New Media Philippines

According to the latest study by ComScore, the Philippines is the number 1 country in the world when it comes to Facebook Penetration. Before anything let me explain what “Facebook Penetration” means. It’s the total number of Filipino Facebook accounts compared to the total number of Internet Users in the Philippines. Also note that this [...]

Looks like fashion magnate Kenneth Cole needs a plethora of reputation management gurus at his side now. While hundreds flock the streets of Cairo to unseat Mubarak, shoe mogul Kenneth Cole sends out a tweet which promotes his spring 2011 collection and connecting it with the recent Egypt uprising plus the hashtag: #Cairo. Talk about [...]

As I write this piece, 250,000 protesters flock the streets of Cairo as a new government takes over, one where Hosni Mubarak remains President. Egypt is a nation under fire. Internet connection is still out. All communication channels are suspended like SMS, TV broadcasts, and some mobile networks have ceased to exist since last week. [...]

I logged in Formspring today and found over 30 unanswered questions. I’ll try to clear them out before the weekend. Anyway, one of the more interesting questions there was if I ever tried applying to Yahoo or other big software companies. I’ve never really “applied” for work other than my first job. All my job [...]

I was invited to guest on Media In Focus with Noemi to talk about President Noynoy Aquino’s social media strategy. I usually say yes without hesitation for interview requests on this particular show because it’s really such a delight to talk with the anchor – Cheche Lazaro. Anyway, ANC was gracious enough to upload the [...]

I was part of the Virtual Community Marketing panel last night for the Ateneo CCE – IMMAP Digital Marketing Diploma Program and we listened to several graduate students present their social media marketing plans. There were brilliant ideas shared and I’d like to commend Coni Cruz and the rest of Blue Blade Technologies for putting [...]

I guested on the June 2 episode of Media In Focus to talk about Twitter and Social Media. It was a very fun and light discussion with ABS-CBN veteran journalist Cheche Lazaro, host/model Bianca Gonzales, and ANC’s Ricky Carandang. In the show we talked about how Twitter has made such a huge impact on how [...]

In so far as social media is concerned, ABS-CBN is a clear runaway leader among all the traditional media outlets in the country. Most of their reporters are all passionately active on Twitter (with emphasis on passionately) and they’ve been integrating social media effectively with their news programs and shows. In fact I still think [...]

I can finally cross out one of the goals in my bucket list. It’s always been one of my dreams to be featured on a national broadsheet (by doing something good, hehe). Today my interview with Cora Llamas appeared on the Business Agenda section of the Manila Bulletin. Initially I was expecting to have a [...]

I’ll be giving a talk about how to use social media for PR on Thursday, April 22, 2010, at the IPRA and PRSP event “MAKE PR WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS”. It will be held at the SMX Convention Center. The main objective of the seminar is to share insights and learnings on why PR is [...]

I was invited to give a seminar for the production team of ABS-CBN’s news channel, ANC. It was held last Saturday morning and we tackled the topics of Personal Branding and Social Media for Journalists. Honestly I was a bit intimidated at the start of the presentation since it was such a surreal experience giving [...]

I’ll be giving two 45-minute talks this coming Saturday, April 10, at the Make Money 2.0 event which will be held at Victory Center, Promenade, Greenhills. The first talk will be about how to build your personal brand through social media. I’ll be discussing how the rules have totally changed and that you need to [...]

This coming April 3, the iPad will be released in the US. The following month it will start shipping to all parts of the world. Most filipinos look at this as just another expensive gadget, but there’s actually a treasure chest that’s waiting to be unearthed. Other than the usual media playing and browsing, the [...]

Industry analysts in the US recently shared information that Google was just dethroned by Facebook as the most visited site in the United States. The last year was apparently phenomenal for Facebook since they gained 185% versus the same period last year. Google only increased by 9%. Note that this is just Google Search. This [...]

Over the past few weeks, several celebrities, institutions, and politicians have been getting flak over their social media use. The most recent case was actress Angelica Panginiban who finally decided to close down her Twitter account after she was mobbed by detractors. Negative and below-the-belt comments came pouring down and even her educational background wasn’t [...]

Last Tuesday night we had an exclusive dinner party for Filipino bloggers at the National Sports Grill restaurant in Greenbelt 3. During the event, Friendster Vice President and Global Head for Brand Experience, Ben Dunn, gave everyone a sneak peek at the new Friendster which is set to launch soon. It was good to see [...]

I often get puzzled looks on the faces of clients each time I include social media in their digital marketing plans. The same questions keep popping up again and again – how can we measure success? Will this really work? Do we really need to spend on that? It’s looks easy, can we have someone [...]

Friendster caused a social revolution when they first broke into the mainstream sometime in 2003-2004. Everyone started asking for Testimonials and e-mail addresses. I can still fondly recall badgering my college block mates to send me Testimonials and to add me on Friendster, haha. My fiancee and I even had a competition on who would [...]

In the latest episode of Smallville (S908), Clark Kent’s alter-ego’s online identity is stolen by a bunch of kids who are big fans. They make Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter accounts for the “Blur” and they’ve even made a blog for him. Since the Blur didn’t really have his own social media accounts, the people actually [...]

As Friendster moves in on the Asian youth market, Multiply is zeroing in on the potential of e-commerce. In an announcement they recently published, they’ve updated their terms of service agreement to finally allow online selling on their platform. All you have to do is to tick a box on your panel that will identify [...]