Telstra: We pulled out of Second Life to follow our customers – mUmBRELLA

Despite having withdrawn from Second Life, Ganschow argued that brands need to plan that any social media presence is long term, rather than just for the duration of a campaign. Last year also saw Telstra close its Now We Are Talking blog at short notice. However, Ganschow said that Telstra will now stick with any social media iniattives it launches.

She said: “It’s a courtship, not a speed date. It’s like having a great party and inviting your friends and come midnight kicking them out.

“Having learned what we now know, we will keep every new launch live and active.

“We get bored long before our customers have even woken up and worked out what our message is.”

Meanwhile Nielsen’s director of analytics Mark Higginson warned agencies against raising client expectations about what social media can deliver. He said: “If you set up the expectation that buzz will equate to sales, clients will go away inappropriately optimistic. We need to keep the lid on over inflation of hype. Otherwise we’ll be in the same space we were where everyone wanted a viral video.”

And, Nick Love, executive director of business development at Fox Interactive Media conceded that the company’s MySpace had lost its way. He said: “In the bad old days of MySpace, we grew into silos and failed to innovate and as a result we are where we are today.”

He predicted: “In two years time we will be talking about how MySpace has become an integral part of the entertainment space.”

read more via Telstra: We pulled out of Second Life to follow our customers – mUmBRELLA.

Web Ink Now: Social business beyond just the marketing department

Many will be aware of my keen following of David Meerman Scott – below is an excerpt from his blog relating to business social media – something that many people keep asking me… the distance between the US and Asia Pacific is only based on hours in flying time – yet even whilst many companies are checking out social media in Asia Pacific the steps are small.

Social business beyond just the marketing department – by DM Scott

It seems there are three phases of development as an organization matures its social business:

1 Fear and distrust of social networking and a culture of saying “no” to tools like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. I’d say this is where 25% of companies are right now.

2 Putting a few people in the marketing department “in charge of that social stuff.”This is where more than half of companies are today.

3 Developing a social culture throughout the organization, including social business in each department. Less than 25% of companies have matured to this stage. IBM is there. The U.S. Department of Defense is too. Many others have written on this theme.

Just this weekend, I found these posts: Jeff Bullas asks: Who Is Winning At Social Media Marketing: Ford or General Motors? Jeff talks about how Christopher Barger at GM and Scott Monty at Ford are leading the way in social media. I’ve travelled to Detroit to meet with both and have video interviews with Christopher and Scott. I can say with certainty that both of GM and Ford are pushing social business down into the organization.Also writing on this theme is Peter Kane who asks: Why You Don’t Need Your Communications Team? Peter asks who’s important on the communication front? Customer service representatives? Sales departments? The $10 per hour worker on my floors? Peter answers his own question by stating the obvious: All are. All are new marketers.

Read nore : Web Ink Now: Social business beyond just the marketing department.

TweetPhoto Gets More Social With Facebook, Twitter, And Foursquare

APLINK says – This is good news for foursquare users and businesses implementing foursquare strategies as currently image uploads are not available.

First launched back in April 2009, TweetPhoto has been steadily building out its service with multiple useful features, including Foursquare integration and a partnership with Kodak. Today, the site is getting a huge overhaul with more social features and a new iPhone app.TweetPhoto has now added the ability to sign in with Twitter OAuth, Facebook Connect, MySpace OAuth and Foursquare OAuth so that a user of any one of these social networks can use TweetPhoto as a stand alone photo sharing service. The site will also be rolling out LinkedIn support in the next few weeks. In addition to login capabilities across all four of these services, TweetPhoto users can also link these social networking accounts together. Once you link your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace , or Foursquare accounts on the site, your photos uploaded to TweetPhoto can be simultaneously broadcast to all of the networks.

via TweetPhoto Gets More Social With Facebook, Twitter, And Foursquare; Launches Better iPhone App – washingtonpost.com.

Plan Mixer – Make Your Plans Come True

New Social Platform: Discover instantly if your friend’s plans are the same as yours….

Plan Mixer is a free service for you to share your plans with anyone and everyone. You can also search locally for new friends by plans.

Discover instantly if your friend’s plans are the same as yours without having to scroll down or going back to previous page(s) which is a waste of time

· You can mix your plans with your friends by clicking ‘MIX’

· Search locally for plans and not just new friends

· You also have an option to find a date based on the car/bike he (or she) drives

· Search Plans and find out where is the buzz and how many planners are planning…

How does it work?

