Getting into Social Networking Site's ...is it worth it ?

I start with a confession. I am a Twitteraholic. I’ve been hooked on Twitter for more days than I can remember.

I even hate myself for not being able to look away from my TweetDeck of followers and people I’m following because, well, I kind of have to get some other work done. In other words, I’m a fan.But I also realize that there is much more entailed with building a true social media strategy and I think some folks are missing the point if they feel that just being on certain sites like Twitter and Facebook is how a brand automatically grows. Not so.

Worse yet, you probably have some people from within or outside consultants saying, “We need social media!” or “We need to be on Twitter!” or “We need to be on Facebook!” or several other methods. But they aren’t explaining why you need to be on those things. Why, because everyone else is doing it? That’s kind of a lousy strategy. And what will you do once you are on some of these sites? Just talk about yourself? That’s not a particularly good way to establish a relationship.

So you get social media is important, but you don’t understand all the areas of it that have relevancy to you, how to fully harness its potential in relation to your brand and how to tie it back to the concepts you may be more comfortable with, like customer satisfaction, customer retention, ROI and brand loyalty. Am I anywhere near the challenge you’re facing? If you are challenged by any of the above, you have good company.

For the time being, let’s not talk of what type of social media you need to use. Considering this or that technique before appreciating what motivates your audience is not the right way to approach brand building, whether you use social media or not. Put another way, it’s like a doctor making a diagnosis before he or she knows the patient’s symptoms.

Now how one can build a more appropriate social media plan :

1.If you want to gain maximum exposure, keep yourself on the “public timeline” so everyone sees your tweets. To do so, leave the “Protect Your Updates” box in the Settings area unchecked. If you check this, then your Tweet updates will become private and you’ll have to approve who can follow you every time. It will also keep your updates out of search results within Twitter and you don’t want that to occur as this dramatically reduces the ability of others to find your company.

2. Use the ‘Find Other People’ or ‘Search’ tool on Twitter. Just type a name or particular concept such as branding, culture, marketing, etc. This can be huge if you type in people in your industry and then find others that are following them. It opens up your reach significantly within your targeted industry or area of interest.

3. Post Tweet updates (messages) regularly (i.e., several times daily but don’t bombard your followers). Share your knowledge and resources (remember 140 characters or less) on something of interest and that will help others such as case studies, business events, key ideas, etc. Don’t forget to provide any links to the information.

4. Make your Tweets understandable, inviting, compelling and informative. You want to attract the right Tweeters as followers and you’ll want to follow those that have a common interest in what your business brand has to offer. So, make sure the information you Tweet is useful.

5. Use hashtags by using the hash symbol (#) before a subject (e.g., #brand) in your update. This allows the search engines and others in the ‘Twitterverse’ to find your updates on the subject.

6. Use Twitter to make connections, identify prospective customers and point others to your company’s website or others’ website for resources. This is a huge opportunity, as you build

followership, to share your knowledge, communicate information on what you are doing, create a mini-press release, share info on your products and services, new product or service launches, or other resources (e.g., white papers, research, etc.) you may want to point others to.

7. Create multiple accounts to exponentially expand your company’s (brand) exposure.

Now points to remember :

• Social media is not all about you.
• Think about your target audience 

  and how they use social media (if they do).
• How do you plan on conversing/sharing 

  info with audiences in these realms?
• Just because it’s popular 

  doesn’t mean it’s right for your brand.
• Consistency, consistency, consistency
• You can have strong ROI ,

  Depending on how you view the “I.”

Is this our Destiny or what ?

Why does it happen to people who want to prove a point in front of someone and tell this world that there is somebody named “XYZ” who also exist  . when people feel desperate and show what they are made up off and what they can do as challenge all conventional attributes present and bring new change to our lives . people say dreams often  comes true but god knows who are these people and what it takes to reach that stage or point where you can say that you have achieved something and established your unique identity apart from your parents .you live your whole life thinking that you will do something which will make you and fore mostly your parents proud while most of our life we spent doing things we don’t want to do , in a way or other we  are compromising at different stages in our life whether its your career path or job .you are forced to do things which you don’t like sometimes its pressure from your parents ,or peers  and sometimes its bigger force then these i.e. your destiny which forces you to perform or do things not liked by you .

Heard  somewhere that “you should look for brilliance not success “ its sounds very  good to our ears but is it realistic and one can follow this principle in his/her life , don’t think  that’s true in our lives where certificates and degrees matter so much that brilliance or knowledge doesn’t stand anywhere near  and our system is such that you will be only considered when you fulfill all their criteria’s.

It doesn’t matter  how much mathematics you know but what matters is how much do you have scored  in your metric and higher secondary exams , companies like TCS , INFOSYS , UNILEVER and so on  would love to see your scores through  out your  academic career .is it written somewhere that a guy who has scored above 60% through out will be the one who will be outstanding  and his work will be of higher grade still they are following things .people who themselves don’t know what they want in their life gets everything which people who works hard only dreams of.

Interviews which are meant to analyze skills and ability of the candidate  but what happens is only referrals and donations are discussed ,that’s sad for people who are really interested and works hard to fulfill  their dreams.

Finally , I can only say that we should start something on our own lets be entrepreneurs  and change this system for forsake  and for the next generations.

When perfectionist Aamir takes on cute Hippo

For the longest time, the snacking category has munched on creative ideas that are centered around the 'time pass' way in which these products are consumed. In a bid to step away from the fun (and often frivolous) positioning adopted by some snack brands, Hippo - the new baked munchies from the Parle Agro stable - has attempted, in its very first campaign, to veer away from category norms.

Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairperson, Creativeland Asia, says, "Hungry people are often grumpy. In India, we respect food and it is a fantastic way of calming people down. If two people are fighting at home, often an elderly figure will calm them down by asking them to eat." This insight led to the final creative idea. To make the commercial identifiable, macro situations were chosen instead of household problems or micro ones. Some 90 situations involving societal/world problems were first penned down, of which six odd were shortlisted for the final film.

According to the agency, Hippo is this earnest, easygoing guy who understands that often, we don't take care of our health by neglecting to eat. As a character profile, Hippo resembles the affable waiter who loiters in the background at a party, serving food tactfully to ensure no one goes hungry and then quietly slips away. The creation of Hippo as a mascot (and one that stays behind the scenes, as his face isn't shown throughout the film) is, in a way, the brand's way of saying that the true heroes are its consumers, and that Hippo cares for them. "As a society, we share food in India and by way of doing that, we share love and joy. Hence, the 'Pyaar baante chalo' track fit in well with our idea," Kurup shrugs.

Prathap Suthan, national creative director, Cheil Worldwide, feels Creativeland Asia has done it again - first with LMN and now with Hippo - when it comes to a brand name that is sticky, memorable and 'snacky'. Further, he gives points to the bright packaging and branding and the healthy ingredients for a new snack brand.

"However, at the end of the commercial, I still don't know what kind of a snack this is," he says. As a customer in a competitive environment, Suthan aka Pat feels that he would like to know whether these are crispy chocolates, wafers, biscuits or potato chips. "By not showing them, there's mystery," he says, "But mystery may not make one want to put his hand inside the packet."

Pat feels that the film is definitely entertaining, with a big thought. "I empathise with the truth of hunger being the root of all evil, and therefore kill hunger - and kill evil," he says. "But it's just that I'd rather snack, refresh, get my breath and get back into more evil ways. But that's just me!" He adds that the social arena is a bit of an overkill, with too many people getting into the same box. However, this one is a "likeably mad film".

Now here comes another snack brand from the house of Parle Agro ,smart chips which positions itself as non fried but baked chips which will not increase fat in your body instead they are good for you which is absolutely right but what Parle has done is in one brand they are very conscious about who will be the brand ambassador , how will it position itself in the market and how to communicate it effectively to end consumers contrary to it with hippo snacks they have forgotten to emphasize what they are communicating to their consumers and how are they positioning their brand in the minds of the consumers who are really conscious now a days when it comes to their health due to the explosion of new and updated products in the market and globalization as well.

Aamir khan being the brand ambassador of the smart chips ,they are trying to relate Aamir’s perfectionist image with that of Smart chips and say that these snacks are as perfect as Aamir and they will not add vows to your health and they are low calorie product .They have differentiated well and positioned it very well but with Hippo chips choosing hippo itself created a problem as we relate obese and people with lots of fat with Hippo which sends a very wrong message to ordinary people as “ regular intake of these chips will make you Hippo “ which doesn’t serve the purpose well in the favor of the company .

Finally , I would say that the commercial is no doubt entertaining and the message of eradicating hunger by offering chips to people who are hungry in itself is very good and the creative team has done a great work otherwise but something is not happening good for them.

Pardon me ,but what I feel that the creative team have overlooked the basics of branding and advertisement as animated Hippo will add to their foes and may not able to generate volumes which are expected out of him .