Techzim and SocialMe successfully hosted the inaugural #GetSocial conference, a two day forum on Social Media held in Harare last week. The event was attended by scores of delegates over the two days and most expressed satisfaction with the presentations from speakers, the panel discussion and the way the event was organised.
The keynote speaker was Mike Saunders from DigitLab, a leading digital marketing company based in Durban South Africa. His presentation on day one was on how social media has taken over from Data and a business’ competitive edge and some great examples on how both regional and global brands have embraced digital for competitiveness.
On day two, Mike Saunders presented two case studies on how South African brands adopted Social Media to create communities around their brands and product offerings.
@SocialMeZW @Techzim thanks for hosting a great conference. You guys are the best news for #zimbos looking to #GetSocial
— Mike Saunders (@mikeasaunders) April 4, 2014
Delegates expressed great satisfaction with the content dished out at #GetSocial 2014. Veronica Mantiziba, Digital Marketing Manager at Econet Zimbabwe had this to say, “It’s quite a lovely event. It’s quite exciting because it’s starting to show us that people are embracing digital. They are embracing social media within Zimbabwe”.
She also echoed a prevalent conversation throughout #GetSocial on numbers vs. engagement.
“The numbers are not important. You can accumulate as many people on social media but it means absolutely nothing if you don’t have the right content, if don’t have campaigns that will engage, or a strategy that actually pushes something like educating customers, driving sales or building awareness. It must be very clear what you are looking to achieve with social media”, she said.
Here’s what some other delegates had to say about #GetSocial”
“It was very informative and what I found very interesting was that we should put the brand’s needs ahead of my personal needs. The brand has to be the back born to connecting people.”
Tinashe Mutandaware, Newsday
“I found the event very informative and it was quite interesting. The most captivating thing I found today was that social media is not only about the platforms but making it social and being in touch like what Mike (Saunders) showed with the Coca Cola example. For us it’s an eye opener, not to limit ourselves to platforms but to also go out there and connect socially.”
Belinda Holman, Barker McCormac Ogilvy and Mather
“For our institution, we were inspired by the idea that Mike Saunders had for Varsity College. I think we picked up a few things and we now know the importance of social media marketing. So we will definitely apply these and maybe use it as our main marketing channel in the coming quarters.”
Tinotenda Gwitima, ASHE International College
“I think this is a very good initiative. What I would like to see more of is not for it to end here but for the conversion to continue. Maybe turn #GetSocial into a hashtag, an idea that people will connect with going forward so that people in the social media space in Zimbabwe can connect with and share ideas from.”
Tinashe Nyaruwanga, Blogger and social media enthusiast
SocialMe and Techzim will be hosting the second edition of #GetSocial within the first quarter of 2015.
Here are some videos with some snippets from keynotes speakers at #GetSocial:
