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AeA launches Punni Ki Kahaniyan: Follow her on facebook now!

iridiumInteractive — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:07:19 +0000

punni ki kahaniyan

Aide et Action-South Asia along with its Social Media Partner, iridium Interactive and Print partner, The Hindu launched Punni ki Kahaniyan, a Short Film series about Multi Culturalism at Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad on 26th October 2010. The initiative of Punni ki Kahaniyaan is aimed at fostering the values of multiculturalism and promoting cultural harmony in children by helping them understand other cultures through short films talking on these subjects. ‘Punni’ is the animated narrator of the ‘Punni Ki Kahaniyan’, that acts both as a narrator and observer in the Films.

iridium Interactive, as the Social Media Partner has been associated with Aide et Action right from conceptualizing the online branding of Punni to the launch of the film series. Tireless efforts have been put to bring in identity to Punni in the social media. Punni has been promoted in the Social Media circles by a wide range of activities on Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Twibbons, News Portals and a whole range of other Social Media initiatives.

Sriram Bharatam, CEO and Founder, iridiumInteractive and Sania Mirza at the launch event

The launch event comprised of an audience of over 1,200 enthusiastic children from over 30 schools in Hyderabad and they sure added a lot of enthusiasm to the proceedings! The enthusiasm of the children was palpable as they clapped and sang right from the prayer song till the end of the launch, adding immense zest and energy to the proceedings. The screening was preceded by messages of multiculturalism to the children by Ravi Pratap Singh, Regional Director, AEAI South Asia, P. Ranga Reddy, Regional General Manager, The Hindu, Rajiva Wijesinha, MP from Sri Lanka and Ganesh Devi, Educationist. All the Speakers drove across the point of multi culturalism in their own ways. While Ravi Pratap Singh narrated his childhood experiences, Rajiva Wijesinha amazingly compared multi culturalism with a bouquet of flowers. He said “The bouquet looks good because of many flowers, but what makes the bouquet beautiful is that the flowers are of many colors”, thereby driving home the need to recognize ethnic diversity.

What followed later was the screening of the first film in the series of Punni Ki Kahaniyan which was cheered by the children amidst loud whistles and claps. Post the screening Sania Mirza, the Indian Tennis Star talked on how Sports does not recognize differences in language, religion or color. She added that she is humbled by the fact that she gets to play for the Nation and that she wishes that every child gets to serve the Nation in their own way.

Sriram Bharatam of iridium Interactive narrated a very interesting story that stressed on the need for children to look beyond their boundaries and actively explore new things. His story drove home the morals of Cultural acceptance, shunning the herd mentality and realize their true potential. His account of his childhood experiences helped children connect with him. RP Patnaik, music director, also echoed the same sentiments and sang ‘Saare jahan se achcha’ which the children happily participated in.

Saniz Mirza, Sriram Bharatam and RP Patnaik presented accolades to the children who were the cast of Punni Ki Kahaniyan.

Follow iridium Interactive on twitter and facebook and stay current with the latest on social media and campaigns.

Comments, anyone?

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 10:44:45 +0000

We’ve been here for a while, posting ideas on the blog and our thoughts about various happenings in the industry and trends that are set to shape how we use the internet. One thing that we notice everytime we post on the iridium blog is the lack of comments. And hey, this is no impassioned plea for you to click on the comments tab and start typing but more of an analysis of a phenomenon we’re trying to understand. What could be the reason for the lack of comments? If we noticed this on our blog alone, we’d find a quiet place to vent our frustrations and not bother writing about it, but this seems to be a phenomenon afflicting blogs across the board. Twitter retweets, check. Facebook shares, check. Likes, check. Comments,..er..what?

Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve been monitoring several blogs, Indian as well as from across the globe, to understand the commenting trends and almost everywhere we have come across this phenomenon. It seems that now, with the advent of so many social media platforms, there are a hundred different avenues through which blogs are commented on and discussed, including the blog. A simple tweet on twitter like ‘Read interesting post about wordpress 3.0 by *** and totally disagree’ can trigger a conversation on twitter rather than on the blog. If the blogger would like to be part of this conversation, it becomes her job to track where her story is being shared and discussed and get there as fast as possible with her reasons and opinions to continue the conversation. For instance, this blogpost may be retweeted by 10 different people on twitter, each marking the tweet with his/her thought [which takes the place of the comment] along with the url. In this scenario, it might simply be a better solution to add to the comments box a continuously updating list of mentions on the social web thus allowing you to connect with those who have thoughts about your ideas on their platform rather than bringing them to your blog and expecting them to drop a comment. So if the lack of comments is really getting you down, hang in there! Someone, somewhere is tweeting about you. You just need to find them and engage!

Facebook Developer Garage Hosted by iridium Interactive

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:20:12 +0000

On 23rd of September, nearly 80 developers, students, company reps and enthusiasts walked into Hotel Golkonda for the first ever Facebook Developer Garage to be held in Hyderabad, the home of Facebook in India. Organized by iridium the event is being hosted for the first time in Hyderabad after succesfully being conducted in a number of cities all over the world. The entire objective of the Garage was to showcase the facebook open graph api from a development perspective so that people can build custom applications and tools and leverage the humongous reach of facebook to reap benefits through the internet.

Siddharth from iridiumInteractive

The event was kickstarted by Siddharth of iridium who introduced the event and described his experiences with using the social internet we access everyday and how the whole concept of facebook makes the world a much more connected place. The key speakers at the event were David Recordon and Jonathan Gray who spoke about the facebook open graph, social plugins and the open source platforms facebook uses.

David’s talk was centered on how the open graph api had evolved and how it made the whole aspect of developing applications for facebook a much easier experience. He described how every object in the social graph has a unique id which allows a developer to easily fetch data associated with that object. It was quite exciting to know the evolution of all these fantastic tools which start-as David simply put it- as hacks. So if you can picture a bunch of developers sitting for 12 hours straight at their laptops and competing with each other to solve a problem or come up with something new which then they all develop into an idea like the graph api, you’d understand this better.

David from facebook

Jonathan spoke about the open source platforms used and contributed to by facebook. Facebook was developed based on open source softwares and offers developers the chance to use the platform with their knowledge of these same open source technologies. Calling himself someone who really believed in open source technology he injected a lot of energy in the audience sharing his experience of developing using the platform.

The break was followed by the application presentation segments. Hasan Khan, a budding entrepreneur from Hyderabad showcased an application he and his associates had developed based on the FIFA world cup. Their application which allowed users to track their team’s progress, taunt opponents, and ‘dislike’ [yep, the feature we've all been asking facebook for] something if they didn’t like it showed the zeal with which Hyderabadi developers who are aware of this platform are adopting it. He described his experience with working on the platform and the avriious routes he adopted for monetization. He spoke about several challenges he faced, one of which was the cost of hosting facebook applications which pretty much nullified the profits any small application made. This led to a lively debate about how much more facebook needed to do to help the development community.

Next up was Mohak Gupta, a student from IIIT who showcased his idea for an application that would help users follow updates on a priority basis and news items from different sources. Still under development, he was building this platform as part of his Masters course project. His work was much appreciated and several pats on the back told him he was going in the right direction.

Ending with an open house discussion the gathering of people showed enormous enthusiasm in finding our more about the graph api and how they could use it better. They questioned the facebook team on a variety of topics and privacy-the bane of facebook for the past few months-was given just a nominal mention. One can almost imagine Mark Zuckerberg smiling and thinking it was a very good idea to base the facebook office in Hyderabad!

The event was managed by iridium Interactive and we are looking to create an online+offline community of facebook developers who meetup, learn and grow their business through this exciting new platform!

If you are an application developer [mobile, social or web] do follow our blog to know of how we can partner to build great applications with mass appeal. Drop a line on our facebook or twitter profiles and lets talk.

How Social Media has changed humanity?

iridiumInteractive — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:16:15 +0000

“It is our nature to be social”, true, and I could not help but wonder how social media has given a whole new meaning to the word “social”. It has opened doors to meet new people, make bigger communities, and most importantly provided a platform to talk your mind out. With the advent of Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and countless other social networks, least have we realized how this has metamorphosed us into digital beings.

Last week as I spoke at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 and while sharing my experience on the Causeaneffect.org NGO initiative, it dawned onto me that social media has always been around, only its importance has accentuated in the last few years. Attending conferences all over the world and presenting the case of social media and the experiences of iridium Interactive, it was pretty apparent that social media has no barriers across countries, it is a unified digital revolution that has been transforming our lives, only under different names since more than a decade. How has it changed our lives has not been introspected yet.

Here are the some of the reasons how social media has changed our lives and why we should make the most of it.

1. It has made us more social, we know a lot more people than we would a few years back.

2. Larger networks- college friends, school friends, people we meet at social occasions, relatives, and friends met though friends, this used to be our typical networks, social media has exponentially increased our networks.

3. More vocal about your thoughts- Forums, blogs, tweets, status updates are allowing us to speak our mind, wondered why? Because we know we will be heard by some or many.

4. Enhances PR skills- you do not have to take PR lessons to talk to people on social media.

5. Converse with like minded people on these social networks.

6. Get in touch with thought leaders, influencers and even people who inspire you.

7. Reconnects with old connections- People you have lost in touch with since a decade can be traced from any corner of the world (provided they are on these networks themselves) on the wide world of social media.

8. Your virtual network is always ready to help. All it takes is to put forward a question and there you will have experts recommending the best to you.

9. Ease of companies to get in touch with their consumers and vis a vis.

10. Looking for a job or looking to hire someone, your professional network helps you find the best fit.

Social media brings out the extrovert you. All that matters in social media is your network, communities, connections and finally your discussions with them. Social media has reduced distances both for individuals and companies.

Have you seen a change in your social profile by social media, do post what you have gained from social media.

Image Source-Rosaura Ochoa from Flickr

Socialmedia-ness for Small and Smart Business Owners

iridiumInteractive — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:23:37 +0000

After talking about some small businesses who have made it big with social media. Now is your chance to follow suit and let the green notes flow into your business with this social media guide. But remember that just opening numerous social media accounts is not enough. As I always say have a plan, be determined and treat this as a full time business plan. Social media marketing is not a “walk in and receive instant results” platform; patience, perseverance and continuous steady efforts is what makes success stories with an earnest and honest approach.

Here are few ways you can start your social media activities:

Facebook Fan Page/ Profile: With hits more than Google, Facebook is emerging as a social media giant. They also provide a good platform for advertising and getting in touch with your customers and create your community in the long run.With their recent new editions to enter pretty everywhere on the web, facebook is expected to become the platform for consumer behaviors and brand advocacy.

Twitter: This is one platform that allows you to market your company within 180 characters. Easy as it seems it provides immense marketing capabilities.

Company Blog: This is one way small businesses can add great value to their firm. This can be a great way to share knowledge, the company culture with the world. Smart companies are again and again proving to be the ‘employer’ of choice not through their flashy websites anymore, but by the blogs. One key reason, company blogs bring the real story, videos of people fresh and alive. Interaction is the hot button.

Linkedin: I have already spoken on reaching out to your professional network through Linkedin. Make contacts, get in touch with like minded people, find potential employees and even get recognized in your field of work. Linkedin with its virtual networking opportunities is something much beyond your face-to-face networking.

And finally measuring your return on influence from social media, to analyse your progress in the social media space is one thing you should do even before you venture engaging with people online.

There are so many other means to start off with social media, these are the most popular ways of taking off and therefore my sweep-take. My next blog will talk about how small businesses can start off with facebook and its various applications.

There is one most important thing that has to be mentioned time and again, no matter how many social networks you are present in, what matters most is your presence, make yourself felt and do it the right way. Quality always wins over quantity as humans relate with people who respond and connect..slowly winning the social trust.

