My generation is defined as the generation which is on the go. Always connected, always communicating, always interacting, always networked & always with people. Talking, ideating, conversing & sharing ideas. The need to connect has become a prerequisite, even an obsession.

While isolation is imposed, solitude is chosen. The space between inhalation & exhalation is considered as the moment of truth for an individual, an opportunity to acknowledge & appreciate one’s existence.

Somewhere between tweeting & consuming conversations, that space has been invaded.

Am I the only one who feels that the time I spent reflecting on a few moments during the journey of life is scarily diminishing and headed towards oblivion. Irrespective of the fact that I may want to steal those moments of retrospection, the opportunity to do so is few and far between.

Is it due to this need to connect? The incessant thought that something is missing if I don’t tweet overpowers every other instinct that tries to break through the clutter.

Who are we talking to? A niche of peers who get it. A bunch of strangers who share our experiences, happiness & sorrows. Who empathize with our passions and longing to change the world. Be a part of a movement, be a part of a revolution?

We learn to form our opinions based on verdict passed by a seemingly innocuous mass of users, disconnected and unknown. Suggestions given by random strangers help us make an informed decision, the hallmark of the new consumer. Sporadic information bursts which make coherent thought a trained art and a broader perspective inconsequential.

The criticism I have heard so often about the social web is that a majority of conversations that emanate out of it are nothing but bullshit! An inane utterance expressed, let out in a moment of revelation or habitual necessity, inflicted upon the sordid screen watchers from time to time. Excruciating blurts described in detail about each and every minutia of existence!  Mere skid marks on the underpants of humanity, mingling in the depths of drain, with the infinite ebullition emitted by the seemingly endless masses, surging towards sea.

Is this worth being bothered about, looked forward to and leading a life in the midst of noise?

Now people may say, the social web is much bigger and far more enriching if utilized in the right way.  Prioritize they say, learn to switch off. And rightly so, this is not the entire truth. In fact it may be much farther than the truth. It’s a perspective. A perspective realized within the context of a moment. And sometimes, that is what matters.

The way the social web has democratized participation in a discussion, facilitated knowledge sharing and genuinely made is possible to connect with people across the globe is a revolution in itself. I understand it. I am a part of it. A blinking line crawling on a white background. A screen staring at me, listening, interacting, conversing, evoking thought and evolving with every breath. But can it really see me? Does it matter?
This post was written while listening to Miles Davis – Kind of Blues

“Feud” is a term which evokes imagery of Gallic warriors engaged in a ferocious battle to conquer the opponent’s territory and eventual world domination.

The historical ‘feud’ between AMD & Intel needs no introduction for some one clued into processor wars. [Check out this white paper for further information]. AMD’s VP, Advanced Marketing, Patrick Moorhead, took the battle pitch a notch higher by publicly calling:

Intel’s refusal to deal with issues like battery life on blogs and Twitter “offensive and derogatory to consumers” as reported by The Inquirer at SXSW 09 this week.

The new turf cleverly chosen by Patrick, is an indication of things to come in the social media space. Intel largely, has been a reference point for technology companies looking to engage audiences with social media initiatives [see: Intel SM Guidelines, 2, 3]. Although, the effectiveness of these efforts and their nature may be a topic of broader debate, it is likely that being the market leader in both perception, social media and valuation it is an easier target.

My techie friends tell me, that AMD has much better processors than Intel, and both have their own pros and cons. In India AMD’s footprint has been limited and has not been able to breach the tech-fanatic barrier. For most users Intel brand recall is much higher and is often associated with trust and performance. Most are oblivious to what processor their PC manufacturer has set up to them. I have my doubts that “AMD inside” will evoke a sense of relief amongst Indian PC users.

A localized social media campaign may help them in creating buzz on the burgeoning social media platforms here in India. May be AMD India ought to take notice of this fact in order to tap developing markets.

Meanwhile, Moorhead, has hit the spot when he says

“Neutering people from the corporate brand was the worst mistake a firm could make…social media is social because it’s about people”.

Help yourself to the twitter accounts of AMD_Unprocessed and Intel to make an educated guess on who scores on personality!!

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

Written in response to a question on the communication dynamics and how marketers and communications professionals need to evolve with their consumers:

Every era is defined by the medium which captures the imagination of the masses. In the 50’s when it was said that that television would carry live visuals and sound of an event happening miles away from its actual location, there was disbelief and then eventual acceptance. Today TV defines the information priority of the masses.

With this perspective, I submit that internet as a mode of information exchange is relatively young with an evolving history. We have not even seen the tip of the iceberg yet.

