These special athletes won 37 medals in the World Games in Athens last year – 12 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze. The Singapore five-a-side football team won gold after beating Chile 3-2 in a tense penalty shootout.

Unfortunately they compete to mostly empty stadiums.

We’re rallying people together to join a digital flash mob in a show of support for these amazing athletes. It’s really easy to participate with just a few clicks.

FB updates and Tweets will be stored and released om 20 Jan in hopes we make Special Olympics Singapore trend so please join in and get your friends to do so as well.

http://www.facebook.com/SpecialOlympicsSingapore?sk=app_204109303014584
Please do share this with your friends.

Here are Singapore Special Olympic athletes Benson Tan and Lawrence Tay on the medal platform in Athens.

Seems my blog had been throwing up a blank page for a few days and after speaking with my hosting provider who couldn’t seem to figure out anything wrong on the server side I decided to manually upgrade to WordPress 3.2.1.

First error I kept getting was an “Error Establishing Database Connection”. Thanks to Youtube I found a really helpful video which quickly helped me solve this.

Everything seemed to be working fine on the front-end but I had problems accessing the back-end. Kept getting an error that an upgrade.php file was missing. Even after I found the file and uploaded it I kept getting a fatal error. Thankfully I found this post that helped me figure out that WordPress 3.2.1 required PHP version 5.2.4 or higher. Checking my cPanel showed that the PHP version was 5.2.17. (http://www.dasblinkenlichten.com/?p=566)

Ended up having to roll back to 3.2.0.

This post is for anyone who might run into the same problems I had.

Lesson learnt – check the PHP version requirements for new WordPress updates before doing anything.

Here are some interesting mobile statistics recently released:

• 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, finding more product info to locating a retailer
• 70% use their smartphones while in the store
• 72% use their smartphones while consuming other media, with a third while watching TV
• Mobile video traffic represented 49.8 % of total mobile data traffic at the end of 2010. Projections are that it will account for 52.8% of traffic by the end of 2011
• Google recently report it sees 19% of all hotel queries conducted on mobile devices
• The average amount of traffic per smartphone in 2010 was 79 MB per month, up from 35 MB per month in 2009
• Tablet data usage per tablet was 405MB per month compared to 79MB per month on smartphone in 2010. That’s 5.1 times more

Here’s a chart of mobile-only internet users in 2010 with projections tio 2012 for Asia Pacific, Japan and Western Europe. For Asia Pacific, we’re likely to see a 2.76 fold increase in users accessing the internet only on their devices in 2011 and a 3.01 fold increase for 2012.

These numbers reflect the growing role of mobile devices in people’s daily lives. There is however a disproportionate growth in the understanding and integration of mobile into a brand’s experience mix in Asia.

Just like having a Facebook Page doesn’t equate to a social media strategy, having a mobile app or a website viewable on a mobile device isn’t a mobile approach. The role of social media and mobile need to be considered in the larger context of customer journeys and the points along that where either come into a customer experience. Specific areas to think about for mobile are:

• What does your brand look like to them through their devices?
• Is information they are looking for easily consumable or is your content meant only for online delivery to browsers on a PC?
• How much does your brand’s mobile experience affect a customer’s journey towards or away from your brand?
• How does mobile integrate into a longer and enriching relationship roadmap for both customer and brand?
• What metrics, other than sales lift, are you looking for to measure the effectiveness of your mobile approach in moving customers closer to your brand in thier customer journey?

Answers to these question help ensure that mobile doesn’t become the shiny new toy tacked on to on-going initiatives because the latest research shows customers are spending a lot of their time on it. Key is to develop an approach that is holistic and thought through from a customer’s perspective along their journey with your brand.

Information sources:
http://googlemobileads.blogspot.com/2011/05/mobile-insights-19-of-hotel-queries.html
http://googlemobileads.blogspot.com/2011/04/smartphone-user-study-shows-mobile.html
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.pdf

I’ve ocassionally read posts about people landing jobs through social media channels and spaces like LinkedIn are a great place to seek out potential candidates. This happened to me recently and now having first hand knowledge of this I can see why this approach significantly increases one’s chances of getting an interview.

Recently I got an email from an intern applicant specifically attentioned to me which I was quite surprised at. The effort put into his resume warranted a reply and I was also curious to know how he knew how to email me given that I had just joined my current company 10 days ago.

He said he had seen my tweets, checked out my blog then LinkedIn profile to see if it was up-to-date. Finding that it was and reading things in my blog he liked he guessed what my email address might be from my company’s website and sent off an email hoping it would reach me.

Needless to say my colleagues and I were surprised and rather delighted with his tenacity. More so for me as a digital specialist as it proofs that what we do in digital spaces can connect people in meaningful ways. Information and people are often already here and finding what is useful is sometimes about connecting the dots or the digital footprints of people.

