All of my websites have a domain name of its own.  Ever since I read about the article from CMSWire, I have been wondering if a web presence can survive without a domain name.  There has been a lot of people saying that it is possible to have a website of its own where we can operate without a domain name.

It is always advisable for any one of you to have a domain name simply because of branding.  Having a common name consistently in the social media is a necessary step so that your social media users will be able to identify you wherever you go.

The start of a new case study

I decided to start a new web presence about Android phone tips since I have just bought myself a HTC Desire.

Tools used:

1. Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Android-Phone-Tips/140369539324334)
2. Twitter account (http://twitter.com/androidphonetip)
3. Tumblr (http://androidphonetips.tumblr.com/)

This is a case study that I will use to understand myself how a website can operate without a domain name of its own.  I will want to see how far this android phone tips can go, and to see how much value it will bring to the world of Internet.

Different brand names

In this case study, you will notice that I have not consistently put in the same branding. i.e. “Android Phone Tips”.  Instead, it has 2 different brand names of their own.  One very obvious reason is that I have not been able to get the same consistency name across the three platforms.  Twitter cannot take in the whole name as “AndroidPhoneTips” because there is character limit.

If you are an Android phone user, do support my small little android project!

Facebook has just made an announcement that they have half a billion users now.

Thinking about it, I can still remember so many of you are quitting Facebook. It is just so hard to quit actually.. it’s just like having a Microsoft Windows on my laptop and I can’t really change to another operating system.. no matter how good ubutun is, or how good MAC is…

However, if the trend starts to go towards another operating system like how my symbian phone to become android now, I just can’t help it but to re-adapt myself to it.

It made me wonder how Friendster is doing currently. I can’t even bother to log in over there even though they seemed to have done something similar to Facebook. The only thing I can remember is how they may have invented the links of friends together which is so amazing!

In anyway, congrats to Mark for this very successful business model.

The world seems to be talking about Internet related topics everyday. No longer were the days where people treated internet like a child play. I saw its potential since 1997 and jumped right in to get myself equipped with the skills that I need.

From days of denial where nobody really cares that I have websites (because websites used to belong to geeks), to the present where it may even be more important than traditional media such as TV and newspaper.

It is no doubt hard for many people to catch up and comprehend about the new media that we have today. It is actually even harder if they had never been so intimate with the social media because it breaks their very thought that they don’t want to get too personal with the media that everybody listens to. (Even for this blog post that I have written.)

Suddenly, everybody in this world gets to enjoy the same coverage that only the rich will be able to afford to enjoy some air time to be heard back in just 10 years ago.

The internet has open up the opportunity that everyone of us can show our own personal branding easily and probably even without any cost involved. It is instant… simply fill up your social media profile properly and you are ready for the next stage.

Small companies tend to jump into the social media wagon much faster because they are lean and can get themselves started easily. They made a lot of trials and errors along the way so as to get the optimized permission marketing. They have enjoyed a lot of exposure through this media while creating a long tail marketing for themselves which can sustain their business even when they are not making money in their main stream business.

The internet is pretty much fair to everybody. The sooner you get into social media, the more beneficial it can be for your business (whether it is big or small company). It is simply because it allows you to learn as much as you can while you are still building community. It’s also because everyone of us are becoming more and more expert in it, hence it’s advisable to get in while you can so as to absorb the experience as everybody is still learning to communicate to and fro.

We’ll see how things go in the months to go.. it’s gonna be really exciting!

It has been an interesting journey since I bought my HTC desire phone. Today, my phone is 6 days old.

I have just downloaded a WordPress application for this phone, and am now trying to publish my first post with it.

This is probably the best Android application I have! It is very simple to use, and it will definitely be my best partner to work on my blogs.

Perhaps I should start a new blog on android phones since I am a great fan!

Nokia N95 has been faithful to me since January 2008.  It was a birthday present from my wife at that time.  We got the same phone together.  And as time passed, I got myself Internet access and have been using this phone aggressively.  It was a phone which was indispensable to me.  The only problem I have was the performance issue.  Probably it’s because I have fully maximized its capabilities already.

I have been using the phone inside out.  It has been a fun experience playing with my phone for almost 2 whole weeks since I got my Noka N95.  There are simply too many things to learn about my phone.  It’s the first smart phone that I have purchased so far!

Here are some capabilities that I can do with my Nokia N95.