Each time someone in your friend’s network visits your profile or their homepage, it shows a list of plans and comments that are left on plans. You’ll also notice people in your network using thumbs up and thumbs down as their opinion about the plan. This will help you discover what your friends think about your plans. One can search for new friends and/or plans using the search module and find out whose going where, whose doing what, etc. You may want to know whose going to be at your local theater tonight or you want to simply find a golf buddy because you don’t already have one.

On Facebook, if you type a status update (or plan), your friends can’t really keep track of it. The news feed spins every few minutes. You have to either go to your friend’s page every time or click back to read previous posts.

Example: If you post: Watching Avataar at AMC this friday! (And if your friend John posts: Watching Avataar this weekeend at AMC). Instantly you both will see each other’s pics under your respective plans. You don’t have to search for ALL plans by ALL your friends to see if anyone else maybe at AMC or not. You can simply find out by posting your plan and seeing.

The box where you type a plan understands what you type and shows you results based on what you typed, if there is another friend who has similar plans. You don’t have to go on every profile to read the plan and you don’t have to scroll down and keep clicking back or older posts to see if someone has a similar plan. Let me give you 1 more example: Jeff posts: Eating at McDonalds in San Francisco! (Your friend Tom posted: At McDonalds in Central London). Tom will show up under Jeff’s plan and vice versa. You can then beat your curiosity by seeing someone else is doing the same (has the same plan) as you.

There is also a ‘search locally’ feature which will allow you to search for plans and give you an option to MIX with your friends and/or RSVP for new friends. Of course, for this feature to be effective or to use, users would need to have plans in their box for Plan Mixer to provide them with search results based on their plan search.

Example: If you are clubbing at Rupee Room in Singapore, you would want to know who else is going, You can simply type ‘Rupee Room’ in the search locally box and it will show you the results of all those that are going to be at the club (if they typed that keyword in their plan box). You can then change your mind because you couldn’t find any Hot/Cool people or actually you may want to RSVP to go on a date with him/her.

www.planmixer – Join now!

Asia’s Next Top Model – SUPERMODELME

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO JOIN

Think you have what it takes to be a supermodel? Be watched by thousands of people all around the world and work with Asia’s best. The next season of SUPERMODELME.tv will be bigger, bolder and better! Season 2 is now open for auditions, and the world gets to cast you so make an impression you could aslo win $20,000 CASH!

Requirements:

Age:16 to 25 years old
Personality:Confident and Outspoken
Spoken Language:English
Nationality:Anywhere

Interested parties need only submit 2 profile photos (1 face and 1 full body) to participate in the first round of auditions.

Round 1 Closing Date:March 31st, 2010

Round 2 Closing Date:April 30th, 2010

Profile Photos:

• Note:Your photos will be uploaded for viewers to judge the 1st round of Castings. Successful applicants will go through to the 2nd round of Castings.
• It is recommended that a camera/camera-phone with at least 3 Megapixels be used.
• Image resolution should be at least2048 x 1536 pixelsfor optimal image quality.
• Image file size should not exceed 12MB each.
• Image file may be inJPG or TIFFformat.

Are you ready to submit your application? Click on the button below!

Click here for alternative means of submission.

Have some questions? Check out our F. A. Q. page.

Salesforce Rolls Out a Facebook for Businesses – COPYCAT

Will it WORK ? in the past APLINK has worked for mammoth companies typical of that which SALESFORCE really targets and from this experience i would forsee that these companies would now have new job roles avaialble for “Chatterboxes” to keep Chatter ALIVE. facebook’s survival & growth is based on largely passionate chatting people. In commerical ebvironments these Chatterboxes will need to be PAID. – on a final thought – is SALESFORCE now copying not leading ?

Today Salesforce.com has announced the private beta for Chatter, which will be rolling out to 100 companies now before officially launching later this year. I had a chance to talk to Salesforce.com and get a demonstration of how Chatter works. For businesses looking for a collaboration solution, this could be a big winner.

Built on the Existing Force.com Infrastructure

What makes Chatter such an interesting concept is that for Salesforce.com customers, it builds into the existing platform. So for businesses that use the SalesCloud or ServiceCloud applications, this fits right into that solution seamlessly.For small businesses — and for larger or more spread out operations, too — having your collaboration tools integrated into your CRM system makes a ton of sense.

