Breaking Through Website Clutter
One of the problems of traditional advertising is breaking through the clutter so that your marketing message can actually reach your consumer. When there were only 4-5 billboards along Guadalupe, they worked wonders. Now that we have a collage of images, people have the tendency to just ignore all of them unless what you put on the billboard can really grab attention. The same applies to your website. If you have so many elements flashing it in, then there’s a big chance that the website visitor will miss whatever it is you want him or her to click. Based on a lot studies published on books, a new user decides if he will stay or leave your site in just 3 seconds. That means that your website has to clearly communicate your marketing message and the desired action you want your prospect to take in a few seconds. More insights on this after the break.
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The Posture of a Leader
One of my all-time favorite books is Tribes by Seth Godin. It’s a management, marketing, leadership, and tech book all rolled into one. I appreciate Seth’s writing style a lot because it’s so easy to read yet each page is filled with so many insights and learnings that you can readily apply to life or your work. In his book, Tribes, Seth talks a lot about leadership in the advent of the internet. Let me share with you a striking paragraph that he wrote which I’ve actually printed and framed on my office wall, haha! Check it out after the break.
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Philippines Broadband (DSL) Service Provider Reviews
I made a very interesting post over at my Gaming and Technology blog, Waukster Online. The post summarizes my experience with 3 DSL connections – SMART Bro, PLDT MyDSL, and Bayantel. I made a quick run down of the pros, cons, and some comparative analysis between the three. If you still have no internet connection and you’re thinking of getting one, you might want to check out the post. Feel free as well to share your own experiences. Click here to go to the post.
Agree to Disagree in Meetings: Positive Conflict
Author’s Note: This is the first entry under the Leadership Principles Category which I shared in my previous post.
One of the things I love about the Management Committee Meetings (MANCOM) that we have at Level Up Inc. is that the room turns into a civilized royal rumble each time we discuss major issues. I really have to give it up to our CEO, Jane Walker, for allowing all the members to freely share their insights, which can be opposite of the view of the person presenting. Yes, tempers can flare up and the volume and tone of voices can also increase. However, we all understand that we agree to disagree during meetings so that can come up with the best ideas for the company. Some thoughts, experiences, and recommended reading after the break.
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Leadership and Management Principles
I’ve added a new category for the posts here at New Media Philippines. This is in response to some of the feedback e-mails that I’ve received as well as from talks with several readers and friends. I’m a voracious reader, and I’ll be more than happy to share with everyone the tips and tricks that I’ve learned about leadership and management through my personal experiences in the corporate/consultancy world as well as whatever I pick up from books and seminars.
Personal Finance Forum Blogger Event Recap
Randell with Bloggers Noemi and Butch Dado
Last Saturday afternoon, I helped organize a Personal and Practical Finance Forum for Bloggers. Our speaker was registered Financial Planner and fellow blogger, Randell Tiongson. I’d like to thank everyone who dropped by! It was a fun and educational afternoon and I was very happy with the turnout. Based on our registration, we had over 45 people who came over. I was actually expecting only around 20… good thing Randell prepared food for around 50 people. A few pictures and stories after the break.
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“Slacktivism” and Narrow-mindedness
The Stop Con Ass Facebook campaign is nearing the 100,000 sign-up mark. It’s amazing how fast it’s grown over the past couple of weeks. What’s interesting to note though is how some of the proponents of physical rallies (for the same cause) have been hitting on the campaign, even calling it “slacktivism”. Instead of embracing technology and maximizing communication channels, they turn it down because it’s not what they want to happen – which is for people to go to the streets with them. While I admire their fervor for nation building and genuine change, I’m a bit disappointed that they’re not pushing the cause online.
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Bayantel Lola Techie 30s TV Spot
Here’s a good example of a video that has huge potential of going viral. It’s a 30 second TV spot by Bayantel promoting their DSL service.
Simply Hilarious! Hahaha 
School Talk – Website for Parents, Students, and Educators
I recently helped launch a new website forum called School Talk. The primary goal of this new site is to serve as a medium for parents, students, and educators to learn from one another about their experiences in school. This is definitely a big help for young parents who are still trying to figure their way with how to raise their kid. One thing that I’m really happy about this site is that we have really good contributing writers – Francis Kong and Chinkee Tan to name a few. Check the site out and let me know what you think. Don’t forget to register in the forums! Cheers everyone!
New Value Blogs: Dennis Sy, Thammie Sy, and Randell Tiongson
Let me just take this opportunity to plug the blogs of some good friends of mine who are really adding value to their readers by writing insightful and helpful articles on various topics and niches. I really pushed these guys to start their own sites because I strongly believe that we can learn a lot from what they have to say. They’re all experts in their own fields and hopefully they continue blogging in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. Links to the blogs of a Pastor, Financial Planner, and Parenting Expert after the break.
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Blog Rollback (All the way back to June 17)
I am really dumbfounded at what just happened. Apparently the hardware of Tahanan dot Net (also known as Greymatter Unlimited), the host of this site, crashed over the weekend. That’s the main reason why the site was inaccessible since yesterday morning. Normally, I would understand but what makes things worse is that they only had the back-up for the site way back in June 17. This means that all the content June 18 onwards that was generated here, including your comments, were all lost. This includes the SEO article that I worked on for several hours (I’m trying to recover it through Google Cache as I write this).
