I don’t intend to debate if I should be unbanned, for the fact that it is now a clear example if it is indeed a “community”. I put the facts up here, but the readers - you - are to draw your own conclusions.

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As fellow blogger wrote, there are always lessons to be learnt. However, putting down the ego and admitting one’s mishandling is often the hardest thing to do. By chance, I recalled this article in my Google Feed Reader and nobody could have said it better than Heather Yaxley had. Her last two paragraphs were enough to sum it up for Ping’s community manager’s arrogance with DVD and her “supposed” apology.

PR should also counsel against the non-apology (as seen frequently in US election campaigns) - which basically says we are sorry if you’ve been offended/affected… rather than actually apologising for the organisation’s actions.  I always feel this adds insult to injury as not only has someone been impacted, but they are made to feel guilty for recognising this.

However, as with the political apology, perhaps it is not surprising that there are many strategies conceived by which you can say sorry without perhaps really meaning it.  In my experience that’s a skill accomplished by many 4 year olds, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if either lawyers or PR practitioners counsel the ambiguous apology either.

You can read the full article here.

Perhaps the inexperience behind the team contributed to the saga, and it’s a good lesson for companies wishing to engage bloggers. You will need a lot more transparency, sincerity and justifiable actions than you previously thought.

So to my question… I hope they are.

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To keep this short, I am going to run you through some note-worthy points which Aaron seeks to lead readers to think about. Overall, the ideas were very precise and the social media we are realistically look at now seemed too primitive. Along with it, I will append a local example to matchmake to those ideas.

Introducing New Employees. Many companies ask new hires to send an email introduction to their department or to the entire company (depending on its size). Instead, start an internal blog or social network where new employees can post their introductions…

Singapore: When Yebber recruited bloggers under her wing, it was also publicized through the personal blogs of the new employee/collaborator. We typically inform associates via emails of any changes in employment and contact and this delivers the spread of news further than a mere newsletter, which is only circulated to you if you sign up.

Public Relations. With an external facing corporate blog, the communications team can engage its publics (customers, media, analysts or other audiences) in brand conversations. Blogs can extend the conversation beyond the press release…

Singapore: National Heritage Board has effectively maintained Yesterday.sg and involved bloggers in the contributions towards the cause. While this blog does not sell products literally, it enables conversations between the board, contributors and readers. Something not quite possible via traditional media. It also becomes an added option for publicity of heritage events.

Customer Support. A staple of many technology companies, support forums are searchable threads of conversations where engineers or product designers can answer questions and help troubleshoot issues. The best part is that once a question is answered…

Singapore: When blog advertising network Advertlet’s domain “accidentally” expired, an emergency blog served as the temporary customer support to bloggers and publishers. Instead of replying to enquiries individually (which can be time consuming), a page of answers is available to all.

The benefits of how social media tools like blogs and wikis are endless. However, to rip the best out of social media isn’t about the IT tools solely. Technological knowledge is only a small part of it, the start. What comes next, is the application of these tools through various departments. Of which, some are easily accessed by consumers and associate partners.

For social media to come to this stage, I foresee an uphill climb. The arena is still being tested, the ethics are still being penetrated, the rules are set to be changed, participation is about to increase even more and finally, we can then tell who is realistically doing social media, and who’s not.

Read Mashable’s article HERE.

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I took a very quick glance on the website given to me, and shut it within minutes. Immediately, I sent out a reply to the webmaster. Here’s my reply below.

So what is so wrong with this pitching for product review? How many more bloggers have received such pitchings, I wondered. I will not disclose the exact product and company because my aim here is not to embarrass them nor disgrace them. I will only go as far as saying, they are in the advanced optical industry.

Despite the amount of guides available online to educate marketers how to pitch to bloggers in the social media arena, it is disturbing to me that many people are still not taking the effort to polish their pitching skills. There are already some critical mistakes in a short mail, and I am going to touch on them now.

Webmaster does pitching? Not that it’s impossible, but not unless he is a trained marketer or the brains behind the product. With a scientific product, I would expect a pitching from someone who is trained in opticianry or the equivalent. Given that most marketers can easily switch between industries, that can be discounted. However though, you will still want to get the right person to speak to prospects. The mail indicated nothing much with such a horrendous introduction.

