Andy Hadfield

The race to own the social profile Companies, brands and start-ups are waking up to the fact that there’s a really easy way to disintermediate service providers. Own the social profile, not the mother brand. Look what Mint.com is doing in the US financial industry as a good starting point. With Facebook Connect and Google […]

I’ve often commented on the vacuous nature of social media. Echo chambers and shallow content — its like “small talk” on a volume never before experienced. Why, just yesterday a friend of mine and I did a little experiment to attract attention on FaceBook by commenting on a status update. Sure enough, four or five […]

I’ve often spoken to clients, colleagues and conferences about the “rule of thumb” in terms of community engagement. This could be engagement in a social network, a community content portal or an enterprise venture. It’s a little Jack Walshian in its approach, but serves to illustrate the point. * 70% just watch * 20% actually […]

South Africa is abuzz with tales of “controversial social networking platform” Facebook and the group “Ek laaik nie n houtkop nie sou what“. Ok. So, people, catch a wake up. This is social media. We’ve taken a soapbox, amplified the volume and opened it up to the entire country. You’re going to get some idiots. […]

This is a theory I’m hatching … Would appreciate some feedback. The premise: trying to look forward and predict what will happen in the adoption cycle of social media. It is, of course, only when we look forward, that we can invent truly differentiated and unique ideas. Its background thinking to this graph goes along […]

I found this interesting — yet another example of social media being considered a viable facet of a marketing strategy. Lenovo has sponsored this portal for athlete bloggers at the Olympics. The site is well designed. Lots of bloggers writing content. Some local representation. A Twitter feed. And, an interesting approach. Seems like the site […]

I’ve been fairly cynical of some South African businesses’ recent forays into the world of social networking — specifically Facebook. It’s a helluva cluttered environment to play in, with an audience that ranges from 12 to 70, demographics from pink to purple and work sectors from rabbit hunting to banking. Cutting through that clutter takes […]

The blogosphere often comes under criticism (and usually, rightly so) for knee-jerk journalism. Don’t research the facts — just the get the scoop and get something up. In comes the traffic and some poor sod usually clicks on the Google Ads. Not a great place to be … However, when it comes to product reviews […]

I had an interesting opportunity recently to air my thoughts on niche social networking. Specifically, the shallow nature of “social networks” in general — and why business in this country is still hesitant and still searching for real value from the Facebooks of the world. The interview came about as a result of our pioneering […]

I spotted a new “social movement” site the other day, which piqued my interest. ForGood positions itself as “a social movement that inspires, guides and connects different people taking action to make our society safer, healthier, happier, more informed, more compassionate, caring …” So I set up the following text interview to delve beneath the […]

A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others […]

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to take part in a writing project, organised by Darren Gorton. His plan was to bring 13 of South Africa’s most passionate bloggers together and have them each contribute a chapter to an online book / series. The theme “a piece of significance” was centred around the […]