1. Post different content forms

Don’t assume content is synonymous with words only. It includes video, photo and audio too. Ensure your content mix is balanced because different community members prefer different content.

2. Update content regularly

Avoid the ‘one content fits all platforms’ temptation. What your community members view on Facebook shouldn’t be ‘photocopied’ to your Twitter tweets. In addition, content, especially tweets and Facebook statuses updates, shouldn’t park in your accounts all day. Update at least thrice a day. Otherwise your community members will assume you are doing a copy and paste job.

3. Associate your business with a cause

One tactic that will earn your social media marketing campaign bonus points (and a surge in traffic, albeit temporary) is by aligning your brand with initiatives like the recently concluded Kenyans 4 Kenya.

Keep content about your participation minimal otherwise you will be regarded as a publicity seeking pig. Instead, ask your community to voice their views on issues unleashed by such disasters such as agricultural policy, irrigation and extension services.

A temporary diversion from brand-related content shows that your business cares about – and desires to – be involved in solving real-world challenges.

4 Massage their emotions

Nothing makes an impact on your community’s emotions than that feeling that your business considers them special. So special that they are the first to know of new products and services and also the first to try out the beta versions, so special that they are the first to be invited to the launch parties, so special they are the first to know of upcoming price discounts, so special that you’re the first to send them birthday wishes, etc. You can never go wrong with massaging your community members’ emotions.

5) Emergency responses

Unfortunately, like all relationships, sometimes you and your community members will experience turbulent times. This situation usually arises when businesses experience disasters and their responses are inadequate. Remember BP’s 2010 PR disaster after an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

You will be tempted to respond with a ‘know-it-all’ reply. Resist that temptation. Respond politely with a line like, “Thank you for your observation, we are doing our best to contain the situation…”  In these emergencies, constant communication is essential, otherwise your community will suspect you are being evasive. Nothing contributes to your community’s alienation (and possible defection) than defensiveness and evasiveness.

Implementing the five social media marketing tactics above is a strong way to anchor your social media marketing strategy on a stable surface.

Despite those and other hazards in your business environment, your SME still has to attract new customers. The current options of radio, print, TV, events, etc to achieve this goal are not only prohibitively expensive for your SME’s short-term financial health, but tracking their effectiveness is impossible. Word of mouth from satisfied clients is an inexpensive way of getting new business, but you can exponentially increase its effectiveness via social media.

Priceless return on investment

That’s why you should consider social media marketing to complement your other marketing efforts. Approximately 4 million Kenyans could access the Internet by June 2011, and a million of them had Facebook accounts, according to statistics from Internet World Stats.

Imagine if you could cultivate a relationship with your target audience on Facebook. The contagion from their ‘liking’ and recommending your SME could extend to their friends overseas: priceless. You’ll be wondering what your competitors are on about when they complain that, “Biashara ni mbaya.” And you haven’t covered other popular social media marketing territories like Twitter and Linkedin yet.

Our social media marketing team at Pamoja Media will be honoured to work with you in compiling and implementing a relevant social media marketing strategy that delivers a return on your investment for your SME. Contact us today.

One of best websites you should definitely include in your social marketing efforts is Facebook. This social network currently boasts 750 million active members worldwide. Half of them spend approximately one hour daily updating their statuses, posting photographs and video links, and commenting on their friends’ statuses, etc. More than 30% of Facebook users use their mobile phones and other hand held devices to browse this site. One tactic you should begin with is creating a profile page for your business free on Facebook and then requesting your friends, suppliers, employees, etc to ‘like’ it. But that’s not enough, you have to keep the page fresh by updating content regularly and responding to your customers’ comments, complaints, and so forth. These measures will allow your initial base of users to recommend it to their Facebook friends who will then recommend it to their friends…

Twitter is another popular social media marketing website you can’t ignore in your optimization efforts. It currently has more than 250 million users worldwide. Again, it’s free to create your account there and then begin posting content also known as ‘tweeting’. Follow that up by asking your friends, suppliers, employees, etc to follow your business. But that’s not enough, you have to keep the page fresh by updating content regularly and responding to your customers’ comments, complaints, and so forth. These measures will allow your initial base of users to recommend it to their Twitter followers, who will then recommend it to their followers… Just remember to keep your tweets at 140 characters maximum, otherwise the excess copy won’t be published.

