U.S., Canada negotiates as trade talks passes deadline

                       
The top U.S. and Canadian trade negotiators said on Wednesday they would continue talks toward a new trade agreement on softwood lumber, despite the expiration of a "standstill" period prohibiting legal challenges over the long-standing dispute. 
In a joint statement, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Canadian Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland said they were working on "a new agreement that is designed to maintain Canadian exports at or below an agreed upon U.S. market share to be negotiated, with the stability, consistency and flexibility necessary to achieve the confidence of both industries." (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Goldberg To Heyman:See you next week edition on Raw

                                              
As previously reported, Paul Heyman appeared on Monday night's edition of WWE Raw to address comments made by Goldberg on a recent edition of ESPN SportsCenter, as well as to state that Brock Lesnar was challenging Goldberg to a one-on-one fight that could take place anywhere, anytime.
Goldberg has now responded to Heyman's segment via his official Twitter page, announcing that he will be on next week's edition of Raw to answer the challenge that was laid out:

  Bill Goldbeg
              @Goldberg
Booking my flight to answer that big mouth @HeymanHustle 's challenge next week in person on MondayNightRaw  WhosNext? seeyathere @WWE

Election cyber threats: More American states request DHS assistance

                                     
 More states and local election boards have asked the Department of Homeland Security to help with cybersecurity, the department announced .

The total, which has been steadily rising in recent weeks, has reached 33 state and 11 county or local election agencies, DHS said.

More than two dozen states were known to have requested help before the updated tally.

DHS has been urging states to take advantage of its resources, which include scanning systems for vulnerabilities and recommendations for improving cybersecurity on election and voter registration systems. 

 The update from Secretary Jeh Johnson warned those on the fence to make a decision. 

 

"Time is a factor. There are only 29 days until election day, and it can take up to two weeks from the time we receive authorization to run the scans and identify vulnerabilities," Johnson said. "It can then take at least an additional week for state and local election officials to mitigate any vulnerabilities on systems that we may find."

 While it would be extremely difficult for any hackers to affect the outcome of the presidential election by attacking voting machines, experts say voter registration databases could be more vulnerable to tampering.

FG to raise N1trillion for housing scheme - Osinbajo

                                    

Vice-President Yemi Osinbanjo has said that the  Federal Government is working with stakeholders to raise one trillion naira to  provide affordable housing for Nigerians.

The vice-president spoke at the 22nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Tuesday where he chaired a Roundtable on Job Creation, Skills and Employment at the summit.

He said that the proposed project would also help to create jobs.

Osinbajo said that the job creation unit in his office had worked out a framework with the  Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) to focus on three sectors to create employment.

He listed the three sectors as construction, agriculture and information communication technology (ICT).

Under construction, the vice-president said the Federal Government was trying to work on a social housing programme, called the Family Home Fund.

“The Family Home Fund is a financial intervention into social housing in the country.

“We are trying to raise a fund which will come to about one trillion naira; we have aggregated fund from the private sector, local and international funds already.

“The whole idea is to be able to intervene in mortgage financing so that developers can build special houses to the specification of the Federal Government.

“Already eight or nine states are giving land and certificate of occupancy for social housing scheme.

“The idea is that any Nigerian who can afford N30,000 should be able to own a house,’’ he said.

Osinbajo said that there would emerge  job creation opportunities as technicians, engineers and skill workers would benefit from the scheme.

He said there would also be training opportunity from the scheme.

The theme of the summit is “Made-in-Nigeria’’.

The problem of housing in Nigeria has been of interest to every administration and official estimates suggest that more than 17 million houses are needed to cover the country’s 180 million citizens.

Each administration has introduced a different scheme but the impact is not felt by the people.

 

Source: Sun News

BREAKING NEWS:Buhari Appoints Notherners as New Supreme Court Justices

                                   
President Muhammadu Buhari has requested the Senate to consider and confirm the nominations of two judges as Justices of the Supreme Court. The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, read the letter conveying the request after the Senate returned from a closed-door session on Tuesday. The nominated judges are Sidi Bage, Nasarawa State, North Central; and Paul Jauro, Taraba State, North East. In the letter read by Mr. Saraki, Mr. Buhari said his request followed Section 231(2) of the Constitution of Nigeria, as amended.
The President sought the expeditious attention of the Senate, Mr. Saraki read.
Mr. Jauro, who was born on June 26, 1954, became a judge of the High Court in 1998. Ten years afterwards, he was appointed Justice of the Court Appeal.
Mr. Bage, born on June 22, 1956, became Federal High Court Judge in 1992 before his appointment as Justice of the Court of Appeal in 2000.
The two Judges had been recommended for appointment as Justices of the Supreme Court by the National Judicial Council.
Their nominations came amid a clampdown on allegedly corrupt judges in the High, Appeal, and the Supreme Courts, by the State Security Service.
Of the 15 said to be under investigation, seven were arrested weekend.
They were granted bail on Monday on self-recognisance.

