Today’s morning brings a new surprise to all of us as Facebook has upgraded some of the features in Fan Pages. The changes as Facebook says are aimed to managing communication, improving expression and increasing engagement.
The changes are in terms of visual and navigation appearance for fans as well page administrators. In addition, there are set of new features which add on to page functionality.
While, Facebook has released an official note about the announcement, here is what I understand from the upgrade:
Tabs make way for Pictures
Like profiles, Facebook pages would now display your most recent uploads or tagged pictures right at the top.
Tabs Shift to Left Navigation
Don’t worry the tabs haven’t gone anywhere :) Like your profile, they have just shifted to the left navigation area. What’s more there is also a special view for page administrators called as the “Admin View”.
Profile Pictures of Page Administrators
Now page administrators don’t need to go to the page settings, to figure out who the other page administrators are. I tested this feature and from what it appears, this is only meant for the admins. Fans, won’t able to see the profile pictures of page administrators.
Set Page as Your Profile
If you use this feature, you would be able to receive notifications for all the interactions made on your page. That’s not all you can also comment on other pages on behalf of the page. Example, I can comment on the itemperance fan page in the name of Iffort and not Daksh Sharma.
Off-course, whenever you want you can switch to your normal Facebook profile.
Comment on Your Fan Page from Your Facebook Profile
A feature that’s perhaps everybody was craving for. Earlier, whenever you made comments on your fan-page they were not linked to your profile. Now you have an option of choosing how you want your comments to be displayed i.e. from Your FB Profile or as Page.
Add Featured Pages and Page Admin Profile Pics
You could say, this is Facebook’s method of Backlinking/Creating a blogroll. On your fan page, you can display other pages that you like. Moreover, you can also display profile pictures of page administrators who manage those fan-pages.
For details about the announcement please read the Facebook note and read Inside Facebook.com’s version.
What do you think about the latest updates to Fan pages? How would this impact your fan-page? Is there any feature that we have missed. Please feel free to add through comments !!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Arranged Marriage - Tamil Brahmin style
Two of my very good friends got married recently.. Both were fully arranged traditional Tamil brahmin (tam brahm) weddings. one iyer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer) and the other iyengar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyengar) - 2 major sects among tam brahms.
Method I :The online way – done through matrimonial sites. These websites have hope for all – be it a divorcee or a single parent or a normal unmarried person :P .The concept really revolutionized and capitalized on the arranged marriages scene here . It’s really popular now because it works… And this is how :
1. Putting up the girls’ profile and “(decent) photos” on matrimonial sites.
2. Scouring through hundreds of profiles to find the perfect boy ( good boy,fair boy, good family and preferably settled in the US- more points if the boy lives in popular business hubs- yeah! Silicon valley, Texas and New York sound great. Earlier only software engineers were in demand, but now thats out-thanks to recession)
3. Once they hit upon a good profile, the parents call and exchange the jaathakams(astrological charts) and see if those match.If yes, then photos are exchanged.
4. If okay, both the fams meet. This meeting typically consists of the parents asking questions, judging the family and eating vada,bajji, bonda, kesari.. Oh nowadays its really cool to offer cookies (only eggless mind you :D Cuz we are strict vegetarians but conveniently forget that most of our tam bram foreign boys love chicken) and diet coke – in case the foreign mapillai isnt too much into our (oily)snacks..
5. Then the girl and guy are asked to go into a separate room to get to know each other( don’t get ideas now) for abt half hour and in some lucky cases an hour or so …
6. If all goes well, the families agree on a date for the engagement and proceed with the other prep. If the girl / guy is not okay, then they just make up random excuses to the other party.. I mean you cant obviously say that the girl is too dark or the boy earns a little too less or that she would like to work (to be an independent working professional- which is at times not acceptable) or that he is going bald … :D
Method II: Maami – Mama socializing networking
Note: For the benefit of the ignorant – Maami generally refers to married and older Tam Brahm women.Mama – any married Brahm man maybe?
Though this could be the less treaded path, am sure most maami’s and mama’s attend weddings to look for potential partners for their children or at least for other eligible and single men/women who are looking-to-marry. This also probably because a Tam Brahm wedding can possibly have only a majority of Tam Brahms attending – makes it easier i guess. They look, they observe, they ask around then strike up a conversation with that poor unassuming girl / guy and then take it forward…
I had a minimum of at least 4 such conversations, though I refused to let them move any further… I have heard that this approach has worked many times… lol… so here goes:
” Hello aunty… yes, am doing good. How about you?…
I work for blah blah organization…(am sure it wouldn’t have mattered)
Am 23 aunty…( rude, very rude)
No not married…( oh! )
Yes, I am single.. no no am not seeing anyone.
No my parents are not looking out either..(its not a crime right?)
No, not for another couple of years… Am not in a hurry.. (What? REALLY?! yeah, really aunty)
Yes, I want to be independent, on my own.. Work for a bit and stuff .. I ll know when am ready to marry, if at all I want to that is… ( Scandalizing- it was too much for her to take – She gave up:) :) ) ”
Note to self: This is fun.
So going back,I can say that though the processes themselves seem surreal and movie-like, both the weddings I witnessed were beautiful. I say beautiful because it’s really not easy to get to know new people, understand their ideas and accommodate their preferences in a short span of time . Putting together a big wedding is a herculean task. So many silent compromises are made and so many new bonds are established.Its an effort taken by both the families to make this work for their children. And with so much love and hope going into these efforts, it can never possibly go wrong. Sigh :D
Method I :The online way – done through matrimonial sites. These websites have hope for all – be it a divorcee or a single parent or a normal unmarried person :P .The concept really revolutionized and capitalized on the arranged marriages scene here . It’s really popular now because it works… And this is how :
1. Putting up the girls’ profile and “(decent) photos” on matrimonial sites.
2. Scouring through hundreds of profiles to find the perfect boy ( good boy,fair boy, good family and preferably settled in the US- more points if the boy lives in popular business hubs- yeah! Silicon valley, Texas and New York sound great. Earlier only software engineers were in demand, but now thats out-thanks to recession)
3. Once they hit upon a good profile, the parents call and exchange the jaathakams(astrological charts) and see if those match.If yes, then photos are exchanged.
4. If okay, both the fams meet. This meeting typically consists of the parents asking questions, judging the family and eating vada,bajji, bonda, kesari.. Oh nowadays its really cool to offer cookies (only eggless mind you :D Cuz we are strict vegetarians but conveniently forget that most of our tam bram foreign boys love chicken) and diet coke – in case the foreign mapillai isnt too much into our (oily)snacks..
5. Then the girl and guy are asked to go into a separate room to get to know each other( don’t get ideas now) for abt half hour and in some lucky cases an hour or so …
6. If all goes well, the families agree on a date for the engagement and proceed with the other prep. If the girl / guy is not okay, then they just make up random excuses to the other party.. I mean you cant obviously say that the girl is too dark or the boy earns a little too less or that she would like to work (to be an independent working professional- which is at times not acceptable) or that he is going bald … :D
Method II: Maami – Mama socializing networking
Note: For the benefit of the ignorant – Maami generally refers to married and older Tam Brahm women.Mama – any married Brahm man maybe?
Though this could be the less treaded path, am sure most maami’s and mama’s attend weddings to look for potential partners for their children or at least for other eligible and single men/women who are looking-to-marry. This also probably because a Tam Brahm wedding can possibly have only a majority of Tam Brahms attending – makes it easier i guess. They look, they observe, they ask around then strike up a conversation with that poor unassuming girl / guy and then take it forward…
I had a minimum of at least 4 such conversations, though I refused to let them move any further… I have heard that this approach has worked many times… lol… so here goes:
” Hello aunty… yes, am doing good. How about you?…
I work for blah blah organization…(am sure it wouldn’t have mattered)
Am 23 aunty…( rude, very rude)
No not married…( oh! )
Yes, I am single.. no no am not seeing anyone.
No my parents are not looking out either..(its not a crime right?)
No, not for another couple of years… Am not in a hurry.. (What? REALLY?! yeah, really aunty)
Yes, I want to be independent, on my own.. Work for a bit and stuff .. I ll know when am ready to marry, if at all I want to that is… ( Scandalizing- it was too much for her to take – She gave up:) :) ) ”
Note to self: This is fun.
So going back,I can say that though the processes themselves seem surreal and movie-like, both the weddings I witnessed were beautiful. I say beautiful because it’s really not easy to get to know new people, understand their ideas and accommodate their preferences in a short span of time . Putting together a big wedding is a herculean task. So many silent compromises are made and so many new bonds are established.Its an effort taken by both the families to make this work for their children. And with so much love and hope going into these efforts, it can never possibly go wrong. Sigh :D
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
25 ways to listen customers in social media
As a marketer, it is important to listen as often as you market. In some cases, you might even have to hear more than you talk yourself. Listening is an important part of Social Media as it not only keeps you in pace with how the market is shaping out, but also, more importantly gives you updated information of what your competitors are saying about themselves in the same space as you. The different media that you would like to monitor these days include news, web, blog, images, videos, twitter, Facebook, and Microblogs.
There are two types of listening tools available on the web today, namely Search and Tracking, and Real Time Search. Each of these set of tools perform a particular function and as proved that Social Media today is like a jigsaw puzzle, the right piece can make all the difference. Although you might come across various paid listening tools such as Radian6, Trackur, SM2, and Scout Labs, there are some awesome free tools that perform well. Here are the top 20 free listening tools available in the market today.
Google Tools
1. Google Alerts:
This is the simplest tool to set up. Gmail Alerts provide email updates based on the query or topic of your choice. It can be used to monitor developing story, keeping an eye on competitors or the industry.
2. Google Trends:
Google Trends, as the name suggests, follows the trends and provides insights into broad search patterns. An additional feature is the ability to show how new events affect the search popularity.
3. Google Insights:
It helps you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames, and properties. You can further filter the search based on many properties and features.
4. Google Reader:
It is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. Meaning, if there are web pages that you follow, they can be integrated with your account to show you updates and feed revisions in the different websites.
5. Google Blog Search:
This helps you to be update on top stories debated on blogs. Additionally, it helps you search for particular blogs in particular topics.
6. Google News Search:
This tool tracks news around the world. It also enables you to filter news based on your interests. Additionally, it helps you add particular topics that you want updated information on.
Yahoo Tools
7. Yahoo Sideline:
Sideline is a desktop application used as a User Interface Library (YUI). It allows users to create and group custom queries by topics of interest. This tool does real time monitoring and search of Twitter.
8. Yahoo Pipes:
It is a web application tool that helps in search of companies and brands across the web. It lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups using a visual editor. Information in Pipes can be published and shared easily, without needing to write code.
Twitter Tools
9. Twilert:
It helps in setting up keyword and brand alerts for Twitter mentions, for free. You can register using your Gmail account or any other account to have twitter mentions sent to the registered email ID.
10. Twazzap:
It is a Real-time twitter monitoring tool. It filters the news out of live internet content to make it available, based on your interests. It identifies key influencers on a topic to provide the relevant information, quickly.
11. Twitter Search:
As the name suggests it is a direct search on twitter. It helps you keep track of information as it happens. Keeps you updated on what is happening right now on Twitter. It also has the Advance Search option that enables you to filter your search and restrict the results to topics that are relevant to you.
12. Twittorati:
It tracks tweets from the highest authority bloggers named by Technorati. After filtering based on Techorati’s top 100, it also includes many more of the web's most influential voices.
13. Tweetgrid:
It is a Twitter Search Dashboard that allows you to do a real-time search for up to 9 different topics, events, conversations, hashtags, phrases, people, groups, and so on. As new tweets are created, they are updated automatically in the grid.
Other Tools
14. Social Mention:
It is a real-time search tool across social networks. It tracks the web, news, blogs and much more. Using this tool you can receive free email alerts on a daily basis, on topics of your interest. It can be used to provide instances of mention of particular brands, your company, marketing campaign, a developing news story, and competitor and so on.
15. Facebook Lexiconb:
It is a tool that updates you on the buzz surrounding different words and phrases on Facebook Walls. The information is pulled from the wealth of data on Facebook without collecting any personal information.
16. Omgili:
Omgili forum search engine lets you find communities, message boards, discussion threads about any topic. Omgili's advanced search features make it the best search engine for forums out there. It is the best way in the known universe to find out what people are saying about anything and everything!
17. Blogpulse:
This tool shows the most trending topics, and helps in identifying top stories and news sites. An automated trend discovery system for blogs. It analyzes and reports on daily activity in the blogosphere.
18. Bing:
It is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions.
19. Monitter:
This is a real-time twitter monitoring tool. It is a widget that you need to download and install to monitor twitter. Helps in searching for keywords in Twitter.
20. Board Tracker:
This tool tracks conversation on topics in forums. This tool searches and tracks heading of forums online, based on a keyword or topic. It provides emails and instant message alerts on relevant threads across all forums and boards
21. Technorati:
It is an Internet search engine used to search blogs. The name is a blend of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism. It uses the author’s tags on the websites to categorize search results, while ensuring the recent results are displayed first. More importantly, Technorati rates each blog's "authority", which is the number of unique blogs linking to the blog over the last six months.
22. Trendrr:
It helps you track the popularity and awareness of trends across a variety of inputs, ranging from social networks, to blog buzz and video views downloads. You can even compare trends. Additionally, you can monitor and evaluate comparisons across a variety of sources.
23. How sociable:
HowSociable offers a simple way for you to begin measuring your brand’s visibility on the social web. All you need to do is to type a brand name and it will show you how visible it is on social web.
24. Postrank:
Postrank monitors and collects social engagement event correlated with online content, across the web, real-time. It offers services in three categories, namely, data services (including APIs), analytics (for effective discovery), and consumers (free tools for publishers).
25. Guzzle.it:
Guzzle automatically categorizes feeds by inspecting and analyzing each feed. When you require any information on a particular keyword, Guzzle.IT instantly provides the latest information, using the pre-categorized results.
There are two types of listening tools available on the web today, namely Search and Tracking, and Real Time Search. Each of these set of tools perform a particular function and as proved that Social Media today is like a jigsaw puzzle, the right piece can make all the difference. Although you might come across various paid listening tools such as Radian6, Trackur, SM2, and Scout Labs, there are some awesome free tools that perform well. Here are the top 20 free listening tools available in the market today.
Google Tools
1. Google Alerts:
This is the simplest tool to set up. Gmail Alerts provide email updates based on the query or topic of your choice. It can be used to monitor developing story, keeping an eye on competitors or the industry.
2. Google Trends:
Google Trends, as the name suggests, follows the trends and provides insights into broad search patterns. An additional feature is the ability to show how new events affect the search popularity.
3. Google Insights:
It helps you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames, and properties. You can further filter the search based on many properties and features.
4. Google Reader:
It is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. Meaning, if there are web pages that you follow, they can be integrated with your account to show you updates and feed revisions in the different websites.
5. Google Blog Search:
This helps you to be update on top stories debated on blogs. Additionally, it helps you search for particular blogs in particular topics.
6. Google News Search:
This tool tracks news around the world. It also enables you to filter news based on your interests. Additionally, it helps you add particular topics that you want updated information on.
Yahoo Tools
7. Yahoo Sideline:
Sideline is a desktop application used as a User Interface Library (YUI). It allows users to create and group custom queries by topics of interest. This tool does real time monitoring and search of Twitter.
8. Yahoo Pipes:
It is a web application tool that helps in search of companies and brands across the web. It lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups using a visual editor. Information in Pipes can be published and shared easily, without needing to write code.
Twitter Tools
9. Twilert:
It helps in setting up keyword and brand alerts for Twitter mentions, for free. You can register using your Gmail account or any other account to have twitter mentions sent to the registered email ID.
10. Twazzap:
It is a Real-time twitter monitoring tool. It filters the news out of live internet content to make it available, based on your interests. It identifies key influencers on a topic to provide the relevant information, quickly.
11. Twitter Search:
As the name suggests it is a direct search on twitter. It helps you keep track of information as it happens. Keeps you updated on what is happening right now on Twitter. It also has the Advance Search option that enables you to filter your search and restrict the results to topics that are relevant to you.
12. Twittorati:
It tracks tweets from the highest authority bloggers named by Technorati. After filtering based on Techorati’s top 100, it also includes many more of the web's most influential voices.
