Gauravonomics Blog

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Quick Summary: At the Effective Consumer Engagement conference organized in Mumbai by the World Federation of Advertisers, I realized that Indian CEOs/ CMOs still don’t understand consumer engagement in a networked world.

I had great fun yesterday live-tweeting the Effective Consumer Engagement conference organized in Mumbai by the World Federation of Advertisers (tweet). I must have received 20+ reactions to my WFA conference tweets yesterday (tweet) and we would have had some great conversations if my mobile phone had tabbed browsing: one for typing tweets on Twitter, the other for tracking @gauravonomics replies on Terraminds (tweet). My friends Ashish also live-tweeted the conference, making it probably a first for a mainstream non-tech event in India (tweet).

As WFA has its Executive Committee, AGM, and Board meetings in Mumbai today, more than half the speakers and delegates at the conference were from outside India. This provided me an opportunity to experience first hand if CEOs/ CMOs in India approach consumer engagement differently from their international counterparts. It turned out that they do.

Quick Summary: The second Mumbai Twitter Meetup at Italian restaurant White in Goregaon had a full house with as many as sixteen people turning up.

In Mumbai? On Twitter? Let’s meet up.

Here are the details of the next Mumbai Twitter Meetup —

Date: Sunday, March 2, 2008
Time: 11:30am - 3:30pm
Location: White, Off Link Road, Near VIBGYOR School, Goregaon, Mumbai, India

Aditya, who owns the Italian restaurant White, has graciously offered to give us 50% discount on food for the meetup.

So, what are you waiting for? If you aren’t already on Twitter, go sign up Twitter, then start following me @Gauravonomics, Aditya at @acmhatre and Mumbai Twitter Meet at @MumbaiTwit.

You can register for the event by registering on the Facebook Mumbai Twitter Meetup Event, sending a message to @MumbaiTwit, or leaving a comment below.

Remember: Each one, tweet one (that is, get an interesting friend to sign-up for Twitter and come to the meetup).

Also See: Details of first Mumbai Twitter Meetup.

Quick Summary: My Twitter Direct Message Retweet Bug Meme is shaping up into an interesting social media experiment.

Here’s a quick background and description of my Twitter Direct Message Retweet Bug Meme —

@twilightfairy & @shweta have been having fun with my Twitter direct message retweet bug. (link)

Basically, if you send me a direct message on Twitter, it gets re-tweeted as my own message because of a Twitter bug. (link)

I have requested Twitter to fix it, but they haven’t come around to it yet. Guess they have bigger problems to fix. (link)

While Twitter finds time to fix my direct message retweet bug, let’s have a little fun with it. (link)

If you want your message to be retweeted to my 450+ Twitter followers, send it to me as a direct message. (link)

What fun! To have even more fun with my direct retweet meme, ask your followers to send a direct message to me. (link)

Here are the conversations that my Twitter Direct Message Retweet Bug Meme has generated so far –

Quick Summary: In Mumbai? On Twitter? Register for the first Mumbai Twitter Meetup. Not on Twitter? Find seven reasons why you should sign up for Twitter today.

Yesterday, when I tweeted about wanting to do a Mumbai Twitter Meetup —

Blog meets are so passe. I want to do a Mumbai Twitter meet. Anyone interested? (Twitter)

– I received half a dozen responses within seconds.

Within the hour, I had set up a @MumbaiTwit Twitter account, a dozen people had started following it, Aalaap Ghag (@aalaap) and Kapil Bhatia (@kapilb) had posted about the event and Aalaap had set up a Mumbai Twitter Meetup event on Facebook. Phew!

So, if you are in Mumbai and on Twitter, let’s meet up for the first Mumbai Twitter Meetup.

When? 5 pm, Saturday, December 29, 2007.

Where? Flat No A/65, Sea Lord, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai.

If you are planning to attend, here are a few things you should do in the run up to the event –

Quick Summary: Join my Say No To Fake Facebook Pages Facebook Group .

Today, I was shocked to discover that a lot of Facebook Pages I had become a fan of were actually fake.

Just created a Facebook Group — Say No To Fake Facebook Pages — http://tinyurl.com/2xof5n (Twitter)

Do you want to become a fan of the Google Facebook Page that is not created by Google? (Twitter)

Today, you, I, or anyone else can create a “fake” Facebook Page in the name of any company, celebrity or brand. (Twitter)

But do you want to become the fan of a “fake” Facebook Page? I don’t. Say “no” to fake Facebook Pages. (Twitter)

Join the Facebook Group — Say No To Fake Facebook Pages — http://tinyurl.com/2xof5n (Twitter)

tastybit @Gauravonomics which is pretty funny isn’t it b/c Fb’d have a cow if I set up a fake user account. (Twitter)

@tastybit In fact, the irony of fake FB Pages vs fake FB a/c is only matched by FB Flyers with breasts vs. FB ban on breastfeeding pictures. (Twitter)

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.

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

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.

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.

The Long Tail doesn’t only define the new economics of culture and commerce; it also defines the new economics of relationships.

My new favorite idea is The Long Tail of Pain - how social media allows us to find pain anytime, anyplace, in any form. (Twitter)

By the way, are we friends on Facebook or Twitter yet?

Quick Summary: Read about how your following/ followers ratio is a foolproof indicator of your position on the blogging chain of being.

Today, I found myself Twittering about the following/ followers ratio, that is, the ratio between the number of people whose blog you read/ who you follow on Twitter and the number of people who read your blog/ follow you on Twitter. Then, as I compiled my updates into a Twitter thread, I had a Eureka moment — I realized that your following/ followers ratio is a foolproof indicator of your position on the blogging chain of being.

If your Following/ Followers ratio is > 2 or < 1/2, you are listening or talking, but not communicating. (Twitter)

That signal to noise (Following/ Followers) ratio rule holds for Twitter/ Pownce, but it also holds for blogs/ RSS feeds. (Twitter)

When you start communicating via a new medium, your Following/ Followers ratio will be typically > 2. (Twitter)

If you are good at using the medium, over time, you will build a following and the Following/ Followers ratio will fall between 1/2 and 2. (Twitter)

Quick Summary: Read about the ‘economics of free’ — Free content -> Attention -> Free product -> Lock-in -> Paid bundled services -> $$$.

Two days back, I was up till late at night, twittering about ‘marketers becoming publishers’ and the ‘economics of free’ –

Content marketing - from ‘marketers buying space from publishers’ to ‘marketers becoming publishers’. (Twitter)

What happens to publishers when marketers become publishers? (Twitter)

Chris Andersen joins the “free is more complicated than you think” debate — http://tinyurl.com/27r66p. (Twitter)

Dilbert creator Scott Adams started the debate with his WSJ column “Giving Stuff Away on the Internet” — http://tinyurl.com/29jt86. (Twitter)

The Long Tail writer Chris Andersen’s next book is called “Free” — http://tinyurl.com/29sd26 — so he may know a thing or two about the topic. (Twitter)

One of the sub-titles he is toying with — “FREE: How companies get rich by charging nothing”. (Twitter)

When marketers become publishers, they give away content for “FREE”. (Twitter)

Because the content is not the end, the content is the means to get attention. (Twitter)