Ikemba Speaks

By Jayson DeMers To some entrepreneurs, social media marketing is the “next big thing,” a temporary yet powerful fad that must be taken advantage of while it’s still in the spotlight. To others, it’s a buzzword with no practical advantages and a steep, complicated learning curve. Because it appeared quickly, social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing interest, and therefore, an unprofitable one. The statistics, however, illustrate a different picture. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media—but 85% of participants aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use. This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding on how to achieve

By Idiare Atimomo I’m a Game Of Thrones fanatic. There I admit it. Episode 9 of Season 6 was primal in the emotions it elicited from many viewers. I watched it after work in the office with my colleagues. In one of the most gripping scenes ever (apparently filmed over 10 hours) Jon Snow was pummeling Ramsay Bolton’s face in an armada of face jabs — our reaction watching this scene had 7 men howling and screaming rabidly egging him on, literally baying for his blood. I digress, it was a kick ass episode. Viewed from the prism of strategy though, I have been asking myself who was a better strategist between both men. In my mind, Ramsay came out tops. I have always believed that the heart and success of strategy is a person’s understanding of human nature.  Not a fixation with shiny new models of thought/thinking but the clear eyed understanding of human nature . This clear eyed understanding of what motivates people to act or not act, to fight or flee, to be loyal or to re

By Bryan Johnston Share this:   Twitter   Facebook   LinkedIn   Google+ Photo courtesy of  Freepik We’re all online looking for someone. Our next fan, follower, employee, lover, business partner, critic, cheerleader, investor, mark, or exorcist (that last one is admittedly rather specific to my needs this week). Everyone’s searching for something. And we’re turning to  social media  in snowballing numbers to do so. A full  78% of Americans  have at least one social network profile in 2016, and there’s currently about  2.2 billion social media users  worldwide. With those kinds of numbers, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for (unless you’re U2, in which case you still haven’t found what you’re looking for). But the onslaught can work against you, too. How do you stand out in a crowd of 2.2 billion? You can’t. Not really. But you can work smaller. One platform at a time. Take Twitter, for example. Good old Twitter (can something started in