Why Ethiopian Businesses Need to Take Social Media Engagement Seriously

 

Seriously though!

There was nothing serious about social media!

For the average enlightened adult, it might have been a simple platform to reconnect and share contents with old acquaintances and long-lost relatives around the world.  For teenagers, it created the opening to interact and chat with random people from their neighborhood to the other side of the globe.

The business applications of the platform, however, were not so obvious to everyone, in part because of its pronounced carnal nature. We’ve all heard stories of how someone found a soulmate through Facebook.

That was as serious as it could get!

But after a few global and domestic political revolutions, Mark Zuckerberg’s awkward hearing at the congress, a picture of a dress that went unnecessarily viral, and Donald Trump, everyone is finally paying attention.

We have reached a stage where for some of us it’s becoming almost impossible to get parents to put away their phones and go to bed at night. (Someone suggested changing the Wi-fi’s password but what to do about Mobile Data?)  Social media has become too important to ignore.

Still, our businesses are struggling to catch up. Yes, these days many companies have a page on at least one of the major social media platforms i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter. Some even have YouTube and Instagram accounts. But a brief examination of these pages and accounts testifies that only few companies use them to strategically and consistently engage their customers and the general public.

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), Marie Stope Ethiopia, Habesha Brewery, EthioTelecom and the Prime Minister’s Office can be taken as examples of Ethiopian organizations that are pioneering the proper use of the platforms.

These organizations use their pages to update customers and stakeholders on the latest news and updates, notify followers about new products and services and offer customer service among other activities.

But the majority of companies’ accounts or pages are characterized by incomplete information, irregular posts, poor graphics design and the occasional, embarrassing language blunders. The aforementioned descriptions are symptoms of unorganized, goal-less, half-hearted efforts to tame the online beast.

The possible reasons for this reality are plenty and I will discuss them below as the challenges. But now, it suffices to say that, it’s obvious many take social media engagement as a luxury and not as an important component of their organization’s business strategy. Moreover, there are others that even though they recognize the benefits and advantages of social media, have not put in place the structure or capability to enable consistent and committed engagement.

In the Ethiopian context, the data shows that there is a big opportunity that businesses can take advantage of. We have a largely youth dominated population that is increasingly getting urbanized with each passing year. Though the country’s internet penetration is still only the meager 16%, that is computed to 17.87 million potential market for businesses to engage with.

According to Hootsuite, the total number of active social media users in Ethiopia was numbered to 6.10 million by January 2019. Out of that, roughly 92% use their phones to access the platforms. Considering that the number of total mobile connections is standing at 41 million and smartphones are replacing traditional phones at a ferocious rate, it’s logical to predict that the penetration numbers will surge real soon.

Another point to consider is the annual active social media user growth which is reportedly around 61%. This translated into 2 million new social media users in Ethiopia from January 2018 – January 2019 ( And almost all used their mobile phones).

This shows target audiences that can be reached through Social Media are increasing rapidly and our businesses, institutions and even non-profits ought to learn how to cash in.

Forget the numbers! Businesses need to communicate to their clients, governments need to communicate with citizens and non-governments need to communicate with their stakeholders and the general public. The best organizations are in the business of people. They need to be where people are. That is the ultimate motivation for businesses to be on Social Media and learn to use it well.

The web and social media have made it easy for organizations to communicate with their public in so many ways. For starters, opposed to the monologue property of traditional marketing, Social Media is a multilogue platform where you are not the only party talking but so are your clients and prospective clients. That is to your advantage, because now you can directly listen to your audience’s feedback and work on bettering your products and services.

Other ways in which Social media marketing triumphs over traditional marketing schemes, such as TV advertising and print advertising, are speed and price. Sin