter’s inclusion of video content will prove to be a pivotal asset in the process of strengthening brands’ relationships with their consumers, as they develop their social SEO and search marketing strategies.

5) Vine is simple to use

Vine is simple to use, the app’s stripped-down interface attempts to remove every point of friction. It offers users the opportunities to actively edit their creation. It is content that is easily made and easily consumed.

Vine videos are already starting to clog my Twitter feed and here’s a link one such interesting video. Let us know how you would use this cool video-sharing app both personally and professionally.

You can connect with us on Twitter @futurontweets or you can follow us on Facebook. 
Disclaimer: All links/image posted are on third party websites. Copyrights as applicable.

The much awaited launch of a Facebook phone has met with mixed responses from both industry veterans and avid facebookers.  Facebook did not unveil a phone, but a bespoke Android overlay called ‘Facebook Home’. It also revealed that the Taiwanese electronic giant, HTC Corporation, will debut a phone called ‘HTC First’ which would run the overlay as standard. This debut is touted to happen a week from now.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive, explained that the firm is looking to put ‘people, not apps’ at the centre of the phone in a bid to revolutionize the smartphone experience and to further grow its mobile experience.

“We’re not building a phone and we’re not building an operating system. What we’re building is something that goes much deeper than just an ordinary app.” he said.

‘Facebook home’ app shows off capabilities such as a slideshow of recent images on your front screen or putting updated from friends at the top of the screen. “The home screen is the soul of your phone. You check it a hundred times a day, so we want to build the best experience for every person on their Android phone.” he said.

Another key tool built into the platform is the ability to receive messages – called Chat Heads – without having to exit the app you’re currently using while still being able to reply to the messages you’re getting, as either texts or Facebook messages.

‘Facebook home’ is intended to work across platforms, so iOS and Windows Phone messages will appear in the similar manner.

This app will be made available to the public on 12^th April in the US only. Some of the devices to run on the platform will be HTC One, HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Samsung Galaxy S4.

Zuckerberg was joined by Peter Chou, CEO HTC, to show off ‘HTC-First’ the first smartphone to run on this overlay. The device will be available from 12^th April in the US on AT&T for $99.99.

Facebook confirmed that they are working with EE, Samsung and a host of other vendors on delivering the overlay when it is made available.

Industry analyst have underlined that this move, by Facebook, is to boost the firm’s desire to get its users more active on the site in order to help boost the appeal to advertisers.

It appears that analysts have given an overwhelming verdict in the negative. Perhaps this diffidence stems from the level of excitement and expectation they had developed prior to the event. To me 12^th April is the ‘D’ Day.

Please let us know what you feel about this new ‘game-changer’ strategy?

User Generated Content –These three words were being bandied across in marketing and social media circles last year. What is UGC and why are marketers making a huge deal about it? How does it empower the new-age marketer? Is user generated content the new currency—gold— in social media and marketing? The importance of user-generated content in the world of marketing, branding, and advertising is its capacity to influence purchase decisions, brand affinity and brand loyalty.

Here are the answers. User generated content was a big trend last year, a trend that is not a one-off affair. This trend is worth tracking because it represents a radically new definition of what constitutes value to the consumer. Co-creating with one’s consumers is an important one to watch not because content and experiences will be co-created by the consumer but because tapping into the ‘collective experiences, skills and ingenuity of hundreds of millions of consumers’ around the world is a complete departure from the inward looking marketing model which is so common to many brands and corporations around the world. For decades, these consumers have been saving up their insights and rants about the stuff they consume, simply because they didn’t have adequate means to interact with companies, or with other consumers for that matter. User Generated Content helps customers with direct influence on what companies develop and produce for them.

If content is king then, UGC is the content maker! UGC is content that is generated by people who visit your site. It is pretty straightforward. Forum entries, reviews, blog posts, comments and social mentions are among the types of content that can be generated by users. Be it entertainment, communications or e-commerce, consumers are increasingly in charge of the creation, distribution and consumption of digital content.

afaqs! Campus spoke to 40 experts to find out their One Big prediction in the Digital Marketing space in 2013. Also, Paurush Sonkar, Deputy Chief Manager
L&T General Insurance predicted that Marketing will be powered by UGC this year.

Big news organisations like BBC and CNN have been using User Generated Content to plug the gaps that their own journalists can’t cover – by submitting photos, videos and updates on breaking news. Contribution of user generated content (UGC) by the wider public or ‘citizen journalism’ is a common phenomenon.

Its benefits are that the audiences witnessing incidents can post eyewitness accounts on the Internet as soon as they happen or send reports and photos to the media. It provides inspiration to any brand wanting to turn its customers into ‘reporters’, sending in findings, observations, and suggestions. And as this model is spreading like wildfire, expect more consumers to ‘get’ and enjoy the concept. Sauvé marketers have caught up with the trend looking to leverage the web as an effective marketing and communications channel. The continual rise of social media, Google’s ever-changing algorithm, quality and fresh content play a central role in empowering the new marketer who relies on user generated content which can help companies rapidly scale and promote original content in a way that benefits both the company and the readers.

The advantages of UGC are massive; it paves path for a solid organic ranking, better SEO, it is highly cost-effective and very quick and easy to set-up, it also encourages and enables online visitors to enhance marketing, increase your site’s retention, bookings, enquiries, repeat visits and browsing time. This allows visitors to upload their own testimonials, reviews and experiences to your website that breeds loyalty and significantly enhances the interactivity of your site for online visitors.

2011 – 2012 was about companies understanding what UGC is all about. Companies shared that user-generated content is part of the new marketing paradigm, but more than half of companies have yet to fully recognize this very fundamental transition in marketing. However, many marketers predict that 2013 will be different and companies will officially seek UGC. Building marketing campaigns around user-generated content will be an important new ingredient in the marketing mix.

