Asian e-Marketing January 2011 by MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd

January 2011

Social Media Marketing

Revolutionize

your

Per-

Make Your Customer Springboard Top 10 spective Researchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of the Internet Loyalty Programs Predictions in 2011, page 22 Work with Trendstream, Page 32

with Mobile

Why You Should Get ConverExpect More Come Yahoo: Science is to Insight, sant with Social Media and from SaaS CRM, says Not Hindsight!, page 41 Jump on the Bandwagon, Springboard Research Page 19

Facebook:

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is Going OuteCRM There Mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rightness toState-of-the-art the MainTop, stream, says Oracle Mobile Marketplace, PageAdvertising 16 page 44

EDITORIAL:

O N L I N E

V E R S I O N

Dear Reader, The adoption of broadband Internet connections has revolutionized the World Wide Web within a few years by providing an interactive platform that transformed its users from passive viewers and consumers to producers and distributors of digital content. "Social networks" have sprung up like mushrooms since then, enabling companies to start a direct dialogue with their potential customers, heralding the birth of “Social Media Marketing”. However, the main challenge for companies is to apply creative solutions and combine them with the right strategy to become permanently and successfully involved in today’s social media world. For those who master the rules of the game successfully, social media marketing can provide significant benefits.

Daniela La Marca Editor-in-Chief Asian eMarketing

So do look forward and get yourself prepared for it by reading this edition of Asian e-Marketing and expect more interesting articles on the topic in the next issue to come. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

PS: If you couldn’t catch the previous issue of Asian e-Marketing here is another chance.

Exclusive Sponsor of this Issue: WineCellar Asia

JANUARY 2011

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Social Networking Marketing Just Keeps Growing Across Asia-Pacific Markets

Facebook got 7.9 Percent of all Business Internet Traffic in 2010

Social Media Records Exceptional Growth in Asia Pacific

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Revolutionize your Perspective of the Internet with Trendstream

BUZZWORD

Social Media Optimization (SMO)

APPOINTMENTS

IMPRINT

In Asia Local Social Media Sites Retain Consumer Mind Share and Profitable Business Models

Some Insights into Singaporeans Online Social Behavior

Ovumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2011 Predictions for the Telecoms Industry

Wave 5 Still Seems to Be the Biggest Social Media Study in Asia

Facebook: With Forthrightness to the Top

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Digital Mash-Up

Why You Should Get Conversant with Social Media and Jump on the Bandwagon?

Blogs: Private Pleasure with a Public Impact

Integrating Twitter Securely in the Corporate Application Infrastructure

Sociability Can Be a Magic Bullet

How to Manage Social Media Efficiently

Preventing Twitter Threats the Easy Way

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

XING Empowers Business Partnerships

ADVERTISE WITH US! Just take a look!

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Social Networking Marketing Just Keeps Growing Across Asia-Pacific Markets By the middle of last year, 924 million Internet users around the globe visited a social networking site, making it one of the most popular online activities, according to comScore. More interesting for the issue at hand is the research the company conducted a few months earlier, based on data from its World Metrix service, that gives insights into social networking activity in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China). Their study found that 50.8 percent of the total online population in the Asia-Pacific region visited a social networking site in 2010, reaching a total of 240.3 million visitors. Facebook.com ranked already then as the top social network across the majority of individual markets in the region, while competing brands commanded the top position in certain markets, including Orkut in India, Mixi.jp in Japan, CyWorld in South Korea and Wretch.cc in Taiwan. “While social networking continues to be one of the most popular and fastest growing Web activities in the world, its dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region exhibit significantly more individual market differentiation than in other global regions,” said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for Asia Pacific. “In some mar-

kets, such as the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia, social networking is one of the most popular Web activities reaching nearly 90 percent of the entire Internet population, while other markets report less PC-based social networking penetration, which can often be attributed to the high propensity to engage in social networking via mobile devices in these markets.” Social Networking Penetration Highest in Philippines, Australia and Indonesia Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region averaged 2.5 hours on social networking sites and visited the category an average of 15 times. Across markets, the Philippines showed the highest penetration of social networking usage with more than 90 percent of its entire Web population visiting a social networking site during the month, followed by Australia (89.6 percent penetration) and Indonesia (88.6 percent penetration). Social networkers in the Philippines also showed the highest level of engagement on social networking sites averaging 5.5 hours per visitor, with visitors frequenting the social networking category an average of 26 times during the month. Internet users in Indonesia also showed strong engagement with 5.4 hours per visitor and 22 visits per visitor, followed by Australia with 3.8 hours per visitor and 20 visits per visitor, and Malaysia with nearly 3.8 hours per visitor and 22 visits per visitor.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Social Networking Reach and Engagement in Asia Pacific Markets % Reach

Average Min- Average Visits utes per Visitor per Visitor

Asia Pacific

50.8

148.9

15.1

Philippines

90.3

332.2

26.3

Australia

89.6

228

20.9

Indonesia

88.6

324.4

22.6

Malaysia

84.7

226

22.3

Singapore

83.7

220.9

22.1

New Zealand

81.2

217.5

20.3

Taiwan

75.9

131.3

18.3

Hong Kong

75.4

223.3

25.4

India

68.5

130.1

South Korea

63.5

131.4

Vietnam

46.1

49.5

7.2

Japan

42.3

120.5

Facebook Assumes Top Position in Majority of Asia Pacific Markets Top Social Network in Market

% Reach of Web Population

Asia Pacific

Facebook.com

14.90%

Philippines

Facebook.com

84.50%

Australia

Facebook.com

69.40%

Indonesia

Facebook.com

84.90%

Malaysia

Facebook.com

77.50%

Singapore

Facebook.com

72.10%

New Zealand

Facebook.com

63.60%

Wretch.cc

62.50%

Facebook.com

62.60%

Orkut.com

46.80%

South Korea

CyWorld.com

54.20%

Vietnam

Facebook.com

18.40%

Mixi.jp

18.90%

Taiwan Hong Kong India

Japan

Sources: comScore World Metrix, February 2010 Total Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations *Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

An analysis of top social networks in each of the AsiaPacific markets included in this report revealed various brand preferences across markets. Facebook.com was the social networking leader in eight of the markets – Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Vietnam – while in other countries competing brands captured the top position. Local players led in Japan (Mixi.jp) and South Korea (CyWorld), while Googleowned Orkut ranked as the top social networking site in India and Yahoo!’s Wretch.cc led in Taiwan. Top Social Network in Individual Asia Pacific Markets by Percent Reach of Web Population In the Asia-Pacific region, half of all Internet users visit a social networking site each month. Although Asia Pacific as a region reports lower social networking usage than other regions (due largely to low broadband penetration in some markets as well as restricted usage in places such as China), usage across the region continues to increase rapidly. Several markets in Asia were some of the most avid users of social networking in the world including the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, which each saw more than 90 percent of their online population social networking during the month. What’s even more impressive than the sheer volume of traffic to social networks is the amount of time people spend on these sites. Social networks now capture more time than e-mail, news, games and entertainment activities online. Instant messengers are the only online activity more engaging than social networking in the region. In several markets, visitors are spending more than four hours a month on social networking sites including in the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and New Zealand. ♦

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Source: comScore Media Metrix, June 2010 Persons Age 15+, Home and Work Location Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Facebook got 7.9 Percent of all Business Internet Traffic in 2010 Accessing and downloading content from Facebook and YouTube while at work still accounts for more corporate web activity and bandwidth usage than from any other sites, according to new figures from managed security company Network Box. The managed security services company, specializing in Unified Threat Management (UTM), continuously defends the networks of its customers using PUSH technology to instantaneously update protection from twelve Security Operations Centers spread across the globe. In 2010, Facebook was responsible for 7.9 per cent of the URLs going through the Network Box, and 4.7 per cent of the bandwidth. That was dwarfed by YouTube (at 11.4 per cent of bandwidth). Even Microsoft Windows Update at 0.7 per cent of URLs and 3.0 per cent of bandwidth stands out. “It is amazing to think that much bandwidth is required just to fix software problems in Windows. Symantec also appears in the top 20 list of bandwidth users,” said Mark Webb-Johnson, CTO of Network Box Corporation. In 2010, Network Box blocked 1,143,378 websites based on company content filtering policy enforcement, with 40,653,345 website URLs visited over the year up 39.1 per cent and 49.8 per cent compared with 2009. “The growth in bandwidth, usage, and in particular web usage continues; nearing 50 per cent growth year-onyear. Fueled by cloud-based apps, social media, and mobile, the pressure on IT departments with respect to bandwidth and web usage, continues to grow,’” said Webb-Johnson.

The top 20 websites (by the number of hits) visited from business addresses in 2010 were: Site

%HITS

fbcdn.net

4.7%

google.com

3.3%

facebook.com

3.2%

yimg.com

2.9%

yahoo.com

2.3%

doubleclick.net

1.7%

google-analytics.com

1.3%

msn.com

1.2%

gstatic.com

1.1%

#10

on.cc

1.1%

#11

news.com.au

1.0%

#12

nextmedia.com

0.9%

#13

live.com

0.8%

#14

microsoft.com

0.7%

#15

windowsupdate.com

0.7%

#16

aastocks.com

0.7%

#17

theage.com.au

0.7%

#18 #19

qq.com bbc.co.uk

0.6% 0.6%

#20

google.com.au

0.6%

The top ten websites ranked by the bandwidth they used: #1

Site youtube.com

%SIZE 11.4%

fbcdn.net

3.0%

windowsupdate.com

3.0%

yimg.com

2.8%

google.com

2.4%

apple.com

2.3%

adobe.com

1.8%

facebook.com

1.7%

symantecliveupdate.com

1.6%

#10

microsoft.com

1.3%

Source: Network Box (www.network-box.com)

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Social Media Records Exceptional Growth in Asia Pacific Social media usage has seen unprecedented growth in Asia Pacific in the past year and is now one of the most critical trends in the online sector, according to Nielsen’s Asia Pacific Social Media Report. The survey found that three of the seven biggest global online brands are social media sites – Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube. Close to three quarters of the world’s Internet population (74%) have now visited a social networking/blogging site, and Internet users are spending an average of almost six hours per month on social media sites. Social media is having an increasing impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions in Asia Pacific, where online product reviews are the third most trusted source of information when making purchase decisions, behind family and friends. This is particularly so for purchases of consumer electronics, cosmetics and cars, or in a nutshell for products where consumers are most likely to base their purchasing decisions on online product reviews. There are still, however, some distinctive country characteristics as for instance when writing reviews, Koreans most likely share positive product experiences, while Chinese share negative ones.

But there is much more that the Nielsen report found. Blogging… it’s Big in Japan

• Japanese Internet users are the most avid bloggers globally, posting more than one million blogs per month, significantly more than any other country in the region. • Japan’s adoption of Twitter continues to grow, with unique visitor numbers increasing in the last year from less than 200,000 to more than 10 million. • Sixteen percent of Japanese Internet users now use Twitter, which compares to 10 percent in the U.S. Grass roots celebrities attract China’s social networkers • Bulletin board systems underpin popular social media behavior in China – more than 80 percent of social media content is bulletin board systems. • Social media games are used as a stimuli to drive new users and gain reach with existing users, while content sharing behaviors are more popular among the more experienced users. Virtual product placement within social networking site games is becoming one of the most profitable sources of revenue for social networking sites. • ‘Grass roots’ celebrity tracking dominates online conversations in China, with social media celebrities such as Sister Phoenix and Mr. Yuan outperforming real life celebrities in popularity. • Chinese Internet users are the most likely in Asia Pacific to post a negative online product review, and are the only consumers in the region more likely to share negative reviews than positive reviews – 62 percent of Chinese Internet users say they are more likely to share a negative review compared to 41 percent globally. Facebook threatens Orkut’s share in India

• Although 70 percent of social media users in India identify Orkut as their preferred social media site, Facebook is gaining market share with 50 percent of social media users claiming to use Facebook most often, compared to 38 percent for Orkut, while the most common reasons for switching include friends

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

moving sites, preferring the look and feel of the site, and offering more features. • Twitter has enjoyed exponential growth in popularity in India, with more than half of Twitter users (57%) having signed up in the past year. Close to one third of India’s social media users (32%) use micro-blogging sites such as Twitter at least once a day. • Online product reviews are increasing their influence on purchases in India, particularly for consumer electronics – 55 percent of Indians that read online product reviews have purchased products based on feedback. Consumer durables/electronics are the most common products purchased based on reviews (64% of purchases). Koreans a-buzz about social media • By population, Korea is one of the most social media engaged countries in the world, with the country’s leading social media site, Naver, attracting 95 percent

of the Korean Internet population every month. • While penetration of social media amongst Korea’s Internet population is already strong, it continues to grow (Twitter alone saw 1,900% growth in the year to May 2009) with much of this growth coming off the back of Korea’s June election and the adoption of mobile social networking. Australians flock to online forums • Australia leads the world in social media engagement, with the highest global average for time spent per month engaging with social media, averaging over seven hours per month • In contrast to many countries, Australians look to communities of interest such as parenting or sports sites as a key channel for social media discussion – 62 percent of Australian Internet users visited a message board or forum in 2009.

• LinkedIn has seen one of the fastest growth trends amongst social media sites in Australia, with unique audience numbers increasing by 99 percent from July 2009 to May 2010 "The findings highlight, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that social media is here to stay and needs to be taken seriously by the broader business community, from the CMO to the CEO,” notes Megan Clarken, Managing Director of Nielsen’s online business in Asia Pacific. “With three quarters of the global Internet population now participating in some form of social media, businesses can no longer afford to simply observe the social media phenomenon, they need to embrace it.” ♦

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

In Asia Local Social Media Sites Retain Consumer Mind Share and Profitable Business Models The dominant social network sites of Europe and North America have yet to extend their reach into parts of Asia Pacific where local sites retain the leading consumer mind share and profitable business models, according to new research from Gartner, Inc. “The Asia Pacific social media market is highly diverse and in many places evolving rapidly,” said Nick Ingelbrecht, research director at Gartner. “While global sites fare better in more westernized Asian markets such as Australia, some of Asia's biggest markets have evolved their own unique social network services distinct from those of Europe and North America.” In China, Japan and South Korea, the growth of social networking has been driven by strong consumer interest in online games, while India's social networking market has been spurred by demand for online dating and matchmaking sites. “Niche social sites serving the business and dating communities appear to have the greatest longevity in Asia Pacific,” said Mr. Ingelbrecht.

“Building an early critical mass of local users, featuring local language and content provides a good basis for sustaining a long term and loyal user base.” Asia Pacific has some of the earliest and most successful locally developed social sites, such as Friendster, Cyworld, Mixi and RenRen, with site owners establishing large and loyal subscriber bases supported by highly profitable business models built on digital content sales and subscription fees. Social networking in Asia, however, is changing as the major global operators make steady incursions across the region, with feature rich platforms set to erode the margins of Asian social sites charging subscription fees and digital product sales. “Some of the older social sites that were popular in Asia have begun to show a loss of momentum and in some cases subscribers,” said Mr. Ingelbrecht. “The willingness of Asian consumers to pay for social network service features is being eroded by the onslaught of the free feature-rich Google juggernaut and the range of Facebook’s platform.”

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

While Asia's biggest economies have been slow to embrace the global social communities of Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter, many countries in the region have followed the adoption patterns of Europe and the US. The most avid social networkers are in the Philippines. Twitter is one global platform that does cross cultural boundaries more readily than the major social platforms due to its adaptability to local cultures, languages and its ubiquitous availability on mobile devices.

Indonesia, for example, has seen strong growth in micro-blogging and in mid-2010 became the country recording the highest penetration of Twitter users as a proportion of Internet users worldwide. The Philippines and Singapore also joined Indonesia in the top 10 countries with the highest penetration of Twitter worldwide, ranked sixth and ninth respectively.

