Humans by our very nature are addicted to storytelling. The
trait is so much in our system that from a village chaupal, a beer tavern in
US, a local train in Mumbai to the water cooler on Madison Avenue, everyone is
involved in it. Take a topic in a group and by all means we shall have five people
contributing 20 anecdotes in no time complete with elaborate background settings,
reasons and analysis.
These stories running along the grapevines used to run along
the social hear-say at the speed of sound. In many occasions, it led to
complete misinterpretations with disastrous consequences. For instance, a bank
once ran out of ready cash under fear that it was going down and all the
savings from its customers were going to be wiped out. The Ruskin Bond story
named, ‘The boy who broke the bank’, has actually happened in reality; just a
real world reminder what a powerful source is this giant web of a social
network.
In today’s digital age, the influencing power of social
media is unchallenged. These days an incident from an event can go online and
even before the event is over, there might be public reactions and outcry already
on its way. Things now spread at the speed of your internet connection and the
web of social networks is vast and invisible in most cases. There is no need
these days for a BBC to announce news; in most cases, the news is already out
and a news channel is now merely reiterating what one might already know.
Apart from chain mails, RSS feeds and threads were once
considered the hubs of social chains. Today, the ability for anyone to publish
a blog, tweet, post on Facebook or YouTube and just share on a messenger app
has created the viral effect to multiply and propagate This has become the very
reason why brands have become more aware and careful while handling social
media; one slip and the things can go haywire.
While most will agree there are both advantages and pitfalls
for a brand to be present in the social domain, there is a new avenue coming up
for brands with the advent of social media hubs. Websites like ScoopWhoop, Bayside
Journal etc. are creating content which on any other day might have passed off
as petty articles fit for a tabloid paper. But the fact that these people have
gathered teams to generate the much liked content, it is now turning out to be rage
on social media as the articles most people love so share within the circles.
This growing popularity has now created a new trend of
branded content which can be termed as created for social media but in reality,
a very strong brand oriented content. Say for instance; the site comes up with
an article named “12 reasons I love online shopping”, it does have the desired stickiness
for the audience to just go on and see if the so called reasons do apply for them.
What most people spot at the bottom, is a link to an e-commerce portal with a
special discount sale running on the day. Another example on the same lines, “10
things to do which you won’t regret in life”, and amidst the most enchanted
desires to visit some places, having a hobby and spending time your way is a
plug for a small monthly investment or an insurance which a bank is trying to
push.
This is an art of contextual content which has its ends towards
commercial use. I can say that far long ago, we had tried our hands at such
content for aphrodisiac and contraceptives- both categories where a direct
approach was not the most palatable. So what we got in was a funky blog named, “Pillow
talk’ and “12 most intensely intimate scenes from Hindi movies”. The numbers in
2009 were just a few thousands, but in hind sight it was a first in our books. Yes,
the commercial success might have been low and hence it was discontinued. A
mistake on our parts- we did not use Facebook as a channel where the content was
shared or reposted.
Today I see that content led marketing efforts have come of
age and if there is anything to credit the success, it will be the strong
penetration and proliferation of social media. People want to share links and
information more than how they are feeling on a day- that’s a change on the
user end. At the same time, if they do find attractive content which can
resound with their life and ideas, they are more than happy to share. Brands
have realized this and with RoI and tactical marketing reaching a new high;
this new flush of social media users and well-crafted content for social media
can define the next big thing.
