On the occasion of Social Media Day 2022, Pratiksinh Chudasama aka Digital Pratik, founder of JorrParivar, in an exclusive interaction with MediaBrief, speaks about how Social Media empowers marketing and how brands have modified their communication approach to leverage the medium. He underlines the role of Social in JorrParivar’s media mix and highlights the importance of L&D for digital marketing teams.Read on.
How are you celebrating the Social Media Day 2022? What are your thoughts on moment marketing of commemorative days?
Honestly, I am a little contrary to a lot of marketers who celebrate moment marketing of commemorative days. When it comes to the Digital Pratik style of branding & marketing efforts, we create a volume of content which is contextual within 365 days, so even if my gang (team) doesn’t get time to create a special social media day 2022 post, I don’t have issues.
So we celebrate social media day every day just like we execute upon everyday resolutions vs. new year resolutions. But that doesn’t mean others shouldn’t celebrate; I think it’s amazing how social media has changed how people communicate and market. On this Social Media Day, take a moment to assess your brand’s presence on social media.
List three powerful ways Social Media empowers marketing. What role does it play in your Media mix? How much is the pie for Social media in a Brands’ marketing mix increasing? Want to build a brand? Want to market your products? Want to maximize sales? Then you need to be on social media!!
Here are the 3 ways I use Social Media to empower my marketing:
Branding: I believe that social media is all about communication at scale using the Internet. So the more we provide VALUABLE messages, the better depth of influence & brand recall the audience would have over a period of time.
Marketing: I believe that Marketing is all about that periodic ASK for your product after consistently GIVING VALUE through Branding. Your ask can be a product offer, discount code, upsell & more. And if a brand is consistently providing value via branding, then marketing will have great ROI & ROAS.
Sales: I honestly & genuinely believe that Sales is just the by-product of branding & marketing. So, the more you do valuable driven branding & marketing, the better your sales numbers would be in a 5-10 year period for exponential & massive growth.
Considering the above 3 ways I empower my marketing with social media, it’s pretty clear that social media should have a significant role in your Media mix. The pie for social media in a brand’s marketing mix is constantly increasing because the world is moving towards digital/social media for EVERYTHING. And as a marketer, you need to be where your consumers are spending their time & attention.
Especially after the introduction of consumer blockchain & NFTs, social media has exploded because now we have a new set of rules, a new set of tools & a new set of consumers.
So, get on social media, be consistent with your valuable message and grow your brand!!
How important is it for every marketing and brand and another vertical team to be given L&D help in learning digital marketing (and social media as a part of it, of course)? What initiatives does your company undertake on this count?
As a caring, daring, productive, focused leader, I have always believed in one of the most practical disciplines of my life & business: If you can’t romance with new experiments for your business, you will never become the ROMEO of your brand.
Romantic, isn’t it?
With my gang (team), I do the same. I don’t ask them to learn digital marketing. I ask them to do digital marketing.
What I have seen is that if you treat digital marketing (or social media) as a subject, people get bogged down in the details and they never get around to actually doing it. But if you look at it as an activity, people are far more likely to get their hands dirty and try things out.
So my approach is always to ask people to try things out rather than learn about them. And this has worked very well for us (me and my gang).
Example: Recently, we did India’s 1st ever NFT Ticketed Event called JorrDaar Event. I gave them all the resources and ideas & told them to actually FILM the entire location & then do all VIDEO FAQs regarding the event & create an attendee guide. My gang (team) did digital marketing in this process by writing medium articles as Attendee guides. They did YouTube & Instagram videos which were contextual & valuable to our attendees. And this way, they ended up doing digital marketing for the event without even realizing it.
Think about it…what is marketing?
It’s not a book which you can read by heart; it’s an activity to do. Creating Content, Understanding the audience, Repurposing content, and most importantly, being CONSISTENT!
So again: I never ask them to learn digital marketing. I always ensure they do digital marketing without worrying about their digital marketing role in the gang (team).
What are some of the successes your company has had using social media?
Official teaser of JorrDaar Event:
After Movie:
For me, it’s all about being happy and dissatisfied. After completing anything I do, I’m again dissatisfied and want to go on to something else to satisfy myself. It’s a never-ending process!
But if I have to talk about a specific example, I would like to talk about the JorrDaar Event, which we recently organized as one of the bonus utilities inside our NFT project. It was an IRL, i.e. an In Real Life Event where all the JorrParivar token holders were invited.
During the conference, we called different speakers to talk about Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.
