Sponsored Story

Previously (and right now), the sponsored story appear on the right-hand side. But, it will appear as a sponsored story on the right-hand side and it can also appear in news feed on both desktop and mobile. All of these placements are on Facebook’s homepage.

Premium Ads

Premium ads on Facebook helps you maximize the number of people interacting with your brand and talking about you, while unlocking the power of fans and their friends.

For Facebook users not connected to your brand, your story will appear on the right-hand side of their  homepage as an ad.

For your fans and friends of fans, your story will appear as a sponsored story on the right-hand side, and it can also appear in news feed on both desktop and mobile. All of these placements are on Facebook’s homepage.

According to Facebook, placements in the right-hand side and in news feed on Facebook’s homepage have an average of 5x-10x more engagement than all other places on the site.

Reach Generator

Currently, if you don’t have run any ads on Facebook, only about 16% of your page’s fans see your posts on Facebook. But, you will have something called “reach generator”, which Facebook guarantees to show to 75% of a page’s fans over the course of the month.  It allows advertisers to pay Facebook on an ongoing basis, as opposed to a CPC or CPM basis, to sponsor one page post every day

Logout Promotion

Facebook is also offering a  ”logout experience” page that it will show people immediately after they log out on a computer. This comes with a big price though; it’s reported that it costs $700k PER DAY!

Next Steps

Here are a few things you should do if you haven’t.

Redesign your Facebook Page as it transits to timeline layout. Social media maven Mari Smith created a map of the advanced layout with labels explaining how to manipulate all the features; or, you can check out an e-book here.

Before you make any changes to your Page and change to timeline layout, create a report of the current Page performance so that you can compare it with the timeline layout one once you make the transition.

Update your content strategy.Keep in mind the changes of advertising on Facebook on the engagement and influence; better yet, try the premium ads for a few weeks, adjust and update the strategy. And, don’t forget that photos and videos drive 2x engagement.

Last but not least, continue measuring, testing and improving.

Bonus: you can also use a demo tool from Facebook that you can use to create sample Premium on Facebook and view it as people on Facebook would see it.

More Mobile Phones Users

Mobile Phone Users Penetration in Asia Pacific

eMarketer estimates over 2.1 billion people in Asia-Pacific will use a mobile phone at least monthly this year, representing over half the population of the region.

Mobile Phone Penetration Worldwide

Mobile internet penetration is expected to rise to 42.1% of mobile users in the region by 2015. And for many of these users, mobile is the first screen for internet access.

You don’t have to wait for more to see mobile users overtake fixed Internet users in one market after another.

The Rise of Mobile Search

Mobile search in general has grown five-fold worldwide in just the past two years, and in December 2011 Google mobile search ad request volume was more than twice as high as it was in December 2010.

The Influence of Mobile Devices on Consumer Decision Making

Google partnered with Ipsos during the 2011 holiday shopping season to study online shoppers and uncovered a number of interesting consumer behaviors across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets.

• 41% of those who used their mobile phones to help with shopping said they made a purchase directly on their smartphone
• 46% said they researched an item on their smartphone then went to a store to make their purchase
• 37% said they researched an item on their smartphone then made their purchase online

Also, from the above chart you can compare the popularity of activities on different devices. It’s obvious that the growing ownership of mobile devices especially smartphones and tablets leads to increasing impact on consumers’ decision making.

After understanding the importance of developing a mobile strategy for your business, the next step is to work on it; but before you do, you should be able to answer at least these five questions:

• How does mobile fit into the overall digital strategy
• Advantages of developing mobile apps v.s. mobile websites
• What type of content work better on mobile
• What are the KPIs for mobile performance and how to track
• How do you advertise on mobile websites and apps

Pinterest.com Traffic Trend

Launched in March 2010, the invitation only site Pinterest.com received nearly 11 million total visits during one week last December, almost 40 times the number of total visits versus just six months ago. Stats from ComScore showing that Pinterest had 11.7 million unique monthly visitors in January 2011.

Pinterest.com

Pinterest.com is growing like crazy; check out this website now if you haven’t. Pinterest is not only surprising of its own traffic growth but also being a referral giant (driving more traffic than Google+ and LinkedIn) and retail sites like ideeli.com has seen increased sales resulted from Pinterest traffic.

