Digital & Social Media Marketing in Singapore

Digg is 5 years old – Celebrates the power of consumers’ voice

// January 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Social Media Marketing

TED : It is okay to lose control

// January 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Digital Campaigns, Social Media Marketing

The part that hits me most is the summarizing slides:- “It is okay to lose control. Because you are no longer in control.” What companies and brands in Singapore need to know is the consumers have a voice louder than theirs and the way to go is to embrace and co-create the experience with consumers. One-way, top-down, monologue will not work in today’s environment (okay, it will probably work a little if you have lots and lots of budget).

Using personas of your target audiences to determine the contents required for your website

// January 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Web Design

<A quick recap – inline with my belief that all websites must be built with the end-user in mind, contents that are placed on these web pages must naturally be what the target audiences want. As such, I advocate the approach to first understand who they are and deliver what they want.>

As a continuation of my earlier post on the 3 important things web designers need to know when designing a website, I am sharing with you the tools that I use when helping my clients decide what are the contents that are required for the website.

The tool that I use is called the Persona Chart where the target audience is identified, their purpose of visited established and the type of content they want is listed. Have a look and see if it helps you in your next project. If you need the MS Word version, just drop me an email. ;o)

3 important things every web designer needs to know before designing a website

// January 26th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Web Design

When designing websites for clients, web designers should always remember that they are not creating digital brochures. They are creating an interface where users interact with contents and eventually do something that the website owner wants them to do (be it an online sale, refer a friend, bookmark the website, etc). Here are 3 important things that web designers should know before firing up their photoshop and dreamweaver.

1. Know who are the target audiences

Don’t guess.  Don’t assume. Ask your client and they will probably start telling you ‘everyone’. It is our job to guide them on this. I will always ask my client – If anyone would be visiting your website, who will they be? Here, we are not trying to identify demographics like male/female, age group, etc. We are trying to identify specific groups of people. For example, if I’m trying to identify target audiences for a kindergarten website, it would be:

• Parents of potential students
• Parents of existing students
• Education partners
• Potential staff

2. Know what they want

Visitors come to your website with a specific purpose in mind. Seldom would people browse aimlessly, so you need to really know what they want. After establishing who the target audiences are, I will always ask my clients – If a parent of a potential student is to visit your website, what do you think will be their purpose in visiting your website? This question never fails to get my clients thinking the real purpose of the website – A place where their potential clients get what they want! To illustrate my point clearer, let’s see what the parents of potential and existing students of a kindergarten would want:-

• Parents of potential students want to evaluate if the kindergarten is suitable for his or her child. To do that, they will want to understand the curriculum, environment, enrichment courses, principal’s & teachers’ profile, testimonials from existing parents and enrollment details.
• Parents of existing students want to know upcoming events in the kindergarten, be updated on news and announcements, enquire on administrative matters  and to provide feedback.

3. Know what you want

Now that you know who they are, and their purpose of visiting the website, it is time to work on what your client wants from each visitor. It could be as simple as email enquiry, downloading of a factsheet, visiting the facebook fanpage or even referring the website to a friend. Help the client map out the website goals so you know the objectives of each webpage that you will be creating.

Honestly, this is just the beginning and I usually spend 1-2 sessions with the client just working on these 3 things. It is also the findings during these sessions that allows me to gather sufficient knowledge and information to start working on the information architecture, which ultimately, determines the layout (which will somehow affect the overall design).

What’s your methodology in creating websites? Share them here!

5 steps to generating leads from LinkedIn

// January 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Social Media Marketing

Your profile is what you are

On LinkedIn (just like in any other social media spaces), you are what your profile says. As such, it is important that your LinkedIn profile is not only up-to-date but clearly reflects that you do and what you are good at. Put some thoughts into crafting a profile for the job you want.

If you are are a Business Analyst looking out for opportunities in the digital marketing space, changing your current job title to ‘Business Analyst (Marketing / Social Media) will put you within the search radar immediately. Integrate your blog and blog about relevant topics. Get affiliated with relevant groups and start participating in LinkedIn Answers.

Get connected and reconnected

Once your profile is up-to-date and is able to tell people clearly what you are doing and good at, start connecting with people that you know. Take the stack of namecards from your drawer and start searching for contacts that are on LinkedIn too.

Make it a point that whenever you receive a new namecard, do a search on LinkedIn and see if you can locate the contact. Build your network this way and see it grows! Remember to include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature, blog and any digital assets so you can be located easily.

LinkedIn groups – Be seen, be heard.

