Bollywood muscle, shows its strength in social

The power of Bollywood in India is unquestionable. Bollywood stars are Indian royalty. The real power however is in the hands of the big wigs  behind the scenes who run things.

This has been made quiet clear over the past few weeks as almost overnight aggregate video site Vimeo was shut down.  Now this can be expected in the middle east where sovereign nations are ruled and governed by royalty and the laws are laid down by them. In a supposed democracy this just will not fly.

All of the actions taken by the government to ban sites like Vimeo begs the question what next? Social Media and its derivative sites are exactly that, inherently social, for the masses, unbiased and all to do with public perception. The gravitas Bollywood has on governing bodies in India is unquestionable.

Infact writing this im a little bit scared that Amitabh Bachchan will show up at my door and show me the ‘real power’ of the goliath that is Bollywood.

To be fair if it was Hollywood I was writing about and they sent Tom Cruise, the only thing I would be afraid of is my Sofa getting ruined.

Highlighting the fact that Indian politics is questionable, and I’m being nice here, would be an understatement. It is however ironic that 10 to 15 years ago the baddies in the movies always used to be corrupt politicians and police officers,  How things have changed. If this was a movie the ‘don’ would be the film industry itself and the victim as always would be the masses. The only difference is unfortunately in this case its real.

Is your Dad doing the dirty on Social?

So I had a rather uncomfortable call from a family member last night. The context of which I’m still mortified by.

To summarise, this family member called me and was a bit nervous on the phone. He asked if I was friends with my father on Facebook, to which I replied “yes”. He then asked if I was aware of what he was reading and looking at on Facebook, laughing as he said it. I was not aware. I still wish I wasn’t aware.

Before I continue I feel I must contextualize my family. I come from an ethnic background, and have a closely-knit family that extends several generations, who are forward thinking but still have old-fashioned values at its nucleus.

So to continue… My family member then said and I repeat verbatim “I’m not sure how to tell you this but I think you should look at your Dad’s recent activity. He’s been looking at sites like ‘the 7 best sex positions’ and ‘Rihanna shows her nipple’(granted they are a good read)  I thought you should know”

As you can imagine I was mortified, mixed with hysterical laughter. Now as a family we are not prude, however his friends on Facebook consist of mainly family and as you can imagine it’s very, very embarrassing and he is an older man.

The subsequent conversation with my father was, to say the least, skittish.  I must admit, it was like a father questioning his son about magazines from the top shelf found under the proverbial mattress except with a role reversal. His excuses a 15 year old would have been proud of, the best of which has to be that apparently there are hackers that are reading the articles on his profile, and it wasn’t him it was his friend.

All this got me thinking. There has been a massive paradigm shift in the knowledge of the older generation and what is acceptable for them to be doing on social sites. Now my Father would be the first to admit that he is not the most tech savvy but he knows his way around a computer. What he doesn’t understand is privacy settings etc. But then again who properly gets it? Is it the Social generation’s job to be educating older generations on how they should be using Social media without embarrassing themselves and their sons! I for one will be having a serious talk with the old man on Social media and the risks attached! Then ask him if he has any more recommendations!

Can Social Media Make you Famous?

One of the biggest draws of social media is the fact that you can publicise your work and get it out to literally millions and millions of people. Self-plugging and representation has become an art form in itself.

Do you know what the second biggest search engine is after Google? It’s not what you might think. In actual fact it’s YouTube. You wouldn’t necessarily associate YouTube with a search engine but its true. Keeping this in mind, you can see why Video’s go ‘Viral’. I hate that word. Viral. What does it even mean? My personal definition is over 100,000 views with over 500 comments in the space of a week, that to me would be viral. Not as some of our clients put it…”can you make me a viral video”. This to us just means that we need to educate people as to the nuances of what terms within Social Media actually mean. (We will be creating a glossary soon so keep your eye out for it)

Rant over; lets get back to the question at hand. If Justin Beiber is anything to go by, then the answer has to be an unashamed big fat YES.

In our last blog post we discussed recruitment and how it is affected by your social presences, and the consensus was that you need to be careful as to what you put on them. Well that is only the case if you’re applying for a proper job, banking, marketing etc. If you’re looking to get famous, sing and dance or be a videographer then getting your work out there becomes imperative, and if your lucky, you’ll get picked up by a record label or director etc. The Fact of the matter is that even ‘badly’ done funny videos can go ‘Viral’ (there’s that word again) and make the creators and stars within it famous.

