The Best Community Engagement Manager Award from an Agency recognises an individual that has championed the use of social media, and the successful communication of events and content creation. What does receiving the award mean for you?

Having been pursuing the potential within the social media marketing realm for a decade now, this award was a culmination of many years of dedication to understanding and growing the craft of community engagement – not only with clients, but with my teams and mentees as well.

I've had the great pleasure of training some of the growing talents within the consumer engagement industry in South Africa, and there is finally an award that recognises the art of engagement and conversations, which truly represents social media as a conversational network and not just a content platform.

You have been a trainer and mentor for young industry professionals for around 10 years. Where did your journey start with social media and how did your skills evolve?

I started talking to strangers online as a 14-year-old, geeky teenager with a growing interest in the online world, long before it was ever ‘cool’ to do so. In fact, I was the ultimate dork for my interest in the online space, as there was so much stigma attached to online chatting in the mid-90s.

That was 20 years ago, but it took another 10 to 12 years for these online conversations to become a potential profession in South Africa. I joined Facebook in January 2007, and immediately saw the potential for this kind of platform to connect networks of people together around a common cause – essentially building communities that transcend location.

I began creating groups for the brands that I worked for, and in 2008 I was the first person to leverage the platform for a vote-based competition to win myself a trip to Brazil with a well-known vodka brand, MTV, and SA musician, HHP. On our return, HHP and I teamed up to build his fan community on Facebook and went on to win a few vote-based awards.

You’ve been working in the South African agency and brand space for quite a number of years. What things are South African brands getting right and wrong on social media? Also, what should they be doing more of?

We're getting content production right, but we're not tying back the insights coming from content engagement back into the business and thus the bottom line. Why report on engagement rates on social content, if you can't talk about who engaged, what they engaged with, and draw further insights on how to enhance the customer's experience based off these insights?

As a customer, how many times have I engaged with your brand online versus how often am I repurchasing your product or referring your brand to my networks? If businesses aren't tracking this information, then we'll continue to say that social ROI is elusive, when in fact it's not.

Are there any new trends in social media you are excited about, and what are they?

I'm more nervous to see where the role of the messenger bots will take us. Will they put the community manager out of a job, or assist them at scale? Does it run the risk of losing the human element that forms the foundation and true essence that social media engagement is built on, or will it cater to the customer’s growing need for immediacy when it comes to getting answers and responses from brands?

Another ‘trend’ which is growing massively globally but is still slow in the uptake in South Africa is building the 360-degree consumer profile. When I reach out to a brand online for assistance (especially beyond the first touch), I expect your brand to know who I am within the platform through which I engage.

I am a true social customer and if you can't meet my online needs, I will easily switch to your competitor who is listening and is demonstrating that they can “put me first’ and resolve my issues quickly and efficiently.

For more information, visit Platinum Seed at www.platinumseed.com or read Platinum Seed MD Bradley Elliot’s latest guide to mobile app community management.