5 Pro-Tips To Up Your Twitter Game

1. Mention to Engage

You can optimise engagement on Twitter by @mentioning people, brands, etc. inside of tweet. Tweetdeck is a recommended tool for finding twitter handles easily due to the auto-complete and comprehensive search result feature.

2. Queue ‘Em Up!

You can easily create queue slots on HootSuite and Buffer and just queue up tweets ahead of time to deal with issues like lack of WiFi/internet access, low battery, etc. With the Buffer app you can have up to 10 slots on the free version and unlimited on the paid version, while HootSuite suggest when best to schedule your tweet based on when your followers are most active.

5 startup lessons from an entrepreneur’s interview

For Context: TechCabal had an interview with Kola Oyeneyin, founder of Autogenius — a startup looking to disrupt the insurance industry in Nigeria. Having read the interview I culled up 5 valuable lessons for entrepreneurs who aspire to launch game-changing startups. The original interview of Autogenius is here.

1. Good idea that sounds like a bad idea

Peter Thiel was in Dublin recently for the Web Summit and after seeing him talk (along side 3 teen entrepreneurs from his foundation) I started to get a better grasp at his rant on ‘good ideas that sound like bad ideas’ and how these are ideas that eventually disrupt or carry attributes of true innovation. Ben Horowitz jumped on the bandwagon and this video of his does shed good light on the topic.

I realized that Insurance worked. I had tasted the value of insurance and I loved it.

I’d like to think Autogenius is one of such type of ideas especially since you can draw a parallels with the beginning of Airbnb as both Founders have secrets, in this case it is Kola Oyeneyin’s personal experience with insurance.

5 Takeaways from TEDxDublin

Thanks to my friend, James McBennett, I was able to secure last minute tickets to the sold out TEDxDublin 2014 that took place at the Bordais Gas Theater. It was an amazing venue and kudos to the organizing team for creating such an interactive environment.

At @TEDxDublin with @mcbennett pic.twitter.com/1k2Zp3Bz4D

— Nubi Kay’ (@NubiKay) September 13, 2014

However, the most remarkable part of the event was the people, especially those that took center stage to touch on our ever changing landscape. Here are 5 takeaways from folks that rocked the stage.

After all is hacked and pitched at Startup Weekend Dublin… #SWDub

#SWDub 2014  in one word was a priceless experience for me as an individual and team – OnePlace. Many thanks to all the contributed to our progress and personal development – and too many people did from organizers like @GeneMurphy, Andrea, and Matthew Gonzalez to Mentors like Cristina, Paul Watson, Donal, Jade, and Ed, not forgetting the judges and other participants.

OnePlace making messaging easy #swdub @oneplacehq pic.twitter.com/aW97ah03gy

— StartupWeekendDublin (@SWDub) June 8, 2014

In retrospect  and addition to the 7 takeaways from Day 1 and 5 lessons from Day 2,  here is a compilation of 10 lessons and takeaways from the final pitches and judges comments and final outcomes of 54 hours spent in Google Ireland for the Startup Weekend 2014:

1. It’s all about the Customer – Gary Layden & Co.

 

Last tip from @swdub mentors & speakers: Get out and talk to your customers 😉 #swdub pic.twitter.com/IK288vXqup — StartupWeekendDublin (@SWDub) June 8, 2014

2. Tinder for What? Build a solution not a clone/derivative to another solution

3. We want more girls women in tech

4. Journey >> destination:  Best Pitch by Insurify’s @Tracy_Keogh

Insurify on stage #swdub pic.twitter.com/0rHDdiYKk5

— StartupWeekendDublin (@SWDub) June 8, 2014

5. Show proof – Customer Feedback, Opt-ins, Sign Ups.

 

6. B2B = Lesser Risk = Faster path to Monetization = Investor Friendly

7. Industry-targeted startup solution win:  @Simplifly ->Travel

 

And the winner is @simplifly @SWDub! Delighted to have been part of it. pic.twitter.com/kADPrxe1PQ — Anna Scally (@annascally_kpmg) June 8, 2014

8. Live demo in a less than 10 minutes pitch? Don’t Do It.

9. Don’t trade funny for cheesy (like I did in #10)

 

10. After all is hacked and pitched… Sh*p that Sh*t!

That’s all from #SWDub at least for 2014. Sure looking forward to the next one but till then follow @OnePlaceHQ for updates on how things unfold and I’m at @NubiKay and/or @NubiKayBlog.

