Featuring Stephen Naasei Boadi
Tune in as we dissect holiday Social media nightmares and unveil tactics to keep your brand merry & bright! Crisis tips, and more! This week's guest Stephen Naasei Boadi is a consultant who helps brands and businesses grow by leveraging and effectively executing the right marketing and communication strategies, he's a CIM Tutor and the lead enabler at Enable Growth Consult.
[0:00] From Bildx Studios, this is Colours of Social Media. I'm your host, Enoch, RobotBoy Appiah Jr., and I appreciate your presence here today. Before I begin this episode, I think I'll be doing you a huge disservice if I don't keep the context, you know, the origination, the genesis, essentially how this episode came about.
[0:19] This episode is a detailed explanation of a tweet by my guest. The tweet goes like this. Christmas is often the time when most tourism businesses and shops experience a major social media crisis.
[0:33] Are you and your team ready? Plan to avoid crisis. You could even steal business from your competitors. So it's because of this tweet and the season that we are in, that's why I invited my next guest.
[0:47] And I pray and hope that by the time you listen to this episode, it will be of value to you and your business. My next guest is a consultant who helps brands and businesses grow by leveraging and effectively executing the right marketing and communication strategies.
[1:04] He's a CIM tutor and the lead enabler at Enable Growth Contract. My guest for this episode is Stephen Naasei Boadi. First of all, thank you for joining me on Colours of Social Media, of course.
[1:26] This episode about Christmas and, you know, holiday shopping for businesses. I really appreciate your time here. You're welcome. All right. So let's get the world rolling.
[1:37] I want to know your expectation for this episode. We are talking about, you know, getting ready for holiday shopping as a business. Thank you very much.
[1:47] I'm hoping that we can discuss some of the critical things that shop owners, restaurants, hoteliers, and all the people that want to tap into the Christmas bumper season.
[2:02] We can learn, can discuss some of the things they can learn to be able to take advantage of this season. It's a shame when, while some are making money, others are having issues and are not able to make any money because they are not prepared for the season the way that they should.
[2:19] So, yes, hopefully we can give some nuggets. I mean, people will join us and we'll be able to have a good conversation. Awesome. I'll be bounded by this expectation.
[2:29] For context, I just want to give you the reason why, you know, I invited you to this episode. Okay. Essentially, it's based off a tweet that you tweeted.
[2:40] And it goes like, Christmas is often the time when most tourism businesses and shops experience major social media crisis. Yeah. What's the business are you and your team ready?
[2:53] Plan to avoid crisis. That's an advice you are giving them. Plan to avoid crisis. You could even steal business from your competitors. So basically, this is the context of this conversation.
[3:05] Yeah. Now, my first question will be, can you share your thoughts on this tweet regarding, you know, Christmas being a potential time for social media crisis?
[3:16] Thank you very much. I mean, Christmas is a time when people travel with locally and also foreigners coming into town. I think in Ghana in particular, since most of our listeners are from Ghana, since 2019, we've had this year of return.
[3:32] And every year, we expect close to a million people coming just during this period. The challenge is that a lot of the people that come in are very active online.
[3:45] And they also come with different experience from different markets. If you look at just one example, last year, there was a case of a guy called Salama the God.
[3:54] I don't know if anybody saw his tweets or any of your listeners saw his tweets. You went to a restaurant, came to Ghana, went to a restaurant.
[4:02] In the end, he confirmed that the food was great, but he had to wait forever to get his food. Okay. And he went and tweeted it. And he wouldn't understand that.
[4:11] He quoted a book of France, Ghanaians, whatever. But the challenge is where he's coming from. He came from the States. Where he's coming from, they are not used to that.
[4:20] Now, what happened was that not only was he not impressed with the service, but he also didn't realize the kind of guy he was. This is the guy who the breakfast should call the breakfast clap.
[4:34] One of the breakfast shows in the world of the States. So if you know the kind of profile of the guy and the reality is, like you would say, is that when you're not unhappy, they may not always confront you there and there.
[4:48] They just take out your phone and they tweet something. And so if you're doing activities, you really care. Now, he tweeted it and he was here for a couple of days.
[4:57] Nobody even reached out to him. And the tweet was there. You can hear what I mean. So these are some of the things that we need to look out for.
[5:06] If the restaurant had been prepared, they would have known, for example, who the guy was. They would have, I mean, won't come to him. And a guy like that, if he walked into my restaurant, I wouldn't even charge him because he puts just a picture of the meal who gave you the reach that you can't pay for.
[5:28] You know what I mean? So that's essentially what I mean, what is better this week. And that's so many of them. I mean, if I can go on. Even just last night, I went out to eat with a couple of my friends.
[5:38] It's no peak Christmas season yet. And yet, when we opened our drinks, it took over 30 minutes for the drinks to come. And the only reason why that happened was that the restaurant was not aware that this is a peak season and they needed to put on more stuff.
[5:55] And the stuff also had to be quicker. They had to load their stuff, all those things. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. That's all right. Okay. Let's talk about the social media, not as a channel of business, but social media management during this holiday season.
[6:14] How crucial is this? Okay. So just yesterday, I put up another post that I will just walk through a couple of points. So the first thing to do is don't wait till the season before you train the people on social media.
[6:27] Everything happens on social media. There are people coming to town, who go on Instagram, just get inspiration for places to go and find decent food to eat.
[6:37] And so make sure that the pictures and the content on your social media platforms are not only up to them, but they are engaged. There's something I often say, for restaurants in particular, the food has to taste nice even in the picture before you start eating it.
[6:53] Do you understand what I mean? You have to feel the food in your mouth before you start eating it. That's why as a social media manager or as a restaurant or a hotel or any business, even for hotels, talking about the rooms and stuff, do a professional photo shoot so that the pictures that you are posting on your social media platforms are engaging the teller story and people will be compelled and encouraged by just the pictures to do business with you, make inquiries.
[7:26] So that's the first one. Okay. Now, the next one is that when you find you on social media, it's important that within a platform, so you go on Instagram, for example, you will teach the Google map location there right in the bio area.
[7:42] That's a great one. So make sure that you've updated your location of Google Maps and put a link there. Because if I went onto Instagram platform and I saw a restaurant I want to go to, the next thing is I want to find out where is it located.
[7:58] I don't want to call it anybody yet. But when I make up my mind, I want to make sure that I probably come to town. The driver, the Uber driver might not know the place, but I want to make sure that I know where I'm going and I can open my phone, get onto Google Maps and go the Uber driver to the restaurant.
[8:18] So it's important that you do that. We know how in Ghana, a lot of our roots are dead ends. So you don't want to be driving to find your restaurant and then they can't find it in any way.
[8:29] So that's another one, okay? As a social media manager, make sure you're active also online. If you don't find it, be active in your DM. So we will ask you questions.
[8:39] We are there to answer them. Because it's easy, I mean, it takes only minutes for you to lose business. You get what I mean? One minute. If somebody is asking something in your DM and you're not active, the next day you go to the next restaurant.
[8:56] That might ask your question. And that restaurant will pick up the business. Or that shop, or that hotel will pick up the business. So be active in your social media.
[9:05] The other one, which I think is key, and we don't do a lot is active community management and social listening. Now social listening is something big that we don't do a lot in Ghana.
[9:18] I mean, elsewhere people use bespoke apps like I'm going to need to talk walker and I used to do it. But in Ghana, a lot of stops can't even use Google alerts to do it.
[9:28] Social listening is essentially just plugging into the conversations that are going on about your blood. Okay? So there's another case that came up this year wondering Christmas.
[9:40] You know the green view restaurant, red view teller case that trended for a while. I don't know if you're familiar with it. Let me move the hotel, the one that smells it good.
[9:50] And then the window line closes something and we came back and forth under that. Now I can tell clients, if you are active in social media and you are listening, you give yourself a good chance to be aware of your conversation that's going on promptly so that you'll be able to deal with the situation, any situation that you need to deal with.
[10:11] That's that part. If, on the other hand, it's a good, I mean, review or a positive thing, you have to call users and reject content. Yep. Sometimes the posts, the good things that we will say about your service, about your restaurant, you will tell your video or whatever are better than even your own art that you've created.
[10:34] So when you're plugged into it, when they mention you, you can repost it, you can reshare it. But this is what we're saying and it's very compelling.
[10:42] You know what I mean? Yes. That's another one. And to tap into that, again, I will say, as social media managers, and I mean, as I'm the very honest, if you are active in social media, have a consistent hashtag you use and let your customers do this hashtag so that with the hashtag, you can see all the conversation about your brand, your occasion, whatever, in one thread.
[11:08] You understand what I mean? Well, you need to tap into it in the part of the conversation. You see, this story I told about the Salama, they got experience.
[11:17] If the restaurant was actively listening, they could have participated in the conversation. Yep. Okay. But the conversation was going on all over, it jumped even on to draw over a lot of radio stations and stuff.
[11:31] And the restaurant wasn't involved in the conversation because they were not listening. And they didn't find out until it got big and bad. That's the way they got even left out.
[11:42] The stations had been trending. So it becomes difficult to try to do what you call it, crisis management or damage control. You hear what I mean?
[11:51] But if you have a consistent hashtag, they can really do that. Because for people who come, you see, out in city people, these is the context we go to.
[12:00] We go to a very normal life. We take pictures by ourselves. Wait, wait. Now, it takes training yourself to politely ask people, can you please tell us when you post these pictures?
[12:12] Just politely ask them, can you do that? Yeah. Or at least, have signs posted there, musically, so people can see, oh, whatever, they can use this hashtag, or they can tag you.
[12:25] I'm going to be showing restaurants to eat. I don't even know the handle for the restaurant where I'm eating because they've not publicized it.
