Social Media – the Big Bang.!!

September 22, 2009 by admin | 14 Comments

If you have wet your feet with our definition post on Social Media, you should be ready to dive in. In the process you will imbibe the fact that, Social Media will create nothing sort of a Big Bang that our posterity will be so oblivious to.

They will be accustomed to the fact that they can launch a social movement of sorts right from their living room through their laptops. This will result (in fact it already has) in a paradigm shift in the reach/limits of the commoners. I would go to the extent of calling it the evolution of democracy by the use of technology.

A visual representation of Social Media has been vividly captured by Marketing Director Marta Kagan.

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

In our last post we spoke of what Social Media offers us - a CGM (Consumer generated media) platform for constructive dialogue, business, marketing and the like. This time around we shall reverse the draw and talk from the consumer’s prerogative – ie; how the consumer can make the most out of this platform and at the same time contribute to its own growth. We bring in to you, the shiny widgets of this powerful platform.

Twitter – Your alter-ego

Let’s admit it, most of us are twitter addicts. No, its not a such a bad thing after all. Before you shrug the guilt off your aching shoulders, let me add that it depends on how constructive you are with your tweets. Tweets mentioning your morning ablutions or whereabouts(unless you’re a celebrity) are mostly worthless, sorry to burst your bubble. Like any modern world gadget, twitter can be used for constructive and seemingly lame purposes.

I jumped on to the twitter bandwagon quite late in fact. The simple reason being that I was not interested in letting people know when I moved a muscle( I am sure that’s the next level it could reach). Then came the enlightenment. How many of us know that we can create a compelling brand out of ourselves using this tool? Now pitching for yourself has just become a lot more easier with a larger audience to admire you.

A couple of tweets on Obama’s economic revival policy and the financial health of the worlds economies and you become important in the financial sector. Please don’t misunderstand , when I say important. It just means you will be associated with finance, not that you will be called on to be the next finance minister. A tweeter interested in politics can create a profile for himself by tweeting relevant topics and messages related to it. He can then market himself very systematically by reaching out to people with similar interests. Twitter has had a phenomenal yearly growth rate of 1382 %.! Another interesting fact, India as a nation stands 3rd by the volume of twitter users.

So, tweet to your hearts content, but do so keeping in mind that it could shape your future.

Facebook – the biggest network

There was a time when Myspace had its hold amongst the social networking sites. But thanks to some creepy ploys (edit the CSS) at Myspace and some smart moves (read FBConnect) at FB, Facebook took over the mantle earlier this year and now stands the tallest amongst its competitors.

Some stats for FB for the month of August 2009 :

92 million unique visitors
30 billion page views
8.2 average minutes per visit
22.4 average visits per visitor
28% from North America
34% from Europe
18% from Asia

No wonder then, that, at the recently concluded TechCrunch50, FB announced some impressive stats -

It’s crossed 300 million Users
It has become Cash Flow positive an year ahead of schedule

LinkedIn – the E-Resume

Wikipedia says – LinkedIn is a business oriented social networking site launched in May 2003, used for professional networking. As of now the network on LinkedIn encompasses 45 million users from across 150 nations. A traffic analysis for LinkedIn boasts of close to approximately 15 million unique hits. Guy Kawasaki, in his blog, spoke of some interesting facts on LinkedIn. The most notable of them being :

All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented on LinkedIn, 499 of them by their top executives.

Its increasingly starting to serve as an e-resume to users. LinkedIn helps its users create a professional network, wherein they can share/exchange business ideas/plans, look for a job, or actually meet a potential client. In such dismal periods when unemployment has reached alarming levels the world over, people have turned to LinkedIn for new jobs. Some interesting statistics will help you visualize the paradigm shift that’s taking place.

With an ever growing user-base and a network comprising of the top notch from the corporate world, LinkedIn is sure to get bigger.

These were just the notable ones amongst the hundreds of Social Media tools that the user today has at his disposal. Its upto us now to really channelise them to create the best for ourselves and for the Society in general.

PS: Pls be connected to this space, because Social Media is taking a new face, a new shape, a new meaning every passing second. Look out for a lot more from us on this.

Archie

Can someone elaborate how Social Media has spread its wings in India?
Archie

Can someone elaborate how Social Media has spread its wings in India?
http://2020social.com Dave Evans

Archie-

There are a number of Indian examples:

1) Tata Tea/ Jaago Re and voter activation campaign. Very solid campaign, well documented results. The next steps are now “what to do with this strong community.” This is where an underlying strategy is essential (too many strong efforts die out for lack of ongoing vision).

2) Dell’s “Take Your Own Path” (an entrepreneur’s community) was launched in part here in India. It’s now international.

3) Aircel’s Facebook application: Following Jeff Jarvis’ credo, this smart application takes Aircel into the existing community, rather than asking the community to come to it (you get messages inside Facebook, rather than having to “leave” to check to check your voice mail.) It’s more significant than this may seem at first reading.

4) Kingfisher’s very natural, responsive presence on Twitter is a nice example of a straightforward use of the tools by this UB unit.

5) Speaking of UB, Royal Challengers Bangalore have a new site that offers amateur bloggers and photographers the chance to travel with the team and post the experience. This is similar to Cedia’s successful “Great Driving Challenge” which created queues in dealer showrooms for test drives of this new version of the car.

6) Tata’s Nano facebook community, its NEN Hottest Startups effort, and eLearning for CXOs are additional examples.

In short, there is a **LOT** happening here in India. While some may say “it’s only applicable to 3% or 5% …” that translates into 30-50 million people, in an extremely important demographic. That’s cause right there to take a serious look at the intersection of the Social Web and Business and this is all developing in India.
Sandip

@Vikas: I have a couple of queries:

1. Is there a regulation or a censor to keep a tab on what people can post on these social networking sites?
2. Since celebrities/company executives maintain their profile/brand on these social networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn), do these websites do some kind of validation to check whether the person creating the profile is genuine or not?
http://microreviews.org Vikash

@Dave Evans : Thanx a lot for your explicit reply Dave..there were atleast a couple, I didn’t know about..we look forward to hearing more from you through comments.

To add to Dave’s list, may I say the unfortunate terrorist attack on Mumbai really got the public united through Social Media..blogs and tweets were seen more than ever before – constructive, helpful one at that..
Growth of job search/professional networking sites like LinkedIn, courtsey the recession is another example..

@Sandip : Very valid questions.. here’s what I know :
1. there is no legal regulation on what people can post or comment on these social networking sites.. i m sure you have experienced that too.. but yes social networks are looking to monitor the activities of users, and a lot many accounts are being closed without us ever realising it.. believe me..
Twitter recently released its new TOS (Terms of Service) which does put stress on this very aspect.

2. As far as I know there’s no real validation in place..Atleast when we made account for Microreviews, there were none..:). On a serious note, even if there are spamming accounts, they get filtered even in the short run..you can check this by seraching for any brands/celeb.. So impersonating accounts for brands/celebs, are definitely annoying but for a very brief run.. Btw, will get back to you on this.
Dave Evans

Archie- 
 
There are a number of Indian examples: 
 
1) Tata Tea/ Jaago Re and voter activation campaign. Very solid campaign, well documented results. The next steps are now "what to do with this strong community." This is where an underlying strategy is essential (too many strong efforts die out for lack of ongoing vision). 
 
2) Dell's "Take Your Own Path" (an entrepreneur's community) was launched in part here in India. It's now international. 
 
3) Aircel's Facebook application: Following Jeff Jarvis' credo, this smart application takes Aircel into the existing community, rather than asking the community to come to it (you get messages inside Facebook, rather than having to "leave" to check to check your voice mail.) It's more significant than this may seem at first reading. 
 
4) Kingfisher's very natural, responsive presence on Twitter is a nice example of a straightforward use of the tools by this UB unit. 
 
5) Speaking of UB, Royal Challengers Bangalore have a new site that offers amateur bloggers and photographers the chance to travel with the team and post the experience. This is similar to Cedia's successful "Great Driving Challenge" which created queues in dealer showrooms for test drives of this new version of the car. 
 
6) Tata's Nano facebook community, its NEN Hottest Startups effort, and eLearning for CXOs are additional examples. 
 
In short, there is a **LOT** happening here in India. While some may say "it's only applicable to 3% or 5% …" that translates into 30-50 million people, in an extremely important demographic. That's cause right there to take a serious look at the intersection of the Social Web and Business and this is all developing in India.
Sandip

@Vikas: I have a couple of queries: 
 
1. Is there a regulation or a censor to keep a tab on what people can post on these social networking sites? 
2. Since celebrities/company executives maintain their profile/brand on these social networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn), do these websites do some kind of validation to check whether the person creating the profile is genuine or not?
Vikash

@Dave Evans : Thanx a lot for your explicit reply Dave..there were atleast a couple, I didn't know about..we look forward to hearing more from you through comments. 
 
To add to Dave's list, may I say the unfortunate terrorist attack on Mumbai really got the public united through Social Media..blogs and tweets were seen more than ever before – constructive, helpful one at that.. 
Growth of job search/professional networking sites like LinkedIn, courtsey the recession is another example.. 
 
@Sandip : Very valid questions.. here's what I know : 
1. there is no legal regulation on what people can post or comment on these social networking sites.. i m sure you have experienced that too.. but yes social networks are looking to monitor the activities of users, and a lot many accounts are being closed without us ever realising it.. believe me.. 
Twitter recently released its new TOS (Terms of Service) which does put stress on this very aspect. 
 
2. As far as I know there's no real validation in place..Atleast when we made account for Microreviews, there were none..:). On a serious note, even if there are spamming accounts, they get filtered even in the short run..you can check this by seraching for any brands/celeb.. So impersonating accounts for brands/celebs, are definitely annoying but for a very brief run.. Btw, will get back to you on this.
aditya

Twitter validates celebrity accounts when asked for. Priyanka Chopra’s twitter account is an exmple.
aditya

Twitter validates celebrity accounts when asked for. Priyanka Chopra's twitter account is an exmple.
microreviewsorg

Thanks a lot for the insight Dave. Is the "Tell us you Maagi story?" something similiar to all these?
http://intensedebate.com/people/microreviewsorg microreviewsorg

Thanks a lot for the insight Dave. Is the "Tell us you Maagi story?" something similiar to all these?
http://celakerblog.ce.ohost.de/tu/is-ordering-cialis-legal.html Cieswen

Great site. Keep doing.,
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