The Flush of Social Media

Humans by our very nature are addicted to storytelling. The trait is so much in our system that from a village chaupal, a beer tavern in US, a local train in Mumbai to the water cooler on Madison Avenue, everyone is involved in it. Take a topic in a group and by all means we shall have five people contributing 20 anecdotes in no time   complete with elaborate background settings, reasons and analysis.

These stories running along the grapevines used to run along the social hear-say at the speed of sound. In many occasions, it led to complete misinterpretations with disastrous consequences. For instance, a bank once ran out of ready cash under fear that it was going down and all the savings from its customers were going to be wiped out. The Ruskin Bond story named, ‘The boy who broke the bank’, has actually happened in reality; just a real world reminder what a powerful source is this giant web of a social network.

In today’s digital age, the influencing power of social media is unchallenged. These days an incident from an event can go online and even before the event is over, there might be public reactions and outcry already on its way. Things now spread at the speed of your internet connection and the web of social networks is vast and invisible in most cases. There is no need these days for a BBC to announce news; in most cases, the news is already out and a news channel is now merely reiterating what one might already know.

Apart from chain mails, RSS feeds and threads were once considered the hubs of social chains. Today, the ability for anyone to publish a blog, tweet, post on Facebook or YouTube and just share on a messenger app has created the viral effect to multiply and propagate This has become the very reason why brands have become more aware and careful while handling social media; one slip and the things can go haywire.

While most will agree there are both advantages and pitfalls for a brand to be present in the social domain, there is a new avenue coming up for brands with the advent of social media hubs. Websites like ScoopWhoop, Bayside Journal etc. are creating content which on any other day might have passed off as petty articles fit for a tabloid paper. But the fact that these people have gathered teams to generate the much liked content, it is now turning out to be rage on social media as the articles most people love so share within the circles.

This growing popularity has now created a new trend of branded content which can be termed as created for social media but in reality, a very strong brand oriented content. Say for instance; the site comes up with an article named “12 reasons I love online shopping”, it does have the desired stickiness for the audience to just go on and see if the so called reasons do apply for them. What most people spot at the bottom, is a link to an e-commerce portal with a special discount sale running on the day. Another example on the same lines, “10 things to do which you won’t regret in life”, and amidst the most enchanted desires to visit some places, having a hobby and spending time your way is a plug for a small monthly investment or an insurance which a bank is trying to push.

This is an art of contextual content which has its ends towards commercial use. I can say that far long ago, we had tried our hands at such content for aphrodisiac and contraceptives- both categories where a direct approach was not the most palatable. So what we got in was a funky blog named, “Pillow talk’ and “12 most intensely intimate scenes from Hindi movies”. The numbers in 2009 were just a few thousands, but in hind sight it was a first in our books. Yes, the commercial success might have been low and hence it was discontinued. A mistake on our parts- we did not use Facebook as a channel where the content was shared or reposted.

Today I see that content led marketing efforts have come of age and if there is anything to credit the success, it will be the strong penetration and proliferation of social media. People want to share links and information more than how they are feeling on a day- that’s a change on the user end. At the same time, if they do find attractive content which can resound with their life and ideas, they are more than happy to share. Brands have realized this and with RoI and tactical marketing reaching a new high; this new flush of social media users and well-crafted content for social media can define the next big thing. 

Wanna Date? Get the App!

Finding a partner- it might be the most primal instincts that keeps the human race still in touch with our evolutionary past. Nature possibly wrote this code with the idea of propagation of species; the human civilizations have refined it into a wonderful term named relationships. It is so true that we enjoy being with certain people, have feelings towards them (may be even as friends) and ultimately we assign them a unique place in our social ecosystem as long as it has an impact on our life. This is what I’ed say is my view of how we start and maintain our relations from an individual level.

