Category Archives: Social Media

Yours Truly Quoted in Deccan Chronicle’s Story on Online Advertising in India

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Quick Summary: I was quoted recently in Indian newspaper Deccan Chronicle’s story on online advertising in India.

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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.

Deccan Chronicle's Story on Online Advertising in India

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.

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Yours Truly Quoted in Indian Newspaper DNA’s Story on Blogging as a Change Agent

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Quick Summary: I was quoted yesterday in Indian newspaper DNA in a story on whether blogging in India is mature enough to act as a change agent.

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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.

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The Social Web is Not Flat (Part 2): The Social Technographics Profile of Metro India

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Quick Summary: I use data from various sources to estimate the social technographics profile for Metro India and compare it to Forrester Research’s social technographics profiles for Metro China.

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In my previous post, I had compared the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on why the social web is not flat.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Ladder classifies consumers into six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media –

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

I ended the post by wishing that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India –

However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits.

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The Social Web is Not Flat (Part I): Forrester Research Social Technographics Profiles

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Quick Summary: I use data from Forrester Research to compare the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on how the social web is not flat.

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Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have played an important role in increasing our understanding of the social media space over the last year, both through their book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (website) and their Social Technographics Study.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Study classifies consumers into a ladder with six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media. The six levels in the Social Technographics Ladder are –

1. Creators, who publish blogs, maintain websites, or upload self-created photos, podcasts or videos on social sites (like Flickr or YouTube).

2. Critics, who post ratings and reviews of products and services on user review sites (like Amazon), comment on someone else’s blogs or contribute to online forums or wikis (like Wikipedia).

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Get a Sneak Preview of My Chapter for ‘Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t People Get It?’

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Quick Summary: Get a sneak preview of my chapter for ‘Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t People Get It?’; it’s called ‘The Case for Social Media Outsourcing’.

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The Age of Conversation 2: Why Don't People Get It?

I have just submitted my chapter for ‘The Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t People Get It?’ and it’s called ‘The Case for Social Media Outsourcing’.

The chapter is based on my earlier post about social media outsourcing (also see), and its basic premise is that social media outsourcing will be a significant part of the third wave of Indian outsourcing (worth $50bn by 2012), making it the next big business opportunity for India.

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As I had mentioned earlier, ‘The Age of Conversation 2′ will have 275 contributors against the 100 for the original ‘Age of Conversation’ and the chapters will be focused on eight sections related to the broad ‘Why Don’t People Get It?’ theme of the book. Here’s a sneak preview of the eight sections to whet your appetite –

# Manifestos — Declarations, up front, on the Age of Conversation. Why don’t people get it? What about companies? Where are things going? What can you help clarify?

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The World is Not Flat and Neither is the Social Web

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Quick Summary: I’m starting a new series on why the social web is not flat and why it’s a good thing.

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It has been fashionable for a while now to describe the world as ‘globalized’. Ever since Thomas Friedman’s ode to globalization, ‘The World is Flat’, became a runaway bestseller in 2005, it has also become fashionable to describe the world as ‘flat’. Indians, in particular, have a special fondness for Friedman’s book because Friedman is enamored with the Indian IT industry and the title was derived from a statement by Nandan Nilekani, the former CEO of Infosys.

While the ‘world is flat’ metaphor has been much abused over the last three years, even Friedman’s original argument (that historical, regional and geographical divisions have become irrelevant in a global marketplace where all companies and countries have a level playing field) is quite exaggerated.

In a series of posts written over the next few weeks, I’ll establish that the world is not truly globalized, but ’semi-globalized’ (as Pankaj Ghemawat describes it in ‘Redefining Global Strategy’) or ‘rough-correlated’ (a term used by Eric Beinhocker in ‘The Origin of Wealth’).

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The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust (Week Four)

Monday, April 14th, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out the fourth edition of ‘The Best of Indian Business Blogs’, a weekly digest by business bloggers you trust.

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The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust

The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

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Also filed in Desi Blogging, Desi Web 2.0, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Marketing, Trendspotting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust (Week Three)

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out the third edition of ‘The Best of Indian Business Blogs’, a weekly digest by business bloggers you trust.

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The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust

The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

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Also filed in Desi Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Marketing, Trendspotting, Weekly Digest | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (2)

Watch Out For My Next Book — The Age of Conversation 2.0: Why Don’t People Get It?

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Quick Summary: After the runaway success of the original ‘Age of Conversation’, watch out for my next collaborative book — ‘The Age of Conversation 2.0: Why Don’t People Get It?’

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The Age of Conversation 2.0: Why Don't People Get It?

After the runaway success of ‘The Age of Conversation’ — it reached #262 in books and #36 in business and investing books on Amazon — it’s time for ‘The Age of Conversation 2.0: Why Don’t People Get It?’

There are three reasons why ‘The Age of Conversation 2.0: Why Don’t People Get It?’ is likely to be even better than the original ‘Age of Conversation’ –

1. It has 275 authors, instead of 100, and the author list is a who’s who of the world’s best marketing and social media thinkers.

2. The theme of the book is a question — ‘Why Don’t People Get It?’ — that social media enthusiasts often ask themselves. With 275 answers to the question, the book is likely to become the reference source for understanding ‘Why Don’t People Get It?’

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Download the Excellent ‘Best-Kept Marketing Secrets’ e-Book

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Quick Summary: Download a copy of the excellent ‘Best-Kept Marketing Secrets’ e-book for great marketing tips from 100 experts, including yours truly.

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Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends had asked some of the world’s top marketers, small business experts and bloggers — including Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and John Battelle — to share one of their best kept marketing secrets.

Now, she has compiled the best 100 tips from her compilation of best kept marketing secrets into an excellent e-book called ‘Best-Kept Marketing Secrets: 100 Experts Dish With Their Marketing Tips’.

The 33 page e-book has 100 expert tips across various marketing related topics like relationship marketing, marketing strategy, online marketing and social media, including my own tip on learning to make the perfect elevator pitch –

- Step 1 — Describe your idea in one or two sentences. Give both facts as they are and your own opinions.

- Step 2 — Specify what exactly you want to be done, by when and by whom.

- Step 3 — Give three reasons why, including examples to illustrate the benefits.

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