Dear Mr Sood, I have been a member of that site & sorry to say, if you surf there, you will find their acceptance for advertisements at the very end of their home page. Secondly as jayant has pointed out; a site need to be relevantly popular to entice or to grab attention of marketers. This retail port, as per a site meter holds about 50000th rank in India where advertisers have more than 49000 more lucrative options.
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ujjval jain, Retail, Retail
| 03 23 2010 14:50:36 +0000
I would welcome it.... I feel social networking is the one tool for marketing.... If I am joining a forum there would be a reason either common interest or common opinion ... If there is a common interest means its a marketing ... business relation means involvement of interest ... Social networking helps in bonding and interaction between contacts. Wish to mention specifically that it should have proper filteration techniques so that only relevent information can be displayed without compromising the ethics, quality and transperancy of a communication.... I also found several connections here whose are having the material of my interest ... and I am utilising that. I never care toostep will block my id .... i believe in free voice to air ....
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Nitin M Aras, XYZ
| 03 22 2010 07:18:57 +0000
Totally agree with Ujjwal and Deepti here and Makrand still Toostep has a long way to go interms of becoming more popular, it doesn't have that WOM culture as other social networking sites like Facebook and others have, this site is somewhat different from others and has a different business angle I guess. And may be it will become a big job portal in future as we are seeing an increase in the number of job sites lately on Toostep. And this will be an perfect amalgamation of both job portal where one can find their potential candidate and a place to showcase their skills interms of social networking feature which is there at the moment, and it is left to us to create that WOM with others by making Toostep a default site where one can get solutions to everything....and for that to happen we need more users and their active participation interms of looking after their communities and moderating them well enough.
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Jayant Vishnu, Art Director/Sr Art Director, Creative
| 03 22 2010 07:02:08 +0000
Thanks Makrand sir for initiating this topic & referring it to me. But I beg to differ & I completely agree wid you Mr. Ujwal Jain…very well said sir. As we have considered & accepted too-step as a social “media” platform then we just can not separate media [any form of it] from advertising [read commercialization]. They supplement each other.They are just like two sides of the coin… Advertising….being one of the core functions which yields revenue for any business & to expand its clientele + scope, certainly it is the need of hour. I don’t think that commercialization can cause too step to loose its uniqueness or its charm at all. We all, members of too step along with moderators n promoters can [& will] manage & maintain it in tact [clean +informative] as it is our moral responsibility. I wd welcome this change wid positive thinking if it happens because it will be a add on advantage for me rather for every too-step member, & moderators can make efficient use of the benefits received by giving it back…………...more value to its members & by getting more members too…
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Deepti Kulkarni, HR Manager, Con-Air Equipments Pvt Ltd
| 03 22 2010 05:46:20 +0000
Makrand that is a valid point but toostep being a different sites from others here there are not so much of ads like other sites normally have, but when interactive marketing which is taking off like anything where when some discussions are happening people are relating to a particular ad and not an overdose of it... So it would be great if it stays at interactive level and not more than that.
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Jayant Vishnu, Art Director/Sr Art Director, Creative
| 03 20 2010 10:53:52 +0000
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Since I am a beginner in this forum and found very very good for the professionals of experts, I am unable to decide. Therefore I would prefer the collective decision taken by the senior professionals at TOO STEP in this regard.
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NATTERAJA R. ARIKRISHNAN, AREA SALES MANGER, UNIFLEX CABLES LTD
| 04 06 2010 18:02:01 +0000
Dear Makrand, Agree we must avoid it and find other sources to generate for necessity. and dear Mr Ujjwal Jain, Would you still buy the newspaper if you have difficulty to locate news within ads? Drawing lines is extremely important to differentiate orderliness from mayhem.
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Ravindra Sharma, Managing Consultant, CHEF-India
| 04 06 2010 06:38:13 +0000
Quick thoughts to add to my early post. @ Jayant – Inspite of being a dedicated portal, has exchange4media.com not lost its appeal amongst its users. Was it not what campaignindia.in is today? To me, commercialization has shown on the former, lest latter also falls to the lure. @ Ujjval – A dedicated retail portal, indiaretailnews.comsure has been there for long now and is sustaining without advts at all. @Makrand - hope you agree with the thoughts and observations The platform be a dedicated or social, blocking space for advertisements only spoil the look and usage.
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Navjeet Sood, Business Head, ADI Media Pvt Ltd
| 03 23 2010 14:21:59 +0000
Thanks Mr. Makrand for starting this debate. I believe that toostep is a platform for sharing ideas, knowledge and may be advertising some job openings or so. But advertising one's products or services without that thing having any intrinsic value would make the site loose its true character (which i suppose every member believes is the dispersal of knowledge). Ignoring ads is under the control of every member but nonetheless it does act as an irritant. We are already seeing some useless debates going on like "Whether India will be a big market for Twitter" and others, so lets not stoop toostep's standards further by introducing ads for irrelevant products as part of some marketing adventure.
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Sanjay Suvarna, Senior Software Developer, a MNC
| 03 22 2010 09:39:45 +0000
Good to have raised this debate, Makrand. No difference of thoughts on this. To connect socially on a platform as TooStep is one of THE things you wish to do but have my high reservations on it being THE thing on being commercialized. Now, though it could be done with many options but I would seriously not approve if TooStep starts accepting advertisements to commercialize it. Though it is not one that is defined for any industry / segment specifics, but seeing advertisements really puts you off and usage is sure to drop drastically. To make business sense out of running TooStep, they are welcome to use other means but blocking space should be the last resort.
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Navjeet Sood, Business Head, ADI Media Pvt Ltd
| 03 22 2010 08:02:00 +0000
Dr. Ahmad thanks! Jayant, Davies thanks a lot for neing here! I agree partially to what you say Iayant. Interactive would mean a magnet to marketeers. We have a host pf marketeers here but I am quite surprised to say (and thankful at that) that the toostep promoters have managed this site to be clean and have managed it beautifully. Does it mean that they still have a long way to go before they hit the popularity charts for marketeers to take notice?? OR do you think that its a deliberate attempt by the promoters to keep it as clean? It is my own conclusion that maybe they want to ensure that good job portals should make use of it!! Your take :)
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Makrand Bhave, Marketing & MICE, WIZCRAFT International
| 03 20 2010 12:11:57 +0000
Thanks for the referral Mr. Makrand, I agree with your point that if toostep .com would commercialize them selves it they would lose their charm. As already pointed out this is a platform, unlike other social networking site, where people from different industries meet up and discuss a topic and put in their views and thoughts. Discussions carried out on this platform are healthy and thought provocative as well as informative. Where as if this site is commercialized it will become just like other sites, and people might get either more interested in the adds given or else frustrated by the pop ups (They can be a menace at times). I for one am totally against commercialization of this site.
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Dr Ali Ahmad, Medical Superintendent/Director, Surbhi Hospital
| 03 20 2010 10:18:30 +0000
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