Shrinking Media

This blog post is about how I see the shrinking media environment and it is from a perspective of a young PR consultant who is fresh out of school. 

They say what you learn in school and what you experience when you start working is entirely different. Talking about shrinking media because of decreasing advertising revenue and how many publications are closing down is really different from seeing an email from a journalist saying that he/she is moving because the publication has closed down. It is kindda like how the alliance soldiers heard about the concentration camps and then reacting totally differently when they saw them. 

But while the media landscape is changing, many media have adapted themselves to the digital platform. Not just re-publishing offline material to online, but actually using digital platforms to engage readers. And these are not just consumer lifestyle publications, but procurement and marketing media.

Angeline and Jerrel of Procurement Asia are a fine example and you can find their additional content, which makes procurement much sexier, on Twitter and their blog, the Beer Blog. I personally love the blog with the short interviews on CEOs and how they summarize everything in a short video. Kudos to them for taking procurment, supply chain and logistics to a new interactive level. 

Its gonna be an interesting year to see how the local media will evolve and keep up. 

Since I cant blog about clients and competitors, ill be checking out certain stuff that has made waves and Bings around the net.

The Mutant Called Twitter

Watching the growth of twitter in the local scene has been nothing short of fascinating. I’ve likened it to watching a mutant tree evolve at a rapid rate where it’s now a mammoth platform which has gone mainstream.

I don’t want this post to be a post where i rave relentlessly about the beauty of Twitter, but from a local context, it makes a fascinating case study. I dare say the AWARE EGM was the first time i had seen twitter being used with such a rapid pace for updates.

DK has done a wonderful post here about Twitter-The beauty of 140 Characters and i can’t agree enough with him on the points he laid out. Hence my extremly short post.

So now that Twitter has gone mainstream in Singapore and has established itself as a platform for users to get quick updates or sounhdbites,  where’s the next big shiny toy all of us social media junkies will be raving about? Any thoughts?

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAYS

For the uninitiated, the JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY section of my blog is used to share random things with my readers.

From game and movie reviews, to anything under the sky which i find worth sharing. 

So with all the talk over the weekend on the Swine f lu (and i having the awful stomach flu  , we are once again going through that awful SARS period again. 

But it is always interesting to hear the rumours talking about the source of the virus. The funniest ones are

1. Bio-weapon failure
2. Evolution of SARS
3. Pig eating human meat

Right….

 

Moving on, heres a little video which is kindda annoyingly cute to lighten up yet another stumble in 2009. Enjoy!!

 

Back After 3 Months

Just as I thought I would close the lid on this blog, I told myself that after being with Edelman for 3 months, I would put something back up.

Sure there are a lot of issues which I would have blogged about with regards to the development of the social media scene in Singapore. For example, the proliferation of Twitter in Singapore and its use to update live events, not just social media evens, but the whole AWARE EGM yesterday was truly amazing. Going through the pace of the tweets, I thought it was an Obama election again!

However, I choose to share with you what it’s been like being at a PR consultancy firm. 

What is it like doing PR as an agency? I like to compare it to a football match, not one of those walk in the park kindda games, but the really high tempo ones where the ball doesn’t get out of the field and its end to end action for the full game. It’s busy, hectic and at times it can drive you mad. 

I haven’t been in the game long enough but at least I know what to expect and it is waaaayyyy different from school. Winning an award and school was nothing. My advice for those who wanna join a PR firm? Expect to get your hands dirty, work long hours and get shot down alot. But the speed which you learn is amazing and im doing what I can to keep up with the pace of the game.

Now I understand when ppl say the real beauty of PR comes in best in a recession. Plus imp witnessing a whole embracement of digital media on all fronts, from clients to media, its an amazing development and I will share more in my next blog post on the adaptation of digital media by local media. 

For now, I will do my best to blog at least twice a week, including JUST FOR FUN TUESDAYS. Trying to live the dream and following Notorious BIG knowing that no dream is too small. (Ok, I added that last line because I wanted to show you the trailer of Notorious and why everyone should watch it)

 

 

PR Agency study

There was a study recently done by ZDnet titled which firm really gets it? A social pubic relations survey. There are many interesting insights as to how clients perceive the PR firms on the social media front.

KPIs and churning out greater value for money is a norm given the economic downturn. Tighter budgets also means businesses need to leverage on relationships with stakeholders to reduce costs.

Building good relations with the online community isnt just about getting online space for your products or services, its about establishing your brand as a thought leader in the industry and formulating your communications with your strategy.

This survey was done by 642 responses and the respondents are broken down as such

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the questions with the responses and my personal opinions on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess this doesnt come as a shock. Social media is essentially a medium used for communications. Communications are what PR agencies do. Formulating strategy and aligning it with communications message are a must have. So im not too shocked at this result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The better the clients understand the groundswell effect, the easier it is to work together to come out with an awesome social media camapign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Ive learned after being in a PR firm for a month is that time is money, literally! I believe that the stats for clients understanding social media in Asia is much lower and such workshops are neccessary. I believe that the deliverables can be negotiated and that workshops such as these can be included to be a paid for as agencies. However, even if organizing such social media workshops is free, it does enhance your thought leadership position when it comes to social media amongst PR firms. long term investment from my stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social media tools are not toys. Don’t wheel them around like its an Xmas day gift. Its the same idea that you don’t pitch a lifestyle article to a b2b tech media. Its comms basics and use the POST- People, Objectives, Strategy and Tools as a good guide when planning your social media engagement. Kindda worrying to see that fourty per cent of agencies act before they think.

