MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS MEASUREMENT ACROSS PLATFORMS Issue 01

ANALYSIS REPORT OF A STUDY ON:

HOW TELECOMS IN UGANDA COMMUNICATE, ENGAGE AND THEIR MEDIA PRESENCE

BY

November 2018

Edited by Gerald Businge

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ACRONYMS	3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY	5

CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH	7

1.0 Introduction to the Study	7

1.1 Overview of telecom sector in Uganda	7

1.2 Background to the study	9

1.3 Justification for Studies	9

1.4 Expected outcomes	10

1.5 Specific objectives	10

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY	11

2.0 Study Methodological Focus	11

2.1 Scope	11

2.2 Study Design	12

2.3 Methodology	13

2. 4 Limitations of the methodology	16

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION	17

3.0 Overall communication across platforms	17

3.1Media coverage and mention of telecom companies	18

3.1.1 Coverage by newspapers	18

3.1.3 Coverage by online publications	24

3.2 Messages communication by Telecom Companies on own site	28

3.3 How Telecoms are posting on Facebook and Twitter	30

3.3.1 Posting on Facebook	31

3.3.2 How Telecom Companies posted on Twitter	35

3.4 How Telecoms are posting on YouTube	37

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS	39

4.0 Lessons from the study	39

LIST OF ACRONYMS

ABC: Audit Bureau of Circulations

AMA: Average minute audience

CEEWA: Council for Economic Empowerment for Women of Africa

CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility

DJC: Department of Journalism and Communication, Makerere University

K2:	K2 Telecom

KPI:	Key Performance Indicators

MTN: Mobile Telecommunications Network

ORG: Organizations

SIM: Subscriber Identity Module

SMS: Short Message Service

Telecoms: Telecommunications companies

TV: Television

UCC: Uganda Communications Commission

UMC: Ultimate Multimedia Consult

UNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund

UTL: Uganda Telecom

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Philimon Badagawa participated in data collection for newspapers and headed the data analysis especially with the visuals/graphics. Derrick Senyonga coordinated the entire research actively participating in data collection and data analysis process. I would like to thank the research team coordinators and the research assistants, as well as the data entry and analysis team for their diligent work in making this research possible.

Edward Tumwine greatly participated in data collection from Facebook Enid Nabumati led the collection of data from online websites as well as in data analysis of social media.

Agnes Tumuheire also participated in collecting data from online sites and newspapers as well as data analysis and sorting

Zziwa Geoffrey collected data from the Twitter handles of the telecom networks

Herman Nnyanzi collected data from the Twitter handles and Facebook accounts of the telecom networks, as well as data sorting. Brian Kisembo assisted in the collection of data from the Facebook accounts of the telecom networks

Although I have tried to break down particular roles of what the different team members did, we worked as a team from conceptualization to the final stages. I appreciate all their efforts and resilience towards the completion of this research project. In a special way I thank our Team Leader who made sure we remained focused and for editing the report. Senyonga Derrick Research and Training Manager Jane Ndibarekera Bukenya provided the necessary logistics needed to execute the project

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of how the top four telecom companies (by subscriber base) MTN Uganda, Airtel, UTL and Africell communicated during the period January – June 2018. The study analysed coverage and mention of each of the telecoms in The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde newspapers, in online publications generally, their social media presence on Facebook Twitter and YouTube, analysis on what products or services are communicated about and web performance of own (telecom) websites.

General coverage: Results show that the highest coverage and mentions of telecom companies in Uganda 44.32% was registered in online publications. Newspaper coverage followed with 39.98%, while coverage on telecom own websites stood at 15.70% (as detailed in table below).

Organization	Newspapers	Own Websites	Online Publications	TOTAL
MTN Uganda	170	123	190	483
UTL	21	1	73	95
AFRICELL Uganda	5	1	54	60
AIRTEL Uganda	163	16	81	260
TOTAL	359	141	398	898

The report finds that that MTN Uganda had the highest coverage, mentions and communication effort registered (53.79%) followed by Airtel at (28.95%). Africell had the least coverage, mentions and communication (6.68%) in newspapers, online publications and on its own website while UTL came third with (10.58%).

Sentiment: Africell accounted for (80%) of stories with negative sentiment yet it had the lowest number of stories published in newspapers. UTL had 33.33% of negative sentiment. This means fewer stories were published about them and many of the stories did not support their respective brands or business as should have been. Both MTN and Airtel had most of their stories with positive sentiment. It is thus arguable that the more a company thinks or communicates positively about its products or services, the more and positive the coverage they will likely get.

Coverage of issues (products and services): Analysis of statistics collected reveals that data (internet), across all platforms analyzed, was the most covered issue followed by Mobile Money. Voice, SMS and airtime were the least covered issues. Coverage on products was minuscule if compared to coverage of services. This shows the growing significance of data (internet) and mobile money as telecom services.

Type of coverage (online and newspapers): The research shows that MTN and Airtel had more stories in the newspapers, but with the majority of the stories being advertorials: 119 for MTN, 126 for Airtel, 3 for UTL and 1 for Africell. Only MTN and Airtel had opinion stories published about them (10 and 6 respectively). The case was different when it came to online publications.

Both on their own and other websites, less coverage was registered from advertorials and news analysis. Most of the coverage online was on news stories. Whereas there was significant number of opinions (276) and news analysis (35) on other websites, telecoms did not have any opinions or news analysis on their websites (comments on topical issues).

The study finds that telecom companies in Uganda prefer to use advertorials than editorial coverage in communicating their messages. All telecom companies are not publishing as often on their website about their products and services, neither are the websites updated as to the current product and service offers and business of the company in general.

There were no feature stories (detailed people based narratives or expositions of issues in the telecom sector) in newspaper coverage as well as letters to the editor about telecoms. Ugandans seem to be left to understand this telecom sector only through advertising and promotional messages from telecoms (as opposed to media houses following up telecom issues).

In regards to sourcing, we observed that the majority of the stories published online about telecom companies in Uganda were mainly sourced from technocrats (workers of telecoms). Out of 543 sources, technocrats accounted for 46.96%, 18.78% from government officials while politicians had 0.92%. 33.33% of the sources were unspecified. Like in newspapers, there was limited sourcing from members of the public (customers of telecoms) in online publications.

Posting on Social Media (Facebook & Twitter): MTN Uganda had the highest page likes, engagement metrics and had the highest number of posts on Facebook during the period studied.

We noted that MTN utilized more post types (text, photos, video, questions, quizzes) and was less guilty of the social media annoying actions that jar people on social network.

Twitter: MTN Uganda had the most posting and engagement UTL had the lowest.

Although MTN, Africell and Airtel had almost the similar number of tweets and replies during this period, MTN outperformed the two in overall engagement which was almost 5 times its number of tweets. Why you ask?

The majority of the Tweets made by all the telecoms were texts. MTN made use of video and links while Airtel accompanied most of its tweets with photos and graphics. UTL used more graphics and links. We noted that the higher the number of tweets made, the higher the chance of increased engagement with the audience. We also noted that while photos and graphics yielded more engagement on Facebook, videos and links posts (tweets) had more engagement.

YouTube: Our analysis shows a total of 136 posts were made about the four leading telecoms in Uganda on YouTube. This is from both their own and other channels. MTN had the highest number of posts (57.35%) followed by Airtel with 24.26%, Africell had 14.71% while UTL stood at 3.68%. We however noted that though MTN has the highest number of subscribers on YouTube among the telecoms and also had more than twice the number of posts than Airtel, Airtel’s posts generated more views than those about MTN. This is because Airtel used public figures, celebrities to communicate about their products and services.

CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH

1.0 Introduction to the Study

This report presents findings of a study on how telecom companies operating in Uganda communicate to members of the public across the media platforms. We carried out a study of how the top four telecom companies (by subscriber base) MTN Uganda, Airtel, UTL and Africell communicated from January 1st –June 30th 2018. We specifically analysed:

The messages they sent out (as published on their website or newspapers and online)

The coverage of their messages or brand name in print and online media

The posting on their social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook and Youtube)

The type of media used to communicate (text, photos, video, audio) and outcomes

The reach, frequency and engagement of their online messages

We analysed coverage and mention of each of the telecoms in The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde newspapers. We did not track coverage from the broadcast stations on air but did capture those that publish or post online (their websites and social media). Other than resource considerations, we wanted to capture coverage and mentions from media of record.

We also analyzed the performance of these telecom brands using their social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, how they use their own websites and the performance of content on their respective websites. We also studied their web performance in other online publications.

A comparative analysis was carried out on what products or services are communicated or reported about vis-à-vis the telecom companies mentioned or communicating on such products or services they offer i.e. Data (internet), Voice (calls), Mobile Money, Airtime and SMS.

The study was aimed at understanding how telecom companies in Uganda communicate and to generate lessons on how to improve communication practices. We also hope good communication by and on the telecom companies as well as their products and services can greatly improve service delivery and public appreciation of telecom services.

1.1 Overview of telecom sector in Uganda

The telecom industry is one of the most vibrant sectors in Uganda. Due to its financial muscle and influence in the media industry, it can only be compared to the government and the beverage industry when it comes to media coverage and communication. Most Ugandans if not all are affected by one or more telecom company daily through their internet, voice calls, sms and mobile money services. As such, there are many messages from telecom companies promoting or explaining their products, services and offers in traditional and new media platforms.

According to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the telecom industry in Uganda has grown tremendously. UCC is the regulator of the telecom sector in Uganda.

This report shows the total mobile phone subscriptions as of June 2017 were 23,608,610 (UCC).

The table below shows fixed mobile and total subscriptions for telecom services over the years (UCC report).

Mobile network operators in Uganda as per the report were; MTN Uganda, Airtel Uganda, Uganda Telecom, Africell Uganda, Smile Telecom, K2 Telecom and Vodafone Uganda.

We were interested in finding out if there is a relationship between communication (how often and engagement) and market dominance of (telecom) companies. The table below illustrates the market share of each of the major mobile network operators in the country, as of June 2018

Rank	Name of Operator	Millions of Customers	Market Share (%)
1	MTN Uganda	11.0	47.8
2	Airtel Uganda	7.5	32.6
3	Uganda Telecom	2.0	8.7
4	Africell Uganda	1.0	4.3
5	Others	1.5	6.6
Total	23.0	100.00

According to the statistics from UCC, MTN Uganda takes the lions’ share of Uganda’s telecom market at 48% with over 11 million customers, having switched off more than 2million SIM cards that had not registered as per UCC regulation of 2017. Airtel Uganda is the second “power-house” as the leading market follower, with 32.6% of mobile subscribers on their network.

It is because of the significant contribution of telecoms in the daily communication of Ugandans that we decided to study how the leading telecom companies communicate and how they are reported about by leading newspapers and online publications.

1.2 Background to the study

Ultimate Multimedia Consult (UMC) started an initiative in 2018 to research and produce reports titled Media and Communications Measurement across the Platforms: We are researching on different brands and public issues with a focus on how organizations communicate and are covered in the media; and measuring engagement and impact or outcomes of messages in print media and online media (including social media).

UMC is a leading multimedia journalism and communications firm providing value added news, information and knowledge products and services, communications, research, media monitoring, evaluation, video recording and documentation, multimedia editorial services, website design and hosting as well as multimedia training and optimization services. UMC is designed and intends to provide efficient, effective and quality media communication & research services that best meet the need to communicate and achieve results in traditional & new media platforms.

The Studies: We intend to study comparative communications efforts by different organizations, media coverage and engagement across all media platforms so as to better inform theory and practice of communications and media engagement (build on the body of knowledge). We also intend to study the media coverage and online conversations on public interest issues like health, education, agriculture, good governance, economic empowerment etc.

1.3 Justification for Studies

Many organisations are finding their feet undertaking communications online, in traditional media and especially engaging targets to achieve results (outcomes) or impact. Though there are many suggested tactics, strategies and practices for communication in both traditional and new media platforms, there is limited concrete research on how organizations are communicating today, what is working well today for whom and in what circumstances.

UMC has since 2010 developed and undertaken media monitoring and impact assessment of several projects and media campaigns. We have realized both the public and organizations lack comprehensive data and figures regarding how organizations communicate, key issues to attend to and how the media portrays or covers the different sectors/organizations in the country and especially how to engage on social media platforms as well as measure outcomes or impact.

1.4 Expected outcomes

This communications monitoring research effort is expected to lead to the availability of knowledge which will help in better decision making and formulation of policies relating to communications and influencing people. We plan to study and produce reports quarterly.

In addition to presenting the comparative metrics, the research reports will provide tips/recommendations on how organisations can improve on their media presence, engagement and communications impact or outcomes in line with current best practices. It will also help the industry access facts and information on how issues/organizations are being covered in the media. This analysis will also help media houses to understand which issues they cover and how they are covered and whether they are in-tune with ongoing conversations in digital platforms.

1.5 Specific objectives

We believe it is crucial to carry out media monitoring and evaluation for comparative organizational communications efforts per sector/issue and media coverage in order to:

To help organisations understand the outcomes, impact, reach of their communications efforts as well as frequency of their media coverage and mentions.

To listen to and measure conversations people are having about particular organizations, brands, or issues of public interest e.g. education, agriculture, health, democracy, etc

Through analyzing these conversations, help companies/organizations identify issues, serve customers, handle crises, identify comparators and potential partnerships

Understand more about consumer sentiments on specific messages and generally

Present the current best practices and tactics for communicating and engaging within tradition and new media platforms in order to build on the body of knowledge.

Generate a report to be discussed in a Communicating Effectively Today workshop

To inform UMC multimedia journalism and communication training and UMC services with current industry practices and gaps in media and communication.

Media coverage in this report is used to mean articles or brand mentioning appearing in newspapers, online publications about a particular organization or issue of study.

We are hoping that you as an organization, journalist, trainer or communications practitioner will find this report and others to come in future series useful guides and reality checks for you message development, planning, communication strategies and measurement/ assessment.

Note that while this study is intended to contribute to knowledge generation and sharing in the academic sense, we have taken deliberate efforts to vary research methodologies and presentation of findings in a reporting format we think best suited for your quick reading and comprehension. Your feedback and advice on how to improve future studies is most welcome.

Also, for purposes of this report, telecom, telecommunications and mobile network operators are taken to be the same, and are as such used interchangeably.

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.0 Study Methodological Focus

In deciding the media monitoring and measurement methodologies, UMC usually considers the overall goals of the monitoring, the target audience for the results, what media are to be measured, which parts of the media output are to be monitored, what content will be monitored and for what purpose as well what detail of media output or content will be measured/ analysed.

For this particular study, we reviewed communications made by each of the four telecoms and monitored their coverage by journalistic publications as well as mentions each got in the four newspapers and online publications in the period between January 1st to June 30th 2018.

2.1 Scope

The study was carried out on communications made by and on the four leading telecom companies MTN Uganda, Airtel, Africell and UTL between January 1st to June 30th 2018. The telecom companies were selected as the leading based on industry data from UCC.

