http://electricsheep.co.za Bl33ts for the Digital Age Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:15:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 http://electricsheep.co.za/how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile-2014/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile-2014 http://electricsheep.co.za/how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile-2014/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2014 12:36:31 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=521 About a year ago, I took a look at how Africa accesses Facebook on mobile as part of a project for a course run by the ODMA (the Ogilvy Digital Marketing Academy). I sourced all of the data from Facebook’s ad planning tool and broke the data down into: Total Facebook users by country Total mobile Facebook users by country Total mobile users accessing Facebook on Feature phones, on Android, on iOS, on BlackBerry and on Windows Phone. Facebook recently announced that there are over 100 million people in Africa using Facebook, half of all Africans connected to the internet. […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile-2014/feed/ 2 http://electricsheep.co.za/snapchats-secret-sauce/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=snapchats-secret-sauce http://electricsheep.co.za/snapchats-secret-sauce/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2014 06:28:52 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=512 It seems like every other day that someone announces another Snapchat clone. Facebook had Poke, then Slingshot. Both failed. Path redesigned their chat app to be more ephemeral in nature. Instagram launched Instagram Direct for private sharing and is even testing a new private photo sharing app called Bolt. Why is everyone trying to be Snapchat and why is Snapchat still ahead of the game. I’d like to argue that Snapchat has a secret sauce. Here’s why: 1. Snaps are Super Expressive You can share photos and videos with lots of apps, so what makes Snapchat so special? The answer […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/snapchats-secret-sauce/feed/ 0 http://electricsheep.co.za/social-media-tips-for-introverts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-media-tips-for-introverts http://electricsheep.co.za/social-media-tips-for-introverts/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2014 12:02:55 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=487 “In a gentle way, you can shake the world” Mahatma Gandhi A while back, I can across Susan Cain’s fantastic TED talk The Power of Introverts and went on to read her equally fantastic book Quiet. I found it fascinating as there are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be an introvert. Introverts aren’t necessary quiet or shy but just prefer less stimulating environments and need time to occasionally recharge.  Introverts aren’t better or worse than extroverts, although they are better and worse at certain things. They have different temperaments and different needs. It can be a […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/social-media-tips-for-introverts/feed/ 0 http://electricsheep.co.za/how-to-predict-any-trend-in-social-media-or-tech/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-predict-any-trend-in-social-media-or-tech http://electricsheep.co.za/how-to-predict-any-trend-in-social-media-or-tech/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:09:28 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=455 The world of social media and tech is constantly changing and evolving. There always seems to be a brand new trend that could potentially disrupt everything. But there is also a lot of bullshit and buzzwords out there and not every trend will be the “next big thing” that takes off the way an industry of social media experts predicted. So how can you get better at predicting which trends will catch on and which trends will fail? To answer this question, it’s worth looking back at the check-in; the once “next big trend” in social media and tech. Cast […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/how-to-predict-any-trend-in-social-media-or-tech/feed/ 0 http://electricsheep.co.za/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ab-testing-facebook-content-give-or-take/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=everything-you-need-to-know-about-ab-testing-facebook-content-give-or-take http://electricsheep.co.za/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ab-testing-facebook-content-give-or-take/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2014 17:12:19 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=394 by Adam Skikne Social@Ogilvy recently conducted an international study that identified a significant decrease in organic reach for brand pages on Facebook. They found that organic reach for brand pages dropped to about 6% of fans, declining by an average of 49% during the three month study. For pages with more than 500,000 likes, the effect was even worse. Now, if you’re a brand that has invested in building a presence on Facebook or if you work in social media, producing content for Facebook, you should find the results of this study quite worrying. Facebook wants to charge you to […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ab-testing-facebook-content-give-or-take/feed/ 2 http://electricsheep.co.za/lets-all-be-bad-magicians/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lets-all-be-bad-magicians http://electricsheep.co.za/lets-all-be-bad-magicians/#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2014 08:32:14 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=321 by Adam Skikne They say that a good magician never reveals their secrets. Well after spending a few years working in social/digital, I say that all the good magicians out there can go fuck themselves. I say that the world needs more bad magicians. A few years ago I was working at a through the line agency as a copywriter. As the agency’s only copywriter, I wrote about 98% of all the copy that left the agency. But after months of churning out copy for 10 hours a day, I started to feel stuck. A good friend of mine, Mirisa […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/lets-all-be-bad-magicians/feed/ 1 http://electricsheep.co.za/whatsapp-wtf/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whatsapp-wtf http://electricsheep.co.za/whatsapp-wtf/#comments Mon, 24 Feb 2014 21:47:30 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=215 http://electricsheep.co.za/whatsapp-wtf/feed/ 0 http://electricsheep.co.za/hatching-twitter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hatching-twitter http://electricsheep.co.za/hatching-twitter/#comments Wed, 15 Jan 2014 17:00:23 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=205 by Adam Skikne Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton tells the true story of Twitter’s four co-founders (Ev Williams, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey) who transformed a small side project at a failing start up into to a multi-billion dollar company that literally changed the world. Basically, the book is to Twitter what The Accidental Billionaires (the book that The Social Network is based on) is to Facebook. And it’s awesome (#justsaying). One of the most interesting things in the book is that the idea for Twitter didn’t just come from one person. Each of Twitter’s co-founders helped shape […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/hatching-twitter/feed/ 0 http://electricsheep.co.za/everythingyouneedtoknowaboutsnapchatin10seconds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=everythingyouneedtoknowaboutsnapchatin10seconds http://electricsheep.co.za/everythingyouneedtoknowaboutsnapchatin10seconds/#comments Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:33:39 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=190 by Adam Skikne 1. What is Snapchat? Snapchat is an app that allows you to share pictures and short videos that delete themselves after 10 seconds. You can also draw or write on your pictures. It’s more fun than it sounds. 2. That sounds stupid. Why would people use Snapchat? Young folk are getting tired of the fact that everything you do or say online sticks around forever. Sometimes, you just want to share something and not have it recorded until the end of time. 3. Is this the app everyone uses for sexting? Apparently but not really. I get […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/everythingyouneedtoknowaboutsnapchatin10seconds/feed/ 2 http://electricsheep.co.za/how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile http://electricsheep.co.za/how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile/#comments Mon, 09 Sep 2013 20:15:05 +0000 http://electricsheep.co.za/?p=151 by Adam Skikne We’ve often heard that Africa is the next big opportunity for businesses and brands. We also heard that social and mobile are two factors that are going to shape the way that business is conducted in Africa. So with this in mind, I thought it might be worthwhile to try shed some light on how how Africa accesses Facebook, the world’s largest social network, on mobile. It sounds like a simple question but the answer is a bit more complicated. We should all know that there are a number of social and economic factors that make each […]]]> http://electricsheep.co.za/how-africa-accesses-facebook-on-mobile/feed/ 3