Microsoft Cloud Blogathon – India’s first Blogging Based Competition

New age technologies like Internet, Social media, Mobile, Cloud & others have given companies better ways of connecting with their audience. Companies are investing more & more into digital marketing arena to connect with their customer base. Brands are using Social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, vine, instagram & others for their marketing activities.

Microsoft India has come up with an innovative campaign called as “Microsoft Cloud Blogathon“. This is a 30 day competition, 20th May, 2013 to 00:00 hrs on 21st June, 2013 & is targeted towards college students. As part of this, one questions will be provided every day & students are required to contribute. There are daily prizes to be won & 50 top qualifiers based on the selection process will win 4 week Virtual mentor ship opportunities with Microsoft India. This is India’s first blogging based competition & this provides students, once in a life time opportunity to be mentored at Microsoft India. More info about the Microsoft Cloud Blogathon can be had at their FAQ section.

Cloud computing technology has become a boon providing easy access to the required information 24*7. This helps students & faculty access documents, mails, engage in video conferencing & IM anywhere & anytime. This helps in easier collaboration & communication increasing productivity & innovation.

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Google updates Hot searches with Top charts & Visualization

Want to know what the world is searching for? Google has updated its Trends with new info, visualization & charts. This provides the exhaustive amount of info on what is happening across the world.

Top Charts – Explore everything from Actors to animals to Whiskies. Currently this is available only for US. More countries wlll be coming soon. This is updated monthly & available from 2004. You can check out what are top 10 whiskies, car companies & others. This can also be embedded & can be shared across Facebook, twitter & Google+. This is based on Knowledge graph & takes into account various parameters before providing the top 10 rankings. There is also a category available in the left column which can be used to filter by various groups.

Hot searches – Visualize : Hot searches are now available in beautiful visualization. This is available by countries & the layout can be customized.

A search box at the top can be used to know about the search volumes. Hot searches can also be embedded and can be shared across Google+, Facebook, twitter.

The Calgary Zoo Publishes World’s First Annual Report on Instagram

Bored of annual reports on PDF or Power point..? You can try instagram, pinterest or Tumblr. Calgary Zoo has made use of Instagram to present their 2012 annual report. You can check their entire report published through beautiful photos & captions on Instagram. This is a very innovative method of using photo sharing apps for publishing your annual report. Some of the ways in which this makes the report stand out in the crowd are

1) The pictures with information is easy to follow & understand. The visual way of communication is gaining momentum across the world.

2) Pictures captures the attention of the users & can be easily followed like a story.

3) It is social. Users can like the pics & also comment. They can share the information & this helps in building visibility for the brand.

4) Pictures can be tagged with the required keywords.

 

Cinthol Alive is awesome – #ChallengeVirat Campaign

Cinthol, which embarked on a brand revamp last year, with Alive is awesome campaign, is out with a Virat Kohli based Alive is awesome campaign. He is the brand ambassador for Cinthol & this has been created by Creativeland Asia. The official website of the Alive is awesome Virat Kohli campaign. You can throw a challenge at Virat & it will be settled face to face. #challengevirat is the official hashtag of the challenge. You can login with your Facebook or twitter account. Many challenges can be seen in the microsite & some of which have been replied by Virat Kohli.

This is a clever use of social networking medium to engage with the fans. This also helps bring the brand ambassador & the fans face to face & builds rapport with the brand. This campaign has created a great volume of conversations about the brand. This is evident from the search keywords in Google with people searching for various terms like Cinthol alive is awesome lyrics, Cinthol alive is awesome mp3, Cinthol alive is awesome download, Cinthol alive is awesome ringtone, Cinthol alive is awesome hindi, Cinthol alive is awesome English song download, Cinthol alive is awesome virat kohli, cinthol alive is awesome virat kohli ringtone & others. This shows that campaigns help build brand visibility. This helped them increase their Twiiter Cinthol, Facebook Cinthol & Youtube Cinthol profile membership resulting in more engagement & amplification.

 

 

Bollywood Movies & Social Media

Indian cinema which is celebrating 100 years has a new critic in the form of social media. Earlier, it was film critics who would rate movies & now social media has added a new dimension to review movies. Right from the moment movies are announced till they are released & running in movie halls, social media is sparking conversations about the movies. All the movies now have a Facebook, twitter, YouTube profiles besides a micro-site. The marketing & promotional activities include social media conversation from the leading actors of the movies, Facebook chat, hangouts, video promotions & others.

It usually starts with the conversations surrounding the cast of the movie. Teaser clips of the movies are released in YouTube along with official trailer. The YouTube hits have become a chief indicator of how popular the movie will be. All the songs of the movies are released on YouTube. Mobile apps are also added to the movies along with the QR code to scan. People now tweet & update about the movies right from the movie halls expressing their opinion about the movies. This will have a major impact on the movies. Micro-site along with promotions, special movie screening & other drives are helping to build visibility for the movie.

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UCLA Health Uses Vine & Instagram to Video Tweet Brain Surgery

Hospitals are using social media tools to let the public know about the operations, medical procedures & also live tweet surgeries. The patients are also willing to share their personal moments & this gives others a degree of confidence in undergoing such ops. UCLA health system is live tweeting the brain surgery of a patient for implementing a brain pacemaker to counteract the effects of parkinson’s disease. Vine & Instagram are also being used to send out the updates. University of California, Los Angeles Health system is the first to use 6 second Vine video as part of its social media activities.

The patient is awake during the surgery & plays his guitar, which has been recorded on Vine. Medical professionals are using social media to help raise the awareness & also to educate, ally fears of surgery. This is UCLA Health System’s first live-tweet surgery with a Vine video. This also helps raise awareness about Brain pacemakers which many are not aware of. Nader Pouratian, MD, and the deep brain stimulation team at UCLA are celebrating their 500th patient implanted with a brain pacemaker.

Vine has become a new tool for creative marketing activities. Many brands are using Vine to create brand visibility, promotions & digital marketing activities. This twitter’s answer to Facebook’s instagram. Dunkin Donuts is using Vine for a promotion of how it keeps the fans active & alert & fans can submit 6 second vine videos as part of the promotion.

UCLA Health twitter

UCLA Health Facebook

UCLA Health Vine

UCLA Health Instagram

Dunkin Donuts #IceDD Contest on Twitter’s Vine

Dunkin Donuts is using Twitter’s Vine for its latest campaign. This is a very creative campaign given that it is using Vine. It is encouraging its fans to show how the coffee house puts a pep in their step. Fans can show their 6 second vine video how the DD Iced coffee keeps them active. The videos should be included with the hashtag #iceDD. The winner will walk away with a full year supply of free Coffee.

Twitter is the brain behind Vine, the video sharing app that lets users create 6 second videos. Many brands have already jumped into the Vine for their marketing activities. Brands are exploring creative ways to reach fans & engage. Videos provide fans to express themselves & let their creative juices flow. Here is one of the links to Dunkin Donuts Vine video.

BNP Paribas Tweet and Shoot Campaign – Lets Twitter Users train Tsonga

French bank, BNP Paribas, has launched a new campaign called “Tweet and Shoot”. This is a twitter tennis game, that uses twitter-controlled robot to launch tennis balls at French Player Tsonga live on a tennis court. BNP Paribas has been sponsoring French Open for the last 40 years & this is a great campaign to mark it. Being trained by fans is a great leap in social media & technology. This is also a way for BNP Paribas to celebrate 40 years of partnership with Roland-Garros.

Users can log in through twitter & position the tennis ball by drag & drop on the virtual court. The robot in the court is connected through 3G to twitter & users tweets are selected at random to fire tennis balls at Tsonga. The shot is also allocated a hashtag & tweeted out with a message. Robot can fire the balls at various angles. The tweet hashtags are #TWEETANDSHOOT & #40A.

We Are Social is the brain behind this amazing use of twitter & technology for this innovative branding & marketing activity. Social Media has helped companies connect with a large number of users for marketing activities. Here is the link to the BNP Paribas Tweet and Shoot Campaign