fardawsahassan

Salam Everyone,

Welcome back to another blog post!! Bare with me as I’ve caught a stomach flu and I might not be as interesting as I always am. So, this weeks topic is going to be on return on social media investments (ROI). I know it sounds boring but I promise its really interesting! What is Social Media ROI you may ask. In the simplest definition, its pretty much the time, effort and resources that is committed to the world of social media that can be calculated with a dollar amount (Fontein, 2016).

FINCA has ran some successful campaigns in the past that has inspired individuals around to world. Whether it was from donating to FINCA or simply sharing a video or post. FINCA’s involvement in social media plays a key role in driving the message to the public and creating awareness of solutions for poverty.

When it comes to the success of Groundswell within a company it depends on the power and speed individuals have on finding what they need and also each other (Bernoff & Li, 2011). Remember in previous blogs we discussed listening,talking, embracing, energizing, and supporting through groundswell? Well, all five of those elements are important and must be a priority for your business. Side note, another important fact to remember is employee participation plays a significant role as well. The internal side of Groundswell helps the organization or business create different ways for employees to interact and connect. This type of participation through groundswell “promotes a listening culture from the top down and empower rebels from within your organization.” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg.244). Participation helps start the necessary conversations, “the kind of dialogue that is comforting to people” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 240) In the internal groundswell, the secret to success is culture. This is not about “technology implementation but about managing and changing the way organizations work, a change of a better active participation – of top echelons of management.” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg.248) All of these technologies require the involvement  of the organization’s employees. Start including employees and watch your ROI improve.

There are many ways to calculate ROI through social media, here are three examples:

1. Customer-to-Customer Service – Its a great time to be alive don’t you think? We are living in a world were it is easier than ever to connect with individuals all around the world within seconds. Businesses should take advantage of this time to connect Consumers with each other to share their thoughts, information and review products. Tapping into this strategy can generate ROI like you never seen. Businesses should create environments that allow customers to help each other out through blogs, wikis, and online forums. ROI is achieved when the cost is very little to establish and run an online forum. Creating a community can be a powerful way to engage with your customers and deliver value to them (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg.103).
2. Engagement on social media – Possibly the simplest way to measure ROI of social media is to measure your engagement levels (Wilcox, 2014). This can be accomplished by measuring the amount of followers you have on twitter, the likes you have on Facebook and adding up the total from all your social media sites. Once you have determined the numbers of each of the social media sites, you can keep track of these on a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet will help to illustrate the growth of each of the social media sites may be experiencing. It’ll allow you to determine if any trends are emerging or to see the success of any campaigns that were executed by your company (Wilcox, 2014). Acknowledging the growth in followers and the engagement level of your content can help measure ROI of social media.
3. Track Conversions through Metrics – This method is considered to be an important method when tracking ROI. There are five ways for one to executed metrics to measure ROI: reach, traffic, leads, customers and conversion rate. For example, the more followers you have on Instagram, or Twitter will result in a greater ROI for any campaign or promotions (Petel, 2012). The use of metrics can illustrate to an organization which tactics and strategies are actually work or needs to be thrown into a trash can in Serbia!

Below is a video to help better understand ROI

 

Well thats all for now everyone thanks for reading my blog post!!

Fardawsa

_____________________References_____________________

Bernoff, J. & Li, C. (2011). Groundswell Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Massachusetts, Boston: Forrester Research, Inc.

Fontein, D. (2016). Social Blogs. From A Comprehensive Guide to Social Media ROI: https://blog.hootsuite.com/measure-social-media-roi-business/

Petel, N. (2009). BLUE. How to Calculate the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns. Retrieved from http://www.coxblue.com/how-to-calculate-the-roi-of-your-social-media-campaigns-infographic/

Wilcox, A. (2014). Brandwatch Blog. Retrieved from The Beginner’s Guide to Calculating Social Media ROI: https://www.brandwatch.com/2014/03/the-beginners-guide-to-calculating-social-media-roi/

Salam People!!

