Varied Inclinations

Are you aware that Asia alone accounts to 44.8% of the Internet users around the world? (According to Internet World Stats) Internet has made the world smaller and closer. Here’s a glimpse into a small survey conducted by me on what interests Netizens like us the most…

Social Networking is the widely chanted word today. So, it obviously bags the first place. Doesn’t it?  Like we all know, it’s not just the youth that fall under this belt, but people of other age groups as well. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, MySpace, FourSquare, Pinterest, Instagram, so on and so forth, the list is never ending. I recently came across a study conducted by Pew Surveys, which quotes that 50% of all adults use Social Networking and 65% of all adult Internet users are into Social Networking. Doesn’t sound surprising to me!

According to my study, people have said that they prefer Social Networking this extensively because it serves as a platform for them to express and voice out their opinions in public

without having to feel embarrassed or ashamed (which could be the case with people having the fear of public speaking). Time and again, they have found Social Networking to be an easy way of staying in touch with people from both past and present.

Today, Social networking has become a one stop solution for multiple activities. We make friends, have important events reminded, share opinions, post pictures, post videos, get jobs, shop online, play games, stay connected and what not. The world just shrunk for good ha?   In recent times, we are also witnessing how Social Networks have become influential and contagious.

The second most visited platform is e-commerce. Not a tough guess again! All the people surveyed have tried online shopping atleast once. Online stores like E-bay, Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra, etc. have revolutionized the whole concept of Shopping. Netizens believe that Online Shopping not only saves them time and added costs (like travelling charges) but also provides them with better options with less or no effort. Well that’s certainly the prime reason for using e-commerce. Isn’t it?

 Price Comparison Social Engines like Junglee.com, Price Grabber, etc. let users compare products, prices and lucrative offers on a single platform. Special Deals and offers are what most of the consumers look out for, they say. Students opine that e-commerce sites like Amazon provide the best deals for them especially during festive seasons. They see Amazon as very economical and they also say that the packages are delivered safely before the deadlines.

Apart from these, Netizens say that they mostly visit sites that help them keep track of the latest trends and happenings around the world which otherwise becomes time consuming considering their modern lifestyle. The traffic to other professional sites is however less in comparison to the major ones mentioned above since they are more restricted in terms of their relevance to people of all streams. 

All said and done, what’s your favorite site?

Statistics Source: Internet

Shopping gone Viral!

Is shopping still a distant planned affair? If the answer is a NO, that’s undoubtedly because of e-commerce. With e-commerce in place, it’s just a click away. With more and more e-commerce portals popping up each day, ‘compete and survive’ has become the need of the day. The new magic tool businesses now use to grab more attention and build brand loyalty, is “Social Networking for e-commerce”, shortly called Social Commerce.

Social Commerce is precisely the use of Social Networking to enhance one’s e-commerce business and improve the Buyer- Customer relationship. Present day e-commerce businesses find Social Networking an easy and lucrative way of reaching out to the customers, which is definitely working!

Social Networking could be the one stop solution for e-commerce entities when looking for the following:

• Providing easily available content (spread information about one’s business)
• To help form communities of potentially interested customers
• To increase visibility (e.g. through likes and shares in Facebook)
• To help spread the word when rolling out sales promotions (like best deals, offers, etc.)
• To sense the public pulse by analyzing their conversations (this could be the base for new idea generation; to produce products of people’s choice).
• To address their issues quickly (if any).
• To help provide a platform for the users to share their expectations and experiences.
• To improve traffic to their official websites.
• To recognize their competitors.

      How often were you routed to a shopping site when social networking? Well, your answer precisely supports my statement that, several platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Foursquare, etc. have been the central points of interest for e-commerce businesses lately.

Use of Facebook for e-commerce:

Many e-commerce sites now have an official Facebook page that is being liked and shared by millions like us all around the world. By posting recent updates, pictures of their new products, related videos and much more, e-commerce is turning out to be more like a friend. Many start-ups like Alma Mater, Chumbak, etc. have found their target market through Facebook. Monginis, the famous Indian pastries and bakery chain based in Mumbai has its own e-commerce site. It also owns a Facebook page and Facebook app that helps customers get good deals on cakes they purchase. Yum cakes with yummier deals. Sounds great right? This is certainly a great way of pumping customer interaction and interest. Don’t you think?

