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.

UPDATE: 11 February 2010, 8.50 am - Rajika, Amita and I were out for a meeting a 2 minute discussion about the "CCD Sucks" episode got us to conclude that Cafe Coffee Day could have saved itself the embarrassment from use of #ccdsucks tag itself, necessitated by the need to participate in ongoing conversations, simply by adding #ccdresponds to #ccdsucks - this would have given the necessary context and positioning to the brand.

"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.

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.

It's interesting to read updates on Blogworks' anniversaries, one, two years ago, as I sit down down to write another about us turning three. Blogworks turned 3 'formally' on 26 December 2009 and, this post should have been up on 28th, but the previous post will summarize why I couldn't write it until now :).

Year 2010 has started on a promising note. Last year, this time, the world was a different place - the slowdown had started to impact everyone. We too felt direct impact for about 2 months, which in turn cost us many more to get our cash flows back into order. Looking back however, it worked out well for us - the work that we started December '08, started to pay-off towards September-October 2009.

1. Becoming an organisation: small, but an organisation for sure. My colleagues are going out and 'winning business'; submitting thought leadership articles; participating in crucial decisions about the company's future; we formally articulated our Values; collaborative working is pretty much a norm.

   We've been leveraging technology - internal wikis and chat systems are just some manifestations, and are going to hold us in good stead, as we add more people.

   We moved into a new office in May '09 - everyone who has visited us since has simply said, "what a lovely office". Yesterday, with new colleagues, and guests, we realised that we might need to add more space. Amen.

   We've been very selective in our choice of people, that isn't going to change.

2. Evolution and Rigour: we worked non-stop through the year to add large multinational brands, as well as overseas start-ups - delivering strategic value to their social media programmes, even looking at every tactical initiative from a larger perspective; some great experiments that delivered valve - Samsung Corby Colour Wars, for example, took about 15 days of background work.

   RoI is our promised focus, from week reports to monthly and quarterly reviews, we believe you can measure anything, if you know the goals.

   Last couple of months have also seen frenzied activity in terms of evolving new practices - an Enterprise practice is in the works; the current marketing practice is likely to get split into 2.

   We've silently been incubating a few new initiatives, nothing to report on them right now :).

3. Thought Leadership: the contribution we started over the last 4 years, continues. 2009, saw the launch of:

   - India Social Media Survey Report - Edition 1 with exchange4media
   - Exchange4Media made us a partner on the India Social Media Summit, in March 2009
   - Significantly, we seeded India Social™ recently with an aim to bring together stakeholders in the Indian social media eco-system for engagement, sharing, learning and collaboration in a vibrant space - physical and virtual.

Last few years have taught me that it's sometimes difficult to 'predict'? what future holds, best to just keep our heads down and focus on what we need to do. However, with a clear understanding that "either we can wait, or we can create," we are not going to wait for sure. Expect more from us.

Thank you, all, for being there with your support and good wishes - grateful.

This is a year-end ritual that I find valuable. Here are the four trends I thought would play out in 2009.

Please let me know whether they actually did - do take a minute to read the pieces to see my perspective.

1. 2009 Trend # 1 - Bloggers Make Money, Via Mainstream Media.
2. 2009 Trend # 2 -Brand Stalker Cometh, this year.
3. 2009 Trend #3 -Blogs become second skin, for mainstream media.
4. 2009 Trend # 4 - Social Media for Marketing, focus on RoI

Coming up, Trends 2010 - this time, my colleagues are joining in and a joint post is in the making.

It's been a few months in the making, when in the course of a discussion we realised that while there is a lot of great work happening on the social media scene in India, it is dispersed - it needed to be aggregated, showcased. Also, with the revolution well set in, the space needed to evolve - sharing, learning and collaboration were tasks at hand.

Intuitively I wanted to call it IndiaSocial, nothing else seemed to fit = my colleagues loved it too - so we went and acquired the domain name at a premium. Several rounds of discussions later, we agreed to that IndiaSocial will:

...aim to bring together stakeholders in the Indian social media eco-system for engagement, sharing, learning and collaboration in a vibrant space - physical and virtual.

There were elaborate discussions on concepts like 'bringing together under an umbrella' versus 'open-ness' and we agreed that the promise of IndiaSocial was going to be 'Social Media Open' with open embodying openness - embracing all stakeholders; open discussions; akin to a sport field 'open' showcases team spirit and a level play field.

To begin with there are 3-4 initiatives that are planned:

1. Case-study Series: Will share, on an ongoing basis, the best Indian case-studies of social media usage and impact across sectors - government and policy, not-for-profits, media, enterprise, human resource and marketing.

   
   We are keen to put together a panel of credible leaders from the space, with a reputation for transparency, to help us structure guidelines for what should make it on the IndiaSocial Case-study series. I have spoken with a few friends and will be speaking with more...

   If you have a case with real impact, please share it here

2. IndiaSocial Wiki : Will aim to dynamically capture the social media journey and resources from an India perspective. We're hoping to tie-up with institutions and individuals to ensure that accurate content and learnings are shared. If you are interested in contributing, write to us at open@indiasocial.in
3. IndiaSocial-2010: We are planning a large format social media event, in 2010, to showcase the social media landscape and opportunities in India. In the interim, we expect to bring some other events in collaboration - will keep you informed about that soon.

We have also been speaking with a few others to come on board as 'Friends and Supporters' and will be adding a few shortly.

Our approach to building IndiaSocial is clear. We want to adopt what I like to call the 'Restaurant approach' - soft launch, work on issues, take feedback into account, better-better- better, word-of-mouth to build the brand - against a 'Pub Night Club approach' - goes up quickly, comes down soon enough.

If you'd like to collaborate, do reach with your thoughts.

1. Follow IndiaSocial on Twitter: http://twitter.com/indiasocial or add @indiasocial
2. Follow IndiaSocial on Facebook :http://facebook.com/indiasocial

Manpreet and I conducted a session yesterday on "Leveraging Social Technologies in Learning Solutions - setting the context" for a team of over 20 senior learning professionals, from one of the largest global corporations, respected for the quality of their coaching and learning processes.

So far, there has been selective adoption of social technologies in the Enterprise environment in India. However, Social Technologies are beginning to find a willing ear (and more mainstream adoption) within the Enterprise - a few factors have contributed:

1. Need to connect teams separated by geography
2. Familiar is favourable: wide adoption of social media, particularly social networking, has made a large working population very comfortable with the connected environment
3. The success of social media in marketing has given organisations confidence, and insights, to tread forward on the Social Enterprise journey.

A clear sign of how far we have moved ahead on the Web 2.0 journey is the fact that most concepts of collaboration, convenience, multiple formats, democracy seem so yesterday that we take them for granted. Hot and new are:

1. Mobility; coupled with
2. Device convergence
3. Real time; coupled with
4. Location
5. Storytelling - even adoption of gaming and comics by brands and the Enterprise
6. An open network


The session covered:

1. Power of the networks and the opportunity within the Enterprise
2. Social Technology interventions at each stage in the employee life-cycle: On-boarding; ongoing; Off-boarding
3. Impact on learning and the evolving role of the 'trainer', to 'learning guide' and facilitator
4. The power of connecting people with content; people with people
5. Insights about the impact of doing this
6. Issues and the need to focus on 'why' and the objectives, rather than focus on tools
7. Getting started

One of the questions that came our way was, naturally, about challenges on measuring performance of the learner (or the learning guide), in context of connected learning - a couple of interesting parameters that could become 'currency' emerged from the discussion.

The response to my 'Let's talk about Sex', shared in context of importance of story-telling and conversational tone continues to amaze me.

We wish there was more time, for the discussion was intense and fun. A few topics could not be covered, but then the opportunity is just opening up.

I spent a good part of the day at a bunch of exchange4media initiatives, starting with the Pitch CMO Summit , followed by an Impact One-on-one between Advertising Age's Publishing and Editorial Director David Klein and Madison World's Chairman and MD Sam Balsara.

Later in the evening Pitch magazine felicitated 25 top marketers (actually 28) in an award ceremony.

I was able to spend some time with Sam about the social media journey in India. He had some brilliant suggestions but the key takeaway for me was that 'we' - active participants in the social media space - are focusing a lot of energy on trying to 'convert the converted', whereas the task may lie elsewhere.

I was also able to spend a useful few minutes with David.

Do read the proceedings of the day's happenings on exchange4media. I am sharing below some extremely valuable assessment/ tips on the digital space (in the US) that David shared with the audience, before the one-on-one.

1. Marketers as media owners - via the databases, online communities they own, giving them the power/ opportunity to circumvent mainstream media companies
2. Radical transparency - angry customers can impact brands - we are talking hard hits on stock exchange - case in point the United Breaks Guitars which impacted United Airlines' stock. Similarly positive impact through customer endorsements
3. Global Meritocracy - both bad, and, good work will find its way across continents. Cases in point Burger King's controversial Goddess Lakshmi Ad; Piano Stairs by Volkswagen, respectively
4. Crowd-sourcing
5. Social Media and the feedback loop - click here if you are not clear about this
6. Vendor relationship management - not a big trend yet, but as part of social business, collaborative/ social technologies are bringing many stakeholders together
7. Location based marketing
8. The rise of the creative technologist- creative minds who understand/ can leverage technology will be in demand

I agree with David on all counts. What about you?

For those of you who still haven't seen the Piano Stairs video, here you go :) - enjoy.

A couple of weeks ago, Shubhodeep Pal, a student of Singapore Management University - SMU reached out to me with an interview request, as part of an ongoing non-profit project for the university, where, in Shubhodeep's words, "students who take the Comm215 course, Digital Media Across Asia, are required to build and expand a wiki that deals exclusively with the digital media landscape across Asia. By the end of 2009, we aim to create the first social media map of Asia."

The wiki has existed for a bit and there are other mentions of Blogworks from earlier and there are 3 interviews that have been added recently. Besides mine, there is Kiruba and Gaurav Mishra's interviews too.

My interview has a few typos/ mistakes and Shubhodeep is getting them corrected they have now been corrected.

Shubhodeep asked me about the challenges to Social Media adoption. This is what I said to him. It keeps getting manifested:

"The primary challenge is that the adoption of social media is slow. It is not growing as fast as people who are investing time and resources in it would like.

Another problem is that marketers in India believe in a 'one-way street': I speak, you listen. Brands are not engaging their customers. People are not used to a culture of voicing opinions, collaborative working and knowledge sharing.

Channels to resolve customer queries and complaints have not been created. Essentially, we sell and then forget about service. Shifting to social media is a culture shift for brands so it is taking time. It's happening slowly: Brands are unable to react properly to feedback, especially of the negative sort. Feedback is seen by many as criticism rather than constructive suggestions."

What do you think?

The full interview is here.

I just converted my Social Media Marketing Triad post into a slide-deck and put it on Slideshare. Even before I knew what was happening it has found its way to the home page and into featured posts.

Thought I will share it here:

In terms of learning, leading to quality of work and the value delivered to our clients; and in terms of longevity and level of engagement with the client.

The approach has been simple, as I fundamentally believe that:

1. Deep rivers usually run wide
2. Width alone is no guarantee for depth

Width is relatively easier to achieve, even water spilled on the floor runs wide, but it doesn't have depth; depth on the other hand is a function of time and rigour. We prefer the latter.

Our client engagements are deep; as is our focus on building our programmes. Starting with a deep understanding of the client's business and starting with a clear strategy usually mean that the programme doesn't run out of breath soon.

And, when clients see rigour and results...referrals and word-of-mouth take over. Very often, customers who work with us/ who have worked with us at any time (or even prospects who simply engaged with us) send more business our way. This works just fine for us :)

What do you think? Wide? Or deep and wide?

Keep writing.

Cheers

Picture courtesy: Khalil Sawant

Many of you have commented to me about the Triad - version 1.0 - mostly positive feedback.

Some have sought a more detailed explanation about the workings of the model - I am going to try and do that, even though from where I look at it, the figure is self-explanatory.

One friend wrote back suggesting a re-look at the name, given the military associations with it. I might consider a name change but have so far been driven by this definition of the term. But, that's for later - task at hand is to get the model right first.

In version 1.0 , I wasn't particularly satisfied with the inner hexagon. It seemed to me that in isolation, the triangles representing 'Ingredients' and 'Action Points' worked fine, but when seen together, the sequence wasn't correct. It was important that the sequence, as I have experienced in real-world scenarios, is not altered.

Another look and the answers seemed obvious. Here is version 1.1:

Trying a more detailed, yet simplified, explanation:

1. What do the sales and marketing teams want from any marketing activity? Simply put the desired outcomes are Buzz > Purchase > Retention
2. Conversational marketing and communication is based on the premise that it allows us to engage stakeholders in conversations;to influence; gather communities around interests/ social objects; draw insights; identify evangelists; co-create products and services/ offer value that consumers/ stakeholders really want from us
3. Broken down neatly, the flow works like this - Conversations > Engagement > Community > Insights > Evangelists > Co-creation
4. Further, I could say that Conversations > Community > Evangelists are the 'Enablers'
5. And that Engagement > Insights > Co-creation are the 'Out-take' of these.
6. Our work on the triangles/ hexagon, inside, should lead us to the desired outcomes showcased at the three corners of the big picture triangle.

The flow seems more organised to me now. Also each adjacent triangle should have a relationship with each-other was a thought. Please let me know what you think of the reworked model. Your inputs would allow me to clean this up further, if needed.

Cheers

I had just started working on a client presentation, around a SocNet community that we had discussed earlier in the day and was trying to integrate social media elements, from a sales and marketing perspective, in a cohesive grid.

This is what emerged.

We had a brief internal discussion around it and my colleague Manpreet who manages Content and Knowledge suggested we call it a Triad. It's work in progress and your inputs would be valuable.

You can see it outside-in, or, inside-out:

1. On the outside are the desired sales outcomes: buzz; purchase; retention


2. Second tier consists of action points: engagement;evangelists; co-creation


3. In the center lie the ingredients: conversations; community; insights

None of them can be separated, given their close relationship.

We are planning to use this extensively for explaining the working/ relationships to customers. What do you think about it? Please share your thoughts and insights.

Blogworks was featured in some more media stories recently. Here they are:

1. Many newspapers featured stories around '10 years of the blog'.

Mail Today, 16 August 2009

I suggested Neha, from Mail Today, that she tries something different from the routine 'history and genesis of blogs' kind of story, to maybe write how last blogs have, over the last few years, changed lives for many. Am glad she took the suggestion.

Here is a PDF of the story.

Blogosphere has changed their lives.

Mint, 14 August 2009

Mint did a comprehensive 4 part series around the subject. Blogworks is featured in the last piece, which will also take you to the previous three.

10 year of blog, part 4 - Tweet now, blog later

1. Are brands listening to customers? Well, they are. Here is a brief piece titled "Unhappy with your purchase, gripe online." This one featured the Kiruba-Cleartrip and Gul Panag-Jet Airways incidents. The only thought I shared with CNN IBN after I saw the piece - do a longer one, as short pieces like this are not able to give enough background/ context. I am sure more will happen.

CNN IBN, 13 July 2009

Unhappy with your purchase, gripe online.

Most of the media coverage gets listed here regularly. Just in case you were interested in following our updates :)

I am feeling an unusual sense of loss, as this is was not just another of my possessions.

Since the time I bought it, nearly 2 years ago, besides, of course, riding it when I could, the bicycle was the subject matter of one of my most important case-studies around "impact of social media on purchase decisions" - I had spoken about it on my blog, presented the case at dozens of speaking sessions and workshops across the country; submitted it on focus groups. Participants would always be able to relate with the example.

What do I say.

Now it's gone, the learnings stay.

My friend Toby Bloomberg recently wrote Social Media Marketing GSP - a tweet book: the first book written using Twitter as a platform for creation and distribution.

It's NOT a book about Twitter, but, a social media book, using Twitter.

Toby reached out to practitioners across the world and gave them a subject/ question to focus upon.

I participated too: My question was "What happens when you start without strategy?"

This is what I thought.

However, you should begin, from the beginning. In true Twitter style, the book tells you all the key points, without demanding too much time.

Enjoy.

I cringe every time I read the words #FAIL , #boo or thus like on Twitter, from users who might just have given a cursory glance to a tool or barely used a service.

This is someone's brand we are referring to, a brand that's dear to someone; a service in whose creation someone has put a lot of time, effort and money. How easy it is for us, to sit at a distance and boo, setting someone up for failure, without sometimes giving the other party time/ opportunity to make amends on genuine gaps.

I find that on one side social media gives opportunity consumers to transparently share feedback, on the other, our usage of it is often knee-jerk and may I dare say, even juvenile.

Here, however, is a case of genuine customer agony upon discovering at the airport that your ticket for overseas travel; for which you paid in advance; is void. You end up buying another ticket to make it to your destination. This is what happened to my friend, and power blogger, Kiruba. The culprit - Cleartrip.com

I have often said to marketers attending my talks, workshops that how a marketer responds to negative feedback is the key to success with social media. Going on the defensive is not going to help. A mistake has been made - own up; mistakes do happen, and the moment you acknowledge and convey that to the customer, half the battle is already won.

'Resolution' is the only apology acceptable, not a verbal apology that everyone seems to offer. Now go on, top it with something that says 'We care' and you can expect forgiveness, even make friends.

Cleartrip shares how they resolved the complaint in this transparent post - transparency has become their hallmark, besides a clear, purposeful interface on the site.

Cleatrip, is rightly disappointed that not as many people shared the positive resolution, as the ones who contributed to the initial negative burst. Well, you have earned some more trust and customers in the process is all I could say to them. I have been buying regularly from Cleartrip and would not just continue but likely recommend them to more people after this episode.

Thanks Manpreet for sharing the case-study post with me.

UPDATE - 16 June, 2009 at 3.42 pm - Kiruba gives his side of the story on this blog update (2nd part of the story still pending)

UPDATE - 26 June, 2009 at 4.25 pm - Kiruba put up part 2 of his story a couple of days ago. Here it is now.

The rules:

1. Translating from source - the original is in Hindi- I will use text in colour brown


2. Rest of the text, by me, little as it will likely be, in colour black :)

Baloo, a trader, lived in Gujarat. So stingy was he with money that he didn't like spending money even upon himself, leave alone others. Coming back from work one day, he spotted a Date tree with rich fruits hanging near the top...he was tempted.

The question now was, how to reach the top? Paying an expert tree-climber would cost money, and he didn't know how to do it himself. Preferring to save money, he decided to climb the tree himself, and somehow managed to reach the top.

Just as he was reaching out to finally pluck the fruit, he looked down, and nearly fell - land seemed far away, he hadn't noticed how far he had come, and now he had no idea how to get back down.

He looked around for help, finding none, he started to pray to God. He promised that if he reached to safety, he'd feed a thousand brahmins.

The prayer seemed to have bolstered his strength and somehow slipped down a bit, land seemed closer by...and "feeding a thousand brahmins for 'just this much' does seem a bit steep, five hundred should suffice," he thought.

Five hundred became two hundred, and then even less. Finally when his feet touched the ground, he heaved a sigh of relief and promised to God that he will feed ONE brahmin, for sure.

On the way back home he kept thinking about ways to keep the cost of feeding the brahmin as low as possible and decided that the trick would in finding someone who ate really little.

He reached his village and after some asking around, was told that Janki Das, a brahmin, ate very little. What he did not know was that Janki Das was also a very sharp and wicked creature. When Baloo extended the lunch invitation to Janki Das, he promptly accepted.

Baloo reached home and told his wife Shyamali about the promise and about Janki Das coming for lunch the next day. He also advised her to keep the cost as low as possible.

Next day, which was the weekly bazaar day, Baloo thought he would be better off doing business to make up for the loss incurred on feeding Janki Das, and decided to let his wife fulfill the lunch commitment.

When Janki Das, the brahmin, saw Baloo leave for work and landed at his place early, smelling an opportunity. Shyamali was surprised to see the guest come so early. Janki Das told her "I thought let me see if you need any advice on how to prepare for the feast, so enroute to the temple, I decided to stop at your place."

Shyamli listed all items on the menu; Janki Das appeared pleased but cautioned her that while he is coming for lunch alone, quantities for about 10-12 people needed to be prepared. He also advised Shyamali to prepare 3 different sweets to please Lord Ganesha, the remover of hurdles.

Later when Janki Das returned for lunch, he advised Shyamali to offer 2 gold coins as to please the Gods. "Baloo didn't mentioned anything about the coins," thought Shyamali, but not wanting to displease the Gods, she got the coins and offered them to Janki Das.

Janki Das ate his fill, and packed the rest for his family. On the way out, he demanded 10 more gold coins as his dakshina (traditional gift given to a priest as part of a religious ceremony). Shyamali was baffled and knew that her husband wouldn't like this, but, again, didn't want to displease a brahmin either.

Janki Das, satiated, reached home and warned his wife that an angry Baloo would likely come home and explained a few things to her...

Baloo reached home late evening and heard the episode from Shyamali. Livid, he rushed to Janki Das' place, armed with a thick stick.

As soon as Janki Das' wife saw an enraged Baloo coming at them, she started to cry out loudly, beating her chest "You poisoned my husband, what did you feed him? If anything happens to him, you won't be spared by the police, I promise you that..."she cursed.

Taken aback, Baloo was now terrified. "Please don't speak so loudly," he pleaded and continued "Why don't you call a doctor?"

"Call a doctor? Where do I have the money for that. Give me 10 gold coins so I can call for a doctor," said the wife.

"If he dies, you will be dead too."

Baloo asked for the priest's son to accompany him back home, and , trembling, handed over 10 gold coins to the boy.

"God, save me please - I will feed a 1000 brahmins." he promised.

So what are the learning?

1. Some clients are penny wise, pound foolish
2. They'd rather get conned by a dis-honest party than pay an honest expert, their honest fee
3. Some clients have short memories - amnesia hits as the crisis passes, until it hits again

Encountered a Baloo, a Janki Das yourself? :)

Keep writing.

Driving to work this work morning, I was listening to this recent podcast by my friend Kamla Bhatt "Social Media in India, what's missing" where she interviewed me and Anurag Batra, Managing Director, exchange4media. I thought I should share it here...

Some of the points we discussed:

1. Social Media environment in India
2. How do Indian marketers see Social Media, is there a disconnect at the top
3. Will corporate blogging takeoff in India?
4. RoI of Social Media
5. Are marketers lazy?
6. Misplaced focus on tools
7. Social Media and Bollywood

Much more...but why don't I just let you listen in to the discussion :) - here you go.

Last Tuesday's (9 June 2009) Financial Express featured findings from the India Social Media Survey Report - Edition 1 in its Brand Wagon section.

Here is a JPG of the coverage.

View image

Last night, I and a friend and peer of mine, a very senior & respected public relations professional, were chatting over the phone about personal stuff and the talk swerved towards Twitter for a few minutes.

He, a Twitter newbie, probed on why are people motivated to broadcast essentially one-to-one messages over a public stream on Twitter?

Intuitively I replied:

1. In an increasingly exhibitionist world people increasingly want to 'flaunt their conversations/ thoughts' to a larger audience - ever so often the person with whom they/ we may be conversing with, over Twitter, may in fact be live with us on GTalk too
2. This flaunting is also sometimes about 'who' you are having this conversation with - the equivalent of a 'names dropping' - for fans there is a certain kick in being able to have one-on-one conversations with @gulpanag, on Twitter

Both harmless...