What do you exactly do? I said it was a horrendous introduction, it said nothing more than “webmaster”. That also led me to wonder, is this merely an eCommerce site? Or are they dealers? Perhaps, they are the patent owners? If his expertise is not credible, how can I entrust my eyes to him? (Eyes are damn precious alright?)

Unbiased review? This is an over-spilled “term”, and far too many companies are putting it out to show that they are impartial. A better choice for me would be “sharing your experiences or feedbacks” or even “any suggestions to improve the product is deeply appreciated”. Sounds formal, but it gives the receiver a better direction to talk about the product. With more and more product “reviews” being delivered through blogs with PayPerPost and countless IT companies proclaiming to do social media, the real reviews are being discredited heavily.

Nothing more than one email. If you noticed, I replied with references to my lifestyle and circumstances. Up til now, I have received no further briefs regarding the product I am being invited to review. Is the webmaster showing that a relationship is what he is trying to cultivate here? Or is he just trying to buy advertising space with free products? Sure, some will jump at it. It’s free. Not me certainly.

If there’s anything he did right, this is the only one.

Free product samples. I for one, don’t do reviews without first using the product myself. If I do that and promote something that I have no realistic experience with, I am downright lying. Mark my words. Look at most of the product reviews arising from product events, how many of them truthfully had been using a certain product long enough to put up a review? Probably only 20% of them, due to their work environment. There are even differences between the speed of a PC running with 20GB of HDD filled, and another with 100GB topped. This is the only thing I see that the webmaster has done right, allowing me to use the product.

I get particularly “mental” whenever I received such pitchings in my mailboxes. Nine out of 10 pitchings, they are in the form as you see above. You have seen none of them here, because I don’t believe that they are forging consumer relationships with you - my (small humble amount of) readers.

It doesn’t matter even if you’re from a small company, in fact I love promoting startups and SMEs. But first, they have to learn how to build up a fruitful relationship. If you can’t do that, it is therefore nothing more than just online advertising.

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While Jason emphasized that PR should be the fateful social media adopters, it left me to wonder about the marketers and customer service cohort. I gathered that these three are the most in touch with customers, compared to any other departments in corporate companies. Of course, support engineers etc do as well but not as much. Hence, Jason’s classic question… Where exactly should social media fall in the organizational structure?

Jason gave a brief definition of social media, which is precisely what I believe in and had been preaching.

Social media is a method of communications.

Social media tools facilitate these communications.

Evidently, the most appropriate people to adopt social media are not IT developers but rather, corporate departments that deal directly with consumers. The kink that I do not agree with mainly resides in the fact that modern marketers and customer service departments handle customers equally much. It is easy for us to think that only PR maintain relationships, but the fact is, marketers and customer service reps are much in the loop too. They are, afterall, the faces of the companies that customers see.

Yet, it’s not restricted to only the three above. Even R&D and senior management can get rolling with customers. As we have seen, more corporate blogs are being launched as the days go. With the technological shift focusing on interactive web, anyone and everyone can get online for a piece of the action. Can I consider that a good evidence of how social media applies beyond PR?

As some of us have experienced (allow me to restrict it to Singapore where I am), IT developers are sometimes the last people we want to be talking business with. I have pointed out countless times in my blogs and private dinners, a Web 2.0 website is only as good as a piece of online art without the human factor and interaction. Many IT departments can come up with some really fantastic ideas but it just doesn’t sink into the rest of the company. It is difficult to make them see that we do not need just another fanciful solution, but one that complement the environment equally well. Not change it to something it is not.

However though, Jason said that all-important thing about social media efforts.

What is most telling in your social media efforts is the message. And that is most likely already being supplied by your public relations or communications arm.

I wrote once in my now-dysfunc blog that through social media, there are always messages contained within social media’s interaction. I was met with objections, ranging from a social media “guru” (associated with Social Media Breakfast Singapore) to even PR professionals that social media is all about establishing relationships without all the marketing messages. Today, I hold firm my beliefs… there IS a message in every bit of communication we direct at consumers.

I think we are a little naive to think that companies are inviting social networks and bloggers to publicity events without a good reason. The quality of coverage is another issue, so I shall not go into it at this point. Like I said previously, there are no free meals in this world. Companies that deny this, I say it’s an outright lie. Not wanting to sidetrack from the topic, every exchange of opinions and complaints line up the infrastructure of the message. Is this a company that listens to customers? Is this a company that is willing to invest time to share knowledge with customers? Is this company giving enough to empower customers to provide assistance for one another? Is the product designer digesting the feedbacks when rolling out a new gadget for customers?

Everything, is telling the customer something.

It also led me to self-question if there is even “social media marketing”. It is a direct contradiction to the objections I received earlier this year, that social media is all about relationships. My take is, there isn’t really a process or technique called “social media marketing”. I felt more compelled to believe that social media changes the way marketers work with consumers (at best), in comparison to pushy product campaigns that have been done before the Dot Com Bubble Burst.

How did I end up with that? With the empowering of customers opinions, they often become the marketing mouths of various products. These unofficial product endorsements in social media engage the prospects through the sharing of experiences. Looking at it from another angle, you can almost say the workload of marketers are being shared by the average public.

At this point, you would have realized everyone in this viral cycle cannot be dismissed and should not be. While most social media efforts are typically driven by IT services now, it will require them to dabble with marketing knowledge in order to produce a system that will drive marketing and PR efforts. It isn’t just about marketers and PR adapting to the Web 2.0 environment. And the greatest mistake of all, IT developers’ attempts to convert marketers and PR into geeks. The website can’t talk (literally), it takes the participants behind the consoles to whip up an active conversation.

Instead of watching social media heavily centered around PR, I am more aligned to the school of thoughts that it will infiltrate other corporate functions in years to come. The IT department designs and builds it, PR starts the ball rolling, marketers adopt it to engage, customer service use it to support and finally, customers use it to respond or share.

It takes two hands to clap, and a team to click.

Unrelated Announcement: If you have subscribed to my original feed, you may need to re-subscribe again because I have switched to FeedBurner to handle my feeds. I apologize sincerely if I have cause any inconvenience in the process of doing so. I promise this is the last time I will do this. You can re-subscribe by clicking [this].

Oh c’mon, don’t be shy.

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For the experienced customer service professionals, they can attest that handling consumers is far more tricky than what we hear from social media enthusiasts. How do you listen to an unhappy customer? How do you lead the unhappy customer to see from your point of view? Can the recommendation of a product be trusted? Sure, many Web 2.0 companies offering social media services will promise you the world.

In the social media environment today, it is important for us to do our own research and investigation too. Eventually, you will have to decide between communication skills and technological skills. Like what Valeria commented in my previous post… technology changes, human don’t. Therefore, interaction skills should always be ranked higher than technological knowledge. Rules of engagement just doesn’t change. How do you spot the fakes then?

Transparency. Someone is promoting a product/service to you aggressively, can the person be trusted? How is the person associated with the brand? Are there any vested interest (eg; commission or shareholding in the brand) that is hidden from you unknowingly (intentionally and unintentionally)? Is the person a real customer, or a manufactured customer?

Contradicting actions. You’re being pitched by a social media “guru” on getting involved with a certain programme, is that in accordance to the professional beliefs and principles? Is the person also putting into practice what they preached on engaging customers? Are their actions consistent with the company’s mission statement? If the provider cannot even practise that in their own companies, how can they do that for you? Is the provider also supportive or endorsing shady dealings of another service?

Integrity and credibility. You read a lot online and you are unsure. Are there any official statement from the company? Are there conflict of interest from the same person promoting a product/service on their blogs, but yet rebukes with the reason of “personal opinions” only when criticism arises? How do you know when a person is speaking in a corporate entity, or when a person is speaking on personal grounds?

Experiential. What’s the reputation about this person? Can the stories be verified? Can the person offer a solid explanation where there are doubts? Are there any questionable behaviors that are against the essence of social media, in this case?

Stepping into the social media scene is not easy. The experts made it looked easy, but it’s not. While navigating through social media, we must understand that our personalities makes up a portion of our works. Can you imagine a marketer trying to sell to clients the benefits of interaction with customers, but yet curses and swears at every criticism? It’s morbid, I know.

If you decide to buy into the hype, always remember to protect yourself by investigating the parties involved beforehand. Many a times, mentors and associates often raised the point that social media is still in its infancy with very little regulations. If there are any suspicious factors… stop, step back and breathe the air out of the marketing talks and manipulation. Give yourself enough time to think thoroughly, and penetrate all angles. How will a social media programme benefit you? Is that the only programme available? Or if you’re looking to endorse a certain product/service, are you able to provide answers to queries?

I am not saying social media programmes serves no purpose. With hundreds of voices proclaiming to do social media, it is time we start examining if some of them are truly going social or practising manipulative media. There are also many more who can provide answers, but the bulk of investigation and verification still falls very much on your own shoulders. With careful observation of each and every social media “guru” and their behaviors, you will actually find that it is not very difficult to bust the facade behind some of them.

Unfortunately in Singapore, more and more individuals are toying the scene because there are no official bodies to govern the ethics of such companies. They are allowed to roam freely, while continuing to dupe unsuspecting consumers or corporate companies into their services. It’s a sad truth that must be fixed.

Above all, if you think a certain social media programme benefits you or your company, remember that there is no free meal in this world.

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I think the example above taught us a very important lesson on why online reputation is of paramount importance. I caught this story off Stuart’s blog, of how Heinz is losing its grounds on the internet front. Along with it, a whopping amount of negative publicity had been discovered on one single page of Google Search. (I tried it, and the screenshot is accurate!) I can’t help but wonder if most of these entities are even serious about the social media scene, or are they only messing it all up?

Stuart also highlighted Heather’s observations that Heinz doesn’t seemed to respond to the rising negative criticism. Rings a bell? I bet it does, especially when legitimate questions on the integrity of Ping.sg’s community manager went ignored and not discussed openly with transparency. What’s worse than having the employee of another web-based business, Yebber, to answer the questions. Anyway, how does telling old grandmother stories help in reinstating confidence and transparency? If that wasn’t enough to paint Ping.sg black, a personal attack was launched on one of the critics of Ping.sg system. Ironically, yet another of Yebber’s folk (a podcast host). The reason? The critic was her previous employer.

Can readers not wonder what’s wrong with the Yebber crew? Wasn’t I right about bloggers becoming social media abusers? WAIT, I think we can anticipate the explanation.

Outcries against Ping.sg were dealt with in the form of banning. Not least to mention, some of the banned members were also sponsors for the site over independent occasions. (HALF TIME EDIT: Being supportive of banned users can also lead you to be banned on Ping.sg) With careful examination, it also led me to ponder why the severe problems came in only after the community manager came onboard, not before. Best of all, most of these banned users joined the site much earlier than the community manager herself. Glorifying herself with the contribution of others way earlier definitely is a lousy move. Is it a fussy blogging community? Or does the problem resides like a virus in the management?

I think from point to point, credibility shows itself and corporate companies cannot ignore negative publicity. When will it be the day where more than five items on a single Google Search showed negative criticism of Ping.sg? At this rate, perhaps in due time unless some major shaking is done. Much like Stuart’s example, Heinz now faces the crucial test of answering a really big question… is Heinz lying?

There’s a lot they can improve on. That’s for sure. Take for example, adhere to public standards that associated parties with organizing committees are not allowed to participate in contests or awards. This is the unspoken rule across countless contests held by companies worldwide. Even family members of employees are not allowed to participate for integrity and fairness purposes. Will anyone not suspect if award rigging is involved?

At a point where $100,000 is considered too little for such a site, how much does it take to buy it over? A million bucks? It beckoned the question if the bad reputation is even worth that money. Exactly six months ago, I was offered another 5 year-old event production workshop for acquisition with an evaluation of merely $20,000. I shared the opportunity with some friends in the business world, the unfulfilled promises and sub-standards services to ex-clients left a bad taste in our assessment. The investment needed to right the bad reputation is many more times higher and will go on for years.

Will you buy a car knowing it will break down a week later? It’s all about the money, I told you so.

