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A Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has called for a debate, on the economy, among all the presidential aspirants on the economy.Photo Atiku ? this man looks like a Hitman sha



Abubakar, a former vice-President, made the call after submitting his nomination form at the PDP national secretariat on Tuesday in Abuja.



The Adamawa State- born politician said the economy should be the main issue in the 2011 election campaigns.



“The issue of economic recovery for Nigeria cannot be a matter of wishful thinking nor of rhetoric. It is a subject for rigorous analyses and provision of well-thought, viable, practicable and sustainable strategy,” he said.



Abubakar said that all aspirants must be able to tell Nigerians how they intended to confront the challenges of the economy and reposition it for the benefit of all at the shortest possible time.



He said, “Of all the aspirants that have declared interest in the presidential election, I consider myself the most qualified to address the daunting economic challenges facing the country.



“I am the only one who has successfully managed a business and you need extensive knowledge of the private sector to combine its potential with the authority of the public sector to address this challenge.”



The former vice-president said his approach to resolving the economic crisis in the country was contained in a 47-page Policy Document he presented on August 15, 2010 while announcing his intention to contest the 2011 presidential poll.



He said, “We are faced with a job crisis of monumental proportions. Unless we evolve strategies to dealing with the teeming population of young people churned out almost on a daily basis, we may risk the destruction of the next generation.



“If we fail to channel the energies of this huge population, they could be a potent force for instability and social unrest.”



Abubakar, however, stunned journalists when he said that he was not aware that the President had declared his intention to vie for the PDP ticket.



“I didn’t see it (declaration). Honestly, I didn’t watch it,” he said.



Twenty seven out of the 28 PDP governors were among thousands of people that attended Jonathan’s presidential declaration at the Eagle Square on Saturday in Abuja. The event was shown live by some public and private television stations nationwide.



On the reported move by some politicians to produce a consensus presidential candidate among the Northern aspirants, Abubakar said, “There is a process for the emergence of a consensus candidate in the North. It shows that North is even more united if “they” agree to bring out a consensus candidate.”



He also said he was not aware of the support that Jonathan was getting from the northern states.



Reacting to the challenge, the Presidential Adviser to Jonathan on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, said the President was ready for such a debate.



“We are ready for it (debate) anytime. The President has talked about all the aspects of the economy when he declared. If they want more, we are ready for them,” he said.



Another aspirant, who is also the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, also expressed readiness for the debate.



“We are ready for the debate. That is what we have been calling for. Without such an issue-based debate, we will not be able to get the best candidate. Saraki is ready for it,” one of the governor’s aides, Mr. Billy Adedamola, said.
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by @gordonmacmillan, posted on 13 July, 2010 at 8:56 am, filed under Search Engines, Social Media, Social Networkingand tagged Facebook, Friendster, Google, Google Me, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Twitter, Zynga. Bookmark thepermalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

More details are emerging that point to Google launching a social media website, called Google Me, to rival Facebook as it emerges the web giant is looking for web users to take part in a “usability study”.

According to Techcrunch, Google is asking people to take a short survey to qualify for the study, which is taking place in Dublin with the likely hood that it is also conducting similar studies in other markets.

The study also suggests that Google has a working demo site of what could be Google Me (although that’s almost certainly a working name — good as it is) that it wants to let users loose on.

The questions focus around on and offline social networking looking at how people are making their connection days to day; their social habits (do they play sport, meet friends for drinks?); and which methods they use most frequently to communicate with friends and family..

Other questions ask which social networking sites users regularly visit from a list topped by Facebook followed by Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster and Orkut. It then asks about how many times they are accessing their “primary” social networking website (if they have one).

Another question asks about content habits and whether users have shared photos, video, reviews and blog posts.

The Google social networking site story kicked off at the tail end of June when Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted that Google Me was a real project. This was followed by D’Angelo, the former Facebook’s CTO and founder of Q&A service Quora, who added more meat to the rumour when he posted that there were a large number of people at Google working on it.

Yesterday in a possibly related move Google invested as much as $200m in social gaming business Zynga. That expanded its social media footprint and possibly giving it access to a wealth of social media gaming for its planned site launch.

It is extremely exciting development and a necessary one. At the moment Facebook looks almost unassailable even with its tribulations around privacy. Those issues, and Facebook’s attitude to them, clearly make people uneasy, but there seems a widespread reluctance to leave it. I think part of that is ground in the idea that at the moment there is no widespread alternative to Facebook. Google could change that and offer a viable alternative and give Mark Zuckerberg and company a run for their money.

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From Microsoft line of communication devices are the all new Microsoft Kin One and Two phones. The dual phones have been designed specifically to enable people actively engage and navigate their social lives..

The KIN has been designed as the phone to provide an ultimate and never before social web experience and excitement with sites like facebook,Twitter, YouTube etc.

“We built KIN for people who live to be connected, share, express and relate to their friends and family. This social generation wants and needs more from their phone. KIN is the one place to get the stuff you care about to the people you care about most.” said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.