1. It was a web server for me so that my counterparts can download files remotely from my mobile phone.
2. It can share a network drive so that I can access it like an external hard disk.
3. It is a wireless router for my computers to access Internet wirelessly.
4. It can edit all the Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
5. It allows me to blog freely to my blog here via my mobile phone directly.
6. It allows me to share pictures in flickr.
7. It allows me to track via GPS how many kilometers I have run so far in my physical exercises.
8. It allows me to tweet directly so that I am not bound to my computer to tweet.
9. It allows me to play IRC (which I seldom do that already)
10. It acts as my MP3 player!
11. And much more!

Frankly speaking, my Nokia N95 should be able to do all the same things as what iPhone or Android phones have been doing.  But it’s time to move on because I have found an edge of why I should get a HTC Desire and to trade in my Nokia N95.  I can’t really bear to leave my Nokia N95 but I don’t think I will ever use it anymore.

In 17 hours’ time, my HTC Desire will be delivered to my house.  And I will need to surrender my Nokia N95.  Not only am I giving up Nokia N95, I am also changing my mobile service provider from Singtel to Starhub.  I have not much reason why I am giving up Singtel since I appreciate quality service more than anything else.  Probably because it is really attractive in the pricing when I switch to Starhub… I got a better deal for my HTC Desire as well as for my mobile plan!  In terms of quality of service for their customer service and mobile reception, I am really still finding out.

I have decided to give Starhub a try simply because they have quite a good service for my family.  I have been on Starhub mobile broadband, Starhub home broadband, one Starhub mobile for my sister, and two Starhub CableTV service.  Now, with me joining my sister in the Starhub mobile, we have effectively become a full fledge Starhub customer now!

We will see how it will work out when my HTC Desire arrives!  In the meanwhile, I am backing up all my data from N95 to my laptop… I am also thinking whether I should wait for the World Cup soccer match starting in 1 and a half hour’s time (at 2.30am).

Over the years, we have seen how much desire everybody gets onto iPhone.  It’s no doubt that there is definitely somebody out there owning an iPhone!

Marketing the iPhone

Let’s backtracked a little… The very reason why people are buying iPhone is simply because it is a mobile phone with Internet access.  Before iPhone was born, I was already using Nokia N95, which is already an Internet-enabled mobile phone.  Nokia has been the leader in the phone industry for many years (at least in my opinion!).  They gradually put in Internet applications as the mobile phones are enabled by 3G internet.  (So are other brands like Motorola, Sony Ericsson, etc)  But at that time, I don’t really see a lot of my friends using any of the Internet applications with their mobile phones.  It is really nothing new when iPhone was introduced.  Probably because they are adopting a touch screen technology with it… Probably because they look really sleek… Probably because they are simply known for this formula = Internet + Phone…

Interestingly, a mobilephone salesperson created a hilarious video about this (and he is probably losing his job because of this video). Watch it below!

You can read about this mobilephone salesman’s story at TechCrunch.

Marketing the iPod

Another scenario will be with the iPod.  I can still remember that the MP3 players have been around for quite a while… They were marketed by many other companies.  It seems like when iPod came into picture, the whole world became obsessed with having an iPod – where it works like a MP3 player but it only plays its own format of songs and not MP3.  It’s really amazing to see things like this happen!

Marketing the iPad

Next, it will be with iPad.  Tablet PCs and ebook readers have been around for a number of years.  It seems like people are more acceptable to iPad when it is released.  But for this case, I think Apple has done a good job.  Tablet PCs have never got a real good user experience of its touchscreen technology; there is bound to have a problem somewhere which is not so well-done.  And as for ebook readers, the eink technology has no doubt convinced me to buy (i didn’t buy in the end) but the software applications are not very fantastic with its costly price tag.

What can we learn from here?

I find that it is not necessary for us to reinvent the wheels in order to lead the market.  When a new technology is being released in the market by any particular company, it does not necessarily mean that this company will win the game.  They are usually the geeks (I admit I used to be one of them) who are willing to adapt the first wave of devices.  Plus, it is usually more expensive to buy the first wave!

When the first wave of technology has been introduced by a company, the next company will usually win the game simply by finding an edge over the same technology.  All that the next company needs to do, is to package the same thing nicely and create a new value proposition over it.  I find that it usually works with the ladies when you can make the device look really attractive to be associated with it.  (By the way, you don’t have to have all the functionalities built-in… Oh, how do I bluetooth a file to you?)

Branding is still important as a person will want to buy it simply because it’s from that brand.  It’s the promise of the brand, and the feel of owning this device.  I must admit that it really feels good to have an iPhone in your hand.  And I think that the antenna problem that they are having with iPhone 4 is just a matter of time to be resolved.  Ultimately, the phone must still function well at the very basic level.

