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.
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:
<message> (type your message directly)
@twitterID <message> (reply to someone’s tweet)
D twitterID <message> (sends a direct message to a user)
ON (turns twitter notifications on)
OFF (turns notifications off)
inv <mobile number> (to invite your friends to use our app)
help <message> (to contact customer support)
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.
This August everyone is doing the best in their capacity to mark celebrations for the 62nd Independance Day. The ‘Go Green’ campaign is doing a great job, turning the Social Networks (Twitter/Facebook) Green. Not just this but the Nation’s Tweeples aim to get #Pakistan in to Twitter Trending Topics on 14th August.
This post takes a look at how are the major Telcos contributing to the Independence Day Celebrations.
PTCL,the national land-line operator is giving away cash prizes on new land-line connections this August.
At the broadband front PTCL has come up with another Independence Day offer, giving away laptops on new broadband connections.
For Pakistanis abroad, LocalPhone is offering 50% off their regular rate: To mark 62 years of Pakistani independence you’ll be able to call any landline or mobile in Pakistan for just 3.95¢ per minute from 18:00 GMT on Thursday 13th until 18:00 GMT on Friday 14th August (midnight to midnight in Pakistan).
Mobilink has not come up with any offer/promotion but celebrating in its own way, their website have got an Independence Avator. Patriotic song from their last year’s Independence campaing ‘Aye Watan’ plays in the background and the cursor gets green with crescent and stars.
Ufoneno offer/promotions to celebrate Independence. Should we expect an Independence TV Commercial from them :).
Telenor, although arranged bloggers meet-up in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to launch the Persona Weblounge, but nothing particular for Independence Celebrations.
They could have scored by launching the Persona Weblounge on 14th August.
Warid, once again nothing special for August Celebrations.
Wateen, well at one end they slashed on their rates but at the other downsized - reportedly fired around 500 employees. No time for celebrations here.
Zong, the china mobile company could have come up with something on pak-china friendship but ‘SAB KEH DOU’ squad have nothing to say this August.
UPDATE:
Telenor has started on its Independence Campaign on the evening of 13th. The focal points of the activity will be Lahore. You can be a part of ‘Telenor Float’ which will travel on the roads of Lahore. Karachi would be having Telenor’s Azadi Carvan on Tariq road. Hyderabad Gym khana would be having a Family Concert by Telenor. In Rawalpindi touch-up points will be palced in different parts of the city.
Waridhas come up with a not so popular offer (not highlighted properly on thier website) is an Azadi Package for Rs. 2999. Offer includes a Trend mobile phone along with an exclusive 0321 Code Warid post paid Sim with 75 free minutes every month and Rs 500 security waiver.
Wateen, Independence gift comes on 14th August, waiving 60 percent on Subscription charges.
A while back we took a sneak peak at Nokia’s latest offering, N97. The set was officially launched on 12th June at a grand launch ceremony held at Marriott Karachi. Along with a tilting 3.5″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customizable home screen, the Nokia N97 promises to offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services. The N97 is expected to be sold in Pakistan at a retail price of PKR 58,000 only.
The device was announced at a glamorous press event where two European models brought the phone at the venue and the Finnish First Secretary, Deputy Head of Mission H.E Miia Rainne handed over the phone to the GM Nokia Pakistan Imran Khalid Mahmood. Also present at the ceremony was Henri Mattila, Head of Category Marketing, Nseries Middle East and Africa.
Delivering on Nokia’s vision and thought leadership based on mobile convergence, Nokia Nseries has aimed to present the best in class mobile computers to its internet savvy consumers. Today, we take great pride in introducing the newest addition to Nokia Nseries – Nokia N97. We have combined the most-advanced smartphone capabilities in this device to enhance the internet entertainment for our consumers and at the same time ease-of use with one-touch access to their favourite online content.
Imran Khalid Mahmood
GM Nokia Pakistan
The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s first device to feature a personalizable home screen, which can be customized with a range of widgets which bring live information directly to the device. These widgets include key social networking destinations like Facebook and Hi5, news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information.
The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, which offers easy access to applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, and much more. Ovi Store has paid and free content from a range of global and local content providers and developers, including Paramount Pictures, Facebook and Qik, as well as a selection of Twitter applications.
The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience. Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.
Henri Mattila
Head of Category Marketing
Nseries Middle East and Africa
Entertainment Ensured
The Nokia N97 also has direct access to the huge catalogue of music in the Nokia Music Store. With multiple high-speed connectivity options and 32GB of storage (up to 48GB using a microSD card) it is possible to directly download and store tens of thousands of songs on the handset. And you can listen to your favourite music on the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which Nokia also launched today. This headset brings crystal clear sound, eliminates background noise, and is the ideal accessory for listening to music and making calls on the Nokia N97, as well as being compatible with a diverse range of other mobile and music devices.
High-quality images and video clips at 30 frames per second (fps) can be captured using the 5 megapixel camera with integrated Carl Zeiss optics. Images can also be geo-tagged to specific locations and shared instantly with friends or uploaded online via Ovi Share, Twitter or Flickr.
Here’s an interesting post from a marketing executive who started his career as an engineer. The advice below applies to all, whether you have technical background or not. It is very easy for executives to lose touch with customers who have important things to tell you. If the executives in mobile, broadband and other telecom services in Pakistan started reading the blogs and the commentary about their service, they will immediately gain a better feel for the situation on the ground.
As a Vice President for US Cellular, I regularly listened to customer service center calls and participated actively in “mystery shopping.” All this helped me, as a marketing executive, improve the brand experience. Did the front line support the brand as we showed in our TV ads and heard on radio? Were the representations correct? After mystery shopping, I took the time to meet the front line and their managers to share what I learned and correct problems. We also took to time to share these leanings with others in the company because marketing must be the voice of the customer.
Today the world is very different with social networks, blogs, and Twitter providing customer reactions in real time. And the marketer must be able to listen and synthesize this information coming from different sources at lightning speed. This type of customer listening will not replace other market research or customer satisfaction studies. Those are needed as well. Just remember, different customer groups respond to products differently. The younger generation might just tweet their satisfaction (creating a nice positive viral buzz) or dissatisfaction which has other dire consequences. Others may post their ratings on YELP or Amazon’s product reviews- a little slower perhaps but just as permanent.
The lesson learned is that we must synchronize to our customers’ time cycle, not our own.
The wireless panorama is changing at a high-speed. Starting with the 1st Generation of communication networks (1G) in the early 80s and many evolutions we now have 4th Generation to talk about. In the last 3 years we have seen the deployments of 3G networks and most recently the work on 4G is on the peak.
From 1G to 4G we have seen changes in the modulation schemes, duplexing methods, multiple access technologies, data rate, speech coding, antenna systems and other aspects which have played a role to make communication efficient over the period of time.
But the question remains, do we need them? So much of an advancement of technology, has it really given us benefit in terms of both services and economics (cost) ?
Let’s take a look at each generation.
1st Generation (1G) had the famous AMPS standard. It offered basic voice services with cost being high initially but went down with time.
2nd Generation (2G) is well known for the GSM technology. It started off with offering digital voice services and then we had the short message service (SMS). The 2G changed the lives of many, it became impossible to live without a cell phone. Initially these services came with costs not in the range of average consumer but still gained popularity and the cost went down with time. Earlier a call received was charged, but today we have SMS packages, Friends and Family offer, One Free number offer and many more.
Then came the evolutions of 2G, we saw high speed data links on GPRS or EDGE. This laid the foundation of mobile internet. Once again the initial costs were high and it offered limited services. This evolution raised many questions on its actual need. Why need mobile internet with limited services when we have broadband or dial-ups at offices and homes? Although, these services are not as popular as SMS, but with time they have captured a small proportion of the population. Businesses today rely heavily on GPRS/EDGE to get online to check emails and act upon them immediately. Social networks are fast expanding on GPRS/EDGE, examples include facebook and twitter. With all this happening the cost again has gone down.
I would leave this post here for discussions and continue it later.
Yaser has shared the interesting new service by isms.pk on his blog. Now you can use twitter from your mobile through web-2-sms service provided by isms.pk. Yaser notes that twitter had to cut back on the service from mobiles in Pakistan and isms.pk has provided the solution. You need to configure your account on isms.pk to use the service – very easy. Good work isms.pk team!
With iSMS.pk our major goal is to bridge the gap between people using technology that completely fits into the prime motive behind Twitter Pakistan project. Thats why iSMS has laucnhed a cheap tweeting platform connecting twitter to mobile users in Pakistan. Now you can sign up on iSMS and send local messages (instead of costly international sms) and update your status on Twitter. The service is in Beta and the invites are limited.
For those who are regular readers and/or subscribers of this blog, let me know if you need an invite and I’ll do my best.
TelecomPk.Net is a leading source of information and analysis about Pakistan Telecom industry. 
