The Third Front

Messages of please come back and we miss you are undulant on the

scrapbook of a youngster months after his tragic death in an accident. An NGO

was started after a set of like-minded people came together for a cause they

felt so passionate about on a social networking group. A successful software

engineer chucks his job to direct a film after he is convinced, inspired and

supported by a few people on another social networking community who he had

never met before. Such is the life-altering power of social networking that

labeling it as a craze or wave would be undermining the depth of involvement,

means of indulgence and astuteness of attitude that the phenomenon has entitled

us to today.

We have come much beyond the point of introspecting whether the social

networking concept in India has been a success or not. If there is a debate at

all, it has to do with the limited penetration of the Internet, but even that

has been no real bottleneck to its growth in India, primarily attributed to the

young country tag India has. Marked by their zealous nature and characterized

by the need to be known and heard, youth were the obvious target audience and

continue to be the most aggressive users of social networking sites. But the

growing number of the 35 plus on the social networking space cannot be ignored

as networking is going beyond general interest to become more specific, targeted

and subject-oriented as well.

The working is simple: you create your online identity, virtually befriend

people, and pour your hearts out on anything your feel even remotely close to.

And the sites provide you the means to do that through various functions, apps,

and features. Nothing said or heard between the HTML pages is too open,

personal, or sensitive; it is justifiably a prototype of freedom of speech with

a new qualificationexpression meets action on the same platform. From

presidents to purses to parental pressure, social networks began to echo the

sentiment of millions, and that too with certain sincerity. Change and activism,

propagation and assimilation, consciousness and conviction, frills and thrills

all became synchronous.

(L-R) Winner of Sonys Indian Idol 4, Sourabee; Shahrukh Khan at Nach Baliye 4 Grand Finale; and the hosts of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 3. Viewers tuned in for more excitement on the shows social communities on websites like Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace among others

With networking sites growing beyond a place to chit-chat with peer groups,

though that still remains a primary attraction, it caught the attention of those

looking to turn the freewheeling thoughts of a few hundred million into an

opportunity. The offshoots were many but the most conspicuous was social

networks becoming a medium of promotion and marketing; not as we have known it

traditionally. It is becoming a convenient and simple platform for enterprises,

brands, and even traditional media to reach a large section of people in a short

span of time. The differentiator is engagement.

Social networking provides a critical mass of consumer attention. TV

branding was about reach. Search marketing was about looking to convert result

into salesRoI. But now a third front of marketing is emerging through social

networking, ie, engagement. This engagement is about depth. Marketers are now

looking beyond 30 seconds advertising to 24x7 advertising through social

networking, says Shailesh Rao, MD, Google India.

Small in Size, Big in Reach

If the fan following of the wonder-car was not enough already, there is a new level of excitement among Indian and those following its launch internationally on Tata Nanos official page on Facebook. It has more than 5,000 members, videos of the launch, information for booking, and words of appreciation for members who have left comments on the page about the car and company, from the company. This campaign exemplifies how well targeted the social networking site for the worlds most awaited car is. The aim was not gaining more popularityits status of the cheapest car in the world already got it enough of thatit was about winning the loyalty of prospective Nano owners even before they grab the steering wheels. And later, as the car starts rolling into some of them driveways, the Nano pages would become a way to directly talk to Tata Motors officials, leave suggestions and seek answers to their car-related queries. And you need not necessarily be an owner to do that. Interestingly, according to a survey done by Juxt Consult, 46.4% of social networking users (projected base of 15,050,165 and sample of 4,037) have two-wheelers. And wouldnt Nano be their ultimate inspiration? Oh! and the latest discussion on Nanos page is, What are the chances to get Nano in America? Our very own Nano is a car of international repute already.

Social networking is increasingly being used as a platform to launch new

products, familiarize about new trends, and seek user feedback to better

products and services through official communities, groups and blogs. The level

of engaging the audience interest on a sustained basis, thanks to social

networking, is such that it is impossible to switch off and disassociate.

