Shop Online for Better Decisions

Shop Online to make better decisions. With growing spending power, the Indian Middle & Upper class are taking the online shopping experience in India to a new height. Reasons behind this can be numerous but one of them is that we find offline shopping a bit difficult for people who cannot choose what to buy easily. 

Have you ever realized that as a shopper not everyone likes to visit the same shop more than twice without buying anything? If you do not know the reason read on. How do you feel when you ask the salesman to show you the Neck Tie or a Wall Hanging art for the second time in 2 days? No one does it intentionally but all this because you are too confused and unsure which one to buy? Notice the eyes of the sales staff staring at you in a strange way when you leave the counter Third time with the same reaction? This is because each time you enter the showroom the sales staffs expects to make a sale out of you and this hope rises because you are returning visitor. 

An overly choosy nature brings in with it this embracement even to a great extent when you have to look at the product many times before making a purchase. A perfect way to avoid this scene has been seen in as shopping online in India. Not only shall you be able to find the best products at one place that not all Malls offer but you can also enjoy the benefits of taking a decision in the comfort of your room without worrying about the sales staff who thinks you are here to waste time. While you are online you can simply start to choose, compare, shop all over again any number of times whenever you find the slightest of doubts about the choice that you made. 

You need not give any reason, or body language signals that make you look natural. Let us just take an example that you are interested in buying a wall art product for your home and you think of Posters or Fine Art Print as a wall hanging option as opposed to oil paintings. Buying art online is far more easy and fun than the experience offline. First of all the shopkeeper that shows you this affordable art from the shelf space shall expect you to make use of your Aesthetic sense in less than 5 minute and shortlist a few out of so many, then he shall expect you to make a decision and proceed to buying it on the spot. What shall you do if you think that taking an opinion from your sister or husband? Would you bring them along with you the next time? Answers can be many but all quite improbable. 

When shopping online, the case is a lot different as when you do the same thing online on an art print poster website or eBay store as you can keep looking at the large collection of posters for as long as you like and even think of saving it for your future use or opinion of your friend. In any good standard eCommerce store you shall find links to share products, email it to your friends or even save it in the gallery for future shopping. You can ask any of your Facebook friends' to comment on the product or email your colleagues about the, price, description etc so they can help you make that decision easily. 

Moreover on the shopping website you come across reviews, ratings and suggestion from customers that are really handy to buying online. So the next time you are thinking of buying products that need a lot of aesthetic choice, recommendation about the model or reviews, Online Shopping is the best help for you. After all you the website does not make you feel strange ignored even when you look at hundreds of their posters and shop for a one on your tenth visit.

Social Media Management

Promoting yourself or your business can be very time consuming especially when it has to do with Facebook and Twitter. Two of the most heavily used internet sites on the internet are Facebook and Twitter. Either you use them or you don't. Many people who use these communication tools for business have no idea how to use them properly and then give up too quickly. 

There is a way to help in this area. It is easy to hire someone manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts through social media management. A social media management company can be used to help your company or personal identity grow on interactive sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They can find you more fans or friends to communicate with. 

They can also help with your daily communications of your fans and followers. This takes your hands off of making posts daily and thinking of daily tweets. It is a great time saver. A social media management company can also develop a marketing strategy that will help your Facebook and Twitter accounts explode into a viral realm of success. They will have ideas such as how to market your Facebook page and Twitter account in the offline world. 

They can come up with ideas such as printing your Facebook and twitter pages on your receipts to having posters on your walls with the follow us sign on the bottom. These ideas are simple but a good social media management company can come up with even more creative ideas. One of the most difficult tasks of a Twitter and Facebook manager is to keep your followers happy and also interacting with them on a daily basis. 

A great social media management company will do more than do daily posts, they will also get your followers to retweet for you to start something viral and they will get people responding to posts on your company's Facebook wall. Social Media is all about establishing a relationship with your past and future customers. The more interaction your company has, the more your company will be remembered. 

Overall, handling these types of sites on your own is time consuming. You have to go through the daily tasks of finding Twitter followers that will actually read your posts and Facebook fans that will like your business. Even if you have the time to do it, are you developing the proper marketing plan that has in effect on your bottom line? A good social media management company will help you in amazing ways and increase your customer base by establishing a never seen before daily relationship.

Will Digitally Targeted Posters Drive Your Customers Up the Wall?

I was recently subjected to a spate of ads on my Facebook page crudely targeting me specifically by my age. I didn't find this useful or engaging, but rather considered the ads to be intrusive and hectoring. It got me thinking about the dangers of media that knows too much about its viewers. It's reasonable that when you view content on the web the banner ads reflect things you have recently been searching for or looking at. 

I don't mind getting targeted for theatre tickets or shed paint if that's what I have been viewing. The creativity of the ads is also not compromised in this kind of scenario. However if a billboard was to change its message to reflect something personal about me, I think I would find this sinister and almost threatening. In Tokyo at the moment just such a billboard is being trialled. Fitted with a camera it can work out your age and sex and change the ad displayed accordingly. 

This might just be the start. In the future the camera might be able to tap into online information about you. While the possibilities might seem endless for the advertiser, it seems to me that many people might be fairly horrified by this, feeling their privacy was being grossly infringed. An advertisement's ability to charm would also be compromised by such a direct approach. Subtlety has always been the most successful way to persuade consumers, especially the English who have never liked the hard sell. Banging them over the head tends to be counterproductive. 

