An extremely fragile week – at one end it was the ban on YouTube in Kashmir, a very cool app from Indian Railways for the common man and then end of the week we saw Bangalore Police creating a fabulous presence on Facebook. We also revealed Sony’s year long massive initiative on social media and brought you the latest Socialbakers report, ORM the Airtel way and the amazing content strategy on Idea’s Facebook page.
With that we came across some interesting articles that we have curated below for your weekend reading pleasure.
1. Indian government and social media: Priyanka writes about the Indian government and how the other politicians are using the medium effectively and trying to bridge the gap between their fans. Whether it be Narendra Modi or Mamata Banerjee or Shashi Tharoor every one out there is trying to connect with fans. Along with them, there are official departments like the various city traffic police officials who have set a great example. Wonder when can we see the PMO India using it in a similar way.
2. Instagram is two years old: Here’s to more food pictures: Instagram turned two years old recently and in this post, Hilonee writes about the growth story of the app. In these two years, the app has grown from time to time even though there are multiple other players in the same market. The billion dollar deal and how the Indian brands have shown interest in this popularly growing network which is a part of Facebook now. So be prepared to see more pictures of food, cats, dogs, etc.
3. Facebook contests- the ones where you don’t really want to participate: Palin pulls up a trend and shares his thoughts in this lovely crisp post. We all have seen the growing trend of contests like upload the photo and get likes from friends or quiz contests that you can play as long as you get them right. Contests should be easy but then for some free vouchers it’s really not worth the effort. Brands need to make the fan earn and provide cool gifts rather than make it easy and offer her gift vouchers.
4. How to design your platform for self- expression: Sangeet, a keen observer of different platforms in the market starts with sharing his thoughts on why would a user talk about a certain product. Sangeet also talks about the simplicity of platforms but then he discusses the downside of such social networks too. Towards the end, he explains how one should design for self-expression.
5. All about: Web-based video content: In this article at Campaign India, Gunjan finds out whether online video services are feasible in India or still ahead of their time. Media experts believe only freemium model will work in India for the lack of required bandwidth, HD content and user rejection of subscription models. However, it is interesting to note that 3G has enabled video communications on mobile with marketers showcasing their brands and engaging with users.
6. An open letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Rajesh via his blog post wishes the man who has managed to connect one billion people across the world. There is no doubt that the platform has made the world look smaller but in the quest of making it more open and sharing, the “promise of intimate conversations” is missing. Today fans have become a mass rather than individuals, risking the social network to be another platform of mass media. Interesting thoughts and along with Mark’s hunger for driving more revenue, a lot of marketers and agencies are to be blamed to a large extent. They have been feeding fans with content on a mass basis since they treat the platform as another mode of advertising. A trend that needs to change.
We hope that you enjoy our curated list for this week and do let us know if you would like to add some more articles to the list. You can always leave them as a comment or tweet us at @LHInsights.
Image courtesy: Instagram