Ahead of the Social Media Week (SMW) Lagos, slated to hold from February 17 to 21, Obi Asika, chairman of SMW Lagos and founder, Dragon Africa, in this interview with FEMI ASU, stresses the need for businesses to have a strategy in place in their bid to make the most of social media in driving business growth.
Firstly, let’s look at the level of penetration of social media into the Nigerian business space. What is your take on it?
The penetration was initially being led by the telecommunication companies such as Glo, Etisalat, MTN, Visafone, and anybody in telecommunications would be using social media strongly. Every major brand in Nigeria, from the major multinationals, the major FMCG companies are leveraging social media because it enables them interact directly with their consumers and also to measure that interaction and also to be able to see insights of trends and behavior which can help them in terms of their planning, advertising and sales and leveraging. Maybe before, they might have had to pay a PR consulting and advertising agency for this, now they can engage for free if they have some experienced analysts and people working with them.
Now, I think everybody is leveraging social media. For example, for professionals, LinkedIn is a good platform to be on, both in terms of showcasing their credentials, seeking new opportunities and new alliances. So we have to understand that social media is not all about just games, yes there is entertainment on social media, education is key on social media, but from a business perspective, look at things like YouTube and Twitter, look at tools like Google, LinkedIn and Facebook. All these tools what do they enable? They enable better insights, targeted marketing, education, mass marketing in such a way that you can now decide for yourself how you want to engage your community.
Why is it that when some companies launch into social media platform they don’t follow through?
I think sometimes that is because people don’t understand that the worst thing you can do when you begin to engage your consumers is to pull back. I think with social media being so popular, I think there is a pressure to be on social media. Certain companies are like ‘let me set up a Facebook page, a Twitter account’, but they don’t have either a person or a team in place that have what it takes to follow through because to be on these platforms you have to engage, otherwise it is useless. If you are just going to set up an account, but you are not going to create an audience or interact with who your customers or clients are, then it’s useless to even set up. And I think that’s where a lot of companies fail. They are just there, but they are not saying anything or doing anything. And social media is all about communicating with your community and building your community.
So how huge is the implication of not engaging the audience on social media?
I think it is very huge. I think what every individual and every company has to know is what they want to do with the platform. If you are somebody seeking an audience either for business or political reasons, social media is a nice, cheap and convenient way to get to an audience. However if you don’t have the content to sustain the conversation, you will fall by the way side because the thing about social media is people can see straight through you. So if it was just a tactical action because somebody told you that social media might be a good thing for your brand, it will fail. But if you find a way to communicate with your audience, it will help your brand.
The reason why on every social media platform worldwide music is the number one thing is because music creates the most connections. It creates an emotional conversation and people don’t need to understand what you’re saying and in which language before they connect emotionally. And every time something happens, there is conversation around it. A classic example in Nigeria in another context will be football. Every time there is a football game, whether the national team or the EPL, the conversation on social media around the goals or the referee’s decision is enormous. And brands are targeting those conversations; they are targeting those audiences because they know that advertising measurement shows that if somebody is thinking about your brand at that particular moment, they are more likely to use your brand and to engage your brand.
The key thing about marketing that we have all been told over the years is that if people are engaged by your brand, then you are able to sell to them. Social media has basically become an important plank in the arsenal of tools available to any business to engage its community. So I think if you are not on social media, it means you don’t exist. If I can’t find you, then where are you?
Also, as a tool, you need a strategy for your social media activity, just like with print and broadcast media. It is a media outlet, so if you don’t have a plan in place, it won’t work. I think because social media technically is free, people don’t think to invest as much time in it. They are like ‘we can just have this intern take care of it, no big deal because I’m not paying for it’. But you actually are because you have the opportunity to reach so many people because there is so many people online. So you need to definitely have a plan in place. You also need to understand each platform, like on Facebook, images are huge, pictures – that’s what people interact with more. So your strategy for Facebook will be different from the one for Twitter.
Now, let’s talk about the forthcoming social media week, why is it important and what gaps is it going to fill?
I think first and foremost, the most important thing about this social media week is that it holds in 23 cities and Lagos is the first city in Africa in which this event runs. In 2013, we were number two globally out of the 23 in terms of engagement and attention and media mentions. Even in terms of measurement from an investment perspective, there is no event that is measured on the scale in this country. Something that delivers over 150 events, 200 speakers, 20 venues in Lagos over a 5-day period, it is beyond monumental. I think the first thing to say is congratulations to all our partners.
It is a massive collaboration of efforts. We are in essence custodians for the platform and it is important to communicate it and for people to understand that it is a free collaborative platform for everybody. We don’t own it. I happen to be chairman of it, working with Ngozi Odika, the executive director. But it is actually a community ownership and what I am proud is the fact that Lagos proved us right. We invested into the idea that Lagos is an important city. That Lagos is a global city and is relevant.
I can assure you that in New York, Milan, Washington, Paris, the places that count and the communities that are driving this world forward, they are aware of Social Media Week Lagos. A year ago, nobody was talking about technology out of Lagos, nobody was talking about incubators out of Lagos, nobody was talking about investment in start-ups out of Lagos, but now it has become daily conversation. And I think the biggest that has come out of SMW Lagos is the conversation and education, the knowledge-sharing is incredible. We are so proud of what happened last year. People shared expertise on a global scale literally for free. The Week engages all demographics from 8 to 80, there are no restrictions. Over 10,000 people are going to participate this year. So we are really happy about this. We are really thankful to our sponsors and partners.
Social Media Week Lagos is like a melting pot. Everybody is invited. It’s not just another conference. It is Africa’s largest media and technology conference at this point in time, which we are proud of.
