A blog is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries (“post”) typically displayed in reverse chronology order (the most recent post appears first).
Until 2009, blogs were usually the work of single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject.
More recently, “muti-author blog,” (MAB) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited.
This has developed a new model of marketing, information dissemination, communication, and proliferation of businesses.
In Nigeria, the case is not different as a lot of people have ventured into this arena for the aforementioned reasons and more.
It is on this background that Fidelity Bank Plc rolled out the Nigerian Bloggers fair, in Lagos in collaboration with Nokia Nigeria to help improve profit and promote best practises in blogging amongst individuals, and new media writers. This year’s theme was “Blogging Profitably.”
The workshop was a two-day event. It featured famous bloggers who gathered to brainstorm on ways of advancing blogging and finding solutions to uprising issues. Some of those present include, Uche Eze of bellanaija.com; political blogger, Japheth Omojuwa of omojuwa.com; Opeyemi Awoyemi, co-founder of online job portal, jobberman.com; and Nokia Community Manager, Mayor Esiaba.
Head of Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) unit, Fidelity Bank, Uche Ogbonna, who spoke at the event said: “Aside financial capital, which is what the bank primarily deals in, we realised there’s something called social capital, which you bloggers have control of.”
According to him, the bank first decided to invest in the project when about five years ago they began the Fidelity Creative Writers Workshop. “It was at this workshop that Chimamanda Adichie was first announced to the world. The same thing is what we intend to achieve with this maiden edition of the Nigerian Bloggers Fair.”
In his comments, the Managing Director, who was represented by the Executive Director, Shared Services, Mrs. Chijioke Ugochukwu, acknowledged that the world has gone digital.
“You are here today because Fidelity Bank recognises that you are active players in the new world order; you are the new breed of journalists who largely determine and define trends for people to follow.
“So as bloggers, you must understand that you have the influence to shape the world positively. It is our hope that these two days you have spent at the workshop has proved useful to you,” she said.