Posted by HT on February 17th, 2009 in
Biz Topics,
CS3216 
Singaporeans are not the only kiasu people around. While we can boast of the Bubble Tea phenomena, the Hello Kitty queues and the Donut craze (among others), the herd mentality as a result of “kiasuism” seems to also be present across the world.
Within the last few years, the Facebook explosion and $1.65b buyout of YouTube have gotten everyone crazy about social media. This is no different in Singapore, with the greater use by and coverage of social media news through media companies giving it exposure to the average citizen. Organizations too, have began jumping on board, evident through the increase demand for Social Media consultancy, and the many organizations that pitched with a Facebook Application idea in an attempt to get developers to work on them.
Big Problem though: Social Media is NOT for everyone!
As such, I took some time to compile 7 of the most important things an organization should know before wanting to get onto Social Media (or get a Facebook App for that matter).
1. Focus on Channels with your Audience
Social media is just a MEDIA. Similar to traditional campaigns, pick and choose the media where the target audience can be found and USE THAT MEDIA. There is no point being on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube & Flickr at the same time – there is no such thing as diversification of “risks” by being on all these media.
2. Tribes vs. Eyeballs
There is a need to choose if a campaign is to get as many eyeballs within a short period of time or to build a community around products and services. Having a cool application or social network or YouTube video is nice, but what is the business objective? To have a tribe of fans around products (e.g. Macrumors.com)? Or perhaps just to create buzz around that product?
3. It’s not about what you want
Social Media is not about pounding advertisements down people’s throats, and there is no way to “force” a community to develop. In order to meet the desired social media objective, value must be provided to the community that the organization intends to reach out to.
4. Social Media might not be Cheaper
Whopper Sacrifice might have been cheaper to do than a whole page advertisement on Wall Street Journal, but how many failed Internet campaigns have you seen? In addition, once a community is built around a product, how much future money is to be spent maintaining the community?
5. Get an Expert & Leave it to them
Similar to how campaigns are left to PR and Marketing Consultancies (unless you have the expertise), it may make more sense to leave social media work to the experts. These are the people with the latest Social media news, religiously check Twitter, and love contributing to online communities. Spend time doing what you’re world’s best in, give a direct on where you want to go with social media, and let these people work their magic.
If one has all these thought out properly and still want to pitch about a Social Media idea, then I have great news for you. Through the experience thus far from the CS3216 module, all you need is a Good Developer with Passion for the idea, and the idea can be done on ANY platform. Be it on Facebook, OpenSocial or any other platform, magic can be done within 3 short weeks!!
Tags: Business Lessons, Facebook, Social Media
Posted by HT on January 24th, 2009 in
Biz Topics,
CS3216,
NUS On Wednesday, after helping NOC do a pitch to a lecture with many Sophomores, Juliana (NOC staff) asked me for my opinion on the following topic: “What makes Stanford special?” In summary, my response was that while in the graduate and post-graduate levels, there seem to be more opportunities for cutting edge research, in the undergraduate level, things are not all that different from other (good) universities. However, its alumni base, locality and special programs (such as STVP) provides a slight advantage that compounds over time to make it special. 
A day ago, this was highlighted in a huge way on Techcrunch.
Before I go on, for those who don’t already know, let me explain what Techcrunch is. TechCrunch is a blog (mostly) about Web2.0 products & companies, started by Michael Arrington, who is one of Time’s Top 100 World’s Most Influential people in 2008. With over 1,808,000 web feed subscribers, mostly in the Web2.0 industry, the companies featured in Techcrunch often get a million users overnight just by being mentioned.
So yesterday, I saw a post titled “Stanford Students Release A Cool Batch Of iPhone Apps”, which was also had links to a prior post that I have seen before about the Facebook Apps released by Stanford students. Granted that the course is a year adrift from the posting about the Facebook Apps post, but seriously, the portfolio of the previous CS3216 course seems way way cooler, I mean, just look at it! There’s a collection of applications that might actually help you do something, instead of the super-poke-type applications.
