MPs checking their constituency data with Juliet Gateri, Business Manager of iridium Kenya

Taking governance online

iridium has conceptualized, designed and developed the Innovative ESP Monitoring & Reporting platform and portal in a record 6 weeks time.The website is a critical component of Kenya’s Economic Stimulus Program functioning as a framework to monitor, evaluate and report on the progress of the ESP projects. The objective of Kenya’s Economic Stimulus Program is to jumpstart Kenya’s economy through investments in long term solutions to better Kenya’s economic situation. The ESP focuses on empowering Kenyans with education, provide employment and entrepreneurial opportunities and promote regional development. The website covers all aspects of the program dealing with Government interventions in Education, Public health, Food, Water, Irrigation, Fresh Produce Markets, Fisheries and Industrialization. The website thus allows visitors to track the usage of resources and understand what the Government is doing to overcome the recession’s effects and the impact of these efforts on Kenya.

Uhuru Kenyatta declaring the Kenya ESP website 'Live'

iridium has worked closely with the Kenyan ESP team to deliver a website that not only covers all these aspects but provides viewers an easy to use interface by which they can understand the Government’s efforts and leverage the opportunities presented. The ESP website and GIS system have been designed as a system that promotes openness, objectivity, transparency and efficiency. By combining these with other aspects of the internet, the ESP portal provides the Kenyan Government a potent tool to communicate with citizens and deliver better governance. The innovative system drills down to constituency and project levels and allows citizens to know all the projects that are underway and on the anvil. It allows visitors to assess the impact of the measures, gives them the contact co-ordinates of the legislators from their constituencies and arms them with the information to know how effective their leaders are. The ESP website thus creates an ecosystem of accountability and transparency by keeping every stakeholder, from citizens to public servants, in the loop of communication. By combining the tool with social networking and other real time communication tools, the ESP website also helps foster communication and informs people about opportunities for growth, entrepreneurship and learning.

Deputy Prime Minister of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, reviewing the portal with Sriram Bharatam

I personally believe that the usage of technologies such as GIS mapping and collaborative tools to increase the reach of this information will go a long way in helping deliver better governance. It takes considerable effort to collect data about developmental projects being performed across a country and presenting them in an easy to use interface that can help citizens understand what their Government is doing for them. The pathbreaking work done by the Kenyan Government in shaking off the shackles of the recession are laudable and even more so is their spirit in engaging iridium Interactive and Google Kenya to develop a tool that lets any of Kenya’s 39 million citizens to monitor the progress of the stimulus program and thus improves accountability and transparency.
The Economic Stimulus Programme website was declared Live by Uhuru Kenyatta a few hours ago and we are proud to be associated with the Government of Kenya in this pioneering venture.

The launch was covered extensively by the Kenyan press who believe the tool could definitely have a positive impact on monitoring the status of Kenya’s Economic Stimulus Programme.

You can read the coverage in:

1. Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation
2. Standard Media
3. Business Daily Africa
4. Daily Nation
5. Capital FM

You may find the following posts interesting:

• A year again @ iridium Interactive
• My journey at iridium Interactive
• 2 years down the road at iridium Interactive Hyderabad

“It is our nature to be social”

Last week as I spoke at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 and while sharing my experience on the Causeaneffect.org NGO initiative, it dawned onto me that social media has always been around, only its importance has accentuated in the last few years. Attending conferences all over the world and presenting the case of social media and the experiences of iridium Interactive, it was pretty apparent that social media has no barriers across countries, it is a unified digital revolution that has been transforming our lives, only under different names since more than a decade. How has it changed our lives has not been introspected yet.

Here are the some of the reasons how social media has changed our lives and why we should make the most of it.

1.       It has made us more social, we know a lot more people than we would a few years back.

2.       Larger networks- college friends, school friends, people we meet at social occasions, relatives, and friends met though friends, this used to be our typical networks, social media has exponentially increased our networks.

3.       More vocal about your thoughts- Forums, blogs, tweets, status updates are allowing us to speak our mind, wondered why? Because we know we will be heard by some or many.

4.       Enhances PR skills- you do not have to take PR lessons to talk to people on social media.

5.       Converse with like minded people on these social networks.

6.       Get in touch with thought leaders, influencers and even people who inspire you.

7.       Reconnects with old connections- People you have lost in touch with since a decade can be traced from any corner of the world (provided they are on these networks themselves) on the wide world of social media.

8.       Your virtual network is always ready to help. All it takes is to put forward a question and there you will have experts recommending the best to you.

9.       Ease of companies to get in touch with their consumers and vis a vis.

10.   Looking for a job or looking to hire someone, your professional network helps you find the best fit.

Social media brings out the extrovert you. All that matters in social media is your network, communities, connections and finally your discussions with them. Social media has reduced distances both for individuals and companies.

Have you seen a change in your social profile by social media, do post what you have gained from social media.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Image Source-Rosaura Ochoa from Flickr

You may find the following posts interesting:

• Social Media for your Business is Not a Choice..Its a Need
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Social Media Policy or the policy that keeps employees within boundaries is much needed for any company who wants to control its social media endeavours.

iridium Interactive has come up with its own Social Media Policy that will aid their clients and their own social media activities. Our intent was to keep it as simple as possible and not confuse our social media representatives with complicated legal jargons. Absorb this and become ready for social media. Also read the social media etiquette blog as it is closely related to this policy.

Iridium’s Social Media Policy Compliance:

Social media is a loose term for widely used social networking platforms like Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, blogs and other public forums. We believe as a business, Social Media can substantially boost our company’s development, performance and services. In our endeavor to utilize the inherent benefits social media has to offer, these are the official guidelines that have to be adhered to while using social media solely for business purposes.

These guidelines apply to those who are actively or indirectly participating and contributing to the company social media activities. Social Media being vast but traceable, it is important that some amount of training will be provided for social media compliance. Dynamic as the social media sphere is these guidelines will also be evolving as new tools surface, keep a continuous track and stay upto date with these changes.

Strict that these guidelines may seem, this is solely for the purpose to participate in a responsible manner while safeguarding our company’s reputation and be in line with the unsaid social media laws.

Guidelines:

• Create a Balance- Yes we are giving you access to the social networks in office like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. It is your responsibility to make a balance between work and socializing, unless it is for your company. Your work commitments come before your personal online activities.
• Permanancy- Posts, comments, tweets all become permanent once you have published it. Think a lot before publishing any content on behalf of the company.
• Professional Profile- remember to identify yourself as a company employee and the post you hold, this will provide transparency to our company and you, which will be duly noted in the social media ecosystem. This is how you would portray yourself in to your clients and coworkers.
• Although you are representing the company, social media activities involves your own discretion and thoughts. Make this very clear!!
• End Credits: Give credit and source to any information taken from external sites and photographs used. It is important to acknowledge others hard work and borrowing without intimation is like stealing.
• Politically correct: Sensitive topics related to any caste, creed, religion or political group should be avoided.
• Rise Above the Noise: If someone is making rude comments on your blog or other social networks do not engage into a row over the matter. Instead listen to what they have to say and politely respond back.
• Confidentiality- restrain from giving away any confidential information. So take a smart stance and protect your company’s privacy policy.
• Competitors- Do not be harsh about them at any point in any social network . Be politically correct and stick to facts and figures with enough reliable sources.
• Courtesy- Be polite, do not engage in any arguments with any reader. Rude comments to be handled diplomatically.
• Made a mistake- Permanency may be one big disadvantage of social media admitting to a mistake and making the change will improve credibility.
• Second opinions- get the posts checked by your supervisor/employer before publishing.
• Personal Blogs- If you have your own blog and you do mention where you work, mandatory to include a disclaimer stating “Posting on this blog are strictly my own and do not contain/represent iridium Interactive’s opnions.

Image Source: Intersection Consulting from Flickr.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

You may find the following posts interesting:

• Classic Case of what not to do on Social Media!!
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social media for NGOs

Organizations need a variety of online supporters. They need customers who buy their products, evangelists who promote their brand, mavens who add intellectual value, their own employees who speak out and increase the goodwill towards the brand and a silent audience of undecided’s who fall in none of these categories. Large organizations are blessed with followers and fans instantly. Their timelines and fan pages are bombarded with complaints, compliments and a lot of spam. Small organizations need to work harder and smarter to achieve their social media objectives. But what about NGOs? How does one leverage social media for NGOs?

