It’s fair to say that India has earned a reputation for competency and excellence in technology. New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are well established research and development centers, yet mostly known (in the West, anyway) for the work they do on behalf of North American and European companies that come to India to take advantage of a highly capable workforce educated in world class universities and paid lower wages than their North American and European peers. But if you think that India is only producing cutting edge software and devices for foreign companies, you are missing a much bigger picture.

Exciting new Indian companies are bringing to the global market homegrown computing, telecommunication and other technology marvels, many of them disruptive game changers.

Not long after Apple began creating buzz for its forthcoming launch of the iPad tablet, New Delhi based Notion Ink started making its own waves with its planned launch of an Android-based tablet called Adam.

In the mobile handset arena, Karbonn, a company headquartered in Bangalore, Micromax, outside New Delhi in Gurgaon and Spice Mobile, located in Uttar Pradesh, are three Indian companies that have cut into the market share of major global manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson within the rapidly expanding India market. These companies produce phones that are often noted to have built-in AM and FM radios (an obvious feature that is strangely absent from phones sold in North America). These companies also produce phones designed to be used as Internet appliances for Web surfing and social networking, a feature universal to all handset manufacturers consumers around the world are using mobile as their primary method of connecting to the Internet in greater numbers every year.

But innovations of these Indian handset manufacturers extend far beyond simple features.

In a market of 1.15 billion people, India has only just surpassed 500 million mobile subscribers, 95 percent of which are on prepaid plans. At roughly 45 percent market penetration, the Indian market is practically a greenfield opportunity when compared to other countries in Asia, Europe and North America, many of which have a penetration rate in excess of 100 percent (in other words, some people have more than one mobile phone plan). Adding to the complexities of the Indian market is a figure startling to many westerners: fewer than 25 percent of households in India have electricity.

Micromax and Spice address these market conditions by producing mobile phones with long lasting batteries, allowing a person to have days – not hours – of talk time, and a month – not a day – of standby time. There are consumers in many markets around the world who can benefit from innovation such as this.
All three companies produce phones that support dual SIM cards, addressing approximately 100 million Indian mobile subscribers who have multiple mobile numbers. Cleverly, the phones switch to the second SIM when the phones are held upside down.

A vibrant community of mobile software companies likewise address the unique conditions of the Indian market with innovative mobile finance, productivity and entertainment software that run on simple “feature” phones to powerful smartphones, like the recently launched line of Spice Android smartphones and tablets.

Supporting this extensive technology marketplace is a growing list of Indian trade publications. The team at Mobility Public Relations has worked with many and read many more. Among our favorites are CellPassion, FoneArena, Telecom Tiger, Tech Tree and 9.9 Media. We are also fond of the MobiGyaan and MobileGyaan blogs. And this list only scratches the surface.

We also quite like the TV show Tech Guru, not just because they covered our clients.

Think of it, even at more than 500 million subscribers – 200 million more people than live in the United States – the Indian mobile market can still more than double! These stats mixed together with India’s universities, talent pool, increasingly connected (and mobile population), and vibrant tech media landscape make India one of the most compelling technology markets as we look toward the next decade of the 21st Century. Just as “made in Japan” was commonly found on devices in the 1970s and 1980s, and “made in China” is found on devices made today, I predict we’ll see many high-end and cutting edge mobile devices with “made in India” in the years to come.

The race for the most fans between Lady Gaga and President Obama was a hot topic earlier this summer, as they ended June neck and neck with more than 9 million fans each. Lady Gaga has since surpassed Obama, with more than 16.5 million fans to her credit (Barack weighing in at 12.8 million).

The race for fans is not limited to celebrities and politicians however; from the corner bakery to Walmart, companies are capitalizing on the power Facebook as well. With more than 500 million active users it is a community that cannot be ignored. But, you already know that, so I won’t bore you with how to create a page or the basic importance of having a presence and growing your brand on Facebook.

