Category: Social Media
5 compelling reasons why you should seriously use LinkedIn
Whether you are a large company, employee, young professional or entrepreneur, believe me when I tell you that you should be on LinkedIn. Here are 5 reasons why you should actively use LinkedIn. 1. Connect to the largest network of global professionals According to their website, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the […]
Stop blaming Facebook algorithms for your social media failures
First , I’m no social media expert, so take everything I say as just first hand experience being part of the managers of our Facebook page, and having friends in the the industry who manage some of the most followed pages locally. I’ll take that again. First, I’m a social media expert. I’m part of […]
Facebook finally ends redundant @facebook.com email addresses
So finally Facebook finally decided to do away with an email service they forced on people, but people never used anyway. The email service which is based on your Facebook username (e.g: tendai.mupaso@facebook.com) was introduced back in 2010 then made “compulsory” for Facebook users in 2012. The @facebook.com emails became the publicly displayed emails instead […]
When will Facebook kill WhatsApp’s ‘no ads, no games, no gimmicks’ stance?
Today we woke up to the biggest news in Tech so far this year. Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp has already got people worked on what will become of the popular messaging app, which arguably has more users than Facebook in Zimbabwe. Both parties in the deal moved quickly to squash any uncertainty […]
Facebook agrees to buy Whatsapp for $19 billion
Social media giant Facebook has just announced, the purchase of instant messaging app Whatsapp. Commenting on the deal his Facebook wall, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg did not say how much Facebook will pay for the IM which has 450 million users, but the deal is rumored to be in the region of $19 billion […]
Sponsored tweets: Is it time for local celebs to cash in?
Nigel “Sir Nige” Mugamu, founder of 263Chat tweeted a sponsored tweet a week ago which got us thinking whether local celebs are missing out of a potential revenue stream. It’s quite interesting as well because you would think Zimbabwe is not ready for this model because the numbers on twitter seem to not justify it […]
Baba Jukwa posts shutdown notice of Facebook page (happening tomorrow)
In a post reminiscent of that made by the maker of Flappy Bird about a week ago (yes very unrelated but that’s what quickly came to mind) Baba Jukwa, the political Facebook page, announced today that he – or she, who knows – will be shutting down the page on Monday (tomorrow). The announcement was […]
Facebook’s 10th Anniversary gift and an idea of the future
About ten days ago the social media behemoth, Facebook, celebrated its 10th anniversary. On that day, Facebook gave each of its over 1.2 billion members a one-minute video that featured their top Facebook moments; a feature they call “Look Back”. To access this Look Back video, which is tailor made for each user, you simply […]
Twitter creating ‘pictureful’ advertising real estate with Facebook-like design?
So it’s quite interesting that Twitter is testing out another new design for their web client. Also very interesting that they are looking to make Twitter look more like the dominant social connections networks, Facebook and Google+. But even more interesting is why they’d want to departure so boldly from the Twitter one column news […]
Nafuna TV’s Nqobizitha ‘Enqore’ Mlilo, named top innovator by Google
Nqobizitha Mlilo, founder of Nafuna TV has been been named one of the 20 innovative and entrepreneurial web adopters from across sub-Saharan Africa and becomes a semi-finalists for the Google’s Africa Connected prize. Nqobizitha, through Nafuna TV, has been selected for using YouTube to provide his audience with animation and HD video content. According to […]
The Smaller House blogger captivates local web audience with addictive storyline
Pamushana.com says The Smaller House is one of the “hottest non-reporting blog” locally, but for me it’s one of the hottest local blogs in all categories. The story told on The Smaller House is gripping, engaging, well crafted and has proven a hit in just under 2 months in our digital space. You don’t need […]
Is WhatsApp making a big emerging market mistake with the no frills strategy?
You may have heard over last week that WhatsApp now has about 430 Million active users. Active, not just registered. But that wasn’t the big announcement they made. The more significant statement, a strategy one, was that their founding belief in a no-ads, and no frills – basically a pure messaging platform – ecosystem remains […]
Facebook says have more media rich posts from your pages
Yesterday Facebook announced some tweaks on it’s algorithm on both pages and user newsfeeds. The news changes mean that page admins will need to focus more on media rich posts instead of text-only posts to have a greater reach. Initially Facebook had assumed that text-only posts encouraged better engagement and a general increase in status […]
New to Techzim: Your top 5 #trended on social media fix
Social media has started on a high in 2014 and like everyone else, we always get locked into the weird, the funny and the outright outrageous things that happen in our world as expressed on social media. However, there are times when it’s so hectic that social media becomes a too expensive distraction that although […]
Does anyone in Zimbabwe use BBM at all?
There was quite some expectation when BlackBerry launched their BBM mobile chat service on IOS and Android platforms last year. We remember we were as excited as any regular Zimbabwean who’s had their South African relatives speak highly about BlackBerry and its services. And we rushed to install it too and added a number of friends, […]
Now with games added, is WeChat getting more interesting or just bloated?
