The public perception of your brand is dependent on how you communicate with your audience.
On normal days when operations are business as usual, how are you perceived? During troubling times like the year 2020, how has your brand been perceived?

Perhaps now is the time to change public perception about you from negative to positive. Some of the brands highlighted below went beyond being everyday brands to human brands. They empathized with people and not only did this act change perception about them, but it also skyrocketed their sales.

The past few days have seen Nigerian youths stand up to protest police brutality in the country. The protest gained global momentum, becoming the center of discussion in many places.

In the middle of this, Chicken Republic chose to support the protest in a unique way. Unusual as it seems, the restaurant decided to share food with protesters in Lagos. For hours on the day, Chicken Republic was at the top of social media trends, with millions of Nigerians pledging their support to the brand.

Flutterwave also got a resounding applaud for leading the fund-raising campaign to support the protest. The impact of this was felt when the CBN summoned the Fintech, only to fuel the fire of a fresh protest.

This doesn’t say your business has to financially support social causes to be heard. In little ways that you can, the most important thing is to not be silent.

Be human, it goes a long way.

Interestingly, online marketing is unique in its approach to this. There’s a whole lot of data you can fetch from your marketing activities, with different tools available to help dig as deep as you want. 

From what you do on social media, to how that last campaign impacted on your lead generation flow – as long as you want it, the data is most likely available somewhere.

But while many businesses know about the need to track the report of their online marketing activities, not many are focusing on the most important metrics. All metrics are great in their own ways, but a few of them deserve some special attention because they explain what’s going on at the revenue end – your bottom line.

Have you heard about vanity metrics? Think of Facebook likes, Instagram comments, Twitter followers, and other surface-level metrics that don’t imply user or customer growth. In fact, a study by eMarketer reveals that vanity metrics give business executives the impression that digital marketing doesn’t work.

As a business owner, founder, or marketing executive, you know that if it isn’t connecting to revenue, it’s just probably not worth it. 

Away from the vanity metrics, what data should you track in your digital marketing activities, to reveal the real value you’re getting. Let’s run through these big five.

Sentiment

Yes, this comes first. It’s actually foundational to every other metric. What’s the public saying about your brand? Is your reputation in good shape? 

If you’re aware of what sentiment your brand has gotten over time, that gives you an idea of how receptive your marketing messages would be to the audience at every time. Plus, you also get an idea of what sentiment comes from your ongoing marketing activities. 

HubSpot suggests Sentiment Analyzer, Brand Watch and ten other tools that you can deploy now to get you started with sentiment analysis.

Goal Completion Rate

If you’re familiar with Google Analytics or other reporting tools, and you haven’t been using goals tracking, now is the time to start. 

For as many major endpoints as you have on your website or landing pages, set goals. Google Analytics is probably the simplest one for this. For example, if you’re looking to confirm how many people get on a payment success or thank you page, this is your go-to tool.

Growth in Quality Leads

How many quality leads did you gather in the previous month? If you can’t point to that, you’ve missed another point on your essential metrics checklist.

It’s important to keep an eye out for the quality leads you get, because that has a lot to say about your marketing outside of immediate sales. Ensure your email marketing tool is rightly connected to your lead forms, with the right pre-qualifying questions to weed out leads with a lower value.

Cost Per Acquisition

This is also simple. Find out how much it costs you to get a customer. By this, I don’t mean leads. It can even only mean a user if the user has a monetary value to your business.

So, to get one paying customer, how much was spent. Imagine selling a product of N5,000, and getting a customer at N1,000 or more. That’ll be grave. But if you’re not deliberate about tracking this, you won’t be able to spot the trend and find ways to correct it

Even if you’re spending high to get a customer or user, do they have enough customer lifetime value to justify that? Don’t hold back from doing the maths.

Marketing Influence on Acquisition

Virtually all major analytics tools would provide you with a graph that highlights the marketing results you’ve gotten within a time frame, sometimes up to a year.

The main goal of this is to see how your marketing has influenced the curves over time. You can spot the highpoints, and connect with your marketing activities. The data here helps you plan better, while also knowing what marketing to scale, and which one to stop.

Conclusion

There you have it: the keys to unlocking more results from your online marketing activities. Reports and data are everywhere, but not each one has a say on how your business is doing in real terms. 

And if you’re wondering how to go about this, to make your reporting better, our team would be excited to run a quick audit on your brand. Send us a brief here.

It’s time to restructure your reporting modalities and focus on what matters to the money.

Is there any metric you’d like to add, or a question you’d want to ask?  Let’s continue the discussion in the comments.

According to a recent study by The Manifest, 96% of social media users engage with brands from time to time, which goes to reinstate how valuable this pool of audience could be for your business.

But it’s easy to assume that, unless you’re one of the big players, you really can’t stand tall within your market. That’s especially true of SMEs, whose marketing scopes are usually limited by budget constraints. 

Does that mean you should consider social media as a less important part of your business, and marketing strategy? Not at all. In fact, social media is where you can stand head-to-head with supposedly big brands. 

Armed with the right strategy, you could make a competitive brand of your business in no time, using social media as the driving force.

In this article, I’ll discuss six simple ideas you can apply now to give your brand some competitive advantage in your industry. 

Content is Everything

This goes without saying. If you’re doing anything on social media, make sure quality content is a part of that. And by quality, I mean content that is relatable and engaging to your audience. 

If you were to be your customer, what would you like to see coming from your social media platforms? So, you’ve got to be deliberate about this, and ensure your content has a place in their minds.

Choose what Platform Works for You

It’s basically unrealistic to expect yourself to be present on every social media channel. Neil Patel mentioned that understanding your audience is very key to this decision. 

Take the time to research who they are – their challenges, their lifestyles, etc. That’s mainly to help you determine what social media platform flows with their persona. For example, the highly professional spend a bulk of their time on LinkedIn, while curious conversationalists are right there on Twitter. 

Don’t Leave Negativities to Thrive

How responsive you are to negative reviews and customer complaints determine your brand positioning in many ways. 

If you allow negative representations of your brand to linger, unattended to, it erodes public trust, which puts you at a disadvantage against the competition. And when you resolve issues, make that public as well.

Automate as Much as Possible

One very vital reason why you should automate your content sharing on social media is to give you enough time to do other important things on social profiles. Think of the need to engage with other content, and respond to customer queries, and actually work on your business. 

Whether you’re handling that yourself or you hire someone, resist the urge to come to social media to post every day.

Keep an Eye Out for Best Practices

It’s also important to stay the cutting-edge of using social media for business. Competitors and learning resources could be helpful guides for you, to enable you to remain competitive day in, day out.

It helps to have a schedule to read blogs, listen to podcasts, or check industry reports, basically to sharpen your skills and the knowledge of the audience. Social Media Today and Social Media Examiner are some very helpful blogs for social media, and marketing voices such as Neil Patel also have periodical podcasts.

Invest in Social Ads

There’s only so much you can do organically. The reach is always limited, and you may wait endlessly to get customers, without any ads. 

So, have a plan for social media ads, on any platform you’re using. Facebook (and Instagram) offers the cheapest advertising options though, but anywhere your audience spends their time, don’t hold back on advertising.

In Conclusion: Play the Big Boys’ Game

I understand that you run an SME, but one undeniable fact that you’re pulling the same audience as bigger companies. And the best way to win at such a game is to play like you’re also a big player.

The ideas I’ve highlighted above are what your supposedly bigger competitors do every now and then. So, you should do the same, and see their results trickling in for you as well.

Has any of these ideas helped you in the past? Share your thoughts in the comments

And if you need help getting a perfect social media direction for your business, our team would be excited to help. You can talk to us here.

In a recent report by Oberlo, about 71% of online buyers base their purchase decisions on their relationship with a brand on social media. This just means, the more brand loyalty you can pull online, the more results you can expect in sales. It’s a direct relationship.

“I already use social media, and we post every day” – that still doesn’t equate automatic brand loyalty. So, let’s start with understanding what that even implies.

Brand loyalty is when a customer prefers to do business with your company, not because you’re the only option, but because they trust your brand, and feel comfortable relating with you. That’s one thing you can’t just wish to happen.

In fact, if you’re not deliberate about creating brand loyalty, you won’t get it. It just doesn’t happen on its own.

Remember that waitress acting awkwardly the last time you were at yours? Would you like to be his friend? It’s a no, neither would most people there.

It’s left to you to determine how others see your company, and social media can help you influence that in a lot of ways. So, how exactly do you create brand loyalty (or make friends, if you’d prefer that) with social media?

• Come to Help

Apparently, you know your audience. Now, ask this question, in what ways can you make their life easier, without selling out, and while staying in your business direction? 

You would have seen how some banks are constantly providing ideas to keep your account safe from fraudsters. Do you offer services? Get the audience to ask you questions about their challenges. Talk about things that matter to them.

This was a 2016 report, and the need to be there for customers on social media has continued to expand. Create that impression that you value their wellbeing and success, as much as you do their money. 

• Engage

Now, your company will be living in a silo if the only thing your team does on social media is just to share content, and that’s all. How about engagement?

It’s actually better even if you don’t share content, but engage with others, if you have to choose one. The second has more value to offer your business when it comes to brand loyalty.

No one wants to do business with a company that just isn’t responsive. You personally won’t. But it’s actually something most businesses do on social media. Perhaps we can blame that on unproductive staffing.

Having a plan to engage will naturally shape the direction of your content, giving you endless opportunities to start interesting, immersive conversations.

• Stay Real

So, while doing all of these, one thing that trumps your brand loyalty strategy is to appear as real as possible. It’s easy to get mechanical in the middle of endless social media designs and overly pro approach to content.

Show the humans behind your brand. Tell your story as often as possible. Think of how much you know about what goes on behind the corporate walls of global companies, like Google.

That’s also where public relations comes in. Be deliberate about creating stories and realities that present your brand as a lovable, responsible one. If you’re wondering how to go about that, find out how our team can help.

• Don’t Forget to Sell 

By all means, you should be relatable in your approach to social media. But that doesn’t mean you should put selling on the back seat. Talk frequently about what you sell. That’s the only way money comes in, isn’t it?

The whole purpose of having engaging content on social media, helping your audience in ways you can, and doing a couple of other things to earn brand loyalty – is to break the barriers to sale. 

When was the last time you bought a product the first time you knew about it? That likely hasn’t happened, ever. It’s the case with most other people. They want a relationship first, no matter how little, before they convert. 

I’ve heard people talk about social selling like the Forbidden City. That’s just some religious ideas that don’t add to your bottom line. In fact, customers even become more loyal when they can solve their problems, using the solutions you provide.

Go Build that Loyal Audience

Social media could do a lot for your company when it comes to brand loyalty, and if approached the right way. The value is just too much to ignore.

Want to build a brand people want to be associated with, with social media? You’ve got the strategies to fly with.

Are you using one of these strategies already? How has it worked out? Tell us about that in the comments.

As a build-up to this event, the Dive In team conducted a survey to understand the issues females in the insurance sectors are facing, the possible limitations on their rise to leadership, and how they are navigating these challenges. This survey showed that despite the ambition to attain a top-level in their career; young female professionals in the Insurance sector are largely constrained by inadequate opportunities relative to gender bias, unequal pay, and harassment.

The survey further highlighted that females are willing and ready to take up more challenging roles within the sector and have to resort to professional bodies for support and guidance in their careers. Some leading females in the industry also lend their voice to the younger female professionals in insurance & finance in a campaign titled “Letters to my younger self”. They shared lessons that would help the younger generation develop a mindset and character required for success within the sector.

