5 Ways To Increase Your Social Media Followership

Increasing your social media followers is one of the best ways to be recognized on social media and maintain a strong social media presence. This can be very beneficial, especially to businesses that want to save some of their advertising budget, and use this means to create awareness for their products and services.

Latest9ja shares 5 ways that can help you increase your social media followers.

Social Media apps

FREQUENTLY POST GOOD CONTENT THAT RELATES TO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

This goes without saying. Good content pulls in followers like a magnet. Develop and frequently post good, useful, interesting and engaging content which relates to your target audience and that your target audience can relate with. Good, useful and interesting content will trend or go viral more often than not, draw interest on social media and help to increase your fans and followers.

BE INTERACTIVE

It’s not enough to just post good engaging content, you also have to interact with your followers and people that might just be ‘passing by’. Relate with them. Answer their questions. Make them feel important and heard. A good example of a Twitter handle that has recently had some success with this is the EFCC twitter handle. The person(s) managing the organization’s handle not only became more interactive with followers, but also added a hint of humor (an ‘entertainment value’) to these interactions. The result was increased recognition and a better social media presence.

Your approach does not have to emulate that of EFCC, especially if you consider your business or brand more conservative, but the idea of being interactive on your social media account is dynamic enough to be applied in any way that suits your business brand.

FIND AND FOLLOW OTHERS (AND OFTEN FOLLOW BACK WHEN FOLLOWED)

You don’t have to wait for followers to come to you, go out and find some to follow. But, even this approach needs tact to be effective, if not you will end up following tons of people who won’t follow back. Therefore, a suggestion you can use is to follow and give those you follow time to follow you back. Some will and for those that don’t, you can un-follow and continue your search for more followers. Don’t forget to send a message of appreciation to those who follow you back and use that means to, in a nutshell, introduce them to your social media platform.

Same goes for you too. If you expect others to follow you back, a number of those who follow you expect you to follow back or will like for you to follow back. This doesn’t mean you have to follow every single person that follows you, but you can instead look through the profiles of those who follow you, see those you are interested in and follow. This way, you appear more often on the suggestions section of the social media pages and increase your visibility. Not to mention the fact that you can also get inspiration for content from the diversity of your social media followers, and also share some of their posts to help with content.

OFFER DEALS, GIVEAWAYS OR PROMOS

There are very few people who will not jump at the offer of a nice and exclusive deal, or who will not like to participate for a chance to win a promo or giveaway. Doing this from time to time will get your target audience’s attention and, as a result, can help you get more followers.

DON’T FORGET INFLUENCERS

Reach out to influencers on social media, that is people with a large social media following. Mention them in some of your posts that are related to them, attempt to build a relationship with them. This increases your chances of having your posts shared by these influencers to their followers, and also increases your chances of getting a few recommendations about your business or brand from them to their followers in some of their individual posts from time to time.

6 VALUABLE TIPS FOR NETWORKING

Networking becomes significantly easier when you understand what it entails and what it takes to succeed at it. Latest9ja , shares 6 valuable tips for networking.

Begin Networking Before You Need It

Desperation has an aura that can easily be discerned, as a result it might be counter-productive to begin zealous networking efforts at the hour of your greatest need. You can end up putting people off because people can sense when someone is only out to use them and help himself/herself. Networking when you aren’t desperate and have no immediate ulterior motives, can help you build better relationships and a good reputation for being friendly and generous rather than desperate and self-serving.



Plan Before Hand

This is a very important tip, especially if networking isn’t exactly your strong suite. Laying down clear details of the talents, strengths, skill sets and connections that you have and can take advantage of to enhance your networking efforts can make networking much easier for you. You should be sure of the things you can talk about with people at the event, and prepare for a case where you might be taken by surprise and have to comment on things you might not initially have prepared for. In addition, consider how you can also be of help to these people, don’t only consider how you can get them to help you.



Avoid Arriving Late

When you arrive early to a networking event, it’s calmer and quieter at the beginning. People have not yet settled into groups so it’s easier to mingle with everyone and find conversation partners.



Let Your Personal Agenda Take a Back Seat

The fact that you are networking for self-serving purposes doesn’t mean you should be blatant about it. Let your personal agenda take a back seat to building actual relationships with people. Be open, friendly and honest; make connections with people that will make it easier for them to remember you and want to help you, without you even asking directly.



