African Blogger Awards

African Blogger Awards

The continent’s very first awards programme that measures online and social influencers’ reach and influence

Entries to the 2014 African Blogger Awards, the continent’s very first awards programme that measures online and social influencers’ reach and influence through data analysis, are open to bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters and YouTubers across Africa.

The Awards have been divided into 36 categories, providing the opportunity for influencers on these platforms to be measured objectively against their peers and duly recognised for their achievements.

Categories are diverse, and include sectors such as Advice, Fashion and Beauty, Events and Nightlife, Education, Sports, Political, Technology and Gadgets and Youth Culture among others.

“The African Blogger Awards are the first completely impartial, objective awards for online and social influencers on the African continent because winners will be determined by data analytics provided by Webfluential, and not through peer nominations,” says Mike Sharman, co-founder of the African Blogger Awards.

The Awards will also give brands and the marketing industry, including advertisers, public relations agencies and media buyers in each country an impartial measurement of the most relevant online and social influencers to include in their campaigns, making sure that they achieve the greatest possible impact for their marketing spend.

Entry is free, but entrants are required to register their blog, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube profile (or a combination thereof) on Webfluential (http://www.webfluenti.al), a platform designed to quantify the reach, resonance and relevance of bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters and YouTubers with over 1 000 active, legitimate followers. 

• Reach measures the size of an influencer's audience (following) per social media network.
• Resonance is a measure of how widely the content that an influencer shares reaches outside of their own community.
• Relevance is a measure of the response from the influencer's community in the form of likes, comments, retweets.

Bloggers, Instagrammers, Tweeters and YouTubers who are permanent residents of any African country are eligible to enter the African Blogger Awards.

Entries for the awards close on 9 March 2014 at midnight GMT+2, and results will be announced on 16 April 2014 via the competition’s Twitter profile, @African_Blogger, from 11:00 GMT+2. Overall awards for Africa’s Top Blogger, Top Instagrammer, Top Tweeter and Top YouTuber will be announced on 18 April 2014 at a celebration hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Winners in each category will receive a web banner announcing their achievement that can be personally-leveraged through their social network and a commemorative trophy.

“As the competition grows, we plan to host the awards ceremony in other cities on the African continent each year, in recognition of the enormous influence that the online community has on news, lifestyle, media and marketing across the continent,” says Murray Legg, co-founder of the African Blogger Awards.


www.africanbloggerawards.com

South African Rhino Newsmaker Of The Year

The South African rhino has been named the National Press Club / Aon South Africa Newsmaker of the Year for 2012. 

Newsmaker of the Year 2012 - South Africa

National Press Club Chairperson, Antoinette Slabbert, says rhino poaching has been in the news consistently the entire year and has evoked strong emotions.

“In many respects history was made last year - a record number of 668 rhinos were poached, a harsh sentence of 40 years for a kingpin in the poaching industry was handed down and an international accord to try and stop poaching was signed, to name but a few.

“The onslaught on these African giants has not only resulted in much debate in the country and elsewhere in the world, but has also united people to rally behind campaigns against the bleeding of our heritage. It is critical for governments, corporates, individuals and the media to stand up and take action to stop the killing of our rhinos,” says Slabbert.

Aon South Africa Chief Executive Officer Anton Roux says the award recognises the efforts of ordinary people, the courts, government, SANParks and other conservation bodies and law enforcement agencies to stop rhino poaching.

“While the rhino has dominated headlines for all the wrong reasons, the media has played a fundamental role in informing not only South Africans, but the world, about the massive tragedy that is unfolding in our country. The media coverage has been pivotal in being able to galvanise the breadth of South African society in the fight to save one of our big five icons. South Africa’s rhino heritage is a precious privilege that can never be forfeited. 

“Aon South Africa is proud to be associated with the fight against rhino poaching with our own insurance programmes. The fact that the rhino is now our newsmaker of the year further demonstrates just how urgent this fight is. South Africa’s media is a fundamental driver of awareness and action and we fully support this continued focus in the hope that we will turn the corner very soon on the criminal, cruel and immoral practice of rhino poaching.

