Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

Entrepreneurs spend so much time getting more visibility for their idea that there is tendency for them to loose focus from their long term vision. 

Would you want to build just a Mercedes, or would you want to build a Mercedes for Nelson Mandela? Especially if you have been on the darker side of racial segregation, have been stripped of your voting rights, have received segregated education, medical care, beaches, and other public services. That too in your homeland! Would you still be motivated to build a Mercedes?

The problem with people today is that they want to become someone but they are less bothered about doing something. Many people say that they want to doctors, engineers, CEOs, superstars, actors and millionaires but care less about the work, the indirect consequence of which would be what they want to become. link

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”  ~ Oscar Wilde

A few months back I had no smartphone. Life was much simpler. The phone ringtone was loud enough to be heard even when the phone was buried under the pillow. Even the one alarm that I could set on it was loud enough to wake me up. Only a few rare occasions drove me to the world of smartphones and their extravagant displays, with a smooth touch navigating through a web of mesmerizing applications.

If your lemonade does not sell, would you switch to selling Viagra? Even more if you are passionate about making a lemonade.

Facebook has tweaked its News Feed algorithm that basically displays the activity of your friends and subscriptions. To those who have seen a decline in activity or the number of likes and comments on their posts, there is a surprise. Nick Bilton , a popular journalist made merry of the subscription feature that was introduced on Facebook which allowed people to see others public activity streams without being Friends. Many other journalists and celebrities like Nick made good use of this feature and promoted their content and activity on Facebook. Like in all happy tales, there was a climax.

Social Media has been termed as an effective way to build relationships. Brands are trying to harness this capability by building social presence on this new media. Celebrities today account for the maximum amount of followers on the web with twitter being a fine example for this. But is this new media effective in creating relationships with this vast list of followers, which celebrities often tend to have? In an interesting research by Lee and Jang , they explore the effectiveness of celebrities in building social presence on new media. They compare twitter and a news website to check the relative effectiveness of enhancing social presence. While the traditional PR machinery used by celebrities might give them news coverage, they contend that their tweets can reduce the barrier of relational development as compared to a news website. Their findings are counter-intuitive and very interesting.

Computer games always had a negative correlation with my grades. Although I have never been an addict, I've had phases where I spent long hours playing Age of Empires, Counter Strike and Cricket 97. The answer to the reasons behind the phases of playing them in excess has been found by some recent research. Bowman and Tamborini in their recent research published in the New Media and Society argue that a computer game play has the potential to intervene in noxious mood states. It is due to the fact that it is simply a more demanding task.

The Indo-pak dialogue on social media is never a polite one. It can get ugly and sometimes outright disgusting. YouTube videos of Pakistani or Indian musicians is one such example where they go way out of hand. But the rest of social media especially twitter is different. In the case of Hina Rabbani Khar , her statements on India's reaction to beheading of its soldier did not go too well. The twitter trend started with several news agencies updating their twitter account reporting the statement and opinion. Then it was up to the Gangs of Twitter to decide her fate. I've noticed one interesting thing about this gang - Its popularity hinges on humor and satire.

Twitter has a unique feature - It always leads you to wiki page, blog or a news link. Twitter trends lead you to search about a topic and thus actually lead to a greater search traffic. I look at the cases of two people to verify this effect. Rahul Dravid was trending on twitter. People were wishing him "happy birthday". Although I don't really nderstand the use of doing so, people still wished him. This trend was correlated with search traffic of  Rahul Dravid. Same was the case with Arnab Goswami who was trending on twitter. His search volume was very high. Blue line represents recent interest in topic measured by search volume in last 7 days, whereas the red line represents an average interest in the topic during the last three months One possible reason for this can be the increasing curiosity due to a trending topic. Rahul Dravid's birthday is comparatively a more trivial issue, which leads to a lower rise in curiosity (see figure above). Arnab Gos...

Common wisdom says that venting out reduces frustration. Twitter, Facebook, and blogs help us achieve the same. While what normally starts as a "venting out" experience, I suspect is turning out to be an anguish enhancer. When I look at trending topics on twitter all what I see is a world of "Hate". Small pieces of hate messages turn out to be a big collective bunch of hate. Take the case of Delhi gang rape and some ill-minded comments of politicians and spiritual gurus. What started as scattered bickering remarks against a comment made by "Asaram" has now become a full fledged ball of rage. This rage was "non-directional", had no agenda and was oriented towards sarcasm and wit. While Delhi gang rape highlights poor governance, societal problems and problems of law and order, venting out on a forum that accumulates the frustration by many such people only adds to the low well-being. It is time we use some discretion and post messages that...

