Now, outsourcing your social media is not always a bad idea. It’s much better than completely ignoring in and assuming there is nothing to gain in it. Again, a company may need to consult in order to come up with a good strategy that will work online. Don’t imagine that all you have to do is open a boring Facebook page and Twitter account. A solid plan is a must if you want to succeed.

However, getting a third party to just get your Tweets up and put together a Facebook page is a big mistake. That is not Social Media. Social Media is all about building good relationships with others. These can be all kinds of stake holders like current and possible clients, suppliers, financiers and the general public.

Companies assume that their Social Media is on track when they post their product and services online. Many do not even go beyond creating accounts and making a few friends. They remember these accounts only when they are launching a new product in the market and think that the world will listen and buy their stuff. Let’s not even go to accounts that never get updated and the information they have is so old, one would be forgiven if they thought the company died a long time ago.

If you are not using Social Media to build and enhance relationships, don’t even bother going there. Your efforts will only serve to harm you brand more.

Many companies that have used Social Media well have proved the fact that strong relationships are the best way to strengthen your brand and increase your market penetration. Now that is music to the ears of Marketing Managers.

Many of these companies have used Social Networks to create a community and interact with this community daily. They share information, give solutions, share jokes, thanks and reward their community the while gaining their trust and strengthening their brand.

Here are three things that you can do using Social Media

1. Publicize your products and service. Please do not confuse this with pushing sales. Create awareness on what you have to offer in terms of value. People want to know what they can gain from what you are offering.
2. Building relationships based on trust with your clients. Help them when they have problems and don’t charge for that. Be a trusted partner that they can turn to. Be dependable and be there all the time.
3. Listen to what the community is talking about. What is important to them? What makes the happy and what annoys them? Know what they value and provide services and products based on this knowledge.

Trust me; you cannot achieve this by hiring a third party to run your social media. You will pay for fake number (tweets, updates, followers, likes) but not real relationship and tangible results. You will never be able to build a real community and understand the market if you don’t get into the game yourself.

Sad but true. On Friday last week, I got notification that one of my oldest domain names was ready to be renewed. So I confidently went to namecheap to do what I’ve been doing easily for the past 12 years. Remove my credit card and pay for the domain name. Then continue making money online with it for the next one year.

It’s one of my favorite websites. All I do is…nothing. I just get paid for work that I did years ago.

So I put down my login and password. Then nothing happened. I assumed I had changed my password so went into password recovery. Again nothing happened. I was still fine as I have a habit of forgetting my logins. After all, one can’t possibly remember over 500 logins, can they? So I went to all the email addresses I know I use for accounts. Again nothing.

Now I was in panic mode!

Using Domain Tools to Find Ownership of your Website

I was now scared so I decided to do a whois search on domain tools. Then panic really got to me. My domain name was owned by some fellow called Strike Back from Croatia. I tried the other domain names and the fellow had changed all the details to the accounts to read his fake address.

For those who don’t know about domain names. The fellow who’s name is shown as the registrant is considered to be the owner of the domain name. To make things worse, I had no access to my domain hosting account at namecheap to make any changes or corrections. In other words, I had lost domain names that were consistently earning me an income over some 10 years!

The Slowest Domain Hacker in the World

The repercussions for losing your domain hosting access can be financially fatal. One of the things that the hacker would have done would have been to move all those domain names to another domain registrar and I would lose them forever. Most hackers do so. But it was Christmas time so the guy was either lazy, or one very silly hacker.

Other hackers are known to get in touch with you and demand cash in order to return your domains to you. Of course there is ICANN to sort most of these problems, but how many days can your business run without any income? So most domain owners just pay the ransom.

Since the guy had only changed the whois to a few domains, I quickly did what I could do before losing my mind.

Namecheap Fraud Team Gets to Work

I quickly sent an email to the namecheap fraud team explaining my situation. They got back to me in 4 minutes flat and requested to have records to prove that I had bought the domains. I hate yahoo mail, but not this time. I have a habit of not deleting emails and it saved my butt big time. I got as many transaction records from my email and shot them to the team.

Now 3 days later, I can walk the streets of Nairobi in relative peace. It took a whole weekend where I was not able to work in peace to regain my account again. I don’t think I have ever been so scared since Mr. Kesui busted me for jumping classes in high school.

But it was a warning to me and others like me. You just have to be careful online.

How to Protect Your Domain Name Accounts from Hackers

Always make sure that your password is one that you can never remember and change it regularly. Those who know me understand that I’m lazy like that. Not anymore. I have changed all my passwords to anything I do online just in case they had hacked into some other accounts too.

Never ever give your domain registrar passwords to anyone. Especially your lover and best friend. I cannot in the life of me believe that I was hacked by someone I did not know. I have a very bad habit of giving a few select people some of my passwords. These are the same people who will access your account just to spite you. I believe this happened especially since this was an amateur hack.

Never save your account passwords on you computer. I know many of us like using lastpass or roboform or simply use excel sheets. Unfortunately, when a trojan attacks your computer, these are the areas they target. So you could end up giving the farm to some guy somewhere in Croatia.

Always save all your domain transactions. Everyone has a habit of deleting emails and deleting files from their computers. But this is one area I am very happy I was lazy in. I had records of my domain name activities going back 12 years. So unless the hacker could prove that I had sold him the domains, the fraud department was more likely to see me as believable.

Lastly, take a trip to domaintools.com or whois and make sure that you are the registrant of the domains. You see, if the registrant of the domains is someone else, even I could not have got the domain names back. ICANN only cares about the domain registrant and a complaint to them would have gone nowhere if the registrant was anyone other than myself.

The moral of the story is that even the best of us can have their accounts hacked. The issue is how you react afterwards and the security measures in place before you were hacked. Stay safe and hack free peoples!

In this post by Stefan Medalinski the CEO of Mocality, what they are practicing is plain scraping and bait and switch.

Oh please say it aint’t so.

I moved to Africa from the UK 30 months ago to be CEO of Mocality. When I moved, Kenya’s reputation as a corrupt place to do business made me nervous. I’ve been very happily surprised- until this point, I’ve not done business with any company here that was not completely honestly conducted. It is important for global businesses to adapt to local cultural practice, but ethics are an invariant. As a admirer of Google’s usually bold ethical stance around the world, to find those principles are not applied in Kenya is simply… saddening.

Someone, somewhere, has some questions to answer.

These are my personal top 3:

• If Google wanted to work with our data, why didn’t they just ask?
  In discussions with various Google Kenya/Africa folks in the past, I’d raised the idea of working together more closely in Kenya. Getting Kenyan businesses online is precisely what we do.
• Who authorised this? Until we uncovered the ‘India by way of Mountain View’ angle, I could have believed that this was a local team that somehow forgot the corporate motto, but not now.
• Who knew, and who SHOULD have known, even if they didn’t know?

Stefan Magdalinski
Nairobi, Kenya

Mr. Stefan, if you knew Google, you would not be shocked. Ooops, there I go, they will probably ban my site from the searches…..

Mr. Mocality, didn’t you read what Google did with Yelp last year. Apparently they went ahead and bought Zegat and in turn Yelp suggested that Google wanted to remove them from the searches. Truly, I did not say that, read what the Yelp CEO had to say about it. Very few people were happy about this behavior such as this post on gigaom.

Yelp: Google Told Us Our Way or the Highway

So when Google set up this KBO thing with Kenic, I knew the game plan. Take over the internet in Kenya. Of course, Kenic is full of people who don’t seem to understand the implications of setting up such a network with Google. It’s the database of businesses in Kenya who are actually lazy and think “free things are good for them. So google entices Kenic, who have run short of ideas on selling this damn .co.ke domain name, and Equity (surely what does a bank know about the internet?). And walla, they have access to a huge small business base in Kenya.

Google, Kenic and Equity KBO Project

There was one problem though.

Kenic doesn’t know how to sell domains, now you give them a website to sell? So enter the Indians. They will call every business in Kenya and get them on this KBO behemoth. Indians are Indians on the net and trust me, they use blackhat. So I guess they thought that the Kenya yellow pages isn’t real. So they went to Mocality. They apparently scrapped every little detail they could on their site and then they went to do what Kencall has failed to do. They called every Kenyan they could get from that list.

I am one of the guys they called. Last week and they offered to give me a……drum rolls please……. A FREE Website, which will cost ksh. 2,000. And yes, they are from Google. At least that’s what they said.

Google Using Scraping Techniques

Oh boy, Google, say it ain’t so.

You are using classic blackhat scraping techniques coupled with bait and switch techniques on poor miserable Africans who don’t know that KBO is a glorified or unglorified blogspot. Yep, I said it first. Kenic, Equity and Google are busy telling Kenyan SME’s that setting up a blogspot account is good for their business.

Oh, say it ain’t so! So you get a bunch of Kenyan businesses who don’t know anything about the internet to set up accounts on this KBO thing. You then call them and offer this “free” thing for ksh.2,000. You do not bother to tell them that the domain names does not belong to them. In fact, you neglect to tell them that if you don’t like them, you will throw them out the window just as others have been thrown out the window on blogspots.

Totally unethical behavior all through and through.

If what Mocality has stated has any semblance of truth, google has assumed that Africans, and in particular Kenyans are very gullible fools. That is not double speak.

I’m really hating this post, especially since I believe that Mocality is just a company that spends too much. But this is going too far.

Please Google Apologise if this story is even close to true.

It is a shame that a company such as Google can even contemplate using such techniques. Just because they can. But I will hold my breath. They will probably ban every site talking about this topic as they banned John Chow a few years ago. Then call a few more Kenyans on that database and call the damn Kenyan media to tell them how Google is God.

I know some of these blogs are as boring as Rama Nyang, but hey, they have influence and punch. By the way, I have not used those fake Alexa rankings that Kenyan bloggers love spreading around. Just the history and the influence they have on their readers.

Of course the readers here are me, myself and I.

11. Media Madness

He has proven that Kenyans are vain and buy tabloids. Honestly, this blog makes you wonder if TV stations have the right formula in programming. The blogs are hard hitting. Ask one Larry Madowo who’s even threatened to out them. For what, I don’t know. Personally I would let them be.

Together with techmtaa they have proven that you can actually shake corporates to the core and make money doing it. My view though is that the stories have become too obvious and it is bound to go south ones good bloggers such as savvy kenyan and banking in Kenya start being noticed. In the meantime, they are King and proud of it.

I love the Karucy character on the comments.

My only worry with this blog is that now that they have gone to bed with “some” characters, the mortals around us will start looking for a more hard hitting blog.

10.  Pastor Jmo

If there is anyone I think is changing the face of ICT in Kenya, it is the little known Pastor James Okumu. In a very short period of less than 7 months, he has transformed his blog from one of those non-starters to one of the most visited blogs in Kenya. Maybe its because of his audience at Hope FM, or his morning Activate show on Tuesdays. From a blog with only about 100 visitors a month, he now commands over 1000 visitors every day. I mean loyal dedicated readers who comment like crazy on the site.

He’s just proven that you do not have to talk dirty to make an impact online. In fact, his blog is all about Christian fellowship.

Yet, he’s not on twirra, or shouting at anyone. Just plain Pastor Jamo, as he likes calling himself, who loves Volkswagens and Jesus. You can’t afford to miss his daily devotions that wake you up and are so refreshing considering that on the other side is one Maina Kageni. Ouch!

9. Kenyan Jurist

This Lady has done everything I consider wrong if you are blogging for money including having the site on blogspot. But if there is any blogger in Kenya who has influenced us, no one comes close.

Commitment and passion since 2006. Boy, where was she blogging from in Kenya at that time. There was no “internets”. Her prose is wonderful, her understanding of the law, superb. Her articles, groundbreaking. Yes, I’m sucking up, she’s just made it to the Bench. The real bench that is. I too understand that ass kissing is good for your career.

But, along with Thinker’s room, these are the bloggers that other Kenyan bloggers should emulate. Blogging because you have a passion for something. It was a pleasure through the years reading your blog your Highness.

8. Moses Kemibaro

It’s my blog so I will be rather blunt here. I think this is the most overated blogger in Kenyan history. Seriously!

But heck, he’s on TV, he has dealfish or had it, he is an accomplished business man. But honestly, he shouldn’t be blogging.  But this is not a terrible blogger’s list,it’s the most influential kenyan bloggers list and he’s up there. Really up there. From his days at Three Mice (I’m puking), then Dotsavvy and now Deal Fish, he has earned his place as probably one of the worst examples of why people should be blogging. But heck, I can’t shake the hand of the ICT Board CEO, can I?

7. Idd Salim

Idd Salim vs Robert Alai is sumptous lunch on Twirra! For whatever reason, they hate each other. I’m not a psychologist so shauri yao.

But Idd has established himself as NOT soft spoken. It always amazes me why I read his blog. Its all about tech stuff which I can’t get but the fellow has a way with words. You just have to listen. His blogs are pure poetry with a high dose of arrogance. Who can avoid reading his stuff. I just hope that he can stop blogging this techie stuff as the rest of us mortals don’t get it.

The blog is a labour of love and it shows every time he get’s on Safaricom’s nerves. I’m only sorry that recently he seems to have gone soft on Corporates. Actually very soft on Bob Collimore.

6. Savvykenyan

I didn’t know she was still in college until she posted about her graduation ceremony. She’s in the new crop of internet savvy Kenyans who are taking Twirra and blogging by storm.

In case you don’t know her, then you are the one at a loss. After all Paul Kagame actually accepted her invitation to a party! Yes, you heard it right. She proved to the whole world that President Kagame is both slim and internet savvy. I really hate the fact that she loves AFC Leopards as I believe every human being loves Milan instead. But I’ll forgive her. In less than an year in blogging, she has achieved heights that many young Kenyans aspire to.

I believe that once she gets her own vision of what she wants to influence, this is probably going to be one of Kenya’s best bloggers.

5. Bankelele

Who has never read this blog?

There was a time I thought the fellow was a genious. All the information that I needed to invest in the banking industry in Kenya was in this blog. He has helped a lot of diasporan Kenyan invest in the country and honestly deserves one of those Moran things that people get on Jamhuri day.

For a long time, his blog was a non miss affair. That is until he found a career in writing some of the most boring articles I have ever read. The last one about some country in West Africa was particularly not bank like. I can only say that after such a long time as the King of finance and banking in East Africa, he has lost it to Banking in Kenya. But he’s the man!

