Instagram launches mobile web sharing to make sharing content easier

Instagram wants to be the photo app for the whole world, even if you can’t or won’t download it. In pursuit of international growth where networks are slow and data is expensive, Instagram has given its mobile website a massive upgrade that adds core features of the main app, including photo sharing and a lightweight version of the Explore tab.

Photos and video embeds provide the same features available on the Instagram webfeed, allowing users to like and comment. All embedded content will also appear with the uploader’s Instagram username and clicking the Instagram logo will bring people to their page on Instagram.com.

Web embedding has been a highly requested feature for the service since the company stopped supporting Twitter embeds to protect its brand. With the introduction of video last month, the update makes perfect sense. In comparison, Vine has already had embedding tools in place since its launch at the beginning of the year. The ability to embed video makes it easier to share photos and videos on the web helps provide ubiquity to the Instagram brand.

With this move, Instagram seems to be taking steps to establishing itself as a real-time sharing platform. Similar to Twitter, sharing on the Instagram platform can be enticing for journalists and reporters for sharing video on location. With over 130 million active users, bringing Instagram content outside of the native apps can only spell for more widespread recognition.

Join The Blogging and Social Media In Nigeria at 56 Conversation

Social media plays a very vital role in the development of a country. Over the years, use of social media in Nigeria has been really effective but we can still strive to make it better.

So as Nigeria turns 56 tomorrow, we are taking to twitter tomorrow (October 1, 2016) to interact with Nigerians on what they think about blogging and social media in Nigeria and how to improve it. If you are a Nigerian blogger, aspiring blogger or netpreneur, you can join the interactive session tagged #BloggingInNigeriaAt56.

Everyone is invited to contribute. All ideas and suggestions on how to improve blogging and use of social media in Nigeria are welcome.  Feel free to ask your questions as there are bloggers ready to attend to all your questions. All you just have to do is participate by adding the #BloggingInNigeriaAt56  hashtag to your tweets. Seize this opportunity to interact with fellow bloggers across Nigeria.

Date: October 1, 2016
Time: Throughout the day

An Initiative of Bloggers Helping Bloggers (BHB).

Facebook Messenger Introduces New Feature - Pay Your Friends

Recently, Facebook messenger has been rolling out new features to its users. One of the features recently made available to Facebook messenger users is the polls creation feature which allows users ask their friends questions and get votes to see which answer is the most popular. Amazing feature right?. Now Facebook has rolled out another feature to messenger users called "Pay Your Friends".

Since March 2015, Facebook has been supporting peer-to-peer payments in Messenger. And now it’s introducing a new AI-powered feature in the app that essentially prompts you to pay your friends.

This new feature employs some machine learning to seek words and phrases — such as “IOU” and “You owe me $18” — that may suggest that you need to send money to someone in the conversation. Where applicable, Messenger automatically inserts a payment button in the conversation, which you can tap to quickly settle your due amount.

Taking a close look at the screenshot above, it shows a conversation where the other person reminds you that you owe them $18, but the conversation has since been turned into a clickable button where you can make the payment on the spot.

What do you think about this new feature?.

Convert Your Personal Instagram Account To A Business Profile

Instagram recently, are bringing new features to make the app worth using and benefit its user. They have also rolled out business profiles for eligible accounts to switch to a business profile depending on their reasons for using this social network. So if you are blogger, webmaster or a business organization switching to the Instagram business profile will be advisable as this feature comes with some benefits.

How an Instagram Business Profile Looks Like

Switching to a business profile on instagram gives the user some benefits which the personal profile doesn't offer. Some of which are stated below.

1. Get Found Easily: 

The Instagram business profile allows your followers to engage with you easily within your business profile. After switching to a business profile, a contact button will appear in your profile and once a user clicks that button, they have an option to contact you via email, phone call or find your business location on a map as shown in the image below.

2. View Insights:

Switching to a business profile also gives you an analytics feature that shows you impressions, reach, websites clicks and followers.
Before you switch from your personal profile to a business profile you have to be eligible to use this feature as this feature is not available to all Instagram accounts yet. To check if you are eligible simply navigate to settings and if you can see "Switch to a business profile" then you are eligible to switch but if you  don't see the switch option then you may have to wait till you are eligible.

