Fin.

I was once asked, ‘What is marketing to me?’. To me, it is to make my customers happy, to entice them to buy my marketed products. However, it was debated to me that marketing is to make my customers unhappy in order for them to buy my products. However, I feel that I am advertising myself if I were to go for an interview. How would I want my potential employer to feel about me? Comfortable or displeased with me? Everyone should know the obvious answer.

Therefore, I feel that it is important to have a professional, yet authentic online digital profile. I can honestly say that I did not find the importance of having a professional online digital profile before this course, MANG2049. I have to be appreciative of the researches that I have made in order to finish my blog posts. Thank goodness for Open Access information!

Prior to this course, I used my Twitter and Facebook accounts regularly to find out what my friends are up to, generally for social purposes. Upon starting this course, I came to a point of realisation that these two social media platforms, together with LinkedIn can help boost my employability chances. So, why not give it a try? My first step was to change all my social networks’ profile pictures to a similar one, so that my potential employers would be able to link all my profiles together.

Links to my profiles are below.

Click on the images for the links to the profiles

I created a LinkedIn account ever since I started this module, just so to be able to increase my chances of employability upon my graduation. I have never had a blog since I last used my Tumblr account, of which, I have stopped using for a long time. I only started blogging for this module and I have kept it professional and authentic.

Reflection

I have learnt a lot from this module and also, understood an old theory: time can change any person. At the beginning of this module, I rated myself as one with low one digital literacy. Now, after a short span of 12 days, I can confidently say that I am in a mediocre range in terms of digital literacy. Following several marketing Twitter accounts is a small proof that I have increased my participation in online communities, where I would read some of their tweets and try to apply them in my every day thinking of my marketing course.

The video at the beginning of this post and my Powtoon video in the previous post are evidence that I have been able to create online materials with confidence and I would rate myself with a 4 now.

All in all, I find this module useful in my course of study and am appreciative in terms of being able to learn so much from this online module where I can only interact with my lecturer through Google Hangout.

A good module I would say!

The Final. Looking Back

It’s the end of this module (of course, there’s still the summary to write after this) and this 12 days have made me understand more about what module is teaching me and it has made me do a lot of research to understand it better. Can my classmates and I imagine if we had to pay for the research? That would probably burn a hole in my pocket, quicker than going shopping. Thank goodness what we researched on was free!

Source: helencritchley.net

Reading Yu Ting’s post made me wonder: Since Open Access is free yet it lacks quality, does it necessarily mean that paid articles are of substantial quality? Yu Ting gave me a great analogy when I commented on her post asking her that question. She said it’s like paying for a game on iTunes, only to find out that it is not worth the money. The best way to find out if it’s worth: look for the reviews. I totally agree with what she mentioned.

Source: enxmag.com

Rachel’s post mentioned that 90% of online content would likely be held behind a paywall in the coming years. Oh no! Seems like students have got to pay for their research on certain topics soon! Well, linking it back to my thought; would that represent that the initial free contents be of good quality after a paywall is formed? I personally do not think so. I feel that it would be difficult to separate the good quality articles and the bad once the paywall is formed. I do hope that there would be a re-think to that decision.

All in all, Open Access information has helped many, especially students, in their research or for general knowledge. Sites like Wikipedia has given us the freedom to learn about many various interesting events or people for free! Therefore, I support Open Access. 

Source: parcomweb.com

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Photo credits:

https://www.helencritchley.net

https://www.enxmag.com

https://www.parcomweb.com

Commented on:

Yu Ting

Rachel

BING! BANG! PANG!

Today’s post would be different from my usual posts. Say Goodbye to lengthy wordy posts and say hello to videos!

Click HERE to access the video/slideshow

(Do keep the Autoplay on!)

Cheers,

Aetiiqcaz

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Photo, music and video credits:

Photos:

https://www.acascipub.com

https://www.blog.getaudiofromvideo.com

https://www.static.squarespace.com

https://www.holymessofmarriage.com

https://www.lazyside.com

https://www.mylpga.com

https://www.linkedin.com

Music: YouTube, (2014). Powerful Background Presentation Music (Royalty Free). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42dVcSGdSgw [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].

Video: YouTube, (2013). Office Hours : Open Access. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD6CcFxRelY [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].

References:

McManus, C. (2007). Benefits of Open Access. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2JT23E1bRE [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].

Shockey, N. and Eisen, J. (2012). Open Access Explained!. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L5rVH1KGBCY [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].

Youtube.com, (2014). Statistics – YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].

Journals.bmj.com, (2014). [online] Available at: http://journals.bmj.com/site/authors/openaccess.xhtml [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].

Special Mentions:

http://www.powtoon.com

Looking Back

This topic has been an eye-opener to me. I was given a chance to do on the ethical issues of either a business or an educational use of social media. For this reflection, I’d like to reflect on both, with reference to my classmates’ blogs who did on the ethical issues on educational use of social media.

Source: vrevzine.wordpress.com

After reading Evelina’s post on practising self-control before uploading nasty stuff on social media and Tor’s post on having companies having clear-cut guidelines to ensure ethical standards are met, it made me wonder which is more important. Self-control or having guidelines? Or both equally as important?

I feel that both are equally as important. As Tor mentioned that some form of self control (protecting their integrity) complement by the guidelines from the companies (protecting the companies reputation). I feel that he got this point correctly. If both the employee and the company work closely together on this, both individual and the company’s reputation would not be tarnished.

As for Evan’s ‘How Mean Girls taught me Ethics‘ on educational use on social media, it was a mind-altering view for me to see how some teachers are like. Thankfully, I have been granted with patient and pleasing teachers since young. From part of the ‘Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers‘ (Teacherscouncil.govt.nz, 2014) Evan referenced from, teachers have to be committed to the learners. With that being said, the teachers have to understand that they are responsible to teach the learners well and to maintain a friendly relationship with them.

With all these being said about both the business and educational use of social media, I personally feel that both of these sectors must have guidelines where employees should never cross. These employees should also maintain their self-control and think before posting anything nasty on the social media.

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Photo credits

http://vrevzine.wordpress.com

References

Evelina’s Post:

Tor’s Post: http://torws.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/freedom-of-speech-ethical-issues-2/

Evan’s Post: https://evantangs.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/how-mean-girls-taught-me-about-ethics/

Teacherscouncil.govt.nz, (2014). Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers in New Zealand. [online] Available at: http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/required/ethics/codeofethics.stm [Accessed 8 Dec. 2014].

Commented on

http://torws.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/freedom-of-speech-ethical-issues-2/comment-page-1/#comment-20

https://evantangs.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/how-mean-girls-taught-me-about-ethics/comment-page-1/#comment-29

In other news…

Egyptian women join protest in Cairo reads the newspapers headlines. In other news.. Kenneth Cole’s new spring collection is now available online. To us, there is no link between these two cases, but Kenneth Cole thought that he could make use of the Cairo situation to advertise for his brand.

Source: mysocialmediaadvice.com

Do you think it is ethical for Kenneth Cole to make use of the riots to do this? There might be freedom of speech in the United States, but I personally do not think it is ethical for Kenneth Cole to do so. He have since apologised for this incident.

However, it seems that Cole hasn’t learnt his lesson yet, but this time round, he is not apologetic. His explanation? In the video.

Source: YouTube.com

“Boots on the ground” or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear

(Kenneth Cole, 2013)

Well, with Kenneth Cole’s freedom of speech, it is not surprising to know that at least a third of firms forced to discipline workers over social media tweets and updates (Telegraph, 2011). The firms punished the workers as they feel that they may accidentally leak out confidential information.

Source: aspirantsg.com

Why has this occurred?

6 in 7 survey respondents have identified integrity risk as the main ethical challenge with regard to social media (IBE, 2011). When an employee uses social media in an irresponsible manner, be it for the company or for personal use, the company could be exposed to integrity risk.

So! What can be done?

As my post on Topic 2 has mentioned, people have more than one online identity to protect their own reputation and preserving their freedom. Firms can put in their employees’ contract to either have two social media accounts for private and professional use respectively, or for them to update their posts discretely.

