Coca Cola is about to dispatch a set of “happiness ambassadors” across the globe to find out what makes people happy! This project is called the ‘Expedition 206′ and the results should be a must watch for.
Coke has been one of the biggest adopters of social media and internet in general. The entire idea of culture and pop that goes with the soft drink company has been intact for a few decades now. This initiative should also see a lot of internet action. Lets see how this looks like post 2010.
Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind buying some online coke merchandise in the form of Beanbags or sling bags which are available only online (ebay). Does that really make me happy? I don’t really know!
I see a surge in traffic on this blog off late. Thank you all! God Bless!
Now, the deal is I would like to keep this blog as is. Not buying a domain and transferring it. Neither am I planning to do an email subscription to the blog.
…. …
The coolest way to keep in touch with a blogger is to have an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication feed). For this purpose you need to have something called an RSS reader. I use Google Reader. This works in a very similar way like your Gmail and all you need is a Gmail id to subscribe to this blog.
If you have read till here, get yourself an account on Google Reader and click on a button which says “Add subscription” and type in www.kiranspillai.wordpress.com.
Every time I post a new one, it appears on your Google Reader as a “feed”. If you like me, please do it!
I was having a conversation with an old school Fauji and suddenly this idea popped into my brain.
Any person in the online medium calls himself a word – marketeer, developer, designer, search engine optimizer etc. based on how they spend their time at their agencies / startups. And a lot of pro startup blogs and people keep throwing this idea of sporting different “hats” – the idea is to be a master of few and a jack of lot of trades. So, it would be better to call a true blue startup dude in a “multi-role” way.
You could be a 50% marketeer, 20% developer and a 30% designer – all in one. Meaning at a particular point in time, you are best at marketing (SEM, SEO, Biz Dev, Client Servicing etc.), not so good at design and yet attempt at making some and pull up your sleeves and open up the code and fuck around with the syntax – could range from changing your Div padding to hierarchy in C++.
A lot of Web comic writers and other bloggers dream of writing books one day and most have a couple of books running in the market. How do they market it though?
A Softer World has come out with a really powerful tool for that. They have a section called “Overqualified“. Here, they write letters to blue chip firms telling them precisely why they suck!
This is the wireframe of how they present each letter. I think this is one of the coolest wireframes I have seen. (And Amzon book link is called “The book” and About section is called “Joey”)
Overqualified wireframe
After reading a few articles you would feel like owning the book (if you are an American that is) and might Amazon it and buy it too. Very neat! Thumbs up
A lot of websites have given us the option to auto-complete queries, that we take it for granted. Now Gmail has come out with an auto-complete option and is blasting major websites like this about this option.
In “eye for detail” parameters for a website, auto-complete should have a very high importance IMO. People don’t like to type much and they are always short of time. Thank you Twitter!
This makes the need for search bar as a taken. What could be next?
My take is how can a bunch of people vote for a startup just like that. Or did Proto cater mostly to an academic crowd who do stunts for a bigger pay package. Or do we see a serious thrust towards entrepreneurship among students?
Keep an eye on the serial businesses that run these days. I would stick to my focus on the online field. Assume that it is natural to extrapolate this hypothesis into the offline (“mainline” if you would like to call it that way) field too.
For instance take a look at People Interactive, Info Edge and Consim Info.
The deal looks massive. Auto, Matrimony, Jobs, Real Estate etc. Reach is the holy idea here. The wants are plenty and so are the solutions.
Now how do they crack it?
Statuary Warning: I am not an expert. Yet I comment. Thank you BLOGS!!!
1. Listings – Get your listings out no matter what. Get the database of people who wish to get married in a year’s time. Get the list of people who would like to rent out or sell their houses. Get the list of people who wish to buy these houses or take them for rent. Get a list of the folks who wish to buy / sell a vehicle. Get a list of people who wish to hire / get hired. Get a list of this, get a list of that.
The common factor – listings. In bulk. The more the merrier.
2. Sales – Massive sales in the online and offline spaces. Should be reading this as SEM, PPC, Contextual advertising, Display ads, Social Media Optimization and sales personnel pursuing other people for the listings. Print, TV and other mainline forms of advertising is a must here. We are not targeting the power users here. It is more of an “Email + Job site + Matrimonial site” formula for the masses.
3. UI – Create a massive appeal UI. UI sells. The message on your homepage sells. You could have the best of listings, the most consistent and rigorous quality checks ever, the fastest servers and all that jazz. But if it does not look good, I am not interested!
4. Back end! Back end! – The listings which should throw up with the best of algorithms possible. Get your keywords done properly. I don’t want a flat throwing up in Kolkata when I search for a bungalow in Delhi (that would be the biggest of blunders).
Of all the three, UI is the only thing that is different! Six months max for the most killer UI and front end development can get you the target audience fixed on your site. Make sure you are smart enough with your social media monitoring and other online marketing techniques. Focus on your sales team too. YOu would need your presence out in the market. Fortunately or unfortunately, the “face of the company” concept still seems to hold value. (More about that later)
Get your teams done. One team would look at the listings. Jobs, Matrimony, Flats – all same. Only the approach and type of words used. Another team for the ASP / PHP coding, sales guys who speak similar languages at different places and a killer b-plan for your B!!!
Was making this funny effort of seeing whats kicking these days in the online space.
Quite a few funny things I should say. The ‘Entrpreneur bug’ seems to have bitten people all over the place. Top Execs from Google leaves to kick Google in its ass (Yeah please)! Coming out with Cuil was such a bitch. It sucks! Sucks like a bad man!
Education! That’s right.
Kerala Govt. is thinking of bombarding people with IIT and IISc material in Railway Stations.
“Oh, the bloody Kannur Express is late. Let me just check out the Fourier Transforms! “
“Damn Cool man! Quantum Physics is so much fun. Wait! Here comes my train”
On the other hand, all sorts of junta is trying to get our well deserving students to Americas and the Europes – GRE / GMAT / SAT wahtever. All of them – served hot! It is even getting some weird sort of “I love human beings (and hence need a lot of money” deal. Not bad! Not bad!
iPhone and 3G! Every Tom, Dick and Harry got some shit or the other tied up behind the iPhone. Man, I really need one? If not, will I die a meaningless death. Without the iPhone, where will my self respect be? God! Please bless me with the iPhone. Please! Please! DUH!!!
Search – all forms of them! Localised Search, voice based search, in your room search, on your face search, even cuil!
Social bookmarking.
“Yeah! they removed the dots from del.icio.us.”
“Check this out. Tags which gives out more details”
“Ha ha fucker! I got monetization, social media, facebook app and a new iPhone Beat that”
Well! Internet. The playground. Is some Avtar of Vishnu (kalki types) or some gonna come and clean up the place? Or maybe J.C. (part 2) – straight from the cross etc. etc.
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