MrShri.com: Social Media Blog with a Difference

TheInstaWalk – Social for Photowalks

By mrshri on May 15, 2012 in Blogs, Social Media

Lets face it, Instagram is here and it’s here to stay. Facebook acquisition, adopting Android platform after rocking iOS and the very fact that social networking is about “photos” more than status updates. People like to tell stories/share photos more than anything and we have all been there. Initially pretending not to care about Instagram and then jumping on the bandwagon.

I do not credit myself of coming up with this idea. Photowalks have been around for long, spearheaded by several Flickr groups and bloggers. But it’s always had an entry barrier – the DSLR Cameras. So I wanna put a spin on it, combine the networking zest of Tweetups, collective sourcing power of bloggers, brands which are interested to connect with this group of smartphone trotting people and make it a fun meet up for all! Maybe even have a space to show the Top-10 photos from every such meet.

The Agenda is simple: Decide a venue to meet, Map out the path & start clicking. All Instagram Photos must be shared with #TheInstaWalk hashtag, this makes it easy to track the content & conversations. Maybe we can even have an Annual TheInstaWalk Day… Dates?

We will start with Pune & then see how this community can spread its wings nationwide or even internationally. Let me know if you have a suggestion or comment, just post it or tweet to me at @MrShri and follow @TheInstaWalk.

Cheers!

TheInstaWalk.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the brands mentioned in this post.

Mixx Delicious Digg Facebook Twitter

Shortlink

2012: The Change

By mrshri on January 24, 2012 in Blogs, Social Media

So we’re finally in 2012, the year where everyone is almost convinced or is trying to be that the World will end. At least in the movie it did and no matter what happens, we know life goes on. But this isn’t what I intend to write as my first post of this year. In fact I wish to begin this year pledging some changes & requesting some habits to be dropped by our Social Media enthusiasts / gurus / experts. Starting right now.

So we can make this year better by…

Stop making negative comments about everything humane out here. Social Networks are for people to help each other in any way possible, your negativity only adds a blot in it. So either lead from within or move aside.
Sharing the same content on every social network. I cannot believe how many of us do this each & every day. We push that every single tweet to our Facebook wall, that wall post to twitter, picasa albums, youtube videos and possibly the most hated of them all – foursquare checkins! Your friends/followers do not need to know everything you’re up to or sharing. Choose wisely, Share responsibly.
Every week there’s a new tool or service out there. Now it’s easy for the early adopters to get all excited & sign up for Beta, even invite friends & start sharing (possibly the same data) here as well. But the phase only lasts as long and we abandon these “would’ve been big” services quickly. Take some time out, delete your profiles & if possible, tell your friends & followers too. (I’m personally guilty of this & still have to delete by EAv profile).
Fake Checkins – One thing which is probably the saddest. Ever since the advent of checkins, people have been hopping places where they would possibly never go. Maybe its for the Mayorship madness or simply bragging about badges. Fake checkins are downright disgusting. And this has to stop, along with duplicate venues and stuff like that.
Facebook Tagging, especially in photos which are not even of people or quotes etc. This has to go away.
Twitter Following & Un-Following just to get your follower count high, this is a bat-hat technique which most Social Media Experts use. It does more damage than good. Why not just take a little effort to introduce yourself & grow your follower base organically? Second to this would be Mass-Unfollowing.
Anything else, you can think off? Just add that in the comments.

Lets focus on making this Year better for everyone & it will be great for you too!

Mixx Delicious Digg Facebook Twitter

Shortlink

Zomato Feedback

By mrshri on September 30, 2011 in Blogs, General

Intro: Zomato is all about Food & Lifestyle in India and where you can “find” it. So far I have been using Zomato to plan which restaurant or bar to hit with my friends either during the long week or on weekends. It helps me understand a few things in details to leave the surprises out. Also they have a better listing about restos in Pune than any other website, as per my taste. Recently Zomato launched an Android, Blackberry & iPhone App, which has made things even easier.