We have put together a bunch of reasons why companies will officially pursue UGC for 2013 and beyond:

Reason One

Explosion of Social Networks

With the number of people on social networks continuing to explode (according to eMarketer, there will be 114.5 million user-generated content creators online by 2013), the opportunity for brands to leverage content created by consumers in marketing efforts will continue to grow. The impact and power social media has when it comes to content sharing is massive; this is an understatement. UCG campaigns are huge drivers of social engagement. We have millions of tweets about our brands, thousands of Facebook ‘Likes’, hundreds of thousands of check-ins on Foursquare. Pinterest and Instagram are adding even more to social-media data deluge – very visually.

Here’s an interesting info graphic to demonstrate the same.

Reason Two

People look to others for a sense of reassurance and validation from people like themselves or Using Social Validation as a Marketing Tool

This sense of connection has been a driving force in the success of crowdsourcing and the harnessing of user generated content (UGC) in driving consideration and product sales. Campaigns created with crowd sourced content are novel. This has created a new channel allowing audiences to change their role from mere onlookers to participants. This multi-channel dialogue can empower fans to be a part of the experience. Companies and media organisations will look to use UCG in their marketing mix. Apparently 95% of the people need social validation before making a decision. Given that social validation is so rampant, it only seems natural to talk about it in terms of business marketing. Certainly reviews and client/customer testimonials serve this purpose. However, social media is playing a larger role in social validation each day.

Reason Three

Content sharing has evolved in the recent years

As newer smartphones showcase better camera technology, consumers are responding by creating and sharing better content with friends and network. Instagram, Viddy, YouTube, and Pinterest represent just a handful of companies who have skyrocketed to success based on sharing user-generated content. Many Indian companies like Mouthshut.com, Freshlimesoda.com, Sulekha.com, Shaadi.com and Naukari.com are great examples of sharing user-generated content.

Reason Four

UGC is an opportunity for true brand development

Brands use user-generated content to get authentic experiences andopinions from their audience, be it good or bad. A negative comment could really be an opportunity for brands to see where there’s a problem and also a chance to interact with someone that took the time to engage you online.

Reason Five

Companies and brands will figure out more practices for utilizing and leveraging user-generated

1.Brands will respond and engage more vehemently with people.

2.They will understand customers and their audience and will know what tools to provide and use.

3.Brands will be realistic with regard to what to expect from their users.

4. Brands will be realistic and will expect to have the good with the bad.

5. Brands and companies will recognize and reward active content users.

Reason Six

Bespoke Lifestyle of the new consumer

Today’s consumer doesn’t settle for anything that is run-of-the-mill.

He/she seeks something different; something is custom-made, tailored to his/her needs, something that is concierge or made-to-order. This guarantees goods, services and experiences that are tailored to their needs.

Amazon does it the right way!

Amazon has partnered with Facebook to bring a new layer and add an offshoot into product recommendations.

Now Amazon users will be able to link their Facebook account to their Amazon account. At the outset, this will allow Amazon to show you recommendations based on your Facebook interests and activity.

Let us know how your brand uses UGC in its marketing mix? Is your company looking forward to this new marketing paradigm?

You can connect with us on Twitter @futurontweets or you can follow us on Facebook.
Disclaimer: All links/image posted are on third party websites. Copyrights as applicable.

During the height of the economic meltdown I wanted to learn about some of the economists who had predicted this mayhem, apart from the usual names of the Austrian-economic school of thought, like Nouriel Roubini, Peter Schiff, Gerald Celente etc. I came across Web-bot Project created by Clif High and George Ure. It was a software originally designed to predict the stock market trends in the late 90’s. Their website claims that the scope of their functionality was extended to cover world events. This unique ability to predict world events a-la Nostradamus was into much controversy after a claimed 60% hits and 40% misses and off late there has been more misses than hits.

I was inclined towards this ‘savant’-like software because of their secret algorithm based on numerical values assigned to emotionally quantified lexicons with a focus on duration, impact, immediacy and intensity; after completely sidelining the reason for the switch from making literally billions of dollars every day by predicting the market (I mean it doesn’t make sense to move from such a lucrative business) to a fakir trying to make ends meet and living hand to mouth.

After almost four years I spent in awe of their ruse. I learnt of RIOT (Rapid Information Overlay Technology). RIOT is developed by Raytheon, world’s fifth largest defense contractor and is aimed towards tracking people’s movement on social media and predicting future behavior by mining data from social networking website.

Raytheon, the Massachusetts-based company has acknowledged that the technology was shared by the US government and industry as part of a joint research and development effort, in 2010, to help build a national security system capable of analysing “trillions of entities” from cyberspace.

Have authorities become so red handed that they are willing to ‘overtly’ convert the western world into Stasi, Germany?

It has harnessed and prompted civil liberties and online privacy concerns. The world witnessed the power of social media during the Arab Spring but most just stopped short from thinking about the ramification of it getting transformed into ‘Google for spies’ and tapped as a means of monitoring and control.

Raytheon’s “principal investigator” Brian Urch explains in a video that the photographs users post on social networks sometimes contain latitude and longitude details – automatically embedded by smartphones and tablets within “exif header data.”

RIOT pulls out the information along with the location where the photograph was taken.

“We’re going to track one of our own employees,” Urch says in the video, before bringing up pictures of “Nick,” a Raytheon staff member used as an example target. With information gathered from social networks, Riot quickly reveals Nick frequently visits Washington Nationals Park, where on one occasion he snapped a photograph of himself posing with a blonde haired woman.

“We know where Nick’s going, we know what Nick looks like,” Urch explains, “now we want to try to predict where he may be in the future.”

Riot can display on a spider-diagram and the intricacies between individuals online by looking at who they have communicated with over Twitter. It can also mine data from Facebook and sift GPS location information from Foursquare, a mobile phone app used by more than 25 million people to alert friends of their whereabouts. The Foursquare data can be used to display, in graph form, the top 10 places visited by tracked individuals and the times at which they visited them.

