Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

As I keep writing about 2010 is Social Media , in this post I'd like to mention another important medium for businesses: The Mobile. As Indians keep breaking mobile subscription records with the total number of subscribers added in March'10 close to 20 million and a total subscriber count close of 600 million, there are still many (mostly archaic)  who refuse to take this into account. One such organization is Hindustan Times, owned by HT Media Ltd. To put it simply, they don't have a mobile site. Is it a blunder, sheer arrogance to refuse the fact that people read news on mobile or a tryst of their ex-editor with the 2G scam, it is hard to decode. Its even more pitiful since they are in the publishing business with a readership base of close to 35 lakh (India's second most widely read English newspaper), and have others (TOI) who are present on mobile. There are companies who generally go first, there are those who learn and closely follow and then there is Hindust...

Now Google is partnering with livehinsdustan to create web content in Hindi. Livehindustan.com is an HT Media venture that brings hindi news to web. Read more here . The market for hindi news readers on web is not very huge but still it has a lot of potential. I see it as a good inititative to spread Hindi as well as cater to the needs of Hindi news readers. Support of Google will also do a lot good for the cause.

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...

Is HT Mint in trouble ? Firstly it was the pressure on news media by recession, which resulted in some ambitious projects being halted. What followed was a controversy caused by an article " letter to PM " published in mint, that resulted in the expulsion of Raju Narisetti as the editor in chief. The latest blow comes from Vir Sanghvi, who criticizes HT Mint of being hypocrites. He writes in his blog So why am I stopping the column? It's quite simple. I will not write for a publication that censors its columnists and denies them the right to free speech while writing long, impassioned pieces about the freedom to criticize others from the Prime Minister downwards. All of us exhibit double standards to some degree. But Mint's hypocrisy takes my breath away. Read Meanwhile Monika Halan , the former editor of outlook money resigned because of the intrusion of management into the edit section and her unhappiness over the awards. Looking at the disappointment of many jour...