Is Facebook really Listening?

Click here for the inset picture

This is what Facebook Team has to say about my feedback on their new design. Below is the content of the mail they sent me today.

Hi,

We appreciate your feedback about the new site design. We’re constantly trying to improve things on the site, so it is good to know what is working for you and what isn’t. Unfortunately, we can’t write individual responses to each of these emails, but we are reading them. We hope these changes make the site even more useful for you. If there are any specific changes you recommend, please let us know.

You may also want to check out this note ( http://blog.new.facebook.com/blog.php?post=31033537130) from our founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and read his thoughts about the new Facebook.

If you are having any problems with your account, you can also check out our Help page ( http://www.facebook.com/help.php) where you'll find information about Facebook as well as the answers to many answers of your questions.

Thanks again for writing in.

-The Facebook Team

The highlight bold portion of the above content shows that Facebook cares. But how much care is care if they don't change the new design which I believe is still filled up with useless apps. Though I just hope the Facebook returns to its old design where navigation was so easy and user friendly.

Related articles

• Zuckerberg Responds to User Complaints on Facebook Redesign
• How do you feel about Facebook's redesign? [Poll]

Indian Social Networking Trends

I've to say upfront that I'm a keen observer of Social Media, which by now must be quite evident if you're a regular to this blog. If not then I may have something interesting for you. So keeping with the blog post, I keep a track about what's hot & what's not in Social Media and much so in Social Networking especially in India.

The genesis of this blog post is Dina Mehta's blog post on "Future of Social Networking" and more so a recent development from Yahoo! Indian Arm which came up with a new Social Networking site dubbed as SpotM for the age bracket 16-24 to capture the growing Indian market (Read my post here).

So on this recent Yahoo! development, I also commented my opinions as to what would fancy Indian users so as the capture their imagination & in turn take advantage of growing Indian market. Below are my comments from my previous post:

....within a span of 2-3 years there have been plethora of Social Networking Sites (SNS) developed by Indians and International giants like Google, Facebook, MySpace etc. So for SpotM, it better be good, different, fast, high on usability and wide reaching otherwise another failed investment.....

On the hindsight, I recently came across another site called ChillX which has tried to position itself as a site where Indian youth can hang out dubbed as "Hamara Desh". Now a quick usability check gave me a very good impression about its various features its blogs, videos, news and my favorite- the chat applet. Though this may be nothing new to most of us, but surely this site has unique Indian community feeling which I saw lacking in most western counter parts as of now. Also if I'm not wrong then this site's positioning is more "Community Based" i.e. it wants to build a community of Indian Youths.

So taking cues from Dina's statement on Social Networking's future

“Networks based on & layered around location, access, presence & context. Those that enhance real-world interactions. Enabling choice, privacy and control”

it seems evidential that without these key ingredients i.e. layered network effects across location, access, presence & most importantly context which enhances real world interactions with different users will define the future of Indian Social Networking Space.

So what do you think will click in Indian Social Networking Space?

Related articles

• Social networking and the Geocities fallacy
• Yahoo outlines plans for world social network domination
• Portals vs. social networks? The new operating system!
• Yahoo Flirts With Social Networking
• Yahoo! hopes Mash will be a monster

Twitter Changes to 'New Twitter' with New Design

Today Twitter changed its old design to new and much loved new design which is being appreciated a lot. Take a look at the hundreds of responses from Twitterverse.


Also take a look at freezed Search.Twitter (Formerly Summize) screenshot for all the responses via tweets which is no less than WoW, Whoa....

It s needless to say that hundreds of responses are being fed per minute about the new design also being dubbed as "New Twitter".

Also check out the trending topics of Search. Twitter which has "New Twitter" as most talked about news (Marked in Red in above picture).

Check out the official Blog of Twitter here to read from the horses mouth about the new changes.

Integrating Friendfeed into Twhirl

This is an awesome new development coming from Chris Brogan via Twitter (link here). Reason why I'm excited about this new development is two fold:

1. I'm a huge fan of Data Aggregation and I feel sites like FriendFeed is just the tip of the iceberg since the future of internet in this age of ageless & countless information and on top of that millions of social tools available to track them makes our life more complex. So data aggregators like FF is sigh of relief since it has not only aggregated data but social tools like Flickr, Twitter, Blogger, digg, StumbleUpon and others in one platform from where we can track everything.

2. I always tried to keep a tab on Friendfeed (FF) but unfortunately always forget to check it out.

So this little bit of information made me quite excited since now I can track FriendFeed & Twitter together from Twhirl (twhirl is a desktop client for the Twitter microblogging platform, powered by Adobe AIR).

Down below is the steps of how to pull FriendFeed in Twhirl account (Source: Mzinga):

If you don't have Twhirl already, you need to start by downloading Adobe Air.

Once you download air and install it, download the beta version of Twhirl from Leo Laporte's site (don't go to Twhirl's site, the latest version they have is only .0.8.5)

Before you install Twhirl, make sure you have your current version of Twhirl closed if you currently use it.

This is the slightly tricky part - open up the new version of Twhirl and click on the logo in the top right-hand corner of the application (it looks like a mini green and white hurricane)

See screenshot below: The key is to select "FriendFeed" as an application option in the bottom left-hand corner:
a) Once you do this, enter your account info in the box just to the right and click the plus sign.
b) Now select your Friendfeed account from the list above.
c) Click "Connect" and this should prompt you for your "remote key" - click on the link below the box if you don't have one and it will pop up a FriendFeed browser window with your key.
d) Copy, cut and paste the key into your Twhirl dialogue box and hit enter.

Thanks again to Chris Brogan & Aaron Strout for sharing this information.

Image Courtesy: Mzinga

Read the official Twhirl release: twhirl 0.8 released - adding friendfeed support

'Yours Truly' featured in AdAge Power 150

This is the 2nd in the 'Yours Truly' series in this blog. This time around, my blog featured in the ADAGE POWER 150 list which showcases the best that there is from the Marketing, Advertising & Media blogs and bloggers from around the world.

From now on, I'll keep the Power 150 widget on the right bar of 'Networks & Affiliations' tab which will keep updating the rank status of this blog.

Apart from the usual excitement on being featured in the much elite list of bloggers, I'm quite aware that this levies more responsiblity on blogging front. Though for the past week or so, posting has reduced due some other engagements but it also shows that I'm quite aware of it. And whenever and wherever possible I'll keep blogging.

Till then, keep coming on if you've missed any previous posts and please comment/criticize/appreciate if you feel like you need to.

How should we use Twitter: Classification & their Impact on us

Today an interesting conversation (here, here & here too) with Asfaq led me to brood over one simple question. How should Twitter be used? Now simple it is but its implications are manifold. To pen down some of my thoughts on “How we Tweet?” led me to another sort of thinking, i.e. does our tweeting ways or techniques of posting those short, succinct, terse messages (tweets) impact the way we think/perceive ideas/notions or stuff like that? I believe they do. I’ll take this post into two ways. First, will try to understand broadly how all those zillion of tweets posted per day around the world can be classified into and then how are they can impact the way we think/perceive about various things around us.

Firstly, those terse messages which we all have coined as Tweets can be broadly classified as:

1. Question/Enquiry Tweet: This category of tweets fall majorly into What, Where, When, How and all the other statements which ends with a question mark. These kinds of tweets generally take advantage of the collaborative framework of Twitter.

2. Share Tweet: This type of tweets are classified as sharing information in the form of links (mostly short & terse url), events & news or anything & everything which a person feels can be shared. This is the bread & butter for those ever-hungry bloggers looking for some extra bit of attention into their blog through some visitors.

