marketing to the social web by larry weber

This isn’t the first book on social media that I have read. But this book I finished reading real fast. There is no need to preach to the converted so I skimmed the parts that explain the difference between old marketing and new marketing ways. I know the gist, which is join the party, share useful information, and don’t push. Control is a thing of the past (if ever it existed in the first place). I like how the content is organized, straight to the point and by answers to what and how organizations wish to use the web.

Social Media 101 — just because everyone is doing it means we have to do it also? What happens if we ignore it?

• How to let customers say what they really think (and keep your job)
• Seven steps to build your own customer community (how to get ‘em talking and clicking; how to measure involvement with new internet tools, like analytics…)
• Using search, blog, forums, and facebook to communicate

Twice, tips and recommendations are presented in table format—which I found especially convenient. If the boss asks again what metrics to track, use table 9.1 for a quick reference on items to be measured such as page views, volume of comments, links, sentiment of reviews, and number of downloads. The book also give examples of the tools we need to compile these metrics. I only wish it was precise on how we can use these data once they are compiled.

So, listen, engage, and measure. There is no cut-and-dried formula, but we can learn from the successful practices and mistakes of big companies, generously shared across the pages.

I’m not a marketing genius, nor am I a brave marketer, just someone with the patience to slog through reams of verbiage, online and in print, hoping to be able to weed out the useless from the appropriate and workable. I must say, I long to be spoon fed, but I guess I must figure out the best practices myself as even the experts themselves are still really just testing the waters.

284 common mistakes in english made by pinoys by elizabeth p ong

Even Kokey took the book to bed with him.

If my jock brother asked to borrow this, and if he and my mom who doesn’t like to read books shared the content between them, laughing at finding out their common mistakes, and if he passed it around to his basketball team mates, and the team mates who read less than he does actually flipped pages and learned something, why didn’t I declare this book my best read of 2009?

Probably the cover, which is unbelievably boring, looking like a photocopier user manual.

Fluent in English? Think you’re smart? Tsk, tsk—You’re guilty of making the biggest mistake of all.

Of over 90 million Filipinos in the country, I wonder who can claim not to have been guilty of at least one of the 284 mistakes listed here? You know you’re Pinoy if salvage to you is a equivalent to a horrible crime or  if sauna is saw-na. So who’s your presidentiable?

From spelling errors to mispronunciation, from wrong plural forms to Filipinisms, from brand names used as generic names to misused words, this pocket-sized guide can save you a lot of embarrassment.

b2b: how to build a profitable e commerce strategy by michael j cunningham

Back when people thought the internet was a fad, did they laugh at him?

How I got it…
Through libreria’s bookmooch fest at her house

Why I read it…

I decided I wanted to learn about blogging and social media marketing. This was the first book that I saw after that brainstorm.

What’s the story?
Internet, you mean we can use it for business? Yes. That out of the way, the book cites how well-known companies, such as Cisco and Dell, are using the Internet to support sales, communicate with other companies, and improve customer relations.

What I liked about it…

• Internet for socializing, for business, what we now take for granted was the next big thing back then. I liked the enthusiasm for these ‘new’ ideas, and the vision it took to embrace what must have sounded ‘crazy’ ideas back then.
• The author used Ivy League language, how I imagine the big guns talk across the meeting board. Reading it, I imagined I can be a businessman. Just because I learned the big words for surfing (assessing opportunities), facebook (building technological and organizational capabilities), and chatting (designing a successful business-to-business strategy using the full power of the Internet).

What I didn’t like about it…

• It was published 1992. That’s like… last century.
• I wanted an overview of the Internet tools I would need now, but since it was 1992, I wouldn’t find them in the book, unless the author was a psychic-geek.
• The author hadn’t mastered the complex art and science yet of expressing himself in plain language. But I was in an impressionable mood, so the jargon hypnotized me. I don’t have the book anymore, so I’ll just quote from an interview of the author on Amazon.com.

“The unique combination of new low cost communications channels (the Internet), remotely accessible applications (ASPs and Virtual Private Networks), and new business models (Exchanges, Infomediaries) have allowed a combination of lower cost access to new markets and provided the ability for firms to offer products to service new work processes at will. Businesses are figuring out how to take advantage of this on a daily basis. .”

Impressive, right?

Hey, I like Fantaghiro23′s 555 Review! It made writing about this book so easy.

the glass books of the dream eaters by gordon dahlquist

It’s all in the details, indeed. But, remember, too much of anything can be sickening.

During the Christmas Holidays, I was a saint. Without The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist I would not have realized the extremes of my patience, my capacity for the bizarre, my zen with verbiage, from a far too generous author. With 760 pages, this Victorian thriller is a door stopper, and a time-stopper as its mystery, violence and horrifying seduction shut out even the scent of puto bumbong being prepared in the kitchen.

Strange book, atmospheric (VERY detailed) and measured (slow) with periods of alarm.

At any other time, I would have accused the author of being a control-freak, an anal-retentive, and obsessive compulsive. But it was the holidays, and my vow to be as lazy as possible at the end of a year filled with headaches softened my perspective, letting me see through all the details into the beautiful, ornate prose, the fantastic steampunk adventure, vivid characters, and intrigue of secret societies. I loved the Gothic atmosphere, which especially promised thrills at the beginning of Miss Temple’s quest to discover why she was rejected by Roger Bascombe.

Just as the glass books that ate dreams and spit them out, this book surrendered to me the lives of those that touched it, letting me live through them, letting me become them, for a time. But at the end of the day, shall I miss having been so immersed? Maybe not, it was like addiction, that became heavier the longer I held it. I enjoyed it, but when I finished it, it was like snapping out of a bad, albeit, fantastic dream.

TRESE unreported murders by budjette tan and kajo baldisimo

Alexandra Trese won’t make it in Alaska, if she needs to wear a trench coat in sweltering Manila. But, hey, I can relate… style before comfort.

In Trese, Manila is a black-and-white world, sheltering all sorts of things that go bump in the night. If there’s something strange in the neighborhood, who are you going to call? Not Ghostbusters, they’re loud and clumsy. In the cracks of reality in Manila’s underbelly, a deft touch, favored by compromise, backed up by much firepower, is needed.

The second volume in Trese’s saga, Unreported Murders offers more of the bizarre, yet almost believable tales involving crimes committed by or against the Philippines’s creatures of lower mythology, the kind that fears the light,  that are drawn instead to sewers and the city’s forgotten spaces. Urban legends are given life, shape, and form, as part of us, contributing to society in their own big and little ways.

“Beware the criminals that can’t be bound with handcuffs nor harmed with bullets.”

Truly, to read this book is to be taken to familiar places—Mother Ignacia in Quezon City, the cemetery along Kalayaan street in Makati, the big malls in Ortigas, and a posh subdivision near Rockwell—transformed into the other side of the mirror where we refuse to look too closely for fear of encountering our own dark souls. Unfortunately, the city is peopled by certain beings, the manananggal (human-like creature whose upper body separates from his/her lower extremity, sprouting bat-like wings at night; preys on pregnant women), duwende (gnomes), tiyanak (souls of aborted fetuses turned malevolent) and laman-lupa (earth elementals), who are only too willing to turn our dreams into reality, for a kiss, a song, or a curse.

Encounters sometimes end in death, or worse.

Each episode, or case, begins with a map, a strangely frightening one indicating the scene of the crime by a few lines only slightly visible from the blackness of the rest of the page. As each case progresses, we get to have a better feel for Alexandra, and her way of doing her job. In the previous volume, I immediately noticed that all is not well between psychic dad, Anton, and daughter. I have an idea that while dad is super honest and straight, the daughter is less rigid, preferring to play with the dark side and make deals with its creatures. We’ll probably know more about their relationship in the third (and last?) volume.

And just like in volume 1, the cases are quite unforgiving of slip-ups, even by deeply cherished archetypes and pop culture icons who somehow got entangled in the machinations of the underworld. Showbiz stars, high profile doctors, department-store scions, elite-village residents—they are not the untouchables of Manila; they are the weakest link keeping humanity together against these otherworldly forces.

There are some unforgettable characters in this volume: Case 5′s poor dead duwende,who can give Simon Cowell a run for his money, paid for his lack of good judgment with his life, betrayed by his talent’s attachment to fame and glory. The lizard guy, who used to skulk in ladies’ dressing rooms at Robinson’s Mall (changed to Robertson’s Mall in the book), turns out to be an internet geek, and is now online buddies with one his victims.

