African ICT Foundation Empowers Cotonou SMEs with Digital Marketing Skills

As part of its core objectives of deepening ICT skills across Africa and expanding the continent’s businesses, the African ICT Foundation in one of the series of its digital marketing programme, held the maiden edition of its e-Reputation and Social Media workshop for young entrepreneurs from the Republic of Benin in Cotonou.

The workshop exposed young entrepreneurs to how they can use the social media to drive their business, master your communication, choose your communication vectors, occupy the communication space, stay consistent and manage the security of your accounts.

Regional Director of the Foundation in Benin Republic, Dr. Kossi Amessinou while revealing the potentials of the social media to the young entrepreneur said that it is simpler, faster and cheaper to search the internet than to recruit detectives through it adding that recruitment officers regularly investigate the digital identity of candidates.

Amessinou disclosed that with well over 70-80% of journalists are on twitter and most politicians, public authorities, actors, sportsmen with a twitter account the social media is a veritable tool for driving their businesses.

He described the social media as an excellence network of communication that offers opportunity to share content and allow to animate a conversation with all target public as well as management institutional pages.

According to him, a tweet works like a teaser for articles, photos, videos, or Facebook post has the power to increase the customer base of their noting that it allows the dissemination of information in the form of visuals and very useful for associations and e-commerce.

He added that with social media like Instagram small businesses can market their products and service to celebrities because it allows for the creation and sharing e your content in the form of images and videos, particularly by young people.

Amessinou described the Youtube as the empire of video content with over one billion users worldwide that can impact the growing businesses of young entrepreneurs noting that there are over 50% monthly viewing hours each year, about 300 hours of video uploaded every minute that can be used to educate, document, inform, disseminate and grow a business.