Archive for November, 2009

Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 3- Website and Blog

Friday, November 6th, 2009

This is a repost from Microreviews.

Success keeps us motivated. We are elated to have received a huge response to our first two posts in this series( Facebook Presence and Twitter Presence of Indian telecom majors) . So we move on in our journey to check the website/blog presence of Indian telecom majors. Websites and Blogs, as you would all agree, are an extremely important as a part of a company’s social media portfoilo.

Virgin

So, Here we go.

Airtel India : Airtel Website: It is an old thing, but it is true. http://www.airtel.com redirects to a vodafone site. An oldie but a goodie to say the least. Ethically speaking, I would love to see Vodafone gifting this domain name to Airtel in the true spirit of competition. So the official website of Airtel is www.airtel.in.The Airtel website seems simple and just serves the purpose. The latest stuff seem to be put up appropriately by their content managers. There is nothing like WEB 2.0 anywhere in the website. It is however, the usability and the ease of finding things which impresses me on the website. I am an Airtel Broadband subscriber too,and I must tell that, I found it very difficult to pay my bill after logging in to my account. It was one heck of an effort doing that. Airtel doesn’t seem to be targeting any specific segment through their website. They just know, that they have a big enough consumer base and hence a big enough word of mouth doing the job for them. For me Airtel deserves a better website.

Airtel Blog : Doesn’t exist. It could have been a good way to make their announcements loud and clear to the people. However, Airtel India’s non presence here doesn’t surprise. Airtel India has hardly recognized social media anywhere.

Vodafone India: Vodafone India website: The Vodafone Global site or the Vodafone U.K site for that matter looks much neater than the Vodafone India site and I just don’t see the rationale. What is one supposed to understand from this? Does Vodafone Global have no hand over what is happening in India? It seems so for sure. Vodafone India’s site overall is quite usable with everything right before you. But, whenever you set out to check the online presence of a global player like Vodafone, comparisons with their websites in other countries is quite natural.

Vodafone India Blog: Couldn’t figure it out.

Tata Teleservices: Tata Indicom Website : The Tata Indicom website looks better than Airtel India’s or Vodafone India’s website but I still don’t find that zing which makes me happy as a person visiting the website.

Virgin Mobile: Cool Website and I love it. There is a lot of stuff which says a lot of effort has been put to maintain the personality of Virgin Mobile ( Bitchy red), funky cartoon characters telling the offers put up by Virgin Mobile and a lot more. The language used is very funky and is meant to target the youth. ‘Think Hatke’ is what they stand for and their site does seem ‘hatke’ from the other Indian telecom majors.

Tata Docomo: Tata Docomo has given a lot of effort towards Social Media Marketing and can be considered as the pioneers of Social Media Marketing, at-least among Indian Telecom majors. Their website is again very cool, not as bitchy and funky as the Virgin Mobile Website but good to the eyes. Everything seems to have been put at the right places. Another thumbs up from the Microreviews Team as far as Social Media Marketing goes.( I am not too sure about their service as yet)

Tata Teleservices Blog: This happens to be a combined blog of Tata Indicom, Tata Docomo and Virgin Mobile India. The blog is simple and yet very elegant and serving its purpose quite well. It seems to be making all the announcements for these companies. This is something which we had expected from other telecom majors too.

Reliance Communication: Reliance Communication Website: The rcom website is a classic case of a zillion things to put in a single website and ‘more importantly’ they don’t really care much. Reliance communications, however has another website for Reliance Mobile. This website looks much neater than the rcom website. Overall, a huge improvement when compared to rcom’s presence in other social mediums.

Reliance Communication Blog: Couldn’t figure out.

Idea Cellular: Idea Cellular: A banner which promotes their facebook page ( Walk when you talk), which is very cool. However, as we enter the idea website after that, we feel the disappointment. There are many offers to catch the attention of youth but, really i expected a much better presentation. There are a lot of text links at the bottom and we don’t feel feel like figuring out what they are meant to do. Overall, Idea has been a youth centric company and deserved a better presented site.

Idea Cellular Blog: Could not figure out.

