Click Asia Summit in Mumbai, India: Social Media Edition

The first post is here. I was less impressed by sessions that were more of a product demo or a sales pitch. I'm going to take an easy shot here at the session by LinkedIn's Sandeep Suvarna that was ostensibly about "B2B social media" but was only about LinkedIn. Really, if you use LinkedIn more than casually, you know of the existence of LinkedIn's Company and Product pages. It might be more efficient for LinkedIn to make videos demonstrating these features instead? However, I did find a few things to work on, so I definitely wouldn't say this one was a waste.

Apart from LinkedIn, we also had special sessions for Facebook and Twitter. Both were conducted by Pradeep Chopra from Digital Vidya, and both focused on strategy and tactics as opposed to features. The one on Facebook, in particular, was extremely interesting, and Pradeep used several case studies to drive his points home.

Here were some of his tips for driving engagement from your Facebook fans by tweaking content:

1. Use humor.
2. Start debates.
3. Ask questions instead of making statements.
4. Break news. (That one's not easy!)
5. Crowdsource. (For example, ask for feedback on your poster: that's what Digital Vidya did.)
6. Use sensationalism.
7. Use challenges, contests or puzzles. (Digital Vidya frequently put up puzzles on their Facebook Page.)
8. Use rich media.
9. Use apps and/or FBML.
10. Be social: participate as a peer.

(And hey, if you haven't liked our Facebook Page yet, what are you waiting for?)

I also loved this session by Mahesh Murthy, who gave us 24 new rules for brands and digital marketing. Contrary to some sessions where the speakers rambled on and told barely-related anecdotes, Mahesh jumped from point to point, speaking rapidly and concisely. (Too rapidly for me, really: I couldn't take down all his points.) Here are some of my favorites: