Aug08
08
Mind The 2.0 Talent Gap
Vincent Maher and I spent a fascinating day in a very sunny Cape Town with the Design Indaba team today. On the way to the session at the gorgeous 12 Apostles Boutique Hotel (kudos to the staff - best service I’ve experienced in ages) we got chatting about the state of the social Web, and the community around it, in South Africa.
Just in case you hadn’t noticed it, corporate South Africa has officially woken up to the opportunities of the social Web and is snatching up South Africa’s social media talent (be it development, design or strategic) quicker than I can say ‘there go my future employees’. Rafiq to 24.com, Matt to 24.com, Vince to Vodacom, Andy to FNB, Nic to… well Nic’s been everywhere. Some of our clients have employed dedicated digital community managers. Companies like SAB, Kagiso media and others are searching for talent. It’s a good time to be a ’scoail media expert’ - to be frank guys that one or two years ago weren’t worth more than a fart in a gale to these companies are now being offered salaries five or six times what they’re currently earning to move.
As this happens the ’second tier’ of South African social media experts is moving into prominence. I hesitate to name any names just in case they get pissed off because I called them ’second tier’, but the burning question is who will come in behind these young snots and take up the mantle of making businesses out of social media trends and platforms?
The SA blogosphere is small. MUCH smaller than you and I like to think. And many of the young upstarts - the enthusiasts and evangelists (myself included) are having to serisouly settle into jobs (either self-employment) or corporate positions, leaving the space open for a new generation of young 2.0 entrepreneurs.
Problem it will take some time before social media is a regular curricular feature in our schools, varsities, design and ad colleges and even our business schools. These things take time and Web 2.0 isn’t really slowing down to allow academia to catch up (which is why - and how - Dave Duarte is successful). So what are we doing as a community to encourage young snots to get excited about Web 2.0 and challenge our circle-jerkiness??
We need more Charl Normans - young blighters who piss us old dogs off because they’re challenging our geeky pedestals and showing us how we should run our businesses (and build our portfolios).
Vincent and I were talking about putting together a roadshow that would tour universities and other educational institutions to promote the social Web and it’s opportunities and challenges to this new generations so that they can continue to challenge the Status Quo and keep us all on our toes. In the long run it’ll be better for all of us.
Disclaimer: Fabulous single malt whiskey influenced the typing of this post. I apologise for any grammatical shortcomings or slurs. My intentions were good 
Loved the post, and the disclaimer!
Just for the record, Nic’s moving to Zoopy - and we’re far from ‘corporate South Africa’
@Jason ja ja I know. Can’t a guy have a little fun??
“Vincent and I were talking about putting together a roadshow that would tour universities and other educational institutions to promote the social Web and it’s opportunities..”
Awesome!!! Count me in! I just gave an impromptu lecture on the merits of research and its connection to social media.
I think there are incredible opportunities for business women and men in the social media industry; Mike I think the difference between you and many other bloggers as I’ve said before is a) you’re not a blogger and b) Cerebra focuses on corporate brand exposure and that is a sustainable revenue stream. There are too many “upstarts” who want to enter into the saturated “social media” industry but lack direction / focus.
Another great thought-starter and please keep me in the loop about the possibility of ensuring social media hits varsities.
@ awesome Vince - thanks for your contribution. Am I not a blogger??
Hi Mike lol at yr disclaimer.:) love the roadshow idea…education is the key to a greater understanding and better interaction. Nice!
A road show is informative but education is still another issue altogether.
Here’s how I see it:
1) Education in my mind means skills that are lacking. These skills range from technical to business and both are highly underdeveloped here in SA. What we clearly need to do is change this.
2) It also comes down to money. While starting up an online business isn’t as financially draining as an offline business it’s the money required to survive while waiting for the business to take off that is often a problem. We need more tech related Venture Capital.
My 2 cents on an excellent post about something that needs to be acted on ASAP.
Dude! I think the presentation skills in this post were….
Oh… hang on… this isn’t a 27 Dinner.
Damn.
And here I’ve been getting bollocksed left right and centre for apologising for my comment. Sigh.
