Brand SA harnesses blogging

PROVING THE POWER of blogging, Brand South Africa has helped orchestrate a tour of SA by a group of top US bloggers, in a bid to promote the country as a tourist destination.

Simon Barber, US country manager for the International Marketing Council (IMC), who blogs at www.brandsouthafricablog.com, came up with the idea, and Renee Blodgett, creator of www.weblogtheworld.com, helped arrange the trip. Blodgett is also founder of Blodgett Communications, a San Francisco-based consultancy specialising in social media as a marketing tool. She says she took a similar blogging trip with a group of "travelling geeks" to Israel earlier this year. That trip was sponsored by the Israeli Consulate.

However, this is the first time a blogging tour of this nature has been staged in SA.

Starting in Cape Town, the bloggers worked their way up to Johannesburg via Stellenbosch, Darling, Alexander Bay, Port Nolloth, Carletonville, Magaliesberg and the Cradle of Humankind area. To record their impressions along the way, they were equipped with laptops, cameras and digital recorders, and had 3G modems sponsored by Vodacom.

The international bloggers are: Blodgett and Ray Lewis, of www.downtheavenue.com, Zadi Diaz of www.zadidiaz.com, Mona Gable of www.huffingtonpost.com/mona-gable, John Gartner of www.matternetwork.com, Chris Morrison of www.venturebeat.com, David Sasaki of www.globalvoices.org, Graeme Wood of www.theamericanscene.com, www.thesmartset.com and www.theatlantic.com and, finally, Eliane Fiolet of www.ubergizmo.com.

Joining the group was South African blogger Nicholas Haralambous of www.sarocks.co.za and Simon Barber.

WHERE TO NOW?

The trip had a few tech-oriented stops, such as a preview of SA`s green technology, a tour of De Beers` state-of-the-art mining ship, Peace in Africa, and a trip to Stormhoek, a wine farm that successfully implemented a web-based marketing strategy.

Other events included: watching the sunset in the Richtersveld, going down Anglogold Ashanti`s Tau Tona mine, hiking the Magaliesberg, spending a night in Soweto and getting an update on 2010 World Cup developments at Soccer City.

Barber explains that these specific bloggers were chosen because they were looking for "established well-linked bloggers with a variety of backgrounds and interests, excited by the idea of recording their impressions and experiences in a variety of media... and to offer interesting perspectives".

He describes the travellers as "essentially journalists, storytellers, whose medium is the web".

The reason bloggers were chosen, explains Barber, is that the web and other social technologies offer "an immensely powerful platform". He cites the role of the web in Barack Obama`s success: "Effective use of the internet is one reason Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th US president in February."

He also explains the potential of the web to offer an "echo-chamber effect". The bloggers posted on their own blogs and the posts fed to the Brand South Africa blog and We Blog the World. Some kept readers up to date via sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as well as linking to each other`s blogs. "The more cross-linking occurs, the higher our posts will rise in Google`s standings, the more people are likely to see the posts and link to them."

BELIEVING IN SA

The purpose of the adventure was to show off SA`s "tourist gems" and help market the country both to tourists and investors. "The IMC is in the business of telling South Africa`s story, and helping others tell it, in ways that promote South Africa as a destination for investment and travel and as a source of innovative goods, services and ideas."

SA innovation is something that especially interests Fiolet and the Uber Gizmo team, and they were on the lookout for a uniquely South African gadget.

Barber says, essentially, the blogging expedition is aimed at anyone whose good opinion would be of value to the country, and he says most of those people are connected to the web.

But Barber is not just hoping for a boost in international tourism, he also wants South Africans to tune in and see what the bloggers are up to. "One of the things we`re trying to do at IMC is help South Africans see what a wonderful country they have."