Oman Collective Intelligence - MPiRe

Twitter, a nice story from Kenya

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:14:00 +0000

Chief Francis Kariuki

Chief Francis Kariuki very recently said: “Twitter has helped save time and money. I no longer have to write letters or print posters which take time to distribute and are expensive.
Thanks to social media, crime rate in Kariuki’s area has dropped significantly to nearly zero, compared to prior periods where break-ins were reported on a daily basis.”

Francis is a Chief Officer who lives in Lanet Umoja, Kenya, and started to use Twitter in June 2011 to help his Kenyan village maintain peace and order.
Where he lives the majority of residents doesn't have access to computers and Internet, apart from a few cyber cafes, however almost every household has a mobile phone and SMS are a major form of communication in the nation.

Kariuki's official Twitter page currently has a little more than 1,000 followers (apparently even the thieves in his village follow him!) but he manages to reach some of the 28,000 residents in his area with the help of his followers who forward his tweets via text messages.

Twitter has been associated with bolstering uprisings and anti-government protests in Africa several times, this time it’s all good news as Chief Francis’ tweets have helped to fight crime, organize logistic matters, and locate missing children and farm animals. Well done Chief :)

If you want to see how the Indian Police is using Twitter click here.

Social seating by KLM

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000

The nightmare of all solo passengers: who will sit next to me on the nine hour flight across the Ocean? Someone boring, someone cool, someone that snores?

According to the Times, a recent poll showed 45% of respondents confessed to flirting on a flight, one-third of them met up with a fellow traveler after a flight and 8% said the encounters led to a relationship.

So last year the Royal Dutch Airline KLM announced the launch its social seating service in 2012 which is now live. The new service is called Meet & Seat and the whole point is to give passengers a better travelling experience by let them decide who they want to sit with. Very simple.

Here’s how it works:

Go to KLM.com and log in to Manage my Booking.
Go to the ‘Seating’ tab and click ‘Meet & Seat’ on the right.
Log in to your Facebook or LinkedIn account.
Select the profile details you want to share with other passengers and add your travel details.

This video explains it all:

KLM has a very strategic approach and it is more dedicated than many other brands to use social media and social technologies to add relevancy and meaningfulness to the lives of its customers. KLM President & CEO Erik Varwijk said that "KLM has always strived to be cutting edge in social media and its latest revolutionary initiative will be fun and useful for people with similar interests to connect."

KLM has also a great Facebook Page, check it out.

"The road is no place to socialise" campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:12:00 +0000

Nice and modern campaign by the Roads and Transport Authority in the UAE created by Livingroom, UAE.

I’m not sure though about the guy, who is supposed to represent...Facebook? Looks a bit creepy. Thumbs up though!

Local blogger detained

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

As reported by several sites and blogs including Dhofari Gucci, Global Voices Advocacy and Digital Rights Watch, and many others in Arabic, I was shocked to hear that Omani blogger Muawiya Alrawahi, known for his controversial ideas, has been taken into custody because of blog posts and tweets.

Now, I don’t read his blog (now closed) as it is in Arabic and most likely I wouldn't agree with what he writes BUT is this is the way to solve a problem? The news is rapidly expanding online...are we going to shut all those sites down too? What kind of image are we giving of ourselves?

I could not agree more with DG when she wrote “I think this is going to get ugly. You can't silence people. I can't say anymore.”

Hopefully it’ll be all over soon. If anyone has updates let us know.

UPDATE: I've just been told that Muawiya Alrawahi was taken in just for questioning and that he's fine. More later.

Online terms parents should know

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:31:00 +0000

There's an ever growing trend among teenagers using social media networks called l33tspeak, netspeak or just plain internet slang. Surely you must have came across at least some of them...lol, brb, 143 and many more.

