Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

The creative department at some media agencies needs change. From being creative, they've become re-creative. They re-create a story in the hopes of attracting more people. Like this one. For the first time, malaria 'caught in the act' - ( Link ) Caught in the act? WTF was malaria trying to do? If you read the story and know malaria well, you might understand better. Google shuffle: why Eric Schmidt had to be pushed from the top ( Link ) Ok! I understand the sentiment of many Google fans, but why do you need to push Eric Schmidt from the top when he was peacefully replaced by Larry Page. Without offending anybody, had Schmidt's mom not known about the replacement, she might have suffered a heart attack after reading this. I appreciate the intent of yellow journalism but I certainly question a pink elephant caught in the act while trying to eat a purple tomato. WTF are they trying to do? 

As PM Manmohan Singh flags off nation wide roll out of Mobile Number Portability in India, there are two set of hypotheses that emerge. 1) The rich get richer and poor get poorer  2) Equal division (of subscribers) It has been speculated by many that those operators who came in early like Airtel and acquired the top end of the pyramid will loose out due to MNP, since the barrier of change in number no longer exists and those operating at the lower end of the pyramid like TATA and Reliance will benefit due to cheaper call rates. It seems quite logical, but there are another set of analysts that say strong players will get stronger. This is based on test results. Assuming that there will be a high degree of churn, who will benefit ? In my opinion, the operator's brand equity is no longer an issue. Telecom services have reached a commodity stage in India. So for differentiating their services operators should ideally increase their marketing spend. But I don't think so. Operator...

Diffusion of Innovations is a theory of how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. There are 4 main elements that influence the spread of a new idea: The Innovation (Product) Communication channels Time Social system Social media provides as eco-system that incorporates the latter 3 elements that influence the spread of a new idea. It provides a low cost communication channel that rapidly spreads the idea through a social system. Crowdsourcing is the reverse of innovation diffusion.It was first coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article "The Rise of Crowdsourcing". An example of crowdsourcing is inviting the public to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design and distributed participatory design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm, or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data. Web 2.0 enables innovation driven companies to use crowdsourcing and s...

We know about the Self Help Groups and Micro-finance institutions that take advantage of collective buying power. Groupon (groupon.com) brings the same concept to web by offering a sales promotion offer (Coupon) everyday in every city it operates. Before I talk more about groupon.com here are some facts. Its founder Andrew Mason turned down a $6 billion offer by Google (Google's highest offer, almost double of its highest acquisition in history) - Dec'10 It took two years to reach this status and Groupon had net revenues of around $350 million in 2010 ( Founded in Nov'2008 ) Andrew Mason (Founder of Groupon) used to work in web design with another serial chicago entrepreneur ( Eric Lefkosky ) When Andrew Mason Left Lefkosky to go to high school and started working on a project " The Point ", Lefkosky got the word. He went to Mason and told him to draw the outline for "The Point". Lefkosky instantly gave Mason $1 million in seed money and Maso...

Mass Marketers are increasingly fighting the battle against clutter. There is clutter in TV ads, online banner ads, billboards, radio, magazines and even news. News is a bad investment for a marketer considering the numerous sources that are pouring opinions and yes, the 'breaking news', live coverage, 'we cover it first' and all other variants. There are so many consumer and trade magazines that they can keep a user busy 24 hours, 7 days a week. So it is quite obvious that the mass market is dying and so is the business surrounding it. TV channels are increasing, magazines are increasing and so is the vast broadening spectrum of agencies that is  further adding up to the existing clutter and costs of cutting through it. This means that the marketer can't reach his audience with any single form of communication. But the growth of clutter is giving rise to big events where the probability of people tuning in is quite high. One such event is the Indian Premier League...