I had previously written a post on how brands needed to pay attention to the use of social media during the #occupynigeria protests and begin to prepare brands for such attacks.

Reactions have continued to build up on all social media platforms and several ‘theories’ have been proposed. While some alleged the forceful migration of all subscribers to MTNPulse platform, which seemed thew most reasonable. Some others
have blamed the advertising sign-up of a Nigerian musician, David O and the face off between Nigeria/SA.

Several pictures have been developed for pintrest and blackberry DPs, BB broadcasts are being developed for an #occupyMTN protests slated for the same period.

Let’s see how thimgs pan out

‘A Negative brand equity is a death sentence’; the Goodluck Jonathan Government should have been listening to Mark Ritson. More rightly put, it can lead to suicide. The #OccupyNigeria train hit Nigeria like a thunderstorm bringing to bear what Nigeria’s foremost humanright’s lawyer, Femi Falana calls Nigeria’s most powerfully organised protest. The #OccupyNigeria protests, which is the simultaneous response of the Nigerian people against arbitrary increase in fuel pump price and #Governmentwaste, is a similitude of the Egyptian and Tunisian protests but named after ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests. It has been a “deregulated protest” spanning Nigeria’s major Cities, Embassies and High Commissions around the world.
What trend is the #occupynigeria depicting for brands?

1. The other edge of Social Media Marketing has been officially activated

With so much talk about social media marketing and its impact to reaching out to social customers, little attention has been given to social media advocacy.If your business/boss has not been taking social media serious, the impact of social media advocacy will jolt you into action. There is no doubt that the ongoing social media revolution will have an enormous impact not only on the way consumers and brands communicate with each other but also the impact of consumer-consumer communication. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.
But marketing via social media channels is not as simple as it is through other channels because of its two-edged effects:
a. Consumers can publicise negative experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes;
b. They can also publicise positive experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes.

The impact of social media as a rallying platform for #occupynigeria cannot be over emphasised. The announcement of the venue of the Lagos rally which cascadingly gathered close to 2 million people in its third day was announced though social media platforms (Blackberry, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other instant messaging platforms).
The ‘unlike President Jonathan day’ (featured on CNN) and ‘the most cursed president’ (ranked on Google) campaign was widely impressive with CNN and Google helping to hype its veracity. With the tools to quickly rally people around a cause readily available, its time to watch it!
The days of poor customer service and treating clients/customers like thrash are counting.

2. Never Violate Trust – It’s the Currency of Brands not Prices

Brand Equity (the strength of a brand) is derived from the goodwill and recognition a brand has garnered over time as a result of fufilling its brand promise. This translates into higher sales volume and profit margins against competing brands. This is the reason why some brands command high patronage even if they charge premium for their products – it is the intangible asset of all promotional efforts.
In an unprecedented manner, the docile and unconcerned Nigerian populace have been jolted alive – thanks to access to information. The total breakdown of trust between the Nigerian people who ‘massively’ voted for the Jonathan Government can be attributed to the widely spread information available on Government’s spending habits, budgetary allocation and money politicking among its high ranking officials.
It is an important lesson to learn that you cannot gain equity by increasing product cost before improving its funtional attributes.

3. Be Ready to Cope with Impersonation

Especially if your business has no officially identified presence in the digital and social media space, or your boss is one who thinks Blackberry is a popular fruit; you now need to prepare for uncertainties, impersonations, rumors and ‘company leaks’.
Some organisations had spent considerable time and enegy refuting claims that they ”ordered people to resume or face sack” during the Nationwide strike declared during the #OccupyNigeria protests. Brands with extensive and original Twitter and Facebook pages quickly responded while traditional businesses looked for avenues to calm misconceptions. The official Twitter handle and Facebook page of the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala came alive in response to claims that she had threatened to resign from office if Nigerians eventually win the battle of the reversal.
Brands now have to think of ways to guide employees’s social relationships, have a policy and chief responsibility officer in preparation for crisis, and consistently stamp their voice online to crowd out impersonating pages and conflicting handles.

4. Social Media can no longer be left to that junior staff

Brands now know they need more than the ability to read and write to assign social media engagement to anyone. Whether to outsource to a social media agency or assign an employee to handle the platforms. The Social Media Manager is not necessarily for the Senior Manager; the appointment into this position requires a new way of thought. It is important to appoint someone with a natural flair for meandering and communicating through different platforms; someone with tact, intelligent, temprate and intelligent enough to engage a wide and varied number of issues and tempraments.
Improper handling of these platforms can backfire and the ripple effects cannot be directly measured until it impacts on the bottomline. The story of how a Fan Page moderator became intolerant when people began to complain on its Facebook about the use of non-renewable palm oil in their production is already a global case study on how not to speak on Facebook.

5. Listening to these Social Media ‘rants’ is now critical

Citizen’s blog posts , comments, social media and Blacberry discussion trends . . it is no more enough to hear about them, it’s time to listen. The emotional and connectedness between brands and their teeming customers can quickly translate into hate and social media mass action if you are not listening early enough and reponding appropriately.
Sustaining Brand equity is a valuable asset which companies invest huge amounts of money to develop; social media listening is now an avenue to maintain and sustain that social reputation.
The web is awash with various tools to help brands listen and respnd appropriately. Brand equity refers to the intangible value that accrues to a company as a result of its successful efforts to establish a strong brand

6. Despite its uncertainties; there lies the power to raise a tribe

SApart for an avenue to execute a highly targetted online marketing campaign; social media is established as a veritable tool for building brand loyalty.
The best way is to think of it as a party. The same wisdom that applies to any social situation also works with social media: Just be yourself and talk to people. Anyone following your brand is also following his or her family members, friends and colleagues. If your brand fits in with a customer’s personal social network, there is great potential for that person to build an emotional attachment and loyalty for your brand the same way they would for a friend. And when a customer thinks of you as a friend, you have a loyal customer.

There is no doubt that the ongoing and fast-developing social media revolution is having an enormous impact not only on the way consumers can communicate with other consumers, but also on the ways in which consumers and brands communicate with each other. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.

Billions of small businesses have mastered the power of connecting with customers and colleagues electronically.

In a move seen as another evidence that communication is changing. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, one of Nigeria’s tech-savvy public figures posted about his own arrest on Twitter.
“Got detained by the SSS on arrival at Abuja Airport . No reason given. On our way to the SSS HQ. Will keep you posted if phones not seized”.

He later posted about the trend of events…

While social media is highly recognized as a platform to help brands communicate with people, it can also be a great platform for listening and tracking. Going social is not the traditional push advertising model where the people are bored with the same broadcast adverts, it has created opportunities for listening too.

One of the few remarkable things about viruses is their ability to multiply. Coming from a background in the Microbiology where I spent some time in the Microbiology Labs of Obafemi Awolowo University hoping to see bacteria under microscopes, the word viral marketing relates to strategies used for concepts, ideas or products or that spread like a virus.  Articles, eBooks and videos are some of the modes which people and businesses leverage on in spreading, marketing and promoting their business or cause.

I have particularly been enjoying some videos lately. I sat in the lobby of Dufil Prima when I first saw the Mama do Good advert and I voted for it going viral. I also was thrilled with TYBello’s new release ‘The Future is here’ and believe it will too. Getting your videos to go viral is not entirely in your hands, just as getting your product to gain wide acceptability is dependent on the market response, but there are basic principles to aid viral distribution that indicates explosive proportion.

These are my key principles when developing viral strategies

1.    Make the Video/ eBook Remarkable

That is the word – remarkable. It doesn’t matter the amount of money spent in making the videos, it will only go viral if it is remarkable. Remarkable means there must be something worthy of a second look in your videos – it is unusual, interesting, funny, engaging, breaking news, controversial; in short the brain of an average person should be able to identify a talking point from it.

