Go Social

Advance filters added to Buzzom People Search

People search is one of the most important and powerful feature of Buzzom. Since its launch we have been adding advance features to the system to make people search more interesting and efficient. Recently, we added advance filter option that allowed user to add different search criteria like bio, location and name.

Today, we are announcing an interesting feature to Buzzom People search. The new feature allows you to filter the search result according to :

1. Followers count

2. Following count

3. Profile Image present or absent

These criteria will allow to be more efficient in your people search.

Above image clearly shows how you can access the new features. Just click on the Advance Search option and you are given advance options.

You can choose either ‘more than’ or ‘less than’ option in Follower and Following count. Then there is a simple check box for image only option.

Please, keep giving us feed backs about our services. We have been encouraged by our users response so keep us encouraging and we will bring more to product.

InRev Systems recieves Award of Excellence at Microsoft TechSpark 2010

We are glad to announce to our well wishers and loyal users that on Friday 13th, 2010 InRev System received an Award of Excellence at Microsoft TechSpark 2010.

Microsoft TechSpark 2010 was a flag ship event organized by YourStory.in with support of Microsoft Bizspark Program and CNBC TV 18 Young Turks. The goal of the event was to encourage the entrepreneurship in the field of product companies and support them in their venture.

Among 208 different startups, InRev System was chosen in the pool of final 17 startups. As a result of participation and dedication in the product area, InRev and all the other 17 start-ups received Award of Excellence. For more detail visit Techspark 2010.

So we would like to share this opportunity to express our gratitude for encouraging us and supporting our product Buzzom.

TechSpark 2010 Award of Excellence

Buzzom is truely the best alternative to Hootsuite

Many say that this market is crowded- the market of social media suite. But in true sense there are hardly any serious players in the space pushing innovation. Remember all those initial players in the social media suite tweetdeck, co-tweet, brizzly and seismic. Today, all these players are lost in the silos. They are still struggling to find their space in the market.

This happened because they stopped innovating and stopped listening to the market cry. Then came hootsuite with its not so revolutionary column layout (which was the innovation of Tweetdeck).  But what they added on top of this layout was revolutionary? Team management, multiple networking sites, easy interface and so on. But recently, even hootsuite like all its counterpart have digressed from the main innovation line and have moved towards paid service, leaving very less option on its free model.

On the other hand, Buzzom has been in the market since the times of Tweetdeck and seismic. From its early journey, Buzzom has always been listening to market cry and innovating on that lines. Buzzom started with basic follow/unfollow and analytic feature. Then Buzzom kept adding features and improving its system day by day.

Read here for more Buzzom Story.

As a result, today Buzzom has almost everything that a power twitter and general twitter users would require. Multiple account addition feature, list management, saved keywords tracking, plug-ins for browsers, adding feed urls, people search and engagement console.  Comparing with Hootsuite’s free version, Buzzom adds more value to users than anyone. Not to mention that there is no other application as innovative as Buzzom’s People Search.

This an in depth comparision between Hootsuite’s free version and Twitter.

We would want you to take a closer look at the comparison above and make your choice. Not to mention that Buzzom Team has one of the most responsive team who go all the way to help you.

Representing Buzzom team, I would like to add that we are in continuous innovation chain which will not stop in the above list and there are lot of interesting project coming on your way.

Buzzom hosts its first Tweetup in Bangalore on Aug 20 [Updated]

Don’t you wonder who are the faces behind the tweets that fill your stream day in and day out. These friends have been a part of daily life through you frustration for a product or love for a brand, they have been patient listeners to your mundane activities. So its time you get to meet the real person behind those @’s.

Buzzom is organizing a TweetUp in Bangalore on August 20th. Its a casual meet intended for meeting Twitter friends sharing your thoughts off Twitter for once. The whole idea of this TweetUp is to meet followers, cross followers (someone else’s followers). We have restricted the seats to 50 so if you are in Bangalore, please RSVP and book your seats.

We have kept the agenda open for now but it would surely range from introduction, Twitter, Goodies and lots of fun.

See you on 20th

Agenda

6:15 PM- 6:35 PM  Introduce yourself in less than 140 characters
6:35PM- 6:45 PM  Whats the Buzz about Buzzom
6:45 PM- 7:15 PM  Personal Twitter Success Stories
7:15 PM- 7:35 PM  Biggest Twitterholic Award Game
7:35 PM- 7:50 PM  Twitter Tech discussions; Moment of glory for Buzzom                                                Techies: D
7:50 PM- 8:00 PM  Highest Buzzom Scorer Award
8:00 PM                       Biryani Time

Engagement model added into Buzzom Search

People search is one of the most important feature of Buzzom because it allows user to search for relevant profiles and connect with them. Making a good and long lasting connection means finding better profiles. But most tools available today do not have proper people search.

Buzzom indexes millions of open profiles and allows user to seamlessly search and filter users. You can give many criteria like bio, location and name; and search for the profile. You can even filter based on your followings and followers list.

Today, Buzzom has added another feature to the people search that will make user’s life much more easier. Now you can directly engage with the profile from the list itself. You donot have to go anywhere else. You can send DM or Messages directly from the console and its much efficient and productive.

You can search people in Buzzom by typing keywords on the top search text box. Once you search for any keywords, you will be presented with an advance Option. Click on the Advance options and insert your criteria.

On the user list, you can click on details to view bio or click on ‘@’ to send messages to the profile.

We hope buzzom user will enjoy this new feature and leverage their profiles.

Are you inside the Circle of Trust in Social Media?

If you have by any chance watched the movie, ‘Meet the parents‘ (Hollywood Chick flick) than you have surely understood what I meant by the circle of trust. In the movie, the character played by Ben Stiller is in continuous investigation by the character played by  Robert De Niro.

Source : shirtquarters.com

In the movie, Ben Stiller is to marry Robert De Niro’s daughter but Robert De Niro, being the Ex-Spy, doubts the identity of Ben Stiller and goes to his limits to verify it.

In the movie, Robert De Niro makes a circle and tells Ben Stiller that he needs to be admitted inside the Circle of Trust before he is permitted to marry his daughter. The whole movie oscillates between Ben Stiller moving in and out of the circle of trust.

This scenario fits perfectly in today’s social networking sites. Social networking sites are totally dependent upon the trust. I may have more than 1000 followers in my twitter network but the amount of people that I trust and respond is very few. Similarly, I have around 400+ friends in Facebook and same goes there. Not everyone is in my circle of trust.

Hence, if you are a social media evangelist or marketer then you need to understand that you are inside the trust field of your network. But where do you start this trust.

Source : umw.edu

Trust starts from the authenticity of your profile and your references around. For example, in my profile I have my purpose clearly defined and the link in my profile takes to my company page, from where people can clearly find my other networks and verify my profile.

I even have my photo as a profile picture. Isn’t that nice because I see so many people with out any profile image in Twitter.

But like in the movie, people are always like Robet De Niro, full of doubts. So you need to keep proving your self and being there.You are always kept under test and you need to pass them everytime.

The moment you falter in your effort is the moment you lose that trust. Trust is not like a medal which you win one time.

Instead it is an ever going process of continuous effort and there is no short cut for that. If you look at so many successful profile in Twitter, you will immediately figure out that they are trusted profiles. Therefore, in social media try building trust in your network. But remember, to be admitted inside the circle of trust, even you have to open up your circle for others. So let me ask again, Are you inside the Circle of Trust?

Who is the king – Conversation or Content?

It is an interesting topic of discussion which can involve a lot of different arguments. But I feel that it is a question of Chicken and Egg? Which came first? We don’t know but we are sure of one thing that both are important. Both the content and the conversation are the two side of a coin.

Source : socialedge.org

Content gives a context for people to talk about. Without content, there isn’t any subject hence the conversation won’t flourish. Imagine talking with your friends? What is it that you talk about?

Obviously, they are movies, music, people, concepts, theories, relationships and so on. These obvious things that I have listed are content, they provide context to your conversation. As a result of this context, we have conversations and discussion, and by the end of discussion we have a community or friendship.

Community has a life of its own and has its own values. It has been and always be the main goal of any business - creating community. But as I wrote above, community is a result of conversation and conversation is a result of context or content. I hope I made it clear. So is there any point arguing about the content versus conversation? I don’t think so.

Finally our goal in social media is to generate community and good amount of conversation to take your service viral. Viral doesn’t always mean millions of views, even hundred of genuine interests could be considered viral. But the main question remains, how do we generate conversation?

Conversation

Remember, I told you about the content being the context. If you have understood what I meant, you will immediately know that you have to provide enough reasons for your readers to comment on your content. How do you do that? It requires understanding of your services and the kind of community that you want to build.
Now, the question of how to generate conversation is a vague one because there are many ways to influence people.

But there are certain core fundamentals which apply to all the social media activities:
1. Be real and genuine (this point out your content).
2. Have a voice one something (something related to your cause).
3. Be passionate about that something.
4. Lead your cause (show some leadership).
5. Be open to conversation (which means allow users different ways to express to you).
6. Respond to queries and be helpful.

Now these points looks fancy and idealistic, but the truth is that it is the only thing that actually works in social media or even real life. It’s like when someone asks, “What is the secret to success?” and the answer is “Hard work”. It looks plain and un-innovative but the truth is a truth.

Social media also provides a great opportunity to share content, in addition to generating contents. So to end this post, I am embedding a great presentation on How to create advocacy and conversation? The presentation provides a great insights into conversation. Let me know you thoughts on the post and please do share your thoughts on it.

New features updated on Buzzom : multiple updates and twitter stream badge

Today, Buzzom launched some of the most awaited features which will make your online social experience much better. Let me list them out one by one.

1. Send updates to multiple account from different networking sites.

You can type in your message and simply choose multiple network through which you want to update.

2. Action Buttons in Buzzom Profile Page.

Now whenever, you click on @username, you can view their buzzom profile and view their statistics. You can click on the action buttons to either follow, message, DM, block user or report spam.

3. Buzzom Badge with Keywords Streaming.

Before, you could type any twitter Id and get the stream of the updates. You could then copy the code and use the badge on your website.

Now, you can type any word on the text box and get it tracked by the system. The tracked twitter stream is displayed in the badge. You can customize the looks of the badge according to your taste. Simply copy the code and have your own streaming updates embedded in your website. This is the best way to show case your brand in the website or blog.

In future, we will be adding more updates, we are in continuous need for your feedback. Hence, please put your thoughts below in the comment section.

Traditional Media Versus Social Media

At buzzom, we set out to make our clients and customers understand the trends in the ever changing media. Marshall McLuhan, a well renowned educator and a great thinker had predicted during early 60s that user participation is going to be the key factor in the future of media. When, he was making his prediction the only media that was available was Black/White Television, Radio and Newspaper. Even then, his most claims about the media are becoming true.

Today, the rise of social media has shown that each individual is a media and that we are the self producer and the consumer of the content. Social Networking sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter has showed who the new media is taking its shape. This drastic change in the media is slowly being recognized by every part of our industry. But there is a huge inertia which is causing the slow change in the mindset.

We have made two pictorial representation of how the media has changed and in addition how this is changing the way we do business.

Before Social Media

You can see that in Traditional media, company controls the information and the message that they are sending to people. People’s purchasing decision is based on the advertisement and sparely upon network’s recommendation.

Companies used Sales report to track their performance and marketing budget to control their campaign. But this scenario is slowly changing.

Now

Now, you can see that there is no more a wall between the consumer and business. The decision is influenced highly by friend’s and network’s recommendations. Sales reports and Marketing Budgets are no more the determining factor of success. Brand monitoring is slowly making its presence which will add many new business metrics to the company’s list.

Conclusion

When we talk about the social networking sites and the change that it is bringing, we all tend to ignore one fact: not 100% of people know about Twitter/Facebook or Youtube. The larger part of our society still depends upon TV, Newspaper and old networking sites like Forum.

But there is a change and increase in the awareness of the new media. Figures such as 500 Million users in facebook and 200M+ users in Twitter and over billions videos being viewed every day in Youtube is a strong indicating factor that the change is obvious.

Conversation is the key in building brands in Twitter

For those using Twitter as the main channel to promote brands and services in the Internet, day to day conversation in the Twitter is an important aspect of the marketing plan. Though many consider 140 chars a place to embed the link along with their pitching statement, the conversation has never lost its importance.

Conversation is by far the best and the last resort for building relationships in the online networking sites. Following or being followed cannot be considered as an act of relationship. Those are the mere factor of courtesy which we show in the online medium.

The act of communicating with each other and understanding each other’s motive is what drives the relationship ahead. And Twitter is the best place to listen to conversation and be a part of it. Recent research from 360i, have shown that conversation makes the 43% of the total tweets in the Twitter.

Research Graph, Source : readwriteweb

The graph above shows that Self-promotional and Seeking/Giving Advice in total only make 4% of the total tweets.  This brings us to the 43% conversation which is the gold mine for building brands in the Twitter.

Unlike many other networking sites, where the conversation between groups and people are visible, it is very difficult in Twitter to track conversations and be a part of it. Its is also very difficult to keep track of your own conversation in Twitter. Hence, the way conversations happen in Twitter is very different then in any other networking sites.

More over the 360i reported that :

“After analyzing some 1,800 tweets sent between last October and March of this year, 360i says that while just under half of consumer tweets are conversational “@ replies,” only 1% of these are directed at brands.”

In the report, they have mentioned how brands use Twitter as a means to share information and news, missing the bigger part of conversation.

Conversation is and will always be the core of marketing in Social Media Channel and it is not going to change. For more complete report, you may want to check the full report : Twitter & the Consumer-Marketer Dynamic.

Please add your views on the topic.