Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
I just finished attending a two day conference, the Singaporean leg of the international Social Media World Forum and instead of giving a run down of the two days, here are my thoughts on what differentiates a great conference speaker from a mediocre one (and let’s face it, we all appreciate the great ones):
1) Add context
Sony Pictures showed a short clip of Sophie’s Diary which really helped solidify the concept of the programme way better than just talking about it could. We’re in a fast-paced industry where things change all the time and while your material may be familiar to you because you work with it everyday, it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone in the room has the same level of familiarity (and you shouldn’t assume that they do),so it really helps to bring things to a ground level before examining it. (tweet from John Kerr)
2) Be relevant and current
Dell Hell? Comcast technician asleep on the couch? Old news, let’s move on. Either do the homework necessary to keep current at such events, or don’t speak. (tweet from Dorothy Poon)
3) Share your own examples
Don’t be afraid to share. Intercontinental Hong Kong shared their small success of using a Facebook Fan Page for a chef with only a hundred fans to reach out to customers and directly bring in revenue. Is it a bad or small example because they only had just over a hundred fans? Certainly not. Also, when you talk about what other people are doing and not what you’re doing, it doesn’t make you sound very credible. (tweet from Claudia Lim)
4) Be specific
I know no one has all the answers for certain subjects like social media measurement measurement, but I think speaking with general vagueness like “there’s no one size fits all solution” doesn’t help anyone. Suggest one or two metrics if there isn’t the whole package (tweet from Bernard Leong)
5) Share your slides
The audience loves it. (tweet from Chris Schaumann)
So there are my thoughts on speakers and conferences. What tips would you have added in? Do leave a reply in the comments!
Tags: add context, adding context, asian case studies, asian examples, asian social media case studies, be current, be relevant, be specific, chris schaumann, claudia lim, comcast technician, dell hell, dorothy poon, facebook fan page, facebook fans, intercontinental hong kong, john kerr, keep current, share your slides bernard leong, singapore conference, skydrive, snwf, social media measurement, social media metrics, social media trends, social media world forum, social networking forum asia, sofia's diary, sony pictures, sufei's diary
Posted in Events, social media | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Tactical Transparency
As a listener of the podcast For Immediate Release (co-hosted by Shel Holtz, one of the authors of the book), I decided to check out Tactical Transparency and it’s the first book I finished in 2009, and it was a fairly quick and good read.
One thing that is clear about this book, is that it’s not for people who are already “in the know” in the social media scene, but instead for people who are curious about social media and might be thinking about “taking the plunge”. One of the reasons why the book was a quick read was because most of the material was familiar to me.
Although the book is titled “tactical” transparency and indeed many of the chapters focus on a tactical perspective instead of a strategic perspective, there is a fair amount of the book that is dedicated to embracing transparency as a culture. Depending on what you’re looking for (specific steps vs broad perspectives), the book may or may not work out for you.
The one thing I’d like to see from future books dealing with social media, is perhaps a wider range of case studies. We’ve all heard about Dell Hell, the Target story, the Comcast guy who fell asleep on the couch. I’m hoping to see new examples in future books.
I think for anyone thinking about checking out the social media scene, Tactical Transparency will be a good introduction and summary and I’d definitely recommend it. For depth and experience however, no book can replace actually experiencing it yourself, and hopefully books like Tactical Transparency help provide a road map for your journey.
For more information, feel free to check out the Tactical Transparency blog.
[image taken from the Tactical Transparency blog]
Tags: 2009, comcast couch, culture, dell hell, embracing transparency, for immediate release, john c havens, road map, shel holtz, social media, strategic thinking, tactical transparency, taking the plunge, target responding to bloggers, transparency case studies
Posted in Books, social media | 1 Comment »
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
Thinking about my Snapfish posts and the whole debate going on about whether or not we as marketers or communications people should be comfortable with using social media for business because taking that leap requires giving up a large portion of control to your consumers or the general public.
Name-dropping in history
Sticking just to music, bands that existed before or just when the internet came into existence did name-drop brands. From LFO (Abercrombie & Fitch), Barenaked Ladies (Snickers), Run DMC (Adidas) and recently, Melee (JetBlue). (Here’s a good list of brand names appearing in songs)
Though product placement is gaining popularity now, it certainly wasn’t in the early ’90s, though Abercrombie & Fitch enjoyed some market growth and Run DMC was eventually approached to be Adidas’s spokesperson.
Prior to the internet, unless you were one of those bands or maybe Oprah, what you thought about a brand would not grow larger than conversation at the bar.
What’s Changed: The Ants Have Megaphones
Borrowing the phrase from Chris Anderson’s book, The Long Tail (brilliant book), the ants have megaphones. The democratisation of media means that anyone can be a critic, a brand advocate, or a “journalist”. Because of that, your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what Google says it is. Given the long tail of bloggers, reviews, youtube videos and the like, a search for your brand could turn up negative reference (Dell Hell anyone?)
I don’t think marketers ever had control. But now they have to sit up and deal with the fact that many “ants” collectively can affect a brand (for better or worse), and we’re not as easy to deal with compared to offering a spokesperson contract to Run DMC. We want honest and open company dealings and we will take companies to task for failing to do so.
In short: our conversations are not restricted to bar talk anymore, and it would be folly for a company to ignore it.
Positive or negative brand experiences with social media? Let’s hear it! (Don’t worry, I don’t think you’re ants!)
Tags: abercrombie & fitch, adidas, adidas spokesperson, bar conversations, barenaked ladies, bloggers, brand advocate, brand democratization, brand reviews, chris anderson, control message, critics, dell hell, Google, jetblue, lfo, long tail, marketers in control, melee, name dropping, oprah, run dmc, snapfish, snickers, the ants have megaphones
Posted in Google, Marketing, Search, social media | No Comments »
