Political Social Media— A Reality Check from Pakistani Perspective

ICT (information and communication technology) in general and social media in particular, has brought about a significant change across the globe. Social networks have become themselves strong markets, where commercial entities, service providers and social philanthropists have been promoting their agenda. However, after the Arab Spring and the series of events from Yemen, Egypt, Libya, to Italy, Spain, UK and certain other parts of Europe; social media came into the limelight as a potential game changer in politics. BBM, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook helped people communicate, share and spread their voice to bring a change. Be it leaderless revolt in Egypt, Beppe Grillo in Italy or Imran Khan in Pakistan; all went on to use ICT to their greater political advantage. Even in the most recent scenario, the US presidential elections were the prime example, where around $6 billion were spent in the high-tech election campaign, giving Obama nickname of ‘social media president’. We will just restrict our discussion to the scenario of Pakistan. How social media has been effective in political mobilization and will it have impact on general elections 2013?

Social Media Statistics & Pakistan:

Globally, Facebook has over 1 billion, Twitter has over 450 million and LinkedIn has around 175 million users. Let me tell you here that case of Pakistan is very interesting and unique from rest of the world. In United States, around 92% of the population has a smartphone, increasing the prospects of internet access. In Pakistan, 110 million people have mobile phones with less than 20% smartphone users. According to the reports, 70% of the mobile subscribers have a cell phone between price-range of 2000-4,000 PKR. The broadband subscribers (including wireless & DSL) in Pakistan are just around 2.2 million. Keeping this figure in mind, we can have an idea of how much population social media portals have in Pakistan.

SocialBaker has ranked Pakistan on #28 in the index of Facebook Population by country. In Pakistan, 8.05 million people have Facebook account. This means Facebook has a 4.37% penetration rate in Pakistani population. On the other hand, Twitter has the population of around 1.9 million in Pakistan, though it is growing fast now. You can find the detailed report of Twitter users in Pakistan here.

In political terms, we look at the Facebook statistics, Pervez Musharaf is the most popular politicians in the country with 0.64 million fans. Other popular pages include Pak Army with 619,000 fans, Imran Khan Official with 0.55 million fans, Shahbaz Sharif with 397,000 fans and Mustafa Kamal with 227,000 fans. Out of political parties, PTI, PMLN and Jamaat-e-Islami are the most popular ones with hundreds of thousands of fans.

Political Impacts & Trolling:

Social media has been quite an effective tool for political mobilization in the country. The sudden rise of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf in particular is credited to social media. They pioneered political use of social media portals and have been quite effectively using it. However, with the passage of time, almost all progressive parties have adopted it as organization, though some individuals were already active from almost every political party. The most interesting case here is of PMLN and PTI. With the rise of PTI in central Punjab, Muslim League responded back with solid performance on the ground as well as on social networks. We see that many key figures of both parties including Imran Khan, Shahbaz Sharif, Asad Umar, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Ahsan Iqbal and Maryam Nawaz are very active on social networks.

When we look at the impacts of social networks, they are both; positive and negative. Social media has reduced the gap and distance between leadership and followers. It has also enabled public to share their criticism and immediate feedback on any particular social, political and administrative development. However, the common digital evils of cyber bullying and trolling could not be avoided. PTI got the bad name of trolling party owing to abusive language and deliberate character assignation of public figures. Though officially, they have some code of conduct but it is seldom followed.

Impact on General Elections:

Though, we can’t deny the importance of social media in terms of public awareness creation and driving opinion. However, should we expect that it will have any impact on political results?? There are two opinions here. Many political analysts believe that only those parties will win, who are good on the ground. Just 4.3% of the population, with Facebook account isn’t enough to change polling results.

However, I personally believe that we should never forget the quality and nature of those 4 or 5% segment of the population using social media. They are mostly opinion makers and can drive a wave of change. Therefore, in order to win elections, you will have to educate people about your performance, vision, and manifesto. This requires a comprehensive plan of action on the part of political parties and strategists to come up with strong online presence and reputation management program. Last but not the least, we need to abide by our social values and ethics as Muslim society while marketing us on the Facebook or Twitter.

