Why I Think The Alder Social Media Report Weighs More Than The Africa Practice Landscape by Bidemi Akinade

I decided to comment on a document i received recently which is the Africa Practice Social Media Landscape - a document that attempts to identify the top social media users whether they be brands or individuals -and the Alder report for brands. This came about because i received the request via an email from my boss. I thought it would be interesting so i've decided to share my thoughts.

Enjoy!

The Alder Social Media Report (Top Rated Social Media Brands) ranks social media users across all platforms without homing in on a single platform. The report attempts to give a concise round-off of an entity's social media endeavours through providing a top-three ranking based on several criteria. That is, social media professionals and savvy internet users - who made up the panel of judges - presented their top
candidates based on the candidate's influence on his/her chosen social media platform.

In contrast, the Africa Practice Social Media Landscape presents top influencers on a specific social media platform - Twitter - and then presents a ranking of blogging sites by using Alexa - a web analytics company - data.
Also, it provides a comparison between a traditional journalist, twitteratis, bloggers and social commentators

The Africa Practice Social Media Report provides other important data such as
1. A table showing the top most visited sites in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt.
   interestingly, all ten of the sites are social media sites. Nairaland.com made number 7.
2. A brief internet usage report which highlighted that 72% of internet users in Nigeria visited social networking sites in 2013, 55% email and 46% entertainment

3. A comparison between Facebook and mobile chat apps (Eskimi, 2go and Whatsapp). This section showed that the chat apps all have more active users than Facebook in Nigeria. It mentioned that the
apps perform well because they are cheaper alternatives to SMS and use less bandwidth and data.

4. A brief discussion on the Impact of Social Media in driving accountability, civic engagement, branding and its use as a source for journalists and audiences.

Its twitter ranking was obtained based on: original tweets, replies, retweets and mentions.

The Alder report did not feature or mention a category in which any of the stations i work for were included despite their huge online following where as the Africa Practice Social Media Report listed Cool FM for Synchronizing the radio and social media effortlessly along with Beat FM. The Alder report didn't include a category on which radio stations whether online or terrestrial were represented.

In my opinion, both reports provide different data but have convergence points.
1. The Alder report provides rankings in a number of categories which are missing from the Africa
Practice report such as:Banking, Consumer, Faith, Insurance, Non-profit, Sports and Telecoms

2. The Alder report also provides expert rankings for Brands, Individuals and Foundations based on
specific parameters such as customer service, consumer engagement, Relevant Information, Speed of
Response, Up-to-date information, Visual Delight

3. The Alder report for top brands also further provided a ranking for individuals synonymous with certain categories.

4. SocialMedia giants such as GTB, Etisalat, who are very active on Facebook as well as Twitter were
however nowhere to be found in the Africa Practice report. Single focus on Twitter should still  have produced such entities as outstanding but that wasn't the case.

In conclusion i think the Alder report is more conclusive and more reaching and encompassing and provides a greater sense and knowledge of the who-is-who in the Nigerian social media space. Its findings spread from individuals to governments to brands to faith-based organisations across Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress etc and ranks them not just in terms of followership numbers but such things as customer service, up-to-date information and other hard-to-define parameters. The selected brands, organisations and individuals stood out regardless of their preferred social media.
In addition, the Alder report includes four more  volumes that break down categories further. See here.
The documents provide greater detail and more insight.

The Africa Practice report enlightens by providing numbers and tables and charts that inform about where Nigeria is in terms of mobile application users versus Facebook active users, a comparison between traditional journalism and the more modern forms like blogging, an Alexa ranking of top blogs and forums in Nigeria and other social media discussions. Its ranking efforts in my view are less reaching than the Alder report and also is limited to only Twitter and Blogs.

-By Bidemi Akinade
Bidemi is the social media specialist for Cool FM, Wazobia FM and Nigeria Info FM
He is also a tech enthusiast, a blogger and a graphic designer. 

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Facebook Turns 10 Today: Read Founder's Message To Users

Facebook turns 10 years old today, here's what founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on his timeline:

Today is Facebook's 10th anniversary.
It's been an amazing journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It's rare to be able to touch so many people's lives, and I try to remind myself to make the most of every day and have the biggest impact I can.

People often ask if I always knew that Facebook would become what it is today. No way.
I remember getting pizza with my friends one night in college shortly after opening Facebook. I told them I was excited to help connect our school community, but one day someone needed to connect the whole world.

I always thought this was important -- giving people the power to share and stay connected, empowering people to build their own communities themselves.
When I reflect on the last 10 years, one question I ask myself is: why were we the ones to build this? We were just students. We had way fewer resources than big companies. If they had focused on this problem, they could have done it.

The only answer I can think of is: we just cared more.

While some doubted that connecting the world was actually important, we were building. While others doubted that this would be sustainable, you were forming lasting connections.

We just cared more about connecting the world than anyone else. And we still do today.
That's why I'm even more excited about the next ten years than the last. The first ten years were about bootstrapping this network. Now we have the resources to help people across the world solve even bigger and more important problems.
Today, only one-third of the world's population has access to the internet. In the next decade, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to connect the other two-thirds.
Today, social networks are mostly about sharing moments. In the next decade, they'll also help you answer questions and solve complex problems.
Today, we have only a few ways to share our experiences. In the next decade, technology will enable us to create many more ways to capture and communicate new kinds of experiences.
It's been amazing to see how all of you have used our tools to build a real community. You've shared the happy moments and the painful ones. You've started new families, and kept spread out families connected. You've created new services and built small businesses. You've helped each other in so many ways.

