How to use Linkedin to grow your business social media presence

 When you have thousands of employees and millions of customers worldwide, it’s helpful to have one large “hub” where you can house all job openings, company information and updates on LinkedIn. Now, if you’re a small or midsize business, LinkedIn company pages can still be valuable, but it depends in large part on how you use them.

How LinkedIn company pages work

If you haven’t explored this avenue yet, LinkedIn company pages are free to set up and essentially serve as an extension of your company website.
You’re able to post job openings, links to company news and blog posts, create “showcase pages” highlighting certain departments or service offerings and more.
Also, LinkedIn will automatically reroute people who click on your company name or logo on the LinkedIn platform to the attached company page. It will also allow your company to become “discoverable” inside of LinkedIn’s search box and on Google and other search engines.

Dear Vanguard Newspaper, Have Your Editors All Gone On Strike?

I was in the news room last night with my colleagues... hanging out and talking about everything and anything really. Of course, when three or four journalists gather, the conversation must drift towards the job and the media industry in general.
Somebody picked up the Vanguard newspaper from a stack nearby and randomly flipping through, he found the picture you're looking at. On page 36, of Saturday September 20, 2014, was a picture of a group of women with breasts completely exposed. Right in the middle of a weekend paper that kids are likely going to read. The Blocks you see here, are mine. The original photo in the paper is totally exposed.
Who allowed this to go to press? Has the person been suspended yet? Who are the editors on this paper?

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

Zenith Bank Gets The Thumbs Up!

Lately, i have been hearing really good reports about Zenith Bank and their helpful staff. It was again confirmed today with this tweet by Nigeria Info OAP Tolu Adeleru-Balogun.

Had a great customer experience at #ZenithBank on Muri Okunola today. Jacinta was extremely helpful and friendly. Yes her job, but thank you
— Tolu Adeleru Balogun (@reinaLydia) September 12, 2014

Well done Zenith Bank! Keep up the good work!
Nothing certifies your brand like good feedback from a satisfied customer!

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.

BEVERLY OSU & PRESTIGE COSMETICS! - The Celebrity Influence

 It's a known fact that celebrities are used to promote sales of beauty products, and brands connect with the rich and famous, sending them free samples, hoping for a mention on social media. all aimed at getting media attention for their brand.

Prestige Cosmetics is a relatively new cosmetics company, and Beverly Osu has been unveiled as the "Face" of the brand.

So far so good anyway. they're beginning to get online media attention, thanks to Beverly. Will this sudden media attention yield good returns in sales? that remains to be seen.

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.

DJ SPINALL AND HIS CAP

DJ SPINALL

Anyone familiar with Nigeria's entertainment industry will definitely know DJ Spinall.  He's young, fresh, looks good and is successful.

And of course, when you see DJ Spinall, you see his ever present cap. over the years, Spinall has created a brand with THE CAP, and i dare say that the idea is genius.

THE CAP has grown to be a money spinning outlet, with distinctive CAP branded outfits and THE CAP mix tapes.

According to DJ Spinall  "One Of My Ways Of Supporting The African Music Industry Is Via TheCAP Mix Series."

And i dare say the guy is balling! DJ Spinall is often referred to in media articles as "THE CAP".

Bottom line, I like THE CAP and i think as a brand identity, it absolutely rocks!

5 Tips to Maximize Twitter Engagement

Found this very enlightening article by  Caysey Welton and i think i should share it.

Twitter debuted on the New York Stock Exchange today, and is performing exceptionally well (so far up more than 20% on its initial ask).

Now that the social network is a public company, new tools designed for brand marketers are probably on their way too. After all, the company will need to spike its revenue and keep investors happy.

Still, there are several ways now optimize your brand’s Twitter presence now, especially when it comes to engagement. Here are 5 tips on how to do that, compliments of Alexandra Kirsch, digital managing associate at Finn Partners.

1. Position dialogue around your followers, not your brand. All too often brands use Twitter as a platform for promotion. That's fine sometimes, but social media is just as much a platform for relationship building as it is spreading the word about your brand. Therefore, it is to deliver content and messaging that has your audience in mind.
   
2. If you want your content to be shared, then share other’s content. One of the best things about social media is it enables users to share content with their social circles, which is great for brands because word of mouth advertising has proven to be extremely effective for generations. Just remember: it’s not all about you; Twitter is about give and take.

Read The Rest here: http://www.prnewsonline.com/water-cooler/2013/11/07/5-tips-to-maximize-twitter-engagement/

REMINISCE’s Album Art. Branding Hit or Miss?

I Absolutely love this! and i believe it represents his image, his rough edges, his music and his personality. This art makes me anticipate the album.

What do you think?