And I was reminded by Facebook on some old tweets which went something like this:

https://www.facebook.com/christock/posts/131775073549990

I mean, to remember the company’s birthdate is a must (much like how important your loved one’s birthday is to you) but to see it on Facebook’s memories.. Man, that was one heck of a journey!

Yes, I said I would do it. And I did it. And 5 years later…

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100466740816685&set=a.680881907265.197122.222400858&type=3&theater

Yes we’ve come a long way baby!

The directors and I went to collect the awards a week before knowing that it was probably too early to admit we’re one of the 10 leading social media agencies in Malaysia, but hey, we’ll certainly do our best to live up to the hype!

I mean, who’d knew that I’d be representing Dato’ Lee Chong Wei’s digital account, consulting to the God of Stand Up Comedy in Malaysia Harith Iskander, managing really prestigious brands and serving retainer clients for more than 3 years under the brand name of SocialGrooves.com.

Our belief of Connecting Businesses and Communities is truly making an impact, and our clients are beginning to appreciate our foresight especially in the game of stamina in terms of brand recognition and advocacy.

At the same time, who says we can’t reap the fruits we’ve sown over the past 5 years? A dream to own a yacht some day, can? *grin*

Anyhow, thanks to Top 10 Malaysia for the award, and thanks for connecting us with some of the most prestigious network in town.

I mean, it’s not often you get to meet with founders of super successful enterprises like Joe who runs Sangkaya

Anyway happy 5th anniversary to SocialGrooves.com, and may we continue to rise above to raise the industry level for the benefit of businesses and communities!

The post Milestone Achieved: SocialGrooves.com 5th Anniversary & Top 10 Malaysia’s Leading Social Media Agency 2015 appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Since 2010, Carlsberg’s ‘Where’s The Party?’ had always provided the necessary excitement based on suspense and discovery, who’s party is often being dubbed the “hippest of the hip” and the “most epic social event of the year”. Sad to say, I’ve actually never been invited to one before, nor have I managed to win any tickets from their many opportunities, because frankly by the time I found out about it, it’s almost always over boo hoo T____T

But that being said, THIS time here I am getting excited to go for my first ever “Where’s The Party?” rave, and JUST so that you don’t end up like me (finding out about it after it’s over boo hoo), these are several ways YOU can get your tickets to the party from the folks at Carlsberg yo!

Purchasing RM100 worth of Carlsberg beer

That’s right, JUST RM100 worth of Carlsberg beer (just make sure to keep the receipt!), head on to Carlsberg’s Party Pass Giveaway Facebook Tab, create and use the cover photo, and finally be spotted by Carlsberg! Come on, it’s just some extra fine barley drink, you can take it right?

Rating: 3/5 – by far the easiest, just get some friends together for a drinking session and a lil’ FBing

Participating in a contest on Carlsberg Malaysia’s Facebook page

You think entering contest is lame? Not when it’s done by the folks at Carlsberg! Check out their Are You Bold Enough tab on Facebook, give us your boldest answer to the scenarios and you could win yourself 1 pass set that admits 4. Partying without friends is lame, kan?

Rating: 4/5 – This in itself is a mystery, because not every scenario is released yet. Cool lol.

Snapping a cool photo with Instagram

The coolest way to obtain your ticket! Why? Because it’s just cool to hashtag #AREYOUBOLDENOUGH in your instagram pictures with your friends joining in. I’m on instagram at @spinzer, #AREYOUBOLDENOUGH to follow me? LOL! PS the secret is of course to follow @carlsbergMY first too, and I guess there’s no harm adding #wherestheparty & #carlsberg to maximize your chance heh!

Rating: 5/5 – Instagram rocks! Sharing your excitement rocks!

So… are you guys going to join me at the most epic social event of the year? Hurry and grab your ticket while you still can! See

you guys there!

For more details, visit www.wherestheparty.my

OH and were you at @CarlsbergMY’s Mini “Where’s The Party” session held @ Changkat Movida yesterday? They were giving out tickets, hope you got some of them!

The post So, Where's The Party? Follow the Trail to Grab'em Tickets! appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

This to me is a really unprecedented move. I tweeted immediately as a response, and the best part is… it got picked up by the Associated Press. From there, popular tech websites, major news portals and pundits globally took an interest on it, and Malaysia is once more found itself on the map of the world (though at least this time, for a better reason)

Herein lies the question – Did Blu Inc, in their move to settle for a public apology in this manner, expected this to happen? Did they forget that in social media, the old rules and ancient laws does not apply? (This method is akin to punishing a child in their school days, writing a sentence a hundred times to learn their mistake. Remember Harry Potter and Dolores Umbridge?) Or could it be that they needed the coverage. In other words, was this a planned strategy to begin with?

