Clean cookstoves entrepreneurs and other NACC partners in Nigeria participated in an innovative social media workshop designed to help them to enhance their advocacy and marketing of their clean cookstoves/fuels in order to achieve better results. The training workshop was intended to infuse professional approaches in the use of social media, to raise awareness about, create demand for and serve customers effectively. It is no longer news that social media has come to stay! In today’s world where everything is migrating online, partners of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will be left behind if customers cannot find their products or services online. In the words of Bill Gates, “If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business”!
To this end, one-day in-person social media training was organized by Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 in Abuja, to equip partners of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves with tools for an effective online presence and a strategic social media management plan for their businesses. It was emphasized that social media tools will be effective if they are differentiated in content suiting to various audiences and used along with other modes of communication such as print media, radio, word of the mouth etc.
Participants worked through a series of “learn by doing” sessions on defining a winning social media strategy, effective presence on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn, and how to automate the processes in these social media platforms. The training also covered the basics of blogging, measuring social media metrics for success and shared useful/free tools for digital marketing success.
At the end of the training, participants were equipped with tools to help them build an effective brand, create after sales customer relationship and grow their business online.
Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive of Connected Development in his address enjoined participants to maximize the potentials of social media. He cited CODE as an example of one of the NGOs that has benefitted immensely from effectively telling their story and showcasing their activities on social media. “We used social media to advocate for the Bagega children in Zamfara, who were dying from lead poisoning using the hashtag #SaveBagega. This put the issue on national and international media forcing the Federal Government to address it by allocating funds to the tune of about Eight Hundred and Fifty Million Naira to clean up the affected community. That is how powerful social media can be!”
Hamzat Lawal answering questions from some participants at the Social Media Training
Onuvae Precious, Market Manager of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in her welcome remark stated that “the one-day training will equip entrepreneurs with tools that will grow their businesses online and invariably improve the clean cookstoves market in Nigeria”.
Anantha Krishnan, Senior Associate, International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development during his opening remarks expressed hope that after the training entrepreneurs will be armed with creative ideas that will transform the clean cookstoves market. The participants at the workshop were all women from a number of organizations including Africare Nigeria, ECN/UNDP GEF SFM, MIDAS Clean cookstoves, Consistent Energy etc. The facilitator of the training was Adewale Ajibade, Communications Manager, ICEED.
