Following is a table of the sites and percentage of users that consider them valuable in the years 2011 and 2010 respectively according to The S-Net.

While Facebook may be ranking no. 1 in the list of most popular sites, brands and companies feel other social networking platforms such as Twitter are ideal when it comes to customer feedback and reviews pertaining to their products or services.

Sites like LinkedIn and Twitter prove to be a constructive platform for discussions and sharing information about brands, products, prices and purchasing habits. Users tends to look to peers, groups and friends in order to give or receive advice on any transaction. Comments play a vital role here as it proves to be influential in the buying or selling habits of people.

Most common topics of discussion – Education, Entertainment, Sports, Restaurants, Electronics.

Advice sought for – Electronics, Financial Services, Health Care Services, Home/ Office Appliances, Travel.

According to the survey, 52% believe public opinion is influential in business decisions by a company or a brand. 51% believe social networking platforms are ideal for brands to communicate and interact with each other as well as users.

The survey was conducted on about 2,997 participants which included 53% and 47% males and females respectively who access social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and YouTube on a frequent basis.

Do not miss our exclusive analysis of the websites belonging to the 10 teams’ in IPL 2011. Catch it only on DigiMouth – http://www.digimouth.com/articles-analysis/ipl.html

The device, soon to be launched by RIM is comparatively smaller than the pioneering iPad and lighter in your hands too. The OS is the same that’s flagged by the mother-ship RIM and the processor planted within is identified to be a 1GHz dual core. The touch screen stretches to a 7 inch dimension. The tablet also boasts of 2 cameras: a 5MP on the flipside and a 3MP front camera. Let’s have a quick relay of the other features in the offing:

•    1 GB Ram
•    Micro-HDMI ports
•    Bluetooth 2.1+  EDR
•    Wifi
•    Video capture & Video Conference
•    A Storage capacity of 16GB and 32 GB
•    Multitouch capacitive display
•    Supports OpenGL, POSIX, HTML5, Flash and Adobe AIR

Not bad, huh?
The Playbook is expected to hit markets early next year. So as far as performance is concerned, we’ll have to wait a little longer. With the Dell Streak having just stepped onto the rink and not to mention Apple itself looking at reinventing the iPad sometime next year, we can’t help but wonder what the playbook is destined for. Let’s see how big a chunk of market share Blackberry can claim in 2011.

Consider the recent figures:iPad shows a 76% month over month market share in August while the smartphones running on both Google Android and other OS systems maintains their plateau. The frequency of Apple’s iOS usage amounts to double of that of the Google Android OS. It also manages to dominate the Millennial Medial Ad impression numbers in U.S.

Among popular mobile phones in demand, Apple resurfaces as the market conqueror. The iPhone i.e. embodies a mind-boggling figure of 55% of the smartphone ads beating Android at a mere 19.  By the time the year sees an end, Apple is expected to pull in larger numbers. Considering that it’s venture into iPhone – iPad promotion is a tale that’s hardly a few months old, calling it a tremendous feat would be an understatement of sorts.

And if that was not enough, Apple apparently isn’t satisfied by its line of success. That makes for one thirsty apple.

Is it sparing anything at all for its fellow competitors? None for miles. After all Apple takes the cake and eats it too.

Formed way back in May 2003 and having over 50 million users worldwide, LinkedIn has carved a niche for itself in the business networking domain. Rajat Gandhi, General Manager of Times Business Solutions has made it clear, that the sole purpose of the Peer Power initiative is designed towards senior level professionals in the business. I still beg to differ on that concept. On the other hand, LinkedIn caters to one and all as it looks at the entire aspect of business on a whole and does not narrow it down to a selective few. That’s strike two for Peer Power.

LinkedIn is administrated on a consistent basis with systematic statistics with regards to company, business, groups and employee profiles. Opposing that, Peer Power’s domain registration itself has not been updated since earlier this month; users still await an approval on their request. Peer Power reportedly seeks to revise the rules for invitation and make amends within the next two months. Strike Three!

So while you can safely say that both sites cater to the rapidly growing concept of social networking, if you look at it from a birds-eye view, you would see the line that divides the two.

Saurav Chakraborty, Associate GM at Digital Direction took us through the nitty-gritties that helped the agency bag an award for their local execution of the multinational campaign.

Target Audience & Campaign Objectives:
The campaign was targeted to 30+Males, SEC A (Decision makers/Decision influencers) and revolved around three objectives – Awareness, Engagement, and Participation.

Inventory Used:
“To achieve all the three above, we needed to operate the campaign at the optimum Reach and Frequency levels. A combination of ‘Regular Banners’ and ‘Innovations’ was pertinent.”
The campaign was targeted at popular Indian and International portals that fell within the Business, News, Finance, Trading and Vernaculars categories. International sites such as Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Financial Times were used to target ‘high net worth individuals’ from India.

Key Tactics Employed:
* Yahoo Answers India (Q&A forum) ‘Environment Section’ was booked on a month long sponsorship which included a fixed banner on the ‘Answers Environment Home Page’ and 4 sponsored questions asked by Siemens on the forum.

* NDTV Advertorial Page was used on ‘World Environment Day’ with ‘call to action’ banners that led the viewers to Siemens’ Advertorial Page which comprised of articles on environmental issues, endeavors taken by Siemens to provide answers to such issues, online polls and a link to the Siemens India Website.

* Financial Express, a leading financial portal was booked for a 5 day Page Warp (all four sides of the portal will consist of the client’s communication)

The Result:
“The Siemens Answers Campaign generated 130 million impressions to the ‘Target Audience Set’ and induced 0.6 million audiences to visit the Siemens Answers microsite. The Campaign CTR was steadily over 0.40% with an average of 4+ minutes spent on the Siemens microsite.”

