Facebook has emerged as a powerful promotional tool in a past few years. Many brands are even using it as a primary tool for branding and marketing. Newly emerging businesses are making the most out of the social media platforms that let them get up close and personal with their customers. In India, major players in now emerging e-commerce sector, are using Facebook extensively to communicate better with customers. Daily deals sites are exploiting Facebook as a medium to the maximum to engage their customers and provide them with better deals.
Here is a look at how 4 top deal sites in India are using their Facebook presence:
Snapdeal : Snapdeal has created major buzz using various social media platforms, Facebook leading the pack. Hailing as India’s most popular deals site, Snapdeal currently boasts of 1,56,159 (as on 19-01-2012). Going a step further, Snapdeal has different pages for every city where they offer deals, to communicate with highly targeted audience. Snapdeal’s Wall postings mainly talk about the current deals on the site. Several competitions and sweepstakes have been arranged from time to time on the page. Snapdeal also features some proprietary apps. Snapdeal store: Here, the Facebook fans can directly buy a deal instead of going to the website and Feedback: This tab collects feedback from the customers on Facebook page (a great way to drive complaints off from the page wall). Snapdeal also has a SoundCloud app which the fans can use to listen to the Snapdeal jingle. In the Wall posts, Snapdeal does a fairly good use of different media (photos, videos, music, etc) to create brand specific engagement.
Koovs : Koovs came into the limelight by partnering with some great offline events like The Great Indian Oktoberfest. With a Fan following of 1, 97,332 (as on 14th Jan, 2012), Koovs has put their Wall as the default landing tab. Wall posting strategy moves around a mix of latest deals, questions, product photos and some celebrity birthday wishes to garner more interaction from the fans. Koovs also has different city specific Facebook pages. The ‘Get Deals in your city’ application directs the user to these city dedicated page, while also giving them an option to directly sign up on website. For some reasons, Koovs Page ahs not utilized the 5 photo Top Bar.
Deals And You: Their Landing tab at the time of writing this article is ‘Dateable Heartthrobs’ a contest Deals and You is running for the Valentine Day. Current Wall posting strategy is also centered on Valentine’s Day Date Contest and Cupid. With a Fan Following of 2,46,768, Deals and You has dedicated pages for only 2 major cities- Delhi and Bangalore. Going with the theme for Valentine’s day, one wall post that catches the eye is an Aunt Agony post, urging the fans to post their relationship related problems which will be solved. Not too many apps are being used, though one spectacular app that shares the updates from the DelasandYou Gogle+ page. They are also giving an exclusive offer for Facebook Fans- Get 100 extra for registering on the site through Facebook. Deals and You also hasn’t utilized the 5 photo Top Bar has not been utilized and the latest photos show up by default.
MyDala : MyDala has a fan following of 1,05,691, MyDala is currently running a joint promotions of a Bollywood film Agneepath. They have created a separate QnA app for these promotions and are also posting on their wall on the same lines. ‘Wheel of deals’ is another interesting app that is generating lot of fans. There were some comments by consumers on the wall wich talked about general issues faced by an ecommerce player. They too have dedicated city pages which mainly focus around city-specific deal postings.
To sum it up, it looks like deal sites in India are giving their best shot to maximizing the utilization of Facebook as a communication medium and marketing tool, though a lot remains to be explored in terms of user engagement and actually bonding with the people who matter the most. The bait of special offers, awards and sweepstakes might be helpful in giving the initial thrust but a lot remains to be learnt by the Deal providers in India.
