Technology As Innovator

Tai Tran's Lab: Technology As Innovator

When we read an article, what do we look at?

Creativity and sharp words are like skin. They beautify the article.

The knowledge the author presents is like flesh. Arguments, hypotheses, conclusions, opinions etc. are what we learn from the author.

The methodology is bone. If we look past the knowledge presented, we might be able to see the method/approach with which the author employs to reach what s/he presents. What we learn from methodology can be re-used to establish our own reasoning.

We want to get the most out of an article by examining each and every layer of it.

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Image courtesy: ThinkQuest

Assignment 1: promotion and expectation management using social media

Requirements

Chan Than San is a Vietnamese model working in East & South East Asia region. He has a Xanga site, a Yahoo! 360 site, a MySpace account and at least 2 Facebook accounts which he maintains manually himself. In 2010, his modeling career is rocketing it consumes most of his time and his manager wants him to fully focus on his main task as a model.

Suppose you are hired to be the Social Media Manager for Chan Than San.

1. How will you get to know him both professionally and personally? Detail all assumptions made.
2. How do you plan for the transition from he to you on the current accounts? Also clarify the legal and ethics issues relating to account management.
3. How do you manage expectation in communities in which the language used is not comprehensible to you? For example, you speak English and Vietnamese and want to see what Indonesian fans say about him - of course they use Indonesian.
4. Which media will you use to promote him? Why?
5. How do you manage the community? Detail all assumptions made.
6. How do you deal with criticism, negative responses, flaming, spamming, trolling from the communities both within and out of your management? Detail all assumptions made.
7. How do you collaborate with his manager, stylists, event manager, photographers and fan club coordinator?
8. How will you do SEO on his fansite (if any)?
9. Who do you expect to report to? Detail all assumptions made.
10. Think of a case when conflict of interest arise. Detail that case. Propose solutions you want to take in order to tackle the conflict.
11. Where do you see yourself in the next 3 years in your career?

What the…?

What is this joke about?

No this is not a joke. I’m serious.

This is a piece of career orientation I’m giving for the enthusiasts in the social media industry - if you care enough.

Social Media gives a platform on which new business opportunities are built. What businesses? Every single kind of business you can name.

In social media, there are not only the product implementers (creators), the advertisers (trader), the analysts (observers), the investors (angels), the users (clients). There is also the role of the consultant.

Consultants are ones who utilize knowledge and reputation influence to assist the business growth. Financially, this role helps generate revenues, and adds another link in the cashflow of this industry. These are also people who spread the words, standardize the concepts, educate users and businesses.

Where are these people in Vietnam? I can see Nguyen Viet Hai from i360 and Do Quang Tu. I know some others who are doing jobs very close to this role.

Are you interested? Think about it. And I hope you have been inspired.

Trivia

Do you wonder why I chose this particular person to write about, not another more well-known Vietnamese celeb? The reason is that he is not known only within Vietnam, but in other adjacent countries as well. The regional opportunities and challenges if working with this person are interesting to raise. The second thing is that he is using some social media properties including Xanga & Slides, apart from the default-in-Vietnamese Yahoo! 360 + Flickr, which should intrigue/interest the social media experts. This is similar to the buzz in the social media world about Britney Spears on Twitter.

I’ve heard about a fansite for Hoang Thuy Linh being developed by several young social media initiators. This could be a great opportunity for experiment with new media interactions. It will be interesting to see how a fansite built by the 2.0 people will differentiate itself from other sites.

What do you think?