13. Tweetgrid:
It is a Twitter Search Dashboard that allows you to do a real-time search for up to 9 different topics, events, conversations, hashtags, phrases, people, groups, and so on. As new tweets are created, they are updated automatically in the grid.
Other Tools
14. Social Mention:
It is a real-time search tool across social networks. It tracks the web, news, blogs and much more. Using this tool you can receive free email alerts on a daily basis, on topics of your interest. It can be used to provide instances of mention of particular brands, your company, marketing campaign, a developing news story, and competitor and so on.
15. Facebook Lexiconb:
It is a tool that updates you on the buzz surrounding different words and phrases on Facebook Walls. The information is pulled from the wealth of data on Facebook without collecting any personal information.
16. Omgili:
Omgili forum search engine lets you find communities, message boards, discussion threads about any topic. Omgili's advanced search features make it the best search engine for forums out there. It is the best way in the known universe to find out what people are saying about anything and everything!
17. Blogpulse:
This tool shows the most trending topics, and helps in identifying top stories and news sites. An automated trend discovery system for blogs. It analyzes and reports on daily activity in the blogosphere.
18. Bing:
It is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions.
19. Monitter:
This is a real-time twitter monitoring tool. It is a widget that you need to download and install to monitor twitter. Helps in searching for keywords in Twitter.
20. Board Tracker:
This tool tracks conversation on topics in forums. This tool searches and tracks heading of forums online, based on a keyword or topic. It provides emails and instant message alerts on relevant threads across all forums and boards
21. Technorati:
It is an Internet search engine used to search blogs. The name is a blend of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism. It uses the author’s tags on the websites to categorize search results, while ensuring the recent results are displayed first. More importantly, Technorati rates each blog's "authority", which is the number of unique blogs linking to the blog over the last six months.
22. Trendrr:
It helps you track the popularity and awareness of trends across a variety of inputs, ranging from social networks, to blog buzz and video views downloads. You can even compare trends. Additionally, you can monitor and evaluate comparisons across a variety of sources.
23. How sociable:
HowSociable offers a simple way for you to begin measuring your brand’s visibility on the social web. All you need to do is to type a brand name and it will show you how visible it is on social web.
24. Postrank:
Postrank monitors and collects social engagement event correlated with online content, across the web, real-time. It offers services in three categories, namely, data services (including APIs), analytics (for effective discovery), and consumers (free tools for publishers).
25. Guzzle.it:
Guzzle automatically categorizes feeds by inspecting and analyzing each feed. When you require any information on a particular keyword, Guzzle.IT instantly provides the latest information, using the pre-categorized results.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
social media is about changing the conversation
Are you caught up on Mad Men?
In this week’s episode, the agency (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) deals with the fallout of losing their largest account. New clients are hesitant to hire them, because word about town is that the agency’s future is cloudy at best. Peggy’s advice, which Don Draper takes to heart, is simple: “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”
There couldn’t be a better motto for social media marketing.
Brands of all sizes are realizing more and more that social media is the conversation, but with super powers: while in-person conversations typically begin and end at the water cooler, online conversations don’t. A negative take on your brand can spin wildly out of control on Facebook or (especially) Twitter, with thousands of people joining in the conversation. Positive messages can circulate too, but the negative ones typically have more steam.
That leaves brands with three options for how to get social media on their side, requiring increasing levels of buy-in: they can monitor the conversation, they can engage in the conversation, or they can change the conversation, Don Draper-style.
Monitoring the Conversation
Monitoring the social media conversation is a good start, and while it doesn’t do anything to change public perceptions of your brand, it may provide the compelling data you need to get your CEO on board with a social media strategy.
There are a few tools you can use to quickly get going, and they’re easy to use:
Google Alerts – If you manage a brand and aren’t using Google Alerts, start now. It emails you with regular (or as-it-happens) updates when you get mentioned online. It works well for tracking bigger things like blog posts; less so for lively Twitter discussion.
TweetDeck - One of a number of Twitter clients that pops up notifications for search terms (like the name of your brand). TweetDeck is especially useful if you’re handling several Twitter accounts at once.
TweetBeep – For if you can’t handle keeping a Twitter client open. It’s basically Google Alerts for Twitter, keeping you posted by email on what’s being said in tweets.
Kurrently – Searches Twitter and Facebook in real-time, and you can grab an RSS feed of its results.
Collecta - Attempts to combine all of the above, searching the web, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and others, offering RSS feeds for your search terms.
If your brand is big enough or interesting enough that people are talking about it, then you need to be monitoring the conversation. Once you do, you’ll realize that your social media efforts need to go a step further.
Engaging in the Conversation
There are a few terrific examples of brands engaging in the conversation and winning big because of it. Often Twitter becomes a vehicle for world-class customer service, and we’ve seen if from Southwest Airlines, Dell, and, of course, Comcast.
Clicking on the Comcast link in the paragraph above takes you to an article from way back in 2008, as Comcast has been on the forefront of Twitter conversation about its brand from the beginning. They’re generally credited with pioneering the “customer service on Twitter” model, in which company reps monitor Comcast-related tweets and then respond to people that are having trouble with their cable service.
But even better than just reacting to customers’ conversation is creating an environment where your customers know they can come to you online. If discussion flows freely between your company and your customers, and not just in times of crisis, then you’ll be poised to dramatically strengthen relationships and foster new brand advocates. Which drives the bottom line.
Changing the Conversation
The brands with the strongest commitment to social media, however, are also the ones reaping the greatest rewards. Changing the conversation means turning bad vibes into good vibes, or (more commonly) creating a conversation where there wasn’t one before.
Citing the best examples is almost unnecessary. Old Spice, of course, generated no end of conversation with the “Smell Like a Man, Man” character and series of online videos. The commercials would have been a successful TV campaign of their own—but it was social media that really got conversation about Old Spice going.
An even better example is Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice campaign on Facebook—not because of the details of the campaign itself, but because of how it changed the conversation. It’s Burger King. It’s fast food, it’s served by someone making minimum wage, and the menu features items like “funnel cake sticks”. And yet, Burger King (thanks to the good folks at Crispin Porter + Bogusky) made us forget about greasy hamburgers for a while and got us talking about a brand that wasn’t afraid to push buttons.
In Mad Men, Don Draper’s reaction to losing their big tobacco client was not to wallow in self-pity and board up the office windows. The prevailing conversation was about the agency’s failures, so he changed it. And if twenty-five years of TV watching has taught me what to expect, then we’ll see it pay off handsomely.
The conversation is always going on. If your brand is big enough, you’re already being discussed. And if the message isn’t good, then you know what to do.
Change it.
Regards
Vicky
In this week’s episode, the agency (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) deals with the fallout of losing their largest account. New clients are hesitant to hire them, because word about town is that the agency’s future is cloudy at best. Peggy’s advice, which Don Draper takes to heart, is simple: “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”
There couldn’t be a better motto for social media marketing.
Brands of all sizes are realizing more and more that social media is the conversation, but with super powers: while in-person conversations typically begin and end at the water cooler, online conversations don’t. A negative take on your brand can spin wildly out of control on Facebook or (especially) Twitter, with thousands of people joining in the conversation. Positive messages can circulate too, but the negative ones typically have more steam.
That leaves brands with three options for how to get social media on their side, requiring increasing levels of buy-in: they can monitor the conversation, they can engage in the conversation, or they can change the conversation, Don Draper-style.
Monitoring the Conversation
Monitoring the social media conversation is a good start, and while it doesn’t do anything to change public perceptions of your brand, it may provide the compelling data you need to get your CEO on board with a social media strategy.
There are a few tools you can use to quickly get going, and they’re easy to use:
Google Alerts – If you manage a brand and aren’t using Google Alerts, start now. It emails you with regular (or as-it-happens) updates when you get mentioned online. It works well for tracking bigger things like blog posts; less so for lively Twitter discussion.
TweetDeck - One of a number of Twitter clients that pops up notifications for search terms (like the name of your brand). TweetDeck is especially useful if you’re handling several Twitter accounts at once.
TweetBeep – For if you can’t handle keeping a Twitter client open. It’s basically Google Alerts for Twitter, keeping you posted by email on what’s being said in tweets.
Kurrently – Searches Twitter and Facebook in real-time, and you can grab an RSS feed of its results.
Collecta - Attempts to combine all of the above, searching the web, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and others, offering RSS feeds for your search terms.
If your brand is big enough or interesting enough that people are talking about it, then you need to be monitoring the conversation. Once you do, you’ll realize that your social media efforts need to go a step further.
Engaging in the Conversation
There are a few terrific examples of brands engaging in the conversation and winning big because of it. Often Twitter becomes a vehicle for world-class customer service, and we’ve seen if from Southwest Airlines, Dell, and, of course, Comcast.
Clicking on the Comcast link in the paragraph above takes you to an article from way back in 2008, as Comcast has been on the forefront of Twitter conversation about its brand from the beginning. They’re generally credited with pioneering the “customer service on Twitter” model, in which company reps monitor Comcast-related tweets and then respond to people that are having trouble with their cable service.
But even better than just reacting to customers’ conversation is creating an environment where your customers know they can come to you online. If discussion flows freely between your company and your customers, and not just in times of crisis, then you’ll be poised to dramatically strengthen relationships and foster new brand advocates. Which drives the bottom line.
Changing the Conversation
The brands with the strongest commitment to social media, however, are also the ones reaping the greatest rewards. Changing the conversation means turning bad vibes into good vibes, or (more commonly) creating a conversation where there wasn’t one before.
Citing the best examples is almost unnecessary. Old Spice, of course, generated no end of conversation with the “Smell Like a Man, Man” character and series of online videos. The commercials would have been a successful TV campaign of their own—but it was social media that really got conversation about Old Spice going.
An even better example is Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice campaign on Facebook—not because of the details of the campaign itself, but because of how it changed the conversation. It’s Burger King. It’s fast food, it’s served by someone making minimum wage, and the menu features items like “funnel cake sticks”. And yet, Burger King (thanks to the good folks at Crispin Porter + Bogusky) made us forget about greasy hamburgers for a while and got us talking about a brand that wasn’t afraid to push buttons.
In Mad Men, Don Draper’s reaction to losing their big tobacco client was not to wallow in self-pity and board up the office windows. The prevailing conversation was about the agency’s failures, so he changed it. And if twenty-five years of TV watching has taught me what to expect, then we’ll see it pay off handsomely.
The conversation is always going on. If your brand is big enough, you’re already being discussed. And if the message isn’t good, then you know what to do.
Change it.
Regards
Vicky
Friday, October 8, 2010
enthiran - my review
If you have plans to relax and have a great time with your family this weekend then Endhiran-The Robot is the perfect weekend masala flick for you. Rajnikanth is back with a bang and although he does not really utter “Enna Rascala…Mind It!” his body language and style is still over the top.
Rajnikanth–Aishwarya chemistry is extraordinary
The movie is about a scientist, Dr. Vasi (Rajnikanth) who creates a humanoid robot that looks just like him. Dr. Vasi creates The Robot (Chitti) to serve the purpose of humanity and much more. Trouble starts brewing when Dr. Vasi teaches Chitti to feel emotions. It was surprising to see that Rajnikanth –Aishwarya pair looked ravishing on screen and their chemistry was palpable.
The story cannot be tagged as science fiction, simply put it is a romantic-comedy-masala-action–thriller set in the future where the laws of physics no longer apply.
Endhiran starts to have romantic ideas about the scientist’s girlfriend Sana (Aishwarya Rai). Thus develops the love triangle of the 21st century between Aishwarya Rai, Robot Rajnikanth and actual Rajnikanth. The fight between man and machine is taken to the next level in Endhiran-The Robot.
The best part about the movie has to be the special effects, report suggest that the producers hired the special effects team from Avatar to design the CGI effects for the action sequences. This movie has some of the most awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping action sequences that Indian Cinema has ever seen.
Some of the special effects are so breathtaking that they might give certain Hollywood movies a run for their money. A.R. Rahman may not have shown his brilliance in the CWG song but he is out in his full glory for Enthiran. The dance sequences have been choreographed by Prabhu Deva and look surreal.
The Robo is the perfect get away from the real world and allows us to have 3 hours of absolute, no-holds-barred entertainment.
