Given that our business and offerings have evolved, we are looking at an immediate revamp for both http://blogworks.in and http://blogworks.in/blog.

The task, other than enhancing technology, tools and aesthetics, also involves moving the site/s from Movable Type to Wordpress, while keeping the URLs intact.

We are in the process of shortlisting partners for the project and if you are interested in participating, do write in to me at rajesh (dot) lalwani (at) blogworks (dot) in with complete details of your firm, samples of 'similar' past works. Ideally we are looking at handing the project over to one team with both design and development capabilities.

Will share a detailed brief once we have evaluated capabilities and past work.

Cheers

We've always used "Informal, not casual" to describe the personality of our little organisation, in essence saying that we may not wear a tie to meetings or may sit atop a table to work, or work from Lodhi Garden, but are never 'casual' in work we do. The result is best captured in words that that people have often used to describe our work and team - 'passionate' and 'fantastic' being just a couple.

Prompted by an experience yesterday, this morning I gave my team (and myself) an internal mandate of 'Enjoy'! And make it extend beyond work, to life.

Can work be fun? Can we make working upon a strategy presentation 'enjoyable'? It's about a collective mindset that says 'enjoy' is not in clash with 'deliver value'.

That mindset needs a little change in how we approach work and life, and will require each of us to ask ourselves at every step about how can we make things enjoyable for ourselves, and people around us.

Whether then it is about collaborative working or choosing the right environment, or even about the need to negotiate a deadline... enjoy what we are doing is going to be at the center.

(Cross posted at the Scenario Consulting blog)

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do share your thoughts on the study too.

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

1. Rajesh

   

2. Rajika
   

3. Amita
   

4. Manpreet
   

5. Kriti
   

6. Richa
   

If you are an entrepreneur, you might be able to relate to this slide-show. Let me know what you think :)

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.

My wife and I were driving towards work when this really beautiful girl, around 6 years, came towards our car dancing. She was selling roses! I have stopped giving money to kids at traffic crossings, wary about feeding the vicious circle of child trafficking. On the other hand I have always been an admirer of how savvy the little 'salesmen/ salesgirls' are.

I sometimes get upset when I see a kid trying to 'sell', but pleading like a beggar - "either you beg, or you sell! If you are not begging, then why is your tone that of a beggar? If you have CHOSEN not to beg, then important that you don't. Don't disrespect your work and yourself by 'begging' the customer to 'buy'. Sell with dignity!"

This one was smiling, dancing, trying to sell her flowers to us...except I wasn't in a mood to buy -"the flowers may not be clean," a thought crossed. Wife said let's give her something maybe? I handed over a Rs. 10 note to her - she took the note, dropped a bunch of flowers in the car...danced away...laughing. My wife and I looked at each-other and smiled - what a lovely reminder...

Merry Christmas to you all - share joy with all around.

Blogworks completes 3 years officially on 26 December ( though I did my first Blogworks workshop in October 2006). There will be a post on 28th, as soon as we get back to work post the much deserved Christmas break :)

Photograph courtesy Sankarshan.

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

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 loved this picture by Sankarshan on first sight. He is amongst the most wonderful people I know and what a great couple Runa and he make :).

These are the things on my mind right now:

1. One
2. Two
3. Three

Have a wonderful day and a great year ahead.

Cheers

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

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 :)

A start-up taking the institution route is a journey. Of course we are learning and growing each day, yet there are some days that become memorable milestones.

A few months ago when a couple of my colleagues closed a business negotiation, all by themselves, I sat back and smiled. The loop was complete, for, it is this ability to bring business in that's critical for our move into a higher growth orbit.

Then last Friday I briefed the team on a new Weekly Review format that kept the rigour in measurement but gave the customer a dashboard view of what was happening on the programme. "Move from 'Output' measures to measuring Engagement and Impact, even on a weekly basis," I had said, "The insights need to be brought up."

What I got yesterday was the crispest, and yet, a very comprehensive representation of our work and customer insights. Yes, there will be more changes, but that the team has clear grasp on RoI was obvious. I am yet to get over that high.

Adding to the high was the sight of this sexy article, written by a colleague, going out over email...on it's way to, hopefully, get published in a business daily.

We're set!