If only Facebook can guarantee you political success; Pervez Musharaf should clean-sweep general elections 2013 Also see, why Mitt Romney failed to defeat Obama, despite having greater social media penetration rate? You should have something substantial to amplify your campaign on social media.

You can follow me on Twitter @MTahirAkbar !

World is Going Mobile- How Your Business May Get Affected in 2013?

Mobile is the future, for sure. According to the latest survey, over 85% of US and global internet surfers prefer to use a mobile device. The ultra portable devices present a much convenient and reliable option to get connected with digital world from anywhere, anytime. In this regard, the year 2011 and 12 had seen significant shift in consumer behavior with particular reference to mobile devices and smartphone technology. Over 400 million smartphones were shipped in 2011, while the aggregate sales data of 2012 is yet to be released. IPad II, iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III were three devices that saw skyrocketing sales.

There are many obvious reasons behind the popularity of smartphone technology. Since introduction of iPhone in 2007, the concept of having a cell phone changed. Apple was phenomenal in changing public perception of mobile phone from a communication device to fashion accessory. Look at BlackBerry, once a key element in shaping your corporate identity. These devices provided rich experiences, came up with innovative solutions for enterprises and provided joyful user experience. Another factor that created appeal was introduction of downloadable apps. According to a report in Forbes, since 2009, over 16 billion apps have been downloaded from Google Play (Android market). Having said all that, now we move to the next level; how this technology reshaped enterprises in 2012 and how it will continue to impact on the corporate sector in New Year?

In 2012, we have seen more powerful portable devices with focus on low cost. For example, Galaxy Note, iPad II, iPhone, and Google’s Chrome books were among the hottest items. We have become mobile workers and can operate while on the go. From writers, students, intellectuals, corporate executives, media professionals to government functionaries, these devices have proved out to be a blessing. They have made us more productive and opened new windows of opportunities for us. Google Play, iTunes, and App World, all have million of downloadable apps for various niches.

The year 2013 will not be different than previous year. Companies will continue to plan for better mobile existence. From search perspective, mobile websites and mobile application development will grow faster. Smartphone industry will continue to grow and we will see a rising trend of low priced and more efficient device. From marketers’ perspectives, more mobile friendly web design will continue to be popular. Web developers, SEM professionals and online marketing agencies will pay more attention to revenue generation from mobile devices.

Looking at the technological development side, we will see rapid adoption of  ‘cloud’ technology. Companies have already started designing dedicated packages for individual and organizational customers. For example, Google recently offered 200 GB free space on the purchase of its Chromebook. Similarly, Google Drive, DropBox, and certain other applications will have more appeal in the market. The simple reason behind the popularity of all is the concept of ‘portability’. With cloud based applications, you can access all of your data anywhere on your all owned devices.

In this regard, businesses will have to make a strategy to adopt the changes and be more flexible. If you are running a business, getting a mobile application or mobile friendly website is the need of the hour. Companies can gain significant search and marketing advantage by planning to go mobile. So “adaptability” or change management is the real idea of success in 21^st century. Whoever, individual or organization, does it better; will get better results.

Few SEM & SMM Predictions for the Year 2013

New Year is the perfect time for developing new plans and making fresh resolutions. Individuals and companies conduct strategic planning exercises at that time. Looking at 2012, I found few interesting trends that will continue to make difference in 2013. You can take them as predictions for the New Year alongside a set of strategic advices.

#1: Constant Developments in Search Business:

Over the past 3 years, we (SEM professionals) are facing a new challenge in the shape of algorithmic change by search engines. Google Panda and Penguin have definitely impacted the practices and trends of e-business and SEM campaigns management. In 2013, search engines will remain hostile towards spam, poor content and excessive link building. As SEO/SEM professional, you need to adopt a balanced approach. Develop quality content and earn strong links while avoiding spamming.