Switching To a Business Profile

The below steps will guide you on switching from a personal profile to a business profile.

=> Navigate to setting and click on "switch to a business profile"

=> You will be prompted to login in your Facebook account

=> After successful login you will have to give Instagram rights to access your Facebook info

=> After that, A list of all Facebook page you admin will be shown to you as seen in the image below, pick your Facebook business page which you will like to link with your Instagram business profile

=> Next thing you will be prompted to enter your email address, phone number and business address. This option will let any Instagram user reach you easily.

=> After completion of the above steps click the pass mark located at the top right corner of your screen.

On completing the above steps you must have successfully switched from a personal profile to a business profile, you can now enjoy the benefits of an Instagram business profile.
If you have switched to a business profile let us know how you feel about this feature by leaving a comment in the comment box.

SpaceX Explosion Sets Back Facebook Internet Connectivity Plan

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced Facebook's plan on bringing affordable internet connectivity to Africa which he properly explained at the Town hall Q&A session held in Lagos Nigeria.

But all his plans have suffered a serious setback on Thursday morning when a SpaceX rocket – owned by Elon Musk exploded during a routine pre-launch check. The Space rocket was containing Facebook/Spacecom’s AMOS-6 communications satellite.

This satellite was to provide at least 14 countries on the continent and the Middle East with affordable broadband service.

Zuckerberg took to his social media account to express his feelings towards this mishap. But the good news is Facebook has developed another alternative.

"Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well," he wrote. "We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided."

Create A Custom Email For Free Now With Zoho Mail

For a while now, Google has stopped its free Google apps for work service that allows users register free custom email with their domain name and required you to subscribe to their Business edition starting at $5 per month per user. Even Microsoft put a stop on their free service and started charging for custom email addresses with your own domain name. But the good thing is, Google Apps and Microsoft Outlook are not the only ones that offer such services.

Zoho is one of the best and leading service which provides free email hosting with top-notch service and reliability. Zoho offers you a custom Email hosting service for free for one domain with ten user accounts. So, if you are looking for a free and professional email hosting with reliable service and support, then Zoho would be a good choice as it comes with all the bells and whistles you will ever need.

To create a custom email for your domain name with zoho mail simply follow the steps given below.

1. Go to Zohomail.com

2. Click on Pricing, this will take you to their pricing page then pick a particular package (You can use the free package which allows you use one domain with 10 users account.)

3. Then click sign up

4. This will initiate a domain set up process. Enter your domain name and click add domain.

5. Now fill in your details like Name, contact email address etc

6. After completing sign up process you will need to verify domain ownership. Zoho will provide you instructions on how to do this depending on your domain registrar.

After verifying your domain  you have to configure the email delivery. To do that follow the steps given below.

1. Log in to your domain registrars website.

2. Launch the 'DNS Manager'/ 'Domain Management Page'/ 'DNS Control Panel' for your account, which lists all the domains you have registered.

3. Locate the option which specifies 'MX Records'/ 'Email Servers'/ 'Email Settings' (Consult the help pages of your provider or get support from the registrar).

4. If you have any existing entries, remove those entries.

5. Locate the option to add new record and select that then enter the records as shown in the image below.

6. Select 'Save Zone File' or 'Save' or 'Add Records' to save the changes.

After completing the above steps you must have successfully created and set up a custom email with Zoho mail to work for you.

How To Use IFTTT To Auto Post Your Blog Post To Your Social Media Account

IFTTT is a tool that allows you create simple if this then that actions by creating a recipe. All you need to do is create a recipe then think of an action you want to perform, trigger it and your action is automatically performed. With IFTTT you can set your blog posts to automatically be posted to all your social media account once you publish a new update. I have been using IFTTT for 2 years now and this tool is amazing and beyond expectation.

How To Use IFTTT To Auto Post To Your Social Media Account

1. Sign in to your IFTTT account if you dont have one you can create one HERE

2. After successfully signing in click on create recepie

3. Click on "this"

4. Choose a trigger. This is where you pick the blog you want to post from if its a blogger blog or a wordpress blog.

5. After choosing a trigger then you have to create the trigger. Click on create trigger

6. Click on "that" then choose where you want to auto post to. Either to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

7. Add Ingredients to you recipe. This option allows you to edit how you want the posts you are sharing to appear. You can add post title, post url, post image & other available ingredients which you choose to add.

8. Click on Create action.

Now you have successfully set IFTTT to auto post for you.

Note: To chose to auto post to another social media account you will have to create another recipe.

Don't forget to give us a feedback through your comments and also share this tutorial with your friends.

How To Set up a Shop Section On Your Facebook Page

Facebook now allows its users to create an e-commmerce store on their Facebook page. If you follow up with brand like Jumia on Facebook you will notice they have a shop section on their Facebook page.

Jumia Facebook Page

The good news about Facebook shop is that it is available to all Facebook page owners. If you would like to take your products online then Facebook shop is not a bad idea.

How To Get Started With Facebook Page Shop

1: Go to Your Facebook page if you dont have one then you can create one

2: Click the Add Shop Section Link On Your Facebook Page

Clicking the Add Shop Section link brings up a prompt explaining what this section will allow you to do. Click the Add Shop Section button to continue.

3: Choose The Currency You Use

This option allows you pick the currency that will be shown when you add price to items in your shop.

4: Add Products To Your Shop

Now you’re good to go. Your Facebook page shop has been setup. You can now add products to your shop. To do this, click the Add Products button.

Note:

• You must have one image for each product.
• The image must be a real image of the product, not a graphical representation, illustration, or icon of the product.
• The description should pertain to the product only and be easily digestible, making use of short sentences and bullet points.
• The description cannot contain HTML, phone numbers, email addresses, long titles, excessive punctuation, all letters capitalized or in lowercase, book or movie spoilers, or external links.

This feature is another exciting way that Facebook will help grow your businesses. You can try it out today and don't forget to give your feedback.

5 Tips On How To Grow Your Social Media Presence

These days everyone wants to gain social media recognition for themselves or to promote their business. Having a great social media presence can help grow your business but this is only possible if you are able to deliver to your audience what they really want.
After setting up your social media accounts for your business on all major sites like facebook, twitter, instagram etc you take time to post regularly and use your social media platforms as an opportunity to share information. However, it isn't about posting regularly or sharing information; you have to provide your audience with the opportunity to interact with you. Through the interaction, you will be able to build a solid relationship with your audience.

Today i will be sharing with you 5 tips on how to grow your social media presence.

1. Understand What Your Audience Wants
Understanding the interest of your audience will help you deliver well and interact with them more. Once you understand what they want to read about and you give it to them you will be able to build a solid relationship with them.

2. Look For Opportunities For Discussion
What is trending? Try your best to follow the trend as this is an opportunity for you to discuss with your audience. You can throw open-ended questions while discussing, this will id the discission. You can ask questions that your audience understand well enough to debate on while still having plenty of room for differing opinions.

3. Share Valuable Content
While trying to share with your audience what they want to read ensure your content is valuable and self explanatory. Having the best content helps you build a trustworthy relationship between you and your audience.

4. Make Out Time To Chat
This is one of the best ways to grow your social media presence. The more your business grows the less you will have time to connect with your audience on an intimate level. Personal relationship is the best way to grow audience satisfaction. You need to create time to chat with your audience or you can also create social media hangouts to answer FaQ's. When chatting with your audience try as much as possible to provide them reasonalble answers to their question.

5. Give Them A Reason
Give your audience a reason to follow you on social media. Reasons could be because of your content, provision of support service for them when they need it. This will give them a reason to engage with you.

Social media is a very good medium of promoting your business. All you need to do is know what to offer your audience and when to offer it.

If you have more tips you can share in the comment box.

Send Texts And Make Calls For Free With The New Christ Embassy Kingschat App

Kingschat is a new super fast, simple and smartphones messenger that allows you to send messages to everyone you want to. The wonderful application makes it possible for you to send, receive pictures, audio, locations and video messages. 

The application has whatsapp, twitter and Facebook features. It is has a group chat platform, where you can meet new friends and add them up for conversation.

