Hiya!!!

Welcome to the final and concluding part of the ‘not so social are we’ series first published on @SOluwatobi’s website. In the first one I talked expressly about how the information we give out on social platforms comes back either to haunt us, or just make us look silly.

Today I’ll be touching on how to utilize social media for your business, whether commercial or philanthropic. The definition of social media being communication (or a conversation) enhanced by technology still stands but with a little twist.

Regardless of what we think, our consumer/audience want to talk to us as much as we want to intimate them of the products/services we offer. Times have changed; communication between a business and its target demographic has moved from being from top to bottom to being from left to right to right to left and on and on and on. When the consumer feels like a business isn’t ‘listening’ to them anymore, they unconsciously start searching for a new one. Why? Everyone wants to be acknowledged, everyone wants to be heard. The consumer wants to know you care about them, and in their minds that translates to you listening to their praise, criticisms, and catering to their concerns. In these days of the most effective form of advertising being word of mouth, it will be foolhardy to ignore a consumer.

The good thing is social media is such a great listening tool when correctly. For instance, let’s say I run a restaurant and I’ve put up your Twitter handle or Facebook page address on a board in the dining area; my staff ‘encourage’ people to drop a line there after their meal. That’s feedback and PR! Even if they didn’t like something and they write about it, by apologising to them in public you have the opportunity to use that fiasco to your advantage.

Let’s run through a few tips business owners will find useful. Get in touch with me on Twitter (@chiomachuka) if you need clarification on anything.

FACEBOOK.

v  It’s better to have a fan/business page on Facebook where people make the decision to like your page rather than the groups where you just add everyone.

v  Allow discussion boards. Drop topics that people can discuss, air their views. Sticking with my restaurant example, a topic could be, ‘roasted or chargrilled chicken? Why?

v  If you’ve got a website, place widgets linking to the social networks your business is subscribed to. It adds to the general aesthetics of your site and is a quicker way for them to check you out there as well.

v  Make it lively! Use relevant pictures, videos, and polls to spice up your page and make the consumer want to come back.

v  Most importantly, don’t use your business page for personal stuff.  Let the brand be heard, not you. So, if it doesn’t have anything to do with the business, it shouldn’t be on the page.

TWITTER

v  Keep people interested in your company. It takes some effort, but constantly using your 140 characters to pique the interest of your audience will ensure they don’t look elsewhere.

v  Post links to interesting (but relevant) articles and information. Back to the restaurant example, justify an item on your menu using research. Let your consumers see the edge they have by dinning at yours.

v  Monitor DM’s and mentions effectively, and make it a point of duty to reply as many people as you can.

v  Provide real value; invite them to ask questions, constantly remind them of your product/service, and inform them of the latest offers/deals via Twitter.

v  Document challenges, and be proud of your achievements (applies to Facebook as well).

For both Facebook and Twitter, remember our definition of social media; it is a never-ending conversation and should be used as such. Using it only as an avenue to put out links to your activities will alienate people and probably even get you reported for spam, the exact opposite of what we’d want.

General rule of thumb? Again, let’s take a few seconds to think of the immediate and future effects of the things we post online; but in this case, if the cons outweigh the pros, shelve the idea.

Related articles

• Can I post to Twitter and Facebook at the same time? (marketing.yell.com)
• The No No’s of Social Media (laurindanyintro.wordpress.com)
• Social Media Interview With Tonya Lenzing (joannajrn492.wordpress.com)

Sometime last year, my mom called to tell me I’d lost my uncle; was a terrible time for me especially since I’d seen him only a week before.  May his soul rest in peace, amen.

A friend of mine lost her dad around the same time; somehow her cousins found out before her and because she was the closest to him and the most emotional, everyone was scared of telling her. One of her ‘brilliant’ cousins wrote this on her Facebook wall; “hey coz!! Sorry about the death of your dad, he was my favourite uncle.”

This was the first thing that popped into my head when @SOluwatobi got in touch about highlighting some of the errors we make in our use of social media/platforms. Whether professionally, security related, or just because we are human beings with a modicum of common sense, ladies and gentlemen, some things are not just acceptable! I’ll focus on personal uses in this first post, and then we’ll deal with business uses in the second part. Also, I’ll focus only on Facebook and Twitter for both parts.

So you’ve signed up, gotten yourself a Facebook or Twitter account in 2012. To start with, where have you been? Lol. Secondly, I hope that by reading this piece you can avoid some mistakes older users have made.

A little definition: Facebook and Twitter are some of the channels/enablers/tools under the broader term, ‘social media’. Social media in itself is simply communication enabled by technology. So it is talking to your friend in the market/school/church/mosque, only online rather than in person, via a letter or over the phone. It is also making new friends that way too, instead of writing and asking to be pen pals.

It is important to remember this simple analogy in our everyday use of these networks because it will help us not to alienate people in the name of being ‘social’. Especially when we’re not sending private messages. For example, would you write on a notice board at your university that you had the best sex ever with xyz? Even if the board asked you what was on your mind? Or would you say you’d just received payment for a job done running into millions of naira and you were on the way to cash the cheque? And for good measure, write where you were at the time?  If you said (or thought) yes to any of the questions, you can stop reading now. But if you thought it absurd, why do we post such things online? In these days of heightened crime and insecurity, why do we put ourselves out there like this?

Back to the story I shared earlier, would you inform your cousin of a death in the family by pasting the information on the notice board in your community centre? So why do we do these things and appear really insensitive? Social networks are not much different from real life! Really!

While I agree that we are all different, have different levels of openness et al, I think we should apply some self-censorship to our interactions on social networks. That’s it.

Personally, I always assume anyone can read the things I put online. ‘Anyone’ could range from my folks, peers, a present/potential employer, to thieves, perverts, or even law enforcement agents. Therefore, while I have a lot of fun with the accounts I own, I’m careful too.

You might say, ‘but it’s my account, why will people care what I put out? Think of it like this; a post functions like you’re talking to 50 friends in a room, only that everything you’re saying that they can hear, all their friends can hear as well. And the friends of your friend’s friends can hear too. Does that make you want to be a tad more thoughtful?

There have been countless cases of people losing jobs, getting in trouble with the law, or even getting harmed because they put out too much information about themselves and their activities. These things should be examples we learn from; pitfalls to avoid.

Same thing goes for the pictures we put up. Dear friends, the world has shrunk considerably thanks to the internet. With the tentacles of social media sinking into our daily activities, it’s shrunk even more! That picture of you in a compromising position that attracts a few measly followers on Twitter today will surface tomorrow when a potential employer searches for you on Google. #EnoughSaid

General rule of thumb? Let’s take a few seconds to think of the immediate and future effects of the things we post online; if the cons outweigh the pros, consider sending a private message to the person(s) directly involved or shelve the ideal altogether.

Related articles

• Bridging the Gap with Social Media (blogs.constantcontact.com)
• Social Media (truthwheel.wordpress.com)

A lot of thoughts have run through my mind from the very first night I became aware of Oke and I just thought to share four of them with you. I’m also sharing a documentary made by a close friend of mine, Onye Ubanatu, capturing the essence of Oke’s story.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS POWERFUL

I’ve never doubted the power of social media (wouldn’t have studied it if I did) but if I did, this campaign would have forever put paid to those doubts. The speed with which the blog posts spread and the amazing functionality called the ‘retweet’.  Jerry Seinfeld was right when he said this of Twitter, “Twitter is progress; why say to one what you can say to all”. Amazing! And say to all we did, in just a few hours his pictures and story were literally everywhere! Thanks to the WordPress’ ‘stat by country’ functionality I could see just the numbers of people from the different countries, and believe me it was amazing!

NIGERIA IS IN TROUBLE

Oke’s story was just another instance pointing to a problem we (Nigeria) haven’t gotten past. Unfortunately, even in 2012 we are still in the ‘reaction’ rather than ‘proactive’ mode. No one thinks to plan for the future, hell we’re barely getting through today! Fully discussing that will take all day so I’ll just say that all the information I got about Oke’s illness I found here. That website also features simple definitions and presentations of types and symptoms, care for people with diabetes, and even available support groups! And it’s all correct, up to date information! Do we have functional bodies like that here? No. All we’re saddled with are committees catering to committees set up to review the work done (or not) by committees. SMH!

WHO SINGS FOR THE UNSUNG?

The day after I spoke published the ‘Save Oke, we saved Oke’ post; I got one BBM broadcast about a young Nigerian in the clutches of another terminal illness who needs to seek treatment abroad. Someone else tweeted a link at me, and that evening I got email; three different people in one day! I flashed back to the campaign when I asked (in a private email to a group) if anyone else was thinking about the people who didn’t have anyone to blog about their problems. Who would cater to those ones? I’m asking those questions again; who runs with their stories?

How many people die every day because they have no access to qualitative healthcare? How many ‘trivial’ cases transform into life threatening because they were not nipped in the bud with adequate treatment? Who sings for the unsung?

WE ARE STILL THE WORLD

Social media has always and will always revolve around people. Social media without human involvement can be compared to a beautiful car without a driver: it is nothing without our input. It is one thing to sit in the comfort of your home and moan every day about everything going wrong with the country, how the government doesn’t care, how we need a ‘paradigm shift (lol), etc. It is a totally different (and more profitable) thing however to do your civic duties, know your leaders (local and national), and then hold them accountable by getting informed, asking them questions, you know the drill. In the same vein, while I am grateful to everyone who tweeted and retweeted Oke’s story, it is the ones who actually donated I am grateful to. Imagine if we were all tweeting, ‘Facebooking’, and no one did anything. We’d sooner be tweeting at his funeral!

This whole campaign has taught me that technology (in different formats, functionalities) will come and go but people will always remain. We are the answers to the questions we seek; we are the world we want to live in.

A radio movie.

In a dusty, dilapidated school on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital city, Abuja, a group of actors and radio technicians come together in searing 40’C heat to record the 17th series of ‘Story Story’. This much loved radio soap opera is set in a bustling motor park somewhere in West Africa, and it uses drama to trigger discussions on a variety of topical issues. ‘Tuned In’ takes us behind the scenes to meet the cast and crew as they reunite in Abuja and record the entire series in an intense and gruelling 2-week schedule…

Read more on Vimeo.

If you’re looking for new ways to improve your blog and increase your readership, there are always a few key tips you can follow to inject some energy back into the blog and garner some excitement. They’re very simple, and I guarantee you’ll have fun with them as you explore!

1. Talk about yourself! A good place to start is by telling your own story.  Who are you, why are you writing this blog, and what do you want to share with the world? Your readers want to know you, and know why you’re writing.  Plus, if you’re stuck with a bit of writer’s block, what subject do you know better than yourself? What lessons have you learnt in your time on earth? How can you make your readers smile? Go on, dig deep!

2. Create a regular feature. Find a topic that you can write on and feature regularly. Whether it’s interviews related to the subject of your blog, or maybe just a weekly photo, creating a recurring feature gives you some structure within which to plan, and gives your readers something to look forward to. A regular feature also suggests that your articles not be too far and in-between. Write as often as you can, don’t let your readers wait too long for something new.

3. Focus on images. If you have writer’s block, look through your trove of photographs related to your blog, and start sharing some of those. Start with just writing quick captions to explain the photos, or create an entire post or story around a picture. Images are important to help your blog stand out from the others. Instead of using stock images, try taking your own pictures to make your content unique. If you are not good at photography, ask around your friends or check http://www.tradestable.com.ng to find somebody more skilled to help you.

4. Use audio and video as well. Make a short video instead of writing a post. Your readers will get to know you a little better, and you’ll get to try something different and exciting. Experiment with podcasting, video blogging, see how you feel about it!

5. Seek out inspiration.  Think about why you started the blog in the first place, what you love to write about, where your passions lay. Go out and experience those things again, find experiences for you to write about and share. Think about things that make you laugh, pleasant memories, and if you’re brave enough, things that have made you cry. People relate very well to things like that….

6. Explore the offline world. There are now blogger conferences for just about every genre. Find a meet-up in your area and get out there and network. Talk to others who write about similar topics. You’ll come away with new ideas and new friends! Never forget that online drives offline, and vice versa; they don’t exist exclusively!

7. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Whether it’s from other bloggers or just trusted friends, seek out their feedback, and advice on your work.  Solicit suggestions on where you could take the blog and what improvements you could make. No one is beyond correction, and what looks marvelous to you might just be putting your readers off!

8. Invite guest bloggers. Bringing a new voice onto your site will generate excitement among your readers, as well as inspiration in yourself. Reach out to bloggers that cover a similar topic, and propose a post exchange. You’ll each gain new readers and new ideas! Put in your best when writing for them, you don’t get too many chances to sell yourself!

9. Redesign your blog. Whether it’s a full overhaul or just a new template, spend some time looking at the design of your blog and whether it best fits your needs. Besides, a new theme is a brilliant way to re-invent yourself, and is a good justification to toot your horn without feeling  vain!

10. Enter the world of social media. By engaging with social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, you can promote your brand, as well as encounter new sources of inspiration from your fans, followers, and fellow bloggers. You can also take advantage of the many functionalities these platforms allow, like syndicating publishing, sharing, etc.

There you go, 10 ways to improve your blog!! I’ll add an eleventh for good measure….

11. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  If you want people to read your articles and comment, like, share, or reblog them, when last were you on someone else’s blog? When last did you comment on a post, or share something you read and really liked? When was the last time you linked to someone else’s blog in a post? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

Related articles

• Don’t Give up NOW!!! (To keep blogging) (vighneshacharya.com)
• Today I Think I Shall Blog in My Underwear (ducttapemarketing.com)
• My InSpiration-BLogging for life (lordvito9.wordpress.com)
• Top 10 Reasons to Start a Blog (knunezwebdesign.wordpress.com)
• 7 Blogging Topics to Get You Over Bloggers’ Block (hernewleaf.com)
• Bloggers I like to follow – 2 (vighneshacharya.com)

What’s the best thing that’s happened to you since sliced bread? For me? Social media! It’s like the air we breathe now; our thoughts, rants, joys, tears, ideas, news, everything is shared in a heartbeat, thanks to this community facilitated by technology.

Everyone wants to be a part of it, whether they are using it right or not. Social/commercial enterprises, religious/educational institutions, governments, politicians too.

From Obama’s epic 2008 election win, to the 2011 Arab Spring and Nigeria’s April general elections, why shouldn’t politicians ‘go online’? That’s where everyone is, or at least seems to be headed!

Coming closer home, 2011 was the year Nigerian politicians jumped on the bandwagon the most. Whether it was to create a following amongst young people (the largest demographic and subscribers to social media), to dispel rumours/respond to allegations levelled against them via traditional media, or simply canvass for votes, politicians are flocking in droves to this community, and they are here to stay.

Welcome my case in point; Olisa Metuh who’s the National Vice Chairman for the South East of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Apart from his personal website (www.olisametuh.com), Mr Metuh is connecting via Facebook and Twitter, joining and creating his own circles via Google Plus, and sharing information via Digg!

How long will he be here for? How active will he be? Take a minute, connect with him, let’s just wait and see

Start from the very definition of social media: a platform for building online communities of people who share the same interests or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. That’s easy. Via platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon, we connect with already existing friends or make new ones based on common interests, mutual friends, or similar thought patterns.

Social media is a never ending conversation between people facilitated by technology. Note that I did not define social media as Facebook, or Twitter. They are means to an end (communication) but not the end in itself. Meaning that your business could be subscribed to all the media that exist and still not be getting any results (yes, it is possible).

It's more about the people than the tools

Why do you need social media for your business?

Just in case you’re not convinced your business needs social media, consider the following:

1. It is a conversation that more people are joining every day. Take Nigeria for instance; the rate of growth of social media and social media users has more than tripled in the last two years. In August 2011, Nigeria ranked the 15th fastest growing country on Facebook globally. This latest statistics puts Nigeria in the #35 position in the world ranking on countries on Facebook.
2. Public perception has moved from being influenced by traditional media to being more personal. Therefore, people tend to care more about what their friends and family tell them about a product/place/personality rather than what traditional media would tell them. Using Nigeria again as an example, where is everyone these days?

Thing now is, how do you exploit that definition to suit your business? The following simple tips cut across any platform your company decides to employ.

• Establish your brand voice: your page should SCREAM your business, all the time. That’s what you got the page for isn’t it?

• Separate the person from the brand: except you’re starting out with a name like Richard Branson, separate the business from your personal affairs. So, no personal pictures of your family on vacation on the page, or hanging out with your old school friends. No. No. No.

• Be transparent; let your goal be known from the get go: if you’re a social enterprise, commercial outfit, political organization, let your audience know from the start. There’s nothing worse than your first few clients feeling deceived. Their fury will make that of a woman scorned look like child’s play!

• Imagery is powerful: text is boring, especially when it’s a lot. Especially with blogging;  try to break up the text with pictures, a video, info-graph, whatever.

• Allow comments and respond to them: it is not communication if there is no feedback, how are you sure your audience understood what you put  out? How do you know if they had any trouble using your service? How do you receive praise or criticism?

• Link and link often: not only does it enrich your website/post, you could use it to barter sometimes. Have a conversation with website owners before you link to their site, see if they’ll return the favor. If they only agree half the time, that’s still more FREE publicity for you!

That’s it for today; the next parts in this series will dwell on best practices for using Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, in that order. Leave a comment if you’ve got a question, query, contribution, or if you just want to say hello!

Hey!!!! It’s a few says to when the 30 who will be moving on from the initial 575 in the World Pulse Voices of Our Future challenge will be announced, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t put up the answer to the question for week four! Weeks one, two, and three are hyperlinked so you can see the previous questions and answers.

The Question:

Write a 700 word article that describes:

• What is your personal vision for your life, your community and/or the world?
• Why do you want to be a Voices of Our Correspondent and how will this help you
  achieve your vision?

My Answer

From when I was very little, I’ve always loved talking, writing, and ‘fighting for others’, as my mother would put it. Till this day my father calls me his ‘lioness’; he says he’s seen that I cannot be deterred or thrown off when I set my heart or hands at something I believe in.

After failing to score the grades required to study to become a medical doctor (I wonder why I ever thought I could get past science subjects I never did well in), I thought about law. A visit to my fathers’ lawyer friend changed; there were too many gigantic, ancient looking books, and his office was a mess because he was trying to find a case. I stumbled on Mass Communication which I am eternally grateful to God for because with benefit of hindsight, I don’t think I could done better in any other field!

Mass communication has broadened my horizons, and opened doors for me to pursue my childhood passions which are writing, talking, and ‘fighting for people’. It fed and honed my personal vision of being a renowned voice for anyone who didn’t have one. Naïve and a little unrealistic at first, I have modified and made it more feasible as I have grown. For starters, I will accomplish little and wear myself out sooner if I decide to ‘take on the world’, regardless of how noble my intentions are.

My vision for myself is centred on the dissemination of information to people who would normally not have access to that information, and also to tell others about these people whose voices would hitherto have not been heard. To that effect, my 10 year plan is to first have a syndicated radio and television programme where stories of the lives of ordinary Nigerians are told. The second part is to have run an organization called TBAM (Two Books a Month) which is dedicated to running a book club for disadvantaged children. Full information about TBAM can be found here http://fairygodsister.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/two-books-a-month-tbam/.

Why do I want to be a Voices Of The Future correspondent? I desperately want the empowerment and the publicity that the platform will give on the one hand, and then more importantly, the mentorship, training, and the close interaction with the learned tutors we’ll have. Over the years, I’ve learnt that classroom knowledge is one thing, but knowledge garnered via experience is invaluable.

Still on the mentors, I believe that I am closer to achieving my visions than ever before, and it would be helpful to drop those dreams and the models I have drawn up for them in the laps of experienced personnel for them to nurture, correct, and help me readjust keeping feasibility, funding, and maximum reach in mind.

Finally, I think I need to be curtailed and have someone ‘keep me in check’ so I don’t run amok with the many ideas that run through my head. Over the years I have found that it is somewhat easy for me to abandon one idea for another. The TBAM and radio/TV ideas have been with me for about nine years now, and that’s how I know they have come to stay.
However, with recent happenings in my country, issues around women (especially violence) are at the top of my mind now and I believe that working with and constantly reporting to a mentor will help me stay on track, but more importantly, incorporate my new drives with the existing, and still be as efficient/successful.

Also, studying Social Media has shown me that power belongs with the people, rather with leaders and influential/wealthy people. The little time I have spent on World Pulse has exposed me to different cultures, people, experiences etc., and it is an opportunity for me to do what I’ve always loved to do, tell stories.

Please take me one step up the ladder of fulfilling my dream, pick me as one of the 2011 Voices of Our Future correspondents!

pick me!

Related articles

• Amplifying My Voice (chiomachuka.com)
• How to Start a Social Media Consulting Business in 6 Steps (windmillnetworking.com)

Week Three of the Voices of Our Future application process, and I’m learning a lot!! We’ve got one more week and then our number is whittled down to 30, wish me luck!!! This week’s learning materials dealt with collaboration, and the function of networks and platforms, including World Pulse. On to the question quickly…”

Write a 500 word or less article that describes:

• What are your challenges and barriers to creating change in your community?
• What are some of your present solutions to overcoming these challenges and barriers?
• How do you currently use, or see the possibility of using, PulseWire and other online communities to overcome these challenges?”

What’s my community? Nuclear would be Abuja, the city I lived in before resuming at Birmingham City University, and the extended is my beloved country Nigeria. Abuja is the Federal Capital Territory and seat of government for my nation. It is where ‘everything’ happens, where major, life-changing contracts are given, where young people are referred to as ‘upwardly mobile’, an overused cliché (in my opinion).

That established, there are two challenges: First is people thinking that social media advocacy exists only online, promptly forgetting the real world, offline interactions that actually drive these projects. Second is that in my community, there are still too few people using social media platforms to actually constitute a sizable enough force, at least numerically. (Having said that though, a lone voice may often achieve more than a mob!)

I have been a blogger for about four years now and because I have a decent following, it has become my voice, the strongest tool for pushing/publishing causes I believe in. For example, in January a few friends put together a ‘bowling for boobs’ event to raise money to run subsidized breast and cervical cancer tests in Abuja. I had recently lost a colleague to breast cancer so I wrote about it and used it to publicise the event. There have been several other instances before and since then but most notable for me was the incident with the April 2011 elections in my country. There was this horrible outbreak of violence in the Northern part of the country, and most people were quick to say it was a Christian/Muslim ‘war’. I was in Birmingham at the time but I had read that it wasn’t a religious issue so I got in touch with a native from one of the troubled areas and interviewed him for my blog. It was a totally different perspective, with a historical bent and coming from a native, was a lot more plausible. By tweeting the link and putting it up on Facebook, LinkedIn etc., not only did we start a knowledge based discussion on the blog, but we disabused people’s minds from the religious angle to the crisis. Again, I got the highest number of visits to the blog on that day.

The way I see it, the more ‘relevant’ online communities I belong to, the stronger my voice is, call it amplified even. Rhonda’s story is enlightening but it was Sheila’s account of breast ironing in Cameron getting picked up by CNN, that not only inspired but encouraged me to keep campaigning the way I do now, not forgetting of course the place of offline collaboration as well.

Statistics show that of the 150 million people in my country, 70% are within the 16-40 bracket, and that is the same demographic of the online community. With World Pulse, my voice is amplified and believe me, I’ve got a lot of causes to shout about!

P:S - The links to the posts in the week three assignment are

The post on breast cancer awareness - http://fairygodsister.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/for-ngozi-anywanwu/

The post election crisis - http://fairygodsister.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/an-hour-with-elnathan/

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