BHUJBALVIEW

While I was at school around 2004, I used to be on Orkut. I gave myself a hip bio, updated my status constantly, and was part of all the cool groups that I could then flaunt.

The Scraps page on the Orkut website where friends could leave messages

Then came my graduation, and I upgraded to Facebook and actually, so did the entire world. I used it then and I continue to use it now; the purpose for use though has changed. Earlier, I created more content, today I consume more content. Earlier, I posted more textual statuses, and now I post more pictorial ones. I also came onto Whatsapp in 2007 and started experimenting with it to reduce my phone bills. My activity on these platforms during my MBA as well remained the same.

And then ever since I started working, in 2010, I’ve hopped onto Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Viber. Now, I’m using Whatsapp more and Facebook a bit less.

A lot of millennials will relate to this. We’ve actually never been at a more interesting time, on the digital communication front. New formats of communication are emerging, old ones are losing their sheen. Questions, never asked before, such as, “What Orkut lacked?”, are now coming into the limelight and the rapidity at which changes are happening is even more mind-boggling.

Many nuances

From a communication standpoint, the challenge lies in understanding each platform, identifying opinion leaders within the relevant platform, and then trying to influence them. But herein lies an important point of distinction, social networks themselves sway between being influence based, to relationship driven.

*Orkut was always relationship driven. People had meaningful conversations, wished each other on their birthdays and shared pictures. Brands tried to intrude, via groups, but not with much success.

*Facebook was also relationship based, and still is. Here too we tend to follow the Orkut type of behaviour, in addition to the opportunity of seamlessly interacting with brands. A couple of years back, Facebook was also optimized for influence, with a ‘Follow’ feature that got added. That somewhat worked in the US, but didn’t seem to take off in India. Brand pages too enable companies to expand their influence, but as the organic reach of the news feed decreases, there’ll be a little less sting in it. The decreased organic reach is a consequence of the increased competition content is facing, from other content that could appear in the newsfeed. To illustrate, the total number of Pages Liked by the typical Facebook user grew more than 50% last year.

*Twitter was always about influence. It was about the followers. It was about sharing breaking news. It was about sharing thought leadership material. The 140 character module was never built for sharing and wishing each other on birthdays, sharing pictures or showing public display of affection. The web of influence on social media platforms like Twitter is finely spun, in a way that information from opinion leaders can visually percolate to their followers.

*Instant messaging is probably the hottest category right now. Some say it is the new social media. The fact is, it is too a digital communication tool and since its tailor made for mobile, conversations appear to be more real time. An interesting trend is, the introduction of groups to these apps are enabling like-minded individuals to converse and collaborate better. That’s how the social quotient of these apps are riding high. Also, many a times, pictures are shared within groups itself, rather than on social networks. So here conversations are very meaningful, controlled and relationship driven. Some apps like Nimbuzz, WeChat and Line have opened themselves up to brands to facilitate brand specific conversations, but the influence network is still somewhat restricted.

The web of influence on social media platforms like Twitter is finely spun, in a way that information from opinion leaders can visually percolate to their followers. 

Read more about this, on the 20:20MSL blog, where it was originally published.