Explore the wonderful world of SEM and several ways that you can increase ROI by including custom Google Ads in your brand’s digital marketing mix.

It’s all fun and games until the robot uprising happens and our last hope of survival is Arnold Schwarzenegger – although initially that’s who/what we were running from so that says something right there.

Using Twitter to drive our client’s social media presence has taught me many things. The most important being that unless you're a news or media outlet, a politician, celebrity or sports star, you'll put in maximum effort for minimal ROI.

In workplace cultures based on transparency and learning, one of the most important things you can do is ensure you and your staff have the ability to give and receive constructive feedback.

People have thrown around the phrase, "content is the new king" many times in recent years. While on the one hand that is seemingly true, there is a hard truth that is often overlooked when creating and sharing content.

We live in the information age with answers to our questions at the tips of our fingers, empowering customers more than ever to research and assess their brand choices.

These days I feel like I’m standing in Times Square New York, with a myriad of brands trying to yell louder than the next. My social feeds are mostly littered with noise and it's hard to sidestep any advertising that actually appeals to me as a person.

Now that we’re officially halfway through the year, to say it’s been a turbulent six months would be an understatement.

Even as things outside go back to some semblance of normality, many businesses are having to make big shifts in the output of their offerings and services, with some struggling to find the link to their customers during a time when digital and online are so much more than buzzwords.

No matter how you look at it, our world is forever changed.

What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalise it) is an event with the following three attributes.

11 important things brands should know to thrive in the Customer Experience (CX) age.

What’s a passing fad? What trends will endure? And what part of the cultural soup that we’re forever hurtling through, is a trend that will endure.

Understanding why products don’t bring humans lasting happiness is the clue to understanding the future of marketing.

The latest research I’m reading paints a worrying picture of how consumers think about brands.

Stories are way more powerful than information because of the way the human brain works and learns. Lisa Cron, author of the book Wired For Story, reckons that stories have been as important as opposable thumbs in the evolution of humanity.

Future-fit evangelist, Mike Perk, reveals the 10 things digitally mature leaders do to give them the competitive edge.

“We all have purpose, and I believe that each of us has an assignment we’re here to complete.”

Remember when Victoria’s Secret was on top of the world? Two years ago, the brand staged a fashion show in Shanghai, China, that engaged some 1bn people in 190 countries across the globe.

Yes, this is a piece about predictions. If you think this is just a ploy to get your attention, please give me a minute. I’m hoping this piece will be a little different from the other predictions you’ve read recently.

Walk into the new Yuppiechef store in Gardens Centre, Cape Town, and you’ll experience the kind of hedonist luxury that gastronomes long for.

Manuel Koser, Silvertree Investments founder and managing director, answers big questions about entrepreneurs and online retail.

If you think about it, Bill Gates was the Gary Vaynerchuk of his era. The principal founder of Microsoft, Gates is the world’s second-richest man (Jeff Bezos is #1), thanks to the company he helped grow into a multibillion-dollar technology multinational.

Amanda Herson, director of ecommerce, speaks about the group’s omnichannel future.

What is the health of local retail ecommerce and what contribution is it making to the South African economy?

As a web developer, I find nothing more exciting than trying out a new JavaScript framework or build tool that everyone is raving about.

There is a persistent notion in the digital arena of a mysterious boundary that end users won’t ever venture past: a virtual hedge that ultimately controls the success or failure of a website. But how important is it, really?

An “influencer” is someone who has managed to acquire a large amount of followers on his/her social media profiles, and is perceived to have a certain amount of social influence over/among those followers.

100,000 years ago, humans developed language: stories were used to transfer knowledge from generation to generation.

Is it better to be flashy (and earn new business after the ceremony), or to be data-focused (and earn your client’s loyalty through a sustained ROI)?

As the old adage goes: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

According to a study by MediKix, global spending on Instagram influencer marketing alone is projected to reach as much as $10 billion by 2020

Digital should be at the core of the business, making operations run more efficiently while helping marketing to connect with consumers in more creative ways.

During this period, newspapers will fall 2.6% while the internet will experience a CAGR of 16.9%.

The Big Small Business Show - 08 Spet 2017: Bradley Elliott, Director: Platinum Seed

The partnership will kick off with Platinum designing and developing the user-experience and user interface for BrightPlan’s launch website.

The world of digital and online media is at an inflection point where the lines between customer, supplier and internal staff communications are beginning to blur

At the dawn of the first Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) software programmes in the 1970s, retailers relied on customer information collected by sales representatives on basic spreadsheets and stored on mainframe computers

Platinum Seed was tasked with managing the experiential campaign activation and the development of the voice-recognition application

The campaign offered music fans the opportunity to win a single, iconic limited edition Riky Rick X Russian Bear bottle, with a cutting-edge design and the winner’s face and lyrics.

The problem is that old cliché, about only half of advertising being effective but no one knowing which half. The difference today is that companies now demand an answer to that question.

Artificial intelligence, or machine learning (the ability of a computers to learn without being programmed), enables companies and individuals to make calculated, strategic business and personal decisions through the manipulation of enormous volumes of data. The predictive analysis tools built into the technology allow for truly intelligent future forecasting.

Retail goods, even the most niche products, are becoming more and more commoditised and price parity means retailers have to look continuously for more innovative ways to keep customers loyal.

Following on from this, many businesses have found that a well-managed app community – much like a social media community – can also have a significant impact on the bottom line.

Some experts even believe the digital transformation revolution is being fuelled by open source. Since open source has reduced the cost of creating and developing the new digital platforms that drive transformation, and the work is being done collaboratively through code and infrastructure platform sharing, the evolution of technology has bred whole new business models and platforms, most of which are dominating the world’s economy.

Internet retail sales in SA totalled R6.6bn in 2015. But by global standards, online shopping is still in its infancy. Compared to China, SA is decades behind.

We are very passionate about community and social development that makes a real difference in people’s lives,” says Brad Elliott, MD of digital agency Platinum Seed. “When we were approached by 5 For Change to assist them with marketing their event, it was a very natural fit."

Entrepreneurs in the service industry need to shift their approach to business growth and realise good staff are often the “face of a company” and not merely workers feeding off the bottom line, Bradley Elliot, managing director of digital company Platinum Seed says.

The Big Small Business Show - 29 Jan 2016 - Expert Interview with Bradley Elliott

Digital campaigns are not new to alcohol brands although the recent #GlenfiddichMaverick campaign, created by digital innovation company Platinum Seed, is changing the way the single malt whisky brand connects with South African consumers.

How to effectively monetise apps, increase ROI and strengthen business models will be tackled at Apps World Africa 2015, being held under the auspices of AfricaCom in Cape Town in November.

The social media revolution is more than just connecting people on a social level, for corporates, it’s about influencing customers.