Blog to Brand in just 6 Months!

Mrs. O is a blog that dedicated to provide information about the designers that Michelle Obama had worn and give site community a place and a voice to share their enthusiasm. The blog (mrs-o.org) was established on September 2008 and now the site changes its web-address to be mrs-o.com.

For the first five months from the initial web launched, the site has averaged of 7,300 visitors per day and over 220,000 visitors per month. Now, in FB page, Mrs. O has almost 14,000 people like the page and 7,000+ followers on Twitter.

Michelle Obama's fashion has inspired many people and this site becomes a referral for Michelle Obama's fashion as this site has been discussed in many newspapers and TV press.

In February 2009, the site launched a limited edition t-shirt inspired by Michelle Obama look and they sold more than 100 t-shirt in the first week.

It only took 6 months for this blog to become a brand. So, do you think blog really helpful in building a brand? or is it because Michelle Obama is famous and thus this blog sky-rocketing in just 6 months?

Google+ and its Billions Uploaded Photos. Does it matter?

Google+ was lauched on last June 2011. Google+ can be said as one of the successful social media because their presence in this field is just quite new and they have attracted 43 million people as end of last month.
One of their feature is instant upload in which it has the purpose to help their users to stop worrying about losing photos (losing important memories that they have created) by automating the photos to upload themselves and as in October 2011, there are 4,3 billion photos that have been uploaded.


I was just wondering whether their users really love and actively use this feature or they just don't know how to deactivate them as I read some reviews that stated the stupidity on the instant upload which indicates that they actually hate the idea of instant upload but they can do nothing to stop the instant upload.

So, does this numbers of the uploaded photos show their feature has been actively used by the users or the users just don't know how to deactivate the instant upload?

YouTube Will Release New Feature Called Merch Store!

YouTube - I believe you all have visited this web before. You can upload videos, browse and watch videos of films & animation, news & politics, comedy, people & blog, science and technology, sports and of course music and entertainment.

This week it's said that YouTube will release a new feature called Merch Store in which this feature allows users to purchase varieties of merchandise straight from their favourite artist in the artists channel in YouTube. They also announce that they have reached an agreement with Merlin, a global copyright holder that represent 14,000 independent record labels.

Last August, YouTube has upgraded their website by putting up a concert list, playlist songs, YouTube top 100.They have taken an aggressive move in upgrading their website so that in the long term that will have strong customers base in music industry.

Watch Out What You Say on Your Profile. Your Friend Can Become Your Foe!

Steve Jobs - who doesn't know this name? I believe, All of the Apple shippers definitely know this name but of course there are some people out there who have never heard of this name before. On the day when he died, the president of USA, Barrack Obama, stated that he was one of the greatest American innovators and he changed the way each of us sees the world.

He has had contributed a lot to today's technology development. The news on the passing of Steve Jobs is quickly spread all over the world and many people feel sad. Many people update their status on FB, twitting, change their display picture and even made tribute logo.

Source: http://jmak.tumblr.com/post/9377189056 (Steve Jobs tribute logo by Jonathan Mak, a 19yo in HK).

As we all know that one of his great products is MAC However, there was this one girl, without asking to uncle google, she jumped into conclusion that the one who died (Steve Jobs) was the founder of MAC-make-up-products. She Updated her FB status by saying "The MAC founder is dead? What a pity...all of the products were great".

One of her friends took a screen picture and shared it to her friends and all of a sudden it widespread and became the hot topic and a laughing stock on BBM (Blackberry Messenger) and Twitter.

So, even if social media has many advantages but it may become so scary when it comes to your own 'privacy' as your own friend can become 'foe' or make you a laughing stock without you knowing it.

Do Ads Work on Social Network?

This question suddenly pops up in my mind as I keep questioning whether ads on social network really work... Well, I know some brands that use social media have been successfully win the heart of many people and when I search around, there was one industry-sponsored study that found 22% of consumers had a positive attitude towards social media marketing but how bout the rest of them? do they find social media marketing (advertising) annoying?

Sometimes, I personally find ads on social media are just too much (annoying) for instance when I click some extremely popular videos that haven been watched millions of times on YouTube and there will be a 15secs ad on it.

How about you guys, how do you find ads on social media?

Celebrities on social media? Why is it so important?

Twitter and Facebook are the top 2 social media that people use. Twitter is all about following other people and being followed also can be used to twit and being twitted whereas Facebook is all being liked and liking others, also, commenting others and being commented.
But why is it sooo important for celebrities whom in real life already have so many followers to also establish a presence in the social media (meaning having their own profile but it was run by their publicists or staffs)?

I just can't understand why they have an account in it but was run by others...
for instance the super famous band from Korea named Super Junior and a Korean actor named Lee MinHo

What do you guys think about this?

Revolution in Advertising due to Video-hosting Sites

Long before internet is widely use by people, advertising is used by firms, mostly in broadcast, print media or out-of-door media to convey messages to their customers or potential customers for a specific purpose; so in other words, ad gives the firm an absolute control as they are the broadcaster.

However, the emerge use of video-hosting sites such as Youtube has allowed the consumer to become the broadcaster which provoke a revolution in advertising. Now, not only firms who are able to create ads but consumers are able in doing so.

The reasons on why the consumers generate their own ads are varied, for instance:
1. For the sake of creation and self enjoyment - Ipod Dance

2. Aiming for self-promotion - Iphone New York

3. Aiming to change the audience perceptions - the Starbucks Ad

Video-hosting sites such as Youtube - not only give benefits to the firms as they can promote their product/brand in it but it also give benefits to the consumers to publicise their creativity and opinions.

Twitter - One of the Best Ways to Implement Consumer-Engagement Program

Best Buy is an American electronics retailer in which they use twitter as their consumer-engagement program. They realised that service is important in today's business thus, they want to provide a service in which their customers are able to access them 24/7.  By using Twitter, anyone who has a question to them can get an answer right away, anywhere and anytime! So in other words, they use Twitter not only to promote their products/brand but also to communicate with their customers on a 24/7 basis. 

Best Buy now has 200,000+ Twitter followers. What is more, Best Buy was recognised as one of the top 25 social brands in 2009 and their consumer complaints dropped by 20%!!

Dove & The Power of Social Media Marketing

Dove - I guess most of people have heard this brand before. But have you ever seen their amazing campaign that they have done before? When I first saw Dove evolution campaign in Youtube, I found it quite amazing because the only thing that came out of my mouth after I watched this campaign was "WOW!".

Dove evolution video shows us how an ordinary girl is transformed into a pretty and glamorous woman with the help of professional team of make-up artists, hairdressers and a magic photo editor from the photoshop specialist.

Since it first posted on Youtube on 6th October 2006, the 'Evolution' film was far exceeded their expectation . The movie has attracted more than 7 MILLION viewers on Youtube, more than 30,000 testimonials about real beauty on the campaign website, it has been fuelled by bloggers who have made the film as one of the top 15 most-linked to videos and is now launched in more than 40 countries!! Most importantly, Dove succeeded in changing the attitude of people about their own and other people's beauty in just two months! Quite amazing, huh?

Can you imagine how much they save money on uploading the 'Evolution' film to Youtube compared to  their previous campaign that cost them around $2.5million..?? Well... that's the incredible thing about social media.

Child Kidnapping, Sexual Abusement and Trafficking Due to Social Network

Facebook - almost everyone has an account in it. When I personally met up with someone for the first time and become comfortable with each other, the question that (either I or that person) always asked was "do you have facebook? let me add them". The social network made by Mark Zuercgberg has won the heart of people worldwide with more than 750 million of active users.

One of the primary reasons why they join this social network simply because they want to socialise with other people. Facebook gives us lot of benefits such as socialising with people that you never know beforehand, sharing pictures and videos, entertainment, online shopping and many other. However, when it comes to socialise with people that you never know beforehand, it also becomes one of the major drawbacks.

In Indonesia, several series of child kidnapping happened last year. There were 67 Facebook-related reports of child kidnapping cases that happened between January-May 2010. The motives behind were varies from asking for ransom to deliberately abducted the child for adoption. Australia has a similar problem as there were many paedophile cases happened last year due to this social network. I believe many other countries have social-network-related problems as well.

This problem worries me a lot since I and all of you may have under-age sister or cousin or niece that might be the next child victim due to social network.

I know if you want to join this social network you need to be at least 13 years old. But a 13 years old child is still too young to understand the world's bitter reality.

What do you think they as government official, social network owner, parents or might even school teacher should do to prevent or even stop this problem??