People often ask why we Cerebrans seem to be a special breed of person (maybe they mean special in a good way, maybe it’s a diplomatic way of saying crazy. We’re cool with either). It’s because we love what we do, and we love Cerebra, and this is why…

1. All those things that you’re not supposed to do on your PC at work, we do them for a living!
‘So you download porn for a living?’ No, silly, get your mind out the gutter. We’re talking about the things that make working in an office worthwhile, but get blocked by many a company – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, for those extra mature people among us, MXit. No-one ever tells us to stop with the social networking, because the social networking is a large part of our job…

2. We’re making it up as we go along!
We’re not trying to say that we don’t know what we’re doing. Rather, we’re just saying that we’re the only dedicated Social Media Agency in South Africa, and as such there is a lot of space for us to be creative in our business thinking, as well as to constantly re-invent and re-define what we do in order to streamline our processes. Unlike working in an established industry, we get to shift our own realities and redefine our thinking, on a weekly basis, and that’s exciting.

3. We’re the anti-spam
Part of Social Media means allowing brands to engage in a different kind of communication than usual, and one that’s very different to straight advertising. We aren’t trying to shove things in your face and we don’t want you to click on any banners or unblock your pop-ups for us. Instead, we build communities, and communicate with you only if you make a decision to join one of these communities. Which means that, if you love a certain brand, and sign up to one of their social media accounts, we can chat. So you’re being interacted with on your own terms. We like this because it (ideally) means that you don’t end up hating us.

4. We’re allowed to be human. In fact, it’s encouraged!
Part of building communities means that, instead of you being just a number in a telephonic queue, your “calls recorded for quality control purposes”, you are an individual, as are we, and we engage in a dialogue. We don’t have a document with stock responses we are supposed to give you when you ask us stuff, and instead we just give you the info you need, person to person. And if we don’t know something (which is only human), we’ll ask. So all of a sudden you have a more personal way of dealing with any problems or queries regarding the brands whose services and products you spend money on.

5. We’re allowed to have fun.
Because we’re a young company, with lots of interesting and creative personalities working here, we don’t subscribe to that old-school idea that you can only be productive if you are completely serious at all times. We have a team made up of a range of crazy people, from musicians and online gurus and geeks and sportsmen and petrol heads to speakers and comics and writers and anything in between. Needless to say, there is never a dull moment in our office. And that’s the way we like it. It keeps us engaged, and this helps keep us productive.

Did we mention that we love what we do?

I recently viewed an insightful presentation by Seth Priebatsch at the TEDx Boston event.

Synopsis:

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By now, we're used to letting Facebook and Twitter capture our social lives on the web -- building a "social layer" on top of the real world. At TEDxBoston, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the "game layer," a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce.

We’re precious about our brands, aren’t we? We spend the GDP of a small African state on creative agencies so that they can come up with a funky logo bundled with a 42-page Corporate Identity document – "something that reflects the personality of the brand."

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a funky logo. But do not be fooled – many a business with a crappy logo has done fine on the back of great internal culture, quality products and solid customer service. Seldom will you find the reverse - companies with beautifully designed corporate identities but diabolically bad products and customer service, who thrive.

What we need to realise is that ‘brand’ and ‘logo’ are not synonymous.

Picture a stream of shoppers coursing through the passageway of a popular local mall. Some are coming, some are going. Some are heavily laden with a day’s purchases and others skip from store to store. Every single one of them passes a bank which rents space on that floor - let’s call it National Unified, or better yet, substitute in your mind’s eye your bank of choice.

Now thanks to the central marketing and branding team at National Unified every shopper notices the backlit logo mounted on the wall above and next to the revolving door leading into the branch. Much time, energy and money has been put into ensuring that the ‘brand experience’ is consistent regardless of which branch of National Unified you find yourself in.

The thing is, that’s only half helpful. Regardless of how slick and current National Unified’s shiny logo is, and no matter how well appointed the branch layout and décor is, no two people passing or entering the store will feel exactly the same way about the bank.

Surely this is not news to you?

Joe walks past, notices National Unified, but it’s not his bank – he’s with RFB (a National Unified competitor) – and as such doesn’t really care.

Sally walks past, thinks of the cash she nearly forgot to draw for her son’s sports day, and quickly darts inside, heading toward the ATM. “Thanks goodness there was a branch right here to remind me”, she thinks.

Jennifer walks into the bank behind Sally, nervous as she needs to file an application for a homeloan and has been turned down twice already at National Unified competitors. National Unified has the power the to make her dreams come true, or break her heart.

Fred walks past the bank in the opposite direction to Joe. Fred recently resigned from his job as an advisor at National Unified, and can only cast his eyes heavenward in gratitude that he took the plunge. Thanks to a particularly narcissistic boss, he absolutely hated working there.

Every one of these stories, emotions, associations and relationships contributes to the ‘brand’. A brand then is so much more than a logo; it is the collection of emotions and associations each individual person who comes into contact with that logo has. We can draw two very scary conclusions from this:

1. There are as many different ‘definitions’, or ‘realities’, for your brand as there are human souls who connect with it.
2. It is absolutely impossible to assume that we can control how people feel about our brand, at least directly.

Let me explain that second point with an example: A popular motor vehicle manufacturer is in the throes of a PR crisis centered around a recall of faulty vehicles. In order to ‘change perceptions’ in the market, their agency puts together a wonderful feel good campaign with smiling faces and picnic baskets and Labradors to convince us that their vehicles are in fact not coffins on wheels.

The company spends millions on making sure everybody sees this campaign. Billboards, double-page spreads in industry magazines and weekend papers, TV, radio and cinema. It’s a big one.

Meanwhile, you are in the market for a reliable family sedan. You’ve done your homework. Part of your homework was watching a video a friend of a friend posted to his Facebook profile demonstrating how his faulty recall vehicle spontaneously combusted because of an electrical short. That image – the story of a trusted contact in your personal network – is burned in your mind.

What measure of exposure to the aforementioned campaign – the picnics and smiles and Labradors – will it take to trump that image in your mind? I’m guessing it’s going to take some doing. Your perception of the brand has been forged by the most powerful form of advertising there is – a referral from a friend. And unfortunately for the company in question, it’s a bad referral.

So how then do you ensure the collective perception of your brand, in the mind of both your customers and your employers, is as congruent as possible with the brand you idealise?

Do a good job.

That’s common sense.

New to social media and not sure how to navigate your way around the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and such? Here's a few great tips, courtesy of Sophos that will help you stay safe whilst exploring the wonderful World Wide Web. Feel free to download the attachment as a reference.

Google AdWords for mobile has just launched. It allows you to quickly view your adwords data, select and change keywords and make changes to your campaigns all via your mobile device!

It also lets you keep track of key account developments by showing you the alerts and filters you've set up for the keywords and campaigns. "If you discover a problem that needs immediate attention, you can adjust keyword bids, change campaign budgets, and enable, pause, or delete campaigns and keywords --all directly from your phone," says Google

It’s been a big four years. Cerebra has evolved from a one-man consulting show to a full-service social media agency boasting a client list that includes Samsung Mobile, Toyota, Vodacom, eBucks, GIBS, Microsoft, Touchline and Cell C (and those are just the brands we’re engaged with right now).

Our team is comprised of a young, diverse and incredibly tenacious group of individuals that constantly surprise me with their desire to push the envelope. In many ways we have defined the business of social media in South Africa and laid the foundation for others to compete – which has enabled more business for us all in the long run; the more brands are adopting social media, the more lessons we learn, the more case studies emerge, the more brands adopt social media.

Over the last three years Angus Robinson, the owner of Brandsh (more on Brandsh in a bit) has played a huge role – albeit often unnoticed – role in the success of Cerebra. When I was down, he really played a big part on lifting me up and encouraging me. When I was struggling financially, he was available to assist. Despite the fact that he was never at any point a shareholder in Cerebra, nor I a shareholder in Brandsh, he never hesitated to be a ‘partner’.

However Angus’s baby Brandsh was enjoying similar success with it’s focus in the mobile consulting and strategy arenas, and the two companies were sharing staff, clients and resources. This eventually led to obvious concerns about potential conflicts with certain clients, and confusion over who played what role and how. As such there came a time toward the end of last year when we had the inevitable conversation about the future of the two brands, and whether we were going to merge or separate.

To cut a very long story short, I decided eventually that I wanted to keep Cerebra as is and the two brands have officially drawn a line between them. We are now two agencies, with two separate staff compliments, separate clients, and ultimately the competency to compete against each other. Not altogether a bad thing as I think there’s more than enough business to go around. It was not an easy move, but I think it was the right one.

As a result we are moving back to the space we previously occupied in Rochester Place (1st Floor, Block F) – the business complex on 173 Rivonia Rd we call home. We’re excited about the move and look forward to the future of Cerebra, and watching our colleagues in Brandsh grow and expand too in what is undoubtedly the most exciting industry on the planet.

Lastly I want to take this opportunity to thank you, whether you’re a client, colleague, partner or friend that we’ve acquired along the way for your continued support of our little company and initiatives like the 27dinners. You are the many minds that make us what we are.

Jaron Lanier a philosopher, digital guru and architect of Virtual Reality presents his talk entitled "You Are Not A Gadget" at an RSA Event

TechCrunch recently reported that Facebook was is "completely rewriting their messaging product and is preparing to launch a fully featured webmail product in its place, according to a source with knowledge of the product. Internally it’s known as Project Titan. Or, unofficially and perhaps over-enthusiastically, the Gmail killer." TechCrunch.com

With Facebook recently reaching the 400 million registered users mark, this could be a massive land grab the likes of which we haven't seen. As John Wall, of the Marketing Over Coffee Podcast, suggests that some of Facebook's users are likely still using the dated Hotmail email service, and therefore would see no harm in shifting over to an email service embedded within their favourite social app, giving this service launch even more credence.

Not only will webmail access be granted via Facebook.com but TechCrunch suggests that "there will be full POP/IMAP support, meaning users can access the account other than through Facbook itself. Your email account name will be your vanity url – vanityurl@facebook.com."

Facebook has an opportunity to capitalise on it's user base, the ability to grant users a vanity url and now a full scale webmail service. What's next? A facebook social O.S?

Mario Garcia Jnr. of Garcia Interactive recently shared his views on Apple's iPad. Whilst he, like many technology pundits felt that the iPad was a little underwhelming (unlike stephen fry) , the primary thrust of his opinion on the subject, and the cause for his excitement was not on the iPad's ability to change the way we interact with technology but rather the way we interact with news, and news media.

Garcia suggests that the "the iPad is a gateway. An opportunity for the newspapers to try something new and different. The product can only be a game changer if the newspapers get in the game themselves. And getting in the game doesn’t mean getting a team to create a “cool” way to flip pages on the screen and getting readers to pay for a “different reading experience.” Or trying to convince advertisers that their ads will display as colorful and vibrant on the iPad as they do in print."

Instead of merely reconfiguring the way in which news is read, Garcia argues that the next generation of news giant will create immersive, rich media applications for the iPad which have the capacity to entertain whilst inform. Garcia suggests, much to the delight no doubt of many news organisations; 'what newspapers have going for them is their brand, their archives of data and their resources." It's merely then a matter of "how can they leverage that to create apps that users need and that they can put a premium on?"

I very recently stumbled upon Scobleizer's great post on behavioural incentivisation for social services and web based applications and thought that they might be of some interest to you.

Authors Chip and Dan Heath would concur with Scoble, who like them, has identified what makes key properties of a story, or in Scoble's case a system stick. He identifies nine key facets of sticky systems, as listed below.

1. Serve your users’ narcissism. Make it very clear whenever someone else has done something that involves other users. This is why so many apps notify you anytime you get a new user. But look for ways to get other people to say other people’s names in your system. Make that part of the “game.”

2. Measure behavior and report it. Do you want your users to check in? Then measure it like Foursquare does and report it. What’s the home screen of Foursquare’s iPhone app show you? Everytime someone of your friends checks in they show up there. Foursquare reports how big a loser I am because there are 34 people in San Francisco area who’ve checked in more than me this week.

3. Add status for behaviors. When I visit Foursquare in huge type it tells me how many times I’ve checked in. It also shows you my badges that I’ve earned.

4. Make multiple status reports. Foursquare reports how much status I’ve earned, but if you visit, say, the Golden Gate Bridge, it also tells who is the mayor. That is two ways you can see status, and get addicted. Can you come up with other ways in your app?

5. Make undesired behavior seem lame. Why is everyone finally putting their photos into Twitter? Because if you don’t have your photo in Twitter the icon it puts there looks, well, lame. So, Twitter is putting a subtle enticement to all of its users to upload a photo. In Foursquare it reminds me that I’ve done 0 tasks. So, that’s looking pretty lame. Since Foursquare only will win if it gets engaged users, they want to make it more likely that you add a tip or complete a task. They might as well have just painted a big “L” on my forehead for “loser.”

6. Make it easy to share success with others. Foursquare has done this in spades. To the point where now I, and others, consider Foursquare messages on Twitter almost spam. You know the kinds “Robert Scoble just became Mayor of the Half Moon Bay Peets.” I turned them off, but if I ever want to taunt you with my mayorship I just need to click a slider in the iPhone app.

7. Make an API for studying behavior. Developers love to build apps to study data and report that. Don’t believe me? Look at Osnapz’ list of top Foursquare users. Or look at MustExist’s display of my Twitter lists. Or look at Favstar.fm who keeps track of my 13,000 favorite Tweets and who I’ve handed them out to.

8. Make it easy to join in other users. Facebook, for instance, makes it very easy for me to try to tag you in a photo I take of you. If you aren’t in the system it makes it easy for me to invite you to join my addiction.

9. Give people more “hooks” to addict their friends. Facebook, for instance, asks you what your relationship status is, and what your political persuasion is. Why does it ask you those? So you’ll force your friends to join!!! How many more hooks can you put in your app to addict users?

To find the original and more on the subject of sticky systems go to Robert Scoble's blog at : http://scobleizer.com/2010/01/23/the-social-behavior-incentive-how-your-...

A new year is upon us and so is our very first 27dinner for 2010. This month's 27dinner will be held at JB's corner at Melrose Arch and will be limited to 100 attendees. There is also a set menu where attendees have a choice between JB's Joburg-famous cheese burger or their Haloumi salad. JB's have also been so kind as to throw in a complimentary mojito or coffee along with your meal, so R 100 at the door gets you grub of your choice and a drink.

This month's featured speaker will be Fred Baumhardt Specialist Sales Director and Chief Technology officer for Microsoft South Africa. Fred will be addressing the future of the web with a key focus on innovation. its going to be awesome so be sure not to miss that!!!

Additional speakers to possibly be added - so watch this space for more details.

Read more and sign up at http://27dinner.com/events/27joburg-jan10 and find out more about our venue JB's Corner at http://www.jbscorner.co.za

If you have any questions please mail melody at: melody@cerebra.co.za

Look forward to seeing you all there - the 27dinner team