By Agbolade Omowole @iamagbolade

Learning is a journey, and not a destination. I attended the New Media Conference organized by Tosin Olori Supergal at the Terra Kulture event center in Lagos, and listen to various topics related to social media. I will be sharing what I learnt at the event with you. The speaker is Adekoya Adetola, and he talked about building an entertainment brand on social media. His 4 tips are:

Build yourself a brand: The speaker talks about popular entertainment brands. “We have the bad guys’ brand – Pdiddy, and Rick Ross, the pop star brand – Wizkid and Chris Brown, and the Street Disciple Brand – Da Grin, Olamide and Meek Miils.” Building a brand helps to define who you are in the entertainment industry. If you are an artiste, you must clearly define what you want people to think about when your name is mentioned. Once people know what you stand for, then you have to be available.

Be Accessible: The way to connect with fans on social media is to be available every other minute. The speaker cited DonJazzy as one of the most accessible Nigerian celebrity on social media.

Do Giveaways. People like free things. Giving fans free gift on social media helps to build your credibility. The speaker cited Don Jazzy who is adept at giving away gifts and incentives to fans on Twitter to validate his authority. When you give people a hand, they will find it easy to give you their heart. When Don Jazzy tell his fans to jump, they do just that because he has mastered the art of giving.

Have a Marketing and Public Relations Team. Experts say that Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does. The most important investments for artiste are innovation and marketing. Innovation means doing things differently. The extra you add to your ordinary performance will make it become extra-ordinary.

According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media—but 85% of participants aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use.

A report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. The report concludes “Companies should take advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience.