Word of mouse: Tips to market your firm online

TO SAVVY marketers, the Internet is an open frontier, a notice board with potentially unlimited branding opportunities to promote their wares.

But many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) here have yet to fully utilise these Web tools to differentiate themselves, said Mr Philip Lee (picture), small and medium business solutions manager at HP AsiaPacific & Japan’s personal systems group.

Simply having a website is not enough. Given the sheer volume on the Internet, a business needs to cut through “noise”. That means forgetting anything your target customers don’t want to hear.

“The trouble with all this advertising and marketing is that people blank out,” said Mr Lee. “It’s like the first few days of Olympics, and then after a while, I almost felt it wasn’t there until we had some really exciting bits. People start to make things invisible on a rapid and regular basis.”
One suggestion Mr Lee has is for SMEs to engage their customers.

Get happy ones to record amateur videos and spread their messages online. There is no need for big budgets. “Even if it is not professionally done, people may relate better to such imperfection,” said Mr Lee.


BLESSED ARE THE CORRUPT?

In October 2006, the former head of the National Bureau of Statistic was sacked amid speculation that he was linked to the massive pension fund scandal that toppled Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu.

Many ordinary Chinese ridiculed Mr Qiu’s comeback, arguing that it had cast serious doubts on their government’s determination in tackling corruption.

As an editorial writer said: “The purpose of China’s anti-corruption efforts is not to drive former convicted officials into direct confrontation with the Party, government and society. Moreover, we will never abandon or bury the talents of an outstanding individual.”

Another added that fallen officials, like everyone else, need a means of livelihood.Others pointed out that given the government’s policy of giving criminals a second chance, Mr Qiu should not be discriminated against simply because he was once a top official.

The Economic Observer, too, threw its weight behind Mr Qiu. It noted that his ability in picking himself up in a short time, and CNOOC’s “anti-traditionalist approach in hiring talent”, all point to “the progress of Chinese society and fully exemplified a China that is getting increasingly more humane”.

While it is true that convicted officials should be encouraged to turn over a new leaf,Mr Qiu’s case is unusual, given his seniority in government. As Mr Zhang Guorong, disciplinary and inspection committee leader at the National Bureau of Statistics, revealed: Mr Qiu’s “problems” began as early as 1993.

But more importantly, allowing Mr Qiu to return to a state company has sent the wrong signal to Chinese citizens anxious to see their government clamp down more effectively on corruption.

Bigger umbrella for more

CHANGES are being proposed to the Employment Act that will, among other things, bring more Singaporeans under its protective umbrella.

The Act now covers about 1.4 million workers and was last reviewed in 1995. But since then, the proportion of those in the ranks of professionals, managers, executives and technicians, as well as the number of contract and services industry workers have grown.
.The National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation have been consulted; from now until Sept 22, the public can give its feedback.

Economy slows, exports to drop

Singapore’s economy expanded at the slowest pace in five years and exports will decline for the first time since 2001.

Last week, the ministry cut its 2008 growth forecast for a second time this year as exports fell and tourist arrivals eased. Singapore’s currency, which climbed to its strongest in more than a decade earlier this year, has since slid and is Asia’s worst performer this quarter amid concern growth will slow further.

Singapore’s economy has so far been partly buffered, because we have been carried along by the vibrancy of the Asian region,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last Friday. “But Asian economies are starting to feel the impact of America’s problems, and so are we. We must therefore prepare ourselves for a bumpy year ahead.”

Singapore’s economy contracted for the second time in three quarters, slipping an annualised 6 per cent in the three months to June, compared with a July 10 estimate of a 6.6 per cent drop. It grew a revised 15.7 per cent in the first quarter.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has maintained an appreciation policy on its exchange rate since April 2004, and this year allowed the currency to rise at a faster pace against the US dollar to combat the highest inflation rate since 1982.

Trick of a treat – those fireworks

BEIJING — As the Olympics opening ceremony last Friday got underway with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird’s Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints, outlined in fireworks, processed gloriously above Beijing from Tiananmen Square.

What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.

The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air.

As a result, only the last, visible from the camera stands inside the Bird’s Nest was captured on film.

The trick was revealed in a local Chinese newspaper, the Beijing Times, at the weekend.

Mr Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible — they sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing’s smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.

“Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks,” he said. “But most of the audience thought it was filmed live — so that was mission accomplished.”

One adviser to the Beijing Olympic Committee defended the decision to use make-believe to impress the viewer. “It would have been prohibitive to have tried to film it live,” he said. “We could not put the helicopter pilot at risk by making him try to follow the firework route.”
the right moment.

M’sia warns Christian newspaper of stern action

KUALA LUMPUR — Muslim-majority Malaysia’s government has accused a Christian newspaper of breaking publication rules by running articles deemed political and insulting to Islam, and warned it of stern action, officials said yesterday.

The reprimand underscores the tenuous position of minorityreligions in multi-ethnic Malaysia. Christians, Buddhists and Hindus complain that their rights are being undermined by government efforts to bolster the status of Islam, the country’sofficial religion.

The Home Ministry sent a letter to the Herald’s publishers warning that its editions in June “committed offences” by highlighting Malaysian politics and currentaffairs.

The letter accused the Herald of carrying an article that “could threaten public peace and national security” because it allegedly “denigrated Islamic teachings”.

The publication is also currently embroiled in a court dispute with the government over a ban on the use of the word “Allah” as a Malay-language translation for “God”.

A ‘Silicon Valley’ buzz in Changi

WHEN Singapore’s fourth publicly-funded university goes fully operational in Changi in five years’ time, it should feature a Silicon Valley-type buzz.
.Plans are underway to use its permanent location next to Changi Business Park — home to high-tech enterprises and knowledge intensive facilities, as well as industry giants such as IBM and Honeywell — to its advantage.

“In the United States, for example, the industries work very well with universities and they sometimes even share facilities. We think this is one area that we can develop because Changi Business Park is a growing area, and if we build a university there, there are opportunities for industry to have linkages,” said Dr Ng.

Stanford University is one that has benefited from collaborations with nearby techno hub Silicon Valley.

Meanwhile, the new university is set to open its doors to an initial intake of500 students in 2011, at an interim campus yet to be confirmed. This will grow to an annual intake of 2,500.

Its permanent site at Changi — which incorporates the land once earmarked for the University of New South Wales’ Asian campus — is about 22.6 hectares, big enough for hostels and 600 metres from the Expo MRT station.

Drawing up the masterplan for this campus will be a steering committee chaired by Mr Philip Ng Chee Tat, chief executive officer of Far East Organisation. Mr Ng has been involved in the Board of Trustees of the National University of Singapore and the Board of Governors of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Republic Polytechnic.

A key task of the committee — which will comprise leaders from academia, industry and the public sector — will be finding the right people to make up the management and Board of Trustees, said Mr Ng.

The committee will also mount a hunt for an interim campus and, importantly, an international search for a university president. “We hope we have somebody named maybe by early next year, certainly by the end of the first half,” said Mr Ng.

Come 2011, the school will focus first on a selection of courses, with more to come later — similiar to how the Singapore Management University started out in 2000. It will offer programmes in Engineering and Applied Science, Business and Information Technology, and Architecture and Design.