Yesterday I was reading a conversation on twitter (kenentrepreneur and someone else I cant really remember now) and they talked about how Social media is too young to have experts. And in a sense I do agree.
Social media, especially for brands, organisations and celebrities in our space (meaning in Africa) is still trying to find it's proper footing. While several people associate it with a twitter handle and a facebook page, it is way above that, it is in my opinion, what email was to secretaries in the mid 80's. Neither here nor there, butdefiantely cheaper, faster, and without the walk to post office, or to the next post office when they ran out of stamps.
But there are a few people who seem to be getting it right. Last week I had breakfast with Mark Kaigwa, amazing young man who talked me through how things work, what to do, and what not to do. I also set up a coffee date with Marvin Tumbo, he who runs the TNA online strategy(Uhuru Kenyatta). They're both the "go to men' in the social media space, and then more than ever i began to look at how Brands are handling that space, just to see very litte engagement in the local space.
We mostly have brands with twitter, facebook and linkedIn pages. very few of those engage and create conversations. Most of them are a customer care centre or product placement platform. But social media is so much more than that, for me, it is a place to build a relationship, that can easily translate into so much more for your brand.
Here's an interesting article about Social media.
Why Social Media is the Ultimate Ice Breaker
Africa has not utilized social media for business fully. I think it is because in Africa social media are just `social`. If business realized the social media potential... I bet if people realized SMM potential to a business they will swim on SMM.
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