3. Me Tweets: This category of tweets, I feel is the most significant yet abhorred ones for many since it creates clutter or noise in Twitter. This type of Tweet talks only about specific ones like I’m sleeping, I’m drinking coffee/beer, my girlfriend/boyfriend left me blah blah blah. Come one, not too many people want to listen to you. For this, I remember one very apt line: “…If you want to be boring, talk yourself; if you want to be interesting, talk everything other than yourself…” But as I said, this type helped Twitter survive because they have given us space where we can voice our opinions & life par se. So lastly no complaints there at least.

Lastly, how can those terse messages impact our thinking/perception:

A small incident happened today in the morning while I was on twitter. Moksh Juneja posted a small tweet on Airtel = Vodafone goof up which caught Twitter’s attention big time and people started forming their own opinion about Airtel & Vodafone.

I’m not saying that it’s wrong but the point I want to make is that all the money spent by companies on the brand building and portraying images about themselves get slapped every now and then since consumers are no fool nowadays. Information and connectivity is dirt cheap if not free. So holding back is not the solution anymore. You (companies) can’t hold back conversations anymore and consumers will make an impression about you and in turn influence others too. So the questions remains what are you doing about it? Get into the new system or die watching it out!

P.S. I always take business examples since it’s an easy fix to keep score.

Read More Twitter Post:

• Video: Twitter Simplified
• Fail Whale
• Revenue Models for Twitter
• Swainism #2: Random Thoughts on Twitter, Networking & Life
• My first Twitter Meetup at Mumbai

Why Marketing "Cuil" as "Google Killer" a bad idea?

Is the hype on the latest search kid on the block i.e. CUIL over? Though I may assume it should be but still it isn't (Me going by the trending topics of Summize- oops now Twitter Search on 29th July,08 also). So here are my own perspectives. You may not agree with me here but that's what I want as then we can have elaborated conversation in this blog or start-off by shooting a mail at sampad[at]gmail[dot]com.

Firstup, some facts: Ex-Googlers launched a new search engine called "Cuil" on 27th July, 2008 with an index of 120 billion web pages which makes them arguably the most comprehensive search engine on the web (Thinking about Google's index worth- They proclaim it to be more though- Read more on the launch on Techcrunch). Since TechCrunch has already covered the who's who and where about the launch I wont dare fiddle with it. What I want to point out is this: IS Marketing CUIL as GOOGLE KILLER a good idea? Ask me, then my answer will be NO WAY, NEVER. Here are some of the conversations happening around the Web:

- Will Cuil Kill Google? - Motley Fool.
- Is Cuil the next Google? - Management Today.
- Ex-Google workers launch Internet search rival Cuil - AFP.

Reasons for me going against the tide are listed below:

• Don't go against your dad when he's still giving your pocket money- Conversion: When search audience knows search more by Google (want to say Yahoo also, but...), no point showcasing yourself as the next Google Killer as you're raising expectations manifold. And you won't be surprised what happend next...They Crashed though not Burned!
• A great search engine provides two core competencies: relevancy and trust. I did not see any higher levels of relevance in these search engine results that I am not already getting from Google, Yahoo or Microsoft and based on the categories referred back, it will be difficult to earn my trust with these types of results. (Courtesy: Six Pixels of Separation).
• Surprise the Buck to Kill the Buck: You can't expect to do everything the same way as others have been doing and win the game. You have to do things differently. Try out innovative or a newer approach towards it. (Remember there's nothing called Free-Lunch in this world- If you're thinking for a free tip here :-)

Finally, I won't sound too pessimistic here since its early days for CUIL. But their initial PR programs of being the next Google Killer was totally inappropriate. So I don't expect CUIL to take over Google in the recent times for sure.

P.S. This blog is not being indexed properly by CUIL (pronounced "COOL") if I try searching it by my name in the first page w.r.t. Google with PageRank 4. So no brownie points on that note.

Empowered Customers

If you can read what is written in the inset picture, then the idea of empowered customers would be easier to understand.

