MUMBAI: The social and mobile media revolution is changing the way people communicate, look at brand and media, seek information and purchase goods. This is forcing companies to completely rethink the way they do business.
Yento! marketing technologist Nick Decrock, who was one of the speakers at Click Asia Summit, feels that social media is about relationships and people. With over 50 per cent of the world’s population under 30 years of age, 93 per cent of marketers use social media for business.
“Social media has changed the way we do things. It is changing the consumer behaviour. I feel its basic human behaviour that has driven social media’s success. We have opinions which we want to share, we like to be a part of a group and that makes us feel stronger.”
Decrock firmly believes that mobile phone penetration will drive social media’s success and vice-versa. “Now-a-days, you are always connected with smartphones. Social and mobile media have brought computing finally to a personal level. So its time to make marketing personal again. Soon, more people will access the mobile web than the desktop web.”
According to him, consumers now expect marketers to be contextual and relevant all the time. Also, people want things that are for free. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and search engine-Google, all are free for the users. “People will trade their privacy in return for honest rewards and full transparency,” he adds.
He feels that privacy is just a modern invention. It has been nurtured by the rise of anonymous cities. “In old villages people shared as much as now on social networks”.
Consumers want to take control over things. “What people expect from Facebook, they now expect from your brand too. Facebook is permission based, there is transparent profile data, and the user has communication control and can apply privacy setting. If FB can do it for 800 million users, why can’t the marketers do it for their customers?”
Customers want to be invited; they should be brought into boardrooms to improve relationships.
“People share news, views, and experiences, about the brands online. Often the brand experience is the main online conversation. Such is the importance of social media,” said Decrock.
