I realized i haven’t done a review for a while, so i tot i would do one now. There’s a new app for Facebook and Bebo called social calender. It’s a calender that integrates with ur social networking site and allows u to track bdays, plan events and know what other ppl’s wish list are, including your own.
It’s a pretty ordinary app but its a nice thought of integrating every1 on your social networking site to have a common platform to plan things etc. You can read more about another review here.
There, another review, so as not to loose track of doing that, lol….
Not the best way to end the year for 2008 and to start 2009 with job cuts expected in December, it’s gonna be a sad x’mas (especially for a graduating student like me…)
With that said, i get the sense in the market that marketing budgets are shrinking. There’ve been several posts on the shrinking marketing budget and the rise of digital media being the cheaper alternative. I’ve just picked 2 of those posts to discuss. Leslie Postpon did a post on Is social Advertising a safe haven for marketing budgets? It’s a great post which brings out one of the 2 critical issues which i find essential to a campaign. She brought out the issue of ROI and i blogged about it here and here.
In addition, the issue of transparency when using social media was mentioned which I found crucial to communicating with your stakeholders online. There’s an interesting experiment that was done on this transparency issue and was blogged by John Butman and it was called 90 days. Beautiful process, I’ve just read through the first few posts and I’m looking forward to reading more after this.
Walter Lim shared a post on Marketing Strategies in a downturn and provided some awesome examples of what some companies have done and can do with their marketing efforts in this economy downturn. While Walter thinks of this as a back to basic approach, I’m inclined to agree to some extent.
Looking at points 9,
which is Agencies must also get into the act together with their clients
and
10 which is Customer analytics gains primary importance
I think these 2 points allow a flourish and rise of digital media, not only because it’s cheaper, but also because the fact that with point 9, i see a better chance of online and instant collaboration without having 10,000 emails flying about causing great miscomms which can happen. In addition, customer analytics for online behavior can be tracked, but involving yourself in your brand’s community can also lead to behavioral patterns offline. (What they like to do with your brand, where do they get it, what do they use it with etc.)
I now agree that the downturn will have folks tightening their budgets and turning towards cheaper forms of media. However, it will also mean that it will force them to stop just spamming banner ads and force them to start getting involved with the consumers. After all, isn’t it better to target a behavioral group of people then just plain demographics?
To answer Daryl’s post on Where are the corporates taking the lead? I don’t know the where, but i think the when is coming really soon. Therefore, social media evangelists, is this the time we have been waiting for where companies finally have to get their hands dirty? I sure hope so….
I was looking through my Facebook today and i came across this article that was being shared on the late Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam. For those who don’t know him, he was an opposition member in the parliament. You can read more about him here.
Now while i respect what he did, i was hesitant about sharing his story further using my logged in Facebook account. Why? Because i like the PAP, i don’t get whats the fuss about the lack of freedom of speech in Singapore, i think it’s fine. And i’m worried that by sharing this article, it might make me appear to be inclining towards supporting the opposition. Essentially, I’m worried about my internet footprint. Sure, its no big deal to some, but don’t you worry? I mean Google and Yahoo! have web anaylytics now that can track your movement for targeting their advertisements to you. Don’t you think the government could do the same with your behavior? (Watch Eagle Eye and you know what i mean…)
Am i paranoid? I don’t think so, your internet footprint can leave a huge impact on your future state. Daryl has a post on your online identity and how it could affect your employment prospects here and here. Is it not worrying that HR has turned to just Googling Yahooing your name? That my blog and my facebook profile are the things that they are going to see. To make matters worse, if you live in a small country like Singapore, everyone knows everyone somehow and it isn’t all that hard to trace.
Think it only applies to the general community? Think again! Even politicians are affected, in a big big way… This post demonstrates how conservative candidates in Canada have been affected by their past, or rather, by the internet footprint they’ve left behind….
So still thinking of cursing at your boss on your twitter or blog? Still wanna post those drunken pics? Maybe it’s time we do up 2 accounts, one for professional views and the other purely for social networking.
What have you done to control your internet footprint?
Ughhh… It hasn’t been a good Tuesday… Back frm a hol and wish i was still there with Vivian…
Anyhows, for those who have been having a crappy Tuesday like myself, just wanna share two stand up comedians i think you would enjoy.
First, we have Jeff Dunham, a ventriloquist and a bloody good one at that. U can check out videos of him and Achmed below, i highly recommend the next one with Walter running for president as well!
Next we have the all famous comedian Russell Peters. I’m sure most of you have heard of him (He’s retired, wth!!!) and below are 2 of my fac clips of his last act in san fran.
Titled Outsoruce, you can pretty much watch the whole darn thing on Youtube, lol…
Between you and me, I like the British jokes and the Chinese ones the best, wahahahaha….
