Updates | McNulty Consulting

StumbleUpon: the ignored social network

At the beginning of this year my sister and I noticed a gap in the online market and started working to fill it, by creating a custom-made online novel-writing programme for people who really want to write a novel, but don’t know how to start it.

We launched Now Novel in July, and we’re on the way to understanding how to create the right product for our users.

One of the challenges of working in a small organisation is the lack of budget to spend on marketing. I’ve been used to large corporate budgets but having to fend for yourself makes you more creative in your advertising methods. I tested Google Adwords and Facebook, but they were both pretty expensive for acquiring users. Someone suggested StumbleUpon and I gave it a go. It’s a pretty simple process: choose the webpage URL you want to promote, choose your targeting (demographic, geography and interest group) and pay $0.10 per view (this is way cheaper than the average Facebook click of R7 in South Africa).

The scale of StumbleUpon in South Africa is much bigger than I expected: there are 2 million people in South Africa interested in pets, 1 million interested in clothes, 1.3 million interested in cooking and 3 million interested in humour. If you’re selling dogfood, that means 2 million potential customers available for a cheap rate. It is not as easy as having a page that you put up there (StumbleUpon has to approve your page), so ensure that it has some benefit for people “stumbling upon” it (i.e. that it has some novelty).

The other exciting thing about StumbleUpon is that it has an element of virality that other platforms don’t have. If your content is enjoyed by the audience, they will virally send it out to your audience. Our homepage (www.nownovel.com) managed to get 14,000 free stumbles over the period of a week. It managed to take down our servers and slow things down, but the opportunity to get free traffic is great.

Originally published on the MWEB site.

2013: The Year for SoLoMo in South Africa?

SoLoMo is a buzz-word that has been doing the rounds for the past couple of years but, according to some analysts, 2013 could be the year it takes off. For those unfamiliar with the term, SoLoMo is a contraction of Social, Local, and Mobile, referencing the convergence of social media, geo-location technology and mobile devices. There is an interesting infographic on the Nielsen blog which explains how this all works and why it is potentially a marketer’s dream.

In an article on Wired, Michael Szewcyk writes:

For a consumer, mobile devices now offer ways of receiving personalized information in real time based on their location. This process was previously lent to searching via a desktop before departing for your destination, offering limited options as to what you’re searching for and little or no options for the retailer to connect with you. Whether you’re within a retailer’s location, walking by it, or in the vicinity — your mobile device acts as a butler that services you with information on what’s going on in your area. Perhaps you’ve shopped at a retailer before that you’re half a block away from. That retailer can now send you a notification with a promotion thanking you for your loyalty should you choose to shop there again. Want to see reviews and ratings for a restaurant you can’t decide on from people in your demographic or maybe even from your friends, or purchase a item directly from your mobile device to avoid standing in line? You can do those things too.

South Africa, where mobile internet is fast becoming the norm, could be at the forefront of this movement. Combined with developments in mobile payment services, thereby eliminating the need for credit cards which currently excludes much of the population from participating in online shopping, SoLoMo could be a boon for local, online retailers. As Vanessa Clark writes in BizCommunity:

This catalyst (for SoLoMo in South Africa) is mobile money and these services could give customers access to products and services that would have previously been out of reach, allow businesses to reach customers they would never have dreamt of being able to deal with, and give these companies an effective way of managing their businesses.

SoLoMo also opens opportunities for local content publishers, who now have the potential of leveraging local advertising revenue streams against the cost of content production and providing sustainability for hyperlocal publishing ventures that attract a community that small businesses and local service-providers can accurately target, both online and in the ‘real world’.

This is a trend that could have the potential to dramatically change the South African digital landscape and let’s hope 2013 is the year it moves from hype to reality.

Do you know of any successful SoLoMo businesses in South Africa? Add the details in the comment section.

Gates Foundation Global Libraries Meeting

I am very excited about an event I have been invited to present at next week in Cape Town, the 2013 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Global Libraries Peer Learning Meeting.

The BMGF’s Global Libraries program supports efforts to supply and maintain free public access to computers and the Internet in ten countries around the world. According to the BMGF, quick and easy access to information and knowledge can transform the lives of individuals and strengthen communities. Yet, approximately 5 billion people – almost 90 percent of the world’s population – do not have access to computers connected to the Internet.

The meeting will be an opportunity to share ideas pertaining to community engagement, partnership building, community needs assessment, and strengthening community and financial support to ensure that the public library lives on into the 21st century.

I will presenting on a project I have managed for the past several years, the Ulwazi Programme, which uses the public library infrastructure, web technologies and the community to collect and share indigenous knowledge and local histories.

Niall

Niall McNulty co-opted as a member of the Executive Committee of OHASA

Oral history training workshop with the Rural Women's Movement — Oral history training workshop with the Rural Women’s Movement

At a recent meeting in Kimberley, Niall McNulty was co-opted as a member of the Executive Committee of the Oral History Association of South Africa (OHASA). Niall has considerable experience using oral histories in digital media projects and will advise the Committee in this area, as well as assist with OHASA’s own digital communication initiatives.

OHASA promotes oral history initiatives in South Africa that engage in a collective effort to re-envisage the past in a way that encompasses all people, irrespective of race, culture, genders, sexual orientation and social status.