Aircel India: Aircel India: For a company which is trying to expand in India, for a company which spends millions on hoardings and on a brand ambassador[who is considered the biggest brand in India – M.S. Dhoni], the website is very disappointing. They need to get their act right and get it right quickly.

Aircel India Blog: Could not figure out.

MTS India; MTS India Website: Here is another small player,trying to expand all over India, and having a pretty cool wesite. We liked it. Red and happening is the phrase which describes their website. Their social media presence otherwise is negligible but the website is really good. Other than a bit of a mess that they have done with the drop down menu’s the website looks as cool as the virgin mobile website. Some cartoons in place of the model with a techie look does the job these days. MTS could look at these two issues and try to make the website a bit more social media friendly and they are right on their way to having the best website amongst all Indian Telecom giants.

MTS India Blog: Could not figure out.

Overall, the websites of Indian telecom majors are in a much better shape than their facebook and twitter profiles. But there is still a long way to go before India telecom major’s wake up to WEB 2.0.

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Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 2- Twitter Presence

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

This is a re-post from Microreviews.

The huge success of the first post in the series ‘Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors-Facebook presence’ has excited us infinitely. So, as promised we are coming out with the second post in the series.

Twitter as explained in Plain English was meant to just tell “What are you doing?”. But the marketeres saw the Gold in it. It got used a publishing service and took the marketing world by a storm.

Indian Telecom Majors on twitter

So, Today the microreviews team set out to find how the Indian Telecom Majors are utilizing this service. Microreviews team has already reported in one of its posts how the Indian IT major Infosys Technology closed a deal on Twitter.

So, Let us not waste anymore time and start off.

Airtel: Yes, Twitter is now available exclusively on Airtel. But, really even at Rs. 1 per sms, tweeting from a mobile phone for those who donot want to use Mobile Internet Browsing is quite expensive. Twitter on Airtel is news, but is Airtel not being on Twitter not a news? Surprisingly, Airtel India is not available on Twitter. On searching twitter account for Airtel India, all we got were the accounts for Airtel’s calling card service, Airtel Champions League and Airtel Kerala. The twitter account of Airtel’s calling card service seems quite decent, engaging and answering people to some extent. But, over the neglect shown by Airtel India in using Twitter as a customer engagement and feedback service is appalling. Either, Airtel has missed the fact that India is already amongst the top 10 twitter using country or they they think that only NRI’s use internet.

Vodafone: Vodafone outside India seems to have taken all the right moves as far as social media goes. Vodafone’s Twitter presence and customer engegment in U.K, New Zeland, Netherland etc is brillaint. They seem to be answering every query which a follower and a possibly a customer has. Zoozoos and Vodafone complaints have a twitter presence too, which for me is brilliant. Vodafone India has however not started anything appreciable on Twitter. They have a Twitter account and that is the end of the story. Going byVodafone’s Twitter presence internationally, I do expect Vodafone to come up with a much more innovative Twitter campaign.

Tata Docomo: Tata Docomo has been a complete Social Media child to say the least. If their facebook presence was good, their twitter presence is better. They seem to have put their best foot forward answering their followers, their customers. This for example is their answer to one of their customers. With over 2000 followers and brilliant usage of hashtags and other twitter terminologies, Tata Docomo seems to be leading the Indian telecom majors in innovative twitter marketing too.

Tata Indicom: Unlike Tata Docomo, which comes from the same TTSL group of companies, Tata Indicom’s twitter presence seems next to NULL.

Virgin Mobile India: Virgin Mobile internationally has done very well engaging people and answering them on Twitter. Virgin Mobile India also seems to have started tweeting but effective usage of Twitter from their side is still a far say. Their simply do not seem to be doing two way communication on twitter as of now. One way communication on twitter is as good as none, atleast for a corporate.

Reliance Communications: RelianceGSM seems to have a one way communicating twitter presence which is far from what is expected from a company which hires Hrithik Roshan as their Brand Ambassador (spends enough to target youth). Their neglection of facebook and now twitter says a story in itself.

Idea cellular: There is an account by the name Idea Cellular but I seriously doubt if it is their official account. A company which targets youth was expected to be more active on Twitter for sure.

