10.31.07
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media at 7:27 am by Christine
Just a quick one about the Cape Town FB Garage again:
FB Application development is obviously one of the really innovative marketing channels on FB - think about the Roshambull App - Red Bull was incredibly clever to sponsor that - what great brand promotion?! I mean over 50 million users - which will probably grow to close to 200 million in the next 18 months, and everyone likes to play rock, paper, scissors…the Red Bull logo is on every single profile that plays Roshambull, and is constantly displayed whilst playing the game or requesting a tournament with someone…etc
I was asked a rather interesting question last night about how Application developers could market these services to corporates. I strongly believe the onus lies on us Online Marketers to step up to the plate.
With Social Media, we in essence take on more of an agency role to pitch creative concepts such as Roshambul/Red Bull to our clients.
Just from last nights attendance, there are so many App developers in Cape Town alone…all with really good and innovative ideas. And I really do believe that its up to us, as Online Marketers, to educate companies of these new possibilities!
There really is a creative idea for just about any industry - why not be one of the pioneers, support SA developers and in so doing also build possibly the biggest brand awareness campaign for the current market?
(And if you’re wondering how such advertising on FaceBook - an international site - could possibly help local (SA) brand awareness - SA is currently the 6th biggest nation of FB users globally!)
If you’re not ready to take such a step just yet, there are many other marketing opportunities on the same platform. My presentation (which discusses these channels) will be made available and I will post the location once live.
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Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media, AlterSage at 6:35 am by Christine
Last night was the first South African Facebook Developer Garage - Cape Town. It was held at the River Club.
Kudos must go to the organisers, Moodia, for putting together such a great programme, including a link up with Dave Morin, Facebook Senior Platform Manager in California. The evening really was a huge success!
From the well placed signed boards, FB branded name tags to the sponsored wine, yummy snacks and the oversized shirts, the evening progressed quite smoothly except for minor outgoing call quality hiccups with the bandwidth during the FB video conference.
I was very impressed with the turn out. Usually one finds that with free get togethers such as this one, that many people RSVP to attend, but then just don’t attend on the night. I think there were about 110 people all in all (118 rsvp’d) - which is pretty good in my books. It was great to mix with so many people that clearly knew their stuff. I even think that Dave Morin was quite impressed with the interest and also the caliber of questions posed to him during the Q&A session - and lol at the suggestion for a CDN South Africa…
The format: There were 9 speakers in total and each had about 10 minutes to present their topic. 5 speakers pre-break and 4 speakers post, thereafter a communal Q&A to speakers.
The speakers: My hubby Joey da Silva (MC - moodia), Trevor Kinnear (Facebook Today - moodia), Grant Flemming (Application Development Tips - Fontera), Eben de Wit (MS & Facebook - Friend or Foe - Microsoft), Ernst Kuschke (FB Applications on the .NET framework - 24.com), Dave Morin (Video Conference & Live Q&A - Facebook), Christine da Silva (FaceBook Marketing Channels- AlterSage), Riaan Nolan (Take your hits back from FaceBook- 3am.co.za) and Mike Gaylord (Incorporating Facebook Applications with your Online Strategy - Chesscube.com).
Joey mentioned that they would make the presentations available to those interested. I’m sure all attendees will be duly notified via the FB group / event group.
Well done again! Looking forward to the next one!
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10.25.07
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media at 6:46 am by Christine
Yip, that’s correct.
Just yesterday Microsoft outbid Google to the current hottest social platform.
They also won and now finalised exclusive global rights to sell third-party banners ads on FB.
I will let you read the article for yourselves if you’re keen, but the gist of it:
MS is investing a staggering $240 million for only an 1.6% stake in Facebook. This values the social network around $15 billion.
In the last 6 months the user base has already grown from 45 million to 50 million world wide and forecasts predict that it could potentially exceed the 200 million!
Read the full article on Microsoft Facebook deal at your leisure.
With international players investing in social platforms such as FB - can you really afford not to monetise on the advertising opportunities it presents anymore?
I’m looking forward to the Cape Town FB Developer Garage next week, I am sure we are in for a really interactive and interesting session!
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