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

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

We've been looking for a place that would reflect our personality and found such a place a little while ago - it's just opposite IIT, Delhi; nice access, pleasant surroundings, and of course the place itself is pleasing (not much furniture still :) ). It sets us up for bigger thing, so wish us good luck.

Some pictures from today, as we quickly set the place up for the puja. We start working from the new premises tomorrow.

If you are near us anytime, drop by for a cup of coffee :)

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.

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

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.

Give our corporate website a dekko here http://scenarioconsulting.in - the post is here.

Here's wishing a joyful 2009 to all. May it be a year to do, than wait. This video, one of my favourite, captures the flavor. Enjoy. Cheers.

Also see: Lead India - love this; hate that.

When I wrote this piece last year, as we completed a year, I had mentioned that "Sometimes a seed doesn't need more water to become a sapling, it needs more time!" One look around will tell you that social media has taken off, it's mainstream. Our Scenario/ Blogworks seed too has now taken root, and is growing nicely. 2009 is our year of growth - more about this in a bit but first a look at how 2008 has been so far:

We were sitting around my desk day-before, for a discussion on the year ahead and one of the things we reviewed was our objectives, as I had first coined sometime in October 2006, sitting alone at Lodhi Gardens.

Objective

1. We aim to be the most respected name in Conversational Marketing in the country, offering strategic solutions and know-how to brands & corporates.

   
   - Our consulting practice will deliver best-in-class, unique and measurable programmes by constantly innovating and combining this with a process oriented approach.

   - We will operate a range of innovative Web 2.0 communities, forums and platforms. We are clearly focused on creating a set of focused properties that would engage stakeholders we understand, in ways that simplifies processes; adds value to each stakeholder and profits us too.

I am not a great believer in 1st mover advantage and have come to believe that it's a comforting illusion that defocuses you from rigour and innovation that keep you ahead. Instead, we believe that "It is our culture of participation and constant innovation, combined with the focus on a disciplined approach that helps us deliver strategic solutions and measurable results for our clients."

1. It was evolution for us when, preparing for the next round of differentiation, we changed our promise to "Strategic Social Media Solutions" in March 2008. The needle had moved, marketers & corporates had begun to understand the need to engage stakeholders in conversations. As one of the first to enter the space, we too had contributed to this change in our small way, by sharing know-how and learnings. However, we believe, as social media gains mainstream adoption, strategic interventions are the only way brands, corporates and media companies - our key customer groups on the consulting side - could stand out and strategic solutions is our mainstay.

   
   Our work with clients allowed us to learn every moment as we created touch points, engaged, listened, identified evangelists, co-created with customers, learned that conversational marketing is not about online, it's about conversations.The journey continues & real work is our textbook.

2. Since our endeavor has always been to seed an institution, a natural step forward was to institutionalize the business. May 2008 we became Scenario Consulting Private Limited with Blogworks (and now Pitchh.com) as business divisions.
3. We had plans to launch a couple of focused communities right from the time we started, but as would often happen with a self-funded business, you need to prioritize .

   In July 2008 however, Pitchh.com, our first community initiative, was born out of a simple, but powerful, insight that both Brands and 'Agencies' could do with a platform that allows them to 'make the right connect' quickly and effectively.

   The process today, as both sides know, is not just time consuming also cumbersome. Brands often struggle to find the 'right' partner - for their 'specific' need and fit. Similarly for Agencies, it's quite a task to keep track of pitch requests doing rounds. Pitchh bridges that crucial gap.

   We have used the last few months to run test cases, bring about changes based on feedback. New features and enhancements are on the way. On the other one hand, a slowdown in global economy has meant that fewer new pitches are being invited by clients, on the other hand though agencies are now more open to such platforms even more than they were. We are just about starting our outreach...watch out for more action around Pitchh.

4. With 422 started surveys & nearly 200 completed surveys as I write this post, the India Social Media Survey, Brands & Corporates, Edition 1 that Exchange4Media and Blogworks is clearly a nice-nice way to close the year. The insights that I have peeped into ;) are fantastic - this is the real stuff, this is what’s really happening on the ground.

   Honestly, I can't think of a better team to have put this together :)

Powered with a fantastic team, great clients, countless friends, powerful insights, a warm office, this is just the beginning and the year ahead promises more success and joy.

