Archive for the ‘Singapore’ Category
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Saturday’s conversations at SMB3 was about blogger outreach programmes (the theme was set way before I received the email) and I think it’s apt. I’ve had conversations with people from various companies asking “How do you decide who to invite?” or “How do you decide who are influencers?” or “How do you quantify influence” and such questions. Clearly who the companies are associated with is a key priority by people both on the agency and the client side. The trust issues in the local blogosphere just means that companies who dare to venture into it, need to take note of some things.
First to the companies: It’s scary but this is not new. Any decision from which newspaper you associate yourself with to which celebrity endorses your product, runs the risk of external events happening and aversely affecting your company by association. Be cautious, not scared.
Here are a few steps you might want to take when deciding who to reach out to or associate your brand with:
1) Credibility & reputation over reach
Reach is an old metric. It doesn’t matter that a blogger (or for that matter, a publication) can reach tens of thousand of people, if no one takes that particular source of information seriously. In fact, associating yourself with a blogger who has a bad reputation that reaches out to tens of thousands online, may do more damage than good to your brand. In essence, you’re much better off finding a fledgling blogger with a solid reputation and small following, and allow the following to grow.
2) Follow the blogger for a decent amount of time
Seeing as how a blogger is viewed in the community can change literally overnight, it would be prudent to follow their blog for awhile before deciding if he or she is a good fit. A couple of good product reviews doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Consistency is the key.
3) See how he/she deals with conflicts
Issues and conflicts pop up every now and then, the important thing is to see how the blogger deals with it. It could range from name calling and personal attacks to open honest discussions resulting in agreeing to disagree. I don’t need to tell you which is preferred.
4) What does the community say?
Ultimately, I find this to be the true litmus test. It’s not really about what the blogger posts, but the community’s reaction to it. What they say in the comments, what they say in the forums, what they say in outbound links. It’s the easy and lazy way to just read a blogger’s content and gauge, but doing proper research means looking at what others say too.
These are just four points that came off the top of my head, I’m sure there are more so feel free to add on in the comments!
Tags: blogger conflict, blogger conflicts, blogger credibility, blogger influence, blogger outreach, blogger reach, blogger reputation, influencers, smb, social media breakfast
Posted in Singapore, community, social media | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 18th, 2008
Yesterday I talked about the trust issues surrounding our tiny little blogosphere, and I can imagine companies rolling their eyes thinking “not again”. But there actually are a few learning points here:
1) It’s a good thing
Think about it. If you’re organising an event and people are actually bitching and being sore about not being invited/attending, that says something. People hating you isn’t a bad thing. People being indifferent is the worst possible thing that can happen. I would’ve felt much worse if no one turned up for SMB3, compared to people thinking it was so exclusive that there was a blacklist in effect.
2) Stuff like this will happen
ie: Be prepared. If it’s going to happen, it will happen online, so you should be monitoring what’s going on. How you react to it, in what manner and via which medium should be decided too. Sometimes it may not even be worth acting on, depending on the credibility of the bloggers involved.
3) When stuff like this happens, trust your “antibodies”.
I don’t do much to monitor my blog besides checking my inbound links and having a Google Alert set up. Invariably I’ll miss something, but like the person who sent me the email, other people in the community highlight it when people are starting flames. It’s the same for any organisation getting involved online. There are going to be people who jump at any chance to launch an attack, but there will be those who will defend you. I personally feel the most important thing is to trust your supporters or “antibodies” because they will be your first line of defense, and probably the best line of defense.
4) The earlier you realise you can’t please everybody, the better.
No matter what you do, there are people who are going to find fault with it. Is it worth your time placating them, or should you spend the same amount of your time building relationships with your supporters? It’s really your choice. Again, not every instance of a disagreement and/or attack warrants a reply. In fact, sometimes silence may help the situation even more.
That’s it for today, what other concerns do you think companies would have entering this space? Tomorrow: How do you decide which bloggers are “safe” to align yourself with.
