Singtel launches TikTok masterclass for SMEs

Singtel has launched a TikTok masterclass – a brand-building and e-commerce enablement programme, aimed at helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) strengthen their digital presence, connect with customers more effectively, and capture growth opportunities in the digital economy.

Developed in partnership with SIM Academy, the masterclass will equip local enterprises with practical skills to create impactful content, leverage social platforms for business growth, and navigate the opportunities and risks of social commerce. The initiative is supported by SkillsFuture Singapore. Eligible participants from qualifying SMEs can get up to 90% funding for this programme.

Participants will receive hands-on training in content creation, livestream selling, e-commerce activation and cybersecurity – critical capabilities in today’s fast-evolving, mobile-first marketplace. Participants will also benefit from post-workshop support, including engagement with retail merchants to aid e-commerce transition and potential co-marketing opportunities.

Ng Tian Chong, CEO of Singtel Singapore, said, “With Asia’s young, mobile-first population and growing appetite for social commerce, it’s vital that our SMEs are equipped with smarter, faster ways to reach their customers. Singtel is proud to provide SMEs with the digital tools, platforms and training to grow and compete in today’s connected world. Our new TikTok Masterclass is the latest in our series of efforts to help SMEs achieve more in the digital economy."

Ho Seong Kim, CEO of SIM Academy added: “At SIM Academy, we focus on delivering applied, outcome-driven learning through learner-centric course design. The TikTok Masterclass reflects our commitment to equipping businesses with practical skills for their business outcomes in today’s fast-changing digital economy.”

The three-day TikTok Masterclass includes three key components: 

• Training: Learn content creation, TikTok shop setup, and social selling techniques tailored for business growth on social platforms. 

• Application: Gain practical, hands-on experience at Singtel’s TikTok Creator House, located at its 313@Somerset flagship store. Participants will get two hours’ complimentary use of the professional-grade studio to create and livestream content in a simulated selling environment. 

• Cyber awareness: Develop an understanding of cybersecurity best practices for digital marketing and TikTok, to ensure safe and responsible online engagement. 

As of 2023, 82% of SMEs in Singapore had adopted at least one digital solution, with 91% having started their digital journey – leading the Asia Pacific region. Despite this progress, fewer than half report fully successful implementation, underscoring the need for continued guidance and support.

This masterclass is part of Singtel’s commitment to help SMEs digitalise, innovate and grow. In September 2023, Singtel introduced Cyber Elevate to help businesses bolster their cyber resilience, followed by the SPEED programme in April 2025, which supports SMEs in digitalising their operations and aligning them with sustainability goals.

As a SkillsFuture Queen Bee, Singtel plays a pivotal role in enabling enterprises – especially SMEs – to upskill, digitalise and innovate. Its end-to-end solutions – spanning mobility and connectivity, to cybersecurity, Internet of Things (IoT) and collaboration tools – are tailored to evolving business needs, helping SMEs scale sustainably. 

Details

The programme fee is S$3,000 per participant (before GST), with up to 90% funding available for eligible businesses under the Enhanced Training Support for SMEs programme, supported by SkillsFuture Singapore. To qualify, companies must meet the following requirements: 

• Be registered and incorporated in Singapore 

• Have a minimum 30% local shareholding by Singapore citizens or PRs 

• Have an annual sales turnover of not more than S$100 M or employment size of fewer than 200 employees 

Singtel plans to conduct 24 masterclasses over two years, with each class accommodating approximately 15 SMEs. Businesses interested in the programme can register their interest at https://www.singtel.com/business/smb/solutions/tiktok-masterclass

Socialbakers slices dining by Facebook fanbases

Source: Socialbakers website.

The fastest-growing restaurant and cafe Facebook pages in Indonesia include The Duck King, Potato Head Garage, and Kudeta, according to Socialbakers, which tracks and benchmarks social media profiles across major social platforms. The most popular Facebook pages for dining in Indonesia are Excelso Coffee, with nearly 52,000 fans, Kudeta with over 44,500 and The Duck King Group with over 10,500.

Source: Socialbakers website.

In India, Al Kabab Restaurant is the top Facebook page for dining with 62,000+ fans, followed by Thai restaurant Soi7 in second place (47,000+ fans) and the Blue Blazer (nearly 45,000 fans). Al Kabab is the most popular page, followed by Moonshine Cafe and Rollmaal, which serves rolls with a wide range of fillings.

Source: Socialbakers website.

For Turkey, the fastest growing dining-related Facebook pages include KasapDoner, WOW Bodrum Resort and Anjelique. The most popular pages are Melekler Kahvesi with 294,600+ fans, Karakoy Gulluoglu with 78,000 fans and WOW Bodrum Resort with just under 78,000 fans.

Interested?

View the latest Socialbaker statistics for restaurants and cafes in Indonesia, India and in Turkey
Read reviews of Melekler Kahvesi
Read reviews of Rollmaal

FREETEL Prepaid Data SIM for Japan available from December 21

Source: Plus One Marketing.

Plus One Marketing, a Japanese manufacturer founded specialising in mobility hardware under the FREETEL brand, will offer the FREETEL Prepaid Data SIM for Japan* from December 21, 2015. 

Targeted at travellers to Japan, the prepaid SIM enables users to access selected social media applications such as Facebook, Kakao Talk, WeChat, LINE and WhatsApp with no data limits for seven days. In addition, users can easily add value with data recharge coupons.

The documentation comes in Japanese, English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Korean, Arabic, Spanish and French, and the SIM can be bought from Yodobashi Camera and Bic Camera stores.

There are 1GB and 2GB packages, available for seven and 30 days respectively for both micro and nano SIMs.

Interested?

Read the WorkSmart Asia blog posts about:
JAL's Explorer Pass, a domestic travel offer for travellers
Yummy Japan: YouTube introductions to Japanese food, culture and places
The insider guide to Shizuoka

*A Wi-Fi connection may be required for setting up the APN settings for iPhone and iPad.
The available network depends on the LTE/3G coverage of NTT DoCoMo.

Frequency bands supported: 4G/LTE: B1(2,100MHz)/ B19(800MHz)/ B21(1,500MHz)/ B3(1,800MHz), 3G/WCDMA: B1(2,100MHz)/ B6/19(800MHz).

Returns and/or exchanges will not be accepted after the package has been opened. SIM cards cannot be reissued. 

SIM cards can only be used for the limited period shown on the packaging.
After the high-speed allotment limit has been surpassed, the maximum data speeds will be reduced to 150Kbps.

Social media is more important than phone calls or email for customer experience

Source: Genesys infographic.

Genesys, a provider of customer experience (CX) and contact centre solutions, today released a study which reveals that more than a third of companies in Asia Pacific (37%) consider social media as one of their most important CX channels.

The study* shows that while face-to-face communications still ranks as the top CX channel, social media is now more important than both phone calls and email interactions.

“Consumers are going digital more than ever,” said Bruce Eidsvik, Senior Vice President of Genesys Asia Pacific. “In Asia, we hardly think twice when shopping online or posting our feedback and enquiries on companies’ social media channels, therefore it makes sense that we now lead the world when it comes to digital CX engagement. As economies across the region continue to move towards more service-based economies, Asia’s leadership in digital engagement places it as the pioneer that other regions will look to for CX innovation.”

The EIU study shows a direct correlation between CEO engagement in customer experience and profitability. When CEOs lead CX initiatives, those initiatives are more likely to transform a company’s future success. The survey found that 58% of companies reported much higher profitability than their competitors when the CEO is in charge of customer experience, and 59% experience better revenue growth as a result of prioritising CX investments.

Source: Genesys infographic.

In Southeast Asia, investment in customer experience is growing faster than other regions, with 42% of companies boosting investments by more than 10% in the past three years, with an expectation that they will increase by the same margin over the next three years.

The study also found that CEOs in Southeast Asia are more likely to have the final say on CX initiatives than CEOs anywhere else in the world. “Ambitious companies are driving large investments in customer experience initiatives to adapt to the digital communication channels customers are demanding,” said Charles Ross, Senior Editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit and lead researcher of the study.

“By prioritising CX and placing the CEO in charge, companies are taking an extra step to drive revenue growth and improve profitability.”

There is still room for improvement however. Southeast Asia (24%) is the second lowest sub-region in Asia Pacific by customer ratings of their overall experience with companies. Therefore, organisations in the region need to step up their game if they are to make the most of their growing investments in CX technology.

Interested?

The global and Asia Pacific reports are available for download
View the complete infographic

*Conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the survey of 516 senior level executives in 21 countries explores the impact of customer experience efforts and leadership on business performance. A third of the respondents were from Asia Pacific, including Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

posted from Bloggeroid

Nespresso launches new Inissia colours and bespoke gourmet recipes for Singapore

Source: Nespresso.

Nespresso has launched two new colours for the limited edition Inissia – Pacific Blue and Fuchsia Velvet – to accompany two permanent colours, red and black.

Weighing in at 2.4kg, Inissia is the lightest in the Nespresso range. It features all of Nespresso’s advanced technologies, including a quick heat up time of 25 seconds, a 19 bar pressure extraction system, automatic pre-programmed coffee buttons and an automatic power-off mode after nine minutes of inactivity. 

In conjunction with the launch, Nespresso partnered local culinary personality Willin Low to introduce four coffee creations catered to local taste preferences. Named by the New York Times as one of the three chefs to transform the culinary scene in Singapore, Chef Low is the brain behind the trendy Wild Rocket restaurant at Mount Emily. His expert take on modern Singaporean cuisine has made him a perfect partner for Nespresso to celebrate Singaporeans’ love for coffee. 

Said Low on his partnership with Nespresso, “I believe great food and great coffee go hand in hand, like a match made in heaven. I’ve always loved a cup of Nespresso and I’m thrilled at this partnership opportunity as we are both committed to providing our customers with the best possible gourmet experiences.”

The gourmet coffee recipes are inspired by the palettes of coffee lovers in Singapore and the playful colours of Inissia. Distinctive ingredients, from hawthorn powder to condensed milk, are used to create and deliver pure Nespresso pleasure. 

"The recipes created for Nespresso incorporate my signature style of adding reminiscent elements of my childhood, such as hawthorne flakes, for an added dimension that I’m sure all Singaporeans will appreciate and love!” noted Low.

The four creations are:

The Hawthorne & Raspberry Milkshake, with Ristretto, which combines the fruity notes of the Ristretto Grand Cru, the tangy flavours of raspberry and hawthorn, and the richness of vanilla ice cream. 

Blue Oasis with Rosabaya de Colombia delivers the winey notes of the Rosabaya de Colombia Grand Cru with a well-rounded chocolate cream and coconut topping.

Reverse Affogato with Coffee Granita, with Indriya from India is a unique take on an Italian favourite.

Red Velvet Kueh Buloh Tiramisu, with Arpeggio A is a distinctive spin on the Chinese New Year delicacy, harmonising the cocoa notes of the Arpeggio Grand Cru with the creaminess of tiramisu. 

The recipe card set is complimentary with any purchase of an Inissia machine, from 18 May to 30 June 2015, or while stocks last at Nespresso Boutiques in Singapore (ION Orchard #01-14 or Takashimaya Department Store B1); Nespresso Authorised Trade outlets, online at www.nespresso.com, via the Nespresso mobile app or through the toll-free hotline 800 852 3525 (available 24/7). 

The company also has an ongoing social media campaign, the #MyNespressoColour Social Media Contest. To participate, post your most creative and colourful coffee moments on social media with the hashtag #MyNespressoColour by 31 May 2015. 

Each submitted coffee moment must feature one colour theme out of the four Inissia colours (Fuchsia Velvet, Pacific Blue, red or black), and include your coffee drink. The top five most creative entries will walk away with an exclusive Inissia experience worth S$900!

Unified Inbox launches first product on roadmap - Outbox Pro

Source: Unified Inbox website.

Unified Inbox, the unified communications as a service company, today announced the launch of its first product, cloud-based Outbox Pro. 

