slow media to be enjoyed by the wayside

The world spins on its axis in twenty four hours.

We expect our news much faster than that these days. While i'm on Twitter, i get real time updates from my fellow human beings halfway across the world. I am twelve hours ahead of them. Not counting the things I get to read of blogs, news sites, video sites and pictures.

I guess it can be perceived that the world is getting smaller, or as Thomas Friedman says, The World Is Flat.

I say, learn to slow down every now and then. While the earth keeps spinning, perhaps twice as fast these days in the social media universe, there is a whole other world that still sticks to the same 24 hours we've always had.

You want to achieve work life balance, unplug yourself and start appreciating the world as you know it, not just through the social media's lenses.

Social media is best utilised to achieve a pulse on trends, communities, ideas, connections. but it backfires when you face an information overload. I think our brains can take it, but..

you also have to train your brain to not just consume information, but actually derive some value from it.

It's not just about how much you consume, it's how you interpret data, apply it, make it work for you, your counterparts, your businesses.

And that's why i still value "slow media". when you sacrifice speed for a great media product. a craft, where time and energy has been invested to make something easily understood so that MORE may understand and enjoy.

So what is slow media?


Image credit: Crackskullbob

For now, I'll define it as media that has large investments in time, energies, manpower, conceptualisation, production and even channel planning to maximise exposure to said media product.

Slow media can be social media. Slow media is purposeful, intricate cuisine, as opposed to fast food.

Fast food's a quick fix, fills your stomach, perhaps rough around the edges, not made from the best ingredients, perhaps even for mass consumption but with little value.

You just feel satisfied, and better about yourself and your surroundings when you consume slow media without rushing through it. when you come out of it, knowing more, eager to tell your peers just where you had this gastronomical epiphany.

And that my friends, is how i see "slow media". I guess the fact that i'm about to start looking for lunch had something to do with this post.

no pictures in the cloud

surreal. how i haven't typed in here for so long. it's so easy to just shrug it off really. after a hard day's work, or just the whizz bang of too many rehearsals going on, or the day to day meeting ups with friends.. and the ever pertinent question "what do you read this blog for?"

this blog doesn't really have a niche, so in that sense there really isn't a target audience. and in that sense, i guess you don't really grow an audience when your content isn't constant either.

i'm sorry if you've been visiting regularly the past six years and all of a sudden, i just make the excuse of being too busy to blog.

but 'tis the truth, it's hard to maintain a blog when you're spread thin. there are ways to discipline yourself to blog regularly, but i guess i'm not that disciplined. though i ought to be.

and i never thought it'd be this way, but typing in your has sorta become unfamiliar.

updating twitter on the other hand is super simple, and i think i've been maintaining my online presence through the use of facebook and twitter more than this blog.

but i suppose there's a lesson in all this, and that is.. there are pros and cons in whatever channel you choose to engage with your audience in, but if you want to be a good social media practitioner, you have to keep engaging in some form or another.

The New Public Relations Agency

originally posted on The Open Room

Here's an interesting report done up by ZDNet, a news site / blog that covers the beat in the Technology industry. It's called "Is Social PR For Real? Which Agencies Get It?"

A timely article, with some great research insights from internal PR directors / managers followed by chief marketing officers / vice presidents of marketing and small business owners as some of the world's major economies start slowing down and anybody in a decision making position is held even more accountable on the budgets that they spend.

More than ever, Return On Investment (ROI) will be a deal breaker and a key tenet to effect real change to any business or organisation.

Do good communications practices ultimately affect your bottom line? You bet it does! In today's increasingly mass commodified and audience fragmented world, reaching your audience and having a relationship that transcends transactions builds customer loyalty, advocacy for them to tell others about you. You want to be that 'go-to' resource when a customer has a need, and you want to sell them the best possible product that you have to better their lives.

But this isn't really about that.. we're going to talk more about some of the insights found in the ZDNet article.

These were some of the key points i picked out from the report:

1. Agencies do not fully follow through with what was promised during a new business pitch.
Only 20% strongly agreed and 18% agreed that their agencies achieved this. A vast majority 30% somewhat agreed and a good 26% agreed with the claim.



Credit: www.zdnet.com

I suspect this also comes from the 'fluid' nature of social media, or perhaps a lot of it comes from over-promising and making unrealistic strategies and tactics. While everyone is hungry for new business in these times, more should be done to keep both clients and agencies accountable on deliverables with accountable measurement.

2. Agencies do not necessarily understand how their communications work past getting news coverage and actually affecting a client's business
Yes, something we can all be guilty about. Good public relations is more than just generating news coverage (quantitative), but it is about projecting a positive image of the clients you represent (qualitative)



Credit: www.zdnet.com

In our line of work, both qualitative and quantitative share equal importance. But as audiences become extremely fragmented, it's harder to see media as mass communications anymore. I think a smart move any of us can do, is to think very strategically and produce quality content to the publics that matter first and foremost, before trying to reach the world. Pool your resources together to communicate the things that matter, to the people that matter.

3. Clients really expect agencies to know social media

This is great! 78.8% of clients understand the importance of having a social media campaign and expect their agencies to know it as well! While I hesitate to say that agencies should know more about social media than their clients, I'd like to think that it's not the knowledge gap in a new medium that allows an agency to work with its clients, but MORE about how the agency is a valued partner and comes up with workable social media campaigns that understands the industry their client is in, what drives their clients business and then HOW social media can work for them and their customers.



