I’m excited to announce that we have iTwin coming on board as a sponsor for Startup Asia Singapore. We had announced that the first 50 registrants would receive a somewhat geeky gift (in fact, we’re also offering it to the next fifty registrants as well) and here it is, as promised.

iTwin is a reinvented form of thumbdrive that allows secure and wireless file-sharing between two computers anywhere in the world. With an iTwin you do not need to hand your files over to a third-party server. They stay with you and are shared PC to PC.

For its innovative design and engineering, iTwin was recently feted by CES and Popular Science. Some benefits and features:

• Easy to use (plug and play)
• No limits to amount of files you can share
• Remotely edit shared files
• No subscription pricing
• Compatible with Windows and Mac OS X

Ok, I love iTwin already. How may I get one?

Remember what we said about showing some love to the first 100 early birds? All you really need to do is to sign up as soon as possible.

For the 50+ awesome people who have already signed up on the first day, you will be receiving your iTwin along with after-party tickets for ZOUK.

If you want to know what you’ll be in for at Startup Asia Singapore, read the detailed agenda here or our initial announcement here. Expect us to ask tough questions live on stage. And that includes iTwin’s co-founder, Lux Anantharaman, who will have a coffee chat with us on day one, February 2, 2012.

Feed your curiosity. Register here now. For startups who want a booth, use discount code ‘booth40′ to enjoy a 40 percent discount. This discount code will expire at the end of this month (hurry).

Not only did people meet up to have fun, they also remembered to give. This year, Twestival Singapore had chosen to raise funds for the local non-profit organisation Children-At-Risk Empowerment Association (CARE Singapore), to help them in their mission of changing lives of youths at-risk.

Our local talent, Jack and Rai, enchanting the audience with their performance

Emcee announcing lucky draw winners and a large, blue bird @kueh_lapis beside

An awesome shot of the happy winner of  a 4-week pole-dancing course

@mikefoong and @sm7catscan with unique headwear

Thanks to the team who brought to you Twestival Singapore this year!
View more pictures on the slideshow below.

All photos courtesy of CaKe Images LLP

Check out #twsg11 to see all the fun the attendees had at Twestival Singapore. If you hadn’t been able to join us today, don’t be disappointed; be sure to join us next year for another round of fun, laughter, beer and prizes!

How did Twestival go in your country? We are so curious to hear your experience – share it with us!

More posts on Twestival Singapore 2011:

• How Twitter and Twestival Help CARE Singapore
• Twitter, Twestival & Banners Ads #TWSG11
• Twestival Singapore: 24 March at TAB! #Twsg11

Connect on Facebook:

Singapore based start-up, Artyii, is a sales and social platform for emerging Asian artists to sell, learn and network with the art circle which includes gallery owners, art schools, independent art groups and curators. The site also provides a dedicated suite of services such as payment, logistics, framing, liaison, escrow for Asian artists.

Since its founding in July 2010, Artyii has over 1000 quality art pieces and about 400 artists on board. To maintain high standards, artists are added to the network through an “invite only” basis. Artists also have their work vetted through a panel of art professionals before joining Artyii. The tough selection process rejects about 40 percent of the artists who applied.

Quality is instilled within the network: Through Artyii, some artists have already been formally picked up by galleries and have gone on to sell their works at art shows.

“Both of us love art – we saw art around us and have peers in art schools that are having difficulty selling their work and getting formal representation. My Co-founder, Cai Lin, comes from an artistic family while I appreciate good poetry and painting.  When we were tasked to come up with a business plan as part of a class requirement, we thought, “Why not?” SPRING Singapore was supportative of our plan and before we knew it, we were on our way,” said Shannon Lim, CEO and Co-founder of Artyii when asked on what inspired the team to start Artyii.

Artyii charges a low markup of 25% per sales transaction (as compared to traditional galleries). Besides a below average cut, artists are happy because they get to set their own prices based on certain parameters set by Artyii.

To cater for Asia’s language diversity, Artyii is also available in Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia and Chinese. The start-up is certainly bridging a gap in the market. It would be exciting to witness Artyii’s journey to become a giant Asian art portal in the near future. Kudos for promoting Asian art.

Be sure to impress your co-workers with your Adobe Acrobat skills after going through Adobe’s engaging learning journey at the Adobe PDF Guild.

Specifically, the guild aims to help users to understand how they can create high impact communication with rich content, driving tighter collaboration and productivity across their personal or corporate work.

As an incentive to motivate users to participate in the learning quest, members can gain reward points through their activities and exchange them for attractive gifts such as laptop stickers, thumb drives, T-shirts or possibly even the software. The quest is broken into five sections, where users may expect to learn document conversion and collaboration, security, creating dynamic forms and documents containing rich media that will help make communication more dynamic and impactful.

If you have not gotten started with Adobe PDF and would like to try it for 30 days for free, download the trial here.

Here’s a piece of great news for the narcisstic ones who enjoy changing their profile pictures every alternate days: Thanks to Flip Video, a shoot-and-share HD camcorder, there is now an application on Facebook “Flip your Profile” that makes profiles more engaging by empowering users to upload videos as their Facebook profile picture (instead of a static one).

Launched on 14 Feb 2011 in conjunction with DDB Singapore and Text 100 Singapore, the app has garnered more than 2.5 million profile video views, with an average of 5 profile videos being uploaded every minute – the statistics look fantastic. The fact that it is produced in Singapore makes it quite a feat in the Asia digital scene. Many Facebook users are flocking to try out this world’s first profile video option that is presented free for all.

It seems like this is a great tool for celebrities and businesses to engage with their fans on a personal level – Brands like Renault Columbia, Veet Argentina, Danette Paris, Standard Chartered, Singapore Kindness Movement, Jajoop Thailand and have since upgraded their Facebook profile pictures to profile videos. Asian celebrities like Nat Ho, Kevin Lester, Jonathan Leong, and Tabitha Nauser and The Post-It Guy (from Things we Forget) have also utilized the tool.

To get a video profile, there are only two steps to follow:

1) Select your browser and download the plugin, install and restart browser

2) Connect with your profile

However, only users who have the plugin installed will be able to view video profiles. This provides users a stronger motivation to pass it on to their friends so they, too, would be able to view the videos and then share it with even more people. For those who are interested in flipping their profiles, get started at FlipSG now.

Here’s a confession: Even though I do chose to remain Google as my browser homepage, the first thing I unconsciously do is type “fa” on my address bar. Tell me I am not the only one?

“Being the 4th largest country in the world, with a population of about 238 million – it isn’t a surprise to know that Indonesia is the second largest market for Facebook and third largest for Twitter. We are a trending topic creator,” said Andi Primaretha, a social media consultant at Virtual Consulting.

Because the prices of mobile phones and contracts are so cheap in the country, mobile phones are more widely used than personal computers, particularly the most popular set being the Blackberry with about 2 million users in the country alone, out of 12 million worldwide. It is easy to access to social networks on the go, and this trend has been picking up rapidly. Currently, fewer than 20% of the population are connected to the Internet.. and can you imagine what the impact would be when social media gets even hotter in Indonesia?

“Collectivism culture in Indonesia has made its people to gather in several occasion and medium. We love to care about happens to other people – it could be our friend, classmate or colleagues. Marketers utilize social media to create community brand on Facebook and people in Indonesia are willing to click “like” button easily to gather with the people similar to them.”

Popular Indonesian Pages

Chocolatos

A local snack from Garuda Food. They increase engagement with their audience by featuring a fan weekly. Not only do they use the page as a channel to communicate with their customers, they also encourage them to participate by putting up pictures of themselves with the snack, making them advocates as they develop loyalty towards the brand.

Dahsyat

A music program dedicated to Indonesian songs. They have more than three million fans on their page. One reason why it is popular because they are the no. 1 TV station in Indonesia and the program is popular among average youths in the country. By providing information useful to the audience, (in this case, up-to-date entertainment) there is value-add and a compelling reason for people to want to be constantly updated.

2010 was a good year for Penn Olson and we are glad to be able to connect with so many readers. And this year, we’re certainly looking to connect with more. If you have ever been curious to know how the blog name came about, Willis answers.

We also look forward to any feedback to improve Penn Olson in 2011. Let us know how we can improve under the comment section. Enjoy the infographic!

You can click on the infographic and the links will open in a new tab.

A year is coming to a close again. How was 2010 for you, and what resolutions have you planned for a better 2011?

The guys at JoyOfTech have wrapped up the year with some resolutions they think our web giants like Twitter, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft will be making for the year 2011.

Enjoy and happy holidays!

Is blogging still hot? Sure is.

In today’s age of user-generated content, we no longer need to rely on media for information. Anyone with internet access has the opportunity to create their own blog, publish their thoughts to communicate to the rest of the world, establish themselves as a thought leader in their field, and possibly even make money out of it.

Grasshopper Group has compiled the current state of the blog economy in 2010. Most of the blogging are happening in America, compared to 19% coming from Europe, 8% from Asia-Pacific.

From 2009 to 2010, we have noticed an increase of self-employed bloggers, rising from 9% to 21%. In fact, 19% claim their blog is their company, and their salary is made up of few things:

• display ads
• affiliate marketing links
• search ads
• giving speeches
• being a spokesblogger, and attending events
• paid postings, rich media ads, and others.

Find out more below!

Based on the aggregation of billions of search queries, Google releases Google Zeitgeist, and has put together a great video that captures the spirit of 2010 to wrap up the year.

(“Zeitgeist” means “the spirit of the times”) For your convenience, they have grouped the data in categories: Entertainment, Sports, Consumer Electronics, Food & Drink, Maps Searches, People, News, Translations, Health Queries and Humanitarian Aid.

We have also summarized Singapore’s most searched terms. iPad and Justin Bieber are within Singaporeans’ search scope but not Chatroulette. Find out more here.

Well-known celebrities like Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Usher, Serena Williams, Jennifer Hudson, and Elijah Wood have stopped updating on their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

And it looks like they left a last message and testament video before they departed. Their last tweets direct fans to buylife.org where there are pictures of them resting in coffins.

On 1st December, they have taken part in ‘Digital Death’ as part of World Aids Day to raise awareness and garner donations to save millions of real lives affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India, and we can play a part in buying their digital life back. They will only rejoin the social networks when US$1 million has been collectively raised for the charity Keep a Child Alive.

A question we should really ask ourselves: Why do we care so much about the death of one celebrity when there are millions of people dying in the same place that we’re all from?

“It’s so important to shock you to the point of waking up, It’s not that people don’t care or it’s not that people don’t want to do something, it’s that they never thought of it quite like that. This is such a direct and instantly emotional way and a little sarcastic, you know, of a way to get people to pay attention,” says Alicia Keys.

How do you find this campaign? I thought it was pretty smart – not only do they not have to reach out to people, but in fact is leveraging on an audience that is already there; they are fans who are enthusiastic and desperately want their favourite celebrities’ updates back. Just two days into the campaign, $183k have been raised – it proves the campaign is pretty substantial. I am guessing if Justin Bieber had been involved in this, #BUYLIFE might be a trending topic by now.

Just a week ago, Dell officially launched Dell Swarm, an online social group-buying site where consumers can gather to buy gadgets in bulk to enjoy big savings. It appears that it is currently only available in Australia, though it was tested before in Singapore and Canada but they are still fixing the bugs. Similar to Groupon, Dell is the first company (I believe) to lead this campaign on its own. Very clever business idea indeed – and if this picks up, we can expect more companies to follow suit.

(Personally love the idea of countdown timer! Brings so much excitement, really.)

How it works:

You can join a current swarm or suggest a new swarm on the site. You have 48 hours to get response – once enough people have signed up, the swarm will go live and you can confirm your order. Once the order has been placed, you’ll receive a unique code to be able to customise and complete your purchase.

To try and increase the size of the order and therefore the savings, you can easily share information about the swarm with friends using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail. The more people involved, the better the bargain the swarm receives.

Items on sale through Dell Swarm include digital cameras, electronics and software accessories, TVs, etc. Not only limited to Dell products but Cisco, Belkin, Kogan, Canon, Microsoft and other big players have also gotten in on the deal, and Dell expects to expand to more vendors in the future.

One key takeaway at iStrategy2010 was that it doesn’t really matter what fancy tool you have, but what matters more is knowing what you want to measure and track. Why do we have to insist on buying expensive monitoring tools when the best things in life are free?

Google makes avail many useful, free tools that are useful for small businesses in tracking their performance, as shared by Aliza Knox.

Google Search

Most of us just use the search bar for basic searches, but did you know the search tool has got many other functionalities many do not know of?