But, what makes Pinterest so successful? To understand that, let’s take a look at what Pinterest is from its official introduction:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

People love to browse, organize and share all the beautiful things; Pinterest did nothing but inspire and empower its users to do that. Yes, that’s the secret: Pinterest inspires people. The inspiration connects people to something greater and gives them the courage and power to incarnate their unique talents.

Of course, tactically Pinterest has benefited a lot from its well integration with Twitter and Facebook; but, it’s the inspiration that fueled the word of mouth.

Companies are trying to push their products to consumers via regular advertising or social media campaigns, which may influence the prospective customers; but, it’s not sustaining and will be eventually vanish after which the companies get ready for the next “push”. Yes, this is how most companies get their products sold; but, this doesn’t create great companies or businesses.

Adidas inspires people with “Impossible is nothing”, having motivated millions of people; with Canon, “you can”. When you open a can of Coca-Cola, you actually “open happiness”. At IKEA, you are not buying furnitures as it’s a place you “design your own life”.

If you are one of few who strive to go from “good” to “great”, build and inspire your community, for which social media is a great tool for you.

Image via Wikipedia

Getting “likes” on Facebook Page is usually the first thing marketers focus after setting up the Page. But how?

It’s important to first understand why people “like” and “unlike” a Facebook Fan Page and learn from them; experiment, track and optimize channels and tactics you attempt to increase your Page fans.

Why People Like A Facebook Fan Page

Learn from the best practices; find out what worked for other companies.

A survey by Lithium and the Chief Marketing Officer Council revealed the top three reasons why marketers believe consumers like their Facebook pages:

• Agreeable content, 57%
• They want to be heard, 41%; and
• They want to track news on the brand and its products, 40%

And, the top three reasons consumers cited for liking Facebook pages were:

• Because they are loyal customers, 49%
• Tracking news on the brand and its products, 46%; and
• Seeking incentives or rewards for engaging with the brand, 46%

Find Out Why Your Fans Liked Your Facebook Page

The beauty of digital marketing is the ability to track your efforts and identify the performing tactics. It’s also true for trying to win more fans over to your Facebook Page.

Track your “touch point” and have a clear understanding how you managed to get the fans to “like” you. If you obtain 10% of fans by offering fan exclusive discounts, make sure “discount” is part of your Facebook content strategy and should be on the content calendar.

If you haven’t started tracking and recording your Facebook Page fan growth, you should start doing that. Be specific in the tactics used in driving fan growth and keep the communication open with your content team.

In addition, you can simply ask them by a simply posting on the wall or using Facebook Question what they like or liked.

It’s also important not to lose your fans after you have tried so hard to win. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons a Facebook Page is unliked.

Top Reasons Facebook Pages Were Unliked

DDB Paris and OpinionWay conducted a survey and found that 630 out of 1,528 Facebook users ever clicked “unlike” link and the number one reason is “The brand was no longer of interest to me”. Other reasons include:

• The information available was not interesting
• Information was published too often
• The brand published information I did not appreciate
• Information was not published often enough

So, try to avoid making the same mistake on your Facebook Page.

How to Keep Facebook Fans

It’s very important for companies with a presence on Facebook Page to keep their fans especially those who have spent a big budget and lots of efforts acquiring them. So, how do you keep them?

First of all, let’s take a look at a survey findings of the expectations of Facebook users after “liking” a brand on Facebook:

Be Relevant and Add Value

Once you have a clear idea of the type of content that are interesting to your Facebook fans, stay relevant and add value. Be a fan on some Facebook Pages that your business doesn’t own; watch and learn.

If your Page is for regional market, use Facebook geo-targeting posting if a post is only relevant to a particular market.

In addition, do not simply produce one way communication post; engaging and interactive content are necessary on Facebook. Please also find a balance of posting frequency.

Bonus tip: Facebook users love photos.

Monitor & Improve

Keep a log of what types of content you post and monitor the correlation and causation of content and “unlike” actions. Keep improving!

Should You Buy Facebook Fans

There are companies like uSocial selling “Facebook Fans“. Some people especially small business owners are really into fan buying, who prefer the shortcuts and usually don’t want to put in due efforts.

The real question you should ask yourself is why you want to buy Facebook Fans. Better ROI than Facebook ads? Is it much faster and more “effective”? Or, you want to take the shortcuts and make profit out of Fan Page with little efforts?

