Today we will be looking at social media; someone may want to ask “what is social media?” What is the noise about? Well before we go further let’s understand the brief definition of the term Social media “…it’s media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).” Simple enough? That is to say, it helps you to transform your monologue to dialogue, it makes the communication two-ways, and it changes communication from talk-to to talking-with. You are not only able to read what others have published but you can join the conversation, you can create you own!

The underlying technology behind social media is web 2.0 which is driven by democratization of content, sharing and community. Some of the most popular social media tools include: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Blogger and Wordpress.

Social Media enables viral communication and spreading of ideas. It is not limited to business; it takes different shape and forms based on the idea. One of the biggest achievements of social media is helping Barack Obama win the US presidential election. When information hit the media, and spread by someone within his network and others spread within their own networks, then the growth continue like wild fire.

There are some sharp contrasts between Social media and the Industry media as analyzed on Wikipedia, they include;

1. Reach – both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and enable anyone to reach a global audience.
2. Accessibility – the means of production for industrial media are typically owned privately or by government; social media tools are generally available to anyone at little or no cost.
3. Usability – industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and training. Most social media do not, or in some cases reinvent skills, so anyone can operate the means of production.
4. Recency – the time lag between communications produced by industrial media can be long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only the participants determine any delay in response). As industrial media are currently adopting social media tools, this feature may well not be distinctive anymore in some time.
5. Permanence – industrial media, once created, cannot be altered (once a magazine article is printed and distributed changes cannot be made to that same article) whereas social media can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or editing.

Social media has various branches;

• Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5)
• Microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, naijapulse, kukurooku, gistcaster)
• Bookmaking (delicious, StumbleUpon)
• Blogs (Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad)
• Video (YouTube, Vimeo)
• Wiki (Wikipedia, PBworks)
• Etc.

Social media has transformed the media industry and shaking it right now! The power has shifted to the consumer; they can voice their opinions, engage each other and become publisher cheaply. In the business side, it has helped brands to keep their customers engaged and increase brand loyalty. For social causes, it helped in recent Haiti Earthquakes to raise millions of dollars for the victims, helped the protest in Iranian election. The LightupNigeria protest started on Twitter and the recent youth protest in Nigeria tagged Where is Yaradua also started on social media platform.

Social media is here to stay is we shall see it enhance in the coming years, because we humans are social being, and the thing we have been expecting from the internet is the social part, now we have and we are enjoying it!

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Facebook is the world largest social networking site with over 400 million users worldwide. Oh! 400 M, yeah! 400million eyeballs you can market to!

An analysis from sharespost.com release worth of the following companies on its website to help people willing to invest in private companies know their worth.

• Facebook: $11.5 billion
• Zynga: $2.6 billion (A gaming company based on Facebook platform)
• Twitter: $1.4 billion
• LinkedIn: $1.3 billion
• Linden Labs (Second Life): $383 million

Facebook is estimated to earn over a billion dollar in revenue this year, with over $700million predicted last year and recently reported that it has turned cash-flow positive; this year will surely be its year.

Look at the estimate closely and you can deduct somehow funny stuff;

Facebook is worth almost 10 times of twitter, Zynga (Facebook Gaming Company) is worth almost 2 times of twitter. Twitter is yet to figure out an effective way to make money other than its recent license to search engines to search its real-time tweets.

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If you have been following this blog since the start of the year, you will notice a growing pattern in the Nigerian web space. I wrote last time about an e-payment service for Nigerian (FasteCash). I went o Interswitch on yesterday (Tuesday) to ask for any update regarding their payment platform, well nothing has changed in the setup fee and transaction commission and no plan (as much as I know) to review the price.

In their own word: “NetNaira is a secure pointing/credit system designed to solve the problem of exchanging goods and services for value online speedily and securely.”

NetNaira aims to help small businesses with facility to accept payments directly on their websites without having to share their bank information with their customers.

A New Deal?

Not really a new deal but very strategic deal to the growth of the industry. A number of websites have been online for quite sometimes now providing the same service. Looking at Nigerian web industry, this service is yet to be fully embraced and any site that starts early and can build its trust capital should be profitable when people’s apathy to online payment is relieved.

Real Deal

• NetNaira Allows easy, secure payment platform for those who are not willing to disclose their card detail to just any website, like in the case of a recent fraudulent site we wrote about.
• The platform is secured with Comodo.
• Helps merchant accept payment on their website.
• It also has a simple website integration API that allows communication with its server.
• Referral commission on new customer introduced to the platform
• Transfer fee is 1.2% + 10 naira
• Account is free to open and to receive payment
• An escrow service that allow anyone to become a cashpoint for the platform
• It’s seller are numerous (where you can withdraw your money)

Downside

• Just about 7 merchants are available on its directory
• Maximum transaction cap on personal account

Business model

Transaction broker; it helps people fulfill deals across the internet and making money from commission.

At this point in time, services like these are extremely needed to help facilitate buying and selling on the internet in Nigeria. Given the peculiarity of Nigeria Trust wise, having your money channeled through third party could be a safe way to buy stuff online

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A project developed by 9ja BusStop; the Facebook application hopes to translate the Christian Bible to pidgin english.

