A group of four
students from the University of Nairobi; School of business have conceptualized and spearheaded the
formation of social media clubs dubbed ‘SocialPro Clubs’ in
universities across the country. The four students namely; Gitonga Munene,
Muthuri Kinyamu, Victor Mutua, Munene Marete and Wangari Munene (USIU) through
Social Edge Africa, a social media consultancy company based at Nairobi Hub.
This initiative is
endorsed by the ministry of information and technology and Dr. Bitange Ndemo;
the PS at the ministry will be the chief guest among other invited guest
speakers at the launch of the social media clubs on the 25th of October at the
University of Nairobi, School of Business. In the launch of university chapters
these students shall be working with Marketing Students Association and
Business Information Students Association, both of University of Nairobi. In
the pilot phase they shall combine efforts with the marketing, PR and IT clubs
in the proposed universities. The pilot is proposed to take place in 4
universities around Nairobi in November namely; Kenyatta University, Strathmore University, USIU Africa,
Multimedia University before the roll out in January 2013 to other universities
& campuses across Kenya.
According
to the 24 year old Muthuri Kinyamu (ME), the founder and business director at Social
Edge Africa, “The core objective of these clubs is to teach, educate, create
awareness and impart knowledge & skills of various disciplines of social
media and platforms to the university students”.
The
initiative seeks to develop a talent pool of graduates with a solid
understanding of new media to bridge the knowledge gap and demand there is
today for people with skills and expertise in various disciplines of social
media especially.
These clubs in a nutshell will unlock the potential on
social media to the students, expose them to the limitless possibilities online
and help faculty integrate various social media networking sites to teaching to
ease content sharing and make learning more fun. The faculty will also learn how to
create, optimize and share digital content in various
formats with students across various platforms as well as help
them embrace new media and thus use it to connect, engage and gain valuable
feedback from the students. Through
these clubs the faculty shall establish processes that
control the publishing and monitoring of their content online & globally.
As they
launch the clubs they shall also use these platforms to recruit social media
ambassadors for the campaign dubbed “BE A SOCIALPRO”. As we approach the March
2013 elections social media will play a big role, as a communication medium it
will be misused by politicians or people with selfish interests and agenda to
incite Kenyans, spread propaganda, rumours, create and share content full of
hate. Therefore this campaign seeks to promote responsible ways of engaging on
social media, sensitize content creators on legal risks of creating and sharing
content that is inflammatory and full of hate as well as educate Kenyans on
social media etiquette and ethical ways of communicating online for societal
good.
We (Social Edge Africa)
are also working with Eyeballs Marketing in organizing Social Media Awards (the first in Kenya and probably in Africa)
to take place in November 11th 2012 . We shall be focusing on awarding social media
excellence on 3 major platforms (Blogs, Facebook and Twitter). Nominations are
currently ongoing at www.soma.or.ke.
Through this platform, the government hopes to
sensitize the society on the dangers of spreading hate messages to incite other
citizens especially through social media during the election period. The
government is also keen on empowering its youth to solve welfare problems by
creating viable businesses that tackle these challenges. Bitange Ndemo, the PS
believes that social media can be used to enhance collaboration, promote
innovation and ease content & information sharing between universities and
industry.
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