The Sociology of Salsa

Ok its been nearly a month since my last post, but I’ve been caught up with exams for the most of last month and this month has just been chilling so far…

I went for Salsa today for my umpteeth beginner’s lesson. I must say… I really do suck… Salsa’s just not my thing… but I did get much out of people watching The girls that I went with would not stop commenting on how sexy the dancing was and how they would just love to be able to dance like that with a good partner… So it got me thinking…. what isit thats sexy about salsa… I mean, u dont really see guys go goo goo ga ga over salsa dacing… The fact is, women love to be lead… to some extent, and they find it sexy that guys take the lead and they just follow their cue and go with the flow… Mystery solved…

Geeks love salsa… a quick survey of the people of the room, led me to believe that a good 50% of the guys there were geeks… devoid of a social life outside salsa… So why do geeks learn salsa? Simple… I’ve noticed that people who are more reserved and lack social skills tend to try and pick up something that they can be a pro at, that would help them socialize to some extent at least. Salsa just happens to be choice one… Some are not too bad… but the lack of confidence in some of them are just ooozing out of their ears… Like they’re trying too hard to impress the girl.

Fags love salsa too. I’d say about 30% of them there were gay.. I tink its a kinda gay status symbol or sumthin to be able to dance really well… and I’m guessing salsa is one of the more classier dances so yeah… It was funny to see 2 guys dancing salsa… But after awhile its easy to tell who the bitch boy is… its the one doing all the spinning… the one being led.

Then there are those who just wanna learn the dance for the love of the art… That usually entails about 80% of the girls and perhaps 5% of the guys… leaving about 15% of the guys and 20% of the girls who are just single, desperate and horny…

3 Hawker Center Tactics!

I made a quick trip to clementi hawker center yesterday to buy dinner… While waiting for my food. I made some very interesting observations. How hawkers get sales…

1. Drinks first… anything else later… Notice that for alot of the hawker centers you go to, the drink stall auntie is the one to approach u first. She’s even so kind to find you a seat and clear the table for you. Ever wondered why? Coz buying a drink is usually a spilt second decision. With there being numorous drink stalls, if she doesnt get your business at the start, you’re likely to order a drink from a shop thats near where you ordered your food. Its not like buying food where you walk up and down the rows of hawkers all touting for your business… Once they get you your seat they take your order for drinks… and once that’s done, mission accomplished.. they move on to the next stray wanderer…

2. “Got Queue or not?”… if people are undecided on what to eat, they usually go for one with the longest queue.. Their logic? If there’s a queue it has to be good… and the more ppl queue, the more people queue… Think about it.. how many times have u queued up.. and suddenly once there are like 3 ppl in the queue, the queue just seems to multiply exponentially… Even if you’re not in the mood for queuing.. you’ll take a mental note of that stall and be sure to try it out the next time… Hawkers should just hire people to stand permanently at their stall… make it seem like there’s always a queue… Pay them Macdonalds wages, its even less work that working at Macs…

3. Rewards for frequent customers… nothing will increase business more than word of mouth.. especially for a food stall… frequent customers should be given more “good stuff”. Like extra meat or chilli… befriend them.. and you can be sure that they’ll recommend it to their friend the next time, coz they think they have so called “connections”..

Borat: The best damn buzz marketer there ever was

Hello… My name a Borat. I come from a Kazakstan… I like you. Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) is a genius… He has effectively used almost nothing to market his movie and yet has almost every single talk show in the country dying to get him on their show… Dave Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, Conan O Brian…. Thats the amount of buzz he’s generated…. Millions around the world are imitating his stupid accent (me included), albeit 90% are probably not very good at it… but that’s not the point.

The fact that this man has been able to generate so much buzz on the Internet and mainstream media, its truly amazing…First, the use of humor and making funny, ridiculous and totally outrageous statements has caused the fire to spread quickly. It goes to show that buzz marketing is a thousand times more effective than traditional marketing…

Blog Marketing

I had the chance to meet Richard Edelman, founder of PR firm Edelman a couple of days ago. To be honest, I knew nuts about PR agencies… and so my primary purpose there was to learn what its all about and to hear what they want to know about bloggers. The real value I gained was from hearing what other bloggers had to say… I was perhaps the smallest fry amongst the lot who had at least 10 times more readership than I do… But I guess that’s fine… I really dont have that much time to blog everyday. The fact that this post has come up 6 days after I met with them should be testament to that… What I would like to share and open for discussion is about how new media can be co-opted into a marketing strategy and how it now plays a more crucial role in any marketing strategy.

1. Blogs are not objects… They’re the voices of real people. All that matters is that you listen.

2. You cannot buy off a blogger (most of the time). Any reputable blogger would be extremely disgusted by any attempt to “buy” a blog post. Its really easy to see thru it. For one, a product recommendation comes out of the blue and there’s nothing bad to say about it…

3. Build a relationship… Its not enough to listen only when shit is going down. Its almost like virtual networking (hate that word). Its about building a long lasting relationship… To show that you really care about your customers, actively participate in blogs discussing topics of interest. Do it in a personal capacity with a human voice, not as a corporate slave.

4. Accept the good and the bad, they both usually come together…  Its important that you come to terms with the fact that there is a high chance that there’s going to be bad stuff about your company or product being said. And you dont wanna stop that. You want to encourage discussion about your company/product. Needless to say, if there’s too much bad stuff going around, you obviously have gotten something dead wrong… FIX IT!

One interesting thing I learnt, was that STOMP!, run by Singapore Press Holdings, does not pay its star bloggers to write in a certain angle… I always had the impression that that was the case. So whenever these star bloggers talk about a product, I never really buy it. I personally think stomp is going about media convergance incorrectly. Posting rubbish comments of local bimbos do not engage mainstream readers. What should be done, is reporting news that matters to the blogosphere. One good example is the Wee Shu Min case, which is #1 in technorati now. If not for the fact that it wasnt on the papers, it wouldnt have gotten as much buzz as it has now. SPH got this one right… but there’s not enough of it happening…

Bullshit from an NUS Student

A while ago a friend of mine sent me a short segment of a report that one of her groupmates did. Their topic? Globalization. I read it and fell on the floor laughing…. Its amazing how NUS ended up being 19th with people like this… read on…

Objective

Globalization is never new. As a term, ‘globalization’ has been used as early as 1944, but today it is more rapid and pervasive. The direct outcome of it is that people are broadly exposed to diverse cultures. Since people from different cultural backgrounds are bounded closely in workplace or daily life, cultural conflicts are never avoidable. When misunderstandings occur, relationships suffer and working inefficiency is increased. The news from New York Times indicates the cross-cultural conflict gradually becomes a rising problem in transnational corporations and it becomes a top issue for human resources managers to deal with. In our video, we try to tackle with this ‘Grey’ area by demonstrating the cultural conflicts and exploring the solutions to minimize them. Cultural insensitivity is what we propose to be the reason for cultural conflicts .Wish our video can be instructive and profound for people to be a qualified earthman and a winner of globalization .

A little island’s big chance!

“Isn’t that in China?”… That’s the story of Singapore to many people around the world… Little more is known about this powerhouse of an island other than SIA, the fact that some American punk was caned for vandalizing some cars and that gum is banned. Now’s Singapore’s best chance to break away from the pack… The banning of stem cell research by the US works greatly in Singapore’s favour. Stem cell research is not about taking innocent human life… its about preserving human life…

Bush is a dumbass… but by doing that, its created the opportunity for Singapore to attract talent from all over the world to come and do research in Singapore… And hopefully, (very very hopefully) some years down the road, we can stand proudly and say that the cure for cancer came from Singapore. The Singaporean government is trying to promote scientists in this field to come and set up bases here, by subsidizing setup cost and just throwing money into research. This is probably the only field where stuff happens fast and efficiently.

What I think is lacking however, is marketing…. Which could seriously make the difference between good and great. I think they should send people to the US and gather opinions from people who are pro stem cell research and somehow convince them to set up shop here. I’m also sure a few VC firms would be very interested, given the fact that its relatively cheaper here and that the climate for doing so is optimal. The time is now, will they do it?

See what Micheal J Fox has to say about stem cell research: http://bjornlee.wordpress.com/2006/10/23/look-at-michael-j-fox-now/ 

Top 5 tips for people moving back to SG from SV

It’s difficult to adjust back to Singapore after being in Silicon Valley for one year. I know… I’ve been through it. It’s demoralizing and in some way it brings you back down to earth from the space trip… Life will never be the same again. You look at the same things in a new light, and people that don’t get you are just plain ignorant of what’s happening around the world. Here are some tips I think would help you adjust back to Singapore with the least hiccups.

5. Stop thinking in American Dollars

There will be a tendency to start converting everything to American currency when you come back. Everything will be soo cheap and you’ll just want to spend. My advice, apart from food, do not indulge yourself too much. Reality will hit you soon enough when you realize its taking a huge toll on your wallet.

4. Think before you speak, there’s no first amendment here

You’ll only feel it when you come back… I’ve never really felt repressed in Sg all my life until I went to the valley and came back… Then it suddenly seems like there’s a climate of fear and no one wants to say anything about anything because they’re afraid. And while there’s nothing wrong in having a open intellectual debate, be very wary because everyone will see you to have the “high and mighty” syndrome… Be humble, and for the love of God, do not talk with an American accent.
3. Don’t be a stranger

Its very easy to forget all the people in the US once you’re back here… Do NOT reduce them to penpals, or people you contact only when you want something… If they mean something to you now, make it a point to keep in touch… Ideally via IM, if not email will do. People just love it when people from overseas remember them.

2. If you can’t be in the valley, bring the valley to you

Be involved in spreading what you’ve learnt. You’ll be suprized how many people have no idea that Google is anything more than a search engine… many are not even aware of Gmail. Its not only the technology that needs to be spread, its the culture. The culture of free and open knowledge exchange. Share ideas, never make it seem like you don’t trust anyone with your idea. Ideally, join a movement or organization that can help you do it more effectively, for example E27.

1. Maintain the Core

The number one tip is to keep your core group of NOC people close. People whom you’ve grown together with, and people that will keep you growing… It helps you not get sucked into the hole when the water plug is pulled and everyone is getting sucked into the drainage pipe. You could do it alone, but I wouldnt advise it. Its just alot easier and fun staying afloat when you do it together!

Colleen does Singapore proud!

Well done Colleen… I know women is not something I typically blog about (though something I talk about). But I’m damn happy for her… My friend was supposed to intro me to her quite some time ago after one of the new paper new face competitions… somehow that never happened… Next thing I know shes off in Poland getting 5th place in the beachwear competition… not too shabby at all. Actually.. out of the top 5 I think she should have won it… but then again I’m not a judge am I… Maybe she can be the new face for E27 Singapore… we do need more girls and this perfectly aligns to our strategy…

Scrapblog, The best thing since sliced cheese (and i love my cheese)

I feel like a little school kid waiting for arts and crafts so that I can cut and paste and decorate my little piece of art with scraps of nice lookin things. Thats exactly the kinda feeling I got after seeing screenshots of it… I’m not even a user yet and I love it! Its like what Apple meant to do with iPhoto but just never got around to…. and now its free and online, no downloads! Isnt it simply amazing… Just look at what’s possible today with web 2.0 technologies and a lil bit of creativity (and some code junkies). I see it as a no brainer for Yahoo to buy them out.. It would merge soooo nicely with flickr. If scrapblog remains independant for longer, I see huge revenue potentials with printing… Its like what Aperture allows you to do only better and free… and if they can get it for cheaper! people would love it! I wouldnt think twice about doing up an album for my roadtrip and printing it into a photobook…

I was discussing this very same idea with a friend about 2 weeks ago and the main bottleneck was the fact that there wernt and talented coders easily available… The problem with talented coders in Singapore is that they’re all head hunted even before they graduate and they look forward to a stable job with a good pay… Its totally unlike Stanford where half the people have ambitions of starting up or wanna work in a startup they love…

If there are any talented coders reading my blog, hit me up!

Billmonk (and me) on the New Paper

I’m quoted on the new paper… woo hoo!