Tag: social media

The Scarcest Resource is Still Time

June 25, 2008 Blog 7 comments

First I have to apologise for the tardy updates on my blog. It has been almost two weeks since my last post, and I do have tonnes of topics that I wanted to talk about.

However, time wasn’t on my side. Creating that half an hour or more each day to blog will mean doing less of something else. Other than working (which gobbles up huge amounts of energy, brain juices, and time), I have been exercising a lot harder and more regularly than before. It does help to take away stress for sure.

In the age of social media, I don’t think being able to communicate with a thousand different folks simultaneously on multiple channels is going to be the Piece De Resistance of what its all about. Sure, you can twitter somebody here, SMS a buddy there, chat on MSN, email an associate, put up a blogpost, give somebody a tequila on facebook and so on. It is fun to be connected, to be the nexus of attention amongst hundreds of Friendsters. To be seen as part of the scene, the cool crowd, the hip and happening uber geeks flashing their iPhones.

Unfortunately, while engaging in these activities, I may have missed out on the important moments in my life that I may regret later. For example, seeing my four and a half year old boy grow up incredibly fast, chatting with the love of my life (my wife), breaking personal records in physical endeavours, and reading a great book. Enjoying a walk in the park, smelling the flowers, exploring new places to go to.

Of course, I can blog about all this. And I do intend to, moving ahead. However, for now, what I need to do is to catch my breath first. And slowly, breathe in, breathe out, and celebrate life.

Oh well. Just decided to rant for a bit. Do you ever experience such a phenomenon? Have you ever wanted to just be unplugged from the greater world, to recoil into your little sanctuary of solitude?


Corporate Blogging Isn’t Just Fun and Games

May 28, 2008 Content Marketing, Social Influence 1 comment


Hell Hath No Fury… (courtesy of Dinghy Blonde)

If you think being a personal blogger is difficult, wait till you try corporate blogging. It isn’t just a walk in the park. Just ask Coleman (a fellow media socialist), who wrote this excellent post on making your corporate blogs succeed.

But then, isn’t blogging just about shooting your mouth/fingers off and saying whatever you want to say. After all, it is the age of conversations, and everybody is a citizen journalist. Besides, people don’t want to just hear the filtered, fluffed up, fantastic stuff from the gatekeepers (like yours truly).


China Conquering the Virtual World?

May 27, 2008 Blog 1 comment

Following a tip-off from Jessica Greenwood at the recent Verge event, I went to do some online sleuthing to find out more about China’s ambitious plans to create the world’s largest virtual world.

In case you do not know, the number of internet users in China has already eclipsed that of the United States, and blogging has taken the huge country by storm. More and more Chinese are relying on online sources of information, opinions and news. E-commerce has also taken off with predictions that more than a million internet entrepreneurs may be born.


We Are Still Living in a 1.0 or 0.0 World

May 19, 2008 Blog 2 comments

Got clued in to this brilliant revelation by Steve Rubel on how most of us are still living in the Jurassic Age when it comes to staying constantly connected via a myriad of digital tools and networks. Yep, that’s right, according to the chart below (courtesy of Nortel), only 16% of us are truly hyperconnected and about 48% are either passively online or hardly at all.


Source: IDC/Nortel White Paper – The Hyperconnected: Here They Come!

This shows that despite what some of the pundits say, we are still living largely in an old-fashioned, traditional media oriented, physically based world.


Social Media in Singapore – Sizzle or Fizzle?

May 2, 2008 Blog 4 comments

Kudos to Daryl Tay of Unique Frequency for addressing an issue which many know but few seem to want to bring to the forefront. And that is how the social media scene is performing in Singapore. He also highlighted an inspiring example on how Sea World uses social media marketing to its advantage. As one of the early purveyors of a corporate/ special interest blogs (namely Yesterday.sg), I tend to mirror some of his thoughts on the limitations of pure social media marketing (or PR) as a viable strategy in Singapore.

Here are my thoughts on why social media doesn’t quite go the full distance in Singapore. Well at least for now…..

1) Entertainment as opposed to edification. The huge majority of bloggers in Singapore tend to use them for fun and leisure, as opposed to education. Most of the popular blogs here are light-hearted and mirth-filled affairs which tend to dwell more on the adventures (or misadventures) of their creator rather than a step-by-step guide on a specific topic. Which brings me to my second point.


5Cs of Social Media Success

April 23, 2008 Blog 1 comment

In the world of social media, I believe that there are five Cs which can help to mandate success beyond the initial buzz of just being a part of the blogosphere. They are:
1) Contacts
2) Content
3) Continuity
4) Controversy (this is more debatable)
5) Currency


Getting Past The Social Media Hype

March 3, 2008 Social Influence 8 comments


Courtesy of butler.melvin

This article first appeared in Marketing magazine in February 2008. I thought it would be useful to share it with you here.

And yes, I am back to blogging again after a super long hiatus!

By now, every publicist worth his or her salt would have heard of the wonders of new media. Anything imbued with the word 2.0, social media, conversational marketing, blogosphere or peer-to-peer is laden with the Midas touch.


Sex, Scandal and Sensationalism

December 18, 2007 Blog no comments


Courtesy of mercer machine

In the age of social media, one particular trend seem to stand out more so than others. And that is our penchant for perversity.

Just look at the leading blog posts and stories in technorati, digg, ping.sg and other blog aggregators. What hits you first and foremost? Most of the leading ones are either about controversy, coitus or corruption. If you have a feel good story, chances are that your efforts will be relegated to the backwaters of the blogosphere.


Lovin’ Those Trails

September 12, 2007 Blog 7 comments

At the recent IPRS Conference (PR 2.0) where I was invited to share as a panellist, I was inspired by Christopher Grave’s presentation which covered amongst other things the concept of “love trails”. These are paths off the beaten track created by folks to provide short-cuts from point A to point B.

As a runner and a frequent “trail blazer”, I found that this point resonated with me. It is somewhat similar to the idea of serendipity, where people choose to do what they do simply because they feel like it. Or the concept of tags in folksonomy.

What this means is that you shouldn’t box people into target segments by demographics, psychographics, GenX-GenY, and what have you. What this also means is that you let people choose how they prefer to interact with you and your organisation. If you are interesting enough, they will come to you, and find a way to get there.

As Frank Sinatra would have sung, “I did it MY WAY!”


From London With Love

August 30, 2007 Blog 2 comments

Came across this brilliant post by CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Kevin Roberts. Apparently, the Museum of London (yeah its a museum folks) is using Google Earth to create a Love Map of the city. According to Kevin,

“You register, locate a place on the map (like all Google-style maps it zooms in from a bird’s eye position to close-ups of houses and streets) and place a virtual pin on it. With your pin you get the opportunity to add a personal story connected with that place…”
Apparently, lots of people have already started populating the map with their personal tales of romance, kinship, historical encounters, and other recollections. In a way, this becomes a clever way of linking a place to the population. The end result is stronger community bonds and rootedness to a location, and of course more love.
Would be a great idea to do this in Singapore. In fact, we already have a champion for this area. Now, all it takes is to expand it to personal stories.