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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Go spread some!

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

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

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

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

I spent some time on them in the last couple of days. It's early days yet, for both, and I would be keenly watching to see how they shape up.

Groups - or addas as they are called on BA - I visited, still have very few members and it might be some time before they achieve critical mass. CI doesn't have groups, unless I missed out, and continues to attempt building the community around blogs - more on that in a bit. Both looked very similar to Orkut in terms of features, so I wasn't really sure on what's the incentive for anyone who's already on Orkut (a large number now) to move to either.

As a matter of fact 2 clear trends I have recently noticed on Orkut:

1. It's become more mainstream and a somewhat older population is now beginning to adopt it too (I was fairly embarrassed until recently, to acknowledge that I was a member on Okut and would quietly lurk around, watching life go on around me). Now it's a bit like Ryze + loads of much younger people.
2. If youth who were already on Orkut are choosing to adopt new communities too, (they are not abandoning Orkut) then one community that I think finding traction is Facebook. It's more aspirational - the lure of a more global member-base, coupled with familiar Indian faces (many who have studied or are studying overseas) already friends with global buddies... making them more accessible to new joins. There's also more that can be done on the site, so many seem to be adopting it because they are perhaps now more comfortable with the concept of SNA and think they can hold their own etc.

Coming back to Ibibo and its blogging initiative - I think, even though they have given their 'rewards programme' a new twist by bringing in the criteria of interactivity and quality, and that is DEFINITELY going to clean up the place a lot, will it become a serious blogging platform? I don't think so! Here's what I think, but I need to go back a bit, first:

It was to be a monthly discussion but its already been 4 months since the launch of Blogworks - between our new business discussions, talks & workshops, writing the blog; (and of course) meeting our work commitments & deadlines :), we haven’t been able to keep that promise. Do hope that the content from the discussion below will make up for the gap. We hope to be more regular though (there are a couple of discussion already in the pipeline).

Much has also changed in the last few months- just the term blogosphere has become partly redundant, it’s about Social Media or Live Web now, broader in what it covers. Social Networking and User Generated Content (UGC) have been gaining mainstream status. In view of that, it was pertinent that we discussed: Impact of Social Networks and User Generated Content – an India perspective.

How long is a week? Very long if you are talking about social media, UGC and SNS - in the days between we had the discussion below and actually took it up - Social Networking Site Minglebox has received $ 7 million funding from Sequoia Capital and YouTube has announced revenue sharing! It's not for nothing that I call social media the fastest running animal on the planet!

Joining me today are(alphabetically):

1. Alok Mittal, Canaan Partners – Alok, a friend, former client 2 times over, is a Partner with Canaan - an early stage venture fund with focus on internet, technology and BPO space. A first generation entrepreneur, Alok is also a founding member of Band of Angels India - an organization comprising successful entrepreneurs looking to invest in seed stage businesses. Alok’s community blog Venturewoods attempts to bring the Indian venture community closer together. Alok is located in New Delhi.
2. Amit Ranjan, Slideshare – Amit Ranjan, of whose product I am a great fan, is the co-founder & COO of Slideshare(www.slideshare.net). Amit keenly follows emerging trends in the consumer internet space in India and writes a blog called Webyantra about the Indian Web 2.0 space. Amit is located in New Delhi.
3. Prerna Gupta, Yaari.com – Founder & CEO of Yaari.com - a social networking site for Indian youth. Prerna has led Yaari through rapid growth and widespread media coverage since its beta launch in October 2006. Prior to founding Yaari, Prerna was an Associate in Summit Partners' venture capital fund in Palo Alto, CA. Prerna is an economics graduate from Stanford University and presently splits her time between India and the US.
4. Yours truly moderated and I am 'still located in New Delhi :).




5. Blog the Talk Edition 2 is in association with IMPACT - The Media, Advertising and Marketing Weekly, which will, starting this week, carry the text for its readers over 2 issues. Thanks Team IMPACT.
6. UPDATE- I am delighted to renew my association with HP - India (Hewlett Packard) . The Personal Systems Group - Commercial of HP India, which is responsible for business notebooks, business desktops, handheld devices and more would now be associated with Blog the Talk. Thanks HP ! :)

Hope you enjoy the talk and participate with comments and feedback:

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

Rajesh:Alok, first of all let me congratulate you and your colleagues on your new investment in iYogi! I think it’s an interesting next generation outsourcing concept.

Let me begin by asking you… networking on the net isn't new - sites bringing friends together, dating and matrimonial and even business networking sites have been there forever; but suddenly there is a lot of buzz about user generated content (UGC), content communities, social and business networking - communities are emerging all around. What brought about the change?

Alok: Thanks. I think the move towards consumer generated content has been gradual and limited on a geographical scale and people want to contribute quick byte-sized content - a la, discussion boards etc.

Myspace extended the frontier in terms of user expression. I think You Tube is perhaps the most extensive example of this, and driven by:

(a) Broadband

(b) Focusing on content which already exists with the users in a form that can be shared.

Prerna: The idea has been around for a while but I think what really brought around the change was when a few sites, mostly well-funded, executed the idea in very clear and simple way and had effective marketing to make their sites tip.

Amit: The community aspect being mashed up with the content is what seems to be spurring the growth at this stage. As Alok said, the content already exists; people are already creating it; now the ability to share that content in a social context has added the impetus.

There are pure SNS (Social Networking Sites) sites where networking is the end and there are content oriented sites where SNS is the means and not the ends.

Rajesh: Alok, how much of this unleashing has to do with the possibilities that Google AdSense and other contextual ad options brought along? That the owner of a community had, for the first time, at least a possible option of moving away from transactions or selling display ads, which may not always be a possible option?

Alok: I think that’s an interesting survival technique and helps in that context. However, that’s too small a stream for a reasonable business, especially as you get to rich media sharing, you definitely need something more as source of revenue/capital.

Rajesh: But do you think that to some owners it has given a dream to make it big.

Alok: I doubt anyone has made big with adsense…

Rajesh:(Laughs)

Rajesh: Amit and Prerna, how much of this SNS phenomenon of real people sharing personal lives and data is to do with a sociological change of a generation that has grown up with the net and doesn't much care about who is reading about them, their lives?

Prerna: I don't think everyone using these sites has ‘grown up’ with the net but people are adaptable and the freedom is addicting, especially when sharing information about yourself so readily gets you widespread affirmation from peers.

Amit: Psychological and cultural reasons have certainly contributed to this trend; also the fact that Internet adds a hugely convenience dimension to everything - be it ecommerce or friendship.

The convenience of interacting with people in asynchronous mode. Synchronous and direct interaction on a one-to-one basis is great but for many a people, it’s intimidating.

Alok: Ya, I guess that’s why I leave post-it notes for my wife (smiles).

Rajesh: (Smiles).

Amit: Good one (Smiles).

A few months ago, it had announced plans to pay users for uploads. Well, it's happened: This TechCrunch update yesterday informed me of a formal announcement from YouTube of its revenue share plans. While being seen as a positive step, a notable miss from the announcement is inclusion of 'pre-rolls' - brief ad plays before start of a video- that way ad messages would have reached the audience watching video embeds on thousands of blogs which pick content from YouTube, but that's going to have to wait it seems - tech concerns some say! Read the original TechCrunch story here.

The programme has some interesting features:

1. An 'integrated browser' opens web pages inside the reader...
2. While 'Auto discovery' ensures that I don't have to click any additional buttons to look for RSS feeds
3. Save a feed as a 'Channel' under the selected 'Channel Group'
4. The reader allows users to view 'Articles' by category; author; published; source; flagged; title; read...
5. When I like something? I simply move it into 'Archives' for future reference - I find this quite useful
6. The feature I love most however is 'Watches' which allows users to track conversations by keyword so all articles from feeds collected that have a certain or a set of keywords get separated under a given watch. I can add as many as I like...

Check it out! You can download i-Fetch here!

More about RSS and other terms here.

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.

1. Technorati is today tracking 70 million weblogs
2. About 120,00 new weblogs each day, but also 3000-7000 splogs (fake or spam blogs) being created every day
3. 1.5 million posting a day - spikes in post during significant world crises, which is expected as blog posts reflect and capture developments around us
4. 22 blogs among the top 100 - up from 12 in the prior quarter, shows growing acceptance and popularity.

   The report also validates something that we have been speaking about regarding growing credibility and latent consumption of blogs through search results:
   
   "the audience is less and less likely to distinguish a blog from, say, nytimes.com -- for a growing base of users, these are all sites for news, information, entertainment, gossip, etc. and not a “blog” or a 'MSM site' "

India PR has a loyal readership among the public relations agencies and Hobbit, who runs the blog (and does a phenomenal job of it and does so remaining anonymous) requested me to do a piece for the site and I wrote something for a relatively younger audience.

