Social Media & networking is becoming increasingly popular & essential in Indian Scenario as well, Digital Media & Marketing companies are spending close to 10% of their budget on Social Media which amounts to Rs. 100 Crore annually.
The first rule of social media marketing is to put yourself and/or your product out there. A few ways to do that include becoming an active blogger, establishing a presence on the major social networks, and embracing new forms of communication. The days of writing a speech to capture a ten second sound bite on the evening news are over. The popularity of YouTube gives the public access to the entire speech, not just the clip chosen by the news, which means the entire speech must resonate with the audience.
Here are some key data points resulted from a study conducted by leading research organization Nielsen.
§ 30 million Indians who are online consumers are members of social networking sites
§ 20 million of these spend time on social networking sites daily
§ Indians spend more time on social media than they do checking personal email
§ Over the next six months 45,000 online Indians intend to join social networking sites each day
§ 1/4th of online Indians were able to recall brands using social media
§ Having a social media presence connotes ‘innovation’ ‘customer friendliness’ and a sense of ‘cool’
§ Nearly 40 million Indians are using online reviews to inform purchase decisions
§ 67 percent of Indians who are on the web use online reviews to help them make purchases
§ 60 percent Indians who are social media users are open to being approached by brands
In United States Elections president Obama used his Politics 2.0 campaign very successfully. Barack Obama has done a great job of making sure his speeches sound as good on YouTube in their entirety as they do on the evening news with just a clip. He's also gambled on YouTube's audience by creating a strong presence on the website. Historically, young voters have been high on enthusiasm but low on voter turnout. But Obama has been able to utilize social media to buck that trend.
Barack Obama isn't the first to utilize social networking in a bid for the presidency -- Howard Dean used Meetup.com to become a serious contender for his party's nomination in 2004 -- but he may have perfected it. The rule of thumb for any great application is to pack a powerful punch while being as simple to use as possible.
In India there are few organizations who have already started developing/Developed their CRM softwares enabled to connect with social media for better customer experience management.
So social networking sites are key to success for any organization which is spending any amount of marketing dollars.
