Pla{N}ET: A Word on Social Media

Randi Zuckerberg, marketing director at Facebook has been personally visiting the Word Economic Forum at Davos since last year. Interviewed almost by every media station present there & participating in almost all media debates – this alone shows how attractive the prospect of being on the social media has become from a business point of view.

Let’s Talk Numbers

In India, though this only makes up about 2.5% of the total Facebook users and that’s about 2% of the Indian population, the numbers have grown from 13 million in September, 2010 to 20 million in February, 2011.Which makes up 27% of the online Indian population. 47% out of this are between 18-24 years and 32% between 24-35 years of age.

Speaking to NDTV at Davos in 2010, Randi Zuckerberg said that India is a huge market (we all know that now). Hitting all the right notes as the marketing head of FB, she talked about Bollywood , Cricket (and yes, also how two Facebook employees got married in Goa… yippie!!). But more importantly, she also mentioned the US elections, the Iran elections & elections in India, and discussed how we as a generation that is interested to learn more about what’s happening around us can benefit considerably from social networking platforms like Facebook. Talking specifically about India, she said that the big idea in digital media is going to be in mobile technology.

Getting Online – The Advantages

In the age of information, surrounded by different kinds of communication tools, we are bombarded with news of all kinds, from all around. So it becomes all the more important to restrict ourselves to what’s relevant for us. The social network gives you the privilege to take charge of your content and that’s the reason why focus on local matter is going to increase in the future. With the power to filter information you can make yourself more efficient.

Social Media Marketing – The Indian Scenario

Social media marketing in India, like anything else, is dominated by Bollywood & Cricket right now. More so, by Bollywood. Celebs started using blogs, facebook and twitter to connect with their fans directly. For example, Salman Khan – always reticent with the media and always giving tongue in cheek replies to the scribes at press conferences found a wonderful way to enhance his brand value – Twitter. He often posts very personal moments of his life but of course only the ones he wants to share with his followers.

One of Khan's Tweets

Aamir Khan is another example from the entertainment world who uses blogs & his Facebook page to create buzz about his forthcoming films. He was probably the first one in India to do a live video chat on Facebook around the release of his 2009 flick, 3 Idiots. Filmmaker Onir sponsored almost his entire 2011 film ‘I AM’ by arranging finance from people on social media and in return, offering them credit in co-production.

There are also examples of celebs who did not realize the power of this medium and ended up shooting themselves in the foot – like Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor.

Social media marketing is still a concept in its nascent stage in India but has huge potential to upset the traditional marketing platforms like television, radio etc. Also with the advent of 3G, a whole new field is now open. However, the real test would be – that how effective social media can prove in benefiting start ups & other small ventures, and not just entities who are already well established. Also, in India we haven’t had a Justin Bieber or a Lady Gaga, whose phenomenon is incomplete without the digital media.

With American musician & actor Justin Timberlake buying stakes in MySpace in order to revitalize the ailing site, and Facebook teaming up with Microsoft’s Skype, social media is the place where the action is going to be.

PS: This post was originally published at - http://wordonsocialmedia.com/blog/?p=367#more-367 on July 6, 2011.

Facebook Vs Google: Instant Hit(s)

If personal fortune is any indication of how successful your business is, then very recently, it was reported that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is now richer than the Google bosses – Larry Page & Sergey Brin.

However what if we talk purely about the contributions that the respective ‘organisations’ have made to its ‘consumers’. Is it even fair to compare Facebook & Google considering the nature of their services? Its like comparing NOKIA, whose major revenue comes from telecom services, with Samsung Electronics, which is just one of the subsidiary arms of the Samsung group . So relatively, Nokia maybe a leader in mobile devices, but as an organization Samsung is much larger.

Despite that, why the ‘Facebook VS Google’ debate still seems relevant is purely due to their environment – the virtual world. The internet is still an unorganized space where things have just started to jostle up. There are no written rules, no blanket like censorship. Nothing is defined here. Web has its own language, its own grammar. For users, internet is a single handed communication tool.

So, while Google opened up the world on a ‘window’, Facebook has taken it to the next level by making the web aggressively interactive. We are not just fence sitters anymore, we knowingly or unknowingly, are actively participating in shaping up the future. Opinion makers are not in television studios or on the radio. They are at home, sitting in their chairs. If anybody still has a doubt about its potency, just Google ‘Arab spring’ and read up how, and where else the revolution book flace…haha..took place!!

A 2009 Nielsen Media Research report indicate degrees of consumer trust in different kinds of advertising. It suggests that “consumer comments posted online” is the second largest form of advertising that helps in building a brand, next only to “word of mouth”. This speaks volumes about how the things have changed in the past few years. Two way communication has balanced out the market dynamics like never before.

The more open a market gets, the more competitive it becomes. In an era full with communication tools, our attention span has been compressed significantly. Instant information, instant entertainment, instant action – who doesn’t want access to those needs in this age? Of course, the answer lies within that discourse itself.

So how many of you have heard about ‘Google+’ already? Surely not those who still only listen to radio or watch television. ‘Google+ Project’ , still in its testing phase, is Google’s attempt at social networking service that could threaten to eat up in the share of the biggest fish in the pond. The ‘Facebook VS Google’ debate may finally be settled then. Will Google succeed like Gmail did in unsettling Yahoo & Hotmail? Only you will tell!

Here's a quick look of Google Plus - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwnJ5Bl4kLI

This post was originally published at http://wordonsocialmedia.com/blog/?p=349#more-349 on July 4, 2011.