Let's use social media to promote cleanliness in Accra - Mayor of Accra

The Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, has urged city dwellers to use social media as a tool to help change negative behaviour towards sanitation.

According to him, the considerable rise in the use of social media provides not only an opportunity to reach a large audience but also contribute to improve knowledge and attitude towards sanitation in the city.

The Mayor made this known at the launch of the social media week at Accra Mall on Monday, under the theme "CLOSER".

He said social media has enabled the Assembly give real time information about Accra and has subsequently gotten feedback on happenings in the city, adding that it has boosted the assembly's interaction with city dwellers.

He urged city dwellers to follow, like and share information on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s social media handles, Facebook: Accra Metropolitan Assembly (@AccraMetropolis), Twitter: @AccraMetropolis, Instagram: AccraMetropolis, Youtube: AccraMetropolis in order to help change the attitude of citizens towards a clean Accra.

Mayor Adjei Sowah pointed out that social media has afforded the Assembly the ability to tell its own story and it was a phenomenal tool for development.

"Through the Assembly's social media handles, city dwellers are able to send shots of filthy places within the city for immediate redress by the Assembly," he said.

"The purpose for this week long event is to explore the conflict between individuality and the community. It is important we put out the right content on social media so that we will be able to communicate with and educate a lot of people. There is a lot that we can do with social media, it is not intended to kill the traditional media but to complement the whole communication outreach of our lives, “he added.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr. Akwesi Agyemang, tasked social media users to ensure that what they shared on social media were real so that people could believe in their brand. "The theme for the social media week "closer" is apt, closer not colder and how do we ensure that in the closeness we build trust, how do we make sure that in the closeness we don’t believe in our own propaganda. It’s not about the technology, it’s about content.

Content that we are sharing on social media is real so that people can trust us for the things that we put out, so that people can believe the brand that we sell on social media," he added.

Mr. Victor Bannerman-Chedid, the Head of Products, Pricing and Services at Vodafone Ghana, adding his voice at the event indicated that in Vodafone Ghana's quest to empower small and emerging businesses as a major sponsor of the social media week, it would register thousand (1,000) businesses online using Facebook and google directory, have a huge social media master class and then put across the red hub platform which would introduce SMEs to digital platforms and the whole digitization process.

He stressed that "social media is a much bigger agenda than what we think, it is not just about what we post, it’s really about the future that is dynamic and exciting and that we cannot escape. Companies that are not able to address their customers online are losing customers even in Ghana."

Mr. Bright Ayaaba, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Echo House, the organizers of the social media week, touched on the need for Ghana to own the next generation platforms and not only talk about what already exists and how to leverage on it but to work on how to create exciting content in Africa in order to compete with the western world.

He added that there was the need for Ghanaian marketers to get bolder in their endeavours.

"How do we create such exciting content that our products and our services are infused in it to get our brands across Africa so to win Africa before we conquer the world, how do we make sure that we own our own next generation platforms and not just talk about what exists already and how to leverage on it. What we want to say is closer means being bolder, we need to make bolder decisions, we need to take bolder steps to be able to win the future," he emphasized.