Counties can learn a lot from Itumbi

Pius Maundu

@piusmaundu

Counties can learn a lot from Itumbi

Dennis Itumbi, like everyone else, is loved and hated in equal measures. But consistency and tact sets the trained journalist apart. County leaders can borrow a leaf from Itumbi’s tact in the taking advantage of digital communication. 

In less than a year, the Director of Digital Communication in the Office of the President has successfully rebranded President Uhuru Kenyatta. Itumbi and team have consistently told and shown the world what the President was up through Facebook and Twitter. 

Importantly, through digital communication, the Presidency has won in delivering information to its consumers.  And its not just posting memes and captioned photos about the President’s traverses. Everyone else is doing that. Some local governments even come with complete communication dockets, infrastructure and all. 

But more needs to be done. 

Not so long ago, Kenya’s twitteratti rubbished a move by legislators from  a country side county to camp in Nairobi training in the use of social media. Gobbling tax payers money training legislators to post comments, share, like, tweet, favorite, and retweet was the height of idiocy, they concurred.  

Unfortunately, that scathing venom against the decision by the county leadership  smacks of naivety. It’s regrettable that in the digital realm where everyone else is blind, the mono-eyed middle class are absconding their kingship mandates. Reading from that script from the middle class, the bourgeois  running counties are reluctant to adopt digital communication. 

Perhaps reeking in mediocrity, most county governments are head over heels with installing traditional media houses. Who wouldn’t have liked to have radio news bulletin begin with a signature recounting of where they donated relief food?

Governors are privy to the power of radio in spewing propaganda. But someone bent on evading the inquisitiveness of citizen journalists and the middle class will stop at nothing in their quest to reach to shortcut to those at the bottom of the pyramid. 

While there is nothing wrong with using traditional media to popularize the government agenda, there is everything wrong in failing to tap on the power of the digital media. In Facebook and Twitter, county governments stand high chances of reaching out to the populace more competently. 

Besides enabling counties cut on their PR budgets, going digital affords the governments insights from the audiences.  Without this ingredient, it would be futile in designing programs that resonate well with the needs of the people. This is not all. 

Digital communication is effective in sustainable branding. ‘Facebook ‘Friendship’ and Brand Advocacy,’ a 2012 study by Elaine Wallace, Isabel, Buil, and Leslie Chernatony published in the Journal of Brand Management found out that brands can count on Facebook to weather storms.

Propping this study is Judee Burgoon’s Expectancy Violation Theory whose nexus is that  rewarding communicators tend to be judged less harshly when they err. Telling from the recent antagonism on budgets between MCAs and governors, county governments are bound to err more often that not. 

To tap to this utility of digital media, county governments should have robust communication strategies. And that is where the prowess of Dennis Itumbi would be handy. Simply put, a communication strategy will mean that county administrators do not whirl posts in a whim, for instance. 

Proper Facebook and Twitter strategy guarantees effective information dissemination. Reaching out to opinion leaders is tested and tried as rewarding. When they report on the transverses of the governor, for instance, a proper strategy should humanize the head of the county. 

Humans interact with humans. Humans do not come to live only when there is a crisis. Or when they are seeking favors from the audience. That is what an effective communication strategy at the counties should achieve. 

Get me right. I am not for the abolition of traditional media at the counties. Instead, I’m urging counties to take advantage of the digital realm to popularize government agenda. To start with, counties can learn a lot from Dennis Itumbi.