Saturday 6 October 2012

Facebook Turns Greedy with ‘Promote’ Button


Hi Folks! I can’t express how great it feels to be back into the world of blogging. Before going further with my today’s post, I would like to apologize for being on a sabbatical for quite a long time. To tell you the fact, I was juggling with the dynamics of my daily life- job, studies, exam and much more. Now, I won’t bore you with my trouble tale any further and straight away jump to the topic of my today’s blog post regarding Promote button on Facebook.
Facebook- the very word has become quite a phenomenon in the current social media scenario. Devised by Mark Zuckerberg along with his fellow college mates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, this social networking site went online in February 2004. If popularity statistics of Facebook are anything to go by, it has 955 million active users both via computer and mobile device.
Over the years of its inception, the creators of Facebook have introduced several changes in the outlook and user interface of this social media site such as pop up photo windows, video calling, the activity wall on the right hand side of the page wherein one can see the updates by their friends and the latest being ‘timeline’ thing.
                                                              
 I understand that the populace active on Facebook have their own set of likes and dislikes for these changes. But whatever you say either one’s own sweet will or compulsion, people have accepted these changes. But this Promote button on Facebook has really put me off. I don’t know about those people who use social media as a vital tool for marketing and promotion. However, I don’t think that it will any sort of meteoric rise to the distribution and traffic that promotional pages are already getting.

If this Promote button on Facebook got acceptance and usage, it would be a slap on the face of general people, celebrities, companies and brands operating on this social networking site. Because this action would indicate that their worth among their friends and ardent fans has decreased and money is the only criteria to rebuild them. At last, I would say using this promote button is entirely up to one’s own discretion but it shows the greedy face of its Facebook makers. 



Friday 24 August 2012

No Holiday on Weekends: The Curse of My Destiny


My last three blogs have been hardcore marketing posts but this time I have taken a sabbatical from writing on marketing and want to convey the sorrow of not getting any weekend off since last 11 months. I am a mass communication graduate and pursued a job in Indian Holiday Pvt Ltd. to become independent and fulfill my needs and requirements. But destiny had some other plans for me, my father encouraged or I should rather say forced me to pursue masters course in journalism and mass communication from IP University. I would like to mention that my bosses and seniors were extremely helpful that they granted me two Saturdays off to pursue my post graduation classes without any hassle.  

A student getting bored in the class
Initially I thought that it would be an add-on in my curriculum vitae  but all my expectations drowned to dust in first few weeks. My encounter with some highly qualified teachers in the first trimester was absolute ordeal. They might have achieved greater heights in the professional field but were really hopeless when it comes to teaching. While one of the teachers was constantly singing the glorious history of journalism throughout the first session, the second one was so much in love with the word blog that he didn’t go forward to explain anything else. I won’t mention their names as it may create some controversies later but I would not like to see their face ever again as teachers. Adding to this ordeal experience was our regular college staff that I would say are good for nothing. No guidance for lab work, no coordination with students and totally a step motherly treatment.

Sometime I feel that all my colleagues must be enjoying their weekends with their wives, girlfriends or friends and I attend the boring lectures of my college professors. I’m fed up with this balance between work life and studies and certainly on the verge of breaking down and if the situation goes like that I’ll become mad in another few weeks.  My heart cries for a weekend holiday and that is the curse of destiny on me.  


Friday 17 August 2012

Reluctance Accompanies Inexperience: Supported with Real life Example


There is a famous dialogue said by Anil Kapoor to Amrish Puri in the film Jaanbaaz “Dad aap hi ne kaha tha na ke har istemal ki cheez ko ek mauka zaroor dena chahiye” and Amrish Puri replied “Haan beta Tajurba usi se hota hai”. This statement has a lot of potential stored in it. Inexperience’s in life are largely caused by reluctance for new trails. And when I say this, it is totally in positive sense. 
                                                A girl taking help for wearing saree (shows her reluctance for the outfit)
I would like to support it with a real life example wherein I’ve faced little bit difficulty in operating my new phone ‘Sony Xperia U’. Around 12 days ago, I went out of my home to purchase a new mobile phone with my elder and younger brother and arrived at this shop called The Mobile Store in Janak Puri.Though I went to the shop with the intention of purchasing Galaxy ACE + but end up spending money on Sony Xperia U. Well the credit for my choice goes entirely to the sales man who in my opinion had a good convincing power.
                                                      Cooking Disaster: A cause of not learning the cookery 
The problem began after I reached to the home and started operating it. I found myself really amateur in handling this android phone in comparison to my younger brother. Therefore it is necessary to experience new things in life as they give you knowledge about the developments in different fields. Mind you this world is evolving every second and human being need to change accordingly. 

Friday 3 August 2012

Nokia : The Fall and the fall of a Mobile Giant

Nokia has been quite a successful private player in the telecom sector. If you ask me Nokia makes the best and most delicate handsets and probably HTC and Apple can match it to some extent. But the year 20011 has been quite dismaying for the mobile giant los its 14 year lead in the mobile market. Here in this post I’m gonna discuss the shortcomings that led to the downfall in the market position of Nokia.Going by the wiki statistics of 2011, Nokia incurred a huge loss of 368 million Euros for Q2 2011 following it went on to fire 3,500 employees worldwide including closure of Cluj factory in Romania. The situation got so worsen that CEO of Nokia admitted that their inability to predict rapid changes in the mobile industry is a major reason behind their declining face.

Lack of Good Applications
Apps have become a need of the hour for smart phones. It is impossible to think of a smart phone without internet facility, games, dictionary and much more. Although Nokia PC suite has good amount of applications such as chat apps like ebuddy and Numbia but they are outdated when compared to Google play and i OS for windows. Like Nokia express music was a good application introduced but is lagging far behind when compared to Apple itunes.


Perennial Hanging Problem
The touch effect of Nokia is not as smooth as android and i OS and the amount of time an application takes to operate is major turn down in Nokia phones. Symbian phones are more prone to hangs and delays.
Outdated Browser
Internet browsing has become a lifeline for the smart phones and people love to use web on the go. The default browser of Symbian WebKit is quite slow. Although the problem can be counter with alternatives like Opera but the problem of fast surfing still needs to be tackle to a larger extent.
Old Interface
Calling the interface of Nokia mobiles ancient would not be an offence as it is probably the only field where Nokia has not graduated at all. It is quite boring in look and the sad part is that the flagship devices like Nokia 6303 and N8 are dealing with the same problem. But the Nokia is overcoming this shortcoming with Nokia Lumia 900 coming up with Windows OS interface. As per the recent statistics of Nokia Lumia sales in U.S.A, the smart phone has seen 3, 30,000 product sales in last four months.


Friday 27 July 2012

Business with Responsibility- A Good Marketing Strategy


Over the past few years, corporate world has understood that performing socially relevant activities is equally important to gain positive attention of your target market. Corporate Social Responsibility or Cause Related Marketing (CSR), the term is gaining immense acceptance in the current business scenario. As per the Wikipedia, CSR refers to the strategy of managing business to bring about overall positive impact on the communities, cultures, societies and environments in which they function. Corporate giants like TCS, Coca Cola, Wipro, Tata Motors and Wipro have undertaken projects that focus on the development of rural and backward areas and the best part is that government too exhibiting interest by investing lump sum money in these proposals. Here I have enlisted the names of Indian CSR champs and the positive outcomes of their social endeavors.
Project Care by Gitanjali Gems

In association with Social Service League, a voluntarily organization running within St. Xavier’s College Mumbai, the CSR division of the jewelry giant ‘Sambhav’ aimed at upliftment of underprivileged children with the involvement of student volunteers. Their activities involved socially relevant projects such as exhibitions, rural camps and blood drives to avail these kinds with education and create a friendly bond with the help of NGO’s. Winner of Aaj Tak award in Empowerment and Livelihood category
Project Jyoti by Microsoft

The project aimed at “bridging the digital divide in the country by making unprivileged sections computer savvy.” As per the program, CTCL’s (Community Technology Learning Centre) were established across 27 states in India too allow people of all ages to learn computer operation, usage of internet and explore careers in this zone. The impact was phenomenal as 4, 30,000 people have been trained in IT skills under this program through 1425 CTCL’s.
Support My School Campaign by Coca Cola & Sachin

It aimed at promoting sanitation and health related activities in government schools across the country and were extremely successful. It touched the lives of 43,000 children across 10 states in India with its target of renovating 100 schools across the country to increase enrollments and decrease dropouts. The campaign met its target on June 1st. Winner of Gold Standard Award for Public Private Relation