Reciprocity with a twist (source)
One of the most important lessons in life is this: “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.” This universal principle is especially important in the relationship oriented world of social media marketing.
Let me explain this attitude of altruism.
Social media and digital marketing can be full of contradictions.
There is an inherent paradox in the digital world right now, especially with the onset of numerous social media and citizen centric channels.
(courtesy of 24 Seven)
Any PR person worth his or her salt these days would know that reaching bloggers, youtubers, flickrers, facebookers and twitterers (etcetera..) isn’t exactly the same as engaging the mainstream press. Trying the same traditional approach may only court failure, disappointment, and maybe even a tongue lashing (trust me I have been there)!
So how can you attract bloggers to participate in a gathering?
Courtesy of NDPeeps (on flickr)
As we celebrate our 45th year of independence across the island in many different ways, I thought it’d be interesting to see how this is being done in the digital dimension. Gauging from the amount of national day related posts, Facebook updates, tagged photographs, videos and other User Generated Content (UGC), we are certainly not lacking in patriotic spirit here!
A good place to start would be the official National Day Parade 2010 (NDP 2010) website, which looks like it is a website, UGC aggregator, and social media portal all rolled into one. I was immediately wowed by the clickable mosaic of different citizen-generated content on the home page, which brings you to short posts complete with photographs of what Singaporeans and residents feel about our national birthday.
Source: Frat House Sports
By now, almost everybody plugged into social media (including my friends Ivan Chew, Kevin Lim, Siva and Lucian) would have heard of how Old Spice, a heritage toiletry brand (used by one’s granddad) managed to reinvent itself through the Old Spice Man Youtube channel. The idea was developed by marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy and involved the shooting of real-time marketing videos while leveraging on social media networks.
Here’s an example of the commercials which have been circulating on Youtube and garnering massive views:
Courtesy of Coca-Cola
As the world’s leading consumer brand, Coca-Cola generates significant online interest (although perhaps not as much as technology brands like Google, Apple and Microsoft). Each day, the beverage behemoth records about 5,000 English mentions online.
How does the company manage its social media strategy then?
Communication technologies have influenced brand-customer relationships in Asia, just as they have all over the world. Transparency and openness are now more important than ever before. Against such a backdrop, what could brands do to reach their customers?
I found out the answers to this and more at a talk by Deirdre McGlashan, CEO of wwwins Isobar of Greater China during my trip to Shanghai. According to her, the ubiquity of digital technologies, concerns over sustainability, rise of globalisation, and increase in consumer activism mandates a new approach to marketing.
Steve Rubel (courtesy of laughingsquid)
Just in case you don’t know, uber digital strategist Steve Rubel from Edelman was in Singapore (he just flew off this morning at 5.45 am) in the past few days. I had the rare privilege of meeting him personally at the kind invitation of Edelman and also to hear him speak at the MICA-CSC Public Communications Conference 2010.
Steve’s latest thoughts on what goes beyond Web 2.0 were certainly refreshing. His latest analogy likened the current information revolution to that of a bursting fire hydrant. We are all bombarded with multiple streams of data, information, contacts, video streams, tweets, photos, applications and what have you.
Here’s what happens when theory (and bureaucracy) overrides action (courtesy of RedState)
As frequent bloggers, Facebookers, and Twitterers, we need to be mindful of lapsing into theoreticism, which is the preference for theories over action. In Chinese, we call it “zhi shang tan bing” or discussing stratagems on paper.
It is nice to be known (or branded) as a “guru” and be seen as an expert in a particular subject matter. One can spew out gems of wisdom ad infinitum (or ad nauseum, depending on which side of the fence you sit on), and create numerous “10 ways to do this better” lists. Like this post here for instance.
Courtesy of gapingvoid.com
As I trawl through my RSS feeds this week, the following posts caught my eye.
The first is this fascinating titbit in Branding Strategy Insider which noted how Chinese adopting Western names are using more unique monikers to make themselves stand out from the usual Toms, Dicks and Sallys. They include a young lady who calls herself Vanilla Wang, an artist working on wood-block prints who is renamed Colour Zhao, and a Beijing video editor called Thunder Wang. The rationale behind this is to give greater significance to their names and to also make themselves more easily remembered from the seas of Johns and Janes – a legacy of the traditional Chinese emphasis of according meanings to names.