• Authority doesn’t figure

    The measurement of social media, or rather the lack of it, is a topic that promises to be carried over to 2009 too. I shared this article last week on Twitter, because i felt it voiced most of what I felt on ‘authority’ in social media. Coincidentally, I was also checking out Twitority – an ‘authority based Twitter search’ engine, at the same time. The first article lead me to Chris Baskind’s post on the same topic. Though I’m sorely tempted, I’m going to refrain from using block quotes from that post, because its an excellent read and you should make the effort of clicking the link and reading it all yourself. 🙂

    The new search engine has used the number of followers as a measure to decide authority. TechCrunch promptly suggested the number of RTs (ReTweet) as a better indicator. But while it does place more importance to the tweet than the tweeter, I agree that the number of RTs is just a function of the number of followers. IMHO, we’re barking up the wrong tree – popularity instead of authority. Are they connected? Yes. Are they the same? No.

    If they were the same, Twitter users should still be cheering newspapers and television and all those thingies which we call mass/traditional/heritage media, because they obviously have more ‘followers’ than the aggregate of all Twitter users. But yes, you noticed that Twitter did add a bit of value during the Mumbai events (most recently). So there’s something that’s different about this social mechanism. There’s a uniquely customised experience that we build for ourselves on social media over a period of time. Like Chris Baskind says so wonderfully in his closing  “the ad hoc nature of social media atomizes traditional concepts of authority. We may establish trusted networks, but it’s the relevance of information which really matters.”

    Shefaly threw a good pointer when she replied to my article share with a link to a post of her own. Among other things, she discusses the ‘quality of interactions’, and a four point selection criterion that she uses to ‘follow’ people, but the most important part of the article to me, was the reference to the strategic intent behind what we do on social media. (I’d argue with her on the finer points she raises on this, primarily because of the geography independence that separates virtuality from reality, but I’d completely agree that intent should drive everything else)

    A personalised, trusted network that gives me contextually relevant info (among other things) is what I get out of social media, and to me, ‘authority’ somehow just doesnt capture the way I feel about this very human network. And its not just the term. It makes me feel that maybe we are guilty of taking the term ‘follower’ a tad too literally. In trying to be ‘thought leaders’ and such, the human ego is perhaps trying to thrust upon social media a set of metrics which don’t belong. Authority reminds me of circulation, readership, listenership, viewership, and so on. Maybe its just me, but haven’t we walked that path before? Lets try a different path please.

    until next time, desperate measures?

    PS. Check ‘Mumbai’ on Twitority and you might get a clue on where ‘authority search’ will lead us

    PPS. 2009 (for now) will see this blog with an altered content strategy. The 3 posts per week are being cut down to 2 – one each on Monday and Thursday, but I shall try to post a few interesting links in addition to this. Please don’t sulk 🙂

  • Flame of Tandoor

    That name and the description – ‘a contemporary cuisine restaurant’, in a paper insert that said “Get greeted by an Italian host, experience western ambience, place your order for a continental dish with a chinese attendat (sic) to be cooked by a flame chef” meant that I really had to take a look myself, even though (for some strange reason) I had the same feeling I did when i bought tickets for Himesh’s Karzzz, this, despite it being a part of the Azad Group (the same that owns Tandoor)

    To get there, (when coming from the Indiranagar side), after the Sony World junction, take a right turn on to the road that has William Penn, Barista etc, and then a left towards Jyoti Nivas college. The place is after the Apollo clinic, and before the Qwiky’s outlet.(both roads are one ways)

    I’d begin with saying that whoever decided the name should take a long hard look at the menu card. My professional experience (brand) tells me that higher powers must have insisted on having ‘Tandoor’ in the name for some strange synergy only they can perceive. The menu is a mix of continental, oriental and a few north indian items. The issue is that there is very limited ‘depth’ in each category, with the continental part being slightly better off. For me, the very fact that a restuarant with such a name has Tabasco and HP sauce on the table jarred. Though the seating is quite comfortable, the ambience is also like the menu – lacks any specific theme. They play “9x music”. 😐

    Anyway, considering that there were only a couple of choices in chicken gravies, and we’d rather go to a specialised Oriental cuisine place if we wanted that, we decided to go Continental, and started with a Mushroom Cappuccino soup, which is “white wine and thyme flavoured cream of mushroom”. D asked for chicken in it too, and got it. Must admit that the soup was pretty good. They also gave us some bread with some special butter, which seemed to be mustard based.

    For the main course, we ordered a Flame’s mix grill – “a combination of chicken, lamb, fried egg served with potato roesti and grilled tomato”, and Lasagna alla pollo – “baked layer of pasta with chicken bolognaise, parmesan and cheese sauce”. The mixed grill was strictly okay, i really have had better stuff – in terms of quality and quantity(at Indijoe, for example). The Lasagna was definitely better though the garlic flavor was a bit too much, but the quantity was quite sufficient.There were a few dessert options, including a rice kheer+strawberry ice cream combination, but we really didn’t feel adventurous enough.

    Wallet wise, it set us back by a little less than Rs.700. The service is pretty decent, though  after every course, two people ask you how the food was.That gets irritating after a point. The pricing means that the target crowd is definitely not the JNC kids, who have way too many options around anyway. I really wish they’d concentrate on one kind of cuisine though, this spread really didn’t appeal to me.

    Flame of Tandoor, #63, Near Jyothi Nivas College, Koramangala Industrial Layout. Ph: 41104337

    PS. Okay, I admit, maybe I was just disappointed that the chef didn’t turn out to be one of the Fantastic 4. In my defence, ‘Flame chef’ is very misleading. The Italian host was missing too. Okay, I’ll stop nitpicking!!

    Menu at Zomato

  • Nick Niche

    Trendwatching has a small preview of the consumer trends of 2009 – half a dozen, to be exact. You can catch all 6 here. The one that interested me most was “nichetributes”, which is defined as

    the power of making products and services relevant by incorporating ‘attributes’ and features that cater to distinct (if not niche) consumer lifestyles and situations.

    While the explanation does say it’s different from the long tail, and is about “additions to existing products”, I am not convinced that its so disconnected. I’d say that its the long tail within the product users. How many times have we wished that this product had just that extra feature we were looking for – from apparel to furniture to electronic goods? But yes, I am in agreement with the fact that it is a hot trend. The explanation of nichetributes ends with the following line

    * NICHETRIBUTES is decidedly not about advertising, i.e. tailoring a mass product’s message to a specific audience; it’s about tailoring the product itself to that specific audience.

    I agree with that too, but why not advertising too, thanks to the web and social media. In fact, I think it would work great if collaborative product building was backed by a communication to let customers know that customised products can be made to happen. This would help engage the ‘minority markets’ that look for these specific features/attributes in their existing product. It could mean more affinity for the brand and may even bring in new users who were waiting for this feature. There are quite a few brands that allow customisation- NikeiD comes immediately to mind.

    In fact, I’d say that this is perhaps a great way for brands to start out on social media. While mass advertising could cater to the consumers that constitute the head of the long tail graph, social media could cater to the thinner portions. It would be great to have product customisation happening side by side, but it could also start with customised advertising to specific ‘minority markets’ – the long tail of brand communication.

    until next time, minority reports

    PS. while on trends, a great read 🙂

  • 2009, I opine

    And so its two thousand and nine

    I hope and pray that here ends the decline

    And everything turns out just fine

    Meanwhile, here’s that annual list of mine 🙂

    Heath Ledger will get the Oscar for The Dark Knight. (Yes, why so serious? So lets try to put a smile on your face)

    Aamir Khan will be gifted a better mobile from Samsung, so that he doesnt have to write numbers on himself.

    Pakistan will adopt Pratibha Patil and rename themselves Patilstan.

    Petrol prices will go down so much that even discussing it would be considered crude.

    Yahoo’s hunt for a CEO will become the most popular reality show in history, thereby changing their fortunes.

    Navnirman Sena will be part of Chandrayaan 2 and be rechristened Moon Navnirman Sena

    Election 2009 : Politicians :: Ice Age : Dinosaurs

    Wall Street will be revived, thanks to Obama’s new campaign ‘Exchange We Need’

    Yuvvraaj..Yaadein.. Subhash Ghai’s scripts with a Y.. hope he’ll refrain

    Ekta Kapoor’s new show titled ‘Kkyunki Kkutte bhi Insaan hain’ starring Achutanandan will be a huge hit.

    Abhishek Bachchan will be locked up inside Bigg Boss 3 and made to watch Drona everyday!!

    RGV’s third edition of the Sarkaar trilogy after Sarkaar Raj will be titled Sarkar Taj, which has nothing to do with anything, he’ll insist..

    and if you’re still here, and are up to more torture, you might want to check out the lists from 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005

    until next time, same place, next year 🙂

  • Shaantam

    A thought that I’ve received for the second time – the first time was during a yoga class, and this time, it was thanks to the book I just finished reading – ‘Mistress’, by Anita Nair, as one of the navarasas that come into play in dance art forms – in this case Kathakali.

    Detachment. Freedom. An absence of desire. A coming to terms with life. When all is done, that is all we all aspire to. Shaantam.

    Now, I’ll not be presumptuous and claim that it applies to all, but it definitely does to me. For a while now, even before learning to articulate it, that has been a task I’d set for myself. The rough aim for me was to be comfortable with myself, and be as emotionless as possible with the judgments of others on my self and actions. I’ve had more failures than successes, but I’m learning. Learning that this state has to be acquired over a period of time. Learning that it can be done only in stages because there are things that one has to do to merely sustain the self in this world. Learning that there are responsibilities. Learning that there’s a time for everything, even for coming to terms with life.

    But for me, the revelation to me in that explanation was the word ‘absence’, while most of  my thoughts and actions had been done to suppress. There is a huge difference.

    The cold and cough that has been plaguing me for the last week made me go for an antibiotic. While it did its work on the trouble makers, the side effect was that my taste buds were rendered inactive. So, though I had a great dinner on Saturday, the desire that used to precede the regular weekend dinners was conspicuous by its absence. I read it as another signal – that the absence of desire is not to be achieved by frontal assaults meant to suppress it. That does more harm than good. The absence is merely a side effect of something far larger in scale, changes in the greater canvass of life, a gradual cleansing process. I shall start again. 🙂

    until next time, merry xmas, and I shall see you next on the first day of the new year