Social Media for Business: 2015 Marketer’s Guide

Should your business be on social media? Absolutely. But should you have an account on every platform? Not necessarily.

Your social success depends largely on the type of business you run and how much time and effort you intend to put into your strategy. Some networks, like Facebook, are more low-maintenance and work for every type of business, while others, like Instagram, require more dedication, working best for businesses in certain niches.

Want to create an enviable social strategy? Familiarize yourself with all of the social networks at your disposal, figure out which features will work best with your business and focus on the platforms that best reflect your business's mission.

We profiled the top social media platforms, so you can learn how to utilize each one for your business and determine which ones fit your needs.

Facebook

Facebook is the biggest social network out there, both in terms of name recognition and total number of users. With over 1.39 billion active users, Facebook is a great medium for connecting people from all over the world with your business. And Facebook is not only the biggest network, it's arguably the most versatile one. In the 11 years since it launched, Facebook grew from a simple website where college students could keep in touch into a multifaceted Web and mobile social-platform where anyone can connect with not just their friends and family, but also with celebrities, organizations, businesses and more thanks to the Pages feature.

Since Facebook has a wealth of options for any type of organization, it's a great starting point for your business, regardless of your industry. You can use it to share photos, videos, important company updates and more. Additionally, Facebook is a lot more low maintenance in terms of posting frequency — whether you post several updates a day or only a few a week won't make much of a difference in terms of what your fans think of you. To find out more about Facebook for business, check out our guide.

Twitter

Twitter is another social network where mostly anything goes. With Twitter, you can post short (140 characters or less) text updates along with videos, images, links and more. You can also easily interact with other users by mentioning their usernames in your posts, so Twitter is a great way to quickly connect with people all around the world (the platform has more than 500 million users worldwide). Because of this, Twitter is not only a great way to market your business; it's also an effective channel for handling customer service. For example, if you maintain an active Twitter presence, then customers who are also active on the platform will seek you out to express concerns or share their praise. [10 Twitter Accounts Every Job Seeker Should Follow ]

If you have interesting content, Twitter is also a great tool for quickly spreading the word. Retweeting and sharing other users' content is incredibly simple, and if a user with a lot of followers retweets you, your content has the potential to go viral. But with Twitter, it's important to remember to find balance — don't simply share your own links or media; make sure you are also sharing a lot of interesting, relevant content from other Twitter users so your audience doesn't think you only care about what your business is doing. Check out our guide to learn more about using Twitter for business.

Pinterest

This platform consists of digital bulletin boards where users can save and display content they like in the form of pins. Users create and organize their boards by category, so for example, as a personal user, one might have a board dedicated to food where they pin recipes, another board dedicated to photography they find interesting and so on. Pinterest is very visually oriented (every post has to be an image or video), and like Facebook, it is also fairly low-maintenance as far as post frequency is concerned. However, keeping your boards organized and search-friendly can be time-consuming.

Pinterest is also a much more niche network than Facebook or Twitter, and so it may not work for everyone. Pinterest's users are primarily female, and popular categories on the site are DIY projects, fashion, exercise, beauty, photography and food. That's not to say that businesses outside of these categories can't succeed on the platform, but it does make it a great marketing tool for businesses that do work in those areas. If you can find ways to connect your content to Pinterest's audience, then go for it. There are plenty of cool ways to use this platform to your advantage, and you can read more about them in our Pinterest for Business guide.

Instagram

Instagram, like Pinterest, is a visual social media platform that is based entirely on photo and video posts. The network, which Facebook owns, has over 300 million active users, many of whom post about food, art, travel, fashion and similar subjects. Instagram is distinguished by its square photo/video post format that makes each post look similar to a Polaroid picture. This platform, unlike the others, is almost entirely mobile (there is a Web version, but you can't take photos or create new posts, and other functions are limited, as well).

Instagram is another platform where more artistic niches excel, so again, it may not be the best fit for your business depending on your industry. If you want to succeed with Instagram, it's important that the person running your account has a good eye for detail and has at least basic photography skills so that the photos and videos posted to your account are high quality. And don't be discouraged if your industry is underrepresented on Instagram; if you can find the right hashtags to latch onto and can post intriguing photos, you will most likely make it work. To find out more about using Instagram for business, read our guide. 

Tumblr

Tumblr is arguably the most difficult social media platform to use as a business, but it's also one of the most interesting networks. Tumblr allows several different post formats, including text posts, chat posts, quote posts, audio posts, photo posts and video posts, so you're not limited as to what kind of content you can share. As with Twitter, re blogging (reposting other users' content) is very quick and easy, so if a user with a lot of followers shares your content, it's possible to go viral fairly quickly. However, what sets Tumblr apart more than anything is its audience, which is less like a pool of users and more like one big tight-knit community full of smaller sub communities.

Tumblr currently hosts more than 200 million blogs, and the majority of these blogs are run by young people (half of Tumblr's visitor base is under the age of 25). But this means that businesses that don't cater to young people's interests or aren't relatable to young people in some way are not poised for success on the network. The good news is, there's a sub community or fandom for almost every niche and interest you can think of, so a successful marketing campaign is possible if you use Tumblr correctly. You can learn more about the Tumblr community and how to use Tumblr for business in our guide. 

Your Online Ads Are Creeping Out Your Customers

If your business is using online advertisements that are targeted to consumers based on their Internet browsing history and personal information, you may want to reconsider that marketing tactic, new research finds.

According to a new study from Ithaca College, many online users find tailored ads to be "creepy," and thus are less likely to buy the products and services being promoted.

"My experience was that consumers' reactions to it were not good," Lisa Barnard, the study's author and an assistant professor of integrated marketing communications at Ithaca College, said in a statement. "They found it to be really creepy."

The study's authors defined "creepiness" by the feeling consumers get when they sense an ad is too personal because it uses data the consumer did not agree to provide, such as online-search and browsing history. Consumers are even more creeped out by this because they don't know how and where that information will be used.

For the study, researchers conducted experiments on a group of more than 200 college students. To begin, the researchers showed the students a page from a mock shopping site that featured ads promoting a USB flash drive or acne cream. The USB drive was considered neutral, while the acne medication was selected because it was something a college student might not want marketers to know about them. [Real-Time Marketing: Making It Work for You ]

Then, the researchers had the students view a Facebook news feed. Some participants saw an ad on this page for the item they had previously seen, while others were served an ad for a totally different product. In addition, some of the ads mentioned a special promotion for students at the college they were attending, while others mentioned the promotion but not that it was for students at that college.

The participants were asked questions about the ad that ranked their perceptions of creepiness, their feelings about seeing the ad, the likelihood they would purchase the advertised product and whether they felt manipulated by having seen the ad they were shown.

The study's authors discovered that, although there were some positive feelings towards the ads, there was also a negative effect based on the "creepiness factor" that comes from being targeted individually. These negative feelings accounted for a 5 percent drop in their intent to purchase an advertised product.

While targeted ads are not new, they are now much more customized than in years past, Barnard said. Previously, targeted ads were based on larger demographic descriptions, such as age or hobbies. But now, with personal information scattered across databases, marketers are able to create more specific consumer profiles.

That's what consumers find creepy and what marketers are failing to consider, Barnard said. Even millennials, most of whom are digital natives, are bothered by this extreme customization, she added.

"They know they're being marketed to, and they don't like that," Barnard said.

Based on these findings, online marketers should recognize that consumers feel violated when ads are tailored too specifically, Barnard said.

"Marketers have been making blanket assumptions that, the more data we have, the more we should use," she said. "But my argument is that, just because we have all of that data, doesn't mean you should just go ahead and use it all the time in all cases."

Barnard will present her findings at the 2015 International Communication Association Conference this May.

Book on Pakistani art launched

KARACHI: A book on contemporary Pakistani art titled The Eye Still Seeks by eminent artist and art educationist Salima Hashmi was launched at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture on Friday evening.

Ms Hashmi engaged in a conversation with Asma Mundrawala on the occasion. The first question focused on the motivation for the book with reference to a chapter ‘The urge to spin a story’ in it. Ms Hashmi said she was not trained to be a scholar — she was a ‘maker’ and a teacher. In the 1980s, a lot of interesting things in the field of art happened but nobody wrote about it, she said. There were many artists, writers and poets who were achieving courageous feats, and there were not enough people to document them.

On the question of the writers and curators whose work is included in the book, Ms Hashmi said the Penguin Books India approached her. They wanted to bring out a book on contemporary Pakistani art because over the past 20 years it had caught the attention of the collecting public. The reason why Pakistani art was so exciting was its sociopolitical context. She said they [the publishers] asked her to get hold of a political scientist to pen the framework essay, which was a difficult task. So she thought ‘why not go to fiction’ and got in touch with novelists Mohammed Hanif, Kamila Shamsie and Mohsin Hamid who through their fiction had touched upon ‘what makes Pakistan tick’.

