How Vocabulary Develops

 Right now, we all know what Remdesivir (or Dexamethasone) is, or what devices are used to measure Oxygen levels, or supply Oxygen to patients. Or have learnt that antibodies are good for us-they are not against our body. In other words, a lot of words about health or medicine.

In 2004, we were at IIM Bangalore for our batch (84) get-together, when I first heard the word Tsunami. It had started in Indonesia, and spread till India, causing huge damage. 

What I am trying to get at, is we get familiar with words that we need, more than others. If you are a writer, you may need a lot of words of all kinds. But for an average Joe (or Jane), we probably need a couple of hundred words for everyday use, and 2000 for non-everyday use. If you don't use it, you may lose it..the word!

But I do look up word meanings from Google (it has replaced maps, dictionaries, thesauruses among other things), and not just English words/phrases. It helps to make sure what I am saying is intelligible to most. I write a blog, you see, I have to be careful..

Digital Marketing- A Primer

This is a term that is used to the point of abuse. Every third guy you meet is a digital marketer, just as, a few years ago, every second guy you met was a web designer.

anyway, as it happens, our digital marketing consultant was here to discuss our plans for the coming year or so, and I gathered a few useful facts from his presentation which was livelier than many I have sat through over the last few years.

There are essentially three types of media that you have a choice of using for digital marketing/communication-

Own media- properties that are 'yours'- a website (personal or corporate), an official/personal page on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter, a blog, etc.

Paid media - these are ads on Google Adwords (Search can be free too, subject to your activity level and relevance to keywords that a searcher types in), or any of the social media that permit ads. Email campaigns might also fall into this category, if you are paying either for address capture or the process of mailing and follow-up.

Earned Media- These include things like Word-of-mouth, sharing of your blog, facebook post or tweet, or pin.

Some of these media (paid mostly) offer a targeted campaign by any demographic that they measure and you can think of. Return on Investment is easily measured too. Lead management system can be integrated with some of these, to follow up on people who have clicked and filled up contact details.

Enlightening; there may actually be light at the end of digital marketing tunnel!