Posts Tagged ‘youth’

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Anshul Tewari

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

ATA journalism student for life, a blogger by choice and a social entrepreneur that is how our Blogger of the Fortnight, Anshul Tewari would like to be known. Anshul founded youthkiawaaz.com in 2008 to voice his opinion about the social and political scenario in our country. Today, youthkiawaaz.com is India’s largest online platform for the youth to express themselves on issues of critical importance.

After having worked with leading national and international media houses, Anshul took blogging and social entrepreneurship to a whole new level and successfully so. He created this excellent platform for students and the youth in general to express themselves- a feat that is remarkable considering Youth Ki Awaaz has hundreds applying for internships every month.

With an editorial board of 12, executive team of 5, about 600 writers, correspondents, freelancers, student journalists from around the world, youthkiawaaz.com is today a registered media firm. Anshul also runs a research organization called Youth Research India.

Anshul has been a part of various national and international social enterprises and has been the driving force behind the cause, working on all aspects of the organization, from content and editing, to the executive aspects. This passion is reflected in the posts that come up on the blog. Hand picking every member of the team so that each of them share the same enthusiasm about the cause they are about to take on has maintained the rise of blog’s credibility.

Youth Ki Awaaz was awarded the Best Blog on Social Causes in India, and has won various other awards including the World Summit Youth Award for best practices in online journalism, by the International Center for New Media (ICNM) in 2010.

A graduate in Journalism from Delhi University, Anshul has worked with the Indian Express, The Financial Express and the Wall Street Journal India, online. He says, “Social change is not something that can happen instantly. It takes the effort of one entire generation to make sure that the next generation sees a better world.” And for putting in this effort, Anshul Tewari is our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

Click here to read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series.

Social media and social responsibility

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Over the past few years, social media has become an important tool of marketing. Big brands have invested in the new media hoping to hook the audience to their products. And, with the success of the platform, the brands are now looking to leverage the tool for enhancing their brand equity via social causes’ route.

Social responsibility goes social

With growth of Facebook and twitter and the rise of social media marketing, it is no surprise that then this medium would now be used to promote corporate social responsibilities (CSR). While the brands are slowly starting to embrace this route, many social causes have already been promoted to good result via Facebook and other social platforms.

                    IAC

Social Causes Promoted via Social Media

Not just local public cause, social media has played key role in national causes. The public led campaigns against issues in countries like Libya, Egypt and India has shown what this medium is capable of. And if harnessed properly, the medium can deliver like none other.

Reaching the masses

In India, there are 31 million Facebook users, while the total number of active users on social media is expected to be 45 million by year 2012. This platform is growing and how. There is no denying that social media provides the easiest, and most cost effective route of reaching such an audience.

                      Causes 

Engaging the influencers

A key tool for any cause based program is to have the experts opinion put forth. A doctor talking about a health related issue makes the cause look that much more credible. Social media provides this opportunity to all the brands.

With over 40000 active bloggers who have built a major clout with their writing, brands can engage with these writers while talking about the cause and make them understand their fight. They in turn would then promote the cause and bring credibility to program.

                     Philips

Philips LinkedIn Innovation in Health

Not just blogs, lot of professionals are on social media, who can be engaged through their inputs and dialogues with general public in order to make the cause support that much more real and beneficial for normal people.

Key Benefits:

It also provides key benefits that any brand looks from a CSR or cause promotion. It helps brands in:

  • Improving Social Welfare
  • Establish differentiated brand positioning
  • Create strong consumer bond
  • Enhance brand equity
  • Boost internal morale
  • Drive Sales
  • Drive market value of firm

Acceptance of the campaign

A lot of skeptics have questioned the acceptance of a social media campaign. The fact that it is perceived as a youth platform makes them feel the whole seriousness of the issue would be lost. What they are not realizing that in a country like India, 66% percent of the population falls in the youth category. Thus, addressing them on their choice of platform is key to making them talk and think about the cause. And that’s not about it. 

End Cause

The result of a social media campaign can be gauged through response generated either through number of people who have registered for the cause or amount of money donated through the program. Also, the success of the program can be gauged through how well the program has been able to improve the lives of people who supported the campaign. There are no shortages of examples of the same in India. Brands like Fair and Lovely have contributed majorly towards growth of the society via this platform. The Fair and Lovely Foundation has reached out to over 300 girls in just 7 years and changed their lives.

FAL Foundation               Aircel

Brand led campaigns

Similarly Aircel has managed to build a support of over 300,000 people for save the tiger campaign. The major highlight of this campaign was making people believe that they can contribute to a cause which previously they though they can’t do much about.

And that is the victory that social media can lend to a corporate social responsibility or a cause promotion by a brand. It can make people feel important; it can make them feel like a responsible citizen. That they can make a contribution to any cause that they feel for through this channel makes it that much more powerful.