#2: Greater Social Media and SEO Integration:

Social media is integral to SEO as it helps in spreading word of mouth, developing brand and gaining backlinks to your website. Five big names: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, G+ are integral to any search engine optimization campaign. However, all of them have reached their maturity level and little growth is expected in Facebook and LinkedIn. Unlike that, Google Plus, Twitter, Pinterest and StubmleUpon will continue to grow fast.

For Google focused SEO, G+ is vital element particularly if you are running a B2B campaign. Yesterday, Facebook has also announced Graph Search tool, which will innovate Page management and will also work as social search engine. Therefore, new emerging social platforms like Pinterest, Reddit etc. will continue to grow and make difference.

#3: Content Marketing:

After Panda and Penguin, old practices of robot written contents and spun contents are dead. However, Google will always love quality content and peace of information. Guest Blogging has emerged as the most dynamic and useful tactic to earn links. Content marketing will continue to grow in 2013 and there are probabilities of related and unrelated diversification in it. You will see greater integration of videos, podcasts and other viral marketing tools with content. It means, the more content you will publish, the more prospects of higher page rank.

#4: On-page of the Website:

No matter, how strong your backlinks are or how much content you publish; if your website’s on-page is not up-to-dated, you will soon lose your #1 position. A fellow at SocialDesignGuru told me that web designing has become much sophisticated than ever before. Today, simple 5 page static websites don’t work as they used to do 2 years ago. Looking at the Google’s latest SEO guidelines, we can find that search giant will increase stress on having a more compatible website. A compatible website is the one, which provides easy navigation to user and follows SEO requirements (like load time) of search engine. Rich Meta description and social plug-in on the page are 2 highly recommended options.

#5: Greater Need for Strategic Planning:

With increasing complexities of the business, the need of strategic thinking in SEO has increased. This requires attention to details, planning and adoption of relevant tools. Almost every company; big or small will be compelled to make new plans for every SEO campaign looking at the changing dynamics of the market. Similar to goal setting in Analytics, formal business practice like goal setting has become vital to succeed in search business.

#6: Adoption of Dedicated Platforms and Tools:

Technological innovation will continue to drive businesses and SEM/SMM practices in 2013. We can see that adoption of SEO platforms and social media dashboards has increased. Companies will increase their budgets for SEO tools and will leap ahead from free tools to gain greater results. Searchenabler, TweetDeck, BuzzStream and similar platforms have great prospects to grow in the days to come.

In order to survive in the stiff competition, SEO/SEM/SMM professionals will have to rethink their approach, adopt latest tools and follow fresh guidelines by search engines.

Coping with Algorithm Changes- 4 Emerging Trends in SEO Industry

While interacting with leading professionals in search business, my views got further endorsement that search engine marketing has remained no more a “kids’ game”. After Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, old SEO practices have become less relevant for quality results. To effectively deal with the algorithm change and its ramifications, certain fresh and innovative ideas have been coined while new technological solutions have also come into limelight. The following 4 trends have become unprecedentedly popular in the recent past.

# 1: Infographics:

Panda is known for de-ranking around 12% of the entire search results for misplaced or duplicate content. It further highlighted the importance of unique and quality content. To make content marketing even more effective, few creative guys came up with the concept of ‘informational graphs’. The idea was to use the synergy principle and utilize the SEO potential of images and content. This was indeed another effort to make content more unique, precise and effective. Today, you can make your SEO campaigns more result-oriented by using infographics to your advantage. Even there are many separate directories for the submission of informational graphics.

# 2: Google Friendly Web Designs:

This is even more interesting. Earlier, we used to have a one point agenda while developing a website: make it user friendly. Today, we have bundle of requirements to make a website Google friendly. According to the researchers at SocialDesignGuru; there is equal stress on invisible things of the website than those who are visible. On one hand, we have to modify our web page to provide easy navigation and joyful user experience, while on the other hand; HTML tags, effective Meta description, website load time management etc. have equal importance. An ordinary developer cannot make Google and visitor happy together.