Traditionally, a commercial enterprise like, say, Starbucks would look at engaging with its customers and looking to improve their overall experience at their outlets. NGOs on the other hand have the unenviable task of converting their followers and fans into donators or volunteers. No value offered besides educating a girl in Zaire or feeding a family in Cambodia. Listed below are a few steps which we @iridiuminter think can help you meet your social media goals. But before you start, a word of advice. Do go through our previous posts about building your social media presence. You need a certain stand with your number of online connections and quality of tweets/posts/links before you attempt these. Running any of these ideas with a fan page of 6 and a twitter timeline of 50 isn’t going to get you anywhere close to your goals. If you are serious about using social media for your NGO, be patient and be prepared.

#1 Build your audience

Your potential supporters are scattered all over the internet. Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook all have a plethora of individuals who could be of extreme value to you. You could drill down and find networking sites catering to niche audiences and create strategies to engage them. Mind, the word “engage” in the social world means not to bombard but to politely involve followers and followees into conversations they are interested in. You are involving yourselves in a conversation so be nice and keep at it. Post interesting stuff on your blog, related to your mission, and see how you can keep this relevant to the world in general. Keep your tone positive if you can, gritty if you must and cynical never. Be consistent, be patient and your audience WILL grow.

#2 Connect with Influencers

Influencers are those people who figure on thousands maybe millions of lists and whose words and actions have the highest chance of being replicated by others. Now, connecting with them is a bit like getting to hang out with the cool gang in school. Your NGO thus needs to be at a certain social media standing (x no. of followers, fantastic blog, gazillion fans etc) before you approach them and involve them in your conversations. You should, obviously, be doing great work in your field. Engage them again and work towards building a relationship where you could count on them to help you socially. Approach them with a plan where they could tangibly help you, hope they agree and then hold on to your seat as you see your campaign take off. Continue engaging.

#3 Innovate

If you have that respectable presence on the social media sphere and are connected to several influencers, it is time to innovate. As part of your NGOs social media efforts you could : Create contests if you can offer something exciting, start a donation countdown with a real time view to donors as to where their money is being spent, start a donor marathon with your influencers pledging to support you with x amount of money or resource or commodity, anything in fact. You never know what may click. And continue engaging.

#4 Tell a Story

All great, big or small mission work starts and ends with a story. No matter how much we overdose on technology, humans remain humans. We feel connected with a story. Social networking sites offer you a perfect place to connect with humans who could be interested in stories such as yours.There is a 3 x higher probability to be accepted as part of the social community, engage and influence your audience, when you share authentic, real-time stories with them. You will be surprised when you see who begins to rally behind your NGO and how quickly you can expand your mission reach. So stay real and tell stories just as they happen.

This process and the ideas mentioned are definitely not exhaustive. What thoughts do you have for NGOs trying to use social media?

Image source: UNHCR on flickr
Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

You may find the following posts interesting:

• Social Media for your Business is Not a Choice..Its a Need
• Comments, anyone?
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Here are few ways you can start your social media activities:

Facebook Fan Page/ Profile: With hits more than Google, Facebook is emerging as a social media giant. They also provide a good platform for advertising and getting in touch with your customers and create your community in the long run.With their recent new editions to enter pretty everywhere on the web, facebook is expected to become the platform for consumer behaviors and brand advocacy.

Twitter: This is one platform that allows you to market your company within 180 characters. Easy as it seems it provides immense marketing capabilities.

Company Blog: This is one way small businesses can add great value to their firm. This can be a great way to share knowledge, the company culture with the world. Smart companies are again and again proving to be the ‘employer’ of choice not through their flashy websites anymore, but by the blogs. One key reason, company blogs bring the real story, videos of people fresh and alive. Interaction is the hot button.

Linkedin: I have already spoken on reaching out to your professional network through Linkedin. Make contacts, get in touch with like minded people, find potential employees and even get recognized in your field of  work. Linkedin with its virtual networking opportunities is something much beyond your face-to-face networking.

And finally measuring your return on influence from social media, to analyse your progress in the social media space is one thing you should do even before you venture engaging with people online.

There are so many other means to start off with social media, these are the most popular ways of taking off and therefore my sweep-take. My next blog will talk about how small businesses can start off with facebook and its various applications.

There is one most important thing that has to be mentioned time and again, no matter how many social networks you are present in, what matters most is your presence, make yourself felt and do it the right way. Quality always wins over quantity as humans relate with people who respond and connect..slowly winning the social trust.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Image Source: Jon_Marshall’s Photostream on Flickr

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