So how did the interview turn out and is there a fairy-net-tale ending to this incident?

Stay tuned to find out.

Here are some posts I’ve read recently about two concepts I find important when engaging with people online.

SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T ALL ABOUT CONVERSATIONS
Content is an important corner stone of engagement as deeper conversations and sharing can start to happen around relevant content. It can be in many different forms; internal, external, videos, links, photos, quotes, presentations, white-papers, case-studies, opinion pieces, experiences and others.

Tom Martin also shared some interesting behavioural statistics for Twitter & Facebook.

Twitter Users:
38% follow to get updates on future products
32% follow to stay informed about the activities of the company
31% follow to receive discounts and promotions
30% follow to get updates on upcoming sales
28% follow to get a freebie

Facebook Users:
40% follow to receive discounts and promotions
37% follow to show support for the company
36% follow to get a freebie
34% follow to stay informed about the company
33% follow to get updates products

http://socialmediatoday.com/tommartin/217150/social-media-isnt-all-about-conversation

WHY SHARING MATTERS
Chris Brogan writes about sharing how how it “Moves Information To Us More Effectively” and
“Adds Value To The Larger Tapestry”.
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/why-sharing-matters/

Sharing well is sometimes a hard thing to help brand stakeholders grasp.

The reason I call this space the social internet is because the amount of information available online is so overwhelming that we’re now quite reliant on friends and people we think are more clued in to share things with us.

What brand stakeholders think they want to tell audiences may not be considered shareable by fans / followers so it’s a constant effort to educate and open their eyes to understand the perspective of their online audiences.

Here are a few things shared at a recent The Influencer Project that support conversations and sharing:

- David Meerman Scott. “Stop talking about your products and services. People don’t care about products and services; they care about themselves.” -@dmscott
-Robert Scoble. “Follow better people. The better your inbound is, the better your output will be. And your output is what people follow.” -@scobleizer
- Joe Pulizzi. “Create content that stands for something: what I call Higher Purpose Content Marketing.” -@juntajoe
- Robbin Phillips. “It is not about digital. It’s about people. It’s about passion conversations, not product conversations.” -@robbinphillips

60 great insights from The Influencer Project shared at Copyblogger so do check out the full posting here: http://www.copyblogger.com/increase-influence-online/

I suffer from a symptom called “greedy eyes”. There really is so much out there that I want to read and watch but there isn’t really enough hours in a day for me to do this.

I have a habit of “favourting” tweets I think are useful for reading later and through my time on Twitter … this Favourites list is rather long. Trying to go through the many things I marked, I came across this great TED Video which I wanted to share.

Here’s my 15 second pitch for this video:

In under 5 minutes, I had 4 take-aways
- reddit
- reminded about the internet being a place for fun
- reminded about letting go
- I should try to have more fun when I’m presenting

Have a look.

Alexis Ohanian :: How To Make A Splash In Social Media

Some pics I took as I was looking for Zsofi Tapas Bar along Dunlop Street. It’s nestled in Little India so the sights, sounds and smells were really rich and unique. I love the old school style shops that take me back 20 years to a simpler time

There were about 10 people when I arrived and it was nice chatting with @ceezedby and watching her handsome little boy run around all curious and energetic. Tweeters from SG kept constantly streaming in through the rest of the night. Think I counted 40+. There even was another group of 6 pretty women with @sm7catscan celebrating their friend’s birthday who didn’t know there was a tweetup. They considered it their first so I included them in the count as well.

It turned out to be a pretty packed night. Was great meeting so many people and being able to put a real person to twitter IDs.

The food & drinks at Zsofi’s is tasty too. A decent vegetarian selection is offered so @dipalbhagde and I managed to have some good eats. Thanks @belindaang for organising and choosing a great location.

Loved the wall art as well. Looking forward to the next SGTweetUp!

Had a chat with Kazumi, part of a group of Japanese girls new to blogging, who makes up GeishaBabies. She asked for some advice on blogging. Thanks for thinking I’m a “pro” Kazumi but I just do this as a hobby and hope what I share here is interesting and helpful.

Kazumi of GeishBabies

Here are some things I shared:

1) Objective
A clear reason for blogging will help focus your posts and what you share.

Some blogs are very focus in their topics like nature photography, scuba-diving, digital marketing or cooking. Other blogs are more personal in nature so the posts range from personal updates to opinions of the blogger about various topics.

Personal blogs attract a very different following consisting of friends and people who identify with you. More topical blogs will attract people who are interested in your topic if you share things that are interesting and useful.

Once you decide on an objective, it’ll be clear to readers what they can expect when they visit your blog.

2) Share
Share what you know, your experiences, your knowledge, your point of view and whatever else you think might be interesting to your readers.

