What was your role as designer for the World Design Capital online community?

Firstly, to clarify, I wasn’t the graphic designer. My role as designer was more centered around design thinking and in terms of that, I basically managed the digital account side of things.  My role as a designer was to help come up with creative solutions for The Cape Town Partnership and then manage my side of the campaign as we were constantly collaborating with other various organisations. It was all about how we could pull together all our ideas to come up with solutions that would best serve the campaign on a limited budget. A lot of people think The World Design Capital title is only about design and architecture and crafts, but it is also about design thinking; finding creatively centered solutions for problems and improving life in Cape Town through a way of thinking that benefits all the various stakeholders. So my role as designer was more about coming up with creative solutions as opposed to actual graphic design.

What are the key things you need to consider when designing for a cause or international bid?

The key objective isn’t sales or making money, it is about getting the cause out there and getting people roused. You need to support the cause and be inspired enough to act in alignment with that cause. Three of the four clients that I manage are like that. When working for a cause, it is really important to be clear with your message, to make sure it is focused and inspiring. Once you have worked out your positioning, it needs to be translated into something that inspires people to take ownership of that cause and even become an ambassador for that cause.

So for The World Design Capital, we worked with The Cape Town Partnership. Their message is all about improving Cape Town as a city and creating a world class experience for those living in Cape Town and those visiting. It is about maintaining high standards and constantly working to improve the city, when at times it seems like that is sometimes under threat.

We are also working on The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation. Here it is about spreading the message of peace through various programs and creating awareness and understanding around his legacy. With Green College Online, it isn’t only about the courses that they offer – the cause is about educating people on how to become greener and being more aware about the environment.

So most importantly, it is about being clear with your message. It isn’t about clicking to buy. It is about clicking to act; clicking to align yourself with this cause.

What did you find most challenging about working on this campaign?

There are so many people who were and still are seriously passionate about Cape Town’s World Design Capital bid and they are all very inspired to be part of it. So the biggest challenge was to get everyone to apply design thinking and collaborate. Everyone wanted to have their own part in it, but we need people to combine their ideas so that the finished product is greater than the sum of its parts. In the creative industry, there is a very high level of respect, so when people get passionate it becomes difficult.

Another challenge was how to explain design thinking to the general public. Being a social media campaign, it wasn’t necessarily about reaching industry professionals who know what it’s all about. It’s about engaging with the ground level public, so the challenge was how to explain a concept that is very difficult to get across, along with a cause that is very complex and get people to engage with this. We had to find ways to put across this way of thinking in a way that was accessible and understandable.

Is Cape Town’s focus on ‘designing for transformation’ influencing the work you do and your approach to design? If so, how?

It inspires me. The fact that it’s becoming such an important topic in the public mindset, especially in Cape Town. It’s inspiring because it keeps us accountable for what we do.

What are the practical lessons we can learn from the campaign, both the failures and successes?

Once again, collaborating. I think that quite a big part of the success was that it is such a strong cause. It is going back to the idea of finding a cause, relating the campaign back to a cause that inspires people because once they are inspired, half the battle is won.

What do you think gave Cape Town the cutting edge over Dublin and Bilbao?

I think being an African city and South Africa being a developing country, we have so much more potential to apply design thinking in order to solve problems. I think our problems are a lot more real and therefore design thinking can really prove what creative collaboration is all about in terms of solutions and I think the judges saw that.

What made it interesting as well was the idea of Cape Town being a city that was originally designed to be separate. You know, we have District 6 and the townships. So the challenge now is how do we integrate it? How do we connect town to township? How do we create an inclusive city that is involves everyone, rather than keeping them separate? That is the greatest challenge. It is a pressing issue and something that needs to happen. It’s what makes it such a worthy cause. Cape Town is an international destination and a point of unity that the world looks up to, so it’s so important to get these things right. Whenever I say that to people, that’s when it really hits home. When they understand the cause of design for solutions. Cape Town is such a good example of a problem that needs to be addressed by design solutions and a great example of how design thinking should be applied.

And finally, who are your design heroes?

Ravi Naidoo, the founder of The Design Indaba. He bought the awareness of design thinking and high standards to Cape Town and raised the consciousness around it. For aesthetics, Peter Saville and David Carson for breaking the mould. Stefan Sagmeister, for being incredibly conceptual. And Steve Jobs for thinking Apple!

Thank you for sharing your creative strategic approach with us Stephanie. We look forward to seeing the growth leading up to 2014!

This technique has worked well for the likes of local star Gian Visser (@gianvisser) of Afrihost,  Michael Arrington (@arrington) of TechCrunch, Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) of AllTop and of course, our very own Fred Roed (@Fred_Roed), CEO of World Wide Creative.

But why has this change taken place?

People are beginning to pay less attention to what brands have to say on Twitter.  This is thanks to the vast number of companies whose tweets lack authenticity, transparency, genuine concern and interest in what the public is saying.  So, instead of following a brand, people are following personalities associated with a company – personalities who have a vested interest in listening to what those around them have to say.  Essentially, we are looking to use Twitter to create direct 2-way communication channels between ourselves and the brands that we are interested in.

When does this approach work best?

People need a reason to follow your CEO – they have to have something interesting to say.  Iconic leaders who have real life experience and insights work best.  Their writing style needs to be real so as to bring out their personality and passion clearly.  But, the most important trait of a successful personality is that they need to actively engage with their client base.  The community need to know that they’re being listened to and that their suggestions might be implemented.

However, it’s no good just talking shop the whole time – giving your followers some insight into the rest of your life helps build authenticity.  Nobody wants to see scheduled tweets or tweets that look like they have been written by a PR agency.

When does it all go wrong?

People following a CEO or another personality because they have an affinity towards the brand they represent, will be expecting a certain level of professionalism in their tweets.  What they say will be interpreted as being the view of the organisation as a whole.  If the chosen personality doesn’t have a good understanding of Twitter etiquette or they’re just plain rude, it is possible that they can land up offending and alienating potential customers.  It is also very important that the personality is capable of not taking criticism towards the company personally – they have to be service orientated and they cannot react emotionally when engaging with their followers.

So, should you get your CEO to tweet for your brand?

As long as your CEO is interesting, insightful and polite then it is a great opportunity to build your brand.  But it doesn’t need to be used in isolation – I think the best solution is to find the middle ground where you have both a company twitter account and a couple of personal accounts of key employees.  Getting the different accounts to interact with each other is a great way of building the number of followers around both.  If it’s done successfully, this can become a powerful tool to give ordinary customers unprecedented access to your organisation and its leaders which in turn will help build a high level of brand loyalty.

Each time one of your Twitter followers re-tweets one of your tweets they help develop your Twitter influence. Retweets can help grow your amount of followers, drive traffic to your website and ultimately create more customer conversions. Here are a few tips and tricks you can put into practice to get users retweeting you.

1. Be first

Where possible try to be the first person to break news. If not first, be one of the first. For example you could be walking in a mall and see a ridiculous promotion or an entertaining situation or even unexpected traffic. This way you are informing your followers of something that is useful, new and relevant.

2. Chat

Tweet about things you can converse about. Even if your Twitter accounts is for your business, talking about topics that you can converse about is far more interesting to your followers than self-promotion and none engaging statements. As an individual be careful about talking about yourself too often or you may end up on Tweetingtoohard.com and users will follow you for the wrong reason.

3. Link to something interesting or that adds value

Give your followers the opportunity to spread your content by adding a link to your tweet. Twitter users love spreading content and interesting links. Also, spread other people’s content that you find interesting in return. This way, your Twitter stream will be filled with a variety of interesting links.

4. The golden 25 characters

Twitter allows you enough space for a 140 character message however, if one of your followers wants to manually retweet you they will need a few characters to add the RT and some commentary. Leave at least 25 characters for them to do this. You need to make a retweet as easy as possible for your users and you will reap the benefits. Remember to also use a URL shortener, this saves you loads of space.

5. Unique

This relates closely to being forthcoming on Twitter. To be interesting enough to be retweeted you should offer some sort of uniqueness. This can be an opinion about an event or a unique sense of humour even if it’s controversial. People love quotes, jokes and funny comments.

In the end, you need to be original and genuine when sharing with others. It’s simple, if you share something you genuinely find interesting, chances are other like-minded people will find it interesting as well.

Twitter has become one of the primary mediums of communication for the US Mission allowing for interaction and personalizing the diplomatic corps. Elizabeth has top news stories from around the world waiting for us every morning and as an ex-pat myself, I turn to the Embassy to learn what is happening at home and around the world.

I took some time to chat with Elizabeth about her use of Twitter to create an online community of Americans living in South Africa.

How do you use Twitter to engage your audience?

As a US embassy, we use our stream as a platform to share information and answer questions. While we have a corporate account, @USEmbPretoria, we do share links and items that we think would be of interest to the Twitter community beyond a flood of US Embassy press releases.  Sometimes we succeed, other times, not so much, but we’re still learning.

How frequently do you use Twitter?

