Forget good or bad, just plain ugly

I recently got this in my mail. This should be put up there as the epitome of ugly advertizing:



This is the latest pop-up kind of advertizing. The portal promises that the advertiser gains because this latest method of pop-up advertizing "just jumps out and grabs attention" and that the brand "just cannot be ignored". I'm sorry but when did advertizing become this annoying. can you imagine how this pop up ad would massacre the surfing experience of a person? world over people are moving towards non intrusive advertzing platforms because there is a big realization that advertizing that is annoying does not transalte into ROI. It may grab attention but also creates an ill feeling about the brand in the minds of the consumer.

The reason why Google's SEO based text advertizinng was a runaway success was because it was simple, direct and clean. It didn't take away from the surfing experience but ingact complemented it. Facebook too, while contemplating and Ad platform took pains to ensure that the advertizing didn't detract from the user experience. Companies like Facebook have to be particularly careful because user experience is what makes or breaks social interactive sites. That's why this portal's latest venture is puzzling and frankly a bit annoying. This also sends a wrong message to your most valuable asset, your website's subscriber. By pissing them off, by putting annoying pop up advertizing, you are turning them away from your website!

Another side of ugly is the latest Yahoo Search Ad in India. The Ad shows a skydiver with a stutter failing to count from 1-10 in time (due to his stutter) and then eventually crashing to death, with the tagline going "Sometimes every second counts". I don't see how this Ad is even remotely funny. Its in extremely poor taste. As a marketer the rule of thumb is you do not make fun of people disabilities. Simply because, marketing is a very powerful tool. It has an incredible power to influence huge masses of people and must be used to promote positive ideas. I truly believe this. A brand that infuses or reinforces positive ideas will also be looked upon in the same light. When a brand tries to ridicule a group no matter what their ethncity will always end up leaving a bad taste and that's a risk a top notch brand like Yahoo should not take.

E-commerce e-rrupts in India

(Apologies for not posting regularly, work's been a little busy. Below is an article of mine on the growth of E-commerce in India that was published. Citation of this in any reproduction would be appreciated)

You know things have come full circle when your mom tells you to check the internet for better prices before buying a TV. Unbeknownst to me my mom, who I thought was rather vary of the internet as a medium to buy/sell things, had been actively browsing the net, buying travel tickets, perusing ebay and other property sites and even indulging in online stock trading ! That’s when two things hit me. E-commerce is a reality in India and that my mom is officially more net savvy than me. Considering that I actively cover the digital space looking for the next big trend, this fact is greatly embarrassing.

But on a more serious note, the E-commerce trend in India requires a serious look considering that more and more people in India are using the net not just to chat or to look for more information but also to buy and sell commodities. That’s why the Consumer E-Commerce Market in India 2006-2007 Report released by the Internet and Mobile Association in India (IAMAI) is particularly useful as it offers insights on the size and drivers of the E-commerce Market in India.

According the report compiled by IMRB, the B2C E-commerce industry for the year 2006-07 was computed to be around Rs. 7080 crores. Further more, the market is set to grow at a whopping rate of 30% and is expected to be worth Rs. 9210 crores by the end of 2007-08. To fully understand the implications of the report it is important to understand E-commerce and what it consists of

E-Commerce
E-Commerce is generally defined as the buying & selling of products & services over the internet or other internet based computer networks. A vast array of commerce is conducted in this way through activities such as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.

Traditional commerce, which consisted of a physical market place, with physical products and physical payment methods was forced to evolve with the advent of the internet. The physical products were displayed on the virtual world and were thus available electronically. The online payment system through credit and debit cards also ensured that even the transaction was purely electronic

E-commerce in India

The E-commerce market in India has been largely spurred on by the huge upsurge in the online travel industry due to the entry of low cost carriers. The IAMAI Report, based on feedback from key players in the e-commerce industry, divides the E-commerce sector into the following verticals

1. Travel, comprising Travel aggregators, Tour Operators, Hotels and Railways
2. E-tailing, comprising Online Retailers and Online Auctions
3. Classifieds, comprising Online Jobs, Online Matrimony, Online Property, Online
Automobile and General Classifieds
4. Paid Content Subscription, comprising research, articles, exclusive videos, etc
5. Digital downloads, from Internet to Mobiles and internet

As mentioned earlier, The total market size of B2C and C2C E-Commerce industry in India is around Rs. 7080 crores at the end of 2006-07. It is expected to rise to Rs. 9210 crores by the end of 2007-08.

