Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Manish Chauhan

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

JagoInvestor-Manish-Chauhan1If you have been reading about personal finance and financial planning on the internet, you probably know Manish Chauhan. Manish writes about financial planning at Jagoinvestor.com. He is one of the few people who has been writing about financial planning for a long time  and is furthering the cause of the small investor – a cause that is very close to his heart.

Manish started writing in Dec 2007. He likes to refer his area of work as Financial Planning rather than Personal Finance, because not only does he write on products and their reviews, but mostly on psychology required for successful financial planning and what a common person lacks, how he perceives any financial information and thinks about it .

According to Manish, “the biggest mistake people make is that they don’t value its importance in their Life, they don’t understand that Its extremely crucial in their life. I personally feel that by doing you Financial Planning, your success in your professional life and personal life becomes more valuable and easy because an important part of your life is taken care of and now you are free to take charge of other areas .”

While the subject that Manish writes about may be complicated, his writing itself is simple and easy to follow. This is a key element towards making Manish such a successful blogger. Here are few must reads as suggested by Manish himself:

Manish is fond of cooking, trekking and he likes to watch lots of TV sitting on his tongue shaped beanbag. After having authored hundreds of articles and answering over 20,000 queries in last 3 years, he has greatly contributed to the society. And for this, we proudly declare him as our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

More treasures from our Blogger of the Fortnight series.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Urvashi Devidayal

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Urvashi DevidayalHaving worked for a climate change organization for some time, Urvashi Devidayal has had a firsthand experience of how the world perceives this topic. According to her, while many people are starting to understand the jargon – very very few people actually are able to implement a sustainable life. Her blog, sustainability in my house, is an attempt at setting that wrong, right.

Through her blog, she tries to introduce simple concepts about sustainable living which can be implemented in daily life by everyone. Her growing up in Mumbai and her current stint in the city

makes her believe she was lucky to have seen quite an environmentally friendly, natural and a much healthier childhood. There were fewer chemicals, no plastic and fewer hormones pumped into food and yet everyone lived very happy healthy lives.

Urvashi insists that there are a number of ways to go back to the basics and learn from our families about the more natural ways of living a healthier life. She gives simple examples for the same. A case in point is “an egg and reetha used to be perfectly great to wash hair as compared to a chemical based shampoo.”

She does agree that life is more complicated today and change will be slow in coming. But she is quite convinced that the journey will lead to many discoveries, some easy to implement and some not so. And it is these discoveries that Urvashi has dedicated her blog to. Finding ways to buy the right products locally and also discovering some great family secrets to staying healthy!

Also, she has taken the pains to explain what various terms related to sustainability mean. Her endeavor is to make everyone understand the importance of the issue, not just know about it. According to her, every individual effort will lead to a mass sustainable environment. And for this noble thought, Urvashi Devidayal, is our bloggerati of the fortnight.

Click here to read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Anshul Tewari

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

ATA journalism student for life, a blogger by choice and a social entrepreneur that is how our Blogger of the Fortnight, Anshul Tewari would like to be known. Anshul founded youthkiawaaz.com in 2008 to voice his opinion about the social and political scenario in our country. Today, youthkiawaaz.com is India’s largest online platform for the youth to express themselves on issues of critical importance.

After having worked with leading national and international media houses, Anshul took blogging and social entrepreneurship to a whole new level and successfully so. He created this excellent platform for students and the youth in general to express themselves- a feat that is remarkable considering Youth Ki Awaaz has hundreds applying for internships every month.

With an editorial board of 12, executive team of 5, about 600 writers, correspondents, freelancers, student journalists from around the world, youthkiawaaz.com is today a registered media firm. Anshul also runs a research organization called Youth Research India.

Anshul has been a part of various national and international social enterprises and has been the driving force behind the cause, working on all aspects of the organization, from content and editing, to the executive aspects. This passion is reflected in the posts that come up on the blog. Hand picking every member of the team so that each of them share the same enthusiasm about the cause they are about to take on has maintained the rise of blog’s credibility.

Youth Ki Awaaz was awarded the Best Blog on Social Causes in India, and has won various other awards including the World Summit Youth Award for best practices in online journalism, by the International Center for New Media (ICNM) in 2010.

A graduate in Journalism from Delhi University, Anshul has worked with the Indian Express, The Financial Express and the Wall Street Journal India, online. He says, “Social change is not something that can happen instantly. It takes the effort of one entire generation to make sure that the next generation sees a better world.” And for putting in this effort, Anshul Tewari is our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

Click here to read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series.

