The Brand Evangelist

I wrote a post in the past on DIY [Do It Yourself] approach to social media, what the social media experts won't tell you. There I stated that trial and error can help you design a unique social media marketing strategy.

But Is social Media Marketing LUCK?

 

NO. It has an element of luck.

You cannot determine when a campaign will go viral. You may initiate a campaign with the intention that it should go viral, but there is no guarantee. There are factors you can't control.
You can't tell people how to use Facebook or Twitter. People decide their own way. Even Facebook and Twitter are not telling people how to Facebook or Tweet.

 

Things you should not leave to luck

1. Social media marketing goal. The goals you set must be measurable and meaningful. Deciding to gain 20,000 likes (Facebook) or 10,000 followers (Twitter) is a goal that is achievable and measurable. However it is meaningless in marketing. I wrote a post on the value of building business relationships over accumulating numbers. Example of meaningful goal could be - gather insight for your brand or increase awareness.

2. Data Collected for analysis. You can use certain tool to collect and analyse data. The data you mine must be able to provide you with information that will help you in deciding if you're achieving your goal. To gather insight, you can ask your community questions on Twitter or Facebook. The information you gather could them be use to create more value for your customers.

3. Best time to engage. Through careful observation and direct questioning I was able to know that the best time to engage with my own community on Facebook and Twitter is 8am - 10am, 12noon to 2pm 5pm to 7pm, 10pm to 12am [Nigerian time] at other times they are either asleep or at work. You have to observe yours. What is the benefit of sharing information when the people who are to see it are not available?

4. Social Network Platform to use. Your service and the people you're targeting will determine the platform to use and how to use it. Most users of social networks in Nigeria access social network via their mobile phone. If you're targeting such people, it is obvious that they won't see adverts you place on Facebook [I typed the draft of this post from my usual Nokia E71 btw].

Don't just do trial and error, research.

A social media marketing strategy will help you save resources that can result from trial and error. Get yours drafted today and stop leaving your social media marketing effort to luck!
What challenges are you having in implementing an effective social media strategy? Let me know in the comments and I will share my experience with you.

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I was going to publish a post on benefits of being a multi-passionate Entrepreneur. I decided to break down the frequency of my posts to increase the quality.

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Having awesome marketing skills can add more business to you, but poor habits can make you lose in your business.

Have you been trying to learn new habits recently? Habits that will enhance your productivity. If yes, trying this few tips can help the habit stick.

1. Don't try to do too much. You're more likely to fail and be discouraged. Initially I posted once in a week on my blog. I decided to post daily between 300 - 500 words as a new habit. I am already feeling overwhelmed. So I have broken it down to two post a week. I will still write daily, but will post only twice in a week. Break down your goal into tiny bits, you can increase it as you get more comfortable.

2. Get a support system to be accountable to. In my case, I am part of a Facebook group started by Aaron Lee. I report my progress to them and get encouragement. You can join us or start your own group. You can decide to make your friend your support. It helps. If you can't find any, I am available to provide support for you. Reach out to me on twitter or email me.

Get support to enable your new habit stick - Image source

3. Record & track your progress. I record my progress using evernote application on my PC. I also do a summary on the group page on Facebook for the 30-day challenge. This will help you to know how you are doing and know what to adjust. You may record your progress on a blog or a note book.

4. Don't beat yourself when you fail at it. Start afresh the next day. You can't learn a new habit with ease, it's tough, it takes time and practice. Anyday you fail at executing the set task, you're not a failure. Just try again. If you're doing too much, reduce the task as I said above.

5. Reward yourself with an enjoyable activity or something you admire. I love to tweet, I wait till I get my task done & then go online to have fun.

This is my 4th Day in the 30-day challenge to develop a new habit with a Facebook group.. It's been fun and rewarding. I hope to keep it up till the 30th day as see how well I did.

Have you been trying to develop a new habit lately? How have you been going about it? I will love to hear from you in the comment.

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"Jack of all trade master of none."

Image source

Can one be equally good to the same degree when doing so many things at thesame time?

You're familiar with that opening quote. If refered to as a jack of all trade, how will you feel? I won't like it if it were me. But, the truth is, we have Jacks of Multiple trades around us. Such people may be seen as a missfit in the society. I don't think it shout be so.