Social Media now has a vast variety of pictures and videos for mass consumption. The question is, is it good enough for people to want to share, and when it comes down to it, to truly become famous through social, sharing is the key.

Do your social profiles affect your job prospects?

In an information rich world where data capture and analysis of everyday people is of paramount importance, recruiting companies are more and more inclined to do as much research on potential candidates as the potential candidate does on them.

With information about people and their habits, their friend circles, their weekend antics, all-visible for potential employers to see, it becomes more and more important to portray a more upstanding demeanor, even on your private profiles. Unfair as it sounds your, Social and digital footprint needs to be relatively clean.

With sites like Linkedin, which are in my opinion, glorified online CV databases, being used to assess your commercial specification, it is also important to make sure that your digital profile, especially within more commercial sites is up to date and comprehensive.

It’s also important what others say about you, and that it is aligned with what you’re saying about yourself too. The sad truth is everything you do can be monitored, and count for or against you when it comes to a potential job.

Your best bet, keep it clean, tidy and up to date, because that job you really want, well they’re looking at you.

So, it’s time to get involved with social media – where exactly do you start?

Different views on this, even within the Puma Social office – however two main themes are emerging.

School of Design – Social media engagements need to have great creative concepts, innovative design features and need to stand out from all the rubbish being flaunted on various networks.

School of Insights – Social media engagements need to be insight driven, have base data at the core of all decisions and ongoing reporting to tweak and refine campaigns

Which ones right?

Well in ways, they both are!  – Yes you need creative design, there’s nothing like a well planned out and shot video to send across your message, get consumers engaged and grow your following.

But… Without key insights on demographics, a good understanding of your client base and most importantly knowing what will pull them in, all the best creative heads in the world cannot help you!

The only way to make sure you are on message with your great creative is to first make sure you have succinct accurate data and analytics, whci will then provide you with the correct touch point for your great creative to evolve.

Theres an App for that…if you have the money.

What is the wild, wild west of advertising…? That would be mobile.

With processes being put in place for most of the medium that is digital advertising, it seems the only real unknown (until the next big thing) is Mobile. From App building to rate cards for advertising, the price differential is colossal.

Mobile as an arena for social is massive. With Geo tagging apps like Foursquare, and Facebook’s check ins, its very apparent that there is a big emphasis on Mobile tech when it comes to Social. In-fact people use Mobile devices to check their social networks more that they use a computer. This being the case, if your buying advertising within social platforms, surely they should appear within both mobile and computer based pages. They don’t.

So the question is; Will there be a happy medium, and will prices level out when it comes to Mobile advertising and development?

Simply put, yes there will be. History has shown us that new media platforms have always arisen and then found a formula which is fair for both media owner and customer, and as mobile tech evolves, so will the need to regulate the industry when it comes to advertising and development.

The only thing we know for sure is that Mobile is going to be a strong communication tool, and one that cant be ignored by brands if they want a succinct all encompassing marketing plan. It should be noted that pressure should be applied so that Mobile and computer based social platforms should have a joint offering.

Without Mobile companies and brands will be missing a huge market, thus rendering their marketing massively flawed, so unfortunately we have to bite the bullet and continue to make the business bank balance slimmer.

Social Media In India

So everyone knows about social media. or do they? We are trying to expand our offices in India and interviewing potential candidates has been a real eye opener.

The vast crevasse of What constitutes a good Social offering was completely lost upon the Indian public. For a country with the most Facebook users in the world, Social Media for brands seems to mean only one thing…complaining.

Now the aptitude and potential to learn and evolve in India is unquestionable, and after a little bit of probing and some ‘homework’ the definitions supplied in second interviews was a cataclysmic shift in their initial understanding. Which warrants the question; Is India ready for proper, cutting edge, probing Social Media Strategies. The answer, ABSOLUTELY. In-fact the potential is huge. As one of the emerging superpowers of Industry and Tech, India is crying out for a western outlook on Social, to revamp and re-kindle brands perception, and open a portal of conversation between brand and user.

Obviously the sensibilities of the masses in India are different to what they are in the UK and Europe but the tonality shouldn’t matter if the strategy is correct. India, and Indian brands and companies need proper social more than they even know.

Welcome!

Hi Everyone, keep your reading glasses on for more on Puma Social and the social sphere as a whole, coming soon!