Secret Lives of Singaporeans issue #34: Thread lightly

SECRET LIVES OF SINGAPOREANS: THREAD LIGHTLY

Issue #34 – Week commencing 10 July 2023

Authored with pride by Timothy Tham and Goh Jun Wee

Secret Lives of Singaporeans is an ongoing collection of marketer-friendly briefs on the fascinating people of the little red dot, by planners and PR consultants from the big red agency. It’s not “thought leadership”, it’s “inspiration to DO”.

Each issue comprises

• One thing people in Singapore are talking about

• One thing people in Singapore are searching for

• One thing that’s in the news in Singapore

Image Credits: CNA, SCMP, Audio Bacon

One thing people in Singapore are talking about:

HOT MIC LANDS SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT IN HOT SOUP

Image Credits: CNA

At a parliamentary sitting in April this year, Speaker Tan Chuan Jin was caught on hot mic for using ‘unparliamentary language’ in response to a speech by Workers’ Party MP, Associate Professor Jamus Lim.

The incident was first circulated on Reddit and went viral online before being picked up by local mainstream new sites such as CNA and The Straits Times. In response to the video, Mr Tan highlighted that the words muttered that were caught on mic were his private thoughts and views on the speech made by opposition Associate Professor Lim.

This was not the first time a member of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) was caught on video commenting about speeches made by a non-PAP member. In September 2021, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnam was caught on camera calling Non-Constituency MP “illiterate” and questioning his educational credentials in Parliament.

1) Although these incidents happened in a parliamentary setting, there are some key learnings that brands can take away from this. As public figures, politicians and CEOs of brands are constantly scrutinised and their actions are closely watched by the public. Increasingly, incidents are gaining traction online before making their way to mainstream news sites such as Mothership and The Straits Times, highlighting how social media has the ability to make or break a brand. Likewise, brands need to watch what they say and do, because these can easily come back to bite them on social media.

2) Speaker Tan is known to be one of the most social media-savvy public figures locally. It will be interesting to observe and learn from how he recovers from this episode.

One thing people in Singapore are searching for:

META THREADS

Image Credits: BusinessTimes

Move aside, Twitter. Meta’s Threads is the latest app in town, surpassing 100 million signups in just five days. Just 24 hours after its launch, Threads climbed to the top of Singapore’s chart for free mobile apps, with many wondering if Threads is set to be a "Twitter-killer”.

Singaporeans aren’t big on Twitter; in February 2022, it was only the sixth most-used social platform here. Will Threads do better in attracting local users?

Many news services, entertainment brands and local personalities that have jumped on board the platform have found higher engagement rates as compared to Twitter. “On average, these brands saw eight times more likes on the new platform,” Website Planet found. “Threads showed a higher average engagement rate than Twitter (0.45% vs. 0.02%).”

As for brands, it purports to offer new avenues of targeted marketing and deeper brand-to-consumer engagement levels. How will brands continue to engage with consumers across multiple social media platforms? What are the monetisation opportunities that brands and influencers can leverage? How can brands take advantage of Threads' seamless integration with Instagram and its Twitter-like features to engage with their audiences?

Stay tuned.

One thing that’s in the news in Singapore:

COCO LEE

Pop Diva Coco Lee passed away at age 48 following a suicide attempt. Her sudden passing shocked and saddened many, including celebrity peers and fans.

Her death reminds us that mental health issues do not discriminate. It is a silent condition that can affect anyone and often, those that smile the most are the ones that are suffering the most.

Awareness of mental illness has increased significantly over the past couple of years, especially during COVID-19 when almost everyone was in some form of isolation and had never felt more alone.

Brands should be sensitive to this issue among their consumers, but only jump into the conversation if and where their cause and true competencies are relevant to it and they can exhibit true value. Otherwise, just because they can say something, doesn’t mean they have to.