The Brand Evangelist

 

Social Media for African and African Businesses and startups

Social is becoming the definition of our lives and existence. There is a touch of social in everything right now. With mobile growing ever bigger, it is keeping more and more people connected and engaged on the social web. This has moved many businesses to explore this opportunities and move to where the market is. However, it has been observed that most businesses are still in doubt of how to measure the success and benefits of social media as a business building tool.

There are examples of businesses who have taken the bold step and  have been reaping the benefit of using social media,

June 3rd (2011) would be time to  have our #mbGeeks monthly twitter chat. The Theme is; “Social Media in Africa for African businesses and startups.”

There is a growing concern among brands who would like to engage in social media as a tool for reaching out to customers and prospective customers. They want to know how to measure the success of their involvement in social media.

 

Photo credit: ceneal1 from morguefile.com

There are also the “EXPERTS” who complicates matters, by not helping business owners know exactly what social media is.

While working with some Small businesses here in Nigeria, I often get response that shows that more businesses do not have details on what kind of tool social media is. That is the reason I am writing this post. I would be exposing some gray areas of social media as a marketing tool as well as why you should beware of those parading themselves as social media experts. Come with me as I share with you.

“Never compare your beginning to anyone's middle.”

This was a tweet that came pass my Time line on twitter today and it contains some deep messages to me and folks who are starting on a journey (or who are contemplating starting a project).

Recently, I read a blog by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. He wrote about How to start, I would quote a few lines from what he wrote;

“It’s [STARTING] one of the most intimidating things. It’s the lack of starting that kills most tasks and projects. Procrastination is putting off the start. Your new venture gets put off because the START is too HARD.”

If you have ever found yourself lost joining a social network as a newbie, you are not alone. When I signed on to Facebook, I had same issue, when I signed on to Twitter it was the same story.

How did I find my way?

A friend showed me how to use twitter with the basics. The rest I pretty much figure out on my own. While exploring the social web, especially twitter, I noticed that the people who were getting things done and having fun while at it on twitter were formed into groups and communities. Breaking into those communities and joining the conversation can be very tasking for a newbie, you would agree with me. My solution is define who you are and what you want out of the social web and join a community that shares your interests.

I have been able to spot many communities here on twitter, some are formal, some are informal. They have provided an entry point and a means of joining the online conversation. We have the #usguys, a community of professionals who talk about social media, tech and how it can affect their lives and help grow businesses. There is also Tribber. Tribber is a group of bloggers who provide support for one another by helping each others message and posts go viral, you can join only by being invited by an already existing member. So, Tribber is exclusive.

Time would fail me if I go on to run through all the groups that are, as some are not even as formal as the two I have mentioned. If you take your time to observe you would see them from the way they form here on twitter.

We launched our community of tech lovers and friends on the 13th of May 2011 with Deborah Elzie as our honourable guest.

We lunch the tech community on twitter tomorrow.

It is going to be one of the most interesting and enjoyable ride you’ve ever had online. Either new to twitter chat or not, it is certainly going to be lots of fun and value adding to each participants.

Believing you have already read in details here what the twitter community of tech lovers is all about and the benefits attached to it, I am going to set the background for the lunch.

Background for the launch

Tomorrow, May 13th, 2011, by 12noon GMT (1pm Nigerian time and 8am EST) we would be having the Lunch of the community on twitter. We have an invited guest, her name is Deborah Elzie. she is with The Kuyu project team - The Kuyu Project is a digital literacy initiative aimed at teaching African youth how to fully utilize social media and other digital tools to effect social change in their communities to achieve their goals and objectives. She is also with Story spaces and AfriWiT (African Women in Technology). She has love and passion for Africa and tech.

I met her on twitter. Twitter is a wonderful tool for sharing and networking. this is what we are leveraging on with this new community we are forming and lunching May 13, 2011.

Sarah Lacy of Tech Crunch wrote last week about Nigerian tech scene. What she wrote and how she wrote in brought about some controversy. She painted a picture of Nigerian Geeks being the folks that are at Computer Village, a place where we buy mobile phones and some electronic gadget. I want to believe she has just told part one of the story and she would write another to give a more general impression of how things are.

Before then let me share with you what some real tech girls and guys did over the weekend in Lagos; Garage48 event.

Why Social Media?


Social media in a networking tool. connection and sharing has become very vital and popular. The tools that make such connection and sharing so much fun is the web. The possibility of what we can share is huge. Once, I read at Quora, that there are three essential traits and quality needed for a successful tech startup, they are; 1) Tech engineer and developer 2) Designer/Art director 3) Business developer/Brand evangelist.



There are lots of example we can find around the web of folks who have engaged with each other, starting business with people they met via social media. One good example is the Kuyu Project (Founder and Executive Director, Simeon Oriko of kUYU project.) The potentials of social media is so huge, and by social media, I don’t mean Facebook or twitter only. They were not the first by the way, and I would encourage you read about the Kuyu project from here, The founder was interviewed.