Tags: antibiodies, bloggers in singapore, blogs in singapore, local singaporean blogosphere, singaporean blogosphere, smb3, social media, social media breakfast 3, trust issues
Posted in Singapore, collaboration, community, social media | 1 Comment »
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
Sheylara and I were just talking about Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 3 and talking the pros and cons of expanding the team, one of the cons being politics, especially in Singapore’s blogosphere, where overnight, friends can become enemies and form opposite posses.
I got emailed by someone anonymously (the person went through the trouble of creating an email account just to send me this email), showing me the contents of a private Plurk between some people with fairly malicious content about me, my blog, Social Media Breakfast and my professional life.
I only know one person personally from that private Plurk, so I messaged the person on Facebook asking what was going on. It’s seemingly turned out to be a misunderstanding and I take it as it’s sorted out, but I don’t understand how people can have so much malicious intent inside them, especially towards someone they don’t even know personally.
One of the issues behind the misunderstanding was that the person thought there was a “blacklist” for SMB3. Firstly, I’d like to tell everyone that there isn’t. SMB isn’t my “event”. It’s a team effort between Sheylara, Claudia, Derrick and myself.
Secondly, SMB is an open event, we would never stop anyone from attending. It’s for the community! We have never ever discussed who should attend and who shouldn’t. It’s open to all.
Thirdly, I don’t necessarily like every single blogger I meet, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t like him or her, or someone else won’t get some value from him/her. That decision isn’t mine to make. An event like SMB is held so that everyone and anyone can attend, and each person can decide who to mingle with and keep in contact with from there.
I have two big issues with this particular quirk of the local blogosphere:
1) You don’t know who to trust
I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t enjoy going to events like Social Media Breakfast and blogger outreach programmes and having to wonder who’s genuinely shaking my hand and saying hi, and who’s doing it with the figurative dagger behind their back. How do you know the next person you reach out to for help online isn’t going to take the opportunity to demolish you instead?
I think people have had their differences in the blogosphere (myself included). Some have solved it like adults, some haven’t. But regardless, I would like to think we can disagree and/or dislike each other, but we don’t have to let it devolve into outright hate do we?
2) It hurts credibility
Between this kind of behavior and that of our dear local female bloggers, is it any wonder companies are so hesitant to enter the local blogosphere? Can we as social media evangelists truly recommend a social media strategy in the best interests of their clients, knowing full well today’s “influential” blogger is tomorrow’s public antagonist number one?
I’ve two follow up posts to this (which I haven’t gotten down to writing yet):
1) How does this lesson translate to businesses involved or looking to get involved in the social media space?
2) Knowing how the local blogosphere is, how do organisations decide who to associate themselves with?
Keep checking back or subscribe to follow the posts.
Tags: blogosphere in singapore, claudia.sg, community event, facebook, local blogosphere, Plurk, sheylara, singaporean blogosphere, smb singapore, social media breakfast singapore, trust in the blogosphere
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore, Uncategorized, community, social media | 14 Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
So I chose a Vaio over a Dell a few months back and was suitably impressed with Sony’s excellent customer service.
Recently, my laptop crashed so I had to bring it in to the customer service centre at Wisma Atria. All was good, they told me they’d take my laptop for a week and give me a call. That was on Monday.
Fastforward to Wednesday, I got two missed calls from an unknown number and a third call within an hour. I was all ready for it to be some telemarketer but was pleasantly surprised to find it was Sony. Persistent customer care. It would’ve been so easy for the customer support guy to just hang up and call again tomorrow, after all, they did say a week. But there was effort made to get me on the phone once the job was done.
So after I got on the phone, I was told my hard disk crashed. I told the representative I was greatly disturbed that I had just bought it a couple of months ago and it had already crashed. To this I was given assurance that anomalies happen and he gave me a few tips to take care of my hard drive when I got it back.
