Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

The commoditization of social media in India

February 23, 2011 by Karthik S

Yes. It has happened. Need proof? Here’s one. The channels (Star World and Star Movies) have an online community of over 3.35 lakh fans on Facebook on the last count, leaving behind their competition and some of the news and broadcast portals…

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Facebook ‘Like’ goes live inside a video!

February 22, 2011 by Karthik S

India’s love for films is well-known. We love some of our film stars with all heart and more than our lives and such a display of affection is most visible when the star’s film releases and the star actually makes his first…

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Glossophobia and social media

February 21, 2011 by Karthik S

Glossophobia (or speech anxiety) is simply the fear of public speaking. It is considered the number 1 phobia (in the US and in the world) and ranks alongside fear of flying (aerophobia) and fear of heights (acrophobia). The Wikipedia page on Glossophobia…

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A 2-part idea to end the menace of unsolicited calls

February 17, 2011 by Karthik S

I had earlier written about ad-supported/ad-subsidized films in a theater. Reading all this hoopla about mobile number portability and the ensuing high-decibel promotion of each brand of service provider, I was wondering if the ad-supported model could bring in more transparency and…

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Would you tell a blogger, “I think you have all you need for a blog”?

February 16, 2011 by Karthik S

That sentence had me reading and re-reading it in complete disbelief! First, some background. Ed Yong, (an award-winning British science writer. His work has appeared in New Scientist, the Times, WIRED, the Guardian, Nature, the Daily Telegraph, the Economist) also has a…

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Do fans have some responsibility towards the brands they like?

February 15, 2011 by Karthik S

You like a brand…I mean, in real life. Then you search for them on Facebook and ‘like’ them there too. Normal occurrence, but is there any responsibility for you, beyond that, as a fan/follower? Two recent blog posts that I came across…

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Groupon’s advertising gaffe morphing into a PR mess

February 14, 2011 by Karthik S

Groupon’s communication misstep (alleged…more about this later) continues to fascinate me. Here’s a darling start-up that media loves and if you go by their press page, media seems to be going completely ga-ga over them. And what do they do? They create…

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