Politicians are leveraging their campaign online and now it is being used primarily in the forthcoming Kerala election. Candidates are spending a considerable amount of money to make themselves visible on the social media. Candidates want a website and social media accounts of their own ahead of the May 2016 elections. Several IT firms are approaching candidates who have been asked to create websites and also a social media page.

To know more, please read the article by Vicky Nanjappa (Special Correspondent): -
http://www.oneindia.com/india/how-much-will-kerala-politicians-rely-on-social-media-2040299.html

An International scientific study has extended research into the use of social media as a tool for monitoring, evaluating and even predicting levels of economic damage caused by natural disaster. Twitter is useful for real time monitoring and prediction of the economic impact of disasters. To know more, please read the article by Daniel Oberhaus (contributor in Motherboard): - http://motherboard.vice.com/read/can-social-media-predict-disaster-damage-better-than-relief-agencies

Non-Profit Organization are well placed to succeed in social media. Their activities are enough to inspire followers and they invoke considerable commitment among them. But here are some blind spots which need a consideration: -
• Hardly anyone sees what people are posting- Social media traffic has a high bounce rate, which means that even if people do click through on a post or tweet most are getting to leave the charity website immediately.
• Get to grips with Google-There is one way to improve dedicate resources to search engine optimization. Charity websites and blog posts can turn up in those searches after a few simple changes.
To know more, please read the article by Matt Collins (Managing director, Platypus Digital)
http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2016/mar/11/charities-wasting-money-social-media

Instagram is a social platform that offers a great opportunity for content marketers to increase their impact. Instagram has an engagement ratio that is eight times the average of the other four social platforms. Instagram continues to expand its ad platform. Recently, it was found that the growth in the number of brands posting video content on Instagram has outpaced growth in the number of brands posting photos (139% versus 91%). The average number of Instagram pictures posted per brand increased by 11%, while the average number of Instagram videos posted per brand grew 29%.

To read more, follow: http://www.business2community.com/instagram/4-instagram-tips-conquer-recent-shifts-digital-marketing-01459035#MFZ8abxaaPP5AZlf.97

Pharmaceutical firms use social media to educate, market, listen to and connect with customers, patients and physicians. Some approaches include: - 1. Education- Firm offers disease specific educational aimed at consumers. Its aim is to help patients to understand their disease, so that they may engage with their healthcare providers to improve outcomes.
2. Connecting with customers/patients and physicians - The industry can use social media to create patient support groups and communities.
To know more, follow: http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/01/social-media-marketing-pharma/

Social media is now being frequently used by hospitals and medical professionals as a substance to express general health information. It is a great way to empathize not only with those who just need just relevant health news but also to needy ones. Social media feeds not only give medical professionals a platform to connect with patients, but with fellow doctors as well. In this technologically driven world, our best interest-whether you are a physician catering to your patients' queries or an individual seeking proper medical treatment, Social media has all answers for you.
To know more, please read the article by Bill Siwicki (Managing editor of Healthcare IT News):-

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/researchers-explore-healthcare-applications-social-media-targeted-interventions

Social media is one of the effective ways to build their brands and to influence people to purchase goods and services. While most executives understand the likely benefit of social media, they don't realize the magnitude of the risk it creates. Here are some security tips for use of social media and general online for employees:- 1. Avoid employment disclosure.
2. Teach employees to manage their privacy settings.
3. Implement a workplace social media policy.
4. Don’t ban social media use in office.
5. Train the IT specialist.
To know more, please read the article by Robert Siciliano (CEO of ID TheftSecurity.com)-: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241889

To be ready for the next big trend or story, it is essential to build your personal brand online. To stay on track, good research and analytics is very important. If you are thinking of what's being shared on social media, there are many ways how your brand can take advantage of agile marketing. It can help in staying ahead of what is to come and be prepared for news and events. Today one needs to be active on social media and track content and trends. It is essential to build an audience. Knowing the needs of the audience is a good way to start along with a flexible marketing plan. There are some steps that can increase brand awareness. They are: - # Track the latest hashtags # Conduct thorough research # Be ready for change. As you involve agile marketing as a regular part of your personal branding strategy, it's good to remember that this is a process which involves careful attention and planning. To read more about agile marketing follow : http://www.business2community.com/branding/use-agile-marketing-bring-visibility-brand-01461244

Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to breathe spirit into your brand. Social media gives meaning and definition to any ordinary piece of information and makes it attractive and absorbing. Advertiser and marketers have utilized it as a powerful tool to convince audiences by merging their ideas with emotion, which has proved to be highly instrumental in appealing the imagination of the customer. The rise of social media offers an unprecedented platform for brands to tell their tale. To know more, please read the article by Kay Fabella (Brand storyteller and Marketing Consultant for small business owners) -: http://thoughtreach.com/how-to-tell-your-brand-story-on-social-media/

Social media is one of the effective ways for business to build their brands and to influence people to purchase goods and services. While most executives understand the benefit of social media, they don't realize the magnitude of the risk it creates. Here are some security tips for use of social media and general online for employees:-
1. Avoid employment disclosure.
2. Teach employees to manage their privacy settings.
3. Implement a workplace social media policy.
4. Don’t ban social media use in office.
5. Train the IT specialist.
To know more, please read the article by Robert Siciliano (CEO of ID TheftSecurity.com)-: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241889

Indian Railways has solved many issues of distressed passengers using social media platforms. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said in his rail budget speech that his ministry had set up a social media cell responsible for taking action on passengers' request for help. After turning social media for feedback and complaint redressal mechanism, Railways are helping their passengers more efficiently. To know more, please read the article of Hindustan times -: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/how-railways-is-acing-social-media-to-help-passengers-in-distress/story-O0mWmcHVSh8iyxatmeMMZK.html 

Social media has changed the world, but has opened huge exposures for national security. With "Digital dust" trails, intelligence officers are vulnerable in many ways. CIA recruiters even found that the questions they asked in the interview are being posted online by candidates. But it is also helping investigators to solve cases using social media. Investigators are using social media even in undercover, covert and even in internal security operations. It is being suggested that some guidelines should be maintained for men and women who serve over country for social media utilization. To know more, please read the article by Philip Ewing (Writer at NPR) -: http://www.npr.org/2016/02/24/467933392/why-the-cia-likes-and-dislikes-social-media

Getting jobs these days are tuff. But, social media is helping people to get jobs. Here are some steps that you can follow to get a job -:

1. Set up strong profiles -: Create strong profiles on all social networking sites using short bio to show interest and skills for good online presences.

