Social Media & Digital Marketing in Singapore

Gary Vaynerchuk – Crush It! – Book Review

Gary Vaynerchuk - Crush It!

I remember the first time I watched a Gary Vee video – his website had been hacked and he was explaining what happened and how he was resolving it and his character and passion just jumped off the screen (you can watch the video at the end of this post).

That same character comes through right off the page in Crush It! as well. This book is not for those who are afraid of change. What Gary presents is a roadmap to understanding yourself, tapping in on your passion and building a brand around yourself to get the job done.

While the book is aimed at the entrepreneur, there’s a lot of takeaway for big and small businesses alike. The 13 step plan he highlights in the book can be applicable to anyone but one thing he emphasises is that while monetary cost may be low, this is going to require a heck of a lot of hours. “Just Do It” isn’t a strategy that’s going to work here unless you’re prepared to put in those hours.

Crush It! is as much about knowing yourself as knowing your audience. Gary Vee makes you think hard about what you think your “passion” is, whether you’re an audio, visual or text person and what medium is best for you and if you’re really going to make it work.

At the end of the day, what Gary Vee encourages is building your personal brand first (not pushing your product in front of people’s face!) and letting that passion energise your audience, grab their attention which then you can monetise later. If you’re willing to do this, for free – it can pay back big time later.

Who should read this book?

If I had to pass this book to someone, I’d pass it to someone still in school or a fresh grad. Never before has having a personal brand and standing for something been so important. Maybe it’ll work against you in some cases – but when you connect with the people who are genuinely interested in you for who you are and what you stand for, you’ll be Crushing It.

Tags: 13 step plan, audio, big businesses, book review, brand building, building a brand, crush it, entrepreneur, gary vaynerchuk, gary vee, just do it, medium, monetise, passion, personal brand, roadmap, small businesses, tapping your passion, text, visual

No Comments | Posted in » Books, online identity, social media

“Just Do It” Isn’t A Social Media Strategy

So you hear the good news that your boss/client wants to get started with a social media strategy. Before you start jumping for joy, does the conversation sound anything like this?

Boss: Let’s get on social media – let’s start with Twitter
You: Why? What’s the objective?
Boss: We’ll think about that later, just do it

If that’s what it sounds like, I can almost guarantee in 6 to 12 months that very person is going to be asking you “so how have we done on Twitter?” and you’re going to say “err but we didn’t specify any goals” and it’s going to be a one way ticket to hell. And you know what? In all likelihood if you’re doing it for the sake of “just doing it”, it’s probably not going to be work you’re going to be proud of anyway.

Instead, the conversation should go something like this:

Boss: Let’s get on social media – let’s start with Twitter
You: Why? What’s the objective?
Boss: I want to use it to improve customer service
You: So we’re going to monitor all mentions of our brand and respond to complaints and rectify them?
Boss: Yes

Replace “Twitter” with “Facebook” or “blog”, replace “improve customer service” with “increase lead generation” or “decrease costs’ and you get the gist.

Ideally it should go even further than this to identify whose time will be allocated to this, how much time and how the initiative will be measured.

You need to do this from the get go. Set the expectation early that social media efforts – while free/cheap – take time. Don’t let your desire to do some social media work/please your boss/please your client get in the way of this. It’ll save you a world of hurt later.

How do you deal with “just do it” requests? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

[image credits: themachobox]

Tags: blog, brand mentions, customer service, decrease costs, facebook, increase lead generation, just do it, leadgen, social media, social media goal, social media objective, social media strategy, themachobox, ticket to hell, twitter

3 Comments | Posted in » Poor Practices, social media, social media business

Blog Birthdays And Turning Two

Blog Birthdays

This past Wednesday was Pat’s third anniversary party for Blankanvas (we all need to have blog birthday parties) and needless to say, the woman knows how to throw a party!

I also belatedly realised that January is this blog’s birthday and looking back on my very first “serious” blog post that was posted the day of my first Digital Media Across Asia class and a lot of that wonder and excitement is still there. The unfortunate thing is there hasn’t been a whole lot of opportunities for me to put what I know into practice. That’s something I really hope to change in 2010.

I think 2009 was a great year for the blog. The focus on local content has been working out well and although my blogging frequency has gone down, I’m still pretty happy with the content I’m putting out. I’m very much experimenting with my writing style (you might have noticed some of my more recent posts are much shorter than usual) and it’s something I’ll continue to be doing in 2010.

So embarking on the third year of the blog, I really hope by the time it “turns three” there’ll be a lot more real world case studies and organisations that can be featured here (and in many company’s case study books) as successes we can take into 2011.

[image via Laughing Squid]

Tags: birthdays, blankanvas, blog birthdays, blogging frequency, case studies, digital media across asia, january, local content, pat law, recent posts, turning two, writing style

2 Comments | Posted in » Announcements

Social Media – What You Say (Or Don’t Say) Communicates Something

Ignore

Two days ago I posted about people being a big danger of social media marketing because of what they might say on various channels without thinking about the consequences.

But on a more personal (though it can be corporate) level, inaction is equally damning.

