I had been on Twitter for a couple of months, attended a minor tweetup organised by Netra before I saw a tweet from @90di that got me thinking.

Trying to find out the methodology got me nowhere, but I decided to run an experiment myself rather to amuse myself and if possible understand what makes Twitter tick here.

From the 5th May 2009 to 13th June 2009 whilst the experiment continued I was No Rank - 90’s - 60’s - 20’s sub 10’s with a final high of sub 03 for nearly 5-6 days.

As @90di commented that “Usual Suspects” contained ShaaqT Gul Panag Keeda Shashi Tharoor amongst others; so was in real august Indian Tweeter company.

Now here is where I presumed the following:

• Some of the names on the list came up, due to followers talking about them
• Some of the names on the list came up because they followed norms laid down by twitter:)
• Some of the names came up the list because they were trend setters/followers like Keeda

Doodle by @keeda on Twitter Trend

My experiment was divided into 3 parts:

1)  Break into the first 100 Indian Twitters

2)  Break into the first 30 Indian Twitters

3)  Finally, break into top 10 for a period of week or more.

1)  Break into the first 100 Indian Twitters

• After analysing my tweets - used some of the applications - but could not make head or tail out of it so finally relied on myself.
• Realized that Twitter advocates being yourself, which is fine but so does Indian Democracy - then why in spite of cribbing et all we elect the same politicians - because in spite of voters changing the politicos remain the same.
• But, how do you be yourself - if the nick is something else & your name is something else - luckily that did not affect me.
• Having been a hoarder of some text; thoughts; jokes or all bundled as gyan decided to share this with the tweeters, of course hoping for a couple of shoutdowns.
• Parallel started following some known names that looked good from their bio - this helped in retweets
• From April 3 to May 25 I jumped from 150 to 400 odd followers that included a whole lot of bots & people based out of India who did not have any kind of interaction with me.
• Slowly I found myself inching up the scale to speak till I finally broke in on the 5th May

2)  Break into the first 30 Indian Twitters

• Then it became tougher to break in with a wide variety of variations floating around.
• Started tweeting seriously - bit of gyan; news with comments; interacting; replying.
• Finally I thought I was ready to conclude the experiment around the 30th May & so the final push began.

3)  Finally, break into top 10 for a period of week or more.

• Had prepared a fair amount of interactive tweets for different days
• Worked on the background that would make people want to RT
• Some completely new thoughts that could be shared with a variety of groups
• Heavy interaction in terms of replies; help; DM everything.

And, hence managed to conclude it successfully. My personal findings:-

• Irrespective of how “be yourself” you are, perceptions matter
• Most of the followers do not read your bio, go thru your blog before deciding to follow you. Only your Tweets matter.
• A great Blogger may not be a great Tweeter & vice versa
• Common searchable knowledge is tweeted by everyone; try something that is personally relevant.
• The pareto principle applies here also.
• Whilst PR; Advertising - online & offline; media; brands talk about Social Media & recently Twitter, fact is how relevant to daily life, work environment are the top 100 twitters that is crucial
• If a chunk keep talking about just technology, crib about government & civic the feeling is ‘Hey we read & listen to this all the time’ Tell us how Twitter can help us.
• Irrespective of whether you may live it, love it, hate it fact remains that it is MLM, with of course no transactions involved.
• Everyone eventually manages to create a pyramid or a banyan tree which helps them & all their connections, mostly always in a positive manner.
• Embrace it as another channel, medium - it shall deliver results. Remember as somebody said “The use of electronic networks and associated technologies is to enable, improve, enhance, transform or invent a business process or business system to create superior value for current or potential customers.”
• AND Finally remember with the right approach, attitude & bit of hardwork you can overcome the System i.e. Twitter:)

Approximate data has been taken from Twitterholic & 90di I hereby acknowledge that I have not been guided by any Social Media Agencies, Gurus; but am thankful to the everyday tweeters who made this possible.

I have been a admirer of Mr. Kishore Biyani since the time I first met him some 7 years ago. Over the years, I have had the chance of sitting with him in a group, hearing him speak at close quarters and agree with some of his comments about consumers.

Whilst I am not privy to how the group functions, what are the SBU and who makes what money, I am definitely sure that Big Bazaar after constantly being fine tuned has turned into a good money making machine which probably at times is supporting some of the smaller SBU’s.

Recently Big Bazaar celebrated its Anniversary Sale. Whilst at the Gym in Mega Mall last Monday, I received a call from my wife, requesting me to pick up some stuff. In my enthusiasm I replied in the affirmative & proceeded to the basement where it is located.

No 1 - There was a sea of Black Humanity extending right up the escalators. Looking at my confused state, one of the gaurds asked me if I wanted to Shop - ‘Of course, otherwise why am I here’ ; he gestured to me to use the right side & come down. On reaching there, I understood that the Q was for Gelato (Special offer Rs.9/-) Chaat (Rs.10 -15/-)   Learning: It is still possible to bring in people with a lead in that has no/little relevance to actual business done. Here the marketing write off may just be the space!

No 2 - Going inside, saw families treat the store as an Pre School Outing. Clothes, Stationery, Linen, Groceries all where ever there was a deal - it was being dumped - in trolleys with shouting across aisles ‘Kaun sa color’ ‘4 ya 6 lena’ Learning: Timing - Anniversary, school opening, related offers, price points, complete volume & value game.

No 3 - The vegetable & fruit side was nice & cool with practically no body really shopping. Answered soon enough by the staff - Wednesday everything will go off with the offers.                                                                                              Learning: Specific, Constant, Consistent ensured people & staff were clued in & ready.

No 4 - There were some good to great deals going on - some from the FMCG companies, some from Big Bazaar it self that are definitely not available anywhere else.                                                                                                                             Learning: Whilst Private Labels introduced & were gaining ground, the volume game or marketing tactics ensured that other Brands did not suffer, but were still in play.

No 5 - Cash Counters manned & opened all across, with Express ones making exceptions also.

Some Negatives that can be overcome immediately -

• Cleanliness - No housekeeping visible at any place whatsoever.
• Customers allowed to drink water, soft drink inside leading to problems.
• Staff whilst friendly, need to be neatly dressed or rather cleanly dressed
• The internal banter amongst staff, gaurds need to be controlled.

However, all said & done the consumer pulse & reaching into their pockets is what matters at the end. AND here Big Bazaar straddles the right spectrum, integrating itself completely with the needs of the consumer. It bridges the gap from the small, neighborhood kirana store & a hypercity, something which Subhiksha was also keen on doing, but failed. It provides half or more of what common man aspires - AC environment, in a mall, ability to look, touch things, decide on their own without push - all at probably less than the Kirana store (OK not all items). This leads to most of the consumers focusing on Value that they end up buying Volume, thus helping Biyani laugh all the way to the bank.

Eventually, some of these consumers would graduate to the next level and try Hypercity, Star Bazaar and be replaced by others - very similar to Gopinath’s Deccan Aviation and what I love to call the “Funnel Theory”

An article written by Namita Bhandare forwarded by Kapil Joshi set me thinking.

• Even today more than 85% households in India still believe that a male child is preferable.
• So called Reservation in education takes care of everything including girls, but where is there a followup.
• Politicians appointed as HRD ministers have no clue about what to do? Yes, talk about IIM/IIT & remain in the news is right there on their agenda.
• Yup Girls schools, colleges, are great photo op, after which we meet next year.
• Earnings, Savings are decided by the father & later husband even though they may have no clue of finances.
• They need to constantly thank their father, brother, husband…..is this a trade off to allow them to study? work? In which case why not their mothers, sisters, daughters??
• Can we not portray girl with her mother in advertisements that are relevant & not cosmetic.
• And to top it all, the regressive serials that enjoy high TRP

Expecting Manmohan Singh to do something about it is pathetic. It has to be initiated from every home, every individual for it to gather momentum.

Having worked 80% of my life with lady bosses and enjoyed working with them; superbly supportive wife & daughter (who always join forces to keep me in control) I can say that the first couple of times it is difficult, then it becomes a way of life.

To begin with try supporting www.goonj.info

I received a call from vodafone a while back. The young lady spoke to my wife, who after the first couple of questions dumped the phone in my hands & walked off to do whatever wives do during lunch hours!!

The young lady started with a bang —–

• Sir, May I have your name (If you have called me, then you would have it)
• Sir, Company only gives us series of numbers (Huh! By just connecting to the computer & MTNL directory this problem should be solved)
• If you have 3 vodafone post paid numbers, we shall give you 1 more free & change all to a new plan where for Rs 160 each all 4 of you can speak unlimited to each other. AND we shall change your billing plan to .60p for within circle & Re. 1 for national for phone & text yada yada yada (Duh!!! Hold on madam, why would I want to do that? I am currently on a plan where it is .50 p circle & national for both voice & text.)
• OK no problem sir, then how about the offer of Rs. 160 (We do not speak worth Rs. 640 in either case)
• OK no problem sir, we have another offer for senior citizen yada yada yada (Sorry not interested, can you offer me something better than my current plan for data & voice?)
• Sir, we are not authorized to offer anything other than this.

Phew!! I have not understood what kind of marketing does Vodafone expect to achieve with this. Because I think this is the old tried & tested funnel theory. Call as many as you can, speed talk them, pick up documents, issue activated card, bill them. Repeat next day, week, month AND the DSA (direct sales agents get Rs. 100 - 150 per subscriber)

28th March 2009

A lot of hurrah, had been made by media - social & otherwise about this date.

Newspapers spoke about it, as if it was something that would be followed by everyone; notices were put up in buildings, banners etc. spoke about it.

Being a bit of realist, decided to conduct my own little experiment in my own way:

1)   Sent email to nearly 700+ known people

2)   Sent a text to nearly 300+ people

3)   As a society member, spoke to members (50+) about observing this.

4)   Convinced my mother, a TV addict to switch it off during the hour (succeded partially thanks to my wife)

5)   Decided to go around the area, try & take a couple of photographs.

AND now the results…….

Email - No response at all, not even a “will try” or whatever.

Text - Received around 10 - saying thanks for reminding, will try, will do it etc.

Society had the best experience………

Children - Yes Uncle! we will do it, at least in our room. Duh? Why not the house? When we told pappa/mummy they said, this is all nonsense; you have to study for your exams etc.

Neighbors -

i     Let’s do it & then promptly forgot about it

ii    What is this all about? This from a young 35+ neighbour, whose Dad had posted it on the notice board.

iii   His wife said, Yes we should do it, let’s do this tomorrow between 7-9 pm:)

iv   Another young lady said, please switch of one phase (I was delighted with the suggestion) & followed it up with  a qualifier ‘ Wait till 10 pm, we are getting dressed & leaving for a wedding’

v    And the biggest howler from a Businessman - Yes, Great initiative, Australia & other countries have already done it so I’m sure we do not need to do it.

Finally, went out to see how the area was reacting. Some photographs tell a nice tale.

Some thought provoking answers from Shop Keepers -

a)     Why should we do it? Bizness ka time hai.

b)     First ask Reliance & BEST to lower charges before asking us to switch off lights

c)     Company has not told us anything (vodafone & bigflix)

d)     Yeh drama harroz ka hai.

And so there ended my experiment & tale.

Yes! on twitter & elsewhere, people from New Bombay etc. said they have load shedding everyday; some sent messages that they had followed it thru etc. which is definitely positive.

But what really gave me reason to smile was the next day, No newspaper - at least the 7 I get carried anything about it:)

So Earth, India rocks, we do not need you:)

After weeks of listening to depressing news, rumors, discussions; on recession, inflation economy, sensex, problems Saturday November 22, 2008 turned to be a day that lent credence to my constant refrain, that ‘It is a much needed overdue Correction that is taking place’. Read the rest of this entry »

Economic Times answering this question What’s a Recession? has made a fair analysis with some writing about India

“Is India going through a recession?”

There is no doubt that India has been affected by the recession that has beset the US economy, especially in sectors which are export-oriented or are dependent on outsourcing. However, the RBI governor last week assured that India would not see recession even if uncertainty continued globally. He stated that growth would be moderate and pegged GDP growth for 2008-2009 at 7.5-8%(ET 2Nov) Read the rest of this entry »

Indian Retail that had been rocking a year back is facing rocks today; some of it due to circumstances beyond control, but some definitely within control. Based on experience, discussions, talks over the past year……thought that some of these can be listed down…. Read the rest of this entry »

By April 2007  Nine stores had been rolled out.