The old proverb says "Pen is mightier than sword" and I believe the maxim is most true in case of irritated, disgusted and frustrated customers who wants to pay back hard to those nosy service companies.

Read this post & also this one too, then you will get a bigger picture where we as customer stand and how can we turn our dissatisfaction into something which these companies will take seriously for their lousy and lame services.

This is what Joseph Jaffe did i.e. made a group of dissatisfied customers and tried to unified their voices into one and give it back to the service companies.

I guess, in the web 2.0 era, we as customers can be more proactive in protesting bad customer service.

So in today's world, if your business model's vision & mission considers customers as core to their processes then be sure to consider them as core and not someone from whom you generate just revenues. Or else once in a while customers will rise from their slumber and knock you down. Ask Dell and many more.

Social Media Strategy for B2B companies - Insights from Lena West

Few days back, got this mail as part of my MarketingProfs newsletter. The topic was "Getting Results with Social Media: Q&A with Lena West". Though every now & then, we all marketing and social media enthusiats get emails like this but this one somehow struck some chord which prompted me to include a part of the interview into my blog. I found the Q&A quite insightful, interesting and most importantly clears up the ground level realities of Social Media acceptance in B2B companies as they have begun to launch Social Media efforts and incorporate Social Media tools into their marketing campaigns. But with the new tools comes the inevitable learning curve, and many organizations are finding that their initial wade into the social media water isn't yielding the results they were hoping for or expecting.

Here, she shares some insights for B2B players looking to hone their social media strategy.

[Q] It seems that in the last couple of years, companies have been looking to learn all they could about blogs and social networks. Are these still the hot spots for companies wanting to start using social media, or are other areas emerging?

[Ans] Blogs and social networking are still very "hot." Gosh, I don't like saying that because it makes anything new media related sound like a fad - which it decidedly is NOT.

Online communities and engagement are emerging areas for brand investment. Companies that are active in social media are finally getting the blogosphere memo that it's not just about being part of the community and listening, but facilitating dialogue as well.

There was a report released recently that showed that with the economic downturn, many brands are taking a good chunk of their traditional marketing spend and allocating it to social media engagement. Not to mention that there is still a huge learning and adoption curve for social media on the corporate front. The best is far from being over and we haven't even reached the peak yet.

[Q] What do you think is the biggest misconception that companies have about using social media tools?

[Ans] That legal "won't let them" or that people will say negative things about their brands. Newsflash: people in your market are already saying both good and bad things about brands. Why stick your head in the sand, when you can find out what's being said, address it and develop relationships?

As for legal? Their job is to protect the firms they're hired to protect. It's our jobs as consultants, social media evangelists, marketers and PR professionals to present a plan that mitigates risk while still being open, honest and direct. If you're not doing your job, don't dare blame it all on legal.

[Q]There’s a growing emphasis on establishing the right metrics to measure social media programs. What’s hard about correctly tracking and measuring the effectiveness of social media efforts?

[Ans] Because when [companies] started their social media initiative(s), they didn't determine what the end goal was and as a result they don't know which metric to measure to keep tabs on that goal. It’s really that simple. There are HUNDREDS of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you can track, but if you don't know what you should be tracking and how that indicator relates to your goal… you might as well go watch Project Runway. This is why it's so important for brands to get help implementing social media. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a hundred times. It's seemingly minor things, like selecting the appropriate metric(s), that can cripple otherwise healthy social media programs.

[Q] Is blogging a good fit for every company?

[Ans] Blogs do seem to get the most attention, but that's because everyone can type. You see, people mistakenly think they have to be some uber-orator in order to have a successful podcast. Or, with a video blog, they think they have to be the next Ed Bradley or Barbara Walters. And, even with online communities, they feel it's a lot to manage, but a blog…? Heck, anyone can type. That's the thought process.

