Hire Me! Creative Infographic Resume of a Social Media Professional

Sachin is God- An Ode To The Best Batsman In The World

Remember when you failed an examination. How many people recall that, your class, friends, relatives? You failed to make it to the IITs or IIMs. Who remembers. How many times have you had the feeling of being the best in your class, school , university, state….., you failed to get a visa stamped this quarter…, you missed a promotion this year…, how did it feel when you dad told you in your early twenties that you are good for nothing…..and now your boss tell you the same…

You keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize you, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry when your own kin scoffs at you. You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really?

Now here’s a man standing on the third man boundary in the last over of a world cup match. The bowler just has to bowl sensibly to win this game. What the man at the boundary sees is 4 rank bad bowls bowled without any sense of focus, planning or regret. India loses, yet again in those circumstances when he has done just about everything right.

He does not cry. Does not show any emotion. Just keeps his head down and leaves the field. He has seen these failures for 22 years now. And not just his class, relatives, friends but the whole world has seen these failures. We are too immature to even imagine what goes on in that mind and heart of his. That’s why I would never want to be Sachin.

True, he has single handedly lifted to moods of this entire nation umpteen number of times. He has been an inspiration to rise above our mediocrity. Nobody who has ever lifted the willow even comes close to this man’s genius. His dedication and metal strength is unparallel. This is specially for those people who would have made fun of him again last night when India lost saying that whenever he plays India loses. They are people who are mediocre in their own lives. Who just scoff at others to create cheap fun. Who have lived in a small hole throughout their lives and thought they have seen the oceans.

Think about the man himself. He is 37 years of age. He has been playing almost non stop for 22 years. The way he was running and diving around the field last night would have put 22 year olds to shame. The way he played the best opening quickies in the world was breathtaking. He just keeps getting better which is by the way humanly impossible. Its not for nothing that people call him GOD.

But still I don’t want to be in those shoes. We struggle in keeping our monotonous lives straight, lives which affect a limited number of people. Imagine what would be the magnitude of the inner struggle for him, pain both mental and physical, tears that have frozen with time, knees and ankles and every other joint in the body that is either bandaged or needs to be attended to every night, eyes that don’t sleep before a big game, bats that have scored 99 international tons and still see expectations from a billion people.

And he just converts those expectations into reality. We watch in awe, feel privileged.

Well I think its time that his team realizes that enough is enough. They have an obligation, not towards their country alone but towards sachin. They need to win this one for him. Stay assured that he himself will still deliver and leave no stone unturned to make sure India wins this cup.

This is not just a game, and he is not just a sportsman. Its much more than this. Words fail here…..

— HARSHA BHOGLE

Those Were the Best Days of My Life

Yes, the title says it all and it is not that difficult to predict what time and which people i am referring to. Its the time of my life i had with my Friends. Actually i wouldn’t call them Friends, they were, they are and they always will be MY LIFE. Its 12 o’clock in the night and i just cannot think anything but them. I miss them everyday, i miss all the fun we had. Right from those crazy and weird meet-ups, everything was so random that time but then everything was just so perfect too. Believe me, i had never been so wasted in my life and got Friends who i will cherish forever.

Some things are still fresh in my mind, like:

• The day when it was raining heavily, Manit, Kavisha and I traveled in trains and walked on water clogged roads to reach suburbs to meet friends and have a great time with them
• The night when we all met at Lokhandwala Mocha, surprising Mansi, Tanvi and Kavisha. They were not expecting us to come to meet them all the way from town, which Manit and I apparently did
• The time we had at Lonavala where we lay bets and people lost the Taj Mahal, India’s Express Highways, Indians Railways, Wall of China, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, etc, etc.
• The night when most of us were sloshed and didn’t know what the heck was going on. This was in Daman where everyone just woke up to something new
• The 15 Day trip to South India. I don’t think i should actually describe how much we killed it there.. All i want to say is “I never wanted the trip to end”
• The Epic Times at the great “Prithvi Cafe” where the only thing we used to do is “To Chill”
• All the crazy nights at clubs- drinking and dancing to the tunes together
• Those mad times sitting on the footpaths and talking random shit and singing songs to all the glory

There is so much to say and express which i haven’t till now. But now i am. I LOVE YOU ALL..

Social Media in India: Statistics & Insights

Recently I made a presentation on Social Media Marketing Trends in India 2010 – 2011 and the same inspired me to look out for how exactly is social media impacting India and what are the current trends that are evolving in the Indian social media space.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook and Orkut are the top two social networks in India. The interesting element is that most of the social networking activities happen between 6 pm and 10 pm. In other words, Indian online users aren’t using social media during work hours (which is usually an assumed fact). It is a simple but key insight that will significantly boost any social media marketing campaign’s ROI.

Here is a list of top Indian Social Networks:

Top 5 Social Network in India

Some worthwhile Statistics to look at:

• 60% of the social networking traffic come from Non Metro-Cities but the highest traffic generating city still remains to be a Metro i.e. Mumbai
• The highest number of active users are from the 15-24 age group but LinkedIn has a different age group of active users i.e. 25-34 age-group
• The male-female ratio shows consistency with the overall population break-up by gender i.e. 80:20 in favor of males
• Social media in India reaches out to 60 per cent of the online Indian audience
• Facebook and Orkut, together cater to about 90 per cent of the users in the social media space.
• Facebook is the only social network in India that has witnessed a tremendous growth, almost doubling its users in the last 6 months.
• Highest number of active social media audience in India are in the age group of 15-24 and are graduates who are looking for a Job or planning further studies
• The maximum users come from the ‘less than 2 lakhs p.a.’ income category. This is because social networks are primarily driven by the youth
• More than 45% of the users on Social Networks return during the day. Facebook tops the list with users re-visiting more than 3 times during a day
• Majority of the time spent by the Indian audience on Facebook is on Interactive Games/Applications and then on viewing Photos

Now that you have gotten a better understanding of the Indian social media landscape, I believe you’re better equip to reach your target audience. After all, conversations is the key when it comes to social media marketing (I’m assuming that your have a great product). Feel free to post your questions about the Indian market under the comments section below. I’ll answer them within my best ability.

Cross posted from Penn-Olson

Social Media is NOT a One Night Stand

The following presentation talks about some Rules that one must follow in order to get it RIGHT in the first place. This presentation will certainly enlighten your thoughts on the use of  Social Media Marketing Space  for the Marketing Communication Needs for your Brand/Product

I am Spiritual but an Atheist too

Some months ago, I had this conversation with one distant friend of mine. He asked me – “Why do you mention that you are an atheist if you are spiritual and in a way believe in God.” I could never explain him as to why I am like that as he would never understand my way of looking at things. So why am i talking about it now? The question is always on being Spiritual but not connecting with God. And I clearly feel the need to answer this one.

A Spiritually Atheist Person? It’s very strange because people think spirituality has to mean a belief in a God. People come and ask me if I believe in God? Idol Worship? Religion? and so on. And there is always a smile on my face because I believe in God and but I don’t believe in Idol Worship, Fasting, Visiting a Temple everyday or even Praying for that matter.

Confused?

I was also a little confused until in realized that God for me was only and only Happiness. Anything and everything in this world that makes me happy is God for me. My ideology deals more into believing in Happiness that connects me to God and not God that will eventually connect me to Happiness. From a smile on my Mother’s Face to a Witty smirk by a friend, everything that pleases me is God for me. I always believed that small things in life make a big difference. Like a good conversation with a close friend, satisfaction of work well done or may be something as simple as A Walk on the Beach, a Game of Football, A chilled out Movie on a Weekend, Beer with Friends….Certainly, this is God for me..

I quite like and admire the preaching of Lord Buddha as he was a spiritual being and Mind You! He never expressed a belief in a God. He even discouraged his followers from such “speculation,” preferring that they work on their salvation in this world. I am reading on the religion and will post up stuff as i explore more.

Until then I am a firm believer of a religion called Happiness and God to me is a Smile on a Face

Social Media Marketing Trends in India 2010 – 2011

The following Presentation talks about the Social Media Marketing Trends in India for the Year 2010 and also outlines some Social Media Predictions for the Year 2011.