Pakistani Blogs [List-2]

LUMS Review	University of Gujrat	Lahore School of Economics
Fast-NU	The Class	CHUP!
Pakspace	Abdul Qudoos	Making Money for Dummies
Fine Art of Blogging	CFA-ACA	Corporate Trainers

NOTE: Please Let me know if your blog is not in the list, so I can mention it in my next post. leave your details in the comments. Thanks

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Pakistani Blogs

Jahane Rumi	Logic is Variable	Digitally Social
Kashi	Pak Tea House	Teeth Maestro
Doodh Patti	Light Within	Dolls Village
Watandost	Pro Pakistani	All Things Pakistan
Lahore Metblogs	Thatta Kedona	Pakistani Spectator

NOTE: Please Let me know if your blog is not in the list, so I can mention it in my next post. leave your details in the comments. Thanks

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Now You can Tweet form Timbuktu

1. Everyone is now armed with a keyboard, connected to many more and can reach millions of audiences and viewers.
2. Now, your video can travel around the world on YouTube as long as you want, which can also be tagged, liked, rated, commented, shared, by numerous people (not computer).
3. Now you can bypass the established main stream media and can blog about any thing you want to, and can expose your idea to enough people and can gain more attention.
4. Now you can broadcast your very routine life activities to one another on Twitter, which may increase more chances to interact with your folks.
5. Now if you are unable to speak, you still can tweet even from Timbuktu.
6. Now you can organize things as never before.

Allow me to mention that, I am inspired by my Guru who blog at Logic is Variable.

Happy reading. Spread the word.

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Social Media for Online Marketers

Online marketers are expensively and dangerously wrong about their perception of social media. Various online marketers are considering the social media as an acquisition channel, whereas it’s a customer relationship channel. Stepping in to social media, needs you to build an online community first, than start building interaction, relationship, and trust between your online community members. Than, drive your RSS to get the attention of your tribe/community/group. It’s pretty sure, that they will take actions upon your recommendations.

TIP: [Read more about recommendation here]

This is one of the reason that online marketers quit too early rather trying too long on social media.  As for as online ads are concern, let me tell you very frankly that they are so interrupting; you can’t build a brand with it. Even the future of email marketing is quite blurring. What I can see is the “RSS” which I believe, is the next big thing.

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Significance of Social Media

Organizations are increasingly focusing on producing kick-ass content to attract and retain customers, rather than grabbing folks off the street at random. The recession is forcing revenue results out of social technologies-marketing must prove its worth to actually changing the bottom line. As we know that customer reviews are nothing new on popular eCommerce sites like eBay and Amazon, in most cases, consumers use the critiques from people they don't know. Now with connective technologies like Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, and OpenID, consumers are now being able to see reviews, experiences, and critiques from people they actually know and trust.

Tech-Savvy consumers will not tolerate poor service. They'll flip out, very publicly, using social media that will grab more attentions of their network as its a small world.

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Exercise for Social Media Addicts

If you are concerned about your health because you are spending too much time on social media sites like Facebook and Digg, here’s an exercise plan that may keep you fit.
Source 

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Why -To-How?

We are witnessing that many organizations are now taking Web 2.0 very seriously moving from “why” to “how” they should implement these new strategies and tactics to their organization for more gain, better networking, and tight communities.

Social media realizes that throwing beautifully crafted sales messages doesn’t work any more, they are convinced to interact first.

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Digitally Social

Blogging is social enough in its nature. It is all about interaction and building communities. No?

But when there is a social blog, this is more than social. Ny Mafia readers know our the focus of Ny Mafia on Social Media. Now we are branching out; We are launching Digitally Social – a social blog – to discuss social media and its excessively growing application in society.

Social media has always been important in societies. More so in this age when everything (ok almost everything) is starts online. Please visit Digitally Social and we promise you to bring an overview of this fast growing and meaningful trend there. Stay with us.

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Snapshot of "Facebook Lite"

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US Air Force Academy Joins Social Media

"I was introduced to the idea of an official (Air Force Academy) Facebook Fan Page my first week at work. My reaction was, 'Of course -- naturally we should be on Facebook. Lots of businesses and colleges are on Facebook, so why aren't we already there?" The Academy will use Facebook and other social media sites to drive traffic toward its official public Web site. (Lieutenant Kirchoff).

The U.S. Air Force Academy officially entered the social media sphere Aug. 28 with the launch of Web pages on two popular social networking sites.

In order to offer the public a convenient way to see what's going on at the Academy, the public affairs office here has created a Fan Page on Facebook and an account on twitter.

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What is Social Media? Definitions

There is no single agreed definition of the terms Social Media also known as Web 2.0, but there is widespread agreement they apply to a set of characteristics in the context of the internet and applications served over it. At its simplest, Social Media is the combination of channels, platforms, communities, content1 and tools that power the phenomenon of peer to peer communication or ‘word of mouth’. Social media is a set of tool, not a destination.

