After checking out http://www.themissingzebra.co.za, I can see why. Those 5 suspects look real dodgy. Out of the 5, Dirk de Wet, the ex police officer is probably the most clean – capturing a zebra out of boredom sounds a little far fetched. However, Jan de Jager Junior and Boontjies seem the more likely of the 5 to have kidnapped a zebra.

If I was Jan de Jager Junior and had a bit of a tiff with Pederberg Winemaker Riaan Moller, I too would get back at him by stealing one of the farms prize possessions – the zebra. But then again, being a bit of a dronkie and a stupid chicken farmer, I wouldn’t be smart enough to steal, nevermind hide a zebra!

Then there is Boontjies – one of those dodgy fruit and veg hawkers that sell “stolen” fruit at the Klapmuts turnoff. His horse pegged a couple of months back and obviously needs transport to get his fruit and veg to market. These hawkers are slimy buggers and could easily make a plan to kidnap and hide a zebra – I wouldn’t be surprised if he had painted the white stripes black to make it look like a horse.

If you help out by answering some of the weekly clues, you could win some wine, so go and give it a shot!

• Fix the registrations. It’s way to easy to register 6 accounts and vote your story to the top.
• Allow users to see who voted for a story.
• Increase the awareness of a person’s muti profile. Allow for avatars, more info about the user etc. Increased awareness of users, thus weeding out the trolls.
• Report a post as spam, inaccurate or not useful. Enough of these “votes” and the post either goes into moderation, or gets removed.

We obviously don’t want to turn into a Digg clone, but there are some elements that we can definitely borrow to make muti a more interesting and positive social voting site.

I have to run and will probably update this list later, but what are your thoughts?

I have been chatting to Tyler Reed for the past couple of months (first started on Twitter), and after working on a few small projects with him, I asked why don’t I start up Younique’s presence in Cape Town? Well that is officially happening from the 1st of August. Perfect timing as Younique also turned 1 on Thursday!

I’m really excited about some of the things Younique has in the pipeline and where we are heading. Tyler is too modest to talk about some of the things we have been working on, so expect me to break the news and “brag” about what we doing. :)

Not only am I changing where I will be working, but also the direction. I’ve been really try to get myself emerged in social media, web 2.0 and the mobile development scene, and by joining Younique, its exactly where I want to be. So enough talking the talk like I do on Twitter, its time to walk the talk.

Exciting times!

What the conference attendees did was put into practise exactly what they preach. There are twitter updates, live blogging of each presentation, pics of the speakers, shared slideshows and videos!

So instead of trekking up to Joburg and having to pay around R9000 to attend, I’m getting the cheap seats for free! Granted, I am missing out on the networking opportunities, the entire presentations and lunch, but having a summary of the event and all the talks is also pretty cool. (It makes me want to attend next year, so I guess it’s working hey!?)

Free Conference Pass

Well, I do have 1 free conference pass available. All you have to do is click through all the links below, and you’ll have a spot right next to mine, all the way in the back row. ;-)

Twitter:
Mike Stopforth twittered most of the conference.
Read all the tweets that were hashtagged with #newmedia08

Social Media Coverage:
Zoopy have done a stellar job of covering the event. Check out their mini-site on the event – http://www.zoopy.com/newmedia

Blog posts:
2nd Annual New Media Marketing Conference, Gallagher Estate, Day One
2nd Annual New Media Marketing Conference, Gallagher Estate, Day Two
Vincent Maher’s coverage – Quite a number of posts!
Justin Hartman’s New Media Marketing Presentation
Colin Daniel’s Mobilising the Web Presentation
Tyler Reed’s NMMC 08 – Engaging The Youth Through Social Media

Photos:
Feisty Female’s Flickr stream

Cristism

One thing that seems to me missing from the event is a decent website. The event details are up on the IQPC website, but not all the speakers are listed, and there isn’t very much information regarding the event on the site. This event is all about new media, so why no portal / social media site like Zoopy have got going?

If there are some links I missed, please post them in the comments, and if you attended the conference, what did you think of it?

So, a spur of the moment thing – a purple cow moment – I bought the book.

And I am so glad I did. I haven’t yet finished the book, and am totally inspired by it. Here is a quick excerpt from the book that explains what a purple cow is:

While driving through France a few years ago, my family and I were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing in lovely pastures right next to the road. For dozens of kilometres, we all gazed out the window, marvelling at the beauty. Then, within a few minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common: It was boring.

Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring. They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, cows with great personalities, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring.

A Purple Cow, though. Now, that would be interesting. (For a while.)

The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable. This book is about the why, the what, and the how of remarkable.

One thing that I really love about this book are some of Seth’s one liners. One of my favourites is “The opposite of remarkable is very good.”. New media is exactly what Seth is talking about in this book. No longer are ordinary television, print and radio advertising cutting it. Shouting no longer works, as there is so much noise around, that you and your product, no matter how much money you throw into the marketing pot, is going to get you heard.

Two companies I love are shining examples of Purple Cows. Carsonified and 37signals. They do remarkable. It also goes to show that you don’t need to be a massive conglomerate to do remarkable. In fact, the smaller you are, the better chance you have of being remarkable!

The coolest thing is that for R2000 ($240) you will get to own a vine in one of their vineyards. Not only will you own a vine but you will get a certificate with a photograph of your vine and your name, plus a bottle of wine made from the crop of the vineyard block containing your vine. Oh, and don’t forget that they will contribute 5% of the production cost to a loan-repayment fund, to repay your loan with interest.

But its more than just about the money, its about saving people’s jobs and businesses. Its enough trying to have to survive in the wine industry of late in SA, but to also have to put up with rubbish UK partners that go bankrupt and leave you with all the debt.

If you ever have met the okes from Stormhoek, you’ll know that they an awesome bunch.

Read their post on “Own a vine. save a job” and pay it forward folks. I am.

More coverage:

- WineCountry supports Stormhoek
- Stormhoek’s Blogosphere Enabled Micro-financing Campaign: Own Your Own Stormhoek Vine and Protect a Farmworker’s Livelihood
- Digg – Own a vine. Save a job at Stormhoek wines in South Africa
- Storm in a Wine Glass

This just shows you how one website – Facebook – has opened up so many opportunities for people. This magazine is not affiliated with Facebook, so all it is, is someones idea that people would love to read a magazine all about Facebook and how to get the most out of it.

Take Social Media (the company) for example. They create applications primarily for Facebook, and to date have raised about $4 million in venture capital. 18 months ago, they didn’t exist. Just another opportunity that someone grabbed.

I have heard a few people wanting to leave SA, because of better opportunities overseas. Say what? I can only understand if you leave because of crime, but every other reason is completely null and void in my mind. Because we live in a developing 3rd world country means the opportunities to start a business and be successful is so much greater than in a 1st World country! There are tons of SA corporates and small businesses that know nothing about social media and marketing, not to mention how to engage the youth and build a brand presence around one of the most important population age groups. Facebook magazine anyone?

I’m going off on a tangent, but my statement still stands. Take this magazine as a perfect example of how you don’t have to have the killer idea ala Facebook to make it huge. You just have know what is happening around you, and take your idea and go for it!