the(new)mediaslut

A young pro-social media networking chick told me that she was at a PR event last night and a senior, very senior, PR professionial made a starking statement about how PR should handle social media.

“We need to take control of the social media scene,” said the very senior PR professional.

She said to herself, ”humbug!”

I would have respond similarly.

Why do PR need to control the social media scene?

That is so unsocialable.

Do you control your friends to like whims and fancy? While  a minority, but not all do.

Rather, the keyword is not control, its about engagement.

Engagement isn’t just about how PR engage the social media scene, but is also how PR engage social media tools.

Incidentally, this senior PR person just created a Facebook account a few days back.

Malaysia Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad has attributed the huge loses in the recent election to his party neglect of “cyber-campaigning”. 

Wrote Channel NewsAsia,

“We certainly lost the Internet war, the cyber-war,” Abdullah said in a speech to an investment conference.

“It was a serious misjudgement. We made the biggest mistake in thinking that it was not important,” he said.

“We thought that the newspapers, the print media, the television was supposed to be important, but the young people were looking at SMS and blogs.” 

Will Malaysia bloggers want to be friends with a  government who “vilified” them before the elections?

Only time will tell.

Usually, I don’t post about my personal life but when my mother-in-law makes a comment on her perception on media, mainstream or social, it is too hard to resist the temptation.

I was showing my father-in-law some of the Malaysian blogs that covered the recent election.

As they were Malaysians, it wasn’t a surprised that my father-in-law paid quite an attention to what was written on them.

My parents-in-law arn’t the most computer illiterate around and their perception of their sons using the computer only to play games, which is only sometimes true.

My father-in-law was pointing to every word on the screen and reading them aloud. Because of his bad eyesight, I had to increase the fonts on the Firefox browser to +3.

After ever post, he would give his own verbal personal comments about the post.

Here’s when my mother-in-law decided to chiped-in.

“Only the news written on the web is the unedited truth,” my mother-in-law commented in Cantonese.

“The newspaper is too edited by unseen hands that I wonder if that is the true news.”

By the way, Rockybru has a new post on about a mainstream media french kissing new media. The way he describes it, I say its incest!

David Lian, one of the commenter of this blog, has an interesting post about how Gerakan, one of the Malaysian political party that lost heavily in the recent elections, is looking to blogging to respond to criticisms made by other blogs.

David hopes that this doesn’t mean Gerakan resulting to “fake” blogging.

Wrote David,

The number one thing a blog has to be -especially a blog coming from a political party - is authentic, real and about issues, not being critical for the sake of criticism. The thing is: you can blog all you want, but who’s going to read? The people who read blogs aren’t reading it because they support the Opposition (contrary to common perception), they are reading it because they find the person posting makes a fair argument, is worth listening to, and is well-versed in issues surrounding Malaysians.

This blogger agrees with David.

The new communication whiz at Gerakan must not forget that bloggers won’t have much kind words for fake bloggers.

Blogs are just another medium of communications. It will be the words, photos, audio and video that will relay the message to the readers.

Furthermore, starting a blog for communication purposes will also see readers reacting and commenting to the message on the blog. Is Gerakan ready to open comments which can be critical of the posts? Or are they going to just approve comments that their ears want to hear only?

Take for an example Lim Kit Siang DAP’s decision to boycott the PAS Menteri Bersa of Perak which Kit Siang posted.

This lead to blogger Rockybru’s chagrin and resulted in Kit Siang’s clarification of his post.

Kit Siang’s blog is currently unaccessible at the time of this posting though.

It seems that somebody in Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority is working on an report of use of new media in the Malaysian elections and might be referring this blog for materials.

This IDA visitor clicked onto the link to post 915 in this blog in a word document from his C: drive at 724pm on 11032008.

Interestingly, the IDA visitor is using Firefox and is still on Windows XP.

With a resolution of 1024 x 768, this IDA might be using a notebook to access the mentioned post.

Don’t worry, I am not using a tracker to track my visitors but the information was from Sitemeter below:

http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=sm5mediaslut&v=3&r=9&vlr=8&pg=1&d=311 

To that IDA visitor, do you need any help from the(new)mediaslut?

Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional (BN) was reported to have spent RM1million onprint ads in newspapers telling readers to vote for them during the campaigning period.

Malaysians also their dailies flooded with “Vote for BN” ads and it intensified as it got closer to polling day.

Expenditure by BN on TV and radio ads have not been included.

The Opposition, however, was reported to have spend much less. On a given day, the Opposition would only one page ad compared to the 16 pages from BN.

Yet, in Malaysia Elections 2008, they suffered their worst defeats since 1969, losing five states in the process and failed to regain one.

Compared to the elections in 2004, the opposition only managed to win one state.

In Malaysia Elections 2008, the Opposition had five bona-fide bloggers contesting seats against the ruling party, who chose the mainstream media to get their message out.

Bloggers Jeff Ooi won Penang’s Jelutong seat, Tony Pua for PJ Utara in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, NikNazmi for Seri Setia and Elizabeth Wong for Bukit Lanjung.

Ironically, Blogger Badrul Hisham Shaharin lost to a newbie blogger, who took to blogging when the campaigning started.

Except for Jeff Ooi, most of these blogger/politicians hosted their blogs at Blogspot.com and Wordpress.com.

It would have cost them only zero Ringgit to setup their blogs. Yet, they won.

Only Jeff Ooi’s blog is on a hosted domain, but that wouldn’t cost him millions to set up.

Now that the bloggers are in Parliament, they will be tested to prove themselves on how they going to use the medium to the benefit their constituents.

The title of this post was “stolen” from David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly which this blog played a part in the book.

David highlights how big brands are spending millions on mainstream media advertising which they can do now for pittance with new media to reach out to their buyers directly.

This election is an example of the effectiveness new media is in today’s Internet age.

Of course, the mainstream media will start do surveys which will show how readers find them to be more credible than bloggers.

That is so passé.

New media may not be deemed credible but this election has proven its influence.
Influential enough to win votes at no monetary costs.

Is Malaysia going to tighten its grip on the Internet?

I personally doubt so as the boasted Google’s interest to host a data farm in Cyberjaya depends on the government earlier promised not to control the Internet.

Other MNCs might also be turned away from investing in Malaysia if controls were made.

Isn’t the Internet such an animal of contradiction?

There is no doubt that the Malaysian Elections 2008 belongs to the opposition as they have denied the ruling party’s 2/3 majority rule, but only one of the two bloggers won a seat to represent Malaysians in Parliament.

According to Malaysiakini, Jeff Ooi has won the seat of Jelutong in Penang.

It will be interesting to see blogger Jeff Ooi take on the establishment for the next 4-5 years. As a parliamentarian,  it won’t be surprising if his first task is to take on the telcos to come up with measures to counter spam SMS.  Jeff frequently post about how telcos were doing very little to counter spam SMS.

However, Badrul Hisham Sharin, after a recount, lost his bid to represent the people of Rembau in Negeri Sembilan.

His adversary, the son-in-law of the current Prime Minster of Malaysia,  won with a 5,740 majority.

Check out Malaysiakini.com for a Twitter-like update on the the results of the Malaysian Elections.

Jeff Ooi, the blogger contesting in the elections, is not only projected to win the seat in Jelutong, he might be the “government” for Penang as the Democratic Action Party is expected to win majority seats in Penang.

Wrote RockyBru,

Penang (bridge) is falling down, falling down

Welcome to DAP country. I’ve just arrived at the Penang Free School where the decision on Jelutong parliamentary seat will be announced.The whole island is talking about it. Penang is falling. BN is losing big in its chairman’s own home state.

Jeff Ooi described the results in Penang as Tsuamic.

Wrote Jeff,

Makkal sakti! It’s a TSUNAMI result for Penang.

Stay calm. No victory parade. Don’t give any party the reason to declare an emergency.

Stay calm. Stay cool. Stay home.

The other blogger, Kadrul Hisham Shahri, who is up against Khairy Jamaluddin, the son-in-law of PM Abdullah Badawi, seem to have won the Rembau seat with just 114 votes.

Rockybru posted that a recount has been ordered.

It is very interesting what you say against bloggers in the past can come back to haunt you in cyberspace.

The Star wrote,

Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who is contesting the Rembau parliamentary seat, has joined many other general election candidates in the political fray by entering cyberspace to reach out to voters.

Cool, a young Malaysian politician finally sees the value and credibility of the blog-o-sphere.

Wait a minute, wasn’t this Malaysian politician. the son-in-law of current Malaysia Prime Minster Abdullah Badawi, once described bloggers as primates?

maverickysm.blogspot.com reminds us that it was this Khairy who once described Malaysian bloggers as “monkeys”.

Monkey see, monkey do?

As this blogger got Mr Chandra to blame his research assistant for plagiarizing a few blogs on busting social media myths and this blogger was challenged to highlight a few of his own. So here goes.

Myth 1: Social media should be treated like mainstream media, so start spamming them those press releases. 

Ehh.. Bloggers don’t want those press releases. What they want is a voice behind the brand, a blog the speaks out on behalf of the company.

The blog is the medium to create the personal relationship with the brand’s stakeholders. It could be the brand’s customers, partners, investors, etc.

They don’t want to read a press release on the blog, they want to read the issues regarding topics of the press release.

The post should be social,  not formal, where readers and fellow bloggers can get involved in the discussion.

Raise thought provoking issues surrounding the brand, or react to those thought provoking posts that the other bloggers have written about the issues surrounding the brand.

To understand the social media, the brand has to be part of it.

Myth 2: Social media arn’t credible.

I know of a internal PR manager of a MNC who reads this blog and one of his objective is to engage social media. But his response is that he can’t find any blogs credible.

Credible to what and whose standards, I ask. The reply I get is that they should be as credible as mainstream media.

The problem here is that social media do not equate mainstream media, so the standards of credibility can differ.

But what are these standards of credibility that the mainstream media has that social media don’t? Up to now, I have never seen this standards of credibility written on any piece of paper yet.

Ok, maybe social media isn’t as credible as mainstream media to this PR manager standards, but some of them do make better catalysts (Maven, Connectors and Salesperson) of The Tipping Point than mainstream media.  Go read the book to find out what I mean.

Also, social media is more searchable than the mainstream media.

The failure for the later to grasp even Web1.0 makes it a even bigger opportunity for social media to shine on the web.

Because of the variables in Google Pagerank states that a site is regularly updated will have higher Google Pagerank means that if the PR manager works on a few blogger specialising in that area of interests, their adding of more content regarding that area will see their blogs more searchable than ever.

It is easier to search a blog post on the brand dated August 1, 2006 than opposed to get a reprint of a story in the newspaper of the same day.

Myth 3: Public Relations team should be in charge of the social media push

Maybe Social Media involves  communication to the public so therefore it is the Public Relations team’s responsibility to take care of social media.

True, and maybe there are so Public Relations people make the best bloggers in the world.

I feel, however, that the social media  push should be lead by the marketing team and supported by the Public Relations team.

How do you get the brand out into the blog-o-sphere?

Besides text, you also need photos, pictures, graphs, videos. audio.. etc.. These are the creatives that the marketing team would have when they launch a new product.

The Public Relations team job is to put all this togather and create the conversation, not press release mind you.

Ok, I googled some of the text to make sure they are not plagiarized. And I don’t think they are because the words came out from my mind and I didn’t refer it to any other site.

(Update: Princessa has a counter-argument why Google’s PageRank is a blogging basic.)

There is a lot of whining out there about Google dropping blogs’ Pagerank.

Yes, Pagerank is important for you to get those paying blog post ads.

However, bloggers’ focus on Pagerank mirrors that of print publishers today where the perception is that the print rag is writing for the advertisers, not for its readers.

Maybe in the region, that is the only way for print rags to survive, but it doesn’t mean bloggers have to go down the same route.

Go back and ask why you have started a blog.

Did you start it because you want to share your daily experiences and thoughts with the world?

What makes blogs interesting and different from traditional media is that it gives readers, like me, a very unique viewpoint to certain issues and experiences.

Whether if it is general news, reviews, etc, I want to read what the individual experiences and the opinions are.

Bring the readers into your world.

That’s why Xiaxue’s blog pull the readers, not because she is the best blogger in the world, but because the blog let readers look into her world.

MrBrown’s blog is also interesting because you get to read what it is like for parents to bring up kids in Singapore and also the problems and highlights of looking after one with autism. And of course his humourous take on Singapore politics.

Yes, the world is voyeuristic, but that doesn’t you can’t take advantage of it.

The strategy should be how you get more readers to your blog so that the advertisers will be interested in it, not how to get advertisers to your blog.

Yes, because Google Pagerank is a formula and that means you can exploit the variables to increase your Pagerank.

But at end of the day, it is your content that pulls in the readers, followed by the advertisers.

The current Malaysian elections have raised one of its more controversial issues ever.

Jeff Ooi, the Malaysian blogger, who is running for a seat in Penang, Malaysia, has highlighted that he has copies of letters that showed Motorola only extended its stay in Penang because it was offered a RM1billion police radio project.

In return, Motorola would invest RM350 million in research at the plant in Penang.

Jeff calls RM1billion for RM350million deal as exchanging “rice for sweet potatoes”, a Hokkien term used to describe an unfair deal.

Wrote Jeff,

For the 2008 version “exchanging rice for sweet potatoes’, we gave Koh Tsu Koon a 48-hour ultimatum to clarify his role in giving away RM1 billion of taxpayers’ money, and in return, to get an American company to stay put in Penang, packaged in a RM350 million “reinvestment”.

Failing which, the company will pull out from Penang, and withdraw totally from Malaysia as a form of “necessary business strategic response” to the market environment in the country.

….We did what we had we had to do, but Malaysiakini beat us to us by one day. The companies that Tsu Koon helped are Motorola and Comintel, Malaysiakini reported. We confirmed it. Read on.

This raises the question for Motorola. Was Motorola selected for the RM1billion project because of its quality products, or was it selected because of a political reason?

I wonder what the reaction of competitors who bid for the same project would be.

(Image from blog.simplyjean.com)

Suspected JI terrorist leader, Mas Selamat, made a “toilet break” last Wednesday. Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Wong Kan Seng, apologised for the escape but a Singapore blogger highlighted the coffee talk shop about why they arn’t so forgiving of the Home Team leader’s honest mistake.

The minister’s two million dollar salary per annum seems to be the greatest source of discontent.

Popular blogger. Mr Wang of mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com wrote,

It is a very disappointing day for me, to realise how inept and useless the Singapore government has become. To think that we pay the world’s highest ministerial salaries to our political leaders. Wong Kan Seng is paid two million dollars per year and he cannot even keep an arrested man under proper lock and key. A terrorist has escaped, for goodness sakes.

I think Wong Kan Seng should resign. Terrorism knows no borders, and Wong Kan Seng’s mistake potentially endangers the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people - not just in Singapore, but in other countries as well. All over the world, elected politicians have been pressed to resign, for much less serious matters.

Mr Wang continued to describe that the greater escape artist might have been Mr Wong. Mr Brown shares the same sentiment while Mr Bean is still on a holiday.

Wrote another popular Singapore blogger, Mr Brown,

Anyway, Singaporeans need not worry we will lose any million-dollar senior talents like ministers, in the light of this debacle. They won’t be asked to resign or even take a pay cut. We are not like those free-wheeling and chaotic governments from Western democracies that make their leaders accountable for every little thing.

Sorry is the hardest word to say and a newly formed blog, Nobody Writes, crucified Mr Wong Kan Seng’s facial expression when he apologised for the escape.

Nobody wrote,

My question to you, Mr. Minister: Why are you smiling when you were relating the ’someone suspicious on the roof’ incident?

Personally, this is a matter of grave concern and there is nothing to laugh about. What message is the Minister trying to bring across? Its not a joke, mind you!

There’s a video link on the above blog and some bloggers are even starting to say that the sorry was scripted.

The two million dollar minister must be hoping right now that there is a million dollar man out there who can capture the escaped suspected JI terrorist soon even as Singapore enters the 7 days mark of his escape.

I was reading R. Chandrasekar’s contributed piece on the “Social media marketing myths debunked” and sad to say the article is nowhere near original.

Wrote Chandrasekar,

Myth no. 1: “Social media is free”

This is true, but only to a certain extent. Anyone or company can join Facebook or Flickr, but in order to promote your company and still do so for free, you would have to do it after company hours. For some smaller companies, this may still be possible but as your set up gets bigger, you may not be able to find the time to keep up with task Also, how would you know which site is better than the others?

Wrote The SEM Blog on December 4, 2007,

Myth 1 - Social Media is Free

This is true, to a point. Anyone or company can join Facebook or Flickr but in order to promote your company and still remain free you would have to do it after company hours. For some of the more smaller companies out there this is possible but as your company gets bigger and bigger you may not have the time. Also, how do you know which site is better than the others?

Wrote Chandrasekar,

Myth no. 3: “Only tech-related stories stand a chance”
Websites such as Digg have started out with such stories as a main focus, but that was a long time ago. However, the one question at the back of many marketers’ minds is whether there really is no room for other types of content.

At the beginning, most stories on Digg, one of the most well-known social media websites, were tech-related. But despite its shift in focus, such sites are still receiving a lot of exposure at this point. Nonetheless, the sites’ early success has led some webmasters to assume that there is no room for other types of stories.

