Aniketh's Blog

Website - Your Digital Home for your Brand

2010-08-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, just thought of sharing some light on website building specially for businesses who would want to save Rs. 3,00,000 - Rs 6,00,000. After looking at this collection of videos, for the next two days you would actually be surprised and might say to yourself - 'How foolish I might have been if I believed in that website salesman!'

One impotant thing that you have to ensure is that you install Google Analytics on your website after this process for analysis of your audience. This ensures that your visitor demography is monitored. Make sure this task does not go outside your company to measure your website visitors and 'web management outsourcing company''s performance

So lets get on with.

Here's what it is. When more and more websites are harcoded, there raised a need for organisation for the website. Similar to that of an organisation of a business to a small trader. Things on the website needed to be followed by a system and a need also raised for having the website update from anywhere, any number of times by people who had the key - username and password. Thus arised the need for Content Management System.

Joomla - The current best content management system

Why? Because its free. So? Anything that is built for free and shared get the worlds developers working on it. Everyone in the world is behind personal branding and thus building small functionalities for Joomla gives them the edge. Thus Joomla arises with top functionalities that can be added such as forms for data collection, creating a platform, discussion forums, feedback system, live assistance etc.

How to I get about learning this?

Oh this really depends on your time or the person who you delegate to do this work. These tutorials are the best found to learn Joomla in 2 days, as there are 20 tutorials. For more I can guide you. The basic steps will involve either you buying a server or testing it on your computer by making it itself a server. Popular free stuff to create server is called Xampp. Click here for a tutorial on how to set it up for free

Once you set up that, you need to download joomla package from Joomla.org and then your ready to begin this tutorials once u have installed Joomla on your server.

Human Progress Owes Itself to "Idea Sex"

2010-08-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

The use of collaboration is no secret, but as author Matt Ridley explains they may be the main source of human progress.
Ridley argues that our development relies very little on how smart you are but how well your ideas mate with other ideas (or as he calls it, idea sex). TED2010 talk details how we became more and more prosperous by sharing ideas, working with others and how little our individual talents mattered in the grand scope of human development.

Facebook Viral-Scams: Businesses Please do not use this

2010-07-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

Safety Guidelines for Facebook Users
My advice, is not to click on suspicious links if you’re not absolutely sure they’re safe. Do not give away your personal info. If you’ve fallen for these (or similar) scams, remove the offending app(s) from your Facebook, and remove the related status message from your newsfeed.

Video: Renaming Files... Speeden your work!

2010-07-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well this is one awesome video tip from Lifehacker. Ever knew how fast you could rename files?
If you don't understand the video. Here's the method
Go to the folder where the files you wanna rename.

Left click a file and then left click again after a second.... Dun double click the file....keep sometime before the first left click and the second click
Once done.. do not press enter. instead press Tab button on your keyboard!

Here's the Video

If you’re Business is on Social Media? Beware not to gush your business down the throat!

2010-07-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

Here’s why.

Usual case scenario, You just created your first Facebook brand page and are expecting lot of people liking your brand just alike your competitors, which is obviously not the wisest thing to do – however, you still do it and try advertising of the same. (I’ll write up a post on why it’s not the wisest soon).

Next, you come up with tons of updates on the brand page so that YOUR brand is highlighted among followers “News Feed” or the home page of your followers.

Now imagine, there are tons of small-medium-large businesses trying to do the same thing. Now as a customer, or a person who just loiters on Facebook just cause he wants to make new friends, gets a stream of brand updates instead of his friend’s updates. Don’t you think he’ll actually get sick of your brand and other brands trying to do the same stuff as you do?

So, here goes the biggie…

Most brands and people on Facebook are unaware of the ‘hide’ updates while hovering over someone/brand updates on the home page.

Some people are uneasy of the thought that the other person/ brand/application will know that his updates are hidden by that particular profile. Also tend to NOT press the ignore button when a friend request is sent by an unknown person and you would not like to add him/her. Here’s the truth – Hiding updates and ignoring friend requests are not made known by Facebook to the person who sent the request. Your safe to ‘Hide’ or ‘Ignore’. See below how to ‘Hide’ updates.

Take your mouse pointer over an update and click 'Hide"

***********Next Step***********

Here’s the screenshot. You hover any update on Facebook, and you get an option to hide the update…Once you do that you get a second option to hide the “Brands Updates”, which means it will hide all future updates from the brand… Now does this make sense why you should not post several updates continuously?

However, through this you will find a lot of people liking your brand but have rejected getting updates from your brand. Now as a Social Media Communication Specialist, I don’t think you are gonna like this.

Why this feature in place?

Facebook hates other brands on Facebook. They have set guidelines. Your brand cannot have a profile, as profiles are meant for individuals not brands. Hence they came out with Brand pages. Facebook doesn’t care about your brand. It cares about its users because brands/companies can destroy the very foundation of Facebook. i.e. with brand updates and reduction is personalisation.

Next,

However, on Twitter, the follow/un-follow is common and is a well-known phenomenon. It’s all about how to get a business communicate creatively and effectively using 140 characters limit.

Comment to share in your views on the subject!

Video: Using Social Media for Employment

2010-07-21T00:32:00.000-07:00

Well, been sometime since I spoke on my earlier post on Hiring people using social media in India. Here's a cool video on the same.

Second Trailer of 'The Social Network' just hit the Web!

2010-07-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

Enjoy guys! This was is almost as awesome as the first one!

Six Tips for Generating Business Leads from Social Media

2010-07-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

The Place We Call Social Media

Social media is a seemingly cluttered landscape with numerous vendors and customers vying for attention and voicing their opinions in 140 characters or less (in the case of Twitter). The origin of social media, which gained popularity with consumers, remains a space dominated by a collection of many individuals and few businesses. Admittedly, the challenge of reaching B2B customer prospects via social media is definitely more challenging than reaching individuals or consumers. Generating even one qualified business lead against this noisy backdrop may look and feel impossible.

Ironically, the very noise of this environment can play into your favor. Although many companies are using social media, only a handful of them are using it effectively to actually engage in a meaningful dialogue with their audience.

The key is to match a call-to-action with a state of mind, so you can properly engage customers -- businesses or individual consumers -- and move them through the purchase cycle. For example, a call-to-action on a blog post should match the visitor's state of mind. Start with the simple assumption that visitors to a blog post are not there to buy the company's product or sign up for a free account (at least, initially). Rather, they are there to read interesting content or learn more about the space. Therefore, the call-to-action should match that state of mind and prompt the visitor to "learn more" or "download a white paper." These types of call-to-action align with the visitor's reasons for visiting your Web site and are more likely to convert a visitor to a lead.

Social Media Takes it Personally

The biggest difference between social media and traditional media is the level of personalization. Social media is highly personal and interactive -- it's a two-way, interactive form of communication in real time. Traditional media is not.

In addition to being a more personalized communication medium, social media leads are more targeted than those generated through other online channels. This is a major bonus for marketers. If a call-to-action is strong, it can do an amazing job of bringing in solid leads.

If the channel and activity align, meaning you are using activities that are appropriate to the channel you are using, leads tend to be more engaged and thus more enthusiastic about a given product or service. As a result, leads involved in social media outreach tend to be more forgiving of problems with your product, as they feel more connected to the product and the company.

At the same time, social media opens up feedback channels and discussion loops that are muted or not present at all in traditional media. For example, if customers are disappointed in a particular product or service, social media provides equal opportunity to spread their own messages in their own words. Some control will be forfeited. This introduces new risks not associated with traditional media, as the reputation of your brand now rests in other people's hands.. These effects on a brand, both positive and negative, are often said to be hard to track and measure.

Better Business Leads

The bottom line is that social media has the potential to generate more business leads. These leads are more targeted and they know what they want. If your call-to-action is relevant and aligned with your message, leads generated from social media can be highly qualified. On the other hand, as with traditional marketing, some leads from social media will be less qualified and require more lead nurturing. The key, as a marketer, is to establish a set of objective criteria and automated lead scoring that can help sales distinguish a "hot lead" from a cold one once they hit your site.

Consider the following six suggestions to begin capturing stronger, more qualified leads.

Six Tips for Generating Business Leads from Social Media:

Think like publishers:
Break through the noise and get people interested in what you have to offer.
Choose unique, eye-catching headlines and titles, and incorporate good images.
Content is the bait. If you don't make content sound and look good, no one will read it.
Create good, interesting content:
Social media with no content is like a bicycle without a wheel: You'll put a lot of effort into riding, but you will go nowhere.
Again, content is the bait.
Organize your efforts into campaigns:
Campaigns are easier as a way to create and shape the right message and call-to-action.
Enable easy tracking and monitoring.
Can be measured and analyzed as a learning tool for future activities.
Invest the time to make a campaign worthwhile:
Social media takes time. It might be cheaper in dollars spent, but it's definitely not free in terms of time invested.
Use time management tools to track and measure the time you invest in social media, so you can truly measure your ROI.
Track and score your visits and leads:
Qualify and score leads accurately to ensure the best conversion rates.
Focus and align marketing and sales and force a discussion about what constitutes a good lead.
Help with analyzing and prioritizing efforts.
Focus on channels and campaigns that offer a higher lead quality based on your lead scores.
Measure and report in real time for ongoing success:
Prioritize your efforts and invest the time in the places with the highest payoff.
Measure based not just on quantity, but based on quality too.
Track all the way to a sale, not just to a lead. This will help you refine your lead score and truly measure ROI.

Have you ever Googled your Name?

2010-07-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

Did you?

If you did and your name did show up as search results do not be surprised cause you’re not just the one who have had Google one’s own name. Personal Profiling has been in trend these days by search engines. Even if you do not know the person all you have to do is type his name on Google and it will search every bit of info it can get on that person.

For Businesses, this can be of great help - great for hiring, networking, business and many other uses, but in some situations, it might not be the best idea. Check out my earlier post on How to hire using Social Media!

Here is an Info graphic that will help you understand how search engines have evolved and how they build their reputation

Tormenting a telemarketer with just one Word!

2010-07-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, this is kind of a cool video, but this does happen so many times in our daily life. I have seen several colleagues of mine talking junk to telemarketers.

On the other side, unfortunately it’s the sad part of the telemarketer. I guess it’s a still working proposition here in India and the best for businesses as they still do spend a lot of money on it. Well, I guess the social media revolution will take more time in India as the internet penetration is very low, minimum of 3-5 yrs. I guess. Here’s an epic though! :-) Watch and enjoy the 20 seconds.

The Guide for Electronic Direct Mailers

2010-07-03T00:51:00.000-07:00

I would personally like to thank Justin Holt for helping me create this tutorial.

Firstly, I would suggest you to visit the ‘5 steps to Create and EDM in 30 seconds’. If that doesn’t work with you then you could come back here to find out the reason behind it.

What you must know before you go ahead:

Gmail, Aol, Hotmail, Windows Live, MS Outlook, Thunderbird etc… All these Email Clients behave differently to EDM’s. And these are quite the hardest nutshells in the Email Marketing Arena which usually require some expertise.

Problem that you might have faced:

To Remove gaps between images if you have added multiple images to the body section of the email

“So if you’re a lazy or impatient and do not intend on saving 12 months x INR 4000+ = INR 48,000 a year, don’t read further.”
Let’s Begin:

#1:

If all you have to do is to have an image in the body part of your Email. Visit 5 steps to Create and EDM in 30 seconds.

#2:

If your intend to have a long image in an EDM that is taller than 1728px (pixels), then I would suggest you to have break it – horizontally using Adobe Photoshop. Ideal width for an image would be 500px. Height should not exceed 1728px. If it does, break it up horizontally in batches of 600px height

The reason behind it is available here: Campaign Monitor

#3:

To use #2 in emails you will need Thunderbird Mail Client that is similar to Microsoft Outlook but is free, download it here - Thunderbird and install it and set up your personal account like Gmail/Hotmail or any other there.

Next you need to upload the images to a server. It is always ideal to upload images to your website and then use the link in the code below. Download the recommended version of File Zilla to upload it to your server. If not, you can always use free image uploader such as Tiny pic,

Once you upload, copy the link as 'dark' highlighted in the image below - http://i45.tinypic.com/35886tg.jpg

Note: Uploading images to free upload sites can reduce quality. Resulting in slightly blur images. Eg: Copy my code and paste it directly as instructed in #5 without change and you can see the difference in quality. The first image was uploaded at TinyPic and rest on personal servers.

Now open Thunderbird Email Client. And click the option ‘write’ at the top left corner. Now enter your email id. and take the cursor to the body section of your email. Now click ‘insert’ on the top bar and select html. Once you do that, enter the code below:

*******************************************************************************
<html>
<body>
<table align="center" width="828px" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr width="828px" height="1700px">
<td width="828px" height="1700px"><img style="display:block;" src="http://sdm.0fees.net/images/1_01.jpg" width="828" height="1700" border="0" alt="Must See in Malaysia" /></td></tr>
<tr width="828px" height="1700px"><td width="828px" height="1700px"><img style="display:block;" src="http://sdm.0fees.net/images/1_02.jpg" width="828" height="1700" border="0" alt="Must do in Kuching" /></td></tr>
<tr width="828px" height="1526px"><td width="828px" height="1526px"><img style="display:block;" src="http://sdm.0fees.net/images/1_03.jpg" width="828" height="1526" border="0" alt="Contact Info" /></td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
**********************************************************************************

Three things you will need to change are:
(Copy the above code to a notepad or MS Word and do the necessary changes as mentioned, then copy and paste the same in the html box)

Width and the Height
Link that you copied from the Tiny Pic as seen in the screenshot earlier
Alternate Name (alt=””). (This is needed when the email client doesn’t download the images in the body section automatically, so that it serves the purpose of the description of the image)

Once you have done the necessary changes, insert it into the html box that popped up in the Thunderbird Email Client.

When your done, click ok and this should load all your images in the body part of the image perfectly.

For all other complex E-Newsletter I would suggest

You should have –
Adobe Dreamweaver
Photoshop
FileZilla
Basic HTML Knowledge
And access to internet to download couple of layouts from Mail Chimp or Campaign Monitor.

Just Search for “download html newsletter templates” on google and you should have several results to download free templates. All you then have to do is open the index.htm or .html file in Notepad and edit the necessary details as mentioned in #6 plus the content.

#10

Your good to go!

For those who asked me about not allowing the files to be automatically downloaded while sending an EDM, the answer – it depends from one email client to another. For eg: Gmail might stop loading images once. But if you grant it access to load images, then all emails coming from that particular email id may download automatically. Hence it solely depends on the Email Client and its settings.

For further assistance add me on Twitter @anikethdsouza. Also you can chat with me if I am seen online on the top window of my blog

India: Social Media Landscape - Monitor it now

2010-07-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

This took me some time days of work to get this post working. Glad to help the Indian Business Community!

Social Media Landscape in India

On an average people spend 2 hours daily on social networking sites;

33% respondents do not associate with any brand/product on networking sites;

Only 30% respondents have an account/access to Twitter

About 63% of those who took the poll have never engaged with Communities, Groups and Fan pages on networking sites. Among these, more than half join on their own will and a miniscule (11%) would only follow brand endorsements by their friends.

And only 15% say they trust the information provided.

About 37% of the respondents belong to the 26-30 years age group.

And almost 35% of them were professionals with mid-level jobs.

Vote in favour of LinkedIn (45.8%) was way above either YouTube (36.5%) or Twitter (29.6%).

Nearly 80% follow their friends for their pictures.

45% are reading or writing blogs to express ideas and opinions.

Almost 70% of bloggers spend half-an-hour per day -- mostly for gaining information.

The Top 5 categories of Blogs are

Entertainment

Current affairs

Personal

Fashion and Technology

So, despite the hype surrounding the emergence of social media as a preferred mode of brand promotion, chatting and tracking pictures of friends and relatives still top the chart as the most preferred activities. However, that should not serve as a deterrent to marketers. With more people joining the bandwagon, buzz can be created on the Net through online games, quizzes and e-mails. Netizens also would prefer companies communicating through corporate blogs (41.4%), videos/pictures (40.3%) and emails/messages (37.3%).

Social Media Landscape - Monitoring

Businesses often want to know - where they get statistics for Social Media Users

For Facebook Statistics of India - Visit Facebakers

For Twitter Stats in India - Tweeple

For LinkedIn - LinkedIn Source

For finding a conversation on facebook - YourOpenBook

For knowing the profile of a person on Facebook - Zesty

For Hard to find information on Govt. Sources - Link

For conversation on the global Social Media conversations Social Mention

For analyzing Twitter Profiles Tweet Sentiments

For grading profiles (click the account you wanna grade eg: twitter, FB, LinkedIn) Grader

India: Youth Lifestyle - A must read for the Textile Industry

2010-06-29T04:11:00.001-07:00

Recent trends in Youth Lifestyle. I believe and would recommend you going through this presentation by Kaustav Sen Gupta. All his presentation, his research has found relevance in what we see around these days. His insight into the youth of the nation is far advanced than any study conducted in India over the web.

Another presentation on the study of 'Indian Youth' is something I would further recommend you to read! Do we know who we are talking to?

INsightYoung'10- Trends in Tee shirts among the youth in India

The 10 New Rules of PR

2010-06-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

A survey of 1,900 business technology marketers by MarketingSherpa rated the optimized press release the most effective emerging market channel. Tad Clarke, Editorial Director of MarketingSherpa, has called the service SEO-PR has pioneered “the tactic known as SEO PR.” Optimizing press releases for news search engines.

David Meerman Scott has written a book that I would recommend you read (The New Rules of Marketing & PR). In this article I have taken an excerpt of David Meerman Scott’s insights and how the “New Rules of Marketing” apply to your business and especially how this applies to your companies PR.

David says “The Web has transformed the rules and you must transform your releases to make the most of the Web-enabled marketplace of ideas. In the old days, a press release was – shockingly – actually a release to the press. Before the Web, everybody knew that the only reason you issued a press release was to get the media to write about you.

What are ” The Old Press Release Rules”?

Nobody saw the actual press release except a handful of reporters and editors.
You had to have significant news before you were allowed to write a press release.
A release had to include quotes from third parties, such as customers, analysts and experts.
The only way your buyers would learn about the press release’s content was if the media wrote a story about it.
The only way to measure the effectiveness of press releases was through “clip books,” which collected every time the media deigned to pick up your release.

The new rules of PR in a Web 2.0 World

How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly. The Web has changed the rules for press releases. The thing is, most old-line PR professionals just don’t know it yet. Because the rules for relating to the public have changed so slowly over the past ten years (since the Web has allowed people to read press releases directly), practitioners who learned based on the old rules have been equally slow to change. In fact, most old-school experts have refused to change altogether. It is time to step it up and consider the promise Web 2.0 public relations holds.

Do you want to reach your buyers directly?
Do you want to drive traffic to your Web site?
Do you want to achieve high rankings on the search engines?
Do you want to attract buyers who are looking for what you have to offer?
Do you want to move people into and through the sales process?
Do you want to compete more effectively?

Why you need to learn the new rules? Today, savvy marketing professionals use press releases to reach buyers directly. While many marketing and PR people understand that press releases sent over the wires appear in near real-time on services like Google News, very few understand the implications for how they must dramatically alter their press release strategy in order to maximize the effectiveness of the press release as a direct consumer-communication channel. The media has been disintermediated. The Web has changed the rules. Buyers read your press releases directly and you need to be talking their language. This is not to suggest that media relations are no longer important; mainstream media and the trade press must be part of an overall communications strategy. In some businesses, mainstream media and the trade press remain critically important and, of course, the media till derives some of its content from press releases. But your primary audience is no longer just a handful of journalists. Your audience is millions of people with Internet connections and access to search engines and RSS readers.

Every organization possesses particular expertise that has value in the new e-marketplace of ideas. The Web has made it easy for organizations to publish that expertise in various forms, including press releases, which allows companies, institutions, and non-profits to function much like traditional publishers. Organizations gain credibility and loyalty with customers, employees, investors, and suppliers through content and smart Web marketers now think and act like publishers in order to create and deliver content targeted directly at their audience. As organizations of all types begin to behave like publishers, many are adapting to the rigors of the publishing business and learning the editorial process. At the same time, new rules are emerging as online publishing continues to mature. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, all organizations are searching for the elusive key to success. Well, look no further: Content ( Like Blogs), even in the form of a “mere” press release, will unlock success in almost any product category, even in highly competitive industries where smaller players are beset upon by larger, better-funded competitors.

Reach your buyers directly. Under the old rules, the only way to get “published” was to have your press release “picked up” by the media. We’ve come a long way. The Web has turned all kinds of companies, non-profits, and even rock bands and political campaigners into just-in-time and just-right publishers. Organizations – the new publishers – create press releases that deliver useful information directly onto the screens of their buyers. Until recently, nobody ever thought of companies as publishers; newspapers and magazines published the news. But that’s all changing. Self-publishing Web-style has moved into the mainstream and organizations large and small are doing the publishing… via press releases. As you are making this fundamental shift, what should you write press releases about? Big news is great, but don’t wait.

Write about just about anything that your organization is doing: Like

CEO speaking at a conference? Write a release.
Win an award? Write a release.
Have a new take on an old problem? Write a release.
Add a product feature? Write a release.
Win a new customer? Write a release.
Publish a white paper? Write a release.
Get out of bed this morning? Okay, maybe not…
but you are thinking the right way now!

To bypass the media this is what you need to do to apply the “10 New Rules of PR”

1. Think like they do: In order to implement a successful press release strategy, think like a publisher. Marketers at the most enlightened organizations recognize the fact that they are now purveyors of information and they manage content as a valuable asset with the care a publishing company does. One of the most important things that publishers do is start with a content strategy and then focus on the mechanics and design of delivering that content. Publishers carefully identify and define target audiences and consider what content is required in order to meet their needs. Publishers consider questions like: Who are my readers? How do I reach them? What are their motivations? What are the problems I can help them solve? How can I entertain them and inform them at the same time? What content will compel them to purchase what I have to offer?

2. Publish your press releases through a distribution service: Publishers also recognize that simply creating compelling content is not enough; it has to reach interested readers. The best way to publish press releases is to simultaneously post a release to your own Web site and send it to one of the press release wires. There are a number of options for wire distribution of press releases. The benefit of using a press release distribution service is that your release will be sent to the online news services such as Yahoo!, Google, Lycos, and many others. Many press release distribution services reach trade and industry Web sites as well. In fact, you can reach hundredsof Web sites with a single press release. Take a look at the various services and compare them yourself.

A Selection of the Larger Press Release Distribution Services

In order to get your press releases to appear on the online news services, you just have to get your release onto a basic press release “circuit” offered by a press release distribution service. The services also have many value-added options for you to consider. Compare options and in making your choice, remember that when your goal of sending press releases is search engine marketing. Thus, the newsroom and geographical reach offered by a service is less important than ensuring that your releases are included on major online news sites.

3. RSS feeds from online news sites display your press release content. Many press release distribution services also offer RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds of their press releases, which they make available to other sites, blogs and individuals. What this means is that each time you publish a press release with them, the press release is seen by thousands of people who have subscribed to the RSS content feeds. And online news services such as Google News have RSS feed capability too, allowing people to receive feeds based on keywords and phrases. So each time your release includes a word or phrase of importance, people will receive your press releases directly and in near real-time.

4. Simultaneously, publish your press releases to your Web site. Post your press releases to an appropriate and readily findable section of your Web site. Many organizations have a media room or press section of the Web site, which is ideal. The press release should be kept live for as long as the content is appropriate, perhaps for years. For many organizations, the press release section of the Web site is one of the most frequently visited parts of the site. Check out your Web site statistics. You may be amazed at how many visitors are already reading your press releases. When the press release is posted on your site, search engine crawlers will find the content, index it, and rank it based on words and phrases and other factors. To achieve high rankings, pay attention not only to the words and phrases, but also to other search engine optimization factors such as the URL used, the words in the headline and first paragraph of the release, the title tag, and metatags. Don’t use image files for text, as the words cannot be read by search engine crawlers. You should also create your own RSS feeds of your news stories on your site. Use a standard off-the-shelf RSS feed generator so that interested visitors will be able to subscribe to your press release feed directly. [For much more detailed information on the specifics of search engine marketing techniques, check out Search Engine Watch.

5. Optimize your press releases for searching and for browsing. At the broadest level, there are two ways to use and deploy content on the Web and smart organizations understand both angles and optimize press releases accordingly. The first way that people use content is to answer questions (through search engines), thus organizations must optimize content to be found by searchers. This will attract people who are looking for what your organization has to offer. The second way that people use content is that they want to be told something that they do not already know. This is why browseability is so important; it allows users to “stumble” across useful information they didn’t know they were looking for. While many Web savvy marketers understand the importance of search-engine optimization, they often forget that sites must be designed for browsing too. You should deploy site navigational design in a way that provides valuable information visitors might not have thought to ask for in addition to answering any questions they may have. To illustrate this concept, consider one of the Web’s best known sites, Google, which in its purest form exists only to answer questions. With a site or content product organized only around answering questions, users must already know what they want before proceeding. But people also look to sites to tell them something. Contrast Google with another famous site, Drudge Report. Drudge Report doesn’t exist to answer questions; rather, it tells visitors stuff they didn’t think to ask. While it does provide search functionality (far down the home page), Drudge Report provides content that’s meant to be browsed and, when you are creating content for your site, you should too. Press release pages are among the most popular parts of many Web sites based on visitor counts because many people browse these pages as they research topics. Consider organizing your press release section using multiple ways to browse. Maybe create links to releases based on buyer profile (maybe by vertical market or some other factor appropriate to your organization), by product, by geography, and the like, in addition to providing a prominent homepage link to a media center or newsroom. You might also divide releases by different “solutions” or market-target landing pages to help users drill to areas of interest. People who are searching for your release will still find them by searching with keywords and phrases, but people who do their own research and consider a decision over a period of time often browse releases to learn about an organization. They may also need to print them out to present research to others in their organization, so consider providing easy ways to print releases (in PDF format as well as HTML)

6. The importance of links in your press releases, particularly because your releases may be delivered by feeds or on news services and various sites other than your own, creating links from your press releases to content on your Web site is very important. These links, which might point to a specific offer or to a landing page with more information, allow your buyers to link from the press release content into specific Web site content on your site that will then drive them into the sales process. However, there is another enormous added benefit to including links in press releases. Each time your press release is posted on another site, such as an online news site, the inbound link from the online news site to your Web site helps to increase the ranking of your site. This is because the search engines use inbound links as one of the important criteria for the page ranking algorithms. So when your press release has a link to your site, you actually increase the ranking of the pages that you link to – yours.

7. Focus on the keywords and phrases that your buyers use. One thing successful publishers do, which Web marketers should emulate, is understanding the audience first and then set about to satisfy their informational needs. A great way to start thinking like a publisher and to create press releases that drive action is to focus on your customer’s problems and then create and deliver content accordingly. Use the words and phrases that your buyers do. Think about how the people you want to reach are searching and develop press release content that include those words and phrases. Too often, press release content simply describes what an organization or a product does. While simple information about your organization and products might be valuable to a subset of your buyers, what many really want from your site is content that first describes the issues and problems they face and then provides details on how to solve the problems. Particularly when your buyers search, they use the words and phrases important to them. Once you’ve built an online relationship, you can sell into the needs and potential solutions that have been defined, but you need to help them find you first. First, determine who your target audience is and figure out how they should be sliced into distinct buying segments. Once this exercise is complete, identify the situations in which each target audience may find themselves. What are their problems? What keeps them awake at night? What do they want to know? What words and phrases do they use to describe these problems? The answers, by the way, may be very different from the way you would label them. Don’t get trapped by your own jargon; think, speak, and write like your customers do.

8. Your Buyers Don’t Want Gobbledygook. Though you may have a well-developed lexicon for your products and services, they don’t necessarily mean much to your potential customers. As you write press releases, focus on the words and phrases that your buyers use. As a search engine marketing tool, press releases are only as valuable as the keywords and phrases that are contained in them. Avoid words like flexible, scalable, groundbreaking, industry standard, or cutting-edge, and other forms of what I call gobbledygook. The worst gobbledygook offenders seem to be B2B technology companies. For some reason, technology marketing people have a particularly tough time explaining how products solve customer problems. Because they are a bit fuzzy, they cover by explaining myriad nuances of how the product works (peppered with industry jargon that sounds vaguely impressive). What ends up in press releases is a bunch of “industry-leading” solutions that purport to help companies “streamline business process,” “achieve business objectives,” or “conserve organizational resources.” Huh? Your buyers (and the media that covers your company) want to know which specific problems your product solves and proof that it works as advertised – in plain language. Your marketing and PR is meant to be the beginning of a relationship with buyers and to drive action (such as generating sales leads), which requires a focus on buyer problems. Your buyers want to hear this in their own words. Every time you write, yes, even in press releases, you have an opportunity to communicate. At each stage of the sales process, well-written materials combined with effective marketing programs will lead your buyers to understand how you (specifically) help them.

9. Content Drives Action. An effective press release strategy, artfully executed, drives action. Companies that understand the new rules of press releases have a clearly defined goal – to sell products, generate leads, secure contributions, or get people to join – and deliver content that directly contributes to reaching that goal. At successful organizations, press releases draw visitors into the sales-consideration cycle, then funnels them towards the place where action occurs. The action mechanism is not hidden nor is the organization’s goal a secret. When content effectively drives action, the end of the sales process – an ecommerce company’s “buy” button, the B2B corporation’s “please contact us” form, or non-profit’s “donate” link – are found in logical places, based on content that leads people there. For many companies, Web content also has a powerful, less tangible effect. On the best sites, content does more than just sell product – it directly contributes to an organization’s positive reputation by showing thought-leadership in the marketplace of ideas. Many people view a well executed series of press releases as highly influential, with regards to a company that they are considering doing business with. Press releases mean your company is “busy” and a lack of press releases can indicate that you are not moving forward. In the new world of marketing, consistent quality press release content brands a company or a non-profit as an expert and as a trusted resource to turn to again and again. Press releases are often considered as an important buying criteria, especially in a complex B2B sales process.

10. Drive people into the sales process with press releases. Savvy marketing professionals understand that sales and marketing must work together to move prospects into the sales pipeline. This is especially important in a complex B2B sale that has long decision making cycles and multiple buyers that need to be influenced. The good news is that press release content drives people into and shortens the sales cycle for any product or service, especially ones that have many steps and take months or years to complete. Here’s how you can make this happen:

Understand your sales process in detail. All sales processes are definable, repeatable and understandable and effective marketers use the Web to move people into and through the process. You need to get together with salespeople, sales management and product managers to understand exactly what happens in the sales cycle. You should answer questions such as: How do people initially find your company or product? What words and phrases do they use? Understanding the process in detail allows you to understand how in the process press releases can be used.
Segment your prospects. Consider press releases based on the buyer persona, perhaps by job title or by industry. A prospect is much more likely to enter the sales cycle by clicking a press release that talks about solving her problems.
Create thought leadership content to sit at the top of the sales funnel. People in the early stages of the sales cycle need basic information on the product category, especially “thought leadership” pieces. Don’t just write press releases about your company and your products; be thought leaders and write about the industry and higher-level strategic issues surrounding your product or service. When doing initial research, people don’t want to hear about you and your company; they want information about them and their problems.
Provide content that is compelling enough to get people to “raise their hand.” In your press releases, deliver something of value that you can trade for a registration form. A link from your press release to an informative white paper, online event (such as a Webinar), or online demo will help move your prospect further down the sales process – and, in exchange for the right content, she will happily “raise her hand” to express interest by filling out a form. Remember, you’re still not ready to sell a product or service (yet); you are still relationshipbuilding. (By the way, these links will also help raise the search engine ranking of the pages you point to.)
Measure and Improve. Measure what content is being used and how. Understand through Web metrics what’s working and constantly tweak the content to make it better. Meet regularly with salespeople to gain insights into the sales cycle and how your press release content helps, and can better assist, the process. The Web is iterative – you can and should make adjustments on the fly.

The “New” News Cycle: The news cycle has changed, and with it, so must many of the rules of the game. With Web-based access to information, consumers have real choices for how they learn about the world around them – alternatives to the filter of mainstream media. Not too long ago, the only way for corporations to influence news was for their PR people to issue a press release (intended for media only) and then hit the phones to talk up journalists. Editors and reporters were in a power position as the filter between organizations and the public. With the old news cycle, all PR people knew the rules: The ultimate goal was to get some magazine or newspaper to write a positive story that would appear weeks or months later. Then the happy corporate flack would put the media hit into a clip book to prove their value to the organization. No more. Information control is decentralized. The best PR and marketing pros know that Web-based communication delivered directly to their constituents is highly effective. Now, press releases circumvent the media and appear in real time on millions of desktops. Bloggers almost instantly comment on product announcements, and smart communications pros treat these “new journalists” with respect. Of course, magazines and newspapers are still vitally important, but in the new news cycle, the value of the media has shifted to adding context to the news and identifying trends. Marketers are beginning to understand what the new news cycle means to their communications efforts and are harnessing the power for their organizations’ benefit.”

Coutesy: David Meerman Scott, Jeff Bullas

The Social Network : First Trailer

2010-06-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Social Network is filmed based on the book The Accidental Billionaires. It chronicles the formative days of Facebook, from its founding in Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room through its early rise to success. Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, the film stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. It hits theaters this October.

This 1 minute short trailer quickly summarized the struggles Zuckerberg faced in his early Facebook days, supporting the movie’s tag line “You can’t make 500 million friends without making a few enemies”.

Catch the trailer and let us know if it entices you to catch the actual movie.

Daily News in the 21st Century: Modern Newsfare

2010-06-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

News is information that we receive. Much of it is glanced. We don’t read it fully. We look at the headline to see if it interests us, and then we proceed going further.

Newspapers have been the main source for our news for many many years. Technology has now given us an alternative to read news online and to some – even gone further to stop buying a newspaper. News is now free!

Newspaper was to be found off the stands, they soon reached our doorstep, well they still charged for that service as they still do. The next step the news industry went through is putting news online, then they strived hard to make their news reporting the best to compete against other news agencies. Then they introduced that their readers could instead get a small gist of the news they put on their site via their email boxes so that they their readers would read the whole article if the article headline interested them. Here, at this stage came a major revolution brought in by blogs and social networks such as twitter and facebook. The major killer of news – democratisation of communication. People speaking with people, spreading word faster, even faster than news agencies!

What’s in trend now?

Personalised News is here to lead the way. Uses the very same technology via subscription to rss feeds (a medium to get news delivered to email boxes), but with a difference. You don’t need to clog your email boxes to read rss feeds. The new technology has evolved that one can read it off a simple web browser. All you have to do is provide the RSS link or choose the one already provided by the application.

Timely News – Updated News – Personalised News – Neatly arranged are essential features of a Good News Reader. One such reader of mention is the GoodNoows Reader. It provides news with personal style. You can login by creating one or autologin via Facebook or Twitter or other optional accounts! It’s the perfect thing for getting all the news at one place. You get to choose, category wise such as Politics, Economy, Business, World, Sports, Technology, Science, Lifestyle etc. Once you select your Category, then you get to select which sites you wanna get the news from…. and hell ya .. you get a lot of options!

So here’s what I think News has evolved to. Give me your views as well!

Personalised News = 10x factor that will revolutionise News Industry.

This reminds me of the book I once read with the title “Only the paranoid survive” J

Do you believe in IMRB Survey?

2010-06-26T01:29:00.000-07:00

If you did believe in them... Try eating this!

A woman calls me up for an IMRB survey for Airtel. Before I could say hello, the women goes on in Hindi talking about 'anubhav' for about 10 seconds until I interrupted her to slow down. Then she repeats the same thing slowly.
She finally says I would want to take a few minutes of your time to complete a survey.
I say: Ok go on..

Caller: What's you name sir?
Me: (I say my name)

Caller: Fine sir, I shall collect all your other details from Airtel.
Me: Ok

Caller: Have you made timely payment of your bill in the past 3 months?
Me: Yes. Cause I have instructed my office to pay the same in time directly, and I believe they have done that.

Caller: Ok sir, thank you for the time!
Me: Wait...... How the hell do you get to know my 'anubhav' that u asked me for, from the information you asked? (I carry forward telling my experience with this stupid survey conversation she had with me)

Caller: Is there anything more you would like to tell about your experience you had with Airtel?
Me: (Slam the phone down)!

and we go ahead believing in IMRB surveys conducted in India for our research and to launch market strategies for our business. Terrific!

Do we know who are we talking to?

2010-06-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

I recently went through an article, which spoke about Indian Youth Trends. It is a very interesting piece of study that I have come across it actually categorizes the Indian Youth into 3. What we can also find in this presentation are is their change in lifestyle, dressing, interacting, attitudes, and a deeper insight on presence in the digital media space.
Go ahead I leave this brilliant study by Kaustav Sen Gupta for your interpretation!
INSIGHTYOUNG09-10 Indian youth trend report

5 Steps to Create an EDM in 30 seconds!

2010-06-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

I have been asked this plenty of times and hence I thought of writing a quick article to show you how easy it is to create EDM's (Electronic Direct Mailers).

If your good enough at outlook. The process explained below is on inserting a picture in your mail rather than attaching the image.

Step #0: Keep the JPEG image ready that needs to be sent via EDM

Step #1 : Open outlook

Step #2 : Click 'New' to create a new mail

Step #3 : Click Insert and move you 'cursor' to the main body of the mail. When you click so the insert tab becomes active.

Step #4: Click the 'picture' in the Insert Tab and insert the picture.

Step #5: Send it to your Clientèle!

Personalize emails for mass mailing

2010-06-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

Note: The Subject discussed below explains Mail Merge. If your familiar with this concept you can skip to another article!

Many of us want to send mails giving them a personal touch like "Dear Analisa", "Dear Vivek" etc. and anyone would like to receive mails personally marked to them with their name.

Now imagine you would want to send a mail to 500 people or more personally. Instances like sending Press Releases, Brochures, EDM's and what's more even family occasions like weddings. All these, would require special attention of the reader.

Thus, I have provided a 15 Step Method showcasing, how you can send a 100 personalized emails in 1 minute.

Here is Step #0:

You will need MS Office installed along with MS Outlook.

You will need to have all names and email id in an excel sheet as the below example

Step #2: Type your content that needs to be sent in MS Word 2007

Step #3: Select the 'Mailings' Tab on centre - top part of the Word document

Step #4: Click on Start Mail merge and select Email Messages

Step #5: The screen changes to something like below

Step #6: Click on 'Select Recipients' next to 'Start Mail Merge' and select 'Use Existing List'

Step #7: Find and Select your Excel Document that you created in Step #0 and click OK. It will ask you which sheet in the excel document should you import. Mine was Sheet 4, so I select Sheet 4.

Step #8: Now Click 'Edit Recipient List' and ensure that your contacts are visible with Name and Email id's. Un check those who you do not want this mail to be sent to.

Step #9: Now we need to create the greeting line. So select 'Greeting Line'

Step #10: Select the format of the greeting line

Step #11: Click on Match fields in the same window, if you click ok by mistake already. get this window back by double clicking on the Greeting Line in the Contents of the Mail.

Once you open up match fields, select first name as 'Name' and rest all fields needs to be changed to not matched.

Step #12: Click ok and then click on preview results tab on the top right part of the document. Your greeting line should now introduce with the contact name.

]

Step #13: Now Select 'Finish and Merge' on the top right corner! and then select 'Send Email Messages'

Step #14: Set 'To' to 'Email', Enter the Subject of the Email, and keep remaining to html. and click Ok. When you click Ok you the system automatically saves your file in Outbox of your Outlook and starts Sending mails on its own.

There you go! Enjoy seeing your mails go like the bullets from a machine gun! Its fun!

Keep your computer safe from spies at work, when your away

2010-06-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

Ever had problems when you left your place with your computer idle? Here's the tip if you have a windows machine! Very quick and easy. Maintains Privacy.

Step #1: You need to set up a password for your system. So Go to Start>Settings>Control Panel> User Accounts>Administrator>Set up Password.

Step #2: When you move away from your machine all you'll need to do it press two buttons - Windows + L. A picture of the position is as below.

The Age of Customer Engagement

2010-06-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

I recently saw a “Do not press the red button” on the net, which I feel is one of the best examples of Customer Engagement. It definitely got one of the highest number of clicks with the people getting engaged with it to a greater extent and spending nearly 4 - 5 minutes solving the mystery behind the “red button”.

The beauty of this is that it was definitely a non-branded success. It doesn’t cost much but what it does is that it gets a lot of eyeballs rolling to get a feel of it. It was a concept of negative advertising perfectly positioned creating a viral so fiercely strong proving the Word of Mouse faster than the Word of Mouth. It got spread across Social Networking Sites at V-Speed (Viral Speed)

What’s New from the ‘Old’? What is and needs to be the trend?

