Social netwroking is a blind date that needs precaution

Jan 22, 2010

As if a Facebook status update or a Tweet with bad language, half baked perspective and ignorant rant was not enough. One of the recent relationship invites make me wonder whether social media is the new haven for all the disgruntled souls. I can conveniently ignore the overt advertisements inviting blind dates on various networking sites, but am clueless with some weird, strange quirks that let you into places you aren’t supposed to go. How can one fall in love with me just over couple of days of online friendship? It seems organized criminals are using one’s personal information shared on social networking sites in increasingly sophisticated ways to target victims.
Social media even without these gangs can never be a safe zone in a society where conflict resolution is more about compromising than collaborating. I often come across peculiar thought process that seem to shout at your face- “I don’t like your status updates/tweets anymore, not because your or mine literary tastes or social concerns have suddenly changed. My grouse is more with your snub to the common friend in the network who is more close to me.” All this makes me wonder whether we need a primary school of social networking to remind us that we are grown ups now. It is true that social networking is also about community building. But this close knit bonding for the right reasons often turn into wrong reasons when there is an element of subtle lobbying in the process. 
In a free virtual world with no guidelines or regulations, we are getting used to see something online that makes us mad, find something offensive online repetitively nowadays. Bad language, cuss words, half-baked perspective, ignorant rant and much more that often gets to the nerves to react. Somehow I am learning to live with this reality that very much like the real life; problem with opinion online is that everyone has it. Perhaps even Lord Keene could not anticipate that in days to come everybody will be an expert on everything.
For a person like me with firm grounding in conventional means of communication, the conscious decision to switch to new online vehicles—Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook was not based on its decency level any way. The experience of close friends over Orkoot was enough to suggest how a networking site can be a catalyst to behavior pattern shift in a virtual world. But then it was a need to take the clients’ presence to the new age tools. Something that Track2Media Consulting has done quite successfully over the last couple of years.
Over a period of time I started realizing the need of this necessary evil called social media, both at a personal and professional level. I have written extensively over the pros and cons of networking over the medium. I also keep telling the students of mass communication, with whom I interact as guest faculty in some institutes and universities that it is a necessary evil. Precaution is a must if you want to play safe. 
Professionally as a brand communication expert and as an activist at personal level, my caustic, sarcastic and angry response is often not in sync with the opportunity cost of ignoring it. I often allow myself to get offended and outraged, and the activist in me just can’t resist giving it back to the offence. Though, of late, I have started questioning myself whether the person has been worth my reaction. Has my reaction only given him credibility? Still by and large I don’t care for the cost-benefit analysis of my reputation in a world where, as they say, those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter. Social media is big enough for all kinds of characters to stay and engage.
After all, social media is like a blind date. You can only wish that she turns out to be a hot chick. On your part you get your basics right and arrive in style in a blind date. Again you can only hope this date with hot chick doesn’t get goofed up. But if the prayers are not answered, who cares. And who would like to carry the blind date analogy to its logical, ridiculous extreme? If the conversation online is not right, or if the other person carries a placard suggesting he/she is the best, you just communicate for a while and walk your way, without any plans of engaging yourself.
I treat my online relationship in a similar way, and any interaction beyond this is always a slow and steady process. Handling a relationship is fragile and nurturing the respect takes its own time and judgment. It hardly matters if my friends’ list changes completely over a period of time, particularly in the event of failure to agree to disagree. As a matter of principle in my now almost two years of social & professional networking online, I have never asked someone for personal information. I have exchanged phone numbers only when regular online interaction has led to some common meeting grounds and the other person feels like connecting with me at a personal or professional level.
I have also never asked a virtual friend of the opposite sex to show me her real picture as to how she looks like. I have also never removed someone from the friends list just because her real face is not visible on the site. I have rather respected the individual choice of the person to be there online the way she wants to be. Her decision to keep anonymous might be guided by her desire to play safe in a world where photographs of even celebrities are morphed with nude pictures nowadays. Who am I to intrude into someone’s safety zones, just because she added me as a friend? For me these personal details matter if we become close enough to think of meeting outside the virtual zones. But such friendships are few and far between.
In general I am nowadays careful with who my friends are; they could turn out to be my worst enemies. There are some wonderful people whom I have met online and with whom I have interacted and built a relationship. However, there are also other people who misrepresent who they are and what their intentions are. In order to be safe, some of my female friends don’t put their real pix and personal details to be known to all. After all, they need to be constantly cognizant about who they trust and what they divulge online. It is important not to trust online connections before building a strong and solid foundation in the relationship.
Being safe in the world of social media is a choice that should not offend genuine people in the friend list at all. We have the example of Steve Boggan who discovered about the past life of his girlfriend of 12 years, Suzanne Halam, just by using the internet. It took just one hour for internet experts to find out almost every private detail of this woman's life. That includes her friends, education, embarrassing pictures, former boyfriends and long-forgotten relatives.
This happened because, in common with millions of people in Britain, Suzanne was using the social networking sites Facebook and Friends Reunited, and had signed up to the business networking site LinkedIn and Flickr, the photo-sharing website. Armed with this information, criminals could have also used her identity to commit fraud or resurrect minute details of her past, her movements and friendships to lure her into scams or even dangerous liaisons. It could have been used to con her into revealing her bank details and credit card numbers.
After all, even the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, a man not known for worrying about internet surfers’ privacy, suggested recently that young people might want to change their identities in the future in order to separate themselves from a past lived too openly on the internet.
The relationship invite that I received was thoroughly investigated by my e-sister (I found this kiddo online). She found objectionable stuff over there and hence asked me to block it. But I realized how these criminal gangs are carefully fishing for victims online. In the past, they would have sent out thousands and thousands of spam emails in a scattergun fashion — and many still do. These are called phishing scams where you are awarded millions of $ for having used the email. Some of them invite fake requests from banks asking people to confirm their account details, passwords and so on. The hope is that, once in a while, someone would be silly enough to reply.
Fortunately, I was not silly, will never be so. A love affair over couple of days of online friendship? Oh! Give me a break. Instinctively I am now addicted with social media and professionally it has benefitted me as well. Therefore, it is no longer a matter of choice to stay connected, but the need as well. However, being less than couple of years old on the social networking sites, I am fast learning the nuances of the medium. I hope the learning curve makes me careful in selection of friends/contacts in future, benefits Track2Media Consulting in its business and goads the mass communication students in the right direction with my shared experiences.

Broadcast Media is OUT, Narrowcast Media is IN

Dec 22, 2010

With our core business & expertise in media consulting, at every year-end people keep asking as to which way the media is heading to in the year ahead. At the end of the year 2010, the very same curiosity has got even more relevance with the kind of media expose that the country has seen, both internally with Radia tapes and globally with WikiLeaks. Will it change the shape of things in media? And with TRACK2MEDIA Consulting launching its first news project in the form of e newspaper on real estate sector, Track2Realty, it is all the more necessary for us to release a fact-sheet on the media roadmap that we find shaping up in the year 2011.
Different people have different reasons to be curious-journalist friends want to know whether the entry of more players will just add up to the number of jobs; or the increasing competition will have some impact on the pay packets as well. The clients in the corporate world are always curious to understand the behavioral dilemma with the necessary evil called media. But most importantly the new players who are eager to explore in the media business want to understand as to what makes a media project viable.
Well, TRACK2MEDIA Consulting as a communication management group has lost a couple of upcoming media projects in the year 2010 because we have been upfront in telling the clients that their approach to replicate the model, both in content & revenue, of existing biggies is fraught with dangers. Every wannabe in the media business, unfortunately, tries to replicate the existing news project, and in the process turns out to be the poor Xerox version of the existing players. When the global management consulting company McKinsey forecasted a few years back that India will soon see around 500 TV channels uplinked, it had probably no idea as to how the business of news & entertainment will see a horizontal growth than vertical one.
Some of the regional channels competing in a cluttered market are a testimony of the fact that it is not just niche market that is a key to success. Most of them have failed to evolve a serious game plan and hence unable to create a community around them. This failure has also brought a sea change compromise in the standards and ethics of journalism. Jobs are offered nowadays not just on the journalistic merit, but the ability to raise revenue from the region that is on offer. Still, most of the thinktanks of these media group are clueless as to where have the audience and revenue gone.
Nine out of 10 new media projects in the year 2010 have either failed flat or are struggling to make a break even. Indian media market has already seen dot com bubble burst, the TV channels closing down and even some big ticket print media projects failing to make a mark. Some of these projects have failed to get noticed despite of deep pockets of the promoters. On the contrary, there are other media projects, though few and far between, which are doing well despite of working in a low-cost model. This raises a question mark over the business model, brand differentiator and TG loyalty of the project.
All the successful media ventures may be devising their old success stories, but there seem to be a common pattern of almost all the failed ventures. That is their attempt to replicate the model of the existing successful ventures.  After closely examining the evolving media market in the country, we always advise the clients to write their success stories, instead of replicating anybody. This goes true for our own venture Track2Realty as well, which has been conceptualized as a market differentiator in the real estate segment.
It is not that there is any dearth of media ventures in a lucrative sector like the real estate. But where Track2Realty stands out as a market differentiator is the fact that we are neither competing with the marketing supplements of the mainline newspapers, nor are we providing a B2B platform to the industry. For us real estate is newsworthy subject that has been a virgin territory. And we are here to track the real concerns of all the stake holders-realty companies, investors, consultants and the end-users.
