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Reasons Why You Must Be On Twitter By M. Malumfashi

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Twitter, a social media platform developed in 2006 and has now reached over 300m ‘active’ users with may be up to 1 billion accounts. At this digital age, with over 3 billion people said to be users of the Internet (almost half of the entire world). Nigeria represent about 2.5% of that figure making it the most Internet-using nation in Africa. According to NCC Internet users stood at nothing less than 88m, that’s about 40% of our 180m population.

Twitter users are just half of Facebook users in the world (with the latter boasting of over 1 billion account since 2012, and mostly active accounts) but in Nigeria the case is different as the ratio is even lower. I don’t think 1% of our Internet users are on twitter. I don’t know of any official statistics of Nigerians on twitter, but I know for sure Nigeria isn’t among the Top 20 countries on twitter despite being the 8th country with Internet users all over the world. I roughly assumed the figure to be around 500,000. Not more than half a million. Unlike the US with about 25 million users.

So, here are 10 reasons why you can’t continue to miss 350 million tweets every day;

  1. First class source of Information:

Primary sources are the original and unfiltered information. Twitter is a first class information source. If you are on twitter and your friends aren’t, they’ll always be surprised where on earth you get your news from, especially before it breaks all over. There were times that people argue or at least give doubt, over some issues only to realise their ignorance after several hours or even days. Today newspapers get their source from twitter. When @realmadrid official twitter account unfollow @ikercasillas, Marca’s next edition could feature Bye bye Saint Iker. When @sergioramos follow @manutd account, it’s a done deal. That’s how it’s being done today.

  1. Pool of news:

On 25th June 2009 twitter received over 100,000 tweets per hour on the death of Michael Jackson alone. Not only that twitter is a first class source of information it’s also a news pool. You’ll know that when you follow a thousand of tweeps. Tweets from all topics, aspects. Since you are interacting with people all over the globe. Anyway, beware of false information and rumours.

  1. Twitter is a school:

Twitter is like a classroom. Join and enrol in any class of your choice, be it sports, history, politics, international relations, economics, health, relationship, and IT. On twitter people know almost everything. You may come across online quizzes, debates on feminism, marriage, soccer etc On religion; #DeenNight, #SahabahNights. et al. Some people say ‘it’s only twitter’ but I have learnt and still learning a lot from it. Just follow the right people.

  1. Twitter is drama:

Twitter is drama; twitter is fun. If you’re not on twitter, bro, you have missed almost 9 years of drama. The twitter beefs; Drake, Meek Mill, Eminem, Nicki Minaj, Amber Rose. The #TwitFight, #WailingWailers. #ArewaTwitter; DM issues, some…drama. The red crayons!

  1. Twitter, an analyser!

You are not on twitter? You never heard of the #RenoPolls with the fear of God. #AITPolls. Twitter is nowadays used for surveys,taking polls on public opinion, supporters approval rating. You also understand people’s take on issues and their reactions. I remember Comr. @Shehusani’s camels, it generated a lot. May be the reason his tweets are protected now.

  1. Reach out to a lot of people.

Reach out to a million of people online with just a single tweet. And it gets Retweeted. Remember @barackobama massive social campaign in 2008? Okay. If you are a celebrity, with twitter you can simply reach your millions of followers out over there and even give out recharge cards or follow back to random followers. Not bad!

  1. Twitter for help!!!

Twitter is for emergency. You must have read how twitter saved @elrufai in 2010 from DSS in his Accidental public servant. Once a lady here raised an alarm; attacked by robbers in her house. In no time some brave men jumped out of twitter to the house. You see? Since you don’t know Nigeria’s emergency number, is it 911 or 112? Whatever just mention one of the overloads on twitter. Boko haram attack, robbery.. God save us.

  1. Twitter # for Movement:

One of the most trending global issues in social media and off it, is the #BringBackOurGirls. One of the orchestrators narrated how #BBOG came up, it was by using a simple # (hashtag) on twitter. So not only emergency, twitter can be used for campaign, and other movements. #NISStampede, #OccupyNaija, #GEJWinsIT, #OpenNASS..

  1. Rumours on twitter?

Because of the heavy flow and traffic of news on twitter there used to be a lot of lies, false information and update. What you need to do is simple. Ask ‘what’s your source?’ I saw one guy when asked about his source during the much heated Nigeria’s presidential campaign mentioned one of the overloads on Twitter Nigeria as his own source. Now that we have a lot of BLOGGERS one should be careful about what he call news, and who he follows and what he retweets on twitter. And because it’s like a school, you can’t tell lies and go free when we have all subject teachers here. One last thing is that you should know that there are fake and parody accounts.