Welcome back to another amazing blog post by yours truly.. Fardawsa!!! For this blog post I need you STANDING and ENERGIZED!!! SCREAM FROM THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS.. quietly if people are sleeping of course.

Do you remember the Energizer Bunny or Buzz Lightyear? Well I do simply because they were my favourite fictional characters on television. Lets start a conversation about what Groundswell likes to call “energizing the base” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 130). Let me create a picture in your head that relates to energizing the base. When a politician (ex. Barack Obama or Justin Trudeau) builds enough energy to get their voters all riled up to help spread the message, this is an example of “energizing the base”. This can be related back to companies and their consumers. “Energizing the base is a powerful way to use the groundswell to boost your business” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 130).

As we all know it is important for a business to have open communication through several channels to engage consumers in the conversations about their products/services. An important tool for businesses to understand and utilize is the power of word-of-mouth. “Word-of-mouth is a powerful amplifier of brand marketing, achieving results no media campaign can achieve” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 130)

#StoryTime. Sometime last year, I was on a break and I decided to visit the nearest Tim Hortons. As I reach the counter to place my order, I was met by a lady who was not of my faith, Islam. As I was making the order I ask for a turkey sandwich, which normally comes with bacon. So I asked if she could remove the bacon from the sandwich. Usually when I eat out, I never make it a priority to get the server to switch gloves, it usually doesn’t cross my mind. This visit to Tim Hortons was no different. The reason why this visit to Tim Hortons stands out is because the employee went out of her way to make sure my faith was being respected. She made sure to get the individual who was making the sandwich to switch her gloves and clean the utensils to ensure my food did not come in contact with bacon. I will never forget that visit to Tim Hortons. Every time, I’m asked about my best customer service experience I always repeat this story to anyone who will listen.

“Word of mouth is one of the oldest and most effective forms of marketing” (Staff, 2010). Reasons why word-of-mouth so powerful, is because (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 130):

• It’s believable
  • Lets be real, people will believe other people over the media. Sorry but not really sorry, the truth hurts.
• It’s self-reinforcing
  • Hearing something from one person compared to hearing something from five different people, it will appear more believable.
• It’s self-spreading
  • “If a product is worth using, its word of mouth generates more word of mouth in a cascade that’s literally exponential” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 130).

Groundswell explains three basic techniques for connecting with your brand’s enthusiasts (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 134):

• Tap into customers’ with rating and reviews.
  • I wanted to make one thing clear, people do read reviews on products before they make a purchase. “Reviews help to reduce this apprehension and re-establish the trust between consumers and merchants that is lacking in the.. marketplace” (Staff, 2010). Rating and reviews helps energize the groundswell in an easy way. “96% of customers use online reviews to help them make purchases” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 138). I don’t know about you but 96% is a lot of people. Clearly, ratings and reviews is important to help generate sales.
• Create a community to energize your customers.
  • This technique only works if your consumers are truly passionate about the products/services you put out into the market. Do you remember the POST method? POST method starts with the people, and the people are online (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 141). Your strategy for energizing your consumers should revolve around “reinforcing positive behaviours, encouraging new customers, and generating referrals” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 144).
• Participate in and energize online communities of your brand enthusiasts.
  • It is important to understand before you energize your consumers is you learning how to energize and want to change the relationship dynamic. Begin by understanding what your consumers want and then “design strategies and chose technologies that matched the relationships they already had, and provided ways for [your] customers to extend those relationships” (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 147). Execute this strategy skillfully and the customers eventually sell to each other.

Check out this video to learn about different way to energize your business!

Energizing your business is said to be more powerful than listening and talking through groundswell as mentioned in previous blogs. Energizing your consumers deals with actually talking about your brand. I’ll leave you with five steps below to help you energize your business today (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 148-149):

1. Figure out if you want to energize the groundswell
2. Check the Social Technographic Profile of your customers
3. Always consider ‘What are the issues that our customers are having?’
4. Choose strategies that fit your customers’ Social Technographic Profiles
5. Don’t start something if you’re not going to stick around in the long run

It is important for a business to embrace the whole concept of ‘energizing the base’ (Bernoff & Li, 2011, pg. 130). Embrace the loud voices within your community and help continue the energy that have been riled up! Your consumers want your business to make a difference in the world, so continue to energize your consumers. Allow your business to be the change in this world that your consumers want you to be!

Thats all for this blog people. Have a BLESSED day!

Fardawsa

—————————–References——————————-

Bernoff, J. & Li, C. (2011). Groundswell Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Massachusetts, Boston: Forrester Research, Inc.

Staff, V. R. (2010). Vertical Rail Marketing & Design. Retrieved from The Benefits of Ratings and Reviews for E-Commerce Businesses: http://www.verticalrail.com/2010/09/29/the-benefits-of-ratings-and-reviews/

 

 

Salam People!

Welcome to another week of my amazing blog entries.. I know you missed me but don’t worry I’m back for another interesting blog entry!! Do you want to guess what this blog is going to be about.. Sorry you took too long its about TWITTER !!!!!! I’m not sorry about the excitement because Twitter is my favourite social media site!!

For those of you who live in a cave and don’t know what twitter is.. well let me break it down for you! Twitter is a simple and easy site to use and the only difficult part is putting your thoughts in 140 characters! Yes only a 140 characters sorry long Facebook post makers, this site only lets you have 140 characters. How does this relate back to Groundswell? Well, in order for a organization or business to be successful in the Twitter world, they have to be able to use the site in the first place. Twitter is used to interact with others who share a simple mind set as you. Its a platform that allows for communication amongst others to form, and businesses

There are several elements to the ecosystem of twitter, such as:

• Followers – Anyone can follow anyone [unless their page is blocked then you have to ask for permission to follow them]
• Hashtags and Searches – [# <— this is a hashtag] This is a symbol that is used on twitter heavily when referring to trending topics. Once a hashtag is attached to a term, this term becomes searchable for the public. For example, if I were to #FINCA, this will make my hashtag public and allow one who views my tweet to be able to search FINCA. [#FINCA #FINCA #FINCA]
• Mentions and Retweets – Retweets are a feature on twitter that allows a user to pass along information their followers. “Retweets allow the best ideas to spread virally” (Bernoff & Li, 2011).
• Links – When you tweet, you are able to add links to websites. If the link is too long and won’t fit the 140 characters, you can use other sites like TinyURL to shorten the link to a couple of characters.
• Lists – You are able to create of list of people who you find interesting.
• Apps and Tools – Since Twitter is an open platform, there are numerous apps and tools that can be used on the site. Using these apps and tools will only enhance your Twitter experience to new heights.

Before a business embraces twitter, they must ask themselves “what is your objective?”. Once a business decides to connect with people, they will need to learn and respond on twitter and not just tweet just to tweet. Here is how you can use Twitter for each of the five groundswell objectives (Bernoff & Li, 2011):

1. Listening to Twitter – Every organization/business must understand the concept of listening. Listening is an essential tool. Listening guides you and leads you in the right direction.
2. Talking to Twitter – On twitter talking is very easy. You need to be creative when talking on twitter or otherwise your just tweeting into the space of the web.
3. Energizing with Twitter – You need to find “people who like your products or services and amplifying their voices” (Bernoff & Li, 2011). In order for you to find energizing people, you must listen first.
4. Support with Twitter – Twitter is a social media site that is filled with influential individuals. Organizations/businesses can use twitter as a support system. People can use twitter to reach out to these organizations/businesses and they expect to be responded to.
5. Embracing with Twitter – In the beginning, Twitter feels a bit restriction when it comes to their 140 character statues. Once you master the art of simplifying your tweet to 140 characters, it allows for the conversation to be easily understood by others. Also, pushes others to simplify their responds creating an atmosphere of simple dialogue.

Below is a quick twitter tutorial

Twitter can be a powerful tool if one knows how to use it. Organizations/businesses can build a lot of momentum towards their products and services through simply listening, talking, energizing, supporting and embracing to the Twitter world. Before i leave you to the twitter world, here is an article on 31 Twitter Tips that organizations/businesses can utilize!

