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Tag: social media

  • Social Media is Important to Majority of Indians: Ipsos Study

    Social Media is Important to Majority of Indians: Ipsos Study

    MUMBAI: Majority (58 per cent) of Indians say social media is important to them; compared to 42 per cent globally, according to a new poll of online respondents conducted by Ipsos OTX – the global innovation center for Ipsos, the world’s third largest market and opinion research firm.

     

    “As Mahatma Gandhi rightly said – ‘action expresses priorities’, social media is well on its way to being a priority as majority of Indians who have access to the internet claim social media is important in their lives,” said Ipsos India head of marketing communication Biswarup Banerjee.

     

    “With proliferation of mobile internet in India, social media has become a part of everyone’s life, it influences people’s daily life and how they interact with each other. Social media has now become a mainstream way of communicating – for individuals as well as businesses,” added Banerjee.

     

    The big social media story is told in the demographics, especially age. Age appears to be the strongest demographic driver of placing importance on social media in India. Indeed, a big majority (62 per cent) of those under the age of 35 rate social media as important vs. 58 per cent for those aged 35-49 and 44 per cent for those aged 50-64. Women (64 per cent) seem more likely than men (54 per cent) to rate it highly.

     

    The countries with the highest proportions those indicating social media is important to them are from: Turkey (64 per cent), Brazil (63 per cent), Indonesia (62 per cent), China (61 per cent), Saudi Arabia (59 per cent), India (58 per cent), Mexico (54 per cent) and South Africa (52 per cent). This group of social media lovers is followed by Argentina (45 per cent), Russia (44 per cent), Spain (42 per cent), Poland (37 per cent), Hungary (36 per cent), Sweden (35 per cent), Germany (33 per cent), Great Britain (33 per cent) and the United States (32 per cent). The lower group includes: Australia (30 per cent), Italy (30 per cent), Belgium (29 per cent), Canada (28 per cent), South Korea (28 per cent), Japan (24 per cent) and France (17 per cent).

     

    Ipsos conducted this study among 18,002 people in 24 countries in the month of July.

  • GroupM partners with Social Media Week

    GroupM partners with Social Media Week

    MUMBAI: GroupM partnered with the global social media conclave, Social Media Week in its debut outing to India. As the host of the Advertising and Marketing hub and an integral part of the advisory board, GroupM brought together marketers, publishers, influencers and thinkers discussing content, data, insight, mobile, search, platforms and innovations. Over a course of three days, the agenda sought to deep dive into all aspects of social media that affect brands today.

    Day 1:

    Day one of the hub with a spotlight on content focused on two pertinent questions:

    Brands in The Youth & Social equation

    On the high impact panel moderated by Anant Rangaswami Editor, Storyboard on CNBC TV18 and senior editor, Firstpost.com was Rishi Dogra (General Manager – Marketing Digital & Activations at PepsiCo), Alex Oberberg (Head of markets Engagement, Global Social media and Digital marketing); Nickhil Jakatdar (CEO and Founder, Vuclip); Arjun S Ravi (Co-Founder, NH7) & Social Media Influencer Abhishek Ashthna aka Gabbar Singh. From what the best in business are doing to engage a super connected demographic to what the Indian scenario lacks, this session covered it all. The panel extensively debated on where brand conversations and imagery fit in the world of a young consumer.

    Socialization of Branded content

    The next highlight event was an insightful conversation between Prem Panicker (Managing Editor, Yahoo India) and Anant Ranswami as they discussed the evolution of branded content through time, platforms and technology. The session focused on the changed game between content creators, carriers and consumers. Panicker spoke extensively about the changing balance of power between content producers, publishers, distributors and consumers.

    Along with the session, the day saw enormous participation in the interactive workshops by GroupM Social and Search & KRDS. These were aimed at hands on and interactive learning for the topics in discussion.

    Day 2:

    The hub focus on day two were game changers, with discussions on data, cinema and mobile
    Real time data and actionable insights

    The day started with a group of industry leaders that are making numbers work harder. Listening, measurement and technology all served up in hot offering,  the panel moderated by Sandeep Pandey, Mindshare comprised of Lakshmanan Narayan, CEO & Co-Founder, Unmetric Inc; Venke Sharma, Vice President – Digital Marketing, Star TV; Kartik Sharma, Managing Partner Maxus; Ranjit Nair, CEO, Explic8. The session focused on how the best in the business are converting data into actionable marketing insights to drive value like no other. Amongst many intriguing conclusions, the way forward was making beta a strategy, real time optimization and democratic marketing structures
    Cinema in the age of internet

    Another aspect of the changing balance of power was brought to debate by the second panel of the day as Pragya Tiwari Editor-in-Chief, The Big Indian Picture quizzed Rohan Sippy, Film Director and Producer & Guneet Monga, CEO, Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd on how social media has revolutionized what they do. This was a live wire discussion about all aspects of film production and marketing from creative, tech, production, marketing, censorship to criticism and box-office collections and how social helps.

