Porter Novelli VP Advises Social Media Influencers To Adopt Sustainable Business Model

By Ilabeshi Gabriel

Jesse Soleil, Senior Vice President, Digital of the New York headquarters of Porter Novelli, a global network of communications firms, has advised Nigerian bloggers, online news channels and social media influences to adopt a sustainable business model, in line with the global best practices to achieve the heights attained by their counterparts in the developed world.

Soleil made this call in Lagos over the weekend during an interactive session with select bloggers as part of his five-day official visit to Nigeria to facilitate capacity building in the area of digital/social media marketing and e-commerce in C&F Porter Novelli, the Nigerian affiliate of the network. The session was put together by C&F Porter Novelli, a leading PR agency in Nigeria and supported by Konga.com, Nigeria’s largest online mall.

He informed the bloggers in attendance that “their financial rewards will come from the number of advertisements, partnership deal and sponsored articles that they are able to get from the corporate world as more people come to recognize their work as informative, authentic and credible.”

Soleil urged the participants to re-channel their energy into the deployment of strong contents that tell well-rounded stories to their target audiences, which is more sustainable than commercializing the contents that are being deployed on their platforms.

He pointed out that bloggers, the world over, are beginning to re-define the way they operate as part of their strategy to be relevant in the digital space adding that attention is gradually shifting from the commercialization of contents to the deployment of the right, punchy and well researched contents. He mentioned that blogs are the first and foremost platform for dissemination of newsworthy materials that would normally attract quality visitors.

Tomiwa Akande, Head, PR and Brand Management, Konga on her part, thanked the bloggers and online influencers for their support and calling on them to reflect on the quality discussion at the interactive session.

In her words: “The bloggers have been very supportive of our business, especially in the area of information dissemination. We appreciate you all and believe that this wonderful session we have had this evening will go a long way in redefining the way bloggers go about their businesses”.

Nn’emeka Maduegbuna, CEO/Chairman, C&F Porter Novelli, informed that the forum was put together to help bloggers, social media influencers and online news channels to better position their operations in line with the current global trends.

According to him, it would be difficult for bloggers, social media influencers and online media channels to survive in the next five years if the present business model that dictates that editorial contents must be paid for is not changed. He informed the audience that The Cable, an online newspaper in Nigeria, has really shown that digital media platforms can survive with the deployment of newsworthy contents as it now enjoys tremendous support from advertisers just about one year of its launch.

The bloggers, who aired the issues and challenges they face in their field, thanked the organizers of the event for putting together the thought provoking session.

The event was well attended by notable bloggers in the country and was moderated by Dami Elebe, an OAP with beat 99.9 FM.




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