How I use social media to build brand and sell socks

Since launching NicSocks we've been lucky to have many people visit the site, follow us on our various social media platforms, buy socks and actually sign up for our subscription sock offering.After reading Gary Vaynerchuck's Crush It! I decided that I should really focus on communicating with people through basic channels and converting every opportunity to into a sale.Here are some things I've discovered about the different social media channels that I've been experimenting with over the past few months.

Twitter

Joined: October 2012Followers: 167Tweets: 248Following: 99I only really started tweeting in November when I launched NicSocks. Since then I have made it my goal to engage with people on Twitter about socks and sock-related fashion. All in all I find Twitter to be a great tool to interact with people about my brand, their concerns, questions and feelings towards what we sell, how we sell and where we sell.Most of my interactions are with people who have just discovered our brand of sock and want a bit more information.Numerous sales from direct interactions with people as well as retweets and references on Twitter.

Facebook

Joined: November 2012Number of posts: 63Likes: 133Here's a quick little "Insights" graph from the NicSocks FB page:Massive highs and lows. Half of the likes I've received to the page are from friends and the largest reach I've had from a post was a picture of an article that was written about NicSocks in Entrepreneur Magazine.I have received zero sales from my Facebook page and continue to receive likes from people who I know are already fans of the page and have purchased socks. I have focused a lot of my attention of Facebook thinking that it would be a great way to build the brand. I think that in the long, long run that may be the case but the last four months have seen very little actual impact on NicSocks from the page.I've said this a lot in my professional life but what exactly does one do with a "like" on Facebook? In my experience so far, nothing.Zero sales from Facebook.

Pinterest

Joined: February 2013Boards: 6 (Boards NicSocks created)Pins: 113 (Things NicSocks has pinned)Likes: 54 (Things NicSocks liked)Followers: 12Following: 54It took me a bit of time to realise that Pinterest was a social network that NicSocks would slide right into and could really do well on. With that said, once I joined Pinterest I wasn't really sure what to do next. I decided that Pinterest would be a great place for NicSocks to begin positioning itself as a Men's Fashion Brand.I created 6 boards and began pinning things that were relevant to Men's Fashion starting with pairs of NicSocks and things that Nic wore every day. I expanded into Statement Items, Shoes, Fashion tips and Outfits.So far it has been a very hard slog on Pinterest. Lots of work uploading things, repinning, following people and liking other pins with very little return. But I think this one takes time to build so I'm sticking it out.Zero sales from Pinterest.

Google+

Joined: January 2013Followers: 3Google+ is an absolute mystery to me. I've googled "How to build a page on Google+" with no luck. I've spent time looking at other pages and adding content, I've posted, shared circled and linked all without any joy. 3 followers and that's about it.Zero sales from Google+

Instagram

Joined:Followers:Following:Here's a quick snapshot of my Instagram:Numerous sales from Instagram, globally and in South AfricaTumblrIt's not really even worth entering details around Tumblr. I found that this particular platform was one too many for me. I had a website, a blog, a twitter account and Facebook. All I was doing was reposting on tumblr to try and build an audience that was probably not going to notice I was there.I started my Tumblr and about a month into it I gave up. Too much work to repost via mobile on so many different platforms. Tumblr was the one to get the chop.Zero sales from Tumblr.

Blogs

The NicSocks blog is a pretty important part of the social media strategy. It's where I post all of my content first, it's where all of my social media links back to when I want to direct users to a message or a specific topic that requires discussion. For this reason I feel like there is great value in having and using the NicSocks blog.I don't have a massive readership yet via the blog but it's something that I am building slowly, organically and using the various social media platforms you read about above.They blog definitely hasn't resulted in direct sales however it leads readers to my website, to sign up to my newsletter and to browse our shop so there is massive value.Social media is a nebulas pit of tricks and tips and effort and time. If you're willing to put in the time and effort to figure out the tricks and tips for yourself then you'll gain the value. If you think social media is a quick way to make a name for your brand you're hopelessly incorrect.

How quiet is too quiet? I have recentl...

How quiet is too quiet?I have recently been chastised at every turn for "falling off the radar" so to speak. By "the radar" most people are referring to that of the social media world; blogs, twitter, the book of face and many others.But here's my question, How quiet is too quiet? I don't feel I've dropped of the radar too dramatically. I completely agree that I am blogging less but I think that's because my paradigms are shifting a bit.I no longer believe that the web is the best place to throw down your thoughts and hope for some response. I no longer believe that my blogs are the best way for me to spend my time online. I have a job that pushes me to my limits almost every day and fulfills my need to constantly be innovating, creating and developing within a new and uncharted territory. So what do I need blogs for?Don't get my wrong, I love my blogs and they are a great outlet for me to do precisely what I am doing right now, a dump of mental thoughts (moughts?) running around my head that help to keep my very few readers up to date with the direction of my thinking and life. That's it.SA Rocks serves an entirely different purpose so that's not really worth discussing in the same context.Regarding Twitter, the book of face, the space of my, linked in, last fm and any (every) other social network I belong to, I am fast feeling that they are all relatively useless to me. I don't understand the value of Facebook. Linkedin is a network worth keeping alive, but just barely and the others were great for me when I wanted to keep abreast of the latest tech out there. But right now, I am in a different paradigm that has very little to do with the web and how social it can be right now.So I think I am being the correct amount of quiet up in here.

Reprobates and bloggers - The Digital Edge Podcast

I'm still not convinced by the validity of the Podcast in the local market. Yet Saul and Jarred continue to try and prove me wrong. They've been doing a relatively good job of it lately and even went as far as to invite me on to the latest episode of the Digital Edge.You can download it or listen to it live by heading over to the Digital Edge website.From the site:

We speak to Nic Haralambous of SA Rocks, Seth Rotherham of 2Oceansvibe, Exmi from Expensive Mistakes Cheap Thrills, Shaun Oakes of Shaun Oakes.com, Jason Bagley from the Incredible Connection blog and finally Se7en from Se7en.org. We round up that line up with a summary of the blogosphere by Justin Hartman, head of blog aggregator Afrigator.

Nothing particularly groundbreaking came out of the bloggers interviews: We are all egotistical, we all like to win stuff, we all brag, blah blah blah. It's riveting blogger "Days of our living lives online" sorta stuff.Definitely worth listening to. Do it.And thanks to Saul and Jarred for having me on the show. Always a good boost to the ego hey?!

The best pitch email I've ever received as a blogger

Below is an email that I received on Monday in my capacity as SA Rocks Editor/Owner. Read it first and then I'll go in to my reasons for liking the way it is structured (albeit coincidentally).

Hi Editor,You won't know me - I'm a big reader of 2Oceansvibe and was referred by a link there.Anyway, I'm going to take a flyer here - just drop a little bait and hope for a bite...I'm a music producer at the moment, studied at UCT and now living in Johannesburg trying to hit the big time. My record label has recently signed our first artist, a guy by the name of Timothy Moloi and are busy in studio recording his debut album. In the mean time, though, we decided to record a couple of live videos of him doing some covers of cool and interesting songs. Basically it's just a way for us to get word out, create as much of a buzz as we can. We've had an incredible response to them so far and I thought I would share the videos with you:www.youtube.com/user/TimothyMoloiNow, I'm sure that you must have MANY people pawning their wares to you, but as a blogger (and in particuler, a South African one), you undoubtedly act as one of the tastemakers of our generation and I figured it would be worth a shot to see if you would like any of the videos. My favorite is the One Republic cover (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4fiPe4U_Ow&feature=channel_page), but feel free to have a browse around and prove me wrong! All the artists on the videos are South African - hope you're impressed!I'm not too sure what to say from here, man. I won't beat around the bush - obviously it would be in my best interest for you to actually cover us on your blog and for that I would be incredibly grateful, but if not, a simple personal reply would be fantastic - another viewpoint to see what we're doing right!Look forward to hearing from you!

Let me break down the above email in to sections/reasons why I was taken by it and responded immediately.

References

The email references 2oceansvibe, I know I have a link in Seth's sidebar and therefore know (or feel) a little bit of legitimacy from the email's author.

Hope and a wish

The author openly admits that he is taking a chance. He isn't being too presumptuous and assuming that I will obviously respond and act. There are no orders coming from the email, there are hopes and requests.

Know the blog

James (the author of the email) clearly went and read SA Rocks. He knew that I liked local music, liked to help promote local artists and liked to support an underdog. So he appealed to these attributes with: "My record label has recently signed our first artist, a guy by the name of Timothy Moloi and are busy in studio recording his debut album."