Every day. We post links and news, and answer questions as we come across them.  Social media is 24-7. If you are part of the conversation, you need to be in the space and as responsive as possible.

How does Twitter fit in to the overall social media strategy of the US Mission to South Africa?

It’s an important tool. New media in South Africa is a rapidly evolving sphere, and individuals and organizations use Twitter in different ways. We use it to link to our official site, to answer questions, to engage. The DM feature is fantastic, too, to contact people on a deadline.

How does Twitter compare to other social media platforms in online community building?

Twitter users reflect a microcosm of South Africa – we’ve heard estimates of about 60,000 in the country. That said, it’s an opinionated, smart, highly networked group.

What do you think makes a successful online community?

Humor. Interaction. Diversity.

What is your best advice in 140 character to build a community via Twitter?

Be in the space. #CharacterstoSpare

Any extraordinary ex pat stories learned through Twitter?

Lots of great stories during the World Cup – Americans who traveled to South Africa for the Cup had a chance to communicate with South Africans directly, received advice, recommendations, guidance and then shared stories throughout the event. Fun to watch.

To learn more about the US Mission to South Africa find them of Facebook at www.facebook.com/USinSouthAfrica, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/USEmbPretoria or check out the official website at http://southafrica.usembassy.gov/.

Ignorance is not bliss

Do not ignore your Twitter community. As many positive tweets that you have flowing into your Twitter stream, there will always be those few that do not like what you are saying. They might have a grudge against your brand, they may have had a bad service experience or they might just be having a bad day but the truth is that these individuals are out there. Some of us are scared to reply to these tweets and hope that if we do not reply to that hateful comment, it will go away. Wrong. Make sure that you reply in a respectable manner and try and rectify the problem but do not lower yourself to their level – that will only add fuel to the fire.

Turn on the heat, but keep it low

There is no reason to keep quiet, especially on platforms such as Twitter where conversation is key. Make your voice heard, but do not neglect what you are representing. If you’re an individual, then act like one, if you’re a brand, still act like an individual but represent that brand. Keep it tidy and do not shout to make your voice heard, rather speak and then listen – this is a better way to start conversation and keep it going. Twitter communities enjoy debate and there is no doubt that debate is healthy, but make sure that you keep it above board if you’re trying to gain and keep followers. If someone is offended, they will leave and take their conversation with them.

Give and Take

Is that not what it is all about? Without creating senseless noise, give (quality content) as much as you can as this will let others know that you’re not merely an automated response or a Twitter robot filling up others Twitter streams, but a person that is either representing themselves or representing a brand. Think about those 140 characters and how they will be portrayed by others and keep true to your tweets no matter what. Being polite can be one of the most underestimated factors in being a valuable contributor to Twitter and in order for your value to be recognised, you need to interact with others they way you would like to be interacted with.

Just an extra etiquette note:  make sure that you aren’t being polite just to gain a follower or two or being nice out of feeling sorry for someone else. If you feel that someone’s tweets will not contribute to your Twitter stream in a positive way, then do not feel bad for not following that person.

A few weeks back, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) expressed concern about fake Julius Malema accounts on Twitter tweeting misleading messages. The ANCYL’s militant tone of voice in conveying this concern however made for some nice headline-grabbing soundbites. Soundbites that lead to a barrage of responses from journalists, commentators and the Twitter community alike.

But, taking a step back for a second and cutting through the ANCYL’s talent for their creative choice of words, their concern is valid. And one that many a person or organisation has flagged before. This the very same reason why Twitter introduced Account Verification in 2009: a lawsuit was filed against Twitter by the manager of a well-know baseball team in the US back then (details of the case can be found here).

In fact there are a number of cases where Twitter was asked (read: threatened) to shut down fake Twitter accounts:

• Kanye West posted a rant on his blog saying: “Hey Twitter, take the so called Kanye West Twitter down now.”
• Ewan McGregor was considering legal action to remove a fake Twitter account that had attracted 20,000 followers
• Actor/musician Vincent Gallo ordered Twitter to find and shut down fake accounts
• BP asked Twitter to enforce a disclaimer on fake BP Twitter account @BPGlobalPR

The list goes on.

However, as the ANCYL has learned (or not), there are correct ways of dealing with impersonators and then there are the No-No’s that can potentially even exacerbate the problem.

