I Love The Web

Hello my Facebook Friends, do you Twitter ?

Mar 30, 2009 Uncategorized

Recently, I have seen many of you, my friends on Facebook, joining Twitter. This makes me happy because

1. no longer will i sound like a geek when every time i refer to Twitter, in other words you are joining my universe.
2. sharing of information will be more immediate and meaningful as i join your universe and discover even more things that you find interesting.
3. since most of you are already in Facebook, our Facebook experience will be enhanced as we find more compelling reasons to interact, beyond the  level of interaction offered by Facebook applications like ‘25 things you did not know about me’ , who cares ?.

Now that you are on Twitter, I would like to share with you, how I use Twitter and how it enhances my online experience. I think many people are dejected by the seemingly simple looking Twitter web page after they register. Unlike Google, there isn’t a lot to click on to ’see something happen’.  On the face of it, it is a serious downgrade from the experience you are used to on Facebook.

Friends are Followers

I think it is important to explain the idea behind Twitter in order to understand how to use it. The idea is to keep track or ‘follow’ where your friends have been. You will be ‘following’ a trail of messages and most importantly web links that your friend leaves behind for you to ‘follow’ like Hansel and Gretel you see ?
So to follow someone is much like subscribing to someones messages as you would with online newsletters. The difference being that the messages are more instant, like Skype and Googletalk. So to remember to follow.

Sharing is Giving

Twitter would not be as popular as it is without the support of people that use it. The reason it is so popular is that people are always sharing.  For me, this is the single most important idea behind Twitter. The discovery of new information that is shared by those I follow.  So, when you discover something interesting on the web, share it with your followers, chances are that they will find it interesting too.  This is important, the quality of the links you follow has an impact on how many people follow you.

Ok, with that sorted out of the way how do you get started.

1. Get a Twitter account by registering on Twitter.com, remember your twitter username and password when you have done registering. You will need it for the next step.
2. Download and install Adobe Air over here.
3. Finally Download and install  Tweetdeck over here.
4. It is now time to find and add followers, the following video should help explain how.

There is lots more I would like to tell you, but it goes way beyond the scope of introducing you to Twitter.  Honestly, it has taken me close to 5 days to get this post out.  I will post more about this depending on feedback I get.

You can find more and even better videos on twitter and tweetdeck by visiting youtube.

Good luck and happy tweeting.

If you build it they will come.

Mar 12, 2009 Mobile

Today’s announcement that MTN would be taking over retail space for up to 17 Musica stores raised eyebrows for many. What is a cell phone company doing with music store?

Well if I think of it, MTN is a telecommunications company (telco) and what we are seeing is probably a signal that the business model of these companies is changing.

The business model for telecommunication providers has been changing and adapting longer than most people would realise. Many people, including myself, have thought of telcos as simply voice service providers.
Over the last 15 years as we embrace the internet, we saw telcos as infrastructure providers for the communications lines for us so that we can call our loved ones and push internet data.

One has to realise though that telcos are more of application providers. The applications have been changing all the time. The killer application at the inception of the Telcos has been seen as messaging; from the age of morse code and till recently the age of the internet.
It should not surprising to me to see MTN moving into this space. A move into the music distribution simply makes sense. With the growing preference digitally distributed music, MTN are just paying attention, they would be well placed to close the gap between the producer of music on the one side and the consumer on the other.
The signal has been there for a long time.

We have seen our local artists benefit from music distributions via wireless application service providers. Many ring tones appear on countless catalogues and only a short code away through companies such as ExactMobile etc.
So, the next announcement I am anticipating from the likes of MTN is a scramble for the creme of these wireless application service providers crop.

5 South African Musos I wish on Twitter

Mar 11, 2009 Social Netoworking

Tweeter has become an important instant messaging tool for me. If you have not heard of tweeter before, where have you been? I see Tweeter as a crowd sourcing tool that can be used to keep in touch of others. You do not need to be crowd sourcing of course. It allows me to be a “follow” of people that interest me socially and in business too.

I have found use twitter more often than I use email, and lately more often than I use Google search. Actually more searches that I do on Google these days are a result of some info that came via Tweeter.

I also love music and lately I have been feeling that I should be going to more live performances by South African music artists. But which one should I go to? Ideally this exercise would require me to go to computicket and do a relevant search on live performance acts.

However times have changed and I have become used to my way of life. Why should I be chasing after artists, and why should I be going through obstacles to get to the information about artist that is relevant to me. I would rather prefer that the information about artists be pushed to me than seek it out. I like the convenience.

This is an application that is perfect for Tweeter. If all the artists that I like had a Tweeter profile it would make things so much easier, all I would do is ‘follow’ them and every time that they want to tell their followers about their next performance, they would just push that info out as an instant message with the relevant link to book the show.

So, here is my top 5 South African Artists that I wish had a Tweeter Profile.

What began as an article for Tweeter profile ended up sounding like a review of South African music artists web presence review.

1. Lira

She is my favorite artist singing good music that hard to catagorise. She does jazz some pop and generally the kind of music you can listen to every single day.

Her social network marketing strategy includes the use of MySpace, Facebook and well as a service I know very little about called ReverbNation. They appear to be a one stop service for management of your social network presence

2. Thandiswa

I think Zabalaza is one memorable album that I will never forget. I have been following her music since the days of Bongo Maffin and when the Zabalaza album was released, that became a signal to me that a new level of maturity in her music has been achieved.

Sadly, at the time of writing this, her site has no content all. She must be working on her site or something but it does help to put a little note. I have found a closed profile on Facebook but since there isn’t a direct link on her site I couldn’t be sure the profile i was looking at was hers.

3. Hip Hop Pantsula

I think the name says it all. Hip Hop and Pantsula, two distinct genres of music with a good historical background that stretches many years back. This dynamic artist has put the two together the two genres in a mixture called MOTSWAKO that makes listen to Hip Hop such a rewarding experience.

I think he could use some Search Engine Optimisation. His online profile is all over the place. Perhaps that is not a bad thing however leaving a major part of your online identity to a resource you have little control over, can be frustrating.

His social networking strategy involves heavy usage of MySpace. Not a bad choice with a following of close to 2000 people. However MySpace has an image about it that feels a little less professional in my Opinion. MySpace feels a little patchy and more of an afterthought. He has only made only one blog entry made 3 months ago!

I could not find on Facebook a profile I can positively identify has HHP’s profile. There are at least three so one gets confused in determining which one is managed by the artist or his PR representative. This illustrates the need to have your own web address presence (www.hiphoppantsula.co.za). Once could refer to the site to find the proper Facebook profile.

Much like Thandiswa, hiphoppantsula.co.za has no content or whatsoever.

4. Pro Kid

I am not proud to say I have not listened to much his music. However a few songs that I have listened to such as “Soweto” have impressed me much and i think he brings a style of rap with strong assertive assertions that could only have come from Soweto. He is by no means the biggest Hip Hop artists out there but certainly one I would like to see perform.

I have found no website for Prokid but instances all over the web that are either discographies or small online startups that wish to capitalize on ringtones and lyrics from his music.

5. MXO

Another brilliant artist that can rap as well as sing. He hails from the Eastern Cape and at the risk of sounding like a biography; his music is really fresh, does not conform to anything you have heard coming from the eastern cape and still compelling to keep his music on the cd tray for a while.

I think our local artist really need help. He has no .co.za that I could identify. Mxo.co.za has been taken over by a cyber squatter and so had mxo.com. The flavor of music artists; MySpace has a profile that points to another site (mxfunk.com) that does not resolve to any site at all.

I found a Facebook group profile called MXO music however, this appears to be yet another group profile probably created by a fan. It does not appear to have any information regarding performances and has all of 15 members.

What began as an article for Tweeter profile ended up sounding like a review of South African music artists web presence review. Of all the artists I reviewed here, Lira is still on top. I think it says something about her marketing team and herself as a professional. No wonder she is my favorite artist. All she needs to do is get a Tweeter profile organised.