Sales, Social and Tech

(Update: I recently wrote about the benefits of using Fan Clubs opposed to Facebook Offers. Fan Clubs convert your Facebook Page into a Loyalty Fan Club. ) Facebook Offers have started to appear on selected Pages.  According to Facebook , " Offers are a great way to drive new people to your business and to engage your customers. They also encourage people to talk about your Page when your offers are shared between friends." "Offers are free for admins to create and share but are only available to a small number of local business Pages." To set up Facebook Offers, you will need to check if your Page has been given the Offer option in the status update.  Once you selected the Offers, all you need to do is add a thumbnail, a 90 character text long header of your offer, the expiry date and terms and conditions of your offer. Your fans will see the Offer as the status update. All they need to do is to click on Get Offer (for first time ...

The headlines above epitomised what The Straits Times thinks is serious news for Singaporeans. Our Singapore Prime Minister started his Facebook Page, shared what he ate for dinner and this qualifies as a headline? From the article itself, the headline could have been "PM takes Singaporeans' views seriously", but yet the sub-editor decided that sharing the dinner menu was the most important thing our Singapore head of state could ever do on Facebook. Will tomorrow's headline be "PM posts dessert photo on Facebook" or "PM checked-in at Istana on Facebook"?

I never liked to micromanaged or to be micromanaged. I have heard stores of how bosses micromanaged to the extend they want to determine the colour of the pen to give to the media at press conferences. However, I learnt that like in any management, both micro and macro, are necessary for success. I took on the responsibility to launch two new features on our iOS app and needed a turn around time of one week. Over the weekend, I worked closely, virtually though, with the developer to get the basic graphical layout done. After this is done, all that is needed was to plug in the APIs, and tests. My method if micromanagement was to reflect the same effort of my developer's weekend sacrifice by responding quickly to comments on each new build. It worked and we had the graphical layout ready on the weekend. You may not consider this as micromanagement but I do. In the past, I would have just thrown the project specs to the developer and just expect the final product from hi...

Thinking too much won't solve any problems. And if you let thinking over take you, you are only escaping in your own reasons for not doing anything. In the current COI on the train faults last year, one of the SMRT train driver thought if he went out of his driver cabin, the passengers will panic and rush into his cabin. This driver decided to play safe and stay in his cabin. On the other train, this other driver went out of his driver cabin and assured every passenger that all will be well. The difference was that in the train, where the driver thought it was best not do anything, there was a smashed window as one of the passenger was reacting to panic from a close one who complained about breathing problems. Being safe in your head doesn't mean it is safe in reality.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but on social networks, the reach is amplified. Thanks to Andrew Chow , we had a new merchant onboarding for Fan Club almost instantly. When I did a short presentation of the Fan Clubs powered by PayPal to Andrew's class, Andrew uploaded the poster below onto his Facebook timeline. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3104509406640&set=a.1389758658943.54161.1081391088&type=1 It turns out that one of Andrew's friends saw this on his timeline and commented on that she saw it while walking around Rock And Ash Singapore at Marina Square link.  I replied on the photo and we arranged a meeting for a demonstration. It turns out that this friend of Andrew is working at a retail brand and was looking at a way to reward fans.  After two meetings, we will be launching that retail outlet fan club powered by PayPal next week.  Thank you, Andrew. 

Planning a BBQ session with family and friends but do not have the time to prepare the BBQ food? HungryBBQ makes things easy by being one-stop for all your BBQ wholesale needs in Singapore. Just pick what you want and they'll deliver it. Now you can enjoy an exclusive 7% discount when you join the HungryBBQ fan club and pay with PayPal over the phone. To enjoy your 7% off, just follow the steps below. Step 1: Click on http://fanclub.sg/hungrybbq and follow the instructions to register for the HungryBBQ Fan Club. Step 2: Make your order online and select Cash On Delivery. Step 3: HungryBBQ will call you to confirm and request for payment for PayPal to enjoy the 7% discount. Respond to the SMS and confirm your purchase.

Organisation’s Name:  Soho Coffee Singapore Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/sohocoffeesg Campaign Title: 80% of customers are now registered fans of Soho Coffee Fan Club Launch Date:  19 February 2012 Soho Coffee started its Facebook Page in June 2011. On average, the page was getting around 50 new likes per month. In January 2012, Soho Coffee used Taggo to launch a fan club offering 20% discount to all registered fans. “Now 80% of my customers are registered fans,” said Peter Ow, Owner of Soho Coffee. How does it work? Customers visit Soho Coffee and see posters enticing them with the benefit to join the Fan Club. Customers scan a QR code or enter the given URL to like the page and register their mobile number. Customers then tell the cashier their mobile number and the cashier enters it into the Taggo POS application. Once identified as a fan, the cashier gives the customer their discount. What were the results?  In the months of...

BMW SG ran an ad on Sunday with four women in a car, presumably a BMW, with the tagline "BMW Premium Selection. Certified Pre-Owned." The focus was obviously not on the BMW car. From a Facebook user. Another ad appeared Monday to explain to readers that the ad in the papers the day before was an April Fool's joke. When a joke needs to be explained, it is a failed joke. From the same Facebook user. The target of the joke was obviously to BMW's male audience only and shouting out to the women readers that only men can have access to BMW premium selection. Given that women today in Singapore have almost the same opportunities as men, this April Fool's joke smack straight to create the perception of male chauvinism. This joke enforces the stereotyping of Singapore women to be materialistic as they can be easily be pre-owned, presumably with a BMW, even to a stage of being certified.  The worst part of it is the timing of the joke. With recen...