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Big digital numbers don’t necessarily translate to user engagement for brands
MUMBAI: Indian geo location based research and social marketing agency, LocoBuzz, studied user engagement across the Top 100 Global Brands on Facebook and says that it has exploded some popular myths.
According to the Buzz Report, it has been noticed that big is not necessarily better.
Very few brands who have around a million fans have an engagement ratio of one per cent and above which explains that people who follow big brands don‘t necessarily interact with them regularly, thus breaking the myth that a big Fan base results in effective brand messaging. Also, talking about a page doesn‘t at all reflect active engagements between consumers and the page.
A Facebook Brand Page is now an integral part of most marketing strategies around the world, be it Automobile, Hospitality, Mobility, FMCG and, of course, Consumer Internet. However the success and impact of a brand campaign on Facebook is no longer defined by the number of people that ‘Like‘ the page, but is now gauged by how interactive the brand is with people that like the page.
A brand can be popular but it can‘t be effective on Facebook unless it engages its fans. LocoBuzz has conducted the study based on the Talking About This score available on Facebook and combining it with the engagement formula used by AllFacebook.com
The top international brands based on their high engagement scores are MTV, Disney, Youtube, Facebook and Coca Cola. The top Indian brands are Shaadi.com, Axe Angels Club, Caf?© Coffee Day, DoCoMo, MTV India, Kingfisher, FastTrack and Vodafone ZooZoo.
The study is based on data collected for the time period 4- 10 September 2012. A LocoBuzz Social Media Analytics tool was used to collate the number of likes, comments and shares that each post from each brand received over a period of seven days. This data was further used to calculate the engagement score based on the following formula provided on AllFacebook.com:
LocoBuzz head social media analysis Vidyasagar Parivelli said, “The findings are astonishing! Brands that have over a 1,000,000 strong fan-base have a much lower engagement rate than we expected.”
A lot of brands that have a good ‘Talking About This‘ score, do not have any real time engagement (likes, comments shares) on their page. What is even more surprising is that matrimonial brand Shaadi.com has the highest engagement rate in the world amongst all brands. With over 25 per cent engagement ratio on Facebook and seven per cent LocoBuzz engagement rate, it appears that this is one brand that has cracked the code. LocoBuzz adds that it was surprised to find an Indian brand leading the way.
Applications
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
