Unlike www.amatomu.com (developed by Vincent Maher and Matthew Buckland), which for the record is proving itself to be a worthwhile South African blog aggregator, www.afrigator.com (developed by Mike Stopforth, Justin Hartman and Mark Forrester) aims to be a complete social media aggregator that will aggregate blogs, podcasts, videocasts and websites in not only South Africa but Africa as a whole. This has benefits for both content creators and marketers alike.
For marketers, both Afrigator and Amatomu provide useful ways to tap into important data and statistics. From monitoring the vast amounts of content being created by our target markets to keeping up to speed with the state of social media in this country, aggregators are more than just another directory.
Furthermore, aside from enhancing a company’s brand, companies who venture into the world of social media now have another method of measuring the impact on their business. For example, ordinary South Africans now have access to specific subjects of interest, which lets them engage with particular niche content types and publishers.
Traffic is the lifeblood of any site, and Afrigator and Amatomu provide another way of generating good targeted traffic to content by providing additional links to the site. Thanks to the widgets and plugins made available, links and more traffic are encouraged, which in turn makes it easy for companies to share their social media content locally.
There are lots of ways in which businesses can tap into these aggregators’ intelligence. My recommendation to marketers is to start by pursuing these traffic alternatives to attract targeted and measurable site traffic, which Amatomu and Afrigator provide. Also, these sites’ data will allow you to be proactive in your approach to reputation management and content creation, which offers you a competitive advantage.
