Are Indian Businesses Ready for Social Media?

Consider this: India ranks among the top twenty users of Facebook in the world. Among the seven major metros in the country, Delhi leads the pack with approximately 39 to 40 percent Facebook users, followed by Mumbai with around 25 percent. About 66 percent of these users fall under the age group of 19 to 40 years. Typically this is the age group that influences purchasing decisions.  Social media reaches out to nearly 60% online Indians.  So are Indian businesses ready for social media?

With numbers like these, they sure ought to be. 

Most businesses in India are still too unsure or shy of testing the social media waters. Unless of course they are youth oriented brands like Fastrack, for instance. A major reason could be the building of a new team to handle the online activity. In most large corporations, where people have pre-defined roles to the T and several channels for decision making, setting up a separate wing for social media management requires additional cost and can take quite a while.

Having said that, there are those who have successfully entered and made the most of the social media arena- Maruti Suzuki took to various online forums and networking sites announcing the launch of Ritz while Tata Nano interacts with several users on Orkut and Facebook. Grant Thornton’s International Business Report notes that 64 percent businesses in India use social media in some capacity- usually for advertising or for the purposes of consumer interaction. As an emerging market, it is perhaps easier for the country to adopt a new marketing phenomenon as compared to developed economies which seem to have already exhausted many such avenues. Indian businesses are most certainly geared to make the most of social media. To what extent, is a wait and watch scenario.