“Aon South Africa is proud to be associated with such an award that recognises issues that capture public sentiment and fuel open, democratic debate.” 

Slabbert says the award is made on the grounds of impact, news value and media attention in electronic, print, online and social media.

The club is synonymous with the Newsmaker of the Year award. Over the years the club has recognised and awarded many newsmakers. Previous recipients include President Jacob Zuma, former presidents FW de Klerk, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Other newsmakers include Hollywood star Charlize Theron, Zachie Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign, the late Hansie Cronjé and various other sporting personalities, DA Leader Helen Zille, ESKOM and Cope and FIFA’s Sepp Blatter and Danny Jordaan also received the award in recent years. Last year the newsmakers were Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and Julius Malema.

The awards function will be hosted in Pretoria soon. The winner of the National Press Club / North-West University Journalist of the Year competition will also be announced at the function. The Proudly South African media award will again be made this year in conjunction with the National Press Club and Aon. The award will be made to a journalist, media organisation or media initiative which promotes national unity and pride, patriotism and/or supporting local business.

Mr World 2012 - Mr South Africa

Who will claim the title as the world’s most desirable man? Mr World 2012 will be held on Saturday, 24 November 2012 in Kent, England.

Mr World - South Africa, Andrew Govender (Pic: Kevin Mark Pass)

Mr World - South Africa, Andrew Govender, resides in Johannesburg, SA, and is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand. He uses his degree in Actuarial Science as an Actuarial Analyst, but is also pursuing a career in modelling and acting.

Modelling since the age of 16, Andrew sees a future in television presenting and acting. He is a sports enthusiast that enjoys cricket, soccer, hiking & SCUBA diving, and he has a pet parrot!

Other Mister World African contestants:

Mr World - Equatorial Guinea, Ntutumu Clemente

Mr World - Ethiopia, Munir Ali

Mr World - Nigeria, Chuks Obichukwu

www.mrworld.tv

Quote by Malcolm X: The media's the most powerful entity on earth. ...

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” 

Malcolm X

Goodreads | Quote by Malcolm X: The media's the most powerful entity on earth. ...

Africa's top businesses honoured at Awards ceremony

Africa's leading business figures assembled 7 June 2012 for the fifth annual African Business Awards in London. The popular event for celebrating excellence and achievement in African business took place at the exclusive Grosvenor House with a high level audience of 300 guests that included BBC World News presenter Zeinab Badawi, the minister of trade for Burundi, the minister of commerce for Zambia, and Jean-Louis Ekra, President of the African Export-Import Bank.

It was a SME that stole the show as Innoson, led by Nigerian entrepreneur Innocent Chukwuma, took the most coveted title of African Business of the Year. The new Award for Best Hospitality, Travel and Tourism in Africa was won by Serena Hotels from Kenya.

The Nigerian conglomerate Dangote Group, whose recent expansion and production plans are currently being flagged in the news, won the Investor of the Year Award and received the trophy from Robert Sichinga, Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Zambia.

The prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Manu Chandaria, who has been hailed as "one of Kenya's leading industrialists". Applauded by a standing ovation from the audience, he was given special credit for having built a world class conglomerate and set a benchmark for his peers and for young entrepreneurs across the African continent to follow.

Omar BenYedder, Publisher of African Business magazine stated: "The awards were launched 5 years ago to reward not only successful businesses but those which had a positive impact on their communities and the country or region they operate in, what President Sata of Zambia called 'profit with a human face'. We also wanted to encourage sustainable and inclusive growth. And I feel that the winners tonight have certainly risen to the challenge and are fulfilling these objectives. We have rewarded true pioneers operating on the African continent and we hope they will act as a benchmark for others to follow suit."

Sir Alan Collins, Director General of the Commonwealth Business Council, during a heart-felt speech, emphasised that "Africa is open for business”.

The African Business Awards are organised by African Business magazine and Commonwealth Business Council in partnership with BusinessinAfrica Events. A distinguished panel of judges selected winners in eight categories from a pool of nominees that came from all over the African continent. The winners of the remaining categories were selected by the advisory board comprising of the editorial team of African Business magazine, and experts from the CBC.

