With 18 million fans, Indian PM Narendra Modi is World’s second most popular & India’s most popular politician on Facebook. Yesterday, he had an interesting visitor: Sheryl Sandberg, who is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook.
After the meeting, both of them updated their Facebook statuses, highlighting the topics which were discussed.
Interestingly, Modi’s update has received 144,160 likes and 6319 shares along with 4000+ comments as of now. On the same hand, Sheryl’s update received 4030 likes and 344 shares, along with 5 comments.
Sheryl was the first women to join the Facebook board. Previously, she was associated with Google where she was involved with the launching of Google’s not-for-profit venture Google.org. She had infact started her career in India working with World Bank in various projects. She has also served as United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Here are the 4 issues which were discussed in their meeting, as reported from their Facebook status updates:
Contents
Digital Diplomacy – Facebook as a Governance Tool
Modi shared on his Facebook page that he wants to make Facebook as a governance tool for better engagement and interaction between the government and the citizens. He shared that direct communication between leaders and public is a very important tool to make governance a success.
Attracting more tourists
Modi wants Facebook to be used as a marketing tool to bring in more tourists in India. Tourism is currently one of the most important sectors of Indian economy, and if social network such as Facebook can be optimally utilized to promote Indian tourism, then it can really work wonders for the industry.
Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary
Modi shared that he wanted to use Facebook platform to make 150th birth celebration of Mahatma Gandhi a grand success. 2nd October 2019 would be Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, and Modi has some wonderful plans for the occasion. Leveraging Facebook’s reach and network can be a good platform to make the celebrations even bigger.
Education of Girls
Meanwhile Sheryl appreciated the fact that Modi has made some ambitious plans to educate girls all over India, in order to make them empowered and self-dependent. Even before elections, Modi had announced several innovative schemes and programs to educate girls, especially in rural areas.
Promoting regional content on Facebook and encouraging social harmony were also part of discussions.
Facebook is witnessing exponential growth in India right now. It is estimated by the end of 2018, there would be more than 200 million users, with majority of them teenagers and young population. Facebook and Sheryl, both are aware that social media has played a very decisive role in the just concluded elections where Modi led BJP led a thumping majority.
By meeting Modi, Facebook has extended it’s olive branch to the Indian PM, with a promise that the new India will be a vibrant India using technology and social media as a platform.
Here are the Facebook updates by Modi & Sheryl right after the meeting.