A lot of people who buy fans take Facebook as a free channel, which is totally wrong. You can hardly win on Facebook without hard work and enough resources.

The point I’m trying to make here is, even if you can get quality fans with much lower cost via simple and direct purchase, you won’t see any magic on Facebook Page without hard work and dedications.

If you do want to try, check the quality of fans you are buying; some companies sell fans with fake profiles in which case you are paying to buy people who don’t really exist. And track the fans for engagement levels and conversions.

More Tips on Increasing Facebook Fans

Click here if you can’t view the presentation properly.

SMRT QR Codes Shopping

Singapore’s public transport service provider SMRT, working with retailer Cold Storage,  transformed some of the wall spaces at its stations into virtual ‘shops’ where commuters can make purchases on the move.

The idea is this (via SMRT PR release, PDF):

they can order the latest tech gizmo while standing at the station platform, or do a bit of grocery shopping while waiting for their friends at the station foyer; without having to step into a shop, queue, send an SMS or make a call. All that is required is a QR code reader, which is installed in most phones, or widely available for free in the latest mobile platforms.

I went to Bugis station to take a look and took a photo of the wall as shown above. It’s definitely good attempt of creating good commuting experience. But, it’s a failed attempt. Let me tell you why.

A lack of strategy.

SMRT and Cold Storage’s virtual shopping doesn’t have a strategy in place; you can’t clearly see why they are doing this except for the sake of doing it. Clearly Cold Storage doesn’t have a strategy and it’s more driven by SMRT for “better commuting experience” instead of part of retailing strategy.

Home Plus, Tesco’s South Korean network of shops, launched virtual shopping wall in the middle of this year, as part of the attempt to expand their online sales rather than spending a lot of money opening new shops. Check out the video:

Besides strategy, everything else fails… Simply put, the campaign does not deliver extraordinary shopping experience or fun.

Location fails. It’s really bad location. I found the virtual shopping wall outside the subway exit door at a T-crossing where commuters enter and leave this subway station. Even a few commuters stopping and “shopping” will block the way. And, the wall is not selected somewhere commuters have to “face it” walking through; it can be easily ignored, being taken as simply another advertisement.

The best place should be on the platform where people wait for trains and have nothing else to do. And, it should not block other commuters if there are crowd trying out the QR Codes shopping.

Design fails. There is not really any integration or special design for virtual shopping experience, simply a combination of “advertisement” + “QR Codes”. If you watch the above video, you find the huge difference. There is no fun factors integrated into the design which is critical for virtual shopping.

Hopefully next year we could see something better, a well prepared virtual shopping campaign in Singapore.

Why Consumer Share Company Experience

NM Incite’s data shows that 61% of social media users share company experience to “give recognition for job well done”. You should realize that social media is not merely for marketers as its real power can hardly be utilized until it’s embraced by the company.

Among consumers, bloggers are more influential. Sharing expertise and experience is the number one reason many bloggers blog. They blog about brands that they love or hate, they post reviews, good or bad experience with your customer service staff, or gossip they hear.

Once the interaction takes place between your business and bloggers, there is a much higher chance, compared to non-blogger consumers, they are going to share it; as more consumers have been educated of the harm they could do to businesses on social media and the favor they could do to support their friends, the words can spread like a virus.

People talk; companies get talked about. That is not in companies’ control; but, creating positive and good experience  and engaging consumers are.

Whatever you do for your business via digital, don’t forget the ultimate objective — revenue. To achieve the long-term growth, companies must create “value” for customers and the prospects.

Search engine traffic is very cost effective; but don’t ever think the goal of SEO is to drive traffic to your website; your sites may rank very high for competitive keywords, but you will have very low conversions if you ignore user experience.

To be specific, the bounce rates could be very high for organic search traffic if you have poor user interface or somehow manage to trick the search engine instead of creating high quality valuable content for users. If that is the case, users will most likely click “back” button on the browser and return to the results listing, and visit another website which could be your competitor’s website.

That’s not all, if this search user gets really annoyed by your content, either being a mismatch of what she’s looking for and what you provide, she may never want to see your pages and she can do that by click on the link in Google SERP, “Block all www.yourdomain.com results”. Here is an example:

Block Search Results on Google

The good news is, only logged in users can do that. But, eventually you lose more and more customers. So, pay attention to your bounce rates and improve it.

e-book reader via Wikipedia

A few years ago, you might often hear people saying that "content is king" whether or not they truly understood what that meant. I talked to a friend the other day and he asked me, "is content still king as social media is getting all the attractions.

Content was, is and will be king, no matter what platform the content is on. Let me share seven types of content that are helpful supporting marketing objectives to both B2B and B2C industries.

Blog Posts

The wrong question you may often hear is, is blogging for B2B? The answer is yes and you should ask what content you should generate for blogs to make it work. Producing both search engine friendly and compelling content is important promoting your posts out to the crowd.

Virtual Events (e.g. Webinars)

Highly interactive virtual events are found to be a cost effective way by many marketers. B2B marketers specially find webinars effective for generating leads and interacting with prospective customers.

White Papers & e-Books

What I found to be a helpful tip marketing with white papers is that, keep your copy short and to the point. Sometimes, long white paper can backfire. Make sure the content of the white paper is rich and well written.

The beauty of white papers, compared with some other types of content like webinars, is that they can be passed along by readers to others who are interested. I met a telecom company not along ago, being part of my consultancy business to a media company, and they recognized me after I introduced myself as someone inside the organization sent an article I wrote to other members of their marketing team.

Videos

Video can be costly to companies but it’s not necessarily very expensive; don’t waste your creativity. People love videos but don’t forget the fact that they hate boring videos; make it fun and engaging. Videos gone viral will be very powerful with high ROI. Check out Listerine’s campaign here.

Research Report, Study

Data-driven research report and studies are powerful weapons positioning yourself as experts in certain fields.

User Generated Content (UGC)

UGC make good use of the public wisdom. Not necessarily your consumers but also your employees and co-workers. The essential part is encouraging them to actively share content.

Podcasts

Podcasts are not dead though it’s not a popular type of content nowadays. There are many occasions your prospects would prefer to consume content with “ears” such as in transportation and bathing.

Experiment with different types of content creation and identify what work best for your business. And, remember, content creation is just the start for meeting your business objective; it’s very important you distribute your content to the targeted audience.

Why Engagement Matters

To understand why engagement matters, brands must understand the top engagement elements:

• feeling valued
• efficiency
• trust

which are also the most important needs consumers have when they reach out to a brand. Now you know why engagement matters to brands. But, how to effectively drive engagement on Facebook?

What Type of Content Are Most Engaging on Facebook

The common ways to engage fans on Facebook Page are:

• “likes”
• comments
• Sharing posts

Engagement Rate by Facebook Post Type

While not all posts are created equal,  digital agency Web Liquid found that Facebook posts with photos saw a 0.37% engagement rate, higher than posts with videos (0.31%), text (0.27%) or links (0.15%).

Another software company Momentus Media found that Facebook status updates that contained the word “like” saw a 0.38% engagement rate and those that said “comment” saw a 0.14% engagement rate. Text updates without “like” or “comment” saw 0.11% engagement.

The lesson here is, make good use of photos (especially in your campaign development on Facebook) and naturally encourage your fans to like or comment on the post.

Regardless of the importance of “the reach”, l’m sharing one tool from Wildfire that can help you monitor the reach of your Facebook Page and Twitter account; in addition, you can compare yours with that of your competitors.

Facebook Likes Comparison of Singapore Telcos

You can view comparisons and trends of daily as well as cumulative data with Wildfire Monitor. If you have an account, you can save the comparison and track “the reach” over time.

Measuring the reach in terms of Facebook fans or Twitter followers is no doubt an important metric; but, don’t make it the only one and it’s definitely not the one that matters most.

Experian Social Media Study

A recent Experian study found that Singapore Internet users spend the longest on Facebook, with an average of 38 minutes and 46 seconds per session. This study illustrates the importance of Facebook marketing to those who still wait and see.

Facebook is turning from an optional marketing channel to one that marketers shouldn’t miss. However, rushing to the Facebook to promote your products or services without proper strategy and planning will simply cost you a lot more than what you can gain.

Singapore has very good environment for entrepreneurs and in recent years I’ve seen tons of companies offering digital marketing services from search marketing to social media. Some are new; some were previously web design companies or even web hosting companies. Suddenly, every company that has even a little to do with Internet now offers digital marketing. I’m warning you here that you must be careful who you select as your digital agency.

