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With all the social tools available on the internet it’s much easier to have your voice heard, of course that can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you use the tools. Since there is so much noise on the internet you really have to make an effort to be heard and to market yourself, it’s what I call the Personal Brand. It doesn’t matter if you are just out of college or running a large company, the Personal Brand is a great marketing vehicle.

So where do you start? First start with an email address that is simple and identifies you such as firstname.lastname@domain.com not girlzrule@yahoo.com or something to that effect.

Next, I would split all your contacts/relationships into two buckets – Facebook and LinkedIn. All your personal friends should reside on Facebook and all your business relationships on LinkedIn. Imagine posting something personal on Facebook and having a business colleage see it, it might make for some ackward moments. When using Facebook or LinkedIn it’s about the quality over quantity, it’s not a race to see who has more friends or contacts.

With over 500 million users on Facebook I don’t need to describe what Facebook is all about. My simple rule for Facebook – if I have met that person or talked to them in a non-business way then add them to Facebook.

What is more important in building a Personal Brand is utilizing LinkedIn. LinkedIn is essentially Facebook for the business world, but so much more. It’s simple, create your profile then add people that you know and get quality recommendations. The real gem in LinkedIn’s value is the Q&A section, by participating you will get your name out there and people can see what type of individual you are. Anytime someone approaches me for a business idea or venture, the first place I check is LinkedIn to see what that individual has done in the past.

Next up is Twitter, many people still associate Twitter with people tweeting things like “i just had lunch” or “it’s a Monday get me outta here.” It depends on how you use it, if you are building your career in the advertising business, you could tweet about your thoughts on what are good vs bad advertisements. I use Twitter to share articles I find interesting on the web.

The last piece of building the Personal Brand is starting a blog. The blog is really the central piece to the Personal Brand since you can write about topics that interest you in a detailed manner. This assumes you have something worth writing about. Even if you are right out of college start a blog and write about the sector you are seeking a job in. The worst possible outcome is that no one visits your blog, but in the process you enhanced your writing skills and might have learned a thing or two about the topics your wrote about.

With a blog you can even pick your own domain name which effectively makes it your homepage on the web. From there you can provide links to your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter page. By utilizing these four tools you can create an effective Personal Brand and a way to get your name/idea out there.

The above article originally appeared on GQindia.com.

I understand why people want to share their thoughts, status updates, pictures and everything else in between on Facebook. What I fail to understand is the idea of sharing your financial data via services like Blippy, Mint.com or Wesabe. The current security architecture seems so ripe for abuse and hacking it’s not funny. Blippy allows you to connect your credit card purchases to a social stream that ultimately can be piped into your Facebook newsfeed. Blippy had a security snafu back in April 2010 that revealed a handful of credit card numbers but the implications are that something bigger could be looming.

Wesabe just recently shutdown after burning through USD 5 million in VC money (Union Square Ventures backed). Even Wesabe thinks internet security is a big concern, below is what they have to say about security in their farewell letter:

…because Wesabe stores such highly sensitive data, continuing to operate the service with shoestring operations and security staff is not acceptable, and we do not want to continue accepting new accounts if we cannot guarantee the security level we believe our service requires.

The idea of aggregating all your financial data to some online website seems risky to me.  At least in the US if there is a hack attack you can take the company to court and sue for damages.  In India, good luck…imagine 26 years later the Union Carbide case is still going on and that case involves over 25,000 dead people.

Some people don’t care about securing their online financial data and that is fine…I do care. If we look at Mint.com which is a great service that I would never use, they should have an option where I can retain all my data locally. Then if I want Mint.com to analyze the data I can send it to them encrypted. Once they send me the results/advice via email they delete all my financial data from their servers all within minutes.

I think we are still in the early days of online data security and people have a carefree attitude about it. It will take one major security catastrophe to shake people and make them realize the security implications of “over-sharing” their financial data.

Ever wonder how much TV you watch, what are the most frequently watched programs, who do you call the most or when do you make most of your calls? Maybe I’m unique, but I’m surprised with all the technology I have no clear answers to those 4 questions.

We might have the social graph via Facebook, but what about the personal graph or personal analytics. I believe over the next 2 years we will have access to our TV viewing habits and telephone call log being sliced and diced by the most unlikely of sources.

With the introduction of Google TV, I can see them tracking (with permission) all my viewing habits and then making recommendations. Something similar to what Netflix does for movies. Then you can measure what you are viewing and scale up or scale down the viewing. The futuristic vision of 500 channels never quite happened but have access to over 100 channels is bad enough and something like Google TV would revolutionize the way we watch TV.

