Stephie Says

During the last NCT lecture, author of Fashion Nation and owner of her own site, stephiesays , Stephie Tan came to talk to us about her career in social media. It was a real eye-opener, because I never imagined anyone being able to have an entire career online!

Stephie has an online magazine and a blog, she writes freelance for a number of other online magazines, and has her own online shop. This therefore means that 100% of her income comes from work online! I really believe that this is taking the Internet to a whole new realm of usability. To me, the Internet has always been a place for recreation, and social use. Its always been my portal for games, keeping in touch with friends/acquaintances and updates on news around the world.

However, I now finally see it in its full potential, where I could carve out an entire career from it. The possibilities are endless! 

Make-A-Wish Foundation taps into social media sites

When I chanced upon this article on the Miami Herald (one of the few papers i read for debate updates in the US, apart from Washpo and NYT), it really surprised me. I mean, I always knew that organisations using new media was not a new concept, and that it was becoming more and more common.

However, reading that Make-A-Wish was going into it as well just struck a very important nerve. I have always been someone who did put in alot of effort, time, money and even tears and blood towards helping non-profit organisations, and one VERY LARGE complaint that has been on my mind and ALL other volunteers’ minds as well is the lack of publicity for the organisation. This is pretty sad because of the importance that these non-profit organisations have on society.

This article therefore really struck a cord with me, and I’m really happy that they’re going into publicising on social networking sites too. Richard Kelly, the VP and CEO of Make-A-Wish had a really good point. “We understand the demographics and the way that people get their news has changed,” Kelly said. “People get their news in many ways and we’re going to deliver it that way.”

Do read the article from the Miami Herald!

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1301812.html

Singapore Idol and New Media

I was recently watching Singapore Idol and I realised what the one difference between this season and the 2 seasons before this was.

This season, they have a Facebook, Twitter, an official blog, an unofficial blog and a Youtube page, in addition to the regular website for the Idol contest. In previous seasons, it was just the website, and that too was only advertised in the show itself. Now though, their Twitter, FB and YT pages are advertised in the show, online and at bus-stops etc.

Its funny that we have reached a point in time where even traditional media like TV shows have resorted to using new media to keep their market share attracted. Singapore Idol-makers have realised that their largest target audience ARE the teens and the younger generation, who ARE inevitably users of new media. Using that to their advantage, they’ve brought the show online too.

However, this inevitably then begs the question: Is this the beginning of the end of traditional media? I personally think that it is. We have reached a point where one-way communication on the part of the media is no longer relevant. Interactivity and audience participation are the name of the game. As the power of new media continues to grow exponentially, traditional media will become less and less relevant to our society.

SG Idol Blog: http://blogs.xin.sg/idol/

SG Idol FB page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63560638281&ref=search

SG Idol Website: http://idol.mediacorptv.sg/

These are my thoughts on the subject. Please feel free to leave your comments on the issue.

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Viha

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