At a time when the world is changing at a faster rate, with newer challenges emerging, the corporate environment needs to explore all talents and resources by creating an environment for them to thrive irrespective of gender and experience

To examine some of these challenges faced by young female professionals in the Nigerian Insurance sector, Dive In Festival hosted reputable leaders in the sector to the Dive In’ Nigeria Festival themed “Promoting Inclusion & Diversity in the Nigerian Insurance Industry for a Quantum Leap”  to discuss new possibilities that will spur participants to break boundaries in risk management and insurance.

Speakers included Adetola Adegbayi, Executive Director, General Insurance Business Division, Leadway Assurance Company Ltd, a Legal Practitioner with extensive experience in Legal Research, Corporate Legal Practice, Insurance, and Financial Services; Nike Anani, Co-Founder African Family Firms, a firm dedicated to assisting second-generation family members (“NextGens”) in identifying and implementing new opportunities, shortening the journey from identification to impact.

Founder, The Funmi Omo Initiative and Former Managing Director in African Alliance Insurance Plc, Funmi Omo, (recognized as one of the top 100 women CEOs in Africa by Reset Global People), Dr. Corneille Karekezi, Group MD/CEO, African Re Group, and Ibitunde Balogun, Executive Director Tangerine Life Insurance Limited. The event was moderated by financial broadcast journalist and business anchor at CNBC Africa, Esther Awoniyi.

At the event, Adetola Adegbayi when asked about her thoughts on revitalizing diversity and inclusion initiatives and drive engagement going forward said; “We need to look at not just women but also men who are disadvantaged, physically challenged people when addressing diversity and inclusion. It doesn’t matter whether you are formally educated or not, as people what matters is how we make use of our abilities to deliver.” She ended her presentation by stressing on the need to celebrate the difference in togetherness and balancing equality with equity.

Speaking further on the topic when asked by the moderator, Esther Awoniyi, on her thoughts on diversity and inclusion in trans-generational wealth and family business, Co-founder, African Family Firms, Nike Anani said, “Women stand to lose out the most when businesses fail to move to the next generation. Insurance has however turned out to be a risk management tool to protect women’s interest and other threatening issues that might ensue from lack of trans-generational wealth transfer.”

In a closing statement to a question asked by a member of the audience, on strategies that insurance companies should adopt to get more youths interested in applying for jobs, Executive Director at Tangerine life Insurance, Ibitunde Balogun, who is also exceptional at mentoring millennials for leadership said, “The Insurance Industry currently falls into the least paying jobs in the financial service sector and this itself discourages youths from pursuing a career in this line. “ Addressing Insurance leaders, he further stated, “You need to make insurance more attractive to the new age. The new generation wants good remuneration for work done, work-life balance, and flexibility in their jobs.”

Dive In is a global movement in the insurance sector to support the development of inclusive workplace cultures. Its mission is to enable people to achieve their potential by raising awareness of the business case and promoting positive action for diversity in all its forms.

Now more than ever, PR is important, perhaps the most valuable tool in building a sustainable brand. When properly harnessed with online media tools, brands do not just have a chance at having their stories told in the most real, most human, and action evoking forms ever, they have an extra go at amplifying these stories to reach their target audience online and beyond the internet. 

Businesses are heavily investing in digital marketing, advertising products, or services in a bid to generate instant purchases that lead to sales. While this is great, to a large extent sales advertising doesn’t really contribute much to the creation of a sustainable brand. 

What really makes a sustainable brand? 

A company’s ability to retain customer appeal for decades, even centuries. Think of what Nike has been able to do, Coca Cola, and local brands like Oando. How these giants have managed to hold down their share of the market for so long, while expanding their reach – that’s some strong element of brand sustainability.

