Profile: Jack Dorsey

Image Courtsey: Wikipedia

Jack Dorsey is an American entrepreneur who is best known as the founder of Twitter. He was described as as an outstanding innovator under the age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review and he also co-founded the electronic payment method Square. Dorsey attended Missouri University of Science and Technology before he transferred to New York University, where he came up with the idea for Twitter. Dorsey started his company that dispatched couriers and taxis from a web based platform; and in July 2000 he came up with the idea of having a real-time short message communication service available for his company.


Dorsey approached Odeo, a directory and search destination website for RSS syndicated audio & video, and together with Isaac Stone created Twitter. They received an investment from Evan Williams; an American entrepreneur who has founded several Internet companies, including Pyra Labs.  In October 2008, Williams took over the role of Chief Executive Officer at Twitter and Dorsey became chairman of the board. Since 2008, Twitter as gained a lot of popularity worldwide and is estimated to have almost 200 million users; while generating 65 million tweets and handling over 800,000 search queries daily. Twitter is often referred to as “the SMS of the Internet” and continues to increase its number of users.

Jack Dorsey is currently also serving as CEO for Square; a system that can be used to send paperless receipts via SMS or email. He continues to explore and invent and lives by his three guiding principles: simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship.

Riding the Radia Tapes

Open--the Magazine burst into collective public conscious with their expose of the Radia tapes. The magazine that exposed the unholy nexus between PR, journalists and politicians turned to social media when its servers could not handle the load of too much traffic, to get outs it message. This is their story.

Name of Business: OPEN Magazine

Website URL: http://www.openthemagazine.com/

Industry: Media

Target Audience: Indians and NRIs.

Category of Business

Open is a weekly current affairs and features magazine. It is the flagship brand of Open Media Network, which is the media venture of RPG Enterprises. Other popular brands of the RPG group are Ceat Tyres, SareGaMa and Spencer’s. Launched on April 2, 2009, Open has distribution across 12 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Kochi, Chennai and Hyderabad. Open has positioned itself as a magazine for the cosmopolitan Indian. Open has three distinct sections – the first is Small World, a 10-page news selection, the second is detailed stories and features on a wide range of domains, including politics, sports, entertainment, science, technology, health and culture, and the third section is called Mindspace, which has literary essays and write-ups on art, gadgets and celebrity gossip.

The website focuses on well informed and well travelled Indians and NRIs. In fact, a significant portion of the new and returning visitors to their website are from North America. Open aims at getting “quality content” to their readers.

Marketing Efforts and Results

Open has a number of blogs, which include posts on a variety of topics from politics to sports. They have a presence on Facebook with 5,556 fans. On their Facebook Fan Page, Open publishes updates on stories featured on their website. Many of these fans are very active, which can be seen from the number of “likes” that each update receives. Several fans are very vocal about their opinions on the stories and comment openly. On Twitter, Open has 3,642 followers. Here, too, links are shared to the stories uploaded on their website.

Open makes active use of convenient widgets on their website that allows readers to share, commend and critique content via other social media platforms.

“The best example of the effectiveness of social media for us was when we broke the X-TAPES/Radia tapes story. The shock of the revelations created such a huge spike in web traffic that the Open website kept crashing in the first few days after the story broke. Even as we were desperately ramping up our servers, it was important that we do not black out, and we were able to do this by staying proactive on our Facebook and Twitter pages,” says R. Rajmohan, Publisher, Open Magazine.

Marketing Investment

All social media interactions are handled by the in-house team. No extra resources are deployed.

Red Cross And Taco Bell - A Social Media Dichotomy

Red Cross And Taco Bell - A Social Media Dichotomy

How one organisation used a social media blooper to its advantage and another that just does not understand what the medium is all about.

Social Media For B2B Marketing – How To Get Started

Social Media For B2B Marketing – How To Get Started

Great post on how to get social media marketing get going for your business.

Online opportunities for retailiers

According to a 2010 Nielsen report to examine global online shopping trends, India is expected to emerge as the next hotspot for ecommerce. Although the online shopping activity in India is significantly lower than that in the US and European nations, it is expected to boom by 2012. With internet penetration increasing in the country, coupled with a fast growing economy, India is expected to witness a paradigm shift from shopping in brick and mortar markets to virtual webshops.