Skyrocketed development in the field of social web are pushing us towards the predominance of cloud computing, collaborative exchange, and social networking over the use of technology as just storage, multitasking, and faster ways of carrying on business as usual. These rapid changes stimulate new ways of collecting data development messages, and sharing information. Notions of expertise, control, hierarchy, acquisition of knowledge, locality, identity, privacy etc. are all in flux as social media is adopted by populations worldwide. Social media has transformed the way people consume information, and that will continue to happen. News spreads faster, trends gather pace, people connect and information is available – to all - on an unprecedented level.

“Right now, the largest single group of users on the Internet today is in Asia. Half a billion Asian users. And that’s only 14% penetration. So when they get to 70% penetration which is where we are in the US and some parts of Europe, we’re talking about a couple of billion people. That’s a very, very big customer base. It’s a very diverse customer base but the internet can reach all of them once we get to that penetration level. So this is a really exciting place to be. (Vinton Cerf, Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist, Google Inc.)”

“Humans are social beings, they like to share things, talk together and technology lets them do it on an unprecedented level. (Ken Mandel, Regional Managing Director, Yahoo! South East Asia)”

Government agencies such as British Government and Australian Federal Police are relying heavily on social media to inform public. The response is amazing; people are considering social media as an additional channel to reach out.

A wide range of social software has become readily available to young generation. There is increasing interest in possibilities of using social software for students.

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Pakistan Twitter Landscape

Pakistan Twitter landscape seem to be very innovative; oozing out with individualism and diversity. During my hunt, I have seen users announcing launch or a product and some whining ‘wish you were here with me.’

There are still some impediments, the most obvious being access to technologies, lack of purpose to reach out to the world and matters of ego and social background. What all one is willing to open to others? Tweets exchanges and email conversations with local Twitter users bloggers revealed some more reservations: People are afraid to speak up. Masteries of language, technical, or compositional skills are another set of barriers for those who do not have them. Muhammad Yaqoob, a famous Social Media advocate and a Twitter users says, "Though these days Twitter is as easy as signing in for email account and operating it yet those who are gifted with writing skills are often Web novice and those who are skilful Internet users have nothing much to say."

Read at Light Within

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A Reasonable Proxy

In past few years, variety of communication tools such as mobile phone, PDA’s (Person Digital Assistants), digital audio players-iPOD, iPhones, have been evolved as commodity items in general public lives. Parallel to this, there has been rapid development of the dynamic, interactive capacity of the web. Social media enabled users to share, tweet, assemble, disseminate, rate, comment, tag, and favorite information in all mediums. Such as text, image, sound, video, and create contents. Examples are Wikipedia (online encyclopedia) January 2001, LinkedIn (professional networking) May 2003, MySpace (social networking) August 2003, del.icio.us (social bookmarking) September 2003, Facebook (social networking) January 2004, Flickr (Image and Video Hosting) February 2004, YouTube (video sharing) February 2005, Twitter (micro-blogging) July 2006, Xing (business social networking) November 2006.

These participatory media sites and tools are designed so friendly, that doesn't require currency of skills, but essential knowledge, indeed. Users, particularly generation ‘Y’ tending to be in the front line, for integrating new devices, are shaping their lives, behaviors, attitudes, learning and approaches in line with the features of these advanced technologies. They are feeling overwhelmed and ‘digitally-social’.

This digitalized learning tool can also facilitate those learners whom are unable to take part of a classroom community, for some or even all, of the time-particularly part-time, distance and increasingly, work-based-social media may be a reasonable proxy. Due to its wider influence in our lives it’s hard to ignore Web 2.0 as an integral part of curriculum in the area of computing and media.

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Not Addicted to Twitter Yet

You are additied to Twitter when:

1. You know what at least 3 people you don't know had for breakfast.

2. You're obsessed with how many followers you have or don't have and possess a master plan for getting your numbers up.

3. You search popular news sites just to link information that makes you look smart.

4. You spend more than 2 minutes planning out the cleverness of each tweet and give yourself a hi-5 when you figure out new ways to shrink words.

5. You've got regular Twitter, tweet deck, and twitter mobile for complete uninterrupted professional tweeting.

6. You get in frequent back and forth Twitter arguments over senseless topics that you actually don't care about. This starts to enter your real life.

7. Twitter is your home page.

8. You paid the Wi-Fi fee on Virgin America so you could get extra cool points by tweeting at 36,000 feet. It's the new 5 mile high club.

9. You've already tweeted about this post.

10. You've tweeted at least 3 times before getting to #10.

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Social Media and Higher Education

Today students, learners, and scholars, are living in a digital age. Having Web 2.0 technology environment they are very much exposed to the wide range of Social Web tools and software that provide gateways to a multiplicity of interactive resources for information, entertainment and, mainly communication.

Web 1.0 was all about delivering content, primarily in the form of online courses and produced by experts, teachers or subject matter experts. While Web 2.0 is about user generated content (UGC) in a variety of formats and sharing information and knowledge using social media tools like blogs, wikis, social bookmarking and social networks within an educational or training context to help and support a new collaborative approach to learning.

