Enormous growth of Social Media is empowering many countries to absorb the advantages of Internet with full capacity. Online communication has been competent to a level where messages are flowing almost instantly among people. Not so different than other countries, India has got significant impact of social media and people are leveraging more on social media networks than emails for information sharing and communication.
As per the latest study on social media usage in India, by Neilson in collaboration with AbsolutData, nearly 30 million Indian Internet users are connected with social networking websites and about two third of them spend one hour on these social media sites every.
Interestingly, study has found that people in India are spending more time on social media sites than emails. Almost the same number of people is spending less than an hour on social media sites and email every day. However, only 8% are spending between an hour to three hours on personal email every day compare to 20% who stay connected with social network sites for same duration.
“Social media is now ingrained in the way tech savvy Indians live their lives. With its ability to play multiple roles in an individual’s life by enabling shared experiences, creating linkages between communities and satisfying the need to be networked, its role in creating a deeper engagement is a boon to marketing,” said Adrian Terron, Vice President of Global Communications and Marketing for Nielsen.
The growth of social media in India is quite rapid. People are becoming more tech savvy, so the social. The trend is going to continue and every day near about 45,000 Indian users are going to join some social network site for next six months.
Brand Engagement on Social Media
The study, conducted over 2000 people across all five Indian metros and Tier 1 cities, also reveals the strong brand collaboration with people over social network. Every forth online user was able to connect themselves with brand through social media. Also, a group of people in small ratio committed to follow brands over social media.
67% of people who are on Web use the online survey results to form their opinion about brand and get influenced while buying process. At the same time, 60% of social media users from India are open for brands to communicate with them to reduce the expectations-production gap.
The study reveals that the relationship between consumer and brand is much more active and stronger die to two way communication using social network. Companies can get instant reviews, feedback and complaints about their product from majority of people with the help of social media. Vise-versa, expectations of people are also riding high as they want companies to pay attention and act towards their comments and words.
All-and-all, social media is emerging as one of the most powerful collaboration tools in India which is not only helping to reduce the communication gap but is also allowing companies to engage millions of people through single platform. Surely, Online marketing in India is moving towards a new unified ecosystem of branding and marketing mix.
