Fremus.co.za

Sometimes I get the feeling that using and developing a content management system is and can be very subjective, depending on the situation. I have found that dealing with the Marketing agencies that specialise in SEO and e-Marketing services in South Africa, was almost like trying to buy a meal at Spur without the onion rings, you can do it if you want to but it kinda is part of the meal. What I mean by that is that the majority of marketing companies in South Africa will try and push their development teams as part of their offering, which makes sense, but I know of at least one instance where a development company withheld source code, and then expected further development costs for any iteration to the website. To me thats kind of louzy, in fact its a downright rip off. Why would a development agency want to retain the source code of a paying client, the operative word being paying? I also find that some of these development companies tend to have a hashed-together content management system, a system consisting of regularly-used scripts, and a system that is sometimes not very flexible. Which brings me to the title of my post, is content management a subjective thing? Yes it is, because no two organizations have the same need, and I feel that most development companies try to offer you some flavour of content management, and although they profess to have your requirements close to the heart, they often persist with said content management system.

After I wrote yesterday’s post I sent I communicated with Rob Stokes via Twitter and I got an immediate response, first from him and then his colleagues. They promptly responded and I am much happier for it! Thanks Rob and thanks to Quirk. Hope I didnt cause too much damage to you in terms of ORM.

Here is why I want to work with Quirk:

• I like their newsletter. I have been subscribing to it for a while now, 2+ years maybe, and I love the approach and the feel of the newsletter. Its informative, and they have a few quirky ways of saying things.
• I loved the emarketing seminar I attended.
• They are a progressive and innovative company, SearchStatus and BrandsEye come to mind.
• They give away a free ebook!

I attended an e-marketing seminar hosted by Quirk, and presented by Rob Stokes (CEO of Quirk), in 2008. Before that I approached Quirk to give my site an audit, and sadly nothing came from it, and the feeling I got at that time was that they were too busy. In this week I sent an email to them from their website and also had a colleague of mine phone them, and again unfortunately they did not respond. I’m not sure what the reason for this unresponsiveness is but my initial impression of them was that they are a progressive and forward-thinking e-marketing and SEO company. I follow Rafiq on Twitter, and Rob Stokes, and I can remember Rafiq appearing on Carte Blanche a while ago, and if memory serves me correct he works/worked for Quirk. I can also remember someone from Quirk approaching me after I wrote an article on the need for content management, so it kinda baffles me why they are so sluggish in responding. I rated them highly, in the same category as Purple Cow, maybe better. And I mention Purple Cow because they have responded. I mean how come do Quirk appear on the top of the organic search for “e-marketing services south africa”. Strange. I mean my opinion of Quirk is becoming more and more tainted and disjointed. Are they a snobbish company only seeking to help those whom they think are good enough? I’m not sure.

So with this in mind I am trying to gauge the local South African market, in terms of who provides what services, and how good they are. I follow quite a few on Twitter so maybe a good place to start is by creating a list on Twitter. At the moment there are about 11 people on that list.

Just to give some background as to what my current needs are. I am involved with a B2C startup that aims to provide e-learning with the use of content from key strategic content partners. The content partners are World Class and have been around for a long time and their content has proven very successful. Our current need is to work closely with someone who can provide SEO and eMarketing services. We are developing our web-presence from scratch, and the idea was to incorporate key emarketing and seo objectives from the get-go. They key deliverable is to achieve first page SERP, since we believe our ROI will be closely linked with where we appear in search engine result pages. I have already contacted two companies from the Twitter listing, so we will see how it goes. I would have loved to get more than just the input of one company.