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.

Thanks @patlaw for the video link.

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.

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 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.

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

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, 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:

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 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.

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.

With my greedy ambition out of the way, here’s why I’m totally sold on Dropbox. Its concept is simple: You get a folder called Dropbox and whatever you files you throw in it gets encrypted and incrementally synced over your Internet connection to their servers and your other computers.

In other words the document I’m working on right now gets synced to my colleagues, can be downloaded from the web, and is replicated on my other computers the very moment I hit the Save button. Yes, when you hit Save. Not at the end of the day, not on some ridiculous schedule in the wee hours of the morning. Immediately when you hit save. It’s backup, sharing, collaboration all rolled into one amazing free package.

The world’s simplest backup
Backup has always been one of my biggest dissatisfaction with modern computing. I’ve tried everything from RAID hard disks and rsync, to Apple’s Time Machine and Carbonite. None of these beat Dropbox.

Dropbox sits quietly in the background doing all the hard work for you. No prompts, no reminders, just quietly syncing all my files. Today, I don’t use a Documents folder, I have everything in my Dropbox folder. This way, the moment I save my work it’s well synced to the cloud. Perfect.

No more attachments
The other thing I’m beginning to like about Dropbox is how it’s putting an end to attachments. I often meet new clients who want our slides, or case studies and instead of attaching a new copy to every single client, I give them a link to my file on Dropbox.

While Dropbox keeps all my files secure and private, it allows me to keep a Public folder which is open to everyone. Every file in this Public folder is given a unique URL from which others can download from.

The concept here is very similar to what can be achieved on YouSendIt and Box.net, but since I’m already on Dropbox, it makes it all the more seamless.

Putting your mind at ease
Using Dropbox is like using Gmail I feel. It puts your mind at ease knowing that you’ll always be able to access your files from the cloud.

Dropbox is only free with up to 2GB of space, which is enough for me now, but a 50GB account only costs $99/year which I’m inclined to get when I’m out of space.

Try it, I’m almost sure you’ll like it as much as I do. If you do, I’ll appreciate you using my referral code so we both get a little more of this wonderful service.

(While this post sounds amazingly positive, I swear that no form of compensation was given to me. I’m just a very happy fan.)

• I log into Twitter to check about 200 other people’s Tweets
• I log into Facebook to check about 400 friend’s updates
• I log into Google Reader to read about 160 websites and blogs
• etc…

If your site can’t be plugged into another, you’re missing out on a growing trend.

How I wish it was I who travelled and not the data. That would be quite a fun trip don’t you think? =)

Try mapping your trace route here.

Last week this video clip (above) from the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC calling global PR consultancy Burson-Marsteller (BM) “the PR firm from hell” did its rounds across the Internet. According to the video, BM was hired by AIG, who has taken government bailouts, to spruce up its corporate image. The producers of the show dug up lots of history about the firm and eluded to the fact that BM was an expert on covering up “evil”.

Clearly this is bad for any company, let alone a PR firm specialising in corporate image protection. When that video passed by me, I thought that was it. The damage was done and it’s time to pick up the pieces. But amazingly, round two (below) is currently making its rounds, with the help of YouTube, simply because BM’s CEO accused Rachel of getting her facts wrong.

This PR fiasco made me realise that the social web truly empowers the media. Before the days of YouTube, it would be very unlikely that we in Asia would get to watch a clip like this and thus would not have a negative perception of the global firm. The Internet brings every story of bad reputation within a click from anyone. PR Watch is a good example of what’s been going wrong in the world of PR.

If you visit skittles.com today, you’ll notice that there’s not much of a Skittles site save a floating widget. The rest of the site points directly to Twitter’s raw search results of “skittles”.

This publicity stunt is amazingly daring and has definitely got a lot of people talking about it. But from the tweets I’ve seen, people are talking about the marketing stunt more than the brand and its products.

What’s also interesting is that people have been generally nice about this without anyone abusing the situation to deliberately bash Skittles. Maybe Skittles was confident enough to embark on such a daring endevour because it doesn’t really have haters. It could have become a Chevy Tahoe incident if they did.

I’d like to see more brands be this open. It’s refreshing and exciting. And now I want to eat Skittles.

My Email – Gmail hosts my personal and work emails. Yahoo is my backup.

My Documents – I used to have a Documents folder where I keep all my work, but now that folder is replaced by one called Dropbox. Dropbox syncs all my documents to the cloud and across all my computers.

My Contacts – All my contacts exist on my Gmail account. Ever since they’ve turned on Exchange sync for the iPhone, there’s no more storing of contacts locally.

My Calendar – I use Google Calendars. Syncs with the iPhone over Exchange too, so goodbye iCal.

My IM – In the past, you used to export the files that contain your buddy list when you setup your IM client on another computer. Now you just login and everyone appears. My buddy lists live happily in the cloud.

My Social Networks – I use Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all the time. Nuff said.

My Photos – All on Flickr.

My Blog – I used to get my own server, install my own CMS, and update my blog from there. Now I’ve pointed my domain to WordPress.com’s DNS servers and it’s hassle-free hosting. Sure there are limitations, but I prefer blogging to coding and system administration.

But there are still things not on the cloud that could possibly be:

My CRM system – I use SugarCRM on my own server because it’s free. Maybe one day I’ll shift over to the likes of Salesforce.com when it makes sense and the cloud’s still trusted.

My Office Suite – This one is half on the cloud. While I love Google Docs for sharing and collaboration, I won’t be giving up Microsoft Office any time soon. I’m happy for my documents to live online, but doing complex pivot tables through AJAX on a browser is something I’m not yet ready to move to.

My Creative Suite – Photoshop.com is definitely a good start, but processor intensive creative apps like Photoshop and Illustrator prefer the raw power of my dual-core to bandwidth for now.

Thinking about it, I’m actually quite happy about this arrangement with the cloud. While the cloud is just another bunch of computers, at least its a bunch. The chances of my single computer crashing on me is a whole lot higher and I’m certainly not keen on losing protions of my personal and professional life to a coffee spill.

Step 1: Go to google.com and click on Advanced Search.

You will see a form with many options like this:

Step 2: Type whatever search term you need in the top box, then click on the link at the bottom called “Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more”. More options will immediately appear including one called “Region”. This is a list of countries that Google covers.

Step 3: Select a country of interest and click the “Advanced Search” button. I’m sure you’ll like the results.

What is really amazing about this is that Google has somehow managed to capture sites that are not clearly identified to belong to a specific country. For example, this blog (eok.net) does not have a .sg in its domain and its IP address resolves to the US. But Google has specifically classified my blog under the region “Singapore”. Which is accurate as I live in Singapore and update my blog from here.

This method of searching is especially useful when you know many people are talking about your brand/product online and want to discover the many channels where you are mentioned. A quick example, using the search term “Intel” in region Singapore you get first page results that include vr-zone.com, zdnetasia.com, wirelessdesignasia.com, hardwarezone.com, etc. Notice how Google left out Intel.com or Wikipedia.com which so often appears in search results.

Google’s regional search is done exclusively where my blog is listed under Singapore alone. You can’t find eok.net if you switch over to nearby regions like Malaysia. This gives you the powerful ability to identify clearly who’s been talking about your brand within each market. Repeat this across all your regions and you’ve got the best localised social media monitoring tool in the world. And yes it does support multiple languages.

Note, this is not the same as going to google.com.sg to find Singapore sites. Google.com.sg gives you sites that are prefered by Singapore users, not sites that come from Singapore.

“…the best time to blast email industry newsletters to subscribers is around lunch because many people eat at their desk but want something that can make them look busy.”

From Email Campaign Expert Shares Effective Marketing Strategies on OnlineMedia Daily

(It was too long to Twitter so I’m sharing it here.)

I watched this great video today called The Crisis of Credit. The reason its great is because it makes simple a complex issue. Our world today is filled with complexity. How does Aircon work? Why are there Tsunamis?

Taking a hint from the above video I can imagine brands making use of this explaination method to get their message across in viral videos such as:

• Symantec: How antivirus works
  This will help users understand the critical nature of viruses and the need to protect themselves.
• Toyota: How a hybrid engine works
  Educate users on the effectiveness and technology behind hybrid cars helping buyers make the decision to switch.
• Dyson: How much dirt is in your carpet
  We step on it every day, some even roll around on it. Is it clean enough for my toddler to play on?

Discovery Channel’s How Stuff Works has realised early that people have curiosity for understanding the complex things around us. This proves there is a ready audience for explanations, we as marketeers just have to create some.

You might also remember other viral videos such as those from CommonCraft explaining how certain Web 2.0 applications work. On the static front, Xplane has built a great business around simplifying and explaining complexity in amazing infographics.

Isn’t it time you tried to explain for your brand?

BlogOut! 2009 is here and I’m particularly excited. We have my JamiQ co-founder Kelvin Quee talk about sentiment analysis and businesses on Day 1 and my co-founder of Scoopasia, Melvin Yuan speak on social media.

But since I already knnow these guys well, I shall look forward to hearing from Jon Yongfook and Joel Postman. For those who still don’t know…

Yongfook is an award-winning web producer, a blogger (of 10 years!), a proponent of permission-based marketing and a big believer in metrics-based approaches to solving online business problems.  A programmer-designer-marketer living in Tokyo. He specialises in usability, platform development and online marketing. He’s the creator of open source lifestream software Sweetcron and the recipe sharing website Open Source Food (now known as Nibbledish), which was acquired by Tsavo Media in January 2009. He helps companies improve user experience, to increase conversions and revenue, assist companies reach new markets, and building online applications to solve a business or communication problem.

Joel Postman is senior partner and chief enterprise social business strategist for Intridea, a Washington, D.C. based developer of Web 2.0 applications including the popular microblogging platform Present.ly. His background includes a decade of Fortune 500 corporate communications leadership, four years as the speechwriter to the CEO of Sun Microsystems, and experience in print and broadcast news. He is the author of SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate, published December 2008. Joel lives with his family in the Santa Cruz Mountains. To the extent that he could be said to have grown up. He did so in the Silicon Valley, and first lived there before the discovery of silicon. He is also an experienced Zamboni driver.

Hope to see you guys at The Digital Movement’s latest social media conference — BlogOut!