How to listen?

Seth nails it...

Live interaction still matters. Teachers, meetings, presentations, one on one brainstorms--they can lead to real change. The listener has nearly as big a responsibility as the speaker does, though. And yet, Google reports four times as many matches for "how to speak" as "how to listen." It's not a passive act, not if you want to do it right.

If listening better leads to better speaking, then it becomes a competitive advantage.

Ask an entrepreneur leaving the office of a great VC like Fred Wilson. She'll tell you that she gave the best pitch of her career--largely because of the audience. The hardest step in better listening is the first one: do it on purpose. Make the effort to actually be good at it.

Don't worry so much about taking notes. Notes can be summarized in a memo (or a book) later.
Pay the person who's speaking back with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm shown by the expression on your face, in your posture, in your questions.

Play back what you hear but in your own words, using your own situation. Don't ask questions as much as make statements, building on what you just heard but making it your own. Take what you heard and make it the foundation for what you are trying on as your next idea.

If you disagree, wait a few beats, let the thought finish, and then explain why. Don't challenge the speaker, challenge the idea.

The best way to honor someone who has said something smart and useful is to say something back that is smart and useful. The other way to honor them is to go do something with what you learned.

Good listeners get what they deserve--better speakers.

The perils and peculiarities of perfectionists

Perfectionists are a breed by themselves, not ready to fit into the ordinary mould and mode of life easily. They are a species apart, courting controversies at times, and, recoiling shyly into a shell the next moment.

Practice makes perfect, goes the adage. Unfortunately, one who is perfect normally finds the going tough. Leading life turns irksome for perfectionists. Being sensitive, they suffer for myriads of reasons. They are normally stamped as argumentative, uncompromising, complainants, weeping aunties, doubting Thomases, pessimists, party spoilers, rule-minded and what not. Persons not so well-organised generally find others tough nuts and stumbling blocks.

The other day, I was travelling by train in a 3-tier AC coach. I have no false claims or qualms of being a perfectionist except that I held a bona fide ticket. No sooner I settled into my berth quietly than a youngster appeared on the scene and asked me whether I would mind shifting to an adjacent coach (Thank God, not to the next train) as one of his friends (out of a party of six) was (sinned? and) allotted berth in the next compartment. He almost swooped to shift my luggage arbitrarily from the leg space, taking my coercive nod for granted. A man of fragile frame, I could not have resisted him physically though.

I did not wish to contaminate their bonhomie. I checked with him whether the one he was offering me was also a lower berth, as I had to alight at a mid-point station during unearthly hours. He said it was a side-upper berth. I said it would be inconvenient for me as I was six feet tall. (Not that I would have ungrudgingly hopped to that berth if I had grown a foot less). Half smilingly and twisting his body uncomfortably, he very humbly queried what I could have done had I been originally allotted a side-upper berth in the first place. He had a logic, quaint and queer, nevertheless. I did not wish to prolong the ordeal for him. (Anyway, at 59, I was also an odd man out in their company) I obliged him (though not merrily) as it meant buying peace (I could also simultaneously dread how turbulent and troubled my journey would be if I did not pay heed).

As the berth exchange was settled for good, I thought I could steal a pretty nap which I badly needed. It was not to be so. While I was about to mount and lodge myself in the newly acquired (cabinet?) berth, a middle aged woman resting on the side-lower berth below asked me whether I would barter mine for the opposite upper berth assigned for her son as the child tended to roll over and fall while asleep. (I learnt the rudiments of railway dynamics for the first time that falling from a side-upper berth was safer than tumbling down from a regular upper berth.) I did not ask her, out of civility, what if I darted on to the coach floor in my slumber from the upper berth she was offering.

I acceded to her request. As the train moved out of the platform and the commotion inside the compartment subsided, I found to my dismay, in the middle of the night, that both child and mother were sharing the same side-lower berth, leaving the side-upper berth vacant but for their luggage positioned there. (Did she perceive me as a potential nocturnal threat that she shifted me to an opposite one? My ego suffered a mild bruise).

I had a boss in the bank where I served. He was principled and also a strict disciplinarian. He never tolerated anyone using wrong words. He once asked me whether I could switch on the “artificial wind blower.” I looked frantically for such a hitherto unheard-of equipment existing in his cabin. He chided me for not even knowing the correct phrase for a “fan.” (According to him, “fan” is too general a term to be used for an electrically operated ceiling fan.) He always called a spade a spade. (Of course, a spade cannot be called a goat unless when one is mentally deranged).

Once when he wanted me to go out and meet a client I told him politely that “It was raining heavily outside.” He admonished me that it should rain only outside and it was enough if I conveyed, “It was raining.” He always corrected me whenever I said “concerned department.” He would say, “Department concerned.”

A young visitor once knocked at his cabin door and asked, “Can I come in, Sir” My boss retorted: “Try, if you can.” The visitor disappeared into thin air instantly.

My father-in-law was also one such perfectionist who found the going arduous. Even at home, whenever he volunteered to help the womenfolk with family chores during festivals and ceremonies, they would make fun of his perfectionist attitude. When he was allowed to cut vegetables rarely during occasions, he would, of course, bring an old geometry box and measure the length of each vegetable so that it was cut into uniform pieces to counter and balance any possible uneven frying or boiling. My mother-in-law would simply snatch away the vegetables and the cutting apparatus from him, pungently remarking that at his pace of precision-vegetable-surgery, food would be ready only the succeeding year. Poor man used to abandon his mission and switch to other tasks not relevant to the kitchen.

My father-in-law once hired a worker to climb the coconut trees in the backyard of his house and pluck ripe nuts. The labourer crawled up the tree and started plucking unripe ones. My father-in-law lost his cool at the sight and yelled at the man from below, “Don't you have brains? Didn't I tell you to pluck the ripe ones?” The workman got wild at this rebuke and murmured inaudibly, “If I had brains, you would be here on the top of this tree and I would be in your place, lording from below.”

A man in his forties once happened to meet my father-in-law during a train journey and befriended him. Asked what he was doing, the man replied, “To be honest, Sir, I am unemployed.” My father-in-law turned to me and asked, “What has honesty to do with his unemployment?” My mother-in-law always dreaded and trembled at the prospect of fist fights that might follow as her husband would not take idiocies in his stride during his outings. She would take the lead in hiring and negotiating with autodrivers and porters and also buy things from vendors en route to scuttle grammar wars and contradictions.

Perfectionists are a breed by themselves, not ready to fit into the ordinary mould and mode of life easily. They are a species apart, courting controversies at times, and, recoiling shyly into a shell the next moment. Their art of living is peculiar though it may appear odd and eccentric to other specimens.

(Open Page: The writer's email ID is pushpasaran@yahoo.co.in)

Aakhir dil hai Hindustani

Ranjith's guest post. Despite his tough schedule he could come out with something this wonderful :) Hail consumergiri!

Sundays are a great way to spend one seventh of your life.

So as I sit here at Costa Coffee CMH road, sipping on a chilled peach-passion-fruit-cooler and feasting on a warm fig-and-walnut cake, looking at the babes that walk by from behind my big black sunglasses (specially bought for this exclusive purpose :), I’m thinking quite hard of what to write for Tiger’s blog.

Tiger and I have a strange history together – we’re fellow bloggers who had come together for the Indiblogger Bangalore bloggers meet and the subsequent newspaper report covering the event had our pictures together for a article humbly titled ‘Superstars of Blogosphere’(yes, seriously! :). And as is the norm in the world today, we fb friended each other and then later, we pretty much went back to our individual worlds. Till he gave me the honor of guest posting in his blog last week.

So, what do I write?..........hmmm…..

I look at Tiger’s blog and see the words ‘consumer’, ‘sales’, ‘service’ and the sorts… hmmm.. interesting,...... So, what do I write?..........

And I take another nibble of the warm cake….

It is quite yum actually…. And I realize that it’s my first time here at Costa. I’ve always been a CCD guy and have been a regular at the CCD on 100 feet road, Indiranagar, Bangalore and have been a sucker for its amazing location – it’s surrounded by huge green trees, overlooks the classy 100ft road, is at a good viewing distance away from all the traffic and the food was good too - I’ve probably had a hundred and one chocolate fantasy cakes and cappuccinos there with friends, family and favorites. But of late, I’ve been quite disillusioned by CCD’s service (or rather, the total lack of).

And that is the consumer in me talking. I’ve been a consumer to CCD for a while but now have happily changed loyalties to somebody else who gives me better bang for my buck. And come to think of it, we’re all infected with the same syndrome – we’re all consumers every day. And we are very careful about whom we choose to hand over our hard earned money. In the shining version of India today, brand loyalty has become a shaky concept considering the flood of brands we’re exposed to. Brands that do not get their act together will be rejected outright, no matter how big they may be elsewhere in the world. Even the world’s most favorite brand, the mighty Apple did not find many takers for its latest iPhone 4S in India recently, mainly because we did not find it worthy enough at such costs.

We Indians are a peculiar lot – we want the best but we won’t pay the best. And that’s not really a bad thing at all. But mind you, we’re not after cheap products- we still look down upon the ‘made-in-china’ ware – we Indians seek value, not cheap. And brands, that have identified this quirk of ours as an opportunity, have succeeded. Cases in point –

• In the Indian automobile sector of today, almost every player has realized the importance of India-centric cars. Gone are the days when India was just a dumping ground for foreign also-rans. Today global players like Hyundai make cars for the discerning Indian consumer and if it clicks here, it’s then also exported to foreign shores. Almost every player has brought out a made-for-India-car: Ford’s greatest success in India is its India car, Figo; Toyota too gave an Indian grill to its cars with the successful Etios; Honda responded to the Indian challenge by slashing the price of its Jazz and bringing out its pocket friendly Brio. To satiate the Indian consumer’s search for value, cars have also started coming out with their diesel versions much faster than before.
• Telecom – One of the biggest drivers for value is open competition and the best Indian example for this is Indian telecom. I can’t even tell you how consumer centric the Indian telecom market has become once it was opened to open competition – Indian telecom has today one of the lowest rates in the world and to cater to this market dynamic, telcos have turned themselves into much more efficient versions by fine tuning their operations. And in response to their troubles, we have rewarded the telcos by becoming one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world and stand today as the country with second largest number of mobile users in the world. Indian telcos like Airtel are taking their rich experience of profitably catering to the value conscious Indians to strike gold in other markets like Africa. Vodaphone’s India arm is considered as one of its best performing units. Next year, a new set of rules are slated to make the telecom industry even more competitive and thereby, even more consumer centric (are the FDI-in-retail opponents listening?).
• Apna fmcg market is rife with examples of companies constantly evolving their value proposition. The shampoo categories got revolutionized with the low cost sachets, driven by desi brand Chik. Firangs companies that got this right later extended the concept to the detergent segment and now also to food: categories like biscuits and chocolates have started offering products at the ever declining price points. Retailers like Walmart and Tesco are feared from entering India for the awesome value play that they can bring to the consumer that will squeeze the politically connected middle men out of business, hence explaining their opposition to the consumer centric FDI in retail.

Consumergiri. Well, few instances of our consumergiri that I could think about, embedded deep within the dil of the hindustani consumer are:

• Show me the value and I’ll show u the money: We already have an idea what value is. Some companies cut down on quality/size/both to reduce price in their quest for value– and it does work in many cases but is never a sustainable solution – in fact, it’s also one of the best ways to kill a brand – remember Akai TV. Similarly, I know a lot of people who refuse to buy electronics from EZone, because of the owner’s focus on being sabse sastha (maybe a totally untrue belief). But brands that have mastered the art of justifying their high price with value have been phenomenally successful. For example, P&G’s flagship products, Whisper and Pampers, are the undisputed leaders in their respective categories in spite of their higher prices. The operating word in the Indian side of life has always been value, which is not just a reduced price tag; and brands that understand and respect this have had valuable experiences in India.
• I’m smart, in case you still haven’t noticed: Some great dude once said that ‘the consumer is not an idiot – she is your wife’. And many brands and services think they can outsmart us to a royal ride by serving shoddiness. Think of auto drivers – why is Rajnikanth from Baasha the only auto driver we ever liked? – but seriously, auto guys have never really been a liked bunch out here (in Bangalore at least). Cos we already know how much it really costs to get us there – really! Mantri mall in Bangalore has started a pre-paid auto service and the rates that have been printed on the sheet are mostly inflated by at least 30-40 bucks. You think we did not know? So what do we do? We just walk outside the mall for a little while and get another auto who charges us more reasonably. Or better yet, we get the red a/c bus. We still get home while the auto guys pay the exorbitant mall parking charges – so who’s the real loser out here for the over smartness? We are the land of the jugaad – defined as the gutsy Indian art of finding opportunities in the most adverse circumstances – we will find another way; it’s in our blood to do so. Respect our intellect and we’ll give you your chance, you savvy?
• Mere paas social media hai: There’s this interesting story that when Farah Khan did not find Pampers at her neighborhood, she tweeted about the shortage and the resulting backlash prompted P&G to send her a month’s supply of diapers within a day. Similarly, facebook has as much a role in damaging brand equity as much as making it too – remember the recent story when most admired telecom brand Vodafone got enmeshed in a whole episode of negative publicity when V decided to slap legal charges against a customer who posted about its pathetic network on fb (yup, “he’s always on facebook”..;)) – the resultant negative publicity that grew on fb against the brand was something Vodafone could really have done without. And today as we speak, Kapil Sibal’s anti-democratic directives to websites have met with widespread uproar from the junta on social media. Moral of the story: In the inter connected world of today, news of bad service as well as good, travels at the speed of net.

So ultimately, the one word that sums the coziest brand-consumer relations anywhere is just one simple word – respect; respect me and I’ll respect you back. And this is what makes up brands like Tata, Infosys, Amul tick – they respect the hindustani in us, they respect our consumergiri, they respect us as we are – they make us a promise and deliver it.

So let’s go back to the Costa – CCD face off with which we started this post with. Why do you think they’re both doing what they are right now?

Well, here’s my take –

Most people don't realize it, but the world’s largest restaurant chain, McDonald's is not just a restaurant chain; it is one of the world's best real estate companies -> franchisees make the burgers while McDonald's gets to own the best commercial property all over the world. CCD has probably realized that their real worth is not only the money it makes by selling coffee but the valuable real estate it keeps buying all across. Bangaloreans will know that CCD joints have come up at prime properties on MG road, and it’s actually a good thing cos ur favorite coffee is just a tad closer to your favorite hangouts. But me thinks that all this just made CCD lazy on its USP. At the crux of all this is that the once amazing experience they used to provide with great location, great food and drinks –their USP – got lost somewhere along the way. Also another thing I’ve noticed is that CCD is now focusing on their premier outfits like the CCD Lounge and the CCD Square, where I’ve found the prices quite high but the service great. Maybe (just maybe), CCD is just busy buying land and upping their service quotient only at their higher priced new formats in the hope of upgrading their consumers to these higher priced ware, overlooking their earlier format.

But what CCD did not account for is that the gap that CCD created was simply taken up by Costa. And Costa today reminds you of what CCD used to be when it started off – a great place with great food. I sincerely hope that CCD does something to bring back the magic in their joints, especially at my once favorite one at 100feet, Indiranagar, Bangalore. And ironically, even if they don’t pull up their socks, I know I won’t be bothered at all as there’s always Costa… or Barista…or Gloria Jeans .. or Java….or a whiff of news of something called Starbucks coming along…. so on guard, CCD!

And I take another nibble of the warm yummy cake…. and a sip of the superb chilled peach-passion-fruit-cooler…

Aaah… Sundays …..

Pure Bliss…

:)

Tell me its done

A post from November 30, 2008. God I miss being a student.

Being a student is never easy.

Especially when you play cricket every single night, watch movies, blog, Orkut, check mails, eat, do assignments, exams, fights, pranks, birthday parties, watch TV, have serious enlightening debates about life, terrorists, rain, try to read on the bed (sorry all other stuff like mags, novels are at the table) and then sleep when all the civilized world is waking up around 4 AM. So its not a big deal when you don't sleep, I mean in the night.

Its OK until you go to class and try to concentrate your sleep deprived brain, stressing on what the faculty is trying to say, read the alphabets on your book, scribble something on the paper. And after what seems to be at least 4 hours of non-stop logic, you want to see if the prof has exceeded the class time and try to give a quick look at the watch.. Its then that its hits you. Its hardly 15 mts since the class started. So what you do is pull up your chair stop leaning back on the featherlite chair and look at the prof as if you have some magical laser in your eye that would drill a hole in the prof or may be make him catch fire or disappear in to thin air with a whiff of smoke and you are left alone to doze off happily. By this your eyes are strained so much from the last nights movie that you cant hold your eyelids up any more and they act like they are made of wax and exposed to fire. They come slowly down, like a rain a blessing.

Ah! the feeling can't be expressed or explained. You need to FEEL it. Its so relieving, so soothing and beautiful that you seem to have reached such heights that you forget everything. All the world around you comes to a standstill and it becomes so silent and don't want to disturb you. Some rude push/punch/thud/elbow jerk wakes you up. Some people even pinch and you can't even yell. You are back to square one.

This time you try something different. You try to look at the prof who looks at you directly. No he looks through you and you don't know what is being discussed. You could be pulled up and questioned as to what was being discussed. The prof gives you the Do-you-want-me-to-pull-you-up-and-mess-your-life look and you give the look of a puppy that just spilt the coffee on your new blazer on the day of your interview. But the problem is that there is no where to run or hide. May be you could just disappear. Wow, isn't it a great idea. Disappearing. Puff and you are gone. Gone without a trace or may be you could leave a small smoke behind just to show you are gone or may be a dazzling flash of light. Light would be brilliant. It would be surprising and no one would know what happened. It would be sudden and fast like what Batman does in the movie. Hmm.. I remember the scene. Katie Holmes was looking too good in the movie. The dark background, her dove like eyes and what was the color of the dress? Need to re-watch the part when I get back to my room. Did you see Phonebooth? Oh! How I wish I was in my room, on the soft bed, hidden under the warm blanket where no one could disturb me, with my lappie, my iPod headphones plugged into my ears, going through the ppts, google and sleeping without realizing it. After all you need to be updated and stay ahead of the competition. Some one reduce the speed of the fan please. PINCH. Oh! did I sleep? No I didn't. I was just thinking as to what color would the smoke be when I disappear!

NO nonsense this time. Its hardly 30 mts since the class started and look at me! I need to concentrate and listen. I have a feeling that all the profs in common have something magical in them, some technologically advanced version of time-stopping-device or technique that makes 10 minutes like eternity and forget the full class of 105 mts! Its scientifically prove that the human concentration span is just 20-40 mts but still no one cares. So now how many more minutes before I leave this room That's 105-30, sorry 105-32 mts. Some 73 mts. Or is it 71? Who cares my mind has stopped working and demands rest right now and can wait no longer and the slides on the screen are Purple, Dark Purple. Hmm.. sounds like Bond, James Bond. How come they didn't use this phrase in the new bond movie Quantum of Solace? Is it a strategic decision or just a gimmic to attract attention? What a movie that was? The print I saw was bad but it was not exciting. What stupid story? Did I blog about this? I think I did. Ouch! Somebody pushed me! I swear I wasn't sleeping. "Not sleeping? You were snoring", comes the reply.

Oh! So I am think-sleeping (reached the advanced stages of insomnia like Al Pacino!) now. I should blog about this and should do some nice blogging and concentrate on management topics like Prof. Ray and Prof. Mark J Perry. Hey did we do the assignment that we were supposed to submit today? Who was doing it? Let me ask my team mates. Where are they? I give a quick glance at the prof who is explaining some concept to the class (Oops! Even I am a part of this...) What is he talking about? His hands are drawing something in thin air! Its a four-dimensional figure and I have missed the starting so I cannot understand the rest. Ok lets find the team.

Sitting in the first bench has its own advantages. You can sleep off, dream and with one turn look at the whole class. The disadvantage is that the whole class stares back at you as if you are some exhibition item which fell and broke off. There they are, the team, sitting in 7 separate locations like shattered glass and we are all united in not doing the assignment. I signal about the ppt and the report and they don't get a word. By this time half the class is looking at you and the prof, who gave you up, invariably looks at you and you nod your head in assertion as if you are agreeing with whatever he has just said and try to scribble in the paper. Oh! Where is the paper? And the pen? the paper is missing, the pen fell off long ago when you were dreaming about Katie's eyes and you try to pick it up. Look back at the prof and then the watch. Hmm.. 45 mts! Yes only 60 more to go. I know only doesn't make it any more easier. The thought alone sickens you. By the way it took just 1/100th of a second for you to calculate the remaining time.

I think I should SMS them and find out. There is no network. No one follows you here. Where is the pug? and Rahman? Lets see about the assignment later. There is a pause the lecture. Some one raised a point or may be its an objection and it is being discussed. May be I would understand if I start listening from here so that I can get the conclusion of the concept. 38 seconds later I get the feeling that the lecture is boring. Will I stick to the concepts and framework in the book or will I write creatively? You are expected to tread the text book, reference books, and gather all the information you could to have an in depth knowledge.

This is the time you are should learn and fill yourself with concepts, knowledge, information that would be useful to face the harsh world. Make good use of it.

Camera found under water: Is SanDisk listening?

That’s right, you read the headline is correct. Over the weekend a diver, Markus Thompson, found a camera at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of British Colubmia. He salvaged the camera, poked around a little bit (determining that the camera had been dropped into the water in August 2010), recovered the data off the card and, using Google+, found the owner.

Markus’ original post and updates here. The social web doing some good, a photographer getting back some property along with some thought-to-be-long-lost images… But… I’m guessing that all you really want to know is the brand of the card, right?

Funny, although I don’t blame you. Apparently this was a SanDisk Extreme III but, not that it overly matters…regardless what type of card you use, it’s true that many cards/types/brands can survive total submersion in water… now we just know that at least some of them can hang out in salt water for year(s). What an excellent opportunity for SanDisk to come out with a good campaign!

Way of Christ!

As a student of psychology, I learn every day and from almost everyone I see, meet or speak to. What makes someone stick to something or not? What motivates someone more than anything else? Can everything be analysed and allocated to the confines of a simple pyramid designed by Maslow? Don't think so. Traditional marketing gurus would fit what I am going to say in to one of the top chambers of the pyramid though! The more I learn, I know there is more that is unknown!

Something I envisioned and started with a good friend Peter some two years back during my graduation has snowballed in to a community. I am very happy and proud with the result as this was unexpected and frankly hardly anytime was spent on it. Skipping the marketing and behavioral discussion, Way of Christ has > 2100 followers as of today. Join if you would like to get good verses, thoughts and you can also post prayer requests, verses, etc.

Thank you Lord!

Yes! At the Cross, there's room!

Learn from Kardashian

There are 4 marketing attributes that small businesses can learn from Kardashian.

1. Exposure is critical: Every company needs a steady stream of exposure. Consumers will readily forget your name, products and services. It is important to remind them every day about your organization. You must have a clear message and be creative in your presentation. Kim Kardashian makes sure she is photographed at events, walking on the street or getting a manicure. 
2. Control the news: One of the best marketing tactics is to befriend others; groups, individuals and/or news organizations. Let people and organizations know what your business is about, how you benefit the community and upcoming events. Toot your horn so that the entire world may hear the music. Several weeks before Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian became engaged, Kim was quoted in the news as saying "I want to get married." Translation – Attention Kris, I am expecting a proposal. Attention news organizations; get ready for a bidding war for the wedding photos. Kim definitely controlled the news.
3. Make consumers want more: All forms of positive publicity are important. Consumers are eager to be reminded of exciting events, have their minds taken off negative aspects of the economy and learn about savings or events that will benefit them. Vera Wang is rarely if ever photographed walking down the streets of NY. Wang did something unheard to promote the Kardashian wedding gown. About one week before Kim's wedding, Vera and Kim were photographed together walking down a NY street. The associated article discussed the upcoming wedding, Kim's dress designed by Wang and the star-studded event in general. The publicity stunt left consumers (i.e., readers of gossip magazines) wanting more.
4. Be creative in your marketing: Marketing a company may take many different formats. Just because you used electronic billboards in one location in the past doesn't mean they should be used in the future. Constantly examine the marketing goals with activities. Ask "are the efforts bringing in the desired amount of sales?" If not, make changes. The Humphries-Kardashian wedding is estimated to bring in a lot of money for the newlyweds. It was reported that People magazine paid $1.5 million for exclusive rights to the wedding photos. E! had exclusive rights to video the ceremony. E! is scheduled to the ceremony on two nights. The amount paid to the newlyweds was not disclosed. Kim certainly was creative in marketing her summer 2011 activities. I'm not saying that she became a bride for financial reasons; it simply was a bonus.  

Proud to be an Indian

Have you felt love lately? Pure elation? When was the last time you had goosebumps and the hair on your neck rose? I am very patriotic, to the extent of being called a fanatic. Thanks to Vibhor, got to see this amazing video. Proud to be an Indian.

Got a blog?

Get one. Now.

Harp the negatives

Harp the negative and you might end up attracting quite a few. The trick here is not just being different and standing out of the crowd, but to be able to let your customers speak about what happened and be frank is a brave thing to do. Most companies and marketing managers would think twice before doing that. The need to be direct and allowing your consumers to hear bad things, negatives is a good marketing strategy.

Indiblogger is organizing a meet up on 3rd October this year at IIM B. Are you coming?

The time factor

Like most of the fads, blogging is losing popularity especially by teenagers and young adults who have dropped by half over the past three years as texting and social networking are picking up. A study released by the Pew Internet and American Life project also found that fewer than one in 10 teens were using Twitter, a surprising finding given overall popularity of the micro-blogging site.

According to the report, only 14 percent of teenagers who use the Internet say they kept an online journal or blog, compared with a peak of 28 percent in 2006 -- and only 8 percent were using Twitter.

According to the study, 73 percent of teens who were online used social networking sites. Much of the communication between young people now takes place on mobile devices, which don't lend themselves to long-form writing.

Teens may be shying away from Twitter because they see it as designed for celebrities, and because of reluctance to put their thoughts on such a public forum when they can post them to their Facebook page instead. Blogging among adults has held steady since 2005, Pew found, but it has dropped among Internet users between the age of 18 and 29 -- while rising in those over 30. "Older people are becoming more comfortable with the online environment and young people in the meantime have moved on to social networking and text messaging," Smith said.

Mundu!

Kerala, God’s own country, has not earned this name without meaning. There is an air about it that justifies its warm and affectionate existence.

Keeping in tune with the phrase 'do in Rome as the Romans do', I order some extraordinary crafted dhoti and sari to be worn... The sari, of course, for the ladies in the house.

The ‘dhoti’ in all its pristine glamour, tied up around the waist by shear will power and some dextrous use of the stomach muscle, else it slips down and opens up !! It is just a piece of cloth, no buttons, no belts, no clips nothing. Simple elegant convenient and with its own characteristic charm and above all - air conditioned at all times !! The fall of the main design as a strip down the front to be positioned on the right hip and just around the right knee. Rules of culture.

From Amitabh's blog

Delivering a Wow

Robin's words echo my thoughts, though in a different situation...

In my mind, Lady Gaga is the new Madonna. Love her music or not, part of her genius is pushing the envelope and being so entertaining that everyone around the water cooler the next day is talking about just one thing: Gaga.

1. She's herself. Leadership means doing your vision (even if you're title is janitor - be a visionary janitor and create wow in your work). Leadership means staying true to your self. And leadership means, well, not following. Lady Gaga doesn't behave in a way designed to please the crowd. No, with those wild costumes and stunning theatrics, she sets her own course. And then leads.

2. She knows her customers. The best companies create what I call "Fanatical Followers" - customers who are so in love with who you are and what you do that they have crossed the boundary from loyalty into outright fanaticism. Lady Gaga knows what her fans want - and she delivers it to them. Every time.

3. She puts on a show. When you get to work every day, it's showtime. No one cares if you have a cold or if you're feeling off or if you had a fight with your best friend. We are paid to do great work. And the best businesses offer their customers an experience, not just a product or a service. Gaga's shows are experiences.

4. She Leads Without a Title. Much of my new book, "The Leader Who Had No Title" is all about the opportunity every single one of us has each day to shift from victimhood into leadership. To transcend our current circumstances to play in the rare-air of excellence, mastery and genius. This isn't hype. There are people who have learned to do this and I share their process in the book. But the key thing to remember is that Lady Gaga was just an ordinary person, chasing a dream in New York City, not so long ago. But through talent, hard work, ingenuity and leadership, she shed the shackles of ordinary and grew into extraordinary. You can do the same, in your work and within your life. Starting today.

Delivering with excellence

Find a calling and then deliver.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’” – Martin Luther King, Jr

From Seth's blog

Towards better blogging

I have been blogging for quite sometime and here is what I have learnt to keep the audience engaged and coming back for more. You should always think about who is reading and why. Just like in marketing, it is the visitor/reader who is important and not you. So to summarize, ask yourself these questions about your blog.

1. Who will read your blog? (What readers is it addressed to?)
2. What is the reader’s main concern? (Time, delivery, reliability, quality, efficiency)
3. What is the character of the reader?
4. What motivates the reader?
5. What is their one greatest fear? … or greatest fears
6. How many different influences must the blog appeal to?

Then fill up those loose ends and you have a strong product to sell. Add some glitter and good marketing you should be blazing. Good luck.

Oye Amritsar!

Well... wanted to post about it since Dhiru took us there. Oye Amritsar is a wonderful restaurant to get away from the regular closed environs of a restaurant to chat, eat and catch up with your friends. I loved the place, their taste & variety of food. Ambiance is awesome too. Ever wanted to get out of the buzz in the city and enjoy a good meal on a road side dhaba, travel in a truck with careless abandon but couldn't? Decked up in mass estyle, for some 300 bucks you can get that here. Worth a try.

Here is MJ's review.

New song!

Far away beyond the shadows,

There a bright and joyful throng

Wave their palms of holy triumph,

While they sing the glad New Song!

(Julia Sterling)

Visit StanleyonBible for motivational articles on christian life :)

Marketers and measuring social media

Marketers don't think they're very good at measuring social media. When my colleague Emily Riley asked marketers to rate their ability to measure the impact of their social media initiatives, the average grade they gave themselves was 4.5 out of 10. Not a great score -- especially given that accountability is one of the key selling points of interactive marketing. So I've spent a lot of time this year trying to understand why marketers aren't good at measuring social media -- and how they can do better.

The fact is, social media marketers are drowning in a sea of metrics. Every social platform and vendor offers its own metrics, and there are literally hundreds of ways to measure the success of social initiatives. With so many numbers to choose from, and so little insight into which metrics are important, it's not surprising that marketers feel overwhelmed.

Most marketers fixate on easily-available measures like followers or fans -- regardless of whether those metrics are important. Many others fail to measure obviously useful numbers just because they're not on the first page of a report. A marketer focused on talking [video] should have a radically different definition of success than one focused on embracing [video]. But marketers are much more likely to tailor their social media measurement to the tools they're using than to the objectives they're trying to achieve. Have a look -- most marketers measure pretty much the same metrics, no matter what their objective:

It's obvious that marketers need more clarity into which social media metrics they should be tracking. So we've developed a simple three-step process to help marketers better tailor their measurement strategies to the objectives they're pursuing. Walking through these three steps will help you cut through the clutter on your marketing reports and measure your social media initiatives more effectively:

• Step 1: Think back to your marketing objective. Go back and find your notes from when you were first planning your social marketing effort -- and remind yourself of the objective you were pursuing. If you don't know what your goal was, you'll never know what you should be measuring, or if you succeeded.
• Step 2: Consider what types of metrics signal success. Don't think about specific lines on a report yet -- instead, think about what types of consumer behaviors and sentiments match your objectives, and focus your measurement on those categories of metrics. If your goal was energizing, success is defined as lots of people saying positive things about your brand; if your goal was supporting, you want to know if users were providing good advice to each other -- and whether it kept users from having to ask you for support directly. Again, this isn't about specific metrics, it's about how you hoped your social initiative would change your relationship with consumers.
• Step 3: Look for that category of metric in the social technology you're using. Once you've identified the type of metric that will signal success, then you can look for ways to track those metrics within the social platform you're using. This is when you should get into the specifics of which lines on the report Facebook or Jive gives you are most important -- and which other vendors you need to use to find the exact numbers you're looking for.

Via Forrester Research

Its about me

Most of the times I visit any website its mostly about what they do, how they are going to make money out of me. What I want to read is what I would get out of the website/blog that would change the way I think or help me in making better decisions in life. Its NOT about you. Its about ME, the consumer.

So here is the secret to have a great blog. Blog about what the reader would be able to learn, change after visiting your blog. Unless you give me any takeaway I don't care. If you think I would be interested in what you do... you better be a superstar or a film actor and blog for your fans.

Everyone's hawking something, and if you can stand out as someone who is more interested in helping others address their needs and goals, you will inevitably make more views and bring in more interest.

The rule of patience

Internet marketing is a business like any other. So it needs to be started and grown with sound business principles if you want to succeed. When you compare the number who have had such wild success, with all the businesses who have failed or never really taken flight online, you will find that the “overnight” millionaires are not the standard of what internet marketing is. The key to successful internet marketing is Search Engine Optimization or "SEO". It's obvious why Internet marketing is so popular, and will only continue to grow in the future. Internet Marketing is not the get-rich-quick scheme some may say it is. It requires a lot of hard work, patience, consistency.

So don't be depressed if no one visits your blog, website and comments on it daily. It would take much more time and exposure to reach the state of successful blogs. They have passed through the same path. But they didn't give up. Neither should you. You must understand that effective marketing is not something that is going to happen overnight. So keep posting, updating and building.