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| Kolo Kenneth Kadiri (@KoloKennethK) |
Social media has sacked regimes and
governments; it has taken a product to the corners of the world, in a phenomenal
way that conventional media could never anticipate. Social media is helping to
break barriers, and helping to create new job patterns of the future. Wherever
you look, offline is going online. But before the latest technology boom,
people like Melinda Gates would have to fly to the problem to help find a
solution. Mrs. Gates tells www.entrepreneur.com of when she first visited
India and realized the people there shared the same dreams of other people in
the world but lacked the resources and infrastructure to achieve them. Trying
to help these people was time-consuming, as often the initiatives would take
longer to implement than the trip.
Times have changed. While Gates does
continue travel to developing countries under the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, she, along with others, are also using technology to make a
difference. In the early days of Twitter and Facebook, many nonprofits opted to
have one person—or a small team of staff members—manage their social-media
communications. But as the number of social networks has grown and more people
have started using them, it’s a good idea to take advantage of the wealth of
options and ditch your centralized strategy. In fact, it is downright
impractical, according to Allyson Kapin and Amy Sample Ward, co-authors of Social
Change Anytime, Everywhere: How to Implement Online Multichannel Strategies to
Spark Advocacy, Raise Money, and Engage Your Community. Ms. Kapin and Ms.
Ward say charities that share online-communications responsibilities are more
likely to reach more people and build deeper relationships with their
supporters through social networks.
It's obvious the rise of social
media has allowed for more conversations, interactions and sharing between
people. But it doesn't need to just be centered around Miley Cyrus's
'Twerking-gate', Ifeoluwa Ojukutu’s false life or “Oga at the top” videos. Now
social entrepreneurs are able to use social media to instigate change. One
example is charity: water's birthday campaign, where
people can ask friends to donate to clean water, instead of giving them a gift.
Products, applications and services that entrepreneurs are developing are being
utilized across locations. One example Gates laid out was a mobile app used by
people in Nairobi, which allows experts all over the world to talk to
entrepreneurial farmers in developing countries on how to best harvest crops or
best practices for planting vegetables.
Somewhere in Abuja, Nigeria; Blossom
Nnodim and her team at #AdoptATweep™ – Abuja’s foremost and largest offline
gathering are strategizing on how to enlarge their event offering – from the
number of cycle events, to size of audience, curricula – and their list of
sponsors and collaborators. Their idea is to create a hub where online
conversations bring real-life benefits to netizens, who overtime realize they
belong to the same tribes. In 2013, they curated Mashable’s Social Good Summit
in Abuja, being one of the few independent organizations to concurrently hold
the event which was hosted across the world by UNDP. Their idea of social media
is quite unique, as the strongly encourage offline to go online, then come back
offline, because they say when conversations completely remain online, it
encourages people to live near impossible lives. But returning offline, help
people to return back to earth, and realize that where the impact is most
needed, is offline, than online; social media thus, remain only a tool/platform
for easy, speedy and articulate interaction for the right action for change.
In September of 2012, I
traveled 3 hours from Jos to attend the 3rd edition of #AdoptATweep.
It felt very awesome to be applauded to have to come from that far, to learn
how to do more online. By April 2013, I was now living in Abuja, and was a
speaker at the 2nd Edition of 2013, giving a testimonial of how much
#AdoptATweep had impacted my life, as an online marketer and virtual brand
manager. By June, I had joined the team, and we were rehearsing and shooting
the #AdoptATweep video. In December 2013, I was announced the Operations Lead
for #AdoptATweep in 2014. Though it has been a meteoric rise for me, it’s been
a passionate journey for me – a youth networker, seeking for innovative ways to
band together people of same ideological tribes. We surely can no longer take
for granted, the ability of people to migrate from physical cultural tribes to
online ideological tribes. From providing a platform for Yusuf Leinge (www.yusufleinge.com) to tell his story of advocating increases interest in education,
to young entrepreneurs meeting investors, partners and venture capitalists at
gatherings like #AdoptATweep, going online has never been taken so seriously.
Culled from http://www.customernewsng.com/2014/01/offline-goes-online-social-media-for_9.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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