Feburary 16, 2008 was a fateful day for the Bangalore based blogger community platform IndiBlogger. That day the start-up, only a year old, did its first blogger meet in association with Microsoft. The objective was twofold: To create an environment where bloggers interested in information technology could connect with each other and to help Microsoft reach out to a community of evangelists for its offerings Live Writer and Vista. This was followed by two more meets in Hyderabad and Pune the following month culminating in the discovery of a unique revenue model for a company which started with a capital of just Rs 10,000.
?While the US and European countries have been blogging for long, there?s still no website which has managed to bring bloggers on a common platform effectively. So we decided to do this for Indian bloggers,? says Vineet Rajan, director-client strategy, IndiBlogger. Rajan has been joined in this pursuit by three of his close friends ? Renie Ravin as managing director, Anoop Johnson as director ? marketing and DR Karthik as director, sales.
With more than a lakh active and inactive blogs in existence, blogging is still at a nascent stage in India. Out of Rs 2000 crore spent on the digital medium every year, only a fraction is routed to blogs. Similar to any other blogger across the world, an Indian blogger is also on the constant lookout to reach as many readers as possible. IndiBlogger, which has around 29,000 active blogs currently, has played on this inherent need over the years. This has been achieved largely by keeping the website spam free. Once a blog is registered, it is checked for plagiarised content. Any blog can register for free provided it has been in existence for at least four months and have at least four blog posts. Users are sent reminders to update their blogs regularly and a blog is flushed out of IndiBlogger database if it remains inactive for long. A ranking system called IndiRank is created based on various factors. This is to make sure that less-known, but well-deserving blogs are pushed up the ladder as well.
Anupama Kondayya, a software consultant with Oracle and a diehard blogger is happy to be an IndiBlogger member. ?The website is a valuable information pool where one can connect with other bloggers. I found their system better than what I had experienced with other passive platforms like Reddit,? she says.
Most interestingly, IndiBlogger can be seen as a perfect example of how a noble deed of bringing people with a common interest together meets commercial interests. IndiBlogger meets organised across different cities in the country work as an engagement platform for brands. And this is completely different from a regular on-ground activity in a shopping mall where shoppers are hounded by emcees. No presentations are shown and at no point during the course of a meet a blogger is asked for feedback. On the contrary, it is all about engaging the blogger with interesting activities.
For instance, one of the recent meets held in Delhi with Spice Mobiles saw IT journalist Rajiv Makhni conducting a debate on myths and facts about mobile security. The bloggers also participated in a quiz and walked away with mobile handsets.
Similarly, the Dove sponsored all-women Indiblogger meet entertained attendee bloggers with a stand-up comedy act. Also, an expert shared information on hair care. Over the years, IndiBlogger has held similar co-branded meets with Stayfree, HP, Samsung, Lakme, and Kingfisher. So it serves the purpose of marketers as they get to connect with influencers on an one-on-one basis through the IndiBloggers database. Additionally, marketers can run campaigns on the website to reach influencers. Currently, television channel Sony is running a campaign around its soon-to-be-released show Love marriage ya arranged marriage. The show is an attempt to look at the two concepts of marriage through the eyes of two best friends. As part of the campaign, participants are being asked to post their take on the these two ideas of marriage.
Connecting with bloggers on a regular basis is a common exercise in some markets. For instance, online travel website Expedia conducts blogger meets across various locations including Tokyo, Sydney and Seattle to familiarise attendees with new applications. The Expedia India story is work in progress. few months back, the company ran a contest on IndiBlogger titled ?Around the world with Expedia?. Bloggers were asked to share stories on how they met interesting people while travelling in India or overseas.
Says Manmeet Ahluwalia, head of marketing, Expedia, ?We did not restrict the contest to travel bloggers only and that helped us in reaching a wider audience. At Expedia, we understand the importance of blogs and will be taking such initiatives more frequently in future.?
IndiBlogger aims to add 10,000 more blogs to its database in the next two months.