A few days back came across a book reading session by an author at a nearby bookstore. The author turns out to be a Facebook friend and fellow blogger Amit Haralalka. Lately this is happening so often.
Another friend of mine Ankesh Kothari co-published Strategy Daddy sometime back. Its really surprising for me, cause for some reason I and probably others along with me tend to allot 'writing books' to other more older folk. Blogging is great... but actually writing a book.. naah!
Sahil Parikh, I have worked with at DeskAway recently published his book The Saas Edge and I have been seeing blogs and book reading sessions for the book all around the place! In fact I actually helped him with some data research for it!
So lately even I have been thinking of writing a book. For us bloggers its actually quite simple cause we can just blog it and then publish it. Saves all the tension of 'writing a book'!
Let me know if anyone can help me publish the book, I already have some ideas for it. ;)
Apart from that this is one more impact of social media where you start seeing so many other achievers that it inspires and actually makes you think 'hey maybe I can do that'! Its the same way I feel when I meet all those teen rockstars who have their companies going while they are yet in junior college!
The Facebooks Questions feature is amazing! It adds a totally new level of interactivity and virality to the social network.
It immediately reminded me of Quora which is mainly a QnA site. It allows asking questions on a page or personal profile also. This question goes out as a poll or ask a detailed question.
You can then message your friends to answer the questions something like Linkedin offers. (This is hugely viral for a FB page admin to use)
When replying to my friends question I can choose poll option and also give a detailed reply. 
I can then publish the answer over to my wall. Another good thing is that I can see all other questions (should we raise privacy concerns here?) when typing my own.
I thought this would be a simple feature but on exploring I think a lot of things can be done using it. What do you think of this feature?
Managing many twitter accounts... one thing I have realized whether it is lead generation, conversing or building followers it all boils down to every individual tweet... whether that one tweet is interesting enough to gain a reply, spike the persons curiosity or even get them to follow.
Its all about those 140 characters.
No, I am not exaggerating, cause I have seen it in so many different situations and platforms. The same message wrapped in a different way - lose the 'pitching attitude' from it or become that tad bit informal and all of a sudden there is a real JUMP in how successful it is.
Crucial to take the time and pay attention to the conversation, how you are forming your words and then your sentences. After we take that much care.. it boils down to the listener/reader...
As listeners we need to give people a chance, cause they may be bad with simple semantics.. so look beyond the words at the aura :D (sorry that was a joke... the joke is that I don't really know how we can look beyond the words... I mean its damn tough to gauge a persons 'heart' or real intentions at least for me..)
What do you think guys and girls... ever seen this when socializing over new media?
Its a little troublesome as whenever there is Linkedin activity for a client I like to join 5 to 6 relevant groups... this way the cap is quite easily reached! This made me innovate and now I only join one prominent and happening group relevant to the client to get tips, insights and reap various other benefits.
JTMG Syndrome
This 50 Group limit is actually good to avoid 'Joining Too Many Groups' Syndrome which is rampant on Facebook. People are just joining pages, groups (now of course others add me to their groups which leads to massive spam attacks but thats a different matter). Once joined often they never return to the page or interact on it. Leading to the high fan numbers but really low interactivity challenges which all fan pages have. This sort of a limit to joining groups ensures that you take the feature seriously.
Now on Linkedin I see the temptation to join some friends or contacts group but I resist, cause I know I will probably not visit that group nor interact on it.. cause after all its not of any real use for me. I actually want such a feature on Facebook cause it makes sense!
For the groups on Linkedin this has at least two implications:
1. Lesser Spam (as people become more choosy about which groups to spam)
2. They need to provide a clear value.... (as people will be more choosy)
What do you think about such caps? Do you think it hampers our activities on social networks or do you think they could breed actual productivity.
Now a days whenever I introduce myself to people (who are internet active) I always add my twitter handle. Initially I thought it was weird as many people barely know Twitter. On thinking further, I find one benefit of telling the Twitter handle is that it gives a clear connect to me. Like if they wanna talk more etc.. we can always connect on Twitter. Its really the only way I can actually be in contact with people I meet for a short time.
Also this sort of brings internet savvy people closer to Twitter. So more people to do masti with :) (Muhahahah)
Actually the deeper reason is that my introduction feels more complete when I add a Twitter handle (a point of contact with me) cause frankly I cannot say 4-5 lines and sum myself up! I have stuff happening in many different aspects of myself.
This new media gives us tools to be in touch with a lot of contacts without making it to time or resource consuming may as well use it.
Linkedin has tested out its revamped group UI. The new features have made the groups 50% more active in the tests. So looking forward to see these features in action.
The video below takes you through the new features to be introduced,
I think its very good stuff. Putting the featured discussions on the right hand side and popular ones prominently on the main bar improves the layout a lot.
The scroll format makes a lot of sense as it makes many discussions more visible.
Also the top active members get to gain a lot here. They get shown on the lower right hand corner which is kinda like the hall of fame box which many members will want to feature on. Its also good information for the admin to have!
Got a brainwave! (read about my other brainwaves here) :D
I was browsing Mashable (don't we all social media buggers?) and came across this headline,
The idea is to make different sort of web pages with different pictorial content, colors, shapes, even different written content. Any users clicks are recorded, as in where he clicks, which topics he seems to like, which colors does he click more often etc.. etc...
The layout of the entire website and the web page content and theme should be such that the users browsing says much about his personality, likes and interests. All his clicks are recorded and then using an intelligent algorithm his personality is charted out. Then according to these personality charts people are paired.
How does it sound? Do you think you might 'Click' with someone with similar 'Clicks' on a website??
Social Networking and Gaming, my two passions combined and mixed with Stocks brings Empire Avenue! Anyone can sign up for free and create their own Stock, for themselves or in the name of their company! We can then aggregate our social presence like Twitter, Blog, Facebook to it, so people can see what we are doing online and figure whether to buy our stock and/or follow us.
So it has two way influence one is that our online activities on Twitter, Facebook help us in the game, and vice versa doing well in the game can get us visibility in our real, virtual lives! Cool!
I have 3 free invites to the game so if you are interested let me know in the comments or through the contact me link in the header of this blog!
EAVB_BAUGOOZMOH
From quite sometime there is some idea of Semantic web aka web 3.0 floating about. Here is a video about it which sheds some light on the concept. It covers different perspectives...
Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.
via @jangles from here
I have previously written about using LinkedIn and marketing on LinkedIn, today planning to touch open two aspects of LinkedIn i.e. recommendations and introductions,
Recommendations
This is one of the salient aspects of social media, it is also the basis of word of mouth marketing. Lot of what is passed back and forth are recommendations (people ask for it and give it).
I did not see much purport to this recommendation feature in LinkedIn. Its a little like testimonial feature in Orkut. The thing is mostly friends write good stuff about you, if they wrote bad stuff you would delete it! :P
I was having a talk with my uncle who is newly on LinkedIn and we were talking about this recommendation stuff. In that I began to realize the importance and weight of a recommendation. If we recommend someone who is not doing a good job just because he is my friend (I have done that) it could lower value of my recommendations in the eyes of someone who tries out my friends services and finds it wanting!
Its a little difficult but valuable lesson to learn that friends might sometimes suck at their work!
So recommend people you truly feel are worth it! I however, do like the heartiness of how friends stand up for you and recommend you even when they dont know your work. Without that life would be a less warm! What say?
Introductions
Another salient feature of LinkedIn. In order to contact somebody, we can see if they are 2nd degree from us, that means one of our contacts is their contact. So we can get our friend to introduce us to that person...
I had as yet never used this feature, but now I have been doing so to contact clients for DigiWhirl. Lets see how it works! :)
Everyone keeps talking about Facebook, and how it is growing. Though a lot of the talk is also about its lousy privacy setting changes and all that.
Recently I came across an article that Skype is bigger than Facebook.
Facebook has a big habit of going around reminding everyone that it has cracked the 400 million registered accounts benchmark. (they say “users”, and I say “registered accounts” because I know numerous people who have more than one account for reasons such as forgetting their original login information) But over at Skype they might snicker at that number as the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service has bypassed 560 million accounts. Read More.
That got me thinking, about Skype. Recently I have started my own digital media company along with a friend in Hyderabad. The last time I met this friend it was about 3 years ago. We kept in touch via phone, but obviously for company planning phone talks become too expensive. So we have switched to Skype!
And.. its very cool, their color theme (sky blue!), service, features, user interface. All in all creates a very good product! This article however made me think of its marketing side. As the article mentions,
Skype and Facebook are very different creatures, but it’s interesting to see how large a company that provides an actually useful service can get bigger than one who’s apparent key reasons for existing are for you to share embarrassing photos of yourself and tend a virtual farm. Skype has also not felt a need to try to weasel its way into every corner of the Web with questionable tools that track your movement from site-to-site, or manipulate your profile because you click a “Like” button somewhere. Skype just exists. If you choose to use it, great, but if you don’t, they aren’t in your face about it.
This made me think that these are the aspects that make a 'Brand'. The aggressiveness in marketing campaigns or lack of it, whether they are pushy, do they provide value or do they play to people ego's, have they copied other services or are they original etc...
