Note : This is a rant so you can skip it if want.

Or at least that what they make you believe with all their advertisement. First a disclaimer I have at times lied to my parents or at work while being late or hanging out with friends I have done that all. But I am uneasy with the fact that an organization bases a complete product and is spending millions of rupees to promote this unethical things,

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Ufone, always a first for innovative VAS services, starts another very interesting service for the Pakistani public.

Partnering with Rozee.pk, they’ve recently launched a mobile interface to the popular job portal. Ufone users can now get mobile alerts, and if they have GPRS enabled, even apply right there through the Rozee website.

How to use it is available on the Ufone website here. Read on after the jump on some views on how this service might be beneficial or distracting.

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I have been reading a very interesting book, Social Media Marketing by Ajit Jaokar, Brian Jacobs, Alan Moore and Jouko Ahvenainen. The book is about marketing, role of data and the the emergence and convergence of three distinct but connected (based on data and conversations) media types: Mass Media (such as TV or outdoor), Social Media (social networks) and Mobile Media. Its a must read for marketing professionals, technologists who are interested in marketing analytics and for executives who want to understand the big picture and to see where the opportunities are.

Social Media is defined as any media form that links people and communities – including many smaller sites, mobile internet services and telephony. This book is interested in approaching marketing communication from a social media perspective, and in the data and analytics (from online and from mobile telecommunications sources) that allow us the opportunity to improve that process.

Most of the media is (or used to be) in broadcast mode: “we talk, you listen.” The rise of online social media has changed perceptions. The book talks about Hot Media vs Cold Media and shows the opportunities available with the transition from the age of mass media to an age of networks.

Social media marketing can be used as a part of a two stage process: – first, to identify certain patterns in data, second to verify those observations by specific social media campaigns which also seek permission from the customers.

The provider sends personalised messages to the receiver, and over time, the visibility of the participant’s digital footprint grows and leads to better personalization. Therefore, we start with passive digital footprints (based on data patterns) and transition to active digital footprints (based on trust).

The Importance of Data – this is the key point and the value of this book. Here are some excerpts.

A data led approach to social media is universal because every organization has access to such data from the many touch points through which it engages with the customer.

Like the impact of the social media, the impact of mobility is also disruptive for the traditional media. The mobile operator faces a different problem from the broadcaster. The operator might know the customer individually, but not know much about the customer. Specifically, the operator does not know the user’s preferences, which can be used to create a more personalised message (and by extension a message that is more likely to be useful to the receiver).

Mobile media complements mass media (like television) by providing the individual with the personalization which mass media lacks.
This can happen in potentially three interconnected ways:
a) Patterns: Spotting behavioural patterns
b) Promotions: Specific marketing activity or promotions to validate observations from the patterns
c) Partnerships: Creating partnerships between traditional media and mobile media to get as wide a network as possible (or extend
your own network within a converged ecosystem)

The discussion about digital footprints is where the data and analysis starts making the connections.

There are two classifications for digital footprints: Passive Digital Footprints and Active Digital Footprints. A passive digital footprint is created when data is collected about an action without any client activation, whereas active digital footprints
are created when personal data is released deliberately by a user for the purpose of sharing information about himself/herself.

Cross Post from TelecomPk.Net

I’ve been trying to stop myself from ranting here about this – but this is important enough to point out.

UFONE apparently doesnt seem to believe in or understand consumer choice and seems to think that as customers we’re inherently sheep, bound to baa at whatever the overlords in their offices think is the truth – that perhaps the only meaning in our lives comes from waking up everyday to construct effigies of their corporate leadership and dance around them all day singing songs of their praise.

I’m talking about their completely unethical and downright brazen, anti-competitive, anti-consumer-rights act of automatically subscribing people to the utunes service – you know, the service that makes you hear extremely annoying songs when you’re trying to call and reach someone.

I personally hate that idea – the only time I’m calling someone is if its something serious, when I’m thinking about something important in my head about the conversation I’m about to have with the other person… to hear a random love-song or jingle at that time I think is a completely rude interruption.

However, I’ve never spoken about it because I figured that it was the choice of the person I was calling – who was I to complain about what someone does or does not choose as their call-in tone.

But where I absolutely draw the line is Ufone – a dumb carrier I just use to connect with others – interfering in my life by automatically subscribing me to this brazen service too.

This is a consumer rights violation, because (1) I never ask them to subscribe (2) I dont like the service and dont want to ever subscribe as a conscious well-informed choice and (3) This isnt even part of my individual lifestyle or phone behavior. My phone is primarily for business and the absolute last thing I want is for a client to call me and say “Yeah… so why do you have *so and so romantic song* as your tone on your phone number… I didnt think you listened to music like that”

And it doesn’t seem to help that I’ve unsubscribed several times now – it just keeps resubscribing every month… the overlords at Ufone seem to insist that I *must* do as they say – why, because everyone must agree with whatever they believe to be truth?

The only consolation in their unethical behavior is that the number you call to access UTunes is 666 – YES, seriously… atleast they are self-aware enough to know that this service is the manifestation of the devil himself. I guess the only advice I could offer to you then is that if you’re thinking about Ufone… er… repent?!

ITCN Asia is just around the corner and a number of organizations who booked stalls, both local & international, are now gearing up to show their presence at this world renowned  event. So what a better time than now to look at some of the pro’s and con’s that can be had from event participation.

Pro’s

The one enticing aspect of ITCN is that it’s trade centric. Because it focuses solely on IT & Telecom, it’s a great way to be known in that space. With over 130 organizations participating and over 40,000 expected visitors in around 3 days, ITCN does have much to offer any company willing to shell out the big bucks. You get to brand yourself, be known as a specific provider, and get to see your competition. Also, you get to meet a number of people within your industry, whom you would normally not in the daily grind of life. Which brings us to the next point.

Trade exhibitions are a great way to get leads. A sale, big or small, often begins with a single, humble lead. It is more relevant in the IT & Telecom space, which due to their B2B nature, require a significant amount  of effort put into maturing a lead before a deal is signed. With sales cycles as long as 2 years in some cases, it’s generally a good idea to have a whole lot of good leads around instead of running after a few. Though it does require dilligence on part of the sales team to keep a regular follow up, because of it’s very nature some leads taper off.

There’s also the aspect of being abreast of what’s happening in the market. IT & Telecom is a rapidly advancing field, and while you may ‘know’ whats happening and what kinds of products are coming out, it may very well be out of date before you even realize it. ITCN and other such exhibitions give a two-sided advantage here, they let you present your own latest, cutting edge technologies to the world and take in the current view of the market in terms of competition and general customer interest.

Con’s

While it’s hard for me to chalk out any many con’s of participation in a trade event, there is one which glaringly come to mind. It is the huge cost involved with event participation. I’ll talk more about these costs later, but they come in terms of the participation cost, the materials, and most importantly, the time involved in creating all of it.

Also, in some cases, it might serve as a kind of distraction for the organization from regular work, again dumping it back in terms of opportunity costs.

That’s about it from my end, do you have any more in mind? Please share! Next, i’ll be talking about what to project to potential clients during a tradeshow event.

Advertising campaigns by telecom companies are all the rage these days. It seems they are the only ones left with enough money to even buy media space anymore. Lately, they seem to be going after each other aggressively, especially after zong opened up operations in the country.

Recently, Zong set up an MNP campaign which aired all over the place. The campaign was centered around the following group of TVCs.

Now this ad may have been very informative to the customer on what MNP is all about (namely, you get to keep the complete number, including the network code when you switch) it wasn’t very pleasing to other operators seeing that their customers were being targeted.So Ufone came up with a campaign of it’s own. Only they didn’t release it to any of the traditional media streams, they kept it viral. It’s been making rounds on facebook, youtube and other sites and has been viewed more than 10,000 times on youtube only, facebook is another story. Read the rest …