What we need to understand as communicators and businesses is that the notion of control on our messages has been a long misplaced one. Control was a subset of the limitation posed by the mediums. This is the single factor, in my opinion which has changed relationship between media owners, producers and consumers.

Media no longer involves astronomical costs which led to centralized one-to-many dissemination of messages and content. Today, anyone with a computer and an internet connection has the potential of being a key media influencer and a mass media agenda-setter themselves. Case in point would be Gawker media properties, Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Drudge Report which were essentially heralded by a one man media army and now are valued anywhere between $100 – 300 million each.

There is an unprecedented information overload and access causing the maelstrom of chaos experienced today. But, this is largely due to a lack of efficient filter mechanisms and guidelines which allow a user to discover information most relevant and useful to him or her.

As social media practitioners advocating and sharing information on behalf of corporates the challenge is to make the most relevant piece of data, from the point of view of the client and the user, easily accessible. Also, internet communication operates in a message loop functioning in a community environment (many-to-many) rather than a linear message flow. This would involve high level of commitment from the practitioner as well as the institution looking to harness the potential of social media.

There are many a roadblocks in utilizing this medium which range from actual perception change potential, messaging responsibility, sound execution and lastly concrete deliverables. As technology evolves, these barriers will diminish and we will need to understand how to best deal with this new reality.

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

As a PR professional the simplest industry standard of measuring coverage I have come across has been advertising value equivalent (AVE), which loosely translates to the amount you would have to spend to buy the same space as the article appeared in a print publication.

It is only recently we have started to wonder what impact an article would have if it is carried in the online edition.

Most Indian publications treat their online editions as an extension of their print counterpart. Many of these media houses had a head start in the online space with the Hindu launching its online edition way back in 1995. But, in terms of innovation and adapting new emerging realities of web 2.0 there is a gross disconnect.

The lacks of interactivity and underleveraged potential of citizen journalism are two broad negatives that stick out like a wart. This may be due to the restrain on the part of media companies to hire new media professionals who understand the new form of reportage due to the supply-demand pressure and unproven economies of scale.

As opinions in the article “Why are print dailies so conservative with their online editions?” on exchange4media.com suggests:

A senior executive of an online firm says, “It’s like a chicken and egg situation. Media companies do not intend to have a separate sales and content team for the online edition, apprehending that the expenses can’t be recovered. Similarly, without a dedicated team, they can’t look at earning sizeable revenue from the online venture.”

“It’s also because many print media owners have already burnt their fingers during the dotcom boom, which is why they are extra cautious while implementing any online plan,” says another media observer.

So how do the online editions fare vis-à-vis their print avatars. This has been a question in my mind for a long time. Quite frankly I hoped some one could come up with this analysis and save me the trouble!

Method in madness
I compared the traffic statistics of leading English language Financial Dailies in Mumbai – in terms of brand equity and circulation. I picked financial dailies considered as they are considered as the bastion of corporate voice and have a stickiness factor when it comes to reading habits of their core audiences. Think of a “suit” headed to work with a copy of The Economic Times safely tucked away under his arm.

A comparison between their print and online editions should give an insight into their relevance to their target audiences which is mostly a captive demographic which has about 9 -10 hours of internet access at workplace and is often the sole source of news based information.

The English language Financial Dailies I chose are as follows:
The Hindu Business Line,
The Financial Express,
The Economic Times,
Mint and
Business Standard

Comparison was done using three free web analytics tools Alexa, Compete and Google trends for websites.

Below are the print circulation figures of these financial dailies as of 2009. The source is a leading PR measurement company based in Mumbai.

The Alexa Site comparisons are as follows

This is how they fare on Compete

And lastly Google trends

Google trends and Alexa (free analytics tool) do not map sub-domains (at least to my knowledge) so there may be a noise in the numbers for The Economic Times which is hosted on http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ and not www.indiatimes.com as it is compared on these tools.

Here’s a look on the numbers on Google trends without The Economic Times (Indiatimes) websites:

Findings
1. The most widely read financial publication The Economic Times has a total circulation of 2,30,000+/- in Mumbai while the online edition has the average monthly unique traffic of 1,50,000+/- (compete)

2. The Hindu Business Line with a circulation of 19,000+ in Mumbai is the lowest within current parameters. Its online edition generates average monthly unique traffic of 30,000+/- to 40,000+/-

3. Mint, which has undertaken a lot of social media initiatives on their website including the popular livemint radio by Kamla Bhatt, of the Kamla Show fame, has an almost equivalent circulation and traffic of 50,000+/- in their print and online editions.

In the same context, blogger and social media consultant Kiruba Shankar is involved with the podcast show with Business Standard, who opines “Less than 1 per cent of the total news content generated on the newspaper websites is powered by citizen journalists.” [See Exchage4media article below]

Conclusion
1. Print publications in India clearly are at par and even doing a lot better in terms of audiences as compared to their online editions.

2. The clear advantage of online medium such as interactivity, dynamic multimedia content, search engine optimization, user generated content etc. are grossly underleveraged and may be the reason for the for their inability to drive proportionate traffic

3. The stickiness of print publications amongst people interested in financial news is high, which also indicates a slight preference in the favour of newspaper over online editions

4. Also, The Long Tail of online financial media in India may be a reason for this fragmented audience overlay. The leaders w.r.t access to corporate news Moneycontrol.com, Capitalmarket.com, India Infoline, Rediff Business, BSE India, etc. are popular and enjoy a loyal user base as they provide interactive content which an end user can access as per his discretion and requirements – in packets on media bytes & sections – at a time when he pleases to.

What does this mean?
While it is a forgone conclusion that print publications need to pay attention to their web properties and make them profitable by adopting web 2.0 technologies and evangelizing them down to the reporters on field.

Online media, no doubt needs to figure in the media plan of PR professionals in the financial sector, a mix of both print and online would be the ideal in achieving the desired mindshare.

Notes
You may visit the following links for further details:
Why print dailies are so conservative in their online editions
[Exchange4Media] [March 12 2009]

Growth for Newspapers Online? Yes and No.
[Brian Solis PR2.0]
[Jan 28 2009]

Word of advise
These figures are from reliable industry sources and free web analytics tools. So there may be a little noise while reporting the figures and must be understood in this context. Nonetheless, these trends, act as guidelines to the broader picture.

News feeds subscription to the online editions have not been factored which again may cloud the figures as some people may choose to read their news in feed readers rather than visit the website.

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

As a social media practitioner and a communications person, I often find myself advising people to stay connected and contribute to the broader blogosphere and the micro blog community in which they exist. Which indicates, that one must keep publishing fresh work, filled with insight, opinions, views, and just about everything under the sun at regular time periods.

The advantage is not only that you retain your reader’s interest but also, search engines love updated content and crawl your property often.

By default and not design, if you noticed, the last post I have written on this blog is Feb 1 2009!!
It’s just a matter of hectic scheduling and work-life priorities which kept me from crushing plastic with flesh.

Also, I did not wish to give in and add to the “lazysphere” by merely adding commentary to the current happenings and trending topics. Don’t get me wrong am not as dead against it as Steve Rubel, but I see his point of view. Especially when I am forced to drudge through mediocrity to get to a great piece of work. But, then who doesn’t!! And if you look closer, 50% of content (may be higher) is merely a re-hash of other people’s stuff.

So here are a few lessons I learnt by not blogging for a month from a social media practioner’s point of view:

1) Feeling of disconnect – I suddenly feel disconnected from the while blogging expereince. Obsessive bloggers claim to have withdrawal like symtoms akin to withdrawal symtoms felt by an addict while discontinuing drug usage. In the first 10 minutes I found it difficult to reconnect with my blogging roots. I realize it’s taking me a lot longer to compose this post.

2) Feeling od detachment – This may be a good thing now, that I suddenly feel detached from my blog. Something which I was vehemently posseeive about a while earlier. Well…it’s all coming back now!!

3) Embassement – Now this one is obvious. Do I need explain more??

4) Writing – Not that I consider my work here, a Shakesperean effort, but I do miss the writing and articulation of ideas as they float through my head.

5) Referencing towards better understanding – I know this one’s sounds a little complicated, but it’s quite simple really. I link and reference content which I have gone through and taken the time to understand. By not blogging, I an just skimming the surface of data that comes my way and leave it in the “later box” for a revisit

6) ‘Link Love’ and Comments - Not much link love or comments here yet, but yeah we do write for an audience don’t we…

P.S. The term blogging break returns about 7,420,000 results on Google

Update 1: March 09 2009 18:10 – Just came across a re blog tool by Zemanta. Where you can jusy Talk about Aiding and abating the laziness. We have moved to a slothosphere with this!!!

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

The myth of complete disclosure while engaging on behalf of clients or self in Indian social media prevails. We all mean good and some of us do follow the guidelines. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that we are secretive and deeply mistrusting

I was reading an interesting link post which is a collections of social media policy adopted by organizations and individuals.

