Tag Archives: Facebook

Tata Nano+ Facebook + MTV = Social Road Trip

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Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is in celebratory mood. It is elated about its extensive fan base on Facebook through which it has accumulated 1 million likes. Since, it’s not every day that a Facebook page gets 1 million likes; Tata Nano wishes to thank its Facebook users. So, how does it plan to say thank you? The cheapest car company is organizing a social road trip across India in which four teams get to participate.

These teams have to drive Tata Nanos for 20 days and overcome obstacles and hurdles. In the meantime, the 1 million Facebook fans vote the best team and the devoted fan gets a Tata Nano. Some sources reveal that this is a strategy by Tata Nano to attract and capitalize on India’s young market potential. Apparently, about 42% of Nano owners are in the 18 to 34 age group!!

The company is leaving no stone unturned in attracting more youth to boost its sales. The social road trip is conducted in collaboration with MTV – a channel that is already popular amongst youngsters for the Roadies show! So, does the lethal combination of Tata Nano + Facebook + MTV have the potential to attract young buyers of Tata Nano cars in 2012? We have to wait and watch. Read more for what we think really matters to young car buyers.

Is the Nano Alluring Youngsters?

A quick look at the car’s features raises certain doubts about its compatibility with youngsters! Generally, youngsters prefer cars that can zoom past smoothly, that have jazzy features, and of course an awesome appearance.

In the case of Tata Nano, a motorcar enthusiast Aneesh Shivanekar blogs “it’s a cute lil’ car that yelps the moment you take the roundabout on your way back home at 40 kph so it’ll need some amount of preparation to make it go around corners without tumbling over.”

What’s more, the basic model of the Tata Nano has no radio, no power windows, no air conditioning, no anti-lock brakes, no remote locks, and no power steering! So, it could be quite boring for most youngsters to drive across town without tuning into their favorite radio channel, and having to manually lock doors (very rare in cities these days), while allowing the wind to make a mess of their hair (when most basic car versions come with air-conditioning)!

Tata Nano’s Advantage

I Like Cars T-shirt. (http://www.allthingscustomized.com/product/cars-t-shirt/)

Having said that, we cannot totally rule out the cheapest car’s plus points! The car boasts of an unbeatable petrol mileage of 25kmpl, an SUV-like high ground clearance (which is very essential for Indian roads that are riddled with pot-holes, humps, and uneven surfaces), and an affordable, ex-showroom, price of Rs.151284 for the Nano BS III model (in Bangalore)!

So, if you want to participate in the social road trip (winners get a Tata Nano), please register at http://mtv.in.com/drive/. You might also want to click the Like button on http://www.facebook.com/TataNanoPage because an ardent fan also gets to win the cheapest car in the world :) . Here is wishing you all the very best :) !

 

Facebook Users: Like it or not, it’s the Timeline!

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Tick, tock, tick – time is running out and quite literally! Get your online life in order or Facebook (FB) will do it for you!

If you are a FB user, you have already either migrated to its new profile called Timeline or have probably heard and seen it! If you have not changed your vanilla profile to the Timeline, then in some weeks, over 800 million (many fuming) Facebook profiles will automatically transform into Timelines, worldwide!

What is unfair is that you cannot re-activate the older but simpler, user-interface that made FB such a popular social networking site! If you have not changed your profile to the Timeline already, here is what is new and important.

An unnervingly, large, cover photo, occupies the top of your profile page. This photo cannot be hidden by any degree (so, avoid a close up picture to scare away people :) )! Then, the Timeline also features social applications (apps) that help you list hobbies – cooking, eating, traveling, running, reviewing movies, etc – and create updates!

The most exciting (yet painful element) of the Facebook Timeline is its infinite memory. Until recently, previous posts and updates that were older than a week vanished (you thought it got deleted, didn’t you?). You were probably thankful that the photograph of you in that awkward moment is no longer visible, but that is soon going to change! FB has insensitively decided to dig up your past and will automatically put it up on your profile, if you don’t migrate to the Timeline and take action before FB does! OUCH that could hurt!

The reactions to the Timeline have been extreme! FB loyalists who like the change feel that there is no need to panic and that the privacy settings are great and will ensure safer online experience. They argue that change is inevitable!

On the other hand, many Facebook fans are expressing their distaste for the Timeline on online forums – FB is forcing them to go public about their life, they say! They also argue that the Timeline makes their profile  slow and takes forever to load!

These extreme reactions could hit Facebook’s popularity! Could this mean that Myspace and Google+ get preference as a mark of protest?

For the time being, FB is ‘free’ and the number one social networking site. We have no option but to accept its Timeline and move on! No one would like saying a ‘NO’ to FB. Would you??

Indian Politicians and Social Media

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The social media appears to be the new loudspeaker for Indian politicians. Of course, only a minuscule fraction of the political tribe is online but their social media presence could help to knock confidence into voters.

Most self-respecting politicians have a Facebook page or at least a placeholder! A few of them have taken a step further and created Twitter accounts – Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee, Shashi Tharoor, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar, etc, etc…!

The PMO’s activity on Twitter must be taken note of – at least five tweets a day including an “Agenda Today” tweet – that’s impressive :) !

In contrast, Sheila Dikshit’s (Delhi chief minister) twitter profile is rather strange! Although this profile has her photo in it, the tagline “My name has ‘dik’ and ‘shit’ in it” confirms that it is not an authentic twitter profile of the respected Delhi CM! Looks like Kapil Sibal has not searched for Sheila Dikshit on Twitter yet!

It is only logical that younger politicians tweet/comment more than their senior counterparts. However, barring a few netas including Omar Abdullah, Milind Deora, and the       young man with a potential PM tag – Rahul Gandhi; other lads and lasses in the political field have chosen to remain mute in the social media space!

Yet another class of Indian politicians have taken a step further to connect with citizens online – websites and blogs! Narendra Modi, Omar Abdullah, Nitish Kumar, (and Mamatha Banarjee soon), and a few more, connect with internet users through expansive websites!

While Indian citizens must use the Internet to connect with politicians, there is some anxiety involved in sharing one’s identity with power-wielding netas! Here is hoping that the social media virus catches up with most other Indian politicians and that it becomes the direct-connect-tool for citizens.