Play on my field

Multimedia and new media content are integral to my world, it's how I make my living and how I interact with people. So it's a good thing James didn't tell me that he hated the internet and would never release any of Timothy's music online for the world to swipe. In fact, he did the opposite. He sent me links to a YouTube video of Timothy vocalising the hell out of a song I knew "Apologize" by One Republic. He had dropped the bait in my lake and I was not only staring at it, listening to it but chewing on it as hard as I could.

Play to my Ego

The crème de la crème, my ego. James played the game perfectly by stating the following: "Now, I'm sure that you must have MANY people pawning their wares to you, but as a blogger (and in particuler, a South African one), you undoubtedly act as one of the tastemakers of our generation and I figured it would be worth a shot to see if you would like any of the videos."How could any self-indulgent blogger possibly say no to a line like that? James got my, hook, link and sinker.

End the pitch

Do not linger, do not be verbose, do not become pedestrian and cliched. Write what you want to write, get it out, close it down and end the email. Do not linger. I hate it when I have to sift through ten paragraphs of shit to get to the point of the pitch. Say what you want and leave me alone.And here I sit blogging about James and Timothy and will be meeting with them very soon to see how I can help them in any capacity I can think of.James, well played. And to anyone who is trying to pitch to bloggers that might be reading this, take note: A good pitch will be responded to immediately and will have the bloggers commitment from the word Go.

Adgator - The good, the bad and the money

My very first reaction to Adgator was "Dammit that's my idea". It's that sort of a concept. One that everyone thinks they should've started because it's so glaringly obvious that it's needed that it should've been done months/years/ages ago. But it hadn't been done, not in South Africa and not in Africa on the scale that the Afriguys have planned.Being the sort of blogger that I am I was extremely excited to try out what Adgator was offering in the form of an alternative to Google Adsense. Before I continue let me just stipulate that I am going to try and be as open and forthcoming with my stats, numbers, figures and cash for the purpose of this blog post. I am not earning enough money from my blogs to warrant me being secretive. The point of this post is to help people understand Adgator and have a bit of faith in the service. I will be talking through my experiences with Adgator on SA Rocks.So when the site launched I immediately contacted Justin and managed to have SA Rocks accredited for Adgator ads. I chose to make use of the 300 x 250 ad space but more on that further down.

Potential

Initially I decided I wanted to know how much I stood to earn and luckily on the Adgator site there is a calculator that will calculate how much money you could earn according to your monthly pageviews.This is what I still see:Basically when I enter the number of pageviews SA Rocks did, according to Afrigator's analytics, from last month (16776) I am told that I should be earning over R2000 from Adgator adverts. Unfortunately this is not the case.Using February as an example according to Adgator the stats were:16587 advert impressionsR319.06 earnedThat is a fairly large discrepancy (R1692.86). However, let us go back and check through the Adgator estimator. If you look very closely underneath the blue bar above there is this:

* Projected earnings are calculated on a 50% revenue share and are quoted in South African Rand. In calculating this figure it is assumed that Adgator serves advertising for your entire inventory and that inventory has been filled by a client. All figures are estimates only and are subject to the rate agreed upon with each advertising client.

The theory

Now there is the tricky part. For me to earn the projected amount I would need to fill out my inventory with Adgator adverts, I would need a great rate to be agreed upon with advertisers, I would need there to be enough campaigns for the inventory on the site to be filled every day and night for the entire month. Then only will all of my page impressions become advert impressions and generate me the revenue that I am projected to be earning.The other major unsaid fact is that South African traffic is what is being bought the most by the advertisers on Adgator. This means that if you have 90% of your blog traffic coming from abroad you are in for poor times. With SA Rocks I've been lucky.So a quick display of these stats in regard to the Adgater estimator shows us:SA Rocks South African traffic according to Google: 12485 local page impressionsProjected Adgator earnings: R1498Unfortunately this theory is still not as sound as one might hope, but as I have already said there are many variables that come in to play.

Too many variables

Let's be honest, that is a lot of variables to earn a rand. But it is improving and will continue to do so as Justin and his small team of three grow and gather momentum. Advertisers will come to the party and begin to book out inventory months in advance.Unfortunately that is just not the case right now and I couldn't justify keeping the Adgator code on SA Rocks. So about a month or so ago, I took Adgator off SA Rocks. It wasn't earning me money, some of the stats were completely out of whack (in my head) and I just wasn't feeling justified in removing my Google Ads from the site. So I put them back.But let us be completely honest here, unless you are generating serious traffic (at the very least over 40 000 page impressions) then you are not earning in the thousands on a CPM (cost per thousand) basis, you are earning hundreds. But if you get it up to R500 that covers your DSTV for the month and that satisfies me for the moment.Since taking down my 300 x 250 Adgator ad code in the SA Rocks sidebar I have met with Justin Hartman, MD of Afrigator, and had a long chat with him about the revenue potential, issues surrounding the lack of earning, the way the systems works and it's all quite intriguing.

On the up

With December, January and February being relative unstable, confusing and disconcerting from the perspective of the blogger, March is definitely beginning to look up.I have already carried through an average of R22 per day in earnings. If this carries on for the whole month I'm looking at earning R660 in March. That's not bad. In fact that is almost enough for me to consider moving all of my inventory over to Adgator and have 4 ad slots generating that revenue which could take me up to approximately R2500 per month just from Adgator adverts.

The payment problems

The payment problem is not only hypothetical. It's practical. We are finishing the first week of March today and I have yet to receive a payment from Adgator. I am aware of tax issues that they had recently as Lester explains:

TAXWhen we tried to run the Adgator payouts, the good people at SARS had a few questions for us. The issue was raised about whether or not we should be charging you PAYE tax since you're earning money on Adgator. We were able to make them see that you are in fact selling us goods (your inventory) at a price (the CPM), and so there is no PAYE applicable. This was a lot harder than the two sentences above make it sound, which is where the first payment delay came in.INVOICESNow that we've settled the tax issue, SARS has requested that we get an invoice from you for the inventory you sell us. Quite frankly, this would be an administrative nightmare for both you and me, which is why we're working on a very clever invoicing system that will let you do everything with one or two clicks. Here at the Gator Pen we're all about simple, efficient systems.

Now with regards to invoicing on Adgator this was a major problem that has taken some serious innovative thinking on Justin's behalf to get it right. What Justin has now done is create invoicing software for all Adgator members. This solutions has provided multiple solutions to multiple problems. One of the main problems for me was that I couldn't choose when I received payment in terms of the amount. The minimum balance is R150 but what about my choice? Well with the new invoicing system I can choose when to send Adgator my invoices. The system will tally all of your earnings month on month and add it in to a new invoice every month. So if you delay sending through an invoice from January through April it will add all the revenue you've earned over that period and put it in to May's invoice which you can then choose to submit. This is a fantastic solutions that brings us close to the Google model of holding off payments until you are happy.

Overall

On the whole I have had quite a tumultuous time with Adgator. It's a love hate relationship that unfortunately must exist between bloggers and the people paying bloggers. I have the same relationship with Google too. I'm not satisfied that the best route forward for SA Rocks is Adgator and Google banners all over the show. I think content must be king and ads detract from the overall feel of a good, content based blog.The hard truth is that for the majority of bloggers in SA the personal audience is too small is relatively limited and only a handful of bloggers will earn enough money to do this fulltime. The advertisers are desperate to get to us as bloggers but previously couldn't. If you are involved in blogging only for the money best you cease and desist for the time being. If you want ads on your blogs to pay for your DSTV subscription then my advice is to have a good balance between Adgator and Google Adsense to allow you to maximise your opportunities.I am told that right now advertisers are clambering to get on to blogs (could you send them my way?). I firmly believe that if we give it time Adgator is going to be the place to be for local bloggers to earn money. I hear whispers of people earning R450 a day from one advert.I like to support Adgator because I can see the potential. As soon as Afrigator grows and there are more staff members selling Adgator to advertisers then bloggers will benefit greatly. But for now, keep the rands and cents ticking over while the market matures and we await our millions!

2oceansvibe FINALLY adds comments and joins in on the blog fun

I have moaned about 2oceansvibe for a long time but more recently have been in touch with Seth and am enjoying reading his brashness.I must commend him on finally placing blog comments to his posts. Many times I've wanted to bash him in a comment, commend him on his arrogance or leave a general comment but to no avail.I can now do that. And this year there will be no controversy if he wins an award at the SA Blog Awards because he can now be classified as a blog.

Preliminary blogger results for Speak UP!

I've just had contact from organisers of the Speak UP! blogging census.Seems as though the big guns in the blogosphere relating to number of bloggers is Cape Town. I find this one a tough pill to swallow. I think there were some extenuating factors to consider. But that's just me as a JHB resident talking!Apparently there were ±1000 responses to the census which is relatively good considering there are only estimated to be ±7000 bloggers (allegedly) in SA who are active. So 1/8 turnout isn't too shaby. Not fantastic, but not too shabby.Here's the slide I received about location.I am still very interested to see what the final results will be. Apparently they are coming out on Monday so keep your eyes peeled for those.

Let's all blog about blogging about blogging

Bored. That is what us bloggers must be. Why? Because we seem to be so preoccupied recently (a phenomenon that has coincided with some interesting arrivals of late) with who is who and doing what and how often in our wondrously massive local blogging community.Those who are mentioned "seem to not care" but care enough to blog about themselves being blogged about. I have been mentioned a fair amount and I am now partaking in my own condemnation (oh the irony). I am blogging about blogs by bloggers on blogging and bloggers and who's the bestest of the best and whose daddy is bigger than whose mommy and who has the nicest fanciest shmanciest housiest home or rather, blog, and who is more influential than who and how often they influence those that influence others.Can I just chime in here and say that I actually think it's a load of rubbish. In spite of my participation in Mandy's "Top Ten bloggers" post over at MoneyWeb I honestly think it's irrelevant. Mandy asked on twitter yesterday: "Who has more influece?" and listed three bloggers for others to compare. Link. Bait. It's link baiting. Not journalism. It's irrelevant in my opinion (and only in my opinion). What does matter is that its time we refocus our energy on relevant content for the every day reader. Not the bloggers who blog about blogging.Has content become so drab and non existent that we have turned to each other, looked one another in the blog and decided that we are the only content relevant enough to blog about? Are you kidding me?I reiterate that I grasp the fact that I am doing the same thing right now that I am condemning, do not point it out in the comments, I get it, I know that I am doing it but occasionally it is unavoidable.What I am getting at is that people like to stir the pot, we like to back rub, we like to have our backs rubbed, we all do and we all know it, we just can't help ourselves. It's the old adage that people like to see themselves on TV, look at America's Funniest Home Videos. That show has never gone away and it's because there are regular people focusing on people like themselves. That doesn't make it good content though. It just makes it long-lasting.Maybe it's time I shift my focus to writing for readers, not bloggers. Writing for people and writing about things that people like to read. In my opinion readers don't like to read about bloggers blogging about blogs and other bloggers egos and ranks and pages and pageranks and technorati and lists and links... see I'm bored already.

Facebook's "Note Bloggers" must outnumber us "Real Bloggers"

Facebook's "notes" feature has possibly created an entirely new faction of bloggers who have no idea that they are self publishers and by default, bloggers.I can only imagine that by the sheer number of South Africans that are using Facebook (over 700 000) and are actually writing innocent "notes", well outnumber us "real bloggers".Furthermore, if on average let's guestimate that these "note bloggers" have +-250 friends and that each note is being read, or at least viewed by half of these people. Imagine if every article you wrote on your blog was read by between 100 and 300 people. You'd have a thriving "real blog"."Note blogger" vs "Real blogger" - what's your poison?

My list of Ten Influential Bloggers

As published in Mandy's MoneyWeb article:1. Michael Trapido - www.thoughtleader.co.za/traps - Traps is a voice worth hearing. His opinion and relentless 4th estate approach to his writing is much needed in a dumbed-down political sphere.
2. Rob Stokes - http://www.gottaquirk.com/ - Rob is an important blogger to read because he has true insight and genuine experience that makes his writing worth the read.
3. Ndumiso Ngcobo - http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/silwane - Genuine and honest opinion is hard to come by. The Silwane Files is a blog filled with simple truisms and introspective outwardly-appealing opinions.
4. Fred Roed - ideate.co.za - Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of SA at the moment, Fred and his Ideate partners provide integral insight in to their business experiences.
5. Khaya Dlanga - http://www.youtube.com/user/khayav - Khaya is actually a Vlogger. His insight and no-holds-barred opinion about SA is invaluable.
6 & 7. Glen and Wanda of Urban Sprout - www.urbansprout.co.za - Green is the future and I respect and value anyone talking green in SA.
8. Vincent Maher - wwww.vincentmaher.com - He doesn't blog often but still remains an essential figure to follow in the online industry.
9. Jarred Cinman - http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/burningpaper - Open, honest and not scared to blog about the "no-no's" such as religion.
10. Fred Khumalo - http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/khumalo/ - Mainstream media taking up blogging is always interesting. Fred has done a brilliant job of involving himself and his opinion in the blogosphere.And I'd just like to thank all the bloggers and people who mentioned me in their lists in the same article.

Young bloggers in South Africa

A while back I read a few blog posts that spoke of young bloggers abroad making waves and finding great success.I am relatively young but I think that these posts are referring to bloggers younger than I am.Where are the young bloggers under the age of 21 in SA? Are there any and if not, why not?I can't think of any and don't read any but that doesn't mean they don't exist. But is there really value for this sort of market in SA? Should we be looking for the next big thing now and getting them online and benefiting from their potential success? Is this exploitation?I am also extremely interested to discuss what the next generation of bloggers will look like.Should there be a batch of teenagers coming to the fore? Surely if blogging was taking off as much as bloggers think it would be reaching the younger generation and adopting the practice of blogging?Could this be a sign that blogging is not all that it's cracked up to be and it isn't growing at the rate we all think it is? With so many teenagers on Facebook and using Mxit in SA in my mind it makes sense that some of them should be, could be and would be publishing their own content on blogs. But they just aren't. Why?

Win With Doritos Taco - a relative flop

Doritos has been everywhere lately, all over the radio, a few other ads here and there. Basically they have been punting their Facebook page.I eventually saw that one of my friends on FB had joined the group as well as ±1500 people.My immediate reaction is that this is a flop of a campaign. Advertising on radio is no cheap affair but an affair it is. You face the risk of being caught out by your better half - the listeners or target market. And to me it seems as though this has happened to Doritos.

Why I think this is campaign was a flop?

Coming off the back of a great advertising campaign with their "Moment of boldness" A few years ago I can't believe that Doritos could have done so badly with this one. That campaign was a viral campaign before there were viral campaigns. To this day I know many people who still joke about their moments of boldness.At the time of writing this post there were 777 122 people from South Africa above the age of 18 on Facebook. That works out to about 0.2% of the users on FB, from SA actually bothered to become a fan of the brand. In my mind, that's a bit of a flop.

Why this could be perceived to be a successful campaign

Theoretically what we could be looking at here is quality over quantity. Involvement and activity over masses of inactive users/fans.But let's look at this for a moment before we get ahead of ourselves. The available features on the FB page of Doritos are: Notes, Photos, Video, Wall Comments, Events and Discussion Board.To analyse these in a bit more detail:Wall313 postsDiscussion Board Topic 1: 120 posts by 95 peopleTopic 2: 29 posts by 25 peopleVideos12 fan videosPhotos44 photos5 albumsEventsEvent 1 - 6 confirmed guests, 4 wall postsEvent 2 - 28 confirmed guests, 6 wall postsNotes7 notes144 commentsLooking at the above breakdowns I honestly cannot say that all the money Doritos must have spent on their mainstream ad campaigns was worth it. 44 photographs and 12 videos is really not a good response in my opinion. Especially considering that there are ±1500 people in the group and over 750 000 people in SA on FB. That means that less than 1% of the fans on the page posted a video and almost 3% of the fans posted a photograph.I'm not sure about you, but I've posted, viewed and commented on hundreds of photos on FB, that should've been the saving grace but alas, it wasn't.

What Doritos could have done differently

Expanded their "moment of boldness" campaign to an online network of viral campaigns. Blogs, videos, podcasts and "fake events" that could have boosted the reputation of the brand for the young and socially in touch.I can picture the blog and videos now; South Africans all over filming their moment of boldness, recording fake jumps, dares and ironic, satirical parodies of the "bold" factor.Doritos could have done more with their Facebook group. Updates, invites, ads, coupons, giveaways, freebies. Sometimes it just takes a bit of gritty interaction to spread the word for a fan page, not an entire radio ad campaign. Other than giveaways the Doritos fan page gave nothing to its members. No community offering. I know a lot of people who feel an affinity to Doritos, it's their choice chip, but they were not enticed to join this group. People like Apple Students has it right on their page. They have a community, not a product.Below the line marketing would have worked better. Get bloggers involved, send them a box of crisps and ask them to eat them, rally a party around the chips, get other bloggers in on it and spread the word slowly to all their readers via the subsequent posts.Print would even have worked better than radio. More people will sit near a computer while reading a newspaper/magazine than will be listening to the radio, so why put it on the radio? You are probably driving in your car when you hear about the Doritos fan page, not sitting by a pc with internet access. Bad move.I did try to contact Doritos, the admin of the group or anyone but no one responded. I gave them a few working days. I'd love to know if they consider this campaign to be successful or if they are looking in to recovering from the flop that I see?

Blogging is work now

In fact, it's been a long year so far and it's only February. I hate this feeling.But things are coming right, work doesn't suck, people are settling down and becoming easier to work with at the moment, which is great. People are gathering focus. Blogging is going well (not on here) in general although if I thought that running two blogs was tough work, three is incomprehensible. I work late, really late, blog every night and on weekends and am constantly looking for now content on three different levels.But however you look at it, I have little to bitch about, so I wont bitch.No, wait, I lie, I can't not bitch. I'm tired. Was at work today before 7am. That is really early for me. Maybe not for everyone, but for me it. I feel like it's early for me because I am always working lately.Initially I really loved blogging - I still do - but now it has become work, a job, a mechanism to express opinion, earn revenue and generate hype. This is work in a nutshell. So I work a full-time job (roughly 10 hours a day) and then go home and work more. Managing three blogs is tough work, but at least I love it!Take it from me, if you are thinking about filling your empty plate, think twice before you over fill it.

ShaunOakes up for a bloggie award?

I am somewhat confuzzled and bemused.Let me start by saying congratulations to ShaunOakes.com for his nomination in the 2008 bloggies. As well as Tertia and Gladtobeagirl. Great work for SA and the SA bloggers!! I have asked all my SA Rocks readers to get over to the bloggies page and vote!!Now I have read shaunoakes.com before. Once or twice. Nothing more. Maybe I am stuck in a little SA blogosphere bubble but I tend to think of myself as well read and on the pulse of the sphere. In this case I missed out.Can someone explain to me how shaunoakes.com has been nominated as best African weblog of the year for the bloggies 2008? The key here is AFRICAN. I could maybe just understand or grasp the nomination if it were purely South African. But are you telling me that his blog is the best of what Africa has to offer? If so, let me know why and I'll change my mind, but I'm lost.I am not saying any of this to imply that I am any better, cause I'm not. At all in fact. I just want to understand the situation. Were the nominations not well received in general? Were the numbers low? Did Shaun's readers pull through and are they deceivingly high? That can't be the case because his blog is ranked below mine on Amatomu.com and I know that I am not doing particularly well in the whole participatory readership category. Or in the general readership for that matter!!I am also not saying that readership defines blog quality or how deserved a blog is for an award at all. It just interests me to know how Shaun managed to get nominated, what was the process, who voted, who said, who, who, who?Have a look:Below you see Tertia whipping my butt and shaun's butt. She has the readers to get the nominations.Then you can see Tertia whipping everyone's ass:Shaun's blog is friendly and arrogant to a degree (which I like). He strings together posts that are mixed, mismatched and a motley combination of funny, serious, satirical and other things. But I honestly cannot believe that this blog is up there with the best in Africa?Tertia I can understand. A long standing successful blog with proven potential and achievement. Great readership, participation and a focus throughout the entire blog, she is merciless with her blogging and rigorously sticks to a schedule. Understandable nomination.Shaun - if you have a tip for me, please let me know, cause I am interested to know how to get my readers to participate more in what I ask!Either way, whether I am blind, dumb or just plain biased I think it's great that there are a three SA blogs up for awards and I will be the very first person to email Shaun personally and congratulate him if he wins in the category.http://2008.bloggies.com/

Two blogs are better than one

I have been thinking about this for a while now. Whether it's better to focus on one blog or two share your attention between two.I run this blog and SA Rocks. I think that the two are mutually beneficial but conflict one another on occasion. It's a difficult balance but one that I think has been extremely beneficial for me.What you need to maintain two (or more) blogsYou need a clear definition of each blogDiscipline is essentialCreativity is a mustFocusGoalsA plan - this is the most important on that I think I missed out on. You need to have a plan for each blog and each post that you write. If you don't have a plan the blogs can begin to cancel one another out and overrun one another.The prosCross populationCross referencingAssociation linksPost ideasCross-blog debatesAssociated traffic (gaining traffic from SA Rocks as the author)Cross-promotionThe consCross population - try to keep your blog posts separate unless there is a clear and present need for them to link.Time constraintsMental drainContradiction - I've struggled with SA Rocks to keep my positive outlook on SA Rocks and maintain it on my personal blog. This could be seen as a pro and a con as blogging on SA Rocks has allowed me to stay away from negative topics on my personal blog.I would love to find out how many other bloggers run more than one blog and if you do, what problems are you finding?

5 Feeds I can't live without

1. Cyanide and Happiness - http://feeds.feedburner.com/Explosm2. The Dilbert Blog - http://dilbert.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/atom.xml3. 9 to 5 Mac - http://www.9to5mac.com/feedburner.xml4. Deputy Dog - http://feeds.feedburner.com/Deputydog5. Sarah Britten - http://feeds.feedburner.com/thetimes/brittenAnd a few extra special mentions:David Airey - http://feeds.feedburner.com/CreativeDesignPublicity Generation - feed://http//www.publicitygeneration.co.za/?feed=rss2Freakonomics - http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/rss2.xml

3 years of blogging

December (the month we are in) marks three years of blogging for me. More specifically, three years of blogging on this blog. Now the name might have changed a few times which definitely hasn't helped my rankings at all.This is not going to be on of those posts where I explicitly explain what I've done in three years and how its felt deep down. To be honest I don't think you care and I don't think I do either.But this blog has been an interesting experiment for me. It has become part of my "real" life. People I'm out with begin sentences and stories with "don't blog this but..." and that's when you know.I have made friends, lost friends (I have enough friends anyways) and built incredible relationships in business and my private life all thanks to this very blog.SA Rocks is a result of this blog and to be fair, this blog is a result of the influence of the Groogle and Shnitz. So thanks to them too I reckon!I have also been thinking about my "linkbaiting" as some may call it. It's not. All that I do is speak my mind and take a different angle to the norm. Most of the time I piss people off, most of the time I don't really care but sometimes I do and sometimes I listen.My recent silence has been thanks to my end-of-year-brain-drain. I will be back on my game soon. Here's to another three or more years of blogging!

Niche websites - Deputy Dog

We have all heard the "blogging elite" in the world talk about niche blogs and their effectiveness. I have rarely found a blog that sparks my interest in the "niche" category but this one has.
Deputy Dog has no "about" section so I am going to make one up. The site focuses on phenomenal things. Let me be more specific. The author actively seeks incredible photos, stories and videos of amazing phenomena such as double story winding bridges, planes almost crashing in to one another and many posts such as "The world first...".It's kind of a "World first, biggest, oldest, largest etc etc etc" blog. Which I find fascinating. You can't take everything (or anything) on the blog as gospel but I can read this sort of stuff for hours. Much like that old show Ripley's believe it or not on TV, this blog really makes me want to click back in to the archives.Do yourself a favour and read the blog now.

MyDigitalLife blogs put me off

I really struggle to MyDigitalLife (MyDL) blogs. It's not the blogs themselves or the bloggers, it's the fact that on Amatomu all MyDL blogs appear with a single author, MyDigitalLife. Immediately that puts me off.I have glanced over and ignored countless posts by MyDL bloggers for this reason. In stark contrast, I enjoy reading Iblogs, Amagama and other who have individual authors listed on Amatomu.The reason? I think that it is due to the fact that in my mind it appears as if MyDL is trying to own the content of all their blogs and thus alter editorial content.I was asked to post SA Rocks posts on MyDL a while ago. I started using the service and received little to no feedback. I then noticed my current issue with them on Amatomu and have yet to post another SA Rocks post on MyDL.Simply put, bloggers on MyDL need to take back their blogs.

Big website, big adspend and a blogger blog?

Vottle has pumped some serious moola in to their advertising campaign recently. I think we have all heard them on 5fm or whichever other radio station it was.Yet I am left a bit baffled and bemused at their approach to blogging. They clearly believe they have a massive product if they are willing to pump money in to their campaign. They clearly have the money to do this, but they have a BLOGGER blog?Not only is the website a .com url, which means they have a hosting package attache to that .com, but they most probably have a great big hosting package to cope with the traffic they built up over the ad campaigns. So I ask you, where is the .com/blog blog? What are you thinking?Blogger might have been cool a couple of ages ago, but now blogger blogs are filled with porn, spam and clutter. .com blogs are the way forward, .co.za blogs are a very suitable substitute, but a blogger.com blog is not acceptable. They might have redirected the blog to "blog.vottle.com" But they have chosen to keep the Blogger template. This really makes no sense to me.I suppose that any online presence in the form of a blog is better than no online presence. But surely an ONLINE company knows better and knows about better services?Lock it up and throw away the key. Get a Wordpress blog.