Shikhandi And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You-The Beginning

So, I’m finally done with the Shiva Trilogy. Much to my surprise, the third sequel “The Oath Of The Vayuputras” did not match up to my expectations. Even though, it had a few surprises, but to a large extent failed me as an avid reader. Don’t worry, I am not here to give you spoiler alerts (not that are any), but want the current readers to decipher the ending on their own.

A new addition to my collection is author Devdutt Pattanaik’s “Shikhandi And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You”. While going through the jist of the material, I got to know that it’s about queerness. The author has cited examples from the Indian mythology and has explained that how something that is frowned upon in our society now, has been in the pages of our history since ages.

Just a few pages old, I have already started liking his writing style. He has beautifully & very intelligently portrayed the importance of desire, lust & fear. He has kept his thoughts straight, to the point & with minimalistic use of ‘jargon’.

Just waiting to read all the stories that have been ‘forgotten’ with time and hopefully this book would be one of my best investments.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT?

Every morning I wake up, get dressed and look at myself in the mirror. Somehow behind all the confidence I possess, I still see a little bit of fear in my eyes. Fear of being a victim of something brutal and ravaging incident that could shake my innermost senses. And then I ask myself a question, “Why should it be so difficult for me, for women to step out”?

I just finished watching an episode of a TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ and I must confess that it really stirred me to the core. The cases that came and the way they were handled by the Indian government just made me feel so unwanted and uncared as a citizen. The statistics that were highlighted in the show about the rape cases were startling. But what took me by not surprise rather shock were the numbers of the pending ones. I mean is it so hard to get justice in this country. I wouldn’t compare my country with any other as I do not know about the judiciary system there, and moreover I am not interested in getting to know about their process. I care about where I am and where my future family is going to be.

Nirbhaya’s case got justice after outrageous reactions by the public from every nook and corner. But then every second day there is some or the other similar incident happening in and around us. “The latest estimates suggest that a new case of rape is reported every 22 minutes in India.”(Source-wikipedia). While I was doing a little research on this atrocious crime that breaks a woman, I came across a statement in wikipedia itself that says: “Marital rape is not a criminal offence.” I was so confused that I went further on with my research and I see this:

“Treated as a form of noncriminal domestic violence – India”

followed by two other countries which is useful to be mentioned here. After providing an established and a clear cut definition of rape, marital rape is declared as a noncriminal domestic violence. It makes me feel sad by seeing at the state of the country and the law that is so blindfolded towards such despicable issues. 

Why do we as humans need something as inhumane & scurrilous as Nirbhaya’s case to fight our battles? I am glad that TV shows are now starting to contribute in a true sense towards the betterment of society in getting these mayhems into the spotlight. But the question why do we need someone to push us time and again? Why to care of what society will think? Has society been supportive towards the victim? Then why bother to give a second thought to fight for what is right?

A woman is the one who gives birth to a man. If she can give birth, she can destroy as well. I have heard this a lot of times at a lot of places by a lot of people but now it truly makes sense. Until we unite as one, nothing will change and for that to happen each one would have to change their perspective towards this beastly crime which is even worse than terrorism.

Open your minds to a new world where we can breathe in peace as there is no perfect time to fight a crime for it’s NOW.

Strategizing for Content Marketing

In today’s competitive world, every brand needs to establish a unique approach to build their brand’s image in the audience’s mind. It is indeed a tedious task to present appropriate content when it comes to digital marketing and branding. The structure and design of your content needs to match the expectation of the probable buyers that also meets the current market demands.  The focus has shifted from ‘traditional’ online advertising to content marketing in order to generate more leads. While strategizing for social media content, the most common question that is raised is, “How do I know what type of content will resonate with my audience”?

Understanding what your customers like and crafting engaging content on the basis of the existing successful strategies will help businesses generate better ROI. Let’s take a look at some stats in terms of content creation and the challenges that marketers meet while planning their strategy:

1.       18% of marketers confirmed that developing quality content was their top priority in 2013.

2.       11% of marketers say their top challenge in 2013 is targeting content for an international audience.

3.       10% of companies have a dedicated marketer for content creation.

These statistics were from 86 Revealing Charts From the 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report. Content marketing is arguably the most critical piece of an inbound marketing strategy, however, with an estimation of 60% businesses implementing some or the other form of inbound marketing, we are sure to see an explosive growth in the way companies ‘market’ themselves. One of the key things that a content developer should keep in mind while designing content for a website is that it should focus on optimizing the user experience. It just doesn’t involve how cool, neat or beautiful it looks, but how easily can users find what they want. 

The ‘KISS’ factor in content marketing has become outdated when it comes to content marketing. Though the audience is looking for a crisp material to read about but they also want it to be informative. According to an article titled ‘How to Build a Kickass Content Strategy’ on audiencebloom.com - “Throughout discussions and analytics of long-form content and readability, long-form has stood the test of time. Two things are clear: people do read and convert better with long-form content and Google loves it (if it’s really valuable, smart, and high quality)”.  The audience hooks on to the content for a prolonged period of time if they find it worthwhile and of supreme quality.

