e Magus

T he idea of communicating under 140 characters would have made the ancient Spartans proud. When Twitter started off, I was skeptical how could something so inane survive.. It was neither as personal as a SMS, nor as captivating as Facebook (when accessing through computers), or as descriptive as a blog... But 6 years later (i joined Twitter around 2007), and with over half a billion registered users and one the top visited sites worldwide, the small Bluebird is indeed flying high. Now-a-days watching the twitter feeds, and knowing more about the various twitter profiles has become a regular feature in my digital life. Most Twitter handles are there for the purpose of recognition & affiliation...and to fulfill their purpose, they take various avatars on Twitter Here are 6 popular avatars, I see in my network: Premier: These are people who try and create content that are exclusive.. this could include tweets which are personal, stand-alone quotes, breaking news (which could al...

Y esterday, while waiting for my turn in a hair salon, I realized how much a similar a digital ad agency business is to this age-old profession. Every little thing that goes on in a hair salon is similar to what an ad agency does, especially in India. The place: From a corner barber shop to an upmarket hair salon, digital agencies comes in various shapes and sizes. You have the small shops run by couple of people to a well laid and beautifully done up work place employing a large number of professionals. The offerings: Digital agencies offerings too, are similar to hair salons. On one end you find them basic services, like a shave & cut, of just website design and development. On the other end, you have full fledged offerings - from design to SEO, to Social Media, Analytics, Media...similar to a hair salon whose offerings also include beauty treatment, pedicure/manicure, spa, etc; Reception: Like all hair salons which has old magazines with dog ear pages, you’ll find most of...

It was almost a decade back, when I posted my first blog. In these 10 years, I created, I copied, I re-created content on various topics that appealed me at that given point of time.. Sometimes, I blogged prolifically, sometimes I just forgot that I had a blog... but i persisted, though not consistently. Social Media scenario has had a sea change since the time the blogging platforms came into being and was in Vogue. Call me an old school social media guy, but I think blogs are still very relevant in today’s world. Here are some random points on why one should blog Point of view best explained: No character limit, and no random updates that will push your post down in seconds. You can give your opinion and justify the same in a single post. People are still captivated by stories, and best stories have a set-up, plot, characters, and an end People will know you better: The more you speak, the more people will know about you. Someone somewhere is seeking the same information you blo...

T o this day, I see many digital strategy presentations quoting this - “Content is the king”. Makes me cringe. Digital marketing has changed over the years, but seems like this quote stood the test of time.   So is just focusing on content enough? I dare say, no. Because Content, as a word and belief, is very impersonal, essence-tic, and passive. Content is good, but only good enough for artificial intelligence (bots) or a purposeful information seeker. Most of the digital marketing presence was created at a time when access to Internet was limited and expensive. Computers were physically wired onto the Net, the data charges were high, search results were limited, in such a scenario just plain content was fine. The content on the web evolved in the following manner: Information/Knowledge Entertainment & News Branded content Conversations In today’s immensely networked world, which is full of conversation - context is also crucial for success. And context are best put f...

L ast week Adage ( www.adage.com ) came out with a news article stating that Coca-Cola Company study finds no sales impact (lift) from online chatter (For more details you could read the article here http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/coca-cola-sees-sales-impact-online-buzz-digital-display-effective-tv/240409/ The article goes on to detail the study and the client input that Online advertising do work, and that social media plays a crucial role...However, some interesting pointers from the article: Can you link sales objective (especially short term) with social media, especially when it comes to FMCG or CPG? I say, plain stupid to even try and spend time seeking such results. This can only be successful, if there is social media led tactical campaigns to drive sales... Overall sales depends on the time, distribution, space (shelf), competition activities, price, etc What should your social media objectives be? No silver bullet here. But for a FMCG or CPG brand; it should be m...

I ’m not sure why am I even writing about this. It is mid-March and there would be 1000’s of articles forecasting what will happen this year. Do I need to add more pixels to the ones that are already there? Well, maybe...or maybe not. Having worked in the digital marketing for so long, I’ve realized that we tend to forecast the same thing over and over again like - the mobile story, online video, the King content, etc - and guess what, most of the time this holds true - like statement written on stone :). The following are what I’d want to add on to what other Digital Marketing pundits have predicted: Digital story-retelling: For long brands in India have looked at online as a place to create and publish content. Most social media activities too are loosely based on content distribution and ‘engagement’ (from contests to customer service to games). The most popular stories are children’s story or mythology - and the reason for their popularity is that it is simple and easily ...