The International Telecommunications Union [ITU] convened a workshop on Digital Marketing at Azalai Hotel, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from 6th to 7th November 2017. The Workshop was kindly hosted by Ecole Superieure Africaine des TIC [ESATIC]. The Workshop was attended by 15 participants from 3 ITU CoEs in Africa. The workshop was facilitated by Mr Vikus Van de Merwe from Human Capacity Business Solutions (HCBS) ICT Learning Academy.

This training was organised as part of the programme of SC activities for this year in light of the view that market segments are moving from the traditional forms and new products need to be packaged and re-presented. The training aimed at assisting CoEs to attract participants in international markets.

During the training, marketing theory was discussed. The participants shared experiences of marketing from their own organisations and identified marketing mistakes within their current practices. Digital marketing tools were introduced and discussed.

As part of the practical exercises, participants developed a digital marketing strategy. The exercise included, identifying competitors, SWOT analysis and creating a digital marketing plan. An analysis of Facebook pages for the CoEs participating in this training was made and proposals on how they can use the Facebook platforms for marketing their training were shared. Participants practised by creating advertisements for events on their organisational Facebook pages. Participants also developed official YouTube pages, created videos and uploaded them on the YouTube channels they created. Twitter was also explored.

In conclusion the participants indicated they have benefited a lot out of the training, specifically from the practical exercises. They acknowledged they need to do a lot more to capture the current market of digital media users and invest time and human resources on their marketing interventions.