Agenda 2009'

1. Expansion at Blogworks: We have the mind-space of stakeholders, credibility based on client work and referrals. This is our year to grow: offices in Bombay, Bangalore and a bigger team in Delhi, with office spaces to match.
2. Grow the research offering at Blogworks: We only took this live last week, even though we have done a lot of work all through 2008.
3. Blog the Talk goes live & real: Our widely read Blog the Talk Series goes live and becomes a ground event; the agenda of discussion remains pretty much the same.
4. Pitchh.com: Global adoption is our mandate and this year we take our steps in that direction.
5. Launch of another web 2.0 offering: This one is a content offering. We think we have found a cozy niche and would try and launch first quarter.

Any more and we'd have given too much away :).

Simply put:

Our Mission remains'

1. To facilitate transparent communication and conversations between organizations and their stakeholders.

With congratulations pouring in on Twitter, Facebook, G Talk..there is no place I'd - team raises hands and says 'We'd' in synchrony :) - that we'd rather be.

All this wouldn't be possible without each of yours support. Thanks MUCHOS!

Keep sending your good wishes.

Here is to success & joy. Amen.

UPDATE: 27 December 2008 @ 10.02 a.m.

Lots of wishes poured in on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere - here are the ones we were able to capture. A BIG THANK YOU from Team Blogworks to all well wishers.

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

Pitchh.com, is a business utility that lets Brands and Agencies “Make the Right Connect” globally.

1. Brands can create and invite pitch applications for wider choice of ideas and partners.
2. Agencies across streams of advertising, public relations, marketing, social media and more, can connect directly.

We got off to a good start, in terms of reviews with Amit Ranjan's Webyantra, giving us more than passing marks :)

UPDATE: And we are on Exchange4Media.
, Alootechie ; MediaWatch India and Watblog.

What will Pitchh do for you?

Pitchh.com lets Brands & Organizations, looking for communication and marketing partners; reach out globally, seamlessly, in real time, for a wider choice of ideas and partners by just writing a pitch invitation. Responses from Agencies can then be evaluated privately.

For Agencies, Pitchh.com performs the critical business discovery function and creates a level playing field that lets the 'right' partner be counted, participate and make a winning case.
Pitchh.com is a global platform and Invitations and Applications can be seen on the website in a variety of views- including by country, last date, popularity and others.

How you can use it.

You are a Brand or an Organization looking for an agency > go to Invite a Pitch > fill in an assignment brief > publish - and you are done.

No more reaching out to just a handful of names; no more hunting for specialty partners in those obsolete directories that can't help anyway. Pitchh lets you reach out globally, seamlessly, in real time, for a wider choice of ideas and partners. Just let them know you are looking for them and Make the Right Connect. You can evaluate applications privately - no one, other than you, gets to see the responses.

You are an Agency > go to Apply for a Pitch > View invited pitches> Create a profile> Apply for the pitch and you are connected.

No more working the phone just to be let into that hallowed circle; no more hush -hush pitches that you never got to hear about until they were long over; no more back-and-forth over emails with missing attachments. Pitchh lets you raise your hand and be counted, so you could participate, Make the Right Connect.

Quick and Effective. Try !!

You will see content come alive too, as YOU create profiles. Do so. You can expect many more changes, features in the next few weeks - your feedback would enable many of them.

In fact, here is the new home page. Tell us what you think of it.

So how does Pitchh work? Pitchh is free and quite simple, really:

You are a Brand or an Organisation looking for an agency > go to Invite a Pitch > fill in an assignment brief > publish - and you are done.

No more reaching out to just a handful of names; no more hunting for specialty partners in those obsolete directories that can't help– Pitchh lets you reach out globally, seamlessly, in real time, for a wider choice of ideas and partners. Just let them know you are looking for them and Make the Right Connect.

You are an Agency > go to Apply for a Pitch > view invited pitches> create a profile> apply for the pitch – and you are connected.

No more back-and-forth over emails with missing attachments; no more hush – hush pitches that you never got to hear about, until long after they were over; no more working the phone just to be let into that hallowed circle – Pitchh lets you raise your hand and be counted, so you could participate, Make the Right Connect.

What say?

I will of course share much more, very soon, but briefly put, Pitchh.com is an enabling platform that lets brands & organisations invite pitches & proposals from communication partners across streams of public relations, advertising, below the line, branding, web marketing and more.