First, 3 things I like about Zomato:

1. The ability to “Explore” Restaurants by locality in Pune is my favorite feature. The reason being that we might be aware of most restaurants within a location, but its always possible to miss the ones which are not much talked about by our friends or something we did not notice. I have found several good restaurants in and around my location thanks to this awesome feature.

2. Recently introduced “Events” Feature is one of the most up-to-date I have seen for any websites. Since I love checking out whats happening around a particular date, this comes in very handy. Other websites fail, as their event listings seem very biased towards particular venues. This is another plus for Zomato and a must-check-out feature.

3. The Restaurant pages are my another favorite with this site. Especially the details such as Menu, Reviews, Map (with Directions) and Typical Price for two. The last feature can give you an approximate idea of how much you would end up spending in a group or when on a date. Works for people of all ages. Reviews can be extensive & also show if it was Helpful or Not.

Now, 3 things I would like to Change/See on Zomato:

1. The ability to Recommend a Restaurant to a friend via Twitter, Facebook or Email. This is important as sometimes I am just thinking about ideas for a dinner plan or brunches, I can then share the same instantly once I’ve discovered something on Zomato. Also, if I could simply add the Venue to a “Must-Do” on my Foursquare account. This way, I could plan ahead.

2. I was slightly unhappy with certain restaurant reviews cause they were either too extensive for my taste or did not help me at all. Also at the same time, certain reviews on the same restaurant were very helpful. I would like to see the most “Popular” Reviews on Top, the ones which did not help can be pushed down. Like a Voting system where registered users of this website can decide what would be better for others & at the same time save a lot of time for folks like me.

3. I think Zomato should introduce the “Check-in” button for all to use. Location Based Social-Networking is now completely in and a part of our daily life-style. If I am at a restaurant, cafe or bar.. I like to share that with my foursquare, twitter & facebook friends depending on the mood. This would help Zomato in two ways, it could track “actual” users who go to a certain restaurant after checking the reviews or searching for them and two, also help restaurants know how their presence is being gauged by the reviews, events etc.

To add to #3, I think even a feature such as being able to share that “I am going to be at XYZ Grill for Dinner” on Twitter via Zomato would be AWESOME! All these can be tracked easily & turned into opportunities for clients & users benefits.

Now, here are some additional changes I would like to see. Please use with your own discreation

A. Integrate Foursquare Location Tab to show Mayors, Tips & even plug User Photos from the API, which are relevant too. (Google+ can be kept as as option once the full API access is available).

B. Option to Tweet to a restaurant or get on their Facebook page via Zomato listing.

C. Events – Export to Google Calendar / Outlook + Add who is going (RSVP) will add to the experience. I can only see events, I need to save them to my smart phone too.

D. Suggested feature: Tweet to Reserve a Table. Simple tweet name of the resto+city+number of people to @ZomatoBook & say Twitter Handle at the restaurant to claim. Alternatively Zomato can even create a Hashtag #ZomatoBook to auto track tweets using simple tools such as TweetDeck. This will lead to good realtime engagement & increase in the number of followers. / Suggest testing this feature starting One City at a Time?

E. City Pages – Showing popular restaurants by your Index, Reviews & Photos would be awesome.

F. Give a Restaurant Page Widget, not a finder widget. Restaurants can use this on their website or blogs.

Thanks! Do try out Zomato if you’re a regular foodie or just planning something for the weekend. It’s a great site & I trust it will only get better.

Mixx Delicious Digg Facebook Twitter

Shortlink

Own Twitter Infographic

By mrshri on August 11, 2011 in Blogs, Social Media

Keeping with my nature of having fun on Social Media and my general interest in infographics, I checked out Visual.ly today and decided to Twitterize myself. In layman terms that means using my Twitter data to generate an infographic and it’s for Free! Currently there are two options, either you can do a Solo Infographic of yourself or some other tweeps or compare yourself (to say a Celeb!) in the Faceoff.

I recommend you do this, meta is always fun Check my Infographic below or click here if you do not see the image.