Malawi Digital Trends
We live a lot of our lives on the internet and the internet has had a significant impact on modern communications as well as media. It has made collaborations easier, amplified individual voices, given users a large platform to share their opinions and ideas and even a chance to publish these ideas, as I am doing now. Perhaps the biggest thing has been how the internet has erased geographical borders and connected billions of people across the world; people who would have otherwise never interacted with can now interact in real-time.
A big part of the internet is social media, which is so ubiquitous that everyone will come into contact with it without even trying. Even in offline channels, brands will still direct their audiences to social media platforms e.g. television news programs will have hashtags with the aim of encouraging discussion on the biggest news items of the day.
Because of how big the social media space is, businesses, as well as individuals need to understand it so that they can make the best of it. For individuals, this means understanding online safety and having positive interactions. For businesses, it means that understanding social media so that they can create and nurture relationships with their customers using social media.
For businesses, a good social media strategy has been seen to make a huge difference in perception. Brands such as Netflix, Nandos, Wendy’s in the USA, have impressive social media strategies and these have led to increased customer loyalty because customers relate to the brands more due to their social media.
Malawian businesses, however, are only in the early stages of utilizing social media, with very few big brands having a significant social media presence.
Social media is important for Malawian businesses because:
· Can be updated in real-time
· Enables real-time feedback from users as well as communication to customers
· Engagement can be measured instantly so that a brand can get an idea of their popularity
· Can successfully create a brand persona from how the social media pages engage with users
If Malawian brands are to benefit from social media, they must have a strong understanding of content marketing so that their social media posts are not seen as completely promotional. Customers respond better to content that feels more natural and conversational and is wary of posts that are too obviously paid adverts. It is, however, important to note that to reach a wider audience, brands will still need ‘paid’ advertising to promote content. They will, however, need to understand that this paid advertising needs to be worth it, and it has to be engaging.