Have you seen these blogs? - October Higlights I have decided to try and do occassional posts on bloggers who have interesting blogs. They might not be your typical “celebrity / A-list” bloggers but nevertheless have their pool of avid blog readers. Note that these might not even be the usual tech/ pr/ social media folks. At podcamp yesterday, I was inspired by Amelia’s and Preetam’s blogs even though they don’t blog about topics that I usually write about. I shall start with the ones that I actually know the authors (and they are all Asians and none of them really write about the topics I usually cover). Here are the 3 for today - 1) Siew Kum Hong - He’s my colleague at Yahoo! (our senior legal counsel) and also Singapore’s Nominated Member of Parliament. Although I was never quite into politics but Kum Hong’s blog posts are often inspiring and spur discussions and thoughts from members of the public. At podcamp yesterday, someone mentioned that there are more and more MPs writing blogs and going onto facebook. 2) Pluit Solutions - Herryanto Siatono is probably not an unfamiliar name to many. He’s the founder of BookJetty and recently joined Yahoo! too. As an avid reader, I find Herry’s blog really informative. 3) Timothy Go - Tim is a fantastic friend and a great news anchor on Channel News Asia. We used to blog on Livejournal (he still does) and I moved to wordpress and set up this blog. Expect to find a wide variety of topics in his blog, from behind the scenes of his work to his travel adventure (yes, he travels more than i do) and follow up to some cool events (that he always get invited to the chi chi and glam stuff). Have you read any interesting blogs recently?        About Podcamp Singapore 08 Today, I had to drag myself out of my bed (on a cold, rainy morning) to attend the PodCamp 2008 in Singapore, organised by the Singapore Management Universities (SMU).  It is rare to have weekends to sleep in since I am either busy with events/ work or travel, I did have second thoughts about attending. However, once I was at the event, I was quite pleased that I got out of bed. Although there were no oversea speakers this year, the sessions were quite interesting. I gathered quite a bit of information and was inspired by a couple of the speakers. Every hour, two sessions of presentations/ discussions happened concurrently in separate rooms. I had a hard time choosing which ones to sit in. A lot of the speakers are old friends and some are “online acquaintances”. Since I was there to learn, explore and hear from everyone, I chose the ones with speakers whom I have not really had much interactions with in the past. I ended up in the following sessions:- 1) Melvin and Walter’s combined session (phew, no need to choose). As usual, the two never fail to impress. 2) Charlie Pownall from Burson Marsteller on the topic of e-fluentials and shared a survey the agency did in US. Pretty insightful but would be great to have a look at the Asian scenes. 3) Preetam Rai - The guy whose brother works in the same company as me and have been an online acquaintance for a while now. Today’s the first time we met in person. I really enjoyed Preetam’s session. I have been looking for interesting bloggers in Asia and Preetam shared his recommended list. 4) Michael Netzley - Again. Another online friend who I have always wanted to meet. Michael’s session was very inspiring - about wikis and educating the Gen-Y. Earlier this year, I stumbled upon the wiki Michael set up with his students as part of SMU’s social media course. I find the wiki very informative. Definitely a great effort by the students. 5) Finally, Amelia Wong shared her experience as a food blogger. Apparently, the pretty lady can bake some really delicious cupcakes. I can neither bake nor take beautiful pictures, so I am just going to admire her work for now and perhaps try to persuade Jon to copy the recipes and bake me a birthday cake! For more details on the different sessions:- Claudia has done a very good job - live-blogged at the different sessions. Robin and his team who put together this year’s podcamp had also written about it if you want more references. The session that I missed and really wanted to sit in was the one on podcasting in Singapore by the tech65 guys Overall, I thought the 6 hours at podcamp 2008 today were well-spent! And I kicked myself for forgetting my camera battery - have to wait for Mark to upload his photos as I was using his!        Plainsunset @ the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Awards Since I was 4 years old, I had always wanted to be a musician. I played the keyboard and piano for 14 years but the music dream didn’t really come true. Ended up doing arts and design and somewhere over the years, started doing something else, completely different. So, here’s where I am now. No complaints though. I love what I do now. Last evening, I was at Zouk and for the first time, heard the local indie/po punk band - Plainsunset played. When Jonathan and my very cool colleague Ray (who also plays in another local band, Kate of Kale) first told me about Plainsunset some weeks ago, I had never heard of them. I was actually surprised that Jon has their albums. I heard their songs from his iTunes collection and thought they were quite good and last night, hearing them live was pretty awesome! Ok. I didn’t really go to Zouk for the bands. It was more for work. And that’s where the other group of local young talents are found. At the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Awards (YMDA) part. I am trying not to pull anything from the press release into this post. You can find out more yourself, if you are one of those developers who are exploring to develop cool applications for mobile. Briefly, the competition is about encouraging young developers from tertiary institutes to innovate and create mobile-optimised applications using Yahoo!’s latest mobile development platform - Yahoo! Blueprint based on real business briefs from 4 corporate sponsors, including DBS Bank, Kellogg Asia, Malaysia Airlines and travel portal UEEEU.com. The party last night was to award 4 winning teams and one Best in Show. DBS bank widget won the Best in Show What impressed me most was the quality of submissions from the young developers who created what we called mobile widgets . Check out some of the screenshots of the winning mobile widgets. IZ Reloded’s who joined us at the party had done some video interviews and shared some pictures of the event. Looking at the local bands and the young developers, I have to say, we have some really talented people in this city.        Blog Action Day - Stand Up, Take Action A few topics came to mind as I reflect on this year’s Blog Action Day topic - Poverty. I had wanted to write a post personal experience and I thought of writing something relevant to this blog and my job - looking at how mobile phones could help with poverty in some emerging markets. (And some day, I might just post on that two topics). But i figured, for now, I should highlight some initiatives/ organisations out there, supporting and fighting to end poverty and the opportunities for each of us to reach out and support/ do our part. For a start, let’s look at what my own country, Singapore is doing? To support the Stand up 2008, a global initiative by the UN Millenium campaign in collaboration with the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, Singaporeans are organising a series of activities to “Stand Up, Take Action” together from 17 - 19 October. Check them out! Thanks to my colleagues (Ray and Gavin) who brought Worldvision to our attention, Jon and I had recently decided to sponsor a child with the help of the organisation. It is a Christian humanitarian organisation dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tacking the cause of poverty and injustice. We are extremely excited and very blessed to be in a position where we can afford to give and bless. I will probably share more once we finalise details. Again, thanks to Jeremy, my colleague who knew of my obsession with books - brought to my attention the Room to Read organisation. They are doing things that are very close to my heart. The organisation partners with local communities throughout developing world to provide quality educational opportunities for children in the countries, striving to break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time. And there are many other initiatives, organisations and resources out there. Mashable.com has put together a good list.        Annual Blog Action Day - Proverty It’s that time of the year again - the Blog Action Day this year is looking to discuss the topic of proverty. For folks new to the Blog Action Day, it is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. On 15 October this month, all registered bloggers will post a post, video, podcast etc on the topic of “proverty”. Find out more by clicking on the banner on the right hand column of this blog or click here. Last year, I posted on saving the environment Using the power of the blogging community globally, discussing one single topic and raise different issues and perspectives on that topic - that is powerful! As of today, there are already 7643 bloggers registered, pledging to write a post on 15 October. For those who are keen to join in, register your blog here and put up the cool banners on your blog to help spread the word.        Does celebrity still sell? Part 1 A few months back, I attended a conference in the Philippines and one of the speakers presented on the power of word of mouth marketing. I am a big fan of that but the speaker went on to share how he believed that “celebrity endorsement does not work!”. This is a question a lot of marketers ask. There are also many thoughts around this question. In a New York Times article, the journalist wrote about “How nothing sells like celebrity“ Using celebrities for promotion is hardly new. Film stars in the 1940s posed for cigarette companies, and Bob Hope pitched American Express in the late 1950s. Joe Namath slipped into Hanes pantyhose in the 1970s, and Bill Cosby jiggled for Jell-O for three decades. Sports icons like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods elevated the practice, often scoring more in endorsement and licensing dollars than from their actual sports earnings. The speaker at the event showed a bus ad of Rain (a popular korean singer) endorsing a hair product and he went on to ask the audience, “how many of you believe that Rain actually use this product?” It is a valid question. I am not sure if I believed Rain does. I asked my girlfriends (who are in marcomm and PR) what they think over coffee, and as usual, we all have very different views. The thoughts ranged from “depending on who the celebrity is” to “depending on whether the celebrity and the product are ‘believable’. My ex-colleague believes in celebrity slimming campaigns if she can see the before and after results. And interestingly enough, my best friend, Yen who is currently doing her Master degree in Marketing Communications also thinks that celebrity slimming endorsement works for her. Jonathan, my other half thinks that celebrity endorsement works only for certain brands, mostly for awareness building, for example Maria Sharapova endorsing the the Canon Powershot cameras caught his attention. GeekSugar.com posted the top 10 celebrity gadget endorsements that works and created awareness but not necessary resulted in purchase. For me, while I agree with the speaker at the conference about the lack of credibility of Rain using the cheap hair care product he endorses, I disagree that celebrity endorsement doesn’t work. I think it does. It depends on the objectives. Objectives of the campaign, the image and message the brand or product needs to communicate and what exactly does the celebrity has to do My good friend, Walter Lim blogged about similar topic some while back - on VISA’s celebrity ad for the Olympic. Walter’s post was looking at effective ads and the celebrity they used. The ad was effective for VISA because it is a good ad or was it because it has Jackie Chan’s endorsement? Maybe both. For me? It is about association. If i can associate a brand with the celebrity, it works for me. Kiera Knightley as the face for Chanel caught my attention and i could associate the product, brand and the celebrity together. I am going to leave other thoughts to next post. Anyone believes celebrity endorsement is completely a waste of marketing/ PR dollars?        Resume 2.0 - Who are you online? Ok. Yes. I have been neglecting my blog. Being BUSY is totally understated lately. Brendan’s recent post shows this blog declining in activities, (currently at spot 39, declining at -20… ) but an increase in “sociability” This just means, I still “socialised” online somewhere, just that I did not update my blog! Two weeks ago, I was also reminded by a call from an event organiser about my neglected blog. The organiser was trying to invite someone from my company to speak at an event and he went to my colleague and then for some reason, did some search on me and found my blog. In our first conversation over the phone, he said, “ah! i did my research and read from your blog that you are a very busy girl….” And I went … “erm….” Although this blog is totally public and nothing scandalous to hide, it suddenly felt strange that people are searching for you online before doing business with you. It reminds me of the fact that people DO search and read up on you nowadays online. Employers do. Recruiters definitely do. Employees do too (I searched for my currently bosses before I met them for interviews), together with many known or unknown people who are online. I was reading Daryl’s blog post on “Your Online Identity (Or Is It Okay To Have Party Pictures On Facebook) and Brian Solis’ posts on The socialization of your personal brand Part 1,2 and 3. Brian wrote: … Truth be told, any search engine, whether social or traditional, is the resume – it’s the Wikipedia entry for the rest of us. It’s no longer what we decide to curate onto a piece of paper or onto one traditional one-page digital resume. It really is moot in a world when anyone can practically piece together your story without the help of a document designed to shape and steer our perception. In Daryl’s post, he highlighted that in a class of 459 people, 75% of them said yes to using Facebook to screen prospective employees if they were an employer. That leads me to think, perhaps in the near future, there is no longer a need to submit formal and properly crafted resumes but to send over links of your social networks for employers’ reference. Better still, assume that the recruiters and employers have “done their homework” to have searched for you online and by the time they called you, they have a fairly good idea of you are ———— Other very interesting read: Your Brand vs. the Brands You Represent by Brian Soli        Learning to be a Mary It’s one of those days where you just sit in front of the laptop and started musing… I was reading Walter’s blog post on Bringing Creativity Back . It is interesting that I am having very similar thoughts recently as I was reading two very inspirational books - The Last Lecture and Letters to Sam.  Walter wrote… Perhaps it is time for a change in my routine. Perhaps I need to take on a hobby beyond my usual runs, something which engages more than just my quadriceps, calves and hamstrings. Perhaps I should do some social work, contributing my expertise in writing, publicising and blogging. In the last many months, I have allocated almost all my waking hours to work, travel, work, travel, eat, sleep, work and more travel. When I get the chance to meet up with some friends, I spent those time worrying about what I need to do for work when I get home. Don’t misunderstand. I am not complaining about my work. I love my job and my bosses have been trying to get me to take a break. Sometimes, when you are not leading a balanced life, you quickly run out of steam. Your body starts to fall apart (of course it does, when all you do is sit in front of the comp and eat your food at your comp and talk to your brother and mum on instant messenger on the comp). Your mind starts to feel unhappy (of course it does, when all you do is work. It began to wonder when it can go for a holiday or just watch Sex and the City DVDs, without thinking about work). I was reading a Bible story that many might know of:- Luke 10:38-42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” I am not into preaching but this story is very inspiring. I am learning to be a “MARY!” Pastor said something very true some weeks ago. He said, “Don’t be a public success and a private failure.” Not that I am failing in any ways, I’ve been so blessed but I know I can do better in leading a healthier and balanced life. While I was reading the story about Mary and Martha, i began to think, at times, we are just sweating over so many small things. It is always a challenge to slow down, to rest, to “feed”, “recharge”, “renew” the body, mind/ soul. So, Walter was right, we should always review what we are doing exactly. If it’s time to find lost joy, fun and creativity in life, go find it back!  We only get to live this life, once, so making full use of it is so important. I am glad I am making small changes. I took up Body Combat classes and have been challenging myself to get out of office to go for the classes on time (and trust me, this itself is a tougher challenge than actually doing the combat) and making it a point to go at least 3 times a week (huge challenge)!! I have also been going back to my favourite hobby  - READ! Jon continues to buy interesting books (audio books too) for me and I have been piling them up on the shelves, collecting dust. So, while Walter is finding his creativity, I am finding the balance to life. … it’s very rarely I post thoughts about life and personal stuff on this blog.. it’s just one of those days… P.R.I.S.C.I.L.L.A - that’s my name I was flipping The Sunday Times earlier and came across an article about people having weird names such as “Pepper, Bright, Twelve” etc.  A few weeks back, a friend told me a funny name of another friend, (pronounced Ab-Ce-Did), spelt - ABCD. I thought that was quite erm.. creative. Another friend’s friend called herself “Christmas”. My pastor had named me “priscilla”, a name found in the bible (in book of ACTS)  during baptism and sometimes, I wished he had given me a shorter name like EVE, EvA, ANNA. Names that people will not mis-pronounced or try to shorten because, they are too lazy to spell in full.   Over the years, I have gotten used to friends (new or old) who try to pronounce, spell my name as “precelia, priscela, presillia …. “and many other variations. As much as I do not really like it shortened as “Pris”, I figured, that is an acceptable and easy to remember version. However, recently some folks had even gone to an extend of just calling me P.T. I totally hated it and contemplated telling them off. I think it’s just rude to send an email addressing someone as “hi PT”, without even knowing if she even like being addressed that way. There are some friends who have long Chinese names and deliberately picked out either the middle or last name, ie: my best friend prefer us to call her “YEN” which is the last character of her chinese name. I was complaining to a friend earlier about this and he said, “haha, imagine if your name is Lenny Lee. Shorten it, becomes “Hey L.L” (folks who understand Hokkien, will know what it means).”  So, I told Jon that maybe i should just add a nice and short middle name like a “Priscilla EVE Tan” and call myself EVE. When I got the chance to help my parents name my little brother when he was born. I named him KEN. Food for thought… when you start naming your kids. No Flaming. Just Good Old Intelligent Posts Recently, the local blogosphere is acting up and started some entertaining “flames”. Wikipedia: Flaming is the hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. I was “entertained” for a very short while and decided that, time will be better spent reading some good old intelligent posts. Going through my hundreds of RSS feeds had been something I did on a daily basis some months ago. Work has taken over those time and I can only scan briefly over some news blogs lately. Today, I managed to get home earlier than usual and spent some time in front of my netnewswire. Something crossed my mind, I remembered how mummy used to say to me when I was young, “read good books. read the classics. leave out the junk and those with bad writing.” When I grew up, she said, “Some magazines are worth the time, others obviously not. Don’t waste your money.” I totally love trashy chick-lits and the gossip magazines. BUt I have been good, I have got piles of C.S Lewis and George Eliot on my shelves, together with many other great books (all thanks to Jon, spoiling me and filing the shelves with books). If only mummy is more tech savvy, she would be telling me now to “go to bed and not waste time reading silly blog posts.” For some reasons, I find that this blog is read by mostly communications students, PR folks and lecturers (I know, because you guys are nice enough to comment and email me) - both locally and in other countries. So, I thought, perhaps it might be good to share a couple of great blogs that have great writing and unique views (that mummy would have approved) and that I have enjoyed reading:- Here goes… Jeremy Pepper’s POP! PR JOts. One of my favourite posts in his - What does the P in PR stand for?. It was a fairly old post but READ IT! Brendan Cooper, the friendly social media planner. All time favourite is his monthly PR blog index. Imagine those great effort of analysing and pulling together 100 PR blogs every month and ranking them. (And yes, my blog has been slipping every month, heh.. can’t blame anyone except for my lack of posts and activities) but otherwise, this guy has got some real cool stuff (social, new media and PR) in the blog. I enjoyed almost everything in Brian Solis’ PR 2.0. Enough said. I found David Meerman Scott’s Web Ink Now after I read his great book and have been a big fan of his ever since. So, check out both the blog and the book, esp. if you are into communication, new media or marketing. Next, a very good friend, Kevin Lim directed me to Paul Stamatiou’s blog last year. Paul’s blog is not exactly into PR or marketing but more on tech. If you are into web 2.0 and new technologies, this 22 year-old blogger is definitely worth checking out! My favourite post recently is his review on WALLLLLLL….EEEEEE. I love Wall.E And not forgetting my dear friend, Kevin Lim. He covers almost - EVERYTHING. His blog covers mainly technology, but be surprised and find different interesting observations from kevin! BTW, my blog is set up with huge help from him! Theory.isthereason is probably one of those blogs that I spent most time reading and commenting on. A search in his blog for my name, finds previous posts and stuff we discussed and commented on. He is currently in Buffalo and many of us back in Singapore is looking forward to him coming home! That’s all for now! Happy reading! I Love Audio Books Most of my friends know that I am a huge bookworm. Both Jon and I are regulars at Kinokuniya bookstore in Singapore and Amazon is our favourite online store. When Kindle was launched, I really wanted to get it but I held back. My handbag is currently filled with all kinds of little gadgets (I tend to carry two ipods and several mobile phones). I don’t think I’ll be able to carry one more device. So, the last couple of months, I have started buying audio books. It all started with me being really busy with work and traveling a lot. Reading a book on the plane gives me headache. I can’t really read when I am in a cab too. I used to read 2-3 hours per night but lately, I am so tired after work, the moment my head hits the bed, I go into dreamland. Audio books became the “solution!” I convert all the tracks to MP3 and save them onto my iPods. Easy! No need to drag a pile of books with me when I travel or go for holiday and no need to bring additional “reading gadget.” I can now pack 10 “books” or more with me everyday and listen to them while I am commuting or when I wait for hours at airports. In my last post on Social Media books, a lot of those books are also available in audio cds. I did a quick check on Wikinomics and The Cluetrain Manifesto and they have the audio version! What I also like about audio books is, it reminds me of childhood - when Mum and Dad used to read to us (my younger brother and I) before bed time. And then, they tend to stop half way into the story and insisted that we should be sleeping. I love having people read to me. Oh! I have an audio version of the NKJV Bible too. Being a church-goer and a fan of a female preacher, Joyce Meyer, I have been stocking up her audio books recently, as well as C.S Lewis’s. Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t think audio books are really popular in Asia, specifically in Singapore (where I am based now). I can hardly find any audio books at the retail stores. The only few i found are from BORDERS and they are really expensive. The good thing is, iTunes has a really good selection and there is always the wonderful Amazon. I am not saying I am giving up books (in print) or magazines (that are not available in cds), I am glad that I am enjoying the alternative to reading books! Interesting read:- Last year, New York Times reported on a budding author who recorded a short audiobook for her unfinished print. The audiobook climbed to the top of iTunes’ best-selling books after she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. I think all new books from now on should have the unabridged audio version! Bookshelf: Social and New Media I was just looking at some of the searches that landed in one of the top posts in this blog - Social Networking Book Sites. I wrote that post quite a long while back and it constantly came up as top. Some of the common searches that ended at my blog includes “social media books, new media and social networking” That post is not exactly about books on social networking but more of online cataloging sites (such as Shelfari and the Library Thing) that allow users to catalog their books, connecting with other book lovers and share reviews/book lists. I did a quick Google search on the keywords “social networking books” and true enough, that blog post came up third in the first page of results. I have received a couple of emails from a few folks who surfed in and asked if i could recommend any books on social networking/ social media. I replied two of them and then I got really busy and didn’t manage to get to the rest. So, I thought, I might as well list down a couple of books that I personally thought are pretty cool. Walter Lim recommended a few too (via Facebook). Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the way businesses Talk with Customers - by Robert Scoble Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything - by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams The New Influencers: A Marketer’s guide to the new social media - by Paul Gillin Now is Gone: a primer on new media for executives and entrepreneurs - by Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies - by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff Join the Conversation: How to engage marketing -weary consumers … - by Joseph Jaffe Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution - by Justin Kirby & Paul Marsde I am sure there are alot of other good books out there. I am currently reading Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae that Walter gave quite a good review on. The book that I am trying to get my hands on now is - Presentation Zen - by Garr Reynolds. Book Description FOREWORD BY GUY KAWASAKI — Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making “slide presentations” in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations. Bloggers: Quantity VS Quality Blame it on work. I have been unable to do much outside of work. Now that I am taking a short break, I can start writing.. Several topics and thoughts went through my mind the last few days and I shall try to jot them down in this and next couple of posts. One of my colleagues came to Singapore from Sunnyvale to work on a project with me and we had a chat about how different the bloggers are in Singapore VS those in the U.S . He was highly amused at the “type” of bloggers that show up at events and the things they blog about. I was discussing the same topic with another friend who commented that, perhaps the blogosphere here is not as sophisticated and generally still revole around recreational writing rather than niche blog posting. For example, I have always been trying to find influential technology experts who blog and have a healthy traffic in Singapore. I can only think of, perhaps 2-3 right now. If i am a client, trying to reach out to tech bloggers here, i have extremely limited options and would probably end up raeching out to tier 2 (and slightly less tech-savvy) bloggers. I guess, this post is also directed to the social media consultants who are constantly advising clients to include bloggers outreach in PR/ marketing campaigns. It is definitely more than relationship building with the bloggers, we need to also know what we want to tell and WHO we want to tell it to. Why would I want a popular food blogger (who might have 20,000 readers) whose interest is in food, restaurant reviews and receipes to try force a new high-tech application launch to his face and get him/ her to write about it? If i am announcing a business strategy, why would i get a 17-year-old blogger (regardless of how popular his blog is) who writes in broken English to review our announcement? Reach is one thing, influence is another. Quality (as in targeted audience and type of blogs) is definitely key. As a client, if i were to hold a bloggers outreach event (ie: in the office), to launch a new product, I would probably love to read/ hear about what the bloggers think of the product, ask intelligent questions about it and even if the post is controversial/ negative, at least it helps the client /company understand what users are thinking. What a client probably doesn’t necessary need is the blogger’s thoughts about the furniture, the carpet, the toilet signboard or the noodles he/she ate during the event and no mention about the product. When this happen, I can’t help but wonder where the problem lies. ———————— Some interesting blog posts:- Brendan Hodgson wrote about “There’s more to digital PR than social media“ Brian Solis on “Making Mistakes and Amends in Blogger and Media Relations“ Kevin Lim’s (non-social media post) but a hot topic on iPhone in Singapore The Social Media Strategists - Do we need them? Last week, I replied to a list of questions that Kevin posted on the topic of “would you hire a social media strategist?” . It’s an interesting question, - one that many of us in marketing, communications, PR, new media field are questioning. I’ve given my replies to Kevin and looking forward to his next post on the compilation of thoughts from different people on the topic. (part 2 of his post was updated here) Meantime, I am gearing this post to a different direction. I am more interested to understand what the “social media strategists” themselves (and here, I mean, those who do it for living and not bloggers who blogs for fun or passion and charging people for attending event, calling themselves experts) think of their value to companies and the audiences. Are they merely the connector between the clients/ companies they represent and the audiences? Will the role be a “stand-alone” or an integrated one , meaning this person will at the same time, manage other forms of communications ie: marketing/ traditional PR? Are social media strategists in our midst explaining their roles clearly to us (the employers or even the mass audience). They are another layer of (for the lack of better word) “barrier” between companies and the audiences now, and if so, what does this layer do? Steve Rubel presented an interesting post on his views about “3 internet careers that soon won’t exist” and one of them is a social media manager/ strategist. Jeremiah Owyang, responded in his post “The need for the social media manager” . However, he also agreed that “social media skills will eventually become a normal bullet point in nearly every marketing resume…” As far as I know, most of the social/ new media experts are sitting in the same offices and integrated into public relations agenciess that runs a digital department. So, back to Kevin’s question, what qualification does a social media strategist need? I believe, to answer that, we need to ask, “what is the exact role of a social media strategist?” and from there, we can see the skill sets required. To me, right now, this person should be a voice for the people/ audiences and at the same time, an evangelist for the companies/ agencies they represent. This person, shouldn’t be just an expert in technology or the “new” media. How do you actually know what’s NEW when you have no experience in the “old”?  For a start, i have a strong urge to say, a bullet point in the social media strategist resume should be “communciations skill” and being a strategist will also require him/ her to have some business sense. Otherwise, why would a company hire you if it’s not making a difference to the business? Heh, i can see my social media strategist friends sending me hate mails soon.     PR and Social Media in Asia I stumbled upon this wiki on social media when I was doing random surfing this morning about PR in Asia. It is really quite interesting and I believed it is put together by some university students. I’ve been invited to a couple of social media events/ gatherings and the discussion topics have always been focused on which tools/ networks/ channels/ methods are best to reach out to the audiences. I realised there is always a tendency to generalise too much and assume that what works in US will work in Asia when we discuss marketing communications, public relations and social media. The last couple of months, I’ve been traveling to different parts of Asia and spending time, trying to understand the different markets that I am managing in Asia Pacific region. It’s interesting to note how diverse and unique each Asian market is when it comes to managing PR/ communications in each country. It is even tougher to come up with a regional campaign that works across several Asia countries. When we talk about Web 2.0, PR, communications in general, at times we forget that there is the cultural element. Communications in an emerging market versus communications in Latin America will obviously be very different. How consumers in different market consume information is also very different and that should affect the way we plan our communications campaigns. As much as we have all heard that in the Web 2.0 world, it is all about the people, the online communities gathering together, sharing information, contributing to conversations, everything is becoming  more globalised. However, as I’ve observed and agreed with the students who wrote in the wiki, i think we’ve missed several points. So obviously despite the market’s globalization process, there are differences between countries …because of cultural factors…which are partly responsible for the marketing environment in that market. Asia is a region with many layers: different languages, different cultures, and different technology preferences….all in a region filled with different countries, laws, etc. It does pose a tough challenge, not only for inter but also for Intra-national communication. These observations are quite accurate. There are a lot of so called “social media experts” out there who sometimes called me up and said, “hey, we can offer you help on regional campaigns using social media….” My immediate thought is, do you really know how people in India consume information? Have you stepped into Bangalore and understand the language difference? Do you understand the technological great divide between different cities in India or do you know what’s really big in Vietnam right now? Do you know that, web/ PC penetration is so much lower than mobile phone penetration in many Asia countries? So, it makes me wonder at times how companies and agencies hire their “experts” who hardly step out of their own country and hardly understand communciations on the web, let alone the 2.0 or the ability to reach/ engage consumers out there in Asia. Sure, some of us may understand how the web2.0 and how PR works (in general) but to put together some really successful campaigns, it takes much, much, much more than that. In HK for instance, there are three primary communities in Hong Kong. The expatriates, who favor English, the local Chinese whose first language is Cantonese and the increasing numbers of mainland Chinese immigrants who use Mandarin. These differences are important to businesses as based on their target audience; their medium of advertisement has to change. While we raved and make a huge fuss about Facebook, nobody really bothers about it in countries in Asia. In China, Korea and Japan and other emerging markets, there are some really big and powerful social networks that are locally relevant to the people. When it comes to PR, it doesn’t really matter if Techcrunch or New York Times are raving about a certain product or website, if i’s not locally relevant to ie: Thailand or Vietnam, (that are not even english speaking markets) or big markets like Korea, India and China, honestly, the key media there don’t really care. I have always hoped to find more great bloggers, influencers and thought leaders in Asia who cover topics on social media and communications, especially those who have not only in-country knowledge but cross-cultural, cross countries expertise. If you are one of them, please do drop me a note. We’ve heard so much from the US and UK folks, I think it is time to hear from Asia’s point of view on the topics of Social Media and new media. (honestly, it’s really not about knowing how to set up a second life account and far more than using facebook to set up an event invite). Are we really influencing our audiences? My stack of new books from Amazon.com had arrived! I am now flipping through Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae and Brian Solis & Geoff Livingston’s Now is Gone. Both have some really interesting points about new media and new media marketing. Since I have not finished reading them, I shall reserve any comments for now. Both are definitely worth reading!Recently, I’ve observed that some PR folks have decided to completely ignore / not get involved with the new media, leaving them in the hands of the community managers. I am not saying that’s right or wrong, I am just considering what it means for us, as PR professionals, to only care about getting what our clients or companies want us to say to our ”target media”. Do we, at some point consider what our CONSUMERS are thinking, saying, commenting, wanting, needing from our company? A recent chat with a PR friend made me ponder more as she pointed out that, ”UH! It’s so hard to CONTROL bloggers, sometimes, they get their facts all wrong and refused to hear us out..” Another girlfriend commented, “Why pre-brief bloggers? Why even bother talking to XX business magazine? I just want to get this story out in 3 key dailies and i get my REACH! It’s just too much effort and trouble to talk to XX business magazine and YY trade media because their reach is so much lesser…”  There are some truths in each comment but something tells me, we are moving backward rather than forward. I realised what happened to many PR people. We are extremely busy folks, sometimes we get so bogged down by work, we become very reactive and we just keep on doing doing doing the same things, hoping for different results. We forget about exploration, learning new tools, new communications strategies as we move on into a new technological era. At times, we are so narrow-minded. We are given a set of “key communications statements” from our clients or our corporate communciations department and we follow them so strictly, we forgot that our consumers and the media are not stupid to believe a  set of statements that doesn’t make any sense to anyone else but us. I realised I am trying to make several points here. I guess, what I am trying to think through is, as much as I believe and blogged quite extensively about how PR folks should always go back to basic and get our messaging/ foundation right before we move on to new media. On the other hand, there is frustration with PR people who are too afraid to move on and get too engrossed in trying to make sure that they have coverage in the 1 or 2 newspapers (that might have readership of 200,000) but is that enough? Some XX company might have a full page coverage in The Sunday Times (Singapore’s most-read broadsheet) last week but I was on the plane, my boyfriend was sick and slept through the day and my brothers were out and not touched the papers. So, even though we might be the target audience of that XX company, we missed it. So, explain to me… how is the excuse of targeting only 3 key media every time we have news announcements (because they have the most reach) ensure that most, if not all our target audience (consumers) read about our announcements? How is that making an influence? How is that moving the needle, making an impact for the business you are in? My good friend and a fantastic blogger, Melvin Yuan recently stated in his blog post… In the same way, PR professionals could never master the craft of Influence because our tools for the task were ineffective (think press releases, articles and events) and our measurement was flawed (think size of news coverage and the ad-dollar equivalent). Both never did translate to direct impact and measurable results that businesses really need. But today we have the right tools (think blogs, micro-sites, e-mails, search engines etc.), the right knowledge (in search, digital storytelling and social media), and better ways to measure business (not communication) results (think click-throughs, readership and online decisions). We have what it takes to communicate directly, track and measure results effectively, making Influence as much a science as it is an art. My starting point @ Yahoo! A friend asked me, “You must be feeling really sh**ty about your new job now…all those uncertainties and distractions… do you regret your decision to move to the new place?”   I have been avoiding speculations or engage in any form of discussions about some topics lately…   I also didn’t want to turn this blog into a “publicity channel” for whatever I am doing at work. I still would like to keep this blog as a platform for explorations on PR, new media, technology as well as my favourite topic - books!   However, I did think about my friend’s question and here’re my thoughts…. Hell no! No regrets at all. Although I admit, there are days that are tougher, what is really special about my new job is, people are extremely passionate about what they are doing at Yahoo! It is a very different experience. I had my fair share of bad clients and bad colleagues in the past jobs who made going to work feels like the end of the world.   Right now, I am busy. This is easily one of the busiest jobs I ever had but I am loving it! In my very short time (this is my 6th week) with the company, I can’t help but noticed a few things about the place - what I was told before I joined the company was true… it has a great culture. Beside the great view at my work desk (next to the full-length glass window, on the 37th floor of Suntec City Tower), I love working with alot of truly great, talented and extremely cool people.   Sure, it is sad to read some negative news coverage but what I find encouraging is, everyone works together and despite tough times, we are having fun and we work hard to achieve what we set out to do.   And this week, we see some great results as Yahoo! made various announcements at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. One of which is the new Yahoo! oneConnect (read more on TechCrunch) and read what many others wrote.. .   “A few of the innovative features of oneConnect are its Pulse feature, which lets users see what their friends are up to, including their status, profile updates and recommendations based on their social network pages, and Status, which lets users see their contacts by their most recent status updates on social networks, as well as update their own status on their social networks and automatically broadcast it to their friends” – RCR WirelessNews   “Yahoo continues firing on all cylinders in the mobile area despite the looming presence of Microsoft’s aggressive moves to acquire the Web giant.” – InternetNews “oneConnect is a very promising and I’m not surprised Yahoo is moving ahead,” Gartner analyst Mike McGuire told InternetNews.com. “Yahoo can’t be paralyzed by what Microsoft says it wants to do — it has these developments and deals in place and as [CEO] Jerry Yang has said to his employees, they have to focus on what they need to work on.” “Has Yahoo beaten Google to the punch?” – TechWorld   “OneConnect is part of a strategy to open up Yahoo services to work side by side with those of rival services, thereby making itself a more relevant starting point for users seeking to find what’s going on the web.” – ZDNet UK On a side note, the coming Monday is my 30th birthday. To me, it is a brand new chapter of life - a new starting point to more great things. I have a lot of goals set for the next 5 years and I have been very blessed. I am surrounded by great friends, colleagues and family who have been so awfully wonderful. Thank you to all those who sent me all the lovely birthday wishes, gifts and stuff!     Fendi - A History-Making Event What would you do if you were given $US 10 million as marketing/ communications budget to create a newsworthy event that will attract the attention of global media?  Do what Fendi did! Two months ago, the Italian luxury brand became the first to hold a runway show on the Great Wall of China. According to Vogue, 500 VIP guests were invited from around the world.  This is a dazzling example of how seriously luxury brands are taking the Chinese consumers (and their spending power) very seriously. I have attended very big events and organised several fashion shows myself but to have one of the world’s ancient wonders as event backdrop, 88 models walking down the runway and Hollywood A-listers at the front rows as well hundreds of global news media attending your event - it’s a marketer/ communicator/ event manager’s dream come true. Fendi boss Michael Burke said, “The Great Wall showed that Fendi is clearly one of the few brands that is going to be known everywhere as a magical brand. It’s not a stretch for Fendi to do something like this. But how many brands could pull this off with credibility? If Coca Cola did it, it would be a stunt. For many of our competitors it would be a stretch,” This is definitely no stunt. It is a history-making event.  Godfrey Deeny, the European editor of Fashion Wire Daily titled his news report, ” The Fendi show you could see from space,” and you probably could. Creating a successful event:- A couple of my friends who are great event producers/organisers told me - to create a successful fashion show or in fact any event, depends on a few key elements: Location, Budget, Set-up, Products and Guest list. The ancient structure of the Great Wall sounds like a fantastic LOCATION, providing a long, natural runway. US$10 million was also a great BUDGET to have. Flying those media and celebrities down to the event and lighting up the Great Wall - not an easy task at all. The Fendi show featured an exclusive mini collection as well as the highly-acclaimed spring/summer 2008 collection. Guests were given complimentary hand warmers and were seated comfortably on heated seats. (it’s amazing the amount of details and thoughts that went into the production and set up) The SET UP and the guest list? Take a look at this SPECTACULAR show:- To read more, simply do a google search and you have pages after pages of news reports (including Singapore’s owned network, Channel News Asia featuring it on primetime news). Heading to CES in Vegas When I went to the doc to get the flu and Hep A/B jabs, she sent me home with packs of pills after knowing that I have to take a 16-hour flight. Usually, I am not a big fan of long haul flights but this time, I am looking forward to the trip to San Francisco and Las Vegas for the International CES 2008, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow in January. There will be a lot to see in just four days (Jan 7 to 10). Spreading across 1.8 million net square feet of exhibits, 2700 participating companies, key note addresses, the industry insider series and other conference sessions plus alot of walking (so, i was told by a well-meaning colleague). A sneak peak of some of the new new technology that will be on display at the show here:- What I can’t miss is obviously Jerry Yang, CEO and Chief Yahoo! of Yahoo! Inc., who will delivering an Industry Insider address, sharing his views on the evolution of the Internet technology. Michael Muchmore of PC mag wrote that he is expecting many of the software announcements at CES to revolve around social networking, mobile internet apps, online digital media, and image and video editing. I am definitely looking forward to that too! I am not sure how much time I have to walk around and hopefully capture as many interesting things as I can, but I am getting ready my comfy shoes and camera! Timothy and I are planning to catch Zumanity at Cirque du Soleil one of the evenings, also catching up with my ex-client at Cirque after that. I am also hoping to meet up with with some bloggers whom I’ve been keeping in touch with online. Before I get back to Singapore from San Francisco, I am also planning to have dinner with my dear friend, Kevin who is heading to the Mac World Expo right after the CES in SF. Exciting days ahead! For now, I have to continue my last minute Christmas shopping and get ready for my trip (there’s actually alot to prepare and do before then)! Thank Goodness, my wonderful colleague, Jeremy has been helping me with all the flight booking and details. Nokia 14Days With my new job role (at Yahoo!) focusing on the mobile industry, I have been spending my time trying to find out anything and everything about mobile. I came across this interesting article in MarketingWeb, mentioning the following stats:- With an estimated 240 million wireless subscribers in the US, mobile is already a US$350-billion sector. According to Nielsen Mobile: 32 million use their phones to go online 70% send or receive text messages 41% percent use their wireless devices to send photos The article also wrote:- …… The old media broadcast model is dying The idea of a media-consuming public that sits passively in front of a TV set is fast being replaced by a vibrant, active community of shared upstream content providers. With the mobile phones being very much integrated into our daily lifestyle, it is no wonder that Nokia, the mobile phone maker recently launched its first ever video podcast (titled 14Days to signify the frequency of each episode) for its Nseries phone devices to ensure they stay top of mind amongst the consumers. Thanks to Brian (from Ogilvy, Singapore) who alerted me to the vodcast Hosted by “Girl with the number 11 briefcase” in the TV game show, Deal or No Deal (Singapore), Claire Jedrek attempts to show viewers how to take your mobile device (to be more specific - your Nokia Nseries handset) to the next level in each episode of 14Days. The 14Days vodcast was conceptualised by Ogilvy, created by The Creative Room and produced by Nokia. All viewers have to do is to watch it online, download it to your mobile device or subscribe to it with an RSS feed. I’ve just downloaded the latest episode into my new video iPod and of course, you can put them into any Nseries devices which I am planning to get one - the N95!! (featured in the pilot episode of the vodcast series). Bloggers such as DK and Su Yuen who had seen the first episode think that the tips and tricks for the N95 were too “far fetched” and not “particularly interesting” The latest episode titled “VPL” was a let-down for me. After watching the episode, I was wondering “uh, where are the promised nifty ideas to push technology to the next level?” Well, the key message for the N76 is clear though - it’s a chick phone! I thought the second episode, titled “Heroes” was quite cool, with Claire and a local blogger, teaching viewers how to freeze time and teleport at will with the Nokia N93i. Brian was sharing with me that one of the main draws about the Nseries phones is that they are multimedia convergent devices, hence having vodcasts such as 14Days pushed the envelope in terms of showcasing the mobile convergence, the connectivity of the phone as well as accessing high quality multimedia while on the go. This move (the creation of the vodcast) attempts to show the power and potential of the Nseries range, and also hopes to increase adoption and promotion of podcast and vodcast technology. I am keen to find out what is the pick-up/ download statistics of the vodcast at the end of its series. It will also be interesting (as Su Yuen mentioned in her post) to see some user generated content, spinning off from the vodcast series. As the article in MarketingWeb mentioned, the next big trend is to see how social networking works on mobile. Information Deficiency I woke up today, determined to go out and buy that big luggage that I need to use to drag all my stuff to Las Vegas (for the CES 08) in Jan. Jon said, “but don’t you already have a few luggages?”. Yes, I do but I need a bigger one! I have to pack in my clothes, the thick jackets and erm BOOKS and magazines. Books? Yes, a few books. Not for work but for reading on the flight. I found out this morning from my good friend, the brilliant producer and news anchor for Channel News Asia, Timothy Go that this annoying habit is called In-Flight Information Deficiency. Tim wrote, This is someone who, before and during a flight, has a fear of not having enough to read on board a flight, no matter how short or long. Although I seldom read on board the plane, because I get motion sickness and the pills I take before the flight makes me drowsy and I fall asleep. BUT, I still worry that I do not have  enough things to do on the plane. The flight to Vegas is at least 16 hours and I am already panicking about which books to drag along. But I think, my problem continues even after the flight. I constantly worry about, “What if I finish reading the books i brought along… and have nothing to do at the hotel?” It gets worse if I am on holiday, to stop me from worrying, Jon will volunteer to bring more books in his luggage for me. Ok! Time to go out now to buy luggage. The rise and fall - PowerPR Index I just noticed from my RSS feeds that Brendan Cooper has compiled and put up a new PowerPR index for December and this time, it also indicated the changes in ranking. Brendan has once again, done a great job, putting together the links with the various rankings. Amazingly, my 5-month old blog is up by 5 points. Encouraging! My latest favourite read, Pop! PR Jots dropped a few notches but I am still enjoying reading Jeremy’s posts. Steve Rubel’s blog dropped to 2nd place, replaced by Online Marketing Blog. My other usual reads are all still in the list, including my dear friends, Melvin’s “The PR 2.0 Universe “ and Walter’s “Cooler Insights”. I wonder if the 3 of us are the only ones blogging about PR and new media topics in Singapore. I am trying to go through the list and see if there are any other Asian bloggers. The”P” in PR Jon and I always joked about how if we get married, my name will be changed to Priscilla Roberts (his surname), so my initials will be “PR”! Perfect for me, since I am in public relations. (if you don’t get the joke, forget it). Anyway, that silly joke came to mind as I was reading one of Jeremy Pepper’s old blog posts on “what does the P in PR stands for?” (I’ve been spending some time going through Jeremy’s blog posts and they are really quite brilliant.). PR can mean many things to many different people. Jeremy wrote, …. PR used to stand for public relations. Not press relations, but public relations… I totally agree. It has been argued about, debated on and the conclusion is that PR needs to focus and put the real “P” (for public) back to the highly misunderstood industry of public relations, (especially in this new Web 2.0 and social media age). There are alot of definitions of PR, by academics and experts in the industry. Generally, the idea of PR lies in the following:- Public relations is the management of relationships between an organization and its publics – groups on whom it depends for its success. An organization’s publics may include employees, shareholders, government regulators, customers, financial analysts, pressure groups, and industry associations. Depending on the field in which it operates, there will be others. A school board will have parents, students and taxpayers. A food producer may have farmers, marketing boards, dieticians and consumer associations. A registered charity will have donors and volunteers… (source: PRCA) And of course, the mass media is part of the publics that organisations and PR people aim to reach out to, but did you notice the many other “publics” listed in the above? PR has been evolving and I have realised that the definitions can even vary in different countries but it definitely goes beyond “how to get a coverage in XX publication..” Melvin Yuan, an independent PR and new media consultant commented in one of my earlier post about how many PR folks are thinking press relations rather than public relations. ….Ask any consultant to list his/her top five tags for PR and you’ll know the level of his thinking. If “media relations” and “pitching stories” are in that list, you’ll know what’s going to rattle his nerves… I have several thoughts as I was writing this post. One of them was attempting to define the “P” in PR and as I was researching on what had been discussed, I came across this great article, “Media coverage: forget about the quantity- measure the quality,” by Jennifer McClure, summarising what I had in mind. PR is not meant to be about creating static messages in a vacuum, and it is not synonymous with media relations, but for too long this seems to have been the assumption - not only by clients and management, but even by many in the PR industry. Public relations is about forming and nurturing relationships with the public. We all need to remind ourselves of this from time to time. If, instead of spending time creating and communicating static messages and trying to make sure that nothing negative is ever said about our organizations, PR can re-focus its efforts on creating relationships… I start to fear and cringe, whenever I speak with communications/ PR or marketing people who asked me, “oh, so can you get us some coverage in Her World magazine?” Nothing wrong with Her World magazine (a very popular female mag in Singapore) but in today’s Web2.0 world and the age of social media, PR folks should take the opportunities to work towards achieving not a front-page press coverage but to start a real dialogue with the key audiences (which includes the “publics” mentioned above) to alter perceptions, to create awareness, to gather feedbacks (and the list goes on, depending on what you aim to achieve). Such are statements that many have spoken and written about but, honestly, how many PR people are actually practising them? How many actually GET IT or attempt to GET IT? Two-way dialogue can occur without a front page or any media coverage. Infact, let’s put it another way, two-way dialogue SHOULD occur ON TOP of the front page coverage - that’s the job of PR now and in the near future. Most decent PR folks know all about traditional media pitching, the challenge is to move on and put PR back to the scope it is meant to cover. Although I am in PR, I am also a blogger - possibly part of the “publics” that some organisations are targeting. I am also the consumer who buy the various media’s publications and many different brand of products. I am also the unhappy customer who had a bad perception of that hotel with such bad service, I am dying to tell the world not to go to that hotel. I guess, what I am trying to say here is, at the end of the day, we know that PR is evolving, especially in this exciting time where we see shifts in the industry, the key thing is to start practising it, start to put the real “P” (repeat: Public) back in PR and learn to GET IT! We are sick of hearing everyone telling us, “PR just don’t get it”. More reference articles on elated topic:- What is PR? by Heather Yaxley (another updated post - 12 Dec 2007 - here ) PR Measurement: Does media coverage alone impact business outcomes? What is PR? by Public Relations Institute of Australia Hosay Lah! Time to rekindle old interests Hosay Lah! where “Hosay” (in Hokkien) means Good! And very good indeed was last evening’s event at The Substation, celebrating their 10th Anniversary of Moving Images. (left): we all sat in the little theatre -old school style without air con but very excited (middle): the crowd flooding the entrance of The Substation, eating, mingling and chatting with the film makers (right): Jacen Tan and Jon Jon and I went to support Jacen Tan’s latest film, Zo Hee (Hokkien for making movies), under his hosaywood production. Jacen and Jon were ex-colleagues and I was just there to rekindle my old interest in films and the arts. Not many people know that I actually first graduated in designs, spending a year plus studying films and photography. Some ex design school/classmates included the now renowned film maker, Royston Tan (a year, my senior), the highly talented Victric Thng (my ex-classmate) and Randy Ang (ex-classmate - we recently found each other again on Facebook). Well, I moved on to do other stuff and these guys are obviously doing really well and coming up with great, creative works that make Singapore proud. Back to Jacen. I was really impressed with his latest two short films (Zo Gang, and its sequel, Zo Hee). Definitely not filmed with a huge production budget but they captured local culture, flavour, lots of humour and clever script. Jon also appeared in a short section as the Ang Moh busker. I asked Jacen, when is the next film coming up and he said, “hmm.. need to take a break!” So, while we wait for Jacen to take his break, enjoy the film I am attaching below. More of Jacen’s work can be found on YouTube and hosaywood.com From 7 to 10 December, 5 to 10pm, people who are interested to support or take a look at what some of our local film talents had put together, pop down to The Substation, admission is free! You can also show your support by donating (any amount)! For more interesting local film stuff, check out this real cool site - www.sinema.com or join the facebook group to be updated with the latest news. Interesting reads about PR My recent favourite picks/ reads about Public Relations:- 100 PR blog links Brendan Cooper who was formally a “ghost blogger” has recently changed his blog link and told us his name (but not the company he works in). Brendan puts together a nice list of PR blogs. I have randomly read a few and I am still browsing through the rest. There are some really good PR blogs out there. How to manage your clients Spun off from my last post about ridiculous clients, Walter wrote a useful post (from a client’s point of view) on how PR agencies should manage their clients. Community Managers VS PR Managers I have been reading about what community managers are doing for their products/ companies. I am interested to find the differences/ similarities between the community managers and the PR/ communications managers, especially now that PR people are expected to be savvy with the communities and the new media etc. Jeremiah Owyang wrote an informative post about The Four Tenets of the Community manager. He also led me to one of his older post for reference. The new marketplace Jon just ordered a new book (Now is gone) for me from Amazon. Written by Geoff Livingston & Brian Solis, the book aims to help businesses embrace Social Media intelligently. Check out Geoff’s latest post about The Public Relations Long Tail. Like Geoff, I am not convinced that social media will replace traditional media completely. As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I believe that the two should be working hand in hand, complementing each other in an integrated environment to meet the communications/ marketing objectives. Finally, an irrelevant and rather funny sign board Jon and I saw outside our hotel (near a construction site) few days ago when we were in Bali. Final chapter of the library@orchard This is my last post about the library@orchard. Tomorrow, the library will be officially closed after the Moving On party. Unfortunately, I will not be in Singapore to attend the event. Hopefully, the other citizen bloggers will take some memorable pictures of the last hours of the library. Here are some images that Jon and I took last couple of weeks:- It is definitely a really cool, boutique-styled library that I will miss. I was checking out the talented group - The Novelties that had a gig at the library@orchard two weeks ago. They are a group of friends, currently studying at the Singapore Management University (SMU). Cheryl, the cute lead singer could do a real good rendition of Cranberries and she commented that it is very sad that the library@orchard will be gone. The group was pleasantly surprised at the crowd that gathered to cheer them on during the performance at the library. I had to include this interesting picture of this group of girls who gathered at the library not to study or read but they sat at a little corner, enjoying the performance and folding little paper cranes. I was intrigued! When asked what the girls think about the closing of the library, they were all teary … (ok, I am joking). They all thought, “it was unfortunate that such a nice library has to go very soon.” “It has a great set-up, especially a special center stage for nice and free performances. This library also stocked up great selection of books and has nice librarians!” they added. Another person I spoke with was a French gentleman who requested not to mention his name or include his photo. He stays near Orchard Road and is a big fan of the library. He has the following comments, “This is a really stylishly designed and 95% of the time, I can find the books I came to look for. It is definitely sad that it’ll be gone. Where & when is the new library opening?” The library will re-open in 2010 in two re-incarnations – as library@*scape, a youth community space and as library@orchard at a redeveloped site along Orchard Road, according to the official press release. So, there! I guess, this is Bye bye library@orchard. Jon and my “final words” — “It is a shame to see you go. We wish we had known you better…” Ridiculous clients and fearful PR agencies “Pris, Today’s such a crappy day!!” A friend who was in a PR agency complained to me when who met up this afternoon. She went on to tell me about this particular demanding client of hers. I listened to her story with sympathy and great amusement. What happened was that the client was expecting a news coverage over the weekend (for an interview/ event held last week) and it did not happen. This morning, the story came out in The Straits Times (note to my foreign friends who are reading this, The Straits Times is one of Singapore’s national English broadsheets). So, you would think, the client must be happy? Apparently not. The client emailed my friend and the boss a note saying along the line of “We need a front page story!” Unfortunately, the story came out in one of the news pages in The Straits Times, not too small but not the front page. I rolled my eyes when I heard that. How do you explain to such clients that it is not only a tall order but it is an unreasonable and ridiculous demand? It is very common for clients to ask PR agencies to perform tasks that are not only unreasonable, most of the times, they are totally ridiculous, especially when all the information the client can offer is not even newsworthy enough for a small column? I was reading an interesting  The INQ’s article and I find a lot of truths in there:- Because clients are as unreasonable as most journalists, by and large. They produce little widgets and expect their PRs to get a front page splash on the Financial Times. If the miserable PR manages to get any mention in said paper, the client will see it and rip the coverage to pieces, forgetting in the process that a journo is not a tool of the PR … I was also reading Peter Shankman’s book that I mentioned in my last post and there is this rather funny paragraph that I just have to include here.  I remembered a friend once called me, furious that the reporter didn’t mention him in a second story he did on my friend’s industry. “Why should he have mentioned you?” I asked my friend. “Because after he didn’t mention my company in the first story, I called him up and ripped him a new one! I told him that he should be ashamed of himself and not even call himself a journalist if he didn’t do his basic homework to realise that my company is in the space he covered!” I find myself smiling when I read this. It reminded me of an ex-client who was (I used “was” because it seems to have disappeared, probably ceased operations), a very small player in a particular industry but he insisted that we get a story in the main dailies about his company as “the next big thing!”  and when there were stories about the big players in the industry and his company was not mentioned (because it was new, small and had alot of product flaws), he jumped and demanded that we explained why the company was not highlighted in the story. Ok, the BIG question here is - Why then did PR agencies allow themselves to be stepped on all over by the clients’ unreasonable demands? Fear! Yes, fear of losing the clients. Some PR professionals and even the bosses/ MDs/ Directors bend over and compromise to the extend of reducing integrity - just so to keep the client “happy”. Some will attempt to explain, offer alternatives, attempt to help the client to see the bigger picture and most of the times, the clients have their ways and some crappy campaigns were produced with unreasonable expectations and the miserable PR people had to annoy the hell out of journalists to try to get that “front page story.” Andrew B. Smith wrote the following and again, I see alot of truth in there:- However, to ask the journalist how much coverage the client can expect is clearly a redundant question – aside from the fact that it is up to the publication to decide how much space a story gets, this can’t be predicted or guaranteed in advance – and certainly not without any information on which to make even an educated guess. A bit like being asked to guarantee the outcome of a race when you have no idea who the runners and riders are. I am trying to find out from my friend what she and her boss did to reply/ explain to the client about NOT GETTING the front page story. Another PR person told me, “PR is definitely a misunderstood profession.” PR people are constantly under fire and often caught in between many different groups of people. There are many great PR people around, who are highly skilled, trained and have great credential. Perhaps, some “black sheeps” in the industry should be blamed for the bad name of PR. Perhaps there is just very limited understanding of what PR can or cannot do. Without the right understanding, things get misunderstood and resulted in grievance. Take a break from blogs. Back to the books I have been spending way too much time online - reading mails, clicking off “ignore” to all Facebook invites to become vampires and werewolves, reading endless RSS feeds etc. I tried to stay offline as much as I can the last one week and spend more time reading books that I have been buying and not started reading. Here are three books that I am reading now and they have been great so far. For those who are clearing leaves or thinking of bringing a book to your holiday trip, here are my picks:- (Since I am going away for a one-week beach holiday next week and have plenty of time to read while sitting by the sea. I am most happy to hear any recommendation to interesting books, so drop me a note if you have any in mind). (left): Notice the library tag on the book? I just picked it up from the library@Orchard (the one that is going to be closed down next week). Written by Peter Shankman, (the CEO of Geek Factory), the book has a rather long title, “Can We Do That?! :Outrageous PR Stunts That Work - and Why Your Company Needs Them” Everytime I hear clients say “come up with some stunts!” I cringed. I wrote about my thoughts in a previous post “PR, back to basics”. However, I am all for a great idea that get communications messages across to the right target audience. Shankman has a great writing style and he even included a section on “Peter’s top six rules for allowing yourself to be creative and come up with off-the-wall ideas.” It reminded me of days when I was doing creatives and design work - when we were encouraged to do something different each day (ie: change our seats so that we see different things from our work station) to help the mind think differently! Shankman included a picture of himself at the Portland zoo, in order to be / think like a child and get some new ideas. I thought that was pretty cool for a busy CEO to do. (middle): Carly Fiorina - Tough Choices, A Memoir - I must say, I just bought this book today and the last couple of hours was stuck flipping this book. I picked it up, partly because I’ve always loved biographies and the other reason was because Businessweek wrote “…Women will find this particularly interesting.” Just in case you are living in some La La land and have never heard of Fiorina - She was recruited to be CEO of Hewlett Packard - the first female CEO of Fortune 20 company. Read more I love the part (am at Chapter 6 now) that she wrote, “….don’t think about the next job; focus on doing the very best you can with the job you have. Learn everything you can from everyone you can. Focus on the possibilities of each job, not the limitations. Look for the people who will take a chance on you.” (right): Some people might call this a self-help book, some call it a Christian/ religious book. It is one of my recent favourite books. “The Search for Satisfaction, looking for something new under the sun.” is inspiring. Excerpts from the book: …. No generation in history has witnessed the explosion of knowledge and technology we experience today…. …. Yet knowledge, information, awareness, and our sense of “connectedness” have not issued a glorious age of peace. It brings me back to thinking of all the connectivity we raved about - the social networking, the new media, the endless amount of information we have to read online, process them each day with the hope to turn them into some satisfactory results. To me, those attempts usually ended up with hours in front of the computer, letting time slipped away and not getting much out of it. Our iPods Collection Jon and I got a new iPod each today. I got the new iPod Classic in gorgeous silver and he got the nano. We are so addicted to buying new iPods every year, on top of the Macs that he kept changing every other year. We are starting to believe, we have developed some obsessive compulsive (Apple) buying behavior. Ben Koe wrote about his thoughts about Apple and its brand promise, while he believes that he is objective when it comes to technoloy, I am totally bias when it comes to Apple. Since I was 17 and started using Macs, I’ve not found any Apple products that I really dislike. Check out our iPods (the missing one is the mini that’s currently with my brother) from old bulky one to the latest new sleek one. Remember those first generation iPod? It didn’t know how to work with Windows, and was FireWire-only at first. The National Heritage Board campaign This morning, Walter, the Communications Director of the National Heritage Board (NHB) was sharing with me a new initiative that they are rolling out. I am one of those who had always think of museums and anything that has the word “heritage” as “boring and old”. So, imagine my surprise when I first met Walter at a new media conference and he was one of the panel speakers. He was sharing a case study about how the NHB makes use of the social/ new media (by setting up a blogsite - Yesterday.sg) to reach out to more Singaporeans (especially the younger and tech savvy people) as well as anyone who’s interested in the heritage of Singapore (like Jon who’s British - he knows more about Singapore’s history than me). The new campaign is called Explore Singapore! and is ongoing from now until the end of December. There are more than 86 activities to choose from. Some of you (who are Singaporeans) probably would have read or heard about Mark Lee, our local celebrity who is engaged to host the tours at Singapore’s oldest museum. The interesting part of this is, there will be a Heritage Photoblogging contest where you can win brand new Nikon Cameras including a D40 kit! The idea is not new but when I think about it, it’s a great move for NHB to get the old and the young, the tech savvy or not-so savvy folks to (1) join in the fun by attending those activities, (2) show-off your photography skills and (3) some great content to put up on the blog and of course, most importantly (4) win a new Nikon camera. If you are interested, here’s what you can do! To take part in NHB’s first photoblogging contest and participate in Explore Singapore! Simply follow these easy steps: 1) Attend an Explore Singapore! event. Take lots of pictures. 2) Blog about it on your blog (remember to post the pictures!) 3) Visit the Explore Singapore! Heritage In Pictures webpage. Register your blog post URL there. 4) If approved, your blog post will be posted on the contest listings page. 5) Check back regularly to see if your entry is up. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again 6) Get your friends to check out your entry by putting this Brag Badge on your blog. Celebrity photographer Dominic Khoo of www.whatisthesight.com will select the winners, who will receive an exclusive National Heritage Board winners’ certificate to be placed on their blogs. Registration is open from 10 November 2007 to 31 December 2007. Since I have some time in December, I might just bring mummy along to a few of those activities.