The article appeared today in Hartford Courant. It’s my first interview for a newspaper outside India and there are one or two more in the pipelines.

Here’s the full text of the story –

The Graceful Way To Build Business Contacts
By MILDRED CULP
September 29, 2008

People often talk about the importance of contacts, but they rarely use creative, non-manipulative methods to build them. They glad-hand around a room, giving elevator pitches just long enough to grab a business card, or they offer to refer business when they have none to refer. Effective contact-building requires grace and sensitivity. This column will give you some ideas about how to do that.

It’s Friday, an hour before closing. Sifting through the events of the week, you identify people who stand out because of the help they gave you. Lynne Waymon, managing partner of the training and consulting firm Contacts Count in Silver Spring, Md., suggests that you show your gratitude through “a quick phone call, a funny Hallmark card, an invitation to an event, a handwritten note — not an e-mail, because it’s too routine.”

David Mullings of Real Vibes Media, a Pembroke Pines, Fla., integrated media and entertainment company, maximizes networking events with quiet effectiveness. He says that it’s difficult to crack the ice with people well-known in an industry. First, “I choose an event based on an audience,” he says. Then, instead of going directly to a person, he asks a question of the group that he’s sure that person will want to discuss.

A second method requires powers of observation — spotting the gatekeeper for Mr. or Ms. Hot Shot. “Go to the person who came with them,” he advises. “Get that person’s confidence and get the introduction. The value of an introduction is so important.”

Gaurav Mishra, research fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, worked in sales and marketing at Tata Motors, an automobile manufacturer headquartered in Mumbai, India. He is currently researching social media trends in such countries as the United States, India, Russia and China.

Mishra builds contacts naturally, with food, wine and music (iPod). “You meet people because they’re interesting,” he explains. “You understand what they’re doing and take it from there. If you both find each other interesting, you become each other’s contact.” His venue in India consisted of weekly house parties costing about $100 each, minus the wine others brought and left behind. He describes the events as “uncomplicated.”

He would invite 15 people, seven or eight friends/colleagues and an equal number of new people, telling them that he was pulling some friends together. “I told them to bring their own friends,” he remarks. “Every week there would be about 20 people, new and interesting and some I’d already met. It’s amazing what a shared meal can do for friendship. Some people help put others at ease.” Instinctively, he’d introduce people in their best light. Mishra reports, “All are friends now.”

Industries were very broad-based, from marketing and technology to entertainment. Although his global plan is to improve his quality of life, he held a party for a Colombian blogger, the friend of a friend, who was vacationing in India. Once home, she sent him the application form for his fellowship. He has been in this country since mid-August, with social networking skills in high gear.

Sales speaker and coach Terry Wisner, president of Partnering to Success LLC in Grand Blanc, Mich., formed an advisory board to help him and his colleagues. His “Group of 22″ includes salespeople, meeting planners, consultants and board members. “They’re all connectors,” he says. “You can spot this kind of person in a conversation when the person says, ‘You know, I know someone who can use that or give you a different perspective.’ They’re fun to talk to because they’re always looking for opportunities.” He uses conference calls to connect people and watches the shift “from relationships to revenues.”

Mildred Culp is a columnist who writes about workplace issues.

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Here’s the full text of the story –

Bye buy
Gaurav Mishra explains why he’s given away everything he owns. Photography Amit Chakravarty

On July 27, I gave away everything I had to five strangers. When I say everything, I do mean everything – furniture, electronics items, books, DVDs, – all the accumulated acquisitions of an intellectual yuppie.

I also gave away the life I had built over the last six years. It was a perfect life, with a fast-track corporate career, and a sea-facing house in Cuffe Parade, a short walk away from office.

I’m in month six of my year-long experiment in why we choose to consume, or not.

We derive our identity (and our happiness) basically in four ways — from the things we own, from the experiences we have, from the people we relate to, and from the meaning we create. These four elements are arranged in a “hierarchy of identities” that is not only different for each one of us, but also changes for each one of us over time.

When I passed out of IIM Bangalore six years ago, and had some money for the first time, buying and owning things were important to me, if only to prove to myself that I could afford to. So, I set up a full household, acquired costly tastes, ate out five nights a week, and played host the other two.

Then, one day, I realised that I had run that race (with myself) and it had left me tired. I had already bought all the things and experiences I wanted, and even some I didn’t really want. I couldn’t really buy what I wanted anymore, because the things I wanted now could not be bought. My hierarchy of identities had changed; creating meaning, relating to people, and having life-changing experiences were more important than owning things. So, I decided to stop buying things I didn’t need, go off consumption for a year in the hope that a year of austerity would cleanse my soul.

