Mihir Karkare, co-founder & EVP of Mirum India, shared his views on how advisers can adopt social media to grow their business at the Morningstar Investment Conference held in Mumbai on October 10-11, 2017.
Around 462 million people in India are online today which is expected to go up to 700-800 million in the next four years. That’s larger than the reach of any television channel or newspaper!
Contrary to popular perception, it is not only the youngsters who are online. Around 37% of the people who use internet belong to the age group of 16-25, 38% are 26-35 years of age and 25% are 36-45 years of age. This indicates that advisers can reach out to clients of all age group through the web. And majority of this population is using social media, which is evident by the growing userbase. For instance, WhatsApp has over 160 million users, Facebook (184+), LinkedIn (40 million) and Twitter (22 million). That’s the size of the audience that is available on social media which advisers can’t ignore.
Why do people use social media? Besides using it to be in touch with friends, people are using social media to consume inspirational and educational content.
Another very interesting trend is spending money online that seemed difficult a few years ago. More than 60 million people made a purchase online in 2015-16. In 2020, more than 175 million people are expected to make e-commerce transactions.
So how can advisers who have limited resources use social media to grow their business? Mihir shared a case study of Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine retailer, who used social media to popularize his wine shop. He listened to the conversations happening online and created 1,000 episodes of videos with the help of a web camera. The content was based on what consumers wanted to know about wines. He posted these videos on social media platforms. People liked his content. His fan base grew and so did his revenues. His sales grew from $ 3 million to 60 million over a decade.
Different phases of consumers
Mihir says that advisers should develop content based on which stage the consumer is in. In the ‘awareness phase’, the consumer realizes that he has a problem, or he needs something. Then comes the ‘involvement stage’ where the consumer starts research as to what he should do or what he should not do. After this comes the ‘consideration phase’ where the consumer has identified a few options and now he wants to make a decision. The fourth phase is actually ‘purchase’, where he converts and becomes a customer of that product. Interestingly, the path to purchase does not end there. In the ‘consumption phase’, they are actually using the product/service. In the ‘loyalty’ phase, the consumer interacts with the service provider. Finally, in the ‘advocacy phase’, the consumer is talking to his friends about his experience with the product- whether it is good or bad. So advisers need to customize their content based on what phase the consumer is in.
Listen and engage
Advisers can search for the conversations happening on social media and become part of forums or groups. “The idea is not just to read it but engage with people that are having those discussions. There is one forum called Reddit. It has a sub forum called ‘India Investments’ and that’s where a lot of discussions are going on. So it can be a good platform for you to engage with people,” said Mihir.
Generating content and marketing it
Mihir advises advisers to think like a media firm. “If you want to succeed on social media you need to put out content, whether it is a response to somebody or an article. Once you start and know what really matters, people will come to you for some sort of value - whether it is knowledge, insight or entertainment,” said Mihir.
You need to have a content strategy. Simply put, this means deciding what you want people to perceive you as and what role you will play in the person’s life.
Choose the right platform because every platform has a specific usage. You can establish your though leadership on a blog or YouTube. After choosing the right platform, you need to zero down on how you will market it. For instance, you can market your content through Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp which have the reach. Be consistent. You can’t create content and then stop.
Paid Media
A lot of people who hear about paid media think about the return on investment. Mihir believes that this investment pays off. “You can start advertising on Facebook to reach out to your target audience. You may want to reach out to people who are likely to invest. For instance, you can specifically reach people who are married or who own an Iphone 7 or a Galaxy S. Doing this will help you know that the audience has a certain spend capability. You can start paid media for Rs 500 a week. It is very easy to start. On a medium like this you have no alternative but to keep experimenting,” explained Mihir.
Mihir says that there are two types of ROIs – return on your investment and the risk of inaction. What is the risk if you don’t embrace this medium? You need to take this into account.
