The much awaited Social Media Week (SMW) Lagos has kicked off in earnest as experts and professionals from various segments of the Nigerian economy converge for a one whole week of knowledge sharing.
The event which is in its fifth year has brought together thought leaders, key stakeholders and the public to explore issues that resonates with the modern society. In particular, SMW has served as the largest platform for digital practitioners to provide knowledge on trends and innovations that are influencing the way people do business. Over 12,000 people from across the country and beyond Nigeria gather to participate in the event.
This year’s edition kicked off on Monday with sessions on digital content creation, how music and edutainment is changing the face of entertainment; financial inclusion; public relations and branding; future of work and data strategy.
One quick thing to notice in the 2018 edition is the attention given to master classes. The SMW organisers have made sure that conversations are not just restricted to the usual conference halls. There are smaller rooms that can fit in 20 to 25 people where experts and professionals can sit round beautiful sofas to engage. For instance, the Gidi Legendary Photography class on photography and social media as a tool for conflict resolution took place in one of these rooms. Conversations in these master classes are more informal than a participant will find in the conference halls.
Another thing to notice at the SMW is the increase in technological innovations and products by most of the financial service institutions that are displaying their products at the Landmark Event Center, venue of the Social Media Week Lagos.
Entrepreneurs with innovative ideas also have an opportunity to pitch their ideas live at the #STAGE15 inside the venue.
At one of the sessions ‘Staying Profitable in the Time of Aggregators’ experts deliberated on the originality of content and the need to have a content aggregator company that can partner with individual content creators who can get paid, recognised and fairly conditioned for success for use of their contents.
Social media publishing faces a challenge of ethics and value. Many of the people publishing contents on the various social media platforms flout value and ethical policies guiding the profession. Plagiarism has become rampant on the platforms.
There is no doubt that social media is become the preferred medium for news and information as people’s attention span continue to decline in the digital age. It has become difficult to hold people’s attention; hence content creators are compelled to use mediums that people are more comfortable with.
“If you make your contents to suit your audience, it will be easy for them to understand the subtle message at the background of the material,” said Femi Bakare, CEO of Kraks TV.
Kemi Lala Akindoju, CEO of The Make it Happen Productions (TMIHP) noted that content creators must diver from the norm if they hope to produce unique stories that can influence the society.
“You need to give people what they want without forgetting to pass the real message intended for them, so they do not pick the wrong perspective in a bid to complicate it,” she said.
At the Future of Broadcast Media session, John Momoh, CEO of Channels Television disclosed that the station is planning to integrate artificial intelligence.
Today’s broadcast media, he said, must look beyond just being the first to break the news. The prevalence of fake news has made it more critical to verify the source.
“The biggest disruption to media landscape is that, right now, you have to go after your consumers,” Momoh said.
To achieve this the station is planning on raising a new crop of broadcasters who equipped to interact with multichannel online and offline that the company plans to launch very soon.