Simply put it allows clients and agencies to make 'Make the Right Connect'.

What do you think? Do you believe it will be able to raise the bar; create a level playing field; enable the industry; be game changing, as we think it will...

Keep writing.

The Blogworks.in server, along with 8999 others and impacting 7000 odd customers of the company where we are hosted, was down for over 24 + hours.

1. Our corporate site was down.
2. So were our emails.
3. So was this blog.

Work continued continued nonetheless, but the connection that this blog allows us was missed.

It was a feeling of being handicapped, not being able to share what had happened, of not being able to connect. Every time something like this happens, I cherish the blog some more.

Also, Ajay had promised copies of his book Let's Connect to our readers and our first winner is Tarun Matta.

Happy to be back. Keep writing.

I have noticed that most start-ups are not focused on communication. I guess there could be many reasons:

1. Lack of understanding on how important effective and differentiated communication can be.
2. Everyone is so busy that no one is exclusively responsible for branding and communication.
3. The team doesn't consist a specialist with requisite background in communication/ branding/ marketing.
4. Some, particularly the very early-stage, may not have access to funds required to hire best-in-class communication teams.

Whatever be the reason, whilst communication alone cannot be reason for success, lack of effective communication CAN be reason for failure, where the offering itself may have had a good chances of success.

We have in the past received several proposals from entrepreneurs looking to collaborate for equity, but there weren't any that would really excite us to join hands. However, we have never really reached out with an offer from our side, until now.

Here is an offer:

1. If you are a start-up, with a great offering and a team to back it, looking for communication and marketing help (don't confuse marketing with business development, we won't do the latter), reach out and we might work together.
2. It isn't necessary, at all, that you are located out of India.
3. We will work for equity + costs.
4. We will take not more than 1 or 2 such partnerships in this year, totally at our discretion.

You can write in to me at - rajesh (dot) lalwani (at) blogworks (dot) in - with your proposal and I promise to write back to you, either way.

Cheers

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.

I just received an urgent message from our hosting company... "Need to inform you that one of the scripts on Blogworks is taking extreme CPU". I reached out to my friend who has developed and designed the site and shared the situation and also that the site is being spammed crazy for the last few weeks.

I understand that it's happening to many others and have been advised to disable comments on the site, for the moment. This is a tough one, but this decided it " Please treat this as Urgent as it is dragging down the complete server."

Comments are disabled for now, but I request you to write in your feedback at comments (at) blogworks (dot) in and I will see how we can publish them on the site.

Thanks in advance for keeping the conversations going!

Cheers.

It’s difficult to pin exact dates to things like this.

When did Blogworks really get seeded?

In June 2006, when I decided to move on from my previous job, I was toying with the idea of doing something in the blog/ social media space (the other being moving to Mumbai to finally be a part of the movie business – relax, to market movies, not to act in them! :)

Even though I had been intuitively following the space for a bit, it wasn’t until I attended Kishore’s talk, more than two and half years ago (?), that I formally started to pursue the idea.

I first shared the Blogworks concept with my friendAlok, then a client, as I served my last week at work and then with my former team on the last day.

At a talk on Blogs that FMCC invited to me speak at in October 2006, I first shared the Blogworks logo with participants. But it was really THAT walk – November 2006 - at Lodhi Garden, with the writing that followed right there, which allowed me to pen the objectives and business note.

Sunil, became my sounding board before I was able to share the story with Namita and Bidisha – both had some time available for the new project and became my colleagues at Blogworks, again, having been colleagues earlier too. I was looking at 100% heart capital, even if not 100% time capital, so it worked for all. New participants too have, of course, come in since…

Guru worked all night on 23 December last year, to have the site design ready by the next day. We HAD to be live by 26 December as IMPACT was carrying text from our first “Blog the Talk” series.

We went live 26 December, 2006 and complete a year today!

It has been an interesting year…

Many milestones we had set, were achieved early on, but the ‘business’ milestones took somewhat longer. Entrepreneurs turn philosophers sometimes and it was somewhere around then that I crafted this:

"Sometimes a seed doesn't need more water to become a sapling, it needs more time!

