blog
Here you will find the genius, insightful, sometimes random musings of the Cerebra crew. Everyone who works here blogs so the topics are often varied but they’re always worth reading. We also take requests so send in your topics or share your thoughts in the comments.
Confessions of a Content and Community Manager: Whose side are we on?
Submitted by Reece Jacobsen on Mon, 2012-07-30 10:44
Lately I’ve been involved in some pretty intense arguments about what exactly social media can offer. My generic response regarding the benefits of two-way engagement and making the effort to meet your customers on an open playing field is becoming less and less effective. So what now?
The problem is that we’re no longer the new kid on the block. People are becoming more social-savvy and as a result we’ve got to step up our game. As social business matures, our outlook has to change as well. We should forget about the ePeen-measuring contest of who has more fans, the wider reach, or even greater engagement. I think it’s time we shift our focus to how effective social channels are at driving change within businesses as a result of the online community’s conversation.
Do we know our consumers?
Submitted by Heike Meyburgh on Fri, 2012-07-27 15:54
We all fall prey to this; we assume to know exactly who our consumers are, what they like doing, where they go, what they watch, and how they think. But do we really?
Let’s turn the tables; the chances are that you are a target demographic in someone’s marketing plan, so what would they say about you?
“Young professional, female, suburban, no children, reads magazines X, Y and Z, listens to radio stations A and B, watches these shows in these timeslots…”
Is this who I am? Can I be pigeonholed like this? I feel offended that my entire being has been determined by general metrics and observations. I don’t question the reasons why we have them, but rather arguing the fact that this mindset doesn’t necessarily apply to social.
Instagram: You're doing it wrong.
Submitted by Kate Kearney on Tue, 2012-07-24 12:57
I’ve spent the last several months taking advantage of every opportunity to jump on my soapbox and complain about the way people are using certain applications, namely Instagram. My thinking for this blog post is to turn my ranting and raving into something a tad more constructive, and explain what Instagram is and how it should and shouldn’t be used.
Confessions of a Content and Community Manager: The Content Recipe
Submitted by Reece Jacobsen on Tue, 2012-07-17 13:25
Welcome, Chef. I’m guessing the reason you are here, reading this piece is because you’re hungry for some cool, creative content.
Before we start, I’d like you to wash your hands… Yup, that’s right, wash your hands clean of all the generic brand bollocks. Get right in there, scrub under your fingernails and make sure you get all the ‘sales’ out from under there. That’s better.
Ingredients:
- Strategy
- Personality
- 3 to 5 hypothetical customers
- Content streams (with sources)
- Rich media
- Calls to action
- Time relevant content
Method:
New Client Announcements
Submitted by Cerebra on Fri, 2012-07-13 12:27
Cerebra is happy to announce the latest additions to our online family, Lexus and the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit (DILS) for 2012.
Lexus, part of the Toyota group, are producers of a range of luxury sedans, coupes, hybrids, SUVs and performance vehicles. Cerebra is looking forward to growing and engaging with the Lexus community through driving their existing and pages and launching the brand on . Welcome to the family Lexus!
Facebook Timeline smacks down Tab views
Submitted by John Beale on Wed, 2012-07-11 12:46
Following the recent changes to the Facebook Timeline, our reporting for clients started showing a serious drop in visits to tabs, as well as actual tab stats showing lower engagement than previous campaigns B.T. (Before Timeline)
Below is a timeline versus tab view for one of our clients, which is also co-incidentally one of the largest fan pages in South Africa. This trend is mirrored on all of the other pages we manage.
Stats on other pages show Tab views not growing at all with fan growth
- Page X Tab (Sep 2011) 2,658 views with 4,564 fans
- Page X Tab (June 2012) 1,146 views with 7,650 fans
Cerebra launches inaugural Social Business Summit
Submitted by Cerebra on Mon, 2012-07-09 13:27
The social web has fundamentally changed how ordinary people connect, communicate and collaborate with each other, both beyond and behind the corporate firewall. In an effort to introduce South African business to the intricacies and challenges of social business, Cerebra are excited to announce the first Social Business Summit.
Cerebra CEO, Mike Stopforth says, “Social media has not just changed the face of marketing, but challenged the very construct of business. ‘Corporate firewalls are keeping smart employees in, and smart markets out.’ Talent attraction and retention, culture shifts, collaboration and information dissemination need a new approach.”
Is 11 years old too young for Facebook?
Submitted by Heike Meyburgh on Tue, 2012-06-05 09:52
From a recent story in The Wall Street Journal, Facebook and the rest of the Interwebs is a buzz with the question, “Is 11 years old too young for Facebook?” While there are those who welcome it with open arms, there are those that vehemently oppose it. My verdict? Let’s review the arguments!
1. Kids younger than 11 are already on Facebook
New features for Facebook Page Admins!
Submitted by Kellen Rodney on Fri, 2012-06-01 14:44
Have you seen the latest from Facebook affecting community and page moderators? We can now assign administrator roles! As an Admin you can assign specific roles to other Admins on your page.
Why is this cool?
Page Admins will definitely find this feature appealing. With the ability to restrict permissions on the pages this allows for more control and less social media fails. As larger brands employ a full social media team, a digital agency and internal resources all working 'behind' the page it means less room for error!
There are five different categories with different levels of permissions;
- Manager
- Content Creator
- Moderator
- Advertiser
- Insight Analyst
Social Media For Parents: How not to cramp your kid's style
Submitted by Tiisetso Tshetlo on Thu, 2012-05-17 15:44
Our children are living in the information age. They have moved from just chatting via text messages, BBM, WhatsApp, IM, mig33 or MXit. They want to stay in touch with friends; which is where social media comes in. With incidences of cyber bullying, sexting and pedophiles on the prowl, it’s only natural that parents are concerned about their online safety. While you still want to keep tabs on what is going on in their lives and what they come into contact with, you don’t want to invade their privacy and end up losing their trust. It’s important that you educate and empower them by setting proper ground rules.