If you have been using WeChat lately, you probably noticed that the social messaging platform has added games. For some regions and countries at least. If you are in Zimbabwe for example you will notice there are at least 3 games now: one galactica kind of game called Pencil Pilot (which i really liked), 2Day’s […]
Here’s an article every Zimbabwean marketer must read. Why spend more offline?
Print media is not going away any time soon, but the writing is on the wall, where the future of publishing is. Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop where local marketing expert, Benjamin Juru, was presenting on the shift to digital media for local (hell, global) marketers. He spoke about the numbers […]
WeChat now available for Zimbabwe users
When we published the article “WeChat is better than WhatsApp” one of the complaints that kept coming up was that the social messaging app was not available for Zimbabwe (see comments to the article). Our Question and answer site was also inundated with the question of how to go around this restriction. It was ofcourse […]
You’re doing it all wrong: 8 terrible Facebook contest mistakes companies make
Zimbabwean company have been joining the ‘new’ marketing channel that is Facebook in droves lately. One shortcut to audience building they have been using probably already is Facebook promotions/competitions/contest. The assumption is this method delivers results fast but that hasn’t been the case largely because of some mistakes that the guys over at Bizsetup Group […]
How a Local Startup is Re-Imagining Online Video (You should be part of it too)
In February Three startups emerged from British Council’s Culture Shift Challenge. One of them, Bigeyes , walked away with 2nd place, £1500 in cash, mentorship, and internet sponsorship. With that they promised to revolutionaries the way we share and consume online video locally. While this may all sounds wonderful, in a world where Youtube calls […]
How about an internet-less Twitter?
One of the most popular question and answer tags on our Techzim Answers platform is Forgetmenot Africa’s internet-less Facebook, eTXT. The question “how to link facebook with my etxt on my mobile phone?” for example has been viewed some 24,000 times, more than twice the next popular question on the site which has about 11,000 […]
Zim Asset: Zimbabwe’s Government plans for tech
Our fairly new government recently released a document called Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social-Economic Transformation (Zim ASSET) that outlines government multi-sectorial plans at economic recovery right upto 2018. The ICT sector is listed among the seven or eight sectors that have to kick for the desired economic transformation to take shape and so far, it’s […]
Econet makes social impact investment in wind energy
Econet Wireless, through subsidiary Econet Solar International has joined other investors in an initiative led by Danish wind energy group Vestas to build small wind power generators across Africa. The programme, called Wind For Prosperity, aims to provide power to millions of people living in rural areas and small towns beyond the reach of […]
#Twimbos, Twitter is calling.
Twitter has grown in leaps and bounds this year and Zimbos finally seem to have got a “handle” on it. Although, no official user stats are available on Zimbabwe (ZARF says 2%), Twitter has become the main social network for many Zimbos, or should I say #Twimbos. Although I only have 131 followers to show […]
ZBC is broke! Yeah, whatever
Yesterday morning we woke up to the news that ZBC is broke (insolvent.) OK those among you who are surprised please raise your hands. I wonder what the management expected. Strangely enough the Deputy Minister for Information, Media and Broadcasting services Honourable Supa Mandiwanzira was “shocked” when he discovered that ZBC’s books were this bad. […]
Some Zimbabwean brands with the worst Facebook pages
We have before listed Zimbabwe;s top Facebook business Pages here, so when we came upon this list by a local blogger, Tinashe Nyaruwanga, we found it quite interesting. Nyaruwanga lists what he has found to be the worst Facebook pages in Zimbabwe and amoung them you’d expect high brands that would be expected to execute […]
E-cigarettes: a panacea for Zimbabwe?
Health officials say tobacco smoking is the largest cause of preventable death on the entire planet. Lighting up a cigarette increases the risk that you or those constantly around you are at risk of contracting a multitude of diseases and health complications such as heart attacks, strokes, emphysema, bronchitis and cancers ( cancers of the […]
Alpha Media hosts digital marketing workshop for marketers
Today we attended an Alpha Media organised workshop where the company brought together marketing managers, media managers and other professionals in the industry to discuss the need for marketing people to understand digital platforms and the opportunities there. There were 5 speakers at the event who all did a great job (I’d say that, I […]
Keeping up with the Jukwas, Twitter goes mainstream: 2013 tech review (Social Media)
2013 has been seen Zimbabwe explode with breakthrough after breakthrough in technology. A lot has happened with new innovations taking root, changing our lives in the process. As we draw closer to curtains down for 2013, this will is the first in a series of review of headlining tech issues that took place in 2013 […]
Zimbo making waves with solar powered hearing aids
Botswana based electronic technician and social entrepreneur Tendekayi Katsiga has been quietly making waves globally with his product, Solar Ear, a solar-powered hearing aid. Tendekayi Katsiga is the founder and C.E.O of Deaftronics, a company that is manufacturing the world’s first solar-powered hearing aids. The inspired idea came in 2009 when Tendekayi Katsiga had an […]