PeopleBrwsr - A gift for brand managers

It is not very often that an idea translates into an effective communication solution which blows you over with its simplicity. PeopleBrowsr is one such platform which promises to provide quick access and a unique browsing experience that only an true social media enthusiast can appreciate.

Incidentally, I came across Brian Solis's post on the browser when I was looking for a solution which would take care of my social media interface needs.

Mr. Solis introduces this application on his blog as follows:
Introducing PeopleBrowsr, an attention-centered dashboard for managing your online relationships and communication in Twitter and across multiple social networks.

At its foundation, PeopleBrowsr is a first of a kind meta-network for social networks that works with Mozilla FireFox 3, Safari 3.1 or Google Chrome – no download or plug-in required. It essentially turns your Web browser into a simple, visual social media dashboard. While there are many third-party tools for Twitter, PeopleBrowsr brings the best features from all of the popular add-on services into one solution - without requiring a download or a browser plug-in.

If you are a heavy social media user or a brand manager / analyst, it is a dream come true.

I will leave the comparisons and analysis with other similar applications to the Techies. As a user and a communications consultant I am more than overwhelmed with this application.

It is still in alpha and I would encourage you to go ahead and take it for a test ride. You will be blown away.

Mumbai terror attack: When not doing business pays…

Opportunists strike at the heart of human tragedy, shredding the spirit of Mumbai to bits. Businesses which are sensitive will sustain and win the good will of all .Those out to get a bang for their buck risk tarnishing their reputation and loose respect.

It is not a new thing. Politicians do this. Business’s do this. Corporates do this. Individuals do this. You and I also do this.

“Every crisis is an opportunity” is a line often repeated in top ranking B-schools, communications programs, marketing war zones, so on and so forth. I suspect this particular instinct develops over time as we are encouraged to get back to our routines with helpful edicts such as ‘…life moves on…’, ‘…it’s just a phase…’ and ‘…it’s business as usual…’ after any catastrophe strikes us, personal or otherwise.

The message is clear. Let us get back to our lives since we are not affected by this directly and still have to continue earning a decent living. Our collective resilience is a function of necessity and undeniable realities of life. It’s pure Darwinism, survival of the fittest.

Now, many of you would exclaim, amongst choicest abuses, things like

“Hey Hemant…what else are we supposed to do…we have to move on?”

“We just can’t hold on to our grief and stay stunned forever.”

“People need help. We need to get into action and do something…!”

I agree. But all I have to say is don’t abuse someone else’s grief and try to squeeze a buck out of them by playing on their vulnerability.

Here’s what got me pissed off.

A day after the brutal massacre by crazed zealots, probably hot on Prozac or Cocaine or what ever that works, I get a call from a leading Mumbai based Insurance Company asking whether I suddenly was aware of my mortality and would like to preserve my family’s way of life after I kick the bucket.

And another one of their ilk, the insurance arm part, one of many swishing tentacles of a corporate giant, gave me a buzz to find more about my insurance needs.

Now, now, the assumption here is that the ensuing events would have had such a drastic effect on at least 1% of the total population they touched base with, which would lead to some form of business in terms of product sale.

Perfectly legitimate, you may say, but it does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

A private firm that I know of also went ahead with its placement calls to unsuspecting recruits g/painfully employed in competitor firms. And this is what the receiver of this generous offer had to say,

“What kind of morons work at this place. The whole world is f*cking falling apart and he’s bugging me to come in for an interview! I don’t want to work in such a place”

Its business as usual they say. Life goes on… Sure, I agree. But you have insinuated the wrath of common people that you willingly subjected to your crude insensitivity. Now I don’t want your product. May be I will soften up in a couple of months, but right now I have lost respect for you!

From a communications stand point it would have made sense to shut shop or at least curb activities which cause discomfort to others. This is when it would have paid to not do business for once.

• Mumbai terror attack events [Link]

• BJP, a leading political party in India, issued an advertisement which tries to score a political point after the gruesome events [Link]

Indian bloggers now acknowledged as consultants to media firms

Afaqs reports the launch of Livemint radio today with Business Standard to follow suit. These well established media firms are now looking towards veteran bloggers and established new media practitioners to set up their digital initiatives.

Well known blogger Kiruba Shankar is to aid the BS initiative while Kamala Bhatt, of the popular The Kamala Show is associated with the livemint radio.

This follows a pattern observed globally wherein established bloggers are sought by major corporate firms and media companies to guide their way through the untrodden territory.

Also, it is typical for top bloggers to get the recognition and the moolah while there is virtually no trickling down to the resilient masses. This too is expected as Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest holds good.

The trend of new media specialists partnering with corporate firms to set up their digital platforms is a welcome one from a communications perspective . Some bloggers have been able to make that transition to Mainstream Media (MSM). This definitely is a good sign for the social media business.

(Article link)

Continuing the Obama v. McCain social media initiatives series

An article in Mint today with the headline "What we googled for during the US elections" (link) details the various keyword searches across the globe. The interesting bit is how many corporates directed traffic to their websites and web properties by purchasing these popular keywords from Google.

Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm Advertising, claims that Indian searchers predicted the Electoral College results. Obama-related searches outnumbered McCain-related searches 2.3:1, nearly the same as the Electoral College results, the article states.

The IT heavy areas of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu surfed for keywords BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), H1B visa alluding to the visa application process for NRIs, an expected phenomenon due to uncertainties of regime change.

Also it might be useful to see my previous post on the topic:
(Link)

Social media warfare: Obama vs. McCain

The social media strategies and tools used by now President-elect Barack Obama and his opponent John McCain is an interesting paradigm shift from the heavy reliance on Main Stream Media (MSM) outlets to the grass root level and democratic social media platforms. It would be interesting to analyze the various modes of digital communication incorporated by the two in their campaign.

Here are two of the top articles which provide a scorching insight into how one can leverage social media and digital platforms by both the candidates.

1) Barack Obama and John McCain - Social Media and search engine scorecard (Link)
Courtesy Brain Solis for his tweet which gives the link.

2) Windchimes, a Mumbai based social media agency is running an analysis, a two part series on this topic on their blog (link to part I), (Link to part II)

If there are any more analytical blog posts of this kind that you have come across, please share the link.

3) Update: Mint article which detail search engine trends across the globe during the time period of the election. Also, it informs how companies managed to drive traffic to their web properties by purchasing popular keywords.
Link to article
Link to my post