Digicel the seven year-old company which joined the Telecom game in Jamaica and the Caribbean as the mouth-watering buffet in front of a starving man, is now the Caribbean Brand with the largest Facebook Fan Page Community. They achieved the 100,000 Fan milestone on Tuesday March 16, 2010. They celebrated by running a full page ad in the newspapers and of course more giveaways as thanks to their fans.
Now in an environment where internet marketing professionals and entrepreneurs push to sell Caribbean brands on the validity and value of social media specifically and generally the necessity of having an internet marketing strategy and plan, Digicel with its achievement will no doubt drive the fan rush and social media push in Jamaica and the Caribbean. At least we hope so.
We spoke to Marketing Communications Manager, Tshani Jaja about Digicel, Social Media and the Caribbean.Share your comments or ask questions when you’re finished watching.
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An example of a hip hop artist building a community on Twitter is Young Money’s Nicki Minaj. Nicki’s followers have been growing rapidly over the past few months, bringing her to the current count of 530,150. Having not yet released an official album, the large Twitter following is very impressive. More
Exactly 25 years ago, computer manufacturer Symbolics, based in Cambridge, Mass., registered the first .com domain. Today there are 84 million. Of course a Web site, 25yearsof.com, is celebrating the anniversary. And a Facebook fan page declares: There are 11.9 million e-commerce and online business Web sites, 4.3 million entertainment-related sites and 1.8 million sports sites with a .com Web address. When was the first time you registered a .com domain?
As a tech entrepreneur, late nights can be a staple especially when you’ve just started a new project.Last week I was up and Johnathan Francis, co-founder of CaribbeanTutors.com a Facebook friend popped up and we started to chat which I’ve edited and made into an interview for the blog. Have a read.
What is CaribbeanTutors.com?
Since June 2007, CaribbeanTutors.com (the region’s first online school) has taught over 530 students in 12 Caribbean nations, with the largest enrolments coming from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana. These students are primarily 15- to 18-year-olds studying any number of up to 13 CXC (Caribbean Examinations Council) subjects.
Earlier this year, Google landed a “landmark” deal with Global Cricket Ventures, the licensing partner to the Indian Premier League (IPL), which would give them the so rights to live stream cricket matches from the IPL on YouTube. This is a huge deal because the streaming of the 2010 IPL season (which starts on Friday and lasts for 45 days) is the first time a large-scale global sporting event will be streamed; with the reach expected to be at least a half-a-billion viewers. Now of of India’s largest gaming companies, Indiagames, has bought the official gaming rights to the IPL tournament to deliver games around the Indian cricket tournament.
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Those are the five words I’ve been hearing alot these past two weeks as I attend back to back meetings with marketing executives and CEOs of Jamaican companies across industries such as tourism, food and beverage and export. They are now ready to change the way they develop products, deliver services and market them- because the market has determined it.
I like the fact that they have seen the light and there is a desire to change and with speed and even better, prepared to take action that clearly demonstrates their courage too. While some may say that it’s better late than never, I’ve always believed that insight and pre emptive strikes can detemine market leaders vs companies who are merely industry fodder. It is when you choose to acknowledge and act that will determine a company’s position in the marketplace.
It was the second time I was hearing it in as many weeks. The first story came from a friend, the second from my 71 year old mother. A young lady called, introduced herself using what I will immediately assume was a fake name. Said she was calling on behalf of Digicel, please note my mother is a LIME customer and has been since it was called Jamaica Telephone company, well because she worked there for 30 years too. The young lady then went on to say that they are doing a survey and at the end they will get a SIM card with $5,000 worth of Digicel credit on it. My mother said, but I have no use for that as I am a LIME customer but my daughters have Digicel phones, so go ahead.
Get the 411 on the premier community for Jamaican web entrepreneurs, start-ups and enthusiasts from the lady in charge. Ingrid Riley, founder of Kingston Beta, talks to us about the event at its recent debut at new venue, Spanish Court Hotel. SociaLingua is the official online media partner of Kingston Beta. Be sure to check out our photos from the last event!
The Information Communication and Technology (ICT) sector is another of the priority industries within Jamaica’s National Export Strategy (NES) through which the country can benefit from increased inflows of foreign exchange and potential investors and participants can acquire additional earnings.
In a continuation of the Sunday Finance series looking on the priority industries under the NES and the opportunities that exist therein, the focus shifts this week to the ICT sector, which has generated net foreign exchange earnings of approximately US$199.2 million for Jamaica between 2001 and 2005. Exports from the call centre industry alone is estimated to be between US$300-400 million from the 22 contact centres operating in Jamaica. However, only four of those firms are local companies which means that profits are often expatriated from Jamaica. more