Thereafter, my post on Topic 3 has mentioned about creating an authentic online professional profile. Firms can create an authentic online professional profile for themselves to uphold their image. Of course, reputation counts in the world of business, especially if there is a low buying decision-making in consumers.

All in all, there are many ‘eyes’ watching on social media, especially for businesses. Most of the time, it is the goodwill of the firm that brings the sales up and the the scandals of the firm that brings the sales down. Therefore, the firm has to be mindful of what they upload on social media.

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Photo and Video Credits:

http://www.mysocialmediaadvice.com

http://www.youtube.com

http://www.aspirantsg.com

References:

ABC News, (2011). Egyptian women join protests in Cairo. [online] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-21/egyptian-women-protest-in-cairo/3741272 [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].

Kenneth Cole, (2011). Available at: https://twitter.com/KennethCole/status/375673368462102528 [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].

Telegraph, (2011). Third of firms forced to discipline workers over social media tweets and updates [online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/hr-news/8825404/Third-of-firms-forced-to-discipline-workers-over-social-media-tweets-and-updates.html [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].

IBE, (2011) Available at: http://www.ibe.org.uk/userassets/briefings/ibe_briefing_22_the_ethical_challenges_of_social_media.pdf [Accessed 5 Dec. 2014].

Looking Back

This topic has led me to understand more about the social media and its influence in the working world. My understanding was further enhanced with the various readings of my classmates.

I felt that Patricia‘s post was a good reminder of having an online professional profile as anyone could land their dream jobs even when they are asleep. However, for everything that sounds hard to believe, there are its own cons as well. A well written and authentic profile would attract the employers to come knocking on your door to approach you for a job offer. An astonishing 73% of recruiters have hired a candidate through social media and 93% of recruiters will review a candidate’s social profile before making a hiring decision. There calls for a need of doing up a decent and authentic online professional profile!

I read Winnie‘s post and saw a familiar figure of Wendy Cheng, more commonly known as Xiaxue. She is Southeast Asia’s most prominent blogger. For such big figures, more commonly than not, the media would keep an eye on the scandals that she is embroiled in. It makes me wonder if figures, like her, keeping quiet about it on her social media is being real? Are they trying to maintain an authentic online professional profile? I hope I would be able to know by next Wednesday (end of this module).

source: jazzcurzon.com

All in all, I feel that it is really important to have an attractive online professional profile. Showing off one’s expertise is vital in telling potential employers that you can get the job done. However, being honest is the best policy. One has to be honest in everything that they update on social media. There would be consequences when you can’t do things that you claim you could. With honesty and a good information about oneself on the profile, it would surely captivate one’s audience and one might even get a dream job while sleeping as what Patricia mentioned!

Cheers!

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Reference:

Patricia’s post: http://patriciapu.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/you-might-just-get-your-dream-job-while-you-are-sleeping/comment-page-1/#comment-3

Winnie’s post: http://sowinz.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/3-0-building-your-professional-digital-profile/

Comments on:

Patricia: http://patriciapu.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/you-might-just-get-your-dream-job-while-you-are-sleeping/comment-page-1/#comment-3

Winnie: http://sowinz.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/3-0-building-your-professional-digital-profile/comment-page-1/#comment-8

Are You For Real?

Facebook here, LinkedIn there, Social Media everywhere!

The quick emergence of social media has caused the email market to plummet. More than half of local online population engage in social networking nowadays. 94% of the Singaporean online population uses social media sites, where nearly 1 in 5 minutes is spent on social networking. (Shaw, 2014)

There is no surprise with the figures with people seeing the need to keep up to date with technology in today’s world. Many could be seen using social media on their smartphones as and when they are free. This leads to the increasing trend in people looking for jobs through social media sites such as LinkedIn and employers posting for job offers on social media sites. However, when there is good, there is always bad.

“83 percent of recruiters have used search engines to un-cover information about candidates, and more than 43 percent have ruled out candidates based on information found online about them.”

(Crompton, Sautter and Sautter, 2011)

With this, it is important to have an authentic online professional profile.

