My First Year Working At ConnectNigeria.com!

Today marks exactly one year since I officially resumed work at ConnectNigeria.com, a new information search portal for Nigeria.

The Portal

ConnectNigeria.com is an information search portal that aims to help you find everything you need.

Built with the latest technologies, the portal has a unique interface design and search functionality that makes information easy to find, easy to use.

The Role

My role has been to develop and implement a content strategy that would support the portal’s mission to organize all of Nigeria’s information, in one place.

Though initially percieved as a herculean task, the mission matches one of my career goals: to make local content available online.

Working closely with the web development team, my role has become very relevant to the web portal’s success.

The Responsibilities

As Head, Content Development for ConnectNigeria.com, my responsibilities revolve around three major areas, namely:

1. Content
2. Communication
3. Community

Content

I’ve been busy with researching and identifying high value and quality content from both local and international sources.

As a result, we now have content partnerships from top websites, newspapers and magazines across several sectors including business, careers, entertainment, real estate, autos, health and technology.

Since we’re also building the largest database of business (including company profiles and reviews) and entertainment information (including celebrity profiles, discography and filmography), I’ve been responsible for ensuring accuracy with information on the portal.

To date, there are over 13,000 businesses listed and over 2000 celebrity profiles can be found on the portal.

Communication

Last month, we started what has eventually become a series of interviews with celebrities, personalities, and people who have influenced and inspired others in their career and personal lives.

As host for the interviews, I’ve sat down with the likes of Alexander Amosu, Gordons, Damilola Oluwatoyinbo, Kiki Kamanu, Obi Asika just to mention a few.

Community

My experience with social media platforms have also been relevant and useful.

As a result, the portal has witnessed a traffic surge via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr.

Again, we’ve grown our Facebook fanbase from about 750 members in March 2010 to over 2500 members as at September 2010.

Also, our Twitter followers grew from just 15 followers in March 2010 to about 150 followers as at September 2010.

The Future

Looking back at the past year working with the highly talented team at ConnectNigeria.com has been quite interesting and inspiring.

The way things are going, I’d likely be working for another year or so (as the case maybe), looking towards helping to raise external funding for the web portal within the coming months.