A recent study says that financial advisory firms are becoming popular on LinkedIn. This is particularly due to its professional context and growing audience of valuable financially-aware customers. Financial services are also growing overtly popular on Twitter. A new report examining the most effective social media practices by 90 financial service firms has found that Twitter continues to be one of the leading way companies interact with consumers, with a whopping 92% of brands tracked maintaining a Twitter presence. (Forbes Magazine)

The regulation on financial firms is heavy, but we see these firms using creative ways to reach their target audience. One thing that every financial firm must be cautious with is customer care. Brands that have been prompt at resolving customer queries seem to be getting a higher leverage compared to the others. Social media can be a great way for financial organisations to gather insight, listening to what people are saying about them. While it’s good for a brand to listen to what its customers are saying about its products and services, great impact comes when that organisation makes changes based on the feedback it’s being receiving. That’s when customers know that the brand cares about what they have to say.
Social media is a great way of reaching out to the younger audience and imparting financial knowledge. A great social media campaign was run by American Express. Here the members could redeem their account reward points for Facebook credits. Such campaigns are remembered by the audience and thus a brand can create a foot hold in social media.

A recent article in the Economic Times suggests that a number of brokerage firms are going all out on social platforms to connect with their audiences. A dozen BSE brokers plan to launch apps that allow clients to trade in stocks through their Facebook accounts.

For the past few months I have been doing social media for a financial firm. For them branding is an important aspect, they look to connect with the audience by coming across as thought leaders. Their Twitter activity includes budget discussions and other finance related discussions. These discussions have worked really well for them and help gain a lot of followers. You have to understand that today Social media plays a very big role in creating a brand image for a firm. Every financial firm that exists on social media platform will have to look at different ways to innovate, because in the end they offer the same products but what sets them apart is the way they treat people – both on social media and offline.

A conventional web scraping approach would be to use a regular expression or Xpath based scraping tool that would allow you to conveniently select an HTML element via a browser interface, capture its Xpath and then configure the scraper to extract all elements which match this Xpath for an input set of URLs. Along with Xpath, most of these tools also provide an alternate scraping mechanism wherein users enter the regular expression which is to be matched with the source codes of each individual URL from the input set of pages. These pages can either be derived from a third party crawler which runs through your entire website to return a sitemap comprising of all URLs or this functionality is directly built into the scraping software itself.

However, most of us belonging to the SEO industry encounter limited scraping requirements and would prefer a simple macro or formula based excel sheet that would do part of the same job rather than being overwhelmed by the complex interfaces presented by most of the conventional scraping tools. Thus by employing a minimalistic approach, I have created a simple macro based excel sheet with two inbuilt functions which should suffice for most of our day to day average SEO scraping requirements:

Please note that in both of the below mentioned functions, the arguments can either be passed as quoted string constants or cell references holding the input values.

1. Regexecute(#input string#, #regex #, #index#, #delimiter#, #replacement regex#)

   The input parameters have been explained below:
   #input string# – This argument would hold the input string on which the regular expression is to be applied

   #regex# – The regex which will be applied to the input string to derive the match collection

   #index# – In cases where the regular expression matches multiple string instances from the input text, the number specified (say 'n') in the #index# argument will return only the nth matched element

   #delimiter# – This is an optional parameter and when specified, the function will return all matched instances each separated by a delimiter as specified in the #delimiter# argument

   #replacement regex# – This, again is an optional parameter and the regular expression string passed on to this argument will be matched with the output of the first regex match and all matched instances will be replaced with blanks (""). This is mainly useful when you want to weed out unwanted characters from the end string and return just the exact text value to be extracted

2. URLregexScrape(#url#, #regex #, #index#, #delimiter#)

   This function is exactly similar to the first except that the input string is derived from the HTML source code of the #url# parameter which is meant to hold the page URL to be scraped

   Example Usage:

   Take the example of a massive ecommerce website like flipkart.com hosting innumerable products, each having a list of attributes which are not accessible via the CMS (or you do not have access to the site's backend). Now, if I would like to scrape a product attribute like the number of user ratings received for the product and this is to be extracted for all product pages on the website (please see snapshot below):