    Day 3:
    Day three was full power Advertising hub day and also the closing day of the Social Media Week Mumbai.

    The day opened with an invigorating address by Rohit Varma, Co-Founder, R SQUARE Consulting (CO) and Toby Daniels, Founder & CEO, Crowdcentric; followed by the highlight session of the day, the keynote address by CVL Srinivas, CEO, South Asia GroupM.

    Speaking on the Changing Face of Agencies in the Dynamic Social Media World, Srinivas commented on the paradigms shifts of airing to sharing; digital first thought map and eventually about an adaptive and actionable marketing structure.

    Amongst the many panels on the day, some of the noteworthy sessions were:

    The Art & Science of Social Media Analytics

    A descriptive 101 in how social insights are logical and analytical at the same time. This session by Karthik Nagarajan, National Director – Social Media & Insights, GroupM had it all – solutions, perspectives and best practices. The presentation explained the stages of insight from mere data  to an actionable logic backed inference.

    The Publisher Brand and the rise of Micro-Content
    This session brought to the fore the opportunity shorter forms of content brings. A pacey and heady conversation between four of the most dynamic thinkers of the media and social industry – Anant Rangaswami, Editor, Storyboard on CNBC TV18 and senior editor, Firstpost.com; Ashok Krish, Head – Web 2.0 Innovation labs, Tata Consultancy Services; Lakshmanan Narayan, CEO & Co-Founder, Unmetric; Karthik Nagarajan, National Director – Social Media & Insights, GroupM. The panel concurred how the arrival of micro content and real time responses not just meant a relook at content strategies but also a revision of the brands priorities.

     

  • Govt. studying ways to ensure greater responsibility in social media

    Govt. studying ways to ensure greater responsibility in social media

    NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, while regretting that the new media had been used without any sense of responsibility in events like the Muzaffarnagar riots, feels that one way out of this is to put more credible information in public space ‘to counter mis-information’.

    The Minister told the National Integration Council in a meeting today that while this was causing concern, the United Progressive Alliance’s policy over the last nine years had been ‘an essay in persuasion rather than regulation as far as the media goes’.

    He said that the government is working on how misuse of the new social media can be prevented and said that he would like to hear from all stakeholders at the Council meeting.

    He said it was now possible for any individual to reach out to the world with any news within a second, often ‘without responsibility and restraint’.

    He added: ‘Every individual has become a broadcaster in his own right without editorial control.’

    The social media had empowered the people but this power should be used with responsibility, he said.

     

  • Twitter Certified Product Flowics launches in India to bring Real-time Social Content Visualization and Engagement

    Twitter Certified Product Flowics launches in India to bring Real-time Social Content Visualization and Engagement

    MUMBAI: Zauber, a US/Latin America based, venture-backed, social analytics’ products company, has entered Indian market with its social curation and engagement platform Flowics – a Twitter Certified Product. Twitter’s Certified Products Program seeks to bring some of the most innovative products and services from Twitter developers to companies that need them the most.

     

    Flowics filters and displays social media content in real-time on any digital screen and the Web, to increase engagement of brands, TV shows and publishers with their audience.

     

    Flowics can help brands to build community around their digital presence, and stimulate and grow social conversations about them. For TV networks and shows, Flowics can be used to drive increased social engagement with their audiences, by providing on-air integration and big screen visualizations of real-time social streams,  as well as second screen experiences that can be deployed directly on their digital properties. Publishers can also use Flowics to deploy live data visualizations on any relevant topic, using original content, curated from social media. Flowics’ innovative technology can filter and curate the buzz generated by TV shows, political, sports and entertainment events and any important news stories.

     

    “We are excited to launch Flowics in India and looking forward to developing our local operations in the TV and media ecosystem.” said Gabriel Ba?os, CEO and Founder of Zauber, the company behind Flowics. “We have proven track record in Latin America and now our emerging collaborations in India will allow publishers, TV networks and brands to better engage with their audience in real-time.”

