Relevance of Social Media in INDIA

Application of Social media has been in India for quite some time and this community is quite large in terms of social networking, blogging, videos and wikis. Users of this media are quite active and the numbers are sizeable and still growing. If one compares usage of social media in India vis-à-vis the world, Indian market definitely has impressive numbers. While traditional media is effective, there are certain limitations associated with it. It is largely fragmented, costly and in effect shuns a small/startup company, fails to engage consumers and is un measurable. Unfortunately, for the marketer, there is not too much he can do if he wants to go mass and still have a “brand driven” marketing strategy. Social media overcomes all the above mentioned limitations and personally, I feel its key gains in the Indian context are that it is cost effective and measurable. It is an excellent olive branch to all those marketers who still believe in the power of building brands and yet do not wish to spend buckets in traditional media. Being a marketer myself I have quite often been stone walled by this dilemma and now, social media offers a way out. It may not completely replace traditional media but is an excellent alternative to marketers to shuffle their media budgets and apportion some for this new age media.