Top 5 Nigerian Brands leveraging on the power of the internet for growth

The internet age is here and everyone seems to be cashing in on the numerous advantages it presents. Small, medium and large enterprises are aware of the huge potential of the internet in reaching targeted audiences. Let’s look at the top 5 Brands who rocked our cyberspace with their strong presence, persona, creativity, uniqueness and reliability. I present to you my list of brands that stood shoulder high within the past few months making adequate use of the internet. If you however think there are notable brands I left out, please feel free to leave a comment.

5. iROKO Tv

iROKOtv is a web platform that provides free and paid-for Nigerian films on demand. It is one of Africa’s first mainstream online movie steaming websites, giving free and instant access to over 5,000 Nollywood film titles. Since its launch in 2011, iROKOtv has grown from strength to strength and has been dubbed the ‘Netflix’ of Africa. Currently it is the world’s largest legal digital distributor of African movies.

 4. Etisalat Nigeria  

 The communications giant have over the years combined a mixture of creativity, aesthetics and functionality in their campaigns.  You can’t help noticing them on youtube, facebook and a host of other content networks where they inform us about their numerous giveaways and reduced tariffs, and they do have a lot to give.

3. GTBank 

They have been the darlings of Nigerians for a long time now. At first glance you fall in love with their colour, simplicity and insight. They've brought all these to the fore in their numerous online campaigns. GTBank is so obsessed with innovation therefore setting the pace for others to follow. Variety they say is the spice of life and these guys portray this with their rich creative displays, campaigns, career tips and very recently social banking leaving many other financial institutions scrambling to emulate their steps. Plus they also find time to hangout with their fans on Google+ at scheduled times (what more do you want as a customer).

2. Jumia.com

Formerly Kasuwa.com, this online retail store is everywhere. They interfere with our online activities so often with their mouth watering products and offers that you cannot help but notice them. At a point I felt the only thing they probably don’t sell are humans. Online presence is not just about having a beautiful website or buying ad space on popular websites, its more about how the public and prospective customers or clients relate, interact and adequately engage your brand (this they have going for them). Jumia.com has been around for a while and also true to their word of being one Nigeria’s most trusted brands. Jumia.com takes my No.2 spot.

1.   Konga.com 

Konga has redefined the e-commerce sphere in Nigeria today and brought consumers a click away to products. Amidst a tough battle for top spot with other online retail stores, Konga.com came out shoulder high. The reason is not far fetched; they have shown quite a deep understanding of the Naija consumer mindset, they are innovative and creative on all online platforms and guess what, they have a winning tagline “Konga for life”. Keep it up guys, you've earned my top spot.        

REASONS NIGERIAN STUDENTS FAILED UTME RIDICULOUSLY

 You are also probably appalled by the recently recorded failures of students who sat for the 2013 UTME examinations. However this should not come as a surprise to any of us because it is glaring our educational system has been sitting on a time bomb for years waiting to explode. I have had to take an introspective step backwards and take a cursory look at some of the perceived reasons for the massive failure of the nation’s upcoming generation.

8.  Social media addiction 

We can’t underrate the positive effects of social media in our lives and businesses. Through it we are informed, socially up to date with trending news and sometimes even educated. However  Facebook, Watsapp, Blackberry, 2go and a host of other social media activities have begin to take its negative toll in the lives of this present generation of students. Amazing how a large number of them don’t actually know how to use a computer in the real sense. Why won’t they fail?

7. Lack of proper guidance 

I personally would readily blame this on the Nigerian educational system especially the Government owned schools. The value of good counseling and proper guidance for the student right from the very beginnings of his educational life, cannot be overemphasized. As a result we have students in departments where they don’t have any business. Their mental, behavioural and psychological make-up which should guide their choice of department is often times ignored making them have to struggle extra hard to assimilate whatever is being taught while sometimes getting lost in the details. 

6. Too many distractions 

Distractions emanating from too much music, extreme interest in football (UEFA champions league/EPL), and a host of other unfavourable topics have eaten deep into the lives of these lads. You walk the streets and all you see are Wizkid wannabes in dressing, speech and outlook to life. 

5. Multinational companies 

These guys are more interested in generating leads and improving ROI for their selfish interests and booming businesses at the expense of the enlightenment of a whole generation. All we see these days on tv are uncountable reality tv shows for music, dance and God knows what. We are a developing country and now these will only make us stagnant. I hope the country does not degenerate to the likes of some developed countries whose economies are being run by foreigners (you know which). 

4. Administrative ineffectiveness 

Sometimes I’m left wondering who is at the helm of affairs of the planning, logistics and conduct of the UTME exams. We had reports of students whose choice was paper and pencil instead of CBT but ended up writing the CBT exams and not knowing what to do.

3. Falling standards 

Back in the early 1970s Nigerians students could compete shoulder to shoulder with their counter contemporaries in Ivy League universities but today the reverse is the case. Being in school today is more about students wanting to leave home and not the search of knowledge. These students get desperate to just get into the university no matter what and move on with their lives. 