For personal blogs, the sharings tend to be more personal whereas topical blogs tend to be focused on your experiences, opinions as well as tools, tips & guides on the topic.

If you have something unique to share, like tips and guides to help other trendy young Japanese women settle down and live an exciting life in Asia, of if you can share what’s hip and happening in Japan with your Asian friends, that could make your blog really interesting to follow.

3) Read & Participate
Being part of a HUGE blogging community, reading other blogs will teach you many new and interesting things too. Different bloggers have different ways of sharing so there’s much to read and learn.

Participate by leaving comments or referring people via Twitter or your blog to interesting blog posts. You know what it feels like to get a positive comment so when you like something, do not be shy to let the blogger know.

4) Let People Know
Don’t be shy about letting all your friends know you’ve posted a new entry. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, or when you talk to friends. If they like your post, they’ll refer it to their friends and what you share will reach more people.

5) Tools / Widgets / Gadgets
Use tools like Google Analytics on Blogger or Blog Stats on WordPress to track visitors, page-views and other traffic details. That will help you know which kinds of subjects and posts are most popular.

Add Widgets / Gadgets like:
- twitter to your blog so your visitors can find out more about what you are doing
- poll to ask your visitors simple questions to find out what they think

There are many more to add and its usually very easy to do so. Don’t be afraid to try things. Instructions provided are usually easy and if you run into problems, you can always ask your blogger friends for help.

6) Don’t Be Disheartened
Building up a following and getting comments does take time so be patient. Honesty, sincerity and having your own “voice” when you blog will attract visitors so continue to share and you should see visitors increasing. Once they are comfortable and familiar with you, some may start commenting.

When you get comments, you may get a few negative one. Don’t let that upset you too much. The easiest thing to do is to criticize, especially online. So long as your posts are honest, sincere and truthful, don’t let negative comments discourage you from blogging.

There are lessons to be learnt from all comments so look at the positive lesson and move forward telling yourself you will do better.

——————-
Hope these simple tips help you get started and I’m looking forward to reading more of GeishaBabies.

Here’s a guide I share with new account servicing teams who join my company, Paprika. These are methods of working I’ve picked up through the years and working styles I‘ve come to value and see in individuals that stand out.

The following areas are covered:

A) A MOMENT BEFORE WE PLUNGE IN
Given the pace of work and the lack of time seniors in the industry have to mentor new account & client servicing teams, it is easy to get caught up with project work so much so that you end up “running around like a headless chicken”.

Make a constant effort to stop and ask yourself these questions from time to time.
a. What role do you serve as client services?
- Are you a messenger carrying messages back and forth or do you contribute more?
- If your role is a messenger, isn’t it easier for the client to speak directly to the creative team?
- Do you help clarify and adjust the needs and requirements according to what you think is best?
- Do you check work before sending it to the client to make sure its accurate and correct or do you just send it through without looking at it? Do you catch mistakes or do you let mistakes reach the client?

b. Are you a problem solver in the client agency relationship?

c. Is it a true relationship you are in or is it one-sided?

d. How much initiative do you have?
- Do you wait for deadlines to be missed or do you chase both your colleagues and your clients to meet deadlines set?

e. How much time do you spend on keeping your skills relevant?

f. How much time do you spend on learning new things?

The greater your ability to solve problems, the more your colleagues and your clients will rely on and respect you.

The better you understand your client and be able to get a sense of what they will approve / not approve, the greater your value as an account servicing person.

The more time you spend reading, surfing, watching, listening, testing and playing with new technology, the faster you’ll grow in this industry.

A piece of advice I’d like to offer is that communications is not about drawing lines. It’s about integration across all lines (ATL, BTL, POSM & Digital), all disciplines (PR, CRM, events & communications) and all channels that a customer engages with.

Times are changing the dynamics of our industry and we’re fast moving away from advertising to communicating and engaging.

B) OUTLINE OF WORK AREAS

C) THE BASICS OF ACCOUNT SERVICING
1. Organisational Skills
2. Time Management
3. Written Communications & Presenting Information
4. Relationship Building

D) BEYOND THE BASICS
1. Watch, Listen, Read & Understand
2. Communicating
3. The Art Of Presentation
4. Knowing Which Buttons To Press
5. Difficult Clients

Jermynisms’ Account Servicing Guide (PDF-188KB)

Let me know if you found this useful.

So I’m signing up wit Technorati and this is the code they asked me to put in as part of claiming my site:

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Wait a couple of minutes after you insert the code and your blog status will be updated to claimed. That’s when you move to the next step of updating your blog’s details and tags which looks like this:

Once you’re done, you need to get your blog to ping Technorati every time there are updates. Follow the instructions and cut the code by following the screen shots to set this up on WordPress: