Getting to know you

Getting to know you
Local businesses are turning to social networking websites to reach out to their customers, reports CHRISTOPHER LIM

THE Internet almost ground to a halt last weekend after pop star Michael Jackson’s death on June 25, as both the fervent and curious flocked to social web tools such as Twitter and Facebook for news.

Online presence: LAMC Productions’s Twitter page (above) lets it connect directly with people who go to their concerts
Twitter was also a key communication medium in Iran’s recent election, when the service delayed going offline for maintenance just so that the country could use it for the event.

All this makes it hard to ignore how intertwined these social networking tools have become in pop culture. You may not use them, but millions of consumers do - and if you want to reach these pockets and minds, you may just have to hop on to the bandwagon.

Social networking website Facebook (facebook.com) has become a tool not just for many companies in Singapore, but for many of executives.

And micro-blogging website Twitter (twitter.com) is quickly entrenching itself in the vocabulary of marketing and communications professionals.

Facebook is one of many similar services that allow people to connect with one another online and share a plethora of information including news, photos and videos. It has emerged as a favourite among businesses here because of the ease with which they can set up corporate accounts that can seamlessly connect to consumers’ personal accounts.

Twitter pioneered the concept of micro-blogging - posting messages, called tweets - that are no longer than 140 characters. A raft of imitators have popped up but Twitter still leads the niche. Its strength versus Facebook is its single-minded focus on rapid updates.

The idea is that 140-character tweets don’t take long to write, and therefore encourage people to tweet in real time as events unfold. In fact, you can often predict news before it’s officially announced by monitoring the volume of corresponding Twitter activity.

Adoption by trendsetters

Another unique advantage that Twitter has over its competitors is adoption by trendsetters. If you want to find out what book celebrated fantasy author Neil Gaiman is working on at the moment, subscribe to his Twitter feed and be kept up to date.

And if you want to find out when the next Nine Inch Nails album will be out, follow frontman Trent Reznor. Every celebrity worth following is on Twitter, not its competitors.

However, Facebook, in an attempt to stave off competition from Twitter, has incorporated its rival’s micro-blogging approach into its own more comprehensive offering.

And to complicate matters, people like Financial Times journalist Gideon Rachman are sceptical about Twitter’s real value as a communication medium - Mr Rachman wrote in a column on Tuesday that he feels that Twitter ‘is mainly hype’.

So, are companies in Singapore voting for Twitter or Facebook, or do they treat them as complementary tools? And do they see themselves buying into an excuse to waste valuable man-hours slacking, or adopting a credible new communication channel?

IT solutions provider Datacraft Asia isn’t usually in the central media spotlight, but it deserves attention for making social media an integral part of its marketing strategy.

Datacraft Asia’s Singapore-based chief executive Bill Padfield is a huge champion of social media, and is personally active on both Twitter and Facebook. He can often be seen tweeting on his Apple iPhone, as well as using the mobile device to update his Facebook account.

Another IT company active in social media is Cisco, whose chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior, has over 650,000 followers on Twitter. That’s a mind-blowingly huge following for someone who’s not a pop icon.

‘During a TelePresence interview this week between press and analysts around the world with Padmasree Warrior, an analyst in Singapore prefaced his question by saying that he follows her on Twitter,’ says Tom Cheong, Cisco’s managing director for Singapore and Brunei.

Beyond raising a company’s or executive’s profile, Lenovo Asean communications manager Derrick Goh highlights the democratic nature of social media tools. ‘They allow you to be ubiquitous while giving your audience the option of how and to what extent they would like to engage with you,’ he says.

Audience engagement is a key area of interest in music and the arts, and concert Promoter LAMC Productions’ Twitter and Facebook activity is geared towards encouraging customers to engage it more.

‘These sites give us an opportunity to connect directly with people who come to our concerts and to also get fans involved with promoting our concerts,’ says LAMC’s Andre Alabons, who administers the promoter’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Mr Alabons estimates that the target demographic for LAMC’s Facebook page is 14-40 years old, whereas its Twitter page is narrower at 14-30 years.

Relevance of traditional media

Despite LAMC’s heavy use of social media tools, Mr Alabons stresses the importance of basic Web services such as websites and e-mail newsletters, as well as the continued relevance of traditional media outlets such as print, television and radio. ‘We are aware that not everyone has a Facebook or Twitter account so we need to reach the masses and not risk focusing on one particular group,’ he says.

Michelle Koh, director of marketing services for the Esplanade, agrees. ‘We see social media very much as a complement to industrial media, such as newspapers, radio and TV, as well as our corporate website and festival micro sites,’ she says. But she affirms the value of social media tools in fostering dialogue with the Esplanade’s audience. Facebook is the service of choice, and the Esplanade has six Facebook group pages at the moment.

Ms Koh points to the multiplier effect of social networking websites, where publicity can spread virally through communities of friends.

Some business have thrown all their social media eggs into one basket, such as Warner Music, which only uses Facebook, although it is evaluating Twitter and working on revamping its main website.

Warner’s Facebook page is run by its marketing team. ‘Our purpose is to inform and spread news relating to our artists, products, and events, and the occasional competitions to win prizes,’ says promotions executive Evelyn Woo, adding that Warner was the first record label in Singapore to set up a Facebook page.

IT, music and the arts aren’t the only businesses to benefit from social media. Nightspot Supperclub is also a big Facebook and Twitter user.

‘People can give their opinion, ask questions or make remarks about Supperclub, and Supperclub has the ability to respond to this almost immediately, says general manager Edme Straver.

One of the potential pitfalls of embracing social media at a corporate level is the blurring of lines between work and play since the same channels are used for both activities.

Supperclub gets around this by establishing some basic ground rules for staff. ‘No confidential information or gossip can be spread through their accounts,’ says Mr Straver. ‘The business accounts cannot be used for personal help and they are advised not to get in touch with business contacts, with the reason that it should only be used for business,’ he adds.

Relaxed policy

MTV Networks Asia has a more relaxed policy. ‘Employees are free to use social media networks on a personal capacity,’ says Nam Ji Hee, the company’s vice-president of digital media for South-east Asia and Greater China. ‘What they say about the company and its activities is unofficial and should not be taken as fact,’ she adds.

But not every company focuses on the potential downside of employees using social media. ‘In general, the employees that use these services feel better informed, better connected to one another and the company, and better able to keep pace with what is going on inside the company and in the industry,’ says Manjit Kour, vice-president of corporate communications for Oracle Asia-Pacific and Japan, whose company uses a mixture of custom-designed social networking tools along with public ones like Twitter.

A useful gauge of the real-world usefulness of social media is to look at business that have used it for a while. Restaurant and bar entrepreneur Michel Lu was an early Facebook adopter and is happy with the traffic and publicity that it has brought to his businesses.

‘I believe in social media but also know that it is most effective when paired with an integrated marketing strategy instead of relying entirely on it,’ Mr Lu says.

What all these persepectives seem to indicate is that social media is only useful if it’s channelled towards a specific purpose for your business.

Like any other tool, it can be abused to death, but if used within the right parameters, it can be a formidable addition to existing communications channels.

Source : Business Times - 03 July 2009

Buy Sell Rent invest In Singapore Property Real Estate

MINDY YONG

( +65 ) 91002985

mindy@mindyyong.com

Two East Coast en bloc sites on market »« Sales of private homes up 130%