Image Source: Jon_Marshall’s Photostream on Flickr

Social Media Fundamentals with a flavor of "Marketing"

iridiumInteractive — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:15:44 +0000

Knowing that Social Media is a need not a choice…I am now sharing with you the flavor of “Social Media Marketing“. Social Media is driven by the people, solely for the people and is here to stay, tools may change or may get sophisticated. I was reading this somewhere and it immediately caught my attention- 78% people believe in peer recommendations and only 14% believe in advertisements. It was then I thought I should talk about Social Media Marketing.

Social Media Marketing is nothing but using Social Media as a platform for your marketing endeavours. It is the new way of marketing that has this unique ability to let consumers market for you, beautifully aligning your offline and online marketing. The industry gurus call it WOM (Word of Mouth) marketing. Social media in its real essence is interactive in nature, so when a company starts interacting directly with their customers, customers / stakeholders fundamentally tend to relate more with the brand and indirectly become brand ambassadors for such companies.

These customers then spread their marketing messages organically. Most successful social media compaigns include consumer engagement, corporate transparency and community building.

So many companies now have blogs, newsletters, accounts in various social networking sites like facebook, twitter, myspace, linkedin etc. this is solely for the purpose of giving their consumers a real time view of what is actually happening within the company. Building trust by engaging in conversations and creating transparent avatar is what these companies are successfully doing in their social media marketing activities.

Companies who restrain from using social media marketing are missing out on the huge coverage social media has to offer which no other traditional marketing tools have to offer. And guess what….it is extremely cost-effective low cost marketing platform with a reach you cannot comprehend, if you have something fresh to voice …it gets heard ! that will help you derive huge consumer following and build your brand credibility that traditional media alone can no-more promise.

Social Media for your Business is Not a Choice..Its a Need

iridiumInteractive — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:39:35 +0000

What took the radio 38 years to accomplish, Facebook achieved double of it within 9 months? Well, I am talking about the 1 billion users Facebook recently achieved. Social media has transformed the way consumers respond to you. Traditional marketing was all about creating a need for consumers but now it is catering to the needs of consumers- its the network effect. Shouting and hard selling will not reach people. Social media is no less than a evolution that has taken people astorm.

People by their very nature are social. Companies, businesses thrive on people and their opinions. No surprises then, that Social media has it own reasons to evolve with more and more social networking sites mushrooming every single day. Whether you like it or not, accept it or not, there is so much being said about you- with or without you. If you choose not engage, you are simply giving up the ability to manage and influence what’s being said…

It has become an imperative need to listen to what your stakeholders are saying about you in this social space before planning any marketing strategy. In a recent global CMO survey, over 90% of companies confirm that they are allocating over 25% of their marketing mix budgets to social media / digital marketing initiatives. They are understanding this critical need to participate in continuous consumer interactions that engages users with opportunities to share their opinions.

There are so many online social networking sites from facebook, twitter, orkut, flickr, digg, technorati, myspace, linkedin, picasa and so many more. When you search for Social Media on Google you get 210,000,000 results. Whaoo!! This can be rather intimidating for someone who is just looking at implementing this very popular phenomena people just cant stop talking about in the business context.

@iridiuminter, having the depth and breath of social media for over a decade, @iridiuminter digital strategy team enjoys placing the social footprints for our clients everyday with a robust relevancy and reach that delivers tangible online growth engines for them.So, it is time to question your marketing plans and explore the new dimensions of online growth opportunities right now.

In my bid to share the knowledge and experience on Social Media Marketing and Monitoring, I will take you through these stories in my upcoming series and help you set your fortress of Social media.

iridium Interactive gets the coveted Online Partner of NASSCOM status for third consecutive year…

iridiumInteractive — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:32:37 +0000

As the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum (NILF) convenes from Feb 9^th to Feb 11^th this year, it gives me great pleasure to be present in Mumbai for the 18^th edition of this annual conference as NASSCOM’s official online partner. iridium Interactive got this status for the third consecutive year. We have partnered with NASSCOM to create a SOCIAL Networking product, called NASSCOM Connect, to add value to every NASSCOM NILF delegate’s experience. NASSCOM Connect is a social networking platform which is a combination of Linked-in and Facebook, that will help attendees and delegates to maintain ties and continue their dialogue in the virtual space. A unique platform, the NASSCOM Connect enables the delegates to touch base with each other before the event kicks off on February 9th at Mumbai this year.

I completely look forward to this epic forum since it is undoubtedly Asia’s largest leadership conference with a diverse mix of inspirational experts from the industry. Flooded by the outpour of registrations, NILF boasts of a record registration of 1650 delegates this year from countries all over the world and India. This is going to be one opulent event with the stalwarts of the IT industry who will be present there.

Exactly this time around last year when the economy was caught in the clutches of recession the theme of the event was mainly focussed on how to tackle the downturn. This year holds particular importance as the industry recovers from the financial slowdown, we look forward to new times, new dimensions, new outlooks and the opportunity to explore new directions which is also the theme of this event this year ‘New Times, New Ideas, New Directions’

Do check this out….

The NASSCOM EVENT online destination: http://indialeadershipforum.nasscom.in
NASSCOM EVENT BLOG : http://indialeadershipforum.nasscom.in/blog
NASSCOM EVENT NETWORKING PORTAL : http://indialeadershipforum.nasscom.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=92

You can also avail the live updates from NILF from : http://indialeadershipforum.nasscom.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=207&Itemi d=262

DNA Mumbai Edition Feature on Social Media and the Web Do gooders- an interview with Sriram Bharatam

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:00:05 +0000

A web of do-gooders

R Krishna / DNA

Sunday, December 27, 2009 0:48 IST

Mumbai: Sriram Bharatam, founder and CEO, iridium Interactive, an internet consultancy firm based in Hyderabad, runs a non-profit called Cause an Effect Foundation. Last week, the foundation installed a water treatment facility in a village near Hyderabad. Bharatam, who was in the village to oversee the operations, started tweeting and updating his Facebook status message about what he saw there — the villagers, their culture and the curiosity they showed in the project.

Within a few hours, close to 100 people on his network responded, says Bharatam. “Initially, the comments were about how great the project was. Then, a few started asking more serious questions such as ‘What is reverse osmosis?’. I started getting into the details like the chlorine levels in the water which can cause disability, and that it takes Rs2 lakh to install a water treatment unit. It was then that five people came forward to donate money. In one day, I inspired these five people to give around Rs10 lakh.”

According to Bharatam, 10 years ago he would have had to put in a lot of effort convincing people. “Today, I am having a simple conversation and call to action is happening.”

The internet, especially social networking, is a great enabler for people who have a cause, but lack the wherewithal to get a large number of people to pay attention offline. Ask Ranjeet Walunj, a Mumbai-based professional, who started The Sapling Project this month. The project aims to get people all over the city to plant saplings (which were given away for free at the inaugral event) and nurture them for two years.

Walunj and his friend Satish Vijaykumar with whom he started the project, talked extensively about The Sapling Project on Twitter and Facebook. “The first level of contact with people we have is on social media,” says Walunj explaining why social media was central to The Sapling Project. “We could have opted for offline media, but the problem is that I cannot measure its impact. For example, I won’t know how many people will come for distribution. But in online media, I know exactly who is doing what. Measurability is an important reason for opting for social media.”

There was also an off-shoot. Following Walunj’s posts, bloggers from Chennai and Bangalore too got interested and started chapters of the Sapling Project in their cities.

Collaborative Tool
Social media can be used not just to raise money, spread the word or get people together. It’s a great tool for collaboration and drawing upon a diversity of expertise. IIT Bombay, for example, has built an online service called aAqua (aaqua.org) that allows farmers to post queries related to farming or allied activities (such as setting up a dairy).
According to Krithi Ramamritham of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at IIT Bombay, a set of experts from various Krishi Vigyan Kendras and some agricultural universities then provide solutions to the problems which the farmers can implement.