     

    Flowics has been already used by major companies in the US, LatAm and Spain like Coca Cola, Al Jazeera, Peugeot, ESPN Brazil, Ora.TV, Caracol.TV and RTVE, among others. Lately, Flowics and Twitter have already worked together in special projects for TV Networks and publishers in Brazil, like R7, Yahoo! and ESPN.

     

    In the US, Ora. TV with Larry King used Flowics in its coverage of the 2012 Presidential Debates to track and display Twitter buzz for the both the Presidential and Vice Presidential showdowns. During the debates, the TV show used Flowics visualization tools to showcase comments, Tweets and spikes in volume associated with particular comments made by the candidates. Flowics not only visually demonstrates social content, but allows the audience to take part in an interactive social experience.

     

    Recently, with the support of Twitter, Star India used Flowics, for its coverage of ‘Saath Hai Hum Uttarakhand’ – a fund raising event organized by Star TV on the Independence Day of India. Flowics has powered the visualisation of the Tweets for #AllForUttarakhand in real time.

  • One million Facebook fans for Mahindra Racing

     

    MUMBAI: Mahindra Racing, the only Indian constructor in grand prix motorcycle racing – in the hotly contested Moto3 grand prix class – has breached the one million ‘likes’ barrier on Facebook.

     

    With a strong following from India, and around the world, the popular Moto3 outfit keeps their loyal Facebook fans updated daily with Mahindra Racing news.

    Whether providing an insight into who works at the team and factory riders Miguel Oliveira and Efrén Vázquez, or charting the impressive progress and development of the new-for-this-year MGP3O racer.

     

    Mahindra Racing thanks its fans for their continued support. It’s wonderful to see that we have such a strong and loyal following, sharing in our story as Mahindra makes history as the only Indian constructor in motorcycle racing,” said Mahindra Racing CEO Mufaddal Coonia.

    Mahindra Racing CEO, Mufaddal Choonia meeting fans in the team garage at Silverstone

    “It’s an adventure for us, and we enjoy interacting with our fans, wanting to involve our online community in our journey as we develop the MGP3O and progress in the Moto3 class. We also have one of the largest motor sport communities online. Now reaching over one million fans ‘liking’ us on Facebook, it is incredibly pleasing for us, and we try and make our fans feel as close to the team as possible via our official social media channels,” he added.

  • Google aims to get 50,000 Gujarat SMEs online

    MUMBAI: Google India has announced its plan to get 50,000 small medium businesses in Gujarat online by end of 2014. The initiative is part of Google’s national campaign titled ‘India, get your business online’ which offers free websites and hosting to small medium business in India. The campaign is aimed at bringing down the barrier that prevents small medium businesses to get on the Internet. Giving a head start to this project, Google also unveiled the details of a special project wherein Google India & HostGator went to popular traditional markets in Ahmadabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot and built websites for 5,000 small businesses making them accessible to the world.

     

    In addition to creating the websites, Google India also created Google maps listings and Google+ business pages for these businesses. All these 5,000 businesses will be able to use 24×7 customer support to manage their websites and get free online advertising credit that can be used on Google search to promote their business online.

     

    This initiative was announced by Google India Head – SMB Sales Suryanarayana K, who said, “SMEs are a key driver for economic growth of India, but very few businesses have been able to utilise the benefits of the internet effectively. Gujarat houses the largest number of SMEs in the country. These can benefit greatly by having a website for their businesses which will open up new markets for them. Google’s ‘India Get Your Business Online’ initiative aims to boost the SME ecosystem by giving them a simple, effective and free platform to get their business online. We aim to get 50,000 SMEs online, which will dramatically change the business landscape and opportunities for SMEs in Gujarat.” 

    “Our research has shown that SMEs who use internet, see revenue growth of 51 per cent and raise in profits by 49 per cent. Gujarat already represents 10 per cent of the total internet population in the country and houses many export oriented businesses, by being present on the internet, they can make the world their market and continue to boost the economy of the country”, he added. 

     

    Amongst the businesses that were covered in the project, Google India team built websites for traditional businesses operating out of popular local markets in Ahmedabad like the Manek Chowk, Teen Darwaza, Kabootar Khanna, Lathi Bazaar. In Surat the project covered Millenium market, Radha Krishnan market (textile market), In Rajkot – Soni bazaar and Sant Kabir road famous for jewellery stories, and in Vadodara – Lehri Pura Darwaja a market that focuses on traditional artifacts. 
    Nakul Makker, owner of Swati Furniture based in Visharam Marg, Ahmadabad said “We get a lot of customers who always ask us about our website as nowadays the customers expect us to put our catalogue online. We have been thinking about making one but we did not know how to go about it. With Google offering to set up a website for us, our business is now accessible online to anyone and everyone in Ahmadabad. A website today is like a mobile phone, as a business you need to invest in one and grow your business. With our website we can also look at expanding our customer base which is not limited to Ahmedabad.” 

     

    In addition to this initiative, Google will host several workshops through its 200 Google partners in Gujarat, who will provide local support to SMEs and help them to get online and grow their business through online marketing. The campaign will also be supported by an aggressive marketing campaign that will focus on improving the awareness on the benefits of Internet for small medium businesses.

  • Zoom’s Facebook boom

    Zoom’s Facebook boom

    MUMBAI: Not only does Times Television Networks’ channel Zoom enjoy the distinction of being the first Indian television channel to air all the hot gossip from tinsel town, it is now also the first to cross five million likes on Facebook.

    Indeed, at the time of filing this news piece, the number stood at 5,164,957 with 484,777 ‘talking about it’ (the channel).

    So how does Zoom pull it off? The channel claims its target audience is mainly youth, which is most interested in the happenings in the Bollywood universe.

    The Facebook page keeps audiences updated on all that they’ve missed out even if they’re not actively watching the channel. “Zoom has systems in place to ensure that even if one is not in front of the TV, one never has to lose access to the latest news,” explains Zoom CEO Avinash Kaul.

    It’s a known fact that building traffic is difficult and sustaining it even more so. In such a scenario, Zoom claims it focuses on understanding conversation patterns to come up with newer, more innovative posts in the future.

    “The choice of topic, stars, the time of the day (when an update is put out) and selection of hash tags – all comes from a close and mindful study of past trends,” elaborates Kaul, adding that the channel tries to put out breaking news to create buzz among youngsters.

    An in-house team handles social media and is responsible for selection of posts to keep audiences engaged, which includes contests, trivia and news. According to Kaul, the team micro manages the posts to draw and keep traffic. “Immediate response and relevant content through posts is our key focus that has ensured a fantastic interaction,” he says.

    Zoom’s Facebook page, which started in 2009 and reaches 95 million people weekly, also has a show called ‘Zoom It’, which plays song dedications made by its Facebook followers. The fact of the matter is Zoom has sped past GECs in terms of Facebook likes and the reason, according to Kaul, is: “As part of family TV viewing, the youth has to follow GECs even when they’re not their most preferred choice of entertainment. In the digital space however, it’s entirely up to them to choose and watch exactly what they want.”

    As things stand, only MTV just crossed the level of five million likes as well, coming a close second to Zoom with 5, 013, 539 Facebook likes, followed by Zee with 49, 349, Star Plus with 3, 184, 230 and Colors with 2, 225, 824.

    While Zoom may want to be cautious about MTV’s proximity in terms of Facebook likes, for now, it sure is leading the pack…

  • Ipsos study claims three in ten Indian drivers are on the phone while driving

     

    MUMBAI: About three in ten (29 per cent) Indians who drive indicate they text, email, or use social media while they are driving (even when they’re at a stop sign or a red light) compared to 22 per cent globally according a new poll conducted by Ipsos OTX – the global innovation center for Ipsos, the world’s third largest market and opinion research firm.

     

    However, a majority of Indian driving respondents (71 per cent) say they do not do this. The findings reflect a new poll of 14,160 drivers conducted by Ipsos globally, the number of respondents from India was 851 drivers.

     

    Commenting on the findings, Ipsos in India head marketing communications Biswarup Banerjee said, “Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of accidental death in India, and using a phone while driving significantly increases the risk of accidents. Trying to do two visual tasks at once hurt performance in both tasks significantly, sadly many people have this overconfidence in how well they can multitask which may prove fatal.”

     

    he countries with the highest proportions of drivers indicating they have texted, emailed or used social media while driving are from: Saudi Arabia (43 per cent), South Africa (41 per cent), South Korea (33 per cent), India (29 per cent), China (27 per cent), United States (27 per cent), Brazil (25 per cent) and Russia (25 per cent). This group of distracted drivers is followed by Indonesia (24 per cent), Sweden (24 per cent), Mexico (23 per cent), Argentina (21 per cent), Australia (20 per cent), Germany (20 per cent), Canada (19 per cent) and Italy (19 per cent), rounding out the middle of the pack. The lower group includes: Japan (18 per cent), France (17 per cent), Poland (17 per cent), Turkey (17 per cent), Belgium (15 per cent), Spain (14 per cent), Hungary (9 per cent) and Great Britain (8 per cent).

     

    As for demographics of Indians, age is among the most important variable in determining a driver’s likelihood to message behind the wheel in India as those under the age of 35 years (34 per cent) are most likely to say “yes” they engage in the behavior, compared with those 35-49 years (25 per cent) and those 50-64 years (14 per cent). However, Indian male drivers (31 per cent) are more likely to use their smart phone while driving compared to 26 percent female.

     

    Communicating digitally while in the car appears to be highly related to a person’s work life as those who are employed (32 per cent) are more likely than those unemployed (17 per cent) to say “yes”. Seniority is even more of an indicator as those who own a business (48 per cent) are among the most likely to say they do it (22 per cent among non-business owners), as are those who say they have a senior decision making role in their place of employment (38 per cent vs. 18 per cent non). Similarly, income (31 per cent high, 30 per cent medium, 25 per cent low) and education (29 per cent high, 26 per cent medium, 48 per cent low) are also indicators of greater likelihood to drive and message.

  • Jawhar Sircar, CVL Srinivas, Suhel Seth to talk at Social Media Week

    Jawhar Sircar, CVL Srinivas, Suhel Seth to talk at Social Media Week

    MUMBAI: Seven days to go for Social Media Week (SMW) which will make its debut in the maximum city on 23 September.

    The event will see an exciting list of some of the most renowned professionals as speakers. Interacting with the crowd of Mumbai and speaking in special sessions on every possible aspect of social media will be names like:

    1.Subramanian Swamy, President, Janata Party

    2.Suhel Seth, Managing Partner, Counselage India

    3.Milind Soman, Runner, Model, Actor and Film Producer

    4.Gul Panag, Actress and Activist

    5.Jawhar Sircar, Chief Executive Officer, Prasar Bharati

    6.Dr. Sharad Kale, Padma Sree Award Winner, Professor- Homi Bhabha National Institute

    7.Devika Bhojwani, Socialist

    8.Alex Oberberg, Global Head of Markets Engagement, Social Media & Digital at Nokia

    9.Toby Daniels, CEO & Founder, Social Media Week

    10.Richard Lui, Journalist, MSNBC

    11.CVL.Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia

    12.Max Hegerman, Managing Director, Edelman

    13.Simon Ashwin, Head of Digital, Mindshare North Asia

    14.Kiruba Shankar, Digital Entrepreneur, Author, Teacher & Farmer

    15.Kiran Khalap, Co-Founder, chlorophyll

    16.Kalyan Varma, Freelance Wildlife Photographer

    Mantralaya is one of the main venues where multiple events will take place for the government employees. Further, many Govt. of Maharashtra officials are actively taking part in this mega festival. Ajay Ambekar, Deputy Secretary Protocol, is on the Advisory Board and Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Directorate of IT, will initiate the proceedings at Mantralaya with an opening address on 24 September.

    Multiple venues across the city are hosting the various events at SMW Mumbai. Catch these 100 plus exciting events across five days at iconic venues like: National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), blueFROG, Barking Deer, GroupM office, Westin and Trident.

    Kick start the week running with Milind Soman and end it with a ‘Chai & Pakoda’ bike ride with more than 250 bikers, while partying every evening at various hotspots of the city.

    One can register on www.socialmediaweek.org/Mumbai. Registration for all events is free of cost except for some events on the opening & the closing Day.

  • Facebook launches new way of watching videos for users

     

    NEW DELHI: Facebook has commenced testing an easier way to watch videos on Facebook.

     

    When the user sees a video in News Feed, it comes to life and starts playing. Videos will play silently, but users can tap to play with sound in full screen. The viewers may also scroll past if they do not want to watch it. 

     

    Users will see this on mobile in the coming weeks.

    At present, videos start playing from individuals (personal Facebook accounts or verified Pages), and pages of musicians and bands. But videos only play with sound after one clicks on them.

     

    At first, this feature will be limited to videos posted by individuals, musicians, and bands and Facebook is doing this to make sure it creates the best possible experience. Later, it will continue to explore how to bring this to marketers.