What fascinates me about the local SEM market here in South Africa, is how “fanboys” (for lack of a better word) spend so much time and energy wanting to be the first to know something, the first to break a story, the first to own a new device.

Sure, this is all good and well for the kudo’s from the community - but who really gives a crap?

Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh. I’m not saying that it isn’t cool to know what’s going on, and to keep up to date with the latest platforms, social networking sites, and the newest microblogging service. However, in the real world - does it really matter?

As an online marketer, one tries to reach customers, and preferably a lot of them. Now, if we’re honest - the only people who care about this bleeding edge are either the developers themselves, or early adopters. I’m pretty sure we can all agree that this is definitely not the mass market.

I think we can also agree that many of these little startups never go anywhere. So my argument would be, what is the point of bothering about trying to develop strategies for every freakin new thing that comes your way - when in reality all it’s doing is distracting you from the task at hand?

Also, if one is spending so much time chasing the illusive ‘next best thing’, is there not also a risk that in the end you will wind up being a master of nothing?

There’s far more to be gained from waiting to see what floats - and using strategies that work. Definitely, to be effective you need to be innovative in your approach. But, would it not be better to be innovative within a channel that works?

Well, ever one to be topical (ok so not that topical as this happened a few weeks ago - but to be fair this post was conceptualised and written then, but I digress), I thought that I’d write a post about the furor that was raging on the SA blogosphere about freedom of expression. I don’t really want to get into the specific target, or source, of this debate – but if you look here, here and here you’ll be able to work it out for yourself.

So, let’s consider a blogger’s liability more broadly.

Firstly, freedom of expression in South Africa is guaranteed by the Constitution. But, as I recall from my media law lectures and have been reminded of in many of the above posts, this does not extend to a) propaganda for war, b) incitement of violence or c) advocacy of hatred that is based on ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.

So, for all those bleating about “freedom of expression” – bear in mind that this constitutional right is not absolute. Rights are only enjoyed if they do not infringe on another’s rights.

This also brings into question the recently launched, Do Not Date Him website. The site is basically a bit of a revenge site and serves as a platform for jaded women to warn others about “bad” men. The accusations fly fast and furious, many with images of the blokes who’re being hammered. The relevance to this post is that it raises other questions about defamation as well as authenticity and whether this information is verifiable fact.

Once again, from what I can remember from my media law lectures, truth and public interest play an important role in determining liability and guilt in defamation cases (of which I am sure we will see a few from this site).

If this was to become the case, I do wonder whether it would be the site-owner or the author of the content who’d be held liable.

I suppose these days, there are plenty of platforms for all sorts of content – good and bad. It does raise some interesting questions regarding censorship and where one draws the line on issues like defamation and freedom of expression.

What it comes down to is, who moderates this? I suppose in the online sphere it’s for users to decide what they think is acceptable or not. I am not for a moment suggesting that we should stifle someone’s voice because we don’t agree with them, but a line has to be drawn somewhere.

And I guess part of the Internet’s power is that we have the platform to discuss and debate these things.

This is quite an exciting thing, writing the first post on a brand new blog.

Hold That Thought is my personal blog. I plan to write about things that interest me, and hopefully readers will find the posts interesting, informative, thought-provoking and all that good stuff. The reason I decided to start this blog was, well, really it was because having been in the SEM/eMarketing industry for a number of years, I thought it was pretty disgraceful that I’d not set up my own little online space - so that I could also scream into the void.

I’ve always felt that blogging was quite an academic exercise (as most of the blogging I’ve done has been for work purposes I guess). I also tend to find that many of the players in the local SEM landscape seem to spend a lot of time blowing smoke up each other’s arses and I wanted, for lack of a better word, a mouthpiece too.

Anyway, that in a nutshell is what I am doing here. Nothing terribly mind-blowing and eye-popping yet. But, there will be plenty more to come.