Developed Asian markets have pioneered the use of mobile social networking, which has been further extended through the diffusion of smartphones, mobile social sites and mobile extensions to Internet social networking sites. In emerging markets, where PC penetration is low, mobile access has become a critical requirement for social media adoption.â&#x2122;Ś

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Strong as the major social sites are today, however, we do not believe that any of them will dominate social media indefinitely in Asia Pacific,â&#x20AC;? said Mr. Ingelbrecht.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Some Insights into Singaporeans’ Online Social Behavior Experian Hitwise released last month an analysis of web searches by Singapore Internet users over the past six months that has provided a host of interesting insights into Singaporean social habits relevant for marketers and commentators alike.

• Singaporeans love anything visual with the top five

“Local web search patterns are a reflection on the interests and, in some instances the psyche, of Singaporean consumers.

• Singaporeans showed great interest in Japanese

• These patterns have become a great tool to help marketers understand their target audience across verticals that are most relevant to their marketing campaigns,” said Graeme Beardsell, Managing Director for South Asia, Experian. “These insights identify key search trends among Singaporeans, providing marketers with intelligent and actionable information needed to market forward and improve audience engagement in the digital media space.” Key social insights from Experian’s inaugural halfyear online analysis are for instance: Social networking continues to be popular among Singaporeans, with Facebook taking a 17% share of visits compared to search engines like Google Singapore, which held on to second place with a 14% share of visits.

• Singaporeans revealed they liked Google more than Yahoo, with Google Singapore and Google.com taking the top two spots and holding over three quarters of the total share of visits to the top five search engines.

• Forums just didn’t make the cut for Singaporeans, with social networking leading the way and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter taking a combined total share of visits of 66% in the top 10 sites for social networking and forums.

• Facebook continued to maintain its social networking dominance as the top search term driving traffic to the computers and Internet category.

entertainment sites searched for including Razor TV, xinmsn Entertainment, Channel NewsAsia and Tudou.com, with YouTube leading the pack with a 22% total share of visits. comics, with the top ten animation and comic sites for Japanese manga. The top four sites: Manga Fox, MangaStream, AnimeCrazy.net and Mangareader together held a 41% of total share of visits.

• Asian-made games experienced continued popularity among Singaporeans, with Maple Story, MapleSEA, Asiasoft Forums and Warriors of the Three Kingdoms being some of the most popular gaming websites searched.

• YouTube took top spot as the most searched for term driving traffic to the entertainment category, claiming almost 3% of search clicks. Beardsell adds, “With capabilities to help businesses convert data into insights, Experian Hitwise can play a vital role in helping marketers identify local opportunities in specific verticals to strategically conduct effective marketing campaigns. Thus ensuring sustained brand visibility and awareness among their target audience in an increasingly competitive environment.”♦

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Ovum’s 2011 Predictions for the Telecoms Industry As the New Year begins, Ovum has released its predictions for the key issues and events that will shape the market in 2011. Broken down by analysts’ areas of coverage, the predictions provide a fascinating overview of the coming year for the telecoms industry. Shifts in smartphone dominance, lower mobile subscriber growth in emerging markets and increasing demand from Web 2.0 enterprises for wholesale services are among the telecoms predictions for 2011 by independent analyst Ovum that forecasts the following top trends:

• Windows Phone 7 will upset the status quo in the • • • •

• •

smartphone market by becoming the fastest-growing smartphone platform. Android will overtake the iPhone as the favorite among mobile developers by end of the year. Cloud services will move from early adopter to the early mainstream stage and will have an impact on key emerging telco services. Broadband will provide the fastest and most promising growth in emerging markets. The emerging market mobile subscriber land grab will begin to end with single-digit or low double-digit growth becoming the norm as competition intensifies. Web 2.0 intermediaries will increase their demand for managed services at a wholesale level. Wholesale markets will begin to take off across emerging countries.

• The ‘fight’ for the connected/extended home will ac• • • • •

•

celerate. There will be debate around data business models and tariff strategies and the arrival of innovative new approaches to data service charging. Making prime spectrum bands available for mobile broadband will need to be a top priority. Regulators will become embroiled in a vigorously contested consultation process over the future of mobile termination rates. Telcos will invest in customer service centers and back office technology as the customer is put at the centre of their operations. There will be further shake outs in the telecoms supply chain and for vendors to do well they will need to execute well such high-growth applications as mobile broadband and support customers’ cost reduction while maintaining revenue growth. Optical component growth will moderate with demand led by 10, 40 and 100G products but the underlying business fundamentals of the market will remain unchanged, maintaining an unstable supply chain.

Jan Dawson, Ovum’s chief telecoms analyst, said: “The telecoms landscape is changing rapidly and our predictions reflect that. Each of our practices has given their expert forecasts for the major shifts set to take place in their area over the coming year. The predictions make for compelling reading for anyone with an interest in the industry.”♦ Source: Ovum

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Wave 5 Still Seems to Be the Biggest Social Media Study in Asia When we talk about online marketing we clearly have to deal with social marketing, which has already broken through to the mainstream. The phenomenon started to get attention in the past few years and seems nowadays simply unstoppable. Companies have started to integrate their social media activities into broader marketing initiatives, learned how to scale their efforts, and have demonstrated return on engagement. That’s quite an achievement, taking into consideration that it is not easy to create and maintain a genuine face and voice for a brand. In 2006, the global marketing communications agency UM, released a report on the scale and impact of social media, called ‘Global Impact of Social Media’ and reframed and expanded it in the following years. What started off as a ripple (Wave 1) in 2006 has really grown by 2010 (Wave 5) into the “biggest” social media study in the world, with 37,600 respondents from 54 countries. The agency unveiled the findings of their “world’s largest and longest-running examinations of the impact of social media on today’s global marketplace” just last week and the gathered data seem to be a real information goldmine for brands attempting to foster connections with their target groups. Clinton Simpson, Managing Director, UM Singapore said: “The survey title ‘The Socialisation of Brands’ sums up the current landscape perfectly. There is a huge benefit to brands that engage with consumers in the social space, but the challenge is to identify the type of social experience consumers actually want. Wave 5 demonstrates that a deep understanding of these consumer needs is the key to creating compelling and successful social media programs.” The full Wave 5 survey is a massive report and therefore I present at this point only the ‘10 myths about so-

cial media in Singapore’. Although the list of 10 myths has been compiled using Singapore data, it has in many ways global relevance and gives a good impression of the quality of the report. Myth #1: Social networking sites are only for connecting with friends Social networking sites are a one stop venue for self expression, entertainment, and content or knowledge sharing. In other words: a social network is not just connecting with friends anymore - it’s much more that. UM expects social networks to become a kind of aggregator with even more built-in functionalities that are employed by digital media users as a gaming portal, a meeting place with friends, and a sharing of points of views, pictures, videos or opinions with others. Myth #2: Social networking sites are only for young people The moment we say social network we kind of always imagine young people going to their Facebook profile and doing their updates and simply some chatting. According to Wave 5, however, that probably was still true a year back, but it is across all age groups now. In fact the 45-54 year old age group, for instance, is the fastest growing in terms of penetration of social networks. Myth #3: Blogs are dying Nielsen Media Research confirmed that traffic is dipping when it comes to blogs, but what UM surveyed is that there is actually more of a shift taking place from personal and general topics to specialized blogs. The endless talking of individuals about themselves and general topics lost has its glitter, which shouldn’t be generalized for blogging in general. The new success formula is ‘relevance’.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Myth #4: Brand websites are losing relevance Globally, there is a bit of a dip in terms of numbers of people visiting brand websites, and the reasons are probably more or less the same as with blogs. More interesting is UM’s findings that prove that attraction is still pretty high with 80%; eight out of 10 people are visiting brand websites, which is phenomenal. What is even more interesting is that three-quarters of them are finding brand websites to be an influential source of advertising. Myth # 5: Social media is just a fad … the bubble shall burst That’s a fair comment, but what UM found out is actually the sheer opposite, namely that a sweeping majority of users are still upbeat about it, with eight out of 10 saying they will continue visiting social networks to keep in contact with family or friends, to manage their social networking page, or to visit an online message board or forum. So what we call “fad” is actually here to stay and to grow even more - some functions may die in the course of time, but new ones will come up in the meantime, so social networks surely won’t die. Myth # 6: Singaporeans don’t want brands in social networks People often use their own personal opinions to make generalizations across media in general, which seems to be the case here. Wave 5 found that consumers don’t really have a problem with having brands in their social network space. Almost half of all digital media users have joined an online brand community and what’s interesting about it is that about four in 10 have actually endorsed a brand, or became affiliated to, or even advocated a brand. These figures are very similar on the global level and contrary to the belief of agencies. Brands just have to figure out how

to add value – then people are willing to seek brand communities and share their experiences with friends. Myth #7: Singaporeans only connect with known brands on social networks In fact almost half the respondents said they had discovered new brands through social networking, as many as three-quarters of them found the recommendation of a friend more influential, and a good majority liked personalized ads on social networks. The point here is that people really discover new brands through social networks. Myth # 8: There is a single “Formula” for all brands on all social networks It’s not quite as simple: for different categories and different products there are rather different solutions and motivations. All have of course some common aspects, such as sharing, but every now and then you will find there are polarizing differences. Keeping an eye on being relevant is crucial in social media, as well as going away with the erroneous belief that what works for one brand in one category is going to work across the board. To give you an example: what works for an FMCG brand on Facebook cannot be exactly replicated for an automobile brand, so you will have to tweak the way you design the page or the way you allow consumers or people to interact. Myth # 9: Buzz happens when brands go “social” Wave 5 found out that brands want to play up more buzz, but are not really interest in garnering more buzz. Depending on which category a product or service belongs to, there will be more or less effort to generate that wanted buzz. This means that you may have to walk

that extra mile or take those extra steps to ensure that people are buzzing about you. For luxury products, say Gucci or Chanel, consumers typically look at the brand, which they put on a pedestal. In that case you have to go the extra mile and submit content to the social spaces, whereas if you are releasing a movie, you are just opening a window through which you can allow in pure user generated content. Myth # 10: Social media’s impact is superficial Social media doesn’t necessarily have to be superficial, you can make it sound credible, which is of course always the marketers’ or the brands’ efforts. Interestingly, Wave 5 found that half of the people are influenced by what they read and discovered further that people seem to be willing to believe. Such people usually have a favorite blog that they track or read for certain types of information. Another finding of UM was that 35% of people are inclined to think more positively about companies that have a blog. Do keep in mind that everything is subjective, so you need of course to build-up credibility first. A very interesting point taken from the whole study is that almost half of the Internet universe has already joined some sort of brand community, which proves that there are clearly brand benefits, such as driving loyalty, sharing news or updates, or spreading general brand awareness. What’s needed is just a good understanding on the nature of social media demand, which is the key for its effective usage. So if you are looking for a holistic and social media point of view, get in touch with those who seem to have more information than anyone else on the global social media picture (http://www.umww.com/wave5) in all its forms.♦ By Daniela La Marca

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Facebook: With Forthrightness to the Top Recent figures confirm the success of Facebook as the absolute No. 1 social media platform. With more than 500 million users, it is now used by 1 in every 13 people on Earth. Over 50% of all Facebook users log in at least once a day, which explains the 700 billion minutes a month that are spent on the portal, allowing users to install around 20 million applications per day, and that over 250 million people interact with Facebook from outside the official website on a monthly basis across two million websites. In just 20 minutes on Facebook, over one million links are shared, two million friend requests are accepted, and almost three million messages are sent. Impressive numbers that are expected to only go up in 2011. The younger generation, the so-called digital natives, are the biggest supporters of this social networking portal. The tremendous growth rate of the U.S. network clearly shows its development perspective, not to mention that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has just stressed once again that his company is still at the very beginning and that he wants to hire an additional 500 employees. As usual, with popularity, profitability needs to keep pace in the long run.

Interestingly, in almost equal measure to the growth, the average length of stay by Facebook users has declined, but still remains more than two hours per month higher than in all other social networks. Furthermore, the fact that Facebook is almost omnipresent shouldn’t be neglected as it is also, for instance, involved in Twitter applications. API interfaces to Twitter and other communications services and a flood of applications that connect to Facebook proves its forthrightness that they provide members many options and offers, but forces nothing upon them. This is most likely the main reason for Facebook’s success. For some it is a big playground where they can try out things, for others the network becomes more and more a virtual center of their life. The huge base of Facebook fans and Zuckerberg’s announcement to recruit an additional 500 employees will most likely scare off many competitors. The question that now arises is whether competing networks can define their own path clearly without being perceived as poor "Facebook" copies to have a future.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Digital Mash-Up

“We lived in farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're gonna live on the Internet!” – Sean Parker, The Social Network It took a very short period of time for the Internet revolution to swallow the world whole. Can you believe that Wikipedia was founded in 2001, Facebook in 2004 and Twitter only in 2006? Today, the average Facebook user has 130 friends, and the average Twitter user follows 350 people and has 346 followers. Their Chinese counterparts Renren and Kaixin001 have 200 million and 75 million users respectively. Publications by users are seen by their friends and friends’ friends, depending on their privacy settings. Imagine how many people a single person’s post is capable of reaching. As people’s lives become increasingly tied to their online identities, it’s become imperative for them to have access to those identities at all times. Close to three quarters of the planet is currently mobile. The always on, always available nature of the mobile device therefore makes it the ideal medium for people to stay in touch with their online communities. The combination of the social and mobile media has led to people now spending more than half their day consuming media. Social networking via mobile browsers was up 90% toward the end of 2010. The two technologies have converged to create the new mobile social media. For marketers, this is the media that gives them fast, targeted and ongoing interaction with their customers. In the medium term, it will be one of the biggest media for marketing communications. It will be imperative for brands to ensure that their marketing messages are sparking, continuing or adding value to conversations happening across the digital universe. Businesses today have more ways to reach more markets than they ever could before. It would be foolish not to leverage this medium as it continues to change our social and professional lives. It’s easy to get started. The key is to employ a few easy methods to ensure that your digital campaigns fully explore the potential of social and mobile elements.

The basics: Mobile friendly websites and crossintegration Any digital content should be accessible by all mainstream mobile devices. Since the appeal of mobile is that it helps you make decisions anytime, anywhere, it is essential that your digital content can be accessed by consumers anytime, anywhere. Marketers also need to ensure that the content is not only accessible via mobiles, but accessible in the right format. Mobile screens are smaller and require marketers to ensure compatible prioritization of content. Additionally, cross-integration is the key to successful digital campaigns. We’ve seen numerous examples of microsites being cross-integrated with mobile, Facebook, Twitter and the like. These are small steps that can completely revamp your marketing campaigns and breathe new life into them. Promotional gimmicks: In April 2010, Jimmy Choo launched the @CatchAChoo trainer hunt on London’s streets. The treasure hunt campaign incorporated social media outlets by posting hints about the whereabouts of Jimmy Choo trainers on Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter. Contestants obtained instant location updates by accessing the social sites on their mobiles and the first person to locate the shoes got to keep them. There are several such campaigns that have made a huge impact on consumers and go a long way in improving consumer involvement with the brand and building loyalty. Reward your brand’s social network via mobile coupons or offer product previews via mobile with a link to your social pages. Social media brings tremendous value to the mobile marketing mix, whether it’s getting closer to customers no matter where they are, communicating with them on a social level, or releasing information. With purchases of goods and services via mobile devices expected to reach $200 billion by 2012, the linking of mobile marketing and social media is a marriage made in heaven. A whole region of uncharted possibilities awaits the exploration of marketers.♦ By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Limited

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Why You Should Get Conversant with Social Media and Jump on the Bandwagon According to IDC, traditional corporate culture remains the largest barrier to successful social media initiatives, simply because social media challenges the hierarchical management model of organizations. Well, everybody can imagine the challenges organizations have to embrace in an environment where information on the Internet spreads like wildfire. Whoever has something to say, simply posts it on to the net and the community likes to listen and pass on interesting information immediately. Yes, that’s social media! It simply stands for collaboration or sharing of information between two people or more online. It’s an Internet -based tool that allows for groups to engage in peer-topeer conversations and exchange content - including video, audio, text and multimedia, which is then published and shared within a social environment. The emergence of social media has generated a new and innovative way to create dialogue and receive useful feedback in a way never thought possible before. But how useful are social networks really – especially for businesses? To answer this question, we should determine first what exactly the biggest draws of social networks are.

