On a recent trip to India, one thing that was evident was the use of social media by businesses. Businesses whether big or small..retail or consumer goods, even the Bollywood stars are seen engaging with fans on Twitter, everyone has jumped on to the social media bandwagon.
Everywhere I was struck by huge amount of use of digital marketing. I must say India has come a long way from one of the lowest internet penetration in the world to what it is today.
Neilsen India recently conducted a study on the growth of social media in India and it did throw up some interesting facts: You can read the whole report here.
- Nearly 30 million Indians who are online consumers are members of social networking sites and about two-thirds of them spend time on these social networking sites daily.
- Social Media in India is growing at 100 percent and is likely to touch 45 million users by 2012.
- Indians spend more time on social media than they do checking personal email.
- One third of India’s online consumers are aware of brands that have an online presence.
- A fourth of online Indians were able to recall brands using social media.
- Over the next six months 45,000 online Indians intend to join social networking sites every day.
- 60 percent Indians who are social media users are open to being approached by brands.
One thing is for sure that social media is going to be a growth driver for digital media and marketing in India. Companies have no choice whether to do social media or not but instead they need to ask themselves how well are they doing social media?
What is your take on social media in India..will it last ?
