New Media Planning

What is new media planning?

Media planning is generally the task of a media agency and entails finding media platforms for a client's brand or product to use. The job scope of media planning is to determine the best combination of media to achieve the marketing campaign objectives.In the process of planning, the media planner needs to helps the company to identify what is the most suitable media tools to place the company advertisement such as television programs, newspapers, bus-stop posters, in-store displays, banner and how frequent should the advertisements be placed, targeting company external and internal audiences and how many of them can be reached through the various media, evaluate how much money should be spent in each medium. Besides, media planning also refers to the process of selecting media time and space to disseminate advertising messages in order to accomplish marketing objectives.

How is a media plan developed?

Media planning contains seven steps or elements which consists of :

1.   Make a commitment
2.  Find your best fit
3.  Schedule engagement
4.  Create expert content
5.   Run Contests and Promotions
6.  Broaden Your Horizons
7.  Delegate Tasks

These seven tips will help you design a social media plan that will keep you on track, active and moving forward.

1) Make a Commitment

Before you even start creating your plan, you have to make a promise. Establishing a healthy social media presence can be a very slow process. You can’t expect your list of fans, followers or subscribers to grow overnight.You don’t want to start your business’s presence out by posting and updating consistently, only to get bored, lose interest and forget to log in when there’s no immediate gratification.To prevent that kind of slide, make a commitment. Even if it’s just to yourself or even if you have to frame it and hang it above your computer. Acknowledging and agreeing with yourself that building this presence could take upwards of a year , and then promising to invest time, energy and resources into it will keep you committed and prepare you to be active and engaged even when you feel like your presence is stagnating.

2) Find your Best Fit

If you’re just getting your business’s social media efforts up and running, part of creating your plan revolves around seeing if you already have a fan base out there.

So do some searching. Are there lots of people posting videos to YouTube of themselves using your product and does your company have a bunch of mentions on Twitter? Although it’s important to establish a presence on  Facebook, make sure you also set up shop where you’re already visible.

3) Schedule Engagement

You already identified the social media platforms you’re going to focus on, it’s time to turn your attention to the ways and frequency with which you’ll engage with your users Those who are most successful in social media know that you have to engage steadily. You need to start the conversation with your users, and any time they reach out to you, so you need to be prepared to respond to them on Twitter or Facebook. 

4) Create Expert Content

Your fans and followers don’t want commercials, they want conversation. They don’t want to hear how great your company is, they already like or follow you. They don’t want sales numbers, they want industry news and thought leadership. A good rule of thumb is to talk about your customers and your industry almost all the time, and then discuss your own business. Thus, you can start writing a blog or explore trends. Update your post frequently and consistently. Somehow, in-depth articles will position your business as an industry expert and thought leader, and keep your fans and followers or even competitors looking to you.

5) Run Contest and Promotions

Contests and promotions keep fans and followers excited, interested and coming back. Most importantly, they are a covert way to get your business or brand in front of more people. That doesn't mean you need to run one all the time. If you always got some kind of give away going, they will become more social background noise. This is especially true if you’re giving away not-so-great prizes.Run a contest or promotion every couple of months, and make sure the prize is something to get excited about.

6) Broaden Your Horizons

Every social media plan needs to start out the same way, with a commitment to the long haul and a focus on the basics like interaction and content. But once your presence is established and your users are engaged, you’re free to open things up to experimentation.If you've built a solid fan following on Facebook, create and install some custom apps on your page, start posting videos on YouTube or interact more frequently by hopping on Twitter. Try things out for a few months, and then go back and see how they've performed for you. Not every platform will be a fit, so if your business isn't performing well on one for an extended period of time, don’t be afraid to pull the plug and explore different options.

7) Delegate Tasks

If you’re at the point where you’re looking at expanding to new platforms then you are  likely got a healthy presence. But don’t let all of this growth overwhelm you. The larger you grow, the more in danger you are of failing to engage the schedule, because social media is a lot of work. So, look into adding some more team members. Graphic artists for your infographics, writers for your blogs and even some interns to manage the day-to-day social media conversations and information-gathering. A talented team can give you a richer, more robust presence than you could ever achieve on your own.

As a conclusion, a good media planning may help a company business to working out. By following these guidelines, I hope that it helps you in your business planning.

Going viral

What are the factors of a viral content?

In order to find out the elements that make a content to be a viral success between viral videos, I had examined the 2013 top YouTube video which is "Harlem Shake" that unexpectedly become so popular that everyone had addicted on it!  During the coding of the videos, there are five video elements were analyzed including: Title length, run-time, laughter, element of surprise, and musical quality. Therefore, it could be help us to determined whether a video element had enough of a presence to be considered a viable factor. 

Watch the video below to learn more how a video goes viral. Let's watch!

Mobile Apps

What is mobile apps?

A mobile app is a computer program designed to run on smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices. Apps are usually available through application distribution platforms, such as the Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store, and BlackBerry App World. As we can found that some apps are free, while others must be paid. Usually, mobile apps can be downloaded from the platform to a target device, such as an iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phone or Windows Phone. Nowadays, public demand and the availability of developer tools drove rapid expansion into other categories, such as mobile games, GPS and location-based services, banking, order-tracking, ticket purchases and recently mobile medical apps. The explosion in number and variety of apps made discovery a challenge, which in turn led to the creation of a wide range of review, recommendation, and cu-ration sources, including blogs, magazines, and dedicated online app-discovery services.

Furthermore, there are a lot of different types of apps that classify in different categories such as games, education, photo and video, productivity, sports, social networking, navigation and more. So today I would like to introduce an good apps that I think which is very useful  to all of us.

Mobile apps - IKEA

Below are the video that introduce about the IKEA apps features. Let's watch!

Next, here's an audio record about some of my personal views upon the Ikea catalog applications. 

Click here to listen

"Manage your Social Presence in the Digital World" by Azhan Rabi

Spokesperson: Azhan Rabi

Last saturday, I attend a talk that held in Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. The Spokesperson which name Azhan Rabi is a professional social media communicator that he had a lot of working and self experience in this related field. So today, he came to our college to give a talk entitled "Manage your Social Presence in the Digital World".

First of all, the spokesperson explain to us regarding the social trend nowadays which everyone no matter who are you do everything things online such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more. He also explain to us what is social media and says that mobile and social media has an important relationships because they are merge together. Moreover, he had analyzed some data about the percentage of the social media users population around the world. Famous social networking applications like Whatsapp, Wechat and Line is also social media platform that often use by people to communicate to others. Azhan Rabi show us the data which there are 65% of online users login daily to social media and almost 97% of people have an online account. Based on this, I have learned that the usage of new media nowadays is increase rapidly and are widely use by people all around the world and brings a great influence to peoples.

What you do digitally?

In the digital world, peoples communicate using a very digital ways which they speak, they talk, they shout, they like, they comment, they tag, they share and hash tag everything online. Everyone connect with others are no longer speak face to face because whatever people want to express they post on a status. in the same way, they getting like, comment or feedback from their friends also from online.Besides, I had learned the power of viral in the talk which the spokesperson give an example of the selfies that took by the famous host Ellen Degeneres.

Ellen DeGeneres takes a selfie for the ages from the front row during the Academy Awards telecast.

Ellen DeGeneres set the record for most retweeted tweet of all-time, but she's also the first user to top 1 million retweets for a single Twitter post.Surpassing 1,300,000 retweets in less than an hour, TheEllenShow posted the record-breaker while hosting the Oscars tonight. The mega-selfie featured, among others, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey and Bradley Cooper, who snapped the shot.

What is digital presence?

Azhan Rabi says that it has two categories which is a physical identity and digital identity. Physical identity is refer to a person who in reality while digital identity is an extension of who you are or who are on-line. He also says that everything free is belong to the service providers. There are a lot of peoples searching for a job on network because it is a convenience way and importantly which this services is free. I have learned that everyone who use social media is a digital assets when we share and post anything on-line, the post will stay on-line forever. A good example provides by Azhan Rabi is the Meme which is a type of graphic that are very popular nowadays.

 Nevertheless, some peoples might use social media wrongly and cause  cyber-bullying happens on the internet. It is because some words or something you says when you posted it on line, the content or meaning of what you express may interpret differently by others. Thus, by managing our digital footprints, we must cautions on what should and shouldn't do on the internet because any action we do become a footprint. Social media are very advanced nowadays, while it helps us for getting into school, getting a job and also for meeting peoples around world. By searching the data and information, social media tends to help us to get what we want. On the other hand, Azhan Rabi also introduce a social network called LinkedIn. This network basically provides a platform for peoples searching for a jobs. But Jobstreet are more valuable compare to Linkedin.He tells us that the power of degree which is, leverage,initiate,engage, network, empower, interact and connect which lets people to manage personal branding, online presence and digital identity. Lastly, he advices all of the students use common sense to use the social media to avoid problems happens that will make you regret in the future.

Do we hire for 'FREE' media?

So, social media is FREE, right?

WRONG. We must think is that everything in social media is  free or close to free?  But for sure,setting up brand pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and just about any other social channel can be done in almost no time without spending a dime. So, a company can achieve and maintain meaningful results at little or no cost. Social media aren't free because Facebook, Google want money for distribution!  The Facebook strategy for most brands has been to collect as many “likes” as possible. Facebook is now planning to monetize that strategy by charging companies for newsfeed distribution. This year Facebook has been gradually cutting back on distribution of a brand’s messages to Facebook users that “like” the brand. Now, it’s offering a way for brands to regain that distribution by paying for it. It was the users that built the community and now those users have to pay to interact with their communities. Facebook and LinkedIn are becoming the gatekeepers to information flow and there’s a toll to pay if you want to reach every member of your community.

What is their role?

Public Relations Executives

Public relations executives manage the information between organisations or individuals and the general public. They promote their clients to their intended audiences through news items, press releases and product placements.A PR  executive works within a wider team and aims to influence public opinion or behavior without the use of paid advertising.By generating positive news coverage, achieving product placement without payment in broadcast, print and new media, and placing spokespeople as commentators, a PR  executive works to proactively promote the profile of their clients. Public relations  executives must build good relationships with people who work in the media, such as reporters and editors. They need to have their press releases and newspaper stories about clients published or broadcast in order to reach the public.  Thus, fostering good media relationships is important to succeed in a PR position.

Social Media Executives

A social media executive is someone who main duties include the creation of content that drives the brand and engages customers. It also includes the live coverage of various events. From time to time, it directly have conversations with their customers on various social media pages. Social media has grown and many company are searching the need and benefits of communicating with their customers at the level of social media. Social media is the fastest way to get important messages and information to customers. Social media executive always actively posting and monitoring the social media pages and search the Internet for articles and information that can be shared with their clients. Of course they might have to know about the latest social media trends and pages, so that they can relate to the customers on these various social platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and more.

Webmaster

A Webmaster is the administrator of a website, it is a person who responsible for creating, managing, and maintaining one or more web-servers or websites. He or she has the specialized knowledge  and skills to maintain the integrity of the site's content and its embedded links, updates the informationas often as required, and attends to the questions and problems of the site's users. One of the most important roles of a professional website webmaster is driving traffic to a website and making sure that it ranks highly in search engines. Furthermore, they keep track of the number of visits to your site and the percentage of visits that generates sales or profits. Webmasters can also be specialists in web design. They can design an appealing visual appearance for your website that suits your potential customers. They focus on building a website that is not just visually attractive but also fully functional. 

Do we need to hire New media executive?

The answer is YES. The reasons are:

• Have more brain power - When included the new media executive in the social strategy meetings or the brainstorm session, we have more ideas and giving more creative suggestions on work.We can't really be too certain that we will have all the skills required to handle all aspects of the campaign, so we need more human resources.
• Successful use of the different platforms - Companies hire someone who understands what the different platforms are and which ones are of best benefit to the company. Different platform also offers a different audience and different styles of communication.
• Social Media is time consuming - Company must have numerous human power posting throughout the day, scheduling posts for out-of-office hours, designing valuable content, responding to audience interactions, developing a larger following, and being consistent in the postings (365 days a year).

New media vs Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing

What is New Media?

New media are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, network-able, dense, 

compressible, and interactive. Example like Internet, Web sites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMs and DVD. New media does not include television programs , feature films, 

magazines, books, or paper-based publications unless they contain technologies that enable digital interactivity. In the new era, the rise of new media has increased the communication between people all over the world and the Internet.  Professor of Media Technology W. Russell Neuman says that new media will: 

• Alter the meaning of geographic distance.
• Allow for a huge increase in the volume of communication.
• Provide the possibility of increasing the speed of communication.
• Provide opportunities for interactive communication.
• Allow forms of communication that were previously separate to overlap and interconnect.

Public Relations vs Advertising vs Marketing

Public Relations

Public relations is the strategic management of relationships between an organization and its diverse public, through the use of communication, to achieve mutual understanding, realize organizational goals and serve the public interest. The public relations department helps manage a brand’s reputation. PR Firms may work for corporations and figures like politicians, entertainers, sports teams and corporations.

Advertising

Advertising and advertisement are defined as any message (the content of which is controlled directly or indirectly by the advertiser) expressed in any language and communicated in any medium with the intent to influence consumers choice, opinion or behaviour. Advertising falls under the promotions category of marketing. It deals with the production of advertising materials such as banners, billboards, magazine ads and social media campaigns. Ads are created to develop brand awareness, sell a product, gain customer loyalty and more. 

Marketing

Marketing is a set of business practices designed to plan for and present an organization’s products or services in ways that build effective customer relationships. Marketing is a process. A company develops marketing strategies, places its ads and eventually sells you a product or idea.  Marketing is the overall process of communicating and delivering products to a target audience through the marketing mix of product, price, place and promotion.

How are they related and what are their differences?

Here is a chart to further guide of these three fields. 

	Public Relations	Advertising	Marketing
Messages	Specific tools: ·         Speeches ·         Social media ·         Special events ·         Press conferences ·         News releases ·         Feature Stories	Mass media outlets: ·         TV ·         Radio ·         Print ·         Internet ·         Billboard	Branded materials: ·         Flyers ·         Banners ·         Catalog ·         Brochure ·         Websites ·         Newsletter ·         Promo products
Cost	Free or low cost	Paid and expensive	Paid and range of costs
Audience	Specialized external audiences (Publics)	External, primary goods and services based (Consumers)	General external audiences (Target Market)
Support	Creates and manages marketing and ad messages.	Support Public Relations	Support advertising
Function	To manage relationships between audience and brand by building and maintaining environments.	To sell goods and services by promoting brands.	To increase demand and interest by building and maintaining markets.
Control	By both the organization and media outlets.	By the organization.	By the organization.
Scope	Broad: Deals with policy, performance, research and strategy.	Specialized communication function.	Targeted to special demographics based on supply and demand.
Communication	Two-way	One-way	One-way

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