Top 6 Best Social Media Marketing Strategies That Works in Kenya

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Improve your social media marketing by implementing the best proven social media marketing strategies that works in Kenya .Getting the most out of your social media will have a positive effect on your return on investment and that’s what you want to see.

Social media can be a very powerful tool when used correctly, but the problem is far too often it’s not utilized in a way to get the most out of it.

Let’s have a quick glance at some of the things you can do to make the most out of your social media campaigns.

  • Make sure you navigate users to your landing page via your social media. A landing page is a great place to have your visitors land. Make sure that you include this link on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any other social media channels you use. Then make
    sure that your landing page is a key part of your marketing strategy.
  • Make sure that you are watching for posts that are from users that have a concern about your company or your brand. It can be something simple like your return policy or it can be something more complex like the impact your product has on the environment.

Social media is such an important tool for today’s business, whether you are strictly an online business, or you have a brick & mortar store.
You can increase your following and your sales by making the most out of these social media strategies and tools, and there are plenty.

Social Media Tips You Need To Know

Social media has so much to offer and your business is missing out on revenue if you aren’t taking full advantage of it. These 6 social media tips will help you maximize your marketing.

1. Know What Time Is Best To Tweet

There are some solid rules about when the best time to tweet is and which days are best.
Look at your Twitter activity and determine when you get the most activity and interaction on your feed then plan your upcoming tweets to work around those ‘hot’ times.

2. Ask Questions on Your Facebook Page

Ask a question, get a response. Questions are excellent conversation starters and they are also a good way to do a little market research. Turn a picture into a question.
Choose a trending topic and include a hashtag, then watch your interaction go through the roof. Your hashtags are a key way to draw people to your page.

3. Update or Edit Your Facebook Posts

It’s a cool thing to edit your posts on Facebook, which makes it easy to add to an existing post. For example, let’s say you ran a contest and now you have your winner. You can simply edit the original post and add who won the contest. It’s the easiest way to validate the giveaway too.

4. Spend Time on Twitter Interacting

It’s important for you to have a presence on your social media channels and that includes more than just posting. On Twitter rather than just tweeting respond to tweets your followers have made.

You’ll be amazed at how this can really grow interest and followers. It’s a
great way to connect with your followers and they feel like you are connecting with them.

5. Go For a Branded URL

The shortened URL is pretty standard these days. But you can take it even further and create a branded URL that will keep your website or brand in the minds of visitors. It also helps you to create tracking information that can be very valuable in helping you make sound decisions.

6. Have a Good Call to Action

Whether you want your visitor to buy something, say something, explore something or do something you need a good call to action to get them to act in the way you want. For example, save 40% by entering code FukuzaBaridi20.

Social Media Marketing Campaign Tips

There’s a tremendous amount of marketing campaigns taking place here in Kenya. Everyone is busy putting together their social media campaign, but many have little or no understanding of what they need to accomplish.

So, let’s look at how you can have an awesome marketing campaign and really enjoy the benefits.

Partner With Traditional Media

If you really want to get the most out of your marketing campaign and your hashtags, partner with traditional media like television and radio stations to create a strong awareness and brand recognitions.

Be Strategic When You Pay for Promotion

Not all promotions are going to come to you free. Some of your marketing campaign(s) are going to involve you paying for them. How much will usually depend on how many people it’s going to reach.

For example, a marketing campaign that reaches 50 million people is going to cost a lot more than a campaign that reaches 5000 people.
Don’t just spend your money. Make sure that you are being strategic when you pay for promotions.

Seek Out a Creative Real Time Marketing Opportunity

You need to keep your marketing campaign fresh and interesting. The best way to do this is to be creative and find a real time marketing opportunity that connects with current trends and interests.

The success of any marketing campaign is measured by the results you achieve. You need to measure your metrics, including your social metrics and brand metrics to tell how effective your marketing campaign is. Then tweak or change accordingly.

Understand How To Use Hashtags

Do you use hashtags? Are your running hashtag campaigns? If you said yes, are they successful? Would you like to have more successful hashtag marketing campaigns? Everyone is running around using hashtags but few understand their importance or what it is they even do, so before you decide to go hashtag crazy make sure that you do your homework and learn more about what it is they do, how they function, why they are so important to your marketing campaigns, and how to use them correctly.

Lastly, It’s In The Results

The success of your campaign is in the results you achieve. You can measure social metrics like engagement and impressions. You can also measure brand metrics to determine the growth in brand recognition.

There are tons of factors that contribute to your success, but letting your followers have a voice and letting followers inspire other followers can make a huge difference in the success of your marketing campaign.

Things You Should Do With Social Media

If you want to get the most out of your social media campaigns, you should incorporate these 3 things.

1. Optimize YouTube Videos

The second largest search engine next to Google is YouTube. If you want the best exposure you need to make sure that you optimize your YouTube video titles and descriptions with your keywords.

For Example, Jumia Products would be detailed using a strong introductory sentence that focuses on your keyword Jumia Products.

2. Value Your Fans Taking Time To Vote

There are many ways you can use social media to discover more about your audience. Creating a poll where you ask your followers to vote is one way and it’s a good way.
Asking your followers for their opinion is a win-win because you gain information you need, and your followers feel like they have a say.

3. Have a Wish List

Social media is a great way to tap into your audiences needs and to
encourage them to add something to their wish list. This call to action helps excite your customers about something you are offering.

It’s a tool that you really should learn to use to its fullest ability.

Parting Shot

When you are posting to your social media channels make sure that you are posting information that is valuable and informative. In other words, don’t post just to post.
If you have nothing interesting to say your followers will become annoyed and they may stop following you. There’s plenty of information that comes across a newsfeed, make sure yours is worth seeing.

Take advantage of the various formats at your disposal. Some formats are better for some industries than others. For example, YouTube can be a great choice if you can show your followers how to use something or do something, or if you offer something of visual or audio interest.

Twitter can be really good for industries that have short messages they want to share often, such as changing stock or sales throughout the day.

Make the most out of your social media and you’ll enjoy the real benefits. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and try new tools and marketing strategies.

How to Create a WordPress Blog

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What is WordPress?

WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP. But in non-geek speak, it’s probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today. WordPress is highly customizable, and has literally thousands of plugin pieces of software so you can use your site for just about anything.

The Benefits of Using WordPress

Here are just the top 5 benefits of using WordPress:

  1. The software is free! How many times have you been given something for free that is fully functional and ready to use? And if you want to upscale your site a little with premium themes and plugins, you’re still going to save tons of money over what you would pay for a custom designed site.
  2.  It’s easy to use. Seriously. If you can send an email, use Microsoft Word, or set up a Facebook account, then you can use WordPress. In other words, if you’ve already used a computer, chances are you are already skilled enough for the WordPress basics. And even better, it’s hard to mess it up. You can easily add and delete pages and posts without accidentally messing up the overall design of your site.
  3. You are in control. Owning your own site, and being able to make changes to it yourself, is the ultimate in online freedom. You don’t have to rely on an expensive web designer to make changes or fix a tiny error for you whenever they can squeeze you in. You’re in control of
    your site—and your wallet.
  4. WordPress has search engine (SEO) advantages. Search engines love sites that are easy to index (WordPress is) and that have frequently updated content. That’s where blogging comes in to play so nicely. Just by running your business or personal site   and communicating with your readers in a way that’s natural to you, you’ll be producing fresh, relevant content the search engines can’t wait to get a hold of.
  5. There’s a HUGE support community. WordPress isn’t just a software, it has become a community. Some might even say a movement. In fact, WordCamps (1-3 day
    training sessions) have sprung up from grassroots efforts. They are informal, community-organized events put together by other WordPress users just like you. You’ll
    meet people of all backgrounds, ages, and nationalities at WordCamps. Plus, there are thousands of people and hundreds of resource and tutorial sites set up just to help
    you with your WordPress site.

Useful Resources

Starting a WordPress Blog: Overview

The process of setting up a blog is mind-bogglingly simple. There are only a couple of steps to
go through which shouldn’t take too long. In all, you’ll have your site up and running

  1. How to get a domain and web hosting
  2. Installing WordPress
  3. How to change your WordPress theme
  4. Creating your your first blog post
  5. Organizing the site structure
  6. Adding helpful WordPress plugins

Follow along and you’ll have a WordPress blog in no time. Let’s begin.

Step 1. Buying a Domain and Web Hosting

The domain name is your Web identity. For example learnerscoach.co.ke
There are several domain registrars but for the sake of simplicity, we recommend using hostpinnacle for the following reasons. Click here to read more

Hundreds of Themes Available

Free and premium themes are available from the moment you create your account. Find the WordPress theme that best represents you and your unique talents. Installation is fast and easy, and switching themes can be completed in seconds.

