Tushar Mangl's Blog, page 8

5 Things to Love About Honey & Dough Gurgaon

Honey & Dough, a premium bakery brand from SDA, Delhi, opened up branches around the Nation's Capital as its name flourished. One region still not covered by them was Gurgaon and I often wondered why?
Recently, to my surprise, an invite popped in, for the launch of their outlet in Gurgaon at Golf Course Road, or if you prefer new names, Gurugram at Raghvendra Marg.

Amazing place, couldn't find much to complain about the place, here are 5 top things I liked about the place.

1. The Location - The ground floor of the upscale office tower, Two Horizon Centre at Golf Course Road, is already occupied by Foodhall and Cha Bar.  The area is easily approachable and the whole office and residential area around makes up for a lively crowd.

2. The Menu - For a long time now, Gurgaon has been wanting for a true blood coffee shop and bakery which goes beyond the cocktail and Beer thing. The menu is filled with all the usual baked goodies, with healthy salad options, some fast food add ons and a detailed beverage menu.

3. Ambiance -  With all those granite walls and high back chairs, you feel you are in a five star Hotel Lobby, except that this is a smaller space. Still, very comfortable and regal vibes.

4. Almond Croissants - Okay, this is going to be a separate point altogether. I just loved their Almond Croissants, when I visited them. They sampled me with some fresh bakes and having baked some in my time, I can say they were the best I have ever had.

5. Pricing - Its not a discounted store for sure, but marked well as per market rates. But the value add ons like ambiance and location, the price looks reasonable.

Of course the constrained space amidst a heavy rush at the outlet can be counted as a -ve. But overall a great place to sip a coffee, eat and talk your heart out. I have added some pictures to stories at my Instagram account @tusharmangl in case you wish to see some of the highlights of my visit.

7 Effective Influencer Marketing Hacks

Influencer marketing today is fetching huge Returns on Investments (ROI) and any influencer having a fair amount of followers is being approached by the brands for promoting their products. It is a pointless question to ask if influencer marketing is effective or not. It is found that influencer marketing attracts higher-quality customers because social media affluent people are more likely to recommend products they see on social media to their family and friends. 

If you are an entrepreneur and looking for ideas to invest in influencer marketing then you are looking at the right article.
1.      Perceive the right influencer: First things first, finding the right influencer is the most important. For this, 2 things have to be kept influencer mind; firstly, the brand or product that you want to market and secondly does the influencer you are going to choose to have the kind followers who are going to consume your product. If this one is done right then one the rest of the steps will follow automatically.
2.      Giving mid-level influencers importance: it is not always that top-level influencers will deliver results. It is a myth that top-level influencers are the only ones who are good for promoting your brand. It is to be understood that mid-level influencers also have a decent number of followers over social platforms and they are well capable of promoting your product.
3.      Consensus ad idem: It means that there is a common understanding between two parties. It is really important that you negotiate with your choice of an influencer with whom you want to do the marketing. To be able to stand out from the traffic of emails that an influencer gets you to need to send a really crisp email that provides all the details of your product and links as well so that he gets a clear idea of what you want of him and what he has to deliver.
4.      Be clear with the concept yourself: To be able to maximize the benefit from influencer marketing you need to know the concept more than anyone. Only then you can decide on its implementation and take the right decisions. To know about influencer marketing do check out the article ‘The Basics of influencer marketing’.
5.      Target Influencers of Social Media: Influencers of Facebook and Blog are found to attract more customers compared to influencers of other platforms. This is because nowadays influencers target the youth and this way the attraction is more in the form of youth hence, the consumption of the product is better. Therefore, targeting influencers of social media yield more results.
6.      Channel the content through the paid campaign: The content that your influencer creates can be channelized through your paid Ad campaigns so that the projection angle increases and it reaches a larger number of people. But for this to happen first you need to take your influencer’s permission or else you could land in legal trouble.
7.      Right support tool to bring up your A game: Without the right tools implementing influencer marketing strategies are impossible. There are plenty of tools to help you with influencer marketing, for example – there are search engine tools to choose the right influencer for your product, tools that excel at tracking and monitoring earned media, etc.
As influencer marketing is becoming more and more effective the competition is becoming steeper, these are the hacks which will give you an edge over others out there in the digital world. Good luck!                 