Ms Hashmi said the novelists responded to her call with enthusiasm. Mohsin Hamid had lived in Lahore in the ‘90s growing up with artists like Shazia Sikander and Rashid Rana. It wasn’t difficult to ask him to write on Rana. Kamila had already written on Naiza Khan’s work, she said, and with reference to Hanif she remarked that his essay on Asim Butt gave an edge to the book.

In response to the query about which was the most dynamic period in Pakistani art, Ms Hashmi replied, “It’s right now. It has never been so fertile, so full of ideas.” She pointed out she was humbled to see that every week new work came out and made her pause to think that in this barren landscape, where there’s very little appreciation, people were constantly producing art; their work was fearless with a peculiar combination of technique and content, leaning on all kinds of historic and personal narratives from different parts of the country. “The young are doing things people 40 years ago did not even dream of,” she said. “Pakistan is rife with tremendous ideas in visual arts. It is unbelievable. The young don’t stand on shifting sands but on the shoulders of the generations before,” she added.

On the topic of education, Ms Hashmi said the country had always had exceptional teachers. Art mentors had felt that they had to give back whatever they’d got. But this was not unique to South Asia, all over the world it was like that. She acknowledged the fact that “good artists are teaching”.

Responding to the question about the production of the book, Ms Hashmi told the moderator that the publishers didn’t offer her enough money to pay to the contributors, so she had to come up with a creative idea to keep their interests intact. She lauded the efforts of the publishers for meticulous production of the book.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

Cholay — an economical dish fit for a king

RAWALPINDI: According to legend, when the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb, he was asked to choose one dish that he would be served every day for the duration of his imprisonment. Shahjahan chose chickpeas. Then for the rest of his life, he would remain imprisoned in the Agra Fort, eating chickpeas and looking at his beloved Taj Mahal. Shahjahan’s loyal cook tried to bring variety to his disposed master’s life by adding different flavours to the chickpeas and creating new recipes that would spread through India, from Kabul to Chittagong.

Today, centuries later, some of the many chickpea recipes, perhaps thought of by Shahjahan’s cook, are available in the garrison city. Colloquially called Cholay or Chanay, chickpea dishes are a part of breakfast and dinner alike. The various forms include Lahori Chanay, roasted chickpeas, Alo (Potato) Chanay, Makhni (Buttery) Chanay, Chikar Cholay, Murgh Chanay, Chole Patoray and many more.

While these chickpea recipes vary in the ingredients used, most begin by soaking the chickpeas over night and then cooking them. Cooking involves boiling the chickpeas until they tenderise and then adding spices such as chilies, coriander, salt, turmeric.

The famous Chikar Cholay, which literally means mud chickpeas, uses baking soda to tenderise the chickpeas, tomatoes and other ingredients to the point where they turn into a spicy, delicious mush. In Lahori Chanay, chickpeas are not as tender and the water they are cooked in is retained in the final dish.

Chickpeas are sought after, not just for their unique taste but also for their nutritious value. Chickpeas cut cholesterol, are high in fibre and protein. This protein rich food is economical, which makes it a good substitute for meat.

These famous chickpea recipes may be eaten with boiled rice or scooped up with a hot piece of nan. For breakfast, tender, thick and drier chickpeas are eaten with hot, oily puris.

“The chickpea is highly versatile. One can add mutton or chicken to create a unique flavour,” said Muhammad Kamran, who sells chickpea dishes at a restaurant in Kartarpura.

Murgh Chanay, a very popular dish, adds chicken to the chickpeas. When chicken is added to the water the chickpeas are being cooked in, the soup begins to taste like a stew. This dish is delicious as well as highly nutritious.

“We even add the stew of Nihari or Payee (hooves) and people love it. To make Makhni Chanay, we substitute vegetable oil with butter. Makhni Chanay goes well with Nan, salad and vegetable pickle,” Mr Kamran said.

He said that chickpeas are sold all over the city but being a signature food street of the garrison city, most people buy this dish from Kartarpura.

Former district nazim Raja Tariq Kayani told Dawn that he preferred to have Chanay from Saddar.

“Hameed Kay Chanay has been the most popular place to buy chickpeas for the last 35 years. This outlet cooks excellent roasted Chanay and serves it with pickle, salad and curd. I can eat their Chanay with nan or even with a spoon,” he said.

Hameed Kay Chanay, located at Kola Centre in Saddar has been operating from a stall for the last 35 years. The owner opens his stall at 10am every day; getting sold out at 2pm, he closes his stall. In the last 35 years, he has neither increased the quantity he cooks nor expanded his famous business.

However, a similar stall at Committee Chowk known as Sain Kay Cholay has now expanded his business to establish two more branches on Murree Road and Commercial Market.