I would really love to see this survey done in Asia to see the differences in the stats.

Ive given my thoughts, whatre yours?

Online Self-Regulation in Singapore

I’m opening this topic of discussion to the floor.

The recent case of Yio Chu Kang Member of Parliament (MP) Seng Han Thong being set on fire last month, triggered a mixed reactions from the netizens of Singapore. Senior Minister of State Lui Tuck Yew was quoted saying this

It was disappointing, and my impression is that I do not think the community itself have done enough to rebut some of these unhelpful comments delivered by fellow netizens.

This led to a trigger reaction from both netizens wondering if stricter internet regulation was about to occur in Singapore.However, Minister Liu immediately rectified that by claiming the following

They seem to have misconstrued my remarks as “a desire for more regulation on the Internet”. Let me say clearly that I am not advocating this position

This story was picked up by  The Straits Times which published an article here and  Today which published an article here.

The online discussion was abuzz with comments and you can check out such an example here.

But my 2 cents worth on all this boils down to 3 points

1) Self-regulation is already present. To want self regulation on the internet is to expect a few folks to rebut every negative or non-positive comment being made.But why do that when the basic rules of engaging in a group conversation applies to online comments on blogs and forums as well.

Going back to basics of engagement from a personal level, you will notice people who make useless or negative comments which have no value add to the conversation. These people tend to be ignored. Negative comments which do open up possibilities of a way to improve or stimulate discussion, eventually benefits the community. Hence, the community is already self regulatory in that way. I sincerely believe the Singapore community is mature enough to be able to differentiate “Noise” and true conversations occurring online.

2) Engagement by the government. Basics of communications demands that you answer your relevant stakeholders using the most effective medium to ensure that your medium is put across. I thought this was  an excellent opportunity for the government to have engaged the conversation where it was at, to provide thought leadership on a medium which is still in a development phase.

Even carrying the conversation offline by engaging influences in a dialogue discussion would have been an excellent step forward.

3) Opportunity for Singapore to take the lead in online conversations. Obama has already shown successful use of social tools to engage Gen Y during his campaign to become president. It would be interesting to see, for the rest of his term, how he manages to carry on that engagement. It would be a lot to ask for us to move in that direction, but the idealist in me sincerely believes that the leaders we have could bring us to that same level of communications.

This topic is still open for discussion and any feedback to stimulate discussion is greatly appreciated. I leave it to you to dictate how this goes!

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!

This blog post is to let all my readers know that there’s a reason for my lack of blog posts. I just started working a week back and it’s been hard to find time to squeeze in a post. Plus i need to check what i can blog or what i can’t for that matter.

Hence, till i clear all that and settle into a pattern at work, I’ll try my best to put up a post as often as i can! Till then, as always, enjoy this

Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2009

Edelman recently released it’s annual Edelman Trust Barometer for 2009. With trust being the key focus to restore consumer confidence in many countries across various industries, this study would prove insightful. (Disclaimer: I’m an Edelman Client executive)

Pay close attention to the developing countries and the increased, rather than decreased, level of trust. Have a good read!

Should PR Professionals have a Separate Online Identity?

I came across this story through FIR. It was about a PR exec (Vice President) who was to give a talk to Fedex Corp Comms people about social media. You can read more about the story here and here.

This was the comment he made on Twitter was the cause of the controversy which almost made it a disaster for the PR agency.

“True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’”

While the discussion on FIR with regards to the comments which ppl made, the fact that he should have known better not to say that etc was interesting, I was looking (listening) to this story from the view of being a soon-to-be PR exec. (I start work this Wednesday at Edelman)

Firstly, I have no idea why Andrews would do something like that. I mean, if he had an aggregator of social tools like Friendfeed, it would’ve been everywhere else on whichever social platform he’s at.

But more importantly, as a PR professional, should you adopt a different social identity? Are the bloggers and community u engage in comfortable with just seeing your professional side? After all,  the use of social media is all about building relationships directly with the community. Will they be uncomfortable with seeing a ‘fake side’ to me?

Yet, if i do maintain my current identity, i have to restrain my thoughts and opinions because I know EVERYONE will see this. That would defeat the purpose of my blog, to EXPRESS my opinions and pen down my thoughts. Everything churned out would be with restricted control.

So share with me PR fellows, where do you draw the line between professionalism and personal space? Or does this profession carry the gift and bane of engagement?

Andrews could’ve avoided all this if he had a separate Twitter account.

Do share (Before i begin work this Wednesday!:)

China’s censorship and communications problem

China needs to learn to communicate. It needs to learn that it can’t protect its’ people forever and instill ideals which might not be accepted by the masses.

I applaud China’s communications efforts in the Sichun earthquake and the Olympics was an excellent way of showing the world that China was ready to move on.

However, the Sanlu incident showed that the communications efforts by the Chinese company did not address any stakeholders’ concerns until pressure caved in.

Now, we have a censored Obama speech!! You can read the article here.

This was the part which was censored,

“Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions,”Mr Obama said in his speech.

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,” Mr Obama said. This excerpt was also censored.

What annoys me is that not only did traditional media attempt to cover up the truth, but also 2 of China’s largest internet portals censored this information from the speech.

However, the beauty of web2.0 is that there are many alternative tools which can be used to spread the news and this is just a classic example of China’s unsuccessful attempt to filter out the information.

It would be interesting to see what happens over the next few days as the ‘original uncut’ speech spreads around. How would the Chinese people react?