Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 1- Facebook Presence

ArchieIndian Friday, October 16th, 2009

The Indian Telecommunication Industry is considered one of the most competitive as well as most marketed industries in the world. Cheap rates and brilliant advertisement campaigns have become synonymous to Airtel, Vodafone and Tata Docomo.

Image courtsey: webguild.org

So, with all this in mind Microreviews set out to check the social media (the in thing as they say) presence of the major telecom players in India.

Let us start with Facebook.

  • Bharti Airtel : There are apparently three or four facebook pages which Airtel has. One of these has around 10000 fans which is a big number by Indian Social Media standards. The page seems to have quite a few details of the offers coming out and stuff but doesn’t seem well maintained at all. The display image is of a person, who I really don’t know and I expected to see the Airtel Logo at the place of that pic. Going to the information section gives you a shock. It is apparently the page of Airtel Srilanka. The other pages of Airtel India also fail to impress and can be found here. Coming to facebook groups of Airtel now, they seem to be dominated by Airtel Srilanka again. The facebook group of Airtel Srilanka can be seen here and here. Both seem quite active. However, when I apparently go in for the Airtel India’s facebook group, they have got their website wrongly stated as http://www.airtel.co.in . It suddenly seems that this facebook group does not belong to Airtel at all. There are a couple of other groups, which may or may not belong to Airtel and can be seen here. I did find out a facebook game by name Airtel Special 5 and did not feel like taking it. Airtel Srilanka, overall seems to be doing better than Airtel India as far as facebook presence goes.
  • Vodafone India: Internationally, Vodafone seems to be very active on facebook trying to engage users on the medium. Their Facebook pages can be seen here. Vodafone India’s page however seems a baby in comparison to their international counterparts but seems quite well maintained. However, the information provided in their info tab doesn’t seem to provide information about their social media presence elsewhere. Coming to the groups for Vodafone India. There is this one group which is again not well maintained and needs to be looked after better. Going by Vodafone’s social media awareness abroad, I do expect Vodafone India to take this up very quickly and get Vodafone India’s facebook presence to count. Zoozoos, in the meanwhile seem to have a decent facebook presence which can be seen here.
  • Tata Docomo: Tata Docomo seems to have changed the rules of the games as far as social media presence of India goes. Their only facebook page seems every bit complete with everything presented in the best possible way. The facebook page seems professionally handled engaging the right kind of people. With over 1700 fans, lots of pics and videos, they seem to be engaging the people very well. Their info tab has provided information about all the social media presence they have elsewhere which is what it is supposed to do. There is no such group for Tata Docomo and to be honest, you need a good page and your  job is done.
  • Reliance Communications: For a company of the volume of Reliance communications, their facebook presence can be considered a big NULL. Either, they seem to  have completely neglected a medium as big as Facebook or they think Traditional media is doing the job for them.
  • Idea Cellular: Idea Cellular has always been known as a major spender on youth influencing activities spending a lot on sponsoring College Fest, Youth Festivals etc. However, their almost non-presence on facebook left me in surprise. They have recently launched a facebook application which shows their entry into facebook in a big way. There is however, still some work to be done as far as Idea’s facebook presence goes.

Having gone through the Facebook presence of the marketing savvy Indian telecom majors who spend millions hiring brand ambassadors and  putting up expensive hoardings, it is easy to say that they have been quite negligent of the power of Facebook as a major engagement medium. Tata Docomo seems to have done a very decent job at it and other need to learn quick.

This was the first in series of the articles which covers the social media presence of the Indian Telecom majors. Look out for the next in the series in which we cover other social mediums.

For social media help, I would recommend people to get in touch with Aditya Prakash and Prasaad K S. You can also email them here and here.

We are on facebook too. Mail us here.

Follow us on Twitter.

http://www.airtel.co.in/

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