In case you’re wondering – 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 a really busy week and it would seem that it will only get busier all year long! It has already been almost a month since I started lecturing part time and it has been fun thus far (except for the preparation of exam papers). Somehow attending classes as a student seemed like a drag but it is the other way round when given the opportunity to share – or maybe it’s just me – the opportunity to share with the students, future entrepreneurs, is really something :)
The project for the largest chocolate retailer in Malaysia just went full swing! We are now in the midst of compiling photos of yummy chocolates to first work on the website. The website is usually the first apparent change for a online positioning project after thorough investigation and discussions with the company’s stakeholders. Websites today should be compatible with all modern browsers, mobile devices and for a chocolate business – pictures, pictures and more pictures!
With over 300 different types of chocolate, it’s gonna take some time to have them all up. Fancy a Hot Chilli Dark Chocolate, anyone?
A couple of projects were also launched in the past week including the 2nd Malaysia’s Online Fashion Entrepreneurs’ Weekend! Going beyond last year’s success, MOFEW 2011 is gearing up for twice the size, twice the fun and twice the exposure – once again being the largest gathering of online fashion entrepreneurs in Malaysia to highlight the online fashion scene and the people behind the industry. Check out the promotional video:
To think of it, it is only the beginning of March – a whooping 9 more months to end 2011 with a big bang! It’s definitely a busy year with more projects in the pipeline but it’s gonna be great!
How did you spend your new year’s day? Have you got all your resolutions on paper yet?
I don’t know about you but it would seem that humans in general, are procrastinators. We tend to leave everything to the very last minute and will only work when we are forced to do so. Such is seen in education – at school, we were forced to study whether we liked it or not but after we graduate, we no longer are forced to study, no longer forced to improve ourselves.
What does this have to do with 2011?
The keyword here is to CHALLENGE yourself. You only stop moving forward when you stop challenging yourself. Set higher goals and do not get stuck in the comfort zone. CHALLENGE to remain motivated. CHALLENGE to achieve greater success. CHALLENGE to stay ahead of the game.
Let 2011 begin by saying “I choose to challenge myself”.
If you’re wondering how the new year celebration was like in Malaysia, here’s a video I found on YouTube:
Have an awesome 2011 ahead! CHALLENGE – that’s my theme of the year. Will that be yours, too?
Branding is often talked about in both big and small businesses globally. Small businesses in Malaysia (also known as Small Medium Enterprises) are also often in the quest of ‘branding’. However, many of them fail to realize what branding is all about. They think that…
#1: Branding is Advertising
I would say that 95% of the time when I talk to clients in the very first meeting, clients would automatically talk about designing brochures, buntings, banners, newspaper advertisements, billboards, commercials and etc. If only branding is THAT easy…
Advertising is just one of the many tools for a branding process. So are your corporate identity, corporate trainings, team building activities, public relations, social media and events.. they are branding tools to create a brand perception among your target audience, for them to get to know you better in the most relevant method.
#2: Branding Requires A Huge Budget
Having said that, many will begin to think branding is out of their pocket’s league – and that isn’t true. The only budget a business should have is time. Branding takes time and is scalable to your monetary budget. In most situations, branding starts internally, within your own business – your directors, managers, employees, everyone.
How so? If these people do not believe in your brand, you’ll have a hard time convincing your target audience to believe in you. Always examine inwards before going out there! Consumers are getting smarter these days and you definitely do not want to be seen as an empty brand.
“Ever seen a giant billboard by the highway and you went “that product isn’t any good” or “their customer service is lousy”? Start inwards!“
#3: Branding = Sales
This is perhaps what frustrates me the most – businesses tend to think that the minute they step into the branding process, sales will roll in like never before. If that is your purpose in branding, you’re heading the wrong direction. It takes time.. and for some, LOTS of time.
Why? Simple. One of our client in a retail business have been wanting to have a place in various major shopping malls in Malaysia and they couldn’t – their existing brand image does not meet the requirements of these locations. What we did immediately was to create a fresh brand image for them.. from scratch!
We went through the motion of brainstorming, creating a new theme / concept, logo, training sessions and the likes and yes, it took a couple of months to get everything in place as they do not have any proper organization (i.e. management) as yet.
As you could’ve guessed, they gave up half way through with the reason of – there was no increase in sales. They see all they’ve spent as a liability instead of an investment – an asset to their business for expansion. Strange, but true. There are many out there that still think branding is the magic word to sales but unfortunately, it does not work that way in reality.
If Only Branding Is THAT Easy..
What is your take on branding? Have you came across brands you thought that they were ’empty’? How do you define ‘successful branding’?
Recently I’ve been noticing more and more companies here in Malaysia putting a barrier around their employees, preventing them from accessing social media tools within the premise. While some go about a complete ban, some left room for the marketing department to roam about freely.
