Using Online Business Directories To Save Time and Money And For Convenience Too

Many people in Nigeria are still slowly coming to terms with the use of the internet and how online resources can be utilized for various purposes. For a lot of people, using social media like Facebook, Twitter and others, is still the primary thought that comes to their mind when you mention the internet. For a few more, they are also using search engines and doing a bit of online shopping. From my experience, it seems the use of online business directories and yellow pages is yet to take off.

Social media is very important of course, and I wouldn’t be able to do without it as an online publisher. I remember the week after I arrived in Nigeria and I had lined up several events I had to attend as a budding creative entrepreneur. A couple of people were amazed that I had heard about and registered for these events while they who had been in Nigeria had not even known about them at all.

I told them that sometimes, you only hear what you’re interested in and you have to know where to go to find out about those things. I explained about Facebook groups and Twitter mavens they should join, friend or follow to keep in the know about various things. Social media can be so much more than liking the status updates that appear on your newsfeed or chatting with your friend via messenger. There is so much more opportunities one can tap into while on social media.

But what of other services that make life easier that cannot be found on social media? This is where the listing services come in, you can find virtually everything you need on one of these services. What I love about online business directories and yellow pages, is that you can target specific places. You can look for furniture to buy in Lagos, post about your vacancy in Abuja, or post free ads in Ghana.

Like the time we really needed a cleaner for the house. My mother-in-law had been looking for months, asking people she knew and through church too. But somehow, there had been no good leads. I went on to the site and after about 5 calls, I told my MIL that someone was coming the next day, for about half the price she had been expecting. When I needed sales agents to help market my books, I also found some on the site and they were more flexible about working hours and payment that the ones I’d found elsewhere.

So if you’ve been using your offline connections to look or advertise for goods and services, you will do well to extend your reach to online business directories and yellow pages.