Gauravonomics Blog

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Renie Ravin of IndiBlogger.in recently shared some interesting data with me from the 7895 blogs that IndiBlogger.in crawls. IndiBlogger.in is a vibrant community of Indian blogs with some excellent features like a topic-wise directory with ranks (IndiRank) and a meme-tracker (IndiVine).

I have put together the highlights in an IndiBlogger.in State of the Indian Blogosphere Dashboard –

You can also have a look at the full State of the Indian Blogosphere report at SlideShare –

Here are the highlight of the report –

- More than three-fourths of the blogs in the IndiBlogger.in community are written by men.

- The top five languages are English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu. 92% of the blogs are in English. Renie believes that Indic languages are under-represented in the IndiBlogger.in community, but the distribution between various Indic languages should be representative.

- The top five cities are Bangalore, Chennai, NCR, Mumbai and Hyderabad, which together account for almost three-fourths of all blogs. The city-wise distribution should be fairly representative, but the metros might be over-represented in the sample because these blogger may be more aware of IndiBlogger.in.

The world’s biggest election is underway in India and, as India’s 714 million voters cast their ballots in the month-long elections, they are witness to a range of digital initiatives from political parties, civil society organizations, media houses and even corporates. It’s not surprising, then, that the Indian internet community is abuzz with discussions related to various aspects of the elections.

It’s not only a big election in terms of numbers, it’s a big election for India in terms of timing. Last November, the terrorist attack in Mumbai shook up India’s politically apathetic youngsters and brought them out into the streets. Since then, a series of digital civil society initiatives have sought to channel this newfound sense of civic engagement in the Indian youth into meaningful participation in the political process.

In the run up to the elections, online conversations in India have been charged with this civic consciousness. Transparency campaigns like No Criminals in Politics and Vote Report India and voter registration campaigns like Tata Tea’s Jaago Re have caught the imagination of urban India’s web-savvy youngsters, with their effective use of social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

In a month when 8020 Media, which use online crowdsourcing to create printed magazines like JPG and Everywhere, announced that it was ceasing operations and speculations about NYT moving to an online-only model increased, Joshua Karp has started The Printed Blog, “the world’s first daily newspaper comprised entirely of blogs and other user generated content” (via Wired).

Earlier, in my post on the top five newsworthy events in the Indian blogosphere in 2008, I had written about Indian group blog Mutiny.in starting a monthly print version, Mutiny Print, which includes a selection of the best posts from the blog.

Also, one of the 2008 Knight News Challenge winners is Don Pacheco’s Printcasting, which promises to “allow individuals to easily create ad-supported, customized publications with a mix of local news and information”.

Such blog to print models are an untested model, but they may work, if they manage to keep overheads low and attract local advertising. I’ll be watching this space closely.

Cross-posted on Social media in Business, Development and Government.

According to a recent report by Forrester’s Josh Bernoff, corporate blogs are the least trusted information source amongst US internet users, below direct mail and online classifieds!

Only 16% of those who use company blogs say they trust them. Even regular blog readers (24%) and regular bloggers (39%) trust in company blogs lags behind most other forms of content.

Those who trust company blogs are a little younger, a little richer, and slightly less educated than those who don’t and they are likely to trust all types of media, including direct mail.

Surprising, bloggers are more likely to trust ALL types of content than blog readers, who, in turn, are more likely to trust ALL types of content except radio and TV than average US internet users.

Given that most corporate blog posts are essentially press releases, it isn’t surprising that most people don’t trust them, even though they trust word of mouth marketing in general. Even though Josh Bernoff gives several suggestions on how to run a corporate blog that stands out (be personal, be authentic, focus on the customer, focus on the industry), it will be sometime before we see a new breed of corporate blogs.

Almost a year back, I had compiled a list of Indian blogs in the AdAge Power 150 rankings of top media and marketing blogs.

Gauravonomics was at #224 then, and the other Indian blogs in the list were India PR Blog at #266, Rajesh @ Blogworks at #340, Desi Creative at #451 and The Online Agency Blog at #481.

