I too Wanted to Become a Social Media Don!!!

I wasn’t really exposed to the power of social media until I started working for an  organisation that lived its life on social media by means of internet marketing, banner  adverts, online email marketing, retargeting campaigns et al. I was also unaware about a  lot of these terms till I started working for them. However, within a month of my tenure in the company I realised how important it was for me to get upto speed with these new and contemporary marketing tools. Prior to joining this online education company, all my 6 years of experience was in mainstream education, which wasn’t bad either, the journey was enriching as I recall it.

Nevertheless, I realised how much online media has grown in such a short span of time with my new workplace.  So with some amount of hesitation and eagerness to learn, I started to observe a colleague of mine whose core area of function was online marketing, handling Google Analytics, Email Marketing, analysing Click Rates and Open Rates, choosing which part of the county’s audience would one like to target for the campaigns. Yes, we are talking about this level of targeting and segregation.  I wasn’t with this company for long, but it was indeed training ground for me and thus, armed with this set of skills and experience, I joined the team at Adianta School.

Adianta School is a new age skill building institute for entrepreneurship and leadership education. At the school, I had the opportunity to attend  various skill building workshops that the school arranges for their fellows(students). Come August, I was lucky to be part of series of curriculum redesigning and brainstorming sessions.  Aditya Dev Sood, Chairman, Adianta School, suggested that we cluster the curriculum this time around and thus came the suggestion of the five segments that it currently is divided into, the first of which being Digital Media Skills;the rest followed the suit. Build your first app, product development and Startup Operations were the next 3. I was fortunate to be nominated along with some of my other colleagues to be a part of what I would call  a very powerful set of workshops. I quickly accepted the opportunity and went through the curriculum for the 6 week module to become a ‘Social Media Don’.

So, here I was attending the first workshop of Digital Media Skills by Nasr Ul Hadi– an expert in the social media space.  The first session largely covered Building and Managing online identities for organisations and for oneself from the perspectives of branding and marketing. The details of the workshop can be read here. Parallel to these sessions, we also ran writing workshops for the cohort, since writing/ blogging/documenting is the core essence of online marketing. This is a detailed account for good bad and ugly parts of writing and blogging.

We were a bunch of 25 social media enthusiast’s aspiring to be Social Media Dons’, for  the next 4 sessions we had already covered areas of

1. Online audiences and metrics for linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, soundcloud, youtube and insights in to each one of them
2. Building and managing an audience lifecycle , explored various sets of tools like, Chartbeat, comscore, appannie, Google Analytics, getamplify
3. 3. Building and managing a CRM for your personal brand via the way of Gmail Tools, Yesware, Streak, Bit.ly
4. Managing documents, workflows, distributed teams with help of tools like Google Drive, Docsend, Storify, Trello, IFTTT. Here is what one of our group members had to say about these workshops

By the end the of the last two sessions, the group grew more excited to use the digital media skills for their respective organisations, start-ups and themselves. Needless to say, we all felt very confident w.r.t.handling  social media properties and realised the tremendous power that social media entails.  Here is a blogpost by an Adianta fellow on the hidden power of social media. Here is how lists extracted from Facebook and Twitter can work wonders for marketing initiatives and for drawing analysis.

While I am surely no social media don, I must admit that I was completely unaware of the various facets of the social media space,  and with these sessions I explored the multiplicity of messages and platforms.  The social space is fast changing and dynamic; with these sets of acquired skills, I certainly have a good chance to sustain my career for a long period of time

Learning and acquiring new skills certainly is the key!

A very intriguing piece of write up i have come across while surfing internet -

My husband is an Engineer by profession, I love him for his steady nature, and I love the warm feeling when I lean against his broad shoulders.

Three years of courtship and now, two years into marriage, I would have to admit, that I am getting tired of it. The reasons of me loving him before, has now transformed into the cause of all my restlessness.

I am a sentimental woman and extremely sensitive when it comes to a relationship and my feelings, I yearn for the romantic moments, like a little girl yearning for candy. My husband, is my complete opposite, his lack of sensitivity, and the inability of bringing romantic moments into our marriage has disheartened me about love.

One day, I finally decided to tell him my decision, that I wanted a divorce.

“Why?” he asked, shocked. “I am tired, there are no reasons for everything in the world!” I answered. He kept silent the whole night, seems to be in deep thought with a lighted cigarette at all times. My feeling of disappointment only increased, here was a man who can’t even express his predicament, what else can I hope from him? And finally he asked me:” What can I do to change your mind?”

Somebody said it right, it’s hard to change a person’s personality, and I guess, I have started losing faith in him. Looking deep into his eyes I slowly answered : “Here is the question, if you can answer and convince my heart, I will change my mind, Let’s say, I want a flower located on the face of a mountain cliff, and we both are sure that picking the flower will cause your death, will you do it for me?” He said :” I will give you your answer tomorrow….” My hopes just sank by listening to his response.

I woke up the next morning to find him gone, and saw a piece of paper with his scratchy handwriting, underneath a milk glass, on the dining table near the front door, that goes…. My dear, “I would not pick that flower for you, but please allow me to explain the reasons further..” This first line was already breaking my heart. I continued reading.

“When you use the computer you always mess up the Software programs, and you cry in front of the screen, I have to save my fingers so that I can help to restore the programs. You always leave the house keys behind, thus I have to save my legs to rush home to open the door for you. You love traveling but always lose your way in a new city, I have to save my eyes to show you the way. You always have the cramps whenever your “good friend” approaches every month, I have to save my palms so that I can calm the cramps in your tummy.

You like to stay indoors, and I worry that you will be infected by infantile autism. I have to save my mouth to tell you jokes and stories to cure your boredom. You always stare at the computer, and that will do nothing good for your eyes, I have to save my eyes so that when we grow old, I can help to clip your nails, and help to remove those annoying white hairs. So I can also hold your hand while strolling down the beach, as you enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful sand… and tell you the color of flowers, just like the color of the glow on your young face… Thus, my dear, unless I am sure that there is someone who loves you more than I do… I could not pick that flower yet, and die.. ”

My tears fell on the letter, and blurred the ink of his handwriting… and as I continue on reading… “Now, that you have finished reading my answer, if you are satisfied, please open the front door for I am standing outside bringing your favorite bread and fresh milk… I rush to pull open the door, and saw his anxious face, clutching tightly with his hands, the milk bottle and loaf of bread….

Now I am very sure that no one will ever love me as much as he does, and I have decided to leave the flower alone…

That’s life, and love. When one is surrounded by love, the feeling of excitement fades away, and one tends to ignore the true love that lies in between the peace and dullness.

Love shows up in all forms, even very small and cheeky forms, it has never been a model, it could be the most dull and boring form.. . flowers, and romantic moments are only used and appear on the surface of the relationship. Under all this, the pillar of true love stands… and that’s our life… Love, not words win arguments…

LISTENING IS HEALING 

" Great healing is available when we listen to each other" it is such a simple act. we dont have to advice or coach or sound wise. we only need to be present full heartedly and express our willingness to listen. 

I remember a small story surrounding this. I once heard a delighhtful story about a little boy who was late getting home one day. When his mother asked , why he was late, he explained that he had stopped to help a friend whose bicycle had broken down."But you don't know how to fix a bicycle," his mom said. " No, " the little boy said, "but i stopped to be with him while he cried ".

If you can tell your story to some one who listens, Who REALLY LISTENS, we find it easier to deal with our circumstances. 

Till distances do us apart

We’ll meet and share moments together
Moments, that we promised, will last a lifetime
A lifetime may not be enough, you said
To express the love that’s all mine

We’ll sit for hours, staring at each other…
And not say a word
We’ll just lie there, and enjoy the silence
 And let the stars say the story untold

We’ll be together, happy as ever
The madness will always be there
Your touch will always be as special,
And we’ll live life with reasons to cheer

All this and more… we promised to each other
We promised… separation- will happen never
Guess the stars have played their part
And distances have done us apart

We know, all’s not well
Not that we didn’t try… gave it many a chance
We simply, aren’t the way- for what we strived
But that’s all right, till the day we realized
We don’t speak the way we used to…
And neither do the stars

Still, I’d like to believe… all’s not lost.
That touch, that’s no longer with me…
I’ll try to revisit, holding my own hand
That love, which is fading away…
I’ll rekindle, with even more love and warmth
The fire, that once raged; The spark, we thought we had
I’ll reignite
The bleakness that’s abound; The darkness, that’s gripping us…
I’ll bring light

And I’ll do this all,
I’ll do even more…
To make sure
You are always mine

Then again, the stars may never speak up,
And we may never get off to a new start
But I’ll never fail to try harder
Till distances, really do us apart

It has began, I wish it never ends

The all new moments of love and trust

It never ends, I wish it never does
These last few moments of doubt and trust…

No more it matters if I win...
And it doesn’t matter if I win a lil less
It is meant to be broken, destined for an end
I see it going…was never mine
It never goes, I wish it never does
The last few moments of doubt and trust…

No more it matters if I will miss it
And it doesn’t matter if I ll miss it a lil more
Yesterday has disappeared, tomorrow will too..
I see this day fading away soon
It never fades, I wish it never does..
The last few moments of doubt and trust…

The dawn is elusive, the dusk is too
A Fathomless abyss between me and you
Where the doubt is charming, and the trust is too!

