Where is Arunachal? Google’s contribution to global politics

“They see him here, they seem him there, the French seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven, is he in hell, the elsusive scarlett pimpernel.”

Recently Arucnachal Pradesh has been courting a lot of political speak from both sides of the Indo China border, with both countries claiming stake to different parts of the border as their own. The border controversy had gained so much of political heat that when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Chinese Premiere Wen  Jiabao in Thailand on Saturday, it was said that one of the major reasons for this meeting was to ease border tensions between these two countries, though South Block has made an official statement that Arunachal was not discussed in this meeting.

However while New Delhi and Beijing are indulging in their little trysts of Public Diplomacy, Google has been practising a different brand of “PD” in this whole controversy.

In August this year they got into heavy controversy  when Google India maps showed parts of Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese language and parts of  Arunachal’s southern boundary with Assam and northern boundary with China in broken lines, while the state’s eastern and western boundaries with Bhutan and Myanmar were shown in continuous white lines.

Following the uproar from the media over this, Google India made a public apology and clarified its position, but that was 2 months ago. Things have changed from then. In what I can only describe as a desperate bid to keep everyone happy,  Google is showing different maps to Indians and Chinese. The Chinese version shows Arunachal Pradesh inside China’s borders while Indian version shows it inside India.

And if two versions were not enough to confuse us all who dare to search using Google maps,   there is third version – i.e. the global version (http://maps.google.com/) which shows Arunachal Pradesh as a disputed territory!

This, as Google says is in accordance with disputed territory’s political position for the country – Google follows same standard for J&K as well.

So while the Indians and the Chinese bicker over a piece of land Google is having to put all its public diplomacy skills to the fore to “map” the Arunachal Crisis. Shall we call this  “Mapping  Diplomacy” ?

Same land - Two Versions...Google's take on Arunachal

Twitterverse-Neil Gaiman Crowdsources a novel using twitter

Booker prize-winning author Ben Okri (@benokri) posted a poem via Twitter ; historical crime novelist RN Morris (@rnmorris) has been tweeting 140-character chunks from his novel A Gentle Axe since March;  and in August, historical novelist Philippa Gregory began a series of tweets in the voice of Elizabeth Woodville (@elizwoodville), heroine of her latest novel The White Queen.

To cut a long story short, authors have been testing the waters of Twitter for a while now! But recently the BBC  came up with a grand experiment. Roping in NYT bestseller Neil Gaiman to crowdsource a novel, it coducted an experiment which lasted 8 days with fans posting follow-ups  on Twitter, which is now being converted into an audiobook . You can read the transcript of this experiment here.

Neil Gaiman

The experiment started with Neil posting ” Sam was brushing her hair when the girl in the mirror put down the hairbrush, smiled & said, “We don’t love you anymore.” (Posted by Neil Gaiman, @neilhimself)” on his twitter channel which has nearly half a million followers!

The 1,000-tweet tale was concluded on October 22, with BBC hailing the feat as a “rollicking, epic fairytale, set in a fantasy world, with an endearing coming-of-age story at its heart”.

Gaiman’s latest children’s novel The Graveyard Book has picked up a trio of major US awards and is shortlisted for the Booktrust teenage prize.

@Indian authors: Twitter history beckons you. Anyone up for tweeting the Ramayan or the Mahabharata?

Neil Gaiman's Twitter Page

Tom’s profile on Myspace- This one’s hilarious!

Remember Tom Anderson? Everyone’s friend on Myspace the moment you signed up. Well from the time, Tom was asked to stop coming to work for Myspace and take $ 500K per year for just doing that, life for Tom has been all about making the occasional status update on Myspace and be well… “out of news”.

But in the world of social media turf wars, there can be the occasional skirmish and the latest has been  a fake Facebook  profile of Tom on Facebook created by Geek Culture. Though fake, this one takes the cake for its  originality, astute observations on the differences between Facebook and Myspace and imaginary conversations between, Tom, Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch!

Tom Anderson's Facebook Profile ?

Just to find out more about this I nosed around a bit on Facebook and stumbled across 4 Facebook profiles for Tom Anderson, with one of them claiming to be the real Tom.

Now i would leave it to you to make your own decision on whether this is the real Tom. Meanwhile for all of us-  Will the Real Tom Anderson ( on Facebook) Please Stand Up?