  1. Big Uncles.. And the aunts

Big family men have polluted the Facebook atmosphere, some believe. There is a limit to what they post as even their DP on BBM or whatsApp. There are some things you can’t post on Facebook, why not tweet them? Those big aunts and uncles aren’t here, may be, Yet. Twitter atmosphere haven’t been polluted by those big men and mamas who have eyes on what you do on SM. You can tweet whatever you wish!! You are safe. Just beware of screen grabbers. They are hyper-fast. Those pix. and DMs, means no break up forever, in some cases. Take heed! Toh!!!

Muhammad Malumfashi is on twitter @Ya_waliyyi

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Lessons From Mayweather And Chelsea FC By Ololade Ajekigbe

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The much hyped fight between the Filipino eight division world champion, Manny Pacquiao and the undefeated American five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr finally took place as scheduled on the 2nd of May. At the end of the twelfth and final round, the Money man Mayweather was adjudged the winner in a unanimous decision by all three judges. A lot of people felt that the boxing bout didn’t exactly live up to its billing as the “Fight of the Century” as dubbed by its promoters. Those who were expecting to see a technical knock out ended up disappointed, but at the end of the day, the man tagged the best pound-for-pound fighter by many sporting news and boxing websites took the day.
In similar fashion, Chelsea Football Club literally wrapped up the race for the English Premier League title by winning their match against Crystal Palace on Sunday, with three matches still to play before the season eventually winds up. Boxing and Football are two entirely different sports, but the two winners in this scenario became champions in pretty much the same way – doing the needful to achieve the desired result! Many have criticized Mayweather’s fighting style on Sunday, saying that he clearly avoided really getting into the bout with the much more offensive Pacquaio who appeared to be fearless and brazen regardless of his underdog status, just like Chelsea, under the irrepressible Jose Mourinho have been taunted and tagged as boring despite putting up the most consistent performance this season having spent 253 days so far at the top of the Premier League. However, all that matters is that they emerged champions at the end of the day irrespective of what anyone thinks!
For the sake of argument, had Manny Pacquiao done his homework well he would have realized that his opponent has always been more of a defensive fighter who blocks and deflects most of his opponent’s punches while waiting for his opportunity to land accurate punches, (which explains why he always had relatively few scars and was nicknamed “Pretty Boy” by his amateur team mates) and would have found a way to circumvent his technique rather than fight “blindly.” Mayweather has always been known for his defensive techniques, he was taught to be that way by his boxer father and uncle and that is not likely to change soon.
Champions play to their strength regardless of how conservative or negative it may appear to others, as their goal is to win and not merely participate. This was evident in the result which showed that Pacquaio threw far more power punches – 236 in all, but could only land 63, while Mayweather with a more conservative 168 punches was able to land 81 of them! While the total punches for the two fighters also proved that the Money man was able to connect 34% of his punches as opposed to the Pacman’s 19%. Hence, the reason why Mayweather clearly won.
Champions don’t expend energy needlessly… you don’t have to like Chelsea to admit that they have been by far the best team in England this season. In the earlier part of the season when they needed to be more attack minded, they were. Towards the latter part of the season when they needed to be more defensive in their approach to games, they pulled it off perfectly. They may have been slightly boring as many have said, but I choose to see it as being pragmatic and ruthlessly efficient. One thing mattered to Chelsea – winning the league. And that they did it in their own style. This reminds me of how they won the 2011/2012 Uefa Champions League which pundits never predicted they would win by using the same defensive strategy.
Champions don’t play to the gallery, they play for themselves; a look at the track record of Floyd Mayweather who now has 48 wins and no losses in his professional career reveals a man who is all about results. So also is the philosophy of Chelsea Football Club under Jose Mourinho who has now won 2 titles in 2 years. Love them or loathe them, it is obvious that these ones have found the right formula when it comes to winning and cannot be bothered about changing it and risking the possibility of losing just to please the fans.
At the end of the day, everybody wants to win. Results are all that matter. It’s like having a baby – whether a woman decides to go through the rigorous and painful process of labour or opts for a Caesarean section, what matters is that a healthy baby is born. Ten years down the line, no one is going to remember how the baby was born! Ambitious people don’t go through life wanting to be remembered for just passing through and achieving nothing substantial in the process. What Floyd Mayweather and Chelsea have taught us is to channel our energies in the right direction in order to achieve the desired result.

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates