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.