Amar E. Chakravarthi’s Blog

“Et tu, Brutus”, went the famous refrain spoken by Julius Caesar, when he found out that two of his most trusted “friends” had stabbed him in the back. Such people have been a part of society, and workplaces, since time immemorial. At the workplace, backstabbers are those, who would go to any extent to rise up the professional ladder. They may be sugar (saccharine) sweet on your face, probably the last ones, anybody would suspect of spreading malicious rumours about anyone. Well, they need the veneer of extra sweetness to disguise all that malice! They should, however, not be a cause for your vexation. Such people need to be handled with cautious indifference, causing them to lose the confidence of others, in the workplace.

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog

Have you ever considered whether you should create your personal brand? Have you been procrastinating? Are you thinking that 2010 will be the year you jump on the personal branding band wagon?

Have you ever considered whether you should create your personal brand? Have you been procrastinating? Are you thinking that 2010 will be the year you jump on the personal branding band wagon?Maybe you should read this first before you take the plunge.

Here are 26 reasons to NOT create your personal brand:

1. You do not want to differentiate yourself
2. You want to receive less opportunities
3. You want to achieve your goals slower
4. You do not want to be found online
5. You do not like meeting new people digitally
6. You do not want to be seen as a thought leader
7. You want to make less money
8. You prefer more risk
9. You want less job security
10. You do not want to make sacrifices
11. You do not want to take control of your career
12. You do not see the value in social media
13. You are unwilling to learn new trends
14. You do not want to try something new
15. You do not care about personal branding
16. You are willing to let others speak for you
17. You prefer to live in the past
18. You are stubborn
19. You are a late adopter
20. You are not driven to succeed
21. You do not want to rise above the noise
22. You do not aspire to be a leader
23. You do not want to create your circumstances
24. You prefer to be passed over
25. You prefer to not have a voice
26. You think branding is only for companies

Personal branding is your gateway to success

I’m sure you all get it by now — there is no good reason to not create your personal brand. If you have a goal and it is something you want to reach — your personal brand can help get you there faster. I have still haven’t heard a reasonable excuse to not create your personal brand — and there are some creative excuses out there.

What do you think? Did I miss any reasons to NOT create your personal brand? Please leave your reason to NOT create your personal brand in the comment section below. Let’s get some good one’s going.

Have a great weekend.

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog

Mother Teresa said, “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

Loneliness is more than a feeling or an emotion… it’s isolation, it’s emptiness. It isn’t just wanting company… it’s feeling disconnected and alone.

It’s not the type of thing that you can list a few statistics to understand, but it is something we all would have experienced at some time.

It can be found in big cities, where people feel anonymous and cut off… lost in the crowd… without a community to attach to and identify with.

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog

With all the talk about sustainable development, it is important to look at the people who should make up half the effort. At the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Clinton stated that women produce 50% of the world’s food, do 66% of the world’s work, earn 10% of the world’s income and own 1% of the world’s property.

Over the past couple weeks, there’s been a lot of buzz over the latest development book Half the Sky. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the book focuses on how investing in women can lift communities out of poverty. The title comes from a Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky” and illustrates how empowering women creates opportunity for communities.

Last year, The Girl Effect illustrated the theory that women are the key to ending poverty in their viral video.  A woman is more likely to spend her money on education, health and improving her family’s status. Hopefully, Half the Sky will reach out to an even larger audience to support women around the world by telling the stories of women trapped in oppressive conditions and the few success stories. For example, Sheryl WuDunn, in a TV interview, shared the story of the woman in Pakistan who went from getting beaten by her unemployed husband to receiving a US $65 and started an embroidery business employing thirty families in the village including her husband.

The book goes beyond narrative and encourages readers to participate online. Kristof regularly blogs on the topic and has created the hashtag on Twitter for #HalfTheSkyTuesday to spread the word. Readers can also help finance microloans to women through Kiva.org, Pro Mujer or any number of organizations listed on the Half the Sky Movement page. It’s easy to make a difference too.

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog, Women

No. This is not some Nike Propaganda

Last night I saw a show – “The New Inventor” on You Tube. One of the inventors being profiled on the show made a statement, one that I have heard in the past, but one so profound that it deserves its own blog post.

I paraphrase his statement below -

When you have an idea or a vision, it can have three possible outcomes -

• You give it all you’ve got and you suceed
• or, You give it all you’ve got and fail
• or, You ignore it and spend a lifetime wondering “What If?” !!!

The first outcome is the happy path. The second outcome involves a temporary downside accompanied by lessons that will serve you for a lifetime. The last outcome involves a lifetime of doubt.

