Social Media News Stories-Last Week of Feb
Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reviews, Trends
To begin with, a belated Happy Holi to all of you.Quite an interesting mix of noise in the social media sphere in the last week ofFebruary.
1) Business Standard featured an article ‘Turning a Digital Page’ by Neha Bhatt elaborating on the rising trend of digital books and the consequent increasing sales of e-readers. The article quotes Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 2020Social and a Kindle user, ‘I bought the Kindle last year. I was willing to leave behind my collection of 2000 books, since the e-reader could hold over 300 books. What I really like about my e-reader is the audio feature. The fact that the device is so light and easy to carry is another motivation’. The article elaborates that the device works for those who care about portability or those who want to appear chic to strangers or associates. However comparing to US and UK, the article considers e-readers a relatively new concept in India due to lack of e-books, pricing issues and loss of wider entertainment options like blogging, gaming and e-magazines.
Comment- For sure, e-readers have a brighter future and can take the book market by storm if made available within the budget of the common man. And with increased entertainment options, the youth will take to it like fish to water.
2) The Economic Times featured an interview of Harvard Business School Senior Associate Dean, Professor David B Yoffie in its article ‘Indian IT Cos need global makeover’ by Peerzada Abrar on 23rd Feb. The article quotes Professor Yoffie, ‘Many Indian IT cos are beginning to realize that offering simple BPO or outsourcing jobs is not going to be profitable as in the past. The long term challenge will be to develop newer services and find other areas in the value chain to operate’.
Comment- With the recession hitting the US and Europe markets, the entire business paradigm underwent a complete overhaul. New challenges demand a fresher perspectives and offerings that have a tie-up with IT. Indian firms could have an upper hand here if they choose to couple their current offering-high quality talent at lower costs- with newer creative operatives for a wider scope of industries.
3) The Economic Times reported its tie-up with Facebook in its article ‘ET Facbook in tie-up for Budget’ on 23rd Feb. The article elaborates on a tie-up between Facebook, Economic Times and ET, its television channel for users to interact with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the annual budget released on Friday, the 26th. The article states, ‘the new initiative- ET Facebook: talk to FM will give users an opportunity to post their views and suggestions on the budget by logging on www.economictimes.com. All opinions received would be summarized and presented to the FM in addition to being displayed on the online edition of the paper’.
Comment- Such a move bridges the disconnect between politics and the Indian youth. It lends the youth a voice and have their say in the political matters pertaining to the nation, especially in the discussions preceding the annual Budget.
4) Business Standard featured another article ‘Mobile internet usage on a roll in India’ by Bibhu Ranjan Mishra on 23rd Feb that elaborated on the growing number of users utilizing the mobile Internet with figures doubling since the beginning of 2009. A major reason for this is the low cost of a general packet radio service , also known as GPRS, ready mobile handsets along with innovative data usage plans being offered by telecom companies. Major usage being for email, messaging, social networking and entertainment.
Comment- Mobile internet trend in India is poised to growth, especially with the young Indian becoming increasingly tech-savvy and 3G services being launched.
5) Business Standard reported ‘IPL catches the Twitter bug’ by Pradipta Mukherjee on 25th Feb. The article states, ‘IPL commissioner Lalit Modi tweets not only to give updates, but also to comment on controversies. Using Twitter, Modi has also sought bids for the two new teams that will be included in IPL IV in 2011. All teams have Twitter accounts and some have registered on Facebook too’.
Comment- The social media platform can be utilized to its full advantage to reach out to fans with teams ensuring interaction and a wider scope of activities on its websites like video downloading, match replays, special moments, interviews, wall papers, team songs, merchandise, ticket bookings etc.
6) The Economic Times featured an article ‘MS topples Google from leading biz brand slot’ on 26th Feb announcing Microsoft as the leading business-facing brand, followed by Rolls-Royce with Google being pushed to number 5 in the annual Business Superbrands Top 500 survey by The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA). The article reports Handset manufacturer Blackberry as the newest entrant in the top 10 slot of the survey with other brands such as Sony, Virgin Atlantic, Nokia, BUPA, BP and Michelin completing the list.
