WSI Social Media Strategies

On our way to The Internet Show @ the Sandton Convention centre today, we did not really know what to expect as it is was the first one to be held here in South Africa. Upon arrival the check in process was carried out swiftly and we were ready to be wowed. This was unfortunately not exactly the case.

Look, South Africa still has a long way to go in terms of utilizing the internet as a sufficient marketing tool in our businesses. So it is fair to say that even though there weren’t hundreds of exhibitors showing their skills, it was good to see that there is so much potential in the internet marketing industry locally. The main focus of the expo however was not the exhibitor stalls, but the vast number of seminars presented by some of the top gurus in the business. The categories for the seminars included “Digital Advertising and Marketing”, “Social Networking and web 2.0”, “e-Commerce and Payments”, “Content Management and Streaming” and “Hosting and Infrastructure”; each with about five different topics discussed.

I opted for the “Digital Advertising and Marketing” package, with Ferdie Bester from Google kicking of the program with Adwords 101, followed by Fiaz Mahomed from SterKinekor, Josh Adler, Graeme Lipschitz and Dane Ings. Even though all the talks weren’t very detailed and in-depth, we need to understand that this was an informative session to many who has not yet discovered the power of Online Marketing. I did learn a few things however and the lattes complimentary of MWEB were excellent; and just the atmosphere of being surrounded by people with a passion for the ever-evolving online world gives us a new perspective and awakens the curious side of our inner geek.

It seems that tomorrow will be much more informative, with Ferdie taking us to the next level in Adwords, and Tim Bishop on the skill of creating good optimised Mobile Sites. Will it be all that it promises to be? We’ll have to wait and see.