Srabani Sen
The Indian electronics hardware industry has still not taken off the way both the government and industry had expected. This sector is dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that still struggle to make two ends meet. With lack of government incentives and handholding, this sector is unfortunately lagging behind in terms of technology, infrastructure, manufacturing and management processes, and to a large extent, in brand building strategies.
Despite being aware of the power of brands, Indian SMEs have still not experimented with one of the major brand building platform—the social media. Many are still under the impression that social media websites are just to chat with their kith and kin, unaware of the fact that they are great marketing tools. Although social media sites have created a buzz globally, many in India don’t know how to use this effective tool for their growth.
The popularity of social media sites has gone through the roof—within a short span of time they have grown far beyond expectations. SMEs, in particular, should seize the opportunities these sites offer. Studies show that companies that use social media sites to market their products and services have tasted success. In fact, social media sites such as Google+ and Facebook offer exclusive schemes for businesses, particularly for SMEs, to cash in on the opportunity to build their brands.
It is time that these SMEs wake up to the new ways of promoting their businesses through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. One of the latest sites is Pinterest, which has already crossed 10 million unique visitor mark. It has registered an average growth of 52 per cent from January to February 2012, and has 17.8 million users.
I’m sure Indian SMEs will soon sense the huge business opportunities these social media sites have to offer. Then, much like the many awe-inspiring success stories from across the world, the dynamic growth of Indian SMEs will also be talked about.
