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 | 15 Comments »
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
SMB3 broke huge new grounds yesterday at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) thanks to great partnership with the National Heritage Board (NHB). I was getting messages all Friday long about people being excited to attend SMB at the ACM and I heard about the River Room from the NHB folks and saw the pictures at the website, but I was completely blown away when I stepped into the venue. It’s a HUGE space that looks like a swanky ballroom rather than a location for an informal event like ours. In fact when I met Claudia to set up, I said “Wow, maybe we should’ve gotten a smaller room so it won’t look so empty if less people turn up.”
The reception table
NHB!
Enter… the River Room
Huge, classy and stylish.
I needn’t have worried because this was the most amount of people we’ve ever had at an SMB for sure. When people were sitting the chairs were full, if not there were throngs of people standing around. It was really quite something.
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Many, many people!
I felt the vibe this time round was a little more “intense” than previous SMBs. Maybe it was the more official looking venue compared to the previous cosy cafes, but I definitely sensed a lot more interest and enthusiasm and mingling this time round compared to the previous two. It was as if everyone knew they were in a room with bright, like-minded people and wanted to make the most out of every minute and maximising their time there.
One thing that didn’t go too well, was the discussion topic. We wanted to have a panel but that didn’t work out so we thought going ahead with “table discussions” would work. But I guess they didn’t. We’re still experimenting with the format, but SMB is the community’s not ours. We just organise it. So if you felt the topic was too serious, too trivial, too boring, needed facilitators, needed moderators, let us know! We’re going to figure out a way to make this work for SMB4.
Walter from NHB sharing with us NHB’s social media efforts.
For me, the biggest thing at any SMB is the people. And I was incredibly excited that I didn’t know about half the people there! It’s amazing that almost six months after the first SMB, it’s still generating interest among people who are willing to come for the first time. I particularly enjoyed meeting Pat Law in person after so much communication on our blogs, Twitter and Plurk, Todd Murray from Active Channel who I only met online the day before on LinkedIn, Willy Foo from Live! Studios who provided great fun with his photography, and many many others who are too many to list here.
I really love how SMB is becoming this melting pot of people literally from everywhere in the social media space. Bloggers, podcasters, videocasters, in-house people, agency people, casual enthusiasts, academics, entrepreneurs, tech people and everyone else. It’s great to have Miccheng from Podfire filming Geek Goddess TV at SMB2, and the Tech 65 crew recording live at SMB3. It’s truly bringing together the best of both “social” and “media”.
Tech 65 recording live!
Admittedly right now SMB does not have a firm “mission” to drive here in Singapore, but we started off wanting to provide a platform to get everyone together to mix, share experiences and learn from each other, and I think it’s doing just that. Not necessarily at the three hours during brunch, but all the connections and conversations that happen after that. As much as I was delighted to see so many new faces, I was equally ecstatic to see so many returning faces who have been consistent supporters of social media in Singapore in general, and SMB in particular.
At this point I’d love to hear from everyone how you felt about the event. Be frank, be critical. After all if you’re waking up on a precious Saturday morning to come to SMB, it should be worth your time. Let us know what worked, what didn’t work, what you’d like to see more of in the future, etc etc.
Finally, I’d like to thank Walter, Wei Chong, David and Kenny from NHB for agreeing to partner up with us. I cannot state enough what a great help they were with the venue. It was really good knowing that we secured a great venue and not having to worry about it for the last few months. I completely forgot about signage but they had all bases covered with great signboards everywhere ensuring that no one got lost. Thank you so much. Of course, it wouldn’t be possible without my co-conspirators as well: Sheylara, Claudia and Derrick.
Willy has great photos up on Facebook. I’m going to insert two of the group pictures here. Memories of a good Saturday morning well spent meeting great people.
Group Shot 1
Group Shot 2
Links to other SMB3 Coverage:
Walter @ Cooler Insights
Dorothy’s post
Michael @ Communicate Asia
Cullen @ Media Slog
As always I’ll be posting a full rundown of all the blog coverage sometime next week, do let me know if you blogged about it so I can include you! Tagging your posts as “social media breakfast singapore” and “smb singapore” would be greatly appreciated!
Tags: acm, active channel, asian civilisations museum, claudia.sg, communicate asia, cooler insights, geek goddess tv, live studios, media slog, national heritage board, nhb, podfire, river room, smb singapore, social media breakfast, social media breakfast singapore, tech 65
Posted in Fun, community, social media breakfast | 11 Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
We’ve finally settled most of the details about SMB:S3 and the day is going to go something like this:
1000 - 1045: Arrivals & Introductions
1045 - 1130: Discussion topic: Blogger outreach programmes are catching on in Singapore. What does this mean for the company? For bloggers? For audiences?
