Off late, I have been having wondering about the volumes of content floating around – newsletters, RSS feeds, social media updates and what not. How much of this content is actually read and used? Taking my personal example, I wondered what made me select content to read and mercilessly delete the rest? Here is my list – please add what you think works for you as well.

1. Catchy headlines – by this I don’t mean the fluffy ones- but something like this catches my attention and makes me click on the link provided. Example: Today’s headline in Economic Times “Struggling to keep pace, Infosys faces a tough time ahead” or from a newsletter I have subscribed to –  “6 Steps to Getting Started With Google+”. These headlines succinctly captured the essence of the content and I did not have to spend time going through the article to figure out what it was all about. Takeaway – convey the meaning crisply and in simple terms.
2. Keywords in the summary of the content – if I come across keywords that am interested in, it definitely makes me want to read more. A high-level or vague summary discourages you from exploring it further.
3. Timing of the content – I found that during the middle of the work day, am not inclined to check out what updates are being published. What works for me is catching up either early in the morning before the rush starts or probably just before wrapping up for the day. So, maybe we should look at what time these updates are published?
4. Nature of the content – I have found that the more serious updates and announcements work well during the week – probably got to do with the frame of the mind. Over the weekend, I do not mind trivia and lighter content. Again, trivia interspersed with the serious stuff is welcome during the week too – good to take a break!
5. Content quality – if the content is laid out well with enough substantiation, I find it lot more worthwhile to spend my time on it rather than take part in a guessing game. Take this article for example in today’s Mint – this was a good one I thought – http://www.livemint.com/2012/01/22222627/Wipro-is-getting-back-on-track.html. Notice the url too – gives you a good idea of what the article is all about.

These were some quick thoughts on what makes me pick and choose from the tonnes of the online content available.  Let me know how you pick your content.

P.S Also – what did you think about the title?

Popularity: 10% [?]

Why this kolaveri di? A” bordering on the inane” song from a soon to be released tamil movie with music composed by a young 21 year old debutant has opened a whole new debate on the power of viral marketing.
This is why- as I sit down to write this blog, the song has been downloaded over 2 million times on youtube within a week of its release, it has been trending on twitter for the last six days and has over a million shares on facebook- the song has not only become popular in India, but also across the globe.
I first heard this song on the day it was released officially as a single- I found it was strangely appealing and showed the video to my teenaged daughter and she loved it. She has it on her ipod and has promptly marketed it to her friends! In the next few hours I saw many of my facebook friends, including one or two of Prayag clients, sharing the video. I said, alright, this song is really making an impact. Before I know it, it is everywhere.
Of course, there are some detractors, but there is no doubt that it has become a huge rage. I see some comments on facebook saying- oh, all this is the power of viral marketing. Being in the business, I thought to myself- I wish it were so simple!
For any content to go viral, it needs to appeal to a wide cross section of audience. And to achieve that is not as easy as it seems, believe me! The interesting thing about kolaveri is that it did not set out to impress this huge audience. It is a simple, unpretentious attempt to create a fun song that would appeal to tamil youth- what it has ended up doing is catch the imagination of youth all across, as the lyrics are in “a version of English”,  and also win over older people because of its honest and fresh approach.
The team behind the song has been clearly taken by surprise, but is now going all out to make the most of it- online chats, prime time interviews, exclusive video interviews, front page on mainstream and business dailies- you name it and they are there.
To me the biggest takeaway as a marketer is that content should be honest, and be right for the audience. Also don’t try too hard. But, be ready to cash in if the viral effect does kick in.
PS: My writing was interrupted by a call from my mother- she said, what is that song, kolaveri, I pestered your sister to play it for me. And, on twitter Junior Bachchan follows his father in acknowledging the song.
Is there a need to say more? Instead, go watch the video if you haven’t already

Popularity: 31% [?]

Facebook has opened a new datacenter in Oregon and revealed its design online. They have designed their own servers, back up, power supply to increase efficiency and computing power while cutting down overall consumption. The design breaks data center convention by forgoing air conditioning and making use of Oregon’s climate to keep the powerful servers cool inside.

Secrets like these have never been given away by a business entity of this size. Competitors like Google and Microsoft have never ventured anywhere close to revealing information about their server infrastructure. Facebook has taken an entirely different route by dropping the traditional business practice. But the question here is—what  triggered this interesting move??

Probably, facebook wants to give away enough information based on which people can eventually come up with something better. Or, this move might have been taken in order to gain the confidence of web users. An interesting fact to be noted here is that the facebook servers rely on free or open source software.

The answers can’t be that simple, or can they? I think facebook is spinning its already-spent resources for marketing purposes.

Popularity: 25% [?]

While in the midst of an interesting debate on whether social media has any use for B2B tech companies, I chanced upon this analysis during my morning’s browsings I found so apt and “linkedin” with the topic of contention!
For its special feature on CEO Guide to Sentiment analysis, Businessweek had asked Netbase, a company that analyzes online sentiment, to compare what users felt about leading tech companies. The results, complied through an analysis of conversations on facebook, tweets and product review forums, are mostly predictable, but did have some surprise element as well.
That Apple and Google are the most “loved” brands comes as no surprise. Likewise, Twitter and Apple are also among the most talked about brands. I however found it interesting that HP and Linkedin have managed to create a passionate fan following and move into the “love” quadrant- HP has managed this with its printers and laptops! I also found facebook’s position in the “hate” quadrant intriguing (given all the drama around it’s half a billion users) though not entirely unsurprising. That Microsoft is discussed far, far less than, say, a twitter or an Apple or a Google, did take me by surprise, though its positioning in the passion index map did not.
Another observation (related to my debate too) is that leading B2B brands including Cisco, Oracle and Intel feature in the “like” quadrant- though, of course, they are far less discussed than B2C players. Still, isn’t it worth monitoring what users say about their brands? Example- Cisco, a company that is currently doing some soul searching of its own, is the most liked brand- and the company would be happy to note that! It scores high on reliability and that is something the company would factor into its ongoing re-focusing exercise.
In conclusion, unsolicited opinions from end users are an important input for any company, big or small. They are probably more honest than formal efforts, at times and need to be judiciously interwoven into a company’s market tracking mechanisms. I believe that we are past the stage where we can ignore online conversations, whatever be the area your business operates in. Do you agree?
Netbase incidentally uses an NLP based engine to do sentiment analysis. Their site claims that its analysis is more than 80% accurate, which is a tall claim in an area which is still evolving. More on that in another post.

Popularity: 25% [?]

With linkedin crossingthe 100 M user mark and Facebook already having more than half a billion users, the possibility of creating virtual professional networks is quite “real”. Today, I posted a birthday wish to a “facebook” friend, Elan, who happens to be an ex-colleague and also a guest blogger for Prayag. He has over a 1500 friends on facebook- who would these friends be? Most likely, his college friends, colleagues across the various companies he may have worked in, the professional network he would have built over the years, and his personal network.

My college going son’s facebook friends also number over 650.  His network is constituted primarily by friends he has made in the two schools he has studied in, and now, from his college. A proportion of these will endure and become part of his professional network.

Similarly, in a recent  interview for Prayag’s Confluence, Suresh Sambandam, CEO, Orangescape, an exciting Paas company, mentioned that he has over a 3000 linkedin connections that he had assidiously built over the years! My own linkedin connections, though nowhere as extensive as Suresh’s, still  number over 500.

I see virtual networking benefit business professionals in two ways. First, for those ( like me) who are not excited by the idea of investing evenings and week ends on networking, virtual networks provide a good alternative. The second benefit for even those that enjoy networking in the real world is that virtual network can supplement your physical networking activities.  Can Suresh realistically ” meet and greet” 3000 + people over any reasonable period of time? On the other hand, it is possible, by investing some time and effort, to stay in touch with even such a large network, in the virtual world.

I believe that the potential of virtual networks is still being under estimated and many of us still have predominantly “dormant” connections.  By actively engaging with your network- which would translate to participating in groups, answering questions or posting useful updates i n linkedin, for example, one can start expanding one’s network and also keep connections alive.

It would be great to get your views on the power of virtual networks. Do share your experiences and opinions…………

Popularity: 10% [?]

If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world; if you sat down to watch all the videos uploaded on YouTube as we speak, you would need around a 1000 years! A quiz on such interesting trivia kicked off the social media workshop that Prayag conducted last week at L&T Infotech for their leadership and marketing teams. The workshop was a culmination of an engagement we did for the company that included creating the social media guidelines and evaluating their social media roadmap.
Social media networking is thought to be a millennial thing, a fad, or, at best, as a wave that will impact B2C companies. Our workshop sought to dispel this myth and educate the audience, through real life case studies and current research that B2B companies can benefit as much, if not more, by embracing social media. We also did some hands-on exercises which helped the audience get a first-hand feel on how they could use social media tools to achieve business goals.
Gauging by the participation and feedback, I can confidently say that the marketing team, which is spearheading L&T Infotech’s social media initiative, achieved its objective of laying a solid foundation for the company’s social media program. Also, by creating a comprehensive guidelines document, they have ensured that the rules of the game are clearly defined upfront. This would definitely stand them in good stead as they ramp up activities.
At Prayag, we interact with a number of companies, all of whom, without exception, are curious, intrigued and wanting to know more about social media and how it can be interleaved into their marketing strategy. We must doff our hats to L&T Infotech though for taking the important first steps and getting started on their social media strategy.

Popularity: 22% [?]