Puzzling over privacy

When I went for a walk on the beach with my cousin a couple of Sundays ago, I did not expect to find myself in a Facebook video shot and shared by someone with more than 2,500 friends. We were at Clifton Beach, the most publicly accessible and over-developed of Karachi’s shores. Plastic wrappers, soda [...]

Creepy or inevitable?

Imagine my surprise some weeks ago when I found this photo on an ad on my Facebook page, plugging a freelance writing site. Here was a woman who looked eerily like a younger version of my South Asian mother, asking me if I was looking for work as a writer. I’m South Asian. I’m a [...]

Twelve ways to get retweeted

Social media wizard Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book, has won rave reviews from industry players like Guy Kawasaki and Brian Solis. Zarrella was in Washington, D.C., recently for the Gov 2.0 conference and led a presentation on why certain pieces of content go viral. Ideas do not spread because they are “good,” he said. [...]

Go, Go, Gov 2.0!

I’m covering Gov 2.0 for SmartBrief this week, live-tweeting from @sbosm in the mornings and blogging for the SmartBlog every day. Here’s my post for today, on how to improve your content’s chances of going viral. Watch this space for an expanded version of Dan Zarrella‘s advice in the next couple of days.