"In my opinion, you need to work on the graphics".
Those were the words that inspired me to share this story with the interviewer. I have never told anyone but him, my ex-fiancee and a few close friends, so now let me share this secret success story with you.
The day I took the photo of my first book cover was my introduction. Marriage is a very big deal in my Yoruba culture and it is expected that I would pay full attention to the ceremony but my mind was on my mobile phone. No, I wasn't chatting with a side chick or some other old secondary school friend but I was making money on social media while that photo was being taken.
Weddings are "social". I was making money on social media while sitting on that chair. I lived up to the claim of being successful at social media marketing... not just brick and mortar selling.
It wasn't a planned book cover, neither was it my plan to sell on social media during my introduction but a couple of events lined up that made me pay attention to my phone at that uncommon ceremony such that no other photo could tell the story of a "social media marketing success" better.
The crazy thing is that I didn't tell that particular story in the book because I was feeling too emotional that the marriage didn't work out but it's been over two years now so I have gotten over the emotional trauma and heartbreak.
On that day, our sports betting website was just restored immediately after I got to Osogbo with my family. It was almost three weeks after we were yanked off for no good reason. Our website (we didn't have any brick and mortar presence, no shops, nothing), our only betting platform just read "503 service unavailable". We had contacted our technical partners about the distress they had caused our users and they couldn't get us back online. They said it was an issue with our feed providers not wanting to support our business anymore but that argument didn't hold any water to me so I demanded a quick restoration.
So the excitement our very loyal users had when they saw that we had come back online was amazing. They bombarded the site with money to place bets instantly because I was in touch with them all the way reassuring them that all will be fine and the issue would be resolved. So while I was posing to take that photo, I was also attending to some requests and monitoring some transactions right there beside my beautiful ex-bride-to-be
ON MY INTRODUCTION??? YES, I like to deliver my promises. I had promised our customers heaven on earth. We were like a family but our technical support team in Cyprus just made me look like a "BIG MOUTH NO ACTION" kind of guy for almost three weeks.
Attending to them on that chair was a testament to the fact that I deliver my promises and even while promising another human - a woman in this introduction context that I would take care of her, my promise would be empty if I didn't truly care about my customers. So what makes a successful social media marketer is his/her ability to consistently deliver promises (even in the face of adversity mixed with any form of celebration) to customers just like the guy on the cover of the photo of my book titled "HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING" did.
Read the book to learn how I did it.
Idowu Olayiwola
Cyberbuddies Ltd
