Mainstream Media still a trusted soruce over micro-blogging

Mumbai terrorist attacks had Twitter users twitering about the attacks at a lightning pace. This same pattern of lightning response can be traced to Obama’s win earlier this month. It can also be traced to the China earthquake as well. I must point out that both Asia and the U.S. have adopted similar uses for Twitter in major incidences.

Twitter outstripped the mainstream media in terms of delivery of news and many were proclaiming that citizen journalism via micro blogging was the way to go. It’s interesting to note that CNN actually used the photo sharing site Flickr to compliment it’s reporting. Google map was also used to share the location of the building.

While the role of micro blogging is ever more prominent in delivering news fast, it tends to repeat the same things over and over without any insights or additional information. The 140 word limit is a double edged sword. It allows swift spreading of the message but it lacks the details of any major incident.

In all instances, the starting point of any new discussions on microblogging came from mainstream media. While I’m an advocate of web2.0, mainstream media still has it’s place in providing credible news. Deeper insights can be found via citizen journalism by longer blog postings.

For now i see micro-blogging playing the role of the message spreader in our society. Quick lightning approach of the general topic of a major incident. Any details will be found in mainstream media which will simulate thought process amongst opinions leaders to share with the rest of the blogosphere.

Do you have a different viewpoint has to how micro-blogging is being used?

Oldskoolmark nominates for the Edublog 2008 Awards

I haven’t heard about the Edublog Awards before until I saw Amise’s post on it. What an awesome idea and for this year’s 2008 edublog awards, I’m voting, gunning, rooting and nominating for the social media and PR across Asia wiki for the best educational wiki!

It’s an awesome show of collaborative efforts of many SMU students over several social media classes who have pulled information on the digital and mobile landscape in Asia. Valuable stats and case studies are available on this wiki, so it definitely deserves a shout out! woohooo! Vote for it now by following these instructions to link it to your blog!

What would attract bloggers to join a competition?

I’ve always wanted to know what kinds of prizes would attract a blogger to a competition? If there was a contest held for bloggers to blog about something, what would entice you as a blogger?

I realize there’re lots of digital marketing companies trying to use this approach to entice bloggers to blog about a topic to gain more coverage. Would an iPod touch suffice as a prize? How about these awsome gifts here?

Or is the prize secondary? Is recgonition for blogging and winning that competition more important?  Let us assume the judging criteria is based on votes, would you as a blogger prefer to have a unique form of recgontion? (Perhaps a short interview on a popular vlog? Or a customized badge to say you’re the winner?)

What ticks you then bloggers? Recognition or a prize? (Let’s assume you already have a product similar to the prizae and it’s something you would like to have and not something you really want)

Please share? I think it’ll make digital communications outreach have a different angle in approaching you as bloggers!

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!! (THE HK EXPERIENCE)

First off, I’ll like to thank every1 for their well wishes. Yup, I’ve gotten the PR student of the year award 2008 and this week’s JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY will be a shameless self promotion of the good news ( I’ve learnt PR ppl like to exploit stories so i gotta do it too, wahahahaha).

Check me out in this file on pg 10! wahahaha…. My domestic helper helped me to take that pic. Read my campaign too! Having a site which is a social media platform rather than a meta blog, was one of my fav parts.  The hardest part of this all was doing a campaign for women! I watched WHAT WOMEN WANT and WIZARD OF OZ just to draw an inspiration.

Anyhows, just wanted to share what the experience was like at the events itself. As much as i wanted to sing this…

I was wayyyyy nervous!

I mean look at the crowd at the event! Those aren’t the usual ppl i hang ard with, their like future bosses!

So there I was with Vic and Yaz(The other 2 contestents with me) wondering what r 3 students hanging ard here gonna do? But they were nice ppl and made things really comfortable. It was a pretty kick ass blacktie event too! I mean, i haven’t actually seen name cards for a desginated seat at a table! That was cool.

What was interesting was the various campaign which was up for the awards. I usually look at campaigns in the west but not too much of those in Asia and this was a real eye opener! The file linked on top has all the great campaign which won their respective catagories.  Do take a read, was wondering if more could have had a web2.0 medium used more creatively.

Anyhows, when the results were announced, I wasn’t overjoyed like some of my friends asked. I was relieved actually.

I was just glad it was over and to have that beer with Vivian and a couple of friends later that night.

I might not have been able to make a speech there but there are some ppl which i think deserve a big THANK YOU!

Firstly, to my prof, Gregor Halff, who has been a great help in pointing out what would and wouldn’t work in my campaign. Secondly to my family and Remzy for having faith (although i know you just wanna eat Remzy). Lastly, to my wonderful partner Vivian for encouraging me all the way and having that confidence in me. ( Thanks for coming with me too, Hong Kong was fun!)

With that, the person who googled MARK KHOO PR STUDENT OF THE YEAR 2008 can now come here straghit without having to go through some odd links to come to my blog. Thanks for all the well wishes guys! (This is so cool, i get to tag  my own name)

Sponsorships the way to go in these hard times?