Is that a good move?
It is fully understandable that social media tools especially Facebook, Twitter and blogging can be a huge time waster at work. Employees may be playing games, chatting away or busy updating their personal blogs instead of being ‘productive’ at the workplace. It’s no wonder why companies have to resort to a complete ban.
However, it is also interesting to note that some of these companies are supposedly customer centric, saying that they listen to their customers and etc but at the same time, staying out of social media. Strange indeed.
Blogs (social media) doesn’t get people fired, people get people fired. – Deb Schultz, Altimeter Group
To me, social media should not be banned in a company at all. Instead, companies should establish clear guidelines on how social media can be used. Companies such as Dell takes social media very seriously and goes to the extend of training their employees in this area and they have been utmost successful.
IBM takes a different approach by allowing their employees to write their social media policy for them. Sounds absurd? Not really, considering the fact that since the employees will be the ones using social media, they should be the ones setting the guidelines. In fact, they are more likely to keep to it if they formed it themselves. Plus giving your employees this liberty may cultivate an innovative culture in your company.
Some companies don’t even have rules to regulate social media usage. They simply let their employees do what they like, as long they perform in the end.
So.. What’s the Conclusion?
There is really no hard and fast rule in implementing / regulating social media in a company. I really do prefer both Dell and IBM’s way of doing it but it also depends on your comfort level as a business owner in the industry. Remember, social media can act as both an asset and a liability to your brand. Experiment with techniques and find out what’s best for your environment – social media only works when you try.
Recently I wrote a post on how beneficial social media can be when integrated into customer service operations and I have to share what happened to me –
Some time last week I was intending to purchase a new laptop to replace my old faithful and I landed on the Facebook page of one of Malaysia’s latest I.T. concept stores to drop them an enquiry, making sure that they have what I wanted at hand before I dropped by.
They replied within a couple of hours (11am) and was very helpful by indicating that they only have one particular model left (the one I wanted) and that I can drop by the store and their sales personnel will be able to assist me. I was very happy at this point and decided to head over to their store after lunch.
I arrived at the store at about 3pm and asked about the laptop:
Me: Hi, do you have this particular laptop in stock? (just to double check) Sales: Yes we do but we are down to the last unit for this model (he pointed to the brochure without me asking – it was what I wanted) Me: Okay, great, I’ll take it now then. Sales:(paused for a while) This unit is already reserved by my friend a couple of days back. Me: Oh? But you mentioned that there is stock. It’s also mentioned to me on Facebook this morning. Sales: Facebook? I don’t know.. I never check the Facebook page. Me: Is there anyone I can talk to regarding the post on Facebook? Sales: I’ve got no idea.
I was shocked and left with no other options by the sales personnel – I left the store and decided to post on their wall again reiterating the situation just to see what will their response be. A reply came about 3 hours later that read, “…our remaining units were reserved moments before your arrival…Much apologies again for the inconvenience caused.”
Well, I could only come up with 3 reasons at that point of time:
1. I was out of luck, having the remaining unitS reserved within the span of 3-4 hours (when the sales personnel said that there was only 1 unit available all along)
2. The sales personnel reported falsely on the availability of stocks to the social media personnel (in which he mentioned that he does not know who manages the Facebook page)
3. Communication breakdown (clearly the case)
The Conclusion
Apart from the major disappointment I experienced, I managed to discover a potential flaw in social media integrations within companies.
“You may have the best social media managers on the job but without proper communication and information, they’re as good as none.”
Remember, social media is all about providing an experience to your customers.
I’ve been noticing this as a trend lately that’s happening in many companies and businesses within Malaysia. Young grads are being hired for a specific job to find that they are given an additional job description – to manage the company’s social media accounts.
Is this really a smart thing to do?
A young person usually spends their entire day on Facebook, Twitter and blogs therefore they are great candidates to manage the accounts, isn’t it? WRONG. Though it may be true that they are technologically savvy, this does not automatically makes him or her a social media expert with the required capabilities to take on your company’s social media presence.
Likewise for PR Managers, they may be really good at what they do but this does not automatically makes them a social butterfly online. Plus, PR Managers generally have extrovert personalities so keeping them behind a screen to socialize may not work as well as you think it would.
Insisting on using them?
I would not go down this path but if that’s the only choice you have, consider looking up their backgrounds or throwing them a test before adding it to their job description. Check out their Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts to see what they usually talk about (you may even find that they are active only on Facebook games).
If you find that they are actively participating in chats, sharing informative contents, retweeting, creating content and etc – Congratulations! You’ve found your man (or woman)!
If you find that they are actively chatting casually, sharing random contents, talking about the bits and pieces of their life, mostly participating in games and etc – You may not want to bestow them your company’s social media accounts.
What should be done then?
The best for the job is definitely a social media manager or consultant that specializes in social media. One that does not only have the knowledge, but also with the experience to generate ideas, execute and creatively engage with his / her network.
There are tons of articles out there listing the various areas to look for in a social media manager so I won’t go into the details but most of them concur that he / she must have some past experience in the field. It can be personal experiences, various projects / campaigns or past / present clients.
Also, do not hesitate to probe questions to test their knowledge in the field as knowing these can give you an ease of mind and somewhat gauge the potential results thus evaluating whether he or she is worth your money.
So, is it really a ‘no’ to hire a young person / PR to do the job for me?
“Do you believe that 10 cents is all it takes to lose a potential loyal customer over your competitor?“
I can’t help but to realize how important 10 cent is to both the consumer and the business. No, I’m not talking about price wars between similar products but how far 10 cents can determine whether a customer returns to you.
Have you been into a situation in a restaurant and the bill summed up to say, RM12.10 and the thought comes – “can’t you even give a 10 cent discount?“
If you haven’t, great! But if you have, you’re probably one of the many out there like myself and I have been doing some observation and testing to see how people have been reacting in this situation.
Situation 1
Customer: It’s only 10 cents, do you have really have to charge that? Business A: Nah, I’ll round it up to RM12 for you. Please come again!
Situation 2
Customer: It’s only 10 cents, do you have really have to charge that? Business B: Of course! 10 cents go a long way. Please come again! (I actually received this response for word)
Situation 3
Business C: (brings the bill of RM12.10) Hi sir, that will be RM12.00 Customer: (surprised) Oh, here you go. Business C: Thank you, Please come again!
Looking at these 3 situations, which situation would you like to be in?How would you like going back to the Business B in Situation 2? Sure, 10 cents isn’t a lot and it will indeed go a long way for a business but from the viewpoint of a customer, that is no customer service and creates a negative impression that may determine the buying behavior of that customer – to not come back to you again.
Even worst if that customer decides to use social media as his / her arsenal to vent – more like minded customers will catch the message and perhaps skip you altogether (ouch).
Now before you shove this away and think that it’s no big deal, you may have to think again as customers such of these are not rare. Be prepared for situations such as these and you may just win yourself a loyal customer.
What Can We Learn From 10 cents?
Every cent counts.Every deed you do for your customer counts – whether it is a personalized service, special discounts, freebies, a listening ear, priority service, engaging in small talks or even remembering their names.. it makes a difference and that difference may just be THAT differentiating factor that sets you apart from your competitor.
Have you been in similar situations? I would love to hear them! :)
So you’ve seen the benefits of Twitter and now wanting to be part of the Twitter community but have no idea how to? If you’re absolutely new to Twitter, check out this step-by-step video on how to create your very own Twitter profile for your business:
Congrats with your Twitter account! With that covered, we will now be looking at some real life implementations on how business have use Twitter to their advantage:
1. Levi’s
Levi’s knew what they wanted to do and achieve with Twitter. They wanted to target the young male demographic which eventually led towards hiring Gareth as the @levisguy to share behind-the-scenes stories at Levi’s events and updates on new products.
Why is that so significant? Levi’s knew what it takes to create a bond, a connection with their fans. By hiring someone in the same demographic, he will be able to speak the same language the fans speak, allowing him to spur conversations about topics that matter to them, such as the latest fashion trends – without being awkward.
2. Dell Outlet
Dell understood what they need – they need a tool to get the word out fast due to their nature of business. They went on Twitter and have not turned back ever since. On Twitter they realized that people are interested in talking to them, asking questions and sharing their experiences, both good and bad.
“Offering relevant information that people are interested in is key.” – Stephanie Nelson, Dell (Austin)
With that, Dell now concentrates on interacting with people while keeping deals to a minimum to avoid spamming. Those are not ordinary deals though, they are exclusive, Twitter-only deals which has received very positive response having booked more than $3 million in revenue attributable to its Twitter posts. They minimized promotions with their followers in mind but offered exclusive deals whenever a post is due – 2 birds in 1 stone.
3. CoffeeGroundz
This is perhaps my most favorite integration of Twitter in a business! Unlike other examples, CoffeeGroundz is an independent coffee shop in Houston that sells a variety of locally roasted coffee, tea, pastries, sandwiches and the likes. Being new to Twitter, it took J.R. Cohen (General Manager) awhile to grow the number of followers on Twitter organically – and that changed everything.
Cohen took Twitter 1 step further by asking his followers from Houston to “come into the store and ask for J.R.” He will then take the opportunity to meet with each and every patron who asked for him by name! He created an opportunity to strengthen his bond with his followers, going beyond mere online interactions.
“This is what social media is meant to be.” – J.R. Cohen
What makes things even more interesting is that in 2008, one of CoffeeGroundz’s regular customers requested to place a ‘to-go’ order for a breakfast wrap. It is argued that Sean’s request for an order ‘to-go’ was the first of its kind on Twitter. And because Cohen is an avid user of Twitter, was able to reply quickly to Sean’s requests. With this reply, he implemented a whole new way to place and receive an order online, reserve tables and book the place – through Twitter’s DM service. How awesome is that?
4. DiGi Telecommunications
Sad to say that there are only a handful of great Twitter integrations in business back here in Malaysia. Businesses here seem more inclined towards Facebook but here is one that caught my attention – DiGi is seen using Twitter primarily to receive feedback, complains, questions and to provide support to their customers. In some cases, I was told that DiGi also offers special compensations and exclusive offers to dissatisfied customers on a case-by-case basis.
Apart from that, it also acts to humanize the brand by interacting with their followers by posting birthday wishes and replying to what others are saying about the brand which definitely adds a human touch to the brand.
Moving On!
Hopefully the above examples are able to give you some idea and insights on how you can get started on Twitter. Remember that it takes time to get it right so don’t be too worried if you’re doing it wrong or disappointed with the initial results.
If you’re sitting there thinking that Twitter is not suitable for your business
or your customers / prospects are not on Twitter and never going to be on Twitter, you should really take 4 minutes off your time to check out this video:
On the other hand, if you are having trouble thinking of running out of things to Tweet, I recommend reading this post here by @AskAaronLee, a social media addict with tons of experience and things to share about Twitter. I’m sure his post will help you just fine :)
Do you have an example that you would love to share? I would most definitely want to hear from you!
A couple of weeks back we looked at how Facebook can be integrated into today’s businesses as an effective engagement platform. This time round, we’ll be looking at a famous micro-blogging tool called Twitter. Bear in mind that neither Facebook nor Twitter can cancel each other out – they each have their own unique advantages in which you may want to use to YOUR advantage.
Why Twitter?
Though Twitter only allows 140 characters per update (called a Tweet), Twitter is now second to Facebook in terms of it’s usage. People seem to get along with Twitter pretty well as it is simple and straight to the point, unlike Facebook where distractions are aplenty. If you haven’t heard, Twitter is said to have about 2.1 million new users per week – a huge pool of potential opportunities you would not want to miss (click for interesting stats).
If you’re still scratching your head at this point, check out this simple video explaining Twitter in plain English:
Now that you’ve grasp the concept of Twitter, let’s look at 3 areas on how Twitter can benefit you and your business:
1. Collaboration and Networking
Twitter is a great way of keeping in touch with contacts and obtaining new contacts. This is simply because you (and others) can easily look up fellow users that have the same interest / industry by searching keywords that relates to you and your business. Do it right and these networks can eventually lead to new ideas, collaborations and even partnerships that can be beneficial to both you and your business!
2. Personality and Connectivity
For some reason, Twitter is seen to be a morehuman approach as compared to blogs and Facebook pages. It adds a human touch to your brand and a face to your business. With Twitter, businesses can now engage in conversations directly with their followers and listen to their tweets – which is priceless to a business. You’ll now get to hear what your followers (if you follow back) are doing, what are they talking about, where they are heading to and etc, allowing you to get to know your followers better.
Remember on Facebook pages, you won’t know what’s happening to your followers if you don’t add them as a friend on your personal account(which you may not want to do so).
3. Research Tool
I must say that Twitter is an excellent research tool for your business and equally informative as Google. How so? Twitter is able to show results of conversations (Tweets) regarding your keyword from all over the world! You can also gain insights to trending topics globally to see what the world is Tweeting about.
Imagine looking up keywords that relates to your business – you may find interesting Tweets talking about their needs, their wishes, feedbacks, rants, competitor’s product and etc. Yes, you’ve gained access to voices from real people across the globe!
What’s Next?
We will once again be looking at some examples on how Twitter is implemented in businesses worldwide along with some real tips on how you can do it too!
As promised, this post reveals some real-life implementation and integrationof 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
Therules and regulations you may not have read that prohibits promotions(e.g. contests and promotions) on Facebook
The project for the largest chocolate retailer in Malaysia just went full swing! We are now in the midst of compiling photos of yummy chocolates to first work on the website. The website is usually the first apparent change for a online positioning project after thorough investigation and discussions with the company’s stakeholders. Websites today should be compatible with all modern browsers, mobile devices and for a chocolate business – pictures, pictures and more pictures!
Branding is often talked about in both big and small businesses globally. Small businesses in Malaysia (also known as Small Medium Enterprises) are also often in the quest of ‘branding’. However, 
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Why Twitter?