# 3: Reliance on Mobile Technologies:

The popularity of smartphones has reached unprecedented hike as Gartner has projected smartphone users to grow over 2 billion by 2016. Today’s corporate managers and top executives own a smart device equipped with relevant and productive applications. Even in SEO industry, people are using their phones for campaigns management. We have Elite SEM, Analytics, SiteCatalyst, TweetDeck, Hootsuite and lots of smart applications for administering our marketing and social media campaigns while on the go. From the perspective of management sciences, we are becoming mobile workers, thanks to latest revolutionary portable gadgets.

# 4: Link Earning; Instead of Link Building:

Link building is one of the most integral and highly vital elements in the SEO campaigns. In the past, we used to rely on directories and engaged in extensive link building. Today, Google considers extensive linking as part of ‘spamming’ and penalizes the websites resultantly. Therefore, it has become very important for the websites and businesses to ensure quality of their link building. Today, the concept has been interchanged with the fresh concept of ‘link earning’. Provide quality content to forums, websites and blogs to earn a quality link that could make your website rank higher.

Though, the directories are less relevant but not every directory is out of the game. See SEOMOZ’s list of the directories and then go for the quality forums to submit your links. Social media is very important to management presence, though I have seen very minimal business referrals from social networking sites. Still, owing to their popularity and ability to drive traffic, never underestimate them. Stumble Upon, Delicious etc. have their respective value and they can help you earn some good quality links.

4 Suggestions that Can Make Freelancers Happy & Boost Their Income

Freelancing is one of the most progressive industries in 21st century. Particularly in the recession hit economies, it played a vital role in the job creation and economic development. Freelancing at online job portals like oDesk and Elance are increasingly become more popular way of earning money. Just imagine, oDesk has over 350,000 users from 150 countries are engaged in corporate relationships. Additionally, direct outsourcing businesses are also flourishing because every capable individual tries to attract the global market with unique set of ideas, products and services.

However, despite the booming industry, a recent survey at Elance astonished me a lot. It showed that 61% freelancers are happy with their status and earnings, while other showed dismay over low-payments, uneasy clients, complex work, discontinuous workflow etc. A shocking statistic in the recent Gulf News article was that only 11% of the freelancers upgrade their skills and take courses. Keeping the figures in my mind, I have prepared a very brief set of suggestions that might work for you, whether you are engaged in direct outsourcing or through some job portal.

KYN and KYC Principles:
In marketing, there is a term called KYC (know your customer) principle, in the same way, freelancing has its own KYC. Here, KYN means; ‘know your niche’ and KYC means; ‘know your client/customers’. Thus, when you are to start a freelance business, keep your focus on your strong points and market yourself appropriately at the most suitable and rational places.
If you are a good web developer/designer, stick to it and keep delivering good job. It’s important to understand that to be happy with what you do; you have to simply “do what makes you happy”. As experts say; ‘you excel at what you enjoy’, so don’t starting shifting niches and jobs because ultimately it doesn’t increase your happiness.

Technology and CRM Applications:
Freelancing is a client oriented business, where your client is the real king. In order to have a long-lasting and joyful relationships with clients, constant communication and delivering quality work matters a lot. In this regard, don’t restrict yourself to just email or chatting communications, because chatting may not solve many problems.

In this regard, you can take advantage of internet calling services. Many prominent brands offer unlimited free calls for a minor investment. In just $100, you may get unlimited free calls for the whole year, whether your client is in New York or Mexico. VoIP can really be advantageous in terms of better client relationship. Furthermore, this service; being cheaper than landline and cellular one, enables you to reduce your telephone bills. You can even use it as alternative to landlines and also can enjoy it on your smartphones.

So, keep in touch with your clients to inform them about the work status and get their feedback too. Remember, clients are happy when you deliver them quality, and quality means work as per the expectations and specifications. If you are a web developer or a writer, your clients will have bulk of instructions and details to share with you. Having direct on-calls meetings, audio-video conferencing and voice chat can help in reducing communication barriers and improving the results.

Project Management Perspective:
One of the heavily complex jobs is ‘managing a project’, which might irritate some freelancers. A vast majority is even unable to realize the importance of the project management. Proper planning, fair pricing, designing steps and milestones, prioritizing things, delivering the work, and finally auditing, are some integral part of an online project management process.

Here, a freelancer can take benefit from many free as well as purchased project applications. Learning proper usage of Zoho project, Google docs and similar apps can not only help you manage the tasks but also improves the productivity of your team. From pricing to delivery of the work, everything comes under this domain. So, be balanced, steady and utilize the technology applications to your advantage.

Sharpen the Saw: 34KYTZCKUEWQ
It’s really sad that only 11% freelancers upgrade their skills on the constant basis, as per the survey I mentioned in the beginning. According to Stephen R. Covey‘s famous “7 habits of highly successful people” sharpening your saw is highly integral for your long-terms success. This means that a freelance must devote some time for his personal development and capacity building. You can attend courses, webinars, seminars, and also participate in online trainings sessions for upgrading your skills.

One of the best tips for you is to make ‘book reading’ your habit. Even in the internet era, books are the best friends. Make a routine to read something every day, even if it’s a single page. Moreover, don’t restrict yourself to one field of study. Expand your thinking horizon and learn about anything that may help you be a better human being and professionally skilled service provider. For freelancers, books/articles and journals about communication, project management, e-commerce, e-banking, time management, search engines and social media can play very significant role in enhancing productivity and increasing their income.

Motorways: Mismanagement and Poor Implementation of an Excellent Idea

Infrastructure plays vital role in the social and economic development of any country. In this regard, roads, ports and railways are forerunner as they facilitate the transfer of goods and cargo between cities and states. Pakistan, like other countries has been planning to develop supportive infrastructure for the sustainable economic development. State of the art Motorway is reflection of that policy concept. Incepted in 1992 by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the first Motorway between Lahore & Islamabad was completed by 1997-98 and inaugurated by the same PM. Today, we have many in-use Motorways as well as certain projects in progress. This means our policy making circles are still in love with the idea.

Just few days back, I had a chance to travel to Lahore by motorway. No doubt, it has significantly reduced the time of traveling between Lahore and Islamabad. Hotels, resorts and stay areas on motorway are themselves a success story. Above all, motorway police; the only civil security management department in Pakistan that is widely respected and known for zero-corruption, is another positive dimension of motorways project. However, my mind was not satisfied with this visible beautiful picture; instead, it was stuck on the core idea, philosophy and strategic objectives of motorways.

Basically, the then government planned to make “national trade corridor” by establishing a strong road link from Chaman and Torkham borders to deep seaport in Gawadar. We were planning to build motorways from Peshawar to Kabul and onwards to Central Asia. The idea was to help landlocked Central Asian Republics by giving them access to our ports for the sake of business and trade. This way, the whole value-chain of corridor was supposed to earn handsome revenue of billions of dollars and help Pakistan in economic development. Additionally, it would have also benefited local businesses by providing fast movement of goods.

However, we are yet to capitalize on the idea and I don’t see any implementation of that in foreseeable future. Though, war on terror, security issues in Afghanistan and Baluchistan played a vital role in the delay, I also blame the culture of mismanagement and ruthless planning in Pakistan. We are habitual of building castles in the air and if we make a perfect plan, we are worse than poor in implementing that. Almost every educated Pakistani knows the reality that our historical 5 years plans were copied and implemented by South Korea and Malaysia. Today, these nations are in top developing economies.

No doubt, we are very good on the paper, but when it comes to implementation, we get negligible marks. This is what is against principles of effective management practices. As it is quoted that “A fair plan, effectively implemented is far better than an excellent plan, poorly executed”.

