HiPipo Money

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Kampala

British Airways is equipping its 3,600 pilots with iPads to further improve customer service and operational efficiency levels.
The move, which follows the airline’s rollout of iPads across its cabin crew and ground operations teams, is part of the company’s £5bn investment in new products and technology to provide the best possible flying experience for British Airways’ customers.

By having access to additional real-time operational data, shared with ground colleagues, pilots will be able to plan the flight more efficiently using the most accurate information available pre-departure.

This means flight crew can provide customers with faster and more accurate flight information than ever before. With the latest operational updates customers will be better informed and able to make plans if their flight time has changed for any reason.
Pilots will also be able to use historic and current data, supplied by the customer, to provide an even more personalised service during the flight.
British Airways’ Country Manager Faith Chaitezvi   said: “We want our pilots to deliver a safe and memorable experience for each and every British Airways customer, on every single flight. The I Pads will help us to achieve this goal by giving us the means to provide a more personalized service and share more timely flight information with our customers and colleagues.”

It is commonly said that if you do not plan then you are planning to fail. Companies and brands need to carefully plan and budget for their social media presence. Social media is here to help build and/or strength corporate/SME or individual brands but if not well used it can damage brands. Jasmine Sandler , discuss the following among things to consider in your company/brand social media budget:

1.     Social Media Marketing Strategy

This budget in some cases may have to be delivered by consultants hence would come at cost. Even when delivered by internal company personnel, coming up with strategy will cost time of your marketing team.

2.     Social Media Channels/Pages Setup

In the event that you are just stepping in to social media for the first time, social media channel setup will be your first hard cost which may need graphics persons to design custom skins for pages such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (company header) with clear focus that your brand is well represented in all the designs.

3.     Content Development

Content marketing it at the center of social media marketing! Without content your social media strategy will be weak. Compelling content takes professionalism in design, writing skills, video production, photography, audio development, and more hence plan for this in your budget.

4.     Channel Management

Once you have a working content plan, you’ll need daily management of the social channels that will drive your online brand awareness and engagement. Social media management takes listening, research, staying on top of trends and influencers, and ongoing creative thinking.

5.     Social Media Campaigns

There are loads of opportunities to create and deliver display ad and PR campaigns within the social networks. In doing so, cost factors include: design, goal-setting, analytics and reporting, and of course, outreach and management. Best practices at a minimum for any serious social media marketer include one strong targeted campaign per quarter.

Sometime back we wrote an article stating that the next billion of Smartphone and Tablet users will be more price conscious. We added that if Apple iPad Mini is to find more education purposes with the second billion of mobile device users, Apple will need to devise ways of delivering quality at much more reduced price otherwise, the writing is on the wall that Android based devices will become the darling of the second billion of mobile users if prices are not checked for apple devices.

Mashable reports a rumor courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, which cites “people briefed on the matter.” that a lower-cost iPhone targeted at China and other emerging markets is on its way adding that Apple CEO Tim Cook has made it clear that the company views China as its second most-important geographic region. If the company wants to find major success in China, it might need to compete with a lower-priced offering.

Recent Apple introduced the iPad Mini witch Steve Jobs (RIP) had predicted would never succeed in the market but has been a success. With the reports about the lower cost iPhone in the pipeline, it will be good news for many middle class Africans that may desire the iPhone experience but are short of over 800 USD to cash out on a phone given as most phone purchases in Africa are straight cash out.

We await confirmation of this lower cost iPhone and if that happens in the near few years, many Africans will be glad to have a choice iPhone. 

From Amy Guth and Scott Kleinberg, Tribune Newspapers 12 social media resolutions we select what we think are the 6 must do in 2012

1.       Check and update your privacy settings.

It is very important to control what information others see of and from you.  This can cost your reputation, cost you a job e.t.c

2.      Tweet shorter.

Shorter tweets are often the most shared, so it is a good to force yourself to tweet shorter.

3.      Completely fill out profiles on all your accounts in meaningful ways

E.g Twitter profile: The initial words are the most important so start your profile with the most important key words, never with “Hi, my name is.”

4.      Keep Active Followers and Fans.

In so doing eliminate/unfollow/ from your lists users that are not active for over a long period e.g a year

5.      Be polite and kind.

Remember whenever you tweet or post a Facebook update, there is a human being out there that is reading it…be polite and kind.

6.      Keep a balanced “rule of thirds.”

·         one third of the time, share and promote your news;

·         one third of the time, share news related to your area of expertise or interests, but that originates from someone or somewhere else;

·          and the last third of the time, be social — ask and answer questions, reshare interesting things posted by others, comment and interact.

Read Details of the 12 social media 2013 resolutions here

First  has been telecoms offering 3.75G, wireless routers, and wow LTE technology is setting ground as recently stated by MTN Uganda and other ISPs for which 4G is the near future.  The implication of this is that we shall soon start seeing more wi-fi connected homes for the upper middle class of Africa.

On the other side of the technology spectrum, we have seen Samsung “step Into the future of TV” promotions where Samsung is offering smart TV and soon as tech evolves, YouTube will be permanent citizen on TV.  TV makers are eager to help YouTube with a number of sets launching at  Computer Electronics Show  CES 2013  Las Vega  including sets from Bang & Olufsen, LG, Panasonic and Sony offering YouTube video service’s recently launched “send to TV” feature (Mashable).

Putting it in Uganda context, Uganda may be a few years away from seeing YouTube on TV on large scale but not so far away. As long as our data speeds and the reliability of telecom services keeps  getting  better, we shall expect more affordable data  rates and the rest of the players such as the device (TV) manufacturers, application developers will play their role  and boom: YouTube will be on Your TV.

Still there will be challenges of video quality which challenge will hopefully be averted with more intelligent applications that could switch to available HD if devices such as TV are connected to your YouTube experience. 

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Kampala

In the spirit of innovation and community enrichment everywhere you go, MTN has partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Grameen Foundation to scale mobile based financial services to the entire Ugandan rural community as one of the top Mobile Money adopters around the world.

With the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation providing a shared budget support, and Grameen sharing its experience working with the rural population, MTN was to both adopt new Mobile Money based products targeted specifically towards the segment of the Ugandan population that earns under $2.5 per day, as well as scaling up Mobile Money usage and infrastructure support in terms of a robust Agent network with access to training across the entire rural countryside.

“This is a welcome partnership that will go a long way in ensuring that the unbanked people in the rural areas have access to financial services, particularly MTN Mobile Money,” said Charlotte Kaheru, MTN Uganda’s Head of Mobile Money.

The project which is to last for 3 years from November 2011 was subdivided into two phases. The Incubator Phase of the project supported new Mobile Money product development for communities in the rural areas while the Accelerator Phase will be focused on scaling Mobile Money services and campaigns across the rural areas with the aim of capturing an additional 3 million new and active users.

Shaibu Haruna, the MTN Uganda General Manager- Sales and Distribution commented, “MTN Uganda has currently more than 3.5 Million Customers registered for the Mobile Money service. Our Mobile Money Customer base has increased by more than 40% during the last 12 months”.

Currently the MTN Mobile Money service provides access to perform the most popular financial transactions that the ordinary Ugandan requires. This includes purchase of airtime, school fees payment, TV subscriptions, purchase of goods and services, payment of water and electricity bills, payment of salaries and secure money transfer from one account to another, just to mention a few. Through our partnership with Western Union, MTN subscribers registered for Mobile Money can send and receive Western Union Money Transfer transactions in their mobile accounts from 450,000 locations in 20 countries around the world- this is another first from MTN Uganda.

MTN Uganda is now working on how to integrate more financial services services onto our platform and in a few months we hope to announce new, revolutionary financial services on our MTN Mobile Money platform.