Spirit W | Sharing the beauty of social web: BBC's Ramaa Sharma

One of India’s biggest global event Social Media Week ,Mumbai took place in the metro from 23rd to 27th September 2013 and was held at different venues across the city. India’s first ever dedicated week for Social media- Social Media Week’13 or #SMWMumbai was brought to India by New York’s strategy firm, Crowdcentric. Now in its fifth year SMW  has been instrumental in bringing together marketers and advertisers  in over 20 cities globally.

The event was organised by Bengaluru-based marketing services firm R SQUARE Consulting  . The topics of discussion centered on  a wide range of themes viz ways to integrate social media in business strategies, how it impacts media and publishing , politics, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and culture, education and learning and health and wellness. The platform also presented unique opportunities to learn, interact, and was  kept open to the general public.

The final day of SMW’13 on 27th September 2013 was organized by GroupM at Westin Hotel, Goregaon. After the opening address by Rohit Varma, Co-Founder, R SQUARE Consulting (CO) and Toby Daniels, Founder & CEO, Crowdcentric, the day covered points such as the changing face of advertising agencies in the dynamic social media scenario, brand building, media analytics, technology innovations, the consumer angle to social media, experiential marketing and much more.

The influence of new age mediums was intensely discussed at the session at the Social Media Week (SMW). Of special interest was how media organizations around the world have or are adapting to the digital and social media and how news channels in India  too have taken to this medium in a big way. One of the key speakers at the SMW was Ramaa Sharma, British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC)’s Digital Editor, currently posted at their  New Delhi  Bureau.

Sharma dwelled on the efforts that BBC has taken in the new media and sought to know what Indian news organizations were doing in terms of using in this space.

Speaking to Adgully in an exclusive chat, Ramaa Sharma explaining her presence at the event said, “I am here to give a flavour of the social media landscape from the journalist’s point of view and also explore and share innovation happening in the social media space. For example it is interesting to find the kind of content and initiatives other organisations are doing which  are really different from what our social media team is doing.”

Speaking about the various initiatives taken by BBC in the social media space, Sharma said, “In our London office we have more than 20 journalists for BBC.com who source and verify user generated content, curate for live pages, distribute and engage.

This team of journalists take care of our social media initiatives. BBC has more than 27 language services as a part of The BBC World Service as well. They have their own specific strategies. For example our BBC Hindi team looks after the social media presence from Delhi.”
BBC is actively using Facebook, Twitter and Google to connect with their viewers and readers. In this regard she said, “Apart from this, we are looking at constantly strengthening our presence on social media. Experimenting with Google Hangouts too.”

BBC is experimenting with a lot of new things, exploring & sharing the beauty of social web and trying to gauge how these are working. Recently BBC India (Delhi) launched a series called "Digital Indians".  Sharma elaborating further on this says, “The Digital Indians series tells the story of five successful innovators linked to India,  and also asks the audience to send in their suggestions for a Twitter list.

Comparing the online Indian landscape with the UK, she said it's diverse Says Sharma, "the traction we get from rural India on our Facebook is an indication the web is not just about middle class India  Figures whilst small (relative to the population) are growing and engagement is intense and revealing."

On being asked how to rely on all the information that floats on the social and digital platform and whether one needs to filter the same, Sharma replied, “BBC UGC hub verifies content - we have to make sure anything we publish or broadcast is accurate. It does take time and delay the process but it's an important one.

For the record, Ramaa Sharma has over 13 years of experience across medias  - reporting, TV, radio and online of which she has been associated with BBC for 10 years. Sharma has deep knowledge of social media, multi-media working practices, digital change management, new and digital innovation. She maintains special interest in India and the diaspora in UK, tech and the arts. The Journalism.co.uk listed her as one of the 50 top women digital innovators in 2013. Without doubt Sharma has a track record of  being an effective consultant, social media/digital editor.

When asked about the key takeaways that she acquired from the session Sharma replied, “What was interesting for me to learn was how other news brands are using and exploring the social media space. Particularly the emphasis on provocative/emotive storytelling approach by one and the "campaign" journalism approach by the other.  

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