@dvocable

If you are looking at getting your self involved with the social media marketing. These 7 Cs should come in handy!!

C #1 – Context

First you need to understand the context that you will be dealing with. This could be in the form of any social media platform. But before you start engaging with them, you need to understand who they are and more importantly what is the motivation that is binding them together, socially. Example could be pure passion for technology or Bollywood or even communication that has led one individual to pursue on the path of blogging.

C #2 – Communicate

Intention to communicate – if you do not have a intention, then you might as well. Just do a cut, copy, paste job and spam the comments section of the bloggers. That is it, then your brand is at the wrath and  mercy of the bloggers. Do not try to push your marketing messages across in the social media, it might just do more harm than good.

C #3 – Conversation

You need to have a conversation , with your fellow human beings even online. My belief is that there was a time on the internet when people use to be faceless and anonymous and they use to take full advantage of it. But now these are the same people who have realised that they are not being able to handle multiple personalities. They are the same human beings. Just try to talk to them, even just greet them, they will be friends.

C #4 – Content

What does not work on the Internet is a copy. We need to be the original content providers for what we are trying to engage the Internet users into. If we copy and they find out, then our reputation online is scarred! The other element to the content is that we need to have contextually relevant content or else again, we will be seen as spammers!! The rule is customise your messages according to the motivation of the individuals that make the communities or groups on the various social media platform.

C #5 – Create

One of the complains that have been with clients is that communications consultants are not proactive enough. Here on these multiple channels of social media, they have the endless possibilities to create original content that is being provided to them by their clients and not only prove that they are proactive, but the original content can be used (hint) in combination of text, audio, video, graphical images, animation, pictures to benefit the clients. Don’t want to actually, boost ourselves, but we do not have any form of 30-second barrier, we need not have a limitations in our word length (copy). We have the power to inform, influence and impress with the power of words.

C #6 – Collaborate

All our management gurus have spoken about team building exercises. Here we have a platform not only build, but also to maintain the relationships that have been fostered over each and every social media platform. Technology gives us the opportunity to collaborate and enhance our relationships virtually. Relationships could be built on social platform based common interests and business platforms based on professional experience or expertise that one has.

C #7 – Contacts

Contacts – This may be one of the result that you will achieve in the process of your social media marketing effort. You would enjoy being a part of the wise world where knowledge sharing and problem solving are the things to do (TTDs) on a daily basis. This is the element that builds up the social support that you receive even from the online world, which helps individuals at the need of the hour in taking action at both personal front as well as professional!!

These 7 Cs have been the culmination of observation, experience, and research in the field of social media marketing over the past 10 months. If you have any more Cs or for that matter any element that you can think of that I have missed, just let me know!!

I have been awarded the ‘PR icon of the Week‘ by Prime Point Foundation, a non profit registered public trust for creating public relations and communication awareness amongst management students, corporates in the public and private sector, and politicians in India. The organisation is also behind the popular Image Management and PR Point groups on Yahoo.

PR Icons is a new initiative to recognise PR professionals who have taken efforts to take the PR profession a step forward. Though PR Icons was initially conceptualised to recognise those professionals with more than 10 years of experience, they have decided to relax the minimum experience limit and include ‘young guys who have achieved greater things, within a short time’.

The recognition was primarily due to India PR Blog, an industry blog that I started two years back that has today become a good resource for information on the PR profession and the industry in India and a platform for discussion among PR professionals.

Thank you, Mr. Srinivasan. This is certainly a big boost and encouragement.

On another note, CIOL has done a story on the corporate blogging scene in India and has featured some of my quotes. Corporate blogging is an emerging phenomenon in India and corporates have started accepting it as a medium to reach out to their target audience. Very soon, we are likely to see more Indian corporates adopting the blogging attitude. Already I am helping a couple of my client develop blogs for their organisations. The social media marketing market in India is bound to see some exciting times ahead.

Some of my past writing on social media are here: Social media in India

Parker wrote in Blog Campaigning about Jason Bateman playing a role of a PR advisor to a difficult superhero in Will Smith’s upcoming Hancock film. He also talked about the movie, I Heart Huckabees, where Jude Law played a PR guy. Also in the movie, Thank You For Smoking, Aaron Eckhart played the role of the spokesperson for Big Tobacco.

We have seen so many movies where the actors are playing the young and smart generation next from the advertising industry. We seem to wonder when will we see our PR heroes. But doing a bit of retrospect I realise there are already some movies where PR characters are there in the storylines.

I remember watching Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise played the agent to sportstar Cuba Gooding Jr. Not exactly a PR hero but I could relate to the client-agent drama. There is also the movie, A Guy Thing, where there are two PR executives.

What about Fun with Dick and Jane where Jim Carrey played the company spokesperson who got sacked. Not the inspiring PR film type but well there is PR.

Then there is Phone Booth where Colin Farrell plays the PR guy who got trapped in a phone booth as a lunatic accuses him of doing all the wrongs int he society. So PR people lie and corrupt the society, mind that.

Back home in Bollywood, we have seen Rani Mukherji playing an escort in the film, Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag, but was introduced by her client as his PR person. What do you say to that.

Then we have Abhishek Bachchan in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna getting friendly with the magazine editor, Preity Zinta.

These Bollywood movies were not exactly PR movies but well can we take them as a start.

I guess there are many PR agencies in Mumbai handling Bollywood clients. Can some of you people persuade Pradeep Sarkar to have Konkana Sen play a PR professional in Phir Se Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag.

I am touched. To be very honest, I never expected this to happen. But, you know what when I wrote about the Invisible Force prior to the missing Thursday, I never expected to realise it so early. I received so many calls, so many text messages to enquire about why I didn’t write last Thursday and how much they missed me! I was to miss today’s Thursday as well, but my wife insisted that I shouldn’t be missing two Thursdays – it will be quite disturbing for her and many all those who missed me last Thursday. Well, I have never been loved like this before. Thank you!

This entire missing Thursday episode made me realise the very important lesson I learnt at IIM-A, when I went there for few wonderful days of my life. It is a very important lesson every marketer should remember. And yes, we PR wallahs are the superstars of marketing. So, what’s the lesson I am talking about? The lesson is… wait – let me share a nice little story with you before we go and talk about serious gyan.

I used to go to a small temple in a village – I kind of enjoyed going there on a particular time and ring the bell in a particular rhythm. I was trying to become A R Rahman during those days!

Well, some people found it funny, some people thought I was mad but I enjoyed it and continued by routine of everyday. After sometime I got some company, people started gathering and they brought in drums and other instruments. We started playing together and in sometime it became a daily routine for 30-40 people to come together and play some really nice music.

One day, I left that place. The bell did not ring. People missed it. Everybody missed it. There was no music. But, few years ago when I went back there and saw a huge temple in place of the small tiny temple where I was ringing bell, I asked someone how did this happen and he replied that it was all because of my ringing the bell on daily basis.

To coming back to the marketing jargons and gyan which we learn at B-Schools, it was about persuasion and passion with which I was ringing the bell. I enjoyed doing it. People joined in and manjhile miltee gayeen caravan banta gaya…

So, what I learnt is that when you start something good, never leave it half way. Take it to a next level and put in those extra efforts to deliver the promises you have made to the people who love you. And, I promise you my friends that I will be with you every Thursday of my life and share my force with you.

We will meet next Thursday till then, take care and miss me! I will miss you too!

God Bless!

Recently, I read the report on public relations consulting industry by a leading industry association based on a random survey of PR professional projecting the size of the Indian public relations industry at USD 3bn or an incredible INR 12,000 crores!! It claimed that the industry will double by 2010. The numbers seem incredible. As I was deliberating on its contents, I received an enquiry from a highly respected journalist who writes exclusively on public relations seeking some insights into the size of the industry. It was interesting to see some of the back of the envelope calculation he had done.

He estimated, given the industry reportedly has 30,000-40,000 professional the average billing per professional would be a minimum $75,000/- pa or INR 3mn per annum. At this level of billing per professional, we would be competing with some management consultancies!

Clearly, it does not seem to be the reality on the ground. I wish it were.

Interestingly, the same report mentions “Lack of understanding of PR: It may come as a surprise but most people still have a very vague notion of PR” as one of the constraints to attracting good quality talent into the profession.

What is public relations? Let me share with you my notion of public relations.

Whilst I am told there are 386 definitions, I learned only one definition of public relations “A planned, deliberate, sustained campaign aimed at enhancing trust between a company and its various publics”

What the definition failed to tell me was the aim of achieving the trust? That I was told would depend upon the objective of your programme. Therefore, I put two and two together and concluded – the objective of a public relations programme is to “achieve trust that provides a reassurance of action taken by a stakeholder in relation to that particular company.”

