BlackBerry Messenger used to be the leading mobile messaging service before iOS and Adroid. But even though it has been eclipsed by new mobile apps, BBM still manages to draw 60 million users. The author is also a BMM user and would like to connect with you and be part of a BBM group.

I believe BBM follows the lead of other mobile messaging services such as Viber, Skype, Google Talk which is now Google Hangout and now WhatsApp. This way, BBM user is not only confined in using BlackBerry devices. That’s good news by the way. This means that I can setup my BBM on my Adroid phone.

BlackBerry Messenger is not just a mobile instant messaging platform. It has been promoted as a mobile social network similar to what one can do on Google+ with Google Hangout and Facebook with Facebook Chat.

I commend BlackBerry for coming up with this development. This announcement may be sensed as an action to resolve the company’s vulnerability in the fast-changing mobile technologies. Nevertheless, with BlackBerry reaching out to other mobile OS platforms, it would be another step-up for the Canadian company to be the competing peers and an action for possible collaboration.

Many bloggers I know have been into freelancing. And thus, they work from home. There is an advantage to be working from home because one can save on some costs, especially transportation. It is good actually to be working from home, but a recent study says that there is also a bad side to it.

Thankfully, I have been shared with this infographic created by Regus, a global serviced offices provider. But the information is sourced from www.internetprovider.org.

Please include attribution to InternetProvider.org with this graphic.

When I have come to scan through the infographics, I would say I agree to the disadvantages of working from home.

Working from home may be easy for some situations and freelance workers such as:

1. A freelance worker is too focused and that he lives alone in his home.

2. A freelance worker does not have a family and children where he may be distracted in times they are working on projects and tasks on their computing devices.

3. No pets that demand attention.

4. No family co-habitating in the house.

5. No noises from inside and outside, from appliances or from television.

The above situations may be good. However, if the freelance workers have the family, children, pets and noises in their homes that demand attention and would lead them to lose focus on their works, then working from home may not be a good idea after all.

There are top 3 disadvantages of working from home as illustrated in the infographics.

1.Children or family demanding attention.

2. Difficulty concentrating on work issues.

3. Children, family and pets disturbing work phone calls.

And somehow, I agree on these obstacles because I have experienced them when I work from home. That’s why I tend to work from home at night in my room solely with no distractions from family members. They are doing their things on their own rooms or their living room.

However, there is still problem with a little noise, which I find already trivial.

But there is one disadvantage as pointed out in the study and that is ‘bad posture’.

To curb that, I have set up an office table with the scanner, printer and even fax machine aside from the PC and the laptop I am using for work. Of course, there is the ergonomic office chair. And I also put up dumbbell sets so I can work on my muscles on certain breaks. Sometimes, I alternate reading blogs and sites for writing sources and doing bicep curls.

Skipping exercise can be bad and unhealthy so I always make it a point that I spare just an hour in a day. And I don’t sit all the time. In every hour of my working period, I alternate between sitting and standing and even stretching so I don’t crunch the blood flow.

Time management is also important while working at home. But lately, I have realized that it is better not to work all week from home. I find it preferable to be working with a colleague in a shared office. Location 63 has been built on that idea. However, be prepared for the cost in having a shared office.

But if your earning is more than what you spend in shared area for a temporary office space and that you realize that it becomes more productive working in a shared office or area, then you may have to decide if working from home all the time in all week is best suited for you.

Though Regus is into serviced office or shared office spaces, there is one in Cebu that I can recommend and that is Global Hub Serviced Offices.

I still prefer working from home. But lately, I am venturing into inbound marketing in an PPC agency in which I am one of the partners. So, I alternate now working in a temporary office and at home.

Max Limpag, a blogger and business editor of SunStar Cebu, once advised me that to be a good writer, you should push yourself to write. Write, write and write. That’s a good advice actually, even though, I first heard it almost 2 years ago.

Now, with the importance of blogging in Cebu and in the Philippines and the recognition of some bloggers, it has become an even challenge for bloggers to update and post fresh contents on their blogs.

Keeping the traditional media writers in mind and how they do the task of taking down notes to contribute to publications just adds to the fact that bloggers in Cebu have much keeping up to do.

And with that, I have come up with a list that will, in a way, inspire, more bloggers to make their blogs fresh of contents, even if not on daily basis. But please keep in mind that some of these tips may not apply for your blog. You may have to do a parallelism to come up with a supposed analogy to be applied on your blog.

