There have never been so many ways to communicate with businesses. Phones, e-mails, messaging, but also chatbots, which are on the increase. With the Covid-19 epidemic, discussions have multiplied, giving an even stronger reach to conversational marketing and to these bots, which make it possible to automate part of the exchanges and provide clear and rapid answers to your customers and prospects. But to take advantage of this emerging discipline, you will need to continue experimenting in 2022, starting by determining precisely what issues you want to respond to, with what tool but also on what criteria you will judge the success of your action.

Market research

Positioning yourself against your competitors and arousing the interest of consumers requires regular market research. In 2021, they will continue to be of great importance, in a context where competition is intensifying and where positioning your brand has never been more important. Consistency will make the difference: it’s not just about measuring, it’s also about doing it regularly. The data collected should help companies to base their decisions, but also to set up performance indicators.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly

Due to the COVID pandemic, the use of mobile devices increased sharply in 2020  . It is very important that your website is optimized for mobile. This will make the user experience easy and convenient for the customers. Time flies when you’re having fun or having a good time, and that’s what you want for your users. A mobile-optimized website will also help you with Google’s Core-Web-Vitals, helping you measure speed, visual stability, and responsiveness. In 2021, paying attention to these metrics will help your Google search rankings accordingly. Remember, you want to be accessible to your customers on mobile and desktop. Most users will find you on mobile devices in 2021, so let’s make sure they enjoy the experience.

Focus on User Experience

According to Google, users show they prefer sites with a great page experience. That makes sense, because who wants to spend hours wrestling online, right? Prioritizing user experience (UX) means that visitors will likely stay engaged with your business website rather than visiting your competition. To help businesses measure their website’s user experience, Google has rolled out a new set of metrics called “Core Web Vitals” that help measure website speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.

Create content to answer your users’ questions

The content of the best and most attractive always answers questions from your users. If a user feels they can’t find the answers to their questions, they’ll leave.  You want this content to be informative or to enhance the user experience and ultimately help solve their problems. TikTok is another way to answer users’ questions. You can buy TikTok views and wait for the viral-nature of the video. Most of the videos on TikTok go viral because of the easy-to-use interface.

Take advantage of paid ads

Traditionally, businesses have used radio, television, print, or other forms of media to increase the visibility of their business. However, the pandemic has affected the efficiency of most of these platforms. Digital was the least affected of these and in fact improved during the pandemic. To reduce costs and increase returns, companies are allocating less to their traditional marketing strategies and more to their digital marketing strategies. This improves traffic to the company’s website, and more traffic means more people find you, which means more sales and potential long-term profits.

Moving houses is a challenge, even if you’re a rigorous planner. During the pandemic, it became especially difficult to navigate the logistics. However, this was also the time when mobile apps became increasingly popular. Having moving services and apps at the tip of your fingers is perhaps one of the most convenient things technological advancements have enabled.

From packing to transportation, you can figure out the whole moving process through your smartphone using moving services apps with efficiency and ease. Here are some apps to consider when you’re moving houses, so it is not only COVID-19 safe but a smoother, more consolidated process.

1- Zumper – to Save the Day

If your lease is up and you’ve decided to move out of your current home instead of renewing it, the first step to moving is finding a place to stay. More often than not, apartment hunting is a tiring and tough process, where you have to go and look through each open house before making a list of the potential apartments you like.

Zumper gives you a highly convenient option of looking them up through its app to eliminate that process. With over a million listings, you’re going to get real-time alerts about new apartments even before other rental sites have their ads. Moreover, it gives a landlord the option to review digital credit reports and get an e-application ready right away. The app is available for both IOS and Android.

2- Dolly Moves You

If you’re moving to a new place with minimal belongings but enough to require some moving services, then Dolly is your answer. The app connects you to your local truck owners, movers, or helpers for your moving needs. This is a great idea, especially if you live in a fully furnished apartment and only have to move essentials like clothes, kitchen gadgets, plants, and other décor.

Decluttering is part of moving. Dolly’s helpers help move items you want to donate to shelters, pick and drop off, or move things into storage units. The app is available on Android and IOS, both for ease of use for anyone.

3- TaskRabbit Hopping to Your Help

Regardless of how big or small your moving needs are, whether you want helpers to unpack, pack, or move items to and from houses, TaskRabbit is your best friend. Whether you use the app or the website, you can state the purpose of your move and what task you need to be done. TaskRabbit matches you with a freelancer, i.e., “Taskers” available at that moment who can do the work for you.

You can coordinate with them on the app, let them know in detail all that you want to be done regarding your moving process. The pricing for the freelancers is per hour or per job, depending on the nature of the job. It is also available on both IOS and Android.

4- Sortly to the Rescue

You’ve likely been in a situation where you needed something, but you couldn’t recall which box you packed it in. But if you haven’t, there is a high chance that you will experience it – unless you decide to use Sortly to organize all your boxes.

The app offers the chance to use customizable tags, off-the-shelf QR tags, and labels that can be searched, so you don’t have to keep guessing. Just write what you’re looking for, and the app will help you navigate which box you’ve kept it in so you don’t make a grand mess of things, adding to your move-out, move-in stress.

Conclusion

Of course, moving is never an easy process, but to ease the burden of having to figure it out all by yourself, you can use the moving services listed above to your advantage and for a smoother move!

MTN Ghana Foundation has donated GHC5Million to National Covid Trust Fund to support government’s effort in combating Corona Virus pandemic in the country. This presentation brings MTN’s total contribution to the National COVID Trust Fund to Ghc10 million.

Speaking at a ceremony to present the cheque to Trustees of the Fund at the Jubilee House, the CEO of MTN Ghana, Mr. Selorm Adadevoh expressed his gladness at the opportunity given to MTN to demonstrate its commitment to the people of Ghana by supporting the Trust Fund in their fight against COVID-19.  He said, “Our support to the Trust Fund is to ensure the Government’s strategy in combating the pandemic is fully achieved”.

“We believe this will help immensely to provide the needed PPES, education and other services for the people of Ghana and most importantly to brighten lives as we celebrate our 25^th Anniversary”, he added.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the Trustee of the National Covid Trust Fund, the chairperson of the Fund, Justice Sophia Akuffo, said, “The contributions have dwindled over the past year. I’m happy that MTN Ghana has come through. MTN Ghana has been a key supporter of the Covid Trust Fund and has contributed a total sum of 10 million Ghana cedis. It is one of the few organizations to have contributed this much to support the fight against COVID-19 in Ghana. We are truly grateful for their assistance.”

She added that, “There seems to be this false notion among the public that the pandemic is gone. The fact is the extent of the pandemic has been quite devastating and continues to cause death. There seems to be evidence of a new variant developing. We continue to encourage the Ghanaian citizenry to continue to adhere to all the COVID-19 protocols. We also strongly encourage that you get vaccinated. We are grateful to MTN and we hope other organizations will follow their example as we all work to fight his deadly virus.”

The donation to the National COVID-19 Trust Fund is one of the many interventions by MTN Ghana to help stem the COVID 19 pandemic. At the time when the nation was highly in need of PPEs, test kits and PCR Machines in 2020, the MTN Ghana Foundation donated 44,000 Personal Protective Equipment, four (4) Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Machines and Test Kits to the National COVID Trust at the cost of GHS 5 Million. The donation was to help the National Covid Trust Fund enhance the protection of all health personnel in the fight against COVID -19 in the Country.

Some of the other key interventions include: Collaboration with the National Information Technology Authority (NITA) to offer all Government workers free access to the Smart Workplace Portal to support Government’s work from home program, protecting the customer through the provision of critical health information, providing free internet access to over 200 websites for online education for public and private institutions, free MoMo transfers up to Ghc100 a day and revision of MoMo wallet limits. MTN Ghana supported the infection monitoring and contact tracing team through the provision of 800 SIM Cards and 8 Terabytes of data to National Security and 10 TurboNet fixed wireless devices with over 2 terabytes of data to the COVID-19 Response Team for use by contact tracers. MTN has also deployed mobile money merchant accounts as collection conduits to support Government institutions such as the Ministry of Finance and the First Lady’s mobilization fund for COVID-19.

MTN Ghana also contributed three educational campaigns aimed at getting people to live responsibly. “Be Wise”,  Wear it for me” and “One More Push” campaigns  were to encourage people across the continent not to give up in the fight against COVID-19, and to continue to wear their masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing.

On the vaccination front, MTN Group donated USD$25million to support AU’s vaccination rollout across 55 member states to cover 7 million vaccine doses for health workers.

MTN Ghana Foundation will continue to support efforts aimed at mitigating the impact of COVID -19 in Ghana.

Broadcast Journalist and Morning Show Host at TV3, Johnnie Beresford Hughes and veteran blogger and CEO of GB Interactive Limited, George Britton, have been announced as keynote speakers for the 2021 Ghana Bloggers Summit organized by leading PR & Rating firm, Avance Media.

The annual conference for digital enthusiasts and the blogging community across Africa is scheduled for Saturday, 4th December 2021 at the Alisa Hotels, North Ridge, Accra.

Speaking about the summit, Managing Director of Avance Media, Prince Akpah, mentioned that this year’s summit will be coupled with the presentation of opportunities to participants from brands such as Ethiopian Airlines, GhanaWeb, and Nakroteck offering a return ticket to Dubai, GHS2,000 to the winner of the #GhanaWebReporter contest and hugely discounted hosting packages to participants, respectively.

Other key speakers drawn from the blogging and digital communities and academia include: Kwadwo Sheldon, Ali Ajami, Juliana Ntiamoah, Shepherd Yaw Mottey, Kofi Cephas, Ronnie is Everywhere, Entamoty, Kobby Kyei, Rashad Emmanuel Kojo, Ismail Akwei, Rabiu Alhassan, YemmeyBaba, Dominic Asitanga, Stephen Naasei Boadi, Nana Tamakloe, Ohemaa Candace, Neldrick Sackey, Frank Harrison, Edward Asare and Stephen Charway.

The summit presents the stage for the discussion of interesting and relevant topics such as: “Techniques in blogging that sustain blogs and their brands”, “Future of digital publishing and the promotion of citizen journalism,” “Digital/Misinformation literacy for Bloggers, “Building a brand using the 8 marketing tools,” “The Impact of Blogging on Ghanaian Tourism” among many others.

The event will be hosted by professional MC and Public Speaking Coach, Efo Korku Mawutor and have Hilda Obo Mbrah, Etse Atisu, Bismark Botchwey and Mawuena Azumah moderating panels.

After party will be hosted at Clou9ine on the Osu Oxford Street opposite Frankies at 10 pm.

The 2021 Ghana Bloggers Summit is being hosted by Avance Media with support from ICS Africa and in partnership with Woodin, GhanaWeb, Verna Natural Mineral Water, McBerry Biscuits, Alisa Hotels – North Ridge, Ethiopian Airlines, Cloud9ine, Nakroteck, Cheezy Pizza, WatsUp TV, SetorNtepe, Infinity Photography and Asuavo Security.

More details about the summit are available via  https://avancemedia.org/bloggers21

For partnerships and sponsorship kindly contact Avance Media via md@avancemedia.org or call +233242307379

Realness Institute, the media NPO that aims to empower Africans to tell their stories, has opened submissions for the 2022 Development Executive Traineeship (DET) in partnership with Netflix.

The DET, which is open to applicants from across Africa and the Diaspora, is aimed at mid-career industry professionals who are looking to enhance their skills as story consultants. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the story development process, and will be exposed to a more nuanced approach in the support of writers involved in the organisation’s parallel “Episodic Lab” screenwriters’ programme. DET participants will work alongside creative producers and story experts in the development of their concepts and series pitch decks. They will also engage with international and local guest speakers every week for the duration of the programme.

The 2022 DET is set to take place online from 1 May to 31 July 2022.

Each of the 6 participants will receive a monthly stipend of USD 2,000 during the incubation period. This is to cover living expenses as they focus on their concept development while being mentored.

Mehret Mandefro, Director of Development and Partnerships at the Realness Institute says, “What we have witnessed from the first Lab and Traineeship is that there is a deep desire for Africans to create their own narratives. This bodes well for a growing audience, based in Africa and abroad. We are so pleased to be a major player in lighting the fire of our amazing continental creatives. Also to hear from last year’s participants how they have been able to transplant everything they learnt in the incubator into their current work and other projects, as well as the impact we had in their lives and creative process.”

“We are delighted to continue our partnership with the Realness Institute for the 2022 edition of the Episodic Lab and Development Executive Traineeship (DET). The development, nurturing and support of talent pipelines gives new voices a chance to be heard. This is key for Netflix as we contribute to the growth of the film and TV industry and honour our commitment to the African creative community,” says Allison Triegaardt, Netflix Manager for Grow Creative Africa.

Submissions are open on https://realnessinstitute.awardsplatform.com/  and close on 14 January 2022.

For information on eligibility and application process please visit the following: https://www.realness.institute/det

Further enquiries about the programme and application process can be directed to email submissions@realness.institute.

Short form content is taking over YouTube. Not only do Shorts differ from typical YouTube videos in length, but they also differ in the way they’re monetized. Since the rollout at end of the summer, creators started to earn significant revenue from their Shorts through the YouTube Shorts Fund.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to make money with YouTube Shorts.

Eligible creators can earn a Shorts bonus every month.

Any creator who’s making original Shorts content is eligible for the YouTube Shorts Fund. Your channel doesn’t have to be monetized through the YouTube Partner Program for you to qualify. If you’re in a country where YouTube is available and you’re making original Shorts content, then you’re eligible to make money through the Shorts Fund.

Whether or not you’ll earn money in any given month is based on your Shorts performance the previous month. YouTube will look at last month’s data when determining which creators to award with bonuses. So, the best way to earn money through the Shorts Fund is to keep creating original Shorts content.

Monthly bonuses range from $100 to $10,000 USD.

YouTube has dedicated a total of $100 million to the Shorts Fund for 2021-2022. The amount you can earn isn’t based on the same metrics as the ad revenue of the other videos on your channel. Instead, it’s more of a range.

The monthly bonus you earn through the Shorts Fund will be at least $100 USD, but it can be up to $1,000 USD. However, you aren’t guaranteed to earn the same amount every month. It will be adjusted based on several factors, such as your overall Shorts views for the month and where your audience is located.

Criteria for your channel to maintain eligibility.

YouTube will review your channel before reaching out about the Shorts Fund. In order to maintain eligibility, your channel must have uploaded an original Short in the last 180 days. Any content that’s been re-uploaded from other platforms, such as TikTok or Instagram Reels, will be disqualified. Likewise, all of your content must comply with the Community Guidelines and monetization policies.

Again, your best bet is to keep uploading original content. All of the Shorts you post count towards your overall Shorts performance. They aren’t locked into the month they’re posted. So, for example, if you posted a Short in July that suddenly went viral in December, those viral views would still count towards your Shorts performance. As soon as you’ve earned a bonus, you’ll receive an email or a notification from YouTube with further instructions on how to claim it.

The YouTube Shorts Fund is open to all creators, whether their channels are monetized or not. Keep making great Shorts content so you can get paid for it.

Are you using Shorts? Reply to this email and let us know.

We hope you enjoyed this blog.

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