The Ace Motivator

Being a new mother and a working professional is tough! And when one of your friend posts selfies of her recently acquired LEAN figure, thats the end of the world for you! You start resenting yourself for being overweight.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are a blessing in disguise for such people who may not be lazy but over-occupied in work that they do not even consider prioritising their health first.

Man is the only animal on Earth who is genetically designed to be conscious about his looks, status and other personality traits.

As the stone-age man transformed into the cement-age, he also became open and social.

Sharing and appreciating are the other new traits inculcated by the social networking sites. Only the difference is these traits are bound to be displayed among the mass audience.

If we go more deep and think positively, influence and inspiration are one of the many threads that connect the people through these social networks.

And for this, one need not be a celebrity, even common people like you and me, with a great insight can be the influencer.

More people you connect with, more content you come across.

If anyone decides to be fit and healthy this New Year’s and announces his resolution online, it becomes a wave motivating  every individual that reads it. And going forward, when that same person posts the selfies looking slim and lean, the same wave becomes stronger. Pictures speak more than the words!!

Talking more about the positive influence factor, when the subject of influence is closer to reality, the effect is immense.

During the process of selfies or for that matter any photograph, every individual tries to project an ideal image of himself or herself! For some it might be the new exotic location, for some a usual day at work, for others a pout might make all the difference. All these factors are mostly about external projections but a huge internal unending game of mind.

In this tryst of looking good and cool, people undoubtedly start picturing the comments and likes they will be receiving once they upload this picture on any social network.

And when one of them with same AGENDA of external projection exceeds, it inspires others to try more.

Social media has become the most influential platform in today’s era motivating hundreds and thousands. People are constantly tweeting, updating statuses, instagraming selfies, whatsapping! Sharing every minute detail of your life is the most happening trend among the regular users.

Many brands such as Myntra are catching this wave and are promoting their products by emphasising the importance of LIKES and COMMENTS through their tagline “LIVE FOR LIKES”.  Thus influencing the young guns to buy and share their purchase on the social channels.

The Facebook vanity URL has now gained an equal status to that of a website.

Book clubs, group discussions, knowledge exchange…all and everything can be done through the social media.

Virtual motivation and inspiration can be sought at a click of a button.

I do agree that excess of anything is bad but every individual has the liberty to define the optimum.

So folks what is that one thing you are planning to do but lack the motivation? I will suggest you to either Facebook or Twitter it. You will find thousands of motivators along with their experiences to get you going!

Thats all for now as I am off to my walk! Ofcourse my friend motivated me. 🙂

Social Media, mightier than a pen!

Do you have a query which you would like the concerned brand to answer?  Are you thinking about writing them (with a pen and paper) on their postal address?

Somebody like me or for that matter anyone who understands the power of social media will be judgemental about you and will term you as “a stranger in a Strange Land” 😛

With the world being abuzz about the digital media, the term “Write to us” is so passé. Gone are the days where your letter was ignored by the brand.

Thanks to social media, the reins are in the hands of the common people like you and me…..your voice won’t get unheard! Let’s see how –

Just a few days back my cell phone service provider Vodafone India barred my outgoing service without any notice. After calling their customer service departments from my husband’s cell incessantly, I could finally connect to one executive who unfortunately kept transferring my call to multiple departments. With no output in hand, I decided to take the plunge.

I tweeted my issue mentioning the service provider and within no time, I got a call from customer care executive that restored my services within 2 days!

That’s the power of social media……..!!!!

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With the emerging concept of Social Care – introduction of SOCIAL media as another medium for customer CARE, brands using the emergent platforms like Facebook and Twitter are making an effort to connect with each and every consumer.

With more and more brands building their presence on the HOT social media channels, they are bound to address the questions, reported satisfactions or complain from their consumers. Social media being open and vocal, they cannot afford to miss a single beat.

By widening the mediums for correspondence, brands – whether big or small, B2B or B2C are facing the real challenge to stay at par the consumer expectations which keep increasing with time.

Due to the fierce market competition, every brand tries to provide a seamless experience to its consumers leading to the overall rise of consumer expectations.

Strategies are implemented that communicate brand values and ideals. Brands are trying to listen to the consumer expectations, needs and requirements.

By creating a clear, comprehensive identity, brands try to ally the consumers with their values and ideals, thus trying to achieve the epitome of marketing!

Many of the leading companies such as Mahindra are launching campaigns (Mahindra Rise) seeking for new and innovative ideas from consumers to invent new products, services and possibilities. Others are coming up with solutions for problem areas. Besides these, brands always come up with free coupons, gift vouchers, discounts and offers to keep their consumers glued.

And if one fails, consumers are bound to bring it down with the help of vested power of social media.

Conclusion – more power to the consumers!

With the reins in the hand, I keep wondering are the consumers putting enough efforts to explore the power and make good for themselves as well as the society??

Are you speaking up for yourself? Are you loud enough to be heard among all the noise?

If not, add this into your To-do list for this New Years. Use your powers for good through social media and let your brand know what you feel.

And yes do share the experience with me….

Newsletters – A doorway to the treasure of knowledge.

Pregnancy is tough! Clogging of full spectrum of emotions – doubts, fear, and anxiety! It’s a hell of a ride. But all reduces to nothing when you hold your baby in your arms. That moment surpasses everything you went through.

Being a social media professional and an expecting mother, I always kept looking for answers to many stupid but mind wrecking questions online. And as soon as your family finds out they are having a baby, suggestions and advises start POURING and POUNDING in, making you confused, nervous and TIRED…yeah that’s the word!!!

Tips, precautions, milestones, symptoms, immunizations, medical tests, physical and mental well-being, maternity leave, birth plan…. phew!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Giving birth is hard!

I was saved and all the credit goes to BabyCenter LLC!

BabyCenter is an excellent example of a targeted pro-active Newsletter program. These newsletters are a fantastic resource that emails you at each and every milestone to help reassure, give you a ‘heads up’ on what is to come, and to answer your questions. From what your baby looks like at Week 16, to what to expect when he/she starts crawling, it is very informative and is a great example of a good, interactive newsletter.

Every user who subscribes, receives a tailor-made Newsletter as per her due date schedule and I feel that it’s an incredible way to keep an expecting mother on her toes and brace her up for a full throttle ride called Pregnancy!

Newsletter serves the most important tasks for a business which is to maintain contact with its customers. It is the most active way to target the customer based on his last visit/purchase or any inquiry done through the website, by directly landing up in his mailbox.

BabyCenter here grabbed the emotional thread of a pregnant woman who is always curious, confused and doubtful about her actions while carrying a baby. By sending a weekly newsletter giving a sneak peek of the developing baby inside her womb and answering all her stupid questions religiously, without asking, BabyCenter does create an everlasting bond with the mother.

With my constant rendezvous with BabyCenter Newsletters, I tried to figure out their secret to success –

1. To increase awareness – providing users with enough information and make them aware about your brand and its offerings. The information should be unique, exclusive and well presented compelling the user to navigate to your website to KNOW MORE!

exclusivity

 

2. Position your brand – Newsletter must create the best first impression about your business. Sharing the knowledge with the customers is the best way to position your brand as an expert in your domain.

To increase awareness, traffic

3. Educating the prospects – Every expecting mother passes through different phases during her pregnancy. It’s bliss to find out that you have the same symptoms in your 25th week as listed in the newsletter. A newsletter which provides customers with valuable information, assists them in making better decisions, demonstrates your expertise and guides the customers to navigate to the right page of the website to get more information is appreciated more.

to educate

4. Increase traffic to your website – Newsletter can drive traffic to your website or blog. Thus it provides another in-direct way of generating traffic to your website.

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5. Increase social media page visits – By placing the easy-to-notice social media links in your newsletter, traffic to your social media pages can be also increased.

Social MEdia links

6. To get more sales from a current client – A newsletter can be also utilized to let your existing clients know about your other services and guide them how they can benefit from those services, without being to “pushy”.

more sales frm current clients

7. To generate more referrals through word-of-mouth – If your customers are happy with your newsletters, they will definitely forward it to few of their friends and relatives. Also the ancient marketing tool “word-of-mouth” will definitely play its part in your success story.

8. Cut the sales process short – People who respond to the Newsletters are more informed and by far already convinced enough to buy your products/services in contrast to the people who contact you via advertising.

9. Using it as a Networking tool – Newsletter can be also utilized to conduct a survey, to request a review or permission to add them to your mailing list. Thus it can help nurture your leads.

Networking

10. Advertisements – Brands whose products are relevant to your content can be also showcased in your Newsletters. Thus creating another channel for revenue generation.

Ads

Being an avid reader and a loyal BabyCenter fan, I was in love with their newsletters.

Managing mass email campaigns with high converting rate is hard. Continue reading →

Selfies:  An exercise to enhance your personal brand

Selfie – A new phenomena, a trend sweeping the world. Popular across all ages.

The Wikipedia defines it as a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held camera. It is often linked with the social networking website such as Instagram.

This six letter word is a rage now. Zillions of selfies are uploaded, shared and circulated on social media channels every passing day. Being a social media professional, I come across this so much that it makes me wonder the reason for its popularity. What’s making it so infectious?

The answer was – love for self expression!!

Social media has provided people yet another way of expressing their moods, behaviors, small joys and sorrows in a visually appealing way. Instead of uploading a textual status update, millennial can simply upload a photograph depicting their current mood, add #selfie tag and share it on their social networking sites. A simple and more outgoing way to communicate!

The global appeal of selfies has come from its ease of creation and sharing. Also the kind of control they provide an individual over how he/she can self-photograph and present themselves. It is a means of communicating and connecting with others.

As I was researching for this blog, I also came across few self-explanatory tweets about selfies. Few of them are as follows –

Secret Formula: more #selfies, more #followers. PS: for girls only! 🙂

#Selfies are well and truly in

Low self esteem and #selfies is a dangerous combo.

So apparently #selfies are also a trend with the royal families

Speaking about the royals, Oscars this year was more known for Ellen’s selfie rather than the Red Carpet entries and awards buzz. This image spoke a lot about how one can easily enhance one’s personal brand and I feel Ellen made the best possible use of selfies for her brand.

Ellen's Selfie

Ellen’s Selfie

Personal branding is all about expressing your brand while maintaining the ‘person’ behind it.

Expressing your work, routine, moods, talent and personality through selfies will personify your brand and help the audience to relate to you in a more friendly and humane way. Instead of a formal photo with a professional photographer and sophisticated lenses, Selfies are raw! They give the audience a reality check making them trust you and be loyal to your brand. Without the professional angle, selfies portray authenticity and humbleness with a “within reach” feel about the brand thus adding more credibility and respect in the minds of audience towards the brand.

Another reason for the immense popularity of Ellen’s selfie is she portrayed to the whole world that her fame and the celebrity status doesn’t make her any less human. Just like any other individual even she is carried away by the selfie storm and loves taking selfies with her friends.

Exploring and analyzing oneself is what people love to do both on Social Media and in real life. Experiments add variety and newness to the life. The thought that you can create an online profile and project the real you is exciting. Selfies provide you the ability to do that.

Having a personal image, a brand online is the need of the hour. Leveraging or diminishing its potential lies in our hands.

Making the best use of selfies, by expressing your real self (lies, faking and frauds are so passé) one can definitely manage as well as enhance his or her own brand according to one’s reputation.

So tell me, are your Selfie crazy? How do you use those selfies to enhance your personal image? Do let me know your views in the comments below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 ways LinkedIn can help you gauge your Career Options in High-School

High school is all about teenage rebellion, prom nights, and first love, friendship and rival cliques.

It is also the time when students decide about their college or pursuing post secondary education.

Being a teenage mind with a maze of intense emotions, this young lot is constantly tuned with Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and all other casual social media channels.

But looking at the average time spent by a teenager on these channels makes me wonder what if they spend the same amount of time on LinkedIn building their professional profile???? (The idea seemed absurd at first but actually worth a thought!)

The high school goers have ample amount of leisure time at hand. By investing the same time on LinkedIn, they can think further ahead about their careers. Yes college actually prepares them to face the real world but high school too can be leveraged to have the biggest impact on their career success.

In the era of economic recession and increasing population, it’s all about the survival of the fittest at the end. Easy availability of social platforms like LinkedIn is the best way to prove you are fit, fully equipped and raring to go.

Here are the 10 ways to leverage LinkedIn that will help the high school folks carve a path towards career success by starting well ahead of time:

1. A LinkedIn profile is an Active Document rather than an online CV. Have a professional looking head and shoulders shot photo, ideally smiling with smart attire so that others will see you as an approachable individual.

2. Optimize your profile with your key information such as passions, interests, skills, hobbies, significant achievements. Use keywords that will highlight your skills and achievements. LinkedIn will be of great help if you are planning to convert your passion into your profession.

eg: Wildlife photography

3. The site also allows videos, blogs, images, presentations, links to your other social media profiles. You can easily upload your school level project information, presentations given and videos about various extracurricular activities you participated in.

4. Search for different Groups related to your field of choice and engage within them on a regular basis to get yourself noticed. Ask questions, participate in discussions, share your knowledge and project your expertise if possible.

5. Connect with professionals of similar interests and initiate talks, discuss about the passion you share and engage with them on regular basis. Learn about their experience and develop your skills accordingly.

6. Follow different Universities, Companies of your field of choice and connect with the employees working there. The employees can be Professors, Scientists, and Engineers etc. Share your subject knowledge and request them to guide you.

7. You can also look for Part time jobs at the universities or companies you follow. Investing in work experience will help you to develop basic work skills and occupational proficiencies such as soft skills, punctuality, effective communication techniques, respect towards fellow colleagues and supervisors etc.

8. Once you have the job, the experience and skills gained can be later highlighted in your profile.

After gaining a considerable amount of experience, the job will also enable you to gain recommendations and endorsement from your seniors and supervisors in the subject field you have worked in.

Another important benefit of having a part time job at high school or college level is it will help you in deciding to pursue the higher education and developing and investing in occupational skills such as certifications, degrees and relevant working knowledge etc.

9. Expand your network by inviting everyone you know to connect – send a tailor made connect message specifically highlighting the reason to connect with them by appreciating their skills and in-depth knowledge they have about the subject you love, to make yourself stand out among the rest.

10. Always keep a check on who has checked your profile. Connect with them if they are relevant.

Due to fierce competition, companies are increasingly seeking workers efficiently skilled in newly emerging fields. LinkedIn will not only streamline high school student’s career goals but will also help them keep a check about the demanding career field they can opt for. The choice of the subject major they make as an undergraduate will have wide impact on the career they can pursue after graduation.

What do you think? Do these tips make sense? Have you got any others to add? Please share your views and stories…

Social Media and its impact on your personality

 

In today’s fast paced era and with the advancements in the digital world, you are never alone!

By this I mean, social media never lets you feel lonely, aloof or disconnected. (True, unless you try and switch off your device. And should you do so, solitude would hit you just day before)

Growing use of various social media channels has influenced and impacted lives of billions and I’d promptly say, in a much better way.

Introverts have become more expressive on their social profiles. A sense of openness and freedom is instilled in the minds of the young as well as the old. As humans we need to and ought to express, what better way than pouring your heart out on an SNS (Social Networking Site). It’s a perfect stress buster in today’s times.

Posts, testimonials, likes, comments, tweets, wall, followers have virtually become the most used words in our lives.

For instance, how many days have y’all passed without checking your facebook profiles?? Or not followed your favorite person’s tweet??

The most popular trend  followed by one and all is discovering like-minded individuals with similar interests. This has led to friends, friendsss and more friendssssssss. Phew! Who says likes repel??? Social media is surely giving the laws of Physics a run for its money. People love to talk and discuss about their life, passion and interests. Remember those college days and the time spent in Cafeterias and Football grounds? Those never-ending chats and gossips cannot be ever forgotten. Social media provides you the similar feeling of being in the same cafeteria or ground with all your friends around, virtually.

A live personal commentary broadcasted every second is another trend people follow. Social Media has enabled people to share all the small things happening in their lives. Everyone adores the joy of sharing – happiness or sadness, doesn’t matter. People do say that the nuclear family system has made people egoistic and lonesome but I would say Social media has definitely opened the doors.

Another common trait which I admire is putting forward an opinion about the social causes. A lot of people do take the effort and post their feedbacks and opinions on their social profiles sending their views across the world loud and clear.

Yes democracy plays an important role in this but taking a step ahead and giving others a sneak peak of your thought process requires guts.

Yes it does have some cons but I feel Social Media has made every individual intelligent enough to decide whether to grow or to perish with it. After all said and done, there is a difference between a knife in a doctor’s hand and a criminal’s hand.

Oh I just realized that, while penning down all these thoughts of mine, I am already planning to promote this blog on all my social channels. Too much influence I guess! 😉

Folks, if you haven’t already, go social!!! And tell me how much influenced are you? Do you feel social media can help you grow? Do drop your comments below.