1. In a more productive way, a purposeful conversation that first started one-on-one, might be joined into by our respective friends and peers, adding perspective and thought - not possible in a private one-on-one tool
2. More people in the public stream who found the conversation interesting might join in to add value, and also become friends
3. We/ others could easily share links/ sources/ resources adding further value and knowledge

Collective knowledge creation and sharing...

For marketers and communication professionals like us, Twitter, and other social networking sites, are subject matter about people behaviour and how content and knowledge is being, or will be, created and shared besides trend-spotting.

It's been over a year since I wrote this piece about Twitter uses for HT. What are the new ways in which you are using Twitter?

We had released the findings of India Social Media Survey Report - Edition 1 in a hard copy format at the India Social Media Summit, end March.

The report, available for sale through exchange4media costs only Rs. 1500/- and consists valuable pieces stories and case-studies (you can send us requests for purchase at socialmediasurvey@blogworks.in and we will forward them to the e4m team).

However, keeping with our promise of sharing knowledge for the benefit of the community and marketers, we are today releasing an online version of the survey findings! :)

The Social Media Survey Report- Edition 1 attempts to capture insights and learnings from Corporates and Marketers of India, to get a sense of what's really happening on the ground in the rapidly evolving social media environment.

Results and analysis will surely help understand how peers, from across India, view social media (SM) impact on marketing & communication. This will allow the industry to benefit from shared insights and make for educated decisions.

The survey , undertaken by us jointly with exchange4media.com in Dec 2008 & Jan 2009, takes a deep dive into questions that matters to all of us:

1. Does Social Media enjoy credibility?
2. Does Social Media impact business?
3. Is Social Media based used as a sales tool? Or as a buzz tool? Or for engagement?
4. Do you believe that Social Media impacts purchase decisions?
5. Do marketers understand Social Media?
6. What about Agencies? Do they?
7. Are clients spending money on Social Media?
8. Do they intend to? :)
9. What are the top metrics that marketers believe in, while calculating RoI
10. And much more...

Find out what our respondents said? Were you one of them? :) Some sample slides are here:

You can download the full report by going here. Hope you find it useful.

Do share your feedback and any errors you might notice, by writing to us at socialmediasurvey@blogworks.in

Cheers

Sometimes you can find out the results only after attempting to do it.

When we announced the Blogworks "India Bloggers Directory" - Edition 1 in April, we wanted to give some stakeholders a consolidated, one page view about a blog author, contacts, subjects they write about etc. and the detailed questions on the submission form reflected that.

Many blog authors got back early with suggestions to cut down the number of fields, but we believe that doing so would have impacted the purpose of doing the directory.

Submissions have been a mere trickle - just over a hundred I think. Many attempts to reach out via Facebook Ads, outreach, blog posts by friends urging bloggers to submit details and personal requests from me haven't made much of the difference. We were clear that we weren't going to write the bios at our end, though that was/ is a choice available to us. Blog authors had to participate first hand and help create the content.

The lack of desire to fill in the details is being ascribed to the form being lengthy. My own assessment, validated by peers who I have discussed the issue with is, that the number of blog authors/ people on Twitter have simply grown too large and are widely dispersed. Opt-in lists that worked with a smaller community are simply inadequate to reach this large, dispersed mass.

We are clear that rather than bring out something that lacks the width and depth, we'd not pursue the project any further.

What helped us make the decision, and why today, is a mail response that I shot to a group (some of you maybe reading this) asking questions regarding the relevance/ need of something else around the Indian Blogosphere/ Live Web (a term that I like better) that we are trying to do.

The India Bloggers Directory is perhaps an idea whose time is gone.

Thank you all who took the time to fill in your details, I do hope that we are able to make it worth your while in some way in the future.

Brands all over the world have been using viral videos to promote their products for some years now. Take for instance our home grown viral videos, which was first initiated by companies like MakeMyTrip, Desimartini, Wrigley's Orbit and many more. These videos were a rage and in fact are quite popular in the digital space even today.

However, it is only in the past couple of years with the advent and popularity of social media networks like Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and the likes that viral videos are having a spiralling effect. Take the much talked about Vodafone ZooZoo ads for instance, the ads were created for consumption off the TV screens but the impact of the videos online has been phenomenon - fans of Zoozoo are flocking on social networks just to view the Zoozoo characters.

However, at the same time all this sounds easy to do but in reality you simply just can't expect to post your video and have them go viral on their own, even if you think you have the best videos ever. These days, achieving the 'viral effect' takes serious creativity, hard work and some luck.

If you haven't heard of Divesh Mishra, here is his story. Divesh is a taxi driver based out Varnasi, he has uploaded a video of himself on YouTube talking about his taxi service. The video is simple, it gives out all the information that one would require along with contact details. The video has over 25,000 views in about 18 months, not much for it to reach the viral video charts but surely enough for a man located in a town in India trying to reach out to a global audience via a free online tool.

A really viral video making the rounds of the digital space is 'Jone's Good Ass BBQ and foot massage', a root taken by an entrepreneur in the times of recession.

However, one wrong move, and the spiralling effect can cause severe damage. Take for instance the Domino pizza video on YouTube, the video was caught by viewers so fast, that before Dominoes could even realise the severity of the situation, the video was all over the internet, making it one of the most viewed videos in the online space at the time, till it was finally pulled down by Dominos. The impact of the video - over one million disgusted viewers and a huge blow to the image of the brand. However, brand Dominoes was on top of the situation within 48 hours. Interestingly, Domino's President, Patrick Doyle responded to the situation not by issuing a typical press release but via a YouTube video.

There is enough content online that will list down ways to get 50000 viewers, how to maximise the viral effect, what to do when a viral video goes wrong, managing crisis through viral videos and so on and so forth. Undoubtedly, the best tool would be not to repeat the same mistakes made by others and learn-as-you-go.

Tiger Wood's PGA Tour is taking a step further and is hosting a Viral Video Challenge where the top five winners will be posted on the site for public voting. The effect of such a viral video could be phenomenon. Will keep you updated.

So what's you viral idea?

While they were launched to co-ordinate with the second season of IPL and push the Value Added Services (VAS) offered by Vodafone, the happiest news is that with Zoozoo, Vodafone has finally found the antidote to the Hutch pug.

The egg-head, as its being lovingly called in many circles, are not even animated characters. Instead, it's humans wearing specialized body suits, shot in creatively adjusted environs. The simplicity of the icon is actually what gave it the edge. With 10 creatives already on air, and 15 more en-route, the team had obviously expected this as well.

The most interesting bit, however, is that the name Zoozoo isn't even mentioned in any of the ads/print campaigns. The popularity of the phenomenon is a result instead, of their attempts on the digital media. See, for instance:

1. The Official Zoozoo fan page - collating their entire online presence on to one, and alongside giving live IPL match updates.
2. What kind of a Zoozoo are you? A quiz, on their website! A temporal & catchy move, Quizzes are the new phase with Facebook flooding up with them anyway. Three questions and they give you an answer. The answer can then be shared with friends on one's blog, through e-mail, on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, FriendFeed, et al!



3. Less than two weeks into the campaign, the Facebook page has over 68,000 fans. Not just that, the much loved Zoozoo who falls into the perils of a crocodile, has a fan page to himself!



4. On Twitter - Well, it's not trending ;), but it sure is invoking a lot of interest. Don't you wonder why the Zoozoos aren't tweeting? ;)
5. An Orkut community, initiated by fans, running polls, forums around the phenomenon.
6. On YouTube, a channel has been set up. People are demanding more videos, and as a result, the making of the Zoozoo is now doing the rounds as well.
7. A Zoozoo community toolbar.

That's more than sufficient buzz. However, a lot of conversations are happening on these fora. What people like - or don't like - from how they feel it reflects on the brand, how it compares to the earlier ads and what they think of the transformation, to even complaints in the VAS offered by Vodafone.

Not just are fans engaging, they are even giving suggestions on Zoozoo merchandise, and what all that should be! Not just the egg-head, the customers are trying to interact with Vodafone as well. Hope someone's listening in to that.

A mix of simplicity, stupidity and hence, the charm, in both the figure and the nomenclature is what's driving the fan-wave for now. That the Zoozoo, like a star-campaigner, may just overshadow the brand, or come to define it in inextricable ways, much like the pug, remains to be seen; but for now, it's generating oodles of revelry.

Do share your Zoozoo thoughts with us :)

A pocket guide to an ever growing list of Indian blogs, the book aims to help users and marketers navigate the live web by informing them about sites of interest, categorized by subject. The book will also have a select listing of Twitter users from India.

While a lot of this information is already available in public domain, this form will help us reach out to many more people. Please fill it and circulate amongst your blogger friends.

The accompanying image is NOT the cover design, we decided to just have a little fun while we wait for the design to come in - enjoy :)

UPDATE, 16 April, 2009 @ 8.46 am: The accompanying image IS THE COVER DESIGN for the directory. Designed by the very creative Naina Redhu of Aside design studio.

This is what she said about the cover "...the concentric circles represent bloggers - like a widening circle - network - multi-hued..."

Loving it!

Cheers

This is the piece I wrote as part of the Exchange4Media and Blogworks "India Social Media Survey 2009" Report Document that we revealed released on 28 March 2009. It summarizes the gap I see amongst the marketing/ communication fraternity in their understanding of the connected consumer and social media. The gap was obvious on many occasions at the India Social Media Summit 2009 indicating that we are all still just learning the rules of this new game.

Here is the piece:

The game has changed, and for a change, it's not the marketers who are in the driver's seat. The Consumer is...

Meet the 'new and improved' Consumer 2.0. She and her peers (they) are coming together on social networks, blogs, content communities and forming tribes, sharing opinion and voicing their concerns on a variety of social issue, customer service, brand experiences, politics - life.

When Mumbai is attacked, they don't just report live in a perpetual stream, they also take the government to task; when Ram Sene dictates that women belong within the four walls of their homes, smiling they send Pink Chaddis to Sene bosses; Not just are they creators and editors of news, they also take head-on battles with mainstream media from time-to-time.

Mainstream media itself is evolving, integrating social media, to stay relevant to the times. Not the types to be left behind, celebrities and politicians too have joined the social media space engaging stakeholders.

Social media has forever changed the dynamics of how the Internet is consumed - from predominantly being a work tool, to becoming a tool for personal expression & connections

Conversational marketing

Marketing and communication ought to change too, for, marketers now have the opportunity to narrowcast messages; to change the tone from greedy sales pitches, to personal conversations.

How are the marketer's responding? The focus is still on the tool...

Have you seen a child play with a toy? He fumbles with it, turns it around in his hands trying to figure out how the damn thing works; once figured, he plays with it for a bit, gets bored; a new toy appears on his limited horizon - his neighborhood friend - that's what he wants now.

Social media play for most marketers is no different: "Mummy, mummy mujhe bhee apna social network chahiye."

So you got yourself a fan page on Facebook? Also a video up on YouTube? Even an account on Twitter? Great! So?

Have you really thought through why you are doing, whatever you are doing? Are you listening to what the consumers are saying? Do you know where you really want to go?

The rules of the social media game are a little different, they are being written by the community and the game is evolving so rapidly that if you turn away, just for a minute, the scene has already changed.

Why are most marketers lagging behind?

1. Marketers are scared of the unknown and aren't prepared to jump in
2. Marketers have never spoken face-to-face- they get the agencies to front and want to continue doing so
3. Marketers are plain lazy
4. All of the above

Social media is like masturbation, you have to participate 'yourself' to get anywhere.

What is clear though...

1. Social networks are where media will be consumed, besides content being created
2. Brands will be discussed
3. People want to talk brands when they want to, not when we want them to
4. They are equally vocal about brands/ experiences they love/ hate
5. Social media influences purchase decisions
6. Negative comments allow for an educated purchase, besides helping marketers improve the product/ service
7. Social media can't wipe off inefficiencies, or poor quality

So what to expect?

1. Social media credibility is going up, as it attains critical mass and more & more thought leaders join in
2. Social media impact on marketing will only get stronger
3. Social media will seamlessly merge into mainstream media
4. Meaningful blogging, with thought leaders joining in
5. Micro-blogging
6. Breaking news moves away from television, to citizen journalists
7. Social networking will continues to surge
8. Anytime, any device consumption and creation of content
9. Social noise- with so many voices saying so many things- making it difficult & important to separate noise versus signals/ meaning/ insights

Savvy marketers are also evolving: going beyond mere buzz aspects of social media, to draw real time insights and feedback to improve product/ service; the focus is shifting to engagement; social media is becoming central to marketing.

All is well in my world.

The Survey we unveiled released yesterday at India Social Media Summit 09 brings out valuable insights and trends. Results and Analysis will help understand how our peers, from across India, view social media impact on marketing communication. This allows the industry to benefit from shared insights, and makes for educated decisions.

Sharing some of the charts with you here.

The full study is available for Rs.1500/- and is being sold by Exchange4Media team, who we partnered for the initiative. If you want a copy, write in at Survey (at) Blogworks (dot) in:

The Indian Social Media Scene is in a state of positive ferment. With 90 percent of the respondents believing that Social Media has impact on Brands, the study results are a clear indicator of the markets waking up to a new age consumer. And not just her, Brands and Corporates are now addressing, through Social Media, a whole array of stakeholders.

As these conversations diversify, Indian Marketers are beginning to feel the need to step into this new-media Jungle and get their boots dirty! 55 percent of respondents have seen brands getting influenced by Social Media, while 33 percent have seen impact on their own brands. There is a call to engage, influence and track - especially the more intense pockets of conversations.

While Brand awareness and positive buzz tops the chart of Social Media deliverables, a size-able majority of them also recognize Social Media's influence on purchase decisions. Select handfuls have well rounded campaigns paying rigorous attention to insights and engagement as well.

The engagement and measurement matrices are in place, as we'll note in the detailed
survey findings, albeit still at a developing stage. There still remains a gap to be bridged - to supplement the use of the tool with a deep know-how of the macro-environment and an adequate fore-sight of its impact.

81-85 percent of respondents believe that Indian marketer and corporates have just cursory or no understanding of Social Media, the need for education and learning continues to remain big. Agencies appear better off on Social Media understanding, with 47 percent respondents believing that agencies have only a cursory or no understanding of Social Media.

The motto of the times therefore, as can be culled from the survey findings, is an enhanced focus on strategic approaches to Social Media engagements, possibly even leading to bifurcation of the services into strategy-specialists and operations-agencies.

Do pick up a copy of the findings.

Do join us for the event on Friday, 27 March 2009.

Along with the unveiling of the study, we'll have presentations of case-studies and panel discussions through the day:

1. How can marketers use Social Media and achieve ROI?
2. Social Media: Is there a critical mass, or is it an elitist phenomenon?
3. Have media planners understood and invested enough in Social Media?

Some of the speakers include:

1. Shivanandan Pare of Big Adda
2. Hari Krishnan of MySpace
3. Faisal Farooqui of Mouthshut.com
4. Dina Mehta of MOSOCI
5. Sidhartha Rao from Webchutney
6. Parminder Singh of Google
7. and many more...

More details of the event are here.

Also, please register here to attend.

I am moderating the panel on how marketers can use Social Media and achieve ROI. If you have any suggestions or any questions you'd like asked, do leave a comment.

Keep writing.

Look forward to meeting you there - my colleagues Manpreet and Rajika are joining along.

Social media has unquestioned linkages with user generated content, customers speaking with each other & buzz; each of these form an important part of the campaign for any brand engaging in social media marketing.

Many of us, however, make the mistake of judging/ reviewing a brand programme merely on the 'visible' elements. Buzz is just one of the desired outcomes. Insights drawn from analysing consumer behaviour/ perception towards our brands/ competition on blogs, social networks could be another.

We often seem to miss out on a critical part of why brands adopted/ or needed to adopt social media. Remember, it was to create direct channels of communication with consumers/ prospects and other key stakeholders for feedback, redressal and insights.

As a programme moves into a sustained two-way relationship between the consumer and brand, towards identifying consumer evangelists and towards co-creation of products, a lot of conversations do move below the surface - emails, telecons and face-to-face. The world doesn't see them, doesn't mean they are not there.Instead, to me, they are signs of a matured programme.

An association has been established; new conversations will continue to get seeded, but many have now reached a new depth.

Your thoughts?

An enhanced interest in social media amongst marketers, organizations, media has meant... the frequency at which mainstream PR agencies etc. are approaching us for alliances & tie-ups is on an overdrive; Digital Ad Agencies too are coming up with respective social media offerings; enthusiastic entrepreneurs are diving in to capitalize on the opportunity - even techies are turning marketing & communication experts and ditto for the reverse - setting up Social Media Agencies. Gaurav had created a list sometime ago.

Every once-in-a-while I get a call from a friend, peer mentioning a new player's entry. There is no cause for concern - the game has merely begun, there is an opportunity for many players to exist and even collaborate. Look at the number of advertising agencies, public relations advisories, even management firms, research companies etc. - each category has many dozen participants, each of who has work and many have achieved significant scale. India has also emerged as a hub for 'creative outsourcing' work.

Clearly:

1. Different kind of client needs would be met by different kinds of agencies - tactical versus strategic; rigorous versus surface and so on.
2. Different levels of specialization would be needed by different clients - expect vertical focus to emerge; emerge specializations like research to come to the fore, distinct from say a blogger engagement specialist.
3. Social Media Outsourcing to India, which has existed quietly for the last couple of years is likely to gain volume

More players is merely an indicator that the opportunity is maturing, but the game's just begun.

In my India Social Media Trends 2009 series, here's the # 4 thought, in no order of priority.

Even as corporate blogging remains amongst the most hyped up phrases, it's really blogs & social media adoption for marketing, from simple (and yet most powerful) listening to pro-active engagement that's catching on. This year...

Expect Social Media adoption by marketers to go mainstream; focus on RoI.

I had recently written this post sharing why I thought social media is going to be a large beneficiary of an enhanced focus on online media, in wake of the economic slowdown and a clear influence on purchase decisions.

On the other hand, I expect adoption of corporate blogging to remain slow.

What could the organizations/ marketers be doing? Let me cheat a little and paste questions we recently asked marketers in the recently concluded "India Social Media Survey, Brands and Corporates" Edition 1

Question: If you are presently engaged in any social media activity on behalf of your brand/ organisation, please specify (you can select as many)

1. We have a company blog (include internal blog too).
2. Our website has interactive web 2.0 functionality allowing interactions through comments; syndication through email/ RSS ; podcasts; voting tools etc.
3. We track what stakeholders are saying about our brand/ organization on blogs & consumer rating/comment sites.
4. We regularly engage in blogger outreach progamme.
5. We comment on blogs & social networking sites whenever our brand/ organization is mentioned.
6. We upload photos & vides on sites like Flickr, YouTube.
7. We have presence on social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, Big Adda etc. in form of communities/ applications.
8. We have a branded community of our own.
9. We participate actively on micro-blogging platforms – example Twitter.com
10. We use mobile marketing programmes to reach customers
11. We invite consumer participation in product creation through online research and ground engagement
12.Others, please specify

One of the key concerns surrounding social media adoption/ evaluation has been RoI. With a sharp focus on value, thanks to the slowdown, combined with better tools 1, 2, 3 to track/ measure, the focus this year is also going to be on measurement/ trying to evolve an acceptable matrix.

In the same survey, we asked:

What in your opinion would be top matrix to evaluate success of a social media programme? Choose up to 3 that you think are most important for you.

a. Registrations on website/ communities
b. Number of touch points with the consumer
c. Volume of user generated content
d. Increased number of participants
e. Increased stakeholder participation
f. Mention of brand/ organization in stakeholder conversations
g. Share of voice brand/ organization enjoys in comparison to chosen competition
h. Focus that the brand enjoys in social media conversations
i. Positive tone of comments, feedback, links, reviews, forwards etc.
j. Connections & conversations established with stakeholders
k. Impact in mainstream media
l. Impact on brand awareness
m. Impact on trust & transparency ratings
n. Impact on sales
o. Impact on product & service creation/ after sales service
p. Support during crisis/ adversity
q. Other – please specify

I will keep you updated about what the preferred parameters for marketers are, once the survey results are out.

In my India Social Media Trends 2009 series, here's the # 3 thought, in no order of priority.

Blogs become second skin, for mainstream media.

But first, let's just take a look back to understand the context:

Newsy blogs consisting individuals, or small teams, with no or little editorial hierarchies and baggage; equipped by sites hosted on friendly content management systems that allowed publishing on the go; a will to work long hours, even without monetary considerations; willingness to link freely (many times also adopting to brazen plagiarism from mainstream media) meant that blogs could come-up with/ aggregate meaningful content, very fast.
Given that they were hosted on Web 2.0 platforms, conversations through comments were already built-in, traction and loyalty grew.

On the other hand, some journalist pioneers were beginning to use blogs to connect with stakeholders - validate facts, seed stories, research ideas, publish stories that didn't meet editorial mandates of respective publications and more...readers were able to relate better with faces that interacted with them rather than faceless bylines.

Some bloggers developed strong communities of their own and were approached/ approached mainstream media to publish columns etc.

It was just a matter of time before the media-houses adopted blogs themselves. What was a random case, or two, until even a year seems to be gathering momentum.

Sample these:

1. IBNLive
2. Livemint
3. HindustanTimes
4. Cosmopolitan

This year...

1. Expect most mainstream media to start blogs bringing director's cut of news, building conversations.
2. Expect many of them to create touch points at places other than their own domain names (many, like LiveMint and DNA are already on Twitter
3. Expect more-and-more journalists to start blogging.

How long, before blogs start to deliver more eye-balls (and conversations) than the formal news items?

UPDATE 05 February 2009: A couple of weeks ago, Vir Sanghi, arguably the most powerful editor-journalist-columnist in India and certainly amongst the best read writers, launched VirSanghvi.com. I was thrilled to see it, not only because I love to read Vir's food writings, but also because this is what I have been saying is clearly the sign of things to come.

In my India Social Media Trends 2009 series, here's the # 2 thought, in no order of priority.

I have written about this a couple of times earlier this year - here & here - and expect this to be among the most dangerous phenomenon emerging from the social media revolution.

Brand Stalker Cometh, this year.

There are hackers & then there are 'crackers'. What makes you believe that all impact - positive or adverse - like Mortin -McNeil Consumer Healthcare - so 'painfully' realized recently with outburst by 'mommies' & 'mommy blogger' against their We Feel Your Pain campaign - see case-study here on Diva Marketing Blog - will have bonafide consumer origins like the Mortin (& so many others) example?

What if the motives of the perpetrators are malafide? What if the charges are not true? What if the victim organization has actually made a mistake and finds itself a soft-target against a seemingly above board/ hidden enemy? There could be many scenarios.

The Brand Stalker phenomenon makes guerrilla marketing seem tame. This could be just be an individual (a powerful voice), a group of individuals, it could well be an organization - and like I have said before I don't mean just the mafia - using blogs, social media tools to launch a covert or direct attack against a brand/ organization/ company with malicious intent...garnering support on the way, sometimes even from innocent participants misled - for the moment and joining the herd, realizing the impact only later. Action may last just a few hours of attack to a long drawn slow build up...

The consequences could be loss of reputation/ business, fall in stock prices (a simple motive) and more.

This year I came across three instances that had the making of this scenario. Strangely there has been a sharp rise in number of people landing on my blog, after a Google search on this keyword.

I repeat my questions from earlier...what do marketers think? What is the legal stand? What strategies would a brand need deploy to tackle something like this?

And a thought that makes me shudder: You first need to be a techie to become a 'cracker'. What are the prerequisites for a Brand Stalker...

I have, for over a week now, been trying to complete my India Social Media Trends 2009 piece and not having succeeded in doing so, decided to write them one by one, rather than all at one go. They are NOT in specific order or priority based on impact so request that you read them so. Here's the first one that I got prompted to write after reading this piece Difficult Days: low ad revenue, pagination by Ashish Bagga, CEO, Living Media India Ltd, in LiveMint's 2009 Trend Predictions series.

Bloggers make money via mainstream media and micro-publishing.

Making money in print media is tricky business even in normal times. Advertising & Circulation contribute 65:35 average revenue respectively as cover prices are subsidized significantly in most cases. Advertising revenues have to keep pace with circulation growth, as you are losing money for each extra copy that you sell. A slowdown in advertising could make dynamics change quickly. The Mint article talks about the following as an outcome of this:

1. Higher cover price, leading to lower circulation.
2. Lower pagination - expect ad driven supplements to come less frequently; city supplements may get thinner; even regular pages may reduce.

The piece also predicts:

1. Rightsizing of human resource will be another key trend. Both the number of employees as well as the cost of employment will be under review.

Effort would be to cut salaries and infrastructure cost. In this scenario, I would expect:

1. More dependence on content generated by wire agencies.


2. For some bloggers, this may clearly mean that over are the days of "loser generated content" - as my dear friend Narayan Madhavan of Hindustan Times refers to blogger/ user generated content, as s/he has hitherto not been paid; has mostly felt grateful to mainstream media if it has chosen to feature her content; in many cases the content has been plagiarized anyway - often, not just without permission, but also without due credit.

   In comes, paid - syndicated content, enhanced recognition & visibility for the blog writer/s. Experiments in this direction (the reasons may be different) have already begun with Kamla Bhatt's excellent tie-up with LiveMint and ContentSutra drawing content from VCCircle.

   Expect more and more content from blogs to be sought by mainstream media as, even after payments to blog writers/ blogs the costs will typically be much cheaper than staffers. I have always said about blog credibility : credibility has nothing to do with the tool, but with the name behind the words/ voice. This one is a win-win for both parties involved and a trend likely to go North in 2009.

I am finding myself drawn to a lot of young professionals who write blogs, or are active on Twitter, for our next round of hiring at Blogworks. Much more than even LinkedIn, which I find too static, and definitely more than college recruitment proposals that we get from time-to-time.

In the initial stages of hiring, it was critical for us that we get experienced professionals from a background in public relations, marketing, research, journalism as they brought along certain rigour & it was ok for them to pick up social media tools & impact once as they joined Blogworks. I wasn't too comfortable picking up team members who may have been bloggers, but weren't really from a background in communication/ marketing.

Things have changed, a lot of communication students are now studying/ researching social media impact at university level; they are writing blogs that give a glimpse into their learning; Twitter is their playground and their interactions their allow a nice window into their personality. It's easy to find a culture match when you have interacted with a prospect one-on-one through these online engagements.

Their learning curve is anyway sharper than an average pass out who may, or may not, warm up to social media. Same when one is looking for experienced mid-level team.

The only category where I haven't been able to identify talent (Bar one person, not available for hiring) is at a senior, strategic level - someone with a proven body of work and understanding of social media at a strategic level in marketing & business. It will happen.

Also, a few months ago, we conducted this qualitative study attempting to capture an overview of the blogs & social media environment in India. The insights were invaluable and we knew then it was time to do a deep dive and a conduct a larger survey amongst marketers & corporates.

So, here we are, along with Exchange4Media Group hoping to put together an insightful study based on 'real inputs' shared by you & your peers and not speculative theories. This will allow the industry to benefit from shared insights & make for educated decisions.

We need your participation:

1. You can take the survey here- open until 24 December 2008 but don't wait until the last day.

All valid participants get a FREE copy of Summary & Key Points from the “Overview of Blog & Social Media Environment in India”, a report prepared by Blogworks – this will be emailed to you. For it to be a valid entry, you must answer all questions.

Once you have completed your entry, do share your feedback on the questionnaire by writing to survey@blogworks.in.There would be mistakes to learn from & things to do better the next time -we'd appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

Media Partners for the initiative: Impact, Pitch and Exchange4Media.com

Professional blogging and/ or how to make money through blogs are questions that I am asked often. However, most people tend to simply associate making money via blogs to advertising. From where I look at it though, significant or even reasonable amounts of money from writing a blog are for a privileged few who dedicate a considerable amount of time & energy to writing their blogs and cover strong niche/s.

Not all bloggers (or those who write blogs along) are equal...but money can come in many different ways. Also let's not forget that for 'many' earning money may just be a byproduct, or not even a consideration - showcasing thought leadership, seeding & engaging a community, or plain expression might be the simple motives.

Here are a few that come to mind:

1. Advertising - like I said earlier, this is for a privileged few who have the numbers & the authority to get ad revenues. Though in some categories numbers don't really play a role - example: a top scientist blogging to reach only a select peer group - different matter altogether that s/he may not take ads but a top scientific research company may want to post a job hoping to reach this blog's elite readership.

   The hugely popular Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal, professional blogger, a term that, to me signifies someone for whom writing the blog is his/ her primary career engagement. DI is a good example of a blog making good money through advertising, amongst others - writing assignments, content syndication, speaking assignments, workshops, insights & focus groups etc.

2. Consulting - For people like Dina Mehta, Gautam Ghosh, me and others who either have consulting practices or do freelance consultancy and also write blogs for knowledge sharing and as a showcase for thought leadership, the blog becomes the primary outreach tool and consulting assignments and workshops would often happen because a prospect read the blog, liked what s/he read, and the writer/ team got a project.
3. Research & Insights - Increasingly writers who are able to showcase authority and thought leadership in their domain are being sought out by organizations and companies for research and insights. I have been a part of a few such projects and while money is a small part of why one may do it - learnings drawn from views of other participants being the key reason for many - instances like this are clearly on the rise. The Insight Community is an example of site that facilitates such research.
4. Media Contributions - Many blog writers are now being sought by mainstream media as columnists or being invited to contribute regularly. Amit Varma, is a prominent example amongst others; Meenakshi, of The Compulsive Confessor has published her first book.
5. Micro Publishing - A little different from being a professional blogger, micro-publishing entrepreneurs like Medianama, VC Circle, WAT Blog are seeding publishing empires - maybe small now but will hopefully be big someday - with multiple revenue streams - advertising, commissioned research, events and more.

Just some ways to make money via a blog. Which others come to your mind? Don't tell me about 'Pay Per Post' - that's not a way that I endorse :)

Keep writing.

My piece of 31 December 2007 in Mint talked about Internet Trends in 2008.

Here is it again.

Which ones did I get right? Which ones did I miss?

Do share your experiences please.

I am now trying to pen my thoughts on what to expect in 2009.

Keep writing.

We plan to keep doing more such activities on India Writing which is a global forum which aims to bring together Indian writers, across geographies, genres and forms. India Writing supports web users who share a passion for creative writing and who want to use LiveJournal to widen their audience and raise their profile.

LiveJournal also unveiled brand new India communities on cinema and sport respectively - do check them out:

1. India Movies – which aims to bring leading voices from the movie Industry, critics and fans together on one common forum. The community is moderated by Deepa Gahlot, national award winning film critic from Mumbai.
and;
2. India Sport – a vibrant community which will share Indian sport in all its dimensions, with G Rajaraman, one of the most credible sport editors in the country.

Also check out India Travels community which we launched sometime ago in partnership with Kunzum. This community is aimed at those who live in India who want to write about the great places they have visited and those outside who want to find out about hidden treasures.

More India specific action coming up on LiveJournal - watch this space :)

Over the last couple of weeks I have been speaking with a lot of people, regarding the slow-down in the economy, to get a sense of impact on their respective businesses - some are already hit, others are worried about orders/ contracts not being renewed; everyone is bracing themselves for times ahead and planning action; view regarding how long the slowdown will last vary - from 6 months to 18 months or longer.

Salary cuts are being discussed/ implemented (I think, as a necessary first step, a temporary salary cut is an eminently better way of managing the situation than firing staff).

Newspaper reports suggest marketing & advertising budgets are being scaled down.

According to a recent poll by marketing consultancy firm R3 of at least 50 marketers who manage around 100 of Asia’s top 500 brands, three out of every four Indian companies will spend on marketing in 2008-09 as much as or lower than what they did in 2007-08. And a study released recently by media specialist Zenith Optimedia said growth in advertising budgets in India in 2008 would be 4.5% (over the previous year) compared with a 24.5% growth in 2007 over 2006.

>>>

"The events since the credit crunch have hit marketers hard,” said Greg Paull, co-founder, R3. Paull predicts there will be significant reductions in marketing budgets in the coming year, even in growing markets such as China and India.

>>>

He added that at least 40% of Indian marketers said they were going to spend more than originally planned on digital media, direct media and promotions.

Why am I not surprised by the last comment? And, I believe that social media is going to be a large beneficiary of this increased spend.

Last two years have showed that categories, organizations where availability of budgets was an issue, adoption of social media has been faster. Similarly smaller/ mid-sized brands/ organizations have adopted social media faster vis-à-vis large brands/ organizations - they had more time than money and were hungrier.

Now however, many more marketers who had it easy until now, given the boom of last few years, are forced to look at new ways to reach the customer - keep existing ones, tempt new prospects to buy - this in times of salary cuts/ job loss - and do this with same/ reduced budgets.

Add to this Internet's strategic importance and increasing impact of social media on purchase decisions, are you surprised that blogs & social media spell the new wave?

I expect more marketers to:

1. Listen to what customers are saying.
2. Engage with existing customers to build and enhance relationships.
3. Leverage social media to build communities to narrow cast, rather than use expensive broadcast tools.

I expect more organizations to:

1. Engage with stakeholders - internal/ external - to win trust, retain knowledge (crucial if you are gonna ask some people to leave), motivate, bring policy change?

And all the other things we know blogs & social media can deliver.

Adoptions now will, of course, continue to deliver value even as good times roll in... again.

Slowdowns like this are good drivers for innovation, as I witnessed at a workshop recently, but let's keep that for the second piece of the series.

While many would say it's early days for blogging in India, unlike the US or many other countries, blogging as a diary never really became mainstream in India despite the huge hype surrounding blogs, and now it never might. Read on...

Many started blogs but weren’t motivated enough to continue:

1. For want of content.


2. For want of readers.


3. For want of time.


4. For want of commitment.

Then Orkut happened and it changed the internet usage patterns dramatically. Facebook changed that further by bringing hitherto untouched segments of the population on board. Facebook virtually takes away the need for blogs as a diary concept as all that a diary blog can do, Facebook does better as you don’t even need to go looking for readers or inform anyone that you wrote – Facebook does that automatically

Enter Blogging 2.0- Meaningful, purposeful blogging. Some of the things happening, likely to happen:

1. Breaking news.


2. Cause and activist blogs.


3. Event blogs.


4. Celebrity blogs.


5. Consumer blogs.


6. Corporate blogs.


7. Blogs and social media for marketing as search and social media start to impact purchase.


8. Micro publishing – blogs that hit it big time.


9. Bloggers go mainstream – merge into mainstream publications by sharing feeds or writing for them.


10. Media goes the blog route – behind the scene news, research, live stories, breaking news, conversations.


11. Experts go online.


12. New experts emerge, thanks to enabling impact.


13. Online to print; print to online.


14. Communities.


15. Micro blogging – blogging on the go.


16. Any time, any device.


17. Local is new global – language and location.


18. Politics 2.0.


19. Niche social networks.

Combined with the connectivity and viral nature of social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms and feeds, impact is likely to be significant.

However, the one thing that bothers me most is that the hyper-connected are also hyper-vocal:

1. Social Noise - once upon a time people were scared to speak, now it would seem they are scared if they don't. Worries about dropping off the radar become reasons for meaningless chatter - not realizing the diluting impact this meaningless chatter can have on our 'thought-leader' ambitions.

What are the trends you note? Keep writing.

Many prospects, and clients, we interact with, talk about starting their blog on a free blog site, such as Blogger.com etc.

That's a bad-bad way to start your blog/ social media journey, we tell them. Show the tool the reverence it deserves - don't treat it casually - we tell them. All blogs are not equal, we tell them - what works for a casual, individual blogger, doesn't work for an organization/ brand.

If you still do go ahead with a free blog and then fail to get results you were seeking, don't blame the tool, blame yourself, we tell them.

So, why do we need to move these conversations to our domain? Here are just a few reasons:

1. Our domain is OUR home, it gives us the control on what we want to do; on customization of features, look-feel; on branding.
2. We get access to powerful analytics that tell us much about:
   - Where are users coming from.
   - What is bringing them there.
   - What are they doing on the site.
   - Where are the gaps that need to be bridged.
   - Much, much more.
3. We own the content on the site, no fear of - being deleted, of the site going down because of a ban, of rules changing mid-way.
4. A single place for stakeholders to engage with us, share feedback, find answers –ensures continuity. Though, if we are a brand, then we'd be creating a dozen other touch points too and yet it helps to have one place that's our own and aggregates/ links everything.
5. Since people get an opportunity to reach the brand directly, they can transparently share any grouse/ feedback with the team – chances are that they won’t vent any negative feelings on consumer feedback sites instead – showcases transparency, consumer orientation, saves time and effort sorting issues on third party platforms.
6. MOST IMPORTANTLY – as the Internet gains strategic significance and search becomes the new clipping, and with increasing impact of social media on purchase decisions, it is imperative that we participate in these conversations and build communities.



7. Blogs (loosely used for sake of convenience, but will include tools like wikis, forums, etc. based on need) are the best search engine optimization tool - as most recent, most relevant content gets picked by search engines first.

Don't be hasty in starting a blog, think through the process as I don't tire explaining.

I haven't written much about social media in the last month, or so, and have chosen instead to silently observe macro trends that interest me. Trends that transcend "Tool of the Day" obsessions with Twitter , Friendfeed or whatever else...

Toby and I were speaking day-before and here are my continuing & current obsessions:

1. Impact of social media and blogs on purchase decisions- That there is impact, I don't have any doubt about now. What's been your experience - which categories are you seeing most impacted/ influenced?

   In fact, Hasan, from IIM - Indore, who has been in touch for the last few months and whom I have tried to help structure a study around the subject, should nearly be done with his fairly comprehensive study and am looking forward to read the findings. Based on his comfort, I will try and share some with our readers.

2. Crisis will Hit - Where blogs allowed people to express themselves with ease; social networking sites are allowing them to express themselves, and also collect as groups; viraling the message has never been easier. Many corporations/ brands are finding themselves hit by crisis, sometimes purely possible because of social media environment, many others are finding the message travel much - much faster and further.

   Last month, I was approached by an executive from a PR agency representing one of the largest Indian corporations. The group had been hit by outreach initiated by an environmental group - the impact was compounded by social networking sites and blogs. The Agency/ Corporation were thinking tactically about how to stop the spread. My point was you need to strategically agree on your commitment to environment and then take tactical initiatives to showcase your work, rather than do a 'spoof on a spoof' as was being suggested (yes, I was amused).

   This demanded a long-term approach - the Agency wasn't sure if they were ready for it and nothing happened thereafter. However, more and more corporations will initiate their social media programmes after being hit by/ or in anticipation of a crisis.

3. Brand Stalker cometh - I have spoken about it earlier. Essentially it's about support being garnered by a blog/ community, led by a person/group, to launch an attack on the brand with 'malicious intent'. The only addition to this theory at the moment is that the stalker may not just be an individual, but can also be an organization - and no, I don't mean just the mafia . Remember, power corrupts!! :)
4. Conversational Marketing & Communication is not about online (just) - "... the point is that online enables conversational marketing like nothing else, thanks to its interactive nature, speed, reach but Conversational Marketing is about real people and two-way interactions first. What we do with them is up to us. That it only starts online and the relationship extends offline is clear - doesn't it work exactly that way for us too, with a community building around our blogs, soon enough we are meeting over coffee, at events and before we know...there's relationship and trust." Read the story here.

Any current obsessions of yours? Not the tools, the trends.

Keep writing.

Blogworks - Blog the Talk discussion series was conceived to feature the best of learning from the ‘live web’ through panel discussions, talks and one-on-ones – mostly conducted online.

Blog the Talk series is presented by Ideafarms, an IT smart-sourcing company, providing enhanced business value to its globalised clients, through disrupting thinking and innovation.

Growing ambitions of enabled writers who have emerged with the advent of blogs; prolification of digital printing technology; adoption of digital reading; a plethora of tools to disseminate, market and promote content online, among other things, have all led to the emerging phenomenon of 'self publishing'.

Having tasted popularity with their blogs, but not necessarily succeeded in monetizing their blog journals, or to seek even greater authority and stature as thought leaders, many are taking the natural next step by publishing a book.

However, most of the traditional publishing industry, particularly in the India context, continues to operate exactly like it has for years - submit a manuscript; they seek 6 months to revert - rightly so, given that they receive hundreds of unsought manuscripts and quality control is highest priority. However, there is no guarantee that your manuscript will even reach the right hands and be evaluated for its worth. Although some publishing houses have started to look at blogs for content/ writers, but publishing contracts have, so far, been awarded for 'popular' content.

Simply put, writing contracts are not easy to come by. What does an eager author do? Enabled Publishing, as I like to call it is the route that many are choosing.

Read this interesting piece published in Mint recently - large, new players are stepping in too.

Joining me today to discuss the phenomenon is my friend Ajay Jain.

Recently he chose to go with enabled publishing, to publish his first book: Let's Connect - using LinkedIn to get ahead at work.

I wanted to benefit from the learnings and asked him...

All thoughts expressed by participants are personal opinion of respective speakers and do not represent the views of Blogworks or any other company/ organization.

Rajesh:Ajay, congratulations! Tell us about the book.

Ajay:In the world of social media, LinkedIn has emerged as the hottest professional networking site in the world leaving all competition far behind. And India is their third biggest market after the US and the UK.

It is not a user’s guide; it talks of the bigger picture. So don’t expect screen shots, or tutorials on how to use the site. But it does cover the usability factor to the extent you generally know how the site works.

The following extract from the back cover of the book may be a useful read here:

LinkedIn has made the world of business a much smaller place. The contacts you seek are no longer separated from you by six degrees; the number is down to one, two or three in most cases if you are on LinkedIn, by far the most successful and vibrant of all professional networking sites.

And it has leveled the playing field in ways one could not have imagined. The community of LinkedIn users can now be used by anyone for accessing faraway markets, landing dream jobs, raising capital, attracting the best of talent, building corporate brands and more. What you can achieve is limited only by your imagination and effort. The ingredients are all there to whip up something profitable for yourself.

And it is not rocket science.

This book is full of ideas, real cases and suggestions on how to get LinkedIn to work for you. Because, as you will see, LinkedIn works for you even as you sleep.

Rajesh:Do share, why did you think about publishing the book yourself? Why not go with a mainstream publishing house? You have the necessary credentials, you write well – you would have found someone to publish the book for you.

Ajay:I figured this is not a book that can be sold through conventional means; key to its success would be a direct and social media marketing strategy. And there is probably no publisher in the world who would make such an effort; I know of publishers who have come out with books of a similar genre in the US but have asked the authors themselves how they planned to promote the book. In other words, the author has to be the CMO of such a book too.

It would have been fine to let someone publish the book, and I promote it. But the dampener would have been the commercial side of it. Publishers typically pay an author 10% of royalty, and that too after a lag running into many months. Neither the quantum nor the cash flow would have been enough to sustain any marketing campaign by me as the author. I thus decided to self publish it, keep a higher margin for myself and invest that money into marketing. I have already recovered the investment in the first print run by selling only 40 percent of my stock. This would not have been possible with a publisher where I spend on promotions and he keeps the cream of the profits.

Rajesh:So what were the various options you considered for publishing/ printing the book?

Ajay:I did consider print on demand offered by companies like Lulu. But this was an expensive option and would have turned away buyers. Yes, there is no initial investment here but the consumer is more concerned with the end price. Publish on demand works best for niche titles and coffee table books which have a relatively lower offtake. I decided to settle for self publishing by seeking out designers, editors and printers myself (I have considerable experience in such production) and made a go of it. I had to apply for an ISBN number which I managed; you cannot sell any book through trade channels without this.

Rajesh:So finally what happened?

Ajay:The book is out, in select stores but more importantly being offered directly on my blog www.techgazing.com/linkedin (where you can read sample chapters and get reviews, access the media kit and get ordering info) and Amazon. I have come out with an e-book version of the same, and have sold a substantial number of these too.

Rajesh:What were your key learning from the exercise?

Ajay:Lots. And some are still learning-in-progress. Here go some:

1. Setting up a distribution network through brick and mortar stores is a big challenge. I have still to overcome it.
2. A need to ensure the printer is an expert at cutting and binding books as it is a finer process than for a magazine or a newspaper.
3. Setting up online stores on Amazon.
4. Getting ISBN numbers and printing barcodes.
5. The economics of the game: Up to 55 percent of your cover price goes to the distributors + the cost of sending books to their warehouses. You can imagine how much money one is left with after sending books to the US to Amazon: they keep 55 percent + you ship to them at your cost. Add to this the cost of editing, design, printing, promotions etc and you realize why books are profitable only when they have sold a certain minimum number.

As keen participants and stakeholders in the blog and social media scene, we are of course interested in knowing more about usage patters and impact, particularly in the India context as there is severe dearth of credible data/ trends.

The survey, perhaps the first of its kind in India, is "...trying to find out people's understanding, attitudes, and usage with regard to current Social Media in India and their thoughts about the future." I am told that this survey has been initiated by Empower itself and is not for commercial use by a client of theirs.

You can take the survey here or by clicking the image above. (UPDATE: April 22, 2208) The link has been removed based upon a request by Team Empower. Read below.

I was, however, a bit disappointed after taking the survey. It seems to me that the team that prepared the survey, did not, in all likelihood, seek help from a social media professional in giving sharper focus to the need itself and therefore the questions asked. Same effort could have yielded much greater value. I guess it's a start in a subject where all of us are learning.

Do participate.

(UPDATE: April 22, 2208) I received an email this morning from Team Empower this morning, asking me to remove the survey from the site as the felt that
"as your comments might influence the respondent's views and bias the research which is against the ethics of Primary Research."

Hmmm, I said "I understand your concerns. However, when you do outreach with blogs, you have to be prepared to let the author speak their mind as their own credibility is at stake.

Removing a blog post is considered against blog and social media ethics -once a post goes up, it is not removed. Even corrections are done after striking off the mistake and correcting the previous text that can still be seen. You are allowed to comment on the post and I promise to publish it. If at all I do agree, I will agree to remove the link to the survey. Removing the post is out of the question, but WILL BE required to quote that you have requested me to remove the link - you can decide and let me know if you would prefer that I do so."

"What we meant was we wanted you to remove the link, so please remove the survey link." was the reply.

I have told them that I would be capturing the learnings of this episode in a separate post and they were fine with that. This is indeed an interesting chapter in my social media journey where traditional research companies are using social media tools to conduct a studies on blogs & social media usage and impact but aren't really comfortable with social media logic of opinion & feedback from the very channels they are using.

Another research executive from a significant research company called me this morning for another web 2.0 survey and the questions were vague, at best. I have asked them to email me the questionnaire, which they have. Expect a post capturing my thoughts.

Cheers.

