The T-Rox and Ace Diamond Experience!

Meet Agnes Hamusonde and Isaac Tapi (above), better known to listeners of Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station as ‘Ace Diamond’ and ‘T-Rox’ respectively. Both are part time presenters at the station and we were delighted to welcome them as guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz, our own weekly show airing every Sunday night on the same station.

“Where does the name Ace Diamond come from?” Milli Jam asked Agnes. “Well” she replied, “a diamond is a rare jewel and so am I!” We nodded. “And it happens that my christian names are Agnes Cholwe Emelda – Ace, get it? We did! “And T-Rox?” “Well” said Isaac, “the T is for Tapi and the Rox was a suggestion from Elias, my mentor at Zambezi fm”. “Good names”, we said.

Ace and T Rox explained that they have a show together on the station – Flight 205 every Sunday night/Monday morning which goes from midnight to 05.00 hrs. They are both night owls and have no problem working the ‘graveyard shift’. On their show the previous week they had been priming their audience for Valentine’s Day and were going to continue to do so on their show immediately following ours, seeing there was only six days to go until the great day. Ace was going to get her date for the evening from the listeners! T-Rox told listeners that he also has a show on Zambezi fm on Saturday nights.

The music on our show was right up to standard. We opened with tracks from Ellie Goulding, as well as Mike Mugo featuring Dragonette. The guys dropped work from Young L, Eddie Black, Taylor Swift and Jay Rox. Our oldie of the week was ‘Dakota’ from The Stereophonics, but the prize we give to the first person to text us the name of the artist on the track went unwon. OK it was a tough one. My pick of the week was Imagine Dragons’ ‘Shots’ and we closed with ‘Paradise’ from Usher Raymond.

Both Ace and T-Rox were brought up in Livingstone. Ace attended Linda High School while T-Rox was educated at St. Raphael’s. Both the guys are single. Music wise Ace favours akapela, as well as hip hop and R&B. Her favourite Zambian artist is Eddie Black. Internationally she likes Adele and Beyonce. T-Rox likes R&B, hip hop and country music. His favourite artist is Chris Brown, locally he favours Jay Rox. T-Rox supports Arsenal and his favourite player is Theo Walcott. Ace likes Chelsea and Fernando Torres. “He’s left Chelsea” we said. “I don’t mind!” Replied Ace. An admirer, we gathered.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years’ from now, T-Rox said he would like to be making money and still to be single. Ace Diamond wanted to be living her life to the full, an iron lady and a qualified physiotherapist. We wished them all the best.

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The JLove Experience!

Meet Joseph ‘JLove’ Kaleb, guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz. The Experience is the weekly radio show we sponsor every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s favourite local radio station. Joseph told Milli Jam ‘not to ask about his surname’ and that he was Nsenga by tribe from the Eastern Province of Zambia. “What about the Jlove?” I wondered. “Oh man!” He replied, “that’s my stage name!” He explained that he’s a singer and music producer, having already recorded and released an album entitled ‘The Mixed Emotions Of Mr J Love’. “Why that title?” Jay Hillz asked and JLove explained that he had lost his mum when he was quite young and the album reflected that sadness as well as the joy of living. His new album, due for release soon, would be called ‘Unleashing Point’. We got the message!

JLove told listeners that he’d lived a large part of his life in South Africa where his late dad had been a missionary. He said that he came from a very large family and that he had nine siblings of whom he was aware – he’s the ninth out of ten – he talked of three mums as well. Milli Jam (father of five) murmured “what is it about Africa Richard”? “Don’t bring me into this!” I replied. JLove said he had been at high school in Kimberley in RSA and had gone on to study IT in which he has a diploma and is a specialist. His production company in Johannesburg is called Sparrow Productions which he co-owns with brother Destiny and which was ‘inherited’ from a Will. K. Banda. JLove is the father of one little boy Jerome, aged 6 months. “What about marriage?” Wondered Milli Jam. “Don’t rush me man!” The reply.

