Author Archives: admin

A line in an article I read recently  stood out in neon:  Even an executive never sends a tweet or posts a status update, they must know what social media is and what it means for their business. 2011 was a breakthrough year for social media.  There was so much hype and hyperbole that many businesses rushed to put up Facebook pages and open Twitter accounts only to be faced with the very real question of “Now what?”.  Others still immediately blasted out their advertising messages only to be met with derision and ghost town followings. 2012 will be the … Continue reading →

Use your Facebook lists! As our use of Facebook evolves we are building up “friends”  in very different areas of our lives.  We have our close family, our not so close family, close friends, business associates, work colleagues and on and on.  Each plays a specific role in our lives and what we do. And as these friends grow it becomes important to deliver the right messages to the right people. By not paying attention to this you may be offending or upsetting groups of friends or you might be getting blocked by people that you may later want to … Continue reading →

2011 was the year that social media went viral in South Africa: The number of “experts” in the field mushroomed, there were seminars, talks and a scramble for business.  Out of the confusion came one, unassailable fact:  Business must go social. In 2012 the international trend will be Social Intelligence with an emphasis on knowledge, intelligence about your business, industry and competitors.  This is and always has been the first step in developing a social media programme that is sustainable. Monitoring the social web and knowing what is being said about you, your industry and your competition. And through this intelligence, … Continue reading →

Nandos most recent triumph, their “Last Dictator Standing” is indeed a triumph. When I first saw it last Friday I was quite literally gobsmacked.  A stroke of genius.  I couldn’t stop watching it.  I instantly annoyed several friends and colleagues, insisting they stop what they are doing and watch.  And I would watch it with them. I posted the following status update on Facebook: For my money the Nandos Last Dictator ad is a stroke of genius that is difficult to comprehend. Truly amazing. I shortly received a comment asking “Why do you feel that, Ryan?” That sort of stopped … Continue reading →

I attended the MyBroadband 2001 conference today at Vodaworld. There were some incredible data that came out of this.  Some of the more impressive numbers: There are currently 4 billion connected devices in the world.  This will reach 15 billion by 2015 and 50 billion by 2020.  Staggering Vodacom has spoken about a minority of people that have figured out how to abuse the Blackberry Internet Service.  The record for abuse is someone who downloaded 342 gigs of data in a month through the service (not bad for R59). In two years Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys predicts that every phone … Continue reading →

By far the most frequent refrain from business people when I talk to them about going social is “I just don’t have the time.”  The implication in this statement of course is “who has time to wade through the drivel that people post on Facebook”.  And fair enough. The simple answer to the conundrum of time and social media is this:  A business will spend time on anything in direct proportion to its return of value.  Of course you’re not going spend time on anything that isn’t growing or helping your business.  A solid and obvious policy. Having said that … Continue reading →