Pune Speak Up! Twittathon: No one trolls like Indians do

Don’t feel like a stalker while following celebs, sports personalities
For me Twitter is nothing less than a TV channel. You have news, drama, reality shows, product placements, mud slinging, sports commentary, recipes, horoscopes, dance, music and even scientific facts being shared. All this in a virtual space of 140 characters. What’s more amazing is that we can follow celebrities and leaders without feeling like shady stalkers. It is definitely faster than television media. I spend three to four hours daily on Twitter.
—Raina Kshetry, student

Parents of teens are yet to discover the marvels of microblogging
Why is Twitter so popular in India? Well that is because it’s an unconventional and convenient way to speak your mind out. You can show outrage and follow and interact with your favourite celebrities and most importantly most tweeters’ parents are yet to hit this cool platform. You can say things really quickly and simply. Twitter is so powerful. It lets you be heard. It makes your voice (tweets) count. We have seen small movements turn into revolutions all because of Twitter, be it Anna Hazare’s IAC or the recently concluded LS polls. Twitter can make you a hero as well as troll you down to make a joker out of you the next day. We Indians enjoy that. We love trolling and outraging. That’s Twitter. Twitter is serious business too. You can search for like-minded people or experts, not necessarily friends, and interact with them. It’s a universal and open discussion forum. The platform is great to follow celebrities.
—Amar Pawar, CSR Enthusiast & social entrepreneur

You need to be witty to express yourself in just 140 characters
Not many people can write a 1000 words’ blog but tweeters are good at writing 140 witty characters. One can ask followers about a good restaurant with WiFi and ask to retweet. Twitter is best for crowd-sourcing ideas. Keeping up with news, celebrities, favourite teams or political parties and following trends keeps you up to date. Today the biggest fear is not being informed. The limit of 140 characters forces one to cut to the point. When it comes to business you get feedbacks. One can interact easily as it’s not always possible to talk with them face-to-face. Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan’s fans fights on Twitter shows how emotions can be expressed on a mass level. Socialising on Twitter is real-time.
—Akshay Tekale, moderator o f Pune City Life

Social media is an easy platform to connect with people unknown to us
Twitter is an easy platform to make friends with ice breakers within the space of 140 characters. Be it for a brand or personal account Twitter is quick to access. With limited characters, crisp and fruitful conversations are possible. Initially, it was uncommon to be on Twitter. Now, with a lot of youth on it has become cool to be a part of the Twitterati. Most brands are using Twitter as a communication channel with their target audience including customer services for many. The rise in the number of users along with active users on the platform makes Twitter interesting. Connecting with people from various fields has never been easier thanks to this global e-platform.
—Soham Sabnis, business head, Digiwale

Twitter helped many voters decide on their candidates in the recently concluded elections
Yes the blue bird (the Twitter sign) is now seen extensively all over the digital space. The number of netizens on the social media platform has grown exponentially and people have found an easy way to market their brands or products through social media on this website. Twitter users have increased by 68.8 percent in the last one year, which is a huge leap. India is leading markedly in this trend as more and more youngsters take to Twitter. There are series of reasons for the growth.
Undoubtedly the primary reason is that almost all political parties and leaders started using Twitter to express their views and talk about various topics. Recently it was the revolutionary election time in the sub-continent and Twitter was the platform netas used to communicate with the mass at large.
Print and digital media (including television) started flashing out the tweets, which built serious curiosity amongst people during the recent election coverage. People started corresponding with the media to express their views and most found it an easy way to pour their hearts out about what they felt about various leaders. Many got an idea about who to vote for by reading tweets on the website.
E-commerce brands took the leverage (because Twitter has an easy link-sharing facility using short link tools) and reaching out directly to end customers. The two way communication also clearly gives the opportunity to talk and be heard giving a good consumer relation experience. Customers can post their feedback on Twitter.
—Manish Pandey, senior social media strategist

Social media won Modi the polls as #NaMo went viral & became popular with Twitterati
During the recent elections India saw a huge uproar leading up to the results resulting in the polls being in 
Narendra Modi’s favour. There was already a successful buzzword created around #NaMo and people started following every #hashtag that had the word Modi and revolutionised the way elections are fought in India using social media and big data analysis. This was all thanks to the social media and especially Twitter, which saw tremendous user growth of over 60% in India during the recent elections.
India is a country of myriad emotions, colours and forms, and social media like Twitter have provided an affordable platform for mobile users. Indians are increasingly logging into their Facebook and Twitter accounts, with the country recording the highest social networking usage in recent years. India has the world’s third largest internet user base of 239 million and more than 900 million mobile connections. Many access the internet on their phones.
The smartphone market in India is predicted to be 300 million in the next four years, so people will be communicating through the social media and especially Twitter, where one requires lateral thinking and creativity to convey the message in limited words. 
—Prashant Pansare, MD, Inteliment Technologies