Maku Gifts talks to the CA4s

This semester, one of the units that I am teaching is called Social Media & Digital Communications. It's a unit in the final year of the Communication Arts (Journalism) Program. Although many of the students in the program are already familiar with social media and digital media, this unit builds on their understanding and introduces them to key concepts and terminologies such as the 'creator economy' and the shifts in the media industry in the last decade, especially in the mass media sector.

The creator economy is a fancy term for the online content creator business. The creator economy is made up many things but there are five key elements: a) Creators b) Communities c) Platforms d) Tools and e) Monetisation Models. Many Papua New Guineans are already participating in the creator economy by using elements a, b, c, d while some are actually implementing monetisation models particularly YouTube. One such Papua New Guinean organisation is Maku Gifts  which has been distributing Lavagirl fabric & garments, jewellery, home decorations, corporate wear and more over a decade. They have 6 shops around the country and recently have open a new 'pop up' setup at the domestic terminal of Port Moresby's Jackson Airport. Maku Gifts, as an entity, has not yet monetised their online community yet but have used Facebook, as a platform, to market their business extensively using audiovisual methods.

Maku Gifts Owner Ms Annette Sete talking about her business

Well, it's not everyday that I get to have a 'pawa meri' come talk to my year 4 students about using social and digital media in the workplace and business. The owner of Maku Gifts, Ms Annette Sete shared to the students her experiences of leveraging social media as a platform to market her business but also understanding the risks and pitfalls surrounding social and digital media issues such as privacy, branding, ethics, cyber-trolling, understanding your customer base, profiling, etc.

The Communication Arts Year 4 students listen to Annette

One of the key aspects of her talk surrounding social media use, particularly Facebook, is the issue of cyber-trolling and online scams.  Molenda et. al. (2022) defined trolling as “a repetitive, disruptive online deviant behavior by an individual toward other individuals or groups mostly focused on evoking unpleasant feelings (e.g., frustration or anger) in other discussion participants through inflammatory, destructive, and even aggressive posts or comments created by trolls just for their own fun and entertainment." The Maku Gifts owner stated that internet trolls, those that create fake accounts and then troll her posts, are common. As she utilises Facebook to advertise and market her business and events, these online trolls invade her comments section. She has had to develop strategies to resolve these issues. Another aspect of the dark side of social media use has been the rise of online scams where, she pointed out, people use her profile pictures, images or even edited her presentation videos to create social media posts or content that solicit money for her unsuspecting customers and friends.    

The CA4 students pose for a group photo with the Maku Gifts owner

I'm very grateful for Ms. Annette Sete for taking time out from her busy schedule (she has a shop in the DWU Mart too) to come talk to my students. Not a lot of business people or senior government or private sector people have time to come talk to students. So I'm just grateful for her time and commitment to come talk to the students. I hope that my students learn more about the social media world from her experience plus also put into perspective their studies in DWU and how they can utilise their skills and knowledge gained over 4 years to solve real world problems such as the ones faced by Maku Gifts. Her business is one of so many Papua New Guinean businesses using social media as well as digital media to market, build, extend and influence their business and business practices.