Here are the excepts from the piece "Experiments with Social Media":

"Last month a client of ours, in the online publishing space, was complaining about staff spending time on Orkut while in office. He wanted this to stop…

We recommended, as part of our strategy, that it be made a part of the KRA for the team to spend time - every day- on not just Orkut but on other social networking and book-marking sites - participating & gaining insights from conversations they pick up; creating, managing relevant & synergetic communities.

The initial shock from both parties however led to quick adoption..."

and;

Blog\Works Social Media Workshop on Friday, 23 March, New Delhi - Blogs; Wikis; Podcasts; Content Communities; Social Networks...Registered yet!!??

See PDF here:Blogworks Social Media Workshop.pdf

The workshop covers: Concept clarity on web 2.0, social media tools etc.; utility of blogs and other emergent social media tools on/ for corporates and brands; practical walk-through on setting up some of the important tools.

Who would benefit: Leadership and mid-management executives from corporates; public relations & advertising agencies; brand managers; HR professionals looking at blogs and social media for their brands and for clients.

Fee: Rs. 10,000/-, per participant.

Date: 23 March 2007

Time: Registrations begin 9.00 am; Programme begins at 9.30 am sharp (ends 5.30 pm)

Venue: FMCC Campus, Plot No. 8, Balaji Estate, Guru Ravidass Marg, Kalkaji, New Delhi - 110019.

Register by writing to: workshop@blogworks.inor call me at +91 98 106 40163.

This piece in The Economic Times today made an interesting read. It says:

"BLOG POSTS are now finding their way into the marketing strategies of motorcycle makers.What started as platforms to share passions and frustrations of bikers are now being tracked by corporates to fine-tune their offerings. Instead of tedious market surveys and data crunching, companies now get reviews within hours of product launch, courtesy blogs."

Delighted to note that marketers are beginning to understand the value of blogs & social media and are using them for immediate, true feedback instead? of commissioned research that's not just time-consuming but also expensive (and often inaccurate?)

I just changed my car for a new one and relied heavily on blog posts, forum discussions, word-of-mouth (company brochures helped me decide the colour, nothing more :)).

In my opinion, however, the loop will not be complete until we put the customer in the center and then surround him/her with peer reviews, expert opinion and marketer's inputs (the last bit is TOTALLY missing today). It is the logical next step and we are hoping to participate in that space.

I was with a marketer friend last week and tried to partly address concerns/ reservations she had about competition using a marketer's blog to malign the brand. A couple of points we spoke about, a couple I am adding now:

Much as I have wanted to, haven't been able to post anything in over a week - just been running around chasing assignments; spoke at another seminar at FMCC; moderating a session tomorrow and partly because I hurt my neck (in all probability attempting a headstand during yoga :) - fine now, though I was a bit tentative in class this weekend). The last made me wonder, how it must be for the really popular bloggers... what if they are not well and can't post :)!

Anyway, a short break from blogging never hurt anyone I think...lol.

The first in our series of Social Media Workshops' is tentatively scheduled for Friday -23 March, 2007 in New Delhi. There are a few details that still need to be finalised though. This offering would allow individual (and group) representatives from corporates, advertising and public relations agencies (anyone interested) to not just understand but also give them a touch and feel experience through a 'do it along' tutorial.

No buildings from India, yet, as I tested and found. For example, my 'I Love Delhi' has its 'O' from China :). (Click I love Delhi to see what happens)

St. Valentine's Day Greetings via GeoGreetings!!?? Enjoy!

1. Concept clarity on of web 2.0, social media tools etc.
2. Impact Utility of blogs and other emergent social media tools on/ for corporates and brands.
3. How To! Practical walk-through on setting up some of the important tools.

Write in for the proposal at conversations@blogworks.in

Do write in with comments/ inputs/ workshop requests :).

Cheers!

It's about the US arm of Mahindra using a blog to sell their tractors. Life of a Farm blog is part of the strategy to take on Deere - the American agricultural equipment company.

Jonathan, who led the initiative, says:

MahindraUSA sells tractors. They’ve got, in all honesty, great products at relatively low prices. The challenge was to get the word out to the large amount of small farmers and ‘hobby farmers’ - those who do farming on the side. Mahindra hasn’t had great name recognition because they’re relatively new here in the states.

They seem to be getting traction...good going Mahindra.

Can what works for Tractors, work for an SUV? I think so - people love their cars and love to talk about them (1,2,3).

