Mazlan Abbas - An IOT Thought Leader & Evangelist

Who’s Who in IoT By Onalytica – Mazlan Abbas

My name was first noticed and listed by Onalytica in their “The Internet of Things 2014 – Top 100 Thought Leaders” report published on April 15, 2014. The full report can be downloaded here.

Recently on May 18, 2022, Onalytica released another report entitled “Who’s Who in IoT?” The full report can be downloaded here.

What’s Covered in the IoT Report?

In this report Onalytica takes a look at a range of influencers and personas, answering the key questions below:

Which Brand Employees are driving impact online?
Which MyOnalytica Experts are creating inspiring industry content in this space?
Who are the key Social Amplifiers?
Which Key Opinion Leaders are creating great content on the topic?
Who are the Event Speakers within Internet of Things?
Which Content Creators & Contributors are contributing to the conversation?
Which Analysts are analysing the IoT industry?
Who are the Academics & Researchers within the topic?
Who is sharing content on IIoT?
Who are the influencers in the Digital Twins space?
Which Brands are creating thought leadership content on the topic?
Which Publications & Resources are sharing content within this space?

As stated by Onalytica, their method of listing the influencers are shown below:

“Onalytica has been creating influencer lists for the last 10+ years, curating an influencer database of 1M influencers across 500+ topical communities within industries such as tech, finance, healthcare, education and many more.

It is our mission to shine a light on the most influential voices that are creating quality content, and driving engagement and impact online across social as well as traditional media.

Onalytica uses a unique combination of our proprietary software, human qualitative analysis,Who-in-IoT-Onalytica and secondary research to analyze online and offline influence, to create the best social influencer lists in the world. Our influence scores are driven by 38 algorithms and this methodology has been continually refined over the past 10 years to evolve with social media developments and how influence is best calculated.

We take into account social media influence across channels like LinkedIn & Twitter as well analyze offline influence through a proxy of online analysis looking at how much people are referenced within a topical context in blogs, media and video sites. We also look at how topically relevant an influencer’s content is and whose content drives the most engagement online and among the wider influencer community.

Each influencer is categorized by a number of criteria such as by role, influencer persona, expertise, location, audience, channel referencing the role they play within the wider influencer community and the way in which they’d collaborate with brands.”

My name has been listed in the “MyOnalytica experts” category which highlights influencers that are part of Onalytica’s marketplace, creating relevant content on social on the topic, driving the most engagement globally and keen to partner with brands. These influencers are often experts, social amplifiers, event speakers and independent analysts all in one. Full report can be downloaded HERE.

Contents of IoT Adventure Book

IoT Adventure Book will delve deeper into the business of IoT. It will also share the experience of being an IoT entrepreneur. Some of the topics have been written in the IoT World Blog. Check out the contents below:

IoT Applications

IoT Tips

Smart Cities

IoT Infographics

FAVORIOT Products and Services

IoT and IR 4.0 in Malaysia

IoT Challenges

Generation-IoT

Things About IoT

Sign-up – Please inform me of your new IoT Adventure eBook!

Domain Authority of My Blogs

Domain Authority is a good measure of whether your Blog attracts visitors or followers and becomes a reference site for many people.

Below is the Domain Authority of two of my main websites which I maintained (updated) regularly – (1) mazlanabbas.com and (2) iotworld.co

It was measured using the Semrush website. Of course, the IoT World blog (ranked 23) which has been in existence for many years can be ranked better than my less than a year-old personal Mazlan Abbas Blog (ranked 9).

However, after listening to the Blog Millionaire podcast, I have some ideas of how to increase the Domain Authority and get some of the posts into the first page of Google search.

To rank website domain authority.
(Source: “What is a Good Domain Authority? Find Out How it Benefits your SEO Strategies“):

Scores between 40 and 50 are considered average.
Domain Authority between 50 and 60 must be rated as good.
Scores above 60 rate the Domain Authority as excellent.

After checking through semrush, it was discovered that my IoT World blog traffic dropped tremendously since Oct. 2020. I am not really sure what happened – something which is worth to be investigated.

The IoT Blog is mainly information in nature, topics that covered the various aspects of the Internet of Things, IR 4.0, and Digital Transformation.

My Company website, FAVORIOT, has a higher domain even though it was launched in 2017. Probably it was because the backlinks that it received from various websites.

IoT – How We Learned 7 Mistakes and Turned into Traction

How do we gain traction and what do we learn from our early mistakes?

When I was with MIMOS, an R&D Agency under MOSTI, my role was developing wireless technologies, one of which was the Internet of Things, especially in developing new 6LoWPAN standards.

Later, we created new IoT applications but did not think about selling the applications. What are the business models, and who will be the paying customers?

However, when I left the organization and ventured into the telco world, the IoT business became challenging. We cannot apply all theories to the real world.

