5 Tips to Become Successful Social Media Marketer (SMM).

How good would it be to overhear customers talking to each other and saying nice things about your company? Or how important is it to know when dissatisfied customers are telling others about a poor experience? If you’re monitoring social media, you’re gathering exactly that information.

Customers and prospects are increasingly turning to social communities, networks and blogs for opinions about various brands, businesses and services. In 2009, the average time spent on social sites increased 82 percent globally compared to 2008 and the number of Twitter users spiked more than 500 percent, reaching 75 million by the end of 2009. Because recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted online are trusted most, monitoring and managing social media is a key focus among marketers. As with increase email marketing, measuring your performance in social is key to success, enabling you to monitor the impact of promotions, identify brand ambassadors and adjust future campaigns based on past results, among numerous other benefits

Here are some tips for to do it right:

1)    Identify your market.

What is your market? It is very important as in social media you can focus on part of your target market. Also it decides which social media is useful in selected market. As Like in India you can use Orkut over facebook (but rapidly user of Facebook increases and it will cross Orkut in short time.)

2)    What is your goal for SMM?

It decides your course of use of social media. Whether you are going to use twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Orkut, Netlog etc. or combination of all or some of it. Goal helps you in remain focus & measure the path of success. Everywhere goal is very important as it boost your confident, it help to focus on limited/selective targets.

Also in B2B and B2C different media are more useful like for B2B Social media like Linkedin, Blogs, slideshare, Twitter is more important while in B2C Youtube, Facebook, twitter etc. are more favorable.

3)    How you going to measure/monitor its impact?

This is most important step in social media marketing because it helps to remain focus, consistent & remain on designed path. It is very much possible in case of Social media as you can count no. of hits, most favorite tweet, and direct customer feedback/suggestions using various tools/applications. Which is why social media is become favorite among marketers!. By measuring impact of social media you can make necessary corrections.

4)    Engage customers/prospect in discussion.

This step is actually part of implementation phase of social media marketing. Engage your prospect/customer in various discussions. Sometimes if you contradict or giving some super nominal result or fact, force customer to take part in discussion but it should be use carefully or else it affect other way to your social media campaigning.

5)    Consistency / focus.

This step is more important as you are using more ways to reach your customer/prospect so there is possibility of difference, inconsistency in your message. Also this is case when different marketing channel handled by different people/departments. Also social media reach directly to the doorstep of customer and in case SMM, customer gets enough time to evaluate, accept the message. So message should be clear and consistent to other mediums of communication.

So if you follow all this steps in SMM, nobody keeps you away from becoming successful Social Media Marketer. So when you starting/using your Social media marketing (SMM)?

What Makes Indian Premier League (IPL) so Hot?

In this sales2marketing article we will try to see the Indian Premier League (often abbreviated as IPL) in marketing point of view. Why it so successful in so short of time? IPL is a Twenty20 cricket competition initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and supervised by BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi, Chairman  and Commissioner for IPL. It presently includes 10 teams called "franchises" consisting of players from different countries. It was started after altercation between the BCCI and the newly-created Indian Cricket League.The IPL works on franchise system based on the American style of hiring players and transfers.

Whats makes it so popular in India and abroad?

Here are some reasons for IPL success in India.

1) Its format: 20-20 overs which requires only 3 to 4 hours time to finish match. 

2) Indian viewers interest in Cricket- great fan following (eat, drink, sleep & digested cricket attitude).

3) Glamourous look to IPL (Cheergirls, strategic breaks, filmi Celebrity association, presence on ground).

4) Marketing Buzz (Association of Brand, their unique way to promote their brands).

5) Vision (Man behind the show Mr. Lalit Modi, he knows where, what & How).

6) It attach International players almost all test cricket playing countries which gives result in their fan following and vice-versa.

7) Fair and quality Play - Spirit of game(Till date)

8) Given different regional representation to teams which covers entire India.

9) Ownership of Franchisee given to Professional business tycoons like Ambanis, Vijay Mallya, Nes Wadia and latest Mr Subrato Roy and many more. 

10)Match timings in Afternoon & evening time as concern with India(Prime-time)

Commercial Aspect of IPL.
1) It was the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on the popular video sharing website Youtube.
2) Sony/World Sport Group -Broadcast Rights 10 years at Rs 8700 crores.
2) Brand value was estimated to be around $4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crore) in 2010.
3) According to global sports salaries review IPL is the second highest-paid league, based on first-team salaries on a pro-rata basis, only second to NBA league. It is calculated that average salary of IPL over a year is £2.5 million.
4) DLF Group paid US$50 million to be the title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013
5) In 2010, the IPL expects to have 80 official merchandising deals.
6) five-year sponsorship agreements include a deal with motorcycle maker Hero Honda worth $22.5-million, one with PepsiCo worth $12.5-million, and a deal with beer and airline conglomerate Kingfisher at $26.5-million.
7) There are disputed figures for the profitability of the teams, but in season one profit remains more over flat, in season 2, four teams out of the eight made a profit and IPL season 3 is going on...lets see.
8) Many other deals which are not disclosed.

So from this figures we can imagine what type of commercial interest involved in IPL. Which combine with viewers interest gives IPL grand success, more eyeballs.
As per Mr Lalit Modi, he wants to make IPL most successful sporting event than any other sport format in the World(NBA, Wimbledon, Grandprix etc.). Also if IPL want more professional approach, nothing can stop them from come with IPO for listing in stock exchange similar like Manchester United was listed in the London Stock Exchange (1992) at GBP 47 million.

Hope you will like this sales2marketing article....Enjoy IPL....Enjoy Cricket.... keep watching!!!                                   (Source:Wikipedia)