How Social Media Is Used

From an insider’s perspective, it appears the focus for Zimbabwe businesses using social media falls into one of three camps: 1) brand building and consumer awareness; 2) as a new form of mass distribution for more traditional marketing messages; and, 3) as a customer service tool.

Why Use Social Media

Small businesses in particular are finding social media a valuable part of their Zimbabwe internet marketing. Social media is free to use and provides small business owners with valuable access to other business owners and “real” people within organizations. And if you sell products and services directly to consumers, social media is a simple tool for generating awareness, interest and buzz. You can’t beat direct access and feedback from potential buyers and customers alike.

In addition, as other marketers have written, social media marketing is helping to provide a subtle shift from the old traditional tactics of interruption (such as interrupting one’s TV viewing with commercials, or magazine reading with advertisements), to a more persuasive and compelling form of marketing Seth Godin refers to as permission marketing. Permission marketing, such as through social media, puts consumers in control of what type of marketing they receive. If a person likes your Facebook Fan Page or follows your business on Twitter, it’s because they want to know more about your business.

What’s Missing In Social Media Marketing?

There’s an enormous and powerful opportunity for companies and Zimbabwe internet marketers to directly impact sales by using social media as a lead in to other forms of personalized marketing. The goal is to form a closed-loop system (using things like personalized URLS and webinars or even direct mail) to track all prospects throughout the buying process.

Unfortunately for a lot businesses new to social media, there’s a disconnect on how to maximize their efforts to groom consumers. Social media is a fantastic opportunity for companies to engage and foster a truly one-to-one marketing relationship with customers. Instead, we’re seeing social media abused and misused as simply another mass broadcast tool for overly generic marketing messages.

Zimbabwe Internet Marketing

Got an internet marketing itch you just can’t scratch? Learn more about social media and other online marketing tactics at: TheQuartzEffect

 Last week the Only Marketing Jobs  team made the long journey north to hold its 3^rd Manchester Link-Up event.

It was an early start to the day to catch the train up to Manchester, and after attempting to occupy the entire carriage we began our expedition to host another great networking event. This happened to be my first excursion to Cheshire and after getting lost in the industrial estate for almost an hour, I can honestly say it is a great location, albeit very large.  And since Mancunians are an incredibly approachable bunch, Manchester was a fantastic choice.

At 6pm we were ready and waiting for the coming onslaught of marketing professionals who were making their way to Bar 38 intent on establishing new business relationships and cementing existing ones.

From the start it was evident that everyone had arrived with networking hats on, business cards at the ready. It is this eager and warm disposition which results in a productive event and a welcoming atmosphere. Although competing with another networking event 2 floors above us we managed to retain a large, lively crowd consisting of branding experts, PR specialists, digital gurus, designers and many more from the media world.

We had managed to secure the lovely Rachel Gibbons as headline speaker, and after a few technical hitches she began to enlighten us. As an avid planner she let us in on what she has learnt whilst working for big names such as: Slendertone, The Body Shop, Dixons Stores, Waitrose, Boots, and Marks & Spencer to name just a few. Rachel advised us on what we should all be planning for 2012 both in marketing and in our own careers.

It was then that the networking began. We set you a challenge to make 4 new contacts in 30 minutes, how did you fair?

We were lucky enough to have Jill McCulloch of Coach You to impart her wisdom. As the representative of industry training and qualification institute, Cambridge Marketing College, thank you, to both her and the College for the continued involvement.

During the evening Suzie Sharpe played fairy godmother as she read our tarot cards and told us our future; step aside Mystic Meg we’ve found the real deal here! When she’s not predicting your future she’s coaching you on your present as a corporate career coach.

After 9pm arrived we had to call it a night – a curry was waiting!  So with some final networkers – their pockets bulging with business cards – still chatting away, we made our departure to the nearest Indian.

Further to 6 trains, 4 banners and numerous cocktails, another link-up event was over.  Thanks, Manchester, it was great to see you all, and I hope I am not alone in my eager anticipation for the next one!

Top tip…

Many of the event attendees are members of the UK Marketing Lounge on LinkedIn and the UK Marketing Network.  These are two great places for UK marketers to hang out.  Why not join and connect with them?  It could change your life.

View event photos on Facebook

The Manchester Link-up partners

Improving Search Engine Rank

You want to be top dog, right? Good! If your website isn’t ranked highly in Google, Bing and Yahoo for keywords and phrases that people would use to find your business, services and products online, you are missing out on big money and success.

Search Keywords, Terms and Phrases

To improve your rank, you’ll first want to optimize your website for search engines. What do I mean by optimize your website? Well, you’ll want to write content, blog posts, white papers, and more that are relevant to internet searches. You’ll also want to adjust file names, content titles and a lot of the “hidden” code of your website.

To do this, review what keywords and phrases people are using to find your website with tools like Google Analytics. If you’ve been dabbling in internet marketing and already have a keyword list, double-check them. Make sure the keywords you’re targeting are actually keywords people are searching for in Google, and check to make sure those words have a decently high volume of searches online each month. That information can be found with Google Adwords Keyword Tools.

Stock Your Website with Keyword-Rich Content

Second, create a schedule and get cracking on adding new content to your website in the form of articles, blogs, research reports, analysis, product details, press releases, industry news and more. The goal is to create a media schedule whereby new content development becomes a function of your regular business. Search engines love keyword-rich, relevant content. And a consistent publishing schedule helps to build “search engine momentum” to keep your site rising in the search engine rankings and continually improve your Zimbabwe SEO.

Zimbabwe SEO

The cream doesn’t always rise to the top! Just because you have a good product, service and business, doesn’t mean your website will reflect that in search engine rank. For more advice and how-to articles, check out our other blog posts on SEO

Vuvuzelas attracted a lot of attention during the first ever soccer World Cup hosted in Africa by one of Africa’s best developed nations, South Africa. Vuvuzelas are reputed to have their roots in the kudu horn, which would summon African villagers to meetings, and the name may have isiZulu origins from the term “making noise.”

Drums; although drum beating has been relegated to traditional rituals; drums used to play a major role in transmitting information in Africa. Variations in playing styles symbolized different messages. The same can be noted again on rock paintings and stones which have different patterns and shapes depicting different messages.

The ultimate of effective interpretation of any means of communication should be when it appeals to all the human senses. Then it will first be stored in memory for such periods that it remains accessible in human memory for further processing as and when needed.

The rate at which information is accessed, processed and shared also determines the rate of development of a society. Today we try to trace our history as Africa and interpret what imprints left by early inhabitants meant to us. It is the gift they left us, the history where we are trying to figure out what where they communicating among themselves and to the future generation.

One thing about African means of communication is that they have not catered for mass transferring of knowledge and skills. Most of our exploits are shrouded in myths, secrecy and mystery. The system tends to make it out that skills transferring is hereditary or is unique to particular families rather than an open system where documentation is available in terms of certain trades and then anyone can learn and practice without any spiritual connotations.

Of note are abilities to create lightning, unless if it is witch-craft but if it is African science why isn’t it documented? Cure for many ailments are treatable by various mixtures of herbs known by traditional healers and that knowledge is not documented in any journal, periodical or textbook for future generations.

There are lots of many ancient technologies attributed to Africa but they remain myths as there is no documentation as to their existence.  The pyramids in Egypt, the Great Zimbabwe monuments, postulates of origin of the mathematics concept in Swaziland (wikipedia.org/History_of_mathematics) and many other advancements which can only be talked about if there was documentation.

Evidence of many African scientists, inventors around the world clearly shows that we are capable and with the coming in of online sharing and networking communities, surely the Mother Continent is going to move ahead.

Information sharing before the era of internet

“The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.”

The World Wide Web was officially launched in 1993, but that is only part of the internet. The internet was officially launched in 1989, but its origins can be traced back to 1969.
Before the internet and the World Wide Web came into existence what means of communication where people using? A look at the development of communication tools demonstrated how superior methods and infrastructure helped transform nations. It helped preserve knowledge, sharing of the knowledge and ideas albeit at compressed time.

It is not an understatement to conclude that the coming in of such means of communication like print, telegraph, telephones, radio, television etc made a major contribution in helping development in the developed world. They where breakthrough technologies that ushered in new ways of communication and unfortunately during that time as Africa we where still not as developed as even to be able to access the new means of communication.

Though after colonization and independents we have also started to use the same technologies for communication but precise use favored the pioneers. Even up to until now there are some countries in Africa where there is no full penetration of radio, television and telephone services among citizens.

Libraries, trade shows, conventions, road shows, flyers, brochures, the post service, road services, trains, airlines, ships, yellow pages, encyclopedias you name it. I am not able exhaust the full list of how ideas where communicated before the age of the Internet. Resources which where available to connect to sources of information though are where they not comparable to the internet they still led to the advancement of human kind.

These means of communication enabled researchers to be closer to their counterparts, closer to subjects they where researching, being able to transfer their knowledge and collaboratively work on issues that assisted human kind immensely.

It is through such media that more and more innovators, inventors, businessmen, politicians, religious leaders found inspiration to do greater things and also platform to deliver their messages across the developed world.

Internet Technology and ICTs Everywhere

Now if the countries outside of Africa made so much tremendous developments with communication technologies before the internet came into play, what then shall we say about their development right now?

Maybe this time I will just play a case by case scenario of business and individuals who have assumed hero status and became billionaires out of the new technology.

In the United States of America,

The internet ushered in a new wave of innovation in America deeply rooted in the computer industry where places like Silicon Valley have provided a launch pad and brooding environment for information and communication technology innovation.

We cannot underestimate a field that have produced world’s richest people, I mean people of influence as we all know that MONEY talks. A Google search will reveal that from computers we have such American business people like Bill Gates (Microsoft, windows), Larry Ellison (Oracle, databases), Michael Dell (Dell), Steve Jobs (Apple, ipods, ipads, itunes) and lots more.

We cannot underestimate how the technologies have accelerated the development of America and the world, given that some of these people have become the biggest philanthropists over the world, assisting countries in Africa to deal with such calamities as malaria, cholera you name it.

Getting into the internet age, it is up to you to ignore the impact and influence of Google, Facebook, Youtube etc. Look these technologies are just transforming on a larger scale the way business is done. Researching for this article I tried in vain to find information about “Traditional Marketing, Advertising” and I tell you all I was getting in relation to the subject focused so much things relating to marketing in the information age.

People have done much and in a short time with internet technologies compared to the traditional methods of communication for marketing.

ICT companies outside of the United States of America

We do not hear much about major developments in other developed nations around the world before the age of the internet. There is something I am noticing, it seems that with the coming of the internet, communication and sharing improved though at lower costs making it possible for development to take where otherwise entry requirements or entry capital would have been an issue. The capital requirements to start an internet business is less compared to starting a brick and mortar one while at the same time with the global reach of the internet the turnover time and profits could be exponential. Compare probably the start up costs considered when one is starting a car manufacturing business and another is starting a business like Google.

Samsung, LG, Sony, Nintendo, Siemens, Nokia, Thwarte (bought from a South African company) are some of the technology brands that have made a global impact though they are from other countries besides the United States of America. Just like in the motor industry where advancement in communication technologies also helped countries like Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom move ahead, I believe the internet is going to have the same effect on the Cradle of Mankind, mother of all continents Africa. Yes in a business sense, in a political sense, in a religious sense, the Internet is going impact Africa.

Internet technology uptake in Africa (especially Zimbabwe),

We have seen and observed how the internet technologies have exponentially enhanced growth and livelihoods in the developed world and I foresee the same happening for Africa. Look, for the first time a technology has been made available that have placed Africa and the whole world at the same platform in terms of communication.

We are no longer going to wait for the next voyage of the Queensland ship across the oceans to deliver news of what is happening outside Africa. Nope, as it is happening there, we have the same access in Africa. The entry requirements to be on the same platform are being sorted out and most African countries have quite a number of their citizens able to access such technologies.

In this report I am excited much with the exponential effects in growth brought by internet technology related innovations in Africa.  Browsing through a couple of reports by the International Telecommunications Union and the United Nations across the internet reveals to the user how the penetration of internet related technologies is growing in Africa.

Access to mobile services has grown exponential compared to the penetration of fixed phones. Given the coming of 3G services on mobile phones, that means a lot in terms of internet access. Broadband is coming to Africa though the costs are higher for access compared to the global world but still its something that we did not have before as an alternative. Mobile internet is bringing in more opportunities for African content to be shared online.

Regular ICT reports through Russell Southwood’s Balancing Act e-newsletter reveals an optimistic view based on developments within the technology sector across Africa. I have looked with interest as I gather information on the launch of various internet technologies from IT Incubators in Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Blackberry services in Mozambique, the famed undersea optic fibre cable connecting Africa to the rest of the world, Satellite connections, Mobile Money and the list is still growing.

The major focus of African governments is on developing internet technology infrastructure as all the other communication systems are now being routed through the internet, talk of data on mobile networks, talk of Voice over IP (VoiP), IPTV, IP telephony etc. Mobile networks in Africa are also providing platforms for more and more usability of their services to their subscribers, mobile money; M-Kesho and M-Pesa from Safaricom in Kenya, Sikwama from Telecel Zimbabwe, eTranzact. Affordable mobile phone brands with internet data capabilities are also streaming in from China, with G-Tide being a brand of choice in Zimbabwe.

When I started using computers and the internet in 2002, new terms and equipment that I came across where floppy diskettes, email, internet cafes, 4 gig hard drives, Pentium 3 computers, dial up connections, modems etc. Internet was largely accessed through company networks (though limited, it was cheaper to print emails than to read them online), internet cafes and university networks.

Econet Zimbabwe opened its 3G network to anyone with an Econet prepaid line and within a week there was a surge in the number people signing up on Facebook.com. What this means is that of its estimated more than three million subscribers, they could easily connect to the net as long as their handsets are compatible. Popular terms now includes bundles, megabytes, dongles (ZTE, EVDO, Hauwei used by broadband providers like Afri-com, Powertel, Econet, Telecel, Afritech), broadband, hotspots (ZOL, YoAfrica), googling, youtube, facebooking, skyping, wikipedia and soon dariro.com (“uri padariro here?” meaning do you have a comprehensive internet presence?)

Internet cafes still top as points of access for many internet users, besides cyber cafes in the central business districts, many are found even in most residential suburbs. Gossiplink, Chuweb, Central Cyber, Fast Browse, Khuyanet, Flame Rock, DC Africa, Platinum Broadband, RightClick, World Trade Centre, Leeya Brothers, Ximex Mall and many others are the names that comes mind if browsing from Harare. Across the country from Bulawayo, Masvingo, Gweru, Mutare and other cities internet cafes are now a norm.

On the other hand the number of companies providing internet access services has also increased talk of names like Ecoweb, Telco, Afri-com, Broadlands, ZOL, YoAfrica, IwayAfrica, Powertel, Webtech and many others.

What cannot be underestimated about the above developments on internet access is the impact of its use among previously digitally divided people from Zimbabwe.

The future of the Internet (Zimbabwe)

I am going to look at the impact of the internet mostly on the field of marketing in Zimbabwe. When all is said and done the issue that remains is content on the internet itself. We have people logging in to exchange messages be it business or social and people logging while researching academic subjects, we also have people login looking for employment opportunities and sourcing businesses, cars abroad.

But sooner or later we are going to see a huge leap of activity online where people are login to access LOCAL INFORMATION, LOCAL BUSINESS through the internet.

There are a number of businesses, individuals and organizations who are online through corporate websites. There are still issues in relation to the effectiveness of current website presence by many organizations with some suggesting that more can be done in terms of interactivity and resourcefulness.

When you logon Google and start searching for specific information on Zimbabwe that is when you realize local content is yet to be placed online. Contact details you find on most of the websites are no longer working, products advertised are no longer available, addresses and even people listed on the websites are no longer involved with the particular organizations.

Most up to date websites, blogs and forums on the internet are the ones catering for the Diaspora. Say someone wants to find something in Gweru, would simple search on Google assist in getting the through a comprehensive page with contact details and reviews of what you are looking for? Unfortunately not at this time, you might have to physically go there. The premiership games, you have to wait to hear all the results probably on the following day’s news bulletin. For churches sometime you struggle to access footage of conferences and services even when you are buying when all that can be streamed live online.

Though yes, it really hard to look past our challenges to see the tremendous changes taking place, but we are really getting somewhere with the internet. The benefits of sharing, connecting and networking within Zimbabwe and then with the Diaspora are beyond measure. Imagine if you can find all the information that you want to get somewhere from your mobile data connection, home and work network then we are talking greater strides in technology.

Adding e-commerce, e-business, e-governance, e-everything to the equation bring us more hope that as a continent we will get there.

The challenges are there in terms of access to infrastructure, cost of bandwidth and skills but we cannot ignore the power of a need created from apparent benefits.

I challenge therefore all of us to share, network and connect online. The internet is now available to more people comparing to previous years and as many find value in the technology we will see even growing numbers of heavy users. So the challenge is on everyone to help build databanks of our own information, our own knowledge online. We need to tell our story in our own context from our own perspective.

Yes we are posting pictures on facebook.com but there is more that we can do with this technology, it provides a platform for us to market our businesses, talents, natural resources, tourism facilities, and skills and there are many possibilities and the potential is inexhaustible.

PS: I see the internet as more like a “dariro” where anyone with a story to tell is given a platform which exposes his or her ideas to others. What happens after the exposure we do not know, but what I know is everyone needs a platform to express their talents and skills. Ideas here could products, services, religious messages, skills and talents in various disciplines. Unless a talented soccer is exposed to soccer scouts then he will not be known anywhere. “If a tree falls in a forest and no one sees it then no tree has fallen”

www.dariro.com Profile

Dariro.com is a website which offers people a platform to express their talents, skills, businesses, products, services while at the same time networking and sharing information.

Richwell Phinias Profile

Richwell Phinias is the founder and leader of Dariro.com. The idea behind www.dariro.com is creating a platform online where people can connect, network and share information for personal and corporate growth.

Here’s how you should look at the relationship between your blog and your social network profiles: your blog should serve as your “primary home” while your social networks should be your “holiday homes.”

This means that you need to spend most of you time building out and developing your blog – which means you need to be constantly adding value-add content to it as well as ways to capture the information of people who are visiting your site – and supplement your blog activity with engagements on your social networks.

The process should look like this:

Step 1: Create an attractive blog that is prepared to capture leads (e.g. create lead capture forms with an e-mail marketing platform, such as Constant Contact, and make it easy for people to connect with you on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn)

Step 2: Create a “content schedule” of topics that you (or someone else) will write about; publish this content to your blog according to the schedule.

Step 3: Jump on your social networks and drive your friends and followers back to your blog through compelling offers, comments, and questions.

Step 4: If you offer good incentives and intriguing content on your blog, you’ll be able to capture the contact information of the people who visit your site.

Step 5: Market to the leads that you generate through your e-mail marketing and social networks.

The world’s largest distributor of independent music then handles the logisitcs, including the transaction processing, music delivery, customer service, and artist payout.

MusicStore streams music and video, accepts fan reviews and allows fans to share music with their Facebook friends. “I’m extremely proud of this release, which solves the problem of selling your music on Facebook,” says CD Baby president Brian Felsen. “In the first five days since our ’soft’ launch, without any promotion whatsoever, we’ve already deployed over 1,500 artist stores.”

Apps to sell music are no novelty, however, the latest app has the disadvantage that its creator already has a large footprint in independent music. Its main competitors in this field are RootMusic’s BandPage, FanBridge’s Damntheradio, Nimbit’s MyStore, ReverbNation’s My Band and Moontoast Impulse. Apart from ReverbNation, CD Baby is the only physical and digital distributor with an existing collection of independent artists clients. CD Baby distributes more than 3.5 million tracks to dozens of digital music retailers including iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, and Spotify, and pays artists weekly for their product sales.

With a strong ecosystem around WordPress, this is exciting news because there are so many more themes, widgets, plug-ins and overall community support available.

The more we learn about WordPress, the more we like it, and the more we want to tweak the various settings for a personalized experience. One thing has become quite clear in all of this, namely, if we want total control of the Blog (i.e. super-admin rights), we really needed to host the Blog on our own domain and thus we have decided to launch: TheQuartzEffect.

The move has been exciting and no doubt a learning experience, but one we highly recommend if you are serious about Blogging, and frankly you should be. I hope you follow us along as we continue to share our marketing experiences and update you on what’s going on within this wonderful industry.

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