The original intention of the experiment was to spend a year from March 23 without buying anything that was not a necessity. I deliberately avoided defining a necessity because one of the most interesting aspects of the experiment for me was to discover what I thought of as a necessity. However, the rule of the thumb was that apart from basic groceries household and personal care items, not much else was a necessity. Which meant no car, no household help, no eating out, no movies, plays or concerts (unless they were free), no clothes, accessories or gadgets, no books or music, no television or newspapers. But I was allowed to consume what I already had.

Soon, I realised that even though I didn’t miss buying things, I did miss eating out on a date, or meeting up with friends at a coffee shop, or watching a play or a music concert. Consumption is the context in which most of our social interactions happen and, by going off consumption, I had made it difficult for my friends to meet up with me. I tried to invent new contexts: we cooked for each other, threw house parties (including all-night movie marathons), met up for free screenings of foreign films, or for a walk along the sea. It was unusual, and it was often fun, but, eventually, my friends tired of such simple pursuits, even if I didn’t. Thankfully, I had my blog, and it became the context in which I met new people and made new friends.

Then, three and a half months into my experiment, I realised that it was not enough to not buy things that I didn’t need, I needed to shed some more layers from my over-constructed identity. So, I took a year off from work, to do research on social media and teach at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and, fascinated with the idea of a life that fits into a backpack, decided to give away almost everything I owned.

I made an announcement on my blog that I would give away all my belongings to one reader of my blog, the one who wrote the most interesting story about what they would do with my stuff. More than 20 people wrote in, each story more fascinating than the other. In the end, I gave away my things to five people instead of one, so that all of them got what they really wanted, and none of them was burdened with what they don’t need.

What is left with me fits into five bags instead of one, so I’m still far away from my ideal of a life that fits into a backpack, but it’s a beginning, at least.

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I was recently profiled in a Mid Day story on how online and offline relationships have merged for some of us.

Ever since I started blogging three years back, my blog has been at the core of my social life. I have met some of the most fascinating people I know through my blog, or, in the last year, through Twitter. Some of my closest friends, including my last three girlfriends, are bloggers and some of my most important professional connections were made online.

The other day, I was talking to my girlfriend about how the center of gravity of my social life has further shifted online since I started my off-consumption experiment.

“Sometimes, I ask myself: what would I have done without my blog this year?”, I said.

“The question you should ask yourself is: who would you have been without your blog?”, she reminded me gently.

Coming back to the story, I am not naturally social, but I have become better over time. Here are three tricks that have worked for me –

1. Have a diverse set of friends. You will not only be exposed to different perspectives and lifestyles, but you will also be introduced to even more diverse friends-of-friends, in an ever-expanding positive spiral.

2. Understand what works for you. Everyone has a different social style, so, understand yours and start from your comfort zone, before you challenge them. For instance, I have realized that I like being the host, so I’m most comfortable meeting new people on my blog, or at my house parties.

3. Be generous with both friends and strangers. Help people whenever you can. Be generous with both time and money and don’t keep count. Be a connector and know that good social karma comes back to you. Use introductions not only to kick off conversations, but also to bring out the best in the people you are introducing.

Here’s the full text of the story —

Hello, do I know you?
by Bhairavi Jhaveri, bhairavi.jhaveri@mid-day.com
Mid Day
Friday, June 17, 2008

Hanging out with strangers is the way to go for young professionals moving seamlessly from online friendships to offline ones. Gaurav Mishra (28) is a popular guy, more so in the cyber world. An avid blogger, he has over 600 subscribers on his two prime blogs, an additional 1,200 friends on SMS-based social networking website Twitter.com, and an odd 500 on Facebook. And while most of us can boast of similar numbers, the difference here is that unlike ours, Gaurav’s friendships move from online to offline, sometimes even instantaneously.

There are no strangers (or ‘online buddies’) in his world.

The context is the filter

Fixing a face-to-face meeting with someone after simply browsing through online profiles may sound creepy, but Gaurav brushes off such inhibitions.

“It depends on where and in what situation you meet somebody. For instance, if I meet them at a film festival, we share something in common. Then, depending on how much our “bandwidths” match, I take it from there. Online, my blog is the connecting link and most often, also the reason why he/she is on my friend list,” he says.

Need for people

This IIM-Bangalore graduate and an assistant general manager, sales and marketing, at an automobile company, is leading a low consumption lifestyle as a marketing experiment for his upcoming book. This project doesn’t allow him to pay for recreation — lunch/dinner/ coffee, movies, or clubbing. Only necessities.