As Nigerian developers evolve; this is a welcome development as I still await more business viable applications and web services.

The Application is available here

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As Nigerians catches the Twitter fire, the Nigerian Communication Commission (Regulator authority) as opened a twitter account. Available via @ngcomcommission

Twitter is a microblogging platform that helps you say what’s on your mind in 140 characters.

A visit to the twitter page of the commission, I saw no tweet, I think they can tweet something, how about recent growth in Mobile users?

It’s a welcome development though as I hope that companies and Government ministries get used to social media.

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This post is a food for thought for my fellow technologist from Nigeria. Mobile Payment on the rise, Kenya and SA where is Nigeria?

Nigeria currently have more than 75million mobile phone users and no single viable mobile payment system to drive m-commerce in the country. I want to believe we have creative developers, sound investors and a ready market for the product but what is happening?

Our market will grow faster if people can pay for services as fast as they think about it! What should we do?

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Yea, I mean it! A Nigerian topic trended on Twitter today. I wrote earlier this month about Nigerian topic #abaversion which also trended on twitter. Today @JideAboderin start #nigeriangrammar and other Nigerian tweeples took it up till it got trended on Twitter.

This is a sign that social media adoption in Nigeria is on the upward trend! In our last review of Facebook users in Nigeria, we discovered that over a million Nigerians are now on Facebook, wow!

You may want to wonder why all this? Well not to worry! The internet is mostly used by people who catch fun and Nigeria is no exception. @niyyie tweeted and I quote “The #nigeriangrammar trend on twitter is “hilariously funny”. ) If only the energy was channeled into a productive cause for Nigeria.” That was a good point there! As Nigeria’s image continued to be battered abroad, we need to use every possible opportunity to showcase the good side of us.

Nigeria, now is the time to make use of opportunity with our online strength to show the world that, we are not a terrorist country and that we have enormous enterprising youth talents right here!

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Note: This new layout has not been release to all users.

Home Page

The top left angle have Friends Request, Messages and Notifications. This are some of the most used features of Facebook.

Your picture profile is also shown to the top left follow by newsfeed with Message, Photo and Friends updates  under it. Friends online is also on the left navigation; it shows friends you chat with most often.

The center page as usual have your live feeds as they are pouring in.The chat interface is now aesthetic and faster.

Facebook was rumored recently to have a projected revenue of more than $700 million this year and user base hit 400 million last week.

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Formally, Facebook application communicates with users via the notification feature but now, they can contact you directly! This change was part of the proposed features last october. So expect more!

Business time is now

As the Facebook economy expands with over 80,000 sites currently using Facebook connect and more than 350 million users, now is time for Facebook to monetize its product. This move is part of its business strategy to become profitable. In yesterdays valuation, Facebook has been estimated to be worth $14 billion. This means that, fun times are over its time to do business.

How it works

This service is not automatic as it ask you to allow implementing application to contact you via email. You can as well withdraw your approval. Treat all application as you would any website you visit. The days of privacy are numbered so as we watch it fade out, control you online persona!

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I last reviewed Facebook Users across (Selected) African countries in August here. Another look at the users’ increment is outlined below. Let’s first take a look at Nigeria’s Facebook Users;

Total: 901,840
Male:577,580
Female:313,560
18 and above:866,960
25 and above:519,460

The total users’ of 901,840 represents a total of 27% or 244,480 new users from last review (August). The gender structure shows a sharp difference from male and female as the Male users edge the Female counterpart with 577,580 and 313,560 respectively. If you say Facebook is not yet for kids in Nigeria, you are quite far from being wrong as a whopping 866,960 or 96% are above 18 years of age. Also a look into the adult usage shows that Facebook is widely used among working class Nigerians above the age of 25; representing 57% of the total Facebook users from Nigeria. I look forward to seeing Nigerians on Facebook crossing the 1 Million mark by the end of the year.

Across Africa, Nigeria is placed fourth among top countries with Facebook users. Nigeria comes behind Morocco which is the third and South Africa being the first and seconded by Egypt. South Africa added more users than any other African country with as much as 422,200 or 18% followed by Egypt with 342,760 or 16% then Nigeria 244,480 or 27%. Morocco added 222,540 or 21%, Tunisia 198,900 or 22%, Kenya added 128,320 or 25% lastly Ghana with 82,280 or 29%.

Facebook usage is wildly popular in South Africa with more than half (50.4%) of Internet Users in South Africa represented on Facebook. Tunisia followed with 45% of its Internet Users registered with Facebook, then Ghana 29%, Egypt 17%, Kenya 15.2%, Morocco 10.2%, and Nigeria 8.2%.

November

August Compare to November

Looking at how Facebook is growing outside of the US, there is room for growth amongst the countries under review. Facebook has already reached the mainstream in the US and other developed countries. In South Africa, Facebook growth has been phenomenon as it as it is reaching the mainstream gradually.

What is your prediction towards Facebook adoption in Nigeria and other African countries?

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