Welcome To World Of Hashtags

Let’s face it the like button on Facebook or the share option on LinkedIn or the retweet choice on Twitter or a double tap on your picture on Instagram can determine your faith; so much so that these options can either help you build an empire or on the contrary, get you crashing downhill from the pyramid of success. A well-defined picture with an appropriate hashtag can easily make your picture go viral, further taking your brand or com-pany to the next level. These social media portals have cinched the planet Earth into small blob, where everyone is just a click away. Over the years, social media has changed the way we look at our career and to a large extent forced pretty much everyone to grace their presence on the net.

For instance, when Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, made his debut on Instagram, he literally took the virtual world by storm. Well, not that he usually doesn’t, but his single post broke the Internet and made the people go gaga on his first post. Just within a few days, he gained a whopping half a million followers, which surely is not new for him. “I made it to Gram,” declared Ratan Tata in his bio. Over the period of a few days, he put up some of his memorable pictures reminiscing about his past and some humble accomplishments, and the Grammers (people who use Instagram) had no option but to fall in love his pictures. Especially on one of his posts where he spoke about the birth of India’s first indigenous car The Tata Indica. The post was swapped with galore of comments thanking him for his grit and determination. The post read, “Everyone told us it couldn’t be done without having a joint venture or a partnership with an international company. That if I did this, I would be linked to failure. But we went ahead anyway. There were technical issues and many lessons we learned. It was a wonderful experience to be breaking new ground. The chances to give up were many. We stayed the course, worked out each issue, and that was the birth of India’s 1st indigenous car, The Tata Indica.”

Although this experienced tycoon and industrial giant has set foot on the Instagram way after his retirement from the corporate arena, his appearance on the social media is a testament for budding a entrepreneur, young corporates and future industrials that social media is one of the powerful weapons that can lead you on the path of success. Not just Instagram, be it LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest or for that matter even WhatsApp, these social media portals are proving to be the best platform that future leaders can explore. The reach that social media provides and the ease with which it connects the world makes it difficult for people to resist creating their account on these new mediums.

To understand the influence of social media,Corporate Citizen caught up with some of the corporate leaders and stalwarts. They spoke about their favoured medium of communication, how these portals are helping them connect with their audience and how it is aided them in their organisation’s growth

HIRAL SHAH
Freelance Talent Acquisition
Professional, Legal

LINKEDIN HAS BECOME A ONE-STOP PORTAL FOR ALL

Frankly, with the rising influence of social media, it has become quite crucial for a company or a business to invest in a team that can highlight their success on the new media. When this media was in its nascent stage, portals like Monster, Naukri, iimjobs and others did give the seekers and receivers a great nudge. But as the new media started flourishing, these portals lost its charm as they weren’t engaging enough to eventually check profiles when it came to recruiting. That’s when LinkedIn rose to the occasion. It has become the face of the professional connect. It gives a better idea on profiles for engagement, as it talks about the articles they have written which, in turn, gives us the insight on their writing. Moreover, the recommendations they have received gives an indirect reference check and their area of interest in the legal sector. In short, it gives us a basic sense to filter from the pool. Facebook is a social medium and sometimes it intrudes into personal lives so not everyone is open to give access for personal space unless there is something meaningful. Within a short time of Instagram’s arrival, Facebook became outdated. That’s mostly because of the reach that Instagram provides, and more so, it’s quite open in sense. Use of WhatsApp is easier and yes, there are groups which organisations use for team communication as one is more engaged on the phone and on WhatsApp than any other social media platform. It’s simple, easier to communicate and offices have changed to more open-door policies by opening up on WhatsApp than LinkedIn for communication. However, the best part of LinkedIn is that it’s a platform for two-way communication, people are engaged in the post from both the ends. It has become a one-stop platform for all your business needs. You name it and it is there!