[12:33] So I post the picture and I don't know how to tell them. You know what I mean? Anyway, I can't call another number. The business with restaurants and all these tourism, I mean, businesses, can tag you into this.
[12:49] Yeah. I mean, with the questions that I drafted out, it will address a lot of, a lot of these concerns. So yeah, you just have to brace yourself for the questions that are coming.
[13:03] Now, let's focus on the tourism businesses, right? I want us to focus on the common challenges and risks that they experience in such seasons, right?
[13:17] So what are the common challenges and risks that tourism businesses face on social media during Christmas? I think the common challenges that they face are people venting their disappointment on social media, okay?
[13:35] Now, what you will find is that, again, if you take a hotel, for example, okay, if you vote, if you have, if you want to come to your hotel, if they want to come and wait at the, I mean, reception, forever before they get to the airport, if travel is flown for eight hours or whatever, wait at the airport to check out, so they've come to your hotel, they expect you to be ready to welcome them.
[14:00] So what you should do is, around this time, put more staff on at the reception. And in Ghana, we didn't know when the flights, the international flights arrived, in the evenings, don't they?
[14:14] Yep. So in the evenings, have more staff available to check people in. You can even, because what if they paid in all those things, okay? You can even print their, I mean, login, what you call it, their checking forms and all those things available.
[14:33] So as soon as they come in, somebody is ready to deal with them again, five minutes, they are ready, there's somebody to take them into their room, all those things.
[14:42] So you use that to reduce the level of stress and disappointment that people face when they come there. It was like we said, why does it start feeling iffy?
[14:54] Why does it start feeling that the service is not what they expect? They will complain. And it's not only that they will complain to you at the reception, they will complain online.
[15:03] You've got to be, they will complain online. That is the problem. So that's the biggest challenge social media managers face. Like I often say, there's a conversation going on about your brand often in real time.
[15:17] Your job as a social media manager is to tap into the conversation, listen and participate in the conversation, to share the conversations in the interest of your business.
[15:29] Okay. So the first challenge is that there's likely to be a spike in the level, in the number of disappointment complaints online. Be prepared to participate in the conversation and deal with every complaint that's posted online.
[15:47] Okay. That's the first one. Yeah. The second one is having to manage, for example, on social media. For example, people want to ask questions in your DM before they come.
[16:05] And sometimes your DM can be flooded with questions. Okay. You need a dedicated social media manager sometimes in 24 hours. Okay. So that these DM questions can be responded to.
[16:18] And this goes for people who sell, like hotels, shops, and people who sell because people have come to town, they want to shop on their way out.
[16:27] Okay. And so they will probably, even in the middle of the night, they want to find out on Instagram or wherever identifying products they want to buy.
[16:36] And they want to ask you a question, is this product available? Is this there? This and that. Okay. Make sure that you are active in your DM.
[16:44] Because every time that you don't respond to them, you're losing business. They could go on to their next customer. Okay. But one way to deal with that is to tap in.
[16:54] You know most of these DMs, like WhatsApp or even Messenger, has an AI integrated in it, the auto response thing. Okay. So make sure that you're integrated into your social media management.
[17:06] So at least the basic answers, they can get them. Do you understand what I mean? Right. And it also, it also updates your content so that the questions that people may have do have answers.
[17:19] One of the most irritating things in God we find is that people push things online. Okay. And they don't add the price. But they don't ask, they don't add enough details.
[17:30] They say call or DM to find out more. Not everybody will hear. Okay. Yeah. So these are two challenges that are real. The amount of inquiries that will come in that you need to deal with.
[17:44] That's the second one. But the first one, like I talked about, is the amount of complaints and comments about your business. That's likely, I mean, to be posted.
[17:54] And you need to be active online to participate in the conversation. This is where social listening is important. Awesome. Oh, sorry about that.
[18:03] So when we were talking, I was making notes. And just to summarize this, businesses need to get their content updated in this period because you don't want to be giving false information or any outdated information to these tourists once they get into the country.
[18:23] Exactly. Again, using automated responses on social media platforms, if they provide, it's really essential in this holiday season. Yes. The auto responses deal with the frequently asked questions.
[18:37] Like the business was at home. What time do you close? Have you got this? Have you got all those questions that we dealt with? Yeah. Awesome.
[18:45] And last but not the least, you provide all necessary information in the post. You don't have to, you know, conclude a post by saying, DM for, let's say, price, DM for more information because not all of these potential customers will be willing to go that extra mile to get information.
[19:05] They'll rather visit another competitor to get all the information that they need. Now, my next question would have... Sorry, let me add to that.
[19:18] You see, the culture is that when people want something, they want it now. So if you are not there to provide answers for them to get it now, they'll go to the next person to be ready to send them or provide the service to them.
[19:32] Is that simple as that? So my next question would have been how businesses can effectively prepare for any potential social media crisis during Christmas.
[19:42] But then it looks like your answer sort of answered this in a part. So I don't know if you want to add more. That's fine. But if not, I can move on to the next question, which will talk about specific planning strategies that you want to recommend for businesses.
[20:03] Yeah. Yeah, let me just add to that, to summarize that. I mean, the things they need to do is that they need to have competent social media managers in place.
[20:15] Okay. And train these social media managers to understand what we call customer expectation and how to deliver a good customer experience. You see, they need to understand that the customers that they will get during the Christmas period are different from the everyday customers you get in, let's say April or June or May.
[20:35] Okay. And so, yes. And so you need to understand the expectation of these customers as they come online and they come onto your platform. Okay.
[20:47] So your social media managers need to be active, let's say, and also be more responsive. It means, for example, if during the year, your social media manager, that's, let's say, nine to five.
[20:58] Now, it's not good enough. Now, you need them to do 24 hours. So it might mean you need to run your social media management on shift. Okay. And then also, if you're doing enough listening and you're also listening to even the challenges that other competitors are having, then you can prepare for that.
[21:19] I'm sure by now, all those people who followed the sell-out-my story are now, I mean, have learned their lesson. They're not going to have that in their restaurants, same as the review story, because they've all learned from how it trended.
[21:36] That's why it's important that you learn from other people's misfortune and their successes. So you can also prepare for it. Yeah? Okay. So I think that those are the tips I'll give people as they prepare for that.
[21:49] Okay. Now, let's go to your next question, please. Also, thank you for that. All right. So going back to the context of this conversation, that is the tweets.
[21:59] The tweets suggest that, you know, businesses could steal business from competitors. That was the concluding part of the tweets, that as a business during Christmas, you can actually steal business from your competitors.
[22:14] Now, my question would be, how can a well-handled social media strategy in Christmas accomplish this tax, the tax of stealing business from your competitor?
[22:28] Excellent. Excellent. So in marketing, there's something we call customer pain points. Okay? And let's see. Again, let's use the Salama example, the God example.
[22:41] He went to a restaurant. He had a good experience, and he tweeted about it. Another restaurant that was active online could have done a push and tagged him and say, you know what?
[22:52] We are feeling like we're all down here, restauranters. We are offering you a meal just today. Okay? Come, let's show you the real kind of experience, what your experience was in the proper kind of experience.
[23:04] Okay? He might not take it up. Okay? But believe me, he is following us on Twitter. That push will see you have a lot of reach and other people might pick it up.
[23:18] So you're tapping into the conversation, the trending conversation, to steal business. You know what I mean? I get you perfectly. That's so sneaky.
[23:28] Yes. But that's what a lot of people do everywhere. You look at the challenges that customers are having. Okay? Again, you have to use him to see.
[23:39] But you know that he had that experience. Okay? And then you can do a push. That says, here's our purpose. Every order at a restaurant is saved in 30 minutes at this restaurant.
[23:52] You don't save in 30 minutes. You can have a free meal on us. So you throw a talent and make sure that that push is pushed out there. Okay? Or at the same time, get a couple of influences or whatever.
[24:07] To visit a restaurant, give them a great service. Let them treat about it. Let them share content about that out there. Okay? And with that, with that, people will see, ah, well, actually, this restaurant, they have not done very well when it's out there.
[24:25] But there are other restaurants in Ghana that are doing great. Okay? So again, for me, social listening is the solution to a lot of this. It's about tapping into the conversation and knowing what's going on and how you can provide solutions to the challenges that customers are having during that period.
[24:42] Yeah? If you do that, then you see business. Because nobody would, I mean, go back to a restaurant and leave them a good experience. Okay? That's the truth.
[24:53] But it doesn't mean they will not be out there looking for restaurants to eat at. So this is the opportunity. You say, you know, we are different.
[25:01] Come to us. Hmm. Interesting. No. That's cool. That's cool. So ultimately, it's all about listening, social listening, right? Yes, and understanding customer pay points.
[25:18] I think that is the bane of our trouble when it comes to social media management in Ghana and for that matter, in the industry. In fact, let me add this.
[25:31] I mean, since I'm in the industry, and a lot of our friends, I mean, in the industry, a lot of our friends, what they do is they schedule their posts.
[25:39] So they schedule their posts, then they go to sleep. Like obviously, like obviously, for every post, the real conversation happens. I see a download in the comments section.
[25:50] Yes. And also, if you tweet, or you have your money associated, they have a hashtag. Okay. People use the hashtag. Let's move elsewhere to another conversation, another industry.
[26:03] I'm sure you heard about what's going on with some of this alcoholic exhibition, right? Oh, yeah. The museum. Yes, the museum. Look at how they are amplifying the conversation about the visits and everything else, and it's taking over everywhere.
[26:20] Just today, they've said that they've extended the date from tomorrow to second December. Okay. But it's a response to the overwhelming response and reception that they've got from patrons.
