And like what DK always like to say, “It’s common sense”. But sadly, a lot of PR agencies in Singapore are lack of this.

Here are 5 DOs and DON’Ts that I will offer to the Traditional PR practitioners who are trying very hard to go digital, though I am not a social media guru – All the undermentioned are based on common sense.

The 5 DOs

1. DO take the time to read through the blog to understand what interests the blogger and what the blogger hates

You don’t expect a food blogger to write about gadgets (other than camera) on a food blog, right? Of course, when it is an advertorial, it’s another story – You can even talk about the latest mobile phone on a heritage blog. Oh, remember to introduce yourself in your first email to the blogger too! It’s basic courtesy.

2. DO spend time cultivating the relationship with the bloggers whom you are engaging

I have noticed that social media events like Social Media Breakfast and Tweet Tuesday, you will see PR folks like Daniel Goh from Samsung, Derrick Koh from Lenovo, Su Min from Text 100, Claudia from 24seven and etc, who will try to be there to interact with bloggers who they know and also get to know new people. After the event, you will see them interacting with them online.

3. DO give bloggers enough time to respond to your event

Inform bloggers at least a week ahead of your event. 2 weeks will be even better. Bloggers are busy people who tries to live 2 lives – Online and Offline.

4. DO have an experiential event for the bloggers and digital fact sheets for them where possible

Most Bloggers are not like Journalists. Most bloggers blog about their experiences while Journalists report news. Having digital fact sheets will makes things easier for bloggers as they may not have remembered the keywords correctly, or misplace the media kit. Of course, there are “bloggers” who love to post media releases, but these are minorities.

5. DO give the blogger enough time to review your product

It’s all about the experience and bloggers are busy people too, remember?

The 5 DON’Ts

1. DON’T start an email with “Dear Blogger” or “Dear Editor”

I know DK and Clauds will disagree with me on this, but there are some bloggers who may be offended by this. It does show a lack of sincerity to me. So be safe, not sorry.

2. DON’T keep bugging a blogger for the post after the event

Bloggers need time to blog too. If the bloggers feel for your product or cherish the relationship, they will blog about it. But if you bug them like no tomorrow, you are giving them a good reason not to blog about it.

3. DON’T send a teaser but not an invite to a blogger, and then send him a media release

A lot of the bloggers in Singapore know one and other. If I am only worthy of receiving your teaser and not the blogger invite to your launch event, why do you think I will plug about your product for you?

4. DON’T assume that the blogger will blog for you.

I’ve learnt this the hard way cos I thought the PR agency’s relationship with the bloggers are so good that they will “follow an editorial schedule”. Back to the same issue, bloggers are busy people. If you want them to adhere to an editorial schedule, jolly well pay for it, else be prepared to face a backlash. DON’T attempt to engage a blogger after an event is over and expect the blogger to blog for you, either!

5. DON’T leave a comment to expect the blogger to contact you, instead of emailing them.

It’s not very professional, you know? Unless they do not publish their email address on their blog.

Of course, there are definitely more DOs and DON’T that are not stated here and you will learn them eventually, but the abovementioned is enough to give you a good head start!

And to the client side of the house who are easily infected by the “shiny object syndrome”, do remember that Word of Mouth marketing is highly dependent on the quality of your product or service – I am missing the Samsung NX10 badly and I will blog about it really soon!

“Fast download & streaming”? How ironic!

I still remember how I tried to get myself online during my last trip to Kuala Lumpur in June 2009 and did not manage to find this pre-paid 3G Broadband package by Celcom.

The only stop-gap solution was to get connected at the free wifi spots, including standing in the middle of nowhere at Mid Valley Megamall just to leech on an internet access point. The convenience stores do not carry this pre-paid package and I only saw the Celcom shop at Sungei Wang on the last day of my previous trip to Kuala Lumpur.

This time round, I headed to Sungei Wang on the first evening of my working trip and got this Pre-paid 3G Broadband Package at RM25, for a weak week access. Little did I know that the connection is this weak! I could only get connected to 1 website at a time when I was in my hotel room at Hotel Capitol and it crawled like GPRS! My colleague who stayed in Concorde Hotel could not even get connected!

This was when I started to miss my 3G broadband connections in Singapore by SingTel and Starhub.

We were lucky that the conference venue at Shangri-la Hotel offered free wifi coverage in their ballrooms. All of us were busy checking our emails during break times.

I did switch the Celcom 3G sim card into my iPhone 3G from the third day onwards. While it still crawled, the applications that I used on iPhone 3G consumed less data and hence loaded faster (not fast).

If you really need to get connected in Kuala Lumpur, Celcom 3G Broadband is only good enough for your mobile phone, but not using it on a computer with a 3G Modem. Leeching on free wifi will be a better choice, seriously.

Tweets about LTA’s decision to extend the one-for-one free replacement of the EZ-link cards were flying around Twitterverse without a source to verify information.

To verify the news, the first thing that one may do is to check the related websites – LTA, Public Transport@SG or EZ-Link.