The newspapers selected for media monitoring analysis of covering telecom companies (The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde) were picked based on industry considerations of the four leading journalistic newspapers in Uganda.

The time period of six months was arrived at as adequate to measure performance in message communications by and on selected telecoms. Such a study needed to analyse content over a long period of time where adequate coverage has been generated but not too long given the enormity of publications online and offline as well as social media networks being considered for analysis.

The issues the study aimed to establish and the research questions are specified in below.

No.	Issue studied	Key research questions/considerations
1	The media coverage of the messages sent out by each of the four telecoms or brand name mention in The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde newspapers of Uganda, as well as in online publications.	How many of the messages sent out by each of the telecoms were reported on? Which newspaper or online publication published the message? How many times were each of the four telecoms mentioned or covered in newspapers and online publications? What type of mention or coverage was it i.e. news story, feature story, opinion, letter to editor, advertisement/supplement? How much space did the telecom brand have in the coverage? How well did the stories meet basic journalistic standards/ principles? Gender of reporters, sources?
2	The number of messages sent out by each of the four telecom companies i.e. MTN Uganda, Airtel, Africell and UTL on their respective websites	How many deliberate messages were prepared and published by each of the telecoms? How were the messages delivered? How often were messages prepared and shared? How well were such messages prepared? What media were used to deliver messages by each telecom?
3	The number and type of posts on their respective social media accounts on Twitter, and Facebook as well as The reach and engagement of online messages that each of MTN Uganda, Airtel, Africell and UTL published on Facebook & Twitter	How many posts did each of MTN Uganda, Airtel, Africell and UTL make on their respective Facebook pages and Twitter accounts? What type of posts did they make i.e text, photos (images), video, links? How well did the posts follow recommended practices? How many like, shares and comments were generated by posts made by each of the telecoms on Facebook? How many likes, retweets and comments were generated by posts made by each of the telecoms on Twitter? What was the level or reach and engagement?
4	Use of YouTube to reach out to the global audience	Did MTN Uganda, Airtel, UTL or Africel Africell publish videos during this period? How many videos were published by the respective telecom company? How many of the videos were by self (telecom) and by others? How many subscribers, views or comments were generated? Which other channels covered or mentioned the telecoms?
5	General communication level and effectiveness (discussion)	What is the overall level of communication frequency and effectiveness over the study period? Is frequency and effectiveness of communications related to business strength in the telecom industry?

Table 3: The issues that were measured and analysed by this study

These issues were handled using different quantitative and qualitative methods and based on different indicators as specified further below.

2.2 Study Design

This being a multi-faceted study, we utilized different methods to measure different aspects. The study employed quantitative and qualitative components. The quantitative component focused on the number of times and or space allocated to the telecom brand or service/product, direct and indirect messages sent out (articles, press releases published or sent out) and the tone of coverage. Components of the qualitative monitoring included message fidelity, sentiment, quoting, verification, completeness, among others as details in the methods later below.

We deployed three teams, one to study newspaper coverage and mentions, another handled online coverage and mentions, while the third reviewed communications made by each of the four telecoms on their websites, in newspapers and other online publications including on Twitter, youtube and Facebook. All researchers who participated in this study are multimedia journalists and communication practitioners with additional training in research and media monitoring. The teams held several meetings to review and refine the tools and indicators.

We developed research tools (guides) for each of the issues with codes and measures for the different indicators. The team members discussed extensively the tools, indicators and cross referenced with each other and the study leader throughout the assignment period. The tools and indicators together with results are appended to this study report.

2.3 Methodology

The study was mainly based on content analysis to measure elements of media output that can be measured and counted. This helped us to bring out how the selected telecom companies were reported about or mentioned in selected newspapers, how they posted on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, how many messages either telecom company produced and sent out, as well as coverage and mentions across the web/online. Coverage online and website performance was measured using the same online analytics tools for each issue and respective telecom company.

We came up with a media log -a primary tool to capture the media coverage and or mentions. It contains Date; Media Outlet; type of coverage; Headline?; Quality of Coverage (low, medium, high) link(where applicable), among others. We deployed enough media monitors to be able to monitor all aspects and fill results accordingly on the code sheet.

We qualified content analysis by assessing whether the coverage or mentions were/are favourable or unfavourable to either telecom(s), disaggregated by type of serve e.g. data, voice, airtime, sms, mobile money or space allocated and placement. Although these measures may also be quantified, they are essentially qualitative judgments.

Aware of limitations of this methodology to bring out important aspects of coverage like fulfillment of journalistic reporting standards, tone/sentiment among others, we applied the following other methods of media monitoring and communication measurement.

Using our many years of experience as a firm that aggregates information gathered by traditional and social media content providers, we used different software and tools to compile and analyze that information – and refine it by human analysts. The resulting media and communication intelligence was synthesized further to establish the following:

Prominence: The attention a story on the different telecom companies got in the media (traditional or online). We measured using a number of factors that measure the quantity and quality of media coverage, including type of media, extent (of coverage), share of voice, story size or length, placement, story treatment, use of visuals, type of coverage, etc.

Media type – We had to specify which of the four newspapers or website has produced the story or carried a mention about any of the four telecom companies.

Share of voice –We analysed the share of media attention in the total coverage of a particular telecom company or its service(s) or product(s) got. This information contributes to competitive intelligence analysis, and ultimately justification of the message packaging.

Use of visuals – We captured information on the content and placement of such visuals as photographs, images, graphics

Type of coverage or Mention– We captured the context in which an item is presented in the media i.e. news, opinion/commentary, feature story, letter to the editor, advert, advertorial.

Tone or sentiment We measured how the telecoms are portrayed in the media. Tone is normally categorized as positive, neutral or negative (filtered by human analysts for newspapers and online publications while Facebook and Twitter were automated capture).

Message fidelity was used to derive information on how well the message conveyed by the newspapers or other media matched the message or messages the telecoms wanted to communicate or support their stand on an issue.

Content and nature of quotes – an amalgamation of what was said/printed in the media, who was quoted in the story, including the quotes themselves as well as the source – media, organizational spokesperson, and/or third party, direct or paraphrase.

Outcomes/Impact We measured how prominence is amplified by tone and/or message fidelity. For example, a positive front page story – with an accompanying large flattering photo and multiple spokesperson and third-party quotes delivering the desired messages – in a daily newspaper reaching an audience that matches that of telecoms could be judged to have a high impact. While impact evaluation processes for social media are ever-evolving, one such measurement revolves around engagement (likes, shares, comments, mentions etc)

Engagement – We measured the nature and extent of audience engagement through two-way conversations, the sharing of information, and other interactions such as subscribership. Included in this measurement were such considerations as reach and tone delivered by blog posts and comments, linkbacks, tweets, and retweets, Facebook shares etc.

We established the Demographics – of the authors where possible e.g. gender of reporters and age of those a particular company engages with on Facebook or Twitter.

We used Reach analysis to get the number of audience members who potentially receive a message. Most reach measures use circulation/audience share figures or impressions for online.

Frequency was used to measures the number of times (within a specific period) an audience potentially receives a particular message (for messages telecoms sent out or different reports or mentions of particular product or service of telecom companies)

Impressions We tallied the total number of times the potential audience (including duplications) was exposed to a message within a specific period (online). This is calculated by multiplying the number of people who potentially received it (reach) by the number of times (frequency) they potentially were exposed to it. In visual media, impressions can also be called opportunities to see. The use of the word “potential” is key as this type of measurement deals only with those who might have seen something – not with those who actually saw it, understood it, or acted upon it.

Print circulation – We established the total number of copies of a publication available to subscribers as well as via newsstands, vending machines, and other delivery systems.

Circulation measurement – Got the print circulation figures provided by such organizations as the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and media houses themselves.

Profile and search terms: We used a variety of tools to track keywords related to the four telecom companies and track digital mentions.

Automated alerts: we set up an automated alert system to receive email and sms updates about breaking news and key issues being reported on either of the telecom companies.

For analysis of the websites of particular telecom companies. We looked at

Page views the count of the number of times a page was viewed.

Traffic sources – how visitors get to a site or page on a site. They may arrive directly or through a referring site or search engine.

Unique visits adding up the number of individual people who visited a site within a specified period of time used for reporting purposes.

New visitors – we captured the number of unique visitors who access any page on a site – via a web browser – for the first time.

Repeat visitors – the number of unique visitors who make two or more visits to a site.

Return visitors – the number of unique visitors who return to a site after the initial visit.

Visit duration – the length of time visitors spend on a page or a site.

Conversation reach – the number of unique visitors who took part in a conversation.

Bounce rates – We captured statistics on those visitors who remain on a site for five seconds or less or those who visit only one page of a site

We also additionally looked at

Number of sources as an indicator of journalistic professionalism. We were looking for distribution and balance of sources to explore potential of bias.

Gender of sources to establish potential differences in reporting on a particular telecom company or particular service, or product of telecom companies based on gender.

Geographical distribution of stories to identify any significant variations.

Some methods were applied together to reach at the particular findings and interpretations as presented and discussed in the findings.

2. 4 Limitations of the methodology

As already stated, the study focused on what messages telecom companies produced and sent out, what was reported, who was mentioned in different types of stories, as well as the posting on telecom Twitter and Facebook accounts of respective telecom companies. As such we did not capture the uptake and understanding of such messages in traditional media and online publications as elements captured were at the channel side as opposed to receiver. Even on social media, we cannot say to have exactly measured understanding of the receivers as comment, shares or likes are not necessarily an indicator or understanding or uptake of services, products or what is recommended within a particular message. That kind of audience or public /customer understanding and appreciation can only be established by a survey based study or a sociological study following adoption of recommended practices or products over time.

But this should in no way negate the importance and validity of the results of this study. The methodologies were applied uniformly for each telecom company on all aspects we measured. This means the results present the true comparative picture of what was measured.

Also, most organisations’ communication efforts are focused on sender and medium level (as opposed to receiver) which we have thoroughly studied and analysed. It is this professional understanding that has informed our discussions and recommendations for achieving better communication effectiveness by individual practitioners, organisations and media publishers.

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION

3.0 Overall communication across platforms

We are presenting the findings based on the six issues of analysis that we specified at the beginning of chapter two. While we have commented on some, we expect that you will be informed and make your own interpretations about the statistics of message communication by telecoms, coverage by media and posting on social media by the respective telecom companies.

In general, MTN Uganda had the highest coverage, mentions and communication effort registered (53.79%) during the first half of 2018 (January to June) followed by Airtel at 28.95%.

Africell had the least coverage, mentions and communication (6.68%) in newspapers, online publications and on its own website while UTL came third with (10.58%).

The graph below shows coverage and mentions of respective telecom companies by newspapers, online publications and Telecom Company own (sites).

We noted that the highest coverage and mentions (44.32%) of telecoms in Uganda was on online publications. Newspaper coverage followed at (39.98%) while telecom own sites was (15.70%).

Airtel registered a higher coverage in the newspapers than MTN, Africell and UTL while MTN, Africell and UTL had a higher coverage online. We see (62.%) of issues covered on Airtel were registered in the newspapers while online coverage stood at (31.15%).

The following table below shows comparative coverage and mentions of respective telecom companies by newspapers, online publications and Telecom Company own (sites).

Organisation	Newspapers	Own Sites	Online	TOTAL
MTN	170	123	190	483
UTL	21	1	73	95
AFRICELL	5	1	54	60
AIRTEL	163	16	81	260
TOTAL	359	141	398	898

MTN registered the highest coverage on online sites (39.34%) compared to newspaper coverage which was at 35.20%.

3.1Media coverage and mention of telecom companies

We tracked how the four leading newspapers as well as online publications covered the top four telecom companies over the six month period (January to June 2018). Because of difference in media type, we handled newspapers separately from online publications.

3.1.1 Coverage by newspapers

A total of 359 stories were published by The New Vision, Daily Monitor, The Observer and Bukedde newspapers on issues about telecommunication companies in Uganda (mentioned MTN, Airtel, UTL and Africell).

We noted that majority (43.73%) of the stories were published by The New Vision newspaper. Bukedde was second with 29.25%, Daily Monitor had 25.07% while The Observer published the least number of stories (1.95%) as shown in the table below.

Organisation	New Vision	Daily Monitor	Bukedde	Observer	TOTAL
MTN	76	37	56	1	170
UTL	9	5	7	0	21
AFRICELL	3	2	0	0	5
AIRTEL	69	46	42	6	163
TOTAL	157	90	105	7	359

There was a noted disparity between coverage of the two top telecoms and the other two. MTN had the highest number of stories 170 closely followed by Airtel with 163 while UTL was third with 21 while Africell had 5 of the stories published by newspapers.

We further analysed the coverage for pertinent issues as follows:

Sentiment: The majority (65%) of the total stories published by newspapers on issues about telecommunication companies in Uganda had positive sentiment. Only 12% were negative while 23% had neutral sentiment as shown in the following graph.

We noted that 80% of the total stories on Africell had negative sentiment while 33.33% of the total stories published on UTL had negative sentiment. Yet the two telecoms had the lowest number of stories published. This means they published fewer stories and many of the stories did not support their respective brands or business as should have been.

Most of the stories on MTN and Airtel had positive sentiment as shown in the graph above. It is thus arguable that the more a company thinks or communicates positively about its products or services or products, the more and positive the coverage they will likely get in the media (newspapers). In a country where many organizations complain about negative press, it might be more an issue of organisations not presenting many stories with positive sentiment to the media.

Source Gender: Journalist/authors used more male sources (24.94%) while female sources were at 9.61%. The majority of stories (65.45%) did not specify (sex of) sources. Positions/titles only, official statements or anonymous sources were mostly used. As part of efforts to engender the media coverage, it is encouraged to work towards interviewing as many women as men. The Table below shows gender of sources in stories published by newspapers on issues about telecommunication companies from January to June 2018.

Organisation	Male	Female	Other
MTN	51	16	113
UTL	13	9	3
AFRICELL	2	1	2
AIRTEL	30	12	134
TOTAL	96	37	252

Source Category: We captured what categories of people are usually quoted in stories about telecoms as published by newspapers. We tallied based on politicians, government officials, technocrats, customers and others. Stories from technocrats were 20.61%, 17.58% from government officials while politicians 4.67%. Sources from others stood at 57.14% of the total stories captured as shown below.

Organisation	Politicians	Technocrats	Others	Govt
MTN	6	49	73	28
UTL	3	5	9	6
AFRICELL	1	3	1	1
AIRTEL	7	18	125	29
TOTAL	17	75	208	64

We noted that stories on Airtel had more sources from government officials (45.31%) than stories on MTN, Africell and UTL. MTN followed with 43.75%.

MTN had the highest number of stories with sources from technocrats (workers in the company) while Airtel had more stories with sources from politicians.

Issues covered: The study results show issues on data were covered more in newspapers with 32.71%. Mobile money followed with 18.23% while those on cooperate social responsibility were in the third position with 15.41% as seen in the table below.

Organisation	Data	Voice	Mobile Money	SMS	Airtime	Equipment	CSR	Admin	Others
MTN	78	12	48	0	31	28	54	23	0
UTL	6	2	4	0	5	0	0	5	5
AFRICELL	0	0	1	0	1	2	0	3	0
AIRTEL	90	9	44	0	29	15	28	15	4
TOTAL	174	23	97	0	66	45	82	46	9

Issues on SMS had 0% coverage in newspapers during this period under review while voice calls followed in the second position with the least coverage of 4.32% out of the total stories. This shows the growing significance of data (internet) and mobile money as telecom services

Regional coverage: The majority (80.22%) of the stories on telecoms related issues were national and not targeting a specific region. We however noted that coverage on central region stood at 11.14%, Northern had 5.85% while Western and Eastern region stood at (1.67%) and (0.28%) respectively.

The following graph shows coverage by region of stories published by the newspapers about the telecommunication companies during the period Jan-June 2018.

Gender of authors: We noted that 74 of the stories were authored by males while 14 were authored by females. The majority of the stories 271 did not specify sex of the author(s) as shown in the graph below. This is because most of the stories on telecoms are advertorials and authors (paid) are usually not specified.

Share of Voice: The majority of the stories published by newspapers on telecoms had a high share of voice (dedicated considerable space to issues relating to telecoms). Remember the majority of the stories were advertorials. The table below shows share of voice recorded for stories for each telecom as published by newspapers

Organisation	High	Medium	Low
MTN	129	28	13
UTL	14	4	3
AFRICELL	5	0	0
AIRTEL	138	14	11
TOTAL	286	46	27

Africell had a 100% high share of voice but had only five stories. Out of the total number of stories published on particular brands in newspapers, stories with high share of voice were 84% for stories on Airtel, MTN 75% while UTL 67%. This shows telecom companies get favourable coverage of their issues as published by the newspapers because they pay for most such articles.

Type of Coverage: While MTN and Airtel had more stories, the majority of the stories were advertorials: 119 for MTN, 126 for Airtel, 3 for UTL and 1 for Africell. Only MTN and Airtel had opinion stories published about them (10 and 6 respectively).

It was surprising that there were few editorial stories (news and news analysis) as shown in table below given the importance of telecom products and services in the lives of most Ugandans.

Organisation	P.R	Advertorial	Other	Opinion	News	News analysis
MTN	1	119	13	10	36	9
UTL	0	3	0	0	17	1
AFRICELL	0	1	0	0	4	0
AIRTEL	1	126	6	6	25	3
TOTAL	2	249	19	16	82	13

The absence of feature stories (detailed people based narratives or expositions of issues in the telecom sector) as well as letters to the editor about telecom companies speaks volumes. Ugandans seem to be left to understand this telecom sector only through advertising and promotional messages from telecoms (as opposed to media houses following up telecom issues).

Message Fidelity: Most of the stories had high message fidelity. While this is usually an indicator of good journalism coverage of your (organization) brand or issues, most of the stories on telecoms were advertorials. There were hardly any stories with low fidelity with only 9 out of 359 stories and mentions having low message fidelity. Airtel had a 100% high message fidelity followed by UTL whose messages were easily understood.

The graph below shows the level of message fidelity of stories about telecom companies in newspapers as published between January and June 2018.

Nature of Quotes: Airtel had the biggest number of stories without quotations followed by MTN. All Africell stories had a quote.

Organisation	Direct	Indirect	No quotation
MTN	52	11	107
UTL	12	3	6
AFRICELL	3	2	0
AIRTEL	18	13	132
TOTAL	85	29	245

Table 11: The nature of quotes used in the stories published by the newspapers on telecommunication companies during the period Jan-June 2018.

While quoting in stories is a key journalistic tenet as it shows different viewpoints from all concerned or affected by the story are being reflected, the majority of the stories published were paid for stories and as such their quoting did not necessarily indicate better journalism.

The majority of stories had visuals (photos and graphics) as is a major best practice for messages that we want members of the public to easily comprehend or get interested in the stories (messages) they communicate. Africell had all its stories with visuals. Use of Visuals:

Organisation	Photo	Graphic	None
MTN	138	71	15
UTL	15	4	2
AFRICELL	4	2	0
AIRTEL	111	59	17
TOTAL	268	136	34

3.1.3 Coverage by online publications

Using different industry standard tools, we studied how the telecom brands performed and where they were mentioned in online publications (all websites excluding social networks).

A total of 398 stories about telecommunication companies of Uganda were published online between January and June 2018. We noted that majority (47.74%) of the stories were about MTN followed by Airtel with 20.35% as the chart below shows:

We further analyzed the stories published to establish how and if they were favourable to the brands and how publishers handled the stories.

Sentiment: The majority of the stories had positive sentiment as seen below. MTN had the highest number (42.58%) of stories with negative sentiment among the telecom companies.

B. Source Gender: The majority of the stories published online about telecom companies of Uganda had 345 male sources and 114 female sources.

16.24% Others 20.80% Female s 62.96% Male

The table below shows source gender for stories on respective telecoms by online publications

Organization	Male	Female	Other
MTN	202	37	36
AFRICELL	46	41	6
UTL	44	25	23
AIRTEL	53	11	24
TOTAL	345	114	89

We noted better and more elaborate sourcing in online publications than in newspapers. However, it should be noted that all newspapers also publish online.

C. Source Categories: We noted that majority of the stories published online about telecom companies in Uganda were mainly sourced from technocrats (workers of telecoms). Out of 543 sources, technocrats accounted for 46.96%, 18.78% from government officials while politicians had 0.92%. We noted 33.33% of the sources were unspecified. Like in newspapers, there was limited sourcing from members of the public (customers of telecom companies).

D. Issues covered: The majority of the stories were on administrative issues of telecoms followed by data, corporate social responsibility and mobile money as shown in the table below.

Organisation	Data	Voice	MM	TAX	Airtime	Equipment	CSR	Admin	Other
MTN	19	26	29	15	1	17	14	60	23
AFRICELL	12	0	0	2	2	7	1	30	2
UTL	19	0	2	2	3	5	0	47	3
AIRTEL	11	1	15	0	11	10	37	11	0
TOTAL	61	27	46	19	17	39	52	148	28

E. Regional coverage: We noted that majority of the stories (322) concentrated on the central part of Uganda. Eastern region was second with 15 stories, Western with 14 while Northern had 11.

Organisation	Central	Western	Eastern	Northern	Other
MTN	174	11	10	5	0
AFRICELL	52	0	0	1	1
UTL	70	1	1	0	1
AIRTEL	26	2	4	5	0
TOTAL	322	14	15	11	2

F. Gender of Authors: Like in the coverage of newspapers, the majority of the stories were authored by males 233 compared to 51 for females.

Organisation	High	Medium	Low
MTN	134	55	2
AFRICELL	54	0	0
UTL	43	28	02
AIRTEL	55	14	12
TOTAL	286	97	16
Share of Voice	H. Message fidelity

Organisation	High	Medium	Low
MTN	129	36	25
AFRICELL	54	0	0
UTL	47	4	22
AIRTEL	35	24	22
TOTAL	265	64	69

I. Story type: Unlike in newspapers where majority of stories were advertorials, the majority of the stories online were opinions, news stories and features as shown in the table below.

Organisation	Press release	Advertorial	Opinion	Feature	News Story	News Analysis
MTN	32	2	156	88	90	12
AFRICELL	0	0	48	1	53	0
UTL	0	1	62	13	44	16
AIRTEL	0	4	1	2	67	7
TOTAL	32	7	267	104	254	35

MTN outperformed other brands in all sections save for news analysis. Most of the stories published during this period for all the brands were news stories. Only MTN had its press releases run by online publications (beyond their website).

J. Nature of Quotes: The majority (265) of the stories published online about the four telecom companies had direct quotes, indicating better quoting than in stories published in newspapers.

Although MTN Uganda had the highest number of stories with quotes, it also had the highest number of stories without quotes.

Use of Visuals: The majority (347) of the stories had photos. Only two had video while 13 had graphics. It is surprising that newspapers had more graphics than online publications, given online is well suited for a variety of interactive graphics to present content.

Organisation	Image	Video	Graphic	Most of the brand stories were significantly accompanied with visuals. Only some of UTL stories were published with or as video. No visual
MTN	168	22
AFRICELL	45	0	4	7
UTL	63	2	3	5
AIRTEL	71	0	6	4
TOTAL	347	2	13	38

3.2 Messages communication by Telecom Companies on own site

Each of the four telecom companies owns a website (www.mtn.co.ug, www.africell.ug, www.airtel.co.ug and www.utl.co.ug ). While they all had messages that we found in newspapers, online publications and telecom company own sites, the number and frequency of deliberate communication of messages by the respective telecom companies was different.

Our review found that MTN Uganda published 123 messages on their website between January 1st and June 20th 2018. Airtel published only 16 while Africell and UTL published only one message each in the same period. Organisations are expected (and encouraged) to publish often and as many messages they would want people to know about the company on their own website

Organization	Positive	Negative	Neutral	TOTAL
MTN	7	0	116	123
AIRTEL	2	0	14	16
AFRICELL	0	0	1	1
UTL	0	0	1	1
TOTAL	9	0	132	141
A website is the central point of communication where an organization has complete control on the message packaging, design (delivery) and how often, in addition to being more searchable.

Organization	Number of posts
MTN	123
AIRTEL	16
AFRICELL	1
UTL	1
TOTAL	141

Table showing Number of messages	Table showing Sentiment of stories published by respective telecoms	respective telecom companies

A. Alexa ranking of telecom company websites: MTN Uganda still performed the best on alexa.com ranking which is based on several algorithms of content and design.

Issues communicated: We also analyzed which services and products of the telecom companies each communicated about most on their websites. We found that data (internet) had more messages (20) on telecom websites, followed by airtime (15) and voice (9)/ The details are in the follwoing table.

ORGANISATION	Data	Voice	Mobile Money	SMS	Airtime	Equip	CSR	Admin	Other
MTN	16	6	5	1	14	0	5	4	92
AIRTEL	4	3	2	0	1	4	0	2	2
AFRICELL	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
UTL	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
TOTAL	20	9	7	1	15	6	5	6	94

Sentiment: The majority of messages/ stories telecoms published on their own sites had neutral sentiment, with only MTN having seven (07) with positive sentiment. It would be expected that an organization would package its messages to promote its products and services as much (convincingly) as possible on its own website.

C. Gender of Authors: Only three (03) of the stories published on the websites of telecom companies were by females while 47 were by males. Authors of 91 stories were not specified.

D. Share of Voice: The majority (136) of the 143 stories had a high share of voice, compared with eight that had medium and only one with low. This is expected in articles on own sites.

E. Type of message coverage: No analyses or opinions were published by any of the telecoms during the reviewed period. There were only 46 news stories, and six press releases.

ORGANISATION	Press Release	Advertorial	Other	Opinion	News	News Analysis
MTN	6	1	80	0	46	0
AIRTEL	1	0	12	0	2	0
AFRICELL	0	0	1	0	0	0
UTL	0	0	1	0	0	0
TOTAL	7	1	94	0	48	0

F. Message fidelity: We noted that almost all the stories had high message fidelity apart from one story that had low message fidelity. This is expected for content done by self on own website

ORGANISATION	High	Medium	Low
MTN	122	0	1
AIRTEL	16	0	0
AFRICELL	1	0	0
UTL	1	0	0
TOTAL	140	0	1

G. Nature of quotes: The majority of the stories had no quotes.

H. Use of visuals: Most of the stories published on the telecommunication websites had graphics. MTN is the only brand that used videos on their website.

In overall analysis, all telecom companies are not publishing as often on their website about their products and services, neither are the websites updated as to the current product and service offers and business of the company in general.

3.3 How Telecoms are posting on Facebook and Twitter

Each of the four telecom companies has Facebook page and Twitter account. In addition to how telecoms post content on Facebook and Twitter, we also capture the level of reach and engagement of their respective posts.

Engagement measures the connections built by a brand and its audience. A quick glance at an organization’s engagement rate gives an insight as to whether communication efforts are successful or not.

There are different engagements received by posts and these carry different meaning. For example whereas a like is great, a retweet or comment shows a lot more commitment from your audience members. While likes are a sign that your customers appreciate what you have to say, a retweet or share shows that your followers really value your input and willing to spread it.

3.3.1 Posting on Facebook

ORG	Total Page Likes	Followers	Total Number of posts	Comment	Share	Views	TOTAL engagement
MTN	1,143,014	1,148,813	1,147	86,019	17,406	1,776,035	1,879,460
Airtel	898,568	897,213	539	20,774	2,900	51,343	75,556
Africell	409,634	409,240	521	10,059	2,536	133,544	146,139
UTL	279,225	278,937	403	1,369	201	00	1,570
TOTAL	2,730,441	2,734,203	2,610	118,221	23,043	1,960,922	2,102,725
Note: These Facebook statistics in table above were captured last on October 11, 2018.

MTN Uganda had the highest page likes, engagement metrics and had the highest number of posts on Facebook during the period studied

We noted that MTN utilized more post types (text, photos, video, questions, quizzes) and was less guilty of the social media annoying actions that jar people on social networks (see following graphic).

The graph below shows the number of times posts made by the different telecommunication companies on their Facebook pages were shared during the six months (January to June 2018).

As can be seen above, MTN performed exponentially better than other telecom companies in the engagement type of shares on Facebook.

The following graph shows the number of Comments generated out of the posts made by the different telecommunication companies on their Facebook pages during the six months studied.

The graph below shows the number of Views generated out of posts made by the different telecommunication companies on their Facebook pages between January and June 2018.

We noted that majority of the engagements on MTN posts were comments (86,019) followed by shares (17,406), Although Airtel had more videos (35) than Africell (20), Africell had more engagement 133,544 to Airtel’s 51,343.

What is evident from available data is that MTN took the lead with the highest number of posts which also saw it lead in the engagement category. UTL had the least number of posts and engagements but also did not publish even a single video. Visuals including video, photos and graphics are encouraged in posts as the biggest drivers of engagement of posts on Facebook.

Reactions on Facebook

Organisation	MTN registered more reactions on the posts made during the six months under review compared to Africell, Airtel and UTL. Reactions on MTN posts accounted for 86% of the total reactions telecoms got from January to June 2018. Total reactions
MTN	2,909,029
Africell	200,100
Airtel	255,426
UTL	9,229
TOTAL	3,308,098

Analysis of engagement/reaction vs posting frequency Organization	Average posts per day
MTN Uganda	6.4
Airtel	3.0
Africell	2.9
UTL	2.2

The table above shows the average posts per day over the 6 month period. We noted that the high engagement rate MTN received over the period is because of its high posting averaging about 6 posts a day. Is it about posting too much?

All brands at least perform better than the infamous, “two posts a day” rule for Facebook marketing. Beyond the numbers, we also looked on other factors, such as how type of media used is related to level of engagement.

