Here are the top five mobile inventions we recommend you take a look at:

1. M-Pesa

   Even though M-Pesa had a pretty disappointing start in South Africa, with only around 100 000 registrations in its first nine months, it definitely ranks up there as one of Africa’s top mobile inventions, and has been deployed as far afield as Afghanistan and Fiji. M-Pesa was launched by the former CEO of Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom, Michael Joseph, in 2007. Today, 15 million of Safaricom’s 17.5 million subscribers use the system to transfer US$700-million per month, according to Joseph, speaking before the 5th Annual Mobile Banking and Emerging Application Summit.M-Pesa gives people who do not have bank accounts and previously only dealt in cash a way to safely and cost-effectively transfer money via their mobile phones. Safaricom, in partnership with Kenya’s Equity Bank, also allows customers to earn interest on M-Pesa balances.

2. Fundamo

   Mobile banking golden child, Fundamo, announced a cool US$110 million (R750 million) acquisition by Visa this month. The company, founded by Hannes van Rensburg, ex-Sanlam CIO, in Cape Town’s northern suburbs, provides mobile banking infrastructure to mobile operators and financial institutions.Like M-Pesa, Fundamo proves that cellphones are key to providing banking services to the large number of people around the world who don’t qualify for, or have access to, a bank account. Fundamo has more than 50 active mobile financial service deployments in more than 40 countries around the world, including 27 in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. These deployments currently have five million registered subscribers, and have the potential, the company says, to reach in excess of 180 million people.

3.  MXit

   Arguably the bane of many parents’ lives, MXit, founded in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2003, is the free online instant messenger and social networking platform that allows users to instant message via a cellphone at a fraction of the cost of a text message. For a small fee, as well as your data charges, users can also buy goods such as wallpapers and ringtones, or have conversations in the MXit chat rooms.User numbers are tricky to pin down, but are understood to be in the region of 10 million active unique users and 25 million registered users — primarily in South Africa, but also in Indonesia and other countries around the world. Increasingly marketers, educators and professionals in the healthcare industry are realising that MXit is an effective way of reaching the youth and young adult market. Next on the cards for MXit is a mobile wallet in partnership with wiWallet to allow purchases of larger items such as airtime, electricity and retail goods.

4. Ushahidi

   Ushahidi was born during the Kenyan election riots in 2007, when blogger Juliana Rotich wanted a way to allow people on the ground to report on violence, with the information primarily being captured by cell phone. Since then the Ushahidi team has built a powerful platform that captures information during a crisis, and displays it on a map to allow emergency services and other parties to get a crowdsourced view of what is happening.It was recently used as quickly as two hours after the Japanese earthquake earlier this year to identify locations where people might be trapped, dangerous areas, and the location of food and water supplies. Ushahidi has been used around the world during both political and natural crises in the USA, Haiti, Libya and India, amongst others.

5. JamiiX

   Another messaging platform, JamiiX grew out of a mobile instant messaging service used to counsel teenagers affected by drugs, alcohol addiction, and HIV in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town. The JamiiX platform was developed by South African, Marlon Parker, to effectively manage multiple mobile chat and mobile social networks streams. It allows eight counsellors to have 300 instant messaging (IM) conversations in one hour, massively increasing their ability to assist those who need help.It was released for third party use in 2010, and the WHO (World Health Organisation) has deployed JamiiX, in conjunction with MXit, in Indonesia to aid communications after natural disasters. Deployments are also underway in Nigeria and Malaysia.

First published on Vomo.

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Instead, let’s all take a deep breath and start to consider what Jobs’ departure — strictly speaking a change in role, he is now chairman of Apple’s board — means for mobile marketing.

For a start, Jobs is undeniably the great disruptor when it comes to the mobile industry. As Justin Siegel, CEO of MocoSpace said Steve Jobs was responsible for making voice calls a peripheral feature of a mobile phone. And despite the limitations of the iPhone, there is no denying it is a thing of beauty when it comes to usability.

Then enter the iPad. Clearly not a phone, and can do a lot of what you usually use a desktop or laptop computer for, but very definitely a mobile device.

Last year the third piece of the puzzle fell into place. iAds is a closed mobile ad delivery platform that allows iOS developers to monetize their apps, and brands to engage with users of Apple’s mobile devices — in a more exciting way than previously possible with mobile advertising, according to Jobs. The key, apparently, is entrenching mobile advertising into iOS4. Generally the jury appears to still be out when it comes to the success of iAds and how innovative it really is.

According to Jeff Hasen at analysts Mobile Groove: “[iAds] has been a large disappointment for many advertisers and others (like me) who looked at Apple’s move into mobile advertising as a milestone and much needed push to move the industry along.”

Hasen continues to say though that if iPhone is also sold via Sprint and T-mobile in the US, as is expected to happen this year, the critical mass needed for advertisers to see real returns might become a reality. And if we know one thing about Apple fans, they are willing to wait while bugs get worked out of products and service.

So what’s next?

Steve Jobs continues to be involved with Apple as chairman of the board, and industry commentators say he is expected to remain involved in product and strategy development. Tim Cook, former chief operating officer who now takes over the chief executive reins from Jobs, has sometimes been dismissed as an accountant and lacking Jobs’ flair, passion and charisma. However, general consensus seems to be he is a solid pair of hands and can execute the current plan well.

Cook himself said in an email to Apple staff: “I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that – it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.”

The market seems to be calm so far as well, after a few shaky days immediately after Jobs’ resignation announcement. Gartner analyst Van Baker said: “My suspicion is that Apple will do just fine. There are so many talented people there and Steve’s attention to detail is baked into the culture.”

And while it appears to be business as usual at Apple, it is going to be interesting to watch what Apple’s competitors do. Shares in Samsung Electronics, the manufacturer of iPad competitor the Galaxy tablet, rose three percent, while LG Electronics jumped four percent after Jobs’s announcement, reported Memeburn. Samsung certainly seems to be upping the ante in terms of marketing and smartphones sales in recent months, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if it took this opportunity to grab market share from Apple.

As ever, it seems, mobile marketers need to stay nimble and on their toes, ready to respond to a constantly changing, but always growing, market.

First published on Vomo.

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The latest piece of what I would consider truly viral content doing the rounds on the internet is ‘Buck Norris’ – the video clip of 17-year-old cyclist, Evan van der Spuy, being knocked off his bike in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa by a red hartebeest. At the time of writing, in less than a month almost 12 million people have watched the original clip posted on YouTube, not to mention hundreds of thousands of views of secondary clips, as well as spin-offs (you know you’ve made it on the internet when someone spoofs you), and international news coverage from UK daily Metro to online newspaper the Huffington Post.

Key to the clip was timing, both of the filming and the encounter, but key to the clip going viral was Max Cluer, owner of Team Jeep South Africa and organiser of the cycling event posting the clip up to YouTube immediately, while there was still buzz amongst the immediate audience about the incident. These Twitter and Facebook conversations were an ideal vehicle for making the clip spread virally around the world, earning Cluer’s Team Jeep brand unprecedented exposure, thanks to the logo on Van der Spuy’s cycling kit.

This is also crucial to laying the foundation for a piece of content to go viral: don’t be overly promotional. Team Jeep was seen in the context of super-awesome content that was worthy of sharing. It wasn’t a Team Jeep advert. Brian Mung’ei, Head of Business Development at Nairobi, Kenya-based web and marketing agency, Pamoja Media agrees:

“Don’t make the campaign an advertisement. A campaign doesn’t need to educate people about the product but rather on the benefits of the product. Think of a perfect online ad as a ‘behind the scenes’ version of a normal commercial TV advert. This means one needs to have a different mindset in that it’s not pushing a brand or product, rather about story-telling. The product does not even have to appear anywhere on the video for people to understand the ad and remember it,” he says.

Bozza’s Head of Brand Strategy, Catherine Lückhoff takes it a step further saying: “You don’t create virals – content either becomes viral or it doesn’t. All you (agency, client, marketing person etc.) can do is to know your market and create content that is sticky. Our experience is that contextually relevant local content is key. Content has to add value; be that through entertainment, education, a combination of, or giving users access to information.”

Bozza is a case in point. Dubbed a mobihood – a mobile neighbourhood – Bozza allows communities across Africa to share their stories and interact via a mobile phone. It launched a proof of concept on MXit in 2010, with hyper-local made-for-mobile video content. Within three days it had 40,000 subscribers and within three months, 170,000.

It can be pretty scary for brands to realise how little control they have over their brand anymore. But for content to truly become viral, they need to give up this control – or face an unpleasant viral backlash, as Brandhouse found out when it lost its sense of humour back in 2009 over user-generated spoofs of its Lou Gossett Jr. ad campaign.

Pamoja Media’s Mung’ei advises brands: “The web gives the audience greater control of how to interact with the campaign such that they can save, replay and most importantly share the advert within their networks. Ensure the video is free to access, download, embed and share online. This is basically the underlying essence of viral campaigns. If someone has to log on to your website to be able to view the advert and then ‘like’ your Facebook page to share it, someone needs to get fired.”

First published on African Business Review.

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Barely out of diapers, social networks Facebook and Twitter have changed the way we work and play. Companies don’t just have Facebook pages anymore; they have all-singing, all-dancing mini-sites, run competitions to drive “likes” and have creative teams dreaming up new ways of “engaging with the fans”. Twitter is no longer just for broadcasting what you had for lunch; promoted tweets are a regular occurrence in our Twitter streams, and celebrities can make a tidy profit by endorsing a brand of trainers in a tweet.

But if there is one thing you can be certain of in 2011, as ever, it’s that change is the order of the day. And Google’s launch of its social network-esque site, Google+, in June means that business owners and consumers alike need to work out what this means for them.

At time of writing, Google hasn’t launched the business-focused side of Google+ yet, bar a few early tests with companies such as Ford and has been actively booting off any businesses that try to sneak in via a personal profile. But, apparently based on feedback since the launch, the search giant has said it is bringing forward the launch date of its Google+ business services.

Read the rest of my article on African Business Review

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It wouldn’t be surprising if many marketers feel like this at the moment, trying to navigate the rapidly changing digital marketing world, and getting the balance right between push and pull marketing.

Digital marketing is touted as the great conversation between a brand and its customers, but someone has to initiate the right conversations at the right time for your brand. Happy days indeed if your customers are spontaneously saying the right things about you, but many of the most successful viral campaigns need to be seeded.

Read the rest of my article on African Business Review

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There’s no denying that social media, by many once considered a here-today-gone-tomorrow fad, is a key arrow in a marketer’s quiver. It’s word of mouth on steroids and free, right?

Or not.

Social media experts in Kenya and South Africa warn companies not to view social media marketing, on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as free. Yes, these platforms are umpteen times more cost-effective that traditional advertising such as TV or print, but do need time, money and strategic thought to be effective.

Read the rest of my article on African Business Review.

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After chasing my tail for a few weeks last month trying to register a page name on Facebook to set up a vanity URLI thought I would share what worked to save others from the same time wasting and head scratching.

Firstly, I had the pre-requisite 25 fans on the page to get the vanity URL but kept getting told the page name: www.facebook.com/mobiflock was unavailable. This seemed strange as we had researched the name thoroughly and were pretty sure it wasn’t duplicating anything else out there.

When I typed the URL into my browser, it came up blank – so it didn’t seem that someone else had registered the vanity URL  for the Facebook page either.

I tried changing the categories that I used to register the page, but that didn’t make any difference. I really didn’t want to start trying different versions of the brand name, eg Mobiflock123, as that seemed to defeat the object, especially as we are about to embark on a brand building exercise. Also, once you have selected a Facebook fan page name, you are stuck with it. Forever. Unless you start from scratch and build up your fan base all over again.

Next port of call was various Facebook help sites – both “official” sites and third party ones. What I discovered was that plenty of people are having this problem, and there are a range of suggested solutions, none of which helped me.

And as you’ll know, if you are reading this, it is almost impossible to contact a real person at Facebook. If you don’t find what you are looking for by jumping down any number of Facebook fan page help rabbit holes, you’re on your own.

Finally, tucked away in a related thread, I found a link to the Facebook “Notice of Intellectual Property Infringement (Non-Copyright Claim)“. This form sounds like and looks like a form you fill in when someone has maliciously hijacked your brand name and you want it back. Apparently though, it’s also for people like you and me, who are the rightful owners of a brand name that hasn’t been used before and want to get it released from some Facebook copyright corral in order to use it.

I’m guessing, but my impression is that Facebook seems to blacklist all possible brand names until you prove it’s yours. Not a bad system I guess, as it prevents someone coming along and potentially doing your brand damage by using the name inappropriately, and saves a bit of messy bother reclaiming a name already out there in the wild, and then building a community around it.

The system would work better though if you knew about it in advance, and it was easier to find out what you needed to do to unlock a brand name to use as a Facebook fan page vanity URL.

So, here’s that link again: www.facebook.com/legal/copyright.php?noncopyright_notice=1

It worked for me, pretty speedily, and I got a reply from a real person!! Good luck!

Image source: Facebook

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So to say thanks to all the fabulous South Africa bloggers who have supported us with posts, Tweets and Facebook mentions, here is some link love from me.

2Oceansvibe

5FM

Afrigator – check out the awesome ad

A thousand guitars

Biz-community

Cleo

Cosmo Online

Globalpost (via SA Rocks)

iMod

Mother City Living

Muse Magazine

SA Rocks

The Digital Edge

You can enter the competition on the Breadline Africa site, or read the press release on the Twokats site.

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Look at popular blogs where people are interacting, commenting and conversing with each other. You’ll see many traditional publications now allow for comments at the bottom of articles, taking the letter to the editor concept to a whole new level. News is often breaking on social media platforms first, and then followed up with more details and analysis from “traditional” media.

Related concepts: Web 2.0

What this means for marketers:
Communication is no longer one-way, from company to consumer. Consumers are having their own conversations about your brands, without your involvement. Companies need to change their approach and start conversing, rather than telling. This also has an impact on media relations, with traditional media looking to redefine themselves in this new media landscape.

This is the first in a series of posts that I have planned. The idea came about when I was sitting at a conference in Cape Town in May 2009 and overheard someone whisper to their colleague: “What’s viral marketing mean?” This reminded me that things are moving so fast at the moment that it can sometimes be difficult for marketers to keep up, and to know what is important and what can be disregarded. It also reminded me to get out of my echo chamber, and share some of the knowledge that I am been fortunate enough to pick up along the way.

Drop me a line with any requests and I’ll do my best to provide a user-friendly explanation.

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