Public Relations vs. Advertising
[bctt tweet=”In PR, The “public” is anyone who ever has/will form an opinion about the client” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What is Public Relations? Public Relations is a strategic communication process that builds and manages mutually beneficial relationships between Organizations and the Public. The “public” is anyone who ever has or ever will form an opinion about the client. These could include clients, potential clients, members of the community, the media, online fans etc. Public relations success requires a deep understanding of the interests and concerns of each of these and how to effectively address them through Publicity. What is advertising? Advertising is the act of announcing, praising or drawing attention to a product, service or event in a public medium in order to promote sales or attendance. What are the similarities between Public Relations and Advertising? PR agencies and advertising agencies share the same goals: promoting clients and making them seem as successful, honest, important, exciting or relevant as possible. But the paths to achieving this are different. [bctt tweet=”PR & advertising agencies share the same goals but different paths to achieving them” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] How is Public Relations different from Advertising? Newspapers, radio and TV stations (especially local ones) are always looking for fresh story ideas, particularly those with a “human interest” angle. A PR professional crafts press releases resembling a compelling news story, making it clear why his client’s product, service or personal history is important. The goal is to fulfill the journalist’s requirement for news while enhancing the client’s image in the public eye. PR agencies, as opposed to advertising agencies, promote companies or individuals via editorial coverage. This is known as “earned” or “free” media stories appearing on websites, newspapers, magazines and TV programs as compared to “paid media” or advertisements. Since advertising is paid for by the client, it is thus viewed with skepticism. Articles or TV appearances in respected publications have the advantage of third-party validation and are generally viewed more favourably. Another huge difference is the price. Public Relations in the media is free if done directly by the company. PR firms also charge monthly retainers or can be hired for specific projects. Advertising can be very pricey when you figure the cost of the space or time plus the creative designs and production costs. And most advertisements need to be repeated several times before the consumer can be influenced. Publicity has greater longevity than advertising. An article about your business will be remembered far longer than an advert. Publicity also reaches a far wider audience than advertising generally does. Sometimes, your story might even be picked up by the national media, spreading the word about your business all over the country. [bctt tweet=”An article about your business will be remembered far longer than an advert” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Advantages of Public Relations over Advertising Advertising builds exposure whilst Public Relations build trust. Advertising leaves a sceptical audience whilst public relations because of its endorsement by the media, validates and legitimises the audience. Because it’s in their best interest to sell you more ads, advertisers tell clients what they want to hear whilst PR people who deal with crises, image enhancement and creation of long-term relationships, where your story often must be accepted by others (the media) before you obtain recognition, will tell you what you need to hear. Advantages of Advertising over Public Relations Advertisers maintain creative control of output whilst Public Relations has no final say in output which rests in the hands of the media. Advertising uses visuals whilst Public Relations use language for persuasion. With Advertising, you are guaranteed of a placement in the media platform but with Public
6 digital marketing myths you need to stop believing
[bctt tweet=”Conduct your research and prepare a digital strategy that works for your business” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Digital marketing used to be a thing of luxury but now it’s a complete necessity in order for brands to stand out. There are some myths surrounding digital marketing that could be holding back most entrepreneurs from maximizing output and engagement online. Some of the myths were once true but need to be revisited once again and some were just not true, to begin with. Here are a few: Myth #1: “My business must be on every social platform” Social media has become a very important tool for many businesses but that doesn’t mean you should be on every platform. For instance companies with technical service offering would succeed best on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook rather than Pinterest and Instagram while fashion related business would do well on Instagram and Pinterest. It can be time wasting to update all social media accounts with fresh, relevant and regular content so it’s better to focus on 2-3 platforms that will give you results than keep track of many platforms which won’t provide results and your target audience isn’t necessarily there. Use this guide to find out which social media platform is best for your business. Myth #2: ”It’s all about followers” There are a lot of goals and metrics that you can establish when creating your digital strategy like page views, followers, likes, comments. They are great but such can be misleading. Go a little bit deeper than that, look at the time spent on your website, abandoned cart (if you have an e-commerce site) and more importantly conversion rates. How many of those who view, comment or like on your social media become paying customers? [bctt tweet=”Goals and metrics are great but such can be misleading” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Myth #3: “Boring industries can’t benefit from digital marketing” Rest be assured that whatever industry your business is in, your targeted customers are bound to be online somewhere. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your product or service isn’t too exciting or glamorous for you to profit from social media. It’s a matter of finding the right people to offer your product or services. “You’re only boring to those who aren’t in your target market.” – Harry Gardiner Additionally, stay ahead of the curve if your competition isn’t online yet. It is better to capitalize on their mistake and gain the first mover advantage to capture a new segment of customers. Myth #4: “Online negative comments are bad for my business” Of course, it is emotionally hard to see bad comments on something you have worked so hard to build but use this to your advantage. While some resort to hiding comments, blocking users etc. responding well and timely to legitimate concerns will do you a world of good in creating a virtuous reputation for your company. Motherland Mogul tip: There is no point in responding to insults and baseless comments. If you follow the tip on responding above, you will create brand loyalists (“your tribe”) who will defend your brand to the so called “keyboard warriors” who just want to destroy you. Besides, recently Instagram just like Facebook has rolled out a new feature which blocks offensive language. This feature is currently only available in English but more languages will be added later on. [bctt tweet=”Whatever industry your business is in, your targeted customers are bound to be online” via=”no”] Myth #5: “It’s all about tech” Do not make a mistake of thinking traditional marketing is now a thing of a past. Yes, technology is key in digital marketing but it will be wise to merge it with your existing traditional marketing practices like TV and radio commercials, newspaper, networking etc. into one so that you have a lasting impact and become more apparent. The Internet is unpredictable and with the influx of many updates per seconds, minutes or hour, you are better off maintaining a balance between the old marketing approach and digital marketing. Motherland Mogul tip: If you run a digital marketing campaign only you run a risk of being swallowed up by the Internet. Myth #6: “Why blog when I have a social media?” You probably should be writing content because chances are your target audience may be searching for it online when they are looking for tips, how to guides, product recommendations etc. The importance of having a blog cannot be understated as when on social media, you are on someone else’s turf and on their terms. With a blog, you’re on your territory and you make the rules. You can write as much as you want about anything. People come to check you out and here is where you build your position as an expert. There are a lot of myths out there but these ones are the ones I meet the most and are quite misleading. Don’t let any of them hold you back from fully benefiting from the digital world. Conduct your research and prepare a digital strategy that works for your business. Are you familiar with any other digital marketing myths that may have been left out on this list?
The ultimate marketing plan guide for the service industry
[bctt tweet=”We’ve put together an easy 7-step guide to creating a marketing plan for your business” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] A marketing plan is a written blueprint on how to sell your services to attract new customers, retain existing ones, and build a profitable brand. Together with EM Consulting, we’ve put together a guide to help marketing planning for startups in the service industry. The aim of this guide is to provide a simple process for organizing your marketing efforts to achieve business growth and profitability. Without an intentional marketing plan, business growth becomes a function of luck and individual effort. What is the service industry? Just so we’re clear, this guide is geared towards businesses in the service industry. The service industry consists of businesses that provide services (intangible goods) to other businesses as well as final consumers. Such services include professional services, online services, ICT, tourism, travel, ecommerce, financial services, online services among others. Basically, a service business is one where no goods are produced/ manufactured. Click over to the next page where you’ll find the detailed guide as well as a link to a downloadable template (plus a surprise offer from EM Consulting).
Discover six ways to use Snapchat for business
[bctt tweet=”Ready to start using Snapchat for your business? These six tips will help you” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Have you thought of adding Snapchat to your marketing mix? Well if you haven’t, you should. A breakdown of Snapchat’s numbers will show you why: over 100 million daily active users, 400 million snaps per day, and over 1 billion views of stories each day. And there’s more. For the personal user, Snapchat lets you easily talk with friends, view Live Stories from around the world, and explore news with the Discover feature. It also presents huge possibilities for your business. One of the key ways for brands to connect viscerally with their customers is to share brand stories. Shared value has been known to create brand loyalty and with Snapchat being real-time, it provides a ready platform to showcase the values and cultures of your company in a personal and visual way. Find out six ways you can use Snapchat for your business in the infographic below (text follows after). 1. Cover live events You can use Snapchat for product launches or one-of-kind events like the 5,000th customer to shop in your store etc 2. Offer contests or promotions You can offer promo codes or discounts to the fans who watch your entire Snapchat story, or ask them to take a snap while holding your product. 3. Behind the scenes You could show off your company and make sure to have fun with it. Capture birthday parties, Friday afternoons or company outings. The idea is to show how your brand differentiates itself with company culture. 4. Partner with influencers Just like with Twitter and Instagram, social media influencers on Snapchat can help spread brand awareness and reach. Allow these influencers “take over” your brand’s Snap for maybe a day to help with the promotion of an upcoming event, product launch etc. These influencers will help introduce & bring their own followers to your page. 5. Publish transparency series Like we mentioned earlier, shared values help build brand loyalty. One of the best ways to do so is present a backstage company access to your customers. You’d be surprised how many people are interested in your internal processes. Cisco has done a neat job of sharing the daily goings-on in the firm with their “A day in the life of an Account Manager” series. If you are wondering what Cisco – a networking and telecommunications company is doing Snapchat – you are not alone. Telecommunications isn’t the most interesting subject to talk about, but Cisco managed to flip the script. They focused on their culture and exposed a human side of their brand. 6. Host AMA sessions Ask Me Anything sessions can be anything you want them to be. They can be about your goofy company culture or a professional conversation about trends in your industry. It could be “We just bought a N1 million camera for our production team, ask us anything” or something a little more serious like “We got 2 billion organic impressions on a campaign last week, ask us anything.” or something random, “We can tint my eyebrows with Coffee, ask us anything.” Find relevant topics you can start with your audience that will pull them in and engage them.
The Art of loyalty: How to build brand love and engagement with content marketing
[bctt tweet=”Few people are loyal to brands, here’s how to get people to love yours with content marketing” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What brand of seasoning cube was in your home growing up? Right now, if you took a random survey, odds are your respondents will tell you they saw only one brand of seasoning cube. When I surveyed my colleagues -mostly 90s kids- the results match up. Most remember seeing only just the Maggi seasoning cubes or the Knorr seasoning cubes. It used to be that people were faithful to brands because they have a history with their products and services. They bought only one brand of cars; one brand of toiletries or picked groceries from only one store. Lots of factors are responsible for this loyalty; top on the list being limited choices. But that’s beyond the scope of this article. The point simply is that people are buying differently than they did in the 90s or as early as the turn of the millennium. These days, few people are loyal to brands. According to Accenture, only 28% of customers are loyal to brands. When one considers that it costs up to 25x more to acquire new customers than it does to keep one, this trend provides a unique challenge for business owners. For small businesses, the way to level the playing field with tough deep-pocket competition is to build brand loyalty. Customers will return to you come rain or shine when your brand inspires loyalty. How do you solve this problem as a small business? Enter content marketing. Engaging positively and consistently with customers along their different purchase journeys will nurture brand loyalty. This is most true for millennials; 62% of whom feel that online content drives their loyalty to a brand. Triggering loyalty might just be the core of content marketing. What is content marketing? “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action,” – Content Marketing Institute. If you received an e-mail update from your spin class instructor this morning, you’ve been exposed to a form of content marketing. If you’ve read a guide on “how to make Bantu Knots when your hair is only two inches long” – that’s content marketing. Combined with a top-class customer service, content marketing will create a community of rabid fans around your brand. [bctt tweet=”Customers will return to you come rain or shine when your brand inspires loyalty” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] How do you begin? The first step is to outline your typical customer journey. There are many frameworks that explain the process from consumers’ awareness of your brand to transactional engagement with it. My favourite is Google’s “See, Think, Do, Care” framework. Understating this funnel helps you shape your message for the right customer in the right context. If you had a business selling lactation cookies, your communication at the “See” stage is to “all pregnant women.” At the “Think” stage, your communication is to “pregnant women or new mothers who are unable to lactate naturally.” At the “Do” stage, your communication is to “New mothers who want to buy lactation cookies right now”. Finally, at the “Care” stage, your communication is to “new mothers who bought and are taking lactation cookies from me.” At the last stage of the process, the goal is primarily to build loyalty. But nevermind this, elements that build loyalty should be baked into content at every stage. Shared value To consistently infuse brand loyalty triggers in your content is to develop and share content that is useful and conveys shared value. Shared value is about focusing more on people and their beliefs and less on your product. The focus on the product is why many contents from brands are ignored. According to a Corporate executive Board (CeB) study published in 2012, most consumers say that they were loyal “not to companies, but to beliefs.” From the text on your landing page to the call-to-actions on your ebook, your beliefs (and that of your audience) should shine through. [bctt tweet=”Content that engenders loyalty is more than a blog post, find out more here” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] The types of content that engender loyalty Content that engenders loyalty is more than a blog post. Although those play a big role, loyalty-driven content marketing is driven by a deeper understanding of your customer motivations, their engagement behaviors, and your company goals. Some of the short examples I will proceed to share may not fit snugly with your brand, but you can deploy them based on your specific needs. 1. Culture blogs Culture blogs reveal the safe internal conversations of a company. For our example with our lactation cookie company, a culture blog could be “Why we keep our cookie cutter in the top drawer” or “What our new teammates taught us about cookie counting.” Or consider this super-honest culture blog from Buffer; “What We Got Wrong About Self-Management: Embracing Natural Hierarchy at Work.” The core idea of culture blogs is to put the culture, beliefs and thought processes of your company on full display. Culture blogs (like all other content types) can be deployed at every level of the customer journey but are suited for the “See” and “Think” stages. 2. Newsletters Newsletters are one of the most profitable pillars of content marketing. Emails have been known to provide an overall higher conversion rate when compared to other content channels. They can often provide functional purposes along every level of the consumer journey. You can use them to share product updates or nurture your leads. How ever you use them, ensure that you are helpful. 3. Product marketing kits What series of content will help your consumer live better, do their jobs better or increase their preferred variable of customer success? Combine them into one big digital folder (or ebook) and share with your audience. These kits are more instructional than sales-y. They have high production value
Top-level website changes that will turbocharge your business SEO
