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  1. Is Mobile Overhyped in Africa? Posted in Emerging Markets, Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Agnes Sokol January 28, 2011 2 comments

    2010 seems to have been the year of mobile media. At every turn, we were bombarded with statistics on mobile networks, ideas for new mobile campaigns and the overarching message that without incorporating mobile strategy, we were somehow missing out. The craze of mobile media was heard loud and clear but it has lead me to wonder whether it is properly deserved. In Africa, is mobile truly critical or if has it been overhyped as the must-have technology this past year? Read Further

  2. Can you use Mxit to engage with your community? Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Neerali Gajjar January 26, 2011

    Mxit is a free application that allows users to send instant messages to each other as well as to other IM clients such as Gtalk, ICQ and MSN. According to a Cell Smart presentation, Mxit’s main users are between the ages 19-25. If this is the demographic you are after then Mxit is the perfect platform to interact with your target market. Read Further

  3. Foursquare, Yes or No? Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg January 25, 2011 17 comments

    Last week Sachin wrote a post on Location-based social networks and building a community online. In his post Sachin asked “should you, as a digital marketer, jump into creating campaigns for location-based social networks?”

    According to Sachin, “the reality is that these social networks aren’t particularly popular in developed countries yet and they are pretty much unknown in developing countries (we’re looking at 3 million users which is still a very low number). Unfortunately, it still feels that we haven’t managed to effortlessly integrate locations into the way we use the internet.”

    Read Further

  4. 3 Successful Mobile Marketing Campaigns Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Agnes Sokol January 21, 2011 1 comment

    Mobile marketing is on the rise and some of the world’s most successful brands are working hard to engage their clients via interactive mobile marketing campaigns. Here are examples of 3 innovative campaigns which were put together by mobile marketers and did wonders for the brands they were promoting. Check out campaigns from Nike, Dove and American Express which helped to put mobile marketing initiatives on the map!

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  5. Location-based social networks and building a community online Posted in Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Concocted by Sachin Ranchod January 20, 2011

    Over the last couple of years, location-based social networks have been much hyped as the savior of online advertising.  In case you missed the boat – the basic idea is that the social network uses the user’s location to enhance their experience whilst they are on the network.  Ideally, you want to be able to quickly say “I’m here” to your followers (and advertisers) and have them says “Cool, check out this coffee shop around the corner”. Read Further

  6. Is the mobile web only for kids and geeks? Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by LouisJvR January 19, 2011 3 comments

    A recent study by marketing research company Pew Internet found that social networking site usage grew 88% among Internet users aged 55-64, and the 65 and older group’s social networking presence grew 100% during 2010. A great deal of this upward trend has been attributed to a marked increase in mobile usage amongst this demographic. Indeed the demographics around the mobile web is fragmenting by the day. Read Further

  7. What brands are embracing mobile technology to build their community? Posted in Branding Online, Community Management, Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Jason Bagley January 18, 2011

    Here are 3 brands using mobile to help grow their community and further connect with their customers:

    Guinness VIP

    Guinness have rolled out a mobile social network powered by Motribe for the numerous Guinness drinkers. It’s a platform for consumers to belong to  community where they get information relating to football, make friends, chat and connect. It also offers competitions which users on their VIP network will quality for.

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  8. How to make your website mobile friendly Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Fred Roed January 17, 2011 7 comments

    These days it’s becoming a standard question in client meetings; “…what about mobile?”

