Life without Facebook and Twitter... and Watsapp?

Continuing my thoughts on 'Grown Ups'... The internet has sort of taken over our world!

The whole aspect of 'Second Life' will change! It will probably become 'life'! I was actually thinking about the never-ending debate of how technology is taking over our lives! I know that being a marketing student, and specializing in Digital Marketing, I should be utmost thrilled about the fact that more and more people will be hooked to the platforms. But, somewhere inside, I myself want to know how my mom and dad spent their days! I mean when she was my age, she did not have a twitter or facebook! So how did she keep in touch with friends? Snail mail?

What did they do when they went out? How did they make plans to hangout? I really wish I could understand, but for the life of me, I can't imagine living without my phone, or the internet!

Then I remembered the challenge that Mashable brought out, to leave social media for 2 weeks, I was up for the challenge. Like Sam Laird, I want to see the other side! How was it before facebook and twitter came along! I know its only been a few years, but honestly, would you be up to the challenge?

No social media means no twitter, no blogging, no facebook or any other social networking website. It means you can at most read mails and news. You cannot do anything much! For me, personally, I will have to change the way I use the internet! At present, whatever content I come across, originates from some tweet or facebook post! If I am not allowed to do that, I will have to focus on other aspects of the Internet.

Coming round to the student side of me, that might be a good thing. It might just help if I know how people use the internet without facebook and twitter! My father for instance, spends all day online, but he doesn't have a Facebook or Twitter account! I guess I could do with a glimpse of his cyber-world!

Despite the noble intention, I'm going to have to put the challenge on hold!I have to think about the various projects I'm doing! I need to be online to promote them! I will most likely take up the challenge during my next break - in May.

A special campaign for NOAH

I have been trying to think of a special campaign for my 'buzz campaign'! Personally for me, NOAH has turned into more than just a buzz campaign. It is something that I have believed in for a long time, but was just not able to bring it to 'life'! Now that I am 2 weeks into the campaign, I have managed to bring about a 100 fans to the page! But now I need to think about ways to increase this number.

People may say that with time and through word-of-mouth the name will spread and people will realise the use of the campaign. However, I have decided that since I am learning digital marketing, I will use some of those techniques to build on NOAH as a brand! By New Year, the aim is to get 1000 fans on Facebook.

Think I can do it?

I am sure I can! Yesterday, I spent about an hour on the page, and got around 22 fans! Now I know that is not enough, but I think it's a start!

But just getting likes on the page is not enough. I need to push people to actually post stuff and interact with the page. Which to my joy is actually happening! There are new posts that are shared by those who like the page. This also means that through mere engagement, people will start spreading the word.

The idea behind NOAH is to build a non-commercial, non-regional network linking people worldwide but for a specific cause--helping animals. What better way to do this than use platforms that link people already--like Facebook and Twitter?

A Tweet is NOT Just a Status Update!

I have been thinking about the various things that people do with social media. Since I myself have started getting onto several social network sites, I realized the uses of each are different!

My biggest misconception is finally getting cleared! Twitter is not just about status updates. It is more about conversations and discussions. I know many people who read this might think, she just posted to days ago about 'Getting the Hang of Twitter', and now she says she has understood it?!

To be honest I knew the basics... Hashtags, using the '@' symbol, sending messages, etc. I just didn't know how to use it when I don't have any friends on twitter (on a personal basis)? I used to do it for the company I worked for (although for a short time).

So then I just shifted my focus, from only friends to friends plus work!

My earlier perception was that twitter is mostly used only by people who have a lot of friends (who are on twitter) and by film stars and journalists! Why? Because most of my friends were not on twitter! These perceptions have changed thanks to some friends from my Digital Marketing program. I also always believed that social networking should only be used to connect to friends. That has been put into perspective.

Social media sites may have started out aiming at connecting (or re-connecting) friends, but they have come a long way since. People now have personal and professional accounts or some simply use different media to communicate with different people.

Personally, I have started enjoying tweeting! The only part I still need to start liking in twitter is shortening the URL. Even though twitter is supposed to shorten URLs posted in tweets, I don't think it always does!

Where Am I Headed?!

Since yesterday, I have been trying to think about the top companies that I would like to work for. And the first thing to pop-up in my mind is... a blank! In our class about Career management, we were asked to list out the top 20 companies we want to work for.

Every time I would think about it, I drew a blank. Until a few minutes ago, I was in the same pathetic situation!

I just could not think about a company that I would die to work for. I have classmates who know exactly what they want, and where they want to go, and I have many friends who know what they want out of life, but to be honest, I couldn't pin-point any one company per-say!

I have heard time and again that if you work where your passion lies, then you will be able to excel regardless of anything else. So I decided to combine digital marketing with some things that I just love doing, such as:

1. Helping Animals (as always)
2. Travelling
3. Cooking
4. watching music videos/movies

I decided to fuse the thing I like most with digital marketing (specially social media marketing) to create my buzz campaign.

Though, thinking about it from a career point of view, I didn't think I wanted to merge my hobby and work life together.

I would love to work for companies that deal with travel (and maybe allow me to travel too). All the other options can probably be followed on a more personal level. Managing the Facebook or twitter account for companies in the travel sector is quite interesting. There is so much they can do using digital media! They have hardly tapped into the market.

Digital media is not just about setting up a twitter account or creating a Facebook page. The crux of social media lies in the interaction. Since I am fond of travelling, I have a good idea of what will attract a travellers attention using social media--and I know that no airlines or travel company uses social media to its full potential!

From here I began working my way up to where I want to work. Although I have still not ranked my preferences, I have a good idea about what I want to do. So the next time I walk into the 'Lifetime Career Management' class at Hult, I will have some idea of where I am headed.

Getting the Hang of Twitter

A few years back, when twitter hit India, I thought it was just another networking site--like Facebook and Orkut (Google's first attempt at social media). But then I joined it anyway. Why? Cause of all the hype created by the Bollywood stars, the news industry, etc. I realised that there are a lot of things that I can gather from twitter rather than anywhere else. But soon I lost interest in it. My account just stayed with some 20 odd followers, and with just 2-3 tweets from me!

Last year, I started using my twitter account to promote the twitter account for the company I worked in. Since I had part responsibility in maintaining my company's twitter account, I needed to learn about twitter. So I followed some companies/people talking about Social Media, only to realise that I really enjoyed tweeting (for my company). But personally, I never understood the use of twitter. I always thought it to be more of a corporate tool, for companies to make brief announcements!

When I decided to get into social media marketing, I knew I had to understand twitter in-depth! Sadly, I have still not got a hang of it. I am still quite clueless of how to increase twitter followers for just a regular person!

When you are a star or a company, you tend to get followers, whether you like it or not! but how do you get followers by tweeting about your daily life? Is anyone really interested in what I am doing personally (since I am not yet a big personality)?

I have always had my doubts. This being said, we have repeatedly been told in class that since we are in the field of digital marketing, we must be on all the channels out there! And I couldn't agree more...

So to change my way of doing things, and to get used to twitter, I have decided to use twitter regularly from now. My tweets at start may be quite ridiculous, but I'm sure I will get the hang of it soon! But till then, I will not post anything directly to my Facebook Account! Everything will happen via my twitter account.

So here goes At least a month (if not more) of no Facebook posts! Twitter twitter twitter...