Never say Goodbye!

How time flies! It’s our last topic of discussion! So how have this module change me?

Strengthening Online Presence Professionally and Expanding Network

Let’s begin with LinkedIn. Ever since this module has started, I have been increasing in the number of connections I have – thanks to my peers who have now created a LinkedIn Profile! Cheerios! However previously I thought that just by having a LinkedIn profile makes me  professional. But to be honest I realize that being inactive has not really brought me any benefits all these while! We need to remain active to tapped onto any upcoming opportunities! Thereby this means that I would have to take the effort to check it out and update it often! I have downloaded the LinkedIn mobile app on my phone so that I could be more active on LinkedIn.

I have also been joining groups which I believe can help in building my professional network like “Digital Marketing” and “Big Data” as shown below. In addition, I also share more information on the opportunities that I am looking out for!

Ever since I have joined certain groups, it has shown that I have been more notice online professionally! This can be seen when I have more profile views (though still at a pretty pathetic rate)! I also manage to get the attention of others who are int he marketing industry like Liting, where we exchange ideas on marketing issues etc (below).

I thought that these efforts should be a long-term continuous thing before we could reap our “rewards”. To keep my profile authentic, I also plan to ask for recommendations from my future employers for the upcoming internship program!

Creating Online Materials and Sharing thoughts on future modules

I think that this module has allowed me to create more online materials I ever had for the past 21 years of life. I always thought that we need to be very “knowledgeable” before we could consider creating online materials online to share. However, I realize that sharing thoughts with regards to the marketing industry could also make valuable points to readers like my friends.

It would be something I would like to continue doing for the future modules. I realize that reading my friend’s blogs give me a wider perspective on a matter being discussed. Perhaps, a weekly post could be done on the module that we have undertaken just to share our learning and resources on our blog for our future modules?!

I thought that this particular module could have also help me in future modules like “Marketing Communication and Media Management” and “Digital Marketing: Engaging with Customer” whereby we would utilize online tools to engage with customers the right way and be more aware its ethical issues.

Last but not least, through this module I realize that Google Hangout is a really useful tool for project mates to come together to discuss matters! This is especially so when we often are busy and find it hard to meet to discuss project! We can now do it anywhere we want even if we are all at different places (HAHA, yes I didn’t know about it previously.)

Privacy and Online Identities

After realizing how our information could be found online (After a Google Search on myself previously), I have set up a privacy setting to ensure that my information are not misused by third parties.

I have decided to maintain a single online identity as I felt that having a single online identity shows that you have nothing to hide. This is especially so when I have learn previously that authenticity in the online profile is very vital for employers to believe what it’s shown online. By showing through our personality, it makes a profile more authentic ; just like how Evan shared about the bloggers. However I believe that employers are looking at our personal life simply to for a basic personality check etc.This also means greater cautious is needed whenever I post something up. I have also did a filter to remove any posting which I thought might be inappropriate. Some past posts include:

(Just kidding, I AM NOT A VIOLENT PERSON :P)

Digital Skills

After going through this module, I realize that there are many people out there who would use many innovative ways to market themselves online etc; Making a video of themselves just like how Ebrahim has shared! I would very much like to do that as I feel that it shows both creativity and digital skills which are both very valuable in the marketing industry. Therefore I would like to attend such programs to learn such skills before coming up with a GOOD video that can portray these aspects. This might take some time as it would require training skills. In addtion, to be honest (I have nothing much skills or experience to display now, and I would only consider doing a video only after I do have SOMETHING to “show”).

LAST BUT NOT LEAST…….

THANK YOU EVERYONE! MERRY XMAS 😀

P.S: This will not be the last post as I would really very much to keep this blog going to exchange ideas and thoughts! So remember to check it out ^^

Let’s show more support to them content producers!

Final Thoughts: Making online content easily available – sustainable!

After watching the video’s shared by Sylvia, I actually felt guilty towards the content producers who have made their resources freely available for us.

