Should Traditional Media Be On New Media?

I got thinking about this topic when I attended a lunch recently where several editors of major news media organizations in Singapore spoke.  Represented were the Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao (Chinese) and ChannelNewsAsia.  It was meant to be a session where these editors shared their “invaluable” knowledge on the basis of their decision making when selecting news stories.  Considering a good portion of the attendees were from PR firms, it was obviously a topic of some interest.  Attending more out of interest than any real professional need to get my company in the news, I was able to listen more closely and objectively to what was being said.

Sad to say, the presentations by these so-called media giants was neither well prepared nor well structured.  They wandered off on irrelevant tangents and seemed more interested in whining about their jobs.  Their insights were neither insightful nor useful.  They spent a good portion of their time complaining about being “scooped” by one of their “competitors” at the table.  They rounded it off by talking about how they were undecided on using Social Media as a channel to their readers.

To make sure it wasn’t a total waste of my time and money, I got to thinking about how Social Media can be used to complement Traditional Media.  I know this topic has been argued to death in many other countries, but Singapore is quite different.  At the end of the day, the three “competitors” at the lunch ultimately report in to an organization controlled by the Government of Singapore.  That in itself defines the limitations on news coverage and commentary, but also ensures a sustainable income and subsidy, something which is critical for survival in today’s media environment.  Without this support, the main newspapers and news channels in Singapore would be treating Social Media with a lot more fear than they currently are.

In their defence, it has to be said that even with the high internet penetration rate in Singapore, most news readers still prefer to get their news in a format that they can touch, feel, turn pages and roll under their arm to bring to the toilet.  So print news is not going away anytime soon.  However, this issue of who “scooped” who is pretty much a non-issue.  The main english paper, the Straits Times, is printed and distributed at a fixed time every day.  Even if the US were to sink under the waves in an Atlantean catastrophe, readers of the Straits Times would only find out in the next day’s paper.  ChannelNewsAsia is slightly better.  They can put a headline above their news ticker similar to what CNN has.  However, unless you are a couch potato or carry around a portable TV, it is unlikely you will get this news till you are home.

Thats where Social Media can be useful.  Most people now access the web using their mobile devices.  Some companies, including the Straits Times and ChannelNewsAsia, even have mobile apps that embed their news bulletins on iPhones and Blackberries.  In the worst case, you can go onto their corporate website using your mobile devices.  It might seem a logical way to keep your readers in the know, but it doesn’t take into account how humans form habits.

I have the apps for the Straits Times on my iPhone.  Its free, but I very seldom access it.  A few reasons.  First, its slow and takes a long time to load, even using 3G.  There seemed to be a need to incorporate pictures and details into the articles.  Secondly, I haven’t formed a habit to click it to find the latest news.  Thirdly, the habit I have already formed is to use  Twitter for my short communications.  One of the organizations I follow on Twitter is Fox News.  Anytime there is breaking news, I get a short 140 character update from FOXNEWS.  I use this update to verify news that I would usually have obtained on Twitter earlier.  If I’m interested, I would click a link to read the details.

The beauty of Twitter is that you don’t need to craft an elaborate copy to hook the reader.  All you need to do is to shoot off a headline (once the news has been verified of course).  Its somewhat akin to the newsboys standing at street corners in the early part of the last century, shouting out the news headlines to passerbys in the hope that they would buy a paper from him.  And there is no dispute about who scooped who since all Tweets have time/date stamps.

I don’t expect these media giants in Singapore to change their philosophies anytime soon.  They lack the hunger and urgency brought about by a highly competitive environment, and to a certain extent, the luddites in senior management probably wouldn’t be comfortable in such a fast paced media environment.  So, till something happens to make them change, I expect things to remain status quo for at least another couple of years….while the rest of the industry worldwide moves on to the next big thing.

Tong Hsien-Hui

So Majority of Tweets come from only 5% of Twitter Accounts?

People who meet me for the first time often ask me, “For a guy who claims not to like Twitter, you sure blog about it more than any other topic..”.  Mea culpa.  Ever have a scab you kept on scratching even though you knew it wasn’t doing you much good?  I feel much the same about Twitter.  I don’t dislike Twitter.  I just find it functionally irrelevant, and those Tweets that tell me I can make money on Twitter..?  Well I give the same amount of consideration to those as to those emails from Nigeria telling me can share in a fortune and all I need is to send a couple thousand dollars to clean all that black money.

Well anyway, following this kid’s comments about how other kids don’t use Twitter much (see my blog post on “Why are we so quick to run down a teen’s opinion about social media?”), Mashable, a pretty decent aggregator and publisher of social media news, conducted or gathered research information pertaining to useage of Twitter.  The findings were interesting:

–  5% of Twitter accounts generate 75% of Tweets.  I speculate that 100% of this 75% is useless spam.