There are plenty of Twitter clients out there and it can get confusing. Hence we have drilled down the 5 most handy from the lot.

If you too are using or want to get started on Twitter, to promote your brand or personal profile than these 5 cool tools will surely make your task manageable.

1.    Splitweet

Splitweet is a web based Twitter client that allows you to manage multiple twitter accounts from one single interface. You can follow, reply and DM users across multiple twitter accounts. With Splitweet you can also monitor brand mentions tweeted in real time, a very handy feature to track messages pertaining to your brand or competition

2.    Tweet later

As the name suggests, this web based Twitter clients allows you to schedule your tweets so they can be relayed at a specific time. You no longer have to stay glued to your computer or mobile screen, Tweet Later will do the job while you attend that all important meeting or  a party.

3.    Twlnbox

If you are someone who is buried in Microsoft Outlook all day, then Twlnbox is perfect for you. With this tool you can manage your twitter account right from your MS Outlook interface, so basically you can read your e-mails and tweets at the same time. Group Tweets and Keyword Tracking are two very useful features that come with this application

4.    FlashTweet

FlashTweet enables you to follow or unfollow mass users at one go. You can follow all your friends followers or unfollow them. A very handy tool for building that mass follower base in just few minutes.

5.    Bit.ly

Bit.ly is a url shortening service, that not only shortens the url you want to share on Twitter but also tracks the number of clicks. Using this tool, you can track the performance of the url tweeted

Hope these tools, making you twitter management simpler and effective. If you would like to share your favorite Twitter tools and clients, please feel free to post them in the comments section

Heart Felt
The BlogCamp Mumbai sponsored by iBibo Blogs kicked off with blogger Harish Iyer (who calls himself AHAM) sharing his experience during the devastating Mumbai terror attacks which pushed him to create the blog MumbaiTerrorHelpline. In fact he has now initiated a group by the name of GAP (Group Altruism Proactive) that apparently would “identify the various ‘GAP’s in our administration and society…and bridge it”. While Harish Iyer ran us through his experience he pressed on the fact that “blogging can save lives” and how we should use our clout as bloggers to create a whole new ecosystem in troubled times. Even DigiMouth had featured an article on the impact of online media during the Mumbai terror attacks. Have a look.

And I thought Only Nitrous Oxide Caused Laughter
Blogger Abhishek Thakkar surely knows to start a laughter riot. His topic “Blogging Stories” was entertaining, engaging and edgy. He took us through various online fads that got him blogging. From ego searches on good-old Google to photo blogging, and podcasting in Hindi; Abhishek Thakkar enjoyed them all! His tips to bloggers:

- Sanitise your blogs or your parents will catch you
- Have fake names and IDs
- Pamper Windows by reinstalling it twice a year

Other than propagating his desire to marry nubile girls, Abhishek emphasised on the fact that Hindi podcasts worked wonders in terms of online traffic.  We are waiting for another round of Abhishek’s jocular session in future BlogCamps.

Did You Read the News?
Next in line was DNA Money correspondent Arcopol Chaudhari who had an interactive session with a barrage of questions about the connect (or void) between journalists and bloggers. This was a refreshing session with varied views and debates.

How to Kill a Blog!
The next session titled ‘Pappu Can’t Blog Sala’ was conducted by blogger Dinesh Soni who pointed out the common blunders that murder a potential blog. Here is a list of the familiar goof-ups:
- Cluttering ones blog with Google Ads in a bid to get rich
- Extensive use of SEO keywords for higher Google ranking
- The use of ‘shrt wrds’ (which he termed as SMS language) while writing
- Enforced jargon. Everyone does not like looking up the dictionary. So keep it simple!
- No consistency in posts
- Constantly switching WordPress themes
- Majority of the bloggers stay aloof (in their fictitious cocoons). Networking is the key. Attend BlogCamp!

Google Can’t Answer My Questions. How About Asking God!
Rohan Babu tried initiating an interactive session termed “Reflections” that questioned the relevance, role and responsibility of bloggers. The end result:

- Guys spoke about truth, maya, knowledge and everything that would make a wondrous Osho or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar session.
- We even discovered ones girl’s fascination for Salman Khan and her fears of being surrounded by members from the SRK cartel.

The session came to an end with the revelation that “truth is philosophical” and that humans are “constantly looking for facts and not the truth”. We thank Rohan Babu for a soul seeking session (I delved deep into my soul for answers).

What About Job Security?
Skyn3t (born on earth as Neeraj Pattath) updated us on basic security measures to be followed while blogging. In fact he gave us a lowdown on varied tweaks and cheats that would help us while communicating in this ‘big-bad-world’. My colleague Siddharth Basrur was fancying the coffee machine during this session (I don’t blame him).

Pehchaan Kaun
A long title with a lateral thought always works. IdeaSmithy chose “Anonymity is a Game of Identity”. She talked about a colleague who hounded her while she was busy creating 10 blogs under 4 different ID’s. Currently with 2 popular blogs IdeaSmithy found herself dealing with an online alter ego that helped her vent her feelings. This session was a mix of fun, fetishes and fundas. I wish I could have recorded her session and updated it as a podcast (damn Microsoft).

The Freebie
The final session hosted by Hardik Shah was inclined towards introducing the audience with Windows Live Writer. This free product from the house of Microsoft lets you extend your blogging experience offline. With the Windows Live Writer you can create content and collate data while you are offline. In fact Windows Live Writer comes with a bouquet of features for bloggers. Get your copy right now.

After all the gyaan, networking, caffeine and the free veg pizza BlogCamp Mumbai was worth the wait. In fact the DigiMouth Team congratulates and thanks Hardik Shah, Moksh Juneja and Asfaq Tapia for organising a successful BlogCamp in Mumbai.

Eagerly awaiting the next BlogCamp!