For The First Time in Kenya, It Now Pays To Use Facebook & Twitter; KSh100,000 Up For Grabs

Kenyans and businesses will be rewarded  with cash and other prizes for using Facebook, Twitter and blogging in the first Social Media Awards in the country.

The OLX social media awards were launched online yesterday in what was another first for such an event- it was done via Twitter and Facebook. Martin Muli, the awards organizer and Peter Ndiangu, the General Manager of OLX, the leading online market place, exchanged tweets confirming OLX’s sponsorship in a move that was witnessed by thousands of social media users.

The awards will be held on August 9th and will bring together not just the hippy and the learned, but also corporate organisations at the forefront of the new media trend.

“It will be a battle pitting celebrities against each other, media personalities, corporate organisations and individual users,” said Mr Muli, the organizer of the awards.   Winners will take home cash, hi-tech electronics and other raft of unique fabulous prizes. According to Mr Ndiangui, OLX  will give Ksh100,000 to the Most influential Facebook personality. Businesses too will not be left behind. The best online advertising agencies have a chance to walk away with Sh250,000.

The public will nominate their favourite social media users (Facebook, Twitter and blogs) as per the outlined categories at www.soma.or.ke. A panel of judges will then shortlist those nominated and the top five per category will be presented to the public for voting.

Here are the categories;

1. Social Media News channel of the year

• • Television show/programme
• • Radio show• Print magazines
• • Digital channels

2. Social Media Personality of the year

• • Media personality of the year
• • Artist of the year
• • Most influential Facebook personality
• • CEO of the year
• • Tweep of the year
• • Most influential Blogger of the year
• • Overall Social Media personality of the year

4. Social Media corporate award of the year

• • Facebook Campaign of the Year
• • Twitter Campaign of Year
• • Excellent customer service- twitter
• • Excellent Customer service – Facebook
• • Facebook fan page of the year
• • Corporate twitter account of the year
• • Video campaign of the year
• • Overall corporate award of the year

6. Social media agency of the year.

7. Social media innovation of the year

8. Best Use of Social Media

•  Government bodies
• Advocacy
•  Events
•  Corporate Responsibility

For more details on the awards, you can visit their website www.soma.or.ke or their Facebook page  www.facebook.com/somawards . You can also access them on  on Twitter via their handle  @somawards