Cupcake Chic

Twitter’s reach growing in Malaysia
First adopted by politicians, practice of sending tweets is now catching on among firms

By Carolyn Hong, Malaysia Bureau Chief

SOMETIMES, I forget that idle chit-chat conducted over Twitter can be read by all and sundry.

Some weeks ago, I exchanged tweets with Mr Dinesh Nair, an information technology specialist friend, about problems with the New Straits Times (NST) website. Could it be the website – or was it simply my
limited IT skills? After a few tweets, I forgot about it. The NST did not. Not long afterwards, I was in for a sweet tweet: It was NST wanting to let me know that it had fixed the problem.

Now, that was impressive. The NST’s new media unit had detected our tweets quickly, as it was keeping an eye out for complaints like mine after relaunching its website.

As is now common knowledge in the world of instant communications, Twitter is a networking tool that allows users to send out short messages of up to 140 characters at a time – something like a text
messaging system – but to the world at large. The messages are referred to as ‘tweets’.

Twitter was one network the NST monitored. And for good reason. This micro-blogging site has become popular in Malaysia of late.

This is really thanks to the country’s opposition politicians. They were the first to adopt the new media to communicate directly with Malaysians, obviously because they have limited access to the traditional media. It is they who made Twitter hugely popular by using it to get news (and their thoughts) out to people in super-quick time.

Veteran MP Lim Kit Siang sometimes tweets every two minutes to keep his ‘followers’ – as people who are tuned into a particular ‘twitterer’ are called – updated on major events.

Younger Barisan Nasional politicians have now jumped in, and some even hold mini-debates on Twitter and Facebook, the other popular social network.

Deputy Minister for International Trade and Industry Mukhriz Mahathir is holding one next week. ‘Hi all. Spend some time chatting with me this coming Tuesday around noon,’ he wrote on his Facebook profile.

Now that the politicians have built a good-sized Twitter community, companies have moved in. If it works for politicians, why not companies?

They can get word out on their offerings, and track what people are saying about them. Best of all, it’s free.

‘It’s an extension of the word of mouth,’ said independent media consultant Jasmin Melan.

At present, social media poses little threat to traditional media. Its reach in Malaysia is still small. But as the politicians have found, it is growing. There are large companies such as Malaysia Airlines and mobile phone service provider Celcom that tweet.

But it is probably more useful for small firms that rely more on word of mouth than traditional advertising. Restaurants already routinely invite popular food bloggers to review their offerings.

The trendy Cupcake Chic business is one that has gone big on social media to tempt young IT-savvy Malaysians into its two stores in Kuala Lumpur. ‘As a small company, we don’t have a huge marketing budget, so we rely a lot on social media,’ said 34-year-old managing partner Ben Foo.

But it is not easy to do well. The NST’s swift problem-solving is an example of effectiveness. But sometimes, it is only halfway effective.

Mr Nair said that last week, an Internet service provider contacted him for his account number after he complained about its agonisingly slow speeds via a tweet.

‘I gave it to them, but they did not get back to me,’ he said. ‘The service went back to normal but I do not know if that was a response to my complaint. They didn’t close the loop.’

I did the same as Mr Nair last week, and tweeted a ‘teensy’ rant about the inefficiency of a giant Malaysian corporation.

To my surprise, the public relations (PR) manager rang me a short while later. She was alerted by a PR consultant who had spotted the tweet.

Lesson learnt: never rant on Twitter!

Doing it well, and with a purpose, takes time and commitment.

Cupcake Chic’s Mr Foo said he and his business partner take the time every day to tweet, update Facebook, and run searches for feedback.

They respond to every query, and especially to complaints. They do not want dissatisfied customers’ tweets to be re-tweeted.

‘Word gets around,’ he said.

More than that, they also use Twitter to market their products, but try to give their tweets a personality so they do not become tiring marketing spam.

They have used feedback to improve packaging and products. Cupcake Chic sells about 2,000 cupcakes a day on a weekend.

They are not sure how much of that is generated by social media, but Twitter can grab the attention of potential customers. According to NST, an increasing number of hits on its website come in via its tweets of breaking news.

But sometimes, companies can get carried away with tweeting. A mobile phone company has, on occasion, commented on my banal tweets.

And each and every time, it still startles me to see a company talking to me about scrambled eggs.

Good or bad? Not so sure.

carolynh@sph.com.sg

Here’s an article in the Singapore Straits Times featuring Cupcake Chic on it’s use of Social Networking Mediums like Twitter. Follow us on Twitter if you haven’t already at www.twitter.com/thecupcakechic