–  24% of Tweets are generated by bots (or small programs that automate some action…in this case retweeting stuff on DIGG, etc…).  Spamming used to be frowned upon.  In Twitter it seems to be encouraged!

–  60.6% of the most active (the top 5%) Tweeters live in the US.  The next is the UK at 6.9%.  I suppose everyone else has a life.

–  54% of the most active are male.  I suppose when they aren’t on WOW or some other inane MMPORG, they have to do something.  That or its actually only 1 guy who generated thousands of Twitter accounts using a blog and created his own virtual Twitter farm.

–  48% of the most active accounts have more than 100 followers.  If I were a follower…I wouldn’t be for long…imagine 150+ updates daily from a single account.  Mostly crap I assume.

–  Ok, so FoxNews is one of those most active Twit(s).  Maybe its not all crap.

So how to separate the wheat from the chaff?  You can’t really.  Its not possible to turn someone’s updates off unless you “unfollow” them.  I live in Singapore, a country with a reputation for high rate of internet penetration among the population.  A significant percentage are ostensibly registered on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and the local press has been playing up Twitter recently (no surprise there….see FoxNews…..).  That said, I only know of a small handful of people who Tweet regularly.

My company has a Twitter account to keep our members posted on the latest events.  We will shortly be promoting certain programs and activities solely on Twitter and Facebook.  But this isn’t really creating a conversation.  Its just another channel of communication (like ads, flyers, etc..).  We do get feedback and criticism occasionally, but we need to actively search for it using Twitter’s search function.  In each instance, we engage using Twitter and close it online.  This usually doesn’t take more than 2 rounds of engagement which hardly constitutes a conversation.

For those keen advocates of Twitter out there…I am open to any suggestions you may have on how to make better use of Twitter given that few of our target market is on Twitter and even fewer are regular users!

Tong Hsien-Hui

Facebook and Privacy. Why Don’t People Get it?

I gave a talk recently on Facebook. The talk was meant as an introduction to the concept of Facebook and how it could be used to build communities and enable interaction. While the age of the attendees ranged from mid twenties to seventies, the predominant demographic was those aged fifty and above. This wasn’t a big surprise as the technological revolution has left a number of these people in its wake and even younger ones (myself included) have to constantly keep up with whats new in the realm of technology.

What surprised me most was that quite a number of those attending the talk had already registered Facebook accounts. In fact the majority had an account but did not use it. Their biggest worry was not how to use it (although I hope I was able to show them something new in the talk), but about the possibility of losing or having their identity stolen. It is unfair to deride them for being luddites simply because they have a valid concern which in fact few younger members have. As you get older, you have more to lose than a teenager whose “street cred” only extends as far as the end of the street.

What a lot of them failed to realize is that Facebook offers one of the most customizable privacy settings of any social media platform I have ever used (including MySpace, Ortuk, QQ, Socialtrak, Drupal, etc…). The ability to exclude groups of your “friends” as well as individual friends from viewing parts or all of your profile is what I think is an important function within Facebook. The process I suggested they adopt was the following:

– Don’t put anything on your profile that you don’t want others to see. For instance, I wouldn’t ever consider putting my credit card number or my actual address on Facebook, even if I have the option to block it out.

– Group your friends based on how close you are to them. I don’t mind my best friends seeing everything on my profile and photo album. I have a few FB “friends” solely for the purpose of the FB games I play. These I don’t give any access to anything other than the most basic information about myself.

– Go to Settings -> Privacy in your Facebook account and “customize” access for each of the logical segments of information categorized.

I understand that Facebook will shortly be changing the Privacy Settings page to make it more user friendly. Hopefully this will not remove the granularity of customization that we are now used to.

On the flip side of the equation, I have seen teenagers with FB profiles that are open to everyone and anyone. Basically even without being a friend, you can see everything they have available. This might be a concern in terms of physical and online safety. I think most of them only realize how dangerous this can be when their parents view their profiles….and comment! One of the most amusing sites I have visited recently is http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com which posts screen captures of parents interacting with their children on Facebook. You wouldn’t believe how fast these kids figured out the Privacy settings after that!

Tong Hsien-Hui

MySpace doesn’t know what they are doing

As anyone who follows developments in social media, even on the periphery, know, MySpace is losing the platform battle to Facebook.  Late last year, Facebook overtook MySpace as the largest social media site in the world and while Facebook has continued to grow, MySpace has more or less stood still.  

 

To compete effectively, MySpace had to so something radical or accept their new position as number two to Facebook…and given the growing popularity of Twitter, maybe even number three.  One of the reasons Facebook has been able to attract so many new members has been their focus on adding new languages to their traditional english-based profile.  Members can choose from a fairly comprehensive list of languages in which to navigate their social interactions with other members.  This is a powerful tool as one of the reasons for the highly fragmented nature of social media has been the inability of some popular sites to localize their offering.

