Now that the topic has been breached, let’s start with statistics of Indian internet users. As most would say – numbers don’t lie

• All India Internet users stands at 47 mn
• Daily Internet users are 32 mn
• 4 mn Internet users access Internet through mobile phones
• 26 mn unique users on social networking sites*
• 36 per cent of the 35 million active Internet users in India share videos online
• Internet search and blogs are important to 81% of all users*

Source: JuxtConsult research survey between Dec 2008–Jan 2009 among 135,000 individuals from 16,000 households in 40 cities and over 12,000 households *http://techcrunchies.com/most-popular-social-network-in-india/

Now that we are done with numbers, let’s move on to the key societal trends that have emerged over the last decade in India. We have changed in the way we communicate and consume media as consumers and it is important for marketers to map that and change accordingly.

Trend no. 1:
Consumers start the communication cycle by actively looking for information. If brand information does not show up, then it loses the opportunity to communicate with that audience

Trend No. 2:
People are moving away from being mere content readers to content publishers giving importance to Web 2.0

Trend no. 3:
People are forming hobby groups and communities(for eg. TripAdvisor for Travel) online thereby devoting more of their spare time in those activities

Trend no. 4:
People prefer active forms of engagement over passive ones. And this is best reflected with how TV channels have tried to adopt themselves to it. You have all reality shows cashing in on user voting; News channels have started citizen journalism to involve the viewers.

These trends reveal that brands have to go much beyond the 30 sec TVC to capture the changing consumer. This is where social media scores as it involves brands with users and gets them to participate with them in their communities.

Given the recency of the medium, the social media users can be classified under various segments depending on their usage. Unfortunately there aren’t many quantitative studies available at this stage to determine the percentage of people falling under each category.

Advantages of Social Media:

There are 5 distinct benefits that social media enjoys over mass media:

• Higher credibility: Research highlights that individuals are more inclined to believe WOMM than more formal forms of promotional methods. It enjoys more credibility
• Increased engagement: As social media involves participation from all, the engagement levels generated with individuals are far higher than other communication mediums
• More Brand Loyalty: Higher engagement levels help in building more brand ambassadors
• Higher degree of customization: Brand content can be customized as per the community or groups
• Low media wastage: As brand communication is targeted to specific target group, there is no media wastage

Call Windchimes for a workshop on social media and its various platforms like Facebook,Twitter,Linked In,Youtube and Blogs for your employees

Read case studies of companies using social media.