Is this the begining of the end of Myspace?

The original king of Social Networking, Myspace.com seems to be in troubled waters, but the signs were already there. According to numbers released by web analytics firm Compete.com MySpace’s U.S. traffic dropped from 55.6 million unique visitors in August to 50.2 million in September. It has nearly shed off 20% of its U.S. traffic since June and lost a little over a million U.S. visitors between June and July, but more than 4 million between July and August and over 5 million between last month and this month.

Comepetes tarffic rank of Myspace: Freefall?

What is further worrisome is that change in leadership has not yet produced results. So even though it is among the top social networks in the world today, if some major changes are not implemented NOW to attract the people back, Myspace would lose relevance in the realm of social media.

Alexa's traffic report on Myspace

But then that is what makes the web so exciting. According to me, it just isn’t a place for monopoly and if you cannot keep pace with the million innovations happening everday and implement the ones that matter, any site will go down the hill after the initial hype phase. This has happened right from the very beginning. Stickyness is social media’s biggest problem. Myspace failed to reinvent itself with time.

Personally i will not be surprised if i see Facebook and Twitter head the same way in 5 years. But certain things have changed now. People have learnt from others mistakes. Social media brands today are investing enormous time on remaining relevant and adding new features that can keep the audience coming back. But even with that, it would be difficult to believe that the near future does not hold anything which is more interesting than Facebook, more dynamic than Twitter etc. Maybe social media itself will become less relevant. Time will tell.

As for Myspace , i think its time to head to the drawing board and start again. Music is their strongest forte and they need to clearly think about how they are going to position themselves. How they can be different from the others. That way they will always have a steady list of people with them to feed the traffic. And they need to listen.Listen carefully to what people are saying.Not just about them. But just in general, so that they know what people are looking for.

Myspace rank across countries

“Fiesta Movement” spurs Ford to up marketing spends on digital/social media by 25 per-cent!

It is a social media movement which according to auto major Ford has created 11 million social networking impressions; five million engagements on social networks (people sharing and receiving); 11,000 videos ; 15,000 Tweets (not including re-tweets), 13,000 photos and over  one million real-world miles by the 100 participants who drove the car.

Titled the “Fiesta Movement”, this was Ford’s Social Media expert Scott Monty’s inspirational idea , prior to launching Ford’s Fiesta model in the US market. The program began in 2008, 18 months before the cars were actually supposwatch?v=c2FMtig4QGIed to arrive in the US market. Ford gave 100 European Fiestas to people to drive and live with. The results of the blogging, Facebooking, Youtubing and Tweeting by those people, plus the echoing of those messages by the blogosphere, followers, etc. has now created a case study of sorts in social media marketing strategies.

So after 18 months of user generated content through a process of sampling, Ford is gearing up on strategising the Fiesta’s traditional media buying/ advertising spends in the US. A huge eye opener to how the consumer is slowly changing the barometers of marketing.

The Fiesta Movement will end in November, after which Ford will start to ramp up a pre-launch and then launch media campaign, which will include actual TV, print, outdoor, etc

Once again this definitely shows Ford to be among the MNcs who have understood the value of social media and have changed strategy to leverage it.

It’s also ironic, because even in countries like India, the Fiesta has been on road for ages and has done decently well in terms of sales. In India at least  Ford went for a traditional ad campaign.  But given the race for domination in the category of small cars, it would be great to see a strategy like this being implemented for the Indian market. Maybe for a car like the Reva, which is supposed to come out with brand new  family version  4 seater eco-friendly car in 2010 or maybe a Maruti for their next model?

To get an idea of what Ford is exactly doing in the realm of social media, this link gives a fair idea.

The acid test however, would be to see how well Fiesta does in the US market after all this. If it cashes in, I guess we have a new fad, which other auto giants will also try to follow by tweaking it here and there.

But that has not deterred Ford from actually committing to spend 25 per-cent of their marketing spends on social media marketing initiatives for the next year. This is what , Ford’s chief marketing executive James Farley said speaking at J.D. Power’s Internet Marketing Roundtable in Las Vegas.

And the real clincher accroding to Farley: “If you are trying to communicate, as we are, that you have been reinventing the company , you can’t just say it. You have to get the people to say it to each other.”

Amen to that!