Into its sixth season, and MTV Roadies continues to receive cult status by

the millions of youngsters in India. The popularity of this show on MTV and the

unending quest of its viewers to live the Roadies experience, made the channel

extend the experience on the web by creating an official MTV Roadies community

on Orkut. The community has grown to having close to 3 lakh members and now is

live and kicking with discussions, debates, videos, chats with stars and events

around everything thats happening on MTV.

We believe in talking to our audience and not at our audience. Our

social networking community allowed us to do just that. We have utilized people

well. The moderators of the group are handpicked and there is an owner of the

community popularly known as Webbie. There are one-on-one discussions on the MTV

community about the shows, anchors, issue related to youth, etc. This is helping

us grow and learn by realizing what our audience wants, says Vaibhav Vishal,

associate vice president, shows, MTV India.

This whole new component to marketing is a change from where you were talked

down to or told people about a product or brand and how good it is. Participants

are not test subjects anymore rather are being asked about their views. This

helps to play upstream in marketing, engage audience on a sustained basis, and

is a way of marketing that helps on the product development side too, adds

Shailesh Rao of Google.

Work Fast in Progress



For a consumer it starts with a small association that builds into brand

recall upon meeting expectations, and eventually evolves into brand loyalty.

Print ads, reviews, TVCs and radio jingles have traditionally been the means to

achieve the above, but in a way where the consumer has been passive and often

unreceptive. The message also is often lost in transition. This is where the

judicious use of marketing through social networking scores.

Social network advertising is essentially still a work in progress. Take

the Beacon Project by Facebook for example. Based on your friends purchase

behavior, you could see a message flashing on your screen: Tom just bought the

Zeitgeist CD from Amazon. There are appropriate links for you to make the exact

purchase. Thats exciting newsif marketers can capture word-of-mouth and peer

influence as a medium, theyve hit the Holy Grail, says Mairu Gupta, associate

account director, Saatchi & Saatchi.

For Sony the viral nature of the medium was very attractive, and effective.

Salman Khans blog during the Dus Ka Dum, or the Indian Idol contestants

reaching out to their fans through multiple social networking sites and the

official Facebook applications of the ongoing dance reality show on Sony, Jhalak

Dikhhla Jaa called Aaj Kya Naya Kiya explain Sonys deep involvement in the

medium.

It was difficult to ignore the 15-34 years age group that is driving India.

Usage of physical media like mobile, PCs and laptop is also growing big-time.

Social networking thus became an extension of what we want from people for our

properties (TV shows). Our main aim is engaging viewers, branding and brand

recall are a subset of that, says Danish Khan, head of marketing, Sony

Entertainment Television India.

Celebrity Traits

Recently, the news of Aamir Khan going on a vacation with his kids to North America did the rounds when he posted a blog on iTimes, Indias first integrated networking and email website, as it has been positioned. Amitabh Bachchans reaction on the Mumbai attacks on his blog on BigAdda.com (an Indian networking site) that he slept with a gun under his pillow also got a lot of people talking. Here, theres an obvious advantage for the websites that want to grab market share but have stiff competition to overcome. People, drawn by the popularity the celebrities and the candidness of the medium, would like to be part of such social networking sites. The presence of celebrities on social networks, in the future, can also mean an opportunity for brands that these celebrities are already associated with to use the same medium for cross selling or in this case cross marketing; a trend Bollywood is promoting extensively already.

Its about Money, Honey



The monetizing aspect is where the interest lies ultimately for any

marketer. Apart from consumer loyalty and deep rooted presence, social

networking can also rake in the dimes by the dozen if the medium is used

correctly.

Commenting on whether marketing through social networking translates into

money, Mairu Gupta says, Yes, it can work but only if you dont go about it the

conventional way. If you design your campaign with a media planner, it will

never work. The recipe is to put a bunch of copywriters to brainstorm with the

HR people and then you get some wacky ideas. Thats the scope of innovation in

online social media today.

