Recently, we introduced a set of 6 social media tools which start-ups should be tapping on in dealing with PR, marketing and branding issues. One advantage is that a start-up being nimble and quick, can find applications on social media tools that can distribute, share and gather feedback on their products and services in a very quick rate. Given that social media is a ever-changing landscape all over the world, and the buzz that are ongoing from twitter lists, enterprise microblogging via Yammer to google wave, we decide to give you a list of three new social media tools (or feature in existing social media tools) that you should know about.

Google Wave: It is the latest craze but the invites are limited. Anyone who has the invite and turned on their google wave account (@googlewave.com) find this new web-based collaboration tool notoriously difficult to understand. For more information on Google Wave, Gina Trapani (co-founder of LifeHacker.com and panelist on Leo Laporte’s new show “This Week in Google“) and Adam Pash wrote a fantastic guide on Google Wave (for dummies, check out Mashable’s guide on Google Wave), and they defined it to be a “new online communications tool that enables groups of people to edit and discuss documents simultaneously on the web”.

• Instantaneous Communication, Natural Language Capability & Playback: you can see what your collaborator is typing his message in the same instant when you may be doing the same. You can also playback a google wave conversation and do note that Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling or auto-translate to another language at the same time.
• Open Source and Build Extensions and Applications: By the way, the Google Wave API is open source and available for developers. You can build applications within the waves, from search bots, events management to complex real-time games. I have seen a Sudoku app deployed within a wave by some programmers in Singapore Google Wave Users. In fact, Google is going to set up an apps store for Google Wave store which will be out soon (which means we smell an opportunity).
• Wiki Functionality & Drag-Drop File Sharing: You can edit anything written in a Google wave that is written by anyone else, as all wave conversations are shared in the platform. You can correct, append information or add your own comments in a developing wave conversation. I can see team members in a project can do a collaborative business plan that hooks a google document in the wave, and that saves the email space that you keep sending each other which may accumulate to a large filesize. You can drag your file into a Google Wave and allow everyone to access and download it.

Twitter Lists: The new feature that Twitter has recently launched allows you to organize the people that you are following on Twitter or find new people who might be influential in your area of work. One way to think of Twitter lists, is like what you used to do with Facebook groups. How do you use Twitter lists? You create a list that groups people, organizations or news feeds so that you can get a snapshot in what’s happening in real time by going thru that list page. The most interesting feature about twitter list is that it allows you to organize people who you are following and allow you to include people who you are not following. In fact, you can organize news feeds like SGEntrepreneurs, E27, TechCrunch, Mashable, Malaysia Entrepreneurs, Mashable into a list so that you can check out real time news similar to how you do RSS feeds in the Google Reader. On another note, one intrinsic application for Twitter lists is to allow you to access how influential a blogger, news feed or organization is by looking at how many lists they are on.

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An old 1997 Apple ad from the Think Different campaign.

“People who are crazy enough who think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Article thumbnail courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.

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Recently, together with Wall Street Journal Asia and GoTo Webinar, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence: Asia Digital Map presented two interesting webinars that focus on helping businesses particularly brands on how to use Facebook and Twitter for business. For start-ups who most likely not have the marketing budgets until they receive proper investments to scale up, this may be a good reference for the founders to think about how to utilize these new social media tools for their own businesses.

Facebook for Business: In this webinar, the talk starts with an interesting case study on the Facebook page of the US Embassy in Jarkata. The webinar also explores the tools that businesses can tap on in Facebook to promote brand awareness and do digital marketing: (i) Brand Fan Pages, (ii) 3rd party applications, (iii) Connect and Share features and (iv) advertising across the social graph. It also provide elements on how businesses can develop a strategy via a framework thru 4 processes: (i) engage, (ii) drive action, (iii) add scale and (iv) measure. It also features an interesting case study with KFC in Australia.

Twitter for Business: In this webinar, they draw upon usage of twitter by organizations such as Singapore Airlines, Red Bull SG and Lego SG and discuss various aspects of twitter strategy: (1) customer relations, (2) product promotion & sales, (3) crisis management, (4) event activation, (5) issue advocacy and (6) corporate reputation management.

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Fresh from receiving updates on Nokia’s Ovi app store in Kuala Lumpur last week, this geek is now hearing about the launch of the Intel Atom Developer Program (IADP) in the Intel Developer Forum 2009 in San Francisco. An Intel netbook app store will be launched soon in conjuction with IADP.