I’m sortry I apologised, okay?
Blue skies
love
Roy
Count me in.
@SaulK I agree and disagree. I think too many young digital entrepreneurs don’t even attempt their ideas simply because they think money is a barrier. Sometimes the hardest part of running a marathon is putting your shoes on.
The reason I put money second is because online businesses are something you can often run in your spare time. It is obviously important for every business.I still think that skills are the biggest problem.
“Sometimes the hardest part of running a marathon is putting your shoes on.” - Have you had more Whiskey???
Mike - You crack me up dude!!
Thanks for the mention.
Yep - Financial Mail, Mail & Guardian and I am settling at Zoopy!!
Not too bad if you ask me…
Howdy Mike,
The other day when I told you I would move to Jo’burg as soon as you guys get an ocean, was only partially true.
In my opinion, what makes this job so much more fascinating is that companies are starting to shove money behind the idea, which is tremendous.
Even for WineCountry, which is still a far cry from where I want (need) it to be, I think it is something that has taken the wine world (in SA) by surprise. Besides Stormhoek, a brand most wineries used to only reference in envious conversation, it’s enlightening to see so many of them now opening up to the possibilities and dare to spare a buck for digital.
As you will know, taking the risk in executing on new ideas only comes through confidence. There’s few of us willing to spend a clients money only to see it fail.
What is so rewarding for me at this stage is to see wineries (from the drop in a bucket, Paarl) getting some worthwhile exposure on the internet, a channel (previously) much more conducive to big brands, the media and technology.
Subsequently, when these wineries started seeing the results, it’s astonishing how relaxed they are becoming in allocating more generous amounts toward achieving our goal, which is to strongly cement the Wine Industry of South Africa on a global digital map, where I fear we have fallen behind dramatically.
Salary? I’m living well…it’s taken an initiation period to establish my reputation, but it’s coming into fruition nicely now.
Next goal: To educate some of you techno geeks and have you experience quality wine and the rewarding wine lifestyle.
I must be one of the “young snots”. Watch your back old man!
I’ve been trying to get the OER (open education resources) message into universities. The more people I speak to, the more I realize how massive the innertia of these institutions are. The thought of trying to get them to even think about social media boggles me.
The sad thing is that people like MIT’s Phillip Greenspun have been teaching how to build online communities for years… and for free! (Google Software Engineering for Internet Applications)
Never mind the digital divide, we’re smack bang in the middle of the information divide.
[...] you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!As Mike Stopforth mentioned yesterday, we spent some quality time together yesterday discussing the future of the Design Indaba and the [...]
Fantastic Mike!
Let’s see how successful the 2.0 evangelists are in all these corporates. It’s a delicate, delicate balancing act. Patience from the entrepreneurial spirit. Vision from the corporate. And both side’s ability to sell a strategy and only then, live the dream…
Andy - good luck “boet” a very insightful comment.
I’ve been introduced to social media via my New Media course @ Rhodes Uni. Am hooked on it now, and would like to get a foot into the “industry” next year, but have no idea how to.
[Wish you guys could make a trip down to Grahamstown next weekend, for the Careers Fair for final year students. Or maybe next year
]
qudsiya - if you are in Gtown (the Gspot!!) then I suggest making a start at the DCI this year and the Highway Africa conference. Try and attend, listen to the speakers who are present and make some connections, get them drunk (that’s what we’ll all be down there for) and get to know the key players..
I’d say Zoopy is a corporate, now being owned/part owned by Vodacom? Mike your post also doesn’t take into account that I’d been with M&G for past 8 years. They are a corporate… a very entrepreneurial corporate… but a corporate non the less. If you have to fill out a form, it’s a corporate. I filled out lots of forms.
[...] Mind The 2.0 Talent Gap [...]
[...] There have been a number of interesting posts on the topic recently (see Mike Stopforth’s here), and I hoped that Yusuf could offer some insight into how to go about finding talent and being [...]
[...] as the blossoms of our baby blogosphere started to show fruit they’ve been whipped off by corporate harvesters as Vincent & Mike have pointed out. Initially from local companies scooping the ones that glow [...]