Social Media

WhatsApp Dark Mode – How to enable WhatsApp dark mode

WhatsApp finally launches the much awaited WhatsApp Dark Mode. As per the name, dark mode changes the WhatsApp background colour to a dark colour, making it much easier on the eyes – mostly when using your phone in the evening.

The WhatsApp home screen and the settings menu are now in a dark colour, but on the conversation interface, only the chat bubbles are dark while the background is white or it reflects any other colour users have set as background.

In a blog announcing the update, WhatsApp said, “It’s designed to reduce eye strain in low light environments. And we hope it helps prevent those awkward moments where your phone lights up the room.”

The company added that the dark Mode was developed with a focus on two key areas – readability and information hierarchy.

WhatsApp explained: “When choosing colours, we wanted to minimize eye fatigue and use colours that are closer to the system defaults on iPhone and Android respectively.

“We wanted to help users easily focus their attention on each screen. We did this by using colour and other design elements to make sure the most important information stands out.”

But before we go ahead on how the feature is activated, it must be noted that dark mode is currently available only to users on Android 10 and iOS 13.

How to enable WhatsApp dark mode on Android and iOS?

To enable WhatsApp dark mode, Open the WhatsApp, tap on the three-dot menu icon at the top right corner of the screen and select Settings from the menu.

Once you are on the Settings page, tap on Chats then tap on Theme. Doing so will open a window where you choose the theme.

Tap on Dark in the window that appears. This will enable the dark mode interface across the app.

You can select the System default option to automatically switch between dark and light mode based on system settings.

 

How to get started with Facebook ads

What you need to know before starting Facebook ads

Wondering on how to get started with Facebook ads? There is always planning and thorough thinking before doing something. This goes for Facebook ads as well; you do not just start doing Facebook ads blindly. If you do not have a plan, you are going to achieve little or nothing. We are going to look into details what you should consider before going into Facebook ads.

1.Establish your goals

What do you need to accomplish with your ad? When you know this, you will be able to set an advert that will meet your goals. Otherwise, you are going to throw your money into a drain.

Examples of goals

Do you want engagement on your page?

Do you want brand awareness?

Do you want people to go to your website?

Do you want people to sign up or buy products?

Do you want people to download an app?

Do you want more video views?

With this kind of goals, you can set a message that will lead people into doing what you want them to.

There are different campaigns objectives that Facebook offers;

• Brand awareness
• Reach
• Traffic
• Engagement
• App installation
• Messages
• Catalogue sales
• Lead generation
• Conversions
• Store visits among others

2. Know your audience

After you know your Facebook ad goals, you need to know who your target audience for the ads is. With your target audience, it will depend on various things

• Gender
• Age
• Location

Is your target audience male, female or both? If you are selling women’s dresses, it is a definite fact that your target will be women.

What is the age group of your advert? Who are the people who are likely to consume your product or service?  Are they between 18 years to 35 years? When you know this then you will not be running your advert blindly.

What is the location of your target audience? Where is your target audience most likely to be found? Is it Nairobi or Mombasa? Do not just target Kenya if you are not targeting your ad to every person in Kenya.

This is usually the most important part of making an ad and it is where most people go wrong. If you cannot do it properly then hire an expert to help with it. Most of the advertising agencies will do market research to get your customer’s persona. With this, you will not be targeting blindly. There is no point in using lots of money to get fewer result

3. Know our budget

How much are you willing to spend on Facebook adverts? With a small or big budget, you can advertise on Facebook.  With Facebook, you can spend as low as 1$ a day.  When you spend a dollar per day your results will be limited. We usually advise our clients to spend at least 10$ in a day to get as many results as possible.

 You can try and create as many ads as possible using a different amount of money to see which will work out for you. When you get a winning ad, then you can know how to be placing your Facebook ads.

How to set SMART Social Media Goals

Having Smart social media goals simply means you know what you want to achieve with social media and not just jumping into any social media networks without thinking of what you want to achieve there.

There are different types of business goals that you can use for social media marketing, for example, you might want to drive more traffic to your website, increase brand awareness, generate leads and sales or run an awareness campaign. We will help you in setting smart social media goals so that you can succeed in social media marketing.

What makes a Goal SMART?

For you to actualize your goals they need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-specific this make SMART goals.

Specific

Give a clear description of what you want to achieve. For example, you decide that your goal is to get more Instagram followers. Specific goals are more achievable than vague goals.

Measurable

Create a target that will indicate your success. You can set that you want to get 10,000 Instagram followers.

Attainable

Can you be able to achieve your goal? From the number of followers you currently have can you be able to get to 10,000 Instagram followers.

Realistic

Your goal should be aligned closely to your business objectives such as your vision and mission. Your goals must be achievable.

Time-specific

Set a time frame by which you should have achieved your goals. You can set that you should get 10,000 Instagram followers in three months.

After doing this now put the necessary time and effort needed to achieve the goal. As you progress be checking the progress to know if you are on the right track or not.

How to get social media success in Kenya

Set your social media goals

Working without goals is working blindly. Goals will help you know what needs to be done at a given time, how to plan and how to achieve them.  Your goals should be specific, measurable, appealing, realistic and timed (SMART) this will ensure you get social media success in Kenya.

Identify your audience

Your message can only be effective if it is designed to a specific customer. You can do this by creating a detailed customer avatar of your target audience by identifying their age, gender, average income, their place of residence and other facts that are important to your business.

The more you define your target audience, the more people you will be able to connect with hence the chances of making sales. In order to get social media success in Kenya, it is important that you define who you want to target your campaign.

Know what social media platforms suites you

Not every social media platform is best for your business. It will depend on where your target audience can be found. If you want to sell directly to the consumer, Facebook is the best platform to use. If you want to reach a younger audience, they can be found on Instagram and snap chat. When you want to target companies and businesses LinkedIn is your to go platform. Knowing this will help you save time and money and reach your desired audience.

Post relevant content and ensure consistency

Give people what they signed for. If your business sells products to make sure, they get the products and nothing less. Your content should be consistent on all your social media platforms. To ensure consistency, you can set a specific time on which you will be posting your content. You can also be scheduling your content for days you will not be available to post.

Engage your audience

Ensure there is engagement in your social media platforms by responding to your customer’s questions, concerns and recommendations. If there are any risen issues on your products respond fast to prevent misrepresentation of your company. Add links to your website so that people can purchase or learn more about your business.

Measure your results

Measure your social media activities and see what is working, what is not and how to improve on it. This should be in line with the goals you had set.  If your social media goals were to create awareness, drive traffic or get engagement then get tools that will help you know what you have achieved.

Instagram marketing in Kenya

Instagram is growing fast with over 3M users in Kenya with youths being the majority users. It is fast catching up with Facebook which has the highest number of users in Kenya.

Knowing how to conduct Instagram marketing in Kenya is important for any business. Below are some of the important ways you can market your business on Instagram.

How to successfully conduct Instagram marketing

Identify your audience

You must always know the audience for your products and services.  This will include monitoring what your target audience is following and creating strategies that match them so as to capture their attention. Creates posts that can generate a conversation with your audience to get their opinion of your brand. You can also use social media tools that will tell you what your consumers are saying about your brand.

Clearly defined Bio

Your bio is about giving a clear picture of your business with one image and 150 characters describing the brand. It is not just your name, website URL and username that present your brand.

Let your bio be clear, brief and captivating to draw the audience attention. Use a call to action to make people click on your link. Choose a captivating image that will draw peoples attention to want to know more about your brand

Fixed Theme

Use a clearly defined theme on your profile that will give your page a consistent look so that when your audience see your images they know it is you. You can do this by using similar colours in your images or a specific subject matter. For example, Safaricom’s theme is green . whenever you see an image made by Safaricom you can never fail to know it is them. This branding will help you get more attention when you make a marketing campaign because people can easily identify you.