[26:36] Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah. And that's what listening does. And it's not just his social media, it's self-conveying himself. It's actively involved in retweeting the post.
[26:47] It's like turning up to take pictures with school kids, all those things. Okay. We have restaurant managers here in this town, or owners in this town.
[26:57] We never make an effort to even get out of your office to go and sit at a table, to have your conversation with your guests, to be the guest feel that, oh, we really appreciate you coming here.
[27:09] But by getting out and taking pictures with them, okay, by giving them a special treatment, they will by all means post those pictures. And that's how you am people here.
[27:20] So don't post things and then go to sleep, okay? When you post it, make sure it's working. That means be active in your comment section, responding to people, be checking on the hashtag, making sure that the conversation is going on, you're participating in the conversation.
[27:41] Obviously, even when people don't ask questions, you say to the board, thank you for, I mean, complimenting us. We're glad you turned up and whatever, okay?
[27:50] It's not always when you ask questions that you have to say something. Sometimes, just like if you post this enough. Like, obviously, the same with people that like to be snogged in real life.
[28:01] They don't like to be snogged online. Yeah. So if they keep coming to your platform and giving you funds and you're not uploading them, they will stop coming.
[28:11] They will stop giving you a visit, okay? We all do in this town. There are celebrities in this town who people see, they are, I mean, what do you call it?
[28:21] They just block people, okay? But there are some that will come online and have Instagram live or whatever and give people same way, even as a restaurant or as a hotel.
[28:35] Something you can use, it's a lot like video. What do you do from behind the scenes? What's going on? How this food is put together? How do we make our job here?
[28:43] Just take the kids of who goes on in the kitchen. To bring life to what you're doing, okay? These are some of the things that social media managers need to learn so that they can take advantage of this season.
[28:59] All right. All right. Throughout this conversation, the sort of underlying action that businesses need to do is to listen, you know, to monitor their presence online.
[29:14] That is social listening, right? So, my next question would be, you know, a couple of examples of tools that you use in listening. But then before you answer that, I want us to go for a short break, you know, get some breather, bring some water to, you know, smoothing our throats.
[29:32] When we come back, we'll be talking about the tools that businesses can use to monitor social media effectively during this holiday season. So, we'll be right back.
[29:45] Excellent. So, for the past two weeks or so, I've been posting everywhere, you know, inviting you, my listeners, to join an exclusive WhatsApp channel, I've created for this podcast.
[30:01] Now, I feel like you don't believe me. So, I invited a member of the WhatsApp channel to tell you the benefit he's getting since he joined. An exclusive WhatsApp channel for Color Social Media.
[30:12] Being part of that group gives me the opportunity to enjoy the content a week before it comes out. Also, get the opportunity to ask questions and also get to know who is going to be featured a week before it takes place.
[30:24] If you want to enjoy this, join the WhatsApp group also. Thank you. Now, you believe me, I'm still inviting you. If you want to join the Color Social Media podcast WhatsApp channel, click on the link in the show notes.
[30:37] Now, this will give you the chance to get all that from my essay. See you there. Welcome back to Color Social Media podcast. My name is Enoch, RobotBoy, Appia Jr.
[30:54] And in this episode, I have with me, Stephen Nasser-Boide. And we are talking about holiday shopping for businesses, how to get the most out of this season if you are a business in the tourism industry.
[31:11] And even just, you know, the average social, how you can, you know, get more out of these businesses since more tourists are getting into the country.
[31:20] One of the things that you find is that sometimes some of these tour guides are not well-prepared and they don't know their stuff and they get overworked, okay?
[31:30] This is a time when, as a tour venue location or whatever, you need to train your people, get them on point so they can tell a story. People who go to Cape Cusco and all those places, okay, make sure that your tour guides are ready to welcome them and they know how to tell the story.
[31:52] Because, you see, when they tell you the story, it's effective, especially on Cape Cusco, for example. It's able to get the right emotions out of the businesses.
[32:00] Now you want them to live with a sense of, an understanding of the cruelty of slavery. And if they are not able to tell their story properly, you won't get that impact, okay?
[32:14] And what you want to do is that, because for a lot of people, going to Cape Cusco, it's like connecting with your heritage and you want them to go back and tell their friends and family that you can't go to Ghana without visiting Cape Cusco because there are stories like these and the pictures, for example.
[32:36] The same way, for example, I know they adore those tour guides, but these tour guides even sometimes get asked great pictures of their visitors.
[32:45] So even train them on how to use food to take good pictures so that they can be of great help to guess the company. You want to give a complete experience.
[32:56] So that goes also into the preparation for that. Number three, you find that, yes, you find that when you go to some of these venues, there are a lot of people who hang around the front, who are ready to sell any cheaper to some of the visitors.
[33:11] Make sure that the vendors there and all those people are people you have to create so they are not selling cheaper stuff and they are not reparing people off.
[33:20] Nobody wants to. Somebody might sell something cheap to them, okay? But when they go, they don't say they bought it from Dublix. They say they bought it from Cape Cusco when they visit the Cape Cusco, okay?
[33:36] So make sure that they do. I often say that the visitors don't know the vendors there. They only know the venue. So if you have a venue, that is allowing vendors to sell things or do what is food or, I mean, all these craft items and things there, make sure that you sanity check these people.
[33:58] Make sure they are selling quality stuff. The food vendors, they are selling great food. All those things. Just for people who also go to these tour venues and stuff.
[34:09] Yeah. And even, excuse me to say, on this show, this is like even the washrooms. This is the time when they need to create. So you're giving them a great experience when they come.
[34:20] It's all about their experience here for them to amplify your brand on social media. Exactly. Oh, yes. Because when they go, they see when they come, they're likely to take pictures.
[34:31] That one there is guaranteed, okay? And what you want is to use is for them to tell your story for you. And you then go to amplify. This will go user-generated content where you are not paying them to create content for you.
[34:45] They are creating the content they posted. And you are tapping into that content to tell your story. Sometimes it's more compelling than the ads that you pay money to run.
[34:55] Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about the tools of this trade. Tools that businesses can use to monitor social media effectively. So you can just list, you know, from your side, I want a bunch.
[35:10] All right. So there are a number of them. Some are paid. Some are free. All sorts. Okay. So let's start with the free ones. I often say that the first one that you should do is use is the platform's own analytics tool.
[35:25] Okay. So and then also your DM bills are two tools that are ready for you and they are free. The platform has analytics tools and it shows you which posts are getting the most engagement, which posts are with all those.
[35:38] But the points of every post, okay, and the conversations that you will have. So you can be able to use that. Let's say you've got Google. I met a business suite.
[35:48] Okay. It gives you all these things. You can see all the, how every post is doing the comments, the likes, the reactions, the shares. So you can follow them to see what's going on there.
[36:00] Because what happens sometimes is that somebody will share your post and the conversation that's going on is on the post that they have shared onto your wall.
[36:07] Got the one on your wall. You understand what I mean? Yeah. So you need to follow that. That's a great one. So use the internal analytics tools that they give you.
[36:16] The second one that I give you, I give you for is Google Google Analytics. If you have a Google Analytics account that's free, set Google Analytics and make sure that you know all the keywords and things that are relevant to your industry.
[36:33] And also because you can sell business, sometimes you can even use your competitors as keywords. So when people measure your competitors, you always see the competition you're going to have about your competitors and whether that gives you any opportunities to steal business.
[36:48] You get what I mean? Yeah. So those are two free ones. Now we can get into proper social media management tools like YouTube, for example. Okay.
[36:59] Which allows you to be able to post to all platforms, you need to tap into the conversations that are going on about your brand and what that means across these platforms.
[37:07] So that's a great one. It's paid for, but you can start with a trial based. And then when you, if you like it, you go ahead to buy the license for it.
[37:17] Okay. Another one is Brand24. Okay. That's another great one. It'll give you all the, I mean, 20 you need. Okay. There's even tweets deck, for example.
[37:28] There's so many of them. Now, if you want to play with the big boys, let's say you have big hotel, like let's see our Lancaster or, I mean, all these big hotels in town.
[37:41] They need, they need to get the professional ones, like the talk worker and the rest we just paid for. It gives you more, it gives you a lot more insight.
[37:52] Some of them even give you insights as to how to turn some of them around, some of the posts that they were saying around to generate content and things like that.
[38:05] And how to respond to these other posts. So the bottom line is that start from the free ones, try them, but if you can afford it, get some of these, I mean, industry standard ones, paid ones and use them.
[38:21] I mean, it's not, it's not a waste of money. And the truth is that for a lot of them, they cost maximum or $300, $400 a month. Okay. And for these big hotels, they can afford it.
[38:36] And let me tell you, you may think that that's, I mean, a waste of money. It saves you a lot. The amount of money you spend to deal with a potential crisis, you have no idea.
[38:48] You regret not, you regret not investing in these. Where most of the stories of airlines, for example, that got me into trouble for not listening enough.
[39:01] If I can tell the story, for example, what happened in Ghana, what is another line in U.S. called American Airlines, where a doctor was dragged out of the airline because I think they had been, there are two in who checked in.
[39:13] While he was being dragged and was screaming and crying, people were filming it in the airline passengers before takeoff. And they were sharing the videos and things on Instagram and on Twitter and everywhere.
[39:28] By the time that the airline realized that, oh, they may have a crisis of their hands, the conversation had already escalated. There was no way of redeeming the situation.
[39:40] You understand what I mean? The front of mine went with me to a restaurant in Kenya to go and eat. While we were eating, we liked the food so much that I took a picture of the food and tweeted it.
