Singapore Airlines: Slow to board the social media flight?

I might be slow here but I only read in The Business Times recently that SIA took over an unofficial facebook page. Apparently, the SIA facebook page was originally set up by fans and had almost 100,000 members.

Until almost two years ago, I didn't really know what was social media. OK, I heard of blogs, which I thought was a classy bog, and Twitter, which I thought was a noisy chatroom, and Facebook, which I thought was a vanity item. Yes, that's me, an IT dinosaur.

After I got the hang of blogging, it took me quite a while to get on Twitter and, more recently, Facebook. While blogging serves a purpose for me, being a platform for me to pen my thoughts and analyses, I could not see any advantages of being on Twitter and Facebook. I only started accounts because of requests by some readers.

Since starting a Twitter account many months ago, a grand total of 33 people are following my blogs using it. My Facebook account is less than a month old, so, having 3 members is a start. However, I think the most popular way in which readers follow my blog is still through Feedburner. Almost 600 people are following my blogs via feeds!

I know people who have terminated their Twitter accounts because they were not very successful. I also know people who claim that Facebook is more effective than Twitter in spreading the word. I kind of suspect that these are just different tools for different purposes and, most probably, Feedburner is the best tool for my blog to keep readers updated.

So, the view that SIA is very late in latching onto social media and how it has been detrimental to its business is something I do not quite understand. For those who do understand, please be kind to me. Laugh a little if you must but enlighten me with your insights please. :)

Tea with AK71: ASSI is on Twitter!

Some time back, a reader, Chu Yeow, asked if I was considering getting a Twitter account.  Being an IT dinosaur, I was already caught up with blogging and I was not sure what Twitter did and I didn't see the need for it. What I do know is that it has a little bird logo.

Anyway, today, I decided to just register for a Twitter account and see how it goes (although I still do not know if it would be something useful or not).  After all, I see many blogs with "Follow me on Twitter" buttons too.  OK, ok, I know. I should not just do something because other people are doing it.

My Twitter ID is "AK71SG".  It is a shame that the ID "AK71" was already taken.  So, "AK71SG" is the next best thing since I am AK71 and I am in Singapore. Very clever, don't you think? ;-p

If anyone has any idea as to how I could derive benefits from having a Twitter account, please share with me by leaving me a comment.  I would be most grateful as, obviously, I am not the most IT savvy person around. :-)