Traffic 
SuccessLighten up (or not) on Facebook!
Be prepared to face the wrath of bloggers and social networkers, if you say something that’s politically incorrect on Facebook. That’s the message that cosmetic major Vaseline seems to be getting these days. The company’s ‘Transform your face’ application to promote its skin-lightening cream has earned negative criticism across the online world. The campaign, promoted by Bollywood star, Shahid Kapoor, allows users to upload their picture, clear the dark spots and whiten the face. This has indeed attracted wide spread criticism as the promotion endorses fairer skin over the darker shade.
Though the campaign primarily targets the South Asian market, bloggers from across the world talked about being ‘uncomfortable’ with this Facebook application. In all ‘fair’ness, we may say, that it’s after all, a promotion for a skin-lightening cream. Nevertheless, companies must keep in mind that social media promotions address large audience demography from across all parts of the world. What seems perfectly normal in one country may be entirely offensive in another culture.
Twitter gets down to business!
Twitter has made a foray into the business side of micro-blogging and has announced @earlybird Exclusive Offers, which will put forth deals on products and events that will appear on the @earlybird Twitter account. Everyone is welcome to follow that account to get access to some exciting deals. All deals are time-sensitive and up for grabs by the entire twitter population.
There’s Independence Day, Labor Day and now Social Media Day!
If anyone of you still thinks of social media as just another fad, think again. Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, has officially designated June 30 Social Media Day. Mayor Dean Fortin has signed the proclamation, making it the first city in the world to dedicate a day to the social media cause. And that unofficially goes on to prove that social media is indeed here to stay!
Now that makes me wonder why social media so important that it deserves a day of its own. Well, I spent a few minutes thinking about it and here’s what my thought process coughed up.
FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010: Social media scores big!
It’s Waka, Waka time on social media! Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are all abuzz with football fans rooting for their team, celebrating team wins and moaning defeats. Advertisers are having a field day, leveraging the power of social media to promote their mighty brands.
Yup…there’s heavy-duty competition on the social media turf, as well. The heat is on to catch the larger social media mind space. Right now, Nike seems to have taken the early lead. According to independent studies by Nielsen and Meltwater, Nike (now, called the unofficial sponsor!) has generated the most buzz online in the lead up to the World Cup. Much greater than Adidas, it’s arch-rival and official sponsor. Coca Cola, Sony, Visa and other FIFA partners are lagging far behind.
Why being LinkedIn is great for small businesses?
It’s no secret that social media has changed the way the face of the world wide web so very drastically. From school-going kids to octogenarians, everyone is up online connecting, communicating and interacting like never before. And tech-savvy marketers are no way behind. With such a huge audience up for grabs, advertisers and marketers are using every trick-in-the-book to grab those elusive eyeballs. Being a small business, you too, can actively leverage the power of the web to take your business places. Much has been written about using Facebook and Twitter for business. Now, let’s look at LinkedIn and see how it can be utilized to further business interests.
Never underestimate the power of Twitter!
All you tweeple, you can keep tweeting your everyday activities for the entire world to see. It’s fun, it’s cool and it’s instantaneous. However, beware of what you say and how you say it. Two very famous, very powerful people have just been undone by Twitter. One’s our tweeting minister, Shashi Tharoor and the other is the controversial IPL (ex?) Chairman Lalit Modi.
Across the Atlantic, Lindsay Lohan is quite justifiably furious. Her father (or some hacker) has allegedly tweeted that she is HIV+. Earlier, Chris Brown deleted his Twitter account saying, “Honestly, Twitter has done nothing but get me into trouble.”
Mouse-yielding ninjas rule LinkedIn. Gurus are so linked out!
LinkedIn’s official blog has recently revealed a very interesting trend – a widespread increase in job titles that include the term ‘ ninja’. These ninjas do not use swords or star-shaped spikes in the battlefield. They are modern-day warriors of a different kind. On a mission to make their clients lives a lot easier.
(Source: http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/04/08/linkedin-ninja-job-title/)
Most of these ninjas come from the social media scene or from computing and design sectors. And of course, there are some advertising, customer service and finance ninjas as well. But they are a minority compared to the IT sector ninjas, who range from Social Media Ninja to Networking Ninja to Web Ninja and even a few Link Ninjas! After all, most of us as kids dreamt of being a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…so, it is indeed a cool title to sport, eh?
6 lessons to learn from celebrity twitter goof-ups
Most celebrities have a large twitter following and some of them have a foot-in-the-mouth disease as well. They often get into some serious twitter trouble for tweeting ridiculous things. Some even get entangled in big scandals because of their off-the-mark or off-the-charts tweets. Here are a six lessons that any avid twitter bug can learn from celebrity twitter goof-ups: Read more
If IPL was played on the Web 2.0 …
Imagine the IPL (Indian Premier League) being played out on Web 2.0. Only now, we will call it the International Premier League. A fantastic idea, isn’t it? Imagine the online world to be the Eden Gardens or the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Of course, we don’t have a Lalit Modi here. Or Shah Rukh Khan or some fancy cheerleaders to rev up the action. But who cares, we have some top-of-the-line IPL social media teams. What’s more, we have more than a million players from across the globe (even from Pakistan!). After all, social media IPL is in a league of its own!
Twitter Kings 75M
Twitter Kings is surely the brightest in the social media IPL game. With 75 million players, it has an enviable position. As a micro-blogging site, Twitter Kings has an edge in terms of being well-versed in the short version (read T20) of the internet content game. It’s a widely popular team in the global arena. And has a huge following of celebrities (from Aamir Khan to Gul Panang!) who seek to gain mileage from associating with Twitter Kings.
Holi Twitter backgrounds – Rang Barse on Twitter!
Celebrate the festival of colors on Twitter, this year. With these colorful holi twitter backgrounds. Splash a dash of color on your twitter page to spread good cheer among friends and followers.
So, before you take your pichkaris and head out to drench your friends in color; before you start splashing those non-toxic gulaal powders on the little ones; and before you get high on bhang and jive to a holi Bollywood number, add these cool holi twitter backgrounds to your twitter profile and get into the holi spirit of exuberance. Read more