4. Mental Acrobatics

If you are a Kenya, you blog and don’t know Daudi Were, you should go back to school.

The founder of the Kenyan Web Ring has probably done more for Kenyan bloggers than the Kenya ICT board and Kenic will ever do in their lifetime. Unless they elect Robert Alai to the board of course.  This is the premier Kenyan blogger and the rest of us just have to bow down and kowtow when we see him.

I don’t understand most of what he blogs about but his influence can be seen in all those 1000 dead Kenyan blogs on Kenya Unlimited. At least he tried. Especially at a time when Telkom Kenya was the bitter option. Blogging in 2004 was surely harder than listening to Caroline Mutoko talking about her Mercedes.

Kudos Bwana Were, and yes the world noticed.

3. You Missed This – Kumekucha

I still don’t know who writes this blog but there was no way to ignore it in the run up to the 2007 elections. It was all ODM this and ODM that. Who can forget the Nation Newspapers sex scandals that were highlighted in this blog. Better yet, Jeff Koinange’s alleged transgressions.

Does anyone remember how the author was totally against the Safaricom IPO? I have my own reasons for noting the article on Safaricom IPO. Years later, it sounds like a prophesy. That’s what political hack blogs end up sounding. Like prophesies!

After the elections, this blog has greatly deteriorated, and I still don’t have an idea who’s behind it. The ads are just annoying as they are everywhere. Now he has kumekucha2. Claims that he’s being targeted but sounds like hot air to me. Political blogs always end up as garbage once the politics change. But 2012 is coming up, expect some noise from this Kenyan blogger.

Truth be said, for any blogger to continue from 2005, he should be in the Kenyan bloggers hall of fame.

2. Techmtaaa

I don’t have to say this. Robert Alai and his walalahoi bandwagon is probably the most annoying blogger in the African hemisphere. I believe that he will love reading that. If you are looking for controversy, then go no further than Mr. Alai. He has been in wars with nearly all Kenyan bloggers. I’m just lucky……so far.

From the Muliro Gardens, all the way to Farida Karoney, Alai has proven to the world that human beings have the capacity of sinking lower than they ever imagined. All in the name of straight talk.

The truth of the matter though is that his Techmtaa blog is superb! Actually, it is just great. It is full of great information including info such as Access Kenya’s problems and hard hitting synopsis of the Kenyan IT scene. Even Paul Kokubo gets a richly deserved barb from him.

Love him or hate him, Robert is the SI unit of Kenyan bloggers wapende wasipende. I only hope one day as he roams around the hood, he finds Jesus.

1.Kenyan Entreprenuer

He came, he saw he conquered. Never in the history of this world has one blog got as many comments for as many years as his blog on Kencall.

Four years and 777 comments after he posted this blog, this article still elicits some serious emotional and heart felt comments. Both good and bad. Mostly bad about the company. If there was ever an case study on how blogging can affect your brand, then there is no better example. I was not even in Kenya when I first read it and it still amazes me. His blog has passed time and generations and branded a multi million shilling company as one of the worst employers in the history of mankind.

I can’t say more about it, you just have to head there and see it for yourself.

I believe that it will take a very long time to have Kenyan bloggers this influential

I have stopped being annoyed and instead just feel sad for them.

My dad was a very cool dude! He was the epitome of the Kikuyu cowboy of the 70’s. Remember them? The guys who had corduroy pants a godfather hat and the mandatory Ford Escort? That was him. Of course my uncles were not left behind.

They had a Datsun 160J and Citreons. “Kenya is my country and Datsun is my car” was the marketing gimmick.

They were hot cars. Until the kafuraita (carburetor) died! That was the age where everyone drunk petrol at least twice a week. You had to take a Jerri can, a pipe and a sand paper everywhere with you.

But we don’t need a karuaita in 2011, cars are now electronic.

If you are a marketing manager in Kenya, please stop laughing.

If in the year 2011 you are doing any sort of marketing and do not know what a blog can do, then you are just like my father with his kafuraita.

What is a Blog

Please stop asking this question and use something called googu and get your answer. It is not a sign of expertise when someone with a marketing or management degree in Kenya asks that question. Actually its downright shameful.

I have made presentations in various universities in Kenya and honestly, I am about to join the “naomba serekali” bandwagon. “Naomba serekali irudishie vijana wa university pesa zao!” (I’m asking the government to refund university students their fees!)

How can a student in a Kenyan university use Facebook 4 hours a day but cannot tell the difference between email, gmail, yahoo mail, facebook, twitter and a blog?????? What are they studying in these marketing colleges in Kenya?

Honorable marketing manager please stop laughing, it ain’t funny!

Why Blog for Business

I don’t know why most Fortune 500 companies blog, hire bloggers, management blogs or have a marketing plan involving blog. I would imagine that if they are making more money than Kenyan companies in the NSE, they know something we don’t know.

