May 28th, 2009 § § permalink
Sharing my talk which I delivered at OMCAR 2009 – The Online Marketing Summit, New Delhi. I am glad to get the feedback that the talk was well received and thanks to all the people who shared their feedback!
This session was blogged LIVE by: Deepanwita Chatterjee, from team OMShare.
Post tea, peppered with some avid networking, we gather for the next session, ‘Making SEO, PPC, SMM & Mobile Work Together’, presented by Mahesh Murthy, CEO Pinstorm and Paritosh Sharma, (SMM Evangelist, OMLogic). I am LIVE Blogging the session and I can’t help notice the excitement that has been generated in the room at the announcement of the session
Paritosh starts the session by explaining that he will be discussing his views about SMM and how business can benefit from SMM.
He starts by displaying a slide with a picture of a colorful grocery store with blue and red boxes.
I specially like the story telling method by which he makes his point. He says that once he went to buy a product of his favorite brand and that brand was not available so he had to settle down for his second favorite brand. So inspite of being a brand loyalist he had to settle with his second choice.
SMM can be explained in two words – message and media.
Paritosh makes the session very lively by citing an example of advertising for a bicycle manufacturer. He quotes 3 example campaigns
- A description of the specifics of the bicycle
- A picture of the bicycle
- A video of a woman riding a cycle showing how easy to ride
No need to mention the third method clicked. What really worked is the content, the message, and the media.
He cites another example of the inventor of sliced bread. The person patented it, advertised it still it didn’t catch up for 15 years. Another bread manufacturer came along and packaged the sliced bread in the right manner and it appealed to the user.
He rightly makes a point that there is no single rule for marketing. Advertising on SlideShare may work for a business and YouTube for another. It is important to understand the needs of the client and the client’s client.
He is explaining that the way to go about it is to create a message and target it to the right set of consumers.
He goes on to cite another example which triggers a lot of laughter – TataSky did an adult site, the moment anybody clicks on the site the questions like age and gender comes up which create the impression of the contents within. But the moment you click it it says ‘dude a paap hai’. The campaign sure has been done in a very witty manner which creates a huge recall value.
He also cites the example of jaagore.com and the ‘pappu pass ho gaya’ campaigns about which we all are well aware of. Both the campaigns and the were huge successes and the radio campaign ‘dot is hot’ was a runaway success as well. Jagore.com was a purely online site, and the message ‘chai peke jaago’ was very intelligently done. Kudos to the tata guys!
Television is a passe. There was a time people bought advertising space. But now people are spending more time on the internet on Orkuts and FaceBooks.
The audience silently agrees to that.
Paritosh says that SMM is more about customizing, customizing according to the needs of the customers.
He goes on to elaborate the four steps of creating a campaign.
The first step is to listen and learn. Even the customer is not clear about what he wants from SMM.
The second step is to audit and analyze the customer’s business model, whether SMM will be good or PPC.
The third step is to develop and test.
The fourth step is to execute and monitor. Metrics are difficult in SMM. But it is not that difficult if you understand the business perspective of the client. And till the time there is no metrics, one can always customize metrics for the clients.
He adds
Position your brand right. Do it with the right medium and to the relevant section of the audience online. And that’s where the PPC and SEO’s come into action.
He is now telling us about Skittles where every page is a social media, on one page there is twitter, on another YouTube and FaceBook on yet another. There is nothing good or bad it is about.
He then shares about Webchutney.com. On the home page, there are two tabs saying ‘I have 5 mins’ , and ‘I have plenty of time’, clicking on either takes the user to separate pages. He cites an example that if one sees a YouTube video of a bicycle gear that she likes and on clicking on it she is taken to the home page of the bicycle website, then one wouldn’t be too happy about it. The concept of separate landing works. I can’t help thinking that yes, that has happened to me many times!
He makes a point by reiterating that markets have evolved overtime and its time that one starts marketing to the innovators and early adopters. They are the ones which will take to your product and will do a much better viral campaign on the internet rather than the late adopters.
You have a great product…. You have identified the target market…
and people are talking about u….. and before the fizz goes out, market it…
Paritosh wraps up the session saying
The riskiest thing that you can do for your brand is to be safe.
Even if anybody writes anything bad about your brand, one can be alerted by a google alert and can pacify them.
Thanks for the useful insights Paritosh, it was great listening to you.
One of the most interesting sessions I have blogged. Thanks Paritosh
Thanks Deepanwita for blogging the session for me 
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March 11th, 2009 § § permalink
Business Travel in Recession
I am a LIVE blogger and I get invited to many a conferences and events in the industry across India to LIVE blog the entire events.
And since quite sometime I have been hearing from many an Event organizers that due to recession, Business Travel has been restricted, thus expecting huge turnout at any conference is a challenege today!
I am sure this is one concern many a Conference organizers would agree to!
Well, so what is the solution to this problem?
Let me say I cannot monetarily give you an alternative that you should not attend any conferences, as these are some of the best grounds to network and reach out to existing and potential business partnerships. You can get new talent for your company, you get a platform to share your expertise on various agendas relevant to the community.
If there are so many benefits and still you have to see how much can you spend on your travel to attend these conferences?! What do you do then?
Social Media comes to Rescue
To the rescue is Social Media! Yes!
Now that you cannot afford to lose the chance of being in these conferences, well you can definitely work towards making sure that you can make the most of your business trip.
There are several tools on the internet which can help you arrange your travel and connect with people in the city you are visiting and also with the people who are attending the conference, so you can connect with the relevant people and break ice much before you actually meet them at the conference.
Social Media Tools to Get the most of your Business Travel
Linkedin
Explore your professional network on Linkedin to know who all in your network are attending a conference that you are and who all are there in the city at that particular moment of time and day.
Before reaching the designated city, you can connect with these people and pre-schedule meetings, to make the most of your travel. All you needd to do is add the Application (Tripit) on your Linkedin profile.
Twitter
Twitter is a tool where you can subtly announce that you are going to attend a conference and people who are there in your network who may be visiting the same would tweet back and there you go, you connect with the relevant community of people, thereby increasing your chances of creating more possibilities for yourself in your travel schedule.
Google Reader
Google Reader, well yes I know you would say Google Reader? Yes, its pretty simple! subscribe to the blog feeds of all the companies/people you are expected to meet at the conference/event you are going to. You would hence be updated with all the action points that you need to discuss and take your discussions forward in a more constructive manner.
Follow/Subscribe Events/conferences updates on dedicated Blogs like – OMShare
I confess, there is a self promotional aspect in the following note, but it would be of a higher value to you than anything else! I along with one of the people I work with, created The First from India, Online Platform for Taking Events and Conferences Global (OMShare). Its a platform where I LIVE Blog some of the best conferences and events around uptill now only in India (though open to invites Internationally as well).
We would soon be integrating RSS Feeds letting our followers know at no cost and at not much time, which events are happening where and if they would be of value to you and your business. Also we are extending the platform to include event representatives and organizers who can further help you network with the who’s who attending the event.
Based upon this information you can take an informed decision of whether to attend the event or be negative!
If you wish to connect with me, I would be attending (LIVE Blogging) the following events in the coming future:
- The Web Usability and Design Workshop at India Habitat Center by TiE New Delhi on 7th March 9am-6pm
- The JFPS CORPORATE COMMUNICATORS’ CONCLAVE in Mumbai on 16th and 17th April
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March 7th, 2009 § § permalink
Meena Vaidyanathan (Head, External Communications) HCL presents on how HCL created a highly successful campaign, branding the company in the corporate space, by leveraging the power of Social Media.
According to Meena, there existed a big potential clientele in these markets for HCL, but the problem statement was without spending zillions of dollars in advertising budgets, how to effectively reach to these potential markets and still be as effective, by investing smartly?!
And HCL came out with an innovative solution!
The solution was Social Media Marketing! (I am happy) doing this post because as OMLogic, this is what we do, I am a Social Media Marketing Evangelist, and at OMLogic, we work closely with clients in creating Social Media success stories!
If you don’t have a defined objective for Social Media, you are wasting resources for your company says Meena, well, Meena I couldn’t agree less on this:)
Chosing the right Social Media tool/channel
We decided on Slideshare as a tool, we discussed with senior professors from established universities and after intense discussions and brainstorming we decided upon Slideshare which was the perfect tool for us to realize the full potential from Social Media for the campaign that we were looking for.
Employee First, Customer Second
The campaign as Meena remarked has been highly successful. Selected as one of the best campaigns to be discussed at Davos and other major case studies to be taught at Harvard. Meena speaks about how the entire campaign was positioned to create the outreach and shared how they strategically created the content for the presentation which she terms as generic in nature.
Sharing of statistics
Meena shared a few statistics with the audience which simply said that one of the major aims of getting people to a microsite especially created for the campaign was superbly achieved. More than 50,000 hits on the microsite is what we achieved in almost a months time. Our focused leads have increased from 40 to 60 leads a month, which we are satisfied with.
We created business, bagged a few major deals
Nokia and another big client is what we bagged from the campaign, though not specifically only from slideshare, but the entire campaign which has been on for quite sometime, but took the viral route once we decided on Social Media as a medium!
it is never a one man show and never a one stop game
We have a community page on Facebook and have a focused campaign at Linkedin, which is in line with the overall focus of the campaign.
Meena ends the interactive session with a high recommendation for Social Media Marketing, especially for startups and emerging companies who are looking to create tangible value and business results with a realistic budget and cost.
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March 5th, 2009 § § permalink
The Indian Blog and new Media Society presents Blog Camp Delhi. A unique event which gives a platform to a passion which has given a new shape to media and consumer perception
Blogging!!
What is New Media and Blog Camp?
The event is an un-conference where the relevant community comes together to discuss/brainstorm/talk about/share opinions on all possible subjects realted to the New Media.
Blogging, Monoblogging, etc are a few enticing keywords!!
BarCamp style event
The event is BarCamp style and is open to anyone who would like to come and share thoughts and opinions on a topic of common interest to the community.
This is the second edition of the Blog camp in Delhi and the First in Bangalore which recently concluded.
is the principal sponsor for the event.
To register for the event ADD you name to the WIKI
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February 23rd, 2009 § § permalink
WordCamp India was a great event, at least in terms of the fact that it was a start for us. The First from India, and at this platform, I thought I would present how WordPress as a platform, helped me and my company, when we launched the First from India – Online Platform for Taking Events and Conferences Global!
OMShare
And since I have been getting requests from people, to upload my presentation on the blog (I already have 60 views and 3 downloads) in a day! Thanks all
Here you go :-
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February 22nd, 2009 § § permalink
Ankesh Kothari, speaks about talks about how to turn a blog into a Business, and he starts with a story, of a boy and his shoes.
A lot of people out here have been blogging but they still dont have the ideas of really hoe to convert a blog into a business
How many have a blog and it is not active anymore? – Well not many in the room.
Ankesh says there is no incentive in taking the blog further and that is why this happens. there could be different sorts of incentives. Monetary, Fame and the rest…
Why relying on Ads is a BAD IDEA?
You can compete with New York Times, I’ll show you how. Can you make your blogging Worth YOUR While?
You are probably working from yoru kitchen table so competing with such big companies is a scary thought…Ankesh shares the story of Car manufactures, GM and what made them do this, and Ankesh gives his thoughts, on how to really implement it into your blogging!
The Tripod strategy for blogging by Ankesh
The strongest, most geomtrical figure in nature is a triangle…if you have the three prong approach to your blog, well it would be stable, just like a three legged table is! It will take you at least 2-3 years for you to make money from your blog.
How do you get Ads, ehen your blog is NEW?
Find out who is advertising on your competitors website, and hit them on the charge structure. Out of 5 such advertisers, definitely 2-3 of them will test your platform for their Ads. Say if 100 people visit yoru blog 1 of them will end up buying your 10 dollar product and this money, should really go into your advertising budget, which would fetch you more business.
How do you go about creating a front end product on the very first day?
Create an audio product – Ex: an interview a personality for your blog. You can have a 45 minute to a 1 hour audio product which you can get rolling within a day. Play on pricing, its important to price and position your product right.
The third prong – keep creating products (these may not really be manufactured by you) you could just act as a successful integrator. Ankesh is a great chap, who is open in sharing the real time examples of products that he is working on in his presentation (which I’ll get for you guys, exclusively on this blog!!)
If you have this three pronged approach, you will have an upper hand over the other bloggers. My blogs become profitable and sustainable within the first 100 days. And hence competing with Gawker Media and NY Times, is really not a great deal.
How do you market your Blog?
- Guest posting
- Digg, SU, twitter
- Networking: forums and events
- PPC
- Affiliate programs
Ankesh shares a story of “the most known bank robber in the US history, who is being interviewed by a journalist” and the journalist says, you’re the smartest guy I have ever met. You may have become a senator. And Billy answered in a simple way that is: “I target banks, because that is where all the money lies” Interestin Ankesh!!
- Go where your audience hangs out – marketing Prong ONE
- Chase your prey – marketing Prong TWO
- Content is the king – GOOD content, though
- Crappy content can make money, there are examples, but you just need to be plain simple lucky for it
Ankesh ends the session with a 100 day plan strategy for your blog!! Do the most of the work in this time and keep on with your momentum. Give yourself time and keep going strong.
To connect:
http://ankeshkothari.com
twitter: ankeshk
http://www.NonToxin.com
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February 19th, 2009 § § permalink
WordCamp is in town!!
Yes! New Delhi, is proud to be hosting WordCamp India, at Adobe’s Noida, the venue for which is displayed below:
If you are a WordPress fan (which in all probabilities, you would be) this event is a must attend! Matt Mullenweg the creator of WordPress, is touching base in India for the event. Also, One of the respected Industry bloggers Om Malik (GigaOm) is touching base from Frankfurt as well.
