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Some Hard Truths About Writing

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Writing is not hard, especially if you have a good command of the English language, or whatever language you are writing in. And many people have always said that writing is way easier than speaking because all you have to do is write, and not bother about the pitch, the tone or the emotions your voice is trying to portray. This may or may not be true, depending on the perspective you are looking at it from, but it will be a discussion for another day. Whether writing is simple or not, there are some truths that are very important for you to know. Whether you are a long-time writer or just a prospect, you still need to know these truths because they will guide you and help you become a better author. Some Hard Truths You Need to Know About Writing 1. You will always have critics. When it comes to writing, you can never please everybody. Someone would always have a different opinion or a negative thing to say about your writing no matter how hard you work on it. Not everyone would agree with what you have written or the method you use to write. Be okay with that. Just do your part and write without errors. Write with correct and well-researched facts. Then leave the rest to the critics. 2. There are times when you will have to rewrite your work multiple times. This might sound hard, but it is the truth. When writing, sometimes you might think that you are on the right track, then along the line you will find out that you have gone away from your line of thoughts, or that what you are writing does not seem to make sense. Then you will have to start all over again. When you are at this point, it is better to start all over again than to patch things up and just edit. It might not turn out well in the long run. 3. Your writing can always be better. No matter how many years you have been writing or the kind of experience you think you might have gained, your writing can always be better. You have to keep learning different ways to make your writing better. Even if you have a bestseller or you have won numerous awards, you still have to keep learning and keep getting better. There is always something new to learn. 4. Not all your ideas would see the light of day. You need to know that not all the ideas you have about your book would see the light of day. Your manuscript might be entirely rejected, or you might have to edit and rework some parts of it. You have to be okay with that and work around it rather than feeling bad and perhaps thinking you are not good enough. 5. Writing is not just about you. This might sound strange because you are the one doing the writing. The book was your idea. The title was your idea. And your name was written on it. But it is not all about you. It is about your readers, the people you are writing for. They have to be able to enjoy the book, learn from it and love it. This means that you must consider your audience when you are writing. Final note One thing that can help you deal with these hard truths is imagining that you are writing a book to people outside your region, outside your culture, people entirely different from you. When you have this at the back of your mind, you will be able to work around your ideas and books to make them suitable for everyone and anyone to read. Olamide Omolawal is an avid research enthusiast with interest in creative and content writing.  

Playing Smart: How to Make the Best Use of Social Media for Business Opportunities

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One visible difference between a 20th-century and the 21st-century marketplace is the ability to play smart in the latter. To work hard was fashionable advice given to business owners to get them to promote their business in the old time. But now, this advice has seen better days and working smart is the new normal. A necessary skill that every entrepreneur – whether greenhorn or expert – needs in the 21st-century business space is the ability to play smart in the digital space. And playing smart requires learning and acquiring vital information to help you maximise the digital space potential and be relevant. Social media in particular is crucial to business success. To this end, below is some relevant information that you need to have about some popular social media applications in order to be a smart digital market player. Facebook Facebook allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. Marketing on Facebook holds a lot of opportunities. To be a relevant player on the platform, you will need to be a constant creator of good content. You will also need to actively relate and interact with people who engage your posts. Prompt response to queries is especially important for attracting customers. Facebook allows users to create profiles for business marketing, political movement, companies, individuals, products and services. Facebook’s Primary Audience Facebook is simply too big to be ignored as an enduring social media platform for business digital marketing communications campaigns. Worldwide there are currently 2.93 billion monthly active users (MAU) on the platform. There is a 9% increase in Facebook’s MAUs every year.  It has over 26 million monthly active users in Nigeria alone. Facebook has users from all age demographics, making it one of the most diverse social channels. Users spend more time on Facebook (at least 40 minutes daily) than on any other social media platform. The platform can be an effective tool for small business owners to build an audience and image for their brand and business. Optimizing Posts on Facebook Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 pm and 3 pm. Engagement is 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays. Posting only 1 or 2 times a day attracts the most engagement. Uses of Facebook for Business Marketing Building an audience and following for your brand. Interact with customers and fans by being there to answer questions and start discussions. Drawbacks Facebook can be a hard platform to stand out organically, as it has a fancy algorithm which is constantly changing. The algorithm favours content based on fans’ usage habits and past interactions. So just because you have X number of Facebook fans, that doesn’t mean all those fans are seeing each thing you post. It’s likely only the fans that interact with your page on a regular basis will see it since they have shown the most interest in your brand.   Twitter Twitter allows users to send and read short (280 characters) messages referred to as ‘tweets’, with the possibility of grouping tweets into threads.  The platform currently has over 750 million users and it is a great channel to engage with other users and make new connections. Many Twitter users are more likely to buy from brands or third-party influencers they like or follow on Twitter, so this can be a great and necessary tool for start-ups and small businesses. Twitter marketing strategy is centred around creating, publishing and distributing short, valuable content for followers. Concision and brevity advertisement is very important on Twitter because of limited character permission. This makes messages digestible and brisk enough for deals to be sealed quickly. Twitter’s Primary Audience Twitter’s largest demographic is young adults and has a pretty equal gender breakdown globally. Uses of Twitter for Business Marketing Following and engaging with other users who would be interested in what you have to offer. Interacting with your fan base and answering questions, resolving complaints and so on. Building relationships with current and prospective customers, partners and people within your network. Optimizing Posts on Twitter For Business to Business (B2B), weekdays provide more engagement than weekends. For Business to Customer (B2C), engagements and clicks are highest on weekends and midweek. A minimum of three tweets a day is recommended for optimal engagement. Drawback Unlike Facebook with a complex algorithm that determines the lifecycle of your business’s content, Twitter has a very short lifecycle. A tweet only has about an 18-minute lifespan, meaning that if you aren’t active and regularly posting, your content could be completely missed. LinkedIn LinkedIn is designed for the business community to network and connect. The site is clearly a popular one among the professional community. Linkedin allows you to set up a company and personal profile and connect with other professionals you may know or would like to know. You will be notified of status updates of the profile of your connections. LinkedIn is an essential site for a successful digital media marketing campaign. At present, it has over 690 million users from over 200 countries. It is known to be the most professional of the major networking platforms. Because it focuses more on B2B, it accounts for more major business leads on social media. LinkedIn’s Primary Audience LinkedIn is one of the only social networks with a majority of users who don’t fall between 18 and 29 years old. It is more popular among those that fall between 30 and 65 years old, ranging from those who are college graduates, higher income-level young professionals and high-net-worth individuals. Uses of LinkedIn for Business Marketing To showcase a workplace and what it’s like to work there. To post new job opportunities and recruit potential employees. To connect and engage with other business professionals. Optimizing Posts on LinkedIn One post per weekday allows you to reach approximately 60% of your audience. Drawback Since LinkedIn is a business-oriented platform targeted at the middle-aged and older generations, it won’t provide much value to businesses … Read more