Firstly, I feel that it is important to establish one’s expertise. Concentrate on the content of one’s professional field, benefits and accomplishments. Include current and past employment, education and industry on the profile. Having testimonials and referrals is critical in establishing one’s expertise.

blog.clearintent.com

Secondly,  it is very important to be honest in the profile to make it truly authentic. There’s this saying of ‘honesty is the best policy’. It is hard to lie about something that you do not know and that you cannot apply it. There are many different kinds of consequences in lying about one’s ability. Therefore, I feel that it is important to be honest.

fergusonvalues.com

Lastly, it is to captivate one’s audience. Creating an eye-catching summary about oneself that sells. This should include the importance of oneself to employers in one’s sights, by studying job advertisements. The summary should also include a list of matching experience, competencies, skills and education. Scattering relevant keywords in the profile would help ease employers search in search engines.

dreamstime.com

All in all, I feel that establishing one’s expertise and being honest would captivate one’s audience. This would make an online professional profile authentic. I believe that in the world of marketing, it is difficult to lie about one’s ability in the job. This video below shows an interesting video resume that has got many job offers.

Cheers!

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Shaw, M. (2014). [online] Available at: http://www.comscore.com/content/download/13029/267601/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Harris, L. and Harris, L. (2014). Using social media in your job search – Web Science MOOC. [online] Web Science MOOC. Available at: http://moocs.southampton.ac.uk/websci/2014/03/13/ill-tweet-job-spec-snap-cv/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Crompton, D., Sautter, E. and Sautter, E. (2011). Find a job through social networking. Indianapolis, IN: JIST Works, p.40. [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014]

YouTube, (2014). Graeme Anthony C.V.I.V – Intro. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EzNll1U2N8 [Accessed 3 Dec. 2014].

Looking Back

And now, it’s time for me to do another reflection. I have to say that this topic is rather interesting to discuss on and I have enjoyed reading the arguments that my classmates have came up with, ranging from going against multiple identities to going for multiple identities. Me, for one, goes against multiple identities.

I like Yiming‘s post where he stated that having a wild photo on the social media does not represent who you are and how well you do in your work, but instead it represents that the person knows how to balance between work and play.

Eve‘s comment on my post made me think how wild is it to be considered wild? Amanda‘s post would help answer that question. Certain professions do require the need to separate their private and professional profile. The education industry, for example, needs to ensure that. Students should not be able to know much about their teacher’s private lives. It would be awkward I feel. However, what one of my lecturers did back in college was that he added us into his private profile after we graduated. I feel that that is a reasonably good idea for both the students and the teacher itself.

All in all, I feel that it is up to each and everyone’s discretion on creating multiple identities on social media, but do not abuse it! For me, I think that it is fine to have just one profile to sum up all my activities, be it for work or for my private life. It is rather troublesome to update so many accounts at one go! I guess, as marketers, it is important to show the fun-lovingness of our lives to our bosses or potential employers. As for other professions, I guess, it is not as easy.

Cheers, Aetiiqcaz

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yiming@ SotonMANG2049, (2014). Reflection: ONE Online Identity or MORE?. [online] Available at: http://yimingsotonmang2049.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/reflection-one-online-identity-or-more/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2014].

aetiiqcaz., (2014). One girlfriend or more? Hmm…. [online] Available at: https://aetiiqcaz.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/one-girlfriend-or-more-hmm/comment-page-1/#comment-7 [Accessed 2 Dec. 2014].

Amanda’s, (2014). Distinguishing Personal and Work Life？. [online] Available at: http://limxuanamanda.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/distinguishing-personal-and-work-life？/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2014].

http://yimingsotonmang2049.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/single-or-multiple-online-identity/comment-page-1/#comment-12

http://limxuanamanda.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/distinguishing-personal-and-work-life？/comment-page-1/#comment-4

One girlfriend or more? Hmm…

Online Identity

An online identity is a networked identity adopted in cyberspace by an individual, organisation or electronic device.

To me, an online identity is like a virtual girlfriend who knows you very well and likes to show your everything off to the world.

dreamstime.com

According to Internet Society, an online security company has identified more than 200 Third-Party advertisers with more than 630 Tracking Technology tracking the various websites that one visits. Every actions on the various social media are stored and commercialised.

