Virtual reality more real? Nah..

The virtual world makes the entertainment more entertaining. Imagine that on Valentine’s Day, you can design a virtual girl according to your girlfriend’s appearance and make her a self-designed necklace for gift. I believe this would definitely surprise your girl...at least for me :)! Or put that in a business application level, think of a clothing company send you a birthday gift through email which is a virtual you with their latest outfit to make you look like celebrity, will you be able to shop at the store again?

This entertaining feature could make relationship much closer. In terms of business perspectives, by leveraging this relationship marketing strategy, marketers can increase customer satisfaction thus boost repeat purchase rate.

However, on the other hand, I think technology also drift people away.

In Second Life technology, we can go to class, travel everywhere in the world, and explore everything maybe we do not dare or we cannot do in the real world. But we are losing the affinity and connection. Imaging that if you can see the Great Wall in front of a screen, we cannot be as much amazed and shocked as you see them in person. If we as human being who still have emotions and feelings, for those people we meet or do business in second life, will we be able to talk to them in person? Or more importantly, will you trust them when it comes to business?

Just like I can talk to my family and see them through Skype, but ultimately I still want to go back home to see them, hug them. I do not believe the virtual world can someday replace the affinity between people.

The best times｜The worst times

We live in the best times and the worse time!

Technology makes us easy to access to more data as well as post information on the internet. We are exposed to all the unjustified or disorganized, and maybe untrue date every time when we google. Based on Lawrence Lessig , Keynote for "Speech, Privacy, and the Internet", Lawrence mentioned the next generation, those kids who use internet since little, would be more triangulating, skeptical compared to the older generations. They do not register until information is confirmed.

Really?? I doubt it.

I lean more toward “The dumbest generation” observation.

I do not think that younger demographics are capable of critical thinking by facing so much fragmenting data. They are used to skimming articles or using Ctrl+F to find key words that they need. I do not see any in-depth digesting process happening as far as I understand.

The popularity of internet also causes an important privacy concern: the data survives forever. Once your profile being uploaded, it will be pulled out by all means someday. This sounds really scary to me! I am not sure if those young kids are aware of this issue while no matter what they post will be staying on the internet forever.

“Education” seems to play a more important role in the future. The kids will have much more tools to be exposed to the world than we do right now. They need to be taught and encouraged to think in different perspectives in their early stage. They need to be taught to be more responsible for their behavior and decisions.

The technology brings easiness as well as challenges. We all live in the best but the worst times.

I can't help but wondering...

I finally personally experienced the strong power of Facebook.

I am hosting the first Annual Taiwan Film Festival in greater DC area. After I created an event page for this festival on Facebook, one day I got an email from my friend saying that a journalist of HK Phoenix TV (the top three TV station for Chinese audience) is very interested in reporting this event and would like to interview me briefly as soon as possible.

I was amazed by how the words can be spread out though social media. However, it is not good enough to have this social media tool to extend your networking; it matters if you try to expose yourself to the public as many as possible to have a chance to reach out a good networker.

I was not very close to Iris, the girl who connected me and the reporter. The first time we met when we were both ushers at a banquet in October 10th 2008. We did not become friends on Facebook until she recently recognized me on February 14th 2010 Chinese New Year Dinner Event.

I can’t help but wondering what if I did not go to the banquet in 2008? What if I did not have a chance talk to her on that day? What if I did not attend the Chinese Dinner Event? Will everything be the same like now?

The Savvy Networker by Liz Ryan mentioned one thing reminds me most: Networking isn’t hard! No, it is not hard. However, you can’t network simply for networking. It should happen naturally and sincerely. Just as how Iris and I met, I definitely did not know she would help me so much on doing publication for the Film Festival. Although building relationship is a long way to go, the return will ultimately happen someday – at some point when you might really need it.

Is this world getting nuts?

Those flash mob videos drive me crazy.

I feel that all the passengers on the street are being used by their craziness. Their shocking expressions are recorded and then the video is uploaded to YouTube or other social media for marketing purposes to generate the buzz. I admit that there are still some commending ideas coming out from the marketers to propagate good moves.

However, like “As seen on screen 'Carp' by Barry Yourgrau” mentioned, most of the videos from mobile marketing are “crap”(which I totally agree)! I figure since the internet costs nothing; it is so easy for marketers to take advantage of this communication tool. As marketing in heart, I cannot help but wondering: Does those crap videos add value to their brands? Does what they do be consistent to their brand positioning? Does the buzz help boost the sale?

If anyone of the answers above is “Yes”, then my next question will be: why is mobile marketing successful? Does “funny” always sell? Or “making fun of others” sells? Or just because people nowadays are getting nuts as long as something new can be sold?

