How are business entities in India using facebook

Copyright Iffort 2010 | www.iffort.com
How are business entities in India
using Facebook?
An in-depth study of 25 brands from 7
industry verticals
by Iffort Consulting
List of industries covered
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Page Suggestions
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How are business entities in India using Facebook?
An in-depth study of 25 brands from 7 industry verticals
Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Copyright Iffort 2010 | www.iffort.com Page 2 of 26
Executive Summary
According to Wikipedia, around 1.5 billion people1
Perhaps the most revolutionary and the biggest name among the modern
social networks is Facebook. With almost half a billion users worldwide
worldwide are active on
social networks. Today Social Networking websites have become an
inherent part of our life and are re-defining the ways in which we as users
‘Communicate’ and ‘Converse’.
2
(source: Facebakers.com), people have adopted Facebook unlike any other
social networking website. India is not far behind, with one in five Internet
users in India using Facebook. [India has 10.5 Million3
With changing times & trends, Facebook is no longer limited to just
connecting with friends or playing games; businesses are increasingly using
it as an interaction platform to engage with their target audience, identify
prospects, market their products, provide customer support and handle
customer grievances! Tapping on this need, Facebook smartly introduced
Facebook fan pages to cater to the specific needs of businesses.
(source:
Facebakers.com) people on Facebook out of a total Internet population of
50 Million (Source: emarketer.com)]
Iffort Consulting selected and reviewed the Facebook fan pages of ‘25’
select brands from ‘7’ different industry verticals for over a one month
period. We analyzed these 25 brands on various criteria to understand
their efforts to build engagement with their target audience through
Facebook. Our exercise also revealed that organizations are successfully
using several tactics like poll contests, interesting apps and videos amongst
others to drive participation, which would result in word-of-mouth and
better engagement with the brand. An interesting aspect of the exercise
was to understand the synchronization between the product category a
brand was related to, and the nature of engagement the brand built with its
community members.
However, few questions remain unanswered and with time we hope firms
would be able to streamline their activities in a more effective manner!!
1
Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
2
Facebakers.com: http://www.facebakers.com/countries-with-facebook/
3
Facbakers.com: http://www.facebakers.com/countries-with-facebook/

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Methodology
We identified 7 different prominent industry verticals (Fig. 1). The portfolio
consisted of 4 service oriented verticals (media, telecom, online portals and
food chains) and 3 product oriented verticals (FMCG, consumer durables
and publishing). In our initial assessment we identified 31 brands that were
most visible and famous amongst Indian consumers in their respective
industry verticals and monitored them for a period of one month. However,
as we didn’t notice adequate engagement levels in 6 brands, we dropped
them and narrowed down our list to 25 brands. We followed an observation
method, wherein we regularly visited the fan page of these 25 brands on
daily basis and reviewed them on various quantitative and qualitative
parameters (Table 1).
Figure 1: Industry verticals
Quantitative Qualitative
• No. of fans of a page
• Percentage growth of fans
• Total discussion on a page
• Activity on wall by page
admin
• Linkage with other social
networks & company
website
• Primary purpose of the page
• Methods of fan engagement
• Discussion type
• Admin Response
• Content type
Table 1: Quantitative & Qualitative parameters

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings
The leader-board is as follows:
Most popular Brand: MTV-India [522,112 Fans on 28 July]
Brand with the highest growth in terms of fans: MTV-India [3846 +
Daily fan growth]
Most active entity: Delhi Traffic Police [12.8 wall posts by admin each
day]*
Most Discussed brand: MTV-India [2085+ Interactions each day]
Brand with least growth: Haldiram’s [0.66 new fans each day]
Identified Inactive brands: Bisleri (Inactive since May 29, 2010),
Haldiram’s (Inactive since Oct 15, 2009), Bharti-Airtel (Inactive since Oct
15, 2009)
Figure 2: Industry Verticals – Daily Interaction Graph
NOTE: Delhi Traffic Police ‘Facebook page’ activity was monitored from a comparison perspective and the
primary idea was to compare its activity against the traditional business entities and brands. At the outset, it
isn’t a business/brand entity and it lies outside the ‘25’ observed brands.
459.3
172.4
76.2
50.9
8.7 1.5 0.30
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Interactions per day
Industry Vertical
Interaction

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Figure 3: Top 5 Most Popular Brands
Figure 4: Brands with Highest Fan Growth Rate
Figure 5: Most Discussed Brands
522112
357708
199014
86702 64217
MTV-India Fast Track TATA
Docomo
Idea Videocon
Top 5 Most Popular Brands
147.9
61.3
55.3
47.43
Ixigo.com
HT
Videocon
ImagineTV
Brands With Highest Fan Growth Rate
2085.1
555.53 444.43 226.06 200.3
MTV-India Delhi Traffic
Police
Fastrack TataDocomo Ixigo.com
Most Discussed Brands

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings – Media
All the companies we analyzed from this vertical were fairly successful in
attracting large enough fans.
Most of the brands had well maintained, active & responsive fan pages.
Various forms of content – photos, videos, polls, events, applications (Little
Champs, Zee TV; Axe Ur Ex, Channel V) were used to attract attention of
fans and create engagement.
Discussions on varied topics involved politics, games, weather,
infrastructure, events (CWG) etc. Some fan pages made wall posts on TV
shows that were aired on their channels (Zee TV and Imagine TV).
Channel V was the only brand to have integrated the Twitter account with
its fan page.
Our verdict: MTV was analyzed as the best performing among five brands
from this vertical. They had better engagement with their community
members, as they discussed varied topics that had relevance to various
parts of the country. We think they are trying to pitch their channel to
wider audience and hence have realized to make people from various parts
of the country to participate in discussions, by floating youth-centric topics
and other issues of general interest.
Brand No. of fans
each day
No. of posts (30 days) Posts/day No. of interactions
(30 days)
Interactions/day
MTV 3846.8 35.0 1.2 62554.0 2085.1
Channel V 173.0 64.0 2.1 2286.0 76.2
HT 805.3 25.0 0.8 538.0 17.9
ImagineTV 12.8 5.0 0.2 2208.0 73.6
ZeeTV 41.0 0.0 0.0 1302.0 43.4
Average 975.8 25.8 0.9 13777.6 459.3
Table 2: Findings – Media Vertical
Figure 6: Fan Growth Rate – Media
147.9
61.3
55.3
47.43
1 10 100 1000
Ixigo.com
HT
Videocon
ImagineTV
Fan Growth Rate (% ) - Media

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Figure 7: No. of Fans
, a relatively new entrant (less than a year old) has a small
fan base in comparison to other brands.
Some key points are:
NDTV Imagine has another fan page on Facebook, so the fans are
distributed amongst the two pages.
The assessment revealed absence of post filtering as indicated by spam
comments. In addition, the queries & user concerns have not been
addressed.
The fan page of HT has almost all its wall
posts as links for news articles on HT’s main website. The important point
here is that each day only 2-3 articles are shared on the page; these
articles are chosen to entice feedback from users in the form of likes,
comments and discussions; unlike other newspaper & magazine brands
where an automated stream of links for articles on the main website is
posted on the wall.
Though, Zee TV is enjoying a decent fan base on Facebook
courtesy the TV channel’s real world popularity, there has been
a long period of in-activity last as indicated by the last post by
administrator which was made in April. According to our analysis, Zee TV
might like to relook its Facebook engagement strategy with a focus on
talking to members and understanding their needs/preferences.
17855
522112
38133
718
10142
1 100 10000 1000000
Channel[V]
MTV-India
HT
ImagineTV
Zee TV
No. of Fans (28th July 2010)

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings – Consumer Durables
In this sector Fastrack leads all other brands by a large margin, though
Videocon is growing fast, thanks to its enhanced PR initiatives.
Interesting applications like the “FT Girl”, “Store locator”, “Bikers”, &
“Kickass cards” exist on Fastrack page. All wall posts revolve around their
products, offers, brand ambassadors, stores across country etc.
The first noticeable element on Videocon’s fan page is the title, it is named
as “Home Appliances and Electronics” and no corporate brand name
mention has been made (Fig 3.).
Videocon has applications – “Abhishek Bachchan contest” and “BUY” (which
directs the user to Edigiworld, an e-commerce site owned by Videocon)
The wall posts on Videocon fan page with title VFAQ are published
frequently that educate users about using their appliance and many other
aspects - regarding their usage, safety, precautions etc.
Brand No. of fans
each day
No. of posts
(30 days)
Posts/day No. of
interactions
(30 days)
Interactions/day
Videocon 1270.88 26 0.9 2136 71.2
Samsung Corby 6.27 0 0.0 47 1.6
Fastrack 2928.1 25 0.8 13333 444.4
Average 1401.8 17.0 0.6 5172.0 172.4
Table 3: Findings – Consumer Durables
Figure 8: Fan Growth Rate – Consumer Durables
2.94
17.28
55.33
1 10 100
Samsung Corby-India
Fastrack
Videocon
Fan Growth Rate (%) - Consumer Durables

