Social Media and PR.Taking it to the next level in Kenya – Part 1

Social Media and PR.Taking it to the next level in Kenya – Part 1

I

ndustrialization at its onset in the US did not address the social concerns of the people and thus the first industrialists (Who were tycoons) became known as robber barons, Among these robber barons in the pre-industrialized America included William Vanderbilt ,J D Rockefeller, J P Morgan and H C Frinck. Vanderbilt who was in the railway and road construction together with Rockefeller who was in the oil business were known to dampen public opinion and offer very poor working conditions for their workers. They were extremely unpopular and their workers started boycotts all across the US.  The media also joined the workers and the publicity of these individuals was ruined. They therefore employed prominent PR practitioners of that time like Theodore Vail, W. A Realy and George Westinghouse.  The results were tremendously positive and we all know how the Rockefeller institute has remained very popular across the globe. Strategies like supporting charity and giving aids and grants were all PR antiques that bore fruits.

A brief look at the history of PR shows how it is not a new concept. PR is indeed one of the noble professions in the world and dates back to 1622 with the Congregation for  Propagation of Faith by the Catholics being one of the oldest PR bodies in the world. On June 6, 1622, Gregory XV (reigned 1621–23) created the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, hence propaganda), which was renamed the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 1967. To a majority of us the result is obvious since Catholicism is the biggest religion in the world currently. PR has grown since then and has been common to the Eras of adversity, during the US independence movements, the middle era and the pre and post war eras.

Public Relations or PR as is widely identified has for many years been seen as a way of giving corporations a human identity. Many practitioners in the field are viewed as people who merely express the stand points of their organizations on issues affecting their respective organizations and play no role in revenue generations. Their direct participation in profit making mandates has been minimal and many organizations are yet to identify the potential of PR in revenue generation. It is common place to find out how senior management officials in big corporations are constantly feuding with PR departments over resource allocation, not knowing what they are losing.

Doing business in Kenya today is fast becoming a complex process to undertake. The consumer fraternity is getting more informed and has a wider choice for a variety of products and services. Majority of the previous monopolies have been faced out as dominant players and oligopoly is taking a centre stage. Competition has become the main price control mechanism and so pricing has taken a back sit in customer attraction. The fourth estate is also becoming a major determinant of customer behaviour in the country. Therefore TV and radio commercials still play a crucial role in attracting and maintaining clients

However, the Internet has also grown in influence and social media is something that businesses can no longer ignore. Online monitoring equipment like Buzz Watch indicates Google’s index now stands at over 8 billion pages. There are now over a 1 billion Internet Users and that number is growing rapidly. More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed since 2002 .77% of Internet users read blogs  and bloggers participate in an average of 5 activities to drive traffic to their blogs. 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews, 56% say that their blog has helped their company establish a positioning as a thought leader within the industry.

Social Media is something businesses can no longer ignore. 72% of participants are members of at least 1 social networking sites.On the average, users log in twice a day to social networking sites. Statistics indicate that in average, people have about 195 friends

Social media is indeed one of the most effective tools that PR practitioners in the world of today.  Statistics indicate that professional review on websites; newspapers and magazines have become very powerful in determining customer choice .Well that is just but an example of how PR can be used to attract customers and indeed increase overall revenue margins in corporate organization.

Safaricom Limited in Kenya is one of the corporations that have invested in PR and thus the company has been able to develop a reputable brand. In view of stiff competition from players in the same industry the company has remained at the top of its game due to a massive and intensive PR campaign. Media Publicity Index (MPI) and advertising have a directly proportional relationship with the revenue outcome of organizations and this clearly shows the potential of PR in revenue generation.

URL:

Online Customer Care Support, is it a disruptive technology?

Communication Technology has undergone remarkable transformation over the decades and is currently on the highest level ever known to mankind. The advent of the mobile phone was just a tip of the iceberg. From the Tribal age, the age of literacy, the printing age and the electronic age, the developments made in the field of communication have resulted in the transformation of cultures across the globe, a term referred by communication professionals as Technological Determinism. Social media has taken a centre stage in this development thanks to the advancement of Web 2.0

Online Customer Care Support has now emerged and its operation relies on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Companies like Vodafone UK, Vodafone Egypt, Vodacom South Africa and Safaricom in Kenya are the pioneers in this new concept of providing online customer service. However, it is facing a major challenge since the social media has always been seen as a tool of entertainment and the online community in such sites have been seen as that which seeks only fun. The credibility of Online Customer Care has been challenged by the management of call centres internationally thus slowing down the pace of its implementation. This is a perfect case of a disruptive technology which in the near future  will be the focus of business in blue chip companies.

It is in this effect that Twitter, Facebook, Tagged and other blogs are now becoming the focus of attention for Corporate entities. From a Customer service stand point, the social media is currently a perfect case of disruptive technology. In the words of Clayton M. Christensen in his book Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave, a disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology. Disruptive Technologies often appear as of no value to companies and in some cases they are seen potential causes of losses during the early stages of implementation. This is however not the case a few years down the line. A good example is the case of digital Cameras. The early digital cameras suffered from low picture quality and resolution and long shutter lag. Quality and resolution are no longer major issues and shutter lag is much less than it used to be. The convenience of small memory cards and portable hard drives that hold hundreds or thousands of pictures, as well as the lack of the need to develop these pictures, also helped. Digital cameras have high power consumption (but several lightweight battery packs can provide enough power for thousands of pictures). Cameras for classic photography are stand-alone devices. In the same manner, high-resolution digital video recording has replaced film stock, except for high-budget motion pictures.

Call Centres have for decades focussed on attending to customer needs through fast call resolutions battling with Service level agreements which in most cases are not 100% attainable. Customer care agents have forever been complaining of how their job is stressful, boring and monotonous having to satisfy the needs of customers who in most cases are unhappy due to service failure. Globally, Customer care departments have been known to be in constant battles with the management of companies for under performing and not meeting the expected targets and for the mere fact that they act as an expense to the company and not revenue earners. It is for this reason that such call centers have kept on focusing on how to attend to the numerous calls coming through to them and the core focus of the business has been employing more call center agents to improve on the availability to the customers. Strategies to reduce repeat calls have become of the essence and in most cases the overall SLA has been attained at 60% accuracy.

The Kenyan market is one that is highly informed and dynamic in nature. Mobile phone companies constantly seek new techniques of adding up their customer pool and to maintain their customer base.  According to a Harvard Business review, reducing customer defections by only 5% can double profits. Customers needs have diversified from just making calls and sending text messages akin to the developments made to the mobile phone. The mobile phone has become a mobile office where you can organize and attend meetings, exchange e-mails and even seal business deals. The clientele for mobile operators in Kenya is very active in the social media space and online customer service will be able to accommodate the needs of this pool of customers.

According to CIA World Factbook 2011 Kenya is ranked 70 on the literacy levels globally and this is an indication of how the Kenyan population embraces new technology. Statistics have indicated that Kenya has the highest population of people who access the web on mobile phones in Africa and this depicts the huge potential of Online Customer Service .

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can alway preview any post or edit you before you share it to the world.