The ideal way to go about this would be to first derive the list of all Flipkart product pages by running the website through a crawler like Xenu and then filter out just the product page URLs from the output after applying a suitable filter. As can be seen from the snapshot above, move on to inspecting the source code of the HTML element holding the rating count. In our example, the count is held within the span tag, as shown below:

<span itemprop="ratingCount">112</span>

Now, to extract the user rating count '112' from the above HTML tag, a regular expression of the form 'ratingCount(.*)</span>' will scrape out a sub string from the source code which would appear as:

'ratingCount" >112</span> Ratings     &nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="#read-reviews"><span itemprop="reviewCount">39</sp'

The equivalent function call for this would be:

URLregexScrape(A2,"ratingCount(.*)</span>",1,"")

Here, A2 is the cell reference which holds the first product URL entry and '1' is the #index# which returns just the first matched instance. In this case, it is important to specify the #index# since there are two instances of ratings held within the similar HTML structures and we only want to extract the first instance which is the user rating count of the product. The second undesired instance is shown in the screenshot below (highlighted in red):

In case we'd like to extract the second instance which is the product retailer's rating, we just need to change the index to 2.

Finally, we would need to prune out the unwanted string components from the above mentioned sub string and this would only be possible after specifying the second optional parameter '#replacement regex#' which is the fifth argument to the function. The revised function call would appear as below:

Function Call: 

URLregexScrape(A2,"ratingCount(.*)</span>",1,"","</span(.*)|ratingCount..>")

Output: 112

In case we want all matched instances to be returned within a single cell, we would need to specify the #delimiter# parameter which has been left blank in this case (since we are only concerned with the first matched instance which is the user rating). Say for instance, we pass the delimiter as '^', the ouput would now be '112^142557' where '142557' is the seller rating.

The screenshot given below shows the above function being employed to derive both the user as well as seller rating in separate columns on the worksheet:

The above function can be used to scrape out virtually any on page element from list of pages on your website. A few regular expressions you can play around with to scrape some of the common on page SEO elements are given below:

The first function 'Regexecute' can be particularly useful in cases where you need to apply complex pattern based filtering conditions on data which is already existent as text and need not be scraped from a website URL. A common application would be to apply filtering conditions on columns of data based on patterns matched by this function.

1. Freebies by Simplify Measured
   An analytical tool which gives you free analytics to help analyze any brand page across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Google+. LinkedIn and Pinterest profile data is yet to roll out.

   Here’s a sample Twitter Report -

   https://app.simplymeasured.com/viewer/acpsb7gp68xdpxnb2sufahdtvmfcmu/357342

2. Row Feeder

   If you host Tweetinars or hashtag contests, you definitely need to know the people who have participated in them so that you can follow up. Row Feeder allows you to export this data in Google Docs. A snapshot for #Iphone is shown below.

   

   The only drawback of the free version is that you can track a maximum of only 500 Tweets.

3. Social Ping

   Another blessing if you are looking to monitor a hashtag for a Tweetinar or a Twitter contest. Gives you data like reach of the hashtag, daily time variation and Tweet volume in addition to giving a list of top 100 participants. The free trial lasts 30 days.

4. Crowdbooster

   Personally speaking, for me, this is the best Twitter analytics tool out there. They have discontinued the free version from March 2013. But the paid version is worth every dollar.

   Here’s a snapshot of the kind of data the tool gives.

   

   Besides giving follower trend, no. of RTs, reach of your Tweets and @ Mentions on Twitter, it also gives you data for your Facebook page along with the best time to post.

5. Topsy

   I often get asked this question by clients – “How effective is my brand term on social media?”

   Well Topsy gives you quite an accurate estimate. Here’s a snapshot for the term “love”.

   

   The best part is Topsy only considers effective (read: Mentions in Tweets with a link or something that has been Retweeted) brand mentions. In addition to this, it also gives you list of webpages searched for the brand term.

