Facebook is a platform which is getting adopted in India with voracious appetite. Announcement of internet.org etc; only showcases how hungry platforms are to become the default window to the world for Indians. However there are socio-cultural behaviours which impede this adoption and most importantly restrict active participation in Semi-urban & rural India. #stratalogues 2013. Social media in semi-urban & rural India - even amongst those adopted is a consumption platform and not a sharing/participation platform. This makes the platform itself less sticky for these users and also lower participation makes it a non-engagement /non-interaction medium and hence less attractive for marketers to deploy it for targeting their semi-urban/rural users. #wolfSIGHTS This presentation aims to instigate Facebook to adopt certain measures which shall enable it to increase more active participation rather than passive consumption amongst its semi-urban & rural user base in India. Note: This strategy deck has been crafted as one of the 5 thought-pieces for "The Howl" #TheHowl is a strategic instigation letter shared with marketers & other partners of @wolfzhowl every full moon. If you want to be part of the mailing list, please write to us at intelligence@wolfzhowl.com

1. How can get it right
in Semi Urban and Rural India?

2. “The current semi-urban/rural users of Facebook don’t participate. There is
no response from them to social campaigns and participation on brand
pages is low. Targeting them is not easy, as the information about them is
also sparse.”
What I often hear from marketers:

3. Marketers are increasingly focusing on the fortune at the bottom of the
pyramid (Semi-urban & rural India). The strong growth of a middle class is not
limited to Urban India and Marketers are increasingly aware of this and are
looking for platforms which can engage this audience.
Can social be a platform to access the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid:

4. Making Facebook a more attractive
semi-urban/rural engagement medium….

5. #observation
In semi urban and rural India the maximum number of Facebook
users consume information through likes and shares rather than
being content generators by posts.

6. Let’s look at a provocative sample of number of
Facebook posts in a year by semi-urban / rural users…

7. Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
User 1 No. of Posts 7 6 4 13 18
User 2 No. of Posts 6 8 6 12 20
User 3 No. of Posts 8 10 12 10 17
User 4 No. of Posts 7 6 8 18 23
User 5 No. of Posts 10 11 16 12 22
Age 24 - 26
Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
User 1 No. of Posts 4 6 5 10 14
User 2 No. of Posts 10 14 16 22 29
User 3 No. of Posts 5 12 8 6 22
User 4 No. of Posts 6 6 10 8 16
User 5 No. of Posts 8 14 18 21 18
Age 30 - 35
Note: The numbers includes shares too and we noticed its basically general content like
morning and festival wishes etc; (while the amount of activity seems to be increasing, it is still sparse).
*The users are from semi urban and rural India with a provocative sample of 5 each in 2 different
age - segments.

8. Why is it so low?

9. #MY BUSINESS IS EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS, NOTHING
PERSONAL ABOUT IT!!
Semi-urban / rural India has higher involvement of
society in an individual’s household.
An increasingly individualistic semi-urban/rural
India, wants to guard its privacy as much as possible.

10. #SOCIAL FRUGALITY, PRIVATE INDULGENCE
Unlike in Urban India, where conspicuous consumption is
socially-legitimate, in semi-urban & rural India consumption
quite often is within 4-walls of home.

11. #wolfSIGHTS
Conscious of commenting and drawing any possible counter-
opinions, conscious of being seen as having excess time on hand to
spend on vain social media and conscious of not revealing excess
personal information…Semi-urban/rural FaceBookers relegate
themselves to content consumers, rather than content generators.
(at maximum allowing themselves to re-share content)

12. But why does Facebook need more content
creation from these users?
Wont passive consumption be enough?

13. =
Facebook is the largest reality programming on social
more number of reality participants/social surfers = more original
content or re-purposed content = more active participation by
more number of people.

14. The more the passive the consumption, the less the active
the contribution (share / original posts)
the less intensity of interest in the platform…

15. We found that semi-urban & rural users contribute less
information about their interests than urban users. This
hampers specific targeting as well!

16. Age Profile : 24 - 26 Age Profile : 30 - 35

17. hence other platforms with higher stickiness and user comfort
shall become gateways to e-commerce, branded content
consumption etc;…

18. For example…

19. #SocialCircle #SoulCircle
Projected Life Real Life
Whatsapp & other messengers offer the privacy that Facebook cannot and hence you see
higher usage of these platforms even in semi-urban / rural India.
…one of the primary reasons why Facebook acquired whatsapp.

20. So what can Facebook do to increase active-consumption and
participation in rural/semi-urban India?

21. Instigations for Facebook:
1. Info-gathering as a part of the sign-up process
2. Dialing-up nostalgia to instigate active participation
3. Channeling brands to produce more instigative & relevant content to
drive active participation

22. #1: “Info-gathering as a part of sign-up process”
Urge them for information, which lets Facebook serve them better and also help
instigate more active social-participation.

23. Facebook Current Signup Process:
Most of the information is left for the users to fill-up later!

24. Passive push urging users to share more information (post-sign up)…
But most users are passive, hence they put off info-sharing for later &
the later never arrives….
People you may know: the more friends = more
active participation. Users do add friends, because
of the need to connect.
But, the info-push is not really acted
upon by users.