"My vision of school/classroom 2.0 is, more than anything else, about conversations. Traditional schools involved teachers and textbooks delivering information to students, and students reflecting that information back. To better serve their future, today’s classrooms should facilitate teaching and learning as a conversation — two-way conversations between teachers and learners, conversations between learners and other learners, conversations among teachers, and new conversations between the classroom and the home and between the school and its community (David Warlick)."

“Social Media is a blend of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one-to-many) into dialogues (many-to-many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers (Wikipedia).”

Higher educations providers are now seriously thinking, how to adopt social media for its blended learning system. They are now starting to believe that these social media tools can be utilized to enhance the creative process by engaging students, staff, researchers, in conversation and discussions.

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Social Media Revolutionizing and Enabling

Key Players: Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Situation: Ahmadinejad claimed victory in presidential elections with more than two-thirds of the votes. However, Mousavi and other reformists claimed major voting irregularities occurred. Peaceful, then eventually violent protests occurred when hundreds of thousands Iranians took to the streets of Tehran.

Media: Due to the heavy censorship of mainstream media, citizen journalists relied on social media, such as Twitter and YouTube, to communicate the situation to both Iranians and the outside world in real time.

Time: June 13-June 29, 2009

Twitter: Millions of instant messages has triggered on twitter like ball to ball commentary updates on Iran Election.

Blogger: Thousands of posts has been published and shared supplied up to the minute information educating the world about the result of the Iranian elections

YouTube: Youtube has been utilized for uploading and broadcasting videos of major events unfolding in Iran in the days after the elections.

Flickr: Thousands of images has been uploaded, shared, tagged, rated, added to favorites, on Flicker by Iranians, capturing the riots, protests, and violence for worldwide viewers.

Summery:
“That a new information technology could be improvised for this purpose so swiftly is a sign of the times. It reveals in Iran what the Obama campaign revealed in the United States. You cannot stop people any longer. You cannot control them any longer. They
can bypass your established media; they can broadcast to one another; they can organize as never before.”
"Andrew Sullivan"

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Why I Call My Self a MAFIA?

A friend of mine asked me why do you call your self a Mafia? and I put it this way:

Definition of Mafia: Any Small Powerful or Influential group in an organization or Field. (Source Online)

People who are active in social media, are relatively smaller in number but they are creating the world that we are living in. And I am considering my self as one of the orchestrator of this virtual world.

Thus, I want to create a tightly knit group of trusted associates online through blogging and social media to make positive contribution to the society.

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Consumer Generated Media

Al most every organization having large public interface such as University, NGOs, Government, traditional media companies are working deeply to understand how to adapt and use Social Media effectively for achieving its strategic goals.

Alongside the mass community of people online, both generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’, are discovering how social media technology can perk up their lives and give them more connectivity based on their interest in the world.

In this interesting time, we should enhance the understanding of the information ecology of these new publication methods in order to make them more useful, dependable and truthful.

Social media or participatory media are primarily ‘many to many’ communications (Wikipedia). Steve Ruh and Frank Magallon from San Diego State University indicate that the Military currently is involved in studying the potential of using social media for some of its internal communication campaigns.

This consumer-generated media or user-generated media is now playing a pivotal role for companies to quickly learn about the feedback of their consumers in response to their products and services.

Various universities are now leveraging blogs and participating in Social media to facilitate alternate education models based on informal learning. Educationist are starting to believe that social media can be a great tool for its students as it give access to resources, experts and personalities. They found social media very much interactive for association with professional communities, sharing enthusiasm of common interests and for peer based social learning as well.

Students are sharing experiences with the members of ‘communities of interests’. To continue being relevant to society, university education cannot ignore this new industrial phase that accommodate mixed social realities. Also many of the benefits of institutional learning can now be accomplished via social media.

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Relationship

Google search is the typically first place online-customers go to dig about any company, product, and services. Now, if you are a company who value their customers, you need to participate in the social media, to build relationship with your customers.

New marketing is about the relationships, not the medium (Ben Grossman).

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Social Media and Traditional Media

The print media and broadcast media are no longer the primary communication modes.

More people read the article online than in the newspaper due to the online version being global, free and around forever. the dead tree version has a limited shelf life (Stephen Davies).



Newspaper circulation continues to decline rapidly (NY TIMES). Newspaper circulation falls again (Frobes).



In this Social media ('many-to-many' communications) era, various online users don’t read any mainstream media directly. They mostly prefer to go by the online recommendations, they receive from their trusted sources. Because being a member of social network people are continually updated through the news-feed of the social networks.



Social networks are popular than porn sites (TIMES).



In truth, to claim social media as “new” is slightly misleading. From the beginning, the internet was founded on message boards, chat rooms and peer to peer communication. What has changed is the mass involvement that modern social platforms inspire (Universal McCann).



Social media has enabled all of us to connect globally and removes the barrier of geography, race, culture, color and religious.

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