Internet of Things: This too shall pass. Or, will it?

The Internet of Things is here, its growth untamed.  Talk about the Internet of Things is seemingly everywhere these days. The “Internet of Things” (IoT) basically refers to devices or objects that are connected to the Internet. Things from a smartwatch to self-driven cars to refrigerators.

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.” - Wikipedia

First coined in 1999 by British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton, Internet of Things is not just a phrase. It’s a phenomenon. An episode. It’s “the thing”. 

And most importantly, it’s here to stay.

Social Media Storytelling: What? Why??

Remember the Adidas - “Impossible is Nothing” campaign?

You surely do. Don’t you?

The stellar success of the entire campaign was triggered by one simple concept.

A true story. Extraordinary and awe-inspiring.

It’s been more than 8 years, and yet every one of us distinctly remembers the fact that Lionel Messi had a troubled childhood, never really “growing up”! Also, since then, the phrase “Impossible is Nothing” has been resonating like a roar of glory across the globe.

Now, that is storytelling!

As a matter of fact, a greater majority of the target audience is not interested in marketing at all. So basically, it’s not about just “sharing” content on social media. It’s about “telling” the tale, and “narrating” the brand.

What is storytelling?

“Storytelling is what allows brands and products to ‘un-thing-themselves’ so that they can actually speak and captivate.” -  Christian Salmon

The biggest product of all: the Google search engine came up with a classic example of being “un-thinging” and captivating.

A couple of months back, I happened to watch this video by Google India, “Google Search: Reunion”.  The images, the characters and their actions, the narrative journey, all in all it was an excellent story that could totally captivate, excite and emote any and everybody.

Google made it more than just clear as to how it adds value to people’s lives, and why loyalty to the brand is totally worth it.

Why storytelling?

• Its “cause and effect” narrative structure is the same one our brain uses to configure thoughts, everyday speech, and decisions.
• Uniting an idea with an emotion, and in turn being able to feel, allows the concepts, ideas, statistics, dates, colours, and all that comes with the story, to be stuck and retained in our mind.
• The emotional process in which we get involved in through storytelling gets rid of the skepticism.
• People don’t buy products, but rather the stories that these products represent.

The finishing note

Storytelling is everywhere, and will continue to be everywhere. As a matter of fact, it’s the only format that has excelled and will continue to eclipse, with time. Today’s social media totally understands that. Needless to say, they are constantly adapting and evolving themselves.

Are you “marketing” yourself??

“Six Ways You Need to Sell Yourself in Every Job Interview!!!”

“How to Sell Yourself in an Interview!!”

Google probably has answered them all. Umpteen articles teaching you what to do, what not to do, what to say and what not to, when to wink, when not to sneeze, how to sell yourself in an interview, and eventually crack it! It’s all in there!

But...

What about “marketing” yourself?

Didn't I just do that in the interview??

No. You did not! Trust me, you did not!!

“Marketing” doesn't start or end at the interview. It’s a never-ending chapter, a phenomenon as true as the pole star. Once a professional, head or tail, it’s ultimately all about “marketing”. Everything you do, every single move you make defines you as a professional, and not to be missed, as a “brand”.

“But, why would I market myself really?? Where lies the need??”

If that’s the question crossing your mind, let me answer this for you:

“Because, no one else would do it for you!! Straight and simple!!!”

 If you yourself are not sure of your brand value at the first place, how would you expect people around you to be “marketing” you??

The next question that quite inevitably arises is,

“How do I market myself?”

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women are merely players...” – William Shakespeare

The greatest hindrance to self-marketing is one’s inability to differentiate between the two identities – the real-life one and from “marketable” one. On the one hand, you, the imperfect, fallible and the confused. On the other hand, “you”, the awesome, cool and the invincible!!

If you feel you aren't really good at selling yourself, try this the next time.

Think of “you” as a “SuperYou” version of yourself.

Dress the SuperYou way. Talk the SuperYou way. Walk the SuperYou way. Be the SuperYou.

It’s just a role-play. Not to forget, at the end of the day, we are just “players”. So, play it perfect.

Every now and then, I find people selling themselves, their products, or their services.

They are plain boring!

Because, every time they do it, they think they are adding a new spin, or producing something out of the world. Whereas, as a matter of fact, it’s the same old thing. Probably stale by now!

Did you just say you want to be a freelance designer? Hey! Congratulations, nobody’s tried that before!!

One of the primary things that you cannot afford to miss out on, while effectively marketing yourself is, you have to think different. And by different, I mean different. The substance has to be different, not JUST the silver foil!

You have to be unique. And, original.

Plagiarism isn’t marketing!!

Just remember, it’s not you. It’s “you”.

Facebook: The new-age “bubonic plague”?

Facebook is definitely and undoubtedly growing. But, there’s an underlying harsher truth beneath the silver foil. The growth is significantly only in developing markets.

As per latest survey reports, in the US, Facebook lost 6 million users in just one month. It lost 9 million in the span of six months and an additional 2 million in the UK over the same time period!

A question generally arises, as to why this aversion, all of a sudden?

Well, nothing is quite sudden, but a progressive sum.

Let’s walk the last decade (2004-15) and see where exactly did it go wrong.

Privacy is a big miss!

The entire concept of privacy has been somehow severely challenged by Facebook. And, by saying so I do not intend to be political by the farthest stretch of imagination. The increasing ambiguity surrounding one’s privacy is slowly but steadily driving people away from Facebook.

All of you would inevitably agree with me on this:

We have received friend requests from our parents (of all people!), our co-workers (not a welcome always!), friends of our friends (Nikhil? Suman’s brother’s sister-in-law’s brother! Oh!) and people we hardly know (Now, who the heck is Ryan??)!

And Facebook expected us to more than willingly share everything we say with all of these people!!

A conversation with a megaphone (read Facebook) is an oxymoron!Isn't it?

Facebook has been widely used not as a social network. Rather, the most important purpose it serves is that of an instant messenger.

The ability to publish whatever you wanted online was once empowering, when it was new and hip, and only a handful of people knew of it.

Today, anything you post on Facebook is “monitored” by your parents, co-workers, and even people you barely know!

Irrelevance (with due respect to social media!)

I sat down the other day for a good couple of hours, trying to analyse my Facebook profile. And, guess what? I observed something really interesting about my recent Facebook feed. All of my favourite posts are re-shares from channels that either I’ve liked or subscribed to, or my connections have liked or subscribed to.

Extensive survey reports have shown that the majority of the population use Facebook not for expression or communication. On the contrary, they use it for entertainment!

As a matter of fact, most people aren't really in the business of being entertaining.

The Talking Tom!

Facebook was never meant for two-way communication (as in, a real communication!). Responses don't come in real time, and conversations grow stale even before something substantial can develop!

Comment sections don't make for good conversations. They have been, and always will be, a platform to receive validation from one's peers!

There may be conversations happening on Facebook, but it’s all happening in the messenger, and not on the social network.

In short, it’s all talking and no listening (not one bit!).

The epilogue

Needless to say, Facebook is in an urgent need of better content as well newer, more interactive features if it desires to survive in the fast-paced competition-laced continuously evolving landscape. And, innovative ideas are “the” key.

Else, quite like the bubonic plague, Facebook will eventually die out.

Content Marketing or SEO: Do you have your equation in place?

“Just create great content.”

It’s a notion one has probably heard over and over again: the idea that the solution to every business’s search engine problems is to focus on creating content that the audience and the potential client loves.

In the words of Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team,

“Even if you do brain-dead stupid things and shoot yourself in the foot, but have good content, we still want to return it.”

That’s like, 2+2=4! Straight and simple.

Create content and publish. Paying for SEO is needless, for SEO is dead!!

Or, is it??

What is search optimization, actually?

SEO basically deals with two different elements of ranking well in search engines: the technical side like coding and ease of crawlability, and the on-page factors in the form of keywords and content.

The technical elements clearly indicate why SEO remains so important in an era where content marketing is usually and largely considered the golden goose.

What most people know about SEO is, you need links to rank well and that is where the initial push for content marketing came from. But, that’s not about it.

A greater share of an SEO’s job is to ensure, your site is built in a Google-friendly manner that is in a way such that Google can access and crawl your content seamlessly. And this is where things like clean code, avoiding use of Flash/heavy JavaScript and anything else that might veil a search crawler’s ability to read what’s on your site comes to play.

And, it’s more than just that!

In addition to making websites accessible to both users and search engines and improving things like site speed, an SEO also needs understand how to organize your content and arrange it so that Google can properly interpret its topicality and determine its relevance.

SEOs play more of a content strategy role in such cases, helping you figure out what needs to be created.

Content Marketing isn't just SEO, you mean?

It is… and it isn’t.

Tricky, is it? It is, indeed!

Content marketing is a comprehensive way to build links and influence onsite metrics, both of which being essentials of SEO that significantly impact rankings.

With the passage of time, SEOs realized their manipulative ways of building links could mean inviting trouble.

Enter content marketing.

Content marketing was looked to as a new form of link building — a way to naturally attract links without firing down Google’s spleen.

 Online marketers today have realised that rankings and links are just one of the many functions, and not all of content marketing. Actually, if the only reason you’re creating content is for SEO purposes, you've got the equation wrong, completely.

Content marketing is a great way to build links and also target keywords — two distinct SEO functions. But it’s also so much more: creating and capturing leads, nurturing leads, and building a brand above all!

 Great SEO is a part of what makes your content great, and great content is part of what makes for great SEO!

One isn’t good enough!

While a greater amount of potential in online marketing still remains untapped, the amount of awareness and investment in SEO and content marketing has accelerated dramatically over the past few years.

Content marketing and SEO can overlap and complement each other. But, neither of them is a suitable replacement for the other. And, the reason is simple: each of them helps you achieve equally important though separate goals.

 “Just create great content.”

The next time someone says so, sit back and smile. If content is considered the king, SEO is the throne! And, a king is absolutely nothing without a throne to sit on!!

Think you have what it takes to be hired? Think again!!

The future is social. Are you?

Content Marketing “is” Social Media Marketing! Or, is it??

“Content Marketing.”

 “Oh, brands publishing content? You mean social media marketing.”

As a matter of fact, content marketing indeed significantly relies social media. Also, it’s a proven fact, in social media, marketers use content to get their messages across. But despite a substantial overlap, content marketing and social media marketing are clearly two distinct entities, with different focal points, depth of field, and apertures!

But, how exactly are they different, if you say so?

Let’s see how!

The ratio of brands that practise social media marketing compared to those that practise content marketing is probably somewhere around one thousand to one. Social media marketing is top-of-mind for almost every marketing department, while content marketing is a relatively fresh term for most in the industry.

In terms of marketing though, it’s more effective to think of the two strategies less as two individual options and more as complemental parallels of the ongoing marketing evolution. The internet has unleashed a revolution, enabling every single brand to communicate directly with its customers.

And, social media marketing is organically the primary step in this process for a simple, obvious reason: Targetting the audience is easier owing to direct access and interactive platforms, and content is generally titbits, which makes the publishing process relatively easy and convenient.

But with brands growing all the more conscious of the changing perspectives and the awareness of the target audience, a cosmic shift towards content marketing can be expected.

Content marketing demands brands to produce longer-form, higher-quality content and build audiences on their own site. The task at bay might not be a cakewalk, but the returns are, arguably, way more rewarding!