Comment- The survey depicts mixed results some brands losing ground-particularly the government supported agencies and financial institutions- and others climbing the charts speedily. However, the war between Microsoft and Google for the top spot reveals that both sides are continuing to deliver on their promises and thus proving their mettle.
7) Economic Times journalist Rajiv Banerjee reported ‘You Tube ropes in HSBC as lead sponsor’ on 27th Feb, stating that the sponsorship will be utilized for live streaming of IPL matches. HSBC joins the likes of HP and Samsung through its sponsorship with You Tube that has acquired a two-year rights to host IPL matches live for an undisclosed sum.
Comment- With cricket being more than a passion in India and IPL symbolizing its craze peak, any association with it presents a big opportunity for any brand to reach out to a huge target audience. And using the more engaging online platform, that is predicted to only grow bigger, ensures more innovative brand exposure at half the price of TV sponsorship.
8) The Times of India featured an article ‘Facebook patents user news feed’ on 28th Feb that elaborates on how Facebook has won an American patent on its News Feed feature. The article states, ‘The patent summarizes the invention as a method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment. The method was described as US Patent and Trade Office Paperwork as including comments and links posted by social network users for sharing with other members of the online community’.
Comment- This comes freshly after Google’s Buzz launch. With social networking being an important trend, Facebook seems to be taking on Twitter, MySpace, Buzz and all other social networking services. Facebook has got itself a really strong weapon that it can use against other networks.
9) The Hindu featured an article ‘Changes in Cyber Space’ by Sevanti Ninan on 28th Feb reporting that the net is becoming more of a marketing platform and less of a medium for personal expression. The article elaborates, ‘Sharing is the operative word in social media. Some of the uses of social media are for companies who are advised how to sneak into their marketing into this world of sharing. Marketers found their way through niche blogs and advertisers tie-up with blogs. Marketing tends to inveigle itself into all kinds of communication spaces, including social media, which is all the rage on the Internet’.
Comment- Marketing incorporates selling to its target audience on platforms they inhabit and channels they use. With social media becoming a rage all over, it is to be expected that marketers would soon swamp the medium to exercise it to their advantage whether selling or gathering data. The Internet is a constantly evolving medium that reaches out to more people than any other and marketers tend to use such a medium which is dynamic enough to suit to their nature and needs. Another reason is that both the Internet and Marketing have a strong similarity i.e your tactics depend largely upon your target audience and thereby nothing is constant.
10) In a similar vein on marketing, Hindustan Times featured an article ‘Riding the info mouse’ by Rachit Vats on 1st March that predicts Information management as the next big marketing opportunity for brand owners. The article states, ‘A lot of marketers are beginning to wake up to the promise, looking at social media, consumer review sites, product reviews, consumer guidance or blogs as interactive knowledge and influence opportunities. They are monitoring content as well as seeding in content to generate the right kind of buzz around their brands’.
Comment- Today’s consumers are an intelligent lot who do not mind spending their money but only after they are convinced on quality. As more and more Indians blog and post product reviews online, brands have realized that monitoring and listening to them works to their benefit through first hand consumer feedback and also build relationships. Both the consumer and the brand benefits through this.
11) The Financial Express featured an article ‘Google Rolls out ad plan for Buzz social network’ on 2nd March that reveals Google’s move to invite brands to run personalized ads around Buzz. The article reports, ‘ The commercial model for Buzz is based on the ad system it uses for Gmail. It works by detecting the subject matter of email conversations and targeting the user with relevant messages. Media buyers say that Google is asking brands to run ads on Buzz to test their effectiveness’.
Comment- Buzz seems to be going all the way to establish itself as a strong competitor to other social networking sites, particularly Facebook and enjoy some of its success. If brands advertise on Buzz, then they automatically reach out to a massive user base of Gmail. And Google gets a taste of the effectiveness of Buzz through this.
New Openings at 2020 Social: Consumer Practice Lead and Build Competency Lead
Posted on 21. Feb, 2010 by gaurav in Announcements
As 2020 Social’s suite of offerings have evolved, the senior team is increasingly getting stretched across our competency areas and practice areas.
So, Dave leads our business-to-consumer practice and the plan competency, Kaushal leads our business-to-business practice and the build competency and Gautam leads our employee and partner practice and the engage competency, while I help out across all three competencies and practices.
My target is to take Dave and myself off this grid so that 2020 Social can function even when we are away, let’s say, for speaking at conferences.
To get there, we will need to fill three key positions over the next three months: the business-to-consumer practice lead, the build competency lead and the engage competency lead.
Last week, we announced openings for the first two positions:
- Consultant (1): Ideally Mumbai, but also Delhi or Bangalore
Role: Develop the digital marketing strategy and define the business case for social applications and community platforms for consumer and media clients. Establish thought leadership in the domain of how Indian consumers engage with web, mobile and social technologies through blog posts, white papers and conference talks. Set up the Mumbai office for 2020 Social and establish and grow client relationships. Over a one year horizon, manage a team of 5-6 Associate Consultants and Analysts.
Skills: Consumer marketing, digital marketing, business consulting, business development.
Background: IIM or equivalent with 4-6 years of experience.
Reporting to: Gaurav
- Consultant (1): Ideally Delhi or Bangalore, but also Mumbai
Role: Define the functional requirements for social applications and community platforms for clients. Work with internal account managers/ project managers and external design firms/ development firms to ensure that projects are delivered in cost and on time. Simultaneously, find opportunities to productize these social applications and community platforms as proprietary white label solutions that can be re-used across multiple clients. Over a one year horizon, manage a team of 5-6 Associate Consultants, Analysts and Designers.
Skills: User experience design, product management, project management, familiarity with Drupal and Facebook/ LinkedIn/ Twitter/ OpenSocial APIs.
Background: IIT/ NID or equivalent with 6-8 years of experience.
Reporting to: Gaurav
We are also looking for interns to work with us on a part-time basis:
- Interns (4), Delhi or Bangalore, Rs. 5000 monthly stipend
Role: Research how digital and social technologies are changing business and marketing. Identify best practices and case studies for developing social media strategy and creating campaigns for clients. Part time role for 2 to 6 months with a commitment of 20 hours a week.
Skills: Good communications skills, ability to work in teams, eagerness to learn, familiarity with blogs, forums, and social networking platforms like Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
Background: BBA or MBA students.
Reporting to: Gautam (Delhi) or Kaushal (Bangalore)
Working at 2020 Social combines the best of both worlds: you enjoy the open and collaborative work environment of a web 2.0 startup, the steep learning curve of a strategy consulting firm and the benefits of being part of an established organization (we are related to 20:20 Media, one of India’s largest independent PR firms).
Send your CVs to careers@2020social.com: it might be your lucky day.
Cross-posted at Gauravonomics: Social Media and Social Change.
Define Your Sandbox Early, But Stay in Constant Beta
Posted on 21. Feb, 2010 by gaurav in Announcements
STAYING IN CONSTANT BETA WITHIN A SANDBOX
As an entrepreneur, you need to articulate your offering early in your startup’s life cycle, and still stay open to change, especially if you are in the fast-evolving social technologies space.
After nine months of running 2020 Social, I have learned that the key is to define a big enough sandbox early, then stay in constant beta, and play within that sandbox.
THE EVOLUTION OF 2020 SOCIAL
In June 2009, 2020 Social started off as an insights firm, focused on tracking conversations on the social web and identifying trends international clients could benefit from.
Within a hundred days, we realized that the social opportunity in India itself was big enough and reinvented ourselves as a consulting firm, focused on advising Indian and international clients on how social technologies are impacting their business strategy.
By October, we were ready to move beyond pure-play advisory services and offer full solutions to our clients. Since then, we have been working hard on building our BUILD and ENGAGE capabilities, apart from strengthening our already mature PLAN capabilities.
Now, 2020 Social builds and nurtures online communities for Indian and international clients, to connect their customers, partners and employees, catalyze innovation and collaboration, and drive loyalty and advocacy.
2020 SOCIAL COMPETENCY AREAS
As of now, we have three “competency areas”:
- PLAN: which involves doing primary and secondary research on the social web, advising clients on how social technologies are impacting their business strategy, and conducting workshops for senior management.
- BUILD: which involves building online community platforms and social applications, and integrating them with existing platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter using social APIs.
- ENGAGE: which involves creating compelling content for the community platforms we build, tracking and participating in conversations on the community platforms and the broader social web, and increasing participation in these communities through social media contests.
Dave leads our PLAN competencies, Kaushal leads our BUILD competencies and Gautam leads our ENGAGE competencies.
2020 SOCIAL PARTNERS
In some of our engagements, we focus only on the PLAN piece, while the BUILD and ENGAGE pieces are handled by another full-service digital agency. In such cases, we usually work from the client side to define detailed functional requirements and campaign calenders, select the agency and closely work with them through the BUILD and ENGAGE pieces. We have worked with Experience Commerce and Interakt on such engagements and look forward to working with other full-service digital agencies.
In other engagements, we work across the PLAN, BUILD and ENGAGE pieces and partner with design and development firms to offer the full solution. We have worked with Design For Use and Tekriti Software on such engagements and look forward to working with them again.
Lithium (for external communities) and SocialText (for internal communities) are our preferred white label platforms. Drupal is our preferred platform for building custom community platforms.
2020 SOCIAL PRACTICE AREAS
As of now, we have three practice areas:
- BUSINESS TO CONSUMER: which involves building communities of interest, around lifestyles and causes.
- BUSINESS TO BUSINESS: which involves building communities of practice, around professions and industries.
- EMPLOYEES and PARTNERS: which involves building collaboration platforms.
Dave leads our business-to-consumer practice, Kaushal leads our business-to-business practice and Gautam leads our employees and partners practice.
2020 SOCIAL OFFERINGS
So, 2020 Social’s suite of offerings is essentially a matrix of our competency areas and practice areas –
NEXT FOR 2020 SOCIAL
Over a one year horizon, I expect 2020 Social to build offerings beyond pure-play services.
We are working on building some lightweight white label platforms of our own. The first of these platforms will be an ideation-cum-contest platform called 2020 Social Ideas.
We are also working on building some niche communities of our own. The first of these communities will be a private research community for young, urban, Indian trendsetters called Yuvaah.
Stay tuned to hear more about these initiatives soon.
THE 2020 SOCIAL SANDBOX
I am sure that our offerings will continue to evolve, but I am sure that we will play within the broad sandbox we started with:
- We believe that social technologies are changing business and society and we want to play an active role in fulfilling the promise of this movement.
- We will differentiate ourselves based on our insights and do work that extends the boundaries of how organizations use social technologies to connect with their constituents.
- We will build deep competencies in some areas and partner with experts in other areas who share our vision to bring together effective solutions for our clients.
Ask us how we can help you or partner with you.
Cross-posted on Gauravonomics: Social Media and Social Change.
Welcoming Puneet and Arushi – Interns at 2020 Social
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by Gautam in Announcements
Over the last week we had two new people who have joined the team at 2020 Social.
Puneet Singh (Twitter) from Fore School of Business, Delhi and Arushi Gupta (Twitter) from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi have joined us as interns. For the next couple of months they will work on specific live projects that will impact.
Puneet would be working on a project in which he would be looking at Business to Business (B2B) Communities – and finalising on what are the various types of B2B communities that can be leveraged by organizations to engage with their clients.
Arushi would be working along with Karthick and Freddie on what goes into building private community of young trendsetters – a community focused on observing trends and also on how marketers and organizations understand and engage these trendsetters.
Announcement: Kaushal Sarda Joins the 2020 Social Team
Posted on 09. Jan, 2010 by gaurav in Announcements
I’m delighted to announce that Kaushal Sarda has joined the 2020 Social team as a consultant.
Kaushal will head the Bangalore office for 2020 Social and focus on B2B, technology and startup clients. He will also work with Gautam to develop our collaboration/ innovation practice, where we connect employees and partners to help clients achieve their business objectives. Finally, he will work with Upasana to strengthen our “build” practice, where we build online communities using white label or open source platforms.
Previously, Kaushal has worked as a CRM consultant at Capgemini Consulting and founded SaaS based enterprise collaboration platform Uhuroo. He writes about collaboration and innovation at his Creating Connections blog and is a regular speaker on these topics. Kaushal holds an MS in information systems from George Mason University.
Do connect with Kaushal on email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Cross-posted at Gauravonomics: Social Media and Social Change.
The making of a Social Organization
Posted on 21. Dec, 2009 by Gautam in How To Guides
At 2020 Social one of the things we believe is that we are a our own petri-dish. We experiment with technology and processes to convert ourselves into the kind of organization we think is suitable to be called social.
So not only do we have a blog, a Facebook page, a twitter account, a twitter list showcasing all our tweets – we’ve also now started a wiki to focus on building a repository of social media successes in India – and will invite participation from like minded folks soon.
On the other side of the seriousness spectrum we have started a Fun page where we publicly talk on the lighter side of life at 2020 Social
Internally we are driving online collaboration using three tools, Google Apps for mail, document sharing and calendering - Socialtextfor internal conversations and collaboration on a wiki – and Basecamp for project management.
As social media enthusiasts we have noticed that internally even we need to see a business/behavioral benefit to using a tool – and we understand that more traditional businesses would need to see it more.
One of the way to showcase this is look for external cases where ROI has been calculated – but we believe that using the tools showcases a greater commitment and a better story for any client.
What do you think?
If you’re in the advisory business how many times do you apply your advice on yourself?
(Cross posted from Gautam on Organizations 2.0)
Business is Social: Here are Five Reasons Why
Posted on 01. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Ideas
At 2020 Social, we believe that business is social. Here are five reasons why.
1. Consumer Generated Content: Your consumers are authors, photographers and filmmakers, all rolled into one. Tap into their creativity, ask them to interpret your brand.
2. Conversations: Your customers, partners and employees are talking about you, in public. Listen to them, reach out to them, engage them in a two-way conversation.
3. Collaboration: People work together in flow when they connect with each other as people. Create rich profiles and shared workspaces to enable people to help each other.
4. Community: Communities come together around a shared social object: a lifestyle, cause or passion. Build and nurture a community around a social object that is bigger than your brand.
5. Collective Intelligence: Customers, employees and partners can give you new ideas and insights. Observe their behavior, ask them for their ideas, recognize and reward them for their contribution.
While social platforms like Twitter, SMSGupShup, Facebook, Orkut, Flickr and YouTube are transient, the underlying value system consisting of these five archetypes, or 5Cs, is here to stay.
Ask us how you can leverage these 5Cs to catalyze innovation and drive engagement, trial and advocacy amongst your customers, partners and employees.
Cross-posted on Gauravonomics Blog on Social Media and Social Change.
Gautam Ghosh Has Joined 2020 Social to Build Our Organizational Collaboration Practice
Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by gaurav in Announcements
I have a big announcement to make: Gautam Ghosh has joined 2020 Social to build the enterprise side of our Social Business Strategy practice. Gautam will join Dave, Upasana and myself in the core 2020 Social consulting team.
2020 Social is presently working with clients to leverage social technologies to achieve five types of strategic business objectives — increase revenue, decrease cost, design better products and processes, enable stronger relationships and increase productivity.
Instead of focusing on specific tools and technologies, we use a structured methodology to tap into the power of the five underlying value systems embedded in social technologies — user generated content, conversations, collaboration, community and collective intelligence.
Finally, we architect effective solutions in the form of community platforms, social applications, social commerce marketplaces, social CRM programs and enterprise collaboration programs.
Gautam will use his organizational development experience to help our clients think about the organizational culture and governance aspects of using social technologies. Specifically, here are the three questions Gautam will be working on –
1. What are the new challenges face by the customer-facing functions in the organization (sales, marketing, product and customer support) when the boundaries between employees, partners and consumers blur? How do organizations respond to these challenges?
2. What are the new pressures that organizational structures are subjected to when employees freely communicate and collaborate with other employees, customers and partners across departmental, geographical and organizations boundaries? How should organizational structures evolve to handle these pressures?
3. How can organizations use social technologies within the enterprise to simplify communication flows, enable stronger relationships with employees, catalyze innovation and improve employee productivity?
Over the next four weeks, Gautam and I will be co-authoring a series of posts (using, what else, a wiki) to come up with clear and actionable answers to these questions.
Everyone at 2020 Social is delighted that Gautam has joined our team and excited at the possibilities that we will be exploring together. Welcome, Gautam!
Social Media in India report: International automobile company review
Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Achintya in Reviews
This is the third post in a series where we will review performance of companies (and brands) using Social media to connect with Indian customers. As mentioned in our methodology post on soon to be published Social Media in India report, we are reviewing top Indian and International companies from the Forbes list for their presence in social media in India. In the previous posts we had reviewed some of the Indian companies” ( like the Tatas, Airtel, Reliance Communications) presence on Social Media. In this post we will be reviewing the presence of some international automobile companies on the Indian social web.
The Forbes 2009 list features 4 automobile companies in the top 50 having an Indian market presence. They are Toyota (3), Volkswagen (15) , Mitsubishi ( actually the list ranks Mitsubishi UFJ Financial as the 21st company but since the parent company also has an Indian presence in the car & SUV market, we have considered it for this review ) and Honda (39). Out of these, we found Toyota & Mitsubishi doing something interesting specific to Indian consumers.
We begin with Toyota, the Forbes 2009 rank 3 company. The international automobile major has an Indian presence through cars like Corolla, Camry, Innova, Altis, Land Cruiser, Prado etc. Owing to its global positioning as a company that is concerned about environment, the company has partnered with NDTV ( an Indian news and media company ) for its ”Green Future” web platform. ”Green Future” is essentially an environment news platform which features many influencers speaking on environmental causes and supporting various campaigns conducted by the company and the news channel. However, this social platform is more than just environment gyan. It has many social applications which takes its readers across multiple levels of social engagement. Readers can read news, watch videos, post comments and opinions on various topics. There is also an ideation platform called ”24-hour green ideas” where members can pool in their creative ideas for an eco-friendly future. Moreover, there is a separate kid’’s platform called ”Kid’’s club” where the next generation is being guided to a cleaner environment by engaging them to share their stories and thoughts, poems etc on environment.
Overall, Toyota’’s ”Green Future” is an interesting social website built around a noble cause which the company has known to support for years. It is an impressive start as an environment news channels that features many influencers and celebrities talking about a greener earth. Perhaps in the future they would like to have these celebrities blogging and interacting with readers- something on the lines of Huffington Post- or adopt a user generated environment news aggregation model like ngopost.org. In the future we would also like to see Toyota leveraging its user engagement to promote trial and purchase of its products also.
Moving on to Mitsubishi; the Forbes international rank 21 company has presence in India through cars like Lancer, Cedia, Pajero, Montero, Outlander. The Japanese auto major recently launched an online reality contest called The Great Driving Challenge for the promotion of Mitsubishi Cedia. Contestants were shortlisted on the basis of votes from visitors/members who rated the contestant based on their testimonials, profile and uploaded online content like blogs, photos, videos etc. The final 3 contestants were then sponsored for a paid road trip on Mitsubishi Cedia sports car on their chosen circuit where they were supposed to post blogs, photos and videos based on their trip experiences. Finally the winner was decided on the number of posts, content quality, user votes and number of profile visitors.
