Azziad Nasenya / Tiktok (Social networks) and the fact that titles are really hard to come up with.

Sometimes back in 2004, “The facebook” was nothing but a campus fad. An online platform started by Mr. Zuckerberg to help profile fellow Harvard students and faculty. This later spread like wildfire among all Boston Universities, across the entire United states and basically to anyone with an email address. When I first heard of Facebook as it would later be known as, I had just joined Kenyatta University. Remember when going to University almost automatically guaranteed you success in life or whatever was the perception of success back then? I went to University at the dusk of this era, when access to higher education was a little bit easier thanks to the ever haunting higher education loans board allowing self sponsored students to access loans and the mushrooming of institutions of higher learning. The influx of graduates went in tandem with extreme joblessness and with that, the prestige that was associated with being a graduate. 

Back to Facebook. Campus students are known the world over to be “hip and cool”. Many trends can be attributed to them. From dresscode to the latest slang. So it was only fair that I get to learn of this cool website that you can sign up, create a profile, add friends and later poke them! I wonder why that poke feature is no longer a thing hahaha! It was a mighty conversation starter back in our day. I used my first year of campus getting rid of the Butere in me, not all of it, just enough to be able to speak without the villager in me being identified from a mile away. Just before the resumption of my sophomore year, I rode my old man’s black mamba (bicycle) to Mumias where a friend I had made on campus used to stay. After hanging out for a few he asked if I was on facebook. I had heard about it but I thought you needed to have property in Nairobi before signing up. Being the sanguine that he is, he gave me the nudge to sign up and  now I could poke people too!  Smart phones were not a thing then and for you to be online and get to connect with your mates you had to go into a cybercafe.

These were interesting times really, you would call a friend, tell them to go check into the nearest cyber cafe so you could text them and play a myriad of games that were on facebook then. Word about Facebook spread like crazy and it’s adoption worldwide was crazy. It no longer was a campus fad and some relatively younger parents were starting to join the fray. This meant one thing; an alternative had to be found. Twitter came along and another friend from campus showed me the ropes. Twitter to date still is an elite site. It’s not an easy platform to connect and gain a following. While I would like to give you a tour of  the social networks through the eyes of a villager, I have to make my point before I lose you dear reader to the massive amounts of content thrown at you in a day. Did I mention 2go though? No?? Better leave that one out completely! No wonder it never made it hahaha!

Fast forward to the year 2020, with all the craziness this year has going on, we are lucky to have the comfort of social networks to keep us entertained, informed and even educated. I joined Tik Tok when someone I look up to a great deal wouldn’t just shut up about it. This was quite timely, listening to him break down social media in a way I had never thought of before. Social networks age up. Facebook was  campus fad and now my mother well into her late sixties is over there commenting on anything I post, regardless of whether she has understood the post or not. 

Tik tok, formerly Musical.ly which started off as a lip sync app for third graders and pre teens back in 2014 is well ageing up. 

The pre-teens who were the very first adoptees are now on campus and setting standards for us now. Just the other day little known Azziad Nasenya took to Tik Tok, business as usual as per her very… very elaborate profile. She took on the Femi one featuring Major (Okwonko) Utawezana challenge. According to her Twitter, the first attempt was not all that. The second one however exploded like gasoline! Within four hours of her sharing the video, she was already a nationwide sensation, with folks sharing on their whatsapp stories/groups and literally all over. The other ladies who tried the challenge were quickly pronounced dead on arrival, they simply couldn’t match Azziad’s uncanny ability to coordinate her bewitchingly tiny waistline while keeping a very inviting smile on her pretty face. (I could go on…. but I don’t want to sleep on the couch the day this story runs haha!) I remember when I first saw her tik tok video on a friends whatsapp story, I was simply awed. Since Shared Tik tok videos come watermarked with the initial creator’s username (pretty ingenious). I quickly took a tour of her profile and boy was I impressed by her consistency, continued growth and the very fact that her exploding to fame was no fluke but a product of very many long hours of creating content.

As per my mentor from yonder Gary Vee, you have to join these platforms while they are still young. Early adoptees amass a huge following and we all know the gold that lies within a huge following that is thoroughly engaging. When Instagram came, it was dismissed as an application for photography enthusiasts. Can you Imagine how many people out there who fend for themselves courtersey of being Instagram Influencers? A whole lot! I was among the naysayers and I joined pretty late hence my negligible engagement over there. When I keep insisting on everyone and I mean literally everyone to have a vibrant social media presence, it’s because I fully understand its true potent.

You do not have to be on all of them, It’s however safe to be on at least three of them because these networks come and go. You don’t want to be the Youtube star who loses all the social capital once something happens to your account or Youtube sinks. Unlikely?  I think not, who knew Yahoo’s fortunes will one day plummet given its stature in the early 2000’s. 

In an earlier blog post http://flashbyte.co.ke/joel_flash/2020/02/28/what-kind-of-communicator-are-you/ I was encouraging you to figure out what mode of communication works for you and then double down on it.

If there is one thing I will keep rumbling on and on about, it is the fact that, within all of us lies untold stories/journeys that need to be told/shared. No one is best placed to tell your story better than you (Well save for BikoZulu and I hahaha!). It could be through singing, writing, Podcast, drawing like my good friend Mapesa or even through dance(yes dancing is a form of expression). My good friend Moya before joining the disciplined forces would dance his heart out alongside our very own Vocalist extraordinaire Basil Vishindoh, and together they would create such a beautiful routine. 

All these stories and experiences mean nothing if not shared. How is that achieved? 

Through social media networks! Otherwise it will be a sad state of affairs of staging an Olympic level performance in your bedroom just to yourself. Consider what happens on those platforms as the price you have to pay for you to be listened to. Case in point Tik tok; It’s a short video sharing application with music playing in the background. For you to be relatable and unlock a different fan base to your content, you will have to level with Tiktokers and let curiosity take its natural course. I received some bit of backlash from friends and family who just couldn’t comprehend why any self respecting 31 year old would be on Tik tok participating in what is perceivably silly challenges. Truthfully I am a total goofball and love the goofiness that comes with the platform. So, besides the fact that I genuinely enjoy being on it, I believe it just might be the conduit that creates a lot more interest in what else I am upto. 

If that does not happen, I will be on whatever platform that will be the buzz sometime in 2040, creating content, engaging and scavenging for avenues to share my experiences. You can’t call me delusional when we have real life examples like Mulamwah and Azziad Nasenya up in our faces on every turn courtesy of this platform or the other. Unfortunately, I do not have any profound parting shot this time. However, all I will say is, don’t miss out on an opportunity to share your talent/experience with the world just because of the perception that comes with a platform. That very platform everyone is deriding could be your out!