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog

With some free time on my hands, this week I am investigating various Cloud platform providers. The vendors I am reviewing are -

3Tera

Elastra

Zimory

Vmware

Cassatt

Datasynapse

Appistry

Eucalyptus

Citrix

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog

If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start?

Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet really is, and where it came from.

While the complete history of the Internet could easily fill a few books, this article should familiarize you with key milestones and events related to the growth and evolution of the Internet between 1969 to 2009.

1969: Arpanet

Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time). On the October 29, 1969, computers at Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time. In effect, they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet.

The first message sent across the network was supposed to be “Login”, but reportedly, the link between the two colleges crashed on the letter “g”.

1969: Unix

Another major milestone during the 60’s was the inception of Unix: the operating system whose design heavily influenced that of Linux and FreeBSD (the operating systems most popular in today’s web servers/web hosting services).

1970: Arpanet network

An Arpanet network was established between Harvard, MIT, and BBN (the company that created the “interface message processor” computers used to connect to the network) in 1970.

1971: E-mail

Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the “@” symbol to separate the user name from the computer name (which later on became the domain name).

1971: Project Gutenberg and eBooks

One of the most impressive developments of 1971 was the start of Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, for those unfamiliar with the site, is a global effort to make books and documents in the public domain available electronically–for free–in a variety of eBook and electronic formats.

It began when Michael Hart gained access to a large block of computing time and came to the realization that the future of computers wasn’t in computing itself, but in the storage, retrieval and searching of information that, at the time, was only contained in libraries. He manually typed (no OCR at the time) the “Declaration of Independence” and launched Project Gutenberg to make information contained in books widely available in electronic form. In effect, this was the birth of the eBook.

1972: CYCLADES

France began its own Arpanet-like project in 1972, called CYCLADES. While Cyclades was eventually shut down, it did pioneer a key idea: the host computer should be responsible for data transmission rather than the network itself.
1973: The first trans-Atlantic connection and the popularity of emailing

Arpanet made its first trans-Atlantic connection in 1973, with the University College of London. During the same year, email accounted for 75% of all Arpanet network activity.

1974: The beginning of TCP/IP

1974 was a breakthrough year. A proposal was published to link Arpa-like networks together into a so-called “inter-network”, which would have no central control and would work around a transmission control protocol (which eventually became TCP/IP).

1975: The email client

With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. The biggest technological advance this program (called MSG) made was the addition of “Reply” and “Forward” functionality.

1977: The PC modem

1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet as we know it today. It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.

1978: The Bulletin Board System (BBS)

The first bulletin board system (BBS) was developed during a blizzard in Chicago in 1978.

1978: Spam is born

1978 is also the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk.

1979: MUD – The earliest form of multiplayer games

The precursor to World of Warcraft and Second Life was developed in 1979, and was called MUD (short for MultiUser Dungeon). MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat.

1979: Usenet

1979 also ushered into the scene: Usenet, created by two graduate students. Usenet was an internet-based discussion system, allowing people from around the globe to converse about the same topics by posting public messages categorized by newsgroups.

1980: ENQUIRE software

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN) launched ENQUIRE (written by Tim Berners-Lee), a hypertext program that allowed scientists at the particle physics lab to keep track of people, software, and projects using hypertext (hyperlinks).

1982: The first emoticon

While many people credit Kevin MacKenzie with the invention of the emoticon in 1979, it was Scott Fahlman in 1982 who proposed using after a joke, rather than the original -) proposed by MacKenzie. The modern emoticon was born.

1983: Arpanet computers switch over to TCP/IP

January 1, 1983 was the deadline for Arpanet computers to switch over to the TCP/IP protocols developed by Vinton Cerf. A few hundred computers were affected by the switch. The name server was also developed in ‘83.

1984: Domain Name System (DNS)

The domain name system was created in 1984 along with the first Domain Name Servers (DNS). The domain name system was important in that it made addresses on the Internet more human-friendly compared to its numerical IP address counterparts. DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easy-to-remember domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically.

1985: Virtual communities

1985 brought the development of The WELL (short for Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), one of the oldest virtual communities still in operation. It was developed by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in February of ‘85. It started out as a community of the readers and writers of the Whole Earth Review and was an open but “remarkably literate and uninhibited intellectual gathering”. Wired Magazine once called The Well “The most influential online community in the world.”

1986: Protocol wars

The so-called Protocol wars began in 1986. European countries at that time were pursuing the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), while the United States was using the Internet/Arpanet protocol, which eventually won out.

1987: The Internet grows

By 1987, there were nearly 30,000 hosts on the Internet. The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible.

1988: IRC – Internet Relay Chat

Also in 1988, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was first deployed, paving the way for real-time chat and the instant messaging programs we use today.