I hope the mobile marketing can be inspired more high-quality and meaningful ideas in the future.

Father, I want to confess...

I feel bad. I am a dumb.

I rely on the spell check so often that sometimes when I hand write some English words or Chinese characters, I need to type them in Microsoft Word and ask for help from spell check.

I am so used to web searching that I want to get the answer in a second. I would be impatient to a lengthy article. Based on my habits, I usually skim through main ideas. And even sometimes, I would use Ctrl+F to find the key words which locates the part I want to search for information.

I sometimes process thinking in pieces because I absorb incomplete information.

I need more time to finish a logical sentence, to analyze an argument, to see analogies, and to distinguish fact from opinion.

I feel sometimes it is easier or more comfortable for me to talk with unfamiliar friends through g-chat, messenger, text messages, or Facebook wall post than in person. Technology somewhat shorten the distance?

I feel panic sometimes if I do not get the responses quick enough from my friends, boy friends, or family. The feature of the Web -“efficiency” heavily influence on me. I forget the beauty of “waiting”.

It is scary to face the ugly truth but it is also great to diagnose myself by confessing in front of you. I know where I am now and now I know where I want to go.

Thank you, Father.

So you think you can blog?

Why is Word-of-Mouth so important? Think about why you bought a Stila’s lip gloss based on your friend’s recommendation rather than being convinced by the ads? This secondary communication has been transformed to online communications. Consumers rely on more online reviews or “blogs” to understand and get familiar with a brand!

I used to work as PR. Generally speaking, from the corporate perspectives, PR profession is not as valuable as Marketing‘s (although PR is one of the elements of Marketing’s, sometimes companies do separate these two functions). PR is all about building “trust” and “relations” but not paying for brand communications. Cultivating, sustaining, and improving “long-term” relationship with all external stakeholders is the core value of PR. With that in mind, one press conference or exposures on newspaper cannot guarantee the linkage to immediate business sales. Just like the contradiction that high brand awareness≠high sales revenue. This concern gets even worse especially during economic downturn.

I have been always thinking about the glass ceiling of PR. However, “word-of-mouth marketing” may re-leverage PR expertise.

One successful corporate blog should be long-term committed, engaging, more personal touch, and authentic. Just like PR, these approaches are more I called it “soft sale” (i.e. conversational & informative) rather than “hard sale” (i.e. advertising). Corporate blog is one of the tools for companies to build up relationship with their current and potential consumers. This virtual conversation is getting more powerful than personal one due to the change of consumer behavior. Consumers’ impression on preferable brands has been highly influenced by how corporate blogs interacts and involves with Web users.

But of course corporate blog is not a medium to release press release. This is not a place to deliver top-down message but a bottom-up operation. The audiences are no longer the press or consumers but the companies’ “friends” - sharing interesting points, discussing future trends, and engaging the conversation. Just imagine you are talking to your friends, what would you do? Trust me, consumers can feel the differences. Nokia’s blog is a very good example to show its caring and commitment.

Only one thing that I am not sure about the corporate blog so far is its effectiveness. Back to my previous point of the relation between PR and sales, I can't help but wondering if an interactive and highly-visible blog ultimately generate more business?

Let “Prosumers” tell you the stories…

The contents of three hot Web2.0 Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook are composed of people from all over the world's contribution. Jeff Howe, Editor and the author of CROWDSOURCING, introduced the new “crowdsourcing” phenomenon on a YouTube clip to indicate that consumers’ involvement has altered companies business model for innovation. In the past, companies counted heavily on consumer behavior studies to communicate and market to the end-users. But now, utilizing the new crowd “prosumer” (prosumer = producers + consumers) might be an even more down-to-earth and creative way for business to sustain competitive.

Inspiration comes with stories and people like to listen to stories. I think one of the reasons that crowdsourcing becomes popular because almost everyone is more likely impressed by stories from your family, friends, neighbors, or maybe someone who lives in another continent but share with the similar thoughts and feelings like you do. From the psychological perspectives, people tend to pay attention to things that are more relevant to them. Now, crowdsourcing make common people like you and me to speak out and share those stories to the world. We may be not special or famous but seems like some small thoughts brings bigger meanings.

Crowdsourcing is also an excellent approach to build up a successful, long-term customer relationship. If the ultimate goal of marketing is to communicate with the consumers, what other strategies can be better than letting them speak out? Two-way communication not only shows the company cares about their consumers but also helps it to gather consumer data and even observes consumer preference to predict trends.

I feel that no matter how the technology moves forward, at the end of the day, communications matter that how personal-touch this business/company/brand is. Interaction, involvement, caring may be always important…