Ever since he began this project three months ago (it will last for another 10 months), he has felt a need to make a larger effort to, “hunt for” entertainment.

That’s how Saturday Movie Marathons, house parties and walks on Marine Drive came about, invites for which are thrown open to his network of friends, online and otherwise.

Meeting strangers

“Interesting associations lead to a well-rounded personality; you learn of perspectives and fresh ideas, through different kinds of people,” says Gaurav; often a benefit, which you may have exhausted with old associations.

“The opportunities that arise from knowing all sorts of people are unlimited. For instance, at a recent house party, I met a friend’s friend who recommended me for a leading broadsheet’s marketing based panel discussion,” explains Gaurav.

“Knowing a lot of people always has its perks, you can ask for favours from other people, in return guaranteeing them of a profitable association the next time around. A well-connected social circuit comes in handy while traveling to a new city too,” he points out.

But, this tenacious self-marketer enjoys hanging out with a “mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces,” and doing things on his own, every now and then, are also a must for this friendly, popular, people’s person. Ironically.

Gaurav’s top four networking tips

- Hosting a party is always the best way to meet new people.

- Be succinct in your introductions, so that they are conversation-starters.

- If it’s a one-on-one meeting, pick a place that you consider “home turf” — where you are comfortable.

- According to the dynamics you share with a so-called new friend, estimate how much time you’d want to spend with him/her in the first meeting. Then, decide where to meet — for a short walk, a cup of coffee, or a house party.

Learn the art of networking

Gaurav recommends Never Eat Alone: And other Secrets to Success, One Relationship At a Time by Keith Ferrazi and Tahl Raz, available for Rs 835 at Oxford Bookstore, Churchgate

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I was quoted recently in a Deccan Chronicle story on online advertising in India, along with advertising legends Alyque Padamsee and Piyush Pandey and fellow blogger Chandrachoodan.

Basically, we all agreed that online advertising will become the core of the Indian marketers’ marketing budget in the next few years. I also pointed out that the internet works best when marketers use it to reach one person at a time. So, search advertising for generating leads and social media initiatives for building community engagement are both great, but not plain-vanilla banner ads.

Here is the complete text of the story –

Consumer Caught in the Net
Online or web advertising is the next big thing in the sphere of advertising
Ashlin Mathew
Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Online pie is getting bigger and better. Of course with almost every youngster choosing to buy tickets or shop online or even home in on the optimum brand through the Internet, even conservatives are willing to put their thumb into it.

Until a few years ago most companies were unwilling to consider advertising on the Internet. But with most of the population in India getting tech savvy, companies are ready to invest 10-15 % of their spends to advertise on the web, say experts in this field.

According to a study by MSN, the target for companies going online is the 40 million Internet users in India. Moreover, the online segment is likely to cross the $100 million mark by 2010, states the same study. However, online advertising comprises just about five per cent of the pie. On a global level, India is nowhere in terms of online advertisements yet, said ad guru Alyque Padamsee, who is the chairman of London Institute of Corporate Training. “In 10 years when computers will become as affordable as telephones, we will see a revolution in online advertising,” he added
.
“Online advertising does have its share of viewers but it is yet to reach its peak in India,” says Chandrachoodan Gopalkrishnan, creative supervisor with Publicis Ambience, a global advertising agency. But, advertising online has definitely come a long way from those banner ads, he adds.
Earlier, most agencies would just put up banner ads on major sites. This could be skipped as it would come in the way of most users. But now websites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN fall back on text-based advertising. When users search for material on the net, related text-ads are placed on the same page. This is most effective for financial and automobile services, says Gaurav Mishra, who heads the sales and marketing division of an automobile brand.

Interactive ads and the viral concept of advertising are the latest concepts in online advertising. The former creates interesting content for the user to interact with. According to Chandrachoodan, this concept has been followed by www.sunsilkgangofgirls.com and www.hondamentalism.com.

The television ads of both these end with the website addresses prompting users to check it out. In the viral concept, the creators put an ad on a prominent website and from there it should usually spread through word of mouth. Chandrachoodan says this is a brilliant and effective concept if it gets accepted.

Internet is also being ventured into by organisations, as it is cost effective too. “The medium as such costs you nothing and it is much cheaper that television,” Padamsee states emphatically. “Internet has the power to reach out to one person at a time unlike television and radio ads and can engage consumers with a brand. We can also target customers based on their intention to purchase a product,” says Gaurav Mishra. When customers get engaged with a brand, then brand loyalty is just a step away, he adds.

Most admen agree that it is the next big thing in another five years.