The event sure is creating enough waves around to go un-noticed. This is one of those parties which are worth a dekko, as I am personally excited about meeting Matt and catching up with some of the best Bloggers around.
I personally extend my invitation to bloggers who are really interested into UI (User Interface) and Messaging, and how it changes users perception, to mail me at: paritosh@paritoshsharma.com and I’ll feature you at my blog: http://www.paritoshsharma.com/category/blog/
The event is being supported by The Delhi Bloggers Bloc !!
I would probably be LIVE blogging WordCamp India at certian occasions! You can follow me here:
http://www.paritoshsharma.com/live-2/
See you there on Saturday
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February 18th, 2009 § § permalink
LIVE Blogging the Software Product Business meet @ the NASSCOM Delhi office !!!
Key findings, Nov 2008 – research finding, Zinnov.
The NASSCOM software product study, what is it that we lack and how to help homegrown businesses go global was the focus for the research finding. We looked at the Silicon valley and other parts of the globe, exhibiting similar growth patterns in India could result into opening newer vistas into hugely untapped local markets.
First 45 minutes:
SO HOW DO WE DO IT?
We touched upon the various Indian SME’s, CIO’s and global CIO’s and why do they look at India into the product domain? In Banking products you have to look at India, have no other option.
Post studying over 500 products…
- Growth in s/w product startup activity over the last 3 years has also helped strengthen the industry product portfolio
Increased activity in the Indian software product industry is being witnessed only after 3 decades of its evolution about 350 companies got registered between 1985-1990, but all of a sudden the MNC’s were free to business in India, and hence Indian companies started slowing down.
If it all started very well why are we not going good?
The challenges being faced-:
- Small size of the local Indian market
- Lack of R&D talent
- Lack of VC investment in the 1985-1994 era
- Lack of distribution networks into the global markets
- MNC’s came to sell their products, so they were able to grab the share
- Parallel emergence of IT outsourcing
WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST 3 YEARS?
- Talent pool
- VC funding available for products, amost 273 VC offices set up in India
- Emergence of incubation centres – very important for infrastructure and mentoring for such young companies
- Role models – people who have been there, done that are now doing it in India
- Market development – there is a huge market in India, about 35 million SMB’s to be tapped into
- Technology disruption – an interesting trend, creating a level playing field for Indian companies, so the coming of an MNC within the same market does not hits the Indian counterpart
Dwelling DEEP into the above point now-:
Indian software market is growing 2-3 times as the global market. High untapped opporttunity for entrepreneurs. Local requirements are huge. No one has actually figured out the right strategy for the local market.
The software building levers are changing and the way softwares are built are being changed:
- Cloud computing/Vitualization/SOA/Open source
- Delivery models as – SaaS
Innovation in delivery model has led to a radicl shift in global software distribution processes. SaaS has created new markets for SMB’s, hence newer markets are opening up, which sounds as opportunity for emerging entrepreneurs. Going forward we see a huge upsurge into the SaaS and such business software delivery models.
BASED ON THE OPPORTUNITY WE REALIZED
There is a huge opportunity for Indian businesses.
- By 2050 we have a market size worth 350 billion dollars
- BFSI sector
- Telecom
- BI and Analysis
- ERM
- Security
- Retail
- Storage
- Mobile Applications
- Online Gaming
- SEM
Online search and marketing business is a highly successful business globally. In India its still to be structured more. Currently its a 100 million dollar market and growing at 33% YoY. There, hence is a sizeable opportunity for the Indian companies.
Action across four themes will help India based software companies to achieve accelerated growth.
- Influencing the market
- Enhance the talent pool
- Strengthening the capital ecosystem
- Facilitaing the support system
OUR STUDY SAYS: there is no BRAND built for Indian companies to put there products on the global domains.
Doing trade development efforts. There are other parts of the world where we can get high value. Leverge partnership models.
Global CIO’s don’t understand there is an option in India, how do we bridge that gap? How do you address piracy? Cost of product in India is very high, how do you address that?
Sustaining current growth momentum requires more active engagement amongst the various constituents of the s/w product ecosystem.
For entrepreneurs its immensely necessary to tap into these:
- Idea and concept
- Have a strong market research backing the Bplan
- Build a prototype
- Flexibility to change the idea/concept
Software product businesses require significant investments and it takes 36-48 months. So how do you do it?
Leverage partnerships. Ecosystems across the business value chain of the software products can help in rapid expansion of the business.
The session pre tea drew to a close with an interesting Q&A with discussions from the mind and mouth of an entrepreneur.
Link to the post at the NASSCOM EMERGE Blog: http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2008/11/07/outlook-for-indian-software-product-business/
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