That didn’t come from “Buy Nike Shoe” campaigns. Neither could it have stemmed from “Top Up Your Gas Here” ads. It’s something beyond that and here’s where you start thinking of Public Relations (PR).

PR communicates with the public in ways that build mutually beneficial, long-lasting relationships between them and your organization. That’s the main goal here, it is why PR is king.

There’s only so much that sales-tied advertising can achieve when it comes to brand sustainability. And unlike advertising, PR gives your brand some depth and personality. At a time like this when authenticity is the driver of brand loyalty,  PR gives you leverage, enabling you to communicate your brand’s story in ways your audience finds credible. Interestingly, digital media even make this a lot easier.

To create a sustainable brand, keep in mind that you need to connect with the audience at their core. Hardly will sales advertising do that. Organizations that stand the test of time take deliberate steps to build brand loyalty, which automatically puts them in the customers’ minds much longer than their average competitors.

So, to achieve this, where exactly do you start?

• Understand your audience

How do you achieve this? Take the time to understand your audience deeply, particularly what moves then to engage with brands. Digital marketing makes this easy, with a number of data research and analytic tools you can use. 

Meltwater is an example of that, letting you track key behavioral patterns that could help you understand your audience.

You can also explore surveys if you need some more specific responses from a cross-section of your market.

• Where can you reach them?

Very vital, find out where your audience spend their time, what they like to read, what information matters to them.

If you have established entrepreneurs as your core audience, you know they are frequent business magazine readers. Business shows and international TV’s are also not far from them. Social habits would include LinkedIn, and they most likely would spend their leisure time on similar social or networking platforms

However, while it is important to keep the audience in mind, location of reach, and other important knowledge of your audience, how does PR come into play in helping you build a sustainable brand? 

PR for Brand Sustainability

We can’t say it enough but PR has unique ways it helps consolidate your brand’s positioning while creating a long-lasting positive perception.

These four ideas can help you get started.

Create Thought Leadership

Starting from here, in every sense of it, show that you know your onions. Create content that displays your expertise, offering beyond-the-surface insights that not only resonate with your audience but help them in practical ways.

Think of an insurance company that invests in educating the public on how the industry works, what insurance does, and what they stand to gain. 

It’s nothing new that most people consider insurance a waste of resources, especially in this part of the world. So, a top-level, non-sales public education would do a lot to change people’s orientation, while also positioning the brand as the go-to insurance firm, for years to come.

Create Value, Communicate It

This is an age-long tip, sadly many businesses are not approaching it the right way.

We have seen companies approach this with very shallow depth, or going overly profit-driven in their approach. 

In its simplest form, create value – one that can earn you awareness, talkability, and loyalty within your market. For example, a bank actively involved in CSR projects, naturally, consumers get an impression of care and responsibility, attributes that are not taken for granted in this part of the world.

However while doing that, don’t forget the most important element: communicate whatever you’re doing. That’s the only way your value creation adds to your brand-building efforts.

Build Relationships

Create a community around your brand. Social media gives a huge opportunity for that. Don’t stop at that, engage with other brands and people within and outside your industry as well. Creating or participating in partnerships with other brands gives you access to a wider audience than what you immediately have, at the same time, you get some extra public thumbs-up for not functioning on your own. 

Put in mind that Illegitimate, unreliable companies don’t get into partnerships. Relationships are very important.

Spur Conversations

As a business, you have brand values that you consider vital to the image of your company. Why not talk about that more, using every communication channel available to you?

Let’s take gender inclusion as an example. If that’s something very important to your brand, and you talk about it often, you naturally find a place with the right groups, communities, and individuals who share that value. 

You stand for it. Talk about it. 

We just gave you all you need to build a sustainable brand. Start creating value, express your thought leadership, don’t operate solo, get talking about what you stand for, and see your brand come alive. 