Achievable Goals

A good marketing strategy must always have defined goals which are achievable and can be monitored during a campaign. This will always help you to plan ahead and measure your success.

Analytics

The best way to measure your goals is through analytics. There are a couple of analytic tools that you can use to see the progress of your campaign. Instagram has an inbuild analytic tool called Instagram insight, with this you can be able to see the engagement on your post,  the number of likes, comments and follower rates among others. With this, you can know how each post is performing and the changes you can make.

 Consistent Posting

Consistency is key for Instagram marketing. Ensure you be consistent with posting information on your page so as to keep your followers engaged. You can schedule newsfeed in advance so that you don’t miss any posting to ensure consistency. If you don’t have enough content to post, do not just post anything or you will be compromising your brand.

Use strong Hashtags

Hashtags make your posts searchable. For you to stay on top, you need to use a combination of branded hashtags and trending hashtags.  Always start with the trending hashtags in your industry this is because most people will be searching for that. This will help you attract more people to your page.

 Share posts that are related to the trending hashtags so as to attract more people. Most of the businesses promote their Instagram marketing in Kenya using the trending hashtags to attract more people on their Instagram page.

How to Get More YouTube Views in Kenya

YouTube viewers in Kenya have increased over time with 80% increase in mobile usage which means that most people are spending time watching YouTube videos on their mobile phones. This has led to over 250 YouTube content creators in Kenya thus bringing competition because everyone wants people to view their content. As a content creator in Kenya you need to know how to get more people to watch your videos. Below we have summarized what we think is important for you to receive more YouTube viewers in Kenya.

Attractive Thumbnail Image

A thumbnail is a video’s preview image. The thumbnail image is the first impression people get of your video and it determines if they will click on your video or not.­­

Take time to develop high quality and clear image to use as your video’s thumbnail. If your thumbnail image discourage people from clicking to your videos. It means you are not going to get any likes, comment and subscriptions thus your video will not be ranked high.

Try to include the following in your thumbnail;

• Brightly colored backgrounds
• Text overlays
• Close-ups of faces
• Subtle branding — like a small logo or watermark

Optimize Your Video Titles

Search engine optimization (SEO) matters on YouTube for your videos to rank high and be discoverable.

On YouTube you can optimize your videos and channel this will include the title, descriptions, file name and tags.  Know which keywords you need your video to optimize for, then use them so as to get more YouTube viewers in Kenya.

Optimize your YouTube channel

1. Optimize your YouTube channel description

Start with a quick description of your brand and the benefits of your products. Then tell your viewers why they should watch your videos (what is in for them). Make sure you include your keywords in your description.

2. Add your social channels, links to your website, and a way to get in contact.

List all your social media platforms for people to find more about your brand.

3. Enable related channels

Do not turn off the ‘related channel’ feature on YouTube. By turning off this feature, you remove your channel from YouTube recommendations. This will make you lose the network effect of YouTube.

 Promote Your Videos on Other Social Channels

If you want more YouTube viewers in Kenya, you need to let your followers know when you upload a new video to YouTube. You can do that by creating a short teaser video (1 minute) long and post it on your with a link to the full video.

Make Sure Your Videos Are Embedding Enabled

Embedding your video allows your viewers to share the video on their website or their vlogs. This is an effective way of your brand reaching new audience and more YouTube videos.

If a video has been embedded, when a viewer clicks ‘Share’ underneath the video window, YouTube will show them the ‘Embed’ option to whichever platform they want to.

Invite Guest Vloggers

Inviting guest vloggers is another way to gain new viewers and followers. Identify YouTube content creator in Kenya who have a similar audience as you then invite them to one of your video. The content creator will most definitely share the video with his or her followers then you can get free views as well as new followers.  

