360DigitalInfluence

There are more than 30,000 non-executive members of company boards across Australia. If you are one of them, what are the questions you should be asking about how the business you manage is handling social media?

We’ve put together five “starter” questions that corporate board members should ask to gauge how well the companies they oversee are managing the risks and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by social media.

What other questions should board members be asking?

We are excited to announce our sixth Wall Street Journal Asia webinar - “Foursquare for Business” – has been scheduled for August 19th! 

Join Brian Giesen (me), John Stauffer and Thomas Crampton on this FREE webinar as we talk about how businesses can – and are – using Foursquare for business all across Asia Pacific.

Foursquare for Business Webinar:
Thursday, 19 August 2010
11:00am Hong Kong
REGISTER HERE!

For those of you who haven’t unlocked the Newbie Badge, we’ll also be explaining what Foursquare is and how it’s part of a larger trend toward location-based social media networking.

Join us!

Tom Beall, global managing director of Ogilvy's Social Marketing practice, sits down for an interview as part of Ogilvy PR Australia's Red Chair series. Tom explains what social marketing is, why we need it, common techniques and more.

• Nielsen released its “Asia Pacific Social Media Report” yesterday which described in more detail the social media and WOM trends across the region.

Below is an excerpt from their press release:

Blogs rule in Japan

• Japan Internet users are the most avid bloggers globally, posting over one million blogs per
  month, significantly more than any other country.
• Japan’s adoption of Twitter continues to grow, with unique visitor numbers having increased
  from less than 200,000 to more than 10 million in the year to April 2010. Sixteen percent of
  Japanese Internet users now use Twitter, which compares to 10 percent in the US.

Grass roots celebrities attract China’s social networkers

• Bulletin board systems underpin popular social media behaviour in China – over 80 percent
  of social media content is bulletin board systems.
• Social media games are used as a stimuli to drive new users and gain reach with existing
  users, while content sharing behaviours are more popular among the more experienced
  users. Virtual product placement within social networking site games is becoming one of the
  most profitable methods of revenue for social networking sites, generating between
  US$200,000 to US$500,000 per month on product placement.
• ‘Grass roots’ celebrity tracking dominates online conversations in China, with grass roots
  celebrities such as Phoenix Sister and Mr Yuan outperforming real life celebrities in
  popularity. 
• Chinese Internet users are the most likely in Asia Pacific to post a negative online product
  review, and are the only consumers in the region more likely to share negative reviews than
  positive reviews – 62% of Chinese Internet users say they are more likely to share a negative
  review compared to 41 percent globally.

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If you are in Sydney on Tuesday, join us for the first-ever Foursquare Office Mayor Meetup 2010! We created this fun "town crier" video to help get the word out about the event which is celebrating the launch of Microsoft Office 2010.

The first 110 mayors have a chance to win a copy of Office 2010 and other great prizes. You can also check out the Facebook fan page. Hope to see you there!

We caught up with Thomas Crampton whilst he was in Australia as part of the Red Chair Series. Check out this video interview!

I met up with Ruhani Rubin today at a blogger gathering with the “Fab 4″ of Malaysian football and asked him to share a few suggestions and lessons learned from building up his Twitter following.

In what they’re calling a “world first”, Nielsen Online is measuring Australian usage of the mobile Web. According to their press release, there are just shy of 140,000 Australians who browse the mobile Web each day, with the average session being 4 and a half minutes. Now if only they could measure usage of mobile applications such as foursquare…

Our colleagues at OgilvyOne in New York have launched a global search for the “World’s Greatest Sales Person”.

Lucky finalists will win a fellowship at OgilvyOne and a trip to Cannes International Advertising Festival to pitch their ideas.

For more information and to enter, checkout the Ogilvy YouTube Channel!