How to: Social Media in Business – Facebook (Part 2)

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October 8, 2010

Part 1 >> Part 2 >> Part 3

As promised, this post reveals some real-life implementation and integration of Facebook into brands and businesses worldwide along with tips on how you can implement them yourself! If you missed out our discussion and tips in using the infamous Facebook as part of your business, you definitely need to look up Part 1 here.

To set the pace of integrating your business in social media, take a look at the video below first (yes, even if you’ve seen it before)!

1. Customer Attraction: Getting the “Likes”

Everyone goes through this humbling phase of starting up. You’ve just created your very first Facebook fan page for your brand / business with only you being a fan of yourself. You turn to your friends in your personal profile and have invited them to “like” you.. and it stops there. Why is that so? You are NOT commanding attention.

Let’s take a look at Redbull. Instead of showing off wall posts, company information and whatnot to non-fans, Redbull implemented a very simple strategy to their page to command attention from the prospect as seen to the left – a simple, straight forward “call-to-action” image, and they are not the only ones doing it: Levi’s is also seen applying a similar strategy as well!

This, is what they call a Fan-only Facebook content – exclusive contents using Facebook’s ‘Tabs’ functionality. It can be inside scoops, special discounts, participate in discussions, take part in contests and more!

The key to a powerful landing page on Facebook is: Less. Yes, less is more! Do not confuse prospects with too many things going on. Consider being like Redbull – You definitely can’t miss what they want you to do; or like Levi’s – indicating the exclusive benefits you receive by ‘liking’ their page!

Writing a sales pitch on the landing page is a big no-no. Do you really want to advertise your product / services to a prospect on Facebook? It doesn’t work that way on social media. How so? People come to you for a reason – to learn / to browse / to connect / to question / to feedback / to suggest / to complain / to win / to receive and NOT to be sold to.

“Understanding the needs and wants of your potential fans is vital. If unsure, start by asking existing followers what would interest them and take it from there. Remember, that’s co-creation.”

Taking a look at an example closer to home, Project One & Only is an online pageant competition in Malaysia using Facebook as their primary platform to screen through participants, communicating with them and the fans that are eager to know of the results. Incepted in June 2010, they managed to break the 5-figure mark within mere 18 days, now close to 30,000 fans and still growing!

The secret behind this campaign? Attraction. Project O&O’s target are college / university students and they created something that would appeal to them by “making them famous” through this ongoing search in which the winner will undergo makeover sessions, participate in fashion shoots, special features on magazines and more.

In short, they hit the spot among their target market and results were generated instantly.

Not to forget, the Malaysia’s Online Fashion Entrepreneurs’ Weekend, a first-time offline event with over 90% of marketing done through social media alone, utilizing Facebook as their primary engagement platform. MOFEW recognized a niche and a need among the local online fashion scene and proceeded to put together an occasion for like minded individuals to gather and to highlight their entrepreneurial insights to the mass public starting on Facebook, then to an on-ground event. With over 10,000 fans gathered within less than 6 weeks, MOFEW manage to draw 0.5 million hits on the official site, ranked #1 on Google and successfully ran a 3-day offline event with 40,000 attendees from Malaysia and beyond (see official report here).

2. Customer Engagement: From “Likes” to Action

“Your fans are with you for a reason. Keep your focus on them, show them some brand love!“

You may have a very big fan base but with a low engagement rate, your fans may just be sitting there and some may have even forgot about your existence. Apart from feeding them with contents and getting to respond, here are some businesses did to ‘kick’ their fans into action:

Starbucks in the US launched a “Free Pastry Day” campaign, an event page on Facebook and there were more than 600,000 confirmed ‘attendees’ to the event! The news were spread all over Facebook through sharing and automatically triggered co-promotion for the brand / event. How did that happen? They started with their fans – Since the “Free Pastry Day” was first made known through Facebook, their immediate fans were the first to know about the news. At that time, Starbucks had about 3.6 million fans and the news were automatically shared across the network, because the fans were excited.

