A time has come when you cannot afford to go into business and ignore the internet. The internet has done so much for businesses in the past and the same will continue in the future. The so much cuts across the board, the internet has build businesses, it has also destroyed business. If done right, it does more harm than good.

Sadly, we are at a time where everything one thinks of doing, they think online first which has contributed to the downfall of many. The online space has given many a soft and cheap (almost free) taking off pad but it those who have started online had a vision and online was just but a path. How they came to choose online is in my opinion, they thought of a way to penetrate the market, given the resources they had, they weighed options on the best foot forward. Those who found social media as the best route came up with a concrete plan before execution. When all was said and done, they kicked off.

Social media is a catalyst. I will use Wanadamu as an example. Wanadamu has for over 2 years saved close to 1000 lives in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan. It has come the far it has come because on the online platform. The team kind of got it right and what we are getting now are the fruits of the foundation. For those who are not familiar with Wanadamu, it is a database of willing blood donors called upon in an event someone is in need of blood. The donors are sent to the hospital the patient is admitted in and donate. The online space did two things to wanadamu. First, it gave us a pool of people who we were able to tap into and convert some as willing donors in our database. Secondly, we were able to make the public aware of our existence and now out of every 10 people atleast 6 will think of wanadamu when they hear of a blood appeal. Assuming the online space was not there, does it  mean wanadamu couldn’t have taken off?

Yes? No? Maybe? The answer is yes. It could have taken off BUT not as simple and as big as it did. To achieve what social media was able to get us to achieve in 10 weeks, could be achievable subject to the resources without our reach. The more resources available, the faster it could be achieved, the little resources available the slower and long the ’10 week’ journey would be. Verdict, you can start it off using the online space but you have to get it right. What the online space does is it makes the process faster for less but with or without it, it is doable.

 

Why is your business on social media? Many get into social media so that they can reach out to as many people as possible. What many ignore or not put too much thought in is what others will think about when they think about your been in social media.

What most companies do wrong is create pages which are mostly idle and will only be active when there is a promo. Before masaku7s, after roadtripke bus 1 was full, there was great demand for us to work on a second bus. Machakos is not as big as is not used to too much activity so finding a place which 56 people could spend the night was a huge task. Unlike other places likes Nakuru, upon googling one can get results of places and their contacts. A majority have gone an extra mile and put up a website which is up to date. My google search did not bore any fruits. My next resort was social media. I used the search button on face book to look for places. I got a couple. Some had contacts in their description others did not. Sadly all of those with contacts were not going through. Next resort, write a post on their wall or send a message. Out of every 7 only 1 replied. You can imagine how many 7s are there. Anyway to cut a long story short, I had to drive down to machakos to look for a place.

What is the point of having a social media page which is dormant? Having someone there who will not bore followers with only promos and a very one sided conversations. Having someone who can create conversation, reply to enquiries, bring about business  and so on.