My Gun To Your Head

On a good day, I should not actually be writing on this because I know a lot of persons have said it even from the very foundation of the earth.

However, I need to write on it because it has also come to me directly.

A number of times I have been accosted online by my friends who wonder why I still accept facebook friends or circle other persons on google plus and why I tend to "force" people to go my way instead of flowing with them in "enjoying" the social media sites which are mainly for socialization and catching fun.

And I have always replied even as I am doing now, that I believe the social media sites are there to help us maximize our social reach.

They help us to reach out to persons who in real life we may NEVER have known or met.

They therefore help us to broaden our outlook on life, enlarge our coasts and expand our borders (territorial and continental).

The social media sites help us to garner and build up our social currency and which can then be used in "purchase" of goods and services.

I am definitely not averse to having fun on social media sites, you know, those jokes that make one laugh till tears come out of one's eyes, those cartoons that send one into a frenzy, those hypothetical stories, the Akpos of this world, those make- believe stories that would be believed only by the timid and the unlearned - all that stuff; but it is my considered opinion that social media sites are of greater reach and usage than simply having fun.

In Nigeria, there are no FREE internet services, if you must browse, you must have MEGABYTES in your mobile gadget or modem and one question I keep asking myself is "does anyone ever become rich by spending without earning?" - that question is not original to me though, but I am sure that even an Elementary 1 Pupil would give me a No answer because the way to riches is to spend far less than one is earning.

So does it then make any meaningful sense that someone who is apparently unemployed is able to gather some money to buy megabytes and then spends them all on pinging and frivolous chatting and having fun on social media sites without earning or getting links toward improving his or her lot with them? And then when s/he has burnt that up, s/he begins to look for someone who would help him or her to SUBSCRIBE again - does that make sense?

If you are borrowing money to buy megabytes or depending on others to help you subscribe only to ping them away, you are of all persons most to be pitied. There is no future there.

Is it possible to have fun on social media sites and yet make money? a capital YES is the answer.

You can laugh all you like because of a particular joke or picture or cartoon, you can make all the comments you like on them, you can even take them a notch higher by sharing them, but NONE of the social media sites would EVER PAY YOU a dime or a nickel for doing that.

I don't know if you are aware of this, but FACEBOOK makes about 27 cents per person per day who log into their facebook accounts and carry out any activity at all.

Instagram has just opened her platform to commercial ads, meaning that the owners would also start earning from you whenever you log in and post those hilarious pics and get people to like and comment on them

Twitter of course is also making money off you whenever you log into your twitter account and send out a tweet or retweet another. e.t.c.

All these social media sites TAKE AWAY your megabyte and GIVE YOU NOTHING in return except to say that you have had fun.

Life and living are not all about having fun and of course I am sure you know that there can be no end to having fun neither is having fun ever limited.

So since the social media sites give you nothing tangible in return, you should sensibly find a way to benefit from them while still catching and having your fun.

You should know how to use your social media accounts to make cool bucks for yourself.

And that is where I have my "gun" set on the heads of my friends.

Much as I like catching fun on social media sites through chatting and stuff like that, but I like doing that intelligently.

I don't have that kind of time to engage in fruitless chat that would lead to no where neither do I find it useful to engage in chats that discuss Nigeria's ills when those in Government are not listening and still doing things the old way despite the mantra of change they chanted.

Why be a facebook tiger when you are a paper weight outside of facebook?

I prefer to engage my time in fruitful chats and discussions on the social media sites.

I prefer to discuss personal development strategies, discuss men's health challenges with their dicks and stuff, discuss women's health challenges with their boobs and stuff, discuss how to make money from the internet using facebook, twitter, instagram and all the other social media sites, discuss how to raise children, discuss mental health and occupational health, discuss adolescence crisis and how to overcome them, discuss mid age crisis and how to overcome them, discuss menopausal crisis and how to overcome them, I am sure you are getting my drift?

I like to engage in chats and discussions that would add value to the one I am chatting with while also throwing banters and catching some good fun.

I am here to constructively engage my social media contacts for mutually benefitting programs and projects.

So if you are my friend on facebook or instagram or badoo or whatsapp or 2go or twitter e.t.c. and you wanna chat me up, just bear in mind that I am here to help you GROW; but if you are not like minded, I wish to apologize to you in advance and ask that you can kindly remove me from your list in order for me not to offend you.

And for those willing to make a difference in their lives and that of those around them, I am game, let's go play!!!!

What say you?

Let me know your thoughts on this post, do use the comment box in the blog to drop them and we can engage each other constructively therefrom.

A genuine wish for a happy day to you

#DrJTF

As Twitter Transits

As Twitter transits, here's the man taking over

By July 1 Jack Dorsey would be taking over Dick Costolo as the interim CEO of Twitter

Here are some pictures of the incoming CEO

4 Things You're Doing Wrong On Social Media

 Lots of people will tell you what you should do when using social media. This is not one of those posts.

By: Amy Venon

It's easy to be overwhelmed when diving into social media--whether for the first time or for a new account, business, product, or client.

It's so easy to misstep and get your audience mad at you.

Here are four things you should never do when using social media for your business:

1. Automate your Twitter feed.

Engage with your followers. Talk to them. Have conversations.

If you went to a cocktail party and someone just started talking at you, not responding to any questions or comments you had, it would get annoying and boring, and you'd walk away to find someone more interesting to talk to.

2. Use a zillion hashtags.

It's annoying.

Use three hashtags at the most. It's impossible to read a post that's chock-full of hashtags, and it's a bald attempt to just grab attention.

3. Send automated Direct Messages on Twitter. Ever.

It's spam, plain and simple. Send a personal message or don't send one at all.

4. Take any post, like this, that purports to tell you what you're doing

wrong on social media as gospel.

You caught me. This is the only item in the post that is actually 100 percent true.

There are exceptions to every rule, and while the items stated above are generally regarded as the wrong things to do in social, there are times when they work.

The truth is, you need to test and see what works for you, at that particular moment in time and on each social media site.

So let's take these one by one:

1. Automating your Twitter feed.

My friend Brent Csutoras has run the very popular @WeirdNews Twitter account for years.

The account has about 100,000 followers (all gained naturally).

When he has used the account to engage with them, they've gotten annoyed: "Just keep sharing weird news!" That's what they want. That's why they're following. They don't want someone "engaging" with them there; they want headlines to weird news from around the world.

2. Using a zillion hashtags.

On Twitter or Facebook, maybe. But on Instagram? It's de rigueur.

In fact, if you want to be seen beyond your circle on Instagram, you need to use lots of hashtags.

The more the merrier.

Hashtags are the currency of Instagram.

Find the ones that work and use them, abuse them. As long as your photo fits the hashtag, the more the merrier.

3. Sending automated Direct Messages on Twitter. Ever.

Virtually every single social media expert, guru, ninja, and rock star will tell you this. Except the ones who've done this and had great success.

I was involved in a really interesting conversation in a Facebook group a while back when the subject came up.

Everyone chimed in with "Spam!" "They don't work!" Except for the people who had used them and gotten great click-through. (I'm still looking for that conversation and will add it when I find it.)

The point is, if you do it right, you can achieve your goals.

Just don't be a jerk about it. And don't send it to me, because I hate that.

4. Take any post, like this, that purports to tell you what you're doing wrong on social media as gospel.

Thing is, there is no real wrong.

Some people are grade-A jerks, and it works for them. It doesn't work for most, but there's an exception to every rule.

For every best practice, there's an exception. Maybe even a few. It all depends on your audience.

It's a good idea, however, not to share porn.

Well, unless you're an adult film star or entertainment company. Then that makes sense.

See?

http://www.inc.com/amy-vernon/4-things-you-re-doing-wrong-in-social-media.html

How To Become An Expert On Any Topic In 5 Minutes Or Less

Need to Become an Expert on a Topic Fast? Try These 3 Tricks of the Trade

By: Betty Liu

How to become an expert in five minutes or less.

People often ask me: "Betty, how is it that you're able to have a conversation on air about so many different topics?

How do you try to know everything about every topic?"

The answer, of course, is you don't.

Nobody can know everything about everything.

But you can know enough to connect with the person you're speaking with and ask the right questions.

There are people and topics you can spend months doing research on--as I did when I first interviewed Warren Buffett.

I read countless books on Buffett and value investing, watched nearly all his interview videos from six months back, and read 120-plus pages of articles on him all before our first one-hour sit-down at his office in Omaha.

If Buffett threw me any curveballs, I was ready.

But then there are times when you don't have that luxury, such as when you're crashing on deadline before your live television program.

You may have 30 minutes or less to prepare for several interviews.

That's led me to develop a few techniques over the years that enable me to learn almost everything I can about a topic or person in five minutes or less.

This is useful for a variety of situations beyond a live television interview.

Think about it--how often do you need to know something fast about the person interviewing you for a job or a sales client you're about to meet?

How do you go from a "know nothing" to a "know everything" quickly?

Here are a few of the tricks of the trade.

1. Start with a Google search.

Sounds basic enough, right? You'd be surprised how many people think "research" entails first looking up a person's corporate bio or a company's website.

These are typically useless, unless you want to know someone's official title.

If you want the real deal, Google the person or company or topics and search under News. 

Don't go back more than 12 months. Anything older is less relevant.

Read the highly cited articles first.

Pick lengthier articles--those usually have more contextual information.

Longer articles usually present a counterpoint or questions surrounding the topic or person--very critical when you want to get the full story.

2. Speed read.

I don't have any special skill in this, but given the nature of my job, I probably read more than the average person.

However, I don't have more hours than the average person, so I've had to figure out a way to speed through articles.

Usually the first three or four paragraphs are your most critical--read those.

Look out for numbers and names--those are usually important parts of the story and give new details.

Skim the first few words of each new paragraph to see if they're critical to the story.

Rarely read the last paragraph, unless it's an opinion piece, in which case that's usually the so-called money quote by the writer.

People tend to want to end their op-eds with a commanding statement that says it all.

3. Look up social media accounts.

Thank goodness for social media.

I learn more about a person through their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts than a regular old news article.

Mark Cuban says more on Twitter than he does in a one-on-one with Re/code.

That's because people use these platforms to tell you what interests them.

You can use these points to connect and learn.

No need to go back too far--the most recent 30 days of tweets or Facebook posts are more than enough to know what's caught the person's fancy.

Now go hit the books!

http://www.inc.com/betty-liu/need-to-get-information-fast-try-these-three-tricks-of-the-trade.html