Love – what does it teach you?

Well, its 1:03 am in the morning, today I have a big launch (my company is launching India’s first Online platform, for taking Events and Conferences to Global Audience)

And yet I am doing this blog post, coz I think this is one thing which would make a difference in many a lives!

Let me start by creating a context for this one – I was at the gurudwara last evening, asking God various answers for all the questions which have been ratlling my brain since the past almost a month, when I met this awesome person in my life, who has suudenly changed life!

Is this love? Well…to know, read on!

So, I got an answer from God today, he said “jin aakhon mei sapne hote hain, unmei neend aur chain nahi hote…unmei toh sirf pyaar ki jagah hoti hai, aakhir sapno se pyaar hi toh hota hai”

I am an entrepreneur, and I have India’s leading Online Marketing company, of which I am a part of

And the answer that I got from God, well, being an entrepreneur I could more than just relate to the answer. These were the words which struck me while I was at the gurudwara.

So where does Love come in the picture?

The biggest thing that I have learnt in love is “You know what is flurry” , no I haven’t gone cracks. But this is what I got to learn from one of the best and the most beautiful human I know!

Well, where is Love in “you know what is flurry“….that is it!

If you cant see Love happening in this statement, well you are skipping the smallest of the moments in life, probably to look at those ohh so good looking and elusive ones’ …

I have been working for almost 28 hours now…and am writing about Love…

Yes, its almost 28 hours now that I have been working continously, and well, Love is something that is making me go strong though I am pretty exhausted. Its Love for that ohh so special someone, well I dont know, I’d say. All that I know is simple…Love has taught me to savour all those moments of life which I was skipping, probably to get to the better ones’ …

jin aakhon mei sapne hote hain, unmei neend aur chain nahi hote…unmei toh sirf pyaar ki jagah hoti hai, aakhir sapno se pyaar hi toh hota hai

I am a confesse dreamer, I see dreams with open eyes. I see a dream daily, something new everyday. These dreams make me go the extra mile…they make me work hard…and create and set new limits

Well, but today I have the biggest realization which gives a support and an answer to all the questions which I had related to the dreams.

Its not easy seeing a dream and sticking to it, giving your life to it. Yep, its not. So what keep the fire on, all the time, everytime?

Honestly speaking, though I am an entrepreneur, seen many things, ups and downs and I work along with a great team of people, but I could never figure out for myself, what is making these dreams fuelled?

Everytime I fall, a dream catches fire again!

And Love’s got everything to do with it!

You know what flurry is?

Well, its softly falling snow, and when you are walking across the road, feeling the snow, which is as pure and serene as you, well, in that moment, that’s Love.

I was told the meaning of flurry, by someone as pure and serene. And I fell in love! Yes I am in Love!!

Today I live in every moment, I smile past the time going by, I laugh at silly things, I am normal! I dont pretend to look good anymore! And I am in Love!

And if you ask me today, what has Love taught me, well…

All I know is “I know what Flurry is” and this is what Love means to me…

Life’s as simple as this, probably we make it a lill’ more complex with our own meanings and reasons…Lets live it…

And for the person, well for the rest of my life, I would like to keep knowing each and every second of my life “what flurry is”…

Paritosh Sharma’s Blog crosses 500+ readers

I would like to thank all my readers as ParitoshSharma’s Blog today crosses the 500 mark, to be precise 509 readers in 11 days!

I’d like to know more on what all would you like to read and see on this blog! Please leave your comments and all bouquets and brickbats are welcome!

Thanks,

Paritosh Sharma
Social Media Evangelist,
OMLogic, India’s Leading Online Marketing company

Empower the women in your life – be ‘man enough’!

Okay, so before I do this blog post, I would like to thank with all the honesty, every woman in my life

What prompts me to do this post is this workshop that I attended a couple of days back, where probably I got one of the biggest lessons of my life.

A question for everyone (especially the gentlemen out there) well, how many times in life have you expressed that you are a man of your words, or just that you have had to prove that yes you stand for the fact that you are man enough!

Coutesy: UNDP

Well, being one, I have had many times in life, when I had to express that yes Im man enough, and then started the vicious cycle of the male bastion – ego jumping…which everytime used to take me in its arms, making me feel yes Im right, but in that moment probably as a normal human being, I did not ever feel, that while Im putting up all the reasons in supporting, my righteousness, Im also making someone wrong. (be it anyone for that matter)

Iv seen many married couples just ‘Putting up’ with each other…

Well, I know of many a people, who are just putting up both with each other and in life. And they are giving every reason possible to make sure, that yes they are right in their own respect, but in process, they probably do not even realize that they are making their partners wrong.

