Practising journalists and civil society organizations (CSOs) in Kogi state have been urged to stay connected with their audience and keep updating themselves in ever changing digital environment.
Speaking at a one-day workshop on Effective Use of Social Media in Lokoja on Saturday, the Project Coordinator, Stallion Times, Mr Isiyaku Ahmed, said the nexus between the civil society and journalism is advocacy.
He urged journalists and the civil society to collaborate, leverage on social media potentials to achieve advocacy goals.
The facilitator, Isa Ali Musa, urged CSOs and journalists to foster sense of community relationship with audience using user generated content, hashtag campaign to create brand, unifying conversation and encourage audience participation in the news items.
Isa, an Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Researcher, who spoke on the power of storytelling on social media, told participants that storytelling was key in social media usage and as such, humanising a media content will make them more memorable and relatable for the audience.
He charged journalist to foster quality relationships with their audience in order to establish trust and credibility, audience loyalty, access to sources, feedback and improvement.
“Stories are at the heart of human communication and social media provides an incredible platform to share them. Utilise the power of storytelling to connect with your audience, build relationships and inspire action. Embrace creativity and experimentation to craft compelling social media stories that leave lasting impact.
“Social media is a powerful tool and it is only when it used ethically that the readers and audience will develop informed judgement of which platform to stick to and those to avoid and by this, they are weeding chaffs from the grains.
“As an ambassador of your organisation, your family and your platform, you are expected to stay connected with the audience and keep updating yourself in ever changing digital environment,” he said.
Aside exposing participants to content development tools to create highly engaging content formats, Isa further explored how journalists can better optimize their contents for each of the social platforms using analytics and insights.
Hesaid the format of generating news stories have changed due to the breakthroughs in technology, and journalists must step up their games to learn all the skills and required technical know-how.
According to him, journalists in Kogi must establish their social media presence and be the first point of call for breaking news in the state.
