“If you are not on Facebook and Twitter, I presume you are dinosaurs,” said TV presenter and self-confessed geek Ankit Vengurlekar while speaking on the role of social media in brand marketing. The occasion was a workshop organised by the Calcutta chapter of the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), in association with The Telegraph, at Peerless Inn on September 15.

Speakers Ankit Vengurlekar and Samrat Mukherjee at the workshop. Pictures by the author

Accompanying Ankit, who anchors TechGuru for CNBC Awaaz, was Samrat Mukherjee (CEO, Crow’s Nest) who illustrated how brands like Pepsi, Nike and Cafe Coffee Day use tools like social networking for brand marketing. He also spoke about how websites are not merely virtual platforms to view a brand’s products but often open up routes to trade and commerce with a tab that reads ‘shop’.

If Samrat’s talk was systematic and interactive, Ankit’s was casual and witty. He discussed how social media has made everyone a journalist. “With Twitter and Facebook on the mobile phone, every man is a potential news reporter!” He drew the example of Sohaib Athar, an IT consultant in Pakistan who provided live Twitter updates on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, without realising it. His tweet? Posting as @Really Virtual, Athar wrote, “Helic-opter hovering above Abb-ottabad at 1am (is a rare event). Go away helicopter — before I take out my giant swatter.”

Other speakers at the event were Suparno Moitra (eastern head, Nasscom) who gave the keynote address and Madhupa Bakshi, a teacher at the NSHM School of Media and Communication, who presented an overview on the topic.