[39:53] Before we finished eating, the manager came out and said, thank you for the tweet. We're offering you free, is it? We go, this was within minutes.
[40:03] This was within minutes. And that's how powerful it is. Don't just sign up for the, I mean, listening tools. Use them actively. I think actively is a keyword that people need to remember.
[40:16] Off-season, outside the Christmas bumper sales period, you may, you can relax. But in this period when there are so many people in town, well, the GT is just over a million people are flying to town.
[40:34] You can't afford not to know what's going on and participate in the conversation. That's the key, that's the year. And there are so many. It's not just people.
[40:44] Last year, I think, it's perfectly key to town with ours and the US vice president. Kamala. Yeah, Kamala. While Spike Lee was here, nobody was from the film industry going to make an effort to really engage him.
[40:59] So it was when he was leaving, that news got out of that. This guy had been in town. Spike Lee was going to go home. Imagine having five minutes conversation with Spike Lee.
[41:11] Because people were not tapping and were not listening to conversations that were going on in town. It cut across every industry. That's the power of listening.
[41:25] Okay, all right. So picture this. I'm a business, right? I've set up one of these listening tools whether Google Alerts, Brand24, Talkwalker.
[41:38] And I've been listening, you know, for myself on social media, on online, wherever I find myself. And I realized that I've gotten a negative comment in this season, right?
[41:51] Now, I want to know, how do you recommend for a business like mine when such negative comments shows up in my field? How do you recommend that I handle it during this season?
[42:08] That's a good one. The first one is that don't delete it. Right. The truth is that the minute or the second the post goes up, somebody has screenshot it and it's gone.
[42:21] If you delete it, it means you are hiding the bad tweet or whatever the bad comment that's there. Okay. So the first rule is that, yes, of course, like we said, give yourself enough opportunity to hear about it, to know about it in time.
[42:37] That's why I keep listening. But the minute you know that somebody has treated or said something bad about your business, the first thing to do is not to delete it.
[42:46] The first thing to do is read it carefully and whether or not it could be true. Let's say it's true. It could be true. We also know that there are people who call truth out there.
[43:00] Sometimes there are truths. People come there just to push things so they will get attention. Sometimes you need to ignore those people. You know what I mean?
[43:08] Yeah. But that's what I'm saying. Well, that could be true. And what you do then is that you engage the person. For example, the first thing I'm going to say to you guys on that was we'll come in there so to hear about your experience.
[43:22] Okay. So to hear about your experience, this is what we promised our customers. Okay. That shows that you are a listening business. The next thing then is to deal with it and start continuing the conversation with the idea to get details of what happened and promise them that you take steps to address it.
[43:47] But by saying sorry for the experience about the experience that you have, this is not our normal experience. That tells everyone that comes to the platform.
[43:55] That one, this you are a listening business. Number two, that this is not the normal thing that happens in your business. Okay. So people will not come and say, you need to see the experience in this and that.
[44:13] Because the minute you ignore it, trust me, even people who have never heard of the business who come and say, I had this. Who knows how it happens on social media?
[44:27] Right. But once you do that, then it means, because the person that wants you to put the thing, all they want is attention. Then somebody understands that they have a right to complain and you listen to their complaint.
[44:43] That's what I'm saying. So that's the first thing to do. And then take steps to address the issue as soon as possible. When you address it, then you appeal to the person.
[44:56] So for example, if let's say they had a bad experience, they have an issue, whatever. They can come back on that same person, and the restaurant go in touch with me.
[45:07] Everything is resolved. They've actually offered me three meals tomorrow, whatever. Sort it. That's what I mean. But a lot of businesses, what do you see?
[45:17] That believes what they hide and push. And for me, that's the beginning of the challenge. So don't do that. Now, if it's a good course, okay, if it's a good course where they are complimenting you, or whatever, the first thing to do is say thank you.
[45:38] Okay. Then once you say thank you, once you say thank you, then ask them, can I share this post? Okay. Because you also want to be sure that you are taking advantage of that.
[45:52] Okay. Then you can share it. Or for example, they may not have written it the way that you think. Okay. We don't mind. If you don't mind, you can repost it or add a bit to it so we can share it.
[46:06] They're happy to do that. That's all I mean. It's always about conversation. I mean, that's a consumer behavior. That's what they want. They don't want to be communicating with the pages, but the businesses on the social media platforms.
[46:25] Yes. Is it social media? Yes. It's social media because it's people networking. It's no people dealing with computers. So humanize the experience that people have.
[46:42] Do you know what I mean? Humanize it. If you don't do that, and you feel that you are ignoring your post nonsense, you are not humanizing the experience.
[46:52] And they are likely to go on enemy sales and talk about your business. So are there specific trends or changes in consumer behavior that businesses should be mindful of in their future strategies that they draw for social media?
[47:10] Yes. I think the first one is that consumers are very woke up. And consumers know what they want and they are passionate about what they want.
