2020 Social: Because Business is Social

Social Media News Stories 1st-5th March 2010

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reviews

News stories for the past last week-

1)      Mail Today featured an article ‘Tata is the most trusted business brand in India’ on 3^rd March quoting Ratan Tata as the most trusted business man in India, seconding President A.P.J Abdul Kalam, as per magazine Readers Digest. The list of the 100 most public figures in the country includes business leaders, politicians, journalists, film actors, sportspersons and names people such as Prime Minister Manmohan  Singh, Infosys Narayan Murthy, Wipros Azeem Premji, Actor Amitabh Bachchan, Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, Ambani Brothers, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Gandhi, HDFC’s Deepak Parekh amongst other esteemed names. In addition to this,  the article also reports Tata group firm Indian Hotels and auto major Mahindra & Mahindra as the only Indian brands in the list of 27 top ‘Great brands of Tomorrow’ by Credit Suisse. The article states, ‘According to the Credit Suisse Research Institute, the global brands figuring in the list would significantly outperform the market over the next three to five years as they build and leverage brand equity to grow in size, scale and equity’.

Comment- Tata Group has been one of the most recognized brand since its hay days and with the taking of the reins by Ratan Tata, the Tata Empire has grown manifold. With his hard work, dedication and vision, Ratan Tata ensures that by the time he steps-down the Empire will become the torchbearer of Industrial India, if it is not already. At the same time, it has now emerging as a large global conglomerate with interests across the world that ensures its long term growth plans.

2) Times of India featured an article ‘Water-cooler effect: Internet is reviving TV’ on 3^rd March that reported how TV ratings had shot up for big-ticket events such as Olympics and award show amongst others. The article states, ‘Blogs and social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook enable an online water-cooler conversation, encouraging people to split their time between the computer screen and the big-screen TV’.

Comment- Users discuss TV shows and big events the most in the online realm. Case in point being the twitter-verse being abuzz with Oscar mentions today. This way users stay attached to one another through chatting while watching a certain show. On many occasions, the online world also ‘informs’ users of TV shows through its ratings and reviews.  So the internet is definitely not an enemy of TV.

3)      Financial Chronicle featured an article ‘Nothing to say on Twitter? That might not be the point’ on 4^th March that elaborates on how Twitter has grown into  much more than just broadcasting personal thoughts. The article reports on the different reasons for using Twitter- ‘a medium to spread news, creating lists of people for a snapshot of the landscape of specific topic through unadulterated news, attend events like conferences virtually through their hash tags system, get the local news through trending topics, and ask questions you don’t know who to ask and get instant answers from around the globe’.

Comment- Twitter is allowing for increased collaborative interaction by bringing strangers together around a social object-passion, lifestyle or cause. This enables group activity in the form of discussions, opinions, Q&A and news.  Twitter has allowed for previously closed events or happenings to overcome physical barriers- time and distance- and become more public and thus driven their participation and engagement to an altogether different level.

4)      Deccan Chronicle featured an article ‘Enact Privacy Please’ by Deepak Kumar  on 4^th March that elaborated on increased round of phishing and hacking in the online domain. The article lists the last week of February witnessing hacking instances on micro-blogging site Twitter and chronicles the entire attempt on users of HSBC’s online service- First Direct. The article states, ‘with the advent and phenomenal popularity of  social networking sites, phishing has found an easy prey ground. The wide range of SNS applications  and the willingness of users to try out ever new applications have made it easier for attackers to increase the click-through rates for their poisoned links’.

Comment- The author of this blog has increasingly in the past few weeks come across reports of online hacking or identity theft. The above article, once again, touches upon the importance of exercising online discretion by the user himself.  With technology becoming more and more sophisticated, hackers are finding it easier to take advantage of gullible users who are not password savvy and mostly use the same password for all accounts, whether financial or personal. It is imperative that internet companies provide for some form of tutorial or guidance about online security while creating  user profiles.

5)      Financial Chronicle featured an article ‘Virtual Addiction’ by Ankita Sethi elaborating on the trend of virtual games like Mafia Wars, Fish World or Farmville that has led to users becoming addicts. This addiction coupled with the social gaming company Zenga setting up operations in India and the growth of the Indian animation industry itself will only serve to drive  social and mobile gaming as the next big thing in India.

Comment- Technology in India is much appreciated and there is a general drive in the Indian consumer to explore the latest in the mobile and the gaming arena. In a country that has over 70% of its population categorized as ‘Youth’, animation and virtual games have captured the imagination of the youth as can be seen by the growing fan following that the same have.

6)      The Economic Times featured an article ‘Brand-New Game’ by Writankar Mukherjee on 5^th March that reported how brands namely- Samsung, LG, Canon, Tata Teleservices, Philips, Sony Playstation, Adidas- are now taking the next step in social media and building online consumer communities to increase consumer bonding. The article quotes, ‘Marketers feel that besides increasing brand salience, online communities can emerge as a platform for cross-selling products, thanks to the ever increasing relevance of the internet as a medium to reach out to the consumers’.

Comment- The internet as a medium provides a great opportunity for brands to build credibility and trust.  Through social media and online communities, brands get an opportunity to directly ‘connect’ with consumers. Brands build online communities to create brand awareness through increased interaction. They address grievances and  product pitfalls, as well as gain insights and ideas and thereby improve general brand conduct while building a loyal fan base.

7)      Sakaal Times reported the inevitable in its article ‘Dalai Lama starts Tweeting’ on 5^th March. The article states, ‘The Dalai Lama started  tweeting after he met the social networking site founder Evan Williams in Los Angeles where he is travelling as a part of  his extended US tour  and meeting with the President Barack Obama’. The spiritual leader has already garnered about 140,000 followers within two weeks of joining.

Comment- The adoption of Twitter by the spiritual leader is in addition to Pope Benedict XVI and the Church of England reaching out to their followers online. These leaders have millions of followers the world over and their presence online is a validation of the power of social media.

8)      The Indian Express featured an article ‘Facebook CEO in no rush to launch IPO’ on 5^th March that reported that Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg intends to wait before launching the company’s initial public offering (IPO) as there is no immediate need for huge cash reserves and thus the motivations for going public are completely different and lacking currently.

Comment-As the world’s second  most popular online destinations, Facebook has had its share of offers from Microsoft and Yahoo amongst many others. Currently since November 2009, Facebook announced a dual-class stock structure to ensure voting control by existing owners. Recent Estimates by analysts say that Facebook has  a net worth of 2 billion dollars and this move shows that along with increasing popularity, it is also growing in size to join the league of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo as one of the biggest companies present in the online space.

Social Media News Stories-Last Week of Feb

Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reviews, Trends

To begin with, a belated Happy Holi to all of you.Quite an interesting mix of  noise in the social media sphere in the last week ofFebruary.

1)      Business Standard featured an article ‘Turning a Digital Page’ by Neha Bhatt elaborating on the rising trend of digital books and the consequent increasing sales of e-readers. The article quotes Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 2020Social and a Kindle user, ‘I bought the Kindle last year. I was willing to leave behind my collection of 2000 books, since the e-reader could hold over 300 books. What I really like about my e-reader is the audio feature. The fact that the device is so light and easy to carry is another motivation’. The article elaborates that the device works for those who care about portability or those who want to appear chic to strangers or associates. However comparing to US and UK, the article considers e-readers  a relatively new concept in India due to lack of e-books, pricing issues and loss of wider entertainment options like blogging, gaming and e-magazines.

Comment- For sure, e-readers have a brighter future and can take the book market by storm if made available within the budget of the common man. And with increased entertainment options, the youth will take to it like fish to water.

2)      The Economic Times featured an interview of Harvard Business School Senior Associate Dean,  Professor David B Yoffie in its article ‘Indian IT Cos need global makeover’ by Peerzada Abrar on 23^rd Feb. The article quotes Professor Yoffie, ‘Many Indian IT cos are beginning to realize that offering simple BPO or outsourcing jobs is not going to be profitable as in the past. The long term challenge will be to develop newer services and find other areas in the value chain to operate’.

Comment- With the recession hitting the US and Europe markets, the entire business paradigm underwent a complete overhaul.  New challenges demand a fresher perspectives and offerings that have a tie-up with IT. Indian firms could have an upper hand here if they choose to couple their current offering-high quality talent at lower costs- with newer creative operatives for a wider scope of industries.

3)      The Economic Times reported its tie-up with Facebook  in its article ‘ET Facbook in tie-up for Budget’ on 23^rd Feb. The article elaborates on a tie-up between Facebook, Economic Times and ET, its television channel for users to interact with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the annual budget released on Friday, the 26^th. The article states, ‘the new initiative- ET Facebook: talk to FM will give users an opportunity to post their views and suggestions on the budget by logging on www.economictimes.com. All opinions received  would be summarized and presented to the FM in addition to being displayed on the online edition of the paper’.

Comment- Such a move bridges the disconnect between politics and the Indian youth. It lends the youth a voice and have their say in the political matters pertaining to the nation, especially in the discussions preceding the annual Budget.

4)      Business Standard featured another article ‘Mobile internet usage on a roll in India’ by Bibhu Ranjan Mishra on 23^rd Feb that elaborated on the growing number of users utilizing the mobile Internet with figures doubling  since the beginning of 2009. A major reason for this is the low cost of a general packet radio service , also known as GPRS, ready mobile handsets along with innovative data usage plans being offered by telecom companies. Major usage being for email, messaging, social networking and entertainment.

Comment- Mobile internet trend in India is poised to growth, especially with the young Indian becoming increasingly tech-savvy and 3G services being launched.

5)      Business Standard reported ‘IPL catches the Twitter bug’ by Pradipta Mukherjee  on 25^th Feb.  The article states, ‘IPL commissioner Lalit Modi tweets not only to give updates, but also to comment on controversies. Using Twitter, Modi has also sought bids for the two new teams that will be included in IPL IV in 2011. All teams have Twitter accounts and some have registered on Facebook too’.

Comment- The social media platform can be utilized to its full advantage to reach out to fans with teams ensuring interaction and a wider scope of activities on its websites like video downloading, match replays,  special moments, interviews, wall papers, team songs, merchandise, ticket bookings etc.

6)      The Economic Times featured an article ‘MS topples Google from leading biz brand slot’ on 26^th Feb announcing Microsoft as the leading business-facing  brand, followed by Rolls-Royce with Google being pushed to number 5 in the annual Business Superbrands Top 500 survey by The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA). The article reports Handset manufacturer Blackberry as the newest entrant in the top 10 slot of the survey with other brands such as Sony, Virgin Atlantic, Nokia, BUPA, BP and Michelin completing the list.

Comment- The survey depicts mixed results  some brands losing ground-particularly the government supported agencies and financial institutions- and others climbing the charts speedily. However, the war between Microsoft and Google for the top spot reveals that both sides are continuing to deliver on their promises and thus proving their mettle.

7)      Economic Times journalist Rajiv Banerjee reported ‘You Tube ropes in HSBC as lead sponsor’ on 27^th Feb, stating that the  sponsorship will be utilized for live streaming of IPL matches. HSBC joins the likes of HP and Samsung through its sponsorship with You Tube that has acquired a two-year rights to host IPL matches live for an undisclosed sum.

Comment- With cricket being more than a passion in India and IPL symbolizing its craze peak, any association with it presents  a big opportunity for any brand to reach out to a huge target audience. And using the more engaging online platform, that is predicted to only grow bigger, ensures more innovative brand exposure at half the price of TV sponsorship.

8)      The Times of India featured an article ‘Facebook patents user news feed’ on 28^th Feb that elaborates on how Facebook has won an American patent on its News Feed feature. The article states, ‘The patent summarizes the invention as a method for displaying a news feed in a social network  environment. The method was described as US Patent and Trade Office Paperwork as including  comments and links posted by social network users for sharing with other members of the online community’.

Comment- This comes freshly after Google’s Buzz launch. With social networking being an important trend, Facebook seems to be taking on Twitter, MySpace, Buzz and all other social networking services. Facebook has got itself a really strong weapon that it can use against other networks.

9)      The Hindu featured an article ‘Changes in Cyber Space’ by Sevanti Ninan on 28^th Feb reporting that the net is becoming more of a marketing platform and less of a medium for personal expression.  The article elaborates, ‘Sharing is the operative word in social media.  Some of the uses  of social media are for companies who are advised how to sneak into their marketing into this world of sharing. Marketers found their way through niche blogs and advertisers tie-up with blogs. Marketing tends to inveigle itself into all kinds of communication spaces, including social media, which is all the rage on the Internet’.

Comment-  Marketing incorporates selling to its target audience on platforms they inhabit and channels they use. With social media becoming a rage all over, it is to be expected that marketers would soon swamp the medium to exercise it to their advantage whether selling or gathering data. The Internet is a constantly evolving medium that reaches out to more people than any other and marketers tend to use such a medium which is dynamic enough to suit to their nature and needs. Another reason is that both the Internet and Marketing have a strong similarity i.e your tactics depend largely upon your target audience and thereby nothing is constant.

10)   In a similar vein on marketing, Hindustan Times featured an article ‘Riding the info mouse’ by Rachit Vats on 1^st March that predicts Information management as the next big marketing opportunity for brand owners. The article states, ‘A lot of marketers are beginning to wake up to the promise, looking at social media, consumer review sites, product reviews, consumer guidance or blogs as interactive knowledge and influence opportunities. They are monitoring content as well as seeding in content to generate the right kind of buzz around their brands’.

Comment- Today’s consumers are an intelligent lot who do not mind spending their money but only after they are convinced on quality. As more and more Indians blog and post product reviews online,  brands have realized that monitoring and listening to them works to their benefit through first hand consumer feedback and also build relationships. Both the consumer and the brand benefits through this.

11)   The Financial Express featured an article ‘Google Rolls out ad plan for Buzz social network’ on 2^nd March that reveals Google’s move to invite brands  to run personalized ads around Buzz. The article reports, ‘ The commercial model for Buzz is based on the ad system it uses for Gmail. It works by detecting the subject matter of email conversations and targeting the user with relevant messages. Media buyers say that Google is asking brands to run ads on Buzz to test their effectiveness’.

Comment- Buzz seems to be going all the way to establish itself as a strong competitor to other social networking sites, particularly Facebook and enjoy some of its success.  If brands  advertise on  Buzz, then they automatically reach out to a massive user base of Gmail. And Google gets a taste of the effectiveness of Buzz through this.

Social Media Stories Last Week

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reviews, Trends

Social Media News Stories This Past Week

So another week passes by and we bring to you a wrap-up of all the interesting tit-bits fron the Indian social media space.

1)    Business Line featued an article by Anjali Prayag and Swetha Kannan on how corporates understand that ‘Social Networking is a serious business’ on 14^th Feb. The article states how companies such as IBM and EMC are ‘using employees urge to keep in touch with people to their advantage by also creating their own networking tools, which they believe are useful to businesses’. The article further mentions IBM’s LotusConnections and EMC’s EMC One as social collaboration tools which carry features similar to social networking sites such as blogs,  groups, user profiles, wikis, file sharing, photos and forum capabilities that enhance project collaboration for employees.

Comment- While the above trend is increasingly being incorporated amongst corporates, it is still in an exploratory mode in India. Quite a number of Indian firms are still apprehensive and struggling with the concept of social media and perceive social networking as a ‘waste activity’ that slows down the productivity factor of employees.  What they fail to understand is that social networking can actually transcend into a tool for honest communication between employees and the firm as well as the employees themselves. Iit is precisely this open communication which sets the foundation for a globally forward firm that will ultimately realize its vision.

2)     Times of India chronicled the trend of youngsters from towns and cities across using  internet  and mobile phone to profess love this Valentine’s day. The article ‘Enter Cupid: Love Blooms in Towns & Tehsils’ by Insiya Amir featured on 14^th Feb states, ‘New media such as mobile phone and internet is a godsend for young couples in several parts of middle India where public displays of affection are frowned upon’.

Comment- Even though in different contest, yet here we see social media doing what it does best i.e connecting people across boundaries albeit  here they are societal rather than geographical. Another reason why social networking is massively popular amongst youngsters.

3)    In a somewhat similar tone to the above article, Economic Times featured an article ‘Tapping into Love @ work’ by Ishani Duttagupta on 14^th Feb. The article looks at the role of social networking and social commerce in connecting to  the younger audience and their needs. The article states, ‘There’s a huge surge in online buying, gifting  and internet searches around festivals and  events such as Valentine’s Day. For small mom and pop kind of businesses, it makes a lot of sense to advertise around social networking space- even bigger brands are now looking into the space to tap into the youth market in India. In the case of events such as Valentine’s Day which most youth would like to play out in the physical space, the online media is typically an awareness major, an interest aggregator and desire generator’.

Comment- Social media has changed the very dynamics of communications and the consequent marketing and advertising strategies. The fact that most of the younger audience is almost always connected online in some form or the other is changing the way relationships are conducted. Today it does not matter whether your sweetheart is in another city or country. The internet makes it possible to celebrate special occasions, video chat  and voice chat. And it is precisely this youth connect that marketers and communicators are looking to utilize.

