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In collaboration with ThinkAccelerator Marketing, Expeditus Media is organizing a social media marketing workshop for all business owners.

This full day workshop aim to help business owners like yourself take your business online and exploit the growth of social media for your marketing in the year of the Tiger. Join us and find out how social media will affect you and your business in the future.

Workshop Highlights

• How to build a social media community around your brand or product
• Creating engaging content for your members to share
• Learn how to create a Word of Mouse Marketing campaign
• Develop and apply your strategies at the workshop

Members are advice to bring their laptop as we guide and show you through the strategies.

Workshop Details

• Date: 27th March Saturday
• 9am – 6pm
• Venue: KnowledgeConnection @ Suntec City
• Fee: $288 before 22nd March, (Usual Investment $488
• Email: engage@thinkaccelerator.com

Register now through this link: http://bit.ly/cSW13K

Want to find out what others say about us? pop by to Facebook and interact with us!

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Singapore Tourism Board and the National Heritage Board have been experimenting with social media for almost 2 years now. I have to say, they are doing pretty well in areas where others have failed miserably. Just look at Yesterday.sg! Recently they have made a few announcements about their digital marketing plans for the coming year.

National Heritage Board

In the past, visitors to museums could only be lure by cheap ticket pricing or when they hold spectacular exhibitions. However, all these may not be enough to attract the younger crowd of the 21st century. If the exhibitions are not exciting (most aren’t), or they don’t find any entertainment value, museums will be the last place on their mind when finding places to go.

National Heritage Board recognize these challenges and understand what it takes for them to attract the younger audience. Special events! Though wine and chocolate appreciation courses are not what you normally find in museums, these will be part of the bait to lure the youths.

The National Heritage Board will be organizing these and more activities under their “I Love Museums” campaign. Not only will there be entertaining activities, there will also be free caricature sessions and booths where visitors can leave their messages on Facebook and Twitter.

I certainly hope they will succeed in utilizing social technologies to attract more youths to visit museums.

Singapore Tourism Board

Christmas is just 2 weeks away, and most retail outlets have been very busy coming up with special offers, attractive deals and great promotions to get people into their stores. Like retailers, Singapore Tourism Board is also doing the same thing. They just launched their online tourism marketing campaign called “Celebrations Packed Singapore: What Will You Pack in a Singapore Holiday”contest.

To join the contest, all you have to do is ‘pack your bag’ by picking and dragging the Singaporean experiences that you would pack for Christmas in the Tropics. For example, you can pick cocktail on Singapore Flyer, Traditional Foot Reflexology, The Night Safari or Lau Pak Sat Food Experience, just to name a few.

There would be fantastic weekly prizes given away, including 3 nights stay at selected hotel. As for the grand prizes, it would be a pair of return tickets to Singapore from your country of residence + 3 nights of accommodation + S$3,000 worth of shopping vouchers. So if you have friends or relatives living overseas, you can send them the link above and get them to participate too.

Singapore Tourism Board Future Marketing Plans

A recent interview by Assistant Chief Executive Ken Low revealed that STB is in the process of “overhauling it’s digital initiatives” and to strengthen digital so that it became the core of it’s marketing activities. STB will specifically focus on CRM, mobile marketing and social media to improve their web presence.

I am sure both National Heritage Board and the Singapore Tourism Board will continue to break new grounds with the use of social technologies and show the private sectors what social media marketing can do to help boost traffic (both online and offline) and connect to their target audience.

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Recently, I have been thinking about what make social media carry so much hype and hope for organizations in the future. One of the reasons social media grew beyond expectation is because of it’s ability to simplify sharing of ideas and experiences with each another.

Organizations understand the power of word of mouth online and is ready to do whatever it takes to get users to talk about their brand.

Small organizations will start joining social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Youtube and publish articles, pictures and videos, hopping that something will stick in the users mind. When it does, they pray and hope that the users will start going online and share the content with their friends.

