Excited much for Rihanna?

Linkin Park, Chris Brown and Metallica have all come and gone, and teen heartthrob Justin Bieber will be next to grace a South Africa stage.

While all of those performances rocked and will rock Cape Town, and I’m sure Bon Jovi’s arrival will have their fans scrambling to find their hearing aids, what I’m really excited for is Rihanna!

It was confirmed earlier this month that the Barbadian superstar, RiRi to her fans, will be coming to South Africa for the Diamonds World Tour in October this year.

Upon hearing the news I immediately fainted, woke up, pinched myself, realized that it wasn’t a dream, and after composing myself I started making arrangements to have someone standing bye at a computer when the tickets went on sale.

Riri is set to perform two concerts in SA, with the first at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday, October 13 and then at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday, October 16.

Although this is not Rihanna’s first time performing in SA – she previously performed in SA in 2006 when she opened for mentor rapper Jay-Z - golden circle tickets for the concert sold out in less than half an hour after sales opened on Thursday, April 11.

Fortunately, I was able to secure my tickets and I will be front and centre when the concert starts, along with the rest of the RiNavy.

Keeping up with Kim's baby bump

As with all things Kim Kardashian, the reality superstar’s recent weight gain has received a storm of media attention from around the world.

Kardashian (32) is currently six months pregnant by controversial rapper Kanye West, but this hasn’t stopped tabloids and the Twitterverse from ridiculing her for bloating up. 

Pregnancy is supposed to be one of the most joyous times of a woman’s life, but constantly being under the spotlight means Kim may not have the same experience as other women.

The socialite, fashion designer and business woman has been panned globally for her poor choice in maternity wear and the negative reactions seemed to have gotten to Kim.

Recent reports suggest that Kim has hired not one, not two, but five different personal trainers to help her melt off some of the baby weight before the baby has even arrived.

This may not seem all that strange by Hollywood standards, but it could be considered surprising as Kardashian has always been one to polarise the media and the public.

People either love or hate Kim Kardashian, and she has been the butt of many unsavory jokes since she first burst onto our screens.

Kim gained her fame and fortune thanks to the publicity she gained from the release of a sex tape featuring her and now has-been R&B star Ray J, her then boyfriend.

Throughout all of this, Kim has always ignored the haters and instead focused on her growing bank balance. Until now, that is…

Are companies wasting their time with social media profiles?

Getting to know what your stakeholders need and want has never been this easy before.

Social media is a powerful tool and can be a company’s best friend or worst enemy if not used correctly.

Social media is the key to opening up many successful marketing strategies for businesses today. Companies who are not already household names, and those that are, can surely benefit from social media as a platform to create brand awareness.

Social media can be utilised to increase a company’s online presence and to create traffic to the company’s web page.

There are many other benefits to companies using social media tools. For example, companies can sustain or improve their reputation by communicating directly with their customers. Or, improve the customers’ experience of their products and services by offering after sales service on social media.

Using social media is also a good way to source out what customers think of your brand, attract new customers to your brand and build stronger relationships with existing customers.

Social media allows companies to reach millions of people around the world, but also target specific groups, often in particular locations, at the same time.

Social media is cost effective way for a company to communicate with customers and market its products. Currently, many forms of social media are completely free.

It’s also instant, and allows a business can communicate with its customers on a personal level.

However, this has its downside as well. Posting incorrect information on social media, for example, could result in a backlash of negative reviews for your brand.

Companies new to social media also need to familiarise themselves with the legislation surrounding social media and copyright issues. So it may be best to enlist a professional.

Companies should be aware of these risks and also have contingency plans in place. In my personal opinion I think companies are not wasting their time with social media profiles as it keeps them that much closer to their customers.

Adapting to change: The lessons I've learned

There’s an old adage that the only certain things in life are death and taxes. I would argue that all of us are bound to experience one other thing: change.

We all know change is inevitable, but how we deal with it is what makes or breaks us as individuals and in our careers.

I speak from experience when I say this and to prove it to you, here is my story.

Back in 2008 I started studying Journalism at the Bellville campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

It was something I always wanted to do, but then somehow I found myself in the public relations profession.

This forced me to make one of the hardest decisions of my life…Do I do my BTech in journalism or public relations management?

Being the daredevil that I am, I decided to close my eyes and jump in right at the deep end of the PR pool.

I don’t regret my choice, not one bit, but I’m not going to lie and say it’s not been a huge adjustment for me.

But, I see this as a learning opportunity and I’m not one to shy away from new, exciting and unfamiliar territory. As much as the unknown scares me it, it’s also very intriguing at the same time.

I won’t beat around the bush here... Yes change is hard, but with the right mind-set, guidance and support system you can never go wrong. I guess my thirst for learning is what keeps me motivated at the end of the day.

 

Tweetdeck vs. Hootsuite - Which is better?

There are many programmes and applications out there that allow you to manage more than one social media account at the same time.

The web is practically littered with them, so its often difficult to find out which one's are the best for your particular needs and which are user friendly.

Two of the most popular are Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, and you'll probably find them near the top of most lists for this kind of software. I used both, for the first time, and compared them.

Firstly, I noticed that they are both fairly similar in what they allow users to do. Both services allow user interface between Facebook, Twitter or any other social media account.

Both also have URL shorteners, which comes in handy when trying to make the most of your 140 characters on Twitter.

They both also allow you to schedule tweets for a specific time. However, Hootsuite introduced this feature first.

Here's a screenshot of my Hootsuite dashboard as an example:

 

One of the major advantages of Tweetdeck is that it allows users to link an unlimited amount of social media accounts on to the same dashboard. Whereas Hootsuite can only link one Facebook and one Twitter account.

In Hootsuite updates seemed to be faster, but I’m not sure if that’s just my browser (Firefox), computer or internet connection.

Both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck use columns as a way to display tweets from different people and both allow the user to create as many columns as they want.

Tweetdeck also has an auto-complete function when searching for a Twitter username, as long as you are following that specific user you are searching for.


Although Hootsuite has more functions and options I prefer to use Tweetdeck because of its simplicity and usability.

This makes for an all-round more pleasant experience for users like myself, who are only using it for personal accounts.