Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

Microsoft Bing : Microsoft will be coming up with Bing , a decision engine that will challenge the dominance of the god of search - "Google". It is a move that could either give the web a new era of search or could reiterate the fact that Google is the best. The search war has heated up as finally a competitor to Google's search will finally be out in the open. Google, the world's top brand with a brand value exceeding $100 billion is gearing up for its first fight in the search arena. There have been critics (whom I admire) who have tried to be (as always) Google disciples and have rejected Bing. The part that impresses me is that Microsoft has shown up the courage to stand up to the search behemoth and say " Hey Beware!!! We are coming ".Not many can do that. The second and the most important thing will be what they are offering. Looking at the initial presentation, Microsoft Bing looks impressive. The decision engine i.e. Microsoft's Bing is evolvin...

The targeting of Indians in hate crime is a sign of how Indians have managed to reach and make their presence felt in every corner or the world. The emergence of "poor India" in "Rich countries" is a sore in the eye of the people living there. From a culturally rich country to an economically poor land, India and Indians have a presence in every spectrum of human civilization. In an Indian you can see a shrewd political mind to an innocent exploited individual. The one thing common to all, the rich, the poor, the honest and the corrupt is the capacity to bite back and climb. The current state of India is an apt proof of newton's third law of motion - "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." The more you push them down down, the more they bounce back. (I am using "them" and not "us" since I've been a part of a privileged Indian community.) When their backs are on the wall and a gun is pointing on their forehea...

Racism in Australia : The recent attacks on Indian students in Australia is a reminder of the fact that when it comes to fighting back, we lack unity and power. In the recent cases of violence against Indians, one thing has been common. Indians are not welcome to Australia, which is also indicated by constant denial by Australian PM, Kevin Rudd. I was shocked when I saw the reports of the racist attacks and the response to it on Times Now. A high ranking police official went on record saying that Indians were passive and hence were the victims of opportunistic crime. What the hell! Does a passive individual not have a right to live ? And what right do you have to come and screw up a guy just because he poses no threat and because being a guest he is well behaved. Does the police official mean that Aussies are active and passive Aussies have been dealt the same way. I am not sad because a few Australians (not all) reacted in this way. I am sad to see a cow like response from India. Are ...

The trend and power of Social Media can be leveraged to market products in a very cost effective manner. It also helps in creating a brand out of your business. Small business can use it to grow bigger than the big businesses since the costs involved as abysmally low and the volumes are sky high. [Presentation below] The usual business is through networks, phone, portals,advertisements and it goes well.Networking is good, the phone makes it personal, Portal makes it online and advertisements spread awareness. But as Our Ambitions are high, business hould be good and for that Volumes should be high, deadlines have to be met, Costs Should be low.But the cost is also too high as networking takes time, phone is only good when it is picked up, Portals needs to be advertised and advertisements are costly. The Social Media comes to the rescue. It tells the world Who you are What you do How you do it Your strengths And maybe, your weaknesses too. It does it through,Blogs,Forums,Social network...

Building a fan base will be the future for a successful business business model of teams in the Indian Premier League. The present is a reminisce of that. IPL 2 saw Deccan Chargers, charge up the their energies to lift the trophy.The IPL 2, I'd say was all in all a very successful season. This season saw the ups of super overs and downs of the fake IPL blog . But where does IPL go ahead ? It is a craze. Every evening, it'll make sure you don't feel bored. If you go to a restaurant, it will follow you there. An interesting thing I noted was that quite a few of my cousins were fans of Kolkatta Knight Riders, because of Shahrukh Khan. A statistic reported that Kolkatta Knight Riders has the highest brand value. If you can see the connection, Shahrukh has a fan base, which propelled Kolkatta Knight Riders brand value to top of the list. Taking a cue from this, IPL teams will have to spend money to build their fan base to keep their brand rolling. A fan base will mean greater re...

The Punjab riots, which took place as a backlash of killing in Vienna wasn't in good taste, even more since the voice of a secular united India are getting stronger. Getting out on the streets and vandalizing property is something that shows that how far behind we are despite all modern ideas. The area of Punjab has seen a lot of violence in the last century and still people have a hunger for more. The violence began within hours of the attack in Vienna, where armed six men stormed into a Gurudwara. This led to the death of the religious leader, Sam Rama Nand, who was opposed by several Sikh groups. Under the masquerade of backlash, the opportunists looted shops, robbed people of their hard earned money. The dynamics of this backlash are of a somewhat different nature, with the cause being social divide rather than a solely religious one. Moreover, these riots bring a bad name to the country and also to the Sikhs, who are a highly regarded community. The things meant for self defe...

IPL Final : The second version of IPL, IPL-2, was more fun, controversy and drama. Even before the beginning, the shift of venue to South Africa created a lot of controversy. Apart from the slap given by Bhajji to Sree last year, this year was a controversy ++. A "++" sign in programming languages is used to increment the variable by one. The team with the highest brand value added an extra brand, know as the Fake IPL player to its kitty. The Kolkatta Knight Riders brand was valued at a staggering USD 22 million. Now count the zeroes in that figure and those on the KKR scoreboard. Coming to the IPL-2 grand finale, the two teams that have managed to swim above the rest truly deserve the spot. The Deccan Chargers had a fantastic opening 4 games but then got lost somewhere but punched back in time to make the cut. On paper, it was and still is a deadly team. Gilly swishes the first ten and Symmo bulldozes the next ten. If somewhere anybody misses, Rohit Sharma is there to tak...

Prabhakaran and L.T.T.E's era has ended in a manner, which probably wasn't in the best interest of all. The man who was responsible for the assasination of a Prime minister now along with his family bites the dust in unmarked locations in a mass grave. The family of whom he killed still lives to see his fate and wield power and authority. The death of prabhakaran and his family certainly raises many eyebrows, giving indications to a theory that he may have been shot at a point blank range. The bodies of his family have still been under the wraps to prevent any outburst. The logic behind anhilating LTTE and destroying all signs of its leaders may be to prevent re-emergence of the outfit in future. The cost of it is something that needs to weighed in the humanitarian crisis emerging out of such an action. Freedom for one may be terror for another. Although my knowledge of history is not very strong, Ritam Banati in his article, The Rajiv India Knew writes The LTTE was scared that...

These days are probably the best for Sonia Gandhi and her family. The landslide victory of the congress in the Lok Sabha Polls of 2009 and the death of Vellupillai Prabhakaran, LTTE chief, the plotter of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, bring double joy along with winds of hope. A stable government at center paved the way for a sky rocketing stock market, a feature common since 1984. Another common feature of the congress government has been the long-term decline of stock market. The BJP victory in 1999 was followed by a 13% decline in the market, but rose in long term. A further introspection into the results of this election makes me believe that the opposition i.e. BJP will have to work very hard to come back to power. The congress despite a clear mismanagement of India’s security made it through. The Indian voter has gone for the secular ploy and given the congress another chance. Even after 26th November attacks on Mumbai, controlling the CBI for its own purposes and Sky-high food pr...

The website of Election Commission of India, which had to carry the results of 2009 failed as technical glitches didn't allow the services initially on display to be put to use. The website eciresults.nic.in although did provide the results, they were displayed in a very crude manner. [ See before and after images below ] Before talking about it more, I'd firstly like to thank and congratulate the election commission for carrying out the behemoth task of conducting the elections in the swiftest manner possible. Although, I still think there are issues to be solved, carrying out a task that involves a billion plus people is no joke. The level at which India stands today, the technical aspects and seemingly small things such as the website are very important as they project a country globally. India, deemed to be a global superpower, should work on such issues. Looking at the results of this election, I believe the path is set for the wagons of development. I just hope we move fr...

According to sources and insider details, about 12,000 employees of Satyam will be handed the pink slip. This comes just a day before election counting begins. Almost all the bench force of Satyam will end up loosing their jobs. A blog on Satyam, Satya of Satyam writes , Sources inside the company have stated that 15th March has been fixed as the date for laying off a lot of people from Satyam. A lot of the top managers and the staff who has been on bench will be given sabbaticals. This means that they probably will be getting just their basic salary. Wipro has already implemented the same for their "Benched" employees. A lot of the top brass will also be replaced by Tech Mahindra staff, it is believed. Experts have apprehensions on this because they say that the true strength of Satyam lies in delivering complex business. The outcome of this layoff is going to affect the whole IT industry, including growth prospects of freshers in other IT companies. A leading IT company ha...

Maruti Ritz launch, features, price, pros and cons Maruti has come out with another premium hatchback car, Ritz. It has been launched in direct competition with Swift. Ritz and swift are all set to compete with Hyundai Getz, Skoda Fabia, UVA and i20. Pros of Maruti Ritz The Ritz is a model between A-star and swift and has been launched in direct competition with swift. Swift has about 75% market share, which is very high in this segment. Ritz and Swift, together may even manage to get an even greater share for Maruti. It also adds an option for buyers in the 4+ lakhs segment. The mileage, going by the initial reports and test conditions is very good. The fact that it has been launched in 5 models including 2 diesel ones gives the buyer an option to go for a diesel car in the B+ segment. The increasing congestion in urban areas has increased the demand in the B+ segment. So it should definately give a boost to the sales. Being a Maruti car, the service shouldn't be much of a problem...

The curious case of Kolkatta Knight Riders It is the most talked about and the most laughed about team of IPL 2. It did shake a few stones in IPL-1 but this year the popularity of kolkatta knight Riders has probably exceeded combined popularity of all other teams. Kolkatta Knight Riders have presented themselves like hot and spicy chicken in front of other teams of IPL, who are more than willing to have a delicious meal. So what really went wrong ? I've compiled things that happened on Kolkatta Knight Riders during the course of IPL-2, some that boosted them and quite a few that busted them. The 10 things that went wrong for Kolkatta Knight Riders in IPL-2 #1. Four Captain Theory : A four headed monster was in the mind of John Buchanan. He ended up creating a four headed behemoth eating up each other. #2. Sourav Ganguly aka Bye Bye Dada : He was simply sliced like a infected piece and removed. #3. Over demanding owner : Imagine the pressure you are under at work when your manager...

Ram Gopal Varma is again on the controversy lane, Film street, India. This time it is the parody of the national anthem that hasn't been taken too kindly by people of India. Sunil and Hemant say "I strongly feel that nobody should use our national anthem for their personal gains." Now putting the controversy aside, I'd like to ask that why small issues in this country are given so much importance than core issues. I'm highly disappointed by the voter turn out this time. People don't have time to vote but have time point fingers. Looking at Aravalli Hills and the irreversible ecological damage that has been caused, I feel cheated. What is the use of having an anthem or a flag, when we don't respect the land they are made for. Is this what was once used to be sone ki chidiya? Moreover there is nothing in the song that insults the country. It is blatant truth and we have to accept it. Its only parties with political motives that are creating chaos and dram...

After the big or rather hugely embarrassing performance at IPL 2, all the biggies of Kolkatta Knight riders would want a safe hiding place. The team and their unintentional antics have been the butt of all jokes lately. They have also given stimulus to probably India's post popular blog, The Fake IPL player . The author claims to be one of the members of KKR. MTV in their daily show, showed five ways to insult KKR. Now can you imagine that! Few days back the Delhi Dare devils had a match against the Kolkatta Knight Riders aka Filmy riders and even before the match began, my younger cousin was confident that it would be another devil dream for the filmy knights. Shahrukh has probably decided to come back and rightly so too. He would earn more money by dancing at weddings than boosting his bust team. The story of the Filmy riders is a perfect plot for a pot boiler hindi film. But as the hindi film hero always wins in the end, a win in the movie might just add extra salt to their woun...

I went to my college for collecting the security deposit after an eternity. The day was hot and sunny with a few cool breezes to ease the heat. Apart from the changed weather, quite a few changes had taken place this time. The placements, which normally began from sixth semester i.e. at the end of third year will now be held in eight semester i.e. the end of B-tech programme. A letter from a top IT company, which was put up on the notice board read that students don't work hard after they get a job and hence the placements would now begin just before the graduation finishes. The letter reads... ************************* I am sure you will agree that over the last several years, given the tremendous opportunities that have opened up for students, there has been a visible shift in focus of students from acquiring knowledge and expertise in their areas of study to getting a lucrative job offer on campus. Also, owing to increased demand across industries, and pressure from students on ...

Damn! Only 48% was the voter turn out in Mumbai despite hell falling over it in November 2008. Do we have the right to blame, think again. I am highly dissapointed at this shameless show of hypocrisy by the financial capital of India. I look back at the face of new India, which I saw in the wake of the Mumbai Terror attacks and although the unfortunate incident took place, I saw a united India full of conviction. What right do we have to blame those who misuse power, exploit us, eat our hard earned money or incite violence. I was shocked to see a superstar who took part in lead India campaign urging people to vote and herself did not vote. I recently saw " Mumbai Meri jaan " based on the lives of the men after the Mumbai serial bombings that took place on 11th july 2006. Watching the movie, I felt the pain of those who went through the agony of being the innocent victims. The efforts of the independents is waste if we don't show our support towards their bold initiative....