   

6. Tweetreach

   Want to know how far your Tweet/ keyword/brand term travelled? Tweetreach is where you should head to.

   

7. TweepsMap

   A lot of Twitter tools give you a country wise spilt of your Twitter followers. But what if you want to see a region wise split – TweepsMap is the answer.

   

8. wildfireapp.com & Social bakers

   Clients often want to know – “How much better am I doing as compared to my competitors”?

   Wildfireapp actually lets you compare audience size across Facebook, Twitter and Google plus.

   Here’s how the graph looks. The free version allows you to compare up to 3 competitors per platform.

   

   Social bakers on the other hand covers Twitter, Facebook, Google + and YouTube as well. However you don’t have an option to compare competition. The free version gives major statistics for brands across the above mentioned platforms. However, here’s the catch, if your page/account is not added, you need to send a request to these platforms and tracking starts from that day and you can’t see historical data.

9. Bitly

   To measure affectivity, a good Social Media Marketer will always want to know the traction a particular shared link received. A URL shortner service like bit.ly can give the Marketer this number. It also provides demographic data of the people who clicked (read: consumed content) on the link.

10. Google Analytics

    If you are looking to integrate social media with your other digital (read: website) efforts, you just cannot afford to ignore Google Analytics. I wrote a while back on how GA can be used to measure the real social ROI. At the very least, you need to look at the ‘social’ section within Google Analytics.

    Are you using some other tools to better measure the impact your social activities are creating? Do let us know in the comments section below.

Important don'ts for marketing and public relations professionals to practice on Wikipedia.

Social media was non-existent till 1996 but then in 1997 a site named SixDegrees.com started off as the first major social media site and at its apex, SixDegrees had around 100 employees, and the site had around 1,000,000 fully registered members. It ran its course in 2001 though it has been recently restarted for the previously existing members. This site exposed the world to a future revolution in social media. Visionaries took up many projects and multiple social media sites started coming up such as Friendster (2002), MySpace (2003), Facebook (2004), and Twitter (2006) and as it is said, the rest is history.

The advent of social media meant exposure of humongous proportions where world is your audience and social media sites your grand stage. With the technological developments everything went hand-in-hand for social media revolution. From a user's perspective it was blissful situation where the Facebook status updates became a moot point and Tweets became globally viral, but for brands/companies this wasn't the case. Brands were reluctant to invest in social media fearing low-to-almost-no ROI since a 'Like' or 'RT' won't pay them back! Even with this reluctance many brands came to forefront and took little steps into world of SMM with a vision to convert existing fans / followers to future paying customers.

According to Market Sherpa’s report, 65% of the CMO still look for a way to achieve sales through SMM and 63% still look to increase ROI from investments done in social media. So now the questions arise: Are social media sites restricted to ‘Like’, 'Follow' and 'Share'? Are there metrics to show real value in SMM? Is there really a way to up those ROI? And answer to all of these is 'Yes'.

- It is definitely restricted to a 'Like', 'Follow' and 'Share' for the users but not for Marketers

- There are multiple inter-related and even independent metrics which can convince businesses about the value of SMM

- Lastly there are methods and tools available for increasing ROI post investment in SMM

To realize the above statements as facts we need few analytical perspectives:

Defining Performance Parameters (KPI):

Every client we handle in SMM has different goals and objectives to achieve so the first step is to know the key performance indicators (KPI) which are vital to strategic planning and reporting on investments in social media. Whether we will measure the performance by purchases, email opt-ins, shares, downloads, or time spent on the website, Google Analytics reports will be reflected as achievements or success of a campaign.

Google Analytics provides many metrics which can relate to the specific business model and goals of the brand. It can help in determining exactly what has worked and not worked for a particular brand and its related goals. It helps in showing the value of social media or contribution of social media to the conversions taking place for the client.

Analytical Decisions:

What has worked for one may not work for the other. But the analysis of both is crucial, so as to learn from reports about the effective and ineffective methods for social media marketing. Google Analytics provides many insights such as the traffic flow to analyze the path the visitors take, social sources that deliver high quality visitors and social media contribution to goals.

Having these insights helps in knowing the perfect platforms for investment in Social Media suited to particular clients and hence influencing financial decisions with parameters and facts instead of guesswork.

Working with Limitations:

Success for a client depends upon the KPI as mentioned earlier. But for any campaign to be successful one needs to know the limitations of the brand. For a brand like Sony driving sales will not be priority, instead consumer engagement will be of utmost importance. But for an e-commerce site with no physical outlets, sales and conversions are highest priority. This makes SMM experts to jot down do's and don'ts for a brand. Hence restrictions come into place because bandwidth of SMM experts should be aligned with the goals of the brand.

Content generation will vary, campaigns depending upon the audience the brand entertains will vary and lastly the demographics for particular brands have a huge role in claiming success or failure on social media. Thus brand specific analysis and utilizing the restrictions to brand's advantage is the way forward.

Analyzing and optimizing Social World:

Everything a brand serves on social media is open to the world's appraisal and the world's criticism so which one to avoid and which one to embrace? Embrace both. That's how social media works because you are in direct contact with the people you provide services to. Hence their grievances and satisfaction are both to be heard on Social Media. Apart from the direct reviews from users which are right there in front of your eyes Google Analytics Reports provide metrics such as page views, duration of visit, pages per visit, etc. by the users. This helps in knowing the content that people are excited about and the page content they like. It also makes analyst aware of the aspects that are driving people towards conversions. Optimizing these insights to SMM's advantage surely increase ROI.

Analytically many things can be measured in SMM and monetary aspects can also be justified with the advanced metrics. But what makes SMM so special is the sheer brilliance of direct interaction between a loyalist and his or her favourite brand!

With everyone focusing on social media, the only question that comes to my mind is what’s all the buzz about? This field has certainly picked up momentum with of course Facebook being the most popular platform.  The experts believe that billions of dollars will be invested in social media in the year 2013, but the question is, is the money being spent wisely?

Normally a business would opt for social media when its aim is to create brand awareness. That’s what most of us think.  Business firms believe that Social Media is a way to bring in revenue for their firm. Of course there is no denying that social media does bring in a small part of revenue directly but the larger picture is brand awareness and the revenue as a result of that.

The main point of focus is what exactly are the brands trying to do on social media? Statistics showed only a quarter of consumers use social media to follow or keep-up-to date with companies or brands (26%) instead most use it as a means to keep in touch with friends and family (78%). As the psychological mind works we tend to purchase something when it’s been recommended by someone we know rather than the brand spelling it out to buy a particular product.

If I had to comment on how social media needs to make a mark, even if you outsource your social media marketing, make sure the Social Media Company knows that you need to treat the company page as your own. It has to have that effectiveness, that rawness to make sure that the brand connects at all levels. The minute a consumer will see a change in the tone of communication, he/she won’t be interested anymore.

In all means if I were a fan/follower of a particular page I would be annoyed to receive continuous messages from that particular page, I would altogether stop following that brand and as a result not consider it anymore. Find this hard to believe? Let’s see what research tells us.

Research shows that consumers don’t like unsolicited messages from brands they don't follow, and 65% said they would stop using a brand altogether as a result of irritating social media messages.

To conclude, it’s all about making sure the things you do are relevant to your page. A social media campaign will never work if it doesn’t relate to the ideology of the company and what the consumer makes out of it. 

Convonix Premier League, or CPL as all of us at Convonix call it, ended today and oh my, what a tournament! It was a brilliant show of passion, team spirit, a will to win and most of all – CRICKET.

Convonix turned out on the field, as one. 12 teams, 180 players, all in one place. It was so different from a normal work day, so not routine. You see so many people that you have never crossed paths with in office, talk to so many people who you see in office everyday but never end up having a conversation with, so many who you think you know but whose personalities just change as soon as they are on the field. Such an awesome experience!

And this year was no different. Although, we didn’t end up winning, it was really fun to play with people who have so much passion, who play to win. We played as a team, one unit that wanted the trophy, supporting each other and lifting each other’s morale. People, you were the most awesome team!

