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As a social media marketer or enthusiast; it is important know about the common challenges on social media. These challenges are found to be quite stressing on any social media platform and if not resolved in an effective manner; it can lead to more drastic consequences and people on social media choose to engage with the content on their own terms. A consumer may visit any post regarding the brand activity and then deliberately ignore it just because it wasn’t appealing enough. Social media activities does have the potential to make your content go viral and spread out the message further at a lower cost but if your content is not targeted towards the right consumer; then all your activities may just die or dry out. That is why it is important to know about the common challenges which your business might have to face while dealing with the numerous interactions or crafting out your social media strategy.

Thus this blog would examine the 5 common challenges and how they can be resolved strategically in the light of social media marketing and communication.

Effective Community Management

Social media platforms are built around communities and do need constant 24/7 management. Such communities need prominence as do all organizations. Thus it is important that your community on any social media platform is created, shaped and nurtured to not just make interactive conversations but to also lead those conversations to be engaging interactive and create an environment where all your fans and consumers can interact directly with your brand.

Communicating and Outreaching

There is no doubt and every social media activity should offer an effective two way communication and reach out to the public; after all social media is an effective public communication tool as it allows timely messages. Therefore every social media activity has to tailored around consumer’s interest and make it exciting for them to stay constantly be updated with all your social media activities.

Spreading Awareness

Just as it is important to do fishing where the fish are; it is important to do advertising where there is an audience and what better way to find audience on social media platforms. As more people spend their time in social media; thus there are opportunities for brands to capitalize on as brands can know and learn more about their target audiences and their demographics and psychographics. More and more people on social media can easily be targeted through their profiles and the pages that they like or associate with themselves. The more people like or associate your page; the more chances there are for you to spread awareness about your product offerings and services to them.

Building Upon the Reputation

An important feature on social media is for brands to build upon their online reputation by monitoring what their consumers are saying and identifying any issues or problems associated with their brand proactively. It is also for brands to be able to communicate with their consumers and get their side of the story out as social media platform can be used to respond to your mentions, create a stir to further channel out your own agenda.

Support for the Consumers

Social media can sometimes be viewed as an additional customer service channels for the support of your consumers as most consumers are comfortable by using the social media platform to make their queries, highlight their problems or ask questions about your product or services. Thus it must be viewed as an opportunity for the business to respond to their queries in a friendly way to get the word out. A proactive customer service for your customers on social media can get them the satisfaction to stay royal to your business and product or services offerings.

While dealing and resolving such challenges, you can also be able to craft your content in way that can easily be picked by your consumers to go viral.

Building a brand is difficult, but re-building one after a failure is even more difficult. It is a well-known fact that human brain is naturally hard-wired to remember and talk about negative experiences more than the positive ones.

Anything worth doing is difficult and if you have failed as a brand then reinvention may be the only way forward to survival. There have been many big names that have gone to the pinnacles of success to the depths of utter failure, only to get back again as respectable brands. One of the most famous cases is the case of Skoda, the famous car manufacturer. Looking at Skoda we will talk about how you should go forward if you are in the difficult spot of facing failure or re-inventing your brand.

How did Skoda re-invent its brand?

One of the best jokes associated with Skoda in the 1980s was:

“Why do Skoda have heated rear windows? To keep your hands warm while you push it”. And the joke that Skoda must have hated the most, “How do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill it with petrol”.

Skoda is one of Europe’s oldest brands and before the Second World War II it was considered a competitor to Mercedes in Eastern Europe for its excellent car quality. However after World War II Skoda’s factory fell under communist control leading to decline in investment which ultimately led to a steep decline in quality.

The turnaround began when Skoda was purchased by VW in 1992. VW knew from day one that brand myths have life of their own and the negative image of Skoda would far outlive the reality, however they began with a solid strategy. They first asked the Skoda team to fully focus on build quality, which they did. The car designs were changed, but even then elements were sustained which showed the Skoda heritage, for example the front grille. This is important, for some things are essential to the identity of the product.

Second came the marketing. Skoda did not try to shuffle all the bad customer goodwill under the market. Instead they made humorous ads which showed customer’s perception (that Skoda made bad cars), then the advert showed the new cars, with the tagline “It is a Skoda too. Honest”. The adverts were loved.

Quality which made their cars stand shoulder to shoulder with Toyota and Honda, and clever adverts Skoda has now taken over 2 percent of the market share of one of the most competitive markets of the world.

Where do you start brand-reinvention from?
First of all a brand has two very important offers, an emotional one as well a real offer. You have to offer a good product or service, which is complement by an “image” that gives it a bit of that magic factor. Think of Haagen Dazs Ice-cream when you think of the magic factor.

The onus of the quality part is on the business management. Re-inventing the image is something for which you should hunt a marketing agency, and in this day and age a marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing. Skoda worked on its quality and the amazing advertising campaign was led by Agency Fallon. Brand re-invention should start with self-reflection, and then effective market research to find which parts need to be worked on. The market research is again something that should be outsourced to digital marketing specialists for a digital marketing firm for a much larger reach.

Designers may find it difficult in the early stages of designing as they need to incorporate their mental strategies for solving out designing problems and finding the right element to blend it with the creative art. The Idea Generation is one of the most difficult phases in the designing process as fresh ideas need to be generated by the designer which can still remain incompletely understood. Here are some of the ways for a creative designer where he or she can gather creativity and intelligence to design anything creative.

The Preparation Phase
The preparation phase for a designer is pretty much about ‘fact finding’ or ‘collecting’ information or creative references. It is a way to build knowledge about the problem for the client; what he wants and what he needs to display or portray. Thus the creative designer must focus on identifying and evaluating all creative and inspirational ideas before generating a design idea concept.

Inspiration information is usually in the form of images where the designer evaluates all analytical reasoning with the influence of visual elements and creative designing solutions. All such findings are important and crucial for the designer and can also be executed by expert think tanks or strategist for guiding the designer who can further use computational design software tools to efficiently develop and support the designing creativity.

Finding the Cognitive Approach for Designing
Research is always an important process for designing activities. It is important to know about the market dynamics for their creatives and art. So in order to blend creativity in the designing process, it is important to browse all inspirational materials from all the sources and involve analogical reasoning to develop your own creative idea concept. Analogical thinking is often triggered by visual stimulation through various images and art. It stimulates the designer’s creativity builds upon a structure of thought process during the designing process.

Looking for the Inspirational Mediums for the Designers
It is also important to create a link between organizational values or product visual characteristics with the creative design concept. Anyone of these elements or factors can inspire feelings of emotion. Designers are always on the lookout for inspiration and must indulge themselves to know about different creative trends and design news.

However, some creative concepts are difficult to implement because of the limitations of computational or editing software tools. While searching for different design concepts, designers must also keep check for specific colors or shapes which can easily align and be relevant with the organization or with its initial purpose. Designer’s creative concept has to be efficiently supported by the computational or editing software to shape it up for realization as these tools are able to take the designer’s creativity and subjectivity into account. The real challenge is to conduct early efficient informational and inspirational phases for the creative idea generation. Such findings help to guide the designing process to reach a fruitful outcome or result.

Judging or accessing creative ideas or designs can be a difficult task as the evaluator must possess the particular skill to see eye to eye with the designer. The creative designs made can be on the principle of both rational and emotional but personal taste, liking or preferences can collide and not reach on to a conclusion or mutual consensus.

It requires much attention, imagination, trust and reasoning to properly evaluate and review the creatives but if any one of these aspects are missing from the evaluator’s assessment then it would eventually lead to conflict and the overall design or creatives may lead to something which won’t be as creative or attractive as previously made. Much of the relationship values between the client and the creative designer depends upon their ability to constitute the ‘creative reasoning’ behind the designs. Creative agencies have their own think tanks and expert designers who think and work for countless hours to drive and implement the creative thinking in the art of the design idea and bring it into realization. All then depends on having those ideas valued by the client for whom they are created.

The Communication Process

It is also important for the agency to be able to execute engaging communications with the client and present the creative designs more effectively to them, thus making it easier for them to judge the creativity and the concept behind the design in shape of a logo or creative material. Most clients spend their days by working out the details with revenue sales number, thus dealing with creative ideas or abstracts can be daunting for them.

Most clients don’t understand that a creative idea design cannot be measured or weighted in terms of sales or revenue generation and can easily be destroyed or eliminated by uncertainty. Most creative designers can face questions as:

• How can you know if it’s a good viable idea or design
• How can you turn this good idea into a great one to boost sales
• Can it be modified just a bit more to have that great impact on the viewer

All such questions can be answered much easier with proper reasoning if both the designer and the client understand each other well.

