“Social Media an Effective Tool for Leaders to Connect to People”
(Malaysian Digest) – Social media users strongly feel that this form of media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) is a very effective tool for political leaders to use to connect to the people.
Speaking to the young social media practitioners at the Malaysia Social Media Week (MSMW) 2012 which kick started today, many opines that social media is the way to go for our leaders to be close to the people.
Nurul Haida Dzulkifli from International Movement for a Just World (JUST) who lauds the MSMW event finds that the role social media is important nowadays as it has now become a solid foundation to connect people.
“Even for businesses it is considered important due to the emerging of young entrepreneurs,” she tells Malaysian Digest.
She said, as an occasional writer and social media user, she said those who own stores for their businesses often incorporate social media as part of their marketing strategy.
She added that the 5Ps of marketing (presence, product, price, promotion and place) are now more appealing now with the full utilization of social media.
Furthermore, she said since teenagers are catalysts, and almost everyone is familiar with social media including political leaders, it also acts as a tool to make themselves closer to these leaders.
“Basically, it is also a tool that comprises of not just business, but social, politics and economy as well,” she added.
Meanwhile, a political blogger, known as Muhammad Ali said the MSMW is a very interesting event as it gathers bloggers and social media practitioners from all walks including those who are politics, travel, entertainment, technology and many more.
He said a wealth of information can be obtained from this event, but he said it’s sad that he has not seen many pro-opposition bloggers present at the event.
“This is the second time I’ve come to such an event, and this year seems better than last year,” said Muhammad who owns the blog ‘Penembak Tepat’ (Sharp Shooter) www.penembak-tepat.blogspot.com.
He added that social media is very important at these time and age as it can be used as a tool to topple governments as what had happened in Egypt, England and Syria. However, Muhammad believes that pro-government bloggers has succeeded in preventing such revolutions from occurring in this country by countering the opposition’s propaganda with theirs in blogs.
Besides that, he said social media has been effective in narrowing the gap between media practitioners and the government to promote the 1Malaysia policy.
The weeklong MSMW is being held from Feb 13-17 at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) with lots of interesting activities such as talks, award presenting ceremony, product launches and a concert.