Came acros this article today regarding the drop in shares of Apple with a rumour that Steve Jobs ahd a heart attack. The rumour is as follows
Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven’t seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it.
This brought about 2 conerns on my part. Firstly, its that this rumour was sparked by citizen journalism. Secondly, should a company’s reputation be so intrinsically linked to the CEO?
Regarding the first point, i did a post on citizen journalism a while back and it was amazing to see the shift in power was not only going to consumers in a marketing and communicaitons perspective, but rather the fact that they have control of the kind of news they can publish. However, this rumour sparked off by citizen journalism is terrible. It undermines the credibility in which news by citizen journalism is being published. Do they just push tabloid news which are based on rumours which are completly false? Thats y i did the post on the blogosphere becoming the next tabloid and the ehtical guidelines blogging should have to prevent such a thing from happeneing!
The second concern was how a CEO should be linked with the company’s reputation so tightly. I mean, the CEO is just a figurehead who can be replaced at anytime with someone with equal capabilities. It doesn’t mean if Steve Job dies, Apple is gonna shut down. They’ve already built such a great brand and although their CEO is an extremely great presenter, my concern is ‘Should Apple’s reputation have such a great dependence on their CEO?’
I did the post on Asian CEOs and online videos, stating how i tot it would be good for Asain companies to use their CEOs like how Apple uses Steve Jobs. However, shouldn’t we draw a line on the dependence of a CEO for the company’s reputation?
But Tech Crunch gave a good reccomendation at the end of their article stating that it would be good if a heir is named to the Apple throne. This would definetly ease the worry of shareholders and other stakeholders.
So a dip in Apple shares has brought out some profound effects for me to think about…
It’s a century of posts for Oldskoolmark! Crossing this milestone (like Gerrard scoring his 100th goal) is pretty cool. And since it’s the 100th post, i was thinking of doing a post which involved drilling right back down to the basics of social media and engagement.
What’s today’s scenario like? Check out this video below which i saw from Read Write Web on Social Media for Business- Who’s doing it well and how? It’s a really good article on the use of social media, and its based on Charlene Li, the co-author of groundswell so u know it can’t go wrong!
But what’s even more interesting is this. I stumbled across this article from Marketing Vox Youtube’s ‘hot spot’ reveals where videos lose viewers. Its pretty interesting and gives online video ads better feedback in greater detail! Something u’ll never see broadcasters provide for advertisers.
So with just these few examples of a changing landscape in the marketing industry, and platforms offering greater tracking, are u really that scared to start interacting? or the better question would be, are u more scared of not interacting?
As a student gonna grad at the end of the year, I’m gonna set out to make a change! ok, as idealistic as that sounds, i’ll try my best to be the new breed of communications folks that the industry is gonna need!
Gratz on making it pass what i call the worst day of the week! For all Muslim readers, Happy Hari Raya and for all Singaporeans, enjoy the hol tmr (while i’ll be mugging in sch for ethics…)
Anyhows, today’s post will be short cause I just finished doing some work and i’m pretty beat…
But I can’t contain my excitement and I wanna share 2 sites with you. Remember how is tot there were 2 industries whereby web2.0 can be used perfectly because of the community spirit within these industries?
Well, I’ve been given a chance to view them and let’s start with the pet industry!
Vivian has shown me this social networking site for pets! I remember saying on my post on Pet Industry and social media in Singapore and how i tot web 2.0 would fit in perfectly!
Well, the social networking site is called wuffstaff for dog owners and it’s a pretty cool site whereby dog owners come together and share photos, stories, swap discussions on a social networking site! Neat huh?
Thank Vivian!
Next, i wanna share a social networking site on the sports industry. Oscar stumbled upon my post on Sports and Web2.0=Sports 2.0, Should Asia Embrace it? He’s got an interesting sports social networking site called sporting connections he’s set up for sports people to gather and not only discuss, but arrange team matches, training sessions etc.
However, his comments on my post were that while his target market were for Asians to join in, he’s getting more and more European based members.
I’ve asked him how has he engaged the Asian audience but he has yet to reply. While I haven’t seen any efforts to push the site out to Asians, I believe that by posting it on relevant sporting sites (soccer’s pretty big here in South East Asia, basketball’s huge in China) and engaging people who are on those sites to come and join his site.
I really hope to see his site take off cause its got so much potential! So does Wuffstaff, great examples of how industries have leveraged on the community spirit of the industry and used a medium which leverages on precisely the same thing!
Knock yourselves over those sites and have a good holiday as you read this. To the readers who don’t celebrate Hari Raya, its Wednesday, hang in there, we’re reaching the weekend!
You know what its like when you procrastinate over something (like reading up on your exams tmr) and hitting a road bump in your blog?
Well, to avoid that road bump of wanting to do 3 small posts, i decided to do a mash up of them all here.
Creative PR
So first its about creative PR. Michael sent out an article to my class today regarding how Sanlu tried to do a PR cover up. While I’m not going into the debate of saying why they did what they did, what i want to point out is how they actually thought of paying $640,000 to Baidu to block negative stories about the brand.
I mean ingenious isn’t it? Who was their agency? Block the starting point of where people would find the articles on such a case!! OMG, if this was a crisis management class with creativity as part of the grade, I’ll give these guys an A plus, lol… (Ethical standards aside…)
Microsoft’s Branding
So meeting Vivian today (who has asked me to blog about us and I will), she asked me, what’s the core essence of Apple’s branding? Why is it so successful?
I mean we all know the Mac and PC ads and the shadowy ads with the iPods rite? But what is it that really turns us on to them? How did they do it? I was kindda stumped….
Interesting how Microsoft is putting its positioning the same as Apple.To position Microsoft as reliable? I don’t know… Like BMW focuses on its performance? or Volks on safety? Hmmmm….
Read the article, it’s got a few great insights and the comments have pretty good recommendations too. (I hope i dun keep doing this referral thing, lol…)
I especially like the analogy of early driving days to our modern traffic system for cars as compared to blogging today in its infancy stage. It’s a long topic to discuss howthe non bloggers might view us as yellow journalists tabliods out to exploit advertising money versus setting a certain code of conduct which i feel is necessary.
So there you go, time for me to stop pushing the readings away, see ya’ll at JUST FR FUN TUESDAY!!! tmr!
I’m sure many of you have heard of the ad partnership btw Google and Yahoo! which was announced a few months back and will be going live in October. While there have been loud protests by netizens saying this partnership effectively allows Google and Yahoo! to dominate the ad partnership, I sure don’t see whats wrong considering they have been doing a pretty good job. In fact, considering that the starting point for most user’s hompages are a search engine page, this deal really makes sense to both companies.
However, while i don’t want to get into the debate of Google and Yahoo! ad partnership, i want to address how they’ve actually responded to all the protests and trying to quell users dissatisfaction (and possible lawsuits from the American Antitrust authorities). You can also read about what some sites think about the deal here and here
Seems like Google is coming out short on this deal… But thats not my concern
They’ve set up a mini site here which you can check out and they basically state and i quote:
In June 2008, Yahoo! and Google announced a non-exclusive advertising agreement that will provide Yahoo! with access to Google’s AdSense advertising programs on their U.S. and Canadian web properties. Here are the facts:
This is a non-exclusive deal that will strengthen Yahoo!.
Ad prices will continue to be set by competitive auction.
The deal is win-win for consumers, advertisers and publishers: more and better ads.
I’m just glad they did this to avoid further controversy. Most companies would have just kept quiet and carried on with the deal. The openess of the web giants is great and i think they might’ve avoided a whole lot of trouble. What was interesting was how they showed other examples of suppliers in the slide show…
So kudos once again to Google and its corp comms team to address the protesters of the deal and the law ppl, would’ve been nice if u came out with this a little earlier rather than just before the launch…
But the best part of the deal? It effectively ends Microsoft hopes for online ad money… wahahahahaha….
It’s been 10 years u say? Yup, Google has marked its 10th year anniversary with a nice little branding project. After all, I always think a company achieving a milestone of a certain years in exsistance makes a good opportunity to push a brands name forward.
I think Google has marked its 10th year with a great branding theme. They’ve come up with a project 10100, its underlying theme is “a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.”
You can check out the video below. But whats interesting in this campaign is they’re emphesising how much Google has played a part in our everyday lives. From Youtube to Crome to Google map to the basic search engine, they’re providing services which have become ingrained and allowing us to be dependent on them. Smart eh?
So you can see here from an interactive timeline of the history of Google and an interactive video logging session of how any user has been using Google. It’s a pretty good way of using web2.0 to allow users to share their brand experience. Plus it allows idea sharing of the use of products. My God, that’s pretty darn smart considering ppl are saying “Google is God”, lol…
So what do you think of Google’s appraoch to celebrate its 10th year? I think its great but i would have liked to see some video showing the inner “personality” of the company. They have a pretty good blog which u can check out here, but it hasn’t said anything about the 10th year anni.
So u see Google, just caused i interned at Yahoo! doesn’t mean i’m against u, i just didn’t like your mobile services although ur andriod phone is pretty slick! So what are your thoughts on this campaign? Thumbs up or down? Could more have been done? Plz share your thoughts with me!
Singapore Management Student who's as old skool as u can get. But I'm embarking on a trip with social media and the things I love! So follow me on my yellow brick road into the world of Web2.0!
Posted by oldskoolmark
Posted by oldskoolmark
Posted by oldskoolmark
oldskoolmark
