Marketing thru new media

Who don’t want a job that only needs you to get to sit on facebook all day. It is easy as it sounds. Nowadays companies all over the world are pondering ways to penetrate their products and services to the whole new level of business globally.  All the praying that those businessmen did was answered personally from god where there are many alternative media or new media arise in this era. 

It’s proven that the new media platforms such such as Twitter,blogs, facebook ,Youtube and linkedin can enhance sales for companies , it’s not only easier for business but also an endless stream of information and trends that are happening in today’s industries. This advantage could be used to produce more competing products and services that are out in the market. Not just that, through new media, you can get the ability to engage with your audience to get their feedback about the product or services you provided, which seems harder during back then whereby products and services are more limited due to  less variety of promotions and advertising wise.

 It will also build your community-building, through the right channel a wide variety of practices can be utilized for community building, it may started simple such as closed event for loyal customers to larger scale such as festival , all this approach through new media  will surely  joint the bond among the audience and the company itself.

Thru internet online finding your brands target audience will be much easier, but the crucial thing to do is to understand what field of your businesses is, this is core to further the research about the specific audience you intended to approach. If you are not on social media, then you are not where your audience is (Stacey Acevero,2011)

Behind every strength, there’s a weak hole, bypassing it might give your opponent the advantage.  A good social media marketing strategy is all about connection, new media seems to be the right fits for today’s business as it complement each other well.

References,

Gene Patterson  September 05, 2012, social media marketing strategy.

http://www.helium.com/items/2225045-social-media-marketing-strategy

Lee Odden (2012 )Hiring a Social Media Strategist – Essential Skills & Talentshttp://www.toprankblog.com/2011/10/hire-social-media-strategist/

By Fardzri Hafiz

INSTAGRAM; THE NEW TREND

Instagram is said that it will be the next digital strategy. The presents of Instagram during the late 2010 is now growing rapidly. The free application functions as a mobile network include the visual content sharing between the users.

Instagram is where you snap a picture, choose a filter to alter the look and feel and post it into your Instagram’s account. Photo sharing nowadays as easy as pie since it can be share to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr too.  According to social media specialist Jeff Peters, Instagram is a social network where sharing photos and commenting or liking other friends’ photo takes place. Peter added that Instagram have the interesting aspect where it is not in the site but purely mobilize.

This kind of approach have been using by the organization that is basically in fashion line such as TopShop and Hijabista Magazine.  Explanation from Peters concludes that any fashion organization can make their own way in appealing the brands and industries in visually-oriented where the visual connection between the brand and a consumer or potential customer is there (Graze Lavigne, 2012).

PR professionals should seriously consider approaching the complement client announcement and press releases using the social network as well instead of only using Twitter and Facebook (Jennifer DeAngelis, PR account executive with InkHouse).

Through this new trend in social media, PR practitioners can attract and attached with the community in a more interactive way. The wisdom ‘Picture speaks a thousand words’ literally projected the effectiveness in visual imagery to the people.

By Fatin Nur Sofia binti Zainol Alam

2011208068

References

1. Grace Lavigne (September 14, 2012), 5 Instagram Tips for PR Pros. Retrieved on 27 September from http://blog.prnewswire.com/tag/instagram/

2.    Sahil Patel (April 10, 2010) Four Things You May Not Know About Instagram. Retrieved on 28 September 2012 from http://www.prnewsonline.com/watercooler/Four-Things-You-May-Not-Know-About-Instagram_16292.html

PURCHASING MOVIE TICKET FROM HOME

Written by: Mohd Tarmimi Bin Mohd Zulkifly

Are you guys’ movie’s fans? If yes, this could be the great news. Now you don’t have to wait in a long queue at the movie ticketing counter lane. Just go to your PC and visit Golden Screen Cinemas official website to buy the tickets or check your movie showtime for your GSC Cinema.

For your information, GSC is the first cinema in Malaysia which introduces the online ticket purchase through its website called GSC E-Payment Ticketing. To buy the tickets online, you must sign-up first as a GSC websites member. Then, you can select which cinema location and the movies you want to watch.

As you buy the ticket, just remember the ID number that GSC e-payment ticketing provides to you. Then, go to the redemption counter to collect your ticket without have to wait for a long time. This kind of service provides by GSC make its customers more easy to buy the tickets and check the possibilities of empty seats in the hall before the show from their desired location utilizing internet connection.  (Golden Screen Cinemas, 2012)

Now, you can see that the new media itself provides an effective system to the moviegoers and make their interest faster and easier. With the power of new media and internet, you can monitor the show just from your home or via your smartphones. Any further inquiries, please visit GSC official website at www.gsc.com.my and sign-up now to enjoy the privileges and the easy way to fulfill your leisure time at the cinema. Thank you and enjoy your movie!!!    

References:

Golden Screen Cinemas Official Website: www.gsc.com.my

Massive New Media

By Muhamad Amir Afiq Fakhrarrazi

     New Media has taken its place in the Malaysian society nowadays. Many people including politician uses this platform as one of their tools in winning and spreading their opinion, thoughts and ideas. There are 3 main reasons behind the success of the internet and the new media in Malaysia.

              

  Information, Communication and Culture Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Kamaruddin Siaraf said the first reason was the goverment policy to promote the Multimedia Super Corridor. He added that “In this policy, the government pledged not to censor the internet and to its credit, the government has kept its word,”. Associate Prof Dr Abu Hassan Hasbullah from University Malaya has presented a talk at the luncheon that entitled ‘Nations on Fire: The Power of New Media’,

            

    The second reason was the rise in political consciousness among Malaysians, with a growing number of Malaysians showing a keen interest in democracy, human rights and good governance and lastly the third reason behind massive development of New Media in Malaysia is the loss of credibility among the traditional media due to press self-censorship

              

  It shows that the New Media influence is vital. With these tools, people can now spread their thoughts across the world with just one click.

Reference: http://mynewshub.my/2011/07/21/success-of-internet-new-media-in-malaysia/

I Now Pronounce You, New Media and Youth

Yes it’s true, the youth and new media are happily married. Why so? Well, it’s clearly obvious how the youth are highly obsessed with new media and technology. They spend most of their time on the internet. Yes, without a doubt there are many benefits to the usage of new media as it has more convenience and is constantly ready at the tip of your fingers, but think of the consequences? It affects so many things including health, lifestyle, relationships, studies and most importantly, your ACTUAL life that goes on outside of the internet.

However, it’s somehow amusing how teenagers don’t share every single thing on the internet even though they’re on it 24 hours a day. Most chronically ill teenage patients do not disclose their personal health information on social media websites such as Facebook, research shows (MedwireNews Reporters, 2012). So this bothers most people because teenagers prefer not to share their problems with people around them and we would expect them to let it all out on the internet specifically the social media. On top of that, since youths are so preoccupied with the internet, why not spill your beans there? By spilling the beans I don’t mean anything that is controversial and confidential.

Besides that, It is acceptable if they waste their precious time on the internet with something beneficial and educational but unfortunately no. They rather spend endless hours playing online games, chatting, as youths like to call it, ‘facebooking’ and of course, tweet! Who knows if they even know what the real, bona fide world looks like. There are mountains of negative effects of the frequent use of the new media, you don’t even want to go there.

In a nutshell, the infatuation youths have for the new media can be misleading. Obviously, the internet has positive effects as well but the youths uses the new media for the wrong purposes which results in bad fallout. This issue has been going on for a long time and will continue on becoming an issue until the youths or people around them find a way to stop their incorrect usage of the new media.

By,

Atthiya Khadeja Anurddin 

Sources

Serena Gordon, 2011. Social Media Has Good and Bad Effects on Kids: Experts. Retrieved on 27^th September from http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/childrens-health/articles/2011/03/28/social-media-has-good-and-bad-effects-on-kids-experts

MedwireNews Reporters, 2012. Social media sites let chronically ill teens be teens. Retrieved on 27^th Spetember 2012 from http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120927/Social-media-sites-let-chronically-ill-teens-be-teens.aspx

 

 

New Media in Marketing

Marketing is a powerful thing. It is capable of reaching targeted audience and a good way of pulling up your products, brands and etc. However, with the presence of the new media today and the outcome from it can never be imagine. New media in marketing field which aligned with the Internet and social networking helps the strength and availability of the marketing so much. As acknowledged the powerful of social networking where it can spread a single idea to all around the world with just a click and on top of it, it is the luckiest thing for the marketers.

Lets compare back to the traditional way of marketing in a time before the existence of the new media. Actually, the new media provide options that are very inexpensive. Back again, where everything is expensive and must be paid on. Therefore, it is a full of benefits when using this new media. As for example, like Facebook; everyone knows what Facebook is. Businessman might use Facebook to do their advertising and marketing wise, which is cheaper or sometimes free.

It is virtually impossible to create a Web marketing program that is guaranteed to go viral; it requires a huge amount of luck and timing. That’s an important point to remember as you work on viral marketing ideas, because it’s unlike the old-rules, numbers-based marketing techniques you’re probably used to. Consider a direct mail campaign: You could always count on a direct mail piece to generate a known number of responses, say 2 percent. So if you needed to have 100 people respond, you sent out 5,000 mailers. (David Meerman Scott, 2008)

Speaking of reaching an audience, new media give us a chance to reach broader and various audiences. Without it, which it reached only for those targeted audience. With the new media, like the recent sensational video music “Oopa Gangnam Style” where it had widely spread all around the world. Just twist a bit and improvise your idea in your own concept and uploaded it in Youtube and lets the magical of the new media work it out.

References
David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Viral Marketing, 2008

http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Viral_Marketing.pdf

Written By
Mohamad Shazlan Bin Mohd Ghazali / Pyam

New Media and Society.

Written by Adilah Shaukei.

New media is known as digital devices that contain the interactive response and anything that have related with the media content. Internet is one of the popular new media until now. We can see the impacts of new media really give large responses from the society. And from this let we see what is the beneficial impact of new media towards the society.

The new media such as Internet has affect on the way we think and the way we interact with each other;furthermore it may combine with the use of other digital devices, for example social network and portable media devices. All this digital device has make our life easy in order to carrying our work.

According to Kerby Anderson (2001), the writer of New Media and Society stated that the use of Internet is actually makes people think differently. As we know that the older and younger generations really have different mind on the way there are thinking. With the opinion, ideas and thought that are been given from two groups somehow give the impact on the use of Internet. It allows people to actually shared and threw out all the ideas that they got to the world.

According to Serajul l. Bhulyan (2006), the new media contains many sources of truth that people can actually answer their questions or any that bother them. These show that the use of new media can actually help people in doing or searching all topics with their own understanding. They also download information in a second without spending hours to searching the important points.

Something that easyhave it challenges. We might get it easy on what we want through the use of the new media especially nowadays. For example, Internet isfull of information, we must be aware before we read it and take it to be as our source of truth. Plenty research is needed to what is actually happening and go in depth to confirm it as it true unless we rather to be shame.

Kerby Anderson (2001). New Media and Society. Retrieved on 26th September fromhttp://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.6034147/k.5356/New_Media_and_Society.htm

Serajul l. Bhulyan (2006). Impact of new media technology and society. Retrieved on 26th September fromhttp://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=52164

OUR MESSAGE IS FOR EVERYONE

  The new social media is changing the past time activities of the kids. 10 years back the kids were seen playing outside and having fun under the sun was what we call normal. Nowadays kids prefer staring blank at their high tech gadgets and a buzz or tweet from a friend is common rather than a normal conversations. A research called the “MinorMonitor” has come up with a study that 38% of kids on Facebook are under the age of 13. 
 

Reaching out to the kids is no longer an easy task to accomplish. Without Facebook, Thumblr, Instagram or Twitter account the attempt of reaching out to them seems futile or underachieved. This shows the massive role of Social Media to reach to their minor audience have shifted from traditional television programs to venturing into social medias to create a bridge between themselves and the audience.

However the minors who surfs the web are not able to identify right or wrong right of the bat. They require time and nurturing to help them understand the content of the message that is intended to their attention. The PR role in this case lies in both safety and content. The safety aspect is the social media that the PR practitioner must not have intention to harm the kids in any way or include messages not for their eyes and ears. This is guided by the rating such as General viewing, 18SG and etc.

Public Relations such as me and yourself must not forget to whom the message is intended and to and how you want the message to be heard and seen by your audience. Therefore the “Social Media” as it grows so does our role in adjusting our message to our new audience. Hopefully this will help me and the rest of the future practitioner to bare in mind that our message plays a role but so does the intended audience. With the technology for the world today almost everyone can read the same thing but interprets it differently.

Written By Azri Norazmi, 25th September 2012 

Reference

(Really, Really Young) Kids using Social Media : Normal?

POLITIC AND NEW MEDIA

The advent of internet has brought a new hallmark to the societies around the world. Since then, people connecting to everyone globally within seconds creating a new atmosphere, global village. Invention of social network prove soundly that people has make social network as a mediatory in their daily basis where it provide a place for them to share their expression and thoughts on any issues. Hence, we often-witnessed public figures used this medium to connect with their crowd. Celebrities and whatnot seems to utilize this medium in maintaining their reputation or even connecting themself with their fans. In political sides, traditional media no longer be the only field that politician need to addressed, new media and its social network claim its spot of priority. This however has become a challenge for politicians internationally especially locally, but more and more politicians managed to tackle new media.

Although the use of new technology in politics typically evolves slowly compared to its commercial use, the Internet emerged in political campaigns about the same time as it made its debut in American business. In 1992, the Clinton-Gore campaign placed election-related information, such as texts of speeches, advertisements, position papers and biographical information, on the Internet. This is widely acknowledged as the first use of the Internet in a presidential campaign. The first campaign Web site was created for California senator Dianne Feinstein in 1994. In 1996, the first presidential candidate Web site was established for Republican nominee Bob Dole. After the 1996 presidential election, scholars concluded that “though the Internet ‘has not fully arrived as a means of campaign communication, it certainly has a foot in the door. (Navasartian and Kanakara, 2008)

In United States of America, politicians used new media and social network to help them win their campaigns. Information disseminates using the new media through their official website. Discussion on matters related to their supporting people made on personal blogs. The used of social network portrays the image that politicians adamant to align himself with the need of the people. This political scene has become a great example for other countries including Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the scenario is different, people are more active than public figures as many politicians felt new media as a pointless effort. Increase in number of bloggers in political views has led politician admit their mistakes. Now, politicians frequently update their tweets with information about their campaign. According to, Dr M: Focus on new media timely, 2011, Dr Mahathir said Najib's focus on the need of the party to benefit from the use of new media. He added, ‘Umno has to respond to changes in the country today, like the new media and alternative media. It is a must for Umno’.

The use of new media, relevantly social network has turned out to be important tools in boasting support for political campaign. ‘This is in line with current political scenario where the cyber media is being used to launch psychological offensives either through blogs or social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter or online news portals’. (Use social media to create positive image of BN: Musa, 2012)

With the current climate, new media has become the ‘in thing’.  Once it was dominate by youth but it prowess has bring a lot of new comers from other segment of group. Generally, new media consumed by all, not like in those days where information can only be retrieved by traditionally media, now Malaysian is active participant where they nonstop looking for information. In the effort of searching for answers, they might stumble into information made by other group with different views of an issue. This might lead to coalition of information where it will interrupt the process of support gain. Information that insignificantly hazardous to the political sides will affect greatly to the momentum of the campaign. Thus, the use of new media and its social media help to correct those mistakes by addressing to those kind segments left in the support gain process. This can be done by maintaining contacts with visitors of the website, respond to feedback by answering or even uploading video to corporate with information to correct the miss judge statement that can put the political in jeopardy in its rally to win the support. New media aids political scene in many ways, its importance needs to be acknowledge by all, not only prominence figures.

Written by Iskandar Dzulkarnain, 20th September 2012

References

Dr M: Focus on new media timely (2011) - Umno - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/nation/umno/dr-m-focus-on-new-media-timely-1.13829#ixzz27PQjO3wT

Navasartian, K. (2008). Digging for votes: An analysis of 2008 presidential candidates' use of new media. University of Southern California). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/docview/304461608?accountid=42518. (304461608).

Use social media to create positive image of BN: Musa (2012)- Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/use-social-media-to-create-positive-image-of-bn-musa-1.74239##ixzz27PSQECjp

THE IRONY OF NEW MEDIA

New media could be considered as the primary role in the digital era where it could heighten the identity and image of a company, brand or people and also presence on all digital media and platforms. New media allow public to engage with each other not just through the dissemination of news and information, but also through social networks.

The growing importance of new media is followed by the expansion of media channels and the audience fragmentation. It could be interdependent and interconnected, allowing public especially young minds to be open.

Moreover, the new media could help children to learn and gather information in a more fun way as this change the children thinking and ways of studying and social communication. But new media could easily affect children because they cannot differentiate or evaluate the content that they stumble upon (New media has hold on kids). This is where parents and adult need to observe and implement certain actions in order for children to have the access of information with boundaries.

I believe that new and younger generation or Gen-Y are the ones who will play the major role in our economy, social and politic of development and successful transformation. In order to harness the power of new media, it takes more than just setting up blog, Facebook, Twitter and more. It requires us to understand of how public opinion is shaped through online means and how the information, news and views are disseminated in cyberspace. (Oon Yeoh, 2008)

In the political sphere, politicians understood the importance of new media tools and strategies to reach changing audiences as people have increasingly use online media to obtain information or express their thoughts. For example, in the last election, blogging was used widely. But politicians now are urged to use the new media to regain voters for the coming general election. Thus this time around, Facebook and Twitter are expected to be very intense during campaign. There is a need for politicians to engage youths via the new media. (Vanes Devindran, 2011)

However, when half-truths, slander, lies and distortion of facts happened in the new media, there are still no strict actions against those involved in committing these responsible acts. We do not have any right to humiliate others to the extent of stir up conflict and inciting racial attitudes. Do not these people realize what cause and effect that could damage others directly or indirectly.

The new media has challenge the traditional media as time goes on, it becomes the channels of news to interact. ”People take sides, they read what they like and what they want to believe in.” (Joceline Tan, 2007)

MOHD ASYRAF BIN MOHD BUSTAMAN 2011804448

 References :

Joceline Tan, (August 5, 2007). Watch out, the new media is here. The Star Online, Retrieved Septemberl 20, 2012, from  http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2007/8/5/columnists/joceline/18497897&sec=Joceline

Vanes Devindran, (December 19, 2011). Taib wants state govt to exploit new media to get youths’ participation. The Star Online, Retrieved Septemberl 20, 2012, from  http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/19/sarawak/10121761&sec=sarawak

Oon Yeoh, (September 18, 2008). New Media more than blogs. The Star Online, Retrieved Septemberl 20, 2012, from  http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/18/focus/2054041&sec=focus

BLOGGERS THE NEW JOURNALISTS?

The availability of Internet connection has already beneficing our daily lives, as we all know. Whether you are a student (especially), Public Relations practitioner, journalist or mother of 8 kids, It is rather difficult to separate the Internet with our daily lives nowadays.

With the availability of internet and the hours spent by user online, users usually utilize online platform to discuss what’s happening surround them and react by giving out opinions, discussing and commenting. These allow conversations to occur, also known as online word of mouth (Nakajima, Tatemura, Hino et.al. , 2005). Which as a PR we need to be aware off to study what are the publics are talking about our company, clients, or those area that are affecting businesses.

Internet offers interactive applications like social media sites, websites, games and many more, it is going beyond the capabilities of traditional media (Ward, 2006).  In this post we will look at what Wright and Hinson (2008) describe as “Potential impact in Public Relations practice is phenomenal”, - the Blogs.

Blogs or Weblogs are define as online journals or diaries applications (Rodman, 2008). Blogs allows users (which can be anyone) to express and publish their thoughts online and it can be read by millions of Internet users world wide, for free. Bloggers or some call them citizen journalists, are the writers of these blogs. Some being influential enough, they actually make blogging their full-time job.