Finally, I got the pick up details and needless to say, I was thrilled to get it two days ahead of schedule, and more importantly, Sony continues to impress me with their customer service. If it was just once when I was buying the laptop, I could write it off to a salesman trying to close a deal. But it has been consistent across multiple touchpoints with pre-sale, post-sale, warranty people, the person who helped me deal with my laptop and the tech support guy who called me after to explain the problem.
Normally, if a laptop died on me within three months of purchase, I’d be furious. But through Sony’s customer service and expectation management, it’s turned into an positive advocacy piece on my blog. Well done, Sony.
Tags: excellent customer service, laptop customer service, sony customer service
Posted in Singapore | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
How lifestreaming is transforming the internet has been quite well documented, and this week on ReadWriteWeb, the future of blogging has been revealed. And yes, it’s in the form of lifestreaming.
Three thoughts:
1) Does it work?
I’d always thought of the “other” stuff that goes on in lifestreaming as a complement to blogging. They fill in the gaps but they’re not always the main content. Snacks in between meals, if you will. But in this day and age, who really has time to read a 700 word post anymore? Even a 500 one? Especially when it can be done in 140 characters. I fell ill a week back and didn’t have the energy to blog about it, but I did Plurk about it. By the time I was well enough to punch a blog post out, I realise everyone knew about it via microblogging, so it didn’t serve any purpose.
There will be “long form” bloggers as Sarah mentioned who will need to blog just as a way of capturing the content. But how about the average personal blog? If you look at the examples on RWW, my gut feel is they could work.
2) Is there a culture difference
Friendfeed is the epitome of lifestreaming. I know it’s hot, I know it has its’ uses, but it hasn’t caught on here in Singapore yet. Without any proper research, I’m going to guess that culture has a part to play. As a society we’re not that voyeuristic yet (some are, but it’s a small sample), which maybe accounts for some of it.
There’s also the element of privacy and collectivism that exists here which might result in self-censorship when it comes to lifestreaming. For example, it may not be the best thing to flag a certain controversial book you’re reading because it may not be socially acceptable in this setting.
3) It’s already happening
Prior to publishing this post, I asked aloud on Plurk (not that you could ask silently) what people thought about the article and got varied responses. In a sense that’s what lifestreaming is about isn’t it? Come across something in your life, share it quickly, get short 140 character responses back and then everyone moves on to the next item.
It’s all very interesting. I don’t know if it truly replace blogging per se, but it definitely will be exciting to see where this fits in in the next 6 months to a year. And more importantly, if everything (blogging, content, attention spans) are getting shorter, how do companies engage and connect?
Tags: culture differences online, friendfeed, lifestreaming, lifestreaming and the internet, long form blogging, microblogging, Plurk, readwriteweb, shorter attention spans, the future of blogging
Posted in Blogs, Plurk, Singapore, community, social media | 2 Comments »
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Yesterday was the Ping.sg birthday party and awards. You might remember me mentioning I was nominated for “Most insightful blog”, “Most insightful post” for “Are bloggers really influencers?” and “Best review post” for my review of Plurk.
The great news is I managed to snag both “Most insightful post” and “Most insightful blog”, so thanks to everyone who voted for me, and the people who nominated me in the first place.
It’s obviously nice to walk away with something and I’m glad the blogosphere in Singapore is beginning to read and recognise that blogs aren’t just Meepok Blogs about what I had for lunch. One thing I do wanna say is let’s be clear that the awards were only open to people in the Ping.sg community. By default that leaves out other great insight blogs like Michael’s and Priscilla’s. Let’s also not forget other content blogs like Vanessa’s, Kevin’s and Walter’s who post great stuff, but maybe don’t always have the time to engage with the people on ping.sg. After all, voting always boils down to a popularity contest.
Still, I hope this means more people are going to recognise the impact of social media and start bringing it into their lives, work and play, and hopefully we will see a much needed change locally in the near future.
(ps: The pictures and “fun” stuff will be up on my personal blog later. Stay tuned!)