Every team showed that they were not inferior in any way to any other team on that ground. And there were surprises, tons of them – Mrinmayi being the biggest (or the smallest ) one. What a player – she connected every ball, played actual cricketing shots, ran tirelessly between the wickets and basically showed everyone that she is a force to reckon with(we know who to bid for next year!). Sahil, who I have never heard speaking in office, played with so much zeal and enthusiasm and he was absolutely amazing on the field. Nikita, who looks so tiny, had some really good overs and a few wickets to her name by the time we were done. Kadamji was a surprise package as well. He set an example to everyone sitting there with the way he fielded. And many many more…

                                Mrinmayi Sawant – Player of the Tournament – CPL

                                Pic courtesy – Manasi Raje – from Instagram

I shouldn’t forget to mention the excellent commentating by Subu and Ganesh. Their wisecracks made the tournament more fun. From the top management to the latest joinee, no one was spared. Each person has been slaughtered with their absolutely spot on comic timing.

We must have been such a pain to the organizers with all the appealing and screaming on and off the field. But Rahul & Arunesh, like always, pulled it off. And they pulled it off in style. CPL 2013 was memorable. Overall, it was a really successful tournament in more ways than one. It brought together people from different verticals and made them play as a team, sledge others and laugh together while making fun of their own friends. Most importantly, it brought the whole of Convonix together in a way that work never can. We were friends, opponents and supporters on that field. We epitomised just one thing – the spirit of CONVONIX! 

To many more CPLs in the coming years…

As we usher in the New Year, the marketers’ focus would be on building, maintaining as well as sustaining brand’s reputation online which in-turn will affect the company, the brand & all its connected individuals. Following aspects would interest and affect all marketers in 2013, from an ORM standpoint.

Customer Communication & Importance of Social Presence

We live in a world, where internet usage is growing by leaps & bounds. Statistically speaking, the total number of internet users at the end of Dec 2012 was 2.3 billion; out of which 71% are present on at-least one social platform. It therefore becomes imperative for B2C as well as B2B brands to be present everywhere and reach out to their existing & potential customers. Managing, Monitoring & Engaging – i.e. building relationships with consumers over social platform, stands to gain more importance in a brand’s consumer outreach strategy. The aim here will still remain traditional – to provide a platform for a customer to communicate with the brand with least possible effort & benefit by the immediate response & action. From a reputation perspective, you don’t let negativity spread to random platforms on the internet, which could come back one day to haunt you.

‘Do Good’ Marketing Strategies

It’s time one needs to understand the importance of online goodwill. Reputation today is not about just creating a good looking website & an active Facebook or Twitter profile, but more about creating an overall positive perception in general, across the web. Unfortunately, there’s no quick way to do this! Here comes the importance of ‘Good Marketing’. Every marketing campaign that one initiates should change the focus from ‘I’ as in brand-based communication to ‘us’ as in people-based communication. All campaigns should be the ambassadors of making a positive difference to the life of the customer and then the brand. To effectively build a strong & lasting sense of good-will, let the marketing motto be ‘Do Good’ in the New Year.

Transparent Approach to Marketing

Building a credible reputation online and forming real and lasting relationships with people, pays off in substantial ways when you find yourself the centre of negative online attention. This could be easily achieved by taking an overall transparent approach at the strategic as well as the implementation level. As a brand manager, always remember these fundamental stepping stones in building one’s image in online space – Accept true and uncensored reviews; Provide non-exaggerated information; Always be specific & accurate while representing your offerings online;  and the most important element ‘Always answer questions and concerns honestly and openly with FAQs or other documents’.

As of today, Online Reputation has become an increasingly important asset of any businesses – albeit an intangible one. The better you can build the image, more will be the opportunities that come your way. While the concept of image building is ever-evolving, its primary purpose is to balance the objectives of an organization with people’s expectations. It does this by building a trustworthy relationship with consumers. So make online reputation management your top priority this year.