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What is Twitter?

October 31, 2008


People often ask me – What is all this Twitter, Facebook stuff all about?

My answer usually hinges around explaining to them how people’s communication choice’s are changing in a similar way to how we changed our method of communicating when we bought our first cell phone. We no longer needed to wait at home for that important phone call, we could just pick up our cell phone at any location and call/text our friends. Twitter and Facebook are the next step in this communication evolution as the Internet allows us through these platforms to communicate for free on a one to many basis, rather than a one to one method like your cell phone. So you can now tell all our friends about the new bike you have just bought or about where we are having dinner tonight. Your friends who are now following you on Twitter have the choice of whether to act on this information or to ignore it.

After dabbling a bit with Twitter I initially wrote it off as a niche teenager communication tool that while sometimes useful would not be something I would ever use, however I am finding more and more business uses for it as I interact with others through it and explore its uses.

So, what is Twitter? According to Wikipedia

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

For a business Twitter offers new ways of engaging existing and new clients in a way that was never possible before. Take a look at this short screencast video that explains how to use Twitter in your business. Enjoy!

Screencast courtesy of www.smallbiztrends.com


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Data Centre Tours extended

October 27, 2008


For those wishing to join our Data Centre Tour scheduled for Nov 13, the tour is now fully booked. However, due to popular demand, we’ve created another opportunity for visitors to take a guided tour of our Cape Town Data Centre. (If you missed the details on what the tour is all about, you can read about it here.)

The details for our 2nd Data Centre Tour are as follows:

Date: 20 November
Time: 10am -11am
Street Address: 1st Floor, The Terraces, 34 Bree Street, Cape Town.

For security purposes, you will be required to bring your ID/drivers license for identification.

To book your space on the tour, please RSVP well in advance.


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Caffeine, muffins & servers

October 08, 2008


During the month of November RSAWEB will be opening the doors of their Cape Town Data Centre to the public for guided tours of the facilities by their team of technical virtuosos.

Located in the heart of the Cape Town CBD inside the majestic Terraces building, RSAWEB Data Centre 2 is a hidden gem waiting to be discovered. As MD Rob Gilmour puts it: “For businesses looking to expand into prime data real-estate at affordable prices, this is it…”

DC2 is loaded with features, including fully redundant power systems, raised flooring, advanced climate control, Cisco certified Gigabit network backbone, redundant connectivity systems and biometric access control amongst others. More than that, the Data Centre provides a host of business opportunities as well: “DC2 provides the perfect platform for customers to create and package their own web based products. We offer the full range of hosted products from rented servers to fully managed solutions best suited to companies looking to grow their internet infrastructure without the associated capital costs…” affirms Technical Director Mark Slingsby.

Come and discover the inner workings of our world class Data Centre environment and stick around afterwards for a cappuccino, muffin and some serious techie talk.

The first tour is scheduled to take place on Thursday the 13th of November, and is open to everyone, whether you’re an existing RSAWEB customer or not. Tour space is limited, so you must RSVP with you name, company & contact details should you wish to participate.


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I personally do, and it seems that for the first time in history the average American does too. The New York Times published an article stating that in the fourth quarter of 2007, American cellphone subscribers for the first time sent text messages more than they phoned, according to Nielsen Mobile.

I have no doubt that in South Africa, the average cellphone user has been SMS’ing more than calling for some time due to our higher call tariffs.

So what does this mean, how can you capitalize on this?

Here are 2 examples:

  1. Use SMS communications from your website, rather than email/call/fax, try send pertinent information via SMS.  An example of this may be a “contact me form” where when a user inputs his details for you to call him back, you could SMS the user immediately thanking them for their request and alerting the user that it may take up to 30 minutes before you call them back. In time sensitive business applications such as selling insurance online, managing this expectation could be the difference between providing what you consider a good service, and the users expectation for an immediate response.
  2. Allow people to SMS your business, try setting up a inbound SMS system. For example this same insurance company could publish a number and say on their website: “SMS 08xxxxxxxx with your car make, model and year and we will get you a quote in 30 minutes”

The bottom line is marketing is now all about using communication methods that users are already comfortable using, so if you are already using the web and email and are finding you are not growing your business or delighting your customers more, try SMS.

Checkout MyMessager, should you need the technology and API’s to do this.


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Choosing the right Domain Name

September 29, 2008


Many people ask us for advice before they setup their web hosting, and the most frequently asked question is “What domain name should I use?” It is important to get this initial step right before setting up your website and is one of the critical success factors when launching your business online.

In the real world, people can distinguish a business because of its location, structure, window displays, or signs before deciding whether to go into the store. While walking down a street, you can distinguish a bank from a hair salon via their signage and window layout. This immediately helps you make up your mind, and helps you associate a particular brand with its product offering. However, in the online world, prospective visitors have no idea what your company does before they reach your website and read its content. Unlike in the real world you can’t stand on a street corner while looking at their shop window know that Amazon sells books, you have to go to their website to find that out. For this reason, it is a good idea to in some way describe what your business does in its domain name if possible.

In the real world people can also forget your shops name, but because they remember the shops location, they may return. This is not the case on the internet, who ever says: “I can’t remember that websites domain name, but I remember its IP Address…” It never happens. So domain names on the internet need to be memorable.

Your domain name can spell the success of your brand on the internet. Your domain name is also your only weapon to ensure people find you and more importantly remember you on the internet.

My six points to remember when choosing a domain name are:

  1. Keep it short.
  2. Keep it simple.
  3. Describe your business in some way.
  4. Be memorable and unique.
  5. Always be able to say your domain name like you spell it!
  6. Make it personal, not too generic.

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Partner Program launch

September 03, 2008


RSAWEB formally launched it’s new Partner Program at a breakfast event held at the exquisite Ambassador Hotel in Bantry Bay, Cape town Monday. The launch was well supported despite the prevailing hazardous weather conditions (see previous blog post!) Capetonians have been contending with of late. The launch was the culmination of a lengthily process of refining and streamlining the former the program to make it more efficient, partner-friendly and include new product opportunities.
Attendees were treated to a presentation on the current & future opportunities for Internet service providers in South African markets and the complementing range of exciting new products available through the Partner Program such as: Server Virtualization, Hosted Zimbra, Online Backup and Dedicated Servers and how these services can be best leveraged to offer added value to clients.

The program is now available to all entrepreneurially minded businesses looking to build on their existing offerings and create new revenue streams and business opportunities.

To find out more or sign up for the program, click here.


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Ocean 1 Sea Point 0

September 01, 2008


This Weekend Cape Town saw one of the worst storms to hit us in years. I was on my way to Bantry Bay last night in order to help setup for this mornings Partner Breakfast and took these photo’s from 3 anchor bay with my phone. For those of you who are not familiar with 3 Anchor Bay, the brown squares in the first photo are actually boat garages and there is a slipway in front of them!

Before and After a Wave hits:

(click on images to enlarge)

[update:Take a look at these Kalk Bay pier pictures below, thanks Adrian]
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Home Makers Fair covered

September 01, 2008


The RSAWEB Broadband team attended the 2008 Home Makers Fair at the CCITC this weekend. Our stand provided an insight into the world of broadband, and demo’ed some of our products. Our wireless and ADSL broadband products are perfect for home/small office use, and we found that many of the people visiting the show where looking to get broadband at home fairly soon. About 60% already were connected, which is great, but if you havent taken the plunge, give us a call. Our stand featured a whole host of digital applications that make use of broadband wireless technologies like iBurst and HSDPA.

Thank you to everyone who popped in and chatted to us.

 


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Thinking of a new dedicated server? Have you thought about virtualisation? Virtualisation is allowing companies to maximise server, storage and power resources. Instead of running each different application on a different set of server hardware, why not run mulitple operating systems on one machine.

RSAWeb is helping customers to maximise dedicated servers. Instead of purchasing 2-3 servers for a production / development setup, why not virtualise and use one server to do the job of many. The latest Dell XHD server from RSAWeb is extremely powerful, with 8 CPU cores and up to 32GB RAM. This can support multiple virtual machines. For example, a server with 8GB RAM allows you to run a production frontend server on 2 cores and 2GB RAM, another database server with 4GB RAM and the balance can be split amongst smaller development servers. All on 1 set of hardware!

At the same time, you will need to make sure you arent overutilising your resources, however Virtualisation has a great benefit that should you need to scale this out at a future date as your requirements grow, you can easily migrate one of the virtual servers to another physical server also running Citrix Xen (RSAWeb’s virutalisation standard) – this allows for easy flexibily, all without any reinstalling or changing of settings on the server, amazing!

Use your server in a flexible manner and cut your costs whilst also going GREEN! Using the latest AMD and Intel processors and DDR2 RAM you use less power, less cooling and benefit the environment at the same time.


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The Broadband Olympics

August 21, 2008



With so many broadband products competing for your attention, it’s not easy to spot a champion. Who’s going to bring home the gold?

Before we can award any medals, lets look at which events our broadband olympians compete in. This is important because contrary to what some people might assume – when it comes to broadband internet, one size DOES NOT FIT ALL. Different users have different needs.

As a good starting point we’ve chosen the following events: ‘Performance’, ‘Mobility’, ‘Value for money at home’ & ‘Value for money at work’.

Lets see how they performed:

1) Performance
Who won the gold?: Ultra DSL
– Ultra DSL Tackles demanding internet needs head on: Voice over IP (VoIP) services like skype, online gaming & video streaming.

2) Mobility

Who won the gold?: HSDPA

– HSDPA provides maximum wireless broadband coverage across the Vodacom cellular network. A winner for the user who’s always on the go.

3) Value for money at home

Who won the gold?: iBurst

– iBurst is a reliable and affordable product for home users who don’t need anything fancy. Great entry-level packages.

4) Value for money at work

Who won the gold?: Business DSL Unlimited

– Business DSL Unlimited delivers high performance broadband with no bandwidth limits. The ideal solution for SME’s with high internet usage.

Not sure about which event your broadband solution should be competing in? Not to worry. Our broadband consultants are on standby to coach you through the process.

To speak to one of our consultants call: 0861 RSAWEB


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