RanoAdidas turns 8

BRUNEI'S top social blogger, Rano Iskandar, or more famously known as RanoAdidas, hits his eighth anniversary this year and with almost a decade under his belt, the social blogger said that he never anticipated that his past time could turn into a commercial success.

"When I first started, it was really just to share pictures with my friends, and I had very few followers then," said Rano, who explained that in his first year, blogging was a relatively new form of medium to Bruneians, which he eventually turned into a news medium for the local community.

Now, Rano has an average of 5,000 to 6,000 hits per day and averages between 20,000 to 25,000 hits per month.

For his eighth anniversary, the blogger has set up a "mini carnival" in conjunction with the Consumer Fair at the International Convention Centre, where some of his clients will be helping him celebrate the blog's eighth year.

At the end of 2005, Rano said that through a friend's recommendation, he decided to make his blog "more commercial", through the sale of advertisement space, which was something he has always wanted to do, but never knew how.

"At that time, Brudirect was the first online platform that charges clients, and I was thinking to myself that I was just a social blogger, why would any company want to advertise with me? I didn't see the dollars and cents at the time," he said.

However, once Rano tested the waters with new advertisers, he saw that not only small businesses but corporate clients were interested in being long-term advertisers with his blog.

"The hardest part at first was trying to get clients to use a blog as an avenue to create awareness, and most of them would ask for the number of hits my blog has, but now it is different," he said, explaining that now that clients have found the benefits of advertising on a blog, they use it to create the awareness and relatability through Rano's readers, which also are their target market group.

An example that Rano gave was Jati Transportation, who was one of his first advertisers and one of his long term advertisers who wanted to relate the Mercedes brand to Rano.

"Companies now want to be more than a brand but also achieve a status, and at the time, the idea was that I was a Mercedes driver, so they wanted to relate me to my readers and that I can be associated with the brand," he said.

Some of the events that will be happening at the ICC during Rano's eighth anniversary includes an online gaming competition, Tourism Malaysia's Teh Tarik competition and Red Bull's mini time obstacle course where participants would have to complete four tasks in the best time possible.

Over the years, Rano has kept up-to-date with the latest form of social media, from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram, a photo sharing social medium.

He will also be having competitions revolving around Twitter and Instagram, which Rano said has complimented his blog business. "Instead of me using Twitter to promote my blog, it turned out to be the other way round, where some companies will ask me if I could also tweet something about it," said Rano, who said that this is normally for companies who have realised the commercial value of Twitter and its viral effects.

Rano said that he doesn't charge his customers on tweeting news about them, but that he considers it an extra value-added service that comes with the package he provides as a commercial and social blogger.

Asked about a tip to any would-be commercial and social blogger who wants to be successful, Rano said that one of the biggest things would be persistence and commitment.

"Maintaining and updating a blog isn't easy, so you have to constantly be present, keep at it without being warm, then hot then after three months no one has heard anything," he said. He added that bloggers also have to love what they do and not just do it for the money.

As for the future, Rano said that he will be looking into expanding RanoAdidas, which he feels has already been formed as a brand, but that the news will only come at a later date.

As for now, Rano said that he's still having fun doing what he does for his readers and clients.The Brunei Times