Following is the break up for B2C and C2C E-Commerce Industry in India for the year 2006-07 and 2007-08:

The above figures show that along with online travel, the digital downloads segment is
expected to be one of the main contributors to the Online Non-Travel Industry in future due to an increase in mobile subscribers across the country.

E-commerce Usage in India
The adoption of E-commerce in the country correlates directly with rise in the internet usage in the country. According to I Cube 2007 Internet in India Report, the internet base in India grew by 40% to reach 46 million

As the base of internet users gain more awareness and exposure, it is expected that they will spend more time on the internet and graduate from basic internet applications like email & chat to using the net for advanced applications like finding information and making transactions online.

As shown by the above chart, E-commerce activities has risen to being 5% of the overall internet activities in the country. Although the bulk of the internet activities is still Email, E commerce is projected to grow as online transaction norms and other entry barrier ease over time

Facilitators and Barriers For The E-Commerce Market in India

As a marketer, it is important to understand the reasons behind the growth of the E-Commerce industry in India inorder to come to a decision on if your product is ready for the e-commerce route.

According to the I Cube 2006 Report, the top 6 reasons for buying online are:

Clearly consumers favour transacting online when time is a constraint. Another major reason is the convenience afforded by shopping from home. One of the biggest advantages of having a virtual store is that a wide variety of products can be displayed as space/retail rent is not a major constraint

For E-commerce to make rapid strides in the country, we also need to look at the barriers that are impeding consumer activities in this arena

As seen above, the biggest concern still remains product quality and the absence of the touch-feel experience afforded by physical products. Online payment transaction security is also a major concern given the spate of credit card frauds and phishing related incidents

E- commerce is undoubtedly the future of shopping in India, although, as shopping in this country is an experience in itself, it is unlikely to supplant the traditional mode of shopping. For this sector to grow robustly concerns regarding online payment has to be
addressed at the earliest. Internet users have to be educated about transacting online & their apprehensions in revealing credit card details must be allayed. Inorder to compete with the traditional store fronts, more customization and variety has to be incorporated.

An interesting way forward would be to supplement traditional store fronts with an online portal to service customers who are bogged down by long queues, who have little to spend on shopping and who are looking for more variety. A great example of this would be trying out a dress in a traditional store and on not finding the exact colour or size, going online and ordering it off the store’s online portal.

I would definitely recommend all those working in the digital media to check out the various internet and mobile telephony based reports available on the IAMAI website - http://www.iamai.in/, especially the “Internet in India 2007” report. These reports offer an invaluable insight, one that may save marketers a lot of money from that cash strapped marketing budget.

Top 8 Tips For Marketing Your Blog

Its finally happened!! Google has started indexing my blog!! yaaay! *passes out imaginary glasses of champagne* Well jokes aside, as I had chronicled before, I was finding it increasingly difficult to get my blog indexed - it was not showing up in any searches of my name and this continued for upto 5 months. I checked out Google's Site Analyzer and found that I needed to apply basic optimization tecniques like adding more links. So I made it a policy to add links in any post I write. I guess the links need to be relevant. Other than that I didn't do anything much except update the website on a regular basis. I guess both the above techniques are key to getting the blog indexed, because after I implemented these two things in a month or so my blog got indexed.

Now that my blog has been indexed, the question arises on how one should market the blog. I've tried out some of the methods and they have worked fairly decently in increasing traffic. Then there are others that I've not yet tried but are sounds techniques nonetheless that surely would garner more traffic, so here they are, in no particular order:

1. Publicize Publicize Publicize - If we are really desperate for traffic then the Blog URL must be ubiquitous and visible in all our communication - Things like email signatures, Status messages in Gtalk, MSN & Yahoo, on facebook, linked in & orkut profile or even custom T shirts! (I kid about the T shirts thing, but you can implement if one is really desperate ). Email signature at work is a bit risky but its a sure fire way to ensure that your colleagues visit your blog

2. Blog Directories - Registering with numerous Blog directories really work. Some of the blog directories are free and simply request for a link back in return for a listing

3. Search Phrase Analysis - Analyzing Search Phrases & focusing on the kind of people coming to the blog will definitely help in ensuring that they come back again. I mean if you find that one particular post is attracting a lot of traffic, it makes sense to write more on that particular topic

4. Regular Updates - Regular updating of the blog always always sees an increase in traffic. It gives people a chance to check out the blog on a regular basis. This also means that there is more of your content out there for google to index and more content means more search traffic

5. Social Bookmarking - This one especially worked for me. Social bookmarking blog posts means that traffic from social bookmarking sites such as Digg. Del.ici.ous, stumbleupon etc will come to your site. This also helps in raising the page rank due to the link back from these sites

6. Make the blog interactive: Write stuff in a way that solicits comments, views & opinions and make sure that those comments are responded to. People who write comments always come to the post to see if their comment has been answered *I wouldn't know about this particular point because nobody comments :( *

7. Visit other such blogs & comment: This is the easiest way to attract traffic to ones blog. Pick 4-5 high traffic blogs about your area of interest or on what your blog is based on. Comment, comment, comment regularly on it so that you start attracting some of that high traffic on to your own blog. Oh you can also email the blog owners discreetly and beg and plead that they include you on their Blogroll

8. Email Subscription or Plain Prostituting - Inform & email everyone you know that you updated your blog and ask everyone to go check it out. Doing it 2-3 times in the initial stages should be fine. This will atleast register in everyone's mind that you have a blog atleast. Doing it regularly makes one look need. Setting up an email subscription app on the blog once traffic has reached certain critical mass will also help in getting those regular readers back. Setting up RSS feeds is also a good idea

I'll definitely update this list as my own blog grows *hopefully* till then read this absolutely awesome article for more great tips on blog marketing. I suggest this link be added to your favourites list and also my blog hehehe

Hard Bounce - Soft Bounce Dilemma

As a marketer, nothing gives me more pain than cleaning up my email lists. Deleting email addresses that has taken months togather after searching high and low. But clean we must inorder to be efficient and to save money.

Cleaning of email lists generally begins with the email bounces list provided by the emailing software. The bounce list as people aware of such technology will know, usually consists of 2 lists - a Hard Bounce List and a Soft Bounce List. Now herein lies the confusion. The definition of what constitutes a Hard bounce or soft bounce varies over various over Recepients and ISP.

Some email clients consider a Full Email Inbox has a Hard Bounce whereas some consider it a soft bounce and multiple attempts is made by the mailing software to ensure deliverability.So it is pretty difficult to clean lists based solely on Hard-Soft bounce reports as perfectly good email addresses might get deleted if only hard bounces are considered or bad email addresses might remain on the list if soft bounces are considered clean

This article by Derek Harding provides a decent overview on tackling the dilemma. Its worth a read if you are in the same spot as me. My two cents of advice on dealing with the issue:

1. Bounce is bounce so something must be amiss, so its better to take them all from the main mailing list inorder to ensure better efficiency
2. Bounce email Ids to be black listed or flagged seperately
3. Seperate mailing activity to be done only on the flagged email ids.
4. If email Ids consistently feature in the bounced list 3 consecutive times spread over a decent timeline like 3 months then it is wise to delete the email Id completely

what say?

