Twelevision!

Social Media is one field which moves so fast that it’s hard to keep up with it. What started as micro setups in small organizations, have taken the form of a huge giant which rule the entire world. And literally so. It seems like everyone who has access to the World Wide Web is active on social media. Numbers of people adding to the social media buzz just keeps increasing in leaps and bounds, adding to the ever increasing population of the social media planet. With micro blogging sites like Twitter catching the imagination of everyone from celebrities, to students, to ardent technological bloggers, the need of the hour is to create something which leverages the usage of Twitter and take its interactive abilities to a whole new level.

What started as an in-house web application in an organization called Odeo, has spread across the world in a matter of three years, experiencing months and months of exponential growth.  Within a short span of time, Twitter has become much more than a platform, where one signs up to stay in touch with his friends. It grew as a source of information, opinions and views about anything and everything one can possibly think of. The question has changed from “what are you doing” to “what’s happening”. Twitter, in other words, is continuously becoming a speedy news site, where anyone can be the reporter, with breaking news clubbed into the character limit of 140.

Moving the infrastructure from the internet, Twitter now knocks the doors of another very-popular communication medium – the television. Tuning with the social media craze all over the world, itaas tru2way interactive technology platform comes up with a new way to keep in touch with the world, even while you are watching the television. Developing an application, which will be of utmost benefit to the avid twitter fans, Tweet Tube will now allow its users to simultaneously access their twitter accounts, viewing their tweets right on their television sets. A fresh challenge to marketers, the Tweet Tube is a whole new dimension in the social media marketing environment.

Another, rather expected combination of the television and Twitter is a new show in Spain, called Twision. Broadcasted on the Veo7 channel, Twision is a new medium which allows its viewers to be directly interacting with the various presenters and the guests on the show. During the hour long, weekly show, many a people log on to their Twitter accounts to comment and opine about any given subject, which in turn pops up real time on the television screen there and then! Though the program has no official connection with the social networking site, Twitter itself said that the show is one of a kind, and its innovative use of its open and public network is even more compelling.

Utilizing the power of the social media, the television medium analysts are coming up with unique ideas to club the kings of communication media in their respective eras. With a high number to support the new venture, the social media is sure to penetrate well in this new-found vertical.

Tags: Itaas, Social Media, Television, Tweet Tube, twitter

Social Media plays doctor

Changing with the current world full of Twitter updates and Facebook status messages, the field of medicine has also plunged into the ever growing world of social media. Social media has now been in and around for some years, and has created quite a rage. People from all age brackets, belonging to a varied amount of sections in the society are active on the assortment that the social media websites provide. From celebrities to teachers, and now doctors, social media has been consistently used as an online portal which keeps one informed in the domains that one is interested.

A survey released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that 61 percent of Americans go online for to check on information for health issues, and the majority of them have turned to user-generated health information which has been available through social media. Blogs, forums and Facebook pages are flooded with queries about health issues, and the doctors are now turning to them, to provide people with advice they actually need and require, hence creating a unique, one to one patient – doctor relationship. This not only helps the patients to be at peace, but also helps doctors and prospective medical students to learn through a newer medium, which redefines the meaning of ‘hands-on’.

Citing a recent example, an Indian orthopedic surgeon, Dr. A.K.Venkatachalam, did a Twitter cast of a knee surgery, while he was at it! Containing details of the entire procedure, the doctor believes that the tweets would be of vital use for prospective post-graduate doctors who wish to choose surgery as a career option. He also reiterated on the fact that the social media has brought about a huge change in the way medical studies were taken in earlier times. The physicians also feel that the social media gives them a sense of responsibility and help give the current environment of health care a new perspective.

In yet another unbelievable incident, which was abuzz all over the social media websites, was the initiative of a woman, Mrs Jackson, from New York, to tweet during the abortion of her child, constantly tweeting right from the operation theatre. She also created a step-by-step video of the abortion to be posted on YouTube and regularly updated her blog posts about the happenings during the process. Trying to develop a whole new following of people, and creating a new perception about abortion in the minds of people, Mrs Jackson opted for the social media network to bring about a change in the way people think.