• Updates: If you click “More” on the left menu bar, you would discover that there are more ways to filter your search results. Updates gives you tweets from Twitter, Discussions from blogs, News from timely sources, etc. Not forgetting there is a timeline on the top to show you which time of the day was most happening.
• Wonder Wheel: Click on “More Search Tools” on the left to get to Wonder Wheel. It shows related search terms to the current searched query and thus enabling you to explore relevant search terms which might be the ones you originally wanted to search for, or simply give you more options to gain more information.
• Timeline: Click on “More Search Tools” on the left, Custom Range allows you to filter results by a particular period. It seems like the quote “You can run but you cannot hide” is true.

Google Alerts

The content monitoring service allows you to stay ahead of the competition and monitor what people are talking about your brand via e-mail alert or feed. You can choose how frequent you want to receive these notifications and the type of alerts you would like to get: news, blogs, updates, discussions, videos, etc.

Google Insights

There are different ways Insight helps marketers plan their campaigns better. Basically, type in a few keywords and it will display the number of searches conducted worldwide. You can compare the queries by search terms, locations, or even time periods. One example is deciding which messages will resonate with their audience, and what keywords

In this example, I have inserted several keywords I want to compare. We can tell that the number of queries for laptop is consistent but dipped slightly later in the year, and it is possible the introduction of tablets caused this.

You may even track what countries are mostly searching for the keyword. This is useful when localising the content to find out what type of keywords appeal to the different regions. The only downside is, the number may be skewed depending on the population and size of the country, and is only valid mostly in English, but Google is definitely working on it.

Google Analytics

This is probably already known by most marketers as one of the most popular sites but I will mention it anyway. It measures website traffic so marketers can measure their marketing effectiveness by checking their impressions and views, click-through rate (CTR), traffic source, time spent on site, etc. Check it out if you haven’t.

There are tons of other amazing features Google provides that I probably have not discovered and cannot cover in a single post, so share with us: what other great tools do you use to measure your marketing efforts?

(1) Social Media: The Air Asia Way

(2) Facebook’s Success Strategy

(3) Marketing to The Third One Billion

(4) Driving Your Brand through Social Media

It was an enjoyable Day One and we shall let the pictures to do the talking…

What is an event without great food?

@AskAaronLee and @ThomasMarzano tweeting when they are just beside each other.

@NigelDessau, CMO at AMD live on MeetTheBoss.TV

@stooffi working really hard at live-blogging

He wins hands-down!

Check out the live updates on @PennOlson and the hashtag #istrategy2010. Day Two will commence at 9am GMT+8 !

What is next? An Iran-born writer Vali Nasr identifies the Muslim world is beginning to be deemed as the engine of growth and consumer-led expansion in ‘Forces of Fortune’.

At iStrategy2010, John Goodman from Ogilvy Noor (‘Noor’ means ‘light’ in Arabic.) shares that the global Muslim market is currently approximately 1.8 billion, underserved as consumers by brands and companies. They are young. 52.2% of the people are below the age of 24. Together, Muslim youth account for 11% of the world’s population – we are seeing huge opportunities that have not been thoroughly explored!

Many Western companies have failed to appreciate the unique needs of Muslim consumers, say marketing experts. What we learnt is that when brands reach out to these community well, they will be warmly welcomed.

In 2007, Nokia made an effort to appeal to the local market when it introduced a phone for the Middle East and North Africa markets that came loaded with a number of applications, including an Islamic Organizer with alarms for the five daily prayers, Islamic e-books and an e-card application that allows people send e-greeting cards for their religious celebrations.

Reasons for Success?

• User-friendly, accessible to all
• Innovative in local content
• Caring, personal touch
• A means of self-expression

Consumers can be very loyal when they believe brands that reflect their own values – the scientific term is what we call internalization. And no, a brand can resonate with a Muslim audience without using Islamic symbols or lettering to carry Islamic values. In fact, John further shared that Indonesian Muslims are attracted to progressive and innovative marketing – the most successful films are on the Indonesian silver screen are those who project Islam in a very modern way.

It is time for more businesses to lead and consider how they adapt their marketing mix to targeting the third one billion.

There is almost no doubt that a company’s online presence helps to increase awareness, as 52% of respondents have discovered new products through search engines, and 42% through e-mail marketing. 57% express that it is “somewhat important” that companies provide an opportunity to interact on social networks.

The types of shopping-related activities they conduct on Facebook:

• 32% said they “like” merchants
• 18% look for coupons or special offers
• 16% interact with their friends about products they “like” or plan to buy

Marketers have witnessed how mobile marketing is also picking up as smart phones are expanding their capabilities with increasing technologies, and the growth in adoption of shopping applications for browsing products. 41% of consumers aged 18-34 have shared that they have made at least one transaction using their mobile, and other shopping-related activities include searching for coupons, comparing prices between stores, seeking reviews, and using GPS to find nearby stores.

When asked about the current state of web stores, majority pointed out that most stores can further improve online shopping experience. What are these consumers looking out for during their purchase? 45% would like more detailed product information, 36% wanted better search capabilities, 29% wanted live help options, 26% felt that navigation and design could be enhanced.

Read more here to find out whether recommendations influence their purchase decisions, and how they conduct their holiday shopping, and common reasons why they drop out of shopping.

This is definitely great news and particularly useful for businesses in finding out what they should be doing more or less of.

Despite the New Twitter’s ability to display simple numbers like seeing your tweets  re-tweeted and other tweets your friends have re-tweeted, the below screen shots allow you to compare tweets at a glance how your handle is doing, with filters ranging from Best, Good and All. You would be able to find out who has marked your tweet as Favourite.

Sneak Peeks from @mongoosemetrics’ Testing

Screenshots via Mashable

Children are actually wishing for Apple products this Christmas, they do not even want their Barbie dolls or LEGO anymore. Is that surprising? Not so much for me. My 8-year old niece has told me about her dream of owning an iPhone when she grows up if she cannot get one now. (Of course, she does not know it would be obsolete by then)

Let us allow the infographic to speak for itself:

Click for a bigger view

Source: Promotional Codes

Penn Olson features start-ups. Find out more here.

Is the rise of e-books burning the book publishing industry? This has been asked so many times; I dare not give a bold statement but shall let the statistics to speak for themselves. Amazon US has already announced in July 2010 that it has sold 143 digital books for every 100 hardbacks from April to June 2010 and the numbers are constantly rising.

Several friends of mine have bought iPads for their kids with the purchase intent of using technology for learning. eBooks are currently static – ever wondered how reading could be made even more fun?

Local start-up Personal e-Motion has developed a valuable technology called KooBits – a digital publishing technology with the ability to convert traditional books into eBooks, with a value-added option of making it interactive by inserting animation or simple games. It can also be published onto mobile devices such as the iPhone as well as other web-based services.

In this interview, team KooBits shares with more about their start-up, recent projects and vision.

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1. Okay, typical question for a start-up. How is your product different from other eBooks out there?

Good start, Amelia. We place heavy emphasis on interactions as we believe that this will be the key to add value to the relationship between a user and his or her favourite content. Just like how Guitar Heroes, iPhone and Wii redefine interactions between users and content, we hope to accomplish a similar thing with eBooks through our patented technology.

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2. Sweet. What is the most interesting project you have embarked on?

That would be the Michael Jackson eBook because it was fan-driven and people were passionate about contributing to the eBook and keeping the memories of Michael Jackson alive. We also experienced an outpouring of comments and views on the blog and trailer within weeks of the eBook launch!

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3. It’s tough to start-up. What are the successes and failures experienced so far?

We are fortunate to find our first success in schools as our software is a complementary and engaging way for kids to learn. Since then, we have also received international recognition for our efforts including being the winner of both the Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2008 elearning category and Infocomm Singapore Awards 2008 elearning category. Our founder and CEO, Stanley Han was also awarded one of the top 25 Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs in Business Week 2008.

Our current focus is in digital publishing as our technology can be deployed to transform how content can be consumed in a more interactive and engaging way. We were happy to be featured in the Digital Life section of The Straits Times and My Paper as one of the companies that will transform the way people view eBooks.

In terms of challenges, the toughest would be path finding. With the publishing industry in a current state of flux, we have to explore new business models that place users as the centre of the equation, and not just as just customers. We believe interaction that changes the way users engage with their favourite content is key but to find the right combination of cost and revenue will be the issue to overcome.

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4. Tell us about the recent partnership between KooBits and one of the world’s biggest printers, Tien Wah Press (TWP).

The collaboration marks TWP’s first foray into the interactive ebook publishing realm. Response to the eBook digital solution has been good at the Frankfurt Book Fair with orders received from major international publishers. This partnership will enable KooBits technology to be introduced to a large number of people with TWP’s established and wide customer base.

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5. What’s your vision for future of eBooks!

All eBooks will be interactive with sharing and social capabilities to connect people with similar interests instantly. It will turn the current business model of publishers and authors on its head and revolutionise the way people view content.

We hope to be the Guitar Hero of the publishing world!

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6. How can everyone utilize your product?

Our player is freely available to everybody and they can engage with it at all levels, whether for information, education or entertainment.

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7. Nice. Short and sweet team KooBits. Thanks!

Thanks for the interview Amelia!

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Like what you read? Follow them on @KooBitsEDU and visit their site at http://KooBits.com

It is apparent the rate of eBooks adoption is rapid since the launch of Amazon’s eReader in 2007. Why so? There are many advantages presented: eBooks are cheaper and cost nothing to produce, lesser trees need to be cut down, purchased and downloaded instantaneously, do not collect dust, and have the ability of being interactive.

According to a forecast by Forrester Research: By the end of this year 2010, $966 million worth of eBooks would have been sold. By 2015, the industry will have nearly tripled to almost $3 billion!

• But in fact, only 7% of online adults who read books actually read eBooks – they are also the ones who read the most books and spend the most money on them.
• Today, the two most common ways people get books today is borrowing from friends or the library.
• The average eBook reader already consumes 41% of books in digital form.

With still so much more room for the market to grow, what does this mean for traditional publishers? Catch up, or get left behind. As more features are added into the eBook technology, it is possible eBooks would make its way into classrooms or even dominate publishing industry in the near future.

Sidetracking a little – with more and more entrants to the competitive industry of eBook readers and tablet devices, we have Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Blackberry Playbook, and of course, the Apple iPad. As much as I am convinced to switch to going green, I can no longer decide which device I should get. What say you – comments, and suggestions would be great!

It is proven there is a co-relation between increased social media usage and increased offline interaction – as users increase their Facebook and Twitter usage, they also tend to increase their social, in-person interactions.

More People Bringing Their Interaction Offline

• Among U.S. consumers who report using Facebook more often, 27% report that they meet with friends in person more often, as opposed to 13% who report meeting in person less.
• Using Twitter, 46% reported an increase in in-person meetings with friends more often opposed with 7%, and 33% are calling friends on the phone more and 13% less.

The way I see it? I guess now being connected than ever, people are more conscious about losing the human-touch during electronic communication and certain messages may get miscomprehended. Social media is not like instant messaging anyway; and some conversations are still better exchanged offline. What do you think?

Read more from ExactTarget and CoTweet in their seventh report in the “Subscribers, Fans and Followers” research series to find out if a Facebook fan is really worth $136.38, whether use of email is in decline, and whether Twitter’s success is hinged on celebrities.

Neal Creighton, CEO and co-founder of RatePoint shares, “Social media use is no longer limited to one demographic, everyone is adopting. While many small business owners are uncertain, big brands are investing heavily in social media. Social media can be a great equalizer for small businesses to compete alongside larger brands and SMBs are missing out if they are not involved.”

Here are reasons why social media marketing is an opportunity and would be a waste if ignored:

Customer Acquisition

Fish where the fish are. The Internet is ubiquitous and also a cost-effective way to reach out to your customers and prospects. Compared to traditional marketing & advertising, setting up a Facebook page or Twitter account is free. (Of course, note that getting engagement and participation for your digital campaign is another story.)

Connect & Build Relationships

Customers need to be persuaded before they buy what you have to offer. Think of marketing as making friends. Just like how you would make a new friend offline – you must be deemed as honest and trustworthy. If they like you, they introduce you to their friends, and trust me – word-of-mouth does wonders.

I’d say @thegardenslug does a good job at relationship marketing on its handle – a good mix of tweets about the menu, promotions, the staff, sharing valuable content, and tweets that truly care about the customers. Would you consider that time-consuming if you are sincere?

Branding & Visibility

You would have known by now I am a big advocate of increasing awareness. I strongly believe that if you are not even making yourself visible, there is absolutely 0% chances of being in the customers’ evoked set. This is something like share of voice (SOV) – if you want to be heard, you must take the first step to speak!

