Sunday, September 3, 2017

8 moments that instantly lift up your mood...

1. Preparing tea/coffee for the family
2. Dropping off son/daughter to school
3. Beating odds to reach workplace on time
4. Having work
5. Phoning dad/mom/brother/sister/friend just to listen their voice
6. Seeing wrinkly, but smiling  parents
7. Hearing words of appreciation from the life partner
8. A warm hug from son/daughter

There may be more. I found these working for me. You may add yours. 😊

Happy Sunday!

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Do accidents alter your self-confidence?

I know, the answer to the title is very much a "Yes!"

Yes, accidents - small or big do affect our self-confidence, especially when the mishap occurs when we are least prepared. That's the reason they are accidents, but we go in complete shock when the smash happens with something we are fond of doing - riding a bike or driving a car for example. 

Physically and mentally healthy may recover quickly after a small or bearable accident. People opposite to that might require more time to come out of the shock. 

However, traumatic accidents spare none. Apart from disturbing normal flow of life, they ruin the victims and lives of others. While those who survive - they either lose their confidence completely or are left handicapped for life. It pains to see handicapped survivors. 

Sharing my own experience of a bizarre accident that I met last week. 

I was on way to my office on my two-wheeler. I was at a crossroad signal, where I was supposed to turn right that led to my work place. We have timer traffic signals in Ahmadabad at most junctions. 

So, I was watching the countdown - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 GO! I wonder what happened all of a sudden -  I lost my balance from the vehicle and fell on my left side with the vehicle just overlapping my left leg. My mind had several thoughts running at the same time and my heart sank few beats. I was lucky - the car behind me slowed down and stopped till the time I was back on my feet. Within moments I was at the signal waiting for it to go green again - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 GO! 

Riding on slow speed, I reached the office parking and limped to the elevator. 

Gosh! I wasn't frightened, but tense. 

Once in the office, I hastily searched for first-aid, but the kit was missing. I cleaned the bruises with cold water. I felt better. But the wounds started to pinch with sharp pain. 

Ah! The pain was bearable though. 

At 10:10 am my manager was in. I shared the incident. I was asked to take a day off, but I was firm to finish my morning tasks, which I did.

Finally, I left for home almost 2 hours after the accident. I was grateful to the manager for allowing me to go home. 

Yes, the above story focuses only on me, but I am fully aware; there are hundreds and thousands of people on earth who meet with life-threatening road accidents - every minute, some die on the spot while some lose their life during treatment. 

And there are many who are left with physical disability for life and some are so shocked that they never return to normalcy. 

This freak accident has altered my self-confidence. There is a constant fear of falling off the vehicle or getting hit by another vehicle. 

Who should be held responsible - the over cautious ones or the completely reckless ones?

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

My experiences with self-publishing...

Self-publishing is tough. And marketing self-published book is even tougher. One needs to know the basics, such as - trim size, pricing the book, marketing the book on different platforms including social media etc.


Although a novice to publishing, I self-published "Maiden Musings" nearly five years ago using Createspace


Along with a paperback, I also wanted to make it available on Kindle so that people who wish to read the book on their smartphones, tablets, or Kindle device they could. I did publish it after a month or so, but the layout was completely wonky and not worth buying.


I kept the project live for few days and then I unpublished the book on Kindle just because I did not want to disappoint readers.


Keeping pace with times, I again explored publishing "Maiden Musings" on Kindle through KDP. I read and understood all that was required to make the book presentable, readable, and enjoyable. 


I took over 8 days to structure the book as per Kindle standards and this time - I was successful.

 

Glad to share link to "Maiden Musings" - Kindle edition. Priced at Just $0.99.









Hope you enjoy reading it...

Saturday, July 1, 2017

On rainfall..

...rainfall fears 

fears a fall on -

lifeless pavements

lonely streets

mucky parks

empty vehicles

dead bodies holding cold hearts...


...fears falling -

with a silent thud...


...fears loud pattering -

might awaken humans...

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Barbara Alfaro: Poems and Sandwiches

Barbara Alfaro: Poems and Sandwiches: Like the bus passengers described in "The Moose," I feel a sense of awe when I read this poem. I worked in the tax management depa...

Thursday, June 22, 2017

For whom is your Social Media Marketing?

Working in digital marketing company for nearly 4 years now, it has widened my understanding of how social media marketing affect a brand. 

"If your brand marketing on social media is for everyone, it is for no one."

I read this in one of the blogs on social media marketing and have rephrased it in my own words. 


Quick test: Who’s your audience? Which market are you looking to explore? Your products? If you are like most enterprises that sell multiple products or offer different services to multiple audiences, you might have two, three, or different audiences which you are trying to target with the same content initiative. Is that really working for you or for your brand?

Four questions...

Whether your goal is to sell or serve more, you need to get focused on your core audience. If you haven’t already, answer these questions and make sure your entire marketing team puts all their efforts in that direction.
  1. Who? Who is the audience for each post on social media sites? Who is the specific audience you are targeting on these platforms?
  2. Why? Why are you doing this? What is that you see to call social media marketing initiative a success? (Do you need to it to drive sales, save costs, drive customer loyalty, or increase brand identity?)
  3. Outcome? What’s in it for the people? How are you making their lives better or easier in some way? What’s the pain point you are solving for them?
  4. Replacement factor? If you do not provide information about your products or services to your audience, would they care or notice? Will they find the information elsewhere? Is what you are saying really that important to them?
While all these questions are important if you have multiple responses to “who,” the other questions are almost impossible to answer. Having multiple audiences reduces the value of your communication and it has less impact on your audience and will be almost impossible for you to accomplish your social media marketing goals.

Next step...

Social Media Marketing is simple, but never get overly complicated with the available solutions. This is as simple as analyzing, getting your marketing team together and discuss. Many times, online marketing initiatives start with a singular audience focus but expand over time to multiple audiences. If that is the case, it is best to start with low-performance initiatives first. This will help you focus on your core audience, and use other platforms or initiative to communicate with your secondary audience.

Finally, your brand may not need an online marketing initiative targeted to every audience.

Monday, June 12, 2017

...paid immortality

...while standing in a long
never lasting queue


at Supreme’s palatial home

a feeble call
entered my
(Y)ears


“Hey!
It will be eons
till you reach the hell
in there
I can make it faster”


“Why do you say that?
and
who the hell are you?”


“Do not ask
who I am
just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’
to my offer
Mortal”


Confused
I stood my ground
on deciding


With a sigh
I gave up
on waiting


“Okay!
What’s the deal?”


“Handover all that you have
not under the skies
but
under the table
where I tell you
and
wait for your turn
in coming centuries”


“That’s not a good deal
I cannot wait”


“Waiting is prerequisite
My Beloved”


“I see

leave it

I said
I cannot wait


I would rather
speak with angels to let me in
instead of sweetening you, Yama”


“The so called angels
wouldn't entertain you at all
they are busy
tallying inducements
collected to date
which I passed on to them
Mortal”


Still confused

standing there
I decided to quit
queuing-up
for
paid immortality...

Monday, May 29, 2017

The Importance of Graphic Design in Social Media

The term “Graphic Design” usually reminds about advertising industry or print media where ads are visualized, created and published after laborious hours of laying out elements till final design of the advertisement. However, in early days of advertising; designing was of less importance while conveying the message was of priority.  

The sense of designing grew when colored prints of ads were available and a message could be presented in various ways.

The advertising industry has seen a lot of changes in the past couple of decades; especially when the world got hooked onto digital communications. Earlier, digital world was limited to a website or email, but after the introduction of social media, the advertising industry has evolved for the good. Traditional ads that appeared in newspapers, magazines, or journals, reached a limited audience of a city, state, of a country, but due to social media, same ads are reaching beyond all territorial boundaries.

Today, whatever the medium - online or print, in the absence of designing - graphic designing, specifically; all forms of advertising will be ineffective. Graphic designs make the ads appealing and it forces the audience to look at the ad, at least once. Graphic design plays an increasingly important role not only in building brand awareness & recognition but in attracting the attention of users.

The moot question still remains unanswered - what role does graphic design play in social media?

However, with the growing use of digital means of communication, the span of attention of users has decreased over the years, and hence, most users love to catch-up relevant information in very few seconds. Since many people are visual learners, they’ll remember a brand better when they see some visuals about it, instead of hearing or reading about it.

A well planned graphic design or placement of logo play a big role in how a product or service is perceived by the social media user. An attractive graphic design helps to strengthen a brand, build trust with the consumer and make the business seem larger than it is.
A well-designed graphic can also lead the user to post links on his/her own social media profile/page; this directs potential customers back to the brand's website or social media platforms or maybe even start a viral campaign with unlimited potential.

Finally, graphic design should be large and detailed enough; so that, visitors to the social media page can easily recognize the image. It should not be so large which takes a long time to load. The design or advertisement layout should emphasize on the proper selection of image and the message to be conveyed. The merger all elements in the right proportion helps a brand to build brand recall and reputation, in the long run.

So, can we say, Social Media is an optimal alternative to traditional advertising, today?

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Let me fall...

Let me fall
flow
all over
build no dams of
bias
hatred
stench
over me
allow me
overflow
freeze
go dry at times
let not my
slow movements at times mostly
irk you
I might be in love and dancing
with
pearls
algae
stones
crevices
who hug
with
no terms on
and
help me learn paths
toward vastness
through wild ones