That said, have you checked to see how many fans your company or product has on Facebook? Fans are those members of the Facebook community that have either sought out your page and pressed the “become a fan” button or have seen their friends become fans and have done so as well. Fans are consumers, prospective customers, friends of your customers, or people who just like what you have to offer – so much so that they are willing to tell their social network that they are a fan of yours.

What is really interesting is to ask yourself how much is a “Facebook fan” worth to your brand? A report released in June of this year by Syncapse has an answer to that very question.

“The average fan value is $136.38, but it can swing to $270.77 in the best case or go down to $0 in the worst. This is due to the fact that no two fans are alike.”*

While their sample size of only a few thousand might not paint an accurate enough portrait of the 500 million users of Facebook to be able to nail down a dollar figure to communicate worth, I think the Syncapse report highlights some key points that are often overlooked.

One, no two fans are the same; some provide more value than others.

Some fans are more active than others, and are therefore more valuable. The most “valuable” fans are usually the ones that have a more frequent interaction with the company and brand outside of Facebook, who are very loyal, referring often. Do you fan a page only to never give it a second thought? Are there pages you more actively participate on?

It’s a good exercise to think about the pages you like the most and consider what it is about them that is so engaging and keeps you coming back. Once you have identified those features that are most attractive to you, you can begin to brainstorm on how these features can be leveraged by your brand to make your page just as appealing and engaging. There is no shame in taking a good idea (gleaned from another brand’s page) and making it work for your brand.

Not only is it good practice to attract and network to gain more fans but it is important to engage the fans you already have and get them interested in interacting with your page and brand on a regular basis.

Part of a successful marketing and public relations campaign includes paying special attention to the social media conversations taking place with your customers and fans. By strategically planning Facebook wall comments around product launches, events, addressing any positive or negative buzz regarding your product or engaging your fans and asking questions you can gain more insight into what drives people to or from your product. You are starting and joining two-way discussions.

It’s more than just posting, it is connecting brands to their customers, prospective customers, and internal audiences (like employees and investors), creating active relationships and engaging customers in conversation .

Two, Facebook fans are more likely to give recommendations than non-fans, and these recommendations influence product sales.

“On average, Facebook fans were 41% more likely to recommend a product then their non-fan counterparts.”*

This word of mouth communication is important and the Facebook network is a simple way to fan the flame, so to speak, around these word of mouth referrals.

Three, fans report spending more than non-fans.

According to Syncapse’s study, fans reported spending, on average, $71.84 per year more than their non-fan counterparts on the 20 brands observed.

This is just further proof that the relationship you have with your fans is key to maintain as they are directly influencing others on your behalf. Rather than taking an impassive approach to Facebook management, it is of extreme importance to actively begin and participate in the discussions customers are interested in, paying considerable attention to what your fans and others are saying and the tone used.

Your own excitement can help grow your fan base. You show excitement about your brand, which translates to your fans becoming more excited, which their friends will see and want to get in on it too. This growing fan base will recommend to others and so forth and what you will see is increasing brand loyalty which can drive an increase in sales.

“On average, Facebook fans are 28% more likely to continue using a brand than are non-fan consumers.”

With minimal effort and cost-per-person you can easily harness the power of Facebook to your company’s advantage. So get out there and build up your fan base… there are friends to be made!

Look for part two on this topic: The Nitty Gritty of that Facebook Analytics Page.

*Source: Syncapse’s report on THE VALUE OF A FACEBOOK FAN: AN EMPIRICAL REVIEW

A recent study ranked the “Digital IQ” of all 100 U.S. Senators based on their presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and the results may surprise you.

The study scores each Senator‘s online competence including his or her presence on websites, social media following and sentiment, digital marketing aptitude and search engine optimization skills. The IQ is measured by the presence on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, rating senators according to their number of followers, number of “likes,” velocity of Tweets or number of uploads.

The result? Based on this scoring system, GOP Senators have taken the lead on social media, leaving their Democrat counterparts in the dust. Though Senators up for re-election typically (and understandably) lead on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, it’s the Republicans who scored on average 5.5 points higher and have proven their social media savvy. IQ’s range from John McCain (R-AZ) who leads with the highest at 156, down to Thad Cochran (R-MI), who’s score of 52 places him last.

For example, according to the study, Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate in Nevada challenging incumbent Harry Reid, has 18,035 more Facebook followers (for a total of 29,322) and 46,515 more YouTube channel views (for a total of 196,576).

Senators scoring the highest were more aggressive users on their social network accounts- twittering more updates, uploading more YouTube videos, and actively commenting and updating their Facebook accounts and fan pages. Senators that received lower scores were noted as being sporadic social networkers- infrequently updating their accounts and pushing a lot of news at once, then going silent for a long period of time.

This social media IQ analysis relates directly to how successful PR campaigns incorporate social networking. Here at Mobility PR, we emphasize the importance of a consistent social network presence, which includes frequent attention to outlets like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others. If you’re going to use social networks, make them WORK. Updating your followers with relevant information habitually and building a strong online presence are paramount to social networking success.

And when it comes down to the debate between what political party has better social media savvy, Dean Guthrie explains that it isn’t about that anymore.

“This study underscores the reality that social media is not a toy, and that digital literacy and agility are powerful tools in today’s business and political arenas,” said Dean Guthrie. “It appears that U.S. senators are making their comprehension of the social media realm a priority and are using it as a way to engage prospective voters and mobilize grassroots efforts.”

Translation: social media isn’t just for frivolity. Both Democrats and Republicans are proving the importance (and reach) of social media.

Want to know how you can improve your social media skills? Check out these sites that map out useful tools and tips for ramping up your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts:

• The Top Ten Twitter SEO Tips:
  http://mashable.com/2009/06/25/twitter-seo-tips/
• The Twitter Survival Guide:
  http://multisocialmedia.com/?page_id=48
• 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence:
  http://mashable.com/2009/04/01/optimize-facebook-page/
• Ten Tips on Creating a Business YouTube Channel:
  http://www.bnet.com/blog/sterling-performance/ten-tips-on-creating-a-business-youtube-channel/6126
• 7 Ways to Get More Out of LinkedIn:
  http://mashable.com/2009/11/09/linkedin-tips/

Mobility PR’s own Melissa Burns was recently interviewed by PRSourceCode’s tech PR blog The Decoder, which highlights all things in tech PR, including the guys and gals that make the industry tick.

Melissa gave The Decoder insight into the tech PR world, how she achieved her professional goals working her way from account coordinator up the ranks to account director, before starting MoPR with three partners. The Decoder also revealed her pet peeves and her love for coffee (which I can safely say we share here at the Lake Oswego office).

Those starting out in PR should take specific note of Melissa’s response to the question “What is one thing that you know now that you wish you had known when you first started in PR?”

The people looking to hire you to do PR may not even know what public relations is or why they need it. This was startling to me when I first started out. In school you learn all about how to plan and execute PR programs and campaigns, but they don’t teach you how to sell the value of PR to a potential client who doesn’t know what PR is. Successfully articulating the value of a good PR program in terms that a potential client could understand was something I learned quickly and it made a big difference in my career. When I’m evaluating a potential hire for our agency I ask applicants to sell me on why a company needs PR. I’ve found that the best “PR salespersons” make the best employees because they are typically able to see the big picture; understanding not only how to do PR, but why to do it, and they understand that one size does not fit all. With this in mind they are able to make recommendations for strategies and tactics that are exactly what a specific client needs rather than what the client thinks they need.

Melissa has successfully launched numerous mobile technologies, from mobile browsers to in-flight Wi-Fi to VoIP apps, winning her recognition from the Business Marketing Association, League of American Communications Professionals, Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals and the Public Relations Society of America, among others.

Perhaps I am biased but I feel very lucky to have such an inspiring and motivated mentor.

As always, keep an eye here for more from Melissa as well as the entire MoPR team. To read Melissa’s interview on The Decoder, please click here.

The work of PR professionals is changing dramatically, driven by rapid changes in how audiences (publics) are changing their media consumption. This presentation from Pew Research does an excellent job in explaining just what these changes look like, and provides a road map for intelligent PR practitioners to adjust how they approach the strategic communications:

Mobility Public Relations prides itself on its close relationship to people within the global mobility technology community. But one member of our team has been using her PR talents to promote causes important to our local community.

Stacy, our VP of Administration is the unsung heroine of our team, managing company finances, HR, facilities and all the day-to-day business items that keep a company operating. With her Ivy League degree in English, she’s also our Grammar Sheriff, managing the editorial review team that ensures all materials we produce are well-written and free from grammatical errors and typos. But when you work closely with your colleagues in fast-paced, hardworking agency, how can you not gain PR skills through osmosis?

This week Stacy managed PR for a school activity supporting the Lake Oswego School District Foundation, an organization that raises money for teacher salaries in our local school district. As her first ever PR outing, Stacy managed the whole process completely on her own: writing the press release, writing a contributed article, pitching the media, and getting reporters to the event. The event was not only well covered, organizers also said they benefited from the exposure which helped draw attention to the event, helping to raise thousands of dollars.

The event itself was brilliantly planned and executed by a team of well managed volunteers. But we’ll let the articles about the event tell that story.

• Oregon Live
• The Lake Oswego Review has yet to post the story online, but we’ll add a scan of it asap

As the CALM Act makes its way through Congress, more and more industry leaders are chiming in on the Act and what exactly it means for cable, satellite, telecom and other providers of multi-channel video. This is a timely discussion should the CALM Act eventually become law, which is likely as it has passed the House and it’s one bill that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate can get behind without much rancor.

One industry executive in particular is tackling the issue of how video service providers can actually identify overly loud commercials embedded in their programming, which is the first step in combating them.

Mixed Signals’ Steve Liu tackles the topic in his article “Monitoring Multi-Channel Audio Loudness Issues” in the latest edition of Broadband Gear Report.

In the article he outlines the specific requirements of the CALM Act and how effective and comprehensive content monitoring can not only enable service provider to meet the conditions of the Act, but also increase the quality of the viewing experience for customers.

Because as we’ve discussed in the past, no one likes the crazy hike in the loudness of commercials. What do we want instead? An optimal viewing experience that is void of ear-blasting audio. Surely that can’t be too much to ask for, especially in a time when we have the tools we need to effectively monitor the issues and catch the offending errors.

As always, we’ll keep you updated on the current state of the CALM Act along with other industry commentary.

Stay tuned!

[This post is the first in a series of three for a blog panel comprised of marketing communications practitioners and also includes Frank Strong, Meredith Eaton and Krim Stephenson. All four of us will blog on the same topic on the same day. This first post is on the biggest lesson we learned this year for PR (and marketing).]

Exiting 2009, the public relations industry buzz is all about social media. There are literally thousands of blog posts extolling the virtues of social media use in PR. Some very highly regarded PR pundits are telling us that, because of social media, PR is dead. Still others say that social media is reinventing PR. Those that want to walk the middle line say that social media is causing PR to evolve.

I am amused by the notion that social media is causing PR to evolve, as if the practice of public relations has never previously evolved. PR as a corporate marketing function is older than the Internet, television and radio. As I recently (what’s the right word here) – confessed – to MoPR employees, when I began my career in PR more than 20 years ago, there was no email I could use to send my boss a draft document, and he did not have a mark-up or track changes capability with which to provide me edits. The process was simple: I wrote my draft, when I was satisfied I printed it out, I walked upstairs (we did have elevators back then, but call me old fashioned, I used the stairs anyway) and handed the draft to my boss. My boss then read the draft in my presence, using a red pen to mark his edits – a process he called “bleeding.” After he bled all over my draft, I would go back downstairs to my desk and fashion a rewrite and begin the process all over again.

