Friday, April 22, 2011

nadheera.com/blog launched in new domain

Hi all,

Thank you very much for reading for 6+ months. I'm continuing my blog in  www.nnulk.blogspot.com - new address and a new layout that gives me lot more options when posting all your favourite articles.

So please visit www.nnulk.blogspot.com and enjoy reading....

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Burger King Misfired on Facebook Viral Campaign

This week I bring you with facts about the marketing campaigns taking place in Social networks. Specially Facebook. Successes, Failures, Legality among many others will be discussed.


      Starting is a failure - A place we all love in Slave Island - Sri Lanka - Burger King - 

Burger-kingCrispin Porter + Bogusky,  Burger King’s advertising firm, has created a Facebook application called "Whopper Sacrifice." The application is simple: drop 10 friends on Facebook and you’ll get a coupon for a free Whopper. The rejected friends then get an email letting them know they’ve been dropped for a free sandwich.
Why on earth would you create a viral marketing campaign centered on negativity? It’s the old comedy rule: Surprise the audience and stay positive. It’s always funnier.
A much better way to do this would be to create an application that would give away a free Burger King gift graphic, say an image of a Whopper, the King or the Burger King logo for example. When your friends are notified they got a BK gift from you they have an option to install the application too. Once you’ve given away 10 BK gifts to your friends you get a free Whopper coupon.
This type of approach does several things:
  1. It’s positive - Facebook users love giving, and getting, free gifts
  2. Those gifts on user’s profiles are ads that will be there for a long time
  3. Many free Whopper coupons would be given out
By playing to what people like on Facebook you can create a viral campaign that is both popular and creates positive impression of your brand.


For info about Burger King Sri Lanka click on http://lankareviewed.blogspot.com/2008/09/chicken-shawarma-on-malay-st-mr-burger.html

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

"Chief Listening Officer" a name you should know in 2011

Many of my friends working in Internet/Facebook blocked intranet offices wonders when i say part of my job is to be in Facebook. Here's the news - 


A competition by Forbes Magazine blog named #50 top things you should know in 2011. Amongst them is a new position in every company "Chief Listening Officer".


The internet along with later developed media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter..etc. has created such a platform for consumers to kill or build brands. While brands use Social media as a tool to propagate their messages and products, it works in other direction where consumers talk about products. People talk about brands in both good & bad ways. The solution for brands was to have someone to listen to them so they can take action as appropriate.


Two examples given by the Forbes were Kodak and Dell. They both have a position called Chief Listening Officer to listen to Social Media as given below.


Beth's ear is turned your way
"Each month, Eastman Kodak CLO Beth LaPierre, 30, monitors 300,000 mentions of Kodak on Facebook, Twitter, message forums, YouTube, blogs, and elsewhere on the Web, using software from Radian6 and PeopleBrowsr. Then she decides which department needs the information.

When vloggers complained that the company’s latest digital video camera needed a mic jack for crowded rooms, she let product development know and it was added to the next model. “It’s like a focus group of millions,” says LaPierre. “There could be ten of me.”
When fans of a popular Nickelodeon children’s program started complaining on TV blogs about Kodak pulling ads due to a transgendered character, LaPierre contacted PR and then swooped in to correct the false report. “With a chief listening officer, you can ensure an immediate reaction before things spiral out of control,” says LaPierre.
Of her title, she says, “It’s hard explaining it to my mom.”

"Her counterpart at Dell, Chief Listener Susan Beebe, describes her job, which she started in July, as building "complex queries."

Susan Beebe
Susan Beebe
"There is a data-analysis research role to this job, and I have a very technical background," Ms. Beebe said. Dell has thousands of new mentions per day and the CLO's job is one of "broad listening" -- as Dell has such a deep penetration globally in so many different markets.
Unlike many social-media jobs, this position is very inward-facing. She's listening to Dell customers and consumers and giving all the intel to her Dell colleagues internally.
"Our chief listener is critical to making sure the right people in the organization are aware of what the conversations on the web are saying about us, so that relevant people in the business can connect with customers," said Richard Binhammer, communications executive at Dell. Mr. Binhammer points out that "Dell has been listening for four years and created a position called 'Listening Czar' two years ago. We are a leader in the listening space."
Ms. Beebe and Ms. LaPierre said their companies were driving innovation through customer feedback."
Social Media is no longer a FAD. Or just another trend that will fade away. Its here to stay and its up to you an your company to listen to what's being said about you!!!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Mark Zuckerberg meets with China's Facebook (Baidu) CEO Robin Li

mark zuckerberg and prischilla chan  facebookDid you know that Mark Zuckerberg - Times Person of the year's girlfriend is Chinese American???
Prischilla Chan from a Chinese Family migrated to US is the girlfriend of America's 35th richest person. During a visit to her family in China, Mark Zuckerberg met with the biggest Chinese web portal - Baidu's CEO Robin Li.
robin liForbes Magazine described Robin as China's second wealthiest person. While Facebook is still banned in China (Along with Google, Twitter and Youtube among many others) any collaboration of Facebook and Baidu can send ripples through Google.
mark zuckerberg and prischilla chan  facebook coupleWhile the war on internet is on, and the rise of asia is certain - anything to do with China would be worth for Facebook.
Feel free comment on your ideas on the future of these internet giants...

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Research : The people who use Twitter

This is the first of it's kind research done on twitter and following are some of the interesting statistics.
Some of the groups who are notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use include:

  • Young adults – Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
  • African-Americans and Latinos – Minority internet users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white internet users.
  • Urbanites – Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
While we are still waiting for a good twitter insights tool, Lets wait for some more good researches on Twitter.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Facebook cartoon profile pic real motive

"For a week, change your profile picture on Facebook to one of your favourite cartoon characters from your childhood. The aim of the game? To not see human heads on Facebook but a true invasion of childhood memories"

The status message went viral and everyone was putting cartoon charactors from their childhood to their profile picture not knowing who's behind this and whats behind this.


I could finally find that this is initiated by a organization known as "campaign to end violence against children". The viral status message we received is not exactly the one that the organizers of the campaigns propagated. What we put is  given above.



But the real one put by the organizers is

"Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same"


Eventually this was a major hit and a top google search keyword last few days and don't you think that the organizers achieved their consent?

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Poll : Which 70s-90s cartoons do you like the most?

So far the viral spreading in Facebook had been only from girls. But this time everyones going crazy with the following status.


"For a week, change your profile picture on Facebook to one of your favourite cartoon characters from your childhood. The aim of the game? To not see human heads on Facebook but a true invasion of childhood memories"



I changed my status about a week ago, but it really has started going viral few hours back. And when i look at some Facebook friends users friends - thumbnails of profile pictures it really is an invasion of childhood memories.



With the enthusiasm high for old-age cartoons, I thought of finding the most popular cartoon series of todays adults. So i have chosen 1980's -1990's some most popular cartoons in Sri Lanka (Showed in premier channels ITN, Rupavahini and Sirasa TV), please select which ones you like from the poll.




And comment with any most popular ones I haven't added so i can add.