Online forums are becoming more and more popular in Nigeria especially with the success of Nairaland. Nairaland.com has been around since 2003 and has grown to become the hottest web destination for topical and societal issues that concern everyone.

With almost 400,000 members, Nairaland is competing with Facebook’s Nigerian user base which is currently about 500, 000.

But some of these online forums have not been able to manage their communities with an Online Reputation Management (ORM) system; or have not built their community around social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies. In fact, I rarely use them, except perhaps for NigeriaVillageSquare.com

Personally, I find most of these online forums, especially the ones built under the vBulletin and SMF softwares that donrsquo;t have social media functions, sub-standard compared to what online forums around the world have become as a result of the social media revolution.

Generally, an online forum that wants to adopt web 2.0 tools and technologies should critically access and determine the web needs of its target audience. For example, if the target audience are people who just come around to find the latest gist, but hardly spend time on the site, then you may not need to bother about Web 2.0.

On the other hand, if your audience are web-savvy (i.e. they understand what it means to interact, discuss and network within an online forum), then you should critically consider investing some time and money in Web 2.0 tools and technologies for your site.

Below are 7 tips on how to turn your online forum into a social media community.

Adopt a Social Networking Approach

Social Networking is simply the major buzzword. Every Web 2.0 site on the web space seems to be adopting a social networking angle to their business. When your forum members can interact and network with other members and building networks through such relationships.

Allow Users Create Blogs

Blogs are more likely to get people’s attention, since they display information in a more organized way. Thus, for an online forum, users can write blogs on any topic and could be used to publish jobs, announcements, news, events, etc.

Use Social Media Applications

Social media sites such as Digg, Sturvs, Delicious, Muti, Technorati, Facebook, Twitter, etc are very useful Web 2.0 tools that could be integrated into online forums. Thus, content could move around the web space faster and easier when these tools are used effectively.

Create a Facebook/Twitter Page

Facebook is a great tool to build your online forum’s reputation and attract more fans and visits. A Twitter account will also do the magic.

RSS Feeds

Feeds have become a very popular Web 2.0 application that syndicates information into a reader for easy access. It is gradually replacing the email newsletters and can be accessed through Google Reader amongst others. Thus, an integration of post feeds and comments feeds will be a good fit.

Mobile Alerts

These days, you can do virtually everything with mobile phones. An online forum that applies mobile 2.0 applications to inform users of the hottest news and announcements will be a hit.

Create a Rating System

To build successful online forums or communities that promote high-value conversations, there should be a post and comment rating system that rewards quality contributions to the community. Users’ comments can be rated to encourage meaningful conversations in the community.

Final thoughts

I personally think that if these tips are applied in Nigerian online forums, there’ll be more meaningful participation, online collaboration and community engagement. Besides, it will encourage companies that want to target the online forum’s audience to advertise their products and brand.

Photo via: ApolloMediaBlog

It didnrsquo;t come as a surprise to me that Zenith Bank Plc has adopted social media tools for communication, since the bank has been known for their leadership status in the deployment of Information and Communications Technology.

Last year, Zenith Bank emerged, for the sixth time, the best overall winner of the 2008 edition of the Web Jurist Award conducted by Phillips Consulting. The Award which rates bank websites in Nigeria based on clear-cut criteria including; Content, Performance, Functionality, Technicality, Aesthetics, and E-financial services was instituted in 2001 and has ever since, been won by Zenith Bank in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006 in addition to the latest edition.

Zenith Bank  has become the first bank in Nigeria to adopt Twitter as a tool for online communication. Their Twitter page looks new with only 10 updates since June 25, but has already attracted 114 followers and following 760, as at the time of writing this post.

Most of the tweets to date have simply directed users to their website pages as well as news around the bank from online newspapers and some great business and success quotes from world renowned achievers. Perhaps, theyrsquo;ll soon be adding updates about their products and services, but Irsquo;m wondering if they would use the Twitter page to interact with their customers and answer their questions.

My guess is that Zenith Bank has developed a social media policy and strategy before venturing into twittering.  If not, then, theyrsquo;ll need one. But, Irsquo;m not sure if a Zenith Bank employee has been doing the twittering, as it may as well be someone who admires Zenith Bank and decides to write updates about the bank. Besides, Zenith Bank has not officially announced they have a Twitter page on their website.

Whatever the case, I think it will help Zenith Bank to reinforce its brand on the web and better position it as one of the foremost banks in Nigeria that has embraced the social web. Itrsquo;ll be interesting to see more banks and companies in Nigeria get involved with social media channels to interact with their customers.

Read my post on top 5 ways companies can use Twitter for their business.

You’ve probably heard this several times, but I’m going to say it again:

If you are considering setting up a business, you need to develop a business plan.

But, I’m going to add this (so quote me if you like):

It is not a must to write up a business plan when you’re starting up. The most important thing is to have an idea and a vision from the start.

After you have launched your business startup with some seed capital (either from your job salary, personal savings or from friends and family), you can start developing a business plan in order to seek funding or sponsorship from angel investors or venture capital firms, as the case may be.

If you don’t know how to develop a business plan, perhaps this article will help you in planning your business from startup to stardom.

Here are 7 strategic steps to developing a winning business plan.

1. Research

You need to understand the various sections required in a business plan, the purpose of the various sections, as well as the objectives of the plan. These sections will include: Executive Summary, Mission, Strategy, Market Pain amp; Solutions, Market Opportunities, Management Team, Boards and Advisors, Achievements amp; Assets, Customers and/or Partners, Competition, Technology amp; IP, Business Model, Financial Projections, Fund Raising, and other information.

2. Decide

As much as the ‘idea’ of your business startup is important, the operational and logistical requirements are equally critical. You need to know how to choose the right partner(s), decide who will make up your board of directors and advisors, as well as whether you will operate as sole-owner, partnership or limited company.

Before you decide, you can get the help of a local accountant, business consultant or lawyer. Equally, issues such as VAT obligations, trade marks, employment contracts, etc should be well explained and understood.

3. Define

Before developing a business plan, clearly define the benefits of your business startup to consumers, users, clients, etc. Define your business model, solution strategy, marketing strategy and market competition.

4. Manage

Even if you’re not good with figures, you should strive to have a good understanding of ‘the numbers’ that will impact your business. Here are a few of them: Start-up Costs, Break-even point, Cash flow analysis amp; forecast for 1 ndash; 3 years, Funding requirements and Balance sheet reports. Your accountant or business consultant should be able to help you with these things.

5. Obtain

Here, you need to obtain industry analysis of other business startups or companies that are into your kind of business or offering your type of service. You need to undertake a detailed market research to help you understand your target market.

6. Search

I’ll assume you know what SEO means (i.e. Search Engine Optimization) and how it plays a huge role in your business startup visibility on the web. So before choosing a URL or domain/startup name, find out the terms and keywords related to your business or service that are most heavily searched on the Internet. Simply go to: http://www.google.com/keywords and look for terms that relate to your business. Trust me, it will help you to identify your competitors.

7. Assess

It is always difficult to predict the level of demand for your products or services. However, it is recommended to use conservative estimates (or assumptions) on likely demand and to use proxies where data is hard to come by.

Instead of claiming that there are no comparative figures available, you should use proxies to determine demand estimates even when the idea is innovative or unique. For example, if your site’s user base eventually becomes lower than you predicted at the beginning of your venture, you may fail to generate enough revenue to cover the large cost base that you’ve incurred.

My hope is that you’ve benefited from this article. In the future, I’ll be sharing tips on how to write a winning business plan.

Photo via flickr by ksgirl

A few years ago, an ex-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, said

hellip;the Nigerian government has worked out to invest 600 million US dollars (about 100 billion Naira) to establish the Abuja Technology Village modelled after the United States Silicon Valley…the hi-tech village would cover an area of 650 hectares near Lugbe on Airport Road… [and] the government would provide a seed fund amounting to 5 billion naira (about 38 million dollars) for the provision of infrastructure in the village.

This raises several questions:

Could this mean that Nigeria was really planning to build her own Silicon Valley on a 650 hectare land, located in a suburb of Nigeria’s Capital City, Abuja?

Could 100 Billion Naira be used to create a Silicon Valley in Nigeria? What are the factors to consider before creating a Silicon Valley in Nigeria? What the heck is Silicon Valley?

What Silicon Valley Is

Silicon Valley has been described as “a special habitat for innovation and entrepreneurship, consisting of dense, flexible networks and relationships among entrepreneurs, investors, university researchers, consultants, skilled employees… connecting people to ideas.”

Simply put, Silicon Valley is a Startup Hub, where business and technology startups and companies as well as Venture Capital firms are located with easy access to research centre, consultants, entrepreneurs and skilled employees.

What Silicon Valley Is Not

Silicon Valley is not a technology village made up of state-of-the-art infrastructure built on a massive hectare of land located in a suburb of a capital city. That’s not how Silicon Valley in the United States happened. Silicon Valley was created, not built.

According to Paul Graham,

The organic way to [create Silicon Valley] is to establish a first-rate university in a place where rich people want to live. That’s how Silicon Valley happened. [Note: parentheses added]

He continues:

For the price of a football stadium, any town that was decent to live in could make itself one of the biggest startup hubs in the world. What’s more, it wouldn’t take very long. You could probably do it in five years during the term of one mayor (or governor).

And it would get easier over time, because the more startups you had in town, the less it would take to get new ones to move there. By the time you had a thousand startups in town…they’d be opening local offices. Then you’d really be in good shape. You’d have started a self-sustaining chain reaction like the one that drives the Valley.

…The exciting thing is, all you need are the people. If you could attract a critical mass of nerds and investors to live somewhere, you could reproduce Silicon Valley.

Read more on How to Create a Silicon Valley by Paul Graham

What’s More?

According to an article written by Andrew Isaacs, Executive Director, Management of Technology Program, University of California, Berkeley,

In Silicon Valley, there were many contributing factors: A) gradual development of the Venture Capital industry, B) gradual improvement in local universities, C) gradual influx of technically strong labor, D) gradual growth in government investment in Ramp;D.

Given all of these, could 100 Billion Naira be used to create a Silicon Valley in Nigeria? I doubt.

According to Chief Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman/CEO of Zinox Technologies, one of the key factors for economic growth is a huge investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in order to adopt a “Knowledge Economy”.

He suggests that a minimum investment of 150 Billion Naira to provide subsidised computers and free Internet access to all Nigerians would encourage skills acquisition and make Nigeria become a great outsourcing centre just like India.

I tend to agree with Leo and here are my own suggestions on how to create a ldquo;technologyrdquo; Startup Hub in Nigeria.

5 Key Factors to Consider When Creating a Startup Hub in Nigeria

1. Power amp; Infrastructure

By that, I don’t mean power supply through generators. I mean through electric power or solar energy. However, with the current target of 6000 Megawatts by December 2009, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is not the way to go. If we go by these targets, we’ll probably be waiting for the next 50 years.

Therefore, any city that wants to create a startup hub should consider investing in alternative sources of energy such as solar power. It would require a huge investment of capital, but on the long run, the economic benefits will be realised.

2. Venture Capital Industry

A Venture Capital industry should be made up of incubators, angel investors, as well as high net-worth or wealthy individuals who are interested in startups and can provide funding for a stake in these startups. Also, huge technology companies could play a major role in the development of the venture capital industry.

Venture Capital firms will need to have a physical presence in the potential startup hub, in order to encourage entrepreneurs to move to such cities to develop their businesses further.

3. Universities

Any city that wants to create a startup hub must have a University or Universities that focus on Science amp; Technology, Research amp; Development, and Business Entrepreneurship with adequate infrastructure and a renowned academia.

Existing local Universities and Business Schools will have to integrate course modules in graphic arts amp; design, software development and web amp; mobile applications development, amongst others, in order to attract the kind of people that would drive a startup hub.

4. Knowledge Economy

Here’s where Leo’s suggestion holds true. A “Knowledge Economy” will naturally give birth to a new generation of technology-savvy entrepreneurs with a rare business culture – one that can only be found in Silicon Valley.

More so, Nigerians living in the Diaspora (UK, US, Canada, and other parts of the world), will need to return home to contribute to this development of a ‘knowledge economy’, especially with their skills and expertise. That way, we’ll have been able to reverse the ‘brain drain’.

Additionally, ICT and telecoms companies will have to engage student entrepreneurs with competitions that could set them up to starting their own companies, even from their University hostels. Remember, Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook while in college. Today, Facebook is worth about $3.7 billion.

5. Research amp; Development

There should be continued investment in research and development as it relates to the latest technology innovations that would support the growth of the Startup industry.

Here, the state or federal governments could take the initiative and set up fully equipped Institutes for Technology, Research and Development in strategic cities where startups could be located.

My final thoughts

Today, Internet companies such as Google have become one of the largest employers of labour in the U.S and have generated huge chunks of revenue that has successfully driven the U.S economy.

For example, Google’s revenue for 2008 stood at $4.22 billion, after subtracting commissions paid to its ad partners, despite the ugly economic recession. The Internet search giant was named the best company to work for in 2008, according to Fortune. Google is indeed a Goliath Startup!

Early this week, UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown announced that the government would invest £150m in high growth technology businesses. The UK Innovation Investment Fund will then focus on growing small businesses, start-ups and spin-outs in the digital, life sciences, clean tech and advanced manufacturing sectors.

The questions are:

Should Nigeria keep looking up to these economies for support? Shouldn’t Nigeria develop its own economy like that of these countries? Can Nigeria become one of the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020?

Here’s my proposition:

If great attention is focused on developing Nigeria’s “Knowledge Economy” over the next 5 years, it would greatly impact on the development of Startup Hubs and the overall economy in the country.

If this is achieved within the next 5 years, we’ll be seeing the emergence of prototype companies like Google, Yahoo! and eBay after 10 years or so. The process will be “gradual”, as it were, and may take up to 20 years to actually replicate the success of the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, California.

Photo via flickr by roy.luck

UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown announced earlier this week that the government would invest £150m in high growth technology businesses. The UK Innovation Investment Fund will focus on growing small businesses, start-ups and spin-outs in the digital, life sciences, clean tech and advanced manufacturing sectors.

The investment total will be matched by the private sector, and according to the government, this could lead to enough private investment to build a £1bn fund over the next decade.

“This fund will help build Britain’s future by investing in key sectors,” said Gordon Brown.

“It will provide crucial support for our most promising start-ups and existing small companies just when they need it most. Venture capital finance is the lifeblood of innovation and crucial to ensuring the commercialisation of the discoveries coming out of our research base.”

According to government figures there are 1,093 venture capital backed tech companies in the UK employing more than 40,000 highly skilled workers.

Business secretary Lord Mandelson said the government had identified access to venture capital as one of the ‘critical factors’ in developing innovative UK ventures.

He added: “The [fund] will be a shot in the arm for the British venture capital industry. It is also a challenge to UK VCs to follow the government’s lead in backing British entrepreneurs in building exciting new companies, investing in new technologies and creating new jobs.”

Via: Startups.co.uk

Starting an online business has become very cheap and easy. If managed well, online businesses can generate multiple streams of income.

Today, I am sharing 50 free money-making online business ideas that are worth exploring in Nigeria. Most of these ideas have grown to become successful businesses around the world, and some have been bought by huge companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

I’ll be adding more ideas in the future. But the trick is that you can actually start any online business in any niche of your choice. All you need to do is learn how to market your business and how to make that money.

If you need advice, send me an email via buzz {at} loyokezie.com

50 Free Online Business Ideas to Make Money

1. Photo sharing

Photo sharing sites allow users to upload photos and share them with an online community. Don’t just be Flickr fans. Start one. Users can share photos of places visited, event pictures, nature photos, etc in Nigeria.

2. Video sharing

Video sharing sites allow users to upload music and music videos, and share them with an online community. Don’t just be Youtube fans. Start one. With a video sharing site, we can watch episodes of soap operas, TV programs, Nollywood movies, etc

3. Dating

Dating sites in Nigeria are not bad at all. But how about adopting a different approach to the dating game? I like the concept of www.Alarena.com, a match-making site for Africans. I also like the concept of www.PlentyOfFish.com where you don’t have to pay to join.

4. Auction

There are only a few auction sites in Nigeria and they are not doing badly. If you are thinking of an auction site that will sell in Nigeria, why not consider an auction start-up that auctions jewelleries real-time. I’ll recommend a site like www.Bidz.com

5. Web Office Applications

Can you launch a start-up that can compete with the Microsoft desktop software? According to Paul Graham, this is a rich market, considering the huge sums of money Microsoft makes from it.

He also thinks that “a start-up that takes on such a project will be helped along by Microsoft itself, who between their increasingly bureaucratic culture and their desire to protect existing desktop revenues will probably do a bad job of building web-based Office variants themselves.

