Marsha Maung: Write. Cook. Read. Watch. Try. Innovate.

I've been on Twitter since June 2008, making it 14 year old. Since I am not an influencer neither am I famous, my number of followers on Twitter have stagnated for quite a couple of years now. I think my engagement rate sucks pretty bad too.  But still, I stayed on because I liked listening to what people had to say about the happenings all around the world.  It gets mad-crazy sometimes but mostly, it's easy to ignore the stuff you don't want to see on Twitter. Just scroll away. It makes life easier. I loved the initial idea of Twitter giving everyone a voice and a platform to voice their concerns, share their ideas, connect with other people, speak their minds, promote their works or business freely and fairly.  That was the original idea.  Then let's talk about the whole Musk takeover. It really did not bother me that much when Elon Musk announced a potential takeover. So what? As long as it remains the way it is for the rest of us without the blue checkmarks, ther...

If you're interested in topics like work, project ideas, marketing, life,efficiency, friendships, family, books, articles, goals, lifestyle, games, etc, check out his website and sign up for his newsletters which are always filled with random musings. I don't agree with everything he has to say (you don't either) like this ' stop shampooing ' thing (because I CAN'T NOT SHAMPOO MY HAIR EVERY DAY), but there are tit bits here and there that sometimes make you think about...you know...stuff. I don't remember how I found Nat but I'm glad I did because in the mix of advertisements and promotions, I find honest, genuine musings that I sometimes can relate to. Yes, he's got products and services to sell (he's got to eat, I assume?) but he doesn't make it a habit to shove it down your throat. And even if he does it, it's very gently . 😂😁 He's also got a whole bunch of stuff he's running in the background including Growth Mach...

Instagram ads are quite hard to pin down. You either make it or you don't because unlike Facebook where you have more space to write and elaborate, on Instagram, you have to make it really short, catchy and engaging all within either a picture or a short video. People have very little patience, even less so than other social media outlets, when they're scrolling through Instagram. I am sure you must have seen the sudden explosion of ads on Instagram launched by Prudential lately. Admittedly, I clicked. Just because I was curious about who the heck would advertise a piece of wood based on superstition?! I clicked because I was curious . Like.... for real ???!! It's hard out here for a social media maven. . We know it's not easy to keep writing the posts and tweets day in and day out, so we've gathered our best #socialmedia writing advice in one place. Check out our Story or swipe right or scroll for a few tips. . . .#socialmediaday #smday #amwr...

Some people make the mistake of promoting their business(es), outright, on Facebook. I've given, and will continue to give (but mute them) them the benefit of the doubt every time they have an update on FB, to be personal instead of being a business. There are many reasons why people should be just  people on Facebook. Who's on FB ? Your friends, family, long-lost school mates, relatives, friend of friends and some random strangers you added because they looked harmless. Do you want to be their friend/family or do you want them to see you as a business? Humans . While it is not a good idea to post EVERYTHING on social media (these days), it's OK to promote or ask your friends and family for support. Most people would do it for free and repeatedly because....they know YOU, not your business. So, it is preferable for you to remain a human. We've seen this concept work with intention-focused groups whereby groups of people come together online and offer each other s...

Even obsolete hashtags has its uses, folks. So, even if you're too busy to write something as a prelude to your postings, use your discretion and use those useless hashtags to keep your followers informed. At least.  I will qualify myself with this - TheStar Online is not the only one. I've seen others on Twitter do the same, tweeting nothing but a link. Let's just say that if one is lazy or does not have the time (or brainz) to write something short about the link, at the very least, come up with a hashtag that describes the link. For example, if you're about to provide a link to your own Instagram food picture, use #food #foodie #deliciousdieme #foodporn #eat #eating Sometimes, as nonsensical and obsolete as the #'s are, at least they tell followers about what to expect from the links that they are about (or not) to click on. That's the least you can do for your followers who might be interested in what you've just shared with the web-niverse. Thin...

We have come a full circle - from being very real to being relatively promotional to being very self-promotional to being fake. Now, we're back to square one, being very real If you don't have a face and name to your social media account or online life, you better have a pseudonym and if you do, you better not let others find out what you look like. We live in an era where everything can and will become the butt of a joke, as a way to counter over-information. I was lamenting the fact that my kid have, yet again, come up with another pseudonym  for one of his social media accounts. He's not revealed it to me and I've not asked him for it. I don't want to find out everything about my kid via his social media accounts. If he's got a problem, he'd better scoot his ass over to me, in my face, and tell it to me like it is...minus all that online drama. I've got enough of that, as it is. I told them, both kids, about a time when we all went online, via t...

While it is a little copy-ey (as in Jimmy Kimmel style), Hootsuite did something right with their social media management. Er...no, I don't use Hootsuite for some reason because I am still quite happy with Tweetcaster. Maybe I should download it onto one of my devices or try it on my laptop...maybe. So, following in Kimmel's footsteps, Hootsuite came up with their own ' Staff Reads Mean Tweets ' - nothing as bad as some celebrities get it - and used each of the criticism (mainly that it is ugly) and turned their product around. This is how things should be and sure, reading something mean about ourselves or what we have done can hurt a little (maybe can cause a flood of tears) but you can really learn a whole lot of yourself and what you are missing out on when you listen. And social media is a great platform for that. The whole world is waiting to give you their best 'advice', aren't they? I think Malaysia can learn a lot from something like this......

You know you have at least one friend on Twitter or one relative on Facebook who is overly obsessed with their looks or are paid to promote something they have absolutely no faith in. And you also perhaps know of people who are continually told that they look young, beautiful, gorgeous, inspiring, skinny, bla bla bla... Well, I was the last one. Not that I am gorgeous or anything (puh-leeeeezzzze) but when you post a nicely EDITED picture of yourself, people will give you compliments, right? While I appreciate the compliments, it makes me feel awfully fake. Yeah, I put on that top in order to look thinner. Yeah, I put on some makeup so that I look like I DON'T have makeup on. lol. We have apps for that, folks. Anyway, I am not Essena Oneill and she is done with looking pretty for everyone else. She is, a little like me, (although I grew up without the pressure of social media) a very sensitive being with lots of good intentions. She wants to move mountains, make changes, go...

Take me back 8 years before this and I would say that managing a social media account is a breeze. It's a walk in the park! All you need to do is to find content, develop them, post them and just viola! That's it! But what Ann Tran wrote about handling social media is important. "Keyboard courage" has some people posting cruel things they would otherwise not say to someone's face.  Hiding behind a screen is not a shield.   These people are armed with keyboard-shield courage and will not hesitate to put it out there, throw it in your face, threaten all types of ill-mannered intentions and actions and promise harm in all forms. After all, what can YOU do about it, it is THEIR right to do so with THEIR account(s) and whilst this is true, I think some behavior borders on bullying and we need better moderation and mediating methods. For social media and if you are a large brand name, as Ann Tran points out, remaining neutral, professional, removing emotions an...

I tweeted this morning that I had one of the best sleeps I have ever had in ages... Yes, I did the unthinkable (for workaholics). Hey, did we not read about 2 people who just recently...like, literally, fell dead because they were overworked? One was in Indonesia and the other was from China . I have been in the advertising industry before and yes, it works like that and it's really sad to see these news. Maybe for the really large firms...people just don't sleep. And hey, guess what I called myself when I first started freelancing back in 2000....the freelancer that don't sleep. It was a tagline I was intensely proud of. People didn't have to know that a part of the reason I didn't sleep was because my kids were waking me up all the time. They were young then.  I work at copywriting and you just can't rush copywriting. If the idea isn't there yet, it isn't there yet. If it isn't there, it's because you're trying too hard to f...

The Facebook…or rather…the online social media marketing tool will never be the same for any period of time. It is always changing. The moment you feel like you are on good footing, out goes all the concepts that you thought would ‘work like magic’. The online marketing landscape is such that you can never be too sure or too secure in knowing what to do. This keeps the marketing people on their toes, doesn’t it? Well, here is the thing about marketing a business or brand through the web 2.0 platter…never rest. Never stop reading. Never stop learning. Never stop finding new things to do. Never. In the spirit of learning something new to do on your Facebook account, here are two fun things to do on your Facebook to help marketing and brand your business.

With all the hype about using boundariless Facebook and Twitter as business promotion platform, sometimes it is hard to blame all those who are not familiar with the online rules because it is mainly quite unknown and unwritten. I would have to say that when they found out about the potential of Facebook and Twitter, they must have hyperventilated. No more ads! No more paying for brochures and flyers! No more printing erratic and mis-spelt business cards and then frantically handing them out. Imagine the savings. They can now sell ALL OVER THE WORLD!! That's God-sent. Anyway, if it was proper for people to post stuff and force information down people's throat, I would have done it for my client but I know that it wouldn't  work. I don't want to piss people off on behalf of my client. There was this over-enthusiastic marketer who posted something on my wall....a promotional message and not liking it one bit, I decided to use the softer approach first by sending thi...

With the rising number of users who have hopped onto other online marketing methods, it leaves us questioning whether email marketing via a mailing list continues to be as effective as it used to be. Well, most online marketing experts agree that while many have hopped onto other quicker marketing methods that cost less money. However, this leaves us that small margin number of people who are still a little more old school in their thinking. Are they worth your time? Do you think it is worthwhile investing your time writing them emails that they most probably will not even open much less respond to. The secret lies in writing an email that hits the right note! Forget about writing an email that is devoid of personality. Instead of signing off with 'yours sincerely, the YourCompany team', you'll have to sign off as 'Your friend, Bob'. I've personally seen so many emails during the course of my career that it takes a lot to make me open an email that is not ...

I laugh whenever people ask me for article marketing secrets. Why? That’s because it’s really no secret at all that there are no real secrets to article marketing, THAT’s why. The same way you would market a moisturizer, a book or a video CD, that’s pretty much the same way you should market your articles. You write them and then push them out to as many people as possible through as many viable and affordable avenues as possible. Is that article marketing secrets? Nope. Hardly. No secret to marketing your articles Sitting down and writing your article is one of the first steps you have to take but how do you do it when there is absolutely nothing (you think) worthy to write about? Do some surfing on the internet, read stuff that others have written and keeping yourself in the loop is an important a secret if there are article marketing secrets. Continue Reading (MarshaMaung.ME)

Most people concur that writing is not always easy – especially when you’re not wired that way. Most people would imagine TALKING a much better, more convenient form of communication. It takes effort to write. But for strange, weird people like me, writing is easier. That is….before this whole online social networking thing took it a few steps deeper. Writing, for most writers today, is a form of promotion for ourselves. The more we write, the more we get out there, the more people we reach, the more people get to know about it. If you do a credible job, you invariably will attract a few fans and followers as time goes on. With the online social networking phenomenon, it’s no longer the case. Continue Reading (ContentMagician)

Piano You know, in piano they have all those 'pp' for barely can hear ya and then the 'p' for 'ahhh....there's sound. Then there's 'mf' for hhmmm...music and 'f' for whoa! what's up your ass, buddy. I don't know if they have 'ff' which could mean bring the effing house down! These are called dynamics and I am have been pummeling it into my kids' heads right from the start. They ask me why and I answer, 'it gives the music expression and it helps people who are listening to the music that you're playing a lot of emotion and feeling.  Then you have..... Singing (which is some sort like dancing and acting) No emotion and it's not going to win you the soddest version of a potpourri holder. Voice and voume control for singing is of utmost importance, you don't have it and you might as well be listening to a 5 year old play the violin for the very first time. Nadah.  Acting, you wood, you pay the price of be...

So you’ve got Facebook. And then you’ve got Twitter, then you’ve got stumbleupon. Have you mentioned Digg, Delicious, MSN Live, Buzz……er…..did we leave anything else out? I bet but I am not going to even try to remember? Recently, I went for a cooking class where I learned from an established chef how to cook real Italian food the real Italian way. Little did I know that I was in for a huge surprise. Everything was done in a very specific and methodical way….you don’t dump something in because it’s the nearest thing on the table. You make your way around the table to take the ingredient you want and you put it in, stir and then the next important ingredient. And you’ve got to have the crème de la crème of Italian food….the garlic and the wine. CONTINUE READING HERE http://marshamaung.me/social-media-network/social-media-marketing-italian-cooking-system.html

In my line of work, there's a lot of testing and trying of everything new in the market. Recently discovered www.openzine.com through Twitter. Two brothers started the website up to help others publish their own ezines. The concept is nothing too new because it's a combination of ezinearticles, blog, facebook and twitter.  I've just published my first Openzine. www.openzine.com/them . Go check it out!!! Sorry it's a little shoddy but I won't apologize for that cheeky picture I posted up. I have a set of photos that use and currently, that's the image that I want to adopt. Not very Hannah Montana, I have to admit but I don't fancy her, anyway. Bah! Publication of pictures and images are easy but for newbies, you might find it a little hard to navigate. I had a little bit of trouble trying to find where things are. I would say that you might need a couple of days trying to find where everything is and sometimes you would sit there wondering where your ma...

I get this question a lot – why are you always online? Why is your FaceBook always active? Why is it that you spend so much time telling everyone what you’re doing and what you’re thinking? Have you no sense of privacy? Whenever I open my FaceBook or Twitter account, you’re there – don’t you think you’re overdoing it? And my answer is standard – it’s what I do and I do it for a reason, believe you me. I don’t do it merely because it fascinates me (well, it does but that’s not the point) but it helps me with my business. This is where I go into grave detail about what I do and defend my predisposition for revealing so much information about myself – but I won’t. I will do it in a very simple, personal and easy-to-understand manner so that you can understand it the moment you read it. Well, not so much because you would have to spend a second or two thinking about what it means. Familiarity Breeds Business . Continue Reading Here

I am sad beyond words. Look at my FB status…it says that I am heartbroken. Oh, don’t worry, friends. Nobody broke my heart….no man (or woman) is capable of doing such harm to my consistently broken heart now. For some reason, someone decided that something is of value to him or her and it belongs solely to me. I am going to fight this one out. It’s my name for heaven’s sake! I lost my domain name www.marshamaung.com. I don’t know what the domain name would mean to the person who snatched it from under my nose! I mean, what are the chances of this person having the same exact name as me? I’ve promoted this name so much in the past that I have to fight to get it back now. The blame? Godaddy. I’ve been their loyal customer for the longest time and I can’t believe they did not do enough to warn me that the domain name has expired. I’ve tried to change my email address on their records before and it didn’t work. I registered my creativejooz.com email with them. I don’t own the domain n...