Tanzania: I feel as ough I ve gone from analogue to digital

Thomson Foundation trainer David Wiggins has recently completed a two week assignment delivering social media training in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He writes about the challenge of introducing government communications and information staff to emerging digital platforms.

Twitter, Flickr, blogging, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook fan pages. Many of us take these ways of communicating for granted.

In Tanzania, though, like many parts of the world, social media is still in its infancy. Facebook is popular and fairly widely used, but with only about 10 per cent of the population having regular internet access, its not surprising that most people still receive information by old media such as radio, TV and newspapers rather than in digital form.

That said, internet spread and access is increasing so the Tanzanian government is keen to do what it can to improve the capability of its information services staff to grasp the emerging opportunities of new media platforms.

Discussions between the Tanzanian director of information services and the UK High Commission in Tanzania led to Thomson Foundation being approached to develop an introduction to social media course. This was delivered twice, in five day blocks, to some 30 communications and information staff from a wide range of government ministries and agencies.

Golden chance Trainer David Wiggins said that one of the main challenges was pitching the content right for such large and varied groups: "It quickly emerged that we had a few people who were competent in a range of social media, but many others who had never even been on a more popular platform such as Facebook.

"But what was also clear was that they were all incredibly keen to learn - one delegate called it this golden chance - and they were an absolute delight to work with."

The course was structured to start with a broad introduction to social media and its growth over the past 10 years or so, with case studies to highlight how it has transformed how people talk to each other and how organisations can reach out to and engage key audiences.

Practical sessions included setting up a Twitter account, finding followers and starting to tweet; building Facebook community pages in groups; sharing pictures and video through Flickr and YouTube; and an introduction to blogging as a way of giving communications a more inclusive style.

Positive feedback. Feedback at the end of both weeks was overwhelmingly positive, with a strong desire to start to use some of the new skills in their work and an appetite for more training and a progress review in the future..

David concluded: "This was my first assignment with the Thomson Foundation and while it was at times exhausting, because of the eagerness of the students to make the most of our time it was also an amazing experience.

#tftanzania @thomfound @ukintanzania. thank you very much for coming to Tanzania & making it possible, real enjoying social media training.

Johary Kachwamba (@Johary16) March 19, 2013

"We take our easy ability to share information for granted, so helping others to see what might be possible was a real joy".

"One trainee told me I feel as though Ive gone from analogue to digital this sums up how many of the trainees felt at the end of their sessions."

The Introduction to Social Media training courses ran in Dar es Salaam from 11-15 March and 18-22 March 2013.

LINK:	http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/news-and-features/2013/03/25/tanzania...
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