Cinthol Alive is Awesome – App Review

One of the things that I’ve always been very keen on and interested in working with during my tenure in the social media industry as a community evangelist has been working on application development for various clients to drive engagement towards the Facebook page and most importantly get direct access to the community and to be able to interact with them offline as well.

While there have always been various application development companies that most of the times we’ve outsourced our work to, most number of times, they have used certain custom application creators e.g. Wufoo and the types. Off late post the Facebook open graph and overall development of the ecosystem a lot of engagement has been driven through various apps… Some simple and some complex. One of the reasons having the need for the same was of course, the Facebook guidelines on contests and engagements of course. Secondly and most importantly the ability to create something of value add while giving us better opportunity to create assets ourselves.

Considering that, I thought one such application that I recently played while looking for interesting apps on the Indian Social Media ecosystem was Cinthol – Alive is Awesome.

Home Page for the Contest

Thought about giving my two cents and sharing my experience about the application and its user interface. It’s powered by SocioFi and I’ve been following them on Facebook and Twitter. Something like this in the Indian space is certainly useful especially since there’s a demand in a lot of agencies to have products of this sort and direct support for service out here, rather than depending too much on developers per se. So here’s my review.

I’ll try to give a fair bit of understanding of how easily it would fit the context and shall give a fair bit of relevance as to how it is extremely good to have an in built application builder for such applications. One of the great things about applications and contests / engagement based on these lines is the very good response it drives especially if there’s a good pull in terms of gratifications that is available to the users.

Read More on the SocioFi Blog

The Social Hour 86: Email Tweets, Pinterest Brands, EverySignal

Sharing my favorite podcasts! Must watch/listen for sure.




Amber & Sarah chat about Home Depot's curious cat mascot, EverySignal for friend updates, Hootsuite collaboration tools, Twinkie sadness, & more!

The Social Hour 85: Instagram on the Web, Secret Pinterest Boards, Foursquare's Ratings

Sharing one of my favorite Podcasts! Must watch/listen for sure.



Amber's in studio for the 1st time ever! Can we handle it? Plus, Instagram's going web, Facebook building your Friendship pages, secret Pinterest boards, & more!

The Social Hour 84: Monogram's Kristen Slowe, Sandy's Social Power

One of my favorite podcasts



Amber & Sarah chat with Monogram's Kristen Slowe about the new lifestyle app, how social shines in Sandy's wake, Facebook's new Timeline, Gmail's new style, & more!

The Social Hour 83: Unroll.me, BlackJet, Changemakrs

Sharing one of my favorite podcasts! Must Watch/Listen for sure!



Eventbrite's giving you perks! Twitter doesn't want your favorites, Yahoo buys Stamped, a tip for email overload, Uber for private jets, and more.

The Social Hour 82: Pheed, Klout Passbook, Yelp Crackdown

Sharing one of my favorite podcasts! Must Watch/Listen for sure!



Amber & Sarah chat about Pheed's future, Twistory's demise, beating social negativity, The Taploid for Facebook, & more!

The Social Hour 81: Facebook's Collections, Twitter's Vine, Bad Zagat?

Sharing one of my favorite podcasts! Must Watch/Listen for sure!

Amber & Sarah on Tweetdeck's new look, Facebook and eBay going Pinterest, smart tips for speaking socially, Tumblr scams, & more!

An Open Letter to Dominos Pizza India

Dear HEAD/s OF Domino's Pizza India,

• A Sunday afternoon, I ordered for Pizza and I live in an area which is a secure area and most often than none, your guys deliver the pizzas in say about 45 minutes, which I don't mind at all... They also clearly say that 30 minutes offer only stands valid till the gate... Not that I really care about, in fact I tell them it doesn't matter, just send me the pizza...

• Now this Sunday, the Pizza didn't come for 2 hours. Which again is not the core issue, I was wondering and probably assuming it might have been an order mismatch or order didn't go through issue as it was an online order. So out of curiosity I called in and realized that the person had left a while ago... So I waited.. After a while I get a call from the store manager, who was genuinely concerned about the delivery and the well being of his employee as he wasn't able to get through to him. I immediately figured, there might have been some problem... Maybe a flat tire, could be that he did not find his way or he might have gone to the wrong address or even the worst....an accident.