1. Be a netizen, be aware of your environment.

This helps if your niche is into environment or events in your place. This will also set your blog as a news blog if you want to post events such as accidents, unusual occurrences, politically-inclined subject in which you hold the source that still throbs to be exposed.

2. Attend events, take down notes and blog. It amazes me how an event can help me in a posting. But one thing that I may have failed is to post more than one blog post about one event. There can be more things to blog about even in just one event.

3. Conduct an interview.

In some events I attended, there were opportunities for interview. This way, one interview can help you create one blog post. You can also write another blog post of what the event means to you including your conclusion that will add to the over-all reception of the event.

4. Be resourceful.

I include this because it is bound that you may have missed some things during an event. It is also important to look in the newspapers in with the articles of the event published the next day. Be sure to include the source in your blog post if you want to include a few excerpts taken from the newspaper.

5. If you want to be the first to blog about an event, then do it. It can help drive traffic, gain followers and subscribers.

Blogging is still an important ingredient in building online reputation. They say blogging is dead which is just something to craze things up, bringing a notion that could stop others from blogging or to become a blogger.

And if you want to be a top-notch blogger or want to be a social media influencer, then it may be important to blog like what the traditional media reporters do. It is, thanks to them, that Cebu newspapers or the print media are still alive.

]]> http://www.bjornbern.com/how-to-blog-as-if-you-are-a-traditional-media-reporter/feed/ 0 http://www.bjornbern.com/why-cebu-businesses-should-have-social-media-officers/ http://www.bjornbern.com/why-cebu-businesses-should-have-social-media-officers/#comments Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:26:57 +0000 Bjornson Bernales http://www.bjornbern.com/?p=453 Last Social Media Influencers Summit 2013, I met Kate Biol again, a blogger-friend and a member of Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. She surprised me by informing me that she took the role of Social Media officer of Julie’s bakeshop, a large bakeshop chain in the Philippines.

Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. and Julie’s Bakeshop have been partners since last year. With this news about a blogger now holding a social media position in Cebu, would this be a sign that more Cebu businesses should follow?

Julie’s is a Cebu home-grown brand. It has become a large brand, not only in Cebu, but in the Philippines. Its market is mass-range, that means it caters to all market segments. But it is the only breadshop in that market range where it has managed to air advertisements on Philippine television. Goldilocks and Red Ribbon are higher-scale bakeshops catering to mostly Class A, B and C.

Having a social media officer in Julie’s would be a first. I dealt with an assistant marketing officer who handled the digital marketing of the company, but she already resigned month ago. With Kate Biol on the social media position, I think, Julie’s has implemented another strategy that would be deemed among the rare first in Cebu business landscape.

I have met social media officers in Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular. They’re now holding digital marketing positions then. Julie’s Bakeshop and Rent.ph are, perhaps, the only Cebu home-grown businesses with social media officers. I will also have to add RLComm of Ruben Licera, Jr, whose business hires the owner’s wife for the social media management position.

Chanel Marie Imperial,a close friend blogger, holds the social media management position for iNewMedia,  a new media organization.

Xyza Yape, another fellow blogger holds the social media management position  for Rent.ph.

Sure, RAFI has a communications specialist that includes social media in her job description. A fellow blogger, Nancy Cudis currently holds that post. But other businesses, perhaps, they are not yet existent or at least not that exposed.

If you are a Cebu business with a social media officer or manager, then please contact me. I’d like to connect with you. Now, I digress.

Back to the topic…

The only social media agency in Cebu that I think has the biggest advantage in Cebu local market is Third Team Media, owned by Fleire Castro, a fellow blogger and my co-manager for Google Business Groups Cebu. She has grown this business into a formidable agency offering social media services in Cebu.

Though, Fleire Castro primarily caters to foreign clients and I am glad that she has a happy list of foreign clientele, it is now that I see her business, extending its service to local markets.

If a Cebu business wants to outsource its social media marketing tasks, then hire Third Team Media. If it wants to hire a social media marketer, then make sure he or she is a blogger with a wide connection in the local and national blogosphere in Cebu and in the Philippines.

Why hire a blogger for a social media marketing position?

A blogger, especially those who are into blogging longer than 3 months, has the knowhow in social media.

A blog is already a social media tool. Facebook and Twitter are not just social networking sites. They’re considered micro-blogging platforms. Add the Google Plus in the knowledge of the blogger, then you have a qualified a social media marketer. Please also determine if he or she is qualified according to character, not just in his or her social media competency.

And then, there was Best Cebu Blogs Awards 2010 where I helped in organizing the first ceremonial event in Sugbu Hotel. The turnout was also great.