The question that many people ask is that whether niche segment is the new potential zone to emerge. With a certain amount of conviction I keep telling the media wannabes that the days of broadcast format is over. Unless one has a few hundred crores with a long time span to get into competitive zone with the large media houses, there is no point to even think of a venture with broadcast format. Providing every bit of news for everybody is something that has been monopolized by the large media institutions. As a consultant I keep telling everybody that even if you have deep pockets, it is always better to channelize that resource on a road that has been less travelled by.
It is our firm belief that while the broadcast format may not work for the new players, narrowcast format brings in more synergy, room for creativity & experiment and connects instantly with the focused target group. The next wave in media is slated to be with the narrowcast format, where one may not be offering everything to everybody, but an exclusive offer for a niche audience connects much better with the desired target group. One may not target million of audience who will surf your news platform once in a while, but an exclusive offer to even thousands of audience will do if your offer is worth visiting twice or thrice a day.
News and for that matter any form of media is also about creating a community around your media vehicle. Perhaps Facebook is the best example, and also an answer as to why people in general spend more time on Facebook than a professional networking platform like the LinkedIn. Both Facebook and LinkedIn are available on the Internet, accessible to everybody worldwide. But while LinkedIn is conceptualized on a broadcast format where you can network globally with anybody on a professional level, you may not end up working together on a given project even if you need services in that given geographical location. This is because this professional networking platform may not bring in like minded professionals on the table.
On the contrary, with Facebook one may not be bothered about millions of users, but in a narrowcast mode one is closely networked, most often with same likes and preferences, with the friends’ list. The medium offers even more focused narrowcasting within the narrowcast in the form of creating a group. Our study on the business model, audience psychograph and emerging pattern clearly suggests that the future belong to such narrowcast format in media.      
Among the three popular modes of media-Print, TV and Internet, the power of the word of mouse is tremendous; but has not been tapped fully because there is a credibility factor that is missing on the net in the absence of any regulation. It is a free for all medium. Columbia law professor in his recent book “The Master Switch” argues that Internet is as powerful as any other communications medium.  He expects to see consolidation and government control over the web. That may be a blessing in disguise as most other media-Print, TV, Radio & Movies, have gone through phases of wild growth and experimentation, eventually settling into a pattern of consolidation, control and credibility.
If Print Media today is seen as the most creditable piece of journalism, it is largely due to the edit control mechanism of the medium. In contrast, Television may attract more eyeballs but edit control is relatively less in a Soundbyte driven medium. Internet media entrepreneurs need to adapt to this reality and reinvent their project into a digiprint format. It is not just the US President Barack Obama who contested the elections on the social networking sites, but across the world even the most conservative governments have started realizing the power of the medium.
China has launched a new search engine of its own to make foray into its 420 million strong net users’ market. Known as Goso.cn, China’s search engine has been aimed at countering the negative reports of the country on rival Google. It has been launched by the country’s largest newspaper the People’s Daily of the ruling Communist party of China. This shows how several countries view development of the internet as part of their national strategy.
Internet is a medium which enables one with a daily budget of even Rs. 10 to practice journalism and other forms of media activity. Internet has cultivated a public vested in its freedom. But then activism and radical openness of the web has to eventually set an organized pattern for the medium. With a bit of regulation, more serious players opting for the medium and the medium itself not just penetrating deep into the demography but also in the psychograph….the future is definitely calling to the digital media.

Bihar elections and Barack Obama effect

July 16, 2006

Can Bihar, predominantly seen as one of the most underdeveloped states of India in collective consciousness replicate Barack Obama’s model? I understand the question itself will be seen as cynicism but wait. Give it a thought and there will appear some parallel in these two different poles on various given parameters of governance, development and overall human development index. My assessment, or rather I should say optimism is not based on the phenomenal and unbelievable growth rate of Bihar in times of global recession. Of course, the GDP projection of 11 per cent by an eminent economist and 16.5 per cent by the Central Statistics office would definitely be a cause of envy even to the world’s super power in America.
However, my above assumption is not based on the reports of Bihar revival by the now unquestionable turnaround man in the Chief Minster Nitish Kumar. What has actually surprised me is the sheer presence of the state, its governance and its politics on social networking sites like the Facebook and Twitter. When the Economist magazine analyzed how politicians around the world from Venezuela to Japan and from Greece to Chile are using social media tools to get out their messages to constituents and voters, they had actually no idea about the penetration of the medium further deep.
Considering that LinkedIn was established in 2003, Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006, it no doubt seems to be a fast forward march by the politicians of the state. With some of them without any background in the formal university level education, it is all the more surprising that they are adapting and accelerating quicker and faster medium for political dialogue.
In a way it spells good for democratic institutions in Bihar where wide engagement combines with open sharing of information. It is clearly an issue, as social recommendation becomes bigger the challenge is to engage individuals deeply enough that they will escalate from passive viewer to active participant. Most of the Bihar centric discussion revolves around the performance of Nitish Kumar government and the forthcoming elections. By extension this also applies to those who aim to unseat him.
My Facebook wall is generally full of heated discussions on Bihar elections nowadays. What seems to be the result of the vocal nature of Biharis in general and educated and migrated non resident Biharis in particular is actually more than what meets the eyes. It is not that only the educated Biharis who have migrated to metropolitan cities for a decent living are the ones who are demand drivers of Bihar debate. The young lot in the state with limited access to electricity and even lesser access to internet are as much active on these sites as their non resident counterparts. 
The question as to why development in the backdrop of politics and elections are the only issues to be discussed automatically comes into the mind. Perhaps the answer lies in the restlessness of the youth in the state, which had for around a couple of decades been clueless, have suddenly found a medium to air their grievances. Many politicians from the state too have sensed this transformation and want the first-movers-advantage in the cyber space networking.
The moot point here is that whether it is a natural progression of the state into technology zone or the political parties have taken this first-movers-advantage a bit too seriously. On the basis of Facebook and Twitter discussion Prima Facie it seems a carefully crafted social media campaign has been launched by at least two parties (JD (U) and BJP) in power, with Congress social media campaign racing up along the charisma of Rahul Gandhi, while the other two players (RJD and LJP) seem to be clueless as to what is this hype all about.
My assumption, however, proved to be wrong when some more searches found the presence of even Laloo yadav and Ramvilas Paswan on the Facebook. Not only this, individual ministers and MLAs in the state with relatively less exposure to the technology and global obsession with social networking too have got their own website done, with some of them adding dynamic features. It seems everybody is omnipresent on various social networking sites; even the illiterate ones too have social media managers for shadow boxing.
Easy to dismiss, but less easy to master; the mantra of social media is perhaps yet to come of age in Bihar politics. But its growing influence and ubiquity, particularly among younger voters, cannot be ignored. The complications of this new reality are that 18- to 24-year-olds are not prepared to consume political messages passively. The catalysts to this transformation have been the mainstream media that are largely into the mode of broadcast and not conversation.
The 2010 Bihar campaign can prove to be India’s first true social media electoral cycle, if the momentum picks up and reflects some tangible vote swing. Whether the JD (U) uses these tools to their maximum advantage or whether the BJP or Congress figure out how to employ social media to explain incumbent policies and rally their base will be analyzed in-depth following the November elections. It may not prove to be India’s first true internet campaign, won and lost Obama-style, Bihar elections nonetheless have a distinct Barack Obama effect this time around. 

