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After Garnering 41, 623 Followers On Twitter PMO Joins Facebook

by Paul Joseph February 8, 2012 Featured

With a recent stint at Twitter going well, the Indian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is considering signing up for an account on Facebook.  Stared just 2 weeks back, PMO’s Twitter account @PMOIndia , as of writing this, has already garnered 41, 623 Followers! Why the sudden shift of attitude?   Indian Youth seems to engulfed by the virtual world . Social web can & will be an effective platform for getting your ideas across & in case of Politics, it will help in “Canvasing”. The Government may not be new to the power of Internet to deliver services & remunerations effectively, but Social interaction is still at its nascent stage. While it is already at the forefront of using technology like finger-print & retina scans to keep a tab on population & even solving heinous crimes, simple interaction with such a huge population was hereto limited to one-way communication through Television, radio or print. How does PMO want to utilize the Facebook account? The team handling such accounts intends to better address people’s queries & use the channel  to leverage it as a meaningful & interactive communication tool. Further down the line, these accounts could even be used to offer financial help to those in distress through the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (PMRF)! At present, the alleged Prime Minister’s account is being run by fans & has very few followers. Let’s see how well does the Facebook account does in comparison to the Twitter account. Have our readers started following the PMO’s Twitter account ? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Tagged as: facebook, features, india, manmohan singh, news, pmo, prime-minister, twitter, web

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Facebook Finally Acknowledges That It Faces Competition: But Who Has Better Advantage Of Them All?

by Paul Joseph February 3, 2012 Featured

Facebook is ready to make history with the biggest ever IPO in American history. Interestingly, while filing the paperwork with the SEC, Facebook acknowledged some other tech heavyweights as its competitors. And who are these competitors? Google, Microsoft and Twitter . Nothing surprising. Facebook clearly has an advantage over these other companies in terms of social networking. While filing with SEC, Facebook released the following statement: “We face significant competition in almost every aspect of our business, including from companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, which offer a variety of Internet products, services, content, and online advertising offerings, as well as from mobile companies and smaller Internet companies that offer products and services that may compete with specific Facebook features.” As expected, Facebook singled out Google as it main competitor. “We compete broadly with Google’s social networking offerings, including Google+ , which it has integrated with certain products, including search and Android”. It also said that some its rivals have significantly better resources and dominating positions in certain markets when compared to Facebook. They are obviously talking about Google here. “Certain competitors, including Google, could use strong or dominant positions in one or more markets to gain competitive advantage against us in areas where we operate including: by integrating competing social networking platforms or features into products they control such as search engines, web browsers, or mobile device operating systems; by making acquisitions; or by making access to Facebook more difficult. As a result, our competitors may acquire and engage users at the expense of the growth or engagement of our user base, which may negatively affect our business and financial results.” Facebook is also monitoring start-ups and upcoming social networks that happen to provide the same offerings as Facebook. This includes Social start-ups like Path and Pinterest . Facebook is also looking at local social networks in countries like India, China, Japan and Korea. How Microsoft would be listed as a competitor is still not clear. Facebook faces competition from traditional media and online media businesses in terms of Ad-serving platforms and Ad budgets. Well, that is a lot of competition but then Facebook is that huge a company. We are waiting anxiously for this IPO to unfold. We will keep you updated. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Facebook Earns 23% More On Impressions That Last Year Team Anna Campaign Scores The Top Place On Twitter’s Trendlist Recap 2010 : Social Networking Yahoo Axes About 600 Jobs! Nokia To Follow Suit? Mobile Advertising On A High

Tagged as: advertising, facebook, facebook ipo, international, news, path, pinterest, social-media, web

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Facebook To File $5 Billion IPO: The Biggest In US History

