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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

I have, over the last week or so, been sharing some of my business (added later) communication learnings with a younger colleague. These sound very simple, but aren't, and can make all the difference as I found, sometimes after having paid the price for overlooking.

1. Say more in less.
2. Close the loop.
3. Don't presume, ask instead.
4. Make things idiot proof.
5. Your tone will decide the results.

In this post, I am taking up "Say more in less" and will try and complete the entire series in this week. Hope this helps some of my other younger readers.

There are several different mistakes that all of us make in our business (added later) communication:

1. When writing, we like to ramble on, write so much text that even we can’t remember where we started. What was the message again? Hmmm, it got lost somewhere.

   
   I found, and have made it a standard practice, to edit all text after writing it and if possible, share it with someone else who I could trust with further editing. I find that 20 percent less text, without losing any value from the content, is not very difficult and even less when you then hand it over to another editor. Try it, you will find message clarity and retention will be far higher.

2. Similarly, Open-ended sometimes prolongs the process. Think through and then communicate. Sample this conversation over text on a mobile:

   
   Q: Can we meet sometime?
   A: Sure

   Q: How about next week?
   A: Sure, should be possible.

   Q: Ok, thanks, how about Wednesday?
   A: I am out of town on Wednesday.

   Q: Oh, how about Thursday then?
   A: Yes, that should be fine.

   Q: Ok, where do we meet?
   A: You say.

   Q: Costa, GK?
   A: Ok

   Q: What time?
   A: You say

   Q: 3.30?
   A: Ok, what is the context?

Phew. Of course I am exaggerating a bit, but you get the point.

How about this instead?

1. Q: Hi, I was wondering if we can meet sometime next week. Need some business advice from you. Does Wednesday, 3.30 p.m. Costa at GK work for you?
2. A: Hi, sure we can meet. I am traveling Wednesday but Thursday same time, same place should be fine.

Write in your best learnings.

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.

If content is the heart of a blog, comments are its very soul - is my learning of the last month.

Comments had to be disabled for a few days, as spam threatened to bring down the server. It was to be a simple back and forth between 'disable' and then 'enable' again.

It would have been exactly like that, until, I guess I did something with the database and deleted a file. Finally, my friend who has designed the site, managed to revive them - just now. Comments are now enabled again.

Conversations did continue over email, in fact, I got many mails asking why the comments were off, some commented on posts - old and new, one wrote back to me that the feed was, in fact, carrying the few 'test' posts that I attempted to check results of my own failed attempts to revive the content. However, it just isn't the same thing...the group energy is all important.

Well, here we are! No, here YOU are! For, what I say is not the story, what you add - the multiple perspectives from each of us - make it 'the story'.

You make this blog tick. Keep writing.

Cheers!

UPDATE: Comments are now enabled for the past few posts, so please go-ahead and post your comments on those too.

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! :)

These trend prediction things are scary I think. I mean how many of them will be egg in the face? :)

I was taking a peek at my first post of last year, summarizing possible online trends for 2007, to see where we stand - let me know your thoughts:

1. Online will gain ground rapidly - am I imagining it or so much really happened in just one year?
2. Marriage of mainstream and blogs - expect more of it this year.
3. Experts and thought leaders joining the blogosphere - too little really.
4. Aggregators will have an important role to play - expect more of it this year.
5. Human intervention to bring out what’s special - Mahalo - people powered search, is gaining ground; social bookmarking has gone mainstream.

   Sanjay Trehan, NDTV Convergence had an interesting comment at a panel discussion I moderated recently - a study suggests that usage of organic search actually declined by 6%, on the other hand people finding content directly or through bookmarking went up 4%.

Do you smell Mobile-Internet as the thing to look out for this year? Other than consumption of Internet via the mobile - I think we can expect more mobile friendly sites and blogs - mobile enabled communities might be the thing to watch out for.

I was chatting with Gaurav this morning to plan the next Blog the Talk discussion, which I thought should be around Mobile-Internet aspects covering micro blogging tools likeTwitter; community enablers likeSMS Gupshup etc. and how they will likely impact marketers.

My last meeting of 2007 was with a friend who runs one of the leading mobile marketing companies in India. We spoke about possible threats to the traditional short code business, and also the opportunities that the new environment promises for companies operating in the mobile space.

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.

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.

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!

I have been answering some LinkedIn questions for fun, leaving short intuitive answers. This one asked "Is viral marketing a good way to promote a new product?"

Other than what had already been written, I felt:

Do you have something interesting (entertaining) to share that I should pass on to my friends (and so on) or my friends should pick up themselves (like the way they do, on say a Facebook)? That is the question you should ask. Most marketers are obsessed at pushing 'brands' but the consumer is not obliged or excited at that thought - yes, not even if you pay them - they are happy to push/ even pull something that adds value to their life, even if for a very short duration of time. A few things to look out for:

1. Who are the category evangelists?
2. Among them who are the influencers?
3. Can I seed my concept with them?
4. How will it add value to them?
5. Now that might create buzz!
6. Virals grow rapidly, remember, so be prepared for the traffic! ;) - it's a website -

What do you think about the viral phenomenon?

I have been thinking about how the public relations agency might evolve in the next couple of years. Advertising went through this change much earlier - the dominant full-service agency made way for multiple new formats - the creative hot-shop; the media buying agency; the media planning agency; the account planning agency and so on... sure the full service agency survives too. I think public relations offerings might be due for radical change. Three trends are influencing/ will influence change:

Domain and vertical expertise

As public relations gains deeper entrenchment into several key functions within the organisation, specialist offerings providing greater understanding and rigor in respective domains have found takers. Clients have similarly found value in deeper knowledge and contacts in respective verticals. We have already seen this happen in:

1. Domains: Public Affairs; Investor relations; Internal Communication


2. Verticals: Technology; Aviation; Entertainment

Social (People) Media

The advent of blogs and social media have given rise to a completely new set of 'influencers' - "where earlier mainstream media alone was the key conduit through which information traveled and opinion was formed, no longer is the individual dependent on just the media to be heard – s/he speaks for herself/himself through blogs, podcasts, videos, wikis and these individuals are coming together on social network sites and content communities."

It is clearly a different environment - the participants are different, playing with a different set of rules, moving at a speed that's far rapid. Even mainstream media has had to evolve, adopting many ingredients and participants from this new environment.

So, who is where? The India Scene.

If we look around, it isn't difficult to tell that most 'mainstream public relations agencies' in India are, at the moment, somewhat lagging in their understanding of the space. On the other hand are the mainstream advertising agencies - they are usually prompt at adding new sub-brands/ divisions to keep alive their 360 degrees claims and this time is no different. Interactions with (many of) them however won't give you the confidence that they have the understanding - they understand the terms/ concepts alright, but do they understand the underlying principles of Social Media? I am not so sure, when I see rampant Astoturfing a la Silky Kumar and others. They are uniquely positioned though to get the client to spend the money on social networking sites of their own :) - did you see ROI being hit for that long twenty20 six? Yes, there it goes...

Among the 'interactive agencies', many of who which are run by friends, I know only one which is building 'serious capabilities' in the space and I respect them for the intent and the effort they are putting into it. Most others, under pressure from the client, are working towards finding 'mentions on blogs' as an extra service. Extra for extra money? Am not sure about that. The answer may lie in gaining strategic understanding to the tools & concepts and integrating them into the offerings.

However, advertising, and related creative, has mostly been about driving traffic and sales. Do the latter two players have a strategic understanding of 'reputation'? Public relations agencies, with their inherent understanding of reputation and engagement may be naturally suited. Somewhat lagging at the moment, as they may be, are still the logical owners of the social media domain, I think.

There are also a few dispersed social media consultants - successful bloggers/ enthusiastic tech wizards; loads of energy, good understanding of the tools but perhaps lacking, again, in understanding of reputation. Would a large Indian or global brand trust their reputation to such a team? Depends on the risk taking ability of a brand manager or the communication head.

Blogs are but a piece and there too the game has already moved beyond mere blogs into social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and others and micro blogging phenomenons like SMS Gupshup and Twitter. There too, which tools/platforms have gained critical mass? What's the impact? How do we leverage!!...is the game and not just being in the know of every little sneeze on the social media scene.

Even as we ourselves developed our strategic blogs and social media offering, we were very clear that 'this' is only half the story. The other half is combining such an offering with our understanding of mainstream public relations and marketing. So, that's how we have been approaching our work - combine the two for holistic management of reputation.

So, clearly, social media offerings in isolation don't work - integrated public relations is the way to go. How will this get achieved? Mergers? Strategic tie-ups to gain reach and scale could be a way forward.

