Be a gooner...be a giver

A video about Arsenal's charity initiative, "Be a gooner, be a giver" for Cancer patients. This video was released 3 years ago and went viral to a small extent. It featured 9 Arsenal players at that time

Other versions of Kolaveri

The Canadian version by an emo Habs fan...Dedicated to all the Habs fans in this class :)

One for the hip-hop fans...a hip version

Social Networks - Bringing people closer, professionally and personally

I am back..after a long long time to talk about the events that happened almost a month ago. On the 4th of February, we learnt about a topic that has revolutionized communication online. No prizes for guessing, its Facebook and Linkedin. Both these tools, if i can say, have been a big boon for us, both for personal and professional connection. They have made communication a lot easier and brought people even closer to one another. What started as a small revenge prank in a Harvard dorm room (yeah yeah..i saw the social network :)) is considered by everyone to be a quintessential part of your social life, though it is just virtual. And with LinkedIn, employers have an easier way to hunt for potential candidates as all the information that a candidate wants to present is right in front of their eyes on the screen.

As of 2011, there are over 500 million users, that is 1 in every 13 people in the world use Facebook. And this number is continuously increasing and it is around 750 million right now. I found the video above on youtube about the impact of Facebook. I am posting another video below, which shows about finding a job through linkedin

With technology bringing people closer to one another, you can either choose to embrace it or be termed a "pariah" by staying out of it. One thing for sure is that the world is not the same anymore after the arrival of Facebook and Linkedin and the sooner you join social networking, the better it is for you, both personally and professionally.

This blog entry would be incomplete without a mention of my beloved Arsenal FC (its called Gooner Rant after all :)). We played Blackburn Rovers at home and literally massacred them. The final score read 7-1, which was sweet revenge for our 3-4 loss earlier the season. We played like bosses and RVP scored a hat trick. Overall, a satisfying weekend for any Gooner. :)
Thats all for now folks, will blog soon about the mid-term, the "other side" of facebook and a round up of Arsenal games (Sunderland, Milan, Sunderland) in my next post. Till then, adios!

Web Marketing - It's not just about the effort!

Last class, we learnt about the the various web analytics tools and the importance of ROI. The class was extremely important in more ways than one as it showed us that its not just the effort that matters when it comes to social media and web based marketing. The success of any campaign needs to be measured, in $$$, and this value determines the overall effectiveness of the campaign.
SEO Quake, SEM Rush, google adwords etc made sure that I did not completely sleep off during the class as I had not slept enough the previous night and went to the class in a half sleepy state :)

SEO QUAKE EXPLAINED

The Blood Rage Virus :)

A viral video is a video that becomes popular through the process of internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and others. This is wikipedia's definition of a viral video and I am going to be blogging about is one which got close to 42 million hits on youtube in 2 months. It is a tamil song from an upcoming movie called "3" and the title literally translates to "Why this bloody rage?"

As a native Tamilian, I can say one thing for sure. The song absolutely has no meaning! It was a great marketing strategy by Sony Music Entertainment India to promote this song in the most effective manner by releasing the video online and their strategy was a huge hit! There were many spin offs of the song, different versions and in December 2011, it was named as the "song of the year" by CNN. More information about the release and reception from wikipedia here.
Just the reception that this song got showed the power of viral videos, the social media and the internet as a whole and its influence in our lives now!

30 years and 50000 substitutions

I am back after a long time and I first going to blog about the Manchester United vs Arsenal game that took place at the Emirates stadium 2 weeks ago. I thought I had already blogged about this one, but due to some weird reason, there were no postings about it. Coming back to the game, Arsenal were not completely confident and United did not have the best team. The first half ended with a late goal from Valencia and i must admit that Arsenal were really lucky to have conceded just one. The second half was completely different and Arsenal played with purpose and captain Vantastic scored the equalizer after some good work by the OX. Just when you thought things were going good and Arsenal were about to clinch a victory and complete the revenge for the 8-2 drubbing, you see the best player leave the pitch, echoes of boos and the least interested person in all of North London take the field. And then it happened, United scoring the winner, because of Arshavin and the Emirates faithful were completely shocked! End of the game, Wenger defended his decision by saying that he has made 50000 substitutions in 30 years and he does not need to defend each one of them. Irresponsible words from the man who was voted the "Manager of the Decade". We are into the 7th year of trophylessness and almost on the verge of going out of the UCL for the first time in 15 years. If you are not answerable now, when do you think you are gonna be??

I have been told that I need to blog about the social media marketing class and whatever happens each class. So next week on, my main focus would be on the class and I would be reviewing the game too. As for what happened in the class 2 weeks ago, it was not a regular theory class. It was my first class technically as I had to miss the 2 previous ones due to MBA ICC and the Winter Orientation and I was not disappointed. We had our 4 clients come and present their cases and all of us were excited about having to work on live cases. Our live case was about Burlesque and the "Grand Burlesque Show" and one of the best performers, Scarlett James gave us information about it. We got to ask her questions and we all got really happy about having such a project

What is Burlesque? Hear it from the experts:

Is it just Rooney vs RVP now?

Its back folks. What was once considered the biggest and most important fixture in the English Premier League, but has been reduced to nothing but a game between a team which resembles a sinking ship and a team struggling to cope with the financial muscle of their "noisy neighbors". The sinking ship is Arsenal FC and the struggling team is Manchester United FC. With all the shine taken away from this fixture off late, partly due to Arsenal FC not being considered title contenders anymore, is this fixture still the biggest in the BPL calendar?or is it just a match up between the man many consider to be one of the 3 best players in the planet now, Robin Van Persie, and mercurial Wayne Rooney.
With the wounds of the 8-2 defeat at the beginning of the season fresh in the minds of gooners and the current worrying form, Arsenal are definitely not the favorites for this game. But I am very sure that all gooners, like me, would be more than happy with a scoreless or a scoring draw with RVP scoring. :)
Weekend review will be posted by end of day tomorrow!