25. Facebook Current Signup does not even seek vernacular language selection
It is a passive attempt as of now (left completely to the user’s discretion)

26. So, a possible instigation..

27. As the 3rd step, prompt users to choose their vernacular language…

28. A native tongue – reveals a lot about a person
This one information field is a rich repository of
presumptive data, which can instigate greater participation

29. In India the major vernacular languages enjoy
rich cultural expressions in multiple formats…

30. Cinema
Television
Programming
News
category
Music
Local Theater Politics
HumorFood Preferences
Just the knowledge of the vernacular language of choice can enable us to understand the user
better and provide engagement stimulus which can instigate him into active participation

31. http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/jun/09/india-newspapers-after-english/
The vernaculars are seeing a grand resurgence – with more more consumers entering
the category of literacy via vernacular than English.

32. So if Facebook, does this simple yet profound
change…

33. Step 3
Language Selection
Share Your Interests
Generalized content bucket that we know semi-urban/rural India consumes would love and
normally use. Basis content consumption analysis across TV, radio, Print, Cinema etc;
*Note: we stay away from religion, politics etc;
Step 4
Share Your Interests
Movies
Movies Stars
Sports
Other Celebrities
Music
TV Shows/Serials
Step 4: prompt/multiple choice based information sought

34. Example: List of auto-suggestions based on the information we have about
ANDHRA PRADESH content consumption patterns.
Auto-prompt

35. The result of having certain (minimal) data captured
right at the beginning…

36. Since the user has selected Pawan Kalyan as a favorite star, a possible content push of news
and info about that star can be pushed to that particular user.

37. Movie/Star Liked by User
Suggested post of the Hero
which by default will be
interesting to user
Example:

38. Other such prompts can also be done, basis the user’s interests/passions. A study
of telecom VAS data, can help us map the user interest by vernacular as well.
These auto-prompts (though lengthen the sign-up process) will not get users to drop-off
from signing-up altogether because of the nature of the prompts themselves and also
because having a Facebook account is considered cool in semi-urban/rural India.

39. However, inclusion of “skip” button is also recommended for these auto-prompts. Except
for the vernacular language selection.
Basis this one piece of data, these auto-prompts can also be introduced post sign-up, every
time/every alternate time a new Facebook session is initiated by the user.

40. Currently Facebook does not curate content for the
user, basis their interests…

41. #Content Push
Facebook only
promotes
advertising or
promotional based
content but they do
not promote any
generic
news/features/articl
es etc; according to
the interest of users.

42. Users interest based content is currently not
pushed on their feeds.

43. If Facebook starts curating content basis user-interests, not only does their
active participation increase, but Facebook can look at alternate revenues
from content distribution & even branded advertorials.

44. Facebook has recently stated its goal to be a media-consumption platform
and also plans to better curate content as per user’s interests.
Hence this line of process improvement would be in line with their needs as
well as a brand marketer’s needs.
http://contently.com/strategist/2015/03/25/media-giants-are-ready-
to-publish-inside-facebooks-walls-will-they-ever-get-out/

45. #2: “Dialing-up nostalgia to instigate active participation”
Not just any friends, but FB-connecting with a certain type of friends can evoke more
active participation.

46. The semi-urban/rural users respond to high emotional
moments. There are kind of friends, who can provoke more
active participation from them…

47. The rampant rural/semi-urban to urban migration in India,
presents us with one such great opportunity…

48. School – Junior College – Graduate/Post Graduate College

49. HPS, Khammam,
Andhra Pradesh
a b c
d e f
g h i j
a c
d g
Khammam
b
Mumbai
d
USA
e
Bangalore
i
Hyderabad
j
Delhi
h
Class mates in a school in
semi-urban/rural.
Post Migration scenario
Those who stayed back in
Khammam, Andhra Pradesh.
Those who migrated away to
different parts of the country
& the world.
Let’s take a look at an example scenario:

50. Post-migration, there is a distance which creeps in. Caught with their own lives,
friends migrate away. They don’t keep each other posted on where they are.
Their constant shifting within urban India could also lead to a total disconnect.

51. Yet there is curiosity on both sides. The Urban migrant wants to re-connect with her/his
roots, while the ones who have stayed back are curious about the urban/foreign life their
friend now lives.

52. Job/marriage/how well are you doing/how do you look now as intense
triggers led by curiosity which provoke participation from both sides.

53. a c
d g
Khammam
b
Mumbai
d
USA
e
Bangalore
i
Hyderabad
j
Delhi
h
USA
Facebook is the best way for these friends to connect

54. Possible Instigation for Facebook…

55. Right now, Facebook prompts friends of a new
Facebook user to suggest friends. This is too
passive again & often ignored or done minimally.
An app to instigate them to action powered by a
insightfully crafted creative video would yield
more results.
Want to find you School friends?

56. School
Re-union
Group by
Classmates
Active pursuit of
friendship amongst
individuals outside the
group.
The behavioural fall-out of this…
The renewal of friendships gets the semi-urban/rural users to not just
consume content, but also actively comment/share and like. It leads to
original content production by the semi-urban/rural user.

57. The semi-urban/rural users driven by their desire to import a bit of the
urban/cosmopolitan living into their lives, look at their urban friend’s life and start
emulating them within the permissible limits of their immediate society back home.
They get instigated to & draw social-courage to post pictures of their travels, their
birthdays, start using more FB apps etc;.
The social-barriers to a greater extent are overcome.

58. Howl…
Strategic Brand Consultancy