Performance apprisal -
DrVasee ( Scientist rajini)- 3 out of 5
Good robot chiti(Rajni good robot)-4.5 out of 5
Bad robot chiti (Rajni bad robot) - 5 on 5
Aishu - wow she is dam cute - 5 on 5
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh black sheep dialogue stands out .
Overall sooper dooper movie
My rating for the movie would 4.5 out of 5 .
Regards
Vicky
Rajnikanth–Aishwarya chemistry is extraordinary
The movie is about a scientist, Dr. Vasi (Rajnikanth) who creates a humanoid robot that looks just like him. Dr. Vasi creates The Robot (Chitti) to serve the purpose of humanity and much more. Trouble starts brewing when Dr. Vasi teaches Chitti to feel emotions. It was surprising to see that Rajnikanth –Aishwarya pair looked ravishing on screen and their chemistry was palpable.
The story cannot be tagged as science fiction, simply put it is a romantic-comedy-masala-action–thriller set in the future where the laws of physics no longer apply.
Endhiran starts to have romantic ideas about the scientist’s girlfriend Sana (Aishwarya Rai). Thus develops the love triangle of the 21st century between Aishwarya Rai, Robot Rajnikanth and actual Rajnikanth. The fight between man and machine is taken to the next level in Endhiran-The Robot.
The best part about the movie has to be the special effects, report suggest that the producers hired the special effects team from Avatar to design the CGI effects for the action sequences. This movie has some of the most awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping action sequences that Indian Cinema has ever seen.
Some of the special effects are so breathtaking that they might give certain Hollywood movies a run for their money. A.R. Rahman may not have shown his brilliance in the CWG song but he is out in his full glory for Enthiran. The dance sequences have been choreographed by Prabhu Deva and look surreal.
The Robo is the perfect get away from the real world and allows us to have 3 hours of absolute, no-holds-barred entertainment.
Performance apprisal -
DrVasee ( Scientist rajini)- 3 out of 5
Good robot chiti(Rajni good robot)-4.5 out of 5
Bad robot chiti (Rajni bad robot) - 5 on 5
Aishu - wow she is dam cute - 5 on 5
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh black sheep dialogue stands out .
Overall sooper dooper movie
My rating for the movie would 4.5 out of 5 .
Regards
Vicky
an inner battle
Life is a very strange object as i would like to say. You don't know what is going to happen and what will happen after a certain things has happened. You just go with the flow. But then i ask myself isn't there any way through which i can control the happenings of my life. A voice form inside me says maybe by following your gut instincts, which if i see from a prcatical point of view is a very risky proposition but if i think from the heart that is the safest options that pops out before me. In this onging battle between heart and the brain i don't know who is right who is wrong who is going to win and who is going to lose but i only hope whoever wins brings the right judgement but somewhere i think i really want the heart to win. Lets wait and watch.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
AN UNFORGETTABLE JOURNEY
It feels good to write about my journey with Times Group , It was one of the most pleasant experience i had .Made lot of new friends , learnt a lot from my seniors and collegues . I am indebt to Mr. Ninan For giving me the responsibility to lead RIS . i would cherish Each and every moment i spent during my work stint with Times .
Coming to the Profile of RIS , i should be lucky enough to get taht profile . a divison were we have access to 360 degree media . learnt alot about how various media works . Thanks to Guru - Mirchi , Preeya - Times Now , Arun - Zoom and Nitin - Indiatimes for helping me learn various aspect of new media .
RIS gave me fame . i would cherish Billion hearts beating campaign for the rest of my life . It was also fun to hang around with Few interesting characters like Rizwan ,Murali, Iyyapan , Alex
On the whole My Journey with Times and RIS would be termed - "AN UNFORGETTABLE JOURNEY"
Coming to the Profile of RIS , i should be lucky enough to get taht profile . a divison were we have access to 360 degree media . learnt alot about how various media works . Thanks to Guru - Mirchi , Preeya - Times Now , Arun - Zoom and Nitin - Indiatimes for helping me learn various aspect of new media .
RIS gave me fame . i would cherish Billion hearts beating campaign for the rest of my life . It was also fun to hang around with Few interesting characters like Rizwan ,Murali, Iyyapan , Alex
On the whole My Journey with Times and RIS would be termed - "AN UNFORGETTABLE JOURNEY"
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