Outbox Pro makes it faster and easier for teams to create and publish posts on multiple social networks. The web browser extension, currently available for Chrome, enables users to create, share, review, edit, approve, schedule, publish, and track both original and curated web content from one or more authors on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Social media spending is expected to grow to 21.4% of marketing budgets by 2019*. As companies require greater ROI from their increased investment in social media, it is crucial for them to increase the quality of and reduce the time needed for their content marketing creation and management processes. Outbox Pro introduces a smart new workflow that enables in-house and/or agency marketing, communications, and PR teams to:

• Manage one or more “Authors” by centrally assigning and managing permissions-based roles

• Create secure access to live social networks without sharing social media passwords

• Create original and curated web content, customised for each social network

• Designate an “admin” for social media content reviews and approvals

• Receive and review approval requests via email from any mobile device

• Edit declined posts and resubmit them for approval


“Organisations no longer ask ‘Should we do social media?’ Instead they ask, ‘What tools will help us do it better and faster?’” said Toby Ruckert, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Unified Inbox. “Companies can now improve their social media ROI by having full visibility and control of their real-time and scheduled social marketing content.”

Another way Outbox Pro increases the effectiveness of social content is by giving companies the ability to include authors outside of traditional digital marketing roles. For example, restaurants’ marketing departments can publish content created by their produce buyers to show fresh and unique ingredients “live from the market,” in the most appropriate formats on each of their different social media platforms.

The Singapore Days and Ramada Hotels have already implemented Outbox Pro to leverage customer-facing team members’ ability to capture real-time content to create a pipeline of compelling social media content for their different social networks. 

Tony Cousens, General Manager of the Wyndham Hotel Group Singapore shared, “To communicate these achievements and better engage with our customers, we've been actively leveraging social media and recently with Outbox Pro. With at least four brands to cover on multiple social media sites at any point, an effective and productive strategy, but at the same time secure way of making social media work for us is key. 

"The ability to schedule posts cross-channel with one click is an important and productive marketing element for us. Furthermore, we can now draw good content from a wide variety of sources – our own staff of course, but eventually even our partners, visitors and customers themselves. This has only been made possible by the quick and easy workflow and approval function Outbox Pro provides. We've already been discussing the opportunity to widen its use for other properties in Asia-Pacific for the Wyndham Hotel Group.”

Source: Unified Inbox.

While other companies such as Buffer and Hootsuite are also offering similar capabilities, Unified Inbox positions itself as more sophisticated than Buffer, but much easier to use than Hootsuite. Hootsuite and Buffer both require monthly flat fees, whereas Outbox Pro charges by the post. Outbox Pro also focuses on internal and external workflows for content approvals, whereas Buffer and Hootsuite are more about scheduling the final posts.

Outbox Pro is available for download on the Google Chrome Web Store. To incentivise new users, Outbox Pro’s first 100 posts are free, with additional posts costing US$0.25 per post. 

At one post per weekday per month on one social network, it would cost US$5 to US$6.25 a month with Outbox Pro, against Hootsuite's US$9.99 a month with Hootsuite Pro, and Buffer's US$50 monthly for a small business plan. Buffer also has an 'Awesome' personal plan for US$102 for the year. 

Both Buffer and Hootsuite offer unlimited posts however. Hootsuite Pro allows up to 350 to be scheduled at a time, while Buffer allows up to 200 posts in the queue. The difference would be that as the queue diminishes more posts can then be scheduled under the flat fee arrangements.

*CMO Report: Highlights and Insights 

Travellers happy to interact with hotels on social media

The 2014 Accorhotels Social Media Monitor reveals that hotels are the biggest opportunity in social media with almost half of travellers – especially the Chinese and Indonesians and those aged 25-44 – following a hotel brand in Asia Pacific, a greater percentage than those who follow airlines or other travel-related brands such as online travel agents.

Airlines come first in countries with a strong carrier, such as Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Other travel-related brands come in third place overall; with China, the Philippines and Thailand showing the most interest. Fashion and music brands only made a top three appearance in Vietnam and Japan. Despite it being a cliché, men tend to follow sport and finance brands more, juxtaposed with fashion and cosmetics for women.