PR practitioners nowadays have recognized the influence of these bloggers that they find the need to include them in their PR campaigns and activities. Being a Fashion Blogger myself in Malaysia, I still remember the first email invitation to a fashion event that I received back in 2010. During the guests’ registration process, Bloggers names are to be registered at the media registration counter.

So are these bloggers, also a “media” to PR practitioners? I have asked this question to Nadira Ruslan PR executives at PRCOMM, which previous projects includes lifestyle events. She said “In such a digital age, bloggers are capable of disseminating information sometimes more efficiently than traditional press. Fashion bloggers, especially have such an eye for visual detail and are truly able to capture the event’s look and feel through their photos. Combined with their first-person views, an event comes to life almost once again to their loyal followers.”

 If we think logically, traditional media has limited space, bulk of invites and releases at one time and deadlines to publish news, where as compared to blogers they are not govern by these. Furthermore some blogs cover topics niche enough and have specific demographic readers to suits in PR campaigns target audience. There goes the saying “Getting the right message, to the right public”.

Sam Kassim of Sam Kassim Events which previous clients include Kose cosmetic said, “Everything that gave us publicity we will invite, no matter what form it is”. Publicity is the winning triumph for PR efforts. It also refers as measurement and evaluation of success in PR efforts. So would you not take a free and easier publicity?

In addition, some bloggers have gone beyond than just writing sharing thoughts on their blogs. Their popularity have been recognized and they have became a personality and public figure. Let us take example of Bryan Boy who blog about fashion for bryanboy.com . Started as just sharing his fashion thoughts from Manila, Philippines. He is now flying from New York to London to Paris to Milan and all over the world catching up fashion weeks, which he was exclusively invited as fashion blogger. He wasn’t seated in the at 6^th rows (which usually have very bad view of the runway), in fact he was seated next to fashion editors like Anna Wintour of Vogue in the front row. His influence also have made the producer of America’s Next Top Model season 19 invite him as a guests judge (Lau, 2012).

Bryan Boy seated next to Anna Wintour of Vogue US.

Furthermore PR also have included bloggers in their “media treat” activities, like free stay at a hotel rooms, discounts foods, cash vouchers and many other returns in hoping to get favorable posts in the bloggers blog. Joyce of Kinkybluefairy.net a Malaysian lifestyle blogger who often blog about her traveling experience, which mostly is sponsored (accommodations like hotels etc) so she could do a review on her stay.

Millions of blogs are out there on the net, PR have to recognize and identify those that are really capable of carrying the messages that they intended too well, so the PR efforts wont be a waste. “Blog Walking” (browsing through online from one blog to another) may help PR practitioner indentify these blogs or sites.

Written by Ashman Mahfudz, Final year student of Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons) (Public Relations) in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam. Writer also Blog fashion on his personal blog WalkTheBerry. 20^th September 2012.

p/s This post is mostly an insight story of what I have experienced as blogger my self and having few blogger-friends. I am sorry my insight is mostly in the fashion and lifestyle area as that is the area that I am more aware off.

Interviews cited were done through email.

Reference:
book:

Rodman, G. (2008). Mass Media In A Changing World. New York: Mc Graw Hill.

Journal Article :

Nakajima, S. , Tatemura, J. , Hino, Yoichiro. , Hara, Y. , Tanaka, K. (2005). Discovering Important Based on Analyzing Blog Threads.

Wright, D. K., & Hinson, D. M. (2008). How Blogs and Social Media are Changing Public Relations and the Way it is Practiced. Public Relations Journal Vol 2, No.2.

Newspaper Article:

Lau, K. (2012, May 25). Meet Tyra's protege: Fahion Blogger Bryan Boy Revealed to be the new America's Next Top Model Judge.  Daily Mail, Mail Online. Retrived from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2150007/Meet-Tyras-protege-Fashion-blogger-Bryanboy-revealed-new-Americas-Next-Top-Model-judge.html