Page 20 - Banking Finance February 2018

ARTICLE

bringing out the demographic trends in utilization of various users to target for the message to propagate through the
social media channels with a view to leverage the data for network.
acquiring and retaining the customers on the basis of an
emotional engagement with them. All the Banks that are in social media are in Facebook.
Facebook allows organizations to target their audience with
So in the last couple of years, there has been an exponential a personal approach. We should attract as many customers
growth not only in the number of social media networks but as possible to our fan pages through various campaigns.
also in the socio-demographic attributes of their user base. Campaigns can be viral recruitment, discounts and coupons,
One of the main advantages of social media is the fact that and offline promotions. We can provide some concessions
there is enormous information that is available about users, to the customer only when he access by liking our Facebook
their preferences, previous posts and their friendship links. page.
Before we go further, let us examine the three most popular
social media websites and what features they offer to users The benefit of having a large number of fans, apart from
and businesses. the reach it provides for our promotions is that the users
can recommend them to their friends. In a study on
Major Social Media Platforms consumer behavior by Constant Contact and Chadwick
Martin Bailey, the key findings showed that 56 per cent of
Facebook: Founded in 2006, Facebook has become the most
the consumers said they were more likely to recommend a
popular social networking website. Facebook provides
brand after becoming a fan on Facebook. Additionally, 51
connectivity for users and facilities for creating and sharing
per cent of the consumers said they were more likely to buy
content in the form of pictures, posts, comments, videos and
a product after becoming a fan on Facebook.
even check-ins. Facebook has also provided a platform for
development, allowing developers to create apps that
integrate with Facebook. 47 percent of all internet users are Facebook can be used for:
on Facebook, more than 4.5 billion likes are generated daily Y Creating brand awareness
and nearly 75 percent of Facebook's revenue comes from Y Gaining reviews from happy customers
mobile advertising. Facebook has got 184 million monthly
Y Defusing feedback from unhappy customers
active users in India as of Dec, 2016. Facebook provides
three main features for companies. Y Conducting research
Y Testing products and services
Fan Pages: Facebook allows businesses to create pages
Y Recruiting staff
called Fan Pages. Users can then subscribe and become fans
Facebook with its 250 million members worldwide
of particular companies. They do this by liking the page of
the company. They will then receive feeds from the provides opportunities to communicate with many
different groups of people.
companies and can share their voices.

Promoted Posts: Companies can pay for particular posts to
be promoted across more people. Such posts are made
visible at the top of news feeds for the users who have
subscribed to the company. When users respond to these
posts, they will be visible among their extended circles as
well, increasing the overall visibility of the post.

Advertising: Choosing people for particular ads is much
easier on Facebook since the companies can get access to
the demographic information about users. This is also useful
for viral marketing when companies need to select specific

20 | 2018 | FEBRUARY | BANKING FINANCE

Sashi Publications Pvt Ltd Call 8443808873/ 8232083010