Published: 20 March 2014
Country: Morocco
“A good message is clear, short and expressed in the language appropriate for your audience. It also has supporting evidence”. This is one of the tips that Media Diversity Institute (MDI) training and consultancy on social media and communications offered to two organisations in Morocco, 24 – 28 February, 2014.
The aim of the consultancy-training in digital media was to offer tailored support to Free Space (Reseau Elcifodem) and AJJ Maroc, civil society organisations working in Morocco.
Each session of the MDI training was designed according to the different needs of the organisations, setting a multitude of aims such as the engagement of specific target groups online, the increase of their visibility and interactivity on the internet and the skill-building of the members. The trainer has firstly “health checked” the existent organisations’ communication policy and then developed different handouts, advices, and practical exercises.
One of the youngest participants, 17 year old mathematician Amine from Free Space revealed that he had set up a Twitter account when he went home after the first session. He produced his first tweet during the second session.
Providing them with a variety of different web-tools and practical knowledge, Joy Francis, the trainer, helped participants to develop their online communication techniques, showing them how to reach more people on the web, use Twitter lists and hashtags, choose the appropriate social media platforms for different causes and campaigns, design newsletters, make infographics and blog.
Imad and Hani from AJJ Maroc wanted to renew their website, admitting that it was too static. After the training, they both admitted they felt ‘overwhelmed with the possibilities’. They had also the chance to make themselves familiar with platforms helping them to organise and disseminate better their organisation’s content such as Storify and Paper.li.
As outcome both organisations learnt how to evaluate and assess their online visibility and performance and pursue effective strategic approaches to improve them.
In order to support though a wider range of organisations in Morocco, it is necessary for a network of social media strategists to be built, to develop programmes specifically for young people to widen their knowledge of social media – as there is an over-reliance on Facebook – and also to design programmes for women as the organisations were both significantly male dominated.
The training is part of the project “Promoting Freedom of Expression, Diversity and Inclusion in Morocco”, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), which will run until 2016.