7 Mistakes That We Did Not Realize

In the early days of Favoriot, we were very optimistic about the IoT market, and we thought customers were ready to jump into this as soon as they got the opportunity. But nothing is as easy as we thought! We were mesmerized by the number of IoT devices by 2020 and how the organizations will adopt Iot applications.

Here’re our 7 early mistakes and things that we overlooked:

There is not enough talent in the industry to develop IoT solutions. When we launched our IoT platform in 2017, we thought people would subscribe to it and use it in the IoT deployment. Unfortunately, the take-up is very slow. People are not aware of how to use them or connect any sensors.
Talent is still the Universities. If the industry doesn’t have enough talent, most likely they should still be in the Colleges or Universities. But even in 2017, IoT is still very new to many educational institutions. Not many of their current courses embed with complete elements of IoT, which means learning IoT applications and their benefits, but the ability to have hands-on IoT projects and learn all the four aspects of IoT such as Sensors, Connectivity, Middleware, and Analytics.
Not enough knowledge to train Favoriot platform. Letting users learn using the IoT middleware via YouTube videos is also a big mistake because many still prefer a formal course rather than self-training. Proper training is mandatory, and YouTube resources should be supplementary resources.
Customers don’t know how to start their IoT journey. Many are still trying to grasp how IoT impacts their business. And what it takes to start transforming their organizations with intelligent solutions.
IoT Budget was not in place. Too many stakeholders make the decision process slower, and they are late in justifying their ioT budget. Organizations can’t comprehend how much it cost to deploy an IoT solution. Where should it start, and who should manage this?
There is no catalyst to create their IoT projects. Before Covid-19 happened in 2020, the digital transformation process in many businesses was prolonged.
We did not take the IoT training opportunity. Many opportunities arise, but we neglect that opportunity simply because we thought we should focus on building our IoT platform and marketing them.

Building IoT Community for Commercialisation

It has been very challenging to promote the usage of our Favoriot IoT because we are new to the market, and most people are aware of other alternatives.

Thus, we set up a strategy to create awareness by promoting the Generation-IoT community to quickly help users start their IoT journey. We take this opportunity to create IoT training courses using the Favoriot IoT platform and bundling with an IoT ecosystem package to the educational institutions.

We went back to the Universities, Colleges, and Polytechnics and help them to refresh their IoT syllabus which suits the industry needs.

Since then, we have managed to groom many trainers, lecturers, and individuals with IoT knowledge and hands-on using Favoriot IoT platform.

It has become the beginning of our traction from education to the platform’s commercialization. The platform proves to become a better alternative to the existing IoT platforms in the market. We have gained the trust of the industry to become one of the IoT platforms of choice.

The local support and expertise give us a massive advantage to enter into IoT projects. We also teach them how to select the best IoT platform without evaluating hundreds of products in the market.

We regret not taking the education path 3 to 4 years earlier. Otherwise, the IoT landscape would be very different today.

But then, no one expects to connect the dots this way without learning the mistakes we are going through.
Dr. Mazlan Abbas

“Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before.”
Anonymous

This is part of the real stories about IoT entrepreneurship. Subscribe to IoT Adventure book when it’s available in the future. Read the archive here.

Travel to Saudi – Preparations

It has been almost 2 years since I have last traveled overseas and that was to India just around the time before Malaysia closed down her borders. I was lucky enough not to be stuck in India during that travel restriction.

This time I have been fortunate to be invited by LEAP to be one of their speakers at the conference which is to be held 1-3 Feb. 2022. All traveling (including Visa) and accommodation expenses are borne by them.

However, due to many new procedures for travel due to Covid-19, I will share the preparation needed for my travel to Saudi Arabia.

Flight Reservation (Booked by host – Emirates)
Hotel Reservation (Booked by host – Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences)
Airport Transfers (Arranged by host)
VISA (Done by host via Saudi eVISA)
Muqeem Vaccination Regitration Predeparture. Need to apply a maximum of 72 hrs before departure)
Download Tawakkalna Application. Important: Please download the application to your phone prior to travel to KSA and have data roaming activated for use in KSA. You will ONLY be able to register once you arrive into KSA and have activated data roaming on your phone to receive the confirmation code via SMS.
Conduct RT-PCR Test at home i.e. 48 hours before departure. Since I am travelling on Sunday (30 Jan. 2022) at 01:30 hrs, I went to do my test on Friday at Poliklinik Dr. Medic at 9.40am and received the result (which is tested negative Covid) via WhatsApp 9.10 am Saturday (29 Jan. 2022). It cost me RM 180 which I paid via Bank Transfer and sent the rececipt to them one day earlier and requested for a Drive-In.
Request for Home Quarantine (4-10 days prior) arrival. Applied on Friday night and received the approved Home Quarantine by 4.36 am via email.
Register for Digital Tracker wrist band since I came from one of the listed countries that’s considered as high-risk countries by Malaysia.
Conduct RT-PCR Test at KSA (Saudi). The host has also arranged for this. Need to take the test at least 24 hrs prior flight departure.
Enable Roaming (Voice and Data). I am using Celcom. Check this Celcom Roaming charges.
[Latest Update] Covid-19 Insurance. I nearly missed my flight when the check-in counter requested for Covid-19 insurance. Luckily my Prudential Insurance covered the Covid-19. For travel, I need pay first and claim later (as described by my Agent). I just showed her my Insurance Policy (which I logged in via Pru Access)

I will update the traveling experience in my next post and probably need to update further update any arrangements for the RT-PCR test when arriving at Airport KLIA and using the digital bracelet (for people arriving from Saudi and some other high-risk countries) during quarantine for 5 days.

Travelog – Saudi (30 Januari 2022 – 5 Februarri 2022)

3 Ways to Become a Thought Leader

If you’re passionate about your field and know how to stand out, then you can quickly become a thought leader.

You’re passionate about your field, and you know how to stand out. You’ve built a portfolio of work in that area that you’re proud of. Now, you have the chance to show the world how awesome you are. With a little bit of dedication and focus, you can quickly become a thought leader—a person who people look up to and trust for advice.

3 Ways to Become a Thought Leader Click To Tweet

Here are three (3) ways to become a thought leader:

(1) Build a Strong Following

If you want to become a thought leader on social media, the first thing to do is build a strong following.

There are many ways of doing this, but the most effective ones are:

Make sure your followers are interested in what you have to say. If they aren’t, they won’t be interested in following you.
Be active.
Respond to comments and questions and encourage people to follow you.

Get involved with other people’s content and respond to it as well. You can also build your community. Create a group that shares similar interests and join others’ groups. Build relationships – your followers will become your friends, and your friends will become your followers. The more you interact with them, the more likely they will follow you. You may think that you are not good at building relationships, but that is a mistake.

The best way to do this is to have a blog that focuses on the same subject as your podcast. For example, if your podcast is about technology, create a blog about technology-related topics. Then, you can link your podcast to your blog and vice versa. If people read your blog and listen to your podcast, they’re likely to click through and visit your website. I’ve been asked by many newbie bloggers what the difference is between their blogs and my podcasts. And honestly, there isn’t much of a difference.

(2) Content Marketing

The third thing to do is to share quality content regularly. To stay consistent and build credibility, you should make sure that the majority of the content you share falls within one category or theme.

If your blog is a mix of many categories, you’re probably going to end up being just another “generic” blog that nobody will read. That said, I suggest that you focus on only one category in your content sharing. You might even want to limit it to two or three. The more categories you add, the less effective your content sharing will be.

(3) Brand voice

The next step is to develop your brand voice, which will be unique to you.

This is a combination of your logo and how you speak about yourself. If you’re a business coach, your brand voice will be different from an entrepreneur’s. The same goes for the voice of your employees. Brand voice can include:

Your company logo
The tone and language of your marketing material
The way you speak on social media
Your business mission statement
Your tone and style of communication
The tone of voice used in your emails
The voice of your website

Social media tools allow you to share your content across multiple platforms easily. They can help you create a brand and a reputation that people will trust. This is why it’s so crucial that you have a unique voice and can connect with people. Be authentic to build a reputation for yourself.

This means that you should be willing to share your life experiences, as well as your opinions. You should also be open about your struggles, fears, failures, and successes. You should never make excuses, but you should always be willing to talk about the things that you’ve been through. This is because these things will help you to connect with other people. When people can relate to your experiences, they will be more likely to read your blog and other social media channels.

Conclusion

The first way to become a thought leader is to understand that people will follow you if they believe you know something they don’t. The second way to become a thought leader is to use content marketing to spread your thoughts, ideas, and expertise to others. Third, it’s essential to have a voice. Your opinion matters and your voice counts. You may not be able to persuade others to agree with you. However, you can influence them by influencing your audience. People are always listening to their customers, and they’re always looking for new insights into their industry. Be part of the conversation, and people will follow you.

Related article: How to Become a Thought Leader – The Beginning

How to Become a Thought Leader – The Beginning

Here’s my personal story how I began my IoT Thought Leadership journey. From Zero to an Influencer.

From Zero to an IoT Thought Leader. When does it all start?

Here’s the story.

One of my staff bumped into me, and he mentioned, “Congratulations, Dr. Mazlan, I saw your name as one of the IoT Thought Leaders.“

I was very shocked and asked. “Where did you get the news?” and he said, “I saw in one of the Internet reports.“

He gave me the link, and I quickly viewed the report from Onalytica entitled “The Internet of Tings 2014 – Top 100 Thought Leaders.” Wow! It was a pleasant surprise.

