Wrote a letter to some of the major dailies in Malaysia (The Star and New Straits Times) suggesting that they consider running a competition to find the best malaysian blog. Not sure how this will pan out but its just an idea i had after reading about the competition that was run by the Guardian (UK) to find the best british blog. Been doing some searching, and it seems that there are a very large number of Malaysians who create and maintain blogs, especially teenagers and young adults.
Let's see what happens.
Dear The Star,
Web logging, popularly known as "blogging", has become a world wide publishing phenomena on the Internet. The activity has recently been featured on CNN and a host of other technology programs that is currently shown on Astro. Essentially, blogging is an activity where individuals set-up online diaries, journals and commentary on everything and anything. It has been described by its advocates as being very addictive and extremely liberating. The phenomena of blogging has become so widespread that whole business strategies has been built to allow users to use simple web based tools to create and manage their blogs, such as www.blogger.com.
Recently, the Guardian (UK) ran a competition to find the Best British Web Logs for 2002. The results of that competition can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,798749,00.html. Maybe the Star Online, through In Tech should also organize a similar competition to discover Malaysia's best blogs. I've done a bit of searching and found quite a number of Malaysian blogs, mostly maintained by teenagers, and young adults.
The benefits for the The Star are:
1. By promoting this competition, you will be marketing The Star to teenagers and young adults, who make up the largest group of people who create and maintain personal blogs.
2. The competition will show that The Star is on-top of the latest technology trends, especially trends affecting the Internet. Blogging really is a world wide phenomenon - http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/09/05/blogger.review.idg/index.html (article appearing in CNN)
3. It would cost very little to set a competition up - most bloggers (the community of people who have blogs) are not concerned about money or prizes - just recognition is sufficient. So for minimal costs, you can potentially garner maximum exposure.
4. Cross promotional possibilities abound - bloggers need computers (e.g. Dell, Compaq, IBM), books (e.g. MPH), reading materials, digital cameras (e.g. Canon, Olympus), scanners, web space to host their blogs (e.g. Jaring, TMnet), etc.
The benefits to your readers:
1. Brings awareness to the Malaysia public of a world wide Internet publishing phenomenon. It has been described as the "3rd publishing wave".
2. Creates interest in blogging among the younger, more tech savvy crowd - since blogs are mostly about sharing experiences and lives, this can contribute indirectly to a more caring society and an improvement in the writing skills (BM & English) of the youth.
Possible programs in the competition:
1. An online nomination system running from The Star Online - this will increase your traffic.
2. Blogging 1-day workshops - marketing, and cross-promotional possibilities here.
3. An online voting system running from the Star Online.
This is an idea i hope the Star will consider.
Peace,
Aizuddin Danian
http://www.aizuddindanian.com
Leave a comment