The Kenyan blogging community is vibrant with its A-List bloggers such as White African and Kenyan Pundit,David Kobia, Eric Wesonga etc receiving international recognition and accolades! But the question remains whether with strategic partnerships with both Government, civil society and corporate companies they can be of more positive influence in Kenya's development ,branding and the realisation of economic growth as envisioned in Kenya's economic vision 2030 programme.
I believe that some of the industry players i.e. tourism sector could borrow a leaf from the immense sphere of influence that south african bloggers are generating especially in marketing and branding of South Africa as a tourism destination. Last week i came accross this intitiative featured in South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online where by top notch USA bloggers had been invited by the International Marketing Council of SA (IMC) alongside South African bloggers with intent to generate some highly entertaining and informative web content – words, pictures, audio and video - about the South Africa.Among the bloggers invited were :
I believe that some of the industry players i.e. tourism sector could borrow a leaf from the immense sphere of influence that south african bloggers are generating especially in marketing and branding of South Africa as a tourism destination. Last week i came accross this intitiative featured in South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online where by top notch USA bloggers had been invited by the International Marketing Council of SA (IMC) alongside South African bloggers with intent to generate some highly entertaining and informative web content – words, pictures, audio and video - about the South Africa.Among the bloggers invited were :
- Renee Blodgett and Ray Lewis - of down the avenue Blog
- Zadi Diaz - ZadiDiaz.com
- Mona Gable - The Huffington Post
- John Gartner - Matter Network
- Chris Morrison - VentureBeat
- David Sasaki - Global Voices Online
- Eliane Fioret - Ubergizmo
- Graeme Wood - The American Scene, The Smart Set, TheAtlantic.com
According to the article " The IMC is in the business of promoting South Africa as a destination for investment and travel and as a source of innovation and high quality goods and services. It calls itself the custodian of Brand South Africa, but not, mind, the owner. Today, the owner of any brand is the consumer. Thanks to the internet and the blogosphere the consumer now wields more power than ever before in history".What a positive viewpoint and step in the right direction!
It is indeed beyond doubt that the internet especially blogging and social media is becoming an increasing force in the shapping and influencing of how people decide to spend their time and money!Therefore it is only prudent that the Kenyan corporate scene starts taking advantageof this medium by using succesful webprenneurs especially bloggers who have already carved a niche in the online market. To demonstrate this consider the following in a day my blog gets 60 to 70 new viewers most of whom happen to be foreigners and since i started monitoring my traffic with the geoblog this blog has received more than 23,000 site visits ; of these only 6,000 are Kenyans.As it is this blog is then a powerful advertisement medium as exhibited in the figures .Due to this the site was included in the crazy about Kenya website (recently featured in the BBC) linkroll as a news portal of some of the interesting news about our Country!
On the otherhand i would like to challenge my bloggers to vere off from covering politics(dissapointing realm) and stress on positive attributes of Kenya, Sights to see, places to visit...the big five animals of Africa,products and innovation, human resource etc.Posts that will both add value to themselves and their site visitors.Indeed from the foregoing i challenge among others the Kenya Tourism Board to take the cue!
Kudos, on having such a noble idea. Kenyan bloggers certainly have a lot of useful things to say, but as you and I and perhaps a lot of people have noticed they dwell mostly on politics. I wouldn't say politics but politicking as most people say these days. As i have observed, and I could be wrong, it involves some sort of brute force (word) attack at the latest antic by a govt rep, that makes their first premise about what should be done, true. How tiring. They say the tired mind is susceptible to obsession. Which could be how this 'ailment' has crept up, I can certainly see how obsessive complaining can impair one's ability to put ideas across effectively or present a cogent or even in some cases pleasant argument.
ReplyDeleteNot that there is not a lot to complain about. The average blogger may have to evolve, before they can market, or even inspire.
This is great news for bloggers all over Africa or with an Afrocentric focus. The opportunities are endless. thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteThanks anonymous and Solomonsydelle!
ReplyDeletei wish we could all really take the cue....but at the sametime im happy to see Afrocentric bloggers beggining to morph in the issues they cover...citizen media is a powerful and refreshing source of information!