Instead of getting better, sometimes, things take the turn for worse. Here's a pitch note that I received from one of the leading public relations agency. I have changed the names:

UPDATE: Deleting the letter. Not comfortable doing this, as it's not my style to embarrass anyone like this.

My friend Kamla Bhatt, who hosts the very popular Kamla Bhatt Show, and is a researcher and technology trend watcher by profession, says "A different blogosphe in India" in Financial Express of today. The piece also quotes me a few places..

Even as world-wide, over 10% of Forture 500 companies are now blogging, Corporate Blogging is yet to take off in a big way in India.

Now cut to India and you get a diametrically opposite view of corporate blogging. Indian Companies have barely scratched the surface and discovered the value created through corporate blogs. “It is early days yet and the large corporates are yet to adopt them in a big way, but it has been adopted by entrepreneurs on the other hand,” says Lalwani. And he might have a point there. Lalwani’s observation is echoed by Kiruba Shankar, who helps clients with their blogging needs. Shankar says, “Corporate blogging is still in its infancy in India. Whenever I speak with heads of corporations, they say that blogging is important but very few actually turn those words to action.”

She concludes with a very pertinent question:

Could it be that the profile and demographics of the Indian workplace requires a different approach? Consider this: about 500 million people in India are under the age of 25. What are the tools and what is the medium that appeals to them? Could social media tools like Orkut, Facebook, MySpace be the alternatives for Indian Companies?

Totally, there are no one stroke answers for corporates/ brands - each category and then within that each brand has different needs and demands unique solutions.

Read the story here.

Our introduction said:

1. Blogworks™ is a specialist communication offering, delivering strategic solutions and know-how to brands & corporates for using ‘conversational communication and marketing' effectively.

It continues to read exactly the same today, but something has changed - our promise statement or what many would call the 'tagline'.

It used to read: Know-how for brands & corporates. Until yesterday.

The need, thus far, was to educate our market - brands and corporates - on relevance and impact of the new environment.

We got the word out... by conducting workshops, speaking on panels and at seminars, writing extensively on this blog and through mainstream media to reach the audience that we could not have reached here. There were a few others in the community doing the same. This part will continue.

However, the good thing is: the needle has moved some as marketers and corporates begin to understand impact. Some have taken first steps and are benefiting from insights and engagement that social media brings. They are doing so either by quietly listening to ongoing conversations on blogs, forums, social networks OR, some are now directly engaging through blogs, blogger engagement programmes, communities, applications, widgets and more...

A lot of it is still tactical. Nothing wrong with that either...

On the other hand, the new opportunity also means that more communication firms are jumping into fray. Many existing ones have introduced/are planning to introduce their social media offerings.

Do/ will all of them offer the same services? Bring the same value? Obviously the answer is NO.

The time has come to position our respective differentiated offerings uniquely, to stand apart.

Where do we fit into this at Blogworks™? We are clearly about "Strategic Social Media Solutions".

1. Strategic: We clearly differentiated ourselves, from the beginning, by delivering strategy to clients based on their business need, in alignment with company and marketing objectives and by integrating social media and conversational marketing into the big picture.
2. Social Media: Not limited to blogs, today's dynamic internet and social media scene is bringing new tools & concepts each day - social networks, applications, widgets and more. We are focussed on leveraging those that have impact for our client's respective need (or can reach a point of impact). Familiar with the concept of Category A, B, C in terms of mainstream media to determine impact and relevance for 'your business' ? Not everything is relevant for everyone or has the same impact. Which one will you choose?
3. Solutions: We are your one team interface to handle all conversational communication and marketing needs.

   - Blog & Social Media Strategy

   - Design & Development - blogs, wikis, forums, social networks, applications, widgets;

   - Content: Content development, ongoing moderation

   - Outreach and Engagement - communities, insights programmes with bloggers

   - Blog & social media tracking and analysis.

   We have, over the last few years - it's been 3 years+ since I first started to speak with clients about blogs - developed strong and trusted relationships with our partners in technology, design, research and insights from peers in other evolved markets.

Any low-entry barrier business throws the challenge of commoditization of and the way to stay differentiated is by staying true to your purpose.

Ours is about enabling transparent and ethical conversations between our clients and their stakeholders.

Cheers.

UPDATE, 1 April, 2008: I was talking to someone about this and explained that ideally our promise statement should talk about 'conversational communication & marketing' because that's what we really do, except it might be a little ahead of its time, in the India context, to use it right now (too many explaining will be needed). Therefore, will the line likely change again? I don't have a moment's doubt to answer that - YES, it would , very soon I hope.

Rajesh Lalwani : Any current favorites of yours - technology products; companies; ideas.

Guy Kawasaki: I love "credit card" startups. That is, companies you can start with $25,000 or less. Truemors was my experiment in this. This is the Ycombinator theory, and I like it..

This was Guy Kawasaki on Blog the Talk in July 2007.

Truemors had started with a lukewarm response and since then Guy has tirelessly worked on getting that site to take off. Now, Guy and the 1 guy + 1 gal team behind Tremors are back...with All Top.

Insight that lead them to launch it?

"Aggregate and display a bunch of sites for people, and they will come."

So what does All Top do? Simply put, it's a dashboard view of top news websites and blogs on a variety of subjects/ topics:

1. Work: Career, social media, venture capital...
2. People: Celebs, Egos ;), Twitterati...
3. News...
4. Geekery...
And so on and will keep evolving...

I have seen that aggregation models work. For example, while the approaches are different, our very own Desi Pundit does something similar...be the start point of the journey and not the destination itself. It works...and for that reason I think of Desi Pundit as our most valuable blog.

Will All Top succeed? The response has been varied with many top blogs thrashing it and some praising it (it's increasingly becoming impossible to segregate the genuine from the motivated) but then like Robert Scoble famously said (somethings on these lines): There is nothing called bad publicity on the net. What's the worst thing that can happen to you? Silence.

In fact, he had said this commenting upon the 'silent' response to Truemors. Now, that can't be said about All Top, and that's a good thing.

Best wishes Guy, Will and Kathryn. More about All Top here.

Cheers

It has been among an intense week at work and also of insights.

1. Conversational Marketing is NOT about online, it is about Conversations.

   
   One of the brand managers from a client we really enjoy working with, called yesterday to share a road-show proposal from a community that we have been interacting with online for some time now. We brainstormed for a bit and an exciting idea emerged, which we agreed to pursue. It wasn’t the first such proposal that we have received.

   In just a few months of our interaction, we have seen participation from and buzz within the community that we reached out to through our web initiatives – groups, a surprise marketing idea and pro-active engagement on a feedback and insights programme. We didn’t really interfere in the natural flow of conversations, just kept the direction and flow going through minimal interventions from our side.

   Still early days but the results have clearly been encouraging - conversations, feedback (good and not so good) has allowed the research and development team to get real inputs from customers based on first-hand usage, in real life situations. Customers, used to not being able to reach most marketers, even with complaints, are finding it a change that brands are now pro-actively seeking feedback and engaging one-on-one. That there is, in fact, a real person and not just a ‘Feedback Cell’, who is directly in touch.

   We are now planning the natural next step and hoping to seed a ‘co-create’ programme. The number of people we have been able to connect with is still quite small and it will take effort, and time, to reach a sample size large enough to take diverse demands into account but it’s clearly the way to go. We are also ucky that the brand already enjoys fantastic goodwill with the customer, making the task much simpler.

   However, the point is that online enables conversational marketing like nothing else, thanks to its interactive nature, speed, reach but Conversational Marketing is about real people and two-way interactions first. What we do with them is up to us. That it only starts online and the relationship extends offline is clear - doesn't it work exactly that way for us too, with a community building around our blogs, soon enough we are meeting over coffee, at events and before we know...there's relationship and trust.

2. Clients value our passion, but also our balanced inputs.

   
   An SMS exchange between a senior business leader, whose organisation we have been given an opportunity to work with, and me, reminded me again of the faith (and resultant responsibility) that our clients put into us – it quite humbling - and of Toby’s question for her Valentine’s Day post: What builds relationships between a client and the agency? I had replied “Passion for the client’s business!”

   However, it takes a lot of trust on the client’s part of see value in not just our passion for what’s now ‘our’ brand, but also in the fact that even as we work closely as part of the team, it’s important that we retain balance like sometimes only an external resource could.

   The SMS exchange, which continued intermittently through the day, was us trying to agree upon a differentiated line to sum up our business promise, that we had met to discuss the day before but there was still work to be done.

   We haven’t agreed yet, but are getting closer to our ‘honest to God’ promise :).

BTW, a blog upgrade is underway, but in the interim do write in your feedback to 'comments (at) blogworks (dot) in. I know it's not the same... it isn't even for me and I just haven't written as much since the time comments were disabled. Let me see if we can find a temporary solution by tomorrow. Wish us luck! :)

I haven't attended as many events over a weekend, leave alone of the blogger/ blogging variety, as I did over this one :).

There were 2 blogger meetings, one I had been invited to speak. It turned out to be a breezy Saturday and I was kinda ill-prepared in my sleeveless woolen jacket. Other than that, it turned to be an interesting talk.

Here's a blog update on the meet:

1. Lage Raho India

Also on Saturday was the recording for We the People on NDTV (telecast Sunday), which has ended up disappointing many participants and viewers alike. The discussion was on whether blogs should be regulated.

Someone, who attended the show, suggested to me yesterday it seemed that they had an agenda. I don't believe in conspiracy theories and would simply ascribe it to lack of understanding of where blogs and social media stand today - more effort on research would have helped. I had suggested the young lady from NDTV, who called requesting me to be on the panel, that we discuss the programme agenda for a few minutes, before we started recording, but that never happened.

The 'War for News' chapter, over long ago, however seems to have charred many TV journalists, which is understandable if you have been impacted personally, but any biases for/ against need to be kept aside when going across continents with your programme.

Here are a few reactions from viewers and a co-panelist:

1. The Brat, the Bean and Bedlam.
2. The Kamla Bhatt Show

I really do hope that Barkha starts to blog, like she promised on the show, and discover for herself the power of the tool and the community around it.

Here is a video of the show (see at bottom of the post), in case you missed it on television and wanted to watch it. Be warned, buffering takes long, unless you on a high-speed connection.

>>

UPDATED on 15 January, 2008 @ 1.27 p.m.:

More blog posts, comments, phone calls and inputs on the NDTV Show. Here is Jhoomur's follow-up post:

1. Emancipation of Eve
2. Monologue

One of my friend, a senior journalist from another news channel, suggested yesterday that we should have protested on air, kinda battled it out etc. and I told her that we were on We the People, not The Big Fight. There are no points that needed to be proven and am glad that all panelists remained composed despite any provocations, an indication of being secure and mature conduct.

<<

Even though I couldn't stay for long , the4th Anniversary of Delhi Bloggers was a nostalgic moment, as I remembered attending one of the group's very first meetings in Delhi along with Rekha.

An excited group cut the 4th anniversary cake - pictures I clicked didn't come through but am sure updates are on their way.

All in all, I met some really cool people all through the weekend - new relationships, more conversations!

Blogworks - Blog the Talk discussion series was conceived to feature the best of learning from the ‘live web’ through panel discussions, talks and one-on-ones – mostly conducted online.

The New Year brings with it a new association, Blog the Talk series is presented by Ideafarms, an IT smart-sourcing company, providing enhanced business value to its globalised clients, through disrupting thinking and innovation.

In association with IMPACT – the marketing, advertising and media weekly.

Joining me for this edition are my friends, Toby Bloomberg and Dina Mehta. This episode is 360 degrees for this series, where Toby is concerned. Regulars on this blog would remember that we started this series with her end December 2006. Toby has become a friend and guide in the year and a half since I first interacted with her through her Diva Marketing Blog.

Not that either of them need an introduction, but here goes anyway ;)

Like always, I will moderate the discussion. However, what’s different this time around is that there aren’t the standard questions and answers, but a free flowing conversation with perspectives on where we are, on the social media journey – in context of consumers, brands, organisations, markets and marketers.

All thoughts expressed by participants are personal opinion of respective speakers and do not represent the views of Blogworks or any other company/ organization.

Rajesh:I have been thinking, it's a great time of the year to discuss where we stand on the conversational marketing front. Is it really making an impact on the ground, to the consumer and to the marketer?

Dina:What it really means is brands are conversations - markets are conversations.

Toby: I like to remind marketers that people are conversations.

Dina: We were in a world where media was controlled by brands and managers or those who had money. Today, media is owned by the people who use it. There is no Us vs. Them.

Dina: WE ARE THE MEDIA.

Dina: People are conversations - nice Toby!

Toby: Actually, the secret is that the brands and advertisers never did control the message – they only thought they did. But with technology, WE are the media … makes it easier to understand that.

Rajesh: I had a wonderful experience recently, which I also wrote a case study about. I was looking at buying a bicycle and actually went through the entire process with the help of blogs, where a Google search landed me at a blog post with active conversations, negative and positive, taking place between existing users, potential buyers and as a pleasant surprise, the marketer too. The blog allowed me to make my decision.

Of course, the last mile of dealer interaction play the ultimate role on what I call the difference between “Sold” and “Nearly Sold”, but the entire episode convinced me about the impact of the of the social media layer, that is making a real difference on the ground.

Have you had any such instances?

Dina: Thanks Rajesh. I had a similar experience recently when I found a Rconnect USB modem driver for my Mac, not through the Huawei or Reliance websites (the latter, in incidentally said no Mac driver) but through a comment on someone's blog.

Toby: Very impressive, I am beginning to see more major brands comment back on their blogs.

Rajesh: Yes, brochure sites don’t really help and customers are usually wiser about the product than the manufacturer.

Interestingly enough, I have seen COO of a radio station jumping into conversations, but the tone has been all wrong – all attitude. Maybe it was done on purpose to actually flare up the conversation and get more people to tune in.

Toby: Rajesh, I just sent your link to my friend Tim Jackson of Masi Bikes in San Diego CA. He writes the MasiGuy blog and if Tim picks it up one customer service issue could be spun round the world.

Dina: Some of the things that organisations must start working on in this new brand 'operating system' - is first learn how to listen.

Rajesh: At one of the client meetings recently, one of the people from the public relations agency asked, WHO should comment on a negative comment – agency/ client.

My submission is shouldn’t someone RESOLVE the problem and then take the conversation back by commenting?

Toby: My $ would be on the client – its more credible.

Dina: Not the agency or the PR guys - they tend to mess things up. Remember the Silky Kumar case?

Rajesh: Yes, the client should take ownership of the issue and showcase participation. But to me, resolution is the important part and THEN comes the commenting bit.

Dina: It must be written into a brand manager's role - social media is not where spare cash is thrown.

Toby: Absolutely.

Dina: I think if you start the conversation - and work towards a resolution together with the blogger or reader, its so much more powerful.

Rajesh: You have hit the nail on its head.

Toby: Involve the customer in the process Dina?

Dina: Take Silky Kumar – had I been the PR agency or the brand manager, I would have asked that blogger “Ok, we messed up and we value your views, how might you take this forward. What are your recommendations?” I don’t think anyone should have 'solutions' – that’s again going back to a one-to-many world.

Toby: That said how many companies have a process in place to react to this type of new way to hear their customers?

Dina: The point Toby is how many are listening?

Rajesh: The issue is what is the value of the blogger, just the writing? Why not the inputs? Those are far valuable.

Rajesh: They are BEGINNING to listen, I can tell you that much.

Toby: I’ve been finding that more are listening but they don't know what to do with the information

Dina: I was with Mid-Day the other day and told them Rajiv at Watblog.com had written about some plagiarism their publication was caught out doing - they had NO IDEA.

Toby: I heard 2 F-100s, which have social media tactics in place, recently say they were trying to understand how to talk to the bloggers within the bloggers' world and that they are bringing in someone who understands the space- people who have experience in relevant verticals. For example, healthcare has been slow to enter this space, but at a conference I spoke at recently everyone a room of healthcare marketers knew what RSS was all about.

We had to change the session before we began. We built it too elementary :).

But at the same time I'm still finding that people in organizations where one would assume they have knowledge about social media do not.

Dina: The challenge I find here today is even more basic.

Even an organisation like Unilever, which tom-toms its success over something like Sunsilk GOG, do a simple search on 'shampoo' on Google.co.in and they don’t figure anywhere there.

Toby: I've been asked to speak to a marketing division of a Fortune 100 technology company. The CEO is blogging, but the staff people don't know anything about social media, let alone what RSS is all about.

I was invited to share my thoughts on Internet Trends in 2008. I am putting a part of the text today (will perhaps put the full text tomorrow), but you can read the complete piece and more here.

Here we go:

Each year, a few trends gain momentum and reach tipping point. The mobile phone is one such change of recent times. Will 2008 be the year of the Internet? It promises to be an interesting year as a lot of the hype around blogs, consumer-generated media, Web 2.0 settles down; as the lines between the mobile and the Internet blur; as technology seems less overwhelming to the masses. The great thing that 2007 did was take away the fear of technology from many. Thanks to networking websites such as Orkut, people who would never venture beyond their email boxes are “poking” each other on Facebook.

So, what to expect in 2008? Here’s my list:

1. Internet marries the mobile: Affordable handsets allowing EDGE and WLAN connectivity, combined with huge penetration of mobiles, would likely ensure that more and more people are consuming the Internet on the go.
2. Always-on Internet: High-speed connectivity through mobile, exponential increase in Wi-Fi hot spots and talk about rapid deployment of WiMax, all promise always-on Internet connectivity.
3. Life shifts online: We are romancing the government with online filing of tax returns; applying for passports online; meeting friends online and enjoying peer-to-peer gaming. What’s more, the Internet is fast becoming the new operating system—you don’t need software, just a device to access the Internet.

We were invited by a prospective client - also a friend - to figure out possibilities of starting, what he termed, an 'HR blog' for his company. His stated need was to attract talent to join them and he wanted to use the blog to highlight their people policies and initiatives. Nice, however, people policies alone are never a reason a prospective employee will join the company.

Like in the case of any other stakeholder, a prospective employee too is looking at many dimensions before he/she takes the decision to move. Vision & thought leadership of the management team is as important to them as is the financial performance. Great products and services appeal not just to external stakeholders but also to prospective employees, as does its financial performance. Not only are they looking at the work environment, but also at emotional connect and resonance that the team has with the company. Many are increasingly basing their decisions on work that the company is doing with the community - not just donations, actual work with the community. They are looking at what the company is doing to protect the environment - some sectors, seen as damaging to the society/ environment are clearly out of favour.

So, in such a scenario a blog that only highlights any one of these aspects will not really serve its purpose. BTW, do you think a blog can even help you showcase your thoughts on all the above counts? I think it can...quite beautifully and not just to reach prospective employees but many other internal/ external stakeholders.

Anyway, we mutually agreed that it was a bit early for my friend's company to engage in a conversational blog, but soon thereafter another client meeting, to discuss their proposed corporate blog, prompted me to articulate the chart below on the back of an envelope. I found that using this, I was able to explain the configuration easily.

What does the chart really say? Simply:

1. 70% of the time, we will focus on 3 verticals that company operates in.


2. 30% of the time, we will talk about corporate and human resource initiatives etc.

Interestingly, the CEO will wear 2 hats - since one of the verticals is driven by him, he will write about that but he also wears the CEO hat and will contribute under the 30% of corporate along with some other members - this time Vision; Developments; Initiatives et al.

Three verticals doesn't mean 3 people. There could be many, depending on the depth of knowledge within an organisation.

Then, since, unless you are a Google or like - where each of your initiatives is exciting for a large population - it makes sense to share your perspective on things that are happening in that domain outside of your specific environment -insights, trends, developments, learnings etc. and 30% of the time, share internal initiatives. Luckily, as far as this specific client is concerned, they have a lot of exciting things to share.

Having said that all this, we crafted this for a specific need and even there the percentages serve more as guides than walls. Another company's need will be totally different - for example it may need and adopt a multiple blog policy, each by a unique author talking about different aspects of the organisation.

So, see this as a method rather than straight advice to follow.

What you think?

Today's Hindustan Times carried a piece written by me. You can read it on the HT epaper: 12 December 2007, Delhi Edition, HT2, Tech4U Page. In reverence to the editor, here is the final text as appeared in print:

So, where are you going?

A few day ago, I was chatting on the phone with someone from Mumbai, who had called to discuss 'use of blogs and social media tools for internal knowledge management by organisations' and the talk swerved "Is a blog is better than a forum or vice-versa?".

I was reminded of times when - very young - my younger sister and I would often gather available pillows to create a square/ rectangle, which was our 'car' and using an imaginary steering wheel, made appropriate driving noises. Only, obviously our car shell was going nowhere, for, it didn't have wheels or an engine for that matter.

So the question is: Now that you have got yourselves a car called social media, do you know where are you going?

As is expected with anything that’s surrounded with intense hype, as has been the case with blogs & social media, the focus is on the TOOL with relatively less thought on THE NEED. A mere shell (blog/forum/social networking site or whatever) is not enough. The car is surely not going anywhere without an engine and an ongoing supply of fuel! It's also good to remember- the car cannot drive itself.

Organisations/ marketers in India are finally beginning to look at adopting social media and blogs, but, given that the concepts are relatively new, the emphasis seems to be on continuing traditional marketing thoughts/ logic into the neo-environment. However, Participating in this neo-environment is not about following tradition, here the rules are different - the rules are being written by the consumer, the community. In fact, many believe that the moment you attempt to 'sell' on social media, you have lost the users attention - focus has to be on conversations, on adding value to the user.

Given all that, here are points to consider, which can act as a checklist for you to figure out what a blog can do.

1. What is the need?

   No, I mean what is the REAL need that can be met by adopting blogs & social media? Just because another brand or organisation has adopted/ is adopting the tool is not a good enough reason for you to adopt it too. Remember there is a cost of engagement.

   Yes, many, if not most, of these tools cost very little themselves but as a brand/ organisation the costs to consider are not to the ‘monetary’. There are associated cost in terms of time, content generation, outreach & promotion and like there is a cost of engagement, even more importantly there is a cost to disengagement - mostly on your reputation. Think this through, for, an abrupt withdrawal may not be an option later.

2. Message is your car's engine.
   
   Which stakeholders are you trying to reach through your social media initiatives? Are they users of the Internet? Of course there is increasing indirect impact as messages get picked by mainstream media/ influencers but are your stakeholders 'direct users' of these tools, communities? Which ones?

   What is the message that you wish to share with your stakeholders? Figured your message? Now be prepared to let go of control, evolve the same, for, on social media, it is the user/ community that partly controls the message.




3. Content is the fuel.
   
   What is it that you are sharing with users that will keep them engaged, keep them coming back for more? It's important that you have clarity of purpose, and stakeholders, which in turn will help you determine content.
4. So, who is driving?
   
   The initiative; the content - are you looking at a corporate blog written by many stakeholders or a CEO blog? Maybe set-up a community generating user generated content of interest to your customers?

   Who is in charge of content? No one/everyone doesn't work, like we may have witnessed elsewhere.

5. Look into the side mirror, often.

   Are you tracking what the competition is up to? While you are busy doing your own thing, the competition maybe close by (or ahead for that matter). Look around, but don't copy their moves.

6. Do you know the rules?
   
   Don't get caught on the wrong foot. The social media space is a relatively new. It's important to know the basis, but evolving rules.

   Punishment can be swift and severe, and witnesses have been… mighty giants & countless individuals, who forgot.




