It’s been three weeks but the next episode of The GennY Podcast is finally here! Full disclosure: This was actually our first recording, but we felt that the episode we released first was better suited to be our first, introductory podcast. Coincidentally, some topics actually touch on what was said at Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 6, but in slightly more detail.
Once again, this episode was brought to you by the same people behind episode 1 (Krisandro, myself, Dorothy, Yin and Yinqi), but we hope to shake that up for subsequent episodes.
GennY Episode 2 Team
The show notes:
00:00 – Daryl starts us off – introductions all round
00:55 – Yin starts us off on the topic: How can we get traditional companies to start slowly on the social media path?
01:35 – Social media allows you to know what your consumer wants, what trends they’re picking up, and hence customise your communications/marketing
03:02 – Why don’t companies go where their audience is?
05:42 – Is there a perceived credibility problem with social media?
06:48 – How well received would brands be on Plurk?
07:50 – Maybe if they talked about things other than just selling, they might be better received.
08:31 – No messages from unknown faces please!
11:46 – Should employees reach out from their own identity, or create one aligned with a company?
13:02 – “Dear All” = Fail
15:03 – How about Facebook Groups?
15:39 – Facebook Groups more as personality “labels” rather than a communication channel
16:40 – Maybe Facebook Groups would work if the creators made an effort to communicate to the group
16:47 – But this can be overdone too
18:20 – Is this an intrinsic problem because Facebook Groups have no RSS?
Wow I have to say even after doing this for a year (well technically eight months because I was away for a bit), today’s Social Media Breakfast | Singapore was really challenging.
A lot of it had to do with physical constraints. The space was a little odd, the sound wasn’t as good as we’d like, but the truth is, we signed off on that. I signed off on that. I knew that venue being long might have been an issue, but thought the main venue of having it in Tangs would be a nice trade off. Well, and I guess we weren’t expecting that many people (I think we hit 100 this time).
In all honesty, I see or hear the negative feedback, and sometimes it’s tough to take. Not because it’s untrue, but because I’m the type of person who wants things to succeed. But I think at the end of the day, it’s a learning process for all of us. We all have day jobs (or school), we don’t have a lot of money, but we make the best out of things. And I think it’s always encouraging for me to see familiar (and unfamiliar) faces make the effort to come down even for a little while, and tell us they appreciate the effort.
I’ve been watching the development of the social media scene in Singapore for awhile now, and I am more convinced than ever that the direction we’re taking is the right one. It’s about community. And relationships. And partnerships. And a community who will tell you what sucked because they want things to be better.
And we will be. Because we’re not motivated by money, or “fame” or what have you. We do it for passion. A lot of problems can be solved by charging, and getting money. Or making the event invitation only. But knowledge is never meant to be horded, but shared with as many people as possible, taking both the good and the bad of that decision.
I want to particularly thank the people who donated money to us. You know I opened the donation “box” at the end of the night, and I saw $3 in coins in there. I don’t know if it was from one person or a few. But the point is, even in recessionary times like this, you felt that what we’re doing is important or valuable enough to drop your change in and keep us going. So thank you.
Lots of data from the registration form that I’m going to look at soon. If you have the time, fill up the feedback form! It’ll help us greatly.
Finally, if you do have feedback about the event (not related to the venue and sound because we know that already), please comment here, or if you feel it needs to be private, drop me a mail directly at uniquefrequency [AT} gmail *dot* com.
