Corporate Blogging: A New Marketing Communication Tool for Companies

A corporate blog is a weblog that published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. It is a very strong communication and information sharing tools in a corporate community. Today, corporate blogging is widely used and published by an organization to achieve its organizational goals.

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In addition, corporate blog can be divided into 3 categories, which are:

(a) Internal Blogs – a weblog that every employee can view and comment.

(b) External Blogs - a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views.

(c) CEO Blogs – a weblog that run by CEO only.

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Furthermore, there is some benefits than can gain by organisation in using corporate blogging as a marketing communication tools.

*Customer Relationship and Feedback*

Corporate blogging can helps in introducing new products to customer and also get immediate feedback from them. This will obviously help to accelerate customer relationship.

*Corporate Imaging and Branding*

Corporate blogs, both through their content and potential visibility in search engines, improve overall brand awareness amongst a companies targeted customer base.

*New Product and Service Testing*

Such a two-way channel of communication allows for immediate feedback from your customer base on new market ideas and products/services in their fledgling phases.

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In long term, corporate blogging will become a form of advertisement to customer as organisations will keep on using this corporate blog to communicate with customer and promoting new products. Therefore, a successful marketing through blogs should create or enters an area of interest where the readers are known the products or services.

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Finally, the corporate blogging should be consider as a successful communication tool because it helps company in public speaking, build trustworthiness among customer and boost up their company’s credentials.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog

http://www.starnine.com/blog-marketing/

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

E-auction can be defined as a market mechanism by which sellers place offers and buyers make bids which conducted online and is characterized by the competitive and dynamic nature by which the final product is reached. However, there is also limitation of e-auctions and one of them is that it faces the possibility of fraud. Furthermore, e-auction fraud is growing epidemic worldwide, as online shopping has grown significantly every year that online shopping has been available.

The following are few types of e-auction fraud:

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Bid shielding

Phantom bidders bid at a very high price when an auction begins; they pull out at the last minute, and the bidder who bid a much lower price wins.

Shilling

Placing fake bids on auction items to artificially jack up the bidding price, in this way, sellers get more benefits.

Hidden shipping costs and handling fee

Sellers hide the real shipping cost and handling fee. By the time buyers get the product, they might need to pay more than they expected.

Failure to deliver

Some times buyer will never get the product even after he/she paid for it.

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And now I would like to share some tips to prevent e-auction fraud. The largest Internet auctioneer, eBay, has introduced several measures in an effort to reduce fraud:

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aaaUser identity verification

A voluntary program that verify users by offering their Social Security number, driver’s license number and date of birth, users can qualify for the highest level of verification on the sites. In order that, encourages users to supply the sites with information for online verification.

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Authentication service

It is a way of determining whether an item is genuine and described appropriately. Authentication is very difficult to perform because their training and experience, experts can often detect counterfeits based on subtle details.

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Grading services

It determined the physical condition of an item, such as “poor quality” or “mint condition.” Different items have different grading system, for example trading cards are graded from A1 to F1, whereas coins are graded from poor to perfect uncirculated.

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Feedback Forum

The Feedback Forum allows registered buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It provides users with the ability to comment on their experiences with other individuals.

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Insurance policy

For example, eBay offers insurance underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. Users are covered up to $200, with a $25 deductible. The program is provided at no cost to eBay users.

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Escrow services

Both buyers and sellers in deal are protected with an easy-to-access link to third party escrow service. The buyer mails the payment to the escrow service, which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out. An example of a provider of online escrow services is tradenable.com.

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Nonpayment punishment

To help protect sellers, first-time nonpayment results in a friendly warning. A sterner warning is issued for a second-time offense, a 30-day suspension for a third offense, and indefinite suspension for a fourth offense.

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Appraisal services

Appraisers use a variety of methods to appraise items, including expert assessment of authenticity and condition and reviewing what comparable items have sold for in the marketplace in recent months.

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Verification

It is a way of confirming the identity and evaluating the condition of an item. With verification, neutral third parties will evaluate and identify an item through a variety of means. For example, some collectors have their item “DNA tagged” for identification purposes. This provides a way of tracking an item if it changes ownership in the future.

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There are some tips on keeping your risk at a minimum when purchasing items from an online auction website.

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· Become familiar with the auction website

· Before placing a bid, learn as much as you can about the seller.

· If the seller wants you to use an escrow service you’ve never heard of, look into it.

· Never ever give out your social security number, driver’s license number, credit card number, or bank account information until you have thoroughly checked out the seller and the escrow service.

· Always save 100% of the transaction information.

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http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/articles/beware_of_e_auctions

http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/260/267260/online_appendices/Turban-Appendix2A.pdf

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and ciizen's adoption strategies

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve how the government operates internally, as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. At the same time, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development as well as the coordination and enforcement.

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E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). The objectives of these flagship applications are engineered to start the MSC initiative and create a multimedia heaven for innovative producers and users of multimedia technology.The Flagship Applications are Electronic Government, Multipurpose Card, Smart School, Telehealth, R&D Clusters, E-Business, Technopreneur Development.

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The implementation status of e-government project in Malaysia:

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1. Electronic Procurement (eP) Project a a

2. Project Monitoring System (PMS II) a a

3. Electronic Services Directory (eServices) a a

4. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

5. Generic Office Environment (GOE) a a

6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX) a a

7. E-Syariah

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Malaysian e-government successful applications:

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-Government’s drive for e-government services a

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-Electronic Labour Exchange (http://www.elx.gov.my/) a

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-SMS alert on e-government services a a

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-Online renewal of driving licenses

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-Electronic filing of income tax forms a

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-Voter information a

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-Details for government tenders a a

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-Employment opportunities a

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Common problem encounter by Citizen’s is some of them have the lowest levels of access by digital divide because not all citizens know how to use online access. Secondly , development of technology is moving very fast, so it is very difficult for Citizens to foresee future impact in detail. There is Ways to encouraged citizens to use the government application by building the foundation of facts based on information from its citizens. As we know citizens expect and demand governmental services with a high degree of quality, quantity, and availability in a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, and year-round. Governments all over the world are developing information systems and electronic services that have the capacity to meet these emerging service needs and demands of citizens and other clients. The government must also concern about information quality and system quality. Besides that, efficiency, accuracy, relevancy and completeness are also important and were more significant than timeliness and precision.

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Malaysia now has to improve the core government application and integrating more service across agencies.

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http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full1.pdf

http://www.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm a a

http://www.egovnews.org/?cat=5

Review on Local E-Commerce Site ~*Blooming.com.my*~

Blooming.com.my is a local e-commerce site that selling flower and other small gifts such as cards bears, gourmet baskets and etc. They provide up to 100 pieces photos of hand bouquets. I’m sure that you could find you ideal bouquets in this site.

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Similar to other e-commerce site, Blooming.com.my provide member registration and log in, shopping cart, search engine and so on. However, they provide some services that only members are able to read through, such as order tracking, gift reminder, address book and online payment.

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I get attracted to this website because I have found out that this Blomming.com.my not only provides delivery services to Selangor (where their physical store is located), but to all major towns area, including Sabah and Sarawak (but there is extra charge on some area). Furthermore, they do accept online credit card payments, online banking and mobile payment.

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Screenshot of Blooming.com.my check out page

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For consumer purpose, Blooming.com.my has provided order tracking service where u can trace your order on the delivery status. In addition, live support is also provided so that customer could make enquiries on the spot, no need to waste money to make a call. There is a “Tips corner” that teaching customer on selecting and arrangement of flowers.

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In conclusion, although all the features in Blooming.com.my are simple (not much special), but it is enough for a basic internet user to deal with e-commerce. Basic internet user would not need too much or complicated steps in ordering and searching in the website. Nevertheless, in my opinion, Blooming.com.my have to improve in their hand bouquets and also others product’s picture. Indeed, they are providing good services but the photos are not really attracting people. After changing this, I think there would be more visitor and customer to view through Blooming.com.my.

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www.blooming.com.my

A review on *Legal* from My E-Commerce blog -*Cyber Success*-

Malaysian government announced that there will be some new guidelines to be enforced soon on Internet and cyber cafes.

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Cyber cafe normally attracts kids and children to play games. Thus, there are guidelines to be enforced to protect new the youth is to restrict minors under the age of 18 entering internet cafes. Such as those under 12 years old must be accompanied by parents or guardian and only allowed to stay up to 10.00pm. However, only the government regulation is not enough to prohibit all youth enter into cyber cafe those under 12 yrs old. The parent is play the important role to prohibit the youth enter the cyber cafe.

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Another guideline is enforced to protect to the youth from the influence of internet cafes. However, only the government check is not enough to block all prohibited sites from users. Compulsory installation of protective software can be one of the considerations to strengthen the initiatives.

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The government announced the internet and cyber cafe is prohibited from providing gaming activities, gambling, pornography, music and publications with negative element, besides that the cigarettes and alcohol to be prohibited from being sold in the cyber cafe. This guideline is enforced to prevent the Internet and cyber cafes from turning into the social ills, and can reduce the social ills.

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Illegal internet cafes should be punished such as legal internet cafes that fail to meet important guideline will have their licenses revoked. The legal duties are only claimed on operators or customers. It would be more effective if the responsibilities are imposed on staff. The business of internet and cyber cafe still can survive if provide some promotion and explain to customer in respect of these guidelines.

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http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-rules-for-cyber-cafes-soon.html