New Media, Marketing and Entrepreneurship

No, I have not lost my brains yet. And certainly I am not reeling under the new year fervor. The context is, post doing my Social Media consulting company, Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd. I joined The Indus Entrepreneurs, TiE Delhi – NCR chapter. Its been a fantastic journey and its growing and getting exciting by the day. There is so much to do and so much to learn.

Though I Have a Problem and So Do Almost 1500 odd People!

TiE Delhi – NCR is one of the best chapters globally and we are growing and am I excited to say this, hell yeah! But let me share my experience from my interactions with TiE Delhi – NCR members and entrepreneurs who are still not aware of what all they can achieve, by being part of the world’s largest entrepreneurial network.

Most of our members have amazing feedback to share with us and I feel amazing at times to hear from a young entrepreneur when he comes and says, TiE helped me grow my business from this level to where I am today.

There is another set, though who have yet not realized the power of the network. Yes, I have always been telling fellow entrepreneurs, that TiE is the world’s largest network of entrepreneurs and well, if you are still not leveraging the power of networking, then you have still much to work upon.

My Personal Experience!

Before joining TiE, I was also a member with the Delhi chapter and let me be honest, I was much helped in my business by the team. I used to volunteer in many events without seeing a profit motive and in almost every event, the network automatically helped me create many new business opportunities.

But what helped me here, was my own pro-active approach to leverage the network by being a member. This is exactly what I tell people who ask me what’s the benefit of being a TiE member?

Gentlemen, I am sharing the Secret, Listen Carefully!

Its simple, once you are a TiE member (which takes less than INR 10 a day of an investment, as INR 3309/- (annual membership fee) broken down is less than INR 10 a day). You could simply use your debit/ credit card to make payments online on the official TiE Delhi site and wallah you are in.

What Next?

Hold your horses guys, well, next comes the step of engaging with the team and letting the TiE team know more about you and look at exploring various possibilities. How to do this?

Call a TiE Delhi team member for a coffee and well, set your objectives and plan your various engagement pointers with TiE.

Attend Events – these are golden networking and knowledge opportunities!

Ohh Yes! You might be a great networker and you might know everything there is to know in the world. But believe you me, I have been on both sides of the table. Attending TiE events and doing them now. And these are amazing opportunities, which are to be latched upon and not to miss.

Ohh my ROI!

Its better to say Ohh my ROI than Ohh my Gawd later. Yes, I realized it early in my entrepreneurial stint. Investing a couple of thousands in attending TiE events and other Industry association events year round is well worth every penny. Obviously how worthy do I make of it is my own skills.

My simple suggestion to all entrepreneurial brains is straight. The network is open for you. The value is there which has been created over 2 decades. Now its upon you to leverage the same and create bigger opportunities.

If You Still Have Questions?

Well, if you still have questions, call me/ write to me: paritosh@tienewdelhi.org

Why am I doing this, Is this part of my Job?

As a clarification, at TiE its not about doing a ‘job’. What I enjoy most is the freedom to create value added initiatives and super quick decision making. No, this post is NOT a part of my job in any manner and has not been influenced by anyone.

Its about how badly I want every entrepreneur to come and be part of the world’s largest network of entrepreneurs which is available so simply. Obviously you have to be proactive to keep in touch and build opportunities.

Share on Facebook

The Youth! Yes! that’s what this one is all about. The Youth Marketing Power Panel by TiE Delhi- NCR was recently announced and has already started garnering some good response from all quarters.

Another event on marketing: NO

This one comes with a difference (as they all say, but this one does). For records, there is a Taxi Driver from Varanasi as one of the awaited speakers and I am not kidding about it. I have confirmed news from many in-house sources

And not just that, though this is not a public news, some of the Power Panel speakers, I have gotten to know about are major names in the Industry and have proven their might with innovative products and service offerings which have powerfully engaged the Indian Youth.

The news of the event is all around on the TiE Delhi- NCR Official website, facebook, Linkedin and twitter and its buzzing with action on all accounts.

Where is the event and How do I register?

The event is to be held on 13th may 2011 at the PHD Chambers of Commerce, August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi. Registration is simple, all you need is to click on this link: REGISTER HERE! Currently the only mode of registration for the event is through online payment.

Would I get to network?

Another one of those internally confirmed news that I keep getting, the event will host the one of its kinds, speed member mixer, wherein you will be allowed to meet the panelists one on one with a 30 second pitch of your business. Who knows you might just crack the lucky pot!

Can I see who all are coming to the event?

This is a public news, so I can surely say, yes you can. All you got to do is, become the part of India’s largest entrepreneurial network called: Entrepreneurs-Ship, where you have to RSVP for the event and once done, you will be able to see who all are coming to the event and hence pre-network with them!!

So, REGISTER NOW, as I know for sure, only a few seats are left!

Share on Facebook

YES!! YOU GOT IT RIGHT. The title of the post says: Warning: The Air You Breathe Here is Charged Up With Entrepreneurial Particles!!

I am talking about nothing other than The TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2010, undoubtedly one of the largest extravaganza, year 2010 witnesses. A perfect setting for the end of a decade.

TES marks the Enterprising India’s largest gathering of some of the most exciting souls on earth, a class, a breed called: entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship is not just a word, its a way of living, its a common passion which binds enterprising minds together who come on board with a common aim of creating and delivering value. People who dream of a future not just for themselves but create opportunities for many others, who become a part of success stories.

And without a doubt, India as a country is blessed with great minds. We have had some of the best enterprising ideas right from the bottom of the pyramid, from the rural parts of the country of over a billion people to the well networked metros. Starting from a global success story of a man who did not have food for 5 days and traveled on a goods train after being left by the security saying that he is from a friendly country India, this man decided to build an institution we know as Infosys today. There are many such inspiring stories of grit, determination, hard-work, hanging on and creating dreams.

At TES we are going to bring forth such stories while creating an opportunity and a strong ecosystem for many more to flourish. December is going to bring with it a whole new wave of energy which is going to create many new directions for many more achievers to come.

Be a proud part of the largest entrepreneurial extravaganza while the decade ends.

Share on Facebook

Today a large number of people across the world are using internet as a means of communication, entertainment, shopping, gaming and searching information. When used in an effective manner the internet has a huge potential for marketing services, products and brand building.

In the current scenario indulging in online marketing is no longer a choice but a necessity.

Do you want to learn how the power of the web can be used for marketing your brand? Do you want to be a part of the booming Online Marketing industry? Do you want to interact and share experiences with the experts of the online domain? All this and more at India’s only conference dedicated completely to Online Marketing, which is brought to you by OMCareers in association with TiE, New Delhi.

After the astounding success of OMCAR 2008, which revolved around empowering Online Marketing professionals in their careers, the online marketing brains have come together for yet another conference on Online Marketing this year. OMCAR 2009, Online Marketing Summit focuses upon empowering businesses to grow by leveraging the power of Online Marketing.

OMCAR 2009 promises to provide endless opportunities of interacting with the professionals from the Online Marketing space. The one day event will have sessions on the various aspects of Online Marketing

• Online Marketing – Reaching Your Customers Cost Effectively
• The intersection of SEO, PPC and SMM
• Case Studies – Best Practices in Online Marketing
• Web Usability & Analytics
• Unconference/Site Clinic

There will be endless possibilities of networking, sharing of views and learning from the experts from the online space. The event will be an exiting and enriching experience for anybody who is interested or associated with the online media. It is undoubtedly going to be a great place for CMOs, Online Marketing Professionals, Web developers, Entrepreneurs and CXOs Small and Medium Enterprises to learn about, discuss and imbibe the latest Online Marketing Techniques and Strategies.

The one day event will be held on 23rd May at Amity Business School Noida.

Previous successes

OMCAR 2008 was designed to create a confluence for the Online Marketing Industry and the professional talent who dream to be a part of it. OMCAR 2008 was a huge success with over 300 attendees.

