Generally Zimbabweans avoid boarding empty public transport especially unbranded buses, kombis or the mshikashikas. They just hang outside waiting for alternate transport or for the bus to fill up and be the last to join. Perhaps herd mentality of safety in numbers?

You have obviously witnessed this, or possibly experienced it. Getting into an empty bus comes with many risks of time wasted as it could take quite some time to fill up. When you take your time waiting outside—you have many options.

To rig the system-touts introduced an insidious Bus Full Strategy whereby touts hoodwink passengers that the bus is almost full and therefore triggering a rush. Once you get into the bus and comfortably take a seat, you will have one shock waiting for you as the touts will disembark leaving you alone or with a few other passengers cheated the same way.

A very frustrating experience especially those travelling long distance especially Harare-Bulawayo, Harare to Mutare or Harare to Beitbridge. You board the bus thinking its leaving, only for it to make a u-turn a few hundred meters and start picking passengers for the umpteenth time using the same strategy. Even in musical concerts, most fans are now preferring hanging outside venues till main artists come onto the stage.

Dear Zbinites, the same strategy used by touts is used across the board. The take- over of Twitter by Elon Musk was involved in a prolonged negotiations process  for a revised takeover price due to a record number of ghost accounts. Every Social Media site has had to secretly use ghost accounts to boost numbers which acts as a bait for unsuspecting new members.

What are the factors you use to view a musical video on Youtube? Are others following the video? How many views? Is it trending? The lesser the views, the more likely for it to remain so. Helps explain why fake views are now a big industry with artists parting with huge sums in-order to boost views.

Before joining a Whatsapp Forum, many first check out the numbers—the more the numbers the better. The same strategy is also used by Ponzi Schemers with the last one being E-Creator.

Of course this brings a lot of questions on ethics—where do you draw the line? To what extend can one use purchased views or ghost accounts? No wonder why this topic is best handled away from the finance professionals. But for start-ups—when considering launching a new product or service, you could use the Empty Kombi Strategy to overcome resistance. Zimbabweans view all new products with suspicion—they need numbers to build and boost confidence!

In 2017 our adverts on Tapestry or Rugmaking accidentally went viral across SADC attracting millions of followers across the region. We definitely made digital history as the ads which we shared on Facebook were eventually shared across Whatsapp Platforms in South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana and Malawi.

An atomic explosion that earned us an award from the Zulu Kingdom for the impact of our work across South Africa and KwaZulu Natal Province in particular. What was just an experimental advert turned out to be a complete opposite as thousands responded and we could not manage the avalanche. The power of digital marketing—nobody knows what can happen to content posted!

Is it possible to do a repeat? Yes we did in 2018 with a follow on project of Hatmaking although we could not reach the benchmark we had set in 2017.

We got a firsthand insight of the link between Facebook and Whatsapp—the 2 a formidable power in triggering viral content. Whatever is covered on Facebook and if good enough, eventually goes to Whatsapp where sharing is convenient. In the past there were no restrictions on sharing on Whatsapp but restrictions—one can no longer share forwarded  messages to many groups at once—only one group allowed at a time if it’s a forwarded message.

The Share Button is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools and need more analysis. Are you developing content that is easily shared? How many times has your content been shared? Shared across all social media platforms. Do you do content share audits?

We used to have Mambos Chickens dominating social media with their content finding loyal followers. We don’t know what happened—perhaps change in management?

Others are engaging SHARING Teams—the teams share content on their behalf helping to create or trigger viral content. We will research more on this and share with the forum.

The last box for ticking in digital marketing is the SHARE BUTTON—can the content be shared? Not shared by the creator but by independent followers. Is the value in the content or graphics good enough?