Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak describes 2011 as the year for him to explore the use of the social media to increase interaction with the rakyat.

The exploration began early in the year when, for the first time, Najib invited people to ask him questions on the social website Twitter and Facebook .

"I didn't expect such a great response but I managed to respond to some of the questions, even the peculiar ones," Najib writes, recalling the events throughout 2011 in his latest entry, "2011 In Review", in his 1Malaysia blog today.

Looking at its success, the prime minister said that in the following month, he had invited 600 "online" friends for an afternoon tea session at Seri Perdana in the programme "Mari Berjumpa, Mari Berhubung".

His willingness to explore new methods resulted in numerous invitations to communicate with the youths via online.

1Malaysia Roundtable

"Immediately after, I was invited to do a "Gotcha" prank on radio by the morning crews of Hitz.fm . I also made appearances on the morning shows of Radio Era , Mix.fm and Hot.fm ," he says.

Based on the cyber experience he had gained, Najib said in June he introduced the 1Malaysia Roundtable, an interactive platform for Malaysians to provide fair and constructive comments, suggestions or ideas to better the lives and the people of Malaysia.

"I also took part in one session where I discussed a budget for sustainable growth," he said.

Another important milestone in his social media journey was when he introduced his very own Mobile Application for smartphones, which could be downloaded from his Facebook page and 1Malaysia website.

During the year, Najib also introduced some official 1Malaysia merchandise and gave plenty away through the 1Malaysia Merchandise campaign.

Najib also hoped that all Malaysians would continue to join him in making more positive progress next year, in the spirit and practice of 1Malaysia.

"At the end of year, it always feels as though the year had gone by too quickly," he says in the posting.

- Bernama