360DigitalInfluence

As part of the Young Professionals Chapter’s ongoing new media series at Singapore Press Club, we were invited to share our knowledge and insights pertaining to the little blue bird - Twitter.

Here’s the Twittorial for your reference and download. Let us know what you think.

Click here if you’d like to observe the conversations that occurred during the forum.

Note to self: Try to avoid such timely spill of the cup of coffee when being introduced to the audience

An excellent video released by TED.com, of Sir Ken Robinson making an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. What say you?

A useful way to understand social networks is to see them as coffeehouses without geographic boundaries, where like-minded people gather to interact with each other when they feel like it.

Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg, founder, CEO and president of Facebook announced, “If Facebook were a country, it would be the most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria.” eMarketer estimates that online social network ad spending has grown by 81 percent, to $2.2 billion worldwide for 2008. In light of statements and figures like this, the eagerness to participate in the social media realm amongst marketers appears inevitable.

Figure 1: Worldwide online social network advertising spending, 2006-2011 (Source: eMarketer)

At the core of this explosion is a simple fundamental truth: humans have a biological need to interact, to converse. Conversations are the social exchange of stories fueled by emotions, knowledge, experiences, and thought. This innate human need began from the day humans first learned to talk. We gathered in groups to tell stories around fires with established oral traditions of storytelling long before we developed the skills and tools for writing.

Four centuries ago, that same need found an outlet in coffeehouses. In the 17^th century, when coffee first arrived in Europe courtesy of the Ottoman Empire, coffeehouses were established and rapidly grew into a popular social space patronized by men (women were banned mostly, save for Germany) from all walks of life, regardless of social status. Quite naturally, and in the same way online communities have been created to cater to specific needs within the social media realm, different coffeehouses began to attract clientele according to occupation and attitude as the years progressed.

Figure 2: Social media in the 18th Century. At Cafe Procope: at rear, from left to right: Condorcet, La Harpe, Voltaire (with his arm raised) and Diderot.

Cafe Procope in Paris, established in 1685 by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, was a perfect example. The meeting place of the intellectual establishment, it was in this particular cafe great men like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot consumed, created, and co-created conversations resulting in the cultural reputation which France enjoys even today. Coffeehouses were the seedbed for modern philosophy and great intellectual movements – and breeding grounds for dissension and ultimately revolution.

As centres of power and influence, coffeehouses instilled fear in the ignorant, the inexperienced, the ill-informed and the establishment — none of whom patronized coffeehouses. King Charles II, who described the London coffeehouses “places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers”, was afraid of the freedom these social levellers had. He attempted to suppress the coffeehouses, to little success.

There are many useful parallels between the coffeehouse and today’s social media sites, especially for marketers who are struggling to understand a medium they are being pressured to exploit.

Ted McConnell, general manager of interactive marketing and innovation for Procter & Gamble, summed the misconceptions up best when he shared his views at Cincinnati’s Digital Hub Initiative presented by the Ad Club of Cincinnati:

I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.

Shiny Object Syndrome sufferers amongst clients perceive social media as the magic mushroom that will somehow bring back the days of long pre-order lists, sold-out products, 200 percent revenue growth, and marketing budgets greater than some countries’ GDP. A silver bullet that solves all problems, perhaps. Others believe social media is a new media channel created by consumers, for consumers, to be, ironically, paid for by consumers, hopefully at the rate of 17.65 percent.

While none of them are wrong, this is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. A more useful way of understanding social media is to see sites like global coffeehouses without geographic boundaries, operating hours or seating capacities, where like-minded tribes gather to interact with each other when they feel like it.

Approach social media the way you would a coffeehouse and you will find opportunities to develop solutions for your problems and answers to the most frequently asked questions such as: How do we engage bloggers? What are they saying about our brand? How do we make them like us?

Be picky about the channels you choose
Just like you’d select the coffeehouse with the clienteles you most relate to, and would like to be with, target social media that matches your customer profiles. It’s more cost effective hanging out with like-minded creatures from the start, than to attempt to change the mindsets and lifestyles of others completely irrelevant – or fundamentally opposed – to you. High wastage will affect your ROI.

Don’t be a smooth operator
Pick-up lines don’t work. Do not pitch your brand right after “Hello”. Remember, you’re there to have a conversation, not to make a speech. Just like a coffeehouse patron, the point to your visit is to listen and converse, not to advertise. Don’t be ”that self-absorbed guy who won’t stop talking about himself”. No one really likes that guy much.

Become a regular
Pay regular visits and after a while, people will begin to remember you. A savvy marketer will join bloggers both online on social networks, and offline at social media events. To stay in your consumers’ minds, you need to be a regular.

Like good coffee, relationships take time to brew
Be patient. Social media marketing is a long-term investment for it stems from the development of relationships. The customers from the coffeehouse may not remember you after your first visit, but that doesn’t mean you should stop patronizing. Do understand that this isn’t a three-month-long campaign but a relationship you’re building with the customers based on respect, trust, and mutual interest.

This article was first published on iMediaConnection.com for iMedia Asia.

Dear all,

We’re changing our clothes.. Clothes for our blog that is. Bear with us for the next couple of days or so, as we start dressing up and getting pretty. During this period, all comments and posts will be disabled. Your kind understanding on this will be deeply appreciated.

And oh, Happy Easter everyone!

The idea was conceived in a seasoned Moleskine, between a page about erectile dysfunction, and another with a doodle of a communications strategy plan looking uncannily like the cross-section of a lotus root.

The objective of Your Blog™ Open Room session was simple; to enable bloggers to market their blogs like brands. The intention was perversely innocent; we wanted to give back to the community. Everyone has numbers to meet, and agencies aren’t spared. But nonetheless, it is important to contribute to the community that helps you grow in the first place. When the community grows, we grow with them.

The proposal submitted to Management for approval was a lazy flash of the Moleskine page, summarised with a few boxes, clumsy arrows, and words of less than 140 characters (ah, the bad influence of Twitter).  The approval took a shorter time than the development of the lotus root communications strategy plan.

The four speakers that we have shortlisted for the Open Room came from vastly different backgrounds with a common thread – they are fiercely passionate in what they do, and they really kick ass at doing it. No words can express our gratitude to them for helping us that evening. Singapore Entrepreneurs, Krisandro, and Brian have written their key takeaways about the event. Have a read.

The speakers were:

1. Yongfook • Jon Yongfook Cockle
Social media and may I say fashion sartorialist of a CEO of Egg Co – a digital business incubator based in Tokyo, and geeked-out blogger for more than a decade.

2. Arti Mulchand
Arti was a Singapore Press Holdings scholar who worked as a journalist at The Straits Times of Singapore Press Holdings, for over a decade, before we kidnapped her.

3. Design Sojourn • Brian Ling
An award winning, multi-disciplinary industrial design leader who specializes in strategic design and product realization programs that drive successful brands and businesses.

4. Toysrevil • Andy Heng
Andy runs an internationally acclaimed blog about toys and nothing but. Well respected by the who’s-who of today’s creative world and highly regarded by toy manufacturers and distributors alike. Incidentally, the Open Room was Andy’s first ever blogger event. We are deeply honoured.

I’ll let you in on a secret – while the objective and intention remained the same, the speakers were briefed about the Open Room quite differently. As an organiser, you need to understand the traits and unique selling proposition of each speaker, in order to bring out the best in them during an event. How do you do so? Well, as we always preach – you listen first. We shared with the speakers on what we appreciate about them, and asked for them to share their personal experiences based on that. That explains why the Open Room was so multi-dimensional and dynamic even. Any more diversity and we might have a shot at running our own United Colours of Benetton campaign.

The day the event was announced on our blog, we had both Cowboy Caleb and Victan talking about it. We tried our best to satisfy the last minute massive surge in invitation requests, without breaking our promise that this event was for bloggers only. For those whom I could not obtain an invite for, please rest assured you’d be the first I’ll call in the next Open Room. Given relevance, of course.

David Ogilvy has once said, “We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles”. This is true of the culture at Ogilvy. There is nothing more we thirst for, than knowledge. Ok, that… and beer. For all who have spent their evening with us for the Your Blog™ Open Room session, we hope we satisfied both your thirsts.

Special thanks to our kind sponsors, Tiger beer, for the wonderful bottles of Tiger beer!

Our way of giving back to the community. An Open Room session dedicated to helping bloggers market their blogs like brands.

There are limited seats, so do drop me an email if you’re a blogger and you’d like to come along.

Hi everyone,

Christopher Graves, our President & CEO of Ogilvy PR Asia Pacific is currently in town! We are taking this opportunity to invite everyone, and anyone to ask him any questions they may have pertaining to Social Media. We will be interviewing him on video, of which will be shared with everyone on The Open Room.

Just a bit about Christopher for your information:

1. Before joining Ogilvy in January 2005, he worked for 25 years in business news.

2. 18 years was spent with Dow Jones on both editorial and business sides.

3. He was one of the founders of Wall Street Journal Television.

4. He was also the Managing Editor of Asia Business News (ABN), Vice President of News and Programming for CNBC Asia, Vice President of News and Programming for CNBC Europe, Managing Director of Business Development (EMEA & Asia) for Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing (WSJ.com), and Managing Director of Far Eastern Economic Review.

5. Far Eastern Economic Review, a 60-year old magazine, won magazine of the year in Asia twice during his tenure.

6. He is a frequent public speaker and moderator, appearing at such events as the World Economic Forum (Davos and Asia), Global Entrepolis @ Singapore, World Islamic Economic Forum, and the Boao Forum for Asia.

7. He has interviewed leaders in public—most recently former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong, Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew, India’s Minister of Trade Kamal Nath and China’s Minister of Science & Technology Wan Gang.

8. He once played a guitar in high school so bad, his band had to wear helmets because the audience threw stuff at them.

Instead of having us, the Digital Influence team, craft questions for his video interview which we’ve squeezed in tomorrow for recording, we thought we’d leave the questions to you, the creators, curators and consumers of Social Media. The people who matter.

Please email either Brian or myself (Pat Law) at brian.koh@ogilvy.com or patricia.law@ogilvy.com by 12 midnight today with the following details:

1. Name:

2. URL (if any):

3. Email address:

Hurry along now!