The question which was posted on LinkedIn about Twitter – Success story through Twitter has received excellent response from guys from different geographical locations.

A gist of some interesting answers below -

Story – 1
Just to share an experience on Customer Service and Listening. I have been on twitter for 6-8 months now, I just shouted out about @cleartrip not giving out any offers on twitter. cleartrip listened to my shout out and rolled out the offer in twitter. Now that’s definitely gotta make a customer feel good.
Twitter is more about engaging with your customers, to know what they want and more importantly act on it.
Then there are companies in the b2b business finding leads through twitter. So its happening, but companies are more or less just absorbing the stuff which can be done on twitter.
-Rahul Nambiar,Interactive Solutions Architect

Story – 2
Kogi bbq, a korean taco truck in Los Angeles has attributed much of its rapid and recent growth to twitter. http://twitter.com/kogibbq as has Coffee Groundz, a cafe in Houston http://twitter.com/CoffeeGroundz.
-Gary Sanchez, Consumer Marketing Leader

You can check the remaining answers/contribute your success story here

Few weeks back, I had posted a question on LinkedIn about “Twitter’s usage in Business“. Today, I just stumbled upon an interesting presentation[shown below] that not only explains Twitter’s usage but also backs it up with a good number of case-studies. BTW, the question is still open here

It has been almost a month since my last article & once again busy schedule has distanced me away from my blog Few weeks back, there was an article on this blog about Twitter and since, than I have been much more active on it

Well, we all know about Twitter & it’s usefulness for business. However, there has not been [at least I have not read about it] similar news like this one where startup/company has generated sales through Twitter.Below is the question that I have posted on LinkedIn and to answer it, you can leave a comment below or head-on directly to LinkedIn

There would be many more startups/companies [apart from Dell, Sun etc.] generating SALES through Twitter

Twitter, a company that is making news without making any revenue is familiar to all of us. Though, most of us on Twitter use it for personal use; I would like to know about the following:

1. Is your company/startup using Twitter ?
2. If the answer to (1) is yes, how have you used the medium e.g in generating sales, getting feedback ?
3. Is there any success story [apart from Dell making $1 Million in sales through Twitter] where a startup/company has been able to generate sales through Twitter.

PS – I posted this question after I could not gather much information from leading blogs/ websites/newspapers.

Last week, we had an interesting interview with Vineesh Kumar of Pictualize where he shared his thoughts about Pictualize & Entrepreneurship.In the final episode of this interview, we question Vineesh Kumar about Pictualize’s future plans with usual glimpse on Entrepreneurship !!!

Do you have any fixed marketing strategy for Pictualize?
At the moment, we are actually marketing our work and we are finding takers for the same. The BarCamp Delhi [BCD] presentation helped us reach out to some clients and our recent work on the credit crisis has reached out to a much larger number of people due to solid efforts that we put in to get the word out.The plan to market Pictualize to the world is through carrying out innovative communication that enraptures the hearts of people and bring this power to other businesses and help them succeed too.There isn’t a very hard plan as such and we are going with the flow. Just paddling, when we start losing direction.

As per your opinion, which are the three most striking things that makes IITs different from others?
In IIT Delhi [IITD], it’s tough to tell how striking it actually is , because the daily grind actually makes one abhor the entire IIT system. But now being an outsider, I realize that the rigor of IIT has fundamentally affected my being and the same happens with everyone.

1. In my opinion, IITs are a little different from other institutions mainly because of the amount of raw talent that one can see and feel each day.
2. Apart from that IITD particularly provides quite a lot of exposure, so I had opportunities to see entrepreneurship closely before taking to it.
3. The third point would be that being through the IITs instills a certain degree of confidence, that helps tremendously in facing the opposition to entrepreneurship.

How do you filter valid/invalid user feedback [especially after BCD presentation]?
The BCD presentation majorly brought us positive feedback, so we didn’t actually filter anything and just enjoyed the moment . We actually don’t aim to filter feedback, but take all of it seriously and see how can we improve with it.

Has the risk appetite increased or what are some of the reasons that more youngsters are willing to startup/join a startup?
I wouldn’t call it an increase in the risk appetite. The numbers seems to be growing proportionately to the opportunities available.
In my opinion, all entrepreneurs are rebels of sorts, looking to create the future. As we advance, there are more and more of such exciting opportunities and it is just the issue of mind over matter for a person to shift to the entrepreneurial world.

What are three most important things that you see when you guys formed the team?
We actually didn’t think that we were forming a team. We are just a bunch of friends. Each has a different view of life and each has big dreams, but each of us have a vision to grow, improve, enjoy and succeed. As they say in love that two people needn’t look at each other but in the same direction, the same I feel is true for a team.

Can you share some key learnings before/after co-founding Pictualize?
I would like to share learnings that I obtained in the last 5-6 months but prior to Pictualize.

1. Team building is not as easy as it seems and team members are though not tough to find, but they aren’t easy to find either.
2. When you work and meet, make notes. Keep things in written. Helps in disputes later and is extremely important for facing clients, since their needs change by the minute.
3. [For students & wannabe entrepreneurs] If you are starting up after you are passing out you are already late. Hurry up and start earlier. You really need to earn money by the time you pass out.

In a place like India where families are close-knit, how important is “Family support” for any startup’s success?
IMHO, family support would contribute to over 90% in the success of a startup running without external funding. As long as family can tolerate a productive person doing seemingly non-productive things [like starting up], the person is in the best of his situations to actually build a successful business. Without family support, it becomes a multi-dimensional problem and multiplies the risk of failure.

Enjoy another presentation by Pictualize which shows the Current Economic problems in a hilarious as well as meaningful way

Entrepreneurship right after college seems risky as well as cool.In this article, we have a Q&A with Vineesh Kumar [co-founder of an interesting & cool startup Pictualize], who jumped into this idea after completing his graduation from IIT-Delhi.

Everyone knows that “Pictures speak louder than words” and this is where Vineesh and his co-founders felt there lies an opportunity !!!

Q&A is done in two parts where Part-I would focus on Pictualize and Part-II would focus on Entrepreneurship [and many aspects related to Straight-Out-Of-College-Entrepreneurship].

Note:
If you have any questions for Pictualize,please leave them in the comments section & it would be included in the Part-II of this interview

Let’s start off with the interview …

Everything starts with a problem, how did the concept of Pictualize arise ?
Pictualize, was born out of the realization that we need to change the current system of communication. It is just too ineffective, incomplete, lacking simplicity and possessing many other issues. The logical solution seemed pictures – the universal language, simple or complex, it is about expressing the core matter and with that came Pictualize.

Pictualize is a catchy name, which are the other names that you came up with while brainstorming & why did you choose Pictualize ?
Anirudh Maitra, our Idea Catalyst had put down numerous names for us to choose from. Pixlr8, Pictualate, and a variety of other names. Am not sure who exactly thought of Pictualize, but the moment it came onto the table we all fell in love with it instantly. Seemed to be love at first sight with the name and then the tag-line “Visualize. Actualize. Realize” followed almost effortlessly.

Who are the current team members and their roles?
Current team members are Aakanksha Gaur, who is currently our Visual Architect and she is the one who churns out all our imagination on paper.Anirudh is the idea catalyst and his wacky ideas are mostly out of this world. He leads in churning out ideas that rock, not just with us, but with others too.I am among the lesser mortals in awe of both of them, who gets to connect them to the rest of the world, i.e. bring us business and think about all the other things.Despite our roles being segregated, we all have an immense amount of fun, brain-jamming together and imagining and dreaming .You can know more about us here

Pictures speak louder than words, how do you guys ensure to bring the same creative feeling with each picture ?
It is precisely this effort that differentiates us from all the others who can doodle. We doodle, with a purpose and apply a lot of our mind to it. Three creative beings doing stuff they enjoy, certainly spew out tons of ideas and then it’s more or less a war to select the best.We don’t strive to maintain the creative feeling. The aim is to constantly improve.

What are some of the services that you are planning to offer like Marketing, Branding etc ?
More than marketing or branding, we are aiming to deal with “Communications”. As individuals we all have been brought up with a certain sanctity of the written word and an unusual fear of drawing. We intend to bridge this gap and bring visual communications and understanding within individuals as well as corporations as well as help everyone express themselves visually.

Our current services deal with creating visual presentations for corporations to reach out to their clients/customers in a more understandable and personalized way. Additionally, we are aiding in marketing efforts of our clients.

In the near term, we are targeting to move to clients like UNDP, Micro-finance organizations and NGOs that deal with a large number of people from different backgrounds and it is obviously tough to manage the diversity. We believe that we can offer some order in this chaos of communication through pictures.

You guys started fresh out from college[some like Aakanksha are still studying], what are the pros & cons of doing the same ?
Pros:
1. We have sufficient time to experiment, fail, learn and start over again.
2. [The beaten down one] Risk is a lot lower since liabilities are lesser [though this isn't true in general].
3. Not knowing anything about business is sometimes extremely useful, since the person doesn’t know what the real roadblocks are and when you aren’t worried about certain things, those happen most easily.