Related Read:
Church of the Customer - More on why online WOM matters
Conversation Agent - We Talk and Learn by Story

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Perhaps some of you would have come across the term “Social Networking Fatique” and it is the time when you feel so drained and tired from all the interlocking new relationships you establish over social networking sites. What’s worse, when you get irritated by all kinds of application invitations in sites like Facebook or MySpace. I am sure quality networking goes far beyond super-poking each other. If I were to poke you with a steak knife for real, I am sure you wouldn’t take it laying down.

While I am not a social networking expert, I can safely tell you the obsession with social networking can potentially turn you into a derailed social butterfly. That’s to say, you don’t enhance the conversation but rather, for the sake of it. Sometimes I navigate my way around Facebook looking at those with hundreds to thousands of “friends”, I can’t help but wonder if these people ever engage in real conversations.

What is not social networking?

Adding everyone you can find. At the end of the day, how many fruitful engagement are being nurtured? Truth is, there is only so much we can keep track of. Turn to your profile and ask yourself, what if each and everyone of them send you just one single message per day?

Hoping to be understood. If understanding a person is that easy with a few favourite movies or music, we are all better off hanging out at the store. Getting into the social networking sites is only a start. You’re not through yet, until you spend some quality time to develop the relationship.

Groups for whoring. It isn’t a pleasant word to use, and I wished I had a better choice. Unfortunately, that’s the only way I can bring this straight to the point. Groups and networks fundamentally come together to serve a specific purpose while keeping themselves open to new memberships. They’re certainly not designed to plant you there and relationships blossom on their own. I join a humble collection of 15 groups in Facebook and I am already finding it tough to keep up with each and everyone of them.

It’s about what values you can draw out of it, and also how you can contribute. Read - relevance.

Forgetting the real world. Online networking and real world networking goes hand in hand together. You use the same techniques, etiquettes and also passion regardless of which form of networking you do. Much like dining etiquettes if you’d like to think so. A change of restaurant or country does not diminish the need to observe these rules.

Being somebody else. Very frequently, I observed that individuals who are seemingly loud online but in reality, they are pretty much another person. While it is possible for us to adopt a different persona altogether online, quality networking is only possible when you’re being real. You would say the same things and conduct yourself similarly online and offline, so to speak. Your opinions do not change (without good reasons) even when a face-to-face conversation is necessary.

Undeniably, online social networking revolutionize the way we discover contacts and communicate subsequently. My answer to most people who asked if we have forgotten about the ground rules for healthy interaction, is a definite YES.

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I can’t exactly talk much about the book now, since I have not started reading it. I’m going to keep this short, so I can get on with the book. However, I scanned through the pages and I am delighted that Kevin avoided long stories and got straight to the points. It’s all the key service tips that matters at the end of the day.

Meanwhile, let me settle down and get going with the book. I would love to share this book with my friends thereafter. The other option is to get a copy from his site here.

Sorry Kevin, my lousy camera phone is not doing your book any justice.

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There are no further details I can provide in this post, because “300 guests” was the only information provided to me. The conversation ended abruptly with the labeling of “you’re too small”. How did that come about? I was upfront with her and told her I worked independently. I do not work for any company. Being upfront and frank with my style of working is always a virtue I behold in my professional life. But, she didn’t seemed to know she had committed several mistakes within one short sentence.

1. The magic number “300″ offered little details, except a blockbuster movie released by that number. At best, it’s a rough estimate for listing, reception, food, gifts and space requirement.

2. She failed tremendously, or should I say she did not even attempt to, find out what my event niche is. Hundreds of event companies and freelancers grab every deal that lands at their feet like a beggar would dig every coin out of the drain, I don’t.

3. Her response was a tat too presumptuous, she probably figured working “independently” meant, yours truly, will be the one and only to serve 30 tables with food, one and only to wire up the lights and sounds, one and only emcee. Perhaps, the clown who will keep her guests’ jaws on the ground too!

Why did I bring up this experience? It took me a month of reflection after this online conversation to gauge what exactly was so wrong about this incident. I pretty much swept it under the carpet after all the reflection but my dear friend Nelson reminded me of this lady today again. The crucial point I was trying to demonstrate wasn’t about the failed deal, but rather how quickly we tend to judge and jump to conclusions with people. Professionals are not spared, when they bring their personalities into their jobs.

