This post is a reply/comment to Gaurav Mishra’s post .
Before starting I must admit that Gaurav has done a great job in compiling and categorizing the list. I mean what are the odds that any individual or company/agency mentioned in that post knew about all others ?
All it takes now for any web company to become a social media company is just adding “social media marketing(smm)” in their list of services offered or probably opening a Twitter account and following everyone mindlessly, but this is just the beginning. These are truely interesting times as we are not only observing but also shaping the growth curve for social media industry(If I can call that) in India. Our approach towards the core domain as well the business and social aspects of it will determine how things take shape.
By observing the figures(25-30 agenices in 2008 and 35-60 in 2009) it’s easy to slip into “The Pie Fallacy“, but as Gaurav rightly points “we haven’t even scraped the surface yet”. Social Media is yet to percolate into the way our organizations work.
While most Indian brands are still apprehensive/unsure about social media, those who’ve taken the plunge are still experimenting and trying to figure out what to make of it. Non Profits and Government are largely untouched by the social media wave. It is quite some time before Corporates start realizing what’s at stake if a social media disaster happens or individuals/govt etc learn how to handle social media with care.
What we face now is a classic “Whether or Which Dilemma” and we need to pause for a minute and ask ourselves
“Are we trying to make the market bigger, or just grow our share?”
There are two ways to it.
1) Everyone just thinks about themselves and if their share is getting bigger or not(which’ll eventually lead to crab mentality)
2) Everyone tries to make the market bigger and in-effect making every/deserving one’s share bigger.
What’s interesting in the case of Social Media is that it’s about YOU or We and not ME.
The Scope of both individuality and cooperation in this space is immense. All that needs to be figured out is if,
You want to work towards a bigger ME or a bigger WE ?
because “He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how.”