Feb 12
7

Call of the Web

Posted in Press Releases

Indian SMBs are ready to ride the online wave with the likes of Google offering buoyancy. Heena Jhingan explores the various options that are available in the market for entrepreneurs intending to take a business online.

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Feb 12
1

12 Tips to Effectively use LinkedIn

Posted in Affiliate Program
With social networking sites cementing its existence in the lives of almost every internet user, there is still a new avenue not explored enough until now. LinkedIn graduates the regular social networker to a worldwide network of professionals. While quickly gaining recognition as a brilliant business networking tool, it provides opportunities to the user to capitalize on available industry development activities as well.
You can make the most of the LinkedIn as well with these quick tips on using it effectively and purposefully:
  1. Like most networking sites, LinkedIn is free! You have an option to upgrade to being a paid member but that will not stop you from using it effectively. Start by inviting people you know to connect with you professionally!
  2. You can easily track who has tried to connect with you because LinkedIn shows you who has viewed your profile. You can then begin interaction with them with a message or connection request. In this case, paid users benefit a little more with detailed information about the visitor to the profile.
  3. After your connection requests have been accepted, you receive an email. A great way to take this forward will be sending them a ‘Thank You’ email. Also, when you accept someone’s connection request, send them a message thanking them for the connection and telling them what you do and ask when they do, etc.
  4. Find LinkedIn Groups related to your industry and post your articles and blogposts to these groups, which can be a powerful syndication strategy for your content. Stay away from posting company profiles or promotions or an information overload would lead to an eventual ban from the group. This kind of interaction will increase the number of connection requests you will receive if your content is good.
  5. Leave LinkedIn Recommendations for others first proactively and they usually will reciprocate with a Recommendation for you. LinkedIn Recommendations can be really powerful at convincing people you are great to work with because they are usually positive.
  6. Connect with your connections’ contacts by sending them connection requests. This is an effective way to develop business connections through LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to send connection requests through your contacts, that’s what LinkedIn is for.
    Note: be nice, friendly and professional in your connection requests and don’t look at it as a “means to an end” outreach tool, and it will be more effective.
  7. You are allowed to contact 500 members of Any LinkedIn Group you join even if you aren’t connected to them. This little detail can help you do much business talk within Groups.
  8. Your LinkedIn Profile can be customized and personalized to feature an aspect of your profile higher up on the page. Add add-ons to your profile from 3rd parties which really boost the functionality of your Profile.
  9. You can connect your Twitter account to your LinkedIn Profile so your tweets get posted on your LinkedIn profile. You can also connect other services as well.
  10. Keep an eye out for “status updates” that your connections make and then proactively interact with those posts to increase networking and building up good rapport.
  11. Set up a Company Profile on LinkedIn.  Include content, add staff members, and collect company recommendations which can be powerful for convincing people to work with you.
  12. You can export your LinkedIn connections to a spreadsheet so you can look at them all at once and send email to people you want to contact. You can also share your contacts with trusted people that will reciprocate…talk about getting ahead quickly!
We hope these tips get you started on your way to effectively building your professional network.
Read More
Vivek.r. 0Comments

Feb 12
1

6 Steps in Developing a Social Media Strategy

Posted in Affiliate Program
Social media has become a significant part of our day to day lives and companies are starting to see the value in adding it to their marketing mix. However, many are unsure where to start or how to develop a plan. With social media you can engage your audience in new ways, be more personable, develop new connections, and maintain the ones you have. Let’s understand the development of a social media strategy with these steps:
1. Hear what people are saying
What do people think about you and your brand? What are their points of views? Who are the influencers and which ones should you cooperate with? What are the various topics? Do they have grievances? What do they like about you? What works, what doesn’t, is something you have to determine.
What are their issues, opinions, and needs? How does this information fit with your value proposition? Understanding this information will help you determine how to best contribute to the conversation and how best to make a contribution.
Next, find out who are the ‘influencers’, people who command respect, and shape people’s opinions. Find people who influence your industry or niche and listen what they are talking about.
2. Identify your Goals
Now that you’ve heard your audience you should now be in a better position to establish your goals now. Your goal might be to drive a certain amount of traffic to your website or  to increase the number of followers in the next six months. Maybe you just want to establish you brand presence on the social web.
Consider not only your company goals but your audience’s goals. What are their needs and wants? You will get much further with social media marketing if you offer something of value. Many companies simply promote themselves on social without adding value to their audience hoping they will attract new customers or site traffic, but this seldom works well with social media.
Spend about 90 percent of your time providing valuable content and 10 percent promoting yourself. You can build more influence and trust with the value you provide your followers.
3. Develop a Plan and Time Your Content
Map out your approach to delivering content to your audience. Will you reach out and leverage influencers? Will you provide free material or samples? How will it be delivered? You may have products that are environmentally friendly. Will you moderate and lead a conversation about environmental issues? There are many creative ways to approach your audience. Be innovative.
Next, develop a timeline, preferably 12 months in advance, to identify events, promotions, or product launches that you are aware of. Now identify the content ideas you want to deliver that can supplement those events. It is like developing a media plan where you are timing your efforts so they are consistent and relevant to other events your business or customers participate in. You will find that it will be much easier to manage content creation efforts and allow you to plan ahead.
Now identify the social platforms you should use to deliver your content. Is Facebook the right platform for you? Is it a combination of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? If so, you should develop a mini plan for each site and how you will consistently use each tool to accomplish your goals and objectives. Be careful not to go after too many sites too quickly. Ensure you start with one or two sites at a time and develop them so they are solid before moving on to another social media site.
4. Develop Good Content
Develop the content you have outlined from your timeline. This timeline will help you know what order to start building your content. This is where you really need to understand your audience and your brand. You must be highly creative and much of what you say within social media channels should sound like your brand.
Optimize your content with targeted keywords. Armed with a solid keyword research report with relative categories, you should be able to derive some great ideas for relevant content that will resonate with your audience. This content can come in various forms. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
  • Promotions or offers
  • How to’s
  • Little known facts
  • White papers
  • Relevant statistics
  • Conduct Polls
  • Invite guest authors
  • Top 10 lists
  • Case studies
  • Guides to help educate
  • Interviews
  • Live events
  • News
  • Opinions
  • Photos
  • Gift ideas
5. Implement Your Plan
Now that you have a solid timeline and great content you are ready to post your content. Engage in the conversation and express your point of view. Remember to keep to your schedule and be constituent. Have the resources on hand to respond to comments and feedback so you can keep the conversation going. Remember, this is not a onetime activity but an ongoing one.
6. Measuring Success
As you know, the ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities is imperative to any company’s marketing strategy. Social media marketing isn’t as easy to measure as other online channels but it can be done. If you identified your success metrics then you’re already ahead of the game.
Depending on your success metrics you might look at content consumption.
  • Who’s reading your content?
  • Where are they coming from?
  • How much buzz are your articles generating?
  • Are you getting the required “Likes”?
  • Are the influencers onboard?
  • Are you keeping your audience engaged
Having a solid social media strategy can really help make a difference in the success of your campaigns. You will come off more polished and organized and viewed as being a real player in the social media space.
Read More
Vivek.r. 0Comments