Wrote theratingblog on Jan 30, 2008,

Myth#7: “Only tech-related stories stand a chance”

Websites such as Digg have started out with such stories as a main focus, but that was a long time ago. Is there really no room for other types of content?

Origin: At the beginning, most stories on Digg, the most well-known social media website, were tech-related and actually, these are still receiving a lot of exposure at this point so that some webmasters assume that there is no room for other types of stories.

Reality check: Things have changed and any type of story can make the frontpage nowadays (it was even possible in the past, with a little work), as long as it is appreciated by the community and as long as people vote for it.

In the rules of Social Media, when you come across an interesting post and would like to post it up, the blogger copies a piece of the quote and links it back to the original blog post.

Give credit where credit is due!

It is very easy to check for plagiarism with Google, just copy the whole phrase and see if it turns up on an another site.

The problem with plagiarism is that now I wonder if R.Chandrasekar, one of the founder of Velvet Penguin, really understands the social media space.

However, if Chandrasekar can prove that he is a victim of plagiarism, I will gladly remove this post!

The attack on bloggers has, predictably, began.

With Malaysian bloggers running for state and parliament in the upcoming elections, especially as the Opposition, that attack on bloggers from their opponents have started.

Wrote Jeff Ooi who is running in the elections,

My opponent has started to attack me and question the validity of bloggers in general.

On Page A14 of Guang Ming Daily (Feb 27, evening edition), my opponent whipped all bloggers in a broad sweep by stating that “bloggers hide behind computers and live in a virtual world”.

He said “people could only imagine but could never feel the sincerity (of bloggers) beyond the computer”.

Jeff countered by highlighting that it is this virtual world, called the Internet, that he managed to raise RM85,000 in 11 days to fund his campaign.

Would people who could never feel the sincerity (of bloggers) beyond the computer but can only imagine it go all out to donate such a huge amount to a blogger’s election campaign?

Strangely, Barrack Obama is also using a blog to spread his campaign messages for the US presidential elections.

The irony of this is that many still use blogs as an online dairy to update their friends and relatives on what they are doing in real life.

One young executive once told this blogger. “I started blogging so that I can let my parents in India know what I am doing in Singapore. This pacifies them as they have wild thoughts that I could be drug runner in this island state.”

Lack of sincerity or the lack of understanding of why bloggers blog?

Let the battles begin!

You may heard the term from print to screen where books are turned into movies and it seems journalists from Singapore’s mainstream media are looking at social media for their source of the story.

It is, therefore, even more important for the brand protectors, like the PR and the corporate comms, to constantly be aware of the going ons of the social media scene.

It all started with postings on two SPH forums at omy.sg and asiaone.com about how the forum member won her case against Nokia to refund her the full amount of a Nokia phone which she bought stopped working after a few days.

Unable to get the mobile phone repair, the forum member asked for a refund and got it through Singapore’s Small Claims Tribunal.

However, when the forum member called Nokia to check on the refund, Nokia office replied they did not receive any notice from the Small Claims Tribunal.

So what did the forum member do?

She got the courts to call in the Repo Man.

Wrote XiaoYun at OMY.sg on Feb 18 2008,

I then applied for WSS (Writ of Seizure and Sale) the next day. An appointment date was scheduled on 11 Feb 2008.

I accompany the bailiff officer to Nokia HQ. Nokia was then given two options by the bailiff officer. One was to make settlement and the other one was let the bailiff officer to sticker their movable assets.

They finally woke up and agree to make payment. By then, they got to pay $1,018.43 instead of $778.

The forum post ended in Singapore’s popular blog aggregation site, Tomorrow.sg on Feb 22, 2008.

The Straits Times posted a teaser on its online site today to highlight that the Nokia incident will hit the pages of the print papers on Feb 25, 2008, with the headline “Nokia forced to cough up more than $1,000 over faulty phone“.

Wrote Alfred Siew of The Straits Times,

EARLIER this month, Ms Tan Geok Hoon marched into Nokia’s office, brandishing court documents and threatening to seize the assests of the cell-phone giant.

A bailiff stood at the side of the 43-year-old sales manager, ready to reposess the company’s things.

Ms Tan was enforcing a small claims court decision that ordered the world’s largest cellphone maker to pay her $778 for a faulty cellphone she bought last year.

The moment, which Ms Tan recalled recently, marked the culmination of a seven- month David-versus-Goliath battle.

The story of one woman’s fight against a mighty firm made its rounds in several online forums last week, casting the spotlight on how the world’s top phone maker handled unhappy customers.

This shows that the mainstream media are reading forums and blogs for a story source and I believed this isn’t the first time that it has happened.

However, I went through Nokia.com.sg Press Center and failed to find any official respond to the incident.

Neither could I find any Nokia response in the forums.

The question here for Nokia is that while the company promotes its mobile phones as a blogging tool, what type of respond mechanism does the company have when it comes to addressing the social media scene?

Or do they wait for it to be blown up in the mainstream media before they respond to them?

This blog recently wrote about Jeff Ooi use of his blog as a medium to collect funds for his upcoming campaign in the Malaysian elections.

The aim of the post wasn’t to advertise Jeff Ooi’s call for donations but to highlight the use of new media to reach out to Jeff’s electorate.

Cowboy Caleb, a fellow Malaysian, has gone a step further to make use of Singapore’s popular blog portal, Tommorrow.sg, to call for fellow Malaysians to donate to Jeff Ooi’s campaign.

Wrote Cowboy Caleb,

To Malaysians out there, you know deep down in your heart that something is terribly wrong with your motherland. Do close your eyes and shut your ears because you are not in Malaysia. Your brothers and sisters are suffering and being marginalized while the corrupt grow fat and swollen off the blood, sweat and tears of the poor.

Cowboy’s actions might mean well for Jeff, but it might also lead to the requirement of Tomorrow.sg to be registered as a political site with Singapore’s Media Development Authority.

From MDA’s Internet Industry Guidelines:

9. Content Providers do not need to register with MDA, unless their web pages are primarily set up to promote political or religious causes.

Registration entails giving particulars about the website. Registration does not mean the promotion of political or religious causes is not allowed.

It merely serves to emphasize the need for the content providers to be responsible in what they say.

This is important, given the multi-racial, multi-religious nature of our society.

However, there could be some question marks if MDA would request that Tomorrow.sg be registered as the post in question is a call to support a candidate in a Malaysian election.

Still, by promoting a Malaysian politician, does this also mean that Tomorrow.sg is also open to promote political parties in Singapore or from the world?

Cowboy might argue that Tomorrow.sg was never set up to promote political or religious cause, but the same argument was delivered by Sintercom and it was still forced to register the site.

From Singapore-Window.org,

Sintercom has been operating for eight years, and its alternative forums to Singapore’s prevailing political orthodoxies have been held out, even by the government, as evidence that Singapore’s strict political culture has been relaxing. Singaporean ministers are known to have participated in Sintercom’s polite and mostly anonymous debates. As Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has reminded Singaporeans, they live in a “funky” place. And he quotes Time magazine when doing so.

That was two years ago and the Internet was booming. But an election now is looming in the republic, and it seems the government is taking no chances, despite its stated aspiration that Singapore become a media and information hub for the region.

Is this blogger asking you to take down the post at Tomorrow.sg?

No. This blogger is just concerned that Tomorrow.sg will be tasked to be registered and registering also means that you, Cowboy Caleb, as one of the editors of Tomorrow.sg would have to register your identity with the authorities, an identity that you have guarded its anonymity to requesting that fellow friends do not post photos of you online.

Also, this blogger hopes Tomorrow.sg need not have to register with MDA either.

When it comes to social media, most companies leave it to the communication department or PR agency, but should Social Media be limited to these two groups only?

Kami Huyse for Communication Overtones twittered that she was facing problem with her HP laptop and the concerned twitters were quick to give her advice on what to do next.

However, Kami knew she had to have a new laptop fast. So who she called?

Richardatdell.

Wrote Kami,

I called RichardatDell for a recommendation….

…Since I needed a computer immediately, Richard suggested I consider getting one from Best Buy.  The retailer is now carrying Dell computers.  If I ordered one from the Web it would take a week, and I didn’t have a week.

Richard took it a step further and WENT to his local Best Buy to see what they stocked.  He called me from the sales floor. Simply stated, he went above and beyond the call of duty. It is part and parcel of what I have advocated for in using public relations tools like social media to enhance customer service.

I now have a Dell Inspiron 1420 sitting on my desk.

Kami’s post also looked at how customer service can use blogs to improve their customer service.

The post reminded me of Malcolm Gladwells’ The Tipping Point which he described the three groups of people that could be a catalysts to a business.