I’ll share more in another post in selecting vendors for marketing; but, at least you should know this: compelling and interactive content that engage the prospective customers is essential for your brand on Facebook.

You can also check out Singapore Facebook user demographic data here.

Image by epSos.de via Flickr

A recent Nielsen survey about impact of promotion on Asia Pacific shoppers found that shoppers in Vietnam and Malaysia were particularly motivated by promotions, followed by shoppers in China.

Here is a summary of this survey findings:

• While Vietnamese shoppers are most focused on promotions, they scored among the lowest in terms of price consciousness across the region
• Shoppers in India (88%) on the other hand, are the most price-conscious in the region, followed by Malaysian (68%) and Singaporean (62%) shoppers
• Malaysia currently still has the distinction of having the highest proportion of males who say they are the main shoppers for the household (37%), and the Philippines (33%).  China (32%), which saw the highest jump in the proportion of male “main shoppers” from previous levels, also warrants a good re-look
• Shoppers in India (33%), Hong Kong (30%) and the Philippines (29%) stand out as the most impulsive (i.e., they usually do not plan their shopping trips) shoppers in the region
• Korean (98%) and Taiwanese (94%) shoppers were the most likely to plan their shopping trips
• Shoppers in Hong Kong are also the most prolific “top-up” shoppers (followed by Singapore and Indonesia), averaging 10 such trips in a month, almost twice the regional average and more than thrice the monthly frequency of their “main” shopping trips

For retailers targeting Asia Pacific, this is very valuable information needed for developing the most effective digital strategies for each market.

Monitor Twitter with Official Twitter Search

Twitter Search Results Page

If most of your Tweeting time is on Twitter web, its official search box could be very handy. Enter the term you want to monitor, being either your brand or product model, refine it, and save it when you’re satisfied with the results.

If you are not skilled using search operators, go to advanced search here.

Track Twitter Search Results in RSS Feeds

There used to be a feed icon on the right sidebar of Twitter search results page, which is gone in the new Twitter interface. But, don’t worry, replace “singapore” with your desired search term in the link below:

http://search.twitter.com/search.rss?q=singapore

You can also create RSS feeds for Tweets, Twitter searches, hashtags or favorites:

• http://twitter.com/favorites/username.rss
• http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.rss
• http://search.twitter.com/search.rss?q=search%23hashtag (tracking hashtag via RSS)

Monitor Twitter & Send Email Alert with Twilert

Twilert

twilert is a free social media monitoring tool for Twitter, which enables you to receive regular email updates of tweets containing your brand, product or service.

It’s a very useful and easy-to-use tool to monitor conversations on Twitter that concern you. Simply sign in with your Google account or Twitter account.

Twilert Sign-in

Once signed in, you need to enter your email address and specify your timezone. Enter your search term(s) below and the time you’d like to receive your Twilert. “advanced search options” will help tweak your search.

Twilert Advanced Search

Advanced search options is a powerful way for you to filter out unwanted tweets and receive accurate monitored results.

Monitor Questions Asked on Twitter That Match Your Business

Twitter nowadays has become a major information source; people ask questions and get answers anywhere anywhere. Imagine that you run a nice boutique cafe at CBD and someone asks on Twitter for a recommendation of a cafe to visit on a sunny afternoon! What if you can receive timely alert of those questions and reply in time? That means more customers.

InboxQ

InboxQ is the best way to ask or answer questions on Twitter. They measure the demonstrated knowledge of millions of Twitter users and make that knowledge easily searchable on their site.

InboxQ Questions

Once you get the list of questions, you can answer them directly at InboxQ. If you find InboxQ, you may want to install its Chrome Extension or Firefox add-on.

Search & Archive Tweets for Analysis

Not all businesses need to monitor Tweets and respond in real time; for some, searching and archiving the twitter conversations are good enough to dig out the business insights.

Let me introduce you two free tools for archiving purpose: you can search and create tweets archive with Twapperkeeper; archivist works well too as a desktop application (Windows only) to archive, analyze and export tweets.

In addition, I found RowFeeder a very good tool too to track keywords, users and hashtags in Excel which you can use for analysis later.