Another great website to include in your social media marketing planning is YouTube. It’s the world’s most popular video sharing website, with over 3 billion videos viewed daily! You can record a video explaining your company’s goods and services and then upload it on your account. Follow that by up by sending the link to your Facebook and Twitter friends and followers respectively to get the account on its feet. But that’s not enough, you have to keep your account fresh by updating content regularly and responding to your customers’ comments, complaints, and so forth. These measures will allow your initial base of users to recommend it to their Facebook and Twitter friends, who will then recommend it to their friends…

If your business needs a social marketing strategy that will nurture and grow your business and complement your other online marketing efforts and contribute to your return on investment, talk to Pamoja Media http://pamojamedia.com/services/online-services/social-media-campaigns/ like yesterday.

Professor Porter, recognised as the father of the modern strategy field and ranked globally as the most influential thinker on management and competitiveness, will speak at the TEF programme’s session-ending events on Sunday afternoon, August 7, 2011.

Professor Porter will lead two strategy workshops with the interns and the host business CEOs in which they will discuss their projects and lessons from the programme before the group and receive feedback, thoughts and strategic consultation on the way forward. The sessions will include a focus on the industries represented in the 2011 programme—media, agriculture, private equity.

“Our African Markets Internship Programme combines two ingredients that could put Africa on the fast-track to transformation: top-tier students whose talents we bring to bear in the world’s fastest-growing markets and the world’s keenest business minds, such as Michael Porter, whose ideas have shaped national markets and triggered regional development,” said Founder of TEF and Chairman of Heirs Holdings Tony O. Elumelu, MFR. “It is unique in Africa.”

AMIP is a 10-week internship programme, pairing students from Africa’s top business schools with students from elite business schools in Europe and the United States. The interns participate in intensive, highly structured programmes at fast growing African owned firms.

In his keynote address, on “Creating Shared Value,” Porter will discuss his paradigms on operating business efficiently and solving social challenges, which can be applied to the 10-week projects the interns worked on, as well as work with the host businesses CEOs to think through strategies to overcome industry and environmental challenges in the different regions of the continent.

“Over the next few years, Africa will approach a turning point in its economic development,” Porter said. “Its key business leaders could reinvent capitalism on both a local and continental scale if they are able to unleash innovation to drive growth in this region’s economies. As such, the fate of Africa rests upon the shoulders of a new generation of entrepreneurs and visionary corporate leaders.”

According to Efe Odeleye, programme manager for TEF’s AMIP, “This new generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders can be found at both ends of AMIP, as interns and host businesses. They represent the diversity and depth of African innovation and talent, and also demonstrate the interest of top business students from outside the continent in making contributions to Africa’s growth through the private sector.”

This diversity can be observed through the different projects the interns have embarked on. Over her internship in Nigeria, Julia Otis, a Yale School of Management first year student, interned with NN24 where she undertook an extensive market study to determine the cable news station’s audience, reach and perception in their quest to become “the African CNN”. Julia has rolled her market study into broader analyses that projects NN24’s outlook, and makes recommendations to the management team on the way forward. CEO of NN24, Anthony Dara, called her work “critical, timely and key to redefining our image and honing our viewership base.”

In all, 11 host businesses in Lagos, Nigeria, Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya, all led by individuals in their thirties or forties, have added capacity, knowledge, and in some cases, financing to their businesses as a result of the programme. In Lagos, Brandeis University International Business School first-year student and banker, Azuka Okofu, helped his host business, E-Motion Advertising to close a multi-million dollar investment deal with the Swiss government. E-Motion controls prime advertising real estate along four kilometers of one of Lagos’ most valuable expressways that cuts through the heart of the commercial center, Victoria Island. “We could not have done it without him” remarked CEO Simdul Shagaya.

In Nairobi, Christian Haukaas, 2011 IESE graduate, worked with two of Kenya’s leading innovative young companies, Craft Silicon and Pamoja Media. Christian performed a market study and business plan consultancy for Craft Silicon, which provides backend business solutions for banking institutions in more than 30 countries worldwide. While at Pamoja Media, Christian has worked to construct an innovative mobile-accessible platform to help improve yields for smallholder farmers throughout Kenya. Joshua Wanyama, CEO of Pamoja and TED Fellow, has turned the web advertising agency into a multi-purpose firm, creatively bringing his company’s technical savvy to bear on Kenya’s agricultural realities.

Cameroonian AMIP intern, Zekebweliwai Geh, Harvard Kennedy School first year, who brings experience from his work at the IFC to Injaro Investments, a Ghanaian private equity firm with a presence in a few of West Africa’s English and French speaking countries. Zeke is working on deals that expand the number of impact investments in the region. “Zeke’s keen understanding of finance, dexterity with models, and holistic developmental underpinning is making him a effective team member when it comes to Injaro’s impact investment deals, regardless of whether they’re in in Ghana or Burkina Faso,” says Jerry Parkes, MD of Injaro Investments.

Harvard Business Review recently featured a blog from Tony O. Elumelu, MFR, “What Tomorrow’s Leaders Are Learning in Africa Right Now”, about TEF’s AMIP and the critical need for Africa to establish leadership in home markets first.

Through TEF and Heirs Holdings, Elumelu uses his experience and resources to spur African development. The internship programme, for example, seeks to infuse the private sector with business talent that serves African interests by using market tools to solve these problems while meeting demand in burgeoning markets.

“Professor Porter’s commentary and his ideas can only drive home the significance of the interns’ life-altering experiences, which included making executive presentations and contributing to decision making processes at host companies,” said the Foundation’s CEO, Dr. Wiebe Boer. “The internship creates a pipeline of talent to serve Africa’s interests and opens recruitment opportunities for African firms. The internship also takes on global significance. If the interns decide to leave Africa, their experiences will be transferable to emerging markets worldwide.”

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Original post from the World Stage Group website
Image from the Wharton Africa Business Forum

• Business related challenges – many of the businesses on the ICT sector are still young. Not easy to find established and stable firms in the region as yet. Considered high risk opportunities for investors.
• Venture fund related challenges – Lengthy process of setting up venture funds and most face double taxation by the governments hence the move to registering in Mauritius to counter this.
• Due diligence related challenges – Lack of in-house ICT business experts to hold valuation and assess the value of ICT projects
• Limited enterprise clustering – most ICT businesses in the region are segmented and widespread geographically thus reaping minimal benefits that come out of collaboration
• Lack of exit strategy – Restrictive and limited exit avenues due to stringent policy frameworks

The report went on to further dissect and explain more the situations and existing issues that are some of the leading challenges such as our culture of buyouts, lack of angel investor network, issues with taxation and solvency regulations.

Fortunately, the report also gives comprehensive recommendations on the potential interventions to the aforementioned challenges which cover exit strategy, set up of incubation projects, development of a business angel network, set up of fund for funds and policy and regulation reforms. A lot has been in done in terms of ideas generated, programming and support to the ICT sector by the governments and individuals. In my view, this report gives both investors and entrepreneurs a complete view of what should be done to take the sector to the next level of growth.

What does this all mean for your business?
The upsurge in support for the sector will most definitely see an increase in the adoption of internet due to the expected increase in homegrown technological solutions to local problems. What this means for your business or for the society in large is up to your imagination. But if you ask me, all I see is a major opportunity for any business to strategically position itself within the online market. Your company’s biggest strength will be its online strategy. Get a web strategy that takes into account the current happenings in the market and in the technology world to give a you an edge in terms of positioning your brand by factoring in its growth together with how the ICT sector is growing. For any business, playing catch up is never really a cheap nor pleasant experience. Talk to us today.

Read the full report here and give us your views on what it means for businesses in the region.

But the industry matured and people started charging per impression (number of times an ad shows up on any given site). This type of pricing is called cost-per-impression (CPM). This was better than the monthly sponsorship deals. CPM is usually priced at 1,000 impressions. So when a sales person mentions a $1.00 CPM, it means that an advertiser pays $1.00 for 1,000 impressions of an ad regardless of how many clicks are generated within the 1,000 impressions.

This model was later surpassed with the cost-per-click (CPC). Google has built its whole advertising business on CPC. An advertiser only pays once a click has been generated and traffic sent to their site. CPC are valued more than CPM deals and generally are priced per click. Advertisers prefer CPC to CPM deals as they actually purchase for the traffic that arrives on their site.

Another pricing model is the cost-per-action (CPA) model which has taken off in the last few years. CPA deals are usually set up for affiliates. This system pays a publisher or website once a targeted action such as a sale actually occurs. This model is akin to having a publisher act as sales representative for a company. CPA campaigns work best when they don’t fit the traditional banner ads running on most publisher sites. These campaigns are quite effective whenever ads or links to products are placed within regular site content. Surfers are more skeptical purchasing from an ad than clicking on a product review that directs them to the manufacturer/store website. While a lot of ecommerce stores love this model, publishers shy away from it since an enormous amount of traffic is sent to ecommerce sites without publishers receiving remuneration for it.

In Kenya, leading local websites still price advertising according to sponsorship. Since most advertisers are used to paying advertising on sponsorship deals instead of CPA, CPC or CPM deals; they normally guard campaign targets and information to their detriment. I have been in a number of meetings whereby advertisers will expect a proposal for a campaign they seek to run. Once the proposal it presented, they usually shy away due to the suggested campaign amount as being too high.

At this point, I usually mention that the total amount is not what is important but rather the CPM or CPC rate since the value of the campaign is usually determined by this amount. Some clients comprehend it and are therefore able to move on to the next point in setting up a campaign. On the other hand, others remain skeptical, withhold the target budget amount and mention that this is an entirely new method of pricing advertising and they are not sure they will receive the right value for their money.

For the ones that proceed with placement, we run various optimization tests to ensure that they get the best performing creatives and landing page matched up with the right sites. Constant optimization of a campaign ensures that the goals of a client are met and they in turn want to spend more money with you.

Granted, only 5.6% of the African continent is online. Africa is the second fastest growing market in terms of connectivity at 1,100%. When most African corporations think of the web, they don’t see the potential markets this space holds for them. There are two very important aspects of online marketing that I point out to any potential customer looking at the reach an online market:

1. The web allows a company to reach Africans in the Diaspora effectively
2. Within Africa, the greatest concentration of online traffic is based on specific cities within a country and amongst the middle and upper class

Diaspora Africans
I once talked to an entrepreneur who wanted to reach Africans in the Diaspora. I told her that the biggest connection an African has with the continent whenever they are living in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia or Oceania is online. This is the ready access we all have when we think of Africa. We can read the news, find out which broadcasters have new content, connect with family and friends and keep abreast with conversation regarding Africa or our specific countries.

The Diaspora is a ready market for any product that can be sold or delivered online. Key hurdles often times are based on logistics or payment systems. Most African companies are either restricted within their corporate processes or international procedures and laws that place hurdles in their way of quickly utilizing available opportunities.

As is the case with most business models, success online depends on having the right strategy, knowing where and how to get your audience and figuring out a way to efficiently deliver on your brand promise. The web provides most corporations with an impressive reach into new markets either locally or globally. Africans in the Diaspora are already used to online shopping and have proven to be a constant source of remittances to their respective countries. Companies that utilize the opportunities a Diaspora market offers will be in a good position to reap great benefits.

An Urban Online Audience in Africa
So far, the web is an extremely urban affair within Africa. For instance, In Kenya 80% an internet study by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) in 2006 found that the capital city Nairobi had 80% of all internet customers followed by Coast province with 9%. Kenya has 3 million internet subscribers as of 2008.

Kenya Internet Subscribers by Province

Source: CCK (Internet Market Study)

Nairobi Province’s population is estimated at around 3 million unique machines by Wikipedia. 80% of 3 million internet subscribers equal 2.4 million people*.

This is an extremely high reach for any company looking to sell its products within the urban areas of Nairobi and Mombasa which is within the Coast Province. When a company looks at its marketing targets and the audience they seek to reach, online marketing provides the right reach for them within key specific sectors. While the web is not the right platform for marketing to a rural or lower class audience, it is very effective in selling goods and services to middle and upper classes within any African country.

*The last study done by CCK was in 2006 when Kenya had around 1 million internet subscribers. The number of internet penetration within other parts of Kenya has grown but Nairobi still accounts for the lion’s share.