1988: First major malicious internet-based attack

One of the first major Internet worms was released in 1988. Referred to as “The Morris Worm”, it was written by Robert Tappan Morris and caused major interruptions across large parts of the Internet.

1989: AOL is launched

When Apple pulled out of the AppleLink program in 1989, the project was renamed and America Online was born. AOL, still in existence today, later on made the Internet popular amongst the average internet users.

1989: The proposal for the World Wide Web

1989 also brought about the proposal for the World Wide Web, written by Tim Berners-Lee. It was originally published in the March issue of MacWorld, and then redistributed in May 1990. It was written to persuade CERN that a global hypertext system was in CERN’s best interest. It was originally called “Mesh”; the term “World Wide Web” was coined while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990.

1990: First commercial dial-up ISP

1990 also brought about the first commercial dial-up Internet provider, The World. The same year, Arpanet ceased to exist.

1990: World Wide Web protocols finished

The code for the World Wide Web was written by Tim Berners-Lee, based on his proposal from the year before, along with the standards for HTML, HTTP, and URLs.

1991: First web page created

1991 brought some major innovations to the world of the Internet. The first web page was created and, much like the first email explained what email was, its purpose was to explain what the World Wide Web was.

1991: First content-based search protocol

Also in the same year, the first search protocol that examined file contents instead of just file names was launched, called Gopher.

1991: MP3 becomes a standard

Also, the MP3 file format was accepted as a standard in 1991. MP3 files, being highly compressed, later become a popular file format to share songs and entire albums via the internet.

1991: The first webcam

One of the more interesting developments of this era, though, was the first webcam. It was deployed at a Cambridge University computer lab, and its sole purpose was to monitor a particular coffee maker so that lab users could avoid wasted trips to an empty coffee pot.

1993: Mosaic – first graphical web browser for the general public

The first widely downloaded Internet browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993. While Mosaic wasn’t the first web browser, it is considered the first browser to make the Internet easily accessible to non-techies.

1993: Governments join in on the fun

In 1993, both the White House and the United Nations came online, marking the beginning of the .gov and .org domain names.

1994: Netscape Navigator

Mosaic’s first big competitor, Netscape Navigator, was released the year following (1994).

1995: Commercialization of the internet

1995 is often considered the first year the web became commercialized. While there were commercial enterprises online prior to ‘95, there were a few key developments that happened that year. First, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption was developed by Netscape, making it safer to conduct financial transactions (like credit card payments) online.

In addition, two major online businesses got their start the same year. The first sale on “Echo Bay” was made that year. Echo Bay later became eBay. Amazon.com also started in 1995, though it didn’t turn a profit for six years, until 2001.

1995: Geocities, the Vatican goes online, and JavaScript

Other major developments that year included the launch of Geocities (which officially closed down on October 26, 2009).

The Vatican also went online for the first time.

Java and JavaScript (originally called LiveScript by its creator, Brendan Eich, and deployed as part of the Netscape Navigator browser – see comments for explanation) was first introduced to the public in 1995. ActiveX was launched by Microsoft the following year.

1996: First web-based (webmail) service

In 1996, HoTMaiL (the capitalized letters are an homage to HTML), the first webmail service, was launched.

1997: The term “weblog” is coined

While the first blogs had been around for a few years in one form or another, 1997 was the first year the term “weblog” was used.

1998: First new story to be broken online instead of traditional media

In 1998, the first major news story to be broken online was the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal (also referred to as “Monicagate” among other nicknames), which was posted on The Drudge Report after Newsweek killed the story.

1998: Google

Google went live in 1998, revolutionizing the way in which people find information online.

1998: Internet-based file-sharing gets its roots

In 1998 as well, Napster launched, opening up the gates to mainstream file-sharing of audio files over the internet.

1999: SETI@home project

1999 is the year when one of the more interesting projects ever brought online: the SETI@home project, launched. The project has created the equivalent of a giant supercomputer by harnessing the computing power of more than 3 million computers worldwide, using their processors whenever the screensaver comes on, indicating that the computer is idle. The program analyzes radio telescope data to look for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

2000: The bubble bursts

2000 was the year of the dotcom collapse, resulting in huge losses for legions of investors. Hundreds of companies closed, some of which had never turned a profit for their investors. The NASDAQ, which listed a large number of tech companies affected by the bubble, peaked at over 5,000, then lost 10% of its value in a single day, and finally hit bottom in October of 2002.

2001: Wikipedia is launched

With the dotcom collapse still going strong, Wikipedia launched in 2001, one of the websites that paved the way for collective web content generation/social media.

2003: VoIP goes mainstream

In 2003: Skype is released to the public, giving a user-friendly interface to Voice over IP calling.

2003: MySpace becomes the most popular social network

Also in 2003, MySpace opens up its doors. It later grew to be the most popular social network at one time (thought it has since been overtaken by Facebook).

2003: CAN-SPAM Act puts a lid on unsolicited emails

Another major advance in 2003 was the signing of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, better known as the CAN-SPAM Act.

2004: Web 2.0

Though coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, the term “Web 2.0″, referring to websites and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that are highly interactive and user-driven became popular around 2004. During the first Web 2.0 conference, John Batelle and Tim O’Reilly described the concept of “the Web as a Platform”: software applications built to take advantage of internet connectivity, moving away from the desktop (which has downsides such as operating system dependency and lack of interoperability).

2004: Social Media and Digg

The term “social media”, believed to be first used by Chris Sharpley, was coined in the same year that “Web 2.0″ became a mainstream concept. Social media–sites and web applications that allow its users to create and share content and to connect with one another–started around this period.

Digg, a social news site, launched on November of 2004, paving the way for sites such as Reddit, Mixx, and Yahoo! Buzz. Digg revolutionized traditional means of generating and finding web content, democratically promoting news and web links that are reviewed and voted on by a community.

2004: “The” Facebook open to college students

Facebook launched in 2004, though at the time it was only open to college students and was called “The Facebook”; later on, “The” was dropped from the name, though the URL http://www.thefacebook.com still works.

2005: YouTube – streaming video for the masses

YouTube launched in 2005, bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses.

2006: Twitter gets twittering

Twitter launched in 2006. It was originally going to be called twittr (inspired by Flickr); the first Twitter message was “just setting up my twttr”.

2007: Major move to place TV shows online

Hulu was first launched in 2007, a joint venture between ABC, NBC, and Fox to make popular TV shows available to watch online.

2007: The iPhone and the Mobile Web

The biggest innovation of 2007 was almost certainly the iPhone, which was almost wholly responsible for renewed interest in mobile web applications and design.

2008: “Internet Election”

The first “Internet election” took place in 2008 with the U.S. Presidential election. It was the first year that national candidates took full advantage of all the Internet had to offer. Hillary Clinton jumped on board early with YouTube campaign videos. Virtually every candidate had a Facebook page or a Twitter feed, or both.

Ron Paul set a new fundraising record by raising $4.3 million in a single day through online donations, and then beat his own record only weeks later by raising $4.4 million in a single day.

The 2008 elections placed the Internet squarely at the forefront of politics and campaigning, a trend that is unlikely to change any time in the near future.

2009: ICANN policy changes

2009 brought about one of the biggest changes to come to the Internet in a long time when the U.S. relaxed its control over ICANN, the official naming body of the Internet (they’re the organization in charge of registering domain names).

The Future?

Where is the future of the Internet headed? Share your opinions in the comments section.

Sources and Further Reading

A People’s History of the Internet: from Arpanet in 1969 to Today: A timeline of the Internet from guardian.co.uk.

History of the Internet: An early timeline of the Internet, from precursors in the 1800s up through 1997.

A Brief History of the Web: A series of videos from Microsoft to celebrate the launch of Internet Explorer 8.

The History of the Internet – Tim Berners-Lee: A brief history of major developments associated with the Internet from About.com.

Hobbes’ Internet Timeline – the definitive ARPAnet & Internet History: A very thorough timeline of the Internet, starting in 1957 and going up through 2004, with tons of statistics and source material included.

Internet Timeline: A basic timeline of Internet history from FactMonster.com.

Amar E. Chakravarthi Information Blog, My Blog, Tech Talk

I finally had a few hours tonight to wrap up my study on comparison of mobile application platforms that allow developing cross-device applications easily using familiar technologies. Here is a quick braindump of all the links and resources I went through -

Rhomobile

• Google TechTalk on Rhodes – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2pztOky_L0

http://rhomobile.com/products/rhodes/

http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/07/cross-platform-mobile-apps-with-rhomobile/

http://www.rhohub.com/

Notes

• Dual licensed. Though license is cheap – $500
• Code is written in html and ruby  (though a python interpreter would have gotten more smileys from me   )
• interesting approach – uses the native browser component of the cellphone itself to render the html and a web server to host the app – so javascript support will be random based on the phone browser support
• sqlite support
• Supports iphone, windows mobile, blackberry, android, Symbisn etc
• Basically rhodes runs a mini ruby web server and an html rendering engine all in 2.3MB
• Supports native capabilities like camera, gps, PIM data, SMS etc

