‘A Negative brand equity is a death sentence’; the Goodluck Jonathan Government should have been listening to Mark Ritson. More rightly put, it can lead to suicide. The #OccupyNigeria train hit Nigeria like a thunderstorm bringing to bear what Nigeria’s foremost humanright’s lawyer, Femi Falana calls Nigeria’s most powerfully organised protest. The #OccupyNigeria protests, which is the simultaneous response of the Nigerian people against arbitrary increase in fuel pump price and #Governmentwaste, is a similitude of the Egyptian and Tunisian protests but named after ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests. It has been a “deregulated protest” spanning Nigeria’s major Cities, Embassies and High Commissions around the world.
What trend is the #occupynigeria depicting for brands?

1. The other edge of Social Media Marketing has been officially activated

With so much talk about social media marketing and its impact to reaching out to social customers, little attention has been given to social media advocacy.If your business/boss has not been taking social media serious, the impact of social media advocacy will jolt you into action. There is no doubt that the ongoing social media revolution will have an enormous impact not only on the way consumers and brands communicate with each other but also the impact of consumer-consumer communication. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.
But marketing via social media channels is not as simple as it is through other channels because of its two-edged effects:
a. Consumers can publicise negative experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes;
b. They can also publicise positive experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes.

The impact of social media as a rallying platform for #occupynigeria cannot be over emphasised. The announcement of the venue of the Lagos rally which cascadingly gathered close to 2 million people in its third day was announced though social media platforms (Blackberry, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other instant messaging platforms).
The ‘unlike President Jonathan day’ (featured on CNN) and ‘the most cursed president’ (ranked on Google) campaign was widely impressive with CNN and Google helping to hype its veracity. With the tools to quickly rally people around a cause readily available, its time to watch it!
The days of poor customer service and treating clients/customers like thrash are counting.

2. Never Violate Trust – It’s the Currency of Brands not Prices

Brand Equity (the strength of a brand) is derived from the goodwill and recognition a brand has garnered over time as a result of fufilling its brand promise. This translates into higher sales volume and profit margins against competing brands. This is the reason why some brands command high patronage even if they charge premium for their products – it is the intangible asset of all promotional efforts.
In an unprecedented manner, the docile and unconcerned Nigerian populace have been jolted alive – thanks to access to information. The total breakdown of trust between the Nigerian people who ‘massively’ voted for the Jonathan Government can be attributed to the widely spread information available on Government’s spending habits, budgetary allocation and money politicking among its high ranking officials.
It is an important lesson to learn that you cannot gain equity by increasing product cost before improving its funtional attributes.

3. Be Ready to Cope with Impersonation

Especially if your business has no officially identified presence in the digital and social media space, or your boss is one who thinks Blackberry is a popular fruit; you now need to prepare for uncertainties, impersonations, rumors and ‘company leaks’.
Some organisations had spent considerable time and enegy refuting claims that they ”ordered people to resume or face sack” during the Nationwide strike declared during the #OccupyNigeria protests. Brands with extensive and original Twitter and Facebook pages quickly responded while traditional businesses looked for avenues to calm misconceptions. The official Twitter handle and Facebook page of the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala came alive in response to claims that she had threatened to resign from office if Nigerians eventually win the battle of the reversal.
Brands now have to think of ways to guide employees’s social relationships, have a policy and chief responsibility officer in preparation for crisis, and consistently stamp their voice online to crowd out impersonating pages and conflicting handles.

4. Social Media can no longer be left to that junior staff

Brands now know they need more than the ability to read and write to assign social media engagement to anyone. Whether to outsource to a social media agency or assign an employee to handle the platforms. The Social Media Manager is not necessarily for the Senior Manager; the appointment into this position requires a new way of thought. It is important to appoint someone with a natural flair for meandering and communicating through different platforms; someone with tact, intelligent, temprate and intelligent enough to engage a wide and varied number of issues and tempraments.
Improper handling of these platforms can backfire and the ripple effects cannot be directly measured until it impacts on the bottomline. The story of how a Fan Page moderator became intolerant when people began to complain on its Facebook about the use of non-renewable palm oil in their production is already a global case study on how not to speak on Facebook.