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing Figure 9: No. of Fans
Applications on Fastrack page: Interesting apps on
the Fastrack page like, FT Girl where in Fastrack
selects a pair of shades for you in an interactive way
or Bikers where in exclusive Fastrack accessories are
presented in an interactive and appealing way.
But the best app of the lot is Kickass cards in which crazy kickass cards are
be sent to your lazy friends to
make them stop procrastinating
and start studying during exam
time!
Such apps
not only
prop up the
page but
also make the user return to the page; thus increasing user engagement
and aiding in development of a bond between the user and the brand.
3955
357708
64217
1 100 10000 1000000
Samsung Corby-India
Fastrack
Videocon
No. of Fans (28th July)

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Screenshot from Videocon fan page: Postings like these from Videocon not
only create awareness among the users, but also generate a positive
feeling about the brand, that it cares for its users.
Figure 10: Videocon Fan Page: ‘Home Appliances and Electronics’

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings - Food Chains
Pizza Hut & Barista have maintained their fan page in an active manner,
ahead of other brands in this category.
Pizza Hut has various interactive applications – “Hot on Dot”, “Hut locator”,
“VIP club”, which help community members in knowing new offerings,
locating their store, and creating an identity.
Barista also has interactive applications – “happy hours” and “breakfast”,
which help them in engaging with their community members.
The administrator of Pizza Hut fan page handled discussions on varied
topics such as FIFA, the new hot on the dot plan by Pizza Hut, to the best
getaway zones in the area.
We observed typo errors like website name bug in the fan-page (info tab)
of a popular brand in this category.
On the other hand another brand in this category has adopted a
transparent approach by sharing the name of its social media partner on its
fan page.
Our verdict: We feel strategy applied by Pizza Hut and Barista to create
applications focused on their offerings, has helped the administrator to
engage community members with other varied interest topics targeted at
youth. This provides clutter-free exhibition of offerings. On the contrary,
some other brands seem to have adopted a sales approach by having
discussions around their offerings only.
Brand No. of fans
each day
No. of posts
(30 days)
Posts/day No. of
interactions
(30 days)
Interactions/day
Pizza Hut 35.88 9 0.3 310 10.3
McDonalds India 3.16 8 0.3 62 2.1
Barista Lavazza 17.8 48 1.6 413 13.8
Average 18.9 21.7 0.7 261.7 8.7
Table 4: Findings – Food Chains

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Figure 11: Fan Growth Rate – Food Chains
Figure 12: No. of Fans
7.15
9.67
3.28
1 10
McDonalds-India
Barista Lavazza
PizzaHut
Fan Growth Rate (%) - Food Chains
854
3640
22377
1 100 10000
McDonalds-
India
Barista Lavazza
PizzaHut

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings – FMCG
The brands selected in this category had almost negligible engagement
levels on their fan page.
Although product related postings were made on the products, the
expected level of success with engagement was fairly low.
Our verdict: We feel because these products are low involvement in
nature, customers are not exactly convinced about the specific reasons to
join these fan pages. Learning from these brands provides strong indicators
for other FMCG brands to re-think their Facebook presence strategy. It
could include adoption of a fresh out-of-box thinking to lure fans,
understand their needs and build conversational activity.
Brand No. of fans
each day
No. of posts
(30 days)
Posts/day No. of
interactions
(30 days)
Interactions/day
Kurkure 3.3 2 0.1 30 1.0
Haldiram’s 0.66 0 0.0 1 0.0
Bisleri 2.16 0 0.0 0 0.0
Average 2.0 0.7 0.0 10.3 0.3
Table 5: Findings – FMCG

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings – Telecom
The sector that has the fiercest competition in the Indian market does not
quite have the same competition when it comes to Facebook Fan Pages or
social media marketing in general. As can be seen from the visuals TATA
Docomo is leading the pack with a large margin.
It was surprising to know that one of the largest telecom service provider
has had the least active fan page and moreover administrator hasn’t posted
any message since October, 2009
All brands in this category had their YouTube and Twitter accounts
integrated with the fan page, which is generally considered to be a wise
strategy.
Idea & Tata Docomo are the only two brands to have used photos and
videos on their fan pages.
Another popular brand in this category gives a clear message of acting as
yet another sales point. They had special tab for promotions and they also
had many links to their website regarding tariff plans for various purposes.
There is one brand which seems to be saying upfront that they are here for
customer support. They have 24 x 7 Chat applications, which they claimed
was the first in the country on a Facebook fan page.
Brand No. of fans
each day
No. of posts
(30 days)
Posts/day No. of
interactions
(30 days)
Interactions/day
Uninor 34.1 25.0 0.8 498.0 16.6
Vodafone 35.9 8.0 0.3 227.0 7.6
Idea 454.6 5.0 0.2 3919.0 130.6
TataDocomo 2265.7 36.0 1.2 6782.0 226.1
Airtel 1.2 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0
Average 558.3 14.8 0.5 2285.4 76.2
Table 6: Findings – Telecom