So my fellow tweety birds, go fly into the Twitter world can take it by storm!!

Thanks for reading !!

_________________________References_______________________

Bernoff, J. & Li, C. (2011). Groundswell Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Massachusetts, Boston: Forrester Research, Inc.

Salam People

Welcome back to my blog, hope you enjoyed the last post!

This weeks blog will be about understanding how to support groundswell in order for it to function properly. If you take a look at everything around you for a second, you may come to the conclusion that people help each other and they receive a positive feelings for that act of kindness. Groundswell calls the ‘psychic income‘, which is an act of kindness that is free and paid in the form of love and not money (Bernoff & Li, 2011). Psychic income in terms of marketing is the “intangible benefits above and beyond the utilitarian value derived from a purchase” (All Business). For example, why are certain people compelled to donate to FINCA. First off, they have no evil in their hearts. Secondly, they understand how far their donations can impact the lives of FINCA’s clients. Their donations help change the standard of living within a community impacting not only one individuals but a whole community.

In life, I believe that we are all chasing after happiness. For me happiness comes when I impact the lives of the people around me. Wouldn’t you be happy with positively influencing the people around you? Its a warm and bubbling feeling inside isn’t it?

1. What problem you will solve? — Why will people participate? “Psychic income is more powerful when you tap into the problems people like to talk about most” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 171). Creating conversation and answering questions about issues can be a very important strategy for your company.
2. How will your organization participate? — In order to support groundswell, there has to be active participation. Active participation “creates content, which creates traffic and links, which boosts search engine placement, which drives more traffic, and so on” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 172). So as a company you must do extensive research to get a better understanding of your target audience.
3. Should you create a support community or simply join one? — As a company you should be checking if there an existing community for your consumers. If there is a community already talking about your products and services, you should join in on the conversation and create a dialogue with your consumers.

If as a company you decide to create a community for support, here are some tips to keep in mind (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 174-175):

1. Start small, but gradually build on it.
2. Call out to your most active customer, you really need them!
3. You need traffic to your online community, remember this isn’t going to happen over night.
4. Reputation is key and you need to build upon it 
5. Follow the lead of your customers.

Creating a community online is an exciting time for a company. Whats better than getting people who share the same interest as you on a forum for example. Forums is a form of communicating and exchanging information with other individuals. You are able to create conversations and also, add to other conversations. You can pretty much find any forum that relates to your interest whether it be basketball to World of Warcrafts. There are communities out there who are ready to be heard by companies about their needs and wants. They are ready to support their products and in return all they want is to be listen too. Forums is a great way for businesses to stay connected with their consumers and have a constant conversation going with them as well.

Thanks for reading again!

Fardawsa

_____________________________References____________________________

All Business. (n.d.). Psychic Income. Retrieved from All Business: http://www.allbusiness.com/barrons_dictionary/dictionary-psychic-income-4956368-1.html

Bernoff, J. & Li, C. (2011). Groundswell Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Massachusetts, Boston: Forrester Research, Inc.

 

Salam People!

Welcome back to my blog after the first and last hiatus of my blogging career. I had to deal with the Zombies from the last blog entry. Don’t worry after my long conversation with them, they understood to leave me alone. Regardless, lets talk about talking. A bit confusing ..? Let me make it clearer for you.

Lets say you are watching your favourite show on television and there are rude interruptions every several minutes that go by, see those things are called advertisements. This may not be considered talking to consumers but rather SHOUTING at them (don’t be scared its just a technique).Pretty much every company deals with some sort of advertising to help create brand awareness for their products and services. “Worldwide, marketers are spending more than $400 billion on advertising” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 101). Personally I think they should put that money towards my student loans.. I’m just thinking out loud here. This is where the concept of talking relates to my blog. As read before companies spend A LOT of money and effort trying to speak with the consumers, and this is done through advertising and public relations.

Talking = Advertising and Public Relations

Before we begin on this amazing journey of talking, there are some things you first must understand. Do you know what marketing funnel is? No.. aren’t you lucky that I know
what it is. Marketing funnel is “a venerable metaphor that describes how consumers march down the path from awareness to purchase and loyalty” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 101). Marketing funnel is an important concept to understand because it allows for a marketer to see where a potential consumer stands, whether to see if they come out as future customers.

“Marketers no longer dictate the path people take, nor do they lead the dialogue” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 102). Social media has played a huge role of shifts the conversation to be lead by consumers. Consumers are asking the questions and demanding the answers. Here are a few ways for a company to communicate with their consumers:

1. Post a viral video
2. Join the blogosphere
3. Engaging in social networks and user-generated content sites
4. create a community

Following these four simple steps will help create buzz in order to get your brand out to the world. Lets relate the four steps to FINCA and focus on the Lend a Hand campaign. “FINCA International has launched an exciting new donor tool that lets donors directly sponsor the loans of FINCA clients through an easy-to-use, safe and secure online donation tool called Lend A Hand” (FINCA). Using Natalie Portman as an ambassador for the campaign, FINCA was able to create awareness for their organization. FINCA main goal was use the donations they have received and provide small loans to women in poverty-stricken communities. These women would invest into their businesses to help create growth and improve the standard of living in return. FINCA was successful in this campaign to create awareness for the cause by using a celebrity ambassador as the face. This strategy helped reach a larger audience because the numbers of views on this video was about 49000, whereas the other videos on the FINCA channels averaged about 300 views.

Hopefully during my hiatus you guys have forgotten about the Social Technographics Profile I had in the last blog. So if you do remember which I know you do, you know it helps you categorize your target audience into 6 different groups (Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Speculators and Inactives). Well as we all know in order for a company to be successful they have to always keep in mind the people and objectives. There are ten tips to help keep a company on track (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 115-117):

1. Always start by listening. We all know in order to know your target audience you must listen to the needs and wants of that particular audience. one can “monitor the blogs in your industry, from competitors, pundits, and other influencers” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 115).
2. Determine the goal for the blog. Whats the point of you blogging in the first place.
3. Estimate the ROI. Is this blog going to pay off in the long run and is it a cost-effective strategy.
4. Develop a plan. As a company, you must come up with a plan to execute the blog. Is there going to be more than one writer, how often are you going to blog and etc.
5. Rehearse!!! Write your blogs and place them into draft folder before clicking the publish button. This will help you pick the important topics and toss the others.
6. Develop an editorial process. Do you have a back up to your back up plan? Breaking news happens fast and without any warning, you must develop a plan to make sure someone is there to cover these topics.
7. Design the blog and its connection to your site. Now you must decide where to place your blog. Is it going to be on the company’s website or simply just a link to the website. Location of the blog can help increase traffic to the site and build brand awareness.
8. Develop a marketing plan so people can find the blog. How are your consumers going to find your blog? You can use traditional marketing here and send emails out consumers to introduce them to the company blog.
9. Always remember blogging is more than just writing. In order to be successful in the blogging world, you must be more than just a writer. You have to be able to create conversations and respond to comments that are made on your blog.
10. BE REAL! Don’t over exaggerate and lie about your products or services. Simply tell the truth because liars never prosper.

Blogging is amazing and every company should start understanding the benefits of blogging. It a strategy to help create brand awareness in a cost-effective way and in return the company’s reputation and website traffic increases. “Marketing departments will need to develop new skills to listen, and then respond to, feedback from the groundswell” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 125). Remember consumers and not robots who will open their wallets for any product or service, they are individuals who live and breathe like the CEO of a company who wants them to open their wallets. A company that understands groundswell will experience success in their own ways.

Thanks for reading!!

Salam for now

____________________________References____________________________

Bernoff, J. & Li, C. (2011). Groundswell Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Massachusetts, Boston: Forrester Research, Inc.