Marketing During Political Times

Politics and Marketing make a heady mix and the recent primaries in the US have taken political marketing to a whole new level

We in India are well aware of the political debacle that was the India shinning campaign, but what no one noticed was the succcess of the congress party campaign - congress ka saath, aam aadmi ka saath (Loosely translated: Congress Party's Hand is holding that of the common man) It was successful in striking a chord with the people on issues like riots, price rise etc. Indian Politics is ofcourse still taking baby steps towards being marketing savvy. Leaving print or TV ads, our parties haven't embraced the net like their countreparts in the US. Ofcourse this strategy does make sense when you consider that the bulk of the population lives in rural areas and hardly has access to electricity let alone the internet, but...but... a sizeable urban population has access to the net and they get their information at their finger tips. I feel it makes tonnes of sense in investing in online marketing campaigns for our parties too.

The Obama campaign in particular has re-defined campaign funding and marketing in the US. This Washington Post Article explores the obama online campaign and the findings are mind boggling. Obama through internet ads has succeeded in building a network of $1 million donors!! this in stark contrast to the traditional route of having a small but wealthy pocket of donors. Obama through such tactics managed to raise $91 million in just 2 months thanks largely to this humongous group of small donors. Obama camapign also spent their money wisely - they out spent the clinton campaign by ten times on their online marketing budget.

The online campaign is also interesting in itself, according to the article. The Obama ads didn't take one directly to the donate page but focused on building an online relationship instead. People who signed up with their email Ids first got a welcome message, information about policies, information on the various ways one could volunteer and after building a rapport, only then was one asked to donate. I find this extremely fascinating. This is new age marketing. We'd call this lead nurturing only this is being applied to a political campaign

There have been other instances of the obama campaign being net savvy. A social networking group called ObamaCycle started by an enthisiastic obama supporter, actually ensured that Obama Campaign supplies were reused not wasted. This supplemented a situation where people who ran short of campaign supplies in states which were going to vote in the primaries could communicate whith people in states that had already voted and hence could re-use their campaign supplies!!

The obama campaign has been Web2.0 savvy with widgets and buttons on facebook and myspace etc.

I guess this tactic fits the american mileu but I strongly feel that our parties could easily take a leaf from obama's campaign book and make our political system more interactive, more participatory and more fun

Internet and E-Commerce in India

Being the data junkie that I am, I'm extremely thrilled with the Internet and Mobile Association of India's (IAMAI) reports on the state of Internet in india. It is an exteemely useful website filled with reports and events on the internet and mobile scene in India



As an e-marketer it is important to learn how the internet penetration is unfolding in India. You all all will be happy to know that the internet is growing at a rate of 40%. The internet break up as per the I-Cube 2007: Internet in India report is as follows:








The report also gives more facts and figures for internet penetration in Non metros and the pattern of internet usage.



The Ecommerce report too is pretty fascinating, considering companies in India are struggling to get their E-commerce acts together due to strict funds transfer policy in India. It offers a great insight on industry size, existing barriers for further growth and improvements needed.



Detailed de-brief once i analyze these reports. In the meanwhile, trip on it here

Best Practices: Marketing by Being Neutral

Lets face it, we all hate a sales pitch. A direct full on, obvious, loud, insensitive sales pitch. It brings to my mind, images of door-to-door sales people selling encyclopedias. Its the worst possible method to sell encylcopedias, because, the person selling it does such bad job of it and it also makes me feel guilty when I slam the door because, really, who buys encyclopedias on opening one's door?

Encyclopedias are not a commodity, so inorder to sell it, the person buying it has to be convinced that she really needs it. Nobody these days bothers with the convincing, they just straight away move to selling their product and that's what makes a sales pitch such a turn off.

BUY MY CREDIT CARD,BUY MY CREDIT CARD!!!



No, the first thing that any sales person must do, is to convince the buyer that she needs another credit card because of whatever reasons. Once a strong need has been created, the sales person can then swoop in and sell her the credit card.


The first step of creating a need in the buyer's mind is very important because it builds trust with the buyer. To the buyer you're like a third party neutral observer giving advise and most importantly there is no agenda in what you're saying. For, in a full on sales pitch, you'd hardly believe a word of what is being said because you are aware all along that the sales person has an agenda and that he's out to get you.


That's why behaving like you have no agenda can sometimes be the best marketing tool. Take for example, this page I landed on: http://www.lsfnetwork.com/importance-web-analytics.html
when I was doing some research on a web analytics article.


LSFnetwork is a internet based marketing agency. they do everything from media planning to search engine marketing and more. But look how they "sell" their products and services on this webpage for search engine marketing: http://www.lsfnetwork.com/sem-services.html






They first give solid statistics. Make a claim about web users and then provide third party articles on the right side bar. These articles give tips, elucidate web concepts and even provide strategies on marketing. Anybody who has a business would be interested in learning about all these. In all these articles, the LSFnetwork pitch comes only in the last paragraph but the thing is, the moment I come to the last paragraph, I'm convinced that LSFnetwork knows what its talking about, knows the internet better than I do and so I'm convinced that they can do the job.


All they did was appear neutral by putting in relevant resources. These resources project them as a company that understands the medium thoroughly and ergo built trust with me. Then when they sell me their stuff, I'm more receptive to their pitch and it does not sound like hollow sales talk.



I think its a brilliant strategy!



I think this strategy is pertinent to tech companies especially because tech products need the most amount of convincing. Technology is a difficult place to market products in, especially when its changing so rapidly. Customers will buy only when they are convinced about the product and no amount of sales talk is going to do it.



And customers will be convinced only when they see a product that meets their need and they see a product coming from a company that understand that technology thoroughly and seems confident about it. That's why "Thought Leadership" image is so important to tech companies these days. Customers will buy only from a company that truly seems like its an expert in a domain because it gives confidence to the customer. That's why I think its very important to be neutral sometimes in marketing technology products

Only to come running back again

Just when I thought that the internet had just gotten entertaining with the delicious prospect of MicroHOO!, balmer, the original Monkey Man(watch this if you don't believe me) has gone and pulled the rug under Yahoo. Not surprisingly the latter's share price dropped an amazing 14% after the pull out. Well most people think its a ploy to put pressure on Yahoo! through its shareholders. That's the general view anyway, that Microsoft will eventually bid again but at a lower price. Well that's how his letter to Jerry Yang looks. Well here below, the letter in all its awesomeness.(I'm kidding ofcourse, about the awesomeness I mean, I prefer his inspirational speeches anyday, Balmer not Jerry Yang)

Dear Jerry:
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!'s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal...

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week's conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a " hostile" bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:
First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!'s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.

Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft's proposal to acquire Yahoo!.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Now to learn what he really meant in his letter, read this hilarious take

Site It!

(Another of my published articles. If anybody wants to reference this, I would appreciate a citation or a link back.thanks)

I read a review once of a book (I forget which) where the reviewer said, “I liked it so much, I wanted to run out into the street and tell everyone I knew”. I can totally empathize with that feeling because we as humans have this irresistible urge to recommend. We particularly tend to do that when we have enjoyed a product or service. A friend of mine made it a point to tell everyone of the great service she was getting from her broadband provider and I must admit, I did give them a call to see if I could switch over to theirs. A friend’s recommendation is unarguably more powerful than all the marketing tactics put together, as it is coming from a person who is implicitly trusted. This same implicit trust is being put to use on a phenomenon called Social Bookmarking

According to Wikipedia, Social Bookmarking is defined as “a method for internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata”. Social Bookmarking combines the practice of bookmarking a site (which is conventionally done by adding the link to our “favorites” tab present in our browser) and tagging it under specific keywords. It is analogous to filing documents in folders albeit with a Web 2.0 twist! To get started on Social Bookmarking, one has to usually register with Social Bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, Digg, Stumbleupon etc and then start saving the web pages that one wants to store or share onto these sites. The sites are usually “tagged” based on various criteria and can be made either public (to viewed by all) or private (to be viewed by the user only). Although, the phenomenon of saving bookmarks online is more than a decade old, the emphasis is now on the “tagged” information and how it can be distributed through a social network. The mantra of social bookmarking sites is not only storing bookmarks but also sharing it with our network and also inturn, discovering the bookmarks of our network.

Social Bookmarking is a radical new way of organizing & categorizing the information on the web. The most significant aspect of Social Bookmarking is the creation of “Tags”. A tag refers to a label that classifies the information on a page. These tags can then be made publicly accessible, thus enabling us to connect with other users of similar interests. Indeed, Social Bookmarking sites are often heralded as the new wave after search engines as the facility of tags makes it easy for anyone to search for any information relating to that tag. Another advantage of tags is that the classification is done by humans who understand the content as opposed to search engines, which determine the content of a page based on an algorithm.

Social Bookmarking also allows for another interesting phenomenon. As sites get bookmarked, tagged and shared, the site that gets bookmarked more is obviously perceived as more relevant than the others. This inturn results in an organic ranking system that enables users to search for the right content more effectively. For example, a site under the tag of “Social Bookmarking” that is bookmarked by over 100 people would logically seem a better a choice than a site that is bookmarked by only 5 people.

Social Bookmarking is not only advantageous to researchers but to businesses as well. Social Bookmarking sites offer high visibility. These sites attract a lot of traffic from people who are looking for something. Through tags and the inorganic ranking system, they offer a better positioning to any site. Additionally when a particular site is bookmarked on a social bookmarking site it creates a backlink to that site. The more it is bookmarked and the more backlinks that are created, the more it is valued by search engines, as backlinks are a clear indication of popularity. Social Bookmarking can be an effective tool in marketing a website by ensuring that it is tagged on as many social bookmarking sites as possible. Additionally, by adding social bookmarking sites’ icons on a website, one must encourage visitors to tag the page inorder to increase the number of bookmarks. This why most news articles these days offer icons of Del.icio.us, Digg etc to bookmark the pages

As with any evolving technology, there are certain downsides to Social Bookmarking as well. As the most important aspect of these sites are the tags, the efficacy depends on the accuracy with which these tags are created and as there is currently no standard on how tags should be created, various errors relating to meaning, spelling, structure etc often creep up. Secondly, as social bookmarking is driven solely by people, there is a risk of presenting a skewed view of a particular topic and also interpreting it in a certain manner.

Tagging information through keywords could radically change the way we store, share & discover information. More importantly, it has the potential to create a system that understands the human rationale of classifying information as opposed to search engines and their complex algorithms.

un-creepy crawlies

I ran a search for this blog and unfortunately it seems that Google hasn't indexed my blog yet :(
So in an effort to understand why the Googlebot didn't pick me, I trawled through some posts on the Official Google Blog and found that Google has a support tool to analyze why your site is not being indexed.

The Google Webmaster Tools analyzes a site and verifies whether a site has been indexed by the googlebot and also provides tonnes of stats and diagnostic tools. There are also links for the crisis ridden folks like us who are agonizing as to why the Googlebot is so ingnoring us. I really have to research SEO its fascinating!

I found this link very useful - How do I add my site to Google's search results? . One lesson to ensure that the site has multiple outgoing links and incoming links. You can already see that I'm employing that strategy already. this post has 3 links to it :)

But it's also very annoying that Google search algorithm is so hush hush and they don't really tell you why you're not featuring in searches. I read on Wired sometime back that companies who paid google for Adwords also saw their natural search results getting featured higher hmmm

Marketing – Web 2.0 Style!

(hey all, y'know how I love to write right? (note to self: bad sentence that), well I wrote the article about Social networking below for a magazine and since its been published, thot I'd put it up on my own blog as well. Btw all you copy cats, you can filch my article but a citation would be appreciated

Marketing – Web 2.0 Style!
I’m not much of a cricket fan, but having an older brother made me pickup the nuances of the game, albeit quite involuntarily. I know that there is a ball called the “doosra” that is supposed to completely flummox the batsman. The efficacy of the “doosra”, my brother tells me, lies in its surprise element. Just when the batsman has figured out how to play the bowler, the latter throws in the “doosra” to confound the former. That’s exactly I suppose how marketers feel, our “doosra” being the internet ofcourse. Just when we have almost figured out Search engine marketing and optimization, the internet throws yet another curve ball called "Social Networking”.