With new connections adding up, look into potential customers’ profiles and see what are the groups that they are active in. Join them and listen to the conversations that are happening within these groups. Not only will you be able to identify trends, you may even identify gaps in the industry where your expertise can fill. If there are specific conversations that falls within your expertise / knowledge, participate and contribute. That makes you visible to your potential customers.

LinkedIn Answers

As part of your personal branding, you should be actively participating in LinkedIn Answers, sharing experiences and knowledge with peers and potential customers. If there is a particular question that you would like to answer, create a blog post that is related to that question and blog about it. At LinkedIn Answers, give a condensed version of your answer and refer the reader to that blog post. That way, you drive traffic to your blog when answering the question.

Don’t Forget LinkedIn’s Profile Update

Many LinkedIn users skipped this which comes in handy when you want people to know your newly acquired customer, a new solution or product that you have launched or even a new project that you are working on. Keep your LinkedIn connections informed!

Not just rich media, make it entertaining please.

// November 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Digital Campaigns

Social media marketing may be the buzz word now and with reports of decreasing CTR, paid media may not be that sexy. But banner ads are not dead. Thanks to Shalabh Pandey, I found a French crime TV series called Braqupo on his blog illustrating the good use of video, audio and animation on a rich media banner.

An excellent recipe for engaging, entertaining and dun-find-it-intrusive banner ad.

Social Media Marketing – A new business opportunity for digital agencies?

// November 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Digital Campaigns, Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Digital agencies are probably getting more enquiries on social media marketing lately. Clients have been asking what can they do on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. All of a sudden there seems to be a huge demand but is this an opportunity for digital agencies to monetize or it is a wake-up call for us to understand the need to stay relevant in this ever-evolving digital space.

At the end of the day, the agency job is to equip the clients with a strategy in connecting with their customers, a platform to do that, best practices in managing it and tracking metrics to allow R.O.I. reporting. But the actual implementation is still very much by the client. The only possible way to monetize is a retainer fee to help the client stay on the intended path, or help them in making tweaks to fine-tune the entire strategy.

So if you ask me if there’s money to be made here, I will probably say no. As an agency, knowing how to deal with social media allows you to integrate them into your digital strategy, making your outreach campaigns more viral, more influential, more human. Social media marketing should be seen as part of your client digital strategy and it is key that the agency is able to harness this to build better brands via the digital space.

Jetstar Asia’s radio ads – Example of content marketing

// October 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

On my way to work in the morning, the Jetstar Asia’s radio ad always catches my attention. I think it resonates strongly with my belief in content marketing. 90% of the ad talks about highlights of the destination, content that tourist visiting will like to know. That’s an excellent example of content marketing. You share contents that are relevant to your potential customers, allow them to consume these contents, over a period of time, build a relationship and influence a sale at the end of the day.

I was hoping to get more information on the ad about nightlife in Taipei from their website. To my surprise, there was indeed a free travel guide for Taipei that I could download for free. 2 thumbs up!

I see an extension to this radio ad campaign to the digital space by publishing these guides onto a Jetstar travel blog, allow their customers to comment or share experiences and thus, completing the entire experience. The blog posts which are search engine-friendly (if they are properly crafted) will also help drive relevant traffic to the website.

I will fly Jetstar the next time I visit Taipei. ;o)

Google SideWiki changes the world wide web to a singular Social Web

// September 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

Google recently launched the SideWiki plug-in for firefox and IE browsers. With SideWiki installed, anyone can now contribute comments to any webpages. Yes, any webpages. That effectively converted the entire world wide web to a singular social web that empowers consumer to comment on anything & everything.

The SideWiki feature adopts a user rated system that determines the ranking of each comment. Comments that are voted ‘useful’ gets a higher ranking. Abuses can be reported to Google so the folks there can review the offending comment and decide if it should be removed.

Brands hesitant in embracing the social web now has a new challenge right at their doorstep. SideWiki has basically created a comment box on all their webpages allowing anyone to pen their views. Think about your competitors posting a comment that focuses on the weaknesses of your product and emphasizing their strengths over yours. Think about happy customers complimenting your staff for a pleasant experience at one of your outlets or a unhappy customer complaining about the quality of your services. Can you ignore these like you used to because it is happening elsewhere and not on your website?

This is major step forward in the transition of the world wide web to social web and there is more to come. The key is to start learning how to embrace the social web, understand and accept that your corporate website has became a platform where consumers can now openly discuss, comment and compliment you. Listen to the consumers and address issues to deliver a more consumer-focus, consumer-centric and consumer-driven service / product. Equip your people with skills in handling positive and negative feedback and not sweep them under the carpet.

Video : Did You Know 4.0

// September 22nd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Agency Management, Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Ain’t you glad you are in this exciting business? ;o)
Tip – Great stats for you when preparing your decks!