MIKESTOPFORTH

I mentioned in a recent post that people love to complain. We are far quicker to pick up on the mistakes of brands and incidences of bad service than we are to compliment and laud when brands exceed expectations. This is human nature. As a direct result my clients typically freak out when presented with [...]

There is much being said about how brands should engage with customers in social media. Words like “authenticity”, “transparency”, “immediacy”, “personability” and others are bandied about as we as consultants, together with our clients, figure out the rules of content and community online. This is a good thing. Brands tend to forget that platforms like [...]

As Cerebra expands its client base with big brands including the likes of Vodacom, Samsung and Toyota, we’re learning valuable lessons about what works when it comes to engaging customers on Twitter. No two brands are exactly the same. Every brand has a different message, culture, strategy and even audience. There’s no arguing that Twitter [...]

In the hope that they will one day evolve into something of substance, I have recently been scribbling down notes on some of the ideas I have around marketing, advertising and communication in general. Bear in mind I share these thoughts purely in my capacity as a consumer – I am no marketing, branding or [...]

I was privileged enough to receive an invite from Reuben Goldberg to join him on an episode of his popular talk show The Internet Economy which airs every Friday night from 7-8 on ClassicFM. We spoke about the broad subject of social media in South Africa, the article I wrote the other day (the Next [...]

The honeymoon is over. Much of the hype and noise surrounding social media and its meteoric rise (especially in the USA) has abated. Perhaps owing to the global economic crisis, arguably due to the apparent lack of sustainable business models and possibly as a result of some semblance of reasonable thinking, we’re no longer reading [...]

Oops, stumbled in a bit late… freakin’ traffic. Thanks to Vincent Maher and Vodacom for my ticket – here are my observations: Rick Joubert: Vodacom Mobile Advertising “Mobile is the seventh mass media… Print, Recording, Cinema, Radio, TV, Internet, Mobile. Reach, targeting, frequency and response make the mobile medium so compelling. “Mobile has twice the [...]

Jeepers, things are cooking. We’ve had to really step up a gear in the last few months to respond to the demand for social and mobile media interventions from agencies and companies alike. I’d like to brag about two projects in particular. Firstly we’re doing work with Internet Solutions in developing IS Labs, an “initiative [...]

The big news in the South African social media scene today is the acquisition of a 40% stake in popular social media sharing site Zoopy by mobile operator Vodacom.

TECH4FRICA, a “web and emerging technology conference for Africa” being organised by Gareth Knight (of Kindo fame) has officially launched it’s website with info about the upcoming event. It’s due to be held at The Forum in Bryanston over 3 and 4 October and already at this early stage has a very impressive speaker line [...]

For some reason I’ve been ignoring MyGenius.com – the Southern African social network for business people. I have been a member since late 2006 – MyGenius’s very early days – and never quite got in to it. I get the odd message from a MyGenius member wanting to connect but have spent little no time on updating my profile or adding content to the site.

Recently I decided to give MyGenius another go based on two realisations. Firstly, the value of social networking is undoubtedly found, or much easier mined, in niche communities. The quintessential example is Charl Norman’s Zooped Up community for owners of modified cars and suchlike – completely useless for me but absolutely invaluable and addictive to people entrenched in that community. MyGenius cannot be compared to MySpace, for example, because it’s not trying to be a globally dominant player. It’s simply trying to do what it does well.

Sachi and Lee LeFever of Common Craft fame occupy a very special, non-romantic place in my heart :) Back in the oooold days (about 3 years ago), when I was still quite unsure of the jargon and buzz behind Web 2.0 and social media, Lee was one of the few ‘A-listers’ who invested personal time and energy into answering my silly questions.

Today they’ve turned that gift for translation and a passion for all things social into a very cool business, producing informative, entertaining videos that quite simply, well, explain stuff. Whether they’re making videos for their ‘Plain English’ series of technology-related shows or for corporate clients, the LeFevers have fine-tuned the art of translation using the very tools they evangelise. Few businesses can boast that!

I call myself a Web 2.0 expert. I run a company, Cerebra, which exists to make money helping our clients understand and where necessary utilise Web 2.0 technologies and trends.

As niche as we are, we’re not alone. We have global and local competitors. In South Africa, we have two kinds of competitors – those that started as social media agencies or companies from day one (Younique, Longtail, would be examples) and then companies that have existed for some time in either the digital sphere or general marketing, advertising or branding spaces that have adapted their focus to align with the ever-increasing need for social media services and products (AtPlay, a division of Saatchi, is the quintessential example).

I attended the inaugural National Speakers Association of South Africa annual convention this past weekend.

It was well worth the investment, and even if watching a multitude of talented, professional overseas and local speakers didn’t result in any life-changing aha-moment (I don’t respond well to motivational talks), there was much self-learning to be done.

The most valuable lesson I’ll take from the weekend is not to underestimate the importance of building your personal brand. This is a difficult one for me, as I feel I need to strike a balance between building a personal brand, not being an egotistical prat and retaining some of what makes me, me.