I arrived late due to a scheduling conflict on my end, but I was able to watch the whole video. And I must say that the content was quite interesting.
This live, which would be their very first, was held by the whole team of Dikalo. Namely, ladies first, Bitoa Pedenkil, Kate Awanda, Ekambi Alain and Daniel Agnéro. The theme that was announced and that led me to want to join the live, was a call to become an investor on Dikalo.
In the live, they made it clear that it was rather an investment campaign, which was to extend over the next 2 to 3 months. To this end, live events will be held on different platforms 3 times a week according to the agenda defined for the campaign.
What I understood…
- For those who don’t know what Dikalo is, the team defines it as a place to bring together the Afro and Afro-descendant community worldwide. Beyond being a social network, Dikalo brings other solutions like messaging, online payment, and many others. Dikalo wants to be an all-in-on place. The primary objective is to be a platform for Africans controlled by Africans. I liked this definition from Bitoa: Communication is an important element in a community. We cannot let this aspect be managed outside the community, especially when the means and skills are available in the community to do so.
- The Live was intended to address those who are not yet on Dikalo.
- Daniel Agnéro is the co-Founder, mainly responsible for Product Design, so UI/UX, that is everything that touches what the user of Dikalo sees. He has been with Dikalo since 2017, his motivation for joining the group being to leave a positive imprint of his time on earth. Alain Ekambi, the CEO (I don’t know if he and Daniel Agnéro are co-CEOs), has hardly been able to speak due to internet connection issues. Bitoa Pedenkil and Kate Awanda are, from what I understood, more dedicated to the communication aspect at Dikalo. Unfortunately they did not give more details.
- Thanks to the interesting questions of a partipant, I could note that Dikalo offers business services. Companies have a space to publish their content and the possibility to use the Hoka service to boost this content. The pricing is 1 FCFA per view. For the moment, there is no targeting as such, so the budget (which is prepaid) determines the number of views. The potential number of people that can be reached is the 1 million people registered on Dikalo. And with each view, the budget is deducted and the advertising stops only when the budget is exhausted.
- The DNA of Dikalo is to respect the personal data of the users. So no targeting is done on the basis of personal data. Dikalo also does not keep any of these data. And in the near future, each user will have the possibility to choose how he/she wants to be reached by the advertising done on Dikalo. At this moment, this information can be available for targeting.
- A share of Dikalo costs 150.000 FCFA. It is possible to acquire fractions of a share, as far as rational. There is a quantity of shares available. The investment campaign will stop once this quota is reached. The objective of the campaign is to raise capital to grow the Dikalo team and to stabilize the products already implemented.
- Dikalo’s short-term objectives are to move from Beta versions to Release versions, that is to say from test versions of its products to final and completed versions.
I liked the live event…
The content was interesting and rich. The team communicates in a simple and direct way. This is also how they present themselves. A group of young people who believe in Africa, who know that they must contribute to give new notes of nobility to Africa. A group focused on creating and producing bold, interesting and pragmatic solutions. They are not appearance oriented, in fact the only appearance they care about is that of the products and solutions they propose.
A vision that is fresh, refreshing, inspiring and, above all, imbued with fair and noble values.
But….
I think that there are some things, they need to improve. Not a surprise though, since there is always room for improvement.
The Live in its form
I do not know what irritated me more, the casual appearance (the scarf tied way installed comfortably in my daily life at home and the hand under the blouse) of Awanda or the blurry camera of Bitoa. For the problems of internet connection of Ekambi we can still understand. Except that after 3 unsuccessful attempts, it would have been better to leave the Live through Stream Yard and intervene only in the comments, to let the discussions flow. It may be a good thing to attach little importance to the appearance, but it does not prevent to show a professional attitude, at least for the sake of the audience.
The live in its substance
I went there because of the title which announced how and why to become an investor on Dikalo. The approach of a campaign spread over several weeks is good, but it would be better to either publish the agenda of the campaign and the themes of the different dates, or to add a subtitle to the publication on the live of the week. That way, the person who logs in knows what to expect.
The number of people present
I was surprised that only about a dozen people were present in the live. I think that there are inevitably things to improve in the communication, especially with a community of one million people.
The target audience
Who was Dikalo talking to in the Live? Who does Dikalo talk to in its campaign? Who does Dikalo talk to every day? This one question sums up in my opinion all those little things I noted as negative above. Knowing who you are talking to determines how you want to talk to them, the terms you will use, the attitude you will adopt, and most importantly the framework of the response you expect from them.
The Dikalo team says they have targeted people who are not yet on Dikalo. In this case, the communication needs to be adjusted, because Dikalo has already a long journey behind it, and would have more return to deal intensely with the million users it already has than with the dozen or so potential new users they manage to reach on Facebook.
The effect is very simple. Those who are already on Dikalo and actively using it, will automatically become ambassadors outside of Dikalo, as they will need to share their positive experience. This is one of the reasons why I think that at this stage of Dikalo, the main actors of the team should be less present on the other networks. I will perhaps elaborate on this point in another text.
The question of the added value
I also think that this question could be better answered by the team. To do so, they need to know who they are talking to, i.e. have a clear idea of the different types of users (current and potential) of Dikalo’s products.
Conclusion
To sum up, I was happy to participate and to learn more about Dikalo. I must admit that I am not a user, technical problems with Mbuntu got the better of me. Not being the type to maintain several social networks at the same time, I had to give up. I learned a lot in this Live and I felt really boosted to create a new account, and also a space for @Nyamga.
So see you soon on Dikalo.
