How to set up Facebook’s Video Calling service

As you can see WAT is going everywhere these days Care to join us? send your resume to contact(at)watconsult(dot)com. Also if you want to hire our social media services send a mail to rajiv(at)watconsult(dot)com

The findings of the report are as follows:

• 30 million Indians who are online consumers are members of social networking sites
• 20 million of these spend time on social networking sites daily
• Indians spend more time on social media than they do checking personal email
• Over the next six months 45,000 online Indians intend to join social networking sites each day
• 1/4th of online Indians were able to recall brands using social media
• Having a social media presence connotes ‘innovation’ ‘customer friendliness’ and a sense of ‘cool’
• Nearly 40 million Indians are using online reviews to inform purchase decisions
• 67 percent of Indians who are on the web use online reviews to help them make purchases
• 60 percent Indians who are social media users are open to being approached by brands

Now the big statistic -> Social Media in India is growing at 100 percent and is likely to touch 45 million users by 2012

We are believers that this medium will impact marketing in a big way. If you looking for a social media agency then contact us here.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook and Orkut are the top two social networks in India. The interesting element is that most of the social networking activities happen between 6 pm and 10 pm. In other words, Indian online users aren’t using social media during work hours (which is usually an assumed fact). It is a simple but key insight that will significantly boost any social media marketing campaign’s ROI. Here is a list of top Indian Social Networks:

Top 5 Social Network in India

Some worthwhile Statistics to look at:

1) 60% of the social networking traffic come from Non Metro-Cities but the highest traffic generating city still remains to be a Metro i.e. Mumbai

2) The highest number of active users are from the 15-24 age group but LinkedIn has a different age group of active users i.e. 25-34 age-group

3) The male-female ratio shows consistency with the overall population break-up by gender i.e. 80:20 in favor of males

4) Social media in India reaches out to 60 per cent of the online Indian audience

5)Facebook and Orkut, together cater to about 90 per cent of the users in the social media space.

6) Facebook is the only social network in India that has witnessed a tremendous growth, almost doubling its users in the last 6 months.

7) Highest number of active social media audience in India are in the age group of 15-24 and are graduates who are looking for a Job or planning further studies

8 ) The maximum users come from the ‘less than 2 lakhs p.a.’ income category. This is because social networks are primarily driven by the youth

9) More than 45% of the users on Social Networks return during the day. Facebook tops the list with users re-visiting more than 3 times during a day

10) Majority of the time spent by the Indian audience on Facebook is on Interactive Games/Applications and then on viewing Photos

Now that you have gotten a better understanding of the Indian social media landscape, I believe you’re better equip to reach your target audience. After all, conversations is the key when it comes to social media marketing (I’m assuming that your have a great product). Feel free to post your questions under the comments section below. I’ll answer them within my best ability.

Cross Posted via Penn-Olson

Apparently i wasn’t doing much this weekend and thought i would kill time by doing something which is rather productive.  So i happened to note down things that i have seen in the Social Media Space in India. And Guess What! It turned out to be so good that i made a presentation out of it

Coming to the Presentation, its about Social Media Marketing Practices in India where i have shared my Views on How 2010 has been for Social Media and whats in store for Social Media in 2011

Here is a close look at what the hell am i talking about..

Down below in the Comments Section, do let us know what You think  on how 2011 will be for the Social Media Marketing Sector in India

Firstly lets put things into perspective: Brands have never before had such a powerful medium at their disposal at such a small cost. They have never before earned media that could boast of a 1 million plus reach. They have always had to pay for the media for a one time use be it a print ad or a tv ad. But facebook and twitter have changed all that.. Brands can now own their own mini news feed or advertsing channel which could be millions of users on facebook for free (as in with no payment to facebook). The challenge I see is when do you stop looking at just one number i.e. likes and try and go deeper?

Meaning of numbers is more important than volume of numbers

Its important that we do more than scratch the surface when it comes to social media. We need to dig deeper and delve deeper. A statistic quoted by Wolfgang of Comscore at a recent social media gathering I attended was that brands the world over spend 80$ getting traffic and measuring it but spend 1$ to measure what the traffic does on its website. This shows that we are lazy marketers who take a simple topline figure as a success metric and don’t try and delve deeper to build intelligence. This behavior may come from the offline scenario where a TRP is sufficient for measuring TV but that’s not the case with social media. Its important to measure and add meaning to numbers. To make it simpler Ill give the following example of two competing brands A and B:

Brand A - 1 lakh fans

Brand B - 8 lakh fans

Question to you - Which brand is better on social media? - Your answer brand B

Now delving a level deeper?

Brand A - 9302 interactions a month

Brand B  - 7903 interactions a month

Question to you - Which brand is better on social media? - Your answer brand A

Now Delving even deeper?

Brand A - 3700 brand related conversations with 79% positive conversations

Brand B - 3749 brand related conversations with 69% positive conversations

Question to you - Which brand is better on social media? - Your answer brand A

Finally.. another level

Brand A - 84,000 active users on the page (84% active)

Brand B - 138400 active users on the page (13.8% active)

Question to you - Which brand is better on social media? - Your answer brand A

As you can see from the answers above the number of fans may not necessarily mean a better social media presence. Its important for brand managers to delve deeper. After all these aren’t clicks we are talking about its people who converse and in most cases are actual buyers and not just browsing folks of the web.

Author - Rajiv Dingra - CEO of WATConsult

Last year has been a fantastic one though. Facebook has crossed 14 million users, Linkedin has crossed 7 million, the whole of bollywood and cricket world is on Twitter and even youtube has made strides with live streaming of IPL. On the whole its been a dream year for Social media in India since last Diwali to this diwali.

We at WATConsult too have seen a lot of changes and progress over the last year. We have grown to a 30 people (almost and growing) team. We have added some fantastic clients (and continue to add them each week not having time to update the new logo’s ;)) and we have done some case study stuff work and won great testimonials as well as client confidence. We have outgrown both our current offices and are currently scouting for a big fat space to accommodate our folks.

But above all of this what we have managed to do is get a fantastic team on board. I say this because last night I was at the diwali dinner with my team and when I was reaching home I realized that the fun in building companies or running them is only because of the people you work with and the culture you build. The culture at WAT has been one of openness friendliness and respect. Its the buzz that keeps everyone going internally. Its when you feel that buzz you know you are going in the right direction.

Half of our jokes were twitter related or facebook related and it was great to see the team have a great laugh at them. It was also fun to suddenly see people get into work related discussions in the middle of dinner and be very engaged in the same. It felt great to know that the team connected strongly both with social media and with WATConsult. I felt like a proud parent of sorts

Lots of people have asked me that whether this social media fad will continue or no. My answer has always been that once people make it a part of their daily lives then its very difficult to change their habits. My belief is just like our offline dinner jokes were based on activities we did online I think a lot of others would feel the same offline impact of social media as it grows. I am an optimist and yes Social media wont be omnipresent and like any medium there will be heavy, light and ultra light users but it will redefine communication and that is the paradigm shift.

Sometimes brands and people both need to stop over analyzing what social media is and what it can do and just enjoy the process. Enjoy the joyride of free flowing conversation. The world wont end nor would it stop with social media but it is definitely changing and thats where the fun is

By Rajiv Dingra - CEO WATConsult

It is for this very reason that as an agency we have taken a stand to do only engagement oriented work rather than advertising oriented work. The way we think about it is the following:

1) Static web = Static Ads

2) Rich Media Web = Rich Media Ads

3) Social Media Web = Social Ads? Or Engagement led conversations?

We feel most marketers need to grapple with the third point above and take a call on where do they invest their social media budgets. Do they do it on ads which are perishable or do they invest in building a community where the ROI is not clicks but no of brand interactions. We have earlier asked this question as well in our clicks vs conversations debate.

Besides for immense learning, responsibility and good work we offer a young fun environment as well.

Position - Social Media Executive

Job Description

Primary roles are, but not limited to:

* Execution of online research and management of social media profiles
* Online research of Social Media tools
* Execution of online campaigns outlined for a specific client account (e.g. Initiating social conversations, set up and management of a blog on behalf of client, etc).
* Full ownership & management of client accounts assigned (range from FMCG, energy, real estate, hospitality, banking, CSR, lifestyle, etc)
* You will build & manage online relations with bloggers, editorial teams of relevant portals, influencer profiles in twitter, social networks, etc.

REQUIRED SKILL SET

* Candidate should be degree educated up to level of Bachelors in a communications oriented discipline;
* Past experience in communications-oriented sectors (e.g. PR, advertising, DM) – this can either have been achieved through internship, placement, full employment etc;
* Qualification in SEO or SEM would be an added bonus;
* Basic understanding of some social media tools e.g. blogs, social networks (Facebook, Orkut, etc).
* Strong writing skills
* Ability to use all Microsoft tools (Word, Ppt, Excel, etc)
* Ability to use at least one image editing program (e.g. Photoshop®) would be an added bonus
* You should  be an excellent communicator with confidence in sharing your ideas, liaising with clients and the rest of the team as well as contributing to the wider knowledge base for WATConsult.com
* Demonstrated use of some use of social media tools outside of work – e.g. have a blog, active on Orkut, Facebook, YouTube etc

Salary to be based on candidates current CTC and his potential and passion for social media

Apply to contact@watconsult.com