This year’s theme “Promoting Inclusion & Diversity in the Nigerian Insurance Industry for a Quantum Leap”, highlights the current situation of women in the insurance industry, the roles they play, and the future of organizations if inclusion and gender diversity are promoted. The new virtual format of the festival makes it widely accessible by hundreds of attendees per event and for the first time, attendees will be able to partake in the Dive In events across the globe, regardless of geography.

Reflecting on this year’s festival Dominic Christian, Global Chairman of Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions, sponsors of Dive In Nigeria said: “In light of recent events, the Dive In Festival’s mission is to advance the development of inclusive cultures that are vital for businesses and great for people is more important than ever.”  “Once again, we will be active in over 30 countries this year, and our 500+ speakers and volunteers look forward to once again welcoming many thousands of participants all over the world for a packed schedule of inspirational and educational events.” he said.

Further speaking on the expectations on this 2020 Dive In Event, GMD/CEO at one of the leading pan-African reinsurer – African Reinsurance Corporation, Dr. Corneille Karekezi said:  “As an equal opportunity employer, we expect stakeholders to share experiences covering challenges, successes and lessons learned in talent sourcing and talent management strategies that promote and sustain gender diversity across all levels of organizations in the industry. As such the Dive-In festival is a very important and necessary movement needed to change the narrative on diversity and inclusion in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.”

Dive In is a global movement in the insurance sector to support the development of inclusive workplace cultures. Its mission is to enable people to achieve their potential by raising awareness of the business case and promoting positive action for diversity in all its forms. Registration for the insurance industry’s well-established festival for Diversity and Inclusion, Dive In, is accessible via https://diveinfestival.com/

Supporting this year’s festival are a host of Global Festival Partners, including AIG, Aon, Aviva, AXA, Chubb, CNA, DLA Piper, Kennedys, Lloyd’s, Markel, Marsh & Guy Carpenter, MS Amlin, RenaissanceRe, RMS, Travelers, Tokio Marine Kiln and Willis Towers Watson.

Information on previous festivals and about global inclusion and diversity in the insurance sector is available on the event website.

The three-day event simply referred to as ALitFest – Abuja Literary and Arts Festival – will hold from August 13th – 15th 2020.

In order to welcome wider participation of the growing literary community in Africa, the festival is going virtual and would be held on the webinar platform Hopin (hopin.to).

“With this, we aim to breach geographical barriers through inclusion and Pan-Africanism,” says Teniola Tayo, the newly appointed Festival Director.

To be part of the festival, registration can be done here
The organizers have strived to make registration free but are equally seeking the support of any individuals that may be in a position to do so through paid tickets.

The organizers also added that festival guests that are new and existing 9Mobile users will have access to a special data package that will drastically reduce the internet cost of joining the three-day festival in acknowledgment of the real financial barriers that impede the movement of interactions to online spaces in the developing world. More information would be provided after registration.

The theme for #ALitFest20 “The Art of Empathy” hopes to highlight the importance, beauty, and need for diversity and difference as well as the role of the creative in building bridges within and across societies.

As such, the panels and events have been curated to help participants explore several important societal issues such as tribalism, racism, homophobia, misogyny (also misogynoir), classism, and other relevant issues.

From the unique perspectives of creative minds, this year’s edition of #ALitFest seeks to help people see the world through the eyes of others.
The Festival program includes panel discussions hosted by intellectual panelists from diverse backgrounds including Nwando Achebe, Edwige Dro, Sawad Hussain, Dike Chukwumerije, Kola Tubosun, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Bisi Adjapon, and Chido Onumah.
The keynote panel will be delivered by Helon Habila and moderated by Odafe Atogun.

A major highlight of the Festival would be the poetry slam where the winner gets an N200,000 cash Prize.
Information on participation at the Slam can be found HERE.

There will also be a series of workshops on short story writing, poetry writing, and publishing.