Social Stalking Is Not a Sales Strategy

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It happened again. I accepted a LinkedIn invitation from someone I didn’t know, sent a personal response to greet my new connection, and immediately received a cold calling message from someone looking only for lead generation:

“I’d love to talk and hear about you, what’s happening in your business and how you think I can contribute to your success. In fact, after looking at your profile I would like to loop in our VP of marketing, [name], and invite you to our free strategy call for lead generation and list building. He is one of the best in the country when it comes to marketing strategies. We will get to know each other and I promise to share at least four to five new strategies that you could utilize in your business right away to get consistent flow of targeted leads. Here is the calendar link: By the way, what would be a good # to reach you at?”

But that’s not all. Two days later, I got another message from the same person.

“Thanks for accepting my invitation. I’ll be sure to check out your profile in more detail now that we are connected. I’ve found that talking offline is a great way to obtain deeper connections with my network, and deliver even more value. After you check out my video, let me know a good time for a 5-10 minute chat.”

Really? Why would I do anything he asks — attend a strategy call, watch his video, talk to him offline or give him my phone number?
He’s cold calling on social media
Obviously this seller’s response is automated, or at least “canned.” If he’d actually read my profile, he would know that buying lists goes against everything my business stands for, that my lead generation strategy is asking for referrals, and that my phone number is on my LinkedIn profile.
Like so many salespeople, he’s just clicking buttons and banking on “return on clicks.” It’s exactly the same as tele­marketers and their cold calling blitzes. If you make 100 dials, you’ll get 10 people on the phone, schedule a few appointments, and maybe (if you’re lucky) close one deal. Where’s the relationship? Where’s the connection? Where’s the return?
This is not social selling. It’s social stalking.
Stop the madness
Sales reps abuse social media to the extent that I typically delete more LinkedIn invitations than I accept. (No, I’m not a snob; I just don’t have time for cold calling nonsense.) They invite person after person to connect using the same old standard invitation, and then immediately blast sales pitches to anyone who accepts. This bad behavior is not entirely the reps’ fault. Sales leaders understand that relationships drive sales; yet they measure their teams on the number of connections accumulated, dials made and emails sent.
The problem: Just because someone agrees to connect on social media does not make that person a qualified sales lead. Qualified prospects are actually interested in your product or solution. They want and expect to hear from your salespeople. Otherwise, sales reps are simply cold calling on social media, which is both annoying and ineffective.
The best way to get a qualified sales lead is to receive a referral introduction from someone your prospect knows and trusts. When reps have that kind of “in,” they don’t have to mess with cold calling on social media. Yes, sales reps should use social media to research prospects and learn how they’re connected to the prospects they want to meet. But the next step is to pick up the damn phone and ask their connections for referral introductions.
Social selling only works if you’re actually social, not selling something. No pitching. No inviting people to connect with you on LinkedIn and immediately following up with a sales pitch. And no spamming people just because you belong to the same LinkedIn group. You might as well be dressed as a giant pizza slice, screaming your sales offering at random strangers leaving a conference for the lactose intolerant. That’s not selling. That’s obnoxious.  

 Written by Joanne Black
Joanne Black, a leading sales coach and author, is an advocate of referral selling. The author of “No More Cold Calling,” she shares sales and marketing insights at NoMoreColdCalling.com.

From Banners To Sponsored Content: The Changing Face Of Marketing

                                   
If there is any one aspect of doing business which has more impact than any other, it’s the marketing. And if there is any one aspect which is changing more and more as time goes on, that’s marketing too. Why this might be is itself a long and complex issue. In all likelihood, it has a lot to do with the central importance that the marketing strategy plays in any business affairs. And we can’t forget the fact that the consumer is becoming increasingly more vigilant. They are becoming more and more savvy of marketer’s tricks and techniques. It is often in response to this that the most innovative and exciting marketing strategies arise. But how exactly is the face of marketing changing, and what recent changes seem set to stick? To answer that, let’s take a brief look at some of the major innovations of recent years.

The Role Of Content

In many ways, the marketer’s job was significantly easier in the early days of the Internet. They had open to them many channels which the consumer was not yet aware of. There was a brief period when banner advertisements genuinely worked in a powerful way, for example. These days, such methods are automatically taken by many to be trite or overly obvious. In response to the increasing level of understanding, marketers have had to adopt more subtle techniques. Now, to be seen amongst the flurry of advertisements, it is often better to be as unique as possible. The best marketers know that content is the vehicle which drives successful advertising. Produce fascinating and shareable content, and the brand will take care of itself.

The Integration Of Mobile

The statistics are quite clear on the central role that mobile now plays. Over 80% of emails are now read on a mobile device first. Even if, later, they are replied to on a non-mobile platform. What this means for the marketing team of today is that they will benefit from a more integrated approach. Marketing methods must now be equally adept at appearing on mobile as well as non-mobile platforms. Otherwise, they run the risk of being altogether ignored. Expert like Hello World know that this forms a major part of any modern marketing campaign.

The Growth Of Native

As we have already discussed, one of the recent trends in consumer response is that people are becoming particularly savvy. People are gaining an understanding around digital marketing. It is now more obvious than ever to most people what is advertising and what isn’t. This is where native advertising has grown as a response to this issue in marketing. Native advertising is the camouflaging of advertising so that it produces a more positive response. Some of the most powerful recent examples include sponsored content and sponsored feeds. These enable marketers to disguise advertising as something else. This in turn lends credibility to that being stated. Any marketing team which wants to get ahead today need to take this one on board in particular.

Source; BusinessBlogs