Another famous stall is located outside the Lal Haveli which has been the famous residence and political office for Awami Muslim League (APML) President Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

“Sheikh Rashid Ahmed really likes our Chanay and orders it whenever he comes to Lal Haveli,” said Muhammad Sajid, a shopkeeper.

“Most people prefer to have a plate of Chanay and Nan or Chanay Chawal as it is economical. You can have a full meal in Rs50 to Rs80,” said Muhammad Anwar, a visitor at Kartarpura.

“When the dish is available in market at lower rate, we don’t waste our time to cook it at home,” he added.

Zeeshan Butt, a resident of Chaklala Scheme-III, said that he regularly buys chickpeas for breakfast, especially on the weekend. He said adding pickles to the dish brings out its flavour.

“For diabetics, doctors advise chickpeas but it is a healthy food for everyone,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2015

Gun Smoke Lahore: A taste of the Wild West and yummy mud pie

The first time we visited Gun Smoke on M.M. Alam Road in Gulberg, it was in the company of my wife’s friend and colleague Ra’ana, and we had gone specifically to listen to the song and music of her son Jimmy Khan. He was talented, gifted and good-looking, and did he strum away happily.

As we entered the eatery under our feet peanut shells crunched. This was, so they imagined, the feel of what a bar in the American Wild West must have been like. The waiter greeted us with a loud “Howdy” and everyone had this deliberate Wild West accent. Much later I was to research the origin of this accent, a mix of heavy Irish, laces with Scottish and Northern English. This was the way the ‘geezers’ of old used to conduct themselves. But in Lahore it made me chuckle then, and I am prejudiced.

The music and guitar strumming of Jimmy Khan, now a big name in the world of Pakistani popular music, still hung in the mind. So with these thoughts we returned there. Our objective was to once again try their now-famous ‘cowboy steaks’, or as Ronald Reagan once said: ‘You ai’nt seen noth’in yet’. Things are almost the same, though the interior has been changed and improved considerably, and the waiters still drawl out their accent. They sure have been practising a lot. This eatery is the brainchild of Kamran Sheikh, who has since contributed considerably to Lahore’s ‘eating out’ scene.

We were four persons and for starters we ordered ‘Red Buffalo Wings’ prepared in cheese sauce. That got the juices flowing and for soup I insisted that as they probably had the best Mulligatawny soup in town (gosh, I must not slip into western lingo. Queen’s English, Please), we all have the same. That came with a flourish and it was pleasing, I must admit. Making the correct Mulligatawny – whose origins are in Madrasi ‘mulli ka panni’ ‘dal’ – is a wee bit difficult and people have their own construction. Why not!

For the main course we ordered what is labelled as the ‘Original Gun Smoke Cowboy Steak’, and I recommended that we go for the 300 gram version. Well, if we are going into the make-believe world of cowboys, might as well have ‘the real thing’. The ladies raised an eyebrow. One of them just had to be different and ordered a Mediterranean Garlic Steak in the 200 gram version. Gosh, these health freaks just never let go. I went for a medium version, while ‘desi’ suspicion never let go and everyone insisted on ‘well done’.

My friend Husnain Almakky would throw a tantrum at that. Democracy favours the brave. I told them that in the Wild West even a rare was rare, and in Japan they insist on raw. “Uggh” came the instant response.

The fare came with baked potatoes filled properly with sour cream and laced with apt greens and a steak sauce made from the juices. The knives were special steak knives and soon a silence dawned on us as we enjoyed the noisy ambience and the occasional crunch of peanut peels. The light western music was fine, but not a patch on the live shows Jimmy Khan used to do at this place. Just one comment. The meat was just fine and every morsel virtually melted in the mouth. Of all it went down well with the ‘health-conscious damsel’ living in her beautiful Mediterranean dream.

By the time we ended this meal everyone looked well-fed. But then the eatery management insisted we try a Chocolate Mud Pie. Uggh, said the lady. That was enough for me to insist that we try this mud pie. It came as one piece, a mix of chocolate fudge cake with a vanilla ice cream top, peanut butter cookies crushed and sprayed on top with nuts and caramel sauce sprayed on this massive concoction. To end matters a whipped cream crown sparkled. Now this surely was ‘muddy’. It tasted great and in the end the Mediterranean damsel had the most. Imagine!

Now back to classwork. Let me mark this ‘eating out’ experience on the Michelin Scale of one to nine. For food quality it gets seven, for food taste another seven, for food presentation six, for service six, for quality of crockery and cutlery six is just about good (no compromise here), for ambience a well-deserved seven (probably the best theme eatery in Lahore), for prices four (this is no cheap place), and for ease in parking and approach six. This averages at 6.1 out of nine, which is good. Highly recommended.

SAMOOSA FIGHT: Recently a reader of this column wrote in to recommend that I try out the ‘samoosas’ of an outlet in Johar Town. In our business readers matter. So off I went to try out ‘Ideal Samoosa Corner’ as recommended by Munir Sahib. This turned out to be an excellent place for a Sunday breakfast, and one of these days we will turn up for a ‘halwa puri’ session.

We purchased four ‘samoosas’ and consumed them in the car. The outer shell was crisp, the size – thankfully - was moderate, the taste was good and, most important, the ‘after-taste’ showed that this was fresh stuff.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2015

Mahira Khan's Bin Roye trailer intrigues, leaves us wanting more

The trailer for Humayun Saeed and Mahira Khan's much anticipated Bin Royereleased today and has left us more impatient than ever for its release.

The trailer starts off with Mahira running around in fields, looking chirpy as ever and goes on to show multiple shots of Armeena Rana Khan's wedding taking place, where Mahira is seen dancing (look out for a glimpse of Adeel Hussain in the dance number!).

Dubbed a story of love and hate, the two and a half minute trailer shows shots of Saeed romancing Armeena and tension between him and Mahira.

According to their Facebook page, Bin Roye is the story of two sisters and after the untimely death of one sister, the other has to step into her shoes. What we can deduce from the trailer is that Armeena was initially married to Saeed and when she passes away, Mahira is then forced to marry her ex-brother-in-law.

The romantic drama is based on Farhat Ishtiaq's acclaimed novel 'Bin Roye Aansoo' and has been produced by Momina Duraid of Zindagi Gulzar Hai andHumsafar fame. Ishtiaq is also the brains behind Humsafar and Mata-e-Jaan Hai Tu.

Talking to Instep in a recent interview, Mahira said: "It’s a full blown feature film. I love commercial cinema. I like watching a Ram Leela. I like my dance and song. And I have danced in Bin Roye."

Read: Bin Roye story more mature than Humsafar: Humayun Saeed

The movie also stars Zeba Bakhtiar, Javed Sheikh and Junaid Khan among others and is slated for an Eid release. The feature film will also be turned into a drama series for Hum TV.

Pakistani short-film ‘Baat Cheet’ goes to Cannes

2015 seems like a good year for Pakistani films because not only are we seeing multiple releases but our short-films are also hitting the right chords. Director Rayika Choudri’s short-film Baat Cheet is on its way to be screened at the 68th Cannes Film Festival held annually in the French city of Cannes.

The ten-minute film is written, produced and directed by Rayika Choudri and has Sarwat Gilani and Joshindar Chaggar in leading roles with Fahad Mirza, Wusatullah Khan and Hammad Hasan Askari as supporting actors. The film has previously won three gold awards at a Documentary & Short International Movie Awards 2015 in Indonesia held earlier this year.

Speaking to Dawn.com, lead female actor Sarwat Gilani shared that she was extremely pleased with the news: “It's always a pleasure to be recognised as a talented nation especially when the platform is the entire world. I am delighted that our film made it to Cannes...and most happy that it won three gold awards.”

She explained that the film was “an abstract version of a conversation taking place between two friends over tea”.

But how does a ten-minute film encompass so many characters?

Sarwat said the film has been beautifully conceived and told by Rayika.

“Every actor gets little time to convince the audience of their part and that’s the beauty of a short-film,” she added.

Sarwat who has previously worked in dramas and telefilms also said that she really enjoyed working in Baat Cheet even though the duration was obviously shorter than serials: “Mostly in drama serials I have a lot of margin to influence my viewers with a dialogue-based performance repetitively while in a short-film one gets very little time to leave an impression on the viewer.Baat Cheet in particular was less dialogues and more performance based acting which I thoroughly enjoyed.”

The actor who was recently seen playing the role of an empowered woman inKoi Nahi Apna (ARY) described the variation of her role in Baat Cheet and the challenge she faced.

“As an actor, I love to manufacture roles into characters; I always like bringing something unique to the table. In Baat Cheet the challenge was to make an abstract story appear very real and relatable," she said.

"When Rayika told me the story I loved it instantly, it was different from what I had done for television. I was very excited,” she added.

With a dearth of film festivals in the country, Sarwat feels that such events should be organised to promote the short-film culture: “I really do hope that short-film festivals are given their due importance in our country and creative people with small budgets are also able to tell their stories easily.”

This year’s Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to take place from May 13 - 24.