But, more interesting for me is my phone bill. For years, I would look at the printed bill and think what a waste of paper. They really should have had a one page summary with charts showing your top talkers, time of day graphs, etc. Since the carriers controlled the data they just didn’t care to really offer this. With the introduction of smart phones I can see an app sitting on the iPhone or Android and harvesting my call logs and then spitting out daily/weekly/monthly reports depending on what I want to track.

For me, the ultimate would be an app that would look at my “Top 10″ callers for the week and create a “favorites” list on the fly. Truly personal.

This really is a guide for anyone living outside the five countries (US, France, Germany, UK and Japan) where the iPhone is currently available. But, since I’m based in Bombay it will be from my perspective.

In the past 48 hours I have fielded about 20 questions about the iPhone. So this guide is to summarize the challenges/hurdles of getting an iPhone to work in India. I also got sick of hearing the following from people:

- My phone guy said I can get the iPhone in US and he will unlock it. YOUR phone guy is probably some Nokia loving jackass working from Heera Panna
- Damn, the iPhone costs $200 in the US. FAIL…that’s if you sign-up for a 2 year contract with AT&T. Are you planning on living in the US for the next 24 months, didn’t think so.
- I heard the current price for the iPhone 4 in Bombay is $2000….yeah probably, if people are stupid enough to pay $1000 a sq/ft for sub-par home construction they will blow 2 square feet of their housing budget on a phone.

On with the info. Right now, you face 3 challenges and I’ll go through each one.

1. Getting the actual phone. In the US you can buy the phone from Apple, AT&T Wireless and a handful of big box retailers (read Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc…). The AT&T Wireless Stores sell a “no-commitment” iPhone 4 for $599 (16GB) and $699 (32GB). This means if you are an AT&T customer and want to buy the phone you can. No commitment does not mean unlocked, we’ll get to that in a minute.  All of this assumes there are ample iPhone’s in the supply chain.

2. You got the phone, now how do you unlock it?  The guys at iPhone Dev Team have come out with a jailbreak/unlock for the iOS 4 for the iPhone 3GS. BUT, they have not tested the jailbreak/unlock on the iPhone 4 hardware since it’s been out for only 24 hours. If they can’t issue a jailbreak/unlock right away, you will have yourself a very expensive paper weight.

3. If you have cleared the first 2 issues then the last one is easy.  The iPhone has a new micro SIM card format, which means you will need to cut your existing SIM card to the new format.  Luckily, there are tools that accomplish this and honestly you can even do it without a tool.

So what am I going to do? Funny you should ask. My wife landed into NY on the day of the launch and will spend the next 10 days there, so enough time to try and get an iPhone from AT&T Wireless and hopefully by then the iPhone Dev Team will issue a jailbreak/unlock.  But, I’m not holding my breath…I’m more positive of getting an officially unlocked and non-contract iPhone from the Hong Kong Apple Store and not deal with all this jailbreak/unlock crap I’ve had to “enjoy” with my first gen iPhone.

Update: Apple Store unlocked and non-contract prices:

France – 16GB @ €629 ($750), 32GB @ €739 ($885)
UK – 16GB @ £499 ($722), 32GB @ £599 ($866)

Update 2: Apple Stores in the US are selling without a contract for $599 (16GB) and $699 (32GB). Thanks @pjain

A little under 6 years ago I started to write a blog mainly to have a “voice.”  In the past 6 years I have met many people because of the blog, brushed up my writing skills, got some hate mail and overall it’s been a great experience. However, over the past 6 months I’ve been getting a bit bored with the topics I have been covering (anytime I start to write about cars, you know it’s a slow news day). I’m not putting the blog to rest but going to write maybe once or twice a month as opposed to a blog post every week.

Instead, I will be focusing on finally getting a real “voice” with audio. Today, I’m launching a podcast with a co-host that covers business and technology from our perspective of being on the ground in India. It’s called “The DotMatrix Show” – connecting the dot…of biz and tech in India.

The co-host is Sahil Parikh who has similar views and passions but also many times we agree to disagree on stuff as well. You can subscribe via iTunes or visit our website to check it out.

