Rajiv Dingra has been a digital media analyst and social media evangelist for the last 5 years. WATBlog’s chief blogger & the CEO of a leading social media consultancy firm WATConsult, Rajiv is a well known prolific Blogger & a young dynamic entrepreneur who started WATMedia Pvt Ltd four years ago and has excelled in carving a niche for himself in the Digital Media Industry. His social media expertise lies in understanding the Indian Mobile and Web Space. He has been a part of several digital media panels like Digital media Conclave, Yahoo Digital media and Eximus – IIM Bangalore event & is a prolific speaker. He is on the jury of The Bees Awards (San Francisco). In an exclusive interview with Freshersworld.com, he talks about his life, social media and future plans. Q: You are young and successful. Please tell us about yourself and your struggling days? Rajiv: Hehe.. I think you are wrong on both those assumptions. I'm not young anymore. Young in the digital space is someone in his teens who is creating the next big thing. Larry and Sergey did it with Google and then Mark Zuckerberg did it with Facebook. There are umpteen other examples as well of people in their early 20's doing so in the West. In India thats taken time. I'm 25 so not really early 20's but I'm much wiser and sharper than I used to be. I am more patient as well. Earlier I was impatient, easily excitable and also over enthusiastic. I think all of this helped in pushing the bar and finding gold where there was none. What it did was instilled an attitude of relentless hardwork whether or not it bears fruit in me. With regards to you calling me successful. I don't think about life as success or failure. I think of it as constant process of achievement. Achievement is ongoing and so is success. If you ain't dissatisfied with your current state you wont change it and hence you wont progress and hence you wont succeed. Hence inorder to succeed regularly you need to be grossly dissatisfied with who you are today and what you have achieved. The hungrier you are the farther you will go. Q: What was that idea which has now successfully grown into WATblog? Rajiv: The idea was to share and to showcase my knowledge in digital media. The idea was never motivated by money or business returns and probably thats why it has done well. I genuinely felt the need to share my thoughts on the digital media piece. I believe anything done because you want to and not because you have to will lead to success. Q: The majority of people in India are on Orkut but now the trends show Facebook is fast catching up. Do you think facebook is the future in India? Rajiv: I don't think either is the future. Facebook will definitely grow and not only in India but the world over. But India still seems like a more mobile friendly market than most others. We would be foolish to think that what we see today is what will remain tomorrow. The innovation piece has not even been scratched as far as India is concerned with respect to mobile social networking. The long term winner could be a totally new player if you ask me. Q: Do you think social media can help freshers in job hunting? How? Rajiv: For sure it can. Why only freshers it can help anyone. Today you do a search on Twitter or Linkedin and you will find 100's if not 1000's of prospective employers. The opportunity for you is to showcase yourself well and communicate your strengths on the right platforms. Q:Rajiv Dhingra is a social media expert. What is your general advice for young and budding freshers, where they can create their own blogs and online communities? Rajiv: My advice is to be an honest voice. Try being yourself in whatever you do. If you do that no matter which platform or community you are a part of, you shall make a difference to that community only if you bring the real you and your opinions, advice or knowledge to the table. Courtesy: beta.freshersworld.com