Watch the YouTube campaign case study below:

Listerine’s YouTube channel received no less than 2.5 million views with a dwell time of 1 minute and 2 seconds. They also received 55 million impressions across their mastheads.

Leica also shared why they made the video:

Every Leica lens is hand-crafted and goes through meticulous manufacturing processes to uphold the quality and precision that Leica defines and customers have come to expect. In the age where technology almost inevitably means mass manufacturing, Leica products are still made with exacting precision by the hands of highly-trained technicians.

This video gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the craftsmanship and making of Leica lenses in the production facilities of Leica Camera AG.

Business processes and operations are usually behind the scene and unknown to the customers; however, if exposed properly, you could have a powerful word-of-mouth campaign that have high impact.

Differentiate Yourself

Seeing is believing, which is at least the perception of the crowd. By making the video, distributing and sharing it, Leica successfully differentiate its uniqueness from the competition. I was very impressed with how they made the lens and now my perception, they make better lens, whether or not that is the truth.

Differentiate Yourself By Not Being Different

By sharing behind-the-scenes business processes, the transparency itself can be unique. Even if everyone follows the same process (which the customers have no idea at all what it may be), it makes your brand stand out by being the first to share how you produce the products.

Generate Positive Word-of-mouth

Making a video of the behind-the-scenes is probably the best way to share your operations, which itself could turn into a viral story that get people spread and talk about.

Creating an event on Facebook Page is not quite obvious but free and easy. First of all, you need to add the application to your Facebook Page by “Edit Page > Apps > Events > Edit Settings > Add”.

Then, goo to the events application to create an event:

Create An Event on Facebook Page

Note that for events hosted by a Page, the Page admin will not see the option to send a message to event guests; so, plan ahead properly.

Create Private Events on Facebook

You can not create private events (invitation only) on Facebook Page; you can only do this as personal Facebook profile. So, if you are to create a private event, you need to do is as a personal profile.

Invite Event Guests

Once you create an event, you can invite guest on Facebook either by typing their names (if they have a Facebook profile) or sending them an email via Facebook. In addition, you can create shortened URLs of the event URL on Facebook and invite people on your website, eDM, twitter or even offline channels to track the performance.

Facebook Export Event

If you send out eDM to invite event guests, you can also download a iCalendar file by clicking on the “Export” link at the bottom of the event page.

Export Facebook Events Guests

If you need to have a list of event guests printed out, you first of all need to export the guests names and the response. You can do this simply by using the URL below (replace the object ID, highlighted in red below, with your event’s object ID):

https://graph.facebook.com/331218348435/attending?access_token=2227470867|2.AQDf6jH_TxHSWqm5.3600.1315886400.0-698781004|YPi5MMZXSdS7ws6EJxGaS4q0wfc

It’s in JSON format, but you can tweak it and put it in Excel and format it nicely.

Alternatively, you can use GuestListGen to generate a PDF file of guest list easily.

Cancel A Facebook Event

If you need to cancel an event on Facebook, simply “edit event” and click on “cancel this event”; Facebook will email everyone who was invited that this event has been canceled. You may add a note as well.

Image by nznationalparty via Flickr

In Singapore, some social media agencies’ practice is mainly sponsorships in social media. Usually bloggers will be given a topic, one or several photos and a guideline what they should write about. Posts should be reviewed by the agency before publishing.

Whether this is a good way of social media marketing or not, I’ll share in another future post; if your company is doing any type of sponsorship or other forms of content creation in social media, here is a list of methods you can use to measure the success:

• Quality of content. You can develop your unique way of identifying and rating the quality of content; some guidelines from Google are quite helpful:
  • Would you trust the information presented in this article?
  • Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
  • Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
  • Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
  • Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
  • Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
  • Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
  • Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
  • How much quality control is done on content?
  • Does the article describe both sides of a story?
  • Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
  • Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
  • Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
  • For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
  • Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
  • Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
  • Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
  • Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
  • Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
  • Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
  • Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
  • Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
  • Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
• Social media sharing. Depending on the market, it could be Facebook Likes, Google+ counts, the number of Retweets, and etc.
• Click-through Rate (CTR). Track the banner or links to your websites for CTR
• CPM, CPC & CPA. You can also track cost per click (CPC) by dividing the total cost by the total number of clicks. If the landing site has designed conversion funnels (which you should), track the cost per acquisition
• Comments

Feel free to share what you measure for social media sponsorship campaigns in the comments below.

The uploader by the ID of greendude2809 described:

If im not wrong, this is the famous blogger thy-dowager fighting with some girl over some guy outside club… over-reacting sia, leave your dirty laundry at home la, damn WTF LOLz…

which later on was updated:

LOL, confirm liao, its that blogger PEGGY HENG LOR!!!. – www.thy-dowager.blogspot.com

THE BOYFRIEND AND HER just emailed me lo ask me to remove the video, even offer money sia!! HAHAHA part II in my friend’s camera le, wait till he book out from camp, maybe i will upload it up on youtube. what do your think?

I’ll comment on this later; it was just a beginning of the whole story. This greendude2809 uploaded another video last Monday as the second part that portrays a scene wherein blogger and the 22 year old model Peggy Heng enters a room and kneels in front of a man, who unbuckles his belt and starts to undo his jeans:

There’s no more exciting part for you in this video; she soon turns around abruptly and addresses the camera, saying, “But that is not the way to solve your relationship problems.”

Okay, now we know the videos are for promoting a dating event. Miss Heng also claimed that it’s also for social cause, what they call Greenlight Movement, the rise of singles and of cheating cases in Singapore; she was quoted as saying,

If I were to reveal the story behind the first video without that portion (with the guy), it won’t be that effective. Having that part is necessary to bring across the point, which is the social cause.

The videos and story soon spread all over several news media and received a lot of criticism and negative publicity. A Singapore Internet user commented,

Whoever thought of this marketing tactic really needs to brush up on their skills. Because all you get is negative publicity.

It’s definitely good try with viral video marketing. But, is it really a bad example or failed efforts as commented by many on the Internet?

What I Didn’t Like About It

The second part of the video was alright in my opinion but it also made the “description” part of the Part 1 video look so manipulative. I came across some marketers and business owners who couldn’t get themselves out of the manipulation mindset, which in their mind is how viral campaign can work and it probably makes them feel good about themselves.

Sincerely or not, some companies’ cause marketing campaign did help some people in some way and make the world a better place while at the same time promoted their business. However, Miss Heng’s social cause claim doesn’t make any sense at all, which makes the campaign look worse.

I’ll Consider It A Successful Campaign, Though

Agree that this generated massive negative publicity; the second video received only 14 likes but 207 dislikes on YouTube. However, the second video only generated over 100,000 views in less than ten days. The cost? Very likely under 100 bucks.

But what about negative publicity? The campaign was for a dating event basically nobody heard of and from a company few people know. Tell me what image can it hurt? None. It’s fake, manipulative, negative publicity…but it certainly attracted lots of attention and at least some guys and gals will attend the event anyway  just for fun. Seriously, how many people go to dating event at clubs to get a husband or wife?

So, it’s a successful campaign, though I don’t like it personally. It generated negative publicity which however is not likely to decrease the evaluation of the events and hence achieved the objective: high awareness; low cost.

Well that’s not all. The negative publicity actually hurts; not the dating event, but Miss Heng, the so-called celebrity blogger in Singapore.

Bonus tip: Stanford and Tel Aviv University researchers found that consumers are more likely to buy your product if you reveal that it’s not perfect.

Influence of Web Advertising on Southeast Asian Consumers

In a recent Nielsen research indicates that consumers in Southeast Asia are highly influenced by online advertising; much higher than the global average. More than half (54%) completely or somewhat trust consumer opinions posted online.

The same survey also shows that 74% SEA consumers found “behavior targeted ads” useful (online ads that are delivered to consumers based on previous purchases or other web sites visited), compared to just 58% globally. Consumers in Philippines and Vietnam were most receptive to such ads (83% and 82%, respectively).

Social Media Ads Influential to SEA COnsumers

Nielsen found that 69% SEA consumers have “liked” or followed a brand or company on social media, significantly higher than the global average of 52% and higher in Vietnam and Philippines.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of SE Asian consumers said they were “highly” or “somewhat” influenced by web site advertisements on social media (compared to 60% globally). That number rises to 80% when ads have a social context(e.g. sponsored story on Facebook), such as indicating which of a consumer’s friends have liked or followed the advertised brand.

This Nielsen survey presents a great opportunity here in Internet for brands to drive higher ROI in Southeast Asia. SEA consumers’ trust in online content is also a reminder for brands to monitor their online reputations closely.