The music on the show was good as usual featuring tracks from Labrinth, James Bay, Madonna, Take That and Ne-Yo, as well as African tracks from Manas ft More Money, T-Pain, Tio and Alice Chuma. Our oldie of the week was the Alice Chuma track and we gave away dinner for two to a lucky winner who texted us the answer to our simple question in good time.

JLove told us that he loves R&B and that his favourite Zambian artist is Maureen Lilanda. Internationally he favours Bow Wow and Buster Rhymes with whom he once shared the stage for a show in South Africa – “a really cool memory”, he said. He supports Bayern Munich in the German league but has no particular preference in English football clubs. He has played shows in many neighbouring African countries. He has accounts on both Facebook and Twitter – on Twitter he is @MRJLOVER. He writes his own music which is clearly what he loves to do, probably even more than producing or singing. His musical life started from church as a child.

Asked when he would be returning to South Africa JLove replied some time in the new year, and asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years’ from now he said he would like to be a singing music mogul in Zambia. We had no doubt that this self assured, confident young musician/producer would fulfill his ambitions!

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The Experience On Call!

Meet Lonny Henderson (left) and Simon Tolmie (above), co-ordinator and trustee respectively of On Call Africa, an NGO founded in Scotland and very active in the Southern Province of Zambia in the field of the provision of mobile medical clinics to the villages in the province. Lonny, an American from Connecticut USA and Simon a Scot from Glasgow were Guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela – that’s our weekly radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show airs every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs CAT and features latest Zambian and international music, combined with lively chat with our guests of the week. Chanters Lodge and On Call Africa met on Twitter! Is there any better place to meet?

Lonny told listeners that he and partner Ellen (an education co-ordinator with On Call) had been in Zambia since May this year and were thoroughly enjoying their time in the country and the work they were doing. Simon is a full time doctor in one of Glasgow’s largest hospitals and was using his two weeks’ leave to assess progress on the project. He revealed that he’s largely responsible for generating finance for the NGO through donations, and was happy that recently Rotary International and On Call Africa had forged links that should see the organization move forward and expand. Lonny had been recruited through an on line advert and subsequent interviews via Skype. How times do change!

The music on the show was great and featured tracks from Bastille and Killers at the top of the show. Local tracks from Slap D featuring JK as well as Danny rocked the studio! Milli Jam chose Robin Thicke’s summer smash ‘Blurred Lines’ back to back with a number from John Legend. Our oldie of the week was a local track ‘Coca Cola’ by Oga Family and there was a host of text messages correctly telling us the name of the performing artist, so the prize of a dinner for two at the lodge that we give away for the first right answer, was quickly won!

Simon told listeners that he and his fiancee were planning to get married in June or July so 2014 would be a big year for them. He professed no real interest in football but told us that he followed rugby and cricket. Music wise he said his tastes were very broad. Lonny said the same thing, but in a surprise turn of events he revealed that he was a dedicated Arsenal supporter – ‘unusual for an American but very welcome’ thought Milli Jam! So, we discussed Arsenal’s current place at the top of the EPL while George, a Liverpool supporter, listened! The guys said they had enjoyed a night or two at some of Livingstones’ clubs since they had been in town and enjoyed Zambian music and night life.

As far as challenges were concerned they said that the biggest challenge for On Call Africa was distance. Both the distance that people had to walk to the villages to get basic medical assistance and the distance that the NGO’s not new Land Rover had to travel to meet the needs of the people. The NGO is very much involved in training clinical officers to help meet the rural peoples’ medical needs.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years’ from now, both Lonny and Simon said that they would like to be part of a a very successful expanded On Call Africa. We thanked them for appearing on our show and for the great work they were doing for the rural population of Southern Zambia.