Become an Expert in Your Field

I’ve noticed an increasing trend in companies using blogging platforms like WordPress and Tumblr as part of their company site. Providing useful content adds value to your customers, aids search-engine optimisation (SEO) and earns you respect in your niche. When users find your content relevant, traffic to your site would also increase as users point to your site.

Online Reputation Management

Listen and find out what your customers are talking about you. (e.g. Singtel’s classic case) It provides an opportunity to seek suggestions and fix problems, if need be. In time of crisis, it would be useful for clarifying yourself – at least you would have an audience who would listen to you.

The founders of Facebook probably do not agree fully to this film. We should understand for dramatic effect, parts of the movie would have been exaggerated and probably twisted. This film was an adaption from ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich which I have not laid my hands on – but having read ‘The Facebook Effect’ by David Kirkpatrick, it feels like I could already predict the plot.

Aside from a strong impulse to learn programming after watching the film, here are some insights I gained:

Business Ideas Aren’t Protected

According to Tim Berry: laws protect inventions with patents, creative works with copyright, and trade names with trademarks but none protects business ideas.

It is hard to prove the idea had originated from the Winklevoss twins (or ‘Winklevi’!). I’m guessing it would probably have been a different case if the twins had been programmers themselves. As much as their ideas were awesome, they were not capable of executing it themselves.

Although I do not agree Zuckerberg’s act of keeping twins in the dark as he was not keen and already embarking on his on project – I’m guessing in the real world, it is only a business move to buy time to get ahead of competitors although there are much debate about this and it appears unethical.

Think Long-Term

In the beginning, Saverin was aggressively getting advertisers in attempts to monetise Facebook. But Zuckerbergwas firm on his decision that Facebook would not make money from ads. Facebook was cool precisely because there were no ads; Zuckerberghad planned that making money was not his priority in the early stages of Facebook but producing a great product.

I do think Facebook had majorly re-invented web advertising, alongside with Google. By allowing marketers to target their audience using data volunteered by users themselves (such as demographics, interests, activities), social media has unlocked endless potential for businesses and even the non-profit industry.

“A million dollars isn’t cool … You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.” ~Sean Parker in the movie Best quote ever, and hella wicked!

Have Signed Agreements

In the film, Saverin appeared to have been Zuckerberg’s only friend but was unappreciated and badly treated. The scene where Saverin found out everybody else’s shares had been unaffected except his; which was reduced to 0.03% from 34.4% (note that this number was heavily exaggerated) was a heartbreaking one… although in the end, they settled the case with an undisclosed amount to the public and Saverin was again listed as a co-founder on the site.

The lack of legal representation had been the root of most problems hence they are important – just in case relationships turn sour.

Leave School If You Must.

Disclaimer: Only applicable you are from the Ivy League.
Don’t start seriously considering this, it is merely my observation! Look at Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg? They dropped out of school and never went back. Sometimes, there are more important things than paperchase; timing and opportunities are crucial to an entrepreneur particularly.

P.S. Looks like everybody loved the intense dialogue in the opening – just so you know, this masterpiece was written by Aaron Sorkin who is well-known for his brilliant, memorable lines.

In this digital era, we are spoilt for choice with so many different platforms to retrieve news from these days. We no longer rely solely on one medium to receive alerts – we most likely utilise a myriad of sources: newspapers, radio, mobile, email, search engines, and the list goes on.

Earlier, we questioned whether the print industry was dying.
A global survey conducted by CNN with 2,300 consumers and the results have proven

Which Platforms Do People Share News On?

• 43% shared news via social media. Email ranked second, at 30%. SMS was third (15%), then instant messenger (12%).
• We see the 80/20 rule in action here – People who shared 6+ news stories weekly (27%) account for 87% of all news stories shared.
• The average global user shares 13 stories per week and receives 26 stories through shared social media links or emails.

What Kind of News?

• 65% of shared content comprises ongoing stories
• 19% comprises breaking news
• 16% of content falls into the “quirky or funny” category

In terms of theme, news recommendation is driven by content that is visually spectacular, stories about science and technology, human interest stories and money-related stories. The majority of stories being shared carry an underlying message of the “sharer” imparting knowledge.

Cultural Differences

In Europe and North America, users shared stories that would be useful to friends or family, European users tend to share more work-related stories and Asia-Pacific readers were more likely to share things that underline or reinforce their own belief and identity.

The way we read news is becoming a social experience. With the ease of sharing content through social media, it encourages people to pass on information to others. This is informational to marketers in understanding what sort of news people tend to share. We can definitely expect the numbers of social media sharing to increase in time to come as more people embrace social media tools and the power it provides.

Not to say that one platform is inferior to the other; each have their strengths and weaknesses and are equally important in planning a digital marketing campaign.

Judging from the title of this post – imagine if one million Facebook fans are worth $3.6m in media value, how much would one million Twitter followers be worth?

ExactTarget provides some statistics to back up the statement in their “Subscribers, Fans and Followers” report:

The above graph translates:

• 32% of SUBSCRIBERS and FOLLOWERS and 49% of FANS are no more likely to purchase from a brand after connecting with them through these channels—leaving 68% of SUBSCRIBERS and FOLLOWERS and 51% of FANS who may purchase more often.
• Multiplying these percentages together, we see that 63% of U.S. online consumers may become a SUBSCRIBER of a brand and purchase more often, 19% may become a FAN of a brand and purchase more often, and 3% may FOLLOW a brand and purchase more often.
• A follower on Twitter is more likely to purchase and recommend products. It is a great platform to establish a relationship with your influential followers to get them to endorse your brand, at the same time expanding your reach to acquire new customers.

