PasikBlogan #5: Ang Karangalan ng Pilipinas sa Social Media

PasikBlogan Challenge #5: A Different Tongue

Blog in a language/dialect that you typically don't blog in.
If you typically blog in English, now blog in Filipino (or your own dialect). Kung karaniwan kang mag-blog sa Filipino, gumamit ka ng Ingles o Cebuano.

Naawatam? Quamo mi paqueman? Anggapo la. Jaaaavid! ;-)


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Pinili kong mag-blog tungkol sa pasksang ito dahil sa kanyang pagka-angkop sa itinakdang madlang babasa nito.


Simula nang nailabas ang Google+ ng higit kumulang na ilang linggong nakaraan, ang paglago nito sa 24 milyong gumagamit sa buong mundo ay isang di pangkaraniwang pangyayari, lalo na't kung ikukumpara sa paglago ng Facebook at Twitter na kinailangan ng tatlong taon para maabot ang ganitong estado.


Alam ng marami na nasa listahang Top 10 tayo sa mga bansa na pinakamaraming gumagamit ng Facebook sa buong mundo. Ngunit sa Google+, ang India ang kitang-kitang nangunguna sa mga Third-World na bansa, at sila ang may pangalawang pinakamaraming gumagamit ng Google+ sa ngayon.

Ang aking pangunahing katanungan ay ito: hindi ba nararapat lang na layunin nating mga Pilipino na masali din sa Top 10 na bansang gumagamit ng Google+? 


Ano kaya ang pumipigil sa atin para maabot ito? Dahil ba may-kapit sa atin ang Yahoo at mas malakas ang Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail at YM, kung ikukumpara sa katapat na produkto ng Google sa bansang ito? Dahil ba nahihirapan tayo sa konsepto ng Circles kung ikukumpara sa Friends sa Facebook? Dahil ba mas mahilig tayo mag-Like, tulad ni Lola Techie, at nalilito tayo sa +1?


Bakit? Bakit?




Lola Techie, paki-explain nga po:

From Mashable: Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook

A new eMarketer report shows that the number of Baby Boomers embracing social media, especially Facebook, jumped drastically between 2008 and 2009.

In its Boomers and Social Media report, eMarketer takes a look at social media adoption among different generations. Results showed that while the percentage of Millennials maintaining a social networking site profile was fairly consistent from 2007 through 2009, the same cannot be said of Baby Boomers’ social media usage.

According to Deloitte data, 2009 was the year that social media bloomed for Baby Boomers, with nearly 47% of them actively maintaining a profile on the social web, which is up 15% from 2008. Further driving home that 2009 was the year of the social BB is the fact that from 2007 to 2008 there was barely a measurable change — just 1% — in that demographic’s adoption of social media.

Boomers also love Facebook far more than other social media sites, with 73% of the group claiming to maintain a Facebook profile, while only 13% have taken a liking to Twitter. We also find it somewhat shocking that only 13% identify themselves as active LinkedIn users. One would think that given their place in the professional world, Boomers would we more active on the professional site.

For another quirky finding, take a look at the percentage of “Matures” — individuals between the ages of 63 and 75 — who use Twitter regularly. Seventeen percent is actually quite high when you compare it with the percentages of the other demographic groups. Also of note is that nearly all the Senior social media users (90%) have picked up Facebook as a new hobby.

It should come as no surprise that the digitally connected youth are the most socially active, with data showing that 77% of Millennials and 61% of Generation Xers maintaining social media profiles. Social media profile maintenance may not be on the rise for these groups, but that’s likely because they’ve been familiar with the web as a social platform for several years now.

You can take a look at two of the telling charts referenced in the report below:

Friendster Buzz: Recently Bought by Malaysian Tycoon Vincent Tan

A certain Malaysian tycoon, Vincent Tan, has bought out Friendster. I first saw the news from Dexter Panganiban's blog entry on TechAtHand.net. Mr. Panganiban quotes from the original press statement on Yahoo Finance:

Tan's online payment systems business will buy 100 percent of Friendster through an affiliate company, according to a joint statement Thursday.

The two companies will be combined so Tan's business empire can sell content such as games, movies, music and other products to Friendster's 115 million members, using his company's electronic payments system. Tan's businesses include retail franchises in Southeast Asia such as Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Borders, Krispy Kreme, and Wendy's.

The price for Friendster wasn't disclosed but the combined entity will have annual revenue of about $110 million.

"We are creating a unique company that will be well positioned to provide content to a huge, regional user base here in Southeast Asia," the statement said.

MalaysiaKini.com provides a bit more detail:

California-based online social networking pioneer Friendster has accepted a buyout from MOL Global, the companies announced today, saying the site would shift into e-commerce.

The Friendster blog confirms all this and adds:

"The merger with Friendster will continue to transform the social networking industry, combining a highly intuitive and successful social media site and online marketing channel with an integrated payment platform and content network which includes games, goods, gifts, music and video. We are creating a unique company that will be well positioned to provide content to a huge, regional user base, here in Southeast Asia,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, president and chief executive officer of MOL.

MOL uses the leverage of a network of over 500,000 physical and virtual payment channels across 75 countries worldwide to collect payments for content and services. Its core markets are Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India. MOL has relationships with over 70 online game publishers that have a suite of over 200 online game titles. It also has partnerships with music, movie and video content owners and distributors across the region.

“Friendster and MOL are both industry pioneers and are close partners. This combination is a natural progression of our relationship and will be an industry-changing event,” said Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster. “The new combined entity gives Friendster the kind of financial backing, retail distribution, and e-commerce infrastructure that will enable us to accelerate our strategy and create a locally relevant, fun experience for our users in Asia, both on and offline."

Could this be the driver of Friendster's relaunch on "Connecting Smiles?" Will the relaunch and/or Mr. Tan's acquisition bring new life to the seemingly stagnant social network?

I have my doubts. But anything can happen nowadays. Who expected two years ago that Facebook would reach 7.0+ mio Philippine users, and become both the number one social network & number one social network in the Philippines that it is today?

From AdAge Digital: Search 3.0 -- Ey it's Social Netowrking!

It's only been a few months that I've started getting into search optimization and search marketing. I'm learning a lot in the process but I'm learning that there's more to learn. Just when I was getting the hang of metatags, keywords, rankings, pay-per-click, and Google Analytics, AdAge Digital drops a bomb: search has gone beyond search engines!

My interactions with the Google Asia team also taught me that the link to traditional advertising and a brand's online properties is search. Consumers' response, after seeing a billboard or ad, is to go online and search for additional information about what they've seen. I believe this, and this is the reason I believe in search marketing more than online display advertising. You get a better response from a consumer who actively looks for you online rather than interrupting someone who's mind is checking out his social networks or chatting away online.

What experts are realizing is that netizens are not only going to search engines for this. Gone are the days when you need to rely on anonymous information from the general online public (search engines, public forums & reviews). Because netizens are so connected to people they know via social networks (and this extends to instant messaging, email & blogging contacts) they tend to tap into these networks to "search" for information. And more often than not, somebody volunteers it. Trust tips the balance. And it's this trust that marketeers have to learn to hone if they want in.

Happy reading!

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What Social Media Means for Search

It's Not Just What's on a Page or Who Links to It; It's How It Relates to Users' Personal Networks

by Peter Hershberg 

Published: March 30, 2009

Peter Hershberg

A young woman in Chapel Hill, N.C., wakes up sweating. Her air conditioner has died. She knows she wants a new one, but she wants one that will be energy-efficient, easy to install on her own, reliable and not too expensive.She hops online and types, "I need a new A/C today; I have $250 to spend -- help!" into Twitter, which in turn feeds automatically into her Facebook status. She immediately begins to receive replies in both channels from friends with advice on retail outlets, air-conditioner brands and how to stay cool with no A/C. She also sees an @ reply on Twitter from a national big-box retailer letting her know its Chapel Hill location has new air conditioners in stock, as well as a link to the section of its website that shows air conditioners for under $250.

This is the new face of the "search" experience online. The separation between search and social media is melting away, and a new paradigm is taking hold. Finding the right content is as much about whom it comes from as where you find it. By building a network of credible sources via social media, we're able narrow our "searches" to a select group of people whom we trust.

For brands, this means a host of new challenges and opportunities are emerging beyond the traditional search channel.And how far it's come: When search began, marketers used paid search and SEO to make content findable on their own web pages.

SEARCH 1.0

The first wave of search engines was focused on pages and the content within them. They ranked results based solely on the number of times a particular keyword showed up in the page content or meta data.Of course, that method proved relatively easy to game by embedding high-volume, high-demand keywords such as "Britney Spears" on a site over and over again, regardless of whether those keywords were actually relevant to the content on the page. Such unethical, "black hat" methods irked quality marketers and brands and frustrated consumers who struggled to find relevant information.

