Social
networking sites are beginning to change the face of business in a digitised
India with companies adopting a marketing mix of online campaigns, promotions
in print, television as well as road shows to reach out to people.
With nearly 10 million people accessing the internet in India out of nearly 650 million users globally, companies are sniffing immense possibilities on social networks. Any brand can make its presence felt in the social networking space and create a buzz-feedback chain at minimal cost, reaching out to the widest spectrum of tech-savvy buyers.
Social
networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Orkut, Linkedin,
hi5 and hundreds of brand-specific sites created by manufacturers are
helping companies listen.
If the purpose
of advertising is to influence consumers' purchases, our research shows that
there is another way to influence their behavior. Imagine that Sony wants to
promote its new digital camera. Sony can either advertise on Facebook and
accept a very low click-through rate, or give away free cameras to several
Facebook members (potentially at a lower cost than advertising) and generate a
viral campaign. Our research shows that this viral campaign is possible. We
further show what types of users are more likely to be influenced by such a
campaign.