I must confess, this post is not going to be the sweetest in the line.

Recently I read an article at Alootechie a famed site which Iv been following since sometime and have admired their content, on, “are social media training companies helping”? Hold…hold your thought…lets revise it again!

Social Media Marketing/ Digital Media marketing companies, training people/ corporate/ employees in using the New Media??

Learn Social Media in 2 days!! I must confess, Iv been working in the New Media domain since quite sometime now and I still learn new things each day, evolving with people around! Networking with people who have done one thing or the other which has proven successful. And I still wont say that I know enough!

Before we go ahead, a question to these trainers?!

Give me 5 successful case studies of clients you have served and when I say successful, I dont mean, raising pageviews or traffic. Also give me 5 super failures that you had while you were associated with the New Media?!

I recently got a mail from one leading company’s past clients’ saying that we just could not understand what happened, for us it was a waste of an activity as we still dont know after so many months, what went right or what went wrong!

– this is one such training company quoted in the Alootechie article

We recently fired our PR agency who was also doing the social media for our events, they did deliver but they were trying the social media on us, there were no results they could show – a leading events company

– this is one of the leading PR agencies of which almost everyone would know

Okay, these are just two of the interactions which Im putting here! I meet so many people daily and interact with several of them and many of them have the same response.

The entire New Media industry is going in a way which many call in the corporate lingo, you scratch my back and I scratch yours, and this keeps on till something like: one tight slap comes like an MTV does!

I recently saw a presentation from one of these social media training companies, which uses the “video” content of a foreign company, without any credits to them! This is what you teach to your people guys?!! Take others content and use it commercially, without even letting the owner know?!!

- I actually went and connected with the owner of the content and notified him about it, to which strangely his response was, we can’t help it as Indian laws dont protect content!

And now for these self confessed Social Media Marketing/ Digital Media Marketing companies

No doubts, some of these guys have done real good work, I know personally some of them. But the rest, and again I know personally these “rest” are making hay while the sun shines! And why do I say that?

Well, in a previous post, I showed how these companies are employing graduates/ freshers, people from varied backgrounds, to create the marketing communications online, for your brand?!

My honest advice for Clients, who are investing money to explore the new Media: Please go to Linkedin and do a strong check of the people who will be executing your brand on the social media, as many of them dont even have the word brand remotely connected to their profiles!!!

And now for the employees

Last night I was looking at some employees of these social media marketing companies, of which I could personally think of and found their “core social media team” was missing from twitter

These companies have no search results on twitter, isnt’ that strange?!

Why did I write such a damning post?

Well, coz all such efforts are actually harming the Industry, rather than improving it. The Indian consumer reacts to logical use of the New Media like a commodity like fruits and vegetables, negotiating at each stage. A client who has burnt his. her hands (not just fingers) before, becomes much averse to the New Media and hence goes very cautious the next time.

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Especially, its amazing to see how the Indian Corporate and Industry Associations like NASSCOM have come together towards creation of an interesting ecosystem, which is improving not only the lifestyle for many but also is a big and a bold investment in India’s future.

Recently we came across this campaign called the CyberCity Welfare Society, which is been driven by NASSCOM and major corporate members based out of Gurgaon (the Cyber City) which aims at making life easier, smooth and greener on the roads of Gurgaon.

What caught our eye was the fact that not only the corporate, but this time around, the Police and the Municipal Associations have been actively involved in the campaign,  hence making sure that the voices are heard at the highest levels. Such an initiative has not been head of before and we are sure, such steps will go a long way in the future towards creating effective change.

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When I was pursuing my bachelors, Microsoft was a name which resounded like a dream coming true and a company to work with.

A couple of days back when @billgates joined twitter, I was looking at what comments have people to make and it was interesting to see how someone who may not stand even an inch to where @billgates does (whatever it may be, I respect the man, a self made achiever). There were all sorts of comments starting from welcoming him, to people talking about their Apple iPODs and the downfall of the Microsoft era.

At a recent conference which I blogged, one of the highly placed speakers, Founder of a Cloud based business application services company from India, had a bold statement to make, that MS is going to be history soon. At that time, I may not have had the understanding of the real dynamics of his statement, but today as I get to know more about the deep mess, I realize how things have shaped up and being a person I am, I still think, MS has all the chances in the world to fight back.

While reading an interesting post by a previous MS employee at the New York Times as to how MS lead to creative destruction, I was not much shocked at the story, as it was something, I knew from my interaction with many similar others.

In multiple minds, while writing this post, I am an entrepreneur and run a startup and I understand how the leadership of a company truly affects the entire structure and hierarchy. The mindset, the culture. Almost each one of us today has grown up, seeing the Office, Windows OS, though today the quality has gone down, there is no innovation and we have stopped expecting the days when Microsoft was supposed to be telling the future.

Though being an optimist, I again want the company to bounce back, fight the clutter. There is nothing really impossible. Its a shift required at a large scale, but that is what is required, otherwise this would make for the saddest story in business.

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While writing this, I am filled with mixed emotions, enraged yet trying to calm myself. Tearful for the many people who lost their lives, their loved ones, and yet being strong at hwo we have out grown the past and we are surging ahead.

YES, I DAMN those few cowards….those bast***s, who have nothing else worthwhile to do in life and then we have a kasab asking for forgiveness and showing emotions by writing to his mother

The PAST is no more and we all have moved on, but memories still remain, forever and ever….and I think my emotions and answer is well captured below:

I salute our brave soldiers, the great souls, the relatives who are still there and with a tear of happiness, rememberance, future but NO FEAR in my eye, I dedicate my support, to my life – my India!!

Jai Hind!!

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A seasoned telecom professional, Sidhartha has been a key figure in the Indian Mobile VAS space and has over a decade of experience in the Telecom industry, globally.

VASJobs started as a portal, aimed at creating the right value for the Mobile VAS industry which is niche and hence demands top class talent, which becomes a time consuming activity in itself. VASJobs fills this need-gap in the market, Says Sidhartha.

With the VAS industry growing and the decreasing ARPU’s, innovation is bound to increase and there will be an ever expanding need for professionals who move with the times and own a good understanding of the domain. This is what we aim at leveraging through VASJobs.com, said Sidhartha, while on phone from Assam.

Commenting upon the existing platform, Sidhartha showed, some of the most noted names in the Indian Mobile VAS domain to be listing jobs on the site and says from his experience that the concept has been proven now, that there surely is an existing Gap, which will keep increasing and needs to be answered to, so that companies innovate and create services for the Billion Mobile users we will have in India int he coming years.

The start-up experience is nothing new for Sidhartha, but the excitement is still in full flow, as Sidhartha talks about how a team of 3 is managing the portal and he is looking at expading fast. Interstingly Sidhartha, also mentions how VASJobs is parnering with events, creating much value for them, providing access to the relevant market.

With the proven success story in WirelessDuniya, Sidhartha is on track with creating another online success with VASJobs.com and I wish him all the luck.

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Single available women and Get Sexy Babes on Your Desktop for Free and Looking for a girlfriend??! SHOCKING?? Well, yes, it is. I know of many a parents who are in the search for the suitable matches for their children and this is what the social networking site facebook says about this famous matrimonial site.

Let me put things in perspective now. While going through the facebook Ads, and randomly clicking on an Ad which said Single Available Women, was not my thing, but when it said, find your soulmate today at Shaadi free, I was hooked.

Is this a DATING site, I am going to? This is how my profile will be shown on an Ad tomorrow? Is this where I wish to find the best match for my son/daughter who are my future?

Is Shaadi.com not even clear about who they want to target the site to?

I today question the working of these so called matrimonial sites. I remember one of my research team members doing a research on matrimonial sites, sometime back, while I was consulting a new free matrimonial website in India, though I never knew this is what they will resort to, for generating traffic to their site.

Would you ever want your daughter’s picture on one of these Ads, saying Single Available Women!

I understand and agree that “Single available women” simply says that we have single women who are available for marriage on our site, but I protest by saying that there are better ways of putting across the message.

I have my own personal profile on Shaadi.com, though I dont use it and neither I would ever, but today I have a major doubt on their ethics. I dont know if my personal details are being shared across with some other site?

Just to earn clicks if this is what a site can resort to, to earn money they can resort to sharing personal data as well?!

The above captured URL’s (which have been sent to me, by a great friend, who is the founder of one of the best Design companies, and hence could capture the fast changing and re-directing URL’s) are PROOF how Shaadi.com guys are using indirect re-directs through third party hosts, to make you land up to their “Sexy Babes on Your Desktop” register page.

I call upon followers to show concern, as this is a matter of high priority where a single mis-representation of someone’s identity could harm an entire families reputation.

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Today I again am excited to bring forth the high worth and value knowledge which gets created at the NASSCOM EMERGE Friday’s 2.0 and am glad to be making it alive for all of you who could not be present at the session, though we would love to have more participation along and expand the community.

