30 Oct 2017

Media houses have been implored to embrace social media to ensure that they remained relevant.

CEO and Editor-In-Chief of the Voice newspaper Ms Beata Kasale noted during the last day of a two-day social media and cyber security symposium on Friday that while the advent of social media platforms has continued to threaten the existence of newspapers, it was paramount to embrace them instead of loathing them.

Ms Kasale said the threat by social media platforms to take newspapers out of business was real and the latter had no choice but to jump on to the bandwagon.

This, she observed, meant that newspapers had to devise strategies through which they monetize social media networks so as to be able to also benefit from them.

“Newspapers need to build their future outside the traditional publishing way. This requires a shift of focus as they have to find alternative ways of monetizing their content online,” she said.

She pointed out that with social media platforms outperforming newspapers in the competition for advertisers, the latter clearly had to also up their game in this regard.

“Social media platforms have outperformed newspapers and continue to do so, and indications are that this can only grow,” she noted; and added that consequently newspapers have to come up with innovative ways to ensure that they stayed alive.

South African personal branding expert Mr Timothy Maurice concurred that it was crucial to leverage on social media.

He said in order to successfully do this, newspapers had to study the market and then give people what they wanted.

“You don’t have to force people to engage with your brand online. Yu have to study and identify, and thereafter meet the need of what people care about,” he said.

He said newspapers thus have to make it their mandate to understand the needs of their target audience and then give them what they want.

This, he said would ensure that people naturally followed them.

The symposium addressed topics on the adequacy of Botswana laws to prosecute digital crimes, monetisation of digital content, branding strategies for digital presence and regulating the Botswana cyber space, amongst others.

Among the speakers were the Vice President Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi who delivered the keynote address, as well as Advocate Gerrie Nel who addressed the topic on prosecution in the digital era.

Advocate Nel was the lead prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius case, in which the Paralympic athlete was being tried for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.ENDS