Category Archives: Branding

Is Personal Branding Still Important in 2021?

jan wong on digital branding
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The short answer: Yes.

Think about that time when you were looking for a gift, your next restaurant for food delivery or that item on a marketplace…

Where did you look?

What did you look for?

What caused you to make the final decision?

My guess would be search engines, reviews, ratings, testimonials and maybe even media features. This behaviour is unlikely to change in the coming years as we consumers are increasingly independent (or dependant) in searching for information to validate our decisions and this is the same if we were to look for someone to hire for a job, a company to invest in, or a service to be rendered – we rely on digital cues.

In fact, personal branding is becoming more important in being discovered or establishing your credibility to others that may not know you. Similar to product branding, having just a good product does not guarantee discovery or conversion. You may have an excellent track record in your career or maybe you’re a top student in your university but unless you have your CV published or a wide network for referrals, employers will have no clue of your existence.

The harsh truth is that we rely on digital cues even in people discovery. We take cues from the content you create, the content others create about you, the level of participation you have in events, webinars, groups or LinkedIn, your activity on key social media channels, your website, and your digital portfolio. And it’s really NOT about being a stalker, but that’s just how it is today – we search and discover – from food, ideas, to people.

So stop neglecting your own digital presence and start investing into your own brand! Ask yourself questions like:

What am I planning to achieve? A job? A career advancement? A new opportunity? Receive investment? Be part of a network?

Where do these people hangout at? LinkedIn? TikTok? Facebook Groups? YouTube? Clubhouse? Telegram?

What will they be interested in? Are there specific topics or content types?

Why can I be interesting to them? Is there something I can offer that is unique and original to myself?

How can I appear on their radar? Can I post more often, comment or share more content that is relevant to them?

If you’re able to answer the 5 simple questions above, you’ve already begun your journey on making your personal brand known digitally!

Websites Are Beyond URLs

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Sometime last week I received an email from an existing client saying that they’d want to terminate their corporate website and to setup a Blogspot account instead.

You heard that right. They (the directors) have decided to terminate their existing corporate website (which already has a blog section) to setup a Blogspot account simply because “blogs are more popular than websites”. According to them, this will make a good marketing strategy allowing them to reach the younger consumers since a blog is part of social media. And if this blog goes well, they are looking towards pulling themselves out of Facebook too to see what will happen before making the next move.

3 Reasons Why They Are Wrong

#1: Having a Blog Does Not Necessarily Mean More Visits

Consumers today are not drawn to the platform your brand is on. Just because you have a blog or own a Facebook page does not make you look cool and they’ll flock towards you. In fact, it’s a commitment – one that is open and transparent.

After all, a blog is a website. Same goes to a portal, a forum, a social networking platform, they too are websites. It is essentially what you do on the site that makes it exciting to the consumers. Now I’m not against having a Blogspot, but to terminate a corporate website that’s already enjoying steady streams of traffic, receiving enquiries from local and abroad while sitting steadily on top of all major search engines really is  a “bold” move.

#2: Where is the Brand?

Branding is important. In fact, it is vital for consumer-driven businesses and having a easily recognizable website will not only increase memorability, but also allows marketing messages to be more concise.

If these are still not good enough reasons, think about the perception of what your consumers or business partners will think about your brand. Between myawesomesite.com and myawesomesite.blogspot.com, which sounds more credible?

#3: No Home Base

An official website also acts as your brand’s home base. It is here where conversions, sales and subscriptions ultimately should happen for 1 reason only – it is YOUR platform. Yes, you own it and no one can take it from you. The traffic and database you have built is yours to keep.

Unlike having it on Blogspot, WordPress, Facebook or Tumblr, who knows what will happen in the coming years? Are you absolutely sure they’ll still be around? Remember Friendster? They were the undisputed champions of social networking once, with over 115 million members before Facebook took the lead.

Do you think having a subdomain (such as Blogspot) is better than a domain itself?

Brand Focus #12: Online PR Gone Bad [Paradigm Mall]

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Online PR have always been a popular topic among marketers and social media enthusiasts and I really don’t blame them because it IS an important topic to address and for some reason, I’ve been bumping into some really bad PR campaigns online lately. Take for an example Mayo Clinic where they posted an article on their blog on ectopic pregnancy right beside an ad for ‘cute little dresses’, the recent outbreak of really bad customer service with KFC Malaysia and more recently, with a newly opened shopping mall in Malaysia (see below). 

What went wrong?

I don’t know about you but I got a shock reading the reply from the management or their supposed social media team. You’ve guessed it right – this immediately turned viral where customers started creating photos, videos and tagging their friends into what they are calling the ‘magical moment’.

3 Things to Learn from this Incident

#1: Speed Matters

If there’s anything I’ve learnt through the years, consumers want to be noticed and wants an answer yesterday (no, this is not a typo). They are not inclined to know that you are on a holiday or whether it is a weekend. To them, social media does not sleep because they aren’t, and they want to hear from you.

#2: Never Fight Fire with Fire

Dealing with customers is tough. And it’s normal. There are days where you just aren’t in the mood and here comes this customer with a complain that drives you up the wall. Stop, take a walk and reply positively. It is never, ever a good thing to be sarcastic, unapologetic or to even outsmart a customer – it’ll just make matters worst.

#3: Never Let the Fire go Wild

A wildfire is the last you want to start online. Sure, mistakes do happen but you must be able to sniff out fire and put them out within the shortest time available. Never let it go unnoticed, thinking that it’ll eventually go away because it won’t. And when it starts going out of hand, things will be harder to fix.

What to do if you can’t seem to keep up?

#1: Bring it Off-Grid

If things go out of hand (or you’re already sniffing fire), try bringing the conversation off-grid – whether it is through email, a phone conversation, a direct message on Twitter or Facebook’s ‘message’ feature with the new Timeline update. Politely request for a change of platform and in most cases, customers do comply as they too want their problem fixed.

#2: Get a Trained Team

While going off-grid may make things better, you don’t really want to get there in the first place. Make sure your team is well trained to handle situations like these. Have a guideline in place spelling out the do’s and don’ts and make sure the guidelines are readily available.

#3: Make Things Clear

If time is out of your hands, you may want to consider announcing your ‘customer service’ hours. While this is not exactly the best way to go about online, this method will be able to set an expectation among your customers by telling them when will you be available to reply accordingly.

Social media platforms have become so important that most businesses today see the need of leveraging on its potential, but there is a greater need to be able to MANAGE these platforms to achieve that potential.

Paradigm Mall is just one of the many examples out there and I would love to hear your experiences on other online PR disasters too!

p.s. The management of Paradigm Mall publicly apologized on their Facebook page a couple of hours after the incident and to that, a job well done!

Social Media for Entrepreneurs: Friend or Foe?

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Note: This is Part 4 to the Social Media for Entrepreneurs series.

Social media networks are awesome to have

This is Part 4 to the Social Media for Entrepreneurs series. Quick access to the series below:
[ Introduction | Part 1: The Basics | Part 2: Why It’s Made for You | Part 3: The Reality | Part 4 ]

Disclaimer: The video was recorded as part of the RU Ready series targeted to entrepreneurs in Malaysia by Prudential which I was involved in. This also happen to be my first ever video series :)

4 Social Media Predictions for Malaysia 2012

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2011 has been an amazing year in the digital realm. From the major Google Panda update somewhere in February 2011, to the design overhauls with major social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even StumbleUpon, the introduction of Google+, the beta launch of Kred and the list goes on.

What excites me most is that more and more businesses are seen to be adopting and experimenting on social media, leading towards exciting times for both marketers and consumers alike in 2012 – a concrete indication that social networking is indeed changing the way we communicate, do business and definitely not a trend.

Having seen all that, have you wondered what 2012 would be like for social media? Here are my four (4) predictions of social media in Malaysia for 2012:

Prediction #1: Increased social media adoption among small business owners

Why: Social media campaigns have been prevalent in larger corporations throughout 2011. However, small businesses (known as Small-Medium Enterprises) makes up the largest business establishment in Malaysia with 99.2%, equivalent to 518,996 businesses in which the huge majority (86.5%) are in the services sector which includes retail, restaurant and wholesale businesses. (source: Census of Establishments and Enterprises 2005)

What does this mean: With larger corporations leading the way in 2011, the SMEs in Malaysia have tangibly seen the implementation and results of different online marketing campaigns and may emulate the success. On top of that, the nature of businesses in the services sector (especially B2C) can greatly reap the potential of social media networks.

If you’re a small business owner, here’s a bonus article on why your business benefits best on social media.

Prediction #2: Rise of social commerce

Why: Malaysians spent MYR 1.8 billion on online purchases back in 2010 . In 2011, there was a rise of e-commerce enabled websites (putting behind the usual blog layouts), electronic marketplaces (e.g. Mudah.my, AsiaAsiaMegastore.com), digital services (in government and private sectors alike), group buying sites such as Groupon and the recent opening of PayPal’s Global Operation Centre in Malaysia. To top it off, these businesses have been promoting their sites across social networking platforms using various methods with 94% of Malaysian online consumers using social networks as a guide to shopping (source: Nielsen Company).

Before and After E-Commerce Integration: Online Fashion Entrepreneur – Soul Chic (from the MOFEW community)

What does this mean: Businesses in Malaysia are beginning to recognize the importance of using electronic mediums while consumers are experiencing the convenience of online purchasing. Having that said, consumers may grow and continuously seek social proof or recognition from their peers and businesses when making a purchasing decision.

Prediction #3: Increased importance of social media integration in marketing campaigns

Why: Existing local business pages on Facebook have been using similar strategies in building their presence using various promotional campaigns such as sweepstakes or contests in which will continue to grow. Having said that, competition will increase having to attract the consumers’ attention which may lead to the need for more innovative or integrated social marketing campaigns to break out from the norm.

Local businesses such as the above video are already innovating to be different from their competitors.

What does this mean: As business competition increases across platforms, the demand and expectations among consumers also increases. This demand may act as a requirement benchmark in which businesses have to keep up (or surpass) with, whether it is the level of engagement, method of engagement or even the tools of engagement.

Prediction #4: The growth of mobile

Why: The growth of smart phone users in Malaysia is scary. A recent report by Nielsen’s online consumer survey in Malaysia revealed that the number of smart phone users are expected to rise from 48% to 89% within a year.

Crowd at iPhone 4s Launch Malaysia

Thousands of people queuing at the launch of the iPhone 4s. Image source: www.yogaretnam.com

What’s even more interesting is that 83% of existing smart phone users are using free apps while 37% are on paid versions.

What does this mean: This suggests that the penetration rate of smart phone users are not as low we thought it has been and people with such devices ARE using mobile apps. We may be able to see a rise in the adoption of mobile driven / optimized websites, apps, mobile games or a wider use of quick response (QR) codes.

What do you think?

Brand Focus #11: Interactive Videos As A Social Media Marketing Campaign [Wing Heong]

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The local dried barbecue meat industry in Malaysia has always been competitive especially when the Lunar New Year is around the corner as it is commonly made as gifts during the festive season. The delicacy producers, however, have been relying on traditional promotional methods over and over again – television commercials, radio commercials, print ads, in-store promotions, roadshows to popular shopping malls, giving out free samples and etc until recent.

The Change

Wing Heong, one of the producers of this delicacy decided to make a change. A change in which was told (after the campaign) that yielded unexpected results and a visible increase in sales – all through a single interactive video (as below) shared primarily on Facebook.

My first reaction was: “Whoa! This is REALLY smart!” and I instantaneously shared it. The thing is, I wasn’t the only one.

Here are three (3) important aspects to learn from this interactive video social campaign:

#1: One size cannot fit all… Know who you’re targeting

The barbecue dried meat has been a delicacy for years especially among the Chinese community during the Lunar New Year. This product has been popular among the older generation and Wing Heong wanted to go beyond that – to also reach the younger (tech savvy) generation of today which led to the development of this campaign. If you would to think about it, a full-fledged digital campaign may not be able to reach their existing (more mature) customers as there’s a digital divide – it was a risk they were willing to take which leads to my next point…

#2: To know them well… And use the right approach

“We came out with the Superhero character called ‘Yok Man’ to represent the new generation and to rebrand Wing Heong so it would be perceived as a young and vibrant brand as opposed to a traditional brand.” – Wilson Pee, creator of the interactive video campaign

Wing Heong took time to understand their audience. They knew they needed to be different from their competitors who were also using digital animation to reach out to the consumers. They created an animated character that was closely representing kungfu legend Yip Man that was made popular in a recent Hong Kong made movie, a movie the local Chinese were able to identify to easily.

On top of that, the fictional storyline is closely knitted to Malaysia and the introduction of another popular local delicacy, the Seremban Siew Pau (baked dumpling) to draw a greater relation with the Malaysian-Chinese target audience.

#3: Drive them home… By giving them something to remember you by

Marketers understand the importance of creating memorability with their consumers. Visuals and content are both important and great but what makes a campaign memorable? With a young and engaging story line in place, the creators of the Wing Heong campaign allowed their target audience to actively interact with the characters itself by punching in commands to assist ‘Yok Man’ in defeating his enemies.

The Results

This interactive video garnered 565,792 views to date, shared over 131,000 times and “Liked” over 243,000 times on Facebook.

If an average Facebook user has 130 friends, the video and the name ‘Wing Heong’ has potentially reached more than 17 million impressions on the most popular social network in Malaysia. Sure, anyone can create an interactive video and it may garner even more views but what made Wing Heong’s campaign standout wasn’t just the video but the ingredients and groundwork behind it that made it work.

The combination of the above made the character ‘Yok Man’ into an immediate icon simply because the consumers are now able to identify a kungfu legend and an engaging story line to the brand.

Social Media Integration Framework

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Social media is no longer something mysterious to businesses and the number of businesses integrating and accepting social media as part of their branding and marketing efforts are increasing as time passes. The question is – how many of them are successful in doing so? Business and social media experts generally agree that social media works when it is done right – through understanding your target audience, actively engaging and to be human when interacting.

The Problem

Having that said, why do businesses still find it difficult to integrate social media into marketing strategies? With so many businesses all around the world hopping unto different social media platforms fighting for attention from the consumers, how can organizations today engage the target audience effectively?

The Research Problem - Social Media Integration Framework

With these questions in mind, I decided to write a research paper and to propose a Social Media Integration Framework to assist organizations (brands) when integrating a social media strategy. The research is split into two different parts where Part 1 is merely the preliminary stages of the framework (i.e. planning and design); while Part 2 will be an in-depth research upon the actual implementation / execution of the planned social media strategy.

Here’s the proposed Social Media Integration Framework:

Social Media Integration Framework

The framework is basically a walkthrough of different phases for organizations that are looking at integrating social media that spans from identifying the objectives to the actual launch. It is meant to be a guide for marketers / decision makers on how to go about integrating social media to better their chances in being successful by ensuring the strategy produced covers the important aspects.

To test the importance of having a clearly defined social media strategy, this research compared three (3) different organizations of similar criterias:
1. from the FMCG industry;
2. have an existing social media presence quantified by a minimum of 45,000 Facebook fans and minimum page views of 500,000 – 1,000,000 monthly
3. have their social media goals derived from not more than 1% of existing traffic
4. looking to increase fan base, page views and engagement with their target audience

These organizations utilized different social media strategies where:
Company A – had no specific social media plan / strategy with a simple microsite
Company B – had a specific target audience with a product based microsite with Facebook sharing
Company C – had a specific target audience, Facebook contest microsite with sharing and online banners
Note that Company A has no social media strategy in place where Company B and C has a social media strategy derived from a process that resembles the proposed framework

The Findings

Research Results - Social Media Integration Framework

From the findings above, it is seen that Company A struggled to meet their goals while Company B and C surpassed them. As seen in Company C, a well planned strategy and by being relevant to the target audience can in turn generate a larger response and level of participation. This may very well indicate that consumers are likely to participate with a brand should it be relevant to them.

This can be done by first identifying the objective(s) of brand in integrating social media, identifying the target audience and the relevant channel(s) before even attempting on putting together a strategy as illustrated in the diagram above.

What’s Next?

Right level of activity increases participation on social media

This preliminary research only indicates the importance of having a well defined social media strategy in today’s businesses to maximize the level of participation with your target audience. Part 2 of the research will be looking at Part 2 of the model, the relationship between the content and the audience and an introduction to methods of monitoring social media efforts.

It will take a while before Part 2 of the research is done so hang in there!

If you’re interested in this research and would like to receive a copy of the research paper, simply leave your details below and I’ll personally drop you an email with it! On top of that, you’ll be informed when Part 2 is ready :)

    Note: the academic research paper entitled “Social Media Integration Framework in the Creation of Brand Strategy: Preliminary Stage” is written by Jan Wong & Albert Quek and was presented at the Global Communications Conference 2011, expected to be published in 2012.

    The Problem With Being A Human Brand by @MargieClayman

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    This is a guest post by Margie Clayman (@MargieClayman), the director of client development at Clayman Advertising, her family-owned agency. She is the third generation of her family to work there! Margie is the community manager at 12most.com, the librarian at The Blog Library, and the resident blogger at MargieClayman.com.

    When I was first reading about social media, which was in about 2007, the levels of excitement that were surrounding this brave new world was hard to contain. Although the technology was cool, what people in my sector of the business world were really excited about was that brands were becoming personal. With social media, you’re no longer just a customer who buys a certain laundry detergent.

    Now you were a face, a name, and interests on that manufacturer’s facebook fan page or on that company’s Twitter account. The other side of the coin was that the company was no longer just a company. Maybe the Twitter account was managed by a person named Jill. Well, now you were buying your laundry detergent from Jill, and Jill was selling to you, a real person with a name and a personality.

    What could be greater?

    Fast forward to almost five years later and the world online is getting a bit more complicated. While it’s true that brands are becoming more personal, a few problems are starting to arise because of scale and because of human nature. All great things must come to an end, or at least, they have to change, right?

    Oh no! I gave away all of my best work for free!

    One thing that online brands are realizing is that in the effort to really get to know their customers, along with other companies, they gave a LOT of information away. All of those blog posts you’ve enjoyed reading over the last few years have essentially been people giving away their expertise. Sure, some sites have always had ads on them, but we all know that online ads are mostly good for branding, not for clicks. And besides, even if someone clicks on an ad on your site, they’re not really buying what you sell. They’re buying something that someone else is advertising on your site, right?

    Now, a lot of people are wondering how they can push the rewind button on that decision. They want to start charging, or they want to start charging more. With such close contact to their customers, they are hearing about this a lot more often and with a lot more vitriol than might have been the case a few years ago. This is an increasingly big conundrum for online brands.

    Oh no! I don’t really think you’re my customer!

    Another problem brands are struggling with right now is the realization that a lot of people that they follow, or who are following them, are not really customers. They’re not even prospects. Heck, they might not even be competitors. In the race for online clout (yes, spelled with a c, not a k), people raced to get as many followers as possible without stopping to wonder, “Hey, would this person ever buy from me?”

    Now, people who have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in their online communities are wondering how to filter through all of those people to get to the ones who might actually help them grow their business. As we’ve seen over the last few weeks with the “great unfollowing of 2011,” this can cause a lot of misunderstanding and discomfort, as is the case with so many adjustments. Again, because brands and customers have been so closely intertwined for the last few years, the blowback to these evolutions can be pretty severe.

    Oh no! You want me to respond to you right away!

    This is perhaps the biggest problem haunting online brands right now. When a lot of brands moved online in 2008 or 2009, there were not nearly as many people online as there are now, and nobody really knew what they were doing. It was all unchartered waters. Brands could respond to requests, suggestions, or calls for help lickety split. Five years later, customers and/or prospects still carry that expectation.

    We have been taught that social media enables brands to execute customer service better than ever before, and that response times should be in minutes, not hours. Due to scale, however, responding that quickly to everyone is no longer an option. If the person managing a brand’s account did nothing but respond to people all day, they still would miss someone, and that someone would likely vocalize discontent.

    Oh no! How can we get out of this mess?

    Well, that’s the million dollar question. It seems like just like in the business world, social media is moving to a scenario where the smaller and more flexible you are, the better off you might be. Could we be moving to a brand new model where fewer followers is the optimum mode of operation? Could we be moving to a world where blog content is gated and must be paid for? All of these changes are going to be very uncomfortable, and there is likely to be a lot of rather hostile discussion as social media grows up and evolves.

    Then again, I could be totally and 100% completely wrong. What do you think about the future of brands online? Where are we headed, and where are we now?

    Brand Focus #6: The Power of a Common Cause Using #SocialMedia

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    You may have heard of many stories on how powerful social media platforms are to drive causes such as the Pepsi Refresh Project that rewards individuals with refreshing ideas or the Fair Tweets campaign by Ben & Jerry’s. What do they all have in common? 1. A great cause 2. An innovative idea and 3. Huge participation that led to success.

    While there isn’t a success formula that you can reproduce, the one thing that stands among all successful marketing campaigns or causes is that there is something for others to talk about – a common passion, a common interest, a common curiosity or even a common anger like the recent lashings against designer brand Versace.

    Having that said, it is not the level of innovation that draws people together (although it contributes to its success) but the level of the common ground established.

    The Power of a Identifying a Common Goal / Cause on Social Media

    A community is a powerful ‘being’, be it offline or online and today’s social media networks makes it so easy for one to start their own community. It is no wonder why businesses jump unto the bandwagon almost immediately as they recognize the need and the power of having their very own community.

    It was all over the news – Malaysia, the country I live in became famous over the weekend as it was broadcasted globally due to a recent event named Bersih (clean) which involved a peaceful rally in the heart of Kuala Lumpur demanding for a fair and clean upcoming election. You may have only heard about it and perhaps are aware of what happened during the rally but what caught my interest most was how the entire cause was promoted heavily over social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter weeks before.

    spreading a cause using social media

    You’ll realize that the cause not only drew close to 160,000 fans but people also spread the cause willingly because it was something they can relate and resonate with, to the extend that they opted to place a badge on their display pictures (as seen in the screen shot above) to indicate their support.

    What happened on Twitter? Well, you can simply search the hashtag #bersih to find out for yourself. All I can say is that the tweets flew by so quickly that I can’t even read them (and I thought I was well trained on #blogchat).

    On top of that, Malaysians in other countries such as Taiwan, Melbourne and Singapore also ‘participated’ in the rally by gathering where they’re at to show their support. The medium of communication? Social media. Live updates on Facebook, Twitter and even recorded videos on YouTube.

    From a business viewpoint, that is definitely a success story as word-of-mouth has taken its course and in this case, internationally.

    What is it in your cause that causes others to resonate?

    This is the question you should be asking yourself whatever your cause is, profit or not.

    What makes others passionate about the cause? What is it that causes others to feel the same? Could it be empathy? Could it be anger? Could it be pride? Could it be fun?

    Have that answered, then all that’s left is to identify the right communication medium to spread the word.

    Is there a specific cause that strikes you the most? What is it that draws you to it?

    Brand Focus #4: Using #SocialMedia for an Offline #Marketing Campaign

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    So I was heading to Digital Mall a week ago and this caught my attention:

    @the_officeguy spotted working outdoors

    The guy was dressed in working attire, complete with a tie, in a pair of orange boots sitting by the pavement by a busy road. I moved on since I initially thought it was some flyer distribution gimmick but there were similar guys situated all around the area. They were pretty difficult to miss and I was totally intrigued with what’s the entire concept all about. I spotted the Twitter handle @The_OfficeGuy and decided to look him up.

    the_officeguy twitter profileSo, the Twitter profile and the timeline did not say much about him. I dropped him a @mention and he introduced himself the same as in his profile. That made me wonder – if this is supposedly a promotional campaign (and I was pretty sure it is), why isn’t he promoting a single bit on the product / service? After observing the timeline for about a week now, @The_OfficeGuy is all about running contests and replying @mentions.

    At this stage, I was determined to uncover this ‘mystery’ of @The_OfficeGuy. After several searches I found that it is actually a campaign by Microsoft – promoting their cloud solutions (that’s why the cloud is there) such as Office 365.

    @The_OfficeGuy is related to Microsoft cloud solutions

    3 Things We Can Learn from This Campaign

    #1: Curiosity drives conversations

    It is a good idea to use social media platforms to drive conversations for your offline promotional campaigns. The reason is simple: you get people talking – especially if the campaign actually DO drive conversations! Why not bring the conversations online in which you too, can respond to them?

    #2: You put a face to your campaign

    Microsoft managed to put a ‘face’ and a real-life scenario to its cloud solutions. This way, the promotion takes a more human and conversational approach without being in-your-face. Consumers had it enough when it comes to blatant advertising.

    #3: Provide a reason to follow you

    Here’s where I think @The_OfficeGuy should have done better. The campaign created curiosity and people (with Twitter) naturally began engaging with them but it would seem that not many decided to follow him. Why? I came up with 3 reasons:

    1. People somewhat know that this IS a campaign. So why follow an advertisement channel?
    2. All it does is to talk, talk and talk. What can I get out of listening to his conversations with others?
    3. (Referring to the Twitter profile) What value can I get out of the misadventures of someone?

    I can’t argue it’s capabilities in drawing curiosity and responses but if you can’t keep the consumers, you’re merely a shopfront display. It may be more effective if  there is a balance between the tweets – engagement vs providing value. You do not need to sell your product, but cleverly picking out its benefits and usage in an educational tone will do better.

    Bonus: This works great with local businesses

    There’s no need for expensive print advertisements. If your business has a targeted audience in a specific geographical area or even with limited budget, you may want to consider narrowing your promotional focus such as Microsoft. Concentrate on one location to build visibility and utilize social media platforms for engagement to take place. Your business may be the next talk of the town!

    What do you think about the campaign? Are there areas that you think they’ve done well? Is there anything lacking?