How Airtel Kenya Has Managed To Be The Top Social Media Brand In Africa

Kenya has one of the most vibrant tweeps called #KOT. Ranked fourth in Africa, they are known to be very vocal when it comes to trending topics and matters affecting their everyday life.

Airtel Kenya seems to have realized this early enough to position themselves a step ahead of its main competitor Safaricom and many other companies on twitter. They were named top telecom brand on social media in Africa, by the Africa Brand Index website as a result of their engagement with clients online.

As a brand, the best thing you could do is keep the client happy. Addressing issues that arise and doing so in a timely manner, creates a kind of trust that keeps the customer satisfied.  Here is a quick screen shot of the feed on their twitter account’s tweet’s and replies page:

Engagement to a point of sharing jokes and jumping on funny and interesting hash tags that are very common in Kenya is a sure way of winning customers over. A lot of brands today are adopting social media as part of client services, marketing and advertising strategies.

The Africa brand index, who published the results in April 2016, were looking at who scored the highest in Community growth, content, engagement and sentiments.

Airtel Kenya has an audience of about 167k followers which keeps growing daily. With the help of other platforms such as Facebook, the audience keeps growing and also the community by extension. Here is a post on Facebook where they were promoting their twitter boasting of a 24/7 customer service team.

Engaging a community is key to finding new and keeping audiences. By monitoring what’s going on in the trends and positioning their agenda, it is possible to jump on the trends and influence their customers. Getting retweets, likes and shares on Facebook and Twitter ensures that what they tweet and post on Facebook is shared widely across different social media platforms.

Topics that are trending use hashtags which is a short form that everyone can use when making a comment on anything that is trending. Apart from the followers of Airtel Kenya, there is a much larger audience that also engages with each other and other brands on the hashtags. This provides a very large audience for brands and influencers on social media to push their products and engage with their clients on a personal level.

Kenyans especially, love hashtags that make fun of situations or something that is happening, upcoming events, a leaked photo, memes, articles and public agendas like politics and development of society at large. Examples of some popular topics that have trended in Kenya include #SomeoneTellCnn , #BroOcholla and #Thingsthatkenyanslovetodo.

When brands jump on hash tags and engage with trending topics, they show the consumer that they have a fun side apart from the business side. It also shows them they are aware of the current situations that are happening in the society.

Social media is an avenue from where the brand receives feedback from its clients on how the brand is performing and the perception that is out there about their products. If an organization uses the feedback on social media as research to try and understand what the clients wants, they are able to customize their products and services to suit the needs of the different clients both individuals and businesses.

In the rankings by Africa brand index, Airtel Kenya scored a high mark of 99% for response to customer queries. The brand Ceo, Mr Adil El Youssefi was quoted saying;

“Our social media teams are dedicated to serve our customers on social media, all day round, 365 days a year. We are proud of this recognition of their dedication to offer the best service experience to our customers.”

In an effort to entice their customers, the telecommunication company, as part of their sim card subscription service, have offered free twitter as long as you are subscribed to the network.

If the company post engaging content that keeps their follower engaged, they are sure to retain their followers since they keep them engaged. Either with new products, different products and services they have for the different customers and competitions or challenges that will keeps them entertained.

Corporate social responsibility is also part of what gains you credibility and loyal customers. If a client feels that the organization cares for them they feel like they belong somewhere, and that sense of belonging is what keeps them coming back. Airtel Kenya has a dedicated CRS team that is responsible for giving back to the community and coming up with ways to benefit the society.

For Example, they recently had a competition dubbed Airtel Trace Star where they were giving an opportunity to upcoming musicians a chance to compete to win a record deal and a trip to the USA and be mentored by Superstar artist – Keri Hilson. This kind of public acts could help win over clients and in the larger sense win over trust of the community as they are providing opportunity for the people to better themselves.

Social media is the best strategy for any company that wants to keep their customers and gain new ones as often as possible. It gives your clients a feeling of being valued and enables the organization to receive feedback and in turn both parties benefit mutually.

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