Well, if they didn’t expect this to be worth more than, say, a full page on theStar newspaper with his apology statement, they can never be more wrong. I’ve basically recorded a list of papers who either picked up the news from AP and published them per se, and some others who’ve made their own analysis, matching the situation back to a similar case of defamation over social media in their respective countries, closer to home. The list includes global publications such as Forbes, Bloomberg Business Week, Times of India, Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, CNBC, China Daily and more. On the tech side, popular portals such as The Huffington Post, The Next Web, Wired, Slashdot and Gizmodo covered it.

That’s just to give you a snapshot of the type of coverage we’re looking at. Others that I’ve tracked are link given below.

Yahoo | Physorg.com | Asiancorrespondent.com | Journalism.co.uk |  Geekosystem.com

Malaysia MSN | Digitalspy.co.uk | Newser.com | Jezebel.com | Siliconrepublic.com

Digitaljournal.com | Gawker.com | Irishtimes.com | Tribune.com.pk | Torontosun.com

theglobeandmail.com | Tech.uk.msn.com | Cnews.canoe.ca | Techland.time.com

Villagevoice.com | Techeye.net/internet/malaysian-tweets-100-apologies-for-libel

http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/06/02/100-apology-tweets-for-defamation/ Government Orders Twitter User To Tweet 100 Apologies for Defamation < say what?!

Blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2011/06/twitter-trouble-much-ado-about-congressman-weiner-plus-a-tweet-sentence-in-malaysia.

The question is, was a good move or a bad move? One thing’s for sure – Fahmi Fadzil is probably laughing his ass off now as the victim role continues to blur between him and Blu Inc.

The post 1 bad tweet. 1 court order. 100 Apologies in 3 Days on Twitter. Global news. The tumpang glamour edition appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Crocs Malaysia, my preferred footwear for all occasions and also whom I am an official blogger for (the earlier first, latter second :p) is constantly trying to find an answer to that too. I thought it might be great that we source the answers from friends and family then, at least we will be able to identify two things at the end of the day:

1. If Crocs Malaysia were to send out a communiqué (for example, like a loyalty programme thingie) which method would you prefer: Facebook, Website, Direct e-mailing, SMS or Twitter? (notice I left out non-social media methods like TV ads and door to door flyers- they are out of fashion imho!)

2. If YOU were interested in a brand, SAY LA, Crocs (which I know a lot of you do :P) and want to find out more about it, say by giving YOUR contact information out, which would you be most comfortable to give out from the list above? I know it’s definitely not your address, like I said, we all don’t like spam do we?

At the end of the day, it’s about finding the right balance between the way how Crocs Malaysia sends out the information (of course they do as they have monthly promotions plus announcements of clearance sales!) and the way how YOU would best receive it- and it all boils down to a method of communication we can all compromise with

Added to that, the best few replies to question 1 and 2 will receive an exclusive premium by Crocs worth RM89 each- a super handy shoe bag! If you haven’t won any from previous contests in my fellow official Crocs blogger’s site,  then try your luck here- trust me it’s way easier since I’ve probably the least visitors among all of them

By the way, do follow Crocs Malaysia on both Twitter and Facebook, also do visit their website at http://www.crocs.com.my/ to find out existing communications method.

So give me your answers to points 1 and 2, now!

Related links (all of them contain great blog posts, not to be missed!):
Crocs Calls – MissyCheerio
All about Crocs – FeeqSays
What would you like to hear and see from Crocs in terms of Product, Promotions and Events?? – Rebecca Saw
Crocs Trailbreak: Not Entirely Pretty But Kicks Ass – Marcky

The post Social Media: Best method of communication for brands? appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Hint: It’s the most talked about thing in town. Do a Google search and see what I mean!

ITalk Whoa is a Unified Messaging and Convergence platform providing single-point-access to Messaging & Collaboration systems. iTalk Whoa provides and interface that enables users to synchronize all the email accounts, social networking sites to enable them to connect, communicate and collaborate with their families and friends.

Or at least that’s what it says la. Hence Mr. Chris Spinzer Tock here will take it on a spin since he’s an avid social media person (friends will know this to be VERY true) utilizing every tool there is in this interesting one-stop social media platform!

I won’t show you what it looks like just yet (though you can easily search for it on other blogs :p) apart from this small section, showcasing Mail (your very own @italkwhoa.com e-mail), Contacts, Calendar & Notes, Twitter and SMS. I’m sure that’s not all, but I guess it’s up to me to explore the rest…

For avid Microsoft fans you will clearly notice that there are some Microsoft Exchange elements in there, except that you also have additional Social Media tools (Twitter) along with the defacto communication tool, SMS.

Clearly something’s up afoot… A system that amalgamates everything into one portal?

Can it really be done?

In any case Registration at http://www.italkwhoa.com/italkwhoaregistration/registration.htm seems very easy… imma doin’ it now!

There. Of course prior to this I had to purchase an iTalk top up card from TM to activate my mobile phone, but I think in the future it will be an online process too as well.  So what do you guys think of it so far?

The post iTalkWhoa! – Got such thing meh? appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Answers below in red

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 2:19 AM, Joseph WEE Yeong Yew wrote:

Hey Christopher,

Here are the questions for the interview!

1. When did you first start using social media and what was the reason?

Well if you considered blogging as part of social media (which it is, by the way) then it would be around 2003. It was the very same year when I started at Imperial College London, purpose is such that friends of mine can find out what was going on in my life while I was overseas. Little did I know it was going to turn into a money-making, ambassador/events-magnet and food review website that it is today.

2. How would you describe your activity in the Social media scene?

Put simply, it would be to share my love and passion for the things I do, which includes eating, organizing events across multiple interests and occasional tech-related updates that will benefit my followers in Facebook, Twitter and through my blog and various websites I am a webmaster of. (view my About me section)

3. How would you describe the social media scene in Malaysia today?

Day by day we see an increase in social media utilization not only by the young generation (X and Y) but also leaning towards the elders as well. And when I say utilization, I mean actual participation in social media activities not restricted to simple ones such as commenting on a post or tweet or status updates. There are already many idle social media users, way much more compared to other countries in South East Asia. All it takes now is a little encouragement, and social media will eventually be a medium through which many companies and leaders of their respective fields engage with their friends and followers, which is exactly what is happening today.

4. How do you think things have advanced in social media?

It’s very simple; in Malaysia, everything is about the latest fad hitting town. Malaysians are a GENIUS when it comes to utilizing the web for their own personal use such as sharing about their lives, their photos and even their ambition whether it is to their family or friends. For this reason, more and more are clinging on to the social media rage especially with celebrities (both international and local) following suit, and with that, social media has been used to start fund-raising activities, network meet ups and even as far as to garner poll results among friends and followers.So how have things advanced in social media? My answer would be, even companies are willing to SPEND on utilizing social media in Malaysia. That’s how advance we’ve gotten with social media.

5. In the near future, lets say 5 years, what is your prediction of the role played by Social Media?

5 years from now, social media will be a defacto tool for engagement via several roles/entities; mainly companies to their staff, consultants to their clients, customer service to users et al. How is this possible? Through personified responses, and in Malaysia, it’s all about personalized servicing isnt it? (Malaysians are not brand loyal, IMHO)

6. Are there any restrictions in social media in Malaysia?

Yes there is, unfortunately. The government are adverse to social media as of now because they believe its power is capable of causing rumours and falsely spreading untrue facts which would discontent the public, and true to that, there has been punishments served to social media users who abuse their freedom of speech. Fortunately actions are being by certain quarters to start engaging and promoting social media as a way to receive feedbacks, and that could be a good start to lesser restrictions, though I doubt it could ever be removed completely.

7. In your opinion what are some of the more popular blogs in Malaysia?

There are a few if you split it by certain genres, for example, tech blogs, political blogs and lifestyle blogs. To make matters easy, most Malaysians are only interested in Lifestyle blogs that is usually littered with exclusive events and extraordinary personal experiences by the blogger themselves, and with that, 2 of the more popular bloggers would be Kenny Sia of www.kennysia.com and Cheesie of www.cheeserland.com. For the rest of the list, please head here: http://www.riceblogger.com/top-100-malaysian-blogs/ (please ignore political and tech bloggers whose market visitors are niche and global)

8. Is social media important to companies in Malaysia?

I believe so and evangalise this fact strongly via the Social Media Club of Kuala Lumour (www.smckl.com) whose objective is to create awareness on the benefits of using social media within and outside of the company. In fact, I have started consulting major restaurant franchises who are more than keen to venture into social media for promotions and feedbacks, a two-pronged guide to a consumer’s heart.