Cons:
1. Most people don’t take out-of-college entrepreneurship too seriously. It sounds like a frivolous idea of fools who are just trying to run away from the “real world”.
2. Support for out-of-college entrepreneurs is just too less or usually absent, since they don’t have any experience.
3. Out-of-college entrepreneurship is perhaps still a bit late and it is certainly way better to start while studying, since the risk of failure is totally absent

Does your startup have mentors and how important is mentorship for a startup ?
Mentors are perhaps the life line of any entrepreneur or a startup. Personally, I wasn’t able to discover/find a mentor for quite a while until we met Mr. Kris Nair. He met us for some other venture and it was his initiative that we actually met him [since he has his own venture capital firm, we were a little skeptical about meeting him ]. But I guess, Kris is the next best thing that has happened to me on my entrepreneurial journey after I, Aakanksha and Anirudh started working on Pictualize.

For any startup dreamers, would-be entrepreneurs or just anyone willing to take the route less trodden, always seek a mentor. There always comes one who changes the course of your thoughts and also your life.

You guys come from different backgrounds[and colleges], how did you guys get along ?
All the three of us are friends and each met the other only by chance and through random connections. The difference in familial background is not very significant and colleges don’t seem to make any difference at all. It is just the matching that we have mentally that makes us go along. Creativity, passion and the fun we have in each other’s company solves the issues that come our way.

How was the response to your BarCamp Delhi presentation ?
The BarCamp Delhi presentation had a cracker response. We were expecting it to be well-received but the amount of appreciation we got was well beyond expectations and was a major confidence booster.

Enjoy the creativity of Pictualize in the presentation below:

Hope you liked this interview, stay tuned for the Part-II of this interview !!!

Last few days have been quite hectic for me and I almost vanished from the Blogosphere but I am back again with what I love to do i.e. Blogging !!! To get back on track, I felt to share an interesting question which was asked on LinkedIn and thanks to Ramjee Ganti for suggesting me as an expert in the BLOGGING category

If you are a Blogger or someone who wants to get your website/blog reviewed, than either you should keep a track on the replies to question or attempt to answer the question given below:

Note:
Below is the question and my attempted answer on LinkedIn.

How do I get my business web site reviewed? How do I get bloggers to blog about my site?

1. Know about the your Business as well as the business in which the Blogger is associated with e.g If your business is into Semiconductors, than only consult a blogger who is into that space.A blogger who writes on Web 2.0 would not be a value addition to your marketing strategy but instead may take up your example as a negative one and write on his/her own blog.
2. Search for Bloggers on relevant sites like LinkedIn, Ning, Technorati, Digg etc. and send each one a proper and personalized pitch referring from where you came across their profile , why should they write about your business etc. etc. Remember, it is very important to give a personalized touch !!!
3. Don’t try to bribe the blogger saying you would get gift A/B/C if you write for them. This would result in a negative publicity in most of the cases. Microsoft is very famous for this one.
4. Finally, if you want Bloggers to write about you, than they also want a small mention that “They have written for you” hence, add all the links and email each one personally so that you can expect BETTER words from them in future !!!
5. Last but not the least, remember that if you need a Blogger’s help now, you may also need the same in Future, so Try to maintain touch with the Blogger with whom you want to

Note:
There would be a plenty of resources available on the Internet but at the end of the day, it depends on execution.

You can find all the answers to this question on LinkedIn here

Have been busy in work resulting in a short downtime on my blog Today, I received an email from one of my blog readers who is connected with me on LinkedIn and just wanted to know about how I reached 500+ connections.I just thought it would be great to share some of my tips; which would also help me to look back and check whether I am using this great tool to the fullest !!!

Below are my Ten tips [starting with my so called own MANTRAS] which makes my LinkedIn usage effective and helpful.

My Own Mantras

1. Target relevant people:
Many of us who are part of startups would be a part of many mailing lists like OpenCoffeeClub, Startup Specialists etc. This would be the best place to build your network.What I do is “While reading the email of a person on the list, if I get a feeling that it would be useful[as well as relevant] to connect with that person , than I send the invitation” and I am sure that there are lot of smart people around on such lists….Figure them out and add them !!!

2. Be Specific and Personal:
Assuming you follow point(1), you feel that a person X would add value to your network and you would like to add him. What next “Send an invitation” [check the image below and the part in Red Color which mentions PERSONAL !!! ]

When you are meeting a person for the first time, it is very important to introduce and specify “WHY” his addition to your network and your addition to his network would be very much useful.Remember Permission Marketing by Seth Godin – “The privilege of marketing to people who are relevant to you“, the same principle applies here as well.

