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| Bennycapricon |
More Nigerians exploiting Internet platforms tell inspiring
stories, FOLASHADE ADEBAYO and GEOFF IYATSE write
These days, Seun Sangoleye, an entrepreneur of three
years, cannot afford to part with her phones. In the comfort
of her home in Lagos, the Mum-in-Chief, BabyGrubz Outfit,
attends to beeps and alerts on her phones with the speed of
light.
She is also never far away from her computers on her
centre table, from which she runs monthly online courses,
sells e-books, broadcasts messages on Blackberry
Messenger, while not forgetting to tweet and post messages
about her business on Facebook.
The breathtaking drill is radically different from her former
employment as a system and network analyst, but
Sangoleye also admits that leveraging on the social media
has also been a game changer. She adds that her typical
day is now spent tending to her devices, waiting for orders
across and beyond the country. Since she left her job in
2013 and creating a social media hub around her business,
the entrepreneur says patronage has climbed from five to
20 orders per week.
She enthuses, “The social media is the entire lifeline of my
business. My entire customer base is on the Internet.
People meet me online and I get referrals from there. I
consult and run nutritional classes online. I have a business
group of 15,000 mothers, people I have never met in my life.
I engage the mothers who have issues about their children
who do not eat well or are picky eaters and I prescribe and
sell my menus to them.”
Sangoleye is not alone. The social media magic is also
working for Adeola Olowe, a stay-at-home mum who works
as a copywriter for an advertising agency in Lagos. Olowe
does not have a brick and mortar office, but meets
deadlines writing and sending short stories and advertising
copies to her employer online
| Also, a few years ago, Victor Mathias would travel miles away away from his remote residence at Iyan Oba, a Lagos |
to work for himself, he would need to raise some good
money for a start-up enterprise he was not sure would
survive.
Mathias’ case was a typical example of how harsh it was
for many young Nigerians some years back. However,
without a physical office, the 28-year-old Sociology
graduate, nowadays works and operates from his home.
While millions of Lagos residents struggle through daily
traffic snarls to get to their offices, Mathias simply turns on
his laptop and wireless Internet router to start his daily
routine. His work-from-home employment, as many would
call it, is paying his bills. Besides, he practically calls the
shot from this “small enclave.”
Until recently, young people who stayed indoors, glued to
their personal computers connected to the Internet when
their neighbours were out in the field, were often treated
with suspicion. Many people believed that all of them were
into yahoo-yahoo , a Nigerian parlance for cybercrimes, such
as advance free fraud and hacking.
Nowadays, the stereotype is changing. The same Internet
that ushered in the regrettable era dubbed yahoo-yahoo has
created new streams of opportunities for young people to
earn decent living and incomes.
Unlike cybercriminals, who operated behind the scene, the
new Internet-made idols carry on with dignity, creating an
aura of celebrities around themselves. Again, unlike Internet
fraudsters, who could be described as products of Internet
dysfunction, these people prefer to call themselves social
media entrepreneurs.
Social media of brand ambassadors
Capricorn adds, “What many companies do when they have
social media campaigns to run, is that they engage tweeters
to tweet for them. They could say, ‘I want the campaign to
trend with conversations around the subject.’ Otherwise,
they may be only interested in seeing hashtags on the
campaigns on trending list, not minding the conversations
that push it.”
On how this category of people are remunerated, he
explains, “The pay varies, depending on the company that is
involved, the number of hours or days it wants to be on
trending list and several other factors. Multinational
companies, big brands and political figures pay handsomely
for the service.”
He adds that a blogger’s ability to bargain is part of what
determines the amount paid for the service, which is
majorly on an hourly basis. According to him, the last time
he participated in a trending contract (which involved a
politician), he was paid N50, 000 for an hour.
Tweeters, who specialise in trending campaign – whether
commercial or political, it was learnt – operate in networks.
Members of a particular network are alerted to commence
post as soon as a contract is issued.
Another way companies get on trending list is by using
brand ambassadors. Capricorn says this is not entirely free
because service is a part of the engagement intrigues.
There are Twitter handles that require less than 10 per cent
of their followers to participate in a campaign to make it go
viral. For instance, 1.1 million Twitter users currently follow
Michael Collins (popularly known as Don Jazzy). He is
among the most engaging Nigerian celebrities on Twitter, a
reason he follows back over 70,000 fans. Don Jazzy’s
tweets can generate 100,000 engagements in a matter of
minutes.
Some 1.7million Twitter users currently follow Ayo Balogun,
also known as Wizkid. He only needs five per cent of his
primary community to participate in a tweet to generate
85,000 retweets. Experts say half of this figure is enough to
make a campaign go viral in Nigeria.
For Tiwa Savage, also an artiste, no fewer than 1.17 million
users follow her, and five per cent of that is figure is 58,500.
Just two or three tweets on a single hashtag by Savage can
generate or surpass this.
Capricorn says corporate organisations that are currently
cashing in on brand ambassadors to boost social media
performances understand these tricks. Those who are not
perching on celebrity status to drive traffic, he adds, use
give-away strategies.
Companies, such as Konga and Jumia Nigeria, leading
competitors in the country’s burgeoning e-commerce
service, seem to have mastered this strategy. When they
unveil a new campaign, they create a social media buzz
around it by inviting users to tweet, retweet or post it to win
a prize.
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