As I am away on business, I have invited a few guest bloggers to post on Uncorked in my absence.  Enjoy the new perspectives, cheers, Alan.

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Blog Buzz.

Matt Collette, Associate Director, Integrated Communications Practice, Edelman Hong Kong   

I was having an interesting discussion with Phil Gomes our global VP for Online Communication last week during his visit to Hong Kong.  Phil was commenting on how the word "blog" has become the buzz word for social media and that as a result we often tend to forget the impact of other user generated content platforms such as forums.  A great example of this is here in Hong Kong where the second and third most popular sites are forums.  Discuss.com.hk, which ranks second among all websites in Hong Kong, has some 971,000 registered users compared to the estimate 200,000 active Hong Kong bloggers.  According to alexa.com the site averages 20 page view per users.

One of the most popular blogs is that of Alan Leong who was running for Chief Executive of Hong Kong during the recent 2007 election.  Mr. Leong's blog received around 10,000 visits a day during the election clocking in some 900,000 page views.  When we compare this to activity across uwants.com, the third most popular site, we find a total 550 threads covering the Chief Executive Election with some 8,779 comments and 183,000 page views.  The most popular thread, launched following the one and only debate, has been viewed more than 6,500 times and has over 220 comments, 200 of which were posted within the first three days.

With the impact and level of trust in the internet growing across the region, the conversations taking place on forums can have a significant effect on corporate and brand reputation.  Today, one of the hottest topics on discuss.com.hk is whether KFC Chicken causes pimples or not.  As of the writing of this post, this particular thread, which was started on April 24th, had been viewed 1,392 times with 56 comments.  A poll being conducted on the same thread shows that 95.16% of participants believe that KFC Chicken causes pimples.  I never knew!