Works Like Facebook, Built for Business…

read more via MASHABLE Salesforce Rolls Out a Facebook for Businesses.

Social Media turning Marketers into Media Companies? by Dr. Harish Kotadia | Dr. Harish Kotadia

As more marketers use Social Media channels for engaging their customers and prospects, it is becoming obvious that they will have to take on additional responsibility for not only creation of content, but also facilitate sharing or distribution of content through Social Media channels such as YouTube. Some notable examples of this approach are:

* Johnson & Johnson (J&J) – Baby Center.com

* Procter & Gamble (P&G) – Home Made Simple

* Walmart’s Money Saving Tips on YouTube

* American Express Small Business Blog Network

* Geek Squad YouTube channel

* Charmin Enjoy the Go

This raises an important question: Should Marketers behave like Media companies when it comes to Social Media? If yes, what additional skills will be required by those in the marketing department for this new task. And what is the role of an “agency” in this new “set-up”?

read more via Social Media turning Marketers into Media Companies? by Dr. Harish Kotadia | Dr. Harish Kotadia.

Recruit.net Blog » Recruit.net launches Philippines Job Search Engine

Recruit.net are pleased to announce the launch of our new Philippines job search engine (www.recruitnet.ph) The site has over 25,000 job listings from hundreds of companies in the Philippines.

With approximately 24,000,000 internet users and only a 24% penetration of the total population, the Philippines is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in Asia.

The Philippines also boasts a highly competent and globally mobile work force that will benefit from the Recruit.net network of global job search engines.

Recruitnet.ph is a result of continued requests from our users to launch our service in the Philippines. So please please keep the feedback coming in.

via Recruit.net Blog » Recruit.net launches Philippines Job Search Engine.

Feature Interview: Matt Booth Of Room 101

The Singapore Tat2 Convention 2010 held last month was a blast as we had fun making new friends and knowing more about their industry. One of them was the good people from Room 101. plussixfive had the opportunity to have a chat with Matt Booth, Founder of Room 101, as he shared with us his take on the industry, inspiration, and possible ventures into Singapore. Read the full interview below.

The Interview

Is Room101 looking to expand its brand to Singapore?

We’re interested for sure. I think the quality and level of retail and presentation here is top notch, I mean on a global scale.

When you design your jewellery, where do you draw your inspiration from?

A lot of the inspirations behind my designs come from sculptures that I’ve seen from Japan and Noh Theatre (Traditional Japanese Theatre), masks, Buddhist deities and sculptures outside of temples. But you know, my executive collection is all geometric shapes, patterns, things like that. More contemporary, modern contemporary.

So do you do a lot of travelling to places like Japan and Thailand because of the Temples that they have?

I’ve seen temples in Thailand, but their sculptures are different. Every country kind of represents the same characters differently. And I definitely connect more with the Japanese representation.

Read more of the interview here: plussixfive | Online Magazine for Fashion, Lifestyle, Art, and Culture Within The +65 State » Feature Interview With Matt Booth Of Room 101.

Poker Run Singapore 2010

Happening March 14th 2010 be there….

Poker Run is a term derived from organized motorcycle events where riders would travel over a prescribed course and, at designated stopping points, be given randomly-selected playing cards. At the end of the poker run, the person with the Best Poker Hand wins the Top Prize.

When some folks hear the words “Poker Run”, they think of go-fast motorcycles travelling at Break-neck speeds. Lots of noise, big bikes with big engines – you get the picture? They think it requires speed – and lots of money. In fact, POKER RUN is not a race and you might be amazed just how low-key, relaxing, and inexpensive it can be.

The type of Poker Run which I will be introducing requires a fee to enter, which provides a way of getting lots of people to have fun and to win prizes. Bike owners will participate in their own bikes and others can ride along with them and participate in the fun as well. The day will begin with a “check-in” station. At that time, money will change hands on the 1st Checkpoint to cover the costs of any prizes – and other possible food and programmes. I will also be distributing an introduction pamphlet of the Poker Run area with all of the Checkpoints marked and times of key events included.

As the day progresses, the bikes will travel from Checkpoint to Checkpoint, collecting more playing cards at each Checkpoint. At the end of the day, I’ll score everyone’s poker hands and determine a winner with the best poker hand.

Poker Run Singapore 2010.