by Paul Joseph February 2, 2012 Featured

It is IPO time in Techland once again. Facebook, the world’s biggest social networking service is finally going to file its IPO soon. This IPO has been discussed to no end since the rumors came out some 2-3 months ago. The facts are finally here. The company has planned to file a $5 billion initial public offering. This happened yesterday when the company handed over the necessary paperwork to regulators. It has selected financial majors Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and JP Morgan to manage the huge IPO. Morgan Stanley will be in a pivotal role in the management of this IPO. Let us put that IPO sum in perspective. Google filed an IPO worth $1.4 billion in 2004. Groupon raised $750 million and got a valuation of $13 billion dollars which was half of the expected valuation. Zynga performed miserably in its IPO filing in this December but still managed to raise $1 billion and get a valuation of $7 billion which was way lesser than the expected $20 billion . Here, you see a trend where all these IPO’s are seemingly steep in expectations and that too when the economy is in a bad place. Investor trust in Tech companies is not very strong these days and this effects the valuation of most major Tech companies. But will Facebook be different? It all depends. Considering the IPO history of the previously mentioned companies, Facebook might not reach $100 billion mark so easily. But then again, it just might consider how everyone seems to go gaga over it. The $5 billion amount is just a preliminary target and this will increase depending on investor demand in the coming months. Nonetheless, this marks the biggest ever US market debut in history and this is a company started by a college kid in his dorm-room. Let us see where this goes.. What are your thoughts on Facebook’s IPO? Do let us know. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Groupon Raises The Biggest IPO Since Google Facebook, Groupon’s Valuations Go Up, Up And Away!! Will Women Drive The Future Of The Internet? Recap 2010 : Social Networking Yahoo! Adds Daily Deals, Rich Search Assist and Zynga’s Games To Messenger

Tagged as: $5 billion ipo, facebook, financial results, funding, groupon, international, ipo, ipo filing, news, startups, zynga

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Twitter Moves Towards Content Curation

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

Why is Twitter insanely popular? That is because it is the perfect tool to send out byte sized opinions and news. It’s micro-blogging nature, the presence of Celebrities and even Politicians are the biggest things going for it as a social communications platform. As last year came to a close it was the star when it came to generating buzz , but the real question is, ‘Is Twitter looking at a new direction?’The first indication of this comes from the Twitter 3.0 design that they pushed out last year. The design was awesome and was consistent even on its mobile apps. They added ‘Home, ‘Connect’ and ‘Discover’ tabs to the interface and let go of the old ones like ‘re-tweets and mentions’. Twitter doesn’t want people using third-party clients either. Here, the ‘Discover tab’ is of some significance. When you click on it it you are treated to a very visual kind of summary of the days trending topics. Here’s an example: Now look at the latest startup that Twitter has acquired recently. Looking at the way things are organized, it looks like Twitter acquired it just for the sole purpose of integrating their technology into the Discover tab. Twitter is now addressing the fundamental problem with Social Networks, ‘Information Overload’! With Facebook and its Open Graph protocol letting loose  hundreds of social apps on the service, there is a real problem of content curation and aggregation. We have written about this before and how it will ultimately damage Social media. Summify is Twitter’s key. The service accesses the most relevant content and arranges it in a clean and neat manner. Basically, it cancels out the noise that is generated by large scale sharing of multiple content. Summify will stop its service and will be  directly integrated into Twitter. Expect something awesome to show up on Twitter in a few months! Content and Curation on Social Media and the Internet have always been kind of a challenge. The floodgates of information are already collapsing and it is a problem right now when you  want to look at the best and relevant articles and content. Google+ and Facebook have some sort of noise controls but Twitter, sadly lacks this. There are whole new wave of startups which are founded on the basis of ‘clearing the crap’ and discovering awesome content e.g Pinterest , Flipboard , Summify, Google Currents . What are your views on Content Curation in today’s world? Share them with us. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Special Feature: Facebook, Twitter & Firefox Requests Google Not To Be Evil Will Google+ Act As A Facebook Killer? Facebook Is -1 While Google Makes A Jump By +1 Google+ A Challenge To Facebook Networking Google Tweaks Social Search And Bing Bar Gets Facebook Integration

Tagged as: content curation, facebook, features, international, mobile, news, summify, technology, twitter, web

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Exploitation Of Trust; A Major Worry For FaceBook. To Fight SPAM With Law!

by Paul Joseph January 27, 2012 Featured

Been seeing a lot of links to obscene or vulgar videos supposedly posted by your friends on Facebook & felt they were SPAM? Well Yes they are & Facebook along with Washington DC are trying to win this battle against such “Spammers”. Adscend Media LLC is at the receiving end of a law-suite filed jointly by Facebook as well the state of Washington. The law-suite is filed to obtain an injunction to prevent the company from spreading Spam links through “ misleading and deceptive tactics and has encouraged others to do the same ” said Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna. Why post such videos / content? Well, the concept of SPAM is simple. Elicit a response from a Victim. Furthermore, if the content “Appears” to be posted by a friend / acquaintance, then the chances that the victim will click on the content increase exponentially! This model of posting links on Facebook promising shocking or salacious videos, is called as “ClickJacking”. Such links have code embedded in them that spreads the link to the user’s page. Once clicked the link redirects the Victim to a survey or information from an advertiser. As Social Networking is close to a modern revolution & people valuing it more than money ! it is makes spreading  spam, scams and viruses that much easier. Trust, is the weapon used here. Mail appearing Junk is immediately marked as Spam, but “links” from a friend is a different story! With over 800 Million users on Facebook, it’s a treasure trove for spammers / hackers. India , on the other hand is trying to bite the hand & not eradicate the actual offenders! However, India should listen to what McKenna said, “ As spammers adjust their tactics, we adjust ours ”. Let’s hope Facebook & Washington win the case for the benefit of us, its users. Have you mistakenly clicked such links? What was your experience? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Facebook Looks to Stop the Spam Special Feature: Facebook, Twitter & Firefox Requests Google Not To Be Evil Indian Brands Cozy Up To Facebook For Air Time: Better Late Than Never? Fake Threats To Shutdown Facebook Emerge On The Internet Google Could Score A Cool $ 5.8 Billion From Mobiles Alone. Time To Shift Focus?

