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Quick Summary: I was quoted today in Thinking Aloud, the online magazine of IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India), in a story on social media marketing in India.
I have been tracking social media marketing in India for a while now both in my brand manager and blogger avatars.
I was quoted today in Thinking Aloud, the online magazine of IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India), in a story on social media marketing in India.
The article also quotes Raj Kurup, CEO of Creativeland Asia.
Here’s a quick summary of my thoughts on the social media marketing landscape in India –
- Social media marketing is a great tool for marketers to identify and redress customer dissatisfaction issue early, engage customers and citizens into meaningful conversations, and build customer loyalty at a low cost.
- In India, for most mainstream brands, social media is not yet a significant factor as of now. It is more important for reputation-based, service-oriented, consumer-fronted sectors like auto/ telecom/ financial services/ travel and hospitality. However, over time, social media will become important for all types of companies and brands.
- In India, where most marketers are still coming to terms with digital marketing, there’s no compelling reason as of now for brand managers to include social media in their marketing mix. Brand managers are also wary of experimenting with social media because it requires very high involvement levels, advertising agencies don’t yet understand social media, the measurement metrics are not yet established, and companies are still wary of negative publicity, which means that all communication has to be vetted by the corporate communications department. However, marketers who do experiment with social media now are likely to differentiate their brands and build a first mover advantage.
In summary, while the significance of social media is still limited in India, brand managers in India should start seeding small social media initiatives to build capabilities and communities for the future.
Comments (2)
Hi Gaurav,
I believe that organizations in India also need to take a 360 viewpoint and pay attention to how social media/new media is relevant for its employees - since today content co-creation and the speed of information flow takes control away from the traditional media - employees get to know of information faster than organizations.
@Aniisu: Yes, I agree that the enterprise side of social media is equally important, both from a corporate communications perspective and a knowledge management perspective.