I have two kids, I am a home maker and I run an Online Venture - How Social Media is Changing Lives

Who am I?

Hi, i am from India, the land of a rich heritage, great culture, amazing spirituality. This is the India I saw grow into the India I know today, an upcoming major economic superpower, a rich blend of culture, modernization, youth and experience, the past and the future.

Just yesterday, I was at an event held in New Delhi, called OMCAR 2009 aimed at getting a good chunk of the online marketing community, from venture capitalists to entrepreneurs and evangelists. I was invited as a speaker in a session called Making SEO, PPC, SMM and MOBILE work together.

Interestingly, I did not have to really put in a lot of effort in creating my text for the talk, but I wanted to make it a special experience for the audience and well, I created a presentation which was much different and offbeat from the usual corporate ppts that we give and my idea was simple, to ENGAGE and INTERACT with the audience, getting them involved in the DIALOGUE.

The PRESENTATION that I delivered

Women Entrepreneurs - defining the NEW India

The room was full to the brim, and the best sight to the eye were women entrepreneurs! YES! almost 10% of the total population were women. More heartening to see were married women, who were at the conference to explore opportunities into the online industry and how could they chart out a career using the Internet and still be as able in taking care of their families.

I have two kids at home and I feel great to be a home maker, and I am here to explore opportunities as to how I could take my own path and be successful in my career quest as well

This was what I got to know when post my session I went ahead and interacted with the audience.

 

I have been associated with the entrepreneurial space in India for sometime now and for me, personally it was an amazing experience to see women dabbling into entrepreneurship and Internet being the medium which is supporting them in exploring avenues!

Social Media is opening up New Avenues

Majority of the women delegates had the similar thought process. My belief in the power of how a woman can play amazingly wonderful roles and still be herself at the end of the day got re-inforced when one of the women shared her story with me, she recalled how she gave up her career to create possibilities for her family. Today she is happily married and blessed with two kids and now she feels its time to get back to where she left from in life for different avenues!

I was amazed to see the clarity of thought and the questions that she had specific to the domain, clearly reflected the knowledge grasp.

Broadband Penetration in India is Increasing and Fueling the Emergence of Entrepreneurs

How a simple thing as access to broadband at the comfort of your home, has opened up multiple avenues even for the home makers! There are in between 40-70 million active internet users in India, which leaves a strong demand which still needs to be fulfilled. There still are vast market segments to be captured.

India surely is well placed in terms of the age of the working population. There is much youth present in the country and more to come. We are much better placed as a nation compared to many other economies, in terms of knowledge, domain expertise, entrepreneurial vision, opportunities etc.

Social Networking naah! Relevant Social Networking is the Key!!

OKay, so this is what I got from one of the women in the room, as she remarked that she could never imagine being connected to like minded women entrepreneurs in the US and other parts of the world and she is working on a project into VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), which wold never have become possible for her, had it not been the emergence of social media!

YES! Change Is Calling

Living in this part of the world, there is a awakening happening! Its like a fresh drop of rain on parched land, its like a new born opening his little fist for the first time reaching out to the world!

Dedicating this to all the Women Entrepreneurs

Empower every woman in your life and you would never have to prove that you are man enough

I was told a couple of month back by a coach, and well, I dedicate this post to the Women who are making a difference, who are chaning the dynamics, who are giving new definitions to all that we know.

This is fresh, its the future these are new possibilities being created and I welcome women entrepreneurs to share their experiences commenting on this post

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Comments

[Sital]

We put a special focus on empowering women and girls, because we believe they hold the key to long-lasting social change in communities. Empowering women must be a united approach, a cause that requires continued attention and stewardship by all. I heard one job portal http://naukriforwomen.com brought that revolution to bring women empowerment, the site which is totally dedicated to female job aspirants.

[Kapil]

Hi paritosh,

Great Content! Must read for everyone aspiring to be new generation entrepreneur.

-Kapil

[Sucheta Sethi]

Paritosh, good one!
Looking at the way women are defining the new landscape and are now breaking the glass with much ease, we are surely in for a change!!

Working with one of the largest Indian IT companies, I understand the differences that exist in the woman's career!

Thanks for such a wonderful post, look forward to more such stuff!!

Cheers,
Sucheta

[Roopali Bahal]

Hi Paritosh,

I so totally agree with you on this. Women are breaking glass ceilings and doing really well in every field they venture into. Kudos to your post...it inspires!!!!....and "Empower every woman in your life and you would never have to prove that you are man enough"...should b the the next gen anthem....

[Varun]

Nice post,
There are still many women in India who wants to do something meaningful but due to marriage they dont. Though this post might inspire these women.

[Ojasvi]

Great Post Paritosh,

It indeed feels great to see Women Entrepreneurs making way up into the commercialised Social Media Space. I am pretty much sure that the figure of 10% in your talks above is surely going to surpass the majority in the coming days.
Social Media surely has given a great platform to everyone to exchange & express free opinions to the whole world and the way women entrepreneurs are leveraging & taking the front run in expressing their ideas and opening up to the whole new world of evergrowing opportunities is really commendable.
Hats off to all those Great Women!!
Nice post. Look forward to a lot more...

[umrao Singh Bisht]

Thanks Paritosh for this great post. I really agree with you on women empowerment. I think women have more entrepreneur skills than man. Thats why some name like Ekta Kapoor, Chanda Kocchar, Naina Lal Kidwai, Tarjani Vakil etc are heading some of the big brands!

[kumar]

Well said Paritosh...
I have two kids at home and I feel great to be a home maker... and that was the end from what i saw until recently...now women from all forms of life are not just content with being a home maker, they are flying out to get their life a different meaning alltogether and all this is happening because of technology which is empowering them and now with online media increasing its span,we'll see more and more women empowered to follow their own path.

[Paritosh Sharma]

Thanks Pradi for your comment, well, interestingly Social Entrepreneurship is surely catching up, I remember this campaign which started before the assembly elections in India, in which 100 students (im not sure of the number) were taken on a train all across the various towns and cities of India, and how it changed their life. When they saw the real nation, the real us!

They are all going to be Social Entrepreneurs! I think surely this is something which takes guts and should become a part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it should be ingrained into we the entrepreneurs who then can create possibilities for many others around!

On the other hand women in media, well for one, they are beautiful ;) coming to serious discussions, I think they play an increasingly important role. Starting from a great voice on the radio to an amazingly attractive poise on a news channel, women are making it big.

I for one know a friend Shama Hyder, who is running her own company into Social Media in the US and is one of the 10 most powerful women into Social Media. And with the proven methodology in which women create possibilities around, am sure Social Media is going to see the next wave of women entrepreneurs:)

Cheers,
Paritosh

[ADITI]

hey Paritosh!!
not actually used to calling paritosh, neways......
this is a wonder full concept that u have cum out with and as i knw how des thins hav cum out...........
i'm really glad that u are makin ppl aware of it and helping dem use it. It is helping me n my frns to the extent that we had never imagined, i hope dis works d same for all d others.

ADITI

[Pradeep Chopra]

Great content Paritosh! I am Gung Ho about both 'Women Entrepreneurship' and 'Social Media'. On a twisting note, what are your views on 'Social Entrepreneurship' & 'Women in Media'? :)

Cheers,
Pradi

[Robin goel]

You r doing a wonderful job..the blog has definitely caught the imagination!

The thing about online social media is that it offers an alternative way of generating business. For those SMEs which are not particularly good at generating conversions through other online methods (SEO, PPC etc...), SMO is a good way of helping the business. When more conversions are achieved, then money can be re-invested in optimizing other marketing methods. I've found this to be true particularly for start-ups.
Totally agree with u Paritosh, want more from you.

[Mamta Narang]

As a woman, I can definitely appreciate the objective of this post. I work as a freelancer Business Development person for couple of software outsourcing companies, and am part of this new-gen fast growing indian woman entrepreneurs.
Thanks for the lovely post.
- Kapil

[Shushant]

Hey PAritosh,

Very nice post, i totally agree that women entrepreneur are doing great job these days. Very inspiring