I notice on my twitter account that since i have used the auto follow tool I have spikes in my statistics where 1 week I may be following many and the next week my follower rate has dropped. At first it got me a bit worried that I was losing a follower base, especially if i stopped following them by now i guess with practice i have learnt the tricks of the game.

Most followers who are following you are after something. It could be

To make money of you: Most twitter feeds on the internet are selling some thing or the other. They are not bothered to give back to the community. It’s how we have been trained to keep taking rather than giving.

Improve their reputation: This category is especially classic for bloggers, social media consultants, marketing, etc. The key here is to gain a huge follower base so that you will be noticed. I am trying my level best to choose who i follow because at the end of the day my mission is to use the Internet in a way that i could enjoy the experience. People should want to follow not be forced to follow.

Increase Traffic to their website: We have been taught that the more fans and followers we have the better amount of traffic we could gain for our blog or website. The question here is whether the traffic that you are receiving is quality or just quantity.

Following a large user base is a low value proposition. Not because these followers are idiots but because the follower base that you have is a mix of non responsive, automated, spammer feed accounts. The followers did not actually opt-in to know more about you. This is when you feel frustrated and disappointed with your efforts.

They say when something is too easy then probably you are either a genius or you need to look a bit closer at your strategy.

If you plan using Twitter as your marketing strategy then there is more to twitter than just a follower base.

Let’s look at this a bit closer:
Unless you are a celebrity or a brand like Apple, you are not going to get a huge follower base in weeks. That’s an unreal expectation.  Sure you can fake it by manipulating your follower count but what’s the difference between self-promoters and you?

My Recent Follow Strategy for Twitter:

Auto Follow: I have now decided to stop the auto follow strategy. I was trying to be a complete Minimalist by using this method. Now I have set the tool to auto follow users, when they follow me. I then block 10 mins each day to filter through my list and de follow spammers, self promoters. At first you will feel terrible but when you do this regularly you will see the change.

Follow people who will give you attention: Now i go through my follower list and see who are genuinely wanting to connect with me. I then communicate to them either through direct messages or if i feel they are relevant to my field i follow them too.

Network with influencers: I take time to search and find tweets that may be relevant in my industry. I make a judgment call whether they would be influencers in the industry and then follow their feed. Once i have tried the search keyword and found good results i then save this search and automate part of this process.

Participate in the Twitter experience: It’s important not to keep talking about your self. Give credit to your followers if they have touched your heart in some way. Remember tweets are not always to self promote your business or service. It’s also alerting people about interesting aspects that happen in our daily life.

Finally opt-in because you want to make a difference not because you need a large follower base.

Don’t beat yourself up if you have  alow following, you probably have the right audience who is actually connecting to you. See the amount of conversations that are happening within your follower space and how much of that conversation is about you or with you.

If you have come across different other strategies that work for you please do share them either by using the comments below or by posting it on your feed. Good luck.

Do you actually take timeout to meet people you care about or are we running after managing our own life?

Today i met up with some great individuals, they are driven by achievement, education and have morals and values. They have a busy life as well. But there was a difference in their attitude. Amidst all the conversation i was having with them the one aspect that i will cherish is how they made time to spend with me. I am no great guru or leader just a human being, but even though we may not be best friends they took time out to converse with me. They shared their story with me. They got to know me for who i am and what i believe in. I got to know a side of them while having that conversation.

When i said my good bye’s and hopped in my Limo (the Bus) to head home my mind got me thinking:

• Why do some of us not have time to meet?
• Why do some of us make time?
• Why do some of us make time just so we can get something out of someone else?

I guess it’s pretty simple it’s how much you value the connection. I have always been bad at meeting my friends and this year i made a resolution to do just that.

Now think about this from a social media online perspective:

1. How often do you take time out to connect with your readers, your fans, your followers to talk to them about their wants?
2. How many of us actually are out there wanting to make a difference in our reader’s , customer’s life?

The day you connect, your world is a different world. If you can actually take time out to meet people and understand them, they will value you. The same applies in the online world. Don’t always think about you, think for a second about your fans, followers, readers,customers.

If you work in the corporate world:

1. How often have you taken the time to have a conversation with your team about their wants?
2. Are you busy trying to achieve your own goals that you have forgotten the most basic aspect of human connection?

Take time out to understand your team as humans not as units within the business.

If you are a start-up:

Firstly i respect you because you have taken the leap to do something that a lot of people may not want to do. During your interactions with customers there may be instances where you feel let down or you feel that you don’t have the time to make that deep connection as your focus is on growing your business.

Trust me just block a day to meet with the people who will help you along the way to be successful. You need to take time to understand them for who they are as people. The day they know that you are genuinely wanting to be a friend they will connect with you.

My friends in India who i have never met face to face Gollum (Ramanan) and Agni (Sriram), they have come up with a neat concept called Tooker where they sell Intelligent conversations, people can discuss issues without the personal baggage . It’s neat because they are allowing people to not only connect but discuss and ponder over some great aspects that we live in.

The title “Will you get paid to be a friend?” in some aspects is true. In business if you take time out to be a friend with your customers, your fans, your followers in the online world, they will pay you. They will love you and the service you provide.

I thank the people i met today for sharing this insight with me. I won’t say names because i am not sure if they would feel comfortable but each one of us meet people every day just cherish the moment.

Love you guys and thank you for visiting my blog. I owe it to you.

Yesterday accidentally I met with a colleague after ages. We both were super uber thrilled to see each other and she wanted to sit down and chat. We caught up with all the gossip and started discussing her job finding experience at the moment. Knowing my background she wanted to talk to me about the jobs she has applied and what she could do better to improve her online presence. While discussing how she could position herself she asked me about recommendations and the value around it. I had never given this much thought as I believe in making my judgments based on how a person positions themselves either offline or online through their own work. She said that the company hiring her had done their due diligence of rating her based on her presence online. The thought was a bit scary because this could make or break the possibility of securing the job. Especially if her LinkedIn profile was not up to the mark. I guess it the same for a standard C.V. Letters of recommendation have been around for a long term and the same standards hold true for LinkedIn but there is a fine line.

These are some of the barriers around online recommendations and profiles that we discussed :

As a person looking out for a job:

1. Do you really believe that you need people to constantly praise you?
2. Should you actually allow hiring companies to judge you based on what your colleagues and customers have said about you?
3. If you have a follower network which is not huge would you feel intimidated?
4. Do you honestly have the guts to keep a bad comment active on your profile?
5. How do you differentiate yourself from your competition should you go the online track?
6. Are you ready to commence the journey online to not be yourself due to the professional stigma attached to your life?

Well these are questions you need to ask yourself and come up with a plan of whether or not recommendations matter to you.

As a business looking to hire:

My Final Thoughts:

Our world is complicated don’t complicate this more by running after recommendations. As and when a person feels like giving you a recommendation accept it but don’t go asking. If you want to genuinely praise someone do it. This can be seen on social networks such as orkut, facebook and the smaller networks where the recommendations are not displayed because of a reason. As a company if you need a cross reference ask the candidate to provide you with one. At the end of the day just make life simple.

All the best and your thoughts would be appreciated.

When I received that phone call I was shocked, I was having my cup of tea with a friend. After that call my thoughts just froze. I did not know how to react nor did I know how to do something special online for my friend’s father. My thoughts raced and the first thing I could think of doing is to check my profile, email, skype, gtalk and see who else I knew that he may have known. I sent messages to each and every online friend that he knew to let them know the news. This post is written for all my readers who may at some point be influenced to have a social presence. Should you venture down the path of having a social media presence then do make an online will. Think about it, you will make friends, fans, followers, during your journey online. What happens when you die? How do you let them know? Some of them may not even know that you have travelled to the other side. They may think you are ignoring them, they may be angry, blah, blah and blah, the list can go on. I am still pondering about how I need to handle this and am actually thinking out loud while writing this post.