What To Do When the Client Comes Judging You

Whether it’s a creative logo design, graphical content, video or animation content, mobile app development, poster/ flyer design or a brand identity creatives; they all must be reviewed with imagination and skill. With marketing communication whether it’s traditional or digital; one must inherit or possess proper judging criteria with proper relevancy, subjectivity and reasoning. It takes a lot of time and effort for a creative idea to be developed and emerge from nowhere, the best way is to back it up with industry experience and innovation.

Creativity must be nurtured carefully in the art of designing so that it makes it easier for the client to properly evaluate and review all its prospects and recognize and encourage its development and the thought process.

A good tech-savvy digital marketing company will make you the best looking and working online store out there. They shall ensure (hopefully) that your online store is line with your present business, that is, it has the same logo, a theme similar to your existing website (or if you do not have one, one that reflects your branding strategies so far). That is all good however for you to be truly successful there are some questions which you will have to ponder over. What are these questions? This is something that an excellent digital marketing agency will tell you. A good one will help you set up a storefront, an excellent agency will help you start a viable business.

First-off, if you are reading this, congratulations! You are thinking of venturing into a market whose potential is growing every day. However with very little barriers to entry, the competition is stiff. So there are two main things you need to decide on before you set up an online Shopify store.

The first is the development of an e-business plan. You will say that you already have a business plan in place, and all you need is a website. I will have to rudely say that you do not understand what an e-business plan is. An e-business plan involves having an awareness and understanding of what it means to do business online, how it will differ from your day-to-day existing strategy and having an inventive strategy that helps you compete.

Just saying that you need an e-commerce business plan is really vague so let s break it up into achievable tasks.

What is different about you?

No matter where you conduct business, you have to ask yourself what are you offering your customer, what is different about you or how are you doing something better than what the others are offering. You have to find out what sets you apart from the lot.

For example, let us take the example of GatorPack. It sells shipping supplies like so many people out there. However, what it does differently is that there are just three options on the front page and you simply choose one and pay for it. No digging about the website, no about us or fluff, just down to business. It may not work for a newcomer but it works for many who just want an extremely fast and simple process.

Think of it this way. All online businesses are like shops adjacent to each other. So you really need to stand out.

What is the competition?

Not everyone can come up with something unique and out of this world and not everyone has to. You just have to find your competitor’s weakness and somehow ensure that you do it better. So before getting an online store made, scope out the competition and make sure you also tell your chosen digital marketing agency about the competition.

For example, up until now the main point of online retail stores was fixed selling prices which was convenient for many but there are some who like to bargain. And thus to cater them, some online mobile retailers came up with a unique bidding option that allows each individual customer to bargain by quoting their price. It is simple things like these that can give you the edge you were looking for.

And do not worry you do not have to go it all the way alone. Do this basic homework and then scope out a digital marketing agency that will help your further polish your e-commerce plan.

A website is a 24/7 sales force. It will always speak of your business in a positive way, day in day out. There is no such employee in this world. Many small businesses reluctantly develop or get developed their first website. But once they do get a good website up and running they are soon converted. A website is one of the most effective and yet cheapest promotional tools.

Building a website is a great first step, but just like a storefront it needs to maintained, and once in a while it needs a fresh coat of paint. Building a website is not enough. You need to maintain it and update it now and then.

Many ask that why should you update your website? Well to make it sufficiently clear we shall break the reasons down.

Design

What looks good, Appeals!

A website is the first impression of your business for many. If your website has a banner saying “Summer Sale 2008”, it does not bring back fond memories of time travel and the movie “Back to the Future” but look plain unprofessional. This is an extreme case.

Designs do become outdated no matter how good. One example is flash. It was all the rage a few years ago, now you never see it. Also if your website has had no recent blogs etc, it becomes apparently clear that it is not something that the business spends its time on and as we said it is the first impression of your business for many. Do you really want customers to see that the last update was last year and give the feel of a shop that is full of cobwebs?

Technique and Coding

New browsers and operating systems used to be a huge event. Nowadays the speed of progress is so fast that it is hard to keep track of what changes come when. You have to ensure that your website is compatible with these changes. It is important that your website’s code (HTML and CSS) is still valid.