Follow Up

If you promise to do something for someone at a networking event, do it. Follow up and follow through with it. People will value you for this and you’ll unknowingly begin to build a reputation for consistency and reliability. So, if you told someone you’ll call, call the person. If you promised to introduce someone to the person, take the time to do it.



Understand the Value of Networking

The true value of networking comes in being able to help others as much as you want to be helped. If you understand this and practise it well, networking will become a more than valuable business tool for you. Keep this at the back of your mind every time you make a networking effort.

Apps For Blocking Unwanted Calls

Spam calls are unsolicited calls you receive from businesses or companies who are marketing their businesses. If these calls become a regular phenomenon, it can be very frustrating especially when you are expecting an important call. If you still worry about spam calls, These are  apps you can use to block spam or unwanted calls.

Truecaller

Truecaller is one of the best and popular Android apps for blocking spam calls. It has been downloaded more 100 million times. You can use it to block spam calls as well as search for the caller identity of any number. It is an awesome app to download.

Mr. Number

The unique thing about Mr. Number is that it has a list of spam numbers it automatically blocks. You can add subsequent spam numbers yourself. It is quite reliable.

Calls Blacklist

Some telemarketers are very smart that they keep changing numbers. Regardless, there is a feature you can use to identify them. It could be the numbers that start or ends the numbers. You can specify these numbers to add them to your blacklists numbers.

Call control

It is free, and easy for anyone to use. It can be used to block unsolicited calls and text messages that may be disturbing your mobile phone.

Antinuisance

This is a perfect nomenclature for blocking any nuisance calls. The apps allow you to block spam calls, messages as well as block unknown callers as the click of a button.

5 WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING

The advent of social media has helped to introduce the concept of ‘social media for professional networking’. Slowly, ‘in-person’ networking is being overpowered by simply connecting to social networking sites. It’s all part of the phenomenon of social media that engages tens of millions of internet users per day.

In today’s ‘networking space’, it is thus important to know how to use social media for your professional networking. Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares 5 ways to help you do this.

START WITH CONNECTION SITES

Use connection sites like LinkedIn or Xing to look for quality contacts or high-level networkers (HLN) to network with. A quality contact or HLN, according to Entrepreneur.com, are people who are active online, have at least 500 connections and powerful profiles. You should make sure the HLNs you choose to network with are decision makers, executives, media, influencers etc. who are relevant to your field.

Don’t let the fact that you don’t know these people hold you back, simply be transparent when sending them a request or invite and let them know why you would like to connect with them. Try to make the request or invite more about how you can help them and not how they can help you. The more of these people you successfully connect with, the more your visibility increases and the better for you. Increased visibility puts you and your work or brand out there, and this can be especially useful when seeking job opportunities because when headhunters browse through LinkedIn profiles looking for suitable candidates to fill business positions, you’ll be more visible to them.

TARGET MARKET CONNECTIONS (TMC)

There are two types of people who market online – posters and seekers. You are a poster when you actively post valuable information, resources, tips and offers. Posters are mostly businesses, firms or companies. Seekers are mostly consumers, actively seeking for products and services. TMCs are mostly used by posters. Posters aim their products and services at these TMCs (groups of seekers actively sourcing for information about products and services).

A keyword search on social sites will take you to the groups and discussion areas of these TMCs. You can then join in the groups and discussions where your target market is active and engage with them. Joining these groups and discussions can also give you information on places your target market goes when looking for something in your industry.

GROUPS, COMMUNITIES AND DISCUSSION AREAS

There are community areas on most social networking sites for people who have the same interests to gather and connect. You can join and monitor these groups, communities or discussion areas, be active there and engage in their conversations with thoughtful and relevant questions and contributions. This helps you establish a relationship with members in the group and thus expand your professional network by exposing you to and giving you a chance to connect with the right people. When members of your group are familiar with you, they will be more willing to connect with you.

Groups, communities and discussions areas can also give you information on relevant events happening in your field that can present an opportunity for in-person networking, or present a platform to showcase your talents or whatever it is you have to offer.

BLOGS AND FAN PAGES

Blogs and fan pages are two of the best ways to engage with your target market, especially if you are a poster (business, firm or company). You can connect or partner with relevant blogs in your field, create your own blog, create and launch a Facebook fan page or Twitter Profile or do all of these together to reach out to fans and enthusiasts in your field. Once you are able to connect with them through your information, resources, tips and offers, and they like they what they see, you can through this, build a loyal following. Consequently, these loyal followers will be happy to tell their families, friends and peers about you, and your word-of-mouth will grow.

