A mapping of the Singapore leisure blogosphere

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Mapping of the
Singapore Leisure
Blogosphere

22/06/12

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SOMMAIRE
1  The ABC of social media data-mapping
a.  What is a social media data-mapping ?
b.  Is a social media data-mapping useful ?
c.  How do you do this social media data-mapping ?
d.  What is the scope of this mapping ?
e.  Reading a map
2  Overview : How does Singapore talk about leisure ?
a.  Interest clusters : key findings
b.  Site type : key findings
c.  Update frequency : key findings
d.  Facebook strength : key findings
e.  Mutual links: key findings
3  A glance at the various interest clusters of the leisure conversation
a.  The 9 interest clusters of the Singapore leisure blogosphere
b.  Food lovers : real people connected and interacting
c.  Media sites : at the heart of bloggers competition
d.  Entertainment & Malls : the missing stars of the mapping
e.  Lifestyle sites : there’s room for new entrants

22/06/12 2

1
1.a

Why a Mapping of the Singapore leisure blogosphere
  When I came to Singapore in February as « CanMan », aka the guy trying to survive just with a mobile phone and social media, I
was already considering moving from Old Europe. To see what’s about this Asia we talk a lot but see little. As a social media
director in Paris, France, I was also hit by the (relatively) young « field » of digital PR and social media in Singapore.

  I also had the opportunity, thanks the people I met, to know a bit more about what were the Singaporean fond about. Food,
obviously, is an important part of their lives (and I feel just the same !). Luxury, also, was a very S’porean pleasure. They have the
spending power. They have the malls. They have the brands. They have the bloggers and specialized press. But where can you
find all of this ecosystem shown and its structure ? That’s what I wanted to know when building this mapping of the Singaporean
« pleasure » blogs

22/06/12 Mapping of the Singapore Leisure Blogosphere 3

1
1.a

In a nutshell
  An overview of how the conversation about leisure is happening within the Singaporean blogosphere
  An open-source methodology to make mappings useful for many social media strategies (community management, digital PR,
crisis management)
  A few recommendations for a selection of actors of the conversation
  A creative way to try find a job in the social media industry in Singapore

About Martin Pasquier
  28 y.o, living and working for 4 years in a corporate social media agency in Paris, France
  My 3 key achievements in the industry

  Buzzmarketing hit with 200K+ interactions on Facebook and Twitter (food industry)
  Consulting on global social media strategy for a 35b$ company (civil engineering industry)
  Having a minor French Internet Service Provider become #1 of industry on Twitter thanks social CRM (IT industry)
  Living on social media alone one week in Singapore during the Social Media Week, February 2012

  Marathon runner, road-tripper, organic food extremist


1
MAPPING OF THE SINGAPORE LEISURE BLOGOSPHERE

The ABC of social media
data-mapping

a.  What is a social media data-mapping ?
b.  Is a social media data-mapping useful ?
c.  How do you do this social media data-mapping ?
d.  What is the scope of this mapping ?
e.  Reading a map

5

1 THE ABC OF SOCIAL MEDIA DATA-MAPPING
1.a What is a social media data-mapping ?

What is a social media data-mapping ?
It is :
•  A tool to better understand the context
of a social media strategy
•  An analysis of an issue, or an interest,
through the eyes of the opinion leaders
who discuss it
•  An aesthetic and technologic item your
customer will put in his office 
It is not :

•  An automated result made by a robot,
a mapping and its report takes one week
by a senior consultant
•  A lone-star item : most people will need
a consultant to read and understand the
mapping


1.b Is a social media data-mapping useful ?

Is a social media data-mapping useful ?
YES, if :
•  You want to know how is shaped a
conversation on a given issue on social
media (monitoring)
•  You want to get in touch with opinion
leaders on this issue (digital PR)
•  You’re curious about the social
dynamics that make a conversation
spread over social media (crisis
management)
•  You’re about to launch a website and
want to know who’s on the field to better
fix content production and promotion
•  You’re a big fan of data-visualization,
the open-source way 


1.c The building of the data-mapping

The building of the data-mapping

•  A manual selection of leading sites on a
given issue, based on quantitative and
qualitative data
•  A semi-automatic crawl to gather links
and friendly sites of the first selection
•  A manual check and tagging of every
relevant site
•  An analysis (this report) made to
understand the conversation and
propose recommendations
•  Done with two open-source tools :
Navicrawler and Gephi


1.d What is the scope of this mapping ?

What is the scope of this mapping ?

•  This mapping covers every major “site”,
including : corporate websites, media or
press website, blogs, forums, e-
commerce sites, webtvs…
•  This mapping does not include :
Facebook groups or pages or profiles,
Twitter accounts (not the same URL
structure)
•  Facebook and Twitter being mainly
transmitters of an info existing on a
“traditional” website, the mapping is still
relevant to know more about the
conversation on a given issue


1.e Reading a map

Reading a map :
the dots (sites)

One colour, one interest cluster (food, fashion …)

Little dot is not influential, Big dot is influential WITHIN
the corpus of sites of this mapping


1.e Reading a map

Reading a map :
the edges (links)

Pink has a (curved) link directed to purple

Red an purple share (straight) mutual links


1.e Reading a map

Reading a map : center and borders

A site on the border has many degrees of separation A site in the center has few degrees of separation
with the rest of the corpus with the rest of the corpus


1.e Reading a map

Reading a map :
the labels

Each dot is a site, the label is the URL

For enhanced readability, use A0/A1 print or .pdf to allow zooming


2

Overview : How does
Singapore talk about
leisure ?
a.  Interest clusters: key findings
b.  Site type : key findings
c.  Update frequency : key findings
d.  Facebook strength : key findings
e.  Mutual links: key findings

14

The Singapore leisure
blogosphere, June 2012
View : interest clusters

Food (23,18%)
Lifestyle (21,82%)
Fashion (15,45%)
Entertainment & Malls (11,82%)
Media & Blogging pros (7,73%)
Beauty (6,82%)
Art & Design (5,45%)
Travel (5%)
Photo (2,73%)


2 OVERVIEW : HOW DOES SINGAPORE TALK ABOUT LEISURE ?
2.a Interest clusters: key findings

Interest clusters: key findings
  Two areas clearly appear on the mapping
  A very “social” blogosphere on the right, with blogs, links, and different issues addressed (Food, Fashion, etc)
  A “closed shop” of malls, at the bottom left, with the main malls of Singapore; they’re linked together but don’t provide any
content nor links to blogs
  One clear “leader” appears, SGBLogsAwards.omy.sg (and its blog : blog.omy.sg)
  It reveals the inner competition for visibility among the Singaporean blogosphere. Most blogs are professional, meaning
they can earn money with this. Being the annual “Lifestyle blog”, for instance, confirms this status, and allows enhanced
visibility for the coming year
  If SGBlogAwards is so influential, it’s also because ALL interest clusters are taking part in this competition.

  Among the different interest clusters, again, a clear division between
  The food blogosphere, very tight, with many mutual links, and similar content and frequency
  Other blogospheres don’t make such sticky clusters. Lifestyle blogs, because they cover a wide range of issues, are
typically spread over a wide area, without any close links (like bees flying over a field of flowers)
  As regards the leisure conversation, our hypothesis that Food played a big role in Singapore life is confirmed
  Every issue has been crawled with the same level of details : there are more food blogs, and they are more linking one to
another


View : site type

Blogs (58,64%)
Websites (34,09%)
E-Commerce (5%)
Media (2,27%)


2.b Site type : key findings

Site type : key findings
  Two main types of sites coexist in this mapping, in a traditional ratio for any given issue
  A solid majority of blogs, defined as such for being platforms where anyone can post a comment. They update frequently
their contents and interact a lot with other blogs and sites. Two categories of blogs coexist :
  Personal blogs, with a known author, expert or fan of his thematic. The Food cluster is made as such blogs
  Collective blogs, or webzines, look almost like traditional media websites, with the possibility to comment, and a
content designed to be “social” : rich-media, embeddable contents
  A third of “websites” understood as corporate or traditional media sites. They post less (except for media), are less open to
comments or interactions, and are rarely netlinking to other sites and blogs
  The websites of Singapore main malls are typical of this “non-social” posture, on the left of the mapping. They’re only
linked to each other, and don’t have any content or any links with the blogosphere, where the conversation takes
place…. without them.
  A second cluster, similar to malls, is located at the bottom of the mapping, and consists of the 5 sites of the WRS and
the Zoo. We’ll see how they, in particular, could do much better as they’re very active on Facebook
  The rest is split between two types of sites
  E-Commerce sites where you can buy products, such as Etsy, who can be linked to specific bloggers (crafters)
  Media websites, who remain well connected for they provide quality content that anyone can quote


View «Update frequency »

Daily updates (40,91%)
Weekly updates (40%)
Monthly updates (19,09%)


2.c Update frequency : key findings

Update frequency : key findings
  Every site of the mapping has been tagged depending on its update frequency, with three levels
  Daily updates, or so : almost all of the blogs have new posts everyday. A good way to check this is to cross the two previous
mappings. Blogs and Daily updates are on the same location. The only “websites” that publish as much are in the Media
cluster
  Weekly updates, or so : part of the blogs, especially in the Food cluster. This can be understood easily : Food blog post very
long posts, with many pictures, and one can guess their host don’t go to a restaurant for every meal.
  Monthly updates, or so : most of the corporate websites fall into this category, as they are not designed to be updated
frequently. The information here can be qualified as “static”, and a few updates a year allow the host (a brand) to keep
the website alive…. but not social !
  Again, the websites of Singapore malls, on the left, are heavily static, and cannot attract bloggers and social media which are
used to a frequent content production. Their remoteness is due to this lack of content production and of links.


View « Facebook Strenght »

No page or page < 1000 fans (52,27%)
Page between 1001 and 10000 fans (26,82%)
Page above 10001 fans (20,45%)


2.d Facebook strength : key findings

Facebook strength : key findings
  As specified in the introduction of this report, this kind of mapping doesn’t allow to put Facebook groups or pages, which would
be unlinked as their URL structure is very different from “traditional” websites, blogs or forums.
  A way to dodge this difficulty is to make an evaluation of the strength of the Facebook groups or pages of the corpus. Every site
has been checked for a Facebook presence, with three levels of strength :
  Weak Facebook presence are defined when there’s no page or when the page has less than 1 000 fans. There’s on this
issue a slight difference with the previous mappings. If again, corporate websites are poorly present on Facebook ( again,
the malls on the left of the mapping), this is not true for all of them
  Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton or Dolce & Gabanna, iconic places of Singapore (Ion Orchard, MBS), and the
“WRS” cluster with the zoo have rich Facebook pages with more than 10 000 fans and many rich interactions (quizzes,
gifts…). For some of them, the choice between having a website or a social presence has been clearly done.
  Blogs, here, are in a weaker position, too. Some of them duplicate their contents on a Facebook page (I eat I shoot I
post), but most of them either don’t have a page, or a weak page, because people on Facebook come for games,
vouchers or services, not to read the same content than on the blog.
  Mildly influent Facebook pages, which are mostly pages launch recently which progressively find their audience
  Strong Facebook pages are mostly brands (Louis Vuitton, Crocs), media (Straits Times), because these professional have
the resource to have both websites and social media presence, with a clear strategy (brand content, promotions…)


View « Mutual Links »

Pink has a (curved) link directed to purple

Red an purple share (straight) mutual links


2.e Mutual links: key findings

Mutual links: key findings
  The link structure between sites is interesting, as it shows
  Who “recommends” who : if I put a link on my site that leads my audience to another site, this is a form of
recommendation, I suggest to my readers they may be interested by this site (most of the time a similar site, at least on the
issue)
  Who knows who : mutual links exist when the A site includes a link to a B site, and the B site also has a link directed to the A
site. This mutual recognition make a strong tie between websites (as when two tweeps follow each other)
  Where can we talk of a real “cluster”, meaning not only sites talking of the same thing, but people knowing each other and
where any new information will be spread more quickly, with a more engaging audience
  Here, the mapping shows two interesting clusters
  On the very left, the malls. If one didn’t know who was the owner of a given mall, the mapping clearly reveals a IT/IS
structure of sites linked to each other. Capita Mall’s webmaster allows visitors to jump from a mall to another, BUT, again,
the absence of links with opinion leaders doesn’t allow them to take advantage of social media virality.
  On the very right, Food bloggers forms a tight cluster of people obviously knowing each other. Any digital PR operation
regarding this issue must take this into account : it’s not worth targeting remote sites when inviting a dozen bloggers from
the “core” of the cluster will have a powerful effect on your communication.


3

A glance at the various
interest clusters of the
leisure conversation
a.  The 9 clusters of the Singapore leisure blogosphere
b.  Food lovers : real people connected and
interacting
c.  Media sites : at the heart of bloggers competition
d.  Entertainment & Malls : the missing stars of the
mapping
e.  Lifestyle sites : there’s room for new entrants

25

3 A GLANCE AT THE VARIOUS CLUSTERS OF THE LEISURE CONVERSATION
3 Introduction

The 9 clusters of the Singapore leisure blogosphere

9 interest clusters makes the leisure conversation within the Singaporean blogosphere. Here’s how we offer to analyze them :
• How the cluster and its sites are located in the overall mapping

• The analysis of this cluster taken as a field with different influencers and structures


