Has Twitter made me too lazy to blog?

I’ve come to realise that the more I’m on Twitter the less I blog. You can tell from the timestamps that it’s been more than a month since I last blogged here.

Blogging is a time consuming exercise and I’m getting lazy. Probably because I’m getting used to 140 character public communications as opposed to a well thought out blog post.

But that being said, I still want a space where I can post nice pictures and share cool videos. Twitter lacks the presence and permanence of blogging. So I’ve decided to try out Posterous. I’m liking it so far. It definitely isn’t as structured as this blog is, but it makes it easy to post things I come across.

I’ve also come to realise that I find-and-share more than I create which makes platforms like Twitter and Posterous a lot more “me” than WordPress is.

So if you’re keen on following my find-and-shares with the occasional thought, albeit a little less organised, look me up and subscribe to http://benkoe.posterous.com/

If the trend continues for long enough, I might move the eok.net domain over to Posterous making it a whole lot easier to find me.

The vendor-client relationship

If you ever worked in an agency, you’d love this video. I’m amazed that clients all over the world actually have the same Modus operandi.

Thanks @patlaw for the video link.

Trying out Moblin 2.0 beta for Netbooks

Found out about Moblin’s new beta release of its 2.0 Netbook OS from my friend @splemon from IDG. Unlike other Linux distros, Moblin reminds me of the OS on Nokia’s Internet Tablet where functions of applications including web browsers, IM, and even Twitter are integrated right into the OS.

This video does a great introduction to how the system works and feels.

I installed it on my Asus Eee PC 901 without any problems. According to Moblin’s blog:

Moblin images should work on Intel based Netbooks and Nettops, we’ve been testing with the following platforms: Acer Aspire*One, Asus eeePC* 901, 1000H, Dell Mini 9, MSI Wind, Lenovo S10, Samsung NC10, HP Mini 1010 and 1120NR (wired networking only for now)

Moblin 2.0 for netbooks isn’t going to satisfy the mobile worker. There isn’t any productivity apps, no VoIP, and other office requirements. It’s designed for the casual internet user. Those who love surfing the web, updating Twitter, checking some email, and mucking around with multimedia.

Here are some screenshots of my installation.

The web browser on Moblin 2.0

Applications menu on Moblin 2.0

IM interface from Moblin 2.0

Twitter updates directly from the menu of Moblin 2.0

Default screen on Moblin 2.0 showing latest files/web pages and Tweets

This beta version isn’t without its bugs. Most things work well out of the box including webcam and WiFi. Even managed to install Flash without problems. But sound was a peoblem. It works, but it’s way too soft even at max volume. Even with headpones didn’t help.

The other main bugs I found were with the dialog boxes. At times, on certain applications they refuse to respond. The app was still running, but the dislog boxes just didn’t respond to the clicks.

The last bug, but not a problem, was with the sleep. It sleeps well when you hit the button or close the lid, but waking up didn’t work too well. Sometimes it wakes up for 1 second only to go back to sleep. 2-3 attempts are needed to fully restore it.

Other than that, it’s a lovely OS that boots quick and feels very light. It is a nice change to my Eee PC which was running Easy Peasy just before.

Gary Vaynerchuk teaches basic social media principles

Gary Vaynerchuk knows how the social media works and I agree completely with this guy’s approach.

Two things to take away:

1. Create content that people want. It’s not just about having a Twitter account and being on Facebook, it’s a whole lot of hard work getting to know the community and giving them great content that they will thank you for. If you don’t have anything good to say or the time to invest, you won’t go anywhere.
2. The message is not what you tell people, it’s what they think about your brand. Traditional marketing communications teaches us to “control” the message in your announcements, but in the social media you’ve got to look at it from what your customers are saying. Their voice is way louder. Your only way of influence is to respond with honesty. Respond with spin and your customers will know you’re lying through your teeth.

@SGnews stats for April 2009

On 5 August 2008 I started @SGnews to automatically update news about Singapore over Twitter. Today, @SGnews has 1,535 followers. In March this year, I began tracking each news story’s link with Snipurl and since then I’ve collected a lot of data. This blog post will show you what readers of Singapore News on Twitter we up to in the month of April 2009.

For the month of April, there were a total of 970 links that were clicked. This is not all the news that came through on the account, only those that were clicked on. Most of the clicks went to Channel NewsAsia followed by The Straits Times.

The above chart is the complete view of the activity throughout the month. Judging by the stacked chart, the number of unique clicks almost shadow exactly the total clicks. This likely means the majority of users actively click the links when the news comes through @SGnews with only a small margin who click on news that was passed around by retweets.

Breaking the data down by days, we can see that the strongest day for @SGnews was Friday, April 24, 2009 with a total of 1,923 clicks. The lowest day was Saturday, April 11, 2009. It appears that even on Twitter news reading followed the usual curves where more activity is found mid-week and weekends are valleys.

Below are the Top 10 Articles from April. Interestingly, the AWARE Saga did make it into the Top 10, but it lingered toward to bottom. Maybe because it was only the beginning of the saga with the peak of the issue flowing over to May.

Top 10 Articles on @SGnews

Rank	Article Title	Source	Clicks
1	Online Only – Singlish: cause for concern	TODAY Online	172
2	A piece of Singapore history found on YouTube	Channel NewsAsia	168
3	Freak storm wreaks havoc	The Straits Times	161
4	Jackie slams S’poreans	The Straits Times	135
5	Microsoft allegedly stole S’pore firm’s patented invention	Channel NewsAsia	123
6	New club in town	The Straits Times	101
7	150 AWARE members seek vote of no confidence in new executive committee	Channel NewsAsia	94
8	Government won’t interfere in AWARE saga	Channel NewsAsia	93
9	Two bodies found	The Straits Times	85
10	Survey shows Singapore in bottom 10 of salary rise rankings	Channel NewsAsia	83

Susan Boyle proves the Internet video is as influential as TV

According to Reuters, singing sensation Susan Boyle received over 103 million views on 20 different websites this week. I am amazed at how many viewers this single televised event could get.

Compared to other single televised events:

• American Idol Season 1 Finale: ~50 million viewers
• First presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama: 52.4 million viewers
• Presidential debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan: 80.6 million viewers (Largest viewership for a presidential debate ever)

I see this phenomenon as a turning point for Internet video industry. It is estimated that the Internet’s largest video network, YouTube, is making up to US$500 million in revenue for 2009. That’s only about the same as Fox network’s quarter with American Idol Season 3 airing and making up 35% of the sales.

While the viewership numbers seem to match up, the pricing models are not even close. A YouTube Homepage Roadblock would cost you US$175,000 a day, but a 30 second slot on American Idol costs up to US$700,000.

I believe the day will come when having content online makes more sense than having it broadcast on TV. Hulu appears to have got it right for now. I also believe that soon Internet video services will not just exist as websites but as content providers that push content directly to your living room.

Gothere.sg tries for viral on the social media

Many of the companies I worked with and for in the past approached incentivised marketing (giving away prizes) for one purpose: sales leads.

Gothere.sg, a Web 2.0 map startup in Singapore, is giving away an Apple iPhone 3G for… wait for it… noise. Yes marketeers, no call-to-action, no visiting the site, no registration, no send-to-a-friend gimmicks, no names, no emails, no leads! The young company, run by a bunch of 20-somethings, have opted for nothing more than you to mention “gothere.sg” on MSN, Google Talk, or Twitter.

The first thing that comes to mind is, what’s the ROI? The answer is: None. But think about this, their investment is merely a S$1,000 decive, and a little time to do up a nice page. What they get in return is brand equity, loyalty, and education which at this point is priceless for the startup. The site does not have any advertising, and they don’t sell any products directly to customers, but they have one huge problem. Singaporeans for many years have trusted StreetDirectory.com for all their online mapping needs.

Gothere.sg’s success does not rely on how well they sell a product, but on becoming the new defacto map service in Singapore. They need to become a household name, the first place locals will head when they need to directions. The best part is they know their product blows the competition clear away. In my view, it even beats Google Maps on most occations.

But why MSN, GTalk and Twitter? What’s wrong with a viral email campaign? I personally appreciate this approach not just because I favour the social media, but because it’s non-intrusive. While almost everyone I know has email, making it the “strongest” platform for any campaign; unsolicited email turns people off. Receiving unsolicited email is irritating to most and even hated by some. DM marketters know that the conversion rate for anything unsolicted is extremely low (less than 10%). This approach therefore creates about 90% of people hating you or finding you irriating. What Gothere.sg has done is totally passive which probably means they are informing the ignorant and creating fans, not pissing people off.

Although there’s not going to be immediate cash in their pockets, I applaud the folks at Gothere.sg for putting togethere a fantastic campaign. I’m sure if there’s a true way of measuring brand equity and loyalty, they’re already millionairs.

Here’s a quick snapshot of what the campaign has done on Twitter to date:

Learning to Twitter again

I’ve always been a very proud Twitter user. I kept away from following anyone that I didn’t know well. I gave myself the excuse that I’d not be able to keep up with the info overload. I was actually being very foolish, approaching the very social Twitter with a very passive attitude. On top of the excuse, I was also naturally more interested in having more followers than people I follow.

Today, for a reason unknown even to myself, I saw things differently. I realised that I was missing out on a lot. I care about most things tech, marketing, and of course the social media. But I was following less than 200 people on Twitter. It suddently occurred to me that there were probably thousands of experts and people like myself that I could learn a thing or two from. And all it took was a simple button click.

So I started asking my existing Twitter followers for social media experts I could follow and also began checking out the Twitter tools that would help me figure out who’s in the know. I came across WeFollow and began focusing on the Social Media tag.

I was absolutely right. I have been living in the dark for the longest time and there’s so many people to learn from and so much to know. I also came across Brad Howard’s Twitter bio which was an affirmation that I was on the right path. Brad’s bio reads: “Sure I’ll follow you… you never know where a great idea will come from “. Now that’s the right attitude.

I have also come to realise that my suspicions of info overload were untrue. Unlike email or RSS readers where every single message or post is vying for equal attention, Twitter is different. If there’s anything meant for me, a @benkoe would be used to prioritse the tweet.

So after 2 years of using Twitter, I’m learning to use it again. No more pride, no more suspisions, just get out there and make more friends pick up more ideas.

Note: I’m not going to follow everyone I come across or who follows me because that’s asking for trouble. But if you’re as excited about tech, marketing, and the social media as I am, I’ll definitely follow you back.

HBO Asia’s bloody social media campaign

HBO Asia is about to launch it’s Golden Globe award-winning series, True Blood, in Singapore on 9 April 2009 on Max (previously Cinemax). Last night HBO Asia hosted a blogger event to preview the show at Ink Club Bar, Fairmont. HBO Asia has been actively engaging the social media and it appears that they’re getting better at it.

Apart from an evening with local bloggers, the company has a great microsite with heaps of incentives and even a Street Fighter-style game called Fang Fighter. They’ve put good effort into this campaign and spared no detail. The site has an active blog, loads of info on cast and the show, viral elements like prizes and tell-a-friend mechanisms, and even wallpaper downloads and buddy icons. I thought the buddy icons were a nice touch since every profile from IM to Twitter could do with a funky 96px image, the exact community they’re trying to reach out to.

The blogger event was simple but well executed with a great theme. Everything was red, of course, and we were even served with a “True Blood” cocktail which we ended up learning to make. OK, I kinda failed at making it. But the door gifts were nicely inline with the theme which was a lovely touch.

Freebies for us bloggers: Comes with a mixer, t-shirt, calender, CD of photos, and the mug I won at the event.

I think my friends at HBO Asia have done a great job. Previously they engaged the social media with a campaign for Flight Of The Conchords.

A Delicious paragraph

I feel that it is especially helpful if your product’s webpage has a single paragraph, no longer than 1,000 characters, describing the product.

Not only is it helpful and simple for a new customer to find out about your product, it fits perfectly in Delicious’s notes. I do a lot of bookmarking and I’m really lazy. More often than not, I’ll copy a chunk of text from the site I’m bookmarking for the Notes box instead of writing my own. This gives me and my readers instant appreciation of the newly bookmarked product.

Here are two lovely examples of product sites that have got this spot on:

Boxee has a 233 character Delicious paragraph

Drop.io has a 231 character Delicious paragraph

This is how it fits in Delicious:

Having your site bookmarked on Delicious is important. Having it appreciated by those sharing it is priceless.