To think that email and track changes did not play a major role in the evolution of PR is to either not understand what evolution is, or not understand that PR is always evolving. Social media is but one tool, or set of tools, that must be a part of the public relations toolkit. But it isn’t as yet the most important, and I don’t agree that it is the single most important aspect of what has changed in PR over 2009. There are still businesses that can execute a perfect PR program and never use microblogs (Twitter), social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn) or even have a blog. If social media were so important, it would be impossible to conduct campaigns without these tools. Yet at the end of 2009 it can still be done.

Consider that social media penetration lags well behind mobile usage around the world. Facebook boasts 350 million “active users” around the world. While that is certainly an impressive number, it’s only about the size of how many people use mobile phones in India. There are still more than 4 billion connected people in the world not using Facebook or other social media.

I am not about to recommend PR without a robust social media component. In fact, my recommendations are quite the opposite, and our agency has invested both time and money in building a suite of proprietary social media tools. Social media is essential, for a variety of reasons. But let’s not over-rotate too far toward a “social media killed PR” belief. Not even close.

When I look back across 2009, I see tremendous changes on the media landscape. We have witnessed more major newsroom layoffs and closures this past year than at any time in my PR career. Some publications ceased producing print editions in favor of going with an online-only approach, while others ceased producing period. Media companies that stayed alive and even thrived in 2009 produced about the same number of articles and pages per edition as they did in 2008, but did so with a much smaller regiment of reporters.

What these changes represented for the PR industry was not a push to embrace social media as, perhaps, an alternative channel to traditional media and blogs, but rather a push to embrace the fundamentals of PR. Cleverness and cute headlines cannot replace the value (or obfuscate the lack thereof) of news being pitched. Reporters that now have double, triple, quadruple or even more the amount of beats to cover as they did last year honed a new skill: find the news in less than five seconds or trash the pitch. If the pitch was good, did it come complete with additional resources? If not, move onto the next pitch (after all, there are scores of pitches in each reporter’s inbox and voicemail, daily).

These changes represented bad news for innovative start-ups that found it harder to break through in 2009. The scarcity of time reporters had to cover all their beats created a litmus test that new companies had a difficult time passing. Without major funding, customer traction, customers willing to talk publicly, other third party references in their corner, new companies stood little chance of earning the game changing coverage they might have attained in previous years. Were there standouts? Certainly. But their numbers are a drop in the bucket as compared to the massive numbers of startups that yearned for important coverage.

Those campaigns executed by MoPR in 2009 that were most successful were those that included the following elements:

• A clear understanding of the audiences that benefit from the news
• News positioned in terms of important contemporary trends impacting these audiences
• Succinct pitches where the news value was obvious to the reporter
• News with additional resource including:
• Citable data related to important trends; bonus points if the data also shows customer take-up of the product or service being pitched
• Relevant graphics and images
• Quotes from customers and industry analysts (plus their contact info)

PR is of course broader than just placing news stories, and there were many lessons we should learn from this past year of tumultuous changes. But those PR practitioners who fail to recognize the fundamental changes that took place within the media landscape, and how those changes impact the practice of PR, risk failure, even if they possess first rate social media skills.

Over the course of 2010 social media will continue to mature. I agree with those that say social media will have a pronounced impact on the evolution of PR (though I disagree that social media is alone at the core of this evolution). Social media does not yet reach everyone it needs to, and in many cases is still a few degrees removed from them. But social media does provide invaluable market research and a means to help hone a company’s product or service story.

In 2009, the biggest lesson learned was the need to get back to basics.

See what the other panelists are saying on their blogs about this topic:

• Frank Strong: Blog Panel Part I: Biggest Lesson of 2009
• Meredith Eaton: Blog Panel – Part 1: 2009’s Biggest PR Lessons Learned
• Krim Stephenson: Blog Panel: The Biggest Lesson of 2009

The next post will focus on how the biggest lessons we’ve learned in 2009 (this post) will shape 2010 and beyond. Stay tuned!