Due to cut-throat competition in the marketing scenario, plagiarism happens on a wide basis. Companies need to watch out the key players who have been designing and sharing your ideas almost in the same manner as you do. Identifying them will trigger you to change your marketing strategies enabling you to build a higher position among your competitors.

Your businesses’ success and failure depends majorly on how you present your values in the form of a well composed content. Marketers need to get a clear understanding that the content they showcase on their website is not only viewed or read by their audience but is also observed prudently by their competitors. They will tend to build their content basing on what you have provided to your receivers. There should be no room for any loopholes that will make your contenders bring more brand value and brand visibility for their business. Confining yourself to one particular strategy will not prove to be beneficial. It will become too stereotypical and will be easier to predict our long term plans and approach. Timely alterations will help the business to grow financially as well as increase brand awareness yielding in more brand loyalty from customers.

There are no hard and fast rules in order to implement the ‘perfect selling’ content but it just needs to get highlighted in the right way on the right platform.

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing can be defined as a series of tactics and processes designed to build relationships with prospects and customers, even when they aren’t actively looking to buy. Top performing companies implement lead nurturing tactics to set various benchmarks in order to achieve best practices.

The top three challenges that companies face in terms of lead nurturing are:

1.       Developing nurture marketing content

2.       Quality of customer data

3.       Measuring return on investment

Nurture marketing is about using value-added content to build relationships and earn a reputation for your brand as a trusted adviser in the purchase cycle. Creating marketing content in this competitive era could be tricky for businesses. It should be designed in a way that it matches to the emerging trends and yet is not explosive, as it could lead to a hyper-competitive environment. Recent studies show that marketers are seeing diminishing returns from marketing tactics like mass email campaigns. Top performers who embrace lead nurturing excel in market-share growth, revenue growth and customer satisfaction because prospects disregard generic broadcasting marketing communications. Multiple factors like trigger marketing, lead scoring, content marketing, multi-channel engagement, and the use of multiple lead nurturing campaign leverage top companies to maximize ROI.

Use of Lead Nurturing consists of the following:

1.       Value added content that is engaging, captivating along the entire spectrum of the lead lifecycle: from lead to prospect to customer.

2.       Multi-channel communications that will describe your target audience.

3.       Drip-marketing & trigger marketing tactics. With drip marketing, marketers pre-configure the time intervals between communications with prospects.

4.       Lead scoring. Lead scoring is an automated way of aggregating prospect behavior to qualify and determine the propensity to buy.

Since, the buyers have become more informed, it affects their buying decisions. Depending on the organization’s objectives, different nurture marketing tactics can be configured to address different stages of buying cycle.

1.       Revenue from unknown prospects (Leads)

2.       Revenue from known prospects who chose not to buy in the past (Prospects)

3.       Revenue from customers through cross-selling and up-selling (Customers)

Marketing Metrics for Lead Nurturing

1.       Click-through Rate: Click-through rates are a measure of engagement in digital media on the website, email campaigns, landing pages, etc. This is a great way to ascertain how effective different lead nurturing messages are at engaging the right target audience.

2.       Lead Score: Lead scoring assigns numeric scores to prospects based on behavior, activity and profile attributes providing a clear picture to the B2B marketers about the prospects that have a higher propensity to buy.

3.       Conversion Rate: This is used to measure tangible revenue like the engagement and the number of times an asset was downloaded or even a possible visit on a critical webpage.

4.       Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): A metric used to measure a prospect’s propensity to purchase. MQL ensures that marketers are educating and qualifying leads before they are passed to sales.

5.       Campaign Attribution: Campaign attribution tells marketers which campaigns are sourcing qualified leads and the number of leads generated.

According to Gleanster, lead nurturing delivers 4x higher engagement with prospects who are not ready to buy in the short term but still represent viable prospects. That means with the same spend and the same lead volume, your organization could quadruple revenue by plugging the holes in the pipeline with lead nurturing.

Building brands through social recruiting

In a social sphere, word of mouth plays a very significant role. It is necessary that organizations use the social media forum in a very cautious manner. What you publish is what is perceived by your audience. Keeping in mind the demographics of your target groups will make it a little easier to filter the content that will generate more engagement triggering maximum leads for your website. 

Social recruiting is undoubtedly the next-gen recruitment method and is adopted by top companies for not just hiring but also to establish their brand’s identity. Brand is nothing but the impression that you create from your social media presence across the platform.  Based on the current information that you provide about your organization, people form certain opinions and attitudes towards your brand. In order to get that perfect candidate for your company, the portrayal of your business also needs to be enticing enough that will attract the best talent.

A well designed and an appropriately composed branding message increases your brand value in the field of recruitment marketing. "It really has the opportunity to change everything it touches," LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner told Smart Business about social media. "This goes way beyond brand building and customer outreach, which is how many organizations are using social media at a basic level. Leveraging social platforms is going to fundamentally change the way we work and how business gets done. It's going to really revolutionize and disrupt all of it."

Publishing materials on various social media platforms about the upcoming and the emerging trends with respect to your company’s profile provides a better visibility to your brand. The information should not just be relevant, but also should be showcased in a captivating way that will impart a greater picture of your organization.