Tags: are bloggers really influencers, blog awards in singapore, most insightful blog, most insightful post, ping.sg awards, plurk review
Posted in Announcements, Blogs, Plurk, Singapore, community, social media | 11 Comments »
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Yesterday I talked about two things not to do if you’re selling a homogeneous product in the context of comic book stores. Today I’m going to wrap it up with two more.
#3 - Don’t fail to manage expectations properly.
When I moved over to G&B Comics, they gave away Previews (a comic book catalogue) free every month, to the people who shifted over from Colin’s. No mention of time frame, no mention it was a temporary thing. That was one thing that won me over in the beginning. Then, come last week, after 3-4 months, I was suddenly told that they weren’t continuing it anymore because it was “for awhile only”. Really? When was this mentioned? If they had told me it’s just for 4 months, at least I could manage that expectation and be ready to pay for it in the 5th month, rather than get a rude shock when I’m physically standing at the counter expecting a free copy.
#4 - Don’t make it seem like all you’re in for is the money.
I understand that if you’re not making money, you’re not in business. But it doesn’t mean your customers have to perceive that all you care about is making money. For example, I’m heading off to Canada from September, so unlike the store, I thought it’d be good to manage expectations and tell them not to get my comics (and save them some money) for the next quarter. Here’s my email to them in it’s entirety:
Dropping you a mail to let you know I won’t be in Singapore from September till December of this year. Just to drop you some early notice so you can manage the future orders.
Speaking of managing expectations, must say I’m pretty disappointed that the free Previews for those who shifted over from Atomix was suddenly dropped. Came as a bit of a surprise that it was a “temporary” arrangement cos that’s not what it sounded like at the beginning.
And here’s their response:
Hi Daryl,
your membership number is 1586 correct? as we’ve a couple of membership number named under Daryl Tay. We need to put on a notice so that your comic subscriptions will continue during this period that you’re not in singapore.
Thank you.
All that email read to me was “Can we clarify your number (instead of your name), so that we can cancel your orders and save us some cash”. No further communication about the poor expectation management, Nothing. Did I feel like they cared about anything other than money? No, not really.
For the record, Colin, the owner of the previous comic shop, also had a few customers going by “Daryl Tay”, but he never got it mixed up. Why? Effort and giving names to customers instead of numbers.
If you’re dealing with products or services that are easily available elsewhere, do take note of these points. They’ll help to keep your customers happy and perhaps even loyal.
Tags: customer relations, customer service, expectation management, g&b comics, keeping customers happy, loyal customers, poor communication, Poor Practices, what not to do when selling a homogeneous product, what to do when selling a homogeneous product
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
You might have read the “About me” section that I put up on the blog maybe a month ago and picked up that I collect comic books/graphic novels. The thing about comic books (and to some extent normal books), is that they’re homogeneous. I could get them from any comic store (or book store) in Singapore (or the world, for that matter), and it would be the exact same product.
So what do you have going for you? Either a very competitive price, excellent service and customer relations, or both. (Singapore is pretty small and all the stores are centrally located, so I’ll leave location out of the equation).
I had to move to G&B Comics when the previous shop I went to closed down. Their prices are not terrible, but I’m paying more than I did at the old shop, and I can get some stuff at Kinokuniya at a better price. What really irks me is the customer service. So much so that I’ve had time to sit down and think of four things not to do if you’re in their position, of which I will share two today.
#1 - Don’t give your customers a number
The thing about this store (as opposed to previous stores) is that they don’t know who the hell you are. We go by numbers. So every week when I go to the store, I report my number like a prison inmate before I get my stash of comics. It’s not a great feeling.
#2 - Don’t employ the wrong people
In the previous store, Colin did everything himself, which means he knows a little bit about the comics industry. If you needed to order something, he’d take note immediately. The people hired at this store, aren’t like that and they’re literally like the checkout people at a supermarket. They’ll take your cash, but ask them about anything actually related to comic books, and you’re out of luck. It also doesn’t speak very well of the store if you’ve told the staff three or four times to help you keep a book, and they keep leaving it out.