Last week at the Facebook Developers Conference (termed f8) they released a simple yet powerful feature called the Like button. In a single line of code any website can become part of the massive Facebook matrix instantly. Sites such as the Wall Street Journal are already serving up Like buttons and it adds a whole new dimension. Now when you see an article on cnn.com and notice some of friends Like an article, you can judge the social context of the article. Is the article “liked” by your business friends, family friends or friends that like tabloid trash.

The Like button concept is not new. It’s been around for years, digg.com was one of the early social news aggregators. Digg over the past few years has been sputtering around and it’s CEO Jay Adelson was shown the door early this month. Kevin Rose, the founder, is back at the helm and was the internet poster child in 2006 when he was on the cover of BusinessWeek. As for digg, I see more and more sites adding the Like button and will most likely have it along side the digg button and other similar buttons. But honestly, who is going to sit there and press 2 or 3 buttons. I see someone pressing one button if they like an article and that button will be the Facebook Like one. I also see Facebook working with big content providers and “suggesting” they have only one button – theirs.

It’s a brilliant strategy too extend Facebook’s reach beyond the facebook.com domain. An example of someone executing this concept one step further is the site http://likebutton.me. It aggregates all your friends that have “Liked” stories and overlays it onto an easy to view grid.

Over the past several months I’ve been trying to crystalize my thoughts over the current rage of social media. It all came together when I saw the following quote (via Lifehacker):

Don’t Mistake Activity for Achievement

- John Wooden, legendary basketball coach

Lately, I’ve noticed many people asking me if I’ve joined their Facebook Page or followed them on Twitter.  Social media is another marketing medium for a product/service. With no upfront cost people are creating Facebook Pages and using Twitter, for the first month they are posting and updating on a daily basis…then most likely it dies.

First, you have to decide if social media is really going to help you.  If you are selling industrial products probably not. Just like I would not advise someone to blow money on a print/tv campaign if they are trying to sell an email marketing service such as Constant Contact or MailChimp…know your target audience.

Actually, it goes further back is your product/service awesome.  If you believe it’s awesome that’s the first step…you have to be fully engaged and eat, sleep and breath it.  Without a great product or need, social media will just help you publicize what a pathetic product/service you have.

Sahil sums it up – Content is still king. (his blog)

If you were to ask me 6 months ago about social media consultants (SMC), I would have said pour yourself a tall glass of STFU and go sit quietly in the corner.  But, SMC’s are like an advertising firm who can help you generate ideas and implement them…but can’t commit to success. I’m sure Porsche does not go to their advertising agency and say we want to implement the new Porsche Panamera campaign and you have to guarantee 1,000 units are sold…not going to happen.

It brings me back to the original point of the quote, people that are spending time tweaking their social media strategy should really be focusing on how they the can improve their existing product/serice. Just because you are updating your fan page or tweeting about some article on TechCrunch ain’t gonna cut it.

Should you plan your business with a 25+ slide deck and 30 page business plan or just get out there and start?

Part of me thinks you should plan your business strategy but more then not I tell people just do it and get started. There is no way in hell you can predict what is going to happen in 6 months much less talk about customer acquisition numbers in month 26 of your start-up.

My advice to start-ups has always been the same, spend a couple days and create a 10 slide pitch deck.  Even if you are not looking for funding the process allows you to simplify and clarify what your goals are.  After that fun exercise get back to work and focus on executing and creating the product or service.  The first version of the product/service will not be perfect and that is okay.  Get it out to your intended audience and wait for the feedback. If there is no feedback, then it’s back to the drawing board.

By know you are wondering what is with the image in the upper left corner of this post. It’s the icon for a Mac Twitter client called Tweetie. Tweetie was created by Loren Brichter, who claims he was never a programmer when he created Tweetie.  Recently, Tweetie was bought by Twitter and Loren will now be working for the mobile platform team at Twitter.  Loren is a great example of someone who got out there and did something. He left Apple and ended up creating Tweetie because all the Twitter clients at the time were not that great. It’s safe to say he didn’t create a 30 page business plan. You can watch the full 30 minute presentation he gave at Stanford talking about Tweetie - iTunes link.

Excellent quote from John Morgridge, former CEO of Cisco Systems. I heard the following quote from him during one of my trips to San Jose where he was speaking.

Business plans are like peeing down your leg, it gives you a warm feeling but it doesn’t do anything for you.

Update: Many people have emailed me for a template of the 10 slides.  Download a great presentation that talks about how to pitch and also the 10 slide template.

