Social media: ignore at your own risk

It has changed the way we promote national causes and do business. But you must be careful about a few things while using social networking sites

Demonstrators shout slogans as they are surrounded by the police during an anti-rape protest rally in New Delhi. BS / File photo

Politicians and other policy-makers cannot remain indifferent to the views being posted on social media websites. Social networking sites are versatile vehicles for articulating opinions of a society or its sections. Social scientists say it is a double-edged sword. The magic of 140 characters can make or mar your day. Even theek hai remarks of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s December 24 speech went viral and invited people’s wrath.

From the Arab Spring to the Delhi anti-rape agitation, citizens of all nations are more empowered than ever before. Connected individuals has created vast audiences and toppled political establishments by communicating their message through social networks.

 

US President Barack Obama mobilised the Web and the social media to build a powerful base of volunteers, funding and support. In Pakistan, the raid that killed al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden was first reported on Twitter, further highlighting social media's growing importance as a source of information.

According to a survey by Nielsen and DataAbsolut, Indians now spend more time on social media than on email. Almost 58 per cent use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to discuss products, services and social and political issues.

Business Standard presents a guide to understand the power of social media

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How social media shook India

Delhi anti-rape protests galvanised thousands of young Facebook- and Twitter-savvy youth last week. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government appeared to be caught off guard by the outrage that started online and spilled into the streets over the December 16 rape of a 23-year-old woman, who died two weeks later. The other incidents that added fuel to social media fire are: Anna Hazare’s fast for Lokpal, mass exodus of north-eastern people from Karnataka and so on.

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The USP of social media

Here free speech is unhindered. However, malicious or other unsubstantiated tweets or posts will put you in an embarrassing situation. India has a mega presence on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has approximately more than 65 million active users.  In terms of users, India comes among the top five nations across the world. Twitter, which has over 200 million active users globally, doesn't provide country-specific numbers.

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Will it boost e-commerce?

Social media users hooked onto networking sites like Facebook and Twitter may give a big boost to the already growing e-commerce market that has touched over Rs 50,000 crore-mark in 2011. According to latest Internet & Mobile Association of India numbers, with 150 million online population, India is the third largest in terms of Internet users after China and the US. The number of internet users in India is expected to almost triple to 300 million over the next three years.

For retailers, social e-commerce enables them to engage with their buyers on a personal level, thereby obtaining perception and views in an easier manner.

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Need of the hour

Though netizens may constitute only a small proportion of India’s billion-plus people, they are disproportionately influential. And  this is one of the most compelling reasons why Indian companies need to get their social media strategy right. Trigger-happy tweeters, YouTube visitors, Facebookers and reviewers have forced companies to invest in a whole new important activity — online reputation management, or ORM. Earlier, ORM used to be marketing department’s problem. But,  these days in corporate world ORM is everybody’s baby.

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Easy brand promotion

Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are being increasingly used for promotional activities that engage audiences for a certain activity in an effort to create a buzz and get feedback from the community. However, it is also being used by disgruntled customers to air their greviances, drastically altering the traditional role of brand managers. Major companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Cadbury, Marico and so on have created brand specific pages.

According to a study on social media engagement by Ketchum Sampark, Fastrack, the Indian fashion accessories brand, is the biggest in the category worldwide. It has more than 4.2 million fan followers on Facebook.

The study analysed 100 Indian brands and their global peers in 10 categories in terms of growth in number of fans and their engagement levels on Facebook between January 1 and August 30, 2012.

On engagement levels, leading Indian brands in eight of the 10 categories studied performed better than the global peers, the study revealed.

The study also found that Tata Docomo is the top brand on Facebook in India across categories, with 8.7 million fans. ICICI Bank was identified as the fifth largest banking and financial services brand on Facebook globally.

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Netas need facelift

The real-time nature of social networks along with their unprecedented reach makes them difficult to control. Before 2014 polls, the UPA government must create a strong social media presence and it needs to build trust if it is to manage public perception effectively on social media. In India, mostly the upper class and English-speaking politicians  use social media to communicate. The Congress has failed to use social media tools. Shashi Tharoor lost his job for tweeting too frankly, (his cattle class tweet), in a sign of government unease over the web.

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Tips to avoid digital mis-steps

A) Always maintain a clean virtual image. There's LinkedIn and other professional sites, but don't fool yourself. Facebook is not personal or private and it will be viewed and used by others to form an opinion about you

B) Don't let the negative show up high in searches. Smart firms keep a close watch on Google search results of their brand names and ensure that nothing negative appears in the first page of results. Search optimisation and posting positive reviews helps.

C) Don't try to buy positive reviews. It is a big mistake to pay people to write positive comments.

D) Respond to everyone but learn to prioritise

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Most influential Indians on Twitter

I) Amitabh Bachchan | @SrBachchan 4,223,864 follwers

II) Shah Rukh Khan | @iamsrk 3,444,595 followers

III) Sachin Tendulkar | @sachin_rt    2,988,031 followers

IV) Narendra Modi | @narendramodi 1,178,134 followers

V) Shashi Tharoor | @ShashiTharoor 1,624,420 followers