Indian Social Media Landscape

This article of ours was first published in Business Today’s 20th Anniversary edition

It was only in 2008 when social media took its fledgling steps in India. 2011 was the year social media got truly established with Indian corporates as 20 million Indians went social! In 2015, we foresee, an exponential growth and significant innovations as 500 million Indians log on given the high mobile penetration and $35 tablets!

With so much happening, social media promises to be like the plot of a Bollywood blockbuster in the coming years – full of drama, triumphs and twists. Let’s take a quick peek into some of the future trends.

• Emergence of Rural Social Media:

Airtel believes that 700 mn rural Indian Internet users exist that remain untapped. Given that, Indian businesses will have to think rural in all aspects – social communication strategies, customized content as media consumption will be drastically different from urban centers, and rural workforce. Companies will have to divert advertising resources into creating content that is both captivating, relevant and ultimately building brand affinity with the users – be it in the form of videos, applications or plain text.  Also companies will need to educate and nurture rural workforce. After all a 24-year old executive in Gurgaon will not be able to write content for a farmer in Warangal!

• Community Development:

There already is a shift in advertising spends as more monies are being diverted to BTL activities. This trend will see as significant boost as going forward companies will have to start investing in creating and maintaining social ecosystems for their brand. Ecosystems would involve building community of individuals who will spend their time and effort by being not just customers for the brand but also product innovators and ideators! Brands especially those operating in passion-led sectors like photography, bikes, etc will need to identify these individuals and panelize them to seek their ideas from product development stage to marketing and distributing it!

Few brands in India that have taken first steps in this direction are Royal Enfield and Canon. Both companies have built a social ecosystem that helps them leverage it not just for sales but also engage in a more profitable and wholesome manner! By doing that, they are betting that the collective social presence of this group will endorse and influence a much wider and larger audience towards their products as close to 40 million Indians today base their purchase decision based on online reviews.

• Profiles of brand managers:

The biggest change that we anticipate will be a change in the profile of the brand manager. Today, several corporates have global brand teams that manage the larger nuances of brand building and the local teams are involved with execution and activation work around the brand. The profile of the local brand activation team will undergo a drastic shift as social media gains significance. In order to operate successful online communities as mentioned in the previous point, corporates will seek out individuals who exhibit and follow their hobbies & interests that are in sync with their business. A clear case in point is Red Bull that has individuals on board with specific skill sets and inherent passion who lead their various sports & cultural initiatives! Hence an employee list that boasts of former cricketers and sports journalists!

• Social Media for Senior Leadership:

As Indian companies go global, it will be imperative for the senior leadership to build their presence in the social space. Global media would want to know more about the company and its team and would look at social media presence for the same. It is not uncommon today to read CEO tweets as newspaper headlines.

Also senior leadership will have to address other stakeholders – employees, customers and shareholders to help build connect with the company, receive direct feedback on their brands and assure safety on the monies invested respectively. Few good examples of this that come to mind are Mr. Anand Mahindra’s Twitter presence, HCL’s Mr Vineet  Nayyar’s blog and GE India’s CEO Mr. John Flannery’s internal blog meant for employees.

• Individual Celebrities:

Brand endorsers will change completely. Gone will the days where the Bollywood and Sports brigade lapped up everything! Brands will sign up more real life individuals to bring in relevance and connect with their customers. These real life celebrities will be specialists in their own field and hence influencers on social media platforms. Offlate, various writers such as Chetan Bhagat (Revolution 20-20), Ashwin Sanghi (Chanakya Chants) and Sidin Vadukut (Dork & God Save the Dork) have successfully leveraged social media to gain celebrity status! Given that, Huawei India signed Chetan Bhagat so that they could connect with his fan base for their mobile and tablet offerings.

For they’re a jolly good team ho! For they’re a jolly good team ho! They’re a jolly good team ho! And nobody can deny. Read on to know why.

Singing and bellowing away to glory on the bus to Igatpuri, the Windchimes family ushered in their 3^rd Anniversary celebrations with much pomp and show. The team was all geared up for a party like never before amidst the pristine and calm ambience of the hill station.

The treatment upon arrival was nothing short of majestic. Greeted with welcome drinks and flowers at the reception, the chimers were led to their respective rooms that offered a breath taking view of the surrounding landscape.

But, being restricted to the comfort of the rooms was not something the group had on mind. Everyone was quick to head towards their respective leisure zones (swimming pool, the sports room that housed a TT table, carrom board, a pool table, card decks etc.)

The day was half done but the energy was palpable and undying. Geared up for an evening of non-stop party followed by an after party that had in store many more surprises, the chimers revved up in their best outfits.

The party began with the DJ churning out tracks that set the tempo for the rest of the evening. There were surprises being doled out one after another that including the ‘poking light fun awards’, an initiative on the HR’s part to breed familiarity amongst chimers. Top that with some lip smacking buffet spread, endless chat sessions, dance, music and merry making.

