Archive for the ‘social media’ 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 »
Friday, August 15th, 2008
I’m very happy to share with everyone here in Asia that Hutch Carpenter got a job at Connectbeam via social media. I’m not going to rehash the whole story because I think he tells it better on his blog, but I just want to share how amazed I am that a job could be the end result of a comment going:
Hutch:
Would love to connect with you and discuss some ideas.
When did we ever have a world like this? Where blogging and leaving a comment could result in a hiring opportunity. Utterly amazing. I’d also like to point out that Hutch’s employer had a Google Alerts feed for “enterprise 2.0″, which is what Hutch is into, further emphasising the importance of tagging, and making sure you’re deeply associated with what you blog about/your passion is.
I’ve blogged about Hutch previously in a “Blogs worth reading” segment, feel free to check that out as well a a previous story on a student getting employed via Twitter or my own experience with getting employed via social media.
Will employment opportunities like these start to exist in Asia? Or do they sound like wishful delusions right now? Probably somewhere in the middle. I’m going to say in Singapore particularly, just blogging or being online is not going to work. You’d probably need to meet people who will then refer you to someone else. I think as management starts to get more sophisticated and spend more time getting used to this new digital world, the opportunities will start to increase. So start working on it now, just don’t expect instant results.
Tags: blogs woth reading, building your brand, connectbeam, enterprise 2.0, hutch carpenter, online reputation, self branding, social media helps to find jobs, social media resume, student employed via twitter
Posted in social media | 2 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 »
Friday, July 18th, 2008
Last week I was looking through my feeds on Google Reader (an act that is becoming less and less frequent with work piling up), and saw one of del.icio.us’s “hotlist” saying “200 Nipples“. How could I resist clicking?
Turns out it is a t-shirt selling website that runs batches of t-shirts in exactly 100. Hence they aim to cover 200 nipples every month if they sell 100 t-shirts. The interesting thing about them is that each t-shirt is uniquely numbered, and corresponds to the amount you pay. So you’d pay $70 for t-shirt #70, and $1 for t-shirt #1. Pretty interesting concept and a novel business idea. Sounds to me like they would’ve had to have done some pretty intensive forecasting and cost modeling to come up with this, so credit given there.
What I really like about the company is their blog and product is geared towards conversation or discussion pieces, as you can read about in their writeup for their t-shirt for the month of July and their not-too-serious FAQ page and of course the story behind their company name, gives them a sense of “character” that most brands don’t possess.
Will they be a big player in the world of t-shirt businesses, only time will tell. But for now, I’m subscribed to their updates so I know when their latest design is released so I can snag me a t-shirt (hopefully when I’m up in the US so I can save on shipping).
Tags: 200 nipples, buying t-shirts online, conversation starters, discussion on t-shirts, faq pages, online shopping, threadless
Posted in Fun, social media | 2 Comments »
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 »
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
More on the IDC Web2.0 Conference yesterday (attendees aside), there were some great insights that I’d love to talk about.
Prof. Michael brought up a point that I personally identify with. He says sometimes he has a guest in the class room and the guest is talking to the class, but the class is talking to each other via IM (or maybe Twitter), in other words, we’re having multiple levels of conversation.
I hope this is not new to marketers by now. Listen to Sarah from ReadWriteWeb or Ian from MTV. Generation Y is doing this. All the time.
Sarah will tell you they won’t even read this far down a blog post. Ian will tell you we have the computer on talking to 7 friends with MTV in the background and alternate-tabbing between games while stopping once in awhile to sms someone.
And that’s the truth.
Marketers are not going to get our full attention. And they certainly can’t demand it. They’re going to have to fight for it, not by interruption, but with darn compelling content. Does this mean we absorb less if we’re doing five things at the same time? Without empirical proof I’m going to say maybe. But I feel it also makes us aware of more. I can’t walk out of a movie these days without picking up at least one or two brands featured in the show, and more often than not the conversation becomes a “hey did you see that BMW insert?” after the movie.
Speaking as a Gen Y consumer myself, I love it when brands make the effort to connect, and seem like they’re genuine. (not some scammy thing). I’ll talk to you about Sony, about EA Games, about Bluehost and about HP because I know that they’re at least recognising the new presence of the new consumers and trying. They may not be fantastic at it, but it’s better than pretending we don’t exist or are a “fad”. (full disclosure: my office does PR work for HP)
Speaking of listening, I wanted to talk about this yesterday and am further prompted by this comment. Dear Yahoo!, I love that you sponsor stuff like the Web2.0 conference, but Jonathan is right. Does it make sense to sponsor it when people don’t get what you’re about? I love the “social” ymail and I love how it was presented in a non-intrusive way together with the goodie bags. But wouldn’t it be cooler to connect with say, 60 people who are in the space, in the know and can really appreciate what your product is about? Or give them a chance to try it and be bought over?
If you’re willing to listen to a proposition (not for me, but for the local Singaporean blogosphere), let’s start a conversation!
Tags: bluehost, ea games, Gen Y, generation y, hp, ianstewartmtv, IDC web2.0 conference, im, mtv, multi-tasking, multiple levels of conversation, readwriteweb, sarahintampa, social media insights, sony, sponsorship, twitter, yahoo, ymail
Posted in Blogs, Marketing, collaboration, community, social media | 4 Comments »