SEARCH 2.0

With the launch of Google, the focus shifted to the network. Google looked at not just the content of sites but also the links among them, which established authority. Under its PageRank concept, links were "votes" for particular pages. Quality also became important -- how relevant a site's landing page was to the search query.While links alone are helpful, Google proved it's also useful to have context, to know who's linking to the content and why. And just as Google values certain links and content over others, you may value what your friends/colleagues are doing differently than the activities of random people on the internet. That's where social media begins to change things.

SEARCH 3.0

In Search 3.0, relevance is determined not just by what's on a page and what surrounds that page but how that data relate to your personal network. As more and more people connect to each other through social networks, the resulting social graph is proving extremely powerful in helping users filter the data coming at them.

We're already seeing this play out in some of the sites and services many of us use today. Sites collect specific types of information and let their users filter and search that information based on their personal networks.

Twitter started as a way to issue personal status updates to your friends, but is morphing into a search engine that allows you to tap into the "now" -- what's going on now? What's the groundswell of sentiment around a topic?

Facebook began as a way to see more information about people you were going to school with. Now it's become a way for friends to share interests by becoming fans of brands and lifestyles and posting articles, opinions and information.

In many instances, these sites have started to surpass Google for specific information searches. When you look for video, do you go to Google first or do you go to YouTube? (Demand for video content has made YouTube the No. 2 search engine, ahead of Yahoo.)When you want to learn about someone you've met or are interviewing for a job, do you go to Google first or do you find out if the person has a LinkedIn or Facebook profile?

So what does this shift mean for brands, marketers and advertisers?

If 1.0 was about making sure the information within individual pages of your site could be found, and 2.0 was about making sure your site was optimized within a network of related sites, then 3.0 is going to be about finding ways to reach individuals by using their social graphs. That means reaching people where they're already sharing, linking, publishing and tagging, and becoming another node on their social networks by interacting with them and adding value to their experiences online.

Full-service search engines aren't going to go away; they still serve a very important centralizing role. Ultimately social-media properties such as Facebook and Twitter will be indexed by the major search engines on a more regular basis, filling the need for "real-time" search and offering more-relevant content.But as traditional search begins to converge with social media, a robust presence in and understanding of social media will be a requirement of marketing in the Search 3.0 universe.

The three kinds of online connections

Marketers need to be aware of the different types of personal networks emerging through social media

DIRECT CONNECTIONS: People who are connected based on the relationships they've built in the real world. This is the hardest network for marketers to get into, because it implies some level of connection and trust.

INTEREST GENERATORS: People who don't know each other personally, but share an interest or perspective. On Twitter, these are the people you "follow." They may or may not reciprocate your interest, but you filter based on your desire to hear more of their voices.

EXPERIENCE SHARERS: Other people who have done something you're interested in, whether it's someone who bought a book you're interested in, someone who stayed at a hotel you're considering or someone who has tested different air conditioners. The interest/connection is fleeting, but it's often much farther down the so-called "purchase funnel" and can have a big impact on sales.

From AdAge Digital: How Two Coke Fans Brought the Brand to Facebook Fame

Here is where I start: an article from AdAge Digital I got thru their newslettter. Enjoy reading!

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the Brand to Facebook Fame

Soda Has Most Popular Page After President, in Collaboration Between Creators and Marketer

by Abbey Klaassen

Published: March 16, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Pop quiz: Who has the most popular page on Facebook? Barack Obama. Who's second? Coca-Cola. Yes, sugared water runs second only to the leader of the free world. Who was it again that said people don't want to be friends with brands?

Coca-Cola still remains perplexed over why, of the 253 pages on Facebook devoted to the beverage, Messrs. Sorg and Jedrzejewski's page is the only one that has amassed millions of 'fans.'

The Coke page, which totals 3.3 million "fans," wasn't even created by Coca-Cola, but by a pair of Los Angelenos who just love Coke.

In late August 2008, aspiring actor Dusty Sorg was hunting for a Coca-Cola fan page he could join on Facebook. He didn't find one that seemed legitimate so he hunted down a high-resolution digital image of a Coke can, uploaded it to Facebook and made a page.