However, here’s my point. The Stanford courses are featured on Techcrunch, which in turn is a guarantee for a instant jump in number of users. Talk about solving Cold Start strategies. (By the way I’ve heard Web2.0 entrepreneurs pitching to VCs with the marketing plan being “Get featured on Techcrunch”.) While head-starts do not necessarily make you more successful, but this, and other introductions and recommendations in the Valley, are the unfair advantages available exclusively to Stanford students. Leveraging on this to achieve greater successes, makes Stanford special.
Now that things are demystified, we can make NUS equally if not more special. Can’t we? 
Side-Note: Facebook might often be mistaken to be “out-of-fashion”, but given that the website is still growing at a stunning 10.8% to 222million uniques in December08, the opportunities are still endless!
Tags: Marketing, News, Social Media
Posted by HT on May 14th, 2008 in
Lectures/Podcast Growing an Entrepreneur
Lessons:
1. Try, Fail, and Learn, Grow – Try Fry Cry
a. Find Your Passion (What are you good at?)
b. Hang on the edge of your comfort zone
c. Failure Teaches Fast
2. Social Media use to network, build your identity and try out projects
a. Facebook – Launch Tool, Events, Fan Pages, Podclass.com
b. Twitter – Follow people in your field of learning
c. Blogs – i) Start your own blog ii) RSS Feeds of people in your field iii) Find advisors
d. Organize Local events – i) Meetup.com, barcamp.org, mobilemondays, wikiwednesdays, startupdinners ii) Volunteer for events to surround by smarter people where you can learn
3. People, People Technology
a. Find your team
b. Find your team style
c. Find your team, Style your team likes
d. Find your team, Style your team, Likes that breeds success
Info about Sudha
Ignorance to breed success. The first woman to raise venture capital in the New England states. 120 people and met in 40 days to get first million. She didn’t know about it, might have been scared off if she did.
Advices
When you think about what you don’t know, get to know it.
A milestone to live and die by – measurement of success.
Its about the people. An important milestone – find people.
The more you try, the luckier you get
When you know how to do something, get someone else to do it. Go find something else to do
Practice scaling and “doing business for others” as an exercise
Marketing to Students – Facebook Marketing
Hand around and find or create a group to network with people
Find local meetups to evangelize to people, these people have the local knowledge on the market
If you don’t ask busy people exactly what help you need, they can’t help you.
One Lesson: “Find Great People. Not just people who mean well, but GREAT people who can help”
Always be looking at the people, give a chance to people
Growing an Entrepreneur
Lessons:
1. Try, Fail, and Learn, Grow – Try Fry Cry
a. Find Your Passion (What are you good at?)
b. Hang on the edge of your comfort zone
c. Failure Teaches Fast
2. Social Media use to network, build your identity and try out projects
a. Facebook – Launch Tool, Events, Fan Pages, Podclass.com
b. Twitter – Follow people in your field of learning
c. Blogs – i) Start your own blog ii) RSS Feeds of people in your field iii) Find advisors
d. Organize Local events – i) Meetup.com, barcamp.org, mobilemondays, wikiwednesdays, startupdinners ii) Volunteer for events to surround by smarter people where you can learn
3. People, People Technology
a. Find your team
b. Find your team style
c. Find your team, Style your team likes
d. Find your team, Style your team, Likes that breeds success
Info about Sudha
Ignorance to breed success. The first woman to raise venture capital in the New England states. 120 people and met in 40 days to get first million. She didn’t know about it, might have been scared off if she did.
Advices
When you think about what you don’t know, get to know it.
A milestone to live and die by – measurement of success.
Its about the people. An important milestone – find people.
The more you try, the luckier you get
When you know how to do something, get someone else to do it. Go find something else to do
Practice scaling and “doing business for others” as an exercise
Marketing to Students – Facebook Marketing
Hand around and find or create a group to network with people
Find local meetups to evangelize to people, these people have the local knowledge on the market
If you don’t ask busy people exactly what help you need, they can’t help you.
One Lesson: “Find Great People. Not just people who mean well, but GREAT people who can help”
Always be looking at the people, give a chance to people
Tags: Branding, Business Lessons, Marketing, Mentorship, Social Media