The Journey
Traditional media stream being my starting point in New Media, I stumbled upon it about ten years ago when I ventured into blogging. Being a News Editor for Radio news for over three years, I’ve also had the opportunity to explore Social Media and its impact on business and marketing, with respect to Srilankan media organizations.
After a rare opportunity to visit the head offices of the big players in Social Media; Google, Facebook and Twitter and a few invitations to share my experience in the arena I decided to get serious about learning and sharing my knowledge with the Srilankan community, which I foresee would get serious about Social Media in Business and Marketing in the year 2011.
The Ship
If social media was a journey, then blogging would be my ship. This blog is just a starting point, where I will be using it as a journal to record the steps I take down the Social Media avenue, a place for my personal opinion and insights to Social Media, a hub for the results of research and experiments that I would be conducting and a place to discuss with like minded and curious individuals.
Northern Stars
This page would not be complete if I don’t take a moment to thank the people who were my Northern stars in this journey . . .
Knowingly or unknowingly, one of my former CEOs, Chaminda Wickramasinghe was the first person to direct my social media explorations into actual use in business. He was one of the very first ‘digital thinkers’ in Sri Lanka who in my opinion, foresaw the huge potential in social media in Marketing. I mean, at a time where most organizations are blocking Facebook in Sri Lanka, how many CEO’s do you think in early 2009 would tell you to get on facebook and open a page for your organization and learn how to promote it and encourage your colleagues to post comments on the page?
A public lecture on Web 2.0 at the American Center in Colombo was the first instance that I realized what Facebook, Twitter and blogging were all about. Here, I learned the impact and the opportunity with Web 2.0 that further encouraged me to experiment with various SM platforms. Later in March 2010, The American Center also granted me the amazing opportunity to embark on a five day tour in the U.S. to learn about Social Media in traditional media, along with 30 other journalists from all over the world.
Later on in last year I received my first ‘paper qualification’ in social media when a group of us from various backgrounds followed a 6-day webinar series on SM, organized by the American Center and conducted by Angelo Fernando. Angelo invited me to guest blog on his prestigious blog, the Hoi Polloi Report, which I consider a great honor.
Following the first ever Tweetup in Sri Lanka – TweetupSL, which was held in Colombo last year I became seriously active on Twitter and started ‘networking’ like never before. It opened my eyes to the huge opportunity in Twitter as I found a personal mentor and guide in the form of Rohan Vimalachandran in London. He has been encouraging and guiding me to get onto this path on my own and opened my eyes to the potential in me to become an activist in Social Media.
And.. Who Am I?
I’m Indulekha. I work for a local media network in Sri Lanka handling their web content and social media accounts. I love social media, web apps and testing out new web apps. I enjoy researching and reading as well as writing – including poetry. I love movies, music and singing. I’m an active member of the Contempo choir. I currently reside in the suburbs of Colombo with my two adorable kittens, Trinity and Neo.
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I suddenly saw this site. quite interesting. Good luck