Here are 5 Twitter No-No’s when faced with a fake Twitter account:

TIP #1: Be confrontational, aggressive, threatening in trying to resolve the problem

TIP #2: Stand on a soapbox and rant to the whole world

TIP #3: Failure to acknowledge your ignorance of the nature of the technology and community

TIP #4: Stereotype and paint all Twitter users with the same brush

TIP #5: Failure to setup your own Twitter profile (even if it is only a placeholder profile)

To the last point, by saying that you should create your own official profile, I’m not saying you should now start using Twitter. Take Tiger Woods for example: he (or more likely, his communications team) setup a Tiger Woods Twitter profile back in mid-2009 which, barring 3 tweets promoting his website, stayed dormant for a year and a half. And until recently served its purpose as a placeholder for Tiger on Twitter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bottomline, if fake accounts are your concern it would be worth your while to at the very least have your own profile to inform the general public of, as well as point Twitter to when flagging your concerns with the company. It just makes for good practical sense.

As a standalone entity, Twitter is a powerful tool which allows companies to listen to what people are saying about them and actively engage with their community.  However, the advantages of using Twitter shouldn’t stop when you leave the Twitter website. By breaking out of the isolation of the Twitter website and extending your Twitter presence to an existing website or blog, you can begin to see some of the lesser acknowledged advantages of an active social media profile.

The real benefits of integrating Twitter onto your website don’t come from just having a link to your Twitter profile on your website.  The link does show people that you do have a social media presence but unless they click on a link, it doesn’t show them what you are really about.  Below are some of the reasons you should make your latest tweets visible on your website:

1)  It shows that you are real

Seeing an active Twitter stream will help give visitors to your website the comfort that there are real people behind your website.  Proving your legitimacy is often a make-or-break problem for online businesses.  If a visitor is not 100% sure that they can pick up the phone and talk to a real person, then it is unlikely that they will convert from a visitor to a customer.

There are many ways in which you can try communicate to the user that there are real people behind a website – you can make the phone numbers clearly visible on the home page, you can use live chat features and you can write an extensive ‘Meet the team’ section.  A live Twitter stream with real conversations between real people, is just another tool to help you immediately signal to the visitor that the website and company are real.

2)  It will help keep your website updated

It is often very difficult for businesses to keep their website constantly updated with new content.  Nowadays, a lot of websites incorporate blog functionality to allow companies to make sure that there is always something new on the home page.  However, writing blog posts and news articles can be time consuming and tedious.  Keeping new content flowing on a website is important as it shows a visitor to your site that you are still active and more importantly, that you are up-to-date with the latest industry news.

Twitter updates provide you with the ability to quickly and easily publish content to your website on a regular basis.  However, it is important to note that tweets are not a substitute for blogging – 140 characters is not enough space to adequately discuss a topic and provide in-depth analysis (proving your expertise).

3)  You’ll get good quality followers

Showing your latest tweets on your website makes it easy for visitors to evaluate the quality of your tweets and decide whether they would like to follow you or not. It is often the case that the people who follow you via your website will be your most engaging followers because they have an interest in your business or industry.  These followers are therefore more likely to read your tweets, engage with you and syndicate your content for you.  Followers who are interested in what you have to say will prove to be much more useful to you and your community than those who follow you because of things like ‘follow our CEO to win’ competitions.

4)  People can see that you are knowledgeable

If you tweet about your opinions on the latest industry happening or you tweet back to your followers with advice relating to your business then visitors to your website will begin to see that you are knowledgeable about topics surrounding your business and industry.

5)  Visitors will see that you engage with your community

Finally, people visiting your website will see that you have a community or that you are trying to build a community around your brand.  They will be able to see that you take care of them by answering their questions, listening to their complaints and thanking them for their compliments.  Companies often assume that their Twitter profile is only there to accommodate people who are already on Twitter but the truth is that the tweets on your website can bring new users to Twitter itself.  As the Twitter network grows, your community will grow with it.

A professional Twitter profile can be used as a powerful tool when it is integrated into your website – your tweets accentuate the existing content on your website and it will show visitors that you are knowledgeable, community-focused and real.

It was great seeing some new faces last night (we hope to see you guys soon!). Of course, we always love seeing some familiars one’s as well. Thanks to all who attended last night’s session at Deloitte, Woodmead. We really hope you guys enjoyed it.

We’d like to thank our super smart and awesome sponsors Corona, Backsberg, Deloitte and Channel Mobile for helping make our events stunning.

We’ve got one more Heavy Chef to go before we all sit back and enjoy the Christmas season so keep an eye on our site to see the when’s and where’s!

Disclaimer: this article assumes you follow people you respect, aspire to, trust or find entertaining in some way. Thus, some of the people that follow YOU, are people that you respect, aspire to, trust or find entertaining in some way.

