Blogger here, blogger there, bloggers everywhere
A few years ago the Zambian blogosphere was largely ignored by corporate Zambia. After all, for some, a certain news website that has dog in its title was ridiculed for being the work of “bitter diaspora bloggers”. Being a blogger, having a blog or venturing to approach corporate Zambia as a “professional blogger”, was almost an invitation for ridicule or snarky comments.
What’s changed? As a latent blogger, I’m happy to note that the media and advertising industry has changed and with it those higher ups who make decisions about what to spend advertising dollars on, changed their minds. I’m sure they saw the rise in power of social media (mainly twitter and Facebook) in the hands of popular Zambian celebrities such as Lulu Haangala, Zone Fam and Slap Dee. All of whom continue to be able to connect with Zambian fans through a 140 characters or less.
On Facebook, where they have more freedom with the word limits, their status updates are liked, shared and commented on in numbers and at a rate that make most Zambian corporate social media pages look woeful. Where a billboard can’t tell you how many people like or have seen it, a sponsored or promoted tweet can tell you the number of retweets and favourites.
A boosted Facebook post can go viral or if you are lucky and the content is that good, scandalous, interesting or even entertainingly bad, it cost you nothing but the bundles you used to post it and has a far wider reach with data insights attached to it to boot.
For corporate Zambia, some of it comes back to the cosy feeling that is there when they can see a return in investment in their advertising dollars. For others, it’s the brand awareness and the possibility of likes translating to sales. For the more savvy companies they will request reports and data insights to quiz a potential blogger before they bring them on board as an asset.
With the rise of popular professional fashion and lifestyle bloggers come business women , Sekayi and Tukiya Fundafunda of Mafashio, so too has the increase in Zambian bloggers. Mazuba Kapambwe of The Fest Gurus and her own blog, I am the Zuba recently joined Barclays Africa’s new digital campaign, Pan African Savings Campaign. It’s a campaign designed to encourage to save and educate Africans on savings. Barclays has enlisted the help of bloggers like Mazuba and other bloggers located in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana to share their savings journey.
Just reading that, it seems that blogging is the way to go. Yet for some, it’s still a fad. As one corporate head said to me, “Oh everyone is a blogger these days. Nothing new. It will phase out”
You can imagine the look that was on my face. Nothing new? Phase out? Pffft! Zambian blogosphere is JUST getting started. Social media is just taking over in Zambia. That’s why I’m here, writing on Techtrends‘ blog. I love talking about social media and in particular blogging. Every now and then I get an email query from a new blogger asking all those questions I have learned the answers to (the hard way).
So chat to me in the comments or on twitter via @mskkj. I want to hear what you think about the emerging Zambian blogosphere.
Until next blog cycle, write well and prosper!