The 2nd World Bloggers’ Day was also an event that I helped in organizing. Though we managed to bring credible speakers, the reception of the event was mixed. Nevertheless, I and Agnes Jimenez of EmpressofDrac.com managed to stage the event.

It was during that event that I realized how exhausting event organizing is especially if there is only a few manpower.

The successful staging of Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 was an eye-opener for me as an event organizer. It was during the progress of organizing this event that I learned the ways of gaining rapport and support from big firms and small businesses. I imagined it to be a big and tiring event but I came to realize how the success of this event made an impact on me as an event organizer.

The effort of organizing the event can be deemed similar what a role of supporting actor winning an Oscar. It was fun, excruciating and yet still liberating and,  I need to say this, rewarding.

The role of being just a blogger transcended to a new level.

And then came 2012, where most events were organized for Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. and Google Business Group Cebu where I am the co-community manager.

Events I helped in leading the organizing team include Social Media Day Cebu, Social Good Summit Cebu, Google Plus Workshop and DigiMark Seminar and Workshop. These events made an impact on me as an event organizer. And they did help me in a way.

As a blogger/event organizer, I find it a high time to promote my events being organized in this blog. So, I installed a plug-in that would plot the events I  organize.

The Calendar of Events is still a work in progress stage as this blog.

There, you can see events that I have organized.

Now, there is an underlying question if I have to include other events in which I am not organizing. My answer to that would be YES.

A big YES and also a  big BUT.

There will be a corresponding fee in including your events on this blog.

The fee is still minimal though.

For a start, Php500 for an event posted 20 days before the actual event.

Php 1,000 if the event is demanded to be posted 60 days before the actual event.

The amounts are in a package deal.

Other value-added services include:

1. Blog post (200 words) about the event including the image.

2. Social media promotion on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. A business event will be promoted on LinkedIn. It will be for weekly duration until the end of the event.

If images of sponsors are to be included in the post, additional Php 500 will be charged.

What about exchange deal?

I know exchange deal happens between businesses and I am glad to say that it is possible.

However, posting about the event will be limited only to one(1).

Social Media promotion will be conducted only once with a report including screenshots and links where the promotional links and images can be found.

To avail of this service, please contact me at 0932 878 4592 or send me a message using the contact form.

Comments or questions are welcome.

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Telecommuting has been the norm in Silicon Valley. It has been a working lifestyle where it permits freedom to work anywhere as long as connectivity is present and productivity is highly warranted. One can go into telecommuting and be a productive worker. You can go to an office or anywhere as long as you have the gadget to work in and to continue to do the job.

Keeping the boss happy is the goal of telecommuting. In the case of freelancers, keeping the clients happy is the stretch of the goal.

There are good things about telecommuting. That’s why the memo from Mayer has been received with fire, even outside from Yahoo’s realm. And so, to keep the topic on its trending file, I have compiled 8 things about telecommuting and not all of them are good.

1. Telecommuting permits freedom. Freedom to work anywhere is the objective as long as the laptop, notebook or any mobile gadget that allows one to work with convenience is there. Of course, working from home is among the reasons why people tend to prefer telecommuting.

2. Telecommuting also permits lack of focus. The distractions around the working environment outside the office space can tempt telecommuters to deviate from work and lose focus. This scenario hampers productivity.

3. Telecommuting  can help one achieve work-life balance. It is possible for a telecommuter to be with the family while working. After all, it is possible to work from home or even work in a cafe closer to your children’s school.

4. Telecommuting allows one to work overtime even until dawn. Although one has the freedom to work anytime, and thus freedom of time to work, it gives telecommuters  to practice procrastination. And sometimes, allowing procrastination in telecommuting is not healthy.

5. Telecommuting allows one to travel while working even outside the country or in the beach. That’s the thing  I like about telecommuting. It can give me the time for enjoyment and at the same time the working hours whenever I feel bored during vacation.

6.Telecommuting allows one to induce pressure during vacation. I had had a discussion with a superior from an institution I worked before and he pointed out this disadvantage in telecommuting. I would even agree to it noting that one can’t get out from the pressure of work while on vacation.

7.Telecommuting can induce motivation to work. Other people don’t like the confines of office cubicles and don’t want to deal with office gossips, so they go telecommuting to get rid off the faces of workmates. That’s a good thing especially if a telecommuter is a loner who can be more productive working alone.

8. Telecommuting lacks face-to-face interaction. Although I would tend to disagree to this one, I understand that many people are more productive and can provide efficient results when they are in the presence of bosses and colleagues. There is a good pressure and bad pressure working in offices. But if productivity and urgent result is needed, telecommuting is to be sacrificed.

I exchanged views with many bloggers about telecommuting in an indirect way. Other bloggers who are into freelancing would require to be self-motivated to attain optimum productivity. Others have experienced the downsides of telecommuting but they still manage to achieve more things.

For freelancers, who are free from the stringent corporate policy, telecommuting would still continue. But for those who are in Yahoo! I would agree with Marissa Mayer, especially if the goal is to take a giant digital firm from irrelevance.

 Photo credit: From the FP profile of Fleire Castro of Third Team Media

The Philippines has produced Bryan Boy who is now the social media correspondent in America’s Next Top Model. And there is also Abe Olandres, the popular tech blogger, whom I have learned to have a social media position in the largest mobile telecom company in the Philippines.

Janette Toral, who is more known  as Digital Filipino than a blogger, is busy organizing events for her e-commerce summit in Cebu.

The help of a social media agency in Cebu, owned by social media professional Fleire Castro, has made Toral’s events possible in Cebu starting with the Digital Influencers Marketing Summit in Cebu last year in which I volunteered in organizing.

Bryan Boy, Abe Olandres, Toral and even Fleire Castro are all bloggers. But their resumes do not stop in just blogging. The integration of social media in their blogging and networking paves the way for them to be more known online than just owning blogs.

Blogging is not enough. One has to make social media integral in his blogging plan. It is the next platform after blogging. In fact, a blog is a social media tool, so being a blogger is also a qualification for being a social media practitioner. Those who have leveled up their blogging and social media efforts  have become professionals and experts. Others are strategists and yes they are hired.

This March 16, 2013, a social media summit is being currently organized. It is kinda refreshing to know that I, a blogger,  am also in the main organizing team. The purpose of having this summit is to have a convention of social media enthusiasts in the Philippines under one roof for one day.

Social Media Influencers Summit 2013 is gonna be big. I hope for that. But thinking about the line up of speakers we have and the partners that have been supporting us, I have no doubt that this will be a huge social media event in Cebu this year 2013. A social media event with a national impact, Philippine-wise.

If you are a blogger and you want to step up in the game of social media by being part of the conversation or the initiator or influencer of that conversation, then head to Cebu this March 16, 2013 at JCentre Mall.

Blogging is not enough. Take part in social media where a big, big world is waiting for you to partake.

I want to do something productive and I delve into thinking that I do something productive whenever I read and whenever I analyze things. But taking into account the results from those seemingly-productive activities, the output is still intangible and with no figures.

Although it is practical to say that ideas should be coupled with actions, some ideas should be left dormant until a more concrete way is involved for them to be beneficial from the implementations involved. And thus, efficacy and efficiency in doing thing out from the ideas are the right ingredients instilled in the action phase.

Even before the first step to action, involving kinetic energy and not the static one, the creation of strategies during the idea generation should be integrated. It may sound complicated especially when I form the words and statements. But really, it is when during we generate ideas that we should also involve the right kind of action for that idea to be visible.

Filtering ideas should also come into play during the idea generation phase as to scrap the things not deemed to be feasible as to the period in which it is to be applied.

What  I account here should involve a flow from idea generation to action. But initially, what I intend to emphasize is the need for action after idea is generated. Even during the idea generation, actions should already be involved and that include:

1. Jotting down the ideas on a notebook as you brainstorm;
2. Categorizing the ideas based on priorities, applications and period in which it is to be feasibly applied
3. Filtering the ideas but not totally scrapping them. Just sort the ideas as to their feasibility per period.
4. Archive the ideas.
5. Take necessary actions after analyzing things over.

Suggestions:

1. During the idea-generation stage, don’t over-analyze. This will cause analysis-paralysis, a hindrance to productivity and one of the roots for non-action.
2. Consider the period and the time-frame in which you are allowed to generate ideas. Putting pressure during this stage allows for greater action and an impetus for one to move on to the next stage.
3. Always have an ally to back your ideas.
4. Popular ideas can gain vote confidence.
5. Always have tools when you generate ideas. Have notebooks or doodle when  you’d like to pen your ideas or voice recorder as you talk your ideas out, sort of a monologue, that is when you do the idea-generation alone.

Generating ideas is as important as taking the course of actions. It should start with an idea before proceeding to action. Even guerilla marketers, have ideas in mind, even if they do the actions randomly.

