My social media consultant friends Rajesh Lalwani, Dina Mehta and Rajiv Dingra were recently interviewed for a very well-researched story in Live Mint about how corporates in India are engaging with social media.
Here is a quick snapshot of social media usage by Indian corporates based on the article and my own understanding –
- Financial services, travel, telecom and consumer product brands are the most active users of social media in India, apart from online brands.
- Most Indian brands skip the first two steps in the “Listen -> Understand -> Engage” model and start with engagement itself. This is perhaps a result of the costliness and clumsiness of the online monitoring tools that were available in India so far.
- Most Indian brands engage with social media in a limited way, using it as a broadcast tool instead of a participation tool. So, the use of branded social networks, social network apps, user created ads and viral videos is much higher than blogs, forums and wikis.