BISE COMMUNITY

With millions of people connecting through social media, advertisers and marketers are hustling to get in on the action. In the past year we’ve seen many companies and brands attempt to step into this new world only to fail miserably. After analyzing many marketing flops on Twitter, the underlying issues are very apparent.

To be an effective marketer on Twitter you must first stop thinking like one.

Marketing on Twitter requires a bit of a shift in your mindset. Twitter is all about simple conversations; you can’t use press releases, marketing copy and other one-way communication tactics and expect results. Customers want interaction—with you and with each other. Tweeting is one-to-one, with the benefit of being in a public space where other customers may overhear your conversation and interact with each other on your behalf.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

online advertising trends 2010

Millions of new pages of content are being created every day and the vast majority is created by the individual publisher, but the advertising inventory is growing at massive multiples to the actual demand. With this, publishers will need to find new ways to be found and advertisers will need to find innovative ways to get in front of this micro created content. Here are some online advertising trends for 2010.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

After reading the 500 most influential Muslims list, I began thinking of the people who have had the most influence on my understanding and practice of Islam. I have been searching for the true understanding of Islam since the age of sixteen and since that time, many people have influenced me in different ways. I began to realize that nobody is perfect and you will find things you disagree with in everybody you meet so instead of looking for the perfect scholar, I started taking the best from everyone.

So here are my Top Ten people who influenced my understanding and practice of Islam, note that I do not agree with everything each of them says or believes but I can not deny the positive influence they have had on my life:

[Read the rest of this entry...]

“Mulk khud hi chalta rehay ga” (approximate translation: the country doesn’t need our contribution to thrive) is a sentence many Pakistanis are prone to saying. I confess that till a few years ago, I myself was confident of this misleading notion. Misleading and dangerous – especially in today’s volatile climate. As Pakistanis, it is imperative that we come to terms with the fact that no heavenly Manna will alleviate our country’s plight. The job rests squarely on our own shoulders; with the destiny of a whole nation tethered to our will and to the execution of that will. And so as the clock ticks and the prophets of doom raise a foreboding murmur from East to West, it is high time for us to learn some crucial lessons. Lessons without which our collective slumber will only deepen:

1) Extremism always overcomes moderation.  History is fraught with examples of moderate majorities ruled and controlled by extremist minorities. Therefore unless we are extreme in our moderation, our endeavor – any endeavor – is doomed to be highjacked by powers which know more meticulous passion. From the radicalized Islamic cleric who preaches bigotry and hatred to the Neoconservative-backed Christian televangelist who sermonizes the urgency of preparing for an ethnic genocide pithily called Armageddon, we today live in an increasingly polarized world. And since Pakistan exists on the very fault-lines of this burgeoning conflict, our problems are exacerbated. Regardless of what stance we take or which side we pick, our country will remain on the receiving end for the foreseeable future. And regardless of how hastily we disregard conspiracy theories, the extreme forces on all sides will continue to augment their belief systems with hybrid religiopolitical prophecies. Prophecies which have a way of snowballing into self-fulfilment. Therefore it is critical that we take our moderate stance to be more of a proactive doctrine rather than apolitical aloofness. Our very existence depends on it.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

January:
“Why would she leave it to me if she didn’t think I was fit enough?”

President Asif Ali Zardari in an interview with journalist Christina Lamb on Benazir Bhutto bequeathing control of the PPP to him in a controversial 17-page will.

February:

“It’s not a judicial decision, it’s an edict….It amounts to stabbing me in the back.”

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif alleging that the Supreme Court’s decision to make him and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of Punjab, ineligible to contest elections or hold public offices was ordered directly by President Zardari.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

 Advertising:
A very important phenomenon in the Pakistani electronic media, where little, irritating films about fairness creams and mobile phone connections become the lifeline of big, irritating seths running really irritating TV channels. Also, the constant source of that wonderfully poignant line, ‘choti si break,’ which, however, may last as long as a military dictatorship in Pakistan.

Asif Ali Zardari:
A custom-made punching bag with prominent teeth for talk show hosts to practice their jihadi judo chops and passionate, ‘anti-corruption’ missionary positions on.

[Read the rest of this entry...]