]]> http://www.bjornbern.com/ideas-actions/feed/ 0 http://www.bjornbern.com/finding-redemption/ http://www.bjornbern.com/finding-redemption/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:23:20 +0000 Bjornson Bernales http://www.bjornbern.com/?p=404 Yesterday, after going through an errand, I paid a visit to the church and asked God for guidance.

If you haven’t known yet, I am raised Catholic but have liberal views. I won’t have to  go through the painstaking details about my growing up Catholic, but somehow this religion has helped me in knowing God and the Roman Catholic Church and the teachings. But again, I have liberal standpoints and I say that not all teachings from this Church have been agreeable to me.

Anyway, my point in going there is to seek guidance. It’s about finding redemption after getting in a depression lately. I believe I was affected of what I had learned from a friend and I shared it from the previous post. And so for 2 days, I needed to focus again and not be drown by depression.

The good experience that I have with this Church was amazing. It was in this church where I asked God for a sign in which career path I would be taking and that was six years ago. Fast forward to now, I thanked God for giving me things and for putting me into what I am now although I would still like to improve and become richer. Yes, I have an ambitious goal to become a millionaire, something I still have to work on.

The Carmelite church in Mabolo was instrumental in my blogging career. It still is and that’s why, when I have spare time, I visit the church, pray, contemplate, meditate and ask for things from God.

Yesterday, one of the things that I asked from God was to change my working attitude. Doing so many things lately has put a deterrent to my focus self. And so I asked God to help me do the right things. I know that divine intervention would help but I believe it is my prayer that I asked God to give me wisdom.

Having the knowledge, having a family and a bit of bountiful things are the gifts I receive from God. I would have asked God to help other people but I believe that when I can help myself, that would be the right time that I can help other people.

Praying to God for redemption is a wonderful thing. I know some don’t believe in God. But I tell, regardless of the religion you have, there is still the divine person that can help and bring provision whenever we ask.

It is finding redemption that I can say my life is ready for more things. Being prepared is important. But working on the commitments including the responsibilities is even more significant.

Having too many commitments can drain a person. It exhausts the energy that helps in driving the person to work for a committed project or even a relationship. But having commitment also helps drive a person to be motivated.

Working on a relationship requires commitment. And I say this beyond the usual romantic or platonic relationship between lovers and/or friends.

In business and in the working place, the fact that you are into that business or are employed in an office or whatever working area you are assigned, the level of commitment is strong so as to meet a goal from being in that situation in the first place.

But there’s also a time in which the failure to commit can bring repercussions. I know because I believe that what I did during 2012 and what I did to my friends to certain projects and not being fully committed on those projects had its way of biting me at the present. And I think what I did back then has brought these consequences:

1. Lack of trust from the person in which I failed to make the necessary level of commitment

2. Impression of being unprofessional

3. The nagging feeling of putting someone down, in short– disappointment.

Although I have my reasons for it but somehow those reasons could readily offset the repercussions.  And the bad feeling has put on more weight than the feeling that I can still cope up. I know this because when you do the failure, the people you are entitled to have a level of commitment on a deal or a project would relay to other people about what you have done, perhaps, gravely in your part and at your expense. This I know because I have been in that situation.

I have got this level of sensitivity that piqued to the core when I talked something out with a friend and then that friend told me something that would have indirect connection to what I just asked. The short of it is this- my friend doesn’t want to be in that position when dealing with me because of what he has learned from the circle.

I don’t want to dwell on the details and of course, I don’t want to share all the details here. But something sums up and that is because of grave mistakes I made in the past.

And there are lessons learned, which are very elementary but still very important to point out such as:

1. Don’t commit when you can’t really commit.

2. Think first of the consequence when you commit to something. In short, think ahead. This is more like analyzing oneself and what would the future scenario be when one is going to be married with someone or be tied up with a deal, especially in business.

3.  It is required to say NO when in doubt for commitment. Even if that means, bringing disappointment to someone, just to be honest than be sorry later when two things will be damaged: relationship and reputation.

4. Work hard when you drive yourself to commit.

5. Honesty is still the best policy. When during the time of commitment but still in doubt, be honest to the party of your limitations and explain things when there is a level of uncertainty of bringing the project to its deadline.

I’m pointing it out here because of what I have learned and this is rooted because of the attitude towards commitment. And I still believe that I can  be given redemption despite the mistakes and failures I made. I hope that you also too.

Just be sure though that when you learn the mistakes of the past, history should not be repeated.

I’ve learned my lessons well and I learned it in a way in which it became disheartening to know it from someone. But I can still cope and I can still bring myself up from the stumble.