Social media success: interview with Rudi Leung

Rudi Leung worked for 12 years in creative roles in the advertising sector before starting his MBA and was definitely hoping that the programme would lead to pastures new.

“In advertising, we stay within the industry whereas other businesses interface with each other,” says Leung, who is now general manager at DDB Tribal Group and chose to do his MBA at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) rather than at his alma mater, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “The culture is very different. HKUST is more business savvy and modern in its thinking. I also found the networking really good.”

Another attraction was the focus on entrepreneurship which, he felt, would help someone looking to break new ground in a creative business. It proved especially useful when Leung moved into digital marketing. On completing the course, he first did a brief stint with the MTR Corporation, but felt that the corporate culture didn’t suit him, so moved on to Yahoo!, thanks to an introduction from an MBA classmate.

“I was used to a creative environment and, in 2005, Yahoo! was the best place to be if you were interested in digital marketing. I wanted to know how it all worked and saw a trend I couldn’t miss out on in my career.”

With the birth of the digital era, he could see how search functions had become a vital tool in business marketing and later sensed that social media would have as big an impact on marketing method and corporate strategies.

“We talked about word of mouth marketing for so long, but with social media, it is more organised. It amplifies the power of word of mouth.

Social media has other plus points which let Leung use different skills and ideas. It allows for more creativity and, with newer refinements, it enables more targeted marketing and better results. “It is still trial and error but, before, marketing was much harder,” says Leung, who finds the evolving technology has another obvious advantage. “If you are a fast learner or hungry for information, social media will expose you to all kinds of things.”

(Please click here to read the full story in Education Post.)