Carwale's route to social media success

According to AllFacebook.com, during the average 20-minute period last year, there were more than 15 million wall posts and over 10 million comments posted. With overwhelming statistics such as this, who can deny the power of social media? Tapping into this potential is India’s largest auto media platform CarWale (www.carwale.com).


CarWale’s Karobar
Launched in 2005, the website focuses on Indian car consumers. The aim is to provide comprehensive and unbiased information to car buyers so that they may take informed decisions. The site offers various categories of information, including detailed specifications of various manufacturers and brands as well as expert reviews and owner reviews. The site also provides comparisons, so that people can narrow down their choices more conveniently. So, if you’re keen on buying or even selling a car, this is a good place to start off.


Social Media as the Fuel
Why is social media important to CarWale? The answer is simple. The site’s revenue model is based on traffic. The site makes money by providing services. So, every time someone visits the site and engages in any of the activities - car research, new car purchase, used car sale or purchase. Even if the visitor does not use these services, the site generates revenue through advertisements. In either case, the site needs to attract traffic. CarWale has used social media to engage the common man, create its brand image and get him to visit the site.


CarWale’s Social Media Test Drive
The fan page on Facebook was created in 2009. The start was slow because social media was not a priority then (possibly because the craze was yet to engulf the Indian metropolitan population). It was about eight months back that CarWale gave serious thought to its social media strategy. The results have been outstanding as the Facebook fans have grwon from around 800 to close to 18,000.   


In order to capitalize on the World Cup fever, CarWale recently launched the Fix the Match Contest. CarWale uploads pictures and short write-ups of cricketers and asks their fans which car would suit that particular cricketers the most. For instance, the latest one is about Ashish Nehra. One fan has selected the Tata Nano for him, as it is good for short rides, but not for the long haul. Another fan believes the Maruti Suzuki Swift is perfect, as Nehra is dependable, while yet another has chosen the Chevrolet Cruze because of Nehra’s love for speed.


The Speed Breaker
While CarWale has experienced a lot of success with Facebook, its Twitter page is not as eventful. It has only a little more than 500 followers and regularly distributes news and important updates through this platform.


Social Media Mileage

“We perceive social media as a very effective brand building vehicle. We feel that social media has huge potential and it will only grow. We are yet to use it to its potential though,” says Banwari Lal Sharma, Assistant Vice President – Product at CarWale.

“The referral traffic from Facebook page has grown 11 times year-on-year in last year which is indicative enough as what it can grow to. With social media landing on mobile phones, we are hopeful that it will contribute to a significant amount of traffic,” Mr. Sharma adds.

Carwale.com has a global Alexa ranking of 3,467. Its India ranking is 247.

Social Media Servicing Costs

CarWale has invested the time of its marketing, product and design teams. It has also tried Facebook advertising, although it believes that such ads do not justify the spend, as they are expensive and have relatively low ROI.

“As far as social media is concerned, we are not in the ROI game as of now. It's a long-term investment. But that said, we feel our efforts have paid off. We are happy interacting with our customers informally. The feedback they share with us help us immensely in building better products and services,” says Mr. Sharma.

A lot of companies consider the users of social media as a little non-serious and non-engaged. However, in CarWale’s experience, this has not been the case, especially when they were able to come up with “thoughtful ways of interactions”. “During a couple of campaigns on Facebook, we noticed that the quality of referral traffic was slightly better than any other referral we had received. It was almost equal to the quality of direct visits we receive, which is nothing short of remarkable!” opines Mr. Sharma.