PALLAVI RANGAVAJHALA
Process Lead, IT company

INSTAGRAM – THE ULTIMATE MARKETING GUIDE

Afew years ago, when Instagram was just picking up,little did we know that it would create such a boom. Be it any age group of people belonging to any sector of the working class, they are present on Instagram. Giving us more and enough reasons to promote and reach out to our audience on this portal. As I handle the social and marketing aspect of a leading IT company, I understand the importance and gravity of being on Instagram. Around two years ago, I was zapped to see an international company give a virtual tour of their upcoming conference. Well, that surely created a buzz amongst their audience.In fact, they were hooked to it. Now that I have figured out the dynamics of Instagram, I don’t shy away from incorporating in the IT world. During the conferences, we mostly focus on informing our audience via Stories, an Instagram feature. That’s because its reach is impeccable. The Story feature creates a stir amongst our audience and they actually stay tuned for more updates from us. With that, we make use of the Instagram Live feature to show and talk about our conference, which goes on for three days. A concise content of the conference is then put as Highlights; another feature provided by the Gram. I think most of the corporate world is shifted to Instagram, as Facebook is becoming redundant. We even put up posts talking about our products, informing about conferences and much more. The views on our Stories is quite enthralling. With enough buzz creating by our content, a lot of our audiences DM (Direct Message) us asking for more details. This surely tells us our company is reaching millions. Of course, we are present on the social media portals, be it Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or WhatsApp, but our company’s presence is more on Instagram. We are happy that our Instagram family has almost reached 70,000 (followers)

SAJID PATEL
AVP Head, L and D and OD,
Datamatics Global Services LTD,

SOCIAL MEDIA BECOMES #LIFE

Today, everybody has a social media account, either LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp or Pinterest. Social media presence has become essential, especially when it comes to your business. I would like to add that if you don’t have your presence on these platforms, you are invisible; rather you don’t exist for the world. When I know that everyone is present on these platforms, why wouldn’t I be doing my branding here? For a company or a business to take roots and flourish, they need to create public awareness. Social media is an appropriate platform for this goal. When I push my posts on any of these socially trending media, my followers or subscribers would take note of it. If they like them, they will share them and so will their followers. This sharing then triggers a chain reaction, in turn, creating awareness about my work, business or brand.

WhatsApp is used extensively when it comes to the professional domain. It enables you to engage your customers, gives easy access to your employees, and helps with one-way notifications and reminders. Delegating work on WhatsApp has become the new normal. Social media, if used in the right way, can be a very powerful medium for the success of your organisation or business. However, your content needs to be genuine, smart, and shareable.

GEETA KARNIK
Head of Financial Services, Servier

USE THE SOCIAL MEDIA WISELY

Now that Ratan Tata has had made his appearance on Instagram, I am more inquisitive to see what this platform has to offer. I would take efforts to explore it and understand what it has to offer to the corporate world. There’s a total abuzz of social media these days, and I reckon that it can be a boon if used wisely. The vogue created especially by WhatsApp, Twitter and LinkedIn is uncanny. It sort of has taken over the corporate realm where most of our company conversation happen on our organisation’s WhatsApp group. Might I say, its pros are many, as dialogues can happen on the go, minimising the time required to get the task done. Having said that, I also feel that this platform, although, might look appealing but one needs to use it within limits. Using it in a functional way can do wonders for one’s business. We do have our company’s WhatsApp group where we discuss about meetings and projects. It has made communication quite easy. Frankly, I am not quite active on Instagram and Facebook, but don’t mind having a look at it if it could make my work easy. LinkedIn and Twitter are my favoured apps. LinkedIn boasts of companies from all across the industry, giving me easy access to what’s happening in our industry. When it comes to keeping myself updated on the events related to the pharma world, Twitter is my preferred app.

PRITY ANSINGKAR
General Manager, Marketing, ABans

MARKING OUR PRESENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

Our Chairman and Managing Director, Abhishek Bansal, being a millennial, himself realises the worth of being present on social media. Leading this first generation business which he built on his own worth, Abhishek understands the need of the hour. Now that we have blossomed from the trading business into various other verticals such as Pharma, Bullion, wealth management and fintech the new media devices like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have risen to the occasion and how. LinkedIn being a complete professional portal has proved to be very efficient in terms of its reach and content likewise for Twitter, however, there, content takes the driver’s seat. If the content is not up the mark, there can be setbacks. WhatsApp to a large extent proves worthwhile as a great tool of communication internally and also to stakeholders and trade partners. Our company uses social media quite actively when it comes to business. Officially, Abhishek’s presence on LinkedIn and Twitter has some good number of followers in a short span of time. Being on social media helps you connect with the clients and your employees as well. With that, it increases the awareness of your brand, in directly boosting your leads and sales. ABans Group being a financial entity, coming with content with for Instagram is a tad bit difficult. However, courtesy of Abhishek’s experience and knowledge, we have set up a dedicated team who uploads his quotes, saying, financial trivia and much more on Instagram. His nuances and anecdotes are well received there as well. In today’s day and time, it has become inevitable to mark your presence on various social media platform if you wish to reach the millennial and Gen Z.

ABHISHEK GITE
Head - Product and Alliances,
Fintree Finance Pvt Ltd

BUILDING A BUSINESS THROUGH LINKEDIN

Fintree, an impact lending NBFC based out of Mumbai, is just a few months old. And to blossom into a full-fledged business, we are trying our hands out on every available new and social media option. Currently what’s working in our favour is LinkedIn. It’s one of the portals that helps us stay connected with our employees, vendors, clients and future employees and customers. The communication aspect of LinkedIn is the key which is why a lot of businesses are soaring high. Reaching out to our prospective employees on this social media platform is certainly opening new doors for us. What LinkedIn does is engages our clients and employees in a healthy conversation which later becomes a great interactive session. A relevant communication amongst all goes a long way and that’s what we are aiming for. It has been only four months since Fintree has made its appearance on LinkedIn and from four to thousand plus followers, we have come a long way. With our posts, we hope to reach many people and educate them as well. We know that our employees and client’s time is of utmost importance, hence, we don’t believe in spamming their walls. A single educative post works like a charm. We are into lending loans to SMEs, who mostly are present on WhatsApp, as opposed to showcasing their existence on other platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. Fintree is in touch with them through WhatsApp as well. As our motive is to reach many, we are scouting ever portal. This whole process is quite satisfying as it indirectly promotes our business. Of course, we do use WhatsApp for internal commutation. As our business grows in due course of time, we will surely enter the world of Insta and Pinterest. Exploring options will only aid in spreading the essence of our business.

ABHISHEK JHA
Director, Global Human Resources,
e-Emphasys

TATA’S INSTA DEBUT GIVES US SERIOUS LEADERSHIP GOALS

When a man of such calibre, values, and extraordinary experience can make an appearance on Instagram at the age that he is at, then all of us should seriously take a cue from Ratan Tata. As times change, adapting and adopting to it is the only option. Social media and networking platforms are integral to business these days. The IT industry has been at the forefront when it comes to bringing about changes in the way we look at business in general. Hiring has always been a critical function for us. We find leverage, equity and a bright chance to brand ourselves on relevant social networking platforms, for example, LinkedIn. Given the nature of hiring that we end up doing, a serious professional platform such as LinkedIn helps us reach out to the right set of candidates. Since we are on the topic of finding talent, LinkedIn, quite frankly, is actively engaging compared to other portals, giving more reasons for us to work on our hiring and branding there. I believe a large set of candidate audience that we engage with may not be active on Instagram. Similarly, the same ones may be passive on Facebook, but on LinkedIn, they are highly active. Organisations know where their audience lies, hence leverage specific social platforms get maximum returns. Not just hiring, we are also able to create a certain significant degree of equity by letting netizens know what’s happening at our end, thereby creating a recall and interest about us. Using the right hashtags has opened the doors to a large set of relevant audience. Technically, 99 per cent of the world is on social media, so I am personally very confident of this becoming the only market for all business engines to flourish. In our case, given the business, requirements, experience and credentials that make up our workforce, we look up specific social sites to attract and reach out to talent. Today, we may not be using Instagram for business or to reach out to talent, because, quite frankly, ‘our’ talent may not be on Instagram. However, this may not be the case tomorrow. Who knew there would be Facebook for business until a few years ago? Things are changing at a very rapid pace and it’s up to us to adapt and adopt to changing times and sensibilities.