SlideShare:SouthEast Asia Digital 2015 Q4

Digital, Social & Mobile in Southeast Asia in 2015 from We Are Social Singapore

From SlideShare: Activate Tech and Media Outlook for 2016

Activate Tech and Media Outlook 2016 from Activate

You will never make money on apps and messaging is the fastest and biggest growing online behavior.

Infographic: 2013 SEM Landscape

I am a firm believer in SEO and SEM. I don't think local marketing people consider SEO very important but this infographic seems to show that there are a lot of big business into SEO worldwide.

2013 SEM Landscape infographic

Digital Marketing Stats

These data aren't local data (Philippines) but it gives a good insight on the potential of digital worldwide.

Social marketing gurus reveal how to go on a Digital Marketing Blitz

Social media insight across APAC's big 5

Business analyst Nielsen has developed an excellent report covering digital landscapes and social media usage across APAC five biggest markets - Japan, China, India, South Korea and Australia.

The report is a definite recommendation for anyone with an interest in digital within these markets - the PDF version is available here free of charge - and is part of a larger series of resources from NM Incite, a joint social media intelligence offering from Nielsen and McKinsey, details of which can be found here along with addition reports and data.

You can see the full article here.

What is Crowdsourcing?

Quote of the Day: How the Wealthy Got That Way

"Generally speaking creating enormous fortunes is a simply a side effect of what people really want to do, which is create enormous organizations. Most of these [wealthy] individuals had a vision about the way some activity ought to be done. In order, to make that vision a reality they created an organization to do it."

--Economics blogger Karl Smith on the decision of 40 billionaires to pledge half (or more) of their fortunes to charity. (Via The Browser.)

Today is the day, right now is the time!

If you're not inspired to do something why do it at all? As mentioned in all the talks I've posted, you have to be passionate about what you do. I think the problem is people don't really listen. "The Secret" is a secret not because people don't know about it's but because they don't listen or they don't believe in it.

I'm not exactly in the best situation right now but I believe that I AM in the BEST situation right NOW. It's just a simple mindset. Here's a short inspiring video on having the proper mindset an living a full life despite having seemingly less. I've posted this twice on my Facebook but I feel the need to post it constantly because people have the tendency to forget that everything is in their hands...

Here's 2 articles from Mashable.com which can help in you online strategy

1. 6 Online Tools for Expanding Your Video Strategy
2. Top 20 Sites to Improve Your Twitter Experience

Advertisers should really start utilizing web videos as a strategy whether just placing their commercials on the web or actually creating materials for the web. Nestle has actually started doing this by implementing youtube campaigns. You don't need to pay to place on the web and videos are a really good selling tool. One of the most successful online video campaign was implemented by 'Will it blend?'. Internet was the only medium they utilized and they generated a huge amount of sales from this campaign.

Utilizing Twitter is still a little tricky for me. Since it easy to set-up and link to Facebook it usually a standard when implementing a social networking campaign. The real hard part is actually using your Twitter as a marketing tool to push sales. It's not that easy to build a following on Twitter - this is why that article above would be a good resource.

5 Tips for Aspiring Social Media Marketers

Here's the article from Mashable.com and below is my quick take on it applying it locally.

1. Join Social Media Meet-up and Networks - to get this started follow well known bloggers on Twitter and Facebook, introduce yourself, sometime they are very willing to help new bloggers or online marketers out

2. Make Relationships Not Pitches - this is really the essence of social media marketing, relationships and nurturing these relationships. This would have a tendency to open up opportunities for people

3. Stay Informed of Tools, Trends, and News - research, everything is already available on the internet

4. Find an Online Balance Between Personal and Professional - a little tricky especially for your Facebook, blogs and Twitter accounts can be separated easily though

5. Make Your Resume Standout - especially if you're looking for freelance jobs, all your blogs and web presence should really be good and stands out. This is what I need to work on, I have to push traffic to my site so please visit regularly and often.

Click here to view the article.

Top Facebook User World Wide

Here's a quick look at Facebook users world wide broken down per country re-posted from Yugatech. Based on this the Philippines has 14.6M users which is effectively 15% of the population. Just to put the growth of Facebook into perspective this was just about 3.5M in May 2009. I am just wondering if they include Fan Pages in the count as users.

If this growth continues it may (maybe has already) overtaken Friendster as the no. 1 social networking site here in the Philippines. That's just based on numbers though, Facebook is still THE platform to do your marketing programs from. If you're asking about Multiply....I'll just say Facebook.

Twitter has a lot os users locally and based on worldwide trending anything that happens here easily becomes a top 10 trending topic. It's just a little tricky to use Twitter as a main platform for online marketing programs.

Click here to see the table.

5 Lessons to Learn from Web Start-ups

Here's another cool article from Mashable.com - 5 Lessons to Learn from Web Start-ups

1. Your company culture can be fun - I personally think that having fun and being happy at work should be part of any company's mission and vision statement. I believe that happy people are more productive. I even believe that you choice clients that you are happy working with. It's really no use working in an environment where you are unhappy. We shouldn't look at work as a means to an end but a journey that we should enjoy.

2. Work can done anytime anywhere - with portable internet connections and laptops people can now literally bring work with them anywhere. In fact, we can even consider virtual offices in the near future where office teams just meet as necessary to save on office space rental. Working from home saves both the company and the employee a lot of money. A certain degree of maturity though is needed for this model.

3. You don't need a lot of money to have a good time - As the cliche goes money doesn't buy you happiness. Since start-ups don't have the funds you really have to get the best of the resources you have.

4. It's ok to change your mind - Sometimes the best laid plans are the plans you didn't make but the circumstances that just worked out for the best. Life and circumstances sometimes push you where you need to go, as such you have to be fluid in your plans and be able to take advantage of all the opportunities that will come along your way. I don't believe in lucky breaks. I believe that luck goes to those who pursue opportunities and because of this good breaks follow. Embrace change for change is the only sure thing.

5. A small risk can return a great reward - well in fact some people don't really risk that much at all. A lot of bloggers just actually started writing and as their followers grew and opportunities opened up they decided to jump. Some of them have actually more rewarding lives right now. People who come to mind are Anton Diaz of 'OurAwesomePlanet.com' who gave up a lucrative career in P&G to work full time as a web start-up. The web has opened the opportunity for people to to follow their passion and live more fulfilling lives. Now I ask the question....are you happy where you are right now?

How Social Media Has Radically Altered Advertising

It seems to me that advertising agencies here in the Philippines are quite slow to adopt to the digital medium. Either they are blind to the new trends or they simply do not what to learn what is out there. Ironically, most of them are probably on Facebook following their favorite brands being affected by social media without being aware of it. There are a lot of potential to mesh the traditional with the digital but they simply haven't considered it. I guess the shift from the brand to the consumer is quite difficult to fathom.

Here's a great article about 'How Social Media Has Radically Altered Advertising'.

5 Social Media Trends to Watch Right Now - from Mashable

Here's the top 5 social media trends to watch right now:

1. Location based social networks and platforms
2. Group buying
3. Mobile Ads
4. Mobile Payments
5. Having a social media policy

Items # 2 and 3 may not yet be relevant to consumers here in the Philippines but as for the others I think it's just a matter of time. I think location based platforms are just gathering critical mass before it is utilized for main stream marketing but there are a lot of potential projects for these and i think it's just making brand more aware of what can be done with such applications.

I currently have a platform for delivering mobile ads unobtrusively and I think it really just a matter of time that brand jump into it. I feel this is sooner rather than later. To me I think it's just a matter of having the first client to run a campaign. Hopefully, my company can close a deal soon and implement one of these campaigns.

The here and now is having a social media policy. In fact, I just developed guidelines for a clients Facebook page. Since this medium is quite new I tell them that we also have to be flexible and learn along the way. This also extends to the management of their web presence and how we need to connect both to make it work best for them.

Here's the complete article.

Yahoo Insights Page

Here's a link to Yahoo's Insights page where you can get some case studies for digital campaigns implemented on Yahoo (maybe online in general). I haven't actually downloaded stuff from it (time is quite scarce) but I post items like these on my blog for a reason - so I can go back to it.

Maybe I'll place some case studies of my own in the near future...

Pitching to Venture Capitalists

Here' a good video on how to create a pitch to venture capitalists. He doesn't like like he has a great personality but he sold his ideas so we gotta listen...as I always say you can't argue with success (most of the time).

Another Example of a Viral Campaign

Sometimes I just randomly follow people on Twitter (a pretty face is always a good reason). Julia Roy was one of those follows and apparently she's a big blogger (at least I think she is) in the US. Regardless whether she is a big blogger or not I get a lot of good stuff by following her. Here's one viral campaign I got from her - Influence Project. I guess it's goal for the user is to see how big is your online influence. By clicking the link from her Twitter she probably increased her online influence. You'll do the same for me if you click on that link as well. It seems though that the company behind this is gathering a good database - how they plan to use this I can only guess (another social network perhaps?). Here's a picture of the site below:

My point in this post is not only to show the viral campaign but also inform you guys that you can get a lot of creative ideas by following 'lesser' know personalities on the web. One of the more popular Twits I follow is Mashable. I learn a lot from them but it seems that I also get a lot of cool stuff from Julia Roy. The good thing about her is that she's not that well known and I can get a lot of unique ideas from her.

Now it seems that FastCompany.com has a lot of cool ideas as well. One more site to follow...as I always mention the web is your best resource for anything. Expect me to post more stuff coming from FastCompany.com soon.

Getting Business Advice from the Internet

As I'v always told my clients you can get anything on the internet, personal advice, digital marketing advice (just look at this blog) and small business tips. My blog is slowly evolving from digital marketing to small business advice. I guess this simply reflects the situation I am in right now. Yes, I am starting my business obviously it's related to online marketing simply because I've been doing this for a year and a half already. It's both fun and scary at the same time. If you're not doing anything you suddenly feel your not being productive. But I think that is the life of a start-up.

Anyway, join me in looking at these YouTube Channels for some business advice. 5 YouTube Channels for Small Business Advice.

Small Business Ideas - Top 6 for 2010

I came across this article earlier on small business ideas but first I'd like to share a video which hopefully can inspire some of you to start your own business and pursue your dreams. I went through this seminar a few years back and I still look back at my experience and at their videos to look for inspiration to help me move forward. They are the Organizational Change Consultants, Inc (OCCI) and you can checkout their site here.

Here's the video:


I'd just like to list down the small business ideas:
1. Start a blogging business (Hey, maybe I'm on the right track I just have to write more)
2. Start a bookkeeping business - not for me
3. Starting a web design business - hmmm, I'm not a designer but I can do this (am doing this)
4. Starting a wedding planning business - I think I'll enjoy this, my mom had a flower shop before but not right now and I suck in events management
5. Opening I gym - I'll charge people to use the gym on my condo. Will this work?
6. Starting a consulting business - haha! Bingo! Call me now!!!

Here's the link to the full article. I think this is applicable here in the Philippines numbers 1, 3 and 6 are the way to go.