    Clients have realized that building a community is critical to their marketing campaigns. Brands like Red Bull and Ray Bans are hitting the social channel hard. Gucci are moving millions from their traditional budgets to engagement via social media.  As social networking becomes increasingly more important in community building strategies, we need to be cognisant of some seismic changes in the mobile environment – the key one being that audiences are looking at Facebook and Twitter more via their mobile phones than on their desktop devices. Read Further

  9. Has Mobile Marketing changed the game for advertisers? Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Ettienne Mostert January 14, 2011

    The affordability and accessibility of mobile devices means mobile marketing plays a major role in the modern marketing environment. The question is whether mobile marketing is the next marketing Utopia or the Dystopia many digital adverting platforms have proven to be. Truthfully, I don’t know the answer, but I would like to examine a case study of a mobile marketing campaign that has worked and extract some insight out of it. Read Further

  10. Social networking on your mobile phone: child’s play or adults only? Posted in Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Concocted by Lauren Potgieter January 13, 2011

    Social networking straight from your mobile phone; we all do it. If we see something great, we snap a quick picture and add it to our Twitter or Facebook accounts for others to see. If we want to get in contact with a friend, a phone call is no longer needed, all we have to do is log onto Mxit or Whatsapp and we can chat for as long as we want for the fraction of a price of a regular phone call or a text message. Even though some of us are wary of utilizing our phones for social networking, the truth is that it is not age discriminating and there is no doubt that this applies to all forms of communication today. Read Further

  11. Should you modify your site for Mobi? Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Neerali Gajjar January 12, 2011 5 comments

    Cell phones have come a long way, from being the size of bricks and only able to make calls, to now virtually being hand held PCs (or Macs). Calls aren’t the primary reason to use a cell phone, according to the New York Times, “for the first time in the United States, the amount of data in text, e-mail messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices in 2009 surpassed the amount of voice data in cell phone calls.” Read Further

  12. Twitter: “40% of All Tweets Come From Mobile” Posted in Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Concocted by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg January 11, 2011 1 comment

    Mashable posted a very interesting article a few days ago on the amount of tweets coming from our phones. The estimation was 40% of all tweets are coming from mobile phones. Read Further

  13. Use of Mobile Technology for Humanitarian Aid Posted in Emerging Markets, Mobile Marketing, Concocted by Agnes Sokol January 10, 2011

    Mobile media technology is increasingly being used in emergency and humanitarian media response programmes.  Mobile communication allows people in disaster-affected areas to access humanitarian aid information and make their voices heard in these crises situations. It also allows aid agencies to provide vital services in an effective manner and to stay connected during disasters. Read Further

  14. How to get your message across in 140 characters on Twitter Posted in Social Media, Twitter, Concocted by LouisJvR January 5, 2011 2 comments
    “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
    - William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946)
    Professor William Strunk Jr, author of the first editions of The Elements of Style* (1918), was one of the first to publish a writing guide to English usage. His objective was to focus on a few essentials relating to the rules of usage and principles of composition. His statement “vigorous writing is concise” rings as true today, whether in writing a novel or getting your message across in 140 characters**.
    <end of excerpt>
    Thus, here are 10 lessons in writing for Twitter – inspired by an academic from the nineteen hundreds:
    1.     Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal tweets.
    2.     Omit needless words (same goes for use of excessive punctuation marks!!!!!!!).
    3.     Drop the adjectives.
    4.     If you are indecisive or unsure of what to tweet, rather say nothing.
    5.     Use complete words, find shorter synonyms or at the very least recognisable abbreviations. DO NOT use text message lingo when tweeting. EVR.
    6.     Do not break your tweet in 2.
    7.     When asking a question, choose either rhetoric or open-ended questions as they are more conducive for generating feedback tweets.
    8.     Have purpose when tweeting. Know to whom your tweet is meant for and what you are expecting in response to that tweet (if at all). If you want someone to click on a link, tell them so accordingly
    9.     When referencing a link in your tweet, make use of url shorteners to help you make the most of 140 characters.
    10.  Lastly, a point I never get tired of hearing – to borrow from The Cluetrain Manifesto’s 95 Theses: “Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.” Read your tweets out loud before posting. Do they sound uncontrived?
    So, now over to you – what do you find works well when composing a tweet?
    *you can read the complete version of Strunk Jr’s The Elements of Style (1918) here.
    **have you ever asked yourself the question: Why 140 Characters? Check it out: http://www.140characters.com/2008/11/13/hello-world/

    “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

    - William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946) Read Further