From the initial groan of hearing about more app stores, this geek concludes that app stores should be the way forward as we move towards the attention economy. To quote something I heard at Nokia One Connected World conference in Kuala Lumpur last week, “if content is King, then distribution is King Kong!”

Well, our dear friend “King Kong” has to evolve as distribution models have changed drastically in this day and age. As compared to developers trying to market and distribute their apps all by themselves with limited resources, they can now leverage on app stores which seems to be the way forward, if Apple’s app store success is anything to go by. It’s particular visual for me being in San Francisco now as my hotel the Marriott is right across the road facing the now-closed Virgin Music retail store, which incidentally happens to be facing the bustling Apple store.

Apple and the now-closed Virgin stores side-by-side in San Francisco. Taken by the author.

So far it seems, app stores are usually related to one of 2 ‘M’s – music or mobile. The most popular online music store being iTunes and then a slew of app stores popping up now for mobile: Apple’s iPhone app store, Nokia’s Ovi store (currently for Symbian with plans for Maemo), Microsoft’s Windows Mobile “Sky Market” (launching soon), Google’s Android “Market”, and so on. So, this geek shouldn’t really be surprised that Intel is going to launch an app store alongside with the Intel Atom Developer Program which is really for mobility (note the ‘M’) and addressing the netbook segment.

The business opportunity is pretty unique: more than 35 million netbooks have been shipped to date and there hasn’t really been any concerted effort to develop apps for this user segment. While some vendors like Asus have launched their own app stores, it doesn’t seem to have made any traction and now Asus looks to come on board the upcoming Intel app store. I hear that other netbook manufacturers and manufacturers of various atom-based devices in the continuum of devices will come on board too.

Intel’s app store effort is not their foray into the software market as they maintain their focus as a chip maker. Intel maintains that it is an eco-system development effort with some cost recovery at 70/30 revenue share, 70% of all sales going to the developers. The most unique part of this app store is that developers can list component modules for sale, for other developers to fast track their development. Intel plans to manage the revenue share not only between Intel and the developers but between developers and the component developers they work with. Part of this involves a validation process where Intel will not only check that your app installs and uninstalls cleanly, for malwares and other security issues, but also the components that you have used so that component developers will not be shortchanged. However, the validation process will not check if your software is buggy or not.

There is a rating and review system which affects your reputation as a developer, and ties into the IADP where you can earn a black belt. It looks interesting and promising with the component development angle, but the revenue sharing and validation maybe pretty complicated for IADP to manage. As a developer who have been launching your apps on iPhone, Ovi, etc, you should rejoice now with another distribution channel coming your way.

Image courtesy of Brymo.

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If you are starting up a new company that primarily goes from business to consumer, without a big budget in marketing or PR, your best chance for getting your message across will be via social media. Most start-ups or major corporations which adopt social media tools to market and engage their customers in Southeast Asia, are essentially in the IT, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG – for example, mobile phones, computers and gadgets) or online media space. Specifically in this article, we want to focus essentially on the start-ups space and offer 6 essential social media tools that a start-up will need.

The only essential principle for adopting social media is the strategic objective i.e. why are you using these social media tools for your start-up? It can vary from companies to companies. If you are not sure which one to use, at least first register your URLs to create accounts for Facebook Pages, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr first. Do not tap on them until you figure out exactly what you want to do with them. The backlash can be worst if you have started using these tools without an objective. Each tool can be specifically tapped to focus on one specific objective, for example, engaging customers’ feedback, providing documentation on how to use the product and talking about the design and the issue that your product is trying to solve. So, here are our 6 essential social media tools for start-ups:

Blogs – Blogger/Wordpress: You can always start a corporate blog to talk about your product/service. There are many reasons why you should have a corporate blog. Remember the objective. The essential rule is not to plug your product too much. Don’t talk about your company, but focus on the people within the company, or you or your team’s thoughts about the industry in general. Intangible good will generate via corporate blogs usually spread via word of mouth marketing or the blog becomes a must-read for those who are in the industry. Here are two ways: either you do a http://blog.yourcompany.com or register the blogs on blogger or wordpress. If you are greedy, you can grab typepad, tumblr, posterous and many other blogs out there.