I would say the additional and greater targeted exposure and increased traffic through links to your website, which in turn helps to improve your company’s search engine ranking, which once again spurs more traffic to your site thereby increasing conversions and sales. Done right, it can further create positive brand association and growing brand awareness, extend your business ventures and bring you more loyal customers. Another fact you should keep in mind is that mass advertising is increasingly becoming more annoying and ineffective. Whoever has a purchasing intention these days would believe more in what their friends recommend than the subjective experience of an unknown third party or those expensive, glossy brochures that you may have produced for the market. Another point to mention is that companies better behave properly and treat their customers well, because in this Web 2.0 world, everything will be brought to light. Whoever messes something up will be mercilessly criticized online by disappointed consumers. Those companies that provide positive feedback/ support and encourages their customers to be active participators are fit for this new marketing world. So now is the time to get conversant with social media and jump on the social media marketing bandwagon!♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Blogs: Private Pleasure with a Public Impact Blogs are mostly pursued for private interests and therefore require not only a high qualitative and thematic range of topics, but also a very different relevance and coverage: from the private diary to investigative journalism, from lovesickness to cats or politics, from a few readers each week up to several thousand visitors daily. Bloggers often demonstrate their tremendous expertise in the subject they cover, but this online activity usually earns them little or no money. For the majority of bloggers, what they are doing is a hobby, and is thus one of the reasons that they guard their privacy. Some international corporations like Coca-Cola and IBM demonstrate perfectly how to be successful in this area, yet there are many that still donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t recognize the potential of blogging or create uncertainty with fake campaigns and attempts of blog-abuse. A classic tool of public relations, sending press releases, is often classified by bloggers as an intrusion into their privacy or is considered spam - even if there is a thematic proximity to the blog. At best, the blogger simply ignores it, at worst he blogs negatively about the clumsy attempt at contact.

Social Media Releases instead of Press Releases It is not about media relations, but blogger relations, which means direct contact with a more or less publicly occurring representative of the relevant target group. By no means, however, should the initial contact with a blogger be via a conventional press release, and as a rule generally not by personalized e-mail. Whoever uses the opportunity to present his concerns appropriately face-to-face (BarCamp, web montage, etc.) or at least by telephone in an open and transparent manner, usually has a better chance of being heard. Openness and transparency as well as authenticity can create trust. Relationships are built on trust as well and this is exactly or should be the focus of blogger relations: long -term relationships based on mutual trust. Bloggers, in general, are not that open-minded about the traditional press release, on the contrary, they see it as manipulation or an attempt at abuse, so it is seldom easy to make up for this form of contact in the bloggersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eyes. While this may cast a damning light on PR, it does open the door for social media releases to complement press releases, which are characterized by the following features:

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

• Short, introductory and sum-

• •

•

mary paragraph, followed by a brief bullet pointed enumeration of the news (no story angle). Selection of quotations from various people on the topic. Use of social bookmarking services to provide the reader with contextual information on the topic. Integrating with or linking to a variety of multimedia content (images, audio, video, PDFs, etc.) Various ways to contact the PR agency/responsible person (telephone, e-mail, Instant Messenger, Skype, Twitter Direct Message).

Some of the listed elements - such as the multimedia content – are not necessarily something new and those elements alone do not necessarily qualify the release as being "social", it requires a little bit more:

• The social media release isn’t dispatched, but it can be received via RSS subscription so that no mailing list needs to be maintained. • The release is published as a customized blog, the social media newsroom, using a Weblog publishing system. Only in this way can it be assured that it pops up on the appropriate search engines (Technorati, Google Blog Search, blogato, etc.). • The multimedia content is not on the company's own hosted server, but on the designated Web 2.0 portals: videos on YouTube or sevenload, presentations or PDFs respectively on SlideShare, etc. with back links to the release to increase the perception of the message. • The reader has several opportunities for feedback and further utilization: bloggers can directly comment on the release. Fur-

thermore, it’s possible to assess it positively via implemented buttons (like “Digg This”) or it can be used again it in a blog with just one click (such as Blog This!). There is no limit to the variety of feedback tools and forums. Bloggers represent, as experts and multipliers, an important target group for PR or Social Media Relations. A thorough understanding of the blogosphere structure will result in success. Since the PR industry has, so far, inadequately addressed the problem of blogger relations, the industry’s only chance not to fade away into insignificance due to social media is to learn the "rules" of the blogosphere through observation and active participation. It’s crucial to start an open and transparent dialogue with the new blogger multipliers that will create and sustain long -term mutual trust.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Integrating Twitter Securely in the Corporate Application Infrastructure Twitter is a popular micro-blogging tool that enables users to communicate to an audience of “followers” using a combination of characters, images and URLs (tiny URLS) – all of which must fit into a 140 character limit. Like email or IM from years ago, and more recently Social Networking, end-users are rapidly making Twitter an integral part of the corporate application infrastructure. The benefit of using Twitter is that it enables users to interact bi-directionally with a wide audience. Marketing can “tweet” about the latest press release or success story; engineers can solicit answers to a perplexing question; and corporate bloggers can tweet about the latest blog post. There are, however, several challenges that the rapid adoption of Twitter has introduced. Many Malaysian organizations for instance are unaware of who is using Twitter and for what purpose - and as is the case with social networking applications, policies governing specific usage are non-existent. Many users tend to be too trusting and blindly download images or access shortened, and effectively obfuscated, URLs which can introduce malware into their network. IT is therefore tasked with keeping the network secure while enabling the use of Twitter. Blindly blocking tweets is an inappropriate response because it may be detrimental to organizational productivity and may force users to find alternative means of using Twitter (proxies, circumvention tools, etc). Blindly allowing tweets is also an inappropriate response, as it may result in propagation of threats, as well as potential data leakage. Enterprises should therefore follow a systematic process to develop, enable and enforce policies that allow the use of Twitter in a secure manner.

1. Find out who’s using Twitter There are many cases where there may already be a “corporate” Twitter account established by marketing or sales, so it is critical that IT determines if these accounts exist, who is using them and what are the associated business objectives – if for no other reason than to be prepared from a public exposure perspective. By meeting with the business groups and discussing the common company goals, IT can use this step to move past the image of “always saying no” toward the role of being a key business enabler. 2. Develop a corporate Twitter policy Once visibility into Twitter usage patterns is determined, enterprises should engage in discussions around what should and should not be said or posted about the company, the competition as well as the appropriate form and style of language. In some cases, determining who can and cannot post may be an appropriate first step to take. Educating users on the security risks associated with Twitter is another important facet to encourage usage for business purposes. With a “click first, think later” mentality, Twitter users tend to place too much trust in what is being posted, inadvertently introducing malware while placing both personal and corporate data at risk. 3. Use Technology to Monitor and Enforce Policy The outcome of each of these discussions should be documented with an explanation of how IT will apply security policies to enable the secure use of Twitter within enterprise environments. Documenting and enforcing a policy around Twitter can help enterprises improve communications, productivity, and their bottom line while boosting employee morale.♦ By Eric Chong, Regional Marketing Director of Palo Alto Networks, Asia Pacific

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Sociability Can Be a Magic Bullet The magic formula to get the attention of your target customers is to be able to inform them factually while engaging them emotionally through stories. Your brand should both be tangible and provoke an emotion, as people not only think with their heads, they have feelings too. You must develop empathy by identifying the needs of your audience. When communicating, it's not just about the pure exchange of information, but a give and take among communication partners, which means that you should listen carefully to what your audiences have to say. They have their very own opinions and represent them confidently in public. They use the functionalities on your Website, their own blog, social media platforms, or assessment tools. If you want online users to talk about your brand, you have to hand them details, which are valuable and interesting enough to be discussed and can quickly achieve strong viral effects. Always make sure that you know exactly who reports what about your brand. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have an eye on the flow of information and steer it carefully, the viral activity could run out of control and cause negative effects. This all truly depends on your initiative and how you want to expertly stage your brand. If you display your brand online, show your presence in social networks and demand feedback, your prospects will turn to you and be quite outspoken with their questions - which is actually what you want.