Know what is Trending

Be up to date with things happening in your industry. If you have an understanding of what is happening in your industry, you can create videos that are current and interesting to those that are researching for it. This will enable you to share information before anyone else. Being the first to share information will lead to more exposure to your content and more viewers.

Mistakes to avoid when identifying influencers for your brand

Social media Influencers in Kenya have emerged with many content creators investing in online channels that have amassed a large following.

Most influencers in Kenya are on YouTube and Instagram. You should be able to identify the ones that will represent your brand like you would want.

If you don’t identify your influencer correctly, then you will not be able to get your brand out there hence loosing your money with no gain. Try and avoid these mistakes for you to yield more success in our influencer campaigns.

1. Forcing a collaboration with an influencer who is clearly not a fan of the brand

 Marketers should be targeting influencers who already have a positive believe towards their brand. Identify influencers who have interacted with your product or service before so that during negotiations you can tell if they are authentically excited to promote your product or if they only want to do it for money. The most successful influencer partnership is authentic.

If you notice any negative sentiment and lack of excitement from the influencer, this means that he or she will not represent your brand effectively.

2. Overlooking the demographics of an influencer’s audience

It is important for you to take into consideration the influencer’s audience so that you can know if the influencer has the target audience that you need for your brand.

If your target audience is females in Kenya within the age of 18-35 years you should check if most of the influencer’s followers are females ranging in that age group.

3. Putting too much weight on number of followers and not enough on engagement

As a business person in Kenya do not assume that any influencer with a large follower will be a good person to partner with. Also the quality of the content the influencer will post and how he or she will engage with the target audience will matter.

Check if the influencer’s recommendation will receive any action from the followers. You can achieve this by checking the previous likes and comments from the influencer’s page when they recommended something to their audience.

4.Targeting influencers whose feed is over saturated with sponsored content

Most of the influencers in Kenya and around the world do not want to create their own content but to use sponsored content. This will be a major turn off to the followers who don’t want to feel like they are constantly being sold to.

If you are looking for an influencer to promote your brand look for one that creates their own content and has connected with their audience from that.

How to Get Your Instagram Stories Featured on the Explore Tab

Instagram right now has more than one billion monthly active users therefore, if you want to get a higher level of visibility, you should be thinking on how to get your Instagram stories on the Explore tab.

Instagram is fast growing in Kenya as a preferred social media platform and has around 3M users. It’s fast catching up with Facebook which has the highest number of social media users.

How the Instagram Explore Tab Works

Instagram Explore page works by using the Instagram algorithm to learn about your behavior on the app, particularly what you like and engage with the most.

When you click on your Explore Page and click on another person’s explore page, you will notice that the results are completely different because the explore page is tailored to meet your activity.

Instagram Explore page recommends tons of suggestions of similar content that you might like, but you don’t already follow. This is why getting on this page is important.

Time Your Posts

In Instagram the best performing posts are the ones getting instant viral reaction. This therefore requires you to know the best time to post.

Research shows that the best time to post content on Instagram is at 5 pm since people are getting off from work. When you get a higher engagement level Instagram will recognize it as of importance and put you on the Explore tab.

Use Instagram Analytics

To know if you’re on the Explore Page, head to your Instagram feed and tap the View Insights button underneath your post. From here, you can swipe up to gain more metrics around your post performance.

The Explore page is compiled based on the user activity, so you should be regularly analyzing your Instagram Analytics to figure out whether you’re hitting the necessary niche for you to be featured.

Make Your Brand Aesthetic Consistent

Make your brand consistent whenever you’re posting on Instagram, this includes the style, colour and tone to increase your Instagram success.

Use Video Content to Stand Out

In the Explore tab, the video plays automatically when you scroll over. The chances of a user stopping to view your video is more likely than a static post.

 Through people interacting to your video, you’re likely to gain more viewership hence appearing on the Explore tab.

You can create videos from:

• Adding motion to your still images
• Adding an animated element to a still image
• Adding a moving background to a still image
• Shoot boomerangs or Create GIF Loop Photos from Still Images

Instagram is fast growing in Kenya, and is one of the the most popular social media platforms among the youth.

To find out how to grow our business using Instagram, click here.

HOW TO FIND OUT YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT IS CLONED

Facebook Cloning

Facebook for the past few days has sparked fear on users over cloning as users send messages trying to convince their friends to not accept any additional requests. This has been happening a lot over the last couple of weeks on Facebook in Kenya and across the world.

What is FACEBOOK CLONING?

This is a technique in which scammers create a fake Facebook profile by using images and other information stolen from a targeted users’ real Facebook profile. They try to ensure that the profile created is completely identical and genuine as the original one.

This process is not hacking nor does the scammer have access to the victims’ real Facebook account, they have simply copied public available information and images and used them to create a new profile.

Their main aim after creating the profile is to send scam messages so as to start requesting for advance fee scams  asking for help or that they are stranded. The victims friends will genuinely accept their friend request unknowingly thinking the user unfriended them or is opening a new account.

How can you protect your Facebook account from cloning?

This can be difficult to implement as chances are high that if you’re a target victim you can still be cloned. But you could prevent this if not yet cloned by:

1. Use privacy information that hide as much information as possible from strangers, check and change privacy related settings via the privacy settings and tools section
2. Ensure you hide your friends list ,if the scammers can’t see your friend list they will not be able to send fake invites to your friends.

This can be done manually :–

• open your profile and click on the friends tab
• click the pencil icon on the right side
• Clicks edit privacy. Select only me in the drop down list as a viewer of your friends

3. Before accepting any new requests from an old Facebook friend first recheck your friends list and see if the person is still your friend. Then alert your friend so he/she can take the necessary steps to stop it from occurring to other victims
4. If your account has already been cloned report the Facebook account to Facebook and let all your friends know of the cloning attempt
5. Check who can see your photos: scammers tend to steal public photos displayed for public view, hide your current profiles and images. You could change the settings to friends viewing or only you in some of the albums you wish to keep private.

If every Facebook user was aware of how Facebook cloning scams work and how to protect themselves, the prevalence and impact of cloning would be greatly diminished or even eliminated. Sadly, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Nevertheless, you can certainly help by ensuring that your friends know about cloning. If necessary, take the time to explain the issue and help them with their Facebook settings. Sending them a link to this Knowledge Guide might be a great first step.

Facebook Pages Can Now Join Facebook Groups

Your Facebook Page can now join Facebook Groups as members, something that was only possible for individuals until now.

Facebook has recently added a new setting in Groups for admins to allow Facebook Pages to join their Groups.

The new feature was spotted by Mari Smith and shared on Twitter by Matt Navarra:

Until now, only individual users could join Facebook Groups, post and comment within them. This was an issue for many public figures, publishers and charities – which often use Pages instead of personal profiles.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the new feature, saying: “We’ve heard from people that engaging with public figures, non-profits, publishers, and businesses in a more intimate setting can be meaningful. We previously launched the ability for Pages to start Facebook Groups so that they can engage with their communities. We are now testing the ability for Pages to join existing Facebook Groups as well.”

As pointed out, the new setting is being tested, and may not yet be available to all Groups.

Many Facebook Pages stand to benefit from this new feature, giving them access to new communities they were kept away from until now. It should immediately have a positive impact on engagement levels within Groups as well, as Pages will now be able to like and comment on on-going conversations with its members.

Have you seen the new setting in your Groups?

Facebook has been reducing the number of people who can view your content on pages, enticing you to pay for adverts to increase your reach. It has also been showing more interest in groups and encouraging people to get into groups they can relate to. They basically want us all to join groups. Facebook pages in Kenya are so many, Facebook groups are less but growing.

Its a high time you develop a group around what you sell on Facebook, and form a community to easily connect to people, share ideas and grow your business.

If facing a challenge in creating or growing a Facebook group in Africa or any part of the world, we’re happy to help.