@Unique Frequency: Here’s why businesses are not using social media, yet!
Unique Frequency wrote in his blog that a possible reason why businesses are not using social media is because of bloggers like XiaXue.
Wrote Unique Frequency,
Is that going to inspire confidence in them and convince them that Singapore’s social media scene is worth investing in? For better or worse, Xiaxue is arguably the public face of Singapore’s blogosphere, and those looking at social media for the first time may not look beyond that to find the others in the long tail actually contributing and adding value to the social media scene. Is it any wonder businesses in Singapore don’t seem to take blogs seriously?
In the real working world, the reasons why businesses are not using social media is because they really don’t know how to use it and how to engage bloggers like Xiaxue.
The money decision makers in these businesses have worked on mainstream media for past 20 years or more. In dealing with mainstream media with so long, they feel they can control the messaging. Mainstream media, with pressure from advertising dollars, have evolved to make it a fertile ground for such control to exist.
However, I have to add that there are some mainstream media that have resisted such forms of control and they should be saluted. Control itself doesn’t have to come from advertisement, it can be in the form of government or self-censorship. When you mainstream media is told by the government that it should be a mouth piece for them, that too is control of the message.
In the last five or less years came blogs or the social media scene. All of a sudden, the end-user is given the medium, at almost no cost, to air their opinion and their experiences to the world. In this short space of time, a localised write-up gets a globalised airtime.
The “business” problem with social media is that their opinion and experiences are honest. Honesty, sometimes come with good write-ups, but honesty can also result in very critical view of it. It sounds strange, but its true. The big companies, who have 20 years of experiences in dealing with mainstream media, are finding it hard to engage such honesty.
Can bloggers be swayed by advertising money? Maybe, but the beauty of social media itself is that the “social circle”, aka readers of the blog, will judge for themselves if the blog is worth following anymore.
With regards to Xiaxue’s post, I still say it should be celebrated because it highlights many reasons why social media is starting to gain popularity.
But to keep things short, what Xiaxue’s post has re-enforced that while social media is localised, it is also globalised, and this is why businesses should start looking at how they can engage social media quick or miss the boat.
On a tiny island of Singapore which is represented by a mere dot on the globe comes a opinion of a person who thinks fake iPhones from China is so much better than the ones from Apple.
Before Internet, the only medium Xiaxue would have is her mouth which she can only air her opinion to her friends at a local cafe.
After Web2.0, Xiaxue localised views of iPhone is now discussed globally. This can be done only because Web2.0 gives you the tools to create a video show and upload it onto the Internet.
Before Internet, Xiaxue might have to send VHS tapes to various broadcasting companies, who might most likely turn down such content, for a glimmer of hope that it gets broadcast in Singapore.
After Web2.0, the whole world can view it with just a click of a link. Or they could just cut and paste the link onto email, IM or embed the video onto their own blogs. They need not have to exchange VHS tapes to view it.
This is the power of Web2.0 and we can use it to highlight to businesses why it has, today, such a powerful medium of influence!
Great post, I love how this conversation. I think you’re absolutely right. Of course there are a lot of other factors as well like control, lack of measurement, lack of knowhow etc that are working against the use of social media right now.
By the way I also meant businesses using blogs as in having a blog themselves, not necessarily purely blogger outreach.
And again, I agree with you entirely that the democratisation of media allows someone like Xiaxue helps globalise Singapore (and our social media). That’s one of the fantastic benefits of the new web2.0 world. All I’m saying is that there’s 2 components to it: the actual event or execution of spreading the word and the message itself. First part’s great, second part (in this specific case)…. probably not.
[…] The community at Gizmodo noted her video and Apple-elitist have jumped all over her video which mocked the iPhone. They spoke of how “Blond” she was, and attacked her bimbo-type personality. However, the point that we are generally missing is that Xiaxue has a point. The iPhone is difficult for long nailed girl to use. And the China fake-iPhone is quite comparable in terms of functionaliy. […]
[…] In case you don’t read the comments, the (new) Media Slut wrote an excellent post in reply to this post which you should check out. I think it’s a really good conversation that’s […]
[…] The community at Gizmodo noted her video and Apple-elitist have jumped all over her video which mocked the iPhone. They spoke of how “Blond” she was, and attacked her bimbo-type personality. However, the point that we are generally missing is that Xiaxue has a point. The iPhone is difficult for long nailed girl to use. And the China fake-iPhone is quite comparable in terms of functionality. […]
Respectfully, I must disagree with pretty much everything you have written.
The example of Xiaxue’s post will do almost nothing to demonstrate to business leaders the power of social media. The business standards for making a wise media investment are very different from the standards you are promoting. As I continue my research at SMU, the business response to social media seemshighly consistent across countries. I would describe the response as, “Don’t ask me to fund your on-line experiment.”
Business leaders are spot on.
While personal and societal adoption may be impacted by governmental oversight and policy, as today’s Straits Times argued, business adoption is an entirely different issue. Until social media early adopters and advocates learn to think and speak the language of business–which in an economic downturn means measurement and ROI–then business will continue to reject our advances.
If we are serious about 2.0 for business, then we need to move away from these popularized myths such honesty pushing business decision makers away. I would love to see reliable data to support such assertions. And that really gets at the heart of the matter….Until social media advocates begin to make data-driven recommendations aimed at improving the strategy execution of a specific business, then all this talk will simply prove to the business community that we have little to offer them.
Ironic, when we pause to think about it, isn’t it?
@Michael and Daryl: Another great point to note, blogs like you post comments and both the blogger and commenter can agree to disagree.
MSM, if you send in an email to disagree, it might not even have a respond or gets published in print.
I have been working with some PR folks on engaging social media and it has been hard getting the clients to get a sign off on some projects.
But that’s the challenge. However, most of them haven’t asked me to show them the data yet. The usual questions I get are:
Q1: Are they credible?
A: Some are and some aren’t. @ the same time, some are influential, some arn’t. Its our job as the social media to recommend the bloggers they should be engaging.
Q2: What if these bloggers write a bad review?
A: Respond and respond accordingly. Case in point, Nike. When Nike launched an online campaign where customers can design their own shoes, a Noah Peretti decided to put the word SWEATSHOP. Nike said no, but the argument went on and forth on why the word is a slang not a word..
Noah exchanged this emails with 10 friends and so did they.
Nike has the right to say no to Noah, but what Nike should have focused on was explaining to Noah about its stand on sweatshops.
There are also a lot of things that some PR are doing wrong with social media. Most of the slides I have seen on new media last only one slide. Yes, they can create blogs, podcast, etc, but what’s next? In fact, for some clients I have suggested to them not to start a blog as it is time consuming, but to use different approaches that engages the bloggers.
And this goes beyond just sending them a press release or bring them to an event..
[…] The Xiaxue iPhone Fiasco - Unique-Frequency: Xiaxue’s iPhone Fiasco: Entertaining But Negative For Singapore’s Social Media Scene - the(new)mediaslut: @Unique Frequency: Here’s why businesses are not using social media, yet! […]
I really dont know what to think. You see I have very reliable information that tells me that certain firms, not through their local reps at least do regularly work with our local blogging community. One of them are the brotherhood ppl, as you know from their travelogues, they only ride BMW motorcycles and report using Nokia Communicators and tell the time using Sunto watches - why I wonder? And I am not even mentioning their bicycle squad that uses only Klein bikes and what abt their Kendo groups who regularly use Hasegawa carbon fiber shinais - you will be very surprised media slut if you cared to look around you, how some ppl in the net are milking the system dry
@ media saint, no wonder I can’t find any puddles in the system…. Show me the milk?
Hi,
I must say this is a great article. It manages to explore many areas which con’t to dog not only SM, PR and communications & marketing etc. IMHO its a big mistake to put across the archetypal image of XX and Mr Brown as the only Singaporean Icons. For firms looking for opportunities to project online this means they are likely to give Singapore amiss.
I believe media saint when you mentioned the BP, you are referring to their travelogues. They generally score high hits over 40K to 50K at one swipe, so it make alot of sense for principals to partner with them. However, I understand they dont want to deal with local reps for some reason as it has something to do with having to transact in real money or paying taxes, that is the gist of it, those ppl only deal exclusively with monopoly money. I do however feel in the case of the BP there could be some ethical issues, as we are never really certain whether they are genuine users or simply carriers, so if one reads many of their travelogues where these products and services are mentioned, its usually couched in ambigious terms, this I feel would benefit from some online regulation.
God Bless +