SOCIAL MEDIA DAY FOR THE CLUELESS

There’s an old writer’s axiom that goes: Write what you know. But I’ve been doing that so long it got boring (Translation: I don’t know much), so I decided to try writing on a subject where I am a relative noob. That opportunity presented itself in Social Media Day in Iloilo. Not only am I technologically retarded, but my first exposure to social media was when I wrote a letter to a newspaper editor on a typewriter and sent it by snail mail. My equivalent of Facebook was scrawling messages on washroom walls at school.

This year’s SM Day (using hashtag #fwdPH our hosts pointed out repeatedly) took place on June 30^th in a pizza restaurant open on two sides. Next to the Central Philippines University, it was your typical student hangout. In fact, most of the audience consisted of that group. Social Media Day began in 2010 to ‘recognize the digital revolution happening before our eyes’. (Mashable)

Proceedings began (only 30 minutes late, a positive sign hereabouts) with Community Manager Yen de Felipe introducing the Google Business Group, the first in Iloilo.

The GBG is mainly a community of business people who are passionate about Google products and continually do networking on it with the rest of the group. But don’t let the word ‘business’ scare you. It is open to everyone, and is free. There’s no sales pitch, and if you’re a non-techie like I am, you’d be welcome, because discussion is strictly non-technical. (Tech discussions are on another Google forum.)

So how do I sign up? Well, as soon as I registered for the event by giving my email address, I joined GBG.

The next speaker was Franz Sarmiento of Bacolod, one of 19 Google ‘student ambassadors’ in the country. Just as I was wondering about the perks of Google products now that  GBG had drafted me, Franz answered my question. After a brief demo on the traditional use of Google Maps (finding his way from the pier to SM City), he revealed how Google Maps was integrated with Google Plus by locating branches of a famous chicken house in Iloilo, then linking it to his Google+ account. That way he was able to check out all the reviews of this restaurant by other members of the G+ community as well as writing his own. (Clicking on the restaurant’s +1 button is G+’s version of a Facebook Like, he tells us.) Now anyone interested in that restaurant will be able to read your reviews. And it goes beyond food reviews, of course. You can post your rants on any topic available. He also sent a Check this out message of a restaurant to a friend. 

So what does Google Plus have that Facebook doesn’t? Well, seeing as how Facebook helps you connect with people you already know, the downside is that like any normal interaction with friends, clutter tends to build up. Thus we often see our Facebook page littered with selfies, duckfaces, Instagram food, posts that inexplicably over-use the word Mode, posts describing every bodily function, and so on. In short, stuff that makes you want to scream: “Who the eff cares???!” Few are willing to wade through this garbage to see if anyone out there has similar Likes. Google Plus, on the other hand, concentrates on just your interests and more importantly, draws other people – friends or not - with similar interests: It connects you with people you want to know. It also has a feature to filter out the – uh – over-enthusiastic users.

Finally, keeping in mind that social media’s role is for social responsibility and social good, Franz showed how Google Plus’ Crisis Response Team was used to locate shelters during Typhoon Pablo. Other features shown us were Storm Signal Indicator and Precinct Finder for election periods.

Our break consisted of a viewing of an Illongo gag video that went viral in 2007: Benjo kag Ang Batalyon Pitbull, a redubbed scene from the movie ‘Troy’ (helped along with free Lourlour pizza and their filling thick soup – shame I didn’t get my Tag Your Tea drink). Yen pointed out that the video’s creator had revealed that he didn’t even have a script at the time, showing how even something so slapdash can have wide appeal on social media.

Next up was Prim Paypon, who – living up to his name – is loathe to follow anyone who continually posts selfies and other detritus. (I can relate). He spoke on The Dream Project: When Social Media Makes a Dream Come True. He reminded us that in the distant past (my time) kids would answer the question: What would you like to be when you grow up? with the traditional responses: Doctor, lawyer, etc. But with each succeeding generation the answers became more diverse like mathematician, president, beautiful  etc. (I’m not making this up).

The Dream Project, then, was established to make these dreams come true. It has its origin right after Typhoon Pedring when pictures of the catastrophe went online. The project almost withered on the vine when after more than a week, no response was forthcoming. Then on the tenth day a Swiss NGO informed them that they were willing to donate a large amount ‘no questions asked’.

That windfall gave heart to the project organizers who used social media to reach out to schoolchildren across the country, organizing Dream Workshops to get these 3^rd and 4^th Year High School students to acknowledge their dreams, and then to nurture in them a fire and the know-how to chase after these dreams.

It is shocking, Prim disclosed, that Filipinos who made it big abroad are barely known in their own country, so part of the project sought to inspire these children with these heroes who – like them - started with nothing and turned it into something wondrous, like Reese Ruiz who is literally a rags-to-riches success story where she was able to transform our lowly ‘trapo’ into high fashion.

       

(One of the success stories, Eric Divinagracia, founder of The Little Theater, had dropped in unexpectedly and was good enough to share an impromptu speech.)

After a series of quickie talks given by a diverse group of speakers (from a gym instructor to an advocate of using SM for long-distance courtship) the session wrapped up.

Today’s seminar proved an old adage that there is no such thing as a boring subject. If the speaker has enough passion and the skill to relate to their audience, then any topic is enjoyable, as this one undoubtedly was (even if they rarely touched on Facebook and YouTube). The speakers call themselves ‘evangelists’ but unlike their cosmic counterparts, they did not proselytize on the strength of blind faith alone, but answered the question: What’s in it for me?

I began writing this right after I set up my Google Plus account. I was also heartened to hear that many wanted to join the Dream Project. (Pity that as of this writing, they generally take only volunteers from Bacolod to prevent dilettantes.) One can only – uh – dream they open an Iloilo branch.

(From L to R: Yen de Felipe, Prim Paypon and Franz Sarmiento)

Kudos to the speakers and organizers of Iloilo’s Social Media day. You’ve inspired us to see the true role of Social Media for the betterment of our society.