The all new Ford Fiesta

Shah Rukh Khan to act in a film on Facebook?

As if the incessant media reports on Facebook werent enough, now we have

Shah Rukh Khan

even got Bollywood climbing on to it. King “Shah Rukh”  Khan is supposedly all set to produce and act in a Bollywood movie based on the popular social networking site. Of course like all Bollywood movies , this will obviously have an “Indian connection” and is reportedly based on TV and radio personality Roshan Abbas’ play “Graffiti-Post card from School” – a play which deals with the problems of teens and adoloscents. Now how this plot is going to be connected with the making of Facebook is anyone’s guess, but I guess Red Chillies ( Shah Rukh’s production company) has got that already figured out. However according to the Morani brothers, talks are still on and so I dare say, we will be hearing a bit more on this movie in the coming months.

Of course this is not the only cinematic dream that Facebook is fueling. Maverick director David Fincher, has got the green light from Columbia pictures, to direct “The Social Network”,  a true story based on the founding of Facebook. Actor Jesse Eisenberg is reported to be playing the lead role of Mark Zuckerberg on silver screen.

The film is based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, and tells the story of Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg, the founders of Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg

Accidental Billionaires

Auschwitz page on Facebook up again- authorities say” technical snag”

And just like it went down,the Auschwitz Facebook page is back again. Since it was first conceptualised 2 days ago, this particular page has had a lot of curosity and hype around it. Add to it a sudden disappearance and a whole lot of specualtion around what made the museum authorities pull the Facebook page down  and this had all the ingredients of a good human interest story. A particularly juicy one for anyone interested in social media at least.

So when the page was back again with an official statement from the museum authorities claiming technical snags to be the problem for which it had to be taken down, you could almost see the disbeliefing smile spreading across bloggerworld. But with it was a bening smile of understanding. Social Media can be tricky for those who want to control information and moderate communication.

The guidelines on the auschwitz Faceook page

But as of now its good news. Such an attempt on Facebook can really help in spreading the story of Auschwitz among people of today’s generation who have only heard about the holocaust. So from the museum authorities it is a laudable attempt. Also the fresh content is a welcome sign in disseminating information in a new way to a web savvy youth populace. I personally found the interview with  Marian Kołodziej, a Polish scenographer and former prisoner of Auschwitz, particularly captivating and moving as I surfed through the page.

The use of social networks ( like Facebook)is a logical one, since the idea of organisations dedicated to memorialisting the Holocaust is to reach out to as many people as possible.  For now it would be great to see how the museum authorities maximise the power of  social media and drive home the key objecvtivity of spreading awareness.

Next up. Anyone up for Auschwitz Tweets?

The Auschwitz Page on Facebook ( back after a technical snag)

Happy Diwali Facebook Style

Someone back in Silicon valley California, is doing a smart job. Given that Facebook does not have a dedicated team in India, it is amazing to see how they are using cultural and social events to build their user base in India.  Not surprising given that the brand has grown over 150 per-cent in India in the last one year.

So what is the latest innovation? A Facebook app which lets you create a private group just for the occasion of Diwali, where you can post your diwali pictures, diwali stories and tag your friends whom you met for Diwali.

Pretty neat huh!

The viral potential of such an app is enormous given the enormous popularity of this Indian festival across diaspora. And it’s heartening to see that sitting in California, Zuckerberg’s men  investing the time to study cultures and creating little innovations to connect with them. This is classic example of how to localize a global brand in a seamless manner.

So while today we get ready to light the diyas and burst those crackers and click those frozen moments for posterity, here’s wishing you all a happy diwali “facebook style”

Facebook's user-tagging’ feature in the status updates for wishing friends and family members on Diwali

The Facebook app on Diwali

Auschwitz downs shutter on its Facebook page

It was launched just like that. It gained a record 2000 fans in just 2 days. And just like that, inexplicably, it shut shop today. I am talking about Auschwitz’s Facebook Page. Launched by the Polish Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum a couple of days ago, it was taken down today without explanation. Last known status update as of today morning as per fellow “twitterers”  is as such:

“65 years ago (on Oct 15, 1944) the number of female prisoners at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau was 34317.”

