Getting helpful feedback from your clients on social media

 There are 47 newspaper publications in Nigeria. 50 online newspapers and 83 million internet users (according to statistics)

When you include broadcast media (television and radio) – most of which are broadcasting 24 hours daily, it’s no wonder that organizations that have a presence in the media find it impossible to keep track of it all.

Will Your Company's Social Media Efforts Pay Off?

"Here’s a few social media truisms that many brands simply don’t want to hear.

1.      Social media success takes time. Don’t expect overnight success. While customers increasingly expecting an almost instantaneous response to their inquiries, generating a worthwhile return on investment (ROI) requires considerable effort and patience.

2.      Social media success takes resources. Do you have someone with several hours of quality time per week available to dedicate to your social strategy?

  

3.      Social media success takes you out of your comfort zone. Are you prepared to share other people’s content in your social channels – even that of your competitors? Are you will to engage with other people and open conversations? Do you create original content that other people will want to share? Are you able to handle and respond to public criticism and customer complaints?

Be sure you’re ready before you commit. Customers expect a response, and a ghost town of a social media profile is not a good sign to anyone who comes looking to learn about or engage with your brand. 

By MediaBistro

7 PR Tips To Help You Properly Promote Your Event

If you’re organizing an event, going PR-less dramatically reduces the visibility of that event significantly. Therefore, it’s very important to integrate PR into your event marketing plan. If you can’t do it yourself, hire a professional PR team for a consultation or a campaign that will increase visibility. Below are some Event PR tips to help you out

What's Happening To Kelly Handsome?

If you are a Naija music industry buff, Kelly Handsome is one name you'll most likely hear and shake your head in nostalgia or in sadness at the way he unceremoniously faded out of music existence. (he probably won't agree to this).

I am a fan of Kelly. I must say he's incredibly talented, he could write, he could sing, he could produce and he had the ability to be dynamic and not cage himself.

But what do you do with an especially difficult to manage, an artiste with great skills but a lousy public image?  It’s an energy drain on the people who manage them, and eventually the entire music community gets tired of the emotional roller-coaster.

Introducing "Lasgidi Events" (@lasgidievents) - Twitter Events Update Service

Lasgidi Events is an on-line events notification service that seeks to serve its followers
by providing information on upcoming and current events happening in Lagos. Lasgidi Events is primarily a Twitter service [@LasgidiEvents] serving relevant information on both public and private events such as comedy and entertainment shows,stage plays, seminars, conferences, workshops, awards, church events, business luncheons etc.
Publicity is also done for businesses that facilitate events such as events centers, catering services, transport services, multimedia  etc
Follow @LasgidiEvents today and tweet at them to get the events promotion you need.
For promotional campaigns covering a week or more, Please call 07062689316 for inquiries and bookings.
lasgidievents@gmail.com

FOR THE LOVE OF COUNTRY: A Dazzling Musical Theatre Showing This Sunday!

The city of Lagos comes alive this September, as For The Love of Country returns to Terra Kulture, courtesy of Slum2School Africa and The Creative Nigeria Project to support charity efforts to raise funds for the Mentorship Hub for urban slums in Lagos.

COOL FM OAP - MAXY Says GoodBye...

COOL FM OAP Amaka Alusi has announced to her listeners that she’s leaving the station and moving on to bigger things. The beautiful MAXY as she’s fondly called, changed the face of overnight radio in Nigeria. She was passionate about people, life and she wanted to see positivity in every situation. 

On the Overnight Show, MAXY was a friend, a sister, a motivator, a role model and a mentor. Effortlessly, she drew everyone who listened to her to fall in love with her beautiful heart. 

That everyone is going to miss MAXY on the overnight show on COOL FM is an understatement. But we do know that she has to go forward and we absolutely cheer her on… Go girl!

Music Producer; VTEK Starts New Record Label

 
VTEK who has gained immense industry recognition since the recently release of  P-Square's 6th new studio album "Double Trouble",  is set to join the league of other independent music entrepreneurs as he officially unveils his entertainment company; Awesome Express Music, which will be home to his production works and a new female artiste Ms.DUMEBI.

According to A&R director to the new label, Ms. Ife Owosuna; VTEK's new label Awesome Express Music will be operating as a digital record label with major music business partnerships with relevant organisations and entertainment companies around the world.

Your Business On Facebook: Engage Your Customers With Photos.

If your business has a Facebook page (and why shouldn’t it?) tell your story and engage with your customers (and would-be customers) with creative photos that enhances your brand.
According to social media examiner, Photo posts account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. They can get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-throughs on links than text-based posts!
So make it fun, make it catchy and make sure it makes a bold statement that drives home the message!
Check out these examples..

12 Steps to Master Social Media - By REBEKAH RADICE

1. Choose Your Channel

Facebook, Google Plus, and other social networks allow you to interact with potential clients. You can also find your next job, shop, sell, buy, auction and exchange just about anything you can think of.

No matter your reason for using social media, make sure you choose your main networks wisely.

Choose one or two social networks that allow for the greatest exposure and then use them daily. We all know time is money. There’s no sense in starting something if you’re not going to consistently stick around.

  2. Define Your Target Market

Do you know who your target audience is? Have you identified your specific area of expertise?

Don’t try to cater to everyone by being all things to all people. If you want to reach the right audience, your content should be hyper-specific. Write your posts and speak directly to their wants, needs and desires.

  3. Share Appealing Content

Sharing content in an appealing way is tougher than it seems. How often have you stumbled on a post or tweet that left you shaking your head at an opportunity lost?

Share interesting, relevant and insightful content and share it often. This is the single best way to establish your expertise and credibility.

You have knowledge others need. Give it away freely!

Read More HERE

#SocialMedia: Brand Tweet Of The Day!

Check out VISA Nigeria's fun tweet to promote their product. Remember, great images always enhances your message.

What is your favourite purchase made with your personal Visa card? RT and comment. #paywithVisa pic.twitter.com/lg0z8cNxjt
— Visa Nigeria (@VisaNigeria) September 15, 2014

One Tweet No Brand Hopes To Ever Have To Tweet...

(USA) DiGiorno Pizza has become one of the top brands on Twitter thanks to its quick wit and good ear for real-time conversations, but one careless tweet, put that reputation at risk.

After a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee Janay Palmer led to his termination from the Baltimore Ravens on Monday, thousands of women took to Twitter to discuss their physically and emotionally tortuous experiences in abusive relationships. 

They used the #WhyIStayed hashtag to fight the victim-blaming attitude of Palmer's critics, who had questioned why she would marry a man who knocked her unconscious.

Jumping onto the popular hashtag, DiGiorno clearly didn't look into its context before tweeting, "#whyistayed: You had pizza."

Of course, the backlash was brutal. And DiGiorno Pizza had to apologize over and over again. They did their best to respond to every angry tweet and one must commend their social team for taking the high and difficult road.

 Each response has been personalized and is clearly sincere, which is a nice reprieve from the usual copy-and-paste approach to dealing with bad PR in social.

A clear lesson to everyone: KNOW WHAT THE HASHTAG IS ABOUT BEFORE YOU USE IT.

Source: ADWEEK

Twitter Offers Ideas For Social Media PR People...

Hello! Check out these tweet ideas for your twitter marketing and promotions. Either you are promoting a product, an organization or a service, the following tips from Twitter Small Biz (@TwitterSmallBiz) can help you.

Tweet Idea: Reply to a few mentions from followers or thank customers for supporting your business. #mktgkickstart
— Twitter Small Biz (@TwitterSmallBiz) September 12, 2014

Tweet Idea: Interact with followers by asking them a question, such as whether they would attend a free workshop. #mktgkickstart
— Twitter Small Biz (@TwitterSmallBiz) September 5, 2014

Tweet Idea: Get creative by using Vine videos to showcase your products & services. Start here: https://t.co/2yawSKGicA #mktgkickstart
— Twitter Small Biz (@TwitterSmallBiz) August 27, 2014

For Startups: How To Introduce Your Business In One Sentence

If you’re a small business owner doing your own PR, you should be able to answer questions about what you do in 1 sentence. Use this template below:

My Company  (name) is developing (what you're offering) to help (target audience)( solve a problem) with (your unique selling point)

Very easy!  Just fill in the blanks and keep all the unnecessary grammar away.  Make it pure and simple.

Make sure you practice your one sentence pitch, make sure even your grandma understands it, and you’re good to go!

Cheers! 

Instagram direct messaging: What brand managers should know

 On Thursday, Instagram unveiled a new feature for its popular mobile app: Instagram Direct. You can read all about it on the Instagram blog.

For many users, this will simply be a more efficient way to share photos with specific friends.

For brand managers, this new feature opens doors and presents opportunities.

Off the top, a challenge for brands will be the ability to segment their Instagram communities and create "groups" or lists of fans/customers broken up by geography, interests, etc. For most of the ideas you see below, this will be crucial. Right now, we don't have many tools to help us do that—just elbow grease.

I have a few ideas on how brands can use Instagram’s new functionality:

Specify photos for certain segments of your audience

This is the no-brainer. Let's say you're a food manufacturer and you want to share photos of a new product—but you want to share it only with certain bloggers and other key people and not your entire Instagram community. With Instagram Direct, you can do that. It sounds as though it limits to 15 the number of people you can include. Now, that will require a little legwork on your end, you'll have to find these influencers/bloggers within your Instagram community, but chances are good that you already have a list of people with those properties.

PR PICTURE OF THE MONTH!

Need i say more??

Expectations of a brand's social media manager

When I see brands on social media, I have expectations. 

I expect that if I tweet something to a brand, someone will respond. It doesn’t have to be within two minutes—I am overjoyed when it is—but I do expect a response. 

Today, everything is done online, frequently through social media. I honestly don’t remember the last time I called a hotline or an 1-800 number and sat on hold for 10 minutes. Instead, I can Google a company or agency and find out everything I need within 90 seconds. The way people access information has changed; social media plays a big role. 

I expect that brands will have an updated page where I can find the latest information. If I “like” a brand’s page, “follow” them, repin their pictures, or give them +1′s, it’s because a company is branding itself in a positive light. 

If the well-represented brand has a product, I will buy it and tell people about it. If it does not have a product or service to buy, I will still talk positively about the brand. I dislike a social media presence that is careless and not updated. Social media is essential for brands and requires a designated staffer to keep the brand’s presence current. That person must be witty and precise, have excellent writing skills, and be convincing without resorting to the hard sell. 

Community managers must post high-quality content in a timely manner. Because social media never sleeps, a community manager must continually watch for online conversations about the brand, monitoring positive and negative comments. Don’t delete the negative, though; respond in a positive way, reinforcing brand loyalty and appeasing the consumer. 

The role of community manager is a high-stakes job with high rewards. One negative tweet or post can ruin a brand’s identity. It’s said that when a brand does something great, a person will tell a friend. When a brand does something bad, a person will tell everyone who will listen. 

I encourage my staff to think strategically. Think of great content that keeps consumers coming back to the site. Think what we can do to stand out. Think how we can get more engagement on the site and develop a new revenue stream. 

Most of all, I want them to think before they post anything. 

Written By: Christopher Kerney

Christopher Kerney is a digital media professional from the greater New York City area, as well as a proud Penn State alum. A version of this story originally appeared on the his blog.