Popularity a mystery
And the page grew. And grew. There are 253 pages on Facebook devoted to Coca-Cola, but for some reason, Mr. Sorg's page -- which he runs with his friend Michael Jedrzejewski, a writer -- took off. The guys weren't sure why theirs ended up with millions of fans -- Facebook fan pages, at least last year, were relatively static, and the guys said they had been pretty inactive on it as they got busy during the winter holidays.

And most people can't actually do that much with branded page -- unless a brand is putting dollars behind it. Which Coke didn't.

Coca-Cola still remains perplexed over why Messrs. Sorg and Jedrzejewski's page took off.

"We've discussed a dozen hypotheses about why it took off," said Michael Donnelly, director of worldwide interactive marketing at Coca-Cola Co. One theory the company keeps coming back to, he said, was the quality of the photo -- a crisp, high-resolution image of a Coke can covered with a thin layer of condensation. "For us as marketers, luckily it was exactly right -- the can we had in the marketplace. ... It grabs you." He said another theory is that Messrs. Sorg and Jedrzejewski had very active, expressive "social graphs," i.e., their network of Facebook friends. But "we can't measure that," he said.

Facebook Page Statistics -- Top Pages
	Name	# of Fans	Daily Growth Rate	Weekly Growth Rate
1	Barack Obama	5,881,499	0.10%	1.45%
2	Coca-Cola	3,287,101	0.19%	2.93%
3	Nutells	3,052,502	0.18%	2.98%
4	Pizza	3,005,922	0.20%	3.52%
5	Cristiano Ronaldo	2,730,570	0.23%	3.93%
6	kinder surprise	2,581,651	0.18%	3.13%
7	Facebook	2,492,881	0.27%	4.22%
8	Windows Live Messenger	2,469,402	0.13%	2.75%
9	Sid	2,409,639	0.17%	3.25%
10	Boo	2,343,221	0.20%	3.95%
Source: AllFacebook.com

Problems with the page

As the page picked up fans, it also racked up spam and obscene comments -- issues that can plague many large pages on the social network. In November, Facebook decided to start enforcing a policy that says anyone creating a branded Facebook "page" must be authorized by or associated with the brand. Independent Facebook users could still create homages to brands, but they must live as a "group" or fan club.

"The problem was they had created a page, not a group," said Mr. Donnelly. Facebook made the decision to either close the page or let Coca-Cola take it over. Coca-Cola instead proposed an alternative: Let the creators keep the page but share it with a few of Coca-Cola's senior interactive folks.

"We threw a variable to Facebook and said we're interested, but we'd rather walk away from it than have it be perceived that we caused this action," Mr. Donnelly said.

Over the December holidays, he got in touch with Messrs. Sorg and Jedrzejewski to explain to them that this was a Facebook-driven change, and asked if they'd want to join him in administering it.

A friendly approach
Now normally when a giant multinational company calls a consumer about something the consumer has created in that company's brand name or image, it's not a good sign. And initially Mr. Jedrzejewski said he was worried about it.

"Everyone has this vision that if something like this happens, the big company will send you off to Guantanamo," he said. "This was exactly the opposite."

Coke instead flew the guys down to Atlanta for a few days of meetings, a tour of the World of Coke museum and a visit to the company's legendary archives. It was a friendly, not heavy-handed approach, Mr. Jedrzejewski said.

"We talked openly about ideas, the future of the fan page," he said.

Coke's actions in sharing the page are indicative of not only the lessons the beverage giant has learned in the social-media space but also proof that big brands can tread gracefully in social media.

Coke's progress
The company has come a long way. Its initial reaction to a Diet Coke-Mentos viral video sensation in 2006 was that the stunt didn't fit the brand's personality -- after all, people are meant to drink Diet Coke, not use it to make geysers. Now the company appears to be more at ease with its consumers creating content on its behalf -- and it's largely eschewed a destination-centric philosophy as it has recognized that its expressive fans are everywhere.

Mr. Donnelly recounts how in the early days of the web, big marketers would define success by how much traffic came to their websites -- and they've only recently become comfortable with the fact they can deliver a message through gaming, rich video and other places across the web. The same thing happened in Second Life, when marketers busily built islands, or destinations, within the virtual world. And it's a natural tendency in social networking.

"This page is a fan page and happens to be the biggest one, but we recognize that when you do a search you see 253," he said. And when it comes to communities, they recognize they need to ask advice, counsel and permission before engaging. "We don't want to be a big brand there doing big-brand advertising."