Take a stroll to your app store and join the new messaging trend in town.

How do i download it?

For all Android users, you can download it here

iPhone/iPad can download it here 

You can share your reviews about this app using the comments section.

Intel Hosts Bloggers Hangout Session in Nigeria

The Intel’s ambassador for Intel “She Will Connect” programme, Titilope Sonuga hosted a bloggers hangout session recently In Lagos, Nigeria to enlighten and interact with bloggers about the programme.

The Intel “She Will Connect” programme is an empowerment programme for females. This programme will help them connect to opportunities using technology and also reduce the internet gender gap through an innovative combination of digital literacy training. With the Intel “She Will Connect” programme women acquire digital literacy skills and expand their understating on the use of technology.

The Intel Bloggers Hangout Bloggers hangout session took place at Protea Hotel Leadway in Lagos Nigeria. It was a very interactive session between the bloggers that were present and the Intel She Will Connect ambassador as it gave the opportunity to discuss the latest additions to the program.

Titilope Sonuga- Intel She will connect ambassador

The Intel ambassador, Titilope Sonuga stated that So far, Over 30,000 girls and women have been trained and Intel is committed to a continued and sustainable impact on the lives of these girls and women.
Titilope Sonuga also took the bloggers through a poetry exercise session and challenged them to create a She Will connect poem within five minutes.

I was present at the She Will Connect bloggers hangout and it was really awesome and gave me the opportunity to meet some other bloggers I have been longing to meet.

Get Huge Traffic On Your Website Using Socialmarker (Video)

Driving traffic to website and blogs have been a major problem faced by bloggers and netpreneurs these days. Some people go extra miles to get traffic, some pay huge amounts to get traffic ,but the question is are you relly getting the traffic you need despite your efforts? If no then this video tutorial is for you.

With this tutorial you can learn how to drive traffic to your website with a web tool "Socialmarker" .
Social marker is actually a semi automated marketing software which help you to automate your bookmarking efforts. It is one time effort to create accounts on all the bookmarking sites then it is just a matter of drag and drop. Social marker is a browser based tool which will allow you to submit bookmarks to 50 social bookmarking sites.


If this video was helpful kindly share with other bloggers and dont forget to subscribe to my youtube channel.

Book a Cab Online Now In Benin City

Max Cab A New Taxi Cab Web Application Recently Launched in Benin City.

You can now book a taxi cab in Benin City that will pick you up from your current location to your desired destination from the comfort of your home, office or hotel room using your desktop or mobile device. You will agree with me that except you have your personal car or driver, getting around in Benin City can be very difficult and frustrating . It is not as if there are no enough taxis or cabs in the city, but there is always a communication gap between taxi cab drivers and passengers who need a cab. 

While most taxi drivers spend a greater part of the day sitting idle waiting or looking for passengers, there are passengers in other locations who are badly in need of a taxi to pick them up. 

Maxcab decides to bridge these gap by providing a taxi booking application that connects taxi/cab drivers  and passengers, thus creating efficiency in the transportation industry, providing more jobs for taxi drivers, ease the way passengers book taxis and eliminate unneccesary delay.

The service which  is currently  running in Benin City, Nigeria is gradually gainning traction and hope to roll out to other cities in the coming months. If you are in Benin City or you are visiting Benin City, please try out the service at www.maxcab.com.ng.

The good thing about Maxcab is that cab you can register as a driver too. 

So why not stop stressing yourself to get a cab when Maxcab is here to make life easier.

Improve Your Facebook's Organic Reach (Infographic)

While reading some articles online today i stumbled upon something that is worth sharing with my visitors.

Some blame Facebook algorithm for being responsible for the low organic reach of their post, but is Facebook really responsible for this? Facebook's algorithm is not always responsible for the low engagement of your post and organic reach. Although Facebook’s algorithm might be responsible for such to some extent, you can do things on your end to improve your organic reach. In order to teach you how to increase your organic reach, I will be sharing an infographic with you?

Image Courtesy: Quick Sprout

If you have any contribution on how else Facebook engagement can be improved kindly share with us through your comment.