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Chanters Lodge and Social Media

Inspiration
Yesterday I received this query on the Chanters Lodge Facebook page “Quick question: Is it possible to book two single rooms online and then pay on arrival at Chanters?” There followed an exchange of messages on Facebook which culminated in the following remark from the Guest: “Just booked a night’s stay in Livingstone through Chanters Lodge, Livingstone. Very prompt & efficient communication. A Zambian business using social media well. Kudos.” To which I replied: “We give discounts for bookings through Facebook and for Zambians and Zambian residents. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s good value for money – Chanters Lodge, Livingstone.” We do not have an online booking system at the lodge, but pride ourselves on replying to booking enquiries within 24 hours – and usually much quicker than that, we have two internet service providers ensuring that we are very seldom totally offline – African internet is not great!

Here’s a general resume of our social media activity and the role it plays in our business:

Facebook
We have 734 likes on our Chanters Lodge Facebook page – I haven’t ‘gone chasing’ for a while but I will! I have 1885 ‘friends’ on my own Facebook page – we post pretty much daily on both pages – the whole idea is to market the lodge, but subtly without direct ads like ‘come and stay at Chanters Lodge’. We prefer to post pictures of Victoria Falls, talk about activities in which our Guests are involved, and post updates on our local radio show. As mentioned, we love to get reservations through Facebook and give discounts! One of the reasons we are so active on Facebook is that it is a very popular medium in Zambia and we would love to have more Zambian business.

Twitter
We have had a Twitter account (@livilodge) for a number of years and follow about 8000 accounts. We have a similar number of followers ranging from friends and family and pop music lovers, through Arsenal supporters, Zambian account holders and people involved with hotels and travel. I love Twitter – it’s a major source of immediate news apart from which you can find yourself talking to people all over the world about common interests. We have had plenty of reservation enquiries from Twitter resulting in confirmed bookings and once again we offer discounts for Twitter reservations. Why? Because we hope it will encourage people to book through this medium. It’s short, quick and immediate and it is, for a small lodge, another means of marketing. Most of our Twitter bookings have come from people in the travel trade or Zambians and we offer discounts to both groups anyway

Pinterest
Pinterest is relatively new but we have had a page (Richard Chanters) for about a year following a recommendation from a Guest. We have boards for the lodge, Victoria Falls, Zambia, family and the Zambezi as well as Africa and Random pictures. I have found it very useful when Guests ask for pictures of the lodge to be able to refer them to Pinterest – meaning the pictures of the lodge which appear on our website are supplemented on Pinterest. For example we recently pinned pictures of the bedroom renovations in progress at the lodge – photos we would not normally post on our web site as it is a work in progress. There are also photos of staff on that board. On Pinterest we have 198 followers and are following about 250 sites. I often upload photos from Pinterest to post on Facebook if the photos are beautiful or more often funny!

Blog
We have been blogging since 2006 – at one time we posted every day but these days usually two or three times a week depending on available material and time to write. These days our weekly radio show forms the centre piece of the blog. We write up the show with a photo of the Guests, reporting the subjects discussed on the programme and the music played – it makes a nice record for the Guests of their appearance on the show as well as keeping blog readers informed. The blog covers a multitude of other issues often involved with the hotel and travel business as well as some funnies. One of the presenters of our radio show, Kaufela, also provides material for the blog writing about Zambian musicians and the local music scene. Thanks to Edward Chanter our blog uploads straight on to our main website.

TripAdvisor
We estimate that some 80% of our accommodation enquiries are a result of potential Guests reading some of our more than 250 Trip Advisor reviews, mostly, but not all good. Once again the advice to ‘get on Trip Advisor’ came from a Guest. We are proud of the certificates of excellence awarded from that site in recent years. We respond to each and every review written in English and encourage Guests to write reviews on departure. Once again thanks to Edward, reviews upload unedited straight on to our lodge website.

Other
We post on to LinkedIn and Google+

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SEO

Great piece this from Mr. Larry Mogelonsky – CHA on Hotel Interactive on the importance of SEO. Though some dispute the importance, it is worth taking note!
  
“It never ceases to amaze me as to how many unsolicited emails my clients get from companies promising to do wonders for a hotel’s web site in terms of search engine optimization. Usually, these missives are well written in an onerous tone that has GM’s questioning their web site, their web agency, their director of marketing and usually all of the above. What’s a GM to do? Just how important is SEO, and can a “specialist” company really help? Above all, is there any value to the whole exercise in terms of true revenue generation?

First, some notes. This article focuses on Google, which at this current time processes roughly two-thirds of all search activity. For those who purchase Google Ad Words, these appear as sponsored links on the right hand side or top of the page and are not influenced by SEO tactics. Positioning your product in this arena, combined with SEO is called Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, and is a whole other discussion.

Why is SEO important?

If a person is looking for a hotel in a foreign city, doing a Google search is the easiest way to find accommodations. Surely every GM knows that this is not the only approach that a potential guest would undertake in their quest to find the perfect spot to rest their weary legs. But it’s typically the first. Other resources include travel agents, OTAs, Facebook, other social media, other travel sites, hotel chain sites and association sites such as Preferred, SLH, or Leading.

With so many methods to find your hotel, being in first place for a broad Google search is far from being the panacea to your occupancy challenges. In fact, it may be almost insignificant depending upon how relevant new customer search is to your marketing strategy. Certainly, it cannot hurt to be in the top two or three as a matter of search results, but it is not Armageddon if you miss this spot.

The rationale here is simple: the more “optimized” your site is, the more relevant it is within the Google search algorithm, resulting in a higher placement for all posted results. But Google rankings cannot be fooled! Don’t think that hiring some third party sales company can take you from an eighth ranked page to a top three position in a matter of days or weeks. It doesn’t work that way. Moreover, Google is wary of some tactics that these proverbial snake oil salesmen utilize and likely has algorithms that negate such surreptitious tactics.

Take the Initiative Yourself
A basic optimization strategy is quite easy to do internally. Review your web site as you do your property, both strategically and tactically. Here is a typical checklist of what you should look for before seeking external help.

    A flawless site, with clear text and no internal errors
    Correct and accurate tags (title, keyword, page and headers)
    Optimized images with photo alt tags
    Fully linked and active blog
    Fully linked and active social media (primarily Facebook and Twitter, but don’t forget Google Plus and Pinterest)
    Your URL registered for at least 24 months before it expires
    Active RSS feed
    At least one data collection form
    Clear navigation structure of indexed pages with sitemap files
    A number of quality in-bound links

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Adrian Mvula – Technical Manager Zambezi 107.7 fm

“What’s the biggest challenge you face in your job” Milli Jam asked Adrian Mvula (above), when he appeared as a Guest on the latest edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, last Sunday night. Adrian is technical manager at Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station which hosts our sponsored weekly Sunday night show. “Power cuts from Zesco” Adrian replied, with no hesitation. “That makes two of us” I commented. “What inspired you to train in technical management?” Milli Jam continued. “I’ve always been passionate about repairing things” said Adrian “bringing things back to life, so it was a natural career for me.”
Adrian told listeners that he’d been employed by Zambezi 107.7 fm for the past five years. He joined the station almost ‘by accident’ – he’d been stranded in Livingstone on the way to Namibia. The person with whom he’d been able to stay had a technical problem at 107.7 fm and asked if Adrian could help. He solved the issue for them and the then station manager – Chanda Mfula – told Adrian he was just the person they were looking for, so Adrian applied and was employed! He had two and a half years previous experience with Choice FM, one of Lusaka’s leading radio stations. Adrian explained that he’d completed his Grade 12 at Chongwe High School near Lusaka and thereafter had undertaken a one year six month course in telecommunication electronics at the Greenwood Institute, also in Lusaka.
The music on the show was good as usual. As well as music and chat, we also brief listeners on the latest news from the US and UK charts, as well as all the news from social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, the Chanters Lodge blog and Klout scores. George was happy that his Klout score had reached 61 that week – he has a lot of friends on Facebook – and I mean a lot! One of the highlights of the music on the show was Sade’s ‘Bullet Proof Love’ which was our ‘oldie of the week’. We give a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing the oldie and although there was a delay while they thought, the prize was won. Other tracks were from Far East Movement featuring Justin Bieber, Rita Ora and Damien Junior Gong Marley. George’s local selection featured the latest from Petersen ‘Osanisiya’ (‘don’t leave me’ – apparently penned for his Swedish model girlfriend).

