Telecom companies have started using Twitter and other social media platforms for effective customer service and brand promotion. The quality of how companies use these new media channels varies a lot. I wanted the readers to take a look at how customer service should be done - as shown by T-Mobile - and the mistakes that Mobilink and Ufone are making.
Growth of Pakistan telecom industry took a hit in recent months because of economy and regulation of SIMs. Even though the number of new subscribers slowed down and the revenues per user remained low, Pakistan telecom industry has shifted to a whole new set of services which provide value and convenience in ways not possible before. One of the interesting trend of 2009 was the rush to offer financial services via mobile phones aka mobile financial services (MFS). These services include transactions such as remittances (person-to-person payments), payment of bills and others commerce enabled by mobile/cellular technology. This post provides an overview of MFS in Pakistan.
Just a decade ago, traditional media such as print, radio and tv dominated the marketing budgets. Today its a completely different world: two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10% of all internet time, according to a recently released report by Nielesen Media. With the rise of online media (Internet) and in particular the user generated social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook) there has been a clear shift in the way marketing messages are created and consumed. Smart companies now pay equal attention to social media as they do to other methods of communications and marketing. In case of telcos in Pakistan we have recently seen Telenor embracing social media to engage its customers and to create buzz through bloggers. This post is a review of Telenor Pakistan’s efforts to promote its brand using social media.
The social media is taking over the world fast and furious. Found out this interesting video on social media revolution. Sharing it with you all.
What do you say, Is Social Media a Fad?
As twitter has shown an increase in popularity over recent times, many applications have been developed to enjoy the 140 character micro-blog service. Among these applications we have some mobile applications like jTwiiter, fring, Twibble etc. But these applications run on GPRS/EDGE connectivity which is costly for some. A cheaper way is updating your twitter through SMS. We had discussed one such SMS based twitter service from iSMS.pk earlier.
mobi2weet comes as another such service. To register all you got to do is SMS, ‘reg your_id your_password (twitter userid and password) to 03014402764 or 03314805098 (wish they had opted for easier numbers).
Some mobi2weet commands:
mobi2weet comes with a feature to updates off or on for specific users. To turn updates off or on for specific users, text ‘OFF twitterID’ or ‘ON twitterID’ for turning off and turning on updates for a specific user, respectively
It is a free service. However, network SMS charges are applicable.
Update:
oAuth has been succesfully implemented on mobi2weet. Now, your passwords are absolutely secured.
WSJ published an interesting story about the surge in use of abbreviations in text messages. I think that Twitter has made these even more popular and speeded up their acceptance in mainstream lingo. As the story mentions, LOL and OMG are already in the standard English dictionaries. Parents are one group who may need this info!
With over one trillion text messages sent and received in the U.S. last year, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group, you run the risk of feeling out of it if you don’t know the jargon.
Here are a few popular shorthand texting terms. My question is: Are there any such abbreviations for Roman Urdu? LMK (let me know).
Here are some recent updates posted on twitter.com/telecompk.
Social media and digital technologies are making way into our living rooms. US telecom company Verizon has introduced a new service on its fiber-based TV service where users can access Twitter and Facebook on their TV. Of course mobile has been a leading channel for social networking and now TV is trying to position itself as another important channel.
One can argue that the demographics which is into social media (youth, professionals and early technology adopters) are not the same who spend much time on TV. On the other hands it could be useful for stay at home women. Only time will tell if this integration is useful and whether it becomes popular or not. Who knows, PTCL may launch this too!
A recent study by Alcatel-Lucent concludes that broadband is recession proof. In other words, people’s attitudes towards broadband have shifted from a nice to have service to one which is a necessity for their information-based lifestyle. The study surveyed more than 3200 participants from Europe, Asia, Latin America and the U.S. to determine consumer spending priorities for specific network-based services – such as Internet, television, data and voice services – against their spending priorities for services that don’t require a wireline or wireless connection. Let me know if you’d like more information about the study.
Another study – see the chart below – looks at the growth of mobile or wireless broadband in the context of new standards and technologies (LTE, HSPA) and the apps which are driving the growth.
Stacey of GigaOm thinks that the trends will continue from Internet to mobile apps. More here.
Social networking has been another beneficiary of faster speeds and greater adoption. With 1 Mbps connections (or better yet, 5 Mbps) checking in on Facebook or even Twitter is a quick and easy process. Faster speeds have resulted in more video online as well, leading to the creation of companies such as YouTube, Hulu and even Skype. We’re going to see a similar trend emerge in the mobile world, with companies that use the faster network plus mobility as the platform on which to build their businesses.
Posting tweet...
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