With the social media creating a safe environment for support and assistance, the masses are taking an easy breathe. Across the length and breadth of the globe, there are a million people who are willing to offer some help or lend some support to anyone who is in need. The focus has now shifted from commercialization to actualization. Not only social media has become a stage to offer services, but has also turned into an area to learn, grow and develop as an individual from the medical arena.

Tags: Blog, Facebook, Medicine, Social Media, twitter

7 Tips for effective social media optimization

Social networking sites have transformed the way we communicate and connect. By now most internet savvy companies are already using (and reaping the benefits of) SMO or Social Media Optimization. For those who are still unaware of this rising global phenomenon, here is a heads-up on what SMO entails.
SMO is the process of creating multiple points of access or visibility by utilizing the traffic leverage of already existing social networking sites for brand/service promotion and in-turn improve the bottom line. In simple terms SMO is the utilization of sites like Facebook and Twitter to create a buzz about your company. SMO is a process that not only requires innovation but it also requires continuous dynamism.

7 Tips for SMO

SMO used effectively can have a tremendous impact on the traffic you generate. Here are some handy tips for efficiently using SMO to your advantage –
•    First and foremost set up fan pages or company groups on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

•    Inform, engage and provide information that people can actually use through these platforms

•    Set up accounts on image sharing sites like Photobucket for image sharing and optimal tagging

•    Create accounts on social bookmarking sites like Reddit for sharing additional information

•    Maintain blogs on popular blogging sites

•    Innovate and communicate for retention and increase of members on social channels and finally

•    BE ACTIVE! Regular updates on all social sites is imperative

Whether you want to be a part of this social bandwagon or not is not really a choice now! The digitalization of this world has brought with it newer ways of connecting with people and changed the way we market and promote.

-Adapt if you want to move ahead.
-Stay fresh if you want to stay viable.
-Use SMO effectively if you want to succeed in this digital world!

Social Media in Evolving Business

Social media in recent times has become a headline grabbing phenomenon that is rapidly growing. Instead of using social networking as a tool to simply connect with people, entrepreneurs across the world are frequently trying to find ways to utilize the trend of social networking as a business opportunity.
Studies suggest that social networking sites should be viewed as a complementary device to the presence of businesses in order to promote success. Businesses should consider the sites as an asset that is valuable and useful in gaining their companies positive attention. In essence social networking sites, when used properly, should not be employed as a replacement to the business traditional online presence.
But the question arises, what is social media?

Social media is a conversation on the Internet. It is a conversation of the organization with its customers, employees, suppliers, investors, critics and fans. In a nutshell, it is a conversation with anyone having access to Internet. However, the conversation is not controlled and organized. But it is organic and complex, in the form of a human voice. Thus, it is not a strategy, but simply a mode of reaching out to all the stakeholders of the business.

What are the characteristics of Social Media?

Social media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:

1.    Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.

2.    Openness: most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information.

3.    Conversation: unlike traditional media, which is more of a “broadcast” (content transmitted or distributed to an audience), social media is better seen as a two-way conversation.

4.    Community: social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.

5.    Connectedness: most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.

Why should companies adopt social media?

- It covers a large audience in a faster, economical and easier manner

- Helps even small businesses to reach to a wider customer base

- These channels allow a connect with the stakeholders which enhances the credibility of the firm

- The best place of connecting with the stakeholders is where they are already talking about things important to them. Thus by joining in the conversation would increase the noticeability of the firm.

- It allows the company’s website to integrate multimedia such as audio and video which increases the attractiveness of the company

- It allows users to generate their own content thereby allowing them to interact with each other

How can companies utilize social media?

There are many mediums available for an organization to effectively harness the complete potential of social media. The various types of mediums available are as follows:

Social networks: These sites allow people to build personal web pages and then connect with friends to share content and communication.

