Andy Hadfield presents [Cowboys and Engines]

SA's Top 20 Tweeters = Full of Crap

2009-07-13T15:16:00.000+02:00

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.

Nokia E75's Teach the Technophobe: CHALLENGE No. 1

2009-07-10T07:26:00.000+02:00

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 is vastly improved, and 1 click setup for any email account is a tantalising proposition.

My technophobe set up her Gmail account and was receiving and sending mail in under 5 minutes. Just a username and password. POP, IMAP and other protocols (which would have illicted a dirty look rather than a quizzical attempt to reconfigure) are completely hidden from the user.

With the E75's slide out keyboard and landscape tilt, reading and responding to email is a breeze. It even allows you to group by subject - as close as you'll get to Gmail's genius of grouping conversations together. You do tend to realise when taking part in a competition like this though... To the ordinary wife in the street, grouping by conversations is not really important in the grander scheme of things.

Myself on the other hand. Epic fail. My first attempt to set up corporate Outlook failed. I think more because of security certificates on my side (any help to get around this?). My first attempt to setup Gmail failed. The app crashed, but evidently completed most of the setup anyway because mails began streaming in. My second attempt to setup corporate Outlook will be today.

Wife 1 | Geek 0 | Nokia E75 0.5

Email is invasive, let's get that out the way. But there is a peculiar quality to having your life stream onto your phone. I've avoided it up till now - but a device like the E75 might just change my mind. Not to say I didn't try email on my current E71, but the interface you're provided with to read the mails is so completely inferior to the Gmail for Mobile app, that it never took off.

WOMWorld should have received our test mail. The next challenge awaits. Bring it.

Nokia E75 "Teach the Technophobe" - The Kit

2009-07-06T21:16:00.000+02:00

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 sometimes frustrating ability to lose the "apple" key. I wouldn't say she's a "phobe". But I'll do a quick geek test for clarity.

The Nokia E75 "Teach the Technophobe" International Blogger Challenge

2009-07-06T21:05:00.000+02:00

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.

Online Ad Formats to avoid...

2009-07-05T09:08:00.000+02:00

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.

Taken from the Silicon Alley Insider.

Have PS3. Will be blown away.

2009-07-02T15:26:00.000+02:00

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.

SEO Analyst - Job available @ FNB Johannesburg...

2009-06-30T17:18:00.000+02:00

Riggggghhht. Now where are all those smarty-pants SEO's who want to hop on board for a real challenge? You'll be exposed to the sheer delight of having me as one of your first clients. I'm a nice guy. Really.

Pass it on - it's an amazing opportunity to come join a really solid and innovative digital team. If you're interested, pop me a mail on ahadfield at fnb dot co dot za - and I'll put in touch with the right people.

Overview of Role

The SEO Analyst is a position designed to support the efforts of the search engine optimisation team. This person is responsible for assisting with the production, implementation, and development of our search engine optimisation services. We're looking for a motivated, creative, and analytic thinker to join FNB Online, in Fairland, Randburg. As a Search Engine Optimisation Analyst, the person’s primary goal will be to increase natural search engine traffic from key search engines for our FNB Internal Stakeholders. The person will also assist with the implementation of a SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and Web Analytics strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

* Audit content published for search engine optimization compliance
* Create detailed search engine optimization recommendations for assigned sites
* Track and report search engine referrals, keyword rankings and other SEO/SEM traffic metrics for assigned sites to stakeholders
* Implement strategies for attaining high rankings for relevant, high-volume search terms
* Be an expert in your space by staying on top of current SEO/SEM news, search engine feature changes, and algorithm shifts.
* Research, create and assist with a long-term SEO/SEM strategy for the channel that complies with best practice standards and will drive sustainable traffic.
* On-page optimisation, including detailed site assessment and comprehensive recommendations.
* Off-page optimisation, including development and acquisition.
* Website structure, page structure and internal linking structure.
* Advice on implementation and page code.
* Page copy and keyword optimisation.
* Monitoring and reporting.
* Keyword research.
* Competitor and back-link analysis.
* Work autonomously to identify areas of opportunity and improvement.
* Follow company policies and procedures.
* Complete any ad hoc report, or duty as required by the business needs.
* Demonstrate an active interest in advancing the success of our clients.

South Africa getting into Porn?

2009-06-29T19:54:00.000+02:00

Ah, the hallowed day has arrived.

My wife received this spam SMS the other day: Welcome to mynudespace.co.za be part of an adult community find partners for hot sexual encounters Live out your sexual fantasies http://www.mynudespace.co.za

Low and behold...

A truly South African porn site. And who said we didn't have Internet penetration in this country. Uh. Erm.

I left immediately. Obviously.

Can't write to a removable hard drive from your Mac?

2009-06-26T18:30:00.000+02:00

I had this problem quite a bit. Get a removable hard drive from a colleague friend, reads fine on the Mac but try delete or move files? Nada.

Turns out, for us non command line junkies that Windows' latest file system, NTFS, is readable but not writable on our beloved Mac OSX.

Never fear - a quick bit of Twitter research yielded the following results. Thank you kindly to the respondents...

GeekRebel: @woganmay @andyhadfield Mac can write NTFS with this very nifty fix: http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/

WillemvZyl: @G_Masta @woganmay @andyhadfield @stii Actually, Mac can write to NTFS, just follow these instructions: http://tinyurl.com/ntfs-macosx

Igitur: @andyhadfield Try this maybe http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

Those are the links...

My personal favourite was from Wogan May. I learnt my lesson a long time ago. You don't sudo with shit you can't unsudo. (For the glazed eyes out there - Sudo is an extremely powerful but extremely dangerous command line function for performing bad things at a super user level)

WoganMay: @andyhadfield Maybe if you launch Finder with root permissions, or use "sudo rm filename.doc" in the terminal?

The Geek Retreat: Follow content from the conference...

2009-06-20T10:29:00.000+02:00

Here's a Scribble widget which will stream most of the content from the conference. Really fascinating stuff here.

The Geek Retreat: An Internet Industy Conference for South Africa

2009-06-20T10:11:00.000+02:00

This weekend, I'm attending the Geek Retreat (follow the hastag on Twitter #geekretreat). Debate is fascinating, a lot of it around entrepreneurship and ideas in the South African online space.

Some great content coming out here and I'll post some thoughts as they come up. In the meantime, most of the content is being aggregated onto Scribble Live.

Google South Africa going hard at Adwords...

2009-06-17T18:06:00.000+02:00

Received this the other day...

Dear Google Analytics User,

As a Google Analytics customer, we know that you care about the quality of traffic coming to your website, so we wanted to introduce you to Google AdWords. AdWords works by placing targeted advertising alongside Google's search results.

To help you get started with AdWords we've sent you a voucher for ZAR1000 of Google AdWords advertising. The voucher is risk and commitment free, so start advertising today and drive more traffic to your website.

Well. I'm hooked. Is this legit? If so - signs that Google South Africa are starting to ramp up the pace to drive budget through Adwords. And cross-selling. All ooh-aah digital goodness.

Presentation: Corporate Social Networking & RBJacobs (The Twitter Case Study)

2009-06-10T19:18:00.000+02:00

Here's my presentation from Classic Event's Corporate Social Media Conference on 11 June 2009.

It's a really important topic. Cut the bullshit around web 2.0 and social networking. Throw away the buzzwords. And try figure out how to make business sense of the new web.

Enjoy!

[For all conference visitors, feel free to leave a comment if you'd like to get in touch]

Corporate Social Networking

View more Microsoft Word documents from Andy Hadfield.

FaceBook Pages: A collection of Best Practice guides...

2009-06-08T18:15:00.000+02:00

The FNB Premier Banking FaceBook profile is slowly maturing - a very considered and interesting experiment. During the course of its creation and watching it develop, I've done quite a bit of research into what's possible using the FaceBook Platform. http://snurl.com/cxzmb

This collection of links from Chris Onderstall (Fleishman fame) helped a lot. Thanks for this Chris - and hopefully it'll help you guys out there to learn more about this noisy, but very potential platform.

List of the top Facebook pages and the fan pages that are rising the fastest (an essential list to see what the best pages are doing) + think of ways we can interact with these groups.

Join the FNB Premier Banking group (good to keep up to date on what FNB is up to, plus this is a slick piece of work) (Ed's note - Glad to see Chris is supporting the home team!)

Trojan Brand Condoms has a group that is creating cool content on a difficult subject

Facebook profile and page applications (the most popular is still the static HTML which allows you the most flexibility)

Creative uses of the Facebook group picture (How cool could this be? Either way it underlines the importance of the Facebook fan page image [we should change ours more frequently]).

A guide for social media marketers using the new Facebook page layout

And finally, some best practice design tips:

Why brands should love the new Facebook layout

Facebook pages best practice

How to develop a Facebook page that attracts millions of fans

5 Elements of a successful Facebook fan page

Memory Lane. My first ad.

