Sales, Social and Tech

I raised a Facebook question yesterday asking my friends and the entire Facebook universe if they would like link their credit cards to their NFC phone and make payments with that NFC phone. The link to the Facebook Question can be found at http://on.fb.me/frpCLA . 38% or 23 out of 59 voted “no” and would rather use their plastic credit cards to make payment. 29% voted “yes” as they would like mobile phone to do everything. 25% said they would link their credit cards to their NFC phone and pay with that phone, but still had security concerns. The remaining 4 said a flat no to doing it as they have security concerns. Interestingly, one said he has not heard of NFC phones. Another friend who participated in the recent NFC phone trial with Starhub and ezlink said he received a funny look from MacDonald service staff when he paid with his NFC phone. However, he did highlight that there were no updates after the trial from both Starhub and ezlink. As can be seen, that adoption to li...

There are many social media companies out there that tells you how good they are at using the various social networks available out there. One veteran PR person I knew commented that social media is all about posting links on Facebook and LinkedIn and that agency charges  more than SGD6k a month to do so. It is no surprise that particular agency don’t seem to being able to offer social media or don’t seem to get the clients to see the full benefits of using social media.  No wonder brands would rather hire interns. A recent article on Social Media Today about “Why Companies That Say They Want Social Media Really Want Content Marketing” struck a chord with what I am currently doing for a Singapore IT company, NetGain Systems . Wrote Will Davis for Social Media Today , “…when companies learn more about what content marketing is – and that you can leverage your own content in the social media space – they almost always realize that’s what they really wanted to do, an...

I was quoted in The Straits Times for the use of smartphone apps to send messages to my contacts as opposed to sending SMS. Before the interview, I tweeted that Twitter was like an SMS service for friends who are overseas especially when they send you a DM or direct message for short. On the iPad, Twitter will beep when you get a DM from a fellow tweeter. Besides SMS, you could also make free phone calls on your smartphone if you have the right apps. These apps have sort of matured in the registration process. During the Skype years, you need to sign up for an account with a nickname that other users can find you. These apps, however, make use of your phone number as the nickname and this means all you need to do is to search for other users in your address book via their phone numbers. The cost savings for using such apps for free communication on your smartphone is more valuable when you are overseas and would like to stay in touch with your love ones back home or...

Digital Life partnered Taggo during the recent IT Show to recognised fans of the Digital Life Facebook Page and offered their Facebook fans some benefits from the IT vendors at the show. The resulting campaign resulted in Digital Life recruiting a total of 1769 new fans during the four-day show. The increased in the new fans was highly due to the viral effect which is initiated when ever a fan is recognised at the Digital Life Booth.   According to Facebook, each fan has an average of 150 friends. As such, the status update generated by Taggo on the fan’s wall will be seen by his/her 150 friends. Curious friends interested to find out more about Digital Life’s offer to fans will click on the Digital Life Singapore link and will have more incentive to like the page. Liking a page itself will only show that the fan has liked a Page. This status update, which can be edited by the Page admin, provides the fan’s friends with more details with why he/she liked the Page. In t...

The Ministry of Education in Singapore launched a teaching promotion video on Youtube but decided that it was best to disable comments to prevent negative views on teaching from appearing, yet decided to selectively share the good tweets in print. However, popular Singapore blogger, mrbrown was rather irked by this twisted irony and the fact he was quoted without even being informed. Wrote mrbrown , Thanks for liking my tweet enough to use it for your half-page newspaper ad, Ministry of Education. But hor, next time ask me first, can? Or even tell me beforehand? …So your Youtube video cannot leave comments but your newspaper advertisement of your Youtube video suddenly displays "comments" from the likes of me? Ironic, no? mrbrown also warned the agency that he will be giving them a “public canning” if this happens again. The agency has since apologised.

(This is an event article I wrote for my client, Marriage Central. To find out more about Marriage Central, please visit http://www.facebook.com/MarriageCentral or http://www.marriagecentral.sg/ ) Do you find such conversations common among your married friends? Husband to drinking buddies: “After a hard day of work, why do I have to return home to face a nagging wife?” Wife on the phone with her close friend: “Why can’t my husband spend more time with the children? All he thinks about is work!” Couples who attended Sunday’s talk on ‘His Needs, Her Wants” at the Marriage Central Resource Point at Jurong Regional Library learnt that such questions are often a reflection of the spouse not being aware of the needs and wants of the other half. (Mr Jason and Shelen Ang) “Both husband and wife has a love tank each that needs to be topped up regularly,” shared Mr Jason Ang, one of the couple-speaker. “The husband commonly look for Admiration , Sexual fulfillment , Companions...