“ I can’t brog, brogging is for shidren”

Stop laughing if you are a marketing manager in Kenya without a blog.

There must be something that the marketing managers of Zappos, AMD,  General Motors, Google, Goodyear, Tyson ……

From banks to shoes shine stands, all marketing departments in the top companies in the world are blogging.

But oh No! Not the Kenyan marketing guy, he’s too busy getting a masters degree, an MBA , a certificate and all those great things that marketing managers get to blog.

After all, blogging is for the small people.

Remember the kafuraita?

The internet landed in Kenya and someone had better wake up in these marketing firms.

What to Blog About

Two salesmen come to your office.

Mutua talks about the great company he’s working for. They made 1billion in revenue and employ all the Kenyans in Mogotio. He does not forget to tell you that they have bought the best 4wd cars in Kenya to give to their salespeople,ehem like Mutua. You see, they are so successful that you should buy their insurance policy for 1k per month.

Okoth tells you why insurance is important. He gives you the different scenarios why it is needed. He advices you based on your situation. He gives you options available to you and is extremely grateful for the time he took to educate you.

Be honest, who would you buy from?

So who told you that your egotistical blog about your achievements, mission vision and last years tax returns is important?

Marketing is all about educating your prospect. At least that is what I hope is taught in business schools in Kenya. So blog about my needs, my solutions, my desires, me me me, the consumer. I will probably call you because I like you and think you are just a fantastic guy. Kind like the Kenyan Architect, just read his blog. You may decide to get him for your next house.

As for Mutua, does he remind you of a billboard?

When to Start Your Business Blog

I know that all business schools in the world advice that you have a business plan, create a marketing plan, and even get an IPO listing. By the time anyone starts doing business online in Kenya, the bus moved from Facebook to Google+.

There is no time like the present for someone who has something of importance to offer the society.

This idea that you have to wait for the perfect day to start died with the dinosaurs. I am 100% sure that dinosaurs were waiting for the weather to change just before they became extinct. This unfortunately is not a marketing department issue but a business owner issue.

Time is important on the internet. A website that has been online for 1 year is likely to bring more business than one that is fresh of the press. Those are just facts. So, as the board of directors is busy going through the tenders, their competitor has set up a website and is already gaining authority. My record still stands at 2 minutes 38 seconds to implement a website.

Just like Taher, start Now! He’s still a student at CPL and he started is simple blog on his passions. If he had waited for the time he clears school, and gets some money, then he could not separate himself from his peers. I am sure that some IT firm will find his CV better than his classmates if he simply keeps at blogging at least 3 times a week about his passions.

Time did not wait for the perfect Facebook or the perfect political situation. If you are business person in Kenya and do not start now, then please add in your marketing budget next year, buying ads in blogs owned by men and women who work from home in Kenya.

That’s a fact but you can always wait to see if Alex Maina is a prophet on top of being a Reputation Manager.

The Effects of Inaction for Kenyan Companies

I will keep this very simple for you to understand.

Borders closed shop last month. Amazon is alive and well.

Netflix increasing its prices was a national calamity, Blockbuster…what is blockbuster?

Marketing managers in Kenya may as well start polishing their resumes now if they have yet to implement an internet marketing strategy.

I know its very sexy to say things like social media, attending trade shows and conferences on social media and all this nonsense about social media in Kenya. Please don’t waste your company funds attending another conference if you have no intention of implementing anything.

Being on twitter is not sexy or politically correct, it imperative! Having a website is a total waste of resources if the IT department manages it.

Let me repeat that.

The IT department should have nothing to do with a website other than building it and maintaining it. Especially after meeting these so called ‘IT’ guys. They have idea how to market, have no idea who the customer is and have absolutely no interest in marketing your brand.

Please train your customer care reps to use Twitter for your business and not the IT guy. Please stop blocking Facebook from your sales people, they need it. Please please, don’t hire a web design company if you do not have a long term marketing strategy with your marketing team.

Mr. Bossman, I know you are an important person when you choose your web designer. Can you stop the ego trip for a second and ask the opinion of your marketing team. Nothing is worse for a budget than buying a product that produces no sales, no leads, no revenue, nothing! Just like your website!

Just like the kafuraita that you have to sand paper to make work. Otieno the mechanic should be honest and tell you that you wasted money.

The Kafuraita Died With Change in Techonology

It is 2011 and fibre has been in Kenya for ages now. If I hear one more speech from CEO’s about the future of marketing being on the internet, I will die from sadness.

There is internet in Kenya, Now! There are buyers from Kenya on the internet, Right Now! Your brand is being destroyed on Twitter, This Instant! It is not in the future, it is happening RIGHT NOW!

If you are not online, start taking your Datsun 160J to concours d’elagance.

If you are a marketing manager in Kenya, a sales person, a business owner who is still asking what I am talking about, please write an email to me. I will be more than happy to start blogging about your business and getting clients from you, TODAY!

Change the Kafuraita!

