Cross posted at | Praval’s Musings |.

After attending the NASSCOM CEO forum with Bill Gates, I was proud to be invited for Google Analytics University program held at the Google office in Gurgaon, earlier this month. Out of several hundred applicants, around a 100 were invited for the event. We had a couple of bloggers/tweople from Delhi with major segment of people from SEM/PPC and related digital marketing agencies across the country. There were folks who flew in from Mumbai for the event.

This was the first ever conference of it’s kind held at Google’s premises and we were live-tweeting the entire event with the hashtag #gacu. (Just like we did that at WordCamp, Proto, BarCamp Delhi and more…)

The outline of the program was to introduce GA to the uninitiated and evangelize the partnership program. Adsense-Adwords integration, Webmaster tools and Website optimizer were added verticals to the discussion.

The entire agenda was made available in advance with the list of speakers. Jesse, who flew in directly from from Google, Mountain View had some great insights on GA and the use of analytics in general. He stated,

Not having goals with GA is like being a 35 year old man who doesn’t have a job and doesn’t know what to do with his life.

The event was pretty interesting with most of agency guys popping some kick ass questions and the Google team responding them to satisfaction.

Why this event?

The idea was to spread the word for the partnership program that GA runs to get more members on board. The other motive was to help people understand the importance of web analytics and GA’s stand in the market. The stress was on the fact that GA is free for use, both for individuals and enterprises.

At some point or the other, most of the web workers who work on domains, blogs and likewise have had used an analytics tool. The fact however is for how long? The desire of checking the website stats is often killed if one doesn’t get to see some high traffic on his/her website. However, the crux is to understand the loop holes and rectify them. Figuring out the ways to increase traffic and fix a website by optimizing it to the best is the key to get good traffic.

Google as always had some interesting freebies to giveaway along with the awesome food they hosted!

You may want to check out a few pictures we took at the event;

How so much you curse Microsoft for its softwares, tools, ideology and more, there is no second thought on the fact that Mr. Bill Gates is one of the most respectable person when it comes to working for welfare in India.

Last month, I was invited to the – “NASSCOM CEO’s forum with Mr. Bill Gates on Transforming India Through Technology” at The Taj Hotel, New Delhi. Mr. Gates was in India to receive the prestigious Indira Gandhi award for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf Gates and Melinda foundation.

The session was short and concise as expected. Gates started off with his thought,

“Over the next decade, the entire way we interact with computers shall change”.

He said that the use of mobile phones would move on to identifying people and identify diseases. He also talked about remote healing mechanisms which would become popular in times to come.

Bill Gates condemned the policy of American government on data privacy and immigration.

The event hosted some of the leading entrepreneurs from various sectors which included automobiles, health and medicine, technology and more. Gates tried to concentrate himself on pitching in how technology shall change the way we work, the way we deal with diseases and more.

He also explained why he had to shut down his facebook account after getting several thousand invitations within a few days of joining the service. He proudly says that he loves being away from computers and doesn’t call himself a 24-hour technology person! He is not a mobile device crazy guy but loves seeing youngsters use them! Gates though confesses that he loves reading and does it often off screen.

On being asked about his views on social networking, he said that this has been prevalent for long time and it’s just a buzz word.

Elaborating on the consequences of recession, he said that recession has definitely not put a pause on innovation and companies like Microsoft are still investing in India on such verticals.

Gates had mixed views on the national ID project which is to be headed by Mr. Nandan Nilekani. He said that a similar project in the U.S. was not successful.

The event showcased some of the great insights Bill Gates has on technology and health and medicine related avenues.

The event was live blogged by Paritosh Sharma on the NASSCOM EMERGEOUT blog.

I shall look forward the NASSCOM’s Emerge Out Conclave scheduled on 28th of August at Le Meredian, New Delhi.

Image Credits: NASSCOM blog

India is country where Internet media is still propagating the roots of the society. People are now using the online banking facilities with more confidence and trust as never before. Internet for people is now proving to be more than just emails and Google search. A credit to this can be shared with the broadband penetration in India.

India: Where old is still the gold!

Without more people joining the social networks like Orkut and facebook, brands are finding it easy to spread the word about them over the web. Social media companies have just begun to leverage the same, despite the dreary desert of recession having hit them.

Still, there lies a disconnect between the end users, corporations, marketing and media planning people. For this, we need social media uniformity and trust. There is still time before the internet media shall match the traditional media presence, but the rate at which this is growing is huge.

A decade ago, while Pyra labs was building the first blog engine – Blogger,  a lot of internet users did not have an idea of what would possibly be a huge success. Weblogs would carry more information than a traditional website ever did. Social media communities, blogging, twitter, etc. were beyond expectation for many.

Online shopping and internet reservations brought nightmares while online dating was gaining good heights. Registering on a matrimonial website was almost a crime.

Even today, online advertising is not as lucrative as it is in the west. A lot of major corporations are still not tracking referrals from other sites. The oldest memory one can have of anything “social” on the web in India are mailing lists or egroups.

India still has miles to go in terms of adoption of the internet as a complete source of information and the alignment of infrastructure to support that. The available infrastructure is limited to urban and semi-urban areas and penetration of technology is still a myth here in most cases.

Social media Optimization and Social media Marketing are the hot trends in the market. Most companies hire a social media strategist for getting what they still fail to figure out. The situation today is a little dicey with most companies who work and provide such consultin services.  Boosting up a brand identity is what most businesses want, but there still needs to be a formal method of doing it known to the social marketing gurus.

Image credits: Frisko Dude

Who is an Social Entrepreneur and what is social entrepreneurship?

Wikipedia says,

Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.

What was once known to be a passion for celebrities is now turning out to be an entrepreneurship platform. Working for a cause and working with people who work for a cause is a trending scenario.

Typical traits of a social entrepreneur include being ambitious and persistent for tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change. Social entrepreneurs prefer to motivate people and society to bring in radical changes in the system by education the pros and cons of the current structure and thought process of the society.

The cause may range from avoiding communal riots to fighting terrorism by reinforcing steps which educate people against these social barriers. The idea is to help a nation to become more civilized and hence develop at a faster pace.

NGO’s are so far the best examples of existing efforts in this domain. A lot of them work for children, old age citizens, wildlife and women. NGOs like WildlifeSOS carry out drives to save the wildlife. Helpage-India aims to work for the welfare of senior citizens of the country. Breakthrough works for several social causes by means of campaigns like BellBajao.

There are more organizations which hire people for full time to help provide mid day meals in government schools. The idea is to work for the nation and society.

If you wish to experience more of what people have to say and how can they work for the society, you may want to participate in the Tata Jagriti Yatra 2009. The registrations are now open.

If you like to read more on social entrepreneurship, here is an assorted collection from the Print Room at Ashoka.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this and speculate the effect of such initiatives.

Image Credits: Carf

Facebook recently started the feature to have vanity URLs for user and fan page profiles. The minimum number of fans needed to create a vanity URL for a fan page is now reduced to 100.

MediaRedefined had previously worked for clients to build fan pages and popularize them on facebook. However, we had a very dormant facebook page of ours. Two days ago, we decided to get the vanity URL for us and saw that we have less than 10 followers on our company fanpage. I know this was a sheer negligence on our part. We decided to reach the 100 fans mark ASAP. What happened next is now a history!

24 hours hence and MediaRedefined fan page on facebook had 100+ followers. We were fast enough to grab the vanity privilege! We’re now looking forward to extend this drive to be a campaign of getting more than 500 fans.

The dent we wish to make here is that if you need to achieve a target in a short span of time, take it as a drive and not a task. There is a thin line of difference between the two but what matters is the end result. We’re glad that we just proved the same!

Still, we haven’t had to send personalized emails requesting people to log on to facebook and add us as a friend! It was just our friend network on facebook that did the magic. A polite invitation with a rapid action did the magic.

Let us know if you’re targeting for quick social media outreach on networking websites, who knows some of our services would prove to be handy for you.

Watch out for the next story soon!

Web and social media has almost struck the mainstream media. Bloggers are now considered to be one of the best people to help spread the word for a brand, product or event. Sponsored Blogger’s meet are now taking the shape that is analogous to Press Conferences.

Recent blogger’s meet organized by Nokia and Lenovo are clear examples of the same. Nokia did a nationwide promotional blogger’s meet across various cities to help promote their newly launched Nokia N97 mobile. Lenovo is doing the same this month to help review and launch their new set of consumer desktops and laptops.

We at MediaRedefined were invited to attend the blogger’s meet yesterday at All sports bar, C.P., New Delhi. The event saw some other prominent bloggers of the city. We got a chance to play with the latest technology at Lenovo.

The idea behind such meet-ups is to involve the bloggers of a city under one roof and help spread the word out. The strategy behind works under most conditions unless the product is pathetic! The product company gets mixed responses from the bloggers. A lot of them criticize the product while others tend to appreciate the same. Bloggers find a reason and venue to unite and discuss their lives as well.

There were a live tweets published on the fly on twitter by the fellow bloggers.

Overall, a good way to unite the bloggers of a city and promote a product launch.

Image Credits: Mayank Gupta ; Effects: MediaRedefined

A blog is perhaps one of the best ways to convey a message or provide an update on what’s happening within a startup. However, micro blogging has taken the front seat for the same cause.

Today, we want the information to spread out within quick time and with lesser efforts. What once used to get published in the form of a blog post gets viral at times just by a tweet! That by no means indicate that blogs have lost their charm. The best way to educate people with the inside scoop is a blog.

We at Media Redefined have been dormant on this blog of ours for long. More importantly, the portfolio page has been missing out on updates. We’re glad to announce that we have added more clients to the list along with more employees!

Last 4 months (and a half) have seen us grow from individual freelancers to a team of enthusiastic web workers. We got ourselves a furnished office space, 4 new employees and half a dozen new clients. Our designers and developers have worked on some of outstanding projects on website development and marketing. We are glad that one of the premier institutes of technology – NSIT, New Delhi has invited us to conduct a placement drive at their campus for this session.

Our consulting services have helped companies like Navatar Group to setup and start a Salesfore blog. Real estate Companies like Vigneshwara Developers and Lakshish now have a website with various new age features that include VOIP calling, chat server, picture gallery and more.

While we were busy with our clients, we offered our support to BarCamp Delhi 6th edition held at MDI, Gurgaon. We were the social media partners for the event and helped in spreading the word by means of campaigns and contests. Despite an odd location, BCD6 had more than 100 foot-falls. We’re planning to help the next edition of BarCamp Delhi with our efforts and online evangelism.

The latest feather in our cap is the NIIT University website which has been built from scratch at our very own MR Labs. It is a classic example of how WordPress can be customized as an excellent CMS. We’re proud to handle the entire support and maintenance of the NIIT University website as well. We are also hosting the website with us.

The next moves include building up a dedicated Sales and Marketing team to carry out the business development operations. We’re looking for smart and experienced individuals in the relevant domain. If you know someone who has it in him/her, kindly refer the concerned person to us.

Stay tuned for more news and gossips!

MR Team.

After BarCampDelhi –6, folks from Punjab are coming up with the first ever BarCamp in their state – BarCampPunjab-1.

As we know,

BarCamp brings together great young minds, startups, entrepreneurs, Venture capitalists, media and experienced professionals on a common platform. This platform serves as a place to share their thoughts and ideas and thus helps to create new talent.

If you’re interested in technology, mobility, art, social business, sustainability, micro-finance, culture or design, do register yourself for the event.

You may check out the sessions or schedule one for yourself as well! Feel free to talk, share, network with peers and of course have some good food!

Go ahead and register yourself today.

Details of the event:

Date - March 8, 2009  (Sunday)

Time -  9 AM – 5 PM

Venue - Room No. 304, 3′rd Block, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab.

For more details,  contact 09781290306 (Rashmi) / 09463068880 (Danish) or by Email at barcamppb@gmail.com.

Happy Barcamping in Punjab!

Welcome aboard!

