Am I going to get killed? Perhaps…Am I going to be ridiculed? Definitely…Am I embarrassed about confessing this? Positively not…Will these three ladies ever forgive me? I definitely hope so. I am very fond of them and admire their understanding of the social media domain that they occupy. And I am blessed to be able to count them among my friends.

Okay. Before I tell you what I am learning from these women, and how…let me tell you something about me and a weird professional side of me. I have self trained myself to learn from my environment. I have often visited pubs and restaurants just to listen to people, just so I can get a feel of the languages they speak and the values they hold dear. This has helped me tremendously in the communication work I have done for various country specific products. And on stage too.

I look at photographs and films with the objective of learning more about the skills that make them. So I look at pictures of factories with the same intensity that I reserve for looking at nudes.

I love learning from experience but also enjoy learning from watching someone else experiencing something…driving a car, cooking food, whatever. If that labels me as a kind of a voyeur, so be it. I wear no guilt and I definitely don’t cross the line into private territory.

So when I saw what these women were doing on Facebook, it took me very little time to sit up and pay attention. Now propriety does not allow me to name names but some of you who are my friends will recognize one or all of them…and that can’t be helped. I am more interested in sharing the collective wisdom gathered from observing their online activity.

First of all, let me introduce my three teachers. The youngest is a recently married girl who has always been compared to a Barbie Doll and whose vocabulary starts with awwwww and ends with mmmuuuaaaaah

The second is a housewife who has a pretty daughter and is very house proud, very content and I think, a great sport.

The third is an entrepreneur who runs a gallery/boutique kind of a place and retails some exclusive, hand made stuff…fashion connected if you like.

The first is amazing. She has an awesome collection of photographs taken of her pre-wedding, during wedding, at honeymoon etc. plus she has a loving husband who obviously adores her and photographs her at every given opportunity, thus adding to her photo bank.

And using this vast resource, this young lady changes her display pic and cover pic almost every single day. And boy, does she generate comments and likes and feedback!!!

The second lady is a classy piece (not to even suggest that the others are not) but this one loves putting up pictures that combine sheer elegance, style, affluence and an amazing sense of balance,

Her uploads too generate a phenomenal amount of likes and comments.

The third of the trio believes in becoming a bit of a clothes horse, a mannequin if you’d prefer the word…and regularly hosts pictures of her showing off the latest ensemble, the nicest of accessories and so on.

Now. please understand that except for the third who actually sells what she shows, the other two are on Facebook for absolutely non-commercial reasons. They are there for the fun of it, for the love of their friends and if in the process they have created some or a large amount of brand equity, then they just say ‘So What’ (instead of a more fatalistic So Be It). Honestly, they couldn’t be bothered.

Now the three of them are more active on Facebook than many serious marketing brands. And the first two are unique in that they make a statement and do nothing else. No recipes, no gossip, no executive posturing, no women talk…nothing.

The other is just a display window.

The one thing they have in common is Facebook. And long may they rule the domain they’ve conquered.

But from them I have learnt…

1. That pretty pictures evoke consistent feedback from a given group of friends. These friends are unsparing in their efforts to applaud a pretty picture. But they rarely take the next step and ‘share’ the picture with others. This means that the ‘universe’ in the case of the two girls is never changing. It’s the same group of friends commenting predictably on their pictures with no significant value add. The only way their circle (readership) grows is when they step out into the real world, and make new friends.

2. That the propensity of women wanting to share the good news (as long as it pertains to personal improvement) is comparatively low. They don’t mind sharing a joke, they don’t mind sharing images of a hulk…but they hesitate before sharing some news that could help them or their friends benefit from a better fashion product.

Oh there is a lot more I have learnt from these three women…too much to share in one blog. As and when the time comes, I will share my take on the 3 Wise Womens’ wwwisdom. But until then…

If you have been told (or worse, if you believe) that putting up pretty pictures of your product or service can help you communicate to an ever growing audience, please forget it. These images are like the newspaper that the vendor throws into your house…No response is expected and No response is given. The universe remains the same…and you may have been better off trying more saner modes of digital communication like e-mails etc. Viral you are not going to be…and if going Viral is not one of the results of a digital campaign you have launched…you’ve landed up wasting a lot of time, effort and perhaps money.

Also please understand that an image of you featuring your product or service is not a guarantee of the picture being liked, leave alone being shared. Imagine you put up a video on You Tube featuring a recipe. You garner a thousand likes. All your friends see it. But no one shares it. What does that mean…a) No one thought what you were offering was good enough to be shared, and b) The people who already know that you are a good cook will be told again and again about you and your achievements…but NO ONE ELSE will come to know, and eventually NO ONE WILL CARE.

And that will be a real pity!!!