Many thanks again to everybody involved and I meant it when I said:

We are about to find out the winner(s) of @SWDub.. but man do I doff my hat to every team and participant. #swdub

— NubiKay.com (@NubiKay) June 8, 2014

..I do doff my hat again. Cheers.

#SWDub | 7 Takeways from Startup Weekend Dublin

Awesome first day at Google for Startup Weekend. The energy is up high to the roof with developers, designers and business peoples ready to hack away for the next 54 hours.

OnePlace is here after just winning the Accenture Leaders of Tomorrow Award and securing a place on the September 2014 NDRC launchpad but all we, Alex Keaney and I, have is an idea and the business acumen. That’s why we came to #SWDub to take it to the next level and it is exciting having Daniel Beere – a kick-ass UI/UX designer on the team to make this happen.

The journey has been amazing so far and here are 7 takeaways from the Day 1 at #SWDub:

1. Developers are scarce. Biz Devs are in surplus. Designers are latinos.

2. Social and Mobile is king. More than 80% of Pitched Ideas

3. Find a problem that affects you. Solve if for others.

4. Growth Hacking your Team = 50% Jokes + 40% Laughs + 10% Ideas

5. Hardware/Dashboards are NOT sexy to pitch… …just yet.

6. Digital Pancakes: Word Play > Ideas > Start > Validate

7. “Save the world” startups are not welcome.

Oh you didn’t think I was going to write a 1,000 word post, did you? It’s back to hacking away for Day 2.  You can follow live updates from me on twitter – @NubiKay @NubiKayBlog and @OnePlaceHQ.

I am an expert. I can do anything [Comedy Sketch]

Funny business meeting illustrating how hard it is for an engineer – or mostly technical skilled workers like programmers, to fit into the corporate world

Vote For Me // 2013 #Unveiled Entrepreneur Awards for New Media

This is my first nomination for any award (every other award so far has been academic – the type you ace exams for), so I’m kind of excited.

The #Unveiled Entrepreneur Awards have nominated me – Nubi Kayode for Wild Ripples – a new media outlet I co-founded with my buddy – Ahmed Adeyanju.

We offer training and consulting services – online presence/reputation management, creative solutions, and social media management for small, medium and blue chip business, individuals and brands and it’s been a fun ride with even more amazing future plans to continuously help businesses build their online presence and be profitable.

So please VOTE for me here. It’d be great to win the award and feel free to buzz me on twitter for personal or professional reasons.

My Top Web Birthday Greetings

Yesterday was my birthday, and boy, I got lot of love via social media – over 100+ tweets, 250+ Facebook messages, and the following:

After first Foursquare check-in on my birthday

From a food service I used back in Turkey, now I use EasyAppetite.com in Nigeria

Even though I use LinkedIn more, XING sent me a birthday greeting card

From My Alma Mata – Eastern Mediterranean University

From Eventiso: Nigerian startup focused on event ticketing

Even eskimi got in on the action

Thanks to everybody that holla-ed. BlackBerry finally gave up the ghost – maybe from too many messages flowing in. 🙂

[Top Image: Birthday cake by Yomi Kazeem –  with #TeamRELOADED]

Why You Can’t Sell with Social Media

Social media can give your company many different benefits.

It can increase awareness and introduce you to new people. It can be used to help customer service, and follow-up with disgruntled customers. It can also be used to get the elusive, but effective word-of-mouth marketing.

But it can’t sell. At least, that’s what people say.

Market research giants Forrester Research and GSI Commerce looked at online retailer data in 2010. They were trying to determine how many actual retail sales came from social media visits.

The results aren’t pretty.

Less than 2% of all orders were from social networking shoppers. (Conversely, paid, SEO and email marketing converted the most).

The most common objection for people using social media is, “What’s the return-on-investment?”. And when you try to come up with an ROI, you get results like these (dismal, to say the least).

So what’s the solution? Give up entirely?

Or should you just look a little more closely..

[as seen of Fix Course]

January: Book Of The Month – EXECUTION: The Discipline of Getting Things Done