So what skills and capabilities we need to achieve trust that provides reassurance and be seen and recognised as true blue professionals? I share an excerpt of a conversation with my young colleagues entering the profession.

“What business are we in?” A question I often ask. Answers range from reputation managers to communication specialists!

We are in the business of influencing behaviour,” I say. I am asked: why do we influence behaviour? “To help create preference,” I reply. We help create preference for whom? “Our clients company, its products or services, etc, etc.” I reply.

How do we achieve that preference? Is effective media relations enough? Here’s where encourage them to discover their own answers. I urge them to read Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward Berneys to understand how he understood and used public relations. He should know. He coined the term ‘public relations’. Incidentally, he was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and he wrote this text around 1920, a few years after the First World War.

Do we really see ourselves as students of the art and science of influencing behaviour? Do we work acquiring the knowledge and skill for understanding and influencing behaviour? Are we able to merge our understanding of human behaviour with its application in the commercial world?

The point I am making is that our myopia in seeing the true purpose & application of our own profession is responsible for how others see and value us. Isn’t it ironical, a profession which claims to help ‘manage image’ suffers from a lack of it?

When we can improve our own vision, work towards understanding and influencing behaviour, apply that knowledge in the commercial world by choosing the most appropriate tools and channels, only then will public relations be truly understood and valued for its contribution.

This has been my journey and learning as I made the leap of faith from hotels, business school to public relations! I remain a student of fathoming the exciting depth of understanding the true value of public relations.

This article has been contributed by our special guest writer, Ashwani Singla, for our GuruSpeak series.

A survey by Ciao Surveys found that 60.3% of people in Britain believe that PR officers often lie, while only 3.3% are convinced of the opposite. Additionally, only 17.9% of the respondents think public relations have a positive effect on society, against 26.5% who disagree.

Despite these findings, the survey shows that nearly a third of Britons believe the PR industry is a necessary one at 32.7%, as opposed to only 21.1% who believe it to be unnecessary.

Respondents evidently showed a good understanding of the industry because, when asked about their impression of a PR officer’s main job function, they stated it is strongly related to media relations (49.6%), event planning (18.2%), advertising (9.5%) and word of mouth marketing (7.9%).

According to Ciao, 55.1% of respondents seem to be aware of the symbiotic relationship between the PR industry and the media, as they declared that the two are biased by each other.

Some people recognise that the media are the main vehicles for the PR industry’s messages, with 13.8% believing that up to half of the content in daily newspapers is initiated by public relations, and a sizeable group think up to 80% of the content in consumer magazines is PR-related.

Wonder what an Indian survey will throw up.

(via Pudding Relations)

It’s not been so much difficult writing this but to get people to open up and give their point of view …and since everyone has a right to privacy, that’s a request which has been made to me by most people I spoke to and I will adhere to that. The topic here is about mis-behaviour and mis demeanor with PR professionals by Clients and sometimes journalists too. PR as a profession has long been considered to be a profession that heavily relies on wining and dining and guess it is that perception that drives forward the intent of some people to think that it is okay to act fresh or make advances to people who belong to this profession. Albeit I would like to deny personally that that happens only in PR, since I do know that there are people with lewd mentality every where and you meet them wherever you go. It is how you deal with it, what you come across and the action you take against the person is what matters the most.

I have been speaking to branch heads, team leaders and heads of organisations I know to whom I posed the question in terms of what would they do if someone from their team was treated in any way that was vulgar and sick. Almost all of them said that they would immediately take cognisance of it and bring it to the notice of the senior most people in the organisation both at the Client’s end as well as the agency. And if after warnings, the problem persisted, they would give up the account no matter what. Some of them have given up accounts because the problem persisted.

But again the discussion is not so black and white…mis behaviour, mis demeanor and harassment is not always one sided. It is very much a function of how each one of us conducts ourselves, how we behave, how we talk, our mannerisms, the signals we pick and give out and if there is anything that makes the other person feel that one is ‘available’ issues such as these crop up. However there have also been instances when guys have been harassed by female Clients and that’s when I realised that gender issues are no more about just women…they are beyond all lines and rules…it’s all individualistic and very dependant on situations and people themselves.

Some rules that I try to follow as a girl in this profession….

• Never go alone for Client meetings or media rounds unless you know the people really well

• Always go with someone along and have the team anyways with you….so that you are not just in good company but also do not have to come back and summarise the meeting details to your team

• Try to meet Clients and Media in their offices and if you are meeting them outside for lunch or snack meet at a place which is more fun, casual and crowded instead of restaurants with a certain ambience

• Dress appropriately…. This is a profession of not just overt communication processes but of informal, subliminal and behavioral communication. Dress decently to not attract any unwanted attention

• Be professional in your behaviour and conduct • If in spite of all this, you are faced with an uncomfortable situation, do not shy away from talking about it, but bring it up to the notice of your seniors

• Do not get hysterical while reporting about the incident but state facts and get both parties involved

At the end of the day, stand up for yourself and if you think no one is taking an action against the unfair treatment, take a decision that protects your integrity and self esteem. Since nothing is more important than your self esteem.

Madhavi Mukherjee

Someone very dear said this to me. Well, If you are expecting me to share who told this to me and in what context it was told to me, then I am sorry my dear friends, you will be disappointed. It’s a secret!

But, what is not secret is here in this post today. This statement made me realize a very important aspect in our life and I started thinking about it. I discovered that many a times we enjoy this immense invisible power that remains with us all the time and we use it knowingly or unknowingly to make our life better.

What is this power? Well, this power is known in many words – I call it love, you may call it affection, Sachin may call it passion and Shah Rukh may call is Kkkkiran – whatever metaphor you may want to use to describe this, but the fact is that we all have this unique and invisible power to identify and judge our actions. This power drives us to make various decisions in our life – a career we have to select, a partner we have to be with, a house we have to stay in, a job we have to do or even a brand we have to buy!

Look at all of us. We wear certain brands of clothes, wear certain perfume, drive a particular car or ride a nice bike or even pick up one particular brand of Basmati rice! Even if we buy something else because of some reason, we always feel little sadness deep within us that probably I made a wrong choice. Isn’t it happened with you more than once?

I have seen people working in a particular organization or working in a particular profession (say PR!?) and do not want to change the job despite getting many lucrative offers or getting repetitive threats from their bosses. I have seen people watching the same movie again and again. I have seen people getting upset when the kids play on the bonnet of their parked car. I have seen people traveling to other corner of the city to have a special tea from ‘that’ tea vender or to enjoy a special paan from a Muchchad Paanwalah! I have seen people spending millions of rupees for small things like getting that special number for their cellular phone… I can go on and on…

But the question is what this Invisible Power is?

Emotions.

Yes, emotions. We are all driven by emotions and nothing in this world can control emotions. Yes, by doing certain action, you can modify the impact of emotions in a positive or negative manner, but you can not take away the emotions from any individual on this earth. Without emotions you can’t even communicate. Narrate your story with passion and your pitch will be accepted by your consumers. All great stories; all successful movies, all successful brands, all successful business, all successful people are driven by emotions and nothing else!

Add a little bit of power of this invisible force in your life and see the difference. Start now and write back to me before next Thursday with your experience and we will talk further. Till then, enjoy the power! Take care.

View Larger Map


This is a group project – A Google map highlighting the PR agencies in Delhi and NCR region. We are also coming up with PR maps of Mumbai and other cities soon.

If you wish to have a certain agency added in the list, please contact any of the India PR Blog authors.

I chanced upon an interesting format of a press release. There was no longer the ’so and so company/ person today announced…’. sentence in the opening para of the release. The content was simple and to the point. The spokesperson quotes were not merged into the rest of the content as one long story. Instead they came in bullets under their own section titled ‘Quotes’. There was a list of key points highlighted in another section called ‘Quick Facts’.

This was a format of one of the press releases issued by the Ontario government that I happened to see quite by chance browsing through my Del.icio.us subscriptions (thanks to Boyd’s post).

Now what is so interesting? While the standard opening sentence of press releases have been omitted in many press releases by government organisations and NGOs in India and it’s not new, how the Ontario Government placed their quotes and the Quick Facts were new (at least to me).

Is this just a good example of a social media news release? Or can we replicate the same for our press releases that we issue to the traditional media?

Pros: Content is to the point and well segmented that helps reading easily. One can notice the key points quickly without going through the entire document.

Cons: Journalists have to redo the draft. So if you are looking for a time-crunched editor who will quickly cut a portion of your release and put it into tomorrow’s paper, then this is not the ideal format.

What do you say? This is how one of them looked like: