Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

Recent Posts

  • Technology and obsolescence

    Well, during a recent IndiBlogger meet that I attended last Sunday, I happened to meet an amazing young lady who told me what was wrong with my blog. 

    1. I was on an outdated and outmoded blogging platform

    2.My blogs entries were not tagged properly.

    3. I did not have adequate social media presence.

    These are just a few of the things that she told me about…..She is going to give me more advice by and by.

    One of the simple truths of life is that the moment you begin to understand things, they change. I find this particularly true with technology which has obsolescence factored into its DNA.  This is the only way to spur on  consumerism and encourage manufacture. Gone are the days when you can proudly wear your grandfather’s wristwatch ( unless of course it is a Rolex or an Omega or a Patek Philippe or any other luxury brand which you can then get by dubbing it “vintage”) without finding yourself wishing desperately you had a more modern timepiece with which to tell the time.

    As a matter of fact, even watches themselves have now become obsolete with everyone whipping out their mobile phones to find the time. As for mobile phones…..the minute you synchronize your contacts onto your new phone, it becomes dated and you just have to go out and buy the newest model off the shelf!

    With consumer goods becoming outmoded faster than they are produced, we the consumers have a difficult task keeping up with technology…..And what seems simple enough to the manufacturer becomes gobbledygook for the consumer, especially one who has to deal with reading fine print. This triggers off a simple mind game : where did I put my specs? . This is followed by a step-by-step following of instructions which for some strange reason read easier than they are to practice. Finally, you catch hold of an expert (your neighbour, your technician, your teenaged son) or just about anyone who has remotely more technological expertise than you have and allows you to operate your gadget to its maximum capacity.

     

    The bottom line is : it is the geeks who rule the world.

  • To WordPress or Blogger ?

     

    or 

    I may be one of the millions in this world who are trying their hand at blogging. I may also be one of those millions who has crawled the web trying to find out which is better Blogger or WordPress?

    Now that I’ve been blogging for ten years and more and still not winning the numbers, I’ve tried to analyse where I’ve gone wrong by asking these questions:

    • Why do I blog? 
    • Who is my target audience?
    • Will I still blog if no reads me?

    Well, I blog because I like writing. This is one way of being published without going from magazine to magazine or publisher to publisher. Publishing, especially in print is taking a beating these days with most people preferring online books to hard copies. I know from personal experience because my own first attempt at publishing has met with a four year delay. My cookbook which is all ready (edited, proofed and even dummied) is still held up with Popular Prakashan. My Chief Guest for the book launch is already dead and I keep telling them that if they take long to publish the book, it may well be a posthumous publication! So the bottom line is I like blogging and it is a form of instant publication.

    I started blogging as a way of keeping my family and friends informed of my daily doings. I thought it would obviate phone calls and letters….But unfortunately most of my friends and family are technophobic and have not really progressed between telephonics and letter writing. So now I have to keep in mind that my audience is the wider world who may not be personally interested in my personal life but would still read my blog if the style and content is well executed.

    Lastly, will I still blog if nobody reads? I would be a complete liar if I said yes because I am narcissistic enough to want an audience. Why would I want to throw water in a plot of land which doesn’t yield flowers?

    So, this brings me to the basic question – Which is the better platform – WordPress or Blogger?

    Most bloggers who address this issue choose WordPress. I personally like to think this is extremely personal. It all depends on how comfortable you are with either platform. There are some features of WordPress which I think are great (more choice of templates, cleaner looking templates) while the obvious advantage of Blogger is that it is Google Based and has been around for longer.

     

  • Banking on Social Media with KotakJifi accounts

    When I first heard about the Indiblogger event being held at Cafe Zoe this Sunday, I registered not knowing what to expect. This was my first ever Indiblogger event and I must say I was blown.

    For someone who is a Golden Oldie, a homemaker who interacts more with her PC than her real life friends, whose virtual world doesn’t exist beyond  a dormant FB account, this event came as a real shocker. I actually realised the power of social media and its ripple like impact.

    When ICQ, Orkut and other such social sites sprouted in the virtual world, they were just chat rooms…or at least that what I thought they were. Since I had no use for such interaction, I didn’t really bother about social media till a school reunion made me sign up for FB. Even then, my use of FB was minimal and I preferred interacting through my blogs rather than individual walls, timelines etc etc. So I was quite unprepared for what I witnessed this afternoon at the Indiblogger Kotak Mahindra event held at Cafe Zoe . And this was part of a tri-city event being held simultaneously at Bangalore and Delhi!!

    Not knowing what to expect with the traffic and parking situation, I took a cab down to Mathurdas Mills Compound at Lower Parel where I found myself one of the early birds at the venue. I met another blogger who I’d bumped into at a Blogadda Canola event and another young girl who wrote her own finance blog wealthymatters.com. Keerthika Singaravel was an amazing person who wowed me with her bubbly personality and  her insights into personal finance.Following her came several other people who made me realise very soon that I would probably be the oldest blogger on the scene. However that didn’t prove to be a dampner.

    Enter the Nerd

    After Registration we were invited to hit the bar where alcohol was flowing….and not just cheap stuff but good Scotch . The eats that were passed around were lavish too and soon the crowd got into the mood. The first contest was to get the maximum number of people in a selfie ( is this the latest trend started off by Ellen Degeneres or was it there before????) and then there was a small interactive dance with three sporting members of the audience dancing in front of a crowd chorusing “Ich will”. This obviously got the adrenaline pumping strong enough for us to welcome our mystery celebrity chief guest Chetan Bhagat, who gamely accepted being introduced as a nerd. By this time I figured that this event had everything to do with Banking but I was completely bowled when he announced a new product aimed at the young  – Jifi. 



    Twitter Banking or twits banking?


    Now anyone who has tried to open a bank account knows the hassles involved. And for all those who have more time to tweet than go to the loo, this seems the perfect option – Online banking where even the account opening is done via Twitter/FB. Of course the KYC does happen but that is unavoidable.

    And what was more amazing that you don’t need to have any money to open a bank account! Other added benefits included social rewards i.e. you get reward points for joining, reward points for referrals who even if don’t translate into customers earn you reward points which means it is a win-win situation.

    And even as a penniless account holder, you are still accorded the respect given to a Rs. 5 crore customer and get to enjoy the same features as a Platinum Debit card with no charge.

    And through MoneyWatch, you can track your multiple bank balances with ease……

    • No minimum balance, non interest bearing current account
    • Auto Term deposit creation once the average balance crosses Rs. 25,000/-
    • Tweet to bank – Account updates, cheque book request and many more account activities just a tweet away
    • Refer friends to Jifi and get rewarded
    • Loyalty Club – Social or Transaction get rewarded for both
    • Free Jifi Platinum Chip Debit Card for first year
    • Keep track of your expenses with a Kotak MoneyWatch platinum subscription for one year
    • Access to our Mobile Banking & Offers app, to bank on the go
    • Free NEFT through Net Banking

    Obviously those who know the difference between # and @ , who are brand conscious consumers are not TWITS, therefore, this is banking through Twitter and not banking for Twits.

    So where’s the catch? 


    This product is for the young and not just young at heart but customers who are fully conversant with social media, twitter and facebook. For golden oldies, technophobes and people like me who can’t  understand the difference between # and @,  can’t differentiate between DM and IM and who think LOL is Lots of Love, this product is not for you – Kotak has a range of traditional accounts for traditional people, even a home banking solution ( at a price of course) for those who can’t cross the road or are otherwise housebound and need help with banking.

    The revelation

    This was an innovative product launch – an online banking product for young people on the go, a product that recognises their need , their need for speed, their lack of time and understands their tech savviness. There may have been other product launches with such an insight into their target audience, but for me this was a first hand experience of the power of social media. Kudos to the marketing team who though of this innovative product launch strategy.

    And kudos to Indiblogger for organising such a fantastic event – tricity. Truly fantastic. It was a great launch with  great food and a great mood . So even if I don’t qualify for a KotakJifi Account, I may be able to gift one to my grandson when he gets his own Twitter handle.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started