Regardless of the fact that I heard from someone that Mahindra Group actually did a press release for one of these 8 properties when it reached some magic number, I’m hugely impressed with the sheer numbers they have amassed.
Mahindra Scorpio: 194,000+ likes
Mahindra Xylo: 90,000+ likes
Mahindra Bolero: 71,000+ likes
Mahindra Motorcycles: 9,500+ likes (launched recently)
Mahindra AutoQuotient: 71,000+ likes
Mahindra GreatEscape: 93,000+ likes
Mahindra Logan: 42,000+ likes
Mahindra Power Scooters: 20,000+ likes
It is quite revealing how the corporate page on Facebook (Mahindra Group) is languishing with about 650+ likes…power of Facebook advertising? These numbers are considerably more impressive than any other auto brand in India.
The other impressive feature is that most of these properties (along with their Twitter, Flickr and Picasa siblings) are very well integrated into the main websites of most of these products with the exception of a few, like Bolero. Incidentally, the numbers seem to pale in comparison on Twitter – guess the in-platform advertising of Facebook works big time. A digression:Â I recall seeing aggressive Google-ads for Jet Airways’ Twitter page and having seen way too many of them over a long period of time, I’d expect their Twitter followers to be massive. But it stays below 5K, even as of now.
To get the numbers mentioned above, I’m sure Mahindra has spent a lot on Facebook and I do recall seeing their Facebook pages’ ads a lot of times, though I click on only those that are top-of-my-mind…like the Xylo, which I’m actively considering, in the place of the earlier-finalized Toyota Innova, to replace my wife’s 5-year old Hyundai Getz.
The question is this: considering all those questions Indian corporates ask about ROI for social media spend (for community management or advertising), how does Mahindra, as a group, deal with ROI on a potentially large spend like this?
Those 190K+ likes in the Scorpio community definitely does not translate into 190K+ buyers and I’m sure we all understand that. That number works over a longer period of time, gradually moving needles, one user at a time, by simply being there online, like an efficient decision support system. But, how does Mahindra deal with the ROI question internally within divisions?
If they have ‘got’ the message that these are the foundations for community building, community discoverability and eventually, community management, hats off to them – it is indeed a massive task to prevail upon multiple internal teams like marketing, communications, customer service etc. and get these properties in place and also support their promotion and management. Guess it takes one aware person like Anand Mahindra to make this happen.