Deep Red Ink, as I think about the name it reminds me of the explanation behind the name which ran into number of pages. Well today I will consider it as an accomplishment as CEO of Dot Now Social. But when I accepted the invitation of Santhan and Deepti to be part of the ecology it was an easy, obvious and humbling choice.

DRI is an ecology formed to support great ideas. DRI is not any other business, not one that can be defined by the boundaries of capacity and limitation of bandwidth. DRI is a “concept business” which is all about supporting great ideas driven by passionate entrepreneurs. Though it may appear that DRI is about providing great content, the fundamentals of how the content is generated is the true crux of the business.

While enough has been said about the importance of content in the internet age and on social media, one thing that gets usually ignored is understanding what kind of content goes viral. Many schools of content strategy have spoken of different things, some like Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki have sighted it as mere chance. DRI has a fundamentally different approach rooted in the “spiritual” foundation of the founding team. Well, I cannot call myself an expert on the subject but I can say that it is a unique approach and as someone who is building a business on social media I can say it is working. A content strategy based on passion of the entrepreneur, authenticity in communication and “spirit” level approaches may not directly appeal to the ad hoc ”internet age” youngster who claims to be a Social Media expert. But as a student of marketing, the success of the content produced at DRI is a close certainty.

DRI is a concept business also because their interactions with the client are never merely to accomplish the details of a brief. DRI is an evolved business because it strives to connect with the deepest sense of purpose of the client, which is the most amazing form of building customer relationship. DRI is a concept business because profit doesnt drive the reason it chooses a client. The joy derived by working with the client is the only parameter of gauging whom to work with.

This is my favorite part. DRI is a concept business because of the way it is structured. DRI is an ecology of 6 partners. Santhan, Deepti, Anil, Netrix, Quick Silver & Dot Now Social. The structure of the partnership is that all revenues are divided between the 6 partners equally irrespective of who participates in a particular project in what capacity. I’ve been enamored by entrepreneurship and enterprises for over 4 years, and have studied business models with the vigor of a geek, but DRI beats them all. To common sense it does not appeal, nor does it sound totally logical, even remotely viable. But it is perhaps the most interesting journey of my entrepreneurial journey to see DRI evolve as a sustainable, profitable and growing business.

Dot Now Social is proud to be part of this successful experiment as takes this opportunity thank all members of Deep Red Ink ecology and all the clients of Deep Red Ink. I’m very keenly observing how DRI is shaping up and giving meaning to a key learning of last year that Ecologies are the new Business Ethic. As Social Media partners at DRI, we have received amazing work, from amazing clients with the most interesting challenges. We are looking forward to more.

Social Media, as we all know rides on quality content. Be it blogs or videos or articles or even facebook/twitter statuses, all ride on content. The number of people ‘liking’ or ‘retweeting’ or ‘sharing’ your content is directly proportional to its quality. Humor is a great vehicle and can have a great fan following. But, eventually it comes down to the amount of ‘substance’ one adds to his/her content. Its the substance that can make or break the fan following. (In this context, I’ll use context and substance inter-changeably)

I’d define Social Media as a platform for Interaction, not just personally, but also professionally, using cultured practices. The word ‘Social’ used here, actually refers to the ‘Social Life’ of a person in the Virtual space. Just like in the Real-world, a person in virtual space meets new people, make friends, has conversations, shares information, knowledge and data and much more. And just like in real life, your actions on Social media reflect your character. So, its important to be upto-the-mark when on Social Media. Whatever you post on Social media should have a meaning or purpose to it. It should have content that your peer networks can associate with, in some manner or the other.

Sadly, the content aspect is not taken too seriously by the users and we see all kinds of crap flying in and around our virtual life. Web developers spend loads of time, effort and money on the ‘look’ of their entity but end up paying very little or no attention to content. The end result is a visual splendor but a potential catastrophe due to the lack of substance. Most of them believe in the ‘All style, No substance’ mantra, which will more often than not take a pounding in present day times. Even in Search Engine Optimization, content rules.

Before using Social Media on a regular basis, one must adhere to the following ‘Laws of Social Media’

- Create original, quality content that is meaningful, purposeful, and intriguing
- Optimize the content with keywords that make sense and do not overstuff it
- Network by posting the content in the right places and remember that where your customers are is where you need to be
- Track where the content goes, how it got there and how it gets directed back to your site
- Engage with others that surround the content and become active but not overly promotional
- Nurture the engagement and use it to draw your audience in and tailor that content around their wants and need
- Track everything that is trackable as Social Media ROI is the future of online content creation and management

Always remember, “Content is King!”, not just in virtual space, but in real life too.

P.S: Resources that may be of some help to you:
To know the most Retweeted post of the blogosphere, use Tweetmeme
To know the most shared content on facebook check out ItsTrending.

References: Dragon Search