Audience

Arguably the best and most complicated place to start when undertaking a content marketing strategy. For a content strategy to work you need to understand more about your audience than just their demographic information. Granted understanding that they are typically males living within a certain area of an age rage between 35 and 45 who all have tertiary education does help; but it tells you nothing of their needs, wants, fears and challenges. This information will unlock the most pivotal component of your content strategy and that is giving them information that they want and need!

Internal Abilities

You need to be able to understand who within your organisation can be used as a subject matter expert. Simply palming off content creation to an employee is not going to cut it. You have to be able to align the needs and wants of your audience with your internal resources who are not only able, but willing to help ensure that you win business through your content strategy.

Behaviour

This is not necessarily the behaviour of your content specialists within your organisation (although that is also important) this is rather the behaviours of your target audience. Where do they spend their time online? Where do they research solutions for their problems? And most importantly where do they fit into the buying decision or buying process of their organisation? This is critically important as you need to align your content to the audience as well as their role in the buying process.

Channel

Linked very closely to behaviour is channel. Where is your audience spending their time? Will mobile content be a primary driver for you, or will purely desktop content suffice? The trick here is that the channel also needs to take into account what kind of content is best suited for the different channels. For instance; content that is highly driven towards converting a visitor to a lead is not well suited as an infographic which is generally more informational; where a ROI calculator inspires more action from your audience.

Tracking

This is where the business case for content marketing strategy comes alive! You need to be very clear and specific about how you are going to measure the effects of your content efforts to ensure that you are able to show a positive ROI. There needs to be some lead scoring and a concrete way of tracking and scoring each person within your content funnel.

Learning

Your content strategy is only as good as your last piece of content. Be sure to incorporate everything that you have learnt about your audience as well as the way in which they consume your content. Be sure to test using AB Tests and ensure that the user experience is never forgotten! Always be looking to improve your content marketing strategy by taking note of what has and hasn’t worked and then adapt your strategy!

By following these six steps in your content marketing strategy you are not necessarily guaranteed that your strategy will succeed; but you are taking some definite steps to make sure it doesn’t fail!

3 Content Marketers you NEED to follow:

How to Develop Buyer Personas for Your Inbound Marketing Strategy | @b2community hub.am/13zwRhi This is SO important!

— HubSpot (@HubSpot) May 17, 2013

7 Ways to Get More Out Of Your #ContentMarketing Strategy bit.ly/OQy1jP #SocialMedia

— Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas) May 17, 2013

15 Important Facts about Content Curation goo.gl/T6YMg via @scottscanlon

— Michael Brenner (@BrennerMichael) May 16, 2013

A lot of Facebook users have made use of the Wolfram Alpha Personal Analytics for Facebook tool provided free to all Wolfram Alpha users. Essentially what this tool does is search through your Facebook profile and visualise your general information. This data visualisation includes demographics all the way through to the things you post most about and when. As an aside from the main intent of this post, it really is a fun way to see how Facebook sees you!

In any event, Wolfram has taken these bits of Facebook data and analysed them even further together with some data visualisation; to find, as he calls it; a “life trajectory” based on Facebook data. Essentially, he was looking for signals as to how your life changes over time. For instance the following image shows a person’s friends ages as their age changes.

This data visualisation is pretty standard stuff and you would expect the distribution to always be very close to that kind of curve. Things get slightly more interesting when you start cutting this data with a view of what people post about in their specific age groups.

Let’s not say anything about how “personal mood” decreases as age increases!

After reviewing his data visualisation analysis in some detail, Wolfram himself was quoted as saying,

“It’s almost shocking how much this tells us about the evolution of people’s typical interests. People talk less about video games as they get older, and more about politics and the weather…People get less interested in talking about ‘special occasions’ (mostly birthdays) through their teens, but gradually gain interest later. And people get progressively more interested in talking about career and money in their 20s. And so on. And so on.”

On their own these stats might not be particularly interesting; however when you look at these stats with your marketing hat on. This is true Big Data for Marketers. This data is telling us how the attitude, preferences and interests of specific demographics change over time – how you need to pitch your product at different levels to speak to different members of your audience!

Any marketer who is not approaching marketing with a very analytical hat on at the moment is missing a huge trick and is arguably cutting their own career in marketing short! With that in mind, data visualisation should not be the first port of call in your data analytics journey; there are many steps before and after it to make your marketing digitally enabled.

