Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

Now in this computer age, blogging which started off as a forum for teenagers to express themselves, has now reached the corporate and has become very popular among businesses of all sizes. Companies like General Motors, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have recognized the effects and importance of blogging and are now using them as a communicate tool within their customers and employees. Nowadays, corporate blogging has become a communication tool that widely used by organization to achieve its organizational goal.

Corporate blogging lets the organization communicate with their customers, employees, the media, prospective employees in a more personal and direct way. Through blogging, an organization can build its relationship with its customers and promote their products at the same time. Corporate blogging can also be effectively used to communicate with the public. Corporate can even conduct their public relations activities through blogging by posting press releases and updates about new company products and services on the blog. Besides that Corporate blogging can also be used as a method of employee recruitment. The organization can post a blog on available job openings and requirements, which will help in the recruitment process.

Fastlane Blog is one of the General Motors’ blog. Fastlane Blog is a great example of corporate blogging because GM has clearly realized that regurgitating press releases is not what blogs are made for. GM talks a lot on their blog about their cars and trucks and the design choices they make while creating them, but they also throw in interesting treatises on current hot-button issues, such as alternative energy

GM FastLane link: http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/

The pros of corporate blogging is that if the corporate structure is a building, then blogs serve as the windows that allow customers to peer inside and see what is happening internally with greater precision than ever before. It can help the companies to expand their horizon world-wide. It increases the potential of the company by increasing its communication structure. Besides that, corporate blogging also can save the cost of the company in publicizing as compared to paperwork publicizing.

Although there are many pros in Corporate blogging but it has its own cons too. The corporate blogs should be professionally written. Poorly written blogs can be misleading to the public. Their information can be misunderstood or ill judged by public or by the clients and investors. They may start doubting on the authenticity of the company and may be hazardous to the company. Besides, in a world that is increasingly litigation happy, blogs might make it too easy for defamation and invasion of privacy or to breach information security.

A review on a post on Legal from My E-Commerce blog

As a student, that is common for us to download music, movie, software and whatever from internet during our past time. However, if you download an illegal file, hacked commercial application, cracked DVD movie, or whatever, you are indeed guilty of an illegal act.

Illegal downloading is currently the biggest challenge facing music companies and their partners. Meanwhile, a new generation of music subscription services, social networking sites and new licensing channels is emerging.

Should illegal downloading of music, movies, and other media be prosecuted?

On the one hand, copyright holders argue that intellectual property must be strictly protected. On the other, critics say the new law brings society more harm than good by creating a generation of young criminals.

Personally, we feel that illegal downloads will always be part of the Internet, rather than spending time and effort to combat it. We don’t think any internet service provider would ban their paying customers from downloading simply because the majority of the people use the internet purely to download. ISP will make a loss if they do such thing. Besides that, if the internet connections get cut off this would create a big problem for those who use it for business especially those major organization who have no idea which of its employee conduct illegal downloading. Instead of chasing illegal downloads, it would be advisable for the copyright holders to look for “new ways” and “new places” to generate income from their music or software - for example, licensing agreements with Youtube or legal peer-to-peer websites.

Related post : UK to get tough with illegal downloader

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

Websites, such as eBay and Yahoo Auctions, complete millions of transactions a day by allowing anyone to post an auction. Although convenient, the anonymity of these sales requires buyers to be ever alert of auction scams. According to the statistics of National Internet Fraud Watch Information center, most of the internet frauds are based on online auctions. Reported in 2005, 45% of online frauds are based on e-auctions.

There are many types of e-auctions fraud. The following are some examples of fraud which conducted by seller:

• Shilling – Seller arrange to have fake bids placed on their items to artificially elevate high bids. If they see a legitimate high bid that doesn’t meet their expectations as the end of an auction drawn near, they might pop in to manipulate the price.

• Fake photos and misleading descriptions – Seller may distort what they can truly sell by borrowed images, ambiguous descriptions, and falsified facts.