When someone adds you (the communication professional of the company) on, say, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, and you wait a week before replying – what does that say about you as an individual, and as a representative as a company?

They add you and you accept it two weeks later – they’re not important.

They ask a question and you never answer it - they’re beneath you.

You ask your community a question but then don’t respond to the answers – you’re disinterested and insincere.

In the above cases you’d be better off not being involved in the social space at all.

I have to admit this is something I struggle with personally. Sometimes people I meet once at conferences want to connect on Facebook and that might be a little too personal for me so I procrastinate and before long it’s a month and by then, accepting the invitation lets the other party know I metaphorically sat on it for a month, thus conveying the message they weren’t important enough to accept within a few days.

There’s no easy answer to this question. Some people will be comfortable accepting every invitation, others will be more selective. It’s not so much the style that matters, but being aware that whichever route you choose to take (or not take) communicates something to that person or group of people.

How do you deal with the many requests you get on social channels? Do you ignore some? Ask them to add you on a less personal channel like Twitter instead of Facebook? I’d love to hear from you.

[image from Spraytint]

Tags: communication, communication professional. twitter, company representative, danger of social media marketing, facebook, inaction, LinkedIn, social channels, social media

No Comments | Posted in » facebook, online identity, social media

Dangers Of Social Media Marketing – The People

Assuming you’ve got your product sorted out and implementing a social media programme won’t be a one way ticket to exposing all your product’s weaknesses, the next thing you need to worry about is the people who will be engaging in the social space.

Early this month there was an article in the Straits Times titled “Social networking at the workplace” where 2,008 employees were interviewed. Here’s a scan of the paper (click for larger image, pardon the poor quality, newspaper doesn’t keep very well).

Dangers of Social Media Marketing: Social Network Research

A quick glance at the statistics shows a few alarming statistics:

22% of companies have formal policies that dictate how social networking can be used – This means about 3 in 4 companies will invariably have an employee saying something inappropriate online because there are no guidelines to guard against it.

Only 40% of people “always” considers what their bosses might think when posting something online – So about 1 in 2 employees will run their mouth on channels like Facebook and Twitter to other members of your staff, your clients and maybe even your competition.

And to round it all off, only 17% of companies have a monitoring programme to manage social networking risks – 4 in 5 companies are letting these conversations go on unnoticed, and more importantly, unchecked. By the time they realise this, it will be too late.

The social space is not the place for untrained staff to “play” in. If no one is monitoring internal chatter about your brand and no one is actively educating staff how to behave on social channels, your biggest threats may ironically come from within – your own staff.

What measures would you put in place to prevent something nasty from happening?

Tags: biggest threats, engaging in social space, formal social media policies, guidelines, implementing social media programme, manage social networking risks, monitoring program, monitoring programme, product, product weakness, product weaknesses, social channels, social media policy, social media program, social networking, social networking at the workdplace, social networking risks, straits times

4 Comments | Posted in » Research, Social Networks, online identity, social media

Usability Issues: Stop Frustrating Users With Bad UI

Bad Usability Confuses

I’m not a usability person by training, but I am a consumer and bad user experiences frustrate me.

I love trying new things out. I download apps and signup for online accounts frequently, but very few manage to hold my attention for an extended period of time. Why? It almost always comes down to usability.

Last night I was telling my sister about two “to-do” apps on the iPhone: 2Do and Awesome Note. 2Do is intuitive, easily navigable and understood. Awesome Note was cluttered and a little difficult to understand (though it gets great reviews) – and was deleted in three minutes.

Her experience mirrored mine almost exactly and it really struck home the point that the average person doesn’t have more than a few minutes to figure out how to use your product. If you don’t make it worthwhile in those first five minutes, forget it.

Earlier today I was reading a blog that had a “31 day social media” plan. I entered the landing page for day 21 and spent a few minutes searching for day 1. The embedded search box didn’t work, there was no internal linking back to the beginning and the archive section didn’t seem to exist.

The instant before I was going to forego the whole 31 day plan, I saw a link to “older posts”, and after clicking through about a month of content, I landed back on day 1. But the point is I was this close to giving up on the content not because the content was bad, but because the usability was just so frustrating.

So think about this the next time you send out an email, choose a blog theme or design a website, and try not to frustrate your end users.

[image from deprogramminghour]

Tags: 2do, 31 day social media, archive section, awesome note, bad user experiences, consumer, download apps, embedded search box, internal linking, todo apps, usability

1 Comment | Posted in » Poor Practices, Search

Brainwashed By Seth Godin – A Generation Y View

Cogs in a machine

Seth Godin has a great 14 page pdf on ChangeThis titled Brainwashed.

What brainwashing does he speak of?

..to teach you that you’re average. That compliant work is the best way to a reliable living. That creating average stuff for average people again and again is a safe and easy way to get what you want

Believe you me, no one understands and relates to this statement more than someone who grew up in the Singaporean education system. The system itself is great (I think I benefited from a stressful education) but the mentality of playing it safe is overwhelming.