Credit: www.zdnet.com

4. Clients know enough about social media to get by
This is another good sign. About two years ago, clients and agencies were starting to experiment with social media. Today, a good 39.8% know enough to get by, and 37% have a good grasp about how social media will contribute to their business. Nothing gets me more excited when I speak to clients who do not just name drop social media buzzwords, but are actually talking about strategy, credibility, transparency and forming relationships with their people that matter.



Credit: www.zdnet.com

5. Clients would like free social media training
A good 46.5% said they would attend if they didn't have to pay for it, and a good 35.4% said they would attend regardless.



Credit: www.zdnet.com

While ZDNet recommends it would be in our best interest to not charge for training sessions, from an agency point of view, media training for clients usually comes at a cost. I believe social media training is equally important. Public image isn't nurtured overnight, same thing as a social presence. Your avatar can be considered your public image on the social net, and such training is a worthwhile investment and accelerator if you don't have time to pore through all the myriad of "How-To" posts from blogs.

But, i'm willing to see the flipside to this. It's just one more thing to pay for isn't it? Perhaps possible ways forward is to package this as part of a programme, keeping costs lower. In business, I guess most things are negotiable.

(And who says we don't give away anything for free? Check out Ogilvy On Recession, a free resource of insights and thought igniters on how to work smart in the downtime.)

6. Most agencies recommend the tools to drive social media
Worrying. 29% of clients agree somewhat that agencies make the tools the centerstage when it comes to social media / PR campaigns. Add 14% that agree and 8% that strongly agree, that's almost a total of 51% of agencies who are trying to pull a fast one with shiny, free applications created by other people to get new business.



Credit: www.zdnet.com

Once again, it's not the tools that drive social media, they are the means to an end. What ultimately makes a campaign successful is the strategy and content that netizens get, and perhaps a close second, the relationships that at least get you into the door to pitch a story or idea.

Summary
In closing, it's great to see more clients stepping up and understanding social media. Having that knowledge allows you to see through an agency's smokescreen of buzzwords, fancy charts and overwhelming statistics.

Then it's the agency's turn to show clients just why we're so great to work with. Whether it's through strategic acumen, industry knowledge, media relations, creative ideas, professionalism and accountability. A working relationship doesn't have to be purely transactional, but a valued relationship that sees both parties growing as our audiences continue to grow as well. Y'see PR2.0 isn't about the social media, it's about the culture adopted by both clients and agencies responding to a changing audience.

beyond buzzwords

if traditional media enabled us to connect, by informing us about the world around us and gave us a common stage to have the same knowledge. then social media has enabled us to participate by allowing to publish anything, from text to multimedia. 

participation requires connection, it is a step up from merely being in the same room, you need to say something in order to be heard.

that's the main difference i see between the media we used to have, and the media we currently have. and so, you need a new media strategy, not because you want to exist in the mindshare of the public, but because you want to participate with them in their conversations.

simple enough?

uploading my thoughts, being part of the greater whole. (we exist)

i first pushed "publish" more than five years ago. it was the thirty-first of january 2003 (i checked). i was still in the army then, and i had no idea that i'd see myself this far down the future.

call it a bit of a retrospect, but so much has changed since then (i was 21 when i started the blog) and i just turned 26 two days ago. add the time between finishing national service, 3.5 years studying in murdoch, perth and almost a year and a half in an agency, i'd say things have pretty much evolved from when i was just a wee lad in my early twenties.

for starters, coming full circle, i started this blog as an extension of myself, then i got embroiled in turning this into a professional mouthpiece, but now, i'm inclined to return to my roots. That this blog is me. it's gonna be a meepok blog as uniquefrequency describe diarist style blogs. why is this important to me? well.. i do my professional blogging elsewhere, namely the open room and i'd like to keep this space my little broadcast to the interwebs. a space where i can remember, and converse without corporate strings tugging. 

i think this is essential to maintaining some sort of personality and identity to my craft as a blogger (if i can even call it that). futurebureau explained it nicely when he IMed me this morning, saying that'd he'd blog to benefit a user's online experience. for me, that's partly where i'd like to take my blog to, and also.. to help you see the world through my eyes. not that i have anything better to offer, but that's why i started reading blogs in the first place, to see things through your eyes.

i refer to this video from ghost in the shell: stand alone complex. tachikomas are wondering why we humans still use words to communicate with each other. why indeed? for starters, as sophisticated as language is, it really is rather primitive, only in terms of how it can be transferred. if what the tachikomas say is true, then if you and me formed a data link, you would instantly know how i was thinking, feeling, tasting, seeing.. my five senses would be uploaded to you straight away. but still, here we are on blogs, evolving as blogs are, larger data packets, more multimedia, audio, visuals.. but we're still limited by what we can do, or what our abilities are.

you can watch the video now:

but that's exactly what keeps us human perhaps. that even in a data link, i'm still me and you're still you. even if i experienced in all five senses what you experienced, i cannot put it into the context of you. in other words, i can't transfer my soul to you and vice versa. as human beings, dare we say we are more than experiences, cells and subatomic particles?

i know i majored in mass communications back in uni, but it's this other side of our non-professional selves that i'm interested in. what do we share with each other that makes us human? i do think that one of the reasons that we share, whether online or not, is to elicit a response for something or someone else. to validate our existence, that proves we are not just a figment of imagination, not just a passing of time in the vast cosmos. 

and we do that by sharing things. social media has made it easier, it's been used effectively by entities and people to better understand where we're all coming from. i don't know if it's the fulfilment of the dialogue, but i believe we've only taken a step forward in terms of communicating, or finding new ways to communicate. we can now have threaded conversations and everyone can crowdsource and be part of a discussion. we are no longer bound by geography, language (language bots), audio visual aids and etc. the gift of the internet is unbridled communication tools. but the beauty and mystery of conversation and dialogue, still lies with the human. who moves like a reed in the wind, fluid, taking the story wherever he goes. to those who will listen.