P/S: I am probably going to buy a HTC Desire very soon!

Image credit: whitesnowsphinx

I was talking to Andrew whether a person should buy Android or iPhone.  Andrew was comparing the differences between Android and iPhone (we are talking about iOS 4 here), and he had concluded that Android is a much better choice.  Andrew listed down all the various reasons to me, and I volunteered to post it up to let all of you know.

Let’s find out the 12 reasons below:

1. Flash support (try booking tickets on www.gv.com.sg or other movie sites without an app using an iPhone)
2. MP3 and videos files can simply be copied into Android devices for playback
3. Third party app Wi-Fi tethering support (will be standard in Android 2.2)
4. True multitasking (Android apps run in background as opposed to iPhone which pauses them to switch to another)
5. Full screen widgets (like HTC’s friends and twitter stream)
6. Can Bluetooth files to other devices
7. Use industry supported, Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) endorsed micro USB connector that allows all Android devices to share connectors and chargers
8. Greater developer access to phone features
9. Greater hardware device variety to choose from
10. Have removable battery that can be replaced if it weakens
11. Have micro SD expandable storage
12. (For the ultra geeks) Can root Android devices and install custom OSes like CyanogenMod

Nevertheless, there are definitely some advantages why iPhone is gaining market share in the mobile phone industry. There is a higher possibility of somebody amongst our friends owning an iPhone, while there is a lower possibility of our friends owning an Android phone.  Let’s find out what are the 5 advantages of iPhone over Android here as well.  (Yes, I only got 5 iPhone advantages from Andrew…)

These are the 5 advantages of iPhone 4 over Android:

1. (Arguable) Better surfing experience and user interface
2. Better audio quality than most Android devices (except maybe Sony’s Experia X10)
3. Excellent and familiar iTunes UI for music
4. Huge variety of aftermarket accessories
5. Higher screen resolution

I was reading the part 1 and 2 articles from CMSWire about Goodbye Corporate Website – Hello Web Presence Management Framework? They are very interesting articles, but they are lacking of one very important point which may still take a while to have such thing happening.

Senior bosses are not engaging themselves in social media personally

There is a resistance from corporations to engage themselves in the social media.  The reason is very simple.  That’s because most of them are managed by senior bosses who are not very savvy about (or even opening themselves into) social media, but on the other hand, they are very used to watching and listening to televisions, radio, newspapers and magazines.

In fact, most of the older generations are anti-socialmedia actually

One very simple question to ask: How many uncles and aunties – do you know of – are using the social media actively without conservation?  Most of the people, I do know of, are simply refusing to open a Facebook account.  And when I ask them of their reasons, I always don’t get any honest answer at all.  But I do believe it has to do with their conservative thoughts; They don’t like to share their thoughts with the world.  And if they open a Facebook account, they will not want to befriend strangers.  Many of them don’t want to befriend with their colleagues as well.  Or if they know of this friend who will befriend with everybody he knows (I am a good example), they will not want to befriend this friend because they are afraid of being exposed to other uninvited friends.

I simply wonder… How long will it take for the older generations to embrace the social media gracefully without reservations?  I believe it has to do with the culture and habits that they have been living with.

The problem is that the senior bosses are the final decision makers in the corporations

With the senior bosses (of the older mindset of anti-socialmedia) in place, it is very hard for the corporations to move into the new media effectively.  We can’t really blame anybody actually… That’s because they are not familiar with the environment (or actually they are just being anti), it is very hard for them to decide to buy into the unfamiliar idea.

Moreover, the very reason for them not to engage personally into the social media is because they are afraid of being exposed to negative comments.  They thought that it will only “ruin” their career advancement.  They have been hiding behind their brand for so many years, and to ask them to stand in front of their brand it’s like asking them to “open a can of worms”.

Many companies are very used to thinking of selling their products from the positive perspective.  To ask them to participate in social media, it’s like showing the whole world what other consumers are really thinking – which will definitely involve negative perspectives.  They are not used to handling negative perspectives openly because they are now handling the media (the consumers have effectively become citizen journalists now).

Another problem is that the corporations are not catered to such social media needs

Another interesting part to note is that the entire corporations may need to restructure completely just for the social media.  Because the consumers are now citizen journalists, it is not only belonging to the job of a customer service officer but to the public relations officer as well.  There is a cross-linked problem that who should handle such a customer who is complaining on a public domain.