Tagged as: advertising, advertisment, facebook, lawsuite, news, rob mckenna, spam, web

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Special Feature: Facebook, Twitter & Firefox Requests Google Not To Be Evil

by Paul Joseph January 25, 2012 Featured

Google is the top Internet Company in the world today. Its search capabilities are massive and its services are deeply entrenched in the daily deeds and tasks of the modern Internet user. A single change in the algorithm of search engine can send many businesses packing! It has a lot of power but people love Google because it doesn’t act evil. Well, companies like Facebook and Twitter don’t think so. They are calling Google’s new addition to search, ‘Search, plus your world’ a big mistake and an unfair trade practice. First, let’s get down to what Google’s ‘ Search, Plus your world ’ (SPYW) is. As we mentioned before, it is a social plug-in into the search algorithm which throws up results personalized to you. They have added Google+ support to it and you might see ‘relevant’ results from the fledgling new social network. Here’s how Google looks at this addition. Not looking evil, eh? Facebook and gang are claiming that this Google+ addition is indeed really dangerous for the open web. Since everyone searches on Google, you will get only Google+ profile and news results thus effectively blocking out rival social networking information. Twitter has already opposed this earlier. They have now founded a website where they are going to educate people on why this new search is wrong. The website is named, ‘ Focus on the user ’ and has information about how SPYW throws up irrelevant results. Here is a snapshot showing the difference between normal search and the new Social search. They also have a video walk-through which gives more information about their findings and intent. This is very interesting stuff when you look at how much grey area there is in this whole issue. Google’s search engine is a proprietary technology from Google. It was built as a service to discover the web which then gave rise to SEO as a field. Google has diversified since then and has gotten onto many things like mobile, videos, email etc. all the while getting its revenue from advertising on its search engine. Now doesn’t Google get an opportunity to leverage its infrastructure to promote their own products? Of course, it doesn’t sound right but then again it is not illegal either. Google might face some anti-trust issues with their new feature but we don’t think it is all that bad. Facebook and Twitter do not really have search capacities like Google but then they don’t need to. Their users can search within the service itself. What we do not understand is why would Facebook, Twitter and Firefox look at Google search like a social service and take it for granted. It is a Google product. Google sought out to renew the Twitter real-time search plug-in contract and Twitter cancelled it. Now it is kinda stupid of them to accuse Google of unfairness. The question can be asked in reverse. Does Facebook show Google or Google+ ads/results for free? We don’t think so. Well, Google does show Facebook results but it cannot get deep because their API’s are not open. Same thing with Twitter. We agree to that fact that information on the web should be free but Google+ linking with Google search is a smart move which will help the user search for content and people with ease. The real thing that people and these companies are ignoring is that the ‘SPYW’ filter can switched off with a single button. If you don’t want it, you can simply shut it off and search the normal way. Do you think Google’s SPYW is evil? Do let us know. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Google Tweaks Social Search And Bing Bar Gets Facebook Integration Will Google+ Act As A Facebook Killer? Facebook Is -1 While Google Makes A Jump By +1 Google+ A Challenge To Facebook Networking Google +1 Button For Websites Has Arrived

Tagged as: facebook, Featured, firefox, international, news, personalized search, search, seo, social-search, twitter, web

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Indian Brands Cozy Up To Facebook For Air Time: Better Late Than Never?

