What does touch and go business relationship mean?
It means quick business relationship and rarely leads to a long lasting healthy relationship.

Where does it happen?
It happens everywhere.

Facebook
We add friends on Facebook without knowing who they are (I made this mistake many years ago, now I have almost 4000 friends on Facebook, not even 10% of them I know).

Twitter
We follow people to hope that people will follow us. No conversation happens, just want to increase the numbers of followers.

Linkedin
We send invitations to just only want to build our numbers of connections on Linkedin without any specific purposes (I receive at least one to two invitations per day). When I reply to ask them what the purposes are for them to send me invitations, they never reply.

Blog
We comment on other people’s blogs just want to do links building but without replying comments.

Networking Events
Same thing happens to networking events. We meet, we exchange name cards, we talk for two to three hours, we go back home without following up. Following up is very important to build business relationship. What? You go networking events to collect name cards so that your children can play card games?

This is the problem that we face in today’s world. We are too easy to connect. A simple click can connect anyone. Unlike in previous day, to build business relationship, we need to make calls to meet and when we meet, we really build deep and genuine business relationship.

I learnt it from a Linkedin top author from Belgium – Jan Vermeiren, the author for How to REALLY use LinkedIn. He has written a blog article about sending and accepting LinkedIn Invitations - My Personal Policy Regarding Accepting LinkedIn Invitations. In order to build business relationship him, you must make sure he knows, likes and trusts you. He is definitely right.

I don’t understand, do big numbers of friends, fans, connections and followers help in your businesses when you don’t even talk to them, know them and trust them?

When you want to build long lasting relationship, make sure you have something to offer first without expect any returns – Napoleon Hill. If you keep grabbing from friends, sooner or later, you have no friends can grab for your benefits.

If you need help in building relationship on Linkedin, you can contact us now.

In social media world, it seems a lot of people want to be social media heroes. But if you don’t know two skills below, you are just another social media victim who does something stupid to hurt people.

Know how to judge

From my experience, people (regardless of Baby Boomer, Gen X or Gen Y) just accept everything other people post on social networking sites without judging the information is true or fake and real or not real. They have problem in how to judge.

This is normally what happens. A person (the one who want to be a social media hero) post photos, videos or texts (sometimes they twist the real stories or created their own story) to attack companies or people on social networking sites. Those people who without judging skills start commenting on his/her wall post and share the post all over internet. Some of them don’t even care to find out if the post is real; all they want is to be part of post.

If people don’t know how to judge on social media, sooner or later it will become habit and become countries’ problem. How to make judgment is very important for our lives, our businesses, our families and our countries, otherwise it leads us to disasters.

Know how to use Freedom

I saw people posted their naked photos or even videos, I saw people posted bullying videos, I saw couple fought on Facebook publicly and I saw people blog everything they want to attack people. But none of them feel shame about it. When you tried to correct them, they even fought back. The reason they give me is because this is “social media”, they can do whatever they want.

Social media itself doesn’t have any problem but it is the person who uses it. They abuse their freedom in using social media.

Yes, I understand that Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are free to use but it doesn’t mean that you can post anything online.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I disagree with government try to control internet as well, but you need to use it maturely, otherwise you are just another victim of social media who hurts other people - lose-lose situation.

Learn how to judge and how to use your freedom!

Below are some advices from Mitch Joel, the author of Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone

1st
We (as a public) seem to believe that the influence comes from the sheer volume of impressions and connections that we have in the marketplace...It doesn't. True influence comes from connecting to the individuals, nurturing those relationship, adding real value to the other [people]'s lives and doing anything and everything to serve them, so that when the time comes for you to make an ask, there is someone there to lend a hand. Worry less about how many people you are connected to and worry a whole lot more about who you are connected to, who they are and what you are doing to value and honor them.

2nd
When are we going to learn that millions of followers does not always equal influence?

Until today, there are some of the social media marketers still focusing on the numbers of fans on Facebook, the numbers of followers on Twitter and the numbers of connections on Linkedin. Some of the people would like to be social media influencers or social media heroes by attacking other people.

As Mitch Joel said, the true influence is serving people!

Listening to Public, Truly!

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had invited Malaysians to participate in the Budget 2013 discussions by contributing ideas and sharing their suggestions and views online until July 29. The public could submit their opinions by clicking on the appropriate place on the latest posting on Najib's blog, www.1malaysia.com.my, under the topic "Budget 2013: I Want Your Views".

I think this is a good move but not good enough. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak should have setup a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter and Linkedin group t gather all the opinions. Allow Malaysians have more way to access to contribute their ideas. This is especially true for Linkedin.

Even though Linkedn has only 5.09% penetration of Malaysian online population (compared to Facebook has 48.18% penetration of Malaysian online population). Linkedin has the largest audience of affluent and influential professionals. A lot of them are decision makers in the market. They would be more willing to share their constructive ideas on Linkedin compared to Facebook because Linkedin is professional networking site while Facebook is too personal for them to share.

This is especially important with the recent rise in the crime rate in Malaysia (fact from crime report and hearing public announcement).

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak could have a group of people to engage Malaysians on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Malaysians would feel respects if they know their opinions are listened.

 

Take Action after Listening

Listen is not enough without taking any action. I understand that Budget 2013 really can’t satisfy everyone but one thing for sure, we need safer place to live.

We use the same example above, Malaysians do need more secured and safer place to live. For Budget 2013, allocating fund to policemen is not good enough. How to use that fund to make our beloved country a safe place to live is the key question.

I have setup a group called KL Social Media on Linkedin and posted a question how to combat crimes (this is how we listen). Rowela Isa (Channel Marketing Manager - AsiaPacific & Japan) for Dell suggested that

1. Create a group that would be publicly available, something like "Spot that Criminal" group kind of thing.
2. Let everyone post their experiences, or even photos if they were able to capture the face of criminal would be so much more helpful.

While Dr. Pierce Wong suggested we use http://www.malaysiacrime.com/ to monitor crimes. Getting know where crimes happen is not enough, but take action immediately to combat them is the key. Policemen should have special unit 24 hours per day to stand by in high crime rate area. After received call, Fan Page, Twitter and Linkedin updates, they can immediately take action to hunt criminals down.

If you have any great ideas on how to combat crimes via social media, please visit our Linkedin group through http://lnkd.in/ignaeH.

When I first get the digram above, I was totally shock on how many social networking sites that I still don't know. So far I only familiar with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Foursquare, Blog and the latest Pinterest.
I told myself that I don't have to know and use every single one of them for social media marketing. It is waste of time and money since resources are limited.

So, how to determine which social networking sites are suitable for you? We talked about this topic before the factors - marketing goal, age, population, gender, behavior, etc. But today we are going to use another two very important factors - Relationship Quality and Relationship Quantity.

What is Relationship Quality?
Relationship quality is strength of a relationship in between two people or more. The closer your relationship with one person, the higher quality (strength) of the relationship. Generally, you have higher strength of relationship with your family members compare to your colleague. It takes times and effort to build a high quality of relationship.

What is Relationship Quantity?
Relationship quantity is number of connections you have in your network. Generally, a sales person has higher number of connections compare to a programmer.

Maintaining both high strength and high number is physically impossible. It takes time to build quality relationships and time is a limited resource. You need to find a proper balance in between quality and quantity to determine your social media market.

Let say if you are a financial planner and sell financial products, you definitely need high quality relationship with your customers so that your customers can trust you in handling their money to you. The higher the number that you handle for your customer, the close relationship you have to build. In this case, Linkedin and Twitter are your social media market. From relationship point of view, Twitter and Linkedin are definitely better than Facebook. Especially on Linkedin, you can easily add any person (restricted by Linkedin) and you need to get approval before you can get connected. While on Twitter, you need to be very creative in using 140 characters to build close relationship. It is very challenging compare to Facebook.

But if you have a online shop sells clothes, your strength can be much lower but your number has to be much higher. Customers land on your website, click buy and pay, and then you deliver the products. You don't have to build a high strength relationship. In that case, Facebook is your market.
Take time to think again what kind of relationship your company with your customers, choose the right social media market to avoid wasting your time and money.

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Need help in doing internet marketing in Malaysia, why not contact us at 017 24 30 307 (Kent) or via contact form

Most Malaysians prefer to watch videos rather than reading text, this is very true. And that is the reason why video marketing is very important. Below is one of the examples we proposed to use start video marketing to help my customer to engage their fans.

My customer runs beauty saloon in Malaysia. We started by blogging beauty tips and tricks. But the response was not so good until we used video to engage their fans. As you can see the graphs from Facebook, the viral reach incresed 655% only in one day!!!

I have to say, video marketing is very effective to use in Malaysia. But bear in mind that your video should longer than 2 - 3 minutes because people is getting impatient.

Below is the video that generate the viral reach.

 

Until today, there are still a lot of companies in Malaysia don't trust social media marketing works. They shouldn't be blamed because they don't understand what social media marketing is and a lot of so called experts make it very complicated.

Let me make it simple by illustrate two images below.

Pre internet age, what people look fo solution, products or services, they make calls,to friends go through yellow pages, talk face to face, etc. That's why we advertise on TV, yellow pages, billboard, banners or distribute flyers, etc. Conversations flow offline.

But in Internet age, we search our products or services on search engines, we post our problems on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social networking by using computers, tablets and mobiles phones. We look for solution online rather than refering the yellow pages. Conversations flow online. AND THAT'S SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETERS JOB TO CATCH AND LISTEN TO THOSE CONVERSATIONS. We need to listen and understand them like what we do offline, we need to join their conversations, we need to provide solutions.

Social media marketing is not only about setting up a Facebook account or Twitter account. Or keep posting content. It is about listening to your customers, search for conversations that related to your industry online, understand them, join them and provide them solution.

So, if you do the same thing for offline, why not online? Social Media Marketing is even more targeted (search for keywords that people mention online) compared to distributing flyers offline. And, if you do customer service offline, why not online when your customers now don't make call to complain (doesn't mean you do a great job), but post on Facebook to complain you?

Don't get me wrong, I don't 100% say that offline marketing doesn't work, but I believe it is time for you to start thinking about social media marketing, especially your customers are young generation.

Yes, social media marketing does take long time. Malaysia has almost 70% internet penetration rate and almost 13 millions of users on Facebook. So, your customers are online now to look for your products and services and even make complaints, don't wait! :)

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Need help in doing internet marketing in Malaysia, why not contact us at 017 24 30 307 (Kent) or via contact form

No doubt that social media marketing is a must for some companies to engage their customers, especially for Business to Consumer (B2C) companies. There are many ways to increase Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans. We can buy followers and fans, we can ask someone to join or even force people to join, but the question is, are those Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans targeted? You may fool people with the NUMBER of followers and fans, but the most important thing is conversion rate (convert followers and fans to become buyers).

So how to build targeted Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans? My answer is Social Media Dashboard - Hootsuite.

Hootsuite has a strong search function to search Social Networking Sites  - Twitter and Facebook with your keywords.

Let me show you one example - Malaysia Lego Club.

Malaysia Lego Club has a Facebook Fan Page, I have talked about this in the previous post - Social Media Case Study. Today, I am going to share with you how to use Social Media Dashboard (hootsuite) to increase its Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans.

Have a look the image below, we use Legoland Malaysia as a keyword to search who is talking about Legoland Malaysia to engage them and draw them to become Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans.

Click the image to enlarge

As you can see, once I searched the keyword - Legoland Malaysia. Hootsuite helps me to shortlisted all the conversations that have the keyword - Legoland Malaysia for Twitter and Facebook.

All I have to do is join the conversation, get to know them and engage them. In the conversation, we ask them to become our Twitter Followers and redirect them to Malaysia Lego Club Facebook Fan Page. As you see the graph below after we started Twitter Marketing Campaign.

We only talk to those who are interested in Lego, Legoland, bricks, etc. So that our Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans are highly targeted. We help Malaysia Lego Club to expose its brand to Malaysians. One thing you have to remember, never do hard selling when you do your social media marketing. People really hate that. :)

This is only one of the ways to increase targeted Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans. There are many ways which I am going to share from time to time! :)

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Need help in doing internet marketing in Malaysia, why not contact us at 017 24 30 307 (Kent) or via contact form

 

On 30th March 2012, Facebook will launch Facebook Timeline to all Fan Pages. There are two features which can help social media marketers to help their customers to do marketing even more effectively, which I want to highlight. And it proves that with these two features, Facebook does put heavy focus on business fan page.

