Currently an Account Director at Cerebra Communications, De Coning is charged with the public relations and communication management and delivery of various clients across multiple industry sectors, including South Africa’s marketing firm Brand South Africa; technology giant EMC2; as well as ISP and GSM service provider Altech Autopage.

During his time at Cerebra, De Coning was the lead communication consultant that developed the PR and social media campaigns for the launch of Wireless G’s G-Connect In-Flight Wi-Fi. The launch saw G-Connect host more than 100 journalists, bloggers and social media influencers on a two hour flight to test the South African first: Internet on a plane. As part of his mandate, De Coning had the strenuous task of working with Wireless G’s technology partner Vodacom, and Mango airlines. Not only did De Coning manage to get his client trending on Twitter for three consecutive days, his efforts were further rewarded when he went on to win a Pixel at the 2012 Bookmark Awards for the editorial he created for the launch.

Having developed a love affair with social media over the last five years, De Coning co-authored and edited Cerebra’s “We Are Community” eBook, alongside Cerebra CEO Mike Stopforth. The eBook outlines how to use social media effectively by building and activating communities around brands. A key highlight was discovering that the eBook crossed international borders and is used as a best-practice guideline in companies based in the UK and the USA.

A contributor to Entrepreneur magazine, De Coning enjoys writing (whether it be a press release, thought leadership piece or blog post) and training. Strangely enough, Alexander also has a morbid fascination with crisis communication and has successfully assisted a number of brands in minimising reputational damage – something only possible after a long career of building strategic relationships with the media and the guidance of his mentors at Baird’s.

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