Today we have Ulrich Bäumer, Partner, Osborne Clarke and BITKOM representative and Asha-Maria Sharma, Senior Manager, Service Industries, Germany Trade and Invest GmbH, giving us an insight into the German ICT environment and business verticals for partnership as identified by Germany Trade And Investment (GTAI) for Indian companies and important aspects of What works and what doesn’t in M&A, overview of the legal and practical ways of doing business in Germany.

The room is full and well, its interesting to know how many people in the room want to understand the German market. So we have the session with a brief introduction on what Germany Trade and Invest is.

• Promoting Germany’s advantages as a prime location for foreign investors in hi-tech industries
• Collecting and processing economic data and information about industries, tender procedures, legaal frameworks etc.

Interestingly, the investors consultancy part of the company, is into much diversified scope:

• Renewable Energies and Resources
• Chemicals and Healthcare
• Mechanical and Electronic
• Service Industries

We are now getting to know what it is all about being in Germany, with the geographical location to the travel time. To know how blackberry and Vodafone and such large companies are actually settling in Germany. Pros and Cons of different places for your business ill be different and you need to understand that, with relevance to your business.

We are talking clusters in Germany now, I am interested to know this space, as its pretty big a space in India as well and some really interesting work is on with respect to them.

Germany offers different incentive packages to re-imburse an investment project’s expenditures

With the market volume of above 133 billion Euros Germany’s ICT industry ranks second in Europe. These are interesting figures. in 2008 German companies closed a good number of BPO and IT deals, hence there is a plenty of space.

Germany is the most lucrative software market in Europe, accounting for 26.1% of the EU market value. We are talking about the diversification of software market in Germany.

There is a good presence of the SME industry in Germany and it could surely be of interest to many of you

Talking Green!

Green ideas in IT and Green through IT, is what we are working on this and should you have products under this umbrella, you should definitely explore Germany.

Software Security is one area which we are really concerned about. We have had cases with data loses with social networks and as anyone, we Germans are surely much sensitive about our personal information, hence there is good space in the domain. Embedded systems market is of a fairly good size in Germany and you will also find clusters in the Southern part related to the domain.

Germany has by far the highest number of internet users in Europe creating large potential for business

• E-commerce
• Gaming market
• Online Advertising

I am personally amazed with the numbers on the slides, especially for the gaming and online advertising, which is showing a huge surge. German companies are moving from Print to Online.

• Market growth areas: Green IT + E-Energy + E-health
• Mobil apps: Increase in non-voice-services
• Embedded systems
• IT Services and Software

And now we are talking about the automotive industry in Germany, which to mention also is the home for Mercedez. The small manufacturers are spread across Germany and there is no one hub/ cluster.

I suggest the best way to get in touch is to attend conferences and other events to know the suppliers and other specific information you require about your business.

And now we have Ulrich, thanking everyone in the room, for whom this is the 12th visit to India. I advise SME’s in Germany also to get to India. And Ulrich shares the agenda for the session:

Interestingly we are going to discuss, Co-operation between Indian and German Companies. We have a very different law in Germany and its completely different in almost every way than what you have in India. Hence you need to understand the basic laws which are very important before you sign up your first customer in India.

You must definitely thank your peer Indian IT companies, who ventured into Germany 10-15 years back, coz they had to persuade German people, for the price and quality and hence for you guys its easier now to reach out to the German companies, which buy Indian IT not just because of the price, but for the quality as well.

So we have started with the introduction for the Law company which is Osborne Clarke. Very ineresting to know how many people they have helped set up in Germany. There are surely some very interesting and Big Indian names on the list that we have on screen.

Co-operation in Germany

• Merger
• Acquisition
• JV
• Partnership
• Build Operate Transfer – It Outsourcing
• Indo-German Strategic Alliance

Many of our M&A’s have been extremely successful and have been running for 10-15 years. Ulrich is sharing the previous success stories that they have created, and these also include some real big Indian corporate names.

So now we are discussing Common Law and Civil Laws in Germany which are surely an absolute necessity for you to set up in Germany.

Common Law (inductive)

Problem -> Judgement -> Ratio decidendi

Civil Law (deductive)

Statute -> Problem -> Application

I am very impressed with the way, Ulrich has simply explained the entire difference between the Common and Civil Laws and how can you in simple measures look at what you can expect when you reach the German shores, or establish out of India. Ulrich is very interestingly raised the awareness of the people in the room and sure all are all ears!

Now we are getting an insight into the European Legal System. Well, sure the German Law is definitely different from how we operate in India. And now gets answered the question, of many a people who wanted to know about Branch offices and how to set them up in Germany.

The outsourcing market is growing in Germany and I think in 2010 the curve will continue to grow up

Good to see how the Indian IT Services industry has grown and set foot in Germany. And well this figure has raised since 2007. Service providers have now crossed out to the other side.

Have you ever thought about off-shoring: 27% of the part said to this that they have larger projects already LIVE which have been off-shored. If we do off-shoring, we do it to India, is what the 67% of the people who answered this sample survey said. Some really interesting figures, being shared by Ulrich.

I personally dont see a single Chinese company, to overtake any of the large Indian IT service companies. China will NOT be a challenge in the near future for the Indian ITeS market.

In the Non Voice market, I dont see players as large as those in India, challenging the Indian players.

Language barrier is a comfort issue, in my experience it has been like: 80% of the deals across the table have happened in English. Its always good to have a native speaker, but its not a necessity.

Ulrich again shares the 8 key issues which you can face in your outsourcing contract in Germany.

• warranty
• Liability
• Acceptance
• Delay
• Change requests
• etc.

Talking about warranty, liability and guaranty. Well, yes the entire room is interested in this conversation. Ulrich presents the whole idea of liability with very simply presented examples. Well liability without any limitation under German law, implies fully, if you have not mentioned anything about it in your contract. Eyes get raised at such a point.

The data protection laws in Germany are surely something to learn from. The labour laws are surely pretty strict in Germany. The session is interactive and there are good questions coming from the audience.

And now we end with the session with the audience still very interested and questions pouring in with respect to IPR and other related to the IT services.

Its been a good session and I feel good to know about Business in Germany, thanks to Asha and Ulrich for their precious time.

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Just sometime back, my strategy team did a search on the keywords, Social Media and India, and what we got were people who have sometime or the other in their professional lifetime, related to the Social Media industry. And since Social Media is not an age old concept, thus we started looking at the profiles of people who are currently into the profession.

To my UTTER AMAZE, the profiles, I was given were an absolute NO, if they were to handle my brand strategy not just on the internet but everywhere else. Interestingly, these people are recruited by not just the small Social Media ’shops’ but the biggies in the business as well. Positioned highly, these guys are given fancy terms and well, the customer is sold!

Let me bring more clarity by looking at certain aspects of what my strategy team gave me, post the data analysis:

• Education
  • Majority of these people have not done management (which I am not suggesting is necessary)
  • 80% of them, do not have the words, Branding Consultant, Marketing, Positioning, Product life cycle, etc in their summary/ profiles
• Current
  • The current profiles are all Social Media Strategist, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Executive
• Past
  • There are people from BPO, from Technology, Adventure Tourism, Operations who are handling your So called Social Media Branding and Online Branding and Brand Creation and what not
• Experience
  • Most of these people are fresh (1-3 years) of experience and are running the show

In my personal view, I completely agree that innovative thinking, creativity are needed, but is it that you will hand over your brand in the hands of someone who does NOT even understand what Brand stands for?!

This revelation by the team, surely opened my eyes towards how is the New Media industry being structured and shaping up. We are playing on chances and one of running successes.

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Though while on the way I connected with some online marketers on the flight back and here I am writing a piece which I have wanted to since sometime now!

Let me start by saying: Branding and Obscenity are Pretty Much the Same

Why do I say this? Well, the guy sitting right next to me looked at a book I was reading, which was about Branding and how radical concepts have changed consumer perception overtime. I was reading a few case studies and making notes, for a couple of Offline Branding Campaigns I am working on. Now suddenly this guy shoots, about how he is an Online Marketer and does handles campaigns online and how his firm has been doing lots of work.

Without an introduction, I heard him as a client, and asked queries, and he started telling me about how Google helps, SEO, PPC and SMM works. Especially SMM, which we also know by Social Media Marketing. Since I was in the Case Study mode, I posed a question:

Give me 4 solid case studies with the ROI that you have generated for the client or where you have actually gone back to the client telling him that he needed offline/ other marketing techniques as well, and how did you execute it!

And this gentleman starts discussing the best works he has done. A viral campaign, which had x number of hits…Helped a company generate these many leads online (which he had no ideas, of how much was the conversion).

Anyway, being a good listener, I patiently heard him, and then asked another question:

What is the difference between Branding and Marketing and why did some of his campaigns did not survive and what he then suggested to those clients?

I am NOT generalizing this, but I have been interacting with Online Marketers, majority of them in their late 20’s and early 30’s who have had no experience of raising a brand. Who have not seen the entire cycle, boasting about serving the Indian SME in scaling up.