Picture Source: Picture

Let’s be honest, yes we might have cite their work in our research, but how many of us really do remember them or even their names?  To be brutally honest, no I don’t remember their name after a day. There is not much appreciation or support given from us as users to these content producers as we might have taken them for granted (its free, anyway? Right?) I felt the concept of it being “free and easily available” make us take them for granted. As a publisher perspective (shown in Sylvia’s post 2^nd video), if their efforts are not being reciprocated, do you think they would still continue to provide us with the content that we want for free?

This might be one reason why there is an increasing number of paywalls and there might no longer be free content easily available for us in future (Gordon, 2013) =( .

Perhaps what we can do is to show more support and appreciation towards them, like sharing  the article and not just “read-and-go” etc. This can help them increase in their credibility of article and help them in being notice by large companies etc. Just like how we share a video in Youtube and help these “youtubers” get notice by large music companies (etc: Justin Bieber!)

Remember, they all might have different goals ( be it monetary or not ).. But at the end of the day they want to gain benefits (getting a job from a big company, paying the bills, being known etc.) So let’s help them just like how they helped us!

Improve Willingness to Pay

Indeed, because we have taken for granted of their work ; we don’t see a need to pay. At the end of the day, how could we make sure they are kept sustainable if their cost is not being covered in a long run? After reading Amanda’s post, I realize that many people are unwilling to pay because we are not sure if the content is relevant to us. I found an article that I thought might help these people to increase their willingness to pay. This is done through allowing people to review on the content and let these reviews out to people who thought of buying it – this could help them making a better decision – as they will be more willing to pay for an article which is useful (Owen, 2012) .Personally, I also thought that perhaps a non-mandatory payment could be made – for example ; users can feel free to make a payment if they want too but are not obliged to do so (just like the concept of airlines having passengers to pay to set off their carbon foot print ; if they want to)!

That’s all for now folks!

Made Comments: Amanda, Sylvia

References:

Gordon, O. (2013, November 8). Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24759239

Owen, L. H. (2012). Retrieved from Gigaom: https://gigaom.com/2012/10/31/how-to-get-your-readers-to-love-paywalls/

Online content free, yay or nay?

 Student’s Perspective

As a student, there are many times whereby we are tasked to do projects whereby we would be require to research online.

Picture Source: Wall Street Journal

Yes I believe that most of us can feel the pain, right!? Irritating much whenever a paywall pops up!

Can you imagine that we have to pay for all the online information that we have access to? To be honest, if I had to pay for all the sources that I have used online – I would not be going online to look for information anymore. Besides, the web is used as a platform for users, content provider and enterprise to simply view or download the content (TechTarget, 2014).  Therefore it seems legit for users to be able to obtain materials online freely, yes?

Author’s Perspective

Besides the cost of producing digital content is relatively low ($0.0007!!) as compared to the past where hardcopies are being printed (Wildley, 2012). In addition, allowing the access to others freely give the producer a chance to further improve their work through the comments of others (Paul, 2004). This also means that they might be able to get the exposure and even lead to major organizations noticing them and paying them for large sum of money for future research and projects!

However certain online content might have high cost and this might be unfair for the publishing company. In addition, by allowing access online freely for everyone also means that their information might also be misrepresented by others. By having a paid wall therefore reduce the risk of such cases.

Marketing and Business Perspective

Why do we go online to research on a product or service that we are interested in? It’s free and it’s convenient. In fact a survey has shown that 80% of global consumers research online for products before visiting the store to purchase products (RUETER, 2012). Therefore from a business perspective, allowing consumers to obtain this information freely online actually benefits businesses significantly. For example, businesses can find out more about their market through these online contents. This is further supported by a survey done by McKinsey Global where majority of the business respondents had gained measurable business benefits by being exposed online on the Web to customers and suppliers (Mckinsey, 2009). This is because this allows consumers to be aware of promotions or new products etc and therefore reach out to them. However, if this information is not made freely available – how many of us would still go online to research on these products and patronize them?

However personally I feel that this does not benefit to ALL type of businesses. For instances, the film and music industry could be adversely affected by copyrights issue. Since many films could be obtained online (illegally), it affects the number of people who purchase albums. In fact, in recent years albums by artists were sold at all-time low (Hasty, 2014) compared to the other years when artist’s work are not being made so freely online.

References

Colberg, J. (2010). why information should remain free. Retrieved from Joerg Colberg: http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2010/01/why_information_should_remain_free/

Hasty, K. (2014, September). Retrieved from HitFix: http://www.hitfix.com/immaculate-noise/album-sales-at-an-all-time-low-5-things-that-only-maybe-could-save-2014

Mckinsey. (2009, Sept). Retrieved from Mckinsey & Company: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/how_companies_are_benefiting_from_web_20_mckinsey_global_survey_results

Paul. (2004). Retrieved from pdfernhout: http://www.pdfernhout.net/open-letter-to-grantmakers-and-donors-on-copyright-policy.html

RUETER, T. (2012, March 30). Retrieved from Vertical Web Media: https://www.internetretailer.com/2012/03/30/most-shoppers-go-online-research-products

TechTarget. (2014, Nov). Retrieved from TechTarget: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Web-20-or-Web-2

Wildley, D. (2012, February). Retrieved from Centre for American Progress: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535639.pdf

That’s all folks!

Topic 4 Reflection

This has been an interesting topic to look into. In our previous topics, all of us have been focusing so much on the benefits how the social media and internet help us build a professional image and maintain a diverse network. This topic has also brought in another perspective on how this could work the other way, too. Things may also go wrong and therefore we should take note of it as a consumer or organization point of view.

As a consumer like what Patricia has shared, I have to beware that these social sites would be taking my personal information and sell it off to companies for marketing purposes. For example in Dr Bev’s class, he shared that there’s the “share your life” app on facebook that shows “your life” in a video which actually serves as a way to obtain personal information from you, without you really knowing. We should then really take note of such apps since it is not very obvious for us to know that these are just tools to obtain information.

As an organization or marketer, it is important to take note that representatives of the organization on social media are humans. They might then make mistakes or take things personally and therefore go into a series of online bullying (shared in my post). Like what Tor has then shared, we should ensure that there is a series of guideline or training for our employees to go through before allowing them to work on the company’s social media marketing activities.

Many of my peers have also shared about how employees share their negative comments about the company on their personal account. I personally find this unethical because it gives the company a bad image to others. In addition, it actually shows that you are not a good employee too ; and remember how we talk about the previous topics where our employers would look into our online profiles before deciding if they should hire us? Yup, so I think we should always think twice and not do such unethical things!

Commented on: Patricia and Winnie

Unethical issues when businesses uses social media the wrong way =( ?

So yes the holidays are coming! I believe that many of us would be taking the chance to take a holiday break to travel. If you are the one doing the travelling bookings, let me ask you this question. Do you check out a hotel that you intend to stay on its hotel website or Trip Advisor?

I’m not sure about you. As for me, I would visit Trip Advisor to check out other’s guests reviews because I would believe their words more than the organization. This is definitely obvious because I believe that organizations might have marketing intent and therefore not reliable in helping me to make a right choice! This is further supported by a survey done by BrightLocal where nearly 80% of consumers trust online review sites and that 75% of them said they would trust a business more with those positive reviews (Epperson, 2014).

1) Cheated

Obviously, organizations would want to then look best at these review sites. Uh huh, this is when there would be issues coming up. There are companies who might pay writers to write good reviews so that other consumers are manipulated to believe and cheated into buying the product (Bates, 2011) . I thought that as a consumer, this would be very unfair and unethical because we are cheated into buying the product – though not so directly.

2) Unhealthy Competition and Online Bullying

Apart from that, businesses might be inclining to have writers to write negative reviews of their competitor’s products and services too. This would result in a series of serious online bullying for both consumers/organizations which could be seen in these 2 examples:

Example 1: Why Trip Advisor is getting bad reviews?

