The decision to leave wasn't a spur of the moment thing.  Various factors took place that ultimately led to this.  Simply put, I knew it was the right choice to make at the right time.

The past three and a half years have been an amazing ride and it's a blessing and an honor to have been part of the team that took care of Yahoo's communities.

I gladly bring with me a lot of memories and experiences from the Purple House that I will always be thankful for.  If I had to highlight my most memorable moments in Yahoo, it will probably be the following:

1. Joining Yahoo as a member of the original Southeast Asia Communities team.

There are three people who were instrumental in my joining Yahoo: my wife who encouraged me to apply for the Community Manager job opening (even if it meant relocating to Singapore), my former boss and mentor in Yehey, Donald Lim, who supported my decision to move on to Yahoo, and my hiring manager in Yahoo, Amos Kwok, who saw my desire and passion for community management and hired me to be part of his team, the original Communities team of Yahoo in SEA.

This team is like a family.  It was a combination of community managers for PH, ID, TH, VN and SG/MY and product managers (2 from SG and 1 fellow Pinoy). Different people from different countries, various backgrounds and languages, and yet we came together and worked together unselfishly and always with camaraderie.  We enjoyed what we do and we had fun doing it.  And the cherry on top here was that we had an amazing manager who mentored us, encouraged us, and spearheaded the fun in what we do.

A lot of this original team have moved on to other opportunities already and yet the ties that bind us remain.  I couldn't have asked for a better start to my purple ride.

2. Leading the Purple Crew of the Yahoo! Philippines Purple Hunt campaign.

One of the things you learn in Yahoo is how to deal with constant change. In 2009 I found myself managing the content that's being featured on the Front Page of Yahoo! Philippines (not exactly community management, hehehe).  A reorg just took place and the Communities team was disbanded.  During this time a major marketing initiative was about to launch – the first Purple Hunt campaign in the Philippines.

Working with our marketing team and ad agency Ogilvy, I had the opportunity to help and be part of this campaign.  What initially was supposed to be just involvement of our community products in the campaign, the idea to involve our community members in the campaign was born. 

This is brand advocacy in its purest because right smack in the middle of that huge campaign is the Purple Crew, five power users of our three Community products, namely Janette Toral for Groups, Lai Legaspi and Anne Flores for Answers, and Jimmy Hilario (aka Stitch) and Jojo Pensica (aka Jobarracuda) for Flickr.

Except for Janette who I had the opportunity to meet years earlier and even collaborate with when I was in Yehey, the other four power users where people I met through online and offline initiatives as a community manager.

We requested them to join the campaign because of their knowledge of our products and their passion for communities as well.  And thankfully, they all volunteered to participate in the Purple Hunt.  This meant taking responsibility in managing Community channels for Yahoo!, and engaging the rest of the participants of the campaign both online and offline.

Being part of the Purple Crew and working with the five power users was an amazing experience.  I learned a lot about community management working side by side with them and I will always treasure the friendship that also resulted from that campaign.

All of these wouldn't have been possible if not for community management. :)

3. Becoming part of the Global Communities organization.

A year and a half in Yahoo I find myself again in the Communities organization, but now the Global Communities org and as Lead Community Manager for Southeast Asia.  I have the Managing Editor of SEA, Alan Soon (a strong advocate of social and community management), to thank for this because he helped in our transition from the regional org to the global org.

Being part of the Global Communities team was just a different level of awesomeness.   I was not only working closely with fellow CMs in the SEA region but with CMs in APAC (Australia/New Zealand and India), the US, Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina), UK and EU (Italy, France, Germany, Spain).  We also worked closely with teams from product operations, product management and customer care.

There was so much learning and knowledge sharing that took place during that time because of how diverse our backgrounds, experiences and perspectives were.  And just like my initial experience with the original SEA CM team, there was a spirit of camaraderie and a really good chemistry that was present within the team. 

And the best part of this experience, again the cherry on top, is our manager.  Her name is Isabelle Griffith Wies and she is without a doubt one of the best managers I've had in my career.  It's just amazing how she managed to inspire, motivate and bring together a team that's essentially scattered around the world and helped us achieve our individual goals of growing and managing the various communities of Yahoo.

We only had a chance to meet each other face-to-face twice in the two Global Communities Summits we had in Sunnyvale but we continue to remain connected online.  I will always be thankful to have had an amazing opportunity to work with awesome colleagues and really good friends.

4. Seeing and participating in the growth of Yahoo! Philippines.

Some people actually don't know this but I wasn't based in Singapore the whole time I was with Yahoo.  Between 2009 and 2010, I had the chance to relocate back and be based again in Manila.  This was perfect timing for me in two specific instances: first, 2009 was the year my wife gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Anya; second, I had the opportunity to witness and be part of the growth of Yahoo! Philippines.

It's too long to discuss here why I had to relocate back (I can tell you if we meet face to face) but I'm really glad to have had the chance to be present when Yahoo! Philippines grew from a 3 or 4-person team to a company comprised by people and teams from various departments, all working together to make sure the Philippines remain a purple country.

Of course, there's really no place like home so I was so at home at the Yahoo! Philippines office working with the different leaders that took the helm, team mates from comms, search editorial, admin, sales and editorial.

And especially Editorial.  I had the rare chance of seeing this trail blazing team formed, from the first key hire (their fearless leader/country editor), to the rest of the crucial team members that were added later.  I always felt a part of the team athough technically I (and Ederic as well, hehehe) weren't.  Keep on keeping on, I will continue to support the team and cheer for you guys even if I'm on the other side of the Purple fence already.

5. The positive connections made along the way.

One of the most basic and important characteristics of a community manager is to be a bridge builder.  To establish and maintain positive relationships.  This is key not only in community management but essentially in one's career.

After 3 and a half years of being a community manager in Yahoo!, I can clearly say that what I will treasure most in my stay in the Purple House are the friendships that were made, here in the Philippines, in Singapore, and the rest of the world.

Thank you to the community members that I met and continue to be friends with (Yappers, Flickristas, etc.).  Thank you to clients and partners I had a chance to work with.  Thank you to colleagues/friends in the company (fellow CMs, PMMs, PMs, Editorial, Sales, Customer Care, Marketing, Communications, Business Development, etc.) who made my stay in Yahoo! a truly remarkable and memorable one.

Goodbye Yahoo!, again thank you for the amazing ride!  I'll be a proud alum who will continue to cheer for you and hope you eventually find your way.

UPDATED:

If you’re based in the Philippines, Indonesia, or Vietnam and with experience in product management and marketing, and you bleed Purple, this job opening may be you.

Yahoo! is looking for a Regional Product Marketing Manager that will act as a bridge between the Philippines, Indonesia or Vietnam and Yahoo’s global product team, providing market insight, leading go to market efforts, and monitoring product performance.  The role will be based in any of the local markets mentioned and will report to the Head of Product Marketing for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore.  Here’s more on the role and responsibilities and qualifications:

The Regional Product Marketing Manager has three primary responsibilities:

1.     Market insight and feedback

• Market-specific feedback on individual products
• Close monitoring of competitor activities in market
• General feedback on user habits, preferences, and trends
• Opportunity assessments for new products, product areas, and strategic directions

2.     Go-to-market leadership

• Understand all aspects of Yahoo’s products (feature sets, positioning, value proposition, etc.)
• Educate internal stakeholders (sales, biz dev, editorial, marketing etc.) about key products
• Work with consumer marketing team to develop consumer go to market strategies and plans
• Work with internal stakeholders to ensure products receive adequate support and exposure
• Act as product spokesperson for external public relations

3.     Product monitoring and analysis

• Closely track product performance
• Report on performance via dashboards and ad hoc analysis and make recommendations
• Understand market trends driving performance metrics and recommend improvement plans to global product team

Competencies and Requirements:

• BA or equivalent (MBA or other advanced degree a plus)
• Minimum of 5-7 years experience in product management or product marketing (preferably internet-related)
• Excellent communication and presentation skills in English
• Fluent in local language for Philippines
• Deep understanding of internet sector in Philippines
• Excellent analytical skills
• Strong technical understanding of how internet content and services are delivered
• A passion for how internet technology impacts people’s lives
• Proficient user of office productivity software
• Capable of thriving in a large multinational company
• Available to travel regularly for work

If you see yourself perfect for the role, feel free to email me your resume or you can check out http://sg.jobs.yahoo.com to apply.

Yahoo! Southeast Asia is looking for a Commissioning Editor to help support the production of English-language custom-branded micro-sites.

You’ll be required to identify and commission bloggers/writers to produce a variety of articles ranging from finance to event guides. That means you’ll need both an extensive list of contacts as well as a broad knowledge of various subjects.

The role also requires you to have strong editing skills to draw out a distinct and engaging editorial voice to satisfy the Yahoo! audience. Just as important — you need to be able to recognize this quality in other people’s writing.

Given the high expectations of our users, the role requires a professional with at least five years in an editorial role.

The job will also involve:

• Identifying strong bloggers and building a strong relationship with them
• Assessing pitches from bloggers
• Editing article submissions
• Commissioning photographers and illustrators
• Issuing contracts to bloggers
• Paying bloggers

The ideal candidate will have the following skills:

• More than 5 years in an editorial role, preferably in the magazine industry
• Strong relationships with prominent bloggers
• Ability to write and re-write in an engaging style
• Strong copy editing skills, knowledge of AP style is preferred
• Strong attention to detail
• Nurturing skills to help develop bloggers

In terms of personality, we’re looking for someone who is able to juggle multiple assignments and roll with the punches. You must be able to work independently. You need to be comfortable with technology and internet publishing tools, and if not, you should at least be a quick learner.

Interested?  Please send your resume and a cover letter to:

Alan Soon
Managing Editor
Yahoo! Southeast Asia
Email: alansoon@yahoo-inc.com

After making much noise in different tech blogs  last year, Yahoo! SearchMonkey quietly launched in the Southeast Asia market last February 12, 2008, specifically in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

In a nutshell, SearchMonkey basically opens up Yahoo! Search for users, developers and publishers to make search results more useful and visually more compelling.

Check out this before and after image:

BEFORE

AFTER

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, there are various SearchMonkey applications that transform your Yahoo! Search experience to provide you with highly relevant content and the best user experience at the same time.  In other words, it makes search fun, productive and exciting!  Check out these examples:

Play videos on the search results page: http://ph.search.yahoo.com/search?p=yodel+contest+video.

Add the latest Flickr photos to all Wikipedia results:

Go here (http://ph.gallery.search.yahoo.com/application?smid=JrLH) to add the application.

Show any geo-encoded Wikipedia content on a map:

Try it yourself by adding http://ph.gallery.search.yahoo.com/application?smid=2D1e.

It’s up to you how you wish to flavor your search experience.  And given that this is an open platform, there are so many ways this will grow and continue to improve, it just depends on how users, developers and publishers will build on it.  I can just imagine, being able to see what’s being tweeted about a keyword you’re searching for, or being able to see if a person you’re searching for is online and immediately chat with them.

Like I said, the possibilities are tremendous, and you can start experiencing it now by adding more SearchMonkey applications from this gallery: http://ph.gallery.search.yahoo.com.   You can also contribute apps by heading over to http://developer.yahoo.com/search/.

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop – your one stop shop for all email needs

Zimbra, a Yahoo! company known for its open source, next-generation messaging and collaboration software, announced a few days ago the release of Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop Beta.  The cool thing about Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop is that it allows you to access a simple, centralized place to manage your emails even if you’re not connected to the Internet.  Through POP and IMAP protocol support, you can access your Yahoo! Mail, GMail or AOL Mail (not sure if anyone I the Philippines has this one, hehehe) offline at the same time, from the same place.  Zimbra also allows you to use the iCal standard to bring your calendar offline.

The Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop gives users the same sleek Zimbra experience and showcases the latest technologies that have until now only been available via Web-based applications including:

• “Mash-ups” with other services; for example, when viewing an e-mail, users can see their schedule by hovering over a date, or see the status of a flight by looking at a flight number;
• Powerful search that can quickly scan a user’s e-mail and pull up relevant content;
• Built-in organization capabilities including automatically converting e-mails into conversations and advanced tagging; and
• Advanced calendaring that gives users access to their most important appointments and schedule even when they are on the go.

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop also includes a number of features designed to help users stay organized, such as document creation, spreadsheets, task management and document storage, giving users a robust alternative to other desktop applications. New features include online and offline access to:

• Zimbra Documents, a document and spreadsheet program, which gives users the ability to embed complex objects such as photos into documents and spreadsheets. With the addition of Zimbra Documents, Zimbra Desktop users can easily create and edit documents and simple spreadsheets without having to switch between desktop programs or e-mail large attachments.
• Zimbra Briefcase, which allows users to upload, store, and conveniently access any files including spreadsheets, documents, presentations and others. Instead of keeping all attachments in e-mail you can simply store them in the same place with Zimbra Briefcase, and access them from anywhere, online or offline.
• Zimbra Tasks, a task management system which allows users to manage to-do lists simply and easily by monitoring start and due dates, priority, progress and percent complete.

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop Beta Version 3 is available for free download at Zimbra.com/desktop.

Yahoo! Mail – Numero Uno in Mobile

Excerpted from VentureBeat.

Mobile web usage grows, and it’s not led by the iPhone — yet.

It’s been known for a while that iPhone users in the U.S. love the mobile Internet, but that love is spreading to the rest of the population rather quickly, according to a new study by Nielsen Mobile.

Of the countries surveyed, the United States was first in mobile Internet penetration with 15.6 percent of all mobile users accessing the web from their devices in May. The UK was second with 12.9 percent followed by Italy at 11.9 precent.

The report notes that advertising has reached a critical mass in the U.S. with its over 40 million active mobile Internet users. Considering that China and India, the world’s two most populous countries, still have low mobile Internet penetration numbers at 6.8 and 1.8 percent respectively, the opportunities worldwide should only grow.

It’s interesting to note that this study did not include several countries including Korea and Japan, where mobile web usage is likely very high as well.

Another interesting tidbit from the report is that Yahoo Mail beat out Google Search as the top mobile web channel in the U.S. — and by a large margin. Overall however, portals were more popular than web-based email.

I’m not sure what the statistics are in the Philippines but I find it very convenient to be able to check my email through my mobile, I’m wondering if this is the same for you?