The most popular of these is the creative and controversial videos of BlendTec, a company making blenders (their website). They  created a low budget video where they tested the powers of the blending machine against anything – vuvuzela, golf balls, ipad, iphone e.t.c. one of the videos actually made it to number 39 as the top 50 viral videos of TIME magazine. Check here for them

Another idea is to make a spoof of your original advert as a strategy to generate talking points from the programme. If it isn’t remarkable and it flies, you must be lucky!

2.      Easy transfer to others

The ability to transfer and share your video/ebook is a one of the factors that make it easy for people to share and distribute your digital content. The availability to have the video in an easy-to-share mode/format aids the distribution process between individual and enthusiasts. “Free” is an attractive word when it comes to viral marketing.

Once you have created a valuable product, ensure you encourage product distribution by locating digital communities where conversations and sharing are going on about your product/brand. Examples of such include; Youtube Vimeo, Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo and other communities that encourage easy distribution of data.

Short and straight forward videos and articles, instructive eBooks, light and easy to understand, stream and store formats on ipads, phones, emails and laptops are one of the leverages the ease of communication technology offers.

3.         Skip the legal cobwebs: Give up control

In an idea and information age, fighting the battle to keep your intellectual property from going viral seems like a ill-informed battle. Consider the case of Blue Labs Limited company battling the Buhari Campaign organization for uploading a video created by one of their fans using their content-rich but largely unknown song. Frankly a powerful song, the impact it would have made was eclipsed by a spontaneous interest for gain and profit. This is a critical principle of brand loyalty. Once a people are passionate about your brand, you let them own it. Social media campaigns are extremely engaging in that they allow their fans to own and interpret the brand in their own language. Example is the campaign by Starbucks called My Star Bucks Idea and the Pepsi’s refreshing ideas campaign ( here) . Linus Trovalds gave out the source code of Linux operating system and became a global icon.

Giving away products for free may not earn profit today but if the business gets to develop customer base by giving something for free, it will soon generate income for them. Once you have cleared the trademarks and copyright status, give it wings and let it fly.

4.            Identify and leverage on your key Influencers

Apart from uploading it to the social community is said that an average person has about 50 to 100 members in their close network of family, friends and colleagues. Moreover, internet gives way to creating a bigger network circle with which information and data can be shared. Learning to use these existing networks in viral marketing will yield better results.

Identifying key individuals in helping promote your product will also help your in developing brand. Getting them to review your product or video, tagging them and encouraging them in the promotion efforts will help your brand gain visibility.

4.          Exploit motivation and behaviors

Trendspotters will never forget the impact of the Mimee noodles ‘Boom sha sha’ product campaign. The success of this campaign which was managed by DDB Lagos owed its success to their ability to leverage on children rhymes and songs. Once they got a buy in from children who were the primary target consumers, the rest is history.

Cowbell Milk’s Ogonge milk campaign is also on the road to being viral and they have launched a campaign to support the move. They are leveraging on youth’s penchant for dance hall party songs, the acceptance of f indigenous songs and the flexibility of changing ring-tones on phones and other digital accessories.

I particularly love TYBellos’s “I am the future” and I believe the timing was smart, though a little late in coming.( I have a bias – I am a secret fan)

An understanding of your target audience psychographics and consumer behaviour will further promote the possibility of your song/video/product developing wings.

5.   Lead it right back to you!

What if a lot of people see your video without knowing your intentions? Your viral marketing strategy will not make sense if it doesn’t lead right back to you. If it is about a product or service, include a call to action. If you are seeking to build a reputation or promoting a brand, include an address, website or blog – even an advert!. If your are seeking a build a list later, your viral video is giving your that opportunity.

Not considering this may defeat the purpose of doing viral marketing. Once people begin to share and talk about your stuff, they should know where the action is taking place.

Above all making your data viral-compatible is the first step; the rest is left to your target audience. Patience is important in viral marketing and you need to know that consumer engagement has gone social and it needs to catch the social media virus – You win!

What does it take to become a great community/social media manager? What skill sets will make you the ideal candidate when your company decides to begin engaging their customers online? What becomes important to look for especially in a space where experience may not count for much in a field so new? What do we check when you need to get someone on board to manage your social media efforts? What skill sets do you need to quickly become the social media face of your organization?

