Telecoms firms grow Facebook, Twitter followers with free credit





The four Global System of Mobile telecommunications operators in the country - Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN - are devising new ways to retain their existing customers and woo new ones.

For the four players in the telecoms industry, growing a social media following has been tied to giving out free airtime. As such, many Nigerians yearning to reach their loved ones but with no call credit have become overnight followers of these GSM firms on social network in a bid to grab the freebies on offer.

The telecoms firms ask less tasking general interest questions and request their followers to give correct answers to the quiz. For instance, Etisalat Nigeria has what it calls 'Geek Question of the Week' where a handful of followers who answer the quiz correctly work away with free credit.

On May 3, a post asking people to give the correct meaning of the acronym, SIM Card, appeared on the Facebook page of Etisalat.

It stated, "Geek Question of the Week:  What is a SIM card? The first three persons to comment with the correct answer win free airtime. Remember to share this post. The 100th person to share this post also walks away with free airtime."

In all, 765 people took part in the quiz and, on Tuesday, three winners were announced on the page and asked to post their contact details on the page.

MTN also has a Facebook quiz show it calls 'Movie Tuesday' where a winner selected at random walks away with a N750 airtime. The last time the quiz was held, 7,972 people participated.

Followers of MTN Nigeria also win free credit periodically by using the banner advert of any of the telecoms firm's package.

MTN, on its Facebook page on April 16, wrote, "We are still #OnaPulsingP and this time we want to give out 20 recharge cards to 20 lucky people. Interesting? Isn't it?

"It's pretty simple to be one of the winners; just use the picture below as your cover photo right about now, then comment "done" in the comment box. The first 20 people to do this automatically win. So what are you waiting for?"

Glo world's Facebook quiz is tagged "Fastest Fingers Tuesday'' and winners are to walk away with N1,000 recharge vouchers. There are conditions attached before participating in the quiz.

For example, followers of the network on Facebook were asked to share the post which had the Mobile Portability commercial of the network with their friends.

Apart from giving out free credit, Airtel seems to be a step ahead in terms of giving out freebies to its followers on its various social media platforms.  Followers have flocked to the GSM operator's social media networks to win i-pods.

On its Facebook page on Tuesday, a post stated, "Follow us on our Twitter page. You will stand a chance to win an iPod if you answer questions asked correctly."

An employee of Airtel, who preferred anonymity, says giving out free airtime and ipods has gone a long way in helping the firm achieve a steady growth in building a social media following.

The employee says that since the inception of the various quizzes, it has been adding a minimum of 100 Twitter followers daily.

The source said, "Nigerians love free things and the free airtime is what we have at our beck and call. The management gave out a maximum of N2,500 credit in one day and in all, we have a credit ceiling of N10,000 credit to give out to our followers in a week."

In all, MTN is the network to beat in terms of its social media following among the GSM operators in the country.

MTN has over 974, 946 followers on Facebook. It also leads the pack on Twitter as it is the first to have an account on the micro-blogging site. Its Twitter account, which it opened on August 27, 2009,  has 172, 854 followers.

Etisalat Nigeria, which opened its Twitter account, @etisalat_9ja, on May 27, 2010, has 50, 927 followers while Glo and Airtel Nigeria's handle opened on April 4, 2011, and July 25, 2011 respectively, have a little above 23,000 followers on the social service.



Punch