Thursday 4 July 2013

US Spent $630,000 To 'Buy' Facebook Fans

09:30 2 comments

US Spent $630,000 To 'Buy' Facebook Fans

Washington: The US State Department was today under fire for spending $630,000 over two years to win millions of “likes” on its Facebook pages at a time of severe government austerity measures.

A scathing report by the department’s independent watchdog took the coordinators of its social media outreach policy to task saying it needed to “direct its digital advertising to specific public diplomacy goals”.

The report by the Office of the Inspector General found that two advertising campaigns launched in 2011 and 2012 cost some $30,000 with the “goal of building global outreach platforms for engagement with foreign audiences by increasing the number of fans… on four thematic Facebook properties”.

“Many in the bureau criticise the advertising campaigns as ’buying fans’ who may have once clicked on a post or ‘liked’ a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further,” read the report released late last month.

Although each of the four thematic pages run by the Bureau of International Information Programs managed to attract some 2.5 million fans by mid-March, only about 2 per cent of those actually actively engaged with the sites by ‘liking’ topics or sharing information posted on it.

“Many postings had fewer than 100 comments or shares; the most popular ones had several hundred,” the report said.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the report had been taken seriously and vowed most its recommendations would be implemented before the start of the 2014 fiscal year in October.

“Online advertising has significantly decreased. It’s now at $2,500 a month,” she said, adding that “still allows us to reach out and communicate with a wide range of individuals living overseas”.

The State Department has embraced the wide outreach made possible through social media, but is still developing guidelines for how such sites as Facebook and Twitter should be used in the world of diplomacy.

rupess 5Vodafone offers free incoming calls on roaming at Rs 5 per day

09:28 1 comment

rupess 5Vodafone offers free incoming calls on roaming at Rs 5 per day
New Delhi: Country's second largest telecom player Vodafone today launched Rs 5 per day scheme offering free incoming calls, cheaper outgoing calls and SMS rates during national roaming.

The announcement by Vodafone follows the launch of similar schemes by rivals Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

"With these new roaming plans we aim to offer a hassle- free roaming experience to our customers," Vodafone India's Chief Commercial Officer Vivek Mathur said in a statement.

The recent announcements from telecom companies have come following telecom regulator TRAI's direction last month to offer consumers option of discounted roaming plans.

Videocon, however, had announced free incoming calls for its customers on roaming as early as March.

Vodafone launched a Special Tariff Vouchers (STV), on lines of plan launched by Bharti Airtel, costing Rs 5 per day to its pre-paid customers to make their incoming calls free while they are on roaming. Vodafone will charge 1.5 paise per second for outgoing call under this daily plan.

The company said it also offers a monthly plan which provides free incoming calls on roaming starting from Rs 71 for its pre-paid customers and Rs 75 for its post-paid customers. Airtel had launched similar monthly plan at a price of Rs 79.

In addition to these plans, Vodafone also launched two new roaming plans, Roaming Tariff Plan (RTP) and Roaming Tariff Plan Free (RTP FR), for both pre-paid and post-paid customers. RTP users will get incoming calls at reduced rates while incoming calls will be free for subscribers of RTP FR.

"The price point for the RTP-FR for pre-paid customers starts from Rs 196 and varies by state and Rs 149 for its post-paid customers," the statement said.

Idea Cellular has two vouchers in the price range of Rs 230 to Rs 240 and Rs 35 to Rs 40. Under the first set of vouchers, the company is offering free incoming call option.

On the low-priced voucher, subscribers will get incoming calls for at reduced rate of 75 paise per minute. Both these vouchers, once purchased, will be offer the benefits for 6 months.

India Plays Down U.S. Cyber Snooping Reports

09:27 No comments

India Plays Down U.S. Cyber Snooping Reports

New Delhi: India Tuesday sought to play down reports of the US cyber snooping at diplomatic missions, including at the Indian embassy in Washington, and said it was merely a "computer study of patterns" and also cast doubts on the veracity of the revelations.

"I don't think we should be raising it to such a high level... that it becomes a matter of serious question. It is only a computer study of patterns - meaning destination. It is not snooping," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said in Brunei where he has gone to attend meetings with ASEAN countries.

He said the issue was discussed during the India visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry. "Kerry and (US President Barack) Obama have clarified, there is some information that they get out of scrutiny and they use it for terrorism purposes," he said.

He said India and the US have a cyber security dialogue during which such issues are discussed.

CEOs 5Who Came Back To Rescue Their Dying Companies

09:24 No comments

CEOs 5Who Came Back To Rescue Their Dying Companies

bangalore: The tech industry has several instances on CEOs being relieved from their positions following the company’s downfall and later after many years, they gets reinstated into top positions again.

The biggest ever question that can pop up in your head could be, “does the CEOs comeback is for better of worse?"

Here is the take down on 5 such instances as compiled by ComputerWorld.

#5 Narayan Murthy’s Comeback

Infosys has recalled its iconic leader N.R. Narayana Murthy for the rescue mission following the Indian software giant’s underperformance in the last quarters. He headed Infosys for 11 years as a CEO. Murthy made his comeback as Executive Chairman while son Rohan will assist him in this regard. The market responded with 15 percent slump in shares, following the news. But Murthy in a candid talk to shareholders at the 32nd Annual General Meeting said that the task of rebuilding a "desirable" Infosys would take at least 3 years even with high quality team and full dedication of every Infoscions. Know for his strong will, Murthy may eventual achieve the purpose of his comeback.