1. Excellent Communication and Writing Skills

Great communication skills are non-negotiable especially when the manager will be communicating as the voice of the brand. The ability to be able to string words together and communicate clearly without ambiguity and misconception is especially necessary when in the social media space is an absolute necessity for success.
A good sense of charm and wit might also get the fans developing a sense of connectedness with your brand. “To me, someone with a good sense of wit and charm in their writing is appealing. Some of the best brands in social media have that combination and it’s attractive to users,” says Jonathan Sexton, CEO, Socialgladiator.com
It will be easy to make this transition if you have a background in brand management, marketing, public relations and journalism. Creative wordsmiths are an excellent resource for your Facebook page.

2. Temperate (Emotional Intelligence)

Social media engagement is not about communicating; it is about listening them communication. The ability to manage different personalities is not necessary, it is critical. Emotional intelligence is the ability to, not just become self aware but to also be able to relate and manage other people’s perceptions and emotions. I had written about dealing with online social media attacks and the example of the rash comments made by the person managing Nestle international’s Facebook page led to a great harvest of attacks. This is becoming very important in Nigeria. The ability to also be able to process information flying around the company, industry, or product will also help garner enough knowledge and solve consumer/fans communication challenges.

3. Strong Personal Network (Social Skills)

The ability to be social on a social network says a lot for itself isn’t it? Social skills can’t be taught but it can be developed. A social media connectedness is an incredible asset especially when adding corporate blogging, Twitting or Facebooking to their job description. People who are already active in their social media sphere will gradually find themselves being invited to manage or blog for the web.
A strong personal network will also add value to the job of a social media manager. This will help the organisation leverage on his/her connections to generate buzz around the messages that is to be communicated.
Working well with others on the business and to be able to liaise with other departments is an incredible asset that may count especially when the individual needs to be abreast of events and issues in other departments. That individual must be able to hit the ground running and is a great team worker. Though the person will be communicating online, interpersonal skills will play reflect greatly in their day-to-day activities.

4. Web Enthusiast

A huge dose of enthusiasm about the web and social media trends is an absolute necessity in helping any community manager, you don’t really have to be a techie, you only need to be able to identify and use the daily tools and techniques that make coordinating and engaging though social media platforms effective.
Let me warn that the high degrees and qualifications in Advertising, Public Relations, Journalism and Brand Management may not count greatly when it comes to online engagement. Of course, why pick someone who wants to feel his way through the web to manage your brand on social media. Lesser effort will be required to monitor results and updates when the person is a passionate follower of the web. There are so many new developments each moment that it requires someone enthusiastic to meet up with the trends and interests.
An enthusiastic person will generally have a steep learning curve. The ability to be able to unlearn, learn and relearn is important is important in adapting well in the rapidly changing world of social media.

5. Digital Presence

Part of values brought into the job description of a social media manager apart from excellent communication skills is a strong presence on the internet. Why would I entrust a brand into your hands when you cannot remember when last you updated your Facebook page? People who manage brands must have an online presence and a voice of their own so as to be able to leverage on their experience in engaging and gaining the attention of others.
6. Use/ Manage Multiple Social Media Platforms
If you must succeed at this, the ability to manage multiple platforms is key. Apart from the basic ability to manage different social media platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), an effective Community manger should also have the ability to manage social media aggregators (e.g Tweetdeck, Twib, Hootsuite e.t.c.). This is also different from specialized or bespoke marketing management platforms apart used by different organisations. One of the best indicators that a community manager can be effective is the ability to manage his/her own website/blog.
Excellent community managers are noticeable over time – they can multi-task, multi-monitor and are multi-skilled in managing brands over various stages of engagement.

7. Brand evangelist

Above all you do not only just need people with the skills and attitude, you need brand evangelists. Great Community managers are not only great at what they do, the love the brands they represent. Those who as bloggers for events and competitions will tell you the chemistry that exists between them and the people that communicates with them as brands. Once the community manager does not connect with the passion brand loyalists feel for the brand, the core of objective for consumer engagement will be lost.
Loving the product is not only the major point; you must also understand the perceptions and pains of a user. This helps the manager when dealing with complaints and challenges or how else will you be able to empathize with a brand consumer when you have no idea of the challenges of using the product.

Community management is a new job description that may not require strict educational background and a long term business experience. Customers are evolving and choices are becoming more varied. Your brand needs a face.

Social Media is rising like an epidemic and I know special attention by social media websites are directed towards Africa’s fastest growing internet penetration rate. More brands and organisations are joining in to engage consumers and target audience; start-ups are leveraging on technology to compete with established businesses and the 2011 election is expanding the internet population … these are interesting times.

With everything constantly changing, business leaders need to be on the lookout for trends and to be able to leverage on them.Techies need to constantly identify these and to be able to deploy technologies to meet those needs. I was @ Barcamp Lagos last week and one of the quick things I discovered needed to be done techies to approach apps and start up development from the angle of identifying problems, opportunities and popular trends and to be able to use these business knowledge to streamline their passion.  What trends are occurring for Nigerian Social Media and internet savvy Nigerians in this first quarter of 2011?

Facebook is visiting websites

The application developers at Facebook and independent enthusiasts are working hard and organizations and individuals are using on the popularity of Facebook to drive traffic to their websites. With a fast rising country population of about 2.9 million, the ability to integrate Facebook Fan Pages, Like, Featured Comments and Badges are avenues that developers are turning to give their website a social feel. People’s comments and threads are being integrated and even websites are becoming more interactive. Live Twitter feeds are also being used on sites as well as lots of featured apps.

So web developers are smiling to the bank and charging more for the integration of social media to websites – these sites they call ‘social websites’.

Naija customized

Naija clones of global internet startups are multiplying in numbers. Creating a Naija focused versions provide its own opportunities in targeting the Nigerian internet population – that is the good news. The other aspect is that global internet startups have also noticed the Nigerian market and are also moving into Nigeria. While some are spotting prefix/siffix ‘Naija’ to their web name (bellanaija.com, naijajams.com, naijaplanet.com, naijahotjobs.com, naijagurus.com, naijapals.com), others are using indigenous names (yrn.me, jekajo.com, wakanow.com, taatafo.com) to their names.

This has become one of the easiest ways to get your online startup started is to clone an international one, but beware – the big ones are watching Nigeria.

Social Media Campaigns

Humble attempts are being made to integrate social media into brand promotions; I am yet to see pure social media campaign in Nigeria, but it’s a function of time. Social marketing efforts are now being deployed generously – from way back Experience 2010 and Light Upnaija campaigns, most big brands have joined the conversations online. Some are already opening Facebook Fan pages with GTBank leading the pack.

While some have not gotten a hang of it or even trying to figure their way out of it, I think techies can step up their game here by latching on to this market rather than focusing on apps that the people are not yet ripe/prepared for..

Bloggaz arise

Smart Brand and PR managers and ad agencies are now eyeing bloggers. Bloggers with enough clout are now able to help brands touch base with their target audience. Some have already organized meetings of bloggers and I think some interesting developments might be coming up soon.

This also goes with the trend that consumers are already succeeding in getting their brands follow their interests and habits. Most brands have begun to stumble their way through social media and they are gradually gathering followers on Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry apps (GTmobile).

One way blogers will soon come together in order to leverage on their collective visibility with the aim of reaping commercial benefits. I await!

Small business big relevance

Internet startups are rising and hoping to blast past their way past established institutions and businesses as this is happening already globally.  You will find more smart and young individuals are exploring how they can use technology to build their businesses rather than the grudging drudgery of ‘unnecessary’ work. Jobberman.com and bellanaija.com are websites leading the pack in this regard. The success of Mark joining the league of

World millionaires and being TIME man of the year are interesting pointers in this regard.

Now over to you, which interesting trends are you noticing?