This shows that Nick, who posts his location regularly on Foursquare, visits a gym frequently at 6am early each week. Urch quips: “So if you ever did want to try to get hold of Nick, or maybe get hold of his laptop, you might want to visit the gym at 6am on a Monday.”

Data mining from public website for law enforcement purposes is legal in most countries. Federal Bureau of Investigation has requested help to develop a mining application to monitor bad actors and groups.

However, Ginger McCall, an attorney at the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre, said that the Raytheon technology raises concerns about how copious amount of user data could be covertly collected without oversight or regulation.

“Social networking sites are often not transparent about what information is shared and how it is shared,” McCall said. “Users may be posting information that they believe will be viewed only by their friends, but instead, it is being viewed by government officials or pulled in by data collection services like the Riot search.”

Jared Adams, a spokesman for Raytheon’s intelligence and information systems department, said in an email: “Riot is a big data analytics system design we are working on with industry, national labs and commercial partners to help turn massive amounts of data into useable information to help meet our nation’s rapidly changing security needs.

“Its innovative privacy features are the most robust that we’re aware of, enabling the sharing and analysis of data without personally identifiable information [such as social security numbers, bank or other financial account information] being disclosed.”

Late last year RIOT was featured in a newly published patent, Raytheon is pursuing for a system designed to gather data on people from social networks, blogs and other sources to identify whether they should be judged a security risk.

In April, Riot is scheduled to be showcased at a US government and industry national security conference for secretive, classified innovations, where it was listed under the category “big data – analytics, algorithms.

Can RIOT be a successful version of Web-bot because it has been created by organisation with deep pockets? If so, can it be used to accurately predict future events? Can Nostradamus revisit? Only time will tell. In the meantime, we can take sides on as to do we want security over freedom or freedom  over security.

In the end I would like to quote the great Roman Emperor.

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present”

-Marcus Aurelius.

We cant wait to hear your views on whether you prefer freedom over security or security over freedom.

As a social media consultant, my favorite marketing tool is Facebook, according to me it is one of the most phenomenal marketing tool invented. The advantages of which has been discussed in my last blog ‘Who likes my cheese?‘. But, something about the recent behaviour patterns of the fans got me thinking- how long can you keep your fans interested in your brand on Facebook? How long can you entice your fans with contests and free goodies?

Are people who ‘Like’ your page through paid ads or sponsored stories really interested in your brand? Do they really care about what you say?

The answer to all the above questions was ‘while most of our fans were interested in our products (or our client’s products), they didn’t really pay much attention to what we said’. The way we realised this was rather funny! We once posted about an offer that was available on one of the products as ‘Original Price: Rs. 360/-, Offer Price: Rs. 990/-’, when the actual prices were vice-versa. It was obviously a mistake on our part that lasted for all of 1 minute on the social platform, but what was shocking was the fact that we had about eight likes within that 1 minute of posting it and not one of them had pointed out the mistake to us! (Which we would have gladly accepted and probably rewarded them for the help)

This was quite alarming for us, since we thought that the number of ‘Likes’ translated into at least 70% the number of people  interested in the product that was being displayed. It was disappointing to learn that wasn’t the case but, without wasting much time we immediately jumped to action and decided to change the way we marketed on Facebook. We did not pay heed to the increase in the number of ‘Likes’ on our page as we had steady likes of 25+ coming every day from referrals, existing fans, paid advertisements and promoted posts, but, we were looking at people who were genuinely interested in our brand and pay attention to what we say on Facebook.

After a bit of research and social media listening, we realised what was going wrong. We realized we needed to rediscover a new set of fans that genuinely appreciated our products. The target audience was almost evolving and changing!

So, although the products were fantastic and we did everything right in terms of making our page look more visually appealing by conducting regular campaigns, answering queries- we somehow fell short of ‘connecting’ with our new set of target audience or shall we call them Fans.

The steps we took to ‘connect’ with the new fans

Following are some of the steps we adopted to improve the quality of the target audience, which might help a few of you facing similar problems:

Step one was to understand that although our product was for gadgets/technology lovers, it looked like the audience wanted more. We then identified the new set of target audience. Since we had created paid adverts for our brand, some who liked our brand were not exactly our perfect NEW target audience. But, being quite an established brand with 12,000 + likes, it was easy for us to pinpoint exactly who our brand was popular with and find other details like their age, gender, where were they situated and more. (Especially using Facebook insights)

Step two: Once we identified our ‘genuine fans’, who were youngsters aged between 17- 25, we studied their behaviour patterns. Once we did our research and listening we realised that most youngsters are quite fashion conscious (Of course, not much research was needed to come to this conclusion!). But, this helped us to custom brand the content to build a long-term relationship with our customers, present and potential alike. So although our product was for technology/gadgets lovers – the target audience actually had an inclination towards using our product as a FASHION statement too!

Step three was to talk about the topics that matter to the new target audience and to speak it in the ‘language’ they would identify with. For example- we started having more updates concerning fashion, we posted ‘memes’ that youngsters really like, and we had contests where we gave them an opportunity of design their own customized products!

Step four was to tie up with a young designer who is quite popular with the apt age group for engaging memes/designs and artwork. We decided to use her services to gain more traction.

The above four steps did seem to bring out a change in the way people responded to us, at least we started seeing less of ‘detached’, ‘uninterested’ fans (which is what we were concerned about) and slowly started seeing fans who started ‘connecting’ with our brand and responded to our posts with real interest. They not just ‘Liked’ but also ‘Shared’ posts that they thought was ‘cool’ and we managed to gain a great increase in the ever-so-popular ‘Word of mouth’ marketing tool.

Be Authentic.

The steps mentioned above may seem too simple or may not be applicable to all the brands, especially if the brand is bigger and has a diverse business. While we, at futurON, agree that paid advertising will/can grab attention, we truly believe that organic advertising is when you get the maximum attention/interest/engagement - especially if you are looking for a long term relationship with your target audience.

Brands have to adopt new values to broaden consumer demand, be it online or offline. Brands can no longer just do with ‘buying likes’ or by blatantly promoting their products/services – even if they get the first ‘Like’, it does not guarantee constant connection with the Fan.

Today’s consumers don’t want to feel like they are witnessing a sales pitch. One has to connect with them either by being a useful source of information or by connecting with them through topics that matter to them. Take for example what Coke does with Coke Studio, building its brand through a community of music lovers or what P&G is doing with Style Factor, a custom-branded site for women on Yahoo!

Chennai Shopping, a Facebook page that deals with all things retail, which grew from 10 members to an astounding 28, 038 (purely organically) in less than a year is a great example of how there is a huge scope to advertise your brand without spending a penny.

So, brands will strike gold as long as they understand that they have to do more than just blow their own trumpet in the market to bring value to their company, as this is an age where the consumers are way too smart to fall for clever/instant marketing tactics.

Many professionals in the marketing and advertising industry will debate which is more useful for certain brands – organic or paid advertising. Let us know what you think. You can connect with us on Twitter or you can follow us on Facebook.

Disclaimer: All links/image posted are on third party websites. Copyrights as applicable.

Facebook has become such an integral part of our lives and society that we have made it a fact of life. It is a vast source of social stimulation that showcases the glamorous and interesting aspects of our everyday lives. Although Facebook has many beneficial aspects like easy access to upcoming events and increased contact with old friends, it also allows users to build their own brand image to portray themselves as they want others to see them.

Facebook has changed over the years; from alumni to a networking website. Changes that have crept into Facebook have, at times, been directed by the zeitgeist. Such changes have been controversial and less spoken off. We at futurON are trying to showcase two of them, one concerning privacy and the other festooning cashless society.

Aiding and abetting law?

“Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.”
- John Perry Barlow

Facebook has grown, and along with it the concerns of privacy infringement. This user-concern is not limited to Facebook but finds space in most other social media platforms.

What is privacy? Oxford dictionary defines it as a ‘state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people’. This definition has clearly confined privacy to a utopian world.

Why the fuss? Some sections of the society believe that it is the intent that is dubious and harmful. The idea of selling users personal info for a fee is criminal.

Privacy has been a double edged sword; governments claim that in order to fight terrorism they need sweeping powers over its citizenry, thus colluding with their privacy. This big brother attitude has changed the fabric of society, where people, ironically, do not mind the control but questions the state sponsored attack on privacy.

Decide for yourself.

Facebook monitors users’ chat to identify and report “suspicious” criminal activity. The screening process commences with scanning software monitoring chats for words and phrases that signal vulgarity, abuse and exchange of personal information. The scanning program is smart enough to keep an eye out for certain words and phrases found in the previously obtained chat records from criminals including sexual predators. The scanning software then flags and notifies Facebook security employees, the suspicious chat exchanges, who then determine if police should be notified.

In a recent interview by Joe Sullivan (Chief Security Officer at Facebook), to Reuters, he states, “We’ve never wanted to set up an environment where we have employees looking at private communications, so it’s really important that we use technology that has a very low false-positive rate.”

Facebook works with law enforcement “where appropriate and to the extent required by law to ensure the safety of the people who use Facebook,” according to a page on its site.

In order to allay criticism from privacy advocates, Facebook has long stated that scanned chats are out of sight from most of the employees, but it stops short of mentioning whether the scanned chats are deleted or stored permanently.
Is it due to some ulterior motives or a genuine concern towards creating a crime free society? Only time will tell.

What are your thoughts?

Aiding and abetting a cashless society?

I cannot imagine a world without cash. I may be a romantic, but the feel of crisp notes in my hand sends me to a journey to the materialistic world, a world which my Id abhors.

Many souls like me have tried to subdue this feeling, to help government tighten the noose around the curse of black money, tax evasion, Ponzi’s, etc.

A lot of countries, world over are encouraging the use of plastic currencies; some countries have passed legislation that entails all transaction above a threshold to be non-cash in nature.

It might not be euphonious, but is it completely cacophonous? Decide for yourself.

Facebook is developing and beta testing an app that would allow users to “pay their utility bills, balance their checkbooks, and transfer money at the same time they upload vacation photos on the site for friends to see.

This new application is currently running in beta phase with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ICICI Bank in India and KeyPoint Credit Union. It allows users to view account details and mini statements as well as apply for debit cards, requisition of chequebooks, and payment of utilities bill through an ‘alleged’ secure SSL connection.

Facebook is known for many things but none apropos respect for privacy. Mark Zuckerberg has shown his overt derision towards the concept of privacy.

In spite of this scornful, contemptuous and sneering jibe-like stand regarding privacy, both Facebook and the participants in this emerging app are assuring future customers that there is no need for concern regarding leakages of personal data.

Keeping all this in mind, would anyone in their right mind trust their online banking and financial information with them?

The answer is likely to be a resounding approval.

Ana Kasparian accurately summed up some of the concerns regarding online banking privacy and the new Facebook app, “And I’ll tell you what my conspiracy theory is. Facebook makes money by selling ads. And the way that they sell ads is by telling the advertisers what their users are spending their money on. If they have the ability to see what you’re spending your money on via BillPay, on their website, then they’re going to sell that information to a third party. And then they’re going to be like ‘What? What privacy? What are you talking about?”

The increasing number of such apps will undoubtedly produce an increase in the number of hacking and identity theft incidents. Thus, the public that was so easily inveigled to use these programs under the habiliment of convenience will be called for an increased level of security to reduce the ability of hackers to access the data they freely offered online.

These concerns are likely to go unheeded. It will be only discussed as a public relation move designed to placate those on the fence. In the end it, is just one more step towards the ultimate goal of the cashless society and the requirement that even the most personal information such as iris scan, fingerprints, vein scans, facial photograph and even DNA swabs be surrendered for the purpose of data security.

These programs are always introduced through a totalitarian tip-toe under the guise of convenience. Then as more and more people take the bait, the older methods of payment are advertised as cumbersome and are phased out completely.

It is ironical that people are losing their discerning abilities apropos such agendas. They forget that they can use online banking facilities and Facebook at the same time by opening a second tab of the browser!

What are your thoughts on cashless society?

Conclusion

The kind of policies that Facebook has incorporated and is incorporating daily is a matter of concern for all of us. The freedom of expression, once its raison-d’être, now figures only in their taxonomy. The wall of Facebook, a wall where thoughts were penned; laughter shared; love hatched, tears dispelled, has now become an abattoir of that freedom.

Post 9/11, all the revolutions, from the depths of Urals to the shores of the Nile, have been made possible primarily due to the advent of Social Media acting as the proponent of freedom of expression and perhaps these revolutions have resulted in Facebook acquiescing with the Machiavellian-like state policies and demands of the despots’.

Let us know what you feel about your privacy concerns and the idea of living in a world with plastic money?

You can connect with us on Twitter or you can follow us on Facebook.

Disclaimer: All links/image posted are on third party websites. Copyrights as applicable.

Phew! The year sure went by fast. New Year is the perfect time to look back into the past and make plans for the future in an effort to make our lives better in the coming year. Although many of us make lofty plans and ‘New Year Resolutions’, it has convinced me that resolutions (made right) can make a huge difference in boosting happiness and productivity level, be it personal or in social media!

Before we jump into our resolutions, here is a quick look at 2012 and 2013!

How 2012 looked for Social Media?

How will 2013 hold for social media?

Whether we believe it or not…social media is here to stay. Social network usage, e-commerce, social television, social CRM as well as social gaming will be the BIG trends in 2013. The info-graphic above demonstrates a shift towards a greater and deeper understanding of social from everybody associated and engaged in digital marketing and social media. Some of these trends have already emerged in 2012 but they will become more prominent and pronounced in 2013.

Social media is fun and everyone is taking time/effort to learn…but we at futurON believe that 2013 is a time to get a little serious – so why not start with some resolutions for the New Year?

Here’s my list that I believe will make social media as effective as possible  – feel free to add more!

SOCIAL MEDIA RESOLUTIONS

a) I will understand that social media is about relationships and not broadcasts

This is the first splendid truth! People on virtual social platforms are way smarter than assumed. It is important to have a personal connection or a relationship with the audience; this is the cornerstone of any marketing strategy. Many times huge corporates don’t engage in a discussion or seed a dialogue and in many cases, social media becomes a broadcasting tool with no interaction what so ever. This makes the organization look sales hungry and can put off a customer so very easily! It makes the effort no different from any other mass media broadcasting exercise like television, radio or the newspaper.

Furthermore it is also important to figure out how to create original content, manage content development and link social media plans with business strategies, which will lead to building relationships with the desired audience. Successful brands are building relationships with existing and new clients without making them feel like pawns in the mission to close a sale.  With more than 26.7 million ‘LIKES’ Red Bull’s Facebook Page ranks in the top 50 branded pages on the world’s largest social network. The brand’s most popular posts are extreme sports videos and photos – sometimes garnering thousands of re-shares onto the personal Facebook profiles of its fans. Many, but not all of these videos are of Red Bull’s own sponsored athletes. Red Bull relies heavily on its engagement metric to measure success!

b) I will use Google+

Why should I use Google+ is a question often asked by Social Media Gurus and practitioners. Well, Guy Kawasaki Wants You To Love Google+ As Much As He Does is an Interesting read for all of us who have stayed away from Google+.

Google+ usage is on the rise and as of February 2012 and it drew over 40MM unique visitors in December 2011 alone. Google+ is still nascent and it does require more attention than one would give other burgeoning social networks. Here are a bunch of reasons why:

Reason One

G+ may at first glance seem very similar to Facebook, but it’s not. G+ is the step towards Web 3.0 and semantics. It is intended as a hub for all of Google’s services. For Google it is important to interconnect Search, YouTube, and Newsgroups and make it all integrated with each other to greater extent than ever before and for better user experience.

Reason Two

Google+ posts can be referenced through unique links and shared publicly. There is no need to worry about whether or not someone has a Google+ account. Everyone can view your public content regardless of their Google+ account status.

Reason Three

The analytics are built right into the G+ Design and one doesn’t need foreign tools to measure data and information.

Reason Four

Many businesses have stayed away from Google+. And this means beat a lot of the competitors to the punch if they haven’t got their feet wet as yet! What are you waiting for? Make the leap now!

c) I will take the visual route

Facebook acquiring Instagram and Pinterest hitting the 10 million-visitor mark faster than any other site are a few strong examples of brands going visual, hence I’m embracing visual too!

Read this interesting article why Facebook bought Instagram by the Forbes magazine. Visuals are engaging, easy to consume and are high on emotional quotient. 2013 is the year when we will truly feel the rise of visual marketing. Visuals and video done right are highly effective in cutting through the noise and clutter.

Experts at futurON, like Khusbhu Doshi in her blog, Growing digital trends in 2012, have already explained the advantages of visual. Pictures top the list of things social media users enjoy seeing from their friends and this kind of content resonates with people everywhere and it increases engagement across social nets. Corporates and brands have to understand what it takes to do visual marketing well. They have to participate in different forms of visual social media, whether it is Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest. Visual has become one of the top de-facto methods of cataloguing, sorting, filtering and understanding the vast amount of information we see every day. One in four consumers’ reports say that they are spending less time on other social media sites in favor of Pinterest. EdgeRank prefers visual content too. This means that photos get more visibility for your content on Facebook.