Phone gap

http://phonegap.com/

Check the video on their site

Notes

• Fully open source and free
• Code written in html+javascript
• Supports iphone, blackberry and android

Pyxis Mobile

http://pyxismobile.com/platform/technical-overview/

• Build one configuration and deploy to BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile all at the same time
• Skinning, scripting, localized languages, complex workflow management, push, hotkeys, mapping & LBS, camera support, signature capture, GUI calendar, disambiguation, hotkeys, and much more

Titanium Mobile

http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-mobile/

• This is an upcoming mobile platform by appcelerator
• I am quite familiar with the company since we already use their Titanium Desktop and have two fulltime contributors to it

Quick Connect

http://quickconnect.sourceforge.net/

Comparison sites and articles

http://blog.twinapex.fi/2009/09/30/cross-platform-mobile-application-development-and-payment/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_development

http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/building-native-mobile-applications-open-source-mobile-platforms-735

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/iphone-development-tools-work-way-you-do-309

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10202598-94.html

http://www.slideshare.net/inouemak/rhodes-and-phone-gap

http://techboise.com/multi-platform-mobile-development-and-quickconnect

Some others

http://quickconnect.pbworks.com/

http://www.mobinex.biz/smartface-platform.html

http://qt.nokia.com/products/qt-for-mobile-platforms

http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/

Amar E. Chakravarthi BlackBerry, Mobile Application, Tech Talk

2010 is going to be an incredible year for marketing. Now, of course I don’t have a crystal ball (or do I…insert creepy music here) but the shift is unmistakable and can’t be ignored.

The days of hit and miss expensive marketing and advertising are OVER. I’ll pause for a moment of silence. But with this big change, comes a tremendous creative opportunity for small and big businesses alike.

Big brands, niche brands and entrepreneurs that survived the storm of 2009 are in an exciting position for 2010. It is going to be a time where innovative and change in marketing is going to flourish. Marketing is going to be cheaper, faster and smarter.

The following predictions aren’t made by simply throwing mama’s spaghetti at the wall and hoping a few pieces stick. The data and ideas come from:

A: Being in the trenches building my brand to become the number #1 resource for young and young-at-heart entrepreneurs and trying everything under the sun which includes big successes, big failures, incredible learning experiences, and tons of takeaways.

B: Interviewing 40+ experts (for some reason the conversation ALWAYS turns to marketing one way or another) including Wine Library’s Gary Vaynerchuk Author of Crush It, Trust Agents Author and Blogging Thought Leader Chris Brogan, The Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger, The founder of 3 billion dollar-plus World Wide Technology Dave Steward, Sarah Evans aka PRSarahEvans, Click To Client’s Shama Kabani, The Chief Executive Bear of Build-A-Bear Workshops Maxine Clark, Author of Never Eat Alone Keith Ferrazzi, Founder of Help A Reporter Peter Shankman, Former Creative head of Anheuser Busch Bob Lachky…and many others (which you can check out right here).

C: Consulting with big brands and entrepreneurs on their marketing challenges and adapting to this quickly changing world.

D: Thousands of conversations in person, online and at speaking events with marketers, big brands, niche brands, entrepreneurs, and business owners.

The bottom line is you, your consumers, clients, customers and friends are all smart.

In 2010, smart and creative marketing is going to win. Here (in no weighted order) are my 10 Big Marketing Predictions For 2010.

1. Big Brands Will Learn From Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses and Niche Brands.

In this case size doesn’t matter.

For entrepreneurs, especially those that have bootstrapped their companies with their own money and your little sister Lilly’s savings (or whatever), big budgets didn’t disappear due to the recession, they never existed.

Without big budgets, us entrepreneurs have always had to turn to whatever valuable (and relatively cheap) resources we could including opening our big mouths, forming amazing relationships on social media sites and in the real world, blogging, and straight up hustling.

Also, without a team of lawyers, accountants and a 224.3 person Board Of Directors, entrepreneurs move quickly, fail fast, recover faster, and try something else. One idea for a blog doesn’t work? Try another. One idea to draw traffic or sell a product doesn’t work? Try another.

These elements of cheap, fast and experimental  are going to finally catch the attention of big brands in 2010. Instead of ignoring the little guys, a painful realization to many larger companies when 2009 ripped apart their business, is going to lead to entrepreneurs being a trusted resource and strong case studies.

2. Digital Schmoozing: Networking Online

My favorite phrase. Call it networking. Call it relationship building. Call it whatever you want. Bottom line is being able to network online is going to be a HUGE element of marketing in 2010.
Is networking also marketing? You better believe it is. Being able to market yourself and your business in the digital world is one of the most overlooked aspects of effective marketing.
Sure, this isn’t a revolutionary concept. But, why are many so bad at it?

Simple. While the principles of online and offline networking are extremely similar, the online world is a different animal.

Many people have mastered or are trying to master the tools (as basic as email all the way to Twitter, Facebook, etc.), but have lacked the online etiquette and understanding of the digital world.
Corporate-speak doesn’t fly. BS doesn’t fly. Forming genuine relationships and partnerships with a real interest in the other person/business? That DOES fly.

In 2010, the world will continue to get smaller and more connected. Will you be able to adapt and market knowing that in most cases you can connect to almost anyone you want to with a little effort?

3. Death Of The One-Way Website

The corporate-speak, one-way website is dead. It has always been boring, but now it is really on its death bed. Your website is like your clothes and smile. It will be the first thing people notice when they find you and see you. Your website could be your greatest marketing asset.

What is wrong with the one-way “traditional” website?

Customers want companies to be more human. Interactive. Social. Sure, your advertising agency charged you your first born child for that fancy flash intro and cool graphics, but are people buying from you? Can they give feedback? Can they easily connect with you on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Is there a COMPELLING reason I should sign up for your email list?

Is your website you on the top of the mountain yelling with a huge horn (Honnnnnkkkk!) or at the bottom listening to your customers and clients?

How do you listen?

Simple. A well-designed blog pluseEncouraging comments, creating content, adding video (more on all those in a minute). Listening and caring win in 2010.

Best part?

An extremely well-designed blog optimized for search engines and easy-to-use even for the least technical amongst us costs a tiny fraction of a full fledged outdated website. Sorry web companies and agencies trying to charge an arm and a leg, you know it is true *wink*.

4. Content Marketing: Brands As Media Sources And Publishers

Never before has the barrier of entry been so low to create your own content. A plan, a blog  and a few pieces of equipment if you want to do video or audio is all you need (or of course text).
In the old marketing world, you had to get in the press to get to consumers or buy expensive ads.

That was the only way unless your best customer Rose told twenty of her friends at a luncheon while schmoozing (good old fashioned word-of-mouth).

Now YOU can create the content. Gary Vaynerchuk does it with Wine Library TV. Whole Foods does it with the Whole Story Blog.

Instead of a multi-million dollar marketing plan, now YOU THE BRAND can create, promote, syndicate, share and market using content.

Sure, it is has to be good but not earth shattering. Consistency is key. Biggest tip from personal experience is make sure you KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER and what they will find interesting and what they are looking for. Would they prefer video? audio? text? a mix? Knowing your audience and marketing like a publisher is going to absolutely dominate marketing-speak in 2010.

5. Online Video: Forget Viral Focus On Function

Everyone wants to create a “viral” video. Sure, a viral video is a marketing weapon if you can do it, but the real benefit of video to marketers in 2010 is content.

As mentioned above, as a marketer and brand, you have the opportunity to publish content and market/interact with new and existing customers.

The price of video? Way down. No, you don’t need a 20 person crew and $15,000 camera.

The Flip Mino HD and Kodak Zi8 are both under $200 and painfully simple to use.

Sure, the videos have to be good, but they don’t have to be masterpieces to be effective marketing weapons. The good news is video can be used for almost ANY business big or small (with a few regulatory issues of course for our good friends in the financial sector but we still love you financial sector…sort of).

For example (I have about 3 million of these ideas but here are three):

1. If you are a grocery store, why not film the butcher talking about meats or talk about the best deals? Then, market it towards your shoppers.

2. If you are a gas station, why not film a quick special on drinks delivered by the employee-of-the-month. and send it to your best customers.

3. If you are an entrepreneur launching a product, why not show yourself using it and one of your best customers and simply tell us why it rocks and why we would want to use it.
Best practices with video are vast, but some quick advice is just be 100% honest, authentic and have some fun. Personality shines through more on video than literally anything else besides face-to-face.

Oh and did I mention that people love video? Youtube is now the #2 search engine to Google.

6. Death Of The 30-Second Ad: Rise Of Creative Paid Content

I may get in trouble for this one. My team and have sold plenty of 30-second ads. We have run testing, data, and every type of metric measurable.

Is the 30-second ad dead? Short answer: Pretty much. Why? Customers had to be interrupted and everyone hates interruptions especially when the company is essentially guessing that I might like something because I like something else. Does it still work for mass marketing? Sure, to some extent…but make no mistake, it is dying.

For example. I like watching hockey but I don’t like beer. Beer companies are told hockey fans are males who like beer. Therefor, they run beer commercials during games. Simple. But I don’t like it and they made an ASSUMPTION.

Now with tons of niche shows (as opposed to mass marketing), marketers have the opportunity to be a lot more creative.

Here is a creative alternative and how I see things happening in 2010:

For example: The same beer company discovers 5 well-known niche beer blogs and 1 Beer Online TV show. They approach the blog owners and show owners and come up with this creative strategy:

1. The beer company will write three guest blog posts (or monthly posts) for each Beer Blog and will pay the blogger similar to paying a TV station to run ads (of course this relationship has to be disclosed) and creates valuable content agreed upon between the beer company and blogger.

2. The beer company pays the online TV show in two ways:

A: They give beer to the host and tell him or her that if he or she doesn’t like it, they don’t have to market it. But if they do like it, they will pay X dollars (or % of sales affiliate-style) to have a host mention in each episode. “Today’s Beer TV is brought to you by Example Beer. I’ve tried, liked it and won’t promote crap on the show. Head to examplebeer.com for 10% a case and try it today.”

Important note for content creators: Host/show and viewer relationship should be treated like sacred gold. When we launch our new show in 2010, we continue to live by this rule and  ONLY promote and take dollars from products we like, trust and feel comfortable promoting no matter what their budget is. No need to bash products that don’t work for you, but certainly don’t take their money and promote them.

B: The show can have a person from the beer company come on the show and offer valuable content to the viewers and market the beer company for a charge. This is a pay-to-play model that we use for our TV Tip Experts (more on that next year of how/why we do this). For example, the host interviews a person from the beer company who offers “5 Tips For Avoiding Going To The Bathroom Too Much When Drinking Beer.” The beer company is promoted, valuable content is given to the viewers and everyone wins.

Again, the key in all of this is integrity. Disclose sponsorships and remember the audience comes first. Keeping those things in mind, marketing through paid content in 2010 is going to be a BIG PLAY for marketers.

7. Reputation Marketing: Customer Service And Caring

Innovative customer service and caring has always been one of the best ways to market and will become even more prevalent in 2010.

Why? Companies with poor customer service got bombed by word of mouth in 2009. On the other hand companies built around customer service in 2009, flourished such as Zappos.
A recession tends to weed out the really bad companies, don’t you think?

Especially with social media, customers have a lot of power and they are NOT shy. Good customer service spreads, which is great for marketers. Bad customer services spreads faster which is a nightmare.

How can you successfully promote or sell a product (without lying) when everyone is ripping it shreds online and off?

A little caring can go a long way even before there is a problem. Example of caring:

On a recent trip to Chicago with my girlfriend (now fiancee), we were meeting a family member for dinner. Riveting, I know. He emailed us the name of the restaurant and the website. In the olden days (last year?) I would have probably peeked at the menu and that would be about it. However, this pretty fancy restaurant Picoolo Sogno had a button to follow them on Twitter.

So, I sent out this Tweet:  TheRiseToTheTop: @PiccoloSogno Looking forward to eating with you guys Fri night in Chicago!

And they quickly replied:  PiccoloSogno: @TheRiseToTheTop Looking forward to having you!

Earth shattering? Maybe not. However, I felt a quick connection with the brand that was personal. When we went to the restaurant (which was great), I got the share the experience with the owner.

“That is why we are using social media,” he said.

Don’t care? Then you could be the next victim of a video like this from Gary Vaynerchuk.

8. Event Marketing

You can do all the online marketing in the world, but face-to-face is vitally important and nothing really replaces it.

As Chris Brogan told me (paraphrased), we may not be able to see each other in person for a year, and we can use social media to keep in touch, but nothing replaces the face-to-face interaction.
In terms of marketing, holding a unique event has numerous big effects for your company including:

-Word-Of-Mouth: “Where were you last night, Joe?” “At Company X’s Coffee and Cliff diving Event.” “Wow, that sounds interesting…”

-During The Event: Attendees will most likely be posting to Twitter and Facebook where they are. If the event is truly remarkable and different, they will let people know. Lots of people.

-After The Event: Photos can be posted, tagged, and more for a lasting effect.

A few tips:

-Make sure to have a photographer

-Underground video: Encourage people to bring Flip Cameras or Kodak Zi8’s or equip people with them. Post videos on your blog, website and a video site or two after. People love seeing themselves.

-Delivery is everything: I personally hosted 10 events in 2010 and if you over deliver you will be loved and if you underwhelm…well you know what happens…bad marketing.

-Be different: There are way too many happy hours and coffees. Why is your event unique?

2010 is going to be the year of fantastic events. Is your company on board?

9. Social Media: No Longer A Buzzword In Marketing

I feel like social media is like the word “blog” in 1998. There is a guy sitting in the corner office telling the corporate team that we need a blog and get the youngest person in the office on it. He doesn’t know why, he just heard the word.

Social media is going to be like that in 2010. More and more users and brands will pop up, but without real “rules of engagement” many will not be maximizing the potential and need a little help (many of my consulting clients fall into this boat).

The key to marketing on social media in 2010 in my opinion is going to be three-fold:

1. Strategy: What are the concrete goals? No, not amount of followers. Hard analytics: Increase sales, amount of business partnerships, amount of leads, % increase to email list. ROI can measured by Pre-Social Media vs. Engaging In Social Media. No, I don’t recommend using social media for direct sales, but instead forming relationships for all businesses, quality customer service, personal touch and more. If you do all that, the sales will happen if you have the right strategy.

2. Technology: Understanding the technology and using the key tools is a no- brainer. But I’m talking about REALLY understanding the functionality, how to build relationships, and what sites are correct for your company and situation.

3. Key Resources: I’ll repeat this twice. NOTHING replaces human interaction (#1). NOTHING replaces human interaction (#2). Engaging, replying, etc. is key to marketing success on social media. In fact, not doing it will cause a backlash: “Company X doesn’t  “get” social media.” It is called social for a reason.

That being said, there are some incredible tools that continue to emerge to help you with the marketing side of things on social media. Meaning analyzing data, understanding relationships, making sure content you create is pushed onto the sites correctly without being annoying and many other goodies. Does this replace interaction? Absolutely not. Does it help market on social media? Absolutely.

One company I’m loving right now is Objective Marketer. I’ll be testing their product over the next couple of months and let you know the ins and outs and why it could be killer for you as a marketer.

10. Relationships, Relationships, Relationships.

Treat your customers (potential and current) like gold online and off and you will win the 2010 marketing game.

While the online world has changed the ease of communication, word of mouth marketing and lots of other things, good old fashioned rules will be as important as always in 2010.

For example: Do you send thank you’s to customers via snail mail? Handwritten cards? Since everyone is pretty much using email these days, you will stick out if you send a card or package.

We use Send Out Cards to keep up with current customers and clients and also as a marketing tool to stay in touch with customers and clients. It is an online system that sends a REAL card and gift if you choose. You can check it out here (affiliate link: Send Out Cards) if you want to learn more watch the video.

It is cliche but people really do business with those they like and trust. Creating a personal bond in a world where everyone is more connected but busier, can only lead to good things.

Wrapping It Up:

And that is it. 2010 is going to be an incredible year. I know I’m excited for it and am interested to hear your thoughts. What do you think? Any of the above points you would like me to go more in depth on? Should I turn this into an E-book or Video Book?

Happy Marketing!

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog

I want to welcome all the females and the males out there with a first post that pertains to both sexes. Its true, men and women are different is can be, in appearance, in the way we think and act, we’re simply hard-wired that way. But the bottom line is: we’re all looking to improve our health and there are some things that we can all do to get healthier together.

Today, I’m talking specifically about physical health–preventing aging and chronic disease and losing weight. Here are my top 5 health tips for both men and women that all have added health bonuses that make them my all time faves. Here we go

1. Water

Yes, we all know we’re supposed to get 8 glasses of it per day but I’m always amazed when I realize how critical it is to our daily functioning. Without proper hydration, our concentration and focus plummet.

We need water to feel alert and for our livers to flush toxins and fat out of our bodies. Of course, water keeps bowels moving regularly and this is also key to preventing disease and keeping weight down.

2. Omega3

I especially love them in the form of Fish or Cod liver oil, that form of Omega 3’s are ready for the body to use and prevent heart disease, reduce blood pressure, help varicose veins, improve circulation and reduce blood triglyceride levels.

Omega 3 is also beneficial for those with depression and cancer as well. Added bonus: helps you lose weight, especially when already exercising.

3. Calcium / Magnesium

Again, we know this dynamic duo to be essential to building strong bones, but they do oh so much more. Magnesium helps with constipation, leg cramps, hypertension, and kidney stones and calcium eases insomnia–and both help with nerve function, which is great if under stress.

Plus both play a role in assisting in weight loss as well. Who couldn’t use deeper sleep and to lose a pound or 2?

4. Fiber

This sounds like one for older folks but each and every one of us could use the gentle internal brushing that fiber provides for us.

Fiber absorbs excess fats, preventing their absorption (and again, helping in weight loss) and has benefits for colon cancer, heart disease and diabetes. And you easily get it from foods, so no need to purchase supplements.

5. Protein

There’s tons of research out there these days on the importance of getting good quality protein in the diet. From stabilizing blood sugar to promoting the building of muscle to helping with weight loss, high-protein is the new lowfat.

Amar E. Chakravarthi My Blog