Google Trips – The Best Travel Friend You Need

Last August, I was in Kandy, one of the tourist attraction sites in Sri Lanka. It was when I happened to come across a couple from Australia. It was their first time in Sri Lanka, and they were looking a place where they could buy a local SIM card so that they could access the online travel guides when they travel around the country.

I can see them bit annoyed about not getting proper Wi-Fi at the Hotel, and thinking of the extra cost in having a local SIM card.

Even if they have a SIM card, not every part of Sri Lanka has proper internet signals.

With the overall internet penetration rate of 29.3% in Sri Lanka, traveling with no data and without tour guides is pretty annoying. Poor internet penetration is not only a trouble in Sri Lanka but in many countries with tourist attraction sites.

Breaking the trend that you have to the internet to get access to online tour guides, Google has launched Google Trips.

What is Google Trips?

Google is expanding its Kingdom in the travel sector. As a part of its expansion, it has launched a travel app, last Monday (19th September 2016), called Google Trips which would act as a trip planner and a tour guide whenever and wherever you are traveling.

If this is a part of Google, then it does need the internet connection, doesn’t it? This would be your question.
But the answer is, no.
This time, Google has designed it in the way where the user can access it offline.

What can you do with this app?

If you are a fan of making sudden trips, I would suggest you have this app in your hands.

Once you have the app, all you have to do is log in into it through your mail. Once you have logged into the mail, it would look into your mail for your pre-planned trips.

If there are no plans, or if you have planned to go on a trip after downloading the app, you can search for the place you want to go in.

You can check the place through the tab “Things to do.” This feature suggests you about the top spots you can visit in the place you have looked up for. Also, if you have any preferences on what you want to do during the tour, like hiking and visiting a museum, you can look up through the search button.

Traveling and sightseeing mean hunger. Since you are visiting a new place, you might want to look into a better place for food. Then there is the button “Food and Drink” where you can look into the restaurants nearby with better reviews.

Although it appears as if it is collecting more data about your travel, it make most of the suggestions like where you can find food, and better places to enjoy.

If you are sure that you want to visit the place, you can then click onto the ” Create a trip” which would allow you to mark your dates for the journey.

The best part is, you can download every detail you want to do during the trip. From your hotel or flight reservation to the places you want to go, you can have it downloaded in your mobile. And this downloaded data is what you can use when you don’t have the internet connection, or when you don’t want to use the internet to save battery (like me).

Since this acts more like a trip planner, you can mark the places you want to visit during the itinerary. Once a schedule for the day is over, the app will notify you about the next plan for the day.

More comforting is the “magic wand.” No, this is neither Hogwarts nor the Marauder’s Map. Here, Google uses a “magic wand” that would let you know about the nearby places you might want to check into. It is notable that this feature works only if you manage to “turn on” your location, and have cellular data.

This Google Trip is going to be your travel partner even if it is offline. With the trip planning features, it is going to be a competitor to Concor’s TripIT, while Airbnb is trying to add this feature to its already existing setup.

It is also noticeable that the app still provides only the Panora view of the places-to-see, and has not yet tried into 360 views. In my point of view, it would be much more tough for the competitors like TripIT to compete, if Google is many steps ahead in ruling the travel-tech world, by using the very much advanced features.

With the launch of the app, I have installed it on my mobile, and I am finding it very useful for trip planning and to find a nearby place for food. If you are one of the users, how do you feel about the app, and what features would you like to have in the app?

Feel free to let your thoughts flow in the comment box.

20 SepNews

Taking Our 8th Anniversary Celebration to the World

“It was an awesome day,” “I wish the day never came to an end” were some of the comments I happen to hear from my colleagues by the end of our 8th-anniversary celebration. If you are one of those who wants to know how we celebrated our 8th year of the journey, I am sure you would want to read this post.

Before I start talking about what happened on the 17th of September, let me take you to the previous day of the event.

The anniversary celebration began two days before the actual day, by sending the invitation to everyone through letter posts and the Facebook Event Page. The excitement among the colleagues is visible through the posts they’ve written on the event page itself.