It takes 2-3 minutes to be specific but it is indeed helpful. An improved example invitation below:

3. Build a useful conversation and than get the work done :
In case you are connecting with a USEFUL but unknown person, make sure that once you are connected to him/her; you know more about the contact. Write a “Thanks” reply and try to know as much as you can about him/her.
Once you are well acquainted , speak up and let him/her know the NOT SO OBVIOUS reason for the invitation.

4. Group your contacts:
Once you have multiple number of contacts; it may seem difficult to remember WHO,WHY & WHERE of a particular contact.Hence, on a regular basis ; export your contact list into .xls/.csv/other format and align the contacts in proper categories like Friends, Colleagues, Unconferences, Startups etc. to make your search simpler and faster !!!

The Obvious Mantras

1. Be an Open Networker:
The start is always difficult and if you are a waiting for your first connection, than this should be the first step. Just include your email-id in the Last Name field in your Profile page eg. Himanshu Sheth(himanshu.sheth@gmail.com) . This would give an impression that you are open to connect with anyone [with an obvious filter on whether the invitation would be relevant or not].

2. Put relevant keywords:
The difference between “S/W” and “Software” is huge.If you are an engineer and someone searches for Software, profiles tagged with S/W would be filtered out….So, just like coming on Google Search is important, being in relevant LinkedIn searches is important to increase your network.

3. Attach personal photograph:
Imagine being at a conference where you might have many of your new & yet Unknown LinkedIn connections, so “How would they identify you? ” ……In such cases, personal photograph on your profile page would be very much helpful.This may also help you reconnect with your very old colleagues.

4. Use LinkedIn badge:
If you have a blog/website, do not forget to use your LinkedIn badge.Many times, the Blog name is not so obvious eg. ThoughtsPrevail is just a random name and does not convey that “Himanshu Sheth” writes that blog [Though smart people would always google for it ]

5. Recommend relevant people:
Always try to write Recommendations for people ; who you feel are worth to be recommended.Many people read the recommendations written for/by a person and a recommendation can really add value to the recommender’s profile [for his openness] and the recommended person[for the great work that (s)he might have done].This indirectly makes searching for Smart people on LinkedIn easier.

6. Ask and Answer relevant questions:
“Q&A section of LinkedIn” provides an excellent platform to gain & share knowledge, not to forget adds lot of Stars to your profile with the golden word – EXPERTISE.

If you have some more relevant inputs, do let me know and I would add them in the Reader Contribution section.

Reader Contribution:
Ramjee Ganti – Guy Kawasaki on Ten Ways to use Linkedin

Praneet is the co-founder of a startup WebDefenders Consulting Pvt. Ltd [website under construction] which is into cyber law, ethical hacking and few other activities[which are listed below]. WebDefenders looked a different and interesting startup , in terms of it’s offerings and services .

Below is a small Q&A with Praneet Kumar from WebDefenders.The Q&A session is divided into 2 parts : WebDefenders and Entrepreneurship.

Note : “I” in the conversation refers to Praneet Kumar.

WebDefenders [How,When, Why etc.]

Q. Can you tell something about WebDefenders ?

Well, WebDefenders is a unique endeavor in itself. It provides a complete solution package for cyber security which includes cyber law, cyber crime investigation, ethical hacking, cyber forensics and its related training and education.

Preparing a patent application is “only” one of many action steps to consider. But along with it, I opine following things must be kept in mind:

1. Understand your product and market. When discussing your invention or idea, it is helpful to know “What is the ultimate goal?” & “What impediments to market entry exist?”
2. Expand and test the limits of your invention.
3. At least some analysis needs to be done to support broad claims of a patent.
4. Identify your competition.
5. It is important to understand the patents that protect your competitors.
6. Consider foreign markets.
7. Contemplate costs.
8. Select a proper attorney.

Isn’t it!

I read a book called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert T Kiyosaki, gifted to me by my dad when I was in my 2^nd yr of B.A.LLB.I then only decided that I am going for a business. After that I opted for a few internships to learn more about running a successful firm.I am a voracious reader. All these things together gave me the adequate impetus to choose for what I am today.

Few days back, I received an email from one of my LinkedIn contact’s Mr. Wayne Mansfield.The email was about an article, in which his friend Yanik Silver has shared his experience about a meeting with the great Mr. Richard Branson has shared his mantra for Entrepreneurs called “34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs“.

Note:
This article was earlier titled “Richard Branson’s rules for Entrepreneurs” which is now changed to “34 rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs”. It was due to a minor error from my side

Out of the 34 rules, below are my favorite ones: