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via circleid.com

Quick background: I've spent over 5 years of the web presence industry. At one time, I was actually researching/analyzing this very proposal for opening up the TLD space - and it's potential business opportunities.

We've followed the ups and downs of this ICANN initiative for such a long time now, it's almost surreal to see the image of (almost) the entire ICANN board raising their hands and voting in favor of making this a reality.

I still remember reading the letter by the Department of Defense (or some such - been a while I'm not sure) to ICANN adding (what were clearly semantic level) road blocks to the proposal's progress. Arguably, Verisign's insecurity over .com's dominance led to some very interesting times.

The entire thing makes for a very interesting case study that I'd normally read in the Competitive Strategy class.

And the best part is that this is just the start of more interesting times. I can't wait to see companies competing for good TLDs, the stratospheric heights the bids reach in the (have-to-happen) auctions, the actual launches of new commercial TLDs, and everything else.

Stay tuned.

In the meantime, for those who have no clue what I'm rambling about, check out the cool infographic that I hope adds context.

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Instagram is my new addiction! 

Here's some Instagrammed pics from the Bombay break - the Bombay Masala trip in particular 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Full credit to Avi for some of the (cooler) pics

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You just have to give it up to Tripadvisor. This is by far the coolest FB app I’ve come across in so long – the concept/idea is simple but the execution is just phenomenal.

The entire process from start to finish, including adding the pictures, selecting the music (with some really intuitively selected recommended music) to motivating sharing – all done so smoothly, it’s 100% painless.

P.S. Mizaan Lokhandwala, we totally killed it on this one =)

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via twitpic.com

A certain @Stefmara was on a plane going somewhere, when she managed to click This pic of the NASA Shuttle Endeavorer being launched into space.

Absolutely fantastic shot! Kubrick would have liked :)

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The world’s most powerful man, US President Barack Obama, is coming to Mumbai and our roads are magically looking a Lot better.

Here’s a cool animation that I came across which should tell you why the Americans have had to book out practically every room in the Taj.

Yes. It says he has someone who accompanies him to dial numbers for him on his Blackberry.

P.S. If anyone knows how I can get Obama to visit the Vile Parle / Juhu area – please send your suggestions through the comments – our roads really need a makeover too.

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With an increasing number of businesses today investing in building an active social media presence - be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. the way businesses build their websites is changing.

Increasingly, you'll go to a company website and find a Facebook widget, showing you how many of your friends like the company's FB page, or a Twitter widget, showing you some of the company's most recent tweets. There are a whole bunch of reasons why it makes sense to do this. Some of these include ensuring better ROI on SMM efforts, enabling people to connect with companies on an individual level and have conversations with them, building a long-term relationship with website visitors and others. Many sites/portals even allow you to create accounts using your Social Network profiles and that even helps companies pull more information about users than is normally available to them besides making creating accounts easier for users.

Clearly, the elements that make up a good company website are changing. But is this change limited to e-commerce/retail and general B2C websites? What about B2B websites - is there a way for B2B company to make their sites more Social - while ensuring that it maintains its corporate B2B demeanor?

Well, that's exactly what I'd been assigned to do last month. I was to work on completely revamping the website of one of company's divisions - the one that I primarily work with. This particular division focuses on Consulting and Technology and is purely B2B in its business model.

The current website, which (and there's no easy way to say this) is far from perfect has remained unchanged since 2006. Understandably, when it was built, it wasn't geared for Social Media. This time around though, it's was different story.

There was a whole list of changes that I'd suggested for the new website that I thought could apply to a lot of B2B websites out there that I wanted to share through this post, but before I do that, here are 2 important guidelines that I kept in mind for the entire exercise:

·   Take stock of what Social Media Properties that business has established, which it wants to leverage through its website. In my case it was Twitter & Facebook, but it can be LinkedIn or some other network as well.

·   It's critical to the website's ability to succeed in its purpose if the traffic isn't distracted from the main call-to-action. In my case, it was all about generating leads (main goal = Contact Us form) and so I didn't want to give too many opportunities for visitors to leave the site

And here are my list of elements from the obvious ones (like the Contact Us page) to the not-so-obvious ones (like About us ((it's different from Contact Us)):

·    The Home Page

 This is a good example of a place/page where it's critical to find the right balance between leveraging/promoting its Social Media Presence vis-à-vis directing visitors to its main Call-To-Action. There are 2 approaches to what can be done with this page:

• Widgets: Whether it's Facebook or Twitter - it's good to have a widget right on the homepage. In case of Facebook, the widget shows the visitor how many and also which of the user's friends 'Like' the company's FB page + the latest FB posts/updates. In case of Twitter, it'll show the total follower count + the last few tweets from that account. Both would allow the visitor to Like or Follow the company on the respective Social Networks from the website itself without going to any other page.

• Buttons: In some cases, it might not be possible to have the widgets on the home page - especially it one's aiming for the minimal look in which case it might make sense to have just buttons on the homepage which can link to (and open in a new tab) the company's Facebook page and/or Twitter profile.

We decided to go with only the buttons – and keep it clean.

·     The About Us Page

o   The About Us page would be a good place for the company to showcase all the profiles that the company has established - whether through the larger widgets or through simple buttons that lead visitors to the various Social Media properties established/maintained by the company.

o   Depending on the company, it just may make sense to have an aggregator widget here that aggregates all conversations about the company and its brands that happening online and display it real-time – although this isn’t something that I felt fit with us that well. The only company that I know of, that does this well is Zappos which is clearly not a B2B company.

o   This would also be where we decided to add a Flickr widget to display the latest pictures of the company, its employees, latest sponsorships, trips made to conferences, etc.

·     The Team Bios

o   Why only have simple bios of the team with pictures of the people? Why not link it to their LinkedIn profiles. This will allow visitors to get a more detailed idea of the company employees, get an idea of what they're upto, see any recommendations that they might have received, see the overall company profile, see if they are connected to the employees through someone and most importantly connect with the employees instantly and start a conversation.

o   Also, while I say LinkedIn, this could easily be Twitter in many cases and even Facebook for some. I would stick to LinkedIn (and maybe Twitter) though, given that this is a B2B business but that call/decision rests with the company.

o   One fair warning though, linking to employees' Social Network profiles means the company needs guidelines to ensure that employees keep their Social Network Profiles presentable (i.e. no negativity towards the company or clients, no controversial religious/political/racial/embarrassing updates, etc.)

·     The Contact Us Page

o   This is a good place to have buttons that link to the company's social media presence. This would allow visitors to contact the company through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn as an alternative to filling in the standard Contact Us form. We felt having the bigger, richer widgets here would be too distracting and might take attention away from the main goal of the page i.e. getting visitors to fill in the Contact Us form - but again, that call/decision rests with the company. In some cases, it might even make sense to not have anything on this page except the Contact Us form to avoid any distractions from the main goal.

o   Another option, that we haven't taken up yet, but can be implemented here is to allow visitors to pull in data from their Social Networks (using maybe FB connect) to automatically fill in their contact details.

·     Customer Support Page

o   In my case, the company provides customer support and the customer support page, apart from having a ticketing system and an FAQ section definitely had scope for more social elements.

o   Apart from a Twitter widget that showed visitors the Customer Support Twitter handle (which in our case was different from the main handle), also allowed them see the last few Tweets from the handle and even easily Follow the handle on Twitter.

o   Companies using services like Get Satisfaction/UserVoice might also use this page to direct visitors to their corresponding Get Satisfaction/UserVoice pages

·     The Careers Page

o   In most cases, websites have a careers page where they list all openings (with a JD and JR) with, at worst, an email address that applicants can send CVs to, and at best, a form that they applicants can fill in and submit. But with so many companies now posting jobs on LinkedIn and using the LinkedIn Recruiter account. So it makes sense for companies to link job openings to the corresponding LinkedIn job postings where interested candidates can apply easily, share their profiles, recommendations, learn more about the company, see introductions within the company, etc.

o   This would also be where we decided to add a Flickr widget to display the latest pictures of the company, its employees, latest sponsorships, trips made to conferences, etc.

·     Case Studies, White-Papers, Testimonials & other Presentations

o   For a lot of B2B companies, Social Media is a tool to establish their company as a thought leader within the industry. A lot of this is executed by publishing blog posts, presentations, videos, white-papers covering various aspects of the industry, best practices to follow, product value propositions, etc.

o   As a basic step, it's important to allow visitors to easily share these through their Social Networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon and everything else

o   Additionally, and going very slightly beyond the scope of the website, it might also make sense to share these across portals like SlideShare, YouTube etc. so as to ensure that visitors get more presentations/white-papers/etc. by you to view once they're done with what they were viewing originally.

Overall, I feel this makes for a good starting point for taking your regular B2B website and opening it up to Social Media - allowing it to spread it contents faster and further and adding more depth to the user experience.

P.S. I realize that there is scope to add more to the list above - if you have any comments on the above or suggestions for more, feel free to let me know in the comments below. :)

P.P.S. Apologies for the verbosity. But look, I'm blogging again - Yay :)

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Following the success of its Write The Future campaign (32 million views digitally since its launch less than a month ago), they’ve now launched the "Write The Headline" campaign – an interactive digital communications experience which basically involves a giant LED sign on the Southern Life Center building in Johannesburg.

The ambitious interactive installation allows fans to submit personal messages to inspire their favorite players, and then see their headline transformed into a huge player animation that will tower over the city of Johannesburg (through a giant LED sign on the Southern Life Center building).

Fans can submit a 57 character personal message (in 12 languages) through Facebook.com/nikefootball, Twitter, Facebook, Mxit (South Africa) and QQ (China) to over 50 of Nike’s athletes from around the world. Up to 100 headlines are then selected each night and transformed into digital player animations that are projected across Johannesburg. When a fan’s message is used they receive a personalized notification showing them a picture of the headline and the animation created from it.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.

Totally worth the 10 minutes.

Hat Tip: Anusha Pinto

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Portfolio Night is a great concept and it’s finally coming to India (thanks to Ogilvy India). It’s sort of like the Auditions round for American Idol (or MTV Roadies), except for creative talent working in the Advertizing industry.

I’d love to go – just to see other people’s work being critiqued by the experts – but they don’t allow passive participants it seems. L I wish they’d do a showcase of some of the best talent and work, at the end of the event – now that I’d be able to attend.

Some of their ads are pretty funny. Here’s the good ones:

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Here’s another Thinking Out Loud moment.

Branded Caller IDs:

Branded Caller IDs are when you see the Name of the caller, instead of a random number flash on your phone when they call. And this is despite you not having that number stored on your phone contacts. So when Citibank’s Helpline calls you, you’ll see Citibank Helpline on my screen instead of a random phone number.

Background:

So the other day, I got a call from a random landline number in the middle of a working day. Now I (like a lot of people I know) get lots of calls from tele-marketers every day selling insurance, credit cards, charity-sponsorships (yes from NGOs – and they have the balls to say, “But don’t you want to help the children?!”, but more on that later). Obviously, I let the call go to voicemail.

Later in the day, when I checked my voicemail, I realized the call was actually from Citibank’s Helpdesk. I’d raised an issue and was expecting (and looking forward to) a call-back. Now I’d have to call them, navigate through their IVRS and find a loophole that allows me to talk to a real human being. I cursed myself for not picking up the call when I had the chance – I saved the number on my phone to ensure that I don’t miss it if it ever comes again. Problem Fixed. Or so I thought. The next day I got another call from them, and the same thing happened. Didn’t pick up -> went to voicemail -> checked my voicemail -> cursed myself for not picking up. Reason – they called from a slightly different number. Damn.

That’s when I thought – Citibank should have a way for its name (Citibank Helpline or whatever) to flash on my phone irrespective of whether I have the number stored or not.

Here’s a small write up of some of my thoughts on the business model, pros and cons, consumer acceptance, etc.

Why would/should companies like Citibank have Branded Caller IDs?

So let’s think of the pros and cons of something like this from Citibank’s perspective.

The pros could be that Citibank customers will always know it’s them calling and won’t avoid calls. This can lead to faster turn-around times, lower costs, etc. The Cons include that if it’s a cold-call from Citibank’s tele-marketers, then that’ll make it Much easier for people to avoid them. But screw tele-marketers – who needs them anyway! =)

How are Branded Caller IDs implemented from a technical standpoint?

This is something that network operator will have to implement. Now I must admit, I’m Totally clueless about this one. I have no idea if something like this is technically possible. As such, given that they can withhold the number in the case of private numbers and show you some text instead, my gut tells me that it may (just may) be possible. So let’s, for the sake of argument, assume that this is possible.

What’s the Business Model?

Think of how Domain Names work.

The business model can actually be very similar to that of any TLD Registry. Yes, I know, not everyone works in the domain name industry, so let me provide some context. Just like companies that own .com,.net, .tel, etc. sold names to the public, the proper authority can sell names or branded caller ids to corporates and individuals.

Most TLD Registries, when they launch, first have a Sunrise Period. During the Sunrise Period, government bodies, corporates and trade-mark holders may apply for Branded Caller IDs. This avoids trade-mark infringement issues later on. The same thing can be applied here.

Obviously, there is a fee with getting the Branded Caller ID – which will depend on a bunch of factors including fixed and recurring expenses, potential market size, product value-add (which would be one of the most important factors), etc.

After the Sunrise Period, the floor is opened to everyone, people can register any names. It can be generic names (imagine getting a call from Movie Tickets, Website Designer, etc.), individual names (Anil Ambani J), or any other category. Again, there is a fee involved. In fact, in most cases, this fee is higher than the standard fee applied to applicants in the Sunrise Period since they are a critical target market.

Some TLD registries also reserve all good generic names for a special auction. So good names like Movie Tickets, Travel Deals, Shopping, etc.) can go to the highest bidder.

Who’s in-charge?

As mentioned before, this needs to happen at the network operator level. But which company will it be? Vodafone? Airtel? Telecom Authority of India (TRAI)?

One can’t imagine people paying individually to each network operator. That’s unorganized and expensive. If TRAI controls it, the private sector companies might create issues. Ultimately though, it’ll have to be an external authority, where everyone has an appropriate stake.

Will Network Operations be interested in something like this?

The margins in this business are reducing Constantly. Network Operators are constantly looking for ways and means of making money (case and point, charging for calls to support and separate call rates for conf. calls) – and this Definitely looks like it’s going to make them money.

Will Consumers like it?

I think they will. They’ll be able to recognize who’s calling them – irrespective of whether they have the number stored or not – at no extra cost to them.

And there’s more. At least potentially. Imagine Branded Caller IDs working in the reverse. There’s a reason why domain names as a concept work. They work because no one wants to remember the IP addresses of every website out there. Similarly, allowing for Branded Caller IDs will help people with not having to save numbers. So if the technology allows, they’ll be able to make call  even if they don’t already have the numbers stored. So they can call the Citibank Helpline (or McDonalds or Dominoes when they’re hungry) irrespective of whether they have the number stored or not.

Also, it doesn’t matter if Citibank changes its telephone number. Again, just like in domain names and IP addresses, the Branded Caller IDs remain constant irrespective of the telephone number.

And this makes this an even more compelling product for corporates.

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This is purely a whimsical thought that I wanted to put up. This entire idea depends on a lot of factors, and technology is only the first of many blind-spots that will need some serious thinking.

What do you think of Branded Caller IDs? Do you think it’s a good idea? Do you think it’ll work? Share your thoughts.

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