[bctt tweet=”Every business needs an SEO strategy, why not share with changing how your website looks” via=”no”] Every business that will grow beyond the street corner needs an SEO strategy; a way for it to get found online. Why? Because online is where 67% of Nigerian buyers start their purchase journey [PDF]. So, your SEO and profitability are not only equally important, they also go hand in hand. What is SEO again? Why do you need it? If you can’t answer these questions, eead Uche Offokoja’s SEO primer; “Is your business ready for SEO?” to get a quick refresher. __ It’s impossible to cover the nuances of SEO in a 1000-word article. If we are being honest, 10,000 words, and we’d only be halfway there. What you’ll read in this article are fundamental aspects of your website you can improve to start ranking on Google, getting seen by your consumers and making more sales. Start with a website audit The first step to creating an SEO strategy is your website audit. Doing this lets you know the specific elements of your website to improve. A professional SEO service will provide a more in-depth outlook for your website complete with SEO competitive analysis, wireframe recommendations plus a search audit. But a great way to do this on a shoestring budget is to use the SEMRush tool. It’s a free tool that will give you an interactive snapshot of your current SEO efforts; your top organic keywords and their positions, what other sites are competing for your position, backlinks and more. A basic audit of one of my favourite websites; Copyblogger.com, returned this: (All traffic to copyblogger is organic and the leading keyword is “how to write an article.” The data points are interactive and you can dig further down to extract more insights). These insights are useful for your content strategy (more on this later) and possible website upgrades to improve usability. Optimize your site for mobile As an extension of your website audit, examine how you are doing on mobile. Google ranks mobile-optimized websites higher in SERPs (search engine results pages). But more important is the implication of this on your visitors. More than 55% of all searches now come from mobile, and if your consumers can’t use your site on mobile, they won’t stick around. To get a good sense of how your website does on mobile, use Varvy. (Copyblogger.com is optimized for mobile, although the site latency on mobile needs to be optimized.) The relationship between brands and customers is not an equal one. Customers have the leverage and you have to be there for them as they navigate their social and transactional realities. To do that is to be available on their mobile phones where they spend a third of their waking lives. I’ll leave Tom Fisbourne of Marketoon to drive the point home; “A well-loved brand that isn’t optimized for mobile may not be well-loved for long.” Speak to your developer about responsive website design to improve your mobile-optimization. Tweet: When last did you do a website audit? Never? Find out why you need one here Develop a content strategy The number of visitors to your page and how long they stay (their dwell time) also affect your ranking. Useful content with high production values is one of the most effective ways to attract and keep traffic on your website. A content strategy doesn’t mean you start a podcast, a webinar and an email autoresponder series at the same time. Start with blogging… Companies with blogs have 97% more inbound links (Source) B2B marketers using blogs generate 67% more leads (Source) Small business with blogs generate 126% more leads (Source) Start your content strategy with keyword research. This helps you figure out real questions and ideas that matter to your consumers. The Google Keyword Planner or the SEMRush tool will come in handy here. Some general ideas for your content strategy: – Develop content for humans and make your content helpful. – Your content strategy should include your content matrix, content calendar and an operational calendar. – Annotate your content with header tags, add outbound links, make your content readable (avoid walls of text), use alt texts for your images, and compress image sizes to reduce latency. – Finally, distribute your content. Suss out a robust distribution strategy that will ensure your content reaches your desired audience. You could, for instance, start sending weekly email to your list or create a social sharing strategy. Are you using popups? Pop-ups: online forms that keep you away from your heart’s desires. Only a few people are a fan. That’s why Google is cracking down on websites that have pop-ups. Such websites rank lower in search engine results pages. Speak with your developer to remove any pop-ups on your website and explore alternative lead-generation elements, including stationary banner ads, stationary sidebar ads, behavior-driven pop-ups or notification style ads. The idea is not to get rid of lead-generation, but to present decent usability. Improve your site architecture Finally, how easy is it to navigate your website? When visitors can’t find what they want on your website, they often leave right away; leading to high bounce rate, leading to low ranking on Google. As a general rule; your website should not take more than four clicks to get to the deepest level. LIke this: The fact is; site architecture is not only great for usability, it makes it easier for search engine bots to crawl and index your website. While SEO is not the goal in itself (sales and profitability are), you’ll often need SEO to get you there. The ideas here will get you right on your way. — This article was written by Gbenga Onalaja. Gbenga is a Content Strategist at Wild Fusion, Wild Fusion is Africa’s leading Digital Marketing Agency.
Is my business ready for SEO?