Silverpop.com, 2014

I used the hashtag ‘#Marketing’ on WordPress and Twitter for this module. I’ve gained 6 new unknown Twitter followers from marketing agencies.

Is it healthy to have more than one online identity?

It’s 2014, social media is everywhere! As of November 2014, there are 1.35 billion users of Facebook. 91% of today’s employers use social media to check out on the interviewees’ personal life, which 76% checking their Facebook accounts and 53% checking Twitter. (Undercover Recruiter, 2011)

Some like to separate their private and professional lives to show their employers that they are well-behaved and worthy to be hired, while boosting the image of the company.

Simply put, people have more than one online identity to protect their own reputation and preserving their freedom.

What’s not good about having more than one?

Number one, I feel that it is rather difficult to manage and maintain various online identities. It is troublesome to update two accounts in today’s world when we need more than 24 hours a day to do our work!

Secondly, it is easy to create an account on any social sites. No one usually reads the ‘Terms and Conditions’ before creating a new account. This is where cyber-bullying comes into play. I had this friend who created another Facebook account with a face of a pretty girl as the profile picture to trick his other friend. He managed to ‘cyber-date’ this friend for 6 months. Both were guys.

This is a rather smart way to scam and criticise people. Racist remarks (illegal in Singapore) could be thrown to people from an unknown social media account. Money scamming where some are tricked into paying for nothing.

What do I think?

All in all, to me, it does not really matter whether or not I have a separate account where my employers would only see the ‘good’ side of me. I feel that, as marketers, we should be able to show our wild side of us to our employers. Usually these wild people are fun-loving and creative, that is what is needed in marketers.

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Warburton, S. 2010. Rhizome Digital Identity Matters. [Online] Available at: http://digitaldisruptions.org/rhizome/wpcontent/uploads/2010/06/rhiz08_DigitalIdentityMatters.pdf  [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].

YouTube, (2014). Four Reasons to Care About Your Digital Footprint. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA6aiFeMQZ0#t=100 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].

Silverpop.com, (2014). Silverpop – 5 Steps to Behavioral Marketing Success. [online] Available at: http://www.silverpop.com/blogs/email-marketing/behavioral-marketing-steps.html/blog_5-steps-to-behavioral-marketing_bb_final-2 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].

Leading social networks worldwide as of November 2014, r. (2014). Social networks: global sites ranked by users 2014 | Statistic. [online] Statista. Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].

Undercover Recruiter, (2011). How Employers Use Social Media To Screen Applicants [INFOGRAPHIC]. [online] Available at: http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/infographic-how-recruiters-use-social-media-screen-applicants/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].

Looking Back

I had a wonderful time reading through my classmates’ posts on Topic 1. All of them have their own interesting points to share, but there were a few notable ones that got me thinking, or rather, I couldn’t help but agree.

Sara mentioned that Prensky’s concept is flawed due to the age biases. It got me thinking if it takes a certain level of understanding of the use of technology for both the young and old generations is vital in searching for information.

The answer to that question is on Simon’s post on Motivation.

Eureka! Digital Visitor me searching for answers!

Simon stated that one must first understand the motivation behind why people use the web and for what purpose. It is all up the the person’s willingness to learn the technology that they need to achieve the goal that they want.

This brings back all that I have learnt in Human Resource Management. There is a need to understand one’s behaviour of using the web by understanding more than what Prensky mentioned of age.

Another blog that I have enjoyed reading is Vanessa’s one. She gave the example that, as marketers, it is our duty to be able to change digital visitors to digital residents. I fully agree with this idea of changing digital visitors to digital residents. Using her example of ASOS.com, it got me thinking how ASOS.com measures the amount of viewers of the sites are digital visitors or digital residents. Is it by measuring the number of sales? Or is it by seeing how many people saves clothing into their wish lists?

These are all debatable issues.

One thing that I could take away from this topic is that everyone falls into the two category of digital visitors and digital residents with some motivation spurring them to use the web.

Cheers!

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http://saradanlee.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/digital-visitor-vs-digital-resident/

http://wingslykeagles.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/topic-1-digital-residents-and-visitors/

http://vanessalisoton.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/topic-1-digital-residence-digital-visitors/