Himanshu's Blog - Technology, Entrepreneurship & Business » SocialMedia

Let’s get started …

Himanshu — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:37:00 +0000

How many times, we feel like talking to someone but can’t even take the first step. It starts with “How to approach” and once you approach “How you build a meaningful conversation”. If the conversation goes like flowing water, than it is of no worry but if it does not, “the onus lies on the initiator to transform a talk into a conversation”.

I had an interesting experience during my association with a startup where we handed over free gift to each person who helped testing our product. The free gift was definitely priceless for us since it would help us to spread our word [as our name was printed on the gift] but very few people noticed it. That is where each one of us started interacting with every person during the testing process[spending an extra minute or so] to explain about our product and startup through the “name” which was printed on the freebie.

It is a universal truth that “Pictures speak louder than words” and to demonstrate that we have this Twitter T-Shirt[which I ordered months back] from Pringoo

The T-Shirt contains my Twitter profile and 400 of my randomly selected followers. It is an excellent marketing tool [much more than just putting your company's name on it]. These are some of the basic things it does :

Effective story telling

As Seth Godin points out that Great story telling should capture the imagination of the audience. This is what the T-Shirt does perfectly. It not only eye catchy but also makes a person to craft his/her own story around the picture. This curiosity makes him/her to clarify whether the guess was right !!!

Starting a conversation

As pointed in the beginning, this is a great tool to make up a conversation. I was travelling in a bus and a guy came to me asking “Is this your Twitter profile” and at the end of it, we exchanged business cards and got connected elsewhere. That person was curious to know “Not only about Twitter but also about the other guys pictured on the T-Shirt”

Popularity of your service

In this case, the T Shirt was spreading the word of Twitter & to build my own brand [IMHO having 400+ followers is no big joke ]. What if your service had more than XYZ followers and you randomly selected first ABC & got them printed on some medium. It would definitely help spread the word much much faster !!! Even better would be if this was handed over as a gift to some lucky user of your service.

This is just one example of so called “great story teller”. May be next time when you hand over a freebie, the first question that should come to your mind is “Whether it would help build a talk or conversation” !!!

If you have any other thoughts about the Twitter picture, do share them by leaving a comment & the same would be included in the article.

Twitter 101 – Twitter for Business

Himanshu — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:32:00 +0000

For those who are looking out to use the medium of Twitter for Business purposes, the wait might just be over.Twitter has released the OFFICIAL guide-Twitter 101.

Below is the officially released guide for business users using Twitter

Case Studies
You can find some interesting case studies here. In case you are looking out for more case studies you can head on to my LinkedIn question[status - closed] here

[LinkedIn] The Twitter Success Story

Himanshu — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:01:00 +0000

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

JustDial – Where it went WRONG …

Himanshu — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Few weeks back when I started blogging, there was mention about my ~~old~~ online lifeline – JustDial. Most of us who are online more than half the time always rely on mediums like Wikipedia, Google Maps, JustDial etc for information. The advantage is you have ready-made information which comes free of cost & MOST of the times it is proven and might be CORRECT.

Let me start off with a terrible incident with JustDial which made a repeat customer like me to walk away from the service !!!

Before the delivery
The episode started when I called up JustDial for Packers & Movers [M&P] in Hyderabad. As soon as I hung-up the call, there was a series of calls from different small to big M&P. I got a good deal with a P&M named DG P&M, Hyderabad. Though it is a small M&P, they gave a great deal as well as promised an on-time delivery[i.e within two working days the luggage would reach Bangalore]. After I reached Bangalore, there was no trace of the luggage for more than 4 days. I spoke to close to around 4-5 guys from DG P&M & 2-3 drivers who told me that the luggage is very close to my place and it would reach in few hours.This continued for more than 5 days and finally I received the luggage[though it was not in the state in which I gave to them].

After the delivery
Once my fearful moments were over, I immediately called up JustDial and there were number of lessons learnt about JustDial[and in general the mis-information floating on the internet]

Authenticity of information
When I asked the customer care executive about the authenticity of their huge database, she had no clue about the same.In fact, even as an anonymous user, I was able to change the mobile number of the DG P&M which was a complete security breach in JustDial !!! JustDial has an interesting Terms Of Use with a special mention to it’s authentication – While every attempt has been made to ascertain the authenticity of the site content …

Customer is NOT the king
JustDial would be definitely serving lot’s of people daily[considering it is a Rs 500 cr enterprise] so it would not bother about every single customer but what if the customer has called back with a grievance.Even on my narration of the complete incident, the executive completely denied to transfer the call to the right person. In fact, she told me to read the Terms of JustDial & further added that they cannot remove any company listed in their database [even if the customer says that they had a horrible experience after using their service].

Why care about Media/Social Media
After I got a bad response from one executive, I called back again after some time. After completing my narration, I informed the executive that I have decided to share this message on TV through CNBC Pahredar , she was least bothered & argued with me for a long time. Not to mention that social media tools like blogs, Facebook were not new to her but she never cared how much it would affect JustDial’s online reputation.

Is Internet just for FUN ?
Like me , many people rely heavily on the information available on the internet but this incident made me wonder – Can we trust this information [even if it comes through a reputed service like JustDial]. Or should we say- Information can be used as long as there is no serious motive attached with it [ i.e we can use it to find Theaters, Pizza corners but not if you are looking out for something which may turn your life upside-down….

If you have any such mis-incident to share, please leave them in the comments section and it would be added to the main article.

Photo Credit
Movers and Packers

Important Update -
A similar complaint raised against DG Movers and Packers

Success stories through Twitter [Updated]

Himanshu — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:49:00 +0000

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