BENGALURU: A study by blueocean market intelligence (BMI) has found that Indian companies have a long way to go with respect to maximizing the benefits of social media.

blueocean market intelligence recently unveiled the results of its ‘2013 Social Effectiveness Index (SEI) 20’, a nationwide study accessing the Social Media Effectiveness of 20 of India’s Most Admired Companies (Fortune India-The Hay group survey). The study incorporated sectors that included IT, ITES, BPO, Oil & Gas, Automotive, Apparel, FMCG, Metals & Mining, Infrastructure, and Auto Components.

BMI contends that the key challenge for Indian companies is to understand exactly how social media interacts with consumers, enables product and brand recognition, and drives customer acquisition, retention and loyalty. With social media in its nascent stages, there is an undeniable opportunity for companies to create a well-established, customer-centric image.

BMI says that the SEI 20 ranking methodology is designed to measure business impact by integrating analytics, measurement, and monitoring. It captures conversations across the breadth of social networks and online communities, and correlates their impact with key business metrics such as revenue and brand value. It also directly measures business to consumer interactions in social media, including how Facebook and Twitter drive site visitors and purchase behaviour.

BMI claims that it employed a comprehensive ranking methodology covering five key parameters that correlate to business metrics such as revenue and brand value. The brand’s share of volume of online conversations, customer engagement rate, depth of customer engagement, number of influencers and advocates on social channels, and net sentiment were measured by capturing conversations across the breadth of all social networks and online communities.

The 2013 SEI 20 rankings revealed the following as top five performers -
1. Tata Steel
2. Tata Motors
3. Dell India
4. Tata Consultancy Services
5. Bosch