“It will grow very fast and will see its boom in five years, so ad filmmakers have to be ready for it. But, it is not going to ring the death knell for television ads either as brands will need all media vehicles,” said Piyush Pandey, executive chairman, Ogilvy and Mather, India.

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I was quoted copiously in Indian daily DNA in a story on whether blogging in India is mature enough to act as a change agent.

A good approach to answer this question is to compare social media usage in India with social media usage in China –

Social media usage in Metro India and Metro China is driven by very different consumer behavior. In Metro China, Creators, Critics and Joiners all play an important role, whereas in India, Joiners are the predominant drivers of social media usage.

Social media usage in India and China also have significant differences in terms of the topics that drive conversation. Richard Edelman has written an interesting introduction to the Chinese blogosphere –

Social media in China has two constant themes: the rich/poor divide and nationalism… The best Chinese bloggers are… incredibly impressive, committed to change, convinced that they were part of a new China where individual expression and frank speaking will win.

This type of strong activism isn’t really visible at least in the more popular Indian blogs.

In the interview, I also talked about how brands can use social media to build authentic relationships with customers and citizens and how individuals can use social media to build solid reputations as experts in a topic.

Here’s the complete text of the story –

Blogging Pains in Mumbai
Surekha S
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 20:34 IST

In the US elections, blogs are seen as an effective medium to sway voters’ minds. But in Mumbai, the impact of desi blogs to bring about social change is minimal, say bloggers

In a bid for the presidential seat, US senator, Barack Obama relies on a team of bloggers whose sole job is to quell any negative publicity during the course of the campaign. And the fact, that Internet-savvy Obama is successfully harnessing the power of the web is a point worth noting.

Which makes one wonder whether the blogging medium in Mumbai, and the India, has that kind of power. Can it be used as effectively here for political campaigns, for promoting companies, products or to bring about a social change?

“The Batti Band campaign, which saw the participation of a large number of Mumbaikars, was promoted primarily through blogs,” says Gaurav Mishra, who has been blogging for the last three years. However, he says, that while activism through blogs is very strong in China, it has still to pick up in India.

As the head of sales and marketing for a national automobile company, Gaurav writes about how marketing is changing, how people are tired of being bombarded by commercial messages, and how marketing needs to adopt a more humane approach. “Though blogging as a trend is picking up, the blogging community is still very small. It is not big enough to bring about a change in the election results, but it surely can mobilise 3,000 to 5,000 people”, he says.

With the increasing popularity of social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook, the next trend is blogging to bring about change. And this trend is seen not only among youngsters, but also among companies and marketing agencies, that have recognised the potential of a blog to reach out to a new generation of users.

But we still have a long way to go. Ramya, a suburban resident who has been blogging for the last four years, says, “In India, Internet usage is low, and blogging is still a new concept. It surely will be ineffective in political campaigns as among the voters, only a small section have access to the web.”

The bottom line is simple: Blogging as medium of change and a tool to spread awareness is picking up, but the impact is marginal. “Most people do not understand the scope of the medium. Also, there is the question of reliability and responsibility. There are many random blogs, and most of them deal with personal issues,” says Ramya.

Nineteen-year-old Yashashri got hooked to blogging around two years ago thanks to her brother who was an avid blogger. “You can write about your experiences, you can use it to spread messages and most importantly, it helps connect with like-minded people across the globe,” she says. “It can also act as a platform to talk about socially relevant issues and get the participation and perspective of people miles away.”

Most people in Mumbai blog at a personal level, and see it as a means to connect with other people. Nikita Banerjee, a journalist with the magazine Animation Reporter, sees blogging as a great medium to meet new people and make new friends. “Blogs are also a good place to showcase your work.”

Even our celebrities have got into the act. “Though blogging is becoming increasingly popular, it still seems far fetched to think of a day when every second person will have a blog. In India we still do not feel the desperate need to be heard,” says Mishra.

And more importantly, will the blogs have traction among surfers? “We need more blog readers, but more than that we need knowledgeable people to write. Authenticity is driven by the person writing the blog. It is not about how well you write, but how much you know about what you write,” says Mishra.

And while it might take us a few more years to get there, we seem to be on the right track.

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‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is my year-long blog-as-a-book experiment in why we choose to consume, or not.

If you haven’t yet subscribed to ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, you should subscribe to it now, for free, in a feed reader, or by e-mail.

Yesterday, my first interview for ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ was published in Indian daily Hindustan Times.

The interview was published on the front page of the Delhi edition –

– and the city section in the Mumbai edition –

One interesting thing I learned yesterday is that different editions of a newspaper may publish different versions of a story.

The Mumbai Edition published the full story — see text below — complete with my rules and URL.