But the best part was meeting people, hugging them, interacting, networking… it was a great feeling to see the ones we see on Twitter, discord, etc. and now in real life! The energy of the audience during the event was at a different level that cannot be defined in words. I have never seen such an interactive audience as well as speakers who are enjoying the entire event!
I think the best way to summarize the success of the JorrDaar Event is by saying that it was a great event and everyone had an amazing time!
As I say every time: towards 2023, together!
What should small businesses know about Social Media marketing?
What if I say that I started building my brand on Social Media, and I am still standing strong and leveraging it to my best to build my business on it! Not just business but social media have helped me build on my communication skills as a public speaker.
Yes, that’s true! Social Media does have the power to make or break any business, but that’s not all!
Small businesses should use social media to connect and engage with their customers. It’s a great way to build relationships, trust, and credibility. My contextual marketing technique has helped me to relate with my audience and create a connection that goes beyond the sale.
When used correctly, social media can be a potent tool for small businesses. It levels the playing field, allowing even the smallest businesses to reach a large audience, build customer relationships, and then grab some sales.
Take the recent example of JorrParivar; social media have helped me to build this credibility, and in my latest venture, where the utilities behind the NFTs are coaching calls, consulting calls, exclusive social platform access & more.
Why do Influencers matter today? How can Influencers help with the last-mile delivery of a Brand campaign? Along with focused reach, what other strengths do they bring to the marketing?
Influencers matter more than ever in today’s business landscape. With the rise of social media, they have become key players in the last-mile delivery of brand campaigns. Influencers create a genuine connection with their audience and can provide valuable insights into trends and consumer behaviour.
A simple way to understand this is Earlier, only Bollywood celebrities & cricket players were given money to promote products on television, radio, or social media. Social media influencers with good audience reach, engagement and insights are collaborating with actors & actresses to promote their films & songs.
So, what was called Celebrity Endorsements could now also be called INFLUENCER COLLABS/MARKETING Influencer collobration/ Marketing on social media. Influencers have been able to build that connection, and the audience can relate to their content in a way that is impossible with traditional marketing.
Besides focused reach, influencers also bring other strengths to the table, such as authenticity and trustworthiness. In a world where consumers are bombarded with marketing messages, an influencer’s ability to connect on a personal level can make all the difference.
When done correctly, influencer marketing can be an extremely effective way to reach new customers and grow your business.
Fake news and unidentified promotions are important issues. How do you ensure you keep such elements out of your social media plans and activations?
First and foremost, you need to be aware of what’s happening in the social media world. This means following the right people, reading the right blogs, and staying up-to-date on the latest social media news.
Honestly, we are the ones populating & consuming content on the Internet. As a human being, I can’t control the populating part on the Internet but I can definitely consciously choose what I consume. So based on that I keep all the bullshit out of our social media plans & activations. If we see something that isn’t adding value, we move on.
Example: The majority of people are saying NFTs are FAD while in just less than 1 year, my NFT project JorrParivar has successfully done the JorrDaar Event which is India’s 1st NFT Ticketed Event & all the major social media influencers were part of the same.
I always tend to do my own research, think & come to a logical conclusion.
This is how I ensure that our social media plans and activations are free of any fake news or unidentified promotions.
Social media endorsements or positive conversations are becoming more important for buy decisions by consumers, and today, even for holistic PR agencies with digital DNAs, good social media conversations are as important as, if not more important than, a positive story by a top traditional media person (which gets amplified on their digital presence). How do you see this growth impacting digital marketing in the future?
This is entirely boiling down to one of the essential things called “Word of mouth,” which has always been around in the business world whether we use social media or not. Now that we have social media, it has become easier to see the effects of word of mouth, and it goes both ways.
We can see when people are talking positively about our brand or product, and we can also see when they’re talking negatively. This will continue to be increasingly important in the years to come because as we get more comfortable with trusting reviews and conversations online or influencer interactions, we will base our purchasing decisions on them.
Even when I promote anything, I ensure it’s not just an ad but something of value, providing content that educates, entertains or both. I think the key is to really focus on creating quality content that people want to see and share, and if you do that, the social media endorsements will follow.
Without social media, it’s from person to person. Using social media might be via customer testimonial or influencer marketing, or a cheerful story by a top traditional media person based on authentic information & accurate, practical business results. So indeed, if done correctly, it will skyrocket a brand’s digital presence & can add up exponentially for a brand’s massive growth.
But as digital marketing keeps on growing, there will be more and more platforms and options. It can be tough to keep up with the changes, but I think it’s important to try new things and experiment to see what works best for you and your business. There’s no magic formula, but if you focus on creating quality content and giving your audience what they want, you’ll be off to a good start.
