Every June 30, Social Media Day is marked to celebrate relationships that people have forged through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Social Media day was launched by the media platform, Mashable in 2010.
To help mark the day, we interviewed, Brian Mogeni, CEO, and Co-founder of Wowzi, a leading influencer marketing company that enables African nano and micro creators to earn an income via social media.
The global creator economy is worth over $100 billion, and Africans are mostly shut out of it. Historically, African creators—independent writers, artists, videographers, gamers, and podcasters—struggled to get funds to finance their projects and content.
Today, people across Africa are increasingly adopting social media platforms to interact with others. Around 12% of sub-Sahara Africans were on Facebook in 2020, one of the most popular apps behind WhatsApp and YouTube.
Wowzi, since its launch in 2020, the company has over 50,000 influencers on its platform and has provided over 500,000 jobs across three regions.
We asked Wowzi’s CEO about social media in Africa, influencer marketing, and some other questions relating to social platforms.
Tech Nova (TN): What are the biggest misconceptions of influence marketing you’ve come across in your line of work?
Brian Mogeni: The main misconception is that you would be able to get a big celebrity influencer and they would talk about a brand’s products which would automatically lead to direct sales. So the misconception is, influencer marketing is a direct sales channel whereas in the real sense we believe it is measurable behavior change over time. For example, it is a complement to other marketing channels, it is an accelerant that pushes audiences in a certain direction.
The best platform at the moment is definitely TikTok and Instagram, this is largely through a lot of the Gen Z creators. Under utilized platform, I would say is LinkedIn, there is a huge space for B2B and B2C businesses, where you can also look to build an employer brand too.
Brian Mogeni
TN: What are the current hurdles for African influencers and content creators when it comes to getting compensated for their work and making income?
Brian Mogeni: When we launched in 2020 we understood that trust was a big issue in the market and therefore a big hurdle. Brands were not sure if creators were going to deliver on a campaign they were given and equally the creators were never sure if they were going to get paid.
How we have eased that process is through our technology; payments are standardized, they are paid out twice a week, once a campaign is complete payment is dispersed in the next payment cycle. We also provide safety and assurances for the brands too. Deliverables have to be met for the brand before the campaign is complete.
Another is freedom and autonomy to create themselves, a lot of brands can be quite controlling of content, sometimes that want to give a creator the content to recreate which takes away from their authenticity. What makes these creators go viral or engage with people is their creativity. Brands we see working with creators for the long haul up to 9 months, you find overtime the creator fully understands the brands, with our technology they know what not to do and what definitely must be included, key selling point to highlight what the goals of the campaign are. Everything else in between is left to them. Those are the most successful campaigns. Latitude for freedom is probably the biggest hurdle.
When you look at Wowzi it is more than just an influencer marketing platform. We believe everyone can become a creator, everyone has influence. Our platform smartly matches that from your favorite TikToker, to Instagram creator, mums, dads, bankers, classmates can be an influencer
Brian Mogeni
TN: In Africa, what’s currently the best social media platform with the best reach, and which platform is currently being underutilized?
Brian Mogeni: The best platform at the moment is definitely TikTok and Instagram, this is largely through a lot of the Gen Z creators. Under utilized platform, I would say is LinkedIn, there is a huge space for B2B and B2C businesses, where you can also look to build an employer brand too.
What should brands and companies know beforehand before they think about using influencer marketing for their products and services? Influencer marketing is how you can drive word of mouth at scale which is primarily the best marketing tool for any business. Offline and online campaigns can be complemented, accelerated, and amplified through influencer marketing and more importantly it is a channel that should be leveraged to change behavior over time.
TN: What future trends do you when it comes to social media in Africa?
Brian Mogeni: There are a lot of trends happening, we are seeing a lot more commerce taking place online. This is significantly fast tracked by COVID. Many people are growing their businesses from home. We are seeing a lot of creators becoming micro entrepreneurs themselves. Beyond that the emergence of new technologies over time that can increase engagements with the likes of VR and AR.
TN: What would it take for the “Creator Economy” to be fully exploited by African influencers and content creators?
Brian Mogeni: It would take a few things other than just Wowzi! Technologies that can make creating content easier, platforms that can enable creators to grow in their craft. Formation of creator hubs where people can have access to proper equipment, collaborate, unique spaces to learn and sell products.
TN: What differentiates Wowzi from other influencer marketing platforms and how can influencers?
Brian Mogeni: When you look at Wowzi it is more than just an influencer marketing platform. We believe everyone can become a creator, everyone has influence. Our platform smartly matches that from your favorite TikToker, to Instagram creator, mums, dads, bankers, classmates can be an influencer.
At Wowzi we can run very fast market insight campaigns. An FMCG can run a targeted campaign to mothers of a certain age group with children below the age of five for instance and run market insights that would traditionally take one month to execute and three months to get the report back. We are able to do it in minutes. That ability to leverage your customers as your sounding boards and leverage your customers as your influencers is something very unique that we can do at Wowzi.
A space we are entering now which we see as an impactful step for us is, how can we enable the creators and influencers to be micro entrepreneurs and actually run businesses on Wowzi so we ourselves as something significantly more than just an influencer marketing platform.
