By Eriah Lule
Uganda Christian University (UCU) through the Communications and Marketing department has today April 14, launched a sensitization campaign dubbed “Social Media Week”. This is the first of its kind, ever since the University’s establishment.
The campaign is meant to create awareness about the institution’s official social media sites (handles), within the student community and beyond. The sites include; Facebook (Uganda Christian University), Twitter (@UCUniversity), Instagram (UCU (Uganda Christian University)), YouTube (Uganda Christian University), LinkedIn (Uganda Christian University), and the official University website (ucu.ac.ug).
The Communications and Marketing office hopes that the campaign will boost the online presence and visibility of UCU ‘socials’, as it will increase student confidence in these online platforms whereon official messages from the University are now frequently passed.
“We want to sensitize our students that these official channels that the university uses to communicate to them. These channels are our primary media to reach the students,” said Samuel Tatambuka, a Communications Assistant in the department.
While it is the first-ever social media drive conducted by the university, the campaign, from the telling of Tatambuka, is already registering success.
“I have started monitoring the pages and there is progress. There is an increment in likes, following, subscriptions on YouTube. For example, every after an hour, I see at least about 15- 20 likes and follows,” he said.
The campaign was officially launched by Amponda Kenneth Agaba, the Guild president, at the University Guild premises. He did so in lieu of the UCU Vice Chancellor, Assoc. Prof. Aaron Mushengyi who did not make it to launch.
The University has partnered with key multinationals including; MTN and Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (Century & Rwenzori Bottling Companies in Uganda). Other sponsors of the campaign include Post Bank and Wave Media.
Students who evidently Like, Follow and Share content from the University socials in promotion of the campaign are rewarded. The rewards include; t-shirts, caps, wrist bands, notebooks, tuition fees top-ups, among others.
Frank Obonyo, the Communications and Marketing Manager, believes that “going digital” is the right way, even in the post-covid-19 times. “The world is now becoming digital and so we as a University have decided to embrace technology also as a mechanism to cope with the new normal,” he said.
The campaign will be crowned with a visit from AIGP Asan Kasingye (The President of Ugandans on Twitter) on April 16. He will be speaking mainly to the University’s top management, directors, deans, and guild officials on the topic: Leveraging social media during and Post-Pandemic.
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