The Great Driving challenge is a good example of an online reality show. It effectively integrates the product marketing with the social media campaign. Unfortunately many such campaigns die out after some time and so does the buzz around it. If such social media campaigns are kept alive all round the year, we think it would add a lot more value to the company. Young and Free Alberta is one such example of an online reality contest where members & participants are kept engaged all round the year.
Summarizing, we can see international car companies making special efforts in social media for Indian customers. This shows that these companies recognize the importance of engaging customers around their product or social object (lifestyle, passion or cause) as well as customizing social media campaigns for target markets. In the near future we would like to see companies like Toyota and others, which have excellent social platforms and applications for international markets ( e.g. togethergreen.org) , bringing their Indian counterparts to an equivalent level.
Social Media in India: Airtel Review
Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by Achintya in Reviews
This is the second post in a series where we will review performance of companies (and brands) using Social media to connect with Indian customers. In the last post we had reviewed the Indian conglomerate Tata. For this post we will review the Indian telecom major Airtel. Airtel is currently the biggest telecom operator in India in terms of annual revenue and operates in businesses like mobiles networks, home phones, broadband, internet and conferencing services etc.
The most prominent presence of Airtel in social media can be seen through their community platform built around the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (ADHM), which is to be held on 1st of November this year. The first interesting thing you will notice on the website is the runner’’s wall, where all ADHM community members can share their running stories. The platform also encourages discussions on the joy of running and you will see hundreds of registered ADHM community users discussing their running sagas on the discussion forums.With topics ranging from ”whom would you like to run with?” to ”how to improve your running stamina” the ADMH discussions not only keep the participants engaged but also encourage those who are still not sure of their participation. Interestingly, ADHM community also gets running and health experts to participate in the discussions, who impart valuable health and fitness related information to the community members.
Unfortunately, in the past it has been seen that such community platforms promoting a mega offline event die out post event completion. However we see ADHM community as a social platform designed around the passion for running and has the potential of retaining itself by building more user engaging models and applications.
Other than the ADHM, Airtel is also using social media to promote its multi-million dollar deal with Manchester United football club which would give access to ManU’’s football content over their mobile phones. The Airtel-ManU web platform takes you to a virtual Old Trafford stadium where you can book seats beside your friends and get virtual props. Interestingly, there is a well designed reward and recognition system which ranks you on your engagement on the platform. There are points associated with downloading ringtones, wallpapers and inviting/recommending friends and the highest grosser gets free tickets to Old Trafford. We feel that this platform is built around a very strong social object (lifestyle, passion, cause) which is the passion for Soccer and can be used to interact with users on multiple levels of engagement. Royal Challenge whisky is doing something similar for cricket in social media and we would await Airtel’’s similar feat for Indian soccer fans.
Finally, we talk about Airtel broadband services interactive social platform built around the ”fast life” lifestyle where impatience is considered the new way of living for the youth. It features some youth icons namely ”The Impatient Ones” with their blogs, favourite videos and tweet updates. The channel also holds contest for selecting the next ”impatient one”. Hence we see a platform where users are getting to interact with their icons and also getting a chance to become like them. In the near future we see this community using many other social applications to build more conversations around ”an impatient way of life” to engage their target audience.
Summarizing, it can be said that the Indian telecom major Airtel is making a significant online social media presence. It has chosen some very strong social objects (lifestyle, passion, cause) in all of its platforms like soccer, running & adventure, fast life etc. Hence they have got very good foundations to build rewarding communities along their brand. It is just a matter of time that we see them reaching highers levels of engagement for the users
2020 Social builds and nurtures online communities for Indian and international clients, connects their customers, partners and employees, and helps them achieve their business objectives.
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