2009-06-01T17:14:00.000+02:00

My first foray into media at UCT Radio. Just found this the other day while sorting through 14000+ photos. Amazing where we all come from eh? This, pilfered from the early interwebs and put together in MS Paint. Probably on Windows 3.1 in a computer lab somewhere. Good times.

The 2010 Spam Scams start...

2009-05-18T19:56:00.000+02:00

This didn't take long. We're barely into 2009 and I'm already being propositioned by a very eligible gentleman. Mr Ray Edward would like to partner with me in a business venture. I'm tingling with anticipation. Although I hope his business ethics don't match the quality of his spelling.

My name is Mr Ray Edward, I got your website in the internet, when i was searching for a good business partner interconnection to 2010 Fifa world cup that will be hold in your country south africa nest year,

Do you know a good profitable business that we can invest? I did it in Germany 2006 and i was favored so much, Get back to me with your kind of investment proposal so that we can proceed now,

Yours truely

Mr. Ray Edward.

It comes with a perfectly "normal" looking attachment: My name is Mr.doc

In case you aren't getting the sarcasm. Don't open it.

Geek culture going a little more mainstream...

2009-05-11T18:55:00.000+02:00

The latest Intel ads from the States are quite amusing. And an interesting example of geek culture getting more airtime in mainstream media.

And another one...

Fifa World Cup - Round 2 Ticketing Phase has started...

2009-05-04T09:40:00.000+02:00

Just got the news that I have access to some tickets through that first round ticket "lotto". 2 tickets to 2 games (hopefully one at Soccer City). Excellent! Total cost about R980.00.

If you weren't successful in the first phase - get cracking...

2nd Ticketing Phase for 2010 FIFA WorldTM Cup starts on 4 May

Be quick and you should be lucky! The 2nd Ticketing Phase for the 2010 FIFA World CupTM will start on Monday, 4 May 2009, at Noon (SA Time). There will be approximately 100,000 tickets made available for this phase, excluding the two Semi-Finals and the Final (matches 61, 62 and 64). From now on, the tickets will be allocated on a “first come, first serve” basis. Applications can be made at FNB branches or via the FIFA website (www.fifa.com).

For South African football fans who wish to apply at FNB Branches, they should bring a valid form of identification. South Africans need to show their ID, while a passport will be required for foreigners. Applicants that wish to make applications for friends or family should have the details of those persons incl. identity numbers, names, dates of birth and nationality ready. Each applicant can apply for up to 4 tickets per match and up to 7 matches in total. Ticket prices start at 20 USD (140 ZAR). Within ten working days you will be notified, if your application is successful (fully or partly) or not.

Tickets will be ready for collection at FIFA Venue Ticketing Centres from May 2010.

We look forward to welcoming you and your guests to the 2010 FIFA World CuptmTM South Africa and hope you enjoy the experience.

Yours sincerely
2010 FIFA World Cup™ Ticketing Centre

Back in Town

2009-05-04T09:37:00.000+02:00

Re-plugged in after an awesome trip to Mozambique. Got some great dive photies which will go up on the Flickr Stream soon.

Did you know? The progression of information technology...

2009-04-20T18:16:00.002+02:00

I think I've just found the staple introduction to the next 6 months of speaker gigs. This is a remarkable video. Vibey. Short. Perfectly sets up a talk on harnessing the web for business.

Hitler and his Twitter Rant...

2009-04-16T17:56:00.002+02:00

Hitler on Twitter. Quite bloody amusing...

What's happening with digital privacy in South Africa?

2009-04-09T17:08:00.006+02:00

I had a horrible telemarketing experience the other day. I didn't blog it - because there's not much point in using this platform to just bitch. Saffers have got Hello Peter for that.

But I got a really interesting customer feedback response from one of the parties involved - and now I have to ask the question. What is going on with digital privacy in this country? Cellphones and emails stream almost instantaneously into our lives these days, and they're getting a little intrusive.

Allow me to explain.

1. Received a call from Elite Mobile at 6pm. It was a telemarketer. 6pm is too late in my opinion.

2. This was the second call in a couple of months. I had asked to be unsubscribed.

3. They introduced themselves in that telemarketer speak as "Vodacom's biggest dealer" or "direct dealer". I forget.

4. I asked how they came by my details and was shocked to hear the response - a random dialer.

5. I immediately confirmed who I was speaking to and asked again not to be called back.

6. I reported this to the Direct Marketing Association, Vodacom and Elite Mobile themselves.

Now, here's some positive spin on the story. The DMA got back to me the very next day and speedily unsubscribed me (put me on a do-not-call list?) from Elite Mobile. Vodacom got back to me after 2 days with an apology. In SA, corporates are notorious for slow response rates to online enquiries. This was pleasing.

But Vodacom's reply really blew my hair back. Here it is:

Dear Customer

Thank you for your e-mail communication to Vodacom.

Please accept our sincere apology for not responding within 12 hours. We are currently experiencing extremely high volumes of e-mails hence us not being able to honour our service level agreement.

Please bear in mind that some outlets are franchise-owned and while Vodacom may publish the recommended retail tariffs/contracts, the various outlets often run different specials promoting their products.

Kindly be advised that Elite Mobile calls random selected numbers with regards to application promotions and services that they offer. You are more than welcome to let us know, whether we need to contact them so that they can remove your number from their Data base.

Once again we do apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Should you have any further queries, please contact us via e-mail at customercare@vodacom.co.za

Warm Regards

xxxx xxxxxxx

Let me repeat that: Kindly be advised that Elite Mobile calls random selected numbers with regards to application promotions and services that they offer.

WHAT?!

Is this legal? If so, it is a frightening way around the opt-in opt-out provisions of digital privacy. In South Africa, we have used up all 082 and 083 numbers I believe. My maths is pretty pokey - but isn't that 15 to 20 million numbers that can now be randomly called with unsolicited promotions?

I'd really like some official response here.

Long time no post...

2009-04-06T18:05:00.003+02:00

Wow. It's been a long, long time since I've done a post. My humble apologies. Life, as they say, she is crazy. I do try keep my Twitter stream as updated as possible. You should always be able to catch me there.

Otherwise, a couple of things on my mind that deserve a post shortly...

1. Telemarketers. Driving me nuts.

2. Opt out. Driving me nuts. You would think South Africans would take this more seriously. I have a lovely PiggsPeak example that is awaiting interested lawyer.

3. Niche communities. Becoming more and more convinced that this is the future. The noise out there on the InterWeb is deafening. And from the looks of it, FaceBook still isn't making money. Public Service Social Networking. It's the next big thing.

4. iPod Touch 32 gig. A piece of wonderment. Recently won one - and have been hitting the App Store with a vengeance. The combination iPod Touch and E71 just works for me. I can get my geek fill of gadgets and miniscule life span application on the iPod touch. Then carry right on with the embedded GPS and business functionality of the E71.

5. Mozambique. I'll be unplugging in a few weeks. It'll be sweet.
Later!

How Can We Help You - FNB's Financial Community

2009-03-18T18:40:00.004+02:00

It's been a long time coming in this country, and another proud move towards a true virtual community.

Today, FNB launched How Can We Help You, a niche social network centered around financial content. And I'd like to think we really are first to market here.

Corporate brands can easily become "social" for social's sake. It's a little harder to target a particular niche, create content and take the big risk of opening yourself up to a very critical South African Internet audience. Those first steps are always the hardest. FaceBook is easy by comparison. You post some stuff, you answer one or two wall posts, add a gallery... But the real experience of engaging with people online only comes when you throw an entire community together.

“The key concept behind How Can We Help You is ‘Financial Ubuntu’. We aim to attract an active online community that shares personal finance trials, tribulations and learnings. Information from credible sources is aggregated on a single platform and shared.” - Gisele Wertheim-Aymes.

The marketing and engagement models behind social media allowed us to take a "community" approach to a conversation that has traditionally been held around the braai on Sundays. Finance. Money. Investing. Saving. Salaries. Life. After all, sharing the wisdom of a crowd is always better.

How Can We Help You will bring some interesting case studies into our local social media sphere. Banks will always have a certain weight of responsibility, and a certain weight of expectation. Be transparent, protect us - but don't cross the line. It's an interesting grey area to exist in. Social media makes it harder.

But if anything, I have realised that the future is online. 6 million South African Internet users now. 15 million over the next couple of years. The shop doors are opening and it's about time companies stood up to be counted. Learn your lessons now. Not when the "Red Hanger" rush comes.

The launch today is full of value (the essential ingrediant). Suze Orman provides plenty of short and sharp video commentary, blogs allow individual opinions to flourish and there's plenty of static content to help you navigate around the world of finance.

It's firmly pitched at the average South African. And why not. Too much of the Internet wafts around in the realms of geeks and techies. To become a true Internet society, we need to open up and break down the walls.

Hello the first step.

Funny Tech in Real Life: AJAX [Series]

2009-02-28T09:04:00.000+02:00

In sunny South Africa, AJAX isn't a language coders understand. It's a language clothing understands. And fears.