Photos have more interaction than statuses, likes, links or shares. Infact, photos often get from 5 to 20 times as much interaction as any other type of Facebook post. A popular mobile and laptop accessory brand has managed to garner a lot interest because they are taking the visual route. Most smart brands will leverage this to the optimum and to stay ahead of the curve.

d) I will monitor my social footprint

How can I define and measure success on Social Media? Do I understand the power of Social currency? Do marketers still grapple with what and how to measure?

We are still in the early days for social; we haven’t discovered a solution to solve the measurement conundrum. But ROI is an important consideration when evaluating social media’s effectiveness as a marketing tool. Also, The advance of social media has added layers of complexity to the engagement challenge. It has given us more areas of engagement to consider, from Likes, tweets, views, comments, shares, reviews to views. This makes it imperative to measure the success of every piece of content shared; be it likes, shares, pins, re-pins, re-tweets and more. It is also important to monitor and respond to what’s being said about one’s brand online. Facebook is the social media platform that CMOs say currently provides the highest ROI. However, 77 % of CMOs plan to increase their investment in YouTube, narrowly beating out Facebook (75 %) as the most popular social media platform of the future. Other popular social media platforms for future investment include Twitter (73 %) and LinkedIn (61 %).

Here are a few metrics that are moving the needle for big brands.

Metric One

Share of voice – This isn’t a straight-up ROI measurement metric, but it measures how a company is performing relative to its competitors and relative to all communication methods. It also means generating coverage and mindshare, and communicating brand attributes to the primary targets.

Metric Two

Reach – This ” measures the overall “noise level” in the market as well as how effective a specific brand is in reaching its target audience.

Metric Three

Conversations – Conversations put the social in social media. Creating dialogues is important in creating brand affinity and it is imperative to send that good morning message out.

Metric Four

Advocates

iv) Advocates, evangelists, early adopters, loyal customers, brand champions, influencers, promoters and fans and super fans help one in getting one’s voice heard across the myriad social channels. They are highly passionate about your brand and they help in building conversation. They also help in reducing your support costs and helping in building brand confidence. One can also abstain from tom-tomming about one’s brand.

e) I will integrate Case studies and testimonials on all my social networks

It is largely the emotional connects that makes the consumer. Case studies and testimonials work tremendously because it’s all about people like us. When potential customers check out our business online, they want to see proof that we deliver what we promise. It is evidence that we have happy customers!

iAccy’s ‘Happy Fan Club ‘share pictures of their gifts, here’s a screen-shot.

f) I will plan my social media-marketing budget

Even in today’s challenging economic climate – when companies frequently look to their marketing budgets for cost-saving opportunities – it’s still important to persevere efforts, especially on social networks. One should keep a tab on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) time and again to ensure that it is contributing to the business and is not a dead investment. Reviewing the marketing plan and integrating into it the social media plan into is very important. It is also important  to figure out what channels one would be spending money on, map out budgetary considerations for contests and promotions.

When allocating marketing budget to social media, there are a few things that must be factored in

a) Personnel – One must be willing to set aside staff to monitor the company’s profile, respond to comments, and engage with potential customers and build a rapport with them. Social media specialists can make ads for business to disseminate through social media channels.

b) Quality Content — Quality content is the best way to keep your social media presence vital, and, if its good enough, you will get a lot more traffic through positive feedback and incoming links.

c) Analytics – Even if one has a dedicated to monitor social media and top-notch content, all the efforts will be for nothing if one cannot measure the effectiveness of this activity.

Experts say social media spending will be MORE than double in the next five years!

The August 2012 survey finds that social media currently makes up an average of 7.6% of respondents’ total marketing budgets, up from7.4% in February.

g) I will not be on multiple channels if I don’t have the right resources to manage them.

Owning multiple social media channels can be a good idea only if one has the right resources to manage them. Half-baked efforts can do more damage to the brand. Most brands desire to be on multiple social platforms without understanding how these platforms work. Corporates are stressed by the increased demands of customers who want a response wherever and whenever they ask for help, although intentions to provide social customer service are on the right track, many corporates are not structured to handle it in terms of resource allocation, integration, and efficiency. The strategy here is to focus on a couple of relevant channels that suit the brand and to deliver excellent quality, higher satisfaction and targeting the right people.

Fashion, ecommerce and media brands are flocking to Pinterest despite it being a relatively new social platform. The mass market is on Pinterest and it is super easy for fashion and e-commerce brands to jump on and experiment. These brands have images of their products, stores, or commodities being pinned every day. So there is a drag affect. Hence Pinterest can turn your brand red-hot!

h) I will understand the real-time business mindset

The social web has exploded in the last year and Social Media can help you understand what’s happening and respond quickly to any crisis and timing is everything in customer service satisfaction. Social media is about immediacy. Traditionally, customers expect a response within 24 hours, but social media is bringing immediacy to interactions that cannot be ignored.

More and more companies are finding their way to the social web to answer questions of clients and prospects. But many brands forget to offer speed and real value to customers. Speed and around the clock availability will be needed to stand out. If one jilts the members, expect them to leave you in their dust.

In closing, successful social-media management involves production requirements, tools, relevant content, analytics and other aspects of work. We have so much to look forward to in the coming year. I’m already curiously waiting what will 2013 bring for social media marketing and beyond!

Ah well, speaking of personal resolutions, mine are to laugh less hysterically, cut down on my caffeine intake and of course to find my Mr. Right!

Do let us know what your New Year resolutions are for 2013,both social media and personal. You can connect with us on twitter @futurontweets or you can follow us on Facebook.

Disclaimer: All links/image posted are on third party websites. Copyrights as applicable.

If the world were to end this month according to Mayan predictions, it would surely be a shame since 2012 unfolded so many promising events! Yes, these milestones make us look forward to 2013 even more!