Also with each new update comes greater efficiency. For example if your website was built a few years back and has not been updated since then, there are good chances it has a lot of unnecessary HTML code which is making it load slower, and in turn possibly affecting its Google ranking.

Marketing

New marketing techniques

Call to action techniques often change over time. Those vibrating Windows 97 style dialogue boxes no longer work. Actually, they were plain irritating even back in the day and still are!

If your website is not updated then you are missing out on the new effective techniques that are being used.

Also with each new update comes a greater focus on effective information collection. Sales information is very important in creating effective sales campaign. Recent updates in the years have really focused on this. Some of the best features you get these days include conversion tracking, user recordings and heat mapping. If you are using an old website you might not have all of these.

Many small businesses get their first website developed via freelancers or do it on their own, thus regular update is a challenge. But in this day and age, regular updates are a necessity. The best bet would be to get a digital marketing agency that works in close collaboration with you and updates the website whenever necessary. This will of course cost you, but the benefits are worth it; no one likes a derelict shop and that’s what an ignored website is.

Long time ago was the era of big cars, Chevrolet’s with half a street’s sprawling length, and now we love our hatch-backs. Then came the time of the big box supermarkets, We loved these supermarkets. Some of them are so big it seems they never end and you never seem to have walked it all, ever. These supermarkets have everything under one gigantic roof and shelves to match. From a toothbrush to a motorbike, you can buy it all here. And with the advent of the supermarkets came the downfall of the mom and pop stores; or at least so we thought. Mom and Pop stores have survived and even prospered. And now these Mom and Pop stores can prosper more than ever for we have fallen out of love with the big supermarkets.

And it is not just stores. Small boutique hotels and family owned bed and breakfasts are stealing customers from the big fish. Why is that? The fact is simple. While the big competitors can provide good service, they often fail to provide a personal touch. The personalized and a completely unique experience is something that an owner owned enterprise can easily offer. Starbucks may be great, but it cannot match the level of “personal” touch that my local coffee shop gives me. The owner knows me, I know him. There is no receipt. I even have tab there.

These small businesses have a brand lying around that they do not know of. People are daily searching for “small” businesses where they can feel comfortable. This phenomena is gaining so much traction that Wal-Mart has actually announced plans to scale down the size of their establishments.

Small businesses are in an extremely advantageous position. For most of these small businesses there clientele are the customers who have somehow passed the shop or are situated in the nearby neighborhood. Small businesses need to tap the power of social media to increase clientele.

First of all they could begin with the basics and create a Facebook page and advertise in their establishment. This allows more people to check in and tag your page. This works even better than the traditional word of mouth. Second would be to connect with your customers on Twitter and get a little more banter with you and them. Some of your customers may be the kind who prefer to keep their talking online. Not everybody in this day and age is comfortable walking up to the owner and strike a conversation.

Social media can really help to get your business name out there. You can even make additional sales through it. Facebook has brought out its marketplace feature and it is quite effective. However many small business owners find it too complicated. But complication is not a problem. Big corporates roll out their social media strategies via the help of professional marketing firms. To help small businesses new boutique digital marketing agencies have emerged which offer a personal and budget friendly service to those who are planning their business’s first venture into the digital world. A good digital marketing agency will be able to help you get a whole branding process going. Do it on your own, or get help but capitalize on the love for small and get going.

The contacts in the Android and many other operating systems were for a long time referred to as a business card. Business cards are thought to be going extinct as the world goes increasingly digital but that is far from true. The business card is something whose value is not appreciated fully, and those who do know its importance are not going to give up on it anytime soon.

The business card holds a lot of sway in the corporate world. And it is not just the formal corporate world where the business card matters. It matters almost everywhere and we shall talk about reasons why should be always carrying well-made business cards:

Swapping phone numbers and email is unprofessional

Networking is about making connections; connections are only credible if they are genuine. Sending contact information via email or text on the spot is convenient but it is an impersonal way of doing things. A business card first of all is tangible. Tangible things are more easily remembered. There is a good chance of a person coming across a business card in their wallet after a meeting than they are of coming across the email you sent them. Also exchanging business cards is something you do after a conversation and sometimes the business cards lead to even more conversations and this is how real relationships begin. Simply typing into your phone does not create a “memory” for this act has become routine and insignificant.