FINCA. (n.d.). FINCA Launches Lend A Hand. Retrieved from FINCA: http://www.finca.org/press-release/finca-launches-lend-a-hand/

GROUNDSWELL APPROACH — AVOIDANCE SYNDROME !!!!

You might be wondering why I am overly dramatic about this topic… right ? Its a topic that not only business people should know but new born infants as well. Its a growing epidemic and the ZOOMMMBIEESSS are coming!!! Sorry for the dramatic entrance to this blog but lets calm down for a second and discuss what the whole groundswell approach – avoidance syndrome really is!

As many of us know, rushing into things whether is be the paper thats due at midnight or rushing to work on icy roads aren’t the best things to be rushing. You end up making a mistake somewhere along the line that mistake could cost you a lot of money if we’re being honest here. This same thinking can be seen in business. Too many businesses fall into making the mistake of be overly enthusiastic of technology and how it may benefit their companies. Being overly excited about technology and not coming up with an AMAZING strategic plan could be overwhelming and difficult for many to manage. This is what you call groundswell approach – avoidance syndrome .

There is a four step planning process called POST method, it is basically another way of phasing the foundation of groundswell thinking. Since I am a huge supporter of FINCA and their mission of alleviating poverty. One of FINCA’s goals is to boost financial inclusion through innovative channels. We will examine in greater detail how FINCA has accomplished this through POST.

P – People: What are your customers ready for?  As you guys may recall the blog post about Social Technographic Profile, where it illustrated the different groups that consist of on social media. Using this tool may help an organization build a social media strategy that will help them benefit from each group.

Spectators are those who consume the content on social media. This should be considered a major part of a social media strategy because they are the ones who are sharing the content to friends and family. They help to distribute your content to others you as a company may not be able to reach. Another groups that would be important to the social media strategy would be Creators for an organization. They are the ones who influence the mass population on social media. Creators are the ones who create the blogs and videos that Spectators share to others. If FINCA incorporates Creators and Spectators their social media plan will only be successful in reach a larger audience.

O- Objectives: What are your goals? As you have noticed by reading through my previous blogs, FINCA is an organization that has set out to possibly eliminate poverty through what is called micro-finance. They have reached over 23 countries trying to accomplish their mission. Back in 2015, FINCA wanted to find a way to reach unreachable places in Africa. “FINCA has partnered up with The Mastercard Foundation to significantly scale up financial inclusion in Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawai” (FINCA). 

By understanding what groundswell stands for, FINCA can use it to spread their mission of allievating poverty to every corner of the world. Reaching different groups of people and organization will only make their mission stronger than it is. FINCA started this mission back in 1984 and has used social media to push their mission. Whether it be on Twitter or YouTube it has created a conversation. They are using technology to reach those who are not reachable, which is an incredible idea on its own.

S – Strategy: How do you want the relationship with your customers to change? In order for an organization to be successful in groundswell they must be able to listen, talk, energize, support and embrace their target audience (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 68-69). FINCA is an organization that stresses the need for donation, and they understand that donations can go a long way to help poverty-stricken countries. They have used social media to help allocate those donations through Twitter, FaceBook and other social media platforms. As we have learned in my previous post, listening to your target market can get you further then you may think. FINCA has listened to the issues of their clients and have responded to issues that affect certain parts of the world. They are introducing new technology to these countries to allow individuals to conduct business on new levels. Using phones and fingerprint scanners only shows the potential grow of FINCA. They are taking the necessary steps to help these individuals to be contributing members of society. Understanding the needs of a target market will only benefit the organization. “Businesses don’t interest. People do” (Bernoff & Li, 2011 page. 70).

T – Technology: What applications should you build? The growth of technology over the last several years has been tremendous. We are living in society that is revolving around technology. We have our smartphones that connect us to the world around us within seconds, which in itself has so much power. The question that has to be raised is, how does all this technology around us bring any benefit to not only ourselves but also, our organizations. FINCA has chosen to use social media as a platform to reach millions of individuals. Currently on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Being active on all these social media sites allows for FINCA to build their awareness of bringing technology to unreachable locations. FINCA is using technology to help individuals to reach their full potential.

