Disqus - Latest Comments for marioOlckers

Re: 4 Reasons You Should Avoid Social Media

marioOlckers — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:20:10 -0000

Very well put, of course these social media sites are just tools really, it depends on who wields them and how they are wielded. Any advance in informations and communications technology is a good thing, whether you use it to throw sheep at each other or whether you use it to build a community of fans for your awesome new gadget on the market and how much time and resources you're willing to throw at efforts to do it properly will determine whether you love or hate it.

Re: Outsourcing Social Media: Good or Bad Idea?

marioOlckers — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:13:55 -0000

Thought-provoking article and very helpful for all consultant types. I think this is kind of common sense and has been the case for all the projects I did for clients so far. Go in, see what their needs are, go over the appropriate modalities with them and their need/use/utility for it, set it up and configure it, train staff or make them familiar with the processes of keeping their social media profiles up to date and then step out of the way.

I actually sometimes have to draw boundaries myself when someone expects me to run their social media profiles FOR them and I have to explain that I am not intimate to the company culture as an outsider and cannot take on their role. I do however find that content creation and uploading and all the heavy lifting behind the scenes, i.e server and database configuration, WordPress plugin install and configuration and researching relevant industry thought-leaders and possible networking partners/page Fans etc is something that can be a recurring stream of projects/income for freelancers and frees up a lot of time for clients.

@Katie Miller-Smith Agree with David, great sherpa analogy, recently heard that in relation to the low-level delegates at climate conference who had to go before and thrash out most of the "paperwork" and agreements before heads of state came in and "seal the deal"

Greetings from South Africa and happy holidays to everyone :)

Re: Accenture Dumps Tiger Woods From Corporate Homepage

marioOlckers — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:48:54 -0000

Do not let emotional judgement get the better of you, please. The man is an excellent athlete, won more Masters tournaments than anyone in history, try and beat that and all the other accomplishments.

I do not condone OR judge his behaviour, it is hurtful for his family, yes, but do not take a holier-than-thou attitude, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Also, you are not qualified to make such pronouncements, last I heard God lived somewhere up in the sky.

And calling the man horrible names wont make it any better, it just reflects badly on you, feels like envy or jealousy almost, righteous indignation is just plain bad and hypocritical.

Sit down and honestly go over your own life and ask yourself: Am I REALLY qualified to pronounce on this issue...?

Re: Accenture Dumps Tiger Woods From Corporate Homepage

marioOlckers — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:23:12 -0000

Fickle and hypocritical is what I think this amounts to. While not condoning or judging the man's behaviour, he still remains an excellent athlete and has helped made these companies lots of money in the past.

Re: The Harvard Crimson :: News :: HBO’s “The Wire” Earns Credits

marioOlckers — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:20:57 -0000

I don't get it, how is the depiction of the most horrible socio-economic issues and the glorification of mediocrity going to contribute to solving the problems which this effort is supposed to be highlighting.

I watched The Wire on South African television, it is beyond sad to make thuggery and animal-like behaviour glorified into a show for all the world to see and then delude oneself into thinking it will actually help "solve" socio-economic issues.

All it does is give good PR and publicity to the television network and producers of the show and boost the careers of the actors. And to the academic institutions thinking showing off this human cycle of misery in a freak show a la Vaudeville circus will actually do anything.

What it will succeed in doing is entrench stereotypes where affluent class people who can afford to attend these institutions will sit there and squirm and feel comfortable in their suburban isolation and thank their lucky stars they never have to deal with any of "these people"

It will not effect policy changes in the power centers where those with the ability to effect change will be moved to build better housing, provide better education and jobs for these unemployed and poor youths who's got nothing to do all day but deal drugs, use drugs and shoot each other for getting and dealing in drugs.

It keeps the police, social workers, judges, lawyers and everyone in jobs, budgets get approved every year for all these departments to deal with all this crap year in and year out and the cycle continues on and on and on and on and on

Human beings disgust me, I am so tired of the whole "think of the children" mental poison brought in to justify all sorts of stupidity

Re: The Competition for Your Social Graph

marioOlckers — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:45:50 -0000

I find using Twitter more appropriate for myself (on PDA, shorter form, more interesting link discovery) and feeding that into Facebook. Any reactions on Facebook comes through e-mail notification anyways, so one can see what reaction, if any, there are. Facebook has more personal friends/family from real life and serious business network type connections whereas Twitter is a dipping-into-at-random for finding interesting links and seeing what the "world" out there is thinking/doing. I must say I have turned off Twitter trending topics, it really makes Twitter feel like some sort of MySpace ghetto :(

Point is, I also am a PC/Linux/Mac multi-faceted and use/have access to all three systems , they complement/feed into/ augment each other beautifully, unless one of these "platforms" develops serious issues I am very agnostic about that sort of thing and move between them easily, they each have their time/place/function

Re: A 50 Ways Mashup between Chris Brogan and Jeremiah Owyang

marioOlckers — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:54:03 -0000

Hi Beth, no problem ;) glad to help out, just shout if you need help on your way to figuring this all out ;)

Re: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Social Media Strategy in South Africa

marioOlckers — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:55:19 -0000

Thanks Augie, yeah we are very much in the embryonic stages here in South Africa and it is a bit challenging with all the socio-political dynamics ;) That is why I found your article so useful and insightful because it speaks to the fundamental causes of human motivation which essentially makes up the collective behaviour of social groups and leads to phenomena such as 'social media'

Re: A 50 Ways Mashup between Chris Brogan and Jeremiah Owyang

marioOlckers — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:52:05 -0000

Hi Chris, thanks for the comment, yeah I quite liked the giant Jeremiah as well but I made it smaller ;) Nice learning from you guys ;)

Re: A 50 Ways Mashup between Chris Brogan and Jeremiah Owyang

marioOlckers — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:49:37 -0000

Hehe ;) I've reduced it now, sorry about that ;)

Re: TweetDeck: New Twitter AIR App With Summize Integration, Groups

marioOlckers — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:36:22 -0000

This is pretty awesome app, I test drove it last night, but I somehow find myself going back to the web interface when not on my mobile phone ;)

Re: Internet Solutions Wants to Make SA Internet a Better Place

marioOlckers — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:30:17 -0000

Really excited about this ;) Can't wait to see the ideas people can come up with e.g. internet over the power lines or countrywide wi-fi/wiMAX so all internet enabled devices is connected to the internet everywhere. And closing the "digital divide" in South Africa...!

Re: Joining the conversation

marioOlckers — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:27:17 -0000

This is certainly something new and different, what do you think? The thing is, Social Media needs to be used and shared by people amongst themselves and their networks, otherwise what is the purpose?

It also needs to be something worth sharing, I certainly won't bookmark a stuffy, formal press release that "talks down" to the unwashed masses. But if it's a hilarious video of the CEO of Pooosh using their mobile VOIP/IM client while going up Table Mountain in the cable car, that I may be proud to share with my friends on Facebook.

Anyways, just my two cents ;)