For leading social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Internet ironically is not the lone medium for community building exercise in India and internationally.
In a conscious effort to conceive and retain sustainable and profitable business models driven by solid user participation, these networking sites are turning to offline events. The idea is to enhance their reach and widen the user base.
For example, every year global Twestivals are held across the globe. The Twestivals are put together as a quality mix of brainstorming sessions, cultural events, contests and other activities. This year, the community-driven initiative was arranged across 175 cities. The money generated from all Twestivals accrued to an Irish charity entity for relief and development work in underdeveloped countries.
New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi and Bangalore were the cities from India on the Twestival map. The Kolkata, Kochi and Delhi Twestivals had rock band performances and DJ shows, whereas the Bangalore edition included a corporate cricket event that featured teams from Tech Mahindra and SAP.
Besides generating awareness for socially relevant causes, the latent motive of the Twestival is to get metros such as Kolkata noticed more prominently on the fast-evolving social networking map. Corporate houses and brands including, Intel, HP, Tata DoCoMo and MakeMyTrip also took part in the Mumbai and Delhi Twestivals.
Meanwhile, Facebook is slowly but surely becoming a preferred choice for corporate entities like Mahindra Group looking to raise funds for charity. KC Mahindra Education Trust, their non-profit arm, has created three Facebook pages for Nanhi kali project to promote girl child education. The organization’s Facebook forums have over 10,000 members. They organize cultural events and raise sizable funds. In fact, online donations were up by 48% after the active Facebook pages were created and maintained since last year.
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