Blogs: Perhaps the best known form of social media, blogs is online journals, with entries appearing with the most recent first.

Wikis: These websites allow people to add content to or edit the information on them, acting as a communal document or database.

Forums: Areas where online discussion on specific topics and interests are held. Forums came about before the term “social media” and are a powerful and popular element of online communities.

Audio, Video and Photo sharing Sites: Sites where the above mentioned are shared between a large numbers of people.

Microblogging: Social networking combined with bite-sized blogging, where small amounts of content (‘updates’) are distributed online and through the mobile phone network.

Companies are now using a wide array of social networking services ranging from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to emails, blogs and websites to build up interest in their new product or service launch. There are countless social media sites available in each of the above categories.
The diagram below maps some of them into the social media space.

Is Social Media perfect? Doesn’t it have any downsides to it?

Like everything else, social media does have its share of limitations. However, most of these limitations vary depending upon the user’s perceptions. The various disadvantages of this new age media are as follows:

Time Consuming: To leverage on social media, one needs to be connected to its audience all the time. He needs have updated helpful information on the network and should respond to any queries to satisfy the curiosity of the audience otherwise the audience might loose faith in business.

Limited Reach: Accessibility to the Internet in India is only around 3-5% of the total population. Thus, only a limited segment can be targeted through this medium.

Information Overload: With so much information available, there can be a problem of information overload and social networking overload which may cause problems of authenticity and validity of the information may become an issue.

Lack of Knowledge: Since social media is still in its infancy stage, not much awareness and information is available. Thus, organizations may have to incur high initial costs for setting up its operations.

Intrusion on Privacy: Since social media is an open platform, there may be issues with privacy as a lot of information is available about the user.

Apart from these problems, there is also an issue with customer loyalty. According to Deloitte in 2008, around 40% of user generated content websites have more than 500 members but very few engage with it in terms of their contribution, retrieval and exploration on the site.

Tags: social media optimization for businesses

Orkut Versus Facebook

After having observed the social networking phenomenon for quite some time now, I decided to find out which one of the most used social networking websites, i.e. Orkut or Facebook, is more popular and why.  I actually thought that by reading various blogs, visiting various different forums, talking to different people who use these sites etc. would be enough to find out who is the winner out of these two…but alas, I was wrong. All I got was a variety of mixed responses and they only added to the confusion. Here is a meagre attempt to discuss the pros and cons of both- Orkut and Facebook.

Orkut is ‘the’ most popular website in India and Brazil whereas Facebook is the favorite social networking website for America and Europe (MySpace is also a competition…but we are not talking about it here!).

Apart from this, both Orkut and Facebook are disliked for some reasons or the other. First and foremost, Orkut offers you only basic social networking facilities. Whereas, Facebook has a number of other cool applications such as quizzes, Flixster, iLike etc. These make Facebook much more interesting. Orkut is said to have a number of drawbacks such as the fact that it does not allow its user to upload a number of photographs at once, the deletion of photographs has to be done one by one, tagging a user is not allowed, organizing the scraps as per your friends is not allowed and so on. SMS alerts, like those on Facebook, are also a missing feature. Some of these features are there on Facebook and thus it automatically gets that extra edge.

However, this inference is not enough to prove that it is better than Orkut in every way. People who are big fans of Orkut have a number of things to say in its favour as well. Or rather I should be saying that these people have a number of things to say against Facebook. Some people are of the opinion that Facebook has too many things and thus is slow whereas Orkut is really very user friendly. Privacy options are not that strong and efficient in Orkut’s case, hence people are easily able to trace conversations through scraps etc. which makes it fun to use (don’t know if it is a good thing or not!). Moreover, the profile page and links on Orkut are much more systematic and organized. The Google tag attached with Orkut is a major advantage in itself. The name ‘Google’ is enough to build trust and attract users. More so, Orkut is said to be constantly improving and is considered to be introducing more and more features on a regular basis, which offers something new to its users every time.

