Andy Hadfield

Bwahaha!

Just gave a presentation at the Heavy Chef Jozi Session. Nice bunch of people, quite different to the standard 27 Dinner crowd. It was an interesting topic: Smoke, Mirrors & Social Media. Is there value behind the smoke?

My talk was centered around a view of social from inside a corporate. Slideshow below. Not as good without the accompanying commentary - but good enough.

Smoke, Mirrors & Social Media - The Corporate ViewView SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmedia)
Good luck to the guys... Networking sessions firmly based around content, and where the content is available for later perusal by the community at large? There's a gap.

And any company with a leaning towards this kind of design. Well. There just has to be some interesting creative thinking going on...


Nice to meet Fred, Louis and the cronies...

Some hard thought and hard work went into this one. FNB Premier Banking FaceBook Fan Page launched at 8am today.

Can't say too much, but I think we've taken a niche approach (the Premier segment of FNB is those that earn between R350k and R1 mil per annum) and tried hard to add value to "fan page visitors".


There always has to be a purpose and a measurement behind any social media activity. Don't "go social" for social's sake. Here, we have an exclusive community touchpoint, with niche content and links to niche services. Let's see how it goes!

Critical feedback absolutely welcome... Check out the page here.

I was asked by Jump Shopping to help judge these awards. Fascinating process, and great to delve into some of SA's less known sites and projects. I'm glad the usual cronies didn't rule the roost at these awards.

SA eCommerce was set to hit over R1 billion this year. Even though the global recession will most likely curtail it's progress, it's getting even easier to hawk your wares online.

In my opinion, range is no longer a differentiator. It's too easy to provide range. Layer supplier upon supplier upon channel upon affiliate upon fulfillment partner and anyone can provide range.

The big win is in user interface, peer review community and emarketing.

Congrats to the winners...

Best E-Commerce Web site - Look & Listen (http://www.lookandlisten.co.za)
Best Auction Web site - Bid or Buy (http://www.bidorbuy.co.za)Best Automotive Web site - Autostyle Motorsport (http://www.autostyle.co.za)Best Online Bookstore - Kalahari.net (http://www.kalahari.net)Best Clothing an…

CNN hauled out some pretty cool tech for the US Elections 2008. Touch screens, live data aggregation, video streaming, user generated content - it was all there.

Possibly the sexiest of all gadgets was the hologram. Quoted here from USA Today.

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There'll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.
Now, let's bust this puppy wide open. The webcam is due for an innovative shakeup. It hasn't really dazzled us with an array of new features lately. Moore's law (I think?) predicts that this gabillion dollar holographic gadget should be pretty cheap in a couple of …

Image from CNN.com homepage at 7:26am SA time.

I'm actually feeling slightly emotional about the whole US election thing - which is odd, considering America is the nation primarily responsible for the economic crisis the world is facing. But that's the power of leadership. That's the power of insipirational people given a world stage.

Although Barack Obama spent over $1.6 billion dollars on his campaign (he who spends more, wins more?), it was masterful series of communications. It was a victory for the web, for social media and for mankind's ability to group around passion.

I wish Barack Obama the best of luck. He has a huge, huge challenge ahead of him...

With 30 to 40 million cellphone users in South Africa (depending on what the networks tell you and how many multiple SIMs we think people have) - mobile sites are riding the crest of a popularity wave second to none.

* 1 in 6 Google Searches originating from South Africa are made off a mobile device.
* Vodafone Live is the largest traffic drawing website, far eclipsing the News24 behemoth.

Into the fray comes The Times, playing a very close second fiddle to the Mail & Guardian in the "innovate on new media platform" stakes. One has to wonder what's happening to M&G now that the Buckland/Maher combo have moved on. Quiteish really.

So back to The Times. The mobile site is excellent. It's extremely quick on EDGE / GRPS. Dynamic. Seems to update quickly. Offers a nice detailed intro lead to each story section and quick links to full articles.


I am mighty impressed. Let's see if they can follow up this nice little BETA with a proper marketing campaign. I'd take…

Just read an excellent article (thanks Hilton Tarrant), prompting a "social networking model for business" post.

I've often spoken to clients, colleagues and conferences about the "rule of thumb" in terms of community or network engagement. This could be engagement in a social network, a community content portal or an enterprise venture. It's a little Jack Walshian in it's approach, but serves to illustrate the point.

* 70% just watch
* 20% actually participate / create content
* 10% shouldn't be there in the first place.

(UPDATE: 1% hide somewhere in there. The troll race! Destructive personalities who leap on hapless participants, causing literary carnage...)

While it isn't backed up with any research or scientific method, it does guide expectations in terms of participation, how to engage, who to engage, how to segment and most importantly, how important your "social kingpins" (the 20%) are for longevity.

The article sites Forrester Resear…

What's going on with Telkom's ADSL capping strategy? I've noticed some interesting changes:

1. Not capped, but over the standard 3 GB usage limit.
2. Local bandwidth is measured separately and capped at a whopping 30 GB.

Is Neotel forcing innovation in the Telkom camp?

ADSL bandwidth usage report

Blended Usage
Uploaded - 647MB or [0.63GB]
Downloaded - 3.60GB
Combined Total - 4.23GB
Percentage used - 78.39%
Status - Not Capped

Local Usage
Uploaded - 0Bytes or [0.00GB]
Downloaded - 0Bytes or [0.00GB]
Combined Total - 0Bytes or [0.00GB]
Local Bandwidth Allocated - 30.00GB

Please note billing for local usage will commence only once allocated local bandwidth is exceeded. Refer to www.telkomsa.net for per GByte charges.

TopUp
Total blended bandwidth purchased - 0.00GB

Please bear in mind that this is a usage-based subscription and, as such, is subject to a threshold. Thresholds are the accumulated total of both your uploaded (sending) and downloaded (receiving) data, which include…