FINCA understands the power of technology and how it could change the lives of so many in poverty-stricken countries. FINCA has listened to the issues raised by their clients and have come up innovative ways to help. First, they have implemented Mobile payments (FINCA). This innovation allows for FINCA’s client to make any banking need through an e-wallet simply through their phones. Another innovation is the biometric fingerprint scanner. This allows clients to use their fingerprints to access their banking accounts, in return increasing security for their clients (FINCA).

GROUNDSWELL APPROACH – AVOIDANCE SYNDROME isn’t a scary thing, its fixable in my opinion and I have found the cure.. well someone else did but at least I’m here to tell you! The cure is.. the POST METHOD!! Understanding the use of POST and the benefits of this method will put your company on a spaceship and watch your company grow. It will allow you to build a strategy to help combat the confusing world of social media and in return bring brand awareness to new heights.

Thanks for reading!

Fardawsa

___________________________References____________________

Bernoff, J. & Li, C. (2011). Groundswell Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Massachusetts, Boston: Forrester Research, Inc.

FINCA. (n.d.). Mission, Vision, Approach. Retrieved from FINCA:http://www.finca.org/who-we-are/mission-vision/

 

As we all know social media is a community, a community that is able to connect within seconds. Using different social media outlets allows for different communities to form and within those communities are different personalities. With the help of social media today, we are able to publish our work, use it to connect with friends and family, become critics or supporters for others and lurk in the dark spaces of social media and not participate with others. The relationships that are formed on social media help build the foundations of whats known as Social Technographics Profile.

Social Technographics Profile consists of the following six groups:

1. Creators -individuals who contribute to content that are presented on social media [ex. blogging, uploading videos and etc.]
2. Conversationalists – people who create dialogue that goes back and forth [eg. updating their status on social media sites]
3. Critics – these are the people who react to the content that are published on social media sites [ex. commenting on videos or blogs or posting reviews]
4. Collectors -individuals who “save URL  and tags on social bookmarking service” (Bernie & Li, 2011 pg. 44)
5. Joiners – these are individuals who maintain profiles within social media sites [ex. joining Facebook]
6. Spectators – individuals who consume what others have contributed to social media [ex. read the blogs or watch the uploaded videos]
7. Inactives -individuals who don’t participate on social media

Below is an illustration of the categories of Social Technographics Profile.

You’re probably wondering how all of this relates to FINCA. FINCA is an organization that has a presence on social media, whether its on Facebook or YouTube, they have a target audience that they must reach. Below is a Social Technographics Profile for FINCA. The target audiences illustrated below shows the six categories of Social Technographics Profiles for Canada and the USA.

FINCA Social Technographics Profile – CANADA

FINCA Social Technographics Profile – USA

How does Social Technographics Profile help FINCA? For starters, it is easy to identify that within both regions, Joiners and Spectators, are the largest groups. As noted in the Groundswell book, Joiners are one of the fastest growing groups out of all six categories(Bernie & Li, 2011 pg. 45). FINCA should be active on social media to attract the Joiners and the Spectators on social media. Being active with continuously posts and video uploading will contribute to reaching out to these audiences. Spectators are the individuals who are reading the blogs or watching videos that have been uploaded. Being active on social media is critical and can also help FINCA attract more individuals to their mission. Also, it is important for FINCA to place majority of their focus on Creators. Creators are the individuals who are publishing work, contribute to social media sites and adding content that attract users like Joiners and Spectators. If FINCA targets an audience of Creators, this will in return allow for others outside of the organization to contribute to the mission of FINCA. Creators could help with brand awareness and attracting more audience members to FINCA. Understandings the different individuals within each group will on positively contribute to FINCA’s mission.

Social Technographics Profile is an important tool for FINCA to utilize because it allows for the organization to plan a social media strategy that would benefit the organization greatly. Understanding your target market through social media will increase your brand awareness and create more involvement through your social media sites.

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Fardawsa

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