iSocial Media: What’s your Klout?

What your Klout score? A very frequent question being asked by Social Media team at iLeadFarmers. What is it really? and Why is it so important? and Why has it triggered off a competitions amongnt iLeaders, where even the CXX team members are competing?

What are you on Klout? Influencer, Broadcaster, Networker? What does being any of these determine?

We have a saying here at iLeadFarmers, “Business is all about P2P, People to People”, designations don’t talk to each other, websites, logos don’t meet and close deals. It’s people connecting, interacting, emoting, expressing, sharing and trying to create value for each others businesses.

It’s people who are evaluating people & enterprises with whom they want to do business.

This is where Social Media comes across as a powerful tool, helping brands to reach out to their consumers & connect, interact, emote, express and share. Social Media is all about creating a powerful brand value v/s the nonsensible number game most Marketing & Sales teams play.

The important word here is “Social”. This is an era of “Social Business”, people want to see the faces behind the brand/product. People want to see the culture & employees, attitude which eventually influences their decision to make or break a deal.

But, what is the measure of this whole process? Is there any way to map & quantify the results that are being generated of going “Social”?

Have you heard about Klout? If NO, you should be quickly made aware that in USA, a poor Klout score can result in your resume not being considered for further evaluation for a job.

Klout has become an important parameter to measure your performance on Social Media. Your online persona, reach, ability to be heard & influence, quality – these are some attributes that Klout can measure & expose to the whole world.

Klout has revolutionalized social media by putting a crub on many  Social Media malpractices such as getting unrealistic fan followings through Automation tools & techniques. You cannot get past Klout as it evaluates quality over just quantity. It takes into consideration a variety of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, YouTube, Linkedin, Flickr, Instagram etc…

No amount on automation, tricks, bots can replicate human emotions & interaction and can certainly not fool a tool like Klout. It’s real and has become “The Standard for Influence” on social media. No wonder large enterprises such as Procter & Gamble & IBM are mobilizing huge teams & even their employees to jump onto social media & actually socialize their business.

Here are some tips from iLeaders, Social Media.

Facebook [Page]

New Timeline Advantages:

  1. Cover Photo which is very helpful in business or branding purpose.  Recommended size is 851 x 315 pixels.
  2. Admin can Highlight any specific post (if it’s important or want impressions) OR If you readers to read your selected post/story first then just select “Pin to Top” for a particular post, it will be on top of the Timeline for next 7 days.
  3. Admin can now allow users to interact via sending Personal Message to Admin and making easier for private conversation.
  4. Another great feature is “Milestones” which can be used to highlight business biggest accomplishments such as fan growth, product release etc.

I recommend publishing news/story more than once a day.

We have a competitive advantage to leverage the Facebook Timeline and tell our business story.

A small feature called as “Insights” which can help us in get to know the most engaged users info, country they belong and which of our story has spread virally.

It’s good to publish visual content more and more. 

Twitter

  1. Twitter is not a technology; it’s a conversation medium and it happening with you or without you.
  2. Think before following to any brand, people etc. as it also affects to your followers. It’s good to follow most influential people on Twitter.
  3. A great advantage is there, we can convey our stories into 140 words. Actually it’s a bit hard but People love to read short news or just “Headlines”.
  4. Whoever follows you, send a “Direct Message (DM)” to him/her saying Thank you for following and “Here after you can put your Facebook Profile/Page or Website link”.
  5. It’s not necessary to tweet about yourself, company or link every time. Show that you are a human and post normal tweets or do some public conversations by using “@username”.
  6. Recent Survey says that more than 100 million people actively tweeting or reading tweets.
  7. You can’t tweet same story again.

Google+

Google+ is a combination of Facebook & Twitter as connecting people & also there is a list of “Trending on Google+” in the top right side.

  1. Google+ has introduced new term knows as “Circles” which defines in two different ways. First, “n” no. of people has you in their circle and “n” no. of people are in your circle.
  2. Another newly term is “Plus One (+1)”. By doing +1, you are recommending that to public and it help in getting good rank. Number of +1s can make you stand out in “Trending on Google+” list and also help in getting good rank if you have a blog.
  3. Another feature is Google+ Hangouts that is video conferencing for free of cost and also any can join your “Hangout” (joining in video conference). [Still people recommends Facebook Video Calling because of great video quality]

These days people using Google+ for Business as through Google+ they can achieve a good rank for their website/products. [Note: When you recommended by others (+1), you get found online easily]

I think Google+ take some more time to get users engaged in it as Facebook & Twitter are their competitors.

Pinterest

  1. Pinterest, a newly concept introduced in March 2010. Not expected to grow fast because Pinterest has implemented concept of uploading pictures.
  2. Nowadays, Pinterest running successfully and achieving +0.5 million visitors daily. Conclusion is Everyday Traffic is increasing towards Pinterest.
  3. Pinterest has a special section of uploading videos, where users simply can pin your video if they like.
  4. Quality of Pinterest is improving daily as people are trying to put best of best picture (HD) on Pinterest.

Till now, Business on Pinterest wasn’t feasible but some of the Companies took initiative to explore themselves via Beautiful Pictures by uploading it on their respective Pinterest Account.

Plus, Pinterest SEO is powerful nowadays so easily Pinterest Profile can come up on the top of Google Search Results [First Page].

iLeadFarmers sets up overseas office in Dubai

Think Dubai and the first thing that comes to mind is a city of astounding affluence and ambitions.

This microcosm of the world is powered by a can-do spirit that redefines the zenith every day. The towering Burj Khalifa stands testimony to the uncompromising zeal of the emirate that turned the arid sands of the desert into a thriving ecosystem of commerce, industry and culture.

The iLeaders have much in common with The City of Life. Our obsession with growth has taken us places. No longer are we just another start-up in the woods ; we have bagged projects across the globe and left our competitors blue in the face. We can’t recall the last time we rested on our laurels.

There couldn’t be a better place for our first overseas office than Dubai.

 

Quite a few of our clients are based out of the Middle East. Their satisfaction with our services has resulted in a great deal of publicity among corporate houses in the region. Our new office shall live up to the standards of excellence we adhere to at our headquarters in India.

Moreover, Dubai sits pretty at the crossroads of the world. Its near-flawless civic administration and dynamic business environment have given it an edge over most other financial centres. Even as the world reels under the backlash of the economic downturn, the UAE’s economy continues to boom. Small wonder that it continues to draw entrepreneurs from every corner of this planet.

The Dubai office is more than a feather in our cap. It’s the beginning of a new era of challenges, accomplishments and growth.

Playing the number game?

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Although many of us profess a deep hatred for numbers, we grudgingly concede that they are indispensable to our world.

Numbers bestow order upon our chaotic existence.  Their near-magical properties help us quantify the various elements that constitute our lives.  Our day contains twenty four hours, our week seven days and our year twelve months.  Our houses are numbered, as are the buses and trains we take to work.  We create figure-loaded budgets and quantifiable sales targets.  We dream of achieving a six-figure salary and a bank balance of a few million dollars.

Suffice it to say that numbers help us comprehend our universe.

However, numbers also tend to straitjacket the mind’s capabilities.  In the corporate world, numbers represent certainty.

It is in the comfort zone of certainty that the mind atrophies.

Why should your ambitions, goals, targets and the like be defined by cold figures? Why shouldn’t you throw yourself into the deep end and surpass your own expectations?

iLeader Shashi Sudhanshu, CEO, iLeadFarmers “ Why can’t there be ZERO Ways to Close Deals? …..Whenever I see any blog article starting with #(some number) ways of ……. #(some number) reason for….. most of the time I connect with the author and I ask why that exact number, is that you have got that mantra or is that where you finished digging up your thoughts. I never got a response which made any sense. Someone said its magic number (lol), someone said the trick of odd works, like 7 ways, 11 reasons, 13 myths etc. (rofl).

I have always believed that one day the number game will fail. As the recent article of Fast Company says…. The numbers game (fans, followers, traffic, sign-ups, sales) will always fail as long as we fail to connect to what the customer cares about. “

Numbers blind the soul to the joy of self-actualization.  When marketing managers set themselves a quantified sales target, they blinker themselves to the opportunity to cast that self-imposed terminal limit to the winds and motivate themselves to do justice to their acumen.

This acumen, dear reader, can take the possessor far beyond the myopic targets set by an unmotivated mind.

“It’s OK to play a number game in Marketing & Business Development, as long as you are not obsessed with it. There has to be logic & analysis, and it should matter more than mere numbers. Often Marketing & Business Development professionals get trapped in this vicious cycle and lose out on creativity & innovation in process. A common stats I hear everyday- Get 1000 hits on the blog, out of which atleast a 100 will go to the website and then atleast a 30 will register for the product. And on the services side- Get 100 leads/meetings/call and atleast 10 will respond positively & in the end 3-4 will convert. It never works and never will. Poor logic renders no good neither to the product nor the hapless marketing team. “ iLeader Pranali Vichare, Co-Founder, iLeadFarmers.

Pie charts, bar graphs and other statistical diagrams are great indicators of performance, but they often sabotage one’s drive to reach the zenith.  The euphoria that you feel on achieving a ‘target’ is transient; true success comes about when you realize that you have soared to heights hitherto considered unattainable.

After all, you can’t measure satisfaction!!

iLeaders perfectly shot by Aniket Samudra

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Photography Workshop @ iLeadFarmers

iLeaders welcome Photographer Aniket Samudra.

We are excited to hear from Aniket the attributes that make a good photographer & what it takes to get a dream shot.Image

Aniket Samudra, is a software engineer at Cisco and a passionate photographer and blogger. He has been chosen as one of best bloggers and has been on television shows and news channels. Photography is something he loves to do over weekends. His style is landscape and portfolio shooting. He holds his expertise when it comes to macro photography. By the way he has got two models for photography his sons – Ojas and Nihar.

His photostream is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhingana

Aniket has a very popular blog “Manatale” which means “from the mind”, http://manatale.wordpress.com

He is very active on Twitter, http://twitter.com/manatale

Aniket has a Facebook network as well, Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/aniketsamudra

Welcome Aniket!!