The debate however remains open-ended. Which of these is better is completely an individual’s choice. So, whichever suits your needs and requirements better, just stick onto it. Happy Orkutting and Happy Facebooking! (If at all these two words exist!)
Cheers!

MySpace Marketing Riches

Social network marketing is undoubtedly becoming ‘the’ hot topic in Web Marketing. Lately, the Internet has proven to be a very powerful medium and because of its numerous advantages such as its speed, accessibility and the fact that it is simple to use…the internet has started to be used more than just a tool of information dissemination and a mode of entertainment. Today, the internet is synonymous with business!

And here steps in one of the most recent forms of Web Marketing- the social network marketing. Though the makers of these social networking websites, to name a few, Orkut MySpace, Hi5 etc. had developed such sites for the sole purpose of connecting with people and staying in touch with them; but I guess, the masterminds of business had already thought of drawing out more use out of them. Marketing.

The ‘Popularity’ Question

However, even marketing requires intelligence. And thus, a businessman has to be very selective as to which social networking website he is opting for in order to gain the maximum benefit. And when such a decision has to be made, the ‘popularity’ of the website is the most important aspect that has to be taken into account. MySpace definitely wins hands down in this regard.

MySpace all the way

In order to do effective marketing, MySpace proves to be one of the most favorite options. And that is because it is considered to have a pool of more than 100 million members! So, marketing through MySpace can reap you brilliant results because at least some part of this 100 million member pool will eventually be discovered as your prospective customers. The bottom line remains that more the number of people on a social network, the better are your chances of hooking up more customers!

Not only popularity, but the features and the services offered by MySpace to its users also act as an advantage for a person who is looking at MySpace as a business opportunity. Let us here take a look at some of those factors that make My Space the best bet in regard to Social marketing.

Magnifying your business exposure is much easier because the number of members on MySpace is huge. Thus, the probability of getting more customers only increases.

The amount of information that you wish to give through MySpace is unlimited. This is because MySpace does not limit the number of photos, videos or information that you wish to upload.

The features of sending out large scale bulletins or individual private messages (suit your need) makes it really easy for you to send information or the updates across to your customers.

The existence of a number of forums, groups or communities, each catering to a specific interest, helps you to locate your target audience much more easily. It is also believed that navigating through MySpace profiles is much easier than its competitors.

All in all, if you plan to do marketing through a social network, then go for MySpace. You might just end up becoming rich!

FACEBOOK: FASCINATING FACTS!!

It’s addictive. It’s addictive. And it’s addictive. And if one wishes to list down some more qualities or good things about Facebook, then he/she can say that its simple to use and because it has  such an enormous amount of members, it’s really very easy to find out the whereabouts of people you lost touch with long time ago! If these straight facts make you like Facebook so much, then read on. I am sure that the facts listed ahead in this post will make you fall in love with Facebook all over again!!!

Who had ever thought that the 24 year old Mark Zuckerberg had the potential to create something as big as Facebook (came into existence on February 4,2004) while he was still studying at Harvard! As a matter of fact, it’s actually not hard to believe. Zuckerberg had already built a music system ‘Synapse’ while he was still at high school. Synapse was capable of learning of one’s listening habits by using artificial intelligence. No wonder Microsoft and AOL wanted to buy it and recruit Zuckerberg right after his high school, but he surely had some other plans for his future!

No wonder that Forbes Magazine, in 2008, declared him as the “youngest billionaire on earth and possibly the youngest self-made billionaire ever”. And that too with an estimated net worth of $1.5 Billion USD! Some people are just born to become rich!

Very interestingly, Facebook is famous as “the sticky site”. This is simply because Facebook hooks onto its users in an amazing fashion. A study reveals that almost 65% of its users log into Facebook every single day and that an average Facebook user spends about twenty- one minutes per day social networking through this site. In fact, Canada has witnessed that its Facebook users spend almost thirty minutes every day social networking on Facebook. The height of its addictiveness is that its average user signs in about four times every day!

