Social Media Budget. (Malaysia Toursim under fire)

Yes, companies are spending a lot of money on social media and advertising these days, but a recent report on the Malaysia's Government RM1,758,432 spending on 20,292 Facebook is starting to raise eyebrows.

In this article, "Tourism Malaysia under fire for FB spending" it shows the importance of a good solid plan to measure ROI, as the results from the marketing from Facebook may have even yielded more tourists who spend more that that amount.

I do not agree that a 6 year old can start a FB page well, but I'd agree that the budget was a little high. "You need RM1.8 million to run Facebook pages and applications? A six-year-old can start a Facebook page," said Loke.

I personally think that while it is good for an agency to help your business get started in Facebook and Twitter, ultimately, it is your voice online, and you should not outsource it to a third party, internal training and a good social media policy to get corporate wide support and involvement may prove to be more effective and REAL in your engagement, and people can tell if you are genuine.

I went to check out the FB pages, and felt that "http://www.facebook.com/CutiCuti1Malaysia" is a pretty ok page with decent interaction, however, if you are a tourist going to Malaysia, Would you even think about searching for such a name? (Especially if you don't know Malay)

You need to understand what you are spending on and how it will help you. Get empowered by knowledge and information.

-- Robin Low

The numbers

Critical mass is very important, to be the best, to stay on top, to attract talent, to get new ideas and innovation...

Recently, I was in Silicon valley, and I spoke to some folks at Google, Facebook and Nvidia. Their culture seems to be completely different from Singapore, wanting to be the "silicon valley" of Asia. I think the mindset basically is due to education.

In the US, there are a lot of people (because US is big) and the education system though highly irregular, produces the best people. There is no doubt that the top universities are doing something right, but basically, after interacting with the folks who are in the top tech companies, all of them -- love tech.

Passion is a driving force behind the people, and since young, they love to get their hands dirty and invent things. Silicon valley is a great place to be for engineers, and the education system produces a few kinds of people. One that is unfocused and don't know what to do with their lives, and another type who are driven by their passion to create and seek education to enable them. In America, education is not just a piece of paper. You learn things, and although it does not bring as much prestige, the whole system is based on performance.

Having a masters degree or a PHd does not guarantee that the employee has a better way of innovating and creating the edge for a company. Basically, people are worth what they can contribute. In many companies, solving problems is what they do best, (so that they are in business) and in top companies, they need to solve very hard problems.

It does not take a person with PHd to solve these problem, but rather, a passionate, driven individual with great amounts of experience and a bright spark. For most cases, innovation is found throughout the ranks of the company and rewarded accordingly. With the companies run by Engineers (instead of MBAs) the culture of innovation and performance exceeds that which satisfies the stakeholders, and that is one of the reason why they can get the best of of their people and be on top.

It is not surprising that many like to get their advanced degrees in America, and few in Singapore. It is not that people are stupid in Singapore, but rather, the need.

The problems Singapore is trying to solve are not as challenging, and the advanced degrees are purely for cosmetic reasons. Perhaps for a promotion and moving up the corporate ladder. Few I've seen applied their knowledge to their passion and develop great things, and because the pool of people is rather small, it is very hard to get great help.

The problem of critical mass of talent, market size and access is also key to the success in many technology companies. The culture of inventing, instead of outsourcing core competencies is essential when you are competing at the highest level as creating your technology is better than managing it at the top.

For social networks, creating a conductive, inclusive environment is key for conversation. There is a need to get a core group of focused people, but also a need to get the numbers up sometimes.

There are always silent lurkers on blogs and Facebook pages, and for something to be turned to action, you may need the numbers to spark off something new and interesting, like a long discussion. A few comments can spark off the interest of the silent lurkers to get them in the conversation.

I feel that the numbers game is very important to success. If you do not have the numbers, perhaps collaboration and partnerships may be the answer.

-- Robin Low

Spotting and starting a trend

Spotted a trend, posted information on a page with a very targeted audience.

You immediately get a lot of responses, in a very short time.

Depending on your tone, you can get different responses, and attract different responses.

-- Robin Low

SG elections 2011

The Singapore General elections is over and even though there is overwhelming support on social media for the opposition, for most of Singapore, the PAP swept the elections.

Here are a few conclusions that I could come out with:

1) Slacktivism at work -- people click on like without reading as it seems cool to participating in "opposition stuff"

2) People just want to be part of something -- they will vote the incumbent no matter what, the join in social media to participate.

3) Stupid people spoil votes -- When you put "Go home" beside the party who you not want to win, you are actually voting for them.

There was indeed many reasons, and it was an eye opener. With thousands of fans on Facebook, huge crowds during rallies, many opposition parties fail to get more than 45% of votes of Singaporeans.

Everything that they could do online, they did pretty well, and the rallies were fine, and PAP did drop the ball for many replies, and even when they failed to engage the people, they seem to do well at the polls.

