Vikas Sharan

With so many changes happening to the way search engines are valuing websites and the power that platforms like Facebook & Twitter lend to people’s conversations, very few things remain the same when it comes to online marketing.  So, what happens to the old world diktat – ‘content is the king’? Will content cease to be the all-important aspect of online marketing strategy?  The simple answer to the question is NO. Content will not cease to be less important. In all of the madness of innumerable Google updates, the multitudes of social media platforms and their ever-increasing influence, content still remains as important as ever and will remain so in the future as well. The only thing that has changed is the way content is used. Content is now more interactive, conversational, an exchange of thoughts, ideas & gossip; it is now completely social, it is more REAL! So, what’s so social about online content? Ok, let’s think of the internet to be like ...

Today, the action in the online media is as important as what’s happening in print or television, or even more so, as I believe.   The fact that it is interactive make it all the more powerful since now people who receive the message can do a lot of things with the message – they can become a firm follower of the message – giver, propagate, recommend if they are happy or turn away, send negative reviews, influence their circles to not to follow the message-giver.   It is not as if people on social media sites are there specifically to do this. However, it’s the inherent human need to converse, to be heard, to have a social standing, and to be an influencer that makes all of us talk. As marketing professionals or brands we need to make sure that our messages are tailored for them (targeted to the right audience) as they talk so that they invariably will talk about our messages (relevancy) & talk well if the message has been useful for them (value for them). ...