“Starbucks gave their fans a reason to follow them. The reward? In this case, free pastries for those that came by. How’s that for customer engagement?“

Another F&B brand in the US – Dunkin Donuts is often seen throwing co-creation opportunities to it’s fans. Dunkin Donuts launched the “Create Dunkin’s Next Donut” competition in 2009 and managed to generate more than 130,000 donut submissions at 174,000 votes! Fans were asked to create their own virtual donut with the available ingredients, complete with a donut name and story behind the creation. The grand prize winner will have their donut sold in stores for a limited time! What did Dunkin Donuts achieve? An avenue for their brand to get their fans involved; and from the business aspect, they saw positive response in donut sales during the promotion period.

The competition was so successful that they did it again in 2010 and here is the winner:

“Having freebies and contests are one of the simplest form of customer engagement with a huge response potential. In fact, Dunkin Donuts continues to get fans involved as we speak through a video contest here. How’s THAT for customer engagement?“

This is NOT the end!

The above examples are just some of the many out there that has made it on Facebook on different levels. Not everyone can make it to the Starbucks level, but one can definitely make it somewhere. Once again, remember Co-Creation and Co-Promotion – strategize your Facebook presence around that with some effort and commitment, and you’ll be on your way to a good start.

What’s Next?

We will continue to look at more integrations of social media into your business / brand BUT BEFORE THAT, stay tuned to Part 3, the final yet VERY IMPORTANT bit of integrating Facebook in your business!

We will be looking at:

The risk of having your fan page shut down by Facebook
The rules and regulations you may not have read that prohibits promotions (e.g. contests and promotions) on Facebook
How to go about doing it the RIGHT way!

See you in Part 3! :)

How to: Social Media in Business – Facebook (Part 1)

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October 6, 2010

| Jan Wong

Part 1 >> Part 2 >> Part 3

A week ago we looked at what social media means to businesses, why social media is the way forward for businesses and also ways on how social media can be integrated into your business. Having read all that, you may begin to have a little something for social media, wanting to get started but know nothing about it? This post explores one of the many tools of Social Media that you could very well apply in your business / brand – the infamous Facebook.

Why Facebook?

Most people today have a personal Facebook account and spend loads of time on it, be it on games or merely page / profile hopping, engaging with other users online. Millions of users access Facebook on a daily basis and this also means that Facebook has a potential ready market of millions to be accessed by your brand and you just need to be a part of this huge global network. What you need to do is to merely find ways to tap into it.

The good news? Facebook is nowhere near in pulling their brakes. They are here to stay, continually innovating their services and recently seen wanting to integrate deeper into the mobile devices, tying in with Android operating systems. Just so you know, Facebook’s actual value is reported to be a whooping $23 billion (Forbes) and $33 billion by The Financial Times!
The bad news? Having a Facebook page alone isn’t going to get you anywhere – it is only the beginning.

To start things off, take a look at the video below:

1. You’ll need a plan.

Yes, social media IS business thus requiring a strategy to truly succeed. Start by setting goals for your Facebook page followed by specific tasks on how to achieve them. You may want to look at:

1. How many ‘likes’ to gain by end of the year?
2. How often will you be able to contribute to the page? (e.g. at least 3 days a week / videos / images)
3. How would you want your followers to interact with you? (e.g. share your contents / provide feedback)
4. What is the final outcome for your page? (e.g. to drive traffic to your site / to receive suggestions)
5. Do you need a team to manage the page or an individual?
6. What do you need to do to achieve your goals?

2. Command attention.

Like it or not, in most situations, even the most valuable content you can ever provide will be ignored – yes, despite the traffic. How so? Simple: they are NOT paying attention to you. There are so many things happening on the screen: instant messaging, emails, Skype, daily news and if that’s nothing, do not forget the various happenings inside Facebook itself (e.g. wall posts, photos, videos, games and etc)!

Already sounding impossible? Not quite.

You’ll need a PULL, something that draws their attention to you. No, definitely not advertising because consumers today are immune to advertising. They know when to turn away when an ad starts playing and even the most annoying popups can deliberately be ignored without being seen! It has to be something that RELATES to them. This PULL can be exclusive contents, benefits, giveaways, outrageous offers and more!

Think of ways that will excite them. Some marketeers cleverly pack information into video presentations and aesthetically pleasing images – why? They know what relates and excites their followers: Videos and images definitely captures attention better than text. When it excites them, consumers are likely to share it across the social media. Once again, this is Co-Promotion through WORLD-of-mouth.

“Know what your customers are looking for. In social media, your followers comes first! Forget about getting new prospects – you’ll get stronger conversions with your followers on your side”

3. Stick to it!

Consistency is the key and this is perhaps the difficult part and determines the initial make or break. Most brand pages fail because they are unable to stick with what they have in mind. Either the management team is too bogged up with other work or they’ve given up after weeks of trying to no avail.

“Pages fail due to lack of commitment. Lack of commitment to the page is simply telling your customers – We don’t care“

Social media takes time, just like traditional businesses. You may hear stories of people making big money with social media over night but the truth is, most businesses can’t. This is where you may want to utilize your contacts, publicize your page on your official site, name cards, pamphlets, brochures, ads and etc to make use of your Facebook presence. You can hold discussions, get feedback, throw special promotions, contests and more to drive interest, traffic and participation to your page.

What’s in Part 2?

Real life implementation and integration examples of Facebook in businesses worldwide! You do not want to miss this! Stay tuned!

[UPDATE: Click here for Part 2]

Sa Sa Fragrance Award 2010

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October 5, 2010

| Jan Wong

On 1st October 2010 I was invited to attend the Sa Sa Fragrance Award Presentation held at Sunway Pyramid. The event had a pretty interesting concept as awards are given to popular fragrances, voted by Malaysian consumers throughout a 38-day duration via a microsite.

If you’ve never came across the brand before, Sa Sa is a one-stop cosmetic specialty store with over 29 outlets throughout Malaysia. Sa Sa originated from Hong Kong has been in the Asian market since 1978, carrying a variety of beauty products from skincare, makeup, haircare, fragrances, health food and even beauty accessories.

What captured my attention in this event is that Sa Sa managed to find a specific area in their business operations and used it as an opportunity to engage consumers, to get their customers involved and be rewarded for their support. They transformed their stores nationwide into an engagement platform instead of mere sales outlet. The outcome? They managed to gather 38,436 votes which also means they successfully engaged close to 40,000 customers through this campaign alone – just by leveraging on their day-to-day operations.

How so? Sa Sa first identified 6 award categories for the fragrances in which the consumers will have to cast their votes accordingly, namely: Best Women’s Fragrance, Best Men’s Fragrance, Best Couple Fragrance, Fragrance of the Year 2010, Special Colorscentsations Award and the Online People’s Choice Award. To create an engagement opportunity, Sa Sa threw in a PULL mechanism in which voting customers, in return, will stand a chance to win prizes including a Designer Diamond Necklace worth over RM8,000 + RM2,000 Colors & Fragrance product hamper as the grand prize! If that isn’t much of a PULL to you, Sa Sa also donated RM 1 from each bottle of fragrance sold during the campaign to the Breast Cancer Welfare Association (BCWA) amounting to RM13,389 in total!

“A PULL creates attraction among consumers. It can be freebies, special offers, discounts, upgrades, additional services and yes, even charity – anything that captures and commands attention. Remember, your promotion means nothing if it does not captures attention.”

Back to the event! Invited guests were given the privilege to place an autograph on the entrance arch which was a pretty cool idea as it is a subtle way of appreciating the guests. However, such privilege can easily be abused by the guests, minimizing the brand’s appeal thus brand precautions should have been taken into consideration. Take a look at the picture towards the left (click to enlarge) – as you can see, there are a number of autographs already on the arch coupled with a grand red carpet entrance. Just above the arch sits Sa Sa’s logo, and it has obtained a ‘new tagline’ (i.e. guest autographs). From a branding perspective, that may not be the best thing to portray to the public as the brand should always have a ‘breathing space’ to avoid congestion and misinterpretation of the brand image.

Putting that aside, the event progressed very smoothly with constant flow of juices and finger food (yet another hospitality plus point!). Hosted by Xandria Ooi, the nominated fragrances were introduced and brought to the floor by individual models, each representing the look and feel of the fragrance that they carry, after which the results were announced, leading to the prize giving ceremony. The event eventually drew to a close with a mock cheque presentation to the charity body. Oh, in case you were wondering, the below are the winning fragrances voted by Malaysian consumers:

Best Women’s Fragrance – Flora by Gucci from P&G PRESTIGE
Best Men’s Fragrance – Boss Bottled Night from P&G PRESTIGE
Best Couple Fragrance – Dsquared2 He Wood & She Wood from ITF
Fragrance Of The Year 2010 – DKNY Be Delicious Fresh Blossom from ADF
Special Colorscentsations Award – Free Spirit : Anna Sui Rock Me, Summer Love by P&G PRESTIGE
Online People’s Choice Award – Anna Sui Rock Me, Summer Love by P&G PRESTIGE

It is interesting to note that there are many areas we are able to learn from this simple event – from the concept to the execution. Hopefully you were able to spot and pick up some ideas from it too! Start looking into your own brand and business, is there something you could convert and command attention with it? I’m sure there is ;)

Attributes of an Entrepreneur: Passion

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October 4, 2010

| Jan Wong

Good morning! The weekend came and went so quickly – and a new week has just begun! There’ll be new challenges and new obstacles but this also means opportunity for more learning and greater winnings; and only you can determine how your week will be. One can choose to do all the right things, do it well, but yet find no joy in what they are doing. Some may be doing what they thought they’d like doing but it fizzled along the way.

How is that so? Something is lacking within them – Passion; and passion is one of the key components that makes an entrepreneur, an entrepreneur.

What is Passion?

Passion is the sword, the constant drive and the offense of an entrepreneur. Passion differentiates an entrepreneur from a business owner. Passion can be seen and felt by others. It is also contagious. Passion drives situations, people, and success. Passion motivates, instills confidence and enthusiasm. Passion picks one up and propels another further. With passion come a desire, a vision and actions for a better future even when the odds are against you. Without passion, an entrepreneur loses its main weapon of offense, the double-edged sword to succeed.

“One cannot fake passion. A leader can never ask his followers to be passionate about something he / herself isn’t passionate about.”

However, having passion alone isn’t enough – especially as an entrepreneur. Sure, passion is the primary weapon of offense but it will be useless if you don’t swing it towards the enemy. Merely holding it in your hands, bragging to your friends on how sharp your sword is doesn’t make it what it is. Action – to put your passion to the field – that’s where and when you’ll begin to see results.

“Passion without Action is dead.”

Get Started with your Passion!

Don’t let that passion get away! Pen down where your passion lies and do something this week about it! If your passion is in design, start working on your very first masterpiece! If you passion is to be your own boss, it’s about time to put together a business plan! Do you really want to go through life having that passion but not doing anything about it?

The trick to pursue your passion is simple – get it started!

What do you enjoy doing? What do you want to achieve? What’s your passion? Have you put it to action?

My Google Story

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October 1, 2010

| Jan Wong

In case you’re wondering – yes, this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage, especially for the weekend :)

“Did you know that Google originally ran under Stanford University’s website – google.stanford.edu?”

On the faithful day of 27th September, a dear friend of mine celebrated his 12th birthday – Google

Google's 12th Birthday

I must confess that I didn’t really like Google when we first met. I was closer to Yahoo! back then. Yahoo! was cooler as he offered various online games, games that allowed me to meet people from other countries through ‘chat’ and the opportunity to beat them in checkers, chess and pool.. all the way back in 1997, when I was 10. I had a mail account with Yahoo! at that time and I thought it was the coolest thing on earth, although I also had accounts with Hotmail, ICQ, Excite, Lycos and the likes. Yahoo! remained my favourite.

“Did you know that the domain Google.com was officially registered on the 15th September 1997, and only launched on 27th September 1998?”