[bctt tweet=”Without SEO, your business is basically invisible. You need to be visible!” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of refining your website using both on and off-page optimization techniques so that it will be indexed and ranked by search engines, naturally. – Digital Marketing Institute If you have had a hard time understanding SEO (Search Engine Optimization), let’s start with a visual exercise. Picture this -you have a wonderful store with all the best offerings, only…your store is invisible. Not just that; millions of your potential consumers pass by daily looking for just what you offer. Crazy right? Yes, that’s exactly what your business is without SEO. You need to be visible! Take results from a Wild Fusion Digital Center 2016 channel effectiveness study, for instance; 63% of Nigerian consumers use search engines to research and buy products. This puts Search right at the center of the purchase funnel. You need to ensure your business shows up when people search for the services you offer. How SEO Works Ever wondered how search results show up? Let’s talk spiders! Google has an inventory or index where it stores keywords and information regarding the websites they originate from. This index is populated by search engine spiders who crawl the web. When they get to your site, they populate the index with keywords from your site. As people search online they are actually querying the index. What Google then does is to present the most relevant results of the search from its inventory. So basically, if Google doesn’t have you in their index, there’s no way you are showing up in the search results. This is why you need to optimize your website for search engines. Ranking on the search engine … Page 1, Page 2..Page 10 Ranking is website positioning in SERP (Search Engine Results Pages). Your ultimate goal would be to rank on page 1 and even better, be the first result. Like the saying goes ‘the best place to hide a dead body is on page 2 of Google search engine’. As crazy as that sounds, the reality is that search engine visibility is a clear indicator of good marketing, it also lends credibility to your brand. [bctt tweet=”Search engine visibility is a clear indicator of good marketing & lends credibility to your brand” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] SEO is a continuous effort. Every day, businesses similar to yours are competing for the same keywords, trying to convince Google that they are more relevant. Google considers a number of factors when ranking websites, but today we will highlight two. Content Relevance You want to ensure that your content is relevant. Start your content strategy with keyword research. This helps you figure out real questions and ideas that matter to your consumers. The Google Keyword Planner will come in handy here. Also, your content should be readable, you should avoid duplicating content at any cost. Mobile Responsiveness Nothing is more frustrating than getting to a site via your mobile phone and finding it’s so difficult to navigate. Think user experience when designing your site! – This article was written by Uche Offokaja. Uche is the Client Solutions Manager Wild Fusion, Africa’s leading Digital Marketing Agency.
Social Media Marketing- What? Why? How?
[bctt tweet=”Social media marketing has gone been perceived as a fad to a must-have for brands today” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Let’s start with 2 definitions to answer the What: social media noun websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking Source: Oxford Dictionary social media marketing noun the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites Source: Searchengineland Simple right? Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s dive right into the Why! Social media marketing has gone from what was perceived as a fad in the early 2000s to a must-have for brands today. Every brand, business, and entity wants to have a presence on every social media platform. Why should YOU think about social media marketing? Well, it starts with you as a brand. Social media is an opportunity for you to build your personal brand, and grow your authority on your subject. Your social media profiles are the first thing to show up in a Google search for your name. These are the best places to start with establishing you as a brand. Twitter is a great place to weigh in with your opinions. LinkedIn is the best place to detail your professional experience and showcase your expertise. Facebook allows you to keep in touch, and share your views. Instagram provides a place to chronicle your life’s journey. When it comes to your business, social media lets you reach a staggering number of people at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. Take Facebook, for example. There are more than 15 million Nigerians on Facebook. For $10/day, you can reach up to 40,000 people. That’s a staggering amount of people and dirt cheap when you compare it to the cost to reach those people through traditional media channels. The best part is you don’t always have to pay to reach them. It’s all about how you communicate with them. The variety of social media channels means you can showcase your business and its personality in different ways. Social media allows you to get in front of your consumer where they are. And believe me, they are everywhere! Social media is becoming an integral part of the marketing funnel. With the advent of messenger bots, live video, and VR, it is now possible to sell a product and an experience without any physical process. That is huge in itself and signals a drastic shift in how consumers’ purchasing activity. [bctt tweet=”Social media is becoming an integral part of the marketing funnel” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] So how do you start? For starters, do not go and create an account on every social media platform for your business. Yes, that’s right, do NOT. It starts with listening. You understand your business and your target audience. The next thing is to see where your target audience is and what they’re saying. When you’re armed with that knowledge, you can then think about which platforms your business needs and how your business is going to join in the conversation on them. Remember each platform has its own nuances, and it’s best to understand them before jumping on them. Take the time to study each platform. Some tips for your content: Keep it relevant and informative. Statistics show that consumers engage most with relevant and engaging content. Use an 80:20 approach. 20% of your content should be sales focused. The 80% should educate, showcase, inform and entertain your consumers. Always be ready to adapt. What works today might not work tomorrow, and the landscape is always changing. Be ready to change with it. Be conversational. Integrate. Your social media sales communication should not be in isolation of any other marketing activity you’re running. Social media marketing is not a thing of tomorrow, it is a thing of now. And every passing day, it’s evolving. All aboard? – This article was written by Prashant Kirpalani. Prashant is the Social Media Manager at Wild Fusion, Wild Fusion is Africa’s leading Digital Marketing Agency. When he’s not working, he likes to game, DJ, and tweet about Chelsea and fantasy football.
Growing and marketing your brand via social media – The tale of 5 #MotherlandMoguls
[bctt tweet=”When used right, digital media can be harnessed to make a direct impact in the society” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] It is not often that one catches five aspiring women in the same spot. Well, maybe it’s often, but what are the chances of finding them engaged in a fashion project to raise awareness and funds for charity? These five #MotherlandMoguls are part of the ongoing Romperade Campaign, an online fashion charity event to raise funds for Living for the Needy Foundation. SLA contributor Emma Kwenu Smith caught up with the five who have successfully grown their brands online, to ask them quick questions about the impact of social media marketing on their businesses. What’s the role of social media in charity organizations and specifically for your brand? How has social media given you exposure as a brand/charity foundation? Caritas Aryee, Founder, Tatas and Friends Foundation. You would notice that, largely, Ghanaian charity foundations have always run on traditional media. It’s easier to hear a radio ad calling for donations for the Osu Children’s home etc. rather than a social media campaign for funds. This is the exact reason why Tatas and Friends Foundation has been a game changer in the industry. We started with social media and still the story has not changed. It has been a huge boost for us, and we encourage others to do same. First off, our publicity is done via social media. It is easy to get Kenkey for the Needy, (which is our major fundraising project) trending on platforms such as twitter and IG. Since we are a charity organization, we are unable to invest in traditional media for publicity. However, through social media, we receive access to grant interviews on TV and radio. In doing so, we have been profiled alongside other solid brands on platforms such as Starr Woman Project, TedX campus, Reach for Change and many others. And to think this publicity is free! We just had to capitalize. The second bit of using social media is that we are able to reach out to people both locally and internationally to raise money. People we do not even know, reach out to us so that they can donate to the cause. It is amazing! Social media is a powerful tool, it has shaped the Living for the Needy brand and has given us a lot of exposure. How do influencers promote a brand and how rewarding is it to include them when building your brand online? Jessica Naa Adjeley Konney, Fashion Blogger, Trends&Blendsgh. Influencers have become the new voices of brands —they are already largely recognized on social media for carving a niche. At this point, they have grown an audience that is interested in every content they churn out which is great for people who would like to patronize their services. [bctt tweet=”If you’d like to speed up the process of advertising a new brand, influencers are the way to go” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Being an influencer myself and having featured influencers as well, I can say that the exposure they give to a brand is immense. Featuring an influencer takes many forms —you can have them use and review your products and put up posts on social media. They can also be included in events and can feature in huge campaigns so that it gains traction. How do you know which digital audience to engage with for your brand and how do you decide which social media platform to use? Constance Efua Mensah, Creative Director, EfuaStanzz Fashion. It starts with knowing the general audience target for my brand. We are more skewed towards women’s clothing but basically, all our marketing is geared towards the confident woman. In that light, it is important that we build an identity that resonates with our targeted audience. [bctt tweet=”Choosing one social media platform starts with knowing & understanding your audience” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Images are essential for my fashion brand —it helps clients (both potential and existing) know what my brand is capable of providing. After all, to be comfortable enough to purchase a dress, you need to see it and assess it from all angles. As such, I mostly use Instagram and Facebook as a means of communicating to my audience. Facebook has a wider reach, meaning more people see our posts and it also allows for effective picture/video sharing. Instagram also has a beautiful and simple approach to marketing. Content, particularly on Instagram, is simply more shareable, easier to understand, and far more universal than other types of content. Also, it is full of people eager to connect with a brand on a more intimate and tangible level. Does social media directly affect your client base? Lamisi, MakeUp Artist, Lamisi Artistry. Truth is, I do get over 80% of my clients via social media. The rest is through word of mouth. [bctt tweet=”MUAs need social media, people need to see your work before trusting you with their faces” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] I leverage heavily on Instagram particularly so that people see the images —it is an excellent platform for sharing all my works. However, the industry is very competitive, as such, it is important to make sure that your images are of good quality. Else, how will you stand out and win potential clients over? For brands like Coca Cola, Vodafone etc. there may not be a very direct correlation between the sales you make and your social media investment. However, for us in the beauty industry, it’s very plain. [bctt tweet=”Social media dictates our potential client base and ultimately, it is where we get our clients” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] The more posts on your social media pages, the better? Why? Maud Mensah, CEO, WigClub That statement is indisputable. The more you post and engage your audience, the more visible you are. However, you do not want to share too much information that it suffocates them and drives them away, and you also don’t want to share so little that they become disinterested. It is important to find the right balance for your brand. As
4 ways to sustainably self-gift
[bctt tweet=”Just keep a good distance between yourself and irresponsible spending this year” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Are you familiar with the term pro-spending? Okay so maybe I coined and altered that one. I can promise you now though, you can spend productively. Now if you are part of the favoured and wise saving population that has a jar full of pennies to spend on gifts, then this one is especially for you. I mean, who better than you to buy yourself gifts and make your own little wishes come true, right? Whatever you do and whoever you are, there is always something you know you should probably spend on but won’t. Instead of buying a whole lot of things you’re not even going to have or use, why not gift yourself sustainably? Trust me, it’s very possible. I intend on schooling you on gifts you should consider addressing to yourself that you will still be proud of forever. Ready to self-gift? 1. Gifts to curb the struggle Remember all those little items that you desperately need and want but your budget was like…? Well why not spend on those items now? If you grew up in a family like mine, then you’ll know that we shop at the season-end sale of the previous one, and that’s the exact same principle we should adopt here. It might be a study lamp for load shedding, a new suit for work, new devices and gadgets for freelancing or anything durable really. Even with this very ‘safe’ spending, it’s still possible to go over-board, so be cautious. [bctt tweet=”If the timing of your spending is wrong, even the ‘necessary spending’ can be reckless.” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] 2. PR and marketing The beauty about PR and marketing is that one can always use more of it! This is a good time to look out for new ways to market your services, skills or business. Do this to a group of people with thousands of rands just waiting to be spent on you! Whether you are an events MC, model, photographer, promotions person, marketing specialist, and so on, someone could use your help. Get out there, market yourself, communicate with your market, tell and show them what you can do. [bctt tweet=”There’s no such thing as enough PR and marketing.” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] 3. Branding I can’t stress this enough, you need to get branded! In all seriousness, branding legit goes a very long way. Get your logo on a cap or shirt, have your team wear those shirts to events for instance. You never know who’s looking! An even better suggestion for those whose businesses are still on the ground, go get your logo designed/perfected. Maybe get business cards and hell yes, invest in that famous ‘info@yourbusiness.co.za’ email, you’ll thank me later. 4. Networking I’m pretty certain most of you will like this one. If all you can do is go to festivals and picnics, then do it with a goal —network! Sneak a few business cards in your purse and casually give them to people you think you could possibly work with. The upside of this is the opportunities that might come your way during the ever-so-rude hunger month that follows very shortly; JanUWorry. If there’s nothing at all you can think of, especially you early December pay and bonus ladies, I’m sure your bank would be happy to keep that money for you. You’ll be happier when you see it, plus the interest will save you on a rainy day! Okay, don’t freak out yet, you’ll be good. Just keep a good distance between yourself and irresponsible spending this year.