Technology Intervention

Barring internal knowledge management portals of a few large agencies, technology usage for a typical public professional was, until recently, limited to email and Google search. This is changing rapidly and technology will play an increasingly crucial role in disseminating messages; connecting with stakeholders; managing costs - both of outreach and employee cost. Technology will also, like in every other business today, bridge the divide of size, offering a comparatively leveler playing field to smaller players.

1. Online wire agencies, many of them allowing free uploads, are helping agencies reach their messages - across geographies; faster; cheaper.


2. Social Media Press Release, Press Release Optimisation are fast becoming SOP.


3. Contacts and content accompany the professional- my friend Paul, a US national, has been traveling across India, Europe for the last many months. Without missing a beat, he continues to write speeches/ press releases for his US based clients and disseminates them, currently from Paris? Oh, not sure where he is at the moment, for it doesn't matter - he is online and live wherever he is.


4. Concepts like The News Alliance and others, when they come alive, promise to offer platforms for professionals to combine social networking, with content management and message dissemination, providing great ease, minimal intrusion and reduced spends on time and money... offering great value for the professional and business owners alike.

Public relations in above scenario is clearly going to be divided into strategic and operational offerings. Something that on the lines of the advertising business, can be split over two or more agencies - one for strategy and direction; one or more for operations.

Such a format would make immense sense for clients who want best-in-class, on somewhat lower budgets. The full-service, multi-specialty agency will continue to drive value for global clients working under one umbrella.

As participants in the space, we are clearly living in interesting times.

What are the scenarios you see emerge? Which ones that I mention you agree/ disagree with? Do share your thoughts, like always.

This post is clearly with me wearing my Public Relations hat.

Public Relations has, forever, been a case of classic irony, where instead of being celebrated as a phenomenon that encompasses most aspects of life; instead of being seen as a complex and rigorous science managing relationships with a variety of stakeholders, it has been - in the worst case scenario - been looked down upon as 'spin' or - in the best case scenario - simply seen playing a limited role of garnering 'publicity'. Media relations has perhaps, by virtue of being the most 'visible' interactions of a public relations professional, unfortunately, led to the latter conclusion.

A case of bad reputation, for the keeper of reputation itself.

Traditional media was, until very recently, a key tool for information dissemination, influencing opinion and behavior and therefore an important participant in the public relations process. Cut to today, and a new layer of influencers has been added along - the individual/s. With blogs becoming carrier of opinion and with many now carrying mainstream and business news, a la traditional media, a new task has been added to the typical public relations professionals life - blogger relations. Sounds simple!

Like you disseminate information to journalists, do the same for bloggers. Where is the problem? Well, that is the problem, bloggers are NOT EQUAL TO journalists. Blogs and social media are absolutely new phenomenons themselves, evolving rapidly; bloggers are themselves discovering the role they can/ should be playing; professional understanding of the medium is fairly nascent and is trying to keep pace with the fast evolving environment - simply put, the situation is far from simple.

Writing this blog has put us in a rather unique position where, on on hand we are marketing and public relations practitioners; on the other we have a somewhat popular blog that brands and companies sometimes wish to participate in; and last, but not the least, we are active participants in contributing to the social media environment and know-how. This allows us many perspectives to this situation.

We sometimes get showered with emails from agencies or get a friendly request to feature a client/product on one our of properties, which we politely turn down; sometimes we too end up an status 'upset' mail from a touchy but influential blogger (great learning come our way with these little incidents on what 'not to do) and alternately we have found us discussing all these issues amongst ourselves, with peers & associates in the social media space - complaining, debating or discussing possible best practices.

My friend Toby Bloomberg has written several posts 1, 2, 3, (and more) talking about Blogger Relations, and today I read my friend Rohit Bhargava's post on beta of Ogilvy Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics. These are gems, do read them again and again.

This post from Nikhil and this - via Rohit's blog (there are dozens of others) made me think about writing this post, to seed the need for public relations professionals to 'play right' in the new environment. Hope you too want to chip in towards a healthier reputation for our profession and more rewarding engagement with bloggers.