7. Show some reverence, please.
   
   Sure blogs can be a free tool, so is uploading content on YouTube, as is setting up communities on Social Networking Sites... but hey, your brand/ organisation is very valuable! While adopting social media, do show YOUR BRAND/ YOUR ORGANISATION some reverence - your brand has a personality, an identity, an image, a reputation – so doesn't your 360 degree apply to blogs and social media?

In a way it's good for Channel [V] that it's happened very early in the life of their new blog - My India Report.

1. Mistakes early on are forgiven easier.
2. Like Robert Scoble said once"There is no negative publicity on the net." More traffic coming their way because of the crisis but am sure they are not really celebrating. None of us would - anyone in their situation would give anything to go back in time and make amends BEFORE the crisis erupted.

So, what's really happened:

The India Report whose mission is ".. putting a finger on the pulse of the generation now..." got into trouble when some bloggers noticed and reported that what Channel [V] had put as 'Guest Posts' were full-text stories, picked from various blogs and posted on the site, likely without permission from respective writers. I believe there were links (not sure if they were added later or existed from the beginning) but credits were perhaps added later (not sure of the sequence again).

Anyway, bloggers don't take kindly to content being lifted in toto without explicit permission and credit - excerpts with link backs are welcome.

Conversations have been exchanged on blogs and on Twitter, with Dina; Patrix; Gaurav and others exchanging thoughts & concerns. I believe Dina spoke with Channel [V] yesterday and they seem to have taken corrective measures.

Anyway... learnings:

1. The terrain is too new, mistakes will happen. No one can completely avoid a crisis but mustn't really romance them with clearly irresponsible conduct. Blatant Astroturfing a al Silky Kumar will not take you anywhere.
2. Show social media 7 blogs some reverence - think through the need, impact, strategy - knowing the rules, cuts chances of losing (or an accident).
3. Work with a team (maybe external) which has been in the space for a bit - no one can still guarantee that there will be no crisis, or mistakes, but you might just have put sufficient rigour to ensure that you are better prepared.
4. Mutual respect works better long term - to bloggers (and vice versa I hope); to 3rd party content; to feedback.

On the blog itself:

1. Love the look, feel & the energy- young and vibrant. You can do a lot with a simple Wordpress engine.
2. Can you PLEASE take off that pop-up banner guys!!!
3. A name will always work better than 'Admin' - try.

So, no issues. Get up and run again! Everyone has 20:20 vision in hindsight, like they say...there's learning for everyone.

Here is an initiative from Indica V2 Xeta - Xeta Shootout, attempts to benefit from insights gained by engaging the Prosumer? and to get their participation on the communication and product.

So, what is Xeta Shootout? Simple: Lights! Camera! Action! Make your own Xeta commercial and win an Indica V2 Xeta :).

The idea, a brainchild of Gaurav Mishra - the brand manager for Indica and a marketing writer - seems to have evoked keen response. I like the fact that the entry doesn't necessarily have to be a video, pictures and storyboard) on a document or presentation works well for an entry, making the appeal more broad-based.

"1839 people have registered at the website and we have received 70 entries and 476 messages," said Gaurav in my conversation with him. Not bad at all, I think. They can expect more as there are still 9 days to go - contest open until 30 November 2007.

There has been debate about how far should marketers go with official use of consumer generated media but you won't know until you play some. This one is a nice start.

CEO's guide to blogging.

How often does a new recruit in a company share transparent feedback with a CEO and get away with it? Well, if the CEO writes a blog, potentially everyday! For, transparency and conversations are the foremost values enshrined in a blog.

1. Engage, youngsters first!

   
   In fact, depending on whether they are amongst the audience you want reach, you would be urged to actively engage the younger readers first. Talk to them through the blog, address their issues and encourage them to participate.

   It has been my experience that youngsters, who traditionally haven’t had direct access to the top leadership, may sometimes find it a bit daunting to open up to a CEO (or a senior business leader). On the other hand, it is they who are exposed to blogs, social networks and the digital medium most. If you can get them to open up, chances are so will the rest.

2. Tell me some stories…

   
   Keep your audience engaged - weave a story; embed your message therein. Your blog should reflect you, keep the personal touch. Today’s internet technology allows easy embeds of pictures, audio and video. Embedding a Podcast isn’t very difficult and makes the content even more interesting- Bill Marriott’s blog at features many of them because he, admittedly, doesn’t know how to use a computer and prefers to talk into a dictaphone.

3. Collaborate

   
   Even though it may be a business need; or as many would claim, a tool to stay relevant in the new business environment; writing a blog can be demanding on time. Also, you may not want to voice all aspects of the organization directly. Consider a collaborative blog with participation from, not just, your leadership team. You will find evangelists at many levels - make them your ambassadors.

4. Where’s the delete button?

   
   Most corporate blogs are, and should be, moderated but do refrain from using the reject button on comments, unless there was good reason to. Blogs are a trust tool where transparency & feedback are encouraged and indiscreet use of the ‘delete’ button can take these away.

   Do pause to think if the intent is indeed malicious. Do not, however, allow profanity or personal slander – not even of a competitor.

5. What’s really the need?

   
   Having said all this, does your organization really need a blog? Take time out to think through your strategy. What’s the identified need (that a blog can fulfill); for which audience; what are the costs attached (not just money); is your company’s culture supportive of transparent conversations; any legal implications you need to consider; how would you measure success?

   Only when you have the answers for these, is it time to log on!

Do share your thoughts:

Lately, Geoff has been busy on a roadshow to promote his new book Now is Gone that he has authored, along with Brian Solis of PR 2.0 fame. Published by Bartelby Press, the book is positioned as a "A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs."

A book like this was badly needed in the rapidly evolving environment, where information is available but it is dispersed over many-many different sources.

So what does it mean for the reader?

1. The book introduces Social Media, the benefits, and the importance of engaging with influencers and customers directly
2. Explains the new culture of two-way conversational marketing
3. Inspires and shapes social media strategies to successfully engage communities
4. Highlights some of the more common social media promotion tools
5. Reveals cultural hurdles a company must face before starting social media outreach
6. Provides ways to manage the rapid evolution of social networks and technologies

I asked Geoff about the reasoning and objectives of the book and his thoughts resonated with mine. He said "There's a great thirst for knowledge, but most of these folks aren't getting information from blogs. Instead they are relying on newspapers, trade associations and other sources for information. We thought these sources were inadequate so communicating to the business community on their terms - vis a vis a book - seemed like the best course of action."

Adding,"Our goal was to present executives and entrepreneurs a thorough primer that can be completed in one sitting." Now that's exactly what we needed.

The book is going great on Amazon. Check it out!

Best wishes Geoff and Brian and happy reading to all our readers.

You read The Long Tail ... now read The Long Tail of Pain.

Gaurav says " My new favorite idea is The Long Tail of Pain - how social media allows us to find pain anytime, anyplace, in any form."

This is craziest fun you will ever get anywhere.

Enjoy

Facebook recently launched Social Ads, and I have been toying with the pages to see what it holds. I love the simplicity that they bring to targeted advertising. I also loved the fact that even as I attempted to craft the ad, I got live statistics on how many people could be reached with those demographics; interests etc.

I am planning to use Social Ads soon for Blogworks and for a client assignment that is likely coming up and will have a large Facebook component.

An interesting challenge though:

1. Facebook Social Ads take into account 'interests', not necessarily delivering 'need' that usually search linked contextual ads deliver. How does one tackle this on Facebook?

I left this comment for the Facebook team on their Facebook Ads post on their blog:

A thought that could make this even more powerful.

Advertisers can now target 'interests' but how great it would be if they could also target 'need' with typically search based contextual advertising takes into account.

Let me give you an example: My firm conducts workshops on blogs and social media and we would like people/ organisations who 'need' these to reach out to us and ads that enable us to target them would be very useful. However, they may not have blogs/ social media/ workshops added as their 'interests'.

Now how about users getting an option to add 'needs' to their pages, based on what (products/ services) they are looking for at the moment and that could be of tremendous value to advertisers.

Thoughts?

Cheers.

A few questions to ask ourselves:

1. How does the car look?


2. Do we, by the way, know where we are going?


3. Does it have an engine? (Message)


4. Where's the fuel? (Content)


5. Who is driving it?

Reminded of my simple rule of 'B' follows 'A'; ' C' follows 'A' & 'B' and so on. Whenever I get lost in the woods, I get back to the basics.

I think time to get back to the basics: the car doesn't drive itself.

I put together these slides - do read on and share your feedback.

Cheers.

Still wondering about ROI of blogs and social media for your brand/ corporate initiative?

Well, read this BusinessWeek piece - Dell learns to listen - by Jeff Jarvis.

Life's come a full circle for Dell, it would seem. After all it was Jeff's post that landed it in the thick of a blog storm - not just any blog storm, a case-study blog storm.

Read how it has managed to come out of that, with flying colours.

I think I am a fussy buyer - the entire purchase experience, and not just the product, matters to me. In this case, I was going back to something that I grew up doing with a lot of intensity and passion and was fairly involved in the process of this purchase. Whether I made the right decision remains to be seen, but it allowed me to witness some of our own theories play out quite nicely:

Layers of Influence.

I had put together this simple model, capturing the core of conversational marketing, as we see it. With some changes from case-to-case, I think it holds true.

There was a time when we saved that newspaper clippings/ ads/ flyers of anything that we found of interest or were hoping to buy. What is happening today?

The Internet is now my 'clipping'. It is my central repository where I go to look for information, when I need it. The three important players on the new layer:

1. The peer - the increasing clutter; uncertainty about transparency/ unbiased reportage, among a large section of the traditional media, has meant that the original circle of trust- friends, family and peer opinion has an enhanced value.
2. The expert - the 'traditional' experts are increasingly publishing content online; new experts are emerging, thanks to the enabling micro-publishing environment of the the Internet/ Web 2.0 today.
3. The marketer - needs to engage stakeholders through transparent conversations, for, 'brochure speak' of the traditional media doesn't work anymore.

I came back having tested the Hercules Ryder and a couple of Firefox bikes. My heart was set on buying a Firefox Fusion - it served my purpose quite beautifully - 40 mins to 1 hour ride, mornings, on fairly smooth roads. It also fell within my budget.

A quick search on Google, landed me on Shree's blog post - cautioning me 'Buy Firefox at your own risk!'

What I witnessed was quite remarkable - there was a whole conversation happening on this single post. There were some 85 comments already:

There were peers, of course,; there were alsoexperts - offering advice, managing communities and events/ initiatives. And lo, what do I see!! The marketer too has joined the conversations - taking feedback, sharing thoughts; not defending his product but offering solutions.

I left a comment, asking if my choice was a good one. The Firefox team was prompt in jumping in, leaving a comment and then someone from their team wrote me an email requesting me to get in touch with him on his hand phone, which I did. They were transparent, stood their ground (no discounts). The only gap, a significant one, one could say - they were not good at closing a deal. I bought a competitor's product when I was absolutely sold on Firefox! Confidence? Over-confidence? Flawed Customer Service Focus? Who is to say...but a sale lost. Lesson in this for all of us, including me! More on this later.

Who is scared of negative comments?

Simple answer: all of us!

We shudder at the thought of "what if there are negative comments?" and yet, they happen to all of us. I learnt a lesson rather early into my blogs journey and made it a case-study on the 3rd day (after spending the initial 2 days in absolute shock and mourning). Many learnings came my way from this episode.

Many, if not most, brands are scared to embrace blogs & social media for fears of "What if?" No amount of convincing might be able to showcase to them what this one bike post does. In real life, different people have different experiences, good is peppered with bad, and that negative makes it REAL.

A significant number of comments in the Firefox post are negative, and YET, I was convinced about the quality of the bikes and nearly bought one. The posts allowed me to make 'an educated decision'. That's what the customer is looking for on the net. The attitude of the marketer in this situation would be critical:

1. Is the marketer unnecessarily defensive?
2. Or, is the marketer open to feedback and suggestions? Is the marketer listening? Participating?

Still sitting on the fence, Mr. Marketer?

Having tasted success from this episode, should Firefox (and others in the category) not be embracing social media more pro-actively?

1. Setting up their own blogs, spaces where customers could engage with them directly? Firefox does have a club.
2. Should they not be involving the customer in the very process of crafting & testing the bikes?
3. Creating evangelist programmes and more?

Still scared to test the waters? Go, take the plunge, but do show it the reverence it deserves. Do invest into rigour and discipline - think it through, for there are no 'One Size Fits All' solutions.

In the end, however, it's Customer Focus that matters most.

Proactive interactions on blogs, email but missing on closure - the difference between 'nearly sold' to 'actually sold'.

The reasons I finally went with LA:

1. ' Perceived' value for money: Perceived still, and I will soon discover if it is 'real'.
2. Last mile: I called their office in Punjab for numbers of local dealers, which they promptly messaged back on my hand-phone. I ended up speaking with Gaurav of Supreme Cycle Co. - he had a rap number set as his caller tune; I landed at the store to find an intelligent looking young man, dressed in grunge; stud in one ear, blue tooth headset in the other ( I advised him to remove it when dealing with customers), laptop open on his desk - I could see he was using it to manage his stocks, as also listen to music; passionate about bikes, he was treating his customers with warmth. He knew his product and took me through the entire line-up, without showing any signs of impatience. Negotiated well but also made me feel like I got a deal. I was sold. He made a sale.

Happy biking the social media roads!

On another note, do check out xbhp!

Ajay Jain is a writer/ journalist/ publisher rolled into one and writes regularly for Mint. In this piece he asks:

Have a blog? Where are the readers? Touched a raw nerve, right? Don’t fret, it’s not tough to get them, if you follow some rules.

Setting up a blog is as easy as it gets—getting traffic is another proposition altogether. Yes, blogs by their very nature are supposed to be search engine optimization ready but there is a catch: Your blog needs to break free from the millions of blogs jostling with each other for attention. And there is no magic wand to do this for you.

You could, however, seek out Philip Kotler for some inspiration—his 4Ps of marketing can work for your blog, too—without spending a dime or morphing into a nerd.

The piece quotes me a couple of places:

Content is everything; this is your product and the first P.

“Start by asking why you are writing a blog. This will bring clarity on who you are writing for, and this in turn will help you determine what you are writing,” says Rajesh Lalwani, founder of Blogworks, a strategic consulting firm helping brands and corporates with their blog and social media strategy.

Readers will come to you only if you carry something impactful, informative or even humorous for them. Just because so many blogs have little more than incoherent ramblings of the owner does not mean you have to subscribe to such low denominators.

And here’s more to make your product buyer friendly:

Quantity does not beat quality: While frequent postings may help you go up the search rankings, don’t do it for the sake of doing so. Ask yourself if anyone would care to read what you are writing. Post once or twice a week if need be but ensure it is quality writing. You don’t want to turn away readers or bury your good pieces under the debris.

Is it unique? Unless the first blog Rip Van Winkle goes to after waking up is yours, your content is valuable only if it is unique. Search engines such as Google can now catch those who copy content from other sources. Spooky, but true. “A combination of originality and quality works beautifully—it takes you higher up on the search engines,” says Lalwani.

You can read the full article in PDF format here or here on Livemint.com

It has previously happened with mobiles and email - as social networking becomes mainstream, misuse by miscreants and anti-social elements is bound to happen. A very sad incident in Mumbai last week was an early indicator. I pray something like this never repeats itself but it will take responsible conduct from all stakeholders...

Soumya - a Blogworks regular brought up an interesting and relevant question. In brief, he asked..."marketers want customers to share more and more information, so they could use it to there advantage. How does the customer protect herself? How do brands and consumers find balance in this environment?"

My own assessment of the matter was a little different, suggesting that "Users (read youth in particular) seem not 'bothered' at all about sharing information on the net. To the contrary they are taking great delight in doing so (and that worries me about their physical and financial safety). Online media owners take a lot of personal information (though there are promises of data protection and all that but slips-ups are known to happen) but if you look around, that's NOT the information that jeopardizing users. What is really jeopardizing them is open conversations about the tiniest happenings in their lives. Sometimes I wonder why would they want to bare their entire lives, but we are living in an increasingly exhibitionist world and communication tools are enabling that.

Different companies and brands are using the said content in public domain - for research, engagement but brands typically don't stalk. Yes, what is needed is transparent and ethical conduct by brands. They are beginning to understand the value of engagement over quick returns.

Youngsters, many who have adopted the net as their primary means of information and communication aren't sometimes even aware of the impact and consequences. These are social challenges of today and will need tackling through counsel, education and responsible conduct by all stakeholders - particularly the marketers and media owners. Let's have some of the responsible ones roll out campaigns to address these very real issues."

I am not suggesting that my comment had anything to do with it, but almost on cue, this email from BigAdda, where I am registered as a user, popped in a couple of days later.

Great start, but currently going out to existing subscribers.However, I think there is an opportunity for the local social networking sites, many of whom had perhaps found the carpet pulled from under their feet with the huge response to Facebook, to engage target audience with differentiated communication even as they tweak products to match FB etc.- BigAdda has gone for a mega interface and feature makeover recently, bringing in many Facebook like features.

An Outreach campaign, including:

1. Advertising - for those who have the bucks BigAdda; MingleBox :)
2. School & College Outreach
3. Media Outreach
4. Peer and Celebrity Messages - Do's and Don'ts for a safer SN experience

..might win them the crucial trust, in a game that's at the moment not taking them anywhere. I am talking something on the lines of what Seagram's does for responsible drinking.

India is fairly big and many of these players are perhaps hoping to capture the 'not-yet-on-social-networks' traffic. There are a set who are on Orkut; another on Facebook, then there is migration from one to another. But, there is still a large population, in non-metros, smaller towns, or even in metros that owes no loyalty to Orkut or any other platform. "If I could get them to adopt my network first, they and their friends would likely join and stay.", could and should be the logic for many of the local players. The game's just begun, not anywhere close to finish!

The next round might just go to the most 'trusted' social networking site. Who will seize the opportunity (to not just gain subscribers, but maybe also save lives in the process)?

This is not a case in isolation. The environment today is radically different from what it was, even a year ago. Engagement tactics between employers, employees, customers, investors and dealers have undergone an overhaul. Strict hierarchies, top to down communication, chains of command are passé and have made way for a more open and transparent work culture. Business functions like management, marketing, customer care, HR and Internal communication are heavily interlinked, taking away the silos of before.

The role of Human Resources and Internal communications in this viral environment has undergone a complete overhaul. Business challenges have changed and so have the dynamics of employee retention and engagement. HR is struggling hard to be seen separate from the voice of the boardroom and adopting a culture, more in sync with people. Adoption of Web2.0 tools by existing and prospective employees is on the rise and managers would do well to heed to the trend.

1. Sites like Vault, Payscale, get strong traction. Employee surveys, salary comparison, growth statistics, company reports – its all there
2. Blogs; Employees are sharing opinions and experiences via anonymous or public blogs. The Mini Microsoft blog is a fairly formidable force to reckon with. Firms like Nokia, Sun Microsystems, IBM have large number of employees maintaining blogs
3. Social communities such as Orkut have niche communities discussing companies, their policies, employee experiences etc.
4. And of course, grapevine sites such as Truemors, Internalmemos, and Twitter could prove to be damaging for an organization, if it is caught on the wrong side of the fence.

These sites indicate the clear demand for third party endorsements, thought to be unbiased and closer to the truth, when making his career choices. People are looking for real stories and are using the Internet to get exactly what they want.

A few random thoughts, based on recent events and conversations:

1. Managing negative feedback by brands, on 3rd party blogs, shouldn't be about whether to comment on these posts or not. It should first be about 'resolution' of issues being faced by the consumer and THEN comes the issue of commenting
2. Similarly engaging brand supporters shouldn't be asking them to write about the brand, it should be about INVOLVING them in the brand - learning from their inputs and insights. After all, they are the ones who love the brand, right?
3. 'Consistency' is one of the 8 'Cs' of communication - I noticed last week on the flight to Bangalore (Have been there 3 times in 40 days, the last time being yesterday. Love it, despite the traffic.). They are forgiven, for the merger is too new, but even then... the booking counter reads 'Air India', aircraft reads 'Indian', the staff announces 'Indian Airlines'. India's official carrier needs help.
4. Talking about that, consistency of message delivery, by spokespeople, was possible and natural in traditional media, but messages needs different tackling on social media. Following a message house to the tee make the 'conversations' artificial - natural with your words but staying with the thoughts and philosophy?
5. This one puzzled me for a week: a young entrepreneur in an eCommerce web business writes a transparent blog - put up all that comes from customers, no comment deletion, acknowledge mistakes, issue resolutions also I had seen - all the stuff that textbooks say.

   
   Then one afternoon, I ventured to make a purchase. The site in question was offering a great price but my hand wouldn't click the 'buy' button.

   I couldn't persuade myself to buy from them finally. Why? Why wasn't I being able to trust this company? They write a blog that follows the book and a blog builds trust, that's what I have been going around telling people myself!!

   Anyone else wouldn't perhaps waste another moment, but for obvious reasons I couldn't do that - it took me a week to crack it.

   Maybe at an intuitive level I knew the answer, and that may have had a role to play in my decision to 'not buy', but I spent some more time on the site and pinned it finally to what I thought could be the reason. "It's the tone idiot!" I said to myself. The gentleman had a different tone when addressing the customer - mild, warm but professional - but the tone changed when talking about other subjects/ peers/ other businesses/ even replying to emails (I don't know him but have exchanged a couple of emails) - from a pedestal, kinda arrogant and cold. I wasn't being able to tell who he 'really' was. Could it be that? What do you think? We all do that sometimes - treat different stakeholders differently, don't we?

   I did put that behind me though and made a purchase from the site recently. Are all customers forgiving? Or am I too fussy to begin with? Lol

I haven't written in a bit. Two reasons: was busy with some work and second, didn't really have much to say :).

Cheers.

Peter asked on LinkedIn: How does LinkedIn compare with Facebook?

I just randomly punched these, but this is how they are perhaps:

1. Linked in Static bio.
2. Facebook Living and breathing you me.
3. Linked in When you want to know what work I did/ do.
4. Facebook What am I doing now!
5. Linked in Useful for business networking
6. Facebook Integrating my online presence at one place - RSS feed for my blog, my business groups, my Twitter, my Truemors widget.
7. Linked in Replacing business cards.
8. Facebook Replacing email.

This I am adding now:

1. Linked in I love the Answers and Jobs features.
2. Facebook I just love it - has gotten me back me with a few precious friends and built a few precious new.

Say what?

Micro Marketing is the acknowledged way forward for many a brand today. Many individual publishers today enjoy as much credibility, and sometimes reach, as traditional media and marketers are beginning to see value in associating with them.

However, blog advertising, isn't necessarily the same as mainstream advertising - it doesn't have to be; maybe it shouldn't even be...

Reasons are many: where mainstream online ads are mostly focused on numbers and clicks, advertising on blogs and independent author sites may need to focus on brand associations and sponsorships with the site, its popular properties; widgets and other creative and dynamic ways of reaching the audience.

An injudicious focus on plain numbers and traffic, on these neo-publishing platforms, usually leads to disappointment for both the advertiser and the publisher - certainly the publisher.

For example, a blog with page views running into millions is no-brainer, but what is the value of a top research scientist's blog - read in-turn only by a few hundred other scientists - as a recruitment ad vehicle for a research lab? Or to build traction with that community? We think very high - focus on pure numbers, in this case, is not that important. On the other hand a youth blog will perhaps need numbers to support it's advertising claim. Both publishers are valuable, but need different approaches.

Similarly credibility matrix' that are purely based on just 'number of links' can often be misguiding - it is not lost upon any of us how easy it is to generate fake links.

That's where the Blogworks™ Ad Affiliate Network comes in:

What's in it for blog writers and publishers!

1. No worries - you write; we market
2. Creative options - we deploy our past learnings
3. Transparent deals - we value your content and effort
4. Choices - does advertising in traditional media compromise credibility, it doesn't 'have to'. You stay in control, you choose

What's in it for the advertisers/ marketers!

1. Influencers - high-quality; hand-picked
2. Bouquet Offerings - by verticals/ readership/ geographies
3. Single Window - so you could painlessly participate in blogs/ social media
4. Risk free - many options, reduced impact in case of dropouts

If you wish to register your blog into the programme, fill in these details on and send across, with subject line - Enroll for Ads. Feel free to tell your friends too.

We are constantly learning and participating, join in with us.

Disclaimer: Please note:

This is not a 'pay-per-post offer' and wouldn't infringe upon your editorial integrity.

Writing in to us doesn't necessarily 'include' you into the panel or guarantee any advertising

Guy Kawasaki on Internet, Investment and Investors.

How this edition of the discussion came about still seems a bit surreal to me, but the entire sequence of events again validated something that I have always believed – truly successful people are often very approachable; that they reply to their own mails - find time to do so, however busy they maybe; that there are no degrees of separation - that we really live in a connected world…

I discovered Truemors a couple of months ago, wrote a brief post about it and followed it with a mail to the Truemors team regarding their Truemorist programme. I got a reply back from Guy and that's how we got in touch. Won’t waste your time with details but I asked Guy if he would consider being on Blog the Talk, he agreed, simple and straightforward - tells me a lot!

Delighted to have Guy Kawasaki - successful entrepreneur, global investor, best-selling author and columnist. Guy doesn’t really need a formal introduction, but here goes anyway:

Guy is presently located in Palo Alto, California.

The talk is typical 'Guy' - simple and straightforward; and a little different... this one was done over email so more like a Q & A. Enjoy!

All thoughts expressed by participants are personal opinion of respective speakers and do not represent the views of Blogworks or any other company/ organization..

Rajesh Lalwani: Guy, thanks for joining us on Blog the Talk today.

Web 2.0(!) - Blogs; Social Networks; Forums; Widgets - we have seen them connect people, add value at more than one level, but has the new Internet scene also become an information overdose? Do you think there would be consolidation? How would one simplify?

Guy Kawasaki:Thanks. There is overload, but that's what it takes to have a few winners emerge. There's no way to simplify - well, maybe there's one. Have ‘experts’ pick the smartest and dumbest ideas and then throw away the smart ones and do the dumb ones.

There isn't a way to predict the winners. It would be like being around billions of years ago and predicting what forms of life would survive. Only God would know, and we aren't God.

Rajesh Lalwani:Smiles.

The whole of the internet seems to be congregating on Facebook. There is a new application getting added every half an hour (figuratively speaking). One doesn’t really need to go anywhere else to do anything. eCommerce possibilities look immense. What are your thoughts? Is FB here to stay? What do you think is happening here?

Guy Kawasaki: Facebook is just-about the most exciting thing I’ve seen in years. The integration of its parts is so well done—for example, how it sucks in your Entourage address book to send invitations. It could become the way a large percentage of users interact with the Internet. In a sense Western Union should be PayPal, and AOL should be Facebook.

Rajesh Lalwani:Tech purists feel technology by itself is capable of achieving a lot of this simplification, what is the scope for human intervention - Digg; ChaCha and
many others are as much about people as technology. What are your thoughts about this?

Guy Kawasaki: Tech purists are the worst people to ask about this!

It's like asking a carpenter if everything can be fixed with a hammer and saw. Technology can accelerate, extend, supplement, but it cannot replace human interaction. Ever notice that the companies that spend the most on CRM have the worst customer relations?

Rajesh Lalwani:'Bubble’ is what one is hearing yet again - is it a bubble?

How will, in your opinion, these platforms monetize? Are the valuations going over the top again?

Guy Kawasaki: It is a bubble, and a bubble is a good thing.

It makes people want to start businesses. If we all carefully thought out every possible contingency, we'd never try anything.

Rajesh Lalwani :“The business plan will emerge!” Does that thought still hold true then?

Guy Kawasaki: Yes, more than ever though I think it was never true that people wrote plans and strictly adhered to them.

Companies that survive had plans that emerged. Companies that didn't survive didn't. I doubt that Steve and Woz ever wrote a business plan. What was YouTube’s business plan: give away infinite storage and bandwidth to copyright violators?

Rajesh Lalwani:What do you look at when you decide which new business your company will invest into? How important is the entrepreneur in this?

I was reading this TechCrunch post about Evan Williams, Twitter and Kevin Rose, Pownce - the comment about the fact that both were 'liked a lot in silicon valley' caught my attention - how much of the early adoption on a product would be basis such liking?

Guy Kawasaki:I look at a product or service and imagine if I would use it. Not a theoretical MIS manager, but if I personally would use it. If I wouldn't, then I probably wouldn't invest.

Being liked a lot in Silicon Valley isn't a prerequisite for success because popularity usually occurs after success. It doesn't cause success. At the start, most entrepreneurs aren't even known.

If I had to choose between being liked and having a great product to make a company successful, I'd choose a great product. If you become a billionaire in Silicon Valley, you will be popular-albeit with the wrong kind of people or for the wrong reasons- but people will suck up to you.

By contrast, if you have the greatest personality in the world but your product sucks, it will still suck.

Rajesh Lalwani:Indian software professionals have been on the technology forefront on the world scene and bar Hotmail, we haven't seen too many big Indian successes on the Internet. What do you think could be the reasons?

Guy Kawasaki: Maybe it's because Indians are too smart, too diligent, and too sincere. Maybe in order to achieve successful with ‘Internet companies’, you have to be full of crap.

Rajesh Lalwani:Are Indian investors risk averse in general?

Guy Kawasaki: There are lots of Indian VCs who are investing in US Internet startups created by Indians and non-Indians. I don't think race plays any role in investment decisions. Three things you can depend on from VCs are
color-blind and gender-blind greed.

Rajesh Lalwani:Would you consider investing into Indian entrepreneurs/ Indian companies?

Guy Kawasaki:Sure, why not?

In fact, I would prefer investing in Indian entrepreneurs and companies because they are smart, diligent,and sincere. We have:

1. simplyhired
Kaboodle
2. Xora
3. cFares

... already in our portfolio.

Rajesh Lalwani : Any current favorites of yours - technology products; companies; ideas.

Guy Kawasaki: I love "credit card" startups. That is, companies you can start with $25,000 or less. Truemors was my experiment in this. This is the Ycombinator theory, and I like it.

I certainly don't think that a company funded with $1,000,000 is forty times more likely to succeed.

Rajesh Lalwani:Any sectors that that you maybe specifically are interested in? Not interested in?

Guy Kawasaki:Garage is primarily a West-Coast, IT, software, and clean-tech fund. We don’t do life sciences.

We’re looking for companies that are raising $1-2 million in a seed or Series A Round.

Rajesh Lalwani: What would you expect as part of a proposal that someone may want to send and what criteria do you normally apply to selection?

Guy Kawasaki:The ideal proposal is a three paragraph email with a link that leads to a working prototype. End of discussion.

Rajesh Lalwani:Any investment limits Garage normally doesn't invest beyond?

Guy Kawasaki: We are a small fund, so companies that will require $10 million to break-even are not for us. I’d also like to be rich in this lifetime, so this narrows our focus some too. :-)

Rajesh Lalwani:Lol. Any plans to visit India soon?

Guy Kawasaki:No, sorry. I was in Mumbai earlier this year and loved it, though.

Rajesh Lalwani:Any of your current/ upcoming initiatives that one should be looking out for? What are the plans for Truemors?

Guy Kawasaki: Truemors is my baby.

I love the idea on two fronts:

1. The democratization of information so that anyone can be a journalist/editor
2. The blogosphere has universally condemned the idea-which makes me even more dedicated to make it succeed

Rajesh Lalwani :That is super cool. Yes, I already added the version ;) – the link's here.

Can't resist asking you this...

Are you an iPhone fan? Any experiences/ thoughts you want to share?

Guy Kawasaki:I don't have one. I can't stand AT&T's data network performance, and I really need Exchange server compatibility.

Rajesh Lalwani:Smiles.

Guy is clearly not buying an iPhone yet. Neither am I, for different reasons though :).

BTW - Do read this iPhone review by Guy, to get an update on his AT&T experience.

Thanks a lot Guy! Do look forward to having you here in India, sometime soon. Cheers.

Dear all, please take the conversation forward.

If you missed the update on my previous post, here it is, up and about. Coming up this Sunday - a Blog the Talk Exclusive! Guy Kawasaki on Internet, Investment and Investors.

Guy Kawasaki’s thoughts on today’s Internet scene; Facebook; Truemors; the ‘Bubble’ - and why is it a good thing; Indian entrepreneurs and whether he will invest into them – pretty straight! Hope you enjoy. See you.

Technology tips to get started with business blogging and more – the FOSS way.

How does one introduce someone who was on the Internet before the term World Wide Web was even conceived? Someone who has participated in the net scene when the total Internet population in the country was not in millions, but in dozens – ok, let’s make that a few hundred? When search was still about gopher?

Delighted to have Kishore Bhargava - the original geek; FOSS exponent, the guru behind Gadget Guru; I could go on…

It was in one of Kishore’s talks, about 2 and half years ago, that Blogworks really took seed. I have never believed in coincidences, so I don’t think it was one that I attended that talk. Since then, a dear friend, Kishore has been around to counsel & guide.

Today, on Blog the Talk, Kishore helps us understand some of the pertinent technology related issues that we need addressing when we think about business blogging. Technology issues in a language that’s friendly and English you and I understand.

I must point out that keeping with, not just the Blog the Talk tradition of conducting these talks over IM, which we did, this conversation was actually conducted in true Bhargava family style, over IM, but sitting face-to-face. Discussing ‘way forward’ across the table, but actually punching the Questions and the Answers over an IM. Fun it was… :)

Enjoy!

Yours truly continues to be based right here too, in New Delhi ;)


All thoughts expressed by participants are personal opinion of respective speakers and do not represent the views of Blogworks or any other company/ organization.

Rajesh, Blogworks: Kishore, thanks for being on Blog the Talk.

We have spoken about this earlier…

Among the most crucial aspects that need consideration following an organization or a brand’s decision to go forward with a blogging or a similar initiative is: Which blogging engine to use? Which technology platform? What are your thoughts?

Kishore, Linkaxis: Thanks Rajesh. That’s a loaded question – it will need a long answer.

- First of all, the important question to ask is why do I need to blog? If there is a compelling reason, coupled with a well thought out strategy, then setting up the technology behind it is actually quite trivial

- There are many options to choose from. You have a plethora of free sites which offer templates, plugins and all the stuff you need to get you started or you the have the choice of setting up/ creating your own

Rajesh, Blogworks: I hope you are not saying set it up on a free blog site, but that there are several free options available in terms of engines; management systems; templates that one can play with on YOUR server, right?

Kishore, Linkaxis: Yes, that’s the point; if you are serious about it, then you really need to setup a blog on hosted/dedicated server and certainly not on the free servers and free services available.

If you just want a quick and dirty job, then go to any of the free engines but if you want a real blog for your organisation, then set it up on the server, ideally where your corporate website is hosted, as blogs.mycompany.com or mycompany.com/blog. The idea is to never lose focus of your brand.

By hosting on a free server, you may still be able to do some amount of branding, but the real impact is when all the stuff resides on your site. Of course, there are tons of other advantages, which we will discuss as we go along.

But just to give you an idea, there would even be issues in legal position if the blog is not your property?

But, coming back to the question.

Rajesh, Blogworks: Please do elaborate on the legal bit before we move on…

Kishore, Linkaxis: Ok take a simple example, if I have a blog on a free engine and I place a company advertisement on it. If the provider says that you can't have advertisements on the site, then they can actually just turn around and shut the blog down.

This is known to have happened in the past.
Content on a free site will be difficult to copyright and protect. Disclaimers, Privacy Policy etc are all under your own control, if hosted on your server, rather than being the ones that the provider enforces.

There is also the issue of the total service offering on a free site, one will never be able to get access to the RAW logs of traffic, and therefore, never have accurate web analytics.

Rajesh, Blogworks: To me the most important part has always been just the message that we are sending out to the world on the seriousness of the initiative - the perception of a free blog site is so non-business like.

Also, forbid a service is down/ taken down for any reason (like it happened last year) you don’t end up losing your business blog, a very crucial piece in your internal/ external communication outreach programme now.

Kishore, Linkaxis: True. Ok so coming back to the question of which platform does the corporate use for a blog.

The answer is they host their own blog on their own server. In order to do this a corporate will need a blogging engine or platform. There are many options to choose from there.

This is where I tend to favour the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and community. There are commercial engines available, but the real innovation is happening in the FOSS world.

Take for example what would today be the most commonly used blog platform on the Internet – Wordpress (WP). Wordpress has tons of features, fantastic templates, and a vibrant community of developers and users supporting it

Rajesh, Blogworks:You mean ‘free’ software?

Kishore, Linkaxis: No free and open source. I mean, that which costs nothing as in ‘muft’ and that which is ‘free’ as in freedom or ‘mukt’

Rajesh, Blogworks:Freedom to do what?

Kishore, Linkaxis: You have the freedom to do pretty much as you please. You can share it with your friends, you can examine the code, and you can change the code to improve it. The list just goes on and on.

Kishore, Linkaxis: Apart from Wordpress there is also Moveable Type (MT), which is also a great engine.

Rajesh, Blogworks: Yup, we are on MT.

Kishore, Linkaxis: But at the end of the day, you need to ask, where do I get my support and where are the skills to help us manage the site?

Rajesh, Blogworks: Let’s just talk about these two, what are the key differences?

Kishore, Linkaxis: In principle the two engines are very similar. They form the basis of what are known as Content Management Systems. There are really several hundreds of such engines and the main difference between them is the platform or programming languages used along with the database used.

MT uses a great programming language called Perl, which was originally designed as a scripting engine for text manipulation and automation of mundane tasks by System Administrators but it is now used for just about any job. I have seen some amazing applications written in Perl.

The only problem with Perl is finding people who know it well and who can exploit its true power.

Rajesh, Blogworks:Why, is it a difficult language?

Kishore, Linkaxis: Perl is not really difficult, it’s just that not many current generation of programmers know anything about it so it gets ignored and used mainly by old-timers.

Rajesh, Blogworks:Hmmm, you just called Guru, an old timer!

Kishore, Linkaxis: You must also understand that a 30 yr old in the IT industry is considered an old timer.

Rajesh, Blogworks: You will have to explain this to Guru I think, lol.

Kishore, Linkaxis: Guru and I are about the same age.

Rajesh, Blogworks: Lol.

Kishore, Linkaxis: On the other hand, WP uses the one thing that really gave a boost to FOSS. What is popularly known as the LAMP - Linux Apache MySQL and PHP.

Perl is considered an old language and is just not used by most. Only the really, smart guys use it.

Rajesh, Blogworks: ;)

Kishore, Linkaxis: What is very popular today is this language called PHP. This was designed from the ground up to be a web language and is therefore just more suitable.

Kishore, Linkaxis: Wordpress is based on PHP and the PHP community world-wide is HUGE!

Rajesh, Blogworks:Is the technology the only difference between the two?

What about paid/ unpaid; what about the key area of support - as a business I need support, doesn't matter, many times, if I need to pay to assure that.

"When it rains, it pours!" Right!!!

We have an exciting line-up coming up in our Blog the Talk Series.

1. Check back from anytime late Sunday evening - 15 July - to read my conversation with Kishore Bhargava on "Technology tips to get started with business blogging and more - the FOSS way".
2. Then next Sunday we have an exciting talk lined up with one of the foremost names, globally, in entrepreneurship, venture funding, business blogging and what have you - "Who, who???", I hear you say? Yes, but wait a bit, a little suspense never hurt anyone. Promise to tell you Tuesday.

   We discuss "Internet, Investment and Investors".

UPDATED: 12.54 pm - 18 July 2007. Sorry, couldn't do this yesterday. So, here's the promised name. Joining us on Blog the Talk, Edition 4 is his straightforward self, Guy Kawasaki - an India first? Not sure but definitely a Blog the Talk first. Hope to see you then :).

Hope you enjoy.

Yesterday when Priyanka called me to speak regarding iShare - the new content platform from Rediff , I was quite excited. For this is the second major initiative from Rediff, on the blog & social media front, in an equal number of weeks...

Rediff was, I think, the original Indian blog platform years ago (now Rediff iLand), so to me it is only natural that they are taking the lead on the social media initiatives. Two weeks ago they launched Rediff Blogshowcase - allowing bloggers to share an RSS feed, even as they continue to blog from their original platforms. I do believe aggregation is the way forward, though I think this particular initiative will still be adopted by the casual blogger , which is fine because that's what the large population wants to be... write and be read by more people. No business, advertising revenue etc ambitions...

Coming back to iShare, I tend to agree with Amit Ranjan's thought "I for one believe that there is a strong case for Indian versions of Flickr & Youtube to gain ascendancy inspite of the popularity of the global sites." Though not in all categories. Early days to say more about iShare, but I like it. Also I am a bit old fashioned and really like to see content by 'Categories'. Tags are great, but sometimes Categories are what you need - say I quickly want to see just uploaded 'Advertisements' and nothing else - iShare lets me do that with zero effort and I like that :).

I didn't quite understand what Ajit Balakrishnan meant by "It’s like combining properties of YouTube and Orkut,”. It didn't come across like that to me - YouTube, Flickr and 'your pick' of music site but 'Content Platform', not like Orkut or an obvious networking site. Sure networking will evolve around similar 'likes' etc. but that's an outtake of the content. Maybe there are plans to add new elements soon.

Anyway, I have INSISTED that some of my friends, associates, clients join up Facebook and see what is happening - it is too damn fascinating - that's another post though.

Half the year, and more, is already gone...I decided to put up the top 10 posts on the blog (some were originally written on Verbum and may actually be more popular, but there's no way to tell. Here's what the server logs tell me:

1. Blog the Talk, Edition 1 - Impact of Blogs & Social Media on Business & Marketing
2. Blog the Talk, Edition 2 - Impact of Social Networks and User Generated Content – an India perspective.
3. Blog helping Indian Marketers.
4. Actually the post announcing the 1st Blogworks Social Media Workshop is next in the list, but this post-event update covers all.
5. Interesting, :).
6. My first Blogs for Marketing Talk.
7. The king is dead, long live the king.
8. Horsing around is serious business
9. I was decided on buying the Scorpio, even test drove one, then I turned an entrepreneur. 43? new features of the Scorpio
10. Of customers, happy & unhappy.

Do leave your feedback.

BTW- We concluded major part of the next edition of Blog the Talk yesterday (some work still to go). It goes up next Monday. Kishore Bhargava - the Guru behind 'Gadget Guru' and the original geek - helps us understand technology aspects of blogs & other social media tools. Sexy and fun the script reads! And, we already have 2 more in the pipeline - both very exciting discussions with thought leaders from India & Overseas.

Cheers.

I discovered Truemors a few weeks ago but hadn't been able to post anything on the site yet. Today I opened my account with this post essentially asking if Facebook is likely to post a threat to Orkut's social networking leadership in India.

If the number of friends adding me on FB suddenly is any indication, then it does seem possible. I was seeing that when I wrote this about new beginnings in social networking. FB hadn't announced opening of 3rd party applications then and post that has been nothing short of a flood.

Do vote on the Truemors post here and comment if the same is happening with you.

UPDATE 1 July 2007 - 11.00 am
It has been one of my most adventurous talks yet - night before the talk, my presentation - all done, bar some fine tuning - simply disappeared from my desktop and the pen-drive. A near final version, saved per chance on the notebook rescued me though. Any trip to airports is anyway an adventure by itself now - there were delays both on departure and arrival.

I came back with 2 insights:

1. India lives in it's villages airports :)
2. Trees in Bangalore appear to be much bigger than trees in Delhi - weather? likely

Driving towards the event venue, I was engrossed in a conversation with Adarsh from Brand-Comm when I noticed a Rolls-Royce pass us by. A closer look and I saw it was painted red-white with sexy Airtel branding, announcing the launch? of their new mobile store. It was cool I thought and spoke about it at the talk...

The event venue was abuzz with excitement. Anywhere between 120-150 people attended; some interesting presentations; it was interesting to note that MANY presentations before mine had references to blogs, social networks etc; my talk was received well, I hope. Lots of questions ranging from:

1. How does one validate credibility of a blog before making, say, a purchase decision
2. How are blogs relevant for, say, internal research
3. Who is/ should be responsible for blogs - marketing, communication, HR - Sridhar answered this one

I started my talk with the mention of how the game has actually moved way beyond blogs and even within social media tools, the lines are blurring. However we stuck to the agreed 'Blogs for Marketing' yesterday and left some actionable points for marketers to consider and the value of a strategic approach - something that we have worked upon as our differentiated Blogworks offering.

I hope more marketers move forward from just talking about blogs, or indulging in tactical initiatives measured by "200 blogs mein hamaara brand mention hona chahiye!" - that's not measurement; that's not impact or value for the brand either; and that's certainly not assignments that we are hoping to bring alive.

Nice weather; was able to catch up with lots of former colleagues, friends; and made new friends - Bangalore was good.

I could build a case for virtual communities and cite several examples even from our very own Orkut. But I’d rather share a live instance that may help validate.

We were recently approached by our friends who run Radio Schizoid, an India based Internet music station that plays trance, for a possible assignment.

Oops, forgot :) : It is the Dove Self Esteem Fund (Evolution Film) by Ogilvy, Toronto.

So when Janani who writes for BenefIT Magazine, a publication focused on IT for businesses worth Rs. 20 to 5000 million, reached out with a story idea on blogs, we were only too happy to help...

The story (BenefIT-Blogs-June2007.pdf), besides introductions, pro/cons, questions & tips etc. also has 3 case studies from businesses of totally different sizes & categories, making the piece much more real, touch and feel:

1. Rekha Nambiar, ID Home, The Decorating Hub
2. Spykar - though not a blogging initiative - outreach on Orkut. The official community listed has a couple of dozen members but the real action, I was surprised to findm, is in the many, unofficial Spykar communities on Orkut
3. Cleartrip Blog

Blogging BenefITs - literally.

A brief background, Thinking Blogger Award was conceived as a tag meme by The Thinking Blog. Governing thought - too many blogs, not enough thought. Hmmm...

Participation Rules

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
2. Link to this post so that people can find the origin of the meme
3. Optional - Display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (was this to be a specific 'post'? Not sure...

I read a lot of blogs originating from countries other than India but wanted to link to just blogs from India for this. Here we go, a few blogs that make me think, I think (alphabetically):

1. Ajit Balakrishnan
2. Annie Zaidi - The Known Turf
3. Dina Mehta - Conversations with Dina
4. Manisha Malhotra - Taking matters into our own hands (sport policy etc)
5. Palin Ningthoujam - Social Media Munching

BTW - John Daly sounds like a great recipe!

Suddenly, in the last month or so, everyone is talking about Avatars - looks like they have arrived. Kris messaged these cool links on Twitter yesterday - Gizmoz.com , Voki.com

Strangely, I had punched this post last evening but couldn't upload it and here we have a story that appeared in The Financial Express today - on avatars.

See the film and tell me what do you think...

1. Consumers beget consumers!

Are the days of celebrity endorsers counted? In the age of reference, it is a peer’s word that seems to matter – the individual and his opinion seem to count for more. There is probably no greater endorsement for Nike than the feet that wear it? and in that respect the consumer has also become the marketer.

The Internet too has done its job in connecting people. Platforms such as blogs, wikis, social communities and forums have provided the Individual opportunities to amplify his voice and reach a large audience.

On the other hand, the marketer continues to face multiple challenges - there is the question of finding the customer in a scattered environment; having found him, retain his attention and critically… stay relevant. If the marketer is able to establish the same level of trust that the user enjoys with his peer group, then that’s a battle won.

Engaging the audience, build presence in forums and communities, act upon feedback are perhaps acts that will add long term value to brands. In essence, nurturing relevant relationships may hold the key to crafting a niche for the brand in this networked era.

Values of transparency, participation and collaboration will improve the overall brand experience. Consumers will naturally be inclined to evangelise the brand – sharing experiences, feedback, posting comments and reviews etc.

Early adopters of this trend have made smooth advances, while many others are just beginning to shake the dust off the shelves.

For example Bzz Agent, specialises in word-of-mouth marketing programs. Based on the premise that consumers with to be heard and can be the most important links for product promotion, the firm has built a substantial database of consumers, tagged as ‘BzzAgents’.

Brands have never been more vulnerable, I think. Not just because of genuine criticism that today's Internet technology allows people to put up - and which should be welcomed by brands as feedback - but with the possibility of something that may make guerrilla marketing seem tame, there is a possibility of the arrival of professional brand stalkers'? ( I didn't find a description to that word on Wikipedia)

In the last week or so two marketers, managing big brands, have spoken about support being garnered by a blog/ community, led by a person/group, to launch an attack on the brand with 'malicious intent' - I am sure it would be a challenge to even ascertain malicious intent versus genuine problem faced by a customer. Who should be believed & why?

The first marketer didn't really deserve any sympathy and sounded dubious to begin with, but in the second instance got me thinking. Could it be that the person was very consciously stalking a brand, to gain something?

This did make me think - as blogs gain more strength, would there be a new breed of stalkers? What do marketers think? What is the legal stand? What strategies would a brand need deploy to tackle something like this?

Questions, so we could find answers!

Meow 104 Meow 104.8 went live just 2 weeks ago as India's first Just-for-Women Radio Station. There's a mega out-of-home campaign on at the moment and, I would say, sufficient interest in the station (as the search words on my server logs tell me, having written this brief intro on the day they launched). This was validated too by phone calls - during the show, the one before and one after - it is always fascinating to see a new brand being created - the excitement, the learning.

I was there for their evening 5- 6 slot 'Tu Tu Meow Meow' (derived from Tu Tu Mein Mein, which for our non-Hindi speaking readers is the opposite of 'You're ok- I am ok' and simply translated means 'an argument' :) ). It wasn't that bad, though the energetic Ginnie, who hosts the show, did assure the audience from time-to-time that we were indeed arguing most of the time that they were busy listening to the songs (more western popular towards the evenings I was told).

I asked Chhavi, who produces this show, on why didn't they have any male hosts, didn't women want to listen to men? Of course they have a male host, mornings. Hmmm - cool. Want another? I could volunteer!

JuxtConsult's India Online Report 2007 is out. Read this post from Agencyfaqs on findings. The full report can be ordered here.

More on this later...

UPDATED - 5 July 2007, 10.25 am - Sources- India Online 2007 - Juxt Consult Study; The Economic Times; Blogworks.

1. 30 million + users


Grew at 28% year to year
Only 37% from top 10 cities
19-35 years age groups account for only 67% of them
66% come from SEC ‘A’ and ‘B’
Only 17.5% come form ‘IT’ functional background
Only 41% prefer to read in English
83% regular users (once a month)
6 million + ‘fast’ connections - not broadband, but not dial-up either

2. 10.8 million (43%) have purchased online


76% more than last year
84% have bought a travel product; 56% have bought non-travel

3. Social Networking – 44%


14% + of Orkut users are from India? – high stickiness among youth
Facebook is single biggest gainer
Niche communities have strong stickiness
Caferati; Venturewoods; Desi Pundit etc.

4. Search usage high – 85%




5. Blog recall still low but high consumption through search


Credibility will only go up as experts join in
Still predominantly English, but local language is coming in

The first learning on this post from Toby, on consumer generated media and advertising, that I linked to sometime ago read:

1. This is Complex - It’s complex and it carries risk

Yesterday a friend forwarded me this piece in the Financial Express (via their arrangement with NYTimes)

That's exactly what Heinz seems to discovered in its experiment to run a contest inviting consumers to submit their ads.

Sample this:

"In one of them, a teenage boy rubs ketchup over his face like acne cream, then puts pickles on his eyes. One contestant chugs ketchup straight from the bottle, while another brushes his teeth, washes his hair and shaves his face with Heinz’s product. Often the ketchup looks more like blood than a condiment."

Shelly Parmer's post, part of my post on Toby's, too was critical of brands using consumers to generate ads.

I don't think anyone has sure answers on what would work or what wouldn't in an arena so new, not that there were any guarantees earlier. We can only learn from what's happening around.

Tricky, eh?

1. Happy Conversations!

They say the proof of the pudding is in its taste - read on...

Social networking is one element of the Web 2.0 environment that sure has the Indian youth hooked. Even though detractors have been predicting the tempo to fizzle out, but a look at the latest statistics may suggest otherwise. Infact, I think social networking is not restricted to just the big cities and metros, a good chunk of profiles from the tier- II cities and small towns. And I state this not on the basis of some third party research, but based on several conversations that I have had on such sites.

Just the other day, during one of my Orkut sessions, I had an interesting conversation with my cousin in Allahabad: Tanay has just been promoted to the 11th standard. Right now he is enjoying his post-board exam break and his favorite hobby these days is not a sport or films or even spending time with his girlfriend… but 'Orkutting' and spending time on several such sites like – Tagged, Desimartini, Hi 5 and Facebook. His peers are there (and so am I) constantly exchanging notes, following each-other. To be denied entry into a 'group' is the worst affront anyone can show you (being dumped is Passé).

Just how much are the youth into social networking? Judge yourself from the fact that many don't exchange telephone numbers or email ids, they ask instead... Are you on Orkut? (or Facebook etc.). They live these networks.

"It's just an easy way to see what words or phrases are showing up on Twitter and how often. For example, 3,800 folks have twittered about being sad and 13,000 people have twittered about being happy. Clearly, Twitter users are happy people. Is that because they drink coffee (14,200) about three times more than tea (4,610)? Who knows..."

Like many others, I too have been thinking about marketing applications of Twitter, but how does one track and measure the going ons? Another very interesting mash-up, Twittervision, of course, pops messages on a map and you can, if you had the time, follow these messages. But how does one get a quick, number/ dashboard view?

I think tweetVOLUME has interesting implications. I tested the following brand names and found these many mentions of:

1. Nokia - 1490


2. Sony Ericsson- 84


3. Motorola -188
4. Mercedes - 138


5. BMW - 243

These numbers are of course dynamic and may have changed by the time you land on the site.
Also, I am wondering, when are these mentions 'from', in terms of timelines. BTW , you can compare up to 5 words at the same time, on a dashboard view. Marketers, particularly addressing youth, may find this an interesting way to monitor buzz.

There are 843 mentions of India. Twitter is yet to catch on here and that's clearly the reason Indian brands hardly find a mention, but hey 'Yoga' is happening @ 781 mentions.

Now if someone could tell me the Tone of Voice: Negative - Neutral - Positive. Greedy, ain't I? :)

Go, check it out.

Read more Twitter stuff, here.

Users are going to love this, I think. Quick after Twitter comes Guy Kawasaki plus Will Mayall and Kathryn Henkens' Truemors.

The concept is simple "Tell the World' - post your rumors, news, and sightings, and anyone with web access can read and rate them within minutes". However, Truemors wants to see 'true' rumours that are relevant, add value to people and maybe entertain. The site rightly doesn't want gossip, which on the other hand mostly deals with individuals. I would suggest you read the detailed, but engaging, about us section before you get started.

It would be interesting to see how and what they moderate though.

Get started you can... by leaving a message over phone, IM, web interface and email.

Go spread some!

I visited Mumbai last week for a talk at The Park- Navi Mumbai - a very chic, contemporary property indeed! Navi Mumbai surprised me with its green and space, but then new development seemed to be mushrooming everywhere so looks like it will get busy too.

We were a small group, around 15 of us...

Towards the end of my talk, I shared these points that I think are relevant for businesses (particularly those with global outlook) looking at adopting blogs (and social media):

1. Think Global - it's very easy to get trapped by our own geography and language. Our customers and other stakeholders however may not be limited to just these and it's important to keep that in mind when planning our social media strategy. For example, on the language front, Japanese has already overtaken English as the # 1 language on the blogosphere. Do we have stakeholders in that geography or those who speak that language?
2. Think Local - equally important that we don't just scratch the surface and ignore local initiatives. Again language for example- Hindi & local language is beginning to get popular in India on blogs & social media.
3. Think Engagement - blogs are not about 'selling', though they can lead to enhanced sales - thanks to the help they offer on the customer's decision making process and because of enhanced trust they result in. However, let's not don't get into a sales spiel - think how can we add value to our readers' life.

Off to Mumbai now, where I have a talk to deliver, but will try and put the text here tomorrow.

UPDATED at 7.37 a.m. IST, 26 May 2007.

Here's the text as I submitted and is slightly longer than the print edition; the structure too is a bit different . The piece was originally titled You Blog? . If the piece reads different from my other blog post, please remember that it was written with 'print' in mind and for a larger, diverse reader group. Do share your inputs and feedback.

Here we go:

Even though this piece appears on the technology page, it has really less to do with technology and more with conversations, though enabled by today’s Internet technology.

By now of course all of us know about blogs – that they are diaries on the web; that they are easy to write and manage; that thanks to thousands of free templates you will never need a designer (only partly correct  ); that they are the Internet live and ticking; also that they are big and are seemingly here to stay.

Truth also is that, even as a there is a new blog launched every second, majority of them end up dead, soon after launch.

So we won’t delve upon how big the blogosphere is and all that stuff, instead, let’s try and figure out whether indeed YOU need to blog and if yes, how could you ensure that once you have set one up, it doesn’t end up, like perhaps a majority from among the 71 million + that are listed on Technorati.com (www.technorati.com) already are – dead!

The answer to this can be really simple:

I spent some time on them in the last couple of days. It's early days yet, for both, and I would be keenly watching to see how they shape up.

Groups - or addas as they are called on BA - I visited, still have very few members and it might be some time before they achieve critical mass. CI doesn't have groups, unless I missed out, and continues to attempt building the community around blogs - more on that in a bit. Both looked very similar to Orkut in terms of features, so I wasn't really sure on what's the incentive for anyone who's already on Orkut (a large number now) to move to either.

As a matter of fact 2 clear trends I have recently noticed on Orkut:

1. It's become more mainstream and a somewhat older population is now beginning to adopt it too (I was fairly embarrassed until recently, to acknowledge that I was a member on Okut and would quietly lurk around, watching life go on around me). Now it's a bit like Ryze + loads of much younger people.
2. If youth who were already on Orkut are choosing to adopt new communities too, (they are not abandoning Orkut) then one community that I think finding traction is Facebook. It's more aspirational - the lure of a more global member-base, coupled with familiar Indian faces (many who have studied or are studying overseas) already friends with global buddies... making them more accessible to new joins. There's also more that can be done on the site, so many seem to be adopting it because they are perhaps now more comfortable with the concept of SNA and think they can hold their own etc.

Coming back to Ibibo and its blogging initiative - I think, even though they have given their 'rewards programme' a new twist by bringing in the criteria of interactivity and quality, and that is DEFINITELY going to clean up the place a lot, will it become a serious blogging platform? I don't think so! Here's what I think, but I need to go back a bit, first:

It was to be a monthly discussion but its already been 4 months since the launch of Blogworks - between our new business discussions, talks & workshops, writing the blog; (and of course) meeting our work commitments & deadlines :), we haven’t been able to keep that promise. Do hope that the content from the discussion below will make up for the gap. We hope to be more regular though (there are a couple of discussion already in the pipeline).

Much has also changed in the last few months- just the term blogosphere has become partly redundant, it’s about Social Media or Live Web now, broader in what it covers. Social Networking and User Generated Content (UGC) have been gaining mainstream status. In view of that, it was pertinent that we discussed: Impact of Social Networks and User Generated Content – an India perspective.

How long is a week? Very long if you are talking about social media, UGC and SNS - in the days between we had the discussion below and actually took it up - Social Networking Site Minglebox has received $ 7 million funding from Sequoia Capital and YouTube has announced revenue sharing! It's not for nothing that I call social media the fastest running animal on the planet!

Joining me today are(alphabetically):

1. Alok Mittal, Canaan Partners – Alok, a friend, former client 2 times over, is a Partner with Canaan - an early stage venture fund with focus on internet, technology and BPO space. A first generation entrepreneur, Alok is also a founding member of Band of Angels India - an organization comprising successful entrepreneurs looking to invest in seed stage businesses. Alok’s community blog Venturewoods attempts to bring the Indian venture community closer together. Alok is located in New Delhi.
2. Amit Ranjan, Slideshare – Amit Ranjan, of whose product I am a great fan, is the co-founder & COO of Slideshare(www.slideshare.net). Amit keenly follows emerging trends in the consumer internet space in India and writes a blog called Webyantra about the Indian Web 2.0 space. Amit is located in New Delhi.
3. Prerna Gupta, Yaari.com – Founder & CEO of Yaari.com - a social networking site for Indian youth. Prerna has led Yaari through rapid growth and widespread media coverage since its beta launch in October 2006. Prior to founding Yaari, Prerna was an Associate in Summit Partners' venture capital fund in Palo Alto, CA. Prerna is an economics graduate from Stanford University and presently splits her time between India and the US.
4. Yours truly moderated and I am 'still located in New Delhi :).




5. Blog the Talk Edition 2 is in association with IMPACT - The Media, Advertising and Marketing Weekly, which will, starting this week, carry the text for its readers over 2 issues. Thanks Team IMPACT.
6. UPDATE- I am delighted to renew my association with HP - India (Hewlett Packard) . The Personal Systems Group - Commercial of HP India, which is responsible for business notebooks, business desktops, handheld devices and more would now be associated with Blog the Talk. Thanks HP ! :)

Hope you enjoy the talk and participate with comments and feedback:

All thoughts expressed by participants are personal opinion of respective speakers and do not represent the views of Blogworks or any other company/ organization.

Rajesh:Alok, first of all let me congratulate you and your colleagues on your new investment in iYogi! I think it’s an interesting next generation outsourcing concept.

Let me begin by asking you… networking on the net isn't new - sites bringing friends together, dating and matrimonial and even business networking sites have been there forever; but suddenly there is a lot of buzz about user generated content (UGC), content communities, social and business networking - communities are emerging all around. What brought about the change?

Alok: Thanks. I think the move towards consumer generated content has been gradual and limited on a geographical scale and people want to contribute quick byte-sized content - a la, discussion boards etc.

Myspace extended the frontier in terms of user expression. I think You Tube is perhaps the most extensive example of this, and driven by:

(a) Broadband

(b) Focusing on content which already exists with the users in a form that can be shared.

Prerna: The idea has been around for a while but I think what really brought around the change was when a few sites, mostly well-funded, executed the idea in very clear and simple way and had effective marketing to make their sites tip.

Amit: The community aspect being mashed up with the content is what seems to be spurring the growth at this stage. As Alok said, the content already exists; people are already creating it; now the ability to share that content in a social context has added the impetus.

There are pure SNS (Social Networking Sites) sites where networking is the end and there are content oriented sites where SNS is the means and not the ends.

Rajesh: Alok, how much of this unleashing has to do with the possibilities that Google AdSense and other contextual ad options brought along? That the owner of a community had, for the first time, at least a possible option of moving away from transactions or selling display ads, which may not always be a possible option?

Alok: I think that’s an interesting survival technique and helps in that context. However, that’s too small a stream for a reasonable business, especially as you get to rich media sharing, you definitely need something more as source of revenue/capital.

Rajesh: But do you think that to some owners it has given a dream to make it big.

Alok: I doubt anyone has made big with adsense…

Rajesh:(Laughs)

Rajesh: Amit and Prerna, how much of this SNS phenomenon of real people sharing personal lives and data is to do with a sociological change of a generation that has grown up with the net and doesn't much care about who is reading about them, their lives?

Prerna: I don't think everyone using these sites has ‘grown up’ with the net but people are adaptable and the freedom is addicting, especially when sharing information about yourself so readily gets you widespread affirmation from peers.

Amit: Psychological and cultural reasons have certainly contributed to this trend; also the fact that Internet adds a hugely convenience dimension to everything - be it ecommerce or friendship.

The convenience of interacting with people in asynchronous mode. Synchronous and direct interaction on a one-to-one basis is great but for many a people, it’s intimidating.

Alok: Ya, I guess that’s why I leave post-it notes for my wife (smiles).

Rajesh: (Smiles).

Amit: Good one (Smiles).

A few months ago, it had announced plans to pay users for uploads. Well, it's happened: This TechCrunch update yesterday informed me of a formal announcement from YouTube of its revenue share plans. While being seen as a positive step, a notable miss from the announcement is inclusion of 'pre-rolls' - brief ad plays before start of a video- that way ad messages would have reached the audience watching video embeds on thousands of blogs which pick content from YouTube, but that's going to have to wait it seems - tech concerns some say! Read the original TechCrunch story here.

The programme has some interesting features:

1. An 'integrated browser' opens web pages inside the reader...
2. While 'Auto discovery' ensures that I don't have to click any additional buttons to look for RSS feeds
3. Save a feed as a 'Channel' under the selected 'Channel Group'
4. The reader allows users to view 'Articles' by category; author; published; source; flagged; title; read...
5. When I like something? I simply move it into 'Archives' for future reference - I find this quite useful
6. The feature I love most however is 'Watches' which allows users to track conversations by keyword so all articles from feeds collected that have a certain or a set of keywords get separated under a given watch. I can add as many as I like...

Check it out! You can download i-Fetch here!

More about RSS and other terms here.

Been busy, trying to take care of some issues at home and am back. As a matter of fact, we have great action lined up Monday with launch of Blog the Talk - Edition 2. Discussing Impact of Social Networks and User Generated Content – an India perspective.. Joining me in the discussion are (alphabetically):

1. Alok Mittal, Partner, Canaan Partners
2. Amit Ranjan, COO and Co-founder, Slideshare
3. Prerna Gupta, Founder, Yaari.com

We concluded the talk a couple of days ago and just getting all other things in place. Like previous time, the talk is in association with IMPACT.

Exciting, I promise you ;)

Meanwhile, do read Edition 1, discussing impact of blogs and social media on business and marketing in India.

What's Blog the Talk - the discussion series was conceived to feature the best of learning from the ‘live web’ through panel discussions, talks and one-on-ones – mostly conducted online.

Question I am asking is, how many messages will BBC put on the site in say, an hour, but then do users really stay on? Or they keep coming and going like I did just now, so there's a new audience after each few messages.

We are looking for these inputs:

1. Name
2. Location
3. Your profession
4. Blog URL
5. Subjects your blog is focused on
6. Traffic statistics for last 3 months - mention tool/s used; geographical; demographic data that you may have available;number of email subscribers etc.
7. Page Rank
8. Present advertising you feature
9. Advertising regarding any products/ services/ subjects that you would NOT like featured on your blog
10. Anything else you may want to share (about 100 words)

Thanks and looking forward to hear from you.

Please note that this is not:
1. A pay-per-post offer and wouldn't infringe upon your editorial integrity


2. Writing in to us doesn't necessarily 'include' you into the panel or guarantee any advertising

It seems so long ago, but since these had come in a few days ago and a couple of people had requested, here are a few picture memories from the Blogworks Social Media Workshop in New Delhi.

What workshop :)? Details here:

1. Post Event Summary
2. Event Details

Thanks.

Google introduces polls in Orkut Community

Google's social networking site Orkut has introduced polls in its communities. Any member of a community (not necessarily the moderator) can now initiate a poll. The credible part is that while the poll can be deleted by the creator member or the moderator, the contents of the poll itself cannot be edited.

Click below to read Freaktitude.com, a technology blog that details how the Orkut poll works. Click here.

Although Orkut has come under heavy scrutiny with media and government agencies, a poll tool such as this can be a boon to research freaks! However, ensuring that a real person is polling might remain a question mark!

Top 10 Largest Social Bookmarking Sites March 2007
Here are the top 10 largest social bookmarking sites ranked by a combination of Compete and Quantcast data.

Even as many (most) of the strategic initiatives on the social media strategy, we crafted a couple of months ago for our client,StyleKandy.com, which gives an insider’s view and buzz on the fashion and lifestyle scene, await a few enablements, her team has gone ahead and uploaded some cool slide-shows on Slideshare from the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week and others. They keep partnering many of these top-line fashion and lifestyle events from time-to-time...

1. Hottest Trends at LFW
2. Hottest Parties
3. Backstage ;)

1. This one's from the Salsa India Festival held in Mumbai - after all our new mantra for Stylekandy- Life's in Fashion! - is as much about 'Life' as it is about 'Fashion'! Cheers!

1. Technorati is today tracking 70 million weblogs
2. About 120,00 new weblogs each day, but also 3000-7000 splogs (fake or spam blogs) being created every day
3. 1.5 million posting a day - spikes in post during significant world crises, which is expected as blog posts reflect and capture developments around us
4. 22 blogs among the top 100 - up from 12 in the prior quarter, shows growing acceptance and popularity.

   The report also validates something that we have been speaking about regarding growing credibility and latent consumption of blogs through search results:
   
   "the audience is less and less likely to distinguish a blog from, say, nytimes.com -- for a growing base of users, these are all sites for news, information, entertainment, gossip, etc. and not a “blog” or a 'MSM site' "

Even as many marketers get their first taste of social media by uploading a video on YouTube or sharing product shots on Flickr, the conversation has reached another level...

Last year Coke's 'The Real Thing' tagline took another meaning, post the Coke+Mentos Videos on YouTube. and in this piece my friend Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing Blog talks about experiences that Tom Daly, Coca Cola Global Interactive Marketing, shared at the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, AiMA, meeting last week.

The post captures 2 video strategies described by Tom:

1. Poetry in Motion Challenge - objects around us can move in extraordinary & beautiful ways...
2. Holiday Wishcast with YouTube - holidays are about sharing happiness with friends and family. Send a video and broadcast your holiday wishes.

And Toby shares 7 Lessons Learned about Branding 2.0: The New Online Community(See her story for details):

1. This is Complex - It’s complex and it carries risk


2. Fish Where the Fish Are - Stop trying to get them into your pool first. The prize isn’t the Prize. The Experience is the Prize


3. Users Love to Watch Our Ads - More than they hate advertising

Given ahead are a few slides from a talk that I presented recently - won't write much text as I think the slides tell the story.

1. We used to hope we got the demographics/ psychographics right, now customers are forming camps
2. Krishna mastered the art of speaking to each, while speaking to many...
3. How did you make your last purchase decision? Buying a movie ticket; selecting the new car; deciding on the school for your child; new job; anything... traces of this?

Let me know what you think! Read on...

Here's a quick post!

A Forrester survey of interactive marketers reports that RSS and blog usage is on the rise and the category has risen quickly over the last 12 months.

" If marketers have been slow to jump on mobile and gaming, social media is a different story...," says a piece in Advertising Age Digital, talking about the survey.

1. 40% of marketers are using or piloting RSS, up from 10% last year


2. 34% are use or piloting blogs, up from 13% in the 2006 study

".. social networks, which have the slowest adoption of all social media tactics but still notched 20% penetration in terms of marketer use." the article comments.

India is showing a slightly different trend - social networks have actually seen some traction and marketers are looking at forming or participating in communities. On the other hand, adoption of blogs - corporate and usage of blogosphere for marketing has still been fringe but interest levels are on the rise. Another trend that will hopefully manifest itself strongly, soon, is 'experts' blogging.

The piece has an interesting comment about consumers adopting emergent media faster than the marketer can keep pace, and need for the latter to stay updated (and ahead)- our own Social Media Workshop/s and talks are an attempt to help the marketer do so...

While the fun has just begun, I am glad there are figures and clear directions available for marketers here too to establish trends...

The Advertising Age story is here.

Phew! Finally!See all PDFs here!

"Believe me the workshop was really helpful to understand the rising influence of social media in contemporary times and also the technology that is making this happen," writes Tejas, NDTV.com who attended the workshop, "...a great initiative on your part to get the community together!" another senior participant. Grateful :).

(have you seen the new www.ndtv.com yet?)

Updated at 6.47 pm, 27 March 2007

All PPTs (PDF) are up now. Files were heavy and I have had to remove images and content. Have had to remove all PDFs - the page formatting was totally a mess. Hope to crack this by tomorrow. Meanwhile, mail me your requests and I will send you the files by email till I figure out a way here.

First updated at 1.12 am, 26 March 2007

I just lost 45 minutes worth of effort trying to upload the presentations - there was an error - going to sleep now as we leave for Jaipur tomorrow morning. Updates will now have to wait until Tuesday. Apologies all.

BTW - I was able to attend the initial part of Kiruba's podcasting workshop today. I think he totally rocks and is among the most engaging speakers I have met. Shame I couldn't stay the entire duration. Would have, had it been anything other than the monthly reiki follow-up meeting. Another day I guess...

India PR has a loyal readership among the public relations agencies and Hobbit, who runs the blog (and does a phenomenal job of it and does so remaining anonymous) requested me to do a piece for the site and I wrote something for a relatively younger audience.

Here are the excepts from the piece "Experiments with Social Media":

"Last month a client of ours, in the online publishing space, was complaining about staff spending time on Orkut while in office. He wanted this to stop…

We recommended, as part of our strategy, that it be made a part of the KRA for the team to spend time - every day- on not just Orkut but on other social networking and book-marking sites - participating & gaining insights from conversations they pick up; creating, managing relevant & synergetic communities.

The initial shock from both parties however led to quick adoption..."

and;

Blog\Works Social Media Workshop on Friday, 23 March, New Delhi - Blogs; Wikis; Podcasts; Content Communities; Social Networks...Registered yet!!??

See PDF here:Blogworks Social Media Workshop.pdf

The workshop covers: Concept clarity on web 2.0, social media tools etc.; utility of blogs and other emergent social media tools on/ for corporates and brands; practical walk-through on setting up some of the important tools.

Who would benefit: Leadership and mid-management executives from corporates; public relations & advertising agencies; brand managers; HR professionals looking at blogs and social media for their brands and for clients.

Fee: Rs. 10,000/-, per participant.

Date: 23 March 2007

Time: Registrations begin 9.00 am; Programme begins at 9.30 am sharp (ends 5.30 pm)

Venue: FMCC Campus, Plot No. 8, Balaji Estate, Guru Ravidass Marg, Kalkaji, New Delhi - 110019.

Register by writing to: workshop@blogworks.inor call me at +91 98 106 40163.

This piece in The Economic Times today made an interesting read. It says:

"BLOG POSTS are now finding their way into the marketing strategies of motorcycle makers.What started as platforms to share passions and frustrations of bikers are now being tracked by corporates to fine-tune their offerings. Instead of tedious market surveys and data crunching, companies now get reviews within hours of product launch, courtesy blogs."

Delighted to note that marketers are beginning to understand the value of blogs & social media and are using them for immediate, true feedback instead? of commissioned research that's not just time-consuming but also expensive (and often inaccurate?)

I just changed my car for a new one and relied heavily on blog posts, forum discussions, word-of-mouth (company brochures helped me decide the colour, nothing more :)).

In my opinion, however, the loop will not be complete until we put the customer in the center and then surround him/her with peer reviews, expert opinion and marketer's inputs (the last bit is TOTALLY missing today). It is the logical next step and we are hoping to participate in that space.

I was with a marketer friend last week and tried to partly address concerns/ reservations she had about competition using a marketer's blog to malign the brand. A couple of points we spoke about, a couple I am adding now:

Much as I have wanted to, haven't been able to post anything in over a week - just been running around chasing assignments; spoke at another seminar at FMCC; moderating a session tomorrow and partly because I hurt my neck (in all probability attempting a headstand during yoga :) - fine now, though I was a bit tentative in class this weekend). The last made me wonder, how it must be for the really popular bloggers... what if they are not well and can't post :)!

Anyway, a short break from blogging never hurt anyone I think...lol.

The first in our series of Social Media Workshops' is tentatively scheduled for Friday -23 March, 2007 in New Delhi. There are a few details that still need to be finalised though. This offering would allow individual (and group) representatives from corporates, advertising and public relations agencies (anyone interested) to not just understand but also give them a touch and feel experience through a 'do it along' tutorial.

No buildings from India, yet, as I tested and found. For example, my 'I Love Delhi' has its 'O' from China :). (Click I love Delhi to see what happens)

St. Valentine's Day Greetings via GeoGreetings!!?? Enjoy!

1. Concept clarity on of web 2.0, social media tools etc.
2. Impact Utility of blogs and other emergent social media tools on/ for corporates and brands.
3. How To! Practical walk-through on setting up some of the important tools.

Write in for the proposal at conversations@blogworks.in

Do write in with comments/ inputs/ workshop requests :).

Cheers!

It's about the US arm of Mahindra using a blog to sell their tractors. Life of a Farm blog is part of the strategy to take on Deere - the American agricultural equipment company.

Jonathan, who led the initiative, says:

MahindraUSA sells tractors. They’ve got, in all honesty, great products at relatively low prices. The challenge was to get the word out to the large amount of small farmers and ‘hobby farmers’ - those who do farming on the side. Mahindra hasn’t had great name recognition because they’re relatively new here in the states.

They seem to be getting traction...good going Mahindra.

Can what works for Tractors, work for an SUV? I think so - people love their cars and love to talk about them (1,2,3).

I would love to see a Mahindra Scorpio Blog! :)

To me it means...

1. Content is king- irrespective of whether you are a large production house, a citizen journalist or a backyard film director, compelling content will earn you money. So far the latter two variety were happy with just visibility, but with a plethora of options to upload content on, it has become important for You Tube to ensure that it invites quality content - it is no fun to log on and not find anything of value -people will simply move on.
2. With a revenue share in place (based on number of views?), production houses would likely put-up quality content and that may further change how we consume news/ entertainment etc.
3. While server space may be cheap, You Tube will likely have fewer people clogging the community with junk, if they believed there is monetary benefit in uploading quality content.


Let's await a formal announcement.

Arguably the most famous blogger in the world, Robert Scoble, has upset a few people with his recent remarks.

Want an update - go here or practically everywhere on the blogosphere.

It started here it seems.

1. Ajay is a man on a mission - a green mission.
   

   His recently launched blog GreenDioxide.com focuses on "...simple, practical practices we can all adopt in our organizations and communities to make a big difference to the planet."

   "Use common sense,"he says, adding,"You might never get it, but you still take a smallpox or meningitis vaccine. The same goes for climate change. So, cover yourself, before it is too late."

   Read his practical tips and join-in to make a difference.

2. She went, she saw, she created!

   
   

   

   Most people would go on a holiday and come back with a travelogue - not Rekha. When I recently met her, after her return from a holiday in Lebanon and Turkey, the glow on her face told me something was cookin - out came Global Desi. A global citizen she truly is anyway and the blog will share her and other traveler's experiences. The blog design is work in progress, but content shaping up nicely - read her take on the Bindi(an)question!

   This talk about travel and Indians reminds me of the SriLankan Airlines' outdoor campaign around town "Indians are everywhere, how do they get there? - SriLankan Airlines,". Brings a smile to my face- something doesn't seem ok with that line. It might have read better as, "Indians are everywhere, we take them there!" or something (if at anything on these lines). What say?

There is so much to learn in the social media space that it's imperative to collaborate, exchange notes, and help best practices evolve. We would endeavor to showcase the best of learnings from the blogosphere/ social media in our Blogs that Work series (It could even be a social media campaign and not just blogs. However, a personal musings blog doesn't qualify) for all of us to benefit.

The idea is simple - send us a case-study; if we find it interesting, we will first feature it on the blog and then put it up on the Resources page on www.blogworks.in . Write in at: conversations(at)blogworks(dot)in

Please follow this basic format for consistency:

About-Company/ Organisation

Key Highlight
Executive Summary
Need
Challenge
Solution
Results
Future

"How can 'this' piece not be on the blog!" I had silently exclaimed to myself. After all 'this' is where it all started. A session in the office, an informal prompt and I had penned this first, with my limited understanding, for the company newsletter and it was then republished byExchange4Media.com in Jan 2006. It's been there since. In the interim, so much has happened...both for me and for the overall social media space.

I am adding the text below as the e4m story didn't carry links - they help. Do leave your feedback...

It's been a while since I wrote a concerted post and though I really want to sit and write, I think that will only happen next week. Meanwhile...

1. A text message from a friend Sunday evening prompted me to switch on 'We the People' on NDTV. Blogs & Social Media were being discussed and while I only caught bits, I think most of the conversation revolved around what's already been said/ written on other fora: blogs & social media can be misused/ freedom of speech/ who is liable and so on. Barkha Dutt had also written on this subject in HT earlier. Some of this perhaps originates from personal slander and abuse that many amongst the media fraternity have been victims of, on an anonymous blog (now dormant).

   Fundamentally anonymity doesn't lend itself to credibility. How much do we believe stories appearing in a rag? I think the same applies to blogs written by anonymous authors.

   My chosen agenda for the year is to get 'experts' to blog - once that gathers momentum, scales are going to tilt in favour of the 'real' experts anyway. Unlike today's blogosphere (at least the India scene), barring a few real experts, everyone is claiming to be an expert on everything. There is an inherent danger in that.

   I would say Ms. Dutt should start writing a blog too.

   Also, unless I missed, no one on the programme spoke about impact of blogs & social media on business.

Time(s) surely (are) is changing. Time.com moved to a new Web 2.0 format this week...

Amongst others, Time.com's star bloggers Ana Marie Cox and Andrew Sullivan will write 'Swampland' and 'Daily Dish' blogs respectively. There is 'The China Blog', but no India Blog, yet! Maybe someone from Time will read this and bring about change :).

The new site is, of course, RSS, podcast and mobile enabled and like many others in mainstream media, Time too understands the power of social media - embedded at the bottom of each story are RSS Feed; Digg; Del.icio.us (I still cannot get the URL of this one right at first attempt) and many other ranking/ bookmarking buttons.

The site features a Most Popular list but I couldn't figure out how it is compiled.

So there we are, Time's credibility coupled with new media transparency and speed - let's see where it takes us.

It has been a busy start to the year and even as the 'Cool List of 2006' post remains pending still, I have been thinking about what possible trends/ consolidation to expect online/ on the Indian blogosphere this year:

1. Year before last a client of mine was disapproving of my team's effort to get her brand visibility online. She thought it was 'easy' to get featured online and therefore didn’t count for much. I was quite amused by the reaction, as my own online experience had assured me of the medium’s power - my online writings have always been seen by more people; commented upon by more people; they stay around longer; can be linked; emailed... I can carry on. Coupled with the 'ease' of web 2.0, where I can do anything myself; put up anything on You Tube or Digg the power multiples, making the world truly flat. You are as good, as you really are! I think the online medium has arrived and will gain ground rapidly
2. When we launched BlogWorks.in last week with the Blog the Talk series, IMPACT weekly agreed to carry the content in a 2 part series. We were able to reach an entirely different community of readers through the exercise and the talk was read by a much larger audience, in addition to those who were already online . I like this marriage of mainstream with blogs. As blogs produce more and more compelling content, the trend is going to gain ground
3. I chanced upon a celebrity CEO's blog the other day. Very newbie, but very promising. I could see myself writing a blog a few months ago, struggling with template back-ends etc. but soon that became a thing of the past and I could actually concentrate on the writing part. I can see more and more experts and thought leaders joining the blogosphere and as that happens, credibility of blogs is going to go up too

Edition 1 discusses the Impact of blogging and social media on Indian business and marketing. It was remarkable that each participant, from the heavy-weight (figuratively speaking) panel, confirmed within an ‘Aye’, within hours of my writing to them. Thanks all. The entire discussion happened over an internet messenger – apt, wouldn’t you agree? – both, the message and the method. Our panelists -in no order of preference! :) -

1. Toby Bloomberg: "A real live blogger", "Business blog evangelist" that's what people have called Toby. Toby is president of a strategic and social media consultancy based in the U.S. She has been a real live blogger since the spring of 2004 when she launched Diva Marketing Blog. As one of the most recognised consultants in this space, Toby's passion now is helping organizations navigate the blogosphere and developing social media/blog strategies that support their business goals. Toby is based out of Atlanta, USA
2. Govindraj Ethiraj: Journalist-writer, a keen watcher of the social media and technology space, Govind is the New Media Editor for Business-Standard. A keen blogger, he writes a popular blog at Dateline Bombay. Govind is based out of Mumbai, INDIA
3. Anurag Batra: A dear friend, Anurag is the Editor in Chief & Managing Director of the exchange4media Group - a special interest publishing company which publishes five titles including three titles in advertising, marketing and media domain- Exchange4Media.com , PITCH , Impact and two consumer titles Franchise Plus and Realty Plus . Anurag is based out of New Delhi, INDIA
4. Yours truly moderated the discussion. I too am based out of New Delhi, INDIA.

1. My best soccer kick came in a classroom (just before Mexico '86). I was in class 11 - the whole school heard the window pane shatter
2. I like imperfect noses (on women :) )
3. As a child (6 years old perhaps), I wouldn't drink water until I had ascertained that the water was 'chilled' to my satisfaction and I would do this by putting the tumbler to my cheek (emulating the little boy on the Kwality ice-cream packs/ ads, who did the same with an ice lolly). Very often, the tumbler would be returned many times before I was satisfied with the results, driving my mom and uncles mad - wouldn't dare try with my dad then :).
4. My favourite non-commercial fragrance is simple sandalwood oil - dab on a little to get your very own 'unique' signature
5. I haven't read ANY of the classics that EVERYONE is expected to read.

The world has moved on. From just a checklist that needed a communication to be evaluated on whether it covered '5 Ws and the H', the very dynamics of crafting a media release have changed in the last few years. Not just is it pertinent to create specific media messages for specific audience, emergent media has brought about the need for new formats in which we need to deliver media material, say the press release. The importance and value of Hyperlinks, Tags, Social Bookmarking, User Vote on Content, for online content to be found through search and otherwise, has been understood.

I was with a client yesterday, sharing the idea of a community concept on the blogosphere, and we were discussing pros and cons about a marketer's participation in a 'community' concept, over limiting the presence to just a blog 'owned' by the marketer.

There are, in my opinion, a couple of compelling reasons, favouring the community logic:

The first, is the simple concept of 'you scratch my back, I will scratch yours' - media is becoming prohibitively expensive and as against spending precious dollars promoting just your property, marketers stand to gain from a collaborative effort - everyone benefits, more.

Second, the community usually sees bigger participation of/from users, than what an individual brand may be able to garner, as it caters to many different needs, tastes etc.

Third, analytics - this is the decisive reason in my opinion - consider this...

I write about FM/ Radio quite often on my blog and at this moment 8 of the 9 FM stations, except Fever 104 (and that got mentioned just now, so all 9) feature on my blog. Given that I sometimes feature high on FM related searches, many of these queries land on my blog.

Now using simple tools, I can tell you which one among these is the most searched radio channel; where are these searches originating from and much more. This is valuable information for a marketer. Possible because ALL stations are mentioned on my blog. The same rule applies to a community blog - you can learn much more about your competitors, by being in a community. Simple!

Technorati CEO and founder Dave Sifry's quarterly status report 'State of the Blogosphere - Oct 2006' is out. The results are fascinating and you can find them here .

I am putting together key points that caught my attention:

1. Technorati is today tracking 57 + million weblogs
2. Over 55% blogs are active (updated at least once in 3 months).
3. The blogosphere is now doubling every 230 days.
4. There are 100,000 new blogs appearing every day.
5. 1.3 million posts, every day (about double the volume last year)
6. Top 50 media have 3 blogs, but top 100 have 12, however, by the time the list reaches 5000, it is dominated by blogs.
7. Persistance pays off in blogging, like in everything else- there is a direct corelation between 'High Authority' and longivity of a blog (though it is obviously not the only factor).
8. Of all blogs, English only contributes 39% ; 33% blogs are in Japanese and another 10% in Chinese.

Read the full report.

Indian marketers are beginning to acknowledge the fact that blogs are here to stay and are trying to explore how they can be used for marketing. The fact that US, and some of the other markets, have been exploring this domain ahead of us, offers learning...

Whilst unethical players bring dis-repute to any industry, the very premise on which Conversational Marketing is based, gets challenged if ethics and transperency are compromised - the impact is prompt and usually severe.

To help marketers & advisors know what would be the right thing to do as also to protect the consumers rights, WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) has released a discussion draft for public comment' of its 'WOMMA Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines - prompting us to remember that: Consumers come first, honesty isn't optional, and deception is always exposed.

1. I will always be truthful and will never knowingly relay false information. I will never ask someone else to deceive bloggers for me.
2. I will fully disclose who I am and who I work for (my identity and affiliations) from the very first encounter when communicating with bloggers or commenting on blogs.
3. I will never take action contrary to the boundaries set by bloggers. I will respect all community guidelines regarding posting messages and comments.
4. I will never ask bloggers to lie for me.
5. I will use extreme care when communicating with minors or blogs intended to be read by minors.
6. I will not manipulate advertising or affiliate programs to impact blogger income.
7. I will not use automated systems for posting comments or distributing information.
8. I understand that compensating bloggers may give the appearance of a conflict of interest, and I will therefore fully disclose any and all compensation or incentives.
9. I understand that if I send bloggers products for review, they are not obligated to comment on them. Bloggers can return products at their own discretion.
10. If bloggers write about products I send them, I will proactively ask them to disclose the products’ source.

Many of us have been tracking this, but if you haven't yet heard about the Walmart 'fake blog' controversy that both Walmart and Edelman found themselves embroiled in recently, go here (Excerpt: ...a blog ostensibly authored by a couple traveling across America in their RV and spending nights parked in WalMart parking lots turned out to be a fake blog, the brainchild of WalMart’s PR counselors at Edelman).

Not just did it impact credibility for Edelman's me2revolution initiative and Edelman per se, Steve Rubel, who writes his very popular Micropersuasion blog and is now employed by Edelman, also found himself at the receiving end of brickbats - this is what he had to say.

The controversy is far from over as these (1, 2) would suggest.

Tricky, the blogosphere, and leaders will need to tread with even more caution. Richard Edelman has acknowledged the error and brought about change.

Focus is on WOMMA code of ethics.

We are all learning...

Update 03 November 2006: Edelman Membership Put on Review

(WOMMA has responded this week to issues of disclosure and ethics surrounding Edelman’s recent blogs for Wal-Mart by placing Edelman’s membership on review. The following letter was forwarded to Richard Edelman and Rick Murray on Monday- text here). Source: www.womma.org


Original post is here.

Knowing what is the customer/ user saying about you is very powerful input for a marketer to improve user experience, and that tracking blogs allows us to do that quite easily is something that I have believed for long.

This episode shows how easy it is, and why more companies should be doing so:

I wrote this post on my blog sometime ago, to which someone added a comment, saying...

"Why don’t you consider writing about some of the new “India 2.0” sites that are creating a little buzz as well?Eg: www.ilaaka.com and www.onyomo.com "

(Update: Nikhil informs me that our friend who posted the above comment has been spamming everyone with this message :) ).

I did that and wrote ...

"...Onyomo is a nice concept too and the sms option is great but success depends on how comprehensive is the service - for eg. I searched for Seeds and plants - got none. Searched for riding school and got an eatery. But, that will get sorted out over a period of time I think."

A couple of days ago, someone who works with Onyomo, googled his company name and found my comment.

Addressing the points raised by me, he left a note

"Hi Rajesh,

We at Onyomo have been working hard to build a useful and innovative service. Even though the things you searched for are not yet covered by our search engine, sooner or later our search will cover these categories. We're always on the lookout for suggestions regarding the data that people may want to search...

... However, as you noted correctly, these problems will get sorted out sooner or later.We've also launched an SMS Search service in Delhi/NCR and Bangalore where you can search from you mobile phones on the move.

I sincerely hope that you'll like our service..."

I was mighty impressed with the proactiveness shown by the team and visited the site again, posted another comment on my blog, in which I also asked the gentleman, were he to visit my blog again (wanted to see if he did), to drop me a line for a few suggestions that I had.

This morning, he had obviously googled 'Onyomo' again, visited this blog soon afterwards to read my newest comment and promptly dropped me a line.

I have just replied back to him. I do not know how useful my suggestion would be but I am richer for the experience.

My 'blogs for business and public relations' journey started about a year and half ago and soon thereafter I penned this article (first published for our internal newsletter at Genesis Burson-Marsteller where I was employed until recently). So much has already changed for the Indian blogosphere that many things that the article mentions sound dated. Each day has been new learning.

Anyway, I was invited to speak at a seminar yesterday on 'Blogs for Marketing'. It was great fun to work on this presentation. As luck would have it I was gifted a copy of Naked Conversations (Robert Scoble/ Shel Israel) by a friend and that was very useful too.

Slideshow:

Do write me your feedback so I could imbibe that into my future sessions. I am not able to share the Blog/Works proprietary methodology as I hope to retain that as a differentiator.

Update: Am replacing the presentation and only a sampler is up now. Write to me if you are interested in the entire presentation.

In little over a year or so, since I first started to speak about it, I have seen corporates and organizations become much more receptive towards the need to adopt blogs as an important tool to engage with key stakeholders. Businesses have already started to see blogging as a 'should do' initiative. However, many are still unsure as they find the blogosphere uncontrollable. The need is to understand that they are being spoken about irrespective! The way to reach your voice is through participation.

There will of course be reactive blogging by brands, companies and business leaders in response to being spoken about on the blogoshpere, but I think marketers and corporates who adopt blogging proactively will benefit most.

Blogs are an opportunity for marketers to engage with the consumers first-hand, to establish context - by sharing and seeking perspective - in a two-way communication process that is closest to word-of-mouth and yet broad-based. Similarly, corporates can establish thought leadership, influence policy, engage with prospective employees and more through proactive blogging.