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Facebook Stop Con Ass Movement Video Report
I made this short video just this morning to summarize what has been happening with our Facebook Stop Con Ass Movement. I’m very happy to let everyone know that we now have more than 71,000 sign-ups! Only a matter of time before we reach the 100,000 mark. To all the congressmen who voted “Yes” and have dreams of running for a national position, you just lost 71,000+ votes. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do sign-up and join our cause! Lastly, let me just remind everyone of the EB which will happen later at 6PM, Menu Restaurant, in Metrowalk. Have a good weekend everyone!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Crash Course
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the buzzword among bloggers and internet marketers for the longest time. Slowly, SEO has crept over to the mainstream and a lot of agencies, programmers, and website designers are also now in on the bandwagon. In this post, I’ll attempt to give you guys a crash course on SEO. This is not at all exhaustive, and you can probably find a lot of other good resources available online. This is really more of a summary of what I know about SEO, and how I’ve used it to drive traffic to my websites, blogs, and clients. This is free advice for everyone, check it all out after the break.
Blogger Event: Personal and Practical Finance by Randell Tiongson, RFP
Good news to all the bloggers out there. I was able to get Randell Tiongson, President of the Registered Financial Planners Institute of the Philippines, to give a free seminar for bloggers on personal and practical finance. Randell will be talking about the various financial instruments that you can invest on so that you can break out of the “rat race”. Note that this is a free activity. All you have to do is to sign-up by either leaving a comment on this post or by e-mailing me at oplecarlo@gmail.com. The event will be on next Saturday, June 27, 2PM-5PM at the Victory Center, Promenade, Greenhills, San Juan. When you sign-up via the comments section of this post, please fill out the URL and E-mail fields. Slots are limited so sign-up now.
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Cong. Roilo Golez Discusses Tipping Point
Congressman Roilo Golez is a good example of how politicians should use social media in their information drives. In the recent Facebook EB vs Con Ass, Cong. Golez was our guest of honor, and he gave a short speech on how social media can be the prime mover to drive ideas to the “tipping point”. He explains that by posting information across various platforms, you multiply the reach exponentially because it is easy for others to pass the information along like a grapevine. Watch his 2 minute speech after the break. Really good stuff.
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Measuring the Success of your Online Campaign
I recently had lunch with a good friend who works for a FMCG Company. He’s a product manager and I can really describe him as a hardcore technical marketer. We had a discussion about building micro sites to push brands online and he was explaining to me how happy he was with the success of one of the projects that he spearheaded. He said that the agency sent them back metrics saying that the micro site was a success because of the hits and unique visits it got over the 3 months of the campaign. When I asked him for the actual numbers, I was really dumbfounded. I could not believe what I just heard. The number was just… insane.
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2nd Facebook EB vs Con Ass on Friday, June 19, 2009
I just came from the meeting with the core members of the STOP CON ASS CAUSE Facebook group and I’m happy to let everyone know that the 2nd Facebook EB vs Con Ass will be held this coming Friday, June 19, 2009 (6PM – 9PM). We’re still finalizing the venue but it will probably be in one of the restaurants in Metro Walk. We’re also coordinating with the offices of some of our guests from Congress and the Senate. Hopefully we can get a few of them to attend the EB to share their insights on what happened that fateful night in Batasan. Please block off your schedule already if you’re interested in going. I’ve already made the event invite on Facebook (Click to sign-up).
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Power of Virtual Rallies and Cyberactivism
I was just reading the latest articles on the recently concluded Anti Con-Ass rally on Inquirer.Net. According to the police, this rally had the lowest turnout, around 6,000 based on their estimates. The organizers, on the other hand, claim that they had 13,000-15,000 warm bodies. You got to ask yourself the question: despite all the outrage this issue has generated, why only 15,000 people went to the streets? I’m sure there are varied reasons but at the end of the day the measurement of success for events like this is the number of participants. Sadly 15,000 is not representative of the majority of the Filipino people and can easily be dismissed by the politicians pushing for Con Ass. However, the good news is that on the internet, we have almost double the number of the people who went to the rally sign up on the “Stop Con Ass Now” cause on Facebook. As of this writing, there are almost 28,000 sign-ups on the cause.
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On TV Patrol and World Tonight
When I was a kid, I got really annoyed when my parents would stop me from watching cartoons on the television because they wanted to watch TV Patrol or World Tonight. When I grew up and started becoming more involved with politics, I was the one telling my younger sisters to stop watching cartoons so I can watch the news. Both programs are really institutions that have delivered news to several generations of Filipinos. That’s why I was really happy when I was on both programs when they covered the 1st Facebook Eyeball event that we organized against Con Ass. Though I only had like 3-4 sentences, it was more than enough, haha.
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Vote for New Media Philippines in the Top 10 Influential Emerging Blogs Project
I was really happy to find out that New Media Philippines is still in the running for the Top 10 Influential Emerging Blogs Project that Janette Toral is hosting. We’re already at the 4th week and I think I’m at number 4 or 5 based on the rankings. Let me just take this opportunity to campaign for your nomination and vote. Here are three reasons why you should vote for New Media Philippines.
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