Jumping on a Bandwagon?

Or Going by the Picture, Jumping on an Auto-rickshaw more Likely

Social Networking or internet communities or even humble blogs seem to be the buzz word these days going by the atmosphere and news reports we get to see.

I got ranting today because of some of the comments I got recently and one in particular that I got today (all of that I delete promptly).

I like to keep my comment section open because there has been no major reason to close or moderate comments till now. I do get some amount of spam comments but then I delete it after getting the email notification.

There have been one or two days when I got around 16 spam comments from the same person (for hotels in a particular region) and when that happened for the second time my heart sank. I mean that time could have been devoted to a better use but then that was a one off incident. I forgave them because they are small operators and may lack the expertise to handle social media.

Then today I got a junk comment on an old post that was a rant against branding of a particular type. The comment was for a known company (that advertises on big TV channels too) and gave a link to its Facebook fan page (that was not even hyperlinked within the comment box).

I mean why poor me? OK I can see some fit, it is about travel bags, it went like this-

I would like to share an incident,

On my Holiday to Singpore from Mumbai we were Asked to open our Bags at the airport by the Authorities. I was thankfully carrying [------] Bags which has sorted Compartments which made the checking easier and faster.
Got out withing 15 minutes,

That’s the reason i would suggest a [-----] to any traveler.

Its user friendly, easy to handle, light in weight and pretty affordable.

The Link would be of a lot of help [-----]

I am wondering how can a company be so dumb when it comes to social media? Do they pay people to write such dumb comments on wrong kind of posts? Why that particular post? And what happens to this person's (assuming there is such a person) performance appraisal when they find that the inane comments they left were promptly deleted by the blog owners?

I mean that comment screams of being an ad for the company as it had no relevance to the post and they removed all doubt by giving a link to the Facebook fan page. Why can't they hire a good consultant? Better still why can't they think of investing long term into social media and make their own presence.

Some companies may take a long time to figure out the social media and in trying to join the bandwagon, they may not even land on an auto-rickshaw in the process.

Three Cheers for the Comments Too

I have said it before and I am saying it again, one of the biggest reward of blogging are the comments. Raman (unfortunately he doesn't seem to blog as of now) left a comment on my Jeep Skidding post which is as good as a post in itself. I am quoting it below.

Drivers.

We once were on our way to Recong Peo - in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh - in the middle of July of the year 96.. the roads were in a pretty bad shape due to the incessant rain.. and to add to that we reached a makeshift bridge - the original one having been washed away by a cloudburst. Since the bridge was weak the BRO workers made all the passengers get off the bus, except ofcourse the driver.. He was to take the bus across that bridge.

As we were all getting off the bus I heard the driver comment - 'sawarion ki jaan jaan hai aur hamari jaan kuch nahi' and that was something that I couldn't ignore.. ..so even though I was dead scared..I remained seated on the bus alongwith the conductor as the driver drove the thing across that creaky structure.. ..and once we were on the other side I felt good about the whole thing, about my conduct.. wouldn't have felt the same had I gotten off that bus after having heard the comment that the driver had made..

three cheers to all the drivers of the Himachal State Roadways fleet.

Raman

Three cheers indeed for you Raman and the drivers, both.

Another comment that has stayed with me till date has been made by Rajeev. If I ever manage to take even six months off, it would be because I became conscious of the fact only after reading your comment. It goes like this:

... guess it will take some more time for us as a society to reach the point where we will be comfortable with taking a couple of years off to travel :). Thanks to Mridula and her ilk, we are waking up to life.