Tag Archives: Miscellaneous

How To Run an Effective Blogger Review Program

Quick Summary: Read about how to run an effective blogger review program across a wide variety of product and services categories.

Background: While blogger review/ blogger relation programs have become popular internationally over the last two years, they are virtually unheard of in the Indian context. At the @MumbaiTwit tweetup last Sunday, I was speaking to a friend about setting up a blogger review program, and decided that it will be useful to put down my thoughts in the form of a how-to guide.

Scope: In this how-to guide, I’ll focus on running an effective blogger review program, not a blogger relations program. A blogger review program is typically a tactical, short-term, time-bound campaign focused on getting bloggers to review your new product or service. A blogger relations program involves building more strategic, longer-term, open-ended relationships with bloggers who are influential in your product or service niche. In terms of applicability, blogger review programs can be effective across a wide variety of product and services categories, including books, music CDs, movie DVDs, websites, gadgets and restaurants.

Step 1: Set up the blogger review program

List of Marketing, Public Relations & Social Media Blogs in India

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

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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.

The Xeta Shootout Contest: Win an Indica V2 Xeta

Quick Summary: Read about The Xeta Shootout Contest, where you can make your own Xeta TV commercial in a video or storyboard format and win an Indica V2 Xeta.

- X - X - X -

Winning a car is now as easy as 1-2-3.

The Xeta Shootout Contest

Step 1. Visit the Xeta Shootout Contest and watch the Indica V2 Xeta television commercial.

Step 2. Create your own Xeta TVC in the form of a video or a storyboard.

Step 3. Upload your entry on the contest website.

The best entry will win an Indica V2 Xeta.

You can also watch the entries submitted by others and comment on them, participate in a slogan contest on the message board, or tell your friends about the contest.

The Xeta Shootout Contest

The Xeta Shootout Contest

If you are wondering why I’m promoting The Xeta Shootout Contest on my blog, this is what I do in my Indica Brand Manager avatar, when I’m not blogging about being the next marketing guru.

Conversation Age E-Book: Create Conversations, Not Clutter

The ‘Conversation Age’ e-book is a collaborative e-book project conceived by Drew Mclellan and Gavin Heaton -

- 100 authors. We’re a few but need more.
- The overriding topic is “The Conversation Age” — where you take it is up to you.
- The items are short - one 8.5″ x 11″ page — it can be words, diagrams, photos (again up to you) If it is words - about 400, give or take a couple.
- We write it quickly and get it out there. We publish electronically.
- We make it available online for a small fee and we donate 100% of the proceeds to Variety the Children’s Charity — which serves children across the entire globe.

My contribution to the e-book is a chapter titled ‘Create Conversations, Not Clutter’. Here’s a teaser excerpt from the chapter -

While all of us agree that we need to create conversations with our customers/ readers and build a community around them, most of us end up creating clutter instead of conversations. In this article, I will share with you my thoughts on creating conversations, not clutter.

For the rest of the chapter, you’ll have to wait for the e-book. :-)

A Rare Seth Godin Rant

A few hours at the Indian consulate in New York induced a rare rant from Seth Godin -

Many of the chairs are broken, leaving sharp steel platforms on which to crouch. And there aren’t enough chairs, broken or not. The signs are confusing, the two clerks are protected by a sheet of glass a full inch thick (which is twice the thickness of a typical bank’s) and the little machine that dispenses deli-style tickets is broken.

When Seth Godin is in India, which he is presumably going to be, someone should take him to the US consulate to check if getting a US visa in India is a more pleasant experience than getting an Indian visa in the US. I have a suspicion that the visit will inspire another, even more spirited, rant from him. :-)