一个公司的品牌形象来自旨在创造关于品牌有利、独特联想的营销传播努力。最佳的营销者都知道，吸引消费者最有说服力的方式是通过内心，而不是脑子。即使中国生产出更好的组装手机，我们在任何时候都仍旧会宁愿选择苹果手机——但是我们为什么要那样做呢？

科学博客网站ScienceBlog上的人们发现手拿“维多利亚的秘密”（Victoria’s Secret）产品可以让消费者感到自己很有魅力。那证明了“维多利亚的秘密”的品牌推广有多么成功。这应该不会让人感到吃惊，会吗？你只需要在Google上做一个图片搜索，就会注意到，所有你可以找到的都是“维多利亚的秘密”性感天使，甚至不是“维多利亚的秘密”产品本身。

根据《消费者研究杂志》(Journal of Consumer Research)的一项研究，“某些品牌具有能够确实改变人们感受自己方式的品格。

在一项调查中，他们要求一家当地商场中的女性购物者在她们的购物旅程之中手提一只购物袋一小时，她们被允许选择使用一只“维多利亚的秘密”购物袋或者是一只普通的粉红色购物袋。在购物旅程结束之后，购物者被要求在一份人格特质列表上为自己打分。手提“维多利亚的秘密”购物袋的购物者比手提普通购物袋的购物者认为自己更有女人味、更迷人且更美貌。我想说答案在于“维多利亚的秘密”这个品牌与自我放纵、漂亮模特与性感吸引力之间的联想。

另一个有趣的发现是参与者对她们的人格特质有如何不同的信念。“受‘维多利亚的秘密’购物体验影响最大的消费者对于她们的人格特质持有某些信念”，作者写道：“她们相信她们的人格品质是固定的，并且无法通过她们的自身努力来提升。因此，她们寻求通过其它方式来标示她们的正面品质，例如说品牌。”不受“维多利亚的秘密”购物袋影响的人相信她们的人格特质更加灵活，并且可以通过她们的自身努力来提升。

类似地，其它研究发现一些人当携带一支带有麻省理工学院标志的钢笔时，他们会感觉自己更聪明并更具有领袖气质。

A company’s brand image comes from the marketing communications effort to create favourable, unique associations about the brand. The best marketers would know the most persuasive way to appeal to consumers is through the heart, not the mind. Even if there had been a better mash-up phone produced in China, we would still rather pick Apple’s phone any day – but why do we do that?

Folks at ScienceBlog have discovered that carrying Victoria’s Secret can make consumer feel glamorous. That proves how successful Victoria’s Secret is at branding. This shouldn’t be surprising, should it? Just do an image search on Google and notice all you can find are the sexy VS angels, and not even the products.

“Certain brands have personalities that can actually change the way some people feel about themselves,” according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

In one study, they asked female shoppers in a local mall to carry a shopping bag for an hour during their shopping trip where they were allowed to use either a Victoria’s Secret shopping bag or a plain pink shopping bag. At the end of the session, shoppers were asked to rate themselves on a list of personality traits and the shoppers who carried the Victoria’s Secret bag perceived themselves as more feminine, glamorous, and good-looking than shoppers who carried the plain ones. I say the answer lies in the association with self-indulgence, the beautiful models and sex appeal.

Another interesting discovery was how the participants had different beliefs about their personalities. “Consumers most affected by their experience with Victoria’s Secret held certain beliefs about their personalities,” the authors write. “They believe their personal qualities are fixed and cannot be improved by their own efforts at self-improvement. Therefore, they look for ways to signal their positive qualities through other means, such as brands.” People who were not affected by carrying the Victoria’s Secret bag believed that their personal qualities were more flexible and could change for the better by their efforts to improve themselves.

Similarly, other studies found out that some people felt more intelligent and more like leaders when they carried a pen with a logo of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Just as you were thinking Foursquare is a fun stalking game to let friends stalk friends, you are half right.

It creates conversation between friends as you better understand the places they frequent, it should be no surprise when I ask something like, “So how was the microbrewery you visited last weekend?”

What is Geotagging?

By tagging where you are as you send information, Google allows search results to be filtered by locations – whether by town, neighbourhood or your precise location. So do Twitter and Flickr. Geotagging is an element of mobile phones that allows information to stay relevant depending on where you are.

How Does Foursquare Affect My Business?

Whenever I check in into Foursquare, honestly I often come across shop names I never knew existed. Having your business listed on Foursquare increases visibility and allows users nearby to locate your shop. For example, one might just tell their friend, “Hey there is actually a cafe near by, why not let’s check that out?”

Recommendations Encourage Word-Of-Mouth

I particularly find this feature most persuasive. Having my friend’s To-Do tip popping up when I check in into a nearby location is a great way to get my attention. Just because it is a recommendation coming from someone I know and trust, I am more likely and willing to give consideration. (although not so much on this one below, but you get what I mean!)

Verify & Claim Your Business Venue

You can list yourself as one of Foursquare’s official venue partners. Not only can you receive invaluable information and analytics about your customers (frequency, time logged in, gender comparison, etc) it would be an opportunity to establish offline relationships as you identify them in your shop!

Make Promotions Exclusive to Foursquare users

Everybody enjoys customer loyalty rewards (Tell me I am not the only one!) Offering promotions are effective in exchange for the attention of your current customers. (e.g. free beer for mayor, add a tip and receive a discount) This is the chance to get as creative as you want!

Also, when users log in to other locations nearby, a yellow post-it looking button “Specials Nearby” will prompt them on the top right of their venue and is hard to miss.

Sync with Other Social Media Platforms

Synchronise your social media activities. You could send a tweet offering anyone who checks in using Foursquare in the next hour will get a discount. Also, Foursquare allows check-in to be published onto Twitter and Facebook – so suggest your customers do that and you would be able to generate more eyeballs on your business.

Have you claimed your venue on Foursquare yet? If you are getting started, read more related posts below! Or if you already have great ideas, share them with us too!

Earlier in May this year, Flowtown shared studies revealing what teens use their mobile phones for. This time round, they share how adults are utilizing their mobile phones so you no longer have to guess what their activities are.

Some takeaways include:

• 51% of adults exchange a mere 1-10 text messages a day, whereas 29% teens send 101 and above!
• Heavy callers tend to text-message heavily & light callers tend to text-message less
• 65% of adults sleep with their mobile phones beside their bed, 90% of whom are below age 30.
  (No wonder ‘junk sleep’ is becoming a worrying trend!)

Whether B2B or B2C, every industry is able to leverage on social media for their business. As people spend more time on social media online, ad dollars into social networking sites have also been increasing. That is why businesses need to always be ahead of the curve. If your competitor is already on board, you have much catching up to do!

And if you were thinking that visitors will first go to your site for information about your company… Omniture proves you wrong as they share the value of what social media brings.

Where Do Consumers Get Information?

• More people turn to social media websites first for opinions.
  After all, which is more believable? Customers talk about their purchase or a company talking about its own products?
• Also, company websites are useful and will be
  Valuable information like financial reports for investors, whitepapers, technical information are still more credible coming from companies themselves

What is Social Media Good For?

• Social media is great for building brand awareness and reputation
  Leverage on the opportunity to build relationships with consumers. After all, we’re talking about social media.
• Having your business on social media sites improves search engine ranking & generates traffic
• not as effective for generating leads and sales (but not all the time! Dell generated millions with Twitter.)

