Cross posted from the Superchooha blog

cross posted from amitklein.com

There’s no doubt that Google Search is a great product, but aside from some cosmetic changes in how results are displayed there hasn’t been any major innovation in search in the last few years (aright, Goggles is pretty awesome):

There are a number of questions which Google fails to answer:

• “where’s the best bagel in new york?”
• “what’s a cheap, clean, centrally located hotel in bangkok”
• “which DSLR camera should I buy?”

In the cases above, you’re most likely to get SEO-optimized aggregator/review site whose primary motivation is affiliate sales.  And forget about finding anything usable to:

• “what’s everyone up to this weekend?”
• “should I get a tattoo?”
• “is business school right for me”

Increasingly, I turn to Twitter and Facebook for these types of questions:

Aardvark is another really nice product that tries to answer these experiential/recommendation type of questions.  It’s easy to use (via a chat bot) and gets quick and solid responses.  The same question got me three responses within 10 min (here’s two): (more…)

Cross posted from the Superchooha blog
Some shocking facts that I have come to realise from my small time in the industry:

Disclaimer

I’m not a social media guru / evangelist / stalwart in any way; but hell yeah! I know when things are going the wrong way. And yeah, this is not a rant – I am seriously surprised at the situation.

The industry is in a disorganised mess

• For most of the agencies out there, social media is about Facebook and Twitter (and maybe Foursquare 2 years down the line) And this holds true for firms who have been around for more than 2 years now. Shame.
• Weekly deliverables are in terms of of X updates on Twitter and Facebook! Billing is generated in terms of number of conversations achieved (relevant or irrelevant)
• Huge amount of mailers are sent to randomest of email databases to increase the number of fans on Facebook

Well, if you have fallen prey to this system of doing social media then:

Is this really social media strategy / consulting / execution? This looks more like social media outsourcing to me! (more…)

Cross posted from the Superchooha blog

Zynga’s Farmville has taken the world by storm! And its not just the teens mind you, people of all age groups and walks of life are hooked to virtual farming! But what is this craze about? And most importantly WHY?

• Maybe because, in a day and age where land rates are sky high, everyone can have a 24×24 farm at Farmville. You are ready to plow, plant, harvest and grow!
• Maybe city dwellers want a taste of good ol’ countryside. Mooing cows, quacking ducks, meowing cats are all here to add to the zing. It’s a land where ugly ducklings get transformed to beautiful white swans.
• Its not the aspect of farming that attracts players. Its simply the craze for things we cant have in real life with real money. Living in a rented apartment? Fret not, in Farmville you can own a farmhouse.

All said and done, Farmville is the perfect substitute or defense mechanism to get our dreams virtually. It connects us emotionally to a culture that we all desire. It connects us with more like minded people.

What else can be done?

Some social strategies that can be added to enhance the social gaming aspect: (more…)

Cross posted from the Superchooha blog

Though social media is about getting masses / going viral into a community, the end effort by any strategist should be to find the evangelists, use them to influence entry level users in doubt and hence convert these to sales leads.

From a B2B perspective

The enterprises don’t usually spend so much in advertising. Their services spread via good WOM and reputation. And what is the first communications channel that comes to your mind when you talk of WOM? Social media of course. And of course using your customers as evangelists is much more common sense when you sell a INR 3 lakhs tractor engine than a INR 300 engine oil.

On a more basic level, whether its B2B or B2C, in the end it boils down to good networking online i.e. showing your human side and helping out; while keeping your reputation and professionalism intact. (more…)

Cross posted from the Superchooha blog

You open the internet, and it’s everywhere. It’s Twitter this and Twitter that. Why has it become so popular in the recent years, achieving a staggering growth of 500%?

It’s not because it’s a cool piece of technology. It’s caught on because it’s changed the way we communicate on the internet for the better. It has made us move away from emails and telephones which are good only for 1-1 conversations to a more open, simple and faster platform. Let’s take a look at how micro-blogging can fit into an enterprise’s internal communication channels.

Current communications
Phone calls and emails take up most of our times, making it very easy for information to get lost; on top of it the closed communication structures hinder faster spread of information through the network. I mean seriously, how many times had you wait for days before the CEO can reach your mail in his inbox? (more…)