And so generations of students turned into generations of cogs… We were brainwashed into fitting in, and then discovered that the economy wanted people who stood out instead

Too true isn’t it? That’s why the idea of personal branding resonates so much with Generation Y. We’re not here to fit into pigeon-holed roles. We love dealing with other people who stand out instead of people who blend into the background. It’s a delight to meet someone passionate about their beliefs, even if you don’t share them.

You were being trained to be a compliant cog, someone who could mindlessly follow instructions as opposed to seeking out innovation and surprise

Yes we were. No one is asking anyone to disregard instructions, but it doesn’t mean we should follow them blindly. Just because the your boss receives something that is different from her point of view, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

The rest of the article is really good, and provides actionable tips on reinventing yourself, mostly using social media. Read it. And perhaps more importantly, put it into action. I know it’s something I’m going to be referring to every three months or so just to remind me that I shouldn’t be a cog in the machine.

At this point I want to congratulate my friend Ping from Pixel Pastry who arguably did not get brainwashed and has been unveiled as junior art director at Tribal DDB at the ripe old age of 23. Congrats!

[photo from Elsie Esq]

Tags: average, average people, average stuff, brainwashed, changethis, cogs, compliant cogs, compliant work, disregard instructions, fitting in, following instructions blindly, innovation, junior art director, mindlessly following instructions, passionate, pdf, personal branding, pigeon holes, pigeon-holed, pixel pastry, playing it safe, reliable living, seth godin, singaporean education system, social media, standing out, stressful education, tribal ddb

No Comments | Posted in » Gen Y, social media

In Social Media, Build Your Network Before You Need It

This isn’t new advice. I learned this just over a year ago from Keith Ferrazzi in his awesome book “Never Eat Alone“. And this doesn’t just apply to you as an individual when you need help with a problem, some advice, or in my case a job search – this applies to your organisation if you’re even thinking of engaging in social media.

Something that happens all too often is a company realises it has a new product launch coming up, doesn’t have bloggers to seed to (what a dirty word) and begins the “relationship” process at that point.

That’s too late.

If you do that, don’t be surprised that no “advocates” leap to the defense of your brand when a crisis happens and blame social media.

If you start a blog before you built relationships with other blogs and then get no traffic when you post something, don’t blame the blog.

If you want to push a press release and follow the “best practices” and tweet it at the magical hour on Friday afternoon but no one in your network retweets it because you never engaged with them, don’t blame Twitter.

You need to build that network and goodwill way in advance, so that when you need it, it’s there for you. If you’re thinking about building it because you need it – you’re already too late.

I’d love to hear from either side of the coin: great stories where you invested in a network/community and reaped the benefits or stories as a blogger/influencer where you knew the other party had its back against the wall and was grasping at straws to just get anyone possible for their press event/product launch. The comments are yours!

Tags: advice, advocates, best practices, blame social media, blog traffic, bloggers, build your network, community, engaging in social media, goodwill, grasping at straws, help with a problem, influencers, job search, keith ferrazzi, network, never eat alone, press event, press release, product launch, retweet, seeding bloggers, social media, tweet, twitter

2 Comments | Posted in » blogger outreach, social media, social media business

Questions To Ask Your Prospective Ad Agency

I came across this article titled Five questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency and want to draw attention to two specific questions.

Part of Q3 (What’s your criteria for hiring people?)

And find out for sure how many digital natives your agency’s hired recently. You definitely don’t want them playing catch up.

This I think is huge. And you know what? If the company says they’ve hired 10 new digital natives/Generation Y staff in the last year, ask them to show you a sample of their blogs/Twitter stream/etc to give you an idea of what these people are up to. This is a definite sign, trust me.

Q5

What are five recent creative ideas that aren’t ads?

This could be anything. An interesting use of social bookmarking for internal archiving purposes, running a new project entirely on Google Wave, using Facebook as the new company “intranet” to share information – something that demonstrates out of the box thinking which isn’t client driven – ie there’s some innovation from within.

The entire article is pretty good and definitely worth a read, and so are the comments. Once you’ve checked that out, what do you think? What questions do you need to ask your prospective ad agency?

Tags: advertising agency, Blogs, CMO, criteria for hiring people, digital natives, facebook, generation y, google wave, hiring talent, innovation, intranet, out of the box thinking, prospective ad agency, sharing information, social bookmarking, twitter

No Comments | Posted in » Marketing

The “Right” Way To Use Twitter

There isn’t one.

If I follow you because you’re having personal conversations – that’s the right way to use it for you.

If I follow you because you’re telling me about where you’re eating and because of that I find new places to go – that’s the right way to use it for you.

If I follow you because you share social media links that help me learn something new – that’s the right way to use it for you.

If I follow you because you tweet about Lost and believe season six is going to be the television equivalent of the second coming – that’s the right way to use it for you.

And if I don’t follow you because of something you’re doing (or not doing) – then I’m just the not right follower for you. It’s like choosing clothes – just because I prefer skinny jeans over baggy ones doesn’t mean no one want to buy baggy jeans. Make sure your focus is on them.

It’s okay to have 100 followers who are right for you than 10,000 who aren’t.

Tags: eating, lost, personal conversations, right way to use twitter, social media links, twitter

7 Comments | Posted in » social media, twitter