How to Enhance Your Brand Value With a Well-Told Story

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Brand value is the quality that you want your product consumers to connect with in their perception of your brand. It is what your brand means to them. That is, your consumers’ positive perception. A brand is a composite of values which constitute customers’ perception. The value proposition of the Toyota brand is ‘Good Thinking, Good Product’, meaning that a lot of research is invested into making their product durable. Businesses are invariably about profit and vision. To actualize these, there must be some form of strategy to campaign for the brand. Perhaps the best way to predict the future is to create it. Thus, the best way to have a great brand is to create it by way of a positive narrative around it. The Nokia Example Nokia started as a paper mill company (book production, to enable communication between people through writing). Then they diversified into doing rubber works like manufacturing tyres and footwear for movement from one point to another. Afterwards, they go into cables and electronics production for ‘linking’ people. Then, they diversified their portfolio again into linking the world through the production of durable mobile telephones. Nokia has successfully built a corporate brand story of ‘Connecting People’ by associating ‘connecting’ and ‘strong technology’ with its evolving story.   Creating Brand Value and Vision with an Impactful Story Your brand and business exist to make an impact and a difference. In telling your brand story, whether through your brand proposition, advertisement or social media campaigns, the common thread is that the story should captivate and engage your audience. In order to do this effectively, you need to note the following points: Authenticity is the key to telling great stories. Relate real-life experiences. Be real. Capture and emphasize the emotional qualities of your campaign that can be conveyed through your customer’s experience and impact on them. Adopt the use of human impact analysis. In promoting your brand, use real images of the people you are showcasing (with their consent) to create a positive impact. Provide context. Don’t assume your audience knows your story. Add enough background to build your story. For example, narrate how a business loan fintech solution for budding entrepreneurs was provided by your brand to address the plight of struggling start-ups and how such businesses can grow in phases with the aid of the innovation. This would make a good story. Strike a proper balance between saying only what you have to say and saying enough within a short space. Say only what is relevant. Brevity and concision are important. Play with rhythm of words for effect. Determine and set your communication goals and objectives. Make sure you are clear at the outset of the campaign and on the desired outcome, as this will inform what your call-to-action is. We live in a world whereby disruptive technologies, rapid structural changes and economic turbulence are impacting the global economy by accelerating the rise of complexity. Complexity turns out to be a major force businesses must consider when developing and executing marketing strategies. It affects businesses in managing challenges, remaining relevant and opening new opportunities. By telling your brand story in an impactful way, you will increase your chances of successfully promoting and increasing growth and profitability against the tide of complexities.   Temidayo Babatunde is an Associate of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and can be reached via LinkedIn or email: [email protected].

What the Most Successful Business People Know About Brand Reputation

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Brands like Apple are known to create products that make life easier for people. This is why they keep on releasing different products and making good sales on them. People know that these newer products would have updated features that would benefit them. That is what it means to have a good brand reputation.  Brand reputation is such an important aspect of business, and the most successful organisations employ it to gain competitive advantage. This article will give you an overview of what brand reputation is and how to make the most of it. WHAT IS BRAND REPUTATION? A brand includes all the factors that help identify a product, service, or company, distinguishing it from others. It goes beyond the name. It also involves the perception or feeling evoked from its target audience regarding the brand.  When we hear Nike, we think of fitness, exercise, drive, and healthy living. The brand encompasses all the problems that are solved for its audience and the people who experience them.  Reputation is the esteem in which people or organizations are placed based on past experiences. It is the opinion people have conceived. As a result, it holds deep meaning, and is usually tricky to turn around when it is bad.  A bad reputation will certainly soil the image of the brand and affect its sales. Damaging reputation can happen very fast and with little action, while building it can be a daunting task. Still, it is important to take cognizance of the kind of reputation one has, whether brand or personal. Brand reputation is the perception that has been developed over time about a brand and its operations. It is based on the image built by a brand over a long period of time, and it is a great determinant to brand turnover and acceptance by the target market. A brand with a good reputation usually has a good brand positioning.  Nowadays, it is easy for a brand to have a bad reputation based on consumer displeasure that may easily spread in the media. This makes it very important for brands to work actively on building and sustaining a good reputation.  WHY BRAND REPUTATION IS IMPORTANT The perceived notion people have about a brand can make or mar the brand. A brand reputation is important for many reasons, some of which include:  1. It enables marketing from users Word of mouth from people on their perception of a brand is crucial. While a brand may run ads and market its product, the reception of people is important to push the brand forward as most people will likely listen to others’ experience of the brand before going ahead to make a purchase. Word of mouth is an effective form of marketing a brand or a person. This means people determine the extent to which a brand is successful.  2. Proper brand reputation helps brands build trust in the mind of consumers When a brand has been known to deliver optimally, consumers are able to vouch for whatever comes from that brand. People are more likely to purchase from a brand that is reputable than one that doesn’t have a good rep on the market. 3. A good reputation breeds loyalty When a brand has a good reputation, people want to stick with that brand. And it almost feels like a disservice when they don’t purchase products from that brand or employ its services. 4. It helps to increase sales A brand with good standing in the eyes of people will have better sales turnover due to the belief people have in them. This belief typically converts to sales. The ultimate purpose of any brand is to make sales, and also to become widely known. This is mostly achieved through its representation in people’s minds. Ultimately, a good reputation gives a brand an edge over its competitors. HOW TO BUILD BRAND REPUTATION Knowing the importance of having a good reputation is not enough. You equally need to put in active effort towards building, creating, and sustaining this reputation. Since a brand’s reputation directly affects its growth, it is necessary to know how to build a good one. These steps, if implemented, will help the brand form a good evaluation in the minds of the consumers.  Create a good brand identity. Deliver on your brand promise. Build authenticity. People generally love brands that are original and they can relate with. Authenticity helps infuse life into a brand. Allow criticism. Respond to consumers’ feedback. Improve consumer involvement. Promote inclusivity. Build a great online experience/presence.   CONCLUSION  Having a great brand reputation is important as it helps turn your brand into one that gets community support and that people can speak for when the need arises. It gives the brand great competitive advantage and ultimately helps it increase its sales turnover. Ignore it at your peril. Rodiat Ajuwon is a Human Capital Development Enthusiast. 

5 Qualities Women Love about Men

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I’m sure you would love to know the qualities women love about men, the qualities that spice up relationships. Are you planning to start a relationship or are you on the verge of marrying your heartthrob? Then, as you advance in your prospect, you need to read this. Without a doubt, women generally love men who treat them with dignity and respect. There are non-negotiable qualities women love that men must possess. Aside from a man’s physical appearance, which is a plus, one of the most essential features a lady notices about a man is his character. Here are five qualities that women admire in men. 1. Funny and Intelligent Women are typically more drawn to men who can make them laugh. Men who have a good sense of humour are more attractive than men who are uninteresting in conversation. To women, being funny is an indicator of intelligence, and is essential for attracting a woman’s attention. Make her laugh and avoid being overly serious about seeing how attracted she would be to you. This lightens the atmosphere around them and makes them cool with you. 2. Care and Empathy Women are attracted to men who have the ability and desire to care for others. When it comes to attracting women, a man who is caring and empathetic has an advantage. If you’re looking for a long-term relationship, research has shown that women prefer men who are generous and selfless to men who lack these qualities. Women stay in relationships because they believe that someone somewhere will go all out and have their back at any time. Men who go all out and are genuinely kind are very appealing to women. 3. Trustworthiness and Integrity You remember when I mentioned character the other time? Here it is. Women prefer men who are trustworthy and have integrity. This is like your signature. Integrity entails acting virtuously and having a strong moral character. This key quality is what holds a relationship together and makes it work. Women want to know if you are honest and fair in all your dealings. They don’t want someone who will cheat and lie to them. This is a quality that every man must have. Make sure you don’t hide your flaws; they will show up if you keep hiding them under your sleeves! Be plain and sincere, this will be your badge of honour. 4. Financially Stable One thing a woman wants to know is if you’re financially stable. She desires to see if you can take care of her. Additionally, your financial stability will give her rest of mind when you bring up the issue of raising a family with her. 5. Plan a future with Her Women want men that are not just into a short-term relationship. If you meet her friends and family, know what she likes and talk about the future, she will like you greatly. All these and more are things you should watch out for. Ladies are very sensitive and emotional beings. You can’t afford to be bland and insensitive to their needs. Be light-hearted, caring, trustworthy, and stable financially and plan a future with her. The list is endless, but here are 5 qualities to start with. Maxwell Orah

Your Journey to Becoming a Writer

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The journey to becoming a writer starts from you and only you. Not just from the moment you had the idea or when you came up with what you want to write, but the moment you actually see yourself as a writer and begin to write. There were certain times in our lives, especially the women-folk, when we would pick up a journal or a diary and then begin to write out our daily experiences or the most exciting thing or depressing thing that happened to us each day. In as much as those diaries or journals had a lot of interesting content, they did not make us writers because we were writing them to ourselves or as a means of remembering past occurrences. Writing is Deliberate When it comes to writing, it is more deliberate. You might be writing from your personal experiences or even how you currently feel. But it starts by you making the choice to start writing. You cannot consider yourself a driver if you know all the theory about driving and can even explain it to others, but without having driven before. All you do is have the knowledge. In the same vein, having some good content doesn’t necessarily make you a writer. Make a Conscious Choice to Be a Writer When starting this journey, you would have to make your choice first, whether or not you have the content. One of the major things making that choice does for you is that it changes your perspective about yourself. It helps you to see that you have become a writer, and that you have something inside of you for the world. That way, you would become more deliberate about giving answers in your writing. Another thing this choice helps you to do is to help you stay focused on your path as a writer. There are times that writing would be so difficult that writing a sentence or phrasing a sentence properly can take time. But with the choice you’ve made, you are able to hang on until you come out with the right content. The choice helps you to stay on track, rather than give up. Start Writing After making the choice, then you can actually start writing. There is no one way to write a book. You can start from the topic or even the end, or you can write the book and give it a befitting topic. The choice is yours. The only thing you need to do is to actually write the book. Once you start, you might be faced with the challenge of what to write. Once that challenge comes, ask yourself what you want to achieve with your writing. Do you just want to be one of those writers, or do you want your writing to help people? That depends on you. Here is a list of writing prompts. Interestingly enough, you can even write from some of the journals that you kept while you were a teenager. You will be surprised at the level of wisdom that came out of you in handling situations or the level of drama in your life at that age. WRITING TIP One thing that can help you in writing is to have a summary of the things you want to write. Then you can build around it and make it more compact. And at other times, just start writing until you reach a point where possibilities come into what you are writing. At that point, you would have to make the choice of what you want your book to look like. Conclusion Let me end with this. When starting your writing journey, the first thing to do is to make up your mind that you are a writer and let that sink in. From there, what steps you take is up to you. Sometimes your writing journey goes with your personality. Such that if you are an organized person, you might want to have a step-by-step or chapter-by-chapter analysis of what you want your book to look like. If you are used to doing things without rigid planning, then you might also want to write that way. Whatever the case may be, or whatever your personality may be, make the choice and get to work. And always remember that people are counting on you, your book, your experiences or even your current life to get their answers. Be sure to give them the best content. Olamide Omolawal is an avid research enthusiast with interest in creative and content writings  

Why Publishers Are Not Hard to Find

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Contrary to popular opinion, publishers are not hard to find. Or better put, good publishers are not hard to find. They are in strategic places but are very selective about the kind of books they choose to publish. Writers and publishers move in the same line of business, but what they do is very different. A writer has certain advantages more than a publisher in some regard. A writer can always use a pen name. That means that a writer can choose to use someone else’s name rather than their own when they are writing. This happens for many reasons. To protect their identity, to avoid being in the spotlight, and for some to just test the waters. Such that if the book does not turn out well, no one knows they are responsible for it. A book can be written by a ghostwriter. When an author decides to use a ghostwriter for his book, that way he is not the one completely behind the telling of the story but the honour goes to him. A publisher does not have some of these advantages. Usually they are known for the kind of books they publish and once something bad comes out from them, then it begins to tarnish their image and reduce the number of authors that come to them. From the title of this write-up, publishers are not hard to find in that they are scarce, they are hard to find because many authors have refused to do the needful. Hence, their works don’t get published. Many times, when writers write a book, they usually look for the most popular publisher so that their work would gain relevance through its publishing. This is a very good way to give their work presence but it requires a little bit of effort. To this end, I will be explaining a few reasons why publishers can be hard to find. They love to protect the integrity of their work. In as much as publishers are looking forward to making more sales, or getting new customers per day, they are not looking forward to having their works ruined by a potential customer. Your book has to make sense. It has to be something that people can buy. If not, it would be rejected. One of the joys associated with a publisher’s work is that people are buying. The more people buy, the more copies they get to print, the more money flows into their hands. But when a book does not sell, it is bad business for them, and they tend to avoid it at all costs. They hate having to go through editing. Sometimes, many of the publishers out there have become too busy, or too big to go through the process of editing your work for you. As a writer, the honour is on you to write a hitch-free book as much as possible. Let your book go through editors before sending it to the publishers. That way, if your work is read, it can be published in a little while. Some of them have carved a niche for themselves. There are times when certain publishers would have decided they are only going to publish books in a certain direction. For example, comics, academic books, thrillers, etc. Those publishers would have made their choice and they usually stick to it. Sometimes, they might be the most popular publishers, and you, as a writer, are looking forward to launching yourself into public consciousness but may not be able to because your manuscript is not from the publisher’s most preferred niche. Conclusion One of the things that can help you get your work published as a writer is proper research. Before writing or while you are still writing, look out for possible publishers and select the ones you would like to work with. Then you can go ahead to get their list of requirements so you could adjust appropriately. There are times that the requirements may not match your envisioned desire for your book. Move on to the next publisher, rather than compromising so as to publish your book. If you decide to compromise, you would not be happy with the book. Just carry out proper research and refuse to give up.   Olamide Omolawal is an avid research enthusiast with interest in creative and content writing.    

Things to Note in Your Manuscript Before Approaching a Publisher

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Many times, writers are so eager to have their work published that they forget to do their own due diligence. They just write and send it to the publisher and hope that he/she would do the needful and then publish their work. It does not work that way. A writer is not an editor, and neither is a writer a publisher although those roles can be interchanged between them. As a writer, it is important that you have basic editing skills. That way, you are able to preserve the integrity of your work rather than leave it for someone that would edit in the way he/she thinks about what you have written. This difference in roles is very important because it would help you in playing your part well and make it easy for others to do their work effectively. Here are some of the things you should note before taking your manuscript to a publisher: 1. You must ensure your work has been proofread and edited for errors. As a writer, it is not just enough to write a good piece or a good book. You have to go through the book several times to make sure your thoughts are fully captured and well written then you also have to make sure that it is properly edited before you send it out. That way, whoever picks up your work would be comfortable reading it and even eager to publish it. 2. Follow the publisher’s guidelines. This is very important in publishing as it fast-tracks your work and makes things easier for the publisher. Many times, publishers have certain standards or a couple of rules that they lay down for their prospective customers. And it would do you a lot of good to follow those guidelines. When your work meets all the necessary criteria, it will be easy to publish. 3. Know what you want your work to look like. There are times that all a writer cares about is having their work published. To them, nothing else is important. They would prefer for the publisher or friends to make the choices they need to make. Don’t be that kind of writer. Have an idea of what you want your work to look like and the way you want people to perceive it. Then do a good job of communicating it to the publishers. That way, you are seen as someone who knows what they want, and you would also be proud of the creativity that you displayed. 4. Be open to ideas. Many times as writers, we already have an idea of what we want our books to look like, the cover page, the size, the colour and so on. But sometimes, it is good to listen to ideas and suggestions from more experienced people or from publishers. Remember that it is their job, and they have been doing it for years. So they have a lot of experience in it. You don’t have to take their suggestion. Just open your mind to receive it and if need be, be humble enough to take the suggestion. You would be better for it, and your work would also get visibility. In conclusion, when it comes to writing, it is important that you play your own part. Make things easy for everyone working with you on your way to success. Keeping all these things in mind would make your dreams come true sooner than you think.   Olamide Omolawal is an avid research enthusiast with interest in creative and content writing. She could be reached via LinkedIn or email: [email protected]