HOW YOU CAN GET THE BEST OUT OF LINKEDIN FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS/BRAND MARKETING EFFORTS

LinkedIn, the professional network marketing social media site can be a very strategic marketing tool to help smart businesses generate leads and conversions, depending on what the business will term a conversion, for example, a conversion could be an getting people aware of your blog or website, an e-commerce business generating sales through optimized site traffic, etc. here are some ways LinkedIn can be put to good use to market your brand or business effectively:

LinkedIn groups: For a business that wants to make the best of LinkedIn, subscribing to or creating your own LinkedIn groups and participating actively in them can be a valuable tool that can help paint you as an authority in your industry or field of influence. Staying with LinkedIn groups also helps you keep abreast of trending issues and thoughts as it concerns your industry. Contributing to existing discussions could also win you some new connections if they feel you are adding value to the group.

Keeping in touch:  By simply keeping in touch with your networks, through personalized congratulatory messages about a network’s promotion, a friendly occasional greeting to see how a network is doing. This should be done genuinely and consistently as much as possible. The reason for this is that it portrays you as being warm and friendly, and makes it easier to develop mutually beneficial relationships with your contacts which can come in the form of the network or contact lending you a helping hand or recommendation if and when you may need such business or work related favour, and otherwise.

Take advantage of LinkedIn’s Publisher This gives you the opportunity to be your own very publisher with your own professional blog on the linkedIn platform. By posting your own contents straight from your blog and tweaking the headline and maybe some parts of the body text a little to prevent Google from reading the content otherwise as a duplicate which does not help your SEO, or by reposting another author’s post through links and adding your own thoughts on the writer’s topic, can sell you well as a thought leader in your industry, thereby generating for you an audience strategically in the form of leads and conversions that your business may be looking to gain. Also, by regularly interacting with your homepage feeds through relevant and insightful comments on a particular topic, you can stand out as a valuable influencer in your field.

These are some of the strategies of making the most of the professional networking site to your advantage as a business and a brand.

Yes! You can now 'Unsend' a sent message on Gmail

photo credit:33rockers.com

You can now 'unsend' a sent mail on gmail, news making the round suggests, and I just confirmed it myself by going to the 'settings' tab on the upper right hand corner of my email, scrolling down to where I found the 'undo send' option  and ticked the 'enable undo send' box.

Although it comes with a little limitation where you have to choose  from 5, 10 ,20 and 30 seconds options checkboxes, which are the available times in deciding whether you wanna undo the sent message or not. I think that's pretty fair in my opinion.

So just incase you sent a flirty email to your girlfriend or wife and for some inexplicable reason, you mailed it mistakenly to the email address of your boss, you've got a bailout now LOL. Shout out to google for this one.

ABANDONING YOUR CAREER OR BUSINESS FOR LOVE…SMART MOVE OR DUMB ONE?

Ludacris with new wife Eudoxie Mbouguiengue. File photo Image by: @RapUp via Twitter

This topic was inspired by the Gabonese lady and one time medical student,Eudoxie Mbouguiengue who reportedly took an indefinite leave from medical school to spend more time with her then boyfriend, now husband, Christopher Brian Bridges, best known as Ludacris. The pair recently tied the knot the same day she was proposed to. The wedding ceremony was reported to be held with a small circle of family and friends, and in what was actually a surprise wedding chiefly orchestrated by Ludacris and his mom, without any consultation from the girlfriend and fingers-crossed “wife-to-be” (story for another day).

Back to the topic, I don’t think it was worth it in Eudoxie’s case, to leave a promising career path by taking an indefinite break from Medical School to have better quality time with your boyfriend. Who does that? Except she didn’t get into the Miller School Of Medicine at the University Of Miami by merit and out of the passion of becoming a respected and successful medical doctor in future, she has no business putting her education on “indefinite leave” just to be on the road with Ludacris. That’s not how love works in my opinion. Is she planning to be a housewife and become dependent on Ludacris? A lady shouldn’t have to depend entirely on her man for her livelihood. She should best have something going on for her as well, whether it’s in business or career, so she gets to support her man in some areas both in and out of the marriage context. So there really has to be a more valid reason if any, for a lady to ‘up and leave’ her educational pursuit, career or business ambition for “love”.

One of the major factors that does rear its ugly head in relationships is the issue of the couple getting separated due to their career or business demands splitting them into different geographical locations. Now that can be very tricky, and leads to a lot of compromise and sacrifice on the part of both parties. Many factors would definitely have to be ironed out and a reasonable conclusion to the matter brought forward for it to at least seem like a win-win situation. But this was even a different scenario in the case of Ludacris and Eudoxie, as she was still in school, and permanent location differences didn’t seem to be the crux of the matter, it was more like the case of not being able to be on tour all day with a widely known hip hop star, and all that paparazzi business. It was like she lost focus.

Photo credit: Instagram

I guess we should just be happy for the newly wedded couple and give our recently married African beauty, Mrs Bridges a benefit of a doubt that she knew what she was doing when she put her medical school training on hold, and was not just simply swayed by love and the apparent comfort, glitz and glamour that her hubby’s lifestyle and career was all about and would guarantee her.

It is worthy of note to mention that Mrs Bridges is very much involved and runs a charitable nonprofit organization, Unspoken Angels. Their mission is so support, educate, inspire, and empower young ladies who have endured mental, verbal and sexual abuse. Hope she keeps up with that.

Would love to know what you guys think. Should love be a strong enough reason or motivation to put off or simply abandon your dream job, career or business? Share with me.

Cool African slangs you should know

Slangs have become an integral part of the African culture. It has formed a major means of informal and even formal communication both amongst the young and elderly for spoken and written conversations, whether in online and offline means of communicating.

Here are some fun African slangs that foreigners who might find themselves in some of these African destinations for business, pleasure or both, and also our African brothers and sisters in the diaspora would find interesting to learn and use in their daily communication:

SOUTH AFRICAN SLANGS

1. Izit? Or Sho? Meaning Is that so?

Example:

A: “Dude, I’m currently watching the latest James Bond flick, it’s been pretty awesome so far.”

B: “Izit?”

2. Shame!

This is an endearing term that is used by South Africans in just about every social situation. Seriously, when in doubt, just say “Ag shame” and your sentiment will be greatly appreciated.

Example:

A: “I just got a new phone.”
B: “Shame.”
A: “Her mother is seriously ill and has been admitted to a local hospital.”
B: “Shame.”
A: “My brother won a million bucks yesterday.”
B: “Shame!”

3. Ag meaning Oh man

Ag — pronounced “Ach” — is a filler word. We South Africans love our filler words. If    you ever feel like you have said shame too often — very unlikely — just throw in a filler to change it up a bit.

Example:

“Ag, I had a great time last night.”

4. Loskop meaning Loosehead

This is just a humorous excuse, used to explain away forgetful or odd behaviour.

Example: “I am such a loskop today. I forgot my wallet at home.”

5. Jol meaning A party

Any party, get-together or fun activity is a jol.

Example:

“Sounds like they are having a real jol next door.”

GHANAIAN SLANGS

1. Chale meaning Friend or Pal

It is often used to communicate with people within your age bracket.

Example:

A: Chale what was the final score between Arsenal and Chelsea?

B: It ended Chelsea 2, Arsenal 1

2. Boko meaning I’m cool

Example:

A: Chale how you doing?

B: Boko bro

3. Jiggy Jiggy- A slang term for intercourse. I learnt this is usually a slang used for the wrong reasons and at awkward times of the night and should you ever be on the receiving end when the slang jiggy jiggy is used, you should literally run! LOL

4. Gulla Gulla meaning butt

Example: It is a general consensus among many that African women are well endowed in the gulla gulla ‘department’

5. “Acomba“- This is the slang term referring to a person who has a large appetite.

6. Dang it- used to express excitement. Kind of like ’Yaay’ we are more familiar with.

RWANDAN SLANGS

1. Bolo: This is used by Rwandans to refer to anything valuable, which is pretty relative I suppose. For example: Akon’s bolo has to be his voice.

2. Agati means Weed or Marijuana.

Example: Terry G and D’banj must have been high on Agati with the way they have performed on stage over the years

3. Kebo means a nice ride

KENYAN/SWAHILI SLANGS

1. Niaje means ‘how are you doing’

2. Poa means cool or I’m cool. So if one greets you with “niaje”, you could reply with “poa”

3. Msupa means Beautiful Girl. If you ever find yourself in Kenya or with a beautiful Kenyan damsel like Lupita of 12 years a slave, you could compliment her with a phrase like “wewe ni msupa” and win her heart. Simple! 

4. Beshte means A friend   For example: I would like to be your beshte

NIGERIAN SLANGS

1. Caro meaning fine lady

       Example: A: Peter what’s happening with you?

B: I’m with my caro at the movies

2. Wetin dey happen means What’s happening

Example: A: Bro, wetin dey happen for Lagos

B: Nothing much bro, just the usual Lagos ‘hustle and bustle’ synonymous with Lagos.

3. Chairman: This is used commonly to praise and greet a friend, usually within the same age bracket

Example: A: My Chairman how you doing?

B: I am alright man, what’s up!

4. I dey: means I’m alright or I’m doing fine

Example: A: Chairman what’s up

                 B: I dey bros

5. I remain loyal Meaning ‘I have not changed,’ ‘still your buddie’,or ‘still the same cool dude’. It’s usually used among buddies when talking over the phone.

Example:

A: Boy how u been, what’s changed with you

B: I remain loyal sir.

6. Padi means Close Friend or Buddie

Example: I just left my padi ‘s house some minutes ago.

And that’s where I draw the curtains people. There are many more African cool and interesting slangs out there that I can’t exhaust all of them as I’m still learning myself especially the Non-Nigerian slangs. Hope you find some of these ones I’ve listed useful though when the situation arises. Cheers!

Opinion: Why Saying ‘I Love You’ Is Not So Common Place In The African Society

Whereas saying ‘I love you’ is common place in the western world, I can’t say the same for the average African family, though I can’t really say where our African brothers and sisters in the diaspora stand in this matter .

To back up my argument for the westerners, the then famous boy band Westlife in one of their songs ‘More Than Words’, sang about their girls saying ‘I love you’ but were not putting it as much into action. How funny because that seems to be the reverse order in the African culture, where for example the African father shows love to his children by paying for their school fees, buying them gifts, shielding his daughter from ‘bad boys’, etc, but never bothers to actually say those three magical words ‘I love you’ probably because he feels showing he loves them is the best way he can say it.

Even husband and wife find it difficult to utter those words to each other for some reason. The children too are not exempted from this ‘crime’(Lol), their own way of saying ‘I love you’ is perhaps by doing well in school, assisting in house chores, and just being a good and obedient boy or girl. Relationships between a young lad and his girlfriend also are part of this whole drama, guys probably being the more guilty party.

Now I know definitely action speaks and should in fact speak louder than words, but in this very case of human relationships, there is something about saying ‘I love you’ to your loved ones which unarguably must complement your actions towards the one you are professing love to of course. Your words must be as good as your action.

Why Africans don’t usually say ‘I love you’ might vary from one person to the other. For some guys and men, including fathers, they probably feel it makes them look or sound less of a man and weak since African men are known to be strong both physically and emotionally.Oh how wrong they are.

Some on the other hand actually don’t say it or show it better still either like they ought to for some reason, yet they are in a ‘relationship’. These ones are not who we are talking about today so I’m gonna leave it at that.

Some African men actually in addition to showing it would love to say ‘I love you’ to their wives, children or girlfriends as the case may be, but simply won’t, not because they feel it makes them seem weak or less of a man but simply because they are simply shy of saying it. Now whether that’s cute and adorable or not, I leave it to you.

As for our ladies and women, shyness of saying the three words could also be a factor. Another reason I can think of in the case of an unmarried couple may be the fact that each one is playing what I would call the ‘waiting game’ or ‘mind games’ to see who says it first while they are of course showing themselves the affection. Perhaps they may also feel that whosoever says ‘I love you’ first is the one that would have lesser ‘power and control’ in the relationship. Pathetic you say right? I would only excuse immature folks to do that anyway.

Sadly these are some possible reasons from my findings why two people in a supposedly committed relationship do not say those three powerful syllables as often or at all.

So in the spirit of love, I admonish every African child, man, woman, guy or lady and even our non-African friends out there, who might be guilty of this ‘offence’ to repent and say ‘I love you’ as much as you show it to your loved ones(and you’d better be showing it alright) or risk being charged to the ‘court of love’. Believe me, you don’t wanna get on the wrong side of the love court. Lol. So try it today. There’ s something magical about saying those words, that words itself cannot describe. Take it from me. I love you guys.

Would like to know what you guys think about the topic. Do you think we say ‘I love you’ as much as we ought to in Africa, or do you perhaps feel it’s not even necessary as long as we are showing love to those we care about?

Your friendly neighborhood cupid*wink*

A cross-section of some of Naija's finest female radio OAPs

Nigeria houses a lot of exciting and ‘fun to listen’ on-air radio personalities, who keep doing their thing connecting to their audience just fine across the various shows they anchor. They keep us excited, engaged and impact on us positively, covering various topics from music, showbiz, lifestyle, and so on. Here are a couple of them (working with Lagos based radio stations) you should check out:

Titilayo Oyinsan(a.k.a Titi the dynamite)

The gorgeous Titilayo Oyinsan is an on-air radio personality with Inspiration 92.3 Fm Lagos, The number one family radio station in Nigeria. Titi has come a long way from her days of modelling, doing voice-overs, presenting on TV and starring as a video vixen in Nigerian music videos. She has indeed been a force to reckon with in the entertainment  and modelling industries both in Nigeria and South Africa.

Titi The dynamite

She anchors family shows like ‘Your baby and you’ to business focused ones like Nigerian women titled ‘Naija women in business’ amongst other cool shows. A fun and proud mother of twins, who got married to a fellow on-air radio personality working at a different radio station in Lagos, Titi the dynamite is one cool radio personality always nice listening to. You can catch her between the hours of 10am -1pm W.A.T (G.M.T+1) streaming live on inspirationradiong.com for folks outside Lagos, and 92.3fm if you are in Lagos and prefer to listen in via your local radio device offline.

Anita Ifeoma Isedeh(a.k.a Omaliicha)

Anita works with Silverbird’s Rhythm 93.7 Fm Lagos. The first thing you’ll probably love about Anita when you get to listen to her present on air is her infectious laughter. It instantly makes her very likeable The air of simplicity around her when she talks is just awesome, little wonder she tags her self ‘happy-go-easy’.

Omaliicha

A self-confessed foodie with her favorite delicacy being Plantain and Beans, the tall dark chocolatey skinned animated presenter is always a delight to listen to. For more gist about Anita, you can check her bio up here

 Oluwakemi Itari Catherine Owatemi(a.k.a Kemi Smallz)

Kemi Smallz is an epitome of  the expression ‘short and sweet’. An on-air radio presenter with City 105.1 fm in Lagos, Kemi the first of 5 children is fun to listen to on radio. When she goes at it with entertainment gists cutting across movies, celebrities and music, she gets you all wrapped up in her world.

Kemi Smallz

An MTV base VJ finalist, Kemi’s on-air personality is that of life and energy. You can catch her on the morning show tagged ‘Breakfast in the city’ with her co-hosts Oscar(hubby of Titi the dynamite) and Dan Foster doing their thing. Get familiar! @kemismallzz on instagram.

Gbemi Olateru Olagbegi(Gbemi O.O)

Gbemi has solidly established her presence in the Nigerian broadcasting scene. With many awards and honors to her name, already, the sky can only be her stepping stone. From working with Cool Fm Lagos, where she first gained traction, to her new home in the Beat 99.9 Fm both in Lagos, Gbemi is doing very well for herself. Her recent laurel is her award for Nigerian female broadcaster of the year 2014.

Gbemi

The catch about Gbemi probably has to be the fact that her shows are all about trendy stuffs going on in everyday lives as it relates to the young generation, and she’s ever real and down-to-earth like that. You get to vent your feelings, make shout outs and get juicy stories and interviews with icons, and a whole lot more fun stuff on her drive time show belt. For the full details, hit here

Maria Okanrende

The beautiful Maria wows her listeners with her delightful British accent. She always get to entertain us with bits and bytes especially centered on relationships and gets teased by her co-hosts Osi and Olisa on The morning rush, an entertainment packed morning radio show on the beat 99.9 Fm Lagos.

Maria

Maria is also into acting. Featuring in MTV base ‘s Shuga drama series. She’s sure living her dream! Catch her Mondays to Fridays 6am-11am on thebeat99.com where you can listen in to topical issues, local and international celebrity news and gossips, great music and banter all the way.

Toke Makinwa

Toke Makinwa probably needs no introduction. A multimedia personality who is doing fantastic on radio as well as on TV and with her YouTube channel ‘TokeMoments’. She co-hosts The morning drive show on Rhythm 93.7 Fm Lagos where topical issues are discussed ‘Toke style’.

Toke has got it good!

Toke has that charm working for her that tends to draw people ever closer into her world. As a media and talk show personality, there’s no stopping this woman I reckon.

I obviously can’t mention them all but like I said earlier, these are a few who are doing great things and making the Lagos, Nigerian and indeed the airwaves all around the world worth a good listen.

A light skinned lady or a Dark skinned one?

Jackie Appiah

This topic has always been around for a long time and many dark skinned  ladies have received serious backlashes for trying to change their skin color by bleaching their God- given beautiful dark skin. No doubt it raises the question of self-esteem on the part of such ladies. Asides that, do men, particularly African men prefer light skinned ladies? Most definitely, this is a case of preference and like the video below will concur with me, there is actually much more than just the complexion that a man looks out for in a woman, but it seems the ladies in question have lost sight of that fact. Personally, I like both complexions, but there are other factors that come into play that I can’t even begin to explain.

Perhaps it’s because the fair skinned lady  is usually easily more noticeable or attractive from afar given the brightness of her color, that’s one of the probable reasons why they are ‘allegedly more sought after’ which the dark skinned ladies don’t find funny at all. So they go about trying to be a lighter version of themselves to feel more attractive too.

In a nut shell, I’ll say beauty lies in the beholder’s eyes and ladies should be proud of their skin color and not pay mind to any opinion or ‘popular belief’ that light skinned ladies are more preferable, and even if the guy they are crushing on comes out and says he prefers the other skin color other than her own, she should not let that dampen her self-worth but rather work or show more valuable and interesting characteristics such as her sense of humor and intelligence for example which may just win the brother over. So dark skinned or light, you are far more of a lady than your complexion.

Watch and enjoy the funny video below by A Nigerian dude who inspired this write-up.