It’s official, Bloom Energy has revealed what it has been working on for the past 8 years…and it looks impressive. KR Sridhar the co-founder of Bloom Energy previewed the Bloom Box on Sunday on 60 Minutes.  I happened to be watching a DVR’d version of it on Monday and was blown away by it. If it lives up to the hype then its a game changer for the world.

Something that caught my attention was the fact you won’t need to be on the electrical grid if you have a Bloom Box.  Applying that logic here in India, that would be HUGE.  Since the electrical grid in India is missing most of the time or if you are on the grid the grid is not on.  Think I’m kidding, my dad’s village in India get’s about 10 hours of electricity a day…in this day and age. And sadly that is pretty much the story all over India.

The Bloom Box could transform India and solve its age old power crisis.  Of course, that would also mean many companies that are building power plants are gonna get body slammed in the process.

So where did Bloom Energy come from? That is an interesting story and slowly being told. To get over USD 400 million in venture financing and stay under the radar for 8 years does not happen often.  As far as their first customer Google, not really surprising since the VC firm KPCB backed both Bloom Energy and Google. The lead partner John Doerr I’m sure worked his magic to get several Bloom Boxes to the Googleplex.

So what’s with the title of the post? Think of the song “Boom Boom Pow” by Black Eyed Peas.

UPDATE: Kudos to Bloom’s PR agency for blanketing every medium to get the word out. 60 Minutes interview, Times of India coverage, Engadget live blogging the event…

UPDATE2: It appears Bloom Energy has 2 developmental offices in India, one in Bangalore and another in Bombay . The one in Bombay is located in Vikhroli which is a Northeastern suburb.

The smartphone OS battle is finally starting to take shape and I’ve decided to take a closer look at what the marketplace has to offer. Years ago the most critical thing that people would store on their phones were the actual phone numbers and most likely that got saved to a SIM card. Now, phones a have a wealth of info on them and utilizing some sort of smartphone OS is a must. There is no point in getting a cheap phone and then realizing you can’t sync your data, if the only option is to manually enter in the data…that is a major #FAIL.

From my perspective there are 6 players in the battle to be Number 1, I’ll go through each one:

6. Nokia/Symbian – Wow, these guys have really lost there way.  10 years ago Nokia was the phone to have in Asia/Europe but now they are quickly losing market share.  Even more pressing for them is that their Symbian software is withering, no real programmer is programming for the platform. And in today’s environment it’s all about the apps that run on a phone. Symbian reminds me of the IBM OS/2 days – Big company, no new customers and zero apps.

5. Palm WebOS – Not even former Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, current CEO of Palm, can save them.  The OS is stunning and slick, but they don’t have a chance with some of the bigger players down the list.  They should just open source it and work with the smaller cellphone makers.

4. Windows Mobile – Bloated.

3. BlackBerry – About a year ago, I was singing the “BlackBerry will die in 18 months” song, but I’ve changed my tune.  BlackBerry seems to have really put the pedal to the metal and appears to be doing well. I recently had the chance to configure a new BlackBerry for email and it took me 5 minutes, compare that to the first BlackBerry I bought 5 years ago where it took me 30 minutes and my current iPhone which takes about 7 minutes.  Kudos to the kids from Canada…welcome to North America.

2. Android – 2009 was supposed to be the year of the Android, that didn’t really pan out. The recently launched Motorola DROID phone is a customized version of Android and is said to be making waves. I expect a ton of new phones from Samsung, LG and HTC to flood the market and bring the prices down, which are currently hovering around USD 400-500 for a phone. The Android Marketplace has not taken off but that’s also driven by the fact that not many Android phones are in the hands of the consumer. 2010 seems to be the year for the Google Gang.

1. Apple iPhone – Beyond being an Apple fan there are some real business justifications for it being the king of the OS. First, they completely changed the game with the app store, this is not only a way to keep people on the iPhone platform but also another revenue stream for them – 30% to Apple and 70% for the developer.  Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows have been around for years and not one of them thought about offering a store but once Apple announced, they all announced their intentions.  Where Apple excels is that developers not only create programs for the iPhone but also the iPod touch (I believe over 80 million devices combined). Since both devices have the same screen size and resolution the user experience is the same and saves on development costs. Whereas, if you program for the Symbian/BlackBerry/Windows/Android every device is different – screen size, resolution, physical keyboard, etc…which leads to long development timeframes. The iPhone OS still has a way to go in terms of features but is quickly gaining and in the meantime grabbing hugh chucks of the market share.

Once again, with all these options the consumer is the real winner and should lead to lower prices and more features in the future.