Here are some of the key findings of the report that provide an insight into the upcoming online shopping space in India:

• More than 25% of the respondents spend approximately 11% of their monthly income for online purchases.
• Books, music and movie videos are the hottest products being sold in India online. In the services section, hotel or restaurant bookings, travel reservations, computer repairs and health services lead the chart.
• More than 50% of internet users rely on recommendations through social networking sites to buy products or services online.
• Approximately 29% of the online buyers read expert and user reviews about a product or service before making a purchase.

The Nielsen report is highly important for retail businesses as it defines the areas where they should focus to increase online sales. However, one fact which is loud and clear from this report is that the online shopping industry is set to boom. It is time for retailers to start investing in alternative routes to selling products and services to be able to take a bite of the large online shopping pie.

Online Shopping Websites that can Drive Sales

Retailers can employ a two-way approach to attract a large percentage of internet buyers. The basic approach is to create an ecommerce website and set up an online store for your products and services. An ecommerce website displays products or service packages of the retailer in a catalogue form. Internet buyers can browse through the catalogue and purchase products or services by making payment online through authorized gateways.

Another approach is to use dedicated online shopping websites to drive sales. Such websites can be categorized in different classes for better understanding:

B2B Marketplaces

B2B marketplaces belong to the internet era when social networking was a distant concept. These websites allow businesses to search for service providers online. The idea of B2B marketplaces became a popular phenomenon as became great marketing tools for SMEs to export products or services. IndiaMART and Tradekey are the most successful B2B marketplaces in India.

Ecommerce Websites

Here ecommerce websites mean online shopping stores that allow an internet buyer to choose from different brands or service providers. Theoretically, the popularity of online shopping is credited to the development of such ecommerce websites (Amazon.com and eBay.com). You can enroll as a seller with these websites and post your products for buyers. Some of the most popular ecommerce websites in India are Amazon.com, Sify.com, Naaptol.com, eBay.in and Indiaplaza.in. You can get listed on these websites for a range of products, such as books, electronics, home décor, clothing, hardware, auto parts, health products and sports equipment.

Online Directories

A listing in a popular online directory can drive qualified leads. JustDial and Clickindia are two of the most popular online search directories in India. Since the businesses are listed based on location, there is a higher probability of attracting local customers with these online directories. Both Clickindia and JustDial allow free registration and let you create a profile page. Optimize the profile page for product and service descriptions. Add contact details, photographs and videos to drive traffic from these websites.

Community Shopping Platforms

Community shopping has become a rage among internet buyers in the US and European countries. The credit goes to the excitement created by Groupon.com. These websites collaborate with businesses to sell discount coupons for services or products to internet buyers. Every coupon is considered an individual deal and requires a minimum number of buyers to make it active. Once the minimum number is achieved, the deal becomes active and discount coupons are sent to buyers online. In India, the concept is pioneered by Dealsandyou.com and SoSasta.com (powered by Groupon).

Retailers can strike a deal with such websites to sell discount coupons for their products and services. This will help build brand identity and can attract repeat customers.

Based on the products and services on sale, retailers should employ both the approaches to drive sales through the online channel. It is also essential to focus on other pointers mentioned in the Nielsen report, such as social media optimization and products or services reviews to convert to maximize online sales.

Creating opportunities for the youth

Name of Business: LetMeKnow.in

Website URL: www.letmeknow.in

Industry: Opportunity Portal

Target Audience: Youth, primarily in the age group 18-25

Category of Business

Founded in 2007, Let Me Know is a portal focused on connecting students and young professionals across India with opportunities for growth, career building and self development. It is a unique concept that helps the Indian youth to find internships, workshops, scholarships, events, seminars, conferences, tech-fests, literary events, part-time jobs and more. A number of opportunities arise for undergraduate and post graduate students across disciplines and young professionals. Often organizations with these opportunities find it a huge challenge to find the right people for them. Moreover, the costs associated with reaching out to the right people may be too high to be viable. Such organizations can now post these opportunities on the Let Me Know portal and extend their reach at no additional costs and with great convenience.

Let Me Know enables organizers (corporations, startups, universities, associations, non-profits etc.) to create, post and publish opportunities, invite entries, accept and manage applications and announce results. One can post an opportunity in categories such as business, technology, entrepreneurship, arts, culture and social innovation.

Marketing Efforts and Results

Let Me Know set up a blog in August 2009. They were initially blogging pretty actively. However, of late, their activities on this front have been limited. A blog is a great tool not only to connect with readers, but also to improve Google rankings through dynamic content updates. Moreover, an active sub-domain appears as a separate entity in the search engine results page.

Efforts have been focused on building a fan base with a strong presence on Facebook. The company already has about 9000 fans and regularly posts information about the latest opportunities that appear on their website. The fan page of Let Me Know begins with a registration page, thereby boosting the registrations on their website.

Let Me Know has 777 followers on Twitter. Here, too they publish their daily dose of latest opportunities. Both Facebook and Twitter have been used to encourage comments and questions around the various opportunities. Feedback is gathered from the followers, fans and subscriber on other social media channels and the company uses them to continuously improve their services. Social media has also been used to give special focus to specific organizers and/or opportunities that are most viewed and clicked.

“Facebook has very useful in helping us reach more students and young professionals from around the country. With our recent integration of daily opportunity updates on Facebook, traffic on our newsletter has increased. Facebook has also helped us get good feedback on our service which flows directly into our planning efforts. Twitter, on the other hand, has helped us a little bit in identifying new opportunities but not so much in getting more visitors or subscribers to the portal. We have realized that the Indian youth’s presence is quite strong on Facebook but Twitter is not that popular a social networking website amongst college students in particular,” says Sarabjeet Singh, CEO, Let Me Know.

Marketing Investment

• One-time integration of their daily newletter of opportunities with the Facebook and Twitter pages.
• Two man hours daily to filter opportunities and post the most popular ones on social media channels.
• 1 day every month for a monthly review of activity on Facebook and Twitter and using analytics data to improve marketing efforts.

Online pays off for professional services

Professional service providers like lawyers, doctors, CAs etc need to seriously consider going online to grow their businesses. Users are increasingly turning to the internet to find the services they are looking for. This includes local services. Google has responded to this trend by the launching Google Places. However, Places is just one piece of the puzzle. There is a lot more you can do online to generate more business.

Create a Free Website

Creating a website is like owing an office location where internet users can reach your business. You can read about the importance of a website on thousands of articles on the internet; however, here is what you will not find there – the option of free website makers. Free website makers allow you to create a basic website where you can easily upload information in the form of text, images and videos at no price. Some of the most popular free website makers are Wix, Weebly and Jimdo.

Keywords: The Secret to Online Traffic

Keywords refer to the search query that internet users type to search for specific information via search engines. Optimize the website content for keywords that are relevant for your business. For example, legal services in India, Indian legal services, lawyer in India can be good keywords for a legal business. To find good quality keywords, use the Google Adwords tool, which is available online for free. Use keywords in the title tag, Meta tags, headlines and intro paragraphs. Avoid the excessive usage of keywords, as this makes your content look unattractive.

Start Selling with Ecommerce

If you are serious about selling products online, opt for a paid website that allows online transactions. Such websites enable you to create an online shopping store where users can buy products or services by making payments through their credit cards, debit cards or PayPal accounts.

People Love Freebies

Add freebies on your website for users to download. For example, you can add an industry report or a case study imparting information. Internet researches show that a majority of the users participate in a meaningful quiz to test their knowledge. Add an interesting quiz to make people stay longer on your website.

A Blog a Day

A blog a day will establish your presence as an online expert in your field. While a website is dedicated to your business, a blog is more personalized approach to online marketing. Start writing blogs about the latest in your field, personal experiences, tips, and how-to topics.

Establish Identity on Forums

Forums are websites that allow users to discuss a topic. Look for popular forums that are dedicated to your industry or specialization. Answer queries posted by users and ask them to contact you for further information.

Optimize Social Media Presence

Social networking is the buzzword of this era. Take social networking profiles seriously. Facebook allows you to create a company profile page for your business. Use this page to enable existing and prospective clients stay connected to your business. Updates from the company profile page will work as a remainder to your clients. Also, use LinkedIn to connect with other professionals from the industry. This will help you to understand what they are doing differently.

Apart from these free promotional activities, you can opt for paid internet marketing through the Google advertising program. Enroll into this program and your business will get listed in the paid search results based on the keywords that you have chosen. Similarly, Facebook also allows paid advertising. While paid advertising is an easy way of generating sales, do not underestimate the importance of optimizing your online presence through free marketing strategies.

While the to do list above might seem intimidating, it is essential if you want your business to grow. Of course any half decent online marketing company can create your presence in a week or less at a cost of anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000....depending on the package you opt for. Take a look at the list of companies here, or simply google for one. Remember to check the credentials of the company you sign up with, as there are as many snake oil sellers as genuine companies out there. 

How to rank higher with Google Places

Are you still investing money in archaic search engine optimization strategies to boost your online sales? It’s high time you reconsider the online marketing tools for your business and optimize them for a high rank with Google Places results.

With the re-branding of Google Local Business Centre as Google Places in April 2010, the dynamics of local search engine optimization strategies have changed in a significant manner. Along with this re-branding, Google introduced a range of features to help local businesses to optimize their online presence. The resultant was a 7-pack listing on the first page of Google results and a Google map to show the location of the top listed businesses.

For internet users, Google has simplified local searches by integrating data from Google Places. However, for local businesses, this means an online war to get listed in the 7-pack for relevant keywords. To win this war and boost online sales, you require good understanding of the factors that determine the Google Places ranking algorithm. Given below is an example of a seven-pack listing. Read on to figure out how you can make it to this exclusive club.

Click to expand

Check Google Place Listing

Ensure that your Google Place listing has accurate data related to your business. Check for location settings, contact details and name of the business. Include your business category as it will determine the pages on which you will get listed. Try to include as many information as possible in the Places profile of your business. Also, check your accurate location tagging on Google Maps.

Add Meat to Places Page

Google allows you to add photos, videos, website, blog and other information to your Places page. Ensure that your profile is complete to increase your probability of reaching the 7-pack listing.

Optimize Google Adwords

Optimize the use of Google Adwords to know highly searchable keywords for your business category. It is prudent to include the most relevant keyword with the business name in the Google Places profile. For example, if you are a lawyer, set the business name in Google Places as XYZ Law Firm in New Delhi or XYZ Kolkata Lawyer.

Prepare a list of highly searchable keywords for your business category. Optimize your web presence for these keywords. You can use keywords to post articles on article submission websites, online local directories and website content. For a sound SEO strategy for Google Places, try not to mix a range of keywords. Focus of specific keywords that are most relevant to your business and use them widely.

Local Citations

Local citations are crucial to score a high rank in the Google Places results. Citations refer to content available on external websites that work as validation tools for your business. Invest time in listing your business details with high ranking websites or blogs. For example, you can create a Facebook profile page for your business or create a profile with Yahoo Local. Leverage on websites that allow profiles for businesses, such as Yellow Pages, Kudzu, Hot Frog, Ask, AOL Local Search and Amazon. Remember, the higher the number of citations, the more Google will trust your Places listing.

User Reviews

User reviews for your business are like “testimonials” for Google. Positive user reviews and ratings have a definite impact on the chances of your business listing reaching the 7-pack. To ensure a large number of user reviews, you can set up a blog and encourage users to post their feedback in the form of ratings or reviews. Leverage external consumer-based websites that allow users to post their reviews about businesses and places.

Google also has a user review service for local businesses called “Google Places with Hotpot”. Encourage users to search for your business listing on Hotpot and add reviews or ratings.

In a nutshell, Google has a complex algorithm to determine the 7-pack listing. To make it to the 7-pack, you should focus on a range of measures to increase your web presence. A smart formula to optimize local listing coupled with traditional SEO strategy can do wonders.

Outsource the Process

While following the steps above will help push up your ranking on Google Places, the process itself is time consuming and involves a fairly steep learning curve. It might be easier to simply outsource this to a good search marketing company. Check out this list, or simply google for one in your area. This is one investment that is sure to pay rich dividends.