• Selling reproductions – Where seller claims something is original, but it turns out to be a reproduction.

• Hidden shipping costs and handling fee – Sellers hide the actual shipping cost and handling fee. By the time buyers get the product, they might need to pay more than they expected.

• Failure to deliver – Sometimes buyer will never get the product even after he/she paid for it.

In order to reduce the fraud, eBay has introduced some measures such as:

• User identity verification – eBay uses the services of Equifax to verify user identities for a $5 fee. A voluntary program named Verified eBay User encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification.

• Feedback Forum – It enables registered buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It also enables users to comment on their experiences with others.

• Escrow services – eBay recommends escrow services for items valued at more than $200 or when either a buyer or seller feels the need for additional security. The buyer sends the payment to the escrow service, which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out. At that point, the seller ships the good to the buyer. After an agreed-upon inspection period, the buyer notifies the service, which then sends a check to the seller.

• Appraisal services – Appraisers use various 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.

• Verification – With verification, neutral third parties will evaluate and identify the condition of an item through a variety of means.

Buyers should take note when participating in an e-auction:

• Ensure the auction site is legitimate and has a secure payment process by checking security certificate of website on browser.

• Attain a clear understanding of the obligations of the buyer and the seller, as set forth in the auction details, to alleviate any confusion.

• Research the seller’s reputation and feedback history, and check with the Better Business Bureau if they are a legitimate company.

• Scrutinize the shopping procedure, the return policy, and how the payment transaction is supposed to occur.

• Offer only information pertinent to completing the deal.

Related link:
Auction Inquisitor(TM) - Free Auction Analysis Tool
http://www.auctioninquisitor.com/

Review a local e-commerce site

The local e-commerce website we choose to do this review is blooming.com.my. This website specializes in gifts and flowers for various occasions.

This is the bloming.com.my home page.
This website is doing quite well in arranging their products.


At the left side, it shows the list of special occasion, when you click into it, it will bring you to the most suitable product for the occasion.

At the right site, they show the photo of the flower, product name and the most important thing----the price of the flower.


At the bottom of the website, it show if customers using certain credit card to pay for it, they will get a certain amount discount on the flower they purchases.


Further more, this website also provide describe of the product.


Since the Valentine is around, the flower is come along with some additional thing.

It also provides selection for customers to choose whether to upgrade or just remain the same.

If customers still want to have a look of other products, they can add current product to the shopping cart that is provided.


If the product is chosen, what will be the next step?? For sure is pay for it!!!! When customers click on the button, it will bring them to the payment page, and customers have to fill in their details, payment option.

In conclusion, the whole flow of transaction is quite user friendly, even the first time customer like me can easily get the transaction done. Beside that, the overall design and layout of this blooming.com.my is nice and well-organized.

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog.

I had done a review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog that is using Touch n Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia will be a reality. Previously, Touch n Go card famous for its usage as a pre-load cash card that can use it for toll, car park, public transportation like LRT and Themes Park. Touch n Go card also used by Malaysian toll expressway and highway operators as the sole electronic payment system. But now, Touch n Go card has expanded its function to use it on Fast Food Restaurant.

Card holder can buy burger, doughnut or fast food from 21 outlets in Malaysia. The participating outlets are A&W, Burger King, Dunkin’ Donut, 7-eleven, Carrefour hypermarkets, Caltex convenience stores and Cineleisure. The next time when you go to a fast-food stall for your burger or doughnut, don’t worry if you have forgotten your money as all you need is your Touch ’n Go card.

The card can also be a good way of controlling children's spending as this could be their one card from taking public transport to buying their lunch or snacks.We need not worry about any hidden cost because there will be no extra charges for those using Touch n Go card. If the item is RM1 then it will still be RM1 if you use card. The card can be reloaded through bank, retail shop, 7-eleven. It will not be troublesome for us to reload the card.

In my point of view, Touch n Go card had brings a lot of benefits to us which makes our life become more convenient.