If you have kids this could be an area of concern. I'm sure all smart parents have set up filters on their kids' PCs to block certain words and/or sites but this is not enough any longer. Today's kids are lazy when it comes to writing and use single letter words to communicate with each other in ways that most adults wouldn't understand: U replaces you, R replaces are, o replaces oh, m replaces am, etc.

And your filters won’t pick up any of it.

Social network monitoring service SocialShield a few days ago released a list of the “Top Terms Parents Need to Know.” The list was curated from an analysis of commonly flagged terms identified by SocialShield’s monitoring engines as somehow risky, dangerous or illicit.

SocialShield has split them up into six categories:

Warnings of parents in the room
Requests to meet up in person
Sexual
Cyberbullying
Depression
Drugs/drinking

Click to enlarge

While the Internet is an enormous resource and one of the major technological achievements of our lifetime, it is also used by adults who are seeking to exploit children. Protecting children from Internet predators and scam artists is a very serious responsibility which we all have.

I also found a useful site which translates slang and acronyms as well as giving plenty of info and resources, check it out here.

Remember; keep your children from getting into trouble online.

If my career fails...

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:13:00 +0000

...I’m going to be an actor!

Just kidding.

Muscat has been selected as the Capital of Arab Tourism for the year 2012 due to its natural beauty, rich topographical and historical diversity, many remarkable tourism features and its strategic location.

During the past decade the government has put a lot of efforts in promoting Oman which is now visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world every year.

If you want to know more about what Oman has to offer click here otherwise just relax and enjoy the following short clip:

PS: Thanks to the Ministry of Tourism and ProShots for the great and fun experience.

PS2: I’ll stick to my job, promised!

H&M faces a Facebook backlash

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:33:00 +0000

Retailer H&M is facing criticism on Facebook after the company was accused of stealing an American artist's design.

Artist Tori LaConsay back in 2008 painted a billboard in Atlanta with the message “You Look Nice Today” to make residents in her town feel good about themselves.

A few days ago she realised that H&M were selling towels, pillows and doormats with a similar design.

H&M's reply was that “We employ an independent team of over 100 designers. We can assure you that this design has not been influenced by your work and that no copyright has been infringed.”

Of course this ended up on H&M’s Facebook page where people started to voice their opinions, most of them attacking H&M. H&M, as often happens, started deleting comments, angering fans further.

This should make companies reflect that such things could only be done (well, not really) in the pre social media era when they could get away with it, nowadays people are merciless and companies get punished publicly for any mistake made, small or big.

H&M, you don’t look so nice today.

The unconventional burger

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:07:00 +0000

The Wimpy fast food chain in South Africa came up with a great idea to target the visually impaired. The campaign, aimed at “letting people know that Wimpy is a place where everyone can feel at home”, used Braille, the international language of the blind, to deliver such message.

15 “Braille Burgers” were prepared by a chef who meticulously arranged sesame seeds on balls of dough with the end result being a message baked right on the burger bun, customised for the diner who can read Braille.

Wimpy then delivered the burgers to three organizations that help blind people.

Cleverly thought and unconventionally implemented the campaign brought great results, see for yourself.

Porsche Cayman S Facebook edition

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:03:00 +0000

The Stuttgart carmaker has unveiled a special edition model to celebrate a milestone of reaching two million fans on its Facebook page.

The color scheme, red tinted, comes from the Porsche 917 K, the same vehicle that won the company’s first overall Le Mans victory with Richard Atwood and Hans Herrmann at the wheel. The car features the avatars of all their 2 million Facebook fans and the front-plate area reads “100% Porsche, 100% you.”

If you’re a Porsche fan on Facebook you can go here and check out a 360-degree view of the ride, search yourself on the car as well as download wallpapers.

The Cayman S will be on display at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart until January 27^th.

If you want to see what Porsche did for their 1 million fans milestone click here.

Banks and the fear of social media

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:42:00 +0000

Banks generally, in Oman too, are not open to social media, that’s a fact. There seem to be the same initial fears that ATMs, internet and mobile banking created: security, reputation and control.

Everybody is on social media especially generations Y and Z (born in the mid-1980's and later). Generations Y and Z have strong preference for communicating electronically and do much of their banking online, rather than walking into a branch. Knowing that the majority of the population is very young shouldn’t local banks be on social media too? Shouldn’t they find a secure way to interact, provide a higher level of customer service and be able to improve their reputation?

Facebook, blogs, forums and the likes should be banks’ preferred communication channels as the youth seeks more in-depth financial advice, due to higher amounts of debt and unemployment, and guidance on mortgages and investments.

So are banks missing a great opportunity by not being there? Yes. I can think of several reasons, except the obvious ones such as promoting a new product/service, job opportunities, etc, why banks should be on social media and bring new meaning to customer centricity.

Forging new connections: banks can use a social platform wisely to generate immediate and impactful results on social customers, many of whom use social media as an "operating system" for their work and social lives. For instance, wouldn’t it be useful to have a live chat, in a secure way, with your personal banker while you’re comfortably sitting on your couch? I’d love that.

Social business is a pivotal outlet for building communities: selling banking products and services can be understandably complex. However, building communities around products and services opens up a new way for consumers to inquire, engage and share material. Wouldn’t it be great if a bank had an online forum totally dedicated to banking where everyone shared ideas, opinion, and experiences and learn the latest trends, products and services from the bank but mainly from each other?

Product research and education: Whether you're crowd-sourcing to find out what customers think of your services, or using social media to encourage customers to develop new products, social networks provide a channel to solicit ideas and input. In fact, social customers expect to be able to input ideas, rate experiences and debate ideas. How about having a blog completely dedicated to educating, motivating and empowering students to make the best of the money they earn and do more with the money they spend? Helping them learn the differences between needs, wants, and wishes? Or simply how to buy smart.

I could go on; the point though is that I can see big potential for banks in establishing relationships that can result in long-term customer loyalty, by satisfying these groups’ needs through education and targeted services while, at the same time, reinforcing the brand’s objectives.

Generations Y and Z don’t want their bank neither to be a Facebook friend nor to be ‘cool’; all they want is to be there for them.

Why do you think banks are not embracing social media? Is it because of regulations/legalities? Is it because they don’t know how? Is it because they would need to have a proper customer service department? Or is it because they don’t act in a transparent way?

Ninja flahmob

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:09:00 +0000

A light post for the weekend. A flashmob is a group of people who get together in a public place to usually perform something unusual.

I thought this is quite funny :).

Y magazine follow up on Top 10

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:20:00 +0000

Thank you to our friends at Y Magazine for publishing the Oman Facebook Top 10. You will also find a feature highlighting local entrepreneurs using various social media platforms.

Read the latest issue or to simply give them a big like :).

Oman Facebook Top 10 (2011)

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:37:00 +0000

More and more people and companies are using Facebook, as of today in Oman there are about 310,000 active users, so compared to my last top 10 there has been a huge increase in terms of new fans as well as new pages.

I’d like to congratulate my friends at Oman Sail for grabbing the first spot at the expenses of Oman Chips. It is now the only page having passed the 30,000 fans mark. In less than a year through hard work, passion and creativity the team at Oman Sail have managed to become a global brand on Facebook. Very well done.

Big jumps forward also by His Majesty (unofficial page) and the Sultanate of Oman pages both above 25,000 fans.

All others are well behind but all moving forward.

A short consideration; it’s still strange (or is it?) not to see any bank or telecom on Facebook. I wonder when, and if, they’ll ever evolve their communication mix and be up to speed with the rest of the world...