Nowhere do you have a better opportunity to prove that than on the Internet to your prospects, if you have a customer and service-oriented attitude. You are the direct contact for the questions of your target audience, so take advantage of this opportunity and be open, transparent and welcoming. Being approachable allows a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target audience to relate to the brand and this is therefore a good way for the company to position itself. You must, therefore, show the willingness to deal with the requirements of your prospective and interested customers. Only then can you be perceived and recommended as a trustworthy company. Five rules for a brand to keep in touch with their customers On the Internet, a brand lives on the willingness of users to voluntarily engage with their messages. At best they even share the messages, if the brand is appealing and regularly provides them news updates. You should, therefore, consider the following rules for your digital brand management: 1. Inform regularly and based on facts The published information should be relevant, interesting and up-to-date. Only those who have something to say should have a voice.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

2. Listen first, before you start talking

3. Have a conversation with your audience

He, who has something to tell, should first and foremost listen to his audience, as this guarantees that a sympathetic and empathetic communication can take place.

An open dialogue with customers and prospects will support a customer- and service-oriented communications policy. 4. Get recommended The Internet is a great way to spread information quickly and ef-

fectively with added value. Consider social networks as a valuable support. 5. Stay alert Continuous monitoring and reporting are necessary measures to check online activities and to sustain and, if need be, fix the digital brand image.â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

How to Manage Social Media Efficiently It’s once again that time of the year when speculations and discussions on possible online trends for the coming year kick in. Which topics will dominate the media, what kind of technologies will be in the limelight or similar such questions are usually of common interest. As expected, social media is on this year’s trend list as it enables marketers to reach potential target groups in a completely new way. Characteristics of social media marketing are the active involvement of users in designing brand messages as well as pushing their viral spread. This only works if users are really convinced of a brand, do not feel exploited for advertising purposes and discover personal value. Members of social networks are mainly interested in news and innovations and like to be surprised. They are among the early adopters, and transmit information, after a personal assessment, to their friends and associates. This gives them recognition in their narrower and wider circle of friends and should help them feel and know that they are respected in their opinion. According to IDC, traditional corporate culture remains the largest barrier to successful social media initiatives today, simply because social media challenges and disrupts the hierarchical management model of many organizations. So let me present to you the different operational challenges organizations face to effectively deploy and manage social media initiatives as well as some hints on what to avoid to be successful with the new Internet-based tools that allows for groups to engage in peer-to-peer conversations and exchange content - including video, audio, text and multimedia, which is then published and shared within a social environment.

The emergence of social media has without doubt generated new and innovative ways to create dialogue and receive useful feedback in a way and scope never before thought possible. Think about platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, or Flickr and the impacts they have had in recent times. Even the most experienced early adopters of social networks have had a few lapses along the way before they could use these tools well. Luckily, best practices are slowly turning up as social media becomes more widely adopted. Indeed, it is starting to become almost unacceptable for big brands not to have a social media strategy in place – it’s simply essential, even if it is lessthan-perfect. An advantage with the growing world of social media is that most boo-boos will likely be forgotten faster than before. So why not avoid such regrets by learning from the common mistakes made by others? Read on to discover what you can avoid doing in your social media campaigns. DON’T forget to respond to comments or wait too long to do so The mechanisms of the so-called word of mouth advertising are from a business point of view really important as it is usually beyond a company’s direct control. In particular, negative opinions can sometimes remain for years documented and commented on the Internet, and have a greater impact on purchasing decisions than in the offline world in which emerging rumors or negative messages about products and services quickly fizzle out over time and are forgotten. The fact is that you can’t control online discussions about your company or brand. As in real life, people will talk about you whether you like it or not. If conversations are already out there, you should at least be part

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

of it – especially for big/groundbreaking news or a scandal. People expect a response or an explanation and if you wait too long to chime-in, or worse, don’t say anything at all, people may begin to speculate and create their own truths. DON’T have too much “me” in your social media campaign Keep the purpose of social media in mind, namely interacting with other people via the Internet. Be careful not to spread information in your latest advertisements only as a monologue as this is usually boring. Instead, you should encourage conversations and discussions, which is pretty hard to do when you are promoting a product or service at the same time. Of course, there is nothing wrong with sharing coupons or other deals with your followers - in fact, this is one of the reasons that people follow brands on Twitter – so it’s best to make the offer exclusive to your followers only. By rewarding them, you will gain an increasingly bigger and more committed group.

DON’T abandon your profile

DON’T fail to moderate

Believe me, what is worse than having no social media presence at all, are having profiles that were created and then forgotten. According to a Purewire study, 80 percent of all Twitter accounts have fewer than 10 followers and 30 percent have zero followers. One quarter don't follow anyone else. One reason for this phenomenon could be the fact that people want to make sure that nobody steals their username. Of course there are brands that are worried about others that might cash in on what they see as their rightful name. In fact it really isn’t easy to get a username back on Twitter, compared to Facebook, YouTube, or MySpace.

When it comes to social media, everybody has a voice and can start a dialogue and bond directly with a brand, ask it questions, and become part of its decision-making process. What makes social media great, however, can be frustrating at the same time, simply due to the fact that everybody can say whatever they want including nasty things, too. The only solution to this problem is moderation, which means if somebody writes something potentially damaging on your Facebook wall, @replies on Twitter, or leaves a comment on your blog, you have to react as soon as possible. So, if the comment is factually incorrect you have to provide a correction or if it is a complaint, offer to provide a resolution. Remember that if one person has posted a question or a complaint, it's likely that many others who haven't yet posted feel the same way. People understand that nobody is perfect, so quickly admit mistakes if they are discovered and set it right as soon as possible to prevent a potential social media fiasco.♦

DON’T forget the ethics The progress and results of your performance can potentially reach millions of individuals on social networks, so actively monitor social media, with for instance Nielsen's BuzzMetrics or Radian6, or other useful tools that can help you track online conversations and monitor them for potentially damaging conversations that can prevent a fiasco. Of course it can be used to watch for praises of your company as well.

By Daniela La Marca

BEST BEST PRACTICES PRACTICES & & STRATEGIES STRATEGIES

Preventing Twitter Threats the Easy Way The explosive use of Twitter has many enterprises responding in one of two ways; blindly blocking, which may result in lost productivity and business opportunities or blindly allowing, which can expose the business to unnecessary business and security risks. Next-generation firewalls allow enterprises to take a very systematic approach to enabling the secure use of Twitter by determining usage patterns, as well as establishing and enforcing corporate policies that enable the business objectives in a secure manner.

