Future of Social Media Marketing in India

To sum the topic in one word. BRIGHT! And the reason behind such a prediction include some very satisfying and positive facts and trends, like:

• Population: India is more than a continent (India’s approx. population is 135 crores/ 1.35 billion. Africa’s approx. 129 crores/ 1.29 billion. We aren’t even talking of the land area!) squeezed into an area which is just right for a country.
• Mean age of population: 28 years for the next 25-30 years
• Positive facts about the economy which promote the cause of social media:
  • One of the largest growers of fruits and vegetables
  • One of the largest producers of milk and milk products
  • One of the largest land-area under cultivation
  • 6^th largest economy in the world
  • Largest mobile-phone ownership base in the world
• Negative facts about the country which too promote the cause of social media:
  • One of the worst and most skewed man v women ratios in the world\
  • One of the largest wasters of food and food grains
  • Worse than sub-Saharan Africa in life-expectancy indices
  • Most mal-nutritioned people in the world
  • Huge population living in abject poverty
  • Huge population needing basic services including education

Put together these facts bring out one thing: That India has every reason to make digital marketing and promotion the most sought-after service in the country. We have all the positives and the negatives which are reason enough to make it viable for social media marketing very successful within the country. Some of the indications besides the facts above are:

• Presence of the largest base of mobile-phone users who can be converted with the right impressions and impetus. And the best way to go about is to tap social media.
• Mobile telephony going the 5G way which is poised to bring the biggest revolution in communication ever
• Use of solutions such as big data and AI is making accesses to social-media very easy. Voice activation, gesture activation, multiple-language activation remains some of the ways by which sites can be accessed. Even a person without a formal education can in days to come, accesses social media effectively and use the same to his/ her advantage. So too the old and the infirm whose reach gets restricted due to physical handicap.
• Use of live-videos! If not the social-media, where else! It started with You-tube and today its all over the place. Social media helps having live videos as the connect quality when with live feed is way higher than with stale stuff! About 95% of marketers on social media want to use this feature!
• Use of Augmented Reality! If it’s about marketing, the best way to sell is to make the customer aware of all the possibilities that exist when using the product. And that is exactly where AR comes in. From realty to cars to investments, AR can add the extra bit by informing clients about what their acquisition would bring them!
• Use of Chatbots! India is a large country with the largest concentration of the most diverse set of customs and languages. Try putting one person to deal with such diversity and either the person leaves or the person goes mad. There is another option. Have more than one person per state and culture. What you get in the end, is a never-ending mess! With AI coming to the rescue chat-bots are the next best thing. In time, it shall speak various languages and understand everything about every culture making India’s befuddling marketing efforts rather easy. And chatbots are now the latest on social media!

As for the benefits which social-media marketing brings to India in the present and shall bring in the future shall include:

• It’s is the cheapest way to enter the domain of such a huge group of people simultaneously
• It helps both locally and globally! Indian markets are both local and global. Local its got the advantage of a huge market which today the entire world salivates for. And global it can move from the experiences it has gathered locally! And helping it capture both these markets with high speed and equal efficiency is the medium of social media!
• It helps not only sell products, services and ideas but also makes people thought leaders and influencers. Anyone not wanting to get into selling can also be part of social media and make a presence
• It helps promote the most diverse forms of goods, services and ideas! Recently, a domestic help in Pune printed her visiting cards and went online. And guess what? She is being bombarded by offers and needs from places really far. Her reach which was restricted to just a kilometre from her home now extends to the fringes of Pune!
• It connects people from diverse background without the fear of being judged on the basis of physical traits and histories. People become just people on social media who can share their ideas, concerns and interests in neutral setting.