The Brand Evangelist

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.

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.

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.

It is an awesome revelation to see how social is changing the way business is being done. I once wrote an article titled; 'The end of business as usual' I am however shocked, why many still do not get social media.

Early this week, I got an e-mail from a prospective client, who wants to build a blog and spread her influence via the social web. I was however shocked when she exclaimed; 'Are you charging me for Facebook? I thought Facebook is free.'

While some are still satisfied with doing business as usual, they should be disturbed by the future, why? the amount of interaction, sharing, conversation and engagement going on online is immense and growing as shown by the chart below. It is better to come on board now, as your competitors are already using social media and positioning themselves for the big kill. Plus, it is easier to collect data, analyze the user data and use it to improve the product or service delivery.

Infographic credit - SocialBakers.com