Corporate Blogging , why Kenyan Businesses are Missing out!

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Last weekend we had BAKE Blog Awards , a process which captured BAKE’s effort to promote Kenyan online digital content. A number of questions have been asked in particular the issue of leaving out some crucial categories. Being the  first one, it was hard to hard for us to  predict how it would turn out, so we had to limit the categories. And now after the event the BAKE team has learned  from the numerous suggestions from the Public and next time it can only be better.

Having said that, I think we were more surprised with the fact that many Kenyan companies do not have company or business blogs. In the category of Business blogs, we had only two nominees. From BAKE  Blog

Best Corporate Blog

i.            http://blog.batakenya.com

ii.            http://squaddigital.com/blog

Bata Kenya won the battle but it is a shame that many Kenyan corporate still do not consider Company blogs as important or take the aspect of blogging seriously.

But I was happy when I got email from one of BAKE Awards sponsor’s Samsung after the event announcing their plan to restructure their presence online. Central to the restructuring of Samsung is their blogging platform. Email from Maina Job Kingori-  Who is HHP, Digital Content & Solutions Specialist – East & Central Africa at Samsung states:

From next week we begin a restructuring of our online presence on the various platforms and improved feedback/responce;

·         Facebook – http://facebook.com/samsungmobilekenya

Congrats to Samsung Kenya for taking the lead on the restructuring and thinking about the online presence.

Online Marketing

Probably marketers still don’t understand it but blogging is one key component of online marketing. With  the Online marketing, there are many options and channels available to marketers but it is crucial that companies understand where their prospective clients are. It is one thing to stick with tried and tested working method of traditional marketing but it is very important that marketers consider the changing trends and the effect of the ever evolving modern technology. For that, digital marketing is becoming the key to meeting the prospective clients especially the young people.  The holistic view on this would be for the marketers to ask themselves who are their customers and where to get them. To Continue with advertising on the newspapers for people who do not buy or read newspapers is a big waste of money but heeeey it is your money…

One question which people keep on asking when you discuss digital marketing, or social media is the Return on Investment. But at the same time I keep on asking them a simple question, how do  people measure the Return On Investment when they put a bill board along of the roads leading to town. With Bill Boards it is hard to tell how many people saw the ad but the beauty of online marketing is that there are  tools to help tell how many people saw the ad and even clicked on it. ..It simple , you need to consider the RETURN ON MISSING OUT (ROMO).

So what sort of products or services can be marketed online?  The answer is simple, everything .  Sometime back I wanted to try the business of selling ornaments and Kisii Soap Stones online. But I chickened out because I thought without the contacts it would be hard to find the customers. It came on one discussions I had with a  friend of mine  recently, the friend was mad that I could not figure out how easy I would have done it through online marketing. The answer to my problem was simple, start eCommerce website or join existing online shops like Maduqa.com. At the same time I came across some websites which are already doing well like beadsbarn.com. For me it was a big lesson learned and now …..

As I have said it here before, m-commerce is the key, considering the access point to the internet  for many Kenyans . Yes, it is mobile and this definitely will take advantage of much talked about Mpesa. At this point I know developers are still waiting for Mpesa API. Seriously this has taken longer than it should have been and I hope Michael Joseph now working at Vodafone will do something sooner than later.

 

Article Categories:
TECHNOLOGY

Comments

  • Blogging for corporates has changed so many companies,check out these impacts in our books at http://www.booksfromus.co.ke

    brown June 24, 2013 15:58
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