Why PH social media market is too slow, and how we plan to turn it around – Buzz Africa CEO

The Port Harcourt social media market is said to be too slow. Now, Miracle Vincent, CEO of Buzz Africa, an emerging firm out of the Niger Delta, has undertaken to shake Port Harcourt out of slumber.

In an interview with newsmen in PH, Vincent, just graduating from a tertiary institution in Rivers State, gave two reasons why this is so.

He said it took him to get out of the region to Lagos to realise how slow the PH social media market was. In giving the two reasons, he said he went to Lagos and his eyes opened wide, like there were greater opportunities in Lagos. He came back and invested all his funds into a particular campaign.

Understanding the Port Harcourt business landscape, he went further, they hired salespersons to reach out to these people because that’s what is really effective. He joined the team that went out.

“Two major things are problem in the Port Harcourt business landscape: One, the people (business owners) that understand the importance of social media in Port Harcourt don’t work with the brands in Port Harcourt. They work with the brands in Lagos and Abuja because their assumption or their perception is that these people out there in Lagos and Abuja are the ones that can deliver exceptionally.

“The second problem is that most Port Harcourt business owners are not willing to pay the right price to get the right service. They’re not willing to spend more money on these things.

“So, that’s why I’m at this point. I’m willing to do everything to ensure that I educate them because most of them still say, “My product is good, it will advertise itself.” And it’s wrong. If people don’t see that product, if people don’t know about this your service, it will be limited.”

He regretted that many CEOs still believe in ‘word of mouth’ advertising. These are people that spend on many other things but social media. “And it’s because they lack the understanding. People that actually have the understanding know how it works, and they prefer working with the people outside there.”

He went on: “So we begin with free programmes that business owners need to attend. It will involve working with manufacturers, Chambers of Commerce, and the likes of the Rivers Entrepreneurs and Investment Forum (REIF), and other business clusters. It will involve getting to know their leaders, offering them 10 minute talks during their meetings; sometimes offering them the basic packages, giving them promo packages of very low rates. So I think some of those things will be good.”

He said if you don’t invest in visibility, you will remain small. “It means that a man can be diligent in his work, he can be very hardworking, he can be very competent, but if no one sees him, he will keep standing before mere men and not before kings. So that is what we understand and we want people to rise to that level. Many persons are limited because they are not visible.”

Vincent who was known in the Garden City or his dancing and singing prowess gave background of his entrepreneurial drive. “The name of my company is Buzz Africa PR and Creative Agency Limited.

“Buzz signifies noise; Buzz signifies attention. We were ‘Brands Brain’, but we transitioned to name that aligns with the industry.”

Giving the structure of the firm, he said Buzz Africa started in 2023. “We started first as a social media agency because we discovered the problem that I mentioned. We have people, celebrities, entertainers, business owners that needed to transition to social media, but they lacked the technical know-how and the content strategy ideas and all of that.

“So we decided to solve it. We have now transitioned into a full PR company. Our services include PR campaigns, social media management, influencer marketing, the major one being music marketing.

But we are positioning ourselves to be a company that is specialized in social media management and PR campaigns. We want the market to know us for this.”

On how they are fighting the market, the emerging PR firm cares about competition and seems ready for it. “We have competitors, but what makes us different is our data-driven approach, not assumptions.

“We’ve done studies over the years, we’ve done analysis to understand that to go viral is not by accident but it is engineered.

“We’ve managed brands for several people and we’ve achieved several viral content mileages.

People have preferences and we understand these preferences. “We understand the hook concept.”