If there was one indication of how big social media in India can be its this one piece of news that came in today. When a large research company and another large consulting company join hands to venture into a new business arena it only points towards the potential in that space.
So here is what’s just in: Nielsen and Mckinsey have joined hands to launch an arm called NM Incite which will provide analytics and consulting to brands on social media. Nielsen already had Nielsen Buzz metrics which was a social media monitoring tool. This tie up with Mckinsey seems to be aimed at providing the complete suite of social media centric brand solutions to clients.
According to Piyush Mathur, President, India, The Nielsen Company, “Social media is a fast developing platform for consumer opinion and can emerge as an ocean of insight for brands that care to listen. NM Incite aims to help marketers understand this media better and leverage it for growth,”
McKinsey’s role would be to build expertise in the areas of marketing & sales, organization and service operations. According to Sahana Sarma, Head Sales and Marketing Practice, McKinsey & Company, India “Social media in India is where search used to be 3-4 years back and brands who take early positions will definitely stand to gain.”
NM Incite would be headquartered in New York and would be led by Dave Hudson, previously Executive Vice President, Global Client Services of Nielsen’s Telecom Practice
Social Media : Not a subset of digital media?
Social media consulting business has been around in India for roughly 3-4 years now. But its only in the last year or so that over 30+ firms have sprung up into this space and all digital agencies have started saying “We also offer social media”. The number of brand have multiplied and the obsession with fans and followers has grown among all brand and marketing managers.
As the Industry moves forward I believe various facets of social media would evolve and deliver value to different business objectives. So right from consumer insight to customer relationships and from new business to new hires all these aspects would be looks at and social media would be become a category on its own. Lots of people today view social media as a subset of digital media and I believe that will change. Take example of this news itself: Niether Nielsen nor Mckinsey are digital media companies in the classical sense but they are venturing into social media. It seems the need to be social and be heard and to hear is far more than the need to be seen or clicked on.
Only time will tell though. Im an optimist and would love to know a contrary view to this.
Disclaimer: WATBlog has a sister concern in WATConsult which is a social media consulting firm that specializes in social media monitoring, management and marketing.
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