Arkadi Kuhlmann, Chairman, President& CEO of ING Direct USA puts it this way:

“Mainstream America is looking for people to validate their beliefs and for authenticity… Every bank has ads with kids running through wheat fields and saying ‘we love our customers’, but everyone realizes that this is not working. Stop advertising ‘we’re there for you’, and focus on delivering on the things that customers really care about.”

Today’s customers are re-active. Many times acting out of fear. In addition, when they need help they expect free, value-added services… to aid in making complex decisions.

Organizations need to keep the customer engaged with their products as well as ensure that this increases their bottom line in terms of quality leads and sales.

More organizations are using social media marketing and Search Engine marketing to achieve these two needs.

Organizations need to learn how to reach beyond coercing customers to prefer their brand. They need to learn how leading pioneers are producing tangible demand with digital media and inbound marketing. This may be done using three success principles:

Topics for the Workshop

1. Customer Service Experience

Think about a typical customers’ visit to your organization.

Let us say they popped in to make a routine enquiry, compliment, or comment. When entering the branch, one typically sees and hears about one thing: costing. Think about the promotional signage seen inside most organizations. Again, they are mostly pushing cost.

Unfortunately, for organizations, this is how customers interact with them. They walk in to make a transaction and then get out. Most often, they are not looking to solve a problem, although they often have a good handful!

Second: The customer who comes to the organization already knows about the organization and its products and services.

So what happens to the customer who does not know about the organization products?

Is this lead lost to a competitor?

Creating Utility to the Customer Using Inbound Marketing Tools!

Creating utility to the customer involves solving everyday financial problems. It is no longer enough to interrupt potential customers with advertising. Consumers engage more with brands that offer solutions.

2. Content is important in inbound marketing campaigns

Content includes all the everyday needs of the customer. This is used to build trust, confidence and authority in the brand and products. It is important to have the content not only in the web property owned by the institutions but also in other social media networks.

This includes blogs, forums and sites such as twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, Delicious, Reddit and Facebook.

The idea is simple, the more consumers learn about your willingness to help solve their everyday problems, the more they love your brand and are willing to buy from you.

Today’s organizations are challenged to become relevant to the everyday needs of customers — customers whose needs evolve faster than ever before. Leading institutions are responding with digital utilities.

In short, the “big opportunity” is to answer skeptical, angry consumers with:

• Utilities that foster trust, reliability
• Services that leverage existing strengths (critical thinking, market/risk interpretation)
• Contextually relevant information (not memorable, entertaining or persuasive ads)
• Better customer service or self service

… using digital Web media.

3. Using Inbound Marketing Tools to Increase Conversions

Inbound Marketing refers to using online and mobile tools to generate leads to your business. In simple terms, a qualified lead comes to your due to their needs rather than you going out to find them.

Some of the most important tools used in ACIM inbound marketing campaigns include:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Blogs
• Social Media Tools

4. Search Engine Optimization

Otherwise known as SEO, this is simply one of the most cost effective methods in creating constant leads to a marketing department.

The concept revolves around getting traffic or visitors who are in need of your products or services to your website or other web properties.

With SEO, a marketing department is able to identify the potential client’s needs and then position your products as the solution to this problem.

SEO allows the marketing team to get highly targeted potential clients. Good SEO campaigns can also help dominate the competition in search results.

5. Blogs

Blogs can effectively market to any visitors or traffic that comes to the websites. They are a great and cheap marketing tool that allows the company brand themselves as well as educate their clients.

With blogs, it allows the financial institution have a human face. Many a company has found it difficult to spread their CSR initiatives or any new products.

The costs of a well run blog that interacts with customers will in the end increase brand visibility at the fraction of the cost of traditional media advertising.

Blogs are essential for any well run social media campaigns as well as SEO campaigns. In fact, we think they are mandatory.

6. Social Media with a Purpose

There is a lot to be said about social media marketing. Many corporations have embraced the use of social media in solidifying their brands and customer service.

However, there is need to state that the important word in Social Media is “social”. It is not enough to set up accounts in Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and expect a good return on investment. The goal should be to increase leads to the institution as well as create happy customers.

Engaging with your customers is what makes a social media campaign translate to the bottom line of the company.

ACIM Inbound Marketing Workshop on Building Your Brand Online

(Tourism Sector- Tours and Travel Companies in Kenya)

Workshop Reservation Form

Date:	22nd and 23rd September 2011
Time:	8.30 AM- 5.00 PM
Venue:	The Hotel La Mada, Thika Super Highway, Nairobi, Kenya
Charge:	Ksh.30,000 + VAT or USD 350+ VAT (inclusive of all Requirements)

I am biased in that I never follow the crowd in terms of looking for the most popular blogs or the most controversial Kenyan blogs or any such crazy criteria. I am biased towards content that solves a problem.

Maybe it my age, but I do believe that one should be judged by the content of his character. The content of your blog should be aimed to making it easy to find out what kind of character you are.

Content is King

Content has been King, and always be. I have made a career out of using tricks to change or maneuver search engine rankings. But I’ve always found that any website with good content is easier to market than one with the dreaded “coming soon” content.

When to Blog or Add Content?

Again I am biased as an SEO. The more content you have the better it is for you. But please, if you can’t add value to a discussion, its best if you didn’t blog at all.

After all, how do you feel when someone interrupts your conversation with “hata mimi” ten times.

Since I love content, I go out looking for it earnestly. These are some of those blog posts from Kenyan bloggers that made my week.

My Top Kenyan Blogs Week 1

1.  Travel to Kenya – Injections to take before you Travel by Kenyatalii

This was a personal deal with me. One of the best content managers in the world is coming to Kenya in 2012 for a few workshops. However, he could not stop complaining on how difficult it was for him to get any information on the types of jabs and inoculations one needs when they come to Kenya.

That was a problem!

Now this blog post solves that problem. Much better giving the tourist information they can use rather than another boring copied article about the history of the Mara.

2. Email Etiquette in Kenya by ictsolutionshub

Don’t you just hate it when people send you unsolicited mail or are just plain rude in the emails? What about those guys who insist on using capitals in the emails?

I hear that there are many tech blogs in Kenya. But if you ask me they have slowly turned into bashing blogs and have nothing to do with tech that helps me, the non-tech guy. I only hope this guy can blog more.

3. Decor for Hire – Essential in Event Management by Kenya Events

We are planning a major event next year and this events in Kenya blog is a wealth of information. I do mean that if you want to know anything about organising and event in Kenya, you simply must read this blog.

Again proving that giving valuable information is a good thing.

4. Walking or Swimming? by Pastor James Okumu

I don’t know what to say about Pastor Jmo as he’s called. If you wish to have an uplifted day and think differently about yourself, then you really should make his blog a must read.

He proves that it is not necessary to scream and shout and be obnoxious to make a difference blogging. Read his comments and understand how this one man is changing the lives of Kenyans.

5. Sautéed Chicken Liver Recipe by Kenya Food Recipes

There is a lot I can say about this Kenyan recipes blog. First its pretty. But have you seen the content on this blog? A little bird has informed me that the pictures on the site are real and the food is made by the blogger.

I love chicken liver and so I tried these at home. It Worked!

If you have not read Nkirote’s food recipes, I think you are losing the plot.

Now I have read over 60 blogs this week and these articles and Kenyan blogs just made my day. I have no favourites. I just love good content. So does every human being. Thanks guys!

I am a huge supporter of freedom of expression. However, I think are taking this new constitution, freedom of expression a bit too far.

I understand that Gor Mahia is the most beloved football team in Kenya. I doubt that means that their officials and the police cannot stop these hooligans from commandeering Uhuru Highway at 9pm every Wednesday. Gor Mahia with all its might is slowly becoming Mr. Impunity in Kenya. They are so immune to censor that for the first time in history, a team has been allowed to going to the next round of a knockout tournament because……”they were the best losers”

Why not just say the truth and say that you want more money from their supporters and hooligans.

The Robert Alai Papers

I find Alai’s blog one of the most thought provoking blogs in Kenya. Even when I think he’s a bit personal. And I do think he really needs to tone down his rhetoric.

This week he leaked sms’s from Maina Kageni and Kingangi’s show and it was a sad day in Kenya.

I have no problem if someone wants to call a radio station and talk crap. I don’t listen anyway. But I’m finding this argument that his show is the face of Kenya as I saw on Twitter to be really, really insane!

Who’s face are you talking about?

Some crazy people decide to talk about their bedroom life in public and that becomes my face?

I know very many Kenyans and I don’t once remember talking to the kind of people who call on his show. Just because the CCK has failed in its mandate does not mean that the rest of us hard working, non-gay, sober minded Kenyans have to endure the kind of nonsense we have seen on the Walalahoi link. I can’t even give it a link.

Thank goodness for people like Alai for showing what kind of people run this station.

Can you imagine reading such sms’s everyday and staying sober? Is your mind working properly when you read such rubbish everyday? On a serious note even people addicted on porn take a day off!

Why do we have to subject school children, parents to this kind of nonsense?

What has Maina Kageni to do with Internet Marketing?

It’s all about CONTENT!

If the only content coming out of Kenya is about some Kenyans dying of famine, then people will think that YOU are dying of hunger.

If the only content coming out of Classic 105 FM at 8am is morally bankrupt and semi-pornographic content, then people will think that Kenyans are sex starved zombies.

Content is King on the internet.

It seems that Maina and his bunch are King on Radio.

Can’t we have reasonable content out there?

What about the Kenyans who do not behave like sex starved drama kings and queens?

What about us?

Don’t our kids matter to Radio Africa?

Alai, thanks for the great work you have done to expose the kind of people who listen to this Kageni fellow.

I wonder how Bob Collymore will feel now when his brand is associated with the kind of sms’s that talk about knickers, boobs and sehemu nyetis.

Next time when Kageni and that other guy Wakanai are talking about the values of beating up their wives and keeping their money, or the adventures of sleeping with other people’s wives, or the best pale pale that a caller ever had

I will think Safaricom!

It is great to see corporate gurus like Chris Kirubi realizing that the age of the UBBER UGLY billboard is nigh. Someone pop out the champagne.

It is also not surprising to see that Google has decided that Africa is the next big thing

Through its Africa programs focused on getting more Africans online, the company is betting that by developing an accessible, vibrant and self sufficient Internet ecosystem on the continent many more Africans would come online.

Actually the last story is a bit sad. To me anything that Google touches simply turns to another monopoly. Ask feedburner. Ok, I’m biased about Google but someone has to hate Google once in a while.

But today we are not going to talk about Google, or Google+. Just about the silly notion that Social Media started in Kenya when 1 million Kenyans joined Facebook.

Joining Twitter or Google+ is not Social Media in Kenya

As Kenyans are busy talking about how Facebook is changing the world, the world is testing Google+. You will be hard pressed to find a better idea on how to use Google Plus than Chris Brogan’s post. I can see you now..Busy going to learn all you can about Google plus and how you are going to integrate it in your business.

If you are a Kenyan marketing manager, I feel for you when your boss has started shouting at you, asking you to “get onto twirra now!”

Sorry guys!

Twitter is not social media. Facebook is not social media. Google Plus will never be social media. In fact, the internet will never be and has never been social media. Some clever marketer somewhere coined the phrase to earn millions as a consultant. Sadly it worked!

Social Media Marketing in Kenya Will Not Save You

The first word in social media is SOCIAL. In other words people. Ama, Watu!

If your company is dealing with Kenyans, then people are talking about you. Whether they use twitter, Facebook or meet at the local pub.

Just because you have a billboard on Waiyaki way shouting at us about your new save the elephant project, does not mean that you are talking with watu. Actually it makes no difference whatsoever if you use a billboard, radio, twitter or Google plus if all you do is shout about your new silly product.

I say silly because people hate being marketed to. Ask the called calling insurance salesman how many hugs he got today.

If your company has these kind of remarks about them, then please keep away from social media tools like Twitter!

WHY IS BARCLAYS BANK DUMPINIG YOUNG GRADRATES AFTER THEY SERVICE
TO THE BANK…..TERMINATING THEY CONTRACTS WITHOUT NOTICE…..AND WHAT REEMEDY/ACTIONS
CAN BE DONE…?

Wazua

In fact, if your company has made money off being aloof to their customers, social is not the way to go.

Social Media is About Your Customer

If you have the time, read what Kenyans have to say about Barclays Bank loans.

Of course they are on Facebook. Their last Facebook update and 80% of their update has to do with THEIR products.

Barclays Bank of Kenya

Do you know what’s the ultimate beauty of Barclays Ultimate Account? It keeps you in touch with your finances 24/7! Through our 24-hr Contact Centre you can:

1. Check your account balance

2. Issue transfer instructions

3. Order cheque books

4. Speak to a customer service representative

That would be great if Kenyans on the other hand were branding them not as the guys with a great account, but rather the plagiarism kings in Kenya.

How’s that for Social Media ROI?

Avoid Social Media if you have Bad Customer Service

I don’t know what to say.

If your company has a habit of giving bad customer service, substandard goods and is simply considered evil, keeping away from Twitter would be a GREAT idea.

People don’t care if you are on Twitter, have a blackberry that tweets as you pee, have 10 facebook accounts and were baptised in Google+.

Humans care that you don’t care. Every time you keep me hanging on to the the number 100, I hate you. I will tweet about it. Every time you refuse to honor a warranty, I will tweet about it. Every time you refuse to serve me quickly, as happened at Farmhouse Restaurant off Moi Avenue next to Meridian hotel, I will tweet about it.

I have never met anyone in my life who told me

“My goodness, oh my goodness Alex, did you see that big, big, tall billboard on Uhuru Highway? It made me wanna…”

But I have heard, people say

“Those guys, leave those guys alone, their ka-funny satellite TV is USELESS”.

I  have never heard anyone in my life come to me and tell me

“ Oh my goodness, oh my goodness Alex, did you see the tweeter account of those guys? I tell you, they tweet, they Facebook, they even have a website! Oh, my goodness!”

But I have heard, people say

“ Who those guys, try getting internet services from them. They will cheat you about the speeds and the net will always be down.”

Social Media is Common Sense not Tools

Forget about twitter. It is just but a tool. Forget about social media marketing in Kenya. It is just an illusion.

Get busy and engage with us, the customer. Solve my issues. Deal with me fairly.

Before Twitter, people talked about you. Even after Twitter, people will talk about you.

What are they saying?

Are you listening?