So, you have a life?

With changing time, definition of life has also changed

Dude, do you know what Salman Khan tweeted yesterday?

Ahh! I’m connect with the CEO of PEPSICO in LinkedIn

This is my picture perfect to be uploaded on Facebook

Wow! Did you check out that superb video on Instagram?

If you’re familiar with these phrases….then…

Welcome to the fantasy world of social media

Social Media, two big fat words which is taking the world like hurricane. Social media is just not about updating status, tweeting about current topic, uploading pictures with different filters, connecting with big shots etc. it’s all these and a lot more. 

Let me share a small story,

I happened to attend a social media seminar where experts from the field were present to give their inspiring speech. The room was jam packed like the viral local, minus the quarrel. A speaker was standing tall on the dais, introducing himself with utmost elegance. Even before the session started, this young man stood up and abruptly threw a question saying ‘Why Social Media for big brands’ to which the gentleman quietly stared at the twinkling eyes of the crowd eagerly waiting for his answer. He sighed and asked us a question instead ‘How many of you are on Social Media’. Not a single person’s hand was down, including the security guard who proudly raised his hand straight up. The speaker glanced at the auditorium and answered the young man ‘For you all’. Social media is a platform where the brands can directly interact with the customer.

There are numerous Social Media platforms which not only drive us crazy but also captivate all big, medium and small brands. They are a great help to big brands because it’s practically difficult for these brands to connect with their customers all over the world. These platforms enable easy interacting with their customers via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. With the immerging need for social media marketing, there are companies who are churning mind and coming up with different social media strategies to connect with the customers. Social media platforms are largely captured by big brands to promote their name and strike a one-on-one communication with their customers. So once a networking site, now also talks pure business.

Social Media is-

·        Cost-effective

·        Quick

·        Filter Target Audience

·        Right reach

·        No industry bias

·        Huge audience

·        Perfect balance of photos, videos & texts

·        Track amount of money spent accurately

“The more you explore social media, the more you discover something new”.

Social media is good. A question mark or an exclamation mark

Before enlightening you with the different colours of social media, let me take you down the memory lane where we loved to share gifts, like each other’s slam books, comment about the girl who teased our best friend. Those beautiful days of going out and playing with friends, chatting for hours through our old antique telephones are somewhere vanishing between the dark long bushes of Internet.

Now the virtual age has taken over our mind, body and soul to which we are happily getting defeated with no wrench but with a smile on our face.

The era of digital world has risen

When our very own golden age is no more in action

Social Media creators are minting currencies

And we lay back in our bean bags surfing, liking and commenting in the open breeze

Those days have vanished

When birds were chirping & happily singing in full swing

As even our PM is now busy tweeting

Believe it or not

Social media has definitely made our life easy, sorted and connected,

But we somewhere have lost our self and have got disconnected

Even though we bombard numerous blemishes in Social Media, we can’t live even a single day without checking our updates on Facebook, browsing Instagram pictures, or to check who re-tweeted our post. Social Media is not only used by individuals to share their happenings but big brands are taking greater advantage of this emerging media. Social Media is cheap at the same time reaching millions. One of the officials of the big brand once said in an interview “Social Media is a blessing to all big brands like us. We now know where our target audiences are and this makes us easy to reach them”. Top Social Media  that are enjoying the bigger piece of cake are Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus and LinkedIn.

We all love social media. Whether you like to admit it or not, it's true. They have ingrained themselves in society because they make our lives better. No matter how bad your day has been, there is always something on social media that can make you smile and put everything in perspective. It’s shifting the way we interact, communicate, organize and form opinions.

                                                                                                                

Social Media is a boon which when wrongly used can turn to a curse. So the conclusion to “Social Media is good. A question mark or an exclamation” will and always remain a mystery.

Coffeevertising… !!

So i woke up this morning in front of a mirror and this amazingly hideous person was looking back at me…For a minute there i thought that the ZOMBIE apocalypse had struck already. It took me a moment to realise – “Hey, that’s just me, without my morning coffee!

I very well know that every human who thinks that this dark beverage is their “YODA – the driving force”, shall agree with me.
COFFEE IS NOT AN ADDICTION – IT IS A RELIGION. For the people who proudly declare to being bitten by the advertising bug, it is a very common thing to be stuck at something stupid for hours on end and whine. You just have that one cuppa and – VOILA…….. yes…. you’re still stuck, but the whining sure is fun now

Coffee is such a widely practised ritual amongst the creative clan, i can actually imagine them waving pompoms and cheerleading –

“Coffee..Coffee it’s our drink!

If we don’t get it, we can’t think…!”

I work at this brilliant ad agency in Mumbai where I have been hired to THINK. They pay me for my ideas. I am so very glad that coffee isn’t a person. Because then it would have been really unfair if i didn’t split my pay cheque with it at the end of every month. Imagine the comfort of working in an environment where everyone is as crazy about coffee as you are…and that includes my creative director too… My boss is a very calm and composed lady. I have never seen her yell or go mad at anybody… (Yet!) But if a doomsday like this ever dawns upon me,
i already have thought of a solution to that –

Step 1. Retreat to a safe distance.

Step 2. Slide a mug of coffee at her.

Step 3. Wait for the calamity to pass.

That ought to put me in her good list for a while, because the kind of a coffee person that she is, somehow i believe, she carries an invisible sign above her head –
 “INSERT COFFEE TO BEGIN”

That’s the story of just one ad agency. There are a million more out there all around the world who breathe coffee day in and day out.
So much so that September 29 has been declared as ‘National Coffee Day’ in the U.S.

That’s a lot of talk for today. It’s time to go and brew myself a cup of freshly ground heaven. You keep watching this space for more interesting stories and anecdotes

– says the Coffeewriter *cough cough* i meant Copywriter, Thin- i Advertising & Branding Company.

Will she ever come back?

She was a happy go lucky girl. Full of life and exuberance. A girl who always wore a smile on her face, who always greeted people with a smile and a friendly hello! A brilliant cook, a graceful dancer, a caring daughter, a loving elder sister. She was everything that made her so special. But then, SOCIAL MEDIA happened…!

Like every new toy amuses a child, she got amused. But the only difference was, she never got bored of her new toy. In fact, her amusement kept on increasing with every passing day. She started spending hours in chatting with her long lost school friends. But sadly it made her forget about her parents sitting next to her, waiting for their turn to come.

The inventor had his good reasons to create SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM. But it was her fault that she carried away with it. Her friends taught her how to use it, but sadly no one taught her neither her friends that, where to stop!  The platform created to share knowledge, make worldwide friends and to bring the world closer, distanced her from the real world.

She is lost. Social Media has become her world. Her home. Her everything. We need to bring her back to the real world. The world where people Likes her for the person she is, where people Shares love, where people Comments for her generosity, where morning rises with tweeting of the birds not beeping of a cell phone. But the biggest question is, “Will She Come Back?”