We are living in the times, when times are a changing. There are leading women all around and which I personally feel is great! But Iv also heard a lot of males (including myself just sometime back), that how crappy is the whole concept of women empowerment and all the fuss created due to it.

But all during this time, I always had to express to the women in my life, that Yes, Im man enough…..

- to take care of them….protect them….and all that talk….but what was missing, was I had to….it was an effort….and it never gave me the respect that I was looking for in my own life….i mean..why do I need to tell some of the most beautiful parts of my life, that Im man enough for them?!

And came a Big lesson – Empower every Woman in your life:)

Well, its pretty simple, all that a man needs to do is empower every woman in his life…whether its his Mother, Sister, Wife, Friend, or whatever….

What do I mean by empowering?

Well, no, you do not have to take any special steps for this! there are no mantras that you need to chant, and no this certainly does not mean that you leave everyone to their own….you are not dettaching yourself from them…

All that you are doing is, supporting and applausing the woman in the the simplest acts that she does….so if I give an example, lets say your wife does not wants to cook food today, well the simplest thing that you could do is, if you know well, you can cook, otherwise it does not take much to order something from outside

What would this do?

Looking at the above example, its seems so meaningless, but wait….well if you keep doing such acts in every part of your life, you would essentially create a space for your lady. You would not have to deliberately give her space or anything, you would not have to have your reasons of giving her anything….and the best part is you would never have to tell her that you are man anough for her!

The space which hence gets created, is a mutual effort and not a deliberate one, hence it takes least deliberation on your part, which makes the relationship, free and simply so easy to understand!

So…go ahead empower the women in your life…and no you dont need to express that you’re man enough!

Steve Jobs introduces laptop with no keyboard – another first from Apple

This is height of Innovation!

“People using keyboards are standing in the way of Human Progress”
- Steve Jobs

I dont know about you people, but the above statement could be made by either someone who comes from a different age, who has lost it, Or One who knows…He HAS IT!!

A laptop with no Keyboard

No, Im not kidding, Apple announced the intorduction of the new Apple Mac book Wheel, which is a laptop with everything that a normal mac has, just that the designers forgot to include the keyboard …And Im not kidding, there is no keyboard in this awesome piece of technology!

In a first of its kind, Apple has introduced the technology which would revolutionize the way we used to learn typing “QWERTY”. A glance at the machine, makes you say, well, I know this one, it so looks like my iPOD!! And well, the Wheel in the laptop, which replaces the normal keyboard, is truly going to banish (if that happens) the use of keyboards which I have known since I know computers.

A sneek peek into the machine (exclusively on this Blog):

So when do I get my hands dirty, Im ready!

Apple says, the new Apple mac Wheel would be available in the market in 3 to 15 months from now.

My Take:

Steve, have you heard about the path to greatness? Well you are on! (I would love to interview Steve on this blog), strange wish, but if someone can help, I’d be debted

- Keep Innovating!

AdultDost(dot)com – The Social viral message!

“Dude yeh paap hai” – (Dude this is sin!)

What kind of a title is it? Since when did Paritosh start featuring “Adult” sites on the blog? What is the world coming to? Just to increase readership how can someone feature such a thing!

Well, just before you you think of all these questions….read ahead….

This is going to give you a new insight into Viral Marketing using Social Media

What is AdultDost.com? Well, AdultDost is a Viral marketing campaign which has been designed for a major into Television space (TATA Sky) by a known Advertising company.

Okay, So I think I revealed the story a lil’ too early? Is it? I dont think so!

What is Virality, well I discussed the issue of Virality sometime back in one of my previous posts. Hmmm…interesting enough, but why would a company like TATA Sky, use such a name to launch an advertising campaign and that too for a product which caters to the idiot box (your television, which is powered by TATA Sky).?

Nice question! Well, and the question has a simple answer to it!

The answer is simple, If I am writing an entire blog post about it, spending 20 minutes in letting people know about the campaign, TATA Sky has achieved its purpose and hence it shows that the advertising company did achieve its objectives.

So right was Jagjit Singh (the great ghazal singer) when he said –

baat nikalegi toh phir duur talak jaaegi (if you speak out something, it would go till far)

Well, though Jagjit Singh never meant Social Media marketing and Viral messaging, but (just that I like ghazals) and the line seems a good fit

Moral of the story?!

For every online marketer its an achievement to create that one Ohh! So Viral campaign which would establish a great brand! I think with the increase in awareness in the generall masses and with the increase in the subscription and widespread of broadband services, many issues are getting handled!

2008, saw some great Social Media tools being created which evolved into moster houses. I describe Social Media as a party where you are all the time, every-time. And just like when you go to a party, you put the best foot forward, dress like rockstars, well the same applies to Social Media, where you are in a party everytime, all the time!