Don't be afraid to click on the picture above :P We give many exams, interviews, public speeches yet when these matter the most for us, we somehow manage to underperform or even at times perform miserably.  In this blog post I will talk about why people fail and how you can avoid the trap of failure. I am sure you would’ve read articles on “success tips” and seen many motivational talks on succeeding; I can assure you I won’t be repeating the same. There are three aspects that I’ve come across that make us fail - 1) The high stakes game, 2) “Good Wishes” from friends and family, and finally 3) This is my “dream”. The high stakes game I will tell you a story about my friend with a “HIGH IQ” who failed miserably in the CAT exam. CAT is an important exam taken by many students every year to get into top Indian B-schools. My friend did all the right things yet could not make it. He was working as a trainer with an IT company for three years and was getting a very good sala...

The only thing we lack today in our life is our time. Without this time and a plenty of things in mind, life gets tough on relationships. These bonds weaken over time. Even with colleagues our general likability goes down adversely impacting our professional growth. What can we do to change it? We always like those people who listen to our stories, appreciate our work, or laugh at our jokes. These are the people who tell us that our story, work or joke is special. In a way they make us feel special by covertly  caring about us. In on line, everyone, the attention seeker or the introvert wants to feel special. The big people, and even the small ones, all want it. Getting it makes the world slightly more happy. The following video from the movie "Munnabhai MBBS" is a perfect demonstration of the positive effect. We live in a social world where our success not only depends on our performance but that of our team. For a team to be successful every perso...

It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age. ~ Warren Buffet. You have plans for your life, career etc. You've built an entire script but what is this based on? Scott at Ted talks about how almost 80% of the people around the world don't like the job they do. In his career, he found one day that most of the job he did was automated by his competitors. Building the resume was clearly not way forward. It was during that time he he heard the quote by warren buffet, " It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age ". This was when he left his job. While there are know universities, which talk about finding your passion, Scott talks about a lens that can help in finding the job we love.

A study has found a that young men in the United States who are cooperative and value relationships earn 20 percent less than their peers. The study has been conducted by Timothy A. Judge of the University of Notre Dame. If you indulge in opportunism and do not value relationships, it is highly likely that you are earning 20 percent less than your equally talented opportune colleague. But do not get disappointed! I am not sure as to  whether this is mere correlation or there is a causality. It might indicate that work and relationships are two separate ball games. Goal oriented people are generally more successful at work. They also pay relatively less attention to relationships and are more henceforth more successful. But, relationships are an important source of happiness in life. Being goal oriented would be important for your work life but not your personal life. After all what will you do with that extra 20 percent pay if your personal life suffers? Getting that ext...

You are back @ yuvstrong12 !!can't get over it!!u said that u'll be back for the worldcup,and u are! yfrog.com/nyjwkeyj — rannvijay singha (@RannvijaySingha) September 11, 2012 Yuvraj Singh flashed on the score board and the mental story board of all Indians. Almost everyone was watching with intent. As his first outing, he did great! All the prayers and his hard work seemed to have paid off. The Yuvraj Singh story is the story of a hero who is fighting back to get back his glory. This story has heroism, drama, and a constant struggle with life. When people had doubts on his comeback in cricket with the quagmire of cancer drowning him, he has worked to get out and make a comeback. His story gives people hope - A hope that they can do it too! Welcome back Yuvi!!!! We missed you. @ yuvstrong12 #respect — Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) September 11, 2012 The same was the case with Lance Armstrong, a legend till the heartbreaking news of doping drowned ...

People say, "let's end corruption". But how can it be? Our life is stressed out! Work, family, loneliness and relationship issues. Adding to this is a thick topping of unemployment and terrorism. Phew! We also need some entertainment and some rest. When the broom is dirty, how can it clean the room? If we are the change agents, we are the brooms cleaning the room. And clearly we are too crowded with other dust. The problem is not the room, it is the unclean broom.

Wade Michael Page on 5th August 2012, undertook a mass shooting that killed six people and wounded four others. The possible reason - Hate! Hate has been the reason in past for organized and individual acts of violence. One common reason for hate has been envy. Envy has long been held to be a harmful emotion involving the desire to deprive others of the qualities or possessions that they possess and we covet ( Belk 2011 ). Envy at its extremes is of two types - Benign envy and Malicious envy. Benign envy aims to level up. For example when our friend gets a good boss, we usually end up saying - "I am envious of your job". This is not destructive. Malicious envy on the other hand is destructive. Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Due to different governments, different backgrounds and other factors, every person does not get every good thing in life. Hate related violence as experienced by In...

The present day obsession with brands have left today's "aspiration class" riding the materialistic wave. The aspiration of climbing up the social ladder is fulfilled by brands. The growing number of malls and billboards in our cities spoiling the natural surroundings is a direct outcome of this demand. What we don't realize is that even if temporarily these brands help us increase our social standing (fueled by money), they at the same time make us more lonely. Marketers project brands as a way to fulfill dreams, as a way to be happier. While this gives us the temporary pleasures of a worldly life, it takes us away from close relations. We devote more of our time to earn more, which fulfills our materialistic desires. The outcome is that this pursuit distances ourselves from relationships and makes us lonelier. Ironically, this loneliness is overcome by again indulging with brands.