How Social Media Complements Marketing Tactics

• Social media works hand in hand with search engine optimisation (SEO)
  Don’t ignore meta tags that help to identify your content as they will help to drive traffic to your site.
• More effective in digital marketing than paired with offline marketing

What Are You Waiting For?

Have you had similar results or does your social media effort contradict the findings? Is Facebook or Twitter more effective for your business? Leave a comment below!

And when you have to decide which platform to pick, what instantly comes to your mind? Is it Facebook? After all, it is the biggest social networking site and is where the people are.

A new study from ExactTarget and CoTweet reveals why how to engage your consumers on Facebook and what makes it a unique platform for marketers compared to other social networking channels.

Consumers Like Discounts on Facebook

• 40% of consumers are motivated to ‘like’ a brand on Facebook to be entitled to discounts and promotions.
• Following closely behind, 39% want to show their support for the brand
• 34% want to receive the latest updates.
• Education and interaction are the least popular (13%) reasons. It may be difficult for marketers to create conversations about your brand, try posting questions to create a dialogue.
• This result is consistent with a study by Razorfish last year

“Like” ≠ I Want To Know Anything & Everything

70% of consumers who had “FANNED” a brand on Facebook felt that they had not given this company permission to market to them. This makes sense as it tallies with the information above, if about 40% were for the promotions, apparently the remaining weren’t. Only 17% of consumers say they were more likely to buy after becoming a FAN on Facebook.

Reasons Why We Are on Facebook

• It is undeniable we use social networking sites mainly for the connections (which we believe should be dominated by women!)
  Leveraging on this information, is it possible that your campaign contain content interesting enough to be shared among friends?
• Only 15% of Facebook users are there to maintain work/professional contacts.
• While 30% of all Facebook users and45% of daily users report checking email during work or school hours, they’re less likely to check Facebook during these times, restricting use to nights and weekends. In total, 65% of Facebook users say they login only before or after work/school and 69% use Facebook on the weekends or days off.  This means marketers would need to work extra hours during weekends where traffic would be higher!

For some case studies, read five successful business pages that have done well on Facebook.

Since the launch of shortening service su.pr packed with cool features in March 2009, StumbleUpon has grown tremendously.  BlueGlass shares some interesting facts about StumbleUpon that you probably did not know about:

• Stumbleupon ranks #2 in the world, just one spot behind Facebook

The next time when you are crafting your marketing strategy, why not think of how you could use StumbleUpon first before considering Facebook or Twitter?

Knowing how tech-savvy people these days are, it is not shocking to know that people would search for food online. Mashable shares a video on how such food truck businesses are using social media to reach their customers.  This is a creative marketing strategy as they receive attention by  announcing their location and people actually would go to find them.

In the video, BistroTruck shares that activities from social media make up 15% of its sales.
What if they had invested in a mobile app?

Looks like even Taco Bell has gotten on the bandwagon by offering a new channel for its business. Can we be expecting other similar food stores to do the same?

We all see a pattern here – topping the charts are companies from oil & gas industries, as much as we often hate and curse them for ruining the environment.

The below infographic shows what all the profit could provide for the world; digest it with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless it is interesting to know that every living person on earth could receive $6.75! (which we know is not going to happen)

Are companies obliged to give back their profits to society?

[Source: Billshrink]

The eye-catching advertisements make you think twice about the message they want to convey, and to arise the public awareness of the importance of protecting the nature.

Among the third sector (otherwise referred to as non-governmental organisations and charities), they probably have the best and effective fear appeal messages which are very creative and the message is simple and clear.

Fear appeals have been used extensively in advertising as marketers have found them to be effective. In using fear appeals by associating an act with a negative effect, it creates tension and gets the attention of the consumers, then provide them a solution; which in this case is to take action and be convinced to stand up for their cause.Such ads are persuasive as the messages have a capability to change attitudes over time; whether consciously or subconsciously.

While ads using fear appeal can be effective, inappropriate use could also cause consumers to avoid such advertisements when they feel intimidated, or even irritated. As a result, consumers refuse to give their attention and turn away from them.

This brings us to a next question: Do you think that using fear-appeal messages are ethical?

Leave us a comment on what your thoughts!

Source: GraphicDesignJunction

It is official – Facebook is the number one ranking, surpassing Google‘s Orkut as the leading social networking site for the first time in July 2010 with 20.9 million visitors while Orkut had only 19.9 million. This was followed by BharatStudent and then Twitter.

If you were wondering to yourself, what is the big deal? I always hear about Facebook but seldom hear of Orkut.

Well, here’s the BIG deal: Since Orkut’s launch in 2004, it has been the prevalent social networking site in India and in Brazil, despite not taking off as well in other countries.

Facebook usage has increased by a whopping 179% in a year in between period of July 2009 to July 2010, as survey from comScore reveals.

Social networking usage is definitely not slowing down, but is in fact growing rapidly in Russia, Germany, India and South Korea.

The use of microblogging site Twitter is growing at an alarming rate.  In India alone, it registered growth of 239% to 3.3 million visitors over the past 12 months. comScore also shared that overall in the Asia-Pacific region, Facebook only has 17% market penetration – therefore we can expect much more potential areas for growth.

lion

Edelman Digital had been analysing the amount of online chatter over twelve months about major technology brands.

The most astonishing finding was knowing there was a consistent pattern across eight Asian market. The most commonly used platform people turned to for such information: Twitter.

Twitter is the fastest growing social network over the past year and majority of the tweets have been contributed by people all over Asia. There were about 8 million buzz and chatter from people-like-me talking about technology in communities; discussing about the latest gadget, seeking advice and sharing the coolest find.

Overall, the top ten most discussed technology brands in order of ranking: Google,  Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Intel, Nokia, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo!and Research in Motion.

Just take a look at some of the findings below:

“In Singapore, seven of the 50 technology brands tracked now have a local Twitter presence, with others contributing to a regional or global Twitter ID.”  There are still so many ways and opportunities for companies to gain mindshare of consumers. Like the AIDA model, awareness and attention must first be created before intention, desire and action follow suit.

Is Twitter is more effective than Facebook as a marketing tool? Share with us your thoughts!

It is not surprising what activities make up the top three: social networking, online games and e-mail. Compared to last year, the usage of such platforms have increased significantly.

Statistics from Nielson revealed that social media network usage has increased by 43 percent – from 15.8% in 2009 to 22.7% in 2010.