However most of the time users are not interested in sharing content that is not relevant to them or have no entertainment or educational value whatsoever. Simply put, they cant find a good reason to share your content or talk about you at all.

Larger organizations with substantial marketing budget will try to run social medial contests. Typically the contests will require the users to tag their friends on pictures or share whatever product info and get rewarded for it.

Again this is no difference with creating an adverting campaign and tracking the response rate. You will have to sustain the hype and when it dies down, you will have to think of another campaign to generate the hype again.

Identify Areas People Can Talk About

Besides pictures and videos. People like to share their experiences online. It doesn’t matter if they they are sharing it with strangers. They will talk to anyone who are willing to listen.

Organizations need to start improving their customer service experience in order to deal with the increasing demands of the customers. Most importantly, they need to realize that they are doing it to help their customers find a reason to talk about them.

Brand Story From Nordstrom

For those who don’t know what Nordstom is, it is a high-end department store that spread across the United States. They are legendary in the area of customer service since 1901. In fact, their branding was built entirely through the customers’ WoM (Word of Mouth) experience. Here is an example of building a brand through story telling.

About a a few decades ago, a customer walked into one of the Nordstorm store with 2 snow tires. He walked up to the tire counter, put the tire down and asked for money back. The clerk who started work for 2 weeks, saw the pricing on the tire and reached out in to the cash register and pull out $145 for the man. The thing about this is that Nordstrom never sell tires. According to company lore, the clerk accepted the tire because that is what the customers wanted.

This is just an example of how important customers are to Nordstrom. It is this type of stories, mixed with social media that can really propel your brand on the social web and into brand mortality.

Don’t Confuse Campaigns With True WoM Experiences

At this point, you must be thinking “Why don’t I just run campaigns that get people talking about me?＂ Well, you can do that, but do you have the budget and innovative ideas to keep coming up with campaigns to engage your customers? Most importantly, what is the life span of the WoM effort? 1 month, 2 months or 3 months?

True WoM experience comes from the desire to want to share something good with someone. In this case, it can an unique experience you provide on a consistent basis, or an act beyond the call of duty.

Whatever it may be, the perks of such WoM is the longevity and the cost of maintaining it (zero cost).

Share With Us

Do you have any story you think is worth sharing? Feel free to tell us about it in the comment box below.

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Many of the studies, statistics and research posted here refer to what is going on in States. Locally, it is very tough to find studies that are both credible and insightful. It is even more rare to find studies on social media published in mainstream.

Just 3 days ago, Channel News Asia published a survey conducted by students of Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Communication, Arts and Social Sciences. The objective of the survey is to find out the usage of the social web among youths. They spoke  to about 800 youths ranging from age 15 – 34 (wow, I am still a youth) and found that half of the respondents are online for at least 3 hours and more a day. 64% of them goes on Facebook and 35% visit YouTube every single day.

The reason for being on Facebook daily? To find out what their friends are doing and to updated themselves on the latest news and trends.

Besides being on Facebook and watching video clips, the next thing that they are interested in is blogging. I am not sure what that means but I assume we are talking about reading blogs rather than writing them.

What businesses can do  with the data provided

Though there are not alot of data from this article, one key piece of information stuck out. The reason why they are on the social web.? To find out what their friends are up to and to update themselves on the latest news and trends.

Businesses should start thinking about how they could drive word of mouse (yup, it’s the digital age) within the youth community. How they can be part of the latest news and trends and how they can get people talking positively about the brand.

Imagine this, there are approximately 1.3 million youths on Facebook, which makes it a big market to tap in to. Question is, have you come up with a rightstrategy to capture them?

Can someone help?

At the end of the article, Singapore Poly announce that they are setting up a Centre for Social Media. The aim is to provide insights on social media use amongst youths and a forum to discuss current and future media trends.

I would love to be part of this, would anyone be able to connect me with Singapore Poly?

Lastly, I want to hear from you about the accuracy of this survey. Do you think it’s true that youths today want to get news about their friends?