I would love to see a Mahindra Scorpio Blog! :)

To me it means...

1. Content is king- irrespective of whether you are a large production house, a citizen journalist or a backyard film director, compelling content will earn you money. So far the latter two variety were happy with just visibility, but with a plethora of options to upload content on, it has become important for You Tube to ensure that it invites quality content - it is no fun to log on and not find anything of value -people will simply move on.
2. With a revenue share in place (based on number of views?), production houses would likely put-up quality content and that may further change how we consume news/ entertainment etc.
3. While server space may be cheap, You Tube will likely have fewer people clogging the community with junk, if they believed there is monetary benefit in uploading quality content.


Let's await a formal announcement.

Time(s) surely (are) is changing. Time.com moved to a new Web 2.0 format this week...

Amongst others, Time.com's star bloggers Ana Marie Cox and Andrew Sullivan will write 'Swampland' and 'Daily Dish' blogs respectively. There is 'The China Blog', but no India Blog, yet! Maybe someone from Time will read this and bring about change :).

The new site is, of course, RSS, podcast and mobile enabled and like many others in mainstream media, Time too understands the power of social media - embedded at the bottom of each story are RSS Feed; Digg; Del.icio.us (I still cannot get the URL of this one right at first attempt) and many other ranking/ bookmarking buttons.

The site features a Most Popular list but I couldn't figure out how it is compiled.

So there we are, Time's credibility coupled with new media transparency and speed - let's see where it takes us.

It has been a busy start to the year and even as the 'Cool List of 2006' post remains pending still, I have been thinking about what possible trends/ consolidation to expect online/ on the Indian blogosphere this year:

1. Year before last a client of mine was disapproving of my team's effort to get her brand visibility online. She thought it was 'easy' to get featured online and therefore didn’t count for much. I was quite amused by the reaction, as my own online experience had assured me of the medium’s power - my online writings have always been seen by more people; commented upon by more people; they stay around longer; can be linked; emailed... I can carry on. Coupled with the 'ease' of web 2.0, where I can do anything myself; put up anything on You Tube or Digg the power multiples, making the world truly flat. You are as good, as you really are! I think the online medium has arrived and will gain ground rapidly
2. When we launched BlogWorks.in last week with the Blog the Talk series, IMPACT weekly agreed to carry the content in a 2 part series. We were able to reach an entirely different community of readers through the exercise and the talk was read by a much larger audience, in addition to those who were already online . I like this marriage of mainstream with blogs. As blogs produce more and more compelling content, the trend is going to gain ground
3. I chanced upon a celebrity CEO's blog the other day. Very newbie, but very promising. I could see myself writing a blog a few months ago, struggling with template back-ends etc. but soon that became a thing of the past and I could actually concentrate on the writing part. I can see more and more experts and thought leaders joining the blogosphere and as that happens, credibility of blogs is going to go up too

Edition 1 discusses the Impact of blogging and social media on Indian business and marketing. It was remarkable that each participant, from the heavy-weight (figuratively speaking) panel, confirmed within an ‘Aye’, within hours of my writing to them. Thanks all. The entire discussion happened over an internet messenger – apt, wouldn’t you agree? – both, the message and the method. Our panelists -in no order of preference! :) -

1. Toby Bloomberg: "A real live blogger", "Business blog evangelist" that's what people have called Toby. Toby is president of a strategic and social media consultancy based in the U.S. She has been a real live blogger since the spring of 2004 when she launched Diva Marketing Blog. As one of the most recognised consultants in this space, Toby's passion now is helping organizations navigate the blogosphere and developing social media/blog strategies that support their business goals. Toby is based out of Atlanta, USA
2. Govindraj Ethiraj: Journalist-writer, a keen watcher of the social media and technology space, Govind is the New Media Editor for Business-Standard. A keen blogger, he writes a popular blog at Dateline Bombay. Govind is based out of Mumbai, INDIA
3. Anurag Batra: A dear friend, Anurag is the Editor in Chief & Managing Director of the exchange4media Group - a special interest publishing company which publishes five titles including three titles in advertising, marketing and media domain- Exchange4Media.com , PITCH , Impact and two consumer titles Franchise Plus and Realty Plus . Anurag is based out of New Delhi, INDIA
4. Yours truly moderated the discussion. I too am based out of New Delhi, INDIA.

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 think I was needlessly worried when I wrote this post about Second Life. It just amuses me now - read this AdRants post, linking us to this :).

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.