My Unheard plea

My Unheard plea

I want to live in a house by the sea,

With whose white spray my spirit could flee

Or may be I would prefer a house on a giant tree,

With whose red blossoms my heart could go free

A castle in the wilderness it might as well be,

In whose hidden passages my lost spirit I could see

Or may be my destiny is a quite plantation of tea,

In whose green bosom could be the answer to my unheard plea

I hear a soft tap at my door step, and I ask myself who would it be,

Would it be a heavenly breeze or an exasperating bee

I guess I will prefer to be in a wild spree,

Where I can breach all the ordained decree

Apparently, what a peaceful and tranquil place its gonna be,

With the solemn shades of swiftly moving trees

Mighty Media !!!

Each one of us killed Jessica!!!

Truly a great movie and beyond doubt a worthy subject to be portrayed on celluloid. Hats off to the directors, producers and the script writers for initiating such idea and implementing it further.

However I beg to slightly differ from them. Jessica is unquestionably another slap on the face of Indian judiciary who has yet again because of its laxity & slackness failed to give justice to a family who for years had been waiting for a fair judgment.

Conversely what did they get, trials trials & some more trials for 11 years altogether.

When in year 2006, media actually made a scoop out of this yet so attention deserving case, I also started following it recurrently. Obviously, by now it was an anecdote with all human touch attached to it, and hence gave media all the reasons to cover it to the dead ends…. Unfortunately in this open and shut case as rightly quoted in the movie “no one killed Jessica” and I very firmly believe all of us did kill her even after her dreadful death, all the 300 culprits got away with it.

Yes I somberly would declare all those 300 paranoids who despite witnessing a slaughter did not had the fortitude to speak against the perpetrators of the murder. Although I know my verdict does not matter, I know my voice no more can be heard, I know my opinion needs valid judgments & evidences to bolster the case nevertheless, I don’t have any of these above. If I have something, that would be a belief, a very honest & stern belief that Jessica was shot dead , only because she refused giving a drink to yet another bunch of drunken lads.

In The movie NO ONE KILLED JESSICA the director had to offer one perspective of the movie to put forth the frightening truth on to the silver screen. Apparently, prior to the casting the film shows a disclaimer that “this is an amalgamation of events in real & fiction and hence is no documentary” still I believe, positioning every thing to the disposal of media in the film was a wrong act. Undeniably the effort put in to bring the case from void to life is an outrageous task by Rajkumar Gupta.

Nonetheless, how far is it right to show case that only because a journalist just returned from the fame of covering terrible Kargil war did not find this story worthy enough to be covered and hence discards it with a verdict that a highjacking case is more significant than a girl killed in Delhi at wee hours. It took that well acclaimed journalist 6 years to understand the importance of the story , to understand the importance of chasing the minute details of the story , to understand the if media gives leverage to the case Lall Family (Sabrina) might get justice , since her appeals were going unheard. Very soon after six diminutive years the correspondent of distinction realized that this case demands her attention too.

It was year 2006, when Manu Sharma along with his accomplices in the crime sentenced to a punishment of life imprisonment and 4 years imprisonment for the others subsequently.

Incidentally, nothing happened to Shayan Munshi the eye witness to the event who for 7 long years continued & preferred to be hostile. Contrary to the judgment, nobody could touch those 300 cowards who time and again made mockery of the Indian judicial system.

Our judicial system is so strong that even after you have a list of 300 eye witnesses, you can get away with a murder for 11 long years. Our robust public administration can be tweaked and twisted with monetary inducement for almost anything. Then it can be a Jessica at stake of justice or a Arushi at the bet of UP police, trials.

We very agreeably on the grounds of lack of evidences would transfer the case from police supervision to CBI command. Post which CBI gets another 2 years to sleep over the case and gather evidences which they would never get hold off. During this time the Judiciary the law makers the Lawyers, very often the law manipulators, our own Politicians and always the law breakers and the influentials would play with the case. Bribing & threatening of witnesses and before I forget we the spectators the TRP MAKERS would very satisfactorily enjoy the story being ripped apart over our breakfast and dinner tables. We would certainly give story its due importance, we will fail nowhere in our duty to mention about the updates of the case to all members of our social circle and feel proud about being updated.

I believe that each one of us has killed Jessica all over again in our own right. The corrupt investigating authorities, the tainted ministers, sloppy judiciary, dawdling media.