Malaysian Election & Social Media

Yesterday, I saw few bloggers that I follow on Facebook posting about how Malaysians needed help with their political stances. Malaysia had their parliamentary election on May 5th and many citizens, especially the Chinese people (their the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia), were extremely disappointed by the result because they highly suspected that fraud occurred during vote-counting process. Many Chinese people voted for the opposing party as they tried to challenge "National Front", the current ruling party, because they have been dominating the country for over 50 years already.

The news went viral on social media, especially facebook within 24 hours. Many Malaysians and people from the Asia-Pacific region, especially Taiwan, have changed their profile pictures to a pitch-black photo, expressing their disappointment and sadness regarding the "democracy" they enjoyed. Many were also sharing similar photos such as the one on the right. (It roughly translates to "I am Taiwanese. Please help Malaysia abolish dark politics. 5/5 Rest in Peace, Democracy"). Hundreds of Malaysians also turned to President Obama's Facebook Page to ask for help.

I cannot say that the fraud did occur, even though voters had recorded videos of scandalous acts by the National Front and shared them on Facebook. Neither did I read any further news for follow up, but it appears to me quite shocking that the same party has been ruling Malaysia for over 50 years already, even though it is a democratic country. And in terms of the virality of information on social media, this is another example of how social media might help to bring changes (whether for good or bad) to a situation.

Comments on recent videos that went viral

I came across two videos that went viral online The first one is Dove's "Real Beauty Sketch" ad and the second one is Evian's global "Baby & Me" campaign commercials.


By just looking at Dove's video, I can certainly tell that they are sending a positive messages to all women on the world this campaign might be geared more towards social media marketing and might have gotten through the social media funnel. However, when it comes to conventional marketing, I am unsure if Dove is trying to sell anything to consumers? One of the comments below asked " did this ad make you wanna buy Dove?" Yes, this would be a critical question to ask if Dove is pursuing ICM, aiming to have customers buy things from them.

I personally liked the Evian ads and commercials a lot because they are so eye-catching and creative! The music is very nicely done too! Bottled water is something that many people consume on a daily basis, therefore, I think this campaign will eventually lead to success of increased sales! (At least for me, if I see Evian water in supermarkets or convenience stores, I would be reminded of the campaign videos and that would make me want to buy it!)

Role of social media in emergency situations

The bombing that happened at the Boston Marathon this afternoon was such a dreadful news to hear. I really don't get why things like this occurs. It is supposed to be an even in which everyone's all cheerful and such. The photos on CNN are pretty graphic and very saddening indeed. My prayers and thoughts go to those who were affected.

A moment ago I logged on to my twitter account and I can see all sorts of tweets related to the incident. I found one interesting tweet, which posted a link to the "Google Person Finder". I never knew something like this existed! (Yes I was surprised!) It certainly serves as a great example of how the internet can help during incidents like this. The Boston Marathon official twitter account is also sending live commentaries to inform people about all the related issues such as baggage claims. People has been using various hashtags such as #bostonhelp to post blood donation announcements, links to different charity groups, and even links to a list with contact informations that people offers to accomodate the runners for a night or two. It's really heartwarming to see such thing happening within just few hours.

This incident, though it is uncertain whether it's a terrorist attack or not, reminded me of 911 attack back in 2001. It makes me wonder what role would social media play in situations like this (including any other emergency situations). I am certain that social media can help everyone stay connected--- many people are certainly willing to help those who were affected in any possible way they can, just like those who are offering a free place to say for the marathon runners!

p.s. see some screenshots of #bostonhelp here

Facebook insights of my own fanpage

I have been managing a personal Facebook fanpage since a year ago about my travel-study experience in New York. I share mainly photographs I took in NYC; sometimes I post about my student life in Albany, and sometimes my own drawings. Since I'm from Taiwan, I usually write the story and picture captions in both mandarin Chinese and English.

For your personal interest, here is my fanpage: http://on.fb.me/14Beo5x

It's pretty amazing to see and fun to study all the Facebook insights that FB provides you every week. There are so many terms such as "virilality", "reach" which can be very confusing, but it does help you understand the demographics of your fan-base. It even shows how many people unliked your page during the past week. I find it interesting how among the fans that liked my page, there are much more female fans than males. This also seem to be true for other friends of mine, who also own fanpages telling their travel stories... (I wonder if there are insights that will help answer this question?)