Sad to say, case 8 left me with the strongest impression, not because it was the strongest story, but because, in the aftermath of Ondoy’s and Pepeng’s fury, I can only view it as prophetic, a threat made terrifyingly true.  As I see it, there were hundreds of unreported murders recently. But the murderers weren’t Ondoy and Pepeng.

—–
Trese is a graphics novel, written in English.

TRESE murder on balete drive by budjette tan and kajo baldisimo

Armanaz, Armazan… He’s still a tikbalang living in a penthouse suite.

Where life and light should be are only shadows and grey lines. The map of Trese’s Metro Manila contains no details. All I know is that I am in there somewhere, living my ordinary life, and they are there as well, loving and hating, the same us us, side by side with us, however hard we pretend they are not there. And sometimes, out of passion or greed, they commit crimes.

Who do I call for paranormal help then?

With a concept as striking as this, who would fail to pick up this latest work of genius from a dynamic Filipino duo, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo? Especially now that the country’s publishing industry is struggling mightily to stay afloat, I can only be overjoyed to encounter innovative concepts take form.

A graphic novel, Trese follows the cases of paranormal investigator Alexandra Trese as she takes on the mantle of psychic dad. The first case is a double-dead mystery, a hit-and-run of a white lady, ghost of a wronged woman who appears to motorists, causing them to swerve and crash. Trese investigates how a ghost could die again, and who would wish to murder her.

In this volume, the first, four cases are featured, dark tales full of tears and violence, drawing heavily on Filipino folklore. The nuno (a little old man) does not live in the punso (ant hill) anymore; it has made another home in a manhole, peering out from under the heavy metal cover to dispense tips for Trese. Aswangs (humans who transform into animals to eat the flesh of babies) hole up at the pier, planning their next kidnapping spree. In the tallest building in the metropolis is the headquarters of the city’s most powerful business tycoon, a tikbalang (a giant, with the face and hooves of a horse) who controls his empire through human underlings. Trese is assisted by the Kambal (twins), creatures of indeterminate paranormal origins, who wear the two masks of man—happy and sad—while in combat. And, engkantos, sentient spirits of nature, are everywhere, assuming human forms to play with humanity’s weaknesses, challenge our strengths, and offer us our dreams—for a price.

With no colors to soften the violence of the drama that plays out in Manila’s underbelly, reading Trese is a visceral experience. The lines are starkly drawn, and there are no clear boundaries between frames. For good or ill, the denizens of the dark live among us, having as much right to be here as we do—and they play no favorites… Case 4 is a case in point.

………………..
Trese is written in English, with only a few Tagalog terms for uniquely Filipino phenomena or mythological beings. I imagine a non-Filipino reader would find it very interesting, yet startling.

tapestry by lynn kurland, madeline hunter, karen marie moning, and sherrilyn kenyon

Woven into four worlds of chivalry and honor, of danger and desire, are threads as fine as the touch of their creator, or as rough as the earthy desires ringing in the  cash register. Containing a healthy balance of these two types, Tapestry was a good read, an in-between-er that allowed me to rest my mind from my current main read, which is Prospero’s Children by Jan Siegel.

Of the four stories, my favorite is To Kiss in the Shadow by Lynn Kurland, where a young man discovers his noble quest is to love and protect a shy young woman hiding her ruined beauty behind a tapestry frame. An Interrupted Tapestry by Madeline Hunter is a sweet tale about a wealthy trader who  won the best deal of his life by finally declaring his love to an impoverished noblewoman he has loved for years, saving her from dishonor in the process. Shamelessly indulgent and escapist, Dragonswan by Sherrilyn Kenyon followed up the lust-on-first sight with an info overload of the story’s mythology so the fight and bed scenes could get it on with little competition—I didn’t care for this one.

Karen Marie Moning’s Into the Dreaming involves another Highlander, made mad from being imprisoned by the Unseelie King in an ice world for centuries; to ruin the plans of her enemy, the Seelie Queen transports a 20th-century aspiring romance novelist to 15th-century Scotland to bring some life back into the man of her dreams.This last was very funny, though I must honestly say the aspiring writer-heroine sucks at writing. Fortunately, her medieval audience are less critical of her bawdy style of writing.

callwork, a call center life by hazel manzano

See, whining is useful!

“Most of her comics are centered on the agent’s perspective. It is a good resource because it shows what the bigger population is thinking. All are true and though it is presented as being humorous, it is being used by management as basis to improve processes and employee satisfaction in the centers.” –Callcenterscript.com

Ngii! Isn’t this a nice way of saying the comics writer let the cat, so many cats, out of the bag? Did the call center life become easier—or more difficult, now that the cat owners can’t get away with certain things as easily as before?

From training stage to call center operations like average handling times, from dealing with irate agents to office affairs, from night shift issues to absenteeism, from demotivation among agents to call center gimiks, from call center angsts to managers’ bad habits, this comics seems to have covered the most important concerns of call center employees today.

Written with wry wit, Callwork presents us with the inside jokes in the call center industry, helping us  understand better the culture that is helping drive the Philippine’s economy forward. So help us, despite all that you will read here, this culture has a major role in whether we sink further in the muck, or rise like the Philippine eagle.

The drawings are as if done by a high school girl, but better composed, and are inspired by real people and situations from the cartoonist’s years in the industry. The childish drawings actually highlight the workplace environment the management of many call centers is said to practice: acting like petty tyrants, treating agents as if they were unruly kids instead of the professionals that they are (or should be). In fairness, sobrang pinakita din ang mga kalokohan ng mga agents (agents’ foibles and fumbles are also spotlighted).

Though not an agent, I am in the BPO industry, and can relate to that life. I have encountered many of these issues, told to me over cups of coffee, or tears of frustration triggered by bottles of SanMig Light. Though not an agent, I am as easily vulnerable to the fact that, as an employee, I am just a cog in a machine, easily replaced, easily lost. And this is why I appreciate this work, on top of the obvious appeal, the ka-kwelahan (riotous humor) and light reading material.

Where indifference is the status quo and where connections or office politics allow rusty cogs to remain, silence is often the slow-acting acid eventually killing the machine. Loud and funny, Callwork is a fast-acting neutralizer. Who knows, seeing ourselves cartoonized, pretensions stripped, true lines revealed, could wake us up into looking into the mirror, to see someone who can still make a difference, by treating our jobs like the blessing that they are, deserving our full commitment, not derision.

I believe that we can only succeed to put ourselves down if we only have contempt for what we do. Do something to make our job life better—or get the hell out, is what I think.

English translations can be found on the author’s blogsite.

the hunger games by suzanne collins

Haven’t heard of Hunger Games? Go to the nearest bookstore, then, to get your own Torture Channel, desensitization at its finest! When you’ve had your fill, remember the four notes of birdsong to find your way back home.

Testing, testing.… Good day, good viewers. We are now at the home of Art Seblis, a reader of no  uncommon hunger for all things dark and creepy. Having heard that Art was in the middle of an unusually horrifying read, the Read (pronounced as ‘red’) Patrol decided to sneak up on the book blogger to give you a first-hand account of what may be the ‘read of the year, if not the decade.’

The Read Patrol reporter startles a very disheveled Art Seblis, who can be seen clutching a hard bound book; on the cover is an image of a fierce looking bird and an arrow.

RP: So Art, it’s The Hunger Games now, is it? Can you tell us about it? What made you read it? I hear it’s very YA, which is a little off the kinds of books you usually read.

AS: I was reluctant, initially—largely due to the story itself. But friends highly recommended it. So I gave it a try. Now, I can’t think of a universe in which I had never read it. Having read something with such powerful characters and message, one can’t help but be changed, despite my preferences for other genres.

RP: Wow, what a tribute. What is it about, anyway?

AS: It follows the story of Katniss, a 16-year old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of a dystopian world. Every year, 12 districts send a couple of their children ages 12 to 18 (chosen by lottery) to participate in the Hunger Games, a contest where they are placed in unfamiliar terrain and are expected to murder each other. Last child standing wins fame, riches, and the Capitol’s all-out- favor… The other to be chosen from Kat’s district is Peeta, a baker’s son.

RP: Oh my goodness, that’s horrible!

