An executive of PLDT Inc. encouraged the country’s cultural and heritage agencies to harness the power of social media to inspire among Filipinos a better appreciation of Philippine culture and history.
Carlo Ople, vice president for digital marketing of PLDT Enterprise and International Carrier Business, said government units and brands should take advantage of the relatively low cost of advertising on digital media.
“The cost to reach one person on Facebook is less than 1 centavo. In three years, this will rise to six times or 10 times this amount,” he said.
Ople said that social media could help them achieve virality. He said a social media post, when done right, could have an impact equivalent to that of a commercial shown for a week on primetime TV.
Ople was invited by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts to speak before representatives of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino, National Historical Commission, National Library and National Museum.
The NCCA and PLDT wireless unit Smart Communications have a longstanding partnership on initiatives such as the Kultoura Philippine travel guide app, which was launched in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and InnoPub Media.
During his talk at the NCCA office in Manila, Ople said that the Philippines had nearly 70 million internet users, almost all of whom were on Facebook. “Filipinos’ internet usage is seen to hyper-accelerate in the next two to three years.”
This, he said, is also the reason why PLDT and Smart are continuously expanding and enhancing their fixed and mobile networks.
Ople, however, reminded the training participants that it is not enough to be present online and accumulate a lot of followers.
“Having a website does not make you digital. What being digital means is you’re able to move fast, change fast, and decide based on the rich data available to you,” he said.