IZEGBUWA: JOURNEY OF A SOCIAL MEDIA CASH MACHINE

Izegbuwa, biochemist turned content developer and social media guru could not do her master degree due to financial challenge. She even became more broke that spurred her to take the step that transformed her into a social media cash machine. JOSPEH DINWOKE of BROJID.COM highlights how she made the transition from lack to abundance and her success secrets.

As a little girl in secondary school, she had a burning desire – to become a medical doctor. She got admitted to study medicine at the University of Benin but as fate would have it, she could not start studying medicine. Consequently, she moved to the Adekule Ajasin University, Ondo State to study biochemistry.

After the completion of her first degree, she took a number of regular jobs ranging from Biology and Maths teacher, Personal Assistant of a Branch Manager, Business Development Executive to being a Branch Manager. She did this  until it came to a point where she bid regular jobs goodbye because according to her, “I don’t do well with 9-5s, I like flexibility, I can’t sit still, I like free reins with creativity, coming up with something new and fun, trying to reinvent myself on zero cash.”

She wanted to pursue her Masters degree on graduation, but could not due to cash deficiency. But she was unrelenting in her quest for knowledge; she improvised, “I am mostly “self” taught. I sign up for a lot of free courses online, and work religiously at it, watch videos, do my assignments, peer review, et al. I also read a lot, I follow up on a lot of people involved in my area of interest, see what they do, how they are doing it, their results and try to

Though she, like most youths, has joined the social community; her foray into social media as a source of income was not deliberate. She reveals, “I was desperately broke and I started tweeting for business.” That was her first step to social media cash generation. But that step was fruitless since she has few followers – 98.

Undeterred by her limitation, she continued in her pursuit until Providence smiled at her. “Then I “met” Blossom Nnodim online, she had about 11,000 followers at the time, I was truly impressed. I sent her a Direct Message and she agreed to tweet for me. She sent out only 5 tweets, “Meet Ized @zegbua for business plans… etc” and the feedback was crazy! I got business worth almost N800, 000 in a few weeks in 2012, it was an eye-opener.”

That was how Izegbuwa, a mother and social media guru started and has continued earning big using her social media platforms.

On becoming successful in social media, she educates, “It is not just about a few tweets; it requires managed contents and specific analytics. However, still, it’s not for a “gifted” few… If you take time to learn the ropes you can be awesome at it. Take time to learn, start small, don’t over promise, the day you lose your integrity online, it will spread like wild fire. Stick to reaching targets, dedicate time to learning about using social media for brand management and campaigns, but do not let it disturb your studies.”

From her experience, she offers marketing tips: “Before I used to do a lot of marketing myself, I would write and write and write, ask people, but now I realised word of mouth is the biggest Marketing tool; it’s cheap and very effective. Most of my new jobs are referrals from old clients. I do a good job, I ask that they please spread the word, tell someone new or give people my contacts. I network a lot, and share my cards and details.”

Quote Credit: Konnect Africa