The recession made People take notice of the fact that their assets needs to be managed properly. Their investments need to be in a sector yielding optimum results. The potholes and speed breakers of the stock exchange have awakened people to safeguard the themselves from falling off the proverbial cliff , it has been reported that there has been a increase in the number of pre-nuptial agreements in our country – which was a previously unheard of.
Lawyers estimate that almost 20 per cent of marriages that take place in the metros, especially in Mumbai and Delhi, involve some form of prenuptial contract. Couples opting for prenuptial contracts are not just financially unequal couples or wealthy couples, but even those who simply want to avoid the financial entanglement.
These morbid emotions and the escalating income and the bursting of the Middle class in the prominent economic circles have prompted the quest for investment counselling, financial consultants and insurance agencies.
The number of players in the sector of financial services varying from banking and mortgage management to insurance policies (medical and general) have gone up ; setting up the arena for a rat race between the companies to gain more customers at rates faster than ever to quell their ROI .
Social media emerged as a possible solution ; a shortcut through the lanes of the rat race; and almost every global firm in this sector is aiming to cultivate its potential – albeit some chains ; a remnant of the ages gone by , pulling them back- asking to exercise caution.
They have their own reasons for this tug-of-war act with the spurning young blood. Some are unaware of the legal aspects of this field and show a lack of interest in seeking loopholes – a tendency which lightens up while filing IT – returns. Apart from that may of them think that the Bird of Social networking (read Twitter) will be shot down soon. Then it will sink and take down its feathers with it on its descent.
They are not without rationale. Many bubbles have inflated in the past and burst soon enough. But is it alright to miss the delight of watching them go up and away – in fear of them being ephemeral? Moreover future is all a blank slate. To be written on by the multitudes with chalks of different colours.
No where in the world will you find more colours than these social networks. They have people from every corner of the world. Why stop at people; I even saw Facebook pages for pets ; the owner made his bull-dog paw a few characters everyday on its status.
The fundamentals of marketing, advertising and Public Relations have changed with the boom of social networks. The methodology of interaction of companies with existing and prospective customers have changed. The new buzz in campaigning for companies is TWITTER, Facebook, Youtube, etc.
Almost all of the world’s top financial firms have a lot of social media fanfare. US finance companies are more active on the social media circuit than their Indian counterparts. With this as the pot boils over ; we are bound to feel the heat.
Let us face some statistics ; they are bound to push us to widen our perspective on this issue – even for a little bit :
- Facebook has over 700 million users and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on their profiles. There are over 900 million objects on facebook that are aimed at people to interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages) .
- An average user on Facebook is connected to approximately 85 community pages, groups and events , fan pages , applications ,games and many more.
- Citi bank- India has a Facebook page with routine updates and dynamic tabs for current offers in metro cities.
- The Facebook page of Reliance Money has over 12k fans with dedicated tabs for festive offers , gold coin offers etc.