Social media is nothing new. It’s as old as the hills.
The tribal chief holding a meeting with fellowmen in the jungle, the village headman seated below the banyan tree and addressing social issues of the day, and the “thinnaiveedu” – a large cemented platform outside Indian rural homes, was also a social media platform for folks to chat up on the neighbourhood happenings.
Today, the medium is different, the scale of amplification of the conversation is different.
Conversation is nothing new. It’s nearly 2 million years old.
When man climbed down from the trees, made tools and planned hunting together. When they made boats and conversed to cross the seas.
Today, the velocity and scale of content is different. Unbelievably different.
But content is still the glue that holds together the engagement. And the primary goal of content is conversation with the customer, not conversion. Conversion will follow. Today’s conversations will fill tomorrow’s coffers.
For content to drive conversations, it must move your audience. It has to touch their emotions. When it resonates with your audience, it turns into conversations.
At BharatMatrimony (link: https://www.bharatmatrimony.com/), we always look to drive deep and meaningful conversations with our audience through social media. And how?
Campaigns are about challenges users face
We do regular campaigns like #NotMyType, #MyWifeToBe, #QuestionsSinglesFace around the challenges of singles. We delve on their aspirations, expectations and dreams.
We understand their challenges in finding a life partner. It resonates with them. We offer a platform for them to freely express their opinions. It starts the conversations.
Here are couple of organic Twitter campaign (repeat organic, not paid) examples:
#1 #GirlsAreOkAreGuys
A BharatMatrimony Social Media Campaign
- 2100: responses
- 2336: tweets
- 9M impressions
- Time: Two hours.
#2 #UnderstandingBridesToBe
A BharatMatrimony Social Media Campaign
- 890: responses
- 1103: tweets
- 2M: impressions
- Time: Two hours.
Show that we care about them
Through our campaigns, we show our users that we understand them. They instantly warm up to us.
Make the conversation about them
The brand takes the backseat and gets the users onto the front seat. It comforts them. We offer them an opportunity to collaborate and find answers to their problems. We help millennial girls and guys to understand each other better. In the end, we let them know they can find “their type” on BharatMatrimony.
Listen and respond
Our social media team is tuned into listening to understand, rather than listening to respond. They’re empathetic. They engage the users throughout the two-hour campaign.
Acknowledge and appreciate the audience
While most brands use offers and discounts as a way to reward fans, Matrimony.com has creatively inspired its followers in unique ways. We have honoured our most active fans with a banner of their photos on Facebook and Twitter. In one of our campaigns DecodingWomen, we took engagement to a new level by doing live cartoons of the winning entries and publishing them real time, as the campaign was on. We had an experienced cartoonist conceptualising the winning tweets along with our social media team, right at our office. Our fans were floored by the novelty of this experiment.
That’s how content can create conversations. Meaningful conversations that drive positive influence for the brand, not to forget business.