5 Fiction Books to Read this Summer of 2019

Last week, I shared a list of books I would strongly recommend you to read this summer. I purposefully, made two lists, one for the non fiction genre, and another for fiction. This is to give you the choice as per your chosen form of reading. 
So what should you be reading from the fiction bookshelves this summer? Here are a few books I say you must read.



1. Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Genre - General Fiction

This is a profound story of a town obsessed with hockey. Fredrik Backman is an exceptionally talented storyteller and he puts his skills well to sketch detailed characters and narrate emotions.
You don't have to a hockey fan or an enthusiast to relate with this story following a town ice hockey team. This is the story of friendship, betrayal, community and the meaning of life.
Be prepared for a heavy read when you pick up this book. If you love it, you can pick up the sequel too. Its titled Us Against You.


2. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Genre - General Fiction

The story of young August Pullman is a recommended read for people of all ages. Born with deformities, his unusual face grabs lot of attention from his new school mates. What I liked the most about this book was how it deals with subjects like compassion and acceptance. As we read through the story narrated from different people's point of view, it manages to strike a chord with the heart and the soul. This book was first published in 2012.
3.  Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
Genre - Romance

Listed among the Best Books of 2017 by Goodreads, Without Merit is a book to read in the comfort of your reading nook. Especially if you like to read late nights. We are introduced in this book to the Voss Family, who live in a former Church. The story of Merit Voss and the way she holds on to her life and deals with the family drama has been told with perfection. The narrative is so powerful that it makes the story most unique.
4.The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille 

Genre - Crime

Some books are just meant to shake your soul and this is one of them. This crime fiction was first published in 1992 and a movie on the same starring John Travolta was released in 1999. Epic movie and an epic read, this follows the trail of Paul Brenner who is out investigating the mysterious death of Captain Ann Campbell, a rising star in the Army. 


Adding to the twist is the fact that Campbell's father is a renowned General and the way the rigid Army structure looks upon its women. 
5.Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

Genre - Young Adult Fiction

Counted among the best literary minds of our times, Green and Levithan team up on this book to craft an unputtable read. At the crossroads of life, to teenage boys come across each other. Both are named Will Grayson and this book traces their life , their relationship with Tim Cooper and the vagaries of growing up.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Well, apart from the above mentioned books, with full bias, would also recommend you to read Six Degrees. Being part of this book, has been one of the momentous journeys for me as an author. In September 2014, BlogAdda ran a #CelebrateBlogging initiative and the top 3 stories were featured in this book. I was lucky to be part of the team Potliwale Baba, whose story was selected to be added to this book.

So what are you planning to read this summer? Share your thoughts and ideas for summer reading and opinions on the books mentioned above.

Influencer marketing:2019 and Beyond

It is fair to say that influencer marketing is a major part of promoting brands and projecting it to a greater mass through the followers of influencers. We can all trace the history of influencer marketing back to the time when it was first introduced or to when the term was first coined. But the real challenge is to see which way it is headed to. It has sure come a long way and has delivered to its fullest potential. In this article let us see where influencer marketing is headed to after all these years.


Let’s take a look at the present scenario of influencer marketing and how is it working to have a better understanding. It has been found in a study that 25% of influencers would reject an offer that has a strict and rigid contract. It goes without saying that in today’s digital world anyone with a fair number of followers is an influencer. Hence the scope for them is high this gives them the independence to accept offers according to their choice.
83% of brands are ready to increase their budget for influencer marketing. Yes! You read that right, that’s a staggering figure to give you an idea of how dominant is influencer marketing in the digital world. There are many brands spending a lot to get their desired of influencer who they think to can project their brand better even though that might exceed the budget but, they are ready to take that call because the influencer of their choice would make up for the extra allotted budget through ROI (Returns On Investment).
It is to be noted that 73% of brands check their appointed influencer’s audience health manually. it doesn’t matter if the brand has been able to establish its presence in the digital world, there’s always a scope of improvement. And the brands are now down to a cut-throat competition that requires them to be at their toes always. This gives rise to extra efforts such as checking manually the influencer’s audience strength and health.
These are just not facts about influencer marketing but these are the indicators indicating in which way marketing about influencers is heading. Don’t take these numbers just as digits, it shows the future of influencer marketing. It denotes that influencer marketing is gaining importance day by day and it doesn’t seem to just stop after appointing the influencer, now the companies have begun to monitor the influencer and are ready to take the next big step for influencers that are taking care of influencer’s followers. This goes on to show how the digital world has evolved into and how things are going to be in the future.

5 Non Fiction Books To Read this Summer of 2019

I am flooded with requests for recommendations for books to read as I keep updating my reading progress across Social Media. Sharing 5 top picks, I would recommend to everyone wishing to read Non Fiction this summer.



Goodbye, Things by Fumio SasakiMinimalism is not a new concept or a trend. But its a sure way to deal with everyday stress and duress of routine life. This is a simple book by Japanese author Fumio Sasaki and is themed around new Japanese Minimalism. Published in 2017.
2. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande is a Doctor by profession and a prolific writer. All of his books have been bestsellers in their own right. In this book, Dr. Gawande covers the simple topic of Checklists and how they can crack the complexities around us. It gives us a unique insight into the history and relevance of Checklists in our everyday  life. Published in Winter of 2009.
3. The Land Grabbers: The New Fight Over Who Owns the Earth by Fred Pearce 
First published in the Summer of 2012, this book just opens your eyes wide to the startling realty of what's happening around you. For its not about simple land grabbing but massive acquisitions of swathes of land.  And its happening everywhere on the Earth, giving a few the control of gregarious amounts of land.
4. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell is a celebrated author and brings deep insights to his works. The Tipping Point is one such exceptional book written by him. It talks about how little things make a huge difference, how for example epidemics are caused. A brilliant read to stimulate your brain. This book was released in 2000 and has been popular ever since. 
5. The Idol Thief by S. Vijay Kumar
The story of Idol thefts in Southern India is a riveting one with the loots of Indian Temples being discovered abroad. It covers the journey of some very talented and genius officers of the governments of India and United States. They diligently worked on this case and uncovered a crime most spectacular. Published in 2018.
______________
Of course if you want, you can pick a copy of I Will Do It, my latest book, a very brief text to  motivate your self.
_________________
Let me know what are you reading? Especially in the Non-Fiction genre? Also, your thoughts on the books above? Over to the comment section_________

OH MY GAME announces New Opening in Ardee City Mall!

Leading amusement center chain offering one of the biggest Laser Tag arenas ‘OH MY GAME’ announced on 27 MAY 2019, Monday the opening of its third center in Ardee City Mall adding one more feather to their cap. Located in Ardee City, Sector 43, Gurugram OMG witnessed a grand launch beginning with ribbon cutting ceremony, then followed with some exciting events.
The newly opened gaming center is owned and operated by Aakritti Sethi and her brother Sahil Sehgal, who currently are running two more centers based out in Gurugram. The other two centers are located at Good Earth City and DLF Phase 2 who have already earned a lot of love and support from the people of NCR. The newly opened center plans to deliver entertaining and adventurous games and activities like Laser Tag, Arcade Games, Bubble Football, Bumper Cars, bigger Soft Play Area for kids and many more fun activities for one's entertainment.
“OMG is speeding fast on the road to expansion. We now have three company-owned centers in Gurgaon, all opened in a short span of three years, and now we want to share more joy of live gaming fun, by opening centers in multiple cities through a self-owned business model, as well as through franchisees” says, Aakritti Sethi, Co-Founder, OMG.
A woman entrepreneur giving opportunities to Gurgaon’s corporate world and households to entertain themselves through their amusing and exciting games with mouth-watering food. A multi-storeyed gaming area, well equipped with slides, ball-pools, swings, trampolines and a separate bumper car area for all the bumping session. Oh My Game also organizes birthday parties and corporate events for team building session.
About OMG: Oh My Game is a fun-filled, one- of- a- kind entertainment zone located in Gurugram, Haryana, offering a wide range of amusement activities and team building opportunities for children, teenagers, and young adult alike. Oh My Game offers a wide range of activities including arcade games, bumper cars, soft-play games for children and a wide assortment of food and drink. The perfect arena where fun, excitement, suspense, and adventure all come together to create memorable moments just the way you want them.

LinkedIn and Freelancers

Who is a freelancer?Any person who instead of being employed in a company chooses to be self-employed and work with clients independently is called a freelancer. Basically, this is an alternative type of employment in which that person wants to work without enlisting himself/herself under a company or brand. They get work through various sources and perform a variety of tasks.


Why LinkedIn?Here is where LinkedIn comes into the picture. It is the best digital marketing application or site of today. There are hundreds of companies that are running Ads for employment and recruitment, this gives the perfect opportunity to the freelancers to develop a connection through LinkedIn and get business. In the last 5 years freelancing business in LinkedIn has increased at a staggering rate of 50%. This means that LinkedIn is also taking freelancing business seriously and continuously improving the tools to increase business connections for freelancers.
All a freelancer needs to do is to enlist himself on LinkedIn and fill in the required details and the services he wishes to provide. This way a profile is created, now it is time to market the profile and let other companies who want a service of the existence of this profile. So, this next step can be called creating a presence on the digital platform.   
Prospects for a freelancer Building a connection: LinkedIn provides an essential tool of chatting with your clients on their server. This way all the queries can be cleared beforehand and both the parties can be sanguine about the business they are going to have.
Efficiency: Over time LinkedIn has proved to be an efficient medium for freelancers. It is not too difficult to make connections and get your clients. If the marketing strategies are chosen wisely then there is ample amount of scope in LinkedIn for freelancers.
Recommendation: This part is always a USP for any business, the moment you get a recommendation you stand out from others and this is exactly the case in LinkedIn. People review your profile and you get ratings. In a way, this works as a recommendation which boosts your profile and your chances of landing a client increases manifold.
These marketing strategies are for freelancers who want to make it big through LinkedIn. Now it is up to you to get to work and start building connections. Hope this is helpful, good luck!

Marketing Real Estate on LinkedIn

Marketing real estate on LinkedIn is very simple today, all credits to the user-friendly tools that make marketing so much more innovative and unique. The design and templates let one chose his desired format of marketing. It the marketing strategy that makes all the difference at the end of the day. This article is for you if you are looking for tips for marketing at LinkedIn.


Setting up your Real Estate Profile To set up your Real Estate Profile you need to follow these simple steps and you’ll be done in no time – ·         Choose a professional headshot and upload it. The photo that you chose must be a decent one and one in which you look confident enough. ·         Get a suitable background picture, this step isn’t that simple as it sounds as the background picture is the first thing that anyone notices and from there on, they browse your profile.
·         The mojo of your Real Estate business needs to be very clearly conveyed through LinkedIn hence write the descriptions carefully and make it as interesting as possible so as to keep the customers interested.
·         Now comes the trickiest part. Writing a summary. Do write a summary for your profile that will be interesting. Here what counts is writing your achievements as people often judge a man’s work by looking at previous achievements.
·         Choose a URL. This will redirect your customers to the site of which you have written a summary of helping them understand your work better.
These are the steps that you are required to launch your profile on LinkedIn. All these steps are easy but they are to be done with attention to detail. One mistake and your profile could end up in the wrong leads.
Why Real estate on LinkedIn?
 Real estate is a business that needs buyers for the increment of the business. LinkedIn is one of the platforms that has millions of buyers as well as sellers who are looking at real estate properties for lease. This is the ultimate platform which will get you buyers and good connection.
If the above steps are followed properly then creating an eye-catching content will be an easy task to get loyal customers. This will not only increase your business prospects but also it will be a good step towards taking your brand to the next level. Another important thing to do is to join the Local LinkedIn Professional group. This will help you to connect to people outside your network without using in-Mail credits.
Hope this article helps you with most of your queries and doubts, keep trying and keep optimizing according to the changing situation. Good Luck! 

From the Biggest Gamble to Largest Democracy in the World

Let the Journey begin

It is just a matter of a few hours from now that the results will be declared for the 17th Lok Sabha election. On this note let us look back at India’s history with general elections. How all these started, who were at the pinnacle of power and how things turned out different from what everyone expected back in the year 1952. Lots of questions? Let’s make it easier for you. 








From the Beginning

This incredible story of India is nothing short of a dream come true for its people. The first general election was held in the year 1951-52. Back then India was a newly decolonized country with an aspiration to have a people’s government. At that point of time to actually conduct an election was a very decisive step because it was just after the partition which saw the largest human displacement in history. It was a time when the displaced people had lost their home and their means of livelihood was gone. To conduct an election of that country which couldn’t feed its people properly was one of the bravest steps that marked the beginning of a ‘new India”. Political observers named this election as the biggest gamble in history. 

This term ‘biggest gamble’ came into the picture because back then India was a newly liberated country that was earlier ruled by the British. The British left but the patriarchy stayed in India. The female voters were not given any recognition prior to this election. So, it was a humongous amount of work that India’s first election commissioner Sukumar Sen had to do. He identified all the voter including all the displaced people who moved from Pakistan to India, got them listed in the voter’s list and then got the female voter identified by their own name for the very first time. Earlier women were regarded as ‘wife of’, ‘daughter of’ in formal documents. This is why the term was given by the political observers because nobody knew if this would come off as a free and fair election, whether the voters will turn out or whether the people will accept this transformation. Lots of questions were left unanswered at that time and nobody was fully convinced that it was the right decision to conduct a general election. The Transition from an Interim Government to a Democratic one

After all these uncertainties the time had come in the months of January and February of 1952. It was anticipated that only a few numbers of voters will turn out to vote and most of them would be men. Alas, proving everyone wrong the voter’s turnout out was 80.5% in the first general election ever conducted in free India. Even the female voters turned out in large numbers and caste their vote for the very first time. This is when the biggest gamble paid off and India saw her citizens matured enough to establish a democratic government. 

The voting procedure was completed without any problems what so ever. It was then time to declare the results. The result was very predictable, Congress had done the majority of work to free India from British rule just had to remind the citizens of its history and it did exactly that. Congress won with an absolute majority and Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of Independent India. This marked the beginning of the Congress era. 

It was the new India everyone visualized that was finally taking shape and maturing into one of the biggest democracies the world could ever imagine and Congress swept the polls in all the general elections to come in the near future. Thus, the biggest gamble became a landmark step that India took to establish democracy.Uni-party in a Multi-party System

India was under Nehru’s administration from 1952-64. India was growing as a developing nation, guided by Nehru’s unique NAM policy for external affairs. This is the time India saw major reforms and increased legal rights of women. Many new development schemes were introduced like the five-year plans that made Congress a big name in every stratum of the society. Hence there was no competition for the Congress as it delivered results just like it had promised.

Although there were multiple parties and other independent candidates they failed to secure vote as Congress was a ‘Rainbow Like Social Coalition’ that appealed to every section of the society. Hence the other parties lacked a solid campaigning agenda. 

Things took a turn when Mr. Nehru died in 1964. it was then that the leadership was in jeopardy as it was Nehru who had been leading from the front. Now the question arose after Nehru who? The question was answered in the form of Indira Gandhi. She was the one who started to fill the void that had been created after Nehru was gone. End of an Era and the changes in the Political Scenario

The 1977 Lok Sabha election marked the end of Congress era with Congress securing the lowest number of votes of all time till then. It was after almost 6 years that election was held because the then prime minister declared an emergency and all the civil rights of the citizens were curtailed for a period of 19 months. The scheduled elections were canceled as the Republic of India was under threat. Though it is debatable if India was actually under threat or not. Hence in the immediate Lok Sabha election, Congress received its all-time lowest vote. 

This completely changed the scenario of Indian politics and the opposition leaders understood that to defeat the Congress they need to unite and be on the same team against their common enemy. This brought into play the concept of alliance politics. Which was a vague idea till then.

Hence the scenario of politics changes completely as Alliance politics got stronger and we can see that in recent past how different alliances have been chosen by the citizens of India. This gives us an idea about how the political scenario changed and the journey of India to her 17th Lok Sabha election has been full of ups and downs. 

Now it is completely different in term of the instruments used, the agendas, the procedure of campaigning. It has been an eventful journey for India from the 1st to the 17th Lok Sabha elections. This gives us a glimpse of how India has emerged as the largest democracy in the world and have maturely handled the transition from one government to another. 




I know what is going through your mind right now. Are we going to see another era of the NDA alliance tomorrow? Well time has the answer for this question.

Pros & Cons of Organic Facebook Marketing

The term organic marketing is known as a process of gaining loyal customers in a natural way and through over a long period of time. This method does not involve any paid marketing strategy. It significantly reduces the cost of marketing by showing a plethora of contents and attracting customers.
Now, on Facebook, the process of providing the users a huge amount of content from which the potential customers can pay attention to the content they can relate to is known as Organic Facebook Marketing. It works as the users are shown your advertisements as well as directed to your page, this distribution is non-paid and doesn’t work on a paid structure. This method brings into play another crucial term into play i.e. reach. Reach is the number of people one can reach out to at a single time with his advertisement. Reach factor is highly responsible for the number of people who engage with your content. If the content is good and innovative then the reach will be greater and you can get a lot of traffic from it.
Then again, often we see that one produces a unique idea of advertisement with good content to promote his brand organically but with Facebook filters working to tailor make every Ad experience, the reach is affected in a large scale. Hence marketing organically doesn’t only require the content to be great but also the process needs to be channelized in such a way that the advertisements are tailor-made for every. This way the reach will be greater through your content.
Merits of Organic Facebook Marketing One must realize that marketing organically requires patience and that it will bring positive result in the long run. Even if the content is not doing well and the reach is falling one must not lose hope and keep trying for organic marketing is the best to get loyal customers and create more authentic customer engagement. To make this happen to make sure that your business shows on the free online directories, gain visibility and showcase your dexterity to increase the connections and expand your business network. Most importantly be aware of the trends. Is the concept of hashtags getting on your nerves? Hashtags are the most useful tools to understand trends and to keep a watch on the content that you’re are creating if that according to the trends. These are the ways that can get you your desired result through consistent efforts.
Demerits of Organic Facebook Marketing
Why is it that after telling everything good that we come down to the minus points of any topic? Because like everything in this world there’s a flip side to organic marketing as well. ·         Now let’s face it, there is more advertising content than there is space in the news feed. We need to understand that there is only a limited amount of space in a person’s news feed. Roughly there about 30 billion pieces of content are being created every month and we need to more space on the news feed to project our brand.
·         Facebook provides the most relevant Ads in a person’s news feed, as a result, it is very difficult to reach out to new customers who have a different taste and as a result a very different viewing history. ·         The advertiser count on Facebook has exceeded 4 million, hence the competition is massive to make it through the filters of Facebook and to be projected in News Feeds.
Broadly these are the reasons that are responsible for the decline of Organic Marketing that has forced the entrepreneurs to promote their brands through a paid structure of the advertisement.