The adoption of social media is astonishing in Singapore. As world adopts and embraces social media, the businesses in Singapore are very proactive in leveraging on social media for marketing.
With the increasing popularity of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the media has been sharing success stories of companies who have benefited from social media. As a result, many Singapore companies are very interested and want to have strategies in place to leverage on social media. In this article --
S'pore firms top social media adoption -- by ZDNet, results of a survey puts Singapore company on top in terms of social media adoption for companies at 20%, almost three times greater than the worldwide average of 7 percent.
Though there are more companies in Singapore starting to use Facebook and Twitter, many of them have not embraced the Web 2.0 tools and mentality, and most companies are broadcasting their messages, with little effort to engage in conversations. I have personally tried to @reply to some of these companies on Twitter, and a lot of them do not reply.
Some of the companies do want to put in effort initially, however, the enthusiasm dies down when they fail to get enough fans and followers. I feel that in social media, there is a constant need to learn the new rules and test the new tools as they emerge, and having a closed mind to reject help and learning may lead to failure.
Social media is also becoming a big business in Singapore with many new startups, PR companies and media houses now offering these services to their clients. In my opinion, it is great to have support from social media gurus and consultants for the start, however, a company needs to have the right policies, mindset and company culture to embrace social media for it to be really successful
-- Robin Low