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A recent survey of 100 Asian SMEs in five countries (majority from Singapore and Malaysia) about their usage of social media marketing was published in The Straits Times in November.  The survey was conducted by marketing consultancy NetProfitQuest (NPQ) and they found that 72% have some presence on social media platforms like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. Of those with presence on the social web, 79% have a Facebook page and it has now overtook blogs as the number one preferred social media platform.

My take is businesses feel that Facebook is a much faster way to reach out and market to their target audience. However, businesses need to be educated about the value of blogging especially for those with great content at their disposal.

A snapshot of the findings:

• 72% have presence on the social web
• of those, 79% have presence on Facebook
• 80% plan to invest more in social media in 2010
• 87% of the managers and executives have account on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Only 12% of firms reported more than half of their sales came from online channels

It is interesting to note that while there are 72 firms have presence on the social web, only 12 report half of their sales came from online channels. That shows that the majority who already are on the social web does not know how to use the platform to generate sales yet. In other words, there are still alot of room for education and training before businesses can start generating sales from the social web.

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I have been attending networking sessions many times a year. It was until recently that i learn of a btter way to maximize my ROI from networking sessions without increasing the number of networking sessions.

The secret? To identify a few organizations related to your industry and focus on establishing your presence in the organizations.

You will get uncomfortable initially, but…

For those who have met me in networking sessions will know that i am not a very good networker offline. It will take awhile for me to get warm up and take a longer time to start approaching people.

Once I start getting comfortable and talking with someone, i have already established my presence and made a friend the next time i went back to the event, i will be able to look for my new friend and start talking immediately.

Another advantage of always going back to the same networking sessions is to build trust. It is a well known fact that people like to work with people they trust. Showing up at the same networking again and again shows that you wish to build a relationship beyond just giving out name cards.

Sooner or later, you will gain trust within the community and that will make your networking easier and ROI higher.

Social Media is the same

The same principle applies for organizations who are trying to figure out how to get involve in the social web. You must first identify which community you want to establish your presence in, then start participating in conversations. Yes, you will feel awkward at first, even, uncomfortable, but once you have build trust within the community, you will find it easier to build your relationship with the members. Don’t quit because you did not get it right the first time. Keep doing it and sooner or later, you will find yourself leveraging the influence you have built within the community.

The bottomline is: BKeep showing up, be patient and start connecting!

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Is social media really a revolution?

It has been more than a year since social media became a hot topic in both the business and media world. Many so called social media experts and web strategists are popping up like mushrooms trying to help others make sense of what social media can achieve. But is social media really a big revolution? Or is it just a normal evolution we are experiencing?

Before we can answer this question, we need to understand what is the difference between these two words.

What does revolution means

According to Wikipedia, revolution is “a sudden, vast change in a situation, a discipline, or the way of thinking and behaving”

What does evolution means

According to Wikipedia, evolution is “a gradual process of development, formation, or growth, esp. one leading to a more advanced or complex form”

Now that we know the difference, let me give you a perspective of what i feel about social media and it’s recent hoo haa.

Social technology may not be a revolution

I don’t think social technologies is a revolution at all. Every decade we will see some changes in social technologies. For example, before the internet, we would call our friends out for coffee or meet in schools, in events, in clubs, either to gossip, discuss about the current affairs or complain about a certain brand and it’s customer service.

Being social does not happen after social technologies were introduced. It has always been in our blood to stay social, to stay connected.

Social technologies just make it easier and faster to stay connected. In the past, you may have to call your friends out. You may have to go down to the designated venue just to meet and stay connected. But with the rise of the internet and social technologies, you can now discuss things without even leaving our house and socialize without border restrictions.

So being social is not a revolution, but an evolution. We simply use the technology to do what we have always done. Social media will continue to evolve and technologies will continue to innovate and come up with better, faster and easier way to help us stay connected.

