With the aim to orient stakeholders in the development sector to maximise the power of their social media presence, DEF in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) organised a Social Media for Empowerment workshop at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on October 26, 2016. The workshop targeted civil society organisations, youth, academicians and entrepreneurs to understand more than just the basics of Facebook and Twitter for increased awareness, better outreach, wider networking, and global promotion & marketing. To acquire practical social media skills for their respective target audience, 42 people participated in the workshop.
Dr. Ronald Meinardus, Regional Director South Asia at FNF, initiated the workshop with the fundamentals of ‘engagement’ on social media. Following that, Ravi Guria of DEF addressed the audience on digital content creation for better outreach and deeper dissemination of information/activities using Facebook and Twitter. Guest Speaker Priyanka Kher, Head of Media Hub at Breakthrough, talked primarily about campaign designing and highlighted the significance of innovative hashtags and generating interest among audience through intelligent and well-thought campaigns. Japleen Pasricha, Founder of FeminismInIndia.com, meanwhile discussed with the participants how NGOs can use social media to amplify their work, especially through Twitter, blogs and Instagram.
The interactive sessions throughout the workshop threw the spotlight on social media management, social media strategies, digital content creation & curation, research & analysis for content, learnings from best practices, and knowledge of emerging technology & applications. The workshop helped build confidence among the participants to efficiently manage their online channels, and curate and publish quality content to escalate their reach and help spread the message for their cause and initiatives.