Xbox Xperts Yes, But Social Media No?

I'm just doing my rounds around the web, and came across sheylara's latest foray as a gaming blogger. i'm glad for her and proud of her that's she's worked (and blogged) hard to be given the title as an Xbox Xpert. (if you must know, i do approach her for some PlayStation stories as well. - and she's been ever so kind)

here's the thing i don't understand though, she has a successful blog, and blogs about gaming on her blog many times, in some sense, that's sort of what you go to www.sheylara.com for. so why go through all the hassle create a brand new Xbox blog and in some sense, fragment both Sheylara and XBox's media channels?

i understand that xperts.com is meant to be a help channel for Xbox n00bs to ask Sheylara for help, but all i see on that blog are game reviews and contest details. No real help-line there.

so far, i'm guessing they're only doing this for brand enhancement, perhaps adding organic relevancy to searches.. but those are rather long term goals. in the short term, all i see is further fragmentation of the gaming channel to convey messages.

here are some key points.

1. I agree that having a page dedicated to help newbies is important, i think it serves as education and breaks down barriers to entry. just look at get satisfaction - however -

2. i don't know if this blog (or even using a blog as a channel) is the most effective way to communicate the message. here's what i mean, blogs tend to spark conversation, but the newbie needs information. shouldn't the proposed new media channel be somewhere along the lines of direct communication or customer service?

3. i'm also concerned about continued fragmentation of new media channels to a point where there is no longer a critical mass that makes social content.. well, social at all! (ie. if you're a digital strategists, blogs aren't your only answer, or the only product you can sell to clients who need a communications solution)

4. lastly, i think they've identified the need. i don't think they've met it by starting a blog, would a forum have better sufficed?

5. -update- i stand corrected, there are dedicated help channels, but feedback from XBOXers tend to come from comments. i think threaded conversations ala forum archtecture better serves the purpose of getting up-to-date help.

overall, i guess i was hoping for better use of a blog. as it stands now, i think Sheylara is more popular than the Xpert blog, it'd be interesting to see if one supercedes the other.

well, what do you think?

SPREAD IT! (ideas that spread are like an STD)

okay, so what makes a piece of content shareable? almost everyday, i reach out to influencers, but is my content influencing? or even spreadable?

marketers like to call ideas that spread, the viral effect. it's like a disease, and then it becomes an epidemic. scary init?

but it still doesn't address that magick that makes you wanna go tell someone else, or in this case, infect.

let's look at the disease analogy more closely. in fact, let's look at it imagining it to be a sexually transmited disease like say.. syphyllis. (or genital warts)

so you suddenly find yourself with gential warts, you have an itch that needs scratching, and you don't sign yourself into rehab, in fact, what you still want to do, is sleep around regardless of the consequence.

okay, i exaggerate, but what i want to drive at, is this desire to fulfil your own needs, and in the process, you spread your disease. (unknowingly perhaps?) and your infected victims unknowingly spread it to someone else.

see, the idea is not genital warts (no one would sleep with you if you had them. note: make sure your ideas are not genital warts), the idea is desire.

you're sharing the desireability of your idea, that could be:

1. making someone else laugh
2. helping someone solve a problem
3. making someone more money
4. lifehacking someone else's processes
5. making myself / someone else extremely popular

we all have an itch that needs scratching, and that's what makes us want to spread it.

Trivia: how many times i've said "genital warts" in this post - 5

Jean.SG Says She Was Molested, And We Say She Deserves It?

"seems to me there's somethin' you don't know about men, an' that's we can't help this shit.

i mean, i dunno if it's genetic, or if it's to do with what we get taught, of if it's just 'cause it's expected of us -- but it's what we DO, ok?

'cause to help a girl when she's in trouble, or stop her gettin' into trouble, is just the right goddamned thing to do.." - jesse custer, preacher #17

it's just the right, goddamned thing to do.

i don't know why this post link here is bothering me so much, or i think it's more the comments from anonymous pass-bys that irks me more. link here

Before we go any deeper into this, please read these links to get some context to what's going on.

the girl's account
a local tabloid's report
asiaone's news story
and countless other people who have spoken for and against this girl for either leading the guy on (accepting a $48,000 'gift'), putting herself in an awkward situation (sharing a bed together) and inviting trouble.

Yes. Yes. and Yes.

but still, what gives the guy ANY RIGHT to snuggle up next to her in the dead of the night, start stroking her back with his fingers, and when she was too terrified to do anything, whip out his big dick (it must be big if his brain was there and not in his cranium) and stroke it at her buttocks?

No seriously, what gives him the right to assume the stage has been set, the gift ($48,000 mind you) has been given, the circumstances were ideal (what? he thought she planned the 'one bed' dilemma?) when there is no clear sign of consent?

i'll admit, i think sex is a special enough act that you remain faithful to your partner to, even before you are married. but that's just me, and even for people who don't share the same view and are more versed in this act of sleeping with anyone they wish, isn't there some sort of 'teasing' or acknowledgment that they want to have sex with you?

i hardly think a dead log not making a noise to your stroking fingers is communication that screams out 'YES! TAKE ME NOW!'



i think i've made my point, who was clearly, more in the wrong for assuming too much.

the final thing that irks me, are all these anonymous people who leave comments behind saying that she had brought it upon herself, saying money had changed hands, justifying this course of action. well if it does, it clearly shows how you treat women, they're nothing more than things that can be bought.

women are humans just like us. i think it sorta shows what kind of person you are. the selfish type who looks out only for his/herself, or you respect your peers, regardless of where they come from, and their well-being is of concern to you.

it's funny how such anonymous commenter's can say such things, and although www.jean.sg has chosen to remain anonymous, at least she has a source blog and is contactable via email and willing to go public. how many of these other unverified commenters are willing to be spotlighted by public opinion, and actually broadcast what they really want they say and put it on record, while taking full responsibility for the words they use.

not many i can imagine.

big empty words. forever resigned to anonymity lacking any credibility.

my identity on this blog is public and transparent for a reason. i'm taking responsibility for anything and everything i say here, and i cannot speak for anyone but myself.

in closing, the blame that we heap on www.jean.sg will come full circle. if we are unwilling to give her quarter and benefit of the doubt for such a hideous action, when it happens to one of your loved ones, or to yourself and you are powerless to do anything about it, we have only wrought the hurt upon ourselves, because we allowed and justified such a thing to happen in the first place.

why am i speaking out about this? i'll share two of my favorite quotes, because it's pushed my buttons and these quotes belly my own principles as a man, and mortal.

'cause to help a girl when she's in trouble, or stop her gettin' into trouble, is just the right goddamned thing to do.." - jesse custer, preacher #17

once a man has seen, he can never turn his back on it. never pretend it doesn't exist. no matter who orders him to look the other way. we do not do this thing because it is permitted. we do it because we have to. we do it because we are compelled." - rorschach, watchmen issue vi

Brian Morgan Productions Pilot Vodcast: The Muxtape Episode

without much fanfare, production values and a brand new blackbook, i present brian morgan productions a first look at music you should be listening to and all the other cool DIY things you could be doing.

who we are: brian leery, bassist & inquisitive social media practitioner and morgan c. hoax, indie music guru, photographer & brains behind the skinny fists

why we started vodcasting: we're both recently mac-enabled. i wanted to show how easy it was to begin vodcasting. for content, we both love music a little too much, and we hope that through the use of video, we can share the cool things you ought to be listening to and what's out there in the world of music + intertubes

links mentioned
muxtape
morgan's muxtape
brian's muxtape
pitchfork
morgan's blog
brian's blog: you're reading it now!

songs and/or albums mentioned
1. Follow The Lights (EP) by Ryan Adams
2. The Greatest (LP) by Cat Power
3. He War (Single) by Cat Power

*EXPOSE* what's all this fuss about Plurk anyhow?

by now, some of the more active new media movers in Singapore have tried out the latest web application, Plurk.

what exactly is Plurk? well, if you aren't even using Twitter, this post might not make much sense to you.

Twitterers jumped onto Plurk when Twitter kept having outages that really made following conversations a hassle. While Twitter and me have not parted ways, i am sort of having a friend with benefits, if that is my relationship with Plurk.

So let me share step by step, what's working out for me and Plurk, before i add a wishlist of what would perhaps, make it even more plurking awesome.

1. Plurk iz pretty

the timeline user-interface (UI) takes a bit of getting used to. but once you do, following conversations and taking part in them is insanely easy.

2. Plurk makes it easy to participate in conversations of interest
see a post that you like? click on the drop down option, and plurk a response instantaneously! it reminds me of the way people post replies to threads on forums. in fact, it's like "threaded conversations" if i may quote @uniquefrequency or @yuhui. i cannot remember. in one of my more popular plurks i got 43 responses, although more than half came from @uniquefrequency and myself, it proved the ease in starting a conversation on any topic, and anyone can join in.

here's an example of that Plurk's permalink. the fantastic thing, is that you can now join in that conversation by just registering yourself and continuing that conversation!



3. RSS Feeds
this was rather overlooked. or didn't appear in any of my current conversations. but i've started subscribing to various Plurkers on my GReader, if i see anything that interests me, i can click on that link in my RSS Reader that takes me straight to a Plurk's Permalink, and i can take part in the conversation without needing to go thru the hassle of checking my timelines.

it's a bit of a hassle, but this will help manage updates if and when Plurk becomes too busy for its own good.

you can also try subscribing to Plurk responses, but i think that's overkill.

[Note: you can only subscribe to public plurks, plurkers that are private will not produce a feed. My feed is in this link if you wanna follow me: link]

wishlist
1. SMS integration like Twitter. but that might not be necessary if WIFI becomes ubiquitous for mobile internet devices, or if you have a good 3G data plan. i hear good things about their mobile site.

2. convulated timeline will have to be addressed sooner or later.

3. easier UI to keep track of conversations that are happening. as someone suggested, plurks with responses should perhaps be aggregated to a sidebar for you to comment on. by doing so, this might render the RSS+GReader method unnecessary and require a shorter learning curve to using Plurk.

4. more 3rd party apps or blog widgets to make Plurk more integrated to a lifestream.

closing thoughts
Plurk and Twitter are different animals. Plurk has made it great to start and follow up on conversations. but it doesn't have the ubiquity of Twitter that truly excels on an SMS platform. you probably won't see someone using Plurk to plurk a cry for help when he/she gets arrested in Egypt. SO don't throw away Twitter yet! Twitter might be quiet for awhile as more of us play with Plurk, but i think Twitter will be back with a vengence WHEN it sorts out its backend engineering.

if you'd like to see it for yourself, take part in the conversation and join my Plurk network here: link!

why you need a social media strategist like me

okay, purely off the bat, i'm not moonlighting my services, but this is an example of how being rather connected helps your cause.

it all started with this:

direct link here

An innocent tweet about the new socialite, an upcoming blog that seems to be covering the new media scene / blogosphere / twittersphere around singapore.

and they quoted me! linked my blog. AND! deemed my friend @ambarvalia crush worthy -)

oh, the wonders of having me as your friend will do wonders for your brand!

you can read the article here.

well, in my defence, i never "accused" anyone. for further evidence, please refer to above image and notice the tone of my "non-accusing" tweet. i mean, how harmless is that? -)

anyway, i don't think the new socialite means any harm, and i've already subscribed to its feed. if someone else has got the pulse on singapore, you've already got me hooked as a reader.

i've also yet to join the Facebook group that nadnut invited me to for sweets.sg. i saw the trailer, and looking forward to what these new players in the vodcasting scene are gonna show us!

revisiting the madness

my oh my. what a tragically long absence away from my blog. for a variety of reasons, i had avoided penning down my thoughts because as fatigue took over, i didn't want to post incoherently.

unfortunately, as the week progressed, more and more things amassed, and my lack of a draft system meant that i wasn't taking note of what i wanted to blog about.

there were a few highlights:

1. social media breakfast 2
i had fun as usual, and was always good to touch base with one of the more prominent blogging communities in Singapore.

2. www.podfire.sg and www.treats.sg part ways.
accounts from the usual suspects here:
michael cheng [podfire]
aaron koh [blogger's treat]

3. byzantin3 posted some highlights from vinton cerf's keynote address. [vinton is part of the team that created TCP/IP protocols that are the architecture the Internet is built upon]
here.
her department, Ogilvy One also posted an interview they had done with him online. chekkit out, it's 5 morselly minutes of goodness:



4. there's a new commoncraft show: social media in plain english


5. but do checkout the hacked version by kommonkraft for the new media douchebag.


i wish i had more input to the things i've just shared, but i'm a bit swamped with the way life is catching up with me. countless rehearsals for church, gigs and weddings make for a busy month. but things should lighten up after this week. *hopes meekly*

in other news, the new Baybeats 2008 website has been launched. My band Leeson will be playing at "Asia's largest indie rock festival" so do pop by and check out the video teaser they've put up for our band and the other 10 as well -)

www.baybeats.com.sg
my props go out to you and whose army? anna judge april. silhouette and cardinal avenue!

70 Millions Blogs and Growing.. Influencing The New Generation

I used to wonder if i had Attention Deficit Disorder, now i know.. the markerters have given me a label. I'm part of Generation Y (Why?)

I'll be blogging in direct response to this post:

Great, I now have a label to explain everything that's wrong about me, we're Generation Y with short attention spans, we want a balance in life. Work and our careers are everything to us (in that we want to be successful), but it's not everything (in that we want a social life, friends and all the trimmings that life has to offer.)

Great by-product of the generation that grew up on Cable, Video on Demand, Broadband Internet, MTV, Mega Malls, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Designer labels, Ecstacy, Blogs, Review Sites, Amazon, EBay and heaven knows what else.

Can you really blame us for not giving your brand the time of day when you try to reach out to us with your ads, pamphlets, sales promises and emotional brand experience?

How then is the best way to get your message to the people that matter?

I've probably already failed to influence in the length of this particular post. If you've given me the time of day to read this far, then maybe we've arrived at something.

connection
if for some reason, you feel that what i have to say is important, it might be because of a mixture of knowing me, we've interacted in some way, and your life somehow benefited after coming in contact with me.

attention
i still read yongfook.com to this day. his blog has evolved into a well designed lifestream.

he captures my attention with great content, short blurbs and funny videos & monologues. meaning i don't have to spend more than 5 mins on his site to hear what he has to say, and decide for myself if it's important or not.

too many times, important things are lost in a sea of noise, or they're not very popular things to begin with. (take a look at ping.sg and hazard a guess at what the average pingster finds important in the "top 10 posts for the last 24 hours".)

now of course, all great brands want to be popular, and they'd like to be in that top 10 posts of pingsters.

community
but we have to remember that ping.sg is not the only community group there is. it's a sizable community, and they've done some really great things, built on uzyn's API platform to aggregate the most popular posts in their community.

but what about social networks and forums that house already existing brand advocates? how about other separate undiscovered blogs that might serve, 20 - 50 committed readers daily? what can we do as brands to help their lives and connect connect with them?

merely reading information online rarely influences a reader. Gen Y is a bit more savvy to believe everything they read. but i think we will consider the expert opinion of someone we know, close to us or at least in our social circle.

fragments
with this amount of choice and clutter, is it in fact possible to have your message carried by every single one of these different voices? let's remember that when someone tries to tell us something in a language we don't understand, it's garble, noise, meaningless and ultimately spam.

is that how you want Gen Y to remember your brand?