I'm so grateful to be able to help build these tools for you. I feel a deep responsibility to make the most of my time here and serve you the best I can.
Thank you for letting me be a part of this journey.

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General Electric Building Plane Parts With 3D Printing

General Electric, on the hunt for ways to build more than 85,000 fuel nozzles for its new Leap jet engines, is making a big investment in 3D printing. Usually the nozzles are assembled from 20 different parts. Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing can create the units in one metal piece, through a successive layering of materials. The process is more efficient and can be used to create designs that can’t be made using traditional techniques, GE says. The finished product is stronger and lighter than those made on the assembly line and can withstand the extreme temperatures (up to 2,400F) inside an engine. There’s just one problem: Today’s industrial 3D printers don’t have enough capacity to handle GE’s production needs, which require faster, higher-quality output at a lower cost.
Courtesy GE AviationEach Leap engine will contain 19 metal 3D-printed fuel nozzles. The part is lighter and more durable than traditional parts

“With today’s technology, it would take too many machines,” as many as 60 to 70, to efficiently make the nozzles, says Greg Morris, business development leader for additive manufacturing at GE Aviation. Morris joined the aerospace company last year, as part of GE’s acquisition of his 3D company, Morris Technologies. “We can start ramping up with the current generation of technology, but within two to three years we’re going to have to be onto the next generation to meet our cost targets,” he says. So GE is waiting for development of new printers with three to four times the capacity.

As part of a $3.5 billion investment in its aerospace supply chain, GE says it will spend tens of millions of dollars to invest in new technology and, over the next five years, triple the size of its 70-person 3D-printing staff and expand its factory floor fourfold. (The 85,000 nozzles are for engine orders that will enter full production in late 2015.)


The company’s embrace of 3D printing throws the weight of the world’s largest jet-engine maker behind a process invented in the 1980s to fabricate scale models. As the technology has advanced, 3D printing has evolved. Today, Boeing uses the process to make plastic air-conditioning ducts for its 787 Dreamliner jet, and Nike has a football cleat made on 3D printers. “[GE’s] investment changes everything, and it’s also unprecedented,” says Terry Wohlers, president of 3D printing consulting company Wohlers Associates. The company’s annual report tracking 3D technology estimates that the industry is poised to almost triple, to about $6 billion in sales, by 2017.

source: Business Week

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Beyonce Is Most Searched Celebrity Of 2013 In USA

Despite the tabloid frenzy caused by her pregnancy, divorce and engagement to Kanye West this year, reality TV megastar Kim Kardashian fell short of being crowned 2013’s most searched celebrity in America. Instead the title went to Beyoncé, according to the annual report released by Bing on Monday.

As second most searched, Kim beat out Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Madonna, who came in third, fourth, and fifth place, respectively.

 

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Amazon To Start Making Deliveries Using Drones

In the not-too-distant future, Amazon deliveries could come by air directly to your doorstep.

The online mega-retailer unveiled plans on Sunday for a new delivery service called Prime Air, which uses unmanned aerial vehicles -- or drones -- that look like toy helicopters.

The "octocopters" aren't ready to take flight yet. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in an interview that the drones would be ready to take flight in four to five years. But an Amazon spokesperson pointed to an updated post on the company's website promising aerial deliveries as soon as governing rules change.

 The type of flights Bezos proposed are currently not allowed. Unlike some other drones currently used, these would be autonomous -- they would fly without a pilot.

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App Of The Week - USB Tunnel

For me its 5 stars for USB unnel, my App Of The Week.

USB Tunnel runs on Android 4 and allows a user with a rooted android to reverse tether a droid to a pc, thus obatining PC internet speeds on the handheld.

See also : How to share your PC or Desktop Internet with your HTC inspire 4G or Desire HD via USB

USb Tunnel is available on Google Play

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Fortune Names Elon Musk The Top Businessperson of 2013

Fortune Magazine has named Musk the top businessperson of 2013 based on the revenues and stock price gains from three companies he founded — Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity — and the "cultural impact" he has had through these and other ventures, including the much-discussed Hyperloop concept.

"The co-founder of PayPal has gone on to disrupt aeronautics with Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX; shake up the auto business with Tesla Motors; and retool the energy sector with SolarCity," Fortune notes in its writeup of Musk. "But it is his audacity and tenacity that make him Fortune's Businessperson of the Year."

This accomplishment comes at a tenuous time for Musk as one of those companies, Tesla, is struggling to beat back concerns following reports that several of its cars have caught fire. Tesla's stock had approached nearly $200 a share, a more than sixfold increase for the year, but has since dropped back down to the low $120 range.

Musk isn't the only tech exec to rank high on Fortune's list. The CEOs of Netflix, Amazon and Google all cracked the top 10. Angela Ahrendts, the current CEO of Burberry and soon-to-be retail exec at Apple, ranked fourth on the list as well.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Flickr, JD Lasica    source: mashable

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