[47:21] So if they are unhappy, they will protest. If they are happy too, they like to tell their friends. So consumers are very passionate about their case and what they want and all those things.
[47:36] So you need to make sure that you are tapping in and delivering the service that consumers expect. Okay. Number two, whether they are happy or they are unhappy, the only voice, how do you feel?
[47:50] It's your job as a business to tap in and listen to the conversation and take advantage of the conversation to improve your business. Either to solve the problem that they have or to take advantage of the good experience that they have had to amplify it to get new business.
[48:08] Okay. Number three, customers are active online researching about products, brands, services, locations, audiences before the business. So they are researching online with their mind.
[48:27] It's your job as a business to make sure that your social media platform has enough information to convince them or compel them to choose you and make a decision to come to you.
[48:40] It's frustrating when people go onto your platform and see what they like, but they don't have enough information for them to make up their mind whether or not to visit.
[48:49] That's what I'm saying. It's important that you keep it up to date on your platform. These are the trends for consumers that you can let. The other one I'll add also is another challenge that people have, which of them generates a lot of social media crisis where people go to some of these places and they don't offer them enough payment options.
[49:17] Okay. A lot of Danyan businesses, they only know Momo in cash. Okay. All these people from the diaspora are coming to town. They are coming with their business, with their credit cards.
[49:31] So at least have a few ways there. That's the thing to your bank. If your bank hasn't laid it, have a conversation with your bank before this season so that your bank will allow you to take Visa and MasterCard from all these other places.
[49:46] And that's what I'm saying. It's very, very important. Thank you so much for that. And thank you once again for joining me on this episode. That was actually my last question because when I look at the tweet, it looks like we've addressed everything that is related to this tweet.
[50:08] So I actually appreciate you for all the answers that you gave. And I appreciate you so much for joining me on Colours of Social Media podcast.
[50:17] I just hope that your expectation was met because mine was met also. Thank you. Excellent. Like I said, I think I like the fact that you didn't stick to questions that you had.
[50:30] There were follow-ups that allowed us to break some of these, I mean, answers down and have a conversation. Not a question and answer session.
[50:39] We had a conversation, so I love it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. So one more thing that I want you to do for me and it's actually my first time.
[50:48] I'm starting with you. All right. Sorry, I'm putting you on a spot here. The whole idea about Colours of Social Media podcast is I have, I mean, the episode is sort of segmented into two, a monologue that is an episode that will just be me talking about digital marketing based off my experience, the question that I get as I move through, you know, this industry day by day.
[51:16] And such episode whereby I invite, I call them friends, people with, you know, extensive knowledge in our industry, then I have a conversation with them.
[51:27] So again, Stephen, I'm putting you on a spot here. Who would you recommend that I invite to join me on the next Colours of Social Media episode?
[51:39] Who would you like, you know, me to have a conversation with him or her? Ah. And the ego suspects, like some of my friends, like Maximus. I met Togo.
[51:54] Yes, yes. I mean, but I mean, the other people that are doing great work, I mean, I would say it depends on what you are going to focus on. For example, if you want to do that one on influencer marketing, you can do two parts.
[52:11] One of the people I encourage you to invite is, is your life. Is your life? Yeah. So, Israel now runs a company called Influencer Africa, which is part of the Echo House group.
[52:23] Okay. He runs it. All right. So, he is from boot sites. I mean, they are my friends. I've done trainings for them also. So, he comes from boot sites, and he could have this experience as an influencer himself and as somebody also who manages influencers.
[52:39] That's what I mean. So, I mean, like I said, it depends on the conversation you want to have. There are people out there that you can, I mean, but these are key people that, I mean, I would definitely recommend you.
[52:50] Awesome. Thank you so, so much. I'll put the guest in motion to get Israelite, and maybe I'll save a seat for you two because you were the original guest for that topic.
[53:01] No, no, no. Even if you want, we can do it together. I don't know about you, but the ultimate take home from this conversation I had with Steven is that social listening is key at this time of the year.
[53:23] There are free and paid tools which you can use to listen for your brands on the internet, which I will definitely include in the show notes.
[53:33] I want to thank Steven Azeboudi once again for joining me in this episode. Connect with Steven on X. His handle is Nase. He's also on Facebook to ask Steven Azeboudi, and on LinkedIn, ask Steven N. Boudi.
[53:48] You can visit his website, enablegrowthconsort.com, to learn more about his business, or better still, you can follow the hashtag enablegrowth on your favorite social media platform to get all his thoughts and ideas about digital marketing in real time.
[54:05] My name is Inokro Ward by Appear Junior. This is Colours of Social Media Podcast, and if you are new to this podcast, go ahead and subscribe and turn on your notifications in order not to miss an episode.
[54:17] If you are listening to this episode on Apple Podcast or Spotify, give us a review. It is the only way to help us. Thank you for listening. See you same time next week.
[54:28] I knew I shouldn't have shouted. Now I've lost my voice. Aww.