I once wrote on this blog, about slahers vs specialists. Those who are passionate about different things and feel the urge to purse them are called scanners. They are sometimes called slashers since their bio may look something like this - Writer/ photographer/ blogger /webdesigner /Musician.

The Specialists school of thought see such people as a misfit. This, however, is doing damage to a lot of scanners who can hardly settle down and engage in a single career for the rest of their lives.

There is room for specialists and scanners alike. It's better to help scanner understand their skill and maximise it. I see most entrepreneurs having the scanner trait. Trying to label themselve into being specialists may be their greatest challenge.
I belong to the scanner tribe. I never knew all along. It's a special kind of trait, just like Peter Parker [Spider Man] who had to learn how to use his special powers. I am learning to use Mine as well :-)

image source

If you are an entrepreneur, and you find yourself to be multipassionate, don't despair, help is available. There is a whole community at puttylike.com, you see people with same trait there and you can share and learn how everyone is applyiing this unique trait.

How is being a Multi-passionate entrepreneur and advantage? I will share that tomorrow. Make it a date.
Do you find youself in this category of people, who have multiple-interests and pottentials? How have you been managing the trait?

If you're a specialist, what's your thought about scanners, are they Jack of all trade master of none?

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I will like to hear from you in the comments.

P.S it is day3 in the 3Oday challenge to develop good habits. You can still join us. [Since I am composing this with My Nokia E71, I can't put the link, use the search box or @ me on twitter @JesseOguns] we are now about 30 in the group, it's free and it's an interesting community.

I will also appreciate your feedback on my new blog design if you're a regular. Thanks!

“Long-term couple rely on each other to act as one another’s memory.” – Daniel Wegner

 

 

This sounds like something I did when I was in high school. My mum always knew where things are, so I don’t bother remembering where I kept my things. I simply ask her and she produces it. She’s awesome.

According to a research study by a group of researchers presented on BBC online portal, we seem to be relying more on the computer and the internet to help us remember things than our own memory.

 

 

Do you think we are becoming dumber?

The researchers pointed us to the quote in the opening. If long-term couples can depend on each other to store things and remember them [Transactional memory], Depending on our computer or the internet to aid us in remembering does not make us dumb, does it?

We seem to develop another set of skill of knowing where and how we store information on the web and on our computers. The web and our computers are therefore serving as out transactional memory.

Do you think we are becoming dumber in this computer and internet age?

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Let’s discuss it in the comment section. I will love to know what your thoughts are. Thanks!

Image source for the first photograpgh

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net for the second photograph

He was born in 1974. He had a good job and Family. But, he just passed away. I knew him.

Seeing his Obituary, I was nudged to think about live in a digitally connected world.

Technological inventions push different services at us all the time. Engaging and interesting services. They make us more busy and more connected. Have you thought of the cost of being always connected?

I am thinking of it now. I am connected 24/7 as I have a phone that is connected to the web. I wrote an article a few days ago on Why Every Blogger Needs a Smartphone. If these devices get the best of us, they can distrupt our lives and cost us a few of the things that should matter to us.

What is more important, things or people? When we love gadgets and use people, what does that make us? We sometimes want our family to understand that it's work. Finding the middle groud between our virtual/business relationships and people we care for is vital.

As I continue my participation in the 30 day challenge to pick up a good habit. I want to include one more; Live a richer life by limiting the number of times I am connected to the virtual world and connect more with people in the real world.

How do you balance being connected online and spending time with people in real life? Someone could make use of your approach.

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Be part of the conversation and leave a comment. Thanks!

P.S. Logging off now. I need to make some vegetable soup. It's been a while I used the Kitchen.

I have been thinking of how to enhance my productivity for a while now. Especially as I am into Digital Marketing. It is very easy to use so much time online, do so much and get nowhere.

When I saw Aaron Lee’s tweet on twitter two days ago I was glad I can finally be held accountable by a group.

“Planning to write a 30 days challenge, who’s with me? “

Sometimes, when people are trying to drop an addiction to a bad habit, they use a support group. You must have seen it in the movies, where an Alcoholic joins a group for support for a period. It helps. That was exactly what got me excited and I joined.

I have been working on my own for a few days now, to blog daily in order to improve my writing skills. I have also been looking at a strategy to use social media more productively. Leaning on the community will thus provide an opportunity for me to be challenged externally and work on these Goals of mine.

Yesterday was is day 1.

Below is a screen shot of my own list for the 30-day period.

1. Write a blog post of 300 – 500 words daily

2. Build deep one-on-one relationship on twitter

3. comment on blogs I read daily.

The challenge is still open, If you want to join the group click to join the Facebook Group.

See you on the inside.

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If you have a blog on digital marketing, Blogging, tech startup, or small business, let me know, I will come to it, read, comment and be part of your community

Two days ago, I wrote an article on why write a short but interesting post. This is a follow-up on that Post.

While there are many factors that determines if your article will be read, for a fairly new [Z-list] blogger, Lenght can also be a factor. I explained all that in the previous post.

Steps I consider to write short but interesting posts

1. Reseach your topic.. Writing short doesn't mean irrelevant content. Reseach to know what people want to read. Listen to conversations during tweet chats, check popular hashtags, and search for what others have written. Short doesn't mean easy.

2. Write your first draft. If you write and edit at the same time, you're in for a hard one. Allow flow in your first draft. It can be lenghty, which will allow for the key ideas to be written.

3. Edit for brevity. Take out the irrelevant words, phrases and sentences.

4. Write on the tablet of the heart, they won't bleed. Do people die because you love them? We are emotional before being rational. If it makes sense but is not sweet, we may not read it. If you're a thought leader, people may keep up with your reading no matter how long. I bet you majority will scan it for key points.

While there are other points that make people read your post, like design and colour, the lenght do play a huge role. Here is what Amber of @Wordsdonewrite said in a tweet to me:

"I prefer short over long pieces. Been my experience that most people have short attention spans."

Then I asked her; What should people do to keep it short but interestiong, here is her response:

"...be concise. People have lots of options, so don't make it work to read your writing. Also don't burry your lead."

Those are my 4 steps to writing short, but interesting posts.

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Your turn

What will you say is vital to writing short interesting blog posts? Share in the comments.

P.S pay a visit to Amber's blog. She's excellent at her writing ;-) http://wordsdonewrite.blogspot.com or

I'm writing this brief piece stuck in the car. It is raining right now in Lagos. I am waiting for a shop to open.

I forgot it's thursday as I hurried up to a shop to buy air-time in bulk. On thursdays, shops should not open until 10am. It about 9:15am.

I am a blogger & I need to share information on digital marketing with small business owners online. I will often have comments I need to moderate, tweets I need to reply and other activities.

What I would have done in this scenario was to go back home to my laptop & continue working. However, I decied to stay back in the car, while waiting for the shop to open, with my humble Nokia E71 & access to the web via my sim card.

I have replied some mails, checked my tweets, reading some blog link I faved and typing this post now via Email2blog.

Think of a time you will have to wait to see someone, going to pick your kids from school, going on a bus or train ride. Your Mobile Smart Device with access to the web might just come in handy.

In case you've been thinking it's a waste of money, you can check how it can help you to be more productive and creative, then consider getting one.

BTW, if you're trying to figure out what mobile smart device will do for you as a blogger, check out Mr Mobility's blog @ mobility.com.ng or tweet at him @mobilitynigeria.

Do you have a Smart mobile device as a blogger? How does it help you to be more productive? I will like to hear your own take.

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Time and again, I have been told; 'If you want to be taken seriously, remove the blogspot and get your own domain.

You're probably wondering why am I using a free blogger domain & hosting.

Enemy Of Starting

Have you tried to start a new project, but find yourself procastinating it? It can be caused by the size of work needed and your skill base.

If I had waited to learn all I needed to learn & get the answer to my blogging questions, I may never have started.

I found blogger easier to set up, update and use. As time went by, I experimented different thing on the blog. Thanks to this blog, I have learnt a lot.

Limitations

As I plan to grow my Digital Marketing business, there is need for me to differenciate my services. Blogger is not as robust as WorsPress. Wordpress has a large developer community creating widgets for it regularly..

The Questions I have

1. What Name should I use? I have been brainstorming that for a while now. I have a few names in my note book. I will be registering the best option before the end of July.

2. Should I get a free hosting or should I pay for hosting? When I started off, I wanted a WordPress Blog, It was even done for me. I did not have an idea what Hosting meant. Later, I found out I had only 250mb space in the hosting plan I payed for. Small, right? I never knew what it meant. I am wondering what plan to go for and why?

3. What colour should I use? I know colours play an important role in branding. For Digital marketing for small businesses and startup, what colours will be nice?

4. Who should I write for? This was a question I did not answer when I started my blogger account. Now I know who am writing for - Small Businesses and Statup looking for how to use Digital Marketing to build their business.

5. How often should I write? I am still thinking on that. I think I will start with once in a week. I will still keep this blog and publish some general thoughts here. As soon as I can maintain publishing once in a week regularly, I will then examine twice or three times.

Those are the questions I am having.

If you can help me with answer to any one of them please do, using the comment. I will be grateful.

Mainwhile, I am still searching via the web and with my friends do. I will do a post Answering these questions when I finally decide the options to take.

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Tomorrow, I will be writing on; How to write short interesting posts. A follow-up to the post I wrote yesterday. If you've not read it, you can grab it now - WHY LEARN TO WRITE SHORT INTERESTING POSTS.

I started this blog in other to explore and learn the ways of bloggers. When I started, I had no prior training from anywhere or anyone. Through do it yourself [DIY] I have learnt alot.

Today, I want to share with you why you should learn to write short but interesting posts [I am still learning the Art myself].

Daily, I read lots of blogs. I subscribed to some on my mobile RSS feed [Snaptu reader] and my Google reader. I have observed a trend.

There are long posts and there are short posts.

I hardly read a long post if it is from a Z-list blogger [A new blogger starting out], except if it is uber-interesting. However, I read long posts by Glen [Viperchill.com], @Thebrandbuilder and Tomi Ahonen. These three bloggers are thought leaders and A-list bloggers [Pro]

There are A-list bloggers who write short interesting posts too. Example - Seth Godin and Chris Brogan. Their posts are short and intersting.

Here are Three reasons to write short and intersting posts.

1. As a Z-list blogger, Learning to write short interesting posts can be part of a strategy to gain new readers. Attention span of people are short these days. Most online people may have blogs they read already. If they come to yours, and see it's brief and interesting, they are likely to stay and return for more.

2. You can post more regularly. To write between 300 to 600 words is easier than Glen's 5,000 words or Tomi Ahonen's 10,000 words. This does not mean you should write short posts that are boring, jazz up your writing.

3. It improves creativity. You will be able to say if few words, what others may take 5 sentences to say.

So far, I am drawn to writing more, since I know I am not looking for 5,000 words.

Which post do you prefer reading, short or lenthy posts? share with me in the comments.

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P.S - In a future post I will cover, How to write short interesting posts.

What is the value of a huge Fan base, twitter followers or blog subscribers if it does not result into value for you (your comapany) and the fans/followers?

If you look to Social Media as a tool for marketing, it's vital you look beyond the the NUMBERS.

I recently Unfollowed someone on twitter, who has 20,000+ followers. He is full of auto-Retweets. I was not getting value from him anymore. I can not distinguish between when he's online & when he's not. He seems to come online to thank & retweet those who have retweeted him,

I'm wondering what could be his goal. A huge Klout score? Huge follower base?

If you earn a retweet you feel good, right? I feel good too. But do you feel full in your pocket? Does a retweet measure business growth?

Building relationships on Social Networks is much more than all that. It's better to build a deeper connection than a wider one. Even big brands have deep relationships with a few influencers and connectors.

A Robert Scoble of Rackspace will be invited to a Google conference. He will tweet about it and blog about it. A relatioship built with Scoble, Is likely to result into some word of mouth if he loves the product. (This is just an example)

It's appropriate to ask yourself; do I have a strategy in place to build deeper (focused) connections that will result into profit (benefits) for fans/followes and me? Or, am I more concerned about the number of ReTweets, fans/followers and mentions?

What strategies can I use to build deeper relationships?

- Guest Blogging. If you write good stuffs. You will be approached by other blogs to be guest. It is an opportunity to build a relationship with the blog(gger). Pick the blogs you choose wisely. This relationship can result in backlings and more readers.

- Engage. Except you are Techrunch or Mashable. You don't want to broadcast messages. Even Techcrunch has a strategy to engage with influencers. The writers are having personal accounts. They engage with others in tweets/chats.

- Take note of influencers/connectors. As you base grows, it may be challenging to keep in step with the numbers. Take note of key people who

- Comment on blogs. In my case I have blogs I comment on regularly. I am still working on my comment strategy. It is another step to build deep connection. Leave meaninful comment. Don't be tricky. It will show if your comment is thoughful.

- ReTweet good stuffs they have. Don't be a self promoter. On twitter, you have the opportunoty to share what others have. Show some love and you may just get it back. Even if you don't get a retweet, you can gain a friend.

- Recommend them. If you know someone who is great for a particulat thing, recommend them to others.

- Call them by name. Use their first name when responding to tweets or comment on blog/Facebook. Everyone feels warm with that, don't you?

- Send them mails - Newsletter in case of subscribers. Not only when you have products to sell. Appreciate them. Ask for feedback to serve them better and offer special offer to your subscribers.

Note. You cannot build deep with everyone. Take note of influencers, connectors and those who are currently interested in your service. This can include, blog readers, subscribers, those who comment, those who are buying from you etc.

They will form a spark. A spark will form a fire. A fire can consume the forest. You don't need more than a spark to set fire in a forest. A spark among some woods, under the right temperature will do the trick.

Identify & create sparks, that can create fire and grow your customer base. Then focus on sustaining and keeping them satisfied. The realtionship counts.

I will be covering that in a future posts. (How to sustain business relationships)

Now you see, it not the number of teeth that count, but the healthy ones. Focus on building a deep relationship, the number will come and your business will grow.

What strategy have you been using to grow your business relationships? I will love to hear from you in the comments.

If you tweet a lot like me, you may be interested to know if it bothers your followers or not. I am sorry I can't help you on that, but you can ask them.

If you don't want to come of as spammy, you can use the @ mention at the begining of any conversation you are having. How does it work?

Any time you click reply or type @ to begin a tweet, only the person you mention and yourself will see the tweet. However, if someone follows both of you [in this case you may have mutual interest] they would also see the conversation.

You can be sure your conversation with people on twitter are not spamming others, if you use this rule.

What actions by some twitter users annoys you?

'Hey! Your blog is beautiful, I love the design.'

How will you feel if you get that compliment from your Facebook and Twitter friends? Good, I guess.

Depending on why you set up your blog, you might want to ignore that compliment until you have answers to the following questions. This are questions I find out I am always asking when I visit a blog. I am amazed sometimes,some blogs lack answer to these questions.

What will your answers be?

QUESTIONS

Q1 - Who are you? I want to know If I can trust what I want to read, so I want you to provide an answer to that on your blog. Sadly some blogs only have a very brief description, which does not convert me. To be converted, your about page, should be able to sell your brand to me as quickly and easily as possible

Q2 - What is your blog about - I may have come to your site via a tweet, search or word of mouth. Your blog should tell me by your heading what I am expected to see, except you are a very popular brand like Seth Godin. It's possible your blog is about everything & anything, let me know. Your blog heading should be descriptive. This is also good for SEO (Search)

Q3 - How can I find posts you've written on a subject? - Does your blog have a search box? It will only help to keep me longer on your blog. To discover things I like. It is better you place it where I can easily find it. You can use the one provided by Google.

Q4- Can I add your blog to my RSS feed? - I am mobile 80% of the time rather than on my laptop. I prefer using my snaptu reader (May be this is just me) when I see your site and love your content. I will like to bookmark it via RSS feed. I still find it hard, some blogs do not render RSS feed to my reader. Some people prefer feeds rather than logging in to to your blog directly. So, do you have it?

Q5- Do you have social sharing buttons? Please write me if you find a blog without social sharing button(s) at least twitter, facebook and email. It's a must if you want others to easily spread your message.

Q6- How do I contact you? - I got to a Mobile Money blog/site. I was shocked to find out the only contact they had was their physical address, no email or phone number! Except you are not blogging for business, then how to contact you may be trivial. I may want to hire you or book you as a speaker, or buy your product.

Q7- Do you offer any service? This is a question I ask when I have already been sold on your brand. If you don't have the answer, you loose an opportunity to sell to me. You should have a product or service page information.