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In one month’s time, 2009 will come to an end. Many believe that the future will be driven by technology and innovation and some major organizations aren’t afraid of using the internet to let everyone know about their vision of the future.

Below are 8 videos, each giving a description of what the future holds. Have you got your own vision of the future?

If I leave out any videos, please feel free to add the links in the comment box below. Thanks!

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How many of you like fishing? I am not an expert in fishing, but I believe that the equipment for fishing is pretty standard. You will need a fishing rod, a lure, a fishing spot, the right timing and patience before you can catch some fish.

Most businesses i observe don’t have a social media plan. They simply assign someone the task and hope to see the results in 2 or 3 months time. Since there are quite a number of similarities between social media marketing and fishing, I want to walk you through the philosophy of fishing and how it can be use in your social media marketing endeavor.

Fish Where the Fishes Are

The first decision you should make is to find out where to fish and decide which area will bring you the most fish. For example, if you are fishing for a specific type of salt water fish, you need to know which spot has the most of such fish. Some spots may have more while other spots may not even have the type of fish you want.

In marketing on social media, you too need to decide where to your target audience hang out. Chose a spot where many of them might be interested in what you have to offer so that you can capture them easily.

Type of Fishing Rod

Fishing rod is one of the most important tool you need to have when fishing. Without that, you simply can’t enjoy the experience. I understand that there are many types of fishing rod and if you buy the correct one, it will increase your chances of catching large fishes. You can compare the differences in wikipedia.

In order to make sure that your social media campaign achieve the best result possible, you must take the time to hire the right person for the job. Not everyone who are using social media extensively are expert in social media marketing. Like a rod, if you hire the right person for the job, he or she can help you connect better with your target audience, handle negative comments and even get connected with influencers that eventually become an advocate for your brand.

Timing and Seasons

I believe everything worth doing has it’s timing and seasons. If you want to catch the most fish at the minimum effort, you need to study the tide. You need to understand which is the best fishing days of the year.

In social media, there is a timing too. For example, recently someone asked me when is the best time of the day to put up a status updates that get read by most people. I said between 11pm to 1am. That is the time where most people are online.

When creating campaigns and promotion deals online, you too need to consider the different seasons. Christmas is coming, and I am sure most businesses have already decide the type of ‘lure’ they got to use to capture as many ‘fishes’ as possible.

Use the Right Lure

The type of lure is one of the most overlooked but important detail when fishing. Not all lure work with every fish, therefore, you need to understand the type of fish you are trying to catch and buy the correct lure to catch them. Also, I understand that a skilled angler is able to explore many different ways to cast the lure even when the fish is in hiding.

Like fishing, you too need to craft the right type of message and offers targeting different people in different type of social media platforms. Most organizations re-use the message they used in advertisements or brochure, not realizing that people react differently while on social media.

So I suggest you look at your ‘lure’, test it out and measure the response. If the results are not what you expect, change the lure and try again. Sooner or later, you can’t help but get to know what your audience want and offer them the right type of lure.

Have More Patience

Fishing is only for those who are patient. There will be time where you are not able catch anything. It could be the type of lure, the timing or just been pure unlucky. In social media marketing, the same principle apply. You have to be patient. Unlike an advertising campaign, where you put up an ad and measure the results within days or weeks, social media marketing might take months to see a little result. So don’t give up just because it doesn’t work the first time. Have patience and try again.

Casting the Fishing Net

We all know that catching one fish at a time is a very tedious job. Won’t it be better to just visit the spot and cast a big net? Well, My advice is no, not until you understand the behavior of the fish you are trying to catch, the timing and the type of lure the fish will bite. Then and only then do you decide to invest in a bigger net for a big catch.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, social media marketing is really no different to fishing. You still need to decide which platform will bring you the best outcome and concentrate on that platform, the skill of the person responsible for your campaigns and results, the correct timing and lastly, the type of offer for the right target audience.

So does your social media marketing look like a fishing trip?

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