Twitter Interview

with Mihir.S.Bijur (@MihirBijur)

The thirty second twitter interview was given by Mr. Mihir.S.Bijur on 27thJanuary 2012.

• He is working as a Social Media Manager at Shaadi.com since October 2008.
• Earlier he worked as a  Consultant at Hanmer MS&L (Public Relations) from March 2006 - August 2008

Browse the site http://mihirbijur.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-is-embee.html  to know more about him...
 

Jobzing.com would like to thank him for his time....

Q1 : If you were written about in the newspaper, on the front page, what would the headline say?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - “Indian Man Finds His Work-Life & Wife On Twitter”

 

Q2 : If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. With whom would it be?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - I'd like to trade places with my mother. She has alone fought circumstances & the world to make me the man I am. I’d like to imbibe her power of self-belief & determination.

 

Q3 : Tell us about a time when you were able to step into a situation, take charge, muster support and achieve good results?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - There are many personal experiences, but I'd like to share a particular one that touched my heart.

 

Bindaas TV used to host this one show called 'Beg Borrow Steal with woof', where they involved a Labrador in the host’s journeys filled with travel & tasks. The host was a petite girl who could not handle the dog on highways and had lost grip of the leash several times, which the channel aired with shock value to raise TRPs.

 

I was worried about the dog & happened to question the network on Twitter. The network replied explaining that there was a professional dog handler 'behind the camera' to ensure the dog's safety. This was useless as the dog meeting with a serious accident would be a split second act & the handler would never be in time to save the dog on National highways.

 

When I questioned the network about this, they stop responding. This is when I started a Twitter campaign, bringing in all dog-lovers & animal activists together to teach the network that a dog's life isn't any less precious. I tweeted news about the show, photos & videos of the (mal-nourished) dog. We managed to get thousands of people together. This is when a popular celebrity who is associated with PeTA & Abhijit Da got into the picture & made a few calls. Before we knew it, the channel was summoned to attend a meeting with the Animal Welfare Board that very evening. All this happened in a matter of hours. The power of Twitter!

 

Q4 : Can you tell people about what "Angry Brides" is all about?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - According to NCRB's 2007 stats. There is a dowry related death every 4 hours in India. With the progress the country is making on the global front, it is extremely disheartening to know that such a concept even exists today. With every new generation, there is a need to remind them of this menace & a need to condemn it. Angry Brides is Shaadi.com's way to throw a spotlight on the menace of dowry through popular game-play.  This is the link to the gamehttp://facebook.com/shaadicom

 

Q5 : What steps or methods you have taken to promote "Angry Brides"?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] -‘Angry Brides’ is about empowerment of women, their life, their justice & we are very happy that global citizens & world media have supported our fight against dowry from the day this anti-dowry campaign was launched. Everyone from Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, TIME magazine, Fast Company, The Telegraph (UK) to India’s own Times of India, Hindustan Times, Economic Times etc have written about ‘Angry Brides’ and helped spread awareness on this issue.

 

‘Angry Brides’ was also trending on Twitter for over 9 hours & has been going viral around the globe for over 14 days & counting! This is one of the few cases on Social Media, where a campaign has reached such magnitude with the entire world supporting it together, at the same time. As an Indian, I feel proud that this campaign was Indian.

 

Here’s a glimpse of the kind of global support ‘Angry Brides’ received.http://bit.ly/yZcKYd

 

Q6 : What message does Shaadi.com want to deliver from "Angry Brides"?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] -The message is simple & strong. “ A women will give you strength, care & all the love you need… NOT dowry!”

 

Q7 : How did you get the idea to start the hash tag #embee on Twitter?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - As my bio states, I am an absolute music maniac & cannot even work without music playing in my ears. I have been active on Twitter since 2008 & used to read tweets with the hashtag #NP & #CLT where people simply tweeted about the song they were listening to. Well, what good is a music recommendation, if a person only reads about the song but cannot listen to it?! This is where #embee comes into play. #embee is a category of songs recommended by people, where each song comes with a link to play it. Simple concept, maximum impact. It started off as my personal #tag but people caught on to it real quick & starting recommending songs that others can listen to. It got so popular that we started a ’11 pm #embee show’, where people would pick a day & music genre, then log on at the decided time to recommend brilliant tracks of the decided gene. Amazing fun!

 

Oh yes! It is accessed by lakhs (& growing) people around the world! Here’s an archive of some brilliant #embee recommendations by people. http://bit.ly/wW1Sf3

 

Q8 : What hardships did you have to overcome during the pursuit of your career?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - I have always enjoyed interacting with new people, love writing & expressing my views. So, Social Media turned out to be a boon for me. It is something I have always loved. Something with immense power to change the world. The only possible hardship I have faced is convincing a few people to foresee the power of social media, as I did. As I always say ‘Never argue. Let time prove a point’… and it did!

 

Q9 : Which attitude does not work for you at workplace?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - I am one of the lucky ones. The management believes in the power of social media as much as I do. They have always supported me in my quest to explore & conquer. Whatever I have learnt today is because of their undying support.

 

Q10 : How do you stay current?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - Not just me, the entire world media now stays updated on current affairs via Twitter. It's amazing to read all the important news before it's even aired on TV. So much so, that I have stopped watching news channels for months now. I also read news through RSS feed on my Android. Doesn't get better than that.

 

Q 11 : How would you describe a perfect job?

 

[ Mihir.S.Bijur ] - A perfect job is the one where you do what you love & your organization supports your love with their love, trust (& finances ofcourse ;)