With profound changes in the lifestyle and increase in the income levels of today’s educated buyer, the Indian population has increasingly started considering beauty and wellness as a necessity. The wellness industry in India is set to grow at a CAGR of 18.6 per cent. With high fragmentation, high market potential and healthy growth, marketers are looking at new models for aggregation, to grow this sector.
As the beauty sector is blooming with a wide range of players, offering a gamut of specialized and customized services, the competition is intense. Marketers need to explore multiple innovative techniques to engage with their customers and entice them. Social media is a suitable tool that not only offers visibility to brands, but ensures a seamless platform for them to interact with their potential consumers.
Social media is here to stay and the front runners have seen and realized the merit in maintaining an active presence on social media which in turn helps keep you at the top of mind and accessible to your stakeholders.
The social media structure is very dynamic and therefore, in addition to being Omni present on various social media platforms, it is also important that all the information displayed is most updated and factually correct, credible. Especially in case of brands, it is critical that one should double check to make sure that brand pages and other social media platforms are updated with the most relevant information about the business and developments. This should reflect uniformly across all platforms — particularly Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.
At Kaya, we strongly feel that a persistent focus on social media is indispensable in marketing communications and it helps us reach out to our stakeholders. Kaya Limited is actively present on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube as well as Wikipedia. Our team is dedicated towards providing a network where our customers can interact with us and learn more about Kaya and actively engage with the brand whilst being regularly updated and educated. We also ensure that we keep our customers abreast with the latest updates on our products and services. Through our varied social media presence, we share our customer experiences and provide them with a platform to share their stories.
Here are our top five social media principles that we believe are essential from a marketing point of view:
1. 5Ws &1H: When a brand decides to foray into the social media universe, this step has to be meticulously planned and thought out. You have to ask yourself the 5Ws and 1H – What, Why, Where, When, Who and How? Once these questions are answered it is then that the pros and cons of engaging on various platforms need to be evaluated. Each social media serves a specific purpose and therefore the messaging across each of them should be tweaked to meet the needs of the platform and the respective target audiences.This evaluation will vary according to the brand and its presence.In the case of the wellness industry which deals with consumer’s well-being which in itself is a sensitive topic, these sensitivities need to be kept in mind when engaging on social media. The real time aspect as well as the ease of engagement which facilitates formation of online communities are some of the facts to be considered when foraying onto social media. Once the 5Ws and 1H have been established the brand gets direction and can evaluate suitable social media platforms.
2. Constantly engage and with ease: Given the real time access that social media gives its users, it is crucial that the brand engages with its customers on a real time basis as well. Replying, commenting or updating various platforms at regular intervals keeps your audience engaged. In order to create the right impact through social media, it is important that there is a dedicated team that engages and monitors all social media presence.In the case of brands like Kaya, we engage with customers across platforms like Facebook and Pinterest. These platforms allow us to exchange content that is both visual and textual.
While sharing information it is also important that you help your customers navigate across these platforms effortlessly by providing the necessary icons and indications. Consistency in names, posts, design, and color schemes are impactful aspects that add to the customer’s experience and creates brand recall. Know your target audience on a particular social platform and use tailor-made posts to interact with them.
Social media has helped various brands have a location specific campaign with which they can reach out to a select group of audience. One such example is geo-targeting that helps brands promote offers and content in a particular region.
3. Inspire to follow: Social media is an excellent tool to mobilize your audiences and instill a sense of loyalty and belonging.Real-time campaigns can be used to connect with audiences and be a call to action. Through these activities, brands get customer insights that can be used to improve customer experiences and plan future engagements.Respond and react to conversations in a time bound manner with a neutral or positive outlook to keep the engagement levels constant.Negative comments need to be addressed not only in a tactful and time bound manner that leads to a positive outcome.This increases customers association with the brand and contributes to brand loyalty. The higher the number of engagements the higher the amount of traffic you can drive to your website and in turn improve your SEO.
4. Social Integration: Brand communication needs to be in tandem with all ongoing marketing activities. Key objectives and messaging should go out in a uniform manner and be amplified across all social media platforms where the brand is present. This is very helpful in fueling brand advocacy, where influencers can be leveraged across all platforms with a clear messaging being highlighted. While running promotional offers, a well-knitted social media network will help tap both existing and new customers.
5. Invest in content:The content shared on the social media goes a long way in shaping the brand personality. It helps represent the values and essence of a brand. Kaya understands everyone's beauty aspirations and our communication is driven by this brand philosophy. Interactive content and engaging videos need the right amount of planning so that they can revoke the required response. Active engagement on social media leads to crowd sourcing of content and this makes your page or website or handle automatically active and relevant.
This article is written by Arvind RP, Vice President & Head - Marketing and Product Retail, Kaya Ltd (India) as per his personal experience and research.