Many corporations chose to ignore such a problem.  It’s not because they don’t want to handle it, but because they don’t have such a personnel to handle such a complaint!  For those complaints on newspapers’ forum page, they have PR personnel handling it.  But for those complaints on Internet, they are unofficial most of the time.  By default, they should be handled by the CS officer, but on the other hand, it is also a public complaint no doubt.  Or, should it be the role of a Customer-Relationship-Management officer to handle the Internet media?

Solution: I believe a new internet department may be the solution to manage the web presence framework… But how many senior bosses really see its justification?

Can social media courses really help?

There is a rise in the number of people taking up social media courses.  Many people thought that the social media courses can help them to understand better about social media.

I think that is not very true.  In my opinion, social media courses are more like helping you to understand what is available in the market today, but not about tomorrow!  They will show you the choices to make for the social media today and what you can do to help in your grand plan about internet marketing.

What really works is that these participants must have a brainwash about the social media first before they indulge themselves into it.  It’s like asking them about the pros and cons of using the television ads, radio ads, or newspapers ads.  Many of them are already so familiar with such things simply because they are believers themselves!  They read newspapers… They watch televisions… They read magazines, etc.  In other words, they should start participating in social media themselves!  (But again, it’s quite against their conservative policy…)

No choice? So you need to outsource to agencies to help?

Social media marketing is a growing process by itself.  If you need to outsource to an agency to help you, the agency will definitely do a good job in the end by leveraging on your monetary resources and learning how to do a better social media marketing strategy.  It’s either you learn it, or your agency will learn it.  If you have a huge budget, you can have a quick turnaround time to create a social media marketing strategy with your appointed agency.  But that will mean that you are dependent to your agency for the rest of your life.  That’s because you will never know how to maintain the growth of the social community by yourself.  Everybody makes mistakes (including your agency).  It’s either you make mistakes now while your community is very small, or you make mistakes later when you have a huge community.  It’s your choice!

At the very least, I would think that you should be the one handling your customers in the social media directly or indirectly!

Web presence management framework is a long term strategy

Whether you are going to work on it yourself or with your agency, creating a presence in the social media is a long term plan.  There is a timeline to it, but this is usually a never-ending plan.  Don’t you think it’s a waste to close a campaign when you have built up a community of more than 10,000 fans?  If it’s really a short-term campaign like a Product Launch (with only 1 year’s lifespan), bring it forward and invite them to another Product Launch campaign again and again!

As for the long-term campaign (such as building brand awareness), there is really no such thing as termination clause!  I have ever asked a couple of web agencies about such a clause, none of them is able to answer me properly because the only way out is to cross sell them to another campaign (if your campaign needs to terminate definitely).

Corporate website is still necessary

At the very least, corporate website is a symbol of trust to the consumers.  They confirm the consumers that they are going to get these products for sure.  It is still a representative for any company who treasures their branding for both online and offline world.  It may be possible to ask your consumers to go to your Facebook page for more information about your products, but it is really for the branding presence to tell them your domain name only.  Why would you want to advertise for Facebook?  Moreover, we will never know if Facebook is going to last forever or not.  Before the Facebook days, we were all still using Friendster for years!  I thought I will be on Friendster for the rest of my life… But now, I am thinking of terminating my Friendster account because I don’t touch it anymore even though they are still alive and kicking!

Make a combination of both Corporate website and Web Presence Management Framework

Both are essential in our online marketing strategy.

Social media is necessary to build brand awareness to the potential consumers.  Some of the experienced social media users are actually thinking that it is useless to start a Facebook fan page.  I would like to think of it in the perspective of building awareness more than anything else.  I can still remember in 2004 when I was doing sales, my sales manager was telling me that I need to give my name cards to as many people as possible.  Whether or not they are buying from me, it is still important because of the awareness and to remember me when they need to buy in future.

Corporate website is also necessary because it is the headquarter to go to for any references.  Basically, it has to provide brochures for the visitors to understand what they can buy from you at least.  With the social elements added to it, it will reinforce what you have been doing for your corporate website!  Contact form will be helpful for both pre-sales and after-sales.  Email addresses with your own corporate website will always be good for your company branding as well.

There are many ways to bring in traffic to your website.  Many agencies out there are encouraging companies to buy banner ads from other relevant websites simply because it is a very effective traffic attraction strategy, and of course there is a good margin of profit to make too!  While the banners are really effective, they can only be temporary short-termed solutions.  That’s because it is exhaustive to the company budgets, and to maintain that kind of marketing expenses can be really detrimental to company profits.  For example, it’s like making a 5-series of stories on TV advertisements… After which, all the marketing budgets have been spent… What’s next?  More money to spend?

