So it’s been proven, man can live on social media alone. Well, at least, in Singapore he did. Okay, it's hardly Survivor stuff but hey, it's still worthy of an adventure worth sharing.
Armed with no money, just the new Nokia Lumia, and a backpack containing 10 survival items, Parisian Martin Pasquier not only survived but ate well, slept well (if insufficiently) because he had too many “friends” who wanted to meet him and partied well (his worst moment was Tuesday morning after the opening party of Social Media Week – a self-inflicted hangover).
During his five days in Singapore, he said, he met only kindness and generosity, slept in various places ranging from hostels to private apartments to a flat in the heartland and ate “things I didn’t know what they were but they were good”.
The rule was he had to reach out only through social media. He used Twitter to post photographs but it was on Facebook that he found the most engagement – “my family telling me not to eat something” or “people wanting to meet me”.
Among the 10 items in his backpack were a notebook, poncho, a book of French recipes which he gave to a chef, a USB key, a second pair of boxers, a pair of fitflops and swimming trunks. The most useful turned out to the notebook which he used to record his experiences and take notes. 
He was busier than expected, he said, and one precious moment was when he had 10 minutes to himself on the train when he switched off his device. The device is for making friendships, you got to know when to switch it off, he said.
Most of the contacts he made during this experiment were in the 22-35 age group. And no, he didn’t conduct any checks on those who reached out to him. “I had heard Singapore is a safe place,” he said. “I come from Paris. I am more worried about Daphne in London.” (Daphne is the Singaporean girl who went through a similar experiment in London.)
Which is why he admits that possibly Singapore is the easiest place to conduct such an experiment. It is a small, safe place, its people are highly connected and the 3G and wifi infrastructure is good.
“I suppose it’d be more challenging if it was in India or China,” he said.
He said he took on this adventure for two reasons – one, he wanted to get to know what was behind the modern façade of Singapore and two, he wanted to experience a new way of travelling.
He said he would try out a few tactics during his next trip to the US. “I will join local hashtags on Twitter and see if I can join a local conversation. Facebook groups – I don’t think so – they are useless.”
Martin, who’s used couchsurfing.com, says there are now new ways of travelling because of social networks. Of course, he said one has to be careful. “I am a social media worker and I know that anyone in France can fake an online reputation, but risks are part of any travel adventure.”
Asked how he took to the Nokia Lumia – given he’s an iPhone user, he likened it to switching from Google to Yahoo. “It’s a bit confusing at first but it’s not that different and it’s good to have another phone that’s not the iPhone.”
Nokia Lumia, one of the sponsors of the first Social Media Week in Singapore, is touting itself as the world’s first socially integrated smartphone and Ari Fadyl, head of consumer engagement, Southeast Asia, at Nokia said that Nokia was “everyone’s first phone” and that “it has always been about connecting people”.
Both Fadyl and Simon Kemp, managing director of We Are Social, agreed that this year would see some government regulation because governments had seen how powerful social networks can be in effecting political change.
Kemp said that some degree of regulation would be a good thing. Referring to Martin’s trust in “friends” on social networks, he said you never knew who you might meet and people within communities had to look out for and protect each other “from the dark side”.
Both agreed that mobile was fuelling both the social and commercial revolution. The key is in understanding and making use of the data to personalize engagement with customers.
For Fadyl, the next big thing is breaking the digital code between customer engagement and mobile commerce, and payment platforms were being built to make this possible so that your retail bill becomes part of your mobile bill.
As for how an individual can use social media to do good, Fadyl said it was important to remember that these days, “a karma comes back to you instantly”.
So better to do good than bad ...