Some other findings include:

• Online games overtook personal email to become the second most heavily used activity behind social networks.
• Email dropped from 11.5 percent of time to 8.3 percent.
• June 2010 was a major milestone for U.S. online video as the number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark. The average American consumer streaming online video spent 3 hours 15 minutes doing so during the month.

From this, we can tell social media is not dying down – not anytime soon, at least. It is changing the way people communicate; companies could learn from this information to better craft communication messages and it could be an invaluable asset as time passes.

Globally, women make up nearly 46 percent of the web population – despite being the minority, it is interesting to note that they are dominating many aspects of the digital media landscape.

Trends are showing that women have caught up in the usage of internet ranging from activities like purchasing online, social networking, instant messaging (IM) and it appears that the online experience of women sway towards communicating and building relationships with others.

Comscore released a whitepaper compiling a study about digital behaviors of women across the globe against men in 40 countries.

What Do Females Do Online?

Topping the charts, we have

• Social media
• Instant messaging
• E-mail

Globally in April 2010, women spent an average of 16.3% of their online time on social networks, compared to only 11.7% for the men. The numbers were highest among women in North America, with 9 out of 10 female Internet users visiting a social network site in that month.

The below chart shows how the most popular activities skew comparably toward women in terms of reach and usage.

And what are they searching for? The results are not surprising.
Fragrances/Cosmetics, e-cards, Flowers, Gifts and Greetings and Pets are topics most frequented by women.

Other takeaways include:

• Men are far more likely to post their own tweets than women. Meanwhile, a larger percentage of female Twitter users say they use the site to find deals/promotions and use the service as a conversation medium and to follow celebrities.
• Contrary to common beliefs, women spent 2.7% gaming compared to men at 2.2%; the games are more casual (e.g. Solitaire, Sudoku and Scrabble) than action, adventure, and sports games, which are typically favored by young males.
• Overall video usage is the heaviest in Germany, the U.K., the U.S., and Canada.
• On average, men conduct more searches per searcher than women (71.6 searches per searcher for men vs. 64.0 for women).
• The gender differences in mobile Internet behavior roughly mirror PC Internet behavior. Older women are more likely to play games and check email, and men more likely to access News/Info sites using their mobile phone. However, mobile Internet services (browsing, apps, and email) still skew 65-70 percent male.
• Women surpass men in every age group in both reach and time spent on photo sites. They were also much faster to adopt photo sharing when it first became available.

There is no significant gender gap in Internet usage as more and more women across the world are increasing their Internet usage everyday. This brings about so many opportunities to market products to women of different ages and cultures through social networking channels.

What if one day you are thirsty and find a vending machine, thinking it would quench your thirst but only to find that there is only dirty water?

Thought-provoking, of course.

Very often, we tend to take clean water for granted. So much so we do not remember that there are people in other parts of the world who die of water-related diseases daily.

Spearheaded by UNICEF, the non-profit organization creatively educates the public via its Dirty Water campaign. 

Dirty water by UNICEF

The campaign places several vending machines in Manhattan, offering eight different choices of water that represent common diseases that affect the disadvantaged – malaria, cholera, typhoid, dengue, hepatitis, dysentery, salmonella, and yellow fever.

Unicef’s guerrilla marketing tactic has attracted the attention of several giant news network. The result is great. People donated and more are aware of what’s going on with the people who have to drink unclean drinking water. Thought provoking, really.

The video says it best.

P.S: I have a 21st birthday Charity Water campaign going on. Give me and them your helping hand.

Twitter is a useful platform to build a brand‘s reputation online – however, a brand isn’t only build by marketers themselves, but it also depends on how consumers perceive it to be.

Through user-generated content like tweets, blog posts, Facebook updates, conservations with friends and product reviews, consumers determine a large part of a brand’s image too.

Zooming in to Twitter, we’re glad that ExactTarget released their studies on how the micro-blogging site is changing marketing activities of companies. Findings show that…

• Twitter users are the most influential online consumers – 72 percent publish blog posts at least monthly, 70 percent comment on blogs, 61 percent write at least one product review monthly and 61 percent comment on news sites.

• Daily Twitter users are 6 times more likely to publish articles, five times more likely to post blogs, seven times more likely to post to Wikis and three times more likely to post product reviews at least monthly compared to non-Twitter users.

• 23 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates at least monthly. 11 percent of online consumers read Twitter updates, but do not have a Twitter account themselves.

• 20 percent of consumers indicate they have followed a brand in order to interact with the company – more than become email subscribers or Facebook fans for the sake of interaction.

• Men are more than twice as likely as women to follow brands on Twitter to interact with the company (29 percent compared to 13 percent).

What does this mean for marketers?

Twitter provides countless opportunities for businesses to interact with customers first hand, and even tap on influential users who can create an even bigger impact for their brand.

Is mass media still the best medium these days? Well, it still plays a huge role in PR and advertising but with the rise of digital communication platforms, its power has slowly shifted. There isn’t a best. It depends how we use each platform to its fullest potential.

And this quote sums it up pretty well: “Today, everybody is media.”

I would like to help.

In today’s digital era, giving back to the society need not be restricted to the mere fortnightly Flag Day where tin cans must be presented for you to do good. It may even go beyond the usual phone donations during every charity gala night where over-the-top stunts are showcased to drive up the number counters.

Project Reach Causathon is the result of a simple enlightenment that we need not utilize big muscles to do great things, what is needed however is the determination to do good and a big heart to keep persevering.

This July, 85 Murdoch University students in Singapore are putting their skills to use while raising funds for 14 meaningful causes – involving social media to raise funds online on the local donation platform GIVE.SG.

Fundraising 2.0 is picking up. The internet has connected people from all around the world, making it so easy for people to donate to causes that they stand for.

Networking Sites

Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster – all these sites make it easy to share information. Awareness for an offline event to sell Starbucks coffee for funds was generated through online promotion, especially since passing on information only takes a mouse click.

Twitter Hashtag

This fundraising has an active hashtag #projectreachsg that students use to track tweets related to the conference in real-time and allows interested people to find out more.

Viral Video

One of the groups have put in extra effort to create a viral video with the intention to spread awareness about giving back to society – every cent that you donate does make a difference.

If everyone who reads this, including you, gives just $2, the charities would be able to benefit so much. Support these students and let’s bring Fundraising 2.0 to a new level – there is no better time than to do good now!