He further advises that before you try to start a start-up doing this, you should be prepared to explain why existing web-based Office alternatives haven’t taken the world by storm, and how you’re going to beat that. A Nigerian site www.Nigeria.ms seems to have an idea of a site for web desktop amp; office apps.

6. Online Learning

Nigerian schools don’t seem to have the best to offer our youths. Candidates who sit for WAEC, NECO and JAMB exams fail because of a failed education system, where the learning environment is not conducive.

Perhaps, youths can enjoy learning online if there are sites that help them go through revisions and prepare for tests. A site like www.InstantRevision.com is good example. Another idea could be to design online games that would help children improve their learning abilities and thinking faculties.

I also like the idea behind www.NaijaLingo.com ndash; an online dictionary of Nigerian Pidgin English words. Can there be Naijapedia just like Afropedia that offers a free online encyclopaedia and social networking where users can all contribute information and enjoy the learning experience?

7. Search. Search. Search.

We all search everyday on the Internet. Do you Yahoo? or Are you a Googling? Yes, Google is the King of Search, but there’s probably something that Google hasn’t done with search that we can still do. Paul Graham thinks that Google’s biggest weakness is that “they have no sense of design” with their search pages, as they tend to keep things sparse. But if there were a kind of search that depended a lot on design, a start-up might actually be able to beat Google at search.

8. Online Payment Platform

Have you noticed that Nigeria is not listed as a PayPal member country? That’s sad! Ok, I know what the world says about Nigeria and scam, blah blah blah. Isn’t that enough reason to develop efficient online payment systems that could cater for the African market and beyond? I like what InterSwitch, eTranzact, and ChamsSwitch are doing, but their cards should be Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV) compliant.

9. Online Shopping Portal

Another untapped market, although there are a few online shopping sites in Nigeria such as www.BuyRight.biz, www.Tokunbo.com and www.Flegz.com amongst others. There are also sites where you can recharge your call credits such as www.PrepaidNigeria.com and www.RechargeNigeria.com Most of these sites are on the Interswitch network.

10. Portfolio Valuation

These days, Nigerians are becoming more aware of the benefits of investing in shares, stocks, bonds, etc. in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. If you are a stock market broker, expert, enthusiast, or novice like me, you could consider a start-up that evaluates the portfolios of investors (i.e. that monitors the value of people’s investments on the NSE). A good example is www.InvestorDelight.com

11. Web Hosting

Perhaps a saturated market in Nigeria, there is already a handful of web hosting sites offering web hosting packages, web design and web domain name registration services. Some good examples are NairaHost and Web4Africa.

12. Blogging Platforms

Blogging has been very successful with the help of blog platforms such as Wordpress, Blogger (Blogspot), and Typepad amongst others. In fact, this blog is hosted under Wordpress.

However, we need Nigerian blogging platforms that offer local content, design/theme and settings. I like www.BunduBlog.com, an African-owned blogging platform that echoes the voices of Africans to the world.

13. Blog Themes/Templates Design

We know we have so many design amp; graphics experts in Nigeria that should hone their skills more on today’s new web space. We need blog templates and theme designers out of Nigeria and Africa that offer and market their own designs based on local backgrounds and concept to the world. Thus, a start-up site that showcases blog templates/themes and allow users to download for a fee could be a hit.

14. Consumer Reviews

Of course you have used a product or service in Nigeria that you didn’t like. And you cursed and cursed but nobody listened to you. Here’s a chance to provide consumers/users the opportunity to share their opinions and experiences about a product or service.

15. Public Complaints

Maybe you have a public complain to make concerning a justice system gone bad, or a corrupt police force, or even a Nigerian government agency or ministry that needs to improve their service, a public complaints site could be a good place to voice your opinions anonymously. It could even be designed as a wiki page and could get a lot of attention. Trust me. Apparently, an ATM machines/ATM card online forum will be a mega hit.

16. Social Bookmarking

Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, South Africa’s Muti and Nigeria’s Sturvs help share content around the web. But there’s something that Sturvs is not doing (well) – Social Bookmarking. A Nigerian site that allows users to create bookmarks for local web items will really fly.

17. Social Music

When I discovered Last FM, I was thrilled to know that music can be social and fun on the web. Nigeria’s Truspot is a great example of a social music revolution. It would be great to see a Nigerian social music site that allows users to listen to full music tracks and download music (MP3) for free. Is there any site like that?

18. Room/Apartment rental

This is probably one area that has not been explored yet in Nigeria. Most people, especially students who can’t afford a 600K naira apartment for two years in Lagos or Abuja could benefit from this kind of site that allows them find roommates to share the rent and utility bills. You can get ideas from US-based www.EasyRoomMate.com

19. Classifieds

There are so many classifieds sites around the world providing different product listings from cars to laptops to jewelleries. An example is Craigslist. In Nigeria, this market is growing exponentially and sites like Nairalist and Kerawa are tapping into this market. If you’re thinking of launching one or you’re already in this business, you had better read about the recent Craigslist saga! Yeah, dating is allowed, but not prostitution!:-D

20. Editing amp; Proofreading

A site that provides students, researchers, etc with proofreading and editing services for a fee can be experimented. After all, there are still schools that value high standards for grades in Nigeria, so people who value good grades will pay for a service like that.

21. Technology Blog

A blog about Nigerian technology news, reviews, interviews and analysis will attract tech enthusiasts, IT experts, industry watchers, consumers/customers, advertisers, investors, etc

22. Fashion Blog

A blog about new fashion trends in Nigeria, fashion shows/awards, fashion tips, advice and ideas. This should include photos of different fashion outfits (both male and female), especially of African traditional wears. The audience would be fashion freaks, fashion designers and people looking for anything new in the fashion world. I like what Linda Okeji and LadyBrille are doing.

23. Entertainment Blog

A blog that provides entertainment news, reviews and interviews as well as gossips and gist in the Nigerian entertainment industry will sell big-time. You may include the who’s who in the entertainment world, events coverage, music/movie news, etc No doubt, Bella Naija has done well.

24. Tourism/Culture Blog

Nigerian culture and tourism is very rich, but is yet untapped. There are monuments, rocks, wildlife, water falls, beaches, resorts, parks, hotels, festivals, carnivals, world heritage sites and more that need to be explored. A blog that covers these areas audience could attract potential tourists, people interested in cultures, exhibitors, advertisers as well as investors.

25. Sports/Football Blog

We all know how enthusiastic and passionate people get when their favourite sport is on TV. Thus, a blog about the Nigerian premier league or any other sport in Nigeria could get a lot of attention ndash; the championships, the teams, the players, and the business side of sports – can be highlighted.

26. Career Blog

Getting and keeping a job in Nigeria is a huge challenge. I have my own stories, but please don’t ask:-) A blog about job tips and career advice as well as how to succeed in the Nigerian job market will be a major hit. As a personal and professional development coach and having worked as career consultant and recruiter for several management and recruitment firms both in Nigeria and the UK, I am “seriously” considering this.

27. Car Blog

I find that Nigerians are so crazy about cars, especially fancy cars! A blog that writes about cars, brands, models, etc including photos as well as tips and advice will sell big time. The auto industry in Nigeria is evolving and blogs that report this trend could get premium paid advertisements from car dealers in Nigeria and around the world. A great example of a successful car review blog is www.CarAdvice.com.au

28. Events Blog

Nigerians love events, especially the “owa nbe’s”:D Thus, a general blog that covers all events in Nigeria including entertainment, politics, religion, sports, technology, oil amp; gas, etc could be an events hub catering for a large audience and will require a lot of contributors. You could get a lot of advertisement offers if you can manage this blog very well. An example is www.EventArcade.com

29. Politics Blog

Perhaps you might not like to report political news and gossips that would get you arrested and detained, but I bet that there are lots of insightful and exciting political news, topics, debates, etc that can get massive attention, especially during an election period. (e.g. CNN Political Ticker). I think that www.SaharaReporters.com is a great example of a site dedicated to political news, reviews and analysis.

30. Celebrity Blog

I notice that people love to read about people, especially about celebrities. Sometime last year, I always wanted to know what’s new about Britney Spears, so I was always on www.PerezHilton.com A blog about Celebs in Nigeria ndash; gossips about their personal lives, their relationships/affairs, their career lives, etc ndash; will be widely read and make you a lot of money.

31. Movies Review Blog

The Nigerian movie industry popularly known as Nollywood has grown to become the third most lucrative movie industry in the world after America’s Hollywood and India’s Bollywood. You could write reviews on movies, and get people to analyse and rate them and also get lots of opinions from Nigerian movie lovers.

32. Photography Blog

A blog that reviews nice sites and places, photos of nature, animals, etc in Nigeria could get attention from people who are interested in visiting Nigeria. You could also share tips, advice and ideas about photography, as well as review photography gadgets such as digital cameras, camcorders, mobile phone cameras, etc

33. Aviation Blog

The aviation industry in Nigeria has experienced a lot of terrible incidents and has shaped the way people view air travel in Nigeria. A blog that reviews airlines in Nigeria, their fleets, services, routes, promotions, and flight news could be a great resource. You might get advert deals from airline operators that have air ticket promotions for their various flight destinations.

34. Stock Market Blog

A blog that reviews and analyses the stock market trends and news reports in Nigeria, including recent company listings, market analysis, industry reports, etc A good example of a Nigerian site doing this is www.NaijaLowa.com

35. Oil amp; Gas Blog

The Nigerian oil amp; gas industry has got the world’s attention, so a blog that writes about the latest news and gist about the oil amp; gas industry could grow to become a lucrative business blog. You could also include the who’s who in the industry.

36. Food/Nutrition Blog

Everyone eats food. Some people love food. Personally, I’m always interested in trying new food options that could nourish my health. In fact, there is a lot of Nigerian, African and continental foods that we haven’t even seen, heard of, or tasted before.

Thus, a niche blog on foods and nutrition could get opinions from food enthusiasts and nutrition experts. You could also include tips, advice and ideas on nutrition and food strategies that might help people eat better and stay healthy.

37. Arts amp; Craft Blog

The African tradition has so much influence on the way the world sees Africa. Thus, a blog about African masks, sculptures, paintings, etc with photos will get the world’s attention. People can even visit Nigeria in order to shop for these items as a result of information from the blog and which will help boost tourism in Nigeria. They could also purchase these items via online shopping.

38. Religion Blog

Perhaps a Christianity, Islamic or Traditional religion blog that writes about their various activities such as campaigns, crusades, pilgrims, conventions, conferences, carnivals, annual religious rites, worship centres, shrines, etc could get a lot of attention. It could be an online community for people who are religiously inclined. Religious organisations, especially churches may even pay for advertisements on this blog.

39. Entrepreneurship Blog

I think that people would like to become entrepreneurs in Nigeria, especially with the success stories of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola and Mike Adenuga. A business blog that provides entrepreneurship advice and resources on how to start ventures in Nigeria as well as web startups in Nigeria could be a great resource. Some examples are www.DeoluAkinyemi.com, www.LoyOkezie.com, www.NaijaEcash.com and www.EoluTosin.com.

40. Bloggers’ Blog

We’ve seen the success of Afrigator (as a blog aggregation site), but how about a blog that discovers other blogs in Nigeria. Something like a StumbleUpon for Blogs or a Blog’s aggregation Blog?

41. Web Design/Development Blog

A blog that reviews new and existing open source software applications as well as web programming technologies will have a huge readership and followership. It will also make a lot of money from advertisement, etc.

42. Telecoms Blog

A blog that reviews and analyses telecoms news, gossips, products and services, promos, as well as the NCC’s business in Nigeria, including market analysis, future trends and forecasts, industry reports, etc will be a smash.

43. Bank Blog

A blog that reviews and analyses banking trends, gossips, news, products and services, promos, reports including market analysis, etc in Nigeria will be another money spinner.

44. Interior Design Blog

A blog that provides interior decoration and home-making tips and advice, as well as design trends, news, deals, etc will draw attention especially from foreigners/expats living in Nigeria.

45. Gaming Blog

A blog that reviews and analyses gaming products, companies, etc such as PlayStation and Xbox will make a lot of money.

46. Real Estate Blog

The real estate industry has grown exponentially over the last few years. This blog will profile real estate deals and promo offers in different regions as well as tips and advice on how and where to get the best deals in Nigeria. The blog will attract advertisement from real estate companies looking to find buyers.

47. Mobile Gadgets Blog

A blog that reviews and rates mobile phones, accessories, gadgets as well as PC and laptop accessories, PDAs, and other electronics will be very resourceful and profitable.

48. Promo Blog

This blog could focus on covering all promotional offers from companies in all industries, but especially those of banks, telecoms, real estate and aviation. It could grow to become a mega promo shop online where people go to shop for the latest promo offers and news. The blog could have a mobile version, so that users can get promo news right on their mobile phones.

49. Investment Blog

This blog could be analyzing several financial investment ideas, options, and funds available in financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, asset management companies and investment capital and advisory firms. The blog could also provide tips and advice on the best investment options.

The author must be an expertise in financial management and investment strategies. If managed well, it could generate a lot of attention from people needing investment advice as well as financial institutions that would want to promote their products.

50. Social Networking Site

Social networking sites are causing social netquakes on the web space. There are just enough, so let’s try something different, dudes. How about adopting a different approach to the social networking thingy?

Interestingly, I have a cracking idea for a great social network that can be heavily monetised and get the world’s attention. I’m not kidding. I would share it here on this blog so we can x-ray and analyse it together to see if it would fly. The idea is still in conception stage, but if I see larger potentials on the project, sorry I wouldn’t share:-P

mdash;

It was an interesting exercise and experience for me compiling this list, even with sleepless nights. The list is by no means exhaustive, so if you have a great business or technology startup idea that’s not on the list, we’d love to hear them.

Here are simple steps to guide you in starting a successful small business in Nigeria.

1. Identify Your Business Opportunity

Choosing what kind of business to start can be an immobilizing task when confronted with the multitude of opportunities. It’s important to determine where your passions lie and to understand your entrepreneurial personality type. Do you think you have found the one business opportunity that will bring you freedom, fame, and plenty of profits? If not, keep searching.

2. Build a Business Plan

For the majority of start-ups, a business plan allows you to gain a better understanding of your industry structure, competitive landscape, and the capital requirements of starting a small business. If business planning is beneficial, why do so few start-ups use business planning? Learn the critical steps to writing a business plan.

3. Name Your Business

What’s in a business name? Everything and nothing. The right business name will help distinguish you from a sea of bland competitors, provide your customers with a reason to hire you, and aid in the branding of your company. Find the best ownership structure for your small business. The most basic of all business legal structures is the sole proprietorship. Other possible structures include the popular limited liability company, a partnership, or an S corporation.

4. Register Your Business

Starting a small business requires the usual paperwork and regulations. Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is responsible for this, for a small business start up you might not really need to incorporate the business as a Business name registration will do. Setting up your small business may require a business name registration to avoid embarrassment from local government authorities and to enable you get a corporate account with a bank. You can get your ex-school mate with a background in Law to help you out.

5. Find Start-up Money

Contrary to popular belief, most small business start-ups aren’t funded by grants, venture capitalists, or banks. Your seed money will come from your personal savings, friends, family, and any other creative means such as bartering.

6. Determine Your Business Location

Surveys have revealed that over 56% of the fastest growing companies were started at home. Discover what you need to make your home office design more productive. If home business isn’t for you, learn how sharing office space can aid your start-up. Don’t forget to review the pros and cons of office space leasing vs. buying. Read Tips on Choosing an Ideal Business Location.

7. Create an Accounting System

Unless you’re a number person, the accounting and book-keeping aspect of running your business can’t be avoided. Setting up your accounting system will help you understand the financial aspect of running a business. If you need help in setting this up, you can contact an ex-school mate who has a good background in accounting.

I’ll be discussing these steps one after the other in the future.

Here are a few social media lessons from Barack Obama that can help you connect with your audience, build your brand and generate more revenue than you can ever imagine.

1. Obama loved his audience first and showed that they mattered most in the campaign and that’s one of the reasons he raise as much money as he did throughout the campaign. He often said that his campaign was about the American people and he focused on their problems and sought ways to solve them.

Lesson: Know your audience and strive to reach them. Focus on your customers and show them love (because love makes the world go round). Give them value, because they are going to pay you more money for value.

2. Obama surrounded himself with smart people, even people smarter than he is. Even though he’s a highly intelligent man, he’s also a humble servant and is willing to acknowledge other people’s viewpoint.

Lesson: Borrow brains. You aren’t smart enough to succeed on your own. Look for people smarter than you are. If you are good at internet technology, find someone good at internet marketing to partner with.

3. Obama marketed himself and his campaign both online and offline using tools and techniques that appealed to a larger audience. He connected with his audience via his speeches and effectively used social media sites such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Technorati, Digg, Friendster, Youtube, etc to network with his audience.

Lesson: Communicate with your audience. Let them see you as a real person who is interested in their needs and wants to fill those needs. Establish relationships with the social media and use it to create awareness about your startup.

4. Obama adopted advertising strategies and mediums that reached his audience wherever they were via Tv ads, radio ads, etc His goal was to effectively overscore the importance of his campaign as well as his programs and plans for the American people. Though some of those ads were considered as attacks against his opponents, they were mostly in response to his opponents ads.

Lesson: Create an advertising strategy that would out-compete your competitors. Use a far reaching advertising medium to target your audience. Press releases and interviews in local newspapers as well as web-savvy publications can sell your start-up very well.

Obama enjoyed recreation and had fun even during the toughest times in the campaign. He played basketball and did bowling (even if he thinks his bowling sucks…Lol) and worked out to keep fit.

Lesson: Don’t overwork yourself. Enjoy reasonable recreation and just have fun sometimes.

Note: These lessons are by no means exhaustive, so Irsquo;ll be adding more to the list soon. In the future, Irsquo;ll be writing about how companies and organizations can use these social nedia lessons. If you learned any lesson from Barack Obamarsquo;s use of social media, please tell let us know.

Facebook has grown to become one of the most popular websites today due to its social networking tools and utilities, audience reach and its relevance to businesses. Facebook is a social utility for connecting with people ndash; friends, family, co-workers, or simply others ndash; with similar interests as well as sharing information with them in several ways.

When the site was created, most people didn’t recognise Facebook’s potentials for growing their businesses. But today, successful companies are using Facebook’s utilities such as applications and advertisements to build their brands.

Before discussing ways Facebook can help you grow your business, here are some goals for using Facebook for Business:

• Attract people who are searching for your products or services online.


• Connect and engage with current and potential customers online.


• Create a community around your business for interaction.


• Promote your contents such as blog articles, press releases, product information, events, photos, videos and other resources

If these are part of your business goals, then you might want to learn ways you can grow your business using Facebook.

Facebook Page

Apart from creating a personal profile as an individual, you can also create a Page for your business to represent your company on Facebook. A Page is similar to a Profile except that it is, by default, public and users can become a “fan” of your Page without first requiring approval from the Page administrators.

Creating a Page is absolutely FREE but will require time and effort to build and maintain. To get started, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Facebook Group

In a few cases, however, it may make sense to create a Facebook group instead of a page or in addition. The key distinction between groups and pages is that a group is for a community of people with a common interest, while a page represent a brand or entity of which there are “fans.” For example, there could be a Nokia phone users group on Facebook and/or a Nokia brand fans page.

By participating in the discussions of your page or group, you can promote your business, establish contacts and connect with potential customers and redirect them to your company website. To create a group, visit http://www.facebook.com/groups.php and click “Create a New Group” in the top right hand corner of the webpage.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads allow you to advertise a website or content you manage on Facebook (like a group, page, or event). The system for building and running ads on Facebook is quite similar to Google Adwords. Thus, you can promote your business, get more fans for your business page, and drive more leads for your sales team.

Facebook allows you to target the reach for your ad by location, gender, age, and interests. As you add filters, Facebook will automatically update the count of people fitting your criteria so you can gauge the size of your target market on Facebook.

Facebook has built-in analytics to help track ad performance in terms of number of impressions, clicks, and click through rate. You can also run multiple ad variations at the same time and use the ads manager to determine which ones deliver the best results for your business.

Facebook allows you to select a payment type and budget for your ad campaign. The two main payment types are “pay for clicks” and “pay for views.” The “pay for clicks” offers the best value for the cost, particularly because the click through rate is very low (less than .1% for most ads).

Thus, if you include your company logo as the photo for the ad, you will get a large number of brand impressions to your target audience, and you will only pay for the actual clicks to your Page or website. With Facebook Ads, millions of people are able to see your business on Facebook who would naturally visit your website, purchase your products or use your services.

To create a Facebook Ad, visit http://www.facebook.com/advertising and click “Get Started.” Then, choose what you would like to advertise: an external website, a Facebook Page, a group, or an event you manage.

Facebook Apps

There are thousands of applications or apps on Facebook that can help you share content and interact with your customers. A Facebook application can take on many forms, but in order to fully utilize the suite of integration points and deliver a full user experience, it is recommended that you integrate your application into certain areas of your Facebook profile. Facebook applications allow you to connect with your potential users, customers and partners. You can visit http://www.facebook.com/applications to browse available applications.

Final thoughts

Businesses need to start using Facebook (if they’re not already doing so) to reach out to millions of Facebook users worldwide who are actively involved with the site named ldquo;The Most Popular Siterdquo; for the Year 2008.

Indeed, Facebook can help you to build your business brand, interact and engage with existing and potential customers, and drive sales and generate revenue for your business.

And here comes the best part ndash; Facebook is FREE!

So my first prediction about the future of web start-ups is pretty straightforward: there will be a lot of them…As the volume of start-ups increases, big companies will start to develop standardized procedures that make acquisitions little more work than hiring someone.

His 10 predictionshellip;

1. Lots of Startups

2. Standardization

3. New Attitude to Acquisition

4. Riskier Strategies are Possible

5. Younger, Nerdier Founders

6. Startup Hubs Will Persist

7. Better Judgement Needed

8. College Will Change

9. Lots of Competitors

10. Faster Advances

Interestingly, I found that the keywords ndash; lsquo;cheaprsquo;, lsquo;cheaperrsquo; and lsquo;cheapnessrsquo; ndash; were mostly used to describe how launching a startup could become in the future. But there’s something that Graham did not say ndash; whether or not these startups would become profitable on the long run (even if they were started cheap) since therersquo;ll be lots of competition.

In his opinion, the startups that would eventually succeed are those that would be acquired by “big companies”. After all, acquisitions are now getting starndardized. I agree with Paul, but where does that leave startups that canrsquo;t go through these standardized acquisitions or that simply don’t want to get acquired by the “bulls”?

A case in point is Twitter. There’s been so much debate about how Twitter will make money, especially after Twitterrsquo;s founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone have affirmed that TWITTER IS NOT FOR SALE.

Now, my concern is: where does that leave African Internet startups?

Paul again added:

Fortunately, if startups get cheaper to start, therersquo;s another way to convince investors. Instead of going to venture capitalists with a business plan and trying to convince them to fund it, you can get a product launched on a few tens of thousands of dollars of seed money from us or your uncle, and approach them with a working company instead of a plan for one.

Will that make them profitable? No!

I think that without a well-structured and sustainable revenue generating model, Internet startups in Africa could be hopeless. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few that may have been fortunate to get funding or acquired, but have they been profitable? How much are they now worth?

While I’m of the opinion that there are too many Internet start-ups doing the same thing, I also think that this makes it difficult to have Internet millionaires (or billionaires) from Africa. Perhaps I can count one or two of them that I know, and you may know someone or so, but the question is:

Did they become millionaires or billionaires solely from their Internet startups?

Today, many smart companies are moving from (high-cost) mass advertising to (low-cost) direct marketing which puts the company and their products in front of their target markets via Marketing 2.0.

Marketing 2.0 is based on building conversations and interactions with customers via the Internet with a view to generating sales leads. This means that customer relationships or service (whatever you call it) should not only be driven by telephone contact centres or face-to-face contact, but also via corporate blogs, online communities as well as email and instant messenger (IM) platforms.

In addition to traditional marketing channels, companies need to adopt social media marketing tools (a.k.a Marketing 2.0 Tools) such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, etc in order to engage with their customers and build their brands both locally and globally.

Since customers are seen as the most important stakeholders in a business’s success, engaging with them via these Marketing 2.0 tools is the best way companies can show they are customer-focused and customer-driven.

Launch. Social. Network?

Companies that claim to be customer-driven should at least have an online community that fosters interaction and participation with customers. It wonrsquo;t hurt, really. For example, you can setup a mini-social network for your company, and let your customers become the primary focus of your business. Their participation in the community is somewhat similar to being part of other social networks they naturally use such as Facebook, Myspace, Perfspot, Hi5, Orkut and Ning.

An example of a customer-centric approach and strategy is Zain Nigeria’s central station (http://www.centralstationng.com) which is an online community of Zain mobile subscribers in Nigeria that allows users to connect with other people, share information and participate in competitions. This ever-growing community has attracted a lot of youths, other users and fans of the Zain mobile network.

Thus, if your company has a large customer-base or is looking for new ways to increase their customer-base, an online collaboration using the company’s social network would provide the opportunity for finding high-value and meaningful contributions that could provide key information critical to resolving customer-related issues.

What. Customers. Want?

More than ever before, customers value a community where their views and opinions can be heard by the company and they are most likely to stay on your website and support your product brands when their opinions are appreciated by the company. Their opinions, either negative or positive, tend to add value to the company’s business as well as its products and services.

Customers also like to participate in a community that allows them to interact easily with other potential customers. That’s exactly what some of the social media tools provide ndash; an excellent way of using and sharing information via blogs, discussion forums, RSS feeds, bookmarking, etc.

How. Companies. React?

Companies can join in the discussion and get right into the heart of the conversations in a way to connect with their customers. By providing tips and advice on how customers can use their products and allowing for instant feedback from them through the company blog or Instant Messaging (IM) platforms integrated to their websites, they can respond to quick questions from customers about their products or services.

Irsquo;ll be discussing how building a corporate blog can help companies to build their company brand in a future article.

Image via Flickr by Fred Cavazza

In order to succeed in the lsquo;Buzz Industryrsquo; ndash; now by that I mean, the social media business ndash; it is necessary that you find smart and easy ways to market that buzz offline, otherwise how can you grab audiences that donrsquo;t know what the heck is lsquo;Social Mediarsquo; or lsquo;Web 2.0prime;?

Since you can not start a social media school or take them tutorials on social media, here are some tips that will definitely help you become successful with an offline market.

Use Words of Mouth

You know how gossip spreads like wild fire? Thatrsquo;s exactly how gossip about your social media business can spread like a virus. Tell your friends, family members, neighbors, classmates, workmates and anyone you find about your business and the products and services that you offer. Trust me, they will tell other people, who will also tell othershellip;tell othershellip;tell othershellip; That way, you are likely to have infected as many people as possible with your business.

Use Communities

Here, I mean communities such as your school, church, clubs, associations, etc The idea is to reach out to the members of these communities that may need your services. Quick phone calls, brief presentations, or even lunch with these people could simply do the magic.

Use Traditional Media

Your local newspaper can just be what your business needs to get widely known offline. You may contact a friend who works with any of your local print media and get him/her to write about your business. You can also get yourself an interview with the newspaper. Thus, more and more people offline will get to know your brand when they read these papers.

Use Advertising Tools

By this I mean, engage in some advertising and promotional efforts to promote your business. You can use tee-shirts, face caps, etc to market your brand. That way, you can get people offline to engage with your products and services online.

Are there any other offline marketing strategies you have used for your business? How have they worked for you?

Image via: SearchEngineWatch.com

Whether you have launched your startup or you are planning to launch, you might want to put into consideration the location of your business. Why? Because you will have better chances to succeed in a location that is suitable for your online venture.

Since you may have launched your startup before moving to another city, it is critical to consider choosing a city that will provide your business better chances of succeeding. There are a few factors to consider when deciding in what city to create and build your startup business.

Here are top 5 factors to consider:

Potential Clients

You should find out where your potential customers/clients are located. Who is your target market? Who will your product/service appeal to? Of course, your startup business is online, but you also have business to do offline. If your potential customers or target audience are mostly located in a particular city or area it seems natural to get an office space in that particular area.

Office Space

You may not have the money to set up an office now, especially as your startup business is self-funded and the chances of getting VC-backing are slim. Besides, the cost of office spaces in a choice area could be very high, not to talk of the utility bills, transport costs, and other overheads. Don’t be heart broken, friend.

You can still run your startup from your living apartment, University hostel or a decent Internet cafe. If, however, your startup will eventually require an office space in the nearest future, it could make a lot of sense to move to a smaller city where real estate is cheaper.

Software Developers

You will need people who are skilled in software/web development to join your team. Although you can hook up with any of these people online, but what happens if they must meet at a physical location such as an office space? Will they be willing to move to that city?

If you want to build a team around your startup, then you need to make sure the city where you live have the right combination of software developers, graphics designers and other highly specialized skills. You might want to consider moving to a larger city or a city with a nearby local university where you can find your team.

Startup Hub

Perhaps you don’t live in the Silicon Valley-like city that offers special programs and assistance for startups. In the United States, most cities have special programs and assistance for startup companies. In fact, large technology companies such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and others have special startup competitions for startup companies.

There are also angel investors, incubators such as Y Combinator as well as Venture Capital firms that provide assistance to early stage startups. Sadly, Africa doesnrsquo;t have a stable support system for startups via funding, infrastructure or technical/training support.

But who says your startup canrsquo;t thrive without a startup hub?

Travel

You should consider travel when you are choosing your startup city. If you will be having a lot of customers coming for meetings, then you should be located in a city that is easy to get to via major airlines. That means that the city should be accessible from other cities within the country. If your customers will be coming from abroad, then you must be located in a city (or nearby city) that has access to an international airport.

Again, your startup business should be located in an area that can be easily assessed via the available transport systems. You should locate your startup in an ideal area where your customers would not experience huge traffic issues.

What are your thoughts about choosing a city for your startup business? Are you planning to move? What are your challenges?

Photo Via Flickr by Benajose

Zoopy, an online and mobile social media community where users upload, share and interact with videos, photos, audio and notes will soon be making its footprints around the African social media space.

Based in South Africa, the company which was launched in March 2007 was selected by Nokia as their Regional Imaging Partner for South Africa in December 2007 and received 40% investment (now increased to 75%) from Vodacom, South Africa’s leading cellular network in June 2008.

According to MyDigitalLife.co.za, Zoopy’s CEO, Jason Elk says Zoopy will leverage Vodacom`s technology and reach into the (African) continent in order to tap into the market.

Elk is adamant there is a large enough market for social media in Africa. (I agree with him). He also points to countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, which he says have burgeoning online communities, not to mention a very huge mobile community waiting to be exploited.

Trust Zoopy, their goal is to target those communities with their suite of mobile broadcasting services. Catch them young, huh!

I recently joined Zoopy and got in touch with Jason, who confirmed to me that (in his words):

We’re starting to explore African markets this year and are just as excited at growing our community into the rest of the continent.

If Zoopy launches across Africa, this could change the face of social media and raise the standards of online communities in Africa. But would that stop Africans from using YouTube? I doubt. Whatever the case, Zoopy could still become a major competitor in the African social media space.

My advice to companies here is to invest in social media communities in Africa. That way, they can easily target audiences that are directly related to or interested in their products and brand.

Is your company moving where the market is going?

Since Twitter became a great tool for business communication, I’ve been researching several ways that companies and small businesses in Africa can tap into its power to reach their customers and clients effectively. I’ve also been searching for brands that have adopted Twitter as a platform for their businesses globally.

My research revealed that huge global brands such as Dell (Computers), Ford (Cars), JetBlue (Travel), Whole Foods (Retail),  Starbucks (Food and Beverage), Samsung (Phones) amongst others are using Twitter for business.

What is Twitter? How does it work? How can African businesses use Twitter effectively to reach more customers?

Twitter is a free micro-blogging platform that allows you send updates about what you’re doing (of not more than 140 characters) to a community made up of (but not limited to) new and exisiting customers and clients, as well as advertisers and sponsors. These people are called ‘followers’ and you can ‘follow’ other people as well.

Twitter is a public forum on the web, thus companies should have a public Web participation policy in order for their employees to post updates of what is acceptable and desirable to their community.

Top 5 Ways Businesses Can Use Twitter for Business

1. To communicate with customers

Companies that provide services such as airlines, travel agencies, hotels, etc can use Twitter to communicate non-official, entertaining discussions with their customers. They can also ask their customers/clients what they like to read and watch, listen to, or even what their travel experiences are.

Companies that are product-driven can run ask-and-answer sessions with their customers to find out what they think about their products (new and existing), what improvements can be made, what problems are they facing using them, etc

Companies can also have different twitter accounts for their different products. Then, they could have different employees in different units/departments handle these twitter accounts.

2. To react to customers’ feedback

Customers or clients always have complaints. Any company that doesn’t need or use customers’ feedback is not customer-focused. If companies don’t get feedback from their customers, they might lose their customers. Twitter accounts can help companies to get instant feedback at no cost from customers or clients.

A cost-effective feedback system will greatly improve the efficiency of a company. It will further help the company build their brand. Companies that start using Twitter now to connect with their customers will reduce cost, especially in this economic recession.

3. To update customers of the company deals and discounts

Companies can take advantage of the twitter community to post new offers, deals and discounts for their customers. They can also create several Twitter profiles for different types of deals and can and also participate in discussions of these offers with their Twitter-followers.

More information about these new offers, deals and discounts could also be found on their company websites or blog, thus they could use a link (with short url e.g. TinyUrl.com, Bit.ly) to redirect their customers who are eager for more information to their websites.

4. To offer an alternative customer support system

Providing customer/client support is very important in the CRM process. While there were several ways companies provide support, some of them have not been effective and efficient. For instance, getting connected to a customer care desk or personnel via phone on a Globacom network would take you between 20 to 30 minutes. That’s if you get connected at all, because perhaps all their technical support personnel are busy???

Granted, customers are not paying for the calls, but the time wasted just trying to connect could be used for some other productive stuff. That’s like waiting for 30 minutes on a slow internet connection only to access your Yahoo email account.

With a Twitter-based (friendly) customer service/support, companies can provide instant support to any customer without much hassle. They can even provide the customer support personnel’s name currently on duty and instead of using the company logo for the customer support Twitter account; they could use the real photo of the customer support person.

5. To post company news and events

Companies can post updates of their internal developments, company announcements, press releases, events as well as industry news and events that are relevant. They could also discuss this news with their Twitter followers. They can also provide updates to the news published on their websites/blogs as well as recent discussions on the website.

If your company is not using Twitter for business, then you are missing a lot. However, if your company is thinking about venturing into the Twitter community, it’s best to know how it works so you can use it effectively. It starts with defining a public Web participation policy and developing a platform interaction strategy.

As much as huge companies could use Twitter, small and medium sized companies in Africa can also use Twitter to build their brands. As Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable puts it:

Smart brands use Twitter in meaningful ways, and most of them use their brand name as a way to make sure customers can find and recognize them…No other medium gets you inside a business or brand quite like Twitter.

Is your business smart enough to use Twitter?

Here they are:

10. Always confirm the time of your meeting/call, and always be 15 minutes early.

9. Know how to handle questions you don’t know the answer to.

8. Learn how to use this device called “phone”.

7. PowerPoint bullet slides are death.

6. Short answers are best.

5. Understand your competitive landscape–current and historical.

4. Talk about what you’ve done, not what you’re going to do.

3. Leave people wanting more.

2. The best products take less than five minutes to demo.

1. Show your product within the first 60 seconds.

Personally, I agree with most of the tips outlined above, especially tip 5, which I think is very critical since a very good knowledge of your competitive landscape would help you focus on what your competitors are not doing well, or are simply not doing at all and thus leverage on that to build your start-up.

Got any other tips to share? Tell us now…

Image via: TechCrunch

Itrsquo;s been exactly 7 weeks since The Punch Newspaper launched their mobile service called Mobile Punch, a service that provides media consumers access to the full text of the newspaper on their mobile phones which is available to mobile phone subscribers on the three major GSM networks – MTN, Glo and Zain.

When we heard the news, we were excited but it was disappointing to learn that the service was for a fee. The service which was launched on March 16, was to be accessed with a subscription fee of N600 monthly, that is, N20 daily, payable by cash, ATM or Visa cards. In April, Punch announced a slight adjustment in the subscription fee for Mobile Punch which now cost N1,500 per month.

Irsquo;m guessing your reaction: Absolutely ludicrous, right? Thatrsquo;s how some of the comments sounded on the Punch article that announced the new price.

Someone said:

This is very strange, what makes punch think people will pay N1.5K monthly for their junk news?? if they cannot do this they should leave it. this service usually cost less than $2 in other country and in most cases(CNN,Fox News,BBC,NBC,CBS,AP,AFP,Reuters,Sky News, ETC) online mobile news is totally free of charge.

Another comment says:

Rubbish! Even at 600 per month,who will subscribe to this kind of useless information we read here? Except gullible and foolish readers will spend their hard-earned naira on these junks. 

Another one said:

Mobile Punch for 1500 naira! in a country where therersquo;s no regular electricity supply! Try opinion polls on this.

But it seems that The Punchrsquo;s Executive Director, Azubuike Ishiekwene thinks differently. In a statement, he said:

Our strong initial impressions that consumers across the country are yearning for innovative and deeply personal ways of using media products and services have been confirmed by our experience in the last one month.

Consumers’ response to Mobile Punch has been quite encouraging and the challenge for us, moving forward, is to find ways of making the payment method more convenient for them. Punch is at the threshold of doing just that and will make further announcements in this regard in the days ahead.

Does that imply that Punch didnrsquo;t think of the consumers first before putting a subscription fee on Mobile Punch? Would they eventually offer the service for free, just like other global news websites offer mobile services for free?

We like Punch Newspaper, I mean they are cool, particularly because they are technology-savvy and innovative. Punch now has a Twitter page, which means that they are tapping into social media tools, but have not been totally impressive with using Twitter, especially as they donrsquo;t add linkbacks to their articles. Can someone teach them how to use Twitter?

While we think that Punch should offer their mobile service for free, we also feel that they should have a clearly defined mobile web strategy and social media policy, if they are to become the leading Nigerian newspaper that integrates Web 2.0 tools and technologies.

What are your thoughts?

Just about one hour ago, VEDA Technology launched their homepage which features the 4 products theyrsquo;ll be launching tomorrow at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos.

My guess is that the website is yet to be fully developed, as there are currently no pages or other links except for the latest news button, which takes you to media stories about VEDA. (Startups Nigeriarsquo;s article about VEDA was featured also).

According to VEDArsquo;s website,

VEDA Technology Limited was born in Lagos, Nigeria. The founders understood the demand for premium personal computers by a new breed of consumers who need a platform tailor-made for their needs and interests. VEDA sees this growth and strives to enhance the quality of computing with its platforms.

Every VEDA product has one year warranty (labor and parts) inclusive that seems to last like a life time because even after it expires, we offer you unbelievable after sales service that helps us help you pamper your product keeping it in top notch condition always.

The featured products are:

You can be sure that StartupsNigeria.com will be there at the event to uncover the mysteries behind these top-class products.

While we think that some of these sites are tapping into the shortcomings of the leading classifieds sites, Craigslist and Kijiji (perhaps some are copying Craigslist), we wonder how they hope to make money. Just like other classified ads sites, they offer buyers and sellers an opportunity to engage in a free and open market.

But whether they make money or not, they are providing great value for local businesses and individuals who wish to buy and sell their items online. Besides, they offer this service all for FREE, unlike newspapers and Nigeriarsquo;s first weekly classified ads publication, WASEET that charge a fee.

So are they useful? Yes.

However, Irsquo;m concerned about their sustainability as more and more classified ads websites are being launched. Today we have Nairalist, Chukslist, Nairalists, Ariaria, Bunchbay, Kerawa Nigeria, WhoGoBuy, and probably 20 more and it also seems that some websites are providing classifieds services such as 9jabookrsquo;s ask9ja.com.

Again, some of these sites have had issues with building with the right programming languages that offers great functionalities, spam-resistance and security features. For example, WhoGoBuy (launched in late 2005) built their site using ASP, then migrated to ASP.net about a year later, and then moved over to PHP a few months after.

And now they are upgrading again? See Nairalistrsquo;s founder facebook thread below:

With all of these, does it seem like the Nigerian classified ads market is profitable? Would they be forced to charge a fee for adverts placed? Or will they resort to other revenue generating models?

Interestingly, it seems that the classified ads market is quite lucrative as reports estimates Craigslist 2008 revenue at $80million, according to CNet.com, with its sole source of revenue from paid job ads in seleced cities.

The question now is: Can Nigerian classified ad sites monetize via paid job ads or any other service listings?

GameLounge, which claims to be the largest professional video game lounge targeting 35 million consumers in Nigeria is now gathering game lovers at Aqua 27 in Victoria Island for the Champions Playoff Series III scheduled for May 16.

Wersquo;ve been following the electronic gaming industry around the world with keen interest and last month we gave an analysis of the video game development in Nigeria which is currently witnessing growth, with small communities from difference areas increasing to form a future gaming industry.

Gamelounge is a gaming lifestyle and events company in Lagos, Nigeria that recently held their inaugural gaming event called Champions Playoff Series 1 at Aqua 27 in Victoria Island, Lagos which saw a guy named Lekan become the winner of the contest.