They are the Mavens, the information specialists that everybody will go to for advice.

Then there is the Connector, the people who link people to other people or brands.

This is followed by the Salesperson,  the people who persuade you to get things done or things brought.

In today world of mash-ups, an individual can be all three but most of the time, they are often independent of each other.

The blog content engine has made RichardatDell a maven of Dell’s computers and laptops and that is why Kami went to him.

Can you at your finger tips name a HP blogger?

You could also described RichardatDell a salesperson in the way he “persuaded” Kami to get a Dell notebook. It wasn’t a hardsell, but it was the personal touch that sold the notebook.

Is there a Connector here? Kami’s the Connector. She connected her reader about social media and bloggers like RichardatDell.

As a blogger, what is your role? Can you identify yourself as one of the three?

(Another Update: Cowboy Celeb has highlighted in his blog that the disappearance of the link was because he was doing a server migration.

This blog entry has never asked for the blogger to take down the post or claim credit to the apparent take down of the post.

This post only highlighted the blog and the comments it received.

Although this blogger feels it is a wrong view to have on women, this blogger also respects Cowboy Celeb’s view that Yuhui has the right to describe “women who dress provocatively, prostitutes” on his blog.)

(Update: Yuhui has taken out the post “A prostitute takes the bus” from his blog.)

Sex sells, but it can also hurt your online reputation too especially if you put your name to that blog.

A Singapore blogger, Yuhui who apparently works in an advertising agency, took photos of a girl wearing a sexy back outfit and titled the post as “A prostitute takes the bus“.

The post was initially linked by Singapore’s popular Cowboy Celeb but it was subsequently taken down.

From Ping.sg,

A Singapore prostitute takes the bus

A Singapore prostitute takes the bus - I can’t believe Yuhui (who has been blogging since forevar) has started a sex blog. More power to you, mate.Copyright © 2008 Cowboy Caleb.

The “power” take down was probably due to the negative comments the post received.

To the commentators, it seems that in one stroke of the post, the blogger has stereotyped ladies in sexy clothings as prostitutes.

Wrote DK,

How did you know she is a prostitute?

You mean by wearing like that, she is a prostitute?

Wrote themusicbox blogger,

How is she a prostitute? Did she have that word written on her face? Or did she give you a name card? There are lots of people wearing lesser at the pubs. Are they all prostitutes too?

Besides highlighting the risk of defamation, one Singapore blogger also questioned if Yuhui had outraged the modesty of the lady in the photo since the bottom up photos looked as if an up-skirt shots were being attempted.

Wrote Majulah Singapura,

It is interesting to see that bloggers are now getting into the act with their camera phone.

But when I saw those photos, the first that hits me is the legality of those photos. Is it okay to shoot someone from the bottom climbing onto the bus?

Isn’t it an upskirt - a rather escalating problem in Singapore nowadays with the advent of technological devices.

I am not sure if the women friends of Yuhui will support him on this.

If I were a woman friend of Yuhui, the particular post shows Yuhui stereotyping of women in sexy dress as prostitutes.

It is almost akin to blaming a rape victim for the crime because she was dressed too sexy.

I am glad that fellow Singapore bloggers have gone up in “blog” arms to tackle such stereotyping of women.

One of Malaysia’s most popular blogger, Jeff Ooi of jeffooi.com, will be running for a political seat under the opposition banner DAP and his joining has added a new element to traditional media, the new media.

Jeff is said to be running for the seat in Penang which recently saw Intel possibly moving away from Penang to another state in Malaysia.

Jeff has introduced a very interesting flash based widget, from sprout, to update readers on news and funds donated for his election campaign.

Interested donors can also provide funds to Jeff’s campaign via Maybank2u or Paypal.

The only problem which Jeff has encountered with Paypal is to “repatriate money into Malaysian banks yet”. Maybe ebay might be able to provide some help here and use it to show Malaysians how they can use Paypal in Malaysia and at the same time promote ebay in Malaysia.

Jeff is looking to RM100,000 from readers of the blog and so far has received a total of RM13,000 as of Feb 18, 2008 1255hours.

Also interestingly is the use of a viral video on YouTube that shows DAP as the voice for all Malaysians.

Jeff’s result in the election will be important as it will show how much influence would new media have for the opposition DAP as there are only 1.1 million broadband subscribers in a country where the population is about 24 million.

Jeff’s latest post on his election donations can be found here.