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How Social Media Changed The Way Business Is Done

Prashant Sharma — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:36:00 +0000

The Internet changed the way we all lived our lives, and then social media changed the way that people use the Internet.

Included in these changes were the way that we do business not only today, but in the way people will think of doing business in the future.

Social media gives a business more options than it has ever had before while leveling the playing field for smaller businesses.

Social Media Marketing A Must

The biggest way that social media has changed the way a business operates is by making itself a mandatory marketing tool. A Twitter account today is what a telephone number was 30 years ago.

Customers expect to be able to communicate online the same way they expect to be able to call the store to talk to a person. The Internet is the most convenient tool for customers to use these days, so a company has to be able to meet expectations.

Customer Relations Take Place Online

Another way that social media has changed the way that companies do business includes how a company deals with customers. A smart business realizes that customers will be talking to each other online, and those conversations will include products and services that they have recently used.

Good PR means that a business gets in front of the conversation to control the message and keep it a positive one. Good customer service means a business will listen to, and communicate with, its customers in this modern medium.

The Customer Has More Options Than Ever Before

It used to be that a customer would have to go to the store to see what was in stock. These days, a customer simply has to shop online to see what a store has before even entering the store. If a customer wants a review on a product, that customer simply goes on Twitter to see what the buzz is regarding that product, or can read a review online.

This is an advantage to customers because they can go to the store and not even have to shop around because they know what they want and what others say about it.

There is no biased reporting from employees about how great a product is. If a customer has a smart phone, it allows that customer to find information on a product while shopping in the store.

In response, businesses have resorted to re-training employees on how to approach customers, re-thinking merchandising strategies and offering more attractions. Some companies have resorted to rock climbing walls, free wi-fi and coffee bars in an effort to keep customers relaxed and inside longer.

You Can Buy A Product From A Facebook Friend

Some cases will allow you to skip the store altogether. Instead of buying a product new, you could browse the Facebook marketplace and see what your friends are selling. Maybe your friend from college is selling a brand new TV for half the price that you would find in the store.

From there, you can find reviews and other information on the product as you would normally. Then you simply message your friend and make an offer on the product. No going to the store involved.

This guest post has been authored by Steven Farrell, who is the administrator of ReverePhoneLookup.org, the site where you can perform a free phone tracer online.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a Delhi based Entrepreneur who spent most of his college days polishing his marketing skills and went for his first business venture at 19. Having tasted failure in his entrepreneurial debut, he turned a Tech-enthusiast, specializing in web technologies later. Today, he heads AQR8 Media, a Digital Marketing and Technology firm and writes at TechPluto as well. Join him on Twitter , Facebook and Google+

Some Reality Check Over PayPal Alternatives

Prashant Sharma — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:03:03 +0000

Imp: In current scenario when PayPal has spelled a bad news for Indian merchants, freelancers & entrepreneurs, this one is an important info to know…Read On !

The outrage from PayPal users belonging to India was pretty much expected over the news that broke last saturday and public rage was quite evident with the flaming comments that we received against RBI on our post on newly amended PayPal policy for Indians.

But now when PayPal has already taken the steps in order to comply with RBI policies and will have to bring new policies into implementation starting March 1, Indian users are eagerly looking for viable PayPal alternatives.

For our readers, we have included a list of ‘PayPal alternatives’ that you may consider trying out but there are important things to know before you jump over and start using any other service right away. May be, after reading this post, you might prefer sticking to PayPal rather than wasting your time messing up with some new service.

Some Reality Check

No ‘PayPal Alternative’ is a long term solution: PayPal came under RBI scrutiny as PayPal became so popular among Indian freelancers and small businesses that volume of transactions through PayPal to/from India couldn’t be ignored by Indian regulators anymore. Now, even if some other PayPal alternative such as AlertPay grows as popular as PayPal in India, RBI will do the same treatment with AlertPay, soon or later. AlertPay or any other service for that matter, will do the same as PayPal did today, because no ‘PayPal alternative’ would like to be treated as a ‘bank’ and be regulated by Indian authorities, like any other Indian bank does.