Example 2: Do watch this reality show if you have the time (Shows how misuse of social media brought about serious bullying to Amy’s Baking Company)

Photo Source : Chris Moran, Owners of Amy’s Baking Company Say Yelpers Are Endangering their Lives

You can check out the video here:

3) Slacking away

Also having one of the ethical issues that has to be taken into consideration would be the fact that, employees should use it appropriately. One of the issue raised by Mastercard was that some employees might make use of this opportunity to do personal stuffs while at work due to the nature of their work – “social media” (Meister, Forbes, 2014).

I would like to shamelessly admit that I am one of those culprits in the past. When I was a marketing intern at a particular company, there were times whereby I would do my personal stuffs since I am allowed to be on “social media” to do certain marketing activities for the company :X

THAT’S IT FOR NOW!

References:

Bates, D. (2011, August 22). News. Retrieved from Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028561/TripAdvisor-How-tell-review-fake.html

Epperson, S. (2014, June 21). News. Retrieved from CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101773290#.

Meister, J. (2014, March 26). Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2014/03/26/social-media-moving-from-danger-to-brand-building-opportunity/

Morran, C. (2013, May 20). Retrieved from Consumerist: http://consumerist.com/2013/05/20/owners-of-amys-baking-company-say-yelpers-are-endangering-their-lives/

Reflection on setting up online professional profile

There are many of my fellow classmates like Sherdale whom have raised the matter that that more companies are looking into our online profile to make their hiring decision.

Though it is true, it makes me wonder if this means that a traditional CV is no longer needed in future. This is further supported by an article whereby they shared that more companies are using online applicant tracking system (ATS) to check on job applications (Brien, 2013). However Brien shared that it is still necessary that a traditional resume is still needed. I share the same sentiments.

Personally I feel that we still should bear in mind that this does not means that we should simply focused on how we are like online. Being overly focused on how we present ourselves might make our profile less authentic because we might be trying too hard to impress.

An online digital profile gives us greater opportunities because it gives us the opportunity to reach out to more people and organization (Dabbagh, 2007). This is especially vital with globalization whereby there are much more opportunities out there and only having an online presence would help us to be able to reach out to the global market.

However I feel that this acts as a “plus” point and should not be used as the only way to build up a professional profile and network.

After reading on many blog posts, I also realize that when we talk about “professional” image, most of us tend to take it that we should just showcase our skills and achievements. However I feel that personality could also be used to build up our professional online profile. This can be seen like how Evan has illustrated in his post whereby there are many bloggers who uses “personality” as a selling point online. Perhaps this could also be applied to other professions like designers/ tattoo artist where they personality or lifestyle plays a greater role in portraying a professional image online.

Comment on : Evan and Sherdale.

References:

Brien, P. O. (2013, November 8). Money. Retrieved from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2013/11/07/cover-letters-still-make-a-difference/3465629/

Dabbagh, N. (2007). Retrieved from Cite Journal: http://www.citejournal.org/vol7/iss3/general/article1.cfm

Professional Profile, how?

Indeed, more companies are going digital and are utilizing social media platforms as a means to see if a candidate is suitable for a job position (Quast, 2012).  I thought that it is vital especially for us because we are in the marketing industry where the ability to “showcase” and “brand” the company’s at its best should be our forte. Therefore, having to showcase ourselves online professionally should be a “basic” skill that we should all have. So how do we do that?

Utilizing the RIGHT tools

I guess having more online tools does not mean that it is better. It is about utilizing the right tools to portray myself at its best. This is when we have to put ourselves into the employer’s perspective – what are they seeking for? Perhaps this might relate to the type of industry we are in. For example, if we are in the marketing industry, we might want to portray our creativity. And how could we show that we are creative? Perhaps writing a CV could not really help but showcasing our creativity through a video on YouTube could.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_PZTAW5piQ

I would like to relate this back to Gary Vaynerchuk where he talks about utilizing the right tools base on our “DNA” (Vaynerchuk, 2009). This makes sense especially if you are an introvert and you might not really want to use a video as it might not come out well etc.