Business cards are very effective marketing tools

If you are giving them to your employees these tend to be distributed a lot. Having a formal business card in today’s world has become quite rare, and thus more appreciated. A business card is now considered something that only important people carry. So these do make people feel important and they are more inclined to distribute them to people they want to impress. How does this benefit you? Well if your employees want to impress someone, chances are they do matter and it is good for you that such people learn of your presence. This is the cheapest way of advertising and yet effective.

However many would argue that all forms of advertising pale in front of search engine optimization. Paid forms of advertising are no doubt great at attracting leads but seasoned business will argue and prove and when such advertising methods are like a candle in front of the sun when compared to the effectiveness of an in-person meeting which is concluded with a handshake and exchange of business cards. Business cards may not help you sell a shoe to one lone customer over the internet but they will help you a lot when you go to your supplier to negotiate better rates.

Plus what many people forget is that networking is a continuous process. You can meet a potential lead or contact any time, be it at the airport lounge, industry conferences or happy hour. Arming yourself with a business card ensures that you never miss an opportunity to make an impression and create a valuable business connection in one go.

A business card shows that you are prepared

Smartphone batteries are notorious for dying. And once that happens even the savviest of business people can be seen scrambling, writing contact information on cocktail napkins on scraps of paper. That never looks professional.

A business card gives the impression of being prepared and impressions count for a lot. Who would you do business with, someone hunting for scrap of paper or someone who has a business card ready with them?

So for many years to come it is a surety that conversations will be ending with an exchange of business cards.

We humans are psychologically hardwired to be attracted to colors. Visual stimuli is one of the most powerful messaging techniques that allow the viewer to give meaning to what it is in front of is eyes. Each color has its own connotations and this makes each color convey a different meaning altogether. But what purpose does it serve in logo design? The answer to that question is very simple yet quite intriguing. A simple thing such as a certain color can make the viewer get an altogether different message from your logo altogether. The color tends to represent what your business is all about and above all it signifies your mission, vision and what values you are trying to portray. Most companies opt for a two to three color based theme for their logos, single color logos are quite rare and even if they exist, the single color has different shades in the same logo.

We have learned to associate meanings with each color due to millions of years of evolving as creatures that instinctively live through data gathered through our senses out which we are the mostly inclined to rely on visual information. An in depth understanding of color psychology can put you into a better position to design a logo. As a creative professional you have the liberty to choose from a wide array of colors and play with their shades and give different nuances to each one. Lets delve into the world of colors and see for ourselves what each one has in store for us as its identity:

White: A symbol of purity and sophistication since time immemorial, it portrays surrealism, calmness and cleanliness. But if your logo happens to be white it needs to be portrayed against a colored background, this can be quite tricky as you have to make sure that your symbolic appeal of sophistication is put against a background that also makes it meaning remain the same even if now it is accentuated a bit. The focus should be on the white.

Red: Red symbolizes aggression, power, danger and above all passion. Red is known to be an appetite stimulant and that’s probably the reason it is part of the logos of a wide variety of food related business. Using red can make your business look to have a go getter approach and a dynamic outlook.

Orange: Well, this one has limited usage as it symbolizes the word “innovate” and is most often used by tech companies to identify their logo with their free minded and forward thinking approach.

Green: This one has been clichéd into being a color which is associated nature and organic materials. It signifies a company’s connection to the environment and Mother Nature. Green in recent times has also been associated with monetary and financial connotations.

Blue: Blue makes it easier to convey professionalism and serious mindedness. If a company wants to portray itself as a organization that values integrity and authority, then blue is the color it should go with.Black: We have been fascinated by this color since forever. It is one of the most mysterious of colors as it can signify loneliness and gloominess on one hand and Power on the other hand. This color is one of the first preferences of artists when designing something and as the primary base color for outlines and demarcations; it carries a lot of significance. Use it sparingly.

Purple: This one is reserved for the show of royalty and wealth. In older times, it was the prime color of the church in Europe and that has made it signify dignity and more importantly wisdom.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when thinking of colors for logos are their cultural implications which should be carefully taken care of in this globally connected world where white is color of mourning in South Asian countries and red is considered to be rewarding and a harbinger of luck in China. In the end it boils down to the designer who has to make the choice on the color with which the logo would be created. We hope this will help in understanding how to define colors for your logo and assist you in designing great logos for your business.