Use of You Tube for e-commerce:

The world renowned video sharing website/social network has helped a multitude 
of e-commerce sites gain recognition through constant video uploading that helps push their sales up. Ora Brush is an e-commerce store selling a tongue cleaning product. It owns a channel in YouTube where, it keeps posting funny videos related to Bad Breath, its famous segment being a weekly video called “Dairy of a dirty tongue” that grabs millions of hits. This is yet another innovative way of engaging with the customers.

Use of Twitter for e-commerce:

The sensational micro blogging site has been successfully supporting several small scale businesses thus far. Also, it has now made e-commerce easy through its twitter commerce platform called “Chirpify” which helps people buy and sell products easily. An added advantage is that it works with Instagram. No more visiting the online store, no more filling up boring details. What an interesting deal!

Use of Pinterest for e-commerce:

Pinterest, the latest fast growing social networking site that lets people pin interesting posts and pictures on their virtual bulletin board is now playing a significant role in supporting the       e-commerce players as well. Zappos, a shoe and apparel e-commerce store owned by Amazon has now come up with a new service called PinPoinintg that recommends products based on the users’ posts in Pinterest. That surely spares us the effort of unnecessary elimination. This is evidently the most lucrative way of dealing with customers.

What customers like us want from Social Commerce?

•          Relevant informative content (e.g. be location based)
•          Adequate advice on products (viz. reliable product reviews)
•          Sufficient options to choose from
•          Immediate response to their queries and grievances
•     Comparison (in terms of product price, quality, etc.) There are currently many price  comparison shopping engines like Junglee.com, Yahoo! Shopping, Price Grabber, etc.

       While, e-commerce is looking out for options to make life easier for us (more effortless and easily accessible), Social Networking is helping the customer scrutinize them, further emphasizing on the well known mantra “Customer is King”. 

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Sources for Content: Internet

Forced Advertising

When was the last time you did not come across an ad on the Internet? From Television to Radio, Mobile phones to Internet, Advertisements have spread like cockroaches. They are here, there, everywhere and there are loads of them right? 

Every business sees advertising as the most feasible and creative of ways to grab attention. Innovative concepts, impressive audio-visuals and catchy lines have made advertising more attractive. However, with the excessive spread of these ads in digital media, we have grown skeptical of their acceptance. Haven’t we?

 A small survey conducted to determine peoples’ views on this issue revealed the following opinions.

Most Netizens find the ads on youtube very annoying. “Open a video and boom! What you get is a surprise unwanted ad that is neither chosen nor asked for. That’s exactly when we wait for the “Skip Ad” button to come to our rescue”, they say. Contrary to this, there are also a set of people who say that they are fine with watching these ads. However, what proportion of them pays attention to these ads and what proportion of them actually takes interest in going ahead and taking action is unanswerable.

Expressing their opinion on the advertisements seen in other Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., Netizens have opined that ads that come up with good deals and offers are always appreciated while plain informative ads are often overlooked. (If you are one of them too, trust me it’s so not your fault!)Several e-commerce sites like Amazon.com and Flipkart provide excellent deals especially on tech-goods which is very lucrative especially to students (the low or no income group).

In other websites where advertisements swallow the entire screen all of a sudden, are frustrating. They say that it’s not the ads they are looking for anymore, but for the close button. Students engrossed in sites like Wikipedia, HowStuffWorks, etc. find these ads a hindrance in their main job unless they are extremely creative and good.

Here or there, most Netizens feel that ads would grab more eye balls only if they are either highly creative or if they are deal prone. I agree. Flashy ads or the ones that come with obnoxious music are a total no-no.

While there many people who find these ads intruding, there are also a section of people who believe that ads form a normal part of their digital media, since most of them no more watch television. If there is anything they are missing out there, they find these ads filling that gap. New movies, new products, or new anything for that matter; ads for them, are a way of catching up with the latest trends.

 So why do you think many businesses still choose to walk this path? In my perspective, one reason for this could be the ever changing unpredictable opinions of the people. Yeah I mean us! Today we like A but tomorrow we want to try B for some or no reason. Today, we are fine watching an ad and tomorrow we aren’t. Migration from one product/service to the other is growing rapidly. 

All the algorithms derived to analyze consumer behavioral patters have proven insufficient. All said and done, businesses are hence looking at “all-round-visibility” or “omnipresence” as a safer option. We may curse them today, but if we find them useful tomorrow, that’s all they need because in the digital age, gaining or losing a customer is just a click away. And with almost the entire world being immensely engaged with digital media, an opportunity like this is too risky to lose.

So, are you ready to witness a dose of digital ads today!?