Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

The weather in the last week of march in Delhi used to be generally warm during the day with pleasant evenings. Last year the air conditioner was up and running during this time, but now the fan regulators are yet to reach maximum. It would not take a person much knowledge to conclude that there is definately something that is not alright. So what's really cooking ? Is it the earth under the cap of carbon dioxide and other green house gases such a methane or is this Bhagwan ki kripa or other evil powers . It would not take much to convince people on the latter and all it would need is a priest like looking person spreading the message through provocative speeches saying "America and China are behind this" (Thats not my say and I don't intend to mean any such thing). Coming back to the sane stuff we need to find a solution of the simple question "What can we do ? Is earth hour the answer". I celebrated triple earth hour(s) compulsorily since the power author...

I met my worst driving nightmare yesterday. Driving blues had become commonplace because of unplanned and shoddy execution of projects, the construction nightmare on Delhi roads gave me the coma effect yesterday. All I could see was a mile long array of cars and buses in the front and the view was same through the rear view mirror. The only good thing I had unknowingly done was taken my Maruti 800 buggy rather than its longer cousin. Although it was good to have taken a bike version of car, I could only pray to prevent it from overheating. In the end, the turtles defeated my car. Looking back at the chain of events yesterday I feel such nightmarish clogging of city roads is just an indication of how overburdened our "assets" have become. 3 years back speed checking cars of Delhi Police had some work but now I believe they are no longer needed and it is quite visible from their presence(the lack of it). The upcoming elections and the rallies will only further add to the perils...

Recession has spread like wild fire and many people stuck in this fire are googling for that fire suit to keep away from the burns. If Google search results (below) are any indication, panic has spread among the Indian working class and people are finding for recession proof hideouts. The questions that comes to my mind are "What is recession proof career ? or what kind of a job is recession proof ? Are we moving towards escapism ?" Can't really say. Searching for a shelter in the rain may be wise but may not be always possible, if atleast our job demands so. So what if the shelter is no where in sight and the rain comes before we reach it the job is over. Maybe the rain will make us more resilient towards coughs and colds. Changing a job and going towards a recession proof job may not be wise since you may not be alone. You might just be the one to trigger the chain reaction leading to further and deeper recession. This might sound idealistic and clichéd to some but it i...

web 2.0 to 3.0 might have just taken place with many companies using the free and effective medium of web to promote their product globally. Banner ads, TV ads and couple of other sources including radio might give an edge but a stiffer competition to these rather costly sources comes from the free media of web. The recent Tata Nano web site is such an example where the team of Tata Nano will connect through the interactive 2 way media of social networking. According to wikipedia of web 2.0 Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. I'd say the third generation of web has just arrived where corporates are spreading their brand through practically free media of web 2.0. Tata Nano updates through orkut, facebook or email is an indicator of how an iconic product already popular because of its uniqueness can turn into a revol...

The recent speculation of Rs 100 for vote by Mulayam Singh or the distribution of watches by a CM caught on camera have caused a lot of people to condemn such acts as a shameful mockery of democracy. While those anchors on their 24 hour News TV channels are not wrong there is another side to this event. Lets look at it from the poor voters point of view. The person getting Rs 100 is indeed very poor and knows that the government did not do enough for the last 5 years and hence they are compensating by paying them a certain amount of money. And if you think that the poor voter is poor from mind also, you are wronged. That same voter will also try and extract the maximum out of the other party and in the end his single vote (If at all single and no malpractices done) will go to one and only one party. So indeed he is smart and atleast he is draining out some money from the alleged corrupt politician. I'm purely saying this on the basis of the CBI inquiry on the misappropriate assets...

The Blog camp-2 organized by IBNMS was an enriching experience that gave me new thoughts to ponder over. I was at the venue at about 11:00 AM , just in time before the session on ' Using new media for maximizing brand visibility: case studies ' by Meena began. Meena who is Head External Communications, HCL Technologies explained how she started the 'employee first customer second campaign' that spread through slide share presentation and other relatively free social media and gained popularity. This session, I felt did not get the 'WOW' factor, which was there in the next session by Mr Madhavan (Associate Editor, Hindustan Times). His topic of discussion was ' What blogs mean to mainstream media, and what mainstream media means to blogs ' where he mentioned some very useful points about blogging and traditional media, although I have my reservations on a few things he said. The Q and A, which followed after his comprehensive session was also interesti...

Saving power might be considered by many as an after effect of recession and if it really is, it's good. Powering off your TV might take you only a few seconds but the lazy loafer in each one of us does it a minute later. And I too am a part of the 'you' mentioned. Going by Thomas Friedman's 'Hot, Flat and Crowded', the world is having fever and it's getting warmer by the day; the of which effect was felt this winter. The solution or the silver bullet to counter this may be that small extra effort, tinier than the drop in an ocean. After 100 years of spewing industrial venom we will need a 100 years of Medicare to get things back on track. So why am I discussing all this ? All thanks to this post by Bill Weihl who informed about the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (co-founded by Google). They've come out with power saving computers. Although I am skeptical about using environment as the theme of their business of selling computers, they've come ...

The King of good times turned out be the king of 1.3 billion Indian hearts after he successfully bid for Mahatma Gandhi's iconic belongings for a whopping 1.8 million dollars. Vijay Mallya saved the day today but I don't really think donating them back to the Indian government will be of much use. It would have been much better had a private bidder payed a huge sum of money for those five personal belongings of Mahatma Gandhi since I don't have much faith in the capability of the government in preserving the items. Looking at the current state of affairs of our monuments and museums the iconic items I believe might get into the not so safe hands of the Indian government. I only hope they are preserved with much care as they were before. But Kudos to Mr Vijay Mallya.

If you found recession tough enough enough to handle, here is an easy way to find out the best sorted out content that will help you save money. I recently read an article that said that sale of motivational books has increased and the most obvious reason for this - Recession. This recession, the worst since great depression of the 1930s can be a great thing for the world to unite under a single theme - Save Money, Save Job; and what better platform than Google. The blog entry by Colby Ranger on the official Google blog says As we all navigate today's choppy economic waters, we'd like to put these beliefs into practice. That's why we created Tip Jar (www.google.com/tipjar), an experiment powered by Google Moderator that we hope will help you discover the most effective ways to save money. So what kind of tips can you expect ? Here is an example (Work Related)- "Find out about all of the benefits of your job. Most people aren’t even aware of all of the benefits avail...

If you are not happy with the marriage proposals you've been getting till now, register on Bharata Matrimony and find a Katrina/Bipasha/Kareena and (many more ) look alike. Bharat Matrimony has started a facial recognition feature, which shows profiles matching your favourite celebrity. This is a very innovative feature introduced by the matrimonial website but the implications could have both positive and negative effects. Prospective models can put their pics on the matrimony website and get calls from producers. On the other hand if celebrity gets in news for wrong reasons, it could harm the repute of the lookalikes since they've been tagged. But if you pride yourself being called a John or Shahid or a katrina or any other celeb, it could be a good ego boost. The reactions could be many. Check out the facial search feature. Try reading Amit's view on this feature. I'd also like to know your view about this feature.

Know more about blogging @ Blog camp 2 being held in Delhi Blog camp 2 is being organized in Delhi on the 7th of march 2009. Blog camp is a forum where we discuss, share opinions, tools and other resources about blogging. The following topics will be discussed Blogging technologies & trends Micro blogging Photo-blogging Video blogging Social media To attend the event register at the official website and check out the events and sessions taking place. Venue Indian Institute of Mass Communication JNU new campus, Aruna Asif Ali Marg, New Delhi - 110067 Blog Camp 1 Blog camp 1 was held at the Microsoft office @ Eros tower in Nehru place. It was a good experience with various new technologies being discussed. Also read about the experience of Rajeshwari Sharma who was also present at Blog Camp 1. Check out the this presentation by Abhishek Baxi who talked about the various aspects of micro blogging at Blog Camp 1.

Mobile number could become your identification if alcatel-lucent's plans materialize. Many people had this problem of their parents keeping strange names that were later made fun of during school and college years. Many even resorted to changing their names to avoid the embarrassment caused. During my schooling in kerala, I had a classmate who changed her name from Radha to Radhika, since Radha was made fun off by her classmates. Imagine what her parents, who were both doctors might have thought of the whole episode. But here comes an ingenious solutions to all the problems faced by those battling strange names woes. Alcatel-Lucent is working with the government of India to make the mobile number a personal identification number. So if it happens, you might call your friend as " Hi 98..., I am 987... " One positive effect of this will be that the mugging up power of people and comfortability with numbers will increase resulting in more people getting into number crunchin...

This was spam comment posted on my blog. I wonder what Shahrukh might think.

It couldn't get much worse and much more foolish than this. 5 players of Srilankan team were injured when militants opened fire at their team bus. All five had a narrow escape and Tilan Samaraweera was the only one to suffer bullet injuries and rest suffered from shrapnel wounds. This is country, which says that 26/11 terror attacks did not take place on its own soil and has a rather casual navy chief who does not even know the implications of his own words. Much has been talked about the heinous crimes being committed under the masquerade of Islam by Pakistan's own child - Taliban. So what is the solution ? The current verbal exchange between India and Pakistan undoubtedly makes Pakistan believe that we are soft on terror. But intimidating with the army on border is not a solution. The stand-off after the parliament attacks is an indicator of that. It yielded nothing. Talks of surgical strikes by Indian air force were rife after the Mumbai terror attacks, but it did not materi...

When it comes to the dream gadgets list, iphone and ipod rate very high in my must haves but bad luck, low budget and recession have been the three hurdles for me in getting me my dream gadgets. But on the other side of the world sitting high and mighty are another set of kids who have one of the richest people in the world as their father in the world but still no i-gadgets. Melinda Gates said in one of her interviews that although very few gadgets have been banned for their children, ipod and iphone are two things she does not get for her kids and she too does not have one. They've been practically banned from the Gates mansion as being rival products. Looking at the consequences of the having an ipod or iphone, they could easily distract you from the work. It's like having a pretty girl friend; your mind might loose focus from other issues and you might loose sleep too. The number of mobile thefts are also increasing at an alarming rate with about 35 occurring in Delhi alo...