The trip provided an excellent platform for the senior mavens and the ones who’ve just come on board to have a free exchange of ideas. It also gave the team an opportunity to gear up for more fun and excitement in the coming year. Like we say, at Windchimes, the party never stops.

“Every piece of art attracts my attention and I stand glaring, studying every detail seeing the perfection of design and form. I am inspired to replicate one more of my own…..” writes Pushpa Moorjani. Well, her words are inspiring enough for us to sit up and take a notice.

Managing seven blogs and contributing to a quarterly magazine called ‘Beyond Sindh’, she also dedicates her time to the cause of mentally challenged through her work with Swami Brahmanand Pratishthan, centre for mentally challenged in Navi Mumbai.

A lot of Pushpa’s writing come from her personal experience. It is her own pain, joy, sorrow that makes her connect with what is happening around her or what someone else may have experienced. The fact that she relates her experience with others makes her words more effective and more powerful. Her concern for the people of Japan post the Tsunami is narrated like this:

“The fear was instilled in me when an earthquake happened during my school days. The earth shook slightly, all children ran down the stair, shouting, screaming, rushing and pushing past me. I had missed my step and had fallen down on my knees, nobody cared nor saw me curled up on floor, they just ran amok in all directions, few children had walked over me, their shoes piercing through my ribs, the pain was intense at that time, my body ached, but I was too proud to cry.”

Another of her impressive abilities is to post and talk via photos. Her Wordless Wednesdays are a perfect example of how she manages to talk even without writing. This also shows her remarkable photography skills. A simple snap of kids playing carom, a photograph at a traffic signal or a burnt out lamp talks a lot more than a whole article on the same.

Funny, witty and definitely very very bold, Pushpa Moorjani is a blogger who has definitely crafted many pieces of art which can inspire a lot of ideas. It definitely inspired us to make her our “Blogger of the Fortnight.”

Read about our previous “Blogger of the Fortnight.”

In today’s fast paced world, virtual social networking has always strengthened existing relationships, and continues to provide a foundation for border-less communities based on common areas of interest.

Some people like to share with others what they know. Some people like to learn by reading questions and answers. Q&A sites offer that kind of information from experts or from everyday people. Q&A sites have grown immensely in the last few years. People are, more than ever, turning to the internet to get quick information about any topic through these Q&A sites.

It’s kind of asking your neighbour, coworker or friend a question and getting a written answer. There are some questions that cannot be answered by even the best reference books or encyclopedias. They need a human expert that can understand a complex relationship.

Opportunity for Brands to be Human.

This provides a great opportunity for Brands to participate in conversation with people who are looking for information about products they manufacture or services they provide. Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions.

Brands are driving leads using Question and Answer forums like LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com. LinkedIn Answers dominates the category usage, claiming 59.2 percent of use for companies participating in at least one Q&A forum. Yahoo! Answers is a distant second at 37.1 percent.

(Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com)

Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help Brands in the following ways:

• Direct customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.
• Connect with people in the market, build reputation, and generate leads.
• Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

Also, the Internet has a reputation for being shady. You need to let readers know why your answer is reputable and why you’re the right person to answer it. This gives Brands a greater credence and integrity to the response, and a higher likelihood for a recommendation or a vote up. It is this process of informing and educating the general audience that can help the brand establish “Thought Leadership.”

Who is listening to the Brand?

In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. Among those who use Q&A forums, 92 percent say they are at least somewhat useful with 25 percent claiming them to be “very useful.”

(Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com)

How do Brands use these sites?

The general rules of social media apply here too:

1. Help others
2. Build relationships
3. Push your products and services while answering somebody’s question or request.

In Q&A sites, the starting point is that somebody asked the question that you’re answering.

Specifically you shoul:

• Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.
• Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site.
• Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.

Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.

In essence, the best practices is to be helpful first, don’t go in trumpeting your sales pitch and focus on long-term relationship building and benefits rather than seeing a sudden influx of leads. An answer should simply touch on all prominent points that deliver a comprehensive, well structured response to a question.

The best part of the Q&A sites is that, they are Search Engine Optimized. This helps in increasing the visibility of the brand. More importantly, it is a credible way of highlighting your product range without sounding like advertising. And finally, Q&A sites are helping Brands become more human. It has allowed a Brand to be the friend you turn to when you have a query. Objective Achieved!

This post is in continuation with the last one where we were announcing a series of changes at Windchimes. Since our inception in October last year, the social media landscape has undergone a wide change. We decided to capture our learning from the work we have carried out for our clients and new trends in this field on our website.

Also to carry on with our tradition of providing value to readers, we have compiled a social media handbook which is Free to download. A simple 3 step registration and you could have your very own copy of it! The handbook cover a variety of topics on social media – some of it quite basic to get the users new to this medium up to speed. It also dwells upon the principles that this medium adopts along with in depth discussion and examples of each platform.

Our other changes on the sites have originated now from the endless discussions we have had with our clients on social media – resolving their queries and citing out Indian case studies and examples. We have started offering several new services too and you would get a hint of that along with the workshops that we undertake.