Less than half of Asian companies listed has a corporate social media presence. Of those corporate brands that do have a presence, more than 55% of social media profiles are inactive. Only 18% of surveyed companies integrate their social media profiles into their corporate websites. See the press release here.

Here is a summary of how Indian corporates are using social media:

At 6.9% , internet penetration in India remains relatively low, ever greater numbers of people are using social media to network and voice their opinions.

Facebook and Orkut are the most popular social networks. India is a major engine of growth for LinkedIn. Meantime, Twitter’s embrace by politicians, celebrities, film stars and sportsmen has given the microblog massive publicity.

On the whole, Indian companies have moved fast in response to the opportunities afforded by social media. Many top Indian corporates surveyed are either experimenting or already have active accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

Hardly surprisingly, India’s top technology companies are proactively using social media of all types, for both corporate and consumer outreach.

Yet companies in other sectors are also jumping on the social media bandwagon, including FMCG companies, whose product brands are generally active in the social media space, and financial services companies such as ICICI and HDFC banks. The latter are mostly focused on providing customer service support and product promotions.

It is not all Facebook and Twitter. Corporate blogs are seen as a good way for Indian companies to communicate with their many stakeholders, both domestically as well as in other English language markets. Corporate blogs are also seen as a useful means of getting your message direct to the audience, rather than having to communicate through intermediaries such as journalists.

Partly given their international focus, Indian technology giants such as Infosys and Wipro are actively blogging. Infosys has a wide range of blogs, mostly focused on its products, categories and partnerships, but also highlighting and analysing trends around innovation and leadership. Wipro’s blog discusses technology trends and the firm’s sustainability initiatives, amongst other topics.

Using video to tell the corporate story is also gaining ground in India. Here, companies are using YouTube (and increasingly Facebook) to host interviews and speeches by senior management and promote events, in addition to supporting broader marketing campaigns.

Indian companies still put great emphasis on their websites. But only a small minority has sought to integrate their websites and activities on third party social media platforms. While Indian companies appear relatively comfortable with corporate blogs, most companies are still experimenting with Facebook and are not yet ready to join together their various online channels at the hip.

See the full report here.

Enterpriser.in, the Indian news and resource portal for small and medium businesses, recently did a story and quoted me on how SMBs can use blogging as a marketing tool.

To me, blogging can be a cost effective communications tool for SMBs. It can be a good way to build up the profile of the senior management in the market. Unlike large corporations where there are multiple protocols to follow, SMBs can get engaged online and respond to queries and complaints in quick time. A number of clients we are planning to kick start social media campaigns for currently are from the SMB segment, and we are confident that it can bring some good positive results. I will keep you informed. Read the full story here.

You can check out more of my writings on PR 2.0 and social media here.

PR Icons is a new initiative to recognise PR professionals who have taken efforts to take the PR profession a step forward. Though PR Icons was initially conceptualised to recognise those professionals with more than 10 years of experience, they have decided to relax the minimum experience limit and include ‘young guys who have achieved greater things, within a short time’.

The recognition was primarily due to India PR Blog, an industry blog that I started two years back that has today become a good resource for information on the PR profession and the industry in India and a platform for discussion among PR professionals.

Thank you, Mr. Srinivasan. This is certainly a big boost and encouragement.

On another note, CIOL has done a story on the corporate blogging scene in India and has featured some of my quotes. Corporate blogging is an emerging phenomenon in India and corporates have started accepting it as a medium to reach out to their target audience. Very soon, we are likely to see more Indian corporates adopting the blogging attitude. Already I am helping a couple of my client develop blogs for their organisations. The social media marketing market in India is bound to see some exciting times ahead.

Some of my past writing on social media are here: Social media in India