Social media is clearly not enough for a party to win in an election.

-- Robin Low

Social media - will it translate to opposition victory?

There is much evidence that the opposition is engaging more on social media than the incumbent party. In fact, with the controlled media in Singapore, many have turned to the Internet for a more balanced view of things. There is much anger among the people as well. Many felt that the PAP is censoring comments and not reply to them online.

I believe in previous elections, the turnout was much higher for the opposition as well, and for some cases, the PAP won.

In 1988, the PAP targeted Francis Seow, a former Solicitor-General of Singapore and President of the Law Society. Mr Seow was ‘exposed’ as a serial womaniser and tax cheat, and was also accused of being a ‘foreign agent’ who was out to destabilise Singapore. Mr Seow’s WP team in Eunos GRC won 49.1% of the votes before he was hounded out of the country on trumped-up charges.

n 1991, the WP’s Jufrie Mahmood, who also stood in Eunos GRC, attracted flak for being a ‘Malay chauvinist’.

In 1997, the WP’s Tang Liang Hong, who was running with then-party leader J B Jeyaretnam in Cheng San GRC, was accused of being an ‘anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist’. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong turned the battle for Cheng San into a personal battle, saying that voters were making a choice between him and Mr Tang, even though Mr Goh was not a candidate for the constituency.

Eventually, Mr Goh and 11 other PAP leaders, including Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Teo Chee Hean and Dr Tony Tan, sued Mr Tang for defamation on the grounds that he said that the allegations of racism were “lies”. In doing so, they argued, he was alleging that they were “liars” and therefore unfit for office. Unsurprisingly, Mr Tang was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages to the PAP leaders, and was forced to leave Singapore as a result.

In 2001, Dr Chee Soon Juan, the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party, was the ‘chosen one’. He was sued for defamation by Mr Goh and Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) because he brought up the issue of a clandestine billion-dollar loan to Indonesian President Suharto. Dr Chee was also branded a “heckler” and “street hustler”, and was ordered to pay more than half a million dollars in damages. He was made a bankrupt and has been unable to contest any elections since then.

And in 2006, in an incident that remains fresh in the memory of many Singaporeans, the WP’s James Gomez was accused of dishonesty and “criminal intimidation” because of a discrepancy with regards to the filing of his minority candidate form. The “Gomez Saga” dominated the agenda in the lead-up to polling day, with little attention given to the actual debate concerning national policy. Dr Gomez was detained by the police for questioning the day after the election, in which his WP team clinched 44% of the vote in Aljunied GRC.

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PAP Rally



WP Rally




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There is indeed more people interested in politics today than it was 5 - 10 years ago, and the once politically apathetic youth are participating and sharing information as well.

I have no doubt that if it is an online poll, the Opposition would win, but with the myriad conditions and rules placed, a lot of the online community, whom are Singaporeans overseas are not eligible to vote as they have not registered. (Its not even nomination day, and they were already not eligible.)

For the case of Obama, it was not only on online chatter, there was much activity on the ground and the ground coordination was very well organized and online supporters/students are activated to raise issues with their friends and families, and share what they have learned. This is not seen in Singapore yet.

So is online social media and large turnouts enough?

Only time will tell...

-- Robin Low



data from : LET THE MUDSLINGING BEGIN

Build trust! Don't Astroturf.

It is very important to build trust. Even when there is lack of engagement, using fake IDs to post to your page will only destroy what little you have built.

It is not hard to check on the fake profiles, and when someone found it out, well, the rest is history, and what ever engagement that was built, and reputation will all be destroyed.

I feel sorry for the 13,000 fans. How many of them are real?

-- Robin Low

Social Media Progress Report -- Singapore

Singapore has a very high Internet Penetration and mobile user base, and it is not surprising that the usage of Facebook is on the rise.

Singapore Facebook Statistics
General info
Total Facebook Users: 2 498 300
Penetration of population: 53.14%
Position in the list: 49.
Penetration of online pop.: 68.29%
Average CPC: $0.63
Average CPM: $0.35

Info from Socialbakers

As a results, there is a flurry of companies and organizations getting on Facebook. I've done some training with a few groups, and it has been going on for months and now my classes are at maximum capacity, however, for a lot of the more conservative companies, I realized that many of the companies are still not engaging in conversations, and their major concerns are still negative feedback!

People are going to talk about your company whether you are on Facebook or not. If people cannot post comments on your Facebook page, it is like telling your fans, I'm not interested to hear from you!

My friend Jeremy Woolf from Text100 shared another link: placebook Which has a map showing the number of Facebook users. Its pretty interesting and informative to look at.

He also shared the Twitter Reach

With more savvy Internet users and a highly educated population, it is strange that many of the businesses want to use social media and is afraid to get negative comments.

Well, my solution is:

ENGAGE! You need to find out the problems and solve them. Win your customers back!
Ignoring them does not solve anything!

-- Robin low