SHARE YOUR CONTENT

Whether you are a poster or seeker, it is important to share your professional content or achievements on your social media profiles so your connections, followers or friends can see your professional achievements. If you have a blog or one you contribute to, share your post and links to your post on your social media profile. If you are an artiste and have written or sang songs, made dance videos etc., share them on your profile. By doing this, you increase your visibility in your field especially when your connections or friends or followers re-share your content. Increasing your visibility helps you to make new social network connections, and thus expands your professional network.

6 COMMON SMARTPHONE PROBLEMS AND HOW TO FIX THEM

These days, it seems like as the sales of smartphones rise, the issues found on these devices rise. Thankfully, some of these common problems can be fixed without having to take it to a technician; all you need is the knowledge of how to fix them. To help with the acquisition of this knowledge, These are  6 common smartphone problems and how they can be fixed.

Smartphone is Running Slowly

This is the most common smartphone problem. This problem is most of the time caused by keeping apps running when not in use, installing unnecessary apps that choke your device’s RAM storage and saving numerous files on your device which congest your internal storage.

Solution: Close apps that are not in use, uninstall and disable unnecessary apps, free up your device’s storage and clear your cached data. If the issue still isn’t resolved you can download diagnostic apps like Phone Doctor Plus and Z-Device Test to help pinpoint the problem. You can also perform a factory data reset to wipe your device clean, leaving the software of your phone the way it was when it was first turned on.

Bluetooth Issues

Most Bluetooth issues are either pairing or interference issues. These can occur over time, sometimes due to the build of cached data in the ‘Bluetooth share’ system app or due to interference from sources like microwaves, wireless speakers, certain external monitors and LCD displays, Direct Satellite Service (DSS), power sources like power lines or stations, 2.4GHz or 5GHz phones or wireless RF video.

Solution: You can try switching off and switching on on your Bluetooth, if it is malfunctioning. If it still doesn’t work, go to Settings> Apps> Systems Apps> Select Bluetooth Share> Clear Cache. The steps vary for different smartphone brands, but the important thing to know is that ‘Bluetooth Share’ is a system app and should be sourced from the system apps of your phone.

For interference issues, either switch off the source of interference or take your device away from it. For pairing issues, you should make sure your device’s discoverable mood is on, get away from or power down likely interferers and make sure the devices you are attempting to pair are in close proximity to each other. If these don’t work, you can try powering your phone off and back on and limiting the data shared between the devices, before trying the above suggestions again.

Cracked Screen or Immersion in Water

We all know water and electronics are not a good mix, but unfortunately accidents happen and devices suddenly get immersed in water or have a hard impact with the floor when they mistakenly slip.

Solution: To avoid such accidents, a sturdy mobile phone case and screen protector can help to protect your phone. Though relatively expensive, it’s a worthy investment because they can help prevent cracked screens and water entering the phone’s ports.

Battery Problems

Battery problems are also fairly common in smartphones. The common battery problems are battery drain, slow charging and ‘system-hogging’ apps. They are mostly caused by users’ abuse.

Solution: To solve this issue you should start by stopping unnecessary apps from running and desist from using defective or wrong chargers to charge your phone. Google Play Service is a feature on most Android phones that drains a lot of battery, so you should clear the cache at least once a month to stop it from draining your battery. Also, you can reduce your screen’s brightness; shorten your screen timeout; and reduce the frequency your widgets and background apps update.

Phone or Apps Crashes

This is indeed a frustrating problem. It can be caused by bugs in your apps, too many apps open at a time, too little memory on the phone etc.

Solution: If your apps crash, you can clear the app data from ‘App Info’ or ‘App Manager’ (depending on how it’s named on your device). Also, learn to clear your cached data and avoid opening too many apps at a time.

For phone crashes, you can try troubleshooting your device for random restarts, troubleshooting apps on your device for random restarts, remove the case and external battery of your device for a short while, or performing a factory data reset on your device.

MicroSD Card Not Working On Your Smartphone

There are a lot of microSD cards in the market, but unfortunately not all of them will work on your smartphone. That can be frustrating.

