Forget Twitter, soon everyone will be “Yammering”. Yammer is the new networking site for companies. Through private, internal communication, staff in an organization can keep in touch with one another. Pre-designated groups can also be formed to enable group conversations.

This micro- blogging service was launched in September 2008 and is unlike Twitter as messages are not available for public display. Over 70 000 companies use Yammer as a way to communicate. Only those with appropriate email addresses may join the respective networks. In February 2010 Yammer launched “communities”. This allows businesses to communicate with other groups such as clients, partners or suppliers.

The idea behind Yammer is to ensure that people inside a company know at all times what each person in the organization are working on. The founder of Yammer, PayPal’s COO, David O. Sacks, has created a platform upon which companies can improve internal communications. Research has found that people prefer short snippets of information rather than longer conversations. When information is documented it also makes it easier to refer back to points that otherwise may have been missed in a face to face conversation.

Yammer is certainly less invasive than instant messaging and does not require the effort and time that emailing involves. In fact this networking site finds itself in between the two, making it perfect and convenient for business purposes. It is less time consuming to check your Yammer account throughout the day when it suits you. Being bombarded with instant messages however is distracting and can become a nuisance.

Yammer allows for management to keep up to date with work that is completed or still being worked on. This helps to understand the progress that their business is making. It also means that fewer meetings need to be held because everyone knows what everyone else is doing.

With social networking evolving like it has over the last few years, it only makes sense that something like Yammer be created to assist the corporate world. We have all become accustomed to the terms “Facebooking” or “Twittering”. Soon enough companies all over the world will be “Yammering” each other information back and forth.

To find out more about Yammer or to sign up to Yammer, visit www.yammer.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

The Ramp Foundation, started by Ramp Group, is a N.P.O focused on inspiring, educating and equipping entrepreneurs in South Africa. Most entrepreneurs in South Africa struggle to get the capital required to fund their ideas. The Ramp Foundation seeks to provide these ambitious entrepreneurs with the capital outlay.

Net Prophet Bursary

The Net Prophet Bursary was established to assist those who have the innovation and desire to succeed but do not have the financial backing to do so. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur within the technology industry, then the Net Prophet Bursary is the place to go for financial help. Through a magnitude of pledges made by individuals, The Net Prophet Bursary along with its reputation and guidance, makes the most of crowd-sourced funding to make their innovative ideas of tomorrow become a reality.

The Net Prophet Bursary will benefit those with a high propensity to innovate in technology, yet do not have the knowledge required or the funds available to live their dream.

These Numbers Have Faces will help us with the application and selection process, identifying the best educational institution, coaching the individuals personally and professionally, and provide us with feedback in order to communicate to all the donors.

If you are a willing donor to this amazing cause, The Ramp Foundation has made it easy enough to pledge. By sending a tweet such as the one below, Net Prophet will contact you directly.

How to pledge to the Net Prophet Bursary

There are other great initiatives that the Ramp Foundation has started. Ideas such as the Net Prophet Conference and the RAMP Startup School are both amazing initiatives and will definitely help you in reaching your dream.

To find out how you can get your startup funded, visit the Get Funded page on their website.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Sanlam Investment Management host a corporate challenge every year for 3 days. This years’ support charity is Cotlands.

JD Internet Consulting took part in the mini challenge event on Wednesday 5 May 2010 at the Johannesburg Zoo. This mini event was intended to replicate the Sanlam Investment Management South African Challenge.

The team members taking part and thus representing JD Consulting were Paul von Zeuner (Team Captain), Jonathan Houston, Nick Duncan and Megan Trow (the only girl on the team).

The challenge
The challenge was designed to introduce potential entrants to the main event, to the concept of Intelligent Sport.

The mini event itself was run free of charge while the main event has an entry fee of R 36 000 for the entire team which includes all the accommodation and meals during the event.

The schedule of the afternoon was as follows:
Teams needed to arrive and register between 14h30 and 15h30
Team Captain’s briefing 15h30 – 16h00
Event 16h00 – 17h30
Presentation and Cocktail party 17h30 – 20h00

When we arrived we registered and received our free t-shirts with our team number printed on the sleeve. JD Internet Consulting was team number 9. We were then also requested to be in a team photograph – one serious and one funny. We are looking forward to seeing how these photos come out

An introduction was then done by the event organisers and roll call was taken. The captains were then taken away for a team briefing. Once they returned we were given a chance to read the rules and get an idea of what was required of us. In terms of strategy, we tried to make a decision as to how we would become once we were given the maps.

How it worked
Each team had four members – no more and no less. The rules were simple. No crossing any grass areas – time penalties if you did. There were 10 questions we needed to answer – rated easy, moderate and difficult. Each question also had a corresponding clue. We had to attempt to answer as many correct questions as possible within the shortest amount of time. We were given two maps with the location of each question and its corresponding clue indicated on the map.. If you managed to get in before an hour then bonus applied. The cut off time for penalties was 1 hr 15 minutes.

No cell phones or GPS equipment was allowed on the course and the only pre-requisite on our side was to be dressed accordingly- in a running kit – shorts, t-shirts and running shoes. All the specialist equipment required during the course of the event was provided. One water point was also available, and water was also provided before the event.

Over a period of 2 hours the 17 teams that participated were challenged;

1. PHYSICALLY as they navigate around the course
2. INTELLECTUALLY as they solve mensa type puzzles
3. STRATEGICALLY as they decide on the most effective plan of action

All this with the added pressure of competing against the clock and the rest of the field, testing communication under pressure, collaboration and time management – all important skills that are utilised in the SIM SA Challenge and every day in the workplace.

The course was pretty grueling with lots of hills and there was definitely a fitness requirement. We did however learn a lot a from the experience and had fun at the same time and would definitely played the game a little differently if we were given the opportunity to do it again.

Prize Giving and Results
At the prize giving we were treated to drinks and platters while we awaited the announcement of the results.

The results were calculated and read from last place to third. The only team that received a penalty for crossing the grass was the Cotlands team (10 mins).

JD Internet Consulting came third with 6 correct questions and a time of 55:54 – a mere 47 seconds off the second place teams time. The winners were the team from Liberty with a time of 1:04:40 and 9 correct questions.

First Prize was a free entry to the 3 day event to be held in September in the Magliesburg mountains valued at R36 000 per team of four.

Next Event and More Info
The next free mini event is to be held at the Groot Constantia Estate in Cape Town on the 12th May 2010.

Contact Coll P Macdonald – Invent Hospitality/Challenger World for more information.

Tel: 0861 001053
Fax: 021 761 6418
Mobile: 082 895 0171

Also visit the site at www.simsachallenge.co.za

Popularity: 7% [?]

By definition LSI is an indexing and retrieval method that makes use of a certain mathematical technique known as the Singular Value Decomposition.

The theory behind LSI, however, is not of importance to us. All we need to know is how LSI works. LSI considers other, somewhat related , words on your site with regards to ranking. In other words, excuse the pun, words taken from sites considered to be “authority sites” are set aside in a database that Google references when determining how to rank that page on your site.

Hints and Tips for using LSI to your advantage

Firstly you need to work out what your hot topic words are.

You can do this using Quintura (www.quintura.com), Adwords broad-match keyword matching, Google’s new Wonder Wheel, use the Google Synonym Tool, or watch some of the little-known Google Tech Talks where they show their internal related keyword generator being used.

Once you have determined you hot topic words, you see how to rearrange your copy to have more mentions of the hot topic words closer to the beginning of the copy and how to mention them more than once without overdoing it.

Another tip would be to create a separate page for each of the hot topic words and link to and form the internally and within your page text. A perfect example of this can be found on the DiscoverSEO site (www.discoverseo.co.za), where services are listed and then hyperlinked to the page focusing on that service.

Building links another way to build page rank through social bookmarking and manual link submission.

Checking the page rank of your website pages regularly is also important for you to monitor the progress of the SEO work you do on your site and to make the necessary adjustments accordingly.

That is the long and the short of LSI. All the best!

For more information on how DiscoverSEO can assist your business in extracting maximum value out of your web solution, contact us TODAY – (011) 807 6149 or visit DiscoverSEO – www.discoverseo.co.za

Popularity: 5% [?]

With the 2010 spectacular around the corner, marketing your small business online is definitely worth the effort. For those of you that don’t know where to start, I’ll outline some basic steps that will ensure you get the best out of this amazing opportunity.

Build a website
Find a good web development company to ensure that your business gets noticed online. I’d suggest choosing a well established company, one that includes Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) implementation.

Directory Listings
Getting your business noticeable is key. Add your business to as many online directories as you can find. Remember to keep it relevant to your site! For example, don’t add your business to an online farming directory if you’re selling accommodation. Ananzi and Aardvark are a good start, amongst many others.

Social Media
Twitter, facebook, etc. etc. are all really good ways of marketing online. This is ultimately the most popular method of online marketing. Get familiar with these online social communities and how they work, to effectively market yourself. Twitter reached 44.5million unique visitors for the month of June whilst facebook receives around 340million unique visitors each month. This is definitely worth your time.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
If you don’t have the time, or the ability to follow these steps, hire yourself a well known SEO company. They do this every day amongst hundeds of other tactics that will ensure your business succeeds.

Get started as soon as possible, as the longer you wait, the bigger head start your competitors are getting on you!

Popularity: 14% [?]

For quite some time the team at JD Internet Consulting and DiscoverSEO have been planning to create an outlet for our thoughts, ideas and industry commentary. This was often postponed in favour of serving our clients,  however the time has come and ponder.co.za will henceforth channel all of our cognitive reflections through to our readers. To make sure that you do not get too bored with technology and industry topics, we will include a little lifestyle, gardening, fly fishing and possibly some whiskey features from time to time.

We have a number of topics lined up for the next few weeks and these will include the musings of our production manager, a look at the latest search marketing and design trends, some case studies and possibly a few comments on the changes that are affecting all South Africans on a daily basis.

I trust you will enjoy the journey with us and we welcome any comments and feedback that you may have.

Popularity: 7% [?]