The first level is usually the family where we are born, next is close and distant relatives. When it comes down to friends; we get them from school just by virtue of innocence- sitting on the same bench, sharing the same toffies, travelling in the same school bus or just nothing at all. As we graduate through school and college, we have a rolling account of friends and our first encounters with dating. But overall in most cases, dating is confined to people we know and to ones we are most influenced by in a group. In such cases, everyone knows everything about one another and where we don’t, we have a friend, acquaint or someone who knows this person in some or the other way and can help. The need to know something about someone is the amazing space which has given rise to social networks of today. (given if the movie Social Network is something to go by)

With the advent of internet in Indian households, chat rooms and messengers like ICQ were the first form of tools to enhance the social circles beyond the boundaries of the known people. But why do we have an inherent need to expand our social circles and get to know more people? The answer is pretty simple- what fun it is to answer an exam where you know every answer or play Prince of Persia with cheat codes. Dating is like being on a treasure hunt for the perfect match from a million around whom you do not know. It’s almost like taking command of the USS Enterprise and going boldly further than any man has gone before to know another person. In most cases, it also brings out a lot of self-awareness as you end up understanding more of yourself from an independent opinion from a person who only knows you as much as you can tell them.

The traditional dating forms like blind dating, speed dating etc. have been tried to a fair extent in India but little has actually caught on. I had heard of mobile led dating devices in some Asian countries but the recent explosion of smart phones in India has led to a large number of dating apps that have come in. Now honestly, I had only heard of Tinder and Bumble for some time and considering the fact that the online space had got creepy in a lot of ways, I was confident that this was just a passing phase. Not to mention, the final nail on Orkut did suggest that people has moved to Facebook and WhatsApp as a preferred choice. But recently I started hearing radio ads of some Indian dating apps gaining popularity. So I kind of decided to do some research.

On an overall I guess the apps have refined the art of internet enabled dating away from the weird friend requests we all get on Facebook (and the fraandsheep seekers on Orkut). Firstly, people are from within your geographical vicinities which eliminates you the chance of finding someone in Latvia, Ghana or Fiji. Also since the larger objective is for people to actually meet at some point, it is necessary that the geography is defined. It is also a great thing for people to just swipe around and take a call based on the first impression if it is worth exploring- there are no second chances and a reject is like permanent. I’m sure this gets rid of a lot of nuisance value and stalkers. The third is that you cannot make a profile on its own as they use Facebook as a reference platform for verification. So no more corny id’s like ‘waiting4u, 4uonly, hunkinslacks’ will every bother you.

While everything as an app might seem good with Tinder or an Indian one like Woo, there is and has always been an element of creepiness which is one obvious thing that floats around here. I mean when you name an app Thrill or Desi Crush; it somehow just doesn’t inspire that confidence to meet genuine and good people. But I guess this is the space where people have to change rather than apps and their filters. I do believe there will be people who will possibly mention their intent well and truly direct manner in their profile at some point. These apps are purely means to have more friends- just friends. Sadly this is something not very common in India for people of opposite genders to be just friends; our movies only preach a bunch of guys exclusively or girls exclusively who can sing a song on being friends. Also we love to promote the myth that friends turn life partners eventually.

In my view, more than anything, people have to understand what really is dating. In plain simple terms, dating (unlike flirting) is merely a casual interaction between two people who meet, talk about areas of mutual liking and possibly share things about their life. There is no space for any malicious intent or involved. Since there is no accord to meeting someone again, people usually do open up without the fear of being judged. Though this might not be a primary use of dating apps, I’m already hearing of people who are using Tinder as a business tool to meet people who might be from a particular field of work with a business proposition. And most certainly, a dating app is not a Shaadi.com app or some escort service in disguise.

In an era when I see more and more people involved in activities which actually disconnect them from one another, where the bonds in our social circles, time spent with friends away from work etc. are dropping to a new low, these apps can actually be a breeze of fresh air. A technology connecting people in real. 

Towards a Phony World

We all take pride in the fact that the world is shrinking; thanks to exponential improvement in technology and avenues to communicate. A 2010 movie named Udaan had a small joke about the state of telephony in India. A student being rusticated from a school has a small moment of ecstasy when the school master mentions about reporting matters to his father on phone- ‘You mean my house now has a phone line???’ I guess the joke shall fall flat today when India has more mobile phone connections than landlines.

While I have nothing against development or technology, I am coming to believe that technology is actually breaking the human bonds of the society by making us more and more impersonal. Today, almost all of us have a mobile phone, but the so called educated lot have given up calling and gone deeper into messaging. The charm of writing a hand written letter has now become something of a novelty (no wonder guys still try to impress girls by writing letters). I fail to recollect an ad I has seen some time back where there was a statement was, ‘technology today can tell you about what your distant cousin is doing in the US, but let aside mingling- we fail to even know or acknowledge our next door neighbours.’  The bottom line, Nokia may still say we connect people- but the human touch seems to be losing its grip.

