Social Media Agency Feature: Phonethics Mobile Media

Who are we?

Phonethics was set up in 2006 with a view to create original short form content for mobile phones. We created ‘virtual characters’ with distinct personalities and audio visual content. Around that time the social scene was hotting up and we found our ‘characters’ to be a natural fit for social media. Clients discovered us and our content before we advertised ourselves as a ‘ social media agency ’.

Content is now the cornerstone of our social media campaigns. We are a team of Community Managers, Artists, Engineers and Designers who think of social media as a ‘nukkad’ where friends hang out. All we need to do is provide a compelling social object for them to toss amongst themselves.

The team currently works on social media strategy & execution for an international Auto major, a Bollywood Superstar & a national education company among others.

What's in the name?

Phonethics. It’s not particularly skewed towards being a ‘social’ agency name. We believe that the future of web and social is the mobile phone. Current Facebook user data as well as analytics from our campaigns in India bear out our belief.

What we do?

Content & Strategy Roadmap
Measurement & Analytics tool selection
Social Community creation, Management & promotion
Create and implement ‘tone of voice’ for corporate social presence
Content / Contest driven campaigns in line with seasonal marketing objectives

Why we do it?

Content & Design reign supreme in social media. Combined with the lightning speed feedback and the ‘live’ atmosphere, social media has the thrill and buzz of a newsroom in the 60s. We love the idea of taking low cost, high tech campaigns live and into stratosphere fuelled by nothing more than the power of imagination.
How we evolve?

We pay close attention to what people are saying in different communities online as well as offline. As a social marketer you must be able to empathise with people from different cultures and communities. We see an alignment between studying the Arts ie. history, sociology, economics and anthropology and managing successful social campaigns. This could be the biggest surprise as the industry evolves, it will begin to employ a different segment as opposed to low cost ‘community managers’ being hired in social farms right now.

Social responsibility in social media

Understanding cultures and respecting individual voices is very important. When you manage a social media community with over a million fans, an isolated voice can seem just that, ‘too isolated’ and unimportant. Sensitivity towards diversity is important as well. It is a good idea to take some time out and develop a ‘tone of voice’ document that guides your social media presence, even if you’re a small business, its worth it to think about why you’re on social media and how you want to be represented.

Need of the hour

Privacy and online bullying are serious issues. As people we can be extremely negative and critical. Given the viral nature of the medium a social faux paus may not be that easy to live down. Existent laws are adequate to counter extreme offences but community guides and moderators should be on the watch for issues that can potentially bring strife for its members.

We learned the hard way

With no entry barrier, the business of a ‘social agency’ is highly commoditised. Social media optimization or Social spamming is a highly lucrative business. We have steered ourselves into a high value, original ideas shop as opposed to a mass worker BPO style factory.

Did we just share that?

Managing Director of listed company ‘We want to sit on Twitter, make me sit on twitter’

They work with us

The team currently works on social media strategy & execution for an international Auto major, a Bollywood Superstar & a national education company among others.

Industry as we foresee

Better hires. Quality campaigns and massive takeover by BPO style ‘social media processing’ setups.

A day without Internet

I recently spent 2 weeks without internet on a holiday in the hills and am happy to report that 24x7 internet is overrated.

Are you hiring?

Yes. If you are interesting, ambitious and talented please write to hr@phonethics.in