Rest of the world will stick to PayPal: No matter what policies PayPal brings up for Indians, the rest of the world would be least bothered about it and hence, International clients for Indian PayPal users are always going to prefer PayPal over any other service due to world-renowned brand power and unmatchable service reliability.
Now, if your client is not even willing to try out a new service for sending you payments, you can’t force them to pay you through your preferred online transaction service.

PayPal has unmatchable Trust and Reliability: PayPal, a global brand today, has slowly become the de-facto standard for instant online payments and International transactions. In fact, it’s online popularity is at par with Credit card payment companies such as MasterCard or Visa.
It’s surprising but even Google powered Checkout service has done no significant harm to PayPal’s authority and monopoly so far and given the trust and credibility that PayPal has created so far, they are unlikely to be beaten down in their own turf.

Risks involved with PayPal Alternatives: Whenever you try out a new service/PayPal alternative and give it your credit card details & make it your e-wallet for receiving your payments, you also put a lot at stake on that service. You can’t afford that service to have any performance lags or security holes. You want that service to always keep a check on all security aspects and keep your money safe, always. You want that service to auto-detect any illegal transactions that ever happen with you and defend you when some hacker breaks into your account and does something illegal with your hard-earned money.
It’s unfortunate but true that there’s barely any other global service that keeps your money and financial credentials as secure as PayPal does. The records don’t lie. That means, if you’re going to try out any PayPal alternative in future, you’re also taking a fair amount of risk by putting stakes at some new, inexperienced service that might even shut down in some worst case scenario.

Keeping all above points in perspective, take a look at these PayPal alternatives and decide if you really should make a transition or not.

Here’s the list:

Moderately known services:

Lesser known services

Prashant Sharma

Wikileaks Update: .ORG Domain Is Back. Wikileaks Mirror Sites Near 2000 Mark

Prashant Sharma — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:25:45 +0000

Since our last post when Amazon decided to pull plugs on Wikileaks by withdrawing its hosting services for some undisclosed violation of terms, there has been a lot of activity against Wikileaks and in favor of wikileaks as well.

At this moment, Wikileaks website is very much active as its been operating from a swiss domain Wikileaks.ch, ever since wikileaks.org domain got suspended by DNS service provider EveryDNS.net.

However, two new updates are still not reported by media as they have just popped up.

.ORG domain for Wikileaks has started operating again. It’s currently redirecting to a mirror site for Wikileaks mirror.wikileaks.info. According to the tweets of various twitter users, it appears that Wikileaks.org domain has been operating since Saturday afternoon.
Total count of mirror sites for Wikileaks has grown to over 1800 sites and with such kind of viral multiplication of Wikileaks content on internet, the mirroring site count is sure to go past 2000 mark before Sunday passes. This has probably been the biggest achievement of Wikileaks so far.

In case, you haven’t been able to keep up with fast erupting news relating to Wikileaks and its loic, Julian Assange, here’s a sequential round-up of what happened with Wikileaks during last 10 days or so.

Amazon kicks Wikileaks off its hosting servers
Wikileaks site switches back to Swedish servers
Wikileaks DNS provider EveryDNS.net stops supporting Wikileaks.org domain. Website suffers downtime.
Wikileaks starts operating from an alternate swiss domain Wikileaks.ch
PayPal restricts Wikileaks account, kills donations to Wikileaks via PayPal.
Swedish servers hosting Wikileaks suffer intolerable DDoS attacks. As a result, website suffers more downtime
Visa and MasterCard cut off donation processing services to Wikileaks
UK judiciary issues arrest warrant for Wikileaks loic Julian Assange, on accusation of sexual abuse by two swedish women
Julian assange self-surrenders to Police. Awaits a court hearing in hope of getting a bail
Wikileaks urges all of its supporters to help mirroring Wikileaks and make it ubiquitous over the Internet
UK judiciary refuses bail for Assange, Wikileaks promises to continue operations without Assange as well
Cyber activists unite forces and launch operation ‘Payback’, bombard DDoS attacks against MasterCard, Visa and PayPal. MasterCard and Visa suffer heavy downtime while PayPal suffers slow operation but survives the heat.
Facebook and Twitter delete hacktivist accounts engaged in orchestrating DDoS attacks on MasterCard, Visa
16 yr old dutch boy gets arrested over suspicion of being involved in launching DDoS attacks against involved payment processing websites.
Julian Assange gets worldwide support(especially from his native country Australia) for getting right treatment and not be treated like a terrorist.
Wikileaks.org starts operating again. Mirror sites surpass all expectations and grow past 1800.

