Local organizers of this year’s Social Media Day have lined up a number of activities to recognize and celebrate social media’s impact on communication.
The Social Media Day is a huge event that offers the online community an opportunity to learn and network as industry thought leaders share their insights. It is celebrated globally on June 30th and will coincide with the launch of the Olx Social Media Awards (SOMA 2016) in Nairobi.
The annual Olx Social Media Awards have been held since 2012 to reward outstanding contributions in social media.
Speaking ahead of the Social Media Day, the director of the Kenya Social Media Awards, Martin Muli, announced digital workshops will be held in all the 47 counties to educate the public on good and responsible use of social media.
Mr. Muli said the Awards secretariat has partnered with the Information and Communication Technology Authority (ICTA), Safaricom, ICT giant Google through Livity Africa, Property Reality Limited (PRC), Trinc Media and several county governments to deliver the one-day workshops on social media.
“While every day is essentially Social Media Day, June 30th, 2016 marks the seventh-annual official global celebration and we want to celebrate it differently by reaching out to the public at the county level,” he said.
Mr. Muli noted that with the country gearing up for the elections next year it was necessary to sensitize the public on responsible use of social media to deal with cases of hate speech being spewed on digital platforms.
He challenged county governments to participate in the workshops as a platform to create an enlightened public capable of using social media for economic advancement of the regions.
The organisers are targeting about 100 people in every county for the workshop and registration is on at www.smday.co.ke. You can follow the conversation on the day using the hashtag #SMDAYKE