The Delhi Edition published a much shorter version of the story — also available online — but it was on the front page and I’m not complaining at all.

The Simple Life

Marketing professional Gaurav Mishra has embarked on an intriguing experiment: a no-frills, no-indulgences, low-consumption life

Riddhi Shah, Mumbai
riddhi.shah@hindustantimes.com
Sunday, April 13, 2008

Imagine never being able to eat out; not even a vada pav at the station. Never being able to go shopping for clothes or for gadgets. Or being able to go to the movies. Imagine not using a car or a taxi, walking as much as you can and taking the train. And having to do all the housework yourself.

Sounds like your worst nightmare? For 28-year-old Gaurav Mishra, it’s just an average day in his life. Not because he’s living a life of poverty; in fact, he’s an assistant general manager at one of India’s leading automobile companies.

But for an entire year, Mishra has set off on an experiment to go “off consumption” - which, by his definition, means that he won’t buy anything unless it’s a necessity .

“I got tired of trying to equate happiness with consumption. I’d bought so many clothes, books, DVDs and immersed myself in luxury I had success, I had money, but . didn’t know the purpose of my life,” says the Patna native.

His yearlong experiment, he says, is an attempt at finding a way to lead a simpler life. “Besides, I’ve realised that people getting tired of consumerism is going to be a big trend. And as a marketer, it’s a trend that I want to study I’m hoping this year will give me insights into what marketers need to prepare for in the future,” says Mishra, who holds an MBA from IIM-Bangalore. And like any good marketer, he also knows the latent potential of his unique experiment - Mishra is waiting for that big book deal to come through even as he writes about his daily experiences on his blog (www.gauravonomics.com). Necessity or not?

Whenever he tells people about his experiment, says Mishra, the first question is always: how does one define a necessity? But he deliberately refrains from a concrete definition. “Part of the point of the project is to figure out what exactly constitutes a necessity. That’s one of the insights I’m looking for,” he argues.

In the three weeks since he’s given up consumption, he’s already learned enough about marketing and the future of consumerism to fill a few chapters of his book: For in- stance, he says that even if he’s given up McDonald’s burgers, he’s still buying relatively expensive muesli because he considers the latter a necessity. So, he concludes, “Health food will continue to grow as a segment even if fast food doesn’t.” Or, he relates, “Because I can’t go to restaurants anymore, I’m beginning to experience the absolute lack of public places in the city It would . be a great marketing tactic for Barista and Café Coffee Day to position them selves as free spaces rather than exclusive cafes.”

He’s also tapping into the increasing populari ty of the ‘swapping economy’, after being forced to look for alternative accommodation instead of a five-star hotel the next time he travels on business. “I signed up for something called couch surfing, in which people offer their couches to strangers for free. Such free or barter arrangements promise to be a huge thing in the future,” says Mishra.

But it’s only early days. There are another 344 days to see through, and he foresees, “The biggest problem promises to be my social life. I’m worried about how I’ll continue to relate to my friends if I can’t go to a restaurant, a movie or a bar. Right now, they’re still willing to come over or meet me for a walk, or cook for me when I visit them, but at some point it’ll become too much of an effort. What will I do then?”

And of course, there’s the problem of maintaining a love life – how does a 28-year-old take a girl out on a low-consumption date? “So far, I’ve been creative and gone to Juhu beach once and cooked dinner twice, but at some point I might run out of options,” Mishra confesses.

There are other possible roadblocks. While cleaning and cooking doesn’t seem like much of a chore right now, there’s always the possibility of coming back to a dirty house, and getting desperate enough to ask his maid to come back.”

For right now though, Mishra is focusing on make the project as much of a public spectacle as possible. “It’s a way of keeping myself in check. The more people know about it, the bigger fool I’ll make of myself if I fail to see this through,” he says.

It’s not going to be easy, of course. “I’ve completely taken out all comfort food from my life. Even something as simple as eating ice cream is a problem. So,” jokes Mishra, “I’m just going to have to be happy all the time.”

Mishra’s Laws of Low Consumption

- Only basic groceries, toiletries and household items are allowed.
- Eating out and going out for paid entertainment are not allowed.
- Buying clothes, accessories and gadgets is not allowed, but repairing and borrowing them is.
- Buying books, music, or movies is not allowed, online or offline.
- Mass media are not allowed.
- Household help is not allowed.
- Buying gifts is not allowed, but giving and receiving gifts is.
- Consuming what he already has is allowed. He will only replenish if necessary.
- Work is sacrosanct; he will not let his experiment interfere with his ability to work.