Since the previous day, the 16th of September was a public holiday in Sri Lanka, for the Full Moon, our colleagues began decorating the office on the previous day itself. While the decorating team was working on their tasks, other members who were responsible for the programs were rehearsing.

Also, on that day (16.09.2016) we decided to support 16 students who have lost their relations in the civil war. Through the organization called Thamizh Virutcham, we donated stationeries to those students.

Both, rehearsing and decorating, are not easy as thought. Every bit of decoration has to be perfect as planned, and the programs have to be scheduled perfectly so that it doesn’t clash with other plans on the agenda.
The day wrapped up only when the task assignees were satisfied with the decoration and the programs for the next day.

17th of September

The excitement began. To be honest, it was not only us, staff, who were excited about this celebration but our former colleagues too.

Sharanyan Sharma, our Founder, inaugurated the event by lighting the oil lamp, which is a ritual here in Sri Lanka. Following the lighting the lamp rituals, we had to go through a welcome speech which then led us to the main part of the event.

What is an anniversary celebration without cakes? Thanks to the decoration team that has chosen a fantastic, or rather a beautiful, cake design. It was not only an icing cake but fruits and sweets were a part of the decoration too. The Cake cutting was the main event on the agenda (or at least I think it is). Sharanyan Sharma, our Founder, cut the beautifully decorated cake.

“Unbelievable! How time flies. It only feels like yesterday when I was walking down an old apartment corridor on a mission to rent a small, dusty room, which would later give birth to such a beautiful company – Prime One Global. It only feels like yesterday! But, it’s been Eight Years. Eight beautiful, incredible, challenging years,” shared the Chairman of the company, Mr. Sharanyan Sharma, in his speech. Furthermore, he spoke about the obstacles he had to overcome in establishing this brand, Prime One Global LLC, as one of the largest digital marketing companies in Sri Lanka.

The most interesting part of his speech was when he announced about the new branch which is opened in Colombo World Trade Center. And the other surprise is the announcement about the Calcutta office which is to be opened in near future.

Following the speech of our Chairman, our previous CEOs, Mr. Kugathasan and Mr. Nivethan shared their thoughts about the company and wishes for the enterprise.

These speeches were followed by the address of our current CEO, Mr. Kokulakrishnan. And then, the company history was shared in a speech by the co-founder of the company, Mrs. Pratheepa Sharanyan.

Reader, I can hear your mind. No. The event wasn’t full of speeches. There were girls brought from Baratha Narthanaalaya (a local institute for Bharatha dance) who brought colors to the event by their dances. There were different age groups of students from the institution who danced to various songs.

With the colorful dances, there was a break for lunch.

It is usual to take a nap once after lunch. Knowing that we decided not to let any audience fall asleep. The first event after lunch was a musical performance by our colleague, Umasuthan, who used his fingers to bring fantastic music. Although young, his sound knowledge in playing ‘Miruthangam’ (a musical instrument like a drum) amazed the crowd, and everyone was on the tip of the seat eagerly watching him play it.

We had two dramas performed by our staff. One of the dramas was by the girls’ squad of our company who demonstrated what would happen if officers from an IT company happen to work in a restaurant. That was quite a comic drama, which made the crowd die in laughter.

“How life shatters down because of one’s carelessness in driving a bike without the helmet” was the theme of the second drama by our staff. The best part is the actors don’t speak their morals but display what happens by one’s carelessness.

As a final event of the day, we decided to have two teams of the whole staff on stage. A team has to perform what the opposite team asks for, and that resulted in both the team doing a fashion show walk.

Want to see more about the celebration? Check into of photo album on our Facebook. Although the event wrapped up with fun and excitement, new goals are set for the new year.

16 SepAnnouncement

8th Anniversary Invitation Letter From The Founder

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow is a special day 🙂 Yes, it’s our 8th Anniversary 🙂

Unbelievable! How time flies. It only feels like yesterday when I was walking down an old apartment corridor on a mission to rent a small, dusty room, which would later give birth to such a beautiful company – Prime One Global. It only feels like yesterday! But, it’s been Eight Years. Eight beautiful, incredible, challenging years.

There haven’t been many constants in my life – The beloved partners, stakeholders, members of staff, family, friends, and well-wishers. Starting from my first day of the vision, when I stepped into the world of Digital Marketing as an aspiring Entrepreneur, when I was deeply in debt, and I had no idea where to start, from the first five-dollar I earned after a tiresome day of Link Building (thank you for being with me still, you know who you are), to the incredible milestones of 2012, 2014, and 2015 where we completed 12000, 24000 and 40000+ Digital Marketing Campaigns respectively, you all have been there. And, I for one, am grateful that you have been a part of this Journey – Our Journey.

You have been there too in the darkest of times, when I faced lots of obstacles, I felt alone at times, and I am thankful for your presence. All our achievements would never have been possible without the beloved Prime One Global Family, friends Partners, Clients, Stakeholders, and every other person who is even remotely associated with us.

All through this journey, we have had to bid farewell to a few valued members of our team and friends, but we have also teamed up with a new, more energetic, enthusiastic army of individuals this year. No matter how much we expand, how many milestones we achieve, we at Prime One Global will be grateful to every individual who has been a part of our company. As I always say, we are what we are because of everyone who has had faith in our vision and the trust they have put in our company.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to our 8th Year Anniversary Celebrations of Prime One Global, where there will be lots of fun and entertainment and some mysteries to be unraveled.

Thank you all,
Sharanyan Sharma
Co-Worker @ Prime One Global

15 SepSocial Media

Facebook Blueprint’s New Credentials for Social Media Marketers.

“Do you want to be a professional in Social Media Marketing?” is one of the phrases I come across more often when I check the websites of the institutions for Digital marketing courses. Even though many follow such degrees, social media marketing is not done effectively, as I have said in my last post.

Most of the marketers and companies want to stand out in the crowd, yet they are not sure how they could. While some struggle to use Facebook products, most of the others fail in campaigning their products.

It looks like Facebook thought the same. The effect of Facebook’s worry is this platform “Facebook Blueprint” with the tagline “Plan to do great things.” Having launched in 2015 March, and 18 months later, it has 1 Million course enrollment.

What is Facebook Blueprint Certification?

It is a program by Facebook to enrich knowledge on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram advertising. Interestingly, here you don’t only study and take an exam, but here you get trained. This Facebook Blueprint is a solution with individual courses and self-directed learning paths to most Social Media Marketers.

So, this is like a blueprint to Facebook and the apps it owns.

This Certificate provides two credentials:

Facebook Certified Planning Professional that targets digital media marketers who successfully have done Facebook Ad Campaigns.
Facebook Certified Buying Professional that targets the professionals at ‘creating and buying Facebook advertisements for maximum impact.’

What one could expect from this e-learning?

Like Facebook, this e-learning is free of charge. All you need is a Facebook account. Once you sign into, you can look into the modules. Here you would be educated on how to use Facebook and its products effectively, create better and creative ad campaigns, and how to measure your campaign reach and optimize it.

No matter what your role is in the advertising industry, Blueprint Certification can give you the edge you need – Facebook Blueprint

One of the best features I happen to notice about Blueprint is that you can learn it at your pace. No one is going to rush you or put you under pressure unless it is you.

Once you think you have learned enough, you can try out the “Practice exams” before settling for the final exams.

And, once you pass the exam, you will get your certificate, which can be used on your virtual marketing platforms.

Why should you try Facebook Blueprint?

The foremost reason is IT IS FACEBOOK. Aren’t we all pretty crazy about the platform, Facebook, itself? Although it is one of the social media platforms, it is the most popular social platform with 1.71 billion users.

Let it be the global or the local audience (3 million Sri Lankans), Facebook has a reach.

Local institutions do teach about Social Media Marketing, and of course, Facebook campaigns. But… Yes, there is a but. Wouldn’t learning from the platform creators be entirely different from what the learners teach? At Blueprint, they would be guiding you through every product of theirs and how the marketers could raise a ‘great’ advertisement campaign.

Another reason why you might want to get this certificate is that it is a new Standard recognition to the marketers. The certificates aren’t going to stop with giving you an identification for Facebook marketers. It is going to be your recognition for your skills in the following fields:

Facebook Advertising
Instagram Advertising
Messenger Advertising
Buying and Planning on Facebook properties
Facebook Analytics and Reporting

And once you get your certificate, it is going to be a digitally verified badge that would help you stand out in the virtual world of marketing.

