The nomination phase of the OLX Kenya Social Media Awards 2014 (SOMA) is now open. This was announced at a launch event held at the Norfolk Hotel. The SOMA awards recognize Kenyan companies and individuals who use social media positively to impact lives.
This year marks the 2nd year the awards are being held. The awards gala ceremony to be held on October 2nd, 2014, after conclusion of nominations and voting will also see individuals and organizations feted for their role in contributing to the growth of social media.
The theme for this year’s Awards is “Making Social Media Work For You” and includes new categories for the National and County Governments, Learning Institutions, and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).Other categories include:
• Social Network Personality of the Year
• Large Corporation Category
• SMEs Category
• The National and County governments
• Traditional Media
• Best use of Social Media
• The Best of the Best.
Social Media Awards (SOMA) Director, Mr. Martin Muli, said the categories have been reviewed to make the Awards more relevant to the tremendous growth witnessed in the social media scene over the last one year.
“These Awards are designed to create a platform to celebrate the contribution of social media to the social, economic and political spheres of our lives,” Muli said, adding “the consolidation and new additions in categories will serve to grow the Social Media Awards in stature and popularity over the coming years.”
BAKE is sponsoring the most promising new blog: Other sponsors include: OLX Kenya (Title Sponsor), Safaricom and Trinc Media. According to industry reports, internet subscribers in Kenya have grown by 13 percent in the second quarter of the 2013/2014 financial year to stand at 13.1 million subscribers. This is up from 11.9 million recorded in the previous quarter with mobile subscriptions as the largest contributor of internet data subscriptions.
The Director of Digital Media in the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit, Mr. Dennis Itumbi, who was the chief guest at the launch event, said the Government will set up a digital advisory council to streamline use of social media by public institutions.
Mr. Itumbi regretted that lack of a body to oversee the development and implementation of social media strategy had made it impossible for public institutions to reap full benefits of the digital communications.
He also challenged social media users to play a role in the formulation of a Bill that will ensure self regulation to curb cases of abuse.
OLX Kenya CEO, Mr Peter Ndiangu’i, said the Awards will promote the growth of businesses and communication through social media.
“As a classified service, OLX Kenya has been able to connect businesses and people to goods and services through social media and this has positively impacted the economy,” he added.
Nominations for the awards is open till the 17th of August.
To nominate individuals or companies in the SOMA Awards 2014, go to soma.or.ke/nominate