Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Social Media in Singapore

Govt to boost social media usage


After the poor performance online, lack of understanding the ground and the inability to control the conversation, the government decided that they need to do better in engagement.

"You need, basically, two people just to maintain one site, and typically, the respondents come (online, sometime after dinner). " "So it's not trivial," "Facebook is not owned by any Singapore entity; it's an entirely foreign entity and putting in the resources online in this foreign entity, it could shut off Singapore," Says the "experts"

It seems like the government experts have much fear of social media because they do not understand the medium and are unwilling to engage.

I hope they get real training and learn to listen to the public and not just censor comments and negative feedback. It is a whole mindset change and there needs to be proper policies that encourage engagement and empowering everyone to participate, so the responsibility is not on a "team" and hopefully they do not need to get permission to answer the questions raised.

I hope the executives would be willing to learn and create policies that support social media. Hopefully we can see a more vibrant Singapore in the near future.

-- Robin Low

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

RWS Woes


Resorts World at Sentosa seems to be a pretty successful Facebook page, with more than 140,000 fans, the engagement on the page was pretty spontaneous as well.

However when a post on Sept 2 on Diets of Dolphins open a can of worms!

It started a flurry of replies on the blog and Facebook Page and as the censorship and moderation starts, the intensity of the angry replies increased. This is again a good example that if they want to post something controversial (or about their captive dolphins) they have to be able to engage in the conversation.

A blog called "Marine Life Park" Blog when it is not talking and providing information on the conservation efforts of RWS, is simply a marketing blog for their new dolphin park and not informative.

I hope to see improvements and less censorship in the engagements, and hopefully, RWS can show more of their ongoing efforts in sustainable marine life education in the region.

Eventually this will become a crisis if it is not one already as I found out about this on the news.

This is indeed bad PR and bad for business.

-- Robin Low