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South Africans create small business owners community

29 June 2016

Two young people from different cities in South Africa created a social media platform that allows entrepreneurs to engage with each other. In honour of Youth Month, Tiaan Geel who lives in Pretoria and Sam Posselt from Cape Town, explain why they believe collaboration is the key to success.

Sam Posselt, co-founder of SA Biz Chat says they use social media to create a platform for entrepreneurs to engage with each other and share challenges they deal with. (Image: Supplied)

Posselt, a 32-year-old social media coach and strategist, believes social media is the perfect educational tool. "[For example] I host a series on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest where I train people to actively use [and engage on these] platforms."

Connecting people

Posselt met Geel two years ago when they both worked in Port Elizabeth. "At the time, we worked together in the form of a client/supplier relationship and at the end of last year both relocated to different cities with our families."

In January this year they began working on the idea that would become SA Biz Chat, and launched the platform in May. SA Biz Chat is an open platform where people can share the challenges they faced as entrepreneurs and find solutions among people in similar situations.

On Thursday evenings between 19:00 and 20:00, people have a chance to engage with each other through a SA Biz Chat hosted Twitter chat. Earlier this month the community discussed the value of "influencer marketing". Participants posed questions and got answers from within the community or the hosts.

Posselt says: "As a co-founder of SA Biz Chat we use Twitter as our top educational platform during our weekly #sabizchat Twitter chats."

Their target market, she says, are entrepreneurs, business owners, chief executives and bloggers in South Africa. "We usually have a unique mix of all of the above in our weekly chats. We educate our tribe on all aspects of entrepreneurship like marketing, sales, social responsibility, finance and legal aspects."

Tiaan Geel says being consistent on social media is the key to success. (Image: Supplied)

It's about community

Geel, a business strategist, says he is the third generation of entrepreneurs in his family. He has followed in the footsteps and learnt from his father and grandfather.

Social media allows him to create brand awareness while creating an identity that builds his personal brand. "I provide entrepreneurs or my followers with content which they can use to grow their businesses and motivational quotes and sayings to inspire them on a daily basis."

Geel was motivated to create SA Biz Chat to further build on the community he has created through his own business. In an interview with We Mean Business on Biz Today on Deen TV, Geel says the platform allows entrepreneurs to engage with each other on specific issues and help to find solutions they may have overlooked.

He and Posselt often write blog posts for the SA Biz Chat website, entries that deal with the new and ever-changing business environment. Recent posts were titled "Small business owners are the real heroes" to "Business ethics are dead".

Advice

Geel says being consistent is key when marketing your brand on social media. "Publish every day or week or however often you feel your industry needs the info. But just be consistent.

"If you publish every day at noon, then stick to it.

"[Also] stick to your brand identity," he says. "Always have the golden thread throughout all your social media sites. If you make graphics green on the one, then stick to green on all of them."

South Africa.info reporter