9. In Malaysia the government started this “1Malaysia” campaign to promote racial  harmony. Part of the campagin involved the Prime Minister (Najib Razak) using blogs as a medium to communicate to the public. He also uses Facebook Any thoughts on  that? Any thoughts on the effectiveness of the Malaysian government using social media?

It is good that our Prime Minister has acknowledge that he requires social media to reach out to the people, but on whether it is used effectively is another thing altogether. Majority social media users have been unimpressed with the strategy used. However I would agree to the thought on creating an effective government using social media, but only when it is done the right way and with honesty and integrity.

10. Are there commercial uses of Social Media in Malaysia that is of your interest?

Yes there is. The concept of marketing via Social Media, done right, is really powerful and also subtle to the user’s eyes. Tracking the success of these marketing tactics are also easy since it’s on a digital platform, which means it’s possible to track leads made from a single campaign, hence, perfect for commercial use.

11. How credible is Social media is in Malaysia? For example as an investment banker, do you find that social media is a credible place to look for tips or advice on investments?

It is interesting to note that you’d take that as an example, because as a matter of fact I’m responsible for the creation of a one stop financial portal called www.ecmmoney.com. Yes, we also do use Twitter to spread financial reports and Malaysian Burse Exchange news. However I’d like to mention that the credibility of a user does dictate on whether the information or source given is trustable or not. In the end it’s all about the sincerity and honest of the user that decides his or her credibility in the eyes of the public.

12. You also have a huge following on twitter with over 990 followers. Have you  got any tips for a greenhorn in the social media scene like myself on how to get followers?

Unfortunately that number is far from huge, as there are some with almost 2000 followers. However I would like to add that I’d rather have 100 active followers following me than 1000 idle ones, and that being said, the right way to value how influential a person is to his followers is by the number of ReTweets he gets for one particular tweet. (Also akin to how many people will share a certain individual’s story to their friends), and I’m happy to say the relationship I have with friends and followers, and also in return, is an honest and sincere one.

With the story above, my tip for everyone out there (and yourself, of course) is just to be yourself, be honest, and above all, be sincere in making friends. Engage with your followers and friends, feel them with your heart when responding to their tweets, be it on joy, sorrow or just random rantings. And above all, share your tips and tricks to success and joy without expecting anything in return. I assure you, that is all it takes to get to where I am, no hard effort necessary

Good luck!

Thanks alot mate :)Cheers,
Joe

> On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 5:38 PM, Joseph WEE Yeong Yew  wrote:

>
> >  Dear Christopher,
> >
> > My name is Joe and I’m Kym Goh’s friend. He referred me to you as a person
> > who might be willing to do a video interview on the topic of social media. I
> > am an undergraduate at one of the local universities in Singapore, and the
> > research I am doing requires that I interview people in social media from a
> > certain country (Malaysia for this instance).
> >
> > The main objective of the interview is to ascertain social media landscape
> > that exists in Malaysia. Apart from questions about the social media
> > environment, probably more casual questions about your blog and then some
> > more questions about social media in general.
> >
> > Once complete, the more pertinent parts of interview will be extracted and
> > put in text on this wikiesque website which was created by my prof. My
> > professor reasons this as one of the course objectives of participating in a
> > culture of sharing and knowledge networks.” But before we post the extracts.
> > In the case that you are not comfortable with anything that was recorded
> > during the interview, I will send you the extract before uploading it on the
> > site. The site is a school site that clocks about 800 – 1000 viewers a week
> > maybe that might be of some use to you?
> >
> > Here are links of the wikiesque site created by my professor:
> > http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Malaysia%3A+Interviews<
> https://email.smu.edu.sg/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Malaysia%253A%2BInterviews

> > http://comm215.wetpaint.com/
> >
> > If  you are willing to do the interview, would you be free sometime this
> > thursday (18/02/10) at your convenience to do it on skype?
> >
> > Once again, thank you very much for considering this interview, I
> > appreciate it heaps ^_^
> > and Happy Chinese New Year!
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Joe

Posted via email from spinzer’s preposterousness

The post Social Media Interview Questions appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Best part of all is that we had an interesting mix of Malaysians across culture, race, gender and age!

Everyone came as one, to enjoy themselves in great company with great food. I cannot begin to describe the look of joy in their faces as they “toss” away

Ling here shows you how to  toss it super high. You know you didn’t do a good job if 1/5 of the Yee Sang didn’t make it out of the plate LOL!

Three tables altogether, and lots of old and new faces!

We couldn’t fit in so we had to takeover another long table LOL!

This Joanne took a photo of us dunno doing what lol!

Some of the food we ate… DELICIOUS!

From left bottom-up-bottom right: @dustyhawk @kruel74 @loveykatz @ling_chan @arystle @wackybecky @joanne_kay @aprilyim @demonick @altimet

From left bottom-up-bottom right: @andygts @sarah_kow @redsheep @spinzer @joanne_kay @melvincwh @chowpong

From left bottom-up-bottom right: @serpentingal @royalshortness @yapthomas @auzani @reubenhot @sg_kl @diese @icednyior @azri83

It was a really great session and we ended up having a #postlousangtwtup at WIP, Bangsar, where some left to @redsheep house for gambling while others got back to their respective houses… Oh and we saw Dennis Lau too! Ok that was random lol.

Until then, Happy Chinese New Year peeps, have a great night and weekend!

The post #lousangtwtup: The Digital Chinese New Year Celebration! appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

Admit it, everyone of you here suffers from this one way or another!

ps- I haven’t posted it up yet, but congratulations to the Young Corporate Malaysians for having their first successful summit on the 12th of December 2009! May this year be so so much more better than the last

Ku Li and us on the stage, my most memorable moment that day :)))) (View his speech here)

Presenting an appreciation symbol to Tan Sri Halim for his presence in our summit!

Lastly, the beautiful team who made it happen

The post The beauty of Digital Distractions appeared first on Spinzer - Blogger, Entrepreneur, Celebrity Manager.

The ground was moving. We were all moving along. It dawned upon me, that this was none other than an earthquake.

It was truly an experience, but guess what? Twitter was the saviour. As soon as I announced it in my Facebook, and also via my Twitter, I received plenty of responses: that I wasn’t alone. Replies from as far as Port Klang to nearer to

home, Damansara area, came drowning my twitter stream. This all confirmed the fact that we weren’t alone in our building at Wisma Genting, that everyone everywhere, even in Singapore, were all feeling the effects of the tremor.

The more informative ones such as theChannelC, ShaolinTiger and Cerventus went on to scour the news and only then we realized what was happening:

It was a tremor that started in between Padang, Sumatera, and our very own Melaka. The tremor hit 7.6 on the Richter scale, a really high number for the uninitiated.

We were feeling the after shocks that shook our very grounds.

Marcia and I, the media team, decided to cover the event. The raw videos will be submitted to CNN and any other news source I can find tomorrow morning for their use, upon recommendation from someone I know well. Why not? We were there with live footage, my camera equipped and my video camera with her, there was nothing stopping us.

In Twitter, the tweet below got RTed more than 30 times by friends up to 5th degree. So was @nikicheong‘s picture at Menara Star. This shows how powerful live coverage can be, though the picture doesn’t actually show that much. See below:

@spinzer: The scene at Raja Chulan monorail station! Crazy! #klearthquake http://twitpic.com/jpbl9

It was amazing to see some reactions. As you scour the area, you can see some smiling, some pealing with laughters of joy, some worried, some getting or making calls to their loved ones all around, some in utter seriousness, especially to those who need to make sure everyone escaped safely. David Jong here does not leave anything to imagination.

We managed to get some live interviews with some participants, which will come later, we from the CCMYC promise.

As for the aftermath, it was useless to come out to the roads. The scene above was stagnant for a good 30 seconds to 1 minute before moving.

The crawling traffic did nothing to improve the worsening jam in Kuala Lumpur, especially after a noticable break just after Hari Raya period. Marcia and I then proceeded to Estana, where we bantered on the effects of social media tools, on how fast it could disemminate information even before the officials did.

If this was used in a proper manner, most social media evangelists like @BenIsrael and @blogjunkie agreed that we have yet to touch on their true capabilities in a system-wide usage capability, something that can be explored in more detail by relevant bodies. The importance of high efficiency and wide-reaching ability of tools like Facebook and Twitter is something to ponder about.

One such random example I’d like to touch is related to how an online marketing analyst, Franz, uses search terms and hash tags data combined with analytical tool to find out how consumers are speaking on brands, be it bad (#streamyxsucks) or for good (ie Digi_telco receiving lots of praises). Read about his #streamyxsucks research here and you may find more worthy conceptualized data at his blog, which is a must read. I hope this has opened channels for further discussion

Other posts on this topic: http://me.zestful.org/2009/09/earthquake-tremors-in-kuala-lumpur-malaysia/

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