I think, 2009 (now that we have stepped into it) would see further stabilization of the various Social Media tools in terms of a deeper understanding of the, with newer models of branding, business emerging out.

Good Times with Nita Ambani

Nita and Mukesh Ambani

Okay so before I start, let me introduce to you the people in the picture to the left.

The lady on the left is Mrs. Nita Ambani and the Gentleman is Mr. Mukesh Ambani.

Are the names enough, or do I need say something…? Well, I have to…otherwise this post would contain only the names!!

Almost every one knows both the Ambani’s, so what makes me do a blog post about them? have I gone nuts or I have nothing else to think about?

Well, for all the right reasons I am doing this post!!

Mukesh Ambani, (right after this, I am a bit zapped on what else to write), is one of the most powerful business personalities around the globe. just like cricket, every child in India knows how to spell Ambani! Its a dream to be a Reliance.

My confession

I still remember my time almost two years back when I was working with a software firm and was looking ahead at a well settled career, parent were happy looking at the bright career prospect for their son. And then suddenly this happened ‘Guru’ the bollywood movie. Incidentally I’ll share something, I had never felt something more moving in my life than seeing the lead actor “Abhishek bachchan” on stage with a Mic roaring in front of his shareholders and saying “bana dein Duniya ki sabse badi company” (Shall we create the world’s largest company?) and his shareholders roar back in unison.

Abhishek Bachchan in Guru

And today I am an entrepreneur

Today after starting on my own I am working along with a great team as a Social Media Marketing evangelist (our company OMLogic is India’s leading Online Marketing company)

The first Ladies at the NDTV GOOD TIMES

What prompts me to write this post is not Guru, but its Nita Ambani. Though I seldom watch teleshows, but today I did, the entire show. It was ace designers Abu and Sandeep Jani in conversation with the gorgeous Nita Ambani.

Nita is a definition of calmness

Looking at Nita’s face, and whenever I have seen her (never personally, though would love to) the first thing that comes to my mind is “She’s got that calmness in her”. Look at the way she is. Her face would in the very first instance spell calmness. Look at the way she speaks, so definitive, yet so in her self.

Abu and Sandeep did a great job of hosting the show. With candid questions to subtle moments, it was an hour worth my time, I’d say.

One thing that you would like Mukesh to take from you

Asked Sandeep, and Nita replied, I am child like at times and I wish Mukesh could have been that ways at times.

He comes back home at 12 every night and he likes to watch a movie. So we have a movie time from 12-3 am every night.

All through the conversation I was thinking to myself, this is the lady who has no dearth of probably anything in her life. And look at her so calm, so serene and if after all of this she could be child like, Im not amazed, but I have high respects for the lady! How money affects sanity, Iv seen in many people around!!

And I could Love him more

Said Nita to every question on Mukesh. Its perfect (I say).

What do I think of all this?

Well, I have always believed that having the right partner to hold you at times good and bad, that’s what is life. Its about growing old with a glowing heart and a life full of memories sweet and smiling. All our lives we keep living, in the hope of living the next moment fully, and the next moment becomes present when it falls upon us, while we were just planning for it.

I think the 13 episodes of the show would definitely be a huge draw and I’d probably blog all of them. So keep hooked if you want to know who comes next!

How to get traffic to your blog?

Well, I think this post has been in the waiting since a long time now. Most of the readers of the blog and some of my friends have pursued me to write this piece!!

Blog Rise

Okay, so without any vague stuff, i would probably share the basic points every blogger must keep and take care of to increase the traffic!!

Increase TRAFFIC to your Blog

1. Concentrate on the topic… write posts that need to be read right now.
2. Talk like an expert (so you have to have enough knowledge about the subject you are writing about).
3. If you can break news nothing better!!
4. Start a topic which has not been started before by many (be amongst the first few) and let people discuss about it in their blogs/posts etc
5. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you
6. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
7. Don’t write about your wife, your boyfriend or your kids.
8. Write long, definitive posts.
9. Write neat things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
10. Share linklove and expect some back.
11. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
12. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
13. Coin a term or two
14. Do email interviews with the well-known
15. Answer your email.
16. Use photos with right tags and names to them
17. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
18. Post your photos on flickr.
19. Share your blog posts links over Twitter
20. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
21. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
22. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
23. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
24. Refer to useful but little-known resources.
25. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers–like gadgets and web 2.0.
26. Write about Google.
27. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
28. Don’t include comments, people will cross post their responses.
29. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
30. Run no ads.
31. Keep tweaking your template to make it include all the nice stuff that would make it easier for people to share and take you further!!
32. Write about blogging.
33. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
34. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
35. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
36. Write about a whole gamut of different topics so you don’t bore your readers.
37. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
38. Don’t interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
39. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
40. Don’t promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader’s attention
41. Be patient
42. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful
43. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive
44. Write about stuff that attracts a community. You will instantly find a large number of visitors there
45. Don’t be boring.