I decided to update that list today and here’s how the Indian blogs are ranked on the AdAge Power 150. I’m also including a automatically updating banner after each blog to make it easy for me to track this list in future –

- Gauravonomics at #123 

- WatBlog at #140

- PageTraffic Blog at #399

- Rajesh @ Blogworks at #425

- Marketing Practice at #456

- Marketology-Emerging Trends at #556

- Bhatnaturally at #590

- MisEntropy at #629

- Brants at #668

- IndiaPRBlog at #684

- Technology, Mobility, Usability and other Musings at #721

- SEO Tips PodCast Blog at #746

- eCommerce Retail Blog at #763

- People As I See at #764

- Interactive Marketing Blog at #834

- Customer World at #836

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.

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.

Quick Summary: A number of good quality marketing, public relations & social media blogs in India form a mature niche now.

I recently compiled my list of social media agencies in India to highlight the high level of activity I’m suddenly seeing in that niche.

Another related area where I’m suddenly seeing very high level of good quality activity is in the marketing, public relations & social media blogs niche in India.

Not very long back, I had mentioned that Gauravonomics Blog was one of the five Indian blogs on the AdAge Power150 list. Today, as many as fifteen Indian blogs can be on that list.

The blogs included in this list are not only written by marketing, public relations, or social media practitioners, they are also focused on these topics. Blogs on unrelated topics written by marketing, public relations, or social media practitioners are not included in the list.

The main objective of the list is to develop a sense of community in the niche. This is the reason why I have added blogger profiles on Facebook/ LinkedIn/ Twitter wherever possible. This is also the reason why I have structured this list alphabetically (by author name) and not as a ranking. Agency blogs and multi-author blogs are listed separately.

Quick Summary: I have set myself three blogging goals for 2008 — write 100 posts with original content, reach 1000 subscribers, and enter Technorati top 1000.

Daniels at Daily Blog Tips is doing a Group Writing Project on Blogging Goals for 2008 and more than 130 bloggers have participated so far.

While most bloggers participating in the project have set themselves goals on as many as ten metrics related to blog redesign, post frequency, promotion techniques, comments, traffic, link-backs and revenue, I have decided to focus on three simple goals — write 100 posts with original content, reach 1000 subscribers, and enter Technorati top 1000.

Goals only work if they are linked to a long-term objective and blogging goals are no different.

I decided some time back that I’m not interested in using my blog to earn money. Instead, my objective is to use my blog to establish myself as an authority in the marketing, strategy and social media niche. In fact, as I have built a library of quality original content on my blog over the last few months, I have even started putting my blog URL on my resume.

Quick Summary: Find out three different ways to share your Google Reader feeds with your readers.

I have 489 feeds on my Google Reader, and that would classify me as a rather heavy user. Even though I don’t read all of them on a daily basis, I manage to read quite a few under my must-read tag.

Over time, I have toyed with various ways of sharing these feeds with my readers. Sometimes, I have shared my OPML file with my friends. Usually, I have satisfied myself with adding a clip of my Google Reader Shared Items on my sidebar.

Now, Google has made it easy for me to share my feeds with you by allowing me to convert my Google Reader feed subscriptions into a blogroll -

As a heavy user of Google Reader, I figured that the best way to get a blogroll would be to have Reader generate it for me, based on my subscriptions.

Head over to the “Tags” section on the settings page, make one of the tags you use for subscriptions public, and click on “add a blogroll to your site.” (Google Reader Blog)

Even celebrities are not immune from the blogging bug. Many have their own blogs and a few even post regularly, or have someone in their entourage post on their behalf :-).

Three Tips for Celebrity Bloggers

While many celebrities have flirted with blogging, very few have seem to have done it well. Here are three tips for celebrity bloggers who want to do it well —

- Make it personal.

Your blog is not your ‘news’ page or your ‘press release’ page. Write about upcoming awards and events, but also write about your friends and family and what’s on your mind.

- Make it regular.

Even if you post only once in a month, do post regularly, so that your readers know when to return to your blog.

- Don’t make it on MySpace.

MySpace is great of sharing music, but MySpace celebrity blogs are painful to loot at and even more painful to read. Good celebrity blogs deserve their own www.celebrityname/blog domain name.

Top Eleven Celebrity Blogs

Here are top eleven celebrity blogs that have got it right —