Today I am very proud to share an exclusive interview of an exclusive personality I met on twitter, @v_shakthi.
Shakthi Vadakeypat aka v_shakthi on twitter is a Software Engineer with 15 years of professional experience. Hails from Chennai India, He had worked in various positions, from Lab Administrator for a network of Unix Servers to Senior Project Manager (IT Infrastructure).
Shakthi is a twitter junkie; he loves to tweet on social media, technology, humor, internet news, mostly to engage with his friends and his more than 30k followers on Twitter.
I was surprised when I discovered him on twitter some 6 months back and since then I was following his activities, his way of engaging, approaching and the way he made his credibility between the vast numbers of people which is undoubtedly impressive .
This interview is focused on @v_shakthi opinion on social media, his likes, his tweeting secrets and more…
1. Since when you are tweeting and what was your first impression about twitter?
I have been tweeting since Jan 2008. My first impression of twitter was as a time pass tool where I could chat with a lot of people.
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2. What is one best feature of twitter you love and why?
Retweeting (RT) is the best feature of twitter that I love. A single RT increases the visibility of a tweet exponentially and gets you hitherto unimagined visibility and reputation. RT is the most powerful feature of twitter and will always be.
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3. What is one thing which you hate about twitter and why?
Stalkers and Spammers are the bane of twitter. You see , anonymity is allowed on twitter and many people use it as a tool to hurt / ridicule others .They forget that they themselves are hiding behind a veil and launch scathing attacks on people . I have seen this phenomenon make a lot of my good friends even leave twitter for good. We need to do something about this fast. Otherwise twitter will get spoilt soon like Orkut.
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4. This is one most common question being asked by most of the new twitter users “How to increase followers”? What are your tips?
There is no magic formula for getting followed. You just need to tweet sensibly, have a clearly defined twitter strategy, create a trusted ring of friends and tweet things that are contemporary and not trivial. It takes perseverance and a lot of hard work to get followers on twitter. It is all about building trust and relationships. Twitter is about sharing and not selling. Remember that and you will do good!
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5. Would you like to name any top 10 twitter users everyone should follow?
@zaibatsu @cheth @kim @Jason_Pollock @FlipBooks @rM1L @2morrowknight @Lotay @AskAaronLee @RuhaniRabin
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6. You’ve updated more than 80,000 tweets. What are the benefits of twitter?
Twitter has unparalleled benefits in the visibility and reputation that you can build with it. The sheer power of twitter lies in the number of people on it and the volume of information on offer. This power comes with great responsibility and needs to be handled with care. We should take care of what we say and about whom we are saying things. Care also needs to be exercised when expressing opinions about religion or groups. Twitter is like molding clay, in the right hand, it is ART, in the wrong ones…..
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7. What are your favorite twitter applications?
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8. Twitter is the 10th top website in India by Alexa (facebook is #4 and orkut.co.in is #7), still, to my personal judgment majority of Indian twitter users don’t find twitter interesting .What do you think about this?
We Indians are brought up in a shell, talking in school is punished and even our schooling discourages communication skill development as a malaise, although we are educated, we are not expressive. That is why you are seeing this trend. We are a much closeted society and we need to come out of the shackles and be expressive. Twitter is just another platform for expression.
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9. What else you do other than tweeting? Any hobbies, likes etc.
Blogging, Writing, poetry. Reading…
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10. Which is your second favorite social media website after twitter?
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11. Any real life experience related to twitter which you like to share.
Twitter has been a great boon to me. In times of personal grief and stress, many of my twitter friends have stepped in and helped me out. I am forever indebted to them and twitter for improving my life. I will never forget them and those days of tribulations.
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12. Social Media is a complete new name in Indian web market, what is your take on it. Are we ready to adopt social media in our real life?
No, India is not yet there, if you look at the internet penetration in India, you will understand what I am trying to say, social media is enabled by the internet and our country is lagging behind seriously in internet penetration. The farmer, the teacher, the scientist and the Governor – all need to have internet for social media to click in India.
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13. Would you like to share the day you always remember on twitter?
Every day since Jan 2008 has been memorable for me on twitter.
{ 1 comment }
Nice interview