Expert Insights on Why Digital Marketers in India Are Using Social Media
We ran a survey to understand how an Indian digital marketer uses social media both personally and professionally. To maintain accuracy to data this survey was specifically targeted to digital marketers or those associated with digital marketing at some level. The survey has insightful results, and we are sharing them with you.
The response to our survey in India has been overwhelming. A big thank you to those who were a part of the survey.
Key Findings of Our Social Media Survey for Indian Market
1. Most Popular Social Media Content
Indian digital marketers are savvy. They primarily use social media to follow trends, for self-improvement, and entertainment. If you club trends and self-improvement together you get a hypothesis that Indian digital marketers personally look to social media as a means of enhancing their knowledge base and building networks. Now, that is a mature way to use social media.
The breakup of the stats is as below. While entertainment is mostly sought after so are other aspects. It’s like social media plays a vital role in every digital marketer’s professional and personal growth.
| Which of the following types of social media content are you interested in? | |
| Self-Improvement | 54.14% |
| Case Studies | 32.94% |
| Trends | 58.84% |
| Specific Platforms | 25.88% |
| Strategy | 42.34% |
| Entertainment | 49.14% |
| Others (Please specify) | 3.53% |
| Networking | 41.18% |
2. Time Spent on Social Media Each Day
We asked digital marketers about how much time they spend on social media each day. The response actually surprised us. We expected digital marketers to be online on social media 24/7. But around 75% of digital marketers in India spend less than 4 hours on social media. They certainly seem a responsible lot and their jobs keep them busy! What is relevant that around 25% of digital markets do spend at least 1/4th of their day on social media.
| What is the total time that you spend on social media each day? | |
| < an hour | 4.71% |
| 1-2 hours | 27.06% |
| 2-3 hours | 23.53% |
| 3-4 hours | 20% |
| 4-6 hours | 12.94% |
| > 6 hours | 11.76% |
3. Social Media Blogs are Regularly Read
Around 50% of digital marketers read blogs 2-3 times a week to upgrade their knowledge. Hence, blogs do remain the most relevant source of structured knowledge. An interesting result was that not even one participant said that they never read blogs. So keep the posts coming up guys!
| How often do you read social media blogs to upgrade your knowledge? | |
| Occasionally (Once a week or less) | 17.65% |
| Frequently (2-3 times a week) | 47.06% |
| Regularly (4-5 times a week) | 16.47% |
| Diligently (Every day) | 18.82% |
| Never | 0.00% |
4. Most Favored Social Media Blogs
Indian digital marketers find blogs written by Indian authors more relevant to their professions. Social Samosa an agency blog and Sorav Jain a marketer are the leaders. Almost 45% of Indians read Sorav Jain’s blog. Among the international blogs Social Media Examiner, DMIOA and Neil Patel find a mention.
| Which of the following blogs do you follow to keep updated on social media techniques? | ||
| Social Media Examiner | 37.76% | |
| Social Samosa | 39.80% | |
| Sorav Jain | 43.88% | |
| DMIOA | 11.22% | |
| Top Dog Social Media | 22.45% | |
| Agropulse | 9.18% | |
| AFAQs | 13.27% | |
| Digital Deepak, Neil Patel, Gaurav Bhardwaj’s Blog | 11.22% | |
5. Most Followed Indian Digital Marketer
Yes, and the sentiment continues when asked about popular digital marketing and social media marketing personalities. Sorav Jain leads again by a very huge margin. But what is interesting is that around 23% have their own favorites and none of them stood out remarkably.
| Among the following Indians who are active in digital marketing whom do you follow? | ||
| Sorav Jain | 45.35% | |
| Ankita Gaba | 17.44% | |
| Gautam Ghosh | 9.30% | |
| Alok Kejriwal (Rodinhood) | 18.60% | |
| Gaurav Mendiratta | 16.28% | |
| Priya Florence Shah | 12.79% | |
| Others (Please specify) | 23.26% | |
6. Upcoming Indian Social Media Experts
For those digital marketers desiring to make a name for themselves the competition to the top just got intense. Aditya Bhatkal currently leads the race followed closely by Sanjay Mehta and Ambika Sharma. The field is rather crowded with those around 22% being very opinionated about the choices available.
| Which of the following Indians do you think are upcoming social media experts? | ||
| Aditya Bhatkal | 31.25% | |
| Ambika Sharma | 28.23% | |
| Sanjay Mehta | 32.29% | |
| Malhar Barai | 10.42% | |
| Shreedeva Sharma | 12.50% | |
| Deepak Kanakaraju, Tushar Bhatia, Sandeep Maheshwari, others | 21.88% | |
7. Most Preferred Social Media Tools
Nearly 50% of those using tools use Hootsuite. Content is huge on social media, this is reflected by the fact that almost 42% of social media marketers also use Content Studio and Buffer.
| Which of the following Indians do you think are upcoming social media experts? | ||
| Aditya Bhatkal | 31.25% | |
| Ambika Sharma | 28.23% | |
| Sanjay Mehta | 32.29% | |
| Malhar Barai | 10.42% | |
| Shreedeva Sharma | 12.50% | |
| Deepak Kanakaraju, Tushar Bhatia, Sandeep Maheshwari, others | 21.88% | |
8. Social Media’s Share in the Budget
ROI in social media is still an issue. Given the popularity of social media in India, we were shocked to see these results. Around 30% of marketers do not invest in social media marketing at all around 25% use less than 45% of their budget while the other 25% keep the spend to between 45% to 70%.
| Do you use social media tools for your campaign? If yes, which of the following tools do you use? | ||
| Hootsuite | 49.46% | |
| Agorapulse | 6.45% | |
| Buffer | 20.03% | |
| Content Studio | 21.51% | |
| Social Bakers | 19.35% | |
| Business Manager, Zoho Social | 18.28% | |
9. Biggest Social Media Challenge
The global issues of social media reverberate in India too. The biggest issue is growing the audience organically and targeting the relevant audience for effective campaigns. Lead generation is not much of an issue. That could be because Indians are said to use social media more for awareness. But again, that would be a hypothesis!
| How much of your digital marketing budget do you use in social media? | ||
| All | 4.04% | |
| Around 80% or more | 6.06% | |
| Between 70% – 80% | 6.06% | |
| Between 60% – 70% | 10.10% | |
| Between 45% – 60% | 15.15% | |
| Less than 45% | 26.26% | |
| I don’t invest in social media | 30.30% | |
Indian Digital Marketers’ Perspective for Social Media
The use of social media by digital marketers in India is in a mature phase. Personally, social media is used for enhancing skill sets and entertainment. While professionally it’s being used for creating awareness. This is further indicated by the kinds of tools digital marketers are using for social media, and also with the fact that attracting the right target audience is their biggest defined challenge.
Also, they are not just enjoying entertaining content but are looking forward to growing the audience organically.
DigiNekt is a digital marketing job portal that brings together job seekers and employers on a common platform. Our objective is to help digital marketing professionals get their dream job and digital marketing agencies to hire the best people for their team.
Nice to see a mention in such esteemed company. Great survey.
Congratulations Priya. Well deserved indeed. Wishing you the best!
Happy to see the results! I am Sorav Jain 🙂 and not Sourav Jain. Please rectify.
Oops!! Our bad. Fixed it 🙂 Thanks for pointing it out and congratulations for being the most followed social media blogger of India.
Thank you. Humbled at the mention. The report is interesting and brings forth key insights!
It’s our pleasure! And congratulations to you for being one of the most followed upcoming social media experts.
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