Sales, Social and Tech

Seriously, I have no idea how this can be implemented.  If you, business owner, have an idea how to link registering plant varieties and cloud computing and have implemented as such, Singapore's IDA would like to give you a tax reduction.  Terence Lee for SG Entrepreneurs wrote,  Companies who want to implement cloud computing can now receive a boost from the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore. It comes in the form of tax deductions of up to 400 percent on up to S$400,000 (US$316,000) of qualifying expenditure incurred per year on each of six qualifying activities, which are: Acquisition or leasing of  automation equipment ; Training of employees; Acquisition of Intellectual Property Rights; Registration of patents, trademarks, designs and plant varieties; Research and development activities; and Investment in approved design projects. This is clearly a cut and paste boo boo. IDA cut and paste from previous press releases ...

It seems like FaxGate issue between the Malaysia editor and Microsoft Malaysia has been settled. Apparently, Weber Shandwick, the PR agency responsible for sending out the press release still have request from IT journos from Malaysia to send them press release via fax. Unfortunately for Kashminder Singh, group managing editor at One World Solutions which publishes MobileWorld Asia, he was still part of that mailing faxing list and thus got thesame faxed press release three times in a single day. Microsoft Malaysia PR has since asked Weber Shandwick to remove Kashminder from the faxing list. Le Fax est mort. Vive le Fax!

Stop the press! Forget Windows 7 or the Windows Mobile. Forget the Kinect. Forget the advent of micro-blogging sites like Twitter or even Instant Messaging. Microsoft decided the best way to send out its press releases to the IT publications in Malaysia is via, wait for it… the good old fax machine . (I linked a description of what a fax machine is for the younger readers here who have not seen or used one before.) This delivery process irked Kashminder Singh, group managing editor at One World Solutions which publishes MobileWorld Asia. “Can someone explain why a tech savvy company like Microsoft is still using faxes to send press releases??,” asked Kashminder on his Facebook Wall. In reply to comments made by his friends, Kashminder added “I understand but Microsoft (the creators of the word tech, in a way) is communicating with tech publications in this case. When a tech company communicates with a tech company, it shouldn't have to be through fax, right?” A Malaysian ...

April Dunford was a Social Media Release skeptic until she released a couple in that format and started to see results. What impressed me most was her key takeaways of releasing a SMR that could also be applied to a standard press release or a story pitch. April wrote, The "Who" in "Who cares?" has changed - It used to be that technical products were mainly discussed by technical media only. More than ever, mainstream sources are interested in how technology is changing people's lives. These folks are less interested in your newest features and functions and more interested in how your product is going to change the world. Mainstream Media surfs the web just like the rest of us - by providing keywords and tags the release is easily findable. Providing video, photos, links, make the release easily bloggable, which in turn, make your stuff even more findable for both the mainstream media and your customers. Getting the coverage in mainstream me...