Social Media & Digital Marketing in Singapore

One Way To Avoid Being The Salesman At The Party

Reading the comments for the last couple of posts really got me thinking more about this subject. I feel like the “this is new media and there are new rules” excuse is quickly wearing its usefulness thin, and there is no excuse for people not to know these things anymore. Even if they don’t know, there are tonnes of places on the internet to research, like this one:

Are You Willing To Invest The Time?

It’s taken from Beth’s Blog and the primary focus of the blog post was how much time it takes non-profits to use social media, but I believe it applies pretty much across the board.

A quick note to the people who have been spamming the SMB Facebook Group and other groups? Social Networking comes last. If you’re not willing to spend that 20hrs/week investing in all the steps, then maybe social media isn’t for you.

I commented on this blog last week and said “I guess to some in the social media world all the steps are sometimes done simultaneously, but demonstrating them in increasing commitment levels and in a “linear” format will definitely help people just coming into it to understand it better!”

So take note of this. You start from listening, not plunging head on to creating content and “spreading the word”.

The Photography Analogy

I draw parallel to learning how to understand the technical functions of a DSLR camera for the first time (a situation I’m in). I came across this post from Digital Photography School which says:

ANY friend of mine who comes to me early on in their photography “career” asking for lessons is forbidden from shooting in any mode other than AUTO for at LEAST 3-6 months. In my mind that’s enough time to get your framing style down to the point where it’s just, for lack of a better word, automatic. . . second nature. When that happens, THEN you’re ready to explore other settings.

As someone who bought a Nikon D40x last December and is still shooting in auto and only just beginning to understand terms referring to manual settings like “exposure”, “aperture”, “ISO settings” and the like, I identify with this completely.

Similarly, if the fundamental concepts of conversation, feedback, community, partnership and dialogue are not understood by you or your company, leaping ahead to more complex ideas like blogger outreach or community management or setting up a Twitter account is probably not the best move for you.

In Closing

Take the time to familiarise yourself with the social media scene that is relevant to you, and don’t jump in expecting to yield results. More often than not it will frustrate the people you’re trying to reach out to, and yourself.

Tags: avoid being the salesman at the party, beth's blog, facebook group, how much time does social media take, social media and mastering a dslr, social media breakfast, social networking, the photography analogy to social media

Posted in Tools, community, social media, social media business | 3 Comments »

Don’t Be The Insurance Salesman At The Party – Doing It Wrong

This is a follow up post to Doing It Right.

So Social Media Breakfast | Singapore has a Facebook Group, and while it’s meant for sharing and posting news and conversations, inevitably there are people who aren’t aware or are ignorant of the guidelines of social media, and insist on being an insurance salesman.

At the bottom, you can see me telling someone that we don’t appreciate the spam in the SMB Facebook page, and in the middle you can see her reply. Now here’s the thing. It’s easy for her to call me “prissy” because I’m someone who’s still in school. But there are 140 other people on the Facebook Group who can easily click on her name and check out which agency she works in.

Or in the future, if she keeps it up, somebody will blog about it revealing all the details (including name and agency), and if your company is doing their research on this person and/or agency and this comes up, would you still want to hire the person/agency to take care of your business? Do you want this agency to take your brand name and shove it into people’s faces? (It’s not a trick question, the answer is no).

Let’s look up further for the second example. The sad thing here is that website, firstaidcorps, actually has a decent blog with interesting content. But doing this isn’t going to get people interested and engaged. Sure, you might get a few clicks, but you think they’re going to come back or think of you as anything other than spam in the future?

At the end of the day, it’s not rocket science. How would you like your firstaidcorps page to have a comment from someone else saying “check me out here” or going to your agency’s campaign and commenting “check me out there” (assuming the campaign in interactive enough to even leave comments). It’s just rude and it reflects badly on you and your agency’s understanding of the social media space, so stop doing it.

Tags: being an insurance salesman at the party, doing it right, facebook group, poor practices social media, social media breakfast singapore, spamming, spamming your url

Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore, case studies, community, social media | 7 Comments »