To add more to this saga, its facts reveal that Facebook’s size gets doubled every six months. This is so huge! With three hundred and fifty thousand new users joining Facebook every day, it does not come to us as a surprise that it’s the top photo sharing website with about 4.1 billion photos already uploaded. This is certainly going beyond my imagination!

Facebook only gets bigger and bigger. So, it does not surprise me that by November 2008, Facebook had more than 700 employees on its pay roll. With the company’s estimated worth of $15 Billion dollars, obviously Friendster, Yahoo and even Google bid for it but all their efforts went in vain.

Moreover, with such a huge pool of people at Facebook, it is an amazing medium for advertising. However, Microsoft is Facebook’s exclusive partner for serving banner advertisements.

On a contrary to its popularity, Syria had banned Facebook because it thought it might lead to propagation of terrorism and also feared Israeli penetration. Iran also followed the ban. Moreover, the Ontario Government blocked access to Facebook for its employees reasoning that it was affecting the productivity of its employees and that it was really not related to work!

I hope you enjoyed reading these facts about Facebook as much as I enjoyed writing them! Kudos!

Twitter: More Than a Social Networking Site

On World Wide Web there are numerous social networking websites competing with each other. These websites offers a platform for individuals to interact socially and to provide more detailed status updates to their friends, family and contacts. Twitter’s description is as follows:-

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking and a micro blogging platform on which you can build up links. Twitter was officially launched in October 2006 by Obvious and LLC. A user can send updates to twitter websites through SMS, instant messaging or by other social networking sites such as Face book, Orkut, etc. Updates will further be displayed on the users profile page within seconds. Once you are registered “you will follow others and others will follow you”. It’s a good way to stay in touch with your near and dear ones.

How to update a message?

When you log in to Twitter you will find a window on the home page where you can type the messages (up to 140 characters). After that click on the update button and your message will be received instantly by those who are logged in and have subscribed your updates (Vice-Versa).

What is the concept?

In Twitter you need someone whom you will follow. You can take on following process just by receiving their Twitter updates. For that you have to stay updated regarding your following status by just checking up the profile page of that person or click on the following link from your logged in home page. There can be distinct sources of following the updates such as via mobile phone, IM or on the web. In the same manner you can also possess followers. If you want to know about your followers then just set up your email preferences and notify the latest addition to your followers list. If you don’t want strangers to go through your updates then go to the settings and lock the same. Mobile phone updates are automatically protected until and unless you choose.

Specific terminologies used in Twitter

Short Code- These are specific numbers made for SMS and MMS messages. Short codes are mainly meant for text messages as Twitter utilize various short codes while sending or receiving the updates. User has to pay nominal charges for using the short codes.

Tracking- It is all about following a particular word as a result you will receive all the Twitters related to that. To get rid of the same you simply type untracked with the word and send.

Nudge- This term is given to the friendly reminder regarding Twitter’s update. Your followers or friends can nudge you to Twitter (nudge + username).

Auto Nudge- It’s an automatic self reminding update feature.

Direct Messages- It’s an option available for the user with the help of which one can directly send a message to the followers. This feature is very beneficial when your post directly pertains to an individual.

How can one endorse his/her products and services?

Twitter is definitely a very useful method for endorsing a new product launched by a company. For instance: If Reebok has launched its latest collection of sports wear than Twitter can be used for promotion. Imagine Reebok group where you can send a message each time you purchase a new product and send a code to a friend who will utilize it and he/she will further transfer it to his/her followers and the chain goes on. This way it will lead to sales generation.

Observation

Twitter is surely a useful addition to the web. And it’s now being recognized as a valuable marketing tool as well. There are several Twitter users following each other every day and must be sharing something or the other valuable which can further assist them in endorsing their products and services. So overall Twitter not just promotes social interaction but it also turned out as a great source for corporate marketing.

More on Social Networks!

Human beings are social animals. We feel like interacting with each other to exchange our views, ideas and share our knowledge with each other. In order to accomplish this, we need to communicate with each other, and the most effective, fast and affordable way to communicate with a large number of people across the globe is the World Wide Web, popularly known as the Internet. Traditionally, the Internet served as a knowledge base containing a lot of web sites, but there was no specific platform where people could meet with each other.

What are Social Networks?

Social networks are online communities where like-minded people share their views with each other online. Via social networking individuals can take part in online discussions. They exchange a large number of links with each other which increases the visibility, awareness and popularity of web sites. This directly benefits the business. The USP of online social networks is that a large number of people get a common platform for interacting with each other without moving out of their places physically. Social networking sites provide instant results about a variety of topics and resources. People can upload their photos, profiles, contact information, website and blog URLs etc. on social network sites.

Why Social Networks?

Social networks help in pulling out a large amount of traffic towards the websites. Some of the popular social network sites are Orkut, Hi5, Facebook, MySpace etc. Anyone can log on to these sites and create his profile for free. You can advertise your blogs, websites, products or any other services you like. Social Networks have become an essential part of internet users nowadays. If judiciously used, it can lead to high ROI without incurring too much cost.

Social networking has completely revolutionized the way of communication. It not only bridges the communication gap among millions of people, but it also provides an easy to use interface to make friends/groups, and manage them.

Major advantages of using social networks are:

Ø Easy to use

Ø Serves as a common platform to communicate with a large number of people simultaneously

Ø There is no discrimination on the basis of caste, religion, sex and ethical values. Everyone is invited to take part in online social meetings.

Ø Instant search results. One can find his/her friends online and can communicate with them via video conferences, chatting, audio conferences etc. You can also share files, photos, music etc. with each other in no time.

Ø Most of the social networking web sites offer free services. For eg. Orkut, Facebook etc.

Ø Social networks are one of the best ways to advertise a product in front of millions of internet users simultaneously. You can make use of multimedia to make the advertisements more captivating and convincing.

Ø One can exchange web links on social networks with large number of people in order to optimize his web site.

Effective marketing on social networks

Joining any one of the social networks or becoming a part of any one of them is surely not enough. You obviously want to get noticed by others…don’t you? If that’s the case then you need effective marketing. No, it’s not that complicated. Infact, the strategies for the same which are discussed below are as simple as a child’s play. However, before we get started there is one simple fact that needs to be understood before anything else; when connecting with people you need to realize that you are not getting versed with them as a whole but with their personalities.

Choose the best and then rest

Effective marketing starts with choosing the best social networking site. Try out every such site till the time you find the one which is in accordance with your personality. But once you are done with this work then please stick with it and be loyal to that network. DO NOT waste time trying out other networks even after finding out the best possible option.

Information Bombardment

Once you are a member of any social network, do not bombard others with loads of information about you. Be very selective, else the others might just start to lose interest in your profile. The information supplied should be interesting and entertaining. It should be something that shall engage your audience. DO NOT keep on blabbering about yourself.

This simple formula will help you increase your so called ‘fan following’. However, attracting them to your circle is one thing and keeping them with you is another. Make sure you deliver every time. You fail once, and you get back to square one.

Be True

The most important thing is that you need to be true. Selective sharing is needed but whatever you share with your audience should be true. Things which throw some light on your personality or your persona, or the way you actually are, if given to the audience in a subtle manner will be happily accepted.

It takes two to tango

We saved the best for the last. This strategy of effective marketing on a social network is the most helpful and the most useful. The very basic thing which needs to be understood here is that if you are there to build your network, to get noticed by people… the others are there to do the same thing. If you want people to visit your profile then start by doing the same thing for others. Visit others’ profiles, comment, participate… just make an effort to be in touch with them. You be loyal to them and they shall be loyal to you.

If you have not tried any of such strategies so far, then begin now. It’s never too late. And the guarantee is that you will get results. These strategies are, no doubt, effective…but it’s obvious that you will not believe them until you experience them yourself. Be wise enough. Give it a try and there shall be no turning back for sure.