 WordPress Hosting
Done Right

Designed with you in mind, Bluehost provides everything you need to create and manage a WordPress website. Enjoy powerful website management tools, automatic WordPress installation, and 24/7 expert support all at a price that fits any budget.

All WordPress Hosting Plans Include

Automatic WordPress Installation

Upon creation of your WordPress Hosting plan, Bluehost automatically installs the latest and most secure version of WordPress.

Microsoft Office 365 available

Access your email anywhere with Microsoft Office 365. Boost recognition with Microsoft Office email accounts branded with your domain name.

Free Domain Name for 1 Year

Enjoy a free domain of your choosing for one year upon the creation of your WordPress Hosting account.

Automatic WordPress Updates

We keep your WordPress Hosting plan secure even after account creation by keeping your account up to date everyday.

Secure Configuration of Login Credentials

Upon the creation of your WordPress Hosting account, your login credentials are changed from the standard WordPress admin/password to something of your choice.

Get Verified on Google My Business

List your local business online to quickly connect with customers in your area. Allow them to see your location and your hours of operation on Google Maps.

Bluehost provides a free domain when you sign up for their web hosting packages. This makes
management of your new website extremely easy. It will reduce the overall costs, too.
You probably already have a domain name in mind. Good!

Step 2. Installing WordPress

The final step is to install WordPress on your server. Most hosting companies offer thorough instructions on installing WordPress or services to install WordPress for you.
Using a quick-install service is a simple way to get your WordPress installation up and running, but the downside is that it does leave some security holes.
For that reason, you may want to consider installing WordPress manually.

What are the benefits of doing a manual installation?

  • It prevents the WordPress database tables being installed as a default, with default labels. These default labels can make your site more vulnerable.
  • It allows for full customization of the wp-config.php file, which opens up enormous potential in WordPress.
  • It allows you to work within the “best security practices” for your WordPress site.

Step 3. Logging Into Your New WordPress Site

Once WordPress has been installed on your web server, you can access your WordPress login pagewordpress Learners admin

Your WordPress Login URL
The first way to access your WordPress Login URL will be in this format:

http://yoursite.com/wp-login.php or http://yoursite.com/wp-admin For example, for a new WordPress installation, you can visit yoursite.com/wp-login.php or yoursite.com/wp-admin to login. It might be helpful if you bookmark your site’s login URL.

From your WordPress login screen, you’ll enter the username and password that you set up during the WordPress installation process.

If you’ve forgotten your WordPress login password, you can click the “Lost Your password?” link to retrieve it via email.

Step 3. Exploring the WordPress Dashboard

Once you’ve logged in to your WordPress site, you’ll land here, the WordPress dashboard

wordpress dashboard Learners


Exploring the WordPress Dashboard

The WordPress dashboard allows you to control all of the behind-the-scene details of managing your site. Once you find your way around the dashboard, you’ll realize it’s
really easy to use and navigate.

After you first log in, you’ll see a top Welcome to WordPress section with some quick links to help you get started. You can always dismiss this box using the link in the top right corner.

The next section is the At a Glance section. Here you’ll see the number of posts and pages for your site’s content. You’ll also see discussion information for comments, like the total number of comments and the number in moderation.

In the At a Glance section, you’ll also see what WordPress theme you’re currently running
on your site plus your current version of WordPress.

The Activity section shows recently-published posts, pingbacks and recent comments. From here, you can quickly approve comments, reply back, mark as spam or send to trash.

The last section is the WordPress News section. These are updates from the official WordPress project.
If you’d like to customize what sections you see from the WordPress dashboard, visit the Screen Options tab on the top right side of your screen. Click the arrow to expand this section and you’ll see checkboxes for each of the sections usually included in the WordPress dashboard.

To remove any of the sections, just unclick the checkbox beside the section you’d like to hide. You can also choose the number of columns for the screen layout, too.

If you return to the dashboard home, you can also expand each of the sections by clicking the arrow to the right. You can also drag and drop the boxes to change the order.

Left-hand Navigation Menu
In addition to the WordPress dashboard home screen, the other major component of the WordPress dashboard is the left-hand navigation menu. This navigation menu provides links to all of the WordPress administration screens for posts, the media library, pages, comments, appearance options, plugins, users, tools and settings.

