Content Marketing

Inbound marketing was a buzzword in the world of marketing few years ago. These years, it is content marketing. So what is the difference between the two? I would consider content marketing as the back bone of inbound marketing. Without content, more or less - there is no inbound marketing. Recently I attended a webcast by David Waterman on whether Content Marketing is a hype. The speaker argued that its not a hype unless you make it one. I tend to agree with him. We have been doing the content marketing for years now; just that we were not calling it that name (I used to hear similar one for cloud computing). Content comes in different channels - whether it is your blogs or tweets or your communities. With the advent of content sharing platforms like slideshare, vimeo and others, a marketer is bogged down with content channels to reach their audience. I would consider going back to the drawing board and consider only those channels which the target audience utilizes. For example, of you are targeting the hard core programmers - listening to stackoverflow or quora would be the likely right channels rather than linkedin groups. There is no point in being in every digital channel and finding it difficult to update each one with the limited resources we have. Here is an interesting read where professionals at Content Marketing Institute argues the differences between the two and why content marketing is beyond digital medium.

One channel that continues to be effective is the blog. While the speaker in the webcast opined that we need to provide the conversion paths in the content we create; I would consider the content marketing is still widely optimal to create the buzz, improve the credibility and help to enter the prospect's consideration set.

Providing valuable insights in the blog or slideshare are always considered fruitful both from inbound marketing perspective, the Google juice and search perspectives. When it comes to enterprise content marketing, the wider the employees utilize the social channels, the higher the possibility of reach and conversions. Nowadays, organizations have started building social enterprises with one of the objectives being these. For an employee, this also helps to create the personal brand.

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de doux souvenirs - Sweet memories from IIMB life

Some UN-forgettable Moments

• When I met in person Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
• When I got 4/4 GPA in my elective course Elements of Management Consulting
• When I sat along with the Director and a Chief Guest and participated in a short discussion on a company's international aspirations!
• When I received scolding from the Director for something I was not directly responsible for (It was a Déjà vu from good old Engineering days :))
• At 1 AM when the group had no idea what to present the next day; Perumal (a group member) suggests an idea and later it becomes the insight for the classes applauded by Professor :)
• At 4 AM, the group fighting on formatting issues of a project report after daunting discussions and heated arguments :)
• Creating a presentation while the Professor is teaching and presenting to the class after the lecture and getting appreciation from the Professor ;) ;)
• When I became the Secretary of Students' Council

Some events I wish never happened!  

• Burning few bridges and loosing a good mentor and friend over petty issues and ego clashes :(
• Screwing up during an important public facing event

Some Lessons learn-t the hard way!

1. There is no such thing as 'free lunch'
2. It doesn't matter how much you deserve; all that matters is how much luck is with you
3. Be assertive; need not be aggressive; most of the time no harm in being aggressive also!
4. You can learn any number of leadership theories; it takes experience to become one!
5. It's OK to be little selfish!; there is no such thing as utilitarian thought though they teach about it a lot event in B Schools...

Few things I missed during B School life

• International Exchange Program
• Hostel Life
• I thought I will become fluent in Hindi at least here; but didn't happen :)

 Some Professors whose classes I enjoyed the most

• Prof. L Prasad (Organizational Theory)
• Prof. J Ramachandran (Strategic Leadership)
• Prof. DVR Seshadri (B2B Marketing, (Intre)Entrepreneurial Learning)
• Prof. PC Narayan (Banking & Financial Markets)

Some courses that kept me on my toes everyday

• Quantitative Methods I by Prof. Shankar Venkatagiri
• Consumer Behavior by Prof. Ramesh Kumar

 Some courses I wish I never took!

• Telecom Strategy
• Quantitative Methods II (Operations Research, LPP etc.)
• Management Control Systems
• Services Marketing

Some courses I wish I studied more seriously!

• Corporate Finance
• Quantitative Methods I

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Book Review: The Wall Street MBA by Reuben Advani

 

I bought the first edition of The Wall Street MBA by Reuben Advani and this review is predominantly based on it. In the second edition few more chapters are added on Real Estate, Currency and Commodities. But I don't think there is any significant changes in the already existing content.

Overall a good read! a nice refresher for those in the field and a good introductory discussion for those new to the field. But don't get fooled by the title; it is NOT a crash course on corporate finance (well, I can see the author has changed that sub title in the latest edition). I felt this book to be more a refresher for financial accounting as half the book is written about FINAC. I must admit the first half is a thorough piece! When it came to the actuals of CORP FIN; its more a mere introduction on layman's vocabulary that we can get easily from the internet.

The coverage given on topics like Ratio Analysis, Cost of Capital and Financial Statements is exhaustive. I expected more on bonds, derivatives and some stuff on i-banking as the title suggests :P

Overall a good introductory and refresher type book!!

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Book Review - Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson

I think its very hard to read classics let alone write reviews about them. First of all if you have not read a book that is there for decades - you missed big time (unless you are from the young breed reading books one by one :P). Secondly, you would have heard from friends, lectures and other books to the extend that you may think the book content is repetitive!

Having said that and taken a bail :) my honest opinion after reading the book was that it had no 'aha-aha' moment. All it says is that change is inevitable and learn to move on!

The beauty of the book I believe is how Dr. Spenser has put forth his thoughts. The book could be read in half an hour; however the content resonates once you start to reflect yourself. The book essentially talks about the fact that we should not get lazy and fall into a comfort zone once we find some success. As per the book success is not everlasting; we have to change according to the circumstances; there is no point in thinking an 'auto-switch' for recovery will be enacted!

A quick read especially when your are emotionally down that will help you to rejuvenate and move on. I really liked the simplicity with which he has written the book!. A good summary is available in wikipedia with the key take-aways.

When I read the book, some of the thoughts I read in S.U.M.O (Shut Up, Move On)by Paul McGee resonated well :)

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