However,  as of 30 Sep 09, 1455hrs…

• LTA:  Media Release not updated. No where on the homepage you can find the announcement of the extension. There is a web banner that says last day for the exhange of the card on 30 Sep 09.
• PublicTransport@SG:  Media Release not updated. No where on the homepage you can find the announcement of the extension. There is a web banner that highlighted the exchange dates: 3 Jan – 30 Sep 09.
• EZ Link website: Red, Bold and Underlined – “Last day to get your free replacement card!”

Channel NewsAsia was the first to announce the extension at 1349hrs online. As of 1455hrs, the news has not been broken on The Straits Times.

I am very surprised that in this age of digital communication, the organisation website is often the last to break the news.

My advice to the Corporate Comms peeps is:

Update your website prior to the release of the news and keep it embargoed in your content management system. Break the news at the same time as the Main Stream Media. Don’t leave your users hunting online for a credible source to verify the news.

I’ve just received this EDM from Brew Creative. I really shouldn’t be blogging at this hour when my butt is on fire.

The thought of a company profiteering from a charity event just pisses me off. I seriously wonder if the sale of the tees is for a “Terrific Cause” or to establish an addition avenue to earn money at Twestival SG?

They are selling the tees at $29.90 and $6.00 goes to the Children Cancer Foundation. And the EDM says, “To help raise the money, Brew has specially-designed 3 Twitter-related tees. 60% of the profits for each t-shirt sold will be donated to the CCF.”

So how much are they earning?

60% of the Profits = $6.00 per T-shirt

Remaining 40 % of the Profits = $4.00 per T-shirt

Cost price = $19.90 per T-shirt

So for every T-shirt that you purchase from them, $4.00 goes to their pockets.

You do the Maths.

Have you heard about the “Do the Cadbury Eyebrow Contest“? I only got to know about it when I saw the outdoor ad at a “high traffic area and yet you will hardly notice it unless you have a keen eye for outdoor ads like me” at Istean Scotts.

Of course, I did not note down the URL as I thought I could just google it. But to my surprise, it’s a no. New Media fail.

Anyway, I tried to recall the URL and finally managed to log on the website! The entry by Siling Sec Students looks really good! Their eyebrows are really flexible. Check this out and vote for them! Sadly, the contest ends today, 30 Aug 09! So vote for them now!

If you have decided to create a spoof as well, do not try doing it like in this video… Freaky!

Have you heard of Google Latitude? It is a service by Google which allows you to see your friends on a map on Google Maps for mobile and iGoogle.

Google just released the Google Latitude web app for iPhone, instead of a native iPhone app. However, this web app has it’s limitation – It is unable to provide continuous background location updates like it does for users on Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

Initially, I wasn’t too keen to try it out. Under peer pressure, I’ve decided to give it a try. It’s rather interesting, I would say. My user id on Google Latitude is victor.tancs@gmail.com and I have only 5 friends on my list to stalk on.

So… Let me stalk you, will you? Add me on Google Latitude!

24 hours | 10 bloggers | 2 winners | 1 ultimate event

Were you there to support your favourite bloggers? I was there last evening and this evening to support Claudia, DK, Geekonomics, Jayden and Nadnut! Ok, my not-so-hidden agenda was to take their before-after pictures. Was wondering how “chui” (unglam and tired) they will look after 24 hours without sleep!

Just before Friday 6pm, I was at Tangs being “greeted” by the “chio” Lenovo gals… They automatically posed when they saw my Cybershot H7! Well, the bloggers were not at sight any where near the product area!

Chio Lenovo Gals

Don’t you think the left gal looks a bit like Selina? They certainly are more eye catching than the Lenovo laptops.

The covered shopping windows

Woo woo… “Where are the bloggers?”, I asked myself! I found myself walking into Tang to see if I could catch any of them before entering the shopping window! As expected, the bloggers were all preparing to enter the shopping windows where they will be there for the next 24 hours! Here’s DK and his much-loved hat!

@dk and his much-loved hat!

Here are the before and after peektures of them! Seriously, they were looking as good as they were 23 hours ago – No signs of any “chui-ness”!

Before…

@molemole and @claudia10

@dk and his "Home Sweet Home in 24 hours" sign!

@geekonomics

@adipatimusxzart, @nadnut, @jayleif and @gracey

After…

@claudia10

@dk

@geekonomics

@nadnut and @jayleif

I found @Gracey very familiar and seriously didn’t know where I met her before! A check on facebook refreshed my memory. She is my Secondary School Junior at the Prefectorial Board! Yup, how to forget this tall gal right?

After I got home from Tangs last evening, I realised that the blogathon website runs on FULL flash and is piggy backing on a wordpress engine. Although I must say that the website is pretty, the flying circles are not making my navigation any easier! What’s wrong with having it running purely on wordpress? It’s a blog after all. I wanted to comment on the blog posts on the go, but iPhone 3GS doesn’t support flash! Sorry @dk, I wasn’t able to respond to your call for comments!