This is important, cause even though I use Facebook more than Skype I think FB is crappy. Someday if there is some other alternative I would gladly shift.
To change Skype I need too much reason. Only if another product is much better or some such would I change to that.
Just pinged @mehulved on Twitter to find out whats up with India's biggest cycling network as Ning becomes paid only. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, this cyclists network is currently based on Ning.
It became an interesting talk about Ning migration ideas, take a look, (the tweets without a profile shot are mine)
So I guess you can ping @mehulved or @iphonefresh if you also have a Ning account and wanna migrate.
Ning is a platform that allows people to easily create their own social networks or groups. I myself am part of many networks there, one of the prominent ones being cyclists.in for cyclists around India. Though the signing up is a lil problem cause I have to sign in everytime to comment or read discussions.
Recently they have announced they will be ending their free service which is quite sad. Must be a shock for quite a few people! Some time back there were similar ideas about Facebook that they might start charging. I think it wouldn't be a good idea at all cause
- Adoption
There are newer areas that are still slowly adopting the network who will now bypass it and look elsewhere.
- Elitism
Many people would get out of the network leaving it for 'elites'. This however could be a good thing, as it would ensure ingenuity of the members. Even if there were blatant marketeers there, then they would be only the high end ones :P
Here is an article on BlogHer that has a list of other sites that can be used instead of Ning to create groups or social networks. What do you think about Ning turning into a paid service?
Too much web stuff blogged yesterday. About time I shared my TEDxMumbai experience,
The event was at a well known place called The Blue Frog, where I had never been before. Yes strange as it may sound to some, my 'night life' mostly extends to staying awake for MahaShivratri :D
Well the The Blue Frog Audi is very nice, dim lighting but all in all gave a cozy feel to the place. I had met the speakers the previous night where the incident with Lakshmi took place, (I did not know it happened cause I was talking to a speaker about some great tips he was giving for Hamara Footpath. Dim that I am, didn't see anything strange in the entire room just walking out all of a sudden) Let me mention here that from what I saw, Lakshmi is a very nice person who speaks to everyone with a smile.
Coming back to TEDx, I had spoken to the speakers and thought they were pretty amazing bunch of people, but was not sure how their talks would go. As the day proceeded it was a little mind blowing in many ways.
The talks were fantastic which you will see as the videos come out.
Also to mention is that I have volunteered a lot and this was one of the best events I have helped out at.
The team I was working with were just so very accessible, and open to whatever I had to say. They were very friendly and helpful!
There were moments where I had goosebumps and tears welling up due to a touching talk, or cause I had bumped into someone really serendipitous ( I am not joking, will talk about some of the contacts I made and how they have helped me with my NGO in other blog posts) and there was a warm feeling of being part of a really nice team.
And so... that was how this Saturday went for me! I am now left with wanting to blog about each individual talk, but have time constraints.
I also need to sift through all the contacts I made and follow on the very, very helpful tips they gave for Hamara Footpath!
So guys, again if you haven't already, do check out TED.com, and stay tuned for the videos of TEDxMumbai.
Information Week writes that LinkedIN Indian users are now over 5 million! I am seeing LinkedIN becoming popular with Indian users. A lot of my friends most of them non-social network savvy are signing up and adding me as contact.
I also know companies that are recruiting via LinkedIN especially in the IT sector. Currently in small numbers, but in time the HR and recruitment guys will make their way to LinkedIN and use it as a great way to source talent.
I also came across a LI type Indian network for professionals called Brijj. This one boasts of 30 lakh + users. I have read in many social media articles that networking on niche networks apart from the leading FB, Twtr and LI is often very profitable. So I have signed up on this Brijj and will be checking it out! Will let you know if I come across anything interesting!
Are you on LinkedIN, if so how do you utilize it?
Chris Brogan recently wrote a post Redrawing, where he mentions how corresponding and responding to every tweet, blog comment, email and message is too much for him and he will have to cut down. Well he is taking this step late :p cause I stopped doing that some time back. I do give it a lot of time, but there is an order of hierarchy to which I respond. I am going to give it out here, so you can make the best advantage of that :D If you do I might then have to change it though!
Email: I read everything, but replying to all is seriously difficult due to 'Inbox Overload'. This is still I think the best way to get in touch with me, anyone can send me an email from the Contact form (link on the header).
Twitter and Facebook: I respond to almost everything on these. I said 'almost' cause often there are lot of messages which perplex me, I don't know what to reply so I often stay mute.
Responding to Facebook messages has become easier after their new layout, before I did not reply to those promptly either.
Blog Comments: I read all of them, I may not reply sometimes cause I feel often these comments are not direct messages to ME. It is more for the article, so they will be useful for the next readers.
