Posts tagged blog
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.
Why Blog?
Jun 23rd
Usually when I tell someone (not tech savvy) that I have a blog, its quite common to hear them telling me that “blogging is kid stuff” or “I don’t waste time on blogging about my life” or “I don’t have time to blog”.
Blogging has many different meanings to different people and also to organizations. Below are my personal observation on what a blog means to different groups of people:-
Blog as a marketing tool
Blogs are like main stream news today. They are well-followed and have consistent and loyal followers. Well established blogs have demographics sheets etc, just like what every marketer would need before placing ads in print on in digital. Paying for a paid write up on a blog is alike paid advertorial in print. You can also place measurement tools to gauge its effectiveness, most of the time in terms of the click-through and response rates.
Blog to improve search engine ranking
Somehow the search engines loves fresh content as much as human do. So once you have a blog on your website, your website will be crawled often and it will also have improved search engine ranking. I’m no expert in SEO – so if you want to understand the mechanics, I suggest you engage in an expert SEO service. Back to the blogging thingy, I’d anytime suggest a company to maintain a blog on top of their main website. Talk about your products, how good it is and the USP, what events you’ve participated in, what you have observed from the industry, new products you are rolling out and when and just anything. Likelihood, you will have existing customers and new customers reading up on your blog. Customers like to have new information and not be kept in the dark – your blog tells it all and sets you apart from your competitors.
Blog for personal branding
If you are trying to establish credibility in certain domain areas, a blog is a good place to start. Sharing information is always a good way to tell others that you are an expert in the area. Even if you have no intention to blog about serious topics, you can still start a blog to talk about your hobbies or anything you want! I’ve seen hobbies blog turned into a money making ventures! You never know what you can attract in the midst of maintaining a good blog – a consulting offer, a new job offer or more?
Blog as a second income
There are many bloggers today who maintain blogs to get paid write-up offers or to monetize it with Google AdSense or other advertisement networks. Easier said than done, blogs do bring in money if you do it the right way. Many bloggers today are full time bloggers, who write good content and provide good advise in specific domains.
Blog for fun/for the love of blogging
I spoke to a friend recently who said that her sister started a blog recently because of the pressure from her marriage. “The blog kept her sane,” she said. So blogging does help people overcome stress and pressure in their life. Most of us blog for fun or for the love of blogging – its just a channel to say what we want.
For me, I maintain my blog for my love of writing and digital marketing. In my blog, I get to say what I feel, do what I want without being judged – and that is all that matters.
My very own ~ chewmeiling.com
Nov 15th
FINALLY!
My thanks goes to hubby who purchased this domain for me after I said I wanted it so badly – thank you for being my most supportive fan.
I have always wanted to have a domain of my own but never thought that I could do much with it until I realized that personal branding is very important for me, now that I’m establishing my career as a marketer specializing in digital marketing.
This blog will be a collection of my personal and professional thoughts – a place where I could express without being judged and where I could freely share my deepest thoughts.
I have a few things lined up ~ so stay tuned…