5. Listening to these Social Media ‘rants’ is now critical

Citizen’s blog posts , comments, social media and Blacberry discussion trends . . it is no more enough to hear about them, it’s time to listen. The emotional and connectedness between brands and their teeming customers can quickly translate into hate and social media mass action if you are not listening early enough and reponding appropriately.
Sustaining Brand equity is a valuable asset which companies invest huge amounts of money to develop; social media listening is now an avenue to maintain and sustain that social reputation.
The web is awash with various tools to help brands listen and respnd appropriately. Brand equity refers to the intangible value that accrues to a company as a result of its successful efforts to establish a strong brand

6. Despite its uncertainties; there lies the power to raise a tribe

SApart for an avenue to execute a highly targetted online marketing campaign; social media is established as a veritable tool for building brand loyalty.
The best way is to think of it as a party. The same wisdom that applies to any social situation also works with social media: Just be yourself and talk to people. Anyone following your brand is also following his or her family members, friends and colleagues. If your brand fits in with a customer’s personal social network, there is great potential for that person to build an emotional attachment and loyalty for your brand the same way they would for a friend. And when a customer thinks of you as a friend, you have a loyal customer.

There is no doubt that the ongoing and fast-developing social media revolution is having an enormous impact not only on the way consumers can communicate with other consumers, but also on the ways in which consumers and brands communicate with each other. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.

This I am thankful for.

Today is my birthday and I’m alive. It is a luxury that if I had all the resources of the presidency, I still can’t buy it. This I am Thankful for.

I studied Microbiology in school. After deciding hospitals and test-tubes were not the way to go, all hell broke loose. Today, I do something I enjoy and I have no regrets. This I am thankful for.

At the height of all hell breaking loose, I sat down under a tree depressed.  two ladies approached me and thanked me for talking to them in JSS2 six years ago. It was one moment I’ll never forget. I was re-fired to continue to do well. This I am thankful for

I made many decisions last year. For every door I dared to knock last year, they opened. When not qualified, I outclassed. Even ones I bungled I got a second chance. It’s a good feeling, God can we do this again? This I am thankful for.

I had traveled to Benin for a meeting but was running late. The bus broke down around 11pm on Benin-Ore expressway. We slept in the rain praying we won’t be preyed upon by thieves. We got another bus and got to Benin. This I am thankful for

Thank you for giving me Damilola. Relationships require smart work and a balance of love, passion and commitment. I didn’t need to be sweating in hard labour to build this one. Over the years I thank you. This I am thankful for

One thing I have never lacked in my entire journey- The support of people who believed and encouraged me, especially at those times when I found it hard to believe in my self. I have in turn helped many to find encouragement on their pathways in life. This I am thankful for

Last Sunday, I couldn’t drive to Church so I took a bike. 15 minutes later, the bike man skidded under a 911 truck while I stood watching. I later saved the bike man from being crushed by the vehicle. I later went on my way. This I am thankful for

This coming year is starting and I know I have to begin to thank God for successes I have recorded in it. When I thank God the earth and everything will respond to me. This I am thankful for

Thank you to everyone who made last year a glorious one. I have been embarassed by text messages, wall posts,  cals , thanks all…. this I am thankful for

Pens up!

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Ekiti people have proven once again they are the fountain of knowledge, (I jokingly call it – state of emergency). I see the dramatic events of those days being a message written to every other state, the electorates, contestants and particularly for the coming 2011 elections for which so many governors had previously abandoned governance to campaign for.

I would like to share lessons in form of messages, which the Ekiti re-run has taught us all.

I could not hide the wonder on my face when I saw the pictures of the transformation of the Oshodi metropolis of Lagos State. Interestingly, I had previously gone there to take a picture for a book I was writing on Nigeria. Comparing the two pictures now, I could not imagine that the Oshodi where I was scared to stand on the pedestrian bridge to snap a picture was so clean. I was actually scared because of the miscreants who have turned the place into a second home. Comparing the two pictures of Oshodi, I could not believe the insurmountable Oshodi could be levelled to the ground, like it was. But then I could also imagine the amount of stalls in the first picture and the number of families they were meant to feed.

Mixed reactions have continued to trail the declaration and actions of this exemplary Governor whose giant strides reminds one of the activities of former Governor Buba Marwa. It is definitely a wonder what one man whose noble mission seems radical enough to be matchless by any other governor in the state, seems to be transforming Lagos into a dream land.

Everyone knows that Lagos needs overhauling and it needs a radical man to do that. I remember going to his site and seeing this quote by a nineteenth Century Poet, Josiah Gilbert Holland once prayed fervently, “Give us Men, men from every rank, fresh and free and frank; Men of thought and reading, Men of light and leading, Men of loyal breeding, The Nation’s welfare speeding; Men of faith and not of fiction, Men of lofty aim in action; Give us Men – I say again, Give us Men!”.

Yes, men we are looking for, how many governors move silently about on the streets of their states without asserting that with sirens and long and loud commercial campaigns on TVs about what they are supposed to do?. How many governors will return awards of excellence when they believe it will compromise and affect the effective discharge of their duties? How many Nigerian governors have actually put billions of state allocation and taxes rolling their states into use? How many governors are able to do all these? – Very few.

My thought about all these was first that there is no doubt that Fashola (whose Christian name happens to be Isaac, and Tinubu’s is Abraham… Coincidence?) has an undying passion to transform Lagos into a mega city- in spite of all the challenges that governing Lagos might come with. He has to make informed and reasonable decisions that will be in the interest of ALL Lagosians (both the rich and the poor), rely on competent consultants and ward off greedy politicians, and also exercising reasonable supervision over ongoing projects.

But then there are cheers from the upper living class and jeers from the lower living class; sighs from the mouths and destinies from the mouths of people and families that these illegal stalls and shops meet. There are cries of foul from people whose investments in places

Governor Isaac (Fashola) has done well, and it is evident for all to see… from one end of Lagos to the other; in every sector of the city’s economy roads, security (people believe robbers moved from Lagos to other states, true?), health, education, the environment, housing, job creation and poverty alleviation, there is abundant evidence that one man is redefining the definition of Nigerian governance. But then I believe he has plans for these people, and they need to see those plans and results fast enough. They understand the need for Lagos master plan to be restored, but then, as one of them told me, only a fanatic can bring order to Lagos “ Please , just write and tell them that justice suppose get mercy o”, the bus driver candidly told me, and I just did.

I t was a special day. I remember Mr. Joshua, the CEO of Human Rescue Inc. laughing and sharing insights and jokes before retiring for the night. He had come to join the trainee life guards on a cruise around the Atlantic Ocean, and after sharing gifts for the trainee sailors, he descended to the cabin to rest. But for the others, it wasn’t time yet to rest, the boys still had a lot to talk and cheer about. There was that lady who had an epileptic son, who was jumping wildly. There was also the mad man they could not hold down in his rage by the sea. There were things that had just happened they could not understand… but then today was the time to joke about them and laugh!!!

Then the trouble started.

A hurricane overlooked by the weather reporters hit the cruiser ship, tearing the sail flag. Water flowed freely over the deck and into the cabins. The young sailor, fondly called “the rock”moved over to the steer and found the others battling to keep the ship afloat. While trying to do it himself he slipped over, falling flat on the deck.

Frantic over what to call unexplainable situation, he ran to call the master. It’s time to call the master … how could he give presents and go when we need his presence?

CEO Human Rescue, was not just Joshua; Joshua is the Hebrew version of Jesus (Greek). Their only mission is to rescue humanity, not so?

But then, it doesn’t matter the amount of gifts and provision he has given your life, his presence is more important. Are you distributing presents without his presence? It did not matter the gift of cloud and fire God was willing to give Moses, he insisted… unless your presence goes with us. Definitely his presence will produce presents and much more.

Today; Join me as we Celebrate presents and HIS PRESENCE TODAY, as I do not only celebrate the birth, but the finish. Not only was he born, he came and made his presence count.

Make yours count.

Merry Christmas. Cheers