Adrian told listeners that he was married with a young daughter. He supports Chelsea and his favourite player is – predictably – Didier Drogba. Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Mr Mvula said he would like to be the director of a technical company, and gave the example of Swithin Haangala who had started as a broadcaster with ZNBC but now owned his own big company – which includes 107.7 fm. We wished him the best of luck with his ambition.

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Managing Through Social Media

I enjoyed this one from Mr. Larry Mogelonsky – CHA, on HotelInteractive for you hoteliers out there!

“Here’s a marketing creed that was scribed into textbooks well over 30 years ago, back when I was an MBA student: People connect with other people, and not necessarily with businesses.  For a long time, this wasn’t exactly feasible.  Even in the hospitality world where personality is king, managers meeting customers on a one-to-one basis wasn’t always in the cards.

Nowadays though, sites like Twitter and LinkedIn are paving the way for a resurgence of quality communication from management directly down to the consumer.  But look closely at this practice: nothing has really changed.  Even with the leaps and bounds of electronic messaging systems, people still crave that personal touch.

Hence the title.  Whenever, or wherever, you can get your guests to ‘meet the managers,’ you’re not only giving your hotel a real face, but drastically enhancing client retention.  With this in mind, social media presents both a challenge and opportunity to accomplish this task.

The challenge is that managers have to commit themselves to a role in the public eye, albeit even when reluctant.  People are the new brand; no longer just the hotel logo and top brass.  What managers say on their personal online accounts is now intrinsically linked to their respective properties, whether for good or for bad.  Luckily, many have already found the opportunity within this trend, harnessing these new channels to build stronger personal connections and grow their businesses.

Obvious from the introduction, embracing social media is imperative for this process, but a first step should always involve a trip to HR to see whose job descriptions might curtail social media responsibilities.  From there the answer is in the specifics, so let’s go through a few choice techniques I’ve seen work in recent years.

When it comes to LinkedIn, every manager should have an account and join your company group.  Although the site is chiefly for professional networking, it will open your staff to a worldwide forum for business ideas, emerging trends and potential partnerships.

Twitter offers a host of options for building these bridges.  For your generic company account, only one or two people should be tasked with posting material, giving them space to add some zest and initialize direct messages.  Next, talk to your managers about their own profiles and how they would use the site to converse with guests.  The idea here is to form person-to-person connections; something much harder to accomplish when a guest converses with a faceless corporate account.

The prospects are good for Facebook, too.  You can easily design a tab to introduce each manager (with a picture) or even build a custom fan page for each department and link them all to the main page.  Managers should also be active participants on the wall, commenting on what fans are saying as well as providing original insights.

Blogging is the fourth big one here.  Most blog content management systems allow you to designate regular columns authored by specific staff members.  You’d be surprised how far the phrase ‘By XX Manager’ goes when at the end of an entry.  Or, you could even run a ‘Manager of the Month’ editorial to highlight your team’s characters and fun stories.

The online possibilities are aplenty; even including video which I did not previously discuss.  But to me, however, they are just a launch pad.  You still have to find ways to squeeze in some face-to-face time for maximal efficacy.

To start, personalized greeting letters should be in every room; the power of a handwritten note working its charm.  Seeing managers in the lobby welcoming guests is another powerful statement, especially when it comes to a VIP arrival or a group coordinator.  A sharp uniform can exacerbate their presence, too.  Beyond that, you have to get creative.