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Figure 13: Fan Growth Rate – Telecom
Figure 14: Total Fans
How they match up
TATA Docomo that leads the pack has a very well laid out page with links
for their services such as buddynet, online recharge, GPRS plans &
mysongs. Moreover the page administrator is very active and has replied to
almost each and every query or complaint. (Imagine replying to queries of
almost 2 lakh people!) Although the other brands (except Airtel) are also
doing this, but then compliment goes off to the Docomo guys for effectively
managing a fan base of almost 2 lakh.
Also brands like Docomo, Idea and Uninor have Facebook buttons or
banners on their company’s website to promote their Facebook page. The
same is missing on the websites of Airtel & Vodafone-India. This we think
could be one of the primary reasons for Airtel & Vodafone having less
community members on their fan page.
15.94
25.77
10.4
9.57
22.9
1 10 100
Airtel-India
TataDocomo
Idea
Vodafone
Uninor
Fan Growth Rate (%) - Telecom
160
199014
86702
7401
3288
1 100 10000 1000000
Airtel-India
TataDocomo
Idea
Vodafone
Uninor

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Moreover, brands like Idea, Docomo & Uninor have shared many
interesting photos of offline contests that are regularly conducted by them.
This not only increases a fans attachment with the brand but also increases
the fan base as friends of the person in the picture also visit the page to
view those photos. No such photos are shared on either Airtel or Vodafone’s
page.
Moreover, presence of interesting apps on the page of Docomo further
pushes up its engagement with its users as can be seen from the graphs.
Our verdict: There is no doubt that Tata Docomo is doing a great job.
However, we feel that Uninor is also equally leveraging their fan page well.
Their target market of youth segment could be very well sensed by their
wall posts and discussions. We feel as Uninor gradually makes inroads into
the Indian telecom market, it would be interesting to note how they tweak
their fan engagement.

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings – Online Portals
There are two brands in this category that are travel related online
services. Both have well maintained fan pages, but when you have a look
at the statistics, one brand is far ahead of the other with a growth rate of
approximately 148%. It includes a bunch of activities like active wall posts
by the administrator and keeping community members busy with puzzles
on site-seeing places, animals, buildings, trekking spots etc. In addition,
there is a separate tab of “Contests & Promotions” on their fan page.
Cleartrip too maintains the strategy of Ixigo by keeping members engaged
with puzzles, however we noticed that administrator hardly responded to
negative customer experiences, which we think could hamper the brand
image of Cleartrip in the minds of community members. Similar to that of
Ixigo, they too have a tab of “Offers” on their fan page.
The Pagalguy.com Fan page
PaGaLGuY has a decently maintained fan page. Some insights from the
page:
• All the wall posts are either links for articles on pagalguy.com or
news and trivia related to MBA.
• Photos seem to be the active content on the fan page and
administrator often runs contests on these photos, which
generates good engagement with community members.
The Indya.com Fan page
Indya.com is Star India’s internet initiative and a fairly popular
entertainment portal. But a low fan base of 2700 (low considering the scale
of Star India’s network) and a low growth rate of 5 % suggests that the
page is not being handled efficiently.
The main purpose of the page is to share links for articles on the main
website or on affiliated websites. Most such posts have received a poor
feedback from the fans. Sometimes the admin has tried to be philosophical
but has failed to raise user engagement.
Fans are very active on this page as they have several queries and postings
related to TV shows, actors and future episodes. However the sharing
activity has been one-dimensional with lesser focus towards clearing spam
and replying to fans.

