Management Staffers, Directing Staffers, and the IT team of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS participated in a 3-day intensive capacity building on Brand visibility organized by the development Research and Project Centre, in collaboration with the Digital Bridge Institute, and the Media Range in Abuja.
The training workshop was branded – visibility and strategic communication of the excellent work of MDAs in virtual and social media spaces: implications for fund-raising & performance-based management, had an overall goal, in line with the new executive leadership of NIPSS development vision, to support NIPSS in aligning its presentations in the virtual space. Specifically, the workshop aimed to create awareness in NIPSS of the different expectations of its five distinct sets of stakeholders (government, participants of the Senior Executive Course, development partners, the Legislature and other government agencies, and the public.
The workshop began with opening prayers. It was immediately followed by a self-introduction by the participant and facilitators. and staff of dRPC. In her opening remark, Dr Judith-Ann Walker, the CEO of dRPC welcomed participants and noted that visibility is important for NIPSS because not everyone will visit the institute at Kuru, but its website is a vital window through which it communicates with the public. Hence, participants should leverage on the workshop to align the institute’s virtual presence with its new repositioning drive.
Afterwards, experts anchored the following sessions:
- Introducing Strategic Communication, Communication Strategy and why do MDAs, especially Think Tanks need Strategic Communication & Communication Strategy by Joseph Wilson (University of Maiduguri) who noted that:
- Strategic Communication and Communication strategy are important considerations in realizing visibility in the virtual and Social Media spaces
- Strategic Communication requires adherence to fundamental principles of knowing your purpose, intentional message design, the correct platform or channel, calculated timing, audience selection and analysis.
- Marketing and branding high-level public sector parastatals for strategic audiences in virtual spaces: Dos and Don’ts by Professor Eghosa E. Osaghae (Director General of Nigerian Institute of International Affairs) highlighted that marketing and branding in the virtual space are propelled by : visibility, impact, relevance, research and documentation, content creation, ability to compress large documents without it losing its meaning, and in all these cybersecurity must be handled with all seriousness;
- NIPSS’s Presence in virtual spaces in comparison to Nigerian Think Tanks and Training Institutes of the Executive by Ekanem Isichei (Managing partner, ACIEO) did a comprehensive analysis of the NIPSS website. The analysis touched on: Site Audit, Traffic analytics, social media tracker, competitive analysis, competition site, Global ranking among others. He noted that it is not enough to just provide information on a virtual platform, but it is important to communicate (interactivity)
- Challenges faced by new Federal Government parastatal leadership rebranding and upgrading the agency’s website by Comrade Issa Aremu (Director General of Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies; MINILS) highlighted the challenges of rebranding and upgrading agencies websites, which includes Inactive websites, navigability and readability issues. However, he noted the important interventions of dRPC in areas of capacity building and installation of digital facilities at MINILS. These interventions have greatly enhanced the drive for rebranding and upgrade of MINILS website. He emphasised the need for a good remuneration for staff who manage websites for agencies.
Each of these sessions entertained questions, observations and comments from participants, which where satisfactorily addressed by the facilitators and dRPC staff.
The 3 day training was part of ongoing efforts to rebrand the institute and the training was organized by the development Research and Projects Centre