Source: Accor.

Accor worked with ORC International to survey over 6,500 travellers across 13 countries to uncover the social media habits of its guests across Asia Pacific. As the largest hotel group in the region, with 600 hotels across 17 countries, Accor is uniquely placed to provide a full insight into the social media habits of travellers and the group uses the results to better target travellers where and when they are looking to search, book or share their travel experiences.

The study found that four out of five respondents follow brands on social media, with the Chinese and Vietnamese the most keen, and those from Japan, Australia and New Zealand the least so. Generally speaking, women and younger travellers are more likely to follow a brand on social networks.

Malaysians and Filipinos use social media first and foremost to get immediate assistance, along with travellers above 55. Chinese and Hong Kong users are the most likely to seek VIP treatment, while the Indonesians show the greatest affinity with brands. Younger travellers and Koreans use social media mostly to get information. Women are looking more for information and deals than men; whereas men are more likely to show loyalty to a brand and are more sensitive to VIP treatment.

With regards to the key motivation for following a brand, the top two spots have swapped from last year and now people want to get information first (74%), followed by deals (71%). Overall, Thais and Japanese are the hungriest for information, and New Zealanders and Singaporeans are the top bargain hunters.

“By understanding what our guests are looking for when they engage with our brands online, we can better target the messages and services we offer them, whether it be in-hotel deals, advice on the best attractions within a city or access to VIP services,” says Emilie Couton, VP Guest Experience, Accor Asia Pacific.

Travellers tend to use hotel pages on social media more before and after their stay:

- Two out five travellers use it at least 'sometimes' to search for information before their stay. Filipinos, Thais and Vietnamese are the biggest users, and New Zealanders and Australians the smallest. Overall, one-third of respondents said their usage has increased in the past year and the younger the traveller, the higher the increase.

- One-third follow a hotel brand when they are staying there,  at least 'sometimes', with Vietnamese, Thais and Indonesians leading the pack. Women are more likely than men to follow a hotel brand, especially when at the hotel. And the younger they are, the more they are likely to follow the hotel brand

- Almost half always or sometimes follow the brand after their stay. Again, the Vietnamese, Chinese and Thais are the most likely to do so.

- When in-house, almost half of respondents said they usually share their location, especially when staying in an upscale hotel. Thais, Vietnamese, younger travellers and women are the most likely to do so, which suggests they like to brag or show off more than other travellers. The Japanese are the most discreet about sharing their location.

“Engaging on social media with guests while in-house is a great opportunity for us to impact positively on their experience,” said Couton. “We need to give guests good reasons to follow individual hotel accounts by providing content relevant to each stage of the trip and giving them something that will enhance their visit.”

Following is one thing, but then what? The good news is that one-third of travellers have already booked a hotel after having seen an advert on social media, with younger travellers the most likely to do so, along with the Vietnamese, Thais, Filipinos and Chinese.There is overall positivity around social adverts in the online space. More than two-thirds of travellers find them useful or don’t mind them, with only 15% ignorant of their existence and just 12% finding them irritating. In general, women find ads on social media more interesting and useful than men.

To view the 2014 Accorhotels Social Media Monitor video click here, and here to view the entire infographic.

Accor's third hotel in Bengaluru is #bangalorelovin

Ibis, the international Accor hotel brand, has launched its third hotel in Bengaluru, India together with the #bangalorelovin campaign to engage people's love for the city of Bangalore. 

Source: Accor.

JB Singh, President & CEO, InterGlobe Hotels, said: “Bangalore as a city truly defines a cosmopolitan existence. The ibis property at Bengaluru City Centre is the extension of a cosmopolitan atmosphere that perfectly balances the needs of corporate and leisure travelers. Today, it’s all about providing service excellence at an affordable cost, irrespective of the category and we are excited about providing a memorable experience to our guests.”

