by DYI Team
Did you know that June 5th is a day riddled with frivolous holidays like Hot Air Balloon Day, National Black Bear Day, National Bubbly Day, and National Cheer Coach Day? It was also the 156th day in the Gregorian calendar? There was nothing frivolous about June 5th, 2021, in Nigeria. If anything, it made an indelible mark in Nigerian history. Nigerians woke up to a divergent world that Saturday —one where Tweeting had become a crime.
As reported by NOI Poll, nearly 120 million Nigerians have access to the internet, and about 40 million of them have a Twitter account. This statistic indicates the vast and growing community of Nigerians on the micro-blogging social media platform.
Undoubtedly, the effect of the ban is telling on every Nigerian user on the platform. Nevertheless, in the PR world, Twitter is considered one of the most valuable social media channels. Hence the ban was more than a mere action taken by the government.
You are about to find out why Twitter is an essential tool in PR and the impending consequence of the ban.
1. Rapid Information Dissemination
Social media platforms are valuable tools for distributing information at a fast rate. However, there is something profound about how information travels fast on Twitter —many argue that it is the ‘Retweet’ feature or the 140 character limit that forces you to push out short and catchy content. Regardless of the reason, the social media platform remains undefeated in this feat.
News, hearsays, tales, and data spread at light speed. That means quashing or verifying gossip and rumours can equally happen swiftly. This quality does more than keeping people up to date but creates the portrayal of corporate transparency and candour —two favourable points for any PR campaign.
Consequence: Brands will have to solely depend on other less speed-effective social media channels to distribute information.
2. Inclusive Audience Reach
Traditional media has several paralyzing flaws, and a significant one is a limited audience reach. It is hard to deny that only a restricted number of people have access to news coverage, advertisement, or other PR events on contemporary media outlets.
Back in 2014, Radio was the dominant news platform in Nigeria, with about 77.4% overall and more than seven in 10 people across many main demographic groups saying they tune in to the Radio for news at least weekly. Then ‘word of mouth’ and TV followed with (66.1% weekly) and TV (64.0% weekly) respectively as the most common means of getting the news. While the internet ranked fourth with 28.2% of Nigerians using it as a source for news, at least per week.
However, the number of internet users grew to 104.4 million in January 2021. That puts internet penetration in the country at 50%.
You will agree that more people have grown dependent on social media for their news and getting relevant information.
With its millions of users, Twitter stands tall as one of the top five most used social media platforms in the country.
Furthermore, Twitter is accessible globally, and its ‘accessibility’ defeats location, active hours, and other limiting factors traditional media face.
PR companies have integrated Twitter into their structure to connect with audiences in an authentic, personal and well-targeted way.
Consequence: Fortunately, other social media platforms provide access to larger audiences. Nonetheless, PR firms will feel the impact.
3. Inexpensive Operational Costs
Twitter helps many PR agencies achieve their goals with low operational costs. A single organic post can reach millions of people with zero cost apart from internet charges seeing that Twitter is a free platform. Twitter’s feed is an inexpensive tool with a high audience reach —a profitable investment for PR professionals.
Consequence: PR firms will need to budget and allocate more money to reach a broader target audience on other platforms.
4. Immediate Access to Customers
Thanks to social media, Public relations have been able to break the middle-man barrier between the company and the audience. For example, media stations often omit important information from companies because of limited airplay and other factors. That means people sometimes digest half-baked stories.
Now newspapers and television no longer dominate as major choices for information flow. The internet now offers proportional access for all interested in publishing information.
Moreover, humans’ current attention span is eight seconds. Hence, several people find it challenging to read a lengthy write-up about a piece of particular news or even sit down for several minutes in front of the TV.- So much for the most “advanced” species on the planet.
With Twitter, PR firms/professionals can provide information in a quick, succinct, and directed way with little time and cost commitment for a post.
Consequence: PR experts will have to bid farewell to Twitter’s feedback features (polls, DMs, retweets & comments) and manage feedback from a limited audience.
5. Public Communication and Information
A big perk of using Twitter for PR is the ability to interact with your target audience and have access to what is happening around the world in real-time.
PR experts rely on Twitter to get direct feedback from people and receive timely updates through the ever-valuable twitter’s trend table.
Marketing analysts and PR experts analyze the data obtained from the platform to understand the public opinion on various social issues, products, marketing activities, and policies.
Consequence: (check number 4)
6. Best Platform for Crisis Management
Crises are unavoidable in businesses.
It can arise from within or beyond the brand (e.g. a misdeed by an employee or complaints by unhappy customers). When brands handle crises properly, they can avert crisis communication and potential damage.
In a crisis, brands will need to clear the air with immediate communication in real-time and a personable message. Who are we kidding? Of course, Twitter is the perfect place to do that.
Read examples of how Nigerian brands like Cowrywise and Risevest handled crisis communication on Twitter here
Consequence: PR experts will need to properly strategize and utilize other media channels to reproduce Twitter’s effect.
Will this be the end of savagery?
The street of Twitter is laced with an intriguing attitude known as ‘Savagery.’ This is one of the unique and fun ways people communicate with each other on the platform, and brands are not left out.
Brands have also adopted the ‘act of savagery’ to respond to controversial comments from customers and spark a viral conversation.
Here’s an interesting example between a famous brand in Nigeria, Itel and tweeps:
You would hardly find another platform where the above conversation would play out between brands and customers.
Following the ban, the PR industry will miss out on all the incredible benefits Twitter had offered in the past. So, the industry will have a taxing time navigating the deep waters for a while until the government suspends the ban.
However, it has been over a month since the ban took effect, and the Federal Government is showing unflinching determination despite the outrage and protest made by Nigerians at home and abroad. Some critics believe that last year’s #EndSars protest is the cynical reason behind the Twitter ban. During the protest, the platform played a significant role in attracting global awareness to the movement.
Nigerians will miss Twitter the most because of this reason — where else can we kickstart such a powerful movement?
You’d be surprised to learn that other countries like Turkey, Egypt, China, North Korea have banned Twitter at one point or the other. Therefore, one question remains on everyone’s mind –Will a world without Twitter in Nigeria become our new norm? No one knows. Afterall, we survived without it before 2015.
At Del-York, one of our core strengths is our ability to innovate and adapt quickly to changes in the industry. Hence, despite the Twitter ban, we have not relented in executing PR campaigns and strategies to exceed our clients’ marketing goals. Nevertheless, we are hopeful that the ban is not here to stay and will definitely miss the ever-vibrant thrills and Tweeps from the Twittersphere.
Do you need help with communicating your brand message to your target audience? Join our pool of happy and satisfied clients who trust us with their PR needs. Reach out to us press@delyorkinternational.com or call +2348140000498.