Apart from every other feature I have mentioned above, Blueprint live is another feature of this e-learning process. This session is unique because it is an interactive one. Experts at Facebook conducts this workshop, and it is an ideal way of learning for marketers with 5-6 years of digital marketing experience and/or 1-2 years of Facebook-specific experience.

Although the team has conducted many workshops around the world, they are planning to take it to every possible city they could.

Finally, the coolest reason to try this is that it is all FREE. It is not only free of cost but also it gives you the freedom to choose the course and time to learn it.

Out of curiosity, I have signed myself into the learning process. If you are one of those marketers who has enrolled in Facebook Blueprint, let us have your feedback on the e-learning process.

07 SepResearchSocial MediaSri Lanka

What Should You Do to Take the Lead in Social Media Marketing?

It has turned out into a habit for many to fall asleep on Facebook and wake up on Twitter, and it is one of my habits too. While some use Social Media as a hobby, others tend to make money through it. But in the process of marketing, how far do the Sri Lankan brands do Social Media marketing?

Three reasons made me write this post. Firstly, it is the Social Bakers’ statistics about the leading social media profiles and pages. According to that statistics, I noticed that it is mostly Sri Lankan entertaining sites like Hiru TV and celebrity profiles that are being followed by most of the Lankans, and the local brands don’t top on that overall list. To know further, I checked into the overall profile reach, and I found out that there are brands like Coca-Cola in the top ten. “So why couldn’t the local commercial sites get more fans than the local entertaining sites in social media?” was the only mind voice of mine.

Secondly, while writing about Digital Marketing in my last post, I happen to notice that most of the local marketers think Social Media Marketing is digital marketing, while it is not. And what Sri Lankans think of social network marketing is posting something about their product on famous social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter and boosting them would attract more users.

Thirdly, in my last post, a user commented on what he felt about social media marketing. The one who commented said that some of these pop-up adverts on social media are more annoying than helping us pick the product or even to check the website about the product. The result of all these reasons is the post.

If new to social media marketing, know why you should do it.

With an internet penetration rate of 29.3% in Sri Lanka, the per cent of active social media users has reached 14% of the population. With the entry of smartphones, most of them use social network platforms on mobile. An overall view suggests that the most frequently used social media platforms, especially on mobile by the locals, are Facebook (94.17%), Twitter(2.62%), Pinterest(0.67%), Google Plus, YouTube, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. This usage rate is the reason for one to make use of social media effectively if he/she is into promoting products and services.

Unlike the traditional marketing methods, this social media marketing allows the marketers to interact with the target audience. Through this relationship, a marketer can analyze the preferences of the users and change his way of marketing according to those wish lists of overall consumers. Plus, it is the portal to get a direct and quick response from the customers, and for the customers to know about products.

Guess what? Social media marketing improvises the brand’s loyalty because of the crowd one has on such platforms. Such loyalty is build up through the brand’s engagement with its audience on the platform they use.

One might have a website, but the traffic the site gets is limited. This social networking is a portal to attract more diverse users to the site one owns. The more one is active on social media, the more the page or profile attract the audience.

Another plus is that the platform, Social Media, is free. Let it be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, every platform is open. But, social media marketing tools are not free. There is little cost when using such tools, yet the tools are cheaper when compared to the marketing trends used earlier.

Are you unsure where you fail?

The Biggest Mistakes We See Companies make when they first hit Twitter is to think about it as a channel to push out information.

– Tim O’Rellly & Sarah Milstein

Most of the marketers kicked off into this social media marketing because they thought it is a cool thing to do, and they entered the virtual world with no objectives. This irresponsibility, I would say, has led them nowhere actually. The reality is that having a thousand followers isn’t the only thing about social media marketing because one cannot make money out of it. What one as a marketer has to do on Social networking platform is entirely different. After an analysis of where marketers fail, let’s look into how one could overcome such failures as well.