No, blogs are not a good fit for every company. Different social media tools produce different results. For example, if you know your audience is on-the-go, you might want to consider a podcast because audio offers a different means of portability than text.

Companies can tell they should start blogging when they feel that they want something more from their marketing than demis and data. Many people get older and they think, "There has to be more than this," and they go on a search for their passion in the Burmese mountainside. Companies get the same fire in their breastbones. They think - and correctly so - there has to be more than numbers and email addresses. They start thinking about how to start a movement in their industry. They start thinking bigger about their brands. THOSE are the companies that are ripe for engaging in social media -- blogging or otherwise. It starts as a yearning to be part of the big picture.

Amitabh Bachchan's blog: Marketing gimmick or serious cause?

I never thought that I will write anything about bollywood stars in this blog. But for the couple of weeks something is brewing offline as well as online which is quite interesting to talk about. India's mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan(BigB) has started his own blog which has been the center of attraction both in media as well as in film fraternity.

Though WatBlog has stated this move from Amitabh Bachchan as a marketing gimmick by BigAdda.com (Mr. Anil Ambani's Social Network) but what excited me was the more recent news from this front in ET that Amitabh Bachchan is paid a huge sum of Rs. 100 Crores ($25 million) to blog on BigAdda.com! I guess Mr. Arrington of TechCrunch fame who reportedly earns something around Rs 1 crore ($250000) per month may take some tips from Mr. Bachchan...Psst!

But whatever may be the scene out there, but Mr. Bachchan has justified to BigAdda.com since the amount of controversy it has generated has given the portal enough viral affect which has generated enough furore in offline media to catapult BigAdda.com into a superior visibility status.

Not only the viral impact has helped BigAdda.com but this sort of joint venture has helped Mr. Bachchan to put his much needed voice across his rivals subtly but also do much needed PR for BigAdda itself for free which they could have spend as direct expenses via advertising in television or print. So I believe that it's win-win situation for both these brands.

One more thing about his blog is that it's a big hit among his fans as there were 100's of comments which shows that his fans have taken his blogging step seriously. But the question is will Mr. Bachchan take blogging seriously like others such as Aamir Khan who has even hosted his blog at aamirkhan.com? Or he's going to use this voice-up platform to promote his future films.

P.S. The backdrop of his blog has a picture of Amitabh Bachchan in his next awaited release "Bhootnath".

How about this Marketing Idea?

Was going through Drew's Marketing Minute and stumbled upon this marketing idea. Though it's still a drawing board idea from South Korea but it sure opens up more than an oppurtunity in revolutionizing traffic lights. Read more about the "Virtual Wall" on Yanko Design.

So all those creative and innovative marketers, does it ring a bell in your head about how this innovation can used to great PR and advertising oppurtunities.

Remembrance of a Lifetime

This is one of the most unusual posts that I will ever write, I guess.

Have you ever felt bad or rather disliked a good customer service? No one does! Even I didn't thought so but in my case it was very unusual. Today I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC (a growing fast food chain). Everything was quite the usual types except for I was in a very foul mood. Even my companion couldn't help me settle down. So in my infuriated state I sat in a chair, soon to be asked to move since we were two people and some bunch of hippies wanted to sit too in our chairs. And that did it for me. I somehow lost it and gave it back to the waiter. It's not all. I accused him of bad customer service and how they should treat their customers. I even went to the extreme to meet the General Manager and told him that how their service sucks.

Now that's one part of the story. The other part made me feel more than guilty than I can express in words. The waiters (I mean all of them) were deaf & dumb. It was told to me by the General Manager. And the gestures of the waiter during the tiff was to make me understand that all the seats were in the sharing basis. I misread it and took it otherwise and blasted him off. Later he came around and did gave us a seat though and made us comfortable.

Uptil now I was totally infuriated at their unattended customer service but after knowing the real reason of communication gap I was totally immersed in guilt. After apologizing even, the waiter was so calm and still helping me out and making it seem more normal. I simply loved it! At that moment I was only wondering that does a man who can talk or hear can only communicate more, or is it about being more humane?