CLICK ON THE INFO-GRAPHIC FOR A BIGGER & BETTER VIEW

Let’s begin with Facebook, which now has a billion+ users

An exciting year for Facebook one would say. Facebook started the year by making Timeline mandatory for all its users, following it up the next month with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and then quickly introduced features that allowed, for instance, advertisements to be slipped into status messages of users. Instagram was acquired for $ 1 billion in cash and stock. Facebook started trading on NASDAQ stock market under ticker symbol FB. In becoming more user friendly, Facebook gave users more clarity on improving their online privacy, improved picture viewing to give users a more wholesome experience and introduced the Facebook messenger that allowed users to chat with their contacts without using a browser, among many other developments. Facebook has 425 million mobile users.

Moving on to Twitter, the birds are chirping louder!

Twitter started the year by changing the bird logo as its sole signifier. A richer profile page was introduced, allowing brands to engage much better with their customers; this included the option to have a profile picture, as well as a background image, permitting for a more customised advertising platform to be visible to customers. In order to reach a wider audience, Twitter introduced multiple languages in their tweets and also created a weekly newsletter that would update users on the latest happenings. The number of users on Twitter increased massively making it even stronger and permanent feature in the social media space. If Twitter was a country it would be the 12th largest in the world!

Now for Mr. Professional – LinkedIn

LinkedIn, the most successful professional social networking website, became more employer friendly in 2012. With the introduction of newly designed personal as well as business pages, companies could now be followed by prospective employees, and could engage with their employee base even better than before. Companies on LinkedIn could now be ‘Shared’ with contacts by the users. LinkedIn signed up 2 new members every second this year!

Coming to Youtube, the world’s second most visited website

YouTube changed their design to give users a cleaner and more efficient look and feel, allowing them to subscribe to feeds of their preference. It allowed users to watch clips and recaps of their favorite television programs online through the Channel Page; it also introduced automatic captions in 6 languages for videos sans subtitles. The average visitor spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube.

Moving on to Pinterest, the fastest standalone website

Pinterest, was the fastest standalone website in the history of the web to cross 10 million unique users every month and then ran into copyright issues earlier this year, but has since outgrown the problem by introducing automatic captioning to images taken from different sources, making almost all the pins legal. It is interesting to note that 97% of the fans on Pinterest’s Facebook page are women.

Last but certainly not the least – Google+

The folks at Google+ have remained resolutely steadfast in their move to gain more market share. Google Ripples, a new tool for visualization for public shares and comments, was introduced, as was GoMo, helping businesses create mobile friendly sites. The Google +1 button is used 5 billion times every day.

The Big Leap in Social Media Marketing

Here is a quick look on what’s cooking with social media in 2012 that makes 2013 look so tempting!

1. According to Marketingeasy, an average mid-sized or large company(1000+ employees) has 178 ‘social media assets’, yet only 25% of them offer social business training to their employees.
2. B2B Magazine says that B2B marketers believe social media is imperative for success in organic search and social media is the second most important factor at 64%, second only to strong content which is rated at 82%.
3. Marketing Charts says that in spite of Facebook being the most important social media lead generation tool for B2C marketers, among B2B companies, LinkedIn was the most effective, followed by company blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.
4. If Social Media B2B is anything to go by, LinkedIn generates more leads for B2B companies than Facebook, Twitter or blogs. Yet only 47% of B2B marketers say they are actively using LinkedIn vs. 90% on Facebook.
5. Around 33% of global B2B buyers use social media to engage with their vendors, and three-quarters expect to use social media in future purchases processes, according to Social Media B2B.

Evidently, none of the social media sites have shown any signs of relenting from doing their level best to improve their online activities. What has significantly improved this year is the enhanced user experience across devices and platforms. With the boom of smartphones, tablets, and ‘phablets’ in developed as well as developing markets like India and China, Social Media has a long way to go from coming of age and in the future, the opportunities for Marketing in Social Media only seem to be increasing. We believe that with more intelligent Social Media Marketing, the reach to the end customer is only going to get better!

To summarise; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Google+ to name a few, have remained at the top of the game in spite of certain marketers undermining its influence.  They aren’t slowing down anytime soon. Opportunities are on the rise, and Marketing in Social Media isn’t going anywhere. Correction: Marketing in Social Media is actually going everywhere!

We welcomed 2012 with a lot of debate and speculation on what the online world was going to look like in the coming years. A quarter of a year down, I would like to revisit the discussion and point out some of the trends that are slowly crawling their way up and should be taken seriously by marketers.

This can essentially be split into two parts: one covering the overall situation of online/internet marketing and a second that spotting trends into social marketing.In this part, I am going to cover the broad emerging trends in digital marketing.

Loyalty based mobile products

I am not going to give statistics here on how the number of users logging on to the Internet from their mobile phones is increasing. Instead let’s focus on how loyalty coupons and sweepstakes on mobile are getting accepted and that is mostly due to relevance.

Here is an example: you are a fan of Shrek the musical. You are already on the fan page. You happen to be near the theater that plays Shrek and, thanks to your phone, you realize there is a special ‘meet the stars’ event. You decide to drop by, get tickets due to your loyalty status, click and share pictures online.

If you receive geo targeted ads-offers and are instantly going to update/provide reviews of having redeemed something on social world, or get customer support to solve your problem real-time then there you go! Your mobile ecology is complete. You, the marketer, and the business concerned are happy!

Let’s talk video

Video content as well as marketing will see a lot of little changes. To point some, if you use a lot of video content online, you will notice that some pre-rolls now let you choose which one of their ad offerings you want to see. Also brands will start to integrate videos in their social communication, online games, etc.

Video content being watched both online and on the mobile will continue to accelerate. These are not big changes from a user perspective. But it will affect business in video such as planning and buying agencies, tracking/analytics firms, and video affiliate channels.