Back in the days when I started working in GE Healthcare, the mobile phone became a need to connect with people towards getting solutions to field problems. In those day, my job role demanded me to be reachable round the clock for any emergency as a machine could go down at 7 in the morning or even 11 at night. With every breakdown having a rider attached of ‘human life at stake’, I was paranoid to a level where my phone had to be in the same room and as close to me each time I laid my head down. When I entered media, I got to learn that I was under a behavioural illness termed as Nomophobia.

Coined in 2010 in UK, Nomophobia (No-Mobile-Phobia) was a condition where a subject was living under a fear of losing mobile connectivity either by loss of the instrument, no network coverage, no credits or even the battery losing all juice. At that point, I remember there were stats like more than 70% people sleep with a phone at an arm’s length, 30% indulge in messaging during meetings, loss of a phone book record is more disturbing than losing a book etc. I cannot agree more that all this is happening. In fact, I had to take some forceful steps for myself like no phones during lunch/dinner, no phones when out with friends, phones on silent at night etc. to get me off this.

The next term that joined this list of new age phobias has been propelled by the increasing use of social media in recent times- FOMA (Fear Of Missing Out). It is not a stand-up joke anymore for people to visit Facebook or WhatsApp before the washroom after we getting up from bed or the finishing statement switching off the lights is hitting like on the last comment.  (http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Online_India_gripped_by_FOMO_.news?ID=33659)

Let me just shoot you some numbers from this survey by Tata Communications undertaken in India, Singapore, UK, US and Germany. (China would have been interesting as well). With the 9417 respondents across these countries, 29% of the total spent more than six hours daily on the internet; the number for India being the highest at 46%. Of the total respondents, 56% could not survive for more than 5 hours without internet. For 12 hours without the internet, the Asians collapsed while the rest has over 70% survival. 82% Indians showed signs of FOMA and the gender ratio for anxiety was skewed towards women. What’s more, 43% Indians were prepared to give up on TV for more time on their tablets and smart phones.

It is evidently clear- technology is taking over our world too rapidly and eroding all other forms of media and inter-personal communication. In an interaction with students in their late teens, newspapers had made way for news apps on phones. It was not uncommon to spot a few smiling as they looked down to their groin. I threw a fit when recently on a vacation to Goa, my friend spent more time looking into his phone while sitting on a beach. The habit is so common amongst people that beach side shacks advertise being WiFi enabled. It was there by a refreshing sight when one shack declared it was a place with no frills but perfect for family time and live 90’s style.

I fail to understand how people can participate in twitter battles while watching a Federer- Nadal match or contribute to an absurd poll about Dhoni’s haircut while watching IPL. It actually beats the human nature of reward oriented actions as at end of the day, your tweet was one of a million that day. What an amazing date it is when the girl and the guy are both more interested in clicking a selfie with each other and tagging where they went and missing out on enjoying each other’s company.  

I am certain the scenario has risen out of two key components- easy access to mobile internet and social media applications for phones which are actually destroying the physical and inter personal relations in the real human society. It is thereby not uncommon to see some people taking a sabbatical from social media networks from time to time; it is a kind of a self-imposed restrain (or detox) to avoid the complete annihilation of their physical social structure. I just hope this doesn’t mushroom into a clinical mode of treatment- the indicators do suggest: we are after all moving very close to a phony world. 

Trial by Social Media

We often have regarded the Jessica Lal murder case as one of the first instances of trail by media in India. If you have seen the movie, ‘No one killed Jessica’, the makers of the film have been completely unapologetic in showing that the murder case had lost its place in the news to larger events happening across. It wasn’t until a channel took it serious and took up the story in a manner exposing the ones involved that justice finally came through.

The pivot point here; a news channel- a part of the organised media had to be involved to take notice and act as a conduit to escalate matters and get people on to the streets to fight for justice. This process of waiting for a news channel or organised media to intervene has actually got bypassed to a fair extent today by the hyper-drive status of social media. Commoners use Facebook and WhatsApp and the popular ones have Twitter following to be applied to leverage social media to a very high extent.

