Key takeaways from Click Africa

The IQPC Click Africa digital marketing event, which took place this week in Sandton, looked at how brands can take advantage of new technologies and social networks to create awareness and engagement.

Statistics show 60% of smartphone users check social networks daily. While MXit is still the biggest social network locally, among smartphone users it is overshadowed by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

In the South African context, for mobile advertising, campaigns should be targeted as widely as possible across as many devices as possible (it's important not to discount Nokia's Symbian platform) and keep it as simple as possible without requiring lots of bandwidth.

For a successful social media strategy, it's important to be responsive, personable and to have fun. Service trumps marketing. “If you have a rubbish service and you put yourself out there [on social networks] you will be crucified,” says head of social media for Virgin Active, Giovanni Ghignone.

Services like FourSquare can offer valuable insights into one's clientele that were previously very difficult for SMBs to obtain. Global Wrapps CEO Nick Nicolau says the use of FourSquare has provided client information such as gender, location and frequency of purchases.

While South Africans are yet to truly take to the FourSquare platform, founder of brandStrategy, Mike Said, says: “That's ok, once no one got Google, Facebook, Twitter, or mobile or the automobile.”

Digital director of JWT SA, Yoav Tchelet, says transmedia campaigns are the evolution of the integrated marketing model. This is driven by the way in which the younger generations flow between different platforms, and the need for content to flow with them. “The days of carrying a brand message across mass media alone are basically done,” says Tchelet. Examples of exceptional transmedia campaigns include Old Spice and the Bing Jay-Z Decoded campaign.

Digital channels executive for Deloitte Consulting, David Graham, says to build a following on Twitter, the key is to participate in discussions - especially to engage with people who have large followings.

Graham also says it is vital for brands to know their target market and how they want to communicate with them. A Deloitte poll on LinkedIn showed that 59% of respondents wanted to hear from the firm via weekly e-mails, 24% via a LinkedIn group and 2% via Twitter.

The average Facebook wall link is clicked on by more mobile devices than desktops. A case study shown by Motribe founder Vincent Maher showed one Facebook competition link on a brand's wall was accessed by 39% smartphones, 32% feature phones, 25% desktops and 1% tablets.

This means that if that link was not optimised for mobile, it would be broken for 74% of all users who clicked on it - designing campaigns that cater for this is vital.

MWeb's social media manager, Suzanne Stokes, says understanding Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm is vital to improving brand visibility on the platform.

Ninety percent of users engage with brand pages via their newsfeeds - only 10% actually click through to observe or engage with the page. EdgeRank is influenced by weight (given to the “object” or piece of content posted - be it a photo, status or link and its “edge” based on actions taken on that object), affinity and relevancy (based on users' prior interaction with the brand) as well as time and how recent it is.

“Social media and games go together like sports and HD,” says Leonard Khan. A successful social game is built for the lowest common denominator, must be compatible with all devices and must play into users' egos by providing bragging rights and rewards which they can share with friends on social networks.