me, my passion & digital marketing
Social Media
Asian Bloggers and Social Media Conference
Jul 30th
Over the last 2 days, I was at the Asian Bloggers and Social Media Conference 2010 in Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur. It was a very last minute decision to go to the event and a decision that gave me opportunity to get insights and to meet people I’ve known but never met.
The event was huge, attracting probably around 400 pax of bloggers, social media professionals, marketing personnel and brand owners. I got a few good pointers about blogging and social media – though some of the stuff I’ve already known because I have also been reading a fair bit about the topic. It was a good event and a topic close to heart.
I had the opportunity to meet many people @shareenmy ; @lightyoruichi (the Malaysia Foursquare Ambassador) ; @liewcf (he is the person behind the famous tech blog, www.liewcf.com) ; @andygts ; @accentize (he sat beside me on day 2) ; @blogie (he is one of the speaker and panelist who manages 7 blogs, one of it being www.wp-evangelist.com) ; a Bernama reporter seated in front me and a few others whom I did not get their twitter IDs.
I now have 3 urgent things on my to-do list :-
1. Design my own name card
I want to design a name card for myself. Personal branding stuff 
2. A whole stuff I want to do with my WordPress.
After talking to @blogie , I am convinced that there is still a lot of stuff I need to do with my WordPress
3. Use the information I learned about social media in my marketing work
The information I have gotten over 2 days is useful for my current and future work .. so have to start working on it
Its a tiring day.. work tomorrow. Feeling inspired to do a whole lot of stuff.
UPDATE
Just as I was looking through the photos I took during the event, I found a few interesting ones that I MUST share. Enjoy…
I like this setup – having two huge banners on both sides and the projected image in the middle. I think they use a back projection for the video – which is expensive but necessary if you want to have a fuss free front area. Very good, even sitting at the last row, I could see the face of the speaker clearly.
“Believe the Unbelievable, Dream the Impossible, Never take NO for an answer” was a quote shared by Tony Fernandez.
If your brand talks, you don’t have to buy fans. Cool… but smaller brands may have a need to ‘buy’ fans.
It was an honor to have an opportunity to listen to Dr. M’s speech live.
This has got to be the best pic of all. It was the last session – the forum with 8 panelist and Kenny Sia being one of them. While Blogie was giving his opinion, Kenny Sia was making weird funny faces and I felt amused too – so I snapped a pic of it. At one point, his eyes went squint! He’s really hilarious!
Three of the eight panelist for the forum. From right is Niki Cheong, Kenny Sia and Blogie.
The ideal social media team! That’s a huge team.. This slide was presented by the speaker from Virtual Consulting, Indonesia.
My First Tweetup
Jul 17th
Its my first time.
Meeting up with my Twitter buddies. *phew* I’m not really the ‘meeting-up’ kind of person and I was feeling very unsure until the very last minute. I would say that its fate that brought us all together – so we met ala-@JasonGan-coffee-talk-style in Starbucks Jaya One. The group comprised of @JasonGan @PrincessJoLing @eltonkuah @Flashout13 and of course yours truly @chewmeiling.
I liked the fact that everyone turned up in their everyday attires and that sets the mood to ‘relaxed’ – something that made everyone felt like friends for a long time. It was a cool sharing session, mostly about social media and also a little bit of our personal life. After all, it was the first time we met so we took time to get to know each other a little bit more.
There were a few things I concluded from the sharing session :-
Social Media is about Ideas
Technology enhances ideas. Without ideas, technology is dead. No amount of tools can replace the need for ideas. Without ideas (good ones!), social media is not function-able. Fresh, crazy ideas are a must!
Social Media is about being daring
Recycling ideas are for those who are not daring enough to venture into something new. Maybe due to business restrictions, a lot of social media campaigns today are nothing new. If no one dares to try new ideas, we are as good as staying status quo in everything we do?
Social Media is about real business results
I’ve read a gazillion of times that social media is not able to bring real business results, but yesterday’s discussion changed my perception. I used to think that its about engagement, bla bla bla… but now I know that social media can bring in actual business results … like increased sales, additional leads, more reach!
Social Media is an art and science, combined into one
Putting up a Facebook page and having a Twitter ID is just the beginning. You need a consultant who can go deep dive into your business, utilize his brain juices to churn out actionable, business-driven campaign to meet end objectives. The who what why when and how are answered by numbers and statistics; justifying actions and forecast results – now that’s not just about guessing or estimating!
Social media is here to stay
In 2009, I told my peers that every marketer must equip themselves with social media knowledge. I foresee digital to be a very important chuck in every marketing plan and in 2010, it happened. With the multiple benefits social media can bring, its no surprise that more budgets are being allocated for this and more companies are jumping into the bandwagon. Social media is not a fad, it delivers real business results and is going to stay!
I became involved in digital 4 years ago when online banners were mainly big boys, and in my small tiny organization I recommended the use of online medium in a large way. Now, I’m ready to get into action. Digital marketing is my passion and expert I may not be but that has never stopped me from doing what I’ve wanted all this while. I agree with @eltonkuah and @JasonGan that once you are doing something you are passionate about, it really doesn’t feel like a job. Some time back a peer told me that if I put in the exact amount of energy, effort and excitement in my own venture, I would go very far. Now is the time to test it.
There will be more meet ups … and more Starbucks? I think I’ll go get a Starbucks tumbler as well *LOL*
UPDATED :
I think I like the below… hahaha.. I’ll go check it out first. And, I also found that there is a Starbucks Merchandise Store in Ontario, California! Wahh..
Location based social media : Foursquare
Jul 13th
Location based social media is probably the hottest thing in the digital industry now, after Facebook and Twitter. Using a GPS-enabled phone with internet access (you can also check-in by installing a Firefox plugin named Foursquarefox on your browser), you can ‘check-in’ to places (physical or virtual) and earn points, badges and mayorship. In Malaysia, its adoption is picking up slowly with Foursquare being the most popular choice while the rest like Gowalla, Whrrl and MyTown are still relatively unheard of.
I’m now discovering Foursquare, using my HTC Magic to log into my breakfast spots, supermarkets and even shops near my workplace. Logging in using my Twitter ID, I also link up with my friends to make up a community sort of. The most interesting part is of course the earning of badges and mayorship. At the moment, I’m mayor at 11 places .. which is still a far cry from other’s over 40 mayorship. Fun aside, Foursquare is an excellent marketing tool especially for those with a brick and mortar presence.
If your business is yet to be listed on Foursquare, you can easily add it in by logging into Foursquare and claiming it. To claim the business, you need to paste the contact page of your website or paste your contact information. Foursquare will contact you to verify that you own the business. Thereafter, you can create specials for those who check-in your outlet. Here’s the specials that are currently available on Foursquare :-
Mayor specials
This special can only be unlocked by the mayor of your outlet. Mayor is the user whom has checked in the most time in the last 60 days.
Count Based specials
This special is unlocked with an x number of check-in as specified by you.
Frequency Based specials
This special is unlocked with every x-number of times as specified by you.
Wildcard specials
This special is unloced at all times, however you can apply additional conditions before awarding the special. You can be creative with wildcards – so let your creative juices flow!
In US where Foursquare use is rather widespread, some companies has successfully implemented Foursquare as a marketing medium, like the ones covered in http://socialfresh.com/foursquare-case-studies/ I foresee Foursquare to be a tool that will soon be adopted by Malaysian businesses with retail outlets targeting end-consumers. But that does not mean that those with virtual storefronts will not jump into the bandwagon. It is going to be very interesting when more companies adopt Foursquare as a marketing medium and also as an engagement tool.