Enjoy the feel!
1) Minimalism is Bliss

2) Minimalistic Engagement creates a Major Impact (A Viral)

Do Not Press (Viral)

3) Infographics, a combination of Information + Graphics. (Definitely not the Traditional Advertorial)

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Lead Generation

2010-06-25T23:51:00.001-07:00

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum

Social media is the top emerging channel for lead generation among technology marketing professionals surveyed in May 2010, according to the annual Unisfair marketing survey. Furthermore, 66% of respondents said lead generation was their top priority for 2010, with only 17% ranking brand awareness and 16% ranking customer retention as top concerns. The survey illustrated that marketers are beginning to rely on social media as a steady source of new customers.

In another study, 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers said they were more likely to buy the brands they like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, strengthening the argument that social media is one of the most important emerging channels for lead generation.

Being that social media is a great place to attract new customers, we put together a quick guide on how to use social media for lead generation.

Continuously Point Users to Your Content

The first step to engaging a community of potential customers is sharing content that showcases your expertise. A simple social media update usually isn’t enough to convey a full analysis on a topic. Include links with your updates that expand on key ideas. Keep in mind that your goal is to create value for your followers. Learn what your fans respond to and what they don’t, and then adjust your updates based on that information.

Sarah Chong, co-founder and editor of Penn Olson, a marketing blog and consultancy, told me that their company shares 100% of the links that are generated on their blog. If they write a blog post, you can bet that it will be shared via Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz and various social bookmarking sites.

Chong exclaimed, “Good content ought to be shared!” She continued, “Most readers definitely wouldn’t know Penn Olson without the help of social media. We built everything by getting involved in online communities.” In the end, 35% of Penn Olson’s web traffic is generated through social media. This wouldn’t be possible without their incessant dedication to sharing valuable content with their followers.

Promote Your Social Presence with Social Links

Once you’ve set up your social media presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Yelp, don’t forget the power of promotion. Some people have the misconception that if you create pages across all of the social sites, they’ll miraculously gain millions of followers overnight, all by themselves. In reality, just like everything else in life, gaining a following via social media takes time and effort.

If you haven’t done so already, start promoting your social media presence. Having a Twitter or Facebook icon prominently displayed on your site gives visitors a recognizable channel for connecting with you. Print links to your social profiles on business cards, flyers and letterhead. Most importantly, don’t forget to include links to your social profiles on your website or blog. Try using a service like Iconfinder to find free social media icons that best fit your website.

Take a look at Offbeat Bride or Offbeat Mama for examples of sites that have implemented social media links well. Ariel Meadow Stallings, publisher of Offbeat Bride and Offbeat Mama, shared her thoughts on designing a place for social media icons to live. She explained, “I was inspired by the social media fly-out on treehugger.com. It felt like an elegant but effective solution for getting my social media links out of the sidebar. I want them prominent, but not irritating.” Stallings seems to have found the solution to providing valuable links for readers to stay connected with her content, without coming off as a gimmick.

Stallings’ diligence in finding fitting social media links has paid off. One-third of her site traffic comes from StumbleUpon and Facebook combined. She credits social media as a critical factor in the growth of both Offbeat Bride and its sister site, Offbeat Mama.

Monitor Conversations about Your Brand and Competitors

weily Man oh man, I think Silk brand soy milk changed the ingredients of their Chocolate Light flavor because it tastes GROSS. 27 Jan 2010 from web

Sara_C_Lopez @weily You should totally try out 8th Continent! http://8thcontinent.com/free-coupon 27 Jan 2010 from API

weily @8thLopez Hey, thanks so much! I saw it in the supermarket, too, but it was more expensive – I’ll definitely make use of the coupon 27 Jan 2010 from web in reply to Sara_C_Lopez

In order for a conversation to occur, brands must speak and listen. Traditional marketing models are all about speaking. When a brand puts an ad in a newspaper, on a building or in a subway train, they are broadcasting their message, but there isn’t generally a direct method for responding. Social media is changing the ways brands approach marketing. Instead of broadcasting messages, brands are starting conversations and engaging individuals.

In an e-mail interview, Sara C. Lopez, Community Manager for 8th Continent soy milk, explained the importance of monitoring conversations and buzz on various social platforms:

“There are actually two of us constantly monitoring Twitter, Facebook and Google alerts. The other community manager and I use several Twitter clients, including Hootsuite and TweetDeck. But regardless of client, we keep columns that search mentions of “@8thcontinentsoy”, “8th Continent”, “Soy Milk”, “8thcontinent”, and competitors.

We get several benefits from Twitter. We use it to monitor consumer perception, identify opportunities for one-on-one interaction, crowd source to learn how people are using our product, drive traffic to other channels we have, and connect with influencers who can spread word of mouth.”

Lopez demonstrated the value of monitoring conversations and responding to leads. In one promotion, 8th Continent monitored mentions of Silk brand soy milk, one of their competitors, and offered trial coupons to users. Lopez explained their success, “One clear example of how it’s worked for [8th Continent] is that with coupons distributed via social media, we’ve seen a 39% redemption rate, versus the 0.7% redemption of hard copy coupons. During coupon promotions we saw huge spikes in our fan base and a lot of pass along.”

One tweeter, Weily Lang, received a coupon after tweeting about her bad experience with Silk chocolate soy milk. Lopez interjected with a coupon, which Lang redeemed that week. This example is just one success story of trials generated by 8th Continent via social media.

Once you begin listening to what consumers are saying about your brand, products and competitors, you’ll have a better sense of which platforms to monitor for certain types of feedback. To get started, make sure you’re monitoring comments that your fans, followers or subscribers leave on your social profiles. This is the first step to mastering your listening skill.

As a secondary step, monitor buzz elsewhere. Use Twitter advanced search (or Twitter clients such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck or CoTweet) to monitor key terms around your business, including your brand names, trademarks, product types and competitors. Use Google Alerts to keep up with the latest news about your company. And search mentions of your brand in blogs via Google Blog Search or Technorati.

After trying out some of these methods, you’ll begin to get a feel for your audience and their interests. Use this information to inform decisions, and don’t forget to reach out to users that have questions or feedback. Respond with more information, links, coupons, follow-up questions, or whatever is needed.

Respond to Customer Questions and Feedback

You can listen all day, but if you don’t act on your learnings, you will lose an opportunity to generate a meaningful conversation with a consumer that may be considering trying out your brand. Take action when you come across a useful comment, and make sure you clear up any customer questions when they arise.

Yelp recently interviewed Jeffrey Diamond, owner of Farmstead Cheeses and Wine on when and how to respond to a customer review on a Yelp business page. Diamond responded:

“I try to respond to every review, whether positive or negative. And if there’s something I can learn from it, then I will engage in a dialogue with the customer. And in fact, every time I’ve engaged in a dialogue with a negative review customer, with one or two notable exceptions, the review has gone from a two- or three-star review up to a five-star review.”

Customer reviews on Yelp are a great example of useful feedback from paying customers. Not only are they interested in your product, but they’ve already tested it out. Their review is, therefore, very meaningful feedback on the quality of your product and service.

Try to set aside at least a few hours a week to respond to questions and feedback that flow in via social media. When you respond, focus on delivering a valuable answer to the person or community. Try to always refer the user back to resources on your site, where they may consider using your product again. Depending on the question, useful links may include a how-to video, blog post, product description or microsite.

Use Your Offline Skills

The keyword in social media is “social”. People were social long before the Internet and social media. Take the offline skills that you’ve developed over time and put them to use online. Meet people, communicate and build relationships. Develop and foster complex relationships. As always, make sure that customers are aware of your product, understand its benefits, and have a way to purchase. Throughout your conversations with consumers, provide insightful resources and answer any questions that arise.

Lastly, treat your social media presence in the same way you treat your other customer service initiatives. Be genuine, track conversations and respond to inquiries promptly and thoroughly. The better your customer service is via social media, the more you’ll generate site traffic and leads.

What are some of your tips and techniques for using social media for lead generation?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, koun

Blog Facts: Note the Indian Blogosphere!

2010-06-25T23:43:00.000-07:00

Well, here I’m putting up some facts about blogging worldwide. Do note the number of bloggers in India. Along with Age Category and Gender.

To begin with, let's start with why you need a blog or micro-blog?

1) you need a blog to share your content

2) you need a blog so that you can control your content

3) you want to get an online space for free

Blogging is very similar to writing articles for a newspaper. A person running a successful blog attains the same status as that of a famous newspaper as the demand for the person will increase. Whats more?

News gets delivered to your mail box!

Blogging is democratizing communication. If newspaper needed all the manpower to get news and put it in one place. Web is a place where each individual writes his/her own article and shares the same. Imagine the interactivity in communication.

Micro-Blog like Twitter, Google Buzz and Friend Feed... take blogging to the next level. They give the power of blogging to a wider audience who do not have the time to write articles. Hence Micro-Blogs are one line descriptive messages for the things happening around them. Now imagine a scenario.

You want to know the news about India. What you can do is follow people from different locations of India who Tweet. http://Tweeple.in is a brilliant site to find people from various locations. Add these people and there you are following the people around India. Knowing what’s happening around them. Incidents, Accidents, News, Gossip. More over if one is really looking for news one can even follow news channels!

What’s the process?

Blogs don’t get advertised by themselves. One who starts a blog needs to tell people that he has started one. A Blog is like a product manufactured by you but is not sold until you sell it. So how does one sell blogs?

Earlier you had word of mouth; now in fact from the past 2500 days you have the word of mouse that is much faster than the word of mouth. Still you need the offline media to support your existence online as in India the online penetration is still at 5%, even though it’s been the fastest growing media.

So the question: Do you need a blog? Yes you definitely do! Here are some facts. Now you might notice the category that blog are middle aged, so here is the reason: The Younger generation is resorting more time on Social Networks than the traditional blogs cause Social Networks have a larger interactivity base, a lot of can do’s and much more. Blog’s however are still around as social networks do not provide much enthusiasm of the article presence nor they end up in search results. The only advantage of blogs over social networks is that they can end up on search engines!

Enjoy the facts

What is Social Media? Do we as an Indian Company need to get into Social Media?

2010-06-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

A New Revolution has empowered our Communication Strategies these days. Much Talk is heard on this subject and couple of courses have been started for to educate people who were unable to move on with the times at the early age.

The presentation below not only gives you a message as to why you should get into Social Media but also provides you much facts on the Indian Masses having a Presence on Social Media.

For Business Enquiries kindly contact aniketh@beehivecommunications.com

What is Social Media?

How to permanently Save Files in Word 2003.

2010-06-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Here’s a quick suggestion for those having a problem of first saving the the file in your system only to find that it doesnt open in the system your client is using. So here you go:

Open any office application like Word 2007. Click ‘File’ or Press ‘alt+F+T’ on your keyboard. Click the ‘save’ option. Now change the ‘Save files in this format:’ option from the drop down menu, from Word Document to Word 97-2003 Document.

Thats it!

Henceforth all your documents will be saved in Word 2003 format that can be opened in any machine using office applications!

How to hire using Social Media?

2010-06-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

India is continuously becoming younger!

250 million youth with an average age of 24. Sixty percent of the population is under the age of 30. 13.9 million [in the age group of 12-16years with 51.7% boys and 48.3% girls] young influencers are present in the top 35 cities of India. Another major category is the affluent young working singles (21-25years) with a population of 11.8 million.

The youth in India holds a “dual cultural passport” (both ethnic and international in their outlook) and smart enough to blend their cultural, spiritual & family values with the global influences. Based on the A C Nielsen survey’09, India has 2.5 million affluent households, Of which 2.2 million belongs to the “upper middle” segment; 200,000 in the “upper upper middle” segment and about 100,000 in the “rich” segment. Delhi Ranked as the most affluent city in the country, followed by Bangalore and Greater Mumbai. 60% of affluent households are nuclear families, and nearly a quarter have elders at home. 90% own their homes. The affluent are energetic consumers of media, fashion and lifestyle products. At home, they speaks regional languages, but they prefer their newspapers to be in English and they like to watch TV in Hindi (regional).

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO HIRE?

68.5% OF THE TOTAL INTERNET POPULATION IN INDIA ARE USING SOCIAL TECHNOLGY

93% OF YOUNGSTERS ARE AWARE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

6 OUT OF TOP 10 WEBSITES VISITED BY INDIANS ARE ON A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM

SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES ARE VISITED 13 TIMES A MONTH SPENDING 130 MINUTES PER VISITOR

78% OF THE CONSUMERS TRUST PEER RECOMMENDATIONS

Now, the question how does this help in hiring? Knowing who you hire before an interview is always a plus point to you. You will know them better and can profile them adequately thus reducing labour turnover.

My methods here, do not suggest you to get the data from the Social Networking Companies. Much of it explains how you create a profile out of thin air.

It’s a negative point for the candidate, as you will have profiled them before the interview.

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO HIRE?

Using Social Media sites such as Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn does help to identify the profile. Keep a 10 days gap to study the person who you want to hire after speaking with them for the first time.

Step #0: You need to have an account on Social Networking Sites.

Step #1: Add them as your friend

Step #2: Note if you have friends in common (mutual friends), if so ask your friends about them

Step #3: Interact with them casually

Step #4: React on their status updates

Step #5: Do know disclose your professional identity

Step #6: Profile them and match it to their CV’s

Thus you can find out the psychology, character of the person who you are about to hire, before you hire

At the end, the success of the any organisation is its manpower.

The question we need to find the answer for the sake of who we work for is

“Who is stronger? – A group of sheep led by a lion or a group of lions led by a sheep or a group of Lions led by a sheep?"