Other activities include Panel Discussions, Book Chats, Writing Competitions, Online Festival Book Store, – Online Art Exhibition (with partners), Film screenings, and so on. Some of the topics to be explored in panels include mental health and the arts, writing in African languages, the role of empathy in the relations between Black Americans and Black Africans, representations of black hair in history, sexual harassment in women.

The festival’s previous themes include; “Nigeria to the World” in 2018 and “Arts and Social Consciousness” in 2019. The festival organizers are grateful for the support of partners like the South African based Geko Publishing, the Nigerian PR firm, Phyllion & Partners, Folio Nigeria, and, of course, 9Mobile.

Visit alitfest.com for more information or follow the social media handles on Twitter and on Instagram.
The organizers can be contacted at info@alitfest.com

You have attended so many conferences, webinars, and meetings by now, and possibly lost count. Where are those ‘takeaways’ from these virtual gatherings?

Quite alright, some have reported getting a jolt or some sort of reawakening on their dreams, so why do we often leave these insights until later and begin to postpone execution dates?

The good news, however, we did some research and will be sharing tips to help you move from inspiration to action below.

Do you want to attend as many conferences as you want and walk away with a focus, purpose, and a goal for taking your dreams to the next level?

Do you want to align your personal goals with your career goals and also take your team and projects to greater heights?

Here are five (5) essential tips for actioning insights from important value-adding meetings.

Tip 1: Write Down Three Goals before the event.

These goals aren’t just any goals, we would recommend a personal goal, a relationship, and a business goal.

Your personal goal should be your personal takeaway from the event: the inspiration you want to get, the kind of people you want to come across that will inspire you, experiences, knowledge, and passion you want to serve as your inspiration and will be willing to share later. Writing these things down will actually bring your attention to focus so that at the conference, you will naturally be on the lookout for them.

Your relationship goal should be to develop three meaningful connections. What would this do for you? Pen it down.

Your business goal(s) should be: what insights, best practices, strategies, and skills do you want to learn or expand on? What business or career clarity do you want to get from the conference? Again, pen them down so they stay top-of-mind.

Note: When you evaluate the conference agenda, ONLY GO to those sessions that fit into your set goals.

Tip 2: Have a column or page in your notepad to capture consistent themes – the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory

While it is good to sit back and enjoy presentations or listen to flowery words and punchlines, your ability to take action in alignment with your goals depends on you actively engaging and processing the ideas as they come.

Taking notes is a basic way of processing what you’re hearing, but if you can go a step further and capture what you notice as “consistent themes” that keep coming up during the different sessions, you will start to simplify what you are learning. This is going to drastically reduce your feeling of information overload and increase your ability to turn insights into action.

Have you noticed that anytime you are listening with rapt attention, with the intent to summarize or to tell someone else about it, you tend to pay close attention? You stay focused, you simplify complicated context. That is the hidden benefit.

Tip 3: Decide what makes your “most likely to share” list.

At the end of each day, take 5 minutes to jot down, “What are three things you learned that you are most likely to share with colleagues? “

Don’t wait until the end of the entire event to do this. Take this simple step after each day, and again simplifying while the information is fresh will increase your chances of implementing it.

Tip 4: Map a simple integration/actioning plan

As soon as possible, you have to be able to visualize how your insights are going to translate into action. Start by making FIVE columns on your paper. The first column is the INSIGHT, second is STRATEGY/SKILL, third would be labeled OBJECTIVES, fourth would be KEY PLAYERS (who needs to be involved?), the fifth is the TIMELINE column.  Your plan has to be SMART. Remember the SMART goals? {SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, REALISTIC & TIMEBOUND} Yeah, those.

Tip 5: Calendar your action items 

Heard of the saying, “what gets scheduled gets done?”, it is essential to schedule on your calendar the first action step you need to take for each of your objectives in your implementation plan. Once that first conference is underway, give yourself a timeline for completing set goals. Without a timeline, there is no completion, only procrastination.

If you can take all of these five tips, you will confidently put your conference insights into action.

Why go through all of these for you, you make ask? Asides being your trusted agency, redefining innovative communications for effective business marketing, we are also particular about your personal and career growth.

What makes us more certified is that we recently concluded a groundbreaking Tech PR conference that you may have attended, and we want to make sure you got the best out of it.

Until next time, action those insights before getting onto the next conference gathering.

Ciao!

This statement of purpose virtually ushered over a hundred attendees from the tech & communications sector, reputable speakers, and thought leaders into the groundbreaking tech PR event, PTC 2020 on Friday, 17th of July.

For an average of four hours, a diversity of ideas, enlightening and insightful presentations, and discussion set the pace for the marriage of technology and communication in enabling transformation in Africa.

In his keynote address, first keynote speaker, Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, the Group Managing Director of CMC Connect Limited, and President, Africa Public Relations Association (APRA), affirmed that the relevance of technology has called for an enabling environment, to enhance the much-needed development envisaged in the private and public sector of Africa’s economies. In achieving this, he pointed out that all stakeholders must be actively engaged.

In his call for embracing technology transformation in the communication sector, he said, “Embracing technological transformation in our business goes beyond tools creating social media campaigns or keeping our software updated. It is following tech trends or embedding digital solutions in our business affairs. It is about perceiving what the future holds and being positioned digitally to be at the forefront of innovation.”

Second keynote speaker, Adrian Clews, the Chief Executive Officer of Hinckley Group, expressed delight with the organizers of the conference, stating that technological transformation has been rapid on the African continent with various initiatives that have helped in boosting business productivity and human advancement.

“Embracing Technology Transformation in Africa, What Next,” comes to mind, is the economic impact of COVID-19, with macro indicators such as significant contraction in economic growth; higher inflation given value after-tax (VAT); electricity tariff adjustment and currency devaluation,” Clews stated.

During the panel discussion, the six (6) reputable speakers, touched on important points that offered insights into smart industry trends, had conversations around tech impact and growth areas within social & interpersonal relations, education, communication and business, and technology changes to expect from the new era and the immediate future.

One of the speakers during the panel session, Ayeni Adekunle, CEO Black House Media Group, had said, “We need to use technology to transform the media in Nigeria.”

Ayeni also called the older generation to action in his closing statement, “We owe the new generation an obligation to set the Agenda for what the African dream should be.”

Harping on the role communication has to play in cascading the impact story of tech in Africa, Founder, Phyllion & Partners stated, “Technology enthusiasts need to begin to see PR as a vehicle.” She moved on to admonish key decision-makers to embrace future-based thinking and human-centered design in developing technology solutions for Africa.

The highlight of the event was the pitch session that re-affirmed the Phyllion Tech Conference as a rare and commendable conference online. It was indeed carefully thought through to ensure attendees got value for their time and certainly bridged the gap between the start-up and the investment community.

The start-up pitch panel was packed with tech leaders such as Managing Director, HP Central Africa, Ify Afe, CEO Edgebase Technologies, Joel Egbai, US-based Digital Business Transformation Strategist, Ogechi Chidebell, Mo Durosinmi-Etti, Regional Manager at the Bulb Africa, and the second event keynote speaker, Adrian Clews, Managing Director, Hinckley Group.

The knowledgeable panel of pitch judges assessed competing for start-up businesses at the pitch, they gave helpful recommendations in respect to due diligence and the business number projections, and further made mentorship commitments and requests for close working relationships, to help them grow from introductory to market breakthroughs.

The conference came to an end with a closing remark from US-based Digital Business Transformation Strategist, Ogechi Chidebell who said, “We are in the phase they call industrial revolution where it is going to be more imperative for businesses and individuals to transform themselves.”

The organizers of the Phyllion Tech Conference 2020 have said that this is only the beginning as plans to kick off many more brand storytelling for the Nigerian tech ecosystem to help them connect with their target market and investment community, are already being actioned.