During the flurry of fast changing events during last two weeks, there was hardly any day when Wikileaks failed to publish any document at any given night. The process of releasing secret U.S. diplomatic cables has remained uninterrupted, despite facing countless hurtles, both technically and politically.

In one word, Wikileaks can be described as “Unstoppable”. Truth can’t be censored.

Prashant Sharma

3G Life: ‘Fix to Imbalance’ in a Blogger Lifestyle

Prashant Sharma — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:35:00 +0000

I got my first introduction to the world of blogging in late 2007 and have been prolifically writing about silicon valley juggernauts and startups since 2008.

As i chose ‘Internet & Web Technology’ as my primary subject for blogging, I developed a natural instinct of staying current with all the happenings in Silicon valley and the whole startup fraternity and writing about them, day-in, day-out.

As my blog was meant to cover International tech news and startups, I adapted my lifestyle to an extent that, albeit, my physical location here in India, my work timings were in line with U.S. clock. Working Late nights(upto early mornings), tracking latest tech news, product launches, acquisitions and writing about them for my audience(largely International) became a daily activity for me.

Year 2011 is just around the corner and most of my work habits are still the same. To stay current and keep up with hyperactive U.S. blogging fraternity, this factor can’t be compromised. And I have no complaints about it either.

My tools for Productivity

Being a technology blogger covering International(mainly U.S.) tech news, my blogging hours, sleeping schedules, email-response habits, gadgets etc are largely inclined to U.S. I carry a next generation Android smartphone (Motorola Milestone/Droid) for emails, status updates,apps on the go, have a laptop as well as desktop for heavy-duty blogging. And pretty soon, some sleek tablet will become a part of my gadget family as paper-thin, touchscreen tablets are great for Information consumption, a must-have for a voracious Info consumer like me.

The Painful ‘Imbalance’

For a tech blogger who spends 95% of his PC time on web, ‘Internet’ is equivalent to ‘Oxygen’. I go uneasy and literally feel out of breath(cut-off from the ever-changing tech community) when my Internet service gets interrupted, which isn’t very unusual for Indians.

To accommodate my Everytime, Everywhere need for Internet, I make sure my smartphone is GPRS connected(necessary evil) and I prefer cafes/hubs that facilitate Wi-Fi hotspots while moving out. But still, It’s completely disgusting experience from productivity perspective whenever I roam outside.

I can’t explain how terrible it feels to wait for 5 minutes for mere logging into my email client while using GPRS but i just can’t help it when i am out. Streaming Youtube videos on GPRS is a big NO. I can shell out hefty sum for a 3G smartphone(i already have one) or a WiFi/3G Internet tablet but i can’t build a 3G network for myself.

And that’s where the real problem lies: Lack of reliable 3G Service for ubiquitous, uninterrupted and Superfast Internet.

At one side, I carry along the latest gadgets with full 3G support and great Internet experience, just to stay current with what western people have been enjoying for couple of years. On the contrary, I am still stuck with hapless GPRS services by Indian ISPs, which significantly impacts my productivity while on the go.

I must mention here that Australians are far better than Asian counterparts in this regard as mobile phone plans and mobile broadband services offered to Australian citizens are relatively cheaper and at par with western countries in terms of broadband speed and wireless connectivity. Subsidized mobile phones and discounted phone deals are also offered by telecom companies to Australian citizens, which is still not much of an option for Indian folks till date.

That’s the Imbalance

A mismatch of my ‘next-generation productivity tools’ with ‘Old-generation Network services’(GSM,GPRS).

BSNL, being the existing 3G service provider in India, is already blacklisted from my preference list, for being famously unreliable ISP by all standards.

The Fix

As 3G spectrum got allocated to Indian telecom companies this year itself, it was expected that 3G services will start rolling out in late 2010 or early 2011.

And here we have our first ‘reliable’ Telecom giant that’s looking ready to facilitate 3G services across the country, Tata Docomo. Looking at Tata-Docomo TV commercials buzzing about ‘3G Life‘, I feel excited to finally have the same 3G experience I had been waiting for the last 2 years.

To me, the impact of 3G services will surely be noteworthy. Here’s why…
With 3G

Emails, Document attachment etc through phone will get done in a matter of seconds
Instant Photo sharing on Facebook/Twitter won’t take ages
Watching online videos without a streaming glitch(buffering etc) will finally become a reality.
Video calling through Skype or any other app will surely be an amazing experience
I will stop seeking Wi-Fi hotspots while roaming around.
I will gain the freedom to access Broadband Internet through my laptop, anytime, anywhere (via Tethering through my smartphone)
Mutli-tab browsing on my smartphone will no more be a trouble.
Air/Train ticket booking, bill payment etc will get done right from my phone.
I will have 24×7 Instant access to all my Internet resources, keeping my productivity at its best

and so on…

Thankfully, the long wait is finally over, the ‘3G Life‘ is here and I am ready for it !

Prashant Sharma

Facebook Just Finished Writing ‘Death Sentence’ for Orkut

Prashant Sharma — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:22:08 +0000

If there was any left-out hope of Orkut, rising from the ashes and capitalizing on the strong userbase and loyalty, it once created in India and Brazil, those hopes have just been brutally murdered, by none other than….Facebook.

There’s no denying that Facebook has already beaten its competitors so badly that chances of other networks like Myspace, Orkut or Friendster to flourish back to glory are next to nothing. But it is terrible to see Orkut, a Google backed social network, literally giving up the whole game of Social networking, when they’re actually onto building a social layer(on top of all their services) and want to compete with Facebook, head on.

The Rise & Demise of Orkut

I started my social networking foray with Orkut and once had all my friends hooked to Orkut. And now, it’s all Facebook everywhere and even after having 250+ friends on Orkut, it’s a long, haunting silence i hear, nothing else.

While Orkut was declining but still having majority on its side in India and Brazil, it bluntly copied every single feature that Facebook launched months back(social games, apps), in a lame manner, of course. Orkut tried to innovate couple of things on its own(‘Promote’ feature) as well but they were so dumb that those features went untouched.

And now, the BIG BLOW…

Just moments ago, Facebook has started showing notifications to those Facebook users who also appear to have Orkut accounts, persuading them to link their Facebook profile with their Orkut profile, in order to automatically push Facebook status updates to Orkut account.

As i described above, there’s hardly anyone updating their Orkut profile these days so Orkut is already doomed but Facebook updates into Orkut account ? I mean, that’s just crossing the limits.

It seems Orkut has completely given up on re-establishing itself into Social Networking and turning highly desperate to have some fresh content flow into its dying social network, no matter where that content comes from(Facebook, its competitor/murderer).

This Facebook-Orkut profile linking will only backfire Orkut by driving those ‘few residual Orkuters’, to Facebook, who will then start pushing their Facebook updates to their Orkut profile, and will completely stop visiting Orkut.

For Facebook, this is a JackPot move. After taking 500+ Mn users on its side, the other half a billion users can only be captured fast if Facebook becomes the pulse of Indian and Brazilian population, a turf that’s still half-won.

Now, even those section of users(Orkut loyalists) who were logging into both the social networks for some reason, will hardly have a reason to login and post a status update in their Orkut profile.

Final say…

Orkut was already on its way to rest in peace but nobody would have expected Google backed Orkut, to surrender, rather suicide in this lame fashion, giving further opportunity for Facebook to squeeze left-out Orkut network till death.

R.I.P. Orkut !

Update: While i went on to link my Facebook account with Orkut profile, i got this message…

IMPORTANT: You can only export updates and content with a privacy setting of Everyone

As i have custom privacy settings and don’t want to open my FB profile for everyone, no chance of linking with Orkut profile in my case.

Update 2: Now, Facebook has started showing another notification to its users where it will help users find all their Orkut friends who’re already on Facebook but not connected yet. Orkut is finished, if it wasn’t already !

Prashant Sharma

Why Jailbreaking Won’t Shoot Up, Albeit, Being Declared ‘Legal’ in U.S.

Prashant Sharma — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:20:59 +0000

With newly added exemptions to DMCA act, Electronic Frontier Foundation has made some epic accomplishment in favor of Jailbreakers, Unlockers and Video artists. From now on, Jailbreaking is purely legal in U.S. and no jailbreaker in U.S. needs to bother about any legal ramifications if the hardware owner decides to jailbreak his mobile phone, making it to root access and willing to run unofficial third party apps on phone’s hardware.

This ruling comes as a major setback to Apple, which strongly condemns Jailbreaking of its ‘closed’ products such as iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. In an effort of keeping the overall environment in its firm control, Apple always desires to let users run pre-installed apps or approved apps downloaded/purchased from App Store. That’s one reason why Apple keeps plugging software exploits unearthed by hackers/jailbreakers and keeps releasing updated iOS versions with software fixes.

But now when ‘Jailbreaking’ has gone legal in U.S., Apple might not discourage ‘Jailbreaking’ the way it used to do it earlier.

This is how Apple will discourage ‘Jailbreaking’ from now on…

“Don’t Jailbreak your iOS device because….”

It will severely ‘degrade’ your software experience
It will make your device unstable/error prone
It will hamper hardware reliability
It will violate warranty of your iOS device

Still, i reckon, Apple need not worry about this epic judgement as Jailbreaking won’t really shoot up, even after becoming a legal activity in U.S.

Here’s why….

‘Jailbreaking’ isn’t a child’s play. It requires decent programming skills or at least deep understanding of digging the software roots.
Jailbreaking puts the device at the risk of ‘bricking’(permanent damage), if anything goes wrong while rooting your device.
‘Jailbreaking’ doesn’t offer huge rewards to any iOS device owner. It just enables you to run unauthorized third party apps on your hardware. To most of the iOS loyalists, 225000 approved apps are more than enough.
So far, only 10% of iOS devices are actually Jailbroken. That’s a pretty small minority which mostly comprises of hackers and geeks.
Majority of Apple’s cult is absurdly religious, willing to follow every word that Steve Jobs preaches and in this case, Steve Jobs/Apple discourages Jailbreaking and hence there are least chances for the cult to disobey their ‘God’(Steve!)

Rather i see a reverse-psychology happening with Jailbreakers and hackers. It might happen that ‘Jailbreaking’ may go down by itself, post this judgement.

Here’s why…

Jailbreakers/Crackers are defined by doing stuff that’s illegal. Doing illegal stuff actually brings motivation to Crackers as there’s no monetary incentive of doing stuff like that. Now that Jailbreaking is legal, hackers/jailbreakers may rather turn focus on doing other illegal stuff, not ‘legal’ Jailbreaking, which may appear rather ‘boring’ to them.

Hence Apple need not worry about this ruling. It just needs to keep releasing iOS updates with patches to latest exploits, something that Apple has been doing for years now.

Prashant Sharma

Why I am Scared of Buying an iPad.

Prashant Sharma — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:45:48 +0000

The world of technology is so fascinating and fast-evolving today that it is mighty hard for an “informed” guy to abstain from spending money on buying latest gizmos. Whether it’s laptops, Netbooks, smartphones or gaming consoles, affordable pricing and irresistible offerings has exploded the sales of funky gadgets that once used to get sold to elite customers only.

This ever-growing hunger of new breed of consumerist-major generation has led to fierce competition at almost every tech landscape you talk about. Every major technology company today is either busy defending its own once-monopolistic business (Microsoft: Windows & Office, Google: Search & Advertising), aggressively invading into other’s businesses(Microsoft:Bing, Google: Chrome OS) or competing to dominate future-centric markets (Apple,Google, Microsoft, RIM, Nokia, HP: Mobile OS and Apps).

And quite recently, an untouched breed has started to appear across tech world, which may soon define an all new category of devices, the category of Touch-enabled Tablet devices. It’s also the category that’s currently synonymized with Apple iPad, a meticulously crafted evidence of technological advancement, built by Apple.

Honestly, i can’t stop admiring iPad and there are countless reasons for that. Being a gadget freak myself, i am sold to the beauty of iPad already and want to own it anyway.

Still, I am scared of buying an iPad. Sounds strange ?. Here’s why i think so…

I own a Windows PC not an iMac
I own a Dell Laptop, not a Macbook
I own a Sony MP3 Player, not an iPod
I own a Motorola Droid(Android), not an iPhone

In short, I am happy keeping myself away from buying anything ‘Apple’. I am aware that Apple produces the best breed of desktop machines(iMac), the best laptops (Macbook), the best Music player(iPod) or possibly the best smartphone till date (iPhone, although i would love to argue on this), but all of that fails to convince me to turn to Apple.

Although I would have loved using that iMac ‘Magic Mouse’ or using that long battery Macbook or that beautiful iPhone etc etc but i am happy with my existing set of gadgets and don’t feel the need to expend unnecessarily over Apple’s high priced product line, just because that’s ‘cool’ or more ‘aesthetic’ and stuff like that.

But iPad has a different story altogether. When i think of consumer-oriented touch slate devices, i find no options but the iPad. It’s something that’s a little annoying to me as lack of options invites frustration to anyone (barring Apple Fanboys, of course) and we, the consumers are not used to having zero options. We choose, not accept !

Now, i admit that Apple has produced a futuristic device in the form of iPad and i would rather love falling for an iPad rather than waiting for HP or Acer or any other OEM to launch an iPad competitor.

But still, i am scared of buying an iPad. Not because…

I hate iPad (i already said i love it!)
I hate Apple (No, I admire Apple as a company for all its achievements and successfully building an absurdly religious cult)
I hate Apple products(Again, i don’t hate Apple products. They’re too awesome to hate )

I am scared of buying iPad because i am scared of becoming yet another Absurdly religious Apple Fanboy !

It’s a human tendency to admire and defend what you own. It’s because you’re not defending the ‘product’ you bought, you are actually defending “your decision” of buying that product.

And i realize that once i buy an iPad, i won’t be able to stop myself showing it off to every other guy and explaining folks why this sleek gadget is ‘magical’, ‘revolutionary’ , ‘extraordinary’ etc etc, an early symptom of becoming a Fanboy.
I can foresee that soon after buying an iPad and unleashing its crafted beauty, i will turn so addicted with it that i will start wondering how was i bearing those clumsy, non-glittering, poorly designed ‘Non-Apple’ gadgets i had been using all along.
And eventually, I will replace my PC with an iMac, my Dell laptop with a Macbook and my Droid with an iPhone. In other words, i will surrender to the Cult of Mac by becoming a part of it. All this transition won’t happen immediately but once all my existing device approach their expiry, i won’t choose anything but Apple’s.
Although iPad would cost me just $499 or more but in a couple of years, i will transform into an ATM machine for Apple, who will be ready to spare hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on every product launched by Apple and plenty of apps, music and other stuff from iTunes.
Ultimately, i will start to prefer ‘Apple‘ over ‘Options‘, ‘Affordability‘ & ‘Openness’. I will become a devoted Apple Fanboy !

All the above thoughts scare me so much that i prefer abstaining from taking that first step(buying an iPad) towards the Black Hole(Apple’s Ecosystem).

As I am quite happy with my Android smartphone(Droid) so far, i would love to buy an Android Tablet/Slate, as and when it hits the shelves. Till then, I better avoid thinking about iPad anymore !

Prashant Sharma

Whoah! Facebook Blocks Access to All Bit.ly links. Marks Them “Abusive”!(Update)

Prashant Sharma — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:00:20 +0000

There’s something terrible happening behind Facebook right now, a blunder if not worst than that. Coming straight to the point, Facebook has blocked access to all bit.ly links spread across Facebook and telling the users that link has been reported “abusive” by other Facebook users.

If you try to update your status with a bit.ly link at this very moment, Facebook won’t let you do that. It says…

“This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.”

Bit.ly is the most popular URL shortener on web and there is no reason why Facebook would deliberately block all those tens of millions of existent bit.ly links on Facebook and prohibit any further bit.ly links from getting shared.

It is, of course, a huge blunder and some facebook employee is surely going to be screwed for making that mistake. We hope that Facebook will soon rectify the problem as too many folks must be reporting this problem to Facebook support every second at the moment.

We will update this post when Facebook fixes this bug !

Update: The bit.ly problem has been fixed by Facebook now.