Social networking or online obsession

“500 plus friends online….the person must be the loneliest creature on the planet”, said a journalist friend on the trend to be open networker and befriending those with whom one has never even met. A very private person and open critic of sharing personal and professional life with unknown people online, he was out rightly dismissing the idea of social and professional networking online. Well, I must admit that the argument has its merit even though I am myself glued to online communities for a large part of my personal and professional hours.
In an honest confession, I must admit that the networking forum like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter plays an influential role in my own social/networking life. I may pretend that I remain absolutely committed on a professional level, but the fact of the matter is that networking sites for me has happened like a deal with an open community. In my otherwise personal and professional life I have maintained a very strict admittance criteria for close friends and family only.
However, Facebook provides me a forum for trivial news share that I am always not very comfortable to discuss in an open forum. LinkedIn and Twitter has further helped me segregate such trivia from the more academic business exchanges I have contributed to, and profited from. Still the argument of my critic friend has forced me to introspect deep. Why??? May be because my growing sense of consciousness, backed by a few social research, has been telling me that the quality of relationships may actually be falling victim to the new-age networking tools.
Without knowing it, or at least without any conscious design, social media has also transmitted loneliness and a sense of social disconnection. In recent years, virtual escapism has effected change in numerous social groups and has given birth to new streams of revenue. Technology has drawn us into our interconnected webs, in the office, on the street, on the park bench, to the point that we exist virtually everywhere except in the physical world.
The quality time spent with friends and peer professionals is gradually getting less and we are subconsciously becoming a victim of internet obsession. Internet and its online communities are by its clinical nature cutting down the more fallible nature of human discourse: emotion, innuendo, political sniping. It lends a more objective, less risk-laden and therefore, I suppose, innocuous form of discussion. It's an ideal channel for those wishing to avoid the intricacies of complex humanity and family ties.
Relationships, both personal and professional, are hard work. Just because someone retweeted your post doesn’t mean you have a workable relationship with that follower. In order to nurture and sustain a viable connection with someone, you must have personal contact that not only reinforces what you are doing but who you are as a person and a professional. Social Media removes you from personal interaction with other people subsequently reinforcing social ineptitude.
Being a student of Freudian school of human emotions, I have always been interested in human presence and reaction and know from experience that reading faces, listening to tone beyond words and pure personal chemistry form the most powerful basis for collaborative and gratifying relationships. I must admit that such a holistic dialogue process cannot be sustained by networking sites alone.
The realization grew deeper in me be the mere phone call of a close friend, whom I have not seen for a long while. An admittedly internet addict in me suddenly felt an emotional chord by the vocal conversation and it gave me the realization of how much I value human interaction; and more importantly, of how much of it was moving away as our collective addiction to online community intensified.
While the online community is, and will remain an important aspect of today’s global networking, I have taken a conscious decision that I will never escape my nature. I'm a humanist, a communicator. Words, expression, nuance have always been the make-up of my character as well as the tools of my trade. Some where the modern day communication had created a widening gap between the conscious and subconscious mind, and it was the physical presence of a journalist friend, a one-to-one discussion that goaded me to bridge this ever widening gap.
I do hope that my peer group who swear by the online reputation management will not consider my conscious decision as an indictment of my proclaimed aptitude thus far. After all, I am not shutting down all the modern day dialogue channels, just trying to be more social on the parameters other than the social media.