Rich Media Content Sharing – Flickr/YouTube: Sometimes, if you want to provide screenshots or do a video documentation of your product or service, a good way to use the distribution channels via rich media content sharing sites. The reason why you put it up in the public channel is not necessary for people to view. As a start-up, since you have relatively low amount of funds, make use the bandwidth of Flickr and YouTube and then utilize the power of social networking tools to share across platforms thru your friends, family and fans. You can always consider alternative means of photo (Picasa, Facebook Photos, Phlook) and video sharing (Vimeo, Viddler, Tudou, Youku).

Social Networks – Facebook/Linkedin/Ning: If you are unable to build a platform to get a community, make use the power of the social networks to spread your message. If you want to have a small social network for specific purposes, create a simple one via Ning. If you want to share via social bookmarking tools, then spread it via shared links in Facebook. Of course, you can create a Facebook group to organize your customers, or better, create a Facebook Page to illustrate the profile of your company, engage your customers, share links on content and also do social advertising within Facebook. The same principle can be applied to Linkedin, MySpace (particularly if you are in the entertainment industry and wants to expand into the US market), China based social networks (51.com, Kaixin001, RenRen – former Xiaonei) CyWorld (Korea) and Mixi (Japan).

Micro-Blogging – Twitter/Plurk: The streaming of information about the latest product from your start-up can be facilitated in real time through the help of micro-blogging, text-based messages with the maximum of 140 characters. Twitter is currently the most popular way of spreading information. Well, if you are in Singapore, you can give Plurk a shot as well, which is micro-blogging with a timeline. However, do not always send out tweets that concerns the company. One advice given by social media experts is that you stem your thoughts as a specialist of the industry and at times, provide tweets regarding the industry as a whole. Make use of auxiliary services such as bit.ly for URL shortening and link tracing to check how many people are clicking thru your tweets to see the site or Twitpic to show pictures via twitter. Alternatively, try Tweet.SG and SGBeat for local presence.

Aggregators – Digg: If the founders within your company get a feature in a notable blogs, a immediate strategy is to submit it to Digg. If you want to turn one of your blog posts, audio podcasts or video with the assistance of viral marketing, the best strategy is to use Digg or other related aggregators that will broadcast your message quickly. Of course, the key of using aggregator is that you have an interesting story to tell. The best way to work with this, is to keep trying different means and ways to send out ideas about the products and services on your company. In Singapore, you can also try using Ping.SG as an alternative.

Forums – HardWareZone, Comsenz or your industry-centric forum: Unlike the West, the bulletin board services (BBS) in the form of online forums are still popular. You should probably post on issues relating to your area of work. The same strategy can work in China (Comsenz) since online forums are more popular than social networks and blogs there as well. The strategy of writing in discussion forums is the same as in what has mentioned in blogs. In fact, in the area of web development, and if your company specialize in creating new plugins and modules for the platform, you might want to get into the discussion forums and chat with fellow developers. Sometimes, someone might take notice of your product and spread the word.

Of course, the tools are always ready for your disposal, but the key is how you use it to maximize publicity and marketing for your start-up. Of course, I have not included analysis tools to track social media presence.

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An inspirational video by the team at Grasshopper.

This was done as part of their massive marketing campaign – FedEx-ing 25,000 chocolate-covered (real) grasshoppers around the US. (The most exotic things I’ve eaten are a guinea pig and ONE LIMB of a scorpion. That’s about the maximum I can handle. No squishy insect/bug/animal brains for me.)

Brilliant campaign. No super high-tech stuff required, snail-mail + a controversial item did the trick. After, just watch the fruits of the labour get blogged, tweeted, retweeted, YouTubed, Facebooked and emailed. Boom. Job done.

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Physically seen by 50 people, virtually watched by 1.7 million viewers. That’s the power of social media. Watch this publicity stunt by a television station in Belgium meant to search for their lead in an upcoming programme on The Sound of Music.

Such an unexpected stunt (by the public) would not have made sense in the past because it is geographically constrained and would only be witnessed by the people around the area. Why spend all that time and effort only to ’spring’ the surprise to an audience of 50-100?

But in this day and age where videos can be broadcasted cheaply and assessed freely around the world, such a stunt’s impact is magnified many times over. Now we can all enjoy it on YouTube, share it with friends and talk about it 5 months or 2 years after it’s over.

Are you using social media to your advantage?

Singapore also had our own mass ’stunts’, though not by corporations.

and

Featured photo courtesy of TheGiantVermin.

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Local entrepreneur, Leonard Lin has been making waves with his very popular game, BattleStations and has even been interviewed twice by us. Recently, he suffered a possible case of media coverage gone wrong.

Leonard was featured in a My Paper article (13th March 2009) that according to him, painted “a very negative” picture that he disputes.

Article in question. Click to enlarge.

Leonard’s comments on the article was sent in an email to MyPaper and also made its rounds on Facebook (you have to be logged in to view the note, otherwise, it’s appended at the end of this article) and has gotten many sympathetic responses. Suppose you are the entrepreneur involved, and you feel that your words were twisted to sensationalize the article, how would you feel?

We are here today not to conclude Leonard’s case but will use this example as a case study for all entrepreneurs who at once hope to get (print) media coverage but are fearful of the ‘final result’. This ‘final result’ is the finished, published article (potentially read by the thousands) and how it makes the entrepreneur and the business look. There are ultimately only two ‘looks’ the entrepreneur can be given: good or bad. And these adjectives are only entered into force when the entrepreneur in question assesses the article him/herself. Basically, it doesn’t matter whether you think the entrepreneur looks good or bad; what matters is whether the entrepreneur thinks the article made him or her look good or bad to readers.

Obviously, in this case, Leonard thinks the article misrepresented him and tried to make a stand against the article. Disregarding the potential success or failure of his campaign, Leonard’s note does two important things that forward his cause:

Personal Voice vs Impassive Journalistic Input

It is personally written, and it helps that he posted his comments from his personal Facebook account, giving a more individual human voice to it. As opposed to the professionally written journalistic input that necessitated a detached, impassive voice, Leonard’s informally-written note speaks directly to readers.

Leveraged On “Automatic” Supporters

By posting on Facebook, Leonard’s note would be broadcasted to his ‘friends’, both virtual and in real life. This pre-selected crowd of target readers would presumably already be on Leonard’s side. And if these people comment on his note, they would most probably be on his side. Strangers or other friends seeing the note for the first time might be influenced by the comments on the note, setting into motion a positive feedback loop.

You may have tried your best to demonstrate that awesome self of yours during the interview, but you still feel like the final article didn’t do you justice, give you enough due credit, simply misquoted you or worse, misquoted you and spun a good story out of it.

Remember that whatever you do in an interview is controllable and up to you. What is not up to you is how the journalist takes the interview to construct a piece on you.

What can you do to mitigate potential negative consequences resulting from less-than-stellar coverage of you? Start communicating with your customers.

1. Have a voice

Write a blog, keep in touch and up-to-date via personal emails. Make sure you start showing who you are early, rather than let the media do it for you (might end up in disaster).

2. Allow customers to contact you

Keep open channels for your customers and readers to contact you. Be it via email, a private message on social networks, Twitter @ tags or direct messages – any mode available helps assure that as many users as possible are able to contact you. Face it, not everyone replies to emails, but send them a private message on Facebook and they reply within two minutes.

3. Accept that the article will not be rescinded

As soon as you accept that the journalist and publisher behind the article will not bother to clarify what went on during the interview, the happier you will be. No matter how many times you email or call them, your ‘bad’ article will not be corrected or noted in the next issue under “Errata”.

4. Attempt to clear your name

If the bucket has already been spilled, use your channels to speak to your customers and readers. This is the time to test the strengths of your communications. Let them know that you think that you have been misquoted and the article you appeared in seemed to have given a misplaced point of view.

The success of your attempts really depends on how much rapport and credibility you have built up over the months and years. This is where points (1) and (2) above are made all the more important. For they need to be done with foresight, and not with hindsight.

Written by Leonard Lin, CEO, Tyler Projects.

A very negative article was written about me in MyPaper today. I would like to make the following clarifications to anyone who read it.

1) I did not say: ““My bottom line is money, not passion like most entrepreneurs.”

I have a strong focus on our bottom-line and I watch our bottom-line very closely (that’s a CEO’s job). I did not say “My bottom-line is money”, that carries a very negative connotation and has a completely different meaning.

I did say I started the business to make money (which should be the objective of any business unless it is a non-profit) and not because of a passion or love for games.

2) “I wanted to be a big-shot investment banker, but I realized I would make more money with this.”

I want to work in an investment bank as an asset manager, not investment banker. I got a job as a risk management analyst but I did not want to be an investment banker.

I’m quite certain I didn’t say I wanted to be a “big-shot”. That’s not my style and it leaves a negative impression.

3) “Their money-making secret? Convincing gamers to pay money for virtual goods such as weapons and action points to get ahead in the game.”