Finally write stuff that people want to “Read and Share”

Tell me if you want more such stuff: Leave a comment or mail: paritosh@paritoshsharma.com

Viral Marketing – You’re fool if you think if your VIRAL creation is Marketing you!

Well, to start with, I was talking online with one of my friends who is pursuing her HR in Canada this morning. We generally talk about lots of stuff, and today she remarked ‘why be such a pessimist’? And well I realised yes, that’s it!

Being a Social Media Marketing Evangelist –

What do I do she asked, and I started giving her all the fundas and tips and tricks on all what goes on and is going on and what’s the way ahead: which I wrote in my previous post: what would Social Media be in 2009 and then it struck me are we going the right way?

What is Viral Marketing? How do you define the success of your Viral campaign? How do you creae that Oh! So awesome viral message which your followers would take forward?

I know these are common questions anyone can think of, but what I am stuck with is this: Does your Oh! so Viral Campaign really markets you out?

Well, and the next thing I did was to Google on the topic and what I found was this: a classic Seth Godin post, what is viral marketing, Seth raises a very crucial point here:

There are two kinds of Viral marketing:

Viral Marketing

• The original classic sort in which the marketing is the product and which a self-amplifying cycle occurs. Hotmail, for example, or YouTube. The more people use them, the more people see them. The more people see them, the more people use them. The product or service must be something that improves once more people use it.
• A second kind has evolved over the last few years, and that’s a marketing campaign that spreads but isn’t the product itself. Shepard Fairey‘s poster of Barack Obama was everywhere, because people chose to spread it. It was viral (it spread) and it was marketing (because it made an argument–a visual one–for a candidate.

- text taken from Seth Godin’s blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/what-is-viral-m.html

And I was amazed to think how my thought process connected with Seth’s

Well, What I have been rattling my brains over is does your Viral campaign really achieves your marketing purpose?

And Seth does answer this question in a really effective manner: He says Virality is not a feature that you attach to your campaign.

The critical element of viral marketing is this: it’s built in. It was built into Hotmail and built into YouTube. The more people used the camera on their cell phones, the more the idea spread, the more people wanted a camera.

What do I feel?

Well, Viral Marketing is not  a value-added-service. In fact it is in-built. Its inside your offering. So the game changes here.

The Game changes here – for marketers

For all those marketers who have been selling over time and doing all the things possible to reach to the clients, trying to customize the offering according to the needs, and expecting WOMM (word of mouth marketing) to happen, the game has changed.

There have been a number of Un-successful attempts at Viral marketing. To tell you about an interesting one I saw a few days back is the “AdultDost.com” a Viral Marketing message for Tata Sky done by a media company. Well looking at the name doesnot it sound like an adult site? And YES! the message works!

You think it is, and you go there and well, the rest is “I went there, I liked it and I am blogging about it”

Its not about creating that message, It’s about: Creating a message that would be of value to the target market that you are creating the message for!

Go Viral…this new year.

The best New Year ever – 2009

Okay, so before I go ahead, my wishes to all on this New Year! May peace reign and Love conquer the world:)

I must say that there was sosmething special this year. Its 1:38 a.m. in the morning (1st January 2009) and I am blogging about how my celebration was!

So I, along with a few friends visited Noida, after roaming around in the market for sometime I was pretty sure that this year I wanted to do something different. So even though the folks tried getting into the discs and the rest, I think there was this strange inner calling.

After a sumptuous at a The Great India Place mall at a famous Pizza joint (Pizza hut) I decided to move to the Gurudwara (Sikh temple) which is right across the road. Though I did get flak from the folks for such a decision as they had other plans for the night, I couldn’t resist the attraction. And so there we were at the Gurudwara chanting the Gurbani and suddenly there was this deep inner calm which I would have never experienced in a happening joint.

The biggest draw were two young ladies (probably in their 18-20′s) sitting pretty at a corner and chanting the Gurbani along with a smile on their faces. And such was the inspiration that I got stuck in the moment. It was an experience which no words can describe.

Look at Life, its so strange

As the clock struck 12:00am, I shook hands with all my friends at the Gurudwara and bowed down to make my wishes. And then suddenly I heard this loud roar of people screaming at top of their voices “Happy New Year” and the noise was coming from, (well, from a famous Discotheque, near the Gurudwara, in a mall). And that moment I felt, how strange is life!! Just a few moments ago I was trying to be one of the screaming one’s and now my world suddenly has changed. Its so calm, so serene…its perfect

I think this has probably been one of the best new year’s beginning for me and I wish things keep going good and strong year long for all:)

Wishes again,

Best,
Paritosh Sharma