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1.       Each time the train is late, people would tweet and complain to @IRCTC. Which means IRCTC and #TrainLate would be trending 365x24x7.

2.       If each train was available on Foursquare, people needn’t carry their ticket. All they need do is check-in! Considering this, the TTR would be the mayor “always”.

3.       Just like Dell Hell, IRCTC would have “Rail Fail”. And for this the Govt. would form a Committee to look into the matter and submit a final report to the CBI.

4.       Each time a train arrives on time, it would be celebrated as a milestone event in its Facebook Page.

5.      Pinterest would be loaded with boards named Rajdhani Ki Jawaani, Shatabdi Ki Aabaadi, Intercity Ki Badboo, Duronto Ki Duranth…. Etc.

6.       Instagram would be decorated with vintage photos of IRCTC’s vintage food.

7.       If IRCTC ran a Social Media Campaign with something of the sorts of ‘free-ticket-to-anyone-who-tweets-when-train-late’, it would be the largest and most successful SM campaign in the world. EVER! But it would also mean that IRCTC would be shut down in a week.

8.       Having its presence on Social Media would also mean people would be able to directly interact with the engine diver.

The tweets would read something like:

·       @CryingKid: Mr @EngineDriver, could you please stop the train. My candy fell out the window. I’ll share half of it with you 🙂

·       @TrafficPC: @EngineDriver You drive like this on the road and your fine would be enough to pay my kid’s school fees.

·     @InAHurryDude: @EngineDriver Buddy, if you reach the destination an hour earlier, I promise to send you a friend’s request in FB. #PrettyPlease

·      @CrazyPhotographer: Could you take the train 1km in reverse? I took a photo of the scenery but had forgotten to remove the camera cover!! #DumbMe

·    @TTR: @EngineDriver FOR GOODNESS SAKE listen to the people!! My TL already looks like the lyrics from an Eminem Album :/ #Help

 9.       Fail Whale would become the better known homepage of Twitter if IRCTC ever made a Twitter Account.

10.    FLASH NEWS:

Today:

In order to widespread the use of Google+ in India, Google has tied up with IRCTC. Now all queries towards IRCTC can be asked on its G+ Page.

Next Day:

Google+ gets 20 million new members in a day. All from India.

Next to Next Day:

Google records 1000% increase in traffic on Google+.

Next to Next to Next Day:

Google+ down due to server overload. #GoogleMinus trending.

11.    Ticketless travel would no longer be fined. The individual would be asked to write positive comments on IRCTC’s Facebook Page, Tweet positive about it and write a 500 word blog post on the topic “IRCTC – Heaven on Wheels”.

12.    As a replacement for Tatkal System, tickets on Tatkal Quota would be given to those who invite maximum number of friends to like IRCTC’s Facebook Page.

13.    On Google Searching the word “late”, IRCTC’s website would top the results.

IRCTC

14.    Based on Angry Bird’s Facebook Game Model, IRCTC would enable passengers to ‘Brag’ if they ever reached their destination on time…… EVER.

Anyone who is able to “brag” more than twice a year would be eligible for ‘India’s Luckiest person Award’.

15.    And, if people tweet to @IRCTC_Food their choice of food, with their date of journey, Train and seat Number, it’ll be delivered to them.

(Statutory Warning: IRCTC Food may or may not be injurious to health. Eat at your own risk.

Issued in Public Interest by @IRCTC_PassengerWelfare)

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Well, I’ll be frank with you from the start. It wasn’t exactly the first page. Or any page if I am to be true to myself. It was all a result of a prank which no one cared to verify about. And it ‘might’ have had become news too even before people would have cared to find the truth behind it.

It all started with a few of my friends – @rameezhere, @dubliyublog and @fuzzhead045 trying to get #OccupyUniCal to trend, to proclaim our open frustration towards our University. I too joined in the fun and came out with all sorts of jokes about the University (most of which were actually true!). For example the case when a guy passed the exam without even appearing for it and another guy passing the exam when he copied from his friend’s paper and both of them had different electives! All the stories, if jotted down, would be worth a novel!

So then, coming back to the ‘almost’ TOI story of #OccupyUniCal. Here’s how the events turned out over the past couple of days.

22 March 2012 – 11:50PM I sent out the following pic, supporting #OccupyUniCal

23 March 2012 – Full Day Me and most of my active friends on twitter sent out hilarious tweets supporting the hash-tag #OccupyUniCal

23 March 2012 – 11:30PM With an “evil grin” on my face and a prank in mind, I upload a photoshop’d pic, with the tweet –

“Looks like #OccupyUniCalDID Trend for a while!! Kewl!! Anybody noticed??”

24 March 2012 – 6PM By this time most of my active friends on Twitter had either Retweeted or atleast seen the above pic.

24 March 2012 – 7:31PM A correspondent from TOI tweets me and my friend @dubliyublog saying –

“I’m reporter of Times of India. Want to do story on unical. Reply asap. 944xxxxxxx”.

Needless to say I was ROFL and LMAO!! Since I lost my net connection at that exact time, I was not able to reply back to him.

24 March 2012 – Around 10:30PM I text messaged the correspondent apologizing for the delay in response from my side. He tells me he would call me the next day and get the story from me. Soon enough, I reply to his mail explaining to him the whole situation as just a prank with the concept of the prank actually meant as an initiation to actually encourage more people to tweet about it. I also ask him whether he would be able to make any news out of the first pic (The pic on top).

25 March 2012 – 5:29PM Not hearing anything from the correspondent (whom I sincerely presume was out for a sensational and not sensible news), I post the following tweet with the given pic-

The Story of how  trended in a single day with just about 40-50 tweets!!

BANG!!

Then began a chain reaction of @Replies on Twitter to all my friends :D. Couple of them see the lighter side, couple of them do not. But hey, all’s well that ends well! At least for me things turned out to be pretty good! I got more clicks on my Tweet than I have ever had and a TOI reporter even contacted me for the news! Sheesh! What more could I ask for? 😀

But all the same, this ‘experiment’ did teach me an important factor about the Social Audience- in the rush through to consume information, many people fail to check, or at least think about the genuineness of the news they read. People are so interested reading things they “want-to-read”, that at times they even stop thinking for themselves! How else can you explain to me that people believed a hash-tag trended with just 90-100 tweets by 7-8 users?

Well, I am no one to judge anyone. I intended my prank to actually be a prank and nothing else. But finally it turned out to be more of a kind of Social Experiment.