On the 26th of March, I was invited to Supperclub at Odeon Towers to check out the new laptop from HP, the HP Pavilion dv2 entertainment notebook pc. If you’ve been reading this blog you probably know I don’t usually talk a lot about the gadget itself but more on the communications efforts behind it, but this time I’ll say this is one gadget I really do like.
In terms of what a laptop is, no biggie, it’s a regular laptop. Moderate processor, 12.1 screen, no cd drive. But the big plus points for me: It’s 1.6kg and its’ price starts at $1,299. I mean seriously, I bought my current laptop for double that. I think in the current day and age where mobility is a huge factor, the HP Pavilion dv2 stands out. Why would I buy a $800-$900 netbook and squint my eyes out at a 8 to 10 inch screen, when I could shell out a few more hundred bucks and get a proper laptop? It’s quite a no brainer.
The other thing that’s awesome is a width. Check out the picture below and you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s less than one inch thin. Oh, and it has a HDMI port too. Another thing my current laptop doesn’t have.
HP Pavilion dv2
The event itself was one of the more intimate ones, and that’s a good thing. I make it a point these days to try not to attend events that are shared with mainstream media, simply because it’s just too difficult to get someone’s attention and a demo of the product. With this event, no problem. Within three minutes (literally) of stepping into the room, I had a drink and a product manager letting me have a hands-on go at the Pavilion dv2, while he was there to handle any questions. I think the premise behind this is simple: The more the blogger plays with the product, the more he/she can talk about it.
One thing I will say (and I’m being cheeky here) with regards to the communication effort. I wanted to say that not having a cd drive isn’t a dealbreaker these days because seriously, how often does one use it anyway? Then I realised all the press materials they handed out were on a cd. It would’ve been nice to emphasise that cds are really not that important anymore with a small thumbdrive, sd card, or just a downloadable link!
All in all, if I were in the market for a second, backup laptop for school or travel, this would be it. Sure, it doesn’t have the gaming power that my current laptop does, but there are some days when I’m heading out for just a three hour class or I want to sit somewhere and just blog (like I’m doing now), and on those days, a lighter, slimmer laptop like the dv2 would just be awesome.
A couple of weeks ago, Ingrid and I had the privilege of being invited to HBO Asia’s blogger event for their new show, True Blood, with the promise of a bloody good time.
One thing that was obvious about this event, was that we certainly weren’t invited just to hear about True Blood and be treated to an exclusive screening of the first episode (though that certainly happened too), but there was really a nice mix of activities the first of which was to mimic the pose of the True Blood poster pictured above.
After some food, Karen from HBO told us a little bit more about True Blood as well as Max, the channel on which it will be airing:
After that and a preview of the show, an interesting segment came up, where a bartender took the stage to show us how to “make” Tru Blood, a drink that the vampires in the show drink. Incidentally, Tru Blood was a true *ahem* viral campaign that ran in the US prior to the airing of True Blood there.
Tru Blood
Following this, three volunteers were asked to replicate the drink, and Claudia, Ben and Nadia gamely stepped up to the plate, with Claudia winning.
Overall this was a pretty fun event and I really liked the fact that the HBO team brought a mixed bag of activities to the event, rather than the normal “thanks for coming, here’s our product” drill that we seem to get all the time.
True Blood airs tonight (April 9th) here in Asia at 9pm on Max, so don’t forget to fight for the remote!
If you usually skip weekly link section (published Sunday night/Monday morning, depending which part of the world you’re in), don’t skip it this week because there are two great research pieces, two blog posts and *gasp* one semi-mainstream media post this week. All great reads.
Community Management Online Communities: Establishing A Community’s Culture – As empirical as research can be when it comes to stuff like “community” and “culture”. A must-read for those involved in community management, or thinking about entering it.
THE INTERNET AS A DOMINANT FACTOR IN YOUNG MEN’S LIFE:
* 69% say they can’t live without the Internet, versus just 31% for television
* 40% use the Internet for more than 22 hours a week
* 36% say they can’t live without the Internet for socializing
* 33% say they can’t live without online entertainment
GAMERS AS CONSUMERS
* The average gaming household income ($79,000) is notably higher than that of non-gaming households ($54,000).
* Gamers are willing to pay extra for the latest and greatest: they are twice as likely as non-gamers to buy a product featuring new technology even if they are aware that there are still bugs.
Twitter
Like many other people around the world, I was hooked on the hashtag #mumbai on Twitter following the attacks. The lessons learned from this are everywhere, so I won’t re-blog them here, but it’s nice to see social media tools getting some recognition from big mainstream media outlets like Forbes on Twitter’s Moment.
Blogging
Mitch Joel tells us to Start A Blog Today, and I couldn’t agree more. Especially for those like me, waiting to enter into a very competitive market in this recession economy, it could just make the difference, assuming you’re applying for an enlightened corporation that would recognise the benefits of blogging.
Blogger Outreach
Finally, Brian asks Why Do We Have Blogger Events? and I think he’s hit the differentiating factor on the head. It’s not about randomly inviting people for events, it’s about community building. And that’s the hard part.
As always, share your links with me on Delicious or just leave them in the comments below!
Lots of awesome stuff this week, let’s get into it:
Social Media For Beginners
I’m always conscious that everyone’s visit to my site could be a first visit. If you’re looking for a great resource for how to dip your toes into social media’s waters, how about 35 tips for getting started with social media? Very beginner friendly.
Community Management
Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and hire a community manager. Consider the job hazards of the community manager as told by Jeremiah Owyang before diving head in.
Finally, for education, The Edublogger asks if you’re making your life easier with Google Calendar. Vastly underutilised tool in classrooms and project groups for collaboration and it’s time you get started! Although my online tools have expanded to include reQall and Remember The Milk, I started with Google Calendar (or GooCal, as I affectionately call it), and it’s a great starting point.
As always, do share interesting links you read about this week with me, you can find me on delicious.com/uniquefrequency or simply leave the link in the comments!
Should bloggers be rewarded? Payment isn’t the only way… free schwag? Review units to keep? What do you consider ethical and what do you not?
Do famous bloggers deserve star treatment, and star rewards? People argue that objectivity is lost with payment, but should companies leave the option open for bloggers who wish to go down that path?
If you pay a blogger to do an advertorial blog post, does anyone read advertorials anymore? Do they think its a waste of time, a sign of selling out and a turn off?
I’m going to speak generally and say that most people who took part in the conversation are concerned about objectivity being an issue when money comes into play, and rightfully so. Cullen puts it very well:
For me, I think the bottom line is when money starts to trump honesty then the money’s influence is unacceptable.
My personal point of view is that compensating bloggers is fine. I don’t necessarily like the idea of money changing hands, but I think freebies or trial copies with the option to purchase at a discounted price are okay. After all, bloggers are spending their precious time and effort (not to mention valuable blog real estate) to talk about you. There is opportunity cost involved!
I also feel the problem is the “expectation” that reviews should be good. No one has come out straight to say it, but inherently, if you get a review, it shouldn’t be saying bad things. That’s why ad-pull became an issue with magazines. Company X would pay for a couple of pages of ads, but the writers of the magazine might criticise them over something in another section of the magazine, and next month Company X takes their advertising elsewhere.
I think this has a mindset that has to be fixed, especially when it comes to bloggers. When you get involved with them (regardless of whether anything changes hands), it is a partnership. One where you (the company) takes the good and the bad. And if partnering with a blogger means getting feedback on what’s not fantastic with your product, it’s an opportunity to improve it, rather than an excuse to switch to another blogger who only says good things about you.
The discussion is far from over, there’s much more that can be said about compensating bloggers, it might be a great time for you to head over to the forum and chime in!
In the meantime, thanks Farinelli, Daniel, Brian, Hillary, Cullen, Claudia, Relax and Nicholas for really bringing some momentum to the topic! Looking forward to much more.
So I’m not trying to re-tell you why this analogy works, but an instance locally (ie back home in Singapore), that I feel it was done well.
The salesman at a party analogy is used a lot in blogger outreach and social media. The idea is if you’re at a party and everyone’s talking about the latest episode of Lost (and why wouldn’t they, it’s awesome), then if you’re the salesperson who jumps in and starts giving your insurance pitch, people generally get turned off.
I have to say, I am flat out impressed by what I saw. A decent venue, engagement, no “in your face” stuff, a contest that was fun and not overly campy, and what I feel is most important: generating media (and by that I mean real world media) out of something like this.
Photos the bloggers took remain on the Samsung wall. (Picture from Nadnut.com)
So the man behind this is Daniel from Samsung, who came from Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 2, but I didn’t get to talk to until Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 3, which in itself says a lot about not being pushy. When you consider the time it was from SMB2 (May) till the first Samsung Social Media Night and the effort put in to attend two SMBs (on Saturdays, no less), I think it’s safe to say they did their homework, worked on those relationships, and reached out properly.
I’m going to put it right out there: I don’t own anything from Samsung, and I don’t know if I ever will, but the fact is by reaching out to bloggers (and make no mistake, they are influencers), there are a few positive effects for the company, delivered through the readers of their blogs.
At the very least, you’re spreading the word about your new product launch that they might otherwise not read (don’t forget, we’re not reading the newspapers).
Even if they aren’t a current consumer of your product (like me), you still gain mindshare.
Even if they don’t necessarily buy your product, they can certainly talk about it to someone else who might be looking for, oh, I don’t know, a new phone.
One thing I also need to bring up, is that when I last talked to Daniel in August, he told me he was doing all this independently, without an agency. I don’t know if that’s still true, but if so, it says a lot about the state of agency work back home.
And on that note, you may have noticed that this blog post starts with “doing it right”, rest assured I have a “doing it wrong” case study (from an agency) to share. I’m just in the process of deciding whether or not to reveal names.
In related news: Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 4 is happening tomorrow morning. Are you missing an opportunity to meet people interested in your brand?
Van Tan has a very very good post on feedback to PR teams from a blogger’s perspective this week. So good it earned a share on my Google Reader. (Reader Trends tells me I’ve done this exactly thrice in the last 30 days).
I’m not going to rehash what she said here (you need to check out her post), but I will give a few additional points that I’ve noticed having been on both side of the coin (albeit very briefly for the PR side).
#1: Personalisation Is Shitty, But Necessary
Van talks about this in her post and I’ll elaborate on it from a PR person’s point of view. When we organised the HP TouchSmart event, it was absolutely laborious and took half a day to send personal emails to over 40 people. But it had to be done. Maybe with those bloggers you’re close with you could send a two-liner over Facebook, but for those you’re reaching out to for the first time, don’t expect a run of the mill email to get any attention.
#2: Blogger Public Relations Is Still About… Relations
I don’t normally name companies, but one company that does handle the relationship angle very well is Text 100. Whether it’s casual chat about Social Media Breakfast or highly personalised emails with invitations to blogger events, I really feel like I’m being invited to a friend’s event rather than a “company’s” event. Even when I can’t make it, they still make an effort to update me on what went on and direct me to a few links.
It’s a long process, but it definitely creates a difference. And that difference is crucial. Just because a blogger attends an event once, doesn’t mean they are branded yours like cattle. Like it or not, #2 is one of my ways to see how “actively” a company is involved in the social media space. If you’re all talk talk talk about social media but have no visible relations with bloggers, it doesn’t count.
I’d like to hear about this from bloggers and PR folk. What are your pet peeves? Other advice for the companies? Biggest difficulties from PR folk approaching bloggers? Let’s hear it!
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!
Everyone wants something “viral” these days. But the thing is you never really know when something is viral and truly will catch on.
Let me say it’s been two days after the HP TouchSmart PC Blogger’s Nite, and the song for the TouchSmart “Do You Wanna Touch?” has still been ringing in my head. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out this 1:29 video.
I’m going to be a little bit candid here. Of all companies, would you have expected one like HP to come up with something this catchy? Melvin blogged about it from Berlin and I hadn’t experienced it first hand and wasn’t convinced how “catchy” or “viral” it was until the blogger’s nite and how everyone is still talking about it:
I have to say, speaking as a social media blogger, that I give HP Singapore full credit for going all out with their blogger outreach programme. The first time they did it I wasn’t invited, but still gave them some praise, the second time they did it I was a part of it (full disclosure: I work with the PR firm that handles HP’s digital strategy and helped conceptualise and organise the event), and the second time I could really see first hand how the HP execs were willing to engage freely with bloggers. There was no “we are executives in the real world and you are bloggers” mentality.
My blog coverage with many many photos is up over on my personal blog if you’re interested. The one thing I wish could be better was to credit the band that did it, or make it available for download. Tying this in to my thoughts on social media in the local music scene, the right social media/digital tie up could just really make your song take off like wildfire. Do you like the song? Let me know!
Awhile ago I questioned whether bloggers with overlapping audiences is a good or bad thing. Last weekend at Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 2, I found out the power of overlapping audiences in conversations to be very powerful indeed.
Case Study: Tommy Print
I don’t know how it works in other countries, but in Singapore, everyone has a name card. So I asked Sheylara (one of the co-organisers) where she got her name card from, to which she said it was a place she didn’t recommend, but that everyone was using Tommy Print. So I asked around a little more and Jayden and Nadia were using it as well. Later on I also got a really nice namecard from Ennn and I asked where she got it from to which she said “some place in Funan” which turned out to be… you guessed it, Tommy Print!
Honestly, Tommy Print couldn’t have gotten better word of mouth if they tried.
So in these conversations you see a couple of things at work. People like me overriding the “blogger” category in the influencer scale, and reaching out to more people who share the same network helps to reinforce the message.
I do, however, suspect that it worked so well in this instance because
1) It happened in real time, face to face as opposed to online
2) The product was a suitable one.
Do you think this is an accurate case study? Are there other variables that should be included?