4)    Following last week’s footsteps, this week saw another mention of Buzz. This time around Economic Times featured an article ‘Google fixing bugs to make the Buzz beep louder’ by Debjoy Sengupta and Harsimran Singh. As the title suggests, the article touches upon the flaws of Buzz that Google is working hard to fix. Buzz users have been complaining about flaws such as privacy concerns including auto-follow, Geo-location and Buzz spam thus leading to some amount of backlash.

Comment- Google is eager to see Buzz become popular enough. Its favourable point is that its entwined with Gmail- the email product of Google. What remains to be seen is how Google will play Buzz strategically to gain market share in the social networking space.

5)    Financial Chronicle featured an article ‘Small Blessing’ by Ipshita Kumar on 16^th Feb reporting the blessing social media has proved to be for small restaurants. The author states, ‘Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have definitely been a blessing for small businesses like small independent restaurants to even compete with big chain restaurants. The main advantage of a networking site’s ad to the restaurant is targeted advertising’.

Comment- Social networking allows businesses to build a strong presence across target audience. The advantage of social media is that anybody with a small marketing budget can utilize the social networking sites to reach out to customers within one’s vicinity.  

6)    DNA featured an article chronicling the user experience of Venkatesan Vembu of a new online service ChatRoulette started by a 17 year old boy from Moscow in its 17^th Feb edition. In the article ‘We are all strangers in a strange world’, Mr. Vembu states, ‘On the website, visitors use a webcam to chat with a succession of perfect strangers from anywhere in the world, pulled out randomly from among the thousands online at any given time. Since there’s no registration or filtering involved and you don’t get to choose whom you’ll get to chat with, it makes for a surreal social encounter for both parties. For all its utter pointlessness, ChatRoulette has an oddly mesmeric quality to it partly arising from the oddball nature of the characters you encounter, even if only fleetingly ’.

Comment- The world is already fitting into the palm of your hand and considering the social media space, social interactions are evolving with every passing minute and more so defined by youth culture. The popularity of the above online service ChatRoulette brings to light a new genre of social interactions.

7)    DNA featured the case of an online identity theft instance of notable Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar in its article ‘Who’s the imposter on Madhur’s social networking site?’ on 18^th Feb. The article reveals ‘The person who is using Madhur’s photo as the profile picture, has written several things including hailing Shah Rukh Khan and his recently released movie’.

Comment- Such instances are increasingly becoming common place along with online death hoaxes. Truly , a scary thing considering the  huge fan following and the trouble and confusion it could create for the ‘real person’ and the people following him/her.

8)    Time for a film on social networking sites like Facebook? Well so thinks director Roshan Abbas.  DNA reports in its article ‘Facebook..time for a film about it’on how the debutant director is making a film on how youth today connect through social networking sites. All of Roshan Abbas’s friends on Facebook get regular updates about his film Always Kabhi Kabhi and also provide regular inputs to him via the same.   

Comment- It was inevitable. The youth of today spend most of their time online and any director who wants to capture the true mindset of youth has to bring in his/her’s social networking profiles on these sites into the picture. Case in point being the latest youth oriented Bollywood film Love Aaj Kal where the young protagonists are presented to explore each other’s  social networking profiles to know more about each other’s personalities.

9)    The Financial Express featured an article ‘Facebook offers more payment options for items in games’ on 20^th Feb that elaborated on Facebook Inc’s new service Facebook Credits that gives it 30% cut off from sales of items sold in virtual games on Facebook.  The article reports, ‘ The company will make the service available on many more games ahead of its annual developer conference this April’.

Comment- It is a superb tactic by Facebook to earn some revenue considering its popularity as a social networking site as well as gaming platform. Presently gamers pay for virtual items to Zynga Inc and Electronic Arts  Inc. Advertisers will also be able to purchase ads on Facebook through Paypal, a unit of E-Bay Inc.

10)    Times of India published an article ‘New Media has disrupted marketing’ elaborating on the recently held CII Brand Summit 2010 in its 20^th Feb issue. The article elaborates on how marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to grab attention of consumers and new media can actually help with better connect with consumers who are spending a lot of time and having conversations on social media. The article quotes Dave Evans, Consulting Director at 2020Social, ‘Brands need to become part of social networks, become part of the conversations’.

Comment- Most of today’s youth spend their time on platforms like internet, mobile devices and are increasingly choosing to hold all interactions on the online platform. This makes it an imperative medium to understand and utilize for every marketer.

Social Media News Stories Last Week

Posted on 17. Feb, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reviews

Social Media News Stories

This past week has had its fair share of headlines. A quick wrap-up is given below.

1)      Sakaal Times covered the launch of Buzz in its articele ‘Google takes on Facebook, Twitter with its  new buzz’ on 9^th Feb.  Google in its attempt to match social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter launched Buzz that enables users to ‘quickly share messages, web links and photos with friends and colleagues directly from Gmail, the company’s popular email product’.  The article also stated, ‘ status messages that users publish on Buzz and flag as viewable  to everyone will be automatically indexed  by Google’s search engine and available within Google’s recently launched real-time results. Users can also keep messages private by sharing only with customized groups of friends and colleagues and can share content from Google’s  various online properties like Picasa and Youtube’.

Comment-  Google has taken quite a leap forward by incorporating elements of social networking with its email product. With Orkut and now Buzz, Google exhibits it is prepared to battle it for the the popularity throne with any competition including Facebook and Twitter and other sites navigated via these social networking sites.Google demonstrates it is not content as the number one search engine. Rather, it aspires to be the one stop shop for everything online and this is evident in its move to incorporate Buzz into Gmail along with their mobile compatibility.

2)       The Financial Express published an article ‘Think before you download’ by Raghavendra Singh on 11^th Feb that elaborates on how smart phones are the latest target for cyber criminals.  The articles reports, ‘a unsuspecting user can be tricked into installing a harmless-looking file that infects a device and seeks additional mobile phones to target, often disrupting the phone’s operations. The hacker can depending on intent, steal your number and charge you for their calls, or extract personal information’.

Comment- Phone hacking like PC hacking is  on the rise. It is important to ensure that all handsets are malware-protected and the downloading source is genuine and trusted. Also using original company signed software is safer than using unsigned pirated software to avoid hacking or crashing.

3)      In what can be a harbinger of things to come, Deccan Chronicle published an article on ‘Social Media’ on 11^th Feb that announces the world’s first Master’s of Arts programme in Social Media. Talking about the curriculum designed by UK’s Birmingham City University the article states, ‘the programme is aimed at media or cultural studies graduates with experience in PR, web or marketing industries. The first intake was last year and the program runs for 48 weeks’.

Comment- The popularity of social media has transcended from the boardrooms into the  classrooms with educationists now joining the social media bandwagon. Next is what??

4)      The Economic Times featured a story ‘MySpace CEO steps down from post’ on 12^th Feb. The article reported Newscorp, owner of MySpace since 2005,letting go of  Owen Van Natta in less than a year’s time of hiring him. Citing different personal and professional priorities,  MySpace replaced  Owen Van Natta with Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn as co-presidents.

Comment- As former Chief Revenue Officer at Facebook and former CEO of music venture Playlist, Owen Van Natta had the background. His efforts to renew MySpace included acquiring iLike-the music discovery  service and cutting down as many as 720 jobs. Now what remains to be seen  is what steps will the next CEO at MySpace take to win the battle from Facebook. What is certain is that the next CEO won’t have it easy. He will have to accomplish more that Van Natta’s achievements in a shorter span of time for NewsCorp to feel certain that measures are being taken and results achieved.

5)      DNA published an article ‘ Kids paid to plug junk food on Facebook’ on 15^th Feb highlighting the instance of stealth marketing where kids as young as seven are being paid to promote Fanta, Nintendo, Sprite, Dr Pepper, Cheestrings, Barbie-themed mp3 players and even Lady Gaga performances. The article states, ‘Multinational companies that were banned from setting up fake websites and blogs to target young customers directly are using specialist marketing firms to recruit the children. The marketing firms also suggest their young recruits to target different sets of online friends with different brands and teach them to sound natural and unrehearsed’.

Comment- It’s  a shocking instance of childhood being lost to marketing tactics. It’s a shame that today kids are not allowed to be kids and rather seen as promoters or marketing channels.

6)      Financial Chronicle published an article ‘Right Networking’ by Meenakshi Dwivedi on 15^th Feb. The author states, ‘the executives discard social networking either by calling it a waste of time or regard it as a risk management problem. These executives realized the power and effectiveness of social media when economic slowdown hit the world’.