Firoz Jangaria, General Manager, ibis Bengaluru City Centre said: “By providing quality accommodation for those who are looking for an economy hotel with international standards and with easy access to the city’s main attractions, ibis Bengaluru City Centre is a great new asset to the city centre. The#bangalorelovin campaign will reaffirm that ibis Bengaluru City Centre is determined to make a lasting impression and further build an emotional connection with the people to celebrate this vibrant city. ”

The ibis Bengaluru City Centre is the eleventh ibis to open in India, and 39 km from Kempegowda International Airport. With 173 guest rooms, and easy access to the Bangalore City railway station and Majestic bus station, this new hotel is ideal for business travellers looking for comfortable accommodation in the city. 

Rooms include a flat screen TV, free Wi-Fi and broadband Internet access. The bedrooms are built around the signature Sweet Bed by ibis, tailored around the way customers use beds and local habits worldwide.

Spice It, the signature multi-cuisine restaurant presents a casual dining space with the best of Indian, Oriental and European cuisine, offering a choice of buffet or a la carte. With the "You Create, We Cook" concept, guests can explore their culinary skills whilst dining in an interactive kitchen environment. The restaurant also offers guests a pleasant al fresco dining experience on the open terrace. 

The hotel has two meeting rooms and one board room. The board room is situated at the lobby level, Wi-Fi enabled, equipped with a projector screen and an LCD TV. Other features of the hotel include a fitness centre, free Wi-Fi and currency exchange facilities.

The #bangalorelovin campaign has been kickstarted in conjunction with the launch, beginning with a musical video about the city of Bangalore. 

Know where you stand on social media with Socialbakers' Social Health Index

Socialbakers, a social media analytics and optimisation company, has introduced its Social Health Index, which was developed in partnership with Lenovo. The industry benchmark provides brands with a single assessment of their social marketing performance across platforms, allowing them to easily measure and compare their entire social footprint in relation to their competitors over time.

"The Social Health Index is the first industry benchmark that puts brands' social marketing performance into context," said Jan Rezab, CEO and Co-Founder of Socialbakers. "Brands need a way to quantify their return on investment into social relative to their competition. Our development of this index with Lenovo provides a simple way for brands in any industry to do this."

The Social Health Index traces a brand's social performance on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and combines it into one single rating. Brands are scored on four metrics key to core business goals - participation of the social audience, acquisition of new community members, retention of the brand's audience, and the shareability and effectiveness of content.

"Lenovo is constantly looking for ways to evaluate the approaches we take in engaging with our customers such as through conversations on our global Twitter handles or through our close to 60 Facebook pages across the organization," said Rod Strother, Director, Digital and Social Center of Excellence at Lenovo. 

"We recognised the need for an easy way to benchmark our use of social platforms against others in the industry and share this information in a digestible format with Lenovo executives. Socialbakers was the perfect partner with whom to develop this index due to the company's dedication to providing brands with competitive intelligence insights."

The Social Health Index is now available as part of Socialbakers' executive dashboard. Read the associated blog post here. 

Social media for Asia Pacific makes it to the beach

It's a different travel experience today. Where travellers in the past would have penned their thoughts down on paper, Accor Asia Pacific’s second Social Media Monitor reveals that people spending as much time researching, planning, boasting about and reporting on their travels on social media as they do actually experiencing their destination. 

The survey has discovered that 70% of travellers across Asia Pacific now use social media when they travel, with those from China (84%), Vietnam (83%) and Indonesia (82%) the most active users.

Travellers from Australia, New Zealand and Japan are the least active, but even from those countries two in five are unable to peel themselves away from their devices while travelling. On average, travellers are spending 2.8 hours per day on social media platforms, with the Indonesians, Malaysians and Thais all spending around 4 hours daily.

Accor worked with ORC International to survey over 6,500 travellers across 13 countries to uncover which sites and platforms are most important to its guests across Asia Pacific. As the largest hotel group in the region, with 590 hotels across 17 countries, Accor is uniquely placed to provide a full insight into the social media habits of travellers and the group uses the results to better target travellers where and when they are looking to search, book or share their travel experiences.

“Social media has become all-pervasive in the travel industry as we can see from the results of the latest Accor Hotels Social Media Monitor,” said Jens Uwe Parkitny, Accor’s Vice President Digital Marketing & Distribution.“This survey provides great insight into where our guests are looking for inspiration for their travels, how they engage with social media during their stay and how they share their experiences afterwards.