The now non-existent Auschwitz page on Facebook

The Auschwitz museum, set up in 1947 as the official memorial to the camp in which more than 1 million people died, has been active on the internet for more than 10 years and opening a Facebook page might have seemed like a wonderful way to stay in touch with today’s web savvy, twitter happy, youth, but as of now we are all in the dark regarding why exactly this page was pulled down in just 2 days.

For the two days that it was operational,  the Auschwitz Facebook page was more of an interactive extension of the museum’s website with the  status field being used to recall important historical events.

While am sure that the museum authorities will release an official statement explaining why exactly the page was pulled down, for now the Facebook frenzied youth will have to do without the Facebook version of Auschwitz.

Googling around for more info on this I came across this wonderful story on The Guardian on the same.

The Gates of Auschwitz

Airtel ties up with twitter: Sound business acumen or error in judgement?

The new ad on Airtel with Shah Rukh Khan, drives a bold statement. A statement that this is one of the largest mobile networks of the world with 110 million users. This in a country where mobile phone subscriptions are supposed to cross 500 million by next year. It does not take Einstein or Rocket Science to figure out that Bharti Airtel is growing. And it is a matter of pride for every Indian.

So when the news of Airtel tying up exclusively with Twitter came across through a friendly tweet, the excitement was definitely high and  I could barely contain my curiosity to find out more, given that Twitter has been gaining cult following in India following the Mumbai terror attacks. Here was a cellular network tying up for the first time in India with Twitter, giving Indians the freedom to tweet and receive tweets right from their mobile phones.

As I surfed through Airtel’s newly constructed Twitter web page I read more about the terms of this value added service ( VAS). It’s simple. Airtel will launch tweetSMS, a third-party application  that will enable you to receive Twitter SMS updates charged at INR 1.00 directly to one’s phone on 53000 short code.

Airtel's Twitter Page

This marks a change in strategy with Twitter who had stopped SMS service in India (and few other countries) owing to outbound SMS cost. I believe that this marks a clear departure in Twitter’s marketing strategy and that it would be safe to assume that Twitter is looking at more ways to increase it’s revenue share, especially in markets where  Internet and mobile telephony is growing exponentially.

While this is exciting news for Indian’s “tweeterians”, I cannot but have a few queries on whether Airtel got it completely right in their  strategy. Sure Twitter would keep them connected to the youth and there would be huge excitement and hype around this in the initial phase. But if we think about how Twitter works and for what it is exactly used there is minor niggle of a concern in my mind.

• While smartphone enabled users on the Airtel network would benefit from this hugely, what happens to the majority of Indian mobile phones users who phones are not WAP enabled. How can they benefit from this service ? Do users really need a twitter to send SMS’s when under several post paid plans, sms’s cost INR o.50 and Twitter on Airtel costs INR1.00 (double cost)

• The biggest asset of Twitter lies in its viral effect. In the way it can disseminate real time information and make it go viral. The most effective tweets are those which pass on interesting information, either through posting shortlinks of blog posts or retweeting interesting articles from the web or other tweets. With a normal phone neither of this is possible. And without witnessing the viral effect, users may lose interest.

• While I can understand that users might in the beginning use Twitter to pass updates on what they are doing through the day, but without passing any interesting information they would loose the interest of their followers in due course of time.

• And finally the cost element. Any successful “twitterer” knows that he would have to post at least 6-10 tweets a day to make his channel popular. Following simple mathematics that means an additional cost of INR 180 to INR300 per month. Wouldn’t that be too much of a price point barrier for normal users?

* (He may of course use both the web and phone and that way costs would be low)

Well these are just my queries. But having said that, it is definitely a historic moment! For users like me, it is wonderful because I can now tweet/retweet right from my Iphone and dont really need my computer. It is a first in the history of Indian telecommunication and a wonderful feather in the cap for Airtel for having pulled off this coup. By making this an exclusive deal for the first 4 weeks Airtel will definitely capture mind share among the populace and a lot of newsprint. It also gives an indication that more Indian cellular network providers are looking to join suit after the first 4 weeks.

But having said that, I have just one caveat. Was it really necessary to write this on the official website?

” This period of exclusivity is something that we want to take advantage of and make sure that Brand Airtel can own the property Twitter in consumer mind space.”

This is popular marketing/ ad parlance best discussed during closed door brainstorm sessions before a campaign launch.  Couldn’t it have been just left just for the consumers to decide?