TV channels like Bindaas, Channel V and MTV all today have at least one show where there have been some episodes on how people have used social media to speak out against powerful and influential people around them, report workplace abuse etc. Much like any tool, they also show cases where social media has also been abused to malign people or their reputation as an act of vengeance or to inflict social embarrassment.

If this is the case with individuals, how can corporate houses be left far behind.

Vishal Gondal is a name that found fame as the ‘King of Indian gaming’, thanks to the success of his venture, Indiagames in the late 2000’s. But this gaming wiz also has to his credit to be the man taking on Audi India in a case known to the auto world as the ‘Sleep-walking Audi Q7’. (http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-strategy/the-curious-case-of-vishal-gondals-sleepwalking-audi/)

Gondal had given his prized 65 lac worth luxury car for servicing and as typical of a gizmo freak, had the facility to track the same over GPS. The night before the delivery, he got a speeding alert from the GPS. The next few hours gave him the horror of seeing the car rally across the cities arterial roads and even land up in suspicious scrap yards of Kurla before getting back to the service centre. Gondal’s reflex action, the GPS track went onto Facebook and Twitter where he was blessed with loyal followers who were up in arms with what had happened. Every person who had service issues with any car manufacturer joined hands and the entire fraternity had to take notice. 

But Audi claimed the car never left the workshop and have termed the GPS tracker as defective. In the online war that followed, Audi tried to delete all hate posts on their page; but it simply added to public ire as the smart ones took screen grabs before being deleted. Even though the head of Audi in India spoke of taking action, nothing happened. To this day, Audi has not apologized for any wrong doings on part of their staff even at a cost where it has dented its reputation. A case where an apology and some make good could have cleared the air, still remains unsolved. The insult to injury, Gondal posted pics posing next to a Mini Cooper and handing over the advantage to Audi’s rivals, BMW.

Apart from denial of the truth, Audi faced a lot of flak on social media and also resulted in a loss of face and customers in the coming months. Lessons to be taken: if an apology works- just do it. And more importantly, never delete posts: people are most upset when this happens; especially with woes.

Today I have come across another brewing case: Neha Tomar (apparently a Gurgaon based lawyer) taking on Amul Milk. When a bag of Amul Gold milk went bad (sour) in the Tomar household, they tried to return it back to the vendor. The vendor refused and an attempt to make cheese from the sour milk took things from bad to worse- the curds turned into an elastic emulsion similar to melted mozzarella cheese.  Pictures of this were posted on Facebook on 10^th October with an appeal for caution and action against Amul. Sympathy vote: it has got over 77,000 shares. (https://www.facebook.com/neha.tomar.39/posts/10152355551565785)

Between 10^th to 14^th October, the Facebook page of Amul has been plastered with this post by various people who saw the Ms. Tomar’s post. Things reached a level that Ms. Tomar has even taken a petition to the Health Minister of India with a call for support for 500 names to pass the legal action. Amul in the meantime had been more of organising its stand but with no ill language or posts towards all this on Facebook.

Today afternoon, after four days of the first post and pictures appeared, Amul has come out with an official stand on Facebook which is both solid and scientific in its defence and openly exposing the flaws in Ms. Tomar’s claims. The milk was expired, some irregularities in the dates mentioned by Ms. Tomar in her post, a video to replicate how and why any kind of milk can turn into this lumpy elastic mass and finally; the behind the scene action taken by Amul officials to actively engage with the customer complaint. The most crucial part, disapproving of malicious intention and trying to reinstall the faith in the brand and its legacy of being built by farmers themselves. (https://www.facebook.com/amul.coop/posts/10152808817269446)

This is what separates Amul as a brand from the rest of the millions in India. A complaint was taken seriously, investigated and the reply was made in a solid and well researched. Sure the shares at present are slow (only 1500 odd so far), but the message is loud and clear: no attacks on the brand are taken lightly or left unattended. If the medium of the offensive was social media, it is the same medium employed to manage the damage and answer to the world.

In my opinion, this is amongst the best of the reputation management action on social media I have seen so far and unless there is any drastic change on stands soon- it will be etched as a live example for me to share for at least some time now.

