I spent the afternoon yesterday working out of the Cafe Coffee Day, Adchini next to our office even as the #ccdsucks thread unfolded on Twitter, after a shop manager at a Chennai outlet, allegedly, asked for a cover charge from some guests who'd gathered for a tweet-up.

Here are 10 tips for the #ccd team to take a look at that I just posted as Tweets. I will write more about this later, if I get the time. Please add yours:

1. #1 Pause: Take a deep breath. Something happened, don't just react
2. #2 Take a step back: Find out what really happened? Get to the facts, quickly
3. #3 What's the stated policy: Is there a stated policy on the matter? Ensure that the team follows the policy across
4. #4 Communicate: action and any changes you 'might' have decided to bring, if needed
5. #5 Support: don't isolate the individual, your team is a key stakeholder too
6. #6 or number #1 track the conversations-separate key topics - see feedback; identify known issues; which are by choice?
7. #7 Don't over do it: know your promise, don't try or promise to be who you are not - under pressure
8. #8 Identify high impact issues, address them
9. #9 Communicate change - bring change, then communicate
10. #10 seize the opportunity - engage afresh, find your supporters and work upon regaining lost ground

Focus on the ground issues; communicate change (Update: or as some put it - make better coffee and have better service and then all is well :) )

All the best @cafecoffeeday.

"हम एक character बनायेंगे; सब जगह पर अकाउंट बना दो - twitter, facebook; एक ब्लॉग होगा...फिर advertising करेंगे टीवी पर, सब जगह!"

"ओये कितने फेन हो गए अब? अरे इतने से क्या होगा! ये तो बहुत कम हैं! अच्छा ब्लोग्गेर्स को लिखा? उन्हें लिखो की हमारे बारे में लिख दें!"

"ओह हो, यह तो बड़ा chakar है यार, ये कस्टमर्स अपने प्रोब्लेम्स क्यों लिखते हैं? सारा मज़ा ख़राब कर दिया!"

And you and I thought social media is about listening to the voice of the customer to resolve their problems, use their input to co-create better products and services...

I am smiling right now, but when I see brand managers speak like this, my heart usually sinks.

It's amazing how much time working out details of 'seemingly' easy things can take. Finally, after a couple of weeks of 'in-the-making' the IndiaSocial™Case Challenge that we've been busy coordinating is now 'live'. My sincere thanks to exchange4media and impact Weekly for partnering with the initiative.

Open from 3 February 2010, through 28 February 2010 (IST), the IndiaSocial™ Case Challenge invites submissions of their social media work in India, from brands, private and government organisations, not-for-profits, media bodies, celebrity brands...

1. Top 3 cases, as selected by the judging panel, will get featured in impact Weekly and also get an opportunity to present their case at a future event hosted by IndiaSocial
2. Top 10 case-studies will be featured on IndiaSocial.in under a special Gold Class section
3. Both short-term projects and longer term strategic work can be submitted to win under respective categories

On the judging panel are some of the most credible names in social media and journalism:

1. Dina Mehta, Co-Founder & Head of Research, Mosoci
2. George Skaria, Founder, ThoughtSpring and Former Editor, Indian Management
3. Kiruba Shankar, CEO, Business Blogging
4. Peter Griffin, Editor, Caferati; co-founder SEA-EAT and the World Wide Help Group
5. Pradyuman Maheshwari, Group Editor, exchange4media Group
6. Yours truly.

To ensure complete transparency and freedom from bias, any judge/judges will not rate an entry basis there/ their organisations involvement in a submitted case-study.

While we will share judging criteria along with declaration of winners, some of the factors that judges would be looking for consist:

1. Clarity of objectives
2. Alignment of results with goals
3. Rigour in measurement
4. RoI
5. Stakeholder engagement
6. Innovation & differentiation
7. Delight factors

   More about the initiative here.

   I am hoping to see some great case-studies in the @IndiaSocial Case Challenge that will convince me that there is more to all the social media talk than mere hype.

It's a space which has little place for the reserved and the shy; a dynamic tabloid replete with 'Beautiful People' hounded by a painstakingly self-seeded network of paparazzi.

Belonging and self esteem have been recognized as the key human needs since time immemorial. As the Wikipedia note on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs says -
All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex.

Facebook is a great platform to gain recognition and be accepted. However, there is an unspoken code of conduct that helps to cover the recognition ground rapidly.

Here are a few commandments that will hold you in good stead:

1. 1.Thou shall always have a smile on your face - real life may be about difficult issues as parents disapproving of your girlfriend/ not having a job or getting admission in a good college etc, but on Facebook you MUST be seen as happy. Why? If reality is perception and if you can influence that perception, by showcasing your best then you can change your reality. Well almost.
2. 2.Thou shall 'Untag' any photograph that may make thy look short, fat or 'uncool' - there are several dementors prying around, to catch you in your non-Julia Roberts moment and bring it to everyone else's notice by pressing the 'like' button. Steer clear!
3. 3.Thou shall never repeat a dress at any social gathering - well this one may imply additional financial burdens but then that's a small price to pay for being the Paris Hilton of your Facebook network. Wearing the same outfit on two occasions captured on the network can be a REALLY big fashion faux pas. Watch out!
4. 4.Thou shall keep everyone informed of your current relationship status - one of the Facebook best practices is to have your beau feature in your profile photograph. There are also several relationship options to choose from - intelligent usage of this feature can also enable you to find (or even dump) a partner
5. 5.Thou must upload your kindergarten photographs - so what if you don't exactly look like a dream anymore? You definitely have those really cute pictures of you as a 2 yr old. They are also great conversation starters. If there is nothing from the present life worthy of generating interest, past is certainly worth a try!


Since brevity is the soul of wit, and user-generated content that of social media, I have left the scope for other 5 commandments to be generated from you dear reader and others of your ilk. :)

Do share your thoughts.

Cheers.

Edelman and Brandtology have jointly brought out the second edition of its Digital Brand Index for India. Covering the last quarter of 2009, this edition of the study tracked 154,492 online conversations pertaining to 104 large technology brands contained in 306 influential channels.

Here are some of the brands that emerged on top of the charts:

From the first edition of this survey in the previous quarter, i.e. July to September 2009, Samsung(Client) is now ranked #4 among the top 10 buzziest brands in India this quarter, i.e. October to December 2009; and the only consumer technology brand to feature in the top 5 (Google#1, Microsoft#2, Yahoo!#3 and Apple #5) during the period Oct-Dec 2009. With Samsung showing a significant leap of 3 positions in the list of top buzziest technology brands, it is reaffirming to know that some of the social media work we did for Samsung India's Social Media campaign has shown results.

The study also derives that there has been an exponential 123% increase in the number of brand mentions for Samsung during Oct-Dec (6,548 brand mentions). The Samsung Corby Colour Wars contest on Twitter as part of our Social Media campaign for Samsung India is likely to have contributed to this quantum leap. Our own post-activity analyses had shown around 3000 mentions of Samsung Corby, amounting to nearly 615000 exposures.

It was also interesting to note that many of the insights shared by the report are being employed by the team in our approach already. Sharing some key insights here:

• Brands should integrate their digital communication along with their offline communication for best results
• Marketers should consider implications of timing, alongside targeting and channel selection as a part of a social media engagement program
• Conversations grow early in the week, spike on a Wednesday, and then taper off towards a weekend
• Leading online content creators (influencers) are actively being wooed by brands
• It's time for brands to build the next set of influencers who are not sceptic about direct communication, and are likely to be influenced by the sheer gesture of reaching out

Do share your thoughts on the study too.

Dataquest published my article 'Back to the Future' in their last issue, on Social Media trends to expect in 2010 for India. Reproducing the content here:

Back to the Future
Ten trends that will drive social media in 2010

The year 2010 will be about social media coming of age, albeit in select ways. Some relevant trends:

1. Social Media For the Enterprise: 2010 will be the year where the enterprise looks towards social media for providing internal solutions for interaction, learning, fun! By 2010 end, internal e-mails should be passe, with people/ organizations sharing news, information, and updates through their internal social networks
2. Search Will Open Up: If Facebook opens itself to search, that in itself would be the single most revolutionary development in the social media environment for the year 2010. Google may also bring its social search out of the labs as a service, which again would shift the paradigm back in favor of Google as the enduring, preferred search mechanism. Real-time search will gain ground
3. Greater Focus On Tracking and Monitoring: Rigorous social media monitoring will emerge as one of the key focus areas for brands and organizations, in addition to their outreach and engagement initiatives over the social web, a symptom of maturing digital campaigns. While social media monitoring has relevance for several other sectors like governance, e-journalism, etc., it will be interesting to see if its potential gets tapped in 2010
4. The Year of the Mobile, Finally: While for the last two consecutive years, we've been beckoning the arrival of the mobile as the next big thing, 2010 looks like the year that mobile will get third-time lucky. While it is already a ubiquitous device, the mobile itself is increasingly becoming the first tool for social media consumption, making it seamless and instantaneous. People would publish, consume, and share on the go!
5. Collaboration Among Social Media Stakeholders: One of the crucial trends that 2010 will see materialize is the coming together of the various stakeholders within the social media landscape for sharing, learning, collaboration as well as fun. (There are immense possibilities of this vibrant coming together - to name a few, mutual notes-exchange, enhanced business value, cross-sector partnerships, global alliances, et al. One such step has been initiated by Blogworks in IndiaSocial™, with a case-studies series, the India Social wiki and a large-format flagship event in the current pipeline.) 2010 will see this coming of age of the Indian social media scene through such collaborative initiatives




6. Convergence Across Media: Increasingly, all media are coming together - textual, audio, visual. Google Wave is one such example - a cross between chat, wiki, and email. Convergence would gain credence and adoption across platforms, and even in social advertising!
7. Augmented Reality: The much touted phenomenon of augmented reality, only witnessed in science fiction, may not entirely materialize, but will surely develop further. While we already rely on LinkedIn and Facebook to profile/ sample people before we meet them, or meet over Twitter before a real-life face-off, extensive social profiling is something to look forward to. For instance, foursquare is a well known location-based network. This is also convergence in the sense that offline and online identities eventually come together, where the hitherto separate persona and the person come together as one
8. Social Gaming: Farmville and Mafia Wars have only shown the tip of the iceberg in 2009, and this potential of purely fun-based engagement on the social web will be tapped further this year
9. Interest Based Tribes Mature: Just like anything that comes of age, social media would also become boring in general. However, there's respite in the fact that specific interest groups, as they mature, could become even more intensely active. However, these enhanced tastes imply that while 2009 was the year of un-friending, well gradually move to the year where people will un-join communities and un-fan pages that lie dormant on their social circuit. Brands will have to provide value to be on peoples social radars
10. Revenue For Twitter: Twitter, the shiny object having lost its sheen by now, would be relevant for its use-value, and not just its glamor quotient. This in turn also means that 2010 is the one for Twitters growth as a business offering, it having fared well at the numbers growth in 2009


What are your thoughts? Would love to hear if you agree or otherwise.

We take our work very seriously, but being at Blogworks is fun. These caricatures make our email signatures and go on a wall in the office. Tell us what you think :)

1. Rajesh

   

2. Rajika
   

3. Amita
   

4. Manpreet
   

5. Kriti
   

6. Richa