I saw 2 articles today which got me wondering if this sponsorship is a trend PR ppl are picking up? First it was the Yahoo! Small Business and fwm’s “Seeds for Success” grant program and Microsoft wooing small businesses.

It makes a great story doesn’t it? Here’s a few reasons why.

1)  Big giant helping small guy

2) It’s the holiday season

3) Makes businesses sense to help smaller companies who might be using ur product (for advertising or for office use)

4) It garners attention in times like these when u’re willing to spend and help someone out with no direct benefits to urself

5) It makes a compelling story

So while citi is begging for a bailout, I think companies who are willing to create a story in these hard times will be remembered more than those who are busy announcing lay-offs.

Oh, i’ll be blogging more about my HK experience (and win) asap, it’s exam week! Will be doing a slight redesign as well to this blog. See ya on JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY tmr!

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!!

What happens when you take the core product that symolizes a brand outta the brand’s line of products. Like taking coke out of coca-cola. Taking the iPod outta Apple’s line of products. Taking the Google search engine out of Google.

How would consumers react? Check this video out!

People FREAK out! We’re suckers for brands, wahahahaha… Have a good week ahead, hope to come back with good news when i put on the next post! Peace..

Has micro-blogging changed the way we proccess information?

I just did a pretty long post on DBS to imrpove it’s customer service via Web 2.0? and i realized that this post might be a bit wordy. Plurk and Twitter have definitely changed the way i digest information and my attention span to long blog post is to go to the shortest paragraph or the first few lines of a long paragraph.

It’s like there is an internal filter that blocks out anything longer than 140 words. Is it just me or is it true for everyone now? (And this was true even for topics that interested me a great deal!)

DBS to improve customer service via web2.0?

DBS has been having a terrible time settling its highnote case. It’s reputation has taken a huge blow because of the way it has reacted to this incident coupled with the fact that this quarter’s earnings have been the worst since 2005.

They have responded to the highnote incident by reporting some of their relationship managers to the MAS, by going through consumer profile to see if the product fits the consumer and willing to turn some away and internally retrenching its workers.

Whilst Michael is amused by the struggles DBS faces in communications on the differences in announcing the layoffs and handling the highnotes issue, there is another concern which is the way DBS has. It has a very very poor customer service or front line office people to handle any situation.

You can see the details of one customer who had problems just signing up for a  credit card. As of last week, investors still had not heard from the bank about the mini bonds issue and were clearly unhappy by holding protest talks at the speaker’s square. While the MAS has been trying to calm these investors, DBS has taken a backseat by focusing its communications on the layoffs.

Internally, the relationship managers are mulling over selling. They are wondering if the new policy of going though consumers profile would prove to have less commission for them.

It’s a sticky situation they find themselves in now and I’m wondering if any earlier social media attempts to allow open communications to the public and any internal social media communications within the company would work for a bank?

I know the various arguments about banks using such tools. Not professional enough, company secrets leaked, etc. But the fact that it has branded itself as the people’s bank, shouldn’t there be a medium to improve its crappy customer service?

I’m sure many of us have heard of dell hell and how it transformed its customer service with the use of twitter and blogs. Yet would this same approach work for a bank?

Yet i have my reservations due to 2 issues.

1. The consumer profile of the investors (Some include the elderly who are clearly not computer savvy enough)
2. The value of the mini bonds which can run up to hundreds of thousands and are people’s life saving (Not a laptop)

Yet would it not have been great if there was a common platform to trash this out. Given that the MAS has responded much more openly than before and that consumers need a better customer service to register their complains via twitter groups or blog posts (I’m sure there are common issues and these can be grouped together)

While i know Kim would argue about setting up a ‘dark site’ in times of a crisis, I’m wondering if any social media attempts prior to the highnotes incident would have made this crisis more bearable? Or because of the nature of the banking industry and the nature of the crisis victims (The elderly), would this not work?

Comments and feedback are welcome!

JUST FOR FUN TUESDAY!!

Today isn’t all that fun. It’s a serious topic because it involves lives.

Below are pictures of 2 dogs with their information and the person to contact them should you wish t enquire more or adopt these dogs who are soon to be homeless. These dogs will be adpoted by the SPCA if nobody takes them in and they will be put to sleep if nobody adopts them within a span of time.

Golden Retriver, less than 3 years, well behaved

For further information on the lovely golden, you can contact Daryl

Shih Tzu, 2.5 Years, Toilet Trained

For further information, please contact me via email at markkhoo8@hotmail.com

THANK YOU!!

Irritating Phrases

My ethics prof sent my class a link which was titled Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating Phrases.

As much as I like o think it was the odd behaviors of lawyers to pick out the fine print details of a conversation, I was wondering as a blogger, or a reader of blogs, what’s the phrase that irritates you the most?

Out of the top ten in the list, the one i found mildly offensive was ‘with all due respect’, yet I’m guilty of using it too!

So I would like to compile a list of top ten phrases which irritates the blogosphere for both readers and bloggers.

Comment are apprecaited, spread this around and let’s come out with a list which we can relate to!