Here are a few thoughts:

1. Think value addition - Most bloggers are not into writing their blogs as a full-time profession. Many are employed executive or professionals and are writing in their 'free' time. If you want them to find value in you/ your client, do share what they 'need'. Bloggers, unlike mainstream media don't have time/ access to reams of research. Can you add value with research, data, trends? Even full-time bloggers need that. Become a valued partner rather than just someone who spams them with press releases.
2. Think customization - There are news blogs and then there are opinions and insights blogs. Don't confuse the two. Have we customized information for them to find it of use?
3. Think relationships - Read Toby's post 1 again. Relationships mean mutual respect and participation. Influential bloggers, like any of us, may not engage with us when we NEED them. Have we invested into the relationship? Do we really care about reading their blog? Have we ever commented on the blog, not to say how beautiful the blog looks for how magical every word they write is, but to actually take the conversation forward?
4. Think engagement - Is there merit in indulging in public relations that's not about coverage - previews, reviews, interviews, announcements - but about engagement to seek feedback, opinion, product participation and evangelism? It may eventually lead to 'coverage' and chances are that the blogger who sees you genuinely wanting feedback, to change the offering for the better, will respect you and give your his/ her trust. Convince the client! It might just do wonders for their brand.
5. Think relevance & timing - A golden rule that I follow: don't attempt to sell everything to everyone. Is the information you are sharing, relevant to this blog? If not, don't waste the blogger and your own time. Also, bloggers typically don't want to be seen as followers, particularly the influential ones - timing of when you reach out to them could be the crucial differentiator. A new logo, that's been plastered everywhere for 2 weeks, is not of value anymore for an influential marketing blog.
6. Think what's my role- Unlike many journalists, many bloggers are not happy working with agencies, they want to interact with the client directly. They want information first hand. Respect this, introduce and step aside maybe? Might just work.
7. Think maturity - in dealing with bloggers, in our expectations, in our follow-ups, in our comments on their blogs. Respect and credibility are a function of how we conduct ourselves.

These come to my mind right now but this is certainly not the end of this post. Perhaps more from me and definitely from you I hope. Like always, do take the conversation forward.

Cheers.

UPDATE - 9 September 2007, 7.38 am:

1. Think YOUR value- I have always believed that there is significant value addition that public relations provides to the media's own efforts in generating content, and without content media would simply be white sheets/ empty screens. Same will increasingly be true of micro publishing concepts like blogs etc.

   There is an increasing tendency among many immature bloggers to ridicule concepts, executives, entrepreneurs, plans, offerings etc, as idiotic/ idiots, as if... just because they write a blog, they are also uniquely gifted to comment about serious and important matters with very little or no inputs/ understanding whatsoever. To spot the variety is not very difficult - just spend a little time on the sites - DON'T create monsters by chasing them. Understand the value of your inputs.

   So, respect and preparedness for credible bloggers and don't waste time chasing the variety I quote above.

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)?

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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:

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).

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.

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!

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:

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! :)

"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 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.

Let's begin with a 'tool': "You Tube for Powerpoint" - for me, the beauty of Slideshare is in its simplicity. After years of struggle to reach across presentations in PPT, Acrobat and whatever formats, this one enabled me to, by allowing me to simply 'upload and share' - simple as that. Once can also embed in your blog or share a link etc. There are that they could do better, of course, but I can see that they are working on them - they are fairly small and therefore reachable - you leave a message on their site, they bring about change.

To me, as an executive, the value of this tool even surpasses that of You Tube (not to be confused with the much larger impact that You Tube indeed has. ). It's amazing to see the different uses it is being put to. Sample this:

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!

It would seem that most Indian marketers choose to simply hide behind the reasoning that "Volumes don't justify," for not acting on customer feedback:

1. After years of leaving feedback after feedback, I still cannot get a shirt with sleeves in length that fits me


2. After years of leaving feedback after feedback, I still cannot get trousers in waist size 33"


3. Last winter, I couldn't find a pullover in ANY Indian brand that was less wide at the waist, than at the chest - they seem to only be designing for the unfit male - I had to finally settle for a foreign label that cost me a bomb. Shame I think.

This one beats me:

1. After years of feedback, I still cannot get a coffee bar to serve me soup (even a pour hot water in cup, over a sachet 'maggie' variety, sold at a premium over listed price?) as they are a 'coffee bar', then why serve tea and assortment of other drinks? Simple logic that every time a guest wants to have something liquid, it doesn't necessarily have to be 'sweet' doesn't seem to cut ice

Original post here.

I find it funny…

How can the marketer 'own' the customer? Why should the customer be referred to as 'loyal'? "You are our loyal customer, you deserve to be rewarded," we say. Isn’t it derogatory to the customer? Shouldn’t the marketer be loyal instead, and hopefully the customer would reward by buying or if are really lucky, continue to buy and endorse to others.

This large multi-national bank that held my salary account, had extended me a huge overdraft facility, but then, I moved out of my job - the f & f settlement was in process and the cheque was expected any moment. In the interim, I decided to use the overdraft facility and a crucial Service Tax cheque, with last date for payment due, was in the queue. Calling to enquire about receipt of my f & f cheque, I was informed that I was short of funds and the pending cheque would be rejected. The overdraft had been reduced by half. It took half-a-day of requests, follow-ups etc. to get the bank to just HOLD the cheque for another day. My expected f & f cheque arrived the same day, bringing a pile of money and the cheque was cleared.

Of course, it is the bank’s money and they don’t owe me anything to be so generous as to clear the cheque with no funds in the bank, but I think they owed it to me that someone wrote to me/ spoke with me just to keep me informed that they had reduced my overdraft limit. I settled my account with the bank, the same day, and moved the remainder of my money to another bank. I am not likely to bank with them again – too tiny to matter? Of course, but it is those small-subtle things that make a customer stay.

I don’t know if he would agree that this episode could be called breach of loyalty at all, but to still borrow his words - Ashwani may have said something like this “The cup was great, but the coffee was cold”. Doesn’t help.

The hospitality business has great learnings to offer I think:

• You are as good as my last experience with you – you may have served me a a great meal yesterday, but today the soup sucks and I think you are no good. Consistency matters.
• Wow, the food is great but why is the AC so cold (it could also be “Why is it so warm?”
• Wow, perfect food, perfect service… but hey, there’s no soap in the loo?
• Great view from the room, nice bed and room service is great, but hey, why must I suffer the noise if the gentleman next door has a bad case of a Delhi Belly?

The hospitality business appreciates a smile from a guest - they know that they must have done something right to earn it. I also think they understand the value of surprise: When I go to a restaurant, I expect great food; great service; great ambience – that’s what I have paid for. Then one day, the chef walks out of the kitchen, surprises me by greeting me by name and offers to prepare anything special – doesn’t matter if it is not in the menu. Ummm - the meal was just perfect; dessert and coffee follow (the coffee has been specially brewed by her). The cheque doesn’t cover dessert and coffee – “You have our guest many times, the dessert is on the house today. Hope you enjoyed your meal”.Accumulated reward points, to be redeemed at milestones (only to find that the item you received costs half the ascribed value) are not a patch.

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.

From the time that Alok first mentioned it to me; to reading his post; to the time that someone sent me a link showcasing a virtual demo on it; to the time that I finally logged on to test it out myself, Second Life has compelled me to think more and more about the future.

Second Life is quite surreal - a virtual world where you choose who you are, meet real people (behind their chosen avataars), test out real products (in a virtual environment), spend real money to buy virtual money that allows you to buy not just virtual land and virtual stuff but lets you conduct real business and also convert the virtual money, you may have earned, into REAL money. Fascinating but also a bit scary.

I signed up, but haven't ventured in, yet. There are reasons - let me share:

I think of Second Life as Sims meets the Terminator series- vision of a future that is dominated by techonology so much that there are two classes of people - one who understand technology (rulers) and others who don't (slaves) :). Second Life makes it very real. Growing the way it is, the day may not be far that to succeed in business you have to be on it? A marketing device that you cannot do without! I don't know.

My points:

1. People who do are not comfortable with technology have a distinct disadvantage (but then, like someone said just now, that's true even today :) ).
2. The economy of the future will be controlled by a 'company'? How powerful will that company become.
3. I have been reading about 'game-like elicitation methods' of research (which I am quite fascinated with) - you think you are playing a game but your mind is being mapped; movement patters sharing with the researching party who you are, what you may buy. Doing so with virtual money on Second Life gives the company much more power to read the mind, spending habits, so much other data - all the time that one is on it. Wow - how may it be used?
4. Even as we are beginning to wonder about work-life balance as we find it difficult to cope with demands and rigours of our present day life. It doesn't seem to likely to get any easier and then another life that demands more time and attention (which it will get because it promises to earn us more money).

I am not sure about what else, but I haven't stopped thinking about the implications and am still coming to terms with it - though I must confess it is the most powerful one that I have come across lately.

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.