Independence and Social Media

So for the 68^th time in the Indian history, the prime minister gave his customary address from the Red Fort in Delhi on occasion of the Independence Day. While most of it was like a ritual, what was a noticeable though was Modi bringing up aspects of social development through the most basic civil conduct. Actually, it was quite strange when he made it a point that we still lack basic civic sense when it comes to cleanliness and sanitation- the basic elements that build up a society. What can be disturbing though is the fact that we are at this stage when India is somewhere in between when it comes to being a developing and developed nation on this planet.

If looked upon in all of truth and honesty; the social structure we exist in today is one of vast ironies. Social structures move from an individual to a family to a community and finally a nation and aspects of cleanliness and sanitation actually exist at the initial steps of self and family. It is an individual who litters or ignores his garbage disposal; or an individual or family that first thinks about sanitation in and around the house. In most cases this is an issue which has not been addressed so far as we see filth and garbage all across- not to mention use of open spaces to defecate. I believe it was

What was surprising though was response of people on social media where Modi was applauded for not sheltering behind the bullet proof enclosure; but also getting critical of his lack of mention for women’s safety and gender rights or inflation while on the dais. But even if the move to curb down the freedom to litter and pee anywhere is like a rhetoric on moral responsibility of every citizen; Modi would not be averse to some comments on social media… in a big way; it is one reason the wave spread so rapid and won him the top post.

I’m sometimes amazed at what social media can throw up as a response to every move that happens across the world. It might be also one social aspect of today that India is not lagging behind in- Social Media. It is kind of funny how the fundamental rights of expression has found a way to open up by means of social media. Yes, however fundamental it might have been as a right, media has always been sceptic to carry anything that can be drawing them into any kind of controversy of draw a backlash from the people or the government. Believe it or not, social media has been a revelation or sorts.

May be not so refined and rapid as today, but pen friend networks, chain mails, topical chat rooms and SMS forwards were the first forms of social networks I have known. Then came Gtalk status messages before twitter and Facebook took over. Honestly all these are inexpensive modes as getting someone outing together words never needs big budgets. But an astonishing fact has been the rise and rise of YouTube communities which put up videos especially created for mass consumption on social media.

Today, YouTube is flooded with videos specially designed and produced for internet sharing and the number of such channels is on a high. Initially, there was The Viral Fever (TVF) and All India Bakchod (AIB) which I had subscribed. But soon there have been lots more like East India Comedy (EIC) and Being Indian which have all come up. What is significant is that initially, they were all platforms to mock people and politicians. The biggest advantage, there is little or no moderation on the content. So if you wish to pay your regards to mothers and sisters or explore the universe on the other end of Uranus, you can do so without bothering too much on how it portrays you.

But I would like to believe that within a short span, these channels have also realised that mocking alone is not likely to retain their audiences. So while they still maintain a quirky outlook towards what people and politicians do, they have also built a new perspective to voice the public opinion. In recent times, these channels have voiced the general opinion on the social outlook towards women, their safety, what people feel about censorship or just mock sex education in schools.

The fact that they find sponsors in e-retailers like SnapDeal also speaks that the brand really is not worried about any kind of backlash it can have based on the opinions expressed in the content or mocking of the country’s leadership. In fact, given that the audience is mostly the young and the impulse driven shoppers; it is smart business sense.

I would say this is a new level of Independence which has found its voice through Social media. It doesn’t matter if a certain channel or newspaper will hear your voice; you can do it yourself. If you talk for the moment- it is looking highly impactful. But as always; how it will remain so and how less it has adverse effects will only be decided by time and self-regulations people demonstrate in its use during the course. 

Face Booking

I have been recently reading a lot about facebook- especially as an online marketing tool. Well to make a marketing campaign successful, it needs to be targeted in the right target groups. Now that’s simple on facebook right- you have all the information you want from profiles.

It was not until my friend Gaurav Batla and I that we discussed insights into profiles on facebooks to take it serious. What’s below is a combine of what two eccentrics can churn out. Of course, Batla is okay if anyone wants to tag people with the archetypes defined and get us a PhD.

Mush Maniacs: Girls (sometimes guys too) who would put keep putting those 101 love quotes from the Internet mostly depressing. Point to note, relationship status: Single

I am glad you are there. You are the best thing happened to me…

Typically they will tell the whole world who their boyfriend/girlfriend is through all those, Mmmmmuah mmmmmuah, Awwws, Love u babyyyyys floating all through the wall.(Please Notice the Extra Alphabets in almost every word).


I am so glad I got a girlfriend (somehow managed): Another variant of the Mush Maniacs but with the couple profile pics.

These people will have 20 albums posing with girlfriend in Malls, Cars, Markets, Amusement parks, eating candy floss. (LSD style has not yet caught up here)

The profile pic will typically be a close up self clicked shot with camera phone held high showing the biggest achievement of his life being held from behind: has to- what if she runs away???

Note worthy- I used to think the “our song” concept was only a gimmick on Sitcoms. Nay, these people live on that stuff….

“Kaise batayein kyun tujhko chahe…” …. “Wow I was singing the same….”… “I love Atif’s voice...”… “Oh I was humming Kailash Kher…”


Desperate Dickheads: This usually are Guys who have never been able to lay their hand (both literally and figuratively) on a Gal and will keep copying Double Meaning Quotes from Internet to attract some attention (in any form good or bad) so that at least somebody notices.

Note worthy: 'I Hate Love' updates. ‘Love is for losers. I am better off being single. No Time for Love.’
Typical Fan Pages : Proud to be Single types.

I, Me, Myself: Typically this type of people are the one’s who took facebook to be a cousin of picasa or flicker. They will have more than 1000 photographs in 20 + albums whose titles are generally on the lines of Random Stuff, Just another Day Shopping, Me and My Friends, Cafe Coffee Day.

Typical trait: More than 100 profile pictures and 90 of them will be self clicked with a camera phone; occasionally with another friend in the frame.


Everyone else is a loser: Slightly different from the 'I-Me-Myself' type. They are more like Rebels without a cause; Objection My lord; I know it all dude…

Typically they will never 'like' any update but always try to find flaws in whatever is written. Try this- next day you post a diametrically opposite update, and I bet that person will find some counter argument there too.

More often than not, they will never post something themselves but will just comment on every single update from others'.

Super Stalkers: This is one true wonder category. They will not have a single status update in the past 3 years. No games, No activity, Do Nothing at all and the best- They will not even have a profile picture.

Generally they are single and not go out on a weekend. Their pleasure tour….log on early morning and will only browse through your updates (or pictures if you are a girl).

These people will know exactly what is going on in your life. They might not know which company you are working for but they will surely know how many girlfriends you have had in the past 3 years or anything you bought in the last one month or even what you did last summer…


Application Specialists: NO... Absolutely NO updates- apart from games and other facebook applications. Farmville, Mafia Wars, Café World is their ecosystem. Fortune cookies, daily horoscopes, stupid quizzes on their friends, daily dates and crushes are their daily routine.

Very rare that they will comment on anybody's status or what’s happening around. They will have only two albums in the profile. One called Profile pictures; rest will be pictures coming through applications.

Typical Profile will have a stiff competition between Friends list and Application list. Most friends will also be the one’s who gift sheep, send a hit man, share secret recipe etc.

Sports Freaks: The Status Messages are filled with the latest score updates: from EPL to IPL. F1 to International Kabaddi World Cup. The word 'God' appears almost every fortnight.

These docile people will appear more aggressive than some Somali Warlord when on facebook. Frequently Used Words : Hail, Kick Ass, Woo Hooo, F*ck you , God, Dada Rocks

The 'TGIF' kinds: Typically they will only update two times a week. One on friday evening saying 'Yiiipppppie the weekend is here' and then sunday Evening saying 'Damn.. Why does the weekend run away so quickly'.

Considering most of them do nothing besides sleeping and watching TV over the weekend, they somehow are as excited as a child in a toy shop on Friday.

Oh yes…. Sometimes, there could be a Saturday update saying 'Bored to Death'…

My life is an Open Facebook: Not every autobiography is worth a read- But this type is the kind which feels facebook status is a megaphone on which they need to shout about everything they are doing as others survive on that fodder. Prime objective is to grab attention

Occasionally, they like to broadcast personal messages to one person or look for community sympathy- basically do everything in their power to grab attention

Typical status: Having dinner, sleeping, bored, And you please don’t call me, I am upset, Nobody loves me 

Most often, you will find some nosey people do asking what was for dinner or who is upset for what…


This has become just too big for a blog I guess...