by Russell Southwood (@BalancingActAfr) In this interview Seanice Kacungira, CEO of Blu Flamingo (@BluflamingoUg) talks about how she and her business partner set up Blu Flamingo in 2010 and how the online advertising space in Uganda is growing.
Tag archives: digital
#trendMARK: Digital does not evolve — it mutates
a trendMARK feature by Andy Gilder (@Andy_Gilder) If you’re chasing the “next big thing” you may end up chasing your own tail, when the answer could be a lot simpler and closer to home. I refuse to bark up the wrong tree.
Dear Digital Grandad: get the best out of LinkedIn
Dear DigitalGrandad…
Righti-o Grandad! Here’s my question:
There’s a lot of buzz about LinkedIn but I can’t decide if its a good place to do social-media marketing. I have about 350 plus connections on LinkedIn and although I don’t get a lot of referrals from it, these people do spend more time on my site if they come from LinkedIn.
It does suggest this is a good place to be active (and all my posts go to my LinkedIn timeline) but LinkedIn itself is quite counter-intuitive in its design. I find LinkedIn hard to navigate and, therefore, time consuming. What are your tips on how to get the best out of LinkedIn as a marketing tool for a website? (The endorsing of skills is particularly irritating. Should I be endorsing connections back? That will be very time-consuming. Will it be worth it?)
Regards and thanks very much!
Gill Moodie, Grubstreet
Dear Digital Grandad: LIKE-it or not – Facebook Page success can not just be attributed to LIKES
Dear DigitalGrandad…
How do I get 10 000 likes on our brand’s Facebook page? My MD told me it’s embarrassing when his kids ask him why only 98 people like our product. I manage an FMCG brand and we fired the PR agency that set it all up for us a while ago.
Brand Manager FMCG
Dear Un-popular
My grand-daughter got more likes on her 6th birthday party Facebook page in 1 day. So yes the MD’s kiddo has asked a valid question and just put the nail in your social media coffin! So you should be “embarrassed” or wake up and take this thing seriously like any other marketing activity.
So to be serious for a second, 98 fans depending on who you are as a business may not be that bad as a starting point. If you’re a small business selling cuddly toys from home – great start I would say!
But as you mentioned you are a FMCG brand, then it sounds like you have a problem and not thought this through!
Dear Digital Grandad: Should my agency have a blog?
Dear @DigitalGrandDad, One of the kids in the office asked me why our agency don’t have a blog. I need an answer that doesn’t make me seem old or lazy.
Dear Old and Lazy
As the saying goes, It’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks, as I am sure you are not Lazy!
I think it is great that you have people in your company that are asking questions about how to further market your company and/or share what you are doing as a cutting edge agency with your intended target market. So without sounding lazy or old, you can share your wisdom, teach and mentor the young enthusiastic kid that ‘LIKE’ anything in Marketing, you can’t just say yes without having a strategic plan? Your answers ‘Old Dog’ should be around planning for example:
Great Little One! I am so glad you asked that question. It is something I have been meaning to look into for ages. However, we don’t have a plan yet.
Attrition, Talent, & Transformation in the Digital Industry Part II
Having pointed out the elephant in the industry yesterday, Prakash Patel now explains why he doesn’t just see it as a problem but also an opportunity for the industry to motivate staff, and give them a purpose in their jobs.
Attrition, Talent & Transformation in the Digital Industry: The Elephant in the Room
Prakash Patel, CEO of Prezence, looks at attrition, talent and transformation — the “elephant in the room” — in the marketing industry in this first of a two-part series.
TheRoom promises strategic insight on digital
A new event concept has arrived in South Africa through the efforts of Nicola Staines, a Brit with over 12 years experience in the online and marketing industries. Staines, who worked on brands such as Microsoft, Vanguard Rental, Disney and O2, is launching TheRoom into the South African market based on the successful Econsultancy Digital Cream events.
Designed to facilitate face-to-face communication between high-level executives, allowing them to interact with their peers and discuss issues and share learning relevant to their sector, TheRoom gets to picks the delegates, while sponsors pick up the tab.
The first event takes place January 29 at Waterkloof (WC) while the second takes place January 31 at Turbine Hall in Gauteng.
Digital spend jumps from 1-2% to 10-15% of SA media budgets
by Herman Manson (@marklives) The online media planning space is moving at a hectic pace – where else can you can lose two big spending clients close together and still plan for 100% growth over the next two years? Lighthouse Digital, the media agency launched only three years ago, has grown from 4 to 26 people, and has been doubling its revenue every year since then.
Aaron Van Schaik, Managing Director at Lighthouse Digital, estimates the value of SA’s digital advertising spend at around R1.2 billion – Aaron Van Schaikbetween 40-50% of that is spent on search. Google doesn’t release its figures for the South African market making it difficult to be sure of exact actual spend. But growth has been rapid with spend jumping from 1-2% of media budgets a year ago to between 10-15% today*.
Van Schaik attributes this growth to marketers realising the value digital media represents as well as directives form international parent companies asking local operations to shift budgets online.
EXCLUSIVE: HiringBounty.com disrupts recruitment industry with social power
by Herman Manson (@marklives) I often receive emails from friends with links to job posts and a note that says “this will be perfect for you” (just in case your business goes belly-up or you actually want to afford that new car – though that part goes unsaid). Greg Schneider, a rising star at digital agency Quirk, has launched a start-up that taps into networks of friends to bypass recruitment agents and crowd-source candidates for positions in the marketing and technology industries.
Schneider’s new recruitment platform, Hiringbounty.com, allows businesses to place recruitment positions on the site alongside a bounty. The bounty, should a position be successfully filled, is paid out in thirds – 1/3 to HiringBounty, 1/3 to the person recommending the successful candidate and 1/3 to the person finally appointed.
So if the bounty next to the position says R5000 the cost to client is R5000 x 3. It pays HiringBounty and HiringBounty pays the other two parties. If you applied for the job without a recommendation from friend you are set to pocket the bounty x 2 (as referrer and successful candidate).