Talented job seekers visit a company’s page not just to apply for a post but also to assess the company’s profile, stories and organizational messaging. They look for testimonials from the current employees so they get a better idea as to where they are stepping into. Your page talks about the culture you impart at your workplace. It is important that you make the potential applicants see what’s in store for them and how will it impact their professional lives positively. They also need to know how their contribution will help in organizational growth resulting in a better brand positioning.

"Company profiles not only represent who you are and your company's identity, but they enable you to build your talent brands, establish the way in which you're going to recruit and how you recruit, and build word-of-mouth around your products and services," said Weiner. "So identity is an absolute cornerstone." It’s a simple logic that people are very brand conscious. If the recruits develop a sense of optimism towards your strategies, they are more likely to become a part of your organization. Thus, everything boils down to building a brand for your business and creating a unique identity that sets you apart from all the other competitive brands existing in the industry.

When you are posting an opening in your social media page, ensure that you make it more personalized, Eg: Sending out a thank-you message as soon as the applicant submits the form. This emphasizes on the fact that you value their contribution and that people come first when compared to work.

Maximum utilization of social media strengthens your company not only by giving you the best of recruits but also leaves an indelible brand image in your target group’s minds.

A Silent Conversation

I always prefer travelling by the window seat, be it any mode of transport. The reason being that I love to see what all unseen and ignored incidents are happening in and around me. So, my travel from my workplace to my home yesterday was an interesting and a thought provoking one. I say that it was thought provoking because it made me write a blog about it.

The episode happened when the bus was at a halt at Yeshwantpur bus depot. The depot was like the usual crowded bus stands. Passengers busy boarding and de-boarding the buses, taking care of their belongings to escape from the hands of pick-pocketers, conductors blowing whistles at the loudest volume possible. The honks of the buses are an add-on to the chaos and commotion at the location.

In between all this bedlam, my eyes caught a glimpse of two individuals who were sitting by a tea stall with a cup of tea and a sandwich in their hand. It seemed that none of the noise there made any difference to them nor did it act as an impediment in their conversation. The two of them faced the challenge of being mute and unable to hear. For some this might be a disorder but at that particular moment I could just think of it as a ‘blessing in disguise’.

I know it comes as a shock to you but I have reasons as to why this thought triggered in my head. I wake up in the morning with all positive thoughts and step out of my house packed with energy and enthusiasm. Not even two steps I take and I can hear people screaming and yelling at each other for the most illogical things. I hear news about rapes, murders, deteriorating economy and all the possible information that could put anyone down.

Coming back to the differently challenged folks, they obviously expressed each other using their sign language. Suddenly, they zoned me out completely from the hubbub and made me only concentrate on their beautiful wordless conversation. It looked so intense for a few minutes that I was there that it made me feel less privileged to not be able to gain more knowledge about their intense discussion. I kept thinking about them throughout my journey, how different their world is. A peaceful atmosphere where they can hear their inner voice. It taught me to get a different perspective towards life and towards the differently abled individuals.

Let’s all say- “I CARE”

“I don’t feel sorry for you, I feel sorry for myself, for I didn’t help you chase your dreams before.” I said these lines to myself every night during my internship with CRY. I would think about the innocent faces I saw in the rural areas of Delhi during my field work.

I don’t feel sorry for them because they all seemed to be so happy and content in their small little world, but I feel sorry for myself because I made the mistake of being so unaware of the situation and enjoying myself, while the little kids there were unable to enjoy their childhood in real sense. Facing the most unreal hardships even before they could get hold of themselves is so disheartening.

Every child has the right to know how to spell APPLE or how to sing Twinkle Twinkle and also that 2+2=4 and not 5. We all think that we can only help them by making donations or getting associated with some or the other NGO. We have this thought running in our minds that only people who always have their pockets full can get the little ones’ shattered dreams put together again. But, I realised that apart from just donations and associations with NGO, there is so much more “WE” can do. It is just a matter of self-realisation and commitment that will help us help them.

Nothing can beat a selfless and an unconditional help. Imagine yourself in a condition of extreme poverty and negligence and how would you feel if society doesn’t consider you as one among many others living there. Doing something extraordinarily great is what is expected from any of us. Just a mere “I am there for you” attitude will make such a huge difference to the less fortunate ones.

We can just start to make a change from our own house. Say if we have a maid or a servant who is less than 14 years, we can help them by making them learn the Basic English words and Math problems and tell them how important education is in one’s life. Work is not meant for them to do right now. It might sound a bit bizarre doing something like this, but, I have tried this and trust me it does feel great to have made a change at least in one life.

Another possible and the most appropriate way is to take the child whose rights you think are being violated to any of the nearest child rights NGOs and tell them the situation. It is not necessary that you have to be an acquaintance to that NGO, but you can always take their help for any kind of constructive action.

Just think of 10 people doing this for a child everyday and the amount of changes that it will bring about in society.  Not everyone in the society has the drive to be “The Change maker”, it is just the inner voice that calls out to you to do something for the ones who are just like us. The only difference is that they do not get to enjoy the same things like we do. So come, let us all join hands together and prove that passion is the only thing required to give the deserving ones wings to fly high.