Facebook C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg to provide free Internet access.

Photo credit: Facebook

A rendering of a satellite called Amos-6, which Facebook says will provide internet coverage to large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mark Zuckerberg is really determined to bring free internet to the world.
The CEO announced via Facebook that the company is working on a project to deliver internet to the people of earth from space.
Zuckerberg has partnered with Eutelsat, a French-based satellite provider, to literally launch this project into the stratosphere.
The satellite, dubbed Amos-6, is expected to provide internet coverage to parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and is slated for launch in 2016.

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

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.

From PR Daily: 4 listening styles communicators should know

 Hearing is the practical, and listening is the strategy. And as with most things strategic, there's more than one way to listen.

As a communicator, you should know which type of listening to use in every situation, as well as how to use those skills to your advantage. Here are four (of many) types of listening:

1. Appreciative listening

Appreciative listening is exactly what the name implies — listening to enjoy the story, music or information you hear.

The American Society for Training and Development recommends that, to truly embark in appreciative listening, you should avoid engaging in other communications and focus solely on the sounds or words.

So, when someone is speaking to you, put your phone down!

2. Critical listening

Critical listening involves hearing what someone says, identifying key points and/or arguments and solidifying your opinion. Think of a debate, or how you feel when you listen to a politician speak.

When you engage in critical listening, your goal is to analyze what the speaker is saying and determine his agenda.

3. Relationship listening

Relationship listening is one of the most important skills to have when dealing with people. Relationship listening is also known as therapeutic or empathetic listening.

You would use relationship listening to help a friend through a problem, solve a conflict between co-workers or prompt people to open up through support and honesty.

4. Discriminative listening

Discriminative listening is when you look past the words you hear to detect the underlying message. It might be one of the most important types of listening for online marketers.

This works best in person, as you can look to body language, tone changes and volume to determine what the speaker really thinks and feels.

However, these days we're not often face-to-face with clients or customers. We need to adapt to become better online discriminative listeners as we engage more and more via texts, Facebook comments and snappy tweets.

Understanding the difference between hearing and listening is a vital skill, whether you deal with people in the boardroom or through comments on your brand's blog.

Which types of listening do you practice most?

Lindsay Bell is the content director at Arment Dietrich. A version of this article originally appeared on the Feedblitz blog.