‘Expand your market to tier-II cities using smart phones, social media’

With the rate of Internet penetration in rural India outstripping the urban parts of the country, social media analysts are making out a case for businesses to expand their markets to tier-II cities and rural markets using smart phones and social media.

Contending that the year-on-year (YoY) growth in Internet penetration in rural India was 58 per cent, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Supriya Kurpad, a trainer at Scion Social, a digital media marketing company, who made a presentation at the recent Social Media Week in Bengaluru, said tier-II and tier-III cities in the country, each having a population of a million or less, account for 40 per cent of India’s middle class income group with a growing spending power and growing aspirations.

With Internet access as well as smart phones set become more affordable, thanks to initiatives of the government as well as global Internet companies, business will now have a larger playground. About 32 per cent of rural users access Internet only on their smart phones, she said.

Vernacular websites

Citing the findings of Mindshift Interactive Survey, Ms. Kurpad said 64 per cent of rural users, use the Internet in their local languages and the vernacular websites grew by 58 per cent YoY. In comparison, English websites grew by just 11 per cent in rural markets.

While Ms. Kurpad advocated for social media campaigns to have targets based on region, language and home towns, Social Scion founder Siddharth Rajashekar said it was possible to target people of a particular demographic profile on a social media platform. “For instance, all the men above 40 years in a particular city can be targeted to receive a particular post. For, 90 per cent of the users of a social media platform enter details like their gender, age, place of living etc,” he said.

He said local businesses can also use WhatsApp by creating groups and sending across messages. Similarly, by updating one’s Google+ profile, businesses can ensure that their shop’s name and details are thrown up during a Google search for a particular service or product, he added.