Predictions of the iPhone's impact in Singapore

So here's what i think.

i think that the iPhone will make social media tools more ubiquitous to Singaporeans when it's finally officially launched in Singapore.

why do i say that?

1) seamless wireless coverage around Singapore and 3G connection.

2) people will have near 24 hours connection to the net on a mobile device that has true web experience and user experience (screen touching! how intuitive can you get?)

this means that people will (hopefully) start subscribing to RSS feeds, receiving content via the iPhones, using Twitter a lot more, and actually blogging more on the go.

And one other reason why i think this will be so, is because so many of us travel by public transport, and there'll be a lot of downtime. traveling, waiting for friends to show up.. etc. i dare not think when WiMax becomes a part of all this.

The recipe is this.

ubiquitous network coverage + ubiquitous mobile internet device = ubiquitous net usage and a need to aggregate information faster, and on the fly.

we'll see come september

No rest for the weary

Sometimes the powers that be, make it really difficult to fully express yourself, and you find that change is not something that people look upon willingly. I was really excited about a new concept on Tuesday, a way of doing things, but by Thursday, i find my enthusiasm waning at the uphill task it'll be to convert the masses.

maybe that's a key insight into Social Media, and rings true for the prophecy of Loren Feldman, that the most important voice on the Internet is always your own voice, not those that you follow.

Nobody likes to be told what to do, we're pulling in the information that shapes our worlds. Why then do establishments still bombard us with their truths, when everyone has already established their own?

These are troubling times indeed.

New marketing, but are we ready?

I really should be plugging our blogger social event that just happened last night to launch The Open Room, but i'm just so suitably buzzed up right now about something that i just have to type it down first. Yes, it's that important, but don't worry, The Open Room is somewhere a part off all this.

i'm currently attending the IAS Graduate Diploma in Digital Advertising, it's on every Tuesday from 7pm to 10pm, and it's taken considerable strain. In fact, things weren't going so well because, every body was rehashing the same thing over and over again. New marketing, new media, new advertising, basically everything was X X & X with a 2.0 behind it.

you get my drift, you've heard it all before. we've been telling it to you till no end. 2.0, digital, social and post- become great things to put in your product and service offerings so that clients will bite.

but it just won't work because you're just doing the same crap with a 2.0 stuck to it. so what you get is:

crap2.0
digital crap
social crap
post-crap

crap in, crap out.

and what do i mean by crap?

trying to service, sell products and services that worked on a unified mass media platform on what we see today in mature markets as a increasing fragmented media landscape

here's an illustration. in mature and connected markets like the US, Japan and even Singapore (super high broadband penetration) think about the choices you have:

Cable TV
Broadband (Youtube, Flickr, Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, Netvibes, RSS)
Magazines
Advertisements
Newspapers
Forums

The list could go on forever, and that's the media fragmentation we see, coupled with the insane amount of choice we have today.

What brand of toothpaste to buy? what type of toothpaste? whitening? more calcium? 12 hr protection? 24 hr protection?

Basically, we as consumers wanted choice? the marketers gave us choices. and i guess in the process, a lot of crappy choices, and we were at their mercy. choice became clutter.

now, with the Internet, we research what is relevant to us, we try to pull the information that is relevant to us, but it's hard work. And the offers and unsolicited information that finds themselves to us, is SPAM. marketers, advertisers and PR practitioners should take a look at the world's spam folder one day. we can only be positive that its digital, for i forsee worldwide deforrestation if spam was still paper.

So my point is this.

The old way of selling doesn't work on the new breed of consumers.

Marketers, PR and Advertising have become complacent in the way we engage consumers. we don't! we expect one way messages to work, or pseudo interactivity disguised as feedback, survey or clicking on a link..??

I used to be scared of this barrier. This barrier into the consumer space, this natural resistance to the things that we try to do.

Today in class, talking with like minded people, i think some of us felt that we had to change the way we did things. We had to find not just a new way to sell things, but genuinely connect with consumers, be their partners that make life better for them, we go down to their level, or we bring them up to us. Either way, don't take it the wrong way.. the idea is that we should all be on the level playing field.

bring back the days when i wanted something, and went to the small independent shop near my place.. rekindle the joy of having a genuine service that served a customer need or want.

what am i talking about?

about the idea of building shelters or sleeping bags for homeless people sponsored by advertisers or clients. perhaps you could do something good with your ad or presence?

how about the food stores that took your grocery list for a party you were organising, and helped you calculate how much each person owes you? and perhaps helped you collect that money?

how about building an online tool that genuinely helped solved information overload problems?

what about that branded shoe that you designed yourself?

what about that computer that you put together yourself, but they built and delivered to you?

what about that mp3 player that you got engraved, for yourself or a loved one?

