Twitter is indeed a disaster waiting for happen

by Ramon Thomas in Social Networking on 3030/121212/2009200920092009 • 2 Comments • , , ,

This morning I read some good insights about the continued failure of Twitter by my industry colleague Paul Jacobson. Paul is easily the top attorney-blogger active in the South African social media scene. So now I am once again seriously considering a shift of focus from Twitter back to my own blogs, where I have 100% control. This thinking is also in line with the ideas on FREEDOM from Technology Terrorism I’ve been developing in my upcoming book, The Psychology of Technology.

Why do you think Twitter is going to keep falling over and eventually users will leave it in droves purely out of frustration from the inconsistent uptime of the platform being used. I also highly recommend Usability Guru Jakob Nielsen’s insights into Twitter postings.

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CII presents The Partnership Summit 2010

by Ramon Thomas in Events/News on 2929/121212/2009200920092009 • 1 Comment • , , , , , , , ,

Theme : Global Partnership : Meeting Challenges

CII is organizing the sixteenth edition of Partnership Summit 2010 at Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai from 22 – 24 January 2010. Mr Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India has kindly agreed to Chair the Summit. HE Mr Najib Tun Razak, the Honourable Prime Minister of Malaysia has kindly accepted to be the Guest of Honour at the Summit. Mr M K Stalin, Honourable Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has kindly consented to deliver the Special Address.

Focussed on building positive economic perceptions of India, The Partnership Summit 2010 is a platform for brand vision development and strategic marketing initiatives. The Summit will showcase India’s potential, especially to foreign participants as a viable destination for doing business and for long-term investments in manufacturing and services. Business Delegations from Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Laos, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom and Argentina have confirmed to participate at the Summit. Business Delegations from few other countries are expected to confirm shortly.

The Partnership Summit, which started as an event to mark the centenary of CII, has become one of the most important international business events in the country. It aims to further partnerships, to build ideologies based on shared dreams that bind societies together, in our knowledge driven world. The Summit has established itself as an ideal ground for business networking and sharing of societal concerns where Corporates seek a collective view beyond bottom lines. The Prime Ministers of India, Singapore, Canada, UK, Italy, Czech Republic and Presidents of India, Poland and Portugal, have addressed the Partnership Summit since 1995. The Partnership Summit, has regularly featured Heads of States and Governments, Ministers, Senior Bureaucrats, Academicians and CEOs. The Summit in the past years have had participation of over 1000 delegates with almost 40% from overseas.

Chandrajit Banerjee
Director General
Confederation of Indian Industry

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Twitter in Real Life

by Ramon Thomas in Video on 2222/121212/2009200920092009 • 2 Comments • , , , ,

College Humour’s own Dan Gurewitch takes his tweets to the streets. See our videos a month sooner at College Humour, check us out at our mobile site and follow us at http://www.twitter.com/collegehumor

Response to Denton Goodford and Levona Fredericks

by Ramon Thomas in Inspiration on 2222/121212/2009200920092009 • 2 Comments • , , , , , , , , ,

There is still a bitter taste in the mouths of people who think I am abusing the name of Uitenhage High School on the Internet. Those are the same people who did not attend the annual Speech & Awards ceremony in October this year. I was there!

So here’s my response to Denton and Levona, my biggest critics on Facebook…

Do you really think I am trying to defame Uitenhage High School? All I am doing is stating the facts of what happened in October 2009 at the annual Speech & Awards evening. Were either of you there in-person to question my description of what happened? No. I can call 10-20-100 witnesses including the 5-winners of the Best All-Rounder Awards I started sponsoring from this year onwards. The easiest would be to speak directly to them, especially the winner of the Eugene Exford Leadership Awards, Charl-Jade Petrus, deputy head-boy for 2010!

Pointing out the truth of what occurred is not defaming the school or institution. And please do not talk to me about my cousin, Timothy Heynes. His leadership pales by comparison to Harry “Perd” Hendricks.

My own legacy Uitenhage High School is fortified by my achievements e.g. the CHAOS school newspaper I launched with Brad Minnaar and Theodor Adams in 1992. Since 2002 I sponsor the annual “Journalist of the Year” trophy and since this year a small cash prize with that. Since 1992 that is still going strong 17 years later! Mr Slingers would concur, and I am still very proud of this one particular accomplishment, which has become an institution in it’s own right with the learners. CHAOS has transformed the lives of every learner who has been involved in, starting with the group from 1992, which includes the 2nd editor Ghauderen Coetzee, a recent guest speaker at the Speech & Awards.

So please stand-up or shut-up. Stop talking about public and private communications regarding Uitenhage High School. It’s a public institution, and that alone gives me every right, protected by the South African Constitution to FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

Maybe you and the rest of the Ramon-haters should educate yourselves about what IS allowed or NOT allowed regarding freedom of speech in this country by reading up on the Freedom of Expression Institute. Post your own comments on Uitenhage High School group on Faceboook.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the holidays!

BTW, read the original open letter to Uitenhage High School published on my personal blog here.

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Google Real Time Search Comes to Town

by Ramon Thomas in Search Engines on 1515/121212/2009200920092009 • No Comments • , , , , , , ,

Once again without too much of a fanfare Google announced another significant change that will have a serious impact upon free SEO ranking as time roles out. Announcement made on Dec 7th. The new way of representing search results is to place up to date news content above the free results and just below the paid results.

For example I did a search for Julius Malema and the number 1 result was a news post as follows:

News results for Julius Malema…
Malema’s power diminishes? – 13 hours ago
Justice Malala: The booing of Julius Malema by the SA Communist Party and the … However, the truth is that the political death of Julius Malema has been …
Times LIVE – 230 related articles »
Nationalisation not fatal: Malema? – Times LIVE – 20 related articles »
We are not afraid of the IFP: Malema? – Independent Online – 10 related articles »

Notice how fresh the result was (13 hours ago)

I know it is not fashionable to point out that SEO is going to become more and more difficult but here is yet another example of how the optimised results (especially those optimised to get rankings without due consideration to great and outstanding content… ie vast majority of SEO’d sites)

I strongly suggest you read Google’s announcement on this important change

Here’s what was said on Webpro News…

Will Real-Time Search Results Drive PPC?

“Much like with Google‘s recently launched (for everyone) personalized search results, or any other universal search results for that matter, the addition of real-time results is just one more element that can add to the challenge of getting organic results to show up high on the page. As iEntry CEO and WebProNews Publisher Rich Ord noted when talking about personalized search, this could give marketers more cause to focus on PPC, where they have more control over their campaign. This notion seems to be becoming a more common theme.”

“I certainly think this will have a more profound impact on results sitting below the Twitter feed and those above,” says Peter Young of Holistic Search, as quoted by MediaPost. “The scramble for the top positions will become fiercer. That may mean more people invest in PPC to gain more control of their presence.”

Not yet completed the survey?

Here’s that bit of a bribe again to encourage you to complete the simple survey.
The Bribe is…

Every website with a need to achieve an outcome must measure the conversion rate to the outcome. Conversion rate is defined as Number of Conversions divided by Number of Times the offer or web page was seen. In the case of a PPC campaign conversion rate is number of conversions divided by the number of clicks. A conversion can be anything you like… the 2 most common are sales and web form (lead) completion.

I am often asked 3 questions about running an Adwords PPC campaign:

  1. What is a good conversion rate?
  2. What is amount I can spend on a click?
  3. What should my daily budget be?

There are no simple answers to these questions and all are interrelated anyway. BUT and this is important…

Click here to take short survey… thank you for your time

Tony Roocroft
Seoza.com
Tel +27114540105 or mailto:pondprof@gmail.com

Farewell Jim Rohn The Passing of a Legend

by Ramon Thomas in Inspiration on 0606/121212/2009200920092009 • 6 Comments • , , , ,
Farewell Jim Rohn The Passing of a Legend

Jim RohnWith great sadness we share that Jim Rohn, our mentor and friend, left us December 5, 2009 for a better place.

Over the past 18 months, in his battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis, Jim assured us with a smile that all is good, that he would fight until the last breath, yet he had no fear as to what would be next. Jim’s faith was as much a part of his life as his desire to inspire and challenge us all to be the best we could be and to live our dreams.

Jim’s courage in his final months and days were a testament to his message that we should all fight the good fight. He never gave up and never gave in.

Jim Rohn touched millions of lives over the past 46 years through his seminars, books, articles and CDs. He always stayed long after an event to shake hands, take pictures and sign autographs. He loved making a difference in people’s lives, that was his passion and inspiration. Yet he was also a private man who kept a small, loyal and caring inner circle. He was a tremendous friend to those who knew him.

Harold Dyke, long time close friend of Jim’s for over 55 years said it best, “As Jim is ending one life he is simultaneously being birthed into a new life. One that he has talked about over the years and anticipated with great joy in his last remaining days.”

(more…)

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