 So will we see this innovation in the UK? More than likely this digital version of the foot-in-the-door salesman will arrive here soon. Poster companies need to regain some of the media spend lost to the internet after all. When it does arrive however, advertisers would do well to remember that knowing something about your target market doesn't mean ramming it down their throats. I would suggest "Hey you look menopausal, try this HRT" is never going to be a successful headline. 

As ever, gently engaging your audience with something they are likely to identify with is the key to sales success. We're all only human after all. I run an advertising and design company specialising in both online and traditional marketing. Our specialist areas include design and copywriting for advertisements (press, radio, TV and posters) websites, brochures, e-shots, newsletters, packaging, mailshots, banner ads and exhibitions. 

We can buy media and offer SEO through partner companies. mhm grax was formed in 1990 and since then has worked with clients, big and small, across practically every product field including travel, housebuilders, charity, automotive, technical, b to b and games. We are based near London Bridge.

Check Out These Interesting Facebook Apps

Facebook is one of the most visited social networking sites, with over 400 million active users, out of which 100 million users access the network through their mobile phones. On an average, people spend over 500 billion minutes on Facebook every month. You can update your status, comment on your friends walls and play with thousands of apps like FarmVille and mafia War. There are some really interesting Facebook apps which are worth trying. 

Honesty Box - It is a simple app which is getting popular by the day. As the name suggests, this app lets your friends speak their mind. You can present a question on your profile and let your friends reply anonymously. Do not be surprised if you even get some unpleasant responses. QOOP - The Photo Store from QOOP permits you to render your Facebook photos into their printed counterparts like posters, prints, photo books and more. 

Once you have purchased an order, you can share it with your friends so that they can order copies for themselves. Mingleverse - It is a cool app on Facebook that is already quite popular. It offers live 3D voice chat on Facebook. The app provides a virtual room in the form of a tennis court or a farm house, from where you can send invitations to your friends to join you. 

Each member in the chat room appears in a distinct avatar and can walk around while engaging in a voice chat with the 3D voice chat plug-in. This app has excellent media sharing features. The room has a video screen where you can watch YouTube videos with your friends. You can also show your pictures, use your webcam or watch TV. 

Caption.iT - This app lets you personalize your photos and other images. Your friends can make them from your profile or you can send them to your friends. With this app, you can make cool designs on the mirror or scribble on the sand. Weekly Schedule - This app allows you to post a graphical presentation of your weekly activities so that your friends can view it. This makes it easier for your friends to know when you would be available to get together. Or instance, if you see that your friend has a class till 2 pm, you will know she might be free for a coffee post 2 in the afternoon.

The Facebook Backlash and Your Social Campaigns

Not everybody is happy with Facebook right now. Accusations of breach of privacy and disregard for online safety have prompted grassroots protests and mass deletions of accounts on the premise that not only does the social network do nothing to protect user privacy, but actually encourages distribution of information not necessarily meant for everybody's eyes. If you use Facebook, perhaps you've seen viral status messages from friends imploring you to make adjustments to your settings to ensure that the complaint you make about your boss isn't broadcast to the free world. 

Reports that some users prefer to delete their profiles altogether may concern other die hard Facebook fans, and as a business with a strong Facebook presence you might wonder if this backlash will affect the way you promote your products and services. The privacy concerns making the news, naturally, concern users who are wont to share personal information and photographs on their networks. While they believe at first only select friends have access to the data, neglected privacy settings may allow certain (read: embarrassing) information to be found in Internet search. 

We've all heard stories of people getting fired from their jobs or losing out on other opportunities thanks to a slip of the keyboard - an outsider might opine, "Well, don't post anything you wouldn't shout into a megaphone," yet one can argue users and Facebook need to meet halfway on ensuring security measures. As a business, you want exposure for your Facebook page. Despite the grumbling, Facebook is still one of the most used websites on the Internet - it's a powerful search engine and marketing tool, and as you amass fans (or people who "like" your page and company, per the new policies) the opportunity to expand your reach grows. 

If you are concerned about losing fans due to a protest against privacy settings, know that you do have a few options for keeping your page visible and the information available, even to people who don't use Facebook. 

1) Integrate the content into other networks. Feed status updates into your Twitter account to capture that audience, and place a fan box on your main website. If you use Squidoo, there is now an option to embed a fan box in a lens, too. Anywhere you can place your page's RSS, take the advantage. 

 2) Keep your page active and visible. Offer as much data on your page to new visitors and those who do not use Facebook. As a business page, you should feel comfortable with the information you post there. Don't give away any trade secrets, but encourage participation with the content you do provide. 

3) Be respectful of current fans. Make sure whoever monitors comments on your page is courteous to posters. Just as the products and services you impart online are available to others, so are bad vibes. If you receive a complaint, be tactful in your response, because that's what people will see. 

The impression you make on Facebook coupled with the timeliness of your information will keep people on your page. How will Facebook fare in the future? Like Google, it may continue to grow and offer amenities we can't live without, or it could go the way of lesser social networks if and when another player comes along. Whatever the fate for this network, it is still a top used site and as such holds importance in your social optimization. Mind your p's and q's on your Wall tab, and you should be fine.