Microreviews.org

Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 3- Website and Blog

ArchieIndian Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Success keeps us motivated. We are elated to have received a huge response to our first two posts in this series( Facebook Presence and Twitter Presence of Indian telecom majors) . So we move on in our journey to check the website/blog presence of  Indian telecom majors. Websites and Blogs, as you would all agree, are an extremely important as a part of a company’s social media portfoilo.

So, Here we go.

Airtel India :

Airtel Website: It is an old thing, but it is true. http://www.airtel.com redirects to a vodafone site. An oldie but a goodie to say the least. Ethically speaking, I would love to see Vodafone gifting this domain name to Airtel in the true spirit of competition. So the official website of Airtel is www.airtel.in.The Airtel website seems simple and just serves the purpose. The latest stuff seem to be put up appropriately by their content managers. There is nothing like WEB 2.0 anywhere in the website. It is however, the usability and the ease of finding things which impresses me on the website. I am an Airtel Broadband subscriber too,and I must tell that, I found it very difficult to pay my bill after logging in to my account. It was one heck of an effort doing that. Airtel doesn’t seem to be targeting any specific segment through their website. They just know, that they have a big enough consumer base and hence a big enough word of mouth doing the job for them. For me Airtel deserves a better website.

Airtel Blog : Doesn’t exist. It could have been a good way to make their announcements loud and clear to the people. However, Airtel India’s non presence here doesn’t surprise. Airtel India has hardly recognized social media anywhere.

Vodafone India:

Vodafone India website: The Vodafone Global site or the Vodafone U.K site for that matter looks much neater than the Vodafone India site and I just don’t see the rationale. What is one supposed to understand from this? Does Vodafone Global have no hand over what is happening in India? It seems so for sure. Vodafone India’s site overall is quite usable with everything right before you. But, whenever you set out to check the online presence of a global player like Vodafone, comparisons with their websites in other countries is quite  natural.

Vodafone India Blog:  Couldn’t figure it out.

Tata Teleservices:

Tata Indicom Website : The Tata Indicom website looks better than Airtel India’s or Vodafone India’s website but I still don’t find that zing which makes me happy as a person visiting the website.

Virgin Mobile: Cool Website and I love it. There is a lot of stuff which says a lot of effort has been put to maintain the personality of Virgin Mobile ( Bitchy red), funky cartoon characters telling the offers put up by Virgin Mobile and a lot more. The language used is very funky and is meant to target the youth. ‘Think Hatke’ is what they stand for and their site does seem ‘hatke’ from the other Indian telecom majors.

Tata Docomo: Tata Docomo has given a lot of effort towards Social Media Marketing and can be considered as the pioneers of Social Media Marketing, at-least among Indian Telecom majors. Their website is again very cool, not as bitchy and funky as the Virgin Mobile Website but good to the eyes. Everything seems to have been put at the right places. Another thumbs up from the Microreviews Team as far as Social Media Marketing goes.( I am not too sure about their service as yet)

Tata Teleservices Blog: This happens to be a combined blog of Tata Indicom, Tata Docomo and Virgin Mobile India. The blog is simple and yet very elegant and serving its purpose quite well. It seems to be making all the announcements for these companies. This is something which we had expected from other telecom majors too.

Reliance Communication:

Reliance Communication Website: The rcom website is a classic case of a zillion things to put in a single website and ‘more importantly’ they don’t really care much. Reliance communications, however has another website for Reliance Mobile. This website looks much neater than the rcom website. Overall, a huge improvement when compared to rcom’s  presence in other social mediums.

Reliance Communication Blog: Couldn’t figure out.

Idea Cellular:

Idea Cellular: A banner which promotes their facebook page ( Walk when you talk), which is very cool. However, as we enter the idea  website after that, we feel the disappointment. There are many offers to catch the attention of youth but, really i expected a much better presentation. There are a lot of text links at the bottom and we don’t feel feel like figuring out what they are meant to do. Overall, Idea has been a youth centric company and deserved a better presented site.

Idea Cellular Blog: Could not figure out.

Aircel India:

Aircel India: For a company which is trying to expand in India, for a company which spends millions on hoardings and on a brand ambassador[who is considered the biggest brand in India - M.S. Dhoni], the website is very disappointing. They need to get their act right and get it right quickly.

Aircel India Blog: Could not figure out.

MTS India;

MTS India Website: Here is another small player,trying to expand all over India, and having a pretty cool wesite. We liked it. Red and happening is the phrase which describes their website. Their social media presence otherwise is negligible but the website is really good. Other than a bit of a mess that they have done with the drop down menu’s the website looks as cool as the virgin mobile website. Some cartoons in place of the model with a techie look does the job these days. MTS could look at these two issues and try to make the website a bit more social media friendly and they are right on their way to having the best website amongst all Indian Telecom giants.

MTS India Blog: Could not figure out.

Overall, the websites of Indian telecom majors are in a much better shape than their facebook and twitter profiles. But there is still a long way to go before India telecom major’s wake up to WEB 2.0.

For social media help, I would recommend people to get in touch with Aditya Prakash and Prasaad K S on twitter.

You can also email them here and here.

Follow me on Twitter.

We are on twitter too. Follow us. Mail us here.

Related posts:

1. Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 1- Facebook Presence 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 Image courtsey: webguild.org So, with all this in mind Microreviews set out to check the social media( the in thing as they...
2. Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 2- Twitter Presence Twitter as explained in Plain English was meant to just tell "What are you doing?". But the marketeres saw the Gold in it. It got used a publishing service and took the marketing world by a storm. So, Today the microreviews team set out to find how the Indian Telecom Majors are utilizing this service. Microreviews team has already reported...
3. Indian Telecom Majors: You are being searched!!! The insight into what is being searched about the Indian Telecom Majors....
4. Social Media Presence of Indian Banks – ICICI Bank Indian banks are just starting to get social online, with ICICI Bank taking a small lead of sorts. Currently not many Indian banks are leveraging the power of web 2.0 social media platforms to engage and connect with their customers. In a series which we kick start today, we’ll explore social media presence of some modern Indian Banks....
5. The great Indian Telecom War ShareIf there is one sector that is definitely over-crowded in India it is the Telecom space. From Tata to Aircel, from Vodafone to Reliance- all are locking horns against each other for a share of the Indian Subscriber pie. And in doing so they are taking the competition to a whole new level. A level of competition that can be...
6. Social Media Presence of Indian Banks – HSBC Bank After exploring ICICI Bank’s digital endeavours now we bring you a coverage on HSBC Bank, the world’s local bank as they say....
7. Social Media Marketing in India Is Social Media actually working in India? Is Social Media Marketing the only thing selling through social media? Is India getting into the social media wave too? Can you help your business through social media in India ? What should you be doing if you want to do the social media marketing for yourself, or your brand for that matter?...
8. Social Media – The Dell Way Dell has always been known for its brilliant customer support and Social Media presence is customer support 2.0 for sure. Microreviews team thought to taking a dive into the web of Social Media created Dell. We must say that we have been blown away by their social media presence right from their website to their blog to their Facebook, Twitter,...
9. Idea offers lowest ever std call rates in Mumbai Existing IDEA customers need to buy a special voucher worth INR 47 to avail the low call rates. New IDEA subscribers will avail new call rates on any recharge voucher. The special call rate of 50 paisa for STD and Local calls on any network in India will be applicable from the second minute of the first call of the...
10. Social Media-Segment in Focus: Luxury Market (Part I) Since Social Media is the latest buzz around, we at Microreviews decided to take up a series on this segment and check out the social media presence (in India), of some of the major players in the luxury division....

Tags: blogs of Indian companies, Blogs of Indian telecom majors, Social Media, Social Media India, social media presence, Social Media presence Of Indian companies