“We can then use this information to meet their needs at each stage of the customer’s journey. At the same time, monitoring how social media behaviour evolves and changes year on year, allows us to refine Accor’s social media strategy across Asia Pacific.”

Facebook remains the most popular platform for travellers, followed by WhatsApp, but the survey found that made-in-Asia instant messaging platforms have increased in popularity since last year’s survey, with WeChat up 13% and Line up 11%. In some markets these instant messaging platforms have even started to overtake Facebook as the dominant social network for sharing information about travel.

The survey highlights how quickly the social media landscape changes and shows that rich media networks such as Youtube and Instagram are growing in popularity, with 23% of travellers using Youtube multiple times daily and 11% using Instagram. The use of WhatsApp is widespread in the region (33%) and has surpassed Facebook in four markets: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and India.

Line is a favourite with respondents in Thailand (71%) and overtook Facebook for the first time this year in terms of daily usage. Line is also among the top three most popular networks in Indonesia (33%) and Japan (26%).

One surprise is that WeChat has knocked Sina Weibo off top spot in mainland China, with three in four travellers acknowledging multiple daily usage. And in Hong Kong, the app also climbed into the top three.

“Accor uses the results of this research to reach out to its customers more effectively,”says Emilie Couton, Accor’s Vice President Guest Experience. “For example, Accor Thailand recently showcased Ibis hotels on a Line Lucky Prices promotion, gathering more than 20,000 participants in just three days. Accor China also launched its WeChat account with a Book Your Next Memories campaign which quickly gathered 9,000 followers and supported the launch of the group’s local website accorhotels.cn.”

Almost half of respondents said they use Facebook multiple times a day (including in China) and just 13% say they have never used it. Women use Facebook the most, with 54% of them using the network multiple times daily (versus 45% for men) and Filipinos are the top users in the region, increasing by 13 points versus last year (73% multiple daily usage).

When it comes to country comparisons, there are major differences. In Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Facebook dominates all three travel phases (before, during and after the trip). However, in Singapore, Malaysia and India, Facebook is the place to search before and share after the trip, while WhatsApp is used to stay in touch during travel. It’s exactly the same for South Korea, except WhatsApp is replaced by Kakaotalk. In Hong Kong, Facebook is the place to research and plan the trip, and WhatsApp is the platform of choice for sharing during and after the trip. Similarly in China, Sina Weibo is the place to search, whereas WeChat is preferred for sharing.

To download the 2014 Accor hotels Social Media Monitor infographic click here.

Workshops in Singapore and Hong Kong to discuss social media crisis management

Pacific Conferences has organised a two-day practical workshop on Crisis & Social Media in Singapore and Hong Kong to help companies deal with the increasing number of social media crises that are occurring today.

Companies tend to make several mistakes when dealing with social media crises, says Phillip Raskin, Managing Director of Spectrum Communications and former MD of Burson-Marsteller Korea, who will be conducting the workshop. 

"The most common mistake is not understanding soon enough whether they've got a serious problem. It's natural – companies are full of people, and people are busy, especially in today's organisations, and there is so much information going back and forth and so much to keep track of. 

"So there's often an element of 'hoping it will go away' or at least hoping the issue will not grow any further which sometimes results in a delayed reaction, and therefore more trouble down the road.

"Another is trying to solve the issue on 'your terms' versus the terms of what's happening. You see some brands and especially more civic/ governmental organisations do that sometimes, especially if they're more accustomed to controlling the conversation. That's usually where an issue gets brought up on a Facebook page or a tweet and the response comes out something like 'we don't want you to talk about that', and usually then the reaction becomes worse than the initial issue. 

"Part of this is being realistic about your situation and where you sit – the Internet almost always supports Goliath over David and companies are increasingly having their operations and business practices  called into question. So understand yourself and your potential vulnerabilities from an outside, dispassionate perspective, and be ready to work with that. In essence, work with the real world and not the world you want it to be.

