Online presence is a must, it is no longer a choice. Social Media is your online brochure: Prof. Seema Gupta, Associate Professor – Marketing, IIM Bangalore
Hyderabad: The second day of the Two-day Online Session on ‘Sustainable Living in the New Normal: Winning Strategies for women entrepreneurs in the jewellery and fashion industries’ jointly organized by FICCI Ladies Organisation Incubation, i-TIC Foundation the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) at IIT Hyderabad and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Hyderabad) focused on improving online presence. Two experts viz. Mr. Malhar Barai, Head – Marketing (APJ&I & Digital Marketing), Tech Mahindra and Prof. Seema Gupta, Associate Professor – Marketing, IIM Bangalore gave an introductory sessions on establishing digital presence and using it for digital transformation and growth. The informative and interactive sessions threw light on how to use digital presence to reach potential customers.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Malhar Barai said that the intent of SEO should not just to be find and get visitors but to make the visitors stay more, read and explore about the products / services. Mr. Barai said that SEO can help give voice to your brand, reach more people and drive engagement. He explained various factors that go into Google ranking of websites. Important parameters are that your website should be Mobile-friendly, should load quickly, have location specific information and quality back links. 40 per cent of the website traffic nowadays is coming from mobile devices, so mobile optimization is important, he informed. A website should be mobile optimized, have good loading speed and local content, he said. He shared information on understanding trends, keyword strategy, On Page SEO, Link building strategy and some advanced SEO concepts. Keywords are important, Barai said. And with more people using mobile devices or digital assistants such as Alexa, Siri, etc. Voice SEO too has gained prominence, he said.
Addressing the audience virtually, Prof. Seema Gupta said that online presence is a must, it is no longer a choice. Social Media is your online brochure. It is the first impression of your brand / product / service. She informed about using the 70-20-10 rule to build effective content strategy. 70 per cent of your content should add value and should appeal to the audience. It should educate or entertain. 20 per cent of the content should be about yourself and build trust. The remaining 10 per cent should be promotional and used to push your products.
Prof. Seema said that social media is about personal connect. People connect with people, people trust humans more than companies. Hence, we see that generally people have more followers than companies on social media. Different social media platforms have different strengths and they should be utilized accordingly. She shared tips for various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. The younger audience has moved away from platforms such as Facebook to Instagram, she said. She gave tips to the participants on using social media platforms to engage customers and increase revenues. The days of organic marketing are over. Use paid ad campaigns to utilize the power of social media, Prof. Seema said.
Ms. Usha Rani Manne, Chairperson, FICCI FLO – Hyderabad Chapter informed that the program was curated exclusively for pan-India FLO members and the IITH entrepreneurial ecosystem and addressed innovation, incubation and digital marketing learning requirements of women entrepreneurs in Fashion and Jewellery industries.