Here comes the Top 10:

Position Company Name N. of fans

1 Oman Sail 30,697

2 Chips Oman 29,441

3 The Sultanate of Oman 26,852

4 His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said 25,809

5 Muscat City Centre 13,271

6 Burger King Oman 10,313

7 Oman Air 9,636

8 Muscat Buy or Sell 8,590

9 Oman Cars Club 8,332

10 Grand Hyatt Muscat 8,213

Other pages worth noting as they are growing fast are:

Support Nobel Peace Prize for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said- with 7,650 fans.
SalimPhoto.com with 6,340 fans.
B+F Roadside Diner with 6,036 fans.
Hi Fm Muscat with 5,048 fans.
Humocracy with 4,845 fans.
Anasheikh garments with 4,169 fans.
Royal Opera House Muscat with 3,536 fans.

If I've missed any please let me know and........happy new year everyone!

PS: This list takes into consideration pages in English and that have been updated in the past 30 days.

The fastest (parked) car!

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:56:00 +0000

A blurred billboard, sidewalk, street sign, mailboxes and fire hydrant to demonstrate that the Mercedes Benz C-350 Coupe is real fast even when parked!

Great advertising/ambient that highlights the power and speed of the car...of course any car parked there would create the same impression.

Coca-Cola transforms highway into outdoor cinema

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:48:00 +0000

A few months back Coca-Cola, for its 125^th anniversary, came up with an ingenious initiative...a drive-in cinema!

In Bogota', Colombia, commuters in average spend 4 hours a day stuck in traffic and so the soda-pop giant had a great idea to take advantage of traffic jams by installing a giant screen on the sidewalk broadcasting endless cycle of “Filminutes”, 1-minute long movies.

At the same time ads on the screen would encourage people to tune in to a local FM station for audio. Everyone, usually very miserable, reacted very well as they were also offered Coca-Cola bottles and of course, like in a proper cinema, pop-corn. The video shows it all.

Dumbest PR stunt

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 07:27:00 +0000

"On behalf of Advantage SA, I would like to personally apologise for any offence caused by the arrival of the fish," commented the CEO of the Australian PR agency.

But what happened? 55 goldfish were sent out to guests and media reps to go to Adelaide and “test the water and be the big fish in a small pond”...unfortunately some of the fish died during the journey.

Being into PR I love originality and creativity but sometimes good ideas are not implementable and these guys at Advantage SA should have seen this coming.

Needless to say, the publicity stunt flopped and now the agency is facing some tough time as many papers and blogs, first in Australia and then all over the world, have reported and misreported the news.

Poor fish…

"Slide to unlock"

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:10:00 +0000

Simple and clever campaign, aimed at recruiting activists, from Amnesty International Sweden. Swedish agency Garberg created wallpapers for iPhones and iPads showing incarcerated prisoners.

Making the best of the "slide to unlock" function; when unlocking the device, the user also unlocks the cell or chain holding the prisoner captive and reveals a call to action to join Amnesty International as an activist.

See the cool vid.

1000 TIMES THANK YOU!

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:32:00 +0000

1004 to be precise :)

A new fashion blog in Muscat

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:02:00 +0000

A new Omani blog entered the blogosphere, Counter Culture. Written by TOTEM, the unisex clothing boutique in Shatti, the blog seems to cover the latest fashion and trends, giving tips on what to wear, and inputs from local fashionistas and international designers. Probably more for the ladies although there’s also posts on men’s t-shirts and some tunes, and it’s written from the point of view of a fashion retailer rather than most of the outfit-based blogs.

Direct Marketing, PR, Advertising and more...

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:59:00 +0000

A light post, good to start/end the week with.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!”

That's Direct Marketing

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: “He's very rich. Marry him.”

That's Advertising

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and say: “Hi, I'm very rich. Marry me!”

That's Telemarketing

You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door (of the car) for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and then say: “By the way, I'm rich. Will you Marry Me?”

That's Public Relations

You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says: “You are very rich! Can you marry me?”

That's Brand Recognition

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.

That's Customer Feedback

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!" And she introduces you to her husband.

That's demand and supply gap

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person come and tell her: “I'm rich. Will you marry me?”...and she goes with him.