Another great video going viral

Check out this viral from Haathi cement. They've used humor to telling effect. And they are getting the results.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=125248087544677

Why Twitter Followers are Better Than Facebook Fans | Social Media Today

Why Twitter Followers are Better Than Facebook Fans | Social Media Today

Jammin’ with IBM | Social Media Today

Jammin’ with IBM | Social Media Today

Where to Spend Your Digital Marketing $$$

For those of you interested in the numbers behind the phenomenon of soical media marketing. This should help you figure out the power of this medium: Where to Spend Your Digital Marketing $$$ in 2011 | Social Media Today

MP Ajab Hai, Sabse Gajab Hai - Now on Social Media

Madhya Pradesh Tourism have taken their innovative ad campaign to youtube with amazing results. Check out the video below, if you have not seen it, and then check out their youtube channel.

Bollywoodhungama: Facebook's dishum factory

Name of Business: Bollywoodhungama.com

Website URL: www.bollywoodhungama.com/

Industry: Entertainment

Target Audience: Bollywood fans across demographics

Category of Business

The parent company, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, was incorporated in 1999, as an online promotions agency. In the short span of a little more than ten years the company is today a Digital Entertainment, Mobile Services and Promo Marketing firm. Hungama Digital Media Entertainment is headquartered in Mumbai.

Bollywoodhungama.com caters to fans of all things…well Bollywood. With the objective of ‘Bringing the fans closer to their Stars’, Bollywoodhungama.com has launched several initiatives, including live video and text chats with Bollywood personalities, India’s first ever Bollywood video quiz, exclusive production blogs of latest and upcoming films and movie reviews.

Marketing Efforts and Results

Bollywoodhungama.com launched its Facebook page in May 2010. It held a series of contests, giving away merchandise to the winners. Today, there is a roaring community of more than 232,000 fans, who look forward to information through posts and updates on the latest from Bollywood. The focus here is on interactivity, with fans being encouraged to contribute actively to discussions, posts, contests et al. For instance, the website has a weekly update called ‘Guess Who’ where they post an image of a celebrity with their back to the camera. Members are required to figure out who the celebrity is. This concept is replicated on Facebook and typically more than 500 answers are posted by fans. People not only look forward to these fun postings, but also keep coming back to know the correct answer. While the Facebook page is used as a marketing tool for content on the site, the page also features exclusive content not available on the site.

Bollywoodhungama.com has a strong Twitter presence as well, with more than 11,000 followers. The focus has been on keeping users updated on the latest on the website. Typically, a short description of the story, along with the link to the full story is put up as a tweet. YouTube has proved extremely effective as a social media channel. Users can view exclusive interviews with leading celebrities, video features and behind-the-scenes content, among other things. Since its launch, the YouTube channel has received more than 2,436,973 views.

One of the most powerful things that Bollywoodhungama.com has done is to integrate its social media efforts with its website. For instance, the video quiz - ‘Bollywood Ka Baap’ - has been integrated via applications on Orkut and Facebook.

“Since inception, Hungama has focussed on creating properties that help brands interact with their end consumers. Using internet, then and social media now, brands have the opportunity of interacting with their consumers, connect with them and create an ecosystem where the users and the brand can stay connected. As compared to traditional forms of communication, the social media environment allows us to create continuous brand recall by using user friendly messages. Today, a brand may not necessarily use strategic messaging, but use tactical communication methods to stay top of mind with the consumer,” says Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media.

“For instance, when Bollywoodhungama.com interacts with its members on Facebook, it doesn’t say ‘Come visit my website for the latest in Bollywood news’. Instead the messaging could vary from ‘Hey guys, who is your favourite actor?’ to ‘Did you hear that XYZ celebrity has signed a new film?’ Reactions generated by communication of this nature create brand recall as the user is involved with your brand. Therefore, with social media, we have been able to create constant interaction with consumers which in turn helps us create evangelists which leads to better brand value,” Mr. Roy adds.

Marketing Investment

No direct investments in social media. However, social media has been integrated into every aspect of content and marketing delivery, so all team members contribute to the social media marketing effort.