I think the two main things to take note in your online marketing endeavors are Search and Social only.  I am referring to the free ways of search marketing strategy, as well as social media marketing strategy.

Search

The real reason behind several websites’ success is because of Google’s ability to bring in traffic to their websites massively.  And those visitors are genuinely looking for the kind of information that you are providing, or else they will only blame Google for the wrong search results.  Hence, Google’s success is only because of their relevancy in their search results.

And it’s normal to see the majority of the visitors are new to your website because of Google’s help.  If you have more returning visitors than first-time visitors, you must be really successful in building a loyal community within your website.  Hence, your role on the website is to be able to retain the visitors to keep visiting you.

Social

Social media is the next thing to take note of today.  As the number of web visitors are increasingly using social media more than the search engines, it is becoming a viable strategy to go to the place where the crowd is.   And now the fact that more and more people are choosing to spend their time on the Internet more than television and newspapers/magazines, most of them are actually going in to look for their friends in the social media!  (And of course to do other things such as reading news.)

And what do you know?  YouTube is the second most popular search engine!  (Not Yahoo!)  Another thing to note is that people are starting to think that it is not necessary to have a website of their own, and it is enough to start a Facebook page for their own business.  With this kind of mentality going on, it’s almost impossible for social media not to grow continuously unless you close the social media company…

Search + Social

It is interesting to note that the search and social are joining forces.  With Google, you can search real time information from social media.  And in Facebook, you will see how Bing has been used in their search engine box.  Everybody is looking for ways and means to integrate with each other with the help of RSS… See how powerful RSS has become!

For more information about search and social, I would recommend you to see Lee Odden’s keynote on SEO and Social web!  Have a read and do let me know your thoughts!

From the time that the websites started to embrace Flash from Macromedia (Adobe acquired it later), I have always made my stand that not all browsers are supportive of Flash.  Even till today, Flash has always been my second priority while pure HTML/CSS/Javascript is a much better choice.  But with the trend of Flash videos, this is something where I find it really useful because there has never been a standard of playing a video on a website before.  This is because of the gigantic sizes that videos typically have, which is at the disadvantage of the Internet speed, even though we have a speedier Internet access than ever.  With Flash videos, it has become a standard factor to use since the file is being compiled into an even smaller size, which is much suitable for video streaming.

As Flash evolves, I started to accept Flash as one of my choices to use when creating a website.  It has created numerous games in various websites.  It’s especially useful in Facebook where many of my friends are playing a lot of games where it is almost impossible to create if not for Adobe Flash!

Now that iPhone has rejected third party from creating a layer over iPhone apps (for easy creation of applications using their familiar interfaces such as Flash), it has effectively cut ties with Adobe Flash from existing in iPhone.  It was just recently that Adobe announced Flash support for iPhone application, and Apple has rejected such a support indirectly.  I can feel how much hatred has been created between the two companies now.  I don’t think we should blame Apple for not supporting Flash… After all, they are still valid to say that third-party programming may cause potential performance problems.  It’s a fact actually.

I think it’s all about compromising between speed or to have a potentially wide variety of applications.  To the third party developers, they have the advantage of allowing their applications to support a wide variety of operating systems easily.  It means that they only need to programme once, and it shall be workable on all platforms!  Now, they have to programme once for most platforms, and to programme a separate application just for iPhone OS.  I think it’s really to the disadvantage of Apple… But anyway, they are taking over the market by storm!  It’s just a matter of time whether the world will continue to embrace iPhone or not in the future… That’s because the lifespan of a mobile phone is pretty short… Moreover, iPhone’s battery is not replaceable… It’s just within 2 years’ time that a typical mobile phone user will switch to another new phone.  Who will know what’s the next Apple strategy?  Apple has always been surprising me with all sorts of news…

Anyway, I don’t think Flash is dead yet.  In fact, they have been embraced by several other mobile phones i.e. Android, BlackBerry, Palm webOS, Windows Phone 7, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian… It’s just a matter of time that Apple may go back to support Flash because of another surprising reason.. And I strongly encourage them to support Flash again!

Anyway, I am thinking of getting an Android phone (If my 2.5-year-old Nokia N95 is failing on me… But the truth is that it is still alive and kicking!)  Any thoughts about Flash for your iPhone?

Photo credit: archtron