Andy Hadfield

UPDATE (April 2011): I'm seeing some Google traffic coming through on this link - which is unfortunatey considering it's a 2009 blog post! Here are the quick facts for you as of April 2011 according to FaceBook's Ad Demographics tool (please remember these numbers change QUICKLY). Anyone can check them by going to FaceBook and clicking Create Ad (you'll find the link above the actual on page ads). Here we go:


FACEBOOK USERS in South Africa: 3 840 380
MALE FACEBOOK USERS in South Africa: 1 823 100
FEMALE FACEBOOK USERS in South Africa: 1 920 220


Hope that helps!


--Andy



Interesting stats from CheckFaceBook.

This graph, looking suspiciously like Google Analytics, says there are 1.7 million South Africans on FaceBook. That's pretty damn impressive, considering the latest estimates of our broadband population that I've seen is only in the low 2 millions.


FaceBooks advertising segmentation tool reports similar. Also notice that they've changed the NETWORK demographic …

Today, we're really proud to announce the next step in our digital journey at FNB - the launch of the brand spanking new website.

The website relaunch has been a project of mammoth proportions, with amazing collaboration between teams from all over the bank. As I blog this, the guys from the Online team are still baby-sitting the launch - big kudos on the effort.


The old site


The new site

From the very beginning, we started out with a couple of lofty strategic ideals centered around the customer experience.

It had to be:

* An Experience (a bank website just isn't the must-visit destination other sites can claim to be - our visitors are purpose driven and we have to work hard to provide an environment that promotes exploration and feels like an experience).

* Friendly (it's something I've been talking about for ages, the big lesson that Web 2.0 has taught us is to talk WITH people, not talk AT them - something I think we've really achieved)

* Intuitive (banking products c…

Sony Pictures SA just followed me. I'm always interested in big brand take up of social media, so gleefully clicked through to investigate (and most likely follow back).

Shock. Horror.



In case you're too lazy to click on the image to enlarge. Let me make this patently clear. Sony South Africa's last set of communication to their 350+ followers looks like this:

TO BUY YOUR OWN COPY OF SEVEN POUNDS GO TO http://www.kalahari.net/dvd...11 minutes ago from web

Have you bought yourself a copy of 7 Pound DVD?? Hurry and get one while stocks last!about 17 hours ago from web

HURRY and get yourself a Seven Pound DVD today!!!!4:35 PM Jul 13th from web

Get your copy of Seven Pounds DVD and Blu Ray TODAY!!!10:31 AM Jul 13th from web

Four more days until the release of Seven Pounds on Blu Ray and DVD!9:20 AM Jul 9th from web

Click on the link to view the trailer of Seven Pounds!! www.sonypictures.com/homevi...1:09 PM Jul 8th from web

Seven Pounds DVD releasing 13 July 2009!!!11:16 AM Jul 7…

The spam and uninteresting lounge salesman have hit South African Twitter. And it makes me sad.

Was trawling through our top 100 Tweeters through Twellow the other day. Don't really know how accurate this is, but following a couple of interesting people in the Top 20 led to the following automated replies.

Thanks for following me. I look forward to our interactions. Have a look at my web site at http://www.bigprofitinc.com.

Thanks for the follow! Generate 1000's Of Views On Youtube Using These Strategies. http://bit.ly/OUmc0

Thanks for the follow!New forex product increases profit by over 300% in 91 days! http://bit.ly/1ZWvOb

Thanks for the following. Let me help you to increase traffic to your online business dramatically? Click here: http://budurl.com/TwitterS2L

I'm not even linking those things out of principle. It's sad. Unfollow. Social Media is killing the web.

Teach the Technophobe: 8 brave Nokia fans have signed up to ‘Teach the Technophobe’ to help some close friends and family join the messaging generation using the E75. Their technophobes will negotiate various hurdles and challenges, the one who finishes this training to the best of their ability will win their coach the opportunity to trial 5 E75’s for their community.

THE TECHNOPHOBE: Dr Chantal Lourenco - esteemed medical practitioner, budding health economist, wife to geek. While fairly competent with most forms of technology, has been known to glaze over when faced with matching the audio, video and device inputs on the home theatre system. She's a middle of the road user. Form usually beats function and geek cred is worth squat. A perfect technophobe.

CHALLENGE No. 1 - Set up an email account on the new Nokia E75 and send a test mail.

Completed! I must say, I personally have mixed feelings about the E75, but it's proving an instant hit with Chantal. The email functionality i…

Sizzly it was. Here's the blogger kit for the Nokia E75 review / challenge. Interestingly, these pics are taken with my Technophobes' Nokia N73. Not bad for an old phone eh?


Above you'll see the metal case, hiding layers of heavy gram production rich cardboard. The first Nokia E75 comes in here. The other in the standard Nokia packaging.


So, the two brand spanky new phones are on charge. Here's my first question. I'll pop it through to WOMWorld as well. Do you really have to charge these modern phones for 18 hours? I've asked this before and got a string of different answers. Kinda like the total number of Internet users in South Africa... People can guess, but no-one really knows.

Here's the nice leaderboard chart. Going straight up in the bar next to the everyday drinking whiskey.


Looks like there'll be 4 challenges. I've chosen my wife as a technophobe. Those of you who've met her can attest to her complete and utter disinterest in tech. And some…

Phew. It's a mouthful - but a nifty project from WOMWorld Nokia. I've done some reviewing of their units before, the E71 actually, my incumbent.

Just received the blogger kit, and it's might impressive. Perhaps a little OTT (over the top), but who wouldn't want to receive a big metal case filled with cardboard Russian-doll style cutouts unveiling a pretty sexy red Nokia E75.

I've always been a sucker for sizzle.

Here's a quick description of the challenge from the site. You'll find information aggregated here if you're keen to follow.


8 brave Nokia fans have each signed up to ‘Teach the Technophobe’ how to get the most out of the new Nokia email service using the E75. Along this journey their technophobes will negotiate various hurdles and challenges. The technophobe who finishes this intense training first will win their coach the opportunity to trial 5 E75's for their community.

I've been doing a lot of investigation into Google Adwords lately. FNB has made some strong moves in this space. But it's not just search I'm interested in. Google has successfully disintermediated and bought out a pretty sizeable portion of the online ad industry. Especially with its acquisition of DoubleClick. You can apply almost every form of advertising through AdWords now. From banner to gadget, from text to skyscraper.

So, with this veritable honeypot of advertising available. You'd better do your research. Here are 10 online ad formats to avoid. Don't be a sucker for the money. Users come first. Always.
Banner ads below headers
Ads that look like content
Dancing ads
Auto-expanding half-page ads
Banners next to logos
Billboards in the top right corner
Google text links interrupting content
Ads with hidden close buttons
Interstitials
Page Take-overs
Taken from the Silicon Alley Insider.

Took the plunge to 1080P full HD gaming the other day. I'd been holding off. The PS2 was cool, but I got a bit bored after a year or so. How was the PS3 to fair? Blu-Ray. HD gaming. Wireless controllers. Hmmm.

I'll blog a bit about this as I explore the platform more. But let's say this from the outset. I've played one game: BioShock.

I was BLOWN away.

The experience, quality of graphics and 5.1 Surround is unreal. Whatever doubts I may have had where wiped out in about 10 seconds.

Click on the image below. This is IN GAME footage of the first 3 minutes of BioShock. You suffer a plane crash, land in an ocean amoungst wreckage and are forced to swim for it. It drips realism. Never before have I been entranced by water.


Yowsers. Now for Tiger Woods. The only real drinking man's PlayStation game.