 

It makes sense of MySpace to also quickly add this functionality in their offering which they did recently.  However, there is where the similarity with Facebook ends.  Facebook, in their localization efforts, kept the philosophy of letting their members choose how they want to see their site.  If they were existing members, they would initially see their site in english and were offered the option of changing it to whatever language was suitable for them in the Account Settings.  If they were new members, they could opt for a change in language with the little icon at the bottom left of the sign up screen which would convert the screen to the language desired.  This is a logical and fairly seamless way of giving your members options.

 

MySpace on the other hand, perhaps being now part of a large corporate entity, decided that they knew better than anyone else, especially their members, what language their members should be using.  So in their latest effort, they automatically converted pages from certain countries to what they THINK is the native language without bothering to ask if thats what their members wanted.  So on a given day, a member would try to sign into their account and find that everything has been converted into a language some of them don’t even speak.  

 

I’m not sure what is worse.  The assumption that they at MySpace know better than their members what they want, or that what they know is so obviously wrong.  I will give you the example of my country of residence, Singapore.  Singapore is a country in South East Asia and although the population demographics is about 70% Chinese, there is a significant Malay and Indian population as well.  With this diversity, the medium of communication has always been English and not Chinese (simplified or othewise).  Its not unheard of for Chinese Singaporeans not to be able to read Chinese.  MySpace on the other hand, thinking that since Singapore is in Asia and that everyone in Asia speaks Chinese, set traditional Chinese as the default language option.  In doing so, they made two mistakes.  One, that all Singaporeans speak and read Chinese.  The second is that traditional Chinese is used in Singapore.  In truth, traditional Chinese is used in only two territories:  Hong Kong and Taiwan.  Mainland China uses simplified Chinese as do most other countries.

 

With the sign-in page showing everything in a Chinese dialect, its been difficult for users to convert their pages back to English because they can’t even find out where to make the change.  In social media, if the platform is hard to use, no one will use it.  Such has been the case with a number of my friends who have stopped using MySpace wholesale and decided to build a new profile on Facebook.  The barriers to “churn” are extremely low.

 

If MySpace think that this latest initiative will help them take on QZone in China, then I think they are sadly mistaken.  They also misunderstand the cultural differences between social media users in China and in the US.  This latest foolishness just helped to alienate some existing, loyal members.  They don’t stand a chance against Facebook.

 

Tong Hsien-Hui

Questions about Social Media that You Were Afraid to Ask…..1

I have had many interactions with groups of people in the last year on the subject of Social Media Networking.  The number one question I get at nearly EVERY meeting is “How do I/we/my company/they/my dog/my cat/etc…. make money from Social Media”.  Because thats so commonly asked, thats not the topic of this posting.  Instead, I thought to post on questions that people pose to me either when no one else is around or through email or even, in one case, through his dad (I jest not).  There are five common questions that people are afraid to ask (at least in Asia) when in a group.

This post will deal with the most common one….“What Social Media Networking platform should I use?”.  This is not exactly the phrasing, but its the gist of the query.  Its not as obvious as it may seem.  There are several factors to consider:

1)  What are most of my friends using?

2)  How do I interact with them?

3)  How do I know I am doing the best that I can?

The answer is not obvious and is actually dependent on where you operate.  In the US, some will tell you MySpace or Facebook, in Brazil and India, Orkut, in other parts of the world, Hi5 or some localized platform that caters to the language.  So even while Facebook has 175 million users as of end 2008 (I’m betting at least 30% are people adopting multiple personas on Facebook) and MySpace is a close second, the choice is not simply a matter of Facebook or MySpace.  I believe that the biggest consideration is what most of your friends are on.  After all, the main reason for Social Media Networking is to connect with friends.  Language is obviously a show stopper, but that aside, if most of the people you know are using Orkut then it makes little sense to build up to significant a profile in Facebook. 

Secondly, how do you interact with your friends?  If you want to show them pictures of your holiday on your Social Media profile and have them look at it there instead of boring them to death showing them slides over dinner, then you need to choose a platform that supports this (most do).  At a basic level, most platforms provide the basic interaction functions of messaging, picture libraries, comments and basic security functionality that allows limited viewership to specific groups in your contact list.  More sophisticated plugins are available such as games, tests, etc…..on some sites like Facebook.  

The third component is maybe peculiar to Singapore.  I know the sentiment is prevalent globally, but so far, I have only heard the concept taking the form of an adjective in Singapore.  The term is “Kiasu” and is derived from a Chinese dialect Hokkien to denote someone who is afraid to lose out.  You know, those morons who stand in line for opening day tickets to Star Wars, etc…..  The fear is that having invested time and energy to build a profile and network on one platform, they find that another platform offers them so much more but are too “unmotivated” to switch their whole personas over.  Well folks, welcome to the real world.  No one can predict what social media platform will make it or not.  Just two years ago, MySpace was the biggest thing around, now its Facebook, who knows what it’ll be later.  The only way is to stay current on developments within Social Media and keep testing new services that come out.   
In case you were wondering….I use and create content on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WordPress and Blogspot.  I have accounts with MySpace, Youtube, SlideSorter, Ortuk, Socialtrak, Ning, Flickr, Picasa, etc…..but seldom update my profile there.

The next post will be on the question of “Now I have a Profile on a Social Media Platform….how do I protect myself??”

What to eat and what not to eat…in America

Now I don’t consider myself a fussy or even careful eater, but I always  felt that there are places I should or should not eat at simply because I would feel just bad after a meal there.  This is especially the case in the US whenever I go there on business trips.  I always used to return to Singapore feeling ill and bloated, inevitably dieting for almost a week to clear my system.  Given that the frequency of my travel to the US can sometimes be up to 20 times a year, this is not a trivial problem.

Its been four years since I started travelling there so extensively, and obviously I have tried various ways to work around this problem from not eating (doesn’t work….I end up babbling in business meetings) to eating smaller portions (didn’t seem to work either….still felt sick as a dog on my return).  Its a given that I have to eat out whenever I travel and inspite of what some of you may be thinking, I am fortunate enough to be able to afford not having to visit McDonalds or Pizzahut for every meal.  Obviously a fast food diet for a week is an inevitable recipe for disaster (see “Upsize Me” for more details!).  That said, I can’t afford to eat at Per Se or the French Laundry every meal either.  So its somewhere in between.

I’ve been looking this issue up and this site actually has some great analysis of what NOT to eat in the US (http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/16-Restaurant-Industry-Secrets/index.php).  I can subscribe to most of the stuff there, but more importantly, I figured out what could be my problem.  Checking the calorie and fat listings for drinks, I realized that this could have been the source of my problem.  And not the alcoholic drinks either.  Have you ever been in a meeting and been asked if you want a coffee from the Starbucks downstairs?  I get that at every meeting I attend.  Averaging 3-4 meetings a day, thats 3-4 high calorie, high fat Lattes a day.  Multiplied by 5 days and I start to see a crack of daylight.  Basically, I can starve myself during meals, but I have to be careful of the drinks in between too.  Man, life is hard.  Anyway, will try this on my next visit and see how it goes.  Wish me luck!

 

Tong Hsien-Hui

http://twitter.com/hhtong

My Five Best Cities to Live if the Economy keeps Tanking

Read this article in today’s feeder on the five best cities to live if the economy keeps tanking.  In a nutshell, the five cities are Medellin (Columbia), New Orleans (USA), Saigon (Vietnam), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Cape Town (SA).  

Now, I can understand Vilnius which has been designated the European Cultural city of 2009, and if I push my imagination, I can see Saigon with its low prices as being attractive, but I really wonder how they came up with the rest.  I mean if cost were the criteria, I would speculate that Cape Town or New Orleans are not the towns that offer the best cost savings for standard of living.  I mean, if the economy keeps tanking, we are looking for the best standard of living for lowest cost.  With that in mind, I offer this list in its stead.

1.  Rio de Janeiro – Brazil (good standard of living, cheap, sunny, what else would you want?)

2.  Bangkok –  Thailand (decent place to live, cheap and it seems they have sorted out their political issues….)

3.  Marrakesh – Morocco (a bit more controversial, but food is not expensive and seems quite dynamic)

4.  Singapore (Things are getting cheaper…what else can I say?)

5.  Perth – Australia (Not as vibrant as Sydney but cheaper and there’s always Margaret River nearby….)

Tong Hsien-Hui

http://matadorabroad.com/five-best-cities-to-live-in-2009-if-the-economy-keeps-tanking/

New Ministers for Singapore?

With Obama and Congress pushing for limits on the salaries of CEOs in companies the US Government has had to bail out, there has been an uproar in the private sector that this would lead to an outflow of talent from the US.  Given that the cap on salaries is US$500K, this would effectively mean that CEOs of companies whose turnovers are larger than the GDPs of some countries, will be paid less than even some heads of states.

With our Singapore Government salaries being the highest in the world, wouldn’t it make sense to bring some of these exceptional talents into our own upper echelons?  Wouldn’t a Jamie Dimon make a better Finance Minister than anyone we could produce?  Or a Jeffrey Immelt as Minister of Trade and Industry?  What a coup it could be for Singapore!  With the salaries our Ministers are paid, compensating these ultimate foreign talents above what they could get in the US will be easy!  Heck, most of our Ministers are paid at least double what Obama’s cap is on executive salaries!

 

Tong Hsien-Hui