 

Picture Today:

• It became a recreational spot for the public and people love to go on a long-drive for picnic etc. over motorways.
• If you look at the transfer of goods from Lahore to Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Hazara, Mardan etc. 90% of the cargo is taken via GT road.
• Transportation business has grown on Motorway as new tour operators and transport services have started their business. However, the revenue has gone down.
• We anticipated 2 billion revenue from Motorway, but it generates in million not billion.
• According to the National Highway Authority’s briefing to the National Assembly’s standing committee on transportation and communication, NHA Lahore-Islamabad motorway needs complete overhauling.
• The cash stripped government is unable to provide funds for the repairing of current installation; however, it is releasing funds for new developmental projects L

What next???

Instead of making national trade corridor for other states and countries, we need to focus on our own businesses in this recessionary era. Our economy can be supported by local business community if they are given facilities, R & D and special industrial zones alongside motorways. Our energy-striven economy needs a rethink on the part of the government to plan things for short, mid and long-term. If we are to remain a sovereign nation, we will have to generate growth from indigenous sources and resources. Our current economic crisis is a great opportunity as they say; “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” so we need to capitalize on this idea of success and build our country for the betterment of future generations. We need to learn from modern management theories and adopt a policy on the basis of prioritization, strategic goals alignment and best management practices while implementing the plans.

Determining Success of Your Social Media Campaigns- 4 Suggestions

Vitality of social media for the business is beyond any doubt. Of course, not a single sensible marketer can skip this borderless market. It’s one of the famous jokes that ‘First populous country is China, Second India and third is Facebook (because it has over 850 million users)’.  However, there are few professionals who consider checking the ROI of their social media activity. Or in more simple words; social media audit is one of the most neglected areas of the whole campaign. Looking at the following suggestions, you can easily determine the success rate of your so far campaigns and also plan for better future promotions.

Conduct a Strategy Analysis:

A strategic analysis will help you remind what was planned initially and calculate the proportion of the tasks achieved. Strategy analysis covers your predetermined goals, platform selected for the marketing and bookmarking, bullet-points of marketing techniques, velocity and volume of activity and other related things. Also list the integrated services and applications (HotSuite, Skype etc.) and their results. Many people forget to do this and hence remain unable to calculate the profits/loss of the integrated experience or synergy.

Set Benchmarks:

Benchmarks are one of the best methods to analyze and calculate the progress of the projects. They help you manage the work in a balanced and disciplined manner. You can adopt two approaches in setting benchmark. Either set it initially before starting the campaign in terms of leads, likes or participation of the group members in your account. Or you can set periodical benchmarks and analyze the performance of your activity after a fixed interval in terms of good, better, average, bad or excellent.

When to Conduct the Audit/Analysis:

This is highly important factor that enables you to determine the success level of your analysis. At least one quarter of the year is a must time for conducting the social media audit because if you will do this exercise in the less amount of days, you might not be able to analyze the trends or make a rational conclusion. Moreover, as it’s a general trend that you analyze your SEO and online marketing campaigns after every 3-4 months, so this would be pretty good idea to look at social media perspectives of your e-marketing function.

What Should Be Focus Of Attention?

When you perform and analysis, your primary goal is to review your current success rate and then devise a strategy for future. When conducting social media audit, keep your focus on the individual factors and platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace etc.) and collective output of integrated things. Many people keep on using Skype, Hotsuite, eBuddy etc. for social media platforms, but don’t perform performance analysis of these applications and their usage. To me, these applications, tools and technologies are very integral part of your whole social media and marketing strategy. So, do conduct their individual as well as integrated experience analysis.

In short, by defining and refreshing the goals, setting benchmarks and conducing performance analysis of individual as well as collective elements of the campaign, you can visibly get pretty handsome idea of success or failure of your campaigns. Hence, the management of your business and social media campaigns become more comprehensive and successful manner.