Meet adland’s Facebook troupers

Back in Campaign India’s very first issue, we had carried a Facebook feature that profiled seven adlanders and their Facebook activity over a period of time, which was headlined ‘Meet Adland’s Facebook Flirts.’ Considering the social networking site was relatively new back then, the idea was to see how adlanders were using Facebook and adopting it into their lives. This time around, as we repeat the Facebook feature with a new bunch of adlanders, the social networking site is as much a part of our lives as to warrant a "What’s the big deal,really?" query from cynics reading this piece. However, we felt it was a good time to revisit the feature and see how far the social networking site and our own online behaviour has evolved in the last three years. We have selected the seven people featured here from the advertising, media and filmmaking fraternity. How personal is your Facebook profile? How much of your Facebook usage is actually work related? What proportion of your contacts on the social networking site are related to work and how many of them are your personal contacts? How differently do you answer those questions today?

Kiran Khalap

  Managing director, cholorophyll

Vital Stats

900 friends

Kiran’s Facebook page offers us ample fodder to chew on, starting with his bio which reads thus-’Have three jobs. 10 to 9 brand consultant; 9 to 12 author (published novel Halfway Up the Mountain in India in 2003 end; in UK in 2005; read from it in the US in 2007) and weekend boulderer. Mumbai is ideal for all three;-)’

Kiran’s Facebook friend list comprises of people ranging from his advertising mates, students from a school that he taught in Benaras, his rock climbing group, a wildlife enthusiast group that he is a part of, and his alma mater AFAC, and hence has enough biodiversity in it to keep most Facebook skulkers occupied. He posts often, gathering friends at the speed of six a week on an average. Welfare for strays on the street occupies much of Kiran’s timeline, he frequently posts stories on abandoned strays and ways in which people can help. Kiran’s modesty seems to prevent him from posting too much about his work on FB, though we do believe we caught him posting
one recent link. 

Favourite Quotation

 Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana by Groucho Marx.

Subhash Kamath

Managing partner, BBh India

Vital Stats 967 friends

Subhash has 967 friends on Facebook, That's the second highest number of friends in the current consideration set. The last we checked, Kamath added a good 30 to 50 people on his friend list in the space of a few weeks. That's as impressive number. Too nice to say no? You decide. Kamath posts links regularly. So there's a link to "What the fuck is my social media strategy', which was engaging enough to distract us very temporarily from the important job at hand. Then there's Chip Conley's talk on TED.com talking about what makes life worthwhile. Fun, check. Philosophy, check. Massive Friend List populated by adlanders. Check. Subhash's photo albums on Facebook are filled with pictures from his brand's performance. (In case you were living under a rock, he's part of a band called wanted yesterday alongwith Prabhakar Mundkur and Rajeev Raja)

Manish Sinha 

Principal consultant and business head, Delhi, The Futures Company

Vital Stats 477 friends

A good part of Sinha's Facebook friend list is populated with friends from Adland. He posts ads and his opinions on them freely on his page. No feathers ruffled, till date or last we checked, at least. Sinha posts video fast and furious. There is one that Features a clip from what is billed as the most expensive Telugu film made recently- Magadheera, which entertained us enormously. He has recently turned entrepreneur with his bed and breakfast venture and uses his Facebook page to promote the new gig.

Trilokjit Sengupta

Creative director, Metal Communications

Vital Stats 378 friends

Trilokjit Sengupta aka Phish Pot lists Movies that end abruptly among his interests. That suffciently piqued our interest to stalk him some more. We were temporarily waylaid by his photo albums, populated by people, landscapes, rainy days and the random urban street prop. On Trilokjit's FB feed, his links, photography and status updates all come together, there are links to his twitter ID, his blog 

Payal Davda 

Executive producer, Film philosophy

Vital Stats 472 friends 

Davda uses Facebook intermittently for work, for sharing links with friends and for posting pictures online. she posts the 'Making of' of her adfilms frequently, and with 20 photo albums occupying her Facebook profile page, there's never a boring day on his timeline. With comments ranging from the purely philosophical (Nothing bigger than the joy of a good soul) to the purely functional (Shut phone. Shut Eye), her timeline doesn't have much free time to brood over.

Just as well.

Juju Basu

Executive creative director, Contract Advertising

Vital Stats 978 friends

Football and Food their way into Juju Basu's Facebook timeline at regular intervals. Basu regularly updates one photo album rather lovingly from time and considering its titled The Great Pig-Giver of Plenty, there's not much explanation required, really. Now the story gets interesting. Basu has a cat. Said cat has a Facebook page, listing said cat as single and looking for networking. Said cat has a cat 97 friends. That's about one tenth of Juju's own Facebook friend list. For anyone talking offense at our naming the feline as said cat, please understand that we are merely respecting his privacy. Unfortunately for Juju, his cat hijacked this column. 

Principle partner, Invention, Mindshare

Vital Stats 537 friends 

Karnik is a fan of Level 10 comic book fan. Also The FAB Awards and mumbai Indians. And ladies and gentlemen, that's all we have to report. Anita Karnik is either wary of Big Brother or has found a penchant for deleting her Facebook posts every few days. We found no posts on her Facebook profile and although Karnik warned us saying that we would come up against a blank wall, we didn't quite believe her until we were actually faced with a line that is bound to be Zuckerberg and Co's worst nightmare- No post to display. she does have a number of photograph on Facebook but before you herd her into the Frequent Facebooker List, be warned. Those have been added by others. She does, however, post some pictures of her adorable pet frequently in her albums, but that's the extent of her social media narcissism.