Solution: There are mostly two types of microSD cards that you’ll come across – SDHC and SDXC. Before you buy any of them, you need to confirm the one which your smartphone supports. In terms of speed, most smartphones support these three primary speed classes of microSD cards: Class 10, UHS-1 Class 1, and UHS-1 Class 3. There are also UH-2 cards but only a limited number of mobile devices support them.

You should watch out for these labels when buying microSD cards for your smartphones. MicroSD card type (SDHC or SDXC) and capacity (GB or TB) are labeled on the card. The three speed classes above also have logos to signify their minimum speed. Class 10 is the letter C with the number 10 inside. UHS-1 Class 1 and Class 3 are the letter U with a 1 or 3 inside, respectively. Finally, you may also see a I or II label on the card, which references a UHS bus speed.

7 Ways To Increase Your Blog’s Traffic

We create blogs for people to visit and read our content. But most times, we find this is not the case and it seems like our blogs are not visible to our target audience. These are 7 ways to help increase your blog’s traffic.

BE STRATEGIC WITH YOUR CONTENT MARKETING EFFORTS

Increasing your blog traffic is not just about creating quality content, it’s largely about being strategic about your content. This means you should ensure your content meets a specific need. It should be centered on your audience, what they love and what they want to read.

For ideas on this, you can check out Quora or any popular question-and-answer site to know the questions people want answered that relate to your blog’s focus. You can also try blog topic generators, keyword search tools or content marketing tools like Buzzsumo to learn more about what your target audience reads and what gets their attention. In all, be sure to incorporate appealing infographics and visual aids for your posts, to create content that people will want to read and share.

Also, to help your content marketing efforts you should ensure you post evergreen content on your blog, one that will remain relevant even after a long while. You should also ensure your headlines are catchy and useful enough to your target audience to get clicked.

TAILOR YOUR CONTENT TO AN AUDIENCE LIKELY TO SHARE

Try to tailor your content to and target communities that are active with content sharing. For example, great and useful infographics, interesting videos and remarkable collection of facts and articles that contain interesting information should be targeted at audiences who are potential content distributors (people who are sure to have accounts on multiple social networks) and heavy content sharers (people who are extremely active users that run blogs, sites or are growing their social network to influencer level).

FIND OUT WHERE A LARGE PORTION OF YOUR AUDIENCE IS

Google search can help you with this. You basically need to identify blogs, forums, websites and social media communities where active discussions and content about subjects within your blog’s focus are shared. A web-based tool like Google’s Display Planner can help you expand and be more definitive with your search. Once you’ve identified the communities, you can start participating in them. But be careful not to rush into this participation, first attempt to understand the nature of the community and what is and isn’t appropriate in the community, to avoid mistakes when commenting and contributing.

INSTALL AN ANALYTICS SOFTWARE

One of the best and free analytics software to install is Google Analytics. This tool will help you see where visits originate, the sources that drive quality traffic and what others are saying about you and your content when they link over. The great insights gotten from this tool will help to define your marketing path and help you put more effort into effective marketing paths. It will also help you know where you are succeeding and where you have an opportunity.

JOIN SOCIAL SHARING COMMUNITIES

Social sharing sites present a great way to share your content. Aside the fact that they provide excellent inspiration for your blog posts, they also provide a platform that engages with other social sharing platforms and increase the likelihood of getting more fans and developing more links and traffic. You should be sure to be active on these platforms and engage with others, don’t just drop-by to simply leave links and upload posts and go.

GUEST BLOG (AND ALLOW OTHERS TO GUEST BLOG ON YOUR BLOG TOO)

No man is an island. You should entertain the idea of guest blogging on other blogs and allowing others to guest blog on yours. Friends and professional connections can help with this, especially if you are just starting out with your blog and don’t have much bloggers interesting in guest blogging on your blog or allowing you guest blog on theirs.

Guest blogging is a great way to spread your reach and increase your traffic. You should ensure you do not get discouraged when you get multiple ‘no’ responses. You should also send samples of your work along with your request to guest blog. In addition, rather than asking for a fresh contribution from someone with a ‘significant industry profile’, ask them for specific pieces they have written before that apply to your area.

OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG FOR SPEED AND MOBILE

If your blog takes forever to load, it can discourage readers from visiting your blog. Google’s Page Speed Insight tool can help you analyze the speed of your blog site and give you tips on how to improve it.

Most people who visit your blog are likely to do so with their mobile devices; you should therefore seek for ways to optimize your blog site for mobile. Consider using plugins like WordPress plugins to execute this.