Who is winning? I’m not a big fan of politics. But, as Barack Obama did a great job of winning the presidency utilizing the power of Internet, let’s see which candidate is doing a better job running a great online campaign.

Let’s take a look at online trend analysis.

What Search Trend Says About The Next Singapore President

As search queries represent people’s intention, it can be used to predict the trend; let’s take a look at what Google “says” about who’s winning:

Google Trend of "Singapore presidential election 2011"

Tony Tan seems to be leading the race. As Google dominates the search market in Singapore, this trend is quite indicative – he is probably the most talked about candidate.

Last night I received an email from Yahoo, which seems to agree with what Google “says”:

In just a few days, the Singapore Presidential Election will decide on Singapore’s new president but based on the search trends released by Yahoo! Singapore today, Tony Tan is likely to win over Tan See Jay.

However, we can’t make the judgement of who’s winning based on the amount of search queries; we’ll have  a short discussion on that later.

With the elections day scheduled for 27 August, Yahoo! Singapore has seen a dramatic surge in searches around the ‘presidential polling day’ which rose 80,200% in the week ending August 7. But, who is utilizing search marketing? Only Tony Tan is.

Tony Tan's Sponsored Search Listing on Google

Tony Tan's Sponsored Search Listing on Yahoo

Who’s Winning on Social Media

Facebook

President Obama clearly illustrated the importance of social media, especially Facebook for politicians; yet, not all four candidates learned the lesson nor any mastered “how”.

Dr. Tony Tan’s Faceboob Page is not well setup with merely 1500+ fans; the last Page post is on August 22, which is four days ago. The level of interactions and engagement is very low. One interesting thing I notice is that, someone set up a Page against him:

Against Tony Tan Facebook Page

Dr. Tan Cheng Bock‘s Page is so much better with over 11,000 fans:

Dr. Tan Cheng Bock's Facebook Page

But, there is not so much interactions or engagement with his fans.

Tan Jee Say has got slightly more fans than Dr. Tan Cheng Bock; and, he’s “winning” in terms of more personalized posts on Facebook Page. And, Tan Kin Lian’s Page has less than 4,000 fans.

Overall, Tan Jee Say is a winner on Facebook; but, no one is doing a very good job on Facebook, missing a big opportunity here considering about 80% of Singapore Internet users are on Facebook.

Twitter

It’s not a surprise if you don’t see much engagement on Twitter since they’re not even “ready” for Facebook. But, this doesn’t stop Singapore Twitter users discuss about the election.

Only Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian have Twitter account with less than 1000 followers. And, the level of mentions about them are not high.

Blogs

Tony Tan is the most talked about candidate in Singapore blogsphere. Besides, online forums and discussion boards are also very popular in Singapore like many other countries in Asia; monitoring the conversation and making timely responses are critical for online reputation management.

Is Tony Tan Going to Win?

What we have analyzed so far can only lead to one conclusion: Tony Tan received the most amount of interest and attention in Singapore for Presidential Election, which does not mean he is going to win without sentimental analysis.

If many discussions online are negative about Tony Tan, he’s going to get the least number of votes.

I just did a quick sentimental analysis on Twitter conversations with tweetfeel, and found that only about half of conversation on Twitter about “Tony Tan” is positive. The most positively talked about candidate is Tan Jee Say. However, the amount of discussions on each candidate is not enough to draw any conclusions.

Another analysis using social mention shows that discussions about Tan Jee Say is the most positive (6:1) and Tan Cheng Bock the least positive (3:1).

Of course, this analysis is far from being complete to have an acceptable degree of accuracy for predicting the next Singapore president; even small things like how a candidate smiles can make a big difference. The purpose of this post is simply to check out the candidates’ “efforts” online and make a simple case study for businesses.

Tony Tan utilized search very well; but none are making good use of social media (Tan Cheng Bock and Tan Jee Say did the best on Facebook among all four candidates).  If I’m to give some suggestions to the candidates, I’d put campaign strategy on the top of the agenda. If Obama didn’t catch the strong desire of American people to “CHANGE”, his digital campaigns can’t get him to the white house.

If every candidate has a good strategy, digital campaigns can help them get the message out more effectively in terms of time, reach and impact.