Live Blogging: Social Media Brunch 4!
Hello everyone!
10:30 am: Dorothy here and we’re currently at the Theatrette of the URA building setting up for SMB 4 and it’s going to be an exciting time because this is the first time we’re having an official sharing and panel discussion and of course live blogging! Lineups and all the awesome people involved below.
11.20am:Sharing by Willy Foo – “Corporate Adoption of Social Media” – Do’s, Don’ts & Pitfalls of Web 2.0
12.00pm: Panel Discussion – “Corporate Adoption of Social Media”. Moderated by Willy Foo. Panelists: Pat Law, Derrick Koh, Supriya, Daniel Goh and Benjamin Koe.
Claudia’s been getting everything organized, Willy and Live Studios team are going to do live photography for the event, Shermeen is making sure brunch will be all ready for us, so we hope to see you around soon!
11:06am: People are beginning to stream in and mingle, so conversations are happening all around.
Also, when we say live photography, we really mean live photography because what I have in my hands right now are instant name-card sized printouts of photos we’ve just taken of the team. Sweet!
More social media junkies arrive!
11.26: SMB 4 starts with a round of introductions from the panelists!
11:30: Willy starts off the panel sharing by throwing the age old question that most corporations have – What is the ROI of incorporating social media into your work?
” It’s about listening, participating and creating conversations. “
- Derrick
Derrick also advocates the 4 Ps of marketing in the social media space, namely people, privacy, passion, and of course, perpetual beta. The beauty of the social media landscape is that it is alive and constantly evolving with the times, learning and applying.
For the corporations, one of the things that social media can do for your brand/product/service, is allowing you to engage your customers, addressing their dissatisfaction, concerns, and being able to take the conversations offline into real life.
So, the issue is how can we move away from a single minded focus on ROI into the realm of conversations? Daniel is touching on how 90% of customers complaints are online right now. How do you measure the ROI of addressing this 90% of customers? Supriya is sharing a less publicized point – that monetary investment is very low for Web2.0, which is true. Many of the tools such as Facebook or Twitter are free for users.
“Measurement metrics should be dealt in a different way.” - Derrick.
Ladies and gentlemen, we interupt our regular programming for this announcement: For all of you who can’t be here physically, slides of the discussion going on will be available after the event, so stay tuned for them.
Take a peek at what’s going on right now:
Pat is now sharing her post on pitching to bloggers, which you should read because it summarizes some of the more salient issues raised when maneuvering around the relationship between bloggers and communication.
Is paid blogging ethical? There are varying views on this matter. For one, bloggers can’t be directly compared to professional journalists because most of them do lack that training. Yet, with the disintermediation of media today, we cannot deny that the tools of production and the power that comes with it has been taken away from merely those who own the printing press, and given to the masses.
On the other hand, from the blogger’s perspective, blogging sometimes pays off..in many alternative ways. Have you seen the videos on Where the hell is Matt?. (The 2008 video mentions Singapore. Link as shared by Daryl, who isn’t physically in SG right now, but definitely still contributing to SMB, thanks to Web2.0!) What started as a prank to annoy his friends with a quirky dance sequence turned out into a much larger movement- and most importantly, Matt getting offers from Stride Gum to take a trip on them (just because they liked his “work”), and make more videos. Anyone can be a social media rock star these days.
12:22 pm: We’re getting some good turnout for SMB 4. Standing room only! 
On bloggers and company sponsored events (or just events in general):
Web 2.0: “There isn’t a single formula that fits everyone.”
All bloggers are different. Each blogger has their own needs and desires. Each country has their own cultural norms regarding bloggers. This is why companies that are moving away from the likes of mass media to a more personalized, sincere approach are going to see the fruits of their strategy.
12:38pm: BREAK TIME! We’ll resume updates in a bit!
1:30pm: Willy continues to share about the role of Web2.0 on his company’s site.
He is postulating that successful products are going to platforms, rather than positioning themselves as standalones. A prime example of a good platform is Facebook.
And because there is almost always two sides to any story, Daniel is now sharing how Facebook may not be the most appropriate area for larger corporations to try and engage their audience. For one, conversations on Facebook tend to be more personalized, and corporate-speak will not go down too well in this case.
The Future of SMB: Your Thoughts?
Some interesting thoughts which surfaced during break. They were basically on where SMB will go from here. It’s great to have many new faces at this event, and every demographic has been slightly different at each of the past SMBs. SMB3 was blogger centric, SMB4 seems to be a gathering of many people from the communications industry, and the best thing about it is that nothing fundamental about what this event stands for has changed. Web2.0 and its possibilities just encapsulates so many different groups of people, there is always something for everyone. My question is – What do you want out of SMB? This event is very much about YOU as well, so do drop us a comment and share your feedback. This quote surfaced during the panel discussion a while ago, that “Feedback is a gift“, and indeed it is.
1:59pm: Corporations and the Learning
One of the issues to do with social media, is having to come to grips with corporations feeling that they are “losing control of the message”, whilst their PR arm tries to manage the communication. The thing is, are you after a transactional relationship, or a long term relationship?
Pat Law is describing social media as being in its “honeymoon stage” as a tool. At this point, it is time to step in. Active social media citizens are mostly a younger demographic, whilst the older ones are on the internet reading, but perhaps not participating as much. The thing is, can you, as a company, afford not to tune into this new channel?
The audience is trying to define what social media is.
Social media – people as media.
Social media – a tool.
Social media – Marketing.
Perhaps it is not so important to clearly define what social media is, but just to recognize the mere fact that it affects everyone, and to varying degrees. What social media is will probably change over time, what social media is to you will probably change over time. Are you coming along for the journey?
If you’re getting psyched about social media in Singapore, we’d love for you to connect with us!
Leave a comment, join our Facebook group or start some conversations at the SMB Singapore Forum.
We’ve come to the end of SMB4, and the room is abuzz with conversations again. It’s been a series of firsts this SMB4 and we hope to see you at the next!
Watch this space!
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Link love:
Read more about thoughts on SMB 4 here.
[...] myself, it was quite a different perspective because I had been live blogging the event, which was pretty much something I had never done before. It turned out to be a pretty fun [...]
Nice post. Great job keeping up with everyone!
Great event with great panelists. And very nice of Livestudios to do the very professional photography.
However, there were issues with the moderation structure.
The moderator himself asked some excellent questions, but in general, moderators should be ‘moderating’, being an advocate for the audience, and not taking the place of the panelists.
The issue became most apparent after the break, when the moderator took on the role of the speaker. The panelists were still left on the panel, perhaps wondering what their role was. With the moderator becoming the speaker, there was no one left to moderate the moderator. IMO, things went to a low point when the moderator spoke for some time about what his company Livestudios was doing in social media.
Livestudios, as I mentioned earlier, would have done a very nice and tasteful job publicizing themselves through their photography alone. The additional spiel by the moderator-turned-speaker gave the impression that they were trying to take over the event, which I found distasteful.
I’m sure this was not their intention. I’m bringing this up as a learning point so that we can all learn and improve.
A massive thank you to the organisers for volunteering to do this, and doing a wonderful job.
p.s. I had some similar thoughts on moderation before.
[...] first SMB with Live Blogging [...]
[...] only see the whole picture of the discussion this morning when I reviewed the videos and read the post by Dorothy. And then I realised my points shared during the discussion on bloggers outreach wasn’t the [...]
I’m still at awe how live blogging can be done. Sorry, am not the best at anything racing against time.
Coleman, I wasn’t physically there, but I can certainly understand how that impression was formed, even if it was unintentional. But I’m glad you brought it up. I think it’s definitely something we need to be watchful about, and your comment has highlighted that audiences can definitely feel turned off about corporate alignment (intentional or not). Very, very valid point for consideration.
[...] er… convince her to join the team. You can tell what a difference the manpower made from the liveblogging of SMB4 that occured (that, by no means insinuates that all Dorothy will contribute is [...]
[...] needs to be worked on. I remember one of the “P”s from Dorothy’s live blogging: perpetual beta. That’s exactly what SMB is and it’s your feedback that helps us improve that beta [...]