2. Start Networking -: Use social media to grow communication and professional network.

3. Get Recommended on LinkedIn -: Recommendations with positive references attract recruiters and manager.

4. Let Others Know You Are Looking -: Let your friends and relevant contacts know about what type of job you’re looking at.

5. Actively Seek Out Openings with Hashtags -: Use hashtags ‘#’ to search for relevant jobs.

6. Research Employers and Hiring Managers before Applying -: Social media profiles can be used as a research tool before applying for a job.

To know more, please read the article by Maria Onzain ( Writer at Tech.co) -: https://tech.co/steps-social-media-find-job-2016-02

Fashion week was initiated for designer to preview next season's clothes to editors and influencers but now it is being superseded by social media. With apps and Livestream shows, fashion industry has switched to digital platforms and collections are now more public. Showcasing fashion shows live on Instagram and Snapchat promotes the see-now-buy-now approach. To know more, please read the article by David Yi (Writer at Mashable India) -: http://mashable.com/2016/02/20/social-media-killing-fashion-week/#H1GhDT65qZq1

Optimization of CRM is highly correlated to the social media presence of a company. Customers frequently generate queries via social media. So there are some steps that can be followed to create a position in the customer's mind by establishing good connections between social media and CRM.

1. Right platform should be chosen.

2. Must have a dedicated human resource to handle the social media activity and patch them up with marketing team who handles CRM.

3. Instead of putting one liner FAQs, try to personally resolve critical issues in time.

4. If you have a different presence in multiple social media, then deploy time understanding the importance

5. Start listening your customers’ point of view about you and react proactively.

6. When you are segmenting your customer, you should be prepared for queries. Centralize them and solve them in real time

7. Reward your customer by discount offers, free e-books and promo offers.

To read, follow: https://www.cmscritic.com/10-steps-to-social-crm-success/

Social Media Crisis leaves a lasting and damaging impact on the brand's reputation. This involves strong, negative emotions which go viral in a very short duration of time. If the crisis does not take care of promptly and thoughtfully, the risk escalates. This situation can come from anywhere, from the least expected sources. But the key lies in properly responding to it, rather than reacting. In such situation, it is essential to have a crisis management plan handy. If the mistake has been on your part, acknowledge it and respond very carefully. It is important to have a crisis management strategy and its proper execution. The negative emotions can be appeased by a good customer loving response. Read more about this at:   http://www.computerworld.in/feature/how-handle-major-social-media-crisis

People spend more time on the social media nowadays. So, marketers are targeting their customers on the social media platforms. As a result, organizations having a social media presence are generating greater ROI. Social Media is a new communication channel that presents the combination of communication and information. With the integration of powerful search engines, people use it as a source to search for information. Organizations can also check what people are saying about others. Marketing is about your presence at the place where your potential customers can be present. Salespeople are a source for news for their clients on these social networks. There has been a decrease in the budgets for marketing with the help of social media, without affecting the marketing strategies. Read more about this at: : https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/2016/02/16/social-media-marketing-investing-roi-imi

For every start-up, customer engagement and promoting their brand is a big challenge. So if your business is in the start-up stage, integration of social media in your CRM will give you enormous opportunities to grow your business.

Social media in CRM aka Social CRM on cloud gives an extra edge to your business as engaging with your target audience will be limitless and creating brand communities which helps in monitoring and analysing customer’s demands will be very easy.

Here are the 5 benefits of having social CRM in your start-up -:

1.      Discover opportunities to engage with customers

2.      Monitor your notifications

3.      Real time updates in your customer contact records

4.      Integrate your marketing software and your contact records

5.      Share customer messages

To read visit on -: http://www.intellika.in/blogs/post/5-benefits-of-social-crm-for-startups

Before we start discussing about Tools for Social Media Analysis, first of all we have to know what social media analytics is? Instead of thinking it as a noun, take it as a verb. Precisely, it's gathering data from social platforms to help guide marketing strategy.

# the process begins with the prioritizing goals.

# The second step is determining key performance indicators (KPIs) i.e. likes and shares your posts receives, replies and comments, and more importantly the clicks your links and content earn analysis.

Now, as the definition is clear, we will directly come to the social media analytic tools. To read more, follow: https://keyhole.co/blog/list-of-the-top-25-social-media-analytics-tools/

Datafication is a process that captures almost every aspect of the world as data. With datafication, interactions can be quantified easily with the help of big data analytics. Data is generated for almost everything ranging from temperature readings to social media. This data is useful for analyzing patterns and making predictions about the future. These predictions not only improve business efficiency and finances, but also boosts customer experience and improve relations with the customer. Big data's tools' ability to extricate insights from the collected data have led to a new information revolution of sorts. Universal applicability is another exciting opportunity in this field. The future of retail commerce seems brighter now as datafication is here to stay. Read more at:http://insights.mastercard.com/2015/07/06/datafication-the-new-buzzword-for-business/