I am to come across such broad policy and guidelines issued by Indian corporates. If I stand corrected do leave a link.

With the inclusion of NDA ‘s – Non Disclosure Agreement, for the uninitiated – in the scope of work contracts of most social media firms, there is little known on the “how” and “under what parameters” of what is being implemented in the Indian space.

I am not sure if social media usage policy and guidelines figure on the priority list of most practitioners or if it is merely a passing thought.

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

In the recent controversy which took the Indian blogosphere by storm, a classical David (Blogger C.Kunte) versus Goliath (NDTV), where the blogger had to post an unconditional apology for his criticism of NDTV, Managing Editor, Barkha Dutt.

During my initial interview while enrolling in my Journo school, I was asked to write a 1500 word piece on The Times of India. In my heyday of anti establishment pro-libertarian idealism, inspired by the raspy tones of Bob Dylan, I came up with a piece called ‘The Times they are a changing’.

Incensed by Medianet and a percieved unipolar media space back then in Mumbai, or so I thought, I came across the infamous Mediaah! blog controversy and the person at the centre of the storm a cerain Mr. Pradyuman Maheshwari.

When I heard about the entire NDTV-Ckunte fiasco, his feud with TOI is what came to mind. Both parties have moved on since then and Mr. Maheshwari has joined as the Editor-in-Chief of Exchange4Media.

Here’s a para by my erstwhile rockstar, which is duely posted on E4M, in a piece titled ‘Why face booker’s and bloggers love to hate Barkha Dutt’

As someone who has had to pay much in legal fees for what I have written on a weblog, I do realise that a blog or a Facebook/ messageboard comment is as liable for legal action as is a comment in mainstream media – print, radio or television. I must confess I got carried away a few times on Mediaah!, a blog-based media site that I would run (2003-05), and when I did a fair bit of homework on the issue, I realised that my consistent criticism of certain entities could be construed as a slanderous campaign against them. And, rightly so.

Well the entire piece which gives a crib-by-crib account and is some what defensive about the whole thing. It’s true that a minimum amount of perspective is necessary to objectively understand the position taken by NDTV. It is quite surprising that the voice of restrain emerges out of the most daring and talked about cowboy this side of media.

You can view the entire article by P. Maheshwari on E4M here

Gaurav Mishra, on his blog Gauravnomics, has a complete and probably the best overview on the NDTV-C. Kunte controversy on his blog which can be viewed here.

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

Def – Internet landlubber: Person hooked on to terrestrial connections (Dial-up, broad band…) and views any form of satellite or wireless internet usage as a disruption or a compromise to his/her user experience.

The mobile internet revolution is on an upswing. The ground realities of Indian digital technologies and infrastructure availability makes it a virtual no brainier that mobile internet wins hands down over terrestrial connections.

There are about 300+ million mobile phone users to about 5+ million broad band users in India (ref: medianama reports and numbers) which brings the comparative user ratio to 60:1 which is uncharacteristically high for a single medium and unlikely to be surpassed within the next decade.

E4M ran a article titled ‘Mobile internet active users to surpass that of traditional Internet users’
which forecasts the upswing and urges advertisers to embrace the digital medium on the whole in order to gain strategic and measurable communication advantage over traditional media.

Here’s what the interviewees had to say on mobile internet being more sustainable than broadband

Tewari of mKhoj said, “Yes, mobile Internet is the way forward and I do believe that the Internet story will only be true from mobile and not PC. It will be the wireless Internet and not wire Internet, and it will be more sustainable because the sustainability comes consumers and if there are more consumers on the ecosystem then that means that there will be more content, more advertisers and more money. So, that is why the Internet story from the wireless side will be a sustainable one in this country.”

Popli of Star India said, “Absolutely yes, the first experience of the Internet will be that mostly entrants will be on the mobile phone, because the mobile phone far more affordable and lucrative device than a computer. We still haven’t solved our electricity problem, so unless we have a laptop that runs on battery power and is long lasting, the mobile phone is probably the best friend of the Internet in small towns and cities for surfing the net. Therefore, mobile Internet going be significantly larger than the broadband Internet.”

Vartikar of Mauj Mobile said, “Both broadband Internet and mobile Internet have their own uses. The form factor (display/ keyboard) of mobile has limitations as compared to the PC. At the same time, the PC is restricted by its cost and the single utility that it offers, unlike the mobile, wherein browsing or mobile Internet is an add-on for most Indians. Today speeds are not beneficial to people spending time on mobile Internet, but the advent of 3G and higher bandwidth may well change that. Also, as form factors improve (large screens with touch utility) for the mobile, we will see a major shift in how the mobile is used more and more for browsing.”

