NOWADAYS, you get up early to check your Facebook, upload pictures of your meals on Instagram and watch movies or videos on YouTube before going to bed.
Your eyes are always glued to your phone, tablet or computer just to browse or post interesting links or pictures on social media sites.
Just recently, hurr.tv, Malaysia’s lifestyle online portal and video streaming platform, conducted its social media campaign roadshow, FYI, - short for Facebook, YouTube and Instagram - at local campuses.
The first of its series, FYI was held at Multimedia University in conjunction with the university’s Campus Festival 2018.
The highlight of the event was sharing sessions by local social media influencers, such as Ucop, or his real name Mohd Yusof Hashim, and Zukie or Zulkifli Muhammad.
hurr.tv head of content and strategy planning Jaye Lee said FYI roadshow aimed to inspire youth to embrace the power of digital and social media for a positive impact on society, through sharing and discussions with social media influencers and educators.
She said the roadshow, comprising activities, talks and live performances, targeted university students.
“It is to boost awareness on the existence of social media influencers, such as Ucop and Zukie. They have millions of followers on their social media sites, but they are not often seen on television.
“So, we engage them on these roadshows to get them to talk about their journey and share their stories with students.”
Social media influencer Ucop, 25, is an actor and dancer from Kuala Lumpur.
He became famous after he posted parodies and lip-sync videos on social media. His videos were widely shared among Netizens. He is also known as “King of Dubmash Malaysia”.
The eldest of three siblings, Ucop’s talent was spotted by his father as he often won patriotic singing contests, poetry recitation, as well as actively involved in dance performances during his early education at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Sri Delima, Jalan Ipoh.
Ucop, who is interested in the performing arts, has been attending a traditional dance course.
He is also a cultural artist under the Tourism and Culture Ministry’s Department of Culture and Arts.
“I started dancing commercially when I was 17. My first performance was in Gamat’s musical theater in 2010 at Istana Budaya. I made my musical debut as the character ‘Bintang’.”
Five years later, he found the Dubmash app and uploaded a video of him dubbing over Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s single. He made the video with the help of his friends.
“I got an idea to make that video when I was backstage changing clothes and getting touch-up, while preparing for the next round of Baik Punya Cilok show.
“My friends know that I often produce parody videos of Lady Gaga,” he added.
Ucop gained instant fame with more than 300,000 Instagram followers in less than six months.
As his followers are mostly from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, Ucop started introducing fictional characters, such as Thilagesh, Siska , Rowena and Gaga.
“I love doing this. I believe by using social media, I could challenge myself to produce more work in acting.”
His popularity on Instagram even helped him secured a role in Nizam Zakaria’s telemovie, Dua.
He was also named as Top Lifestyle Influencer and Breakout Influencer Of The Year in 2015.
Meanwhile, Zukie, 26, from Kelantan, admitted his life had changed drastically after he uploaded his funny videos on social media, which garnered positive response from fellow Netizens.
He said the videos helped him support his family.
He said he became a social media celebrity not to gain popularity, but because he had his own target to achieve in his life.
“Through my own production house, Kasi Bikin Drama Sdn Bhd, I am earning revenue by making short funny videos.”
He said it started in 2015 when he bought a mobile phone with a video recording function at a price of RM300 and started making short funny videos.
“I have been uploading such videos on my Instagram account ever since.
“The income from being a social media celebrity is quite good. I can help my mother and siblings every month,” said Zukie, who paid his Mazda RX8 in cash.
He has one million Instagram followers and 150,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Even though he has received numerous offers to act in television drama, but he rejected them as he believed that his career was on social media sites and not on the bigger screen.
“I don’t want to be on television too frequent and make people bored of me. I want to be recognised and appreciated on social media,” said Zukie, who was once a zoo keeper with a salary of only RM800 a month.
He said he now owned an advertising company, Viral Media Sdn Bhd, that helped promote products on social media.
“I am serious in this career and already own a company for that purpose. Under the company, I have blogger friends who are active on social media.”
Performing live at the event were the top three winners of hurr.tv’s online talent show, Bakat Ohsem singer Aqeesh Aleeya, freestyle and urban street dance group Nasty Rock Crew and singer Yazmin Aziz.
MMU Campus Festival was organised by Enactus MMU, a non-profit organisation that focuses on social entrepreneurship.
Its president, Afiq Murad, said the event was a joint-effort of various clubs and youth societies in the country.
“We have many social media influencers but we don’t know which direction they are heading to. Are they going to be just entertainers or are they going to use this as a platform to speak up on something important like technology, sustainability or education?
“They should represent youth as I think its crucial for youth to understand that there are other important things in life. They need to know what’s important and how they can develop themselves to become part of the #youthinaction movement and spread good vibes around them,” said Afiq, who is a final year business student at MMU.
He said he was active on social media sites to keep himself informed about the latest happenings in different industries.
“I try to identify what the industries want from the youth and I brand it as #youthinaction. For instance, I try to tackle the issue of youth unemployment and identify what can youth do to address this problem.
“I am passionate in developing youth skills.”
Besides MMU, the roadshow was also held at Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan as well as Universiti Selangor.