Sales, Social and Tech

I have noticed that at media events, PR are now putting up hashtags to invite the media and audience to tweet with that. As much as this is encouraging for social media, I find that the PR are taking the same old passive approach to media. I am referring to the practice of aiting for third parties to write about the client. PR should take also take an active role in tweeting at events. Not just "live" tweets but use Twitter to share links which was mentioned at the event. Also if the spokesperson has a Twitter account or Facebook Page to share, "live" tweet it at the event to share it with the audience. For example, at the #rednightout event organised by the MyNewsDesk last night, as Twittamentary  was being screened, the section of how the homeless in the US are using Twitter to help themselves was quite an inspiring story about social media. While the director was tweeting and sharing the handlers, I decided to find stories online about them and shared them ...

(Update: The write  Karl  Shmavonian has emailed to apologise for the "  inexcusable error". The right flag is now used. You can click --> http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eglg45ehghk/no-6-singapore/ to see the new flag.) It takes about five hours to fly between Singapore and China, but still even the smart writers at Forbes still thinks Singapore is somewhere in China. In an photo gallery to highlight the the top 10 places to be born in 2013, Singapore came in sixth. Sixth with the photo of somebody that looks so Singaporean carrying the flag of China. He looks so Singaporean, yes or no? Source:  http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eglg45ehghk/where-to-give-birth-in-2013/ The writer should join Sheldon Cooper on his "Fun with Flags" show and learnt a thing or two about flags of the world. 

Yesterday, 102 SMRT bus drivers from China staged a *wage protest* over unfair wages and unsatisfactory living conditions. Today , 60 of the 102 did not turn up for work. A wage protest of that size is very rare in Singapore. The last wage protest, sorry, strike in Singapore was in  Jan2, 1986 . In Singapore, it is officially a strike if the members of the union vote unanimously to do a walk-out. Without this official vote, it is not a strike. So the unions are coming out to communicate their views on the incident. However, it seems like NTUC, the National Trade Unions Confederation that confederates all the unions in Singapore, and the National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) gave conflicting comments on how these bus drivers could have address the issue more amicably. It was reported that " NTUC director of the Unit for Contract and Casual Workers (UCCW), Mr Zainal Sapari criticised the workers for not adhering proper procedures and acting without the know...

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Singapore Press Holdings has released its 2012 annual report and almost of it dailies are experiencing significant falls in circulation figures. Berita Harihan, which saw growth in August 2011, experienced the biggest drop in circulation figures by 9.0% in August 2012. LianHe ZaoBao, Tamil Murasu and The Business Times, which also saw growth last year, contracted in 2012. For the first time in its report, Singapore Press Holdings have combined the circulation figures of The Straits Times and The Sunday Times. If one were to take the average circulation between The Straits Times and The Sunday Times in August 2011 (370,100), the circulation for both papers would have fallen by 4.86% in August 2012. You can read the report here .   Aug-07 Aug-08 Aug-09 Aug-10 Aug-11 Aug-12 Aug 2011 - Aug 2012 Berita Harihan 61,800 62,000 60,900 58,900 59,200 53,900 -9.0% LianHe WanBao 122,400 107,200 1...

Vahaad Ali paid Chan Brothers $11K for a family trip to Australia at a NATAS Fair in August and all he got was a budget airline booked for his entire family. The wall post below originally appeared on Chan Brothers Travel Facebook Page . EDMW Loves Singapore Page has shared the reply email from Chan Brothers. Source: EDMW loves Singapore Facebook Page. A return trip to Gold Coast from Singapore on Scoot would have cost Chan Brothers $5000. I can imagine the disappointment for the family, all excited and all, only for Chan Brothers to use a fine print to put a damper to their holiday spirit. Seriously, why hide behind the fine print, Chan Brothers? Why not do a BIG PRINT that the proposed trip is an unconfirmed trip so the customers are fully aware of the purchase they made? While Chan Brother may be right, they became less likable as a result of this post. A Facebook user commented, "hey took down Vaahid's post bcos of overwhelming responses about this tr...

