360DigitalInfluence

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!

i’ve actually got quite a fair bit to share, but i suppose the details can be further articulated in later posts. what i want to share is perhaps key takeaways that i got from Your Blog™ as a blogger from each of the presenters.

Overall
i know the session was about marketing your blog, but a great sense i got from each presenter, was that they actually don’t make money from their blog, but rather, their blog was both personal branding and a marketing tool for who they are as people, as personalities.

my suspicion (correct me if i’m wrong) is that earning a living from blog advertising for personally owned blogs is a bit of a myth. Whether it’s a question of eyeballs or sustainability, all three bloggers who shared use their blogs as pieces of thought leadership, reputation and authority. Only Arti, who was an ex-journalist was paid for her professional writing skills.

Yongfook: 8 profound and live changing things that happened because of my blog
Yongfook was one of my original heroes when i first started blogging in 2003. Back then, he was still writing his crazy Japanese food blog posts, talking about dealing with isolation in a rural Japanese village, and i thought “I want that! I want a really fun blog!” And so that’s my key takeaway, even as Yongfook matured and evolved to his current lifestream, he’s always maintained that unique Yongfook personality.

Arti Mulchand: Write Right
Key takeaway: You don’t have to use long flowery language to be a good writer. A good writer communicates clearly, gives readers content that is easily understood and makes a point. One good method to sustain reader interest, is by ’scattering gold coins’. Give them a good reason to read the next paragraph. Always.

Design Sojourn: How to be a __________ superstar
Key Takeaway: Managing your blog’s branding / personality so that you’re not an expert, but an authority on your given subject. My personal take on Brian Ling’s insight, is that it’s hard to be considered an expert in the field without actual accreditation, but being an authority is more feasible, valuable even perhaps. It allows you to share your opinions confidently, while always being open enough for discussion. Sometimes it’s not always about having the final say in things and have your words treated as ‘gold’, but being regarded in your area of interest / field of expertise. And you can play your cards right, is to share knowledge, share good things, invite different opinions, distill for further insights and maintaining both online and offline relationships. So those Technorati links that add to your authority? There’s some truth to that system!

Toysrevil: Eh, You Singaporean Meh?
Key takeaway: Original content. Toysrevil is the embodiment of passion when it comes to sharing knowledge, opinions on all things toys. But what really struck me, was how he puts his personal stamp on each picture he takes of a toy. In some sense, there is only one such picture in the world, they each tell a story, and convey important information for those in the toy scene. Each picture is uniquely his, and i believe that has helped add fans to his growing fan-base.

All’s well that ends well
And those were the key takeaways i got from the speakers! I’m sure everyone’s got an opinion and some key takeaways! May i invite you to share what yours were if you were here at Your Blog™ with us?