Post Types on Facebook

Text	Photo	Graphic	video	link
MTN	779	668	291	169	118
Africell	495	253	142	20	38
Airtel	525	377	82	35	28
UTL	361	33	350	00	37
TOTAL	2,160	1,331	865	224	221

We noted that all the four telecom companies except UTL post on Facebook more using a combination of text and photos. These brands also put in an effort in using links, videos and graphics. UTL on the other hand accompanies text with graphics. It is very important to use visuals on social media as they have been proved as a key driver of engagement.

Issues most Communicated about

The majority (753) of the posts tackled issues on data/Internet. Issues on airtime followed with (426) as seen in the table below.

data	voice	MM	Airtime	SMS
MTN	330	127	208	204	5
Africell	111	13	11	15	10
Airtel	222	35	80	29	23
UTL	90	164	114	178	89
TOTAL	753	339	413	426	127

In further understanding the issues that telecom companies posted about on Facebook, we looked Equipment related posts as many people usually posted about equipment got from telecoms.

The graph (right) shows the type of equipment covered in the posts made on the different Facebook pages of Telecommunication companies for during January to June 2018.

3.3.2 How Telecom Companies posted on Twitter

Twitter is the other social network that we crawled to find out how each of the four companies posted and what engagement was achieved.

The table below shows the number of tweets made by the different telecommunication companies on their Twitter accounts during the first half of 2018 (January to June 2018).

ORG	Following	Followers	No. of Tweets	Reply	Retweet	Favorite	Total engagement
MTN	7,698	187,000	940	2,566	11,025	36,696	50,287
UTL	811	10,300	173	52	51	241	344
AFRICELL	2,438	61,300	627	2316	6180	25866	34,362
AIRTEL	11,000	162,000	747	2457	2539	10855	15,851
TOTAL	21,947	420,600	2,421	7,391	19,795	73,658	100,844

Note: Following and Followers statistics are as of 10/18/2018

We noted that MTN had the most engagement on Twitter while UTL had the lowest. The table below shows how telecommunication companies in Uganda engaged users on their different Twitter accounts during the first-half of 2018 (Jan-Jun 2018).

Organization	Reply	Retweet	Favorite	Total engagement
MTN	2,566	11,025	36,696	50,287
UTL	52	51	241	344
AFRICELL	2,316	6,180	25,866	34,362
AIRTEL	2,457	2,539	10,855	15,851
TOTAL	7,391	19,795	73,658	100,844

Although MTN, Africell and Airtel had almost the similar number of tweets and replies during this period, MTN outperformed the two (as in Facebook) in overall engagement which was almost 5 times its number of tweets. Could this be attributed to the nature of tweets/media used?

The table below shows type of media used by telecommunication companies in Uganda to engage users on their different Twitter accounts during the first-half of 2018 (Jan-Jun 2018).

Organization	Text	Photo	Graphic	Video	Link
MTN	937	190	140	158	335
UTL	166	2	123	00	27
AFRICEL	627	476	282	12	411
AIRTEL	744	458	368	45	24
TOTAL	2,474	1,126	913	215	797

The majority of the Tweets made by all the telecoms were texts. MTN made use of video and links while Airtel accompanied its tweets with photos and graphics. UTL used more graphics and links. However what is clear is that the higher the number of tweets made, the higher the chance of increased engagement with the audience. The data above does suggest that certain media especially high quality video can make the difference in generating more engagement on Twitter. The recommended practice is however to ensure that you are using the various media types (interchangeably or complimenting one another) in the tweets you make.

We also noted that Airtel led in the usage of graphics, followed by Africell. MTN turned third while UTL had the least graphics on their posts.

Africel leads in using posts with links on Twitter followed by MTN. This is a good practice because it allows the users to get more information besides attracting them not only to end on the Twitter account but also leading them to your website.

For each of the platforms, we checked to find out which issues were most communicated. The table below shows the kind of issue communicated about by telecommunication companies.

Organization	Data	Voice	Mobile Money	Airtime	SMS
MTN	104	203	87	77	1
UTL	41	68	47	66	31
AFRICELL	158	15	9	14	8
AIRTEL	136	31	93	10	60
TOTAL	439	317	236	167	100

We noted that when it comes to equipment/gadgets, most tweets were routers and modems.

Organisation	Sim Cards	Phones	Router	Other
MTN	58	-	874	343
UTL	16	7
AFRICELL	6	5	1	169
AIRTEL	6	23	1	6
TOTAL	86	28	883	518

3.4 How Telecoms are posting on YouTube

Each of the four telecom companies has a YouTube channel. Besides how telecoms post videos on YouTube, we also capture the level of reach and engagement of their respective posts on the most popular social network.

Over all, statistics from the telecom YouTube channels show that Airtel YouTube channel has the highest number of video views totaling to 2,006,639. These were generated from 324 video uploads on the channel since the channel was created. MTN follows with 94,875 total videos views from video 264 uploads. Africell is third with 34 uploads and 198,707 video views while UTL has the lowest standing at 16 uploads and 13,545 video views as of November 04, 2018.

Our analysis shows that from January to June 2018, a total of 136 posts were made about the four leading telecoms in Uganda on YouTube. MTN had the highest number of posts (57.35%) followed by Airtel with 24.26%, Africell had 14.71% while UTL stood at 3.68%.

We however noted that though MTN has the highest number of subscribers on YouTube among the telecoms and also had more than twice the number of posts than Airtel, but Airtel’s posts generated more video views than those about MTN as seen in the table below.

Brand	Subscribers	No of videos	Own channel	Views	Comments	Likes	Unlikes
Africell	156	20	7	31,433	27	294	13
UTL	89	5	0	3,768	9	11	7
Airtel	1,960	33	26	863,323	8	61	9
MTN	3,543	78	55	371,916	153	708	48
Total	5,748	136	88	1,270,440	197	1,074	77

Airtel’s good performance is attributed to the utilization of celebrities (football stars and musicians) in communicating their video messages. The graph below shows the Number of videos published on YouTube about telecoms from January to June 2018 and how the respective telecoms posted on their own channels.

We observed that MTN and Airtel made efforts in using their own media channels to publish videos whereas UTL relied on other channels to publish content on its behalf during the period.

Further analysis of the engagement generated shows MTN performing well with the highest number of likes and comments but also unlikes. It is followed by Africell and Airtel then UTL as reflected in the graph below.

Issues most Communicated about

The majority of the posts (49) were not directly to products and services of telecoms. CSR issues (45) were largely by MTN whereas issues such as voice and SMS did not get any coverage on YouTube as seen in the table below.

Data	Voice	MM	Airtime	SMS	Equipment	Other	CSR
Card	Phones	Router
Africell	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	16	1
UTL	1	4
Airtel	5	8	6	2	3	12	3
MTN	11	23	12	1	7	17	41
TOTAL	20	-	31	18	-	2	1	10	49	45

Telecom companies can do more to post vidoes and engage their targets using the most popular medium (video) especially as posted on the leading video platform YouTube.

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

This research was aimed at studying the media coverage and measure communications outcomes of telecom companies across platforms (newspapers, online publications and social media). The underlying issues included finding out how often telecoms are covered or reported about or mentioned in newspapers and online publications, how well they are reported about in journalistic content, how often telecoms issue or post communications about their products and or services, the level of engagement generated by posts of telecoms on social media as well as how the message packaging and communication activities followed recommended best practices for online and social media posting. Below are the main issues we have noted from this study.

4.0 Lessons from the study

We confirmed that routine and better communication is related to business success. MTN Uganda which dominates the telecom market in Uganda had the best and highest frequency of communication as well as messages reach. Airtel, UTL and Africell followed respectively in all aspects including posting on own sites and own Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts. What this research didn’t establish is whether being the a better business leads for better communication efforts and coverage or whether better communication and media coverage leads to business success.

The study found that the higher the number of Facebook posts or tweets, the higher the engagement. The main goal of any communication activity should be to drive engagement (interaction with your content beyond just viewing your content).

We also noticed that photos generated more engagement on Facebook while videos and links generated more engagement on Twitter.

Telecom companies especially MTN, Africell and Aitell are doing a good job with their posting on Facebook by having different post types including text, images (photos), graphics, video and links. We however did not find use of other recommended post types like questions and quizzes. These post types can be useful for such service organisations who present several offers and may want to gauge preference or level of client satisfaction with a particular service, product or offer e.g. a particular bundle type.

Most telecom companies are hardly communicating to clients and potentials i.e. sending out news releases or posting articles on their websites, and on their social media accounts. Organisations need to publish more on their website-including engaging content that users can access or media houses can copy for publication, as well as link posts on their social media accounts back to relevant sections of their website(s).

The more the stories published about an organisation in newspapers and online media, the more positive the stories are likely to be (supporting the organisation’s communication objectives). Organisations need to undertake efforts to increase on amount of stories published about their brand to circumvent negative press and increase positive coverage.

But the study found that the telecom companies are not doing enough to prepare messages (communications) that support their business motives. For example the majority of stories published on telecom companies’ own websites were of neutral sentiment (123 of 141 total stories published).

The role of public relations officers and information officers for telecoms was not seen in media coverage online and in newspapers. There was notably meager editorial coverage and commenting on topical issues in the telecom sector.

It is not clear whether telecoms have departments or officials undertaking activities to achieve publicity and better good will of customers and other stakeholders. There was no evidence to suggest this was being done by either telecom company. The paucity of articles (messages) posted on own websites goes further to show the decline of the public relations and publicity or public information function in telecom companies.

This limited intentional output of messages however did not result in any negative coverage of any of the telecoms as would be expected of an organisation that hardly communicates about self, using mainstream media and social media platforms.

The study did not find any story online or newspapers from the four leading telecom companies investigating services or products of telecoms or their price and offer claims, not even letters to the editor. Surely some Ugandans must have concerns about telecom services from network reliability to charges. The absence of any stories questioning or interrogating or interpreting promotional offers of telecom companies is concerning.

It is thus clear most of what Ugandans know about telecom companies and their services is from advertising and promotions, with few if any news stories or investigations into the work and promotional offers of telecom companies. Yet telecom companies impact the lives of almost every Ugandan today, through their internet, calling, sms and mobile money services. You would expect that journalists and commenters would be producing news and analysis on the work of telecoms to help Ugandans make informed choices on what product, service or offer is most beneficial or valid. But this is not the case as there were only 82 news stories and 13 analysis articles of the 898 stories published about telecoms by newspapers and online publications in the six months we studied.

One wonders whether this is a practical shift from public relations and publicity to advertising and promotions. We shall need to interview and interrogate responses from telecoms and indeed other companies so we can better inform current and future training.

The obvious Telecom advertising burnout of news and editorial coverage raises questions as to whether telecom companies take media houses seriously as platforms of independent reporting and shapers of public discussions and opinion or merely as platforms for advertising and promotional messages -for them to use money to get the space to say what they (telecom) want. It would be good if media houses and journalists did more scrutiny and investigations into issues or services and products of telecoms. In the research showing most of the coverage in newspapers and online publication is advertised messages, it means whatever the telecom company says is right and must be taken as gospel truth. This impacts on quality of service by telecoms and can likely reduce on quality service delivery to limited scrutiny and pressure on telecoms.

However, it is not clear if this situation should be interpreted as telecom companies having “bought off” any possible scrutiny of their services from any media house due to their huge advertising with all media houses, or telecom companies find advertising and promotions more productive to communicate and get desired results. Or could telecoms be complacent because they have direct touch with customers having achieved high levels of subscribers that they can reach directly on phone through sms?

Could telecoms be suffering from negative impacts of advertising where journalists or media owners feel most of their issues should be ads or advertorials- and thus not deserving of editorial coverage?

Telecom companies didn’t do much in utilizing YouTube to for example post explainer videos, running image or video contents related to their services etc. Yet YouTube is biggest social network and video platform in the world.

It was noted from the study that using celebrities (musicians and sports personalities) to endorse products can help increase engagement of videos online as was demonstrated by Airtel on their YouTube channel.

We noted that better journalism practices were exhibited on online publications that in newspapers be it professional reporting and amount of public interest coverage.

There is need for better use of keywords by online publications to ensure all organisations, people, titles and issues involved in stories are included in titles, tags and within content. This will aid better search for such content when research and tracking on related issues, people or organisations is being undertaken.

We welcome your own observations and learning from this and related studies so we continue to build on knowledge necessary to improve journalism and communication practice. We also welcome those interested in partnering with us to jointly undertake similar studies. ###

Access to research tools with data for the respective issues in this research (and other researches) is available to members of UMC. You can apply or get details at:

Ultimate Multimedia Training Services

Plot 189, Ggaba Road Kampala, Uganda

Tel. +256772627676/+256785438132/+256751627676

info@ultimatemultimediaconsult.com

www.ultimatemultimediatraining.net/research

Traditional media is used here to refer to newspapers, radio and television, while new media is used to refer to online publications (websites) and social media platforms.

https://www.ucc.co.ug/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Annual-Market-Industry-Report-2016-17-FY.pdf Pg 19

Mpagi, Charles (4 June 2018). "MTN Uganda licence renewal now goes to Cabinet". The East African. Nairobi.

In establishing what communication impact is – and what it isn’t – it is important to distinguish between outcomes and impacts. From an assessment standpoint, outcomes are typically defined in terms of the shorter-term effects that a message or campaign can have (such as reaching, informing, engaging, and mobilizing target audiences), whereas impacts can be seen as the longer-term, more far-reaching changes (such as changes in individuals’ behaviors, acquisition of clients and continued use of service/product, or changes in public policy) (see Knight Foundation, 2011ii https://www.knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/publication_pdfs/Impact-a-guide-to-Evaluating_Community_Info_Projects.pdf ). Since behavior of people changes over a long period of time, it is feasible for most communication measurement efforts to capture outcomes than impact of messages, medium (media) and communication activities generally.

Meaning they engage in activities of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information following a set of principles that ensure public interest is being served. The principles or elements of journalism including truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, fairness, balance, facts and verification among others are what separate journalism from other forms of communication and make journalism indispensable in democratic societies.

Prior investigation found facebook, twitter and youtube to be the leading social media network utilised by the four telecom companies and indeed they are the most utilised online platforms by Ugandans.

We made sure indicators fulfil the principles of reliability and validity. Reliability means that the indicators had to be consistently identified by any trained monitor. As such, assigning each code would always produce the same result regardless of who is doing the monitoring. This was achieved first by selecting indicators that are objectively verifiable with pre-determined lists of codes that identify issues and level of measurement. Validity means that the selected indicators actually show what they are intended to show. We made sure indicators are selected for a clear purpose and not interpreted to show more than they actually indicate. For example, counting the number of times a telecom company was reported about does not necessarily indicate the company sent out the most or best messages.

We are not at liberty to specify the tools as what and why of these tools are part of the UMC’s business intelligence and asset considerations vis-à-vis the competition for similar services. We complimented them with human analytics

Content analysis also doesn’t capture target audience comprehension and application of messages. This particular aspect though was not a focus of this study given the scope and resource implications.

Spout Social report 2016.

Globally, YouTube is ranked the 2nd most popular website after Google, with Facebook in 3rd place.