Youth marketing agency, EchoHouse, in partnership with Vodafone Ghana and Accra Mall, has unveiled Social Media Week in Accra.
The event, which was launched, last Monday at the Accra Mall, Accra, seeks to bring together stakeholders to brainstorm on how to use social media as a tool to promote and develop businesses in the country.
The week-long event dubbed: ‘Accra Is Connected,’ will take place at the Accra Mall from 11th to 15th September, 2017.
Speaking at the launch, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EchoHouse, Beryl Agyekum, said the use of internet has contributed to the development of businesses around the world.
“There are 5,240,000 social media users in Ghana. It is about time we stopped being confused by embracing it and used it to grow our businesses and our personal brand.”
She added that “The internet has created 1000s of virtual shops that have no physical location, no physical stock, but huge purchase traffic. Today, when you put out content, your audience is the world.”
Miss Agyekum further said social media has expanded the audience of business information and that ‘it was time to learn and to properly manage it before it goes out of hand.’
She explained that the event will see 30 speakers from all over the world educate participants on various social media-related issues such as content creation, media in technology, social media for business as well as art and entertainment.
For his part, Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, said Social Media Week celebration couldn’t have come to Ghana at a better time as Accra was on the verge of becoming a smart city.
“The smart city concept goes beyond just the better use of resources; it also means aligning information technologies to address citizens’ needs. To understand needs of citizens, what could be smarter than exploring their opinions on social networks,” he said.
Earlier, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Vodafone Ghana, Yolanda Cuba, explained that as part of the Social Media Week, Vodafone has partnered Facebook and Google to put 1,000 small businesses online.
“We are embarking on a market storm from today in partnership with Facebook and Google to help businesses take advantage of social media,” she said.
She explained that volunteers will hit major markets such as Makola, Circle, Madina and Abossey Okai to set up Facebook accounts for business owners and Google will create a directory for the businesses.
“Social Media opens up the market beyond physical location for all businesses. Ghanaian businesses have a lot to benefit from,” she said.
The Social Media Week, which will end on Friday, September 15, 2017, will hold conferences and other events at the Accra Mall, Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, Vodafone head office and University of Ghana, Legon.
Story: Business Desk