I have been into the Social Media scene, since sometime now, and have struggled with the statistics, which I could really go back with, to a client and suggest him, this is where you should increase/ decrease your marketing spend and this is what you should look at diversifying.

I have NEVER heard from an Online Marketer that they have ever gone back to the client telling them, that look you product needs this, as this is what you customer is looking for on the internet

Majority of Online Marketing companies optimize campaigns according to what the clients are searching a product/ service with. Well, I challenge this thought. How do you that it was the right consumer who was searching this term which you just took from suggestions which Google Adwords provide you.

Branding – YES, Social Media helps You do Just That

Okay, so now I have my Branding lessons on. I get to know how Branding is established, online:

• a page/ profile on facebook
• an account on twitter
• targeted Ads on blogs/ sites
• ghost writing on discussion forums etc.
• videos on YouTube
• ppts on Slideshare
• photos on flickr

And if you still cannot achieve traffic numbers, well, go and post this content on various multiple platforms which are identical, so your content will be looked upon by more and more people an chances by simple probability to achieve are higher.

Okay, so I understand probability, but I am still not convinced with this number generation method, I remarked.

I am a Social Media guy and I have a problem with how things are going in India today

Okay, so for all those, who feel I have a personal bias, I have explored the online media to a good extent and hence I write my thoughts here. Majority of bloggers, social media experts/ evangelists/ marketers, strategists, have not had any Branding experience and talk Brand all the time. I have a particular issue with this, as many a times, what they dont realize is they can grow only if their client(S) grow.

Online is the new thing – you have to get on Social Media coz DELL made 3 million dollars from twitter

This is what I have heard from every religious online marketer, I have interacted with, who is pitching to any business from technology to holiday to whatever. Coz DELL did it, hence the opportunity exists and as in India, a small company thinks, even if I can achieve 30% of this, at a low cost, well I will make decent numbers.

And what happens month on month when you go ahead with Online Marketing for your business

• MONTH 1
  • Both the online marketing agency and the client are excited, many things happening around, online training, blogs building up, google ads, higher listing on search engines WOW
    • The marketer goes back and shares the numbers:
    • number of blogs, number of blog posts, google ads numbers, how they got the company(s) site(S) listed high on search engines on specific keywords
• Month2
  • Create content | POST it – HOST it – Virality!
    • Lets do it! Pictures, PPTs, Blog posts, Videos and what not
    • We will post it here – there – everywhere and wallah this will happen and this
  • Conversations are not happening – says the client!
    • Lets do ghost writing
    • Lets do ghost profiles
    • Lets do ghost comments
• Month3
  • Houston We’v got a PROBLEM
    • Firefighting mode

What did you till now, after a quarter?

Well, Sir, look at your brand, look at how many people came to this landing page, look at all of this. Sales will start happening soon.

Lets See – the client now is thinking of how to convert the contract into a pay for performance?

Well, and this is where problems start. Retainership goes down and performance kicks in, knowing well, you dont even know what GAP EXISTS (if any) between the following parties:

• Senior management
• Existing (employees and clients)
• Prospective (employees and clients)

The majority of online marketers, go ahead with no such GAP analysis, and without knowing what exists in the market and what needs to be addressed, just go ahead because they have a medium to connect people with, because out of the 300 million plus people on facebook, there will always be some who will be looking for your product/ service.

Well, I have no inherent bias against anyone, but if I strongly feel, if you are not clear of something, well, dont fluke and sell, coz what you don’t realize is anyway, after 3 years, there are only the better ones, who will be having the repetitive business, because you will be out of market to which you have been marketing.

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Well, being an entrepreneur is a life of Pride, Passion and amongst many more things its about living life on the edge. I have seen many people around who say look we are running a side business while we still earn from a day job. Alas, I took the harder path.

With a right on the edge bank account, no financial backing at all…and nothing else, other than DREAMS to count on, I am learning and growing each day. Feels hard at times…people tell me, that leaving some very lucrative and smart paying job offers which I was being flooded with, even in these times of recession was foolish on my part. Well, and all I have as an answer is: there are DREAMS to take care of, they are calling!

As I am writing this blog post from my mobile phone, since I had to leave my laptop which was given to me by my previous company. I realize somethings in life: im being taught how NOT to be dependent on things and how to CREATE POSSIBILITIES in every situation.

It’s been great being an entrepreneur and as I start my new journey as the Co-founder and CMO, Proideaz Consulting, I look for wishes and support in creating a whole new world of opportunities.

Thanks to all my family n friends, esp my Mom n the other best part of my life…who’v been amazing pillars of emotional support always.

Its time to get cracking and see more DREAMS!!

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