Integration of traditional and digital

Experts at futurON have repeatedly expressed concern and stressed on the need for a world where traditional and digital marketing are integrated.If you wish to read more on this, you can read Andrew Gardner or Arshya Lakshman.

Earlier in the year, Marketing Week did an article on Marketing Buzzwords that might make it to the boardroom in 2012. This article introduced a word called “tradigital”

So what are we expecting out of this union?

Mostly, agencies need to realize the strength of each medium and use them in tandem to plan integrated campaigns. The product offerings are now multi-channel and so the campaigns need to be the same. This may, however, require account managing teams to be multi-talented and understand details across traditional and new media channels.

For instance, you saw a TV ad and decided to make a trip to Barbados. Later that evening, you jump into a tube and see a poster advertising cheap flight tickets on offer. You can use the QR code and look at the ad online later.

E-commerce

This is an important year for eCommerce as some of its verticals like Mobile Commerce & Social Commerce are coming of age.

Social networking websites have long been named powerhouses of consumer information and yet failed to provide big commercial results. Due to this existing gap in market a new set of specialist services have emerged that help study online consumer behavior. For example, Wildfire, which is a Facebook preferred developer works closely with them, to provide technology solutions like coupons & sweepstakes builder app, social media analytics platform that can be customized etc.

With technology & analytic support as well as some amount of creativity, brands will now be able to start producing sales via social & mobile platforms.

One more eCommerce trend of Group buying will see a continual growth. This doesn’t come as a big surprise does it? Our futurist Aishwarya Rao already pointed out in December that if marketers aren’t already including group buying in their plans, maybe they should. Since, we’ve already covered this, I won’t get into much details.

I would however like to add, that over time we should be able to see niche websites within this sector as well. For now Groupon, Living Social & kgbdeals and other smaller websites are all offering same things, holidays, adventures, one off entertainment sessions, hobby lessons etc. Over a period, with more and more websites rolling the same product, we should be able to see specialized niche group buying websites.

Application experiments

Starting this year, we will hear of applications that change the way businesses function.

Here’s an example. Currently, you look at your phone to search for a restaurant and maybe check reviews. Last month Venturebeat reported that it had made an application called bynow, which is still in beta. Reportedly, the application can find restaurants in your vicinity, allow you to make a reservation, order, as well as pay via clicks and swipes. The restaurants that adapt, apparently, will have the same level of technological sophistication whereby orders will be accepted via a phone, straight into the kitchen.

You will soon come across more weird and interesting stories. While some might not work, others will become a way of life before you have time to think.

We will be back soon with more on Social Media Trends. Meanwhile if you think we’ve missed out on something you would’ve liked to see here, do let us know.

Photo credits: Qreate&Track, Marr International Digital Marketing, Technocrat, Starlink

I would like to start by quoting a popular Tweet by @instagram (not associated with the actual product) that has been retweeted over 2,100 times since it was first published on April 16: “Myspace Died, Facebook Is In Critical Condition, Twitter Is In The Waiting Room Chillin’ & #Instagram Is Being Born!!!”

Well, this is obviously not true, especially since Facebook has already bought Instagram. However, the change of perception is noteworthy. The last couple of years have been paving the way for new “image or visual-based social networking”. The signs for this are all around us and we hope you haven’t missed them. However for those still catching up, read on.

A quick run through of important factors that point to rise of visual social network:

- Photo sharing, commenting on pictures have been popular features on Facebook since the time the networking site came into existence. A general scan of statistics shows that over 250 million pictures are daily shared on Facebook.
-  Google Plus was introduced with an interface that supports high-resolution images.
- The rising popularity of infographics in the blogging world over the last year.
-  Pinterest team started development in December 2009 and launched it beta version in March 2010. According to a report published by Shareacholic in January, Pinterest generates more referral traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.
-In January 2012 comScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique users, making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark
- Facebook introduced timeline for personal and business pages. This is a very intuitive and image-based interface.
- Recently, Facebook purchased Instagram, another image-based networking platform, in what is known to be one of the fastest and biggest payouts for a startup.

Now, keeping in mind the somewhat drastic rise, a few questions come to mind. Is this a fad? What is the future of image-based networking?

While most experts in digital and the social media sphere are raving about timeline and social networks such as Pinterest, there are also sources that have shown some amount of distrust.

Here is why I believe this emerging trend is not a fad.

- The lazy brain theory: How many of us are addicted to social networks and still complain about information overload?  There is only so much that our brain is going to process and images are making it simpler to pass as well as receive information. This is the same reason infographics are become so popular and why intuitive products such as iPhone and iPads have been so well received.
- Pinning or posting a single picture is a lot quicker then typing a tweet or updating your status.
- If you are in the merchandise business, it is more visually appealing. For example, if you are a fashion major, you can keep pinning pictures to the right category pin boards. If you are a food blogger, you can add images in your collection of pictures of dessert. This doesn’t involve much content writing, only a bit of organizing. This is especially useful if you are a small business and cannot afford social marketing firms.
- For a while now marketers have been trying to solve the problem of how to capitalize on their fan base and convert them into buyers/users. This might be their answer. A rightly placed high-resolution image can inspire an instant purchase. For instance, this DIY iPhone cross stitch kit or this lace dress may generate instant impulsive purchase decision or these interiors may generate an instant query for the interior designer.
- Marketers are already finding their way around Pinterest, while it has taken Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook a while to make their commercial pages available and get brands to capitalize on them.
Pinterest has not yet made any announcements for a separate business product. However, if you look for information on how to use the online pinboard, you will find a lot of articles and blogs on it already. A product that is easy to use for marketers is also easy to use for consumers.

My examples/arguments are mostly written with Pinterest in mind, as we are yet to see what Facebook intends to do with Instagram. The initial growth might subside or slow down, but the visual social networking is here to stay.So, according to you will this trend continue? We would like to hear your opinion about it.