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is clearly the new buzz word these days with more than 500 million citations in google alone. Web 2.0, according to Wikipedia, refers to the next generation of internet applications that “facilitate sharing and collaboration between users”. The term “Web 2.0” came into being during the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. If the first wave of the internet applications got users to seek content on the net, the second wave of internet applications not only lets users create content but also distribute and share it. Web 2.0 is all about using the internet as a platform to connect us and our online activities with the world at large. Technologies that fall under the Web 2.0 bracket include blogs, social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook etc, Wikis and more.

Social Networking Sites (SNS)
Social Networking sites, till recently, were largely considered a teen fad – a place where idle teens hung out but when Newscorp bought Myspace for $580 million last year and when Facebook went from the being the 60th to the 7th most visited website in span of one year, the entire industry started taking notice.

Although Myspace and Facebook are largely popular in the United States, here in India, the Google promoted Orkut is the overwhelming favourite. India has the second highest number of Orkut users apart from Brazil, accounting for more than 8 million profiles. Infact Orkut is the 3rd most popular website in the country, behind Google and Yahoo according the website tracking portal, alexa.com and was even voted the “Youth Icon 2007” by MTV!

Most SNS work pretty much in the same manner. Users are required to sign-up using an email ID and password. Once they have registered, they proceed to fill out their “profile” that has information relating to age, gender, political views, relationship status and ofcourse the ubiquitous, “about me” field. Once the, “profile” has been created, users embark on building the “network” through search tools. Most SNS like Orkut, Myspace and Facebook allow users to post messages to friends through “scrapbooks”, blog, upload videos and photos, form communities and even send emails. Users spend an estimated 20 minutes per day on social networking sites.

With SNS drawing so much traffic its little wonder then that these days a new site is born practically every month. This has led to the creation of smaller more niche SNS like LinkedIn for professionals who want to network with other professionals in the same line of business or Shelfari for booklovers who want connect with other enthusiasts. Experts believe that the future of social networking lies in “custom built” social networks, with users creating their own social networks for their own circle of friends

Marketing Potential of SNS
Most SNS rake in advertising revenues through simple banner and text ads. Although, Orkut has recently pulled out text ads from the site (due internal considerations it seems), marketers as still excited by the prospects that SNS seem to offer

Targeting & Segmentation: As most SNS take in information on age, gender, location, ethnicity etc, while creating a profile, the ability to reach the right demographic is greatly enhanced. For example a B-school could easily advertise to 20+ age group category or a Japanese restaurant could advertise to people who prefer japanese cuisine in a particular city

Nurturing Early Adopter Communities: Most SNS encourage users to build & join communities based on their preferences and affiliations. Its, therefore, not surprising to find communities on products such as Toothpaste, chocolates etc. a community offers a plethora of opportunities to marketers. As a community is essentially comprised of loyalists and early adopters of a product, marketers can use a community to test new products and innovative ideas, get reviews and feedback, create a buzz, use the community to spread the message by word of mouth. Infact a peer recommendation is considered the most powerful and persuasive tool in leading to a purchase.

Widgets: A major inflexion point occurred in the social networking arena when, Mark Zukerberg, Facebook’s 23 yr old owner, announced this May that he was “opening” Facebook to third party developers. Anyone could now build “widgets” or web applications on Facebook and propagate it. This led to the development of all sorts of widgets including comparing and reviewing books, trivia quizzes on favourite TV shows or generating random quotes from a comic strip. The potential of widgets to attract traffic is so enormous that even Myspace and Orkut have both announced that they would be opening their sites to third party developers.

For a marketer this means that one could promote a product and create a “buzz” by creating a cool application, like a game and then have it spread by the network.

India and SNS
One of the best examples of Indian marketers warming up to the social networking phenomenon is HLL’s Sunsilk Gang of Girls Website. Since its launch in June 2006, the unique all girl community has over 600,000 members and over 36,000 “gangs”. Besides content that primarily relate to the brand like hair care and styling information, the portal has features such as blogs, Job Section, Book Bar, and a user generated video content section called GOG TV

The Gang of Girls portal has allowed the brand to propagate its message to the large user base more effectively than what a 30 second commercial could. It has created a space for loyal users to congregate where they can now give feedback, test and review new products, fill out survey sheets (a marketer’s dream!) and build even stronger associations with the brand. The brand in turn gets to learn the pulse of the market and get valuable information on what the next trend is going to be.

Another interesting aspect of the website is the tie-in with third party agents like Monster.com for the job section and oxford book store for the book bar section. Although these features add to the overall experience of the portal by making it more wholesome, it also means products not directly related to the brand get a weigh-in by the community.

MTV India’s relaunched website – mtvindia.com also incorporates a lot of SNS like features that finds favour with its target demographic – the college going youth. The MTV U section enables one to join ones college community and also interact with people from other colleges. Apart from the now usual features like blogs and message boards, there is also a section where products that appeal to the college crowd are promoted. Interestingly MTV India also has a link on the site to join its group on Facebook

Social networking features like blogs, communities, message boards are being increasingly adopted by marketers inorder to make their marketing campaigns more 360o. These features enable a marketer to truly engage and interact with the audience being marketed do

While the traffic that social networking sites attract is making marketers scramble to hit upon the right formula, the fundamental difference between search engine marketing and social networking must be understood. Search engine marketing works because people are essentially looking for things, in social networks people are essentially hanging out and not looking for anything specific. The advertising in such spaces needs to be subtle and should add to the experience of social networking. Anything that disrupts the experience is bound to be a big turnoff.

Another important aspect to keep in mind is that most of these sites have a youthful userbase that is prone to fads. The space needs to constantly to re-invent itself to have members coming back and not flock to the next site with cool features. This requires constant monitoring and large budgets. One must therefore decide what features one needs to implement to maximize the marketing effort

Trendspotting

One of most important aspect for the success of any Google Adwords campaign is choosing the right keywords apart from across bidding the right price. That's why my favourite google app is Google Trends

Google trends is an app that tells you what the world is searching for. Literally! You get to know how popular your search term is and which part of the world is searching for it. I'll tell you how I used this app in my Adwords campaign.

In my previous company, us marketing folks got to play around with Google Adwords as corporate dearest was funding the whole project. It was quite fun and they loved it when we wanted to experiment with some of the search words, especially to settle the debate between them "long tail" type keywords versus the popular more expensive keywords. So my company was hosting this huge seminar for customers and I wanted use the power of the net to drive traffic to the site. I was playing with Google trends and happned to type in the word "Seminar" and saw that a lot of people in India were searching for the term. I bought the keywords and created an AD for the Event. Within 15 days it was my highest performing keyword. Ofcourse we also tested to see if there were any clicks on the landing page and it was fairly decent. That's why I *heart* the net so much. It gives you so much data to make the right choice.

Google trends also in a way lets you check out the "buzz" about your product versus your competition. Take for example, the comparison between people searching for Myspace, Facebook and orkut in india

Orkut is clearly the hands down winner and if you were a marketer wouldn't this information be priceless? Trends also throw up other curve balls. It also lets you pick a region to find what the buzz is in every part of the region. For the same comparison as above, I selected India region to see which part of the country was searching the most on these keywords. The results were as follows:What's surprising is that non metro cities are searching for orkut. Not so surprising as its already popular in the metros I suppose. Still very good data to work with when say launching a product

I also recently stumbled upon the Orkut Trends Blog, where the google team shares some interesting stats on Orkut usage and user perceptions. This might come in very handy if you're considering doing some social networking marketing in your campaign