Based on the success of last year, we have earmarked a percentage of Sonys

property on the digital medium. We are taking this very seriously. Our total

spend on digital media will increase by 500%, says Khan of Sony.

Google is providing three ways to market through Orkut: ads, skins, and

community. The skin option where the background of your profile will be the

theme/design of the brand will be made available to members soon, while ads and

designated communities of brands are hot-selling. The monetizing aspect here

right now is mainly through ads. This means that a brand can choose to have an

official group or community and have ad spots on the same site about the

community or otherwise.

We have realized that we can do things, utilize and create prospects to

monetize better through building a strong base of people online, says Vaibhav

of MTV.

Changing Metrics



Some exciting campaigns have been launched through MySpace that made its

entry into India mid-last year. A tie-up with Fox Star Studio and Warner Bro

India, MySpace started Black Curtain Screening where MySpace members were taken

to free premier screenings of movies like Valkyrie, Slumdog Millionaire, etc.

Star TVs popular dance reality show Nach Baliye Season 4 had an official group

on MySpace.

The old metrics of click through rates are not correct to measure social

networking. It is not the rate but the time spent that matters here. Nach

Baliyes official site on MySpace has 25% NRIs out of 7,000 members, 8 mn page

views and 80,000 minutes of time spent, says Hari Krishnan, country manager,

MySpace India.

The official page of MTV shows on Orkut and Nach Baliye 4 on MySpace

Windows Live offers a unique consumer proposition of social content

through social network feed aggregation (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo mail, Facebook,

LinkedIn, etc) and content feeds through MSN thereby offering consumers a

richer experience of all their multiple worlds, says Rathin Lahiri, director,

online business, Microsoft India.

Last year, Microsoft picked up 1.6% stake in Facebook. It also struck an

exclusive deal with Facebook where it would sell advertising on the social

networking site.

Enough to Watch out For



Despite social networking sites being a mix of medium in itself, providing a

space of ads, video, and to communicate directly with the audience, operational

issue are stopping them from making the best use of this medium. Building a

relationship through social networking is easier when compared to sustaining it.

The challenge lies in first understanding whether the medium is the platform to

meet your business needs; develop a model that leans on the viral nature of

social networking; and then devising innovative ways of sustaining audience

interest. But there is still enough to watch out for.

This is a transformative space for highly targeted ads. There is a

genuineness and sincerity in the medium. Reach is equal to value and here

branding is not the ultimate aim. From an episodic, discrete form of marketing

we are moving to building a sustained relationship. This form of marketing is

always on. We are not the complete answer but we are going to be a big part of

a brands future success. There are operational issues that brands are trying to

work out, says Rao of Google

Ease of implementation and relatively low cost of maintaining and handling an

identity on a social networking sites have been the main pull but that cannot

beat the interactivity involved between any two components of social networking.

Theres more and more user-generated content on the Internet and hence,

marketers need to communicate through interaction. Involve your consumer, let

them indulge and savor your communication. What you geteyeballs, higher brand

recall, word-of-mouth publicity, a passion for your brand, its what we call it

at Saatchi & SaatchiA Lovemark, says Gupta.

So with such bright prospects will it replace traditional media like radio

and TV that go well beyond the metros into every corner of the country? That

will be a far-fetched thought. Pointing out an interesting trend in the Indian

media space, Krishnan of MySpace says, Unlike in the West where print in

declining, in India TV, print, and Internet are growing simultaneously. I dont

see social networking replacing any medium, but its supplementary role will

reduce.

As social networking vividly gets entrenched in our lives, and terms like

depth of marketing, highly targeted marketing, sustained marketing, etc, are

increasingly being associated with it, it is time for those active on the

various social networks to take notice of how things are coming to revolve

around them.

Shikha Das



shikhad@cybermedia.co.in