Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor partnered with social media behemoth Facebook to bring the fifteenth edition of its Net Monday gathering to Myanmar’s fourth largest city, Mawlamyine, in Mon state.
Under the topic “Social network to connect the World”, the event was attended by about 400 attendees, and covered topics regarding the use of Facebook for personal, social and business networking.
Net Monday is a monthly industry event organised by Telenor Myanmar to push a dialogue on topics related to the growing digital and online community in Myanmar.
“We believe internet is one of the most powerful tools for economic and social progress in emerging markets like Myanmar. It gives people access to education, knowledge, jobs, health information, and a large number of opportunities. Social media is driving adoption of the internet the world over, and we want to help our customers in Mawlamyine gain awareness of social network, especially Facebook which is the largest social media platform everywhere,” said Sharad Mehrotra, chief of marketing officer of Telenor Myanmar.
“We hope that our customers in Mawlamyine are enjoying the benefits of connecting to the world via their favourite social networks, from wherever they are,” Mehrotra said.
As part of this Net Monday event, Telenor employees helped customers in Mawlamyine create Facebook and Gmail accounts from April 27 to May 3.
“I came here to join Net Monday with my friends as I’m interested in understanding how we can both leverage the many benefits of Facebook in personal, social and business life, but also how we can mitigate the risks that are sometimes present when using open networks such as these,” said Ma Ei Phyu, a student of Mawlamyine University.
Telenor, which has 1.2 million Facebook fans in Myanmar, also recently held a Facebook Live Chat session between its management team and customers. Headed by Chief Executive Officer Petter Furberg and Mehrotra, the company said it responded to more than 4,000 queries and feedback in a three-hour session.
“Social networks, especially Facebook, are not just a place to interact between friends and families, but also a valuable platform for businesses to connect with customers. Initiatives such as our live chat session are often effective ways of unearthing insights and innovative ideas to drive constant improvements, simply by listening to the people who use our services, and where they want us to do better. We are certainly looking forward to doing more of such sessions in the future,” Mehrotra added.