I partially agree with his agreement. As far as my convenience and user experience is concerned, I will always look for a bigger screen and easily accessible buttons for doing my work. Unless the mobile screens get bigger, which would kill the purpose of a mobile, I am not buying int o this argument. Connectivity – sure. Actual work – Not really.

What’s your take…

You can read the entire E4M article here [Link]

P.S. For all you Smart Alec’s wondering why I refer to e4m and afaqs in my write-ups…Well, I am a PR guy after all Old habits die hard:) !!

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

Afaqs article today informs about Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) getting on the virtual world, Second life, for a brand campaign for TataIndicom.

While I was pleasantly surprised with the adoption of the virtual worlds, the really high end of technology communication spectrum in India, for a brand campaign, I still am skeptical about its reach in terms of target audiences.

Truth be told, I have not seen a credible statistic relevant to India yet which comprehensively sells Second Life as a mass communication option given the limited bandwidth in most offices which is required for seamless streaming and a fuller experience.

Amul and CRY have presence on Second Life. How much traffic and relevant users they get is not quite clear.

May be the team at Indusgeeks Solutions, touted to be India’s first and largest virtual world development and services firm can shed some light on my dilemma.

Also, is there a India specific statistic on the potential of virtual worlds which gives out audience and demographic details in terms of usage along with companies which are sucessfully utilizing this tool to reach out to their target users.

Here’s a quote by Siddharth Banerjee, CEO, Indusgeeks Solutions on partnering with TTSL:
“We are thrilled to partner with TTSL and create a benchmark initiative. TTSL has demonstrated true thought leadership in the domain of digital marketing by using this interactive, immersive, 3D medium to convey its brand story. Indusgeeks is glad to be partnering Tata Indicom in this first initiative of its kind in the Indian context.”

The story ends with the expected caveat:
It will be worth a wait to see whether Tata Indicom is able to pull off a success story with Second Life, a phenomenon that is yet to grip the Orkut-Facebook crazy Indian youth.

Nevertheless, am glad that new media and virtual worlds are on the radar of brand communication consutants for effective and holistic marketing campaigns.

Afaqs article: Tata Indicom gets a Second Life [Link]

Identifying an opportunity in the increasing curiosity amongst end users in the current Satyam imbroglio, Pinstorm, a Mumbai based digital marketing agency, designed a tactical strategy to capitalize on the search volume trend for keywords to market their client NIIT Imeperia finance courses.

Agency FAQs article which gives details about this campaign says:

The campaign is still on and some of the keywords NIIT Imperia is using to push the text ads include ‘Satyam’, ‘PWC’, ‘Raju’, ‘Satyam Computer’, ‘Maytas’, ‘Ramalinga Raju’, ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers’, ‘Ram Mynampati’, ‘Rama Raju’, ‘Satyam fraud’, ‘Financial statement Satyam’, ‘Financial crisis at Satyam’, ‘Financial gap at Satyam’, ‘Satyam financial loss’, and ‘Satyam confession’. This implies that whenever any Internet user searches for one of the keywords mentioned above, he will see a text ad for the NIIT Imperia finance course displayed on the right side of the search results page, along with the regular search results.

Quote from the company explaining the logic behind the strat
Speaking to afaqs!, Ansoo Gupta, head, global business, Pinstorm, says, “The idea was to tactically capitalise on the buzz and the rising search volume related to Satyam on Google.com. We knew that we would definitely get the eyeballs once we put NIIT Imperia’s text ads as a sponsored link on the search results page of Google.com.”

Egged on by the article and the fact that the campaign was reported ongoing, I did try the search for keyword ‘satyam’ (once again proving that people will do anything that they read online ;p)

The results are unexpected. Zinnov and Monster India are doing much better on the keyword ‘satyam’. For reasons I am not quite sure of Monster India urges users to “apply for Satyam jobs!” They might as well ask users to go bungee jumping without the bunjee

Here’s a snapshot of the search:

The campaign guys or Afaqs missed the bullseye on this one? In either case, it is food for thought for online marketers.

Afaqs articles you wanna see:
Who is using Satyam fiasco to run funny or tactical ads on Google [Link]
Amul will now linger on Satyam fiasco [Link]

Update 1: Jan 19 2009 11.03 am
Satyam scam, other big news hot favorites for advertisers (Livemint) [Link]