Look to what your hotel offers and to where staff might interact with customers.  If you run a golf resort, how about a tournament where guests are paired with managers?  Perhaps a manager could greet and eat with patrons at the lobby bar.  How about a follow-up phone call after a guest has left?  Not only are these personal, but they’re great avenues for constructive feedback.

So, what I suggest is you sit down with your fellow managers and discuss your strategy for heightening interactions with guests; both online and face-to-face in a winning combination.  Have a plan and stick to it.  Sure, it’s a lot of effort, but the rewards are definitely worth it.”

Good advice in my opinion!

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The Kandilicius Experience

Meet Kandilicius (above) and that’s just her Twitter name! Try Kandy Israelyt as she’s known on Facebook or just plain Kandi M’hango her real name. Kandi was the Guest on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Kaufela da Soulchild! That’s our regular Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, airing between 20.30 and 21.30 hours and streaming live on the internet. A popular show it is too, partly because we give away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge with drinks every week – a prize for the first listener to text us telling us the name of the artist singing our ‘oldie of the week’ – this week the answer was Lionel Richie and the response was great!


Kandi has been a part time presenter on 107.7 fm since March this year, at the moment co-presenting Drive Time, a daily Monday to Friday show. She has a great voice for radio and loves being involved. She has two sons Cholwe and Israelyt (hence her Facebook name) she told us. Milli Jam wanted to know how she’d become involved with the radio station in the first place and Kandi explained that she’d responded to an advert on air early in 2011, advising that the station was looking for new lady presenters – she’d applied and was hired!
 
  
Wearing another hat, Kandi explained to our audience that she was deeply involved with the Empowered By Light Foundation, an NGO, in Zambia to donate solar lighting within Shangombo District in Western Province. So far the organization had donated 5000 units of solar light, as well as laptops, throughout schools, clinics and homes in the district. The NGO had apparently chosen Shangombo having seen from the statistics that only 5% of schoolchildren there passed exams at Grade 9 level. They’d surmised that this was because students were unable to study at night due to no light so they set out to fix the problem. “Awesome” we said, and meant it!
 
 
The music on the show was great. We opened with Olly Murs and his smash UK hit ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ back to back with Kelly Rowland featuring The Waves and ‘Down For Whatever’. George chose Oga Family with ‘Ball Pen’ – a long and (in some peoples’ opinion boring) track! This was coupled with K’Millian’s ‘Kakabalika’ – anything but boring. Milli Jam chose ‘Perfect Party’ from Naughty By Nature ft Fat Joe back to back with Keith Sweat’s ‘To The Middle’. Our oldie of the week was Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’. To close we played Taio Cruz’s ‘Shotcaller’ and Sean Kingston’s ‘Love Me’.
 
 
Kandi told listeners that in the past she’d been involved with Kara Counselling counselling AIDS orphans and for a brief time had also been involved with lodge management in Livingstone. She told interested listeners that she supports Manchester United and likes Wayne Rooney (just imagine!) She’s into R&B and in particular Chris Brown and is very proud of her Zambian roots in Lundazi in the Eastern Province of Zambia and of being Tumbuka by tribe. 10 years down the road she’d like to still be broadcasting and very much involved with bringing renewable energy to rural Zambia.
 
 
She told listeners she loves Zambia and we told her our listeners love her – which they do!








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Imagine Rural Development Initiative

I found this wonderful project through Steven Putter @stevenputter on Twitter.

 
 
Imagine Rural Development Initiative (IRDI), a Zambian registered non-profit organisation, is providing skills-training in moringa cultivation to 30 previously unemployed local Zambian women. This skills-training program forms part of IRDI’s Moringa project, which aims to empower local Zambians through the sustainable production of moringa, an affordable and highly-nourishing superfood, to fight malnutrition, improve health and eradicate poverty. Imagine Rural Development Initiative is providing this skills-training program free of charge to these local women, many of whom are widows and are sole breadwinners in their families and who take care of not only their own children, but also grand-children and orphans who have lost their own parents due to HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.

The 6-month training program covers moringa propagation, planting, crop management, harvesting and processing techniques. It also includes training on making aerobic compost and using moringa-based organic fertilizer to alleviate the need for petroleum-based fertilizers and harmful pesticides.

After successful completion of the training program, these local women will be contracted by IRDI to propagate and plant moringa in rural and peri-urban communities across Zambia. The women will also train local community members in moringa cultivation, creating further empowerment through skills transfer. The women will also have the opportunity to provide their services to other local agricultural co-operatives and independent local farmers.

IRDI aims to create sustainable income-generating opportunities for program beneficiaries, and this skills-training program will empower these local women to provide a secure future for themselves and their families. By completing this program, the women will be able to support themselves financially within the next 6 months. Although our local women’s group want to improve their livelihoods by learning new skills, the reality is that they still need to put food on their tables, provide shelter for their families, pay for transport and send their children to school.

100% of donations to this appeal will go directly to these women to assist with living costs for themselves and their dependents, including food, transport and school fees. A donation of $25.00 will cover a week’s living expenses for one woman engaged full-time on our skills-training program. Our goal is to help raise $3000.00 a month for 6 months to provide financial support for the 30 women in the group for the full duration of their training.

While IRDI provides skills-training to empower these women, you can give them the peace of mind of having their basic living costs covered while they are in training. We will provide regular updates, feedback and photo’s on IndieGoGo, from the women who receive your donations.

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Hotels Online

I liked this by Melanie Nayer on 4Hoteliers not surprising, I suppose, considering the amount of time I spend on line! Here’s the piece:

“As more consumers move online, it’s becoming more important for business to maintain trust and respect on social channels. Without face-to-face conversation, your consumer needs to rely strictly on your word. Bottom line: if they don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. So, how can you ensure you’re building trust through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare?

I consulted a few hoteliers to get their thoughts:

“We view social media as a powerful channel to build consumer trust and deliver on our brand promise, which is to surprise and delight our guests by providing service that is gracious and sincere,” said Mac Joseph, Social Media Marketing Manager for Mandarin Oriental Hotels, which currently has 8100 followers on their main Twitter page @MO_HOTELS. “We focus on building genuine relationships with consumers on Facebook and Twitter by engaging in two-way dialogue. Through listening first to our audiences, we are able to add value to their experiences with our brand online.”

Joseph told me that Mandarin Oriental recently came across a tweet from a guest at Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona, wanting a guestroom with a bathtub. Joseph said his team connected with the hotel, who were able to move the guest to the desired room type that same day. “Through this open dialogue, the guest and our audiences witnessed first-hand that we are not simply pushing content through our social media channels but also listening, in the hopes of making a difference in the guest experience,” he said.

InterContinental Hotels
, which also has various twitter accounts for individual hotels but one main channel, @InterConHotels, with over 7,200 followers, recently made headlines with their new mobile platform and iPad accessibility in worldwide hotels. The hotel group also uses social platforms to introduce guests to local information before they check in, giving them a sense of environment before they arrive at their destination. “Even though we are interacting with our guests and our friends as a brand, we try to be as human in our interaction as we can,” said Charles Yap, Director, Global Brand Communications for InterContinental Hotels. “This means being conversational with our approach, highlighting some of the fun discoveries our guests have made in their travels, providing local assistance through our InterContinental Concierge teams to those who need it, and taking every opportunity to help should things go wrong.”

As a consumer and industry expert, I’ve found a few things to be beneficial when working with hotels online:

    Constant tweeting and Facebook messages are great ways to promote the hotel and converse with guests, but it’s also a great idea to post testimonials from your clients. These reviews are coming from the guest themselves, and other potential guests will rely on the feedback of their peers before making a purchasing decision, especially when it comes to travel.

    Keeping it personal adds a level of emotion to your conversation. By putting a name with a Twitter account or Facebook post, you’re introducing your guests to other hotel employees, allowing guests to learn a little more about the hotel and destination on a local level.”

The picture? The stunningly beautiful Lake Malawi, I worked there some time back!

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