One of the topics that was just presented at Ogilvy’s Verge digital summit, which is taking place right now.

Despite an estimated 417M users in Asia Pacific consuming social media, very few brands are actively leveraging the channel in a way that creates true value. In an attempt to provide direction to marketers and brands, we are initiating some research and we want you to be part of it.

Join the conversation by telling us:

1. What you think of social media?
2. How you think it will change brand marketing
3. Which brands are doing some really exciting stuff in your market

Please share with us your thoughts, start a new conversation or if you prefer, email us at socialmedia.apac@ogilvy.com.

Here is what some experts whom we interviewed (including Jeremy Wagstaff and Mr Brown) said about it.

if you haven’t already seen this, i hope it inspires you somewhat that this is a new age of information we’re drawing ourselves into, and the old ways.. well, they’ve laid a great foundation, but they’re going to have to be used to giving some of that control over to us - the user.

Verge Singapore is a one-day event that happens this Friday, May 23 from 9am - 6pm at CHIJMES. There’s a variety of sessions touching a range of topics from mobile marketing to social networking, and I’m hoping to land some blogger invitations from the organizers. Email me if you’re interested in attending.

Highlights of some of the 45-minute sessions:

• 12 TENETS OF DIGIMARKETING - Kent Wertime, President, OgilvyOne Asia Pacific
• CHANGING MEDIA - Panel discussion with folks from the Asia-Pacific offices of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft
• THE 4 E’S OF MARKETING - Christopher Graves, President & CEO Asia Pacific, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
• BLOGGER PERSPECTIVES - Panel discussion with Singapore’s very own Michael Netzley, Vanessa Tan, Walter Lim and Nicholas Khoo

John Bell, who was recently in Singapore for the launch of The Open Room, contributed this Verge post.

Look out for more updates (pictures included) when Verge Singapore goes LIVE this Friday.

i’ve been blogging for about six years already, and so far, there have been no flame wars going on my personal blog that i can recount. It might not be a big thing to you.. but for many corporations thinking about starting to blog, it’s a really big step and they might be rather apprehensive about starting one.

And i’d say that’s an important concern.

No corporation should have to go into blindly engaging audiences with guns blazing. Brave perhaps, but also a bit stupid.

Having that concern really begs you to ask the question, WHY do I want to start engaging my audience? So you go in with the right reasons, and work on your business you think is best, not just because some “Social Media Strategist/Expert told you to, and it’s the “right thing to do”

Remember, crap in, crap out. it won’t be Business2.0, PR2.0, Advertising2.0, Enterprise2.0, Marketing2.0 but CRAP2.0

But as this Social Media practitioner will tell you, engaging your audience is important, because the consumer has changed, old ways of reaching them will not work as effectively, and isn’t the purpose of communications to get your message to consumers in the least intrusive, most influential and sincere way?

And as you engage with consumers, both online and offline, you’ll start to figure out, just what your business really means to them. And it puts you in a better position to service them. Not just sell average one size fits all products for highly individual people. -)

Now, this brings me to my point about The Open Room. You might be thinking, “Yeah! That makes sense, i’ll start a blog and start engaging. But.. should i moderate comments? Or should i disallow them? How should i deal with flamers?”

I’m not going to bore you with a corporate policy on blogging, firstly because I don’t have the time (plus it’s a bit boring) but perhaps just share some real experience i’ve had with my own blog.

I’ve always allowed anyone and everyone to post comments. I like the conversation, and i find that fully allowing comments means people don’t mince their words, and you get truly valuable insights. It also shows that you respect the point of view of the commenter and that both of you have equal parts power and control of a conversation.

Think about it, if you were talking to someone face to face, having a good conversation is having mutual respect for each other, and there’s no facilitator in the middle telling you that you can’t say certain things.

I find this invites mature points of views, and mutual respect.

And The Open Room is just like that. Our reputation is on the line, people who know us personally will know where we’re coming from and not just some fancy agency talking.

The Open Room is literally that. It’s like opening the door of your flat open and having anyone drop by. it’s like a shop that says “All are welcome.”

And how YOU, the reader chooses to behave in this open room is how you will be held accountable. If you’re here to start a flame war, or cause trouble and discension, it would go against the very nature and the hospitality we’ve extended to you. Call it a slap to our faces, but we’ve chosen to be decent and mature, and while we can’t expect it of everyone. We’d love to see goodness and courtesy paid forward.

So there you have it. I also didn’t want to use a policy for this, because I don’t think it’s a one size fits all concept. But it’s something to think about, how you want to reach out to bloggers, corporations and your audience.

What kind of room do you have?