After awhile actually becomes easier for me to just forget about asking them “Sorry I’m missing a copy of Manhunter” and just pick it up elsewhere instead. If they can’t be bothered about taking note of my buying preferences, then some other place can take the money.
#3 and #4 coming tomorrow. By the way don’t take this post like I hate the store. I’ve just had countless negative experiences in a few months that have been bugging me, despite me giving suggestions on how to improve.
Tags: bad customer service, comic book stores singapore, comic books, competitive pricing, customer relations, customer service, Graphic Novels, selling homogeneous product
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
In a month, Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 3 will be happening. The tentative date is Saturday, 16th August at the Asian Civilisations Museum. I finally got to meet up with Walter at Ogilvy’s Verge event, and pitched him with the idea a week later, and it’s worked out pretty well. We’ve got verbal confirmation from ACM about the venue but the date is still tentative.
What’s going to be different this time? Well first of all, we’re going to dedicate maybe 45mins to an hour to focus on discussing about social media. The topic is up in the air right now, so feel free to throw something in. Hopefully it won’t be something covered 73529573 times before (like should we pay bloggers to review products), but something different. Just to manage expectations, don’t expect the names or turnout like you see at other “conferences” because at the end of the day we’re a four man team with no budget!
Speaking of a four man team, another key difference is that Derrick will be taking point on this one, primarily because myself and Sheylara are going to be pretty swamped with work. We’re also welcoming Claudia into the mix, who’ll help with working out what exactly that social media topic should be. Who better than the community manager of Yebber who deals with social media every day to take up this job right? Shermeen, our masterful logo designer is unofficially on board helping us with what ever design stuff/torture we can throw her way as well.
While we’re on design, Sheylara and I have been discussing about getting a full-fledged domain for SMB:Singapore, so stay tuned for that.
And finally, everyone who comes gets free access and a guided tour of the Museum, and we’re in the process of persuading them to relax their photography rules for just one day so that as always, our bloggers can go crazy with their photo-taking.
More updates as they come in! We really want your feedback on how SMB should evolve. It’s not our “baby”, it’s everyone’s. So please comment below!
ps: In case you don’t know what SMB is about, read up on the first and second ones here!
Tags: acm, asian civilisations museum, claudia, derrickkwa, ogilvy verge, shermeen, sheylara, social media breakfast singapore, yebber
Posted in Fun, Singapore, Uncategorized, collaboration, community, social media, social media breakfast | 17 Comments »
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
I must really apologise for not blogging much this week. I think it has been the least I’ve blogged since I’ve started the blog, but work has really been tough (though incredibly enjoyable).
The 2nd Ping.sg blog awards (blog aggregator in Singapore with about 3,500 blogs) have their nominees and I’m nominated in three categories:
(for “Are Bloggers Really Influencers?”)
(for “Why Plurk Over Twitter #3: Organic Conversations“)
Thank you to those who nominated me. If I’ve ever talked to you (in person) about why I blog, you know it’s not for the “fame” or money (I don’t even have ads!), but it’s really just me trying to share my love for this fascinating new digital space with you, and hopefully help spread the word about social media and how it can help you in your personal life, academic life or professional life.
I didn’t nominate myself for anything primarily because I thought it’s be a good gauge to see what the community finds valuable. I think the fact that the community has chosen two posts in particular that are aimed at convincing businesses that bloggers are indeed influencers and fostering conversation and community tells me that locally, the people who’re reading are listening and finding some value in it, and that is very, very encouraging.
So do check out the awards nominees page and vote for who you like. I’m not going to ask that you vote for me because looking at the nominees across the board, I think the community has already won.
Tags: are bloggers really influencers, best review post singapore, blog awards, community, conversation, dialogue, most insightful blog singapore, most insightful post singapore, organic conversations, ping.sg, ping.sg blog awards, Plurk, spread the word about social media, twitter, why plurk over twitter
Posted in Announcements, Blogs, Plurk, Singapore, Social Networks, community, social media, twitter | 5 Comments »
