After joining twitter way back in 2009, there was always this major hashtag #FF (follow friday) every friday which used to cause disruption all around. I had blogged about it here and here.

In 2010 I had done a follow recommendation at the year end of all those who I followed. 2011 begun well enough, with my interacting with a lot of people but not following many of them. Some of them took it to heart, called me upon it etc, but I unfortunately just could not understand the logic. However I have always made it a point to try & respond to every reply that I receive.

Come December and a couple of people even asked me, whether I would do a yearly recco like the past year. Yes, it was on the top of my mind, but needed to do so for those who had made time for me, helped me without expectations - isn’t that what twitter and internet all about?

I tried to cover as many as my feeble memory could recall, however I am sure that many have been missed out, but hey keep interacting and there’s always the future. So here it goes, in no particular order……. (collation has been done thanks to Atul Karmarkar ) Read the rest of this entry »

Disclaimer: This has been written in my capacity of a consumer.

This is a question that increasingly being debated on Twitter - the platform for opinions - and have been a part to it. Whilst, the conversation have been heated at times, I have always preferred to “move on” (polite way of saying disengage from the conversation), when it becomes too passionate.

One of the chief advocates Girish Mallya believes that the above is definitely the case.

Over the past couple of years, I have had many instances of problems and negligent customer service, where I have had to use my rolodex to get action initiated. I have always used the specific escalation method, however there are times, when it jsut does not work. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been a frequent visitor to Bru World Cafe in Juhu since the time it started (probably the first day of its launch) and always loved it ambiance, filter coffee. In fact had commented on its Arabic tone of music and was pleasantly surprised to see it being replaced (I cannot take complete credit for it, though). Read the rest of this entry »

I have always been hearing about people winning contests, getting invited for tours, being sent King Fisher beer and would always be amused and wonder, Why not me? Till realization would hit, by my daughter & wife reminding me “You need to enter to win”.

Ah! Well, mera bhi din aayega and it happened. A fortnight ago, some tweet of mine attracted the attention of a couple of brands who decided to take pity on me and promptly asked me if I would be interested in  some chocolates and wine. Now I am not a wine drinker, nor a chocolate lover (my daughter adores chocolates by the way) but the non intrusive way it was asked, piqued my attention and in a moment agreed to try it out. Read the rest of this entry »

I had earlier blogged about my problem with Costa Coffee here

After sending a text & reminder to their CEO Virag Joshi who promised action, it took them more than a week to remove the offending part of tile. Post this their Regional Head Kaushik called up to invite me to visit them again etc. Being in no mood to entertain, I had however promised that if and when I felt like it, would visit one of their cafe and contact him.

Finally, on a store visit last week at Inorbit Malad, waiting for someone to arrive, decided to have coffee at Costa. Ordered my regular and gave my card for payment, telling the person at the cash, that someone would be joining me soon. I was told that they would collect it together.

After we had finished, went to settle at the cash, but was informed that I would have to pay cash, which normally should not have been an issue, however had used up most of the cash for fuel earlier. When I expressed helplessness, was told that somebody would accompany me to the ATM for withdrawl, which was a no starter, on account of not having an ATM card.

This is when the two young lads - Sunil & Aasif - won my heart ” Sir, don’t worry, please settle next time when you visit” Mind you, I am NOT a regular at Inorbit Malad.

The friend who was meeting me turned up & I quickly borrowed and settled the due, besides writing a note for Kaushik.

Same company, different locations, different service, how does a brand target & maintain consistency?

On the 7th of November, someone made a purchase of Rs. 12000/- + via ngpay on my wife’s credit card, which we came to know only on the 11th November.

My first reaction was to call the bank, block the card so that further damages could be avoided. Post that late in the night I tweeted about the problem, which got RT a couple of times and people referred it to @ngpay.

Surprisingly, the first thing next morning I got a call from Siddharth from Ngpay, who took down the details and explained what had happened and asked me to raise a dispute with the issuing bank who would sort it out, however in case I was interested in knowing the details of the person who had used it, then they would require a FIR (first information report) filed and a copy sent to them.

An impressive use of twitter and more importantly responding to the customer, which means as a brand they are listening.

If I ever decide to start buying through the mobile portal, I would sure give them a shot.

Some thoughts on Networking, Social Media in Financial Express

It is an addiction, study shows a third of office workers were stressed by the volume of message & that’s only email.

Trust me, Being ‘always on’ does affect productivity & create stress.

With your notebook, multiple phones, that constantly beep, it is very difficult to switch off. And when you switch off the office work, there is Face Book, Twitter that needs your attention or else you are not with the times.

It is funny to see 3-4 friends sitting over coffee or drinks & 2 of them are texting, whilst the others are speaking on the phone; then why meet? You could might as well do that on the phone.

I am constantly asked “How do you manage official work, email, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Partying & even writing a Blog”.

And I say “EVERYTHING IS FINE IN MODERATION”

Some of the rules that I follow to disengage & recharge myself, at the same time have me time:

1) I check & respond to your emails just 3-4 times a day, this includes laptop & smartphone.
2) As for FB; Linkedin, Twitter I just go cold turkey.
3) I leave my phone behind when I go on the gym floor.
4) I use Tech to the maximum - program email, blog, phone to garner maximum productivity.

Because, I believe - Be the one to control devices & not the other way around.

Last month I of all the people along with @chhavi was asked by Techtree to discuss the popular social media trends they expect to see in 2010. You can watch it here

And then in the same week, CNN IBN featured me amongst a lot others in Virtually yours. You can watch it here.

Do let me have your comments:)

I have been always an experimenter so to speak with basic applied technology (that is to say, I use what I am comfortable with) for the past 10 years and found it pretty effective.

Ryze, Blog, Linkedin, Facebook & finally Twitter used it all. Some good, some bad but it all balances out.

And it was in 2009 that I kept hearing this “Social Media” being used very often. Gentleman from a company that I was consulting about their Online foray kept throwing it to me and soon enough their agency got into the act, giving me the whole nine yards.

Trying to understand the entire social media jungle, I started delving deeper into it - reading about it, meeting people, trying my little experiments that I have chronicled on this blog.

After having joined my current organization, I was bombarded by everyone (except the peon, receptionist & driver) about online strategies, social media (there again) & how PR would help.

In a bid to get away from all these I finally caved in & agreed to meet the shortlisted PR agencies (three in number). And there began my nightmares…

All of them came in with the CEO/VP; Account Director; Account Executive and practically the same Power Point Presentation of 30 plus slides which could be broken up as:

1-10 About their company & our company (straight lift from brouchere)
11-20 About PR snapshots - how it works, value vs straight advertisements etc.
21-30 Social Media - snap shots - print screen of some clients

None of them could answer the following basic questions that should have been internally prepared at their end:

1) Why have you not studied the client? (not even googled it properly)
2) Do you think the client 106 years old has no clue of PR
3) Did the PR brief not tell you client expectations? In which case where are they on any of the 30 slides
4) Social Media - nice meaning from a host of sites etc. But do you think we need it? What should be our strategy? (Answer was FaceBook, Twitter & mind you our Ecommerce site is yet to go up)
5) How would PR work keeping in mind the recommendations? (Sir, worked for our other clients)

Nowhere during the course of the three meetings was the work complete integration, interaction with old, new consumers, commitment used anywhere. Retainer mila, bus kaam ho gaya. And YES they are yet to get back on the questions asked.

I guess this may be one of the reasons that some of my agency friends, acquaintances avoid talking shop with me, which actually may be a good thing.

But that leaves one with a Question - Is PR harnessing the power of social networking sites & blogs to help businesses generate strategic mind share & presence. and If so how many Indian Brands have enjoyed the fruits till now.

I sure would welcome suggestions, criticism, inputs, thoughts on the above….it does not matter whether you understand social media or not; whether you are an agency or client.