Author Archive for Shalu Wasu

How to do a viral video

There are a bunch of iPad apps that allow for the iPad to be used as a note pad. My favourite is Penultimate! I like it but it is still far away from being able to provide a real writing experience (even with the stylus). In fact when I ‘really’ need to write and am not in the mood to show off, I go back to my trusty old paper note book.

Chatroulette taught us an important lesson: When anonymous video chat is available, most men and women who chat online tend to take off their clothes while they are chatting. It is interesting to consider what people will do with easily available video chat when it is NOT possible to hide one’s identity. Well, we are [...]

These are the top FB games in Feb! Now I know exactly what feeds to block from my wall. I hate the damm things. (unless Angry Birds decides to create a FB version)

While this is a tremendously useful service in itself there are many other benefits to be gained from running a Listening program. We at Ogilvy run many of the ‘standard’ monitoring programs for brands but we have also been innovating. Sample some of the ‘non monitoring’ Listening Programs’ that we ran recently.

How tempting is it to create a sequel of a superb social media campaign? Very. The Old Spice man is back with more videos but does not seem to be getting the interest that he garnered the last time around.

This talk was about the best approach for working with the few big influencers and the many small influencers (whose cumulative influence may be much higher!

Once upon a time there used to be three pipes. The first pipe was called marketing. One one end of marketing was the brand and on the other end was the customer. The pipe itself passed through TV channels, magazines, newspapers and other forms of traditional media. The flow was guided by advertising agencies, digital [...]

For a very long time communication agencies and the media owners/ organizations have been key for marketers looking to reach out and connect with customers – both current and potential. In the new world no one need to rely on The Straits Times and on CNN to be able to reach out to the world. [...]

All of this is about to stop very soon. Social Media is dead. Social media is/ will become such an integrated part of everything that we do that the concept of treating ‘social media’ as a separate division / department/ company will make no sense.

What’s up? What now? View more presentations from Shalu Wasu.

Most Facebook statistics look at the top countries based only on the number of users. It gets really interesting if we combine that data with penetration rates. Take a look at the first chart -  I have selected countries where 40% or more of the population uses Facebook. It is evident that the big growth [...]

The old spice campaign is a rage. Here are some of the funniest responses from the Old Spice man! Good bye message? Message for Perez! Message for Huff Post! The first one! The complete play list! Enjoy!

Should Facebook charge page admins? I i think they should. In many cases Facebook pages have become an integral part of the brand’s communication strategy and it is only fair that if the brand is benefiting, it should be ready to pay for the privilege. One could argue that Facebook still makes money of pages because of the advertising opportunity that more pages create (Admins advertise for fans and fans interaction with pages creates for advertising inventory for Facebook)

Today i met up with Aneace Haddad, the founder of Taggo. Taggo promises to bridge the gap between Facebook Fans and the cash register! A simple yet elegant solution to ‘reward’ your online fans in an offline situation. Big potential, but Taggo will need to move quickly to enjoy the first mover advantage – the [...]

I wrote on this a few days ago here I also gave a talk on the same topic as a part of the NTU – SAS breakfast talk series a few days ago! No, I cannot create a social media strategy for you! View more presentations from Shalu Wasu.

This was the title of a talk that i gave at the Internet Show last month in Singapore! Positive PR Online View more presentations from Shalu Wasu.

That’s me over the last 10 years. I wonder what’s coming in the next 10!

I have just published my first post on Asia Digital Map. This is a group blog where a bunch of people from Ogilvy post their thoughts on Social Media! Check it out here and leave a comment or two!

I am even more excited about what i am doing now! As Associate Director 360 Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, my mandate is to help companies across Asia make sense of and use Social Media to run their businesses better! I look forward to the adventure. Here is a quick update on things [...]

A very old Chinese Taoist story describes a farmer in a poor country village. He owned a horse which he used for plowing and for transportation.

Creativity has long been looked upon as an activity behind the closet. No wonder many myths have developed around the creative process. Not to be left behind, there are many myth busters out there as well!

Many people believe that creativity is inborn and only a chosen few are creative. While it is true that creativity is inborn, it is not true that only a chosen few are creative.

There are three different kinds of creative responses. Which is yours?

Myths have a way of perpetuating themselves. There are quite a few related to training and learning too. Everyone seems to believe in them. So much so that they have become sacrosanct and no one even bothers to question them.

My earlier article ‘Avoiding Death by PowerPoint’ was about the art of making interesting presentations. This one is about using easy but powerful tricks that can dramatically improve the quality of your presentations and also bring that extra oomph that is needed for any presentation to stand out. Here are some tricks that I use [...]

Our attitude towards failure gets formed very early in life. Usually in school…and it never just goes away. All through school, we perhaps take hundreds of tests, exams, assignments etc. And we are in BIG trouble if we fail even ONCE. So we are scared of failure. But real life is different. In real life [...]