NOW, all this doesn't just happen overnight, corporations are process driven, and different departments have goals to meet, but slowly.. once people start understanding this key insight on the difference between choice and clutter, something will change.

and change is exactly what i'm talking about. change in the way we as marketers, PR and advertisers do things, in the way we service our clients and our communities.

instead of being the agency, we become their partners, and we help join the dots and form long lasting business relationships with their customers and their brands. in fact, consumers should not be seen as such statistics, but as stakeholders, or business partners who enter a business-client relationship.. you get the idea. VALUE THEM as part of your company!

and that's where The Open Room comes in. i could have started this post telling you all about it, getting myself a media hit for it. but i hope you can see that The Open Room is just a small part of this ecosystem of change. We did it to connect brands and bloggers together, as if they could be business partners or colleagues.. and foster a natural, casual, fun, relationship or transaction. To have each other understand that we're all a part of this, and we'll make our business work together. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and detracters to one brand, will find solace in other. hopefully that other brand will welcome them with open arms.

maybe we'll then see that the pie is big enough for everyone. *shrug* (i sound like a non-profit don't i?)

so in closing, our market has changed gears, we need new marketing to connect with new audiences. why are we hoping and praying to the unseen god of materialism that our old methods will work on a truly different consumer. A consumer just like you and me, and yet.. so intrinsically unique.

After thoughts of IDC's Directions'08 Panel Discussion

A big topic was the idea of "paying bloggers" from a public relations standpoint, we can't pay bloggers, because that's like paying journalists.

unfortunately, journalists get paid for the writing, and bloggers don't get paid for their hobby.

what we do see is blogs like Techcrunch paying their own writers. Hence, the blog needs to attract enough attention (can you beat TC's readership of 700K++ RSS sunscribers?) to attract sponsorship, or advertising dollars, or some way to sell content and pay their staff writers. not really different from a regular Traditional Media (TM) publication / broadcaster, but i see the business model of information bloggers evolving to something new. something more along the lines of a workable meatball sundae

with reference to "do bloggers have a code of ethics?" it's interesting that Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence open a discussion with bloggers in USA to hear what they had to say.

read their responses here: link and our own code of ethics as Digital Influencers / PR practitioners here

i also thought Uniquefrequency's comments about Twitter were awesome. the example of the airline contacting customers directly via Twitter as an instantaneous, anywhere, anytime feedback channel HAS to be a good thing. i refer also to this post of how Twitter helped save a journalist from incarceration

Finally, advertising should evolve past static banners or even microsites. PR helps connect bloggers and brands together by being real, Digital PR NEEDS to evolve as well, it's not about using traditional methodologies and just treating bloggers like journalists and expecting certain things of them.. at it's heart, if you are only interested in a 'media hit' your bloggers become nothing more than statistics and you're doomed to failure. Brian Solis writes expertly about the concept of PR2.0

embrace the social element of SOCIAL media, understand the communities, be a part of it, add to it, find out what help bloggers need from your clients and join the dots! We're launching The Open Room to do just that, and i am oh so psyched!

Live Broadcast of IDC's Directions 2008

Today's Discussion: Generation Y and the Emerging Power of User-generated Content

On the panel

Uniquefrequency (UF)
Hong Kong Phooey (HKP)
Kenny Sia (KS)
The Compulsive Confessor (TCC)



Qn: Do corporate blogs matter?

Uniquefrequency: You can connect with others and it gives a personal touch to your corporation

Kenny Sia: Some blogs are cooler than others.

Paying off bloggers?
Hong Kong Phooey: We bloggers have to be careful as well, not to cross a line. doesn't put ads on blogs. Readers respect that, if they respect you, they keep following you.

The Compulsive Confessor: I'm open to money

UF: i don't mind taking stuff, but i would disclaim that i am not obilged to say something good about your product

KS: always been brought out for drinks, came to a point when i can make a decent amount. bloggers should not be hard up to receive money or advertising. blogging for money is akin / similar to newspaper advertorials.

is there a blogger code of ethics? can bloggers remain uncorruptible like editorials?

KS: open to reviews, but if you're paid off, its hard to maintain your own credibility

UF: questions about motivations behind the piece

TCC: i think my readers trust me, that's why it might be effective. won't work as a random cold review.

What cool factor do you look for in products?
HKF: usability. Using the Meebo widget, i am available to readers and PR proposals and can find out what might work.

is online the only way forward now?
KS: for me, this is it, but i think it's not the only way forward.. online alone may not work for an ad campaign

TCC: for gadgets, it works because you go online to read reviews

HKP: corporations are spending more time online. but people are not putting money online.

UF: for me, this media is defintely it. i dont read papers. people are the new ones online who are passing information online. younger demographic will replace current traditional media consuming generation.

does new media widen the generation gap?

UF: a month and a half, grandpa got on facebook. grandad read TM to figure facebook out. TM helped connect grandad. but if you don't embrance NM, the gap will then widen.

HKP: family is savvy

KS: Family could not understand why you would live a public life. blogging boom, 2-3 years ago. After malaysian elections, people accept it as a good form of communication.

TCC: most email from folks her age.

online qn on microblogging. will regular blogging take a hit?
KS: Twitter is annoying. finds it too noisy. it might complement it, but it wont kill it.

UF: huge fan of twitter. i think it helps. not gonna replace blogs. Twitter only uses 140 characters, limits. gives example of airline connecting with customers who Twittered: airline sucks!! but responded "how can we help?"