Convincing gamers to buy virtual goods IS the virtual goods model. This is something well known and used by many Free to play MMOs and their players. By labeling it a “money making secret” it sounds as though we are trying to trick and deceive our gamers.

If I did not care about them (our gamers) I wouldn’t stay up till 3am almost every day to help them with their queries and orders.

I also would not have bailed out one player for S$1000 who needed financial aid.

Additionally I do not actively convince or try to sell to anyone that they should buy stuff from our game so that statement wrong.

4) My surname is “Lin”. Not “Lim”

5) The title “Money-driven Gamer” carries a negative connotation.

I wanted to get a bank job to earn a high salary, I decided to focus on my startup because based on my calculations it could make me more. Most people want to be rich; It is NOT the same as being “money driven”.

I’m quite certain I did not express that money was all I cared about in the interview. I care about my staff, I care about our gamers, I care about the games we make.
Personally I feel that the article carries a lot of personal opinion that isn’t mine. I’m not sure if that was intended.

This will certainly decrease our willingness to work with MyPaper on future interviews and press releases.

Editor’s Note: Leonard has given us permission to publish his comments.

We would also very much like to hear from you. Have you, as an entrepreneur, had a bad experience with the press? Been severely misquoted? Are you a journalist and feel like the press has been wrongly painted as the bad guys who seem to give erroneous reports all the time? We need your voice now.

Photo courtesy of mary_gaston22.

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Undecided whether you should follow the blogging trend? Or have you already blindly jumped onto the blogging bandwagon but unsure as to why you should continue? Read on for some tips from our resident contributor, Aaron Chua.

Aaron writes:

Here is what I always tell first time entrepreneurs: start a blog in your area first and aim to attract x number of readers before attempting the startup. To me, blogging is the best way to test your idea as well as is the ideal training ground for your subsequent entrepreneurial journey. Here are five reasons why:

Blogging tests your commitment and fosters discipline

If you want to attract a certain number of readers, you will discover that daily blogging is almost a must. This is where you will know whether you have the necessary discipline to sit down and do the hard work of writing every night. This is where you will stop dreaming about success and start doing real work. If you find that you don’t have the passion or motivation to write every day about your startup area, you are probably not suited as an entrepreneur or your current idea isn’t right for you.

Blogging forces you to gain domain expertise

The most successful blogger picks a niche and dominates that. You will find that to be successful, you really need to be the best in your niche. This means every blog post must be thoroughly researched on. You will start to read books, hunt down relevant blogs, join discussions etc. You will gain more domain expertise through blogging about your startup area.

Blogging forces you to be customer centric from day one

It is easy to talk about being customer centric than to actually live like one. Blogging forces you to think about what your readers really want. It puts you in their perspective. Practice enough of this and thinking from the other side becomes natural. Blogging also forces you to be value adding. You can’t just write nonsensical posts and hope to attract an audience. You will need to be mindful of how your posts add value and that mindset will go a long way in helping you build a better product in the future.

Blogging teaches you about how online marketing works

In order to reach your target of X readers, you will begin to think about reaching your potential audience. You might start off with blatant advertising but you will soon discover that it is not sustainable. You will need to start reaching out to online conversations and add value to them. That is where real marketing begins. You will soon learn of the importance of linking, retweeting, aggregating etc that will be useful to you when you want to market your actual product.

Blogging builds your connections

Through blogging, you will earn new connections. Some of them can be your first customers . Some can be your most vocal supporters, helping you to spread your product around if it is good. Others might give you new ideas or perspectives or connect you to other important people. These connections will be better than any promotion or advertising dollars can bring.

So, if you are a first time entrepreneur, do start a blog first. It is the cheapest test bed for your business. If you cannot make a blog work, you probably cannot make your startup work as well. Have fun blogging!

*Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in the author’s blog.

Photo courtesy of cambodia4kidsorg.

Aaron Chua is a Manager at the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office, Media Development Authority of Singapore, where he heads a S$40M R&D program that supports startups with innovative ideas in the interactive and digital media space. Having founded a startup back in 1998 with moderate success, he is looking to run another one in the near future.

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To start rounding up the series on The Business Of Love. We have a new poll up! (View results of the previous poll: Will you consider using a dating agency?)

Will you enter the dating industry?

Check out the sidebar on the right to vote!

Photos courtesy of Daylight. and HAMED MASOUMI.

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