Winners: African Business Awards 2012

Winners:
Most Outstanding Woman of the Year
Rachel Zodwa Mabaso, Founder/Managing Director, Mboweni Mineral Resources, South Africa

Award for Innovation
Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, South Africa

Investor of the Year
Dangote, Nigeria

Special Commendation
Olam, Gabon

Award for Environmental Sustainability in Africa
Nedbank Group, South Africa
BTI Millman, Kenya

Best Hospitality, Travel and Tourism in Africa
Serena Hotels, Kenya

Award for Good Corporate Governance
Diageo Africa

Best Corporate Social Responsibility
BHP Billiton

Business Leader of the Year
Egbert Imomoh, Non-Executive Chairman, Afren

African Business of the Year
Innocent Chukwuma (Innoson)

Award for Best Agricultural Development
OCP, Morocco

Country Achievement for Sustained Improvement in Investment Climate
Rwanda

Creative Industry Award
Duro Olowu

Lifetime Achievement Award
Manu Chandaria, Kenya

Viva AFRICA!

QR code: Symbiotic Media

The ability of QR codes to connect people with each other and to multimedia digital content is very useful for businesses and consumers alike.

QR code to Symbiotic Media home page

QR code: African Mirror inc.

A reflection of the times! What are QR codes and how can they help your business? 

Quick Response codes (QR codes) are the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside the industry due to its fast readability and large storage and sharing capacity compared to standard barcodes. The code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be made up of virtually any kind of data. 

QR codes have in recent years become common in consumer advertising, marketing and packaging because of the access to smartphones and other scanning devices.

QR code to African Mirror inc. home page

4 Strategic Ways to Improve Your Blog - and Sell It

4 Strategic Ways to Improve Your Blog – and Sell It | Network Solutions Small Business Resources

Samsung announces the availability of App for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations

As an official sponsor of the Orange Africa Cup on Nations Gabon-Equatorial Guinea 2012, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., is excited to announce the availability of the ‘Africa Cup of Nations’ App, on the Samsung SA Apps store.

Says Deon Liebenberg, MD of Samsung South Africa: “As Samsung has been a long-time supporter of African football, we felt it only natural for us to invest in such an application; the application will offer fans an opportunity to keep up to date with the latest information and results around the event, with ease and while on the move.”

The application features competitions, galleries, live scores, downloads and fixtures for the 2012 tournament and is available for fans to download for free.

“We are committed to our customers and through this app we aim to offer the best possible enjoyment of the tournament. Fans can now follow the tournament passionately and not miss out as we understand that it is not always possible to catch all the live action. We, at Samsung, are again meeting the needs of our consumers - in this case sports fans - and are providing them with content that not only allows for great entertainment, but fuels the spirit of African soccer,” concludes Liebenberg.

Deon Liebenberg, MD of Samsung South Africa

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Psychic Predictions for 2012

Pic: John Stephen Dwyer

Psychic Who Predicted Japan Earthquake Shares Insights

Can Blair Robertson see into the future? His successful forecasts of coming events seem to prove he can. His past predictions include the Japanese 8.9 earthquake and tsunami, the two devastating New Zealand earthquakes, the terrible plane crash that claimed the life of Polish president Lech Kaczynski, World Cup events, accurately predicting the Oscars, and more.

"I call it 'time projected empathy,' where I imagine myself reading the headlines in the future," says Robertson, "I remember the future."

2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year, according to Robertson, who has put together his annual predictions.

Blair Robertson Predictions 2012

• I predict that the Republicans will win the Presidential election.
• A horrifying premonition: spandex will make a comeback near the end of 2012.
• Volcanic activity in the Northwest will be big news and I feel there will be a very good chance of a large eruption.
• There will be a bombing on a cruise ship this year.
• I predict North Carolina will be slammed and heavily damaged by storms in April.
• I predict Jennifer Aniston will marry.
• Watch for major riots to occur in Miami and London in the spring.
• I predict a train crash in Southern Europe within the next 120 days that will be caused by sabotage.
• In spite of persistent rumours, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will remain together in 2012 and adopt another child.
• This year will see the passing of a much-loved and great comedienne/actress.
• I predict a major fire in a building/hotel in Hong Kong affecting hundreds this summer.
• A member of royalty will die in a car crash within 6 months.
• I predict a dam will burst, causing much damage, within the year.
• I predict a major oil spill in the North Atlantic within the first five months.
• Watch for an assassination attempt on an African leader in the next few weeks that will make headlines.
• I predict a ferryboat capsizing in the Philippines with more than 60 lost in February.
• Another US leading politician in a sex scandal. This time an easterner.
• I predict volcanic activity in Italy - affecting the Amalfi Coast this year.
• Watch for a series of fires this spring in California that will be arson.
• I predict we will hear of horrifying riots in South Africa during the summer.
• I predict that the Euro will drop below $1.25US before the end of May.
• Watch for a tsunami in the spring that will threaten the island kingdom of Tonga.
• News of a thwarted "terrorist" attack at the summer Olympics will have the world on edge.
• I predict a baby for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge this year.
• I predict that both Greece and Portugal will default this year.
• Middle East tensions will greatly escalate in the fall.

Web Site: http://www.blairrobertson.com 

Animation Festival in Zimbabwe Reflects Growing Industry | Global Press Institute

The second Zimbabwe Festival of African Inspired Animation, held this past weekend in the capital, attracted experienced and young animators from across Zimbabwe. Animators say the budding industry has been thriving on passion and collaboration and has the capacity to supplement other media and preserve culture if it can continue to develop in the future.


Animation Festival in Zimbabwe Reflects Growing Industry

32% of Businesses Cite ‘Lack of Time’ as Biggest Social Media Challenge

(PRWEB) - Red Rocket Media, a specialist content marketing agency in the UK, surveyed marketing professionals across a wide range of sectors and found that 32% of businesses cited ‘lack the time’ as their biggest social media challenge, closely followed by 28% who cited ‘creating original content’. Others included: deciding what to say (17%), measuring ROI (13%) and engaging with customers (10%).

“The results from this survey very much echo the message we are hearing from our own customers” says Matthew Hopkins, Managing Director of Red Rocket Media. “As businesses embrace social media marketing they are very quickly realising that to get results, you need to invest a serious amount of time in creating original content which will engage your readers: time, the majority of them just do not have.”

When asked about their main social media objective, 35% cited ‘increase brand awareness’, followed by ‘form deeper relationships’ (30%) and ‘generate leads’ (15%). 10% stated ‘increase website traffic’ as their main objective with the remainder being split between ‘enhance search engine rankings’ and ‘create buzz’.

Hopkins added: “More and more companies are cottoning on to the power of social media when it comes to increasing brand awareness. Valuable content such as topic-related news articles connects people and spreads like wild fire as people re-tweet it, share it and comment on it. As long as you publish high quality, original content, there are simply no limits to the reach your brand can achieve on social media.”

Whilst the biggest challenge faced by businesses is a lack of time, it is, however, encouraging that so many are still committed to social media as a long-term investment. Over 50% of those surveyed are now spending 1-3 hours a week on social media activities, 17% are spending 4-6 hours and a surprising 15% are spending over 10 hours.

As far as social media budget is concerned, 41% will be allocating more budget to it in 2012, compared to 49% who plan to spend the same. The rest intend to reduce their spend which is likely to be attributed to the fact that those businesses who do not have the time to properly execute their social media plans naturally aren’t seeing results.

One of the main objectives of the survey was to gain a better understanding of the challenges businesses face when it comes to their social media activities. The findings have formed the basis for a white paper, written by Red Rocket Media, which addresses the five biggest challenges in turn and showcases how content marketing can provide an all-encompassing solution.

Content Management Systems

CMS

A content management system (CMS) is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The procedures are designed to do the following:

• Allow for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data.
• Control access to data, based on user roles (defining which information users or user groups can view, edit, publish, etc.).
• Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data.
• Reduce repetitive duplicate input.
• Improve the ease of report writing.
• Improve communication between users.

In a CMS, data can be defined as nearly anything: documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, scientific data etc. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, revising, semantically enriching and publishing documentation.

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