There was another gruelling contest between some extremely gifted game players at the CHAMPION’S PLAYOFF SERIES II, held at the same location on April 13th which crowned a new Emperor named Biodun, who beat all contenders including Champion’s Playoff Series I whiz-kid, Lekan.

The event brings together 32 hardcore gamers to compete for supremacy and the title crown in the PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2009 on the PLAYSTATION 3 console. If yoursquo;re a gamer or are interested in the emerging gaming industry, you could be part of the event this May.

Wersquo;ll be posting more updates about this event as the days go by, so watch out!

Photo via Gamelounge.

At the time, Kenya and Nigeria Opera Mini users were surging, and we predicted that the mobile web will replace traditional web in Nigeria. With this report, Nigeria is now the 2nd African country behind South Africa (placed at 6th) to join the top 10 countries. Also noteworthy is the fact that Nigeriarsquo;s Opera Mini page-view growth since March 2008 was 4,322% with page-views per user at 324. Unique-user growth since March 2008 was 1,472%. 

The report also indicated that Facebook is the preferred social-networking site in Nigeria, while Nairaland, the largest Nigerian forum site, is popular among Opera Mini users.

And finally, more than users from any other top 10 country, Nigerians are likely to be browsing with Opera Mini between 4am and 8am.

But the question is: Will Nigeria stay on the top 10 list and possibly move up next month to displace Poland, UK, USA or South Africa? 

With the surge of Opera Mini usage in the last few months (in terms of unique-user growth and page-view stats) as well as the increasing mobile web penetration in Nigeria, I think Nigeria could stay on the top 10 list this month and possibly edge out Poland and UK. Itrsquo;ll also be interesting to see Nigeria on the number 1 position by December 2009.

Stats Via Opera

As I write this, Facebook users from Nigeria is over 340, 000 and keeps surging everyday. In January, when the number of active Facebook users from Nigeria was slightly over 200, 000, we predicted approximately 600,000 Nigerian Facebook active users by end of June 2009.

At the rate at which Facebook is growing in Nigeria, it becks the question: Can any Nigerian social networking site break the Facebook flow?

Granted, with over 10 million Nigerians on the Internet, that figure is just a fraction. So is there a way Nigerian social networks can capitalise on this internet population? Can they offer a service that Facebook is not offering?

Again, if Nairaland was a real social networking site (now with over 320, 000 members), could it out-Facebook Facebook? Can Naijapals or Legwork beat Facebook (in terms of Nigerian users)? While Irsquo;m skeptical about the possibilities, I think therersquo;s probably something they need to do to achieve this.

Could they leverage on the over 56 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria to provide great social networking features second to none? I think this is possible!

Given the fact that more and more people in Nigeria are accessing the Internet via their mobile phones, social networking sites could take advantage and offer great mobile social networking tools, products and services that would get people to perhaps move away from the Facebook frenzy.

What are your thoughts?

Stats Via CheckFacebook

As we mark our first year anniversary today, wersquo;re excited to announce that we have received our first invitation to an IT product launch from VEDA Technology (site will be launched soon) a new computer electronics manufacturing company based in Lagos. VEDA Technology has the vision to become a leader in the growth and development of information and communication technology in Africa.

Incorporated as Trantech Computer Technology Limited in June 2007 and later changed its name to Veda Technology Limited to bring the name in line with the chosen brand name VEDA (Hindu for wisdom). VEDA is a computer electronics manufacturing company with its main focus as Assembly of Personal Computers including Notebooks, All-in-Ones and Desktop Computers. 

The company has built an ultra-modern high tech facility in Lagos that is capable of assembling a variety of premium computers and electronic products with a capacity to assemble up to 500 units of hardware a day.

VEDA Technology will be launching its four major products next week: 14 inches notebook, 12 inches notebook as well as desktop and laptop computers of various colours including white, black, blue, yellow and pink to match different customersrsquo; taste and fancy.

VEDA Technologyrsquo;s MD/CEO, Bode Pedro had this to say about their product features,

From the sensually glossy outlook of our computers to the ergonomic keyboard that takes off the strain from your muscles while you work and the alluring and distinctive packaging, Veda is built on mouth watering practical benefits; in-built with Quest, a pre-loaded multimedia resource platform that provides users with acess to business, information, communication and entertainment tools for increased productivity

Vedarsquo;s QUEST is a free multimedia resource application that puts the Nigerian consumers first by providing pre-loaded content and solutions tailor-made for their unique needs, aspirations and goals. When launched, QUEST will be the first of its kind in the Nigerian Technology Industry.

We are excited about the invitation and will be looking forward to VEDArsquo;s product launch next Tuesday, May 5. Wersquo;ve already heard a lot about their products and canrsquo;t wait to get the details, photos and more firsthand. Hopefully, wersquo;ll be posting live updates about the event here on Startups Nigeria.

Update: Post has been updated

As we mark our first year anniversary today, wersquo;re excited to announce that we have received our first invitation to an IT product launch from VEDA Technology (site will be launched on May 5) a new computer electronics manufacturing company based in Lagos. VEDA Technology has the vision to become a leader in the growth and development of information and communication technology in Africa.

Incorporated as Trantech Computer Technology Limited in June 2007 and later changed its name to Veda Technology Limited to bring the name in line with the chosen brand name VEDA (Hindu for wisdom). VEDA is a computer electronics manufacturing company with its main focus as Assembly of Personal Computers including Notebooks, All-in-Ones and Desktop Computers. 

The company has built an ultra-modern high tech facility in Lagos that is capable of assembling a variety of premium computers and electronic products with a capacity to assemble up to 500 units of hardware a day.

VEDA Technology will be launching its four major products next week: 14 inches notebook, 12 inches notebook as well as desktop and laptop computers of various colours including white, black, blue, yellow and pink to match different customersrsquo; taste and fancy.

VEDArsquo;s free multimedia resource application called QUEST will be the first of its kind in the Nigerian Technology Industry. The application aims to put the Nigerian consumers first by providing pre-loaded content and solutions tailor-made for their unique needs, aspirations and goals.

VEDA Technologyrsquo;s MD/CEO, Bode Pedro had this to say about their product features,

From the sensually glossy outlook of our computers to the ergonomic keyboard that takes off the strain from your muscles while you work and the alluring and distinctive packaging, Veda is built on mouth watering practical benefits; in-built with Quest, a pre-loaded multimedia resource platform that provides users with acess to business, information, communication and entertainment tools for increased productivity

Herersquo;s a quick peek into one of VEDArsquo;s products (via Bodersquo;s Facebook profile) called Azura. 

We are really excited about the invitation and are looking forward to VEDArsquo;s product launch next Tuesday, May 5. Wersquo;ve already heard a lot about their products and canrsquo;t wait to get the details, photos and more firsthand. Hopefully, wersquo;ll be posting live updates about the event here on Startups Nigeria.

Yoursquo;ve probably heard of the Google Summer of Code a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. Now, it seems that Cybernator Solutions is trying to do something similar to that for Nigerian youths this summer which theyrsquo;ve called Cybernator Solutions Summer of Cod3.

Summer of Cod3 (see Facebook page) would be gathering youth developers in Nigeria to build software and mobile applications for a new social networking site Wazaap! as well as expand their horizons in developing cool software that could change the world.

Cybernator Solutions believes that social networking could be more fun if worked upon by talented and vibrant youths who have a passion for developing cool software. While most of the social networks in Nigeria are not built from the scratch and lack some of the great features found in sites such as Facebook, CS is trying to change the face of social networking in Nigeria.

The event which would be taking place yearly every summer has been scheduled to hold this year from June 9 - July 31 2009. To register, you can visit this link. Registered participants will be working with the Cybernator Solutions team to build and launch a new social network called Wazaap!

To participate, you need a good knowledge of social networking, proof of reasonable education - at least a valid JSS 3 certificate and passion to learn and build stuff. Note: You do not have to be a programmer to join this project. You just need to be passionate about social networking and have a never ending urge to learn new stuff and solve problems.

I think this is a great initiative from the guys at Cybernator Solutions! I met Cybernator Solutions Founder, Bambo Oyelaja at BarCamp Nigeria last weekend and we had a nice chat about how social networking sites can monetize. 

Itrsquo;ll be nice to see how this event evolves in the next few weeks and if organized well, we might be sponsoring the Summer of Cod3. Not with cash, anyway:)