AS: It’s something like Battle Royale, but bloodier and more horrific, because society actively takes part in this ultimate cruelty to their children in the name of entertainment. I hesitate to use the term “innocents” to refer to the participants: in a game where the rule is “to kill or be killed,” they had to learn to suppress finer emotions, such as love and compassion, the attributes of a  good human being,  for a better chance of surviving the Game. Torture, mutilation, decapitation, bombing, poisoning, skinning, and a host of other kill methods are acceptable and encouraged. In that sense, they aren’t children anymore.

RP:*gasp* How can you enjoy a book like that?

AS: Ah, well, don’t you rage against the machine sometimes? This book is full of that particular angst, with just cause. But as much as it is full of brutality and other disturbing themes, it is also characterized by brilliant bouts of heroism, self sacrifice, and friendship. That Kat and Peeta (and a few other characters) managed all these was most impressive, given that they had been taught to trust no one in order to win. It was Kat’s 12-year old sister whose name was drawn in the lottery, but Kat refused to let her go, stepping up to go in her place. Between Kat and Peeta there developed a partnership, even affection. In the arena itself, amid the ugliest in humanity survived a flame of humanity, fragile but strong enough to flip the finger at the government’s grand plan to keep hope dead.

RP: *perking up*  Hope, that’s a promising word.

AS: Yep, hope is such a  crucial element in this story, without which the story degenerates into a royal rumble. Hunger, fear of it, motivates all of them; all of us, actually. It can either break you or remake you. I know something about this, but that’s another story altogether. Anyway, I’m glad to report that hunger did not break Kat nor diminish her; instead it made her stronger and wiser, making this book such an interesting read.

RP:  Our viewers are certainly going to check this book out based on your intriguing comments. Is it safe to assume that this book is highly recommended by you?

AS: God, yes. I was in a state in a shock upon finishing it! Others I know who read it said they were also strongly affected. The writing is extremely good, brilliant but sharply disciplined. The plotting was tight, the pace kept me at the edge of my seat. All the scenes were fraught with danger, even makeup and styling (in the preparatory stage of the game, where the players are presented so the public could place bets on them) as every detail is integral to  improving Kat and Peeta’s chances at surviving the Games. It’s got romance, fiendish intrigue, and insights into the human character.  And the characters are so dynamic! Rarely do I become so invested in characters that, even hating what was happening to them and what they had to do, I stuck with them till the end and will definitely follow up through the sequel, Catching Fire.

… Another thing, the world of the Hunger Games may be make-believe, but I believe it mirrors our own. Who’s the next bachelorette whose heart will be broken? The tribe member who will be voted out of Survivor? The housemate whose dirty laundry will be aired next with Big Brother’s blessing? It really is not such a big step from here to the world of the Hunger Games.

RP: How ominous. But, we’re running out of time. Do you wish to add anything more?

AS: Yes. If you had to make a choice between two evils, what will you choose? Will you choose? Kat and the others faced this dilemma again and again. I wonder how we will fare given similar circumstances.

RP: That wraps it up! So, dear viewers, there you have it, the words straight from the mouth of Art Seblis about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Honestly, it sounds like an all-you-can-watch-violence reality TV show. Who would get a thrill from seeing people get tortured?

Moving on, our next segment is very funny. Enjoy this clip.

the highlander’s touch by karen marie moning

With a mischievous dark elf around, how can he expect her to find the garderobe, much less use it?

Before there was the Fever series, there was the Highlander’s. A fun, light read, The Highlander’s Touch is part of a time travel romance series by Karen Marie Moning. In this book, fiercely independent but down-on-her-luck Lisa got caught up by a curse placed on a magical flask. Having fallen into 14th-century Scotland, in the castle of a forbidding warrior, she must learn to trust her captor as well as navigate a highly feudal and tumultuous time, while trying to figure out the finer points of using a chamber pot.

In tone, and, definitely, in emphasis, this one is very different from the darkness and violence of the urban fantasy that was my introduction to Moning. Though it does contain the same Celtic, Irish, and British mythological references that I encountered in Fever, minus much of the peril.

Because I had really liked Fever, I figured that her Highlander books wouldn’t be bad. Well, this book doesn’t have the tight pacing of Fever, but it’s got humor, and a bed scene that didn’t offend my sensibilities that much, not because it wasn’t explicit (It was! It was! ), but because the events leading up to that moment were carefully orchestrated so that when it did happen I didn’t feel that the heroine gave in out of the publisher’s demand for smut but as a natural choice influenced by events and emotions in the book.