Warby Parker...!

It was not until today's SM class that I was introduced to "Warby Parker".  According to this article (http://nyti.ms/XVofuF), they have been around for three years already, and it slowly builds its company profile through customers' word of mouth.

Personally, I find Warby Parker's business model to be fascinating! I am very much willing to try on the frames if I am in need of new glasses. I also like how they put heavy emphasis on maintaining positive relationship with its customers through social media and I like the "lifestyle" that they are associating customers with. To me, they have grasped the essential point of SM marketing and fully exploited the convenience of social media. It's hard to imagine how the business would look like if Facebook or Twitter or any social media were not present. The article seem to point out the bright future for Warby Parker and I do look forward to see partnership with brands like J. Crew and GAP.

Guest lecture for MGT481 class

We had a guest speaker for our BMGT481 class this afternoon He is a former student of Dr. Van Ness who graduated from UAlbany in 2004. It was really interesting to hear him talking about his job experiences in the past 8 years - especially when he somehow  point out the differences of working in a big company such as General Electrics versus a much smaller company such as Northeastern Fine Jewelry.

Since he is currently a project manager (if I'm not wrong) at Northeastern Fine Jewelry, he is responsible for many things including marketing plans through social media. One student in the class asked how he was able to take advantage of the social media to promote their brand and his answer was very close to what Professor Commuri said during SM marketing class --- Don't expect to sell things on social media because it is a place for fostering and maintaining customer relationships rather than for actually selling products! He also mentioned CRM and how social media platforms can be used as a tool for building a strong CR. I don't know if they hire SM specialist for their company nor did he get into details about their social media marketing plans but he did grasp the essential trick to social media marketing.

On a personal side, what I took away from this class is how I will soon face the pressure of being in a real world. He mentioned that you are facing constant challenges once you are out there and sometimes you have to make decisions in a very short time without really knowing what will happen to you. I do hope their can be more guest lectures in any other business classes I take because I find it very inspiring to hear how former students of UAlbany managed their personal connections with others, how they make decisions, and what they have to do to overcome challenges in the real business world.

Plurk vs. Twitter

It was said that Plurk was once a rival of Twitter when microblogging platforms take its presence few years back. And to be honest, I am not a fan of Twitter myself because I find Plurk to be more user-friendly and more dynamic than Twitter. Here's an article showing the basic feature and interface of Plurk:
http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/01/28/plurk-investment-deal/

I acknowledge the fact that whether one likes Plurk or Twitter is more of a personal taste and it depends heavily on the social community you hangout with. In my case, I love Japanese manga/anime style arts and I draw those kinds of arts myself.  I know that Plurk is a very popular social media in my country Taiwan, especially among social community of the artists who, like myself, produces Japanese anime/manga style arts (whether original art or fan art) or writers who wrote fan-novels. On the other hand, Twitter is the dominating platform for everyone, not only the artists or writers, but everyone. However I still don't find Twitter to be as easy to use for few reasons:

1. Twitter's 140 words limitation is simply NOT ENOUGH, especially when you write in English. On the other hand, Plurk does have limitations too but not as few as 140.

2. Twitter does not allow you to post your own "emoticons" to express your feeling along with the words you wrote. In contrast, you can upload your own image (50x50 pixel image in gif/jpg/png/etc formats) to your profile and you can use them the way you like on all the Plurk posts and replies and it really help convey your feelings effectively!

3. Plurk has a much friendly user-interface than Twitter. Twitter is crowded with words and too little picture. It is sometimes hard to follow when a webpage is crammed with too many words!

4. Both Twitter and Plurk allows "reblogging"; however, Plurk has more staying power as compared to Twitter. You can form a chat dialogue with other users and you can track them easily.

I can go on and on and even take screenshots of Plurk's user interface to introduce all the feature to show why it's better than Twitter!  According the blog post I posted above, Plurk's biggest market is in Taiwan and Indonesia. I'd say Plurk is somewhat a mix of Twitter, Facebook timeline, and Tumblr. With all the features combined from different social media platforms, I really don't see why they cannot expand to other countries because it certainly has a lot of potential!