That's competition eating into your market share

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say: “I'm rich. Marry me!”...your wife arrives.

That's restriction for entering new markets

Benetton's controversial campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:15:00 +0000

Benetton is famous for its campaigns; this time it is inviting the leaders and citizens of the world to combat the 'culture of hatred' through the UNHATE campaign.

A series of posters features world leaders with lips locked to launch the UNHATE project...

Hu Jintao, president of China and Barack Obama

The Pope and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo

US President Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy

According to Benetton "these are symbolic images of reconciliation, with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation, to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation."

It received all sort of feedback, some people called it a nasty campaign, others said awesome, disturbing, gay, genius, funny, horrid, etc.. Love it or hate it, Benetton has made a splash, again.

And you too can upload your kiss and write an ‘unhate’ message, just click here.

80 inhabitants, 10,000 Facebook fans

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:29:00 +0000

“Obermutten is developing a personal relationship with its guests”, that’s what Martin Wyss, President of a tiny village called Obermutten in Graubuenden, said.

Obermutten is a mountain village in Switzerland with eighty residents and nearly 10,000 Facebook fans, how did that happen?

The President promised anyone who "likes" the town on Facebook that they will put his/her photo onto the Commune's official notice board. By doing this, they say, anybody anywhere in the world can "become Swiss". After only three days, the village already has fifteen times more fans than residents, and this number is growing by the day.

As you see from the photos it went a little out of hands, with the notice board being full and new pictures being placed on storage walls, but the eighty inhabitants, many still without an internet connection, all seem very excited about getting to know their fans this way.

Thanks to this campaign media reports about the village have appeared in over twenty countries and now some sixty million people around the world have either read about or heard of Obermutten.

One of the best Facebook campaigns I’ve ever seen; simple, very cost effective and with high level of engagement. Check out the video.

P.S. The mayor of Obermutten has announced to move the whole picture board to protect it from the weather, so all pictures will be kept safe and dry!

Ikea gets personal on YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 09:36:00 +0000

An example of how originality and lots of $$$$$$$ can help creating something really good. This personalised 3D showroom is part of a wider bedrooms campaign by IKEA and follows a wide study carried out in the UK where people were asked how their ideal bedroom would be in terms of supporting TV/internet, incorporating workspace, storage solutions and much more.

The "Happy To Bed" IKEA online shopping experience is absolutely fascinating and great to interact with it. You can recreate the bedroom of your dream by choosing furniture, its colours, décor and much more. Of course you should then buy it.

Google+ for brands and companies launched

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:54:00 +0000

If you’ve been waiting to use Google+ for your business then the wait is over. Google+ has finally launched the feature which allows brands and businesses to have a presence on this social network.

If you’re already using G+ on a personal level you will notice that the new G+ brand Pages look similar to G+ Profiles. The set up and page customisation, for the moment, is very straight forward and quick, if you want to give it a try just click here.

G+ is nowhere close to Facebook in terms of users, I’ve read G+ has somewhere close to 45 millions, but your brand could be doing well on G+ if aimed at men since about 75% of its users are males.

To help people 'googling' companies transform their queries into meaningful connections another service has also just been launched; Google+ Direct Connect, which lets you quickly navigate to a G+ Page (and even add that page to your circles) when using Google Search.

This video below explains it all.

Of course I had to set up a page for Oman Collective Intelligence, and this will be my first post on it. Will you set up yours?

Advertising? No, having fun.

noreply@blogger.com (Oman Collective Intelligence) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:09:00 +0000

Take the physical world, combine it with the digital world and a whole new dimension of reality is what you get. It is called augmented reality or AR.

Lynx (known as Axe in the U.S.) in London

More and more companies are starting to use it as it gives both users and brands the ability to connect even further with a product before, during and after making a purchase. It is really cool and can be lots of fun.

The following video is from F&N Big Fun Fest in Malaysia’s Largest Dance Mob.

Love this stuff!