Oh, @singabeng also went down to the event ground to show his support for the bloggers, of course without showing himself! Claudia, Jayden and Nadnut were all hunting for him! Jayden and Nadnut identified someone whom they think is @singabeng, but no one was able to confirm it though.

@singabeng - Show Yourself!

After 24 hours of blogging and tweeting…

• @geekonomics won the Judge’s Choice with the score of 251
• @nadnut won the People’s Choice winner with 61 votes

The prizes that they have won are:

• Lenovo Ideapad U350
• $300 TANGS voucher
• $250 Kiehl’s products

But who is the ultimate winner here? I would say it’s Tangs.

After launching Virtual Tangs in Second Life at SMB6 (which I thought was a very bad move), they are now venturing into the local social media scene again with Ogilvy PR Digital Influence Team. This time round, they managed to generate a lot of online buzz by leveraging on the popularity of the 10 bloggers.

From the MarComm perspective, I would say that this is a great job by Ogilvy PR Digital Influence Team! I really think their sister company, Ogilvy & Matter, should seriously consider getting inputs from them!

Ah. There is so much “buzz” online about @tweetsg… But did he destroy his reputation instantly?

[ Image via Scope ]

Did @tweetsg morph from a nice cute little tweety bird into a monster bird overnight?

The answer is NO. This guy speaks out his mind and is apparently not a very patient person. So, how is he “destroying his reputation” instantly when he is being himself?

Just some disclaimers before I continue:

1. I don’t know the owner of @tweetsg personally
2. I don’t use the tweet.sg service
3. I have been following @tweetsg for about 2 months
4. I don’t agree with him swearing at people
5. I didn’t know that it is run by @jymster until @daphnemaia mentioned it in her tweet on associating the service and the creator.

To keep the story short, this guy has been running this free SMS gateway service for Singapore Twitter users and he appends “http://tweet.sg” at the end of tweets sending via the gateway. This has been made known to the user when he/she signs up. However, there are always people asking him to remove the URL at the end of the tweets. Guess being a “not very patient person” does make him irritable easily.

No… No… I do not agree with him swearing at people, but somehow this whole argument about destroying reputation and market share doesn’t apply on him.

Why do I say so?

1. He has been like this since the day that I followed his tweets, so technically speaking, he is just maintaining his reputation. Nothing new, what? If you want to bitch him, just be prepared to be bitched back. Don’t even try to be self-righteous. If you want to be self-righteous, start your own free service. He even provides you with the guide and software to run your own gateway!
2. He is running this service as his little project, not as a business. Probably he knows he is unable to monetise this. Do not even compare with free services like gothere.sg because they started with a business in mind. Do not even talk about market share with him because @tweetsg doesn’t even care. In fact, he is even recommending his “competitors” to his users through his tweets – sgbeat.com, smsyo.com and widgeo.us. He also teaches and provides you with the software to run your own gateway!

Anyway, @tweetsg just wrote a blog entry on making the system private.

That is his tone. Take it or leave it. For me, I have a data plan and I don’t like the idea of shouting into space without knowing the responses, if there are even any. But I am still going to follow him. He somehow reminds me of @singabeng. The only difference is that @singabeng is more vulgar.

To sum up, this whole @TweetSG saga is not a good case study on “How to destroy your online reputation, instantly“, in my opinion. If you seriously need one, you may wish to look at this. Do read through the comments. I think this makes a better case study.

*Peace.*

I must say that tranSGuide is my favourite iPhone App of all time! It beats the existing applications, such as SG Buses and SG Transport, hands down!

Unlike the other free apps that require you to input the bus stop number into the system, this app allows you to check for the arriving times of the SBS buses in 3 steps!

1. Launch tranSGuide app
2. Click on “Nearby”
3. Select the Bus Stop that you want to find out about the bus arrival timings

Hopefully, our fellow Gahmen colleagues at LTA can develop an API which allows developers to tap on and provide the arrival information of the SMRT buses as well. Alternatively, do have a mobile version of the existing PublicTransport.sg service – Not everyone loves to SMS!

Are you facing a problem of trying to broadcast a few rss feeds with selected keywords to twitter and even facebook fan page? Here’s how you can go about it!

Step 1: Get a ping.fm account and twitterfeed account

Step 2: Create a new feed on twitterfeed

• Insert your ping.fm API key into “Your Ping.fm application key” field and click on “get available” methods
• Copy the rss feed into your twitterfeed account. Impt: The RSS feed that you select needs to have date/time stamps or GUIDs
• Select your preferred update frequency and the max no of post in each update at “Update frequency”
• If you need to acknowledge the source, add a prefix at “Prefix each tweet with” field
• Need to filter the rss feed? Add in keywords that help to filter out the relevant feeds
• Click on create!

Step 3: Configure your ping.fm account

• “Add Network” to configure the respective accounts
• Please note that configuring Facebook fan page is quite a chore. Please follow the advice given by ping.fm

Volia! When the power of twitterfeed and ping.fm combine… Selected rss feeds will be broadcasted to your various accounts automatically!

Hope this is useful for those who need to aggregate from various sources. Tried and tested!