India Inc. has robust social presence, using social ads for brand building
Facebook and Twitter remain the properties where Indian companies are likely to expend much of their social effort. More than two-thirds reported posting on Facebook more than twice per day, and 62% said they did the same on Twitter. But for these socially engaged companies, social goes beyond the two primary networks.
A significant percentage of companies reported already using Pinterest, Google+ and foursquare in 2013, and by next year, nearly three-quarters each expected to be on Pinterest and Google+.
Even as these businesses have made social a priority, they have been less effective at tracking their successes on the platforms. When asked how social media engagement had affected a change in revenue at their company, the overwhelming majority—78%—said they either didn’t know or hadn’t measured.
As these businesses think about how to best leverage their social investment, putting dollars and talent behind measuring outcomes may be a beneficial place to look.
For social-savvy businesses in India, paid ads on the networks are becoming standard practice. Ernst & Young surveyed 48 companies in the country that have robust social presences and found that 83% of respondents used social media advertising this year. The greatest portion of this group (42%) used these ads to promote an online campaign or contest. The next most common use of social ads was general brand building.
Social is also taking a notable slice of the overall marketing budget at these companies. The greatest percentage (42%) reported devoting between 1% and 5% to social, but another 37% said their social spend was between 6% and 10%. And nearly 22% of companies reported spending more than 10% of the marketing budget on social.
Source:eMarketer