Pin to Top

When I first changed the old layout to new layout (Facebook Timeline), I really didn't like it. But after I discovered Pin to Top feature, it changed my mindset.

Facebook Pin to Top is a feature which you can pin any topics on your Facebook Fan Page to move to the top for 7 days. Let say if you have an event, import services and products or important annoucement to highlight, this is a great feature. Each time your users login to your Fan Page, they will see this first. This is especially useful for event.

Click here to view a tutorial how to pin your post to the top.

Milestone

While Facebook Milestone is a key moment you want to highlight in wide screen. Like the one below.

Again, if you have an event, you can highlight your event so that your Facebook users can view it. I use this feature to highlight great Lego creations from fans on Malaysia Lego Club.

Click here on how to use Facebook Milestone.

If you know how to fully utilize these two features, a new Facebook Fan Page is actually better than the old layout.

Below is an infographic shows all dimensions for different types of images from Jon Loomer Digital

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Need help in doing internet marketing in Malaysia, why not contact us at 017 24 30 307 (Kent) or via contact form

People always like to blame when come to something they don't know or they don't want to accept. Same goes to social media marketing.

I always hear people say that social media marketing doesn't work, Facebook and twitter are for youngster or it waste time to social online. I tried hard to provide them with proven result and some useful statistics that Facebook and Twitter are suitable for all level of people, still they don't want to believe them. My business is internet marketing and web development which is more to Business to Business (B2B), but I still able to close a web development project for RM40,000. Let us analyze why Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are very powerful tool to socialize for businesses.

Don't blame Facebook if you don't know how to use it

Why Facebook is getting important for your business, especially your business is Business to Consumer (B2B). According to SocialBaker, Malaysia now has 12365780 users, the penetration rate of population is 47.27%, the penetration rate of online population is 73.16%. With this figure, you know that Facebook is a huge market and opportunity for companies to get it. But it is our mindset how to use Facebook. Facebook actually is not a platform for you to sell, to make money directly but it is a platform to communicate and to build relationship.

With Facebook Fan Page, you can do your customer service (our company use Facebook chat to support our customers), engage your customers, post the latest news and events or even products and services on your Facebook Fan Page. The most important, with Facebook Fan Page statistic, you would know your market. It can be filtered by age and location. The very first thing in my mind when I use Facebook is building relationship, that's why it helped me to get my RM40,000 project.

So, don't blame Facebook when it is your fault who doesn't know how to use it.

Don't blame Twitter if you don't know how t use it

Twitter can be even powerful than Facebook from relationship building perspective. And one of the biggest advantage to use Twitter is, we can search keyword in conversations. E.g, our company in charge of Malaysia Lego Club twitter account. We search the keywords - Lego Malaysia, Legoland Malaysia and Lego Bricks Malaysia, and we join the conversations. With this technique, it helps us to build strong relationship with those who share the same interest. You can view the Malaysia Lego Club social media marketing case study here. I use Twitter to increase the engagement level, reach level and virality of Malaysia Lego Club.

So, don't blame Twitter when it is your fault who doesn't know how to use it.

Don't blame Linkedin if you don't know how to use it

Linkedin is the most powerful tool for Business to Business (B2B) companies. As I always say, Linkedin is a virtual Business Network International (BNI). Most of the management level executives are in there. If you look for bulk orders, huge business opportunity, Linkedin is best for your companies. Again, Linked is similar to Facebook and Twitter, it needs to build relationship in order to get businesses. Up to 90% who use Linkedin think it is useful.

There are a lot of groups on Linkedin, join groups, get to know more people, talk to them and build relationship.

So, don't blame Linkedin when it is your fault who doesn't know how to use it.

If you can socialize offline, why can't you socialize online? Both socializing online and offline are the same - build relationship! :)

 

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Need help in doing internet marketing in Malaysia, why not contact us at 017 24 30 307 (Kent) or via contact form