Essentially there are initially 7 different aspects of content marketing that you need to have a firm grasp of before you can even begin to start posting content:

1. Audience Profile - this is understanding who is going to consume your content; what their needs are and how and where they are going to want to consume your content.

2. Channel - this is understanding what channels you have at your disposal which map back to where your audience is spending their time.

3. Behaviour - this is how well you understand each platforms general usage patterns as well as where in the buying or decision-making process you are slotting your content to be most effective.

4. Tracking - how and where are you going to track each piece of content that you are putting out there and more importantly how and where are you track each member of your audience that is actually consuming your content so that you are immediately aware of which piece of content they are primed to receive next.

5. Content - finally we actually get to the content of the content strategy. This is where you  need to place a lot of time and effort in understanding what your audience is looking for and  how you are positioning that content to fit within their needs, wants and consumption habits. (content includes, audio, video, apps, games, infographics, etc.)

6. internal - here is where you focus on your business itself. How and where do you have the knowledge, skills and resources available to make sure that the knowledge that you have internally is accurately captured and communicated to your audience.

7. Learning - you need to push back into your profile from the get go. What I mean here is that you always need to be refining and ensuring that you are taking your results and analysing them and trying to make what you are doing as effective as possible.

Only once you have a firms grasp of each of these elements and their direct influence on your business can you start putting your content strategy together.

As with many other areas of digital marketing; there tends to be too big a focus on the tactics which can be employed and less time spent on the reasons and goals for getting involved in the first place. I urge you to rather spend the time understanding your audiences media consumption and buying / decision-making processes before you start using social media and email marketing to try to “build the plane as you fly it”.

On that point; the last point that I want to make is that different types of content can achieve different goals.

What I mean is that; for example; designing and deploying a great looking infographic is not going to be a great use of your time if you are essentially trying to get visitors to your site to engage with you.

Infographics are a form of content that are best at reaching a wider audience so that you can then push them into your funnel and starting feeding them different kinds of content which are far more engaging by nature  - such as ROI calculators; pricing guides and Total Cost of Ownership tools.

The “so what” is what this article boils down to at the end of the day; but first let’s talk a little about the things that every presenter needs to know about their audience…

1. First thing is first. If you are presenting to a group who are not experts in the field on which you are presenting or familiar with the subject at least; then you need to be sure to lower the level at which you are pitching your speech. You need to get rid of the jargon and the buzzwords so that the mortals in the front row have a clue about what you are trying to tell them.
2. Statistics and facts are great to help you get your point across; but you are very quickly going to be the only one listening to yourself. If you are filling your presentation with facts and figures that will wash over most of your audience  then you are not only wasting their time, but your own as well.
3. Pictures are a great way of getting a point across. The audience will love having a visual confirmation to the auditory message you are giving. The thing to be sure to be mindful of here is that the image must resonate with what you are saying.

Most importantly of all (and that’s why this does not have a number next to it – it transcends numbers! ) Your presentation needs to be engaging… You need to tell your audience a story that is relevant and meaningful in their lives; something that they can relate to.

There are many articles and presentations that talk about how best to order a piece of writing or a presentation (PowerPoint or otherwise) so I am not going to regurgitate them here; but they are all hovering around the same point. Show your audience why they should listen to you! Give them the compelling reason upfront that makes them sit up straight and understand why you are relevant to their lives.

Once you have done this; the rest of your presentation is simply reinforcing your initial message.

When we pull this back to content marketing; we can infer the same thinking. Do not waffle on about how you have a super excellent solution that none of your competitors have and that you will be sure to treat them like they are the only customers in the world… Bollocks!

Your audience is selfish and wants to know what’s in it for them; why should they care to read on and give you their time.

I’ve found that thinking about the time it takes for someone to read a piece of content or sit through a presentation is to think of them donating their time to you. It is up to you to make the most of that time and ensure that that they donate even more time to you. In other to do that you need to be sure to get your point across quickly; succinctly and in a way that resonates with your audience!

1. AdWords

This one stirred up quite a bit of controversy as it was stated that 40% of consumers didn’t realize that the Google AdWords listings were “paid for” adverts as opposed to organic listings. This stat on its own is not too frightening until you compare it with data which says that 81% of users click on AdWords links as opposed to organic listings.

Stats released by Bunnyfoot and featured on eMarketer.

Some interpretation : Ok, so for a while now there has been some rumblings about the very faint and almost invisible colour distinction between the Google AdWords and Google Organic listings on a SERP. Some could argue that this is highly manipulative from the search giant as they are furthering their own cause and tricking their users into thinking that all results are made equal! On the other hand it could also be argued that there are ranking algorithms in place for AdWords that ensure that ads are not shown for “irrelevant” search terms and that the quality of the listing is equal (if not better) to that of the organic listing.

My take is that Google is not a “not-for-profit” organization and that they have shown their ranking algorithms apply to both organic and paid for listings. Users are more techno and internet savvy than every and should be able to tell the difference between the two types of listings.

2. mCommerce and eCommerce

Foresee, a customer experience analysis firm have recently shown that customer satisfaction with mobile commerce (mCommerce) appears to be gradually improving year-on-year, to the extent that the mCommerce experience is almost considered to be on par with desktop. The study – which started in 2010 – found that customer satisfaction with desktop websites in the UK scored 74 on the study’s 100-point scale, compared to 72 for mobile retail experiences.

Some interpretation : Retailers have not been asleep while the digital revolution has taken place. Mobile sites using responsive design or in fact purely native design are now pretty much commonplace with all the major retailers. The major increase in mobile device usage has forced retailers to invest in their mobile platforms and they are now beginning to see the return on their investments.

3. China online

The Chinese may not have been able to get access to Facebook yet (at least not legally); but that has not stopped them from embracing online shopping to the fullest! Alibaba.com – a research firm predict that Chinese consumers are going to spend in the region of 117 Billion Pounds online in 2013! This number surpasses all other countries including the UK, US and Western Europe.  Interestingly – 12% of the total online spend in China will come from a mobile device!

Some interpretation : The population of China is immense and there are 242 million of them that shop online. That number in itself is greater than the American online shopping population. Quite simply they are a country with a techno-savvy community that understands the value of shopping online.

4. Mobile spend is on the up

According to IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarking. mobile sales values are continuing to rise. In 2012 the total value of revenue through mobile devices came in at 7.5 Billion Pounds across both smart phone and tablets. This trend relates heavily to the fact that mobile retailers have done their homework in getting their online shop fronts  mobile enabled. What’s more though is that the sale of mobile devices (meaning tablets and smart phones) are on the rise.

Some interpretation : This one is pretty self-explanatory. More mobile devices and a better online user experience means that mobile spend (mCommerce) is going to keep increasing and eating away at the traditional desktop spend.

5.        Mobile usage is on the up

Optimising email campaigns for mobile has never been more important than it is right now. Checking emails has been listed as the most common activity on a smart phone.  The Nielsen Mobile Consumer survey  found that 68% of UK smart phone owners use their device to check emails while only text messaging (92%) was more popular an activity. Mobile web browsing and social networking came in third and fourth with 66% and 63% respectively.

A quarter of the respondents said that they use their devices for online shopping.

Some interpretation :  Due to the nature of the mobile devices, they are always on and always with us; it only makes sense that the usage figures are on the rise. It now makes more sense to swipe a tablet that to fire up a laptop. It is easier and quicker which is why we naturally choose to use them.

First off; they tick off all the traditional platform presence markers with a website; Twitter and Facebook.

Let’s look a little closer at their website

A few things immediately stand out on the site which sound really simple at first; but the impact and psychology behind it is very clever.

1. The South African flag in the background subconsciously bring out feelings of patriotism and pride. The fact that the header image is not of a group of people also conveys the message that Agang is a party devoted to the country and not just to a single demographic group.
2. The front facing head-shot of Mamphela Ramphele conveys the message that she is not trying to hide anything and she comes across as trustworthy, warm and approachable – all very important qualities for a political figure.
3. The motivational quote receiving such a prominent place on the front page is also very smart – it captures in a phrase what the party is setting out to do. It is a humanised mission statement and vision that carries with it the full backing of the announcement speech by Dr Ramphele,
4. Arguably the most compelling part of the site for me though is the highly visible call to action in the header – “Help build South Africa”. The message here has been very carefully thought out. They are not asking for cash first, but rather for your time. They are asking for the south African public to get involved in making South Africa better.

To me the entire website casts my mind back to the original Barack Obama style website design from his 2008 campaign. It is very carefully thought out and shows the visitor exactly what they need to see whilst still reinforcing the primary messages of the party.

Let’s look a little closer at the online chatter

For an account that has only been active since the 18th of February, 2013; @Agangsa has already moved past 12 000 followers in less than 10 days. So what has the online chatter and reception been like for Agang?

Well the reception according to Social Mention has been generally good. There has been a largely neutral sentiment with the positive sentiment overshadowing the negative 3:1.

The keywords associated with Agang have been around “official opposition”; “left” and obviously the party name and leader themselves.

With the account being so new; there is little additional insight that can be drawn from these stats. However if you are a believer in the Klout score of accounts; then The Agang Twitter account has a Klout score of 65; which can only be positive right?!

Rounding it up

Agang has been set up properly and initial indications show that this is going to be a well run; from a digital marketing point of view at least; political campaign. Here is hoping that the party itself can live up to the promises and hype created around it.

What I would be especially keen to see is some online reputation management strategy around a slick digital campaign!

Personally I am not sure whether this will be the party to rival the ANC in the 2014 national government elections; but it will certainly make them as well as the other political players sit up and take notice – and hopefully make some critical changes that will result in a sustainable positive change in South Africa.

John Wanamaker was originally credited with saying, “I know that 50% of my advertising is working; I just don’t know which 50%”. Since those early days in the late early 1900’s, marketers have still wrestled with this issue of how and where to show a ROI (Return on Investment) for their marketing initiatives. So let’s take a look at ROI in a little more depth for Social Media in particular.

We travel all the way back to 18th century France where Voltaire – 18th century writer, historian and philosopher – first said something which rings especially true of our social media world of today.

No? Ok, maybe this will be a little more period relevant!

Spiderman – more correctly, Uncle Ben said that, “with great power; comes great responsibility!” This expression is especially true of social media.

You see, while we all acknowledge its power, we expect it to be accountable for itself. We expect that social media ought to be able to justify why it deserves increasing marketing attention, and by extension, budgets.

In fact, this has been the case with any new medium.

A logical progression of steps usually follows :

People take to the medium and soon they spend increasing time on it. (think radio and tv)

Marketers wake up to the opportunity this presents and get some experimental budgets approved by touting and leveraging the fear of being left out of something new and transformational.

Since they’re still a fair distance away from the laws of diminishing returns to settle in, they mostly see early signs of huge success buoyed by which they ask for increased investment.

At this point, typically, they’re asked for their take on those 3 magical words: return on investment.

So ROI for social media is pretty easy to determine then?

When it comes to Social ADVERTISING…. Yes…. It is simple enough…. The ads are served to only those who fit the ads demographic. If they are interested in the ad; they click on it and are funneled down the conversion path until they either complete the required task or bug out.

The real question is with regards to the ROI of social media in general…

There’s a hope that the ever-evasive ROI formula will finally be revealed in a flash of blinding light, paving the way for continued investments into social media; that in the immortal words of Captain Juan-Luc Pickard someone will “Make It So Number One”……..

Sadly, not…

You see, there are 3 pretty serious reasons why there is no such thing as Social ROI:

The burden of numbers!

Social media throws up many metrics – likes, follows, comments, views, shares and too many others to name here. The moment a medium has a multiplicity of data points, there is the looming weight of expectation of its ability to churn out one single other (simple?) number…like ROI.

 ROI has its roots in project finance

Where the return was based on the cumulative cost of production – not just on a thin slice of it. The simple reason was that it is virtually impossible in most scenarios to isolate cause and effect – to separate out a component of “return” attributable to a single factor of “investment”, especially on a variable cost component like “marketing costs.” In fact, having a positive ROI on a variable cost is a complicated way of saying you can now print money.

In terms of social media today, we often hear questions like “what is the monetary value of a fan?”

Ironic, considering that we still have not fully defined the value of a TV commercial viewer. In fact, we continue to ‘invest’ in television and other mass media advertising, notwithstanding the fact that we still don’t know which (proverbial) 50% of our budget is working.

So what are we to do? We ll first we need to understand online conversions.

Conversions are every place on your website or digital platforms where your users are taking action. These conversions are them broken down into Micro and Macro conversions.

A Macro conversion is where money is physically going to change hands. If your site is an eCommerse site; it is where your visitor has been converted into a customer by clicking on the buy now button.

A Micro conversion is (if you remember ZMOT) everything else that could potentially lead to a offline sale (or conversion). These are the likes, retweets, comments, shares that take place on all your properties. Its how our audience educates themselves and engages with us online.

So now that we understand conversions; we can translate these conversions into 4 very simple and specific metrics that are applicable no matter which digital platform you are on!

Conversation Rate

Most brands act like they do on TV when it comes to social media. What I mean is that they do the same broadcast style “interaction” through their social channels as with TV advertising.

We don’t have to do that. With social media, we can get a very good sense of who is following / friending / subscribing to us. We can measure if what we are saying connects to them!

Conversation Rate = # of Audience Comments (or Replies) Per Post

What does it mean?

A high conversation rate requires a deeper understanding of who your audience is, what your brand attributes are, what you are good at, what value you can add to your followers and the ecosystem you participate in.

It forces you to do the right thing right away. And it is a lot of work.

So aim for a higher Conversation Rate. Build your own watering hole in the digital universe. Have meaningful conversations with your audience.

You can always be provocative, say silly things and get a high Conversation Rate. Pick polotics for your topic to ensure highly opinionated comments but that would not be very positive for your brand or sales would it?!

Remember we do not measure to manipulate the metrics, we measure to know if we are adding business value.

Amplification Rate

This is where social media really comes into its own…. When you think of another media – like TV, radio, even social media advertising…. You have a defined market. There are about 10 million people who watch The Bold & The Beautiful every evening on SABC 2 – which means that your TV advert which incidentally cost you R 130 000 for 30” of airtime in October 2012…

Social media however has got second and third level connections…. So let’s assume that your network has 1000 people in it. If this were TV; your maximum reach is 1000. However if only 100 people in your network read your post and share it and a corresponding 10 people in each of their networks read it and on shares it – you have amplified your network exponentially…!

On Twitter: Amplification = # of Retweets Per Tweet

On Facebook, Google Plus: Amplification = # of Shares Per Post

On a blog, YouTube: Amplification = # of Share Clicks Per Post (or Video)

What do we do with it?

Amplification is how your messages spreads – the more “share-worthy” a piece of content; the more it will be shared and the further it will travel.

Applause Rate

Let’s assume that this was a blog post; which you “Liked” or “+1’ed”, you’ll not help me understand its relative quality, but when someone in our extended social graph does a search on Google for something like social media metrics your endorsement of this content will show up in the search results.

That’s reassuring to your social graph, and it is great for me because your endorsement makes this post stand out over others and I get a relevant visitor/customer.

Sweet, right? Your selfless social media contribution comes back to assist you in driving valuable business outcomes.

That’s why you measure Applause. It matters in ways you can’t imagine!

One Twitter: Applause Rate = # of Favorite Clicks Per Post

On Facebook: Applause Rate = # of Likes Per Post

On Google Plus: Applause Rate = # of +1s Per Post

On a Blog, YouTube: Applause Rate = # of +1s and Likes Per Post (or video)

What do we do with it?

This tells you what your audience enjoyed reading / viewing – the higher this number the better you are doing.

Economic Value

The real hard-core metric that we can’t get away from…. In some way or another – social media does cost real money; and therefore it needs to make real money back! Amplification, Applause and Conversion are all great metrics…. But they are soft right…?! They’re a little limp…

What they need is the little blue pill of metrics..!

We need a financial metric because; we don’t participate in social media to only drive business outcomes.

If that is our primary objective we are going to suck at it (and the above metrics will reflect very efficiently how much we suck).

Economic Value = Sum of Short and Long Term Revenue and Cost Savings

What do we do with it?

Assign a value to specific actions based on real life events. In other words; if someone visits your page from a Tweet that was sent out, credit that visit with a few Rand (for South Africans) or Dollars, etc. If the visitor came from Facebook, credit that with another value.

By keeping track of your macro conversions and referrals, you will soon get a good idea of which platform is converting more visitors and therefore you can assign higher values to traffic from those sites. It is not an exact science and there is a lot of trial and error involved before you can be sure that you are about 80% on the money with your economic values.

These metrics can be tabulated and reported on monthly to give a clear picture of how and where your social efforts are showing some positive return!

Essentially SEOBook ran an article on August 23 which spoke about “ranking modifyers”. The article centres around a Google patent that has been unearthed. The patent called “Ranking Documents” is concerned with when webmasters alter a page or the links pointing to a page.

The specific section of text is :

 “A system determines a first rank associated with a document and determines a second rank associated with the document, where the second rank is different from the first rank. The system also changes, during a transition period that occurs during a transition from the first rank to the second rank, a transition rank associated with the document based on a rank transition function that varies the transition rank over time without any change in ranking factors associated with the document.“

The patent goes on to say :

 “During the transition from the old rank to the target rank, the transition rank might cause:

• a time-based delay response,
• a negative response
• a random response, and/or
• an unexpected response”

So if you can translate patent speak, it basically boils down to the fact that Google is trying to ensure that “spammers” and the over-optimisation of websites is curbed. The trick is to look at the language that has been used further in the patent. They go on to say:

“The systems and methods may also observe spammers’ reactions to rank changes caused by the rank transition function to identify documents that are actively being manipulated. This assists in the identification of rank-modifying spammers.”

They seem to talk specifically about “spammers” – spammers are those defined in this instance as those who are trying to manipulate the ranking of a page in the SERP – in other words, pages that have already been indexed.

So what does this mean for the SEO industry? Here is where it gets tricky – Google has often said that they are not the biggest fans of Search Engine Optimisation – to them SEO is a way of manipulating the rankings and not necessarily a way to assist them (Google) in ensuring that the best of the internet is always shown to relevant searches. This means that planning has become even more super critical when engaging with any form of SEO.

Employing “measure twice, cut once” type thinking will ensure that you are not being seen to constantly tweak and change current pages which is essentially what this patent is trying to avoid.

Some have asked what this means for companies who edit and update content regularly. In short – the answer is to ensure that the new content is on a new page or at least a dynamically created page – and not on an old page that will retain its URL and then be re-ranked.

Having said all of this; there is no evidence from Google that the patent is in use – however with Google you can rest assured that they have not registered the patent ages ago and not incorporated it in some way or another – unlike a large Silicon Valley company who has US$ 1 billion coming their way.

Tom Foremski tries to clarify further in his post on Memeburn on 30 August.

Let’s unpack what a positioning strategy really is.

Positioning strategy refers to the choice of target market
segment which describes the customers a business will seek
to serve and the choice of differential advantage which
defines how it will compete with rivals in the segment.

Thanks Doyle (1983) for that technical definition. Simply put though; a positioning strategy has 3 elements to it :

1. Customer Targets
2. Competitor Targets
3. Competitive Advantage

Essentially a positioning strategy is research and analysis of the market, to find a gap where you can find and service a need that your potential customers have.  Ideally a need that your competitors are not servicing. Once this gap has been identified; the positioning strategy is then developed to best place your company in that gap to highlight why and how you can service those needs.

The primary reason as to why this is so important is because this should form the basis for every marketing and communication action that you do! It creates a golden threat of continuity that will allow your audience to always frame where you are coming from. Its like a personality for your brand. If your personality is always changing, your audience will not be able to readily identify with you and will not understand that value that you are trying to create for them.  This will make your mission even more difficult as each time you interact with the market; you will need to convince them of what you are trying to achieve each and every time.

Marketing positioning works hand in hand with value propositions and as a subset of that, positioning statements. The following image puts how and where a positioning statement is developed.

Of course; there an even greater debate around whether or not the 4P’s are still relevant or not. (fyi: positioning is one of the new P’s of marketing).

As a marketer or a business owner; it is critically important that you understand your positioning; as without it there is a long and uphill road that awaits you.

The Fast 50 programme ranks a country’s 50 fastest-growing technology companies based on revenue percentage growth over the last five years. Each country’s local programme then feeds into the international competition, the Fast 500 which runs in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific.

To enter your technology business in the Deloitte Fast 50, or to nominate another business, click on the Fast 50 link.

Get yourself ranked!

The purpose of the Fast 50 is not solely to rank young business; namely in the technology and SME space; but rather to highlight your business. The Deloitte Fast 50 also :

Creates local, regional and global media publicity

• Heightens your business profile on a regional and international level
• Creates interest from investors and partners
• Boosts company image to employees and clients alike
• Brings unique networking opportunities with your industry and sector peers
• The winner of the Fast 50 will have dedicated time with a Deloitte expert

So why should this interest you?

South Africa is especially well endowed with exceptional creative business talent that needs to be showcased. The South African business sector needs to become the driving force of our economy as the potential for innovation and job creation within this space is unparalleled in the corporate world.

By profiling and lifting your technology business along with other technology players you are showing that the technology SME’s in South Africa are a force to be reckoned with and a force that will not only develop a nation, but secure its future as a economic power house in Africa and the world.

To give you an idea of the winners from previous Fast 50’s, here are the UK Fast 50 Top 10 from 2011 :

Enter your technology business in the Deloitte Fast 50, or to nominate another business, click on the Fast 50 link.