Three (3) reasons why you need a Website and Social Media Management Partner or Manager this 2019; Uganda

Credit: getty image

By Abet Tonny

The number of internet users in Uganda has  gone from 40,000 in the year 2000 to 17 million users, this is according to UCC and Africa Internet Stats . Approximately 2.2 million people in Uganda were on Facebook by 2017, guess how many they are in this 2019. And these are clients for your goods and services.

Before we talk much, let us look at the importance of website and social media management.

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1. Gives proof of your organization or company. 

Last time I was talking to a manager in Kenya on phone from my locale in Northern Uganda, what happened to me is what several people across Africa face daily, one of the key companies I was presenting neither had a website nor a social media handle and imagine what happeed, our communication was short-lived because there was no backup (I mean a website or prominent social media handle to support/provide pictorial evidence of presence just with the click of a button). It is very common that whenever you call someone in this era trying to explain that you work with or head such and such a firm or organization, the first thing that runs into the recipient's mind is to instantly type and search to confirm the online existence of that your firm or organization even before he or she gives time to understand the core information you intend to pass. Having no website or at worst a social media handle is equating to absence from the real world,  a ridiculous reality that all business/organization founders in Uganda have had to face. Others lost big deals simply because they did not have the site where they can make fast referals and pictoral evidence readily to pitch better. However, having the website or social media page alone is not the real thing, the core agenda in the mind of your website/page visitor will always be ‘’when was the last time they updated the page/website or blog?’’. Having a great website designed and a killer cover photo on your facebook page is far from the real deal. Infact, it's like a great home of some 1980's government official which was near my former primary school. The home looked so great as you passed the dusty road connecting Lira to Apac district in Northern Uganda, the horrible fact was that the great residential construction had no human beings residing but lizards and wild rats, I remember visiting it once and the overwhelming dust I encountered still remain vivid in my mind. The building stands till this day but I have never had secondary appetite to revisit. It is the same thing happening everytime you spend more than a week without updating your site. An excited partner or client spends time searching for your website or social media handle in 2019 only to find it last updated in 2016, it sucks! Finally and very important, the number of ‘’Likes’’ you have on your facebook page or comments on your blog posts is the way people/visitors determine the worth, value and influence of your products and services.

2. Faster way to boost your brand awareness. 

      Every micro-second, someone  is clicking a URL, visiting a website, reading a blog post or on social media. Remember, with every encounter on your logo or post, the brand awareness is  growing wider and wild. You can take advantage of this!

3. Cheapest way to market and reach new clients. 

      A number of millennials in Uganda still think social media and internet thing is for teenagers and idlers and perhaps they are not decision makers when it comes to real markets.  A great number of these millennials were the marketing managers or program managers in big organizations and companies, this perception was so wrong! A number of them have just joined social media in the last 5 years and they are even more addicted than the teenagers.

Stories short, companies and businesses should now consider social media and blogs as the cheapest way to market. No more prints, from graphics design, your posters go direct to clients. To make your information even sink deeper, attach them inbetween engaging contents/articles written by expert writers around that topic of interest, whether health, agriculture or child right.  I can catagorically state that internet and social media will greatly cut your marketing cost and you need experts in website and social media management to make this a reality to your company/organization.

A radio station that serves 1 millio people will demand at least 1 million UGX to run your advert for a month. A single post you make online, through blog or social media has potential of reaching at least 1 million and the message be sustained for decades. And now with boosting technology, your posts, advert has potential of reaching several millions of people.

The quality of the posts, articles and graphics has exceeding factor in retaining attention of the internet/social media users  to your advert or brand.

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And now, at a monthly fee of only $100 (350,000/=), your company/organization can get a great kick back to life in the online world and bring your clients, partners or even donors to speed with new development in your company/organization .

The Top 4 Lucrative Crops for 2019 -Uganda Farmer

The Top 4 Lucrative Crops for 2019 -Uganda Farmer

 By Tonny Abet 

1. Passion Fruits

Not labour and capital intensive. An acre of passion fruits will require an investment capital of about Shs4.9m. This cost will cover seedlings, manure/fertilizers (compost manure, cow dung, CAN and NPK), labour and pests and diseases management.

If you don’t have a water source, you may need to construct a water tank to harvest run off water. A tank with capacity to accommodate 50,000 litres of water will cost you a minimum of Shs1.5m.

An acre will accommodate 750 seedlings or less depending on the fertility of your soil and consequently spacing. The local purple variety starts flowering as early as three months and peaks at seven months.

A farmer can harvest the fruits for one and half years (72 weeks). Under good agronomic practices, a farmer can harvest a minimum of two bags per week.

This means a farmer can harvest 144 bags in 72 weeks or more. At an average farm gate price of Shs150, 000 per bag, a farmer will bank a gross profit of over Shs21m.

It is important to note that prices can go as high as Shs400, 000 per bag. If the 144 bags are sold at Shs200, 000 per bag, a framer will earn Shs28.8m. What a return on investment!

2. Pumpkins

Pumpkin farming isn’t labour and capital intensive. With an investment capital of about Shs1m, a farmer can earn over Shs6.7m.

This is because an acre will accommodate 450 pumpkin plants since spacing is 10ft*10ft (3 metres) apart. Considering the fact that one pumpkin plant can produce a minimum of 10 pumpkins, 450 plants will give you 4,500 pumpkins and if each is sold at the current farm gate price of Shs1,500, you will earn Shs6.75m in a space of about seven month.

All you need to get best results is apply manure before planting, apply a foliar fertilizer and manage pests and diseases well. It is important to note that a pumpkin can go up to Shs2, 0000

3. Cabbages

This is another vegetable crop that can mint you clean cash when grown during the off season. An acre can accommodate between 19,000 and 40,000 cabbages depending on the variety grown and consequently spacing.

Going by the average farm gate price of Shs700, a farmer can earn between Shs21m and Shs10.5m assuming he harvests 30,000 and 15,000 sizeable cabbages respectively.

An acre requires an investment of about Shs2m. For a farmer to get the best results, he must apply best agronomic practicess.

4. Onion

Although the onion has played second fiddle to conventionally cultivated crops, it might just be the next big thing in 2019. It is a goldmine waiting to be exploited. It can answer your perennial cash difficulties since its commercial potential is enormous. A net of onions weighing between 13-14kg fetches Sh35000 on average or Sh2500 per kg. With proper management a hectare of land can fetch between 14 to 17 tonne. Do the calculation. To obtain even higher returns you can use F1 varieties which have a harvest potential of up to 23 tonnes in a hectare. Most of these varieties only take three months to maturity which makes it possible to cultivate the crop for up to three times in a year. This is in contrast to other crops which can only be cultivated once or twice in a year. These should be your favourite profitable crops, as they all enjoy strong demand year after year, yet can be grown by anyone who has, or can learn a few basic gardening skills.