1130 - 1300: Brunch & free roam of the museum.
Everything you see above is voluntary. If you just want to come for the discussion that’s fine, if you just want to come for brunch and networking and mingling that’s fine too. We’re really experimenting with the format this time round, so let us know if you have suggestions and/or comments. Do note that while there is a central discussion theme, by no means are conversations meant to be restricted around them.
For people coming for the first time, it would be really good if you could come for the introduction session, which would probably make the less of the day go by much more smoothly. Don’t worry, we’re a friendly bunch =)
If you haven’t yet signed up for it, the Facebook event page can be found here.
Derrick and Sheylara have things to attend to and so they won’t be around, so it’ll really be me and Claudia holding the fort this weekend. Approach us if you need to!
Tags: discussion topics at social media breakfast, smb singapore, social media breakfast singapore
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Geek Goddess TV has a new episode out, featuring Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 2 with myself, Sheylara and Derrick being interviewed. If you’ve never attended one of the SMBs before, this is a great video to find out what we’re all about!
I’m glad with the recent hoohah surrounding Podfire, they’ve just stuck to what they do best, create content for the web and being picked up around the web as well. Good way to put Singapore’s social media scene on the web.
Little teaser for Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 3 - We have the venue locked down, and it’s an awesome one. Here’s a hint: Not only will you be attending breakfast, but will get free access to one of Singapore’s attractions as well. Let the guessing begin!
Tags: daryl tay, derrick kwa, geek goddess tv, podfire, sheylara, smb, smb singapore, smb video, social media breakfast singapore
Posted in Blogs, Singapore, community, social media breakfast | 11 Comments »
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
Yesterday was SMB:Singapore 2, which was great because we had the unveiling of the first version of the logo (which was printed out on all the name tags), just under 60 people appearing, pretty good food and what I thought was a nice cozy venue at Cafe Domus.
For me, it was really good meeting people like Siok Siok and Krisandro, Rony Thomas in person, and finally getting to meet Preetam, as well as interesting conversations with Su Min, Jayden, Hun Boon and many more. I also had a kick ass time being interviewed for Geek Goddess TV together with Sheylara and Derrick. (Mic, please make me look good in post!)
As always, great meeting the (by now) usual crew of Nadia, Tech 65 guys, Yuhui, Ridz, Hisham, Supriya, Brian, Daphne, Nicole, Coleman, Claudia, Peter, Miccheng, Bernard and Shannon. I’m sure I’ve missed out people and I apologise! This crazy linking is hard work, but I like generating linklove.
If you came for SMB and we didn’t manage to connect, do drop me a comment or look for me on Twitter (@uniquefrequency) or on Facebook, and we can start a whole new conversation there! Just drop me a note so I know you’re not some random person looking to add me.
You might notice this post says “The Success Part”, more on “The Failure” part later today. Also, I’ll be putting up a post consolidating all the media coverage of SMB2, so if you have a blog post, pictures, video, audio, anything, drop me a comment so I can link you!.
And now, on to the pictures (mouseover for captions):
Tags: cafe domus, geek goddess, podfire network, sherms, singapore social media scene, singpore bloggers, smb singapore, social media breakfast logo, social media breakfast singapore, tv, twitter, uniquefrequency
Posted in Blogs, Fun, Singapore, collaboration, social media, social media breakfast | 15 Comments »
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
I know you guys secretly laugh at my “logo” that we’ve been using for Social Media Breakfast: Singapore so far (the picture of the airline food bun), so I approached my friend of 11 years, Shermeen, to do up a proper one. And here it is:
Now before you go “that’s just a cup”, check out the writeup from Shermeen:
The logo’s a coffee cup, with the handle and saucer forming the acronym “SMB”. It can also look like a person having a bright idea..with the face/head having 3/4 profile. I’ve opted for sketchy lines, so the logo looks professional enough, yet informal enough to be fun.
Did you see the “SMB” being formed from the handle and saucer? I certainly didn’t! I love that it’s a simple, elegant logo, yet with these intricacies behind it! Awesome.
If you’re interested, Shermeen will be posting her full thought process and inspiration behind the logo on her blog at http://inthespace.wordpress.com, it’s not up yet so the easiest way is to subscribe! Alternatively, you can contact her directly via email at shermeen.t[AT]gmail[DOT]com.
See you guys on Saturday!
Edit: Claudia suggested printing these on the nametags as well, it probably will be tight for this weekend, but you can definitely look forward to seeing that happen for SMB3!