The Irony: Clearly, she is ignorant of how events are managed. From the program manager to the producer, from the stagehand to the technicians, all of them cannot be discounted. Yet, we need not be affixed to the same production team for a very realistic reason. Those who are familiar with ZoukOut’s production, you would have realized the biggest event by the most reputable dance club in Singapore is actually managed by a few parties. All of them are professionals in their own fields. Some independently, some not.

Secondly, Dinner and Dance comes in uncountable formats. Sure, you can practise a little plagiarism but that’s entirely your choice. The cost of the event varies widely, from humble 4-digits gathering to the rare 6-digits production even. Let’s put the cost of ballroom, food, gifts, prizes and necessary administrative charges aside. Say… just the entertainment act alone, where am I within the range?

• 30 mins act - $5,000 to $10,000
• 45mins act - $7,000 to $12,000
• Full 60mins (or slightly longer) act - $10,000 to $20,000

Mind you, that’s only for the entertainers. They are no small players, but professionals having their own private performances. Definitely not those small time magicians or hocus pocus hua-la-la acts. Yes, your jaws are probably dropping now. Going by those prices, you would have conceded that these are no small gimmicks twirling at your fingertips but possibly life endangering acts. Tell me, with these price range, how many companies will actually be willing to splurge on quality (professional) entertainment that cost the same amount as all other expenditures put together?

As I sat back and reflected, I wasn’t worried if I could pull off my favourite stunts. Being replied with “you’re too small”, my concern was whether she could even afford my price tag in the first place. Just like shopping along Orchard Road, different boutiques cater to different categories of shoppers. There’s those for the general public, and others in the luxury circuit. That’s pretty much it.

Last but not least, I ain’t really keen on doing Dinner and Dance. I have always preferred marketing related events and this was what I meant when I said she didn’t even bothered to find out where my niche lies in. Even if I had taken up this project, it would have been out of goodwill since she was introduced to me by a friend.

The Repercussions: There are probably two ways we can look at it. The first would be on a personal level, especially when doing inquiries with people we know or at least a friend’s friend. The second would be on a professional level.

On a personal level, I am much more forgiving. I can understand the various personalities in all of us, and for some they may not be used to sounding “needy”. But as friends, we can easily overlook that. Acceptance, is afterall part of friendship.

The same cannot be said professionally though. She, representing her company, is as good as her company speaking to me. Therefore her ways of looking at issues in this instance, represented the way her company would deal with people. She’s asking on behalf of her company, isn’t it? This is the jeopardy of bringing our personalities into our jobs. For some, it is not helpful at all to display their personalities through their professional work.

Little do I know several months down the road, I realized that I wasn’t the only one she had pissed off. With a little digging, I came to realize that other individuals were also upset with her for various reasons like inability to keep confidential issues under wraps and for being upset that her friends do not agree with her views. The character flaw is clearly undeniable. I certainly expect something better from someone actively seen mingling in the social media communities, where strong relationships are claimed to be forged.

Lessons Learnt: Very commonly, we preach how relationships can be improved through social media and networking. More critically, many of us have discussed and showed why relationships between businesses and customers are important. But, does it stops only at customers?

It is crucial to know that good relationships are not only necessary when engaging customers, but it is also imperative that good rapport can be fostered between businesses and partnering companies. Be it for outsourcing or for a joint venture, a relationship on the right note will last a long time to come. At some point, playing down ourselves a little by being humble can end up as the make-or-break factor when things are not going our ways.

At the same time, businesses should also make reasonable efforts to understand who they are seeking services from. Are you approaching the right suppliers for the right products? Are you speaking to the right person with the relevant expertise? Are you open to ideas before you shut your doors? Evidently, these weren’t in the mind of the prospect above.

It’s a big lesson, and a lesson I will treasure for a long time to come. In fact, it will become one of those lost deals that I will have no qualms about. Perhaps, the unhappiness of many others against this same person is comforting to me that the problem isn’t really about me but… she.

Oh btw, any seasoned event organizer will tell you… a dinner for 300 guests is really a tiny project. In layman’s term, chicken feet. It offers little satisfaction, so now you know why I prefer marketing events.

Related Read:
Forbes - Should I Fire My Client?
Creative Behaviour - When To Fire Your Client?

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