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Figure 15: Fan Growth Rate – Online Portals
Figure 16: Total Fans
Brand No. of fans
each day
No. of posts
(30 days)
Posts/day No. of
interactions
(30 days)
Interactions/day
Indya.com 7.6 80.0 2.7 687.0 22.9
Ixigo 228 295 9.8 6009 200.3
Pagalguy 31.61 15 0.5 655 21.8
Cleartrip 2.4 48 1.6 285 9.5
Average 54.1 87.6 2.9 1527.2 50.9
Table 7: Findings – Online Portals
1.64
17.83
147.9
5.2
1 10 100 1000
Cleartrip
Pagalguy
Ixigo
Indya.com
Fan Growth Rate (%) - Online Portals
2714
3760
6878
2754
1 10 100 1000 10000
Cleartrip
Pagalguy
Ixigo
Indya.com

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Key Findings – Publishing
These two publishing houses arrive from opposite varied business models,
as Penguin India is a commercial publisher while Pratham Books is a non-
profit publishing house.
Both the pages are being primarily used to notify the fans about new book
launches, events or seminars. The difference between the two is that, a lot
of spam is being generated on the Penguin India page by budding writers
who are trying to promote themselves and their writings.
Most of the posts on Pratham Books page are also related to social causes
being carried out and pictures from the same have been shared on a
regular basis.
Our verdict: We have compared the two fan pages even though there is a
mismatch in the scale of operations of the two brands. Despite this fact,
Pratham Books fan page has a larger following and a better growth rate in
comparison to Penguin India. We feel the major reason for this is a
responsive and conversational administrator and alert filtering of spam
posts and comments from their page.
Brand No. of fans
each day
No. of posts
(30 days)
Posts/day No. of
interactions
(30 days)
Interactions/day
Pratham books 3.2 23 0.8 76 2.5
Penguin India 1.55 0 0.0 11 0.4
Average 2.4 11.5 0.4 43.5 1.5
Table 8: Findings – Publishing Houses

Executive Summary
Methodology
Key Findings
Media
Consumer Durables
Food Chains
FMCG
Telecom
Online Portals
Publishing
Figure 17: Fan Growth Rate – Publishing Houses & Total Fans
3.28
5.67
1 10
Penguin Books- India
Pratham Books
Fan Growth Rate (%) - Publishing Houses
881
1098
1 100 10000
Penguin Books- India
Pratham Books

Conversations with Fan Page Administrators
We had also connected with some of the firms and the people who manage
these fan-pages. The idea was primarily to understand their experience and
learning while managing Facebook fan pages.
We had asked a common set of questions:
1] Idea – Behind starting a Facebook fan page
2] Plan – What did you plan to achieve through your fan page when you
created it?
3] Assistance – The single biggest thing behind starting a Facebook fan
page
4] Change - At any point of point have you ever had to change your
strategy for your fan page? Have you gained anything from the change?
5] Competition – Do you review your competitor’s fan pages? How is your
fan page different from your competitors?
6] Clients – Business from FB Fan Pages
7] Execution – Outsourced or in-house?
“Gautam John – Pratham Books”
Idea: The idea was to build a unique community around reading and our
mission of a book in every child's hand.
Plan: We had planned on achieving a small but strong community - I think
we have fulfilled this.
Assistance: Mostly feedback and opportunities that we would have
otherwise missed.
Strategy Change: Yes - in the early stages we treated it identically to our
Twitter community and cross-posted - realized early on that this wasn't
working and now curate content specifically for Facebook.
Competition Check: Not really.
Clients: Yes!
Execution: We manage it in house and will continue to do that.

“Rohit Awasthi – PaGaLGuY.com”
Idea & Plan – Despite having a thriving community on our website itself,
we felt Facebook was needed for:
a) The feeds, which spread the word very fast and to the right networks.
b) Providing us better tools to share photos, events and notes.
c) People are most active on PaGaLGuY when they are in the "MBA
aspirant" phase. Once they enter a B School the frequency of their
visits to PaGaLGuY reduces. A Facebook page is a nice opportunity for
them to stay connected.
d) Sharing mechanism, which helps us penetrate the individual networks.
Assistance – Sharing.
Change - Per se, we never intended to have a strategy. We follow these
simple guidelines -
a) Do not misuse
b) Do not spam
c) Share very important material, links
d) No gimmicks, contests to gain fans/likes.
e) Think for the long run and provide quality content.
Competition – No. We prefer to create awesome experiences and products
for our users in the time we save in not reviewing our competitors.
Clients – Our website provides easy links to people who want to reach us.
Since we belong to a niche industry, clients find out the way to reach us
directly.
Execution – In-house.
Concluding Note - FB or twitter, they are at the end of the day platforms,
which may or might not exist in years to come. Our basic philosophy is to
keep on providing useful products to our community and these form the
basis of all our communication.