"Finally, you need to have a defined social media team – and that doesn't mean you hire a bunch of interns because they're 'digital natives'. You need a mix of people with crisis experience, company knowledge, authority and perspective. You need that team to have guidelines and an understanding of key issues and appropriate responses, and you need them to be empowered to act," he said.

Raskin stressed that things have changed with social media. "This is not like it used to be, where every press release and statement gets vetted by the board or an extended family of suddenly interested parties from every department. It has to be a framework for responding, with clear escalation points and clear actions and responsibilities, that can be enacted while that board or C-suite group is discussing things. Otherwise, everything will get stuck in committee and you'll be getting killed online for hours or days before you can fire back a single tweet."

The Singapore session will be 21 to 22 August and the Hong Kong session on 28 to 29 August 2014. Each session will go through case studies and hands-on exercises, social media monitoring techniques, anticipating potential crises, action plans, messaging strategies and rebuilding trust post-crisis.

The full programme can be found here.

Salesforce webinar on connecting with customers through social media

Salesforce is hosting a webinar on July 16 about the 'Internet of Customers' and how to better utilise social media to connect with customers in a whole new way.  Eddie Cliff, Principal Solutions Consultant from Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, will conduct the live webinar. 

Title: Live Webinar - Dreaming Big with Social 
Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 
Time: 11 am to 12 pm Singapore time

PC-based attendees should have Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Mac-based attendees should have Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Mobile attendees can use the iPhone, iPad, Android phones or Android tablets.

Space is limited. Reserve a space here. 

In the UAE, Zakat Fund leverages social media to educate, communicate

In the UAE, the Zakat Fund is reaching out to the public through social media in a bid to increase public awareness of zakat and transparency on the dealings of the Fund.

The authority specialising in collecting money for zakat and charity and spending it on the eight legal channels of zakat deploys Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Google+ to enable the public to follow on-going activities and initiatives and to act as a conduit for queries, notices and complaints, said H.H Abdullah ibn Aqeedah Al Muhairy, Secretary-General of the Zakat Fund.

H.H. disclosed that January statistics from the Arab IT News Portal stated that about 81% of UAE users use the Internet to log into social networking websites, representing 3 hours and 17 minutes of daily use each. 

Facebook is the most popular social networking platform used in the UAE, followed by Google+, then Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram respectively. The study stated that 74% of UAE users have smartphones, which 38% use for e-shopping and 90% use for searching for local services. 

*Pictures from the Zakat Fund website

Telling gender from Facebook posts

Researchers have found that it is possible to predict gender and age purely from Facebook status messages. A September 2013 study published in research journal Plos One says that there are clear differences in the way males and females use language in social media. Age and location can also affect the choice of words, researchers said in the report, titled Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach.

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Females are more likely to describe emotions with words like "love", "wonderful", "excited", and use "I" while males are more likely to swear, talk about electronic games and sports, said researchers H. Andrew Schwartz, Johannes Eichstaedt, Margaret Kern, Lukasz Dziurzynski, Stephanie Ramones, Megha Agrawal, Achal Shah, Michael Kosinski,  David Stillwell, Martin Seligman, and Lyle Ungar, all from the University of Pennsylvania except Kosinski, who is from the University of Cambridge. 
 
Word clouds created by researchers show that feminine status messages are about being excited about tomorrow, how cute puppies and babies are, feelings about the other half, or concerning family members. The masculine ones are about battles, football, Xbox, and the government. 

Areas to be explored further include investigating whether emotionally stable individuals indeed spend time writing about enjoyable social activities that may foster greater emotional stability, such as ‘sports’, ‘vacation’, ‘beach’, team’, or if introverts are actually interested in Japanese media as indicated by the research, ‘anime’, ‘manga’, ‘japanese’, and Japanese style emoticons: ˆ_ˆ predominating. 

The researchers used approximately 19 million Facebook status updates written by 136,000 participants that had been shared as part of  voluntary permission given through the My Personality application. The actual users studied had to use English as a primary language, have written at least 1,000 words in their status updates, and under 65 years old. This resulted in 74,941 volunteers, and 309 million words across 15.4 million status updates studied. 
  
The full study can be viewed here.