So.cl Experiment

Creating a buzz around the social media sphere is Microsoft's new social media website So.cl. And guess what it is NOT a competitor of Facebook or Google+.  So, what is it? So.cl right now, is looking like a marriage of Pinterest with bing.

People can search for things and post them on their timeline or page. It's more like selecting certain result from a search engine and putting it for people to read or comment on it.

So.cl’s another feature is its “video parties” option, which allows members to create a slideshow of videos instead of still images. The video plays in a sequential order, and allows party-watchers to add videos of interest to the mix and make discussions in the chat window.

Microsoft through So.cl is trying to attract the young and intelligent minds. So.cl will help students to accumulate all of the relevant websites and search results they find which can later be used for project works.

So.cl is a clever tool for Microsoft - having all of these people searching through your search engine and pulling together bundles of relevant content. Clever, isn't it?


Here are the snapshots of my So.cl page :

The question is whether So.cl will be able to do what Google is trying to do for years now- provide smarter and relevant data by reducing clutter- cleaner social signals from your search.
Wait and watch!

For more information click here.

Pinterest- Generating Interest!

Pinterest is another example of ever altering social media. From past few days people around the web are predicting Pinterest as the social media site to watch in 2012. Foreign brands have already started using Pinterest and amassing tens and thousands of followers though Indian companies are still to make their presence felt.

A quick overview of what Pinterest is all about. It is a pinboard-styled social photo sharing website. The service allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections. The site's mission statement is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting."
Apart from doing the standard stuff of 'like' and 're-pin', Pinterest allow users to follow individual boards which saves you from following the user and everything else they pin which is a unique feature of the site.

Now, how Pinterest can help companies/Individuals and their Product?

1) After creating an account (Pinterest is an invite only network so make sure you get yourself invited here ), decide how you want to display your product. For example if flipkart wants to pitch its pens and diaries, it can create a board with a catchy headline to display the collection of pens and diaries.

2) With a feature like 'add a pin' people who would click on your images, will land up on your site and can make purchases.

3) Another important feature of Pinterest is it allows you to integrate your pinterest account to your Facebook page so you can connect your fanpage which will help in better presentation of your products to your fans.

4) It helps in understanding customer perception about your brand and products. Pinterest can give you an insight into that by simply taking a look at the name of the boards that users have pinned content from your web site. 

5) An interesting fact about Pinterest according to Google is that women make up a whopping 82% of Pinterest’s audience with 70% of them are under the age of 45. As in today's age the phrase "customer is the king" has evolved to "customer is the Queen" that makes Pinterest the right place to pitch your product.

6) Lastly, Pinterest is one of the best option for branding your product because of its VISUAL nature.

Decision lies with you- "To Pin or not to Pin"