Entries from November 2009 ↓

Social Media is the buzzword these days and not for a silly reason. The sheer amount of people and activity on it is stunning. If you are here you might have already heard of the 320 million people on facebook, 55 million on twitter, 5o million on LinkedIn and a million social networks on Ning etc. The numbers though dazzling are not exactly true. Not everyone who registers keeps using the site and among those who use it very few do use it to the full potential. But even those fractions are too big to ignore at this point of time when you see numbers like 45 million status updates and 30 million daily visitors on Facebook.

Imagine the almost certain future where the internet penetration is going to be universal, literacy shall be booming and Governments are all operating on virtual space. By then the adoption of these media in whatever prevalent forms they are* and urls they have. They shall open up a stream of information which gets better in quality everyday and would have wrecked havoc on traditional media which refuse to change. Imagine that day everyone you know is already on your ‘friend’ list and those who you meet will add you on the network instead of handing over rectangular pieces of hard paper.  Those days are imminent. Early adopters know that.

We know Social Media is actually a plethora of services on the internet medium covering various platforms like blogs, forums, social networks, microblogging platforms, photo sharing services and so. The word social is so precisely apt because these tend to focus on the interaction aspect instead of  soliloquy. Yes! Interaction on internet has been serial soliloquy in a way but those time are changing as everything becomes real time right from your comments on blog integration with twitter to facebook live feed. These changes have made conversation on the internet particularly social media uncannily close to real life conversations. So in a way the modern social media mimic real life and this is just the beginning. Soon we all shall have digital identities instead of aliases and everything in our life from finances to entertainment will get integrated. This will happen because the fundamental tenet of good social media platform is to replicate real life and those who do it are successful. So that is the direction in which whole worldwide web is moving. We believe that is the reason Social Media is here to stay cos it obeys the rules of real life and the virtual world is no longer a different place but just a part of your daily routine.

Where there are people, there is business potential in different ways. It could be in form of customer service, reputation management, brand building, lead generation or even straight forward sales. Various brands are proving it left and right this thanksgiving. Marketing yourself on these platforms is very powerful because it is just the digital incarnation of word of mouth. However, like every field we know there is a learning curve, a plan to reckon with and the question of resources and that is why people like us, ie Social Media consultants/strategists are important. And were are here in this business to do precisely one thing: “Help Enterprises benefit from Social Media”.

This blog shall contain various insights on the power, business, trends etc dealing with Social Media. We believe in the power of Social Media and I personally plan to dig deep and research on this to prove it to the agnostic world. I shall share my findings and observations as and when they come. If you too believe in it, come help us and lets together show what the future beholds.

Image courtesy: Realtechguy.com and thefuturebuzz.com

Social Media is the umbrella term for blogs, social networks, micro blogging etc. There is a lot of talk about these media being very beneficial to businesses. We are part of the same band wagon and have the same strong belief that social media is very beneficial to businesses.

I was an early adopter of social networks, one of the first few thousand to begin using Hi5 and Orkut in India, but soon found very little use. I was attracted to professional networks and began exploring LinkedIn and found the concept very useful. Much before LinkedIn popularized jobs, I was searching for interesting people and interesting startups to join after my education. I found the company I went on to begin my professional career with on LinkedIn.

The CEO of the company I joined used to write one of the most popular CEO blogs in India. Obviously blogging was a habit in the company and thereby was drawn back to the blogging revolution after a couple of unsuccessful attempts. I blogged about my own learning, knowing little about popular blogging conventions. The blog enticed some interest in my clients and potential clients and greatly aided in establishing my competence as a Management Consultant.

Keeping in view of the growing global consensus, with firms like McKinsey opening dialogue, of social media becoming extremely useful for business, I began exploring the opportunity of helping businesses. In this process I conversed with Vemana, an avid blogger and social media researcher, and explored the Idea. His extensive knowledge of social media, thanks to his research in the space, and how it truly resembles the real world kicked off our endeavor.

We have begun our journey with firm belief, supported by rationale, that social media and social technologies can prove very useful for businesses. As we studied the social media consulting space in India we found that the firms were using case studies based of businesses in the developed world or campaigns from large India consumer companies which ran parallel campaigns in traditional media. So we have set out to help real businesses, irrespective of their size or industry, to benefit from social media.

We hope to add real value to the space of businesses benefitting from social media. Based on our understanding of media and social culture we hope to design strategies for our clients so that they unleash the potential of these new media and achieve their business objectives. We have devised an offering spread we hope will deliver 360 degree benefit to our clients. We hope through our research, both independent and through engagements, we would bring out stories of real success.