self.machine

It has been something that has been going on in my head for a significant amount of time and I believe that it is the right time for politicians and famous individuals to take their online reputation management as seriously as the offline one. Here, i will outline a very basic strategy that i believe will equip celebrities and politicians to strengthen their brands.

So lets start with some assumptions that will make our lives easier as the post goes on.

• Paid advertising stand-alone is not an effective way of reaching out.
• A holistic or integrated approach towards internet marketing is what will allow long-term gains.
• Like most blog posts, this is highly subjective. Feel free to improve, argue, debate any points.

So with this initial setup we can charge into how a politician X can become an online brand.

Goals

To plan for the next coming elections, which means that it has to be a sustained campaign over the next 2-3 years to make a meaningful impact.

It also has to ensure that he remains at a peak during his election times, and is able to sustain public interaction at a locality level.

Mechanisms available

We all seem to assume that social media, by default is the internet. In a country with nearly 430 million wireless connections, a strategy also needs to address the offline, but mobile populace.

So here is a list of potential ways of reaching the user using social media

• Internet – Blogs / content
• Mobile (SMS, MMS or GPRS)
• Internet – Social networks
• and many more …

The list can go on, but it is all dependant on the target audience which may be some remote district in West Bengal (India).
Why ? Why not ?

“One does not fit all”, and that is the reality. I would love to use social media to create and enhance everybody’s reputation. For an example, an MLA from a remote bihar village has no use for social media in his political career (unless of course he has national / state level ambitions).

Cosmopolitan cities like kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore have all shown that the internet may emerge as a potentially important mechanism for party propaganda as well as reputation management.

So if you guys want to have a chat with me discussing this further, do comment or email me at me@dipankar.name.

After the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai, we see all the political parties starting their games. Lets have a closer look at what they said and where they went wrong.

Manmohan Singh – A speech which lacked character, though it did not lack the objectivity. In a time of crisis when this was televised what we needed was a stong speech, not this verbal powerpoint. If i had to rate this, it would get a 5 out of 10.(should be fired)

RR Patil – Well he will always be known for calling this a minor event. Was he even thinking when he said this, to rate this is difficult … he gets a -5 out of 10.(got fired)

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/maharashtra-deputy-cm-rr-patil-resigns/79454-3.html

Shivraj Patil – I was watching his press statement 2 on 26th night, and in all honestly where are the real leaders. It was a weak and non-assuring response on his end. He gets a 2 out of 10.(got fired)

V S Achuthanandan - dogs and politicians, they are some how related. Why would you state “If it had not been (Major) Sandeep’s house, not even a dog would have glanced that way.” on national media even after understanding the pain Major Sandeep’s father is in, Insensitive and must be voted out pretty soon. For this he pretty much beats the Thackeray family (needs to be fired asap)

http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2008-12-02/487658news.html

Thackeray family – Where are you guys ? Are they among the casulties ? They have dissapeared and I do wish they are gone forever. The quality of their politics borders the unethical and its good that they actually know how to keep quiet. Due to lack of any articles i cannot rate them at all, if i could i would give them -infinity out of 10. (should be fired from active politics)

Rest of the lot – They bordered from average to inadequate, I really wished that the young guns of Indian politics would show some balls. But then wishes are for people, implementation are for people with power . Notable missing would be Rahul Gandhi, Omar Abdullah, Sachin Pilot, ….

What these guys need is to introduce more educated people in the mix and create some real value as parties. We need better press conferences (yes, critical) and good orators as leaders. I think the mic and z-class security has allowed the politicians to stay away from the masses for too long, time they talked to us man 2 man.

Its been a really long 24 hours, I have been following it all on TV or the internet (twitter to be specific). In this process I have see yet another intelligence lapse where probably 200+ people will lose their life on the final count and this will create a dent in our national image. England conveniently goes back home after not even coming close to winning their matches in cricket, a whole host of articles being published about how India will lose its “terror free” south Asia image, and finally how it affects the Delhi elections coming up.

I was watching this show where a famous personality was talking about creating a SAS like force to defend ourselves against terrorists, though he made some valid point about crisis handling we should be clear that our SAS is the NSG. They are the true super commando force chosen out of the best young men in our army, they are provided with the best equipment (Isreali tavors n stuff) in addition to tactial training. This force was created in the aftermath of Operation bluestar, 1984 and has served in a lot of secret missions in addition to the known ones (Akshardham temple 2002). So please guys, be careful when we comment about our army and commandos, they are among the best (American army come and train in Mizoram,India for urban/forest warfare).

Mumbai has taken it and over time will probably absorb the losses like we have been doing after every crisis. But this should tell us that it is time to take control of who rules and how they rules us. Our politicians have been letting us down too often, and do not seem to have the willingness to change our corrupt/opaque system. Lets vote and also get other people to make a choice which does not compromise our national security and pride.