Comment- Today, more and more firms are waking up to realize the power of social media and its role in communications. And it’s not just marketers that are realizing the same, but individuals across other outfits as well.

7)      As if to reinstate the above comment, Financial Chronicle published an article ‘Restaurant chains take to networking sites’ by Sangeetha G on 15^th Feb. The article details on how restaurant chains in India like McDonalds, Mainland China, Pizza Hut and Jus Booster Juice are taking to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to younger audiences and offer them special offers and updates.  The article quotes Arvind Singhal, director, marketing, McDonalds India, ‘Our parent company McDonalds has been using social networking sites for quite long and that too very successfully. McDonalds India started it last year and in a couple of months’ time we will prepare a plan on how to use these media for marketing the brand more effectively’.

Comment- Again the emergence and adoption of social media in India is exhibited through the above article. As stated in the previous comment, it isn’t just corporates who are awakening to  what social media can do for them and their brand. More and more customers now realize that they have the power and the means to get their voice heard across in the boardrooms of the brands and inspire action.

8)      Carrying forward on the controversy following the release of the film MNIK, Business Line featured  a story on ‘Tweets rally in support of My Name is Khan’ by Varada Bhat on 15^th Feb. The article elaborated on the support garnered by the film across India and abroad on Twitter. People across Twitter, including Bollywood celebrities,  asserted their opinion on Shiv Sena’s bullyishness to stop the screening of the film and voiced their support by joining the MyNameIsMumbai campaign inspired by the film. The article listed few tweets, ‘My name is Rajeev, I am a maharashtrian. Vandalism and goonism is not the culture and heritage of Maharashtra’, My name is Baisakh, I am from USA. I treasure my human right to express my opinion and support iamsrk’s right to the same #MyNameIsMumbai’. The article further quotes a Mr Asfaq Tapia, Head, Social Media, Epigram as, ‘MNIK was just a medium through which the youth were talking about their freedom to do things the way they want and nobody can stop them from doing it. Watching MNIK was to prove a point about their individual freedom’.

Comment- The case above is a perfect example of what social media is. How Twitter has been utilized by the ordinary people to express a collective voice on an issue-here being cultural prejudice- reveals how much influential power such networking tools offer to the common man.

9)      Deccan Chronicle published an article ‘Facebook Privacy Tips’ by Ashish Bhatia on 15^th Feb to  warn users against the dangers of an ‘open profile’ on Facebook and guiding users on practicies to build a more private profile on the popular social networking site.

Comment- The article comes in handy for users who are not so well-versed in Facebook and want to understand the mechanics of the social networking site. As a step by step guide, this comes in quite handy for the readers.

10)   It seems Google’s latest offering Buzz has already garnered its share of controversy, if we go by the  article ‘Privacy: Google to fill gaps’ published on 15^th Feb in Deccan Chronicle. The article states, ‘In the days since product launch, a number of online blogs and  publications have argued that the Buzz-Gmail link creates a privacy  problem since the Buzz contact network is publicly viewable by default and could expose people’ private contacts’. The article reports Google’s intentions to create a stand-alone version of Buzz without removing it from Gmail.

Comment-  Since Google is counting on Buzz to fight established social networking sites, it is important for it to incorporate features in line with the user’s expectations and demands. However, since it is still a newbie it will continue to improve and incorporate changes until it gains satisfied users.

So it seems last week, Buzz did create a lot of Buzz with the media dedicating coverage after coverage throughout the week to it. Apart from that,  the week  marks another trend in the Indian social media space with restaurants taking to social media and Twitter hosting itself as the platform for causes or issues like the MNIK instance. Truly every week brings with it new surprises.

Social Media News Stories Last Week

Posted on 09. Feb, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reports, Reviews

It’s been a super-busy first week of February in the Indian social media space. A wrap-up of the news stories that made headlines is given below.

1)      Business Line carried an article ‘Websense unveils security application for Facebook users’ on 3^rd Feb that brings a sigh of relief to Facebookers. The article quotes Mr Surendra Singh, Regional Director (SAARC and India), Websense, ‘While other  security offerings are designed to clean users’ computer after it has been infected, we worked with Facebook to create Defensio so customers are protected from emerging threats  and malicious  content before  they spread beyond the social Web and become a broader security concern’. The article describes the mechanics of the application, ‘Defensio would analyze the links on the social web before users try to access them and gather intelligence of the site as well as the content and embedded links on it.’

Comment- This is surely a good sign for all Facebookers. With more and more people using Facebook,  the site is increasingly posing a security risk and the application helps protect Facebook users.  The application would also lessen the occurrence of online crimes such as hacking, phishing, credit card frauds. Truly, it would prove to be a boon.

2)      Economic Times quoted IT research major Gartner in its article ‘Microblogging may replace email: Gartner’ on 3^rd Feb. The article states Gartner predicting, ‘by 2014 social networking will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for one in five businesses across the world. During the next several years, most companies will be building out internal social networks and/or allowing business use of personal social network accounts.’

Comment- Technology is fast evolving, bringing with it some new application, phone, game or software every day. The very concept of social networking is the ability to maintain the interest and loyalty of users by continuously expanding services. A case in point being platforms such as Hi5, Myspace etc reduced to ghost websites after being unable to offer more to its audience in terms of something faster, cooler and more exciting. Thus, the insight made in the Gartner report should come as no surprise. Corporates already have begun to build internal social networks and it won’t be long before businesses allow for the mingling of personal social networks with one’s professional counterpart.

3)     How vocabulary has undergone a sea-change due to increased adoption of social networking sites is discussed in the article ‘Networking sites influence lingo’ by Nivi Shrivastava published in Asian Age on 3^rd Feb. The author writes that the maximum new words recorded in the Oxford University Press were related to technology and ‘some words were even inspired by the micro-blogging giant Twitter like- Tweetup, Tweeple, Tweetaholics, Twitterati, Twitterverse, Tweet’. Other new words mentioned were unfriend, defriend, freemium, Facebookarrhea and Facebookazzis, blogebrity, bloggage,blogosphere, blogademia and blogathon.

Comment- What this means for the English language is something resembling a face-lift.  Modern times call for modern language, after all as the famous proverb states- Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery.

4)      The Hindu printed an article on  ‘Efficiency in everyday work brings laurels’ by K.V. Rajasekhar  on 3^rd Feb. The author discusses at length on lessons in management exhibited by the flawless functioning of the taken case in point- Mumbai’s famed Dabbawallas. The article states, ‘The fact that 85% of the dabbawallas are illiterate and the rest have studied only till ClassVIII but form part of an organization that is in existence since the last 125 years and has notched up a Six Sigma certification and delivers lunch boxes to over 2, 00,000 people across Mumbai city in which out of 6, 00,000 deliveries only one mistake is made but that never really happens as the misplaced box is sooner or later traced and returned to the owner.’ The author then identifies the management lessons one learns from the unique functioning of this famed organization also acknowledged as ‘management guru’ to corporate India and others across the world.

Comment- The author has taken an outstanding example that inspires individuals with their simple and yet efficient management process. A simple color coding system, strong internal HR policy also translating itself into commendable CSR policy and the adoption of the latest technology, here being utilizing social media to reach out to customers is just some of the lessons the author talks about at length. But there are more lessons here like- passion and empathy for customer needs and not just robotic execution being the most glaring of all. Another lesson is overcoming one’s limitations and utilizing available means to achieve goals. The fact that most of the dabbawallas are not educated and those that are do not possess even a graduation degree or an MBA but are yet invited to give guest talks on management at well-known business schools is simply due to the business acumen to utilize available means of transport like bicycles and trains to build a distribution chain that never fails to deliver on time in the densely populated city of Mumbai. Therein lies the lesson that corporates can surely learn.

5)      Mail Today published a shocking article on ‘Facebook is No.1 security risk-site’ on 3^rd Feb.  The author reveals how a high level of activity compromises the user’s Facebook account. The article quotes IT security firm Sophos claiming in its annual IT security investigation report that ‘instance malware affliction and span rose 70 percent on social media sites. Twitter, the micro-blogging site is next after Facebook.’ The report provides stats to back its claims and also blames Linkedin to be another culprit in its IT security risks survey.

Comment- This comes as a great surprise and shock to the millions of social media enthusiasts.  But it again wakes up the reader to being more cautious and vigilant whilst online.

6)      Another article appeared concerning Mr Shashi Tharoor’s tweets albeit in a more positive instance for him. Hindustan Times published an article by Jayanth Jacob on ‘Tharoor’s tweets have a new follower: Twitter’ on 3^rd Feb. Hailing Mr.Tharoor as the only politician in the world outside the United States to have 600, 000 Twitter followers, the articles states, ‘Twitter wants Mr. Tharoor’s inputs on how public figures can use it to keep in touch with followers and get their grievances redressed’.  Mr Tharoor’s tweets have led him to be considered a case study  of effective use of the new medium  by Twitter and also gained him a recommendation as ‘leader to follow’ along with the likes of Australian PM Kevin Rudd and Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoumi of Dubai on Twitter.

Comment- While a lot of hue and cry has been made in the corridors of the Indian government over Mr Tharoor’s tweets, it cannot be negated that today’s youth identifies more with the tech-savvy Mr Tharoor along with Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot.

7)      How the SRK-Shiv Sena controversy conducted itself was watched out on mainstream media by all. However, Hindustan Times brings to attention the support SRK received on social media in its article ‘Twitter votes for SRK @MyNameIsMumbai’ on 4^th Feb.  Twitter lent itself as the medium where support poured out in favour of SRK. The article states, ‘The words Shiv, Sena, Khan and @iamsrk were the most tweeted words in Mumbai and New Delhi this past Wednesday. Also trending widely was the hash tag MyNameIsMumbai started by actors RanvirSorey and Konkona Sen’. The article also mentions people being encouraged on Twitter to buy tickets for SRK’s latest film My Name is Khan that the political party has been threatening the launch of.

Comment- What one witnesses through this article is the collaborative voice of thousands of people in favour of their shared beliefs, the case here being the right of an individual, albeit a celebrity yet an Indian, to express himself in line with his constitutional right, without being harassed to compromise on values or opinions.  Another reason why social media in India is fast gaining ground since it provides people an opportunity to express and quickly leverage support in matters even political.

8)      Deccan Chronicle elaborated on the changing face of marriages with most partners choosing to connect online to strengthen their bond.  The article ‘City couples connect online for fun, comfort’ published on 4^th Feb quotes relationship expert and psychologist Meenakshi Venkateshwaran, ‘Keeping in touch through emails and social networking sites helps to build a sense of security around the couple’.

Comment- Giving each other space is important but it is also essential to maintain contact with the partner. And social networking sites offer a perfect medium to maintain contact when time constraints do not allow for video calling and emailing.

9)      Hindustan Times published an article on the changing job criteria in its article ‘Want a job? Get on Facebook’ on 4^th Feb.  The article states, ‘In fact having a specified numbers of fans, friends or followers on these sites are now a hiring criterion. These active netizens are hired by companies who wish to use social networks, online communities and other online mediums for marketing, sales and public relations’.

Comment- Whilst there are still firms that object to employees using social media at office hours, there are yet those who support it and even encourage employees to tweet or blog to their advantage since it brings more visibility to the firm. The article does establish that more and more corporate visit social networking sites before hiring a candidate.  Whether this is to determine a prospective employee’s character or his social circle is largely dependent on the firm’s activities.

10)   Asian Age published an article on ‘Networking in the real world’ by N.Kartik Rao on 5^th Feb elaborating on how a certain section of youngsters prefer to be ‘disconnected’ in favour of real-world meetings. Such youngsters consider social networking to be ‘boring and a waste of time’.

Comment- Youngsters must be taught time management to balance both academics and extracurricular activities, whether offline or online. In most cases, youngsters become addicted to their online activities mostly at the deterrence of their academic goals. In such cases, choosing to stay offline does seem the right way forward. However, online networking enables maintaining contact where physical presence is not possible.

11)   Financial Chronicle published an article on ‘Social Netizens need privacy’ by Varun Dutt on 5^th Feb that elaborates on online privacy on social networking sites and measures to strengthen it. The article states, ‘If someone steals information by faking a relationship on a social network then they may harm the individual as well as their close contacts’. The author sheds light on how ‘some social systems collect names and email addresses of people who have sent messages and also collect the ‘cc’ information in emails sent to users’.

Comment- Online privacy is an important issue to be understood by every netizen. Social networking sites in particular hold utmost responsibility due to maximum information being uploaded on them. To be precise, users must be kept in the loop-hole on all actions undertaken regarding the use of their data and supreme freedom granted to them to make decisions pertaining to their information.

12)   Deccan Chronicle published an article on ‘Egypt: Fatwa against Facebook’ that reported on a top Egyptian cleric banning the social networking site due to divorce rates rocketing and marital infidelity increasing. The announcement termed Muslims using Facebook as ‘sinners’ and describes it as ‘an instrument that destroys the family because it encourages users to have relations with other people which break Islamic Sharia law’.

Comment- Social networking sites are intended to open communication between like-minded people and for businesses to build one-to-one relationships with their clients or customers. Whilst such networks do prohibit posting offensive information, yet user activities beyond that are not monitored for the purpose of allowing users freedom to interact amongst their social circle. Thus, it translates into individual sensibilities and responsibility to be mindful of one’s activities and not indulge in behavior that may not be un-permissible in the fabric of their social circle.

13)   The Pioneer featured an article ‘Facebook a virtual memorial site’ on 5^th Feb talking about the trend of setting up memorial pages on Facebook to mourn the death of those who might otherwise be forgotten. The article quotes the example of a Facebook page for Henio Zytomirski- the six year old Holocaust victim, with other examples of pages for each of the 27,594 Allied soldiers killed in Belgium during WWII, The Auschwitz memorial site and the Anne Frank page.

Comment- Such pages bring to light the horror of tragedies committed during war-torn times and to remember the heroes from yesterday who might otherwise have been forgotten by the generations today. These pages also give a chance to millions who may have otherwise never heard of them to pay their homage and respect.

14)   The Hindu reported the adoption of social networking sites by a new section of audiences- senior citizens.  The article ‘Senior Citizens take to social networking websites  in a big way’ by Liffy Thoman published on 6^th Feb elaborated on how sites such as Facebook, Orkut and Twitter are a big rage amongst  the older audience and helping them connect with other like-minded audience whilst making them rediscover their zest for life and learning.  The article states, ‘For a majority of people post-retirement social networking  sites have become a  good way to stay connected, reminisce memories, get rid of the boredom or simply to  play games  form the many features and applications’.

Comment- It is heartening to see that social networks are providing the older audience with a zest for life and to fulfill their hobbies or simply renew old contacts. It allows for a stronger bond between the youth and the senior citizens since each knows the basics of what the other is talking about.

15)   DNA featured a story on ‘Facebook marks sixth year with new home page’ on 6^th Feb. The article elaborated on a new home page on the popular social networking site which included a simpler menu bar and applications dashboard along with a games dashboard.

Comment- The new home page is simpler and cleaner and certain to make it easier for a new user to understand the mechanisms of the website.

16)   Economic Times published an article charting the competition between Facebook and Orkut to emerge as the most popular Indian Networking site. The article, ‘Facebook may elbow out Orkut as top Net hangout’ by Harsimran Singh was published on 6^th and predicts that ‘Facebook could well overtake Orkut in India in about seven months’.

Comment- It seems like Orkut may well be in danger of becoming another ghost website like Myspace and Hi5 if Google does not take drastic measures in a country that forms 20% of the global traffic.

That’s all from last week. Do watch this space next Monday for more productive but immensely interesting last week with novel social media happenings

Social Media Last week

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Media, Reviews

News Stories covering social media space this past week

1) On 24^th Jan 2010, DNA Mumbai carried an article by R.Krishna on the topic ’This social networking website helps you meet friends online’. The article talks about the utility and the growing popularity of Foursquare-a location-based networking site in India, starting with Mumbai.  The article sums the benefits by quoting a Mumbai user, Shakti Salgaokar, using the Foursquare application on her iPhone, “The moment I start the application, Foursquare pinpoints my location using the GPS on my iPhone. Using my location, it tells me about various places nearby. It also gives me a to-do list recommended by other users. If I were in Dadar TT, it can list places like D Damodar, Pritam da Dhaba, or the Mumbai-Pune bus-stand. For someone new to the city, this can be of real help”.  The article then wraps up prophesying Foursquare to be in 2010 what Twitter was in 2009.

Comment- While the site is a rage in the west, particularly the US, in India it is still in its nascent stage. Abroad the site has tied-up with restaurants, gyms and other establishments to offer deals and discounts to users, in India this is yet to happen.  However, location-based networking has the potential to become a huge rage in a country like India,

2) On 25^th Jan Financial Chronicle ran an article ‘Twitter disables feature on website over security flaw’.  The article reported that following a programming flaw and a security warning of user information falling vulnerable to hackers, Twitter disabled users from displaying updates on their websites using flash technology. The article quoted Mike Bailey, senior security analyst with Foreground Security of Orlando, Florida, ‘my analysis of the Twitter site showed that it could have been vulnerable to attacks for more than a year, but that it was impossible to know whether the hackers had exploited the Adobe flaw.’

Comment- Considering the popularity and the huge user base of Twitter, security flaws like these are dangerous with crimes such as identity-theft and spamming posing serious threats. However, it is comforting to know that Twitter took immediate measures to protect its user information.

3) Times of India carried an article on 25^th Jan on the topic ‘Thousands of friends online? Brain can handle only 150’ which elaborated on how despite friend lists numbering thousands on social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, Twitter etc, the human brain is programmed to remember a meager 150only. The article reports, ‘Researchers at Oxford University, led by Robin Dunbar, have developed a theory known as “Dunbar’s number” in the nineties which claimed that the size of our neocortex- the part of the brain used for conscious thought and language — limits us to managing social circles of around 150 friends.’ The research carried out across various social groupings states that people maintain the same inner circle online that they maintain offline.

Comment- To have or aspire to have a big social circle is human nature. We build relationships either for business networking purposes or purely for the sake of social interaction. However, in practical terms it would become difficult to socialize with every person we ‘befriend’. Therefore, we filter down activities to who we meet offline and who online. The above article also makes a case a point at the end, ‘Girls are much better at maintaining relationships just by talking to each other. Boys need to do physical stuff together’. This explains why women are considered relationship-builders.

4) Times of India also carried another story on 26^th Jan about ‘Tweeting for change: new platform for activists’ by Mahafreed Irani.   The article talks about the evolving role of social networking sites from a chattier platform to steering causes into real lives. Using cases in point, the writer states, ‘Catalysts for change are using Web 2.0 platforms to engage people and spread the word using already existing social networks. Some prefer using technology to initiate the campaign too.’

Comment- Without doubt, social networking sites are an excellent marketing medium that targets the largest user base with quickest response rate.

5) Another story published in The Economic Times and The Financial Chronicle on ‘Before Applying for that job, do recheck your Facebook page’ and ‘Employers use Facebook to scan job-seekers’ elaborated on the growing tendency of employers to check candidate profiles on social networking sites before hiring. Quoting a survey conducted by online job-site CareerBuilder India, the article stated, ‘42% of employers have found content on social networking sites which leads them not to hire prospective candidate’. Poor communication skills, lying about qualifications, bad-mouthing previous employer or colleague or sharing confidential information online were amongst the reasons rated.

Comment- With the world shrinking to the size of a palm, it becomes imperative to be well-aware of one’s online identity on all levels. It is crucial to maintain a dignified profile without any embarrassing or misleading content that may work against one’s chances of securing a job or client.

6) Deccan Chronicle carried an article by Goutam Das titled, ‘Good Job, Well done Mr Tharoor’ on 26^th Jan elaborating on the submersion and influence of Twitter in our daily lives and the role of Shashi Tharoor in adding to the Twitter chirp. Goutam states, ‘the time is ripe for another term Tharoorati in recognition of Shashi Tharoor’s contributions to the medium’.

Comment- The influence of Twitter cannot be overlooked. Truly, Twitter allows for a greater interaction for consumers to connect with and attract a brand’s attention to their grievances, businesses with clients and stars with their fans. And Twitter scaled new skies following the coverage Mr Tharoor’s tweets received in the media.

7) For all game-enthusiasts, Financial Chronicle reported good news its 26^th Jan edition as ‘Facebook gets five new games’. The writers, Ari Levy and Adam Satariano, report game company Digital Chocolate designing games for Facebook after releasing more than 50 iPhone games for Apple since December 2008. The article quotes Trip Hawkins, Founder, Digital Chocolate as ‘we will have five games available on social networking site Facebook  this quarter and five more in the period ending June’ . The first game MMA Pro Fighter has about 145,000 monthly active users and is built upon creating mixed- martial-arts fighter teams for free.

Comment- Facebook as a platform works for the benefit for all. The fact that companies, especially game-firms, are making millions by promoting their games through applications on Facebook establishes Facebook’s marketing power. Users on their end have first-hand access to numerous games while collaborating or competing with countless other people. So Facebook is happy as the most popular marketplace, Gamers are happy they have so many options and the gaming firms are ecstatic their products are bringing in millions.

8 ) In what can only be called a miracle, a man and his daughter were reunited after 48 years throught Facebook. Deccan Hearld posted an article on Jan 27^th ‘Facebook reunites man, daughter after 48 years’. The British father-daughter duo was reported to have last met when she was three.  By finding her half-sister on Facebook and corresponding with her, daughter Frances finally met her father, Tony Macnouton.

Comment- The power of social networking sites has again been demonstrated. Truly, the real purpose of a social networking site has been proven through this family’s emotional saga. This is one loyal fan-base that Facebook will have won itself for sure.

9) Deccan Chronicle published an article ‘Blocking in a 2.0 universe’ by Deepak Kumar that talked about Facebook’s surprising and unpopular move to block a website-Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and sending a cease and desist notice to another-Seppukoo.com that responded by displaying the notices on their websites. The article states, ‘In a 2.0 world, it should be the consumer’s prerogative to visit or not visit a site, even for the purpose of deleting their profiles there. There is an element of contradiction in the two stands taken by Facebook-while it has advocated baring its user’s information to all; it has closed select gates to users wanting to delete their FB profiles.’

Comment- While Facebook makes the stand that it does not permanently remove a user’s personal information for future re-activation of their account, yet this does little to relieve a user’s uneasiness. With cyber crimes becoming increasingly frequent, it is discomforting to learn that one’s personal information remains stacked in a cache with Facebook, sometimes for many years despite deleting the account. This compromises user privacy since with whom Facebook shares this information and for what purpose is also unknown to the user.  Websites such as Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and Seppukoo do not delete your account but merely empty the cache storing your social network account contents.  This ensures user information does not get used without their knowledge.

10) Economic Times ran an article ‘Facebook may lock in its net dominance’ that looked at how Facebook has grown to keep user loyalty through its constant new positioning moves. The writer looks at the concept of ‘technological lock-in’ which means ‘the more a society adopts a certain technology, the more unlikely the users are to switch’. The writer further elaborates, ‘Facebook is the new mobile phone by positioning itself to be the user’s online identity through Facebook Connect’.

Comment: Truly, Facebook has become an integral part of our lives. It’s considered the 3^rd most populated country (online) and the growing applications and services specially designed for Facebook only proves its authority and high usage. But Facebook is not stopping here. To ensure its position in the top slot, it is constantly redefining its user’s experiences. Thereby, it is not surprising to see it becoming an integral part of one’s identity.

11) Financial Express covered an article by Amit Bhavani on ‘Making Money Online’ on 28^th Jan that elaborated on how blogging had come to pay a nice dividend from its initial hobby days.  The article states, ‘There has been a continuous 10% growth in the number of blogs and bloggers in India every year, with the majority hailing from the urban community.’  The article continues to talk about the blogging exercise and provides a how-to on blogging.

Comment- Blogging requires an interest in a given field and good writing skills. A blogger can build up loyalty slowly with interesting posts and use search engines to drive traffic. And once the blogger is established and has a good readership, he can earn money by writing reviews, comparing and analyzing products and publishing posts.

12) Asian Age looks at how teenagers view their parents joining Facebook in its article ‘Go on, add your parents as friends’ by Edlyn G. D’Souza. The article looks at how parents have caught on to the Facebook phenomenon and how their children don’t mind being friends with them. However, there are some who are not comfortable with sharing certain information with their parents online and are utilizing the privacy settings on Facebook to conceal the same.

Comment-This depicts how parents and youngsters are using Facebook to build a closer relationship thereby redefining how social interaction was being redefined within a familial set up.

13) Business Line published an article on ‘IT Solution that helps manage mobile digital social life’ on 29^th Jan. The article talked about the new offering in the market, DaVinci Social-built to manage multiple mobile digital identities by IMImobile. ‘DaVince Social is part of the DaVinci services and product portfolio that brings together music, social networking, mobile advertising, mobile marketing voice and messaging services.’

Comment- Such a facility will ensure users one stop communications platform and subsequently quicker access to all of their content.

14) Deccan Chronicle ran a story on 29^th Jan on web hoaxes and online journalism in their article ‘In the web of deadly rumours’ by Debarun Borthakur.  The article covers the recent hoax about Hollywood star Johnny Depp’s untimely death while listing other hoaxes about Tom Hanks, Natalie Portman, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West with many more. On the Indian front, Jyoti Basu was amongst those targeted by online journalism.

Comment- Online Journalism is all about traffic and thus online news portals utilize such gimmicks. What is heartening is that journalism in India does not resort to such tricks, as yet! Whether it will stay so or will become a widely used phenomenon in India remains to be seen.

15) Deccan Chronicle also featured a story on the concept of ‘nearsighted dating’ with its article ‘Photos can be deceptive’ by Tenzin Dechen on 29^th Jan. The article defines the new trend of choose a person by looking at their photos on social networking sites such as Facebook , Orkut or Twitter and then meeting them in person on a date. The article quotes, ‘But instead of making the dating process easier, youngsters feel this is worse, because the real deal is almost always a letdown’.

Comment- It is always advisable to first check out a person’s background, their friend circle, links and attitude online rather than deciding to meet someone purely on the basis of their good looks. More often than not, the photos are either photo shopped or highly misleading. More often than not, people project images of what they would like to be rather than their true self.

16) Hindustan Times looks at the concept of online selling and advertising through its article ‘Social Selling Logs in’ on 1^st Feb. The article explores how Indian marketers are utilizing social media to woo Indian youth. Under the umbrella of social media, social networking sites, gaming sites and social applications are the channels used. The article states, Social media offers marketers micro-targeting opportunities and the means to engage the user through communities and other applications.’  The article lists big banks, leading travel companies and consumer electronics brands that utilize the power of social media.

Comment- Today’s youth is different from the youth of yester-year and so are the channels used by them. If marketers or brands want to communicate or target the youth and their influencers then they will have to use these very mediums to promote themselves or their product or service.

17) Facebooking, Twittering, Orkuting etc can have some adverse effects ranging from being sacked to being jailed or even getting divorced. Or so says the article ‘Social networking ke side-effects’ by Harsimran Singh featured in Economic Times on 1^st Feb. The article informs readers on amendments made by India’s IT Act which now consider ‘status messages and Tweets admissible as electronic evidence and the onus of the posts  on these accounts now rests solely on users, say cyber lawyers’. The article states,’ using a private key which in this case is a password is an electronic signature under the IT Act. Internet posts can also amount to defamation when read with the laws on defamation’.

Comment- The increasing adoption of the online world in India is also increasing the problems posed by its misuse. And with the level of ignorance of cyber laws in the country, most of the users are unaware that they are responsible for the information that they put up on the web-site rather than the social networking site. It is better to be safe than sorry and make oneself familiar with the IT Act to avoid any untoward incidents in the future.

Social Media In India Wiki

Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Announcements, Ideas

Social Media in India Wiki

If someone questioned me what does the term ‘best idea’ refer to, I’d probably reply that which is the simplest and the most logical. You know when an idea just suddenly seems to stare at you in the face and makes you jump up and scream “But of course!”. Well, that is probably your best idea.

Keeping this in mind, the best idea that had us hollering at 2020social was that of building a Social Media India Wiki. Considering the growth rate of social media in India, it just makes complete sense to provide one single platform that is built not just by us at 2020social, but by all the social media players in India. The idea just clicked as the obvious next step.  So much so, it just instantly made me wonder how no one else had thought of it (thank god for that). But then again, my CEO isn’t considered the social business strategy guru for nothing!

The wiki as a single platform creates a two-fold contribution:

1) We share information and resources, thereby promoting healthy competitive growth.

2) We also guide each other by sharing our experiences and issues faced.

In this manner the whole industry comes together to coordinate as ONE. This helps decide how to create focus and promote growth in the Indian social media sphere.  Of course, social media clubs and other offline events are a great way to interact. But I believe that limits communication to a certain city or a certain group or topic. What do people do if they cannot commute to another city to attend a workshop? And honestly, how many of you actually end up interacting or sharing resources with all the 50 attendees from the workshop?  And what if you just cannot, for the life of you, remember the name of that blogger you had met at last week’s workshop??

You’d probably have to scroll through 10 different online resources to figure out who he was and his blog’s URL.

Well, we figured a wiki would be the perfect answer to avoid such instances and make things simpler.

As the name suggests, Social Media in India Wiki is a simple one-stop storehouse for everything required by a social media practitioner or even a business looking to utilize social technologies. Clearly structured, the wiki comprises of various self-explanatory categories:

• Social Media Practitioners in India
• Indian Brands on Social Media
• Indian Communities of Interest
• Indian Celebrities
• Indian Non-Profits and Activists on Social Media
• Social Media Job Openings in India
• Indian Journalists Covering Social Media Space in India

Each of the above categories then branches out into miniature lists collating information to a specific platform or group.

Visitors can also edit or contribute to the wiki. To do so, a visitor needs to firstly register and create a profile. Then he/she can ask for write permissions from the wiki admin and advance to editing as required. Discussion forums and threads help members to directly interact and network with people they have read or heard of. To make matters easier, users can also submit new page suggestions with sufficient examples to the wiki admin. The wiki admin then creates the requisite page structure and opens it up for more member contributions.

While the wiki is still barely 2 weeks old, yet the response to it has been marvelous and beyond encouraging. At the time of writing, the wiki had 73 members who had joined it to build this knowledge base.

We are grateful to each member for his/her participation and contributions. The feedback reinforced the belief that there was indeed a need for such a source in India and that we are on the right track. Since the building phase is ongoing, we are constantly thinking of ways to evolve and add more to the wiki. Plans to add exciting new pages like blogging policies, issues facing social media practitioners are in the pipeline.

So whether you are a social media practitioner or an enthusiast, do come join the fraternity by jumping aboard the wiki wagon and submitting your say to the industry. Each one of us has some knowledge or expertise we can share and the wiki is where your skill, no matter how trivial, will help build this into India’s largest resource for all things social media.

Social Media India This Past Week

Posted on 12. Jan, 2010 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Announcements

We, at 2020 Social, have decided to maintain a weekly round-up of the social media happenings in India. As one of our New Year plans, this initiative is aimed to keep a tab on the market pulse and the trends taking place, thus making it easier for people to touch-base with the SM industry happenings in India.  This post covers the week of 4^th Jan- 9^th Jan 2010.

Lots of important happenings this week with surprises galore like SRK’s entry in the Twitterverse, Chetan Bhagat’s feud with the 3 Idiots team and numerous launches from the corporate players.

1) Beginning with the big one that really grabbed eye-balls was SRK’s joining the Twitter bandwagon on 2^nd Jan 2010. At the time of writing this post, Mr. Khan had 67922 followers with him following a meager 17. You can visit his profile at http://twitter.com/iamsrk.

Many section of the industry have termed the move as evidence of the rise of social media in India and hope that with King Khan’s presence on Twitter, more action would be recorded on the part of corporates and other members of the Indian public.

SRK’s Twitter entry made headlines across numerous blogs and publications like Allvoices, WATBlog, Indiaglitz, Times of India, India Today etc.

Source: Allvoices.com

Source: Times of India

Source: Indiaglitz

However, it would be better to wait and watch to ascertain whether it’s a temporary phase designed to promote SRK’s upcoming release-‘My Name is Khan or does he intend to stay.  What is certain is Twitter’s traffic growth, given that even SRK’s tweets make it to the headlines of national media.

Source: Times of India

2) Another activity, to begin and transmit into the TV and print realm from the social media world, was the Chetan Bhagat-3 Idiots’ controversy. How a simple Twitter conversation lived out a 5 day long national controversy reinstates how attentively people listen on the social media airwaves.

The controversy began with Chetan Bhagat’s fans stating to the author that the filmmakers could have provided a better placement for the story credit.

Source: Chetan Bhagat’s Twitter Id

Soon the action moved from the Twitterverse unto Chetan’s blog where he  wrote about the story issue that soon catapulted into a full-fledged controversy.

Source: Chetan Bhagat’s Blog

Complete coverage was handed out by journalists and publications like Vir Sanghvi, Times of India, Live Mint posting or blogging about it.

Source: Vir Sanghvi’s Blog

Source: Times of India

Source: Livemint.com

It didn’t also help that videos of the film makers shouting at the journalists and the author’s interviews soon spread on the web and national TV.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra Says Shut-up to journalist on Chetan Bhagat book row

Source: YouTube

Chetan Bhagat says \’3 idiots\’ his story: Aamir Khan slams the claim

Source: YouTube

Ultimately, with no end to the controversy in sight on the TV & print medium, it was the social media platform that carried out the peace move with Chetan Bhagat posting his final remarks on his blog and the 3 Idiots team uploading a You-Tube video clarifying the issue.

Rajkumar Hirani breaks silence on 3 Idiots & Chetan Bhagat\’s Five Point Someone

Source: YouTube

3) Moving on to the corporate world, SMS Gupshup has decided to build several social communities around Healthcare, JaagoRe and Stree (Women).  And another pleasant surprise came with Reliance Media Works (formerly known as Adlabs Films) acquiring ilab UK- a film processing and post production firm based out of London.

4) In the sphere of launches, the first was the launch of BookSmith by Pothi.com which converts personal blogs into e-books and print ready books. Another launch was of ShareBaazi.com –a virtual trading game by Economic Times Online & Indian Fantasy League.

The week also saw the launch of MeriCAR.com’s service reminders and SMS alerts facility. This facility proves to be an effective and helpful method for car owners and workshops to ensure car servicing. But competitor CarWale.com is not far behind and has partnered with AOL India to form a co-brand AOL Autos for more user-generated car-related information and other innovative content.

Continuing on the launch brigade is Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Private Ltd with a site for unheard musicians-ArtistAlound.com and Aircel with a mobile app store in collaboration with Infosys. The last entry for this week in the launch category is Tata DoCoMo with its comic viewer app for mobiles termed DOCOMICS.

With so much action happening in the first week of Jan 2010 itself, I’d like to believe its a good omen symbolizing more action this year for the Indian SM industry. After all, the saying goes- if it begins well then it ends well.

While I have tried my best to include as much of happenings as I could find yet if any have been missed or overlooked, then please feel free to drop me a mail at hardeep@2020social.com. Feedback is always welcomed. And do log in next Monday for more weekly SM happenings gist.

Social Media Face of Consumer Companies

Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Reviews

Social Media Face of Consumer Companies
To tie in with our Social Media in India report, this post covers a review of two International consumer-facing companies-Proctor & Gamble and Nestle- functioning within the Indian social media eco-system. Whilst International companies act as benchmarks in introducing and promoting social media in India, this particular analysis provides an interesting example of how to tweak certain social media aspects to suit cultural backgrounds as a gentle push in the right direction.

Proctor & Gamble

We begin with Proctor & Gamble’s Indian presence through its Indian face – Beinggirl.co.in. Beinggirl.co.in is an online community targeting Indian teenage girls, effortlessly blending in social networking with feminine care. In keeping with this theme, one discovers that the site provides expert advice and extensive articles on healthcare and growing up issues which are still traditionally taboo in the Indian society and not talked about openly. Registration is fairly easy and provides easy access to the articles via the user’s profile page. All possible and related questions are listed, with the added element to post questions publicly or privately. The community educates and addresses numerous concerns ranging from puberty and career to depression and relationships and allows members to engage with the content.

As a social networking platform, various features such as photo-sharing, games, download music, quizzes are offered to the registered members. A miniature yet not well-defined section -Hanging Out-allows members to chat and engage with each other. Security and support are in-built and members are advised to refrain from giving out personal information. However, the site also incorporates quite an amount of product-endorsement. An added feature Which product is right for you? offers ample factual information and suggestions following the questionnaire method to facilitate correct product choices. The community portal is well-designed and vibrant to appeal to its younger teenage audience.

In comparison to its Indian counterpart, the UK portal – Beinggirl.co.uk- has many more components to explore. The UK portal allows registered members to create online avatars via the Me2 element and share them on various social networking platforms- a feature that could well be adapted in the Indian set up. In addition, a Happy Islands portal allows members to register, engage and share content without compromising on one’s security and information.  Again the articles provide more in-depth factual information and members can also enter user generated content contests to win goodies.

The Beinggirl community is tailored to 46 different countries, with some in the local language like the Arabic version below.

Nestle

Family Nestle Kitchen is the social network platform built by Nestle India to build conversations around the social object-lifestyle, passion & cause- of passion for cooking. The community provides a platform for home-makers to share all things cooking. Registration is easy and post registration members are promised a welcome kit to be delivered at the mailing address. Whilst the community allows members to share experiences, post recipes, plan offline meets and shop online, it is still restrictive in engagement between members themselves which offers an opportunity to explore.  Members can also refer to the Useful Tools forum to gain working knowledge of cookery terms, weights & measures and kitchen equipment to grasp recipes better.

An interesting feature offered by the community is the free mobile application allowing access on the go. The application allows members the same convenience as does the online community.

Overall, we can say that while there is much work left to be done, yet both Proctor & Gamble and Nestle’s communities have the makings of setting benchmarks in the Indian social media universe.

Social Media in India: Reliance Big Entertainment Review

Posted on 05. Oct, 2009 by Hardeep Kaur Rai in Reviews

This is the third post in a series of company reviews utilizing social media tools to reach out to its customers. In the earlier posts, we have reviewed the Indian conglomerate Tata and the Indian telecom major Airtel. For the purpose of this post, we will explore the Indian entertainment sector taking under scrutiny Reliance Big Entertainment. This choice of organization can be attributed to the mindset ‘big Indian conglomerate making forays into the entertainment eco-system’.

Big Entertainment is the entertainment brand of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) aiming to establish itself across Film Entertainment, Internet & New Media and Broadcasting. To realize its ambition, Reliance Big has procured for itself several subsidiaries across the movies, music, games, animation, user-generated content, direct-to-home and new media sphere. Reliance Big Entertainment’s presence across social media would be judged through some of its most active engagement models-Zapak.com, Big Oye and Big 92.7 FM.\n\nBig Entertainment is the entertainment brand of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) aiming to establish itself across Film Entertainment, Internet & New Media and Broadcasting. To realize its ambition, Reliance Big has procured for itself several subsidiaries across the movies, music, games, animation, user-generated content, direct-to-home and new media sphere. Reliance Big Entertainment’s presence across social media would be judged through some of its most active engagement models-Zapak.com, Big Oye and Big 92.7 FM.

Zapak.com is India’s largest online gaming portal hosting some of the world’s most famous games and functioning under the unique policy of adding a new game everyday. Currently the portal hosts over 1000 games and these include free downloadable games, celeb games, multiplayer games, cricket games, and even games for girls and kids. Apart from this content consumption built around a strong social object(lifestyle, passion, cause) which is passion for games, every game carries an in-built platform to rate & comment via the discussion board (curation) and the option to share via an embeddable url for websites and on numerous social networks (recommendation). Zapak also hosts an interesting reward system whereby users play/buy games and earn loyalty points and then redeem those points for prizes. To ensure further popularity, a specific Happy Hours program is devised where playing within specific time-duration would gain double loyalty points for the player.  Users can also upload their own games for others to play and also host games on the portal which underlines the creation and collaboration rung. Users usually play demos of games but can purchase the complete version when desired. Players can quickly and successfully transition from this trial to purchase prop within minutes. In summary, Zapak.com touches all points on the ladder of engagement i.e content consumption, curation, creation, collaboration, trial, purchase and recommendation- and thus has successfully harnessed the power of social media tools to develop itself into India’’s no.1 online gaming portal.

Moving on, we take a look at the next representative of Reliance Big entertainment in the social media sphere-Big Oye. Big Oye is an entertainment website dedicated to providing all film-related news and information -regional, Bollywood, Hollywood, and International. A whole host of content is provided for in the form of interviews, free online watching, events, celeb blogs, lyrics, quizzes, forthcoming releases, reviews, videos and even celeb-games. Each of the afore-mentioned and more features have an in-built rating and commenting system which alongside the content consumption completes few points of the engagement model. Hence, here we see opportunities galore for increasing user-interaction by promoting user-generated content for users to connect with each other and building rewarding community platforms for online & offline interaction, around a strong social object which is passion for films.

Lastly, we scrutinize Reliance Big Entertainment’’s radio station-Big 92.7 FM. As India’’s largest radio network, Big FM functions with a total reach across 45 cities including one in Singapore. The website has an interactive infrastructure to reach out to build a strong user network across the cities through various mediums such as RJ & user blogs, podcasts, groups & UGC, discussion  and chat forums. The website also allows for curation and recommendation in addition to promoting user-created content and collaboration via its ”build a community or group forum”. This leaves us with the expectation of seeing more features  to promote trial and purchase via online streaming or building promotional toolbar as in the case of BBC iPlayer and NPR.

To summarize on the basis of the above cases in point, it would not be wrong to state that Reliance Big Entertainment well understands the impetus user-interaction and collaboration can provide as social media tools and thereby is working at building a significant presence across the social media eco-system. Interestingly, one can also assume the direction of its future plans on the basis of the segments it has chosen to dabble in namely-Film Entertainment, Internet & New Media and Broadcasting. These segments themselves provide for strong social objects which Reliance Big Entertainment can smartly maneuver to build well-informed and interesting interactive platforms to their own advantage. To sign off-Watch out for this space for Reliance Big Entertainment’’s next few months may just demand another review in time.