Presented by Kara Brown, Addis Ababa, 30 March 2012. Reflections and suggestions from a 10-week internship with ILRI.

1. +
Social Media, Research &
Development
10 weeks as a KMIS intern at ILRI
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Kara Brown, April 2012.

2. +
26 JANUARY 2012

3. +
Using social interactive media approaches, tools and
strategies to help ILRI document and communicate its
research and development activities.

4. +
The Goat:
wisdom and energy

5. +
The Tree:
knowledge and nature

6. +
Social.
Sharing.
Caring.

7. +
Being Social.
Yammer
time
Macchiato
time

8. +
Communication Tools
wiki 4
mobile
slide sharing
participatory video podcast
3 social bookmarking
widgets
photo sharing apps
video enterprise networking
Pinterest 2 microblogging
blog
RSS Feed social networking
website
1 analytics
search engine optimization
emails

9. +
Wikispaces
Ethiopian Livestock Feed project | MilkIT project | East
Africa Dairy Development II project

10. +
Blogging
Fodder Adoption blog | Africa Rising blog

11. +
Social Bookmarking

12. +
Photo sharing

13. +
ILRI social media metrics
with Liya Dejene
Who‟s following ILRI online?
What comments do they post?
What are our audience most interested in?

14. +
Look out for in-depth ILRI
social media statistics
reports
3 golden rules for getting the most out of
social media:
1. Identify your audience and goals
2. Don‟t be afraid to make mistakes
3. Analyze the impact of your efforts

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The importance of sharing.
 Meals, minibuses and gossip: sharing is at the heart of everything
people do in Ethiopia
 Social media as an extension of African culture and traditions
 Coffee ceremonies and storytelling = social communication
 Making a difference requires teamwork.
 Several voices are stronger than one.
 The web and global social network is powerful – use it to share.

16. +
“When spiders‟ webs unite, they can
tie up a lion.”
– Ethiopian proverb
Image: CIA figurative map of the world wide web

17. +
Field Trip with some
people, somewhere, to do
something.

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 I learned a valuable lesson on my very first field trip with ILRI –
ask more questions.
 Same goes for social media and knowledge sharing. The
beauty of web 2.0 is that large scale conversation – sharing
your knowledge and expertise, but also learning something
new for yourself too.

19. + Social Media Guide for
promoting African knowledge
on Climate Change
With Ewen Le Borgne & Tsehay Gashaw
 A guide to social media
 Promoting African knowledge (on climate change
adaptation)
 Researchers, civil society practitioners, info.
intermediaries
 Doubts and Pitfalls
 Encouraging people to experiment with social
media

20. +
Caring about the quality of
your work, caring for each
other - in the office and
across Ethiopia.
 Blogs
 Brochures with Meron Mulatu
 Wikis
 Overall learning experience

21. +
Social.
Sharing.
Daring.

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Keep „social‟ at the heart of
everything you do.
Be sociable too.

23. +
Think of social networking as an extension of a
conversation that has been going on for centuries.
Once upon a time,
knowledge was power.
Today, sharing knowledge is power.

24. +
Dare to stand out from the crowd.

25. +
Be Daring

26. +
Green ILRI
 Switch off lights
 Turn off monitors
 Save energy
 Recycle
 Conserve rain water
 Consider solar power

27. + Thank you.

28. +
Next steps…
Stay in touch: kara.brown@live.co.uk