This is similar to Yahoo Answers, where you post any question, and someone from the community provides the answers. The key difference, Ramamritham points out, is that “both the farmers and experts are shy of computers.” Still, after about five years of operation, close to 15,000 people have registered with aAqua and now around 25,000 farmers get their answers on SMSes, says Ramamritham.

Social media’s “reach” however does not ensure success. Many causes that grow through tweets and pokes fizzle out quickly. Netra Parikh who works with Pinstorm, a Mumbai-based online marketing agency, and an active Tweeter, says, “I myself have experienced that. Causes tend to fizzle out due to lack of consistency, determination, and focus. But most important, one needs to own that cause.”

Beyond I, Me, Myself
Bharatam agrees. “Conversation is merely the trigerring point to start anything. And social media is where conversations happen. But you have to follow up. A casual conversation should turn into a serious conversation, then into an organised conversation, which finally will result in concrete action.” Bharatam who started Cause an Effect as a website to raise money to help victims of the 1999 Orissa cyclone, says that while the online medium makes things easier, it is also very demanding. “Internet itself was a new concept in India when I first started the website. People wanted to know who I was and how they could be sure I wouldn’t run away with the money. It took a week for me to convince people about the cause. Initially we were asking people to send in cheques. But that was taking too long. So we set up a system where people could wire the money. Next, someone suggested that we put up a payment gateway so people could pay with credit cards. I didn’t even know what an online payment gateway was!” Bharatam was just an ordinary citizen with a regular job when he started the website. But it turned out to be a 24/7 job. “I don’t know whether people have that kind of commitment. If you look at Twitter or Facebook right now, it is all about I, me, myself. There is no agenda. There is no focused activity. If there’s a single point agenda, people will respond to you.”

NASSCOM CONNECT – Innovative Social Networking Tool For A Global Event

iridiumInteractive — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:09:42 +0000

The NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009, a milestone event that will mark NASSCOM’s 20th year, will bring under one roof industry leaders, thought gurus, analysts, Government decision makers, academia and IT users from across the world. The conference will be attended by Global CEOs, International CIOs, Analysts, Consultants, Influencers, Thought Leaders, Academicians and Senior Government Officials and will feature multiple forums and conclaves in parallel tracks across three days. NASSCOM 2009 will offer participants a vast spectrum of must-attend keynote addresses, panel discussions, and special sessions that will touch on the important issues concerning the IT-BPO industry.

The ‘NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009’ will be held from February 11-13, 2009 at the Hotel Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. The theme for this years’ event is “Reshaping the global economy”.

It is a matter of joy and pride that Iridium interactive, has partnered with NASSCOM to create a SOCIAL Networking product, called NASSCOM Connect, to add value to the NASSCOM NILF delegate experience. NASSCOM Connect is a social networking platform which is a combination of Linked-in and Facebook, that will help attendees and delegates to maintain ties and continue their dialogue in the virtual space. A unique platform, the NASSCOM Connect enables the delegates to touchbase with each other before the event kicks off on February 11th at Mumbai. Within the last week we have seen 40,359 page impressions with about 1,000+ connections amongst the delegates, for this platform.

With ‘NASSCOM Connect’, delegates can benefit from the following:

Connect with delegates before and after the event.
Meet delegates who are attending the same sessions to discuss similar experiences and challenges around the topic.
Meet other delegates to compare notes on exhibitors and products.
Meet exhibitors to learn more about their products and services.
Powerful Search Features will enable finding new delegates of specific skills, interests and geographic location.

In Mumbai, NASSCOM CONNECT will have all that is needed to give an opportunity to delegates, exhibitors, speakers, editors and analysts to introduce, network, ideate and Engage with each other prior to arriving at the event.

Do check this out….

The NASSCOM EVENT online destination: http://indialeadershipforum.nasscom.in
NASSCOM EVENT BLOG : http://indialeadershipforum.nasscom.in/blog
NASSCOM EVENT NETWORKING PORTAL : http://www.nasscom.in/connect