Sales, Social and Tech

In the talks I have attended about engaging blogs, many of the examples highlighted were of US examples, eg Dell Hell , JetBlue . It is quite difficult to relate these examples from an Asian perspective. Asian examples of engaging bloggers can be hard to find, but one example popped out at popular Malaysia blogger, Rockybru. Few days back, Rockybru blogged about a rumour spreading in the grapevine that AirAsia was pulling out its sponsorship of the Formula One races. Honda recently announced they were pulling out of the Formula One races and Toyota looking to reduce the cost of sponsoring its F1 team. Most Asian companies would dismissed this as a rumour and choose not to respond with its corporate communication policies of not responding to one. However, Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia, chose to respond to the post and even to anonymous posted comments made from the post. He did so by responding to the post and the various anonymous commentators. Wrote Tony Fernandes in h...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Wall Street Journal published an article of the secrets of marketing in Web2.0 world. I read the article and it spurred me to think of how I might have used the points consciously and sub-consciously at blogger events and with clients. As I think I would be writing long posts for each of the points highlighted in the WSJ article, I decided to highlight certain points as a post each. Part1: Give consumers (bloggers) a reason to participate I handled at least four events for clients catered to bloggers. For each event that the clients requested to engage bloggers, I usually evaluate the proposed event and consult the clients if they are suitable for bloggers. Some suggested a press conference, lumping bloggers and media together. Press conference might work well for media, but not bloggers. My reasoning to clients is that bloggers post differently than what media publish to print (Note I used post and not write). Media usually focuses on the announcement at the press...

Technorati Tags: Techcrunch , Media , Public Relations , Embargo Techcrunch is declared to PR agencies that it either an exclusive or death to the embargo. Their reason being that other website publications are choosing to break the embargo to be first with the news and thus providing no advantage to Techcrunch. Embargos in Asia are well respected though, probably because embargoes are often given to print publications. To the non-media/PR trained, an embargoed press release or interview means that journalist will be receiving the information days prior to a date in the future that the client decides to announce to the public. Embargos are good for journalists because it gives them time to research and prepare for the article before the date of the official announcement. However, Techcrunch’s announcement shows another divide in the Media/PR relationship: Media looking for the exclusive so that they can be first with the news while PR looks out for the quantity of the cover...

(Update: My apologies to Pat Law for putting her profile here. When I saw the details on FB, it didn't occur to me it was full public or for friends only. For that, I admit my mistake and I hope you can accept my apology.) Call me thick skin here, but I believed Patricia Law of Ogilvy might be referring to my decision to put up my CV or resume on this blog. Putting up CVs online isn’t something very new. In the Web1.0 days, you saw websites with pages that shouts “MY CV”. Now, in Web2.0, your CV can come in many forms, but a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Both your FB and LinkedIn account are also your CV. Did you know if you are looking to do a quick CV, all you need to do is go to your profile page and clicked download as PDF? Besides, if your CV is in the hand of headhunters, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been passed around from Headhunter to Employer. Go to Pat Law’s blog and take part in her poll . It would be great to see the numbers at the en...

There are many PR agencies out there that offer services to target the New Media aka bloggers. But how do you know which agency to choose or judge the consultant? I think the question you should be asking if the consultant who will be handling your account if he or she have read The Tipping Point and whether the consultant can identify bloggers who would create that Tipping Point for your brand. Most importantly, you should be asking “What makes you think these bloggers would cause the Tipping Point for my brand?” Of course you should be reading The Tipping Point first before you ask the question. I won’t want to tell you the answer either so please go read the book! Why am I asking this? Six months ago, it looked cool to have so call top bloggers invited to events. Six months down the road and with the season of savings looming, clients are now asking the effectiveness of the social media outreach. Six month down the road, I read of events on blogs of the same bloggers...

I doubled up as the office photographer for events, clients and internal. I would think that it would be fitting to say goodbye with a photo.

I wonder if anybody in Singapore has successfully used their blog to get a job. I am looking for a career that will need my expertise, know-how, experience and curiosity to consult other marketers on the ways to use the social media space for their sales to reduce the time to get a lead and a new customer. I am adaptable to markets especially in the consumer IT, enterprise IT and telecoms space. Please email aaronkoh@gmail.com if you are interested to find out more about me. CV of Aaron Koh Kim San Updated 08 Dec 2008 Publish at Scribd or explore others: Job Search Career singapore social media

The last ten months in EASTWEST PR I have dealt mainly with IT vendors in the Enterprise and Telecom space. I have learnt a few things about social media and why this space is different from their consumer counterparts. Lesson #1: Their audience isn’t the bloggers While most consumer Social PRist target other bloggers for their PR campaign, those in Enterprise IT and Telecom are not looking to engage other bloggers. One of the problems is that the number of bloggers who actually blog about Enterprise IT and Telecoms in this part of Asia is almost zero. There could be some out there who blog in this space, but they choice of being anonymous makes it hard for me to engage them. Hence the audience isn’t other bloggers, but their existing or potential clients. When you are looking to engage on Social PR activities for those in the Enterprise IT or Telecom, its all about helping get them in front of the clients. Lesson #2: Clients want more impact Say you got your client an inte...