At that time, Google looked like this:

And Yahoo! like this:

I pretty much stuck with Yahoo! all the way till 2004, where my life was turned around with the introduction of Gmail. Really. At that point of time, Gmail offered 1GB worth of mailbox size in which I needed and what made Google cooler is that Gmail was only available on special invitation. Wow! At that time, most mailboxes were only 100MB ~~big~~ small!

Because of that, I started hanging out with Google more and found that he is able to search more efficiently than my previous buddy! He gives me the results I require and does not take a long time to load up as he really is a simple dude, with his name on a white background.

Since then, Google became my answer to everything and has yet to fail me ever since. He became a buddy throughout college, university and life. Today, I can still be found on Gmail and have also furthered my commitment, being attached to Gchat, Gcalendars, Gdocs, Gmaps, Gbuzz and his cousin, YouTube. He is so nice that he has even taught me the secret to be ranked #1 on him and managed to do it for a number of my sites (this site soon, too)!

Sure, he has his pitfalls once in awhile, but I’ve never regretted getting know Google. Happy 12th Birthday, friend!

How did you get to know Google? Do YOU have a Google story? It’ll be great to hear them,too ;)

How To: Integrate Social Media to Benefit Your Business?

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September 29, 2010

| Jan Wong

About a week ago we looked at what social media means to businesses and why social media is the way forward for businesses and perhaps right now you are wondering how social media can benefit you and your business. In a nutshell, your relationship with your customers will never be the same again and it is for the better! I managed to stumble upon this simple yet comprehensive image depicting the evolution of CRM into Social CRM when a business truly integrates social media into their operations.

Social CRM sure looks good and it is important in today’s social media world because businesses are moving towards a collaborative business model. This also means that businesses that has a closed door concept, shutting off customer input will eventually lose out from the market as they only see business through transaction and not interaction / engagement. Little did they know that customers really do have the upper hand in today’s world where a single complain or dissatisfaction can evolve to a global scale within minutes – again, through social media.

Collaborative?

Yes, we are talking about Co-Creation and Co-Promotion of products and it can only be achieved by a collaborative effort, through engaging with your customers. Gone were the days customers will simply buy a product without research and comparison with your competitors.

Reviews, feedbacks and complains can be freely obtained online on blogs, forums, Facebook and Twitter statuses and more therefore making competition greater than before! Think of it this way though, if you’re able to get into their good books, your competitor will be the one struggling instead!

Still have your doubts? Check out the video below!

Start by opening up your doors to listen to what your customers are saying.

What is it that they really want from you?

What is it that makes them your customer?

Is it your product? Or your services?

What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

Who do your customer perceive as your competitors?

These questions are best to be answered by your customers.

“Your customers are in someway, your existing followers and fans. Spend more time with them to understand their needs instead of trying to catch the attention of the mass public! Keep the fans, let the rest go. They’ll come when they’re ready”

A traditional business would probably think that the above is crazy.. but it’s not. With social media, businesses today gain direct communication with customers which they do not have 10 years before. A continuous relationship / collaboration with existing customers will in fact draw MORE customers, through them – Co-Promotion.

Find out what excites them as a customer and continue to spark that excitement in them and news will spread among your customers automatically through WORLD-of-mouth, without additional marketing expense. How cool is that?

Imagine creating a new product or service which has guaranteed sales / response – it can happen, with social media. Why? This is the power of Co-Creation. Businesses can use social media to co-create products and services that caters to their needs directly without making wild guesses. Customers know what they want and fans can give you the input you need to produce a killer product / service. It is also an avenue to truly say “we hear you”.

This way, you’ll know whether your product will be widely accepted / rejected even before producing it. Even better if you’re able to get your fans to create on your behalf – you may be on your way to discovering great talents for your business expansion and it’s a good way of getting your fans involved!

Want to know more?

Watch out for upcoming posts on real life social media implementation examples worldwide!

How To: Develop A Winning Mindset

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September 27, 2010

| Jan Wong

Now that the festive holidays are over, most of us would already be back at work, projects, meetings, assignments, classes, school.. you get the gist of it – we’re back playing the life game. It is interesting to note that while most of us are in the game to win, we also spend a lot of effort in merely trying not to fail.

Does failure get into the way of your growth?

We often hear people describing failures as an integral part of learning and growing, especially as an entrepreneur – and that’s true! A simple act of accepting failure as a part of the process of our very own skill development will be able to bring us a long way ahead and this, is the first step in developing a winning mindset, a mindset that will get you ahead of any game you play in life!

Not easy? True. That’s just positive thinking? Not true.

Think about it, how far do you REALLY want to go in what you’re doing? People with a winning mindset takes on every game, every opportunity with a learning motive, a goal, vision or a direction in mind. They feel smart when they are learning something and not just when they are winning. To do that, you’ll often find the top players setting goals BEYOND their capabilities, talents and resources – goals that they themselves aren’t sure if they can achieve. They consistently challenge themselves and does not fear failing.

The reason is simple: If you make it, that’s something worth celebrating as you’ve set a new record for yourself – you won! Else, you should have managed to pick up a whole lot of new skills and experiences while at it – your tool to a greater win in your next game! Now this, is a win-win situation!

Remember:

“Your mindset determines the size of the life game you play”

With this winning mindset, failing is definitely better than not progressing.

A Report-Filled Week

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September 25, 2010

| Jan Wong

In case you’re wondering – yes, this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage, especially for the weekend :)

It has been about a month now since MOFEW 2010 and lots of back-end work have took place ever since – compiling of data, closing of accounts and various follow-up duties. The result? We finally managed to get the Official MOFEW 2010 Report up and it can be downloaded over here (5mb)! This 32-page report contains the many aspects of the project including statistics, pictures, feedbacks, media write-ups and also a special page highlighting some very interesting facts of MOFEW! I’m sure glad it’s all done especially when it took out an entire month! Have a look at the report!

Do take a look at what the Malaysia’s Online Fashion Entrepreneurs’ Weekend is all about on the official Facebook page and for pictures, too!

Despite the busy schedule, thankfully, I was still able sneak some time out for the premiere of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole in 3D last Monday at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. It was a very good movie with a decent storyline, couple of laugh-worthy scenes, awesome visual graphics and a pretty catchy theme song by Owl City! If you’re intending to watch it, 3D is the way to go for this one! Oh, the tickets were free, sponsored by Advertlets, an Asian blog advertising network located in Malaysia.

Looking ahead, I’m sure it’s gonna be yet another amazing week with great opportunities to be unfold! There are several projects on the way and they’ll will be leveraging on the power of social media for a greater measure of success. It’s gonna be really exciting to work with companies that sees social media as an important element to their business and is willing to take the step to make the change. Will be sharing more on it when it is confirmed! For now, it’s the weekend!

Speaking of social media, I can’t help but to share this video I stumbled upon on YouTube:

Have a great weekend ahead!

Twitter, Bugged? [Updated: 22/09/2010 11.00PM UTC +8:00]

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September 21, 2010

| Jan Wong

Many became very excited when they first experienced some delays and abnormality on Twitter.com (e.g. consistent fail whales, exceptionally long loads, messed up home page and etc) as they thought their chance of witnessing the #NewTwitter is on it’s way to them and… the excitement did not last for long –

Little did they know that what seemed like an upgrade to Twitter.com recently turned sour for many just within the past 5 – 10 minutes where Twitter is reported to have been hacked / bugged / exploited by @masta. Those ‘contracted’ this disease automatically re-tweets the below:

http://a.no/@”onmouseover=”;$(‘textarea:first’).val(this.innerHTML);$(‘.status-update-form’).submit();”class=”modal-overlay”/

It appears to be a string of a dysfunctional Javascript but it would seem that the link is actually masked and diverts curious cats to external sites (update #2: mostly porn sites).

I call it… the Twithack!

“How does it happen?”

It all starts with a simple rollover over links on Twitter.com as it would seem that @masta is using Javascript to do it’s client-side magic exploit with AJAX. This also means that you may want to steer away from the web service and rely on 3rd party apps such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic or any other tools that is to your liking.

“Oh no, I think I caught the bug! What do I do now?”

No lethal damage has been reported thus far so the main reason behind this exploit still remains unknown. Self publicity, perhaps? @masta got the world talking about him so he definitely succeed in that one.

[Update #1: this just in @ 10:12pm – 21st Sept 2010]

“Who or what is this @masta?”

Masta is the name of a viral Twitter XSS worm spread by@masta but is also said that it is not created by him. It is a rollover security flaw by Twitter, exploited by @masta to create this mass dissatisfaction among Twitter users worldwide – it is even trending right now!

A more descriptive definition from Mashable: The flaw uses a JavaScript function called onMouseOver which creates an event when the mouse is passed over a chunk of text. We’ve seen the flaw being abused to launch simple pop-up windows, redirect users elsewhere (including porn sites), and we’ve also seen it used in combination with blocks of color, covering the true “intention” of the tweet.

“Great, I’m re-tweeting the tweet too! Is my account hacked?”

As much as people think so, it is once again reported that your accounts are not “hacked” by any means (update #3: confirmed by Twitter). However, do not click on the re-tweeted links just in case!

“It there something or anything that I can do?”

Looks like that popular thing to do now is to block @masta on Twitter and delete the tweet. Also, watch what you rollover on Twitter.com!

[Update #2: this just in @ 12:30am – 22nd Sept 2010]

The news of the Twithack / exploit seem to be crossing borders by the second with many venting their frustration towards Twitter and @masta. Some even came up with their own reasoning for the hack just for laughs as below:

RT @Followcat: Twitter got hacked by a #Mouseover bug. “Mouse Over” is last thing I hear mice say on their walkie-talkies before I eat them.

RT @Lord_Voldemort7: Twitter got hacked. The birds got tired of taking shit from the whale & went rogue. The fail whale will now be replaced with the dark mark.

RT @BestWorstAdvice: Want to tell your ex how you really feel about them? Send them angry tweets and tell them “Sorry, my Twitter got hacked.”

RT @gthree_ca: Twitter got hacked?! Funny… everything else seems normal. I guess it wasn’t a sign of the apocalypse after all.

RT @official_shaw: Twitter got hacked today. Millions of twitterers were forced to talk to each other the old fashioned way. Through Facebook.

There are also a whole lot of them that are disappointed to have missed out the whole ‘epidemic’! To the rest, it may have been a fun experience.

Interestingly enough, it is reported that even Sarah Brown, wife of former British Prime Minister was also the victim of this new twitter attack. Sarah Brown’s Twitter page has been messed with in an attempt to redirect visitors to a hardc0re p0rn site based in Japan. That’s obviously bad news for her over one million of followers. As the links being re-tweeted were mostly directed to Japanese sites, it is suspected that it originated from Japan.

“What are the recommended things to do if I’m affected?”

Trending now:
1. Use Twitter only through 3rd party tools
2. Block @masta on Twitter
3. Remove tweets from your profile that has the Javascript links / codes
4. ~~Change the password of your Twitter account (just in case)~~ (update #3: exploit does not compromise account details)
5. Spread the news to inform those that are unaware!

[Update #3: this just in @ 2:30am – 22nd Sept 2010]

Case closed! Twitter finally responded indicating that they have things under control, followed by a message from the Twitter status blog saying “We’ve identified and are patching a XSS attack; as always, please message @safety if you have info regarding such an exploit”. It is mentioned that the mouseover security vulnerability was discovered a month back and was fixed but the recent update set the bug free again (and apparently it has nothing to do with the #NewTwitter)!

Twitter also indicated that “we are not aware of any issues related to it that would cause harm to computers or their accounts. And, there is no need to change passwords because user account information was not compromised through this exploit”, Which also means that whatever happened earlier was a surface job that does not affect the user records within Twitter’s database. Still no mention about the source or the intention, though..

Good to know that the problem was quickly resolved! Read up the full story from Twitter!

If you are still in the dark of what has been happening or was too afraid to do anything when the bug attacked, Sophos made a video to demonstrate the various errors that happened during that memorable duration:

[Update #4: this just in @ 11:00pm – 22nd Sept 2010]

A 17 year old boy from Australia claimed that he may be the cause of Twitter users being exposed to the epidemic yesterday. It was mentioned that he merely wanted to test if Javascript works on tweets which eventually led to the ‘announcement’ of it being possible.

However, the person who is likely THE person who actually created the havoc is suspected to be Masato Kinugawa, a Japanese developer as he was the one that initially reported this security flaw to Twitter on the 14th August which was patched.. until the recent upgrade where he may have found that it is now exploitable again.

“So all in all I would think that the entire sequence revolves around 2 geniuses that is wanting to test their skills using Twitter as a platform when they found a exploitable point. Let’s just hope that they are not up to something else!“

“What’s next?”

We’ll be moving on in life, I’ll be off to visit Twitter.com and the birds will be tweeting their way through the new day on the web, yet again! :)

iPhone Brought Sight to the Blind

📕 |

September 21, 2010

| Jan Wong

I don’t know how many of you are like me – often skeptical of the usefulness of many accessibility options out there with screen readers and what not that is supposed to help those with disabilities such as the blind. I was also very skeptical with the accessibility functions on the iPhone for the blind as I find it difficult to see how a blind user is able to navigate with a touch screen device.. and that was where I was totally wrong.

After stumbling upon this article on Gizmodo, I must say that I’m truly impressed with the iPhone for the very first time – not because of it’s sleek exterior, the AppStore or the brand, but of it’s amazing accessibility features.

“When I first heard that Apple would release a touchpad cell phone with VoiceOver, the screen reading software used by Macs, I scoffed. The blind have gotten so used to lofty promises of a dream platform, only to receive some slapped together set of software with a minimally functional screen reader running on overpriced hardware which can’t take a beating. I figured that Apple just wanted to get some good PR – after all, how could a blind person even use a touchpad? I laughed at the trendies, both sighted and blind, buying iPhones and enthusing about them.”

Austin Seraphin got his iPhone on the 9th June 2010 and his life was changed forever. A doubter of this overpriced gadget soon granted him access to a world like never before allowing him to read tweets, look up stock prices, surf the web and more!

When Austin’s mom was told by the salesman that VoiceOver does not read text messages, her heart sank but Austin simply said “Well, let’s see, try it.”. His mom pulled out her phone, and sent him a text message. Within seconds, the phone alerted him, and said her name. Followed by a simple finger swipe and it read her message: Hi Austin. She almost cried – and that was the beginning of a changed life for Austin.

If that isn’t enough, wait till you see what happened after he recently downloaded the Color ID app from the AppStore. It granted him sight to a world he has never been able to see before.

“The next day, I went outside. I looked at the sky. I heard colors such as “Horizon,” “Outer Space,” and many shades of blue and gray. I used color cues to find my pumpkin plants, by looking for the green among the brown and stone. I spent ten minutes looking at my pumpkin plants, with their leaves of green and lemon-ginger. I then roamed my yard, and saw a blue flower. I then found the brown shed, and returned to the gray house. My mind felt blown. I watched the sun set, listening to the colors change as the sky darkened.”

You know, all these are only possible when proper software development guidelines are followed and Apple’s stringent rules that caused inconvenience to developers really pays off to the blind! Austin’s experience gave me a whole new meaning in developing accessible websites and not leaving those options out for convenience sake. Imagine: your website or software being able to change and bring sight to one’s life – it is beyond hit counts, impressions and profit. It is priceless. Believe it or not, simple gestures such as properly naming the links and images and with proper usage of tags including page titles, meta tags, link titles, form fields, etc will go a long way in helping the blind read your content.

“I love my iPhone. It changed my universe as soon as it entered it.” – Austin Seraphin

Those words may be words of every Apple fan but for Austin’s case, it brought a whole new perspective to me. It’s amazing to see the how technology today has evolved into and packed into a mobile device. After all, what’s good of technology if it does not improve the quality of life especially for those who really needs it?

I’m glad that the iPhone is not just an overpriced gadget to shout about but a device that can bring change – or in this case, SIGHT into one’s life.

You have to check out the full story told by Austin himself

p.s. if this story touched you as it did to me, do also share it with your friends :)