Not only was a new business being seeded, but a new concept of conversational marketing, delivered through blogs and social media was being introduced. We were attempting a new kind of consultancy.

Many myths needed to dispelled; many questions needed to be answered - credibility of blogs, blogs being casual diaries, ROI of social media, fear of losing control on the message, fear of negative comments. All the questions were (and stay) relevant, for brand and corporate reputation needs years of nurturing and we can’t be careful enough.

Some of these have been answered. However, the space is too dynamic – new developments are taking place each day. Users are writing new rules; marketers are making new mistakes; there are new learnings, each day.

Workshops, seminars, writings and some client work kept us busy for the initial part of the year. Client work, workshops, seminars and writing has us very busy for the last few months :).

None of this would have been possible without the affection, help and support (and yes, the loans :)) that Blogworks received from all directions – many times without asking, mostly with no expectations of anything in return.

There’s no way I could mention all the people (including all those who visit this site every day) who have helped us on the way. Thank you all - grateful.

Here, though, are just a few Blogworks regulars, friends, family, business partners, clients and colleagues who contributed in their special way.

No links; going alphabetically:

Blogworks is looking for young professionals who are excited about being a part of the emergent public relations and marketing space being shaped by blogs and social media.

We are typically looking for people with background in public relations, marketing and branding with 2 to 6 years of experience.

Hands on experience with social media tools would be important. If you write a blog and are familiar with blogging engines, it's great (send us a link to your blog). If you don't spend much time on blogs, social networking sites, content communities, don't know what PR Wire is... then we may not have an immediate position for you, but we welcome you to stay in touch.

1. Time Commitment: Both full and part time opportunities exist.
2. Location: Delhi, Mumbai; Bangalore.

Write in at careers@blogworks.in with a brief summary on impact of blogs & social media on marketing and communication and why you think you wish to be with Blogworks.

What do we do? Read FAQs here. More about our Team Culture here.

I am in Bangalore on Friday, 3 August and might have a window for one meeting around 3 pm or so, around Airport Road.

If someone had a thought, let me know via email, by this evening.

Cheers.

UPDATE: 4 August, 11.45 am.

New assignment, great client to work with - the brand and the people - nice sandwich & shake lunch together. Great start!

Last minute interaction fixed at Corporate Voice Shandwick, based on request from Melissa who heads 'South' for them. I have delivered a talk at the Delhi office earlier and was glad that I was able to meet the gang in Bangalore - exited about the social media space and eager to know more. Mr. Shiv Reddy, CEO made time to join in and it was great to see the simple, direct approach to things.

I landed at Bangalore Central, the mall, and walked a few miles back - enjoying the trees , comparing the ones I know from Delhi and discovering new ones from Bangalore. Why did I walk? PM's cavalcade was to pass and the traffic was held up. The weather was brilliant, lovely breeze, micro drizzle - me, laptop on my back, enjoyed the walk instead.

One more meeting; one friend who couldn't meet; bumped into a couple at the airport.

Ya, Bangalore is nice!

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

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.

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.

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...

Is that the case in your browser window too? While we are already trying to work upon the problem, it would help to know which browser and version you are using + your screen settings. Do leave a comment or email. Thanks in advance.

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...

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.

I have added an email subscription option to my blog. Take a minute to opt in...

The link is just below my profile.

Cheers.

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.

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!

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

Across shores, Diva Marketing Blog featured us and its wonderful to see the interest in India, as this comment left for Toby showcases:

"...I think we can learn much from India, as they navigate and execute through and on social media."

There have been a few questions and requests from friends and I am trying to highlight them here:

1. We do not take independent blog 'design' assignments, though we are happy to work with our design partner to deliver a complete blog/ web 2.0 property, but only as part of a strategic turnkey offering for our clients.
2. Our differentiated offering is strategic advice to brands & corporates on impact and use of social media. To deliver this, we follow a process that promises measurable results and ROI.
3. Yes, we would happy to speak with small/ large groups to explain blogs, social media and impact thereof on your business and marketing -at your office or another venue and happy to visit new cities.
4. A workshop series enabling marketing/ communication teams with holistic information on social media is being planned. Do drop me a line if you are interested.
5. Yes, we take up mainstream corporate and brand reputation assignments too :). We believe that understanding of public relations coupled with knowledge on social media is our unique differentiator.