Facebook enters Indian shores!

Facebook has become a phenomenon lately in India. Companies are slowly but surely decking up their facebook profile pages to have informal chat with their loyal customers. With the growing demand for facebook users in India and Asia in general, do we need a Facebook representative office in India! Well Facebook believes so.
Facebook today announced its intentions to open an office in Hyderabad. Facebook’s new center in Hyderabad will support its head office at Palo Alto, California. The Hyderabad office will house online advertising and developer support teams.

Facebook's entry into India will most likely develop and expand India's nascent social media industry. Whats more, we can expect other bigwigs to setup shop here!

Don Faul, Director of Global Online Operations for Facebook, said: “People in India and around the world are using Facebook to do everything from voicing their opinions on national issues, to connecting with fellow cricket and hockey fans, to sharing photos with their friends and family. We expect our new office in Hyderabad to tap into the region’s strong pool of talented people who understand operations and technology, and help us more effectively serve the needs of our users, advertisers, and developers around the world.”

Watch this space to know more about the happening in the social media industry!

IPL-Google deal to forge Indian Inc to take up Social Media as a branding tool!

I have a confession to make! Lately I have been neglecting this space as I have been extremely engrossed with my client’s social media portfolio management and that too, a very demanding one. In developing economies social media strategists like me find it difficult to close a deal fast vis-à-vis my colleagues in the USA as educating and making my customers aware about social media as a branding tool takes a large amount of my time (a non negotiable currency in today’s world).
Never-the-less, companies in India are getting used to the idea of using social media tools for brand building. The latest case in point is the BCCI promoted Indian Premier League (IPL) which has inked a deal with Google for telecasting IPL matches live on the top video sharing site –You Tube. What the IPL-Google deal does is make geographical boundaries irrelevant in the area of live sport. This is the first time that Google will be streaming a major global sporting tournament live.
For India and Indian companies this is good news as we will see other Indian companies coming forward and joining the Web 2.0 revolution by becoming social media savvy. Till then my job will comprise educating corporate Indian about social media big time.
This is all from me for now! Watch this space for news and views on social media.