Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Corporate Blogging has now become very popular among businesses of all sizes. A corporate blog is a tool that help the organization fulfill a business goal. It can help the organizations to extend the company image in the marketplace. Companies can enhance their image through describe deeply about their companies such as the products or services they sell in the corporate blog. This will enable the customers know better about the companies. It also helps the organizations have an opportunity to open a two-way channel between employees and customers.

There are 2 major categories of corporate blogs which is Internal Blogs and External Blogs. The Internal Blogs divide into 3 types:
(1) Knowledge Blogs: give employees information relating to their work assignments.
(2) Collaboration Blogs: provide a working team with a tool for research, collaboration and discussion.
(3) Culture Blogs: strengthen organisational culture.

The External Blogs include:
(1) Sales Blogs: make citizens aware of public services, get donations for charities or political parties.
(2) Relationship Blogs: create, uphold or strengthen relationships.
(3) Branding Blogs: strengthen the brand, the profile, of the publishing organisation or individuals within it.

Corporate blogs have both advantages and disadvantages. The blogs help employees to keep themselves informed on all the current happenings in the organization. The blogs also allow employees to display their expertise on a particular topic, thereby becoming a recognized industry. Through blogging, an organization can build its relationship with its customers and promote their products at the same time. The disadvantages include some employees may use blogs to write negatively about the company which can lead to bad publicity. If organizations do not make sure that a blog complies with all applicable local, national and foreign requirements for doing business, it can lead to legal liabilities. Besides that, people may be talking out of the topic and cause the organizations loss of control over the message.

Blogging encourages communication and allows businesses more easily reach their customers. If used properly, corporate blogging will enhance customer loyalty, and can make the business more successful.

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

Auction can be defined as a market mechanism by which buyers make bids and sellers place offers and is characterized by the competitive and dynamic nature by which the final product is reached. However , e-auctions is the auctions conducted online. http://www.lelong.com.my/ and http://www.ebay.com.my/ are the examples of it.



There are several types of e-auction fraud such as:

• Bid shielding: Tactic used by the buyer to push down the price,
• Shilling : Tactic used by the seller to push up the price,
• Fake photo and misleading description: In reaching for bidders’attention, some sellers distort what they can truly sell.
• Selling reproductions: A seller sells something that the seller claims is original, but it turns out to be a reproduction.
• High shipping cost and handling fees: Some seller just want to get a little more cash out of bidders. Postage and handling rates vary from seller to seller. Some charge extra to cover “handling” cost and other overhead intangibles, whereas other charge to cover the cost of packaging supplies, even though such supplies are aften available for free.
• Failure to ship merchandise: Money was paid out but the merchandise never arrives,
  

Since the buyers cant see item , they may get a defective item and sometimes the buyers also can commit fraud. Therefore the fraud rate of e-auction is quite high. Thus , something should be take note to prevent it. We can protecting against e-auction fraud by :

1) User identity verification : Verify their IC number , driver’s license number or date of birth. For example, eBay uses the services of Equifax to verify user identities for a $5 fee.

2)Authentication services : Product authentication is a way to determine whether an item is genuine and described appropriately. Authentication is very difficult to perform because it relies on the expertise of the authenticators. Because of their training and experience, expert can (for a fee) often detect counterfeits based on subtle details. However, two expert authenticators may have different opinion about the euthenics of the same item.

3) Escrow services : Ensure that both sellers and buyers in a deal are protected with a independent third party who will hold onto the money until confirmation of good received. An example of a provider of online escrow services is tradenable.com

4) Grading services: Grading is a way to determine the physical condition of an item, such as “poor quality” or “ mint condition”. The actual grading system depend on the type of the item being graded. Different items have different grading system- for example, trading card are graded from A1 to F1 , whereas coins are graded from poor to prefect uncalculated.

5) Non payment punishment: for example, eBay implemented a policy against those who do not honor their wining bids. To help protect sellers, a 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.

E-Government in Malaysia

In 1997, the Malaysia Government launched the Electronic Government initiative, generally known as e-Government, to reinvent itself to lead the country into the Information age. E-Government seeks to enhance the convenience, accessibility and quality of interaction with the public and business at large. At the same time, it will improve information flow and processes within the government, improve speed and quality of policy development, and improve coordination and enforcement.

There are seven main projects were identified to be the core of the e-Government applications, which is Electronic Procurement (eP), Project Monitoring System(PMS), Electronic Services Delivery (eServices), Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS), Generic Office Environment (GOE), E-Syariah and Electronic Lobour Exchange (ELX).

One of the e-Government project implementations is Electronic Procurement (eP) Project, also known as ePerolehan. E-Perolehan is an electronic procurement system provided by the government to enable suppliers to sell their products or services on the internet. Through ePerolehan, suppliers and contractors can receive, manage, and process orders or payment from government agencies through transactions done electronically on the internet.

However, there are some problems facing by the user of e-Perolehan, such as some consumers lack of online procurement knowledge. Further, some consumer may felt lack of trustily and confidential of the system. It is because the risk of losing information is higher in ePerolehan system and the challenge is even greater compared to paper environment, therefore change and risk management must be in place to ensure information available overtime.

The application of pre-paid card for consumers

A prepaid cash card is a payment card that similar with credit card or debit card. It gives users the ability to purchase goods without paying by cash. It different with credit card or debit card, it contains a concept of “pay now, spend later”. It means users must firstly load money onto the card then only spend it when make a purchase.

There are some popular prepaid cash card frequently being used, such as in Malaysia -Touch n Go, Singapore - ez-link card and Hong Kong - Octopus Card. Touch n Go is an electronic purse that can be used at all highways in Malaysia, major public transports in Klang Valley, selected parking sites and theme park.

The benefit of using Touch ‘n Go are increasing the speed of paying, eliminating debt risk which it has no credit or overdraft facility. It ensuring users won’t overspend and prevent users using “future money”. Moreover, it provides users a convenient way to pay transportation fees. By just load on money to the card and simply scan it to a machine for passing road tolls or paying LRT fees without long wait in queue at the cash lane. And it can protect our personal safety from carrying cash in hand.

The balance of the Touch ‘n Go can be reload at toll plazas, train stations, Automated Teller Machines(ATM), Cash Deposit Machines, Petrol kiosks and at authorized third party outlets.