The Big Picture - Social Networking in India (Part II)
In continuation to The Big Picture - Social Networking in India (Part I); here is the Part II of the post.
A simpler breed of social networking website is Twitter. Having said that, Twitter is the best platform for users to express themselves in a short and simple manner and make their point and that is its USP. Interestingly, not just the common men of India use Twitter to express their thoughts but more often the tweets that make it to popular news stories are posted by celebrities, politicians, film stars, sportsmen and the like. Recent news of Amitabh Bachan tweeting about his son Abhishek Bachan expecting to be a father just goes to show that many celebrities take time off from their busy schedule tweet about their professional & personal lives. It is a brilliant platform for celebrities to get connected with their fans.
Recall the stories of former cabinet minister Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi. Both of them literally had what most people call the first ever Twitter War due to which not just one but both of them eventually lost their jobs. Contrary to this Twitter has helped people suffering from traumatic incidents reach out for help. Recall the horrific fire accident that took place at the Charlton Towers, Bangalore and Twitter was used by a person stuck in the fire prone area, who tweeted about the scenario and help turned up immediately. And, not to forget, the tweets about the Osama bin Laden operations by US Military forces were live tweeted, first.
Some statistics about Twitter are:
- Twitter has around 4.5 million Indian users and stands 5th amongst other social networking platforms based on user-base.
- India Among The Top 10 Countries Using Twitter.
The first social networking site which is completely dedicated to business professionals and hence is claimed to be the world’s largest professional networking site. Across the globe, LinkedIn has over 100 million professionals as members and in India there are more than ten million members. LinkedIn started its India operations in 2009 and a major part of the first year was dedicated to understanding professionals in India and educating members to leverage LinkedIn for career development. LinkedIn India also established a local leadership team to drive the company’s Marketing Solutions and Corporate Solutions businesses. It certainly is a very good online dais for professionals to market their business & service skills to others professionals.
For me; Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn; all solve their specific purposes, quite effectively. And, I am sure, it would also, for most of us who are on them. Somehow or the other, I feel my day has not finished, till I log-in to each of my social profile at-least once in a day. That’s the way, Social Media has changed my life.
Several other Indian social networking sites have also been launched lately and are supposedly doing quite well - Ibibo, Indyarocks, Bigadda, Froppi, etc. Online Social Networking in India has definitely come a long way since it took off during early 2000 and in a land where there is diversity in every form it is expected to only grow bigger.