Thursday, March 12th, 2009
At the beginning of the year, one of the things I said I’d try to make a focus of this blog was to talk more about actual instances of business using social media. It’s taken a little while longer that I thought it would, but I finally have my first article, featuring HBO Asia.
I was previously blown away by HBO’s level of personalisation with their outreach attempts, which was really the catalyst for me to meet Karen, Angela and Yin Qi for lunch awhile ago.
What They’ve Done
The first time I met anyone from HBO, was at Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 3 way back in August of 2008. Yin Qi was there and the first casual connection was made. Stemming from that, there was an event for one of HBO’s shows, “Flight of the Conchords“, and ended with a regional contest which was well-talked about.
The Inspiration
When I asked them about who/what prompted the dabble in social media, surprisingly, there didn’t seem to be an “Eureka!” moment, but rather something that grew organically. Ultimately, it all came down to fit: “Flight of the Conchords” is very heavily viewed via online channels like YouTube, they resonate with the younger audience who is online, and the very nature of the show made it the perfect talking point.
Obstacles
From our discussion, the difficulty faced wasn’t so much organising something in Singapore, but organising something regional. This is something agencies should definitely take note of in Asia, because differences between countries within the region can be pretty big, and at the minimum, a basic understanding of that would be added value.
Metrics
As their first foray into social media, it was as much an experiment as anything else, so hard metrics were not particularly the focus. However, they were sufficiently satisfied with the online discussions and conversations to be convinced it was a worthwhile avenue for future efforts. Even though no hard metrics are available, just looking at the YouTube videos produced on the “Flight of the Conchords” blog from all over the region, the comments and the links, it looks like it certainly did not go unnoticed by the blogosphere.
What’s Coming Next
I got the benefit of discovering that a second blogger outreach event will be happening this year, this time for a different show, “True Blood“. Given that I missed the “Flight of the Conchords” event as I wasn’t in Singapore, I’m looking forward to this
What do you think are they key points from HBO Asia’s social media journey? Is it an issue that agencies don’t have regional capabilities as yet? What do you think HBO Asia could do better? Comment away!
Do you know of a company that should be featured on this column? Would your company like to be featured on this column? Comment below or send me an email at uniquefrequency [AT] gmail (dot) com.
Tags: asia, blogosphere, eureka moment, flight of the conchords, hbo asia, social media across asia, social media breakfast singapore, social media metrics, true blood, younger audiences, youtube
Posted in Singapore, blogger outreach, case studies, social media | 2 Comments »
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Last week, we saw the launch of the Association of Bloggers (Singapore) (ABS). The reception has been mixed. Some expressed concern, to sarcastic, to cynical and analytical.
Of course, some of us took the opportunity to poke some fun at a controversial issue, and I’m not above having a laugh either.
Now that the hype has subsided a little bit, I have my own opinion on why the news of the ABS seems generally badly received by the Singaporean blogosphere. Do note that I’m writing my personal interpretation of the communication or non-communication of the ABS, and I don’t claim to be reporting the truth.
The problem with the introduction of the ABS is simple: The issue was communicated to the external audience before what is arguably the more important, if not critical, internal “stakeholders”, in other words, the “constituents” that the ABS is supposed to cater to: the bloggers.
Because the news was broken in the mainstream media, it does read to me like the ABS was concerned about getting their message out in “proper” channels (where the audience may or may not care), instead of the blogosphere (where the audience cares, a lot). As a result, now they are not scrambling to communicate their message to their primary target audience, but is it too late?
Whether the bloggers reacted with shock, surprise, or ridicule, I believe they did so because this was sprung on them in the exact opposite way a Web2.0 association should have been introduced: from the ground up. A form of “structure” or “authority” may have been introduced, but not in the way the crowd desires (whether or not they even want such a structure is up for debate).
There are other minor issues like the vagueness and lack of communication of the benefits of joining the ABS, the lack of street credibility (note that the ABS has “formal” credibility as they are officially registered, but I don’t think the local blogosphere is treating that as a critical factor), and not addressing the question that is on the mind of many: is this an extension of the 2008 saga? The strategic inclusion/appointment of the founders sure lead some bloggers to think so, but we have yet to hear from the ABS themselves.
The point here is not whether anyone believes them, but that they be transparent and deal with the issue, or the blogosphere will not let go. Unbranded Bread n Butter tackles this issue in particular, and doesn’t hesitate to remind us that the “fiasco” of 2008 is extensively chronicled online.
I also feel all warm and cosy inside knowing that the dispute mediator is a scorned former founder of ping.sg who was complaining about being left out of the “in-group”, didn’t receive ping award, stirred up a big fuss, left in a huff and puff and decided to form his own little own group. “Take that Ping.sg!” It’s all nicely catalogued here.
Will the ABS overcome a bad start and begin to win people over? I hope the more controversial members of the committee do not make the critical mistake of reacting the same way they did in previous controversies, by lashing out. It’s naive for them to believe the blogosphere would have welcomed such an association with open arms without garnering support beforehand, because particularly in this medium, acceptance and trust is earned, not taken as a given.