A couple of weeks earlier, I was very depressed and frustrated when my boss did not approve my application to attend IoT Asia 2014. I applied for the trip with two of my staff to attend the first IoT event in the region, yet only two of my staff applications were approved but not mine.

Our organization started the work on IoT almost two years earlier, and I thought this would be my best opportunity to hear from the industry leaders.

But the news that my staff brought to me was very unexpected. I wondered – how do I get to be selected by a prestigious organization like Onalytica?

The news spread very fast in the organization, with many people congratulating me. And one of them is the HR Vice President; she congratulated, “Dr. Mazlan, you are now a Thought Leader. That’s an amazing achievement!“

But since I have never bothered to know what a “Thought Leader is,” I began to wonder what I did to gain that recognition? And what exactly is a Thought Leader?

How Onalytica Picked the Top 100 IoT Thought Leaders

Onalytica took in all Twitter conversations using the hashtags #IoT and #InternetOfThings and created a network of the top stakeholders discussing the subject. The network diagram of the top 100 is shown below.

I was thrilled to be ranked No. 20th on the list with Kevin Ashton (Father of IoT ranked 11th). And, of course, very proud to be the only Malaysian (or probably Asian) on the list!

But really, how do I reach that stage? Is it by accident? In a way, most probably the answer is yes, but I didn’t realize that the things I did were actually how a Thought Leader should do – by influencing others.

It started probably 1 or 2 years earlier when my team was working on a research area called Wireless Sensor Network, 6LoWPAN (IPv6 Low Powered Area Network), and Internet of Things (IoT).

And during 2012 to 2014, I was a frequent social media user on LinkedIn and Twitter. Whatever I read on IoT topics, I will share this on Twitter and LinkedIn and use that hashtag #IoT. This includes sharing my thoughts about the industry in IoT.

This was when my circle of influence widened with more Twitter users following my Tweets. That’s how these Tweets are captured and analyzed by Onalytica.

The Start of an IoT Thought Leadership

Two years later, in 2016, I was the first Malaysian IoT Speaker in IoT Asia 2016 (“Issues and Challenges of Deploying a Smart Citizen Engagement Solution,” IoT Asia 2016, Singapore Expo, 30-31 March 201). The same event was when my boss rejected my application to attend in 2014. This time, the host invited me to speak with all expenses paid.

That was the beginning of the Thought Leadership journey, whereby I was invited to many speaking engagements as Keynote Speaker, Invited Speaker, TEDx Speaker, and many others. I created an IoT Blog called “IoT World” which became my official channel to share my thoughts and knowledge.

Other than the recognition from Onalytica (Onalytica Report can be downloaded here), I was ranked among Top 50 Global Thought Leaders on the Internet of Things (February 2019) and Digital Disruption (October 2019) by Thinkers360, Top 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by World CSR Congress 2017, ranked Top 10 in IoT Top 100 Influencers by Postscapes 2017 & 2018,

It all started with a rejection….. From Zero to an IoT Thought Leader
Dr. Mazlan Abbas

Real Books vs. E-Books – Why I Choose

But I have this terrible habit of not finishing the book I read or didn’t even start reading them. And the worst part, sometimes I buy the same book twice because I don’t remember whether I have purchased it before or not.

When books are converted into digital, it changes how we consume knowledge. It also changes the way the reading habit.

This is what happened to me. I used to buy many print books (real books) and am proud to have a “library” to place the texts on proper shelves.
Books on my shelves.

And then, I began to start to download E-Books, and I began to read them finally. And the best part, I managed to read them till the last page!

Initially, I was convinced that Real Books are far better than E-Books because it doesn’t feel the same holding a book compared to something just digital.

Why E-Books are better than Real Books Click To Tweet

BBut due to the Covid-19 lockdown, I started to read more E-Books and have changed my habit of reading. Below are some of the reasons:

Freedom – I can read the E-Book anywhere. I need to carry multiple of them with print books if I want to read more than one book. Of course, real books are heavy to carry. During travel, you don’t want to carry heavy luggage unnecessarily. What if you don’t like to read that book and that is the only book you have?
Easy to Highlight – Since I bought an iPad with a Stylus called Pencil, it simplifies me to jot down or highlight specific points or facts in the E-Book. And it does not destroy or dirty the E-Book because you can still erase the highlights quickly.
Only Digital – Some books are only published in digital form. Or you can convert a web article into PDF and read it like an E-Book. You don’t have to waste printing the papers.
Cheap or Free – E-Books are far more affordable than real books. And you can find free or “free” E-Books on the web.

Furthermore, I will be writing my E-Book called IoT Adventure and hopefully complete it by 2022.