To many, social media is a powerful tool to quickly and effectively pass on messages across large groups of people.
But for Esther Birungi, a women rights activist and a digital marketer, social media is an effective tool of communication between brands and potential clients and a space for growing your career and business.
In this article, Birungi, who is one of Uganda’s top women influencers on Twitter, shares how can use social media to grow their business.
Be a good communicator
Birungi says before you become a good communicator using technology, you have to be a good communicator in actual life.
“You have to be a good listener; talk less, be kind to people and understand the technology you are using and be benefits that can come out of it,” she shares.
Devoting time
Birungi says one must dedicate a bigger part of their time to social media in order to create visibility and consistency.
“Therefore, if a person or company doesn’t have time to devout to social media, I advise them to hire a social media handler, who can help to actively and consistently pass on the messages to the intended group of people,” she says.
Type of content
Birungi says what you share on social media is what you get.
“For example if you are sending out sexual content, the people that you will collect and influence are people that are interested in that kind of content. If you put across sensible content, you will accumulate people of that same mind set,” she says.
Networking
According to Birungi, keeping good social networks is important as this will determine the kind of people who will grow your social media space.
“Keep many good friends, with them will come many opportunities. To become a successful influencer, do not be selfish, always give opportunities to friends and also people with smaller accounts where necessary,” she says.
Respecting followers
Birungi says to be a social media influencer, one must treat all people equally and with respect.
“It’s not all merry; there are times when people will be negative towards you but you do not have to let that get to you, instead respond with grace and humour to diffuse the situation,” she says.
Resilience
Birungi says in this field, one must learn to persevere when challenges come. She says many people will try to undermine you in this field.
“I have learnt that we can recover quickly from difficulties and hard times. We should not dwell on them for long,” she says.
Working hard “I have learnt to work hard, to put in today twice as much effort as I did yesterday, because in order to keep at the top, I need to be excellent and this takes hard work. It’s important to be passionate about what you do,” she s