Posts in The Web / Net
Branding South Africa, a Native endeavour
Every company, product and service seems to be jumping on the online marketing bandwagon with brand campaigns winning awards left, right and centre. If food, spas, insurance companies and clothing retailers can all have great brand campaigns then why not a country? That’s exactly what South Africa is going to get now that Native Inside has been appointed as the overseer of Brand South Africa.
Native Inside, a part of Native which is a digital marketing solutions agency, is now challenged with the task of promoting Brand South Africa in the online community. The company’s chief growth officer, Kevin Lourens, told Bizcommunity that they are “very excited to be working with the IMC [the Interntaional Marketing Council] and promoting Brand South Africa in the digital sphere. He also pointed out that the company and its employees are proud South Africans and they relish the privilege to represent their country in this capacity. It was the IMC which appointed the brand company with such a task and Lourens and his team are excited to be working with the council.
Tags: brand south africa, digital marketing, native inside, proudly south african
Social media: the cool kid on the block
The gateway to a successful marketing campaign
It’s becoming more and more apparent that if you want your company to succeed or your brand to be a household name you have to rely on a strong online presence. You also need to ensure you manage your community online with focus and professionalism; many people will remember Nestle’s and BP’s horrendous online presence for years to come.
Dominique Pienaar of memeburn.com writes about what she believes will have the biggest impact within the next year now that the virtual world, with its blogs, social networks and online communities, is playing a pivotal role in most marketing campaigns around the world.
@CapeTown on Twitter
Twitter is becoming more and more popular with big and small communities following one another religiously on the social network. A really cool aspect of the site is that people living in a particular city can actually be brought closer together via the 140-character status updates or “tweets”. Currently Cape Town has an active Twitter account (follow them at @CapeTown) that seems to create a wonderful sense of togetherness in the online world between young professionals, hardworking creatives and just about any other person living in the Mother City.
The ultimate mission of the @CapeTown twitter profile and website is to “build a vibrant Twitter-based community of Capetonians that support each other, and open windows to many diverse lifestyles in the city” (atcapetown.co.za).
Tags: local community online, local professional community online, twitter
Niche publications: making it easier for the advertisers
Information and content has been made readily available with devices such as the laptop, BlackBerry and iPad making it easy for individuals to access special interest sites. The advent of the online world has made it possible for people who love cooking Thai cuisine to connect with one another and antique collectors around the world to compare pieces. You can Google pretty much any topic and be sure to find more than a few interesting hits. It’s not surprising then that niche publications have been sprouting up all over the interweb in an effort to meet the likes and dislikes of people around the globe.
Tags: niche markets, niche publications, online advertising, online communities
Introducing paranoia: the internet
So, 2011 has kicked off and already we’ve been told that not only are Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson dead, but also Facebook will end on the 15 March. Huh? That’s right, the two comedic actors were pronounced dead and the demise of the popular online social network site was to follow.
The news affected hundreds of thousands of people around the world who mourned the death of their favourite comedy actor or frantically started saving every photo of themselves in a frenzy before Facebook disappeared forever.
The internet grows in popularity every year as more and more people become computer literate and savvy to the online world. And while the web is a wonderful political, educational and social tool for individuals, groups and schools there are a growing number of online users who abuse the freedom that it affords.
Wikipedia has world domination in its sights
Wikipedia is 10 years old, which is not bad going 
considering founder Jimmy Wales didn’t have much hope for it following the disaster that was his first online encyclopaedia – Nupedia. In his wildest dreams Wales hoped Wikipedia would become one of the top 100 websites in the world; it’s now the fifth most popular site. Many people hop onto Wikipedia before hitting Google when they want to find information. It’s the magical all-knowing portal from which all information flows. At least if you’re one of the masses.
Tags: wikipedia, wikipedia 10th birthday, wikipedia encyclopaedia
Telkom, pick up the pace
Telkom’s 384Kbps ADSL is apparently not deemed ‘fast internet’, according to the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA).
The service provider has been called out for stating in a commercial that its Telkom Simple 384Kpbs ADSL service is ‘Fast Internet’. The company launched the new service late last year and offered DSL384 Internet access, 1GB of data per month, line rental and free landline calls after peak times for under R400 a month. Sounds pretty decent, but someone isn’t impressed.
That someone is Bivesh Pema. The ‘Fast Internet, Free Landline Calls’ angle that Telkom was punting didn’t bode well with Pema who took up his grievances with the ASA. The Telkom Simple advertisment, which tells viewers that its service includes ‘fast and reliable internet’ and ‘more data at much higher speed’ is, according to the disgruntled subscriber, misleading because it is not quick at all.
Tags: ASA, telkom, telkom simple
IPCalypse?
In early December last year, MyBroadBand published a piece on the IPcalypse. The predication was that there are less than 90 days until the pool of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses is exhausted. IPv4 is the most widely deployed Internet Layer protocol, and uses 32-bit (four byte) addresses which limits the address space to 4,294,967,296 (232) possible unique addresses.
When the Internet Protocol that supports the Internet was created, it was initially just an experiment conducted by academics and a total number of 4.3 million addresses was considered to be more than enough. IP version 4 was born but the growth in popularity of the online world to its current point was never imagined.
Tags: internet, Ip addresses running out, IPv4
Broadlink/iBurst in illegal spectrum usage conundrum
After rumours recently surfaced about Broadlink’s illegal wireless links and spectrum usage, the telecoms giant has assured the public that it is well within the law.
South Africa’s need for bandwidth increases continuously and Broadlink grasped the opportunity to provide operators, service providers and businesses with reliable, high speed wireless connections. It provides MetroNet a “fixed-wireless point-to-point data solution boasting high throughput and quality service” through licensed microwave technology. Broadlink says that MetroNet is “scalable and it is used for both primary and secondary links in order to fulfill certain redundancy requirements”.
However, while Broadlink has seen the successful growth of their network, and has been signing up new customers, rumours have started emerging about the telecoms company using spectrum illegally.
Tags: bandwidth, broadlink, ICASA, illegal, South Africa, spectrum usage
Philippines Senate put the web to good use
In a time when the South African government is trying to muzzle the country’s media and the US government believes that WikiLeaks is anarchist, it’s refreshing to see the Philippines Senate embrace transparency by streaming sessions live on the internet. The idea comes from Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, who was inspired by President Benigno Aquino’s pledge to increase government transparency.
The aim is to engage the public, fight corruption and make the youth more politically aware than they are now. Senator Pangilinan also wanted to give the public access to the public hearings on the proposed 2011 budget, which was to be passed on 1 December. Commenting on the move, Pangilinan said, “Opening public proceedings to new media of late has become a vital source of interaction not only in the country but in other countries’ governments as well. Our aim is to provide the public … accurate information, transparency and accountability … this is also aligned with the goals of the Aquino administration in having the public participate in governance.”
Tags: philipines, the web
