Rather than going through the stress of serching for the right platform for promotions, Plaqad was launched to connect these brands to the right digital media influencers. The platform is a social network connecting brands and individuals to bloggers, news websites, publishers and social influencers (micro-bloggers). Plaqad is designed for individuals and organisations that want to get word out about their products, services and ideas, and for publishers or platform owners who want to earn revenue. It allows users organize or participate in content trading and publicity placement on listed blogs, websites, and social media services around the world. According to the team, “Brands (large corporates, SMEs and individuals) want to get the best out of what’s happening online. And they deserve to. Publishers want to make enough money to keep their platforms running. They also want great content that’ll keep their audience hooked. Plaqad is connecting both parties in a way that’s never been done before, by building a partnership that ensures audiences get great, amazing content anywhere they turn, brands and individuals put out their content when and where they want, while getting remarkable results from great storytelling. Also, bloggers and publishers cut down on how much sales, marketing and non-editorial work they have to do, while earning more money than ever before”. How It Works? Using the Plaqad website, users upload their Plaqs – briefs and content, including news stories, interviews, live blogging, brand releases, blog posts, features, videos, photos, memes, listicles and op-eds. Plaqs from users are collated and distributed to publishers and influencers who get notified real time, with the ability to accept and process such requests. PR agencies, media buying agencies, digital agencies, advertising agencies, freelancers, SMEs, individuals and professionals who want to display content on websites and blogs are qualified to use Plaqad after a one-step registration process. For publishing platforms who want to sign up to receive plaqs, they are screened based on the Plaqad Global Standards Test, a set of conditions and minimum requirements that must be satisfied before getting listed. Once they successfully scale the screening stage, they are eligible to join plaqad, receive plaqs from brands and earn extra money. This Plaqad is one innovative idea, which definitely has a potential of transforming the advertising space in Nigeria, and giving more people the opportunity to do more with their social media profiles.
