I have decided to switch to self-hosting for the greater flexibility it brings. Please do visit my new site at http://omgzam.com/ .

Here’s a snippet of the whole new concept my site is going to be like

Welcome to Online Media Gazette (OMGzam). We are a blog covering the latest in social media and technology news from an Asian perspective. OMGzam is also a platform for people to share their thoughts on current world events or anything that could be of a talking point. The focus of this blog gravitates towards recurring themes of social media, design and music.

I promise you that it will be so much better! Until then, see you there!

Note: From today onwards, citysand.wordpress.com will no longer be update, please visit www.omgzam.com to further facilitate conversations.

The video has been viewed a whopping 120 million times worldwide. Here is the video!

The people from SwitchToMac have spoofed the popular skit with a Mac fanboy’s anthem about Apple culture and products. Enjoy the video!

Here’s the original “I’m On A Boat” video.

Background

Singapore Idol was officially kicked off in 2004 where Taufik Batisah won it, followed by Hady Mirza in 2006. This year in 2009, the competition was topped by Sezairi Sezali, making him the third male to win this ‘talent’ contest. To take note of the show’s popularity, I decided to do a simple research on Google Trends. As we can see, Singapore Idol’s popularity has been diminishing over the three contests. There are even plans for the fourth season of Singapore Idol, I wonder how long can Mediacorp milk the success of television contests like this.

Twitter

‘Singapore Idol’ was a trending topic for about 4 hours according to Trend Tracker. There were a lot of anxiety built up while the competition is underway and one could see that it is surprising (in a good way) that there are many Singaporeans (mostly) that are on Twitter. This is a major step forward in the push towards a socially savvy nation. In case you were wondering how many Tweets were tweeted during the whole of the contest, here is a graph to illustrate the amount:

Less Than Favourable Remarks

Despite winning the competition, Sezairi Sezali was slammed by a lot of Singaporeans. Why? Because he is Malay guy. A lot of people claimed that the competition was rigged and his victory was a white wash from the start. As a Singaporean myself, I am very disappointed in the way people reacted when he won. He winning, was due to the number of votes he choked up due to his popularity in the show. Here are some nasty side of Singaporeans on Twitter:

Conclusion

Quoting @litford “#SingaporeIdol = Our Political Climate. All want a different result but all don’t vote. #Singapore”. I fully agree with the statement he made. Instead of complaining, the ones that were unsatisfied with the result should reflect upon themselves whether did they do enough to sway the final result. It is an open competition anyways.

How do you feel seeing the nasty comments? Share with me through the comment box.

What is the ‘Digital Generation’?

1. Wired / Wireless

The digital generation spends most of their time surrounded by computers and other mobile gadgets (email, instant messaging, and social networking sites). At home or on the move they are always connected; thriving on the convenience of communicating electronically and wirelessly.

2. Instantaneous

They are so used to giving and receiving information immediately. Everything is just a click or a search away. In view of this, people these days are very impatient and demands “instant gratification”; if the information is too slow, they may get bored or frustrated.

3. Expecting

Given that they are more knowledgeable about the world around them, through absorbing the culture and environment around them, many have high demands for their salary, job flexibility, lifestyle and technology.

4. Open

With the availability of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, people are generally more willing to share their feelings and personal information with others. Having said that, it give everyone equal opportunity to a global audience where they could hit instant stardom; i.e Tay Zonday who sung Chocolate Rain.

5. Information Saturated

The way this generation think and process information are fundamentally different due to continuous partial attention and multi-tasking. They always want to be connected and be doing various activities at the same time; making them a central node that is always live.

6. Experimental

The digital generation are very involved in what they are doing; working, writing and interacting with others. Given this fact, it is very easy to sell a new idea to them because of their experimental nature; less work for new ideas to penetrate the market. This leads to them pursing different routes to achieve success and happiness. They want to be different and follow their dreams, they are empowered to do so.

7. Global

Growing up in a world that is connected, accessible, interactive and open, the digital generation are connected globally; not limited to geographical boundaries. They are able to share their ideas everywhere through the advancement of technology.

8. Diverse

Possessing various degrees of access to digital technologies, literacy skills and participation with their peer culture, all of the digital generation has something to offer to the global community. Everyone has a voice and a different point of view regarding a certain issue; rendering them useful for different community.

What Do They Offer?

Their innovativeness may change the world in new ways where their ability to use and create technology that are vastly different from the current ones. Also, the digital generation are extremely productive and supportive, if they are engaged in the proper manner. However, the trick is finding that method to engage them.

Anyways, here is the SlideShare for your convenience:

Are you ready for change? Do share with us, how you are going to embrace the changes that are coming.

Pope Benedict was knocked down by a woman before the Christmas Eve mass, although he was unhurt and manages to complete the ceremony. One must wonder how fast viral video spreads; this video is a good example.

via Mashable

Here is what I wrote on Penn Olson which can be found on their website:

This year, a lot of buzz has been generated on whether social media is capable of overthrowing traditional marketing strategies and reign supreme. What I noticed is that traditional marketing seems to incorporate more of social media in their marketing strategies, whereas, those social media purists fervently believes that this (social media) is the way of the future and traditional marketing will soon die off. So which side should we believe?

History

Before we make a decision, let us explore the history of advertising. When TV advertising first started, everyone predicted the death of radio advertising. Same goes for the Internet, where the traditional brochures and pamphlets will fade away but neither of these have gone away and they are still going strong. The same model could be applied to the advent of social media taking over traditional media.

Explanation

Traditional marketing employs the ‘push medium’, where you choose when and how people see what you have to offer; providing people information the way you are seeing it. On the other hand, social media utilize the ‘pull medium’, where people get to choose how and when they see what you have to offer; if your product interests them, they will come to you instead of the other way round.

Inbound marketing is a style of marketing that focuses on getting found by customers. This sense is related to Seth Godin’s idea of permission marketing. The concept of inbound marketing recommends marketers to ‘publish their way in’ via social media resources in contrast to outbound marketing where they have to ‘buy their way in’.

Example

Does that mean that companies should throw all their eggs into the social media basket? Let us take a look at Zappos, an established online shoe store. Given that social media is on the rise, Zappos has been leveraging social media to their advantage but they have not thrown all their resources into that and neglected everything else. Known for their great customer service, social media helps them extend the reach of their products and services while maintaining the use of traditional marketing.

Conclusion

In my opinion, there is much room for both traditional and new media when it comes to marketing. As long as traditional marketing companies are keeping pace with the times and incorporating social media tactics into their arsenal by implementing them tactfully, we could be looking at a formidable marketing company integrating the right fit for pushing and pulling their message across.

At the end of the day, it boils down to who our target audience is. Whether we weigh more on traditional or move the balance heavier on social media solely depends on who our consumers are.

Here is a tongue-in-cheek political animation comparing traditional and new media.

What do you think? Share your thoughts and opinions through the comment box.

In the past couple of days, I have been wondering what would be a more effective way to post my videos, pictures and links to Twitter without going through the trouble of visiting multiple sites to do the same action. After a short Google search, I was recommended the use of Posterous to solve the above issue.

Posterous easily allows you to post MP3s, files, videos and photos to Twitter through email. It is able to connect to your Twitter account and other various site, so that when you post something to Posterous, it automatically posts to your other accounts. Through one single email, you are able to upload your MP3s, file, videos or photos to Posterous, which in turn is shared on Twitter.

To get started on Posterous, all you need to do is send an email to post@posterous.com, it is as simple as that. After that, you can link up your Twitter and other accounts to Posterous easily. Alternatively, you can set up your account at posterous.com.

Here is a video for those who wants a clearer picture:

Get started now to make your Twitter experience, a more enjoyable one!

What Is LiveFyre?

LiveFyre is a place for topical, public, live-streaming conversation and debate between friends and people who like the same stuff you do. A Fyre can be started over virtually anything – articles, blog posts, videos, tweets, you name it.

Let us take a look at the different features of LiveFyre and distinguish their purpose and usefulness for their users.

Features of LiveFyre

1. Trending Topics

You may think that this is a total rip-off from Twitter but listen up, LiveFyre’s features Twitter and Google’s trending topics rather than their very own. This helps users have an idea of what Fyre to start and also see the list of Fyres that has already been started relating to the trending topic.

2. Classification of Topics

This is a simple yet often overlooked feature which helps filter the unnecessary noise and helps users focus on the topics that they are interested in. Given that this is a real-time conversation platform, when it is peak period, there are bound to be countless Fyres started which maybe overbearing for users.

3. Facebook and Twitter Integration

What is fire without fuel? Using Twitter and Facebook, LiveFyre takes advantage of the 2 most important social media platform to promote the ongoing Fyre that you are participating in. With that, they hope to attract more people to come together and have a real-time discussion/debate over the subject matter.

A Fyre may last only 4 hours before it ‘burns out’. I guess this is one way to control spam and clear out dead Fyres. However, a user can ‘reignite’ the Fyre if they are keen on continuing the conversation over the same topic and the 4 hours timer is restarted.

4. Breakout

This would be the most interesting and exciting feature of LiveFyre in my opinion. Like normal conversations in reality, some of us tend to go off tangent from the main topic. However, LiveFyre has this Breakout feature where users can start a breakout topic pertaining to the main topic without affecting the stream of main topic. A side conversation would be the most appropriate term to explain the Breakout feature.

5. Subscribe

The subscribe feature would be Twitter’s version of followers/following. On the other hand, LiveFyre subscribe feature is used for the development of a relationship based on your expertise regarding a certain topic. I believe that this feature will not turn into a ‘who has the most subscriber’ kind of contest. If you are subscribing to someone, you can see the Fyres that the person is participating plus the replies that he has posted.

Conclusion

LiveFyre will not be replacing the micro-blogging giant anytime soon. Twitter is a place where you discover new people while getting news from online sources and also to disseminate information that you have created or found. On the other hand, Twitter has never been a good place to hold conversational debates regarding something due to its limitations; this is where LiveFyre comes in. By aiding Twitter’s disadvantage, LiveFyre could possibly be ‘the’ place to go to when one needs an opinion regarding a certain topic.

So what do you think about LiveFyre? Here’s a video review of LiveFyre by the pioneer batch of beta testers.