The home screen of the KIN (called the Loop) has been designed such that it always keeps users informed with events within their social world via notifications and beeps. It also automatically collates feeds from social sites like facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc, making it easier to always stay connected 24 hours.

Design

The KIN One and the KIN Two phones both come in different designs and also both have a fun and simple interface. Social networking has been built as the core platform for the Microsoft KIN phones.

The KIN one and Two phones both feature capacitive touch screen, with slide-out keyboard style. The KIN One is compact and smaller in size to the KIN Two. The Two features a larger screen size with higher resolution. It also records high definition video.

The KIN one phone has a screen size of 2.6 inch and 320 x 240 pixel resolutions while the KIN Two has a screen size of 3.4 inch with a resolution screen of 480 x320.

Both phones feature single silver home buttons with glossy black bezel and have tactile QWERTY keyboards.

Specifications

The two major features on the KIN phones are the Spot and Loop. With the Loop, social contents (facebook, twitter etc) are collated in an order of priority by how they are sorted. The Spot which works more like an attach button, enables users drag and share different contents like maps, images, videos, status updates and share among friends.

Both devices are powered by 600 MHz processors and packs 256 MB RAM. The KIN One and KIN Two have 4GB and 8GB internal storage respectively .They also both come with rear facing cameras,a 5 megapixel camera in the KIN One and an 8 megapixel Camera in the KIN Two. The Camera has metallic shutter buttons and LED flash.

The phones also integrate with the Zune experience- providing music, FM radio, podcast playback and video, which can all be accessed on online store via a Zune Pass subscription from Zune Marketplace.

The devices come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, Micro USB port, Wi-Fi and 2.1 Bluetooth. Both phones also come with a tiny 5V USB adaptor and have batteries of 1240mAh and 1390mAh respectively for the KIN One and KIN Two phones.

Price

Pricing of the phones have not yet been disclosed, but they would be available as from May 2010.

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Are social networking sites the business tools of the future? Time will tell. But if you run a small business in these changing times, ignore them at your own risk. Many of your competitors are already networking and blogging their way to a stronger Web presence, enhanced credibility, and more customers. Yes, some social networks are hangouts for your teenaged sons and daughters. But, used wisely, they can benefit businesses too, says Lee Aase, a veteran media relations manager with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. His employer has put him in charge of articulating the clinic’s message through sites such as Facebook. Small Businesses are finding value on Facebook. Take the Visa Business Network, a small-business only social network within Facebook, for example. More than 21,000 members joined the network within four months of its June 2008 launch. "The way that most businesses grow is by word of mouth, by recommendations, and by peers and communities," says Aase, who writes and blogs about marketing through social networks. "The whole concept of social media is a lot like birds of a feather flocking together" — in other words, people with a common interest or objective interacting online, he says. Social networks enable that interaction, in professional but also fun and interesting ways, Aase says. While there aren't many strict rules about using social networks, there are dos and don’ts, as well as strategies to employ to get ahead. Here are tips I’ve compiled from experts. 1. Create profiles that avoid hype, but establish your credentials and expertise. The Visa Business Network and most other social-networking sites start you with a profile page. Seize this opportunity to market your skills and position your business, as well as provide the necessary contact information and a Web site address. Avoid blatant promotion. But if you are a credible expert on a given topic, brand yourself as such. In the Visa Business Network, for example, make sure your business name, Web site address and link, and contact info are prominent in your Business Profile. Also, be honest, but not bashful, when listing your areas of expertise. And upload a picture for your profile, one that positions you as accessible, but professional. No party pictures, of course. 2. Use keywords in your profiles to get found more easily. Keywords are words that potential clients, customers, or partners are likely to use in searching for a business that does what you do. Make sure your profile includes an appropriate range of keywords that represent your business, as profiles on many sites are captured by search engines, notes Jinger Jarrett, a blogger and Internet marketing consultant based near Atlanta. The Visa Business Network’s Business Finder feature is where fellow members use keywords to search for businesses they’d like to know more about. So, if you are, say, a professional caterer seeking clients in the Boston area, you want to make sure your profile contains the keywords that your target audience might use to find your company. 3. Join groups and forums and share your expertise. "Get in there and start talking," Jarrett says, about issues and trends affecting your industry, and about questions and problems people may have where you offer a knowledgeable answer or solution. Make sure you have something valuable to say, as well as the experience or credentials to back up your comments. Establishing credibility and trust online is as important as making yourself known. "Commenting on blog posts is one of the best things you can do online," adds Leslie O’Flahavan, a partner in E-WRITE, a Web content training and consulting firm in Silver Spring, Md. Credible comments add to any discussion and can help position you as someone with expertise in a given niche. O’Flahavan suggests these tips for commenting: Keep emotion to a minimum; proof-read your comments; be fresh and interesting; add links to Web pages for details or background, and avoid repeating what’s already been said. Caution: Know that your words can come back and haunt you. Avoid saying damaging things you may regret later. 4. Seek out recognized authorities in your industry or field. Social networking is the online version of good old fashioned person-to-person networking — but in many ways is easier. Use Business Finder yourself to find experts or business owners you’d like to meet in your field. Add them to your list of associates, accompanied by a message introducing yourself and explaining why you’d like to meet this person or get to know his or her company online. Be confident, but make sure your motives are business-related. While you are at it, take advantage of the Ask the Expert and the Resource Center features in the Visa Business Network. Ask the Expert a question about starting or running a business and you’ll get an authoritative answer from a recognized expert at The Wall Street Journal or Entrepreneur magazine. The Resource Center provides expert advice on a range of small-business topics. 5. Promote your blog on social networking sites. Blogging is the foundation of any social-media strategy for small businesses, says John Jantsch, a small-business expert who runs Duct Tape Marketing in Kansas City, Mo. “This is the doorway to all other social marketing,” he says. Jantsch tells of success stories such as Brown Lures, a Texas coast fishing lures business that uses a blog to reach fishing guides up and down the Gulf Coast, and Lincoln Sign Co. in Lincoln, N.H., which draws customer interest with detailed blog posts on how it makes each and every sign. If you do blog, make sure you promote your blog with a link in your profile. Also, if you aren’t already, use RSS feeds to distribute your posts and to surface them on social networking sites, and be sure to track and respond to comments. If you aren’t blogging, check out free blogging tools such as Wordpress and Blogger. Seize the opportunity to share your company news and thought leadership. Many of your competitors already are: A 2008 study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research found that 39% of the small businesses in the Inc. 500 are blogging (compared to just 11.6% of large companies in the Fortune 500). 6. Build your network, but be smart about “collecting” associates and friends. The Business Finder tool in the Visa Business Network is a great tool for networking and prospecting, but shouldn’t be used shamelessly to acquire a large volume of associates to attempt to sell to. High-powered marketing campaigns based on collecting abundant e-mail addresses from Business Finder and similar tools can backfire. Also, if you do nothing but promote a new business or product or book, people in your network will lose interest and begin avoiding you, Aase says. Having associates who value your passions and expertise, and who care to network with you regularly, is best for your business. 7. Use street smarts to avoid identity theft and a barrage of spam. Unfortunately, social networking sites, like the rest of the Internet, attract unscrupulous sellers as well as scam artists and thugs. Be cautious about the personal information you post. For example, never publish your Social Security number, and list your day of birth, but not the year you were born in, to guard against ID theft. And when in doubt, reject an association or friend request. 8. Resist the urge to post ads for your business on site pages, comments, and friend e-mails. In an October 2008 study by IDC, more than 50% of the consumers surveyed found ads on social networking sites to be “annoying.” Hard-nosed marketing is a no-no on social networks, and posting ads could color your business as one that doesn’t “get it.” “If you do nothing but promote your new book or new business or product, people in your network will lose interest,” Aase says. "It's all about conversation — not about push." 9. Experiment with different social networks, but focus on the few that give you results. No one knows your business better than you, and promoting a business via social networking today is more an art than a science. That means browsing and experimenting with different social networks and niche audience sites (examples: Ryze.com for entrepreneurs, Eons.com for baby boomers, CafeMom for moms, and Disaboom.com for consumers with disabilities) is worth your while. Most are free to join and use. A social network such as Twitter.com may not seem a fit for your business until you realize how easy it is for you to follow what many blogs and Web sites are saying about your industry, your competitors, even your own business, on a daily basis. Twitter also provides you a quick and interesting way to stay in touch with customers and prospects. Check it out. But as noted blogger Seth Godin says, having a presence on numerous social networks and blogs is not likely to get you a “critical mass” of customers and prospects. “One follower in each of 20 places is worthless,” Godin says. “Twenty connected followers in one place is a tribe. It’s the foundation for building something that matters.” Through experimenting, you may just find your tribe. 10. Get over the “fear of negative feedback.” While social networks won’t address all of your marketing needs, avoiding them because you fear possible negative feedback is a bad move. You’ll be letting more savvy competitors gain exposure and stature in communities that you should very well be a part of. It is true that dissatisfied customers, negative reviewers, or people seeking to damage your name online can make life difficult. But you face these risks whether you delve into social networks or not. And there are ways to protect your business name and to successfully manage your reputation online. Some quick tips, courtesy of blog posts by online reputation management experts: • Monitor your online presence continuously, so you are aware of what is being published and not caught off-guard. • Make your point in forums without pointing fingers. In other words, avoid getting into arguments or name-calling. • Carefully and thoughtfully respond to attacks, but don’t let conflicts escalate. You’ll just be giving search engines more to link to. • Seek legal counsel for truly slanderous attacks. • Have a biography on your business Web site and make sure it and your site are prominent on search engines when people search under your name or your business’s name.
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