Jan 12
9

A business called Internet users

Posted in Press Releases

With the total number of Internet users expected to cross 120 mn, the question is old or new, how are the Internet users driving businesses?

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Jan 12
9

Website blocked, cartoonist moves content to another host

Posted in Press Releases

NEW DELHI: When cartoonist Aseem Trivedi’s friends told him that his website could not be accessed anymore, he initially brushed it off as a connection issue. The 24-year-old Kanpur-based professional cartoonist was busy exhibiting his political cartoons in the anti-corruption protest at the MMRDA grounds in Mumbai.

It was only on Dec 27th, the next day, when he received an email from BigRock, the domain name registrar with which his website was registered, that he realized what was wrong. “We have received a complaint from Crime Branch, Mumbai against domain name ‘cartoonsagainstcorruption.com’ for displaying objectionable pictures and texts related to flag and emblem of India. Hence we have suspended the domain name and its associated services,” the mail read.

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Jan 12
9

What business opportunity will 30 million new internet users in 2012 really represent?

Posted in Press Releases

..By multiple estimates including reports published by BCG and McKinsey, India will reach somewhere in the vicinity of 250-350 million Internet users by 2015. I took a liberal interpolation of those estimates to arrive at a number of 30 million new users that we will add in the coming year. That’s a staggering number – and larger than the entire population of Australia if you like those kinds of comparisons. However, to truly deconstruct this number and get a sense for what the potential impact this will have for a business looking to leverage this user base, we need to look carefully not just at the users but also at the following ‘inverted iceberg’- where there is more than that meets the eye below the surface.

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Jan 12
9

10 Must-Have Elements for Your Company Website

Posted in Press Releases

A jazzy, flashing interface with lots of visuals and colors on a website are not sufficient to draw traffic, retain visitors, sell products, and build relationships. Here are ten things you must have on your website.

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Jan 12
9

Shashank Mehrotra on what business opportunity will 30 million new internet users in 2012 really represent?

Posted in Press Releases

As I started to reflect on this question, my first thought was to look at all the amazing trends that we have witnessed in the Indian internet landscape in 2011. Here are just a few for context. The total number of internet users crossed the 120 million mark; ecommerce is now in excess of Rs. 40,000 crores annually; the Indian Facebook population is touching the 40 million mark; there are 50 million mobile data subscribers; new companies and eco-systems are being created around cloud computing, online advertising, mobile applications, web infrastructure, online travel, and much more

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Jan 12
9

Campaign India Agency Report Card 2011: Ideas@Work

Posted in Press Releases

We’ve grown organically and brought in new business. Our recent campaigns for Rustomjee, BigRock and Gelusil have created quite a stir, and we are being invited into several new businesses. BigRock is on air right now and hovers between the 13th and 18th most-googled on the net in India (It is also the only brand in the ranking list). Vettel and Webber have also been doing an outstanding job for ideas@work, refer RedBull and the first Indian Grand Prix. Yeah, things are looking up.

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Jan 12
9

Got a Business? Get a website says BigRock’s new Ad campaign

Posted in Press Releases

BigRock has launched its new integrated advertising campaign in order to promote their new offer, with the tagline “Got a Business? Get a website” so as to drive home the message that every business needs a website. BigRock had earlier announced a Rs. 10 Cr. advertising budget for this year. BigRock ran a highly acclaimed TV campaign early this year, which won an Abby for its ad creatives and was recently nominated for Best Internet Business at the World Brand Congress.

Read More
Maclynn. OffComments

Next Page »