      Curiosity is made up of an open mind, acute sensing abilities and an urge to seek and find. As a child, you had natural curiosity and a sense of wonder. Hungry for novelty, you were always on your toes to welcome the next moment. A curious mind enabled you to see what [...]

I sometimes get hundreds of emails a day. I used to get sucked in and spend hours sorting them out. I invariably ended up having a day when nothing seemed to be getting done. Over time, I discovered and started using these tricks and now I feel completely in control and save many hours every [...]

As you grow up and gain experience, you absorb assumptions which then drive your life and limit your choices. You can break away from them with a simple tug if you want to but you don’t. As you acquire more and more experience, your repertoire of blind assumptions grows too, correspondingly limiting your choices. Your experience becomes a hindrance in your being creative.

You’ve probably heard this left/right brain dichotomy before. It goes something like this: the left hemisphere of the brain is logical, deductive, mathematical, etc., while the right hemisphere is artistic, visual and imaginative.

I have decided to incorporate a new habit/attitude every week for the next 49 weeks. Every week, I will try to add on/inculcate a new habit or attitude. All these 49 may not be for you. Do pick up the ones that resonate with you and add some of your own too! I will of [...]

When was the last time you were stuck for an idea? It happens with everyone, but the trick is not to remain stuck for long. What if you had a magic wand and you could come up with ideas about anything at will? How would it change your life? This article lists down some of [...]

I must say that I am equally fed up of the numerous ‘rules for making presentations’ that we stumble across every few days either in a presentation or on the net. When you google ‘rules for making presentations’, you get more than 8 million results! Most of them are standard clichés that irk me no end. So I have created my own set of presentation rules. I follow my rules to the last detail and I have rarely been disappointed. I implore you, urge you and beg you to follow my rules as well.

Let us first see what stops us from making happy discoveries. We have been conditioned to see what we expect. Our preconceptions creep into whatever we come across. We don’t see things as they are but as we expect them to be.

Secondly, we force our preconceptions into whatever we do and want a task to go along predetermined lines. Too obsessed with how things should be, we don’t recognize lucky turns of events and new possibilities.

Saying no is perhaps the most important productivity tool that exists. Saying no is an art. It is also perhaps the most difficult thing to do for most people. I used to dread the occasions where I knew I will have to say no and I used to prepare for such situations for days. Now, [...]

Tickled by Life recently celebrated its first birthday. To celebrate the occasion we have created a series of marvelous ebooks for our readers. These ebooks are beautifully designed compilations of the best articles published on Tickled by Life in the last one year. We believe that these compilations of life changing articles are a must [...]

So here are 10 points about why you should stay up late and still not feel bad when you come across another article by the self-help gurus who preach getting up early in the morning!

Once upon a time, many years ago, in prehistoric times, at a time when there were no cities, no buildings and perhaps even no villages, there was a hunter. He had had a successful day and was walking through a forest back to his tribe. He had slung a deer across his shoulder with some homemade [...]

Ambiguity is not a desirable state in most situations. It typically causes communication problems and has no place in certain circumstances. For instance, an infantry commander would not want to say, “Make sure you cross one of the bridges soon or else.” This could be a prescription for disaster. Rather, the infantry commander would say, [...]

Sometimes, it is not the circumstances, but our own mind which pushes us to come up with a solution quickly. Our mind is rushed perhaps because it is lazy (or efficient!). It wants to stop working as quickly as possible or maybe because it wants to reestablish the feeling of being effective and in control [...]

Creativity means different things to different people. Here are a few popular definitions of creativity. Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties: Gail Sheehy Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun: Mary Lou Cook Creativity (or “creativeness”) is a mental process involving the generation of new [...]

Here are some of my favourite quotes on new year resoultions.

Do you have secret resolutions to share?

I have been actively making new-year resolutions for the last 3 years with very little success. It is usually regular stuff like fitness, skills, jobs, money, etc. It usually lasts for a few weeks. The longest was last year when I started jogging regularly and kept at it for a few months.

We are working on revamping TickledbyLife.com to make it more useful for all our readers. Most of the changes are based on the feedback that we continuously receive from you! (Thank You) The revamp should be complete by the second week of December and new content will start flowing again! Please bear with us. We [...]

Your favourite source of fresh tickles everyday is now one year old! Happy birthday to Tickled by Life and thank you for being a part of the growth! On this occasion a certain Mr. Panna Lal is taking over the website! Who is Panna Lal, you might ask. To find out more about Panna Lal, [...]

  Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. – George Lois The popular perception is that creativity is just for writers, artists, scientists and advertising people. Nothing could be further from the truth.   Being creative is to have fresh perceptions and experience the world [...]