• Identify Who is Using Twitter: The first step in safely enabling the use of Twitter is to identify which employees are reading Twitter (reading Tweets) and which are posting to Twitter (Tweeting). Palo Alto Networks identifies Twitter at the service level, which means that even if a desktop client such as TweetDeck, Twhirl or Twitterfeed is in use, the Twitter traffic is identified. • Define and Enforce Appropriate Usage Policies: After determining who is reading Tweets and who is Tweeting, (via integration with Active Directory, LDAP, eDirectory), administrators can apply appropriate usage policies that support the organization’s goals and objectives. The ability to delineate between Twitter use overall and Tweeting (Twitter posting), means that user-based policies for reading vs. posting can be deployed as a means of enabling the business, allowing some personal use (where

appropriate), while protecting the enterprise from security or business risks. The policy control options go beyond the traditional allow or deny: • Allow or deny • Allow but scan • Allow based on schedule • Decrypt and inspect • Allow and apply traffic shaping • Allow for certain users or groups

• Protect the Network From Attacks Propagated Across Twitter: The increased use in social networking applications such as Twitter combined with their relentless barrage of messages have created a very fertile environment for cyber criminals. Studies show that social media sites are 10 times more effective at delivering malware than previous methods of e-mail delivery. The reasons are obvious - users trust each other implicitly and it is easy to entice a user to “click here” by including a reference to an article, or an image via a URL. In the case of Twitter, URLs are shortened to maximize the 140 character limit and as such, it is now even easier to propagate malware because the URL is shortened and indecipherable. Once the Twitter usage policy has been created, an equally detailed threat prevention policy can be enabled to detect and block a wide range of threats including spyware, Trojans, viruses, and application vulnerabilities.

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â&#x20AC;˘ Monitor Twitter Traffic for Unauthorized Posting: As part of the balancing act between personal and professional use, enterprises must also evaluate how best to implement policies that are designed to limit unauthorized posting of confidential information. With data filtering capabilities, administrators can

apply policies to detect the posting of confidential data patterns such as project code names, executive names, or e-mails with varied response options dependent on policy. With the recommended approach presented here, IT departments can achieve the best of both worlds

by enabling usage while protecting users and the company from a wide range of business and security risks.â&#x2122;Ś By Eric Chong, Regional Marketing Director of Palo Alto Networks, Asia Pacific

The emergence of social media has generated a new and innovative way to create dialogue and receive useful feedback in a way never thought possible before.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

XING Empowers Business Partnerships

For online business networking XING.com is the place to be. Millions of members use the platform every day to do business and promote their career as it makes networking and professional contact management simple. This can be seen by the exceptionally high levels of activity the platform enjoys. Members can meet and exchange views in over 40,000 specialist groups, while also getting together at networking events to share their contacts, skills and expertise. A XING network is defined by trust - it boosts members’ career prospects while acting as a recruiting portal for both companies looking to fill vacancies and qualified professionals interested in a new challenge. “XING is continuing its growth course” said Stefan Gross-Selbeck, CEO at XING AG, who had at the end of the third quarter of last year 10.11 million members registered on its platform. If you haven’t heard already, companies can now have their own online presence on the XING business network. More than a year ago XING started to offer its service, allowing corporate customers, associations and organizations to use XING Company Profiles to bolster their online presence with an individualized profile that enables them to engage customers and other interested individuals in dialogue within the XING network, and connect with over 10 million members. Hubert Frach, Vice President Marketing, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said: "Our own online presences on XING allow us to reach our customers where they already do their online networking” and is excited to be part of the business network. The new Company Profiles are far more detailed than standard Yellow Pages entries. The benefits for companies and nonprofits are manifold, starting with customer

acquisition through interactive communication with potential and existing customers via social media. Companies on XING can share information on product or service innovations allowing them, for example, to bolster customer engagement, which in turn can increase their brand recognition and help them attract better candidates and customers. The service can be combined in numerous ways with existing XING services such as advertising, Enterprise groups and Best Offers, too. Over 100,000 companies are already on XING and the company’s expanded service offers companies the opportunity to supplement their existing XING profile with individual content, and present themselves in an active and innovative manner using Web 2.0. There are practically no limits to the possibilities of this new service. Bertelsmann can present itself as a desirable employer, sharing details about career opportunities with its community, while Lufthansa gives insights about the company to actively communicate with and engage customers. Potential customers, interested individuals, or applicants can find information such as the company address and contacts, and also deeper statistics and an employee summary. XING members can also subscribe to information posted on Company Profiles, allowing customers to set up individual communities with "followers", and communicate with them directly. In addition to the free Company Profile version already offered, XING now features STANDARD and PLUS profiles, professional versions with an ever-increasing set of features, adapted to meet the needs and desires of their corporate users.♦ By Daniela La Marca

If you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t heard already, companies can now have their own online presence on the XING business network.

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Revolutionize your Perspective of the Internet with Trendstream

Trendstream is only a year old and already works with some of the leading companies in web, technology and marketing communications and I am not surprised.

According to Smith, the first year of the Global Web Index has revealed three clear trends in the consumer adoption of the Internet, which are the following:

The London-based consultancy, spearheaded by its managing director Tom Smith, is fully dedicated to shed light on trends in technology adoption and to identify what it means for consumer behavior, marketing communications, media and content.

One of their main principles is to look for the unexpected as technology impacts in ways that people usually can’t forecast and are often more important than the expected. Probably that’s the reason why they kickstarted their Global Web Index last year. Their flagship product is a syndicated market research service that surveys 32,000 web users a year to understand their web behavior and its impacts on their outlook, attitudes towards marketing communications, purchasing and media consumption in 16 global markets. Designed for agencies, advertisers or web companies, it is already adopted by some of the world’s biggest brands to help them deliver global online strategies.

Trendstream runs global research projects and provides analysis, which they present in the most professional manner by working with some of the world’s best info-graphics/visualization specialists that turn data into images that are highly effective especially in B2B marketing.

Social media has reached mass maturity. It’s now no longer about massive growth but a shift of already active social consumers to ‘real-time’ technologies, such as status updates or tweets. The old view of text-based social media, defined by blogs and forums, is being surpassed, moving the impact of social media, from creating content and publishing to sharing other people’s content and ‘live’ opinions about real-world events. In short ‘real-time’ is re-orientating the consumer from creator to distributor and moving the focus to traditional media and professional content. The open browser-based web is losing out to packaged internet platforms such as mobile apps, Internet connected TVs, tablets, e-readers, PC apps, gaming and video platforms. These packaged platforms are re-engineering the Internet and destroying the notion of the Internet being a singular entity. Crucially for the entertainment revolution, they provide professional media with the means to create sustainable Internet business models, something the economics of the browser-based web totally failed to enable. Professional “traditional style” content is now a core part of the consumer online experience. Internet platforms are increasingly the entertainment platform of choice for hundreds of

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

millions of consumers. This is due to the continual growth of professional content in video sites (legal and illegal), the rise of ‘real-time’, and the growth of packaged platforms. “These trends will revolutionize our view of the Internet. In particular, the packaged Internet will transform the way we go online, the content we consume, and the ways we can create, share and communicate. Going forward five years it is clear that many people’s Internet experience will not be through a browser, but through some form of packaged platform. While many ‘Internet purists’ will bemoan their lack of openness, the creation of barriers to entry as well as the shift in control to a small number of gatekeepers, packaged platforms crucially enable professional media to create sustainable businesses online without having to change the way that the open web works.

This is important, if not so for a healthy society, to enable consumers to publish and share their opinions or content. The open browser based Internet has failed to create the economics to deliver professional media business online, as advertising could not demand the premiums needed and consumers were unwilling to pay for content delivered through a browser. These changing commercial opportunities will capitalize on consumer demand for social entertainment online. They will, however, have to change the way that they create and deliver content and make sure they integrate social technologies into their product”, Smith elaborates. “Increasingly ‘real-time’ social will be integrated with the traditional content experience”, he adds, extending the impact of social media outside of the browser as well as surpassing the old models of delivering media, such as cable TV, satellite, radio or newspaper.

Watch out for this interesting and innovative company in 2011, which have already announced that their GlobalWebIndex will track this year’s trends in technology adoption through 26 countries, three waves of research, and 90,000 surveys.♦ By Daniela La Marca

“While many ‘Internet purists’ will bemoan their lack of openness, the creation of barriers to entry, as well as the shift in control to a small number of gatekeepers packaged platforms, crucially enable professional media to create sustainable businesses online without having to change the way that the open web works.” ~ Trendstream

BUZZWORD

Social Media Optimization (SMO) According to search engine expert Danny Sullivan, the term "social media optimization" was first used and described by Rohit Bhargava.* Social Media Optimization (SMO) or Social SEO stands for social media activity that intends to attract unique visitors to website content. Social Media Optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus is on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO. It is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking as well as video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way, engagement with blogs achieves the same sharing of content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines. There are two categories of SMO/Social SEO methods: Social media features added to the content itself, including: RSS feeds, social news and sharing buttons, user rating and polling tools, and incorporating thirdparty community functionalities like images and videos. Promotional activities in social media aside from the content being promoted, including: blogging, commenting on other blogs, participating in discussion groups, and posting status updates on social networking profiles. Social Media Optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence, but is not limited to marketing and brand building. Increasingly, smart businesses are integrating social media participation as part of their knowledge management strategy (i.e. product/service development, recruiting, employee engagement and

turnover, brand building, customer satisfaction and relations, business development and more). Additionally, Social Media Optimization is many times implemented to foster a community of the associated site, allowing for an on-going healthy business to consumer relationship. SMO is about creating a positive feedback loop, where users are rewarded for both consuming and distributing content. So turn your focus to it if you don’t want to be left out. Attracting search engines has past its prime as the future belongs to social networks.♦ Source: Wikipedia

*Bhargava's original five rules for conducting social media optimization are: •Increase your linkability •Make tagging and bookmarking easy •Reward inbound links •Help your content travel •Encourage the mashup •Get communities connected Four years after the initial post, Rohit Bhargava posted an updated set of five new rules: •Create shareable content •Make sharing easy •Reward engagement •Proactively share content •Encourage the mashup

APPOINTMENTS

APPOINTMENTS InMobi announced the appointment of Atul Satija as Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific. He will spearhead the Company’s Asia Pacific business strategy alongside the global executive team. Atul takes over from Emmanuel Allix, who recently left the company to pursue other opportunities. He was previously Head of Wireless Business, Japan & Asia Pacific at Google. Atul will be based out of Bangalore, India, and will be responsible for expanding InMobi’s operations in the region, maintaining customer relationships and establishing new avenues for growth. He brings with him over 12 years of experience in the technology and online media space in the Asia Pacific region.

Atul Satija

Prior to his time at Google, Atul worked at Adobe driving key global alliances for enterprise business and has held various business and technology roles in organizations including Samsung and Infosys. He is also the Chairperson of a not-forprofit organization, End Poverty.

Atul is a graduate of the National Institute of Technology and holds a post-graduate degree from the Indian School of Business.♦

Jens Pape is to become the new Chief Technological Officer (CTO) at the publicly listed XING AG from March 1, 2011. He will take over from current CTO Michael Otto who has decided to leave on January 31 at his own request after seven years at the Hamburg-based company with the aim of setting up a new firm. Jens Pape is currently Vice President Online at Telefónica O2 Germany where he is responsible for turning the company into an online-centric business. In this role he reports directly to the CEO. Prior to this position, Jens was CIO and member of the board at Hansenet, during which time he was responsible among other things for migrating AOL customer data to the Hansenet environment. Before becoming CIO, Jens, a qualified engineer, held the position of CTO and member of the board at AOL Deutschland for a number of years. Jens Pape will assume all of Michael Otto’s duties when he starts at XING, meaning that he will be responsible for driving the platform from a technological perspective, for ensuring its smooth operation, and for realizing new features along with project management work.♦

Jens Pape

Microsoft Advertising has announced the appointment of Jason Scott as the new General Manager for Asia, in alignment to its move to strengthen its global leadership team. In his new capacity, Jason will lead in growing revenue and market share of display, search, ad networks and emerging assets for Microsoft Advertising, which includes online properties MSN, Windows Live, Office Live, XBOX, Bing, and more. Previously based in Europe and then the United States, Jason was responsible for developing and executing Microsoft Advertising’s global agency strategy. He had also been based in Sydney, Australia, as Commercial Director for ninemsn, where he managed the company’s commercial business and its national advertising sales and operations. Jason Scott

Prior to joining Microsoft, Jason worked across several creative and media agencies around the world including GGT Advertising, CIA Media and EURO RSCG.♦

APPOINTMENTS Mediabrands announced the appointment of Steve Blakeman as Global Chief Integration Strategy Officer. Based in Singapore, Steve’s primary responsibility will be to strengthen the firm’s integrated offering for Mediabrands’ and McCannWorldgroup’s portfolio of global clients in Asia Pacific. Steve will also lead collaboration between the creative and media planning agencies, and activation partners to generate ideas aligned with our customer experience strategy. As Chief Integration Strategy Officer, Steve will divide his time between responsibilities at Mediabrands and McCann Worldgroup. The immediate benefit for the global clients of both organizations is a truly integrated service offering and seamless collaboration across IPG companies. Previously, Steve has been Chief Strategy Officer, Mediabrands Asia Pacific and gained working experience over the past two decades in the telecommunications, consumer durables and electronics, as well as the automobile industry. Steve Blakeman

He has also served as Pan European Director of Strategy at Initiative, where he worked on the firm’s Unilever account and as Managing Director at CIA. Steve began his career at J Walter Thompson.♦

Award-winning integrated agency iris Singapore has appointed Lawrence Stevenson as senior creative and Kim Lim as producer. Stevenson joins from TBWA and Lim joins following several years working at agencies including Y&R and Publicis and within the local film industry. Both join this week and will report in to creative director Tom Ormes. The hires follow the launch of iris Singapore’s latest tongue-incheek initiative, its iQuit.com website, which it launched this week as part of a new recruitment drive. The site, which has the interface of a typical recruitment agency, allows those in the ad industry to create their own resignation letters using bespoke templates for all the main agencies, including Ogilvy, Publicis, Y&R, Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey and McCann Worldwide.

Lawrence Stevenson

Stevenson will begin work on activity for the agency’s clients Heineken, Johnnie Walker and adidas, while Lim will work across the agency’s key accounts. iris Singapore’s recent campaigns include the Heineken Office Chair Grand Prix, the Audi A8 launch in Singapore, and adidas Refresh. Kim Lim

iris’ Singapore operation, which launched in 2006 and serves as a strategic hub for Asia Pacific, is now 60-strong, making it one of the fastest growing agency networks in the region. ♦

mig33 announced the appointment of Chris Chandler as vice president, business development. Chandler joins mig33 from Microsoft Corporation's Consumer & Online Division, and will spearhead mig33's expansion across mobile-first markets worldwide. Chandler brings more than a decades' experience developing, marketing and distributing consumer services and content for web and mobile platforms. At Microsoft, Chandler managed the mobile services business of Windows Live and MSN across Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. He has previously worked with Yahoo! as head of mobile products for Asia-Pacific where he co-developed the region's first business plan and developed the product strategy and roadmap for the newly formed business unit across China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. He also served as Director of Operations at Mikoshi (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd., a boutique gaming developer/studio that produces multiplayer Java and SMS games for mobile phones.♦

APPOINTMENTS

Smaato, the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, announced the closing of a new institutional round of funding. Singapore’s EDBI led the $7 million round, with participation from existing shareholders including global private equity firm aeris CAPITAL. The new funds will help fuel Smaato’s international expansion, in particular to extend its presence in Asia from its Asian headquarters in Singapore.♦

SinoMedia Holding Limited announced that the the Group has signed a media agency agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of MediaCorp Pte Ltd to become the master advertising agent of MediaCorp TV channels (including Channel NewsAsia and other TV channels) in Mainland China. The privately-owned media advertising operator will be responsible for the bid invitation, marketing, and sales of advertising resources for MediaCorp in Mainland China. Whereas the partnership will broaden SinoMedia’s overseas media resources and enable them to provide high quality overseas advertising options for its customers in China, thereby diversifying their revenue streams. ♦

IMPRINT

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Sales & Marketing: Carla Bertuzzi Articles contributed by: Eric Chong Rohit Dadwal

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