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I have written an article on Twitter — based on my post on seven reasons you should sign up for Twitter today if you already haven’t — in the March issue of Indian magazine Man’s World.

The issue — and the story — isn’t yet up online, but you can click on the scanned picture above to read the story.

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I was quoted yesterday in Indian daily Hindustan Times’ article on how Indian corporates are embracing blogging and social networking as collaborative tools –

Some, like Gaurav Mishra, the Indica brand head, use their personal brand – created over years of blogging – to promote the brand they work for. “My blog benefits because my real-life experience gives credibility to my posts, and my offline avatar benefits because my online presence makes it possible to meet and build an impression on people who wouldn’t have known of me otherwise.” Lately, Mishra has promoted a new ad campaign for his brand on his blog and Facebook account.

A serious concern for employers could be what their employees say publicly on such sites. Says Mishra, “I ensure that my entire web presence is squeaky clean so that even if I put it on my resume, it can hold up to close scrutiny.”

The article also quotes Webchutney CEO Sidharth Rao, TCS VP & CTO K Ananth Krishnan, Cognizant CKO Sukumar Rajagopal, Sun CTO Santhosh D’Souza, Microsoft India HR Director Joji Gill, and Pinstorm CEO Mahesh Murthy.

The article covers the entire enterprise 2.0 spectrum including CXO blogging, internal enterprise blogs, employee blogging policy, and the use of blogs and social networks as collaborative tools in the enterprise.

Here is the complete text of the article –

Corporates promote blogs as office tools

Neha Tara Mehta, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, March 09, 2008

Social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook and blogs are part of your personal life, right? If you are lucky and these sites aren’t blocked at work, you probably manage to steal a few minutes at work to access them, while pretending to be hard at work. But if you work for a select few companies that see such sites as vital office communication tools, then social networking online could all be in a day’s work. The benefits? The emergence of a whole new, democratic work culture.

Take interactive agency Webchutney’s Mustafa Syed, a marketing analyst and project manager. He follows 40-odd colleagues on Twitter, a microblogging service accessible from cellphones and PCs, among other social networking tools like Facebook to stay in touch with people across three locations – some of whom he has never met. “Work flows smoother with such informal tools. Everyone in the company is on G-chat, so there is no initial awkwardness communicating with people you have never met.” Employees can chat online with the CEO as well, taking up problems and discussing ideas. “A lot of bureaucracy doesn’t exist then,” he says.

When Webchutney CEO Sidharth Rao recently went to Bangalore to make a customer pitch, he was microblogging about the presentation live to employees in Mumbai and Delhi. “People who have worked on the presentation but aren’t making it themselves would want to know what’s happening,” he says. New-age communication tools also help track employee dynamics. “These sites give me a first-hand chance to assess where the teams are — what’s playing up their mood or bringing them down.”

Offices such as Webchutney stand in sharp contrast to many – where social networking online is looked upon as ‘cyberslacking’. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), too, is trying to leverage social networking technologies for collaborations and knowledge creation within its 110,000 employee-strong organisation. “Social networking is a hugely popular with a very significant employee base. No company can afford to ignore it,” says K Ananth Krishnan, vice president and Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

TCS employees are part of 1,500 company-oriented communities on social networking sites. Many also blog actively on the public platform. Part of the “highly connected and open culture” at TCS is ‘My Site’ — a website for every employee, embedded with social networking tools. Then, there’s ‘Idea Storm’ — a site on which everybody is invited to comment on a theme. “We got 20,000 ideas out of a dialogue in five days,” says Krishnan. There’s also a CTO blog – accessed by 85 per cent of the company in the last three months and ‘Just Ask’, a community where anyone can put forward a question and have it answered.

At Cognizant, newsletters and other types of internal communication have already migrated to the blogging platform. “Blogs are an excellent mechanism for collecting feedback, expanding networks and knowledge sharing across a global employee base,” says Sukumar Rajagopal, Chief Knowledge Officer, Cognizant.

Employee blogging is central to Sun Microsystems’ marketing communications strategy, with top boss Jonathan Schwartz believing that employee blogs have “authenticated the Sun brand as much as or more than a billion dollar ad campaign could have done.”

Schwartz’s own posts neither overhype Sun products, nor over-slay competitors. Employees write about mundane problems like product delays, and invite readers to submit bug reports and suggestions. Says Ananth Shrinivas, 24, a Sun engineer whose posts are among the most widely read ones on technology, “Blogging is a way for employees who aren’t related to a particular product or policy, to write about their valid concerns.” His postings on a public blog go with the disclaimer, “My writings do not express the views of my employer cat, dog or girlfriend.” Santhosh D’Souza, the Sun chief technologist, uses his blog as an extension of himself — to write about what’s new in Sun technologies for potential customers.