• And after a while when I called, I found out, that was the case... The delivery guy was in an accident. Who knows how and why or was it cause of the speeding as he wanted to deliver the pizza on time or was it cause of a reckless driver or some other issue. But all I knew was that he was in an accident... Must have hurt himself... Thankfully, the guy who finally delivered the pizza said that he was okay, which I presume he was telling me the truth.... Nonetheless, before I ask you my question here's some of your own History for you:

• "Starting in 1973, Domino's Pizza had a guarantee that customers would receive their pizzas within 30 minutes of placing an order, or they would receive the pizzas free. The guarantee was reduced to $3 off in the mid 1980s. In 1992, the company settled a lawsuit brought by the family of an Indiana woman who had been killed by a Domino's delivery driver, paying the family $2.8 million. In another 1993 lawsuit, brought by a woman who was injured when a Domino's delivery driver ran a red light and collided with her vehicle, the woman was awarded nearly $80 million, but accepted a payout of $15 million."

• And you still continues to offer "30 minute or Free" guarantee for orders placed in its stores situated in Malaysia, Mexico, India, Singapore and Turkey. Now I don't know what the scene is on ground in other countries, but certainly in our country the offer still holds true... Sad... very sad

• So my real question isn't this particular or similar such issues and neither is it targeted towards the store or the delivery boys and girls, who I must say are real gems in your organization... They are the ones who put two and two together, pun intended. Neither is my question about whether you guys do this to maintain an internal discipline among your employees so that your customers are happy. It's not like this is a life or death situation for the customer. But it could be for your employees and many other people involved. My fundamental question to you is 'Why would you want to risk peoples lives? Why?

• Is it cause the people and the legislation in our country is so flawed that you exploit this to your advantage?

• You don't expect me to believe that people like this guy pushes the accelerator tries to get to the delivery only cause he has high standards in your so called 'Domino's family' And they are trained well enough to protect / take care of themselves and others, just like say cops get trained or any other professional does for his job. Also don't tell me that this is an occupational hazard.

• You use The 'Dominos Family' campaign so well in your stores to show the people that you care about them and eventually might be a recruitment benefit to potential future employees.You don't expect me to believe that it's about maintaining or exceeding expectations of customers which by the way is nothing but a product of your own marketing imagination way back in the 70s only to gain you more profit. Or don't tell me it was just an accident and accidents happen... The fundamental question is why create that 'risk opportunity' especially when lives are involved, period.

• Or are the people in this country so easy to convince that a free Pizza probably costs potentially more than, say, 'a human life?'

• Is this really 'Khushiyon Ki Home Delivery?' I agree Customer is the King, so aren't your employees your 'Internal Customers'?

Disclaimer: I have never worked for Dominoes neither have I been a delivery boy or speaking on behalf of them... I'm just asking a question as a rightful and concerned customer.

Do share this if possible and see if we get a response...

Social Samosa - Built in ‘Facebook Like’ for integrated mobile apps

Continuing from my last article on Facebook’s big boost towards exploring mobile markets, this article will focus upon Built in ‘ Facebook Like ’ for integrated mobile apps. Last time I talked about one of the most recent developments at Facebook with its product on location based Mobile Ad Product. A product that will allow brands and institutions to reach out to users with real-time data showing their whereabouts. Now everyone who’s using Apple iPhones, iPads or Android devices are weary of the sensitivity Location services being turned on brings with itself.

So going along the same lines, recently Facebook announced a new built-in “Facebook Like” feature for its open graph integrated partners. Now it will allow mobile developers with third party apps to share “Likes” or their version of “Likes” from apps on mobile devices with facebook’s website.

It isn’t as complicated as it looks like. Let me try and explain that to you.

Read the rest of the article here

Social Samosa - Facebook Mobile going BIG – Location based mobile ads

In continuation with my previous articles on Facebook, one thing I’d like to explore is how Facebook is shifting its focus towards mobile. In retrospect, it certainly looks like something they should have done a long time back. Will it make a difference now? Are these moves going to help in the long term or are these just quick temporary measures to boost its current standing overall. With Google IO coming up soon, is Facebook trying all it can to ensure that it keeps up with the latest developments in Silicon Valley and offer its users a lot more all across the world, especially with its user base touching one billion soon!

In this two-part article I will focus on two important mobile products that facebook is developing.

1. Location based mobile ad product
2. Built in ‘Like’ for integrated mobile apps

Location based Mobile Ad Product

So what good is being one of the largest social network if they can’t put their money where their mouth is! With rigorous developments right from mobile acquisition to latest developments on the mobile front, facebook is certainly making sure that they go ‘All In’ on the mobile front. Especially when more than half of the 900 million users are using Facebook on a mobile device. More than 425 million active users access Facebook through mobile devices across 200 mobile operators in 60 countries.

One of such developments is Facebook’s location based Mobile Ad Product. A product that will allow brands and institutions to reach out to users with real-time data showing their whereabouts. Now everyone who’s using Apple iPhones, iPads or Android devices are weary of the sensitivity Location services being turned on brings along with itself. Some chose not to turn it on, others decide to, because they don’t mind the data being used and rest of them just simply don’t know what it’s all about and they go with the flow.

As Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions told Bloomberg “Phones can be location-specific so you can start to imagine what the product evolution might look like over time, particularly for retailers”. She is right in saying that because from a brand or a company perspective this is something great and will help reach out to the right demographics, in the right way as much as possible.

Read the rest of the article here

Social Samosa - Facebook Allows Editing Comments

Many times your friends have posted a status update on their profile/timeline. Many times you have commented on it. Many times in excitement or say thanks to the T9 dictionaries or the Swype keyboards on your phones, you have ended up with a typo when you’ve commented on the updates… How many times has this happened to you guys?

All of us have done it I’m sure A while ago facebook had already allowed you to correct the comment, if you click on the x mark when you want to delete the comment. For many it would just be having to delete the comment and type it over again.

Now, facebook allows you to directly edit your comment with an option right there when you click to delete the comment. It gives you an option to delete or edit your comment directly. Instead of the ‘x’ it is now a small pencil with the dropdown as edit or delete. Gives you a clear indication that you can go ahead and change the comment and not have to delete it.

Read the rest of the article here

Social Samosa - Facebook launches ‘Find Friends Nearby’ for Mobile

While I was talking a lot about new features being launched by Facebook for mobile, this option certainly takes the cake! Till now we’ve seen this as part of Google’s Latitude option. Imagine something like that being clubbed with one of the biggest Social Networks of the world. This was something that was certainly needed and is going to be something that people will find it useful, unless of course, you are skeptical about location and geotagging your location. Especially when you want to avoid some of your ‘friends’ !

Now we all know about apps like Foursquare and Facebook Places itself telling you locations of Friends nearby, but this feature will take this a notch up. Facebook’s Find Friends Nearby will help you find people in your vicinity, directly on your Facebook mobile app. And of course it’ll be handy when you go to meetups / tweetups etc. That is if your friends have also on turned this feature on.

You can access this new feature called “Friendshake” through this URL http://fb.com/ffn. An abbreviation of “find friends nearby”

As I’ve been observing through my previous articles on facebook, certainly another step in Facebook furthering its reach into mobile providing more services to people to connect! As is Mark Zuckerberg’s vision through Facebook, when he started off!

Read the rest of the article here

Social Samosa: Facebook Exchange – That’s the way the ‘cookie’ crumbles!

In the last article I wrote about Facebook, I talked about how Facebook is doing a lot to spruce up things at their end especially after the Facebook IPO crackdown… Even before the IPO was launched, facebook had made its intention clear about mobile platforms and of course advertising on mobile is something that they have started working on already. Its current shortfall in advertising revenue has prompted it to take further steps in that direction.

Facebook plans to introduce a new service called Facebook Exchange! It will give the option to its advertisers to bid in real time for ads on its platform. The feature will allow advertisers to reach out and target specific types of Facebook users / potential customers based on their browsing histories. This will be based on cost per 1000 viewers.

Facebook Exchange will only be allowed for conventional Facebook sidebar ads and not sponsored stories or mobile.

In the last article I wrote about Facebook, I talked about how Facebook is doing a lot to spruce up things at their end especially after the Facebook IPO crackdown… Even before the IPO was launched, facebook had made its intention clear about mobile platforms and of course advertising on mobile is something that they have started working on already. Its current shortfall in advertising revenue has prompted it to take further steps in that direction.

Facebook plans to introduce a new service called Facebook Exchange! It will give the option to its advertisers to bid in real time for ads on its platform. The feature will allow advertisers to reach out and target specific types of Facebook users / potential customers based on their browsing histories. This will be based on cost per 1000 viewers.

Facebook Exchange will only be allowed for conventional Facebook sidebar ads and not sponsored stories or mobile.

How does it work?

1. Let’s say a potential customer visits a shopping site that has tied up with a Demand side platform (a third party technology partner that will be a mediator for Facebook Exchange)
2. A cookie is captured on that page when they have shown purchase intent.
3. If the customer doesn’t make the purchase and just goes away as a non-sale or if the advertiser wants to target that user again, then typically they can contact the demand site platform and get the users anonymous user id.

Read the rest of the article here

Social Samosa: An Interview With Pinstagram Co-Creator

Just a month ago, Pinstagram was launched, a combination of the two of the amazing social media sensations on the internet. Pinterest + Instagram! As they proclaim, it certainly is a visual treat and most definitely the best way to view your Instagram photos on the web. Yes, that’s right, a complete experience of your Instagram feed on the web in Pinterest style. The beauty of Instagram photos with the elegance of Pinterest.

And, just a few days ago they also launched their iPad app. So if you haven’t already started using it on the web, we recommend you do and the ones who have an iPad, we recommend it as a ‘Must DO’ especially if you are an avid Instagram user and love Pinterest too!

So, on behalf of Social Samosa, I decided to speak to the Co-creator of Pinstagram and Managing partner at FireSnake labs, Pek Pongpaet and figure out what their plans are for this very interesting mashup product of theirs.

What is Pinstagram?

It’s a combination of Pinterest and Instagram with the best of the both interfaces. Most importantly it’ll allow you to view your instagram feed on the web and now on your iPad. Pinstagram lets you view your feed, popular photos, and more.

How did it start?

Pinstagram was created by Brandon Leonardo and me as a weekend project. We were jokingly throwing around ideas and thought a Pinterest for Instagram would be a funny concept. What would happen if you combined the two of the fastest growing, and hottest web properties?

With Pinterest and Instagram being one of the hottest properties, did you anticipate similar services already existing, as your competion?

I think there is always room for more or better. If you think you have a better idea or a different take on an idea you should do it. Just because the Ford Model T was around does that mean Ferrari, Porsche, BMW should not be making cars?

Read the rest of the interview here

Social Samosa - Social Blogging: Facebook integration for WordPress

If you thought that Facebook is doing a lot to spruce things up after the IPO, well you thought right. Besides a lot of acquisitions and announcements on the mobile front with news for developers on Facebook, it has recently announced the launch of a WordPress tool. An integration for the WordPress users that will allow users to cross post content from their WordPress blog to their Facebook Timeline or Facebook pages at the click of a button.

Social Publishing is what the developer blog states this to be. One of the most important features is that it helps WordPress publishers to easily integrate Facebook features, such as Social Publishing, mentions, tagging friends etc through this new plugin. Which would also mean hassle free update of their content directly on Facebook and since it’s originally on their WordPress blog, the whole worry of content ownership is taken care of. While there have been third party apps like Networked Blogs which gave this option or Facebook’s Note which lets you pull RSS feed of your Blog directly to your Facebook, this one’s a different ball game altogether.

The primary objective of the “ Facebook integration for WordPress ” is to help you make your content Social with just a click. What’s more, the plugin will also work on mobile. Once the content is published on your blog, it can be posted to your Facebook timeline.

Read the rest of the article here

Social Samosa - New Foursquare Design Here

Finally the long wait is over. The new foursquare design is here. All this while, we’ve been hearing the buzz especially from Foursquare who has been talking to us through their social networking platforms about the New Foursquare to be launched, and many of us have been waiting for it in anticipation. The wait is over. Yesterday evening, Foursquare rolled out it’s update.

Now checking in virtually to places has become spicier. A lot more than what it was before. Besides the look and feel, some of it’s features that it rolled out makes it more social as opposed to what it was earlier. Not only does the new look seems great design wise, but also encourages people to interact more on each other’s check in’s especially with the photographs being accompanied with their checkins. The layout and dimensions of the photos that you can upload now, gives the whole foursquare timeline an Instagram like feel, assuming a lot of people would add more photos to their checkins. But that’s not all that is there to the New Foursquare!

Profile Page

The profile page design looks neat, it features user’s pther social network urls, photo, short bio, the friends he/she has, the badges he has explored, tips he/she has left and the lists that he/she has subscribed to. All this makes profile viewing a value creating activity. Love the look and feel and the intuitiveness of it all.

Home Screen

The home screen layout itself is more appealing, even with or without photos being put up by the users, it kind of makes you want to interact with them especially with the comment and ‘heart’ sign screaming there in front of you… Again, something that is borrowed from Instagram. The experience of interactivity increases, be it with people whom you may personally know or just have been acquainted on via other social networks (read: twittter.) Certainly encourages the users to stick around for a lot longer than before.

Read the rest of the article here

Featured Image: Courtesy: nan palmero

Social Samosa - LinkedIn Passwords Hacked

LinkedIn Security Breach:

Just yesterday LinkedIn said that it was investigating a probable breach of data and some of the reports suggest that over 6.4 million passwords were stolen. Many security researches reported this breach and traced it down to a Russian hacker forum. Apparently, the hacker could crack many of the passwords using simple resources in a short period of time.

“Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords. Stay tuned for more” this was Linkedin’s first tweet on this issue.

They also blogged later on confirming the news.

Read the rest of the article here

That one day...

He got hold of that cigarette, but before he could light it... before he could light it... 

Days were rough, times were tough! He thought about the dreams he had, dreams that he would always have scattered somewhere, somewhere down his mind, down his thoughts, thoughts that gave rise to a new meaning to what he believed in. He always had a desire. Desire to make it big. It hadn't been one of the best days, weeks or even months at work until now... The rupee was crumbling, his stocks were going down... The gold funds he had earlier were no longer his... He had cashed out a month ago... A cash out for his emergency fund. Yet in his mind he had a bigger dream, a bigger dream of working hard on his commisions and getting more money with the commisions on his clients... But the days were rough and the times were tough! Things he had dreamt of, desires he had to fulfil... 

It had been one of the worst months for him. He was thinking of ways and means to get back his losses on that one day... He was holding on to the profits he had already made from some of the better portfolios that he had been meticulously tracking. He had a very good ratio when it came to success, especially in commodities... that was up until he cashed out! He always thought that this month was going to be something he would have looked for... He had a few sheets of paper at his desk, an analysis on some of the very key stocks he had close to his heart... But it wasn't something he expected to happen so soon. Crashing and burning all the way and trying to jump up and bounce back again. Bounce back again into the game! It wasn't until he realized that some of his calculations had been off... And been off so much that he didn't account for the evening that the news broke! The news of his life!!

The biggest strokeplay was yet to happen! A strokeplay that would change everything about his dreams! A strokeplay that would be the most impactful one for him and his agency... But he didn't know that up until that one day... Especially since he hadn't been trading the earlier day and was out in slumber cause of his illness... Such deep sleep that he had forgotten to put his phone onto the charger as well...

Like any other day, he woke up at 7:00 in the morning, to his tea, scanning his bed for his pair of spectacles and grabbing the cup close to him while quickly opening the door and picking up his copies of The Economic Times, Mint and a couple of other newspapers... quickly scathing through the headlines he went to that page, the page he always checked first. Yes, he was tech savy and had that app on his iPhone. An app for all that he could get those details of the stock market just like in the newspaper... 

But he always liked the newspapers better... For he liked to stay in touch with his roots. Reminded him of the days when he smashed the keyboards in disgust, in disgust when some last minute number crunchings at the closing hours didn't go through, some deals that didn't go through at the last moment, some tradings that were left to the afterhours market... Volume game, NIFTY, PUT, CALL, some targets that had to be met on the same day.... But nothing was as lifechanging as that one day...

By the time he woke up in the morning, he read the news... and he instantly realized what he had done... In a moment there was a flurry of emotions... He quickly started to search for something... He couldn't imagine that this was happening to him. He was totally at a loss of expression and a loss of words and just kept staring at that one headline in the newspaper... Cause that was the one that changed everything about his life and he knew it...

And it happened on that one day... Slightly his expressions changed, from the heaviness that he had for the past days, in fact for months... it all changed as he looked at the sun shine across the horizon across his balcony window... That was the strokeplay that was about to happen, a stroke of genius or a stroke of luck... Things had changed forever for him... All because of that one trade he didn't make the earlier day, and that one that one day... That was the one huge chunk of stock that soared like an eagle! An eagle that took flight into the sky... This was that one big break he was always looking for... He could feel his heart pounding with a lot of adrenaline rush... He could feel that happiness that he always dreamt of!  Slowly he eased the frown off his forehead and reached into his pocket to find his smokes...

He quickly got hold of that cigarette, but before he could light it... before he could light it...  

Punch That Shit Outta me...

Work's going to be tough, but tough's never the answer... Answer's always in the liberation...”

All this while he had always punched hard, punched as hard as he could.

“One day... One Day...” swinging away he always told himself this...

It had been over a year he threw a punch in the ring... In front of a huge audience as this... A punch without which there was no answer... He had been fighting too hard. Too hard against the snort, too damn hard against the dope... But he knew it wasn't over. It's now or never. He'd puked his life down the drain all this while... But after all the blow, he had tried hard, hard to see himself out here... One last time...

It was time he pulled it together and went out in the ring. Fought like the tiger that he was known as. There wasn't any other way... Not going down, not going down on anyone else's terms, as he'd say.

He had trained hard, he had punched the shit out of the sack, he'd thrown blows that he couldn't possibly ever throw... The hardest ever... Never ever had he looked at his face in the mirror until now... Detesting the time that had gone by and that his sorry ass never came through in the time he whiled away in the darkness of the imperceptible faucets of his crooked little molten pot of a brain.

That was all he had to do... It was the last day of his career, maybe the last match ever.. But that wasn't just the end of it all...

It wasn't until the 6th Round... Wasn't until then he realized, what had happened... There wasn't even a hook that came his way... Cause he had knocked the jesus out of his opponent by the time..

Yet he slipped... like a dog on the porch... sudden seizure... A moment of darkness and it was all over... Slowly as it would seem to the overdosed mind, a figment of his imagination was staring at his soul, numbing him as the last breath passed out of his body without an ache.. Aches that the body was used to for decades...

The last punch... The last punch he spewed his rage against an opponent he had fought all this time... With a grin on his face he told life... 'Punch that shit out of me... Bitch!' Punch that shit out of me...

One Day... One Day indeed...

Social Samosa - Facebook File Sharing

With cloud computing being the future of technology, why should Facebook not be part of it?

Off late we've seen numerous companies get into the cloud storage game and file sharing online has become a fad altogether. Besides that, Facebook is rolling out new features often. We saw the timeline coming in, the trending articles, the Facebook App Center and all of this helping it turn into a massive and better platform. And the timing couldn't just be perfect! (read IPO). Facebook acquired drop.io back in 2010. The acquisition result is now out, All groups will now be getting file sharing capability. More than 380 million people use Facebook Groups. Sharing files is evidently one of the most common requests from groups users. So what better than to be able to do that now.

Read the rest of the article here

Social Samosa - How Indian Fashion labels and stores are using Facebook Pages

Everyone is abuzz, talking about the Lakme Fashion Week that happened over the weekend. Since it is closing in on the 6th of March we decided to take a look at some not very big, yet quite interesting Indian Fashion labels and stores on Facebook and how interestingly are they using Facebook pagesto their advantage. While it’s the easiest medium for most designer labels to reach out to their audiences and fans, it’s also important that they keep their users engaged.

1. Anita Dongre

While everyone knows her as a fashion biggie, many follow her on Facebook as well. With about 14000 fans she has certainly kept her audience engaging by giving them tit bits of her fashion, photos and videos before anyone else. Not a lot of engagement in terms of any freebies or giveaways, but certainly keeps her fans engaged by letting them know what’s happening around the brand. Besides that, they certainly need to talk a lot more besides just showcasing their brand.

2. Ritu Kumar

Now this one, albeit a simple one, has at least got a landing page to welcome it’s fans. Even as we speak about Timeline launched for brands and the landing pages becoming obsolete, till that happens, they have something to add to the aesthetic value of the page. Even though there are less than 1000 fans on this page, they are always updated and have certainly showcased some of their collections. Again, they need a better content strategy as everything cannot be just about the brand.

Read the rest of the article here