LinkedIN: Low response rate, in fact even now I know there are couple of messages waiting there for about a week. Couple of them are job offers, but sorry guys I barely sign into linkedIN, when I do I check out my Groups and such. I pretty much forget to reply, also I don't like the message replying user interface on LinkedIN.
IM: I remain invisible on Gchat and Facebook chat. Once in a while I open the gates and go visible with Pidgin...
This hierarchy of course, is Moot if the content of the message is very important or striking.
What about you people? Do you prioritize messages according to the medium you receive them from?
What does a fish know about wind farms? Well I just learned today:
When traveling in his school of fish, Nemo (remember Finding Nemo?) is participating in the Karman vortex street – an aerodynamic phenomenon that keeps school of fish synchronized and reduces the total propulsive power needed per fish. This anecdotal evidence proves that by putting wind turbines closer together – there is actually potential to create more energy instead of less. Read More.
Its a pretty awesome read on how answers to harnessing the Wind might lie in the Water. The basic principle behind it is to see that Wind and Water are both dynamically moving forces, (I guess).
This is something I feel all companies should be doing -- looking in different directions. Many times, we find inspiration in the most un-thought of area.
Even in social media, I have taken a sort of liking to SlideShare. So when I was into playing Mafia Wars and Farmville, I just made some presentations on SlideShare about the games. Today I got a email from them saying my ppt was Hot on Facebook and was on the homepage of SlideShare for a while.
With web 2.0, connections are being built all the time, as I tweet a URL I create a backlink to the site, friending someone brings a huge number of his friends in my periphery etc.. So I feel we always have to keep looking around and trying new stuff! Who knows where the answers might lie!
Easy integration with Google
Contacts that don't read blogs but check emails are nowing reading blogs and commenting to them on Buzz itself! I have gotten comments from couple of such people!
Though I have heard some people complain that business contacts can read their personal blogs etc... I really don't think thats a problem cause you can choose whether or not to share a site on Buzz.
Rise of the Microblogger from the Inbox
SMS microblogging, using API's all helps people use Twitter, however so many people open a twitter account and it dies down, now they don't have to open an account! I have seen many of my contacts who are dormant on Twitter are all of a sudden microblogging on Buzz!
Easy commenting from the email itself
Comments to Buzz posts come as an email and I can reply to it from the email itself. Now facebook has that feature but its late in its coming, I have already stopped FB notifications for comments!
The ease of use is awesome.
No need to make contacts
All the email contacts and any person has some Gmail contacts for sure, are all on Buzz. Moreover they will get the notifications by default unless they unfollow you.
Often people sign onto Twitter and they don't know what to do, cause they don't have friends there. Especially in India I know many who barely have any of their friends on Twitter. With Buzz there is an inbuilt community already!
Makes your email into a Community!
Man is a social animal and Buzz makes the inbox into a social community. I am genuinely liking it, as I have seen some contacts I never see active on social networks actually update!
What are your thoughts about Buzz?
Just had some little time to kill, I thought I could check out FourSquare. Location based social media is said to be the NEXT BIG THING.
FourSquare is a social network that basically asks you where you are. They have apps (for iPhone, BB, Android and Palm Pre) that use GPS to allow you to pinpoint where you are on a map of the surrounding area and share it on your network. This works for anywhere in the world! If the place you are is not marked on it, you can add it yourself. Sounds cool!
It has Facebook Connect which makes the sign up easier and you can share your location updates on Facebook. 
Some Questions to look at later: How useful it is and what abt the problem of umm unnhh (whisper) Stalking?
So now I am trying to figure out which 'portable equipment that can connect to the World Wide Web on the move' I should be using! I mean a Blackberry, iPhone, iPad or mini laptop.
I want to go for an iPad but from what I have heard it will be in India only around June. So I can go for a Blackberry now or an iPhone? Yet, what do I do once the iPad comes out?
Bummer! I think I need to write down my needs exactly and then figure out... so while I do that you can let me know if you have any thoughts about the iPhone, BB, mini laptop or iPad. Also are you on Foursquare or any other location based social network?
I should be attending the Blog Camp happening in Mumbai this Saturday. If you are in the city, do drop in, cause if you are reading blogs :) then you might find it interesting.
These blog camps are quite interesting, not too techie as I had first imagined. In fact it was after my previous and first blog camp that I made quite a few friends who searched me out on Twitter and then I actually found some use to the service. Otherwise being on twitter when none of your friends are on it is pretty dull!
There are various session taken by anyone who wants to, they talk about things varying from information access on the internet to how blogging helps to why some people just can't sustain blogging and more...
Here you can check out all the info and sign up for it too. :)
