JAMES MAKAMBA

Reputation Management and Digital Strategy

James Makamba

James Makamba is telecommunications mogul and founder of Telecel Zimbabwe. An executive at Musa Capital referred him to us, after he worked with them on a business partnership.

Their Problem

In Musa’s engagement with James, they discovered that he had a lot of negative information about him online in the SERPs [Search Engine Results Pages]. Since this is a challenged they had faced before and Frontline had helped them with it, they recommended that James contact us to assist him with his reputation.

In our project initiation meeting, James intimated that he had malicious information about him online, based on falsehoods. When we searched for James on search engines, a plethora of negative press came up in the SERPs, even before his own website. Tabloids and news outlets has taken over the “James Makamba” keyword.

His mandate was for us to help him eliminate negative search results in his SERPs and to manage his reputation.

Our Solution

We decided to tell a fresh story about James Makamba. We gave his online character a new texture by portraying him as a father, a successful businessperson, a thought leader and authority in the telecommunications space.

We developed a comprehensive brand and online strategy to manage his reputation and position him as a brand going into the future.

We created social media assets to push out negative articles.

We linked the online profile of James Makamba to the assets of his businesses, philanthropic foundations, and companies to which he is affiliated.

We generated an image gallery by restoring old photos, to tell his transformed story through imagery in Google images.

We replied to negative media allegations by publishing his side of the story on his website, pulling the media in to begin telling his story in his own words.

Within two months of engagement the search results were very positive, the media was telling the Makamba story from his perspective and he attracted a number of substantial business engagements that led to business relationships.

A number of foundations linked with international business people partnered with his foundation: IBBAMO.