You may recall a couple of months back a blog post regarding the Cable-Tec Expo show. In particular, I discussed Mixed Signals’ demonstrations and announcements surrounding Sentry’s ability to measure the loudness of TV commercials and programs.

“As overly loud commercials have become increasingly problematic, proposed legislation is now before Congress that would require video service providers to address this pressing issue. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act would require video service providers to ensure that commercials not be any louder than the average volume of the programs they accompany.”

Yesterday good news arrived: The CALM Act has passed the House and will now go on to the Senate. Making it past the House is a huge and important step for the bill- a step that many bills never see.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, the California Democrat driving this measure, said “loud commercials are a common complaint with the Federal Communication Commission” and that “the new legislation would force the industry to comply with its own standards.” And it looks like the House agrees.

Will the bill pass the Senate? Well, if you’re not a fan of loud commercials, you had better hope so! And if it does pass? Mixed Signals’ is ready to help:

“We understand the irritation from both cable operators as well as subscribers when it comes to loud commercials interrupting an otherwise enjoyable television experience – which is why we have upgraded Sentry to help solve this frustration, especially as new legislation regarding this issue is progressing quickly, ” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “Our number one priority is to make sure cable operators have the tools they need to catch these service affecting issues, which is why Sentry’s upgrade enables operators to cost-effectively monitor their entire programming line-up in a scalable way that identifies loudness issues immediately when they occur.”

As always, we’ll keep you updated as the bill works its way through the Senate.

There Really is an App for That

Consumers know that their smartphones can do just about anything. Shopping lists, sports scores, weather, videos, Facebook… There are thousands of consumer apps. But weren’t smartphones originally intended to be business devices? The cover story of this week’s “InformationWeek” magazine is all about the business applications of smartphones, and the innovative way corporate IT departments are putting them to use. In “What Goes Mobile” Mary Hayes Weier has written one the most comprehensive looks yet at the potential mobile apps will have in various business environments, from auto sales to health care.

In a companion piece in the same edition, Peter Rysavy writes about using the Mobile Web as an alternative to developing mobile applications. This theme is one that MoPR has hit on before with our own clients, such as Bitstream, the makers of the BOLT Mobile Browser. In “The Mobile Web Imperative” Rysavy speaks directly to IT departments and the developers building tools for businesses.

It’s the Year 2010: Still No Flying Cars

We’ve entered the season where writers and publications prognosticate about the trends of the coming year. You’ll see many articles with titles such as “2010: The Year of the _____.” “PC World” magazine has an interesting article which asks the question “2010: The Year of the Table PC?” Table PCs aren’t new. They just aren’t popular. Yet. But a lot of new features, such as touch screens, are reinvigorating the category. With pictures and videos along the way, writer Ian Paul walks us through the new landscape of tablet computers and makes a compelling case for why 2010 may be for tablet PCs what 2007 was for smartphones.

A Map You Can Step Into

I know, I know, the title of this column is “Weekend Reading” not “Weekend Viewing.” But one of our favorite writers, Jon Fortt at “Fortune” magazine has a video that showcases some of the cooler developments in location based technologies. Not coupons for the coffee shop around the corner from where you’re standing, but interactive maps unlike anything you’ve yet seen. Take a look:

In Case You Missed It: Cell Phones Cause Cancer… or Do They?

Throughout 2009 there were several stories about studies that showed a link between cell phone use and cancer. Not good news for those of us who not only are power users of our mobile phones, but also work in the mobility industry. In “Mobile Enterprise” magazine, Michael D. Cole looks at the results of a study released last week, an exhaustive 30 year study conducted in Scandinavia which concludes that there is no such link between cell phone use and cancer. Wait, don’t breath a sigh of relief just yet. Read “Study Refutes Cancer-Cell Phone Connection — But Rancorous Debate Persists” and judge for yourself.

As always, we invite you to share your comments.