Avoid posting images or opinions that reflect negatively on you

Yes, we all have our own personal life and there is always something call the privacy setting. But guess what, if your friends had a screenshot – whatever privacy setting is going to be useless. Just like what Lisa had shared with us that there are now blurring boundaries between what is public and private.

Recently, Singapore has many of such cases whereby neitizens had extreme negative opinions that do not reflect well on their values. One recent example would be Anton Casey as shown below:

Picture Source: (Mothership, 2014)

His company fired him immediately because all companies would like to be reflected well and such association of bad behaviour would harm the company’s image. Therefore I feel that we should be very careful as to what we post online because we are ambassadors of our company.

Picture Source: (Times, 2014)

This is further supported by what Lisa had shared with us today where Trevor Kaufman, seems to be losing his opportunity to run for President because of a photo he posted online years ago (SubPly, 2014).

Continuous Effort and Participation

Lastly, I believe that most of us already have a LinkedIn Profile. However, it stops there, right? At least for me because I hardly do any updates or visit it. Continuous effort made our profile look “authentic” as we are not making things up last minute only when there are opportunities coming up. Perhaps apart from update of our “achievements”, we could join and participate in network discussions, participate in professional events, share articles related to our industry and follow companies on social media. These little activities show genuine interest and thereby address “authenticity” of our online profile.

That’s all folks!

References:

Mothership. (2014). Retrieved from http://mothership.sg/2014/01/former-miss-spore-universes-husbands-anti-social-facebook-rant-results-in-massive-online-backlash/

Quast, L. (2012, 05 21). News. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2012/05/21/recruiting-reinvented-how-companies-are-using-social-media-in-the-hiring-process/

SubPly. (2014). Retrieved from SubPly: http://www.subply.com/en/Video/Report+Every+Potential+2040+President+Already+Unelectable+Due+To+Facebook/50b94132-93b6-4b48-9809-47d55a940ca4/eng

Times, T. S. (2014, Jan 25). Retrieved from The Straits Times: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/anton-casey-fired-employer-crossinvest-asia-20140125

Vaynerchuk, G. (2009). Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNM9kA1bSHk

Final thoughts on single vs multiple online identities!

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for your feedback and comments. After reading some of my classmates blogs in particular Ming Ru and Angie, I had some new perspective with regards to this issue.

So I have been debating as to which is better? Having a single identity or multiple identities? I always felt that its alright to have multiple identities due to privacy protection. However this is because I am not exposed much to the “bad sheep” and I have not taken into consideration of people who might manipulate the privilege of being anonymous and therefore harm others – a perspective that has been brought up by my fellow classmates. This can be seen in my classmates post where people fake an identity and cheat on others. One example which we might all be familiar of would be the recent case that happen in Singapore where how someone with an anonymous identity make harm to the country (Huang, 2014).

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Photo courtesy: CBS Interactive, (http://www.zdnet.com/sg/anonymous-leaks-singapore-govt-employees-personal-data-7000026081/)

Therefore the point which i would like to bring across is that – it is alright to have multiple online identities. However we have to be aware that there are people who manipulate such privileges. As a result, this further reinforce the idea as to why we should always limit the amount of information of ourselves we put online.

Angie  have also talk about having different online identity does not means you are least credible – which what I have thought previously. By having multiple online identities that are less consistent does not means you are less credible, but it simply shows a different side of you that makes up YOU!

But then again how many potential employers will feel the same way or would they be critical and only “accept” people whom they seem are more “similar” to them?

Great topic to discussed today!

Till then!

Comments made on : 

Angie : http://yjangie.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/is-your-digital-footprint-within-your-control/

Ming Ru: https://crossingthought.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/online-identity-one-or-more/

References:

Huang, R. (2014, Feb). News. Retrieved from CBS Interactive: http://www.zdnet.com/sg/anonymous-leaks-singapore-govt-employees-personal-data-7000026081/

Single or multiple online identities?

As discussed by Costa and Torres, there is a relationship between consistency and credibility of an online identity (CRISTINA COSTA, 2011).

I am just wondering if my Facebook and Linkedin are connected, would my online identity still be credible?

Linkedin shows that I am :

However would you still believe me after browsing through my facebook profile?:

It feels like I have more than one online identity and this actually reduce the “credibility” of my identity which I would like to portray myself as. Having multiple online identities may simply deplete the credibility of a particular online identity you would like to portray.

Similarly to marketing a product like what Dr Bev said in class, we have to be consistent throughout. If we would want to market ourselves as a certain brand, all our marketing and business practices should support the “goal” in order to successfully market ourselves as what we are to be seen as (Laing, 2014).  To me, an online identity is similar. We are marketing ourselves. The more consistent we are, the more credible we are.

This is further supported by people like Justine Ezarik, and Chris Brogan shown in the online video.

Photo Courtesy from Chris Brogran: http://www.chrisbrogan.com

Photo Courtesy from iJustine: http://www.iJustine.com

They have a very strong online identity and one of their common traits would be their consistency in what they are trying to portray; a very humorous loving Justine Ezarik and motivated professional Chris Brogan throughout online platforms.

However having multiple online identities might also be good because it actually forces and places you into a specific context (Sandy, 2009). This is further supported by what Internet Society (Internet, Society,2014) had said and term it as “Persona “.For example, when someone email me on my personal mail and school email – it naturally makes me feel the need to respond in a different tone to fit the context.

I would like to recommend you guys to try out Gravatar if you have not, it is an email account where it manage these identities by using a different image with each email address you’ve connected to Gravatar.

Lastly, from a marketing perspective I think that people who have multiple online identities actually benefits us. We all act differently in different situations or when we are with different people. By having various online identities, consumers reveal more about themselves. As such, giving us more information about consumers and therefore come up with a better marketing strategy through understanding consumers buying behavior via identifiers like IP address etc .

What do you think?

References:

CRISTINA COSTA, R. T. (2011). Retrieved from Educom: http://eft.educom.pt/index.php/eft/article/view/216/126.

Krotoski, A. (2014). News. Retrieved from Guardian News and Media Limited: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/19/online-identity-authenticity-anonymity

Laing, K. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140817171634-63587947-yes-creating-a-consistent-brand-online-is-important

Sandy, A. (2009). Retrieved from Ion Publications LLC: http://www.science20.com/daytime_astronomer/multiple_online_identities

Society, I. (2014). Retrieved from Internet Society Org: http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/Online%20Identity-An%20Overview.pdf

Digital Resident Vs Visitor ; final thoughts?

Hi guys! Thank you all for your valuable feedback which have set me thinking!

I realize that most of us are actually visitors at first and were slowly brought to the resident end after the evolution of social media. After reading Sylvia’s post I will like to add on that this might be because of peer pressure! Everyone is on it, and as teens we are easily influence by the peers around us… because being “accepted” and seen to be the “same” could likely be important for teens these days! Just like how perhaps some of us are not really into sports but somehow we were influence to go because all of our classmates are going for the bubble bump activity together =) ?

Previously I actually classified myself as a resident. After Zoie pinpointed that I had signs of being just a visitor, I realize that most people overlap and do not usually just strictly belong to one category. In addition, I have read Daphne post and realize that like her, I am private (visitor) in my own personal life. However the need to build business network and seek for work opportunities make me a resident in professional social media sites.. Because there is a need for me to build an identity there to be identified.

I also realize that many of us would have been a visitor and it was largely because the emergence of social media that throw most of us to the other side of the spectrum. However I think it is important for visitors to be caution with the amount of information we share online. There should be a balance between being a resident “online” and “offline”.

Being a resident online has sort of makes us less connected in the real world! So had social media really connect us or disconnect us?