Aircel India: Another Indian telecom major which is trying to create a customer base but has neglected the possibility of doing the same through Twitter.

Having gone through the the twitter presence of the Indian telecom majors, Tata Docomo seems to be the only one which is using the medium effectively. I do not know exactly how the service quality of these telecom majors compare in India and if Tata Docomo does listen to user feedback (we will come out with a post on that very soon). But the Microreviews team has not been too impressed with the twitter usage of Indian Telecom majors.

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Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 1- Facebook Presence

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

This post is being re-blogged from Microreviews. The Indian Telecommunication Industry is considered one of the most competitive as well as most marketed industries in the world. Cheap rates and brilliant advertisement campaigns have become synonymous to Airtel, Vodafone and Tata Docomo. So, with all this in mind Microreviews set out to check the social media (the in thing as they say) presence of the major telecom players in India.

Microreviews starts this journey with Facebook.

  • Bharti Airtel : There are apparently three or four facebook pages which Airtel has. One of these has around 10000 fans which is a big number by Indian Social Media standards. The page seems to have quite a few details of the offers coming out and stuff but doesn’t seem well maintained at all. The display image is of a person, who I really don’t know and I expected to see the Airtel Logo at the place of that pic. social_media-300x274Going to the information section gives you a shock. It is apparently the page of Airtel Srilanka. The other pages of Airtel India also fail to impress and can be found here. Coming to facebook groups of Airtel now, they seem to be dominated by Airtel Srilanka again. The facebook group of Airtel Srilanka can be seen here and here. Both seem quite active. However, when I apparently go in for the Airtel India’s facebook group, they have got their website wrongly stated as http://www.airtel.co.in . It suddenly seems that this facebook group does not belong to Airtel at all. There are a couple of other groups, which may or may not belong to Airtel and can be seen here. I did find out a facebook game by name Airtel Special 5 and did not feel like taking it. Airtel Srilanka, overall seems to be doing better than Airtel India as far as facebook presence goes.
  • Vodafone India: Internationally, Vodafone seems to be very active on facebook trying to engage users on the medium. Their Facebook pages can be seen here. Vodafone India’s page however seems a baby in comparison to their international counterparts but seems quite well maintained. However, the information provided in their info tab doesn’t seem to provide information about their social media presence elsewhere. Coming to the groups for Vodafone India. There is this one group which is again not well maintained and needs to be looked after better. Going by Vodafone’s social media awareness abroad, I do expect Vodafone India to take this up very quickly and get Vodafone India’s facebook presence to count.  Zoozoos, in the meanwhile seem to have a decent facebook presence which can be seen here.
  • Tata Docomo: Tata Docomo seems to have changed the rules of the games as far as social media presence of India goes. Their only facebook page seems every bit complete with everything presented in the best possible way. The facebook page seems professionally handled engaging the right kind of people. With over 1700 fans, lots of pics and videos, they seem to be engaging the people very well. Their info tab has provided information about all the social media presence they have elsewhere which is what it is supposed to do. There is no such group for Tata Docomo and to be honest, you need a good page and your  job is done.
  • Reliance Communications: For a company of the volume of Reliance communications, their facebook presencecan be considered a big NULL. Either, they seem to  have completely neglected a medium as big as Facebook or they think Traditional media is doing the job for them.
  • Idea Cellular: Idea Cellular has always been known as a major spender on youth influencing activities spending a lot on sponsoring College Fest, Youth Festivals etc. However, their almost non-presence on facebook left me in surprise. They have recently launched a facebook application which shows their entry into facebook in a big way. There is however, still some work to be done as far as Idea’s facebook presence goes.

Having gone through the Facebook presence of the marketing savvy Indian telecom majors who spend millions hiring brand ambassadors and  putting up expensive hoardings, it is easy to say that they have been quite negligent of the power of Facebook as a major engagement medium. Tata Docomo seems to have done a very decent job at it and other need to learn quick.

This was the first in series of the articles which covers the social media presence of the Indian Telecom majors. Look out for the next in the series in which we cover other social mediums.

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