2. Nigerian students hardly read

 Gone were the days when parents scheduled time for TV and more time for reading, reading and more reading. We read so much that we could recite by heart numerous passages of Shakespeare.  Nowadays literature students don’t even know which and which text to read for exams.

1. Malpractice 

Over the years malpractice has been a cankerworm in the Nigerian educational sphere. We have swum for so long in its murky waters and ended up bathing the younger generation with the ills therein. Students today don’t even think they can make the required pass marks without the aid of solved questions made available to them by the creative scheming of their teachers, parent, friends, siblings, principals e.t.c. Yes everybody seems to be into malpractice these days with the exception of a minute few.

TOP TEN SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES THAT CONVINCE AND CONVERT

 

 

There's no question about doing social media. The facts prove the ROI of it. The question is how well you do it. Before you read this, have in mind that unlike what majority think, social media would not bring immediate results and it would definitely not make-up for a bad product or service. However if you have adequately sorted that area of business, we can get up and running. Normally I start my Top Ten beginning with the last but for your sake I’m starting from top - bottom for procedural advantage.

 

1. Goal Setting  

Social media is not free and will never be free. Time, hard work, steadfastness and the drive to succeed are necessary ingredients to keep your social media goals alive. What you want to achieve with social media presence is at the core of your strategy. Don’t set out on facebook or start posting on twitter without an in-depth understanding of what you are aiming at. Do you want to generate sales, awareness, loyalty and retention, (pick one). A Mashable post revealed that “new research finds that 72% of businesses that use social media do not have a clear set of goals or a clear strategy for their social media platforms”.  

2. Be more Humane 

Social Media is about real people and not logos. My experience with social media overtime has made me realize that brands who have a human face and voice tend to achieve more success from their social media activities. This is unlike the robotic and very serious approach certain brands adopt when online. However consider not getting too personal and unserious when socializing.  

3. Analyze your Audience 

Who will you be interacting with using social media? What are the characteristics and information needs of your current and prospective audience. This is a key strategy many brands still ignore. People just go out on social media platforms and post, post, post without considering the nature of who reads and relates with the post. Here you use a little bit of demography and psychology. Of course you don’t want to end up churning out content meant for adults to a group of teenagers or vice versa. 

4. Lay low with selling, (tell a story)

Brandini (a prints and signage firm) loves telling stories of how they impacted in their customers’ businesses rather than telling them to make use of their design and printing services all the time. Remember that customers are trying to make purchase decisions, not being sold to. Having this in mind allows you showcase your brand as a problem solving brand and not the sell, sell and sell type. 

 5. Prop-up your Creatives 

Understand that only attractive things actually have the power to attract. Get creative with design, interactives, content and copy, then sit back and watch how your audience react to your appreciation of aesthetics, colour, balance and creative write-ups. The idea is to lighten up their day and imprint your brand in their memories. 

6. Listen and Compare 

It’s an old social media strategy chestnut by now, but “listen” is still good advice that’s often ignored. The reality is that your customers (and competitors) will give you a good guide to where and how you should be active in social media, if you broaden your social listening beyond your brand name.  

7. Focus on your Uniqueness?

Have in mind that it doesn’t matter who you are, or what you sell, your product features and benefits aren’t enough to create a passion-worthy stir. How will your brand appeal to the heart of your audience, rather than the head? Disney isn’t about movies, it’s about magic. Apple isn’t about technology, it’s about innovation. What are you about?  

8. Please Respond 

A major flop for some social media managers, not responding to even the most stupid issues or questions about products and services are sometimes the reason why social media activities don’t succeed. Some brands see certain questions as been too personal or just too much. Remember your social media page is just another branch of your public relations department and if this department turns a deaf ear to social questions then there’s a very big problem. A good percentage of brands--mostly big ones--currently do not answer customers or prospects on social media. If a customer lodges a complaint, don't delete. Instead, you have an opportunity to respond publicly that you're working to address the problem, and will send a private message to the individual so it can be fixed. Companies make mistakes everyday but the real problem is not in the mistakes they make but when they cannot say a simple “Sorry" (even if it isn’t sincere). The only types of posts you should consider deleting are those that are obscene, abusive or uncultured. 

9. Be Symbiotic

Life ideally should be more of a give and take relationship and not just the take, take, take way. Brands who give are more likely to generate more customers and retain them. Guarantee Trust Bank uses this strategy in giving free motivational career tips to visitors on their social media page. With this you always give people a reason to come back and something to look forward to. Webinars, papers and helpful articles are ways to make your customers feel you care about their progress. 

 10. Just be yourself  

This should have been my first strategy but since there’s no “one way” of doing things, it naturally fits into my ideal last strategy for convincing and converting using social media. In as much as you try to keep up with trends and innovation, ideally it’s advisable not to lose that sense of identification and self actualization you started off with. Remember, self knowledge is the aim of life.