View Food Large


3.a Food lovers : real people who know each other

Food lovers : real people connected and interacting
  Before coming to Singapore, I was told food was a key activity of the island. I experienced this in real life thanks to
the CanMan experiment during the Social Media Week, and the mapping seems to confirm this
  Food blogs are definitely social (as is sharing a meal !), with interconnected blogs and sites located tightly at the same place on
the map. Most of them share an even ratio of same links, which shows a mutual recognition of many of these figures.
  Another marker of a truly vivid and social sphere is the relative exclusion of aggregation sites (such as Munchministry) or events
(singaporefoodfestival, on the other side of the map, alone). Here, bloggers are real people, and most of the activity of this
cluster can be linked to people whose name appear in their profile page.
  Singapore loves food and loves food bloggers they can identify with. Any brand talking « leisure » should be interested with this
very dynamic sphere.
  This very dynamic cluster produces quality content, with a subjective point of view, without being selling anything but a passion.


View Media Large

Entert


3.b Media sites : at the heart of bloggers competition

Media sites : at the heart of bloggers competition
  Media and pro sites can usually be found at the center of any mapping of a given blogosphere, as they usually produce a lot of
content to which bloggers refer to. Singapore seems to show another difference by putting a relatively few number of powerful
media sites and blogs in the center of their social media life
  As a result, the biggest hub of the map is one of this Media sites, SG Blog awards, which attracts many links from almost every
other cluster in the mapping.
  A possible analysis would be to admit that Singaporean bloggers are totally open to advertorials and contributions. The
competition to attract specific editorial or animation content finds its peek time during blog contests. Blogging is often a passion,
but always a race to give the best of each cluster a bonus (of traffic, of visibility) when rewarded.
  A very big share of visited blogs run in these competitions, hence the numbers of links pointing to SG Blog Awards (and to
Nuffnang and OMY), which acts as the referee of a reputation race.
  Another sign of this « professionalization » of the Singaporean blogosphere, even if minor, is the presence of Ripplewerkz, a
professional template provider for blogs, referred to by a few key blogs, including Xiaxue’s.


View Entertainment/Malls Large


3.c Entertainment & Malls : the missing stars of the mapping

Entertainment & Malls : the missing stars of the mapping
  Somehow classically, entertainment brands don’t appear at the center of the map : they seldom makes or receives links from
opinion leaders as they act like corporate websites.
  However, the importance of fashion and shopping in Singapore and the multiplicity of blogger events is a sign that this absence
is more an exception than a rule : how come do these places were most people go on free time are so remote in the mapping ?
  Two clusters appear clearly on the map
  The Capita Malls, with sites linked only one another with a unique (but strong) bridge to Ion Orchard. Their only connection
to the blogosphere goes through two sites : Trip Advisor, and Bagaholicboy, a Fashion blogger.
  The Wildlife Resource, with the same structure of look-a-like sites (Zoo, etc...), but no links to blogs or media hubs. On the
other hand, the Facebook strategy of the WRS is focused on concentration and cost-cutting, with one page acting as a
unique space for the 4 spots (each having its own site).
  There’s clearly a space for these « aggregate » brands : they are in direct contact with customers in real life (event if the malls act
as « screens » through shops), they could use social media take advantage of it, offer a complimentary service (geo-tagged
vouchers on Foursquare, brand content to show their difference from other malls, Social CRM on Twitter, exclusive visits for top
blogger ...)


View Lifestyle Large


3.d Lifestyle sites : there’s room for new entrants

Lifestyle sites : there’s room for new entrants
  Traditionally, Lifestyle blogs and sites suffer their generalist bias and their commercial objectives, which doesn’t allow as many
links as other more specialized clusters (see Food, for instance)
  The Singapore mapping of the leisure blogosphere confirms this, with an atomized presence of Lifestyle blogs and sites
  No clear leader emerges on this general issue. This may be the problem of blogs and sites with no particular angle or tone,
and less possibility for readers to identify with the author (who doesn’t appear, as most of these sites are like webzines,
almost robotic)
  No clear aggregation of these sites, which may or may not link one another, a consequence of which is their global
dispersion all over the map. They’re not in the center, they’re not in the periphery, they’re kind of a medium position
  Again, there clearly seems to have some space for a new lifestyle site that would make links with other and offer a very
specific angle (luxury, or geographic, or by associating a not yet blogging star or VIP)
  Overall, however, the Lifestyle community keeps a central position as shown on the map and when one analyzes the global links
exchange with other communities. It comes as a clear second to Food community, but is spatially more central as its different
blogs have a bigger variety of links than food.


Martin Pasquier
BLOG// http://martinpasquier.wordpress.com/
MAIL// martpasquier@gmail.com
TWITTER// @martpasquier
LINKEDIN// http://www.linkedin.com/in/martinpasquier


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