by Paul Joseph January 25, 2012 Featured

Indian Companies are catching up to their global brethren on Facebook, albeit in the form of promoted stories that appear in your timeline. These sponsored stories , though, have yet to be adopted widely in India since globally it is a grey area that is currently being frowned upon. However, companies who already have a Social Media presence are keenly interested to see who jumps the gun & promotes their brands & products on Facebook . Guess, being a copy-cat in the advertising world extends well beyond the traditional advertising media. Some of the early adopters like Jet Airways, have crossed the 30,000 Fans milestone on their Facebook page & are anxiously awaiting this added opportunity to further their brand as “ Over 80 per cent of Jet Airways’ marketing spends are in the digital space and social media share is substantial, ” revealed a company spokesperson. Incidentally, the airline is active on Twitter YouTube & others since 2010. However, merely garnering more “Likes” & “Fans”, the brands will not be able to convert people into customers. They will be required to actively engage them. In our opinion, though these thinly veiled advertisements are in a way, obtrusive , they serve constant updates about the brands people actually love & crave. Companies like PepsiCo have proven that engaging audience can work wonders with their “Change The Game” Ad campaign which ran during the World Cup 2011. The ad campaign captured the minds & imaginations of audiences with ad being watched 19 Million times! Rivals Coca Cola have a more structured approach. They believe, “ Content and Messaging has to spread equally into four parts – Paid, Owned, Earned and Shared media ”. It will be interesting to see how these sponsored stories impact the Indian Audience who is hooked on to the Social Networking scene. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Fake Threats To Shutdown Facebook Emerge On The Internet 21 Internet Firms V/S Indian Government In Latest Legal Wrangle Facebook Earns 23% More On Impressions That Last Year Facebook Ad’s Are No Longer ‘Sponsored’, Now ‘Featured’ Stories In Your News Feed High Court Seeks Delhi Police Reply On Plea By Facebook & Google: Needless Complication?

Tagged as: advertising, coca cola, facebook, Featured, features, jet, mindshift, news, pepsi, web, zafar rais

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Fake Threats To Shutdown Facebook Emerge On The Internet

by Paul Joseph January 25, 2012 Featured

Anonymous are known for DDOS attacks on government and organizational websites. They stand for the protection of anonymity and other online rights on the web. They attack those who they perceive as deniers of these rights. Anonymous is not an organization. Instead it is a loose collective with no leaders and hence cannot be tracked easily. They have recently taken down the US Department of justice website in retaliation for the closure of Megaupload.com by the FBI. Earlier, they hacked CBS and Universal Music’s websites. They have also attacked Indian Governmental websites. This sort of online activism in called ‘ Hactivism ’. So, today news started coming in when Mashable declared that Anonymous has threatened to shut Facebook down on January 28th as part of a global blackout to protest SOPA and PIPA. There is a video doing the rounds on the Internet which is supposedly the one that announced this blackout. The video tells us in trademark anonymous style that an online war has begun between the people and the United States government. While it mentions that SOPA/PIPA may have been postponed, it states that this does not guarantee anything. Hence, they will be attacking Facebook on the January 28th at 12.00 am. The video progresses explaining how the users could take Facebook down using some simple procedures. The video accepts that Facebook has 60,000 servers but contends that it would still be possible to take it down if enough people participated in the blackout. Firstly, we were a little confused over why Anonymous would target Facebook. When it comes to SOPA and PIPA, Anonymous and Facebook are on the same side. Apparently, it seemed Zuckerberg had not voiced his protest against SOPA/PIPA fast enough. But it still didn’t make sense so, we did some research and found out that this threat has not been issued by Anonymous at all. Again we must say that we will not attack #Facebook ! Again the mass media lie. — AnonOps (@anonops) January 23, 2012 We remember that such a threat was issued earlier regarding a Facebook attack in November but that turned out to be fake. After looking at Anon’s website and Twitter feed, we can confirm that this threat is a fake. Why would Anonymous hijack free modes of communication to protest against the censorship of the Internet?  What are your thoughts on online activism? Share your views with us in the comments. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Why #WikiLeaks Is Trending On The Web But Not On Twitter 21 Internet Firms V/S Indian Government In Latest Legal Wrangle Facebook Earns 23% More On Impressions That Last Year Facebook Ad’s Are No Longer ‘Sponsored’, Now ‘Featured’ Stories In Your News Feed High Court Seeks Delhi Police Reply On Plea By Facebook & Google: Needless Complication?

Tagged as: anonymous, ddos, facebook, Featured, hacktivism, megaupload.com, news, web, zuckerberg

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21 Internet Firms V/S Indian Government In Latest Legal Wrangle

by Paul Joseph January 19, 2012 Featured

In a world that seems bent on increased state control and censorship, the World Wide Web is the last vestige of freedom for many. It has helped entire countries rebel against unjust rules and has shrunk the world into one global market. The reason for it being so effective is that there is equality on the internet. Anyone and everyone can make their voice heard. Certain elements have misuses this privilege and governments of some countries have tried to clamp down on the entire internet in retaliation. China is known for its widespread internet censorship, that has alienated the hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet Users from the world. USA is contemplating the SOPA aka Stop Online Piracy Act. Back home, even the Indian Government is determined to try and establish a way of censoring online content. A total of 21 Internet companies, 9 Indian and 12 headed overseas, have been named in this infamous case for failing to block offensive online content on their websites. In an effort to crack down on offensive content being posted on the internet via public forums like Facebook, the Government is ready to take legal action. Google has given a strong reply  as to why censoring content will not be possible and goes against the principles of the Internet. Both Google and Facebook have petitioned the court to dismiss the case. It all started when a Delhi-based weekly, Akbari, alleged that online material has the potential to incite religious and communal conflict.  He filed a case saying the same saying they should be prosecuted for criminal offenses like outraging religious feelings. In a report filed in the courts, the ministry said ,” The sanctioning authority has personally gone through the entire records and the materials produced, and after considering and examining the same, he is satisfied that there is sufficient material to proceed against the accused. The documents and contents therein are in the nature to instigate enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth… and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony .” On March 13th this year, representatives from all 21 websites will have to appear in court. Once Kapil Sibal’s Ministry passes a sanction, the Delhi Police will be allowed to prosecute the firms. We think the Government fails to understand how the internet works, if they honestly think censoring mediums like Facebook and Twitter is possible.  What do you think? Will the Government relent or will they allow the Delhi Police to proceed with the case? Do let us know in the comments below. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Recap 2010 : Social Networking Google Zeitgeist 2010 Is Here – What Did India Search For? The ‘Free’ and ‘Fare’ Internet! Shopping Spree : Google buys Episodic, Facebook Takes Over Divvyshot WATBlog Picks: International Websites to Watch Out For in 2008

Tagged as: 21 companies, events, facebook, international, web, youtube

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Facebook Earns 23% More On Impressions That Last Year

by Paul Joseph January 18, 2012 Featured

Facebook is more profitable than ever now. We have written about how it may have even surpassed online retail giant Amazon this year in terms of profit. How did they do it? Facebook is free and it will always be according to the website. The answer is ‘ingenious use of handling advertising on the site’ .  Facebook has almost 900 million people using its service. A Global brand might will feel delirious when it realizes that Facebook has brought their entire TG to them. Facebook has started paying more attention to mobile because it recognizes that more and more people use Facebook on the go. Advertising on the mobile space a literally an ad buyers delight . They have also started incentivizing advertisers by introducing CPC campaigns which cost some 29% less. Digital agency TBG Digital has compiled a study which shows how Facebook has a robust potential for monetization. You can view the report here . The study analyzed over 326 billion ad impressions run by 266 of their clients in some 205 countries . The study shows how the agency used Facebook’s Sponsored Stories to get a 46% higher click through rate (CTR) on their ad campaigns. Facebook thus earns more money while still providing a low cost per click.  Sponsored Stories have now changed to featured stories in your News feed. Q4 in 2011 was a good one for Facebook as CPM rates increased on a average of 8% from the previous quarter in major countries like US, UK, Canada, France and Germany. The Worldwide CTR increased by 7% in Q4 and 18% for the whole of 2011 . Holiday season ads are pretty expensive on the social network and if you do not want to expressly target the holiday audience, the study suggests that you pause your campaigns during that time. This shows that marketers and advertisers are slowing gaming the ad platform given by Facebook. The study also reveals that ads pointing to your site rather are more expensive than those pointing to your Facebook page. The difference is somewhere around 29% and that is a substantial amount. The ads specifically asking you to ‘like’ their page cost even lesser. This incentive by Facebook is provided so that people are not redirected out of the social network due to an ad. this gives one more advantage to Facebook – showing the user more ads thus making ad campaigns cost less and still making them profitable to Facebook. Facebook does not really face any stiff competition yet but Twitter and Google might just get people to advertise with them by being aggressive. The increase in monetization is also favorable to the company since it needs to justify its $100 billion IPO . Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Social Media Advertising Revenue To Reach $8.3 Bn In 2015: BIA/Kelsey Social Networks Adversely Impacting Online Ad Prices : ComScore Study New Developments at Facebook – A Change in the Social Media Marketing Scenario Facebook Ad’s Are No Longer ‘Sponsored’, Now ‘Featured’ Stories In Your News Feed Business Espionage Gets Easier With Facebook, Twitter: Can It Be Curbed Though?

Tagged as: advertising, facebook, facebook ads, Featured, financial results, mobile, news, social-media, technology, web

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