Highlights from last night’s Social Media Talk 2015

Last night was the meeting of creatives and others who may have just gotten jobs where creatives should be thanks to the British Chamber of Commerce and Airtel Networks Zambia Plc who put it all together at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka.

The panel included : Mr. Peter Armstrong (Young and Rubicam), Ms. Carol White (Ideas Consultancy), Janice Matwi (Airtel Zambia’s Brand and Communications Manager) and Nathan Sichilongo (Dot Com Zambia’s Digital Marketing Manager)

I just want to share some of the main points that stuck out from the conversation which was on the “The use of Social Media by CEOs and Directors” hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce and Airtel Zambia:

• There is a lack of understanding of the power of social media in Zambia, hence people tend to abuse it by posting whatever they want. It has not yet matured.
• Business go wrong in using social media as a marketing channel rather than a marketing strategy. If they did they could get more sales than just likes.
• When it comes to social media we need to know what brand we want to build on whichever platform businesses choose to operate on.
• Social media can be used as a research tool for consumer insights using the various analytics tools available e.g Facebook has the Insights tab readily available to check your performance.
• Some platforms like Facebook allow you to target your audience by age, location, even gender.
• Businesses are scared of social media because they’re scared of negative comments, but it helps for feedback purposes. They have to know how their product/service is being perceived.
•  Businesses can protect their online profiles by taking everything into account and listening to customers. they can also protect themselves internally by limiting how many people can post for them.
• As a business, find out which platform works for you the best to reach your customers and make sales.
• However, if you’re not present on some platforms, there’s always someone who will create a parody account for you e.g @_ZESCO
• Businesses need to find people passionate about social media to run their pages, not just anyone who can type.
• Keep in mind that your customers have different levels of understanding regarding what you put up on social media.
• Always share content relevant to your business, but mostly relevant to your customers as well.

Most businesses claimed not to know about the availability of bloggers because bloggers do not pitch their services to them. How about they also make those channels available and open on THEIR platform so bloggers and social media content creators can apply for what they know they can do?

We hope those tips got you looking for a social media manager for your business because this is 2015, mobile phones are everywhere and people are on them 90% of the time. Why not make a sale in that time in the smartest way possible? You can see more of the discussion using the hashtag #socialmedia15 on Twitter.

Let us know which point appealed to you the most, in the comments section below…