a groovyweb

A while ago, while reading Peter Drucker, I came across his philosophy that was, at first, a little disconcerting to me:

Forget ‘success’? ‘Contribution’? Like Mother Theresa?

Then it all made sense.

All our lives we’ve been told to be ‘successful’ and ‘over-achieve’ (a default if you’re a Singaporean). Our success is measured on the kind of education that we receive, the grades we hauled home, the jobs we land, the lifestyle we adopt and the property we live in. A very singular pursuit indeed.

Nothing wrong with personal wealth and accolades (perhaps some of you contributed a few million dollars to your company’s bottom line that enriched the lives of your colleagues.) But can we do more? Can we make a daily difference to the lives of others? Can we help others achieve and replicate our own success stories? Can we contribute meaningfully?
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Ever wonder what’s the fuss about social media? Why is it important to understand social media’s impact on how we communicate and share information? And the fact that, just like the internet and email, the social and technological changes brought about by social media are irreversible?

Look Who’s Back

For the second year running, the folks from Six Degrees are back to present Social Media World Forum Asia 2010 in Singapore. This year’s event promises to be bigger than last year’s and will present a host of speakers from many sides of the social media story.

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Rakesh Ojha asked this Twitter question on LinkedIn Answers recently:

A fair number of people on LinkedIn mentioned ‘Buy your Twitter followers on eBay’ and I totally agree with that. It is fairly easy to increase your followers count if you are really keen on doing that and there are published methodologies on how to go about doing it. An example, certain keywords that you tweet on will somehow automatically get you followers, for instance, ‘social media’, ‘holidays’ and the very popular ‘sex’.

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The 2nd annual Mobile Marketing Forum Asia Pacific 2010 (MMAF) is currently underway in Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore. Since 13 April, industry experts and players have been discussing the present and future of the mobile marketing landscape. The focus for this year’s event is ‘Building Brands with Mobile’. The full view of the agenda and topics of discussion is available here. The event continues till April 15.

I will continue to share the latest tidbits and my personal commentaries (in 140 characters!) from the event’s floor. Add me on Twitter at @ismantanuri if you would like to follow the event closely. Alternatively, you can lock your Tweetdeck or other Twitter client to the official Mobile Marketing Forum Asia Pacific hashtag #MMAF2010. Or you can visit this Twitter search page for all the discussion and chatter so far.

And yes! I will be livetweeting the event on my mobile phone. It is only apt and I will be proving that computing and communication can be effectively achieved through the mobile platform. My gear of choice is my trusty Google Nexus One  with Seesmic for Android as my Twitter app.

For fans of Facebook, you can also visit the Mobile Marketing Association Fanpage for the latest discussion and industry news: http://www.facebook.com/mobilemarketingassociation.apac

The Mobile Marketing Association is also on Twitter (@MMA_APAC).

I have been invited to the event by Rice Communications as part of the Community Media team. I am loving it so far and kudos to the team for the fantastic event organisation.

Mobile is the present and the future, folks! The tipple has tipped.

Here is something different on this blog. My experiences, thoughts and learning over the last week.

#BarCampSG4

Last Saturday (21 Nov), I attended BarCamp Singapore 4, organised by Preetam Rai and Kelvin Quee. Sponsored and held at IDA Singapore (also co-sponsored by Yahoo! SG and Hackerspace.SG), BarCamp was open to all. This being my first attendance at a BarCamp, I was not too sure what to expect although I had some ideas, having read some accounts on previous BarCamps.

What is BarCamp? Read on Wikipedia.

BarCamp is Crowdsourcing

Just like the concept of crowdsourcing in social media, most of the topics of the day were suggested by the attendees (pasted on IDA’s wall as shown on photo to the right), then voted by attendees and eventually presented by the attendees. Anyone was free to present on any topic they fancied (technology, social media, creative arts, culture and social sciences) and there were really off-the-wall submissions including ‘How to Present Difficult Concepts to Lesser Beings’ by Coleman Yee (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and one that I rued I missed: Adrianna Tan’s ‘How to Hack Your Own Travel Channel Life’ (thank God for Slideshare). All in all, I enjoyed the sessions I attended, the learning and the impromptu discussions.

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Updated 13/11: This post also appears as a guest blog post on Penn Olson.

I was recently reading an early chapter of Al and Laura Ries’ ‘The Origin of Brands’ and was struck by this concept:

The world’s best and long-lasting brands were typically created by a divergence from an existing product category and that these brands continue to survive not because of their ‘share of market’ but for being first in the mind of consumers.

Consider these examples of divergence and its disregard for market size of the day:

• What was the size of the cola market the day Coca Cola was launched?
• What was the market size of Mac users when Apple launched their Apple I system?
• How about the size of the personal computer market the day Microsoft launched their MS-DOS platform?
• And when McDonald first introduced the fast-food hamburger to the American public, what was the size of the fast-food market?

The answer to these questions: Zero.

However, these brands have proven they have what it takes to survive and prosper all these years. So, why is this possible?
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Talk about itself. All the time. David Meerman Scott has something to say about this.

Writer’s Note: Hundred Trees is a condominium development in Singapore. Hundred Trees is on Twitter and Facebook. Please note that I have personally seen @hundredtrees reply to tweets previously (if you don’t see any in their current timeline). Credit to @hundredtrees for being social when it mattered.

So what should brands do instead?
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Recently I was asked this question ‘Tell me why Wisma Atria should have a Twitter account’. Wisma Atria is a major mall on Orchard Road, Singapore that has pretty much reinvented itself with a facade change and cool-factor repositioning. A quick check shows that Wisma Atria is already on Twitter although I can’t be sure if that is indeed Wisma’s or a Twitter-squatter. Looks derelict to me (with 4 dubious followers) and 0 tweets.

There are many things that a business can achieve on Twitter and on social media in general, including close interaction with customers, shouting out ads, news and discounts, content distribution and much more. Brand reputation management is also a real possibility if Twitter is set up to alert.

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