Social Media Case Study: How NASSCOM's 10,000 Start-ups Connected with 18k Young Entrepreneurs Through Social Media

Brand Name

NASSCOM

Agency Name

Frog Walks Out

Objective

Earlier considered as an association for large corporations, young entrepreneurs often found NASSCOM intimidating. It was thus felt that NASSCOM must start an initiative that helps to connect with young entrepreneurs, especially start-ups.

Execution

We at Frog Walks Out were selected to handle the mandate of creating and designing a unique social media campaign. This campaign is designed to help NASSCOM connect with the start-up entrepreneurs in an engaging, relevant and often in an interesting way.

From day one, we wanted to create a buzz among entrepreneurs. We thought of a unique campaign to fulfill this mandate. Two months before the official launch of 10,000 Start-ups, we created the official Facebook page.

To resonate with entrepreneurs we used ‘The Dissuaders’- a quirky comic strip that presents real life situations, faced by start-up entrepreneurs on a daily basis. We inspired them by sharing quotes from industry experts in a unique graphical format. Such was the scale of success that before the official launch of ‘NASSCOM 10,000 startups’, we had a fan following of over 20 thousand.

To keep this traction alive, we created a cool social media campaign. Below is a brief case study that has created quite a buzz in social media circles…

Our Tactics

In order to fulfill this strategic objective, we developed several content categories that would be valuable to the start-up entrepreneurs in their daily lives and the running of their businesses. We believed that in order to communicate this information, the tool should have a high level of resonance with the target group.

Thus was born a unique experiment in social media campaigning that has helped NASSCOM achieve the strategic objective of connecting with large number of start-up entrepreneurs… And the exercise is still ongoing!

The Building blocks

Here are the top 5 content categories and tools that have generated heavy traction among the audience.

At each stage we wanted to ensure that when each piece of information was received by the audience, they were virtually ‘Waiting- for- it’! The social media channels that we use included not just 10k Start-ups website but also Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Slideshare

Useful Quotes of the day

Quotes often inspire and are intended to create positive thoughts in our minds. At Frog Walks Out, we wanted to ensure engagement by sharing an inspiring thought on a daily basis. Just before a young entrepreneur begins his day, these quotes are served on their mails like a fresh cup of coffee!

The creative route of Start Cups was the result! We share one Start Cup every Monday morning. Every Start Cup has a reach of over 10 thousand entrepreneurs and we have received over 200 requests to make them available offline.

Skill Building for startup entrepreneurs

Skills they say are best learnt on ground! However, there is an immense importance of learning from the wisdom and mistakes of others. All this diverse wisdom has been incorporated in nugget sized presentations over Slideshare. Many of these slides are re-purposed from articles published online. These re-purposed articles in form of graphics or presentations have received larger traction than the article itself.

We use both serious and quirky topics in order to ensure that there is no monotony in the information dissemination process. The presentations cover an array of topics that range from tips for running a small business and raising funds, to the importance of body language, to topics like the importance of Gandhian thinking in running a business. Here are a few examples of Slideshare presentations that generated over 23,000 views.

Lessons in a picture

Time is money for all of us; but for an entrepreneur, it can change their fortunes! We wanted to give quick tips to an entrepreneur on skills they utilize daily.

Just like a coffee shot, it is the information boost in a capsule. We compiled information in the form of a comic strip and Data Art was made. Data Art covers topics ranging from tips on public speaking to common mistakes by an entrepreneur as well as improving productivity of a team. Every Data Art has reached over 500 entrepreneurs and is shared over 40 times.

Drawing Inspiration from the ecosystem

They say, just look around and you will be inspired! Even the best management schools take inspirations from the neighboring chaiwallah or the street vendors! At Frog Walks Out, we look around to bring such interesting inspiring stories to the computer screens of these budding business builders. The series called Life Lessons derive inspirations from everything that we generally tend to ignore. Every Life Lessons post has reached over 500 entrepreneurs and has been shared over 20 times.

Busting some Start-up Myths

There are many myths about start-ups that we hear regularly. We thought of starting a series called Jobs Vs Start-ups to help bust these myths. The tool…a trendy and often quirky comic strip! Every post of Jobs Vs Start-ups gets more than 100 likes and 50 shares. Every post crosses a reach of more than 5 thousand entrepreneurs.

In all, there are almost 37 different highly creative tools all designed to generate maximum engagement, making it possibly one of the most intensive Social Media connect programs driven by NASSCOM for budding entrepreneurs.

Results

Social media is the center of communication for this entire campaign. With help of this campaign, NASSCOM succeeded in doing over 250 offline engagements, with over 18,000 young entrepreneurs in over 15 cities.  We also got fan following of over 70 thousand users.