BarCamp Delhi – 6 is back again. If you haven’t registered for it yet, do it now. We at MediaRedefined have decided to add a new flavor to it by hosting two interesting contests.

Before that, make sure you’ve registered yourself at the bcd6 website to avoid any last minute rush.

1) BCD Virtual Talk – Blogging contest.

If you have a topic in your minds which you would have loved to speak on at any of the BarCamps and unfortunately couldn’t do it, here is the time to put it in words as a blog post on your own blog.

Details of the contest:

• Write a blog post of 500-1000 words on a topic of your choice that would be beneficial in some way or the other for the community.
• Give a linkback to this contest from within the blog post against the phrase “Blogging contest” so as we can get a trackback down here and identify you.
• The contest is live now and shall close on 27th February’2009 at 12 noon (IST).
• The winner shall be announced on the first day of the event.
• The decision of the judges shall be final in all respects.
• Use the tags ‘bcd6’ and ‘barcampdelhi’ for the post.

The giveaway:

The best article gets a .com domain of choice for along with a WordPress installation and hosting. All paid for an year!

2) BarClickDelhi – On the spot photography contest.

That was not all! If you’re passionate about clicking pictures on the go, we would love to see your work at BCD6! All you need to do is click pictures during the event and upload it on the BarClickDelhi Contest gallery page.

Details of the contest:

• All pictures need to be taken during the event within the venue premises.
• An individual can send a maximum of 3 pictures to participate in the contest.
• One can use a digital camera or a mobile phone camera.
• Edited/modified images shall not be considered as a participating entry. So please do not use Photoshop, Gimp, etc. to make them look better. We need natural looking pictures.
• You need to upload your photographs in a zipped file (along with your Name, email and contact number) on the BarClickDelhi Contest gallery page.
• The contest shall close at 1pm on day-2 of the event.
• The results shall be declared towards the end of day-2.
• The submissions shall be a property of MediaRedefined and the decision of the judges shall be final in all respects.

The giveaway:

The best shot gets an year’s subscription of Flickr Pro account worth 25$ from Mediaredefined!

Looking forward to hear from you soon!

See you at the event. Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is closed now. Please do not send us queries and submissions regarding the same. Thank you!

Image courtesy: Ayush Bhandari

A perfect day. Three laptops, a data-card and a self established wireless network; More than 60 people around us and 600 in all, within a distance of 100 meters. A few guys hovering around with containers full of soup, coffee, soft drinks and other eatables. All this, at a speed of more than 60 miles/hour! Yeah, we’re on board Shatabdi express from Delhi to Bangalore and we have just launched the website of ours – www.mediaredefined.com

There couldn’t have been a better launch site than this! Of course without the beer

While brainstorming on the possible ways to launch this much awaited website of ours, I could think of various options. A launch party at a hotel, a lounge, a press event, etc. were a few possibilities. Suddenly, I realized that we can keep things on the move while we are travelling to Bangalore for Proto – January’09 Edition. Finally we’re here, inside a train, making a launch on the move!

Before coning the website name, all we had was an idea of what we’re planning to do and of course an expertise as individual freelancers. After being in the web2.0 realm for a few years, we could sense that the first pillar to make the world know that you’re doing something serious is to have an office and a schedule. Having an office lead us to having a brand, a firm, a vision. Hence took birth – mediaredefined.

A few words about us – the founders.

After working in the domain of website design, development, content and social media evangelism we wanted to come up with a cornerstone studio to provide an assortment of web 2.0 services with a flavor – social media.

Check out the About page to know what we do and how can we help you rejuvenate your brand, your business, event using new age social media applications, tools and strategies. Thereafter you may want to have a look at the set of services we currently offer for our clients. As a portfolio, we have worked individually on various projects. Check out the portfolio page to know who has banked on us for our services.

If you’ve any plans to work with us, feel free to send us your resume. We’re always open for hiring talent and expertise. Check out the careers page for specific openings.

At any point of time, we welcome pat-on-the-back as well as criticisms alike. Feel free to contact us for anything and everything you would like to share with us. We shall acknowledge the same.

We hope the year 2009 and ahead is a good time for you, your family, friends and business.

Peace out!