Still I believe that it's a great move from KFC to employ disabled people as the responsibility increases from both sides i.e. a customer as well as an employee to have a better and wholesome experience. So now before accusing anyone think twice that have you been a good enough to be served well?

But still this incident will be in my memory for a long long time.

P.S. Thanks Sangita for the suggetion.

Creating Empathy, Understanding & Openess in Business

This post is a part of my explaination to one of my commenters about my "Branding 2.0 & Social Media" slides I posted some months back. So thought of sharing it...

"...Business in modern day has become quite complex because of many reasons. One of them is understanding customers. I will try to connect 4 steps which I mentioned in my slides of "Branding 2.0 & Social Media" (SlideShare Link)i.e. investigating, walking + talking with people, learning by doing and sharing.

For example, if you want to launch a new product, the first primary thing that has to be done is to know what your target audience wants. Some of the tools that businesses have been using are market research, newer methods like alpha & beta tests etc. But the question is do they truly help us understand what they want?

One more thing that has to be remembered here is that we all are dealing with people who by nature are emotional and more often than not are not guided by logic or rationale. So what are these tests do for us! Don’t get me wrong here; I am not saying that it is of no use. But I personally believe that a healthy mix of personal experiences and qualitative & quantitative research will work as a wonder drug in these cases where Logic + Emotion (had to mention David Armano here) is taken care of easily. And that’s where Social Media can help us. Social Media can help businesses to engage, connect, collaborate, corroborate, share and help socialize between customers & businesses.

Last but not least, validation to the extent of measurability & stepwise accountability of the ongoing processes of understanding your customers is an important criterion as it can make or break a company. It can be through bringing your customers into the validation process not just through alpha or beta tests as the question lies somewhere else. It’s much better to have rough answers to right question than to have detailed answers to wrong question like quantitative analysis or focus groups. Validation can be brought to the table through asking the right questions like memorability of trademarks or logos, customer’s brand voice (message) perception & last but not least your customers should be able to verbalize the brand’s concept. Then working backwards towards number crunching may be the total solution.”

Please feel free to add/comment/criticize on it.

Negative × Negative ≠ Positive in Business

If you don't have a driving license, will you get caught?...though the answer is obvious "NO" as you are not driving, but the word "NO" has a deep rooted connotation attached to it, if thought from a business point of view. For example, take these instances:

• Does your customer write you back about your product/service?


• Do you get back to your customers even though they are happy with your product/service?


• Do you keep your "Do's & Don'ts" outline for customer service stay only inside business meetings?


• Does your product/service add any value to your customers?


• Do you use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc to help your customer feel like an exclusive privileged community who can engage, collaborate, participate with the product/brand/service?

If the answer to above 5 questions is straightforward "NO", then dude you seriously are or will be in trouble soon because in business, multiplying negatives is not equal to positive.

Related Posts:

• Using Facebook as Marketing Platform
• Do we need "Community Managers"?
• Analogy between Human Body & Business
• Indian companies' response to Blogosphere
• What Cricket Umpires teach Marketers
• Social Media may save our lives

How can a brand stay young forever?

I have been observing Google for quite sometime now and so have you I guess. One of the interesting facts about Google has been it's changing logos. Today is World Earth Day and as usual Google changed it's logo or signage so as to say. It's a great PR activity I must say to promote the awareness amongst us. But is there any other strategy behind this? I feel there is!

One of the most important facets about a brand is to keep it young, if not forever. And I feel one of the easiest ways is to keep it fresh is by attaching the brand with something relevant to it's user base or it's customers. It's kinda difficult for most brands since the value may be lost down the line if it keeps on attaching itself with everything. But not so for Google. Google itself stands for fresh since search (which is it's core competency) is all about latest and best information that it can provide. So changing the signage overtime keeps it quite young and fresh among us. Anyway kudos to Google's Marketing team for this efforts which keeps it young forever (if I may say so!).

Related Posts:

• The Love for color "Red" in brand logos
• Happy B'Day Google: Is it 9 or 10 years old?
  

Do we need "Community Managers"?

How do you listen to your customers? The traditional customer service model worked more through auto-generated email messages which generally gets dumped in trash-can, a suggestion box like you must have seen in most fast food joints or even a customer service toll free number in case you want to say “your service sucks!”. So when businesses know that customer service is one of the quintessential ingredients for customer satisfaction then why still going like in the old ways?

Still there is some good and bad news for those marketing executives or business owners. Social media may change the way you intercept your customers who wants to say something about your brand/product/service. Isn’t that what we have been talking for a while i.e. active participation or engagement to its truest sense? And oh how much we spend in that…I don’t think much! And the bad news is in the resistance factor from different businesses. Somebody will say is it possible or the old system works fine.

Don’t get me wrong here. I am just trying to say, the old model may work just fine but don’t you think your customers have moved a long way in the complex and media fragmented world where customer touch-points have increased. So why haven’t you?

After all this, the need for Community Managers is very evidential. They act as customer service reps, evangelists or sometimes the public faces for their company. In this regard, this article will provide a clear perspective about how Twitter(@sampad) is being used by companies to service their customers in a better way. Blogger Mario Sundar posted a list of the community managers he found on Twitter (which I edited to remove the people whose Twitter username he couldn't find):

1. Will Pate: Community Evangelist - ConceptShare (@willpate)

2. Mario Sundar: Community Evangelist - Linkedin (@mariosundar)

3. Eric Skiff: Community Evangelist - Clipmarks (@ericskiff)

4. Marilyn Pratt: Community Evangelist - SAP Labs (@marilynpratt)

5. Brett Meyers: Community Evangelist - Zloop (@brettmeyers)

6. Ryan Knight: Community Manager - Yahoo (@yank)

7. Jennifer Puckett : Community Manager - Disney (?)

8. Jim Lynch: Community Manager - Ziff Davis (@jwlynch)

9. Jake McKee: Community Guy - Formerly Lego (@jakemckee)

10. William Azaroff: Community Engagement - VanCity (@wazaroff)

11. Carole McManus: Community Specialist, formerly Yahoo 360 (@puttopal)

12. Asa Dotzler: Catastrophist, Mozilla (@asadotzler)

13. Anand Iyer: Developer Evangelist - Microsoft (@anandiyer)

14. Damon Billian: Director of Customer Evangelism - Mint (@dbillian)

15. Domini Perri: Community Manager, Utterz - (@domjp)

16. Daniel Ha: Disqus (@danielha)

This will not only help understand your customers in a better way but also let your customers feel that “you are there to care”. Now you decide that does modern day businesses need “Community Managers”?

Slidepost: MacWorld 2008 - Steve Jobs Keynote

These slides (Link) are the step by step coverage of Apple in "Macworld 2008: Steve Jobs Keynote". I have tried to put the event in a slide in form of pictures of the key developments in "Macworld 2008".

As stated in one of my earlier posts about Tata Nano and its similarity with Apple's iPhone, now it will be more than clear that the amount of enthusiasm and euphoria surrounding this event is immense. Modern day marketing is going through a phase of metamorphosis where PR is acting as a catalyst to modern marketing.

So before even talking about Apple's latest "MacBook Air" being successful or not, it has raised the aspiration of customers to an exalted state. So Well done again Mr Jobs. Good show!

Check out the photos in Flickr Slideshow.

Indian companies' response to Blogosphere

I have been blogging from last year. One of my many observations is the increasing number of hits to my blog from different companies like Google, Cisco, Microsoft, BP, Shell, Bell Labs, O&M etc through searches (E.g. Vodafone, Portugal in the inset picture). Interestingly, many bloggers gave the same feedback that there is a dramatic shift in the number of viewers from different companies of the world.

Interestingly, Mark Collier raises an important question regarding companies being vigilant on blogosphere i.e. How many companies monitoring blogosphere take further action when something good/bad is being talked about?

Staying with that topic, I'm quite unsure I have seen too many Indian companies coming to my site. Apart from me, talking to many bloggers have revealed the same state i.e. not too many Indian companies are watching their audience talking or writing about them. Some of the many reasons Indian companies are still lagging behind Blogosphere or indolent about taking any action are:

#1. Unsure to respond: I'm quite sure that most of the viewers are average employees who just want to check what's been talked about their company in the blogosphere (Agreed to Mark).

#2. Complacent Boss not taking any action: If they find anything positive being talked about, then they simply ignore, thinking nothing much to do there whereas they should foster that kind of PR conversation.

#3. Ignoring negative vibes: This is simply done to excuse themselves from taking any sort of further responsibility. Whereas it can hurt them more by not taking any further action for such negative publicity. Dell knows it.

The point is few unsatisfied customers can do more damage because of technology and information proliferation than many satisfied ones. So now you choose...!!!

What Tata's Nano & Apple's iPhone have in common

Today is one of the glorious day in the history of Indian business. The much talked about Tata's 1-lakh ($2700) car was launched today in the Auto Expo Show at New Delhi.

I won't go much into the details of the car or the euphoria surrounding the launch, since it will be all over the media tomorrow. But I want to share some thoughts about the launch. Actually I came to know about the launch details from Twitter (thanks to Gaurav Mishra). He actually twittered the news while Mr. Tata was announcing it.

Few things happened while this development was taking place. First, Tata's Nano featured among the top most search in Technorati on 10th Jan, 2008 i.e. the world was searching for more information about Tata's Nano and secondly, the blogosphere was buzzing about Tata Nano.

It's very rare to see such euphoria among people across the world for a product launch like this and that too Indian product. But here the product has the capability to be a standard by itself, both for customers as well as industry players across the world. Tata's have made it possible to break the myth that cheap products are inferior in quality.

The launch of this small "Big" car (as much the hype) can be traced back to the corridors of Apple's Steve Jobs launching iPhone. So when Steve Jobs comes with his keynote speech about iPhone's launch and people across 130 odd countries watch it, then much of the PR, Branding and Marketing is being done there itself. So now Indians have something to boast about. So when Mr. Ratan Tata comes out with Nano's launch speech, people around the world want to listen to what he has to say (Citation from technorati).


So from a marketer's point of view, the job has been well done and an incredible story of hope & dream has been passed to the people. Now the "Idea-virus" has to spread. So Tata's main task would be to do some good PR activities (not much in marketing) to keep it hot unless it faces some crucial issues relating to customer services due to the initial hype.

Still I'm happy that an Indian brand has nudged the expectations of world-wide public and Tata's Nano will definitely put India in the limelight for much needed innovation in the Indian context.

Eureka Bar: Brand me and a little bit more..!!

We all love Tees. But I don’t know if you have noticed it or not but somehow people love expressing themselves through this little piece of cloth. Take for instance, this company lastexittonowhere who got inspired by some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in 20^th century fiction (Look at the inset picture). Idea is simple; people love to attach themselves to the stories which these signages have to say.

Time & again, countries (sometimes cities too like “I love NY” campaign have tried to indulge their audience with them. So why should the companies forget this little idea of communicating their companies’ messages amongst their target audience. More often than not, we have seen companies fancying into sophomoric promotion/marketing through distributing tees to their employees. Now get out and spread the message to the larger mass alike.

Some of the reasons why I think that it will work:

1. Long term benefits in terms of brand recall.
2. At the end of it all, you are creating audiences who are inspired by the authenticity & transparency of the company’s story.
3. Don’t forget the WOMM for this sort of communication which has become the lingua franca for neo emergent companies.