1.Twitter makes you smarter

I follow a lot of folk who I think are smart, and they provide me with a constant stream of references that challenge  the way I do business and inform the way I live my life. An example: Evan Morris (@EvanDigital) tweeted some time back about an author and thought leader called Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who I had never heard of. I followed a link through to his bio, downloaded a talk and then promptly bought his book “The Black Swan”. This book has changed the way I think about strategy, business and investment – amongst other things.

2.Twitter saves you time

I know people may raise their eyebrows here, since it’s often seen as a timewaster. I feel it saves me time in many areas. In the past, I used to read the Cape Times or The Times (when I lived in London) with my morning coffee. It used to take up an hour of my time, every day. Now, I have a routine – I start my day with a cuppa a 5 to 10 mins of Twitter. I usually then have another squiz at around midday, or when I’m on the move (on my iphone); followed by a quick peak before I leave for home at around 4 each day. Another example was when I was trying to source a contact number for Herman Heunis (@HermanHeunis), founder of Mxit. I tried their website. I phoned their call centre. I ended up calling all my ‘connected’ mates – all with no success. Then, in desperation, I tweeted it. Hey presto, I had his direct phone number in a few seconds.

3.Twitter is great for small problems

Problem with your phone? Where to eat in a new town? Need a quick case study for your proposal? Twitter is your go-to guy for an impossibly diverse list of speed-bumps that you face each day.

4.Twitter helps you make tough decisions

What laptop / phone / camera / car to buy? I have ‘crowd-sourced’ my decision making several times via Twitter.

5.Twitter grows your business

Okay, I’m guessing this point is true, since it hasn’t yet been the case for my business (at least, not that I’m aware of). I’ve been told by some of my more ‘influential’ connections on Twitter that it is a great channel for pushing products. I heard a stat (unverified) that a single tweet from Nokia returned the equivalent of R70m in new business. Whether this is true or not, it stands to reason that if you have a lot of followers and you’re prepared to interact with them, Twitter provides you with a direct conduit to persuade consumers to buy from you. Another example is Justin Bieber, who uses Twitter to notify and discuss new songs, tour dates, ideas for videos and even career decision with his audience. His activity on Twitter directly correlates with sharp increases in song downloads*.

*Another example is Lady Gaga of course.

6.Twitter saves you money

We’ve got our last 5 employees through Twitter. Consider that we pay around $1200 average per employee to a recruitment service, this amounts to a significant saving.

7.Twitter makes you a better human being

Don’t laugh. This depends entirely on your point of view. Here’s my reasoning: I believe that self-censorship is our biggest challenge to becoming a truly evolved human being. Twitter is the best training ground for it. I’ll let you fill in the gaps here, but I’m guessing that you follow or know of at least one complete palooka who spews out sheer nonsense on the interwebs – some of which makes you cringe with embarrassment. This ability to analyse and censor what you project on social networks is a talent that we, and future generations of Tweeters, will do well to master.

Many of Heavy Chef’s readers will find this stuff obvious, but I’d dig it if you can add any additional points that I’ve missed.

As CEO of a digital agency, I get involved in a lot of discussions these days about “engaging with the audience”. For this month’s Heavy Chef Session, we’re investigating what the heck it actually means.

After the sheer, ludicrous excitement of last month’s Heavy Chef Session in the Mother City (watch the video featuring the speakers, Seth Rotherham and Rich Mulholland here), we’re back in Jozi for another bumper event.

This month, we’ve invited digital marketing maven Walter Pike, and digital copy maven, Tiffany Markman, to get to the bottom of engagement and interaction in the online environment .

We will be exploring how companies can reach out to their customers and using the ‘new tools’ (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) to actively build a community around a brand.

Walter will also be focusing on the unfolding case study within Cell C’s strategy around its Trevor Noah YouTube debacle.

Email our Heavy Chef girl, Yolandi, if you’d like to attend the Jozi Heavy Chef Session (be quick, seats are limited). There are only 120 seats for the Heavy Chef venue, at Deloitte’s gleaming premises in Woodmead.

Speakers:

• Walter Pike
• Tiffany Markman

Date: Thursday 18th November @ Deloitte Offices in Woodmead (Map)

Time: 6:00pm for 6:30pm

Cost: It’s free, although a bouncer will be filtering people at the door according to their ‘online influence’. (Anyone less than 100 followers on Twitter will be sent packing.)

Furthermore, we’re very pleased to introduce our new wine sponsor, Backsberg. I’m particularly excited to have them on board after recently visiting the Backsberg estate. These guys have got it going on, mixing traditional, sumptuous wine making skills with environment-focused innovations.

As usual, supercool beer goodness will be supplied by Corona.