afaqs! workshop: Decoding social media for marketing

afaqs! organised a two-day workshop, titled 'Social Media for Marketing', which aimed at decoding the phenomenon called social media and tried to highlight the ways and means of establishing, using and measuring it for brands. The workshop was held at Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, on September 24-25. Conducted by Prasanth Mohanachandran and Karl Gomes, co-founders of AgencyDigi, it saw participation from not only FMS MBA graduates, but from other business schools such as the Fore School of Management, companies such as Educomp, Reliance Broadcast and Aircel, and digital agencies such as Webitude.

With the help of multiple videos and interactive elements, the two digital industry veterans drove home the point that simply starting a conversation around an idea or a brand is not enough -- calling for action and measuring the result or impact are equally pertinent.

Decoding social media and its constituents, Mohanachandran and Gomes explained owned, paid and earned media in depth, commenting on their definitions, the roles they play, the benefits offered by them, and the challenges faced by them.

Talking about how brands have been harnessing social media judiciously and to great long-term benefits, the trainers shared various case studies.

The case study of Mark Ecko's 'Air Force One Tagged' campaign revealed that more than the campaign being a clutter-breaker, the scale and the execution made it stand out and enjoy top of the mind recall among the consumers.

To reinforce that what a brand speaks about in its communication strategy should also hold true in its digital behaviour, Gomes showed videos highlighting the cases of Nike Plus and T-Mobile. Both the cases showed how on-ground activities, if taken digital in the right format and triggering the right conversations, can help the brand.

After the interactive presentations, the audience was divided into teams of seven-eight individuals, and assigned a real campaign brief from an advertiser. The teams were asked to devise social media strategies for the brand and present the same. Later, the presentations were discussed and deliberated upon threadbare, with the two trainers giving their valuable feedbacks.

Anulipi Ghosh, associate member, MarkSoc, FMS, said, "We got to know about the afaqs! workshop through Facebook and I totally loved it. We started with theoretical concepts, moving on to ad campaigns and how brand managers can exploit social media for brand communications. Hands-on working for a case study will surely help us as prospective brand managers."

Another MBA student, Sonali Verma from FORE, who plans to be an entrepreneur, said, "What I wanted to know from this workshop was when I'll start my own brand -- a low-involvement product or may be a fashion accessories brand -- how will Facebook or Twitter help me leverage it. The workshop opened a flood of useful insights and ideas, both from other participants and the gurus themselves."