Contributors A-Z | Top contributors | Edit profile

Alistair Fairweather: Columnist

For his sins, Alistair has been working in online publishing since 2001. Starting out as a web designer, he worked for tech start-ups in both Johannesburg and England.Returning to South Africa in 2002, he moved into an editorial position on MWEB’s portal team. The role quickly evolved into an online product management position, in which he cut his teeth building web applications for MWEB’s subscriber base.When MWEB’s portal team were absorbed by 24.com in 2006, he continued his dual roles in editorial and product management. In 2007 he took the opportunity to specialise in product management as part of the team that would later form 20FourLabs – the erstwhile innovation division of 24.com.While at Labs he oversaw the launch of a range of new products, including Answerit and Letterdash. He also managed the 24.com user community, nurturing Letterdash past the 1 million page impression mark, and helping to create South Africa’s largest blogging platform.In late 2009 he joined Media24 Magazines for a brief stint as their Social Media Manager. The portfolio includes power brands like Huisgenoot, YOU, Fairlady, Go!, Men's Health and many more.As of July 2010 he has taken on the role of Digital Platforms Manager for the Mail & Guardian Online.

RECENT POSTS

• Choosing the best social media buttons for your site

  There are now well over a hundred social media sites with more than one million active users. From microblogging to social bookmarking, to photo sharing, to business networking - the list just keeps growing. And most of them offer handy "share this on..." buttons that you can add to your site - all with the tantalising promise of sending you more traffic.But you can’t even put 10% of the buttons available on your site - unless you don’t mind having ...

• Top 10 South American brands on Facebook

  When we think of Facebook most of us think of it as the domain of the English-speaking world. But the reality is that over 375-million of Facebook’s 585-million users are non-English speakers, which is more than half of all users. One of Facebook's fastest growing regions is South America.The region already has six countries that number in Facebook’s 25 biggest markets - Argentina, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Peru -- and it contributes more than 56-million users. What’s scary is ...

• Five red-hot Indian tech startups

  China’s enormous internet population has been getting quite a bit of press lately, but India is undoubtedly as much of an emerging world internet power.With more than 400-million internet users China’s online success stories, like QQ and Baidu, make even Facebook’s numbers look average. But India’s open economy, its high percentage of English speakers and its highly educated new caste of IT whizz kids make it a perfect breeding ground for tech entrepreneurs.Here are five of the most interesting startups ...

• Five key points about Facebook’s new profile design

  As with life, the only constant you can expect from Facebook is change. Starting from yesterday, the global social network will be rolling out a new design for its most important building block - the personal profile page.It’s a mark of the influence of the site that founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new design on 60 Minutes, still one of the USA’s most respected current affairs shows. Then again, when you have an audience of nearly 600 million people, CBS’s ...

• Five reasons you might choose Facebook Mail over Gmail

  Today marks the beginning of a new age -- at least that’s what the folks at Facebook’s PR department would like us to believe. The momentous event? Facebook are believed to be launching fully fledged email capabilities for all their users. (Memeburn's Silicon Valley correspondent Kevin Grant will be live tweeting and writing from the event on this site: 10am San Francisco time; 1:30am Asia-Pacific Time; 8pm Central African Time CAT)That means all Facebook account holders will soon be able ...

• Five lessons learned from Big Brother’s Facebook strategy

  Love it or hate it, Big Brother remains one of the biggest television success stories ever in Africa. The fifth season - Big Brother Africa (BBA) Allstars - drew millions of viewers across the continent, keeping them glued to their seats from July to October this year.By the end of the fourth season in 2009, the show had amassed a respectable fan base of over 100 000 Facebook users. But when BBA Allstars hit TV screens, the fan numbers ...

• 5 things you need to know about HTML5

  HTML5: It’s fast becoming one of those industry buzzwords -- like "Web 2.0" was in 2005 and "Social Media" is at the moment. And just like those two phrases, many people talk about HTML5 but few of them have a clear idea of what it means. Buzzword or not, it’s important to understand the ins and outs of the new standard.But don't just take my word for it. Bob Muglia, the head of Microsoft's Server and Tools division, recently said ...

• The 25 biggest Facebook Pages for SA musicians

  Facebook is a brilliant resource for musicians of all kinds. Not only can you connect with thousands of existing fans - essentially for free - but you can also make the most of tools which can help you promote your newest track, publicise your upcoming tour and win new fans, both local and international. And you don’t even need a record deal to do so.So how are our local singers, songwriters, bands, divas and DJs doing on the world’s ...

• How do SA’s stand-up comics use Facebook?

  Our first look at the biggest local Facebook pages created such a stir we decided to dig deeper into the different ways South Africans are using Facebook to market themselves and their brands. In theory comedians are a natural fit for the Facebook platform - they’re public figures and personal brands rolled into one, and people feel very strongly about them (either way).But how are local comedians making the most of the 3-million local Facebook users? After quite a ...

• Should you be using ‘official’ or ‘community’ Facebook Pages?

  You can call Facebook many things, but “simple” is no longer one of them. In the last three years they have piled on the features and, in doing so, cranked up the confusion.If you’re an online marketer you probably already know to avoid the most common mistakes when adding your brand presence to Facebook. For 90% of marketing initiatives, an “official” Facebook Page (aka fan pages or brand pages) is the best choice.But be aware that official pages are actually ...

• « Back to last page
• Read more articles... »