Tags: abs, association of bloggers singapore, blogosphere, mainstream media, primary target audience, singaporean blogosphere, stakeholder communication, street cred, street credibility, structure in the blogosphere, web2.0
Posted in Singapore, social media | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
I’m writing this with Singapore in mind, but I think it could work anywhere.
Rubin and I had a discussion tonight about bands in Singapore, whether they’re talented or not, whether they could make money or not, etc etc. Towards the end of the night I needed to blog and turned to him for inspiration and he said “write about the local music scene”. Brilliant.
So here’s social media for the local music scene.
1) Get repeat plays.
One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned recently that in the music industry, frequency is your currency. So you get people to play it as many times as you can. Give it away free to everyone on MySpace, give it free to the polytechnic radio stations, give it free to the university Campus Radio stations. It doesn’t matter if you’re making money out of it at this stage, just give it free.
I can’t say how many times I haven’t liked a song on first listen, but it grows on me after three or more listens. I’m sure it’s the same for many other people.
2) Pimp yourself.
In a lot of ways, the local music scene is like the local blogosphere. There’s a lot of crap in there, but there are gems too. So how do you get people to notice you? Make yourself searchable. That means pimping up your website, going on MySpace, maybe creating a fan page on Facebook, whatever works. When someone hears your band name and goes home to search for you, you’d better turn up on page one of Google.
Case in point: Origami. I think that’s how it’s spelled because I was only walking past, but I liked their rendition of Kelly Clarkson’s Miss Independent, so much so I wanted to get in contact with them and offer to try to get their track on Campus Radio. So I come home, Google Origami and zilch. How do I help you get your music out there when I can’t find you? Do yourself a favour. If your band name is called Hystericks Stickz, change your name to something Google-able. That advice is free.
3) Get help.
No, don’t get someone to buy you a $30k ad on national radio. There are free (or at least cheap) ways to go about doing it. There are many, many polytechnic or university students out there who would probably be willing to help put your name out there or build you a blog, or pass your cd on to three friends. What could you offer them in return? Well that’s up to you. But remember: your most loyal customers are also your best.
Finally, a disclaimer: All this only works if your music doesn’t suck. As with everything else, content is king. If the content you’re producing sounds like screeching and/or cawing, no amount of publicity is going to help you.
So, now that you know all that. You want a social media/digital strategist to help your band out? Start a conversation with me. Here, Plurk, Twitter, Facebook, whatever works for you.
Tags: blogosphere, campus radio singapore, facebook, Google, myspace, origami, pimp yourself, Plurk, self-publicity, singapore local music, singapore's local music scent, smu campus radio, twitter
Posted in Google, Search, Singapore, Social Networks, collaboration, community, mainstream media, social media, twitter | 5 Comments »
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Going through the name cards I exchanged from tonight’s event, I count four from Ogilvy, one from SMU and Nadia’s. (Note: no companies)
Looking around the blogosphere on ping.sg, there are four posts from Jean, Ian, Ridz and Plaktoz (for now). Now I don’t mean to go back to flogging a dead horse, but there is little to no brand coverage. The blog posts are either on the fellow bloggers they met, or the stuff in the goodie bags.
I don’t know about you, but I think there are bigger and better products to get people excited about and posting images (and generating media about) than collaterals in goodie bags.
I don’t mean to be critical or harsh on companies. But I think if you’re paying money to engage an agency to do your PR/marketing/advertising/whatever, and they do something like this (certainly with people like John Bell and Brian and Tania who know what they’re doing), then you really need to make the most out of it and bring some value back to the office.
Tags: blogosphere, companies engaging in social media, ogilvy open room, ping.sg
Posted in Blogs, Singapore, social media | 15 Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Louisgray is very quickly becoming one of my top “must reads” whenever something comes from his RSS feed. Late January he alerted the blogosphere about AssetBar, and now he has the latest on LinkRiver.
So we already use Google Reader or some other RSS reader, why LinkRiver? Without trying it out yet, the biggest draw for me is that is aggregates everything from your RSS feeds to Twitter to Del.icio.us bookmarks into one central location. As Louis says:
harnesses your RSS streams from multiple services, including Google Reader shared items, Twitter, del.icio.us, Yahoo! Bookmarks and others, and posts them to a single “Stream”. As your friends join the service, or you choose to subscribed to other LinkRiver users, these small streams become a “River” of shared links, hence the name.
To get a real good idea, check out Louis’s stream right here. I for one am already sold and have sent in my beta application.
The one negative that I can see coming out of it is if someone is pushing similar feeds on social bookmarks, Google Reader and Twitter, and then it could get very tiresome to deal with. I suppose we’ll find out soon won’t we?
Do you keep your feeds/updates central? Or is there some other way you keep on top of everything? Let me know.
Tags: aggregator, assetbar, blogosphere, centraliser, delivious, google reader, link river, linkriver, louis gray, louisgray, must read, must reads, rss, rss feeds, twitter
Posted in social media | 3 Comments »
