Twitter is a global phenomenon everyone knows that but everytime I meet marketers or even digital advertisers I get the statement that twitter is too new in India and not that widespread vis a vis an orkut or facebook. Well this might have been true lets say 12 months back but today it could be far from the truth.
Today it rained cats and dogs (as well as elephants) in Mumbai, India (The city where WATBlog is headquartered). And the impact of the rains was not only felt by the commuters as you can see in the picture below..
It was also felt by twitterers around the globe as mumbai rains started trending on twitter. It briefly held the no.1 trending topic position and then gradually came down to no.3 at the time of blogging this post.
Now you may ask – So whats such a big deal in that?
Well the big deal maybe in the fact that twitter is among the top 15 sites in India now. Yes its more popular than Cricinfo.com and Naukri.com. This ofcourse is subject to the believability of alexa rankings for India. But nonetheless its an indication of its popularity.
What this means for marketers ?
This means that twitter the free conversation platform should figure highly going forward on a marketers agenda. If #mumbairains trending is any indication it means that users on twitter are hyper active and this can be leveraged as a marketer and as a brand. Lately I have seen a flurry of celebs, publications and companies too joining twitter.
Here is the latest of who you can find on twitter
Indian Celebs List on twitter
@gulpanag – Gul Panag – Actress
@udaych – Uday Chopra – Actor
@priyankachopra – Priyanka Chopra – Actress
@mallikala – Mallika Sherawat – Actress
@shashitharoor – Shashitharoor – Politician
@onephk – Purab Kohli – Actor
Indian News (TV & Print) publications on Twitter
@DNAIndia – DNA
@bsindia – Business Standard
@ibnlive – IBN Live
@livemint – Mint
@ndtv – NDTV
If you know of more please update us by commenting on this post.
The above list just shows the growing importance of twitter in India and the traction its building. Twitter is still not monetized but this is an opportunity for brands to give twitter a dekho and start conversing in this medium the way the west is doing.
Barkha Dutt is on @BDUTT
(Her ID is in ALL CAPS. Does it signify something)
Pritish Nandy is on @PritishNandy
Here are few more… not sure how many are real…
http://twitter.com/shahrukh_khan Shahrukh Khan
http://twitter.com/rajnikanth Rajnikanth
http://twitter.com/meghnagulzar Meghna Gulzar
http://twitter.com/Meerasanyal Meera Sanyal
http://twitter.com/shekharkapur Shekar Kapoor
http://twitter.com/RGamethi Rahul Gandhi
http://twitter.com/Narendra_Modi Narendra Modi
http://twitter.com/sachintendulkar Sachin Tendulkar
http://twitter.com/amitabh_bigb Amitabh Bachchan
@ajjai most of these are fake twitter A/c. SRK, Sachin & Big B are fake for sure. Just see a few tweets and link and you will understand. RG page is now deleted. Rajini is by Rajni fan club. Meera Sanyal and Medghna Gulzar seem real
http://twitter.com/V1SH4L – Vishal Dadlani
http://twitter.com/Bani_J – VJ Bani
http://twitter.com/chetan_bhagat – Chetan Bhagat
Off course Me also there..
Whats the use of these twitter ID of these celebrities to common people when they are in heavy rain.
Will they come there to help ?
I do not get aim of this article ?
@chetan….. the aim of the article is to explaining how twitter is fast catching up in India. It had nothing to do with celbrity helping mumbaikar struck in rain.
Rajiv mentioned the names of few celebrities who have been bitten by the Twitter bug just to highlight his statement.
I agree with Rajiv, Twitter is fast catching up in India. It will not be far when it will leave behind facebook and orkut.
Some other noted personalities that I follow:
http://twitter.com/RajaSen Writer, Movie Critic
http://twitter.com/preityzinta Actor
http://twitter.com/Deepak_Chopra Speaker and Spiritual guru
http://twitter.com/rgvzoomin Ramgopal Verma Director
http://twitter.com/msnindia News
http://twitter.com/prempanicker Noted sports Journalist
http://twitter.com/MTVindia Music channel
http://twitter.com/India_Today Media Group
http://twitter.com/star_movies Star Movies channel
Yups i too read that tweet “its raining elephants in Mumbai.” BTW channel V is also there on twitter.
For sometime #Hindi too became a famous tag but donno who started it
Healthiest Regards
Mahatru Goyal
movies in Bangalore
i believe another late bloomer on twitter scene is et now. the new biz news channel from times group. anybody seen it yet? quite nice and approachable feel to it. unlike cnbc which is all slick and pretentious. i also like the anchors on et now. specially that tanvir gill. quite a cutie.
u shud look them up.