By: Ravi Sinha
Track2Realty Exclusive: Had people who conceptualised the idea of Facebook & Twitter been from the Indian real estate, they would have by now thrown open a BIG IDEA where the cost of running a country like India could have been brought to almost negligible having social media its way. The law makers would not have the trouble of travelling all their way to Parliament from respective constituencies in the remote areas.
The easiest possible public address system called Facebook & Twitter was there to take care of the causes and grievances of the nation. Union Budgets could also have been status updated and tweeted with law makers along with the common man on the streets comment their opinion on it. Track2Realty Brand X Report peeps into the funny world of social media solutions for real estate.
It entered into the public space as a humble notice board, made inroads into our private space with the hook of fan followers, gradually made its presence felt with occasional scoops posted by the celebrities, started spreading its tentacles into the neo-techy masses and before we realised it had driven the otherwise largely technophobic nation into its status driven tweet zone where Facebook & Twitter started operating on their own as National Information Centre.
From politicians to cricketers, film stars to media professionals; it seems everybody wants to post a status and tweet to be followed. Many have become addicted to the social media site and can not seem to stay away from it. Still, the Indian real estate would not have bothered had the frustrated buyers not started grouping in the cyber space to club together with their grievances.
After all, social media emerged as the new face of expression in a society groping for recognition beyond mere identity of “We the Nation”? It gives the impression as if urban India has readily accepted Facebook and Twitter as the new face of tangible recognition. More the followers the better standing you have in the society, so it seems.
Facts suggest more than what social media is supposed to stay for. In a developing society like India one may have to run from pillar to post to get a grievance heard, something that they can vent their frustration easily over Facebook and Twitter and flaunt their power to take on the mighty ones among the peer group.
When you first look at these social media outlets, it seems as though it is just a large bunch of random thoughts. It is actually much more than that. It is over hyped, over exposed and over estimated channel of communication. In the absence of any regulation, Facebook & Twitter is being used and abused like no other media vehicle. It is true that some of the biggest scams of the era involving cricket, politics, money and sex have been exposed on social media only. But social media alone can not take the credit of any worthy contribution to this. Had the mainstream media not followed it up, this viral status update would have gone as unnoticed as thousands of others in the day.
Everybody is Facebooking or Tweeting or both. It seems these outlets are the new public address system in the country and everyone is busy writing good, bad and ugly without any censorship-legal, ethical or whatsoever.
However, this is India and definitely the soci0-political & corporate spectrum is not as tweety as France where the President asks for public opinion on political and personal agenda through his tweets.
Why then is Indian real estate so obsessed with social media? Don’t they realise social media is a small component of digital format of communication where Facebook fan page or Tweet has no real value? May be it is because that is easy & tangible PR than walking the long roads and making brand reputation a journey than destination.
…to be continued
