NAIROBI, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's government agencies have embraced digital advertising, marking a huge shift from over the years when they would only advertise in newspapers, radio and TV.
The agencies are mainly using social media sites, namely Twitter and Facebook, to reach the public with information they want to pass across.
These may include job offerings, upcoming conferences, new appointments, and meetings.
Kenya Power, Kenya Police, Immigration Department, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), among others, top the list of agencies widely using social media to advertise their services.
For Kenya Power, social media has come in handy to inform the public of when and where there would be maintenance of electricity lines.
KTB, on the other hand, uses social media to promote various tourism destinations to local and foreign tourists, which include national parks and beaches at the coast.
The agency is currently promoting Miss Tourism Kenya beauty pageants, urging Kenyans to attend the events that are on-going across the country.
KTB also comes up with various promotional videos that it runs on social media to market tourism destinations, especially to families.
For the Kenya Police, social media has come in handy to promote their work of enforcing the law like announcing any crime suspects they are seeking or those they have arrested.
Bernard Mwaso, a consultant with Edell IT Solutions, observed that reliance on traditional methods of marketing like newspapers, TV, expos, radio and brochures is not only expensive but limiting in terms of reach.
He noted that the shift by the government agencies is a big boost to the growth of social media in the East African nation as Kenyans join the sites to get informed on the essential services the institutions are offering.
However, Mwaso noted that the shift to digital adverts should not connote that traditional media like newspapers, radio and TV are no longer that useful.
"They still command huge audiences in the country and are not prone to fake adverts or news as in the case of social media, where we have seen people make adverts purporting they are from government agencies." he said.