Tags: design, logo, shermeen, smb singapore, social media breakfast logo, social media breakfast singapore
Posted in Fun, collaboration, social media, social media breakfast | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
You might remember my “Why Students Should Blog” post in response to HackCollege’s contest. I finally caught up with episode 26 of the Hack College Podcast today by Chris and Kelly, and was thrilled to find that I made the final four to win a Hack College t-shirt!
The segment starts at about 18 minutes and I think the collection of answers are really good. I appear in the episode as a tweet. I know people go on about how social media and blogging and whatnot in North America doesn’t always apply here, but this one does.
In any case, I didn’t win that t-shirt, but dammit I’ll keep trying. Failing which I’ll just buy one for myself when I head up there later in the year. (But that’s not an excuse to not let me win, HackCollege!)
If you want to discover more, check out “The Case For Student Blogging” by HackCollege, I think it’s pretty good stuff. If you’ve been agonising over the perfect phrasing of your resume since forever, why not take a look at this and find a better way to supplement your case for future employment.
By the way, need more case studies on Blogging Yielding Fruit? Look no further than my Social Media Breakfast co-hoster Derrick Kwa who scored one with the one and only Seth Godin, as well as Corvida aka Shegeeks who scored one at ReadWriteWeb.
It’s happening people. Stop ignoring it.
Tags: benefits of blogging, corvida, derrick kwa, hack college, read write web, seth godin, shegeeks, smb singapore, social media breakfast, social media breakfast singapore, social media resume, student blogs, why students should blog
Posted in Blogs, social media | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Remember why students should blog? Well I’m happy to announce that the third internship worked out and I start on Wednesday. Exact details won’t be posted because of confidentiality issues, but suffice to say it’s social media related.
To me the biggest value is to be thrown into the “real world” and see if the stuff I’ve been blogging about makes sense, or am I living in this dream from the outside looking in. Could be a harsh slap of reality, but better now than later.
The downside is that it’s only six weeks (because I’ve committed the whole of July and half of August to my previous employer, MTV to work on the MTV Asia Awards held in Malaysia. That is going to be a blast!
However, rest assured the blogging here will not be changed in anyway. I definitely won’t be blogging about work unless given express permission, and if I do, it will be fully disclosed. I might end up blogging less than normal because of work hours, but that’s what RSS is for! (Don’t know how to subscribe, here’s my handy guide).
Finally, I want to thank everyone who’s been reading, commenting or interacting with this blog in any way. This could be the best blog in the world (it’s not), but if no one was reading it, it would be useful. So thanks for supporting me by reading, talking to someone else about me, attending Social Media Breakfast: Singapore. It’s because of you that I landed this internship. So let me end this post with: thank you for reading
Tags: benefits of blogging, mtv, mtv asia, mtv asia awards, mtv genting, mtv malaysia, smb singapore, social media breakfast singapore, student blogs, why students should blog
Posted in Blogs, social media, social media breakfast | 15 Comments »
Friday, May 9th, 2008
The attendee list on the Facebook Event page for Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 2 has been at 40 people for a couple of days now, about 60% were present at the first one. This is good in the sense that we’ll be familiar with each other and really move the conversation forward and talk about the crazy issues that plague all of us who’re trying to figure out the space.
However, there’s also something missing. New blood! I talked before about the fishbowl and being insular
, and if we want the landscape of social media to change, we have to reach out. To people who are just entering the social media domain, to people who are curious but still on the fence, to people who don’t even know about this world yet!
So here’s the challenge: Convince one other person (friend, classmate, colleague, family) that this is worth their while. Let them know it’s newbie friendly, after all, most of us are new to the space anyway!
That’s the mission if you choose to accept it, come back and let everyone know how it went by posting in the comments section!
Tags: bloggers, echo chamber, facebook event, fishbowl, insular, moving the conversation, smb singapore, social media breakfast singapore
Posted in Singapore, social media breakfast | 8 Comments »
Monday, May 5th, 2008
As Sham has already reported, SMB:S2 will be happening in three weeks on the 24th of May, 2008. All the details can be found at the Facebook event page.
Who should come?
Anyone interested and passionate about the social media space, be it blogging, podcasting, social networks, micro blogging etc. What this event is not, however, is a blogger outing that is so popular around Singapore. Read up about the original event and check out the blog coverage if you think you might be interested!
ps: The event is open to all so feel free to invite fellow friends to the Facebook event page, hopefully people who can help move the conversation further.
There’ll definitely be more news and updates as and when it happens, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, we already have 19 confirmed guests on the Facebook event page, won’t you be one of them too? What would you like to see that this SMB? More structure? A proper format and/or discussions? Let me know and we’ll see how we can factor it in.
Tags: blogging, facebook event, micro blogging, podcasting, smb singapore, social media, social media breakfast singapore, Social Networks
Posted in Singapore, social media breakfast | 8 Comments »
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