How often do you update your pages?
Most of the local companies have created a Facebook page, Brand’s Twitter and Instagram, but how often do you update your account? While the media sites and celebrities of Sri Lanka frequently update their page to make fans stick with them, brands fail. Regular updates are quite important to show off the followers that the page is still active and worth following.
About what do you post?
From a user point of view, local marketers seem to focus on posting only about what they sell. But when a new follower check into their social media page, how would he/she feel when he/she sees that everything shared are links to the site? Pretty boring right?
As a marketer, do you monitor your social media sites?
Like the first reason mentioned here as a failure, most of us don’t take social media severe enough to follow it closely. We fail to hit hard with the fact that social media is one of the leading platforms to “catch” audience and customers if used in the right way.
Are you on the right platform?
Everyone wants to have an account on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. But, think. What if your site is not relevant to be on either of those stages, but on stages like LinkedIn and Instagram? Creating a profile on all the social media platform can be stressful when thinking of maintaining them all.
Unsure of when and to which post “boost” option should be used.
The boost option is to attract new followers. Where our marketers make a mistake is, not choosing the right audience, and not thinking of the alternates like “promoting a post.” But what most of the marketers sometimes do is, boost almost every post they publish which would cost them more than they have allocated.

A few handy suggestions to overcome failures

Publish great content — content that teaches people something, entertains them, makes them think or, in some other way, adds value to their lives.

– Brian Boland

Keep the profile updated.
It is very much important to stay active on your page (even more than you are on your profile, maybe). Even if there are days when you couldn’t be updated, maintain a regularity or make use of “scheduled posts.”
Publish random posts.
Don’t stop with publishing about your product; share something you found interesting from other profiles. If you are on Twitter, retweet some tweets from your followers, and let it be something interesting (and that may or may not have to do anything with your product.)
Keep an eye on your social media sites.
There are tools like Buffer that would not only help you analyze your social media reach, but would also assist you with scheduling your posts for a different social media platform.
Choose the right social media platform.
Marketing is not seeking publicity. It is promoting your brand and product to potential clients. Therefore there is no need for you to choose the popular social media platform, but the right one. Know your audience, and know about the platforms available to stick with your followers.
Know your content and choose.
Boosting a post is an option that could be worth enough if you know to handle it. Maybe it is time to stop boosting almost all the post you have shared, and to choose the right one. If you are someone who had made the above-said mistake, start with your “EverGreen posts.” Keep in mind that the “boost” option is to attract new followers, so when boosting let it be a better post. And, do not choose the boost option to make a post reach your “target audience.” Either you could you “promote your post” option for such activities.

Tips and Trick to make the lead in it

Use hashtags.
If you are still trying to attract “like-minded” clients, use Hashtags (#) in your posts. Not all the platforms are going to allow you to use hashtags, yet popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram do allow you. Hashtags allow you to engage as a community.
Maintain a community.
Always remember the primary goal of being on social media: to create a network. Just by posting links from your website, or about your product wouldn’t help you. Talk to your audience, and listen to their thoughts. Create a poll, or make them review your product. Use your creative team to make users get engaged with your social media accounts.
Do some “re-marketing.”
There are always some posts that would bring a new audience, maybe because it turned “trendy” recently. Such posts can be re-marketed with relevant hashtags of the “trending” subject.
Use images, videos, and GIFS.
These are known as visual content marketing. I happen to see most of our local marketers using their Television ad promos as Video sharing on Facebook and Twitter. People who watch your ad on TV and Facebook can quickly get bored of seeing the same promotion. Try to do some new uploads. And make sure that your uploads convey your message as well as has a CTA.

Write according to the platform
It is general to post contents on social media, but some platforms are good enough for longer posts while some are not. For example, Twitter doesn’t allow more than 140 characters, so your contents should be catchy and short. While Google plus encourages long timeline conversations more when compared to Facebook. Know your social media platform very well and change your content according to that.
Marketing plan
If you are a starter in doing marketing in social media, make sure you have a plan. Have a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) framework when planning your social media marketing.

As a follower of some local brands, I happened to notice how such brands handle their social media. I have covered only a few, yet essential suggestion to the local marketers. If you are a consumer, let us know how you feel about social media marketing and advertising. And if you are a marketer, feel free to share your thoughts on handling social media. Let your thoughts flow in the comment box below.

Adieu.