Sales, Social and Tech

Intel has always been seen as being open to social media. However, a recent flood of comments in its Facebook Fan Page to urge the company to support the US Conflict Minerals Trade Act put them in panic mode which saw the comments deleted and Fan Page temporary suspended. Image hotlinked from http://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/social-media/fail-to-understand-the-power-of-social-media/ . Interesting perspective on the Intel issue too. Intel’s knee jerk reaction only flamed the fire with the protestors bringing their virtual protest to Intel’s other Fan Pages and Twitter accounts. Intel has since apologised for creating this “Virtual No Protest” zone. Wrote Intel , We’d like to apologize for deleting some comments and briefly shutting down the page for comments. We can tell you that our intent wasn’t to silence your valuable opinions. In trying to remain sensitive to all our fans, we often delete repeated messages that could be perceived as spam. We should have been more ...

A flash design to show that Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (or SMRT ) is green has become a big joke in Twitter-verse. Bloggers and Tweeters in Singapore have highlighted the similarity between the new SMRT design and the classic “Fail Whale” that appears on Twitter whenever the social networking site is overcapacity. One has to wonder how up-to-date are the folks at SMRT with the trends in social media. Otherwise, could it be SMRT’s attempt to poke fun at the social networks? The “failure” references do not bode well for SMRT in social media or the brand as the public transport provider was recently under fire for their lapse of security that resulted in the vandalism of their trains and increase complains about the over-capacity of SMRT public transports, especially the trains. Personally, I have been abroad and 3-5 minutes wait for the next train is a luxury. I recently took KL Transit and one often have to wait 15mins or more for the next train. But leaving the brand to jok...

No, there was no sex tapes at or about The Straits Times last week. Rather, the Singapore Twitter-verse went berserk over the article that equated the editor of The Straits Times Lifestyle editor, Sumiko Tan, to be Singapore’s “Carrie Bradshaw even before Sex And The City hit TV screens here” ( Source ). A campaign, or rather a game, was born in Twitter-verse to show that  #sumikotan is not Carrie Bradshaw. MrBrown shared a quick summary of the Twitter game in motion. Wrote MrBrown , Here are some of our humble alternative suggestions: @mrbrown: Curry Breadshaw @missyeley: Carry Trishaw @miyagi: Lorry Backshow @lasereraser: Carryher Offshore @chareli: Hairy Fishmaw @danielgoh: Carry Backsore @icemilosiudai: Berri Luoshuo @inrsoul: Sekali Bedsore @donaldsng: Carry Ballsloh @alexischeong: Carry Broadwayshow @Wolfgang_: Kari Blahshow @Wilsurn: Corny Backsore @polalion: Crammy Coleslaw @dzus77...

Diego Maradona is one crazy football coach. He even gets his players to outrun Singapore’s MRT train.

I find it very strange that no one has pointed this out. The video of the vandalised SMRT appeared on Youtube on May 18, 2010 and the alarm was only raised on May 19, 2010 4pm. The title of the SMRT video read " [EXCLUSIVE VANDALIZED] SMRT C151 047-048 Graffiti Drawing - Departing Kembangan (Westbound)." A Google alert set up with the keywords "SMRT" and/or "Kembangan SMRT Station" would have delivered an email to the SMRT mail box of the the vandalised SMRT on May 18 itself. SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa said, “We deeply regret that a serious security lapse occurred in our depot. I would like to reiterate that every single individual at SMRT must take responsibility for the security and safety of every commuter as well as the entire system.” In reviewing their physical security measures, SMRT should also look at "listening" to the social media space, through free services or paid one, to maybe pickup what the social media ground is saying. You will ne...

What is social media marketing and what does it mean to brands? The question was raised at the Echelon 2010 panel last week but was never answered. Let’s go back to basics by looking at Wikipedia for the definition. Wikipedia says “social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues. They support the democratization of knowledge and information and transform people from content consumers to content producers”. This definition extends to the end-users of social media.  For brands, it is the last sentence that have full meaning to brands but requires a little tweaking. What if we replaced people with brands and what do brands to best? They buy content. As such, I see social media “transforming brands from media buyers to content producers on a free medium that transform and broadcast media monologues into s...

Were you travelling on the West bound SMRT train 1048 on May 18, 2010? Did you see the graffiti on the train? It is now reported that a vandal/s broke into the SMRT train deport at Changi Depot a day before and sprayed their work of art on the train. To make things worst, the graffiti was first sited and “Youtubed” before it was identified by SMRT officials to be the work of vandals. This can be seen that the police report was made on May 19, 2010. SMRT passengers are always bombarded with an advertisement on the announcement screen for the need to be vigilant and to keep Singapore MRT safe from terrorism. Ironically, it was SMRT that was not keeping its train and Singaporeans safe from terrorism as seen from this vandal incident. What if the break in of the depot were made by terrorists instead of graffiti artists? The consequence would also been worst. Also, the discovery of the graffiti was given noticed after the Youtube video went viral. Is this also against SMRT reg...

Burma’s reported intend to build a nuclear weapon is scary news. I can only hope that Singapore leaders take a leading role in ASEAN to ensure that we do not have a Cold War or have to face a nuclear holocaust in this region. This news greatly concerns me and my children’s generation that I have decided to take a break from the usual blogging of social media news. Assuming that Burma accidentally pressed THE button and somehow directed a nuclear missile at Orchard Road, the effects would be disastrous for Singapore. The nuclear simulator (below) shows the radius of damage if a 140kt hit the heart of Singapore. Almost a 1/3 of Singapore would be gone. If it is assumed that the Burmese government have no intention to target Singapore because of our friendly relations, any accident or testing of nuclear bombs in Burma itself will have sever impact to our food sources. This is seen from the Chernobyl disaster which was highlighted in Wikipedia that after 24 years since th...