Conclusion
This comprehensive study has further emphasized the fact that the
importance of social media usage for marketing & PR purposes is gaining
momentum amongst Indian firms. The key learnings are:
• Fan Pages are public: As fan pages are indexed on search
engines, any individual is able to view firm’s fan page, through a
simple search action. So, an individual need not be a Facebook
member, but still could visit firm’s fan page. Facebook.
• Engagement: A Facebook fan page could be an additional touch-
point between a firm (brand) and its customers. The incremental
cost of creating this touch-point is almost negligible compared to
other alternative media. Fan page enables firms (brands) to
engage with their current and prospective customers. We feel this
should be the focus of firms in creating a Facebook fan page
• Emotional Attachment: An engaging and an active fan page
creates an emotional attachment between the brand and the fan.
• Brand Evangelists: It is not necessary that each and every
member of the community would be a present/prospective
customer. Instead some members could play the role of a brand
evangelist. These members could share their experience with the
firm and product with their network members and play a role of
brand evangelist.
• Engagement Tools: Facebook fan page facilitates firms to build
varied custom applications. These applications could be simply
enlisting the offers and other sales promotions or could also take
form of some games, puzzles, etc. that ensure engagement with
the community members.
• Integration with other social media platforms: A firm’s fan
page could be integrated with other social media platforms like
Twitter, LinkedIn, TripIt, etc. Also, the RSS feed on firm’s website
and blog posts on firm’s blog could be integrated with the
Facebook posts. However, it doesn’t mean just automation of
feeds would bring in engagement. Virtual medium users are very
sound these days and could easily make out the source of the
feed. Hence, it is essential for firms to bring in a human touch to
the feeds and provide community members true engagement
• Negative comment is not indeed negative for the firm: The
fan page administrators should not behave in an offensive /
defensive manner on viewing a negative comment. This should be
looked upon as an opportunity to improve the shortcomings and
create a base for future better customer experience.

• Product category - Engagement match: We realized that it is
very essential to execute right type of engagement with the
customers depending on the product category a firm belongs to.
This could be monitored based on criteria like frequency of posts,
type of posts, type of apps, etc. A fan page administrator should
take a call on whether contests and polls are going to benefit the
firm in any respect.
Disclaimer
This study is a 100% funded research by Iffort Consulting and is not
sponsored or influenced by any brand and/or any third party agency /
institution.
All the logos and trademarks used in this study are the property of their
respective owners.
Information provided by Iffort Consulting is general in nature, has been
compiled from freely available info on public domain and is meant for non-
commercial purposes only.
Links used in this report may lead to services or sites not operated by Iffort
Consulting. No judgment or warranty is made with respect to such other
services or sites and Iffort Consulting takes no responsibility for the same.
Iffort Consulting shall accept no liability for any destruction or damage,
loss, obligation or responsibility arising from the use or misuse of this
report or any information contained on this report. Claims regarding
damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind
of information which is incomplete or incorrect, will therefore be rejected.

Attribution and Further Information
Any references or quotes pertaining to this document should be attributed
to the “How are business entities in India using Facebook: Iffort Consulting
Study.” Any questions or inquiries from the media should be addressed to
Director and Co-Founder, Daksh Sharma, at daksh.sharma@iffort.com.
Credits
Content Strategy for the Report
We thank, Anandan Pillai for his vital inputs and direction on organizing the
content and preparing this report. He is a doctoral student (Marketing area)
with Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. His research interests
involve brand communities on social media, social media strategy and
consumer behavior on virtual mediums. He can be reached at
anandan1982@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Anandan_Pillai.
Technology Partners
Special mention goes to our technology partners’ itemperance consulting.
For more information about itemperance consulting, please visit
www.itemperance.com or follow them on twitter at @itemperance.
Design Partners
Color Code Software http://www.colorcodesoftware.com/
Our Questionnaire Respondents
We thank the following teams for providing us vital inputs on their
Facebook Fan page initiatives:
Pratham Books, Pagalguy.com and Su-Kam Power Systems.

About Iffort Consulting
is an India based people centric web-strategy & social media
consulting firm that plans, creates and executes a thorough
roadmap to deliver tangible value for its clients. Our ranges of
services include full-spectrum web-strategy & social media consulting. For further
information visit us at www.iffort.com
E-Mail: contact@iffort.com
Phone: 0120.4221295 | 0120.4355730
Facebook: facebook.com/iffort
Twitter: twitter.com/iffort

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