Here are some ways that you may be able to handle this:

The simplest and easy way to allow your loved ones to have access to your social online life is to have all this information recorded in one place. You could assign beneficiaries to each of your online digital assets. Just let the beneficiary know though that this is what you are doing so that they can action your last wish.

These are a few services that could help you get your last wishes organised
Legacy Locker
My Web Will
Last but not the least; don’t look at this as a bad moment. In fact look at this as a positive aspect that enables you to be connected with your online world even though you are enjoying your next life.

In today’s meeting we focused on how not to get our emotions, come in the way of business. Though it’s easier said than done I decided to keep an open mind and go along with the program. The advice given actually does make a lot of sense. Today with social media picking up and every one and any one getting to know all about you, it’s important to manage your online reputation. The one aspect that I think we could do is end sucky relationships on a good note or on pleasant terms so that there is no motivation to scream and shout about you on the Internet.

Instead of focusing on the person who is screwing you over or taking undue advantage of the business relationship, walk away. Don’t try to get even, instead just walk away and learn from the mistake. I usually take people for their word and with our world getting a bit complicated it’s important to have your contracts in place. There is no hard and fast rule though that a contract is going t save you but hey at least you did what is right.
In summary just remember karma is here to stay. Do what you think is right and walk away from a relationship that does not make sense earlier than later. Don’t take it personally and always be neutral with your views especially when it comes to online discussions. Have an absolute great week ahead and here’s to your success.

Do comment on how you have dealt with this situation.

Image credits: markfive , fordos

Prostitution is known as the oldest business in the world. It’s been around for a while and they have mastered the art of doing business. In fact many successful businesses actually run on a similar model .

Location:

You don’t see prostitutes standing on every street corner, do you? Do you see a Mac Donald’s on every street or do they pick their location. Now think about how you can apply this model in the online word. You need to be in the right place and the right slot on Google, You need to be found easily by your fans and you need to be noticed on some of the top social media websites. If you have an RSS feed it needs to be syndicated properly. Location is Key. Location also doesn’t just have to be a physical place.

You have to stand out from the crowd:

As a prostitute you have a lot of competition. You will see many standing in one lane and they compete. They have pressure at times to make that extra buck maybe because they need to feed their family. How does this relate to the online space? If you don’t stand out from the crowd then most probably you will not be found. Many will not hit that Like button on facebook and many may not actually tweet about you. You may not get a great reader base for your blog. Think about it once upon a time Apple struggled now they stand out. How are you planning on standing out within the social media space?

When you get a customer tell them what they are buying:

Prostitutes do this really well, if you watch Bollywood movies or for that matter Hollywood you will see time and again how a prostitute will lay down the boundaries right from the start. You may be paying for sex but hey you also get to know the amount of time , what is allowed and what is not.
By being clear with your online initiatives you pretty much are letting your readers, fans, followers and potential customers know right from the start what they would be receiving for engaging with your product or service. Don’t send mixed signals. It’s always very confusing and irritating. If you send mixed signals all you would get are complaints and bad reviews. This is easily achieved now with social sites such as Facebook, Twitter , blogs, a complaint can spread like wild fire.

Say the right message and make it clear and precise:

As a prostitute if you dress as a nun no one would notice you for your service, nor would they get the message right through their sub conscience. If prostitutes didn’t make it clear with their clothes and their body language, no one would ever know that they were for hire. Now think abut this from an online perspective, if your facebook page had all stars, fruits or for that matter racing cars as a background but you were in the business of selling shoes, would people guess what you do? You may have the best service or product but if it isn’t clear right from the start you may miss the boat.

It’s easier to upsell than it is to sell:
After you hook up with a prostitute, she pretty much knows that if you like her service she can up sell a few additional services. It’s a lot easier to get more out of you when the scene is set.
Now think from a social online perspective, when you have regular reader’s visiting you, or fans that will talk about you, what additional add-ons can you offer to keep them coming back to you. Would you need to do a hard sell once they are hooked on to your product or service? It’s a lot easier to get someone who has already paid you or who likes you to give you more money or refer you to their friend circle.

Final thoughts:
Don’t look down on a prostitute, they are humans too. They have feelings as well. They have a business to run and most of them have their own reasons for indulging in the business they are in. We are trained to look down at such people, or businesses. In reality though there are lessons to be learnt from any business.

So have I missed any additional points that a prostitute does well which an online campaign should be looking at?

Crow funding operates on a different relationship model between the investor and the start-up as compared to the traditional model. It’s based on the concept of charity or donations. Here the start-up retains full ownership of the project and the Investor receive nothing more than credits and a thank you gift item for supporting their efforts.

Websites such as GrowVC, Kickstarter are crow funding platforms. Many of these platforms run on a subscription model where the subscribers decide who should receive funding. Of course traditional funding requires start-ups to have a solid business plan and not just an idea. The benefits from a traditional funding model could also be advice, mentoring and connections.

So given that you have an idea and need a kick start what would you prefer to do, go the crowd funding path and hope people give you money or go down the traditional funding path where your idea may be debated and a share of your business could be taken. Each model has its share of pros and cons. It’s up to you to weigh up your options.

Either way if you are reading this post and believe to go down the crowd funding path, do the right thing and take money for adding value in this world. I wish you all the very best and hope that you are able to collect the funds required to kick start your next start-up.

In the west however social engagement and politics operate differently. People do not have a lot of time to commit to doing something and sticking by a cause. If politicians do go the track to using social networks to create policies, its important to note that followers and friends in the virtual world can be magically created but this does not happen in the real world. We need to take into account all the spam that goes around in the online world.

Having said this its important to note that social networks can be useful for receiving opinions about a certain policy that’s been worked on, gauge an idea of how people feel, receive feedback of new ways we could improve our social engagement offline, etc. So in summary social networks will play a role in politics to an extent, it already has begun but how we use the power of social networks to improve or lives is a question that we need to seriously think about.
Your views on this topic would be great.

Google has launched this feature of medical search in the US but has not responded whether they would release this feature to the various parts of the world. It would be a shame if the rest of the world is not able to search medical information and gain benefits from this kind of valid information, but guess Google have their own reasons.

Fast forward to the 21st century and you will get to see:
Social media, twitter, facebook, linkedin, blah, blah and more blah. Yes being on search engines and that to on the 1st page of Google is important and so are social networks and social platforms. With all this happening you may think you have to relearn how to do business, but that’s not true. The old saying “Old habits die hard” still holds true. Today instead of personally going to meet someone at their office you pretty much have to interact with them online or through their profile.

Here are a few tips to get you started selling your offerings the old fashioned way within the Social Media space:

Presence:
In the old days you needed to dress well and look your best. Today you need to look your best, on YouTube, Facebook , Twitter, etc. No matter which Social Network you use , you need to look stylish, and up-to-date. You need to look active, no stale status updates, your profile should be fresh and you need to be seen interacting with the community.

People needed the human touch:
Interactions, meet ups, networks were always the way business was done. Today you still need to interact with people the only shift is you may be chatting with a potential client through your IM, or speaking at a seminar online which is now a webinar, or receiving customer feedback through comments, blog post, etc. Remember it’s always good to start somewhere, by now you must be having a website, if you do then take the next step to interact with social networks and be the face of your company on these platforms. Your customers are just waiting to interact with you out there.

Let people find you and you find customers:
In the past we pt a signboard outside our shop, home, printed letter heads, sent faxes, advertised our offerings on yellow pages, etc. Today you are pretty much doing the same but in a different fashion Put your sign board on your profile page on various social networks, give advice and recommendations about why your service would add value through blogs, register for services like Twellow which is the yellow pages for twitter users. Network with other bloggers online to create beneficial partnerships
The key difference to remember: In the past we you were allowed to make sales pitches and people knew that you made contact because you want to sell. Today when you make contact do not make a pitch even after creating a relationship, your customers will ask you.

Marketing: The Old fashioned Way

Marketing The Social Media Way