See you there at OMCAR 2009 REGISTER for the Event

Share on Facebook

Okay, so after a sumptuous lunch and networking around with people, I must say I have connected with some pretty young and amazing entrepreneurs. Good to be connecting with people with similar interests and background

And now we have the session being led by Jonathan, post lunch and the room is full of people enthused!

So, we start by discussing User centered Design and the User Centered Design process. I can very well see the interest level rising in the room. People are now coming up with queries related to their sites and other queries on how to really design according to the user, how to keep your design centered around the users psyche. I know of a few people in this room who have still not launched their sites, and I think this discussion would be of high value!!

What focus groups wont tell you?

Jonathan raises an intriguing point for the audience to comment upon, that is what’s there, that a focus group meeting won’t ever tell you, there are various viewpoints here, and Jonathan answers:

Well, what they wont tell you is whether someone would buy your site/product or not!

Usability Test happening LIVE

So now we are looking at a Usability testing happening LIVE on a web site hotelly.com. We have a participant who has not seen the site before and he would now be interacting with the site LIVE. So we are looking at the home page and asking the participant that what does the web site does? Well looking at the home page, you could not even realize there is a scroll!

The site is being analyzed with huge insights for the girl who represented hotelly at the workshop. I can see people in the room eager to share their inputs on the topic, but what I think is, we have this habit of acting as if we are the experts and we know it all, and that is what is happening in the room. There are all sorts of comments flying around, I personally feel hotelly guys have an amazing content value. The site is content rich, its just that they are not being able to leverage upon the content. I would advice hotelly on:

 
• Branding and Positioning their content right 

And now we have a scenario by Neha, given to the participant leading the charge, “your family is going to London and you visit this web site and you want to compare the prices of the various hotels. What would you do at this website?”

So the guy is pretty confused and is not able to understand how to really navigate through the site. Okay so we are pretty much over with the test and wallah, we still are not very clear about the site. And now Jonathan is talking about how to define your target market in terms of sites who are in the recruitment space.

We pay people to get the do this research for us. But we do it keeping the task in mind and we track what the person is doing and whether he/she has completed the task or not.

Why does Motorola puts the alarm function under the settings option?

So after a brief tea session we have an exercise which tells you about how to really use persona as a technique and create a solid site map, creating a sense of priority from the content elements that you have for your web site. Jonathan says it’s a very powerful thing as far as SEO for your site is concerned and also really fasten your goto market strategies with a beta phase for your site.

I don’t mind how many clicks do you want me to do, till the time they are mindless clicks

Earlier the home page used to be the main navigation page for any website, but now due to Google we can land up in internal pages as well. So we need to understand the navigation intuitiveness from a users perspective.

Seduction points while designing a site

Its not a bad idea in travel to really give a separate window to the users to cross sell. I would not open this information in a separate window though, answers Neha to a question raised by a member of the team makemytrip.com. The question was realted to the fact that at times travel sites give supporting extra information on a flight search as a new pop up/window opening. Is this the right approach?

Squint test

Whatever you see at the first go after you squint your eyes, well that is what your users will see 90% of the times

Provide a quick access point to the user: 10 second is the frustration limit.

I must confess, this was one activity in the workshop which I really found useful amongst others. Squinting your eyes really tells you what 90 per cent of users would see at the first go. Amazing results, I am taken aback!! I think this would really help many a people to define and refine their designs.

We are almost towards the end of the workshop now and Jonathan now shares attributes of a good search results page

1. Position the best hits at the top
2. Indicate the number of results

We are now almost at the close of the workshop and well, I found the entire workshop highly useful and my interaction with various participants has gotten me the same feedback. Majority of people said that it was amazingly simple a technique in which Neha shared thus making the entire topic of Design and UI easy to understand by the audience.

I would love more such workshops, probably more focused, with integrated product reviews, as to why does a product work and how does the message on it/shape/design/color/packaging affects the perception of the message by the end consumers.

We now have certificates being distributed to the participants and I appreciate, Neha writing and signing the certificates singularly herself.

The event was organized by : TiE New Delhi (The Indus Entrepreneurs)

Share on Facebook