I started to blog early 2006. My friends were telling me to get on yahoo360 messenger to remain contact while I was living overseas. Yahoo360 had a blog that was handy and all my friends at the time started to use it. So I got hooked into it.

2. What do you think of the social media scene in Vietnam? From the perspective of a blogger yourself, how does the Vietnamese blogosphere look like?

Social media scene in Vietnam is very simple yet complex at the same time. Yahoo360 was a bit hit among Viet internet users and hot bloggers were born from yahoo360 creation. Although yahoo360 was pretty much obsolete in western world and Wordpress and blogspot were dominating, Vietnam was still using the yahoo360 services. Until recently early 2009 yahoo360 global got shut down and all the hot bloggers were quiet for a while, finding a new home for themselves. Some of them died and some moved onto facebook while a small amount move to Zing, Yobanbe (just recently got closed for the blog part also), multiply, or blogxalo.

Now pretty much all hot bloggers have their own site plus facebook or the above site. Yahoo Vietnam did however cater for the closedown of the global service by creating a new service called Yahoo360 Plus for the Viet community, but it’s no longer has the same popularity than the old ones.

VinaGame in Vietnam has a big success in their online game called Vo lam Truyen Ky, perhaps one could argue that it is the most popular online game in Vietnam and still going strong.

Vietnam seems to catch up rather slowly with the wave of international social media and not all of the services are available. Twitter for instance is not considered very popular, though Viet users have their own twitter clone for the community such as LinkHay.

In a nutshell, social media in Vietnam is still very young and developing. Although the population consists of many young people, the penetration is still not at its full power. For the blogosphere, it’s unsure how it will develop and whether facebook will take over the blogging activities is still unknown. I for instance have my own site now and try not to rely on the services for my ‘blog’ content because then I have more control of what I want my site to behave. Other youngster seems to prefer the ready-made format that some blog services offer. The majority of bloggers are very young, and general writers versus specialists. I hope in the near future, bloggers will get more sophisticated and more specialized so that we can establish a concrete database.

3. What are the most popular social media tools in Vietnam today and how are they used?

Currently for games it’s Vinagame with their popular online game as stated above. Zing is another giant where mp3 Zing (music) is very popular. Zing.vn is a social site where you have music, blogs, news, forums, photo, sharing files and information. The other popular ones are Yume.vn, timnhanh.com.vn, tintuc.xalo.vn (for news and blog content search), phununet (social site for women – relatively new focus on lifestyle). Chudu24.vn is getting more popular in terms of tourism aspect. Most of the usage from social media sites is upload/download music, photos, movies, blog and chat.
Facebook is getting more popular with companies starting to advertise.

4. Do you see any differences in the ways a Vietnamese would use social media, as compared to other parts of the world? If yes, what are they and why do you think these differences exist?

Vietnamese tends to use online services for news and music/movies download. The tendency to promote themselves only starts to emerge but somewhat less than other counterparts in the world. Entertainment purpose is more the kind of thing Viet users would think of online tools. Political means for bloggers here perhaps not as strong as in China for instance. Also new technology for Viet users is considered carefully before applying. Vietnamese users, nevertheless like the idea of community so recently also there’s a few popular online community that really get the attention of not only internet users but company such as lamchame.vn and webtretho.vn (parenting & webforkids – must mainly for moms). And these people has become what I like to call digital influencers and not just hot bloggers.

The main difference therefore would be the idea of being part of a community rather than promoting oneself via internet. Another minor difference would be Viet users like the entertaining ability/character of what the social tools can offer and not yet utilizing it to raise real social issues.

E-commerce is still weak in Vietnam due to the limitation in infrastructure but a lot of efforts also have put into the online purchasing potential, enabling small merchants making money. Vietnamese businesses are not yet the conglomerates kind therefore many small businesses do tend to benefit the online commerce.

5. With the emergence of social media, how will this impact traditional media in Vietnam?

Traditional media is still dominant in Vietnam, this would be somewhat different to the current trend internationally where leading newspapers are declining in sales. Vietnamese people still perhaps skeptical over what’s content online and question the authenticity behind it. Newspapers are government own and thus have some authority or credible views versus the online community. Take the examples for 2 leading newspapers Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien, their online sites are weaker than their print, also they have not yet invested heavily.

However, the internet offers so much more potential that media (not newspapers) companies or agencies are paying more attention to develop this market. I say 5-10 years we might see the drastic change of switching to online for news and key opinions. This could also due to the infrastructure and the internet penetration rate. If these infrastructures get improved, then the print media might encounter problems.

6. What potential do you think social media holds for organizations in Vietnam and how can they capitalize on that potential?

Potential are there for those companies in the business of exporting or companies that have joined the stock market. Because they will expose not only to the local market but also to the region, allowing them to generate branding on a bigger scale. Corporate communication and investor relations can be developed on these premises, but perhaps not yet too big. Real values of investing online and the ROI still remain a challenge for many big businesses. Perhaps the not-for-profit organizations will get more benefit out of the online offer due to their nature. Government would also benefit (if they can remove their worry/concern over losing power) in taking the lead of better governance and providing citizens with information.
One industry could see the benefit would be the travel industry where competition can be fierce.

I truly don’t know what potential there are because of the country context. Many clients and organization don’t fully want to invest because they don’t see the values and the level of service or professionalism for the online industry need to be improved, in order to develop. It’s a bit like a cycle. (Will let you know if there’s any breakthrough). At the moment, it’s scattered, here and there.

7. How have corporations and organizations adopted digital media tools to enhance their businesses and reputation? Do you have a good example in mind that you can share with us?

Enhance business yes but only to increase sales yes, plenty but to enhance their reputation is not so many, in fact I really have to crack my brain out. For the Vietnamese company almost none on the reputation side, all of the local ones are promotion driven. For joint ventures or international brands, again mostly for promotions, sales and marketing activities. Rarely that a site would be used just for reputation or genuinely for non-sales purpose.

Among such limited examples, here is something you might find interesting.

Kimberly Clark Vietnam (part of the global brand) has a site called girlspace.com.vn. The site offers information for female users from teen to young adults on feminine healthcare info, doctor advice on feminine healthcare, forum for teenagers, library for teen information (ranging from dating to teen feminine healthcare, teen lifestyle), online activities. This site is what Kimberly Clark most proud of. Also aside there’s a annual event called Kotex Dance Nation (runs for 3 years – OPR handle this actually – 360 campaign), encouraging teenagers to live true to themselves, dare to be different and express their individuality through dancing. www.buocnhayxitin.com (sharing mostly information on dance techniques and teen lifestyle).

Kimberly Clark Vietnam tends to invest long term on the site and almost all of their campaign has a non-brand name site/online activity. Most recently they’re running a campaign called I Know which they partnered with Women’s Association to conduct research on feminine healthcare knowledge of Vietnamese women. Girlspace.com.vn/iknow. Although most of the online activities have direct link to sales promotion, I think Girlspace is relatively good enough for starting point and by the continuous effort, indirectly Kimberly Clark Vietnam is somewhat building their reputation as an organization who understand the target consumers, understanding Vietnamese teenagers and somehow creating healthy playground on the internet for users to enjoy. But girlspace I think is not just a site but rather a portal.

Other examples are only done by international branding such as Nescafe and their micro site cungtrochuyen.com (talk together), similar features of discussion forums on mostly for grads students and first jobbers. They also have live chat with key celebrities and influencers, target young professionals. Although Im not sure how long this site will run for.

Nokia/Samsung and Coke/Pepsi/Ponds are the big boys how utilize their site and create the community in a lifestyle manner but not really a portal. Those brands have regular on and off activities.

8. Are there any obstacles or challenges for businesses wanting to use social media? What are these obstacles? How would you suggest overcoming them?

The main obstacle would be knowledge, not knowing what it can do and offer, in my opinion. As I stated above ROI needs to be proven for business to take on the tools and so far the skepticism is still there. Also the talent pool and human resources in terms of specialist for this industry are simply not enough. Experts are few and companies are not seeing the necessary to invest. A lot of well-known business (local) don’t even have a website or don’t see the need to. This probably due to the fact that online activities or internet is not being seen or treated as one of the primary source of decision making process.

So capital, expertise, and ROI (plus the infrastructure) are the key setbacks. How to overcome those? It’s a big question to answer. I say depends on the nature of the organizations and its audiences and how they want to communicate with their core audiences. If there’s no need to invest, I would agree also. It takes courage to break the mould and also the kind of vision required in key decision makers (largely from the top) to make use of the technology. Invest in a small scale first to see if it works. I think the most important thing is to study the social media landscape and mapping out who are the main target and how they receive and communicate to each other. Most of the sites now from the brands only have 1 way of communicating, that is putting their products information onto the site and have a forum, well that does not encourage conversations and feedback. Probably because they are afraid of knowing what consumers really want as it might not be inline with their money making strategy and plan.

So I say: listen!

9. How receptive has the Vietnamese audience been towards the use of social media by businesses or the PR industry?

Vietnamese audiences are quite adventurous in new technology. The population is young and eager to test and experience new inventions. By all means they’re not dumb and getting more engaging. Hot bloggers have no problem with working with brands and promoting new products, as long as it fits their readers. Some of them start to declare the fact that they have been approached by certain brands and some journalists are taking the ‘commercial’ side to promote marketing events, the kind of being there, being everywhere and being seen!

In terms of forums, there’s a couple of aggressive users on the parenting forums (webtretho) that will boycott or express their negativity towards certain industry such as milk industry. So overall, relatively receptive.

10. What role has social media played in the realm of PR so far, and what role do you think it will play in the future?

Digital influences and the web2.0 or say PR 2.0 have not been 100% utilized by agencies. Most of the service only forum seeding, bloggers outreach on product promotions, a few cases on crisis management. Forums, bloggers, and facebook tools are most popular. But all have been 1 way of communicating from the brand to audiences.

I’d like to see the full potential of enhancing the corporate communication and community relations. Most businesses do not seem to understand the power of citizen voice and just purely produce online services that a business wants, which is a very closed point of view. The role of social media in terms of PR should be a strong tool for closing the gap between the brand and its consumers, establish genuine value for both parties the brand and the what so called public opinion. That is the commercial world. Government should really re-consider how digital media can truly benefit them and as a tool to garner and recruit favourable public opinion, also taking the lead of country’s governance, becoming a more civil servant to the citizens. The role of social media should be to gather information, bridging the communication gap, and advocating the brand for organizations whether it’s private sector or public ones.

I’d like to see PR promoting the LISTENING service, doing the scanning of environment of the online environment for corporate, a very simple but vital part of any PR job. And this is missing, a very basic step in today’s PR work.

11. With the growing sphere of influence and power of social media, how does the Corporate Communications industry in Vietnam address/entertain issues from bloggers. Do they keep bloggers separate from normal journalists? Do they continue to treat bloggers as different from journalists/media personalities?

Not many bloggers in Vietnam declare their hatred against corporations. Perhaps not yet or not as strong as in other market. Corporate Comms industry is not paying fully attention to bloggers also. This is maybe one of the potential but due to the general state of bloggers, some bloggers (hot ones only) simply don’t care. Some journalists are bloggers and yes they treat bloggers separately.

12. What about general government regulations? Till date, there seems to be a strong government control on media content. Has such control affected organization’s social media choices and usages?

However, recently some bloggers have been arrested such as blogger Nguoi Buon Gio arrested in 2008 for criticizing the government and its diplomatic policy with China. Similarly blogger Me Nam and journo Doan Trang (Vietnamnet) also got arrested for having their political stand regarding issue of China and Vietnam’s island dispute. Also another famous one Huy Duc journalist from Saigon Marketing left the publication when he wrote a blog with a different view point to the editor team regarding Berlin Wall & other posts have been a topic of debate.

Rumours in the last few months of the government threatening to close facebook down is not yet in effect. There’s a sense of more self-censorship among users and government in Vietnam seems a bit more relaxed than in China. However, I suspect sooner or later, Vietnam will need to look at many reforms on the policy. The censorship tends to be tighter around public holidays and then relax for a while. It’s been a fluctuated scene rather than complete control. Most of the blockages from government is for the sites about politics and sites which content against the Communist Party and its ideology, pretty much similar case to China.

13. Lastly, what is the most important piece of advice you would give to a company wanting to engage in social media successfully?