Interview with Mr. Sandeep Aurora on Intel India's Social Media Strategy

Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live.

Mission: Keep the innovation economy moving into the future.

Here is an Interview with Mr. Sandeep Aurora - Director, Marketing, Intel South Asia– on to understand Intel India's Social Media Strategy.

Objective

What was your aim behind adopting social media?

Social media is being hailed as the next big wave on the marketing and communication medium. It has gradually emerged as the pivotal medium of communication, ably supporting the traditional medium to help engage with audiences and offer an integrated experience to the consumers.

Intel actively makes social media as part of its business strategy. Keeping this in mind Intel has launched digital campaigns in India in order to engage with its consumers and create a personalized relationship with our fans.

This is perhaps the only medium through which one can engage and intrigue their consumers, create conversations and connect with them based on their preference.

Have you hired anyone from social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn or tech blogs and forums?

With the increase of social media in our lives, we do look at the social presence of a particular recruit before bringing them on board. The social networking sites are a good way to evaluate an individual, know his personal views and whether they are aligned with what the organisation believes in or uses as its method of operation.

In addition, all of our job opportunities are posted across our social networking sites, because sometimes you might get the best from the unlike sources.

How important is it for brands to be on Social Media in present times?

It is extremely important for the brands as most of the brand audience are online. In the changing face of traditional media and advent of the social media any activity, campaign or product receives instant feedback along with the penetration of mobile communication.

We can build personalized connections and receive direct responses not just for us but for our competitors as well. Therefore, it helps us better ourselves and gives real time evaluation. Hence, no major brand can ignore this medium.

Do you think social media is just another Internet fad or is it here to stay?

Not at all. It is here to stay, evolve and take new forms. It is a quick, democratic, free way to communicate with a number of people at one time.

It provides an adequate platform to each and every person irrespective of the back ground to voice their opinions and insights. That is revolutionary and invigorating and hence, social media is the next way of communication.

In recent years, there has been a flurry of digital agencies and many companies are now allocating separate marketing budgets to the same. In fact, the recent boom in affordable computing has been thanks to social media.

Social Media Campaigns

Please tell us more about the Ultrabook Race Campaign. What was the objective behind it, what platforms does it cover and how has the response been from your community members?

Ultrabook Race Campaign :-

Intel offered four challengers from across the world a chance to go on an adventurous journey all by themselves and compete with each other in real time, in a range of tasks with the help of their Ultrabook and social network. Apart from an experience of a lifetime, the winner walked away with $10,000!

These challengers were Mark Watson (USA), Leon Martins (Brazil), Anusha Dandekar (India) and Daniel Mananta (Indonesia. All of them have a massive fan following on Twitter. They had some pretty interesting challenges and involved their Twitter followers to help and encourage them.

The fans and consumers could catch the entire action on an app at the Intel India Facebook page and for live updates; they could follow the hashtag #UltrabookRace on Twitter. The Challengers were introduced with a short bio and a list of social networks they are present on. One could also watch the videos of the episodes and images of the challengers in action.

The campaign was great as the challengers were never alone. They could be anywhere in the globe and get help from anyone through their social network. This was the brand messaging - You could do anything from anywhere in the world powered with an Ultrabook.

Your Facebook Page has quite an interesting assembly of apps such as Play Zone, Me The Musical and The Curiosity Connection. How aligned are they with your brand personality?

The youth of today is intrinsically personal. They tend to adopt a host of technology online and it reflects their tastes. Therefore, through these games we tend to engage with the right target audience plus let the consumers know about the connected world that we live in.

These games also reflect our own brand messaging, how we put all the computing needs together in one single device, something we want our consumers to understand and adopt.

What is your approach towards Twitter? How do you plan to engage you followers with your brand?

We have a systematic approach towards twitter where we include the medium as a part of all are campaigns whether offline or online. Twitter serves as a medium to tell our audience what Intel as a brand is doing all over the world. It takes our messages, campaigns, launches and news to a larger audience.

A look at your Twitter profile and one sees there aren’t any one-to-one interactions with people. Your profile looks more like a 'broadcast channel' instead of an 'interactive' one. Any specific reason behind this?

As mentioned earlier, Twitter works as an essential support to our campaigns and activities as it takes our messaging to a larger audience. We drive our fans and followers via twitter to our Facebook page where we drive a deeper level of engagement with them via feeds, posts, games, polls etc.

As the audience on twitter is typically more involved hence we also connect with them on a one to one basis whenever there is a particular query.

Metrics and Measurement

How do you keep track of the conversations happening across various platforms? Do you use any listening and monitoring tools?

We use proprietary tools to check our activity across the digital forums. Apart from the platform enabled tools like facebook insights we use third party tools like sysomos and pagelever to check a track of conversations.

What are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you analyze to calculate your ROI?

We primarily look at the engagement that are generating through our content along with sentiment tracking for our brand and products.

Company Involvement

Please introduce us to the team behind your social media activities?

At Intel we have a global social media center of excellence and have individual teams managing country specific activities. We have dedicated resources managing Intel India’s social initiatives supported by their set of agency partners.

How are other divisions of Intel India (HR, Admin, development, communication, sales) integrated with your social media approach?

Other divisions are fully integrated with our social media outlook and we keep conducting campaigns for them as well. The Jobs team and our Software group are specially active and use the medium regularly

How much your social media has spent varied over the years? What aspect of social media attracts the maximum investment?

We do not comment on individual spends. Suffice to say that social media is an integral part of our business and marketing strategy.

Do you have any action plan in place for a social media crisis? If yes, what does it entail? If no, how do you plan to face such a situation?

Intel has a set of social media guidelines that we follow for every activity that we undertake on this media, be it a marketing activity or just a post. Therefore, as of now we have not had any social media crisis.

In addition, we also have a very transparent and focused approach to the media where we do not comment or speculate on competition or the industry and hence are able to maintain a regular and good social presence.

Others

What makes a brand successful on social media?

Intriguing and relevant content, timely replies and responses as well as a personalized engagement are the key to success on social media. The idea is create conversations and connect with consumers on a deeper level. Social media marketing is the new mantra for a lot of brands.

Intel is taking note of the different social media opportunities, beginning to implement new social initiatives and will continue doing so going forward.

How do you see the Indian social media scenario faring in the next 5 years?

Going forward, social media will harness even bigger shares of the company marketing plans. Social media tools especially Facebook and Twitter would evolve from a ‘soft, networking tool will slowly give way to its acceptance as a serious business tool’.

Already, HR departments have started using social media to connect with employees and recruit new talent, the sales teams have begun using the platform to generate leads and track clients. Therefore, social is set to invade offices and businesses soon.

The marketing budget allocations are bound to skew more towards social media as well as the investments in various tools and platforms.

Apart from social media, are you exploring other digital marketing channels such as PPC Advertising, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Mobile Marketing?