Bertha Henson, a former editor for The Straits Times, recently wrote an obituary of a former colleague on her blog which Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) disagreed on certain points noted on the post. The email from SPH also took an opportunity to take a swipe at the blogger rather than focusing on the post. Wrote Bertha Henson , " My old company is pissed at the obituary I wrote for Chong Chee Kin. (See earlier entry Goodbye Cheeks) Journalists and management are upset that I said that Chee Kin felt like a pariah in his last week at work in SPH ." The anonymous letter from SPH went on to criticise Bertha. Wrote the SPH letter from an anonymous signoff, " You  have been wholly unfair to SPH to put this out in your blog without checking whether it is true. You have in fact failed to practise what you have been preaching so piously in your blog ." Bertha responded to SPH in her blog by stating that she wrote the "pariah" bit from the sms she r...

Cisco vice president Mike Quinn, a former CIA operations man, has vowed to hunt down the employee who leaked an email over an overpriced quote of switches for California State University’s to blogger Brad Reese . That angry email from Mr Quinn, which was supposed to confidential, was also leaked to the same blogger. From Wired.com ,  But for Quinn, it was an egregious violation of company policy. He dashed off an angry e-mail — cc:ing “all” — to the leaker-in-chief saying that he — or she — “disrespected everyone else at Cisco” and should resign immediately. “Cisco puts the groceries on your table every two weeks, not Brad Reese or other Slander Sheet Journalists,” he added. “Now I know you do not have it in you to stand up and admit what you did, so I will now make you my ‘hobby,’” Quinn said. “Ask around you will find out that I like to work on my hobbies.” The original leaked email highlighted how Cisco lost out to Alcatel-Lucent for the California State University ...

Facebook Offers vs Fan Clubs Today, merchants not only want more customers, they also want more fans on their Facebook Page. And they hope that customers like their page, but hope is not a strategy or a tactic. Canz I have more Fanz Pleaze? In the process of acquiring merchants for Fan Clubs, I have gotten some questions about Facebook Offers and Fan Clubs which would be best answered below. Facebook Offers for everybody; Fan Club benefits for your fans only A Facebook user does not need to like your Facebook Page. All the user needs to do is accept your offer. The problem here is that there are no immediate returns on your offers. If you are lucky, you offer will be well claimed. If not, it will just be another ordinary wall post.  Registration for customers is only done once.  Customers see other Fan Clubs, they just click LIKE. On the other hand, for somebody to claim a Fan Club benefit, that Facebook user must first register their...

"Fact Checking" was a popular term that rose from the recently US presidential elections to check on the statements made by the two presidential candidates. "Fact Checking" landed on Singapore shores with a story of a taxi driver who was headlined to earn $7,000 a month. A week since the story and the journalist had to print a column explaining her story. A video was also released on The Straits Times. A rarity as stories itself should be explanatory. So the heart of the question was whether the taxi driver did say he earned $7,000 a month. Wrote the journalist , "There was no hint to either of us that he meant what he earned in a particular month, I had asked how much he earned, not what was the most he ever earned." However, the taxi driver in question shared his side of the interview. Image from TheOnlineCitizen Facebook Page So it remains, can taxi drivers really earn $7,000 a month?

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The taxi drivers community in Singapore were up in arms over an article in The Sunday Times that a taxi driver was able to earn $7,000 every month. This community were up in arms because their wives were questioning them if they were hiding their earnings from them, sans the Inland Revenue Authority.  Most taxi drivers highlighted their take home pay were about $2,000 to $3,000 after you deduct the rental and fuel cost. Ironically, Wanbao, the Chinese newspaper, gathered a confession from this $7,000 taxi driver that the amount stated wasn't his monthly take home revenue. Translated from AsiaOne Forum contributor , "This evening (31 Oct), Wanbao posted on its Facebook that Mr Mohammed had clarified. He did not make $7K a month on average. The $7K was a record earning for Mr Mohammed in the month of May only. It doesn’t happen every month: Wanbao also said that in the interview with Mr Mohammed, he said that he was “framed”. He believed that there were other...