Socializing with your employees: Part II

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Continuing from where we left of, we shall now see how social media platform can be used to improve the structure and efficiency of an organization.

Collaborating for Success

With help of any given platform, an organization can help teams work

      ● More effectively and efficiently

      ● Ensure teams have access to most accurate and up to date information

      ● Enable remote working

                IBM

Collaborative blog from IBM

This not only leads to better work output but also builds connection. When employees feel connected to their organization, a unified purpose and each other they will be more engagement and more efficiency. Also, this reduces the scope of internal crisis as most matters are resolved via two way communication over an informal discussion.

Social Brainstorming

Social Media is also budding ground for good ideas to be sowed and germinated. Once someone proposes an idea, others can contribute to it and over a healthy discussion, the idea can take shape. Since it’s available over a platform at any given time, the constrain of a brain storming session in a closed environment and in fixed time span is eliminated, thus, giving it a feel of an open session.

A spontaneous idea that leads to a thread of comments on a Facebook group may prove to be far more productive than spending hours inside a meeting room trying to solve a problem.

Peer Recognition

Another important aspect of using social media is recognizing and highlighting achievers and the ease with which they can be rewarded. Any individual when recognized in front of his/her peers feels special. Social Media is just the right place for an individual to be recognized by his organization in front of his friends and colleagues. This builds a sense of pride and also inculcates a healthy rivalry amongst the workers.

               People

Sharing profile of employees in internal communities can boost
confidence amongst employees

Getting Personal

Social media also gives big organizations the opportunity to show their human face. Wishing people on special occasion via a personal message can go a long way in building a lasting relationship which would prove very productive. This will hold well during a crisis. When you want that extra mile from employees, then as an organization, you also need to walk that extra mile.

Giving Voice

A social media strategy to handle employee grievances is an effective tool for online reputation management. While it may be difficult how an employee conveying their grievances in front of other employees can help, but it is better than them going public in front of external clients. Being heard is the first and almost entirely the most critical step in complaint resolution. A heard employee may equal to a satisfied employee.

Chain of communication

Social media tools such as blogs can be a great way of educating people about new products and giving detailed reviews. Bring in YouTube with video demonstrations of new products and you have an attentive employee set readily willing to understand and discuss new products. Make it innovative and your employees themselves will make it go viral thus not only giving the brand an internal viewership but also the possibility of garnering millions of eyeballs from external audience.

Blog

Sharing on internal community gives a chance for employees to interact freely irrespective to their position in the ladder

Payoffs

While it may look that bringing internal communication and HR issues on social media is a risk, with organizations having to give up on lot of control, but no policing is in fact a very good method of inculcating self control and restrain.

When people know there is someone out there to listen to them, they are less disgruntle and more constructive. They may even take the effort of using their bad experience to come up with innovative solutions to tricky problems.

This is where true employee empowerment can be achieved. This will not only help you strengthen your organization but also give you the best word of mouth publicity of them all. Employee Advocacy.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Paavani Bishnoi

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

She is a dreamer and a nature lover who is an industrial designer and into colors. She is also a Photographer, tweeter, trends spotter, toy & game designer but above all, a blogger par excellence. That is how our blogger of the fortnight, Paavani Bishnoi can be described.

A post graduate in Industrial Designer from National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad, India) and bachelors in Information Technology, Paavani is an avid blogger. Blogging since early 2003, Paavani loves exploring the unseen with camera lens and at times experimenting with edibles items in her kitchen and if there is a mood swing, she also indulges in instant poetry.

But what is amazing about her blog is that it covers a plethora of topics. Right from advertising and brands to designing and poetry. Not the one to shy away from anything, Paavani has gone on to give quite an in-depth review of technology products such as mobile phones and also written about category facts for Indian Potato chips market.

Not that people don’t write about these sectors, it is the fact that while she writes crystal clear analytic posts on such topics here travel posts are poetic and dreamy. “Spending two days at -15 degree in Finland was really freezing. But I liked Helsinki, it was warm in an unknown way.”

Paavani is the first to accept that she is not a poet by nature but more of instantaneous poet. She describes that her poems are born out of sudden connect with few words which she then weaves in to a flow and produces a master piece.

बारिशेदांज

आँसू बहूमूलय या बारिश की बूँद,कया पता
गरज कर बरसे,या चुपचाप हूए लापता।
वो बडती धङकन थी, या बिजली की कङक
दूर छूपे है इतने जहॉ ना जाती कोई सडक।
सूनहरी धूप से झाँकते रूई के गौलौं
हाथौ से ना पकङौ, नजरौ से टटलौ।

Like most bloggers, Paavani too is a clever photographer. Her images come across as true and genuine by themselves. They are like an artist’s inner most thoughts being projected to the world.