These are very simple questions to answer and execute.

Won't you agree with me, that a well designed blog, that loads fast, easy to navigate, and answers the 7 questions above will do better than those that lack them?

I will like to hear your thoughts. What questions do you ask when you visit a blog? Please share it in the comment section.

I log on to twitter first thing in the morning, read my mentions, check my RSS feeds for news & blogs related to my industry, & mark what to share & share it via twitter. It's so easy. I can't remember the last time I read print.

"Time seemed to slow down, those lazy weekends, as I made my way through the various sections. Even then, I had the urge to SHARE. If I come across an article I knew someone would like, I would expertly tear - yes, there's an art in tearing newsprint - the article out and fold it away in my pocket. ...Pop it in an envelope with a handwritten note saying 'I thought you might find this interesting...' and send to a colleague, friend [customer] or relative." -@Berkson0

Imagine how sharing would have looked like without twitter.

I met a lady today durring the future training. There was a need for me to share with her. However, she's not using twitter. So, I have to email it to her. If she was it would have been esier.

Durring Entrepreneurial training on a few days back, the trainer pointed us to a material. I googled it and found it. Everyone wanted it. While others copied the long URL, Gbenga has his twitter handle handy. Guess what? I tweeted the link to him.

This are some positive aspects of sharing.

It has also become easier for brands to share their unique message and be heard faster too.

Our tools for sharing and communication have changed. For old and new businesses to survive, they have to understand how these tools work and leverage them.

How were you sharing exciting contents before the days of digital media?

P.S. I am sharing my thoight right now, composing this post from my nokia e71 as an email message. It would be share automatically on Facebook and twitter. Sharing on turbo :)

Google plus has been a news buzz since it debutted. Some who initially ignored it, now want invite. Thanks to Deep Soni, I got an invite as one of the first to try it.

I have been able to test the service. Not deep though. But I have features of it that I adore. Being in the business of online marketing for small businesses, my personal adoration isn't prime.

What is Prime is; How can Google+ be useful for small business owners to work & market their services more effectively? Time will reveal more.

Durring our mothly #mbGeeks chat yesterday, someone asked if Google+ can be used for collaboration.

I figured out something while reading iRevolution Blog. Unlike the walled garden [Facebook] Google+ is open. If you are working with a group of people, you can decide to add them all to a circle and share exclusive content to them. Only those in the circle will see the content. You can tell the others to include the rest of the team in thesame circle.

In addition, you can disable sharing from the drop down by your right [I will include a snapshot later, typing this with my nokia phone] this will prevent the receivers, from re-sharing the content.

You can also use the hang out feature for collaboration too. It supports video & audio. I already tried that and it is cool.

Let's give Google+ time to grow. For now, it is dominated by social geeks & tech geeks. Robert Scoble says, he will prefer it to stay that way. Chris Brogan wrote of 5O ways G+ can be useful. I just shared two ways you can experiment with G+, using it as a tool for collaboration.

What tools are you currently using for online collaboration?

If you need an invite and don't have one yet, you may drop you email and I will send you one. Provided Google is still allowing people in.

All eyes on Africa.

With Internet connectivity costs dropping year-on-year, connectivity speeds increasing annually as well. It has become quite affordable for the average African Entrepreneur to have internet connectivity for business purposes. Coupled with the dropping costs and increased speeds is the advent of Cloud Computing (Software As A Service) which has also made many tools available to many African Entrepreneurs at an affordable cost of little or no capital investment - i.e. subscription model.

Thus the African Entrepreneur is presented with an opportunity to grow their business at the lowest
cost possible through:

* Online Collaboration with other like minded entrepreneurs around the world
* Work in Virtual Teams on specific instead of hiring full time staff
* etc.

There are many entrepreneurs that are working in isolation. If they are aware of collaborative online tools and how to leverage it, they can work smarter and more creatively.

There are many tools on the web that African Entrepreneurs can use to grow / improve their businesses. On 8th of July 2011, 12noon GMT [1pm Nigerian, 2pm South African, and 3pm Kenyan time] you can join us on Twitter (another useful collaborative tool) on the #mbGeeks monthly chat when we discuss this topic [Virtual collaboration among African Entrepreneurs] with our guest Emeka Okoye.