A whole New Year

Before the New Year...

Celebrations. So much love. So much excitement.
Warmth, goodwill and cheer.
We reach out to loved ones, to relations, friends and associates.
We send forth love and gifts and receive more of the same.
Christmas comes and goes and then we ring in the New Year with abandon.
With all the new resolutions and thrill till the clock strikes midnight.

And then....

We all go back to the same old days. Living the same old lives. Loving little or less. Excitement pack depleted. Hunched in responsibilities and endless worries.

Hey...

Stop cheating.
Keep living.
Keep loving.
Keep smiling.
Welcome the New Day like the New Year.
Make a new resolution everyday and live it.
Enjoy your responsibilities and worries.
Be complete and excited for every New Day.

WHY EVERY BUSINESS SHOULD HAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE!

At QTL, we believe that creating an outstanding website is only a small part of the web solution. The real game lies in making it reach the perfect audience at the opportune time with minimum cost. A good social media planner has to bring a creative solution that will ensure visibility.

The Internet transforms with alarming speed. Today, Facebook is our best bet to leverage reach at amazing cost. It has such an extensive range of possibilities that enable it to bend and flex its muscles in tune to our needs.

The Facebook Page is a public profile that injects vitality for your brand. It connects and shares your business and events with the population on Facebook. Since its birth in 2004, it has now grown to over 1.10 billion users (as on May 2013).

Setting up your Page on the Facebook is your baptism to a long-term marketing strategy. At zero cost you have evolved a strong identity for your brand, gained a media for interacting about your business, promotions and apps. And the best part of it all is that people on the Facebook like to interact and give opinion. So if you have something interesting, you will generate a discussion and dialogue. What better way to acquire a clue about your business right from your fans?

When someone clicks the Like button and becomes a fan of your Page, you create a long-term connection with them. This endorsement from a person is in fact a gateway for you to publish content to their News Feed and establish an ongoing conversation. Remember to communicate with meticulous consideration and extraordinary etiquette lest they close the gates on you. And every time people interact with your Page, it generates a story on their profiles and in their friends’ News Feeds, giving your brand bonus organic exposure that has an unbelievable reach.

As each Facebook user who Likes you has an average of 130 friends eligible to see his or her messages, a single like or comment multiplies the potential reach of each marketing message with an unbelievable reach that you cannot even calculate. This boost in marketing effectiveness is not just theoretical, but measurable.

There are a few matters to bear in mind when you are setting up your Page.

Remember to create a calendar, so you can release content and updates at regular intervals.

Remember that a natural, genuine mode of communication works best.

Ensure that you respond with timely participation. A two-way dialogue means listening and responding to comments on time. This will help you turn fans into your brand ambassadors.

Most people start with energy and passion and then just as the fans grow and gain interest, the Page loses steam. Very few marketing managers have the long-term perspective. You should know that if you have marketed your first product or lot successfully on the net, you should keep the fans interested and coming back for more as you develop new product lines and brands.

Keep your Page updated with relevant and interesting content at regular interval so that you can show the fans that your brand is not only leading the conversation, it’s also actively listening and responding to what they are talking about. These interactions are an effective way to get people engaged and inspire them to take the action you want. You can also express your brand through images, connecting to other Pages and commenting as your Page.

The Page is the headquarters of your brand on Facebook. It is the source of all of your brand’s important content and the place where you manage your comments, links, reverts and customer service.

·       Your Page provides you access to effective data about your target audience and how they relate to your brand.

·       Using the Timeline feature for Pages, your fans can send private messages to our brand and our brand can respond to it. However, Pages cannot initiate private messages.

·       Your Page can comment on or like posts by fans of that Page. We can also like other Pages, as well as like and comment on posts made by those Pages.

·       Out of respect for user privacy, Pages can only like or comment on posts made to the Page. They cannot interact with users outside of the Page.

All these features give you incredible advantage when it comes to leveraging your marketing activities.

Pages represent businesses, nonprofits, brands, governments, celebrities, and other public entities on Facebook. And you are joining this select community that will open a world of opportunities and a market that is infinite and spread across the globe and not just in your physical locality. You need to plan innovatively yet logically to reach maximum target audience with this amazing media.

When you create a Page, you become the administrator of that Page, which in turn gives you full control over Page content. You can also become an administrator if the person who created the Page adds you as one.

In short:

·       Pages represent companies

·       Profiles represent individuals

Audience Targeting

The key ingredient to generate interest and engage your audience in conversations is to be able to speak focusing on their interests. Facebook has the option that allows you to customize your posts to a region so that if your posts are either domestic or global in nature, you can create it to a specific regional or language focused level. For example, you can target and set a post for only your fans in Dubai who speak in Hindi.

What it boils down to is that Your Business Page on Facebook:

·       Represents your brand

·       Builds a community focused on your brand

·       Publishes conversations and stories

·       Hosts content and apps

·       Targets who sees your content

·       Measures the results and allows you to fine tune

Now go on and get your Page and create Business history.

An Accident...learning...and unlearning.

The public works department completed their contract on the pipes on the water works tender.

The stones and rocks left over were kept away on the roadside.
The iron bars were forgotten too.
The sand was not moved off the road properly.
The holes that were dug were left for others to fill.
The workers went back home.
The contractor went back home.
And the people who used the roads and paths started to use this damaged road with no complaints.

The old man walked carefully over the stones so as not to slip.
He walked onto the road to avoid the iron rods.
The scooter swerved to avoid him.
The car behind braked sharply.
The lorry behind the car braked and skidded.
The cars behind all braked.
The scooters behind all skidded.
The lorry went skidding over the pot holes and turned around.


The driver of the Mercedes was driving at a 100 km/ph.
He turned to look at the lovely lady at the bus stop.
He smiled.
She smiled.
He did not see the lorry skidding towards him.
They collided.

The Mercedes collided and skidded over to the scooter on the other side.
And instantly switched off the lives of a man, woman and a baby.
And injured four others.


WHEN WILL WE LEARN?




Sameer Ansar
CEO
www.qtlindia.com

Hartal in Kerala.

While travelling or holidaying in Kerala, it is important to know that there is such a thing called "HARTAL" that can happen unexpectedly. These Hartals are politically enforced holidays that punish the common people to stay indoors for a day.

Most people residing in Kerala have come to terms with this crazy manner of declaring a Hartal at the smallest excuse. The working class plan immediately on how to spend the (holi)day that they have got. They buy a bottle of booze and good food and get set to either spend a day in front of the TV and party or with their family - eating and sleeping well. The businessmen curse these hartals as it means excessive losses and plot different ways on how they can get their staff to office. Since hartals do not allow cars to ply the roads, the business men plan ingenious ways to get staff to office by either hiring an ambulance to ferry staff or starting office at 6 a.m etc. The office shutters are downed and work goes on inside. If the hartal announcers find that people are working on a hartal day, then its hell for them.

People with weddings planned suddenly find that guests excuse themselves. Food goes waste and the event becomes a sad affair. Young graduates ready for their first interview suddenly lose all hope. Students who have prepared for exams are happy since they get an extra day to prepare.

So if you find yourself in the state of Kerala a day before a Hartal is announced, here a re a few tips.
1. Get yourself a two wheeler. Surprisingly, a hartal is lenient on two wheelers to ply the roads. They get angry with four wheelers. So go find a friend or a rental where you can get yourself a bike to freedom during Hartal

2. Ensure food supplies in plenty. Hartal means no shops, no hotels or restaurants. So ensure that you have readied yourself with needed supplies like Bread, milk, eggs etc the day before.

3. Ensure water supply for drinking in advance.

4. Ensure a full tank of fuel in case of emergency

5. Ensure that entertainment options are readied. Either have a television or books to read etc.

6. Plan ahead.

Enjoy...its God's own country.

Going to Kerala.

Its unfortunate to see travellers come to Kerala and follow a schedule and route to see places and return.

 There are three common ways they travel.
1. Land in Cochin, move to the hill station in Munnar, see the wild life in Thekkadi, the waterfalls in Vagamon, maybe visit Fort Cochin and return
2. Land at Trivandrum, visit Kovalam, Varkala, Ponmudi, drive down to Alleppey and return via Kumarakom to Trivandrum.
3. Land at Calicut, visit Wynad, Kannur/Bekal and return
This is not how you should experience Kerala.

Kerala, is really God's own country. It is a slow, peaceful, tranquil experience. To find a true holiday here you need to take a break from it all and erase your itinerary.

You need to drive on the inner roads(M.C Road) or take the sea side roads (from Alleppey via Arthungal to Cochin). Travel to places beyond Kuttikanam and find where the road ends and the silence is defeaning at Mundakayam.  Take a jeep drive across the hills where it takes an hour for a few miles and discover a top spot from where you see for miles and know that Kerala is indeed Green.

Discover idle countryside "chai" and "thattu" kadas with sizzling hot delicacies. Discover how a single newspaper stokes the knowledge of an entire village around a cup of chai or how a local issue is sorted over a bottle of toddy. Enjoy the pleasure of swimming in chilled, clear waters that flow down small hills.



To enjoy Kerala, drive away from the main roads, the towns and the traffic. Take a U turn, go down that small road that will take you to the most magical holiday.

Umpleasant

What is it that makes relationships sour and unpleasant?

Why do the closest people become the worst enemies?

How can we recreate relations every moment as though we are meeting like we did at the first time?

When do we understand that we have been maintaining mediocre relations?

How does ego rise up amongst such close and warm individuals?

Why cant we live everyday as though we are on honeymoon?

Why do we tear ourselves apart in the name of love and emotions? When do we learn to go beyond love...and embrace intimacy.

When you feel angry...sit back...
Take a few deeeeeep breaths...
Count to hundred...
And open your eyes and soul back to a beautiful world.

Live. Love. Life

THE ROADS

I am travelling in "God's own country".
But I am driving through the "Roadway to Hell".

 Its insane that we proudly say that we are a developing country and then serve up travel services that are way below the standards.

Its inhuman that we have all levels of checking and approval departments and yet sanction that these roads are safe for human beings.




Its a joke that we buy wheels costing lakhs and crores and glide them over the deepest potholes that can be created.

Its a pain to travel over 500 kilometres in these bumpy roads and traffic madness and wake up the next day with a smiling attitude.

Its a crime that we allow people to trash and conduct themselves like barbarians on our roads. And expect that our civic authorities will help solve this.

Its amazing we are all still alive.

Its sad that we do not have any idea of how to end this rot.

Its insulting that across the globe every country has a "Little India" where they allow us to be the barbarians we are and live in filth.

Why?

Sameer Ansar
CEO- Quintessence Technologies Ltd

sameer@qtlindia.com

Fwd: Cards

Sameer Ansar

Chief Executive Officer

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Quintessentials - Part 2 - What makes your website work?

Quintessentials for your website.

We have been in the business of creating web solutions for over a decade now. For the past four years we have transformed into one of the finest website design and development organization with alliances across the globe paving satisfaction and smiles for our clients.

Four years for a human, is like a hundred years for the internet. It has evolved so much. And it has grown and expanded in giant leaps every day. So many tools and applications and information have found their way on to the World Wide Web.  Some of these are effective and good. But most of it is waste, trash and ineffective.

We should understand that the internet is one of the finest marketing medium. It should be considered a part of a business media plan and used in a manner where you can measure its effectiveness and as a tool that works best when the client and the developing team who builds the page has a precise idea of what it is that they are setting out to achieve and whom they want to reach out to.

I have clients who come to my office and demand the finest graphics and design and short timelines and competitive costing. They haggle and bargain for a few hundred. The project finally loses energy and effectiveness. It becomes a group of people stuffing in maximum colours and a few tools to impress the client instead of focusing on what it is that they need t achieve to make the site effective.

Remember that if a Website should make an IMPACT, the team should create it after having a crystal clear vision of What and How you want your Visitor to behave.

In these few years we see a flood of changes. We have smartphones and tablets, we have varied screen sizes where customers access the site, we have high speed internet, we have infinite social sites to reach out to. And so much more is in the future.

A great website with good reach, with an impact to make the visitor behave in a particular way in the shortest time is the need of the hour. This is a matter of maximum importance today and we need to address it now. As developers and designers we need to educate our clients about how the web is transforming. It is of grave consequence to cheat your client and give them what they want at the expense of damaging his business for the future. It will surely affect your existence as a web solution provider.

Be brave, Be honest. Develop a spine. Bring your ethics and values to the forefront. History has proved that if you are only a short term visionary, you will cease to exist in the longterm. It costs a packet to generate the latest solutions. But if you stand up to it and have the strength to inspire your clients, you will bring about a world of change for your client, which in effect will come back to you in the form of more business and long term survival. Have no doubts about that!

Ask yourself a few simple questions that can make your relevance clear.

1. Who/What/Why am I building this site?
2.  How will anyone find out about this website?
3.  What factors have made me use this design concept?
4.  What is the action I want a visitor to take when they are here?
5.  What have I created on this website that will guarantee that action
6.  Is there anything else I can do here?

It is wise to know that the reason for creating a website is to make an impact on someone to act upon an information. 

The first step in this case is to understand the person who you are speaking to and the action you want them to do. Remember that you are talking to one person at a time and you need to have a perfect idea through extension surveys of the “ONE” you are talking to if you want to create the perfect content/layout/graphics etc to make them take an action.

Doing a website in any other manner is Trash!

Sameer Ansar

CEO – Quintessence Technologies Ltd.

Mail: sameer@qtlindia.com

Web: www.qtlindia.com

The Quintessential Web Guides - Ch. 1- Using Social Media in Your Website

How to use Social Media in Your Website

Why social media?

The web is growing at a speed that you can never imagine. The information being poured into this infinite space is monstrous. You will need to carefully create a marketing and social plan using effective online tools that will help you to use social media on your website.

Social Media…what is it?

As people move on the internet alone or as a community, they “like”, “share” or “comment” or even “follow” something interesting on a website. This opportunity is provided via a social media.

Social site are like the famous ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ used by the “happening” people and bookmarking social sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon, photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Pinterest, blogging sites such as Blogger and WordPress, discussion sites in the form of various online forums, video sites like You Tube, online deals sites and many more.

It is good to link social media onto your site to connect these various options with the virtual reality of your brand – your website! Thus, you can connect social media profiles from the World Wide Web to your website using these social media pins and more.

This allows your visitors/clients to connect with you instantly. This method goes around and connects people very fast and it is usually free or low cost.

Does your business need this social media?

Take a look at these facts from last year's survey

• The total effect on buyers purchase interest via Facebook is 48%.
• 66% of the worlds population use social media.
• 15% of Twitter users have purchased something based on details from Twitter.
• 51% of top companies use social sharing buttons on their websites.
• 86% of web users prefer logging in via social profiles in websites

Social media plays an important role in your website’s search optimisation, especially after search quality-based algorithmic updates like Panda and Penguin. Social signals have now become increasingly important towards improving your website’s search ranking. As a web business owner, however, you need to keep in mind that social media is also an integral part of your site’s user experience and retention. When your website provides social media buttons, your users need not leave your site to like or recommend it.

Key Social media elements for your website:

1.   Social Media Buttons

 You can use icons of popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, etc. They can be placed at the top, left, right or bottom of the web page content; such as a blog, video or image.

Take a look at some sample websites and notice how these icons have been used. They can be effective in reaching out to your users and more.

2.   Social Share Buttons

These allow users to stay on the site and share the content on their social media profiles with just a click and without leaving the site. Site visitors can choose interesting content to share, click on the social share button and easily post an update to their social media profiles.

Do not make the buttons too small or too big. Ideally, they must not draw too much attention but still be easy to find. The position of the social share buttons is one of the factors that determines effective usability of your site.

The following are some helpful hints on the positioning of share buttons:

• Keep the share icons in a manner that users need not scroll to find them.
• If you have a blog on your site, you could place them at the bottom of the blog so that the reader shares the blog or keep them floating so that they are seen even when the page is scrolled.

Place the share buttons only if it makes sense to share.

For instance, if you have an e-commerce website and your users are buying a product, do not prompt them to share the product image or content because at that point they only need to complete their purchase. You could include a share button at the end of the transaction, i.e., the check-out page, where your users would be more likely to spread the word.

This increases user activity and reference marketing. It brings in social activity to your site for better search rankings.

Tools and Resources:

·       AddThis

·       ShareThis

·       Po.st

·       Gigya (Paid option)

·       Shareexy

·       Lockerz

·       Janrain

·       Sharre

·       Tweetit 

3.   Social Login

You may have noticed that many of the most popular sites on the web use social login. Having social login alongside a regular login on your website gives the user plenty of options to choose from. This is a good approach in terms of your website’s usability as some users will find it easier to use an existing social login rather than create an entirely new one.

Advantages of a Social Media Login are:

• No Spam, only real people register
• Faster sign up, no user details required
• Lesser bounce rates
• The social login user need not remember username and password

4.   Social Comments

This allows the user to give a comment or feedback. It ensures user activity on the site. It allows users to comment with their own social media profiles.

Benefits of social commenting:

• Comments will not be spam since social media profiles are owned by real people
• Increases Social activity to your site.
• Using their personal profile to comment discourages users from vulgar comments.

5.   Authorship:

If you were to look at search results for your keyword, which result really catches your eye? Generally, it would be the one with the picture of the author in it. Such search results are achieved by creating authorship markup with Google + and adding it to your blogs, articles and other content. It gives the content a human touch, which makes readers select your article over others.

Here is a step-by-step process on how to create Google+ Authorship for your content:

• Create a personal account on Google+
• Go to Google+ Profile page
• Click Edit Profile
• Scroll down on the page and Click Contributor to
• Click Add Custom Link
• Enter the name of the blog page and the blog URL
• Click Save
• Click Done Editing on the top blue bar of the page
• Copy the profile page URL to the code that links to the Author’s name below the content, for example, Sameer Ansar on Google+
• Add rel=”author” tag to it, as shown in the sample code below:
• <a rel= “author” href= https://plus.google.com/u/105520809469704184434”>Sameer Ansar on Google+</a> 

6. Activity Feed:

Its advisable to add an activity feed on your website that describes every recent action that has taken place on your website by your site visitors. There are many resources to create your own activity streams on your website, such as Gigya or Atlassian, or you can embed social activity feeds from Facebook and Twitter on your site, if you have an active Facebook and Twitter page. This embedding does not require a web developer’s expertise and is very easy to do.

Tools and Resources:

·       Facebook

·       Twitter

·       So So Social

·       Gigya (Paid option)

Additional Facebook Social Plug-ins:

• Send button can be used to send content to a specific Facebook friend or group
• Subscribe button lets users see who has subscribed to your page.
• Recommendation Box is based on popularly shared content. The users on your site are shown the content that is highly recommended for further reading and the number of people who have shared and liked the recommended content.
• Like Box longer version shows the posts liked on the page. The shorter version shows faces of Facebook users that like your page. 

Other Social Integration Tools and Resources:

•  Embedded Tweets uses a single line of code provided by Twitter developers by which you can embed your tweets on your website.
• Linkedin Insider Company Plugin lets you show off your company’s strength with staff photos and their recommendations in a little box on your website.
• Linkedin Recommendations Plugin is useful for increasing the website’s credibility.
• Pinterest RSS widget is a feature useful for sites that have a lot of images (such as a wedding photography site or online apparel store). All the images you pinned on Pinterest can be made visible to your site visitors.

With a full-fledged social media integrated website you will have higher user engagement and increased social media activity on both your website and your brand pages as a whole.

You can test this in tools used for website rankings and reviews for Free.

These social media integration tools and resources discussed can make your website the main social meeting point for user interaction. It will drive maximum traffic to your site.

Sameer Ansar

CEO – Quintessence Technologies Ltd.

Mail: sameer@qtlindia.com

Skype: qetechCEO

Web: www.qtlindia.com