Hey! Didn't I just log onto LinkedIn??

Birthdays,  wedding updates,
new born announcements,
quotes, inspirational stories, selfies,
whistles & wows for selfies,
political opinions & commentaries...

No, this is not just your standard fare on Facebook.

It's what one increasingly gets to see on LinkedIn as well.

Slowly, but surely,
LinkedIn seems to be morphing
into a  Facebook look-alike.

Switch now to Facebook. More than 95% of people I know have professional acquaintances, peers and colleagues also as 'Friends' on Facebook. The 'Friends' list runs anywhere between 400 to 1,000+. These are Facebook users between 25 and 45 years, who are happy to share personal updates, photographs and job-related announcements not just with friends, but also distant acquaintances, ex-colleagues, people perhaps they have never met in 3 to 5 years.

Question then:
If LinkedIn is the new Facebook;
and if Facebook socialising extends to  colleagues, ex-colleagues & acquaintances,
why have two different accounts?

Personally, I find it tiresome to see personal updates, selfies and marriage announcements on LinkedIn. (Anyone seen movie reviews yet?). 

However, the answers are not easy.

• How does one regulate content?
• While it is okay to have political leaders or those with strong political affiliations having LinkedIn accounts & publishing political updates, posts, commentaries and opinions - obviously all related to their 'profession', how can we stop political wars creeping into LinkedIn as well?
• If Twitter serves as a platform to discuss any topic and no dissonance there, why not on LinkedIn?

With everyone being everywhere,
can the walls of social media be
clearly demarcated?

May be in the next five years, there will emerge one social media platform with bright coloured buttons for different topics, groups of people and conversations. Power of One? 

That's what happened to the camera,
the DVD player, the digital diary,
the calendar, the PC,
the MP3 device and the alarm clock.

It's called the mobile phone now.

Thoughts?

2015 SHOWSTOPPERS!

2015 SHOWSTOPPERS OF INDIA

MOST OVER-USED WORD OF 2015

‘Iconic’
P.S: Nearly got usurped by “theatrics” in December

SOBRIQUET SUPER-STARS OF 2015

Modi-Toadies
AAP-tards
Congis
Sickulars
Bhakts

THE BRAND THAT GOT THE CHEEKIEST MILEAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Burns cream

MOST LOVED DIGITAL SOFTWARE OF 2015
Photo editing

BIGGEST COLLABORATION OF 2015
The Bihar Mahagatbandhan

SWEEP OF 2015
Delhi & Bihar Assembly elections

WHATTHEHELLWASTHAT OF 2015
Salman Khan’s acquittal

GLOBAL SHOWSTOPPERS OF 2015

BLUNDER OF 2015
Miss Universe is Miss Columbia err…it is Miss Philippines

LEADER OF 2015
Angela Merkel

RELIGION OF 2015
Humanity
(shown towards Chennai Rain victims and Syrian refugees)

What's life without Facebook?

Social Media - of the people, by the people, for the people...

Karthik Srinivasan, a fellow member on CMO Roundtable (on LinkedIn) wrote an interesting blog recently - 'How would you do an elevator pitch about social media to a cynic' - http://bit.ly/g1SVn1

Here's my 30-second elevator pitch (to the cynic & the uninitiated):

“Social Media – finally media of the people, by the people, for the people – a great leveller - empowering and enabling people to reach out, stay connected, establish a viewpoint, engage, communicate and share – instantly and easily.”

How would you do it?

In the age of social media, can marketing really own the brand?

In today’s cacophonic age of social media, the customer seems to have taken over the brand. Much like the South African Vuvuzelas, the voice (and noise?) of the customer on the Net is deafening.

Everyone has a say and the word spreads so fast (with Tweets, blogs, comments, photographs and videos) that the brand gets created, destroyed, worshipped and hated all at once.

• How can marketing play a consistent proactive brand management program to beat the lightning speed of the Voice on the Net?
• If ultimately customer experience is giving way to customer voice, how can marketing influence what’s being said and won’t it still be a reactive program?

Of LinkedIn Connections & Recommendations

I opened my LinkedIn account sometime in 2004 and it remained dormant for four years. Sometime in 2008, the noise around it was too loud to ignore so I started to use it more actively - updating my profile in bits and pieces. I still have only about 28 connections - nothing compared to the 300-500+ connections that some of my friends and colleagues boast of.

Why would you want to be connected to someone on LinkedIn when you share office space just a few feet away, meet and talk everyday? Okay, so it's not being connected with your colleague, but your colleague's network. But how do you connect with your connection's network when the connections are not open for viewing? Beats the law of networking guyz.

Then there are the recommendations on LinkedIn. Some (not all) of the stuff ranges from the amusing to the downright ludicrous. After some thinking, I arrived at a method to gauge the reality behind the recommendation. It's simple - look for all the things that have NOT been said in the recommendation and you'll have your answers.

Try it and let me know. Az