What Next

If you ever find yourself needing extra help, just click the image below, getting started with word press, you will find helpful information that will make you understand word press in detailsgetting started with Wordpress

Blogging Startups in Kenya

blogging startup in Kenya

Introduction to Blogging

The history of computers and related technologies played a vital role in the emergence of e-businesses that brought new dimensions to the traditional “brick and mortar” way of doing business in the early 1990’s.

It follows a very logical sequence, of course, that is not difficult to comprehend considering the speed with which the computers could be used to add, sort, analyse and process all sorts of information and data with just a few keystrokes. It was a boon for any business, big or small.

In the late 1990’s, the Internet transformed the business world drastically replacing dusty old ledgers with modern computer networks that connected millions of businesses worldwide and helped in the transaction of billions of dollars across fibre optic cables.

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The Power of Blogs

In the early days, the blogs were nothing but a form of a personal diary or journal that was easy to maintain and log daily. This was made possible due to the fact that the blogging platforms were freely available with free hosting and domain facilities, creating a blog was easy, and did not require any special technical skill or knowledge to post content.

Therefore, anyone could open as many blogs as they wished, using the free templates provided, and maintain them very easily. It was a breeze to post content of any kind without too many hassles.

As the Internet evolved, so did the blog; making it a very powerful medium through which you could get your voice heard. Any individual could express strong opinions, suggestions and even provide useful up-to-date information through blogs. Even more attractive feature of a blog was the fact that one could interact directly with its readers in the form of comments that could be posted below the posts.

Blogs were an easy way to target specific audiences and also could be optimised, by virtue of the content posted, for it to be found on search engines. Another advantage of the blogs was that it was a comprehensive service, which offered a variety of tools and gadgets that made it versatile and user friendly.

Obviously, it did not take long for businesses to appreciate the full potential of a blog in attracting customers to its site and also providing a great platform to communicate with them directly. Some of the big business companies like Google realised this power, importance and effectiveness of the blog and incorporated it into their business strategy very effectively.

These companies have shown how a blog can be used for different purposes like marketing, educating, community building, public relations, customer feedback and announcements etc.

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1.1 What is a Blog?

A Blog is a contraction of the term ‘Web Log’. A log, as we all know, is the written record of events/messages in a chronological order. It is like a journal or diary wherein people record events, experiences and observations.

Therefore, we can describe a “blog” as a journal, which is available on the web. Technically, a blog can be defined as the chronological arrangement of a collection of text, data, images and other media objects recorded and retrievable through a web browser.

Originally, blogs started out as static websites but over the years they gradually evolved to include many advanced features making them much more conversational and interactive in nature.

1.2 Classification of Blogs

Since blogs have been used in every conceivable way over the years and have covered almost all topics under the sun it is very difficult to categorize each one of them by type, therefore it’s best to classify them instead. Blogs can be classified in one of the following ways: –

  1. By Genre: Blogs that focus on a particular niche or subject are grouped under this category. Some examples are: Political Blogs, Celebrity Blogs, Art Blogs, Music Blogs, Sports Blogs or Travel Blogs etc.
  2. By Media Type: Blogs can contain any kind of content other than simple text in its post, like photographs, videos, audio files or even games and therefore they can be grouped according to the specific media content present in the blogs. Using this form of classification, a blog that contains primarily videos is called a “Vlog”, blog that contains photos is called a “Photolog” and a blog containing links to other web pages is called a “Linklog”.
  3. By Status of Publisher: Here the word “publisher” refers to the blogger. Therefore blogs can be grouped according to its purpose as defined by the blogger as “Personal Blogs”, “Business Blogs”, “Corporate / Organizational Blogs” etc.

1.3 Who Can Blog

Well, anyone can start a blog at anytime. However, the idea is not just to start a blog and leave it at that but to be able to sustain it, and be read too. To become a serious blogger, there are certain things that one needs to know before a blog is started.

Blogging involves extensive writing and so be sure that you have enough time to spare to be able to keep up with regular postings on your blog. You can write anything that fancies your imagination or interests. Usually blogs are written in an informal tone, especially if they are personal blogs, however, if they are for business or official purposes, then the writing has to be of a higher quality and sound professional. The quality of the content on your blogs will determine the kind of traffic it will draw.

Knowledge and passion for writing are both important factors. It is always better to write about topics that you have knowledge of and are passionate about as it is reflected in your writing. Even the most seasoned writers find it difficult to write on topics that they have no knowledge about. Be passionate about writing if you want it to be a long haul, otherwise you will find yourself slipping away after a few months.

Maintaining a blog is a long-term activity that can be quite time consuming.

To be a successful blogger requires a lot of consistency, hard work and commitment on your part. Many blogs that have been started in full earnest fall by the wayside just because people cannot stick to the schedules they have set for themselves.

Writing new articles or posts requires a lot of research to be done unless of course, you are a specialist in your field and know exactly what you are writing about. A lot of time is also required to promote your blog and individual posts in order to get traffic.

But, all said and done, just about anyone can start a blog and there is no special qualification or experience needed.

Useful Resources - Grab a Copy

Immutable laws of blogging

Whether you just started that blog or you’ve had it for some time now, I want to cover the five immutable laws of blogging. If you pay attention to these laws, you’ll succeed over time. Ignore them, and you’ll find it nearly impossible to drive any respectable amount of traffic and ultimately monetize your blog.

1. Focus
Blogs need focus. You need to have a specific industry, niche or topic that you write about repeatedly. Try not to go all over the map. You’ll find that veering off on tangents will make you lose your core audience.

People want to visit a blog — and keep revisiting it — because it fills a need or a void. That happens by staying focused and on-topic.

2. Quality
People think that blogging is about pushing out an enormous amount of content. But it doesn’t work if it’s thin content. Your content needs to be quality content. It needs to be thorough, well-written and cite its sources.

If a study is referenced, it needs to be linked to. Don’t skimp on quality if you’re serious about monetizing your blog.

3. Value
Your blog needs to deliver value. What can you teach other people about? What are you an expert at? Take the time to deliver value. Create thorough tutorials and informative posts that interweave things like videos and other media to truly help people understand or figure something out.

Value is a precursor to income in any industry, but especially in blogging.

4. Engagement
How engaging is your content? Does your blog incite people to spend a lot of time reading articles, watching videos or messaging on a forum, for example? The more people engage with your content, the more likely they’ll be to purchase something from you. Without engagement, there’s very little chance of monetization.

5. Authority
How much authority do you have? How well-known are you in your field? The more authority you have, the more likely you can monetize your blog quickly.

For example, if you have a large social media following and you decide to launch a blog, you can drive traffic quickly.

If you’re an expert at something else or a best-selling author, for example, you already have authority, all you need to do is leverage it.

Starting a Blog in Kenya.

1. Identify your area of interest
You should always write about what you know. But you should not write about everything you know. Select a niche. Decide upon the main topic and write posts related to that topic. It’s more likely that your audience will come back and read your other posts if you’re writing about similar topics. People will know what to expect.

Starting a financial coach blog implies that you write about all things concerning money and finance stuff. Starting a travel blog implies you write about traveling. You can write about something slightly off topic once in a while of course, but try to stick to your niche. An audience of a travel blog doesn’t expect a blog post about gardening.

2. Purchase a domain and choose a blogging platform
Creating your own personal blog takes a few steps. First, you need to decide on a name for your blog also called a domain name, and choose a blogging platform.

Read More: How to Create a WordPress Blog

3. Do your Keyword Research
Once you’ve chosen your niche and setup your blog, you should do some solid keyword research. Try to find out what people are searching for. What words are they using when they want to read about your niche and your topic? You should really get inside the heads of your potential audience. If you do your keyword research properly, you should end up with a long list of keywords you would like to be found for. Try to come up with competitive, head keywords as well as with less competitive long-tail keywords.

4. Write Your First Post
Take some time to do keyword research and to think about site structure. But don’t take too much time. Just write that first post! Put pen to paper and just do it. Your blog starts with the very first post. That post doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be published.

Read More: How to Choose the best Topic for your Blog

5. Optimize for Search Engines
As you write your first post, create an awesome SEO title and a decent meta description. Finetune your text. Make sure your text is both readable as well as SEO-friendly.

Read More: Search Engine Optimization

6. Promote your Blog
Using social media is the best way to reach and grow the audience of your blog. That’s why your blog should have a Facebook page. Sharing your posts on Facebook is a good marketing strategy. Don’t forget Instagram and Twitter either!

Read More: 10 Proven Ways to Monetize Your Blog

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