                         a-journey

It is the sheer brilliance of Paavani that her blog can narrate on so many topics with such ease and comfort that the reader feels he is being exposed to an expert’s opinion in every field that the blog touches upon. Not many can achieve this level of writing and for that Paavani Bhisnoi is our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

Get to know more of our Bloggers of the Fortnight.

Bloggerati of the Fortnight: Anuradha Goyal

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Anuradha GoyalBeing the author of one of the best blogs in the country sure sounds a cool thing. And clearly our Bloggerati of the Fortnight, Anuradha Goyal, fits the role with all her coolness. She used to be an IT professional working with global giants like Coca Cola and Infosys, but now she is working as a consultant focusing on managing the growth path and changing the DNA of an IT organization which involved change management, creation of a creative culture and bringing in a mindset of innovation.

In Anuradha’s own words “I write because I enjoy doing that. I travel because I have to and I need no reason to travel. There is this yearning to explore the world first hand that keeps me going.” She also loves to read and then write about what she has read. Her blog combines all of her three interests to form an amazing collection of articles which have generated 126,739 visitors.

And if you read the articles, you would not wonder why she has had such a success with her blog. Her writing is simple yet acts like a kaleidoscope, transporting you in to a world that the author is talking of.

“The park was a pleasant surprise with its well marked tree-lined walk ways, the rich orange Gulmohar trees, various colorful flowers peeping out from here and there and a small lake in the middle.”

She also holds your attention in each article by backing them up with great photographs, which not only help in building the image in your head but also becomes a story in itself, much like a photo blog.

                        DSC00446

Having traveled across 22 states in the country and 8 countries around the world, Anuradha Goyal knows how to describe a place with ease. In fact, all her posts has an element of comfort and easy pace to them. These are the basic elements of her writing that makes her blogs so popular and her, our Bloggerati of the Fortnight.

To read more from our Blogger of the Fortnight series, click here.

Bloggeratis of the Fortnight: Savita Pillai & Madhu Nair

Friday, July 15th, 2011

In 2009, my wife and I decided to go off on an extended trip with no definite end date. We are into our second year and not sure when we would like to stop,” says Madhu Nair, co author of the blog 10 Year Itch. Madhu and his wife, Savita Pillai, wanted to try out something they had been dreaming of for a long time, a multiyear trip through India.

So on the occasion of their tenth anniversary, Savita and Madhu quit their jobs, sold everything back in the US, and flew down to India on 14th Oct 2009 with their 4-year-old golden retriever Shayna. They wanted to experience life to the fullest and build memories that would last a lifetime. And their journey has proved to be just that.

“I’m not sure how often I will write in this blog but hope to update it with details of every little step we take towards the trip. And then once it truly happens, I hope to blog daily… hope! hope! hope!” wrote Savita in her first post.

10YearItch is a chronicle of their journey through India as they explore, dream, and (re)discover themselves. Over the years, they have visited 20 states of India. From Tamil Nadu in south to Jammu and Kashmir in north. From Meghalaya and Assam in the east to Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west, Madhu and Savita have been across this huge land.

They have fond memories from as varied locations as world heritage sites such as Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb, Churches from across Goa, Caves in Maharashtra to national parks like Kaziranga, Sunderbans, Gir and Bandhavgarh.

               India

Savita at India Gate, New Delhi

Their journey and the posts on each place they visit is now a ready reckoner for a lot of people who want to plan their visits to these places. In fact, this has helped them spin of a blog based travelers’ support group where they custom design tour itineraries based on travelers’ interests, needs and budgets.

That also means that their recommendation of places where they have stayed makes a great impact to people who take their help for planning their own journey. From guest houses in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh to National Park stays in camps and resorts, Savita and Madhu have shared their experience with smallest of details including address, contacts and a personal rating on a scale of 1 to 10.

                   Ratings

Another awesome feature about this blog is the photo journey that Savita and Madhu take us from time to time. Many would agree that a photo can say a thousand words, and many places can only be seen to experience the beauty of the place. Our travelers have tried capturing such places through the magic of photography. In fact, some of the photos can almost transport you to the location.

                Leh 1

Leh

Not many people have the courage to chase their dreams. Fewer still are willing to share their experiences of following their dreams and inviting others to experience it themselves. It takes a real desire to rediscover themselves as well as the land they are travelling that can result in something like the 10YearItch project. For showing this courage and the desire to live the life to fullest, Savita Pillai and Madhu Nair are our Bloggeratis of the Fortnight.