How social are we?

Pick up a newspaper and you can’t fail to read an article about social networking somewhere in the paper. I just saw three articles, (one of which my mum pointed out in fact) that are all related to social networking. The one, which my mother pointed out to me, is related to the field that I am in- Advertising online. In the article, one of my agency’s top honchos Srinivasan Swamy, is quoted about the Indian youth’s online and social networking habits. He says the average Indian youth spends some sixty percent of their time online, via the internet or their mobile phone. This translates into 25,800 minutes a month. Which is why, marketers are now furiously factoring social media into their marketing strategy.

Right next to this article was another important article that should not be overlooked. The article covered how the rise of PC sales is increasing overall. True during one quarter there wasn’t very rosy for computer manufacturers, but the bigger picture tells us that India is growing more and more computer savvy by the minute.

The final straw which prompted this post was an article that I saw in today’s newspaper. It talks about how Catholic priests Father Nigel Barrett and Father Warner D' Souza from Mumbai are getting online to talk to their parishioners and the youth. Their strategy is to take the message where their audiences is. A laudable move, when you think that a lot of churches in South Mumbai are quite empty, and if they are full the number of youth and young adults present do seem to be dwindling The past year has seen everyone jump on the internet bandwagon, from wannabe India politicians who tried to ape Barack Obama’s successful online political strategy to the current generation of net savvy priests. What’s next I wonder.

This entire social networking craze brings me to the point at moot. Everyone knows that man is a social animal. I forget who said that first. We spend so much time on social networking sites, but how social are we? How many of us really meet new people online using such sites?

On one side of the scale is the user whose so-called friends list is just a list of people they’ve run into during their life and are way too impolite to refuse a friend request in the virtual world. On the other hand are those people who seem to add every Tom, Dick and Harriet, just to see the total number of friends in their list growing.

Most people are likely to talk to less than 10% of the people on their list. Honestly, ask yourself this. How many new friends have you made using a social networking site, whom you have been in touch with for over a year at least. Truth is not many I am sure. In addition, if you have, you might be one of the madding crowd who has chucked that friendship after a while because let’s face it, everyone is so busy that even online friends don’t meet. Online social networking is all about instant gratification to connect with someone when you have nobody at hand. And for that it works well, in a generation that is tethered to the mobile phone.

When your life is fundamentally facebook

It is now time to face the facts. Who you are on facebook defines you. Why do I say this? There was an article in the newspaper the other day which talked about a young boy who tragically died in a motoring accident on the Worli sea link. One of our newspapers ran the story and tried to include a little background about the boy. What ensued was an abc of the boy’s life on Facebook. The number of friends he had and what they were saying on his page. It is interesting how the world at large outside his family and friends will now only him because of his Facebook page, more than anything else. In a sense this is cyber age immortality, on the other hand, an indicator that maybe some of us spend a lot of our lives on Facebook!

Using Social Networking Sites for Marketing

Social marketing sites are the current craze. Everywhere you turn everybody seems to be on one network or the other. It’s being covered in every media – the cartoonists are making fun of it, the social gurus are harking about the ramifications it has on the society at large and each and every teen that’s has access to a computer seems to be hooked. With all these people plugged in social networking sites provide immense potential to marketers across the world.

The number of interest groups that blossom on these social networking sites makes it easy for any marketer to deliver focussed communication to their target audience. One such innovative example has been developed by Toyota. The company teamed up with Juxt Interactive to develop an application that Facebook users could integrate into their profiles. Known as Keep Rollin’ the application highlights the new Toyota Corolla 2009.

The application is a game that blends decision making with a number of arcade mini games. While weaving a captivating story the application carefully introduces the reader to various features of the new 2009 Corolla. The game offers every player two paths putting the player in various seemingly real life situations, some of which involve the featured product. With the ability to play against friends online and to share the application this is an excellent example of how to tap social networking to meet marketing needs. If you have, a Facebook profile and wish to experience this application click here.