- panel ends -

Perhaps why Xiaxue is more popular than you

you've got to hand it to her. Xiaxue really puts Singapore on the map of the global blogosphere.

by now, you might have seen this video floating around on the Internet:



and if you haven't, well, there it is. it's an iphone "review" by Xiaxue because the producers of her vodcast, Xiaxue's guide to life played a "prank" on her by giving her a fake iphone to review, and when given a real iphone, she completely disses the much heralded holy grail of consumer geek tech.

i won't claim to be a media expert, but i've done filmmaking, studied mockumentaries and probably have an above average media literacy level. there are many clues that suggest that Xiaxue was not at all serious when doing this video, and it's amazing how many people think it's real.

notice an imac in the background? if that isn't meant to be irony and sacarsm, i don't know what is. Xiaxue may type bimbotic and exude that personality on her blog, but you'll actually realise she's pretty sharp when it comes to social commentary, choosing to blog about the little cracks in Singaporean culture, there is no way in hell she would not have known what an iphone was.

even if you don't want to take my word for it, she gives us the expose of the little prank she pulled in her own blog post

and the reason why she's popular is not just because she's just controversial, but also because she totally plays on the personality she's carved out for herself, and is willing to stake her own reputation on the line, and not just get pinged, tomorrow-ed, but also gizmodo-ed and fake steve job-ed now. how many singaporean bloggers can claim that for themselves? she's not in the technorati top 100 for nothing. (last i checked - 6 months ago)

in fact, her real strength doesn't lie in her content, but in her ability to not take herself seriously at all. i think she enjoys getting the attention, but not so much as doing what she likes, when she likes it, and has people around her to appreciate her not for what she does, but who she is. so i guess it's a sort of self-confidence and freedom to do whatever the hell she likes. i d think she'd still blog what she wants to blog, even without the media attention. ie. she's not doing it as a favour to anyone.

Another blogger that has gotten my attention lately is Loren Feldman. he has insulted America's top bloggers and social media strategists (if we can even call ourselves that), for example Robert Scoble, Shel Israel, Michael Arrignton and Jeremiah Owyang. Like Xiaxue, he gets his kicks targeting trends and people who take themselves too seriously. He's not as entertaining as Xiaxue, but he comes across as Mr Angry to everything, but it's a good counter balance to all the hype your friendly neighbourhood social media evangelists (like me) seem to perpetuate.

my point is, if i wanted to read good reviews, safe material, objective material.. i'd read what my old skool PR skills feed to publications and bloggers who are too lazy to write good stories.

and now that my brief analysis of Xiaxue is done, i'll comment a little on what uniquefrequency has blogged about Xiaxue's disservice to the Singaporean social media community.

Social Media. Now with more *SOCIAL!!!*

okay you lot. this sod promised Daryl that he would go down for the Social Media Breakfast @ Frujch last saturday, 29 March 2008. i'm glad i did, i met a bunch of great people, had really good conversations and best of all, i enjoyed myself.

it also got me thinking, as PR practitioners who are evolving, we always talk about "oh yeah, and we can leverage on social media to do x-x & x for your brand / organisation." but seriously, i think it's a whole balloon of hot air. why?

because we focus more on the "media" than the "social".

when we focus more on the media, public relations doesn't evolve, it stays the same and we basically riddle the intertubes with more bad PR, more reasons for bloggers not to want to meet us, more reasons for corporations saying that social media doesn't work, more reason for the public to see us as spin doctors. what we basically do, is spread more PR jargon and out-dated messaging methods on the myriad of "social" media tools at our disposal, be it blogs, forums, youtube, flickr, twitter, jaiku, myspace, friendster, facebook, pownce, plaxo, twhirl.. bla bla bla

you get the idea. that's what i loved about the Social Media Breakfast. i could have gone to NUS to attend Web 2.0 - Emerging Industry Series, and as much as i love Kevin and Vantan, they do such a great job explaining what they do on the blogs and vodcasts, that i needed to challenge myself with something really new, and that was to be more involved in the community that i reach out to when i represent clients, and for my own personal interest of better understanding this emerging media industry.

a simple breakfast gathering, no fancy powerpoint presentations, measurement or videos. this is where SOCIAL media gets very very very interesting. meeting like-minded people, and very different people, this is the stuff that people experience and can talk about.

i know for a fact that there was plenty of socialising at the other event, but i'd like to think the the SMB proves that social media is more about the people and community, than it is about cutting edge technology, new ways of communicating and all the other cool technical stuff. social media, in its essence, is about meeting people, sharing and publishing our thoughts to the intertubes.

so as a PR practitioner, don't be bowled over by the communication tools that are out there, they are important, yes.. they help bridge you and the community together, but what is even more important, is to meet your community, face to face, help your clients meet their fans, their advocates, share some of the insight and joy of working in your really cool organisation to the folks that are fans.

afterall, how difficult is it to say "hello"?

personal tagging

i actually started del.icio.us-ing myself by pasting links over myself, and pasting links on people. something the toolkit didn't tell us we could do -) *smirk*

Nabilah, who i think makes stuff for Frujch


me with ping.sg blogger of 2007, Rinaz


with the infamous DK


some bloggers who've covered or the Social Media Breakfast

1. miccheng - now with more video!
2. ridzuan CEO of widgeo.us, with whom he told me many great things and we had some great conversations about social media.
3. and daryl of course, who organised the breakfast.

and of course big shout outs to other bloggers i met that day
1. DK, yes your arm longer than mine -)
2. Rinaz, you asked me why things are becoming more complicated when it comes to blogging these days, i hope to answer your question soon, but even top bloggers in the US are not spared the fate. -)))
3. Nabilah, thanks for the food and hahaha, perhaps our next meeting will be when Jonpan arranges for one of his schemes again -)
4. Hisham, sorry we didn't get to talk, but there'll be more opportunities!
5. Jerrick, always a pleasure to see you -)
6. Jean, i do hope you get better soon -)