Some, like Gaurav Mishra, the Indica brand head, use their personal brand – created over years of blogging – to promote the brand they work for. “My blog benefits because my real-life experience gives credibility to my posts, and my offline avatar benefits because my online presence makes it possible to meet and build an impression on people who wouldn’t have known of me otherwise.” Lately, Mishra has promoted a new ad campaign for his brand on his blog and Facebook account.

A serious concern for employers could be what their employees say publicly on such sites. Says Mishra, “I ensure that my entire web presence is squeaky clean so that even if I put it on my resume, it can hold up to close scrutiny.” Says Krishnan of TCS, “If there is criticism of the company online, it’s a person’s opinion, and we take it constructively,” he says. “Blogging or any other new media of communication shouldn’t override an employee’s common sense, ” says Joseph George, engineering manager, Sun India Engineering Centre.

Microsoft doesn’t review, edit, censor or endorse individual posts, says Joji Gill, director HR, Microsoft India. It’s such freedom that inspires employees to blog responsibly and tap into unstructured knowledge networks online, says Abhishek Kant, a Microsoft community programme manager and one of the founders of the Delhi Bloggers Association. “If the company is willing to take such a risk, I will also write responsibly.”

Mahesh Murthy, CEO of Pinstorm, a search engine-driven marketing company, had to introduce a blogging policy in 2006 after he found two employees engaged in an online duel. The company now guides clients on the “power of positive blogging.” Says cyberlaw expert Pavan Duggal, “Companies should have a blogging policy in place, saying that employees shall neither disclose anything confidential nor post any defamatory or libelous content. Violating this policy should have serious consequences for the employee.”

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I have been tracking social media marketing in India for a while now both in my brand manager and blogger avatars.

I was quoted today in Thinking Aloud, the online magazine of IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India), in a story on social media marketing in India.

The article also quotes Raj Kurup, CEO of Creativeland Asia.

Here’s a quick summary of my thoughts on the social media marketing landscape in India –

- Social media marketing is a great tool for marketers to identify and redress customer dissatisfaction issue early, engage customers and citizens into meaningful conversations, and build customer loyalty at a low cost.

- In India, for most mainstream brands, social media is not yet a significant factor as of now. It is more important for reputation-based, service-oriented, consumer-fronted sectors like auto/ telecom/ financial services/ travel and hospitality. However, over time, social media will become important for all types of companies and brands.

- In India, where most marketers are still coming to terms with digital marketing, there’s no compelling reason as of now for brand managers to include social media in their marketing mix. Brand managers are also wary of experimenting with social media because it requires very high involvement levels, advertising agencies don’t yet understand social media, the measurement metrics are not yet established, and companies are still wary of negative publicity, which means that all communication has to be vetted by the corporate communications department. However, marketers who do experiment with social media now are likely to differentiate their brands and build a first mover advantage.

In summary, while the significance of social media is still limited in India, brand managers in India should start seeding small social media initiatives to build capabilities and communities for the future.

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Yesterday, I was part of a Hindustan Times Young India Forum panel discussion on the Indian Budget 2008. The Young India Forum is an initiative by Hindustan Times to “drive change and reach more people more directly”.

Hindustan Times had put together an interesting panel consisting of young film-makers, entrepreneurs, and corporate fast-trackers and I had a great time at the panel discussion –

Finely tailored suits, chic skirts and fancy designations — a perfect picture of corporate India, but without the grey hair. On Friday, young MDs, VPs and filmmakers, representatives of the changing face of corporate India, got together to take part in the Hindustan Times Young India Forum. To discuss, naturally, the Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

As the FM read out the fiscal Budget — his fifth in a row — clad in a pristine white dhoti, these designer-clad corporate honchos chuckled, sighed, laughed and gave their perspective on one of the biggest events of the year in India.

As some of you know, I don’t read the newspaper or watch TV, so I was quite clueless on what to expect from the budget (tweet). I mean, I understand enough Macro Economics to know what a good budget should focus on — basically initiatives (related to fiscal stability, education, infrastructure etc.) that have multiplier effects across sectors — but I hadn’t bothered to follow all the speculation in the build-up to the budget. An hour on Google, however, gave me enough background to talk about the budget intelligently (tweet).

I also wanted to include a crowd-sourcing angle in the panel discussion by talking about what early adopter Indians on Twitter expect from the budget (tweet1, tweet2, tweet3, tweet4, tweet5), but didn’t get enough responses.

My take on the budget is that it’s the classic pre-election feel-good populist budget that will please a lot of people, leave many feeling neutral and displease very few. Mr. Chidambaram is a master at packaging budgets, and that’s true for all his budgets, not only this one. The one highlight of the budget for me is the Rs. 15000 cr. corpus for “skill development”. But the big question I’m still asking myself is this — where will the money to fund Mr. Chidambaram’s generous budgetary allocations, including the Rs. 50000 cr. debt relief for farmers, come from?

I must say that Hindustan Times has packaged the story very well — there’s a full page story in today’s newspaper, and the online version has a PDF file of the print story and a video. The print story has nice little profiles on the seven of us —

Gaurav Mishra, Assistant General Manager, Indica, Tata Motors

The IIM Bangalore graduate has been with the Tatas ever since he stepped out of the campus six years ago. Mishra believes in sticking around and climbing the corporate ladder. He simplifies his complex job profile to one line — “I sell cars” — and the best part of his job is that his office is located two minutes from his home. When home, he disappears and writes his blog gauravonomics.com, which deals with marketing technology. Eventually, Mishra wants to set up something on his own and create jobs.

It’s fascinating what someone picks up when summarizing a half hour discussion in a paragraph. For instance, I blog about “marketing, technology and social media” and not “marketing technology” and I’m quite sure that whenever I start something on my own, it won’t create a thousand jobs.

Here’s the full text of the story — I’m pleased to tell you that Hindustan Times used a quote from me as the headline –

‘A Budget difficult to argue with’

Finely tailored suits, chic skirts and fancy designations — a perfect picture of corporate India, but without the grey hair. On Friday, young MDs, VPs and filmmakers, representatives of the changing face of corporate India, got together to take part in the Hindustan Times Young India Forum. To discuss, naturally, the Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

As the FM read out the fiscal Budget — his fifth in a row — clad in a pristine white dhoti, these designer-clad corporate honchos chuckled, sighed, laughed and gave their perspective on one of the biggest events of the year in India.

Put seven Young Turks in a room and it would not take very long for any discussion to heat up. And when the issue is as crucial as the Budget, it takes no time at all.

The forum kicked off immediately after Chidambaram’s Budget presentation with one big, noisy agreement: that this Budget was aimed clearly at the forthcoming elections.

“A feel-good, populist budget. It’s very difficult to argue with it,” said Gaurav Mishra, assistant general manager (Indica), Tata Motors. An “inclusive budget,” agreed Nikhil Kaushik, associate vice-president, BTS Investment Advisors.

It was corporate-neutral budget, according to Sarang Wadhawan, managing director, Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited, and one of the moderators for the discussion. “It’s targeting the middle-income and agricultural votes.”

Everyone agreed, however, with Devita Saraf, executive director, Zenith Computers, when she said: “Corporate India has had a long bull run so it’s good if the FM has decided to let it be and focus on the bottom of the pyramid where there are genuine concerns.”

Not everyone was happy though. Filmmaker Vipul Shah complained that the entertainment sector, especially the film industry, had been ignored. “We’ve been fighting against entertainment tax for five years,” he said.

What attracted everyone’s interest was the Rs 60,000-crore wavier of loans for small and marginal farmers. While corporate India agreed that it was worthy to have tackled the agriculture debt crisis, they were wary of its repercussions.

“The headlines will be about wiping out farmer debts, and rightly so, but whether Chidambaram has opened a Pandora’s Box remains to be seen,” said Wadhawan.

The initiatives on education also got the thumbs-up. As the second moderator for the debate Purvi Sheth, vice-president, Shilputsi, put it: “We need more IIT graduates and more skilled young people. If we want India to compete on an international stage, we need more high-grade educational institutes.”

Shweta Joshi felt that educational incentives would now enable India to focus on research and development. “The boost to technology in education and a knowledge network are good news. Moving to being a knowledge-based society from the current consumption-based society will be good for India,” said the former teacher.

Introducing himself as an environmentalist, Sohail Khan, head of sales for Deal Group Media, pointed out that environmental issues had been largely ignored, except for the protection of tigers. “Eventually, it’s an ecosystem we exist in where everything affects everything, directly or indirectly,” he warned.

The discussion was not without its unanswered questions. How will all allocations be implemented effectively? How do you let people at the bottom of the pyramid know of the initiatives for them? What’s the plan on enhancing agricultural productivity?

The forum ended with hearty laughter as Kaushik quipped on Chidambaram’s statement that he was a lucky FM.

“He’s a lucky FM all right! He made an entry when India went into a growth phase; he’s going into the election year in a growth phase.”

No one contradicted Sarang when he ended the session saying it was a budget aimed at “bringing Congress back to power”.

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