Monday, December 19, 2016

Beyond the Bottle

(My article in the Business World)


Consumers have begun to look beyond the product and at the purpose beyond profit. It’s no longer about selling soaps, it’s about saving lives.

Purpose is what galvanises an organisation to action. It’s a seed which grows to drive employees from within, often giving meaning to their work. It’s what inspires the consumers too. It’s not a mere slogan to be created by an agency and tucked away beneath the logo or printed on a handbook.

Why is it more relevant now?
Traditionally, marketers told consumers what they were supposed to want. Not any longer. Today, consumers are making choices based on certain values and purpose. People don’t “buy what you do” people “buy why you do.” Simon Sinek in his famous Ted Talk says, “the goal is not to do business with people who need what you have, but to sell to those believe in what you believe.” People stood in long queues to buy an iPhone, not just because it was a great product, but because they believed in what Apple was wanting to do. Every choice made by the consumer is driven by an internal purpose.

Read full article: https://goo.gl/pRI9Sk

Thursday, December 15, 2016

The Digital Marketing Hunt That Never Was

(A digital marketing poem)















I had a problem
And sought an answer

They threw annoying popups
Even sent me offers

They asked me to sign up a form
To send me a solution

They passed me through a funnel
Tossed me a whitepaper or two

Roasted like a turkey
Grilled like a chicken

I wanted them to listen
They wanted to talk

I let them be

And kept my money safe.

Rajasekar KS 
He tweets on content and social media marketing at https://twitter.com/positivemantra

Friday, December 9, 2016

Technology Disruptions Spur Growth of the Gig Economy in India

(My article in The Economic Times)

Not long ago the only people looking for gigs were artistes, musicians and writers. The rest were looking for a secure day job.

But in recent years, disruptive technology platforms like Airbnb, Ola, Uber, Olx and Quickr have opened new dimensions of “part-time” or independent work. The gig economy has truly arrived. Digitisation has opened new avenues for making “extra money” on the side. These consumer-to-consumer platforms allow the buyer and seller to meet, while the platforms just provide technology to connect the two.

Read the full article http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/catalysts/technology-disruptions-spur-growth-of-the-gig-economy-in-india/1988 

Friday, December 2, 2016

Raise your voice, not your hands

Pic: Pixabay
Let not thy hands be raised against a woman
Let thy hands be raised for her support
 
Let not thy voice be raised against a girl
Let thy voice be raised for her cause
 
Let not thou stalk her
Let thou walk along with her
 
Let not thou treat her as weak
Let thou help free her shackles
 
Let not thou disregard her pursuits
Let thou respect her views
 
By doing this you’re not changing her future
You’re changing your future too
 
Celebrate her life, celebrate your future.

KS Rajasekar
Twitter.com/PositiveMantra

My poem for 2017 #LaadliAwards

Monday, November 28, 2016

World's First Content Marketing Poem

pic: DawnMedia

If ever you create content…

(a poem for content marketers)

It should be for the customer,
not the company

It should pitch for the customer,
not to the customer

It should provide customers a solution,
not an excuse

It should make customers feel smart,
not the company

It should solve the customer’s problem,
not yours

It should have a purpose,
not a purchase

Rajasekar KS
https://in.linkedin.com/in/rajasekarks
Perhaps the world's first content marketing poetry.

Friday, November 18, 2016

This Man Quit the Corporate World to Embrace Indigenous Architecture and Build Eco-Friendly Homes

(My article in TheBetterIndia.com)


Anthony Raj worked in the corporate sector for several years before he learnt about indigenous architecture techniques and became fascinated by them. Today, he builds many eco-friendly homes in India. This is his story.

“My family wanted to invest in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Chennai, back in 2010. Our search led me to Mudaliarkuppam in Edaikazhinadu, about 80 km from the city. We were thrilled to see the huge banyan trees and the abundance of coconut, cashew, and palmyra trees there. The greenery in the area motivated us to build something that would be in sync with this beautiful land. So we came up with the idea of constructing a house using eco-friendly material, utilising indigenous architecture techniques,” says Anthony Raj, the founder-director of the Centre for Indigenous Architecture, which promotes wellness by constructing buildings using holistic architectural methods.


Anthony, who left the corporate world behind a few years ago, is currently involved in building organic habitats across the country, using an indigenous architectural approach.


Rajasekar KS: Read my full article here: http://www.thebetterindia.com/75211/anthony-raj-eco-friendly-construction-indigenous-architecture/

Friday, July 29, 2016

What Marketers Can Learn From the San Tribe in Africa

The San bushmen of the Kalahari desert have a unique way of hunting – running down the prey.

They first form a group, zero down on the slowest animal in a herd after following them for a while. Then they separate him from the rest of the group.

Next they decide to chase the animal. Their "persistence hunting" technique involves running, walking and tracking until the prey is exhausted.

And how?

One by one they take turns to chase the animal, not giving it time to rest. The animals because of excessive hair need to slow down and pant, to cool their bodies. Unlike humans who can sweat and cool down even as they run. Besides, the bushmen carry water bags to drink and pour on their heads to cool down further.

Watch this bushmen video: https://youtu.be/826HMLoiE_o

Because of this, while animals are pretty good in racing ahead in short sprints, they start slowing down when chased continuously.

This hunting continues as the bushmen take turns to rest and chase.

Until the final chase when the fastest runner among them continues the chase till the animal falls to the ground in sheer exhaustion.


And the bushmen take it home to feed their family.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

15 Amazing Facts About Warren Buffet

15 amazing facts about the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet.

At 8, he sold soft drinks and newspapers making more money than his teachers

At 11, he made his first investment & profit of $13 per share

By 13, he set up the business of selling his own horseracing tip sheet

At 13, he filed tax returns claiming his bike as a $35 tax deduction

At 16, he had made $53,000

In 1942, at high school, he started a pin ball business and sold it for $1200

At 14, he bought 40 acres of land from his own money

At 16, he studied Business at University of Pennsylvania

When he got out of college he had $10,000 from his businesses

In 1951, he sold securities for Buffet-Falk

In 1956, he set up his own company Buffet Partnership Ltd.

In early ‘60s he began accumulating stock of undervalued companies

At 30, he became a millionaire

After investing significantly in Coco Cola, he became its director from 1989-2006

In 2006, he announced his entire wealth of $62 Billion would go to charity








Saturday, June 18, 2016

You're not as bad as you think you are

Quite often we want to reassure ourselves that everything is fine with us. We dissect likes and comments on our social media shares. We constantly peer into mirrors even when pass by one in a showroom. We look closer at our self in a group photo as if to find out if there’s a flaw that others can see; and can we still change it. We are curious to her what friends said about us at a party we couldn't attend. We sometimes call people late at night to find out what someone said after we left the restaurant.


You're not as bad as you think you are.


You are much more capable than most people think you are. You are more caring than you think you are perceived to be. More intelligent, more beautiful and more strong than you believe right now.

Aah! So stop looking for validation from others. Stop looking at the mirror.

Look inside, look deeper.

And move your arse.

You are made to climb the Mt Everest, discover new oil fields, develop the app that will save this world, invent a drug to cure cancer, donate to save a sinking village and run the full marathon for a cause.

Move your arse. Just do it! (With or without Nike)


You're not as bad as you think you are.

Rajasekar KS

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

How Twitter Users Are Rigging the System And Why it Should Stop This to Save Itself in India


As everyone and his grandmother begin to understand the art of creating trends, Twitter has fallen prey to its own algorithm. It’s time to change and make way for meaningful conversations.

The trending algorithm is still in the nascent stages with very few and simple rules. A hashtag with a certain number of responses, by a certain number of users, in a short frequency has chances to trend.

This has led to insipid trends every day, to say the least. The trending hashtags are frequently about abusive personal attacks on public personalities, silly controversial conversation – political, cinema or trolls. Added to this, a quick study will reveal how “influencers” start the trends since the algorithm uses “Twitter users with a lot of followers” tweeting a certain hashtag as an indication that the conversation is important, useful, relevant for Twitter’s audience. While that may be true, it really doesn’t surface the kind of content or news that Indians would actually be delighted or curious to know.

The more meaningful conversations about India’s economic growth, women’s rights, children’s right to education, farmers’ plight, scarcity of drinking water, attacks on freedom of opinion, public opinion on important social and policy issues are buried under the top trends. If they have to surface to the top, Twitter has to make drastic changes to the way it spots trends. The fear that the engagement and growth seen now fuelled by those unscrupulous gamers may slow down should be quelled.

Although it will no doubt slow down the growth and engagement temporarily, it’ll be good for the long haul. And better revenue opportunities may crop up for the social media platform. Seriously, what money can you make when your users are active for just frivolous engagement?

Perhaps, much like the same way Microsoft allowed pirated windows software usage to pervade the market worldwide before a clamp down or Google allowed search engine optimisers to game it’s system for their own growth benefits before stopping it with it’s amazing algorithms, Twitter is keen to grow the market in India by turning a blind eye to the gaming of the system.

It would be foolish to suggest what they should do with its algorithm, Twitter has a brilliant team that has already done this in other regions.

All I can say is that Twitter may well lose the true influencers who can change the course of its journey in India, if it doesn’t act now.

Rajasekar KS is a content and social media strategist who tweets at @positivemantra. When he's not playing with his family of one loving wife and two caring daughters, he blogs at www.positivemantra.com. He travels to connect to himself and the universe.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Linkedin Now Reveals What You Didn't Know About Competition


By showing interesting data on total employee count, employee distribution by function, new hires, notable alumni and total job openings, Linkedin has made it interesting for you to know what are your competition’s current plans, where it’s resource strength lies and it’s new business opportunities.

Launched recently, Premium Insights provides an insight into companies you may be tracking for pitching your service/ product to them; offers insight into competition hiring and movement; shows you distribution of resources in different departments; displays new hires; key senior leadership that has moved out of the company and the entire job openings of the company.

For marketers, I feel there’s tremendous data to interpret and pitch for accounts.

It does provide angel investors some insight into companies they may be tracking.

For those taking interviews at a company, it helps to know what you’re getting into.

Of course, for media doing industry stories, there’s a story hidden in each of these data buckets.

As it pushes aggressively for revenues and growth, Linked is making the right moves in making itself relevant and useful for its premium customers.

Get insight into competition's plans, identify right companies to pitch to and more with Linked's Premium Insight.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

11 Famous Forecasts That Went Awfully Wrong

From technology, media to science, here are some famous predictions by respected men that went awfully wrong. Curated by Rajasekar KS I Twitter.com/positivemantra

No market for photocopiers

The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.
— IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, 1959

Cars will go, horses will stay

The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.
— President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, against investment in the Ford Motor Company, 1903

Computers at home? eh!
There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
- Ken Olsen, President, Chairman and Founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, in 1977

Who wants a computer

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
– Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

People will get bored of the idiot box
Television won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
– Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946

Titanic can’t be damaged

I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.
- Edward J. Smith, captain of the Titanic, 1912

iPhone will have no market
There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.
— Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, 2007

Online shopping is a fad
Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop because women like to get out of the house, like to handle the merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.
– Time Magazine, 1966

This phone has no value

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
– Western Union internal memo, 1876

Computers are too heavy
Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics magazine, 1949

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

If love and respect is no longer being served, get up from the table!

If love and respect is no longer being served, get up from the table!

To all those struggling with bad relationships. Always, choose the right people to have a coffee (read: relationship) together. Exercise your choice well so that you don't regret later.

When you begin to tolerate people who don't care for your feelings, it soon begins to lower your spirits and pulls you down to depths of misery.

Not just this you also begin to feel the pain that never seems to go away, especially at nights. And it seemingly hurts whatever positive energy you can summon.

You don't have to suffer this, when you make life better getting them out of your life.
Because you have the power, the choice to decide. So don't make an excuse.

If love and respect is no longer being served, get up from the table!

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Why you don't own what you post on social media?


Did you know that some services and apps you use may be snooping on your personal information, edit contacts, reading your texts and even send emails without your permission. And services like Google, Facebook and Linkedin have the rights to edit, distribute and modify the content you upload. 

Data Privacy Day passed by on January 28, now let's take a look at a few services and mobile apps terms and conditions and you'll be shocked at the permission you've granted.
 
Linkedin can modify and distribute your content without permission
As between you and LinkedIn, you own the content and information that you submit or post to the Services and you are only granting LinkedIn the following non-exclusive license: A worldwide, transferable and sublicensable right to use, copy, modify, distribute, publish, and process, information and content that you provide through our Services, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or others. Read full terms https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement
 
Google can translate or adapt your content
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. https://www.google.com/policies/terms/
 
Facebook has global license to all that you post
You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition: For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms
 
Whatsapp keeps track of all your contacts 
You expressly acknowledge and agree that in order to provide the Service, WhatsApp may periodically access your contact list and/or address book on your mobile device to find and keep track of mobile phone numbers of other users of the Service. https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/
 
Torchlight apps can use your pictures on any advertisement
You give us permission to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/18762/20141026/flashlight-apps-are-spying-on-users-android-ios-windows-phone-smartphones-is-yours-on-the-list.htm
 
Users want the service free and companies need revenue. Therefore, these terms and conditions are not going to change any sooner. But the point is that users are unaware of the unconditional permission provided to the service providers. 

Think you own your online life? The truth is NO. 

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

The Truth About Influencer Marketing in India


Influencer marketing is at a very nascent stage in India. Most brands are engaging in trending hashtags, but that's just one tiny bit of influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is all about creating opportunities for conversations about your brand. And like any typical marketing, acquisition is the end goal.Conversation shrinks or expands in proportion to your investment in social media and marketing.

At the heart of a good influencer marketing campaign is content. Good content makes brands feel good, great content makes consumers feel smart. Content is now being discovered by consumers through conversations. Content is the pollen that social media bees spread from one flower to another. But social media is not about merely sharing your content, it's about adding value to the consumer's life.

Real influencers are those who collaborate with brands to amplify the message to audiences who may need it. Influencer marketing is a lot like gardening. You sow a seed of conversation, nurture it and it yields fruits of buzz about your service. It's certainly not just contests and brand hashtags on Twitter.

Social media offers tremendous potential for brand advocacy and engagement. People trust recommendations from friends they know. That's why marketers are keen to leverage influencer marketing.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

8 Indian Selfies Where Tragedy Struck


Selfies seem to be everywhere these days: at political rallies, parties, in front of running trains and at the edge of high rise buildings. People seem to be dying to take a selfie that could earn them 5 minutes of social fame. Taking a selfie seems cool, but not for these people who unknowing played with fate.

Train mows down teen taking a selfie


On Feb 2nd this year, a teenager who took a selfie before a running train in Chennai was killed on the spot. This turned the spotlight again on the lurking dangers for daredevil mobile phone snappers.

Elephant chases selfie takers

Two young men from Kannur, Kerala, who dared to take selfies with a tusker behind them were chased out of the forest by the elephant. While they escaped, it sparked outrage on social media.

Girls washed away in Mumbai

Three college girls who perched themselves on the egde of a rock, near Mumbai's Bandra Fort, and took a selfie fell into the waters when a huge wave hit them. Two of them were rescued by an onlooker who was himself drowned while trying to rescue the third girl. http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/3-girls-fall-into-sea-while-clicking-selfie-man-drowns-in-rescue-bid/

A boat ride to hell

In Nagpur last year, 7 youth died while attempting to take a selfie on a boat. The boat tilted to one side and drowned them all.

Daredevils on rail track meet death

Three college students who were driving to Agra were suddenly seized by the urge to do a selfie on a railway track at Mathura. The daredevilry went horrible as the train mowed them down, even as a fourth was shooting the whole drama on a camera.

Man falls off Jodhpur Fort rampart

While on a holiday at Jodhpur Fort, 23-year-old Nikhil Prajapat who was to get married in 10 days, climbed on to a rampart to take a selfie. He lost balance, fell several feet down and died. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/two-men-drown-in-doon-jodhpur-while-trying-to-click-a-selfie/story-xSpBqcGbPVqV3jSAq3unnL.html

Drunk youth slips into canal

A youth who was allegedly drunk tried taking a selfie on the Shaktinahar canal, around 40km from Dehradun, and slipped into the canal. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/two-men-drown-in-doon-jodhpur-while-trying-to-click-a-selfie/story-xSpBqcGbPVqV3jSAq3unnL.html

Australian tourist falls into 30-feet well

An Austrian tourist, Friedel, who was on a tour of Junagarh Fort in Gujarat fell into a 30-foot well while attempting to take a selfie. Passersby who created a rope by tying together pieces of cloth, managed to pull him out. http://www.india.com/stream/selfie-disaster-averted-austrian-tourist-fells-into-well-in-junagadh-fort-gets-rescued-in-thrilling-manner-video-906251/

While it's part of our visual culture to take selfies at every half opportunity, risky selfies are increasingly causing disgust